A booming noise went out, a cloud of dust went into the air and the earth shook…

Sun Wukong sighed, looking at the battle between two Chained who were supposed to be best friends.

“It’s a sad sight, when friend is forced to fight friend. That’s the kind of world we live in though.” Sun spoke aloud, thinking of all the horrible things he had seen.

Sun was the strongest of the Fourth Kingdom in the same fashion that Typhon and Baal were the strongest of theirs. It was a point of honour for Sun in that sense.

Sun was unsure of how powerful he was in relation to the other two, but even then he probably wouldn’t care.

Sun was recluse, a quiet Chained, even compared to Baal who famously killed the first Hunter and then vanished, Sun on the other hand spent most of his days since the opening of Tartarus being a gardener… but Sun did have two noticeable traits.

One, Sun was an Original Chained, in that sense, Original Chained were much stronger than successive generations of the same Chained, due to Gilgamesh’s interference of course.

As such, had Sun died and another Sun Wukong been made, the second one would have been weaker… for Cybernetic Chained, the severity of their mental ailments would increase with each generation, while Biological Chained became both more monstrous and less powerful physically with each generation.

The second bit of information was that, like Charon, Sun Wukong was a user of hard-light, though understandably the two Chained found their usage much more limited than the Lord of Tartarus.

Aaron was still a bit uncertain as to why Chained had ‘affinities’ to either Nano-bots or hard-light, or sometimes neither like Mino.

Aaron was of the opinion that Nano-bots required a flexible mind, while hard-light required something else, a rigidness to the nature of the user, much in the same way Chained were decided by mentality and compatibility both.

It was pointless to give the abilities of Cyclops who hated cars, so there were definitely more aspects than just being able to survive the procedure.

So, Sun Wukong was one of only two users of hard-light within the Key, making him a bit of a unique entity among the Chained.

“So… why are you just watching the fight? I don’t want to interfere in a fight between friends, but you should have no reason to stay out of it.” Sun asked, seated as he was atop a building, he was still not at eye-level with the person his question was directed to.

“I’m a murderer. But I do have some respect for the situation. But I do think that our fight should begin, no?” Usumgallu, the Great Dragon, was similar in shape to the western interpretation of the mythological beasts, though its scales were notably green in colouration, showing that the changes to it were likely originating from snakes and smaller lizards.

“Ah, a person of principle. Maybe if we weren’t enemies we could have some interesting conversations… but we are enemies so that isn’t going to happen. Ah… I hate war.” Sun sighed, reaching to his staff, Ruyi Jingu Bang, and then pressing it into the ground to help him stand.

Funny as it was, Sun liked to act his age, despite not looking a day over twenty. What with his tan and messy brown hair, he looked like a slob sometimes.

Right now, Sun was wearing armour though, and was properly treating the moment with the seriousness it deserved.

“Right… I suppose we could have spoken. Had I still been human in shape I think you’d have been my type actually. You clean up nice.” Sun blinked, not having known that his enemy was a woman… or a homosexual man, either or, Sphinx would beat the crap out of Sun if he kept that last bit out as an option.

“Uh, I’ll take that as a compliment I guess? Just to confirm, miss or sir?” Sun asked, seriously confused, the giant dragon huffing, a puff of smoke leaving through its nostrils.

“Miss, thank you very much… to be fair, it’s probably really difficult to tell with the ‘no genitalia’ thing, huh?” Yeah… lizards didn’t really have immediately notable traits to tell that difference unless you actually studied such things.

“Yeah, that does make it a bit difficult… anyway… we should be fighting, huh?” Sun asked, and there was a beat of silence.

Sun was forced to jump, landing on a nearby building as a massive tail smashed into his previous position, the Monkey King lashing out with his staff, a solid cylinder of hard-light extending from his weapon and smashing into Usumgallu’s head, the Great Dragon’s head bouncing away even as the hard-light shattered.

Sun clicked his tongue at the sight, because Usumgallu immediately retaliated, her head snapping out to try and bite the Monkey King.

