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The video Camera crackles to life, carried as if it’s attached to the recorder’s chest. Although, the recording is pitch black, as if only the audio had been turned on. “This fuckin thing on?” Says the voice. An audibly frustrated scoff is heard. “Forgot to turn on shadow vision, hold on.” With the sound of a switch being flicked, the edges of the screen filled with an iridescent, yet shadowy rainbow.
The grey, metallic room finally comes into view. In the center is what appears to be some kind of control panel. “This is uh, shit, am I allowed to say?” Suddenly as he spoke, a small black, silver lined text box appeared.
*YOU MAY.
“I, uh,” Cori stuttered out. “Cool okay, so this is how we power the lab!” He walked past the control panel to show a window which peered into a dimly lit, metal platform sitting in the middle of the deepest, darkest depths. His pale hand points towards the center, which has an odd oblong shape in the middle. It appeared to be made with a strange kind of black glass. “That there is the light extractor.” He says in a confident tone, “Apparently this is the place where stars and angels come to die, their light pools up at the bottom of depths, pulled down by something."
“It’s how we keep the lights on back at the lab, but uh…” he trails off, voice becoming a bit excited. “That ain’t what you’re here to see.” He whistled as he spun around. The camera pans to the back of the room, showing a makeshift weapon rack, which holds four weapons. ‘Ed’ could easily recognize the rocket launcher and SPAS-12 the two made together. The SPAS-12 was made after the launcher, which was infinitely easier to make and took a lot less blood. The Shotgun was pitch black, with a silver finish, on the side of it was a small silver engraving that read:
*The Last Word.
He walks over with a hum, looking at the two familiar weapons first. “Here we have the Rocket launcher, we haven’t exactly had a normal test of the guiding function just yet, so I’m nervous to rely on that function.”
It disappears into motes of light as he grabs it, and instead of a normal textbox appearing, a small black and silver equipment bar appears at the top, it being put in the fifth slot. Coriander’s melee weapon, the oar, already sat in his first.
The camera panned to the weapon next to it, the titularly labeled Last Word. He grabbed it and looked it over, whistling. “Still really proud of this one, two kinds of shells, the Titan Breakers and the Tide Splitters.” As the shotgun disappears into the menu he simply says “You’ll get to see what the Titan Breakers do today, Tide Splitters are still finicky."
Then he looked to the other two, far more experimental looking weapons. The first was seemingly just a mechanical skull, jaw mangled to look more like mandibles. “This here is the handheld [######] Blaster.” A loud beep was heard over the first part of the weapon’s name. The human grabbed the skull, and slid his grey hand into a hole in the back. The moment he did, the blaster hummed to life, two large red dots appearing in its eyes. “Doc gave me this one, glad to see he’s also taking this seriously.”
The weaponized skull turned into more motes of light, and the final weapon lay before him. It looked less like a weapon and more like an odd, mechanical ball, which was labeled as “Portable light generator.” He quickly equipped it to the last weapon slot. “Does what it says on the tin, generates light that can somewhat repel the dark, although it can’t banish spawn or titans, it can give me some room to breathe if things get rough.” The camera panned once again, back to the panel. Coriander sighed, voice cracking as he said, “W-well, that’s that.” The button clicked as he pushed it, a loud hum filling the air around the device.
*EXTRACTION INITIATED
*GET INTO POSITION.
He left the room, and stood on the metal catwalk, looking up to the pitch black sky. A hollow breeze blew through the abyss. “...Not yet.” As the wind picked up, dark rain began to pour, pattering against Coriander’s poncho. In his hands, The Last Word knitted itself from motes of light, and he checked if it was loaded. “Full ammo, ah right, tension.” He slung the shotgun over his shoulder and rummaged through his pocket. He pulled out a small orange gem, and popped it in his mouth. With a crunch, he gulped and muttered “50 percent…”
The storm began to pick up, starlightning cutting through the pitch black depths. Despite the violent gale that surrounded him, he still pulled out his cigarettes. “Starlit Smokes, don’t go out ‘less you want' em to.” Taking one, he then pulled out a silver lighter, and with a click, lit up his cig with a bright blue flame. Stardust wafted in front of the camera as thunder and lightning roared around him, as if the Depths itself were screaming in rage.
