Heart part 1

Chapter 42 - Taste the Wind part 11: Domino Pieces

Ignoring Juzo, Heart paced over and hopped down off the platform. Landing on their feet, their eyes immediately darted down to the mangled pieces of the Construct Core. Lowering down, they picked a piece up off the ground and held it up to their eye. Seeing its bent constitution spilled a little sorrow. It was one of the first things they made themselves. Looking at it now, they see the many flaws in its design, its resources, and its overflowing weight. But back when it was first constructed, the dark sea they embodied felt a little warmer now that they had something to call their own.

Heart had played with the idea of making it unbreakable back then. If they had, then it would not have met such an unwanted fate as this. But they didn't want to take away the choice. After all, Heart loves choice. Choice is what makes things interesting. Without it, it would've been boring, so they left it breakable. So that whatever finds it first, sleeping in its tomb, they would have the choice of its fate. Whether the core continued or ended didn't matter, but the idea of which way the penny would fall entertained them for eons.

Like they were laying someone to rest, they set the piece back with the rest. A part of them felt a little bad. After all, what the core made was their children. With it destroyed, it just leaves another stain on their already blighted legacy.

" ARE YOU MAD?! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE?!"

Standing to their feet, Heart traced the sound back to where Esther and the others were, and where Juzo had gone. Following the platform, they rounded the corner and hurried over.

Running up behind her, Jaqueline and Sandy grabbed Esther by the arms and held her back. With ferocity she'd never shown before, she kicked and swung. Seemingly unfazed, Juzo tilted his iron gaze upon her.

" Has a demon possessed you?" He asked, his sudden dark cadence sending a chill down Jaqueline's and Sandy's spines.

He leaned a step forward. " Of course, I know what I am doing. I'm trying to save you all."

Esther fumed and burned, unable to believe what she was hearing. " BY COMMITTING MASS GENCIDE?!"

Juzo averted his eyes. " I wish you wouldn't call it that. You know, an angel came to me..."

" An angel, huh...?" Heart muttered, standing by the end of the steps. An image of the golden heart flashed before their eyes.

" When I finally made it out of those caves, I was nearly as low as I was before coming here. I had no clue what to do, where to go, or how to save any of you. It was at that time it came to me, embraced by gold."

"...An angel!"

" And it told me what needed to be done to save you all." He explained, holding his palms together.

" Dandy's Pure Luck is nigh unbeatable. One unlucky roll is all it takes. But the angel told me of one weakness I never could have considered: His people. We've heard his plans and his people are at the heart. Everything he does is for them and in return, they give his will the power to push on. If something were to happen to them, his heart would begin to falter. If we're lucky, one of the Constructs might just deal with him for us, but I highly doubt it. Regardless, they should serve as a good distraction for one of us to be able to move in and deliver the killing blow."

" If you just needed to distract him, then couldn't you have just, I don't know, held the city hostage then?! Why destroy the core and make them go berserk?!" Jaqueline questioned with a boom.

" Do you really think threats would make Dandy fold so easily? With all he's done? With what he had to deal with from Cyend? No...we can't risk giving him a chance. This was the only choice."