Ch. 13: Bitter Wasteland

John is forced to make an important decision that will change his life forever while searching for his Sun Relic fragment.

I, John Judycki, looked around the immediate area, and I could already tell that something was off. The area looked just like Green Street, the main street in my town, except it was a wasteland. Green and purple liquid, presumably poisons, were covering every street and building. Of course, the place was also swarming with what could only be Akuma, and there were no people other than me.
"Looks like my theory is still right about the areas matching the elements." I said aloud. I took another look around and compared the area to the actual Green Street. "Hopefully this isn't going to happen to our home."
I turned around. I thought that the best place to look first would be the outskirts of the area. As soon as I turned around, I was confused, because the door that I came out of wasn't there anymore.
"Hm." I said. "I suppose it's like that so we couldn't do anything fishy and try to open the door from the inside."
I was walking for about ten seconds, until I ran into a "wall" and fell to the ground.
"What the..." I said aloud. "There is no wall here!"
I reached my arm forward until it stopped. There was an invisible barrier that impeded my movement in that direction.
"I suppose this could be a good thing." I shrugged. "A smaller area to search means I can find the fragment easier."
I turned around and headed to the middle of the area. Luckily, because of my poison element, the poison on the ground doesn't affect me much.
"How did it even end up like this?" I wondered. "It's like there was some sort of outbreak."
I ran into my first Akuma. There were four normal ones. I sliced one's head off and impaled another. One of the two left jumped at me, so I kicked it into the other one, making them on top of each other, and stabbed downward, killing them both.
"These creatures are weak." I thought. "But I guess they are the easiest according to Frank, Seth, and Drew."
I didn't even know where to start, but had a few ideas of where to look. The first area was the building that Seth jumped off of. Since it was the tallest building in the area, I figured that there was a good chance of something promising being at the top. The second place was our hideout that we go to occasionally. If this area WAS truly made for us, then there would be a good place to look. The third and final place was Tanaka's hut, if it was even there.
I ran to the building. I didn't want to waste any time, because there were still two people to go after me, and we hadn't eaten in hours(everyone except Drew anyway).
The door was locked, so I went to a nearby windowsill, slid one of my swords into the gap between the two windows, and moved the sword upwards, unlatching the... latch. I then opened up the window and stepped through.
Inside of the hotel looked about as normal as ever, no poison or anything, except there were Akuma scattered everywhere.
One Akuma jumped at me, but I sliced its head off, reducing it to smoke. There were some more that started coming my way, including a couple of the Akuma that Scarlett briefly mentioned with the long claws. I killed a few of the normal ones, but the ones with the long claws were able to reach longer than my swords. One slashed my chest, ripping my shirt and causing me to bleed. I ran back away from it.
"I need a defensive technique." I thought. "What if I..."
I turned to the Akuma and crossed my swords. I focused on making a shield of some kind, and unexpectedly, right before an Akuma was going to attack me, a circular poison shield was created in front of me! The Akuma attacked me, and it's claw slowed down exponentially until it got stuck in the shield. I then uncrossed my swords, causing the poison to unform the shield and goop to the ground. Before the Akuma could react in time, I sliced its head off. I did the same thing to the other Akuma, until the lobby of the hotel was cleared out completely.
"I should name that new ability, and the Akuma." I said.
I named my shield "Toxic Protect", the normal Akuma "Standards", the big Akuma "Titans", and the Akuma with the long claws "Shredders".
I opened the elevator and went to the top floor. I figured if the Sun Relic fragment was anywhere in the building, it'd be on the roof. I pressed the top button and waited for about two minutes until I was at the top.
On the roof wasn't what I was expecting. There was no Sun Relic fragment, but rather three of the tall Akuma, which I named "Titans". The sound of metal against metal from the elevator made the Akuma instantly notice me. They turned and rushed at me. Without hesitating, I threw my sword at the first Titan's head, stabbing right through it and making it fall onto the second one, knocking it over before the first one puffed into smoke. While the second one was still down, I lobbed a hunk of poison at its face, burning and blinding it.
"Huh." I thought. "I didn't know I could do that."
While it was still struggling, I killed the second one. The third one however, hit me with its ball and chain. Since I didn't have my heavy armor on, I was sent flying off the roof! Luckily, since I still had one sword left, I grabbed the handle with both hands and stabbed into a vent in the side of the building. I was about to climb back up, when I remembered something.
"Oh yes!" I said aloud. "If I go far enough from my weapon, it'll just teleport to me, and since there's nothing else up there of my interest, the sword is the only reason why I would climb up in the first place."
Once I got a proper foothold, I climbed my way back down until I made it back to the bottom of the hotel. It was only when my foot touched the concrete of the ground that I realize the pain in my stomach. I scrunched down.
