Second to last of the tunnels, and an important author note

(note at the end)

I rushed to the side of the tunnel, leaning out from cover I see chaos cultists, fuck.

they are one of the worst things to find here, it could have been orkz where I could have just firebombed them all away, it could have been imperial guardsmen where I would just need to be very fast, it could have been eldar and perhaps I could talk with them, it could have been the tau where I would definitely be able to talk with them and if not I would just need to be fast to get into melee, but no, it just had to be one of the bad ones(spacemarines, necrons, dark eldar, tyranids, chaos stuff) where things have to be difficult.

I kinda copied Hornet slightly.

I moved so fast the cultists never even saw what hit them, their heads separated from their heads before they could even hear the sounds behind them.

I apply some Arifureta alchemy, and transmute the weapons they held and now had a second weapon, a nail that looks just like the one I normally use, but its gunmetal grey.

I could hear cries of cheer ahead, into the breach.

I moved swiftly into the large chamber.

it looks like this place was at one point the bridge of an imperium warship, from what I could make out under all the chaos and blood.

then, I saw it, what the cultists were around for.

a Daemon Prince.

I moved so fast it was almost like I teleported, I hope the Daemon did not see me.

"̷C̷o̷m̷e̷ ̷o̷u̷t̷ ̷l̷i̷t̷t̷l̷e̷ ̷b̷u̷g̷,̷ ̷I̷ ̷h̷u̷n̷g̷e̷r̷ ̷f̷o̷r̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷r̷ ̷f̷l̷e̷s̷h̷!̷"̷ said the daemon, with a voice that sounds layered from three different people screaming in agony.

shit.

the Daemon Prince was like five feet from where I had stood previously.

"̷I̷ ̷s̷e̷e̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷!̷"̷ said the daemon.

got to move, and fast.

"̷I̷ ̷K̷I̷L̷L̷ ̷Y̷O̷U̷!̷"̷ said the daemon.

a burst of fire erupted behind me as I took cover behind a console covered in bodies.

"̷W̷H̷E̷R̷E̷ ̷A̷R̷E̷ ̷Y̷O̷U̷ ̷H̷I̷D̷I̷N̷G̷!̷"̷ said the daemon.

I learned this trick from reading a fanfic.

"OVER HERE!" my voice called out from across the room from behind another console that had bodies piled on it.

"̷T̷H̷E̷R̷E̷ ̷Y̷O̷U̷ ̷A̷R̷E̷!̷ ̷N̷O̷W̷ ̷D̷I̷E̷!̷!̷"̷ said the daemon, as it blasted the console.

I took this as my chance and rushed from my hiding place and drove my nail's into the eyes of the daemon.

"̷A̷G̷H̷H̷!̷!̷ ̷C̷U̷R̷S̷E̷D̷ ̷B̷U̷G̷!̷!̷"̷ screeched the daemon.

it was blindly swinging its sword around.

I took my nail's out of the eyes and went for the kill, decapitation.

with all my might I swung my nail's at his throat.

he managed to block one, but not the other.

with a clean swipe the nail went right through his neck, and his head came off.

I then placed explosives in the body.(learned how to make those from trying to make a fire from a body of a globbie.)

I stood a safe distance away, and detonated the body.

it went up like a firework.

after cremating the daemon, the other bodies started to turn to ash as well.

I searched the bridge for loot, but found nothing.

nothing, but what was sitting in the captains chair.

it was a body, not a body from 40k.

it was my body, aged up.

and it was clutching this in his hands.

a photo, of Hornet.

I got the photo, and I waited for Hornet. (I had told her that if I had not come out in twenty minutes either I was dead, I had been converted into something evil that needed to die, or had found something world shaking.)

Hornet arrived not twenty two minutes later, with nail drawn.

"Ember? are you still... You?" Hornet asks tentatively.

"I, I don't really know anymore." I said, then pointed to the corpse of me, while also holding the photo of Hornet. (the photo is not erotic btw, she is standing next to ember with a smile and closed eyes.)

Hornet nearly drops her nail, but still remains on guard.

"if you're still Ember, tell me something he personally knew of me." she says.

"I made you a promise, one that I intend on keeping, of killing the Radiance." I say looking right into her eyes.

she sighs in relief.

"it is you, but, who is that?" she asks pointing at the dead me.

"that is also me, I have a horrible premonition about who the Radiance actually is." I say.

"who? Hornet asks.

I take a deep breath and let it out.

"the Radiance, is me." I say.

"what!?" Hornet asks in shock.

(spoilers for the end of Bioshock infinite btw)

"I know of this other story, like the doom slayer, like the slender man, like Warhammer." I start.

"its name, is BioShock infinite, it is the story of booker Dewitt, who tries to pay off his gambling debt by making a deal, to quote unquote bring us the girl and wipe away the debt, and is shown the picture of a girl, the girl is named Elizabeth, through out his adventure, traveling into the sky practically another world for him, fighting people through out, there is one name who makes his blood boil, the name of a man, the man known as Zachary Hale Comstock, Elizabeth is his daughter, and has the whole entire city in the sky trying to kill booker, so that Comstock could get his daughter back, Elizabeth has the ability to open portals into other worlds, in the story booker finds out that Elizabeth, is Ana Dewitt bookers daughter that was taken from him, this revelation is extremely shocking, but there is one more shocking reveal booker has a different name at the end of the story." I continue.

