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I’ll be going on a trip this weekend. Hopefully I can find WiFi there to post the next chapter.

Chapter 93 -Screw the Rules-

Maybe. Maybe if I..

He put his hand out towards his blast gun like a Jedi trying to pull at it with the Force. It didn’t work, but it was a good try. Then he thought up of another way to get his blast gun. The deadie was right in front of him, so he sidestepped and put his hand out again, making sure the deadie wouldn’t do anything to him. Really, it’s not doing anything, other than attack me when I attack. It’s walking, that’s for sure, but that’s it.

Wait a second. It won’t do anything to me. Yet, anyway.

He then walked to the blast gun and picked it up. He tried to hide the wings by moving them to align his back, then if he thought it would work, he walked back to the city, never looking back at the deadie lest his wings got exposed.

Hah, who uses ‘lest’ these days?

Somewhere in the universe, a god is looking at me, disappointed.

When he was near enough to be seen, he hoped he wouldn’t get shot. The first time he came to the city, he was lucky. The second time? Especially as a dark monster? No bloody way. He looked at the soldiers with their blast guns aimed down at him. Everyone, including Mean, was about to shoot. The only thing stopping them was Nice with his fist in the air. His blast gun was hanging from his forearm, its safety switch probably turned off.

“See!” Mean shouted. “He a ******* monster! Baus, c’mon! We can’t lettim live!”

“George,” Nice said, while his fist was slowly lowered down. Thankfully, no one fired. “Can you shut up for five minutes, or even a second? I swear, if I hear you open that mouth of yours, I’m going to shoot it off, and no one’s going to stop me. Not even you, fatmouth. Understand?”

His name is George? An a**hole like him named George?

Nice walked towards Avus and frowned at him.

“You know we can’t let you in. I like you, Avus. I really do.” Aww. “But the people would freak the **** out.”

Avus nodded. “I know. All I ask is that you let me in when I’m not this. Can you do that for me?”

Nice slowly scanned him with his eyes.

“My..” Avus was struggling whether to say it or not. “My wife’s in there. You saw her, didn’t you?”

His eyes now met Avus’s. His heart started to beat faster. C’mon. Please.

“If you think I’d wreck the town, we wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. I’d be helping that monster over there.”

Nice then broke eye contact by closing his eyes. He breathed in for a long moment, then nodded. Both of them breathed out at the same time.

“Promise me,” Nice said, grinning. “Promise me that you won’t do that.”

Avus nodded again. “I won’t. As for the monster there, we can’t kill it.”

“What? What do you mean?” Nice asked.

“The sun. It’s giving it strength, power, quickened cell regeneration. There is no way you can kill that thing right now, not even with explosives. You have to hold it off until the sun’s down. Then you can kill it.” There was a one-second pause. “Bring your men here.”

Nice turned to the soldiers and beckoned them to come forward. One by one, they lowered their guns, though reluctantly. Their faces were now filled with suspicion and uncertainty. Except Mean. Looks like a bulldozer right now. Mean was the last to lower his gun. Even when he was lowering his gun, he spat on the floor, but didn’t give any remarks. He still remembers what Nice said. Thought he’s a shrimp noodle. I stand corrected. His saliva quickly dissolved into the ground.

Avus turned to see the monster, and it looked like it would reach the city in under ten minutes. He turned back to meet Mean George’s face a centimetre away from him, their noses almost touching each other.

“Move,” Nice placed his hand on Mean’s head, then pushed it back. “Away.”

“Alright,” Avus said. “That monster has shells that your gunshots can’t penetrate. But, it does have weak spots all around it. There are gaps between the shells and its body.” He demonstrated it with both his monstrous hands, placing them at a forty-five degree angle. “You have to get up close and personal with it. But, I advise you don’t do that. It can shoot its shells at you. And it’s bloody sharp.”

Nice butted in. “But what about the sun-“

“Ah, yes,” Avus said. “We can only exploit the gaps once the sun goes down.”

There were frowns now, frowns that looked like Nice’s before.

“The sun’s giving it power. It’s giving it mass regeneration. Even if you get past its shells, a few shots won’t do-“

“Then how about we all fire at once?” A soldier asked.

“No, even without its shells, a rocket launcher wouldn’t work. It’d just grow again. Speaking of rocket launchers, do any of you have one?”

Nice replied. “We have one.”

“How many rockets do you have?”

“I don’t remember. We’ve never used it before. It’s only for emergencies. There were no problems these past few years.”

“Well, this one is an emergency. The only things standing between this town and the monster are us. If we die, then let’s hope to God the town doesn’t get fully destroyed.”

Nice nodded, and sent one of his men to fetch the launcher.

“So how are we going to use it?” Nice asked.

“We can’t actually kill it yet. We can hold it back. If it gets near, you shoot the rocket at its feet. It won’t die, but it will fly off. My guess is that it only weighs almost two times more than us. I need five men with me. If you’re brave enough.”

No one stepped in front. Not even Nice. Not yet. “It can shoot its shells at you.” Why the hell am I scaring them even more?

Finally, someone stepped up. It was Mean.

“I still went yer ayes beat.”

Want my a** beat?

Then four more stepped in front.

“Alright,” Avus said. “Hope you guys slept for a long time. ‘Cause this is going to be a long fight.”

I didn't find any WiFi. I decided to slap on a thousand more words.

Chapter 94 -Screw the Rules-

This is so thrilling! I get to watch you tear s*** up! Death Rose thought.

Rose was flying in the air, almost reaching Fisher Village. She could see it a few hundred metres away from herself, getting ready to **** s*** up.

See! Death Rose thought. You do want to do it!

Rose never mentioned a word. Instead, she was trying to search for the dark nest. All she saw were houses with arced roofs. And fragments of my memories. I wonder if my journal's still here or not.

She flew to the heart of the village, then looked into the horizon behind her. She couldn't even see the jeeps on the horizon yet. Yet, Rose. The keyword is yet, Death Rose thought.

Okay, I know. Thanks for the information.

Are you always this grateful?

Hey, you're the one who talked first. Rose waited a moment. Good. Don't ******* talk.

She looked down at the village, but could only see houses. She wanted to descend further down, but she was instructed not to engage the monsters. It was Exen, wasn't it? She didn't understand why. I can fight. S***, I could've said that.

About an hour ago, Rose, Henry and the beast were in the yard, all sitting on the concrete ground. Ebonos was standing all the way back, obviously trying to avoid them. Henry was the only person that he could consider a friend, or an acquaintance. There were other soldiers too, but Rose considered them cannon fodder. They'll probably die when they try to kill the dark monsters.

"Okay," Exen spoke aloud. "This mission should be simple. You all, except Rose, will get in jeeps, ride over to Fisher Village and kill those sumb******. Rose, on the other hand, you will get there first and scout out. Don't do anything until we get there. Capish?"

There was a nod from each soldier except Rose and the beast. She was dissatisfied with the plan, the beast more so.

"What about me?" the beast asked.

Exen stared at it for a few seconds with a tilted head. His lips curled a little and his eyes were glazing. Then he jerked up, his back as straight as his hair. "Okay, turns out this ain't so simple after all." Exen sounds like a freakin' American. "As you all know, we have a dark monster here. Which means it can call the sun out at anytime. You guys know what happens after that, right?"

The soldiers nodded. Well, most of them.

"So, this is what we're gonna do. Five men, come on up."

A few moments later, five cannon fodder men stood beside Exen.

"Okay," Exen said. "Seize the beast."

"What?!" The beast shouted. The five men were already sprinting towards the beast. Rose stepped in front and sent her hand forward, sending a force wave that stopped the soldiers in their tracks. Then she made chains around the five soldiers, linked their ankles together and stuck the ends of the chain into the floor. The soldiers tried to move, but with vain.

"What the ****, Exen?! Weren't you his friend?" Rose shouted. "Kogh can-"

"Summon the sun at any time if it so chooses," Exen said. "We don't want our enemies to overpower us, do we?" Great, now he sounds like a smug a******. "And yes, I appreciate its company, but you must understand that I'm doing this for a good reason. It-"

"Exen." Commence the interruption war. "He is not an it. He is Kogh, 'capish'?!"

"It, he, she. It doesn't matter. What matters is destroying the dark nest. Then the death nest, which isn't even located yet. I understand that you know Henry some time ago. That doesn't mean you get to boss me around and tell me whatever the **** you want. I'm doing this for East, hell, I'm doing this for the ******* world, okay? Now, stop-"

"Then don't do anything to Kogh. He can control himself just fine. If he ever calls out the sun, I'll make it useless."

"What do you mean?" Exen asked. He was already leaning slightly forward, eager to know.

"You'll find out if Kogh does that. And okay, we'll go with your bad plan. Sounds good?"

Exen sighed, deeply. Then he waved his hand around to get their arses moving. After almost every men got into his jeep, Exen finally moved, and got the beast and Henry to share the same jeep as him. Rose was in the air, preparing to go; she checked whether she could conjure her blade, create fire, and push things around. The men at the front-most gasped as she boosted away.

******* plan's still bad, though, Rose thought.

Well, what else would you do? Lure the dark mother out? Bomb Fisher Village?

Maybe. Or maybe not. Bombing the village sounds good.

I don't think we have the explosives-

I do, silly. Remember when I destroyed that city?

Death Rose made her head nod for a moment, then Rose reassumed control.

What the hell was that for?!

Then Death Rose sat in the corner with a dunce cap again.

She breathed out, and lowered herself slowly to the ground. As she reached fifty metres above the ground, she entered the dark lair. She saw the dark mother looking down at its babies; its monsters of darkness. There were a lot of types of monsters. It's as though the mother had the freakin' time and creativity to make all these. Good on you, dark mother. You have the brains of a five-year-old peanut. All in all, these still look like grey jelly noodles.

Before the dark mother noticed and looked up, Rose was already out of the dark lair's bubble. She laid a force platform in the air, say on it, and played with a small stream of fire. It looked bright and lively in her eyes, dancing in the confined space she had made for it before it ran out of oxygen.

