The familiar streets and corners finally came into view from Nate's perspective, giving him hope that he wasn't too late.
So far, after the point where he first encountered the Paralizar Faden from the convenience store, there weren't any more sightings of Fadens that were attacking anywhere, from outside the street roads to the inside of the buildings next to them. It had to mean that the rest of the Fadens following Pallnem didn't stray away from the strict formation of the group.
That was his hope to believe, along with going there in time, preferably much earlier.
Then Nate's mind appeared to have an image of the tall brick wall that he used to climb up to escape the fact that he was late for first period at school. The gates were closed at the time, and the security guard, Mortin, was prowling through every nook and cranny of the whole school, so Nate had to do some wide gymnastic planning with a nearby shed to prevent his tardiness status from affecting his academic record.
If he could use that to go into the school faster than if he had to take the long way to the entrance, then precious time would be saved, and he could stop whatever Pallnem was planning.
With the new route in mind, Nate abruptly stopped running and instantly swerved his whole body into the alleyway, making himself a shortcut to the far side of the wall with the broken
After a couple of minutes avoiding the garbage puddles and stray cats hissing at his arrival, he finally made his way to the alternate exit.
The brick wall was incredibly high, towering over the boy and the broken shed next to it, but Nate had an idea in mind.
Glancing at his sword, Rupture, Nate took a step back and measured the height of the wall while scaling the size of the whole thing with his head. The wall looked to him as if it were nine feet tall, taller than Nate's five-foot-five height. He was lucky that the height was enough for him to grab on to the top of the wall and that the old shed didn't look like it was going to crumble down to the floor.
There was a shot that could save him extra if he did it correctly, and if not, it would result in unnecessary injuries that could impede an incoming fight.
The plan that involved using his power's First Stage. By taking advantage of the strength and speed increased by the activation, it could allow him to jump higher. It was a gamble since using Zero Stage, the stage of merely having his sword summoned, was already wasting his energy from having Rupture activated for a while after he had activated the sword inside the Morkiss Museum, potentially not enough for a boost in energy, but Nate had to try it.
Nate held his sword upwards as he felt the power channeling through his body. The energy rapidly increased in strength as the green light flashed from his skin as he ran towards the brick wall. His heart drummed from the instant changes, and his legs waited for the signal to use its energy to jump as high as it could.
When Nate finally jumped, he exhaled at how high he was able to reach. He thought that he was touching the clouds, or even higher than the mountains, but he knew that after a second that reality was actually him just a mere few inches away from hopping to the peak of ten feet.
He landed on the soft cushioning of the thankfully-unmowed grass patches instead of the hard concrete just next to it. Also, his sword luckily didn't cut him while in the air and landing.
Nate got up on his feet and instantly went into the side exit of the main school building.
Upon entering, the school was empty, devoid of any students and staff scrambling over each other to reach their room destinations on time, understandable for the fact that it was some time after school.
After running down the hallways, Nate encountered two Fadens that were aimlessly wandering in front of him. One of them was a small, flat-looking creature flying in the air, which Nate presumed to be from the bubbles around its horns, while the other Faden just looked like a big hammer with legs and eyes.
Nate searched for names that he could call the two Fadens in his mind.
"Alright, first we go to the Airy Faden with the bubbles and then the Hammer Faden... because it looks like a hammer. I can't waste any more time—who knows what Pallnem is doing right now!"
He rushed with his sword ready for major slices as he guessed the names of the Fadens in front of them. The wind behind him as he and the gathered Fadens came in close for the slash, where, in Nate's view, it was like he was riding on a motorcycle at moderate speed.
The Airy Faden came in first, attempting to ram itself against Nate's skull, but the black-haired boy successfully parried its strike and pushed it away with his strength. The Hammer Faden followed up after the initial clash by beginning with a jump and bringing its whole head down to the ground, where the ground shattered like glass, prompting Nate to jump.
Returning from its daze, the Airy Faden zoomed past the other Faden, its bubbles from the side of its head now heavily churning out with a soapy look. Meanwhile, the Hammer Faden was now repeating the same move from before, but this time with a swipe sideways to crush Nate into bloody paste.
"Gonna hammer me like a nail?" Nate casually asked. "More like I'm the axe that would destroy both the hammer and the shampoo bubble maker here..."
Geez, that did not go as hard as I thought it would have been. Let's just focus on what's going on right now in the school.
Nate bounced off the wall and used his whole body to ram into the Hammer Faden, launching them both into the air; while tumbling down, he threw his sword at the Airy Faden, and upon impact, the flying creatures faded away to dust.
The Hammer Faden was the only one left, and after it tried to get up on its wooden handle-like body, Nate immediately leaped with Rupture and cut off the metal head portion of the monster. Like the Airy Faden, it fell down on the floor lifelessly as its body parts also faded away into dark green dust.
After scanning the area for any more threats nearby, Nate held firm to his bravery and went on, running down the hallway until he finally found some black material oozing out of the opened doors of the library.
