Chapter: 28 Arc: 3
The entrance to this stadium was massive, although you couldn't understand the importance of such a structure smack down in the center of the city, you choose to enter regardless of the scenario. However, before you were able to get out into the limelight you froze; Xèhtrï breaking forth from smoke and ash by a streetlight gazed on ahead seeing all the people simply walking in almost as if in excitement disregarding the chaos around them just to enter. "We can't have you being so identifiable..I'm making temporary changes then we are leaving with your little rat thing", Hijìn glancing at Xèhtrï for a second until his black eyes faded away and instead were replaced by more alive looking blue eyes, hair became black, longer, and fit into an artificial low bun, his height decreased a few feet down to around six foot three, nails became artificially black tinted, cut on his lip faded, and clothes became darker in color till he was all finished. Hijìn blinking a few times had just felt so much internalized pain he couldn't even mutter a word, swiftly turning around to a reflective part of some glass and saw his face and couldn't believe what he appeared as.
"W-what..what is this? I thought it was going to be a cosmetic change not a full body alteration?!", Hijìn yelled to Xèhtrï in their subliminal mental space, Xèhtrï merely crossing their shoulders and saying "Hey! You needed a change, and this is what works best!", "Turning me into some dark wearing slightly more feminine version of myself?!" "I mean...Yeah? Now Shush! The music is starting get your ass moving!" Xèhtrï promptly kicking Hijìn forward out of the darkness and towards the horde making their way into the stadium in large lines. Xèhtrï faded back into your consciousness the further in you went, people shoving others around was more present as you were closer to their height range, the sheer quantity of people around you and the compact space growing a sense of unease in your mind. The closer you traveled in the tunnel towards the opening the stronger the vibrations from within rang, walls trembling from how loud the bass was rocking within this place people didn't seem to care, rather they would get more excited they went in starting to scream to get in faster. Lines breaking into two ways Hijìn stood in the center getting bumped from everyone rushing in on both sides, one line said backstage passes while the other said seating rows "Rows 1-Infinity" and it made you question what choice to make.
Head forcibly jerked to the backstage section by some dark tendrils in your neck subverting you attention, your eyes became inflamed with rage knowing what made you make a move as a voice whispered to you from within. "Don't get so pissy with me..I'm merely sensing the pheromones in the air and directing you to a place most likely for that rat to be at..now let's go I'll handle the bonus idiocy." Hijìn exhaling in frustration and following the small crowd getting backstage access, running on with them he was stopped by this giant machine. This machine blocked the whole way and only permitted those with backstage access to the room, its small eye coming from the center would scan you head to toe, back and forth the scanner light phased through you until it finalized its scan and opened the door letting you through. Hijìn furrowing his brow unsure how he got through would look back as he's running to someone who looks perfectly identical to him try the same only to be detained on the spot for trying to enter twice. "I told you I got this handled..now cmon it's some distance to the actual room..my senses are telling me this corridor circles the whole arena into the actual backstage on the opposite side of the spot so better move your ass." The man snarling under his breath would actually plant a foot down on the carpet beneath him and just as he was about to try running, he traveled this colossal arena in merely one step simply planting his second foot down on the steps leading to the actual backstage. Looking back, he saw the thin windows letting you see out to the actual arena each seat was packed with people; it all encircled a main stage with giant screens looming over the audience, blinding lights flashing down on any below, paired with giant speakers fused into the walls blasted build up music to what's to come very soon.
Last person leaving the room all happy as they had custom shirts on signed and all with a large slash of red link Hijìn would furrow his brow in confusion until it was his turn to go inside and for a moment he hesitated. "What is wrong with you? Go in! You can't have an episode now you've got people waiting on you!" "I..Fine!" Hijìn said going between two guards on the sides of the door inside into the backstage to see if his suspicions are true or not if Kÿr could be here. Stepping inside of this enclosed dark room you can tell there have been use of narcotics and other hallucinogenic substances as pieces of food have been left by over filled trash cans, clothes thrown over some pieces of furniture, all that was left in this room of mostly darkness was the sense of being watched over by someone new. Taking some careful steps over some random debris you hear some shuffling under some furniture, dashing left and right, the small glint of white passing by until merely glancing at your right you see a blades edge glazed right by your cheek. Swiftly turning on the dime you manage to catch the blades hypersonic swings until it was settled and the being hiding in the darkness made itself visible.
