Steampunk Apocalypse! - 177 Ed's Madness

“You sure are ungrateful for being adopted.” Ed mockingly chuckled as he activated his chimera form.

“That’s rich coming from a man that killed his own father.” Bai responded.

Ed frowned. ‘Looks like Nexus told him a lot about me.’ He leaned forward as he prepared himself for combat.

Suddenly, the fake Yuki stood up from her throne and walked behind Bai. Her eyes were red, and she wielded a small dagger. She lunged towards Bai’s back, digging the dagger into his flesh with all her strength.

Shocked, Bai turned around. The dagger had barely managed to scratch him, and it was only capable of doing that much since he had yet to cover himself in his blood armor. Still, he was surprised by the sudden betrayal. He hadn’t expected an ordinary human to ever have the courage to attempt killing him. But what he didn’t know was that the woman would never have had the courage to do this on her own, and it had only happened because Ed had sprung the trap earlier in the day.

Ed grinned as he spotted his opportunity. This was the main reason he was willing to come back to fight Bai despite having been outclassed several times before. He didn’t need to be stronger than his opponent. He didn’t need a unique devastating weapon. All he needed was a single opening and a bit of luck. He didn’t hesitate as he rushed forward, his clawed hand reaching for Bai’s now exposed back. Purple shadows covered his hand, causing the surround air to sizzle.

Bai suddenly realized what was about to happen. He hurried to cover himself in his full blood knight armor, but it was too late. Ed’s clawed hand dug deep into his back and gripped his heart. Bai’s eyes widened in shock and his face turned pale as he felt his heart being crushed and corroded.

Ed hurriedly yanked his hand back and retreated several meters. In his hand was a crushed heart that was still corroding away due to his purple shadow. “I win.” He grinned.

Blood dripped down Bai’s lips as he stared silently at the man holding his crushed heart. Then, he shook his head while laughing. “Did you really think it would be that easy?” His blood knight armor finished covering his body, protecting him completely. He swung his blood sword in a wide motion, beheading the woman that had stabbed him in the back. “I’ll admit, you took me by surprise. But you missed your best opportunity.” He pointed the sword forward. “Let’s finish this.”

Ed’s face grew dark as he realized what had happened. ‘He’s using his law to keep his blood flowing even without his heart. Sick bastard!’ Of course, this was the pot calling the kettle black, as he himself had three hearts, which was just as perverted a combat strategy.

[Fool.] Blue Ed shook his head. [It was obvious he’d use his law to maintain his blood flow.]

‘Shut up!’ Reddish-black Ed shouted back. ‘If you knew, then why didn’t you say anything?!’

[I did.] He replied. [You didn’t listen. You’ve actively been ignoring us.]

‘Tch.’ Reddish-black Ed scoffed in displeasure.

[You should let me take over now.] Silvery-red Ed interrupted. [I have the strongest attacks and am the most suited to combat out of all of us. We’ll lose if you don’t hand over the body.’

‘Hell no.’ Reddish-black Ed replied and went back to ignoring his counterparts. He focused on the battle ahead, confident he could pull something out of his hat to win. He absolutely refused to hand over control of the body unless he had no other choice.

Ed leaped forward, shooting several purple shadows towards Bai.

Bai completely ignored the attacks, allowing them to land on his armor. Blood mist sizzled away, but no real damage was done. He created a corrosive quagmire that covered the entire throne room, once again giving himself an advantageous terrain. He rode a wave forward and chopped his sword down towards Ed.

‘Damn!’ Ed struggled to barely dodge out of the way. Once again, he was trapped in an irritating bog, and his powers barely helped at all against it. He had been overconfident in his earlier plan succeeding, and this was the result. He eyed his opponent warily. ‘Three explosions left… I need to make them count.’ He glanced at his arm, prepared to do whatever he could to kill Bai Fang.

“You’re probably planning on blowing yourself up to kill me, right?” Bai laughed from a good distance away. “I know everything about you. Your past. Your fighting style. Your suicidal tendencies that have constantly won your battles for you.” He lifted his sword, transforming it into a long spear. “Even if your explosions can’t breach my armor, I won’t bother giving you the opportunity to try.” He kept his distance as he sprung the spear forward, causing it to quickly grow in length.

Ed pushed against the corrosive bog to avoid the attack. At this distance, it was much easier to dodge Bai’s weapon, but he also had few options for counterattacking. His shadows had already proved useless, and Bai already knew his backup plans.

[Let me take over!] Silvery-red Ed tried convincing him again.

“SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!” Ed angrily roared aloud while gripping his own head. He was sick of the voices. He was sick of his other selves. He didn’t need them. He didn’t need help. He had won plenty of stacked fights before, and he believed this time would be no different. He forcefully congealed his purple shadow into a sphere to surround his body. He spun the sphere as fast as he could, creating waves in the bog. This pushed back the muddy water and allowed him to move a bit faster, but he was still at a huge disadvantage.

With the murky water now pushed back, Ed activated the mana-batteries in his legs to fly into the air. He even flapped his bat wings, hoping they would help him fly even a bit faster. He had never attempted using the wings to fly before, but he was feeling more and more that he should learn to use them properly for future battles.

“Oh!” Bai smiled. “You escaped without blowing something up this time. Impressive!” He thrust his blood spear into the ground and sarcastically clapped his hands.

Ed’s eyes narrowed. ‘Cocky bastard!’ He propelled himself downwards, shooting himself towards Bai like a meteor.

Bai calmly picked up his spear and transformed it into a large kite shield. He had complete confidence in winning this pathetic excuse for a battle. Additionally, he was already in the process of healing his own heart. The path of white water was quickly reconstructing his crushed heart and the surrounding damage, and soon he would be back to full fighting capacity.

