r/IsekaiQuartet

Is that why you saved her?" Juno's voice hissed in my mind, dripping with venom. "So she could mistreat you? How low you've fallen, my friend. How pathetic."

But the voice's mockery cut short. Without warning, the second guardian—the one that had remained in absolute silence analyzing my movements—moved with an unnatural stealth. Its colossal shadow began to slowly project over Tsuki's figure.

She noticed the darkness covering her feet and, with a hesitation that froze my blood, looked up. I pushed myself up as best as I could, watching the imposing colossus raise its stone greatsword above its head, ready for a downward slash that would leave nothing in its wake.

"TSUKI, RUN!" I screamed in desperation, reaching out my right hand.

"T-Tatsumi… He—" her voice broke, her eyes filled with a final plea.

"CLANG-NG-NG!"

The ground shook with an apocalyptic force at the impact of the greatsword. A cloud of dust and stone shards exploded in the exact spot where Tsuki had been standing a second ago, leaving only the metallic echo of the blow resounding in the empty mausoleum.

I went flying through the air, propelled by the shockwave of the impact. My eyes darted erratically, frantically scanning the crater and the dust storm for a silver flash, a trace of her tunic, or any sign of life.

No… no, come on Tsuki… No! my mind screamed, ignoring the pain of my own wounds.

But the enemy gave me no respite. The colossus was already behind me, moving with a fluidity that defied its weight, wielding its greatsword as if it were a blade of straw. Before I could even touch the ground, it connected a brutal strike directly into my abdomen.

"BA-DUM!"

I felt my ribs crack as I was blasted away, smashing into a marble column that snapped in half upon impact. I slumped against the debris, coughing up blood, but my eyes remained glued to the place where Tsuki had vanished. The smoke began to slowly dissipate, revealing the shattered ground… but the goddess was nowhere to be seen. There were only broken stones and a deathly silence.

How fast is it…? Tsuki… it can't be… No… I thought, feeling a cold void in my chest that had nothing to do with the blow.

The guardian didn't stop. It lunged at me with a series of continuous thrusts, each carrying the power of a landslide, shattering the columns behind me as if they were made of glass. I moved out of pure instinct, dodging by millimeters while the world crumbled around me.

Suddenly, the giant stopped, resting its greatsword on the ground with a terrifying elegance. A deep vibration, like the grinding of two tectonic plates, filled the air.

"Is that all you've got? Huh?" The voice was metallic, ancient, and heavy with infinite contempt. "For someone who dared to steal that sword… you are nothing but a pathetic brat."

I froze, my crimson eye throbbing with pain.

T-the statue… it's talking to me… I analyzed in horror, wiping the trail of blood running from my mouth. This is no ordinary guardian. It's something much worse.

"He's right…" Juno's voice hissed in my mind, distilling a poison that burned me from the inside out. "You're just a stupid brat who couldn't rescue his obnoxious goddess. You're so pathetic, Tatsumi… Why don't you do yourself a favor and die again? HAHAHAHA!"

The colossus, ignoring my internal struggle, let go of its greatsword, leaving it driven into the ground with a thud that sent marble shards flying.

"It's not even worth using my sword on you, brat," it sentenced with a voice that sounded like the crashing of two mountains.

Without waiting for an answer, the giant began to pummel me. Its stone knuckles, each the size of my head, rained down upon me with destructive cadence. A blow to the ribs, another to the shoulder, one more that buried me against the rubble. The pain was an inferno in my nerves, but the fury growing in my chest was much hotter.

Not worth it? I thought as blood blurred my vision. I'm pathetic?

"Who decides that?!" my voice came out as a guttural growl, carrying a vibration that wasn't human. "WHO?! A stupid stone golem that has been locked in the dark for centuries?!"

I clenched my teeth with a rage so pure I felt my enamel grind dangerously. In that instant, my left eye erupted in a blinding crimson glow. Almost in unison, the sword's mark on my right arm began to burn, expanding like veins of black ink and fire across my skin, devouring my forearm all the way to my shoulder.

