User blog:Baluar/Arc 3, chapter 7, 8 and 9

You know my tendency to post chapters when I'm happy. What better moment to triple post than now, when I've just gotten Internet in my PC? Enjoy!

Chapter 7
Lili and I arrive to where the Boss and Nia are standing, alongside… is that Rachel? Dead? I have to ask:

-Hey Boss, what’s up? How come it our greatest threat lies dead at your feet?

-Long story short, Robb, it seems that this woman, who now lies (apparently) dead by my brother’s hand, wasn’t the worse threat. Apparently, Rachel was just getting stronger and reinforcing this area so she could stand a chance against the “real threat”, whatever it is. – Nia answers.

-Sounds like we’re in for another disaster… – I say. – How do you know it’s not another trap?

-We don’t. But would you risk to overlook something that could potentially beat Rachel, who destroyed the Den, the place with the highest God Eater concentration in Far East Branch?

-Good point. Let’s get to there as soon as we can.

We head there. The walk isn’t silent, but rather filled of petty talk, like the orange-juice discussion of not so long ago. While I happily participate, I am still tense, and I know everyone else is, too. Out of nowhere, Nia questions:

-Hey, big brother! I’ve got a doubt. You said something about a woman named Katy…

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Oh, that. Well, long story short, I can speak with my God Arc. – I’m pretty surprised no-one reacts weirdly. Is it so common?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Like what you used to do with Ren? – I asked. I had heard the story plenty of times from Lindow.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Kinda. Alright everyone! That includes you, Katy. Can we be silent? We’re probably heading towards the fight of our lives, and I'd like to focus.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Not counting he/she. – Nia said. Baluar simply replied with an “I know” face. And we kept walking.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">In the meantime, we crossed with three other God Eaters. Baluar’s reaction?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-You’ve gotta be kidding me. Arthur, Ken and Lyrr? That’s too much of a coincidence.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-You aren't happy to see us? . – Lyrr says. The boss denies it with a nod.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-This is so unlikely to happen… – Arthur comments.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-It’s not like we’re travelling in time. – Ken retorts. No one puts a weird face, again. Is it that God Eaters can travel in time and speak to weapons on a daily basis? This job keeps surprising me. – Anyway, what are we going to face?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Long answer or short answer? - Bal says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-I know that face. – Lyrr suddenly interrupts. – The answers aren’t that different, or are they?

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-No. – Nia replies.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-So, tell us. Just what are we going to face? – Ken says.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-We’ve no idea. – Baluar and Nia replied in unison.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Don’t do that again! – Lili suddenly interrupted. – It’s creepy.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Roger that. Let’s move on then. – I said.

<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Chapter 8
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Later… 

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">We arrive to the place Rachel had told Baluar-san and Nia to go to. Effectively, there’s a hole in the wall, and there are some pretty ugly noises coming from down below.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Hmmm. We need to know what’s going on down there. – Nia says. – I’m going to go, alongside… Lili. – Why me? Lyrr echoes the question.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Why her? This is my specialty after all.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-I’ve already decided. Besides, we need a master sniper up here, and you happen to fill that role just fine, Lyrr. – Nia retorted. I’m amazed at how charismatic she can be when the time calls for it. Lyrr, however, didn’t fall for it so easily:

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Thanks for the compliment, but I insist! This is not only my specialty, but also… – Before he can keep speaking, Baluar cuts him short.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Save the speech. You aren’t nearly as stubborn as she is. Even I have troubles with her every now and then, and I can tell you, it takes HOURS to convince her from giving up her plans.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-What about you, Boss? – Robb says, joking.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-It takes days. – Baluar answers, expressionless.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Let’s go, Lili. – Nia says. I follow her through the hole. There seems to be a path in here. We walk down it for an amount of time that seems to be hours, yet I look into my watch and it’s only been thirty minutes. We arrive to the end of a corridor, with ways heading both left and right. Suddenly, Nia whispers: – Silence! I think I’ve heard something.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">And then we saw an amorphous… thing, roughly 2 meters long, 1 meter wide, and 1 meter tall that slightly resembles a huge worm but is of a horrible translucent yellow and makes metallic noises as it moves.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-They could be prettier, eh? – I try to joke.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">The worm directs its head (if by “head” one understands “part that is facing us”) towards us, and begins to move directly to where we are.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Dammit! I screwed up. We’ll have to kill it. – But Nia has already started it, and is battling with the worm, until the monster touches her. She screams horribly.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Their skin is... acid!

