Becquerel stumbled back, blood spurting from the severed stump of his arm.
"Wha… what are you?" he rasped, his voice trembling with disbelief.
Kaede, her senses heightened beyond human limits, easily caught his words. A wicked grin curved her lips, one eye blazing with ethereal purple flame.
"I'm Maple," she said softly, her voice carrying a deadly certainty. "And if the Devs really went through with it… the final boss."
Becquerel's eyes widened in horror.
"This… this isn't possible," he hissed. "An enemy that can't be beaten… there's no such thing!!!" His scream was visceral.
In his fury, a storm of lightning erupted from his body, crackling and roaring as it illuminated the mountain crevice in searing white light. The torrent of power consumed everything nearby, the lesser Predators disintegrated instantly upon contact.
Kaede simply smiled. The lightning washed over her like harmless rain.
Bang!
A foot crashed against Kaede's cheek, snapping her head to the side, but her expression never faltered. She calmly shifted her gaze to the new attacker: a figure crackling with blue lightning.
"Hydra," she murmured.
Without hesitation, a dragon-like head burst from Kaede's shoulder. The beast latched onto the voltoid's face, its jaws clamping tight as it spewed a thick, toxic purple smoke into his features. The force alone lifted the voltoid into the air.
Orion, the shortest of the Voltoid Generals, screamed in pain as his flesh blistered and burned beneath the corrosive breath. His cries were short-lived. In seconds, his limp body slumped, falling silent.
"Orion!!"
Darrk, still locked in combat with a massive Predator, bellowed in rage. Yellow lightning surged through his muscular frame, his fury igniting his veins. With a roar, he backhanded the Predator into the mountain wall, pulverizing it.
"You'll pay for that!!" he roared, his face contorted with fury.
"Darrk, wait..!" Nila called out, her voice sharp from where she battled the monstrous centipede nearby. But her warning came too late.
Blinded by rage, Darrk hurled himself at Kaede. His hulking form surged with energy, his body dissolving into pure lightning, intangible, formless, impervious to physical attacks.
Yet the moment he closed in, his vision was swallowed by darkness. A voice whispered through the void.
"Devour."
Then there was nothing.
Kaede lowered her arm, the massive black shield in her grasp gleaming ominously as the remnants of Darrk vanished into its depths. "Looks like Devour still works," she mused, tilting her head. "Even when I'm using a weapon."
She studied the shield thoughtfully. "Though… does a shield even count as a weapon?" she asked aloud, then shrugged. "In my hands, it does."
Becquerel stumbled back, as he just witnessed two of his generals die in an instant. 'How is she so powerful? Such a power… Is she truly a Monarch Candidate? No! A mere candidate wouldn't be so strong.'
The glow of the shard beside him drew his attention. 'Could it be? The chaos shard. That's how she attained her strength?" His eyes gleamed with madness. "Then I too…"
"Hmm?" Kaede narrowed her eyes as Becquerel grabbed the shard tightly within his one good hand, his eyes gleaming as he laughed, no, cackled. "I've figured it out! The secret of your power!"
Kaede deadpanned. "What are you going on about?"
His hand started glowing as he slowly cracked the shard. "Power comparable to that of a Monarch!" The shard shattered and the world was bathed in colours.
—-----
Kanae's eyes widened in shock as she watched Korra fall, lifeless, to the bloodstained earth. For a moment, the chaos of battle dulled around her, the shouts, the clash of steel, the crackle of lightning. It all became distant noise.
"Damn it…" she whispered.
A bold voltoid lunged toward her exposed flank, seizing the chance, only for three lion spirits to materialize and tear the creature apart in a blur of fangs and fury.
Kanae took a steadying breath, tilting her head back to the storm-dark sky. When she lowered it, her gaze met Cinnamon's. The great lion held her eyes, an almost sorrowful, apologetic expression in its golden gaze.
"It's not your fault," Kanae murmured, fingers tightening around the hilt of her bloodstained katana. Her crimson-tinged eyes turned toward a mass of advancing Voltoids, glinting with fierce resolve.
"It's theirs. And I'll make sure they regret it."
Unseen by the warriors, a single black tendril descended silently from the clouds above. It snaked across the battlefield, creeping toward Korra's fallen form. Slowly, it traced along her motionless body, soon joined by a second, then a third, their sinister shapes slithering like living shadows.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, Kenzo faced off with the tall voltoid commander. "Who are you?" Kenzo growled, panting, his stance unsteady. "And how can you talk?"
The voltoid commander chuckled darkly, a wet, crackling sound. "Khekeke… I've always been able to speak. It just took a while to master your primitive tongue." Another voltoid tossed him a spear, which he caught effortlessly. "What kind of scout would I be if I couldn't even do that?"
Kanae appeared beside Kenzo in a flash of movement, her eyes never leaving the commander. "Copying the languages of other races… and you claim to be a mere scout?" she said coldly.
Kenzo gritted his teeth, glancing at her.
"I don't need your help, Kanae. I've got this. At best, I just need Akari to patch me up."
"Shut it, Kenzo." Kanae's voice cut through the tension like a blade. Her face a mask of quiet fury as she glared at the voltoid commander. "My friend just died because of your incompetence. You're barely standing. Akari's busy too. I'll handle this."
"Khekeke… yes," the voltoid rasped. "I am a Scout Commander. It is our task to learn everything we can about the Intruders, and the… anomaly. But the real fighters… they're coming."
A wave of dread rippled through the hunters nearby.
"Fuuuuck!" one of them shouted in despair, his voice cracking.
