บท 26: Salter-chan and the Minotaur
Back at Monet's house...
"Mmm... Jill... not today... let's just cuddle... n-no, Dawn can't watch, for Heaven's sake... huh? Where am I? Ouch, my head hurts... where is everyone... okay, painter is there... Gilgamesh... where are the girls? Mmm... they probably went somewhere... I should look for them."
Michael concluded as he entered astral form and flew accross the land, seeing everything that happened down on the ground.
"Where could they have gone... hey, there's Artoria... and she's... oh no, oh no, no, no! This is bad! Where the hell is Nero? She must be in the city... oh my dear Father, she is! This is really, really, bad! I have to go back immediately! I can't help them like this! I have exhausted my mana to a point in which I can't make anything disappear!"
Michael quickly returned to his body and rushed towards the others in the house.
"Mr. Monet, please wake up! The others are in danger! We have not a second to waste! Please wake up!"
"Just a few more minutes... did Edgar throw up on the floor again? Is Pierre getting another charge for assault? Or did Gustave and Cam-"
"No, no! None of that! Artoria and Nero have gone to the golden city and are being attacked! If we don't do something, they might lose! Those people seem strong."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?! We don't have a second to waste! Let's hurry there! Golden king, we need your assistance!"
"*Loud Snore*"
"This is not the great time to be sleeping, o gracious ruler!"
Two minutes later...
"Wake up, you damn bastard!"
Two minutes after that...
"*Breaks the third chair on his head.* Well, this is not going anywhere... I think we're better off just going there on our own."
"B-But... if we go by foot... we'll take too much time and..."
"Don't sweat it, young man, with these quick feet, we'll be there in no time! I'll have you know that I was the fastest of our bunch, both as sober and as drunk!"
"Well, let's hurry then!"
"H-Hey, slow down a bit!"
"..."
Just outside the city of El Dorado...
The Minotaur rushed towards her like an unstoppable force of nature, creating tsunamis of sand with his powerful legs, and threw a punch in her direction, which she barely evaded.
That punch released a shockwave strong enough to completely disintegrate a dune that was standing right in front of them. Salter retaliated with a swing from her sword, aided by her Mana Burst skill, however the beast caught her sword with his other arm and attempted another attack, forcing Salter to basically use her sword as a fulchrum to twist and bend around, appearing behind her enemy who was just as quick to turn around and to match her blow.
"You act feral, but you actually have some kind of intelligence in that bull head, don't you?"
Salter was, in fact, correct. The Minotaur wasn't a mindless beast. He had a pretty developed mind that kept screaming and repeating the same exact order: Destroy. And so it had, as it had wandered around, destroying everything. Until it had met a peculiar man, one who, through more cunning and human ways, shared his idea of destruction, and they had come to an agreement: in exchange for an alliance, the man would bring him fresh meat to consume every day, flesh to tear apart, bodies to destroy. And so the beast did. Consuming and destroying. Destroying and consuming. On and on.
When the Minotaur was alive, it was said that the more flesh it ate, the more powerful it became. When confronted by Theseus, the Minotaur had eaten around 50 humans. Ever since it had stepped in this world, it had already eaten nearly 200.
It released a groan of excitement and fury as it attempted to crush Salter's head, but she stepped back and outmanuvered him through blasts of mana before trying to unleash the full power of her sword, only for the Minotaur to hammer his fists on the ground, causing the entire dune they were standing on to collapse and Salter to lose her balance.
It grabbed a large portion of sand and compressed it into its beastly hands, forming a particular type of lethal weapon, which it threw with enough force to shatter the sound barrier several times over. Salter barely had enough time to power up Excalibur just the amount needed to not get seriously injured by the attack, however, she was still knocked back a few meters, and the resulting split of the grains of sand that were fired off dented her armour and caused her right cheek to bleed.
The combatants now stood on a practically flat surface, facing each other, they cautiousness raised to the highest peak. Because, although neither of them was seriously injured, they knew that they each had yet to unleash a single Noble Phantasm.
In the golden city of El Dorado...
"Don't worry, my son. Mommy's here, and she'll make all your pain go away."
"I... Mother, I need... I want to... I have to... go ba..."
"Shhh... don't worry, my child. You don't need to go nowhere. Nowhere that it isn't next to me."
"B-But... But... I have... I have friends..."
"Friends? What do you mean? I don't see them here."
"N-No... b-but they are waiting for me..."
"Oh, my poor innocent Nero... they tricked you... they don't care about you... they are not even here... they didn't even come to your rescue... and now, you're in so much pain... and where are they? They left you, Nero. They used you. And now, they have abandoned you."
"N-No... that's not true..."
"Oh, Nero, my poor Nero... do these people know that you keep having migraines?"
"..."
"Do they know about the nightmares you keep having?"
"..."
"Do they know how clumsy and unreliable you truly are?"
"..."
"No. No, my son. They don't know anything about you. They have never cared for you, and they have never, ever helped you, nor do they have intention to. But, tell me, my son... who is the only one who can help you feel better, who can make your headaches go away?"
"... Y-You mother..."
"Who is the one who always is there, ready to console you after every bad dream?"
"Y-You mother..."
"Who's the only one who ever cared for you, when you were an arrogant, stupid and good-for-nothing nobody?"
"You mother."
"Of course, my son. I was always there for you. And how did you repay me?"
"..."
"What did you do to the one person who cared about you, my kid?"
"..."
Agrippina knelt down and squeezed Nero's arm tight as she stared deeply into her eyes with a maddened and sadistic grin.
"What did you do to your own mother, Nero? What did you do?"
"I KILLED HER! I'M SORRY, MOTHER! I'M SO SORRY! I WAS SO STUPID! PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME AGAIN! I DON'T WANT TO BE ALONE!"
"There, there, don't worry, Nero. I'm not going anywhere. I forgive you, my son. I really do. I forgive everything wrong you have ever done to me. All you have to do is just one little thing..."
"What... is... it?"
"Forget about those people you are travelling with. Forget them. Erase them from your mind."
"B-But... M-mother..."
"What? What's the hesitation? Do you have so little esteem of me, do I count so little to you, have I got such a small value for you, that you are willing to trade me for those people that have abandoned you? Did you hear that, Cortés? My own son doesn't want me. He neglects and hates his own mother. He has foresaken me for others. I shall leave then."
"NO! NO! DON'T GO MOTHER! PLEASE! I NEED YOU!"
"Then do as I say, my son. Do it, and I'll never leave your side, Nero."
"..."
Back to Monet's house...
"Mmm... haha, classic one, Enkidu, how about that for an answer, Ishtar, Whore of the Heav- Hey, what the hell, who disturbs a king's sleep! O-Ow, my head hurts like... like Kur. W-wait... where did everyone go?"
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