"What's this?" Nate read the sign next to the doors. "Staff meeting currently in session? Students can enter to return books only at the front desk. This can't be good."
Worried and suspecting that Pallnem was in there, he entered with Rupture drawn, ready to strike at anything that might come in too close for comfort. But what Nate saw overwhelmed his mind with shock at what had happened to the library.
Black goo covered everything from the ceiling, walls, and floors, leaving very few empty spots free of the mysterious material; the whole place reminded Nate of the fight against the Slimestuck Faden and its tendency to cover everything in the mall bathroom with its blue slime. The shelves and books were overturned and also covered in goo, but what was most shocking of them all was the goo-covered statues that were posing in response to the fear.
No... these weren't any ordinary statues, but people trapped in the goo, people who knew that were working in Standart High as staff. Their expressions were clear; most of the teacher had their faces strained, along with their arms shielding themselves from whatever made them immobile. Nate didn't know if they were alive or not.
"Mr. Mouch!" His homeroom teacher unfortunately was also part of the array of statues lined up against the table. "Hang on, I'll get you out of there."
Before he could come up to the people covered in black goo, something from his side attempted to attack, leading Nate to back up a distance with his sword ready.
"Who's there! Come at me!"
His call attracted a large group of Fadens coming out of the black goo and broken tables. There were so many in front of Nate, and when he looked behind, the exit was blocked off by the monsters too. For this many Fadens to gather in one place, Nate knew that the ringleader guiding them was not too far away.
And he was right; a couple of Fadens moved out of the way to have the shaggy-haired man in full view, his green theomin crystal brighter than ever before.
Nate took a step forward, pointing Rupture at the homeless man.
"Stop this at once! These are innocent people here that don't deserve this!"
"Any more people who will fall to my power! Any more students and teachers of Standart that I need to target!" Pallnem snarled as he turned around to see Nate. "Oh, it's you, the brat from the museum..."
Nate pointed to the black mass covering everything and everyone inside the library's spacious room. "What have you done to them, Pallnem...?"
"I just trapped them within the goo of one of my most powerful Fadens, the Levelarciest Faden"
"Levelarciest?"
A creature appeared right before Nate, its image slowly fading into view as it had just entered the reality they were in. It was so transparent-looking that he couldn't tell if the Faden in front of him was real or not.
It was like a monster was summoned using the name Nate uttered, appearing as a floating mass of wriggling green worms, with its limbs and its green curved bones ending with red circular glowing orbs. And the most notable physical feature about it was the huge red eyes, unblinking at his presence.
"A Faden from the museum; I thought it looked so powerful when I saw a picture of it, so I had to put it with my army, and looked at the stupid teachers here, all screaming and crying when they realize they're covered in the black goo! Hahah!"
"Turn them back, heal them!" Nate firmly asked the man.
A vein popped in Pallnem's forehead. "Don't tell me what to do, you damn high schooler! I'll destroy everything that this school touched, even you! My Fadens destroy him with everything you've got!"
Nate put on his stance with Rupture and activated Stage One at the same time as Pallnem threatened him, expecting the whole Faden army to rush at him, but shockingly, not one of the Fadens actually moved; they remained in place regardless of Pallnem's order.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" Pallnem roared at his Faden minions. "Go get him! Move!"
No movement at all, leaving Nate puzzled at what was currently happening until the familiar speaker in the library that activates for the school announcement suddenly turned on, with the static and beeps that indicated its powered status.
"That would be enough, Peter Turner..." A voice echoed from the loudspeaker, highly garbled and filled with accompanying static.
"What?!" Pallnem stared at the turned-on speaker in the corner of the library. "You! What the hell are you doing here! And why can't I control my Fadens right now?!"
Wait—hold on... Peter Turner...?
"It's because I can control the Fadens instead of you."
Pallnem aggressively pointed at the speaker, puzzled by their words. "NO! All the times I controlled these freaks, the monsters followed everything I asked! They were—!"
"I made the Fadens follow you, to make you look like the leader, simply put."
"H-huh...?" Pallnem uttered in disbelief.
"Because you were helpful to me in collecting these Fadens by using the unrefined theomin crystal, I would let you see your family one more time."
The homeless man blinked. "My family..."
"Not only can the Levelarciest Faden trap people in its immobilizing goo, but it can also forcibly project the memories of the individual of its choosing, and it picked you, Peter. Prepare to see the true power of the Faden that you haven't used at all."
The black goo that surrounded them all suddenly flashed in a bright light as the whole room seemed to be hit as though the sun came crashing down on them, then all of a sudden, a puzzled Nate and Pallnem were inside a broken old home with weathered floors and walls with holes. A younger Pallnem was seen along with a normal-looking dude with a blank face, clearly having no special features to call ordinary.
"At first, I used the Levelarciest Faden to disguise myself as the most ideal person that would call your best friend, and that was possible because I grabbed the features of the people you most loved. And when we both met, you didn't ask me who I was or what I was doing; you immediately accepted me because your memories were used to stimulate your soul to accept me. You and I became a pair of friends."
