Cross Slash 001: Heaven or Hell (2/2)

A group of Beasts and Tengu respond to the distress signal. Raptors into the scene; not one of them pay respect to their massacred comrade nor do they heed his warning. Their only objective is to capture those who do not resist and to kill whoever tosses even a simple pebble in retaliation…

Especially this spikey blonde youth with the steel blue eyes and massive sword. Who is this newcomer!?

Clyde Nils springs into action; his massive sword raised to slay these mechanical abominations. The Raptors dive in for a sweeping assault, firing their laser beams, but the spiky blonde hero is quicker:

Clyde leaps sky high.

He lands on his first target, a mighty mechanical falcon. Clyde lifts his sword and proceeds to slice the falcon open; his mechanical, oily entrails are now exposed. Clyde jabs his fist into the Falcon's wound and pulls out a bundle of wires.

The robotic falcon immediately succumbs. Clyde hops off just as the falcon plummets. The defeated Raptor shines a brilliant light before he explodes.

One by one, he hops onto the Tengu and Raptor alike, swinging his sword; striking them one after another. They're but Clyde's stepping stones, sliced and diced and emitting that same white light before they explode.

Clyde leaps off the last robot after destroying it.

Afterwards, he maneuvers himself in free fall.

He lands on another robot: gigantic in stature and a behemoth by appearance. This vile monstrosity is modeled in the fashion of a kaiju sized demonic tortoise!! He has three giant tentacles functioning as his tails!

Clyde attempts to pierce this iron behemoth, but even with the sheer amount of force and careful precision he uses, Clyde's massive sword fails to lay even a single mar in it's mighty chassis.

The mechanical monstrosity scoffs and swats Clyde away with one of his tails. The beast belts an ominous roar; an ominous roar to exert superiority and invincibility.

How will Clyde defeat this beast..!?

Clyde breaks his fall with a crouching skid. He rises and stares his gigantic foe down. He's angry; his fury is unbound. He dashes towards his foe…

Suddenly a unit of Tengu and Beasts arrive.

As the Philistines did when they praised their champion Goliath, the Tengu and Beasts praise this mighty champion and with him, the teenage blonde will be slain.

The robots rely on their champion and thus cast on pride and a sense of invincibility. They close in on the young hero.

Clyde scoffs. He adjusts his sword and mows through the platoon.

He decimates the lot of Beasts and Tengu.

He slays them all as he rushes through them.

Oil sprays against the walls. Their bits and circuitry scatter.

In a matter of minutes, Clyde eviscerates them all.

Oil spews forth from their wounds. Their bodies drop; dead as the metal from which they were forged; damned by the hands molding their shape.

They shine that same white light and explode; the white light burning with their shame.

Their very existence wiped from the face of the planet: more corpses for that fiery heap of lore: Gehenna. More corpses to stoke the flames of that smoldering pit of yore. Gehenna's victims rising as smoke in eternal ascension into oblivion without even so much as a memory of them.

Another group arrives. This time a group only consisting solely of a unit of Tengu;the ones fashioned after the mountain breed...

Clyde dashes even faster and slides under the Tengu and sprints beneath the robotic kaiju sized turtle.

The Tengu chases after Clyde with matching speed

He wastes no time and leaps on one of the Tengu.

"Get off of me!" he cries

Clyde ignores his demand and instead he slices his head off with a swift swing of his sword.

Clyde proceeds to thrust his hand into its neck and rips out a bundle of wires. Clyde proceeds to demolish the rest of the Tengu, guiding the headless body into a group of Beasts; they never saw it coming, shining the brilliant white light as they explode.

Clyde leaps off the headless body and hastens towards the robotic Turtle: the three tailed demon

*** *** ***

The Tengu whose head was severed by the blonde hero, plummets, until it's caught by none other than the mad scientist himself: Dr. Sven Cain.

He's observing the gallant young hero. He's observing how his armada is dwindling in number and yet he's calm as a motionless pinwheel, but with so much as a flick of hand or as little as a breeze from a passing wind… that pinwheel will spin… he will move into action.