"Ughh" I groaned. "This is like when Tara hit my stomach with her scythe."
I thought to myself.
"Tara... I hope she's okay." I thought. "She hasn't eaten since I split that passion fruit open for her. That was at least 6 hours ago, and it wasn't even that much food."
I got up.
"That's why I've got to hurry." I said aloud. "Not just for her, but for my little brother, too. They both still need to do their dungeons, and if I keep standing here doing nothing, they won't have enough energy to make it through."
I started to run to our hideout, the second place I wanted to look.
"I'm sure they'll be fine though." I thought to myself. My other sword teleported to me. "Nice. Out of us eight, they are most likely the strongest because of their speed, smart thinking, and natural power."
Just then, I heard the noise that Tanaka's hut makes when it teleports back to our dimension. I was planning on looking there last, but I had a feeling that something good was going to be in there. Some Akuma killing later and I made it to the hut. I walked inside, only for the door to slam right behind me. Inside was nothing of importance, but there were some new Akuma. These ones looked almost exactly like the Standards, but their bodies were made of brown stone. I tried attacking one, but both my swords and my poison were ineffective against their rock-hard skin. I just realized that I was in danger.
"S-stay away!" I shouted. "Foul beasts!"
I tried opening the door behind me, but it wouldn't budge. The stone Akuma closed in on me. Since I've been naming all of them, I decided to name these ones Stoneskins. They lunged at me, scratching me with their claws and bashing me with their stone bodies. I collapsed to the ground.
"T-there's nothing I can do here." I thought to myself. "But I can't go out like this!"
Just then, my swords started glowing bright purple. All the nearby Stoneskins were knocked away from me and my swords started to transform. They flipped in the air, and crashed into each other, combining to create...
"It this a... greatsword?" I said aloud. "This might just do the trick!"
The Stoneskins got back up and tried attacking me again. I was weak from the intense damage I took, but I was sure I could defeat them. They rushed at me, but this time, I had the upper hand. I ran and slammed my greatsword down into a Stoneskin, making it fall to the ground and reduce to pebbles before poofing into smoke. One lunged at me, but I sidestepped, dodging it, and did a spin attack on it, killing it as well. The next few were no problem, and when I killed all of them, the door opened. I walked out of the hut and turned my greatsword back into the swords.
"That was pretty cool." I informally said aloud. "I wonder if everyone's weapons can do that."
I started walking towards the hideout.
"Maybe I should've checked the hut last." I thought. "Well, at least now I'm almost positive I know where the fragment is."
A bit of running and Akuma killing later, and I made it to the hideout. When I walked inside, the door shut behind me.
"What the..." I turned around. "Again?"
I jiggled the knob. It was locked. I turned back around and saw...
"Kobun!" I shouted. "What are you doing here!?"
I charged forward, but he created a barrier in front of him, and I ran into it, causing me to fall down.
"Seem familiar?" Kobun laughed. "I'm not here to fight, unless you are so unwise as to try and verse me by yourself."
I grunted. I knew that I wouldn't stand a chance fighting him seeing what happened to Xavier.
"...So be it." I stood up. "What do you want."
"Not much." Kobun said. "I'm just here to force you to make the most important decision of your life."
"What?" I asked. "What do you mean?"
"It's simple really. There are only two people left after you, and they just so happen to be the two most important people to you: your brother and the love of your life."
"Hey!" I butted it. "I don't lov-"
"Hey pal, I hardly know you and I could tell. I just overheard you talk to yourself and it gave me this great idea."
Kobun used his mind to surround himself in barriers.
"Just in case you get any funny ideas." Kobun said.
"Just tell are your terms so I can hurry up and get back." I grunted.
"It's simple, really. I'm going to hide a device in either Brenden's or Tara's dungeon that will kill them. Your job is to choose which one. Once you choose, I'll hand over the Sun Relic fragment."
"WHAT!?" I shouted. "There's no way I could ever do something like that!"
"Well it's either one of them dies or all eight of you die. After all, when's the last time any of you had something to eat or drink?"
I started to cry. I couldn't escape because the door was locked, and I couldn't kill Kobun, since he protected himself. There was only one way, but I knew I could never live with myself if I killed one of them.
"So, what's it going to be?" Kobun impatiently asked. "Are you going to kill Brenden or Tara, or wait for all of you to die?"
I wiped off my tears and looked down. Then I saw it. My swords. That's it! There's another way out of this!
"Hurry it up!" Kobun said. "I don't have all day!"
I stood up.
"Ha!" Kobun laughed. "What, are you going to try and fight me? Do you remember what that bug catcher looked like when I was through with him? I don't think you want to end up with a hole in your... HEY!"
Ignoring Kobun, I took one of my swords with both hands, blade facing me, and stabbed it into my stomach.
"That wasn't part of the deal!" Kobun shouted.
"I... don't care..." I struggled to say, flopping down to my knees. "Brenden... and Tara... are safe."
"Ohhh man..." Kobun worriedly shook his head. "The Dark One isn't going to be happy with either of us when we get down there!"
"...What?" I didn't understand what he meant by that, until after my death...