The voice on the loudspeaker chuckled.
"Unfortunately, your mental state has been deteriorating, so even you were getting all mad at the 'friend' who was telling you all the facts about the theomin crystals and the control of the Fadens. It was only a matter of time before you would truly break down."
"..."
The old abandoned-looking room morphed into the outside of Standart City, but Nate knew it was not the streets that he was familiar with; it looked much older, with how people that he didn't recognize were there.
"Pallnem, your past has been horrible to you; every student targeted you because you were weak and the one to knock down the hardest. At the time when you were attending, many people in Standart were frustrated with life, but they saw you... An endless fountain of positivity that made people even jealous of your personality. Their irrational dislike of you turned into delusions that made them think that you were responsible for everything bad that happened to them."
Burning buildings flared upward in the sky, literally a tsunami of fire covering almost everything outside.
"Then one day, the Green Catastrophe happened. You rushed with your single mother and two siblings outside, because literal green raining fireballs destroyed every part of your beloved neighborhood, including your own house that you grew to care for. And then you had the wonderful idea to go to Standart City, where a whole emergency bunker with food and medical supplies was available."
Pallnem remained silent as he stared on.
"Mr. Simmons, your teacher at the time, was the one who closed the door behind you when you were right in front of the courtyard, leaving your family outside. He knew that you were there, and he took advantage of the situation because of the hate he had for you."
Nate took a look at Pallnem, worried and shocked by what happened to him.
At the same time, he saw Standart City as a building several years back, as almost every person within the neighborhood was inside the school, except for the homeless man and his family. They were all staring at him without any care for them.
"You desperately pounded at the door, screaming for your family to go inside the main building while your mother held your siblings tightly. Then, you saw your classmates and teachers, some of them even your former friends, but you saw what they looked like when they saw you. Instant disgust and fear—it was as though your whole status was subhuman; your efforts to society as a whole were less than trash; they saw you as a burden, a reminder of what they don't have from you, the happiness to keep going despite all odds. Because of them, your family is dead, and you were somehow alive despite not being in a shelter to protect yourself from the Green Catastrophe. Forced to carry the burden of not protecting your family."
The voice continued still.
"Not only did you hate the whole school, but Standart City as a whole. Right now, I can see it; your disgust of the high school turned into a frenzy of hatred of Standart City as a whole. Now you're the same as them, the ones who betrayed you first."
The illusion, the whole story of Pallnem, finally came to an end as the area they were in finally morphed back into the black goo-covered library of Standart High.
The camera on the wall zoomed in with its lenses, almost as if it was studying Pallnem's face.
"But it's not all so bad. For you did so well to go to many places to summon the Fadens. So, I thank you, Peter, for having to collect all these friends to help me... help me grow to become something that mattered. Because I helped you take revenge on Standart High, it was only fair for you to help me, to gather the Fadens for me so I could take back control."
"Wh-what, I don't understand, I just—damn it, what are you! I thought I was the one calling the shots! It was supposed to be me with the power—the power to take my revenge!"
"Goodbye, Peter Turner. For me, it felt nice to see your rise and fall."
Pallnem raged at the ceiling speakers as he pulled out a rusted kitchen knife from his coat, his eyes dripping with tears and his nose swelling with snot. The nearby Fadens growled at their puppet master as they slowly approached him with the intent to kill.
"NOOOOO—!" He rushed towards the room's exit, intending to hunt down the person controlling the speakers somewhere in the office. "I'LL KILL YA—I'LL KILL Y—"
The Fadens turned on Pallnem and lunged, their jaws clamping down on the homeless man's body. He screamed in pain and attempted to slash at anything that would bleed, but the monsters were relentless.
Nate gasped in horror as the Fadens turned on Pallnem. "PALLNEM, NO!"
He couldn't move, as it was too late to save him; the shock paralyzed him to his bones from witnessing the Fadens' true terror feasting on a human being in front of Nate.
Without his mind to fully process what was happening, Nate brought his sword up to cut away the Fadens, every monster here that was in the room, to prevent any more injuries or deaths from happening.
Just as he was going to make his first move, all the Fadens in the room just disappeared, no trace that they ran, but gone from the room entirely.
"You're gonna be a bother with that sword," the voice on the speaker said. "Luckily I got my Fadens away before any more of them get killed, you know."
Without a second to spare, Nate cut down the library doors and ran as hard as his legs could carry him to the office where the secretary was, knowing that it contained the audio speaker controls and cameras. That was where the person who was truly controlling the Fadens was. It had to be.
Running across the hall until he finally made it.
Nate burst open with a kick to the door of the secretary's room, expecting to find the true mastermind of the one collecting and controlling all those Fadens at the secretary's seat with the speaker control system.
But Nate's heart dropped.
Only emptiness remained in the seat—not one living being in the room except him.
The villain got away.
Nate bitterly bit his lip until metallic-tasting blood came out.