I felt a surge of cold, violent power rushing up my spine. The blows didn't hurt anymore. I only felt hunger. Hunger for destruction.

"Yes!" Juno's voice roared, this time in perfect sync with my own scream. "Kill him! Tear him to pieces! Claim your place!"

I raised my marked arm, stopping the giant's next colossal fist with a single hand. The impact generated a shockwave that cracked the ground beneath my feet, but I didn't back down a single millimeter.

The guardian froze, taking a step back that made the floor tremble. Its initial skepticism transformed into instinctive doubt; its stone fingers reached for the hilt of its greatsword, contradicting its own words. I locked my crimson gaze onto it while, in my right hand, the piece of rusted iron reappeared, wrapped in a mantle of dense darkness that seemed to absorb the light. I squeezed the pommel with rage, pointing the weapon directly at its core.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice sounding distorted by the dark energy. "Why are you reaching for your sword? It wasn't worth using on me, right? That's what you said, 'big guy,'" I let out a mocking laugh, maneuvering the rusted sword in the air with terrifying ease. "But go ahead, take it… where would the fun be otherwise?"

The colossus, reclaiming its mechanical arrogance, gripped the handle of its greatsword.

"Oh… you got confident just because you have that scrap metal in your hand?" A deep vibration filled the air. "I will enjoy tearing you to pieces, brat… just like I did with that pathetic goddess. What was her name? Oh, yes… Tsuki," it let out a mocking laugh that echoed like the friction of two mountains.

Those words were a bucket of ice water that froze my blood. The hilt of my sword creaked under the inhuman pressure I exerted, while subtle black lightning bolts crackled around the blade. Juno's hatred and Tatsumi's fury fused into a single homicidal impulse.

"Don't you dare speak of her…" my voice dropped to a deadly whisper. "I WILL RUSH THAT NAME RIGHT OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, YOU BASTARD!"

I lunged at him with blinding fury, charging the sword with the energy of the black cloud. The guardian didn't flinch; it rushed toward me and vanished in the blink of an eye, proving that its speed was no joke. It reappeared instantly at my left flank, throwing a horizontal slash with the inertia of a cave-in.

"I know your speed, brat," the giant hissed. "You're mine."

"VUUU-SHHH!"

The greatsword connected squarely with the exact spot where I had been. The impact caused a massive crater, accompanied by a roar that seemed ready to collapse the ancient cave. A dense column of dust and debris rose into the air.

The guardian stood still, waiting to see my remains beneath its weapon. But my voice came from right behind its stone head, laced with an icy sarcasm.

"So you already know my speed, huh? That's surprising…" I said, casually resting the dark edge of my rusted sword on its stone shoulder. "But, if you know it so well… why are you attacking empty air, big guy?"

With a fluid movement charged with inhuman strength, I brought the blade down in a vertical slash. The dark edge of my rusted sword met no resistance; it sliced through the giant's left arm as if the stone were butter. The colossal limb fell to the ground, smashing amidst the rubble with a dull thud. I took an agile leap backward, landing elegantly on the edge of the platform and pointing the tip of my weapon at the golem.

"Oops… my hand slipped," I let out a mocking laugh, filled with a malice I didn't recognize in myself. "But, hey… no hard feelings, right, big guy?"

"Come on, Tatsumi!" Juno's voice roared in my ears, celebrating every drop of chaos. "Finish this talking rock once and for all! Show him who the real monster is here!"

Shut up, I ordered him internally, while my crimson eye gleamed with unbearable intensity. I will make him pay for what he did to Tsuki. He won't leave this cave alive.

The colossus turned its stone head slowly, searching for me through the dust until our gazes locked. In that instant, my body was completely enveloped in dark crimson flames—a fire that emitted no light, but instead seemed to devour shadow itself.

With an ice-cold laugh, I launched myself at him like a black bolt of lightning. The guardian, despite having lost an arm, reacted with lightning speed, raising its greatsword to bring up a guard.

"GRACK-LANG!"

The clash of the two swords numbed the air. The vibration was so powerful that the ground beneath us began to crack in concentric circles.

