Pure of Mind and Sharp of Knife (Male Reader x Female Creepypasta)

Zalga's End

(N/Y) POV

A handful of us are out of the fight as casualties, but when Slender and Slenderwoman bring us back to the battlefield, I'm not afraid to face our life-long enemy again. All that's left is Zalgo and the Stripes from (Y/N)'s world. Then Zalga. Then peace. With how close the war is to ending, dying would be shameful, especially in front of Angels. This is my final examination.

As we spread out, I whisper to Angels, "You better not die again..."

"I would not embarrass myself a second time," she hisses, her sword at the ready.

"Why the hell won't they tell us what (Y/N)'s doing?" I huff through my copy of his mask, "What are we doing?"

"Stop talking," Angels shakes her head, her own confusion evident in her squinted glare.

The morphine Ann jabbed me with is the only thing keeping me on my feet without a limp, "It's quiet, right? Anyone smell smoke?"

"Yes," Angels whispers, "I do."

The wind is absent despite being so close to the mountains where the wind rolls down the slopes. Even after the snowfall ended last night, the air is utterly still. The Dregs are all gone, the castle gates open still, so they couldn't have fallen back to regroup. Both bands of Proxies walk up on the castle, through the corpses of both Dregs and Behemoths which create a grave piedmont.

Angels steps over a dead horse, "Where is your friend?"

"Somewhere," I look over my shoulder, up at the trees, and even down at the bodies. He's not dead. He can't be. Could Slenderwoman be wrong? No, he'd never die. He's me. And I don't die!

I trip over a hand and fall into the spilt organs of a fallen Behemoth, and I spring up in disgust, "Fuck!"

"Idiot," Angels growls, stepping in front of me, her sword still aimed at the castle.

Slender buzzes in my head, "Stop."

I stop, and so does everyone else, but I take a knee behind the dead Behemoth, an instinct to conceal myself that's rubbed off on me from (Y/N).

At the castle ramparts above the gate stands a figure, smoke rising behind the horned woman. Red eyes glint back at us, the sunrise behind us barely peeking through the forest. Our Lazari bounces forward, stopping to shout at her.

"Stripey!" her voice echoes off the walls back at us.

Stripes doesn't move.

"Why are you still here?" Lazari yells again, overextending.

Stripes's voice is soft in the distance, "...can't..."

As Lazari inches closer to hear, Zero growls under her breath, "Stay..."

But Lazari continues forward until the smoke within the castle walls grow and thicken as if a volcano were opening up. In an instant, a fireball explodes, blowing into the sky like a muzzle flash and flames blasting the iron gate off the wall.

In mere blinks, I'm in a patch of untouched forest, and then I'm back in front of the castle once again when the fire dissipates. Slender lets go of me as well as the other Proxies. Slenderwoman releases her own, all of us shocked by the sheer speed of their reactions.

The clearing of corpses has been scorched by the detonation, the snow sublimated in a flash. Lingering patches of fire burn in the killing field, the air rotten with the miasma of burnt flesh. Slenderwoman and Slender are tense from the explosion, both silent as they wait for Zalga and Zalgo to fall on us.

Two shadows silhouette at the castle gate. The roaring inferno behind them blackens the already burnt walls, searing hot enough to make me squint. Angels steps closer to me as the demonic forms emerge from the fire.