"Eduardo!"
"C… chii…"
If anything, Eduardo seemed to still be alive even with his guts hanging out from his belly. But from how weak he was squeaking, he probably wouldn't last long if he did not get the help he needed — the only problem was, is they lived in the sewers — there was no help here at all.
"Chi…" Eduardo still seemed to have the strength to move his arm, but whatever strength left of him, he used it to point; gesturing to Lucian to leave.
"No," Lucian shook his imaginary head, "We're going to get you home, Eduardo! Here, I'm here!"
Lucian quickly tried to get the attention of the Scorpion Assassin as it was starting to crawl toward Eduardo. But try as he might, Lucian was not actually making any sound at all other than a quiet squish.
"Ha… hahaha!" Lucian could really only let out a crazed cackle in his mind before just leaping straight onto the back of the scorpion, proceeding to crawl toward its head in hopes of blocking its sight. But he was not even able to reach it before he was suddenly grabbed by the pincers of the scorpion's tail,
"Let… go!" Lucian roared in his mind while trying his best to latch onto the scorpion's back — but alas, very much like his mutated rat friend, the difference in strength was made completely obvious. He had no choice but to let go if he did not want to be ripped in half.
The scorpion's tail swung like a whip, throwing and slamming Lucian straight onto the murky ceiling before just continuing to crawl toward the wounded Eduardo. As for Lucian, well, he was able to crawl across the ceiling due to the sticky nature of his body and just rushed toward the wall—
"Eduardo!"
—dropping right in front of Eduardo and pushing him away before he could be completely cleaved in half by the scorpion's blades. The scorpion's blade arm was sharp and strong enough to cleave the wall, and unfortunately…
…it hit Lucian.
"C…crap, fuck…" Lucian was now just plastered on the ground — and although he was not capable of feeling pain at all, he could not help but just wince in his mind as he saw half his body right in front of him; very slowly losing its green glow, "Come on… Ha… haha!"
Lucian then once again started to madly cackle in his mind as a tendril escaped from his body and tried to reach his dismembered half, which was also slowly stretching toward him like it was being attracted magnetically. The scorpion did not seem to care for him, however, as it once again continued to crawl toward Eduardo.
"Wait, no… no… Fuck!" Seeing this, Lucian just decided to abandon half of his body — he was able to reach it, but he did not absorb it back to him… and instead threw it toward one of the scorpion's legs, causing it to trip and fall momentarily — but a moment was only what Lucian needed to rush toward Eduardo and carry him away.
Lucian did not even bother looking back as he just crawled away as fast as he could.
"Eduardo, hold on…" Lucian whispered in his mind as Eduardo's blood started to spill over him, "...Isn't this so much fun!?"
"Chi…" Eduardo once again whispered, if it could even be considered a whisper, that is.
"No… I'm taking you home. Just hold on," Lucian just focused on carrying Eduardo; not minding the almost endless and repeating scenery of dread that is the Sewers. He crawled and he crawled, not knowing whether he had been doing so for a minute, or for an hour — the only thought in his mind truly was to bring Eduardo home.
That is, until, he was broken from his stupor as he saw a group of Hoarders blocking his path — and from the way they looked, they were the underlings of the Hoarder Leader that Eduardo killed.
"What now…?" Lucian gritted his imaginary teeth as the Hoarders all pointed their weapons at Eduardo, "Away, go away! Shoo, you fucking mutated pests!"
But alas, the Hoarders did not even acknowledge his existence at all — for them, he was just some sort of weird moving trash. The only thing they were focusing on was Eduardo, and since he was still moving, they wanted to change that.
And so, they all just got off from their botflies and started running toward Eduardo with their knives and forks.
"Ha… Hahaha!" Lucian just quickly let go of Eduardo, not even hesitating to leap toward the rushing mutated rats as he spread and stretched his body to its limits — allowing all their sharp weapons to penetrate him. The rats were confused, but they once again disregarded Lucian — a mistake.
Because as soon as they started moving again, the ooze from Lucian's body started crawling across their arms and onto their heads.
