Down With The Gods

Upon exiting the connecting room, the four find themselves floating, struggling to control their movements. With the help of his air power, Anish stabilizes himself, then the rest of the team. The sight before them sends chills down their spines: planets and moons from the solar system collide with souls, crushing some fatally against the walls. The silent screams of the souls add to the horrifying scene, as many desperately tap on their bands to open emergency portals.

"Do you think we have a chance with Anish here?" Mira asks.

"WHAT?" Wyn shouts back, unable to hear clearly.

The interstellar space seems to hinder their ability to communicate. Anish brings them closer together, using the opportunity to stay as close to Mira as possible. They all hold onto one another to avoid drifting apart. Although he's holding Yu’s arm, Anish lets out a low moan as Mira’s breasts press against his shoulder for a few seconds.

"Whatever you do, DON’T use cyclones," Anish warns.

"DON’T WHAT?"

Suddenly, a planet drifts toward them, spinning as it heads directly at the group. Anish holds it off with a gust of wind. The other three quickly send their projectiles into Anish’s wind, hitting the planet and bouncing it off to the other side of the hall. Anish swiftly brings the team back to the connecting room.

“What in the world was that? Zero gravity? What brainless fools would create an environment like this?” Wyn fumes.

"That was brutal. Uranus was in my face!" Yu says proudly.

"That was Neptune," Wyn corrects him.

“Don’t ruin my moment with your facts!”

“How about we check out one last section? I vote for Faces of Demons,” Mira suggests.

“Never been there myself. Promise me we’ll leave if it gets too dangerous,” Anish says.

The first hall of the Faces of Demons is empty, devoid of creatures and souls.

“We’re alone?” Yu asks.

“Hmm…I guess the creatures may have died out without food,” Anish says.

The hall is decorated with bronze statues of demons from different eras. These demons aren’t fallen angels but creations of Hell, modeled after Heaven’s dogs – only smaller, faster, and inherently evil. The hall also displays scrapped prototypes. Demons were once regular cats until the war. By the Dark Force’s will, the cats grew larger but retained their feline shapes. They were then given the ability to walk on two legs. Later, their arms and legs were strengthened. A decade after the Pete incident, human speech capability was granted to all demons. Since then, there have been over one thousand updates to their speech software.

The first-ever sentence written by an unspecified demon was: "THE WOTDL BELONGS TO US ALL WE MUST PROTECTITI."

"Oooh! A pouch of catnips!" Yu exclaims, finding a trail of catnip pouches. "Oooh! A pouch of catnips!" He continues this exact way seven times, collecting them in his arms.

The trail leads to a spacious, empty hall, with five white coliseum pillars standing next to each of the five doorways. One doorway connects this hall to the previous one, while the other four lead to halls with life-like statues of the CATOTO family. The leftmost hall contains statues of CATOTO, Catato, and Catito. The following halls feature campsite cats belonging to the Abandoned City, Dark Forest, and Hell’s Ride, respectively. In each hall, a regular-sized cat sits in front of an enlarged version of itself.

"Excuse me. Are you guys the only ones here?" a stranger soul asks.

Joining them are a male and a female soul, both visiting this section of the museum hoping to fight demon mimics. They’re surprised to find the halls so empty.

"Is that it? The CATOTO family halls are at the end of the section?" Wyn asks.

"Guess so," Yu replies, before dumping all the pouches on Wyn.

"We should share," Wyn says, distributing two pouches to each person, except for Mira, who receives one since she got three pouches from Anish earlier. He deposits Yu’s shares and his own into his band.

"This is disappointing. We’re Jack and Rose, by the way," Rose introduces their two-person party.

"Oh, look!" Mira points to the ceiling.

On the ceiling, there’s a mural of cats, each with a condescending expression, staring down at the visitors. CATOTO has the most condescending stare of them all. While everyone admires the ceiling, the coliseum pillars transform into mimics, which then morph into doors, blocking the exits. Startled, the souls summon their weapons and assume defensive stances. From the ceiling, mimics who were apparently copying the mural descend down in front of the doorway opposite the CATOTO halls. Seven mimic orbs swirl mesmerizingly around each other before merging into one. The shape they take shocks everyone trapped within the hall – it’s Le CATOTO GRANDE.

"Merda!" Jack exclaims.

"I always love it when you speak Taco," Rose says.

"I’m Brosilian, and my name’s actually not pronounced ‘Jack.’"

The Le CATOTO GRANDE replica is true to size in every aspect.

"Don’t forget to watch out for the door mimics," Wyn reminds them.

The chonky mimicked cat doesn’t meow and without warning, it shoots a stream of water at the group. While everyone else dodges out of the way, Wyn, with Yu hiding behind him, fires a cyclone against the oncoming torrent. His cyclone isn’t strong enough to completely stop the briefly slowed-down torrent, so he ejects himself and Yu to the side with a slanted rock pillar.

“My hip, ow,” Yu moans, wincing from the contact with the fast-emerging rock pillar.

