16th CARD › “The Serpent”

A pool of blood had formed atop the jagged, open air penthouse roof. A constant humming still persisted in the air, the source of which were the twin blackened blades of light striking flesh. The blades both made contact, but unfortunately for the cloaked figure he had not quite found his mark.

“.. It would be a lie if I were to tell you I expected such a response. For you to move in a way like that is beyond even my expectations. I’m impressed, dearest Giotto.”

Gio’s already damaged body had somehow overcome the fear that held him prisoner. He had been able to push his body, rushing forward in the instant before the blades struck Victor and Rose. Though, instead of blocking with his own blades, he found himself using his body.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to use his weapons, even if they had been easily disposed of moments before. The fact was he couldn’t move his body entirely as he wanted. His arms didn’t listen and the only solution was to use his own flesh as a shield.

A blade of black light now rested deep in his right shoulder, humming ever so quietly as the energy pulsed. The maneuver protected Victor. The second blade was ‘grasped’ awkwardly in Gio’s own left hand in order to protect Rose. Truthfully, grasped was the wrong word – his hand merely blocked it.

If the enemy had sliced with even another fraction of pressure, it was a certainty that Gio would have lost both his hand and an arm. The only reason either remained was due to that last moment’s hesitation mid-swing.

“Why did you do such a thing, dearest Giotto? These two have driven you into a corner. Not only that, but they potentially brought about the death of your precious partner. It seems rather… strange—”

“— I don’t give a damn what you think!”

Frost covered the ground before Gio as spires shot upwards at the figure, a move which caused the smoky figure to once again disperse.

 

“!!!” Gio gasped as the blades vanished from his open wounds and he nearly collapsed forward.

Blood was beginning to flow rapidly form his shoulder wound. There was no doubt that the injury was a potentially fatal one, due to the size. His breathing grew tense, fighting the oncoming shock and pain. Oxygen was a luxury.

Ice formed over his left hand, sealing the wound as best as he could. The same was done for the shoulder injury, but the wound was so severe that his right arm had become useless. Using ice to potentially stop him from bleeding out was a tried and true method, but it came too late. Or the damage had simply already been done.

He had already lost far too much blood to keep fighting normally. Between the fight with Kings and the severity of this most recent attack, he was at the end of his rope. Time was ticking away on just how long he could stay conscious.

His vision was fading and his breath was coming to a crawl. His own body was shutting down.

“It’s clear to see you aren’t well.”

A blackened hand rested on the ice covered shoulder of Gio. He found himself once again unable to move, but this time it was more so to his body’s weakened disposition. Luckily he could still glare upwards through his shades and right into the shadows before him.

It was a look of killing intent.

“I don’t quite understand that anger. You see, I gave you the greatest gift that anyone could receive. Your power as a, what do they call it – Wild Card? It is boundless!” His voice, its voice, continued to strain the senses.

Like a whisper, but everywhere all at once. A lingering force that wriggled its way into the minds of any who would listen.

“No power can top it, not even the foolish Aces watching over this paradise from behind closed doors.”

Gio didn’t care about whatever this guy was saying. The only thing this so-called gift gave him was the death of those closest to him, as well as countless others whose only crime was going about their daily lives. The power of the Wild Card was nothing more than a curse plaguing him. He now thought that maybe Victor was right, in the sense that this power was a disease that needed to be cleansed.

Even so, no matter the painful memories that lingered, Gio’s body began to twitch. He was trying to raise up to at least his knees. He was trying to fight back. Not even his circling self-doubt could stave off his survival instinct.

“I don’t care… for whatever you have to give. The only thing I want is—”

“— your loving wife back? Friends? Peace? Love? Oh, dearest Giotto, you don’t know what you want.”

Those words triggered his body to jerk forward as his bloodied, frozen fist, went flying in a punch that was far too telegraphed.

“I know just fine! Because of you, they’re gone! I’ll kill you, I’ll kill you, whoever or whatever you are I’ll rip your fucking head off—”

A force sent Gio’s body went flying forward before he could spin around at his foe. He bounced once through glass and blood, skidding across the ground. The figure’s own power was mighty. He possessed a telekinetic force, as well as the ability to seemingly become incorporeal. Not to mention the ability to manipulate energy and create an atmosphere that paralyzed others.

