Bab 117: The Heart Seizes
Her fist raising quickly brought down onto where Arthur's head was as he pushed his body to the right, rolling out of her fist's path, the wall and ground around where she punched shattering like glass as it exploded outwards.
Leaving Aster standing in the crater, panting in rage, her head tilting to Arthur, her veins pulsing as she looked at him, whilst her fist was covered in blood, her skin having cracked open from her punch.
Arthur was kneeling on the ground, his left hand over his bleeding stump of an arm as he circulated Vita to seal the wound and to lower the pain he was feeling from his missing arm, his eyes locked onto Aster, and seeing behind her his spear had been dislodged from the wall by her powerful attack.
"LOVE ME!" She roared and charged Arthur, once again flickering away before reappearing in front of him, this time her fist already pulled back as she threw it the moment she reappeared, giving Arthur barely even a few milliseconds to think as he just instinctively jumped to the side once again avoiding her attack by such a narrow margin that he felt like his aura would be broken the moment she lands such a hit.
Arthur wanted to say something, but he knew whatever he said would never be able to save her, she was too far gone. Sighing Arthur began to run, ducking and dodging every punch Aster would send, jumping away if she appeared in front of him.
"I can't last like this" He mumbled seeing he was only getting further and further away from his weapon, an idea coming to him as he summoned his Tome and threw his left hand onto it as he brought out his gravity gauntlet, or as he had come to call it, Jarngreiper. Already loaded with new gravity dust.
'I only have one shot' he thought, as he wouldn't be able to replace the cylinder with one hand. As he ran he raised his palm towards the spear, the dust taking an obsidian hue as he filled it with his aura, before firing out the dust infused aura towards the spear, his vision quickly shifting as he appeared in front of it, quickly leaning down Arthur grabbed it and began to run once again, only pausing when Aster appeared in front of him once again.
His spear having shifted to it's main form as he quickly thrust it forward to impale her as she opened her arms and tried to grapple Arthur.
"LOVE ME!" she roared once again as she ignored the spear that was digging into her stomach, successfully cutting through her hardened muscles, albeit not very deep as she seemed to be made from something much sturdier than any human should be even with an aura and semblance specifically coded for defence.
Arthur grit his teeth as he quickly began to mash the trigger firing off the last two remaining bullets in his clip into her belly and directly into her body, using Aster to growl as she felt the pain, yet not stopping her as she pushed her way forwards, forcing the spear through her stomach and out her back.
Seeing her do the Arthur released his spear and jumped back away from aster letting her arms catch nothing but air, opening her arms Aster looked at her empty hands in confusion, before looking up to Arthur, her veins beginning to pulsate even more as they crawled up her cheeks.
"Why do you hate Aster?" she asked, her tone having lost it's previous rage, becoming one more childlike, "Aster just wants to love you… Why do you hate Aster?" she asked again as she reached her hands out to Arthur. Who was watching her standing there slowly walking towards him.
Seeing his opportunity Arthur brought his glove up to his mouth his teeth biting onto the cylinder to pull it out, struggling at first to get a good grip but soon getting enough of a lock on it that he tore it from the glove.
"Love Aster Love Aster Love AsterloveAsterloveAsterloveAsterloveAsterloveAster…" her rambling beginning to dissappear as the veins grew over the entirety of her face, her jaw opening as she showed her teeth, letting out a powerful roar out, "FUCKING LOVE ASTER!" that made the ground tremble as blood began to drip from her mouth as she damaged her throat from the power of the roar.
In the distance Weiss could even hear her roar causing her to turn around to the compound at the bottom of the hill where she could see dozens of lights scattering into the forests as the members of Kreischen abandoned the compound to save themselves.
Aster's hands gripped at the spear in her belly and roughly pulled it out, not feeling any of the pain as the spear tore through her bowels as she raised it and threw it at Arthur, making it resemble a bullet more than a spear throw.
While Aster was roaring Arthur placed a new, filled capsule on the ground which he slammed the back of his hand into to force it into the slot, giving him another chance to use it. Dodging to the side of Aster throw Arthur didn't even have time to think as he quickly raised his palm to his spear to lift it off the ground and pull it to him after it impaled into the ground up to the hilt, losing a quarter of the dust in the cylinder.
"LOVE ASTER!" she screamed as she threw another punch at Arthur which he quickly defended by converting his spear to it's transport mode and swinging it up to block Aster's punch, while bringing it down once again to block her next repeating this many times as each of her attacks would send him skidding backwards, not even giving him time to even move as she reappeared in front of him.
Arthur did at one point get a chance to attempt to move to the side, but Aster would move to intercept him, throwing a haymaker at him which he could only block and get launched across the garden sending him flying through the garden, his hand trembling as it began to feel numb from blocking Aster's hit.
Yet this would not be the end as Aster appeared behind him, her hands raising as she grabbed his ankles before slamming him down onto the ground, causing the air to escape his lungs as his body begged him not to move, already having lost the grip of his spear.
Aster stood staring down at his body, panting as she bled from the hole in her belly, and the cuts on her fists, as her from the dozens of ruptured veins that had popped from the pressure inside her.
She walked up to Arthur, grabbing his spear and throwing it to the side with enough force that it lodged itself within the wall. Her chest heaving as she hooked a foot under Arthur's body and quickly kicking him onto his back. His arm falling to the side, missing the power to even lift it.
"Love Aster" she said as she once again straddled him, "Love Aster" she ordered, not getting a response from Arthur as he panted and looked up at her with sorrow and pity on his face, "Love ASTER!" she shouted her right arm raising into the air as she brought it down on Arthur's cheek, sending a wave of pain through his face as he quickly used Vita to heal the wound.
