Waking Up the Ghost in the Cloak

"What do you have to say for yourself? Anything at all? Go ahead, don't be shy. Explain the thought process that led you to our current situation. "

"....You see, I thou—"

"Ahh... I see, I see. I understand now, it makes total sense. Alerting the entire city of our whereabouts was a part of your grand plan, right?"

"...I didn't mean to al—"

"So what's the next part of the plan, Reed? Shall we head out go to battle with that thing over there? Was your plan to screw everyone over in the worst way possible?"

".....No, that wasn't my inten—"

"Man.... you've really shit the bed this time. I can't wait to see how you'll fix this, bud. I mean, just look at that goddamned beast. Look at the size of it! H-Haha... isn't it taller than this skyscraper?"

"Is it even possible for us to slay that monstrosity? I could see a fully armed warship taking it down, but us as we are now? It'd be tantamount to suicide."

The furious storm obscured it but everyone that it was there, and was coming to them. Far, far away in the distance was a shadow of a creature that oppressively towered over the land like a looming mountain. It did not possess a rigid figure and constantly changed in shape as it slowly approached their position; the only defining feature that could be attributed to it was its incredible stature.

It dwarfed every living thing that they'd ever seen in their lives. It was so tall that it defied their understanding of what a living being could be. The lumbering, amorphous titan even scraped past the clouds as it moved across the city. 

There was something fundamentally unsettling about even looking at the creature's silhouette. It had an essence, an aura of discord, that shrouded it from view as the furious storm raged across the city. But every now and then, a bolt of lightning would flash by and faintly cast a light on the creature for the span of less than a second.

Whenever that happened, they would also catch a glimpse of the unspeakable. None dared to comment on what they saw.

When Reed set off his fireworks display off, he received a reply. Something from above the endless storm-cloud layer descended upon the city, along with a near-apocalyptic rainstorm. The downpour was so intense that portions of the city had even begun to flood in shallower areas...

The wriggling silhouette in the storm shook the earth as it gradually moved toward them, one titanic step at a time. As if heralding the arrival of the gargantuan monstrosity, a cacophony of screeches and roars accompanied the unearthly creature's movement. They were different from the cries that Reed had heard before when he first encountered the Infested. The horde was not crying out in fury or madness like before... No, something was wrong.

Beneath all the insanity laced within their shrieking, Reed unexpectedly felt like he'd heard something else. He felt like he'd heard fear in their mangled voices — an overwhelming sense of terror.

Fortunately, the enormous entity's size worked against it and greatly labored in order to move. It would be a while, maybe an hour and a half before it'd reach the outpost. There was still time to act, for now. Time was of the essence if they were to survive.

Reed gazed at the massive shadow in the storm and quietly said, "It's impossible. There's no point in even contemplating whether we can kill it or not. A highly skilled conqueror might stand a chance at fighting it, and that's a generous guess."

Astor looked at Reed despondently and said, "Then what do you suggest? Roll over and die? I prefer not to die without struggling at the very least." He was about to make a remark on Reed's hopeless attitude but was caught off when a visitor suddenly arrived with a bang.

A flash of light struck the observation deck above them and burst through the ceiling angrily like a force of nature. A torrent of malicious intent quickly locked onto Reed almost instantaneously. Reed sighed internally — for better or worse, his warden had finally arrived. Salvation and damnation awaited him in equal measure.

The Anima that rolled off of her was ghastly and turbulent, making her seem as if she were a judge from hell. It was so frightening that some of the trainees even mistakenly assumed that she was actually an Infested until the dust settled around her.

Reed grit his teeth, expecting a biblical-level verbal beatdown until he begged for forgiveness, but it strangely never happened. Lu'um simply glared at him with a hollow expression and said, "Don't even think that I'm going to let you off. Consider your sentence postponed for a later date since the situation's gotten complicated now."

