Artificial 7: Genesis Requiem

Chapter 20: Trap

(Artwork is done by AI. It's the 2nd born Lilith of the quintuplets. )

Narration: "Found him!"
Selena and Alexander yell as the team parkours over crates,
fences,
and the construction sight.
Everyone but Ventus runs through the door that Genesis walks through and down the giant hallway built for a giant dragon.
The team runs down the spiraling fence like flooring and stops several feet below the mountain with a massive giant rock as high as the cieling itself.
Everyone stops at the door where the Genesis they are following explodes into a smoke screen,
and Elias Gustafsson takes aim with his rifel and pulls the trigger,
causing a black tendril to shoot out of Selena's arm and swatt the bullet away. A firefight breaks out as the team scatters and hides behind support beams, shooting at Elias as he takes cover on top of the rock in the middle of the lava or behind it.
Meanwhile,
outside that room,
Ventus runs for that hallway only for the real Genesis to pick him up by his shirt, run across the bridge,
and throw Ventus.

Ventus POV: The man Miss Selena and Mister Alexander call Genesis throws me!
I rolled backward and shot up onto my feet like a springboard.
"Alright, buster! What the hell did you mean about not seeing Terra again?!" I'm referring to my first encounter with him,
and before that time,
Selena stuffed me between her boobs. "Exactly what I meant, dipwit. The Terra you know and love. Soon, he'll be gone for good."

Genesis says through his cyberpunk helmet.
"That's the most asinine thing I've ever heard!"
I manifest my brass knuckles with daggers and hold them in reverse grip. "You say that now, but when it happens, then you'll see the truth."
Genesis raises his hand,
and darkness forms in the palm of his hand as he manifests a rapier handel as his soul the blade extends out like a collapsible sword you find on the internet then a purple magic energy forms the blade of the rapier!
How can this be?
Mister Woods told me and Terra that only the chosen ones can do this.
Very special Exorcist chosen by God!

After the shock wears off,
I remember that war I fought in not too long ago,
and Selena told Mister Woods that all Exorcist could manifest their souls as weapons and that none of us Exorcist are really special.
I take a stance,
ready for a fight,
and Genesis takes a fencing stance, bouncing his legs.
"Good. I want to see what you're made of."
Genesis twirls his rapier super fast then strikes my shoulder,
right arm,
then my left leg in three super fast thrusts!
I leap back,
and this black and purple fire ignites off his rapier,
then forms a giant sphere from it,
and he blasts it at me!

I run across the bridge and duck behind some crates only for that to explode and the force to send me flying!
The debris of the explosion also hit,
so I was banged up and bleeding from my head, shoulder, arm, and leg.
I get up and start kicking and punching wind vacuum blades,
and this man just casually dodges, creates a black and purple flame with his right hand,
and throws one massive fireball only for it to split into five fireballs that hone in on me!
I parkoured around the construction equipment,
but each explosion was a little too close for comfort.
Another explosion goes off,
and I hit the side of the bridge and roll over in pain!
Ugggggh!
Why meeeeeeeeee?

Male Terra's POV: The firefight ends with me firing an Umbra thread to the cieling and pulling out my hand gun to shoot the sniper in the back of the head, causing him to fall into the lava below. After that,
Selena suddenly realized Ven wasn't with us, and we doubled back for Ventus only to see him getting ragdolled by explosions!
"Is that all you have to offer? Those little wind blades that can be dodged or those wind canons that are easy to read. I have strict orders to keep you alive, but so what? As far as I'm concerned, you're not worth keeping around."

Ventus lands on his back, hitting power equipment as we rushed towards them, jumping on anything we could latch onto as the bridges were mostly destroyed.
Selena ejects her gun magazine and takes one off her belt,
reloads,
and shoots at Genesis only for the bullets to bounce off a barrier!
Genesis raises his rapier above his head and creates a pure blue fireball that slowly gets bigger and bigger until it's bigger than Genesis himself!
Genesis fires the fireball off his rapier and,
in a sudden burst of light that blinds everyone,
an explosion could be heard.

