Pure of Heart.

“Sorey?!”

Sorey was a sight for sore eyes, if there was ever a better descriptor. Mikleo definitely felt worlds more confident in the outcome of this skirmish with his most trusted companion at this side. More importantly, Mikleo was just relieved that Sorey had been unharmed after his own re-abduction…

Mikleo clubbed his nearest assailant upside the head with his staff in their distraction and darted over to Sorey’s side. Happy reunions could wait. For now, they had to dispatch their attackers.

“They’re serious about this, Sorey… Now that they know you’re involved with me, they’ll try to get you too, so be careful. I don’t want to hear any whining when this is over!”

But if they were together, then they’d be able to overcome it. There was no question about it.

With Sorey at his back, Mikleo leapt into the fray again.

A few good whacks and a lot of bruises and broken bones later, they had finally sent the last man running for the hills. 

Mikleo…had had suffered a few more hits than he would’ve liked, but considering that the skirmish had followed a long sprint, Mikleo was exhausted. He fought the urge to double over to catch his breath, instead turning back to Sorey to check him over.

“Yep... all in one piece. Thanks, Mikleo.”

Placing a hand over the other’s shoulder for slight support--it was going to be a pain returning to the Hive City lifestyle again--he looked around at the dreary taint surrounding them; the semblance to the Lord of Calamity’s owned space was near uncanny, albeit less painful to reside within.

They had just left Lastonbell. That was the last thing Mikleo remembered.

But Mikleo blinked, and suddenly, the vast, sprawling plains of Rolance had been replaced by a grey skyline. His companions were no longer by his side. Sorey was no longer by his side.

“Sorey…?!”

He looked around frantically for Sorey, for Rose, for Lailah and Edna, for anyone, but as his field of view swiveled about the place he was standing, he realized that this landscape looked very, very familiar…

“This is…Hive City?!”

Mikleo calmed down soon after, slowly walking through the streets and taking in the surroundings. Not much had changed since his and Sorey’s last adventure here, though the Malevolence had certainly grown thicker. Mikleo didn’t panic, though. If he hadn’t succumbed to it yet, then that meant that Sorey, his vessel, must’ve been close by…

But where? How could he find one person in a city of thousands?

Give or take a half hour of walking, Mikleo realized he was being watched. He took note of it, but continued on his way–or at least he would’ve if two burly men hadn’t stepped in his way.

“You have no place here…”

“…Excuse me?”

Though he didn’t need clarification to catch onto the bad intent. Malevolence poured from the men in thick streams. Were they in the process of becoming hellions? And yet, there had been no hellions the last time…?!

Mikleo had no time to think about it. The men lunged, and Mikleo jumped back, bringing out his staff.

He had been faring well on his own for the first little while, but more hellionized NPCs had been drawn by the commotion. It was beginning to look like an uphill battle; without full use of his Seraphic artes, Mikleo could do little but rely on melee attacks.

Even that was stretching the limits of his physical capabilities. He had had no choice but to run, and while he managed to throw some off his tail, others still followed. Mikleo ran, turning this corner and that, until eventually, he ran into a dead end.

“Gh…”

Of all the times…! He turned around to find that at least five of the men had followed, and brandished his staff defensively.

The malices of war had certainly torn Sorey’s heart asunder and filled him with the need to assess himself as the authority of taking all responsibility into his own hands. Though the Shepherd of legend appeared to be of god-like strength to the mere soldiers of whom he had blown back in demonstration of his capabilities, he was certainly just a frail human at his most inner core.  All of the senseless killing, the choking taint that rose up and spread over the blood stained soil, and the appearance of the Lord of Calamity that threatened to take all beacons of hope in an instance...

How could he have not wanted to try and correct the wrongs of human kind at their very most flawed?

But Sorey digressed.

If he had tried to follow on through with taking the responsibility of everyone’s burdens all at once he would have simply, in Edna’s most blatant terms, “gotten his legs all tangled up.”