Hah, Death Rose thought. Remember when you burned Kogh?

Anger rose in her. ******* PUNS! And you, shut the hell up. I don't want you to talk about Kogh. Clear?

Alright. Dunce cap.

Her hand were still shaking, so she waited for them to stop. Then she continued to create beautiful flames, although she was still irritated with Death Rose. After a few minutes of attempting to create the perfect space (actually isolating the flame in place without trapping oxygen), she gave up and crossed her legs. She looked at the horizon and finally saw the second jeep appearing. The guys in the first jeep are probably still shocked. Poor cannon fodder.

It would probably take an hour or two for them to arrive.

Wait, why not I carry them over here? She then thought fora moment. She didn't have to worry about stamina anymore. Using force didn't consume as much energy as before. Or maybe I'm already stronger than before. But then again, Exen said to wait for me-

**** Exen. We can take the boss alone.

We? What do you mean, we?

I take over until it's dead. Good plan? Great plan.

Rose shook her head. If someone were to see her do it, she would be thought as random or crazy. No. You know what happened the last time you took over? Plus, you're starting to sound like Exen.

Dunce cap, then. But don't blame me if it cuts your head off and swallows it like a pea.

I won't. After all, you're me-

And I'm you.

Rose wouldn't know if Death Rose was quiet for good. But she knew that she would take over if her life was in danger. No, when my life's in danger.

She decided that she would wait on them. Instead of making more flames, she chose to move around the village. Maybe I'll be able to find my journal. She simply moved the force platform underneath her and felt her long untied hair fly in the winds. She asked herself why she didn't bother tying her hair. She waited for Death Rose's answer, but she didn't reply. She shrugged and sat, looking below and glancing at the roofs. How the hell do they have time to make all of those? Death Rose still didn't reply. Well, I guess East must have spent a butt load of time too.

She then decided to take a nap. That's a lot of deciding. Death Rose didn't reply, as expected. She made a sleeping bag and slipped herself inside it. When she woke up, the jeeps were only a few hundred metres away. Good. She returned to the center and dipped herself into the dark lair and checked for any activity. Only thing worth noting is the birthing around here. Gross.

The mother was sitting, as usual, but out of her butt came a new monster of darkness. This happened about every thirty seconds. This also made Rose question the Darkness virus.

So are they humans or not? I suppose not. I hope not. Maybe the virus CAN replicate itselfquickly. But they can only do that in the sunlight. So where is the sunlight?

She was thinking long enough for a few dark monsters to notice her. They growled at her, struggling to choose whether to warn the dark mother or attack her. ******* stop with the choosing and s***. Jesus.

Apparently, Jesus chose for the dark monsters. They warned the dark mother instead. It looked up, and roared at her.

Then the sun came up.

Death Rose, how the hell do you call for that black sun?

She still didn't answer.

C'mon! I need you now!

The dark monsters were starting to wake up. No doubt they were woken up by the sun, not the mother. Some moaned and some made screeching sounds as they yawned. Some lightly fought among one another until they were fully awake. The ones nereast to the mother pulled at her skin, tearing it apart, but the mother didn't flinch whatsoever. The sunlight helped heal the wounds in seconds. The sight of it all was lovely to see and frightening in Rose's situation.

Instead of retreating, she stared at them, waiting for the mother to pull her in with force.

Why am I not running?

There was something about the aura here that made her stay, though Rose wasn't aware of it. Even the thought of getting away was starting to hurt her head. More awoke and even more were growling at Rose. The mother raised its long arms and slowly wrapped Rose with hands, squeezing the life out of her. She didn't retaliate, because she couldn't.

GET THE **** OUT HERE, YOU B****!

About time.

Rose lost all control to her body immediately. Now she sat back and watched Death Rose handle the situation with her mental fists clenched.

And Death Rose just waited. Her throat was gradually tightened, and her eyes looked like they were going to explode in a firework of blue.

DO SOMETHING! Rose shouted.

She didn't do anything, but something else did something. The mother's arms were sliced off like ham. They dropped together with Death Rose still trapped inside its hands. Kogh had arrived.

Oh, well. I had hoped that I would wait until before being squeezed to death. You know that adrenaline it gives, don't ya'? Also, gives the mother a handicap. Win-win situation.

What? First, you're worried about death, and now you're not? Make up your ******* mind already.

You know me.

Kogh the beast had a few blades running about, cutting up the mother and killing some of its spawn, Kogh's kind. The mother turned around to look at him as he made gashes at its sides.

Kogh looks like a bada** mother******, Death Rose thought.

Rose slightly nodded her head.

Kogh now ran towards the mother as the blades automatically dealt with the leftover spawns, which isn't saying much since there are so many of them.

Shut up, Rose.

Death Rose broke the grip of the hands with her own. She then shouted out to Kogh.

"When do you want the black sun?!"

The beast just bit and swallowed a small piece of flesh from the mother.

"Now!"

And she roared.

Death Rose, Rose thought. Your screeching is horrible.

Was that a screech?

Yes, it was.

I had Warframe to play. Sorry I didn’t post last weekend.

Chapter 95 - Screw the Rules

I suppose it’s time for my sister to fall.

The mother of death stood in front of a city, waiting.

It was a creature much smaller than its other two sisters. It was only almost two times the height of a human, but its width remains the same. It had freakishly long legs, a short torso and a head that looked similar to a human’s. It didn’t remember how it became like this-

It shook its head. I do remember. Almost a century ago.

Most of the virus had already consumed half of its brain, but the other half remembered its past. It was a teenager living in a village. How very clichéd. It didn’t remember every detail, but it did remember how she died on her deathbed, and rose and massacred the whole village with its two hands. Bladed ones. After that, memories were blurry. It had killed, devoured, tore apart and manipulated other living things.

Its name, ‘mother’, wasn’t so accurate, but it had taken the name into its own. It was the mother because it was the strongest, not because it bred monsters of death. For its other two sisters, they were powerful and could breed.

I AM the most powerful, after all. Unless the sun is up.

The mother did notice that a particular creature could make the sun blacker, besides her best minion, but it didn’t know where it was. It wanted to meet it, and enslave it for its summoning power.

But how would I enslave it?

“Mother,” one of its minions said. It was a superior minion compared to others. A colonel, if you would call it that. “When do we attack?”

The colonel had two arms and was a two-legged creature like the mother, but that was where the similarities end. It was much bigger than the mother was, almost five times its width and two times its height. With size comes a penalty of speed, of course.

The mother raised its hand to its disfigured chin and stroked at it. It was its favourite gesture, but it didn’t know why. It did remember that its teenager-self had done it too many times that she would call it more than a habit. “A job,” the teenager had said to herself. Stroking its chin would, in its own mind, make it smarter and wiser in warfare tactics.

Bugger tactics. They always die despite what I do.

It knew what type of weaknesses and strengths its monsters had. It tried to position a select group to attack a certain tower or so, but all they did was that they ran to where most humans pooled. Granted, they would kill the lot of them, but they would’ve died later if they actually followed the mother’s commands. Every attack she led, her minions would die quickly, but leave a city or a town half-destroyed. If they were lucky, the raiders would die together with the raided.

Maybe this time, some will survive. I hope.

Sometimes, the mother would attack alongside her minions. It would almost always end in it being severely injured. Injury, it could handle. But injury while being chased by a group of vengeance-seeking humans? That is harder.

“We’ll wait,” the mother said. “My best is scouting out. By scouting out, I mean destroying the city all by itself, then dying halfway. But I have trust.”

“What’s trust worth when he’s not doing what you’ve asked for?”

The mother smiled. “Be patient, my child. Soon, you’ll get your own part of the share.”

The colonel nodded, but it looked more like someone smacking its head from the back. It walked off to its fellow brothers.

The mother stood watching the city, trying to locate its scout and hoping it wouldn’t do what the mother had guessed.

Then the mother picked up a roar from afar, and the sun turned dark.

It turned to her minions, shouted at them to stand up and looked at the city.

“What did you do?” the mother mouthed.

It put its hand up and waved at them to move forward, but slowly. It led the horde of its minions in a slow march towards the city’s supposed impending doom. The colonel and its scout were the only ones that the mother could trust. They are the strongest and most loyal, after all. During the few hours of marching, the monsters had only breathed, moaned, growled and walked. There were no complaints, and the mother liked that.

My previous horde was much worse. They whined like dark monsters.

The three sisters had been friends. The mother would sometimes visit the dark mother in their early years. They would sit and stare at each other for a month or so, time passing by too quickly. What the mother hated about the place was the corrupt monsters that lay around their feet. They whined too loudly and for too long. Oftentimes the mother would be taken for a dark monster because of its size, and those who were fooled would attack and wrestle with it. The mother didn’t mind, until the next decade, where it finally ripped a baby of darkness in two. The dark mother had roared, but at those times, it didn’t develop sun summoning yet. The mother would fume and leave the place, its sister screaming and crying at the same time. But never speaking. Only the mother of death could speak. Not the others.

Its other sister had been like the dark mother too, but the mother was never disturbed by monsters, but it never saw them. The corrupt nest only contained husks for humans. The corrupt monsters were outside, hunting for pleasure. When the corrupt sister had heard from the dark sister, it had started to antagonise the mother too.

And apparently their babies as well.

How they had communicated, the mother had no idea.

The mother could finally see a little more detail about the city. There were soldiers at the walls, lots of people in the center, buildings all over, and..

..five soldiers about to slaughter its scout. And a dark monster.

No way. Not when the sun’s up.

The scout retreated back, shooting its shells in an attempt to slow them down. The dark monster was advancing more aggressively than the mother thought. The shells shot missed everyone. They were constantly dodging as though they had the quickest reflexes in the universe.

“My child!” the mother shouted, its voice full of authority. “To me!”

Its shout made the six stop and move back a few times, before they bolted off back to their city.

That’s it.

The scout was wounded all over when it reached the mother. The mother knelt down and wrapped its arms around it.

