Sullin, breathing heavily, said to herself, "He's durable..gotta wound him somehow.."
The hybrid Griffith screamed louder and louder, making the ground shake.
'I hate this…what exactly is happening? Everyone…some people are merging with their familiars, being forced into Absolute Resonance.'
The Griffith pounded towards her at the speed of light, and she gasped, the force of just the Griffith's wind alone blasted Sullin away. Sullin bashed against a nearby brick wall, blood spraying from her mouth.
She slid down the wall slowly, coughing and holding her rib cage.
'Shit!'
Sullin was carried to the left by her golden falcon spirit familiar, and the Griffith shot one of its large feathers at her, splintering the area where she just was.
Her familiar began to fail, dropping her to the ground.
Sullin gritted her teeth and jaw, "Dammit! If only I was better at it…I should've gone to Jenn earlier.."
Sullin was being rushed again, but out of nowhere, everything stopped.
Like time was frozen itself. Chaos, death, gore, action, everything froze in place.
The Sapphire Shields and the Red Jaw were frozen and locked in combat with familiar human hybrids, princess Aria was stuck frozen as she was holding her dead parents bodies, she was locked in a crying state. Hugh, Seiya, and Astro were just approaching the castle, frozen on the steps. But Seiya had been pierced through the back from her heart, blood racing from her mouth but frozen in mid air.
The only one was wasn't frozen, was Jiyu.
Jiyu was in the middle of all the chaos, breathing heavily, saying, "It's all over…they actually came back..for him?"
As chaos swirled through the streets of Kalhalla, with monsters born of despair and magic laying waste to all that had once been familiar, a profound silence descended. Time stopped, freezing everything in a tableau of terror and pandemonium—but not for Jiyu.
There, above, the figure who had watched over everything before, named "???" floated closer to him, untouched by the stillness that gripped the city. His presence was paradoxically peaceful and terrifying, a deity of both ruin and resolution. Reaching out a hand toward Jiyu, ??? spoke, "Absolute Resonance."
The words reverberated through Jiyu's core. With this incantation, ??? began to pull at Jiyu's essence, aiming to absorb him into his being. Jiyu, however, resisted fiercely. Emotions surged through him—fear, anger, but above all, an overwhelming sorrow as he recalled Jenn, his young master, the boy who'd stood like a beacon in Jiyu's long, tumultuous life.
'No…no! I won't go back! I was supposed to watch Jenn! Not let him die! I have to go back for him! I won't be fucking absorbed by this bastard!'
The merger was excruciating and inexorable. Jiyu felt his self being stripped away, layer by layer, his memories of Jenn burning brightest in his mind as they, too, began to fade. Tears streamed down his face, the drops suspended in the frozen time, each one a miniature prism of his fracturing soul.
'Jenn…I Don't know how long I can hold on—.'
Just as Jiyu was about to be subsumed entirely, a fierce cry tore through the eerie stillness. Jenn, ravaged by battle and marked by the scarring ordeal with the beings, appeared in a blink above Jiyu. Screaming, he unleashed a fury-driven punch at ???, his fist enveloped in destructive energy, sending ??? reeling through the air with a thunderous force.
Jenn landed, his form a tragic testament to his trials. Half of his body was slowly being overtaken by stone, a creeping petrification that claimed more of him each second. His white halo shimmered sadly above his head. One eye shone bright white, stark against the normalcy of the other, a visual echo of his internal turmoil.
He was breathing heavily, growling at the same time in anger.
Jiyu looked up at him, wounded, saying, "Jenn!"
??? recovered swiftly, charging back at Jenn with an outstretched hand, intent on reclaiming his prize. With no hesitation, Jenn drew forth a scythe, its blade a flaming red and black dying light, and plunged it through the chest of ???. Locking his enemy in his painful embrace, Jenn propelled them both into the air, spinning furiously, a deadly drill descending from the heavens.
They struck the ground with a cataclysmic explosion, bursts of light and searing red flames mixing with the sonorous tolling of massive, otherworldly bells. The ground cratered under the impact, a monument to their brutal ballet.
And as the light and fire ebbed, the dust faded out—leaving a haunting silence in the air, punctuated only by the fading echo of the bells.
In the shattered heart of Kalhalla, time began to move again, and everything resumed. And amidst the smoke and ruin, Jenn stood immobile, his body a statue of stone. His once lively features were locked forever in a final, vigilant stone pose, overseeing the remnants of the battlefield from an eternal stance of silent guardianship. His gaze and eyes were fully stone, the other human, bore down on Jiyu with an expression of sorrow and finality.
