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Do You Hear the Rapture?

Everest, Amanda, Swatch, and Spamton walked in silence down a street of the SIMULACRUM so warped by glitches and errors that practically nothing looked in place there. Rolling fields intersected by skyscrapers that gave way to dying flowers the size of city blocks decorated the horizon, where a hateful red sun slowly rose, bathing the group in harsh light. As they made their way around jutting slabs of concrete that rose tens of feet into the air, Everest couldn’t help but think they were heading in the right and yet somehow wrong direction simultaneously. Were these fractals made of the architecture a sign that they were getting close to the center of this cancerous blight, or did it signify that they had roamed far beyond its borders? Perhaps such questions would be a waste of thought right now. She needed time, time to think clearly, to consider what will happen when this all ends, to reflect on her time trapped here, and perhaps most pressing of all … what to do with Swatch.

Though the tall butler was being carried in the mostly trustworthy arms of Spamton in his NEO suit, his condition had worsened significantly, the collapsing wound on his side now causing his whole body to shift and pulsate every few seconds. Everest hadn’t known Swatch all too well before she had been brought here, but after the many, many cycles she had spent down here, she had grown to see why Queen had trusted him so dearly when he was alive. It didn’t seem fair to her that after so much preparation on his part to take back the city he cared for from the hands of The Founder he might not get the chance to even see it freed …

No. She couldn’t be thinking like that. Swatch was gonna make it. He had to. They just needed to find the Nail, and this whole nightmare would be over … at least until the inevitable next one if their track record was to be accounted for. But Everest didn’t even know what she was looking for. Xanrir hadn’t specified to Hazel what this thing actually was, and thus her instructions were equally vague. All she and the rest of the group were really hoping for was the possibility of …

stumbling into it …

As if on cue with her thoughts, the group rounded a corner and suddenly standing before them was a massive obelisk constructed of black stone that, unlike the rough and jagged features of the rest of the SIMULACRUM, was unnaturally smooth. Near the peak, Everest could spot a suspended balcony that seemed to spiral up along the outside to the summit. She turned to Spamton.

“Could you fly while carrying one of us?”

“OF [[h o r s e]] 1 CAAN. yOU HEARD H3R, [[Free-Range Poultry]], WE’R E GOING UP!!1!!”

Swatch shifted uncomfortably in the puppet’s arms. “Just don’t you dare drop me …”

“HMMmMMM[[M&M]]MM … I’LL [[Consider the following …]]!”

Without another word, Spamton spread his massive wings and in a very janky fashion lifted Swatch up, up, and up towards the balcony far above. At a certain point, Everest couldn’t make out the details, only seeing the neon metal plates of the NEO suit against the blood red sky. Amanda nervously patted Rodney in her arms, the tiny Tasque letting out a slightly laggy purr in response, before looking to Everest.

“Do you think that was his attempt at a joke?”

“Perhaps. He’s been trying a lot of things recently. Getting on my laptop and posting something, for one.”

Amanda giggled. “Hehe. By the blade, you were so mad at him.”

“Can you blame me? I’m surprised the damn thing didn’t get malware installed just from him touching it.”

“Random question, but are you gonna let him keep the NEO suit when we get back to our world?”

“Hhhhh … Probably not. In here it helps to have a bit of a powerhouse. But … back in the city? I don’t know, that feels more like it behooves us.”

“But has he not earned it? How many times has he saved our lives just from having that thing on?”

Everest bit the inside of her cheek in contemplation before sighing. “… Amanda, do we really need to talk about this right now?”

“I mean … not really. W-We should stay focused, I’m sorry.”

There was awkward silence between the two until Spamton returned, having dropped Swatch off on the balcony. Amanda got flown up next, much to the dismay of Rodney, who Everest could hear yowling from the ground level. Finally, it was her turn. Getting carried up that high into the air with such inconsistent movements was rather terrifying, but the puppet’s confident look towards the skies helped keep her morale high enough. When her feet impacted the ground of the balcony, she let out a sigh of relief. Spamton landed soon afterward, scooping Swatch off the ground from the wall he had leaned him up against. Swatch let out an uncomfortable squawk as he pulsed with the beat of the collapsing wound more, more unstable this time.

Everest looked onward to the stairs leading up and around, and after just a bit more walking, they finally reached the epicenter from which this virulent realm spread. In the center of the roof was a raised dias which held a small effigy formed of flesh and metal alike. Its surface shifted with the same screaming faces that could be seen on A.B.Y.S.S’s body, implying a connection between the two. Everest knew now without a shadow of a doubt that this is what they had been looking for. This was the Nail …

Without another moment’s hesitation, she sprinted for the dias, her footsteps tapping along the surface of the roof in echoes as the group followed a second afterward. She was so close, within 50 feet of it, she could get out of here at last and live the life she was supposed to, before A.B.Y.S.S, before The Founder, before the Queen ever even died … she could finally live for herself.

But of course, it couldn’t be quite so easy. With the sound of static feedback, the profane god of the SIMULACRUM appeared right in front of Everest, its clawed hand outstretched. She couldn’t stop her momentum fast enough before A.B.Y.S.S wrapped its hand around her throat and threw her backwards, causing her to yell in pain as she hit the ground. Amanda ran up to her, placing Rodney on the ground before gently helping Everest to her feet. Spamton had his arm cannon raised and pointed at A.B.Y.S.S, arcane energy glowing at the barrel, and Swatch … Swatch was quietly murmuring something, inaudible to even the puppet that held him.