"You never cease to impress, you know. To think that you actually managed to catch the attention of a Lesser Nightmare. I was wondering why all the Infested in the area turned tail like frightened rats all of a sudden. You've really outdone yourself this time, Reed."

She pointed at Lesser Nightmare and said, "You see that right there? That thing over there consumes Anima and uses it to poison everything around it, eroding the planet away piece-by-piece until nothing is left except a barren, lifeless world. The miasma they release is toxic even to the Infested, which is why they ran away when it descended upon the city."

"...........Oh."

Reed felt cold sweat form on his face as he stared at the unholy monstrosity in the distance and said, "We're going to need a really big Anima cannon, I suppose. Do we have any of those in one of our warships?"

An awkward, tense silence filled the room until Astrid chimed in and said, "I've modified the transponder that was left to us and it's broadcasting on all available channels, including the emergency distress channel but I wouldn't expect much from it. The chance that the signal will pierce through the heavy Anima concentration in the area is very low."

"Shit. We won't be able to request assistance. I'd hoped that we'd at least be able to hail a roaming fleet somewhere, but now..."

"And we since we aren't official contenders, we don't have privileges to access the FLEETCOM network for additional information. The only intel we have to work on is the map of this damned city. Everything outside of the city's been left intentionally blank since it wasn't a part of the mission area. It's all unknown territory..."

"Does it even matter anymore? Look outside, for god's sake — the city's fucked and so are we. We can run but it'd be the same as charging out into uncharted land; we'd be losing the only advantage we have once we leave. Who knows how dangerous the outlying areas are..."

"It's safe to say that the further we depart from the Heaven's Gate, the more dangerous it'll get... Either way, the situation's fucked..."

Whispers floated around here and there amongst the group and many felt an imminent sense of danger. For the vast majority of the group, it was the first time that they'd brushed so closely with death. It was starting to seriously affect morale, something that Reed and his friends quickly picked up on.

He needed to act now before everything spiraled down into something uncontrollable.

Reed stood up and clapped his hands softly, subduing the chaotic Anima in the area down tightly with his will. A little trick that he cheaply copied off of Ulbo from before.

"I'm pretty sure it's attracted to me, so I'll catch its attention and drag it away from the city. The storm should subside enough for the transponder to work in this area once it leaves, right? I just need to keep it distracted long enough for help to arrive."

I can probably hurt it with my newfound power, probably.... At the very least, I'm sure I can piss the damn thing off enough that it'll chase me instead. ....This is by far the dumbest idea I've ever had, period.

The group went quiet when Reed spoke up and explained his little plan. A variety of expressions formed on their faces; some looked genuinely astonished for the wrong reason, some appeared wholly indifferent, and others looked entirely unconvinced, even frustrated with his so-called plan.

The first one to speak up was Astor, who appeared to be annoyed more than anything. He massaged his head and said, "Listen, I know you want to make up for what you did, but killing yourself isn't the best way to atone for your mistake. We all know you're more than gifted than us with Anima, but even you can't hope to stand a chance against that monstrosity."

Horatio backed up Astor and calmly said, "You're not thinking rationally, Reed. Don't let your emotions get the best of you, even in the face of adversity. We need to focus our efforts on creating a realistic plan that'll give us the highest chance of survival. A suicide mission isn't it."

Reed slowly shook his head and said, "I'm not trying to be a hero, trust me. I'm not going to fight that thing to death if that's what you think I want to do. I understand the risks. I'm going to bait it away, and play it defensively until the big boys arrive to clean up my mess." He started channeling Anima around himself in preparation. Time was running out.

Astor was about to say something back in response, but Lu'um interjected before he could let out a single word. She looked at everyone and said, "He can do it, despite what you might think of his abilities. It'll give us a chance to call for help, not only for us but also for the rest of us that aren't here. You understand what I mean, yes?"

Unfortunately, not everyone had made it to the outpost yet; some trainees were still out there in the city, all alone in the midst of the storm. God forbid they were in the creature's direct path, or in close vicinity. The fate one would suffer under the effects of the Lesser Nightmare's miasma was a terrible thing that left one wishing for the mercy of a swift death.

