Chapter 42: Amalgamation
Reinhard’s eyes snapped open to find himself still in the chamber, the Amalgamation looming before him. One hand flew to his head as throbbing pain pulsed through his skull, while Zenuken materialized in his other grip.
The voices continued their agonized chorus inside his mind, but he pushed forward. His blade became a blur as he slashed into the twisted mass of limbs and wax and flesh.
Each strike struck deep and deeper, severing arms that had been fused together, cutting through deer hooves that protruded at wrong angles and carving away layers of flesh.
The massive central eye simply stared at him. It didn’t blink, didn’t try to defend itself, just watched with an intensity as its eyes trembled. Tears began leaking from its corners, streaming down the Amalgamation’s surface as Reinhard’s assault continued.
Zenuken shone brighter with each successful strike, over and over the brightness grew until it shone. Reinhard then gripped the sword tighter, feeling the magic building within and then he stared at the Amalgamation hopeful eye.
"Ragnarok!"
Fifteen simultaneous slashes materialized around the Amalgamation, cutting from every conceivable angle. The construct split into countless pieces, each severed section falling away as the technique completed its devastating work.
Then something unexpected happened.
The blood coating the pieces began fading away. The chunks of flesh and wax and wood dissolved into nothing, leaving no trace they had ever existed. Reinhard eyes widened in shock as he saw more and more of the Amalgamation disappearing from his sight until only a swirling light was left.
The swirling light shined and then rushed directly into Reinhard’s chest. He trembled as foreign emotions flooded through him, he felt sorrow so deep it felt like drowning, physical pain that made his nerves scream, grievance at injustice suffered, and grief for lives cut short.
And finally, hope and relief washed over everything else.
Then blurry images appeared in his mind soon after.
The Amalgamation stayed in the same spot it was born in and its presence caused anyone who entered to collapse. A tall figure clutching their head before dropping to their knees.
Five people wearing familiar black and white uniforms falling unconscious. Mensis town residents stumbled and collapsed as the screaming overwhelmed them.
Reinhard was a child, huddled under a blanket as his parents screamed and the world turned red. He was a guard, his hands shaking as he tried to stanch the bleeding from a gut wound. He was the mayor, a baker, a lover, a parent, and so many other more.
Reinhard kept seeing images, with it showing fifty different types of perspective that had him gripping this head tightly.
Somewhere in the torrent, Reinhard caught a glimpse of his own face, reflected in a bloody puddle on the chamber floor.
For a moment, he didn’t recognize himself.
The face was far younger, softer with eyes that hadn’t been broken by the truth of the world. He wanted to reach out and touch it, to comfort it, to tell it that everything would be alright, but the moment passed and the memory was swept away in the flood.
The pressure grew, leading him to grit his teeth and his knees buckled. Every nerve screamed as he tried to push the images away and silence the shrill voices that wailed in his mind.
But the flow didn’t stop and instead intensified.
Reinhard was the boy being held by his father, he was a teenager running with her friends through the street of Autumn Town. He was the old man who was running in an underground tunnel and panting heavily.
He felt like his head was splitting and breaking, soon he felt like it was becoming too much.
Until then he saw images of Klein and Anna, the two of them sitting at the table which had a birthday cake. Both of them were smiling with the words happy birthday and his name was on the cake.
Then another image of him waking up in bed to see a tray of food in front of him with Anna and Klein smiling at him. The other images and emotions tried to overtake them, but still the image of Klein and Anna persisted.
Reinhard ruffled Klein’s hair while he helped Anna with baking the bread, the three of them clustered in the kitchen making breakfast together. Each memory hit him and made him recall himself, as he remembered the promise of getting the Elixir of Life.
The promise of returning back to his siblings and giving them a future where they can be happy.
The onslaught slowly began to recede, the screams fading and the images no longer appearing.
Then it ended.
Reinhard groaned and dropped to one knee. He was panting and trembling before muttering. "That was crazy, no wonder Marie said I should be careful... But it’s not like I was given a choice for this one..."
It’s then he began hearing voices thanking him and looked up.