They were looking right at each other.
Jiyu's heart thudded painfully against his ribs as he looked up at Jenn, whose transformation into stone marked the end of more than just a battle—it symbolized the conclusion of a deeply intertwined journey. The air still vibrated with the echoes of their confrontation, but as Jiyu made to move, feeling the resurgence of time as reality clicked back into its chaotic rhythm, a shadow loomed ominously over him.
He turned around fast, ??? appeared once more, what little semblance of mercy that had once flickered in his visage now extinguished. His grasp was inexorable as he ensnared Jiyu, and with a profound whisper of "Absolute Resonance," he absorbed him. Jiyu's form melded into ???'s arm, transformed into something beyond the living—a surge of dark power wreathed in red electricity.
Silence fell, punctured only by the crackling of ???'s newly empowered arm. The stillness was reflective, weighted with defeat, as the legions of chaos and those few survivors of Kalhalla looked up to their new reality.
With the air heavy around him, ???'s voice resonated with a cold finality, "Your god is dead now. The All Mother and her Larva is next."
One by one, ??? and the beings akin to him With the halos began to vanish—a slow disappearance beginning at their feet and climbing upwards until they were no more than wisps of the nightmares that had unfolded. With each disappearance, hope seemed to bleed out of the realm, leaving behind a void that no light could fill.
As the last of them vanished, the skies began to clear slightly, though the shadow of the dark moon still loomed distant and observant. Kneeling figures scattered the landscape, faces upturned not in prayer, but in loss, their sobs the only sound cutting through the silence.
As it got quiet, everyone gathered around Jenn's statue, saying:
"Dammit…that's Jenn.."
"Jenn?!"
Sullin limped towards Jenn's stone statue, gasping, "No…no…!"
She dropped near his statue, saying, "I'm sorry..cousin. What the hell will I do now?"
Cedric, Reginald, and Elara of the Sapphire shrieked looked downward, lips trembling fiercely as tears slowly flowed.
"It can't be…not Jenn…" Reginald whispered. "And Jiyu too!"
Zealot and Zenn were leaning against each other, both covered in blood and scars, shaking their heads. They didn't know Jenn well, but they knew OF him well.
Zalkyrie was kneeling over his dead familiar, holding its hand.
Astro was sniffing Seiya's body, trying to move her., and Hugh was trying to comfort Astro.
And at that moment, princess Aria was walking out of the castle with blood on her hands, her parents' blood.
She had just wiped her tears, saying, "If only I hadn't left like a damn idiot..what is wrong with me, huh? I got Jenn killed…the only boy I thought was different from others I've met..i'm sorry. I owe you. I'll find those halo bastards and kill them all."
As the dust settled amidst the ruins of Kalhalla, a monumental and surreal sight unfolded that captured the attention of every mortal eye. Hovering ominously in the distance was a cosmic-sized entity made of stone—its form defying the laws of nature and expectation. It had eight arms, each poised in enigmatic gestures that seemed to weave the fabric of reality. Its three heads, tranquilly aligned, masked a sinister aura, and beneath this colossal effigy, a gargantuan tree rooted itself. Its trunk, a maelstrom of black and red veins, penetrated deep into the earth, as if drawing life—or death—from the planet's very core.
"What is that?!" Someone pointed.
"It looks like the bastard that killed Jenn and Jiyu!"
Above this celestial titan, a looming red halo radiated a dire glow, setting a somber tone over the land as a deep, resonant voice boomed across the heavens and the earth:
"Humans. You may be confused as to why most of your familiars did not fall to Absolute Resonance from the moon we have created. For we are the True Angels, and we seek the death of the All Mother and the fruit of her Larva. And Jenn, he was a deity, a demi-god from the All Mother herself and the All Father. Those who had garnered a beast from him that was tamed by his power could not fall to Absolute Resonance. Therefore, he is now dead. Descend the Dark Tree, reach the bottom, and kill the All Mother. Each floor cleared will add one day to this world's survival, if not a single floor is cleared in a day, you all die."
Anguish and determination clashed in the hearts of the survivors. As the boisterous crowd of guild hunters and warriors gathered, their emotions brimmed to the surface. With cries of vengeance and despair, they shouted against the heavens—
"Bastards! You killed Jenn and Jiyu! And everyone else! Loved ones—!"
