I had broken Pride’s shell with the power of atomic bombs and black matter, pierced the shell of his skin, and like a twisted virus had attacked his true body. Without his shell to protect him and keep him alive, Pride wasn’t all that powerful, was he? No, without that shell of his, Pride needed a host to survive.

Desperate, Pride reached out with his hands to grasp my shoulders and I felt a wave of countless souls barrage me. “I’m not dying…!” Pride denied the truth without a mouth, “I won’t die like this! Give me your body!” I felt an eardrum almost burst as the volume of the screaming souls became louder and louder. It was a crowd of insanity designed to take away the hope of its victims.

Still not the worst thing I’d heard. In the existential space that was Pride’s attempt at possessing me, we found ourselves standing in a train station. He was a massive shadow stretching between every pillar, reaching the sky and going below into my library. I stood in the white blankness beneath the immense thing that was my Zanpakuto.

Pride called out to me, “What is that?!” in confusion, “What are you?!” And I only smiled, no longer in my chimera form. In my head, I was only myself and nobody else. “Answer me, Acti! After all that you’ve done, after all you’ve destroyed… You’re no human at all! What are you, Poe R.R. Acti?!”

I shook my head, “Isn’t it obvious, Pride?” I asked him, “I’m an interdimensional flaming skeleton man.” At those words, Pride’s emotions flew from fear to rage, a rage beyond mere words and expressions. Pride’s anger was a fury that would make Wrath envious, a torrential outpouring of pure hate made corporeal.

“So this is what you did to Tucker?” he asked me, “And Lust as well, I presume…?” but his anger became tranquil, “I see… You think that thing would be enough to stop me?” The tongues reached out to grasp his body, but with a pull the shadows avoided the attempt, “You think some part of your soul would be enough to take me away?! I have bartered with Truth! I have existed for centuries! I have seen and done things you’d think completely impossible!” Pride’s countless eyes suddenly became wide with fury, countless mouths screaming in defiance, “If that is the god of your soul, then I will kill it when I take you!”

Yet at this declaration I could only laugh, “What kind of world has it become?” I questioned him, “What kind of thing has happened that would make an abomination like you sound like he’s in the right?” Shaking my head, I dismissed his chances, “You think you’re going to win by possessing me? You think you can kill my friend here?” I pointed at the sky, “You think you can make a drill with those shadows of yours, pierce the heavens of my soul and escape?!” I roared at him, “Well then, Pride, hit me!”

His shadows collapsed on me like a tsunami striking a single pebble on the shore. The sky and earth of my mental world fell upon me and all became red with some infinity of souls surrounding us. I stepped past them and saw Pride’s child-like form reaching out to me, either through will-power or just plain anger, he tried to strike me, tried to take me down.

“Let’s see you grit those teeth.” I clenched my fist. The power of my soul running through it, I felt the urge to do something I’d never quite had the opportunity to do before. With a wide smile, I embraced my inner-shounen and prepared to monologue. “I…!”

I completely forgot what I was going to say

Pride stared at me, expecting something, “…” I really couldn’t afford to disappoint him. Uh, shit. What would sound really cool? Uh…

“…Fuck your high horse with a rusty spatula, for I am Poe R.R. Acti!”

Nailed it.

“You monster, what the hell– Just die!” pure confusion played out on Pride’s face. I didn’t give a fuck and just kept going. He wasn’t going to stop me now, not when I’d come this far.

Wings burst from my back, the other expression of my chimera form now come to bear as my body shifted once more. My form became that of an angelic, pseudo-Egyptian god and I didn’t care. If my hollow self could do it, it stood to reason that I could too. The power of my very soul set my hand alight, a blazing fire unlike any other coursing through it as gold, violet, and white sparks fell from my body. I pulled my fist back, “Clench those teeth, Pride! Falcon…!”

“What is this?! This… This isn’t possible!” Pride’s eyes went wide as his existential skin paled, “Father… FATHER! It’s full of stars, Father! Stars everywhere!”

“PAWNCH!” My fist went straight through Pride’s screaming face as his body dissolved and countless souls were released from their imprisonment