“.. Don’t make me angry, Gi-o-tto.”

The figure vanished and appeared again, this time in front of Gio who lay flat on his stomach, unable to stand.

“..The hell are you… what do you want…” His voice was fading.

“Oh, silly me. I suppose you wouldn’t know, would you? That’s quite alright, dearest Giotto. I forgive you even if no one else will. For now, you may simply call me…” He hesitated, thinking carefully, as if accessing a part of his memory that was locked away. “Hmmm, what would be an interesting name – Oh! There was one. Something to match the snake they made me out to be.”

Once again he stroked the cheek of his prey, as if petting the head of a dying dog about to be put down.

“I believe the name… yes, yes – it was Naga. A fine name for one such as I, wouldn’t you agree?”

The so-called Naga managed another snicker. This really was like a game to him – a game which he was winning by near insurmountable odds. He seemed to take a sick pleasure in playing such a villainous role. It was as if the cliché act was just a performance on stage.

“As for what I want? Oh no, dearest Giotto – it’s what we want. That which will bring about the reincarnation of this world – this paradise that so many wander blindly in. To change the world. That is what we want, dearest Giotto.”

Naga’s body began to float upwards, levitating a few feet off the ground and above Gio.

“To do that, however, I need you to do something for me.” He chuckled, amused by his own speech as he paced through the air as if walking along the ground.

“Something for… you? Tell me then, psychopath, is that before or after I slit your throa—“

Gio’s body was flipped over by that same unseen force, held down against the ground, and then flung backwards into a lonely pillar already crumbling. His body slammed into it hard but the pillar remained.

He was then pulled forward, back to where he had been, and thrown once again like a ragdoll – this time he slammed through the concrete, bones giving an audible crack, and he dropped to the floor.

 

Naga acted like nothing had happened at all.

“Do you remember the days of old? When that place you now call home, District Thirteen, was more than just a degenerate wasteland? And I’m talking, of course, before you and your flowers dressed it up.”

Of course Gio remembered, but he had no idea why it mattered. District Thirteen had been a slum since Gio was a young child. Sure, before then it had been a normal district like any other, which was part of why he and Leon tried to restore it seven years ago. But why would it matter? To bring such a thing up now was so out of place. He didn’t even bother mustering a nod, refusing to play these pointless games.

His body wasn’t exactly responding to him, anyway.

“.. No response, worry not. I’m sure you remember, but what I’m sure you’ve forgotten is when it all changed.” Naga floated back down, touching down on the ground and kneeling just in front of Gio. “Abandoned by the Houses, but the reason was never explained. Not the real reason. You see, there was something there within the bowels of District Thirteen.”

Gio managed to lift his head up ever so slightly and look as Naga revealed that crystal. What had been locked away as a forgotten memory was now fresh in his mind. The crystal clad in silver light, that was no bigger than a couple of inches, which dangled from a golden chain. It was the same one which began his despair four years ago.

This was the crystal which, as far as Gio could tell, changed him into the Wild Card.

“What you see here is what they never wanted you to. This is from what lay beneath paradise. The apple for which we may find sustenance. A single shard from a world of limitless power. A power that could change the world, one to free mortals from their cage.”

Those words didn’t change much.

Who cared if some power was found there? A story of fiction hardly seemed possible of changing the world so drastically. It was obvious that this Naga was trying to further string Gio along, slowly but surely, and the latter wasn’t going to let that happen.

That being said, there was a part which caught Gio’s attention.

The idea that the crystal dangling above his head was only a single shard from this ‘world of limitless power.’ Such a choice of words inferred that the power of the Wild Card, the same which sent Gio down this road, was a percent of a percent in terms of the overall potency of whatever lay hidden there.

When thinking about it like that Gio couldn’t help but be more alert, even as his consciousness faded more with each passing second. Something with that amount of energy could potentially be just as Naga said. It could even be the power to preserve or to destroy paradise in one fell swoop.

 

Gio’s voice, weak and raspy, did its best to be heard.

“Why bother… telling me?”

Naga placed the necklace back into his shadowy cloak. He then reached out, gently stroking Gio’s cheek in an almost seductive way.

“Dearest Giotto, poor, sweet boy, don’t you remember? You, who once picked the forbidden fruit…”

“.. W-What?” He tried to move his body but it wasn’t to be.

