SWNOVELXO Chapter 21: Chapter 16
CHAPTER 16: THE CRADLE SHATTERS
The Choir Moves (Lust)
In the Hall of Reflection, the mirrors rippled like black water.
Lust stood before them ready to take orders, their mirrored eyes fixed on a single reflection... the one that didn't quite move in time with the rest.
The voice came softly, but it was not theirs.
"Time to sing, pretty one."
Clone 3's masked visage appeared in the glass, faint and ghostly. His voice was calm, but behind it came the faint hum of many... the Choir of Sins murmuring their approval in unison.
"The Cradle must break tonight. The alarms must sleep. The Geki is already moving through the wastes. And when it sings… Eden will burn."
Lust's own reflection smiled faintly, though their true lips did not.
"Understood."
"Disable the alarm grid. Give the swarm its chorus... and you arrive at Cradle wait for further instructions. Understood "
"Yes I did.."
The mirror darkened. The Choir's hum faded.
Lust turned from the Hall, pulling their coat closer as they climbed back into the cathedral proper.
And behind them, in every mirror they passed, the same masked figure whispered in harmony:
"Today they will bleed."
...
The Geki-Class Awakens
Far beyond Eden's glowing walls, the sands of the wasteland split.
At first it was only a low hum, like iron dragged through glass. Then a scream split the sky... shrill, alien, unearthly....
From the crack in the earth rose the Geki-Class Akuma.
Its body was long and spindly, like an insect carved from black marble and smoke. Its head was faceless... just a hollow crown of lightless eyes... and its arms split into whips of serrated bone.
Around it, lesser Akuma scuttled and writhed in its wake.
It did not charge the wall outright.
Instead, it walked.
Slowly.
Confidently.
As though it had already won.
And then, like a shadow spilling too far, the swarm followed it.
Thousands of Akuma crashing against Eden's barrier, their claws sparking against the glass-like walls as alarms wailed through the city.
Or rather... they should have.
But deep in Eden, as Lust brushed her fingertips along the cathedral's circuit-run walls, the alarm glyphs sputtered… then fell silent.
The Geki-Class sang as it reached the city streets, and the first heads began to roll.
...
Eden Burns
The Geki's illusions hit first.
The first wave of soldiers who approached simply dropped their weapons, screaming... in agony, in pain. Eyes shed red tears through their face.
To them, the world fractured... they saw Eden burning, their own children being torn apart, their loved ones accusing them, their bodies falling to black claws.
"Ahhhhhhhh... make it stop, Make it stop...." The soldiers screamed...
"EMILY !!!!! NOOOOOOO..."
The few who managed to lift rifles found them melting in their hands, though the weapons themselves were intact.
By the time the swarm cut into them with claws and jaws, most of the soldiers were already on their knees, begging for it to end.
Whole streets were painted in crimson before Luther even arrived.
...
Luther Arrives
He landed in the heart of the chaos like a spear of golden light.
The Geki turned its hollow face toward him at once, and the illusions slammed into him before his boots even struck the ground.
He staggered.
And the memories came flooding back.
Naomi.
Her laughter.
Her scream.
The flash of a rifle shot cutting her down as she stood between him and an Akuma pack years ago.
Her blood on his hands.
The look in her eyes as they dulled.
Then the others... comrades who'd fought beside him during the early wars... dying one by one in ways he couldn't stop. Crushed. Burned. Torn apart.
He could hear their voices now, accusing him.
"You let us die. You were made to save us… and you let us die... LUTHER!!!."
The Geki's crown of eyes flared. Its long, bone-blade arms cut toward him.
He caught one in his hand.
It still sliced through his palm, his divine lattice sparking, golden blood hitting the ash.
His teeth bared.
And then, slowly… he smiled.
"Fine," he whispered.
Then a glow flared up his arms, burning hotter than before... angry, erratic.
"You right.... i was never meant to save you." He sighed "Then I'll become exactly what you think I am."
...
Luther's Rampage
What followed was not a battle.
It was a slaughter.
Luther moved through the swarm like a god unchained, tearing Akuma apart with bare hands, piece by piece
Arm after arm , body part after body part
with steel torn from the streets, with their own claws turned against them.
He shattered the Geki's illusions through sheer force of will, even as it screamed into his mind, and every scream only made him angrier, faster, more savage....