Still trying to post weekly. Been busy. Maybe the next weekend, I can update. Who knows?

Chapter 96 - Screw the Rules

Oh s***! Oh s***! Oh s***!

Avus was cursing in his mind the whole time as the six of them ran back to the city. Nice was in front with his rocket launcher, frowning with confusion.

“Avus, what the hell happened out there?”

He had to catch a few breaths first.

“An army..” He inhaled. “Of deadies.”

“Deadies?” Mean asked. To Avus’ surprise, his accent wasn’t present.

He nodded. “Monsters of death. I saw hundreds of them. With this bloody sun here, we can’t take them on. We have to evacuate the townspeople. At least no one’s dying-“

Nice interrupted. “Everyone’ll die starving. This city has all the food that could last them a lifetime. You want us to leave the city?”

“You want us to die with teeth in our necks?!” Avus shouted. There was a moment of silence before Nice swirled around and walked away, back to the armoury to probably s*** in his toilet bowl while thinking.

Avus looked back at the opposite direction, and eyed the mother of death still hugging its child. They were like dark specks under the blackened sun. The soldiers didn’t speak until Nice came back with his rocket launcher. Avus stared at the horizon, the army just peeking out of hills. The longer he stared at them, the more frightened he became. His heart started to ache so badly that, when he looked away and breathed like a nervous drummer who couldn’t keep time, his hand went to his chest and gripped at the flesh of the chest.

“Avus,” Nice said as he set the rocket launcher down and leaned on it. “We’ll evacuate them. But soldiers must stay and fight. You’re a civilian, I understand. Would you still want to fight?”

Clarissa was the first thing that came to his mind. He didn’t know what to choose; to fight and most likely die, or leave with her and let other people die as well.

Well, one person wouldn’t make any difference. And why in the bloody hell do I care about other people?/i]

And yet, he found himself saying yes.

Nice smiled at him, his eyes giving him a grateful look before he turned around to look at the hills.

“Alright, men,” Nice said. “We need five evacuating the city. The rest will fight, and die if we need to. George, you’re in for the fight.”

Mean didn’t say anything.

Five were chosen, and they were sent off. Among others destined to die were Perry, nicknamed Perr, John..

[i]C’mon, we’re all going to die. Skip the intro.

The soldiers were ready. Avus had his wings spread and his bone blades out of his wrists. He made sure they were the sturdiest they could be; he adjusted the width and length of them so that there would be a sweet spot between sharpness and sturdiness. He was paying so much attention to it that he realised the monsters of death weren’t charging at them now. Avus could tell, but he didn’t know why.

“Want me to look in on it?” Avus said. The whole group of soldiers turned around and looked at him. He could feel eyes feasting upon his monstrous skin when Nice answered. “Like before? Sure. Just don’t make sure to turn to another monster.”

There were a few giggles from the soldiers before Avus moved. He could still feel the feasting eyes when he had already walked for five minutes. Then he thought, would it be better to fly or walk?

He flapped his wings and found it too energy-consuming. Plus, I’m only good at vertical flight. The whole time he was walking, he was remembering how he had walked with Clarissa to the city. The time he took to reach the hills was the same with that. Five hundred million years. He smiled. He imagined holding Clarissa’s hand as he got closer to the hills.

Then he saw the mother of death. The one who talks. It was standing at the top of the hill, staring at Avus. Now the feasting eye feeling was back.

“Why are you here, my sister’s child?” the mother asked. Her voice was only ever slightly higher than Clarissa’s. The difference was that it could speak much louder than she could.

“First, I’m not your child.”

“I didn’t mean that. I meant my sister’s child. I have two other sisters. One of corruption and one of darkness. The one of corruption is dead. And now, I feel the life of the dark one fading away.”

“I don’t have a mother.” Well, I do, but.. “I became like this through a bite. One of your sister’s child’s bite.”

“Then I apologise-“

Avus let out a burst of laughter.

“You can apologise?!” He laughed for a while, stealing some patience from the mother. “I’d love to see you apologise to the dead once the city’s destroyed! ‘Oh, hey! I’m sorry for killing you, your family, destroying your city and all.’ No! ‘I apologise’.”

“Listen, you-!”

“Why?” Avus had a smirk on his face. “I’m going to be dead anyway.”

“Maybe,” the mother said. “If you keep on humiliating me.”

“Actually, no. I won’t be dead. I’ll be living in another body. But what about you? Can you die?”

“What does this have to do with-“

“It has everything to do with you.” Avus’s tone shifted to a serious one. “With the lives you’re going to take, someone will avenge them. Whether it’d be killing you or your children, he or she would be happy to do it. In fact, that person could even masturbate to your dead corpse.”

The mother didn’t reply. I think you know what that means.

“We are going down,” Avus said. “But there’ll be a whole lot of dead deadies where we’re coming from.”

“Deadies?” the mother asked.

“That’s what I decided to call you things. Deadies.”

The mother stepped in front. “Don’t you bloody dare call us things! Or deadies for that matter!”

“Oh, hey. You speak my bloody language.”

“Child,” the mother said. Avus ignored it. “I know you’ve come here to beg us for mercy. But my children here are thirsty for destruction. What can I do other than to tend to their needs? You aren’t getting your mercy. Of course, you understand me, don’t you, child?”

The mother could see the anger all over Avus’s face.

“I don’t, you ******* putrid monster.”

Sorry, I had a ton of homework to do.

Chapter 97 - Screw the Rules

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Way too many ‘O’s.

No. It’s enough for me.

And way too many exclamation marks.

No. It’s enough for me.

Will you stop repeating that?

No. Death Rose smiled.

Death Rose was a machine delivering death to every living enemy around her. If she had a job like that, and she had a dollar for every kill, she would be a ******* millionaire.

Kogh was also helping out, but he was limited to clawing and biting. He killed, but he would make a poor death machine to the imaginary company. Even Henry did better with his blast gun than Kogh. Even the cannon fodder did better than Kogh. Even Ebonos did better than Kogh-

Alright. We get the point.

Every kill Death Rose she got and stole from her allies invigorated her, empowering her grasp on the force. Hah. Hah. Not really. It just feels great. The dark mother only screamed, flailing its arms as though that did anything. It actually did. It gave Death Rose a slight challenge to manoeuvre around and avoid them, but it didn’t stop her from serving death like a lone waiter in a packed restaurant doing all the work.

Death Rose, if you kill the dark mom, you kill the one that every dark monster depends on.

Yeah, sure. Just wait til’ they’re all dead, then we’ll go after the mom.

Somewhere in Rose’s mind, she facepalmed.

“Just kill the ******* mother already!” Kogh shouted as its claws ripped open a monster’s throat.

“Wait,” Death Rose said. “We need to kill every single one of these monsters first.”

“Why? The mother’s just right there!”

“Plot tension.”

Right at that moment, Kogh didn’t speak. It shook its head and proceeded to tear another throat apart with teeth this time.

The others didn’t bother asking why. Henry was too busy dealing with three monsters that were surrounding him. Ebonos was too scared to face one, and the cannon fodder was, well, doing what cannon fodders do. Rose was sitting at the corner of her mind, anxious and impatient. Very anxious and impatient. Very.

Hey, Death Rose thought. You called for me, didn’t you.

Yes. But I want you to be efficient, not to build up god**** plot tension. Finish this up quickly, no mess.

But there’s already mess around here. Look at them-

Please. Do it.

Death Rose rolled her eyes around and formed a bladed wheel. She threw it at the mother, and cut both its arms down. The screams were even louder, definitely deafening to Kogh and definitely annoying to Death Rose.

Okay, your Majesty.

She formed a sword, almost half as long as the longest blade she had made, and sent it down the mother, slicing it up cleanly in half. The screams were cut off, then there was a low, bubbly groaning noise as its throat bubbled with blue blood. The halves fell in opposite directions, crushing more than it would have if it kept its other half.

See, I’m efficient. And no plot tension.

Rose rolled her eyes.

Now, for the rest, Death Rose thought, and took a deep breath.

“Everyone, go away. I’m going to deal with them.”

Everyone obliged, especially Ebonos.

Death Rose raised four walls to trap the young‘uns inside, then she slowly moved two walls closer together, eventually squishing them.

Didn’t you say you were efficient?

Were, my dear Rose. Were.

The monsters that weren’t trapped were killed with energy pellets, and claws from Kogh.

Even that’s faster.

I told you. Plot tension. That ****’s good. Gives you the adrenaline, you know?

You don’t need adrenaline. You need me.

Who was the one that called me?

This time, Rose shut up, defeated.

So the whole team watched, as if it were a funeral for a king, as the two walls slowly crushed and mashed the living and dead into an inedible version of mashed potatoes. Well, I can eat them.

“Weird,” Kogh said.

“What’s weird?” Death Rose said.

“I thought this wouldn’t be an easy fight, even with you around. No, I don’t think the dark mother’s dead.”

Death Rose gave Kogh a frown. “Yeah, that sure wasn’t the dark mother I just sliced up in two. Yeah, Kogh.”

“That’s it,” Kogh said, despite detecting the sarcasm. “That wasn’t the dark mother. It’s just a bigger version of a dark monster. The dark mother’s out there. The one you sliced up was just a daughter giving birth to other monsters.”

Death Rose was silent for a while. Doesn’t it make the daughter the mother? What?

No, Rose thought. In this context, this ‘mother’ you killed isn’t the real one.

It still took Death Rose time to process. She let Rose take over her own body to gather her thoughts, which were essentially a copy of Rose’s thoughts, but in a twisted version.

Fresh air, Rose thought before she inhaled. Okay, no, Rose thought after she inhaled the already-decaying meat of the dark monsters.

Wait, they are still squished inside the walls. How can their smell come-

Never mind.

“Okay, Kogh,” Rose said as she lowered herself to Kogh’s side. “Any proof?”

“Proof? That mother didn’t put up much of a fight. It was more useful birthing than fighting. The only significance was the screaming. God, that was horrible. I hope the real mother doesn’t do that.”

