SMG4:// Exodus

Part 8: Erisychthon (v2.0)

(Content Warning: MAJOR CHARACTER DEATHS This whole Part is a gorefest. Viewer Discretion is advised.)

Ch 1: Self-Eater

Kaizo looked back at us, rolling up the sleeves of his dark red shirt. Suddenly, I felt that same sensation as earlier, the feeling of black fur, coarse as sewing needles, brushing – scraping – against my neck. I felt the miasmatic sensation of Negative Meme Energy pulsing in him. He should have been all but human, and yet the pressure of the NME emanating from him was stronger than any Level 3 I'd ever seen.

"i've been looking... i've been looking for so long." Kaizo sighed, "do you know where she is? I think you do..."

Matt barged to the front impatiently, smashing the broken shards of glass beneath his feet. "TAKE A NUMBER AND LISTEN TO ME, YOU CRAZY PUNK!" He yelled, "I don't know who you're looking for, but if it's trouble you want, you just picked a fight with the 4 most powerful people in the world!"

"oh, did i?" Kaizo sneered, raising his arms, "i was expecting meme guardians, not birds like you. oh well, i hope you'll all enjoy becoming part of our great ball of flesh... our ball- of flesh in the meantime. what a waste of such familiar faces."

Suddenly, Kaizo's hands were engulfed in coal-black as the muscles in his arms twitched and seized rapidly. His smile persisted as his eyes rolled back into his head. The smell of NME was growing, so strong that I couldn't breathe. Matt charged toward him, loading a punch that could melt the sun. Quick as sound, Matt dove toward Kaizo as he stood there writhing. In an instant, Kaizo broke concentration and caught his arm, shredding Matt's stomach and disemboweling him with only his fingers. The shockwave from the punch leveled the row of buildings behind them. Fires erupted as gas and power lines ruptured, playing on chaos' cue. Matt was tossed aside, motionless. Kaizo's body stopped. His eyes focused.

"MATT!" Susan cried. I couldn't breathe. Watching Matt fall made my stomach seize in more pain than I had ever felt in months. Waluigi shuffled in front of me.

He murmured through hissing teeth, "if you can't help me find her, than you... your Avatar... i'll tear your world to pieces and swallow it."

"Did he just..." Shaggy analyzed, "...block a 45%? From Matt?"

"Ad..." Kaizo breathed shakily, mania in his eyes, "Ad...Nauseam."

He drew his hands across his body, wrapping Matt's intestines around his hand like a rope. The street became foul and asphyxiated with NME. I could almost smell blood. A thick line of inklike energy stretched between his wrists and furled into a huge chain. It wrapped like a snake around his right hand and became a handcuff while the rest of the chain rested in his left. At one end of the chain is a pointed blade, at the other, the head of a flanged mace. The black substance tattooed to his hands spread up his shoulders, branching out in veins covering his face.

"you're all so eager..." Kaizo smiled, swinging his blade "all so eager like me... to die. you aren't like the others... not like that mushroom man. you want to see Laelaps eat you alive, running towards me with open arms and open bellies... and i'm wanting to see it too. so, i'm gonna make ashes out of you."

~

Ch 2: From A Lacerated Sky

"REJECT!"

Kaizo sidestepped as wall and pavement behind him were annihilated in an instant. He charged at us, lobbing his mace at us. Susan parried with an Oof Button, but the power of the attack pulverized it immediately. Out of pure instinct, I scrambled to my feet and ran toward Matt, who lie in a heap past Kaizo.

"Tari, Wait!" Waluigi yelled. Kaizo saw me and threw the spear blade in my direction. Shaggy leapt in front of me and caught the blade in between his hands. Without a second to lose, he pulled the chain and Kaizo toward him by his cuffed wrist and broke the momentum with a Ki Blast to Kaizo's head. Kaizo met it with the mace end of his weapon and set off an explosion. Smoke and debris erupted around us; I could barely stand upright against the shockwave. Shaggy leapt into the air and dropkicked Kaizo through the wall of a café into the street behind it. In an instant, the café collapsed backward into him in a cloud of dust.