"Ma...ster..."

Those mere syllables are followed with a slither of its dying breath, a soft whimper perhaps. Or perhaps like a silent whisper; untraceable like a lost memory.

The Tengu's dying breaths are heard by Dr. Cain and also by The Ferryman, Charon. It takes but a small fee to cross the River Styx.

Sven raises Tengu's head to eye level.

"I...don't want to...die..."

"...not...not like this."

Sven remains ever so silent.

"Master..." The Tengu continues to beg for his life; regardless of his fatal folly.

Sven gazes into the vanishing light in his creation's eyes. Compelled by pure sympathy, an emotion once foreign to him, Sven pulls the head closer to his chest.

Sven hugs what's left of his creation until the Charon comes to ferry the Tengu's soul for a toll of sixpence... the toll paid by Dr. Cain for this one act of kindness for his creation: an emotionless transaction between the mad scientist and ferryman.

#

Clyde dashes until he crosses the perimeter of the demonic kaiju tortoise. He leaps into the air and lands on the back of the behemoth.

He swings his sword against the flailing tentacle tails. The tortoise bellows a low and drab chuckle.

"Little boy...."

"...your strikes are puny and futile. You'll drive yourself mad to leave even so much as a spec of dirt on me!"

Clyde ignores him and continues to attack.

More peeved than amused, the tortoise scoffs.

"Begone you insolent pissant!"

The behemoth, this demonic Kaiju Turtle owers his head.

He's going to crush the blonde youth with a headbutt!

In another attempt to pierce the robot's chassis, Clyde races to the tortoise's head and thrusts his sword between the eyes of the beast.

"Damn it!" Clyde cries out.

Suddenly... a group of Raptors appear. They swoop in and open fire.

Clyde hops back, avoiding each of the lasers....all but one.

The last shot grazes his torso. It burns of sizzled flesh. Clyde clutches his wound as blood squeezes through his fingers; though if anything this wound it's not fatal.

The lasers knicks the beast's chassis and reveal a secret of the supposedly impenetrable giant. Clyde spots it. An idea emerges from his frantic thoughts.

He bursts into a dash, leaps and lands on the back of the robotic tortoise.

He lures the Raptors into firing upon their comrade's back. The beams penetrate the giant robot's chassis. He is not pleased.

“You idiotic pissants!”

The tortoise swings it’s tails and destroys his allies, the foolish Raptors.

One beam strikes the spot between the behemoth's eyes.

It wobbles a bit; Clyde loses his footing and he falls off as the giant robot teeters side to side.

Clyde retrieves his sword. He sprints, extending both arms forward and jabs the mechanical beast in the exposure between his eyes.. He proceeds to slice and shred the gadgets and wires within.

He finds another spot foolishly exposed by those Raptors!

With keen precision, Clyde jabs his sword into the exposure between the neck and shell.

Clyde wastes no time as the tortoise topples to the ground; belly up. He proceeds to dash in a rapid beeline while slicing the robot's belly open. It's taking an effort of immense strength on Clyde's part but the belly's chassis is composed of a thinner metal...

A flaw perhaps when Sven was building these mechanical beasts? A fail-safe, maybe so, if this kaiju tortoise were to become rouge.

After slicing the belly open, Clyde proceeds to rip and tear the innards of the behemoth with his sword.

The dying robot doesn't fight. He refuses to hang on to what little life he has left. He knows what awaits him...

He slips away and explodes… but not without shining that brilliant light.

Clyde steps forward but falls to his knee. His wound is oozing with blood again. Clyde musters what little strength he has left after expending so much of it fighting off this invasion.

His sword is heavy, but he lifts it, rising to face this last leg of Dr. Cain’s invasion.

He rushes through the ruins of Tengoku City.

#

Dr. Cain waits by near a smoldering heap. He's observing the fire like a moth drawn to a candle's flame.