White plastered mask with a single thin line going down its hollow black eyes, light grey messy hair resting down on its facade was met with a loose hanging black jacket in a red detailed finish, baggy dark pants, new height and stature, and forcibly gripping this long and slender blade right in front of your face immediately was met with a deep a guttural sounding mechanical voice echoing out: "Who are you..apart of the Resistance? Work for the Blue Hound of Sin? Here to fish me out for info you dirty snake?!" The being creeping closer as it made you step back a few times from how close they kept pressing the blade, Hijìn looking around as he tried to answer only for his ideas to crumble for a moment until Xèhtrï took the lead once again. Being getting closer and closer till eventually shouting out in the same voice: "Speak or Fall down like countless before me meek snake of the filth!", just as Xèhtrï instantly reverted the changes to Hijìn's body causing him to gain his height, stature, and full appearance back making the Being freeze in place.
Hijìn standing there as who he was gained his black eyes and smoky emerald eyes back and could just barely see through the facade, but before he could say anything the Being spun the long 2.5 meter long in between their fingers and sheathed it into their side looking bewildered even behind the mask to who they were seeing. "Hijaan? You're alive..?", taking the moment to encircle the man a bit as they checked under his arms, his legs, grabbed his face and moved it around a bit even taking notice to those strange green eyes he has. Hijìn tried to respond only for the being who stood a decent size taller now simply couldn't understand how this was possible, "Vijerre Vijerre..Vastita Ver vestas Verdades..is it actually you? It's been..ages...." "Yeah..it's me." The Being stopped leaning to their side unable to believe this any further, touching their cold white mask making it hiss they slowly pulled it off as their hair settled over their face. Crystalline yellow eyes shimmered onwards without falter, strange black lines poured down from their eyes reaching to their jawline, two small circles on either side of those black lines resembling black tears, most notably two cheek holes that went on both sides after his mouth, and a more defined snout and nose that prior, it was if he had aged years in mere cycles like if nothing happened. "Kÿr..? Is that actually you? You seem..different?", "Tch what'd you think Virdiota?! Pfft..It's been actual years since I've last seen your dumb face..since that happened..", the Sìrlan rushing in and hugging the large man so tight that it was actually crushing him with immense force and lifting him a few feet in the air. The man groaning in pain a bit as he couldn't even hug back due to his arms getting crushed underneath Kÿr's new found strength.
Planted back down the Sìrlan who now stood closer to five foot ten to eleven still couldn't meet eye to eye yet but still gave it his all to meet with a long-lost friend. Hijìn catching his breath and stretching his arms would think on a small issue 'years..what does he mean by years..if I'm wrong..I last saw him..I-I don't..remember..I..can't remember?! All my memories..they..are mismatched..what is this?!', Hijìn thought as he would ask Kÿr who fixed his jacket over his right shoulder firmly, small golden chain holding the loose jacket over him was merely covering the skintight black shirt underneath.
Hijìn: "Kÿr.. Uhm..."
Kÿr: "Yeah..what's up?"
Hijìn: "I-I'm a little forgetful right now..but..I was looking for you everywhere and..years? I don't understand what do you mean by it's been years since we last met?"
Kÿr: "Well..it's because it literally has been.."
Hijìn: "B-.."
Kÿr: "Been literal years since you tried to Kill Me."
The room grew quiet between the two, Hijìn stuck in place from the mere mention of that as Kÿr emotionlessly stared at the man as his facade of a smile faded from his face. Tensions growing as they stared at one another in the silence, the man trying to comment was interrupted by Kÿr asking in a confrontational attitude. "You don't remember what you've done have you? the lives you've taken? The Lives lost?! The destruction caused by no one other than you?! Huh?! Answer ME!? Answer me and STOP BEING A FUCKING PUSSY KID!" "I-I don't know what you are talking about..I-I Haven't killed anyone with my own hands..caused ruination that isn't me?!!". Kÿr getting frustrated makes all the furniture around him instantly materialize into the strongest metals known on the planet's surface until the whole room shimmered a dark grey look, even a small pencil getting flung in the air made by wood would effortlessly change into a small steel rod on the ground as the Sìrlan grew even madder. "Answer ME with the Truth! You know what you did..and...I helped..we...conquered everything together and no matter the opponent we always won, but it was that..THING! That..PARASITE! It ate at your brain and made you lose track of who you were! Until..I fully lost you...the Blood the Organs spewed anew..ALL by Your Hands! and when every single person on this planet became your food..all that was left..eheh..was me~." Xèhtrï fading from the ash and smoke only in Hijìn's view slightly turned to glance at the man and the man was frozen, the mere thoughts of what he could've become if he had stayed gone lingered in his mind..all these people and more, but even in this state of being Xèhtrï couldn't even force themself to laugh at this situation hearing that they've won somehow when in truth they never recall doing this either..or face the reality that even in a state of defeat mentally..Xèhtrï couldn't bring themself to try taking over Hijìn's body right now.