“100 percent.” he said, voice heavy with anticipation. The moment the words left his lips…
The screams of the dying erupted from beneath the platform. Coriander vaulted himself over the railing and slammed onto the cold steel below. Stardust trailed behind him as his boots hit the ground. The sound of clanking metal and pouring rain filled the camera’s mic as he bounded forward. He looked over the edge, into the abyss. In the dark waters below, hundreds of hungry eyes gazed up at him from the sea of shadows. With another flick of his wrist, The Last Word turned into motes of light, and then reformed itself into the blaster. “Not worth wasting ammo on.” The skull was pointed straight down, and began to hum louder and louder. With a nearly deafening blast, a crimson beam suddenly cut through the writhing crowd of shadowspawn before they could even blink.
Although that alone was not enough to stem the hateful tide of the damnable things, as the survivors dived and hid from the view of the laser, they went for the large concrete pillars that held the place aloft. “...Five tension per blast? Doc finally pulled out all the stops.” He mused as he threw the generator down, the thing unfolding into what appeared to be a small mechanical light house.
*GENERATOR ONLINE.
“Insurance.” With an unwavering gaze, he snapped his fingers and a strange purple filter covered the screen for a second. With his pale hands he hopped onto the railing, seemingly unconcerned with the height he was at. “...need this done quickly, else I’ll have to deal with the horde AND the titans.” He jumped down, seemingly falling into the abyss, but suddenly stopped.
*You’ve changed your formality!
*Let adversity become your strength!
Coriander’s soul was finally in view, colored a deep purple. From it shot vibrant violet vines, which quickly began to overrun and droop down from the underside of the platform. Without a word, he turned and began to fire the blaster at the pillars closest to him. He gave a curious hum as it fired a large purple grid of light that cut and carved through the ascending spawn with great ease. “Better for crowds.”
Coriander froze as he heard a loud scream coming from above. “Shit.” He looked up to see a black, oozing mass lunging towards him. As the spawn was finally upon him, the camera cut to purple, and suddenly the perspective was looking down at the creature as it fell past him. He mutters, “...Christ, I gotta pay more attention.”
The footage of the first wave kept going, displaying Coriander using the vines to quickly move around the bottom of the platform while cutting the encroaching horde of shadow spawn apart using the laser grid. As the ten minute mark approached, Coriander hung from the vines, looking down at the concrete pillars which were now coated with the vile ichor of the unholy.
"Finished early, good.” The camera cut to Coriander now ascending up the side of the rig. With a huff, he finally clambered back up the side and caught his breath on the cold steel of the platform. Shining sparks began to form around him once more, the first becoming another tension gem which loudly crunched as he bit down on it. The next were a cigarette and his lighter, which he quickly used to replace the one that long since had served its purpose. “Not enough time in the world for a smoke break.”
The sound of thunderous roar broke through the hateful storm behind Coriander. His eyes trembled as he saw three bright blue fountains cutting through the horizon. “...I’m ready for you this time, shithead.” The malice in his voice matched the roar, as the blaster in his hand dissipated into the inventory. He held out both of his hands, as several of the lights bonded together into the beautiful rocket launcher. The black metal sheen almost glinted under the shine of his vermillion soul. In his other hand, a rocket made of pure silver, lined with glowing red malice materialized. “I’d say see you in hell, but…” the launcher clicked as he loaded it, and he carefully aimed it at the closest titan.
“We’re already there, aren’t we?” The venom in his voice filled the air as the disgusting appendages of the titans began to break through their stone shells. As the head of the first Titan emerged, the first thing it heard was a loud whistle, and the last thing it saw was a bright light slamming into its skull.