"None of you… are stronger than Eduardo!" And as Lucian roared that in his mind, the ooze on the rats' heads all hardened at the same time, before just crushing their heads like watermelon. Lucian did not stop to gloat, as he immediately crawled back to Eduardo and started carrying him again — this time, however, he extended a tendril toward one of the botflies and slapped it back down before it could fly away.
"You're coming with us, Insect!" Lucian then threw Eduardo on top of the botfly before leaping onto it himself.
"C…Chi…" A small, but very weak smile crawled onto Eduardo's face as he raised his hand.
"I know, Eduardo. Aren't you having fun?" Lucian grabbed Eduardo's arm, "I know where our home is. Insect, use Fly!"
The botfly did not fly at all, but as soon as Lucian slapped it again, it flew straight toward the direction where his tendrils were pointing.
"You're going to be okay, Eduardo…" Lucian then inserted some of his napkin on Eduardo's gash; stopping the bleeding for at least a little bit — and very soon, he saw Eduardo's kingdom, and Shakira, who was washing something on the dirty flowing canal.
"Hss…!?" Shakira's eyes quickly widened as soon as she saw a botfly flying toward her, but when she saw Lucian waving at her; she quickly halted her panicking steps… but alas, her panic returned all too soon as she saw Lucian very gently carrying Eduardo off the botfly,
"Hss…? Hss!?" Shakira quickly slithered her way toward them.
"Shakira! It's Eduardo, he's badly wounded!" Lucian then placed Eduardo on the floor as he rushed to meet Shakira, and then followed her back to Eduardo as she did not stop at all, "Eduardo, it's your wife. Eduardo!"
"Hss…"
"Eduardo…?" And as Lucian heard a quiet hiss from Shakira, and nothing from Eduardo, he very slowly crawled beside the two… only to see Eduardo already completely lifeless and stiff, "...Brother? I brought you home."
"Hss…" Shakira let out a small and stuttering hiss as she leaned to kiss Eduardo on the forehead, closing his eyes at the same time with her trembling hand.
"Wake up, brother…" Lucian placed a tendril on Eduardo's hand, "I went through all that trouble for you to just die? We haven't even gone to the surface yet. You promised you'd bring me to see the sky once Shakira gives birth. Hey…
…wake up. Don't tell me I went through all the unnecessary drama."
"Hss…" Shakira then placed her hand on Lucian, before lifting him up and embracing him; her tears, mixing in with all the sperm, "Hss…"
"I… I promised him I'd take him home."
"Hss…"
"No, No. I didn't. I—"
"Hss."
"I failed."
"Hss."
"I did. Just tell me I did."
"Hss…"
"Why… I failed… I failed to—!!!"
And before Lucian could finish his words, he quickly freed himself from Shakira's arm; his tendrils moving wildly as they all pointed toward all the Hoarders who were nearing toward them in the distance.
"These… these Hoarders. Because… Because of you…" Lucian's entire body began to tremble with rage, "...And now you also wish to invade our home!? I will—"
And before he could finish his words, Shakira grabbed one of his tendrils while shaking her head and trying to pull him away.
"What do you mean we should leave!?"
"Hss!"
"This is your home! I will—"
"Hss…" Shakira shook her head as she pointed at the botfly, "Hss."
"I can take them on!"
"Hss," Shakira just lifted up Lucian and started carrying him toward the botfly, "Hss…"
"We… we can't leave. What about Eduardo!?"
"Hss."
"Leave him!? I would have just left him there if---"
And before Lucian could finish the words in his mind, he noticed Shakira's trembling arms. He wanted to struggle more, but just very slowly calmed down as he remembered Shakira's pregnant belly.
"Hss," Shakira looked at Eduardo's corpse before crawling onto the botfly with Lucian, "Hss…"
"We'll come back for you, brother…" Lucian whispered in his mind as the botfly started to flap its wings,
"...Wait, just wait!"
And as Lucian gained his home in another world…
…it was also quickly taken away.