Chapter 80

19 Life Maker was a program created to fill the new world with life. It creates that life out of the cities made by the City Maker. This is for you, Milo. I trust you know what to do with it… “Haah!” It might have been an instant, or it might have been several minutes, but at last the white light faded, and Apollo saw his surroundings once more. He looked at Milo, helping Tirol to her feet, and down at himself, but there wasn’t so much as a single scratch on him. “He missed. His arrow missed.” “Delete him, Apollo. Delete him, too.” “…You thought you could beat me just by shutting down the server?” Apollo slowly collected his breath. “Fool. I can reactivate it as many times as it takes. And now, your life is forfeit, because Bisco, the only man who could stand against me, is dead.” “Bisco’s…dead?” “See for yourself! He’s nothing more than an urban sprawl!” Apollo glared menacingly with his scarlet eyes and gestured to the spot where Bisco fell…and gasped. “…He’s gone! But how? Where is Bisco’s corpse?!” “You’re wrong about one thing, Apollo. I didn’t miss.” Apollo’s ears pricked up at Milo’s piercing voice. Behind his panda birthmark, Milo’s eyes twinkled like sapphire gemstones. “I shot you with the most powerful arrow in the world.” Milo cast his eyes upward, and Apollo cautiously followed his gaze. There, he saw a crystalline formation of buildings, growing out of a single point, glinting in the moonlight. “Wh-what on earth…is that?!” Krik! Krik! Krik! Before Apollo could say any more, the formation began to shift. The skyscrapers that extended radially outward like quartz pillars all folded in on themselves, like a collapsing star. “It’s eating away the City Maker! Don’t tell me…what you fired was…!” “She told me to stop you,” said Milo, his hair swaying in the wind kicked up by the collapsing mass. “And also…she said she loves you.” Milo’s words were like a drop of warm water in the frigid pool of Apollo’s heart. Somewhere inside him, emotions that should’ve long ago decayed surged back to life. “…Domino…? Are you there?” he asked gingerly. “Euuuuuggghhh!” “Urgh! Grh! Aaaah!” Just as it seemed Apollo was returning to his senses, the spirits of the damned overtook him once more. They would not allow him to feel anything other than their hatred, and their pitch-black form oozed over Apollo’s ears and into his mouth, preventing him from saying any more. “The monkey should learn its place!” “I’ll fulfill my promise, Domino,” said Milo. “Me and…” Apollo was little more now than a black beast. He leaped up toward the ceiling, the particles around his arm forming into a hammer, which he swung at the rapidly shrinking formation of buildings. “Me and Bisco will! Together!” Kerrash! As Apollo sprang toward it, the urbanized lump in the ceiling bounced back, slamming Apollo and launching him into the ground. He looked up in fear to see a pair of dazzling jade-green eyes appear from amid the buildings. “Euhh! Euuuh…!” Apollo climbed to his feet and stared in shock at what he was seeing. The urbanization cleared away to reveal a human figure, bathed in an aurora of light, his long hair shifting prismatically among all the colors of the rainbow. The man snapped one of the remaining buildings off his own neck and placed it in his mouth, crushing it between his teeth. After swallowing it, he let out a single burp. “What the hell have you done, Milo?” he said. “Do you have to turn me into a freakin’ monster every single time?!” “Bisco, you’re amazing! Like a god! No, you are a god!” “That…is Bisco?” A whisper of disquieted voices rippled across Apollo’s jet-black body. Then an idea occurred to him. “Of course! It’s the Life Maker program! In that case, I just have to kill the administrator!” Apollo turned to Milo and darted toward him like a bullet, but before he could reach his target, a seven-colored bolt plunged into his back, nearly snapping him in two. “Grrr! Bisco…!” “Did you miss me? I’m here for my rematch, Apollo!” Bisco grinned a wicked smile and followed up with his signature roundhouse kick. His foot traced a glittering rainbow through the air and landed in Apollo’s side. “Gblah!” Apollo was thrown aside with monstrous force, and he crashed into the transparent wall of the sphere, cracking it. Bisco landed lightly on the ground and brushed away his hair, clearly annoyed at its new length, and frowned at the rainbow-colored particles that surrounded him. “What’s with all this twinklin’ bullshit? It’s givin’ me a freakin’ migraine!” “It’s a new kind of mushroom spore…the evolved form of the Rust-Eater. It doesn’t have a name yet. You should give it one, Bisco!” “A name? Me?” Bisco looked down and plucked off one of the mushrooms steadily growing from his own body. He peered closely at its lustrous cap. “How about a rainbowshroom?” “Because it’s rainbow-colored?” “Yeah.” “Euuuh. Stand. Apollo. You must obey.” A torrent of shrill screams came from the server behind Bisco and flooded into Apollo. He was no longer anything but an engine for their vengeful acts. Slowly, he was made to rise to his feet, and in his hands, the jet-black bow that slew Bisco once already reappeared. “Hey, is that what killed you?” asked Milo. “Something like that. You saw?” “No, but when you got shot, I felt it, too.” “Heh. You can be pretty poetic for a panda sometimes.” “I mean it. Right here, right? On your collarbone… Look, there’s still a mark.” “What…? Whoa! How the hell did you—?!” “Biscoooo!” Apollo roared at Bisco, who was cracking jokes and had not even drawn his bow, and released his jet-black arrow of hate. It split the air and hurtled toward its target, but Bisco only turned to face it and… “Khaaaah!” …let out a howl that rippled the air. That single yell caused Apollo’s ruinous arrow to shatter mid-flight into a million rainbow fragments that stuck into the ground, and after a second—Plop!