Clearly Usumgallu was barely affected by Sun’s attack, hard-light had very little weight to it so to use it effectively one had to either swing it at high speeds, or use it as a beam rather than hard-light.

It was why Gilgamesh’s attacks had an impact on Aaron despite the weight of her attacks being practically none, she simply swung the hard-light at high speeds to give them enough momentum to stagger Aaron.

But against Usumgallu, they’d be hard pressed to find anyone capable of swinging hard-light fast enough to affect the Great Dragon.

Sun jumped, landing on Usumgallu’s cheek as her jaws snapped beneath him, swinging Ruyi Jingu Bang at her head once more, this time physically rocking Usumgallu’s head into the building, the building beneath crumbling a bit from the weight.

…Yeah, just because hard-light was difficult to use in a blunt force way, didn’t mean that Sun Wukong was weak.

Sun’s only physical rival was Typhon, and physically speaking Typhon had the best physical power in Tartarus. Baal, the strongest Cybernetic Chained in physical ability, would definitely lose against either Sun or Typhon in arm wrestling for example… despite being larger than either of the two.

Sun couldn’t really enjoy the damaged he caused, being forced to use his weapon to vault away as Usumgallu turned her head, causing Sun to drop slightly.

While Sun clearly couldn’t use Ruyi Jingu Bang’s ‘extensions’ to hurt Usumgallu, he could at least use its ability to ‘extend’ by vaulting around the area.

It really helped when the Great Dragon attempted to step on Sun, as if he had allowed himself to just land there he’d definitely have gotten stepped on.

Instead Sun’s staff emitted a light that impacted the ground first, letting him tip to the side and away from the giant reptilian foot about to smash into him.

There was a deep growling noise, and Sun rolled forward, planting one end of his staff into the ground while ejecting hard-light from the planted end, boosting himself into the air and once more managing to dodge a bite from Usumgallu.

“This… isn’t going to work…” Sun murmured to himself as he landed in a roll on a nearby roof, the Great Dragon raising her head and looking around for him, a flaring of his nostrils letting Sun know that she may be just as good with smell as Typhon.

Sun was told by Aaron to go here, into Area twelve, and fight against a giant dragon… why did Sun agree? Sun felt that he shouldn’t have agreed, but no, let’s go fight a giant lizard and prove how awesome we are!

Done berating himself, Sun got to hiding himself, not wanting to stick around for too long, he needed to figure out a way to kill Usumgallu, as he didn’t have a reliable method just yet other than aiming for the eyes and or throat, and one of those was much less acceptable than the other.

After all, Sun doubted that hitting the dragon from outside its throat would do much besides a momentary lapse of breath, and that would just clue her in to his aims.

“Eyes it is. That’s going to be super gross though.” The last option was one that Sun didn’t really want to entertain, but it involved helping Jormungand take out Behemoth and then tag teaming Usumgallu.

The problem with that last plan was that Usumgallu could then team up with Behemoth, and in such a situation, Sun was definitely not going to be able to fight properly.

So rather keep Usumgallu from that fight entirely.

Sun sighed, standing from where he had crouched behind a nearby building, noticing the thumps of Usumgallu’s prowling as she approached, the loud growling helped too.

“Right… subtle… I can do subtle.” Not that Sun enjoyed it, he preferred simple solutions, but there wasn’t really a simple method to kill a dragon.

Taking a sizeable stone, and throwing it as hard as he could behind Usumgallu, Sun prepared himself.

This next part was about to be dizzying.

With the stone bursting from the force of impact, Usumgallu turned, staring at where the stone impacted, her tail lashing out just in case, destroying the alley Sun had thrown the stone into, leaving her Usumgallu looking away from Sun.

Sun took the distraction and used it to rush forward, stabbing Ruyi Jingu Bang into the ground, using the hard-light to lengthen it and propel himself into the air while spinning, shortening and then once more lengthening his weapon until it smacked into Usumgallu’s forehead.

The hard-light didn’t survive the contact, but it did bounce her head slightly, the dragon roaring in both annoyance and pain, a single clawed limb coming up to her head to keep her head still after the blow.

