towerofanimus | Endgame: This Broken Jaw of Our Lost Kingdoms; Part Two

Cars lie ruined in the street, and the remains of people are frequently seen with devices lying next to them, sometimes in pieces. There was some disaster here even before whatever killed the world, judging by the number of broken storefronts or boxes that held rations that were dropped in.

The destruction only seems to get worse as they near the sound of laughter. Great gouges made in the streets, burnt or mutilated corpses, and dead swarms of flies. This is a world that was already on its way out, or at least at a tipping point. But it's not hard to find Naoya, who at this point is now shouting at the blue-haired corpse and shaking it by the shoulders.

"A dead world, but not the one the Tower was on." Of that, Gilgamesh was certain; the world outside of the Tower had been almost completely dowsed in shadows when he had been sent out, with the light of the Tower seeming to be the only light left.

But not this world. He walked up to some of the corpses, toeing the handheld devices he could reach. While the technology was somewhat more advanced than from his own world, it was still recognizable as an offshoot of modern human society -- like the rest of the structures.

...Remaining structures.

"It looks like they had their own war going on," he mused aloud, averting his attention to where Grainne was facing. Without a word to follow or stay, he began striding over to the ghostly image in the distance.

A dead world... so this is what they looked like. Grainne glanced around in a sort of horrified awe, before falling into step behind Archer. It was worse than even Saber's lair of mutilation, and if she had a stomach, she would probably say it was about ready to riot on her.

No words graced her for what she saw, and likewise remained quiet. She could hear more clearly Naoya's voice, and frowned, quickening her pace until she was running. The sick feeling only built up until it was thick and all around her the closer she got to Naoya.

Naoya sits now, stewing in anger and sorrow at all he sees. More than that he's mourning for his own lost opportunity. He's torn off his cousin's white cloak, ripping it to shreds in his fury. The man rocks a bit, trying to get a handle on his own feelings.

"Idiot... you stupid idiot... why?"

Despite the dreadful scene he is approaching, Gilgamesh doesn't slow; if the administrators really hadn't been lying through their teeth, there was only one living being pulled from each dead world, and they had just found him.

With all the irreverence that one would expect from the King of Heroes, the blond lifts his foot to toe at Naoya in the same way he had treated the broken handheld devices earlier.

"Stop that."

A lump rested in her stomach when she finally stopped close by the rocking figure, and it took her a second to process what she was seeing. Shooting a look at Archer that could have probably melted plastic, Grainne reached out instead to touch Naoya on the shoulder.

"You are not alone." Then she turned to Archer to give him a piece of her mind. "And you stop that. You are as bad as the cranky old man."

Naoya stilled when Gilgamesh nudged him, but he outright jolted backwards once Grainne touched him. People from the Tower? Then there was a way back. A way out of this... horror and disappointment. He had to put on a strong front - or at least one that couldn't expose any weakness that could be manipulated. He took a breath and turned towards them, still holding Kazuya.

"... Tch. It's been a long time since I've seen this place." He looked down at the boy in his arms and set him down gently. "Not even the Messiah could escape this. Perhaps God is dead here... and yet the curse remains." His theory was confirmed, then. There was nothing left for him in this broken world.

Gilgamesh flapped a hand at Grainne dismissively as soon as she tried to reprimand him -- he was certainly not a cranky old man. Not even in his past life was "old man" ever used to describe his countenance.

He tilted his head to look at the boy that Naoya had been holding. If the mutters earlier were not enough proof, the care he had taken in setting the corpse down was obvious. The Messiah. Hn.

"Nothing survived other than you. Is that your curse?" He made the inquiry almost glibly, eyes already going back to their lifeless surroundings.

Trying not to look at the corpse, Grainne focused on Naoya's face, because she certainly was not going to focus on the cranky old man.

"If that is the curse, then we all are cursed if this is the state of our worlds." A small shudder made her body shake. "Naoya... it isn't over yet. We sort of have escaped. There are portals opening up."

"In a way. I cannot die permanently. I am always brought back, though aside from the interference of those in the Tower it has always been by being reborn with all of my memories in a different body."

He looked down at Kazuya and shook his head. "He had a shard of my brother's soul. I had hoped that it would lead him to the correct path, but it didn't. Instead he chose the one path that would have doomed everyone anyway, even without this... total removal of life."

At the last bit, he just laughed. "What's the point in me going back? So we can 'save' our worlds? There's nothing for me in my world. I will be hunted and captured or killed by my enemies."

"Doomed everyone. Such power." He tilted his head to consider this young Messiah character. Knowing the story of Cain and Abel certainly helped with understanding the attachment level he was seeing.

Gilgamesh settled his hand on his hip as he considered Naoya's question. "Go back to ensure your freedom." Yes, it probably sounded ridiculous in its own way, but it made perfect sense to him. "Our ability to be here proves that going to other worlds is possible. What we don't know is if we're here because of Ruana or the boy."

They could work with Zo. Ruana, not so much.

Grainne didn't reply right away, feeling a sharp pang at Naoya's words. A similar fate awaited her in her own world. She couldn't understand all the nuances of this world, but that, she can identify with.