“I hope so too,” Rose said. “But we’re straying, Kogh. If you say that isn’t the real one, where is it? Can you sense it?”

“What the hell do you think I am? A bloody radar? Yes, I can detect the mother coming right under us right now. It’s digging its way here using its mouth and it’s going to use its arms to grab us from underneath and flail us about like bloody ******* ragdolls and either eat us up or rip us up into two. Then it’s going back home where no one would bloody know. Sure, Rose, sure. ******* hell, you’re asking too much from me. Be your own radar, Rose. You can do that, right?”

Rose gave Kogh a very annoyed stare that made him laugh. It sounded like his human counterpart, and that made her smile as well.

And of course, Death Rose thought, taking over the narrator’s position. Her smile disappears as the ground opens up and gobbles them up down the hole, eventually leading to the real dark mother’s mouth. You’re welcome, narrator. And good night.

Chapter 98 - Screw the Rules

Anger clouded Avus’s mind. All he could think of were ways to get to the mother and kill it, whether it be slowly or quickly. I could have. Then why the bloody hell did I just walk away from it?!

He was still walking back, and he loathed himself for it.

Every step you make, you lessen your chances.

But he also knew that taking the mother on would mean his death, and Clarissa’s. The latter was more troubling to him than the former. He turned to look back, only to see that the mother had walked back to its camp, probably planning a ****storm.

He spread his wings on impulse and flew back to the city. Hey, hey. I’m improving, at least. It was only minutes ago when he found flying too tiresome, but it felt like thirty days ago.

In the air, he saw a whole flock of people moving out of the city from the back. Three quarters of them were panicking and packing as many things as possible; food, water, weapons, whatever Avus could name. Apparently not much. The last quarter was quietly walking, only slowed down by those panicking people who stood around as though Nice could solve the problem eventually. Avus hoped Clarissa was part of the last quarter.

“When are they coming?!”

Avus heard Nice’s voice from below. He stopped and descended, landing in front of him.

“I don’t know. When I left, I couldn’t see the leader anymore, though they might already be moving. Just slowly.”

“You ready?”

“Perhaps. We won’t know how ready we are until we start.”

Nice smiled before gathering every soldier available to fight, including men and women who could kill only if their lives depended on it. Avus let out a sad smile. Everyone’s life is at stake. It almost looked like a real army, if not for their clothes. There were colours of yellow, blue, red, black, white, purple and brown in their clothes, some T-shirts spouting logos and statements. One even said ‘FCUK’. Real original. They were all armed with blast guns and laser knives, save for a few soldiers who could operate the rocket launchers, including Nice. Avus was also armed with a blast gun. The new fighters were intimidated by Avus, until he explained the outline of the situation. Some of them still looked slightly scared. You better not be. You’re going to **** your pants when you see the whole bloody army.

“Alright,” Avus said, as he turned to the soldiers and newcomers, both experienced and inexperienced, and all of them fated to die. “You stay here. Let them come to you. I’m going there to pick out a few of them.”

There were no objections.

Then he flew up and saw at least ten thousand of them.

We only have a few hundred here. How are we going to..

We have to run. Oh, s***. We have to run.

He descended and made the people put on confused faces.

“We have to run,” Avus said.

There was a moment of silence, looks on people’s faces and staring into one another. Then Nice spoke up.

“You said to fight and hold them off until every single soul escapes the city.” His tone scared Avus. What was even scarier were his slanted eyes of wrath.

“Trust me,” Avus said, swallowing his fear. “I saw at least ten thousand of them. You don’t want to face even one of them when the bloody dark sun is up.”

Avus saw a few people moving to get out of here. They turned and left with their blast guns, basically stealing weapons. Avus didn’t blame them. Not at all. Though at least two hundred stayed.

Great, less people.

“See, some of them are leaving. We need to leave. I can buy us some time.”

“Shut the hell up, Avus,” Nice shouted, his eyes still intact. “They already know they’re going to die. Isn’t that why they came in the first place?”

“Why in the bloody hell would you waste it, then?!” Avus shouted. His eyes were suddenly tearing up. Why? His past lives were the reason. “You’ve got a whole life ahead of you, ******* dip*****!” Avus now directed his voice to the crowd. “Even if the bloody monsters were outnumbered, you’d have no chance! Get up and go! I’ll buy you time!”

He flew up and went as fast as he could to avoid letting them hear his hiccups. Clarissa, I hope you find a safe place. Hah, who am I kidding? Even East isn’t safe. You’re screwed everywhere you go.

He only realised that he was holding onto his new blast gun when he was in talking distance with the mother. Apparently, you’re leading. The mother would’ve raised its eyebrow if it had one. Or two.

“My child-“

“I am not your bloody child,” Avus interrupted as he landed.

“Why are you here? Maybe because you want to kill me? Of course you do. The look on your face before you left was priceless. Welcome back. I look forward to our conversation.” The arrogance and sarcasm was already making Avus irritated.

Voluntary time wasting?

He stood there for a moment, wondering what he should and shouldn’t say. Even when I’m angry, it would still talk to me. That’s okay. Though it hates name calling, being called out. And sarcasm. He nodded.

“What was that for?” The mother asked.

“What?”

“You nodded your head.”

“No,” Avus said, shaking his head.

“I saw you do that.”

“What do you mean?”

“Stop wasting my time. Admit it.”

“Admit what?” Going well so far.

“You nodded your head.”

“Um..”

The mother raised its hand to its temple and rubbed it.

“You know, you almost look human. Mind you, I’m not one myself.”

“Well, I was human,” the mother said, forgetting Avus’s nod. “I was like you back then-“

“No. Looking at you now, I highly doubt so-“

“Would you please quiet down? It’s rude to interrupt.”

“Says the one who did it.”

“DON’T YOU DARE DEFY ME!” the mother shouted.

“Appeal to authority fallacy. Give me a reason not to defy you, then.”

“This is why.”

There was a sound of two blades lightly brushing each other and a stab of pain from his back. He looked down at the blade now protruding from his stomach. Bloody hell, not that word again! His vision started to blur, but he still stood. He gripped the blade like an old man would a cane, and bloodied his hands, then flicked the blood off towards the mother. The spray of blood painted its face. Avus smiled.

“Say,” Avus said as his conscious slowly faded. “You look like an uglier version of Mona Lisa. And no, this still isn’t a valid reason.”

Before he died his fourth death, the mother was screaming at a high pitch.

Oh my god. 3-and-a-half weeks. I’m sorry. Been busy.

Chapter 99 - Screw the Rules

“Mother, you don’t have to shout. He’s dead. He won’t humiliate you ever again.”

Its face was screwed up emotion-wise, and painted blue. Some blue dots were sliding down its face, some still stuck. The mother of death was still fidgeting with anger as the poor child lay before it. The colonel was looming over the mother, its shadow blanketing its thin figure. It went over to the colonel and hugged it, like a mother would.

“You know,” the mother said, its arms only ever reaching three-quarters of its waist. “This child you killed could have been ours. He looked quite the handsome one, and a smart one too. I’d only wished you’d kill him later.”

“Mother, what are you on about?”

“Well, I’m saying that you should track him down.”

“He’s right there. I killed him.”

Bloody idiot.

“The child said that he can’t die. I don’t believe him, but just in case-“

“Just in case, what?” the colonel said, pushing the mother away from itself. “You send me to wherever the s*** he might be, and that’s if he’s alive, and bring him back, unscathed?”

“No,” the mother said. “Think of this as.. As an opportunity. You get to go wherever you want, as you see fit. See the wonders of the world. The cities, towns, villages. You get to destroy them all, like how you wanted to. I just want you to come back with him. That’s all. Will you do it?”

That’s it. That’s my best motherly voice.

The colonel looked at it for a while before agreeing.

“I know you want him badly. So it’s for you, mother.”

The mother smiled, and saw its favourite colonel turn around and walk away.

Good. At least you don’t have to die now.

Then the mother frowned. Not even going to say goodbye to your brothers? It shrugged and turned to its children. They were walking to the city with heads looking at the desolate ground. They already knew they were going to die. For my selfish reason. A small part of it wanted to stop this at once. But it was only a small part. The rest of it wanted the world to burn without me inside, of course, and hear people scream. But for what? Pleasure doesn’t make sense but I still want it. Sleep doesn’t make sense but people still need it.

It walked parallel to the army. It had no mood to lead. It let the other colonel take the lead.

It looked at the city five minutes later, and saw hundreds of people standing vigilantly, hands and arms close together and blast guns ready to be aimed and fired. Hundreds versus a few thousand is nothing. It looked closer and saw a different weapon. Possibly explosive. It was bulkier and bigger than a blast gun. That thing? More like to kill its own than kill mine.

At the other end of the city, it saw the city’s residents migrating out. They were too far to be reached within a day of walking. What about a day of running? It could force its children to do that, but it let go of the thought.

Then a shot was fired.

That sentence. Narrator, a word of advice. Never say that again.

Then a barrage of gunshots were fired as well.

That too.

The army that the mother had assembled over the months slowly got injured to the point of being crippled. Odd. They aren’t getting healed as fast as I expected. What in the bloody hell is going on?

The mother ran and went on ahead of the army. It readied its arms as a sort of branch-like rapier. Eventually, a few spotted it and fired. And of course, like all cannon fodder, they miss like medieval crossbowmen. The mother slightly shook its head as it got closer. More noticed, and more bullets missed, until one of the men holding the bulky gun fired it. A projectile was shot out and headed right for the mother.

The mother jumped and ditched its branched weapon, instead shaping its arms into wings. The projectile landed and exploded on the ground, cracking up the already-cracked ground. One of the cannon fodder finally shot and hit one of its wings. The pain bloomed at that spot as the mother tried to steer itself towards the crowd. Why the hell did I fly in the first place?!

Bullets scraped its wings, and more went right through them.

“Alright, that’s it!” the mother screamed. The soldiers stopped firing for a moment before continuing to fire again.