"LOVE ASTER" She brought her other fist up and smashed it down on Arthur's other cheek, "LOVE ASTER! LOVE ASTER! LOVE ASTER!..." She continued to beat Arthur whose aura was beginning to run dry, if he could check his scroll he would see it had only had a liver left. Yet luckily Aster had stopped hitting him as she stared down at him panting as blood trickled down her cheeks as she cried tears of blood.
"I… cannot love you… Aster" Arthur groaned, "You do not… know what love is…" he said a weak smile on his face, "I'm… sorry, Aster…" he said as he watched Aster begin to growl.
"LOVE… AS...TER!" She screamed, both her fists raising into the air and bringing them down onto Arthur's face, shattering his aura as the ground around them began to crack and fall away, leaving both Arthur and Aster in freefall as they fell into an underground part of the compound.
Arthur laying atop a pile of debris staring at the orange sky that was beginning to form as dawn arrived, his eyes following a ray of light that led to a part of the room specifically a raised platform where a single chair sat along with the mummified body of a man on it.
Even then Arthur could tell who the man was… Aster's father, he was still in this compound even in death, his eyes once again trailing lower until he saw a large plaque on the stage.
{Herz Kreischen}
It said, "Even monsters get honours…" he muttered his rage building even further as through his already shattered wall that had once blocked his anger and every powerful negative emotion he could, a surge shattered the rest crumbling away at the last remaining parts of the box they called home.
And Arthur could feel it, the anger, the scorn, the sorrow, the pain, the torture… the hope that remained in the shattered box. Arthur's eyes shut as he remembered his time with Ceres inside of Amber's soul, and the one thing that stood out to him, about himself, the keyhole on his chest.
Snorting he muttered, "A box in a box…" he chuckled, "Fucking boxes..." he muttered, his eyes shutting as he accepted once and for all what he already knew he was.
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"Lov...eeeeee Asss….ttteeerrr" she continued to say, even after her arm was shattered when she hit Arthur, still using it to flip every piece of rubble she could until she found Arthur, every now and then finding a small black chunk of metal that began to vibrate and disintegrate into a fine mist that floated away from her towards another part of the room.
"Asssssstttteeerrrr…" she mumbled and begna to follow the mist, limping along the way until she saw Arthur lying atop a large chunk of rubble, a bright smile forming on her face as she limped up to him, "Hooonnneeeyyyy...." she whined, "Assteeerrr lovvvveees yooouuuu…" she said as she climbed up the pieces of rubble to him, ignore the mist that was floating around her that was converging onto Arthur.
"Lllloovvvveeee Aaaasss….ttttttteeeeerrrrrr" she said as she began to climb up the final piece of rubble.
"I'm sorry, Aster" she heard Arthur say, causing her to raise her head, feeling the gentle touch of his hand on her cheek, seeing Arthur, Aster smiled, the veins on her body having long lost control as they ruptured with every movement she made.
"Loovvee… Assteerr…?" She asked as she rubbed her cheek into Arthur's left hand, feeling it was strangely comforting to her.
"I'm sorry, Aster" Arthur said as he straightened his right hand, five large claws made from pure light which he pushed through Aster's chest, before pulling them out, and watching with sadness as Aster coughed up a mouth full of blood and stumbled backwards off the pile of rubble.
"Ahhhh…" She whined as she lay on her back staring towards the corpse of Herz, her father. "Paaaa...paaaa…" she said forcing herself to stand up struggling to even do that, but when she did, she began to lumber her way towards the stage, throwing her shattered arms onto it and forcing herself up.
But now having lost the power to even lift herself into a stand as she began to slowly crawl towards the body, "Paaapaaa…" she whined her arms falling onto her father's bony lap crawling onto it and curling into a ball on it as she pressed her ear against his chest.
"Paaappaaa… Hassss Asssteeerrr beennn… gooooo….dddd…?" she said, her eyes shut as she began to remember the heart beat of her father as she finally lost her consciousness dying in the comfort of the embrace of the father she loved.
Arthur silently watched her, not wanting to let her last moments go with her being forgotten, she at least deserved this after all she went through, showing even in her last moments she was still human, broken beyond repair, but still human, she just wanted someone to love her, maybe if someone had saved her all those years ago she could have been saved.
Looking down at his new hands, his right pitch black, with a whirlpool of light spinning on his palm whilst his left was pure white with a whirlpool of darkness spinning into nothingness, his right hand going up to his face where he could feel a long mask reminding him of those that plague doctors used to wear except the beak curved down and wasn't straight, the mask being white with light grey markings over it.
The mask only covering the lower part of his face as well as his nose while leaving his eyes open showing they had changed colour, his sclera having gone pure black whilst his pupil and iris were pure white. His hair having also seemed to have grown longer as it seemed to float behind him in waves, the roots black whilst the tips were white.
And lastly he brought his hand to his chest where he could feel a small locket shaped like a keyhole which from the sides of it white and silver strings extend hooking the two parts of the trench coat like cowl that ended halfway down his upper arms, with black fur on the right hem and white fur on the right hem, with a mixture down the middle of it.
"Even in plagues hope lingers…" he chuckled, "Appropriate" he smiled and looked to Aster's body one last time, "Rest in peace Aster, I hope you're next life isn't as painful" he said, and began to walk away from her, ignoring the the ceiling that had once again begun to collapse leaving Aster and her father in the ray of light that would guide them to a better land.
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Alternate Chapter names: [The plague doctor] [An end to a tragedy]
So what do I call the new form?
Words: 2,399
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