Their passionate defiance was abruptly silenced as they approached the dark tree, their bodies disintegrated in a brutal spectacle by an unseen force emanating from the entity. The air crackled with the raw power of the True Angels, their intentions clear and their consequences deadly.
Unfazed, the colossal statue continued, its voice echoing like a sinister lull, "Descend the Tree, reach the bottom, and kill the All Mother. Whoever is successful will have three wishes. Throughout your world, there will be those who are causing havoc as they are merged with their beast. This was to show how easily we can corrupt you humans and this world. You will still have to deal with them. You all will feel how we felt many years ago."
A chilling silence fell over Kalhalla once more. The survivors, now confronted with a grim ultimatum, cast wary eyes towards the daunting Dark Tree at the world's edge. Motivated by survival, revenge, or perhaps the allure of wishes, they began congregating, forming alliances, and preparing for the descent that could very well dictate the fate of their world.
Aria said nothing, but thought, 'I owe you this.'
Reginald exclaimed, "We will descend the bottom of the tree! And make our wish to kill those bastards!"
Some followed along, "Damn right!"
Cedric was still down, as he kept looking at Jenn's statue, and remembering how Jiyu was absorbed.
'It's not fair…I'm not that strong, I should've been the one to be in his position.'
Elara walked up to Cedric, saying, "We got this, bud. We'll make them pay."
"We're not..seriously gonna kill the All Mother, are we?"
Zealot walked past them, saying, "We got no choice, fools. We have to do this. It's the only right thing!"
Zenn nodded, and Valkyrie was still kneeling where his dead familiar was.
Hugh, standing with Astro who was near Seiya on the ground, said, "Fight with us."
Astro sighed, "…I will. I'll make the wish to bring Seiya back..it's all I want. No matter how much she worked me.."
Hugh looked at Jenn's statue, and took deep breaths, trying not to burst into tears. "I can't fight anymore, my fighting days are over, I will still do my best to supply everyone with flowers that can enhance power. It's the least I can do."
"Get me to SSS rank. Then I'll be ready to descend the tower at my own pace."
Sullin sat on the ground, looking at her hand as it was twitching, she wasn't good at using her power of spirit beast taming, so it caused sharp pains through her hands.
She looked at the Tree alongside everyone else, saying, "I'll bring you back, Jenn. I won't be scared this time."
As the echoes of the True Angel's decree faded into the wind, the weight of their task settled in every weary heart—a journey not just into the depths of the Dark Tree but into the very darkness of desperation and survival itself. A new chapter of battle and valor was about to begin in the shadow of fallen heroes and malevolent gods.
….
In the tempestuous swirl of a snowstorm, a vision unfolded like a whispered myth, spectral and vivid. A young boy, merely a shadow against the howling white, ran with breathless urgency through a densely snow-clad forest. His small hands were encased securely—one by a woman with eyes that reflected the storm's ferocity yet softened each time they settled on him, and the other by a man whose stern, protective gaze scanned the path ahead. This ethereal trio navigated the blizzard's wrath, their steps unified, every footfall a story of desperation and hope intertwined.
Guided by some unseen force or perhaps a desperate prayer, they arrived at their sanctuary amidst the storm: a towering statue of Jenn, standing solitary in a clearing. The snow seemed to shy away from its base, as if in reverence. With united resolve, the boy, the woman, and the man reached out simultaneously and touched the stone. The chill bite of the stone's surface was paradoxically warm, and the vision faded as they connected with Jenn's eternal presence, leaving nothing but the echoes of their touches in the breeze.
Back in the harsh reality of Kalhalla, hours crawled by under the weight of a dramatic, and hours turned into months; the capital of Kalhalla was gone, and there was an oppressive silence. Jenn's statue, now an icon of both reverence and sorrow, loomed unstirring over the desolate landscape. It stood alone, untouched by the wind's melancholy song and the whispers of lost hope.
In that heavy stillness, as if stirred by an imperceptible cue, a distinct sound shattered the calm—*crack*. Startling in its sharpness, a piece of the stone facade guarding Jenn's visage began to crumble, falling away in chunks and dust. It gathered at the base like remnants of forgotten epochs.
What was revealed beneath was unnervingly contrary to the heroism and sacrifice once mirrored in Jenn's stone eyes. His expression, now emerging from the remnants of the facade, bore a menacing smile. It was a smile that held not the warmth of a savior, but the chilling promise of darker depths yet to be unveiled.