The mother shaped itself into a very small and dense ball and fell. It ignored the pain, but ignoring the pain was like ignoring the big fat pink elephant in the room that was jumping around and shooting water at you right out of its trunk in a very tight room. It was over when it landed on a man’s head, crushing his skull and everything inside it to bits. It quickly expanded itself to a circle with bladed edges and shaped a leg underneath like a tip of a top and started spinning around, slicing away at multiple soldiers. Eventually, most of them smartened up, got away and started shooting at it. The attention was on the mother now.

Good, let my children come.

When this circle tactic became useless, it jumped up and went back to its normal form, except with two big hammer heads at the end of its arms, and smashed at least four soldiers in the crowd into pulp.

“Honestly,” the mother said to the soldiers who were drowning out her voice with gunshots. “This bloody act is boring.” Since the dense ball, the mother had acknowledged the annoying pink elephant and it shrank to a tiny piranha that kept its cute teeth on the mother. It was still an annoyance, but it was far less of an obstacle now.

The hammer heads turned into long sawblades and was swung around, splitting them in two horizontally. Vertically would’ve been fun.

It briefly looked at the army and smiled as its other colonel tore the man with the bulky weapon in half.

Starting from next chapter, there will be NO dialogue. It’s been fun these few months.

Chapter 100 - Screw the Rules

She woke up in her fifth body, and laughed.

“Man, did you see that b****’s face?!” Avus shouted as she laughed.

And from there, at the same time Avus realised her voice was a female’s, a crowd gasped like in a typical sitcom.

“What the bloody ****?!” She got up from her coffin and looked at the gathering of people in front of her. The chairs they sat on were wooden, the floor was cemented, and in the middle was a red carpet separating two halves of the chairs apart. There were heavy red curtains covering the walls, and at the entrance stood a pair of vases holding two bouquets of flowers, all of which were red. Seems to be a lot of red here. Everyone here was wearing red dresses, shirts, pants, shoes, socks, fancy gloves, glasses and hats, or at least a shade of red. Avus eyed a particular woman who wore a black watch. She looked down at what she wore, a red dress paired with red high heel shoes. She frowned and looked back at her coffin, a red coffin, no doubt, but it was the reddest part of the funeral room. Almost like blood.

No one talked or moved about; only their eyes were moving slightly to process the miracle that was Avus. What Avus was processing was something different.

My name’s Carmine. I was raised in East. My years there were mediocre at best. The first time my conscious mind looked at my parents with my childish eyes, the first time I rode a bicycle and scraped my knee, the first time I went to school, the first time I went to a funeral of a relative (nothing as red as my funeral); all those first times were what a child would experience. The only unique first time would be when my family and I had to move to Wonderland. I didn’t know why I had to move, but I didn’t question it. The journey there was on foot; we had to eat as little food as possible, though they prioritised feeding me. It took about six days (I didn’t count) to reach the city. And what we got when we reached was death. My father was shot in the chest three times and in his penis one time (I counted this time and I knew the word that time). My mother was shot in the head two times; even after getting shot, they shot her in the chest four more times before I was shot in the foot one time. I screamed and the gunfire stopped. A middle-aged man and woman came out from the gate of the city and hugged me, as though comforting me would work when the trauma, so huge that only a gun fired at my head could slightly shrink it, ate away at my mind. The man hoisted me up to his shoulders and abducted me from my parents. That made up my childhood.

I had a vastly different teenage life from normal teenagers. My ‘family’ always went to the cemetery every week. We always dressed in red when we went there. My ‘dad’ said that it was a type of respect the colour red would give. The other two primary colours, yellow and blue, gave off a different kind of respect; those colours would be worn when celebrating a major achievement. My memories of the other colours would blur because they weren’t used as much. I’ve never seen the colour black being used before. The ‘family’ that abducted me caused me to have depression. They never talked about my dead ‘fake’ parents, except when they needed to remind me that they were the real ones.

Avus looked at her own wrists, and saw two rows of scars across both her arms.

During my late teenage years until my mid-twenties, I cut myself to cope with this unknown feeling I had. I couldn’t stop it, but at least the pain alleviated it quite a bit. At the end of my life, I lost too much blood. I didn’t know what happened after.

I do, Avus thought.

It was weird for Avus when she knew more of Carmine than of George.

I didn’t think as much back then... but...

A familiar middle-aged man walked up to her left, grabbed her by the arm and asked, “Carmine, is that you?”

She slowly looked at her father. You wrinkly old piece of bloody dogs***.

“No,” Avus said. “I’m not Carmine. I’m..”

I need a different name.

“I’m Vussia.”

Didn’t sound bad.

She wrenched her father’s grip off of her and walked down the red carpet and out the funeral room. No one talked or moved about; only their eyes were moving slightly to process the miracle that was Vussia.

She took in the sights of Wonderland. The boring buildings, the boring cars, the boring floor, the boring lamps, the boring everything. It almost looks like East.

She chuckled at how the city she imagined and wanted to build looked like this boring s***hole.

She realised that she didn’t have a plan. She didn’t know how to get out of Wonderland, let alone even surviving outside the city once she did get past that point. She didn’t have a weapon nor did she have a supply of food and water. She didn’t know how life would work as a woman; she didn’t know how she could handle..

The period.

Her eyes widened at that prospect. But they lowered when she found out that she didn’t know how to find Clarissa.

Oh, no. Clarissa..

She didn’t and wouldn’t know how to confront her even if it was Vussia’s life.

Rephrase that. I can’t die.

She didn’t and wouldn’t know how to confront her even if it was Clarissa’s life.

It sounded better and worse for her.

She started to sob. She wiped the tears away to find a better place for her to cry in. An alley is good. She crossed the boring street in front of her and walked into the boring alley and cried like a boring woman.

Chapter 101 - Why Does Death Always **** Things Up?

Rose wondered where she was when she woke up in the middle of darkness. She made a column of fire and lit the whole cavern she was in.

Stalagmites. What..?

The now-revealed cavern had a floor of rock and dirt, its walls expanding out and converging at the end like a lightbulb except it had a spiky and bloody filament with men and women pierced through it. Some of the cannon fodder had their stomachs stabbed; some hung there with their head in between the stalagmites; some had their anuses pierced right up to their throats. Some survived, but had broken bones. They couldn’t either move their legs, move their arms or move at all. Among them was-

Henry?!

She boosted towards Henry, knocking over empty and manned stalagmites alike. The look on Rose’s face would’ve made Kogh laugh if it weren’t in context. Henry’s face was bloodied and dirtied with small chunks of rock. His right eye swelled a bit and his bloody mouth was fidgeting, whether to be in extreme pain and say something or not to talk at all. He coughed up a slime of blood mixed with mucous when she noticed a sharp rock stuck in his throat. He was breathing so hard that it looked almost like Henry could heave a truck with his back. His eyes looked up at Rose and smiled.

The **** are you crying for? thought Death Rose.

Am I? Rose felt her tears with her hands and wiped them on her force-made shirt.

Henry looks like a b****. He should probably get some makeup.

Rose didn’t say anything. She watched Henry slowly die from choking on thick blood. His blast gun lay a few metres away from him, but did it kill your problems, Henry? You have a bloody rock up your throat. Did you finally get what you wished? I hope you did. She wanted to do everything she could, but her force powers were made for killing, not for healing. All she could do was crush things to a small cube, make fire and blades. When Henry’s chin fell to the ground, Rose sobbed, and then cried on Henry’s back for a few minutes. Suddenly, those memories with Henry that she’d forgotten came back. It left a very, very bitter taste to her tongue. It tasted like a kilogramme of unsweetened cocoa in her mouth and she was forced to swallow it whole.

Death Rose was unimpressed, bored and ultimately ******* bored.

It seemed like an hour until she felt a blanket of force wash over her, giving her comfort and a sense that someone was with her this whole time. She turned and saw Kogh walking to her and nuzzling her wet left cheek. She went from the dead Henry to the living Kogh, and wet his fur instead.

When she was done mourning, she looked over to Henry, turned him around and plucked the rock out of his throat. Blood leaked and ran down the side of his neck. She force pulled his blast gun to her hands and put it on his chest, wrapping his arms around the blast gun in a typical death scene fashion from the movies. Rose got up and looked around for those who weren’t cannon fodder.

General Exen was one of the men and women mounted on the stalagmite. Then why am I up not there? His stomach was exposed and a few centimetres of his small intestines lurked out from the wound. She imagined that Exen was struggling a lot when he landed. Rose couldn’t tell from his face if he was in intense pain or intense pleasure. She chose the former. Though, something in his eyes told her that he was horrified that his simple plan was falling apart. My plan fell apart too.

Ebonos was dead a few minutes after he touched the ground. He looked as though he were in an art exhibition. His body was laid out like a model, his right hand stretched out towards his blast gun a few metres away in a desperate attempt to die with his loved one, I guess. His face looked as if he was begging for mercy and release from his torturer. Apparently, no one granted him what he wanted, not even the non-existent torturer.

Rose.

Shut up.

Rose.

I said ******* shut up!

Rose!

Death Rose took control of her neck and turned it towards the mother of darkness. The real mother of darkness was quite big and fat. You need some salad and an extreme exercising routine, thought Death Rose. The mother was about three times bigger than its decoy mother. And twenty times fatter. It had fat arms and something that looked like its head. Rose couldn’t see any legs beneath the gigantic boulder of fat.

Rose hiccupped from the continuous crying as she stared at the mother with contempt. She clenched her teeth and formed a force cannonball in her hands, and then fired it at the roof above the mother. The mother thought it dodged it, seemed happy until the roof collapsed inwards. A few gigantic rocks bruised it, but most tiny ones scratched and made the mother bleed blue. Rose didn’t want that; she wanted the blackened sun’s light on the mother. She made two force blades of her own design and flew towards the mother. She moved up as its hand flew past her, almost slapping her away. She made another blade and sent it down at the arm, making it bleed blue. She sent the two force blades she conjured at the mother’s supposed head and spun them around each other and drilled its head. Before the blades got halfway through, she herself felt something drill through the back of her head. Like a tiny pencil.

