Hummmm!!!!!!

The humming of the engines reached me even from inside, as the galleon we’d boarded lifted off the ground slowly, the roof above the place opened, as the craft flew slowly through the opening..

The moment the galleon was In open air, the humming increased in intensity before..

Swooooooooshhhhh!!!!!

The massive construct tore through the air as we made way toward the ruined city the executioners had turned into their very own domain..

...

Back within the confines of the galleon..

The huge vessel glided through the clouds with seamless motion, meanwhile.

Both myself, Leo, and Malachi were Currently gathered around a mission board, the monk, killer, pointing towards it as he addressed us.

"Seems the old man prepared well huh?"

I returned my attention to the board, just in time for monk killer to begin speaking.

"I’m assuming valen has briefed you already on what exactly it is you’re about to face."

We nodded.

"Then he must’ve also told you about the fact that the creatures had resulted from the faulty mutations of a dungeon, right?"

He asked once again, and we nodded together..

"Good, that means he also told you exactly why these things are even more dangerous than the reports suggest, right?"

....

Silence..

utter and complete silence..

"He didn’t?" Monk killer seemed genuinely surprised..

"Yea, it must’ve slipped his mind." I lied, because there was no way I was telling the man that I’d gotten myself kicked out of an important briefing by being annoying..

So "take one for the team old man."

"Hmm, that’s quite unlike him. But no matter." The old monk, luckily, didn’t put too much thought into it..

"Okay, so he didn’t tell you exactly why these guys are terrifying, but he did tell you how they came about? The proto-law fragment?"

We nodded once again..

"Then this will be easier to explain."

We leaned in forward..

"The reason these things are terrifying, is not because they’re strong, no."

"For although they’re impossibly powerful, their true terror lies from the fact that they’d been empowered and fused with broken fragments of a law."

"What does that mean? It means they’re not merely monsters, they’re walking representatives of a broken law, so what you’re about to face aren’t just monsters that will hit harder, ohh very much harder."

"What you’re about to face.."

At this point, I was just about ready to use instant transmission and go get these monsters myself, I was that excited..

"What you’re about to face, are horrors the likes of which no mortal stage practitioner should ever hope of facing, so, foolish children, do you still dare to take this on?"

....

...

"Hahahahaha... that old monk, killer, really thought we’d wuss out like his Pussy ass monks? Hah!!" Malachi laughed loudly the moment killer’s galleon retreated to the temple..

What? Was there ever any doubt about what our answers were going to be??

SCREEEEEEECHHHH!!!!

"Alright, we’ll be flying from here henceforth, now get on!" Leo regained his natural size as he beckoned us up.

We got up, myself obviously going to stand on the guy’s beak, at this point I’d already claimed full rights.

.....

It wasn’t long before the devastated city came into view, the Thousand Mile Mountains looming like a sentient entity on the far horizon.

The city, from a distance, looked like any other city, truthfully, one could hardly tell it was an apparent ghost town, that is until you started getting closer.

The moment we finally reached a distance where we could get an actual view of the city itself, the atmosphere shifted.

And the closer we got to the city, the drearier things became.

The atmosphere here felt wrong.

Not dangerous.

Not terrifying.

Just wrong.

As if there was something fundamentally out of place in its structural integrity...

A horrifying feeling of dread shot through my entire body.

A fear unlike anything I’d ever experienced as my back broke out in a cold sweat..

"Wha.. what is it??" I stuttered, hands shaking.

It wasn’t me.

No, it wasn’t me.

It was the very atmosphere itself.

I could feel it shake, I could feel its trembling.

I could feel its FEAR!

It was an existential level type of dread.

The same type of feeling a newborn calf would have when confronted with a fully grown lion.

It was horrible..

"Why?" The closer we got to the city, the more horrifying the feeling got.

My face got paler and paler.

This was perhaps the first time I’d ever come to regret the absurd affinity and synchronicity I had with the atmosphere, because right now, she was dreadfully terrified...

"Hooo.... Breathe..." I wasn’t talking to me..

I could swear I heard a whining sound, a whimper of sorts when I said that, but I wasn’t in the mind to care right now.

I needed to stop this feeling of dread from overwhelming me..

"Breathe.." I whispered once more.

Taking a seat cross legged, eyes closing, as I let my consciousness sink into the surrounding atmosphere..

"Breathe..." I whispered one last time..

"I am here.."

The stale, heavy air around me blew gently, struggling to carry out what should’ve essentially been a default action for it..

"I am here.." I whispered once more..

"Do not be afraid.." My trembling started reducing..

"You have endured enough.."

"I am here.." My trembling figure slowly stabilized..

"You’ve carried me all this while.."

"Now, let me carry you.."

A beat of silence followed, before.

"Do not fear."

"Do not tremble."

"For I am here, and no one, ABSOLUTELY NONE, can ever dare cause you to collapse."

"I AM HERE."

The atmosphere seemed to have been pacified, as the feeling of dread slowly disappeared.

"Abyssal Authority.."

The heavy atmosphere around us vanished completely, as the wind started blowing as it should.

The heaviness and dreariness of the atmosphere surrounding us lightening considerably..

I could feel it.

The surrounding atmosphere, it was... grateful.

An exhausted sigh left my lips as I finally stood, body drenched.

"Something is wrong here.." I said, finally opening my eyes to the solemn expression that had appeared on Malachi’s face..

"Dante.. look." The monkey had never used my name before, so when he did, with that tone, and that expression, I knew things had gone awry..

The moment I turned and my eyes landed on what he was looking at, my pupils dilated violently...

..

Something had appeared before us, blocking our path towards the city.

Something big.

Something wrong.

But what set me off the most, was the atmosphere that was collapsing around it..

A scream echoed through my mind.

Not through the air.

Not through the world.

Through me.

Raw.

Agonized.

Endless.

Tears began rolling down my face before I even realized it.

"Kekekekeke... you.. it’s you... you’re the one who fixed it... kekekekeke... I’ll break you, just like I’m breaking it... kekekekek!!" The thing spoke, it’s voice a cacophony of sounds layered atop each other, but I wasn’t listening..

My entire being was shaking.

In rage.

In pain.

I could feel her hurting.

Hurting like never before.

It was the first time I’d ever felt such a sadness and pain, barring the day I lost my parents.

I tried to speak, but no words came out..

The screams were intensifying..

The atmosphere was collapsing right before my eyes..

"L..Leo..." I gathered every ounce of strength within me to force those words out..

"Say no more.."

He spread his wings wide, light gathering between them.

"Will you be alright?" Malachi’s voice barely reached me, but I nodded nevertheless..

"Then I’ll wait for you within the city."

Silence was all that greeted him, as both he and Leo vanished in a blinding flash of light..

What was left behind, was me and the towering abomination of combined body parts..

"Kekekekeke.... Your friends.. you... everyone.. dies.... Kekekekekeke!!!" The thing laughed.

But I wasn’t in the mood for games.

She was dying right before me.

My heart was shattering into a million pieces.

All I wanted now, was for this pain to go away.

All I wanted now, was for her to be safe.

All I wanted now, was for her cries to cease.

All I wanted now, "Is for you to be gone.."

<VOID-TEMPEST FORM>..

A whisper in the wind.

But one that she recognized all too well, as finally, her cries ceased.

Her response coming swift and in furious judgement..

Today, this thing, all of them..

They shall pay, pay very dearly, for daring to lay a hand on my precious ATMOSPHERE...

"DIE...."

***********

A/N: damn... you just had to go and get the murder hobo angry, didn’t you?

How long y’all think this fool will last before Dante folds him?

3/3

See y’all tomorrow..

*********

Thanks for reading..