Sun’s rotation stopped due to the jarring impact from the attack, and he widened his eyes as a wing flapped, stretching out to hit him.

Right, Odysseus had told Sun that regardless of appearances, wings would not be able to be used for flight purposes except for by Harpy.

All other Chained were too heavy to fly the normal way, and none of the others had Harpy’s method… but wings could still be used in a fight, clearly.

Sun was slapped flying, though he didn’t take much damage due to the fact that he was in mid-air when he got hit. Sun’s impact against the top of a building, bouncing off and over into another building, was another story, as Sun winced from the pain.

Greatly enhanced durability or not, pain was pain. Sun knew that even a paper cut could be annoying, and these impacts were enough to knock the wind out of Sun, which was good considering a normal person would have probably have all their bones broken and a few organs liquefied from the impacts.

“Ah… fuck.” Sun groaned in a small pile of rubble, hearing the stampeding dragon approaching even if he didn’t see her yet, he could even feel the earth shaking a bit from the impacts.

Sun remained lying still, focusing on what he was going to do.

Usumgallu’s head charged through the building, gaping maw stretched to devour Sun, and the Monkey King just raised an eyebrow.

Really, what if Sun had moved… right, he hadn’t, but still, he did have that option.

Instead Sun decided to raise his staff, a blast of light rocketing down Usumgallu’s mouth, the Great Dragon’s eyes widening as she halted, biting down on the hard-light and erasing it from existence with it being cut off from Ruyi Jingu Bang.

“That was some rated eighteen stuff right there.” Sun said in his blandest tone possible, knowing that Usumgallu would catch onto his words…

And immediately the Great Dragon growled, clawing at Sun’s seated position, now no longer roaring as Sun proved able to hurt her if she did.

Sun moved, standing easy and, using his staff once more as leverage to launch himself, Sun flipped into the air.

“Hey it’s not my fault you opened wide for my staff.” Really, Sun could have made these innuendos much, much worse, he was actually just keeping it mild because his opponent wouldn’t react if he went with smaller taunts after.

Sun’s taunt might have actually fallen a bit short though, as Usumgallu didn’t react visually beyond leaning back, then dipping her head towards the ground while raising her tail, her tail stabbing towards Sun.

Sun smirked, finding this attack much easier to rebuff than the previous wing-swat, as he was still in rotation from his leap, Sun stuck out his leg, bouncing off of the tail and flying forward from the recoil, the Great Dragon’s eyes widening before her spine flexed.

This time, Sun stuck out his arm, smacking himself away from the tail as it swung upwards, the equivalent of the motions would have been a thrust and upward slash from a blade.

Obviously the tail of a dragon was much bigger, and how Sun dodged it was very different, but the idea was there.

Sun’s bouncing off of the slash led him to fly away from Usumgallu, landing in a crouch on a building to the side, the Great Dragon rearing up to her hind-legs, using her fore-limbs to crush the building Sun was on.

Sun had watched her movements, and had seen a gap, jumping slightly before Usumgallu’s attack would have hit him, kicking one of her ‘hands’ to propel himself towards her face.

Usumgallu very nearly tried to bite Sun, before remembering what happened the last time she tried.

Instead, the Great Dragon struck with her head, hoping to head-butt Sun back to the ground, it was something Sun seemingly didn’t mind letting happen as he flipped, feet meeting Usumgallu’s forehead and leaping off towards the ground.

“Jumping around like a flea, why won’t you die?” Usumgallu growled out as she noted that Sun was suddenly gone once more, the Monkey King going into hiding and preparing his next strike.

Sun, unlike the Great Dragon, did not fall to her provocations, trying to regain his bearings after the intense dodging he had just done… he hadn’t been fully healed from being smacked so hard he bounced off of a building.

Sun had only survived that situation by borrowing momentum from Usumgallu's telegraphed movements, using them to move himself around.

That last head-butt very nearly had Sun create a crater if it weren’t for him taking a very long roll into the alleys created by the buildings around the fight.

Sun was still dizzy and breathing heavily… and after a very wet sounding cough, Sun confirmed that other than a concussion, he probably had some amount of internal bleeding.