She turned around. Kogh was controlling the tiny pencil.

Before the blade reached her brain, Death Rose took over and removed the blade inside her head. She quickly healed the wound herself before heading towards Kogh with vitriol. Oh, what a fancy word, Death Rose thought when she was about to kill Kogh.

Death Rose.

What?[i]

[i]Don’t kill him. Please.

Rose, you blind or what? You saw him trying to kill you.

Look at his eyes.

She looked at his eyes before her body was smashed together by the mother’s palms.

Chapter 102 - The First World Problems of a Mother of Death

The large group of soldiers slowly lessened to a small group of soldiers. They wielded the blast guns and held on to them as though they were their favourite instruments. A few held them like a guitar and others held them like a bass guitar. Don’t they mean the same thing? Almost everyone held them in a way.

Bloody elites.

The elites could aim and kill. The soldiers in question are just residents. The mother shrugged. Nonsense.

As it sliced off someone’s head, grabbed it for itself and started to eat, it watched its children getting slaughtered by the elites. The explosive weapon user wasn’t going to use the weapon. Instead, he was using his good old blast gun. He held his explosive gun on his left and the blast gun on his right. As he fired, the recoil would jerk his arm back more than other soldiers, but he had the strength to reposition and re-aim.

Red blood mixed with blue blood as the mother devoured a woman’s head. With each bite, it felt a tingly pleasure throughout its body, though it progressively lessened in intensity. It wasn’t eating its meal like other monsters; they would gobble up the flesh and left the scene. The mother would make a plate out of her own flesh and a knife in its right hand. It would hold the meal in place with its left hand and cut away at the head. Granted, the bone is quite hard but it’s the only problem. It ate like an old, rich and arrogant millionaire, treating the meal as though it was a lavish dinner, just with multiple parts of a human body.

A piece of bone got stuck between its teeth. Bloody hell. It reshaped its teeth and let the bone fall onto its tongue, then it swallowed it. It looked at its children again and coughed out a chunk of flesh. Almost an eighth of its children were gone, but the soldiers were forced to fall back to the city walls for height advantage. The mother saw one elite getting pulled into the mob by its colonel. He uttered a scream, but was cut off. It saw blood squirted out like a bloody octopus. It didn’t know where it came from.

Okay, after this pinkie. When it was done, it wiped off the blood off of its mouth and ran towards the elite group. It then jumped and turned into a flying disc with sharp ends. The group didn’t realise as the mother sliced off the explosive weapon user’s head. Just after the head left its body, the mother shot out a hand from under itself and grabbed the explosive weapon. It then focused its mass in its front and dived straight into the ground, digging its way under the city. It travelled far away enough to be sure it wasn’t going to get killed, then popped out of the ground. It burst out of a cemented floor apparently.

The place looked like a cosy home, a place that no more than three people could live in. It had a rug that the mother tore into half, normal windows, a normal door, a normal kitchen, a normal sofa and a television. The mother frowned as it looked at the block of plastics and metals. Why do I want to destroy it? It had no idea why, but instead of ripping it apart with its hands, it tried something else.

It looked at the weapon and its trigger, formed a hand and aimed it at the television.

Should work like-

The weapon pushed the mother back a few inches as it shot out a projectile. It just flew over to the television and knocked it off the normal table top. The mother dropped the weapon and approached the broken television like a soft little puppy, all slowly and steadily. It had a glimpse of the shell it had shot before it exploded right at its face.

It was thrown back towards a wall. It felt its face burning as its back splatted against the wall. Its hand quickly went for its face and hurt it even more.

Why in the bloody hell do I even feel pain?!

It went down and rummaged the floor for its weapon. When it found it, it dashed for the sunlight.

Aaah..

The pain was gone almost immediately. Its face healed from the burn, and was drilled in by a bullet. The bullet sent the mother falling to the ground and smacking her back again, this time against the ground.

Oh my God. Why now?

But the pain was gone again, almost immediately. It stayed where it was and looked straight at the one soldier who shot my ******* head. I’ll eat your head for this.

It got up and got shot down again. Suddenly, it lost its will to eat him.

Bugger it. Let him shoot. I won’t die anyway.

Then it looked at the blackened sun. The mother had time, though not much of it. Its weapon was in front of its right hand when the soldier kicked it away. It looked up at the soldier as his blast gun was pointed right at its face. Maybe I’ll pretend to-

As he pulled the trigger, the mother felt like a barrage of wasps were shot out of the barrel and into its face.

Three bloody times. Then another shot. Four. Then another one. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. I’ve lost the will to live.

It was at the tenth shot when it had enough. It shaped its right hand into a blade, raised it and extended it as quickly as it could at the soldier. It went through the chest as the eleventh shot was fired. Funnily enough for the mother, the soldier grabbed on to its hand as he tried to pull it off. The mother just extended it further. Now for a brutal execution. It produced blades right in his chest, essentially slicing off his body horizontally.

That is what I want to see! Now where’s my gun?

Chapter 103 - Vussia Gets the **** Out of Wonderland

When she was done, Vussia looked around in the alley. Luckily no one was there to see her cry. It was totally weird that she cried with a woman’s voice. She expected a man’s one instead. Plus, the way she cried was wrapping her hands all over her face as snot ran down her nose and tears down her eyes. Even when she was crying, she was conscious enough not to mix them up. Avus would’ve just let both of them mix out in the open. But this is Vussia. Avus would’ve just stood up and looked down, but Vussia would sit down, lean her back against the wall and cover her face with her hands and legs. Only Vussia did that. Only me.

After crying and regaining her thoughts, she regretted sitting on the ground. It was as though rats lived here for millions of years and had evolved to humanoid rats and still lived here. Some garbage bags were full and powerful with smell, but some were open, leaking out the trash within it like a branching river. The spot that Vussia sat on had a brownish black smudge on it. Even the wall shared that smudge.

Great. Red in front, s***-coloured at the back.

Only now did Vussia feel weird wearing high heeled shoes. When she crossed the street before, she didn’t notice the change. Maybe I did notice it, but too little. She carefully reached for one of her shoes but overbalanced and fell to the brownish black floor. Jesus Christ! She got up as fast as she could, dirtying her palms as she got up and dirtying her right foot as she stepped. She sighed, grabbed the other shoe and threw the pair away into one of the garbage rivers. She walked out to the entrance of the alley and turned her head from left to right, trying to find something or someplace to wash the bloody s*** off of my hands and feet. She finally saw a restaurant across the street when she walked a distance to the T-junction left of her. She scraped the s*** off of her feet with the edge of the pavement. At least it wouldn’t feel too sticky. She crossed the street, looked at the gigantic neon sign that looked like Chinese letters so Vussia didn’t have an idea what it meant (even Carmine didn’t know what it meant) and headed into the restaurant.

The restaurant was half red, a quarter white, an eighth yellow and another eighth green. There were windowpanes framed in painted red, a floor and ceiling that were marbled white with the exception of Vussia’s brown footprints, tables and chairs that varied in those four colours and two doors at the back painted red. She was interested in the other door. She took a huge breath and made sure she couldn’t skid and fall. How do I check that? Funnily enough, no one, not even the cashier and manager, was paying attention to her at all. She rubbed her feet across the floor and smeared the s*** like peanut butter on bread. Then she ran across the tables towards the washroom. This time, a few people looked but Vussia thought no one noticed her (when in fact, almost everyone noticed the stains on the floor).

The bathroom was compact as hell. The toilet bowl was so close to the sink that you could wash your hands while s*******. There was a bucket of water accompanied with a small pail floating on top of the water-filled bucket. Jeez. She took the small pail and slowly poured the water over her right foot and rubbed her foot. Oh my God, is there shampoo here?! She looked up at the sink. There it is. She dropped the pail back to the bucket and awkwardly hopped one step to grab the shampoo bottle. She squeezed out a large portion of its content and rubbed it all over her foot. She set the foot back down and did the same thing with the other foot and hands, then washed both feet and hands. When she was done, she was about to open the door when it smashed her square in the nose. She staggered back and her back hit the sink. She looked up and saw the manager asking her to go out. She timidly and repeatedly apologised before she went out. Then the seated customers were staring at her. Blood rushed up to her cheeks as she continued her way to the exit.

Huh.. It’s red blood, huh? I wonder how long til’ I get blue blood..

She stepped out and looked at the funeral site. There were police cars surrounding the site, with men and women outside, police and otherwise. Her face lit up when she saw a few of the police holding blast guns. She walked and spied on them, particularly on an isolated policeman leaning his back on the wall next to the alley. Why did they call the police? She got close enough to see what was happening, but far enough not to be noticed by them.

Maybe if I.. She made sure the police were facing the other way before she started running towards the lone policeman beside the alley. She slowed and stared at the man. He had a handsome face. Wait, I’m attracted to men now? How peculiar. She suddenly thought of Clarissa and her beautiful sad face. Took me a century to like men, but only a few days to love a woman. She giggled slightly at the fact that she was going to kill this handsome man. Man, I could’ve ****ed you. Oh, well. Then she made a run for it. She heard a shout from the policeman.

I guess this could work.

She turned around the corner of the building and ran along the walkway. She passed by the Humanoid Rat Alley and crossed the street without looking. She could hear the policeman shouting at her to stop. She spotted another alley and hoped to God that this alley wasn’t as s***stained as that alley.

Well, **** me. It isn’t!

The alley was cleaner than before. It was like the Humanoid Rat Alley but with much less garbage. The policeman was behind her, now threatening her to stop lest he fired his blast gun. Ooh, tough guy, eh? She still ran, and turned around the corner. She waited behind it until the footsteps were loud enough. When it was the right time, she sent a fist at the blank space and hit the blast gun instead. It stung her fist, but she ignored it. How do protagonists ignore pain? Bite their tongue and live with it? She did exactly that (not literally), and punched with her left fist, this time hitting his jaw. He let out a soft moan before falling to the ground, releasing the blast gun.

There you go!

She snatched it away from him and blasted his handsome face apart.

