"Kassidy?!" Hideaki and I exclaimed in unison when we saw him standing in front of the stairs.

  "What are you doing here?" I growled. "You told me that I was dead in your eyes."

  Hideaki then brought me to the ground with his claws on his foot:

  "Decided to finish the job, little boy?" He cackled. "There's no room for you!"

  "Yes. I came to finish something, but it's far from recent." He pointed his blade toward Hideaki. "I may have been wrong, but you were even more wrong—and worse than I am."

  "You have no right to speak!" I growled, my head being held to the ground by Hideaki's foot. "You also ended dozens of innocent lives! You're both sick in the head!"

  "Indeed." He nodded. "But that changes today!" he shouted. "You may not trust me, but if I don't take action now, things will only get worse..."

  "Wow," Hideaki yawned, "do you know how to do anything besides giving speeches and throw tantrums like a baby? Can you even believe this is a commander?—”

  Kassidy attacked Hideaki right in the face, knocking him off of me. It couldn't have been a very deep cut, but it felt like it burned a lot.

  "Idiot, you haven’t changed in a bit," I spat on the ground, "still provoked as easily as in front of the bar!"

  "I just wanted to get him off you," he said, brandishing his sword, "but if things get worse, I won't hesitate to kill him."

  “Do whatever you think is best, I’ve given up on you.” (Clearly a lie).

  "Fine, I'll work as an executioner; one last time," he turned to Hideaki, who looked angry.

  “Can you all just shut up already?”

  "Granted." I said, advancing towards him. I threw a punch at him, only to have it deflected. Hideaki then grabbed my head and rubbed it against the steel walls, burning my face, before throwing me to the ground and crushing it.

  Kassidy could only watch from the entrance of the room.

  “Hey idiot! Are you just going to stand there or what?”

  “An assassin waits for the perfect opportunity to strike.“

  "Useless." I grumbled. I'm here, in real danger, my face burning and my head bleeding; and all the pretty boy does is watch!

  Hideaki caught me again, throwing me against the wall on the other side.

  "You and your 'moral codes,' 'tactics,' and whatever else," he mocked. "You just talk, talk, talk, and talk! Yet you can barely hold your own in a fight!"

  "Shut up." I said through gritted teeth.

  Hideaki was insufferable; those little legs of his weren't just weapons, they also gave him unparalleled agility. I threw punches, kicks, and even headbutts, all in vain, all countered. At this point I'm starting to look like that damned worm back in Theta!

  While he pinned me against the wall, he looked at Kassidy:

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Are you just going to stand there and watch your darling get mutilated?" Kassidy remained silent, almost like a statue.

  So, while he was looking at Kassidy, I took Hideaki to the ground, pinned him down just like he had done to me, and grabbed his claws so he couldn't attack me back.

  My blood was boiling, my vision was turning red, just like in my last fight in the tournament before this nightmare—the only difference is that my opponent deserves it this time!

  Then I began to stomp, each stomp harder than any I had ever given before—the peak of my fury.

  "You crazy, maniacal, monstrous spider," I said with each stomp, "not even hell has room for a sack of shit like you!"

  “Pest!”

  “Fuckface!”

  “Bastard!”

  “Scum!!”

  “MOTHERFUCKER!!”

  “YOU DISGUSTING ATTROCITY!!”

  "You don't understand!" Hideaki coughed, laughing. "I can't die! My hatred for you all has fueled me ever since you continue to want me dead!"

  I stopped stomping, but not in shock. “I don't care. You're still suffering.”

  But before I could continue his torture and fuel my rage, Kassidy suddenly lunged at me, striking me with his shoulder to knock me out of the way. He then raised his sword into the air, its brilliance so intense that it ceased to be blue and turned white.

  "There's still a way to incapacitate him." he whispered as he raised his blade to the sky.

  "For the sake of all humanity, to end all the violence caused by this scum of the Earth and for the order of the world, you will be reduced to nothing but rust." he said, melancholically and in an almost tragic tone, before lowering his blade, tracing a cut across Hideaki's body.

  Hideaki seemed to have lost control of his body, screaming in the same freezing pain I had felt earlier. But he stopped soon after, the light from all his spikes becoming just a faint blue glow.

  Kassidy then turned to me:

  "Cacto, you’re capable of symbiosis, aren’t you?" he asked me, and I nodded. "Then he's all yours. I believe you could get some benefit from it."

  Grabbing him by the neck, he trembled a little more and began to whisper:

  "Cacto…" Hideaki sighed, "before you finish me off, I ask that you listen to me, just this once."

  "Sure," I replied, "whatever it was that worried you so much back at Lambda, it must be quite important."

  “Notice that I haven’t spoken in your mind recently. That’s because they finally managed to cut off my communication network,” he coughed, spilling a little already oxidized blood, “but… a little before that, I heard an unknown voice… robotic and devoid of emotion… the only thing it had said was ‘Entry registered: Cacto - top priority.’ Whatever is it that they’re plotting, I’m no longer their target…” he gave a tired cackle, “good luck…”

  Kassidy gasped in horror:

  “I knew there was something else going on! My radar picked up a third source of Cog energy!”

  "Just a moment," I raised my hand to him, "we can talk about this later."

  I turned to Hideaki, my hand gripping his neck. I closed my eyes and began to concentrate. I felt a warmth in my hand and something coursed along my arm, empowering me with each passing second.

  "Please," Hideaki whispered, "don't repeat my mistakes. I say this as Lotte Hideaki, the first incident…"

  And with that, he went limp. He's unconscious, but he should come back soon. I let go of his body, my heart was now beating more intensely and my hair became more vibrant; something new is inside me, but it still has to be discovered.

  "Kassidy," I turned to him, "let's get out of here, enough fighting for today. Let's talk about this 'new Cog'."