Let's not talk about how long this took to update, aight?

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[Light's POV]

It's been quiet around the Realm for a long, long time. I knew it was too quiet.

With all of the panic and stress going on right now already, of course something else has to start causing problems. Just- of course it does. It happens every time things start getting crazy again. Why was I hoping so much that it wouldn't this time?

As soon as I finally finished that incident file about the Professor's little basement project, reports start coming in that something is going from town to town wrecking things. Something... big, dangerous. Apparently some kind of freakish monster. It's sure a change from the usual power-obsessed maniac, but I'm certain it's also not a good change. There's already been people injured by it, we don't need more people getting hurt... or worse.

I'm standing over a large map table in one of the meeting rooms of the headquarters, looking over the marked locations. These spots are where the beast reported has attacked, seemingly going in a looping path around the Realm. This is how we know it's not just attacking randomly; something about these towns made the monster want to attack them. We just can't figure out what that is yet.

As I'm taking another look, one of my Elites enters the room. As I look up, he stops where he is and seems surprised.

"Oh, sorry Light. I didn't know you were using this room." He says. I recognize the voice.

"It's alright, you're not really interrupting anything." I reply. "Just trying to figure out what that monster is trying to do, maybe I could try to predict where it's going to go next if I figured out what all these towns had in common."

"That's actually what the meeting I was going to set up for later today is going to be about. I wanted to see if any of the other Guards had any ideas about it."

"That's a good idea. If I can, I'll be there."

...

There's a beat of silence for a moment. After a minute, I wave him over and go back to looking at the map.

"You can hang out in here for a bit, Happy. How'd your last visit with Sabre go?" I ask.

Happy walks over and starts looking at the map with me. He sighs before answering my question.

"He's... not looking good. He's even stopped making wise cracks about his situation." Happy replies. "Although, the Professor figured out what's going on with him, sort of."

"Wait, really?" I look up.

"Yeah. He says that after testing something related to an old deity, it worked. Which apparently means Sabre got this virus because he somehow got on a deity's nerves."

I give Happy an incredulous look for a second, then shake my head.

"Why am I not surprised..." I mumble.

"Hey, it's Sabre we're talking about here." Happy chuckles. "Knowing him, he probably mouthed off to somebody he should've have again."

"Oh jeez, remember the last time he did that?"

"Yeah. In his defense, that guy was a bit of a jerk, but Sabre nearly got his nose broken because of his tactic of getting somebody to incriminate themselves by annoying them enough."

"He was lucky that the guy's friend tried holding him back at the last second. The healers would've had a tougher time fixing the damage if he didn't."

"Yeah... speaking of healers, because of that thing running around and breaking everything, it's getting harder for them to continue with their work on making stuff to potentially help with Sabre's situation."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. When it ran through, that monster destroyed most of their supplies to make medicines. Surprisingly, it left the houses alone."

"Hm. That's a bit strange."

I go to keep looking at the map, but then an idea hits me. I quickly open a small drawer in the table filled with documents, taking out one of the reports and reading through the dates on it, looking between those and the places marked on the map. There's no way...

"What is it?" Happy asks.

"Happy, do you have any copies of the reports of the monster attacking?" I say, looking to him for a moment.

"Uh, yeah I do. Right here." He hands me a few papers from the stack he was carrying.

I take them and put them next to the map as well, now scanning through all of the information. They all match up.

"Look. These are reports from healers' villages, telling us that they found something that could potentially be useful and are trying to replicate it." I start, pointing at the papers on the left that I took from the drawer. "See the dates on them?"

"They're from a few days before the monster started attacking."

"And look what villages and towns are marked on the map."

Happy looks between them for a moment, then the realization dawns on him as well.

"They're the same towns from those reports..." He says. "And so are the reports of the attacks!"

"Starting a week and a half ago, the monster started going after healers' towns that said they potentially had a breakthrough, trying to erase their progress." I explain. "So going down the list of towns that reported and haven't been attacked yet..."

I take a moment to find the next town on the list.

"It's going to attack Fern Valley next." I finish. "I'm going to gather some Guards and meet it there before it can do any damage-"

"Hey, I'm going with you." Happy says. "I want to teach that thing a lesson too."

"Happy, we don't know what this thing can really do-"

"Which is why I'm going with you. You need someone to watch your back too."

I sigh, running a hand through my hair for a moment.

"...You're lucky we've been friends for so long. Otherwise you'd be in hot water right now."

