49. Chapter Forty-Nine #4
“Enough!” Temica shouted, but Nyrah charged at her once more. A thick beam of pink light burst from Temica’s palm, hitting the nekofae square in the chest. Nyrah screamed and flew into the air like a ragdoll.
“No!” Cody shouted, but stayed where he was, Temica blocking the path.
Nyrah had crashed onto the ground and rolled a few times before coming to a stop.
Morgan winced. That couldn’t be good. Nyrah tried to push herself up.
Her arms were shaking with the effort, and one wing was bent at an irregular angle.
Every instinct screamed at Morgan to go and help the fallen girl, but Temica was walking towards them.
She looked to be taking her sweet time, as if she was eating up all the fear and chaos that surrounded her.
“And I’m pretty sure I need Nyrah’s help,” Cody whispered to Morgan.
“What do we do?” Morgan gripped Cody’s arm, her heart pounding in her chest. They were backing away from Temica, but the lake was behind them, and they were getting closer with every step.
“Hey! Stupid Pink Lady!” Gracie shouted, her voice carrying over the music and the storm. “You want me? Come and get me!”
Morgan and Cody looked up to where Gracie was hiding in the tree.
“What is she doing?” Cody asked.
“I don’t know but—”
Temica shot a blast of pink lightning at them and Cody pushed Morgan out of the way in the nick of time. The lightning grazed Cody’s arm.
Gracie called out again: “Hey Pink Lady! You’re dumb and I don’t like your face! I hate you!”
This time Temica snapped her head around, looking directly at the little girl. She turned and started walking swiftly towards Gracie’s tree while Morgan was still getting back to her feet.
Gracie
The stupid Pink Lady was walking right into her plan, but the lady kept turning around and trying to blast Aunty Morgan and Mr. Pinecone Man with pink lightning. They were doing a very good job at not getting hit. For such a magical, powerful lady, she sure seemed to have bad aim.
Just a little more… thought Gracie. She swallowed nervously as the Pink Lady reached the tree and looked up at her. Gracie only locked eyes with her for a second, but it was enough to send a cold shiver down her spice. She quickly looked away so she could concentrate on her plan.
Gracie shot her arm out, trying to reach past the branches, but she was too little.
She shrugged and brought the truck out of her Inventory anyway.
Turns out, it didn’t matter if her arm was too short, her daddy’s truck plummeted right through all the branches, snapping every single one on the way down.
Gracie held on tight to the tree trunk as it shook, squeezing her eyes shut.
But she heard the loud crash of the truck and Pink Lady let out a terrifying scream.
Gracie opened her eyes and looked down. The Pink Lady's legs were crushed under the truck.
“Yes!” Gracie shouted. “Got you, bitch!”
Gracie was pretty sure she used that last word right.
Cody
“Well, okay,” Cody said. “That certainly helps.”
But he looked over at Morgan, whose face had gone ashen. “Oh my god…Did Gracie just…?”
But Temica was still alive. Only her legs were crushed under the truck, her upper body writhing, her arms trying hopelessly to pull herself free.
The music still played. But Temica had clearly expended most of her power, because once again she wasn’t relocating.
Even so, Cody wasn’t taking any chances. But he needed Nyrah.
He ran over to the fallen nekofae and lifted her up.
As usual, she felt like she weighed nothing.
He was relieved that she was still conscious, but she had a red welt on her upper chest and there was a trickle of blood dripping from her nose.
He carried her in his arms over to Temica and then set her down before kneeling next to her.
Temica tried to speak, but thick, red blood dripped out of her mouth. Cody noticed that her epic villain theme background music was finally fizzling out and the storm was waning. Good.
“I need to…do the thing…” Nyrah’s voice was weak and it looked like she was about to pass out. "Knife told me his plan."
“Let’s do it together.” Cody held out his hand that was holding Knife. Nyrah gripped the hilt of Knife around his own bloodied hand. Cody wasn’t even sure when half his injuries had even happened.
Edouardo, Cody said, his throat growing tight. I think you just take the name Edouardo, okay?
Yeah, fine. Whatever. Hurry the fuck up before this bitch heals herself or something.
I love you, man, Cody said.
He felt himself choking up as he readjusted his grip and Nyrah’s hand gripped his tighter, giving him a reassuring squeeze.
