The Bird and the Garden 3: The Final Adventure

Chapter 64: The Reality Filled with Blood

The First Yin's Soul landed on his feet, his blue eyes looking up wildly.

The memories were quick to recollect. He had been eaten by the First Vao, and his Soul, stolen. He found himself in what looked like a strange castle, the floors checkered and shiny, the walls a gothic grey. And suspended from the ceiling, the horrifying sight of the Souls that had been devoured hung in cages, tortured shrieks of the damned ringing through the air. He didn't have much time to think after he recognized these details; the shadowy hands of abominations were reaching at him from the shadows, thousands of eyes littering the walls.

SLASH, SLASH, SLASH!

With just a few swings of Crescent Rose, his Light made quick work of the incomprehensible horrors. Lighting a cigarette, his mind spun until a plan began to form in his head.

This couldn't be any more perfect. If he was in the First Vao's Reality, then he could find his brother's Soul and put down his Blood for good. Blowing the smoke into the air, he stood up straight and stared down the approaching abominations, his eyes burning with fury.

"Fight ain't over yet, bitches," he snarled. "I didn't hear no fucking bell!"

He had no idea what abominations were doing in the First Vao's Reality. It should have only been the Blood he had to worry about. Had the First Vao's corruption run this deep, that he housed horrors beyond comprehension? His scythe began to glow, the Hero of Light gripping the weapon of his long dead sister in both hands and taking a stance.

Even now, he could feel the First Vao's Soul just a little deeper inside the castle. His lips curled into a smirk. It just got better. He thanked his luck for that.

The abominations charged soundlessly, their unnatural arms darting for his head. The First Yin moved like a blur, using momentum paired with his own body weight to shred the first to pieces, his Light sizzling and burning the chunks away to nothing. His white cloak flowed behind him, the Hero one with the world around him, his heart beating to the rhythm of the fight.

His boots slammed down on another's face, Crescent Rose transforming with a series of metallic clicks. With several squeezes of the trigger and racking back the charging handle, he shot out each of its eyes, the abomination letting out an unintelligible slew of cries its limbs flailing wildly in an attempt to kill him. The First Yin leapt around, baiting the monster into killing its own allies, ducking and dodging around its attacks. The Hero chuckled.

"C'mon, motherfucker. Kiss the shit off my fucking taint, cock sucker."

The abomination's destroyed eyes shrivelled, replaced by new ones that glowered at him. The First Yin smirked.

"Look at me; I'm a smoker. My lungs are shot to hell, got enough tar in 'em to build my own highway. Gonna let me kick your ass?"

The abomination lunged for him, his scythe gliding gracefully through the air. He didn't dodge its arm. He ran towards it, Crescent Rose shredding it to pieces. With a burst of Light from the blade, he severed the limb and left his magic behind, preventing a new one from growing.

The Souls above had begun to notice him as he slaughtered the abominations, their pitiful screams quickly rising into desperate, hopeful cries. The First Yin took another look. He didn't recognize any of them. But that didn't really matter to him. Running along an abomination's corpse, he jumped into the wall and kicked off the stone surface, just barely reaching high enough to grab the bottom of a cage and pull himself on top of it. Taking aim through the sights, he shot the chains, letting the cages fall and shatter to pieces, freeing the trapped Souls. It was only when they were all fallen that he swung his scythe through the chain holding the cage he stood in that he dropped back to the ground.