The bleeding machine’s twisted smile grew wider, the flesh merged to its head tearing just a bit more as he did so. With a moment of pause, it began to speak. “Well done, participants! It seems that your little search has gotten you right where you aimed to be. You’ve reached the catalyst of my control over your precious little world.” A.B.Y.S.S chuckled darkly, the leathery wings on his back folding close to himself. “I would say you’ve sacrificed much to get here, but we both know that isn’t true.”

Everest spoke out in a voice that shook with simultaneously anger and fear. “We left Marcus to die! Is that not enough for you!? Must you take any more?!?”

“Come now. I’m not a fool. I am this world’s eyes and ears after all, I heard your little conversation with Amanda that leaving him to be deleted was for the better.” One of the extra arms that curled over its shoulder pointed at Amanda, causing her to have to gulp down her fear. “He is not of concern for you, and thus his unwilling sacrifice is not enough. But … I will offer you a plead bargain.”

A.B.Y.S.S snapped its fingers as it lifted Swatch and Amanda up with some form of telekinesis. Amanda yelped in panic as the entity pulled her close before stabbing one of its claws into her shoulder, immediately infecting her with a collapsing wound, now just as bad as Swatch’s. As Amanda fell silent, Everest let out a furious shout of rage. “NO! DON’T YOU TOUCH HER!! GIVE THEM BACK!”

A.B.Y.S.S turned to her and laughed raising both in the air higher. “Everest K. Addison … it is time for you to make a choice. Who lives … and who dies? This is the price you must pay for meddling behind my back, turning my own sibling against me, and sending me back to square one.”

Spamton fired a beam of energy at A.B.Y.S.S, which the entity took to the face to little effect. The puppet shouted, “HE-H-HEY!! [[Hands off the merchandise!]]! GIVe SW4<TCH [[Backspace]]!!!”

“It is not your choice to make, puppet. And unless you want to be going home two friends short, I suggest you do not attempt to harm me again.” A.B.Y.S.S was clearly reveling in the choice paralysis he had inflicted upon Everest, especially now with Spamton staring at her, trying to persuade her to save Swatch.

Everest opened her mouth to say something, when she noticed something … very subtle. Swatch’s eyes, though he was hanging mostly limp in the air, were flashing with light. Blinking on and off. On and off. She had a brief recall to when she had written a message in Morse code all that time ago, and suddenly the blinking made sense to her. Swatch was transmitting a short message, two words long:

SAVE

HER

Everest looked down, sorrow welling up in her chest as she took a deep, shaky breath. “I choose … Amanda … to be saved.” As soon as the words left her mouth, she fell to her knees, tears forming in her eyes. Spamton stood still for several moments, glitching, his glasses crackling with static. His emotions were not very clear, but whatever A.B.Y.S.S sensed in there … it was enough.

The entity cackled, lowering Amanda to the ground slowly before centering Swatch above itself. “As you wish. Swatch will never see his world free again.” A beam of piercing red light struck down over A.B.Y.S.S and Swatch, causing the collapsing wound on Swatch to instantly flare up. The corvid butler let out a pained scream as the wound ruptured.

Layer by layer, Swatch was slowly dissolved into nothing, a pile of scrap and organic material no longer recognizable as himself. It started with his feathers, and almost plastic skin, revealing a deep layer of lead-lined metallic plating, supposedly a measure he used to avoid detection by the CIFT throughout the years he was in hiding. Below that lay a complex layout of pipes, gears and wiring that flailed as the connections between them were snapped over and over. When it hit the last few organs Swatch still had that were organic, it left little but a sickly puddle of blood and bile.

Throughout the whole process, Everest could not bear to look at Swatch through his screams and death rattles. Spamton, however just stared onwards, absorbing every detail. But … finally, after wretchedly too long, it was over, and A.B.Y.S.S gave a mocking little bow before fading from sight.

Everest crawled over to Amanda, lifting her up and supporting her. The entity had kept its promise, to her luck, as the newly opened wound began to shrivel back into healthy flesh on the Lightner’s body. Amanda let out a few shaky breaths, seemingly not having been fully conscious for Swatch’s execution. Everest breathed quietly, “We’re getting out of here. Now.”

She let go of Amanda, seeing as she could steady herself now, and sprinted the remaining distance to the dias that held the Nail, this twisted little effigy. Everest grabbed it off the pedestal before throwing it onto the ground and stomping it as hard as she possible could. With a twist of her foot, the effigy let out a satisfying crunch and was destroyed.

Over the course of the next few moments, a blinding white light would flash in the far distance, slowly spreading to where the tower the group was standing on was. Before the light could consume them, Everest, Amanda and Rodney, and Spamton all disappeared. They awoke to find themselves trapped in three different pods of flesh, the pestilent black tumors A.B.Y.S.S had used to integrate them in the first place, now shriveling up. They ripped the weakened flesh away from themselves and crawled out, Amanda and Everest coughing as they crawled away. Spamton simply rose from his pod, gazed around for a moment, and then immediately flew off to somewhere in the city.

The dark fountain that gave life to the CIFT home world was no longer shining red, its corruption purged at last. Perhaps … things could start to recover now, if given the right care.

… But there was one who now was stuck wandering in the dark.

Marcus Baal trudged through the endless shadows of the Greater Void, his binary code for a body flickering unstably. It seemed that with the deletion of the SIMULACRUM, Marcus too got deleted with it. It was clear to the entities that surrounded him on all sides that he would not make it to the Market in time to be saved. But … what he would become interested all of them deeply.

[[System Reboot Successful]]

[[Running Diagnostic Scan for Reparation Protocols]]

[[Thank You, and Have a Regular Day!]]

#deltarune #creative writing #the CIFT #spamton #swatch #A.B.Y.S.S #Everest K. Addison #Amanda Highmore #A.B.Y.S.S Takeover #Finale

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