Chapter 104 - Death Rose Lives! “HAHAHA! Haha. Hah. Heh..”

It smells like s*** here.

There weren’t any smart answers.

I said, it smells like s*** here.

Still nothing.

Where the **** are you, Rose?

Death Rose got up from the ground, looked around and frowned.

Why am I naked? Too many times, man.

She looked at the mother of darkness right in front of her, fifty metres away or so. Its back was facing her, and it was probably a good time for Death Rose to attack, but she shook her head.

Not now. Need to get my s*** straight.

She looked at the Vlad spike death scene.

Henry still looks like a b****.

She turned back, stretched her whole body and looked at the sun. Thirty minutes left. It’ll be quick. She stared at the mother’s back, daydreaming and thinking of nothing in particular, even when she blinked her eyes. Then she snapped out of it, made a bra just to stop her breasts from moving around, and made two spears for her to wield. She closed one eye and aimed right at the mother’s head, then extended one spear towards it. As it went through the mother, it screamed and turned around, moving the spear away from Death Rose. She let go of it and lit the other spear on fire. The spear hit against the wall of the cavern. It bent and broke.

The mother looked at her with its one eye; its other eye was stabbed through with the spear. Parts of its brain as well. She flipped the mother off before she extended the spear towards its other eye. Die blind, you b****. There was a soft shlaak in its eye that was drowned out by its next scream as it staggered back. Its hands went to its eyes and dropped something. Or someone. Or Kogh.

There still wasn’t an answer.

Death Rose didn’t save Kogh. She just looked at the mother still screaming at the pain. She felt anger just looking at it. You did kill Rose, didn’t you? She summoned a few more spears and extended all of them towards its head. One pierced through its right hand. Another went through another part of its eye. The rest went into its other eye. As she summoned and extended more spears, she got angrier. And angrier. Eventually, she would’ve summoned more than fifty spears. The mother was still screaming. It didn’t remove the spears, let alone resist them. At a point, Death Rose just broke down into tears and stopped altogether.

Why the hell am I crying? C’mon, you have one job. Finish it, man.

She swallowed her saliva, sniffed and wiped her eyes. Her jaw was shaking when she floated up and went forward. She grabbed its hand with her own, summoned and wielded a sword large enough and sliced through its wrist. She held the hand and slammed it down the mother’s head. It seemed to Death Rose that the head was forced into its body like a ball landing on a beanie bag. Hah, beanie. Go die in a beanie hole, mother******. Death Rose kept slamming the hand on its head. One. Two. Three. It went all the way to fifty. The sun finally set down and Death Rose didn’t feel like Death Rose anymore. She moved back, rested, actually ******* rested, and roared. A few moments later, the sun still didn’t turn up.

What the hell? She rolled her eyes. Not now.

She was about to slam the mother’s head in again when the mother slammed Death Rose’s head in with its other hand.

God****it, jeuroooeouyooeoy.

Part of her brain turned into mush again, and there wasn’t a blackened sun to back her up. She fell to the ground, broke her spine and was stuck there, paralysed. She could look at the mother and spit curses at it, but she could only do it in the language of Gibberish.

Whhaddayooamoeeen, gibgibgibbbeerysh?

As she cursed in Gibberish, the mother screamed again and slammed its hand on her, flatting her out and destroying her bra.

waaaaiiiii.?!.?.?.13 ohoohozooodsagoooot aaaiiiio neeeid uuz help.

She sparked up with her flat body because she got one word in English. She could still think even as the mother was pounding her into a pulp. She couldn’t move her arms or legs at all, nor could she think straight anymore. Her brain had already spilled out and turned into a crushed meat patty; instead of her body being flesh with little blood on the top, it was blood with little pieces of flesh scattered around like pepper. Her bones were the salt. It was funny that Death Rose could still think. And she thought that she was going to be boring, that she was never going to die, that she was never going to be at risk. Then she remembered the Wonderland scene. She was amazed that she could still remember, and sad. She could die, but she could die boring.

Pain wasn’t a thing to her anymore. It was more like dark matter; it was theoretical, hypothetical, but a concept people knew about but never tested nor experienced it. Her nerves were practically destroyed, her bones turned into something finer than the finest salt in the world, her brain now turned into soup and her eyes stuck on the mother’s fist. She wondered if this was how blind people feel, minus all the scattered human pieces. She looked-

oh weit i c*** sii. ha. ha. ha. ha.-

The mother thought it was enough and stopped. It turned back to Kogh, picked it up and petted it.

Then, as if Death Rose’s deus ex machina had arrived just in time before , the blackened sun came up.

I FEEL THE POOOOOOOOOWAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!11!!!1!!!

Her brain fully recovered, then the rest of her body, then her bra. She stood up as quickly as kindergarten students raised their hands to answer their teacher and get recognition, rewards and all that bull****.

(Screw the rules)

“HEY!” Death Rose screamed as loudly as she could because she could change how her vocal cords worked. “YOU MOTHER*****! EAT THIS S***!”

Thank goodness. Good riddance, b****.

The mother turned around just in time for Death Rose to have summoned her mallet. Its head was at least a kilometre across. The hundred thousand tonnes of weight then crushed the mother along with Kogh.

Oh, s***.

Chapter 105 - Finally, The Mother of Death Learns How to Fire a Rocket Launcher! (Not)

The mother roared as soon as the sun went down. Now the sun went in the opposite direction.

Now, where are you..?

The mother was somewhere near the entrance, holding the rocket launcher on its right shoulder. Apparently the soldiers called it a rocket launcher. What the bloody hell is a rocket anyway? It walked for a while, got bored, jumped up and flew up into the air. It almost looked like an eagle. Close. Quite close.

It saw the group of elites mowing down its children. A few elites were pulled into the mob and were torn into pieces. They were quickly eaten up like pieces of cake eaten up by fat kids; they would lick the plates once they were done. The elites kept their blast guns on them, and the mother of death kept its rocket launcher aimed at them. It made a finger and pulled the trigger. The projectile went off, and so did the mother. The recoil just sent the launcher pushing straight up its stomach. The rocket hit and missed the group by a few fifty metres. Luckily enough, the rocket released a few shrapnel that killed one elite.

Well, it’s only one. Now, I need another rocket..

The elites didn’t even notice the explosion, but they noticed their fallen ally. They pulled him away from the mob until their backs reached the gates. More children died as each soldier shuffled into the gates one by one, until eventually they closed the gates and kept the mother’s children off for a while.

Wait, then who was the one trying to kill me? What the hell was he doing in the first place?!

The mother actually had a clear and sure chance to kill them, but it wanted to kill them with their own weapon. I’ll teach them irony.

The mother descended and turned back into its tall humanoid form. It put the rocket launcher down and hid behind some building it had just come across. It peeked and saw at least fifty left alive. The dead soldier was carried to the left, then a building blocked them from view. The mother turned its attention towards the gate. How..? I’ll just get shot trying from here.

Then the gate was burst down by its colonel. Oh, you. The mother blushed. The gate squashed three elites and trapped five more at the edge. The mother’s shelled child stepped on the gate and looked at them as they fired blindly. Apparently, firing blindly could net you more kills than actually aiming and shooting. Its children started to fill the place, little black dots filling up the entrance like an opened black pepper shaker dropping and pouring its content on a cream-coloured table.

I should attack now. Bugger the launcher.

It tossed the weapon away and stepped out of its cover. It looked at the elites. Man, there’s a lot of looking. Then it started running with two blades in hand, literally. One started to notice the mother and shouted to the others. He proceeded to shoot at it, but every bullet missed. The mother s******ed and extended the blade towards the soldier. He almost dodged it. Almost, bloody ar******. The blade sliced part of his left side of the hip and made him shout, except this time, in pain. The other soldiers turned around and shot at it.

Can we not repeat this? Jesus Christ.

The mother sidestepped to the left and rolled over to the nearest building to take cover. Some of the gunshots were now aimed at it. Then there were screams. Then there were flesh being torn apart. Then there were other screams. The mother waited there for a moment, and the gunshots started to lessen. It made a hook about the end of its right hand, replacing the blade. It then jumped out of cover, pulled a soldier in and took out his helmet. Well, whoop-dee-doo.

The soldier had short black hair and a handsome enough face for the mother to keep as its pet. As the mother held him by his neck, his whole body was shivering; his face was full of terror and half of shame; his hand was holding on to his blast gun as if it was a pacifier that could solve his problems just by putting it in the mother’s mouth. But he didn’t do that. His gun was hanging above the ground. His finger wasn’t on the trigger. Is that how you say it? On the trigger? The mother stared at his eyes and asked why he was shaking. He frowned at first. Then he kept shaking his mouth, hesitant on whether he wanted to answer or not. Trust me. You need to answer. The man then said why the mother wanted to kill them. It just smiled and clenched its hand, ripping his head from his body.

Would’ve been nice to have you as a pet.

It had its meal before it stepped out of the cover and gathered the elites’ attention. It was almost a bore to the mother. No one’s here anymore. That d*** child.

Within thirty minutes, every one of them had died to either a claw, a tooth, a few scales or transformed blades. The mother and its living children fed on the elites. Only the colonel held back after a few bites. The mother asked why, but the colonel never answered. You think you don’t deserve it, do you? As it slurped the optic nerves of an eye and crunched the eyeball, it looked at its colonel and just felt proud of it. The mother didn’t feel proud of its children, but at least some of them got through. It was almost nine thousand left when the fight was over. Without the sun, it would’ve been way worse. A lot.

The mother stood up and got the colonel to walk with it outside the city. They were next to each other when they stumbled upon the barracks. What the hell does that mean? The mother got the colonel to stand guard while the mother went inside and checked.

There were crates of balls that had pins in them, blast guns that were displayed on the wall, a lone range rifle leaning on the wall with two extra spaces in between it and a table of laser knives. Nothing here’s worth it. It was about to exit when it glanced over a crate full of rockets.

Then its eyes shone.

Chapter 106 - Vussia Now Really Gets Out of Wonderland (or Does She?)