Kenzo forced a grin, though fear gnawed at his stomach. "Actual fighters, huh?" he said with forced bravado. Inwardly, his heart sank. 'This is just the scouting group? We're so screwed…'
Kanae's eyes narrowed. "Do you have a name, Scout Commander?" she asked, raising her katana in challenge.
"Its… what..?" the voltoid commander began, only for his gaze to drift past them, his expression warping in confusion and fear.
"What the hell is that!?"
"Another monster!?"
"Holy shit!"
The distressed voices of the hunters made Kenzo and Kanae whirl around, and what they saw made their blood run cold.
Dozens of tendrils now clung to Korra's fallen body, so many they writhed like a nest of living shadows. And when their eyes followed the tendrils upward…
They collectively gasped.
Dominating the sky was an immense, nightmarish shape, a colossal black kite-like creature, its silhouette blotting out the clouds. Countless tendrils extended from its body, linking it to Korra's corpse, which now hovered inches off the ground.
The thing shone briefly, a sickly, unnatural glow.
"No… stop!!" Kanae screamed, a pulse of terror ripping through her.
But it was too late.
The kite flashed, its eerie light pulsing through the tendrils in a wave, and then, in a burst of dark energy, it vanished completely, consumed by Korra's body.
The silence that followed was deafening.
Korra's body collapsed to her knees, gasping raggedly for breath. Around her, the entire battlefield stilled, voltoids, hunters, even the spirits frozen in shocked silence.
Sharply, Korra opened her eyes.
—------
The mountain quaked as the kaleidoscope of colours faded, leaving the battlefield draped in eerie, muted light.
Kaede's eyes widened at the sight before her. "Whoa… you actually went and got stronger," she murmured, a flicker of intrigue in her voice.
Becquerel stood transformed. Now towering at eleven feet tall, his once-dark hair had turned stark white, falling in wild, untamed strands. His physique was leaner, more refined, yet radiating a deadly, feral energy. Both his hands and feet ended in sharp, obsidian claws, and where his severed arm had been, new flesh had already regenerated, flawless, as though it had never been lost.
A thick, yellow miasma coiled around his body like smoke, broken intermittently by surges of crackling green lightning. His eyes glowed a pale, milky yellow, empty yet terrifyingly aware.
In a blink, he vanished.
Kaede hadn't even moved when a heavy blow slammed into her side, driving her backwards. Her boots carved deep trenches in the earth as she skidded to a halt. Despite the force of the hit, a grin spread across her face.
"It doesn't matter how strong you are," she said coolly, brushing dust from her sleeve. "You can't hurt me."
She took a step forward, and stopped.
A strange sensation bloomed in her side, a dull, persistent ache.
Frowning, Kaede placed a hand against her ribs, confused.
"Did he… actually hurt me?" she muttered. "But… I didn't feel anything when he hit."
The pain worsened, a slow, gnawing throb spreading through her.
—
You are under the effects of Radiation Poisoning.
—
Kaede's expression darkened in realization. "Radiation poisoning?" she said, voice low, eyes narrowing. "Then that murky aura around him… it's radiation."
Becquerel's laughter echoed across the battlefield, wild and exultant. "Hahahaha! This power… this strength!" he shouted, flexing his clawed arms, the miasma swirling thickly around him. "I feel unstoppable!"
Becquerel spread his arms wide, and bolts of green lightning erupted wildly, striking across the entire mountain.
"Oh, hell no," Kaede snapped, a ring of golden light flaring out from her as the power of Martyr's Devotion swept over the battlefield, shielding the Predators.
The lightning crashed down, searing through the Voltoid warriors. Their bodies charred, mutated grotesquely, and some exploded outright under the assault. But the Predators… not a scratch. The lightning passed over them harmlessly, as if nature itself refused to harm them.
Kaede stumbled, a sudden wave of dizziness hitting her. A warm wetness trickled from her nose. She sniffled, wiped it, and stared at the blood on her fingertip.
"My poison immunity doesn't work against radiation? And here I thought evolving it to Hydra would cover everything."
---
[STATUS]
You are under the effects of Radiation Poisoning.
HP: 10800 / 12700
---
Grimacing, Kaede yanked a healing potion from her inventory and took a long swig.
"Even if he can't hurt me physically… radiation is a whole different beast."
---
HP: 11800 / 12700
---
The battlefield was now cloaked in a sickly green and yellow miasma. The surviving Voltoids were coughing, hacking with every breath they took. Even Kaede wasn't spared, a cough racked her body, blood staining her palm.
"The potion didn't work?"
---
HP: 11200 / 12700
---
She gulped down another.
---
HP: 12200 / 12700
---
"It worked… but as long as the radiation's still in my system, it'll just keep eating away at me."
Kaede grimaced, glancing at Becquerel. "Okay, when I said you couldn't hurt me, I didn't mean for you to conveniently gain a power that can, you jerk."
---
HP: 11800 / 12700
---
She sighed, shaking her head. "Why doesn't Maple have radiation resistance? It's a totally normal resistance to have. You never know when some monster's gonna evolve into a walking beacon of decay."
A sudden surge of movement, Kaede spun just in time to raise her shield against Becquerel's charge.
Shatter!
The force of the blow hurled her backward, her shield splintering, chest plate cracking under the impact. A Kaede-sized hole appeared in the mountain wall as she crashed through it, sending rubble cascading.
She coughed hard, pulling herself upright as she staggered back through the breach. Although she looked unhurt, there was now more radiation within her body from that single attack.
"You… broke my shield."
As if on cue, the shield reformed, shimmering back into pristine condition, followed by her battered chest plate doing the same.
"Oh, yeah. It can do that." Kaede awed at the shield. "Now to take you on for real."