Which sucked, Sun’s regeneration factor was standard for Biological Chained, he wasn’t anywhere near Typhon’s enhanced regeneration, let alone Gilgamesh’s Immortality.

If Sun didn’t get some rest, or a surgeon, he wouldn’t be able to fight at his best…

Whether he liked it or not, Sun needed help.

“Fuck… this was not part of the plan…” Sun realized there was something he could do, it would require Jormungand’s help, but his own chance of surviving… were very low.

In fact, Jormungand would probably be killing Sun if they did this.

“…Is this worth dying for?” Sun wondered aloud, dropping to his rear as he laid against a wall, looking into the slightly brightening sky.

Sun didn’t know the answer… he knew there were more than a few Chained who decided that it was really worth dying for, but for him…

Sun had some time to think and rest, at least until the moment Usumgallu realized that Jormungand was also a target for killing.

Sun was also aware that, he didn’t really need to fight. Lu Bu told him to do as he pleased, and the Lord had found no reason to brainwash Sun into subservience.

Not to mention that, as long as they held six Zeta Generators, or Areas, as long as they held on in six Areas, they’d be fine, the Management couldn’t take control of all the Zeta Generators without holding a majority of them.

So why did Odysseus split them all up among every single Area?

Probably because, as he said, Gilgamesh was smart, and if she found little resistance by even one of the Zeta Generators she would think they were consolidating their forces…

And then Gilgamesh would launch a ‘one by one’ all-out attack on each Area until she won. And in that case, their side would definitely lose.

“How many Areas have we secured again… two… and they have one already.” Sun sighed, thinking about that situation left a sour taste in his mouth, ignoring the metallic taste of his own blood.

“…I’ll wait.” Sun decided. He knew that there were more fights going on between Gilgamesh’s elite and their ‘generator guardians, heck, if he remembered the reports correctly there was a fight that started just as Jormungand started fighting with Behemoth.

Sun would wait until he heard what happened-

“Report… we have another loss.” Sun once more felt that sour feeling, the urge to puke was strong.

Another… not only was it a ‘statistic’… Sun knew who died. He had joked around with them, ate with them, and at times fought together.

And they were gone. Sun would never see them alive again… what made the entire situation worse was that the person who reported it was Odysseus.

None of those who were receiving reports could deny the hurt in the voice of Odysseus.

As controlling and jovial as the man was, Sun could respect and admire him for both his leadership and his care for those who followed him.

It was Sun challenging him to a fight and acknowledging him that brought the majority of the Chinese Chained into the fold, following Lu Bu into the Fourth Kingdom.

Much like the original, Lu Bu was not actually much of a general… he was a warrior, and powerful yes, but leading others was not the place of Lu Bu.

As a warrior, the Fourth Kingdom members believed in Lu Bu.

As a general, the Fourth Kingdom members believed in Odysseus.

And all of the Key felt the pain in Odysseus’s voice. The hundreds of normal humans fighting at their sides, Odysseus admittedly didn’t care as much for them.

Sun wasn’t going to judge the man on that, it would take a saint to truly, truly care for more than just those close to them.

Nonetheless, Odysseus did care for the Chained at least, for those who he was closest to and followed him… and he had just lost one of them, under his command they died.

“Looks like I’m going to need to try and pick up morale…” Sun said with a sigh, standing up and dusting off the back of his pants.

Sun looked to his right, and was greeted with a large, reptilian eye glaring at him.

“Found you.” Sun just smiled.

“Looking to take my shaft again already?” the narrowing of the giant pupil was quickly followed with the crashing of Usumgallu as she charged the Monkey King.

Sun didn’t charge at her this time, instead using the walls to leap to the roofs, running along even as the Great Dragon charged and destroyed buildings, he ran.

Sun ran and ran, all the way to where Jormungand and Behemoth were fighting, the rulers of Area twelve having cleared out quite a few buildings around them, though Sun noted they were staying away from their old home, the Melbourne Cricket Grounds.

Sentiment was the likely reason for that, and from Jormungand’s end too. Behemoth, as he was now, could not care less about the destruction of his home.