*2404!
*2302!
The Titan was immediately subsumed in in a blinding flash, being ferried back to the darkest pit of the Depths that it crawled from. Coriander laughed “It really DID work, fuck yeah!” His celebration was cut short as a deafening blast sounded out and the camera’s vision turned to black. It quickly returned, showing the massive beam narrowly missing Coriander. Before he could get his bearings, he heard a cacophony of wet thuds coming from all around him. “Don’t tell me…” from the handrails, several oil-black vines began to cling to them. The sound of the titan charging, the disgusting, desperate banging of the vines crawling from the depths…
These were the sounds of being surrounded.
With a loud boom, the another blinding laser cut through the air and careened towards him. This time, he was ready, charging out of the destructive beam’s path. But from the vines surrounding the platform, the crunching of bone filled the air, and from them were born disgusting mimicries of thistles. The thistles, made from bone and blacked flesh, pointed towards him and began to creak. His crimson eyes constricted as he quickly ducked, a wave of sharp spikes whistled over his head.
“Seems like that light generator was useless…” He spat through gritted teeth. He quickly switched to The Last Word as another volley of spikes whizzed past him. “Wings would be great right about now!” He yelled as he flung himself over the guard rail, falling away from the destructive volley of lasers that dared to try and snuff him out. As he fell, it felt as if time began to slow as he bore witness to the horrible mass of vines and flesh beneath the rig.
Darker than dark, glistening vines greedily covered nearly everything. In some places, the black skin was peeled away to reveal rotted muscles that leaked pus and broken bones painfully jutting out of its flesh. In the center is where he saw it. The vessel that had been stolen twice, and doubly defiled. The vines emerged from his back, holding it aloft, its button up shirt was stained with the black fluids of the depths, and its face was carved out, replaced with a bouquet of those horrible thistles.
He grit his teeth as he looked on, rage and despair filled his soul. It took only a couple of seconds, a couple of seconds to have him completely and utterly surrounded. It had no mouth, but he could feel the wretch grinning with hateful glee. “You haven’t won yet, fucker.” His soul emerged, UNLEASHING a blinding flash of light.
*The Defiler's Defense drops to Zero!
*The Defiler is stunned!
Rapidly, his soul began to pulse, and shifted to violet. With his formality changed, two soul vines lurched towards the now purified pillars. The camera pans as Coriander shifts his body to aim directly at one of the titans. “...Can’t keep up with all three, need to trim the weeds a bit.”
Coriander’s vines suddenly pulled him forward, flinging him through the burning, hateful thicket, and towards the towering titan in the distance. He gripped The Last Word with a new found fervor as he flew through the sky, and pulled the trigger. With a thunderous bang, a bright red slug slammed into the protective faceplate of the titan, cracking it.
*1500!
Before the titan could gain its bearings, Coriander slammed through the titan’s shell. The camera’s point of view was engulfed in pure darkness as he dove into the center of the titan. The only thing heard was the sound of rushing water. From the center of the screen, a purple heart emerged, flickering to red, and then…
Exploding into a bright light. As the light dimmed, Coriander found himself falling into the sea of darkness. The wind and rain whipped around him as he spun out of control, falling into a watery grave. Desperately, he began to reposition himself boots first, and then locked the camera POV squarely on the next titan.
*Shadowmancer’s Pareidolia has been activated!
*Dance on the edge of night and day.
On impact the water seemed to bend around him, glowing the hues of a dark fountain. The walls of thin rainbow appeared at the edge of the camera as Coriander’s full weight slammed into the elastic surface. With another loud boom he was shot out from the depths, cutting through the starless night sky like a comet. Soon the sound of shattered glass filled the air as Coriander and his shotgun broke through the titan’s shell, another hellspawn sent back to where it belonged.
