The First Rebels

The red of the sky looked like it was beginning to coagulate into much more vivid shapes. At first what was a fiery blur, transformed rather quickly into giants of flame.

The meteor shower covered the whole sky. It was an overwhelming sight, like we were about to get buried by the sky itself.

We all watched the calamity descending upon us, agape.

"Lady", Deli broke the tension, "What will you have us do?"

Lady remained silent. Her stomach wound was open and she looked exhausted, but she stood beside me, firmly, gazing up at the sky.

Then, as if suddenly remembering something, she spoke.

"Protect Valhalla", she murmured.

"Lady!", Chopper yelled but without paying heed, she rushed back.

Her treasure, I thought, she must be worried about keeping it safe. She was one crazed up woman after all.

When she'd disappeared, it fell on the rest of us to make a move.

"There's no need to hold anything back anymore", Chopper muttered, "Take one direction all of ya and don't stop til ye'r dead."

There was no need to say anymore. Just seconds later, we were all halfway to space, fighting the calamitous meteors. We had to cover as much area as we could.

On my left, Chopper with his dragonized arm, shredded about a dozen meteors with a single wave of his hand. Deli was breaking through each one as if they were no more than a pebble. On my right, Sight enclosed his barrier around dozens of meteors and flung them on to the next wave, blasting away layer by layer.

Lubbock was using some kind of frequency that broke down meteors as soon as they entered his range. As his strategy covered the largest area, we all circled around him. At the very least, the capital of Mercae would be safe from the meteors.

But of course, it wasn't even close to enough. We gave it our all, even when there was no end in sight. Still, we needed to do more.

On Chopper's signal we all gathered round. Grim was nowhere to be found anymore.

"They keep getting closer", Deli was panting.

"About 20 minutes before impact", Lubbock calculated.

"Well then...Sight", Chopper looked at him sternly, "Ya buy us the time we need and we'll destroy everything."

"Ah, that is understandable but...wouldn't-",

"Sight", Chopper really looked hard at him, "We aren't the ones that can stop her anyway."

Sight looked at him somberly, then nodding, he reached for his blindfold. One after the other, he unlayered the thing and let it fall to the ground.

There was a scar running across both his eyes, probably from the time Lady had slashed through them. His white lashes looked heavy from having been kept under wraps for such a long time. He slowly opened his eyes.

If he wasn't taken aback enough, we were. To his eyes, the world he hadn't taken in for such a long time must have looked so strange, especially now that it was getting destroyed. But for us, who hadn't seen quite as anything like those eyes. The old man had the most exquisite pair of eyes I'd ever seen. Mesmerizing, beautiful, whatever else could I call it. There simply hadn't been anything like his eyes that I'd ever had the chance to see.

They were like prisms. You couldn't quite tell what color they were, surely nothing known to humans. And just by how captivating they were, I felt those eyes were surely dangerous. I could tell why Lady had felt the need to destroy them. But what those eyes were capable of was even more bewildering.

There was a moment of complete silence when Sight opened his eyes but then sensing the urgency of our situation, it was time to get a move on.

"Alright old man, in yer hands now", Chopper smirked looking at Sight like that.

Sight returned his gesture with a smile of his own. It looked so out of place all of a sudden even though Sight was always smiles and laughs.

Meanwhile Lubbock had begun sobbing.

"Wait, Lubbock! Why are you crying, you idiot?!", Deli smacked his head.

"Because...*sniff*...that's what his *sniff*...that's what his whole face looks like!"

All of us chuckled together as Deli patted his head.

"Well, young'uns! This is a sight old Sight is lucky to have seen", Sight said as he laid down the foundations of some sort of magical circle. It was rather primitive so it didn't take much time.

"We're countin' on ya, old man", Chopper said.

With that, Sight activated the circle and as far as eyes could see, something ran out through the ground. The magic flowing out from the circle was reaching some unknown parts of the world. After a short while, some golden rivers of magic flowed out from the ground and began moving up. Sight spared us a final look with those unbelievable eyes of his before placing his hands on the magic circle.

A veil began to form in the sky from the rivers of flowing golden energy. I realized now that it was a barrier. An enormous barrier covering the whole planet.

"Won't be long before mages 'round the world find out, so make it quick, all of ya", Chopper instructed us.

Sight's eyes were closed and he was focusing solely on the barrier. It was down to us four.

"Lubbock you be the filter for the debris. Cover as much of the area as you can and keep moving to compensate for the areas that are left out", Chopper instructed him.

Wiping his tear stained face, Lubbock nodded, "Alright! Since Sight is giving it his all, I'll do my best too!"

Saying so, he shot up into the space.

"Deli, its yer own choice but I'll tell ya something important if we make it through this", Chopper smirked at her and went ahead.

"Since its come to this...", Deli spoke with a broken voice, "I'll have to ask you again Seraph."

She looked my way, vaguely smiling. I wish I could stick to the same answer I had given her after our duel, but times were different now.

"Can I...drink your blood, Seraph?"

I lowered my eyes, wishing it hadn't come to this but I was in no position to say no anymore. She didn't need to hear an answer. I silently stood before her, and Deli, with tear filled eyes that she was so good at hiding, grabbed me by my shoulder and dug her fangs deep into my throat.

I didn't feel much after the initial sting but she slurped the blood out of my vein like she was taking a shot, quick and without thought. I had my eyes closed shut, lest I should push her away.

When she was done, and it wasn't more than a moment later, she almost pushed me away and turned her back to me, as if hiding the look on her face, and got ready to join Lubbock and Chopper. She wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth and shot up, breaking the ground beneath.

It was my turn now. I needed to pull all the stops and let free what I was holding down up til now. It almost seemed pointless to have tried it in the first place. I ought to have given in to reality, to become the monster that surely resided inside.

Chopper turned to look at me, he hadn't gone all the way up to the sky yet. I think he was waiting for me. He had a reassuring look on his face, as if saying, I've got your back, go berserk.

And so I did. I let Nasty II take over. Once again, when I was helpless, it was Nasty that would save me.

In Shamballa, since neither I nor Nasty were tied down by the laws of the world, we were able to coexist. But during my duel with Deli, I had fallen asleep when Nasty took over. I expected the same to happen now.

But I was still awake, albeit barely. Nasty's ebony cloak covered me all over and I felt nothing more than a shadow. I wasn't in charge anymore. What used to be small horns on Nasty's head were now piercing out of my forehead like a very dark flame.

I felt like I was drowning in the shadowy mass that was covering me. I felt sleepy but I could still keep myself awake if I made an effort. My senses were dulled so I couldn't tell when Nasty moved 'us' to space. Like before, everything we touched was erased like it didn't exist.

It wasn't how Grim did things. Even though the effect was essentially the same. But in his case, he rapidly aged everything to its demise. It was a noisy process, full of chaos. In my case, existence was simply rewritten.

Of course, it wasn't that I didn't sense the similarity in his and my own power. What I erased was erased from memory as well. So to others it looked like I was fighting empty space. Good thing is, I was totally engulfed by Nasty's shadow, so as stupid as I may have appeared, it was all on him.

And thus began our resistance to the world ending calamity. Rebellion against a god. But just that. Just a god.