"at the end of the story, his name, is Zachary Hale Comstock." I finish.

I could hear Hornets intake of breath, and the drawing of her weapon.

"yes, that is how booker's end comes too, killed by the one he cared about." I say.

I use my nail to deflect Hornet's slash.

"y-you are saying, that everything we've done, everything I thought I was growing to love, becomes the monster that cursed me!" she is sobbing, and shouting at me.

"yes, no, I do not know." I say melancholic.

"what I do know, is that I am going to kill Radiance, that is a fact." I say.

"and so will I." Hornet says.

we cross blades once more, thanks to the training we've had, I was able to match her.

"why... WHY!" Hornet screams out as she is moving extremely fast and trying to cut my head off.

"because, that is how the world works." I say, despondent and somewhat hollow.

there is a lull in the fight, Hornet is heaving and sobbing, I am standing there huffing.

"the world is cruel, it was made that way, there was a chance to leave it all behind, but now, it's gone." I say.

"w-what do you mean?" Hornet asks.

"have you noticed something missing." I say.

she takes a moment, thinking, then realization dawns on her.

"the system, its gone!" Hornet says.

"it went away, when I found the body of myself." I say.

"b-but that was suppose to be able to take us away from this world." Hornet says.

"I know, I know, and I am sorry for what will happen to you." I say.

"what do you mean!?" Hornet says.

"you have never truly been alive this whole time, you are only half alive." I say.

her nail clatters to the ground.

"no... that, that can't be true." Hornet says.

"I know its true, because without the system, your body has changed, and your face, is paler than when I first saw it." I say and hold up a shard of broken glass from one of the consoles.

Hornet see's what she looks like now.

like the knight, the Hollow Knight, only with a red cloak.

"no... no no no, nononononononono, this, this can't be." Hornet says, and puts her hands on her face, and then her body.

"I know, because it's not." I say.

"Ember, wha-" Hornet says.

"you are not actually Hornet, you are nothing but a figment of my mind, and the Daemon is laughing at me now, is he not!" I say to the figure that took on the appearance of Hornet.

"̷H̷A̷H̷A̷H̷A̷H̷A̷H̷A̷"̷ it laughs.

"̷i̷t̷ ̷w̷o̷u̷l̷d̷ ̷s̷e̷e̷m̷ ̷t̷h̷a̷t̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷ ̷a̷r̷e̷ ̷q̷u̷i̷t̷e̷ ̷i̷n̷t̷e̷r̷e̷s̷t̷i̷n̷g̷ ̷b̷u̷g̷!̷"̷ it says.

the room around me shatters like glass.

and I am standing right where I was before I dashed to hide from the daemon.

"̷y̷e̷s̷,̷ ̷I̷ ̷h̷a̷v̷e̷ ̷b̷e̷e̷n̷ ̷p̷l̷a̷y̷i̷n̷g̷ ̷w̷i̷t̷h̷ ̷y̷o̷u̷,̷ ̷i̷t̷ ̷h̷a̷s̷ ̷b̷e̷e̷n̷ ̷f̷u̷n̷!̷"̷ the daemon says.

"̷n̷o̷w̷,̷ ̷p̷r̷e̷p̷a̷r̷e̷ ̷t̷o̷ ̷d̷i̷-̷W̷H̷A̷T̷!̷"̷ the daemon gloats, before getting interrupted by the real Hornet stabbing him in his gut.

"Ember! are you alright!" Hornet says.

"yeah, just fine." I say.

"̷H̷-̷H̷o̷w̷ ̷c̷a̷n̷ ̷t̷h̷i̷s̷ ̷b̷e̷?̷!̷"̷ the daemon asks.

"simple, I had written down my actual directions to Hornet while telling her that plan." I say.

I had put down on paper that if I had not actually returned by the fifteen minute mark, than I would need rescuing.

"̷D̷A̷M̷N̷ ̷Y̷O̷U̷ ̷B̷U̷G̷S̷!̷"̷ were the last things the daemon said.

the bodies in the room stayed, and there was a body in the captains chair, but it was not the body of me, it was the body of Ollanius Piers, as it says so on the armor, and he did not hold a picture, he held his lasgun in hand with a slash from bottom right hip to top left shoulder.

I saluted the corpse, then walked to the end of the bridge, where the window at the front was blown inwards, probbably from some missile, and there was a tunnel through it, and inside was a bench.

I sat down, and waited for Hornet.

she took a bit, but she sat down next to me.

"what are you waiting for Ember, warp us back to Hub." Hornet says.

"I can't." I say.

"what do you mean, you cant?" Hornet asks worried.

"the system, is gone." I say.

...To be Continued.

(a/n soo, here is the important note, I just can't continue this, but, I will be finishing it, I wanted to do so much more, but I just can't sorry, I've moved on to the SMD in RWBY, this was my first story, so I'm torn up about it to, I took a leap with this, then I took another with SMD, and I found a thing clicking, so this story will be ending in two more chapters, sorry and thank you, all of you who helped me and gave me confidence to make something.)