Splatoon Manga: NightRoad

Chapter 39: Surprise

⭐️Chapter 39: Surprise

Emperor was halfway up the mountain.

He was annoyed. He thought he had at least gotten further. Oh well, this WAS a mountain after all. He continued up it despite still being mad.
He looked to the sides of him as he walked up. Hey, the view wasn't actually that bad...despite the fact it was dark out. He could still see fireflies lighting up the forest below, and to be honest? It was pretty beautiful. He could see some other weird shapes from here, like a weird rocky wall thing and some cliffside or something.

"You gotta keep going, you're already late by a few minutes."

"Oh come on, why do I even need to hurry anymore if I'm already late?!" Emperor said, annoyed by the voice.

"Well. Um. Because you've already gotten up halfway, and you should finish what you started quickly. Then you can go back down or whatever."

Oh.

Was it that simple?

I guess it was.

Emperor started to jog up the rest of the mountain, now motivated by the fact the voice would let him go back DOWN once he reached the top. Emperor then started wondering. Who was this voice? Were they waiting for him at the top of the mountain? Was that why they were so mad? Because they wanted to see him for something but he was taking his sweet time? Interesting...

He would ask, but he figured the voice might not reply to a question like that. He continued jogging up. This was great! No trees to get in his way, all there were were pebbles and dust and sand, and all he really had to watch out for was tripping. He could even keep up this pace, because he was going slowly (due to how steep the mountain was, even though it wasn't super steep) and could therefore maintain this for longer. But then, something hit him.
Was this a trap?

He slowed his pace to think about this. What if the voice was leading him somewhere to get captured? Or eaten? Or attacked? Or all three? But if it had been, surely he would've picked up on it, right? With the tone of voice? This voice just seemed annoyed at him. He kept walking up. A trap...maybe a shadowling one? It was already dark, and perhaps they were going to use this to their advantage?

He then remembered that he still had to fight a shadowling, one on one. He wouldn't be surprised if it was another shadowling, since he was sure the blades (other than the dark dynamo's vertical flick) were the only ranged thing within the group. He wondered if anyone else from the squidbeak had fought their shadowlings yet. To be honest, he didn't feel prepared. Maybe the voice WAS trying to help him? Maybe it could give him some fighting tips, or better yet, it could be an ally that would help him fight off the shadowlings?

Well, the only way to find out truly was running up, so he continued jogging up the mountain as he had been, but kept those thoughts in his head for later, in case they were ever relevant when he got to the top. From there it was a long silence, nothing from the voice as he went up. Only the sounds of his efforts to maintain his jogging pace. He sure felt like he was making more progress, as he'd be furious if he checked in with the voice and the voice said he had only moved like.

Less than half the distance he should've gone.

He still made sure every now and then that he had the two golden glitter pebbles, both swords, and the blueberry case. Cod forbid one go missing on him and it affect him later to the point he regretted climbing the mountain. Luckily, he never dropped a single thing. Once he felt he had gone up a good distance, he decided to try and ask the voice, while running, where he was.

"How...far...am...I...now?" Emperor said, in between breaths.

"You're almost there, less than 30 feet to go!" the voice told him.

Less than 30 feet?!

WOOHOO!

LET'S GO!

And so, with said amount being left ahead of him, he began to speed up, in order to get there faster. Finally! He wouldn't have to do more stupid tasks like this, and maybe he could find everyone else once he got to the top! He didn't care if his lungs burned, or sides hurt, he (hopefully) wouldn't have to feel this again for a while!

However, he was only a few feet away from the top, when he saw something. It was lit up up there, and he could see something at the top.

A shadowy shape.

He stopped, to not only catch his breath, but observe this mysterious being.

"Why'd you stop? You're almost there!" the voice said.

"There's...there's a figure at the top of the mountain-" Emperor said, nervous as to what it was.

He slowly got closer.

"So? You should still continue up. The top is literally right in front of you!"

"But I don't know who they are!" Emperor said, quietly so the person on the mountain wouldn't hear.

"Are they tall, with a cape, and a rather stylish tentacut?" The voice asked.

"Yeah, wait- how did you-"

He walked up the remaining distance and looked.

His eyes widened and his jaw nearly dropped.

There, standing on the rim of what Emperor now realized was not a mountain but a volcano, was Noir. He turned around to face Emperor, Lava from the volcano below lighting up his fanged smile.

"Surprised?" The voice asked.

"You...YOU HAVE TELEPATHY?!" Emperor shouted, hands flying to his head. SO many bad things were coming to mind right now.

This was too much for him to take in. Why had Noir helped him?! So this was a trap?! And this mountain was actually a volcano that might have boiling hot and deadly lava inside it?!

"Indeed I do, smart for catching on." The voice said, now in EXACTLY Noir's voice.

"Get OUT of my head, and speak to me in the real world, COWARD!"

"Oho, bold move for a dethroned king" Noir sneered, now talking with his real voice. (Because Yknow. Goggles and crew had technically beaten him, so. Was he really still a king?)

"Try me." Emperor snarled.

He was ready for this to just be over, done with. He drew his twin blades.

"I suppose I shall."

Noir drew his blades as well.

And the two launched into battle.