Chapter 9: Let's End Your Misery

[What really happened earlier],

Somewhere in the Bridging Forest, not far from the Treetop Settlement,

Tommy and Papa were wandering in the woods, looking to harvest Heart Fruits.

“You didn’t have to come with me, you know,” Papa said to Tommy.

“No. I wanted to help you with your task,” Tommy replied.

“But as I said, it’s too dangerous,” Papa insisted. Then he started mumbling inaudibly, “I’m still unstable… I don’t know what will happen if I ever lose control again.”

“But I’m not scared! You’re my new papa (father) now, right? As my new papa, I know that you’ll do your best to protect me. And I believe that you’ll never ever hurt me… because you’re a good man.”

Tommy’s innocent words warmed Papa’s heart. It inspired him to further resist the weapon’s mind-corrupting effects.

The two of them continued searching for Heart Fruits. Not long after, they found a tree teeming with bundles of Heart Fruits.

“I think we can harvest a lot from this one,” Papa uttered.

The fruits are situated at the very top of the tree. Papa had to climb the tall stem of the tree to reach the fruits.

“I guess I’ll need to climb up there.”

“Wouldn’t it be much cooler and easier if you just use your weapon? You can throw your scythe to make the fruits fall down,” Tommy suggested.

“No!” Papa answered straight. “I refrain from using this weapon until Lumine is done fully stabilizing me.

“O-okay, sir.”

“You just stay here, Tommy. Don’t wander around while I get those fruits.”

“I can help you pick up those fruits I trained with the other kids back when we were in the Gang. My body is stronger now; I can also climb that tree.”

“No, Tommy. Unlike the camp, this tree has no ladder. It’s dangerous.”

Tommy frowned with disappointment. Papa noticed it.

“Hey, hey, hey…” Papa muttered while patting Tommy’s head. “I’m doing this to protect you. I don’t want you to get hurt. I hope you understand,” he explained in a calming way.

Tommy finally agreed.

“Just behave here, okay? And call my attention if you notice something wrong.”

Tommy nodded his head obediently.

Papa started climbing the tree. For a strong player like Papa, one might assume that climbing a tree without a ladder is just an easy task. However, with the scythe still connected to his arm, Papa also struggled to climb the tall and massive stem of the tree.

“Tommy! You still there?” Papa shouted to check on Tommy.

“Yes, sir! I’m still here!” Tommy replied. “You’re almost there! Go, go, go!” he cheered.

Papa was once again exalted. “Oh - that's right! You can help me by pointing where the fruits are!”

“Sure! I’ll do it!” Tommy happily accepted. “The first bundle of fruits is just right there! You can reach it by stepping on that big branch!”

“Ok!”

Papa finally reached the spot that Tommy pointed a while ago. He stood at the wide bridging branch and grabbed the first bundle of fruits dangling nearby. He put the fruits inside the Utility Sack that Raft gave to him.

He looked down and asked Tommy again, “I got the first one. Can you show me where the others are?”

“Uh-hm! There are lots of bundles over there!”

Papa followed the direction where Tommy was pointing. He hopped to another branch and reached the location. There he saw multiple bundles of fruits.

“Wow, Tommy… You lead me to a treasure trove! There’s a lot in here!” he shouted to Tommy.

Papa started harvesting all the fruits in the area. Minutes later,

“I guess this is more than enough,” he said to himself. “I’m going down now, Tommy!”

To his surprise, Tommy didn’t respond.

“Tommy!?”

Still, no response.

He looked down and discovered that Tommy was not there. Papa panicked. He hurriedly climbed down from the tree to search for Tommy.

After moments of searching, he saw Tommy’s image in a nearby area. Tommy was just casually standing as if he was talking with somebody. Papa couldn’t see clearly who Tommy was conversing with. So, he rushed to approach them.

As he moved closer, he felt a strong aura approaching. What bothers him more was that the aura he was sensing had an uncomfortable familiarity. For him, that was not a good sign.

Suddenly - to add to his suspicion - his Scythe started to behave erratically. The weapon started to glow as if it was resonating with something. By then, he knew that he needed to hurry up.

Until

“Papa! Papa! Look who’s here!” Tommy excitedly yelled as he saw Papa coming.

“Tommy! I told you not to wander around!”

“I’m sorry. But look who came!” Tommy said as he introduced a mysterious young man beside him.

Papa looked and examined the young man from head to toe. The feeling of familiarity didn’t come from the young man, himself; for Papa, he was just a stranger. The intense aura he felt was coming from the equipment that the young man was wearing.

The young man was wearing an exotic helm and footwear. The patterns and thematic style of these two gears are the same as the Scythe of Papa.

The Headpiece is more of a mask than a helm. The Headpiece is only covering half of his face. The left side is covered by a woody and viney structure of the Headpiece - his eye can be seen through a small hole. The right side of his face is completely visible and exposed. The headpiece has weird protrusions that look like leafy vines. All in all, the Headpiece resembles the face of Harva Dryo.

The Footwear that the young man is wearing is presumably in the same Equipment Set as the Headpiece. It looks like normal brass boots covered with viney outlining. The vines from the boots extended upwards as they wrapped each of the young man’s legs.

Both pieces of equipment are glowing intensely as they resonate with Papa’s weapon.

“Hello there, Mister - Sir,” the young man greeted Papa with an uncomfortably weird smile.

“Who - who are you? What are you doing here?”

“Oh! I’m just here to visit my friend over here,” he answered. He looked at Tommy, “Right, Buddy?”

