Chapter 320: Forgetting is painful, remembering what you forgot is worst
“Don’t be broken, don’t be broken, please don’t be broken!,” she kept muttering as she ran down the hall.
As her feet pounded the hallway floor towards the chamber, Nausi…Rianna began to recall more and more of the day her father disappeared…
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As Rocko watched Frederick beginning to falter with the venom cocktail flowing through his various insect bits, his face twisting in pain and even the tentacle in his sternum starting to slacken considerably to the point of falling out, he began to plan his counterattack…well not yet anyways. He had one more thing to take care of.
‘Hey…magic saber…can you make those jets of flames without me swinging you around? Can you use it to move yourself around?’
{Technically, yes. If you swing me hard enough I can use the flames made to move us around. Not sure how that’s gonna help now since you’re-}
‘Would you be able to do it still, even if it wasn’t me holding you?’
{Also yes, but why would you ever need to let me…no.}
‘Finally got around to reading my thoughts, huh?’
{No, no, no! Are you nuts?! You got no chance of beating this guy without me to help.}
‘Well…she won’t have a chance to survive without me doing this.’
With that mental declaration made, Rocko managed to muster up enough strength to turn to face his darling daughter’s crying face, and kneel to wipe away her tears.
“Hey baby girl… don’t cry… papa’s gonna get you outta here real soon. Okay?”
Unfortunately, the most Rianna could muster in response was to continue crying.
Rocko took a moment to admire his new saber for what was probably gonna be the last time…and he hoped that his daughter would take good care of it.
‘At least she won’t be lonely…right?’
{I… I’ll try to help when I can…}
Rianna was so preoccupied with crying and screaming, that she failed to notice that Rocko had taken his saber and firmly placed it in both of her tiny hands in a double handed grip.
It wasn’t until she felt him hug her from behind that she stopped crying to see what he was doing.
“Papa? What are you-?”
“Rianna,” Rocko began to say as his voice took on a gentle tone, “There are…there were…gonna be a million things I wanted to teach you…to show you…to say to you when you got older. I wanted to take you out of this jungle and show you the world beyond the spiderwebs…but…Papa has to go now. He’s going to go on a…very long hunting trip and by the time I get back… you’ll probably have forgotten all about me.”
“For…gotten?,” Rianna repeated, worried and confused. She had had never heard of this word before, but something about the way it was said made her very sad and very worried. As if…she would never see him again.
“Just know that no matter what happens, no matter how far apart we are…Papa will always love you and that he’ll always be there when you need him,” Rocko said tears in his eyes as he focused more and more of his power into the saber, which began to glow as opposed to combust.
“No go far! Stay close!,” the child cried.
“I love you, baby girl…”
“No!”
‘Do it!’
{GIVE HIM HELL!}
*FWOOSH!*
“GAAAAAAHHHH! IT BURNS!”
Having said what needed to be Rocko swung down the saber for his daughter and released an enormous jet of flames that released so much light and heat that it blinded Frederick and burnt his body. In the process though, Rocko released Rianna from his grasp, allowing her to be carried away by the force of his saber and out of the chamber.
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This was as much as Rianna could remember in regards of her father’s last day alive.
After that event, something in Rianna’s mind kinda…broke. Or rather, it’d be more accurate to say that it actively tried to hide any memories before that moment both good and bad, as if to shield her from the pain.
A cruel kindness as it were.
Her mind began to focus on survival instead, so Rianna eventually forgot about the events in the spider’s leg…then of Rocko…the meaning of the saber in her hands…then her name…and then how to speak.
For all intents and purposes, with nobody else by her side, Rianna became merely “the hunter” in a land where only the strong survived.
But the funny thing is, that despite having nearly forgotten everything, she always kept that saber by her side.
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‘Stay healthy, my baby girl,’ Rocko quietly wished as he watched the saber and her disappear out of his sight.
Rocko wouldn’t be able to confirm it with his own eyes whether or not she got out,but he could sense that the saber would do as he requested and carry his daughter out into safety.
‘Strange…even though I won’t be there to see it…I feel like she’ll grow into a woman who will shake up the whole damn world…but I need to make sure that possibility can happen in the first place.’
With Rianna out of harm’s way, Rocko brought his attention back to the recovering Frederick, who despite being poisoned and burned, began to slowly regain mobility and sight.
Rocko took a deep breath as he tried to figure out a way to defeat Frederick, when for the second time this day, a voice popped into his head.
A quiet, small voice that asked him a very simple question.
<=What do you desire?=>
‘…do you really need to ask?’
<=...no.=>
After that, Rocko’s body began to surge with power…a power that he now realized was always there…ever since he fought Frederick and lost…the very first time.
‘It sure as hell ain’t aether…but it’ll work.’
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“RAAAAHHH! CONFOUNDED GNAT! FUCKING MAGGOT! I’LL MAKE SURE YOU DIE SCREAMING!,” Frederick cursed as his eyes slowly regained their vision and the burns on his body began to heal.
This was the greatest and only pain he had felt in years and it was driving him insane.
At this point, the only thing that could possibly make him feel better would be the look of despair on Rocko’s face after killing his daughter before his own dying eyes!
“I’LL CUT OUT OFF YOUR ARMS, RIP OUT YOUR GUTS, AND…and…impossible…”
As Frederick hurled threat after threat, he began to sense a force of [Chaos] he had never felt before.
“Why is it so…warm?”
