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Chapter 6
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Renner ripped out the small portion he had traced his finger into, unsure of whether or not something so illegible could count as a written message. He turned towards the ongoing fight, hoping to find some opportunity to pass the message along.
The little Ghid suddenly slammed into the wall next to him, his oval head scratched and dented from more than one impact. In spite of himself, and his decision to despise the creature, Renner reached out involuntarily to offer support, the little Ghid denying it with a swipe of his circular hand before staggering forward and collapsing on the carpet.
Diero was quite embroiled in a clubbing match with the numerous Ghids, with the only one posing any kind of resistance to his efforts being Krana Za number 7894, due to his mechanical nature. His robotic head which housed his actual form had the ability to rocket forwards in a jabbing motion, which Diero quickly learned housed enough force to knock him across the room. To ensure this didn’t occur again, he shoved Ghidrius the Endless into the tiny machine before jumping in front of the armed Ghid to prevent the bullets he presently fired from his revolvers from striking his boss.
The gunman did not yield, unloading his firearms into the face of Diero with as much bravery as could be mustered in such a scenario, the bullets deflecting or flattening off the angular surface of the deadsperado’s dome. With his teeth clenched, Diero gripped McGick by the shoulders and shoved his face into the fellow’s head, caving in his skull and destroying all his visible features before letting his limp form collapse on the ground.
He then made the horrible mistake of standing above him and menacingly staring for dramatic effect, allowing the surprisingly fast Krana Za number 7894 to whack him from behind. Diero tried to get up off his back, but the repeatedly pounding assault of Krana Za number 7894’s mechanical skull beat him into the carpet, breaking the marble beneath it and squishing him into the newly-formed hole his arched back had produced when mashed against it.
“Would someone please tell me what is going on?” The little Ghid, struggling back up to his feet, interjected into the violent happenstance while Ghidrius waved away the inquisitive Tarnish, who eyed the corpse of McGick with a hungry air. “This is by far the worst get-together I’ve ever been to in my whole life. Well aside from the housewarming I attempted a couple years back.”
“I do not suppose people were executed during that escapade?” Ghidrius the Endless inquired, not sure whatsoever what a housewarming was.
“yNO. No.” The little Ghid wrapped his arms around himself and stared into the carpet.
“I think I’ve had enough fun lying about.” Renner said, standing up and brushing the dust off his armor. “Now if you gentlemen don’t mind-”
It seemed a reasonable assumption to make that the party did mind, as Ghidrius brought his massive blade down hard on Renner’s smaller form. But that was hardly more than a hindrance, as his new armor was powered by the logic of a world where anything is possible. As Ghidrius’ steel met Renner’s shoulder, the metal thinned in other areas to strengthen the section where the blow had landed, and gave Renner the opportunity to kick the keeper of Wilhelmus right in his helmeted face.
“Druid,” Ghidrius spat, backpedaling slightly while Renner rubbed his shoulder. “I had hoped your kind had died out after the blaze consumed the twisted forest.”
“I’m no druid, but that doesn’t make me easy to kill.” Renner dropped into a ready stance. “Now, I’d like to talk to my Dreamer.”
“In your dreams!” The little Ghid snarled, having silently recovered from the beating Diero had caused him and kicking Renner in the ankle. The metal refused to budge, however, from the comparatively tiny attack, and Renner never bothered to acknowledge his undersized foe as the three formidable Ghids suddenly rushed their collective target.
Ducking another swing from Ghidrius, Renner buckled his armor over itself to withstand the impact of Krana Za umber 7894’s round noggin as it began its repeated assault, Tarnish holding back and looking for a good opportunity to intervene. Seeing Renner in position, Ghidrius lifted his sword high and swung it directly down, unable to stop himself when he saw Renner grab the repeatedly attacking cranium of his opponent and fall backwards, allowing the sword to cleave directly through his mechanical neck.
“You brakas!” Krana Za number 7894 hissed, the mechanical body standing motionlessly after being separated from its host. Renner grabbed the housing compartment of his opponent by the severed neck and continued approaching Diero, anticipating the further assault from Ghidrius and hopping over the blade that swept at his knees.
Now enraged, the large swordsghid switched his blade to one hand and spun it at Renner in repeated dramatic swirls, but Renner was too limber and the blade too slow to ever expect the pair to collide. The silvery stooge, growing weary of his repeated athletic endeavors to outmaneuver the edge of Ghidrius the Endless, finally smashed Krana Za number 7894’s still-speaking mechanical skull into the colossus’ wrists, peeling the sword from his grasp and, with the armor on his body suddenly bulking up his joints, spun it about and cleaved the head of the king’s keeper from his ancient body.
Tarnish, having held back too long, quietly slunk away in shame and slipped down into a heat vent in the floor, his whole form slowly oozing into the compartments beneath. The room was quiet for only a brief moment as the sound of vomiting broke into the stillness of the chamber. It was the little Ghid, who had finished tossing his cookies in an ornate waste bin, and now sat clutching his stomach on the floor near the security closet. Forgetting his task for a moment, and ignoring the repeated throat-clearing and loudly annoyed sighs of Diero, Renner approached, the miniature iteration of the fiendish monster unable to find the strength to make any kind of retreat.
“It’s just you, then?”
The noise came from the metal housing of Krana Za number 7894, which prompted Renner to raise it to his height and glare into the empty sockets of the organic creature within. “Volume didn’t persuade us to abandon our existence and rush over here because of some confectionery goods, did you?”
“What, then?” Renner gritted his teeth.
“A great evil.” Krana Za number 7894 chuckled. “He warned us of an impending doom which threatened the entire universe - and, by extension, ours as well. We have arrived and waited for his appearing, knowing what we must do to combat this great evil which he spoke of… Could it be you?”
Infuriated by this seemingly post-mortem machination of Ghid’s, Renner growled and clutched the mechanical neck of Krana Za number 7894 even harder. “Listen to me! The only great and terrible evil in this world is Volume! He’s killed hundreds of people, made everyone in the world fight each other for countless years, and even tried to kill his own son! He’s an irredeemable monster, and he’s already dead!”
Krana Za number 7894 grew a very dangerous expression. “I was about to pin you as being some foolish rock-headed imbecile who stumbled on a source of unique power and decided to go on a naming day parade about it, but perhaps I was wrong to believe your innocence would be so straight-forward. How do you know Volume is dead?”
“Because,” Renner’s throat reverberated his growl, even as a rumbling started echoing through the building. “I’m the one who killed-”
There was a loud splintering noise as someone jumped through one of the large windows in the room and immediately hir the dirt. Renner had turned to look when his armor instinctively bulked up the front of his body by an immense amount, and an ear-shattering roar erupted through the air, baking the whole room in immense heat and light. The metal trays coated with crumbs sagged and dripped under the blast, and even Renner’s incredible armor warmed considerably during the flash. It lasted only a second, but the air buzzed with the heat when it was through.
Turning back, Renner saw he had dropped Krana Za number 7894 during his surprise, and the protection of not being window-height had saved him, althoughh the smell of burnt rubber still seemed to emanate from his housing. The little Ghid was clutching his eyes in pain and rubbing his skin over and over, looking up in horror at his metallic master whenever he could manage it.
Renner looked back at the figure on the floor, who slowly stood and wiped away the melted glass from around his puffy shoulders and round, glowing blue head.
“Sun’s gone.”
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