Out of Light, Into the Dark

[Proto Man]

The prototype Robot Master managed to free himself just in time to watch Snake Man crumple into a mutilated heap next to Azreal, who proceeded to stand up and brush off his soot-stained armor. “Snakes are a nuisance no matter where you go, it seems.”

Mireya drew a curved sword and moved in to attack, but the demon simply stepped forward and closed his own hand around hers. A beat later, the blacksmith squeezed, smashing the night elf’s fingers against the grip of her own weapon. “Elves are so frail.” Azreal snickered as he lifted his prey up off the ground by her hand.

“Curse you,” Mireya rasped between clenched teeth as she fumbled for another weapon. As she did, Azreal tilted and picked up his hammer.

“Any last words, Elf?”

“I have two for you!” Proto Man muttered from behind the demon. “Finish Buster!”

Azreal’s eyes widened as the blast of energy slammed into the small of his back, consuming his armor and boring its way through his flesh. The moment his grip relented just a little bit, Mireya swung her legs up and used the demon’s massive chest to kick off and away from him before the wave erupted through his gut. A beat later, the giant mass of charred clothes and red flesh slammed against the stone floor of the foundry. Proto Man, whose right arm still hung limply at his side, clenched his teeth and dropped to his knees. He didn’t experience pain in the human sense, but the damage to his external and internal structures was wreaking havoc with everything else.

Rerouting his power from his ancillary systems, Proto Man half-walked, half-dragged himself over to Snake Man, whose eyes still had a fleeting amount of fire behind them. “I can’t feel my limbs, Prodigal,” the reptile whispered, his voice like that of a ghost.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this,” Proto Man said as he pulled the failing machine up into his lap.

“Oh don’t give me that,” Snake Man replied, trying to force a smile onto his face but lacking the power to do little more than make the corners of his mouth twitch. “It was my decision to go beyond the parameters of my original mission. I’m a grown machine… I can make my own choices.”

“You still deserved better than this.”

“We all do, Proto Man,” Snake Man muttered, his words become slightly garbled. “Just do me a f-f-favor and ban… banish that archdemon. She’s got too much of our family’s blood on her hands now…” With a final, wheezing rasp, Snake Man’s eyes rolled back into his skull, leaving Proto Man cradling the dead corpse of yet another of his half-brothers. Knowing this wasn’t her place, Mireya silently walked outside to make sure they wouldn’t be ambushed by more monsters.

With a frown, Proto Man reached up and shut the other Robot Master’s eyelids. He then sat there and rocked the broken body in his hands for a minute or two before it started to glow. As sad as it was, he knew what happened next, and thus, he said a final goodbye to the snake and set the body down onto the stone floor. The corpse sparkled white, and just before it exploded into swirling globes of light, Proto Man saw the colors of the rainbow flash across the still form of Snake Man.

Lifting up his head, Proto Man clenched his jaw as the orbs swirled around him and then vanished into his systems. His color palate shifted to white and dark green. As the prototype Robot Master wobbled his way up to a standing position, a pop up on the corner of screen flashed every few seconds.

‘-SN- Get Equipped with Search Snake!’