Sorry that this was late again, lots of stuff happening to me irl.
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With a firm kick, Edward sent the shell of the spinning enemy towards the Pinging Marciale that defeated him previously. He collected the key that spawned in the center of the arena. “Hm, nice job.” Acht complimented. “Good one, kid!” Pearl added. “Great one Edward!” Marina said, finishing off the chain of compliments.
“You don’t deserve any of those compliments, you know. You’re a fraud, a ####### who betrayed everyone who held you dear and now you’re reaping what you sow. It’s what you deserve, and you know it.”
The octoling boy was back in the elevator, going up to the next floor. He glanced around the compact room, noticing how happier everyone was. Marina was smiling warmly as she typed away at her laptop, Pearl was bouncing up and down in the air, and even Acht cracked a minuscule smile. Then, Edward smiled. The act made him feel warm inside. But then, the weight in his gut again. The two feelings warred with each other, the soft warmness and the guilt that accompanied the weight, pressing against the other and churning about, trying to become the dominant emotion.
Edward walked through the city, the occasional erby glancing down at the ten year old walking on his own. He kept his blaster and armor hidden in the duffel bag he brought with him, so as to not draw attention. He went to a park and sat on a bench, placing his duffel bag in his lap as he looked over at the playground where children happily played. He saw kids that looked just like him giggling and smiling without a care in the world. The octoling wished he could say the same for himself. He wanted to them in enjoying the thrills of childhood, but a conscience clear enough to enjoy that without feeling guilty was taken from him, and he only had himself to blame. Then, a red ball bounced its way to Edward’s foot, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked and saw a red ball, looking up a kid, probably five or six, asking him to toss it back. After a beat, he got up and tossed the ball back to him. The kid thanked him. His attention was then drawn behind him as his father called out to him as he approached. When his father asked what he was doing, the kid explained that he was asking the boy on the bench to toss him his ball, but when the two looked at the bench, they didn’t see anyone.
Edward leaned against a wall of the elevator as he usually did, not conversing with anyone. And everyone was seemed to be fine with that. “I have to say honey, it might just be me but you seem to be performing a lot better than previous runs.” Marina complimented, “Maybe this might be THE run?” Edward’s face was more lit up than usual, albeit slightly and he cracked the most minuscule of smiles. But deep down, he still felt guilty.
The next level was up. Defeat the fleeing foes. Simple enough. Edward landed and spotted the first one. A trick he had come to create is to paint the floor in front of where the foe would run, meaning you would scare it and it would run into your ink trap. It worked…most of the time. The boy did just this. He crept just outside the detection range of the foe and painted the floor behind it. This, of course, alerted it and made it run in the opposite direction. This was one of those moments where the strategy didn’t work. With a sigh, Edward gave chase. The level was challenging because his splattershot didn’t have enough range to hit the foe from a distance, so he had to catch it when it was closest. There was also the threat of the common enemies but those were negligible.
The level went by in a blur, Edward chased the foes down, splatted them, job done. The run was going well. Until Edward reached the panopticon boss.
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