Every time he died, he came back with 2 more strings attached to Raiden's Fragment. Every time he survived a little longer. Every attempt was two seconds in the real world. After around 20 regressions, Ant was surprised at his own stupidity–he did not need to kill Raiden, rather he just needed to sever him from Lily's strings.
So he cut strings. He attempted to cut three each time, but sometimes that plan couldn't be fulfilled. Ant had to think of new ideas on the spot in order to survive.
He was beginning to remember Raiden's "attack patterns", a cooler name than "habits".
"How many times do I have to kill you, dumbass?" Raiden attempted to cremate Ant's legs. He missed. Ant appeared behind him, grabbing two strings on the way. In his hands they crumbled before their shards rewired into Ant's back. The strings did not last as Ant cut them a second later. This may have not been an efficient way to cut Lily's strings, but he had no alternative.
"How long are you gonna keep doing this?" Raiden was sounding pissed now.
Every time Ant came back he became stronger. It was like the hyperbolic time chamber, but he didn't age. It had been little over one hour in the waking world, but Raiden and Ant had sparred for around a day. Ant glanced at the wires in Raiden's chest. He was making progress. Raiden teleported behind Ant, kicking his back so hard his body literally exploded into a shower of blood.
He awoke. Day-time. The sun was beginning to set. Another sleep, another attempt. Ant set the back of his head into the bed mattress, and his own weighted eyelids closed on their own.
Ant found himself standing in the familiar black fields.
"Another try?" Raiden said. "Why can't you give up?" He teleported behind Ant. A classic move, he thought as he grabbed Raiden's leg mid-kick. His hand sizzled because Raiden's leg was shocked. Ant created two small hatches out of golden light on the ground, attaching two chains of his own creation to the bottom of Raiden's shoe. 20% gone. With 50% of his Fragment left to use, Ant energized his two arms, throwing Raiden past the two latches. Raiden rebounded like a horizontal bungee jumper, and he flew directly into Ant's open hand. Ant grabbed Raiden's face.
"Die, son of a bitch!" he yelled. He shoved Raiden's head into the ground. When he was on the floor, Ant jumped onto his back. He grabbed a handful of strings. With 5% of his Fragment, he set the strings on fire, burning up Raiden's connections. Ant didn't notice the giant beam of light coming from the ground below him, and when it erupted he burst into flames as he woke up.
"Successful?" Noelle asked.
"I burnt all of the strings this time," Ant stared into the ceiling. His legs burnt with numbness. "I don't know if I accidentally burnt Lily's strings or not."
He slowly stood up. It was as if needles were poking every centimetre of his body. His tiredness didn't disappear. Rather, it amplified. He looked down on Lily's body. He said something and the string network exploded into the air. Raiden's hands were gone. Every single one of the strings that connected her to Raiden's Godly Fragment had vanished or he couldn't see them. He looked at her face. Her eyes were moving quickly behind her eyelids and her face was scrunched up; she appeared to have been experiencing a nightmare. Suddenly, her nose began to become red. Blood started to flow from the corner of her mouth and her nose. The bedsheets were stained with her sanguine essence.
Oh no. Oh shit. Ant grabbed onto her cheeks, shaking her head aggressively in a gentle way. "Lily…" his voice stuttered. "Wake the fuck up!" He slapped her slightly.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Noelle grabbed Ant's hand. "Why are you slapping her?"
"I…" Ant rubbed his eyes awake. "I don't know."
"Ant," Noelle put both of her hands on her hips. "Did all those fights remove your common sense?"
The time he spent fighting Raiden would be forever ingrained in his memory. He had spent so long there, but to everybody else he only spent a few hours.
The blood pooling on the bed began to fall onto the carpet. Ant looked up at the string network. The fire that he had started had stopped, but the ends of strings were hanging. Ant grabbed two strings and tried to tie them together.
"Urgh…" a faint noise came from the corner of Lily's mouth.
Ant sighed and fell unconscious. The string network was pulled back into Lily's chest. Her eyes slowly blinked open. They were flat, half-dead. She licked her lips, the blood reached her tongue.
"She's awake!" Noelle called to Ant, shaking him from his slumber.
"W-wuh?" Ant mumbled. He looked at the bed in front of them, where Lily was rubbing her eyes. Ant did the same. It was good that she was awake and not in a coma. He and Lily stared at each other for a few seconds, and suddenly–
"Who's that?" Lily pointed to Noelle. For a second she looked angry, but then she began to smile. "You look like me!"
