"W-what?" What the heck does she mean?
"Also I have a gun!" She happily pulls a revolver out of her pocket. "I don't get to use this too often. It's impractical when your like me.".
"What do you mean about a story?!" I know I should be intimidated by the weapon in her hand but too much has happened already. Between Shens slowly healing body and her words I just have too much to process. Besides it's like she said, when you fight giant monsters and people who can chuck lasers at you a gun seems a lot less impressive.
"I think I've screwed something up here. I figured she would have stopped using that strategy this late into the game." She tosses the wand up and down absentmindedly, not even looking at it during her speech. She sits down in one of the seats with her legs crossed. The animal pelts she wears standing out even more in the stale environment. "I kinda wish I'd been brought up to speed with how we were bringing you in. I thought you knew, that's why I killed that guy for threatening you." She cringes at the sight of the dying man I'm desperately trying to keep alive. "Awkward. I should have let you fight him and level up." I think the trains stopped moving but I can't exactly get up to look. "But yeah, lord star fall isn't real. He's some sort of devil figure in thr witches mythology." I shake my head by the end of that.
"No. No no no no no! That can't be right!" I feel Allister curl up in the bag, trying to make himself smaller.
"Sorry to be the one to tell you this. I thought you knew. When we were fighting on your beach it seemed like we were just testing to see where you were at with your powers. Four out of five stars by the way. Anyways I hope the others aren't to mad at me when they find out.".
"They will be. I'm not sure why you'd think otherwise." The emotionless voice of Artemis appears before she does, walking down the train as if she'd always been there. Jormy practically leaps out of her seat in shock, dropping the wand in the process.
"Arty! What are you doing here?".
"Following you. Proving my hypothesis that you didn't listen to our orders.".
"I did!" Jormy sputters out. "I just don't remember some of the details is all." She pointedly does not make eye contact throughout that.
"Not revealing things to him without permission is a big detail." The train became a snowy forest in and instant. Humongous mountains dominated the horizon. The three of us all shiver from the cold when Louhi flies down from the sky. Aside from the purple ends her hair is a bright red but quickly shifts to the more familiar blue. She lands between the two enemies and gives them both a deadpan look. Jormy tenses up even more.
"I'll be sure to have a talk with you about this later." Louhis slotted irises shift in focus from Jormy to me. I feel my lips tremble while I try to hold back tears. Louhi slowly walks over to me and kneels down. Her talons reach for me and for a moment I can perfectly picture her turning my body into a fine mist. It would make what happen to Shen seem underwhelming. Instead though she pulls me into a tight hug, wrapping her wings around us. I manage to keep my healing going at least.
"You lied to me." I mumble.
"I did." She answers in the same caring voice I've grown to know her by. "Im so sorry. This must be so scary for you." We stay like that for a few minutes. Eventually though I find it in me to push away. She doesn't let me go but I at least have enough room to look at her now. She looks scared. I almost yell about how unfair that is but keep it in at the last second.
"Is lord star fall real." Another soft smile from her. The well dressed mice she keeps go over to play with the others like my world isn't coming crashing down.
"No. It's like my friend said, he's a mythological figure for us witches. Although she got some key details wrong." She spares a glance over to the care free Shen killer before looking back. "He's actually a nephalem. His parents were the demon and angel of Jupiter. He held the power to steal the hearts of others. Eventually he grew resentful of how his parents governed the kingdom so he stole both their life and powers. He's an agent of unchecked life who would cause any world he came across to tear itself apart." She gently claps her hands together. "All in all it's a good character to get you motivated right?" I just stare at her. That was a lot.
"T-then what's the point of any of this?! Why lie to me about this?!".
"We do this every time we find a new hero. Although we usually give them the truth a lot sooner than you. But you just continued to believe me. You needed to prove you deserved to live didn't you?" She places a talon on my cheek. "That why when I told you about a powerful and terrifying but still distant and vague threat you just had to believe it didn't you? But the truth of what you need to do is a bit more boring I'm afraid. I wasn't actually lying when I said humanity was going to tear itself apart. But to stop it we can't just kill a monster. We've had to kill people. Lots of them. Enough to make my sick just thinking about it. And your the last piece we need to end that." As soon as she finishes Shen no longer has a hole in his chest and I jump away from her.
