The Grand Battle S2G1! [Round Six: Eddelin City]

Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.

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"There's no need for violence," grinned the man.

That is a lie and worse a tired platitude and worst you know both full well

what are you waiting for, ovoid

"That."

Xadrez didn't bother turning, two glances askance either side of him confirming one of a dozen ideas as to what might've happened next. The Ovoid-man smiled through Xadrez as he was dropped to his feet; behind the ghost, a little girl beamed with pride as everything rippled again.

The screams didn't echo across the landscape any more, not that Xadrez had traversed the four-space to experience it himself. The beige undulations themselves wailed, in chorus with the beige walls and beige sky. Xadrez' knife was gone, a silver orb clutched insecure in its place.

The tactician lifted the poor substitute to eye level, where it idly hovered for a moment before drifting off - almost as if by accident. Xadrez drifted after it-

***

no

Xadrez scowled.

No

No

I have neither patience nor imagination for this, ovoid

I have had enough

you do not awe me

you do not cow me

you are not as indestructible as you assume we believe of you and to believe

in turn that I do is an insult

For to assume is weak-minded

and to have faith is merely delusional

To hold a belief so hard as though mere will or wills enough could crush it

collapse it into a singularity

one that radiates not reflected faith but truth


To reject reality for that

that is beyond pathetic

"Enough."

Xadrez spun round, a phantom flash arcing up his arm as he spotted the man's dagger. His dagger. Planted, hilt-deep, in the small of the cyborg's palm.

That is my knife, Xadrez eventually said, then gesticulated, after the man failed to respond. Hoss glanced at his hand, lifted it almost as if to shrug, then proferred the dagger's handle with the merest inclination of his head. Xadrez reached out, hesitated, went to grab it again, hesitated again, hesitated for a while longer, stole a glance at the tyrant's impassive face, then seized the dagger's handle.

A scream shot up his arm, earthing itself in the pit of his non-existent stomach like a knuckledusted punch. Hoss retreated a pace, still expressionless, leaving Xadrez shuddering violently. The ghost wasn't sure whether the screaming was the all-pervading Ovoid or if the dagger had drawn it all back inside his head just so he could atone already-

crack

With only several hours' tortured wails of warning, the knife shattered into a million pieces. The last of the splinters clattered to a halt upon the obsidian disc, as silence finally fell.