Ophelia never made it... She's still out there, somewhere in the city right now...

Reed couldn't stand the idea of becoming guilty for an innocent's death. It was one thing for him to suffer for the consequences of his actions, but another person suffer in his stead was unacceptable to him.

He hated the idea of owing people anything and getting others involved with his mistakes down to the core of his soul. Nevertheless, he always seemed to be in the debt of others in some form, much to his dismay.

More than anything, he always sought to be clear of any kind of debt that might tie him down. It was an irrational desire that stemmed from somewhere that he couldn't identify.

"Once you lure it away far enough, we'll use the transponder to locate the remaining people that haven't arrived yet, since this is a special emergency," said Lu'um. She walked over to Reed and whispered in his ear, "I'll stay here and keep them all safe, so don't worry about us. Aim for the heart on the other side, if you can."

He knew better than question her advice and said, "Yeah, sure. I'll do that if I don't get myself killed. Wish me luck..." Reed nodded at Astor and his friends and said, "I'll leave the rest to you guys. Sorry for making you guys help me clean up my mess," and reluctantly threw himself off the skyscraper.

I'll make it up to them when this is over... If the old goat doesn't kill me first, that is. He couldn't imagine what Axtorius was going to do to him. It was definitely concerning, to say the least...

A single band of light charged into the storm straight towards the center of madness as the people in the outpost observed silently. The further the speck of light flew away from them, the smaller it got until it was completely obscured by the heavy storm.

Seconds passed until the turned into minutes. Tense silence reigned until a horrifying roar reached their ears. It'd begun. 

A bright, piercing beam of radiance cut through the dark storm and raced into the sky, burning a hole through the sky. Soon after, an awful, booming cry of pain resounded across the city, shattering windows and smaller buildings around it.

The massive shadow writhed in anger and lightning crackled, as if in response to its fury. The storm intensified and the creature called upon heaven above for help. Enormous tendrils of toxic, unearthly energy crawled through the cracks in the sky and shot down towards a particular section of the city, destroying many buildings in the process.

In response, another radiant beam of light, stronger the previous one, shot out of the storm and pierced through the creature again, cutting through the cloud layer above.

Slowly, but surely, the creature inched further and further away from the outpost as the battle raged on between Reed and the creature. Occasionally, the ground would tremble and the sky would churn furiously as dark energy poured down like rain, but it never reached the observers in the outpost.

The further they got away from the fight, the harder it was for them to observe its progression. Eventually, the worst of the storm had receded into the background. Though off in the distance, one could still feel the tremors caused by the ongoing fight. Even from afar, the chaotic waves of Anima still reached them, albeit less intensely.

Astor stared at the fight in the distance and said, "He's kept his part of the deal, so now it's our turn. Turn on the transponder, Astrid. We've got work to do before the fleet arrives."

Astrid and Horatio immediately sprung into action. They started organizing teams out of the trainees and began issuing the necessary orders to their new subordinates. They knew that they working on borrowed time; no one knew how long Reed could keep the monster occupied.

Lu'um gazed at the storm with an indifferent expression, despite how she really felt. She tightly clutched onto a brilliant, colorful feather that glowed weakly — something she'd stolen from Reed — and let out a deep sigh.

The feather continued to lose its radiance until it completely dimmed and then turned into ash as it slipped through her fingers.

I really wish it'd hadn't come to this. To think that I'd be the one to wake up that no-good she-devil. This is likely the work of karma, as much as I'd like to deny it.

She hated it but knew that it was for the best given the current circumstances. Waking her would at least guarantee that he wouldn't die.

Trading an evil for another evil isn't really winning, though. Lu'um sighed again.

She really hated the Lady of Fate down the marrow of her bones and considered her a scheming whore. One day, she'd drag that annoying bitch and pay her back for everything...