Noelle tilted her head.
Ant had to agree, now that the two were near and the situation was safe, he noticed that Lily and Noelle had similar face features. If it wasn't for their hair, it would be hard to tell them apart at a glance. Lily once had a ponytail like Noelle. He wondered what happened and why her hair was cut. Noelle's eyes widened and she chuckled. Lily turned to look back at me. She smiled, attempting to grab Ant's hand. He dodged it.
"Ant… Thank you for saving me," she said, slightly flustered.
"Do you still feel the urge to kill me?" Ant said, thinking back to his last day on Earth. Get every human on Earth to hunt down Ant Infele. Lily was the final barrier he had to face and he nearly died fighting her.
"No. Didn't I tell you earlier?" she pointed to the sealed up window in the other room. She yawned, stretching her arms towards the roof. Then, she kicked aside the blanket that covered her. She stood up, looking down at her clothes. She was dressed in the school uniform that Ant was also wearing, but hers had more rips and tears. Ant's one was tattered, Lily's was dismantled. The bottom half of her pants had been torn off and their ends were burnt black. The back of her blazer and shirt were basically gone, with two gaping holes were her electric "wings" had been. Through the gaps, her bare skin could be seen.
"Do you want some new clothes?" Noelle offered, grimacing at Lily's back. "I have some in that closet," she gestured to the wooden cabinet behind them. She glanced at Leon, who seemed to be fine, snoring his head off. His ears were still clogged with cloth.
"Yes please," Lily bowed slightly before standing up less than a second later. She made a face like she had messed up. Noelle raised an eyebrow.
"Well, I'll be in the living room," Ant sighed. "You two can browse or something," he turned to leave, but Lily grabbed onto his shoulder. She made a face with an expression Ant could not recognise and her lips twisted.
"Woah woah!" Noelle raised her arms forward to the pair. "You want him to watch you change?"
Lily blushed.
Ant sighed, which meant that he had had enough, and he left the room. He heard Lily call after him. She was about to say something, but Noelle shut the door before Ant could hear anything.
Damn, such a hassle. Even back on Earth…
Ant collapsed onto the couch. He felt extremely tired but he just couldn't sleep. One minute later the door opened and Lily stood there, wearing a white turtleneck and a black trench coat. She wore the same black pants as the ones Noelle was currently wearing. Lily was wearing the same white dirty sneakers.
"How do I look?" Lily asked Ant. Noelle looked satisfied.
"I don't know," Ant mumbled.
"Everything fit her perfectly," Noelle crossed her arms. "Do you think she's my Earth counterpart?"
"I don't know," Ant mumbled again. "I think I'm gonna go to sleep. Again."
"Oh yeah!" Lily looked into the room past them, where Ant slept. "Where am I supposed to sleep?"
Noelle tilted her head. There were three beds. One of them belonged to Ant, and Noelle and Leon shared a room with a bed each.
"The floor," Ant said, devoid of emotion.
"I can just sleep with Ant," Lily said, smirking.
Noelle's eyebrows raised. She glanced at Ant to see his reaction.
"Hell no," Ant said. He made a shooing motion. "Sleep on the floor."
"Sleep on the couch," Noelle said. "Do you need a blanket?"
Lily sighed as if she was disappointed.
She hasn't changed much, Ant thought. "Fine, sleep on the couch."
"You can be my couch," Lily said all of a sudden. Ant pretended not to hear her.
The next day Ant checked the countdown grid. Five days. He didn't know how long it had been since he had last checked. It was morning outside of their window, and the giant light in the sky once again brought hope. Ant got up, trying to be as quiet as possible. He retrieved his school uniform from the closet, but there was a creaking noise as he opened the door. Instantly his door burst open. Lily was standing in the doorway wearing a white tank top. She wasn't wearing the trench coat or turtleneck. "Morning," she said.
"Goddamn it. Leave," Ant spat. He hurried to put on his shirt. "Don't try anything."
Ant wasn't looking when Lily latched onto him.
"Stop hugging me," Ant grumbled. He grabbed onto the top of Lily's head, throwing her onto the floor.
Before Lily could remark anything, Ant left the room.
Lily sat up from the floor. Ant had become colder. He would've at least aimed for the bed, and when she landed Lily could say something about Ant joining her.
What was her problem, anyway? Lily thought to herself. She was happy that cutie Ant and that also cute girl Noelle saved her from Raiden's strings, but Lily felt like everything would be okay if they didn't find a way for her to live. In fact, it was Lily's most desirable outcome.