"And you're lucky I haven't let the Orange Leader drag you to therapy yet."

"Y'know, he's not the first to say I need therapy."

"That should be a hint."

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We got to Fern Valley as fast as we could, teleporting a few Guards with us. We had only just started heading to the small town when we heard it.

A loud, thunderous roar, followed by the sounds of breaking wood and stone. People screamed, and a few quickly ran out of the town, some dragging others behind them as they tried to get them out of there. Parents carrying their children, just as scared as their crying little ones.

The group of Guards and I start running, catching one of the fleeing townsfolk as they leave. The Yellow Steve panics for a second, then realizes it's some of the Colorless Guard in front of him and stops.

"Oh, thank Origin you're here!" The Yellow Steve exclaims. "The- the monster, it's here. It's attacking the town- it's at the healer's shop! There's still people in there!"

"Okay, thank you for telling us. We'll try to get rid of this thing." I reply, glancing up to see dust and dirt flying through the air inside part of the town. That must be where the shop is.

"Please, hurry. M-My brother's in there, I-I couldn't-"

"We'll do everything in our power to make sure they're safe, you just focus on getting to safety yourself, alright?" Happy tells him.

"I... okay." The Yellow Steve says.

With that, he runs off towards the other end of the valley. Motioning for the Guards to follow, I head into the town, already hearing the monster continue to growl and screech.

The streets are mostly empty save for a few people still running out, and as I make my way towards the destruction I see a few people have opted to hide inside their homes. Word must have gotten around that the monster leaves the houses alone, which is a positive on the situation at least. More places for people to stay out of its warpath.

The noise gets louder and louder as we get closer, and soon we've arrived at the shops area of the town. Debris is everywhere, broken wood beams and walls lying around the cracked stone street. The source of the destruction is there, attacking a building made of brick and stone, still shrieking and wailing as it tried to demolish it.

It had long, thick, tree trunk arms, no hands at their ends, just flat stumps with what looked to be a tougher grey material covering the lower half. Its top half of its torso was almost person-like, but it was warped and large. It had a head, but what was supposed to be its face only had a vague outline of a normal face and a wide maw filled with sharp dagger-shaped teeth. Its bottom half was a tail like a snake's, wrapping around other buildings nearby as it slammed its arms into the brick building repeatedly. It towered over the structure.

However, what I recognized about it was its black-and-white swirled skin, the center of the spiral at its chest. It was another one of those things, like the ones that had been going after Sabre, but... almost like a mutation of them. A very dangerous mutation.

Looking at the building, I saw someone dash past the window inside. Just like the Yellow Steve had said, there were still people in the shop. I quickly turn to the Guards, already forming a plan.

"This thing is another creature like what was in the Professor's lab. You all remember its weakness to fire, right?" I ask. The Guards nod. "Good."

I point to two of the other Guards.

"You two, come with me. We're going to get those people out of there." I command. "The rest of you will use torches and anything else that creates flame to distract the monster so we can lead them out. It's too dangerous to attack it while those townsfolk are inside the building it's trying to destroy, so be careful not to do any real damage. If it gets ticked off, it might start wrecking everything around it. Elite, you will lead the group."

"Yes, sir." Happy answers.

"Alright. Once the monster is distracted, us three will head in and guide the people inside out. Then, once they're safe, we'll join the rest of you and we'll all actually start attacking the monster. Everything understood?"

"Understood, sir!" All of the Guards answer.

"Perfect. Split into those groups, start your parts of the plan on my command."

The two Guards follow me as I carefully sneak closer to the small brick shop, and the three of us duck behind a tipped over cart. Further away, the other four Guards and Happy have gone to a street corner, lighting a few torches and wrapping cloth around the ends of their spears. As they light the cloth using the torches, Happy looks towards me. I nod, and signal the Guards to start.

The larger group throws a few torches at the monster, burning it. It screams as the horrible smell of burned, rotting flesh fills the air. It furiously looks in the direction the fire came from, seeing the group of Guards there. As it heads towards them, the group runs, still throwing fire at the beast.

I quickly run towards the shop, the two Guards behind me following. Opening the door, I don't see anyone there at first.

"Hello?" I call out. "This is the Colorless Guard, we're here to get you out of here."

"In here!" Another voice calls back. It's coming from another room in the shop. The door to it is next to the counter, a sign above it labeled 'examination room'.

