342 Bad and Good, The Two Endings of the Battle in Bay City (1/2)
Day 54 – 1:45 PM - ▋▋▋▋▋▋, ▋▋▋▋▋,▋▋▋▋▋,▋▋▋▋▋▋▋▋, Japan
A hole appeared in the middle of an Expressway and expanded over the span of seconds. Before the outbreak, sudden phenomenon like this in the middle of a busy road would cause accidents. Now however, there were only infected around that could witness the disturbance.
The hole appeared like a disturbance in space than an actual portal. Then, a bright ball light suddenly flew out of the hole followed by a sudden burst of black smoke that covered about four meters around the hole before disappearing.
After running away from the black smoke, the ball of light burst out a blinding light before five figures emerged on the middle of the almost empty road. Unsteadily, four of the figures stood up taking a look at the hole they escaped from as it vanished like it never appeared. On the other hand, one of the figures that had no arm remained lying on the ground unconscious.
That was then that they noticed…
”This is not our base. Spera! What happened?” Shin bellowed in his usual scolding tone. However, when he looked around…”Spera?”
”Kid, don't bother looking.” A ball of fire that looked like boiling lava flew down to the level of his face and spoke. ”If you are looking for that small girl, she's left back there.”
Everyone was surprised seeing the talking ball of fire but the voice immediately let them know who it was.
”Your Arkhes?” Shin spoke in a question. ”What did Your Arkhes mean? Spera is…”
”You should just be glad already.” Gar'Vlam spoke in an annoyed tone. ”I forced all of us into an incomplete portal because that small girl had already fallen unconscious. I saw the Miasma cover her so I was not able to retrieve her like you brats here. If I spent more time to get her, don't even mention speaking and standing here. All of you will be in the hands of that monster.”
Hearing those words, Shin's fist tightened to the point of his palm bleeding. Yoko felt crestfallen as Spera was left behind. As for Tsukiko, she looked like the usual although her eyes had a tint of worry.
”Just what is that guy?” Yoko spoke. ”Shin, you said that he turned into an infected right? Why can he speak?”
That question echoed inside their minds. Shin looked at Gar'Vlam who was the person who noticed the changed at first.
”Kid, don't look at me like that. That monster returned from being a soulless one back to his previous state after the song stopped. I even had no choice to leave my newly created body there to enable all of us here to escape.”
The tone of Gar'Vlam was grave. After many tries and sacrificing thousands of human lives, he was finally resurrected. Just to fight a monster like that and escape in his weakened spirit form. With his current state, who knows how long he had to spend to recuperate his spirit and create another physical body. The setback he gained from this defeat was overwhelming.
”Dopp, we lost a lot in this request of yours. You better give us a raise.”
Shin turned to Dopp who was not speaking since earlier but when all of them turned to the latter for his reply, their eyes widened.
Dopp was not speaking not because he was just keeping silence but his body kept on the state of destruction and creation. For some reason, Dopp was trying to recreate another body but before he was able to, the new body disperses and the body he was trying to replace was getting reconstructed instead.
”Curse that Bastard! All of you get away from him!”
Gar'Vlam bellowed in unprecedented panic. However…
He was late…
BOOOM!
Dopp, wide eyed, exploded. Black smoke burst forth from his body enveloping area about five meters around him. Shin's group was within that area as they were standing together with Dopp.
At the last moment however, Gar'Vlam burned another part of his spirit and created a thin film of light around Shin, Yoko and Tsukiko. The three managed to run out of the area covered in smoke. However, there were parts of their bodies touched by the smoke which immediately festered. Fortunately, the protection Gar'Vlam gave then stopped the contamination in their skin from spreading.
”Thank you Your Arkhes.”
Shin immediately conveyed his gratitude while enduring the pain in the injury he received.
In exchange for burning his spirit once more, Gar'Vlam became smaller. The burden in his spirit became larger but he would not let these three die. Not only that they assisted him in fighting but these three was the only way for him to reach the base of the organization in this country.
Shin, Yoko and Tsukiko inspected their hands and feet. The cloak that covered their bodies protected them but their hands and feet was not covered and was hit by the miasma. Now, their hands and feet looked unsightly and for sure, it would be hard to heal these injuries.
Still, they were alive. Both Dopp and Emmett were no more.
”Damn it. We lost Spera, we are injured and Dopp is gone. How are we going to get paid for this?”
Shin bellowed in anger. At the side, Yoko and Tsukiko stepped away from Shin as if afraid that he would turn his anger towards them.
”We should leave this place first. The soulless ones are already gathering.”
Gar'Vlam suggested which the three nodded to.
”Where are we anyway?”
Yoko asked which Tsukiko responded by pointing her finger at a certain sign beside the road.
”Nagasaki Expressway… What? We need to travel almost the whole country to get to our base! How are we going to do this without Spera?”
Yoko started to throw a tantrum just to get a smack on her head.
”Stop shouting, we need to leave. There's no point in crying over spilt milk.”
***
Day 54 – 12:45 PM – Industrial Area, South District, Bay City Settlement, Parañaque City, Metro Manila, Philippines
”This armor looks hideous.”