Chapter 275: The Headbutt

The warehouse groaned around them, dust and debris raining down from the fractured ceiling as the pressure radiating off Raiden’s body continued to build. Cracks spider-webbed across the walls, and the hanging light swung in wild, frantic arcs, throwing shadows that danced like living things across the ruined floor.

Raiden stood in the centre of it all, half his hair silver, his eyes burning with a light that belonged to something ancient and hungry, and the dual voice rolling off him in waves that made the air itself feel heavy.

He walked towards the Bai Zheng, with an inhuman smile on his face.

Woolie picked himself up from the concrete, his fur matted with dust, lightning flickering along his spine. His ears were flat against his head, and his eyes, which were usually so bright and full of mischief, were dark with something that looked almost like grief.

"Woolie Woo..." Human... what has happened to you?? You are not yourself!

Rose was already moving, her body low to the ground, blood beginning to seep from the small cuts along her body as she prepared herself. Her eyes never left Raiden, and there was something in them that Woolie had never seen before.

Fear.

Not of the enemies.

Of Raiden.

"Shaa..." Rai Rai... please...

Neva struggled to her feet beside them, her light dimmed by the crushing pressure in the air, her usual brightness reduced to faint, flickering pulses. She looked small without it, smaller than Woolie had ever seen her, and that alone made something twist painfully in his chest.

"Sha Sha Sha..." Rai Rai, come back to us. Please. We’re here. We’re right here.

Raiden’s head turned toward them mechanically, and for one second, Woolie thought he had seen something familiar flicker behind those inhuman eyes, something that resembled the human he once knew, but it was gone as soon as it appeared, as the cold look replaced them once more.

"Thou art... in the way."

The pressure spiked.

BANG!!

All three of them were flung backwards once again, crashing into the far wall hard enough to crack the concrete. Woolie hit first, his body folding around the impact with a yelp of pain, and Rose and Neva landed in a tangled heap beside him, dust and debris raining down around them.

{Ding!! Corrosion of Host Humanity: 49%.}

"Woolie Woo..." Woolie groaned, pushing himself up on shaking legs.

Human... doesn’t even recognise us anymore...

Rose’s blood surged around her, forming thin, trembling tendrils that reached toward Raiden before falling slack, unable to close the distance against the crushing pressure. "Shaa... Sha Sha..."

Rai Rai’s blood... it’s not responding to me anymore. There is someone else who has hijacked it!!

Neva’s light flickered, weak and desperate. "Sha... Sha Sha Sha..."

We have to reach him. We have to remind him who he is. Before it’s too late. Neva bad feeling is growing even stronger!!

Woolie looked at her, then at Rose, and something hardened in his eyes.

"Woolie Woo." Leave it to me, Emperor Woolie!! I’ll remind him who he is!!

As soon as Woolie finished speaking, he signalled to both Terra Beasts before he moved.

Rose and Neva moved with him, Rose’s blood tendrils lashing out to anchor herself against the crushing pressure, Neva’s dim light flaring in desperate, pulsing bursts.

They couldn’t stop him without hurting him, they knew that. The thing wearing Raiden’s face was too strong, too inhuman, and every second they wasted was another second they lost the original Raiden they knew.

But they could reach him.

They had to.

"Woolie Woo!!"

HUMAN!!

Woolie’s roar tore through the warehouse, loud enough to shake the dust from the ceiling, as it cut through the dual voice’s echo for half a second.

Raiden’s head snapped toward him.

"Thou wilt not—"

Woolie didn’t let him finish.

He poured every last scrap of strength he had into his legs, lightning flaring along his spine, and launched himself forward. The pressure hit him like a wall, crushing down on his body, bending his bones, slowing him to a crawl, but he didn’t stop.

He knew he couldn’t stop.

Rose’s blood surged beneath him, forming a thin, trembling platform that caught his paws and propelled him forward the last few feet. Neva’s light flared once, bright and desperate, blinding Raiden for half a second.

And in that half-second, Woolie pushed himself forward with all his might, appearing directly in front of Raiden.

He had no idea how to wake up Raiden with words, and since it wasn’t working, he employed the only method he knew how.

"Woolie Woo!!" COME BACK, HUMAN!!

His head slammed into Raiden’s.

BANG!!

The impact was brutal, blunt, and utterly Woolie. Woolie gave him a full-force headbutt with every ounce of strength he had left behind it. Raiden’s head snapped back, his body staggering, and for one moment, the warehouse went completely silent.

The pressure vanished.

The dust stopped falling.

The dual voice cut off mid-word.

And Raiden’s eyes, which were filled with ancient and inhuman powers, flickered.

For a few seconds, nobody spoke as both the enemies and Woolie’s group stared at Raiden in hope and anticipation.

"Woolie... Damn it. Are you trying to kill me, buddy?!" Raiden’s voice was forced and weak, but it was unmistakably his.

For one second, he was back.

"Woolie!!"

"Sha Sha!!"

"Hiss!!~"

Seeing this, all three right Terra Beasts burst into celebration as they tackled him onto the ground.

"Ouff... Slowly, guys. My body can’t handle such roughhousing!!" Raiden yelled in pain, but when he saw the teary eyes of Neva and Rose, his heart softened as he hugged them all with all his strength.

"I am back....sorry for scaring you like that."

"Woolie Woo!" Welcome back, Human!! Don’t do that again, humph!! What happened anyways??

Hearing Woolie’s question, Raiden remembered what snapped him in the first place.

"Sylvia!!"

SNAP!

He heard sounds of chains breaking, causing his eyes to widen. He turned around towards the sound, and his hand reached out toward the darkness beyond the broken gate, toward the place where his sister had been hanging there.