A voidwalker stands at the farthest reaches of existence itself, operating a console beyond its normal capabilities. Worlds collide and smash in an imbalance of realities, and the voidwalker plots a course through the barriers of his own multiverse.
Elsewhere, a group of wayward travelers observe the chaos through the powers of their void relic-wielding comrades.
Elsewhere, a purple shard of void locks itself upon a previously-possessed scythe wielder.
A boundary is shattered, sending tremors between their universes as they join together- and when they get up from the human piles, they finally meet.
LS+AS+WS+ROTW SUCCESSFULLY UNIFIED
A familiar sky blue-haired wizard dragged herself out of the pile, glancing at all the wizards. Her gaze fell on the unfamiliar wizards, hostility instantly springing into her gaze. She pointed her sword at the wardens. "Who are you and what is your purpose?"
Another person appeared behind her. “Yeah, who are you? Who are those people?” She asks, tossing brown hair. One hand fiddles with a sword hint nervously. Jade looks them all up and down warily.
Meanwhile, a gray-hair tech wizard managed to get up, somehow keeping anyone from seeing what was under his way too long bangs.
Instantly, an orchestra of rapid profanity was emitted after one look at the numbers displayed on the viewing side of his visor.
Jade turns to Storm. “What happened? And who are you?” She reinstated to the confused group.
Storm simply held up a finger, continuing with his onslaught of foreign vulgar language before finally answering, "Some s**t relating to messing up at least 3 dimensions."
Standing next to him, Aly tensed at seeing the hostile wizard's raised weapon, fingering a crystal heart.
Crystal eyed Storm and Aly carefully before glancing at Jade. "Let me guess. We're all here to climb another tower using teamwork, only for everyone to get completely destroyed be that [BLEEP] and then Zane's going to stop Luke from destroying the world and almost die. Again. I'm Crystal Cloudring by the way." The last sentence was said with an obviously fake smile.
Jade keeps scowling, before finally saying, “Jade Landcrafter. What are you doing and how do I know you’re on our side?”
A visor was slowly raised in evident confusion, "What. The. Hell."
Aly blinked, "Is she... sane?"
“Honestly, I don’t know.”
"That's INCREDIBLY helpful Jade," the Ice fairy said sarcastically.
"Would you guys stop being so tempestuous?" Storm said while helping Chase and Samantha up, "None of us know what the f**k is going on here. Except maybe them." That last word was said while he cocked his head towards the group of strangers, something glinting from below his mess of hair.
“Jade, what was that…” Hunter sighs. “Great. More chaos. Who are you all?”
Aly sighed, "Well since introductions-"
"Actually, how about I do it?" Storm interrupted, a mischievous glint in his gaze.
"Seriously?"
"Yes. Aight, so my name is Storm Dreamchaser, the red-head is Chase Flamemaster, the one standing next to him is Samantha Waterwhisper, the grouchy short guy is Lane Stormclaw, the grouchy tall guy is Ignis Firewalker, that over there is Sea Wavestrider, the old man is Greenie but he prefers Professor Greenheart," he paused to take a breath, "the tall blondie is Abner Herolight, the other blondie is Lucas Herolight - yes they're related, the Ice Fairy who looks like she's planning to murder you is Alyss Icetalon but she'll kill you if you say that so just call her Aly Flameheart, the shady Ivory Fairy in the back is Gale Starheart, and-"
"I think I'll introduce myself," said the short Astral Fairy standing next to Gale, "Name's Luce Starheart."
Greenheart sighed, "Seriously Storm?"
He smiled playfully, "What? Do you want me to tell them to call you old guy?"
Hunter and Jade sigh identically. “Hunter Landcrafter. Jade’s brother. We’re introduced. Now who are you?”
"Okay, so, I'm Zane Goldencaster, the hostile girl is Rose the Wild, that's Harper the Firefly, he's Alvin Stormward, that's Chris Snapdragon, Harper's boyfriend, over there is his sister, Flame Dancer Amanda, he's Taro Yasurehero, the girl in all pink is Lei Yamada, the wolf-boy is my interdimensional counterpart, Zane Goldenhunter, and the girl shooting him a murderous glare is Lucy Bloodshard. Any questions?"
"Wait did you say interdimensional-" Immediately 5 hands slapped over Storm's mouth, each person shooting him a death stare.
"Nope, no questions." Answered Sea with a clearly forced smile.
Jade looks at them all before speaking up. “And how did you get here? What’s your purpose?”
"One, probably Luke again, two, saving our reality as well as others," Chris replied bluntly.
Abner was the first to lower his hand, "Luke?"
Hunter raises an eyebrow. “Not gonna ask. Just go.”
Ignis sighed frustratedly, "This is not my field but if someone mentions dimensions," he muttered "or time travel" under his breath, "there's no "just go"."
“I don’t care. Just…” The boy rubs his temples. “Get away from us and do your own thing.”
"As usual the people I have to deal with are idiots." Grumbled the firey wizard.
Storm looked mildly annoyed before shoving the rest of the fiercely plastered hands off his face, "Seriously? I wasn't going to say anything crazy."
“I’m not an idiot, I’m just sick of random people coming in and ruining mine and my sister’s life! That and the fact that Florian…” Hunter takes a deep breath. “Whatever.”
"Well it's idiotic to ignore it." Ignis retorted.
Storm crossed his arms, "For once, the overgrown lizard has a point. Would you mind filling us in on this Luke person?"
“Whatever.” Hunter grumbles. “Get on with this Luke guy.”
Whilst the group discussed this "Luke", a baby dragon curiously came out from behind Chase and began to approach a small stone lion with bright violet eyes, sniffing it inquisitively.
Jade looks at it. “Aw! Who is that?”
"Violet. Crystal's titan that hates me for NO APPARENT REAS-" Zane was cut off as the tiny titan leaped on him, and clawed at him. Scarlet chirped inquisitively.
Jade watches the Titan claw at Zane. “Can’t decide if she has good taste or not, but we’ll see.”
Hunter watches in mild annoyance as the Titan continues to claw Zane’s face off.
Elsewhere, a voidwalker oversees a legion in preparation.
Crystal grabbed the titan. "Violet calm down. And Luke is this bastard that controls the void. We killed him a while ago... but he's probably back and that's why we're all here." She pointed to the WS and AS groups. "I know them, they were here last time, but where did all of you guys come from?" She looked back at the rest, hesitating when she saw the wardens. Did she recognize them?
Jade raises her eyebrows. “So you killed him but he’s somehow back? It’s kind of sad that I’m not even surprised anymore.”
Storm glanced at her, "You shouldn't be surprised. Dimension, otherwise alternate universes, are - IGNI, GET YOU SCALY HAND AWAY FROM MY FACE - basically alternate timelines with some... major differences. It's fully possible for the same person to exist in the same timeline, and since three dimensions were merged... that'll mean there can be at least two of them in this timeline right now."
“And did we ask?” Hunter groans. “How do we get them back?”
"Get what back? Unmerging the dimensions? In that case, I have no clue." Storm went back to doing something with his visor at that, evidently occupied.
Jade looks at the group of people from mysterious dimensions, assessing them carefully. “What are we going to do with you?” She mutters, frowning. “Is this Luke guy your friend? Your ally? What relation does he have with you?”
"Former ally, turned enemy," Alvin replied.
"And until he appears or teleports us into the void to kill us...again, we have no way of reversing this," Chris sighed.
"Void-" Storm had begun to ask, immediately being shot death stares by the present adults.
Instead, Aly spoke, "So... there's this Luke person - or rather, there could be multiple Lukes - who merged three dimensions, would gladly murder children, and for all we know could be merging another dimension right now?"
Jade scowls. “Is Void like Shadow? Because… no thanks.”
At that, Gale cleared his throat, Luce shooting Jade a look.
She rolls her eyes. “You’re here for balance and no other reason.”
Gale's tail lashed, his gaze cold, "Is that so? Because I can always just-"
"Gale, don't you dare, and Jade, you're an adult for Astral's sake." Abner said with a sigh.
“So just because I’m an adult means I can forget what that did to me?” Her gaze flickers down to her scars. “And answer the question. Is Void like Shadow?”
Elsewhere, a console is operated with the objective of impeding all progress to a now-unified group.
As if on cue of Jade's inquiry, a tear in existence formed in the air, sucking in air as a vacuum of dark matter. The pull was like a black hole's event horizon.
A string of curses burst out of Hunter’s mouth. “Well, little sis, answered your question. That’s not Shadow.”
The wormhole expanded, the pull ever-stronger- the floor ripping up from beneath and resettling in its equivalent location in the void- loosening anyone's grip to the ground, lessening friction against the void.
Storm said a pretty word before a holographic UI appeared before him, "I don't know about you, but I don't want to find out what that is."
A second tear in reality formed with a burst of cyan, strategically placed so that anyone sucked near the first tear would go through it instead.
"Then again I don't know what the hell I'm doing." He muttered under his breath.
Jade looks completely and absolutely bored as two swirling wormholes pull her around.
“Get rid of this please and thank you.”
That earned her a harsh laugh, "I would of I could, but I can only close one of 'em - the one I made." He then muttered something about "Raid" and another string of profanity.
Elsewhere, a hand deftly redacts inputs like a discord moderator trying to not get accused of grooming.
The cyan wormhole in the floor closed violently, sending a shockwave of what appeared to be physical timespace running through the room. The burst was enough to knock everyone in the area at least some form into the air, which was just enough for the expanding rift to take the extended group in.
Elsewhere, a different wormhole breaks open as a side effect, taking a very specific wizard or two off-guard.
It's cold and dark.
The void is revealed- infinite expanses of purple and black, vaguely shaped in the ways of its existent counterpart. Pieces of the floor that tore into the rift take their place in the same way they did before. The only differences are the quiet murmur and drone of drifting imprints of souls, the tentacles and tendrils lining disturbed areas in the creation dimension, and the sound of blade clashing against blade in the distance. Everyone except for the pre-existing relic holders as well as Dylan become slightly transparent.
After sitting up, Storm began to say something so profane that it was enough that a vine snaked up behind the tech wizard and muffled him.
Professor Greenheart sighed, "Storm, language."
Meanwhile, Aly had grown all the tenser, the only person looking moderately comfortable in this environment being Luce.
"Well, here we go again," Harper sighed.
Gale seemed to be attempting to calm Aly, but it did little as he was just as tense.
Storm, standing nearby, was trying to get untangled from the vine Greenheart conjured, as Scarlet batted at the rope of a plant, Lane smirking as he watched.