“You were so young, so perhaps you wouldn’t remember perfectly.” Naga stood back up as he spoke. “Beneath this holy land, a small team of individuals worked so very tirelessly to better understand the power that rested within Espers. Such a noble task.”

Naga’s black, cloud-like presence began to spread, enveloping him and his prey.

“How were humans able to become Espers? What was the source of their power? Their evolution? What were the creatures which followed them, bringing with them only chaos? What lay beyond the realm of possibility? Only the brave, or perhaps, the foolish dared to ask.”

Gio wanted to speak out but he struggled to even see Naga directly in front of him. Naga’s blackened disposition blended together with the smoke. His own vision also became blurry and the void of unconsciousness crept in.

Naga realized that his audience was reaching its physical limit. Luckily he had just enough time.

“Dearest Giotto, it pains me that you’ve forgotten so much. Without you there would be no us.” Naga sounded as if he was salivating, remembering a good meal. “After all, not even those who tried to answer the questions could find truth without you there to guide them. Those who gave life to the old you – the birth parents of you and your precious companions.”

To be fair, Gio couldn’t remember his parents very well. He was nine years old when they passed, so he had some fond memories from before then, but fifteen years later he struggled to remember their faces or even their voices. He certainly didn’t remember anything like what Naga was describing, either.

He did know they were working on something related to Esper origins, which wasn’t some secret. They were researchers and they frequently worked on learning about Espers, Chaotics, and how they came to be in this world. Not only that, but they worked with both Leon and Faye’s parents. The six of them were close friends and coworkers. All of them were the top in their respective fields.

Such a team of researchers being close, being friends, was surely how their own children became such good friends.

Their renown made it quite a news worthy headline when they all fell victim to an accident in their field lab, leaving their children as orphans. The accident was said to be caused by an experiment and the arrival of an S-Rank Chaotic, one which the non-combatant researchers had little hope in besting.

Coincidently it was around the same time that District Thirteen became abandoned.

Their deaths contributed to the desertion of Thirteen. The district was deemed unfit to live in, said to be unsafe, leading to it becoming a slum. Whether this was due to the experiments the team performed or some other phenomenon was unclear, but there was a noticeable rise in Chaotic activity that not even the Houses were prepared for.

 

“The Jaegers, Krugers, Stars – the birth parents that you lost were all working to uncover truth and they paid with it in full with their lives. Do you understand what I mean by that, dearest Giotto?”

What Naga was inferring was obvious, but Gio wasn’t buying it. He was suggesting that their deaths were a toll they had to pay to learn something forbidden – that they were essentially killed in an elaborate cover-up. Gio wouldn’t put it past anyone to do such a thing, but it seemed farfetched to have a discovery on Espers covered up by killing off an entire research team.

It was so over the top that it was impossible.

Gio would have said something but his voice was gone. It was a miracle he still remained conscious after all this time. Naga realized it and rushed to continue his story. Time seemed to be against him.

“Dearest Giotto, power to change the world – that is what the truth grants. A truth that you yourself set this world down. The proof of which I hold now. This is the fruit of our labor I want to share with you! Together, dearest Giotto, we can undo a century of lies – the world that is waiting for us is just beyond the shadows!”

Naga shouted out for the first time, his voice carrying across the rooftops all around them.

“But we must have the tree, not simply a single piece of fruit.” He then laughed, bellowing out into the world without any care for keeping quiet. To finally tell Gio those words appeared to drive him into a feeling of euphoria.

In a wild frenzy he reached out, palming Gio’s head and forcefully lifting him up off the ground.

Underneath that cloak of shadows was surely a smile that stretched from cheek to cheek as his sadist acts excited him further.

“This is something I— no, we, have waited years for! A dawning of the new age has finally come! With your knowledge to lead us and the power of the Wild Card, we can change the world togeth—”

Gio’s body mustered a single response; sending a thick wad of spit into Naga’s hood and the void beneath it. His own smile, bloody and crooked, then grew.

Even in his physical state he was admiring his own defiant attitude despite his body being broken.

Naga remained silent, not yet moving or speaking. He was taken aback by the spit. For the first time since the last time, he was surprised.

“.. I must say, you remain difficult to the very end.”

Naga’s free hand emerged and blackened lights expanded outwards in the shape of a familiar blade. He then pulled back the sword, pointing the tip towards Gio’s neck. It looked like he was prepared to kill in retaliation.