—they turned into colorful mushrooms. “Euuh. Euuuh…?!” Apollo couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His all-powerful arrow had met its end at nothing but Bisco’s voice. As he faltered, Bisco seized the opportunity and leaped toward him, into the air. “Bisco, where’s your bow?!” “Right here!” Leaving a rainbow trail as he leaped, Bisco reached back and plucked out one of his long, shimmering hairs, which instantly transformed into a single multicolored arrow. He pulled it back as if nocking it to a bow…and one appeared in his hands, forming itself out of the prismatic spores surrounding him. “Wow…!” gasped Milo. He had always thought his partner’s glittering spirit to be a gift from God, but now all who saw the scene before him would agree that he was a god. A mushroom god of the aurora descending from heaven, giving rest to the restless dead with arrows of rainbow light. “Apollo,” said Bisco. “There’s no past or future in life. No good or bad, either.” “Euuuggghhh!” “There’s only one thing that’ll always be true…” Apollo leaped into the air and fixed his aim on Bisco. In a moment of silence, all the air seemed to be sucked out of the room, and Bisco looked up into Apollo’s eyes. “…and that’s that I will always defeat you.” “You don’t belong here, Bisco!” It was Apollo who fired his bow first, his hefty greatarrow closely resembling a spear of pure darkness. It hurtled toward Bisco’s rainbow form. “And that’s all there is to it, Apollo…” Two lights shone in Bisco’s eyes. One, his desire to break down whatever stood in his path, and two, an almost motherly love and affection. He exhaled slowly and released his fingers from his multicolored arrow. Boom. Boom. Boom. Bam! Bam! Bam! B-b-b-b-b-b-boom! Bisco’s arrow became a laser beam of rainbow light that instantaneously pierced both Apollo’s black arrow and his body alike before dissipating into thin air. A stream of multicolored mushrooms appeared in its wake, growing out of nothing, before swarming the onyx arrow and breaking it down into shimmering rainbow dust. “N-no… No… Euuhhh…” “He’s going to delete us! I’m scared!” The ghostly presence that shifted and warped the jet-black surface of Apollo’s skin watched the snaking form of the rainbowshrooms in fear and disgust, pulling away as if to escape. Meanwhile, Bisco landed with a thud and recoiled at the prismatic mushrooms that bloomed at his feet, and at the multicolored bow that dissolved from his hand. “I just keep gettin’ less human every time. How come life never goes the way I want?” “Bisco! Have your existential crisis later! They’re trying to leave Apollo!” “Nah, they ain’t. I shot them already. They’re dead.” “You…you did?” “My arrow was just too fast. You gotta wait a second for the effects to catch up.” B-b-b-b-b-b-booom! After a second, an even greater string of explosions began moving toward Apollo. He transformed his bow into an obsidian wall to protect himself. “Nrrrrgggghhhh!” The force of the impact pushed Apollo back, his heels digging into the ground, but at last he came to a halt, apparently unharmed. “Haah… Haah… I did it! I stopped the—!” Gaboom! “Wraaaargh!” One of the rainbow mushrooms burst out of Apollo’s wrist, and it was followed by a chain reaction that spread across his entire body with incredible speed, changing him from pitch-black to a radiant array of colors. “Gyaaaaagh! Augh! Aaagh!” “Kheee! Kheh! Kheeehh!” The year 2028 let out a cacophony of mutated screams. They were the death knell of a monstrous amalgamation of humans who had died long ago. “Run. Run. Run.” “Discard. Discard this body. Run.” The vengeful spirits scrambled to leave Apollo’s body as the mushrooms consumed their essence, but Apollo wrapped his arms around himself and prevented them from doing so. “Stop it, fools!” he said. His eyes blazed bright, and he stared at Bisco, not with the revulsion and disgust he had shown so far, but with a mixture of astonishment and reverence. “…They’ve won. These rainbow spores…far exceed the Apollo Particles in all capabilities. Bisco has succeeded…in creating the next step in human evolution.” “Graaargh. Have you lost your mind, Apollo?!” “They have proved it!” Apollo yelled. “Proved that they are the future! We must accept…that we are the past! It is only proper!” “Kill him. Kill him. Kill Apollo.” Hope… Rage… Joy…! Please forgive me…! But just as the swarm of jet-black spirits began eating away at Apollo… “Wraaah!” …Bisco let out another great yell, stripping the black ooze from Apollo’s body, which became rainbow particles that