Chase, on the other hand, was helping Samantha up, Lucas hanging around near Luce and Abner.
As the rest of the group got up, Abner glanced at Harper, "I'm assuming this is the void?"
Hunter watches the chaos, tugging Jade towards her and mouthing, “Get the f**k out of here, you’re in so much trouble.”
"Mhm," Harper nodded in response to Abner.
Jade shakes her brothers’ hand off. “Well… better than Shadow, at least.”
Ansat was running through Pallet Pass, when he runs right over a wormhole and gets pulled in.
Elsewhere, an unknown voidwalker gripping a bow watches the group briefly, before disappearing into the darkness once more.
"What the hell happened?" wondered Ansat.
"Oh, great. It's you again," Lane muttered. "Anyway, can we get moving? I don't feel like fading into nothingness, thank you very much."
Jade glances at Ansat, but pays him no mind. “Void, huh? Doesn’t sound great.”
"Wait, void? I'm in a void?" asked Ansat.
Hunter shrugs. “I’m going to kill Jade for getting me into this mess.”
”But you love me.”
”Oh, shut up.”
Ansat groans. "Oh great, one minute, I'm in Pallet Pass, having fun, and the next, I'm in some void thing!"
Everyone decides to collectively ignore his complaints.
For a second, the Void churns, and daggers fly by so fast no one notice them.
At least, until they pierce their skin.
"Ah s**t! Who was throwing daggers?" said Ansat, having been pierced by one.
There’s no response… but a ghost of a laugh whirls around them.
"Who the hell is laughing? IS IT ALEX?!"
Rose drew her sword as Zane loaded his bow. Harper and Alvin gripped their respective weapons.
"Wait, who the hell are these guys?" asked Ansat.
Zane fired an arrow straight up, ignoring Ansat.
"Uhh, okay..." said Ansat as he grabbed his Magite Staff.
The Crystal Heart in Aly's grasp let off a soft glow, the staff sheathed across her back vanishing and reforming into a sword, gripped tightly in her hand.
Ansat spun his Magite Staff around using his fingers, before revving up.
Jade’s sword was already in her hand, and Hunter clutched his spear. They seemed more interested in poking each other than fighting, however.
The knives stopped coming, leaving a bit of uneasiness in the air.
The group focused on a single point, a ledge of sorts. Whether something was on it or not was unknown, but that was where the knives were coming from. They unleashed a variety of elemental spells as well as volleys of arrows on the ledge.
Ansat fired a barrage of Ion Cannons.
Nothing happened for a second.
Then a volley of knives came zooming at the entire group, not hurting any fatal points… only intimidating them.
Gale closed his eyes, the nearby imprints withering back before he spun around and blasted Astral in the opposing direction from the group's target.
A stand of his hair had turned yellow, Astral Magic whisping about, "Who are you?"
“Calm down.” A voice calls, soothing and kind. “My friend here-“
”I’m not your friend.” A girl’s voice responds.
”She’s a bit feisty. Why don’t you come over here? Or she’ll probably kill you. I, on the other hand, want to talk.”
"We-I am not approaching anyone I don't know. Why don't you come out?" He hissed under a breath, scolding someone almost inaudibly.
"Well that's reassuring," Alvin said sarcastically.
The voice laughs, a clear and bright sound. “It really is. And you really don’t trust me? That’s a shame. I could help you.”
"What's reassuring is that none of these knives would've made it near us to begin with unless Gale wanted them to," Ignis grumbled under his breath.
Gale, meanwhile, rolled his eyes, "And what makes you think you can ‘help me’? Your friend is pathetic, we would've been fine."
Amother knife barely pierces Gale's heart. "Careful." Someone calls.
Ansat got into a fighting stance. "Cut the bull*s**t and stop being manipulative!" he yelled.
The group turned towards Ansat. "Dude, seriously?" Goldenhunter growled.
"What is it this time..? Lemme guess, this dude's actually gonna cut the bulls**t and kill us?" he said.
A boy steps into their line of vision. “Request, and I can respond. Don’t be so harsh. How could I hurt you?” He smiles, warming the place up a few degrees. “And kill you?” He sounds genuinely hurt. “I want to help you. What could I possibly gain from helping some wanderers out of the Void?”
”We could just kill them.” The girl suggests, tossing her black hair. “And gray fairy? You’re walking on thin ice. My knife is thirsty for blood. As am I.”
She turns to her partner. “I don’t know why you waste your time helping these people.”
”Because I like helping people. And these people sound wonderful.”
"Well s**t. Listen, don't try anything funny!" said Ansat, getting into a martial arts stance.
Gale's gaze went from the first person to the second, a slight smirk visible, "Walking on thin ice," he laughed, "that's so ironic seeing you're walking on thin ice." He immediately swore under his breath, the voice shift clearly being unintentional.
Ansat backed away slowly, while still being on guard.
"Guys, please calm down. Let's give him a chance at least," Lei said.
"Yeah, and then his little friend will pick us off one by one," Taro muttered. Lei glared at him. "Okay okay, fine. We'll give him a chance."
"Fine, but if he does try to kill us, I warned you guys!" Ansat says.
The boy grins. “Thanks. Sorry if I scared you. I’m Kong. This is Zoe.”
Ansat stayed silent.
"Nice to meet you," Lei replied kindly.
"More like 'Sucks to meet you'!" snarked Ansat.
Zoe rolls her impossibly black eyes. “Careful, people. One wrong move and…”
She twirls her dagger in a circle before cutting it across her throat.
”You don’t want that.”
"So? I've died worse before!" replied Ansat.
She raises an eyebrow. “So one more death wouldn’t hurt, would it?”
”No, Zoe.” Kong exclaims, exasperated. “Sorry. Now, what are you doing about here? I hope I can get you all back.”
"I have no clue. I was just running in Pallet Pass when I ended up here." replied Ansat.
The voidwalker frowns. “Well…” Kong hesitates, his mouth forming a word before changing. “Another voidwalker must have done that. Perhaps the Void has sought you out.”
"Heh, nobody seeks me out. Hell, my own girlfriend doesn't seek me out!" said Ansat.
Hunter and Jade cough loudly, reminding everyone they were there.
”I sure as hell wasn’t sought out. I was just finding my stupid sister-“
”What he means is no, we weren’t.” Jade frowns. “At least, I don’t think so.”
"...And my own parents don't seek me out, because they're dead, and Ben doesn't seek me out, because now he's prone to attempted murder and doesn't wanna hurt me..." said Ansat, going off into a tangent
Storm had moved next to Gale, watching the two skeptically, "If by "sought out" you mean summoned here by random, then no, we weren't. Someone f**king tore a rift," then he muttered under his breath, "and f**ked up my tech while they were at it."
"...And everyone else at the academy is still mad at me after I beat that punk-a** b**ch Mary-Sue in an arena battle, and Felix and Olivia once tried to sacrifice me to Alex Stormshadow..." continued Ansat.
Aly facepalmed, "Ansat, if you don't stop I'll make you."
Ansat shut up.
Elsewhere, a voidwalker discomfortedly entrusts the neutralization of the group to the two recruits. A coffee mug is 2 seconds away from detonating, simply due to his grip force.
The two voidwalkers watch them, each with an expression of mild amusement on their face.
After a good half hour of going on like this, Zoe clears her throat.
”Everybody shut up or my multitude of weapons will say hello to your faces.”
Goldenhunter opened his mouth to fire back a retort, only for Goldencaster to slap his hand over the former's mouth.
That had just about done it.
A blast of Astral knocked both Voidwalkers to the ground, being followed by a blade of pure Astral - soon being joined by a lightsaber - being pointed at the two.
Gale's gaze was cold, "We told you you were walking on thin ice."
Elsewhere, the voidwalker's mug shattered as he slammed it into the right side of the keyboard. The cut in his hand was nothing to the stress he felt knowing something of that sheer elemental power was now pissed. Had anything happened further, he would have had to start taking action.
"Prepare for trouble!" said Ansat to Zoe.
Kong sighs, voice drawing with regret and pity. “Feel free to leave. Wander the Void until you reach insanity. But for the others, I want to help them.”
Ansat stayed on his guard, ready to attack Zoe if needed.
The gray fairy glared, "We're fine on our own. Now get your lunatic "friend" out of here before I decide to finish you off." However, he shot Storm a look of somewhat uncertainty. The wizard could probably fix his tech enough for them to get out of the void but... how would they get home?
A singular violet arrow slammed into the ground in front of the group. "Kong, you can't help people who refuse it. Retreat before you get yourself killed."
Ansat grabbed his Magite Staff.
The voidwalker slammed his fingers at blistering speed into the CONSOLE keyboard, causing multiple quiet changes around the group. Something rustled under what appeared to be the floor, and the ground itself appeared to be... moving?
Kong pursues his lips. “You sure you can deal? This place…”
As if on cue, the blackness covers them, making them unable to see.
“It’s not just hard to find your way out. It’s impossible without a voidwalker. I’ll leave Zoe behind if you insist.”
The girl sighs. “Oh, whatever.”
Tentacles began to rise out of the ground, invisible in the cover of the shadows as they snaked their way around limbs and bodies. All at once, they constricted their grips, denying movement to the entire party until something was done about it. And yet, it didn't seem like Kong or Zoe had anything to do with it- it looked like just the void being funky fresh to the unexperienced eye.
However, the holders of the void relics immediately understood what was happening, save for 1.
“Please… this isn’t looking good.” He calls through the murky mist. “I’ve had to deal with people like you before. They all died. Lost in the Void.”
Gale, as he's been doing for the whole time, simply glared, hair and eyes turning a shade of purple and manipulating the tentacles enough to free the group. He frowned, however, the tentacles felt... different somehow. Different from the usual stuff Shadow manipulated.
The voidwalker blinked once. Twice. Inhale, exhale...
KRSH.
The voidwalker's coffee mug detonated under sudden grip force with a stream of expletives- "SH*T SH*T F**K SH*T SH*T F**K SH*T F**K F**K" and so on. The unexpected repercussion of replacing Shadow had come back to bite him, and he typed in spawn after spawn of abominations and tentacle atrocities near the group at the edge of the darkened area. He couldn't let Gale get a grasp on the void- it'd take a whole lot to kick HIS a**. He didn't have the resources at the moment to deal with him, so he'd have to rely on the elements of combat he knew worked best.