After a momentary pause the blade then shifted targets, instead piercing through the air and slamming viciously into Gio’s one good shoulder. The impact easily splintered bone.

The Wild Card was already severely wounded on his right shoulder, being close to unconsciousness for a number of minutes now, and with the new wound he couldn’t even scream. A grimace washed over his face as the rosy color left his cheeks.

The blade of light vanished, and in its absence blood flowed unhindered.

“Perhaps… dearest, dearest Giotto, you will learn. Perhaps now is not the time – but that time will come. This world will be liberated, freed to walk into the new age, and you will be there at my side. No, not at my side. You shall lead us both to the end.”

Naga released his grip on Gio’s head and watched his body flop to the ground. He was out cold.

“Do your best to survive until then, dearest Giotto, and know that I will always be right here… pushing you ever forward.”

 

“Gio!!” Sera’s voice called out from the floors below as she crawled frantically up through debris to try and reach the rooftop.

“Gio, hey, Gio!” Ken muscled his way through the wreckage alongside Leon, both trailing just behind Sera.

The three had finally arrive on the scene and rushed to the top of the building on foot. Other Espers from Diamonds and Hearts were also beginning to make it through, hoping to reach their Kings.

Battle scars took the shape of metal beams and collapsed stone blocking most entry ways to the top. The elevator was without a doubt out of order. The only way to the penthouse was through the wreckage or around it, the latter of which required either flight or a parkour extremist.

The feisty young girl leading the charge would be as extreme as need be.

Sera took hold of some exposed wiring cleared from the power grid and quickly began pulling herself upwards. The makeshift rope took her through exposed holes in the corridors leading upwards, but they also saw her dangling from sixty floors off the ground with open air beneath her once or twice.

Luckily she was just a few feet from the sight of the defeated Kings and Gio.

Even with her rush, that quickened pace came to a screeching halt when she noticed the crimson liquid running along the building’s remains from above her. The sight of blood in such a quantity was temporarily paralyzing. It may or may not have been Gio’s, but her mind saw it as his.

That idiot, that idiot, that idiot!!

She pulled harder amid her hesitation, climbing to the top of the last set of cables as fast as her body was able. She knew that whatever the situation up top they needed to get help there immediately.

Finally, she pulled herself to the top floor, scrapping her elbows across glass and stone.

 

“You guys, over here, now! Gio’s, Gio is—”

Sera’s deep blue eyes rested on the sight of her partner’s slumped over body and the blood flowing from his open wounds – but she also saw the shadowy figure, Naga, standing above him.

“Who the hell are you!”

Sera’s arms launched her entire body onto the top floor where her feet dug in once she touched solid ground, propelling her in a mad sprint to take out Naga with a mighty fist. She knew that whoever this guy was, he was the enemy. Her question to him was more rhetorical.

That battle instinct of hers was scary.

So scary, in fact, that she seemed completely immune to whatever fear this Naga was capable of driving those around him mad with.

“You can move freely? — Ahhh, Sera… Noel? That’s your name, right? Take good care of my dearest Giotto for me, okay?”

Naga’s body dissipated into black smoke just as Sera’s fist slammed through him. There was no doubt she missed, but she didn’t even stop to pout. She stopped sprinting, nearly slipping on the puddle of blood beneath her feet, and she dropped to her knees to try and apply pressure to Gio’s wound.

The blood flow slowed, but it wasn’t just because of the pressure she applied. His blood levels were beyond critical. The fact Gio was still alive was a supernatural occurrence, as a normal human would have died long ago.

“Miss Sera! Where is—”

Leon had his answer as he and Ken emerged atop the roof, rushing to their friend’s side.

Espers from the Houses had arrived as well, spread out atop the roof and damaged floors. It looked like a number of them were going to the aid of Victor and Rose, but some were hesitant to go near Giotto. Perhaps out of their own fear for what Wild Card was capable, even if he was bleeding out before them.

Both Kings were severely wounded but neither appeared to be in critical condition based on injuries alone.

It even appeared after a closer look that Victor’s consciousness had at some point returned.

Gio, on the other hand, was barely alive.

“We have to do something, damnit!! The hospital, somewhere, anywhere – hell, aren’t one of you able to heal or something?!”

