5 - Never Forget Me

Sakuto’s squad felt the incredibly powerful soul presence. A few seconds later, after Sakuto climbed on top of a tall building, he could even see what was unfolding.

“The fuck was that?!” Zawadski asked, surprised, feeling a little overwhelmed. “It felt like a damn nuclear bomb...”

“Sakyuto? You sure we don’t have to go towards whatever that is?” Yuuka asked.

“Sakuto? You sure that wasn’t one of them?!” Ausra asked from below, concerned.

“No.” Sakuto said, carefully observing the LV3 fight off the NVs. “Whatever that thing is, it’s fighting off the mechs. It’s technically on our side.”

“You took something as unique as her soul expression, something that she poured her efforts and passion into, something closely bound to her soul, and you did what with it...turned it into a factory for this soulless garbage?”

“Answer me, Aizawa, who the fuck do you think you are to do that?!”

Nightseer glanced at the NVs surrounding him. There were a total of eight of them, they all ganged up on him the moment they received a signal that one of them had fallen. Katya’s body was being pushed to its absolute limit to maintain this many NVs at once, she was likely under extreme pressure and experienced awful pain. And Nightseer could not forgive that.

He charged at one of the NVs, walking over the shorter buildings like they weren’t even there and breaking through the taller ones as if they were made out of cardboard. He charged at it and immediately took it down with just its brute force. He plummeted its head with his fist, crushing it after just a few blows.

He turned around, watching as three other NVs rushed him all at once. He took a step back, stepping on a house in the process. Nightseer's mind, overrun by his hatred, allowed him to push LV3 to its absolute limit.

He struck one of the NVs with his fist so hard that it ripped a hole through its body. He grabbed its body and flung it at the second NV, knocking him down. The third one hit Nightseer in the face, and Nightseer, in response, utilized one of LV3’s many weapons - the claws. He ripped through the NV’s body like it was made out of paper. The second NV stood back up, and while Nightseer was dealing with his victim, it tried to grab it from behind.

Nightseer quickly stepped to the side. He began swinging at the two NVs like a madman, knocking one down almost instantly and finishing it off by swiping at its head with his claws. He beat the other one down just as badly, crushing its armor with precise strikes and breaking it down to the point of effectively turning it into a trash can. A kick to its leg tore it off, and after it fell down, Nightseer stomped on its head and crushed it whole.

“Katya...”

“I need more of it.”

“When you fight, you fight like a true maestro. You use your weapons as best as you can, you destroy everything that poses a challenge to you. So give me more of it. Give me more of yourself.”

Nightseer’s left arm transformed into the energy cannon, the very same cannon that caused the Heisei a lot of trouble when controlled by Alpha. It fired off an unfathomably powerful blast of pure soul prowess in the direction of one of the NVs, shredding it whole and pulverizing its body. With his other arm, he held onto the whip-blade. He swung it around and it destroyed most of the terrain around him. It clashed against one of the NV’s armor and left heavy marks on it.

Nightseer rushed at the NV and swung the whip-blade, wrapping it around its neck and ripping its head off with one swift motion. As the last two NVs standing rushed at him, he fought them off at a distance with the blade, breaking away parts of their limbs and eventually finding the killing blow on one of them in the form of decapitation. The other one rushed at him and attempted to take him down, but Nightseer managed to stuff the takedown and catch the NV in a standing guillotine. A few seconds later, the NV’s neck got crushed.

“Gotta head...for the castle...”

The pitch black sky was impeached by a beam of heavenly light, falling upon LV3 as it marched towards the heart and core of the stronghold. On the other side, Aizawa was well aware of the ongoing cataclysm. She stood by the bathtub Katya’s body was submerged in, carefully monitoring the situation through the many computers set up in the room.

“This won’t do, Katya.” Aizawa sighed. She placed her palm on Katya’s forehead. “You’ll need to try a little harder.”

“It is the blindfold causing trouble, is it not?”

“I should have gutted him when I had the chance, I did not foresee him seemingly merging with LV3.”

A smirk appeared on her face, and she slowly left the room.

“So be it.”

Crushing all the buildings in his way, clearing the path with the whip-blade, Nightseer made his way towards his final destination. The dark silhouette of the castle loomed closer and closer, and the hatred in Nightseer’s eyes could be felt throughout all of Prague. In the distance, in front of him, he saw two more NVs, which appeared to be much better equipped than the ones before.

Nightseer immediately rushed at one of them, throwing his fists at them. For some reason, the attack wasn’t as effective as it was before, against the older NVs. What surprised him even more was the fact that the NV effectively counterattacked and knocked him back. Nightseer collapsed into a building behind him, and while getting up, was caught off guard by a whip-sword striking his body. He growled in pain and tried to strike again, but the second NV used his whip-blade to torment him even more.

“Damn it!”

He was struck again.

“Fucking...damn it!”