As the voidwalker slammed a final enter key into the input, he vanished on the spot, leaving the steaming coffee puddle and the mug fragments to fester while he prepared to take matters into his own hands/tentacles/giant scythe blades.
"I can go by myself, I'm too fast to die!" said Ansat, acting cocky.
Soft steps, nigh-silent, began to occur near the back of the group. Someone else was here, and their presence alone was causing the void to start reacting. The floor appeared unstable, as if it was going to turn into liquid at any moment. However, this was overshadowed by the demonic croaking and the heavy thundering of footsteps from every side.
If anyone was ever to peer past the mist with void bulls**t, they'd find a whole lot of monstrosities. Around 30, evenly split between giant tentacle things and the basic abominations.
"What the-" said Ansat. He got into a stance, and prepared to strike.
Kong curses under his breath. “Zoe, get out, I need to-“
He thrusts his hands out, making the tentacles of Void die down. “Everyone, just stay calm!”
The fairy's ears pricked, nothing escapes him, "For sake of the faen nor..." Gale didn't hesitate, before spinning around to the source of the noise, whatever was visible of his shadow turning into a very familiar abomination, Shadow magic at his fingertips.
But nothing was visible... yet.
Zoe pulls out a dagger and a throwing knife. “Well, looks like I’ll have to help you. Something’s coming.”
Ansat stayed in a state that was half relaxed, but also half alert.
Kong beckons for the others to run. “I don’t know what’s coming, but it sounds dangerous.”
"Aight, normally I'd just leave this to everyone else, but I'm bored, so..." said Ansat, making it clear he's about to throw himself in harm's way just because he's bored.
The group looked at each other. "Should we trust him?" Samantha asked.
"What choice do we have?" Goldencaster replied.
"Besides, there will be a dark outcome if we don't," Chase replied.
“Jeez, you’re all so skeptical. Fine.” Kong spreads his hands. “Remember, if I betray you, you’re free to attack me. Now, c’mon. Void to explore.”
Zoe raises her dagger again.
”No.”
”Fine.”
Jade turned to Gale. “Can we trust-”
Then she notices the purple glowing around him and immediately tackles the fairy. “Don’t use that Shadow s**t again! It’s gonna corrupt-“
Her brother drags her off. “Jade. Void. Leave.”
Gale sighed, "How many times do I have to remind you it won't corrupt me?"
He fiddled with the handle of his Vorplad Blade, visibly tense, continuously glancing to a certain spot... but nothing was there. Finally he added, "And no, we can't trust them, otherwise we wouldn't be surrounded."
"For once, I agree!" said Ansat. "Can't trust 'em."
Jade crosses her arms, swatting Hunter’s hand off. “We can’t trust anyone. And when you use that, I can’t trust you, either, Gale.”
Kong furrows his brow. “You don’t trust me.”
”Duh.” They chorus.
”Well, I repeat, you have no reason to trust me. Unfortunately.” He adds, looking regretful. “But you need to get out. Before you go insane.”
Aly walked over, ignoring Kong, "Jade, you don't have to worry unless he starts referring to himself as we again, we've talked about this."
At that, Gale looked slightly uncomfortable but was more worried about something in the mist.
That's when Storm spoke up, "WAIT, so we're just going to ignore the fact Gale just said we're surrounded?"
Ignis and Lane looked at Kong, having the same thing in mind, Can we kill this guy yet?
“Oh, whatever. Wander here and you’ll either die, or worse, go insane and then die. But…” he looks genuinely pained. “If you want to stay here… forever… be my guest.”
He turns, back to the group. Not a trace of fear crosses his face. “Zoe here would be happy to attack you all. I’m the only one stopping her.”
Gale simply absent-mindedly waved his hand, and a barrier of Astral enclosed Zoe, "Your threats are now empty, so leave."
Abner, however, had gripped his bow. Not because of the voidwalkers, but because of the mentioned threat, The Ivory Fairy may be able to act calmly about this, but Gale was Gale.
With a final sigh, Kong and Zoe wave their hands through the void and vanish.
The boy’s final words ring through their ears. “Your death wish…”
By your does he mean himself?
Most likely.
A blade made of pure elemental energy formed in the gray fairy's grasp, purple tinted eyes narrowed.
Jade scrambled backwards, cursing. “I still really hate that [BLEEP]. Seriously, Gale, why do you trust it? That thing can go [BLEEP] [BLEEP] in a [BLEEP] [BLEEP].”
Hunter stifles a laugh. “My, Jade.”
"Wait...did you say surrounded?" Dylan asked Gale, pieces clicking into place.
"Imprints," Harper breathed.
Jade frowns. “Imprints? Surrounded? More importantly, what was with those Voidwalkers? They seemed so…”
She waves her hands, unable to articulate what they were. Scary? Strange? Manipulative? Helpful? Useful?
Gale pinched at the air, once again feeling discomforted at the odd sensation the void carried, and the mist parted enough for them to see...
...a living nightmare.
"So this is what I'm dealing with."
The Luke Darkshade of Libra's Scale emerged from the dark, floor rippling with each step. Abominations began to increase their stridespeed as their creator brandished his scythe- a gleaming off-white against the dark, sharper than any blade. The imprints around began to act up, irritated, turning their non-gazes to the group.
"And I thought I was done with you..."
The voidwalker vanished once more into the dark, and yet it felt as though there were even more of him, waiting for any of the group to do something.
“Oh s**t…” Hunter mutters, fumbling for his spear. “Jade, get behind m-“
”No!”
”Fine.”
A blast caused the nearby imprints to wither back, a single word being hissed under the caster's breath, "Pathetic."
The abomination's thundering increases in tempo.
The imprints faded into visibility. Lane drew his scythe. "Lets have some fun."
Jade’s eyes narrowed, her entire brain going into survival mode. One hand grabbed her sword while the other casts an Astral spell.
Already, bits of the void was being manipulated by a gray hand. If the void was going to attack... then it will be turned against itself.
He grimaced at the feel of it, but the determination in his gaze didn't die down.
The girl shot a nervous look at Gale’s purple-tinted appearance, but she continues focusing on the new enemy.
”Void, huh? Gotta say, it’s not so special.”
With a yell, Jade charged forward.
Sword blade cut once, twice, thrice, and then she staggered back.
Rose rapidly spun her sword, splitting every imprint that came in contact with it in two, soon joined by Alvin. Arrows and icicles pierced the waves of imprints. Dragon Chris, as well as Amanda, who was riding on his back, blasted other imprints with flames.
Hunter simply spread out his hands, eyes shut in concentration. Telekinesis.
The Voidwalker hovers in the air, thrown about by Hunter’s mind tricks.
Gale ignores them, concentrating more on the abomination looming behind the group. At least five or so tentacles of void burst from the ground, taking it down.
29 to go...
Hmph. This "void" is inferior.
What makes you say that?
Not now, behind you-
He spun to face another monstrosity, a tentacle snaking up its leg and yanking it down, him trying to ignore the sickening sensation the void let off.
Jade slices through the tentacle, but it sticks to her sword hilt like Gorilla Glue and pulls her down.
She yelps and tries to pull away, but it holds tight. “A little help?”
Gale stared at her smugly, "Now you support of it?" Regardless, he waved his hand, it losing its hold.
Jade huffs. “Whatever. Next time I’ll let them get you.”
Hunter shoots Gale a look before continuing, still thrashing Darkshade around.
Darkshade vanished on the spot again, reappearing behind the boundary of the mist. Tentacles thrashed up from the ground around the group, enclosing them into one area. An abomination let loose a deafening screech before slamming its fist into the tentabubble- Darkshade began making clones.
Gale stared in Darkshade's direction, before calling over Storm. "Think you can electrify the ground enough to damage these things?"
The tech wizard cracked his knuckles, "Gladly."
All it took was one Ion Cannon for sparks to be visible, and a second for the entire area in front of him to be charged with static.
Gale, meanwhile, continued to manipulate the void enough to turn it against itself, Shadow whispering warnings in his ear. Yet with everything he did...
The void struck back silently.
The tentacles recoiled- the abomination did not. A fist continued to barrel down upon the party as Darkshade copies surrounded the zone, illusions forged by the console.
Two arrows were let loose - one ice, one astral - by Aly and Abner.
As they continued to rain arrows on the monstrosities, Gale closed his eyes, using some sort of magical echolocation. He soon found the real Darkshade... but something was off, nevertheless, he opened his eyes, internally groaning that Darkshade had surrounded himself with clones, making it difficult to tell who was the real one without risking your neck.
Each clone moved in unison, blades prepared as one. The abomination's corpse came dangerously close to squashing a third of the group before it disintegrated into void essence- the purplish-black liquid spattering over whoever was unlucky enough to be in the splash zone.
"Gross..." Goldenhunter complained.
"Shut up and get yourself over there," Lucy hissed, also covered in purple and black liquid. She charged at the Darkshades, sliding under the scythe blades, slashing one in two with her knife, and stabbing another in the back.
"I can't believe I'm doing this," Goldenhunter sighed, prior to charging at the Darkshades in his wolf form, fangs bared.
Gale shot Aly a look, and a slight ripple of time freeze passed through momentarily, vanishing as quickly as it came.
Yet it succeeded in one thing.
Only one Darkshade had fully stopped moving.
Gale kept his gaze locked on him, trying not to lose him amongst the clones as Astral Magic concentrated at his fingertips.
Jade and Hunter attacked in unison, blades whirling in a mix of green and brown as they fought back the Void.
Bursts of plants appeared, only to be drowned by more black. The two siblings held up their hands and blasted back the Void with a column of light, creating a circle of Astral around them.
Green blade and sharp prongs met Darkshade’s body, slicing them to bits one by one.
Jade vanished and reappeared around the clones, stabbing them and letting her brother finish the job. No communication was needed… they knew each other’s movements perfectly.
The clones slashed and cut at the wolf and serial killer, striking flesh cuts. The "real" Darkshade knew what had happened- experience from Rose- and began to fall back into the rhythm with the clones, making him vaguely noticeable.
A blast struck the clones near Darkshade, Gale gritting his teeth in irritation, knowing that he had missed.
But a pricking chill down his spine became all more noticeable. The void was doing... something.
“Gale, can you find the real one?” Jade calls as she and Hunter slice another clone into hors d’oeuvres. “The clones’ll keep coming unless we do so!”
The gray fairy looked annoyed, "Already did, and lost him."
Hunter curses under his breath. “We’ve got to locate him.”
We know, silly halfling.
I don't need a reminder.