Sera frantically continued to cover Gio’s wound, her own hands and body stained with his blood.

“Get back Sera, quickly—” Ken’s mark of the House as King of Clubs appeared, a dark green glow pulsating. Reaching out with his right hand he amassed swirling shadows that encased the ground just below Gio. “—Leon, Spades is closer, right?”

Leon quickly nodded, grabbing Sera by the shoulder and pulling her beside Ken.

“Are you sure about this, Ken? You’ve rarely ever used–“

Kenny’s frantic nod was all the assurance Leon needed.

“What are you doing?! Let me go, I have to stop the bleeding—!!”

“Trust us, Miss Sera! Ken, now!”

“Right, hang on you two – this isn’t normally done like this!”

The shadows then spread further upwards to nearly twelve-foot high. They expanded, encasing Leon, Ken, Sera, and of course the body of Gio.

A brief surge of energy shot outwards from the mass of shadows and then the group of four was gone. The power of King Kenny Blume, The Reaper, had warped the group through shadow. Even if he wasn’t the kind of person to use his power for teleportation, it seemed to be something that was possible.

In a rush to save Gio’s fading life they had no choice but to hope they were quick enough, but it was more likely that not that he would be too far gone to save. How many second chances could one person get?

 

Meanwhile, Espers tending to their Kings were quick to get Rose on a makeshift stretcher, but Victor was somehow able to motion away his House. He wished to stand under his own power, ignoring the help that came to him. There was a look upon his face that didn’t seem to match his situation.

You see, Victor had overheard most of the conversation between Gio and Naga. He even witnessed the prelude to Gio’s own collapse in which Victor was protected by that same man he was trying to kill shortly before.

The words that his so-called partner had spoken, the actions he had taken, they were all fresh in his mind. Naga’s plan was to dupe even the mightiest of the Kings.

“There’s no… There’s no way that I was fooled by such a simpleton.”

“Sire! Please, you need medical he—”

A lone Duo rank, trying to aide his King, was forcefully grabbed by the collar and tossed aside.

“What I need, Duo, is my home repaired… But before that, I must pay a visit to Central. Then, to Spades. There is much that must be done…” Victor’s knees began to shake and his vision suddenly waivered.

His body instinctively took hold of the remnants of a nearby wall. His own blood was beginning to flow a bit excessively. Not only did the battle take a rather ludicrous toll, but it felt like there was something else weighing him down. Perhaps he wasn’t as young as he used to be.

“Damn this body…”

“King Ferris!!”

Victor’s own frame finally gave way as his brief spout of consciousness lost the fight to go on. Like the others around him, his physical condition was indeed dire.

 

What was done, however, was done.

There was no question of the coming storm.

The Aces, The Kings, they all needed to be alert – Naga, whomever or whatever he was, had slithered his way into their garden. In doing so he achieved what no other force had ever done – two Kings were out of commission. This being had manipulated events to their liking. New Eden itself was now in a state of emergency.

That wasn’t the only problem, either. While Rose and Victor were both out, so was Giotto.

Despite having reawakened his own powers of four years ago, despite growing in strength, he was now hanging on to life by an unraveling thread.

He had also, in some way, remembered what happened four years ago. The fact that his fall was not a fall at all. These last few years that were spent at odds with the Houses, filled with misconceptions and false assumptions, were all for naught.

Now was a time that the two sides could rebuild their relationship, to work together, and to find out the motives of the mysterious foe calling himself Naga. Luckily they had a lead and a number of clues – but the biggest lie in a hospital bed, fighting to survive alongside two Kings.

Giotto, according to Naga’s perhaps deranged speech, had a secret to what happened in District Thirteen tucked away in his past memories. He even perhaps had the knowledge of what happened to his parents, an event that he never even thought to question once in the fifteen years’ sense.

The mystery of Gio’s fall had perhaps been solved to an extent, but countless more questions were now raining down.

Change, perhaps both good and bad, was on the horizon – but in order to reach it, New Eden would have to face its toughest turmoil yet. The coming storm was far from passing. It would take more than the might of a lone hero to see things through to the end.

The serpent who bore the forbidden fruit had finally revealed himself within the garden.

Only together could the Espers of Eden hope to survive what lay ahead.

 

~ END 16TH CARD ~

— VOLUME ONE END —

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