Chapter 48 - Arthur CunninghamHollow NightSounds like cshing metal and the booming of a jet ripped through the otherwise silent Shibu Department Store. The noise was coming from outside – likely from whatever Junko was fighting.

  I gritted my teeth in self-restraint as I galloped further away from the metal shutters. I couldn’t believe I’d let the two of us get separated. This was exactly what they wanted.

  For now, I sensed only two EXS signatures – the ironcd golem inside with me and whatever was outside with Junko. Both signatures were unsettling and ruthless, but what scared me most was their familiarity. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but ruminations would have to wait.

  Desperation cwed at me as I hit the back wall of the store’s interior. I scaled a nearby aisle sign, pulling myself up to get a better view of my destroyed surroundings. Swinging from its chains, I scoped the harrowing scene unfolding on the other side of the space.

  Like a scene from a sci-fi film, the massive Noise, Ironcd, was slowly approaching, each step a deliberate and destructive dispy of might. Standing as tall as the supermarket roof, Ironcd’s immense form filled the entire space, a towering monolith of metal and muscle. Its golem-like body was terrifying, each movement causing the very ground to tremble.

  Every step it took left a trail of destruction in its wake; shelving units were crushed underfoot, and merchandise was sent flying in all directions. The air was thick with dust and the acrid scent of burnt metal, remnants of the explosion lingering in the confined space.

  My breath came in ragged gasps as my fingers dug into the sign. My mind raced for a pn. The distance between us was closing armingly fast, each step echoing like thunder in the hollow silence of the supermarket. Escape routes were blocked by debris and twisted metal. There was no way out – aside from the massive hole that y past Ironcd, its towering presence beginning to block out its light.

  The oppressive atmosphere pressed in on me, each heartbeat a countdown to the inevitable confrontation. This monster’s methodical approach left no room for doubt – it was a relentless force, and I was its target.

  I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath and coming to terms with what my next move would invariably have to be. In the face of such overwhelming power, what I had to do next to survive would demand every ounce of my cunning and resolve. Steeling myself, I gripped the sign tightly, preparing for my first move.

  In that fleeting moment, standing on the precipice of confrontation, it was as if the entire ruined department store held its breath, awaiting the inevitable csh between man - no, beast - and metal giant.

  Time stood still as I met Ironcd’s gaze. It loomed an aisle or two ahead of me, its immense form casting me in its shadow. Its head dipped in a subtle nod, as if to say, “Your move.”

  Understanding that this might be the st sight I was ever awarded, I took my time. I recalled all the precious pces, things, and people that I kept sheltered in my heart – from the first time Mother took me to the National Gallery back home to the summer days spent marching through the fields and meadows.

  Will they be forgotten along with me? When all is said and done, years from now, will the future National Gallery goers know that I, too, walked those storied halls? Will the birds and butterflies know that, at one point, I too admired their beauty and meandered along those quiet country roads?

  I doubted I would ever reach a conclusion in the short time I had left, but the simple recollection of those treasured days was enough to put my soul at ease.

  With a final brace, I leapt off the sign, nding on the dipidated tile flooring with a hard plod. In an instant, I was off, darting towards the source of the hellish shadow that drowned me.

  As I sprinted down the main walkway between what was once the aisles, over the crushed pile of debris, around the messily pooling liquids that y underneath caved-in squares of roofing, and barging straight through toppled-over shelving units, Ironcd remained eerily still.

  It was only when I was mere meters away from its feet that I heard the shifting of metal. I looked up from my intense focus to see a cylindrical iron shape, like a terrific missile, zooming towards me.

  Just as I’d pnned – if I got close enough to it, it wouldn’t be able to use its bludgeon effectively. It’d need to resort to other, more manageable forms of attack!

  I waited until the fist was just a few paces away before deftly lunging to the side, just about retaining my bance. With the opening before me, I changed direction to skitter through the beast’s brassbound legs, making sure it noticed.

  Once I had just about passed through, I jumped with a great leap backward, turning mid-air and nding on the lower part of its back. Having lost sight of me, its movements became somewhat agitated, but only as fast as its heavy adornments would allow.