The Camera’s point of view re-activated again, and despite the howling winds and pouring rain filling the air, his labored panting could still be heard. “Sshit…” The water beneath him partially solidified as he caught his breath, looking up towards the rig. He growled as he saw the beast now taking point on top of the platform, right above the light extractor.
“You piece of shit!” he boomed. He quickly popped a third tension gem into his mouth. As he chewed, he loaded in a black rocket, lined with multicolored shadows. As he finally readied himself, he put the weapon away and slammed his foot into the ground. From his foot, violet lines began to shoot through the incandescent ocean. Like a train going full speed, he shot down the path put before him, gliding across the water. In the distance a cacophony of malicious laughter cut through the raging storm. The thistles shifted their positions with a sickening crunch, aiming straight towards him. Teleporting across the lines around the ocean, he whizzed past the deadly spikes with the grace of a dancer.
The sound of laughter and whizzing of projectiles suddenly stopped. Sensing the moment of weakness, Coriander seemingly sped up, and as he hit the crest of the next wave the purple light vanished, sending him flying through the air once again. The creature tried to defend itself by weaving its pulsating vines into a shield, but the moment Coriander UNLEASHED his soul, he burned straight through, slamming his boot into the defiled vessel.
As the light died down, Cori stood atop the vessel, pinning it to the light extractor below. The glass beneath began to break, and the light within seemed to claw through the cracks. As the spiderwebs cascaded down the sides of the extractor, he smiled at the blasphemer below him. “You thought you had me trapped, huh?” his voice dripped with manic malice. “You don’t know shit about traps, let me ‘n doc show you how it’s done!”
As he yelled, The extract exploded with a blinding white light, which quickly consumed the screen. As the light began to die down, Coriander’s voice began to speak. “Y’know, I made two promises–” The new local began to reveal itself, an open field of orchids, a bright blue sky, and the sun shining down. “The first was to save a rocket for YOU…” a calm wind blew, the sound of gently rustling flowers sounded all around the pair. “And the second was to finally put Orchid to rest.”
The moment he finished speaking, a subtle whirr began to emulate from below. From his feet, a black box lined in green suddenly covered the clearing in which they both stood, closing them off from the newly created arena. The Defiled Vessel hissed as more flowers bloomed from its flesh, Coriander pulled the launcher out, and without hesitation, pulled the trigger.
The battle box was suddenly engulfed in light and shadow, the screams of the damned filling the air around Coriander. The song of heaven's wrath and hell’s agony rang out as the parasite possessing the vessel was eviscerated, purifying the body in one fell swoop. But soon, the light began to die down, and the camera found itself back onto the partially destroyed Starlight Rig. Shattered glass now laid strewn about, and the disgusting ichor of the freshly killed false angel still coated the edges of the platform.
The silence was palpable, the human huffed as fell to his knee. The camera panned to his mangled and torn up legs. A bunch of small, white thorns pierced his padded armor, almost studding his hands and legs. His hand reaches around, grabbing something just out of sight. “GOD-” He yanks a bone spur from his side, coated in his iridescent blood, which evaporated into a dark mist as he let it fall to the floor. Andy’s arms twitch as his thankfully muted expletives flowed out.
*FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE
*PERHAPS I SHOULD TALK
*TO HIM ABOUT HIS
*VOCABULARY.
He finally stood up, and hobbled over to where the greyed out, desecrated vessel now rested. The vessel’s face was covered with a black censor bar. It’s grey clothes littered with holes and scratches. The camera clatters as Coriander takes off his poncho. He gently set the body camera to the side, showing his wispy blood seeping into his black undershirt. “C’mon, you deserve better than that, Orchid.” he mumbled as he laid his poncho over the body.
He turned to the camera, his clothes and hair drenched with black water. With a hoarse voice, he began to speak, “I, Coriander Corsair, Employee of Royal Sciences LLC…”
He took out his cigarette, stardust pouring from his lips, “Am happy to say that the mission, and experiment, are a resounding success.”