Unfortunately, this fight was one that was definitely not going their way, Jormungand was missing scales and bleeding from those areas, a point further down his spine was clearly jutting in a damaged fashion and one of his eyes was narrowed in pain.

Behemoth wasn’t without his own injuries, four profusely bleeding wounds around his left side, and his left arm hung near uselessly at his side as he snarled at Jormungand.

Still, Jormungand was clearly more injured than his opponent, and Sun had the vague feeling that this wouldn’t go as he wanted…

Nonetheless, if Sun and Jormungand could at least take out one of their two opponents, it would be better than simply dying without accomplishing anything.

Sun took a moment to consider how disrespectful that was to those who actually died without accomplishing much, but then shrugged it off.

Lots of people died with little to no major accomplishments in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t actually an insult anymore.

Instead, Sun would have to focus on getting a smaller accomplishment, again, like lots of people.

“Get back here you dirty monkey!” Sun whistled, Usumgallu was really fast for something that big, even if Sun was a bit faster due to having less obstacles.

The roar of the Great Dragon drew the attention of the other two giant beings fighting in Area twelve, Jormungand and Behemoth both tilting their heads just enough to see Sun and Usumgallu approaching, but they both made sure to keep the other in their vision.

“Sssun, what’sss wrong?” Jormungand spoke, knowing that Sun had wanted to deal with Usumgallu by himself, so this situation was clearly not in the plan.

“We need a victory, or to at least give them a pyrrhic one!” Sun didn’t explain more, but Jormungand’s serpentine eyes widened slightly before he sighed, both pairs of eyelids shutting for a moment.

Ah, yeah, snakes had two pairs of eyelids, one transparent one, to keep weary, and a second which blocked out light and let them sleep. Jormungand had two as well, being snake-based as he was… freaked Sun out the first time he saw Jormungand’s eyes even while the beast blinked.

While Behemoth and Usumgallu didn’t quite understand why Sun was saying what he was, they did understand that Sun and Jormungand were going to somehow work together now.

The two Babylonian Chained looked at one another for a moment, Behemoth scoffing and drawing a soft growl from Usumgallu.

The Great Dragon would have been willing to actually team up, but clearly her partner had other ideas.

“Alright then… I doubt we can kill both though.” Jormungand complained, and the snake would have whispered this, but unfortunately with his size, whispering was basically impossible.

“Even just one is enough, the war is taking a turn for the worst elsewhere.” Sun stated, landing on Jormungand’s head as the snake dipped down slightly to catch him.

Staring them down, Behemoth and Usumgallu both moved, strafing in opposite directions in an attempt to split the attention of Jormungand, the more obvious threat.

It grated on Sun’s nerves for just a moment before he calmed himself, crouching and patting Jormungand’s head.

“Listen, no doubt they’re going to attack you at the same time, even if they don’t seem like they want to fight together. When that happens, you’ll have to focus on one of them, leaving you vulnerable to the other. At least that’s what they’ll think.” Sun explained, tapping Jormungand’s head with his staff, the ‘World Serpent’ understood what Sun was trying to say.

“Alright… how?” Jormungand still couldn’t whisper, but Behemoth and Usumgallu couldn’t hear Sun from their current distance, meaning that he didn’t need to worry about those two hearing what he had to say.

Now if Jormungand had come up with the plan, oh that would have been an entirely different story… all attempts to hide what they were doing would have been worthless from the get go.

“You can flick the tip of your tail really fast, right?” Sun asked, Jormungand thinking for a moment, guessing at what Sun wanted him to do.

“What about you?” Jormungand’s concern was real, if Sun wanted him to do what he thought was going through the Monkey King’s mind, well, Sun wouldn’t be coming out of that alright.

Maybe if Sun was rested and uninjured, but as he was, bleeding a bit internally, well, this would worsen those injuries, likely making them fatal.

“Don’t mind it, a life for a life is worth it. Besides… I can be quite dangerous if you swing hard enough.” Sun wasn’t joking, his weapon wasn’t suited for slicing, unlike Gilgamesh’s Babylon, but if Ruyi Jingu Bang was swung hard enough…

Well, even a blunt object could ‘cut’ if swung hard enough and in a certain manner.