The Phantom Elite gather around Sven in a five-point star formation. Aware of Clyde's presence, Dr. Cain glances back for a brief moment.

Their eyes lock…

…the hero and villain face off!

Sven scoffs, loses interest and totally ignores Clyde.

"It's now or never," Clyde says under his breath.

The brave youth leaps into the air, with his sword hoist above his head and ready to cleave the mad scientist in two...

But instead of slicing down Sven... Clyde is stabbed by the massive blade of a scythe... a scythe wielded by Dr. Cain.

The mad doctor hoists the youth as if he is a prized trophy.

Clyde struggles to free himself: he's bleeding fast; his strength dwindles; even though he's drawing his final breaths, he's still determined to fight.

The Phantom Elite surround Clyde; their weapons drawn; ready to slice him into ribbons...

But Dr. Cain motions them to lower their weapons. He proceeds to scoff at the sight of the boy: his gallantry and effort all for naught but to fall before him in this final moment.

"You... are no longer a threat."

Dr. Cain is still as emotionless as his heart is left void.

Helpless, all Clyde can do is grit his teeth. A newfound enmity towards Dr. Cain, ignites within him.

Dr. Cain grins, but he is neither proud nor vain, unlike the one who fell...like lightning from the sky; damned to perdition that foolish angel fell…

… that foolish angel failing to realize the futility of pride.

Pride is but an ascension before the fall.

But Dr. Cain will not fall as that prideful cur.

Dr. Cain is neither an angel or a demon. He's transcended beyond the bounds of Heaven and Hell.

With the scythe upon which Clyde's blood flows, Dr. Cain cracks a tiny smile somewhat content with this successful invasion of Tengoku, the City named Heaven..

"...I accomplished what I set out to do. Tengoku has fallen."

With a double handed grip upon the Scythe's pole, he hurls the weapon deftly.

Clyde is tossed away like unwanted refuse.

As everything fades before his eyes, Clyde catches a quick glimpse of Sven and And the Phantom Elite.

Sven sprouts a single, crooked black wing.

Dr. Cain expresses emptiness: neither joy to gloat about his victory; not even enough pity to shed a single tear of regret...

He shifts his head to glance at Clyde one last time. Then, with one mighty bound and a flap of his wing, Sven takes off sky high and disappears into the moonlit sky.

The Phantom Elite descend beneath the ground, slipping into another dimension where they will rejoin Sven at another location…

#

Blood oozes from his second wound as it oozes from his grazed side.

Clyde passes out.

#

A moment passes…

Clyde awakens.

His wounds burn.

He reaches into his pocket. Clyde grabs hold of a bottle.

It’s healing elixir!

Clyde pours the healing elixir and pours it on his wounds

The wounds burn even more, but they immediately begin to take effect. Clyde patches them up. Then he sits up.

The wound where Dr. Cain impaled him, wasn't so much as a gash as he thought it would've been, otherwise he would've died for sure.

He patches it up some more. Just so the healing elixir would continue to heal.

He grabs his sword and uses it to prop himself up.

Benumbed by the way things have turned out, Clyde breathes a jaded sigh before sauntering about the grounds of the ruined city: the ruins of Tengoku.

Dejection rattles his mind. Fury swells in his heart; tears burn in his eyes; he grit his teeth grit.

His mind becomes cloudy.

He’s angry…

… he grits his teeth even more and furiously strikes the ground with his sword.

"The next time we meet Dr. Cain... I'll slay you and feed your head to the swine!"

He bears his grip down upon his sword's hilt. For a moment's respite. He grips his fists until they bleed for the futility of defeating Dr. Cain; the wretched futility to lay a finger on Dr. Cain.

Despite his gallant efforts; despite the horde of enemies he slew: despite being able to stand and breathe again... it was all futile.

Tengoku has fallen.

Uncertainty clouds Clyde's mind even more.

What will happen now? What will become of his uncertainty?

Can he really go on as a hero or to even address himself as one?