screamed in pain before transforming into mushrooms. Meanwhile, the rainbowshrooms that covered Apollo himself all turned to mist, and he fell to the floor, his pale skin and crimson hair visible once more. “…” Bisco said nothing and strode over to the man, peering down at his face before turning back to his partner, Milo. “Y’know, he doesn’t look so tough up close. Is he really our ancestor?” “Yes,” replied Milo, “though there’s quite a few generations between us… You must admit, the family resemblance is there.” Apollo looked up at the two boys as though he were gazing at an incredibly bright light. He sighed and lifted his hand. Already his fingertips were dissolving into clouds of radiant particles. “I tried to rid this world of you…my children…” “Hmm?” “Should I be allowed a peaceful death like this? I should be forced to die in pain and misery for what I did. Not in hope at the future of mankind…” “You know,” said Bisco, “you make a good point. All right, Milo, prepare the tickleshroom arrows!” “Apollo!” Ignoring his partner, Milo ran up to Apollo and embraced him as hard as his small body was capable of. He whispered gently into Apollo’s ear: “Look at Bisco and Milo, my love. Look at how strong our children have grown. This isn’t a mistake. This is the future. Our future.” “Dom…ino… I…” “It’s okay. I’m proud of you. Of Bisco, of Milo, of everyone else, too… But it’s time for us to go now, Apollo. The two of us. Together…” “Domino…… Yes.” Then Milo pulled back from Apollo, but a green light stayed behind in his place, a silhouette of a woman. Apollo and Domino sat there in each other’s arms until their bodies transformed completely into multicolored particles and disappeared on the wind. Milo watched all this with a bittersweet feeling in his heart, but when he turned to his partner, the rainbow-colored mushroom god stood with his arms folded, a sour look on his face. “Dammit, Milo, you’re too soft. You saw what that guy did to me. I’d have torn him a new one.” “There’s no need to kick him while he’s down. That’s bad manners.” “Oh, don’t you start goin’ on about that!” “I’m not sure Tokyo will last long with Apollo dead. We should grab Tirol and get—” The two boys stumbled as, almost as if on cue, the room shook. “Euuuuh. Euuuuh. Euuuuh.” All of a sudden, the server, which until now had appeared brand-new again, screamed once more, and black, oily faces appeared across its green surface. “Euuuh. No. Noooo.” “Storage device destroyed. Moving backup data to new device…” “Run. Run. To the sky. To the sky.” “What the—?! I thought we stopped that thing!” cried Bisco. “So did I! It shouldn’t be able to operate without the administrator…!” “Noooo.” The server started spinning rapidly and smashed its way out of the room through the roof, disappearing into the night sky. “You bastards!” Bisco fired a rainbow arrow after it, and although it struck its mark and exploded into seven-colored mushrooms, the server shed some of the vengeful spirits and kept on rising, in defiance of their betrayed screams. “What the hell is it tryin’ to do?!” “…Oh no! Bisco, it’s heading for the satellite!” “The satellite?!” “The broadcast satellite that beams the television signal all over Japan. It’s positioned directly above Tokyo! If the server combines with that, it could bring the whole thing crashing down to Earth!” Milo searched the vestiges of Hope’s memories, trying to piece things together. “And that’ll urbanize all of Japan! We have to stop it!” “What, so you want me to go to space, destroy a satellite, and come back?! That’s impossible?” “You don’t really think that, do you?” “Grrr!” Bisco closed his eyes and took a deep breath, gathering the rainbow spores around him and around Milo, who held the unconscious Tirol in his arms. Bisco gave his partner a nod before leaping through the hole in the roof and into the night sky above Tokyo. “Launch:Life:Maker!” Milo chanted, and the rainbow spores coalesced in Bisco’s hand into the form of a greatbow. Bisco plucked several of the shimmering hairs from his head and attached them to his bowstring, where they became a bundle of ten arrows that lit up the night. “Rrraaaarrrgh!” Bisco yelled and released his arrows, which streaked across the city, leaving auroras in their wake, landing in the ground all across Tokyo. Then, with even greater force than the Rust-Eater, they grew into towering mushrooms that broke apart the city itself and cast a seven-colored light into the surrounding desert. “…It’s so beautiful…,” Milo said with a sigh, his arms around his partner’s neck. “It’s a shame Tirol’s not awake to see it. Do you think I should wake her up?” “Nah, let her sleep. She wouldn’t get it.” Once Bisco saw the rainbowshrooms blanket the entire city, he aimed his bow once more directly beneath him and pulled the string tight. “Hey, don’t blame me if this burns us all to a crisp in three seconds flat!” “I won’t! At least we’ll both go together!” “Here goes nothing!” Bisco released a beam of light into the ground, and only a few seconds later, an enormous rainbow mushroom several times the size of a King Trumpet catapulted them high up into space, surrounded by a barrier of spores, drifting among the unnumbered stars.