“So big guy… who are we killing?” Sun asked, even if he already knew Jormungand’s answer, he really needed to hear it from the World Serpent himself.

“…” Jormungand didn’t speak, but his head swayed, following Behemoth’s lumbering gait as the Beast of the Earth strafed to the side, Usumgallu leaving his vision slightly.

That was answer enough, as Sun nodded, planting Ruyi Jingu Bang against Jormungand’s head before propelling himself once more into the air, this time angling himself so he would land seemingly behind Jormungand.

For a moment, suspended in the air as he was, Sun remembered his garden, his small, flowery paradise…

Gathering different varieties, Sun had a special love for flowers, having a vague memory of his mother owning a flower shop in his youth…

Sun could not even recall his mother’s face, nor where he was from, but he remembered that flower shop, and with it, one line his mother commonly repeated when times seemed bad.

“Instead of an evergreen, let me be a night-blooming cereus.” Sun whispered, trying to recall his mother… he still could not remember if she was smiling or crying as she said those words…

To put those words in another sense, rather than being eternal, yet simple, let me be the greatest in my moment.

“…I think I get what she was saying now… but I don’t even know if she meant it like this.” Sun added as he landed, right at the tip of Jormungand’s spiked tail.

The following moment was a blur, as the moment Sun landed on Jormungand’s tail, the World Serpent felt his landing and coiled, seemingly retreating from Behemoth.

Behemoth, taking the action for apparent weakness, stepped in, growling and raising his one good arm to attack.

Usumgallu, seeing a chance to attack, dashed forward, roaring in both challenge and anger against her opponents.

Being attacked from the front and the rear, Jormungand coiled even more…

Then, with a loud snap, a crack, Jormungand flicked his tail backwards, at where Usumgallu was attacking from, the World Serpent wincing as his damaged spine strained to provide the necessary force for the action.

Thinking that Jormungand’s tail could not reach her, Usumgallu did not slow down, eager now to end this fight, when she saw Sun flying towards her, his staff being held tightly.

There was a flash, the Great Dragon was surprised, and then Sun struck, Ruyi Jingu Bang extending a beam of light, aiming accurately for the eye of the Great Dragon.

Usumgallu felt time slow as she held her last thoughts, wondering at the speed Sun was flying, knowing that even Sun wouldn’t be able to bleed off that momentum, he might have even just been flicked to death by Jormungand… she also had to consider Sun’s accuracy with that staff of his, flying at this speed, he still accurately aimed for her eye, large as it was, it was still a difficult target to hit at such speeds.

There was a splatter, and Usumgallu’s skull was skewered on the beam of light, Sun still continuing forward before his body was shaken, forcing him to release his weapon, flung off course where his body bounced against Usumgallu’s skull, the Great Dragon shuddering as her now lifeless body dropped to the floor, her brain pierced by the light of Ruyi Jingu Bang.

Sun, landing somewhere along the Great Dragon’s back, felt a bubbling in his chest before coughing wetly… and then the slow panic set in, realizing that he couldn’t breathe, his own blood blocking his breathing…

Jormungand lunged forward after his tail snap, in an attempt to harm Behemoth, his old friend swung down a closed fist, Jormungand attempting to slip around or under before freezing, his injury along his spine flaring up badly.

That momentary pause was enough for Behemoth, his large fist crashing into Jormungand’s skull, not stopping and instead continuing as he drove the head of the World Serpent into the ground, cracking the concrete and shuddering the earth.

Jormungand twitched, once… twice… and then stilled, never to move again.

Hearing nothing, and slowly dying, Sun strained his ears… and then heard the roar of Behemoth…

It was a sad thing… Sun was unable to give the Key the victory they needed at this moment…

The Monkey King felt tears fall down his cheeks unbidden, a combination of regret and pain leaving a murky feeling in his stilling chest…

A few moments later, Sun Wukong took his last breaths… and with his death, Area twelve had fallen.

Seven in the morning… seventeen hours left for Breakout Day.