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Try to shoot it to pieces! – She made it more literally than I thought. She gets away, then she shoots her explosive bullets directly onto the skin of the monstrosity. As one might guess, it exploded, but its skin didn’t harm us once dead.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Curious… The God Arc’s readings say it’s an Aragami.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-WATCH OUT! There are more of them coming.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Ten of them were advancing towards us.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Oh, crap.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-No time for complains Lili! We’ll have to shoot them!

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">We began shooting out everything, and the lasers did short work of them. Except for a little detail: we killed the ten we were initially fighting against, but even more of them are coming, and we’ve run out of bullets.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Lili! Get out of here!

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-No way!

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-It’s an order!

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-I’m staying. Save your breath! – I then begin to cut the damn worms in half with the blade. Its serrated edge does exceptionally well against them. But then, I hear it. The scream. Nia was attacked by several of them at a time, and one of them was lucky enough to hit her. Her clothes were heavily damaged, and her skin began to… dissolve on contact with the monster. – NO WAY! BASTARDS! – I had acquired enough OP for shooting them out. A single bullet was used. It blew them all to tiny pieces.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">I got close to Nia. She was unconscious.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Dammit, I’m gonna have to carry you to the surface. Baluar’s not going to be happy with this.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">And I began to return to where our friends were. The way up is grim, to say the least.

Chapter 9
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">We are here in the Infernal Subways, dying from the heat, waiting for Nia and Lili to return and give us some news. Suddenly, I hear footsteps, and I recognize Lili’s footwear, but Nia’s nowhere to be seen (or rather, heard). When Lili arrives, she’s carrying a very weakened and hurt Nia in her arms. I can, with a huge effort, remain in control of my sudden anger.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Who did this to her? – I ask, with a calm (controlled) fury.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-[Never felt you this angry...] - Katy comments.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-[No one messes with Nia and lives to talk about it]. – Meanwhile, I listen to Lili saying.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-The… the hellworms did it, Baluar-san. Big, disgusting, worm-looking acid Aragami. - I decide I'll face 'em alone.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Everyone, get out of here. Get Nia to the Mobile Fortress, and see to it that she receives the best attention available in Earth.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-We’re not going to leave you to fight these “hellworms” alone. Let Lili take Nia to base, and the rest of us will stay with you. – Robb says, and everyone else agrees.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Very well. I'd recommend all of you to far from me; I’m no longer going to hold my fury back.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">True to my words, I stop trying to self-control me. Everything suddenly becomes nebulous.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Meanwhile… 

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Baluar lost any semblance of control over himself, and we’re forced to run as fast as our bodies can handle to keep up with him (dammit, I’m tall, but he’s monstrous. He can run outrageously fast). The hole goes deeper and deeper, until we finally arrive to the end of the corridor we’re in. Baluar arrived long before us. Don’t ask me how, but his hair is red (literally), and he’s punching the hellworms (massive and disgusting translucent-yellowish worms) through hell and back. While apparently touching their skin causes burns, he’s seemingly immune to it (maybe because he uses gloves...). His hands are perfectly fine, although a little wet after punching so much worms to death. Whenever he punches one, he pierces its skin and its liquid insides spill on the floor.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">We get in the fight, slashing and killing them until there are no more of them. Their strength is their numbers: if you can diminish them quickly, they’re screwed.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Baluar… – I then say. He doesn’t answer and goes deeper, though.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-It’s no use, Robb. – Arthur answers. – All we can do is to get deeper and hope we’ll find him again.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Ok. Left or right? – I ask.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-I hear footsteps in the right path. – Lyrr answers. For a NEET look-alike, he’s pretty smart. .. creepily smart.

<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-bidi-font-size:20.0pt; line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-ansi-language:EN-US">-Alright, let’s go.