Ed somersaulted on the way down and slammed his scaly foot into the shield. Knowing that the shield was Bai’s greatest defense, he didn’t bother exploding his mana-batteries. Instead, he somersaulted again in an attempt to land behind Bai and attack where the armor was likely weaker. He grinned as he saw he was successful. There was no way Bai would be able to turn around in time. Ed threw his arm forward and activated the explosion, not even bothering to protect his own arm this time.

BOOM! The ground shook as an elemental explosion covered both of them. The resulting damage created a large crater in the floor and damaged several nearby marble pillars. When the elemental energies cleared, Ed was revealed to be missing an entire arm. His scales were cracked, and blueish blood covered his body, but the wounds were already starting to heal at a rapid pace. It was likely his arm would be back to normal in just under a minute. The effects of the Water Nightmare flesh truly were astounding when it came to healing.

Bai was in much better shape. The explosion had only created some cracks on his blood knight armor, and the damage was healed almost instantly. “You’ve lost.” Bai shook his head as he turned around and transformed his shield back into a spear. The surrounding bog grew turbulent, sending large waves towards Ed from all directions. Bai lunged his spear forward, aiming for Ed’s head.

“FUCK!” Ed panicked, as there was no way to dodge the attacks. Left with no other choice, he exploded both mana-batteries in his legs to push everything back.

BOOM! An even larger elemental explosion than before shook the castle walls. Marble pillars fell, and pieces of the ceiling collapsed into the bog. When the explosion cleared, a crippled Ed helplessly floated atop the murky water. Both of his legs were gone, and his arm was only half-healed. All of his mana-batteries had been used, and he now had no effective way to defend himself.

Bai didn’t have a shield to defend himself, but even so, he hadn’t taken much damage. His blood knight armor was covered in cracks everywhere, and chunks of it started to fall into the water. Small areas of Bai’s body were revealed, but it was hardly of concern to him. None of his vitals were exposed, and even if they were, he was perfectly capable of healing himself. He calmly lifted his spear and pointed it towards Ed, preparing to finish the job.

[Hurry up and let me take over dumbass!] Silvery-red Ed yelled in panic.

“I refuse!” Reddish-black Ed shouted as he coughed up blood.

“Refuse?” Bai repeated, thinking that Ed was talking to himself. “You have no choice in the matter.” He swung his spear straight down towards Ed’s head.

“HAHA! I refuse!” Ed cackled madly as his Camazotz tail appeared to turn illusory and shot forward. It was far faster than the spear, and it penetrated Bai’s body near the waist. The tail twisted and turned as it rapidly shot up into Bai’s head and mana-core.

Bai’s body froze right as his spear was about to stab through Ed’s head. His eyes widened in shock as he realized he was completely incapable of movement.

“HA! HAHAHAHA!” Ed continued to laugh in a mix of joy and madness. He grinned as he stared up towards the helpless Bai. “I didn’t want to resort to this, but it’s better than letting those other bastards take over.”

Bai appeared confused, not understanding what his opponent meant or who the ‘other bastards’ he referred to were.

Ed continued to gloat. “Camazotz’s tail exists on another dimension entirely. It isn’t affected by anything physical. I was worried that the heavy mana concentration in your blood knight armor would prevent it, but you went and exposed yourself anyways. It’s my win!”

Bai trembled as he watched his mana start to travel through the tail. It was visible to the naked eye and was like watching liquid flow through a tube. He was still completely helpless, unable to move at all. All he could do was watch as he felt his mana, his paths, and even his law leave him one piece at a time.

[ARE YOU INSANE?!] Silvery-red Ed roared in rage. [You’re going to get us killed! Do you want our mana-core to disintegrate like Tai?!]

‘Better than letting you take over.’ He scoffed in reply. ‘Besides, we’ve fixed mana-cores before. What’s stopping us from doing it again?’

[We had our usual powers then.] Blue Ed interrupted. [It would be much harder without them.]

‘Haha, what fun is life without some challenges?’ He smiled. ‘What’s done is done. There’s no going back now.’

As he felt the unfamiliar powers flowing into himself, his body and soul shuddered. It felt like something strange and foreign was being forcefully crammed into his brain.

Shockingly, some of the unconscious soul shards started to glow. A dull shard turned whitish-blue in color as its eyes shot open. He stood up from the pile of soul shards and smiled politely towards the other souls. “Hello.” He bowed. “I am the path of white water, and my specialty is healing. The pleasure is mine.”

Another soul shard followed, except it was blackish-blue in color. He looked at the other souls with disdain. He was clearly the path of black water, which was corrosive in nature.

Four more shards woke up. The silver path of water, which was basically electrified water. The green path of water, which used high-pressure water for offensive attacks. The yellow path of water, which was of mud-like consistency. Lastly was a path of a different element, completely white in color. It was the default path of light, which was used to create basic barriers.

‘See, I told you it’d be fine.’ Reddish-black Ed bragged. But just at that moment, a few tiny flakes of his mana-core seemed to fall off and vanish into his meridians.

[Yeah, sure worked great, didn’t it?] Silvery-red Ed mocked.

Reddish-black Ed’s face grew grim, but what was done was done. He’d make the same choice again if he had to, as he was completely unwilling to give up control of the body.

With Bai’s various paths absorbed, all that remained was his law. It did not appear like mana as it flowed towards Ed. Instead, it appeared like a colorful mathematical formula, except it was arcane and undecipherable to anyone that saw it.

As the law entered Ed’s body, he and his other selves lost consciousness. A vision of an endless sea of pure blood appeared in its place.