"I can't offer you any reason other than that we need you. The others you will have to think on yourself. I do not know you well, but there is so few of us left, if there is any chance at defeating her, we will need everyone's power. That is at least something to keep her from ever doing this to another universe."

"Tch..." They had a point, even as much as it felt like he was unneeded. There were people who didn't deserve to be trapped in the Tower, even if he didn't care what happened to his own world anymore. Enoch, or Zelda...

He stood up, a little shakily. Getting used to a different body - his old body - had been a little bit of a challenge at first. A different weight, different hair... but not for too long. "I suppose... we should find our way back."

"Excellent." There was a thread of approval to Gilgamesh's voice as he watched Naoya slowly rise. "What a shame it would be to leave this dead world without collecting the only living thing left."

Now the next step was actually getting off the world. "If my powers were working, being trapped here would not be an issue."

At least Naoya seemed to be listening, though she didn't know quite how well their words reached him. Still, it was an accomplishment getting his focus elsewhere, for the time being. She thinks. It's still difficult getting back into the positive mindset.

Moving off to a short distance from the other two, Grainne started to look around, trying not to be bothered by the bodies. "If this is the child's doing, the next one must be around here somewhere. He would not leave us stranded, powers or no powers."

"Mm. The likely spot I can think of is..." He pointed up to the top of the tallest building nearby. It wasn't not too far away, but it'd take a while to get up there. There was no electricity working in the city after all.

"The fabric of reality is already weak there considering the King's Gate was summoned at that point. A powerful demonic force being brought from the demon world to the human world would not leave a hole that would be closed so easily."

"The King's Gate." Gilgamesh repeated the name, somewhat intrigued by the possible details of what had been going on in this world prior to its destruction. "Very well, then we have some climbing ahead of us."

Not that climbing should be an unfamiliar task after being in the Tower for as long as they have. With a destination pointed out, he was already starting to walk in the given direction.

"Quite a war you had going on here, Naoya."

Once her eyes fell on the spot Naoya pointed out, it became her new beacon. It made it easier to ignore her surroundings, despite Archer's reference to it, though her head still wanted to keep flashing back.

"Must you talk about war right now?" She might be a little more pouty sounding than she wanted. "Naoya... how many floors does that building have?"

"... Quite a few. Over sixty. And there's no power, so the elevator is out. In addition, I can't summon my demons, so we're out of luck on that front as well."

At least there weren't demons running around at the moment. That could make things much harder. He turned to look at Gilgamesh in order to answer his unspoken question.

"Indeed. But when the pieces of an ancient, god-like demon come together in order to battle for the right to become king of all demons, things tend to get blown up."

"The only luck we need is a continuous stairway." Did they even need to hurry at this point? ...Ah. Perhaps he should mention the state of the Tower when they had last seen it. "The countdown in the Tower is finished. Whatever that means now."

He walked around a deep hole gouged into the concrete, smirking as he imagined what had initially happened after the mentioned summoning. Had the battle been immediate? Had this god-like demon taken its time looking down on humanity?

It should be telling how skewed things are when someone thinks only about sixty is small. At least it could be worse, she supposed. "Mm... at least we will not have to deal with the staircase falling out from under us or dumping us in the middle of a dark floor."

Well, she can hope.

"I remember reading something about the Tower dying in one of those papers Waver and his friends always keep around. Maybe if we find somebody else, they would know what it said. I wonder why some of us were in the cells, and some of us on these wo--" Grainne would have said more, except she barged right into the hole Archer avoided and went tumbling forward. So much for not looking down...

Naoya shot forward, grabbing Grainne by the wrist and pulling her back with surprising strength for such a thin frame. "Careful."

Once she was safely back on the ground, he nodded. "The stairs should be safe. They were largely spared from destruction due to the building initially being surrounded by wards. This was where the server for the Demon Summoning Program was, as well as the cult of Belberith who commissioned me to make it. Even with all of the battles, it didn't fall."

Gilgamesh turned slightly at the sound of unsteady scratching and scraping of feet on the ground, watching as Naoya pulled Grainne to safety. "Do try to be careful, Caster," he remarked in a drawling, teasing tone that did not fit their surroundings.

He continued on after that, towards the base of the large building. "A server. So the program was expected to be widely used."

Stumbling a bit, Grainne still grateful for the quick save. That could have been something awful if she had landed hard. "Thank you." She righted herself. Unfortunately for both men, however, she started to puff up in irritation when she realized Archer was teasing her, and stuck out her tongue at him.

Biting back against a retort as well, she stomped out ahead of them.

"It was." He heads off as well, following along at a decent pace. He feels almost heavier somehow, back in his body. At least he assumes that's what happened.

"It's a roughly 100 kilometer area that was sectioned off, and there were many demons inside of it. Some were summoned by my program, others were not. But the war for the throne was to be here due to a few different factors, so the program to use demons for defending against them had to be distributed to many people. Those handheld devices you saw are gaming consoles with email and internet capabilities. I designed the program so it could be used on those in order to distribute it easily."

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