NOVPUBDoes pain tolerance scale with size? Or is pain universal?
-The musings of a former whaler, who lost his edge after a chance encounter.
...
’Just...a...little...closer...’
...
At the center of the massive battle between the Fallen, Undertow, the Zhen Clan and the kaijin, there was one conflict that had become the deciding factor, and it wasn’t even between aether warriors.
Instead, it was a battle between literal, giant monsters.
On one side, the [Shadow Sovereign], a mechanical weapon of mass destruction that had the skull of a giant dragon attached to a body made with technology and techniques that had never been seen before on the surface of Valresta. By channeling the energy coursing through its plates and wires into this skull, the [Shadow Sovereign] was able to produce a burst of dragon force that was capable of annihilating a city in a single breath.
That said, the only time it was ever deployed was hundreds of years ago, where it failed to do just that, thanks to the interference of the Storm Queen and most of her kaijin warriors.
But now, after all these years, it had a chance to have another go around the bend.
Granted, history had a tendency to rhyme rather than repeat.
On the other side of this literal battle of giants was a monstrous turtle-like creature that was using its massive bulk and a shield it created from [Chaos] to try and get close enough to the [Shadow Sovereign] to clobber it. However, there was something weird about this giant creature.
To the people of Undertow, and several certain warriors on the battlefield, the sight of this giant turtle making it’s ponderous march towards the mechanical monster before it was awe-inspiring, an embodiment of determination and duty if ever there was one.
To the soldiers of both the Zhen Clan and the Fallen...they were getting confused.
"Hey...where did this giant turtle beast come from?"
"You’re kidding me, right? That’s the city’s guardian."
"Really?"
"Yeah..."
"Has it...always been that big?"
"No, it...wait...yes? I...can’t remember..."
"Well, do you remember if they had a name?"
"Yeah...yes! It was Tort...Tor...huh..."
"What?"
"It was Tor something..."
"You...sure?"
"I...don’t know..."
To put it another way, it was as if every memory of this beast was actively being erased, even the ones that were being created in this exact moment...which made sense.
After all, Tor___ was actively burning up every form of attachment he had in this reality at a slow but steady pace.
...
’Come on...they did it...you...can...do it too!’
BOOM...BOOM...BOOM!
’That’s it...slow and steady...’
Every fiber in Tor___’s body was in incredible pain at the moment.
But it wasn’t due to the [Shadow Sovereign]’s attack.
Due to lacking any good ranged offensive abilities, Tor____ had no choice but to try and get close to the [Shadow Sovereign], which meant that he had to power through the beam of utter annihilation that was coming out of its skeletal mouth. However, despite turning himself into a giant monster at the moment, Tor___ wasn’t dumb enough to use his own body to block the attack.
Instead, seconds after he grew to confront the [Shadow Sovereign] he manifested a shield of [Chaos] that managed to resist the concentrated beam of dragon force...for a few moments.
Unknown to all but him though, the shield he manifested had almost completely succumbed to the dragon force upon impact. However, before it crumpled completely, Tor____ managed to empower the shield with the most powerful source of [Chaos] he could access.
His own [Existence].
Little by little, step by massive step, Tor____ was creating [Chaos] by removing himself from all of reality, bit by bit, and for every bit removed, the shield lasted just a little bit longer.
First, were the memories of people he barely knew.
The arrival of the soldiers from both the Zhen Clan and the Fallen had been an unexpected boon to the former Storm Knight, as their short memories of him gave him access to some short bursts of [Chaos].
But eventually, all of these transient memories disappeared into nothingness.
It had actually gotten so severe that the aforementioned soldiers couldn’t even comprehend that Tor___ was still present.
...
"How come that beam of destruction hasn’t destroyed us all yet?"
"Didn’t you hear the locals? They got an unbreakable shield around the city."
"Oh...then why did we have to come in and assist."
"Unbreakable to attacks, but the shield can be easily passed through."
"That...seems like a flaw..."
...
The next thing he burned away were records of his name throughout texts around the world.
Despite the secrecy revolving around Kaijin Lords, their Kaijin and their source of power especially, the names of the former had a tendency to get recorded here and there through diaries, journals and the occasional historical document that gets made by a lucky scholar.
And as of this moment, Tor____ was removing any mention of his name throughout history...save for those versed in the ways of [Chaos].
...
"The era of the Floating Khan ended when the Storm Queen and her knights managed to sink the remnants of his army when the former tried to invade her base of power. Many names of these knights were lost to time except for Marlancer and....and...huh..."
"Hmmm? What’s wrong?"
"I swear there was a name recorded here. It was like…one of the only records we had left of the identity of the Storm Queen’s Storm Knights."
"You sure? Because I barely remember any records about information like that…"
…
Texts and records around the world began to rewrite themselves as if the aged ink in their pages were still fresh, erasing the name of a warrior who was once considered the impossible wall of Undertow.
But alas, not even this was enough to keep the shield going.
At this point, Tor____ was three quarters from being in striking distance of the [Shadow Sovereign], having passed the rock formations that made it difficult for large ships and beasts to pass.
But it was also at this point that Tor___’s manifested shield began to falter and crack.
This... should’ve been the part where Tor____ would begin to burn his memories of the people he knew, the people who cared about him.
But...he didn’t.
Because as he was in the process of doing just this, when he was about to burn up those most precious memories of his, an old one had unearthed itself first.
One that he considered so precious and painful all at once.
...
[My brothers...my sisters...my lady....NOOOOO!]
Too late.
Tortallion had returned to Undertow far, far too late.
By the time he fought off those ambushing bastards and returned to Undertow, the battle was over.
Neither the Floating Khan nor his armies remained.
Their bodies and broken supplies having been swallowed by the [Shadow Water] at this point, becoming energy and materials for the beasts below.
The only piece of evidence that they were here to begin with, was a giant wrecked machine began to slowly sink below the waves as smoke and dragon force leaked from its mouth.
Gone was the Storm Queen, his creator and lord.
She had sacrificed herself to cause that aforementioned wreckage.
As for his brothers and sisters, the Storm Knights, the fellow monsters in this world that actively rejected their existences on a daily basis, all that was left of them were giant, crumbling statues that only had the vaguest traces of their once noble features.
From what he could feel, these statues would be nothing but stumps in a couple of years.
And as for the [Library], the one place that could at least give Tortallion some vague sense of hope, it had disappeared.
The once humble shack that hid the endless halls of knowledge that would put even the scholar-kings to shame, was now just a plain old shack.
Everyone he knew was now gone.
Everything that he was most familiar with, had disappeared like bubbles on the beach.
[Damnit, damnit, DAMINT!]
He was supposed to be the Unstoppable Vanguard.
The Unbreakable Shield.
What a laughable notion!
A shield is supposed to be ready to defend whenever.
A shield is supposed to be ever present to danger!
And where was he?
Where was the strongest shield of the Storm Knights?!
In the wrong place, at the worst possible time.
[Why...why...why?!,] Tortallion roared in despair.
And now there was nothing left for the old turtle, then the slow and steady embrace of inevitable [Break-]
[Waaah! Er...waaaaahhh!]
[W-what?]
A strange cry, laced with [Chaos] echoed from a location far from where Tortallion was grieving.
It took him a bit to realize what he was hearing, but once he did...he ran.
...
[I...I can’t...go...on... I’m...so...so...]
[Oh come on, ya big softie! I thought that shell of yours was tougher than all of us combined.]