Alright, alright, but...
But what?
Later, clone on your right.
Gale concentrated stray elemental energy and cut it down with the elemental blade, using bone-breaking force and knocking back a few more.
The clones begin closing in, duplicating far too fast.
Jade grabs Hunter and pulls him away just as one nearly kills him, but they won’t be able to dodge for long.
The pair reconvene with the group, fighting off more as they do so.
”Gale…”
A pulse-like blast of Astral knocks the clones back, Aly and Storm rushing in and slicing at them in unison. Abner picked off a stray few with arrows as Lane cut some down with his scythe. Even Violet and Scarlet joined in on the fray, becoming clawing menaces on the nearest clones' faces.
The clones continued rushing forward- but it felt as though something was standing behind Gale.
The gray fairy tensed, a chill running down his spine, and he tightened his grip around his weapon as he moved his tail to grab his Vorplad Blade.
Meanwhile, Lucas was near the center of the group, hugging himself. He hadn't said a word since this mess started, and his normally friendly yellow eyes were dull and hopeless.
Abner shot him a concerned glance, but went back to what he as doing, his mouth a tight line.
The young Astral Warden looked up, seeing the fray, and seeing too much pain.
He closed his eyes and wished for it to end.
Jade shoots the Astral Warden a look. “Help?”
The sound of an energy blade cut through the drone of the battle from behind Gale as the real Darkshade brought his scythe down. There was only so much he could let Gale do with that power- and no fighting tactic was too dishonorable. Being able to phase into the floor really helped!
A barrier had formed between the fairy and Darkshade, scythe dragging down the barrier, purple eyes cold as Gale turned to face him, tail raised in a scorpion-like manner - if his opponent is fighting dirty, so be it.
"And what do you think you're doing?"
Jade flinches, backing away. No matter the circumstance, she still hated that voice.
"Piss off, you simp." Darkshade let the scythe bounce off the barrier and readied it again, preparing every obstruction for any direction Gale came from.
"Hmph, why should we?"
Gale timed his move, fey stepping behind Darkshade when the scythe was brought down, the void being manipulated enough to allow him to raise his blade.
A wall of tentacles arose from behind the voidwalker, reinforced by the floor.
Gale dove, swinging the blade and not bothering to wait and see if he managed to injure him beyond a scratch before fey stepping again, positioning himself so he can keep the group and voidwalker in viewing distance.
His ears pricked to hear every sound, a feral growl in his throat and tail fur raised defensively. Astral Magic slowly began to infuse the elemental weapon, one thing evident - his next blow would be worse than the first.
Jade jumps aside and blocks the dozens of Void attacks while Gale and Darkshade face off.
The clones keep attacking relentlessly, darkness swirling around them.
Hundreds of vines burst out of the ground, entangling the clones.
Hunter’s spear takes care of the rest.
Chaos ensues. Black of Void, green of the infinite plants, yellow of Astral, red of blood…
The clones disappear with a puff of black, strengthening the person they came from.
Meanwhile, the imprint army got gradually smaller as the wizards and wardens killed each imprint.
Elsewhere, there was a twang of a bowstring, unheard by the sounds of battle, followed by a violet arrow...
...headed straight for the back of the new Ice Warden.
One person noticed, alarm pooling in their gaze, and a sense of agreement settled between the two consciousnesses.
One became two, and a faint golden mist filled the area where the gray fairy once stood... as well as the solid form of Shadow, violet eyes alight with a wave of unforeseen anger.
Meanwhile, the fairy reappeared behind the Ice Warden, scarcely forming the barrier in time.
Aly spun to face him, eyes widening when she saw the deflected arrow.
Meanwhile, a disturbing grin formed on the voidwalker's face. Finally, history was repeating itself.
Only one person notices the Voidwalker’s glee.
Jade charges towards Darkshade, ignoring her bleeding wounds and blasting the figure with light.
More light.
Even more.
The area fills with the glow of Astral magic, the yellow and white rays making both the Voidwalker and a certain element wince.
”Take that.” The girl mutters, sword already raised for another attack.
The group turned their heads to Gale, before redirecting their glances to the Element of Shadow's physical form, eyes widening instantly.
"Not this again," Samantha sighed, an increasing number of bubbles of water rising behind her.
A hoarse "Wait!" was shouted out, the fairy's eyes wide. "Her target isn't you, if you leave her be, you'll be fine."
Gale was shockingly pale, trembling as Aly wrapped an arm around him. He could only tolerate this for so long...
The half-fairy turns, triumphant… but only for a second.
The sight of a certain element that haunts her nightmares sinks in.
Insanity.
Jade turns to Gale, betrayal and anger flickering in her gaze.
”You let that happen?” She screams, sword raised. “You’re just as much an enemy as the Voidwalker is!”
Hunter grabs her shoulder, but she shakes it off.
”You, too? You’re all evil!”
She attacks.
Aly blocked Jade's weapon, her icy gaze hostile, "Don't. You. Dare."
Jade pushes back harder, tears of anger and frustration appearing in her eyes.
“Oh, I dare.”
At the last second, she shoves the Ice Fairy aside and attacks the Element of Shadow.
"Screw it," Dylan hissed, dashing at Jade, headlocking her and lightly applied pressure to the left carotid artery briefly, the angered hybrid slumping over instantly.
Hunter sighs, rushing to help her up. “I would attack you, but… what was that? Was she okay?”
"If her heart's beating, she's fine," Dylan responded. "Anyway, we've still got a situation to deal with here."
Hunter bites his lip. “Fine.”
Shadow turned her attention to the voidwalker, knowing time was limited. Tendrils of shadow rose behind Darkshade, ready to restrain him.
Hunter watches nervously, one hand clutching Jade’s wrist and the other fingering his spear.
Darkshade cut through the tendrils with quiet indignation, a little bit of superiority in the way the blade glew. He clenched his free hand into a fist, causing tentacles of his own to lash out against the element so he could turn his attention to more important targets.
She instantly turned the tentacles against him, bearing more negativity than the void's usual zero.
The elemental moved into Darkshade's path, making it clear that she wasn't done with him. Meanwhile, a certain fairy began to falter, being propped up by both an Ice Warden and an Astral Wizard.
Jade stirred, eyes fluttering open weakly. “I did it… again… didn’t I…?”
Shadows lash about behind her, but she ignores them, struggling to her feet.
”Darkshade’s going down.”
Ansat was confused, and grabbing his Magite Staff.
"Alright, so we're doing it like this."
Darkshade cut the tentacles in half, turning his blade onto the elemental. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?" he inquired, surprisingly aloof and relaxed. Within seconds, he was cutting at Element of Shadow, blade but a series of crescent glimmers tearing across the elemental. With each swing, however, his blade began to tint into the same color of the void around him.
Jade thrust a hand out, rays of light blasting Darkshade at full force.
"You can't kill me, you should know that better than anyone, especially since you live in this inferior void."
Her very reality was warped, shadows reforming so that it appeared as if the voidalker never cut her to begin with.
Another tentacle formed, this time managing to wrap around his ankle.
The void around filled in the wound of the shrapnel- somehow not triggering a failsafe.
"F**k off with your superiority complex." Darkshade swung at the tentacle, making it release its grip, before planting the blade of his scythe into the floor to prevent any other momentum. "I stopped you from existing. The audacity of some people, can't I kill them and have them STAY DEAD?" He dashed recklessly at the elemental, slicing through her side- but not to kill. Instead, he continued through towards Gale, dodging obstructions from the shadow by sinking and reappearing like a s**tty dolphin. He was within 5 feet now, and if he put enough effort into his swing, he could solve the issue of having a mortal deity in the room.
Shadow, realizing what was about to happen, faded and returned to her host, but not before Gale finally lost consciousness.
Storm stepped in front of the fairy, Aly, and Abner, lightsaber powered and sapphire eye glaring.
The scythe came down.
But it didn't hit the target. Instead, the scythe connected and bounced off a Luma's Sun Ray Rod, wielded by Chase. He spun the firey spear, before rapidly swinging and jabbing at Luke, dodging all incoming slashes from the latter's scythe, followed by lightsaber slashes from Storm. Together, this slowly forced the voidwalker into the path of multiple imprints.
Hunter raised his spear, the Voidwalker not noticing him.
A small smile creeps across his face. Perfect.
A few feet closer…
With a yell, the boy charges. The spear strikes true, landing with a splash of red on Darkshade’s arm.
Darkshade winced and swung his free hand up, creating a mess of tendrils beneath Chase and Hunter. They ruthlessly whipped and bashed against the two as the void filled his wound for him, giving the voidwalker enough leeway to go toe to toe with the time traveler as he rushed forward.
Or at least he could have.
Instead, he summoned a wormhole beneath the unconscious fairy by snapping his fingers toward Gale's figure, sending him to the pocket dimension where Darkshade's tower used to be. The tear closed with a quiet voop, and with that out of the way, he vanished- leaving the festering abomination ranks to deal with the rest.
Storm stared at the spot where the rift was before uttering a string of profanity, ending with, "THAT B**CH OF A COWARD."
The voidwalker came face-to-face with two familiar red-eyed siblings, void magic spinning around their arms.
"Long time no see."
"Oh you're S**TTING me. Couldn't rest after f**king me over the last time, so now you come and invade the EDGE OF THE F**KING UNIVERSE!?" Darkshade was no less than livid, still waiting for the bleeding in his arm to stop. "What did you do to the console?" he asked, obviously thinking they had enough combined braincells to realize its power as he peered over their shoulders to the bulky monitor-keyboard setup.
"Well, I WAS going to make it so that Zane liked me, but SOMEONE STOPPED ME," Narcissa said accusingly.
"Simp," Normandy snorted.
"Man, I'm- I'm too tired to deal with you. Just... do what you need to do, and leave, alright?" begged the voidwalker, as if they were no more than annoying friends, and not people who tried to murder him- as well as vice versa.
Meanwhile, a speedy wizard grew impatient. "Goddamn it, I'm gonna beat up the next thing I see..." muttered Ansat, upset at having not done anything for the last hour.
"Okay then. We'll just be taking this gray thing back to sweet Zane and then he'll love-"
Normandy cut his sister off. "Just stop. Please, stop." He reached for the unconscious fairy, jumping back as a scythe was embedded into the ground in front of them.
"Yeah... no. Use the computer. I've got s**t to do with this dude," ordered Darkshade as he retrieved his scythe from the mark in the floor.
Back at the void, the group were soon able to hear the sound of something - or rather, multiple somethings - approaching.
