I stared at the flames engulfing the black heart. At first, it seemed to resist the intense heat but Feathers looked determined to roast this newfound rival. I’m not sure where this enmity was coming from. Maybe it was forced to eat cowling hearts all day long in its past life? Anyway, when the burning blood reached into the heart it also began to take damage. Its beat started to become erratic. The muscles contracted as if to provide the enclosing flames with as little contact surface as possible. The lights flickered with every contraction.

As the heat increased, it forced us to back up. The Abbess did not though. She even went further into the flames. All the white hairs on her body started to burn until ashes remained. 

“No! My heart! My beautiful!” The old nun took one more step toward the relic of her god, her longing hand reaching out lovingly. But her fingers never touched the evil-looking thing. The old woman's mechanical hands melted in the fire and broke apart. The rest of her body followed the lead of the hand and shared its unfortunate fate. Her head didn’t look human at all anymore. It was a blackened skull decorated with melted flesh. Lovely. Not even this much damage could stop the fanatical lady. 

But how is she even moving!? Are demonic cultivators in reality skeletons in a disguise of flesh? Well, stupid question, we all are. Also, she answered my question with her collapsing body. It looked like immortality doesn’t protect you from the flames of a gold beast. In her fall she hugged her object of worship with her remains and toppled it into the ground. At least reunited in death. Whatever these two beings' relationship was. It was real, for sure. 

Feathers flames declined but what caught my attention was Rose's sudden screaming fit. She clutched her breast where her heart sat. “Ahhhhh!”

“Rose! What's wrong!?” I ran over.

Rose coughed, spat black blood, and then fell onto her knees gasping for air. The lights suddenly went out all around us. I heard similar screams coming from outside the church.

“Fuck! What’s going on? Rose!? Can I help you?” I fumbled in the darkness to reach for her. I held her tightly while she spasmed into unconsciousness. Where is the damn bird? First, it burns down this weird heart and now when we actually need light it's gone.

“Feathers?” I called, “where are you, buddy? I really need some light.”

I heard an acknowledging peep a few feet in front of us. And voila, a friendly white light was encompassing the little bird. Its small feet nearly sunk completely into the black goo on the ground, so it took a while until it hopped to us.

“I hope you have an explanation ready for when we leave this shithole young… man? What even is your gender?” 

The hatchling just tilted its head in confusion. 

“Whatever you are! Feathers don’t do such a scary thing again without, you know, consulting me.” 

The bird tilted its head to the other side as if to say ‘huh!? How am I supposed to do this?’ 

“Fine! At least give me a signal, all right?” Feathers nodded and tweeted apologetically.

Rose's spasm stopped and she coughed again. After a few moments, she calmed down and started to breathe normally. Although she still was unconscious.

“Rose? Are you okay? Do you hear me?” I said worryingly while shaking her softly. But no answer. Damn. What now?

I had no time to think because more mecha beasts were congregating towards the church. This time they weren’t lone individuals, no, dozens of them came at the same time.

“Where are those friggin fighting nuns!?” I panicked. Feathers peeped worriedly. “Don’t worry cutie-pie we’ll get out of it somehow. We survived so far. We won’t go down easily, right buddy?” Feathers squeaked with newfound courage. 

I lifted Rose onto a nearby bench and took up a defensive position. I knew it was silly to ask a newborn baby to help me fight but seeing its powers first hand I couldn’t pass on its fighting prowess. “Feathers, can you protect that side? Just do your flame thingy again. Just be careful not to hurt Rose. I’ll fight on this side. If you need help just call for me ‘kay?” It chirped its consent and hopped a few feet away. Probably to not hurt Rose with its ability. “Thank you”, I smiled. 

Yeah, another life or death situation after another life or death situation. But this time I’m neither fleeing nor a prisoner. I finally can vent my frustration on these rusty machines. “I decide if I live or die. Not you bitch-ass hot-dog machines!”

“Rawr!” They growled their answer and attacked haphazardly. The first one jumped at me like the stupid machine it was, vulnerable to my counter-attack. I took my stance and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick that demolished it into scrap metal. “Who’s next?”

I noticed heat coming from behind me. Feathers must’ve activated its flames to protect Rose from its side. The church lit up completely again. And then desperation hit. “Oh no…”

The light reflected metal as far as my eyes could see. There weren't dozens of machines. There were hundreds. Some had missing limbs. Some had blood splattered all over them. But all of them were ready to fight to their death.