The monitor in the main room flicked on.
"Sorry fellas, but your group of eight just turned into a group of seven!"
"What..." Frank said. "Don't tell me he..."
"Yup." Kobun laughed. "John died. Since he's already dead, I might as well explain what happened."
"What!? No!" Anna cried. "There's no way John could ever die!"
"Shut up and let me tell you what happened!" Kobun shouted. "Basically, I told him to choose for me to kill either Tara or Brenden, and he chose himself."
"You mean, he killed himself?" Drew asked.
"Yup, now he's in the realm of the dead, so to speak." Kobun said. "Also, since he didn't get his Sun Relic fragment, I'll have it with me when you seven come to fight me."
"You... MONSTER!" Scarlett screamed.
"Thanks for noticing." Kobun laughed. "Anyway, here's some stuff that he'd probably want to share with you guys: 'My area was a poisonous wasteland, and I decided to name the Akuma. The normal ones are Standards, the long-clawed ones are Shredders, and the big ones are Titans. There were also some new ones with stone skin that I named Stoneskins. I'm so smart, only I could think of that clever name. I also talk like I have a stick up my-'"
"That's enough!" Anna shouted.
"Sorry, I just thought I could help you in your time of need." Kobun said
After that sarcastic addition, Kobun laughed and the monitor went black.
"That idiot!" Brenden kicked the barrier. "Why didn't he just kill me!?"
"Don't be dumb." Frank said. "You would've done the same thing in his shoes."
Tara remained quiet.
"Tara?" Scarlett quietly said, trying to hold back sobs. "You okay?"
Tara's face became red.
"I... loved him." Tara sobbed. "And now he's... gone forever...."
"Heyyy, that isn't exactly true." Seth said with an optimistic tone.
"W-what?" Tara sniffled. "What are you... saying?"
"What I'm saying is, is that Kobun told us that John is 'in the realm of the dead' or something like that." Seth explained. "It kinda sounded like a figure of speech, but I'm sure there was more to it that that."
"Ah, I get it." Drew added, standing up. "The place we're trying to get to is the Underworld, and you're saying that he's down there?"
Seth nodded and stood up. "That's exactly right."
The crying stopped.
"So that means we've got to kill Kobun and get out of here as quick as possible!" Scarlett wiped her tears and stood up.
"Once we're out of here, there's only two or three more Sun Relic pieces to go!" Frank stood up.
"And once we get the Sun Relic, we can get to the Underworld and save John!" Anna wiped her tears and stood up.
"I doubt it. My bro is so cool that he's gonna escape the underworld before we even GET the Sun Relic." Brenden stood up.
"The next time I see John, I'm telling him how I feel." Tara laughed and stood up.
The door in front of Brenden opened.
"I've got to do this." Brenden said. "For John!"
"For John!" Everyone else repeated.
Brenden stepped through his door, which shut behind him as expected. He took a couple steps, only before falling, because he was a mile in the air!

Reviews

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

Hey thanks again or this write, judging today, sorry so belated, good luck

[Siddhidatri Pande]

ITS A WORTH READ...CRAVING TO READ MORE OF YOUR WORK

[Brenden Brown]

Hey thanks!

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

thanks for entry into my best piece of work competition,
this was very interesting enthralling and a good write sci fi seems to be your forte its very imaginative, wow what an imagination!
good luck

[Brenden Brown]

Hey, thanks! I'm glad you liked it! :)