Storm bit down another swear before using his saber to free Chase and Hunter, the rest of the group raising their weapons.
A very surprised Jade had recently gained full consciousness. “Where’s Gale? And Darkshade?”
”Gone.” A familiar voice answers from behind her.
Kong inclines his head. “I told you things would end badly. I must help you.”
"Kong, this is stupid, you're not even doing this right." Another voice rings out, no one in sight.
"Who's there?" yelled Ansat, ready to finally kicka**.
The boy rolls his eyes, “What do you mean by ‘doing this right’? I’m just helping these people.”
He walks toward the figure, getting in their face, and hisses, “And if you mess this up Zoe will murder you.”
The figure laughed, "Zoe is useless if she can't find me, you know that as well as her."
They adjusted their robes, instantly vanishing.
"I've been tuning out, but I'm pretty sure that King Kong over here isn't helping us." said Ansat
Anger flickers through his face. “Don’t call me King Kong. And seriously, your fairy just got kidnapped. The Void’ll come for you all too.”
"Heh, I don't care, King Kong!" said Ansat, trying to piss off Kong.
Meanwhile, Narcissa took a step towards the CONSOLE, beginning to type out her own string of commands. She paused, reading the most recent commands.
MERGE_ALL_WORLDS
ERROR
ACCESS_RESTRICTED
FOUNDING_ENTITIES_EOV_ALY_FL_REQUIRED
MERGE_WORLD
VAR_LS
VAR_WS
VAR_AS
VAR_ROTW
WORLDS_MERGED
Her Voidwalker's Sword materialized in her hand.
"...W-what is this?"
In the void, at the back of the group, Aly was fiddling with the ring on her finger, fighting back tears. This is my fault, I let my guard down, it's all my fault...
Abner had placed a hand on her shoulder, glancing at Lucas occasionally, only worry in his gaze.
Kong’s eye was twitching, as he couldn’t attack Ansat, but simply gave him a patient smile and nodded along.
"Hey, King Kong, like grabbing ladies and climbing up towers?" taunted Ansat
Ansat kept insulting Kong, hoping he'd do something. "What'cha gonna do, sic the edgy girl on me?"
Meanwhile, Darkshade shrugged. "I got bored. You've seen this before. Now are you going to deny some relationships and ditch, or am I going to have to tutor you on the PC?"
"I don't recall being okay with it either," Normandy shot back, sword materializing in hand. "One day, you're gonna bring THEM down on us, and the two of us don't intend to stick around for that." With that, the twins charged at Luke with a yell.
In the void, a different voice rang out this time, sounding monotonously hostile, "Kong... how come you never bothered to tell me HE was here."
Standing near Chase, Storm frowned, the voice sounded familiar... but he shrugged it off.
Kong sighed, controlling his anger. “Who is ‘he’?”
"ARE YOU BLIND?" The voice shouted, soon being shushed by the other voice.
The first voice rang out, the figure revealing themselves to be a dark-haired humanoid, "Kong, maybe if you bothered to listen to the rest of us, you'll know what he's talking about. Yet no, you ignore both our advice and lives."
Ansat started laughing to himself. Heh, this guy must be a loser if he gets yelled at more than I do! he thought.
“I don’t bother with your interdimensonal Void shenanigans. Sue me. I just want to help people out the Void. And Zoe’s not with me. She’s out there… killing, probably.”
"Think you could do that pinch thing on him?" Lane asked, slashing the last imprint in two.
"I could, but I won't. This is rather amusing," Dylan replied.
"Yeah, uh, if you haven't noticed, WE STILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH THIS THING!" Rose yelled at the group, gesturing to the massive abomination Lucy, Crystal, Harper, Alvin, Amanda, Chris, and the two Zanes were currently attacking, to no avail.
The voidwalker put her hands on her hips, markings on her arms visible, "You two are pitiful excuses for voidwalkers, you don't even know what it means to be one. I'm surprised you made it far enough to be initiated."
Kong flashes his colleagues his best “cyanide-will-be-in-your-beverage-tomorrow” smile.
“Let me help these people fight that off, and you can argue all you want.”
She rolled her eyes, "I'm not participating in this nonsense," she leaned closed enough to hiss in his ear, "Just kill them already, they're not worth the trouble."
He snorts. “Close-minded as always, Naleese. I have a plan for them, and as you can see, they’re quite powerful.”
"That," she mutters, "is exactly why they should be dead."
Silence.
"What did you say?" Dylan hissed, glaring at Kong.
The Voidwalker shoots Dylan a smile, fiddling with something inside his tuxedo. “Sorry, what was that?”
Back at the Counsle, a voidwalker gazed at the twins, "Okay I guess you're doing this then."
Darkshade nonchalantly leaned onto the right keypad on the console, tearing open a rift in front of the twins while they charged in recklessly. He retracted his hand once they'd blindly jumped in- and now they were face-to-face with the abomination half the party was trying to kill.
Jade yelps upon noticing the twins. “Guys, there are random-“
She lobs a ball of light at the abomination.
”-people here!”
Meanwhile, within the shadows of the void, an archer remained perched on their ledge, taking in one crucial fact.
The black-haired kid wasn't fading, unlike the others.
Might as well end this now.
The bow was raised and pointed at Dylan. Ignoring the looks Kong subtly shot at them, the arrow was released with a soft twang.
Kong leaped aside, letting a snake jump out from under his shirt.
”For you. But the plan’s been foiled.”
Bared fangs dripping venom, the cobra attacks.
Ansat leaps at the snake.
Kong laughs, facade gone. “I wouldn’t do that. His poison melts steel, wood… and flesh.”
Ansat dashed around the snake, making it almost impossible to hit him.
The Voidwalker curls his lip. “So you’re fast. But is speed enough?”
He reaches inside his shirt, pops open a vial of brown liquid, and tosses it on the ground.
Ansat sees the liquid, and hops over it. The momentum sends him flying into Kong.
He steps aside easily, hands behind his back.
Meanwhile, Jade and two twins face off.
Kong's Cobra turned to face Dylan, lunging for an attack.
Dylan dodged the cobra, revealing a speeding arrow to his line of sight. He instinctively covered his face, bracing for the impact of the arrow.
But it never came.
He lowered his arms, seeing the ground warped upwards in an x-shaped formation, that the point of the arrow showing through.
Even the abomination stopped to look in Dylan's general direction.
The shard hanging under Dylan's neck glew brightly, pulsating in synchrony with the relics that the other users wore.
Elsewhere, a voidwalker gets offended at his brand of void and scythe being stolen.
Hunter stabs at the monster, dodging the hits and slashing back with equal force.
Rose took the opportunity to pop off the abomination's neck cap and drive her sword through the neck stump, before vertically tilting it and dragging it down through the abomination's middle.
"Wait, so you could have just used that THE WHOLE TIME?!" Lane exclaimed.
Dylan shrugged, confused.
Storm tightened his grip on his saber's handle, baffled by Dylan but soon recovering from it, "May I remind you there's more than one of those things? We've only killed, what, 4?'
Nearby, Aly got up, an icy blade appearing in her grasp.
Abner drew an arrow from his quiver, taking aim and letting it loose at the nearest monstrosity, moving sideways as he let loose another, aiming for its chest.
He loaded two at the same time, one hitting its mark and impaling the heart, not a trace of emotion as it slumped, dead.
He loaded another arrow and turned to face the next.
Ansat jumped up and whacked Kong over the head with his Magite Staff.
He splashes venom on the staff, making it begin to melt.
”You’ve got to try something besides brute force to defeat me.”
Ansat leaps out of the way, and tries a more practical approach by spamming Ion Cannons.
One shield of Void blocks them, and Kong looks quite bored.
Jade brandishes her sword at the Voidwalkers. “Who are you? Why are you here? How are you here?”
"We're voidwalkers and we're here to prevent Luke from bringing THEM down on us via mass-dimension merging," Normandy replied.
"Oh Zaaaa-aaane!" Narcissa called out.
A now tense Zane arrowed the neck caps of 3 more abominations, Alvin driving Spearcicles into them.
Storm and Aly exchanged a glance, weapons and striking an abomination in unison, running out of the way is it fell, legless, and running to deal with the next one as it bled out.
Abner aimed his bow and took out another, fire-burning flesh as Ignis finally decided to do something, as well as one being drowned on land by Sea.
Meanwhile, two voidwalkers, one human and the other elven, watched with mild interest from the shadows.
Ansat keeps firing, then fires a Super Nova, which covered Kong comepletely.
"Nice try, King Kong, but you're no match for me!" said the cocky speedster.
Luce breathed, focusing on the abomination, it being lifted into the air by a sphere of purple then smashed down on void crystal, being impaled - no one ever told him what spells he could or couldn't use, and this one was a personal favorite.
Meanwhile, Sea, Ignis, Abner, Storm, and Aly managed to take down a few more, each using a mildly different strategy.
Jade, still with the twins, sighed. “S-so, you’re on our side? For now, at least?”
Before she can continue, a stray Supernova from Ansat lands near her, making the girl fall backwards. She turns to the chaotic fight.
Meanwhile, Kong waves his hand through the light, darkness dragging it away. The second the light clears, a vial of poison curves through the air…
And finds its mark.
Ansat tried to dash away, but he tripped over his own feet and started rolling, again.
Acid sears the sleeve off his shirt and nearly reaches him.
Kong smirks. “Voidwalkers! Get out!”
Naleese stepped out from wherever she was hiding, holding a bow in one hand, and grabbing Kong by the other, "I don't take orders from you, only from Darkshade, so shut up and wipe that smile off your face. We're going, but only because I say so."
With that, she lets go of him and pulls up her hood, vanishing once again, Kong soon following into the mist.
The group, having finally taken down the rest of the abominations, stopped to take in their situation.
One thing was on their minds, Now what?
Ansat stops rolling, and started running again. He dashed at Kong, only to find he wasn't there. "That loser probably ran away, since he was scared of me!"
The archer fired an arrow at the ground in front of Ansat's feet, startling the wizard, before leaving their perch to meet up with the other voidwalkers.
Storm began fiddling with both his brace and his visor, eying the arrow, "Sorry to burst your bubble, but I highly doubt that."
Jade sheathes her red sword. “Now what? How do we get back?”
Ansat sighed. "Nobody's scared of me nowadays... Nobody even acknowledges my presence sometimes. It's kind of depressing if you ask me..." said Ansat.