While Jack hurls lava blobs at one of the cat’s legs, Rose summons a snow pillar to elevate herself and Jack, allowing them to shift their focus to the head. Anish, holding Mira by her hips – with her consent, of course – focuses on moving her out of harm’s way. Mira, now airborne, fires projectiles nonstop at one of the cat’s arms. The large cat moves forward with loud thumps, unfazed by the attacks, and then swipes a massive paw at Jack and Rose. As an experienced fighter, Rose quickly desummons the pillar, dodging the powerful swipe, and fires a fully charged snowball at the cat’s groin. The cat reacts to the damage, but its outer layer remains intact. In retaliation, it unleashes another water attack from its mouth aimed at the duo. Rose tries to block the stream with a thicker snow pillar, while Jack summons a lava fountain beneath the cat. Though the lava isn’t able to melt the thick layer, it visibly inflicts some damage. However, Rose’s pillar eventually breaks, and the cat’s water hits them both, sending them flying to the other side of the room.

Meanwhile, Wyn unleashes a descending cyclone fused with Yu’s water. The large enemy dwarfs Wyn’s cyclone, which only spans across its inner shoulders. While Wyn’s attack doesn’t seem to damage the cat, it effectively slows its movement. As the cyclone dissipates, Mira, who has been firing projectiles, gets close enough to whip the cat’s ear, the force boosted by Anish’s wind. The attack cracks the ear. In response, the cat sweeps with an arm, turning to face Mira. The sheer force of the wave from the missed swipe sends her and Anish tumbling backward.

Wyn follows up with a rocky, water-infused vertical cyclone aimed at the cat’s belly. Withstanding the damage, the cat tightens its tail, preparing to sweep the floor with it.

“Cyclone jump now!” Yu commands, holding onto Wyn tightly.

“What?!”

“NOW!”

Wyn jumps up, avoiding the tail sweep. His cyclone jump is softened by Yu’s inverted water fountain, which resembles a waterfall. As the cat turns back to where Wyn and Yu were, Mira, from behind, notices the cracks on its ear are healing. Against Anish’s warning, she asks him to shoot her down with a gust from the ceiling. Instead, Anish directs her fully charged whip down at the ear base, causing it to break and fall off upon contact. The cat reacts immediately, thrashing its head around, shooting water, and slashing its paws randomly. The two are separated while airborne by a water stream. As she falls, Mira is struck by the cat’s back paw, sending her slamming against a wall. Anish manages to catch her with a wind gust before she hits the floor.

Wyn fires another cyclone at the cat, fused with Yu and both their weapons inside. When the attack hits the target, none of the weapons lodge, and the cat smacks them with its paw. Wyn dodges again by launching himself and Yu into a wall, again softened by Yu’s fountain. Despite the fountains absorbing some of the impact from the cyclone jumps, Wyn continues to take damage as his back bears the brunt. The two regroup with Mira and Anish near a wall as Mira regains consciousness.

From afar, Rose rolls out a snowball, which gathers size as it travels down the floor, with Jack following behind. The snowball slams into the side of the cat, breaking on impact and causing it to lose balance. Jack emerges from behind, jumps onto the lifting foot, grabs the side of it, and begins hacking away single-handedly with his lava-heated ax blade at the ankle. As the foot touches the floor, Jack’s lower half is crushed. The cat follows up with a kick, hurling him into a wall near a doorway. Thanks to Jack’s effort, the ankle is slightly exposed with a hack wound. The more it moves, the more the wound cracks open.

“Argh!” Jack screams.

He’s being devoured by a doorway mimic, which has transformed back into its original form to feast. His agonizing scream lasts only seconds before his entire body disappears.

“JACK!” Rose shouts.

She knows in her broken heart that it’s too late to save him now. Filled with rage, tears streaming down her face, she dashes at the doorway mimic and kills it before it can transform again. Despite the shock, Wyn and Mira have devised a plan to strike the big cat's body. Yu and Anish are tasked with distracting the chonk by attacking its exposed ear base. This part of the plan goes well, as the cat is too busy following both men, trying to swat them like flies. But just after Yu lands a strike on the exposed area, the cat reacts by jumping, its huge angry face turning toward them. A stream of water shoots from its mouth, slamming both into a wall. Before it lands, the cat manages to unleash a paw slash at them while they're still stuck to the wall. The strike cuts Yu, who’s in front, diagonally from his stomach down, splitting him into two pieces. Anish suffers a deep slash wound to his stomach. The cat collapses, face down, as its wounded ankle crumbles.

Wyn and Mira scream out Yu’s name. Furious, they unleash their fully charged fused attack – a fiery cyclone with their weapons inside. The metal egg glows red, and the chakram blades are engulfed in flames. Their original plan was to hit the belly, but in their rage, they couldn’t wait. The attack lands on the struggling cat’s back, leaving a sizable exposed area. To everyone’s surprise, Rose dashes right toward the mimicked cat.

“What are you doing?” Mira yells, running after her.