Love you, too, buddy, Knife said. But in a manly, brotherly way.
Temica was growling and gurgling, blood spurting from her mouth. They had to do this. Now or never. They couldn’t let her regain power.
“I hope this hurts,” Cody said. Together, Nyrah and Cody plunged Knife into Temica’s heart.
The demon-witch-goddess-whatever let out a blood-curdling scream. Her once beautiful face contorted grotesquely in her pain. She twitched and thrashed her head, her hands trying to claw at the weapon rammed into her chest, but she was already too weak to do anything about it.
Thin, black veins began to branch out from the knife wound in her chest, snaking down her arms, up her neck and into her face. Her eyes went black, as if filled with ink, and then began to spill over, like thick, black tears.
Cody couldn’t take his eyes away. Nyrah uncurled her hand from his and then, slowly, Cody let go of Knife. Nyrah hugged him, resting her head on his chest.
“I’m so sorry, Cody,” she said.
“What did you do?” Morgan whispered and dropped to her knees next to Cody.
“Knife…” he had to pause, his voice cracking with emotion. “Knife had a plan. He wanted to try something. I think…I think it worked.”
Knife
This was it. He was inside the darkness of the Chaos Demon.
At least this confirmed his suspicions. It would have sucked to find out she really was a goddess.
Tendrils of blackness mixed with pink lightning lashed out at him, putting up a desperate final battle to keep him from entering her mind.
But this was not his first fucking rodeo.
He hadn’t survived this long by being invited into every single person who played host. Sometimes, he had to fight his way in, in order to survive.
He might not remember what his original name was. He might not remember who he was, but he knew who he had become. Cody had been a hero in Velasarin, battling monsters and saving damsels. Now it was Knife's turn to be the hero.
He could tell Temica was growing weak. It was only a matter of seconds, and then he was able to weasel himself into the heart of her darkness.
He had been in some fucked up people’s minds, but this…
this was the worst. She was a vapid pit of evil, only able to derive happiness and sustenance from the suffering of others.
But he wasn’t setting up camp this time.
He was pretty sure he wouldn’t be able to control her, nor did he want to live inside her disgusting mind.
He tried, many times in the past, to control his hosts.
It never worked. But there was something else.
It was always there, an option. He’d thought about using it more than once, when things were particularly bad.
But he always had that tiny glimmer of hope that he’d move on, find someone new.
Someone like Cody. Someone he could spend a lifetime with. Someone who would become his friend. It really sucked that out of all his hosts, over a century of this bullshit, he only got to spend one single decade with his best host. His best friend.
Edouardo. He guessed it was his favorite name, and Cody was right, Knife would never have a son of his own. So, for the next few moments, he would be Edouardo. Because it was a super kick-ass name.
He pulled the trigger. It wasn’t a literal trigger, he just let himself explode.
He pushed every last bit of himself into her darkness, taking it over and destroying it.
He could feel her dying, her life trickling away.
And with her, his. If he met his end saving the people he loved, then so be it.
He wanted Cody to have all the pussy in the world, and the guy managed to get himself a fucking harem.
What kind of a best friend would he be if he’d seen a way to save them all and then chickened out?
He wouldn’t be Cody’s best friend, that’s for sure.
There was a surge of darkness, and an explosion of pain, followed by bright, white light, and a scorching headache. It felt like his entire body was on fire.
Doug
Doug slowly came to. His back and arms stung, and he had a massive headache. He was lying on the damp grass in his rain-soaked clothes, next to Cody’s cottage. The last thing he remembered was being shot with lightning by Temica, the gift shop lady.
“What the fuck…” Doug mumbled.
He was trying to push himself up to sit when a green-skinned young woman tumbled by, fighting a pure-white parrot—he recognized it as the one Temica usually had perched on her shoulder.
The green girl finally got the upper hand and stood up, gripping the parrot’s neck as it feebly fought back.
She twisted her hands sharply, letting out a scream as she snapped the bird’s neck.
She was panting, the dead bird hanging from her grasp, when she looked up and noticed Doug was watching her.
She smiled, even though she looked exhausted and had blood dripping from her mouth.
“Looks like chicken is back on the menu,” she said to Doug.
“What…?” Doug asked.