Does 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.
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.
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.
…
‘Come on…they did it…you…can…do it too!’
BOOM…BOOM…BOOM!
‘That’s it…slow and steady…’
First, were the memories of people he barely knew.
But eventually, all of these transient memories disappeared into nothingness.
…
“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the names of the former had a tendency to get recorded here and there through diaries, journals and the occasional historical document that gets made by a lucky scholar.
…
“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?”
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.
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.
…
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.
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.
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.
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.
It took him a bit to realize what he was hearing, but once he did…he ran.
…