Reinhard saw spectral figures appeared briefly and displayed the mayor, guards, and residents he had seen in his dream. All of them were smiling with expressions of relief and mouthing words before fading into nothing.
"What was that just now..." Reinhard muttered in surprise. "Were those their final moments? Or their final thoughts?"
Reinhard didn’t understand why he’d seen those dream figures or why he felt they had only just passed on, despite dying years ago.
Something about the Amalgamation had trapped them and him killing it may have just freed them.
Then he noticed his soul gauge and blinked in surprise. It showed fifty-six souls total he had just absorbed forty from the amalgamation alone, making him forty times stronger than before.
Reinhard clenched his fist. "Were there actually forty souls in that thing? Or was its soul just that powerful?" He was surprised he could integrate that many souls, making him furrow his brows and wonder.
Am I really fine? Reinhard thought before shaking his head. He realized he couldn’t let what happened before happen again.
Had the images of Klein and Anna not appeared, he would have been devoured by the fifty perspectives.
No longer being Reinhard Grimr but a collection of Autumn Towns people.
After a moment, he moved to where Marie and Joseph still lay unconscious and began shaking them awake. Marie groaned as her eyes opened while Joseph rubbed his temples.
"Did you kill that thing, Rein?" Marie asked, looking around the now-empty chamber.
"I woke up from the dream first and destroyed it."
Joseph sighed with relief. "That’s good... But I’m surprised you managed it alone."
"That’s because it wanted me to."
Marie’s eyes widened. "Are you saying it just stood there and let you kill it?"
Reinhard nodded. "It didn’t attack or defend itself. Just stood there with tears leaking down."
"That’s an odd Phantasm Beast." Joseph observed.
Marie’s eyes lit up with curiosity. "Odd, but makes you wonder why it behaved that way..."
"Didn’t you both see dreams after being hit by that scream?" Reinhard asked.
"I saw that thing standing in the tunnels and watching other Phantasm Beasts crawl passed it." Marie explained.
"For me it was seeing it scream every time a human or Phantasm Beast entered this room." Joseph added.
Reinhard stroked his chin. "So, we each saw different perspectives on what happened in Autumn Town and the years after."
"What did your dream show?" Joseph asked.
Reinhard relayed his dream to them from the town’s deliberate burning, the tunnel battle, the mayor’s death, and the small, blurred figure creating the amalgamation. The expression of both shifted when he heard about the transformation of the townspeople and smiled after knowing they were free.
Marie hummed thoughtfully. "So, your dream came first chronologically, then mine, then Joseph’s, with some overlap."
"Something or someone transformed the dying mayor and others into that creature." Reinhard said. "Do you think it might have been Phineas?"
The expression of Marie and Joseph grimace as they thought about it.
Joseph sighed and shook his head. "I don’t think so, or the Information Institute would have mentioned he could do that."
Marie nodded. "And the way you described the figure doesn’t match... How do you feel by the way? You said the souls rushed into you... Are you okay?"
"I’m but I almost got overwhelmed. Devouring that many souls is too much for me." Reinhard says, leading Marie and Joseph to nod, then he continues. "But I am curious... Is it possible for absorbed souls to linger and communicate with you?"
Both teammates blinked before Marie moved close with shining eyes. "Did the souls do that after you killed it?"
"When it died, everything faded away. Then I heard their voices and saw spectral figures of them smiling before they disappeared."
Marie’s eyes lit up as she giggled. "That sounds amazing! I wish I’d been awake for it."
"I’ve never heard of that happening," Joseph said as he furrowed his brows. "But we can ask the Information Institute about it."
"Okay. Let’s go search the room now." Reinhard says.
They began exploring the large chamber systematically. Behind stacks of old crates and supplies, they discovered people bound with rope. It was townspeople who appeared unconscious but breathing and all of them were up against the wall.
Then, in the chamber’s center against the far wall, they found the missing Inquisitor team. Five figures in black and white uniforms lay slumped in various positions.
Reinhard noted it was two brown-haired young men, one black-haired man, and two blonde women. All showed signs of prolonged unconsciousness and dehydration, but their chests rose and fell with shallow breathing.
The Cup team had been found at last.