Light Never Dies (II)

Chapter 13 - A Dark Disruption

As the members of the party discussed yesterday, everyone wanted to go monster hunting. I brought along my two blades and my pistol and rifle. I hoped I wouldn't have to use them either since the pistol was the only weapon that was originally mine. The others were parting gifts from the CPUs and Candidates before they died.

But if the need arose, I would protect them and draw those weapons. Regardless of the aftermath.

I also brought along elemental bullets. Ranging from ice, water, fire, lightning, earth and wind as well as normal rounds for the rifle. The pistol only fired standard .45 caliber rounds though so there wasn't much I could do about that.

We as a party consisting of Uni, Nepgear, Neptune, Noire and I were currently wandering through the forest. We were hunting easy monsters as a way to train our skills and get stronger without having to risk the chance of a dangerous encounter.

The first enemy horde we encountered was a herd of Dogoos. We braced for a fight so I drew my pistol. The girls seemed to have it under control though as they fought them with ease. Nepgear though took on too big of a group. She ran towards a large group of them and swung at them horizontally, killing almost all of them but leaving her back exposed due to her heavy swing. A Dogoo tried to attack her from behind but I quickly aimed my pistol for its body and shot it before it reached her. Nepgear turned around for a second confused but then quickly realized what had happened. She apologized but I told her it was alright and that they could rely on me if need be.

The rest of the fights went like this. We fought Dogoos just enough to help regain shares for both Planeptune and Lastation and we decided after several hours of fighting that it was time to head back. The girls looked dead tired. Especially Neptune. Probably because she doesn't do a lot to begin with.

The sun was setting in the distance as we were leaving the forest. It would take about another thirty or so minutes just to reach the outskirts of Lastation. That's when something unexpected happened.

After about twenty minutes of trekking through the thick forest, the area around me started turning black and white and I heard something approaching in the distance. It was a tremendously huge black humanoid entity with what looked like a cloud of darkness and destruction in its wake.

It jumped with massive strength and landed directly in front of me in an attempt to stop me from reaching my destination. It then spoke to me in a dark and demonic voice.

"You don't belong here. You have disrupted the timeline. You cannot be allowed to live. For I am the guardian of time itself. I am the Dahaka."

Then before I could shoot him he quickly shoved me aside with brute force and sent me flying back almost twenty feet. I luckily didn't hit any trees and landed on my back into the grass. It still hurt though since he had hit me with something akin to that of the force of what felt like a freight train.

Seeing as he was super powerful, normal weapons probably wouldn't affect him. He seemed to be a creature of the dark as well so I assumed that weapons infused with light or holy magic would be extremely effective on him. Noire had the same idea as I did and she withdrew Durandal and swung at the Dahaka but to no avail. It picked her up with a tentacle of darkness and flung her aside. She flew and hit a tree hard. Knocking the wind out of her and keeping her down for the count.

"Noire! No." I screamed. That's when I felt it. Some surge of energy flowed through me and I ran towards the creature. If light weapons wouldn't work then maybe the other purification tool would. Water. I loaded the rifle with hydro rounds and soaked Durandal in a nearby lake causing it to adapt to the water element. Creating a blade that was empowered by holy water.

The girls watched as I ran up to the creature and swung first at his leg. My blade hit and it burned him badly. Looks like I was correct. His weakness was water. He then attempted to grab me with a tentacle but quickly swung at it, chopping it off of his body. I swung at his other leg which caused him to kneel down in pain on his knees. Then I swung multiple times at his chest, impaling him soon afterwards. I then took out my rifle and aimed it straight at the Dahaka's head and shouted.

"Bathe in my light. Brave Cannon Burst!"

The rifle then shone with a blinding light, which sent a beam of holy energy infused with holy water straight through his skull. Killing him instantly. The other girls merely stood and stared at me with awe and amazement. Except for Noire who had been hit pretty hard.

I sheathed my blade and stowed away my rifle and ran towards Noire's side. She seemed to be ok as I helped her back to her feet. But then, she got mad at me along with Uni as they yelled in unison one thing at me.

"Where did you get our weapons?"

"You wouldn't believe me even if I told you." I told them with a grim look on my face.

It seemed I had a lot of explaining to do.