All the things, the stupid, stupid things Raiden did in her body… Why couldn't she stop it? Did she have no power? She gripped at her chest as her eyes began to water. She could remember.
And why was it that the feelings she had on Earth… the ones telling her to kill Ant Infele… Why had they gone? Oh yeah, Lily thought. I remember back on Earth. On the rooftop. Ant was standing next to a very tall man wearing white. He had beaten her up badly. Maybe the man was protecting Ant from Raiden.
Even as she thought something tugged at her mind. The Godly Fragment was still in her chest. Something was still whispering.
The light that she once held had become a shadow. A shadow that covered everything.
I… I didn't lose.
This world was very different. Lily had to admit that she knew nothing in this new landscape. A city like this could never exist on Earth, and even a hotel inside of a giant mountain? She had only been in one other place than this when in Raiden's control, which was a large stone altar in the centre of a giant crater. It had taken one day of sleepless travel to reach this point. Lily could remember a sign that proclaimed the city: Chelsey.
"Aren't you getting bored of this place?" Ant asked Noelle.
"No," Noelle zipped up her white jacket. "When you've lived your entire life like me, you can't expect to go to any place like this. I need to make the best of this."
"Do you think Ferunt has changed?" Ant asked.
"Not at all," Noelle looked at the doorway Lily was leaning from. "Do you want to come with us?"
Lily nodded.
"Ant, you better come, too. You spent two days lying down here doing nothing."
Lily perked up. "I'll get changed," she disappeared behind the door.
"She really likes you, you know?" Noelle said.
"A little too much," Ant sighed.
Things were dragging on too much. Ant had come to Mox for one purpose: to "save" the planet. But what was he even supposed to do? Noelle, who was supposed to be his tour guide, brought him to this city for a week and made him do chores before that. The only interesting things to happen were getting jumped by Raiden and whatever would happen at the end of this one-week countdown.
Suddenly Ant's mind wandered. Could Lily use her Godly Fragment like him? If so, she would prove to be a very powerful ally. I could use her.
"Is Leon up yet?" Ant asked.
Noelle nodded. "He woke up a while ago."
"I see," Ant glanced to his room, where Lily stood, dressed. She saw Ant and smiled. He looked away. "Let's go now," he said.
Chelsey was a massive city and Ant knew he had hardly seen half of all of it, but despite this, it was as if everything was the same around here. Apparently the outskirts were unruly and where gangsters gathered. Ant had been to one such faction in the south, "Locust Mash". He felt the strange urge to return. Ant could remember Zo's words clearly."The problem with Mox is that too many people are too loyal," Zo had said. "Jikoku is too weak for us. I'm suggesting that we kill him."
Clearly Zo had a plan beyond that.
After two hours of walking around the streets of Chelsey, Ant found himself bored once again. It just so happened that they were on the southern end of the city, and the archways of Locust Mash were barely visible.
Ant got Noelle's attention. "I'm just gonna go somewhere else. Meet back at the hotel in an hour."
Noelle tilted her head, confused, but she still nodded anyway. Ant waved goodbye. Lily pursed her lips, watching Ant disappear behind a building sadly. She tilted her body to watch him longer, but he had already gone.
When Ant entered the establishment Locust Mash, it was as if he had walked past a giant wall of jelly. This must be the "Filtering" thingy Zo had mentioned. When he was noticed, a large group of hooded people gathered around him, and soon a table with two chairs opposite appeared in the centre. Sitting there was Zo. His once-jewelled beak had been cleaned of gemstones and its rocky texture was shown. In fact it was made of rock. Zo's fedora lifted upwards as he raised his head. The suit he was wearing before had been replaced by a long black cloak, and the darkness of his outfit was still contemplated with a single white tie. Zo raised his hand, waving at him. His gloves were white as well. "Take a seat," he said. "Ant Infele."
Ant pulled the chair from underneath the table. It was the same one from before.
"Congratulations on defeating Raiden," Zo said. "Though it was only a small piece, he was a God, nonetheless."
"How do you know about that?" Ant asked with a puzzled expression.
"I just know," Zo fixed his hat. "Why have you requested a meeting with me?"
"Well…" Ant thought. He had come here unannounced and yet, Zo was waiting for him. "I want to hear your plan again. And your motives."
"Very well."
Zo leaned forward slightly. "I want to remove Jikoku from this planet."
Ant nodded. He had heard this before. He was about to ask why, but Zo had already answered.