  I hung on for dear life as I was swung to and fro, digging my cws into its armor as lightly as possible for grip. I scaled the golem slowly but surely, keeping my movements surreptitious and untraceable – quite the challenge given my size in this hulking form.

  Still, with the lives of those around me on the line, I was willing to endure any discomfort required to see them home safely to their beds. No matter what it cost me.

  As the golem’s movements suddenly began to slow to a disturbing halt, I continued to ascend its metallic figure. It was a universal rule in nature that no being was without its weakness, no blessing without its burden, and in my time fighting, fearing, and surviving the perils of this tenebrous realm, that had undoubtedly remained true – for better or worse.

  It was that observation that had kept the small fme of hope lit within me, even as an enormous shadow descended over me, washing my vision in darkness.

  Before I could even register what was happening, my muscles seized control, and I found myself leaping off my perch at the border between Ironcd’s tissimus dorsi and teres major as its own hand cpped against its back, sending it stumbling forward with its own force.

  I was still airborne, having just reached the apex of my vertical travel and about to descend when a distinct yet subtle yellow swelling on the Noise’s nape commanded my attention.

  Honing my senses in on the Noise’s EXS makeup, I allowed myself to ignore the desperate situation of my rapidly encroaching descent and dug my perception as deep as it would go. It was in those murky, unfamiliar extents of my senses that I came to a startling realization – one that shocked me back to reality.

  Not waiting for Ironcd to raise itself up from its nigh doubled-over position, I dove through the air like a plummeting missile finding its mark. In one reckless fell swoop of my arm, I cwed through the protuberance, a sinister satisfaction washing over me as my nails penetrated and ran through the uncomfortably wet interior of the hump, sending spshes of liquid pouring from the creature’s neck.

  I nded on my feet and ran on all fours as Ironcd’s pained groans chased me. Once I’d judged I was a safe enough distance away from the beast, I spun on my paws and slid around until I was facing the goliath once more.

  I struggled to keep the relief from dulling my senses, but drank in the small victory. Ironcd was crouched down, kneeling on one knee and covering the now oozing wound on the nape of its neck with one of its mighty hands. Past the practical waterfalls of yellow liquid spilling down onto the destroyed tiled floors, I could feel it gring at me with such animosity I almost gulped.

  Taking quick breaths, my composure began to return in small increments as I pondered my next move, but Ironcd never broke eye contact with me, remaining still as a statue. If my theory was correct, then Ironcd was on borrowed time, now that I’d heavily interrupted the flow of its EXS. In fact, if I could simply avoid it and keep my distance, that would be best.

  However, in a space this enclosed, how long would I be able to keep it up before I was eventually cornered? No – I needed to end this with my own two hands, but I needed to be careful. Any animal is at its most dangerous when driven into a corner.

  With my thoughts id solely on Junko and her sister, I unched into a sprint right as Ironcd rose to its feet with frightening speed. When I looked closely, I could see its normally grey complexion beginning to darken into an inky bck, with yellow bumps and grooves spreading like a virus throughout its body.

  I couldn’t observe for too long, however, as I opted to take a sudden right, vanishing underneath the debris.

  Like a mole navigating a complex underground byrinth, I scurried and skittered through the cavernous tunnels of destruction that had now formed, feeling a rising sensation of incoming victory with every false, frustrated punch being thrown above in a desperate attempt to guess my location.

  Soon enough, an eerie silence had swept over the surface, and I could no longer hear Ironcd’s heavy thudding above.

  Simirly, tapping into my senses yielded no results. Now feeling a suffocating wave of dread washing over me, I counted to three before leaping up into the air with a jump powerful enough to break holes through the debris that had acted as a roof.

  At first, there was nothing at all. The space was bereft and empty as though nothing had been here at all, save for a slightly rippling pool of yellow liquid that had formed where Ironcd once stood.

  The movement I heard next was so incredibly subtle, that if not for the fact that it was followed by the most hellish pain I had ever experienced ripping through my stomach like the skewering of meat, I might have died just there and then.