Can Clyde... with a mind even more clouded than before... even make a difference in this horrible defeat?

His wounds lifts his eyes...

The first thing he sees is Cherri's beaming face.

She is among a crowd of survivors with beaming faces of their own.

Cherri’s happy.

An older gentleman is the first to clap his hands with an ear-to-ear grin.

He’s happy.

The rest of the crowd follow suit and one by one applaud their hero with a standing ovation ensuing with extreme joy.

They’re all happy.

They gather around Clyde one after another; each expressing their gratitude. Some pat his back to emotional bear hugs.

They’re happy because Clyde saved them. He saved them all.

Cherri maneuvers her wheelchair through the throng of citizens.

Eventually she makes her way through and rushes to her valiant hero as fast as she can.

She clings to him with tears streaming down her face.

"Thank you so much!"

Clyde is reluctant at first... but he still hugs her back in this tender moment.

But. why? This isn't victory.

Achieving victory doesn’t feel like a loss of breath after a punch to the gut.

But they’re praising him because of what he did to save them..

Not because he is a hero.

A hero would have defeated the villain. He’s not a hero because he wasn't able to defeat Dr. Cain.

The boy and the girl release each other.

Clyde hangs his head and retreats to his thoughts.

"What's wrong," asks Cherri

Clyde is saddened even further. Tengoku has fallen by the hand of one so maladjusted…That bastard Dr. Sven Cain.

He sighs after surveying the damage. "It'll take years to rebuild this city."

Cherri hugs Clyde.

"Don't blame yourself for what you couldn't do... it's alright.”

Clyde struggles to spread a decent grin across his face... but still it's his way to express gratitude for Cherri's compliment along with everyone's praise for his heroics.

"Thank you."

Cherri reaches her hand over to Clyde. He accepts her hand and grabs on to it.

*** 7 Months Later ***

With parts from the massacred bodies of Sven's fiends, a fleet of elite engineers rebuilt and reprogrammed the mechanical monsters into construction mechs.

Together man and machine work side by side to rebuild Tengoku.

Other rebuilt robots are helping with the cleanup and reconstruction of the city while the rest of them are serving as guardians; ready to defend Tengoku from future attacks. The restoration of Tengoku is steadily progressing at a faster rate than it would in the hands of men and women alone. With each passing day even more progress is made. Tengoku City will soon be restored in a few more months; it will be Winter then…

*** The Next Morning ***

The sun rises; it's another day.

The sunlight is pure and warm; the sunlight seeps through the window in Cherri's bedroom.

The warmth and the light of the Morning Sun gently rouse her from slumber.

She can't help but to think of her hero and new friend. Clyde Nils, nor deny the feelings she is developing for him.

She sits up in bed with Clyde in her mind.

"I wonder what he is up to." Ponders Cherri as she sets herself in her wheelchair.

Seconds later, a lone pebble taps against her bedroom window. Cherri's ears perk up. She immediately thinks of him: Clyde Nils, her gallant hero. Quickly she wheels herself to open her bedroom window. Cherri looks out of the window in both ways.

A cool breeze passes by.

Cherri looks to the left and then she looks to the right once more. Though she feels invigorated by the sudden wind she's also saddened. There isn't a single trace of him...

"Where is he... where's Clyde?"

She breathes a steady sigh, ready to start her day... but wait!

All of a sudden... she notices a single ray of sunshine gone astray from the rest.

It leads her back to the center of her bedroom.

Upon her bed is an adorable rabbit doll as if it was just placed there.

"What the..." Cherri approaches her bed.

Attached upon the doll's stomach is an envelope with a pink heart on it.

Cherri removes the envelope and opens it. There's a letter inside... she quickly reads the letter. She smiles and hums cheerfully as she finishes reading.

*** *** ***

Outside of Cherri's apartment, Clyde watches from a hidden location...

Another breeze passes by.

"Good morning, Cherri."

He steps into the twilight of dawn...

In the same direction where the clouds go to gather…

Where they go to whisper of the King's Return.