"You've been killing people?!" My knees nearly give out.
"Well mostly my kaiju have been killing people but I acknowledge that the difference is minimal." Oh my god.
"I think I'm gonna be sick. Why would you do that? Why have me involved at all?!" Am I an accomplice to murder?
"Well that's simple. It's because we are tired Haruo. But you are what we need to finally end this." She places both hands on my shoulders and smiles at me with those sharp teeth of hers. "There's a final action I need to take if I want to end this long mission. A ritual if you will. But I can't do it by myself, this is something that will completely rewrite the whole planet, it's not as simple as just destroying it." She says that like it's a normal thing. "So we needed to develop individuals with flames that can compare to that of the earth itself. Which is a lot easier said than done." I push her hands off me and sit down.
"This is insane." The way I say it makes it seem like I'm out of breath. And maybe I am, I just performed my biggest heal ever and had a huge amount of information dropped on my head out of nowhere.
"That's magic for you. I need seven heroes to complete the ritual. You are the last one we need. I was hoping to wait until you'd fully manifested the transformation before telling you this but someone didn't think orders applied to them." Jormy jolts to attention at that.
"Transformation?".
"Yes. A normal body can't handle that kind of power, so when a hero is fully realised they gain the ability to turn into a kaiju. If the process is successful they will retain all of their faculties and be able to change back whenever they want. Quite cool right?" Is that why my teeth are getting sharper?
"But that can't be right. I'm the weakest, the wand is what does all this. How could I develop that kind of power." Her explanation doesn't make any sense.
"Well the wand is bonded to you. And with how many kaiju of different strength and abilities you've been making, along with how many near death experiences you've put yourself through can it really be that surprising? It's like one of those password things you humans have on your devices. Try enough times and your bound to get the right answer." That sounds stupid but I'm worried she'll kill me if I say that.
"…. You said you needed seven. Who are the others." She has mentioned other heroes before. I thought the term was more generic but I guess it's what she calls these people.
"Well I was the first. We also have Artemis and Jormy over there. Obviously you soon enough. Plus Lilith a-".
"Lilith?! What do you mean?!".
"You know, that girl I had you follow a while ago." She tilts her head.
"She's in on this?!" I don't know if I'm more angry or afraid at this point.
"Well sort of. She has been rather resistant to the idea but she's already awakened so it doesn't matter.".
"Why have me get so close to her then?! I thought you didn't want me to find out!".
"Well you didn't. I wanted you to remain at her side so she could show you the sins of humans." Does she mean the dark zone? "After everything you've seen these people do, can you really say that they can continue without intervention?" The wind is the only sound while I take a second to mull it over. To be honest it's not a hard decision.
"What the hell are you talking about?! I'm not going to kill anyone!" There's no way that's not the only answer here right? All three of them don't seem to see it that way.
"I understand that I may not have explained it as well as I could, but it's really the only thing we can do!" Tears start to well up in Louhis eyes, my perception of her before this conversation starts to creep back in. "Please…" she falls to her knees and grabs my hand, she's still almost as tall as me while I'm standing. "When you came to us out of the blue, I knew we were almost there." She's completely breaking down now. "I don't know how you have this power, but isn't this a blessing?! We can finally end this!" As she cries we end up back in the train. To see someone look so vulnerable while asking me to kill people is weird.
"What would we even do?".
"Kill most of the humans in this city for a start." Artemis says flatly.
"No!" Why did they think that would work?!
"Why not?!" Jormy stands up. "We're almost done! Can't you see how much pain Louhi is in?! Don't you dare turn your back after everything she and Artemis has gone through!" She starts to wave the gun around rather wildly.
"C-calm down." My hand leaves the grip of the witch so I can try and de escalate the situation.
"No! Your being so selfish!" I jump for my wand without thinking. When Jormy points the gun at me it's immediately kicked out of her hand by Artemis in a surprising display of agility. It's also a good example of why guns are redundant in these situations. I do a little roll when I grab my wand and crash into a seat. I see Shen starting to stir and also realise that Louhi isn't here anymore. Both the remaining enemies stare at me, I think considering if they can get me before I transform. I don't think Jormy embers that she's already done that because of the chaos. I'm not going to give her the chance this time though! I've fought these two before and I'm ready this time!
BANG!
And then a bullet goes through my brain.