“Yes!” Tommy happily answered. “He was the one that helped us when my family was still alive. He was the one that helped us find a good place to find weapons! He even guided us to a cave filled with treasures!”

“Do you mean, a Dungeon?” Papa asked.

“Is that what you call it?” Tommy naively questioned.

“Yes. But it doesn’t matter… Is it the same Dungeon where your family died?”

“Uhm… ye… yes…”

“Is that true, Little Buddy? Oh, I’m very sorry! I didn’t know that they didn’t make it. But I did warn them thou, right?”

“No, no… It’s okay! It’s not your fault. Also… I’m already moving on from what happened to my family! Hehe”

“Oh! What a very brave kid you are!” the young man wooed Tommy.

“Thanks! Ehe. But I’m glad that you finally got the gears that you wanted! And they’re so cool!”

“Oh - thank you, Little Buddy. But you know… this Equipment Set is not complete yet, and I still need to obtain the other pieces,” the young man said as he maliciously looked at Papa.

The young man walked closer to check Papa’s weapon. While his eyes still fixed on the Scythe, the young man started walking around Papa. Every move from the young man makes Papa more and more uncomfortable.

The young man suddenly stopped right in front of Papa. He smirked and said, “It’s nice to see you up this close… Mr. ‘Papa’.”

Confused, Papa asked the young man, “Do - do I know you?”

“Let’s just say that I’m a fan. I heard how your group completed that Dungeon and how you obtained that weapon of yours. Surely, you're a very strong and lucky man to obtain that piece. It’s just sad that you lost your family during the Slimes’ invasion in the Plains.”

“How did you know that!?”

Suddenly, a surge of ominous energy clouded Papa’s mind. An unexplainable headache made him drop to his knees. As the energy clouded his mind, he could feel the Scythe slowly taking over his sanity again.

Seeing Papa struggle, Tommy rushed to help. “Papa! Papa! Are you okay!? What’s happening? Is it the Scythe again!?”

Papa couldn’t answer coherently. All that could be heard from him were groans and moans.

“Just hang in there, Papa!” Tommy uttered. Then, he pushed the button on the bracelet he is wearing - it is the Emergency Signal Device.

“Tooo… Tooommyyy… Get… Get out of heeeereee!” Papa moaned as he continued to resist the corruption.

“You need to help him!” Tommy innocently asked the young man.

“No, Tommy! He is not a good maaan…” Papa groaned.

“Wha?”

The young man suddenly drew a sword and attempted to stab Tommy.

Luckily, Tommy was able to evade - his training with the Gang paid off.

“RUN AWAAAAAY!!!! GAAAAAA! Get out of here, Tommy!”

Tommy ran away to save himself.

The young man uttered, “What a stupid little kid.” Then, he brought out a Spell Scroll and targeted Tommy. After some incantation, a magic ray shot and hit the escaping kid.

“GRAAAAA!!! DAMN YOU!!!!!… What did you do to hiiim?”

“Don’t worry, I just cast a Sleeping Spell on him. You know, I’m still a good person; I don’t want him to see how I’ll take that weapon from you.”

Papa could no longer think clearly. Darkness continued to fill his mind. Drops of sweat covered his body. His heart and breath were racing. Papa was succumbing to insanity.

“GAAAA!! MY CHILDREN!!! MY WIIIFE!!!!!” Papa’s wretched screams.

“Do you want me to put you out of your misery?”

“You… you want this weapon, right?” Papa asked with a shaky voice. Suddenly, he grabbed the Scythe using his free hand. Then, he used his own weapon to completely cut off the arm connected to the Scythe.

“Here… Take it… I don’t want it anymore,” Papa offered the weapon to the young man. The amputated arm was still connected to the handle of the Scythe.

The young man sighed in disappointment. “You know that it’s not enough to unbind the weapon, right?”

Papa looked at the young man with distraught, “Wha… What do you mean!?” After a few seconds, he finally realized what the young man meant. “No, no, noooo!!!”

Papa frantically threw away the weapon. He crawled away from the young man. A thick blood trail was formed as he dragged his wounded body across the forest floor.

The young man watched as Papa desperately attempted to escape. Then, he walked to pick up the Scythe that Papa threw away.

Papa crawled towards a bushy area, foolishly attempting to hide from the mysterious young man. He continued moving, crawling as far as he could. But it was useless; the young man caught up with him.

Then, the young man grabbed Papa and turned him over to expose his chest. He grabbed the Scythe firmly.

“Let’s end your misery.”

“No - no! Please don’t!”

The young man pierced the blade of the Scythe into Papa’s chest. The vines that wrap the severed arm started to loosen as the blade dug into Papa’s heart. Then,

“Finally!”

The young man pulled out the severed arm from the handle and threw it away. He pulled the Scythe from Papa’s chest and wore it himself. The vines in the handle instantly bound to the young man’s arm.

“3 done… 2 more to go,” he mumbled.

Suddenly, his equipment glowed again.

“Ooh. There’s another one coming?”

The young man sensed someone coming, so he quickly hid in the bushes.

Nikko came to the scene. He found Tommy first. He was relieved to discover that Tommy was unhurt - just asleep. Then, he searched for Papa. He discovered the blood trail leading to the bushy area.

As he followed the trail, he noticed his Gauntlet glowing. He continued moving and as he reached the other side of the bush, he found Papa lying on the ground. Without further ado, he went to check on Papa. He found out that Papa was still breathing.

“Who did this to you?”

“Nikkooo… Please… protect Tommy…”

The Gauntlet stopped glowing. A few moments later,

“Nikko… What have you done?”