Ventus's POV:

I thought I was dead when Genesis started talking and approaching me with his rapier,
so I shield my eyes when he created this blue fire thing. Then, when I thought my time had come,
a bright light hit my closed eyes, followed by the sound of an explosion and something moving my sides!
When the light died down,
I felt I was placed down as I looked up to see Miss Selena,
Mister Alexander,
and Miss Terra standing before me and in the distance,
I could see the blue fire being reflected off Genesis's helmet.
"Why are you targeting Ventus specifically?"

Miss Selena asked in a tone that says you will tell me vibe.
Genesis remained silent.
"Bring out the real one!"
She demands.
"Not happening, little lady."
He retorts, and I see this black energy slithering between the floor boards of the bridge that came from Selena,
and in a moment later,
Genesis falls backward!
"Are you scared the real you won't get the job done?"
Selena says in a taunting way as she pins him with her sword at his throat and a knee on his sword arm.

"You talk too much."
Genesis's posture was way too calm as Selena leans closer to his helmet.
"Well, that's too bad."
Genesis phases through the floor board and reappears behind Alexander and Miss Terra!
A fight broke out between the four,
and I joined them in fighting back as the remainder of the team worked on getting over here through the debris.

Genesis coats his rapier in that black and purple fire,
making it shine like a lightsaber and slashing and thrusting with it.
I kept out of his range and punched him a few good times,
Selena shot him a few times,
Alexander slashed him with his sword, and Miss Terra zaps him with lightning! Genesis creates this dome of fire and expands it,
launching us all back!
Genesis starts teleporting everywhere with Miss Terra as his sword clashes with her spear,
but Selena wasn't about to let a minor set back keep her out of the fight and went back in,
using the black energy thing to not just grab Genesis but also throw him!

I run alongside Genesis's flying body, jump,
and kick him in the back!
Genesis rolls across the dirt,
and as he stands up,
my brother Terra and Miss Himiko attempt to split him in half!
Genesis makes black lightning pop around his hands and blasts them away with it only for Himiko to make a swiping motion with her finger,
and a blueish barrier was created in such a specific way that she locked Genesis's joints with Barrier Magic!

That's so fucking cool!
Everyone approches him,
and he raises his head up.
"You all think you have won? Even if you kill me, what are you going to do about the patriarch? Clay is in his throne room as we speak, corrupting and twisting him into a monster. Will you break your no kill rule on Animal Skins, or will you watch the patriarch slaughter the towns people because you failed to stop him? Tik toc, you're on the clock."

Narration: Lily and siblings grab Selena, saying they know where the patriarch's throne room is,
and just drag her as the team followed behind.
They entered the room that Elias died again,
and at the bottom of the spiraling floor, everyone saw the throne room door busted down.

The team hesitantly enters the throne room where the patriarch lays chained to the ground by the support pillars,
and Clay sits on the throne with a pissed off expression,
staring at Selena mostly.
"Oh, look at that. He thinks he's tough shit."
Selena says,
trying to taunt Clay into fighting.
"YOU! You ruined my master piece! My greatest work of art! He could be so much more like me if he wasn't chained down by silly sentiments like friendship and family!"
Clay roars in anger.
"Do.... do you seriously believe making him a mindless killing machine is good? That's ridiculous. It makes no sense." Selena scratches her head in confusion. "Man, some Demons really are crazy."

Selena concludes,
which infuriates Clay even more.
"We could be gods walking among men! I've known of him since he first started off as a mercenary. Those eyes of his, I could tell right away he had the drive, the passion to become one, and you all tainted him. Well, you won't be tainting anyone anymore."
Clay snaps his fingers as a piece of the Clamity King Grimoire activates and starts sparking electricity around a demonicfied version of the dragon patriarch.

The giant dragon stands up as demonic rune chains ignite on fire and keep him chained down.
The demonic dragon looks at every and begins to roar repeatedly,
trying to move but can't until it realizes the chains.
It snaps them off one at a time,
then roars as loud as possible and igniting it's whole body on fire.
Clay teleports and leaves the corrupted dragon to deal with the team.
What is Clay's obsession with Seth,
and why is he working under Genesis? Stay tuned as all will be revealed in due time.