The blades struck him again and again, carving out pieces of his armor. His screams of pain weren’t just his, somewhere in there, Katya’s voice resided too. In a wake of desperation, Nightseer pointed his other arm at the NV. A charge of soul prowess accumulated, strong enough to destroy an entire city without even stopping for a an instant.

He fired the beam and it incinerated one of the NVs, completely obliterating everything that was behind. The pure white beam left an unsalvageable scar on the already bruised and battered city. The NV, with a gaping hole in its chest, slowly crumbled down. Nightseer turned his full attention to what he assumed was the last NV standing. He rushed at it, and the latter accepted the challenge - and they held onto each other's hands and started to wrestle. They pushed each other around, destroying whatever was next to them or below them with their gigantic frames. They forced each other into the ground, leaving craters where they stood.

Nightseer suddenly broke free of the hold and swung his whip-blade, striking at NV’s armor and carving a deep dent on it. The NV struck back, and the two blades wrapped each other around themselves, and Nightseer attempted to drag the NV closer to him and punch a hole in its stomach. The motion was interrupted by something sharp being stuck into his head.

“Wha-what the?!”

“Oh, so it’s her...from this fucking far away, huh?!”

Nightseer used his other hand to try and pull the wire of Aizawa’s Blossom Reaper, and potentially drag Aizawa herself towards her. But once he attempted to do that, the weapon was unsummoned altogether. It was, however, summoned back up a few seconds later, as it sliced off Nightseer’s blade arm. Now left with only his cannon, he was on the backfoot, but his determination was at an all-time high. Meanwhile, Aizawa watched the spectacle unfold from afar, from the comfort of the topmost peak of the castle.

The NV repeatedly whipped Nightseer with its devastatingly dangerous blade, and the occasional stabs from Aizawa’s weapon didn’t help much either. It seemed like the half-blind soulful had no options left, he even felt more and more NVs approach him from behind.

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“What would you do here...Katya?”

“What would we do here?!”

When the NV tried to land a powerful slashing attack with its blade, Nightseer did what he could do best - he parried it. Pulling through the pain thanks to his pure rage, he landed a powerful kick on the NV’s leg and tripped it down. There, on the ground, before the NV could get up, Nightseer quickly stomped its hand and broke it. He leaned down and started to quite literally beat the shit out of it, crushing its head and pummeling its remains, before grabbing its torso by the feet and throwing it at the two NVs that tried to ambush him from behind.

Once he could properly take aim at the NVs, he unleashed yet another beam at them, shredding all of them to pieces, before turning around and facing the castle again.

“Can’t go on fighting all this fodder like this...I need to get to their source as fast as possible.”

“Looks like there’s only one more coming towards me.”

There was only one NV left, but this one looked more similar to LV3 than anything. It felt like a direct copy, in fact.

However, he also noticed a smaller figure climb on top of the NV.

“Since using complete memory erasure on you is impossible...”

Aizawa climbed on top of the NV and, with her fists, ripped the back of its head open. She forced her way into the cockpit and stabbed the interface with Blossom Reaper. She reached for what was left of it and placed her palms there.

“Memory Injection.”

The NV was now manually controlled by Aizawa. Each implanted memory acted as a momentary instruction, a command that was to be executed. The NV marched towards Nightseer who, posturing up, prepared to unleash all of his accumulated hatred onto it.

Quickly closing the distance, Nightseer struck Aizawa with a jab, followed by a swift right hook to knock it back! Aizawa tried to respond to the follow-up overhand, but ultimately fell for the feint - Nightseer stepped in closer after a small delay and struck her with an elbow. NV’s jaw was already a little malformed.

Nightseer quickly utilized the whip-blade, striking Aizawa multiple times. Aizawa unleashed hers too - but when she went for a powerful swing, it got parried. Even more shockingly, Nightseer counterattacked, wrapping its own whip-blade with that of Aizawa. He used the newly formed chain and all of his and Katya’s strength to pull Aizawa into the air and toss back into the ground.

Retracting the blade, Nighteer rushed in, striking her once more with a heavy swing. Aizawa tried to get up, but Nightseer kicked her away before chasing her down further. Aizawa managed to quickly get up, and the two mechs pushed against one another. Nightseer strength was once again proven to be overwhelming.

“This will not suffice...” Aizawa thought, getting mildly annoyed at the predicament.

Aizawa landed a well-timed oblique kick, stunning and forcing Nightseer to fall back a little. She swung the whip-blade again, but Nightseer, who expected LV3’s armor to take the brunt of the attack, was shocked. The attack hit its right arm but managed to sever it with no issue.

He only noticed the root of the issue when he took a better look at the NV. Its head was almost completely destroyed, and Aizawa was exposed. It wasn’t the whip-blade that dealt the attack, it was Blossom Reaper. But Nightseer wasn’t afraid.

“And there you fucking are...”

