>>5952636>>5952727>>5952995"The other mounts sure can't compare to you, old pal! I'll get you through hell and back if I need to and you know that all too well, GP!" You caress what little of his head you can touch without hurting your fingers, putting his life on the line along with yours, because you can count on one hand the people that have been with you since the start that are still alive to this day, and for all it's worth, Gunpowder's battle experience is worth just as much as yours, for you and him are one in the same when charging against a foe.
"Let's go, then!" Gunpowder ecstatically stands on his lower hooves, his wings flapping as you feel the wind created by his improved armor.
"So if the last armor was the Sonic Armor, what do you call this one, the Super Sonic Armor?" Ivalera asks out of curiosity.
"Vlad can't hold on much longer, but he'll never let it go!" Puck curls into a blue ball and shines his way into the conversation. "Can't believe I didn't even get a hello, monkey!"
"Puck! How's it going with Guts? Is he doing ok?"
"It's kind of what I came here to talk to you about... See everyone is just about ready to go and getting in formations, but Guts is just... Standing there, looking at his sword. I tried talking to him but all he does is mumble, psyche himself up to pick up the sword, and then turn his back to the wall..."
Restraining the beast of darkness by force might have helped him quench his thirst for blood and the trauma associated with fighting in the berserker armor, but with all that control, the uncertainty of it all might certainly be taking a toll on him, especially given what might happen to his newfound family...
"I'll have a word with him." Excusing yourself as you let your other friends speak to each other, you approach Guts as he crouches down to check all the cracks on his sword, his neck red from repeatedly scratching his astral wound. Once he finally notices your presence, he lets it out loud and clear:
"I can't do it, Vlad... I just can't kill Lucio." Guts shivers from the thought alone. "It's not the first child I had to kill, but what kind of sick sense of humor do these demons have! My own flesh and blood, sharing a body with HIM!"
"..." You know when to pass your turn to speak by now, he still hasn't let it all out, and listening first might be key in calming him down for now.
"What a disgrace of a father I have been... Surely no better than my old man! He must have been so afraid... being born with all these monstrous powers and fiends around him... trenching alone for years! His mother couldn't say a word to even educate him, and the few times he met his father, he was pushed away, for he was searching for revenge on what would eventually be his other half..."