"For missing an arm, you still move pretty well," I said between clashes, moving with a swiftness that blurred my figure.

"What can I say, brat?" the guardian's voice sounded like a contained earthquake. "I'm still better than you."

I gritted my teeth and gripped the rusted handle with both hands, channeling all the hatred and dark mana from my marked arm. The colossus's guard was impenetrable—a wall of mystical rock that refused to yield.

"SKREE-CHANG!"

We clashed again, but this time I put the entire weight of my will into the blow. The impact was so massive that the colossus was forced backward, its heavy stone feet plowing deep furrows into the ancient marble. The ground beneath it began to "cry," creaking loudly under the unbearable pressure my sword exerted upon its own.

With a roar that shook the very roots of the mountain, I unleashed a devastating upward slash. The impact ripped through the marble floor like paper, rising in a lethal trajectory that split the giant's heavy greatsword into two pieces of useless rock and continued up to gash the ceiling of the mausoleum.

The colossus's millennial weapon had finally yielded to the hunger of my steel.

I won, I sentenced in my mind, feeling a surge of dark adrenaline.

I twirled the rusted sword with lethal elegance over my head, charging it with every ounce of my hatred. The metal wrapped itself in a violent crimson fire that spat dark lightning bolts, hissing like a thousand electric serpents. I brought the blade down upon the colossus's exposed chest with genocidal determination.

"Yes! Kill him!" Juno's voice howled with glee in my skull. "Remember how he enjoyed crushing your precious Tsuki… JA-JA-JA!"

"ZETTAI NETSU ZERO!" I roared, my voice sounding distorted by pure hatred.

My left eye gleamed with a violence that burned my socket, turning an almost black-crimson shade.

"This strike… is also for Tsuki!"

"FRASH-ZZZ-FROUM!"

A violent rumble, like the collision of two worlds, resonated within the ancient mausoleum. The devastating slash—a vortex of black lightning and crimson fire—connected squarely with the colossus. The impact split it down the middle with surgical precision, continuing its trajectory until it pulverized the stone structures located behind it. The air filled with unbearable heat and the scent of ozone and molten stone.

I walked slowly toward the remains of the guardian, observing the total devastation of that cut.

"This is what I was talking about, boy…" Juno's voice sounded almost tender. "What a beautiful sight. You've finally become the monster you were destined to be."

"JAJAJAJAJA!" a maniacal laugh erupted from my throat—a sound I didn't recognize as my own. "Beautiful… without a doubt!"

A beam of pure moonlight began to filter through the slash my cut had left in the ceiling of the mausoleum, falling directly upon me as I stood over the charred remains of the guardian. The silver glow seemed to purify the air; my maniacal laughter stopped dead, and I felt the black mark slowly recede down my arm, leaving a sharp cold sensation where fire had been before.

Without warning, a silhouette began to descend from the heights, materializing before my eyes as if made of stardust. Tsuki reappeared with a warm smile, unhurt and radiant. At the sight of her, the adrenaline keeping me upright vanished instantly; my legs gave out, buckling like noodles.

Before I hit the floor, Tsuki caught me with astonishing firmness. She sat elegantly upon one of the golem's debris, gently settling me into her lap. In that instant, my body began to shudder, collecting the toll of both fights; my head spun in a thousand directions, unable to comprehend how she was there, safe and sound.

"Shh…" she whispered with a voice so soft and soothing it seemed to quiet even Juno's voice in my mind. "There will be time for explanations, Tatsumi. Let me take care of you now… rest."

My eyelids felt heavy as lead from the extreme exhaustion. Her presence enveloped me in an indescribable calm—a safe haven after the storm of hatred that had almost consumed me.

Tsuki began to stroke my white hair, carefully brushing away the bits of stone and dust. A tender smile, filled with genuine affection, graced her divine face. She leaned down slowly toward me and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, sealing her promise of protection.

You fought well… Tsuki thought, as the shadows of the mausoleum finally surrendered to the moonlight. My hero… thank you for avenging me.