"I welcome you to try and find me, but I must warn you ahead of time; it won’t be easy, hah. I will say, though, that it is quite a shame that I couldn’t be there in person, but alas, there are far too many towers on the verge of opening, and I can hardly focus on a single one." Draven’s voice came down from the sky as if a deity was speaking to me, and that simple thought caused me to click my tongue mentally.
"You’ve become a Relic of Old, Xipher. This is a new dawn, a new era, and this time, my Partaevian will reign over Earth as its sovereigns."
"Hmmmm, I don’t knowwww about that one, Dravey Boy; it’s quite bold of you to assume that I have lost here today…." Standing with all my weight on my left leg, since the right was in bad shape after kicking the NightWalker at 50%, I smile toward the sky.
"That arrogance of yours is why you will never be superior to me, so what if you’ve defeated one of my Guardians? So what if the Heroes have cleared the Instance Breaks? This is only but one of 6 Towers; victory will be mine; it is only a matter of time."
"And let me guess, hehe, you think that by hiding away inside one of them, you’ll be safe from me? Foolish thoughts from a halfwit, hmmm, oh…it seems the Heroes have finally defeated the second to last NIghtWalker, only this crippled heap of garbage remains," with my eyes flicking to the camera feed, I noticed that all of the heroes were grouping together and heading our direction from the southern gate.
"Our battle will come in due time, Dravey Boy, so go ahead and clean yourself nicely, wash that neck of yours, and be on guard because it’s when you least expect it that I shall appear again." With that said, I activated the stealth inscription on my robe and vanished without another word.
It was time to go; with the joint Hero teams arriving within a couple of minutes and my being the former public enemy number 1, I didn’t doubt they would attack first and ask questions later.
Standing there on the mountainside, under cover of stealth, I swiftly activated my teather to the Teleportation array, flashed back to the Command center, and didn’t hesitate in jumping to Xilia’s coordinates.
Had I not been so injured, I could have easily made the quarter-mile trek down the mountain, past the Platform, and met up with the group; however, my body was already starting to shut down, and I needed immediate medical attention, especially since I’d burned through all my potion concoctions just to stay upright.
But even my injuries were predetermined, as I was extremely meticulous about what body parts I used in my attacks, primarily choosing ones that could have conceivably been hurt during my fall earlier; that way, when it came to getting healed by Piniki, she wouldn’t be able to make the connection between myself and Xipher.
Not that anyone who didn’t know me realized my Actuate was double-edged. No, I was fairly good at playing it off, but still, I wasn’t taking any chances.
Arriving beside Xilia, who was on the ground looking up at the Platform from some distance, I quickly swapped out my equipment to my Nexus suit and changed places with the golem before allowing myself to be carried by her.
’Welcome back, how bad is the damage?’ She said, feeling the weight on her body shift for the briefest of moments.
’I may have gone a bit overboard this time around, that NightWalker was far more powerful than predicted, and it’s all because of the Homunculus fragments in its body.’ Guiding me to the ground, Xilia reached around behind my neck and pressed the button, which retracted my helmet, allowing me to breathe in the fresh, particle-rich air.
’And Draven? Did we get him?’ It was then that I remembered that the group had fled without looking back, placing their faith in me that the job would be seen through to the end…well, that and if anyone could survive a multi-particle grenade explosion, it would be me, the human-cockroach.
’Sigh…no, it wasn’t him; we did, however, kill his Left Index Guardian. His control over the Homunculus has reached new heights. It seems hes able to Hijack his top-ranking generals and, for all intents and purposes, clone himself, so while it may be his consciousness, the body doesn’t actually belong to him.’ I said as Xilia gently fed me a healing potion.
’It also explains how he survived the crusade back in the Origin Timeline. There’s a strong possibility we’ve never truly fought or even seen the real Draven, only his clones, and if that’s the case, he has nine other potential body doubles we need to worry about.’
’But the only question is, how much of his power is he able to bestow upon them, because if there is no division of power, we may very well end up having to face 10 Dravens before the world is rid of his bullshit.’
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"There they are, hurry up!" Cresting the mountain from our left, Brenden and company rushed toward us, all looking worse for wear after a long battle.
’You did well in separating yourself from them, Xilia; I shall have a reward for you when we get home,’ with a smirk, I glanced away from the young lady and toward my worried brother and father.
"Piniki first aid, Nexus needs it bad. He was already hurt when he and Fell appeared on the Platform, but now…it looks even worse." Taking charge, Emilia set up a protective cube-like barrier around the whole group while directing Piniki to my side.
"Hah, no need to be so fussy; that bastard hit me pretty damn COUGH hard earlier, and I took a hard tumble down the mountain; if it weren’t for LadyFell coming to get me, I probably wouldn’t have left that spot until you guys came to pick us up." Downplaying my injuries, I felt myself shifting as I was laid flat on my back with Piniki kneeling above me, hands glowing and running them the length of my body.
"Jesus H Christ….Nexus…this…nearly every bone in both your arms is destroyed, and your right leg is completely shattered, and that’s just your limbs, internally…." Piniki shouted as the first signs of tears trickled down her cheeks.