LV3 growled in rage and rushed forwards! Aizawa herself was surprised by Nightseer’s speed, and failed to properly defend herself against its tackle. Pushed back, Aizawa utilized Blossom Reaper more and more, but almost all of its attacks were consistently parried! She charged up the NV’s cannon to fire, whilst simultaneously pressuring Nightseer with continuous slicing attacks from Blossom Reaper. Nightseer persevered through them all.

And once the cannon was fired, he didn’t see defeat, he saw an opportunity...

“Soul Interpretation...”

“Deflect!”

The insurmountable release of energy was reflected right back at Aizawa. The NV was severely damaged as it fell down on the ground. Nightseer quickly rushed to the scene, despite not being in the best condition himself.

“Right now, if I can end her...right fucking now...”

“And destroy that shitty castle with it...”

By the time Nightseer got to Aizawa, she had managed to stand up. She lunged at Nightseer with its entire body, but was kicked away - flying right into the castle. But something felt off. Nightseer felt that something had struck LV3’s body. The remnants of the barely functional NV were still trying to move around, trying to resist their fate, but its savior would soon continue the battle on its own terms.

One of the blades of Blossom Reaper stabbed through LV3’s cockpit and struck Nightseer in the stomach. It flew out of the cockpit as fast as it entered and slashed LV3 pretty badly, all while the second blade stabbed Nightseer in the heart.

A much more serious flurry of ranged attacks with the blades resulted in LV3 almost breaking apart on the spot. Two well-placed strikes broke the head open, exposing Nightseer himself and hurt him badly, almost fatally. He stared at Aizawa, and seeing her pitch black eyes in the distance filled him with hatred...and determination.

“No...not like...this...”

“I still gotta-”

One of the blades sliced the mech’s body in half.

But even that wasn’t enough to put the blindfold down.

He raised the cannon and pointed it directly at Aizawa. And its tip was light up, with more soul prowess than there’s ever been in Nightseer’s body. It was a presence that, for a moment, deafened all others in the area. Every single bit of soul prowess in him was allocated towards one single goal.

“I didn’t forget...”

The upper body of LV3 was sliced again.

“Even if I die...”

“I’m not letting this go to waste!!!” The cannon, charged up within what seemed to be moments, fired off.

The release of energy was strong enough to pulverize the entire castle in an instant. It followed through, destroying anything and everything in its path, ripping through the terrain like a chainsaw through butter and having no regard for either distance or reinforcement. The beam, after travelling an indescribable distance, fell upon a mountain, which it destroyed completely...

And after that, Nightseer fell. This was all of his strength...

...

The castle and its many layers and secret rooms were no more. Slowly approaching it, Aizawa sighed.

“Despite my home being destroyed, I made the correct decision. Getting hit by that would have likely caused me a lot of unnecessary trouble.” She said, walking up to the castle’s center. Where used to be her throne was now a pile of broken debris. She sat down on it.

“And it appears that Nachtvessel Zetta has been eliminated too. How bothersome...”

...

Dozens of NVs began destroying themselves across the city in a chain of explosions so eerily similar to a firework show. The original host of the NVs, Nachtvessel Zetta, was destroyed. With its goal complete, and its strength exhausted, LV3 broke down on the ground. Its cockpit broke apart, and Nightseer was there, laying on the seat.

Blood was pouring out of his many wounds, most of his body was a deep crimson red. Trails of blood escaped his mouth, and his skin was getting paler by the second. And his blindfold slowly began coming loose.

“There...I did it...”

He held onto the parts of the cockpit as if they were Katya herself. He tried reaching for the picture, but realized that the arm he tried to reach it with was severed, so he tried with his other one.

His blindfold was broken apart. He opened his eyes, and for the first time, he could see. His eyes were a simple brown, but they conveyed a depth that would never be repeated. He softly gazed at the picture.

“So this is what you looked like?” He softly chuckled to himself before coughing up some blood, some of it landing on the picture. “Hah...”

His arm gave up, and the picture fell on his bloodied body. He no longer had any strength to do anything, not even to breathe properly, and his determination had carried him only so far. Besides, he didn’t have any determination left altogether, he did the one thing he wanted to do before losing his life.

He remembered all the moments with his friends, except this time, instead of seeing silhouettes or ghosts or just presences, he saw them. He had trouble imagining the colors of the background or the environment, but he didn’t need to either. All of the color in those memories was given to him by his friends.

There, laying effectively dead in the mech’s destroyed body, all he could do was see things, something he’s never been able to do properly since he first woke up in that hospital. And what he looked at was the moon in the starless sky.

It appeared so beautiful, so simple, yet so unbelievably beautiful. He looked at it with such intensity that a tear formed in his eye, even though he was physically too weak to cry. He was so content with what he saw that he smiled a little, too weak to laugh or celebrate. His vision began to fade away again, but for its duration, Nightseer saw more than he saw during his whole life. He held onto the picture, and as a gust of wind gently blew past him, he slowly started closing his eyes.

“Hey, Katya, I can’t even see the stars...”

“I thought they were colorful and were all over the sky.”

“But the moon...”

His heartbeat faded away.

“It looks so pretty.”