Aly looked at Storm at hearing Jade's question, only for him to shake his head. "Sorry, but I'm not sure I can override whatever Darkshade did to my tech - well, I'm guessing he did it. Whatever he used to do it... we're going to need to find it. Even if I found a way, I'm going to need the data from what he used - we're in another dimension, there's no way we're going to find up in the right place if we don't know what we're doing."
Nearby, Abner sighs, rubbing his eyes tiredly. This day has been too much.
Ansat picked up the arrow that was still near his feet, and stared at it.
Hunter groans, hitting his sister on the forearm. “Thanks for dragging me into this, sis. We need to find a way out.”
”Well, duh.”
Ansat stared at the arrow for a few more minutes before stuffing it in his bag.
"Then you'll be looking for the CONSOLE," Normandy said to Storm, opening a rift in the void, a tower in the landscape.
The LS and AS wizards shuddered at the memory of it.
Jade sighs. “What is that? Actually, never mind - I don’t want to know. How do we use it?”
Ansat sat down, thinking about things.
"It basically controls the multiverse as well as the void, hence the reason your universes collided. Narcissa over here tried to use it to get Zane to like her," Normandy stated plainly.
Crystal choked on air. "Imsorrywhat."
"That much detail wasn't necessary," Narcissa said sulkily.
"And by the looks of it, Luke moved it. Presumably to the top of the tower," Normandy continued.
The entirety of the LS and AS groups groaned in frustration.
Storm's eyes widened, but he said nothing besides, "Then I guess we better get going."
Ansat nodded but didn't say anything.
Jade begins moving immediately. “Then let’s go! Kong was a dips**t, but he was right about one thing: we’ll go insane if we stay here too long.”
As the group made their way through the rift, in the tower, a fairy stirred, scarcely being able to open their eyes before being hit by the flat end of a scythe, being forced back into unconsciousness
The voidwalker carefully made two cuts in an X on Gale's back with his scythe, before throwing him into a rift to the void. Darkshade watched as the empty expanse filled the wound- purple and black coagulant flooding the bloodstream.
Faintly, a vaguely "female" screech echoed from the stains of red and purple surrounding the tears in the fairy's flesh. The voidwalker allowed the void to continue flooding Gale's system, until the screech was silenced.
Meanwhile, the wizards approached the tower. "Might as well start," Harper sighed, "Again."
Jade bites her lip, looking up. “Did I hear something?”
"We'll find out when we get to the top," Kyle said.
"I, for one, am not interested in going through that deathtrap again," Chris said, morphing into a dragon. "I'll just fly to the top. You guys?"
"I'll come," Harper said.
"Same," Amanda agreed.
The AS group looked at Kyle. "Nah, I'll walk," she responded.
“I’ll come for Jade and Jade only. If any of you are in trouble, I don’t care.” Hunter says bluntly.
His sister sighs. “Wow, Hunter. Harsh.”
Aly was fiddling with a crystal heart again, this time flexing her hand around it angrily, not stopping until it began to cut into her hand.
Somewhere, a certain entity furiously typed command after command, speeding up their device whilst angrily striking their opponent in a videogame with enough force to knock them off the cliff.
Jade watches them all, eyes flitting around as if ready to pounce at any moment.
Becuase she is.
The group brandished their weapons as they took the first steps inside the tower. "Well, here goes nothing," Kyle sighed.
An Astral Warden watches them prepare to enter the tower.
He doesn’t care.
Dirty blonde hair hangs over his empty eyes, not having the energy or drive to cut it anymore.
“Lucas…?” Someone asks.
He doesn’t respond, only stares at empty air, wishing for a hundred different things.
Abner tries to hide his concern and moves next to the young warden, placing a hand on his shoulder and gently saying, "Come on, Lucas."
With a sigh, the warden obeyed.
The group advanced up the stairs, coming face to face with 30 Crystal Monsters.
Only...something was off.
Part of them were black with streaks of dark purple slowly expanding over their bodies.
The Crystal Monsters stood silently.
And then one... blinked?
Indeed, shadowy eyes began to tear forth from each one's front, glaring and flitting across every direction. Something in the room felt pressuring- anticipating.
The rumbling underfoot was not helping.
Rose was the first to react, immediately slashing at the Crystal Monsters, "DON'T JUST STAND THERE! KILL THEM!"
Hunter immediately sliced through one with his spear, preparing to strike again.
The Crystal Monster's fragments hovered and clamped onto another's body, fusing into it. Each one jabbed and clawed at the party, provoked.
Meanwhile, a purple-scaled dragon flew up the tower, two wizards on its back.
"How high up is this thing?!" Harper exclaimed.
Chris growled in frustration.
Back in the tower, Storm swore under his breath before powering up his lightsaber and jutting it through a crystal monster, waiting until the creature was fully vaporized before moving on to attack the next.
Jade sighs. “Sure Mira didn’t make this tower?” A net of vines entangles some Crystal Monsters.
The residual essence fused onto the same Crystal Monster the one cut in half fused to, giving it a spikier and larger appearance. Shadowy tendrils of void began to creep out of the Monster's sides, lashing out at anyone that got close.
Elsewhere, essence takes form as an... illegitimate elemental, feeding off the residual shadow of an elemental replaced.
Samantha unleashed a wave of water, pushing 10 of the void-infected monsters to the side, which were hacked to pieces by Lane's spinning scythe, then melted by Chase.
The molten remains continued to fuse onto the same Crystal Monster, appearing to boost it.
Hunter sighs, cutting a Crystal Monster into bite-size pieces. “Jade, you are win so much trouble when we get home.”
“If we get home.” She corrects.
Her brother responds with a groan.
"Now would be a good time to use your new void abilities!" Lane yelled at Dylan.
"I'm TRYING!" Dylan shot back.
Storm gripped his saber and slashed at the growing Crystal Monster, the pieces fusing but appearing smaller. Good.
He slashed at it again, in rapid succession, repetitively vaporizing bits and chunks of it.
Elsewhere, in subconsciousness, a fairy stares down at the pseudo elemental, a mental barrier forming between it and the weakened shadow. A firm "No" echos through their thoughts.
More vines entangled the Crystal Monsters from above, but they appeared randomly, sometimes nailing one perfectly, sometimes missing completely and striking a wizard.
“Sorry!” Jade calls, letting the vines overtake the room.
Greenheart took control of the vines, tangling the Crystal Monsters with more accuracy, but not exactly crushing them, leaving all 12 stuck to the roof.
Ansat grabbed the arrow from his bag.
Meanwhile, a certain dragon was still flying, slowing with each wing flap.
Light blasts around everywhere, blinding everyone for a second as Hunter casts an All-out Attack, making the next few Crystal Monsters implode.
Ansat chucked the arrow like it was a javelin at a Crystal Monster.
The only person not fighting was huddles against the wall, staring at nothing.
Explosions and yells resounded around him, but it was like there was a little bubble of sorrow and regret around Lucas.
A monster charged at him, and he sees it… but has no drive to stop it.
In fact, a little smile appears on Lucas’ face as the huge chunk of crystal comes speeding at him.
A stray arrow slices it out of the air, and his smile vanishes.
The Astral Warden looks up at the ceiling, muttering something under his breath. “Still keeping me alive, aren’t you? You don’t need to.”
Ansat jumped on top of a Crystal Monster, and stood as if he was surfing on it. Ansat then jumped off, and kicked it from behind.
A yell of anger from Jade, and an explosion rocks the room. Earth, metal, glass… they all spray everywhere.
Where the explosion took place lies a huge hole filled with shards of crystal, still smoking.
The hybrid smirks, rocks floating around her. “Nearly to the top.”
Ansat seemed surprised. "Holy s**t! Why the f**k does everyone have more impressive abilities than me? Whatever!" he said.
Elsewhere, an elemental bursts forth from a wound, looking distastefully at the fairy that temporarily housed it. It leaves the body entirely, unifying to the void.
Finally, just a few flights remained.
But these last ones were the hardest.
Crystal Monsters flooded the next rooms, cluttering the place up like a swarm of ants under a too-small rock.
Ansat fires some Ion Cannons, knocking back a few Crystal Monsters.
Voices faintly resound from the top of the tower, barely audible over the skitter and crawl of the crystal monsters. A wet snick is clearly audible above the noise, however, and something rather fleshy is obviously being cut nearby.
The two siblings make for an army, slicing through Crystal Monsters at astonishing speed.
Ansat kicks some Crystal Monsters, before dashing into a few more.
The Crystal Monsters halted for a second, then began to fuse into one coherent beast, nearly bringing down the room above. It vaguely resembled a spiky Crystal Monster, but impossibly large- its eye cold and ruthless as the tentacles upon its sides whipped and cracked idly. One of its spike-limbs swept the area in front of it, knocking anyone nearby back. It snatched and grabbed with its crystal-coated tendrils at Jade and Hunter, obviously seeing them as the biggest threat.
Ansat, actually caring about someone else's lives for once, fires a Star Smash at the giant Crystal Monster.
As the beast was distracted, Storm gradually made his way behind it. Charging his saber to the max, he plunged it through the center of it, creating a hole with almost no residue, gradually increasing in size.
As the creature angrily turned to face him, he moved his saber and cut through more crystal in a horizontal motion - before withdrawing it and entering a defensive stance.
The back of the creature was completely fizzling out, but it lost no proverbial steam as it coiled its left tendril around Storm's leg. It began swinging and ruthlessly bashing him against the floor, left and right- like some kind of puny god in a cinematic universe.
Ansat jumped up, and kicked the Crystal Monster, but it barely did anything.
Hunter sucks in a breath just as the huge monster hurtles towards Jade, knocking her across the room and leaving her immobile.
“JADE!” He yells, rushing over… but the huge beast of a Crystal Monster blocks him.
His eyes light up with newfound anger. “Oh, so we’re playing this game.”
The ceiling and wall begin shooting rocks like natural cannons, huge boulders crushing everyone they strike.
They strike everyone, even the group of wizards and fairies, and pepper the crumbling ground.
The glint of a spear is the last thing a hundred Crystal Monsters see.
"HOLY S**T!" said Ansat. He then revved up, and dashed forwards. He jumped up, and did a swift spinning kick at the giant Crystal Monster.
Aly dashed in, slicing off the tentacle and proceeding to engage in a furious onslaught of ice and blade.
Sea, meanwhile, helped the tech wizard up. "You alright?"
"I've been worse."