I approach the door and open it, seeing a small room with cabinets lining the opposite wall, a counter and a sink next to them. A box with potions sits on the countertop. On the other side of the room from the sink, there's an examination table. A young Yellow Steve is sitting on the table, a crutch next to him, and there's a cast on his right leg. A Green Steve is crouched on the floor next to the table, checking on the cast. A Violet Steve is at the counter, putting some potions in a bag he's holding. They both have medical scrubs.

"Sir." I say, getting all of their attention. The Green Steve gets up, turning to me.

"Oh, thank goodness. We were starting to get worried it'd take the roof down." The Green Steve says. He's the one that answered.

"I've always told you building the shop out of stronger materials was a good idea!" The Violet Steve smiles at him.

"Yes, yes. You did." The Green Steve smiles back at him, then turns back to me. "We would have tried to get out earlier, but that thing was already attacking the shop by the time we realized what was happening. We couldn't get out without risking it seeing us and being stomped on. Especially because we have a patient here."

The Green Steve motions to the Yellow Steve, and he waves awkwardly while picking up his crutch.

"Sunbeam here was just dropped off by his older brother for us to check on his broken leg right before that thing started trying to flatten our store." The Green Steve explains. "He needs help walking, so he can't go as fast as he needs to for him to escape. We were trying to figure out a way to help him move faster without straining his leg before you got here."

"I've got him." One of the Guards with me says, then walks over to the young Steve. He whispers to him for a moment before Sunbeam nods, then the Guard carefully picks him up, one arm supporting his back while the other is supporting his legs. Sunbeam holds onto the Guard's shoulder.

"Perfect. Now we can go." The Violet Steve says, swinging the strap of his bag over his shoulder.

Turning and exiting the store, the Green and Violet Steve follow, the Guard still carrying the Yellow Steve. It's not long before we're back in the street, the monster's shrieks still being heard echoing through the air. The awful stench still lingers.

"You two, lead them out of the area. I'll go join the others." I say, drawing my spear.

"But sir-" The other Guard starts.

"I'll be fine. Go."

The Guards follow my orders and lead the three townsfolk to the exit. Once I don't see them anymore, I rush to where the other group likely is, following the sounds of the beast. It gets louder as I get closer, and I'm able to feel the vibrations from the sound in my bones. I eventually get to where it is, and-

The monster is badly burned, but still up and angry. It's standing over Happy, fallen on the ground, raising its arm to crush him.

I run to Happy, quickly grabbing him and jumping away, just as the monster slams its arm down. We tumble for a second, then stop. I get up as soon as I can, helping Happy to his feet. The other Guards start to rush over, but they're interrupted by the monster seeing them, and they have to continue fighting it off.

"You alright?" I ask Happy.

"Yeah, I'm good. It broke my spear, though." Happy replies. "Half of it is still stuck in its back."

"You jumped on that thing's back?"

Happy shrugs.

"It went down for a second and I was on higher ground. I tried to aim for the back of its neck. As you can see, I missed."

The monster roars, making both of us look up. One of the Guards had somehow thrown a torch hard enough to get it stuck in the creature's face. Ouch.

As its face begins to burn, it howls and tries to shake off the fire. It's stumbling, thrashing its arms wildly in an attempt to hit something. The Guards back away, out of its range.

I look around, seeing a few barrels nearby, next to another shop. And the grey, grainy substance spilling out of one gives me an idea.

"Hey, you see these barrels over there?" I point at them, and Happy sees them.

"...Please don't be doing what I think you're doing." He says.

"Well, if we get the monster to run into them while it's still on fire, problem solved. Help me move them."

"Oh, that's a lot less stupid than what I was thinking of."

I run over to the barrels and flip one on its side, rolling it over to the center of the street. Happy does the same with another barrel. Two of the other Guards get the idea and move the last two barrels just as we finish with the first ones.

I'm about to tell Happy and the other Guards to move out of range, when I hear a shout and look up. One of the Guards still distracting the monster was flung by it flicking its tail, and has been sent flying. I leap forward and catch him before he hits the ground, stopping him from possibly breaking something.

"You okay?" I ask the Guard, setting him down.

"Uh- yes, sir." The Guard quickly replies. I hear him mumble as he steps back. "Origin, that was embarrassing..."