"I-I'm different..I..never went on a killing spree..I woke up here..and I have never been able to leave..I've been powerless this entire time..i-I..Just.." "Just WHAT?! Stop fucking stuttering! Open your damn mouth and communicate! It wasn't hard for you to kill old friends at all so why is it hard for you to relay that information out to me..HMN?! Answer M-", "IT WASN'T ME! Xèhtrï..Hasn't..won..But..Stop YELLING AT ME AND SAYING THAT I'VE DONE SOMETHING I NEVER DID!". "THEN TELL ME WHO ELSE WHO THE FUCK ELSE IS RESPONSIBLE HUH?! TELL ME!? TELL ME WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL OF THIS AND WHO'S RESPONSIBLE FOR CUTTING MY ARM OFF!!!!!!!', Kÿr said throwing the jacket off himself to reveal the barely hanging stub that is his right shoulder, Hijìn seeing this and stopping..slammed against the hard metal wall seeing what has happened to his friend in shock. "These..holes in my cheeks...they aren't..natural..you..tried to gouge my eyes out and just in the nick of time I dodged and just got stabbed through the cheek..WE Aged together Hijìn I cared..I CARED for you..but in the end I guess you eventually forget about me anyways..the little shit with small body and no strength..unable the change the world no matter what he does..and even in the end.."
"I had to be the one to Kill You.."
Xèhtrï watching this from a third persons perspective latched onto the man who at this point felt cold, like if his skin was rid of all blood and he was merely nothing, how could this ever happen..even at the death..of a friend..the same fate persists. The man was inept, couldn't say a singular word, couldn't move a muscle, as even in this state his completion of a mere existence was nothing..the simplest feeling of his mind infinitely falling crept up his spine. As Kÿr fixed himself up and reverted the room back to his original state he noticed how the man wasn't even affected by his metal manipulation glancing down by the man to see for a second, a small blue string whizz by and creep back into Hijìn's body. Throwing the jacket over his shoulder Kÿr would buckle the chain back on saying, "I know why you came..to go off on some whimsical adventure to get out of this city...and do what we did before, but my answer is no..you're on your own..I'm done of running away from people trying to kill me, hurt me, abuse me..I made my life here when I woke up..from that dream. The endless darkness met with the strange white webs breaking around me as I fell..it all felt so real..until I hit the floor..and woke up in some studio. Everything is so much different than it was there it was if I skipped into a whole new world I never belonged to..heh..my manager says I came from another universe..but I call bullshit..it's all the same..same old same old timelines..all from the same sty." Kÿr sliding the mask over his face as the time for visitors has come to an end he bumped right past Hijìn saying only one thing:
"You're not..My Hijìn."
Vanishing behind a sliding door the man was prompted to leave the room as it the event was over, music blasting louder than ever as Kÿr made his entrance onto the large platform in the center as large mechanical sound effects happened as music blared on. Hijìn stared on completely numb physically and mentally to this instance it was if he wasn't even alive, Xèhtrï breaking forth would try to joke on the issue, but seeing how the man became they stopped. Their urges drove them mad to punish this mortal for being so weak, it was just..Xèhtrï couldn't make themselves act on these urges..it felt...wrong. Going over to poke them they jerked their hand back in hesitation, looking around to see the room empty and the people outside gone, Xèhtrï sighed as they planted a hand on the man's shoulders saying. "Cmon..let's..go..don't think of it that much..heck if were talking serious..the only monster is me? Like he's a teenager in an adolescent body..I-", "I know..in some sense you don't actually care for me..this is just a run on the park for you to win me over and go on some rampage like that supposed Kÿr's Hijìn did. You don't have to fake your emotions to seem like someone different to me..in the end..I know I won't last long..this...is just one of the many stops I know will take me till I eventually fade away." Xèhtrï scratching their cheek with their nail looked off in awkwardness thinking to themself 'Suicidal Much..and I thought I was this bad..Sheesh..someone really has to take some of the burden off this man's chest for two seconds damn..he isn't the main person in this world anyways' looking around they simply hung their shoulders in annoyance and began dragging the man inch by inch towards the exit so they can actually get a way out of this accursed city as there is nothing left for them here.
