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Chapter 18 â€" To Thy Own Self Be True

Location: Yggdrasil â€" City

The internal trunk of Yggdrasil was a beautiful stone city built into the tree however it seemed almost completely deserted, there was not a trace of the people that once lived in this beautiful marble white city. The city was built in different "ring layers" that ascended up the tree and could be accessed by a series of lifts that appeared to be made of wood. In the centre of the ring layers was an absolutely massive stone spiral staircase that ascended up into the dizzy heights of the tree.

The level of technology demonstrated from inside the abandoned city suggested that these people must have lived a simplified and unsophisticated existence, the lifts still using giant stone cogs to elevate them.

Diamond and Munchy panted up the huge spiral staircase, they were being pursued by two mutated Terran fox's who now had distinctive black fur and green eyes along with several growths in their backs for the parasites. Diamond and Munchy were only a few steps when one of them did an unbelievable jump over their heads and landed a couple of steps in front of them.

"Ahhh!" screamed Diamond, instantly dropping and putting out his hand to stop the fox from grabbing him. "Munch...y!"

Munchy delivered a powerful blow to the foxes right jaw and threw him off the staircase. He then grabbed Diamond and kept running up the stairs, missing a couple of steps to gain a lead.

More and more mutations were entering into the city and beginning to chase them up the stairs. Diamond could see that they still had a lot to go... would they catch them before they reached the top.

As they raced up the stares they could see the trunk of Yggdrasil start to turn from a shade of healthy brown to a necrotic black.

At the top of the staircase, there was a hatch that was like one in an old sailing ship except the door was some kind of metal. Munchy dived through the door followed by Diamond who actually had tripped and fell through and closed the hatch.

They waited a few tense seconds as there were loud bangs on the door, if it gave way, they would both die in a matter of seconds from the amount of mutations behind that door.

After a few seconds... silence.

"W-what do you suppose?" mumbled Diamond as quiet as he could. He was petrified with the fear of Galladia's horrific creations. Munchy got up first and then helped Diamond up who was still shaking, he immediately began to check the door and found that it was flimsy.

"Huh...? This door would never hold them..." he said suspiciously.

"What!?" said Diamond, slightly paranoid as he looked round the room. "But why just stop?"

The room was an interesting, almost Viking-like in design, with stone pillars descending down from the wooden ceiling. There was a long, banquet table in this room and an open fire that was raging. Munchy felt extremely uncomfortable, there was only one more door in the room, leading up an archway onto some stairs.

BANG!

A powerful gunshot narrowly missed taking off Diamond's head as Munchy pulled him to the floor. Both of them turned round. A horse walked towards them with huge pumped muscles, black fur and a growth sticking out of his back...

Aries...

"Hello boys..." said Aries, his voice a lot lower and more echoed, his accent had also changed. "I have been waiting for you..."

"Aries!" shouted Diamond, he was going to try, no matter how hard it was to be to try and get through to Aries. "I know its hard... but you must fight it! Please!"

"Shudup!" shouted Aries, firing another shot from his hand cannon that pierced the pillar that Diamond was using for cover. "You don't understand, my Goddess has shown me the way... I was foolish to love you and now killing you both will empower my goddess for all eternity!"

Diamond was shocked by what he just heard. Aries... loved... him? But who could love him? He had caused so much trouble, handed Terra to the Asgard, organised an occupation that killed millions of Terran including Colin's family. But he had more then his fair share of shocks recently.

Munchy realised that there was no way to get through to him, he had experienced the pull of the collective. "Diamond! Go to Galladia!" he shouted as the tree began to shake.

Diamond let out a small dark smirk at him and nodded. "Right.." he said as he ran towards the stare, avoiding the gunfire from Aries and disappearing up the stairs

"Right..." said Munchy. "It's just you and me.. Let's do this properly..."

"Fine" smiled Aries as he throw away his gun. He closed his eyes and got into a defensive stance.

"GO!" he shouted as both him and Munchy charged towards each other.

The battle began to get extremely fierce, due to his size Munchy was able to avoid most of Aries more powerful hits. He blocked him with skill and speed while delivering a blow that knocked Aries back.

Aries looked up, instead of being in pain, he was in a complete sense of glee. He smiled with a mad sensation passing through him. "Yes... that was brilliant... I felt that..."

Munchy frowned. "Well if you want more... you know where you can get it"

Aries charged at Munchy and grabbed him by the next that lifted him off the floor and then slammed him into the table making him growl in pain. The table collapsed, leaving Munchy in a pile of wood and with a little blood dripping from his nose.

Munchy climbed up and kicked Aries in the shins making the horse topple over. "You didn't think I was that easy... did you?" asked Munchy smiling down at Aries who climbed back to his feet and back into a defensive stance.

Munchy sighed... Aries was big and powerful.. knocking him out was not going to be easy. He hoped Diamond had more success.