S***. Why did I kill him? Why did I kill him?! WHY DID I KILL HIM?!

Vussia’s feet were dirtied with s*** again, thanks to the Humanoid Rat Alley. She had just run around the same alley where she blasted the handsome man’s face apart for about five minutes. Definitely felt like five hundred twenty-two million ******* nine hundred eighty-six thousand s*** four hundred and seventy-eight years. He counted the numbers as he ran through the Humanoid Rat Alley, cursing as he did so. She knew she could kill someone with her blast gun, but she just couldn’t go up against ten policemen. Funny enough, they still can’t run faster than me.

As she ran, she could overhear their conversation. One suggested to fire at her foot. No, not again. Vussia could still remember the pain that she hadn’t felt yet. Strange, ain’t it? A few policemen said no; the rest focused on actually catching and bringing her down. The same one said to fire when she fired. Everyone was silent this time. Means agreement. Alright, then.

And she never fired a single shot as she came across what seemed like a testing site for a wrecking ball. Or multiple wrecking balls. There were people with neon jackets and typical, generic yellow safety helmet cleaning up the mess. They just look like pathetic Lego characters. She could see rubble and debris that belonged to many a great buildings which sound ******* dramatic, but whatever, a few dead people in between and above, and unmanned cranes. The walkway she was running on was unaffected, as though the wrecking balls had never ever flung debris this way.

She looked back and saw five policemen left chasing her. She sighed and kept running, feeling semi-tired and fully annoyed. Then Vussia got more annoyed when she heard police sirens. Bloody hell, really?! She stared at the site before turning around a corner into another alley. It was cleaner than the Humanoid Rat Alley, but now it was less with her feet staining the ground with brown footsteps. The alley was straight, with only her front and back as the entrance and exit.

She pushed a garbage can into the way as she ran past it. One of the policemen said that that was a classic move, and that everyone knew how to counter it, though he was the one that had his foot tripped over the can as he jumped over it. There was a terrifyingly satisfying crunch sound as his face smashed against the ground, leaving others to chase after her. She chuckled slightly as she went on.

She was about to reach the end when two police cars had blocked the path. But apparently, the policemen weren’t getting out of them. Losers. Drop your ******* doughnuts. She reached the cars and vaulted over one of the hoods of the cars. One shouted and another shouted at the shouting one. She heard doors slammed and threats from the police as they finally got their a**es off. She looked back and flipped at them, shouting at them to keep eating those doughnuts and die from diabetes. Then there was a gunfire. Vussia now slowed to a walk while looking back. The gunfire came from a fat man, his face all flushed red with anger. He was clenching his teeth so hard that she thought it would break anytime soon.

The man ran at Vussia, but even at his pace, she could’ve just outwalked him. She laughed for a bit and flipped him off some more before starting to run again. Punk. She barely remembered the five men chasing after her; they were already too far, thanks to the cars blocking the alley. Wonder what happened to that guy? Does he need surgery?

She kept running for a few minutes before she finally needed a breath. She slowed to a jog in case anyone looked at her suspiciously, though with her supremely red dress, everyone would at least do a double take, some even triple or quadruple especially when Vussia was leaving s***prints all over. They’re too unnoticeable anyway. It’s okay. It’s okay. But what was even more eye-grabbing was her blast gun. But she shrugged it off.

She got tired and sat on the ground where a wall was behind her. She leaned on it and rested on her blast gun. While she was gazing at what was in front of her, a suburban area; it had houses arranged in rows. Three rows consisted of houses that looked almost exactly the same; their roofs were all dark red and their walls were white like a perfect family. How the hell is a white family perfect? To Vussia, the three rows looked terrifying, that people actually lived in places like this where creativity’s either obscurely seen or just plain bloody non-existent. Must be a bore fest here. Although, there were a few children outside their houses cycling around, playing tag and singing aloud annoying songs. At least they can save this place. She also thought that she was being way too pretentious, but not sure to who. Between the three rows were a colour of dull grey. Call me pretentious, I don’t give a s***. Vussia couldn’t think of a better description other than dull grey. Maybe windows. People need windows, right? Do they? She looked to the left, then to the right, then stood up because the police car was heading towards her direction.

She pressed her blast gun against her chest as she ran. Please stop using ‘ran’. It’s getting bloody annoying. She looked at the police car as she ran. Stop it. She thought the car was going too fast for her to get away, so she ran across the street into the suburban area. Please. She ran past a child playing with a yo-yo. Or a mini monster truck. Or a toy car. Whatever fits your description of childhood toys. She turned left every time she could turn, then turned right every time she could turn, and she did that alternatively, as she ran.

She stopped and wordlessly shouted. Can I please get the hell out of here? Please. Just ******* let me escape. As she turned more, the police siren grew softer and softer. Still, she found herself in the city, and not out in the Darkness region. Food. Food, she suddenly thought.

Oh, right there, she thought as she eyed a certain hotdog stall. What a convenient plot. She walked across the street, got to the stall and looked at its content. The owner wore a stupid white-and-red striped hotdog hat. Like that s*** looks like mayo and tomato sauce. As he asked what kind of hotdog Vussia wanted, she just kept quiet, ignored him and looked at what she could eat raw. The owner wasn’t shocked, either because he didn’t notice her gun or that he just chose to ignore it.

Vussia looked up at the man and aimed the blast gun at his face. She demanded that everything edible was to be put into a bag. The owner didn’t reply. He only showed a face of doubt and sarcasm. So Vussia shot him in the face and went over to pack up.

Probably my next best chapter yet. I don't really know about you, though.

Chapter 107 - I Call Myself Jason Ugly

Let’s step back a bit. Fifty to sixty decades ago.

Jason Ugly was a lot more pessimistic than you’d think. Jason took his own name ever since he ran away from home, from East. His given name was Hugo. To other people, he wasn’t ugly by society’s standards. In fact, he was a little better looking than anyone’s neighbour. He was a big brute; his arms bulged out of his T-shirt and his biggest pair of jeans would barely fit his legs. Instead of calling him ugly, most people would call him a big bimbo, even if he wasn’t a female. Contrary to popular belief, he was smart. Smart enough not to run towards gun-wielding enemies or armed enemies in general. No ******* way that would work. His genes might have given him a big size, but he was a pacifist at heart. Even when he was in kindergarten, he almost outgrew his teachers and was thus led to bullying. He didn’t mind; actually he wasn’t even aware of the concept of bullying. He thought he was being complimented. That’s what the teachers say anyway. When kindergarten was done, he’d walk alone with his dwarf bag on one side of his shoulder; his bag couldn’t go all the way around his other shoulder and his parents couldn’t be bothered to buy a new one until primary school. His bag only consisted of a green bottle of water, a cheap plastic pencil case with a picture of Mickey Mouse printed on it and a few English and Mathematics books. At home, he was always fed a cup of weird-tasting milk (whom his parents thought would help maintain his size; his parents thought Hugo’s bones would break if he shrank). Hugo would cough at the taste and went about his day; he watched Micky Mouse cartoons, played with his Micky Mouse dolls and watched more Micky Mouse cartoons. His mother was always at home, washing dishes, sweeping the floor, hanging clothes outside and whatever chores Hugo would think of. Although, there was a chore that, even to this day, Jason didn’t know what it was or why it needed to be done. At night, Hugo would always hear very faint whispers of his mother chanting something in his parents’ bedroom. Some nights, he would just go to sleep in his Micky Mouse bed, hugging his Micky Mouse bolster (and also rubbing its two big ears). Some other nights, he would get up and press his ear against the door, hoping to understand one word and end up losing that hope once he got tired. His father was always out at work. His mother always said that he was working as a businessman whenever Hugo asked at the dinner table, waiting for him to come back. When it was clear to him to his father was a businessman, he would ask what a business man did. After that question, his mother only shut him up and got him to wait, albeit impatiently. His depicted version of a businessman was a man dressed in a black hoodless robe, holding a suitcase that matched his robe. I got the suitcase part right. Hugo often stared at his parents’ face and never noticed what Jason noticed way past his time. They were ****ed up. Jason thought and still thought his parents were the craziest people on earth; not even Avus could match up to their insanity. Or match down to their insanity. Hugo’s reason for running away from home was non-existent. One day, when he was thirteen, he just decided to pack up his food that could last him a week, a kitchen knife and some pocket money. He did that and walked out of his house, lying to his mother that he was going out for a walk. Who lies like that? Godd***it. For the first time in his young life, he felt free. Free from school, home, mom’s chanting. He went to his only friend’s house and stayed there for a few weeks. At least Mark couldn’t call me big. He was as fat as a ******* pig. Hugo thanked his family and finally went out of East. That was when he changed his name to Jason Ugly. He thought it was a pretty cool name. He also thought that, by having a cool name, no one could ever bully him. Only a few minutes of him stepping out of East got him mauled to pieces by monsters of corruption.

And now I’m back here. Well, not exactly.

Jason Ugly was the colonel of the mother of death, the one who promised to get Avus back.

I knew it was you, Avus. Now I’m going to let the mother of death do what she wishes.

Jason always referred to himself as a ‘he’ and his mother of death a ‘she’.

Even as a monster of death, he was slightly attractive, but not enough for him to be a partner for anyone. His massive size was almost five times larger than his human thirteen-year-old self. He still had his wits around, and he would always thank them until the eventual day he would die horribly and bloodily thanks to his wits.

He was still in Klensburg, unaware of the fact that there was a gigantic hole somewhere in the town; he was in a different place entirely. As he stood on top of a building, he looked at the walls of East. He couldn’t have a clear picture, but he could see three men standing and looking at the outskirts,probably armed with blast guns. The blackened sun was out again, but he doubted it would actually help him survive against at least twenty men shooting at him with blast guns. But then again, maybe I can. He repeated that thought a few more times and convinced himself. Yeah, maybe I can do it. He crouched and dropped off the building, landing onto the ground with a loud stomp. Okay, I can do it.

He then trudged on, back to his old home.