So that’s why he had to reassess himself--that’s why he could not forget the promises and goals he had set before he had gotten caught up in all of the problems of the world they lived in--because if he didn’t take things slow, focusing on one objective at a time, surely, he’d fall before he even made it to his true journey’s end.

“All right! Let’s continue on then!”

... But the next few footfalls seemed hazy, Sorey’s vision filtering out of focus as his eyes were coveted with a black veil, ears filled nothing but with a numbing, crackling noise that crescendoed into a high pitched shriek leading to his lost consciousness. 

The sight of their very faces on the screen was just as shocking to Mikleo as it was to Sorey, Mikleo nearly jumping out of his skin as he watched his face on the screen changing in terror as well.

“Wh–Sorey!! What did you do?!”

Mikleo was regarded as the more level-headed of the two, so he had to play the part in this moment, right? Regardless of how terrified he might’ve been.

“H-here, give that to me! Give it here!”

Though as he fumbled to take hold of the phone, his finger brushed against a circular object on the screen, and it flashed white for a second with a click–before the screen faded back, Sorey’s and Mikleo’s shocked faces frozen in place.

“…Huh?!”

“---..................” Silenced into a dumb-founded stupor, Sorey could barely form a coherent word, jaw-dropped and absolutely horrified at the certain turn of events. All he could do was stare at the cellular device before blinking and turning to the water Seraph beside him. 

“I don’t know… It seems a little dubious.”

Leaning over Sorey’s shoulder to take a peek at the strange looking thing, Mikleo couldn’t begin to puzzle its functions. What did the glass serve? Why did the squares and pictures light up when Sorey’s finger touched them? It was spooky…

“I got one too, but…I haven’t taken a good look at it yet. Should we really trust the ‘charity’ of the scientists? It seems a little…”

That wasn’t to say that he wasn’t curious, though. After all, what harm could such a small device do? It wasn’t like it would explode or anything… Right?

Sitting down beside Sorey, he leaned over for a closer look at the screen. It was then he noticed a peculiar button–the “camera” option.

“What does this thing do?”

“Hmm... but I’ve seen so many people using these regularly. They seem really convenient for those that live here..” Not to mention that having a pocket sized navigation device that could constantly keep you connected to other people with the press of a button was rather miraculous in and of itself. Of course, being the Shepherd, Sorey could connect and communicate with Mikleo in ways only available to them, but not everyone could appreciate that sort of convenience. In a way, things sort of balanced themselves out in Hive with repercussions such as these. Perhaps, that was the point? But then why give everyone else these...? “Eh?” Accidentally pressing the button that Mikleo noticed, the screen faded to black, filling Sorey with a sort of momentary dread. In the next second, the camera application was activated, the sight of their faces suddenly appearing before them on the small window absolutely terrifying Sorey. 

Adiane left the tiny, hospital-like room she woke up,  in a storm of fury. Her fists clenched, one holding a small figurine of her Gunman. {A social Experiment? How DARE them taking away my Sayrune?!} She never signed up to partake in some weird game that was created by stinking HUMANS. In all her anger, she doesn’t even bother paying attention to her new surroundings. A gigantic city, split into different sectors. Each sector having the size of a small city itself. But Adiane just throws that model of her Sayrune at the head of the next unfortunate person that’s crossing her ways. She might not be able to ride that toy, but at least she can throw it at people’s head.

“I’ll CUT THEIR HEADS OFF, THE MOMENT THEY OPEN THEIR FILTHY MOUTHS!!”

--And suddenly, a sharp pain struck Sorey against the back of his head, causing him to see stars for a moment as he crouched down to clutch at his throbbing cranium. Picking up the assaulting item in question-- a toy ship?--Sorey was no sooner startled bfy the bellowing of a rather infuriated woman.  This wasn’t going to end well at all.

くコ:彡 —  “Well, yeah… ‘s supposed to fire a lot more ink, though. Like- a lot more. ‘Nuff to cover a ton of ground. But this is just… insultin’, really. I feel insulted.” He briefly explained. The weapon in his hand also wasn’t as big as some of the other weapons back in Inkopolis, it was arguably bigger than the N-Zap, though, but that could be debated.