Coming from the special entrance someone familiar dropped in and a raise of an eyebrow Rimi dropped in looking around for something as their hair was a mess in all directions, flipping tables and such to find a specific brush to fix themself only to see the defeated Hijìn in a corner. They turned to face him after finishing and were quite surprised for a second, "Hijìn you are alive? Huh..well shit you totally just came in at the right time..huhhh~", "Hmn." Rimi walking over as they threw the brush into the distance making a small explosion of color happen, they looked into Hijìn's eyes to see the same darkness as before, being unable to see the man's true emerald-colored eyes due to their lack of spiritual vision. Planting a hand on your chest, Rimi smiled for a second until a small flash of light sprang into action and you were teleported out of the arena, warped through what seemed to be a tunnel of light you eventually came back into view of this same high up laboratory that Xèhtrï woke up when this whole new existence came to be in this city. "Rushed Huh..it's my bad uh don't mind the mess..there was a situation..with that little friend you brung over..I'll show you what happened in a minute." Rimi said as they hopped over the absolutely destroyed laboratory, the whole wall leading into the open air of the city was blasted out, all tech was destroyed as the room was at the brink of caving in.
A giant mechanical foot stepped right in front of the man and he didn't even react simply staring up at A. N. I who scanned the man before simply saying, "Pest..", with Hijìn himself responding with "Scrap Heap." A. N. I moving on by repairing the ceiling itself with Rimi running back to say with a spare cup of coffee, "So UH ehehm..Where were you? I was trying to call you for like two weeks and you couldn't be tracked or anything..and speaking on that topic..where is Whistèrïa?" Their yellow rectangular eyes trying to peer into you, but as you grab the self-mixing coffee cup you just drink it in one gulp not even caring for the burning feeling traveling within your body simply saying. "The problem took so long and it was filled with many difficulties as it was more than just her to deal with..the resistance group was in my way and they disabled coms..until I made it to the arena, I could get your signal..but in terms of Whistèrïa..she vanished without a trace..she most likely fled out the water tubes allowing fresh water into the city." Hijìn bluntly lying out of teeth not giving a care in the world as he got a refill on the coffee and drinking the whole cup in one go. Rimi and A. N. I looking at one another unsure of how to take this information as Rimi sighed hanging their shoulders knowing how A. N. I was going to react.
"I told you they were an issue! They get in every issue and make it worse..and even with the so-called ascension of one of their members Zealot often known as Azo gaining new powers invisible to us in order to aid their cause it's only a matter of time before they destroy everything your parents built up for you." "Ani we don't know that for sure..so stop assuming that", Rimi responded in some level of concern as Hijìn up to this point had taken the full gallon jug of coffee from Rimi without them seeing it. "That is why I'm dealing with those individuals myself..and they won't escape me this time, but you two will be heading on a recon mission tomorrow so rest and get ready...Now." Rimi groaning in frustration would throw their cup on the ground shattering walking right by Hijìn, the man staring straight ahead to this chaos would switch.
Time and Local switching due to different scenarios
Hair blowing out in the wind as Hijìn sat down in an opened door of an aircraft, giant explosive collar around his neck as he kept his head low still bothered by this all. Rimi sitting in front of him would have their head out the window in excitement seeing the grand expanses of red and gray forests reaching onwards on massive pointy mountains. However, as they were traveling over the sea there would be a strange sense looming over Hijìn as a small glistening light crawled onto his shoulder. Looking over at it he noticed it was a crystalline jade moth resting against the man's cheek, it fluttered its wings giving some sense of comfort as Hijìn recognized what this was saying quietly. "Whistèrïa..you're still with me." Before a giant world-shattering explosion happened over the horizon, the explosion rang in a flurry of changing colors reaching out into space from its magnitude forming a colossal mushroom cloud of screaming spirits. Shockwave making the ship tremble in its wake made Rimi look out to see just a normal giant explosion couldn't understand what's going on as Hijìn said to himself: "Whistèrïa..you're actually made it..and now you are destroying the wells..."
"Stay Safe...Don't forget what you said..we will meet again.."
Till Next..C..chapter..