Made him more chaotic than the last.
An angel made out of innocence and purity.
Descended into man... worst nightmare.
He bit into one of the Geki's arms and ripped it clean off, black ichor spilling over his face.
When the swarm tried to flee, he dragged them back.
When the Geki lashed him across the chest hard enough to flay the skin from his ribs, he only laughed... a broken, horrifying laugh.. and drove his fist through its hollow skull until its light finally went dark.
And then he kept going.
And going, going and going....
The soldiers who arrived too late could only watch as Luther, golden light spilling from his wounds, turned his rage on everything left standing laughing under the full moon.
And everything left standing was them.
Standing before a sight of not their hero they praise
But monster at its core...
...
The Prototype Awakens
Even Zero flinched as the reports flooded the Spire.
Eden's outer sectors in ruin. Hundreds dead. Entire battalions retreating in terror from one man.
He stood in the Throne of Foresight, his hand pressed flat against the sealed chamber.
And for the first time, his composure cracked.
His voice was low, almost a growl.
"Release Seraph."
And somebody alert Mr.P and the Observers...
The prototype's containment pod hissed open.
The being inside was tall, impossibly pale, with wings of shattered crystal and eyes like polished voidstone.
Half of Zero's own divine energy crackled in its veins, and it opened its mouth in silence before stepping out.
Down in the streets, Luther... still tearing into the last of the swarm... stopped as the air itself seemed to freeze.
And then Seraph descended.
The impact of its arrival shattered the stones beneath them.
And the fight began.
...
Luther vs Seraph
It was not beautiful.
It was horrifying.
Seraph moved like light given shape, blades of raw lattice cutting across Luther's chest, arms, face.
And Luther only roared back, meeting the blows with his own hands, dragging Seraph into the wreckage of Eden's streets, leaving golden blood and black ichor splashed across the walls.
Soldiers scattered.
Genna arrived with fire streaming from her hands, her own battalion at her back, trying desperately to corner Luther long enough to contain him.
Seraph's wings cut through the smoke, striking Luther to his knees.
Luther's roar shook the whole sector as he rose again, tearing through soldiers who tried to pin him.
One by one they fell.
Until at last, Seraph's blade pierced his side clean through.
And Luther finally stumbled, still glaring up at Zero's prototype through the blood in his eyes.
...
Mr. P Watches
In his lab, surrounded by monitors, Mr. P leaned forward as the numbers on his console spiked.
Luther's divine resonance was climbing.
Elian's signal... connected faintly to Luther's lattice... was now at four percent.
Mr. P's jaw tightened.
His clones stood behind him, silent for once, watching as his fingers dug into the edge of the console.
"I need more," he whispered.
"More… to find you… wherever he's hidden you. Hold on a bit luther..."
His sunglasses slipped down his nose as the screens glowed brighter and brighter.
And still he didn't blink.
Even when, somewhere in Eden's corridors, the soldiers sent to retrieve him were gunned down one by one... their blood pooling on the tiles, Mr. P's own masked clones 5 and 6 standing over them.
He only smiled faintly.
"Not yet," he said softly.
"Not yet."
...
The Cradle Corrupts
Down in Sector Zero, the Cradle pulsed faintly in the dark.
Golden liquid shimmered, circuitry crackling.
And Lust stood at its edge, their mirrored face unreadable, one hand outstretched to press against the divine core.
A faint black glow spread through the circuits as they whispered the Choir's song.
"Today we makr them bleed."
The hum of the Cradle faltered. Sparks danced across the chamber.
And then...
"What are you doing here?"
Lust froze.
Rei stood leaning in the doorway, his coat hanging like a shadow, his eyes bright and cold.
He didn't smile.
Didn't move.
Just stared at her.
"Well ?"
The silence stretched.
And the black glow on the Cradle's circuits wavered faintly as Lust turned to face him, her mirrored expression finally cracking.
"Fuck," she whispered....
Closing Beat
Above them, Eden burned.
The Choir's sigils painted on the walls in blood.
Luther's roar still shaking the streets.
Seraph's wings slicing golden arcs through the smoke.
And in the distance, faint and steady, Elian's signal pulsed higher.
Five percent.
Mr. P's laugh echoed faintly in the ash.
"Almost there."
...
END OF CHAPTER 16: THE CRADLE SHATTERS