SMG4:// Exodus

Part 2: Eschaton [v2.0]

Ch 1: Marrow (Meggy)

Today, a flood came. It happened in the blink of an eye, the snap of a finger. That thing broke the peace so quickly that I forgot there was any.

"Did Mario pour Lean into the vent?"

As soon as I said that, the vent grate shook and rattled, phasing between metal and no material at all. I heard a roar like a distorted Barn Owl's screech, long and loud and unnatural as the sound waves themselves glitched in the air. The grate burst open and from it spawned what can only be described as an aberration, a demon.

The crowded hallway around me exploded into chaos as it lurched onto a Koopa student in front of me. It took no time to get its bearings or stand up straight. The poor boy was corrupted, swallowed whole and left in only a disfigured, textureless mass. It didn't stop. It leapt from body to body and left each one a shapeless dead husk of ash and bones. Some of them tried to fight back, punching or scratching at it, but were corrupted as soon as they touched the thing. All we could do was watch the destruction in its wake.

The entire building began to rumble. Windows broke and their shards were melted to dust as more of the things burst through. The very floor we stood on shook violently as it's form was stolen. The thing that came out of the vent turned around and stood up, its exposed spinal column unfurling like a bike chain. Sheets of translucent grey hide dotted its blackened-purple form like beetle's armor. The bone exposed in its hands and face were it's last semblance of a human form. It turned us and stared, with wild red eyes.

Through sheer force of will and adrenaline, my nerves activated. I broke out of my daze and I grabbed Avé by the backpack and dove through a classroom door. I was too slow, as one of them grabbed her exposed leg. She screamed as her body distorted, an awful expression of fear imprinted on her face as it was incinerated. I let go and slammed the door, collapsing speechless in front of a worktable. All I was able to do was scavenge her black glasses. All I was able to be was the very last thing they saw.

After a moment, both my hands shot up and cupped my mouth as the lag in my brain fixed itself. I heard rapid clawing at the door as it fizzled between wood and some alien bright purple  checkered material. I pocketed the pair of glasses and took something else out: the LIMEADe. It was a shot in the dark, for all I knew. Once again, I turned on the LIMEADe and let my energy sing loud as it radiated through my whole body. I had been training with it a bit and gotten used to the burning. I stood up on the tile floor and let out a war cry as the door disintegrated. I leapt onto the worktable and shot through the doorway... and through the demon standing in front of me. I felt its cold body explode into dust as I landed on the other side of the hallway. I turned to look at the pile of bones and debris.

"Go back to Hell, you bastard," I said coldly. "I'm not taking you!"

I turned and ran as fast as I could back where I came, smashing through more of them one-by-one. I stopped in front of an open classroom door as Melony waved me down, slamming it behind us. I embraced her and Tari in euphoric relief. Melony motioned to the window, "This wasn't some random local attack, Look."

I gasped sharply at the sight in front of me. The sky was crimson. Clouds swirled around a single point. The city below was on fire. Skyscrapers had fallen or become textureless blocks of black and purple squares.

"It's like the Battle for Peach's castle all over again," I remembered, "No..."

"...It's like the destruction of SMG1's Universe."

Melony placed her hand on the window. Her hair glowed a whitish-jade green.

"Deity Incantation: Helios, Second Stanza."