“The us from an alternate world…? Invaders…? Is that even possible…?”

But how could it not have been, when two Soreys stood before him? When the one that had tried to corrupt him suddenly charged with the intent to kill?

“Sorey!”

He made to move after his friend, but his arms felt so heavy and his legs would not obey him, threatening to collapse on him again. Was it the shock? Or the overwhelming Taint that had been nearly forced into him? 

Nngh… Move… Move…!

Watching his own Sorey succumbing to his darker counterpart filled Mikleo’s heart with dread, and it was the desire to protect that finally forced his protesting limbs into action. 

“Unleash the double stream! Twin Flow!”

Jets of water burst forth from thin air, jutting in between the sparring doubles. Mikleo’s assault didn’t end there–stalagmites of ice erupted from the ground, acting as a wall to screen them both as Mikleo ran to Sorey’s side.

“Chill the hell out, kid. There’s no need for that.

“anyone got a lighter or something? pretty please?”

Ah… Of course. When a Shepherd fell to the Taint, all the Seraphim under him would follow. Sorey was aiming to–!

“S…Sorey! Stop it…!”

But nothing he could say would deter the dark Shepherd from continuing, the pain and discomfort of the Taint seeping in–

No!

But he couldn’t fight back, rendered helpless by the iron grip around his neck and the suffocating Taint. Was this it…? Would he become a tainted Seraph? Would he become a dragon…?

Sorey…

“MIKLEO!!!”

All of a sudden, both Taint and choke hold relented, Mikleo falling to his knees as he was released, coughing as his lungs begged for air. An outstretched hand entered his peripheral vision–Sorey’s hand.

What…?

But this Sorey was, without question, the one he had grown up with, his emerald eyes still so bright and shining. 

  “What…what’s going on?”

“These are... the invaders, Mikleo. They’re the us of another alternate world! You can’t be fooled by his appearance!”

“What’s that? And who’s to say you aren’t the replica? That you aren’t the failed possibility? You ignorant little Shepherd... you have no right to talk about me so passively!”

With that, the other charged with malicious intent to harm, Sorey taking the leap forward off of his dominant heel to meet swords in battle. It was dangerously even, if not in the favor of the alternate--their exchanges always leaving a painful numbness soaring through Sorey’s sword arm as he fought to power through the taint already effecting his own being. 

It hurt... it felt as if his insides would be crushed each and every single time that darkness seeped in through his skin and into to his soul.. but he had to keep fighting. He had to push back this dangerous force that sought to take away one of the only people Sorey cared for most in this universe!

If I fail, not only will I meet a similar fate, but Mikleo will--!

“Uuagh..!” Thrown backwards in defeat of their current skirmish, and back hitting the pavement hard, Sorey could not leave himself vulnerable for even another second as he brought his sword up defensively, squaring off against the doppleganger who pushed blades in attempt to reach his throat.... “I... I won’t...--!”

くコ:彡 —-  This is waaay too weird. Like, abnormally strange. All that this Inkling remembered before arriving to this unfamiliar place was that he was excited for the upcoming (yet delayed) Splatfest, cast his ballot into a team, and participated in a couple Turf Wars until he was tired enough to go to sleep.

Suddenly he finds himself here, at some giant city arguably bigger than Inkopolis, being talked to some scientist that didn’t look like an Inkling at all, or anything else for that matter. He just looked strange. No tentacles, barely anything resembling anything that he’s seen before.

But what worried the male Inkling even more was the fact that he was suddenly limited. Only able to turn into a squid three times? Given a weird excuse for an ink gun that barely even shoots ink at all? As far as he’s concerned, he felt… lost and sorta hopeless. He just hoped that something would be clear to him soon.

He used the gun to shoot a couple ink pellets that only made a tiny splatter on the ground. That was depressing. Now what? The Inkling stood around in the very small crowd, looking for someone to help him out. So suddenly, he called out to anyone.