The beast in the center of the room, that... Crystallash continued to whip at its attacker while it sent void-tainted Spike Strikes forward towards the siblings. Its tentacle regrew almost instantly and snatched boulders raining down, throwing them at the rest of the group.
Ansat ran up a wall, then jumped off and hit the giant Crystal Monster, with a barrage of punches. Alright, If I keep it distracted, then the others will be able to f**king murder it! he thought.
Hunter turns to Jade, concern flickering in his gaze… but there’s still the minor problem of a huge lump of crystals blocking them off.
He attacks.
Spear slicing, vine strangling, earth striking, light spreading throughout the room.
The monster stands no chance.
Ansat lands and fired dozens upon dozens of Ion Cannons at the giant spiky beast.
The Crystallash reeled as it vaguely swung its limbs at whatever was around it- soon enough, it was a pile of essence splattered on the floor.
"Alright!" said Ansat, feeling accomplished. He pulled out a notepad from him bag. "Gotta check that off the bucket list!" he said.
Jade gets up, groaning. “You couldn’t have saved just a little bit for me, ‘big brother’?”
”You were kinda unconscious.” He says, helping her to her feet.
“Hmph. And I’m fine.”
"Hate to interrupt the wholesomeness during this utter s**t show, but don't we have to get upstairs?" asked Ansat
"That we do," Storm answered, annoyance showing on his face "ERROR" read out in bright red caps on his visor. He needed the console.
Jade nods, turning to Storm. “What’s with that red light?”
Ansat revved up, wanting to get up the stairs a quick as possible, but still waiting for the others.
"Another fail at opening a rift," the borg muttered under his breath in response to Jade.
"What does that mean?" asked Ansat, genuinely confused. Yet he was ignored.
Hunter follows them to the staircase, one hand picking at the wound at his ribs that’s the monster gave him.
Ansat starts running at top speed.
Something thumped against the ground nearby. Something very organic. The sound of an energy flow cutting off. A rift, opening in air. The same rift closing.
They reach the top… horrific gore meeting their eyes.
Ansat skidded to a stop, to try and investigate what happened.
Jade vaguely feels herself fall to her knees, her brother catching her arm.
”No. No. No…”
Gale's collapsed body slumped onto the floor, barely alive. A pseudo-elemental stood next to him, staring with detest at the fairy as purple and black coagulant tried to stem the flowing blood that coursed from his wounds. The liquid gushing from his open flesh overcame the natural failsafe of the void's infection, no matter what it did. Gale's wings were desecrated, bloodied, barely ribbons strewn on the ground- handiwork of the non-elemental, most likely. An x-shaped gash tore through his back, pulsing with shadowy goop, a treasure of power marked beyond repair in cruel irony.
Ansat was staring in horror. Sure, Ansat may not have liked Gale very much, but this was something that even he wouldn't have wished to happen.
The scars on Jade’s wrist twinged in sympathy, the scarred girl herself staring at Gale’s wound in a mixture of pity, horror, and sorrow.
”No more scars. No more.” She mutters, rushing to help him in a daze.
The fairy's eyes were faded, colors draining- something inside keeping them from glazing over entirely. Jade's hands made contact with Gale, immediately coated with blood and essence.
Storm and Abner both moved to hold Aly back, being too late.
She had already seen.
The Ice Fairy closed her eyes, inhaling sharply as an unspeakable fury came over her. By the time she opened her eyes they were rectangular slits, tail fur raised and hands curled into fists.
It took every last drop of strength for the trainees to hold her back.
There was no way for her to take on an elemental without being beaten to a pulp...
...but at least, not alone.
Somewhere, a founding entity pushed up her glasses, angrily twirling a pocket knife between her fingers.
It was her turn to have fun.
The psuedo-elemental's empty eyesockets would have narrowed if they were capable. The rift in the side of the room closed behind Aly, sealing off the section of the void where the academy keeper lay. A lone tendril roughly snatched Gale by the throat, launching him to the side where he rolled like a wet paper towel. Jade followed soon after, knocked to the side. The elemental began to hover as tentacles whipped and cracked, bursting out of its back.
CONSOLE_CHAT
FL> Solo, don't.
Jade feels the strange warmth of the blood, making her want to throw up. “Nononononono…”
Memories hit in full force.
With a cry of pain, Jade curls over, fighting the memories that will never stop haunting her.
Cruel voices, darkness, crushing sorrow, unbearable pain that absorb not just her body, but her identity.
The memories don’t stop.
They never will.
CONSOLE_CHAT
EaV: oh come on i JUST made the EoV joke. but whatev
EaV: go get em, stinky
EaV: *gawrguraA.png*
ALY> Make me.
Two figures lay slumped over, scars burning in pain. The torture keeps going relentlessly, horrible memories and visions vivid in their minds.
Hunter reaches for his sister, sobbing. No matter how many times he’s seen it, seeing his sister in pain always breaks him.
FL> WHAT DO YOU MEAN "MAKE ME"?! YOU'RE GONNA DESTROY THE BOUNDA-You're ignoring me, aren't you?
Ansat started getting mad. "Whoever did this is sentenced to the death penalty, AND I'M THE ELECTRIC CHAIR!!" he roared. He prepared an Ion Cannon.
EaV>*kekw.png*
EaV> imagine being so incredibly bad at convincing people to stop doing things that you're overshadowed by a HESS truck ad on the tv
EaV> jkjk, dont hold that against me
FL> If Solo destroys the boundaries, the first thing I'm punching when I step in is you.
Hunter rushes over to his sister, face contorted in sorrow and tears running down his cheeks. He makes no sound, only clutches his sister with a look of complete and utter helplessness.
JJ> Solo, I still can’t believe you did a fourth wall break, and that you have glasses like me.
Ansat fired an Ion Cannon in a random direction. He hoped it would hit something, since he's not sure who to attack.
ALY> Seriously Lloyd? You forgot the persona paradoxical thing already? Classic.
As to respond, Aly tightened her grip on her weapon, a small whisper at the back of her mind.
She darted in, plunging the blade into the elemental with brute force, adjusting into a rapid strike succession, resulting in attacking multiple times in sporadic bursts of energy.
Time froze in the room, filling it with a pleasant chill.
Syncing with a keystone from a universe set in the past, she used a Glacial Shield before unfreezing time, allies being healed before the Ice Fairy continued her furious attack.
ALY> As for how she knew how to do that... *whistles*
After firing the blast, Ansat leaped into action, literally. He hit the ground running, and Extreme Sped the elemental.
Gale's void-tainted damages would never be repaired- that enough was clear. Even so, it appeared he was becoming far more alive.
The elemental's wounds healed without mention, and the tentacles lashed and blocked in invisible speed.
Hunter, for once, wasn’t angry… only sad and horrified and, above all, helpless.
His sister huddles in fetal position, just as tortured as the fairy behind her.
But his wounds are far worse.
Hunter reaches over, horror and sympathy rushing through him at the sight of the Keeper.
Finally, he gets to work. Plants burst out everywhere, and he begins using their life force to heal the two, green light surrounding him.
Meanwhile, an exhausted Chris was still flying up the tower.
Aly's sword melted into a bow, arrows nailing the elemental to the far wall. As if even that wasn't enough, ice slowly began to creep up the creature, encasing it to the wall.
Meanwhile, Storm looked away from Gale, on the brink of triggering unwanted memories, before his gaze fell on the Console, a mixed expression plastered on his face. THAT thing is the console????
The cyborg immediately found himself unable to move, black and violet crystals attaching his feet to the ground.
Storm glanced behind him before pulling out his saber and messily cutting through the crystal. Abner, noticing what happened, fingered an arrow nervously.
A single, unfamiliar voidwalker stepped out of the shadows, crystals hovering behind him, glinting in the light. A smirk formed on his face. "So you're the trainees? A pathetic half-robot, that winged thing, a fire lizard, a half-fish, and an archer. Then again, I can't say I expected much from the warden rejects."
The others fought, ignoring the two ragged people. One of them was being tended to, being healed as well as possible by her brother, but the other one…
Gale looked more like a beggar than the Academy Keeper. His gray skin was pale, the gash in his back still dark and bloody. His broken wings were scattered on the ground, crushed to pieces.
Jade wasn’t looking so good, either. Her scars emanated a purple glow, her face was twisted in pain, and every once in a while she’d let loose a weak scream of pain.
Broken beyond repair.
Aly, who had made her way to Gale, looked up at the voidwalker, only an unending fury in her gaze.
If anyone hurt the gray fairy anymore... They... will... DIE.
His insult only fed that desire, and angry, stinging tears streamed down her face as she gripped Gale's hand.
Darkshade blankly stared before recalling into a rift, muttering something along the lines of "f**k this s**t im out" under his breath as he went, leaving the elemental to clean up.
"So, who's first?" the arrogant voidwalker taunted.
Storm's single visible eye shone with anger, sparks being conducted in the air around him, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
Ansat stood back, as to not get hurt by what was about to happen.
"Guess it's you then, metalhead," he responded, void crystals forming blades covering his forearms and fists.
Okay, I'll stay back for now, and if Cyborg Dude needs any assistance, I'll help him kicka**! thought Ansat, actually strategizing for once.
Hunter turns, having healed the two the best he could… which was barely as all. You couldn’t heal memories, trauma, Void… or scars.
Scars stayed forever.
The boy glares the Voidwalker, envisioning him as the root of his sister’s pain, the cause of her trauma, the fuel of her memories.
”Who’s first? Me, b**ch.”
He charges, screaming in rage. The hybrid looks angry enough to bomb the whole place.
Sharp spear point cuts Ralph’s face over and over, while he struggles, encased neck-deep in earth.
A vine wraps around his neck, strangling him and making his face turn an unnatural color. It squeezed tighter and tighter slowly, the material turning into poison ivy.
Hunter turns to the elemental, still angry beyond belief.
”Revenge. Now.”
Elsewhere, a certain soultwister-fused version of Darkshade crosses through the void, in search of his... "sibling", who was simply him, again.
In the tower, the void seals the new voidwalker's wounds for him over and over. The pain is stinging, but ignorable to one such as him.
Void crystals cut the voidwalker free, immediately fired at the hybrid.
Ansat stayed on guard.
Storm looked like he was about to kill the voidwalker when Ignis held him back, "No, he's MINE, you do your silly tech stuff."
A Volcannon blasted the voidwalker, and the tech wizard storms over to the console, anger soon fading as he was once again forced to look at the state of Gale as he walked over.
As he took off his visor, hooked it up to the device, and began to type out commands, one thing was on his mind, Darkshade is going to pay.