“We promised to be with each other forever. No matter near, far, wherever you are, Jack!” Rose cries.

“You didn’t even know his ethnicity before this!”

Summoning the mace into her hands, Rose jumps, aiming to attack the exposed part and allow herself to be dissolved within after. Mira leaps forward, extending her hand to grab Rose, but the cat suddenly backslashes with its paw. Rose’s legs are sliced, and the remainder of her body falls to the ground only to be squished a few seconds later by the same paw. Mira's arm is caught in the attack, and she suffers shallow cuts on her face. However, her right eye is blinded. Unsure of what to do, Wyn summons a slanted rock pillar, knocking Mira into himself.

“Not my arm again. Dammit!” Mira gasps, on her knees, crying.

“Get out now! Don’t worry about the rest. I’ll bring them back alive, I swear!”

Even though Mira’s band-wearing arm is still intact, Wyn opens an emergency portal from his band. Mira leaves the battlefield.

“I’ll help whenever I can,” Anish says, faintly.

“Please get Yu back to the camp.”

“I can’t. I can’t bring him with me. I’m not part of your team!”

“Shit! Then can you stay afloat somewhere safe? Stay clear from the doorways.”

Anish lifts himself and Yu up to the ceiling, toughing out the pain to safeguard Yu’s sliced-up parts. Meanwhile, the cat gets back up, struggling to stand with just one foot. Seeing this as an opportunity, Wyn summons a rocky cyclone aimed at the exposed ankle. As it hits, the cat loses balance and falls on its front. Positioning himself, he summons a very tall pillar and from it, fires another rocky cyclone from his palm along with the chakrams at the exposed back. From above, Anish drops his javelin. All weapons make their way inside the back wound. The cat struggles, reacting to the damage. As with before, the more it moves, the more the outer layer crumbles. Anish manipulates the javelin inside the cat, causing it more discomfort. Wyn relentlessly launches cyclones at the wound. One of them, through luck, hits the chakrams inside the cat, causing them to pierce through the other side. Both men mindlessly repeat their attacks, giving the cat no chance to get back up. Until, the large Le CATOTO GRANDE replica is no more.

Before he can breathe a sigh of relief, Wyn turns to the doorway mimics. Scared, they take off into the CATOTO halls. He lets them flee, as he tends to Yu and Anish.

“NO! COLLECT THE ESSENCE! DON’T LET OUR EFFORTS GO TO WASTE!” Anish is adamant. Never before has Wyn observed Anish in this state.

“Then let’s share. We’ll make it up to them later.”

“It’d complicate things if you and I shared it right now. We’re not a team yet.”

As quickly as he can, Wyn collects five hundred and sixty essence from the combined mimics, five hundred from Jack, and five hundred and fifty-two from Rose. This battle alone brings his total essence collection to above two thousand. Wyn is shaken by the event. He doesn’t look happy despite having defeated a very strong opponent. But he can’t waste time thinking right now; he needs to head back to campsite number two.

The three come out of the portals into the entryway. Wyn is clunkily carrying Yu, both parts. Sadly, Wyn didn’t have the capacity to carry Mira’s sliced arm with him. Anish, not being a member of the team, also couldn’t bring it through his portal.

“You guys are back!” Mira shouts in happiness, as she runs toward them to check on Yu first thing.

“WHY AREN’T YOU IN YOUR TENT?” Wyn asks.

“I couldn’t rest. Not with you guys out there,” Mira says, also telling Wyn and Anish not to worry about her hand.

“She refused to leave the lobby. She is attracting a lot of attention right now. Can you take her to the tent? I will help,” Catutu says, holding Yu’s lower part as she enlarges herself to human size.

“You two rest in my tent, so I can keep an eye on you,” Wyn demands.

He spends five catnips to purchase a second sleeping bag. Catutu can enter anyone’s tent, if allowed. She carefully places Yu in the sleeping bag, making sure both parts are correctly placed.

“Sorry buddy. Your guitar will have to wait a bit longer.”

“The healing begins the moment you are out of battle. The passed out might feel pain if he wakes. Boink him back to sleep if you have to. The missing hand girl, you need to sleep too,” Catutu advises.

“What happens when a band is destroyed or is lost with a body part?” Wyn asks.

“If the band is on the missing body part, it will return during the healing. If the band breaks during a fight, which is not common, come to any of us for a new one. Do remember to absorb essence with your hands in the meantime.”

Wyn lets the two rest, then heads out to meet up with Anish who has been waiting outside.

“Thank you for everything, Anish.”

“Hope you can trust me now,” Anish says, with a big smile.

“I’ll vouch for you when they wake up. For now, let’s all rest. I’ll ring your doorbell. I promise, we won’t leave you behind. I’ll get a doorbell too. If you need anything, just ring it.”

Wyn heads back inside. Not wanting to slow down Yu’s endeavor, he lies on the hard floor. Exhausted, he falls asleep. The light in the tent diminishes as his tired eyes shut.