"Good. Now, all of you get far away from all these barrels, alright?" I explain, waving at the other Guard still fighting the beast to get his attention, then motioning for him to take cover. He obliges and runs inside a deserted building, the monster still busy trying to put the fire out. "This explosion is definitely going to be fairly big."

Happy nods while the other Guards look concerned for a moment, and they all run further into the street. Once they stop, I can still see them, but they're far enough away.

I look up at the monster as it stops for a moment, trying to figure out where its prey went. It's still on fire, which is perfect. It also makes me wonder what the heck the Guards used to fuel their fires.

"Hey!" I shout, making the monster look down in my direction. "Over here, ugly!"

The monster growls, and contrary to what I thought it would do, it goes to ram me with its head. As soon as I see it start to move, I turn and run as fast as I can towards the other Guards and Happy.

Seconds felt like minutes.

I could hear the monster growl in anger, volume increasing as it got closer and closer to the ground.

I get halfway there. And then-

BOOM.

the explosion sends a shockwave through the air, pushing me forwards faster than I could run. I lose my footing and tumble on the broken cobblestone street, feeling rocks scrape my face and clatter against my armor. I really need to start remembering to wear my helmet during these things.

Next thing I know, I'm laying on the ground, my ears ringing. My face stings, I see my spear on the ground in front of me. I get up, planting my hands firmly against the stone and pushing myself upright. The Guards get to me as I pick up my spear, and help me to my feet.

"Sir! Are you alright?" Happy asks me.

"I'm fine, just a few scrapes and bruises." I reply. "Did it... did it work?"

Happy and the other Guards look behind me for a second, then Happy looks back to me.

"Uh... yep. It definitely worked, considering that thing slammed itself headfirst into the barrels."

"It what-?"

I turn around to see the damage, and yikes.

The thing's torso is completely gone. All that's left is its snake tail and large, pillar-like arms, which are all starting to melt just like the other creature once it died. Its black and white swirl begins to meld and mix together to create a neutral grey. Already, a puddle of the mass is forming underneath its... corpse, I guess, spilling into and filling the medium-sized hole the blast made. The stench is putrid.

"Eesh, that reeks." One of the Guards comments.

"Yeah, that's got to be the worst thing I've ever smelled." Another agrees.

"I am so glad we're not on cleanup duty this week." Another whispers.

I look around for a moment.

"Hey, where's the fourth-?" I ask.

"Oh, there he is." Happy says, pointing.

I look, and the fourth Guard is still inside the building, waving to us through a window. He quickly gives a thumbs up. He then points, and... some of the melting monster is blocking the door.

"We'll get him out through the window." One of the other Guards says, another following behind him. They get to work loosening the pane, careful not to break the glass. The third Guard goes to help too, after a minute.

"So, did those townsfolk get out okay?" Happy asks me.

"Yeah, it was a Green and a Violet, both healers, and one of their patients, a young Yellow Steve with a broken leg." I explain. "They didn't get out because they didn't have a way to move the kid out of there fast enough."

"That kid's brother is gonna be glad to see him alright." Happy says. "That's the best part of the job, by far."

"Heh, yeah..."

There's a beat of silence for a moment.

"So... how are we gonna explain this to the Leaders?" I ask.

"I'm pretty sure that's your problem, not mine." Happy laughs.

"Oh, you son of a..."

"Hey, you're the one that used yourself as bait. The last time I explained something stupid you did during a mission to the Orange Leader, he nearly had a stroke. It's your turn."

"Hm... touché."

"That's what I thought. Get yourself patched up first though. You'd give all of the Leaders a heart attack if you showed up like that."

"I will, I will. I'm not daft." I smile.

"Good."

Underneath the shadow of his helmet, I see Happy smile back.

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[ᒲᒷᒲ𝙹∷||'s POV]

So, the Ghoul prototype failed... how infuriating.

Not to mention that professor using something of my past to make the start of an actual cure. I forgot I even made those things, let alone gifted any to the Steves. A very small bright side is that he only had a very old fragment of one, meaning its power had diminished greatly, making it less effective. Now I just have to make sure he doesn't somehow find that blasted tree.

I'd take care of both him and that stubborn guard captain, but I used most of my power for my recent big projects. The Ghoul, that virus... they were very taxing to create. I haven't created new things in so very long, I knew that making two things almost one after the other would be arduous, but I didn't think much of it because I underestimated the Creator's "friends".

That was a mistake I do not plan on making again. Starting with cutting off any access to that tree, I will make sure such blunders will not happen a second time.