“Look, guys, I said I would decide when I die but it only was a joke, right? Haha. We can talk, right? R-I-G-H-T?” I tried to gesticulate my intent to negotiate. But it was, of course, meaningless. Shit. This time two attacked at once.

I charged one and rammed my knee into its mechanical head. The other swiped me with its paw. It scratched my right shoulder. “Ouch!” I punched it with my trademarked punch of robotic destruction, which felled the security robot at the gates to the school. The mecha beast shared its fate.

Why aren’t they all attacking together from the start? Are they testing my strength? What for? I allowed myself to sneak a look behind me to see that Feathers and Rose were surrounded but fine. Gotta concentrate on what lay in front of me. I took a deep breath and took up my stance again.

I fought off against teams of three and four without much of a problem. But I struggled against a pack of five mecha beasts. One of them managed to bite into my leg. It hurt like a torturer cutting through your leg with a rusty saw but he lost his interest halfway. The wound was deep and I still couldn’t reliably activate my spirit to heal the wound. I really have to deal with that problem when I or if I ever get out of this bloody church.

I tore off a sleeve of my shirt to apply a makeshift bandage to stop the bleeding. I couldn’t allow myself to collapse because of blood loss. Although my struggle seemed meaningless at best. The number of mecha beasts wasn’t dwindling in any way. Fuck. What now, Meadow? You can’t run with Rose being unconscious and a stumbling baby bird, even if it is a gold beast. Now with a leg wound, I can forget it altogether. I could surrender Feathers to the beasts but no. Who knows what they will do to this innocent soul. Well, it already killed at least a crazy nun and a demonic heart… so it's not that innocent but nobody is perfect. Anyway, I won’t surrender Feathers. Even if I did, what securities would they give me to return to the surface? Right, none.

“Fighting it is then”, I mumbled to myself.

The next wave arrived. A pack of six rusty-brown mecha beasts was approaching me in an arrow formation. At its front was a big boy. It had about double the size of a regular one. I seem to dimly remember that the size of the mecha beasts indicated their progression in cultivation. At whatever realm this one was it clearly was stronger than most of its brethren. This might be bad for me.

The big trashcan charged me on its own. “Bigger doesn't mean smarter, eh?” I thought. As soon as I was preparing another roundhouse kick two of the mecha beasts attacked me from both flanks. What the… Did they learn about my fighting style? I canceled my kick and instead tried to dodge their attack by taking a step backwards but a third beast was already aiming for this spot as well. I only managed to barely defend myself. When I got tackled by the big boy. It felt like being run over by a cyber steed. Luckily, I didn’t crash into Rose herself but rather into the wooden bench splitting it apart. Rose toppled onto me. Every bone in my body hurt. I heard anxious tweeting from Feathers.

“Don’t worry cutie-pie I’m still alive!” I reassured him. For now at least.

“Huh? Song? What’s going on?” Rose woke up. A little late but well at least she gets to experience our death personally. Yay.

I used this opportunity for a last jest: “Good morning sleeping beauty. I would’ve kissed you awake but sadly this prince charming got fucked up by a horde of mecha beasts.” I gestured with my battered face in the direction of the approaching big boy.

“What? Mecha beasts? Right they attacked the heart… and Feathers burned it until it was destroyed? It's destroyed! Gone!” Rose jumped up in celebration: “I’m finally free!”

There was nothing for me to say. We would be dead in a few seconds and my only friend lost her mind. Oh, well.

“Song, look closely. I’ll show you how a real cyber spirit looks like”, she smirked at me while she activated her spirit. That's right, I never saw Rose ever using her abilities. 

Four hands were emerging from her back. Like the cyber interfaces of the Abbess Blackheart, Rose's looked ancient. Definitely not mass-produced by one of the big corporations. Each hand was holding a different kind of spirit gun: A crimson revolver with smoke protruding from its barrel, a half-frozen white machinegun, a flintlock covered by vines, and an all-black parabellum pistol. Rose’s face was covered by a demon mask. Its facial expression looked like it welcomed chaos and destruction.

“You bastards! Let me show you Samsara!”

TheWritingBirb

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