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ix

CHAPTER NINE
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[ NIGHT TWO ]

❝ z e r o ❞

SHE sighs, taming the fire in the forest of district five. already two Operations have been eliminated, and she would be, too, in the foreseeable future. meanwhile, the surviving ones are still alive and kicking, scarred, but still arguing. they needed a plan, desperately. no clue was given as to how to get out. and she was sure as hell that they couldn't, because they were not meant to. when Operations grew too powerful, perhaps this would be the extermination ground, masked as just one big game of life and death. did the surviving group even exist at all? how powerful were they as to all emerge alive?

"One and Two are gone, Six! how are you so... relaxed?" spits Three, whose face is a bright, angry red. his eyes flash black, a sign that he is angry and not to be tampered with. the Phantom simply shrugs as he plays with a snowflake of inky black. "I.C.E. will not kill their own Operations," he replies, his tone light, but she knows it is forced. both of them are faking a front of leashed temper, but really, they would probably want to stab each other repeatedly and kick them until the other's bones are nothing but dust on a breeze. 

"now, now. we mustn't fight," Seven coos, always the mother. he is the pillar of support of Division Paraiba, and if he falls, they do, too. no fledgling can survive without its mother. 

immediately the tight tension softens at the edges, and they relax.

"help!"

Four comes running into the scene, scars all over his cheeks. "Four! what happened?" Five stands up, his voice coated with worry.

"they're coming!" he shrieks hysterically, running past them. "run, run! they're coming!"

Three frowns, metal wings unfurled from his back. "who's coming?"

"the Crucifixes! they're coming!" he screams. "run, now!" at the name, she immediately extinguishes the fire with a spell. Crucifixes are the monsters of their nightmares - literally. Ever Operation had a Crucifix held in their body, like a demon possessed. they were slumbering, but if Division Lazuli decided to activate it... then gods help whoever was around. 

but extinguishing the fires would never help. the Crucifixes, enlarged versions of theirs, could sense the ones residing in their body. if Crucifixes were mice, they were the cheese.

the bone creature bounds into view, immediately shooting out a sharp bone-quill, and it headed straight for Five's chest with deadly accuracy.

"no!"

Seven pushes Five away, as the quill enters his side. the body of Seven shrinks, like a rotting apple, almost instantly, and fades to dust, like how One and Two's did. the bone creatures does the same, reducing to nothing mid-roar.

Five's strangled sob would always haunt her dreams.

PLAYER SEVEN has been eliminated  ‹