"It is because he's too desperate. I know you know this, but Gods have a limit to how much they can create. JIkoku is creating more things, thus destroying more things. The viruses and parasites sent here were from the Council, they wanted to balance out Mox."
I mean, he's right, Ant thought.
"I don't think we need to resort to actually killing Mox's God. We will just need to teach him."
"By beating him to a pulp?" Ant joked. Last time Zo was more keen on killing people. He had changed somehow very quickly. Maybe Raiden told him off. Zo didn't reply. "That is all I have to say. Any questions?"
"If the plan resorts to the former, how do you plan on killing a God?"
"We have you. We have Lily. And we have me. Need I say more?" Zo sighed as if Ant was foolish.
"What do you mean by 'we have me'?" Ant asked. He thought back to the first time. Zo had teleported. That couldn't be all of his powers. If every one of his disciples could do what he could, they would have a fighting chance. A very small fighting chance, but a fighting chance was a fighting chance. "Also, what was that really cool wind dash you did?"
Zo's eyebrows narrowed. "It is hard to do. One like you doesn't have much mastery."
"Mastery over what?" Ant pressured.
Zo continued as if Ant had said nothing. "It was originally a technique from my hometown, but I have adapted it to my power."
"What power?" Ant clasped his hands together in frustration. "Zo."
Zo raised his head.
"Who are you?"
There was silence after the question was asked.
"You don't need to know."
"Are you a Sable or a Drayl?" Ant asked.
"I'm a mutation."
"A human and a Drayl?"
Zo shook his head. He looked to the side and he suddenly said: "I have been alive for over 300 years. My father… I despise him. He was not of this world. He was like a Sable, just not one from Mox. My mother was a Sable."
"What did your dad do?" Ant asked.
"When my father came to Mox, he had one goal. To save the planet. But he began to hate this place. He attempted to kill off the creatures other than Sables, and he slaughtered the queen of the Loongs, Angnath. He found the secret Drayl society underwater. Do you know of the city Zareth?"
Ant shook his head.
"It is a city underwater. It is where all Drayls are. Some are exiled. Have you ever seen a Drayl outside in this world?"
"I saw a few of them but they were criminals," Ant thought back to the shrine.
"They were probably exiled. Anyway, my father thought Drayls were neat. He fell in love with one of them, and so he kidnapped her and made love to her, and then she got pregnant with me," Zo sighed loudly. Stroking the back of his neck. "I am the result of the first savior of Mox, Cazor."
"What happened to your father then?" Ant asked.
"He went on to kill more people. He pushed the Westerners and Loongs to endangerment, can you believe that? Just one man made this much destruction, this much havoc. Eventually Jikoku took action and he killed Cazor. I found his body, tore out his heart, and the crystal…" he stopped talking.
"And your mother?"
"She found her way back to Zareth. When I was born the Drayls there thought that a child like me was hideous, so they banished her," Zo took off his hat. His hair was silver and quite long. The shadow that shielded his face was no more, and Ant noticed his skin was like a human's. The only thing wrong with his face was his unmoving stone beak. The rocky material spread to the bottom of his eyes, like his tears painted his skin grey. He was quite handsome.
"Why are you telling me this?" Ant asked. He had asked Zo so many questions, he was surprised he had not shown any irritation.
"It is good to talk about these things sometimes," Zo put on his hat. "I don't want you to turn out like him."
"Why kill Jikoku, though?" Ant pursed his lips. "Why not just kill me?" He was in deep thought, imagining what Zo's father looked like. He was reminded of himself, but not too much, as he and Zo both had a terrible father. Zo's father might just have been a little worse. He pictured Zo ripping out his father's heart. If Cazor had a Godly Fragment like him, then it would be embedded in his chest. If Zo took it out… that would mean…
"You're the third Saviour," Zo said. He pointed to Ant's chest. "If Cazor was a God, we wouldn't need them. The Saviour everyone believed in was blinded by pride. My father's turn as 'hero' ended a long time ago and when he was buried, I buried myself along with his 'legacy'. Now it's your turn. You, Ant Infele, are not the type to bury yourself."
"Are you considering rising up?" Ant asked. He closed his eyes. "We don't need to kill Jikoku right? We just need to enlighten him?"
"That is correct."
The corners of Ant's lips curled and he could not do anything to stop it. "I'll join you. Don't worry, I'll be the first one to get it right in this world."
Ant imagined Zo smiling but he could not see his mouth. His beak never moved. Ant didn't know why he considered Zo's request this time, and he knew less why he accepted.