Welp, change of plans. Now I'm gonna wait to help Fire Dude.
Hunter charged the elemental recklessly, ignoring the angered Ice Fairy next to him.
Nothing was stopping the revenge.
Blast after blast after blast of light met the elemental, surprising it and making it stagger.
Suddenly, he felt another reserve of Mana, where his anger boiled.
Hunter screamed with rage over the sound of fighting, a humongous ball of yellow light appearing.
One pulse…
Two…
It burst, filling the room with so much light everyone had to look away, the magic directed at one elemental.
But it stood strong.
A fist of crystals clamped the tech wizard and threw him away from the console.
Now might be the time to help... thought Ansat. He dashed at the elemental, running 60 mph in Extreme Speed.
On the other side of reality, CONSOLE_2 is operated with the same ferocity, cancelling out changes in a frenzy of typing.
Within the room, the EoV stood as stoic as ever. It appeared nothing could take it out of absolute zero- only the strongest of Astral or the darkest of Shadow could change its state. The tentacles lashed and slapped the elemental's enemies, all the while their host simply staring into space.
Ansat fell back and decided to go for the distraction tactic. He ran around the elemental, trying to divert its attention.
Hunter kept attacking, wanting… no, needing to kill the Void.
Meanwhile, his sister stirred weakly. She tried to open her eyes, but she still wasn’t strong enough.
Storm got up and winced, glaring at the voidwalker, but quickly got back to dealing with the 6 or so programs running.
- The command console; unjamming his tech
- Download window; storing as much available data on what Darkshade did as possible - he was going to need it
- Task Manager; He needed to exploit this ancient machine's weakness
- And a few... other things
He gritted his teeth in irritation at being notified of a second user - presumably Darkshade. He pushed his brace to the max for this seemingly petty purpose, trying to outspeed that son of a b**ch.
Finally, there was that pleasant, old-fashioned ringing noise as the system notified him that the programs finished running.
And the console(s)...
...was slow as molasses.
The borg stared at Aly curiously, especially since he could do nothing for the users "ALY", "FL", and "EAV", but everyone else would go through the pain of a single command taking a day - including him, seeing it took forever to clean up his tracks.
He heard the sound of crystals, snatched his visor, and ducked.
Ansat fired continuous Ion Cannons at the elemental.
"I'm not done with you yet, robot!" The voidwalker whacked Storm away from the CONSOLE once more firing a multitude of crystals at the cyborg.
Storm scrambled back, sapphire eye cold regardless of his situation.
A certain Ice Warden glanced at the voidwalker from the corner of her eye, ice walling him off from the borg before she went back to tending to the limp fairy before her, not having the motive to do anything else.
Hunter shot Ansat a look of pure anger. “It’s mine.”
More light, another few All-out Attacks… the exhaustion would catch up with him later, he was running purely on anger and adrenaline now.
The Void seemed a bit annoyed, but mostly unbothered.
Hunter kept attacking, though, refusing to give up.
Ansat fired Ion Cannons before firing a Super Nova. After he did that, Ansat was tired, having kicked a lot of a**. 'A Be Careful What You Wish For' situation indeed.
A single void blade poked through the icy wall, receding and leaving a hole in it. And again. And again.
98%
Cracks spread throughout the wall, more being generated with each slash
99%
The wall shattered, and the voidwalker charged at the tech wizard.
Felix, Olivia, and Kayley walked out from behind the group.
Felix shot rays of light.
Olivia shot bolts of lightning.
Kayley engulfed the idk-enemy(s) in water.
“STOP!” A boy yells, brandishing his spear as to protect the cyborg.
”Can’t you stay dead, Voidwalker?”
Hunter slides the arrows with the multiple prongs of his spear, then attacks.
More light, earth crumbles under him, plants strangle him and tie him down.
Felix's vision went blurry, he backed into a wall, rubbing his eyes, Not now please.
Olivia noticed and hurried over to him.
Kayley zoomed over to Ansat on her wave of water.
"Oh, hey, Kayley!" said Ansat
"Not now", Kayley's eyes narrowed, her voice kinda ice cold.
"You haven't even come CLOSE to killing me! Oh yeah, and look behind you."
Jade's limp body was knocked around repeatedly by a large number of massive void pillars that receded into the ground with each blow, blood dotting the ground with each impact. Below, was a singular spike intended to kill the hybrid if she by any chance dropped.
"Alright." said Ansat. He dashed and kicked the elemental with all his force.
Jade opens her eyes, watching the carnage but unable to do anything about it. Her own muffled scream of anger matches her brother’s, her fists are clenched so hard her knuckles turn white.
Blood drips on the ground under her, each pillar of void causing another deep and painful gash in her skin. The spike under her is dangerously sharp, easily sharp enough to skewer Jade…
But at this point, death would be welcome.
Laying on the ground her, Gale groans and takes a ragged breath, too weak to do much more.
Green meets amber, both filled with pain, anger, sorrow… and a hundred more emotions, none of them positive.
Both of them wish for only one thing.
An end.
Felix's vision returned, his ice cold anger had come back to the death threat.
Felix took a sharp breath, he gripped his wand and directed it at the voidwalker. 3 diagonal torrents of golden flame spouted around Felix, it hit the voidwalker, and kept on and on.
Ansat kept kicking the voidwalker, trying to do max damage.
"So, make your choice. Save her, or kill me, and she dies," the voidwalker said, directed towards Hunter.
Jade shakes her head.
Don’t. She thinks, desperately wishing her brother could hear her thoughts.
Hunter clenched his fists. After a long pause, he finally relented. “Fine. Let her go.”
The voidwalker cut himself out of the vine trap, the crystals underneath Jade receding. He knocked Hunter to the side with another void pillar, wiping the blood away from his mouth. That was close. He approached Storm, a singular blade of crystals extending from his arm.
Ansat ran up to the voidwalker, and repeatedly kicked him in the head.
"Alright, that's it." The voidwalker grabbed Ansat by the foot, slammed him into the ground, tossed him up in the air, and sent him into the far wall with a crystal fist to the gut.
Ansat coughed up some blood, then got up. Alright, time for the projectiles!I he thought.
Ansat repeatedly fired Ion Cannon at the voidwalker, while still at the far wall.
The ion cannons hit the hollow side of a dome-shaped structure, which bounced off the crystals repeatedly, before redirecting them all as a single blast towards Ansat. The voidwalker, disregarding the speedy wizard, grabbed Storm by the throat, slamming him into a wall. A crystal knife materialized in his right hand. He spun it. "Just so you know, my name's Ralph Nightshard. My name's the last you'll ever hear." He reared his arm back, aiming for the writhing wizard.
Hunter struggled to his feet and rushed to his sister, wincing at the bloody mess. Jade lies unconscious, dozens upon dozens of several-inch deep gashes peppering her skin and a trickle of dark red leaking out of her mouth.
”Get up, get up, please get up…”
A weak groan. “Hunter?”
Tears fill his eyes. “You’re okay?”
“Not dead, at least.”
Ansat got hit, but shook it off, since he's half Storm element. He dashed around the voidwalker, trying to go for the distraction tactic.
The half-fairy opens her eyes, deathly pale. When she tries to sit up, a crack comes from her rib cage and she falls to the ground, whimpering.
Hunter clutches her hand. “Just hold on, Jade. Hold on.”
He assesses the damage.
Jade’s green wings are crushed and crumpled, her ankle is bent to the side, and reddish pink gashes cover her limp body. A few of her ribs are broken, and her scars still emanated a purple glow.
Hunter gets to work, fighting back the worry churning in his stomach. “You’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.”
”I… ow… might… not be.”
”You will.”
Ansat was running around the voidwalker, shouting a barrage of swears, some in other languages.
Aly looked at the voidwalker before freezing him in time, trapping him in that position.
The Ice Fairy got up, grabbed the arm which held the knife, then unfroze him, immediately wrenching his arm clockwise until she heard a pop, properly dislocating it before throwing him to the ground with a quick movement.
She glanced back at the shaken cyborg, "You okay?"
Ralph screeched in pain, clutching his arm whilst writhing on the floor.
Ansat skidded to a stop, before turning to Storm. "Sorry I couldn't help you out more." he said.
A little smile etches on Gale’s pale face.
That’s what you get, Voidwalker.
Amber eyes read the room, trying desperately to gain control despite the horrible torture.
A boy rushes to his side, brown hair sweaty with worry. “Um, I healed my sister the best I could, could I heal you?”
Without waiting for a response, Hunter reaches over, plants and light radiating around him.
The pain cools slightly, letting the Keeper take a few deep breaths.
Behind him, Jade stays immobile, face screwed up in pain and her whole body shaking.
She wouldn’t allow Hunter to help her first.
She knew it was a lost cause.
She was already on death’s doorstep.
Aly ignored the voidwalker, immediately going back to Gale at seeing Storm was fine.
She joined Hunter, casting Glacial Shield to help, lip bit with worry.
Now that the threat was under control, Abner walked over to the fairies, grimacing at seeing Gale. Nevertheless, he knew what to do. "Aly, Hunter, help me turn him so his back is facing up. Chase? Do you mind letting me borrow that rod of yours? And can you heat up the blade?"
Hunter takes a deep breath. “It won’t look good.”
”Do it.”
He turns away and turns the limp fairy over. “Oh, f**k…”
Chase unsheathed his Luma Sun Rod, holding a fireball to the blade before giving it to Abner.
The Astral Wizard shot the fairy a look of apology before pressing the hot blade to the wound, trying to ignore the muffled scream as he burned the flesh around the wound, forcing it to close.
When he was done, he handed the blade back to Chase, noticing the way Storm was staring at him.
"Sorry, forgot."
Hunter winced, turning to his sister…
No.
He rushed over, checking her heartbeat. It was slow, too slow… but she wasn’t gone yet.
“Help.” He mutters, holding back the tears pressing against his eyes. “M-my sister…”
Sobbing.
Ansat dashed over to Hunter with some potions in hand. "Alright, I'm not sure if these will work, but it's worth a shot!" he said. He gave the potions to Hunter.
He nearly forced them down her throat, tears running down his cheeks. “Please, don’t die… it’s my fault… don’t die…”
Heartbeat starts going.
Abner shuffled over to him, frowning at the purple bruise forming on Jade's side. "Can't do much about that, but- Aly, do you mind?"
A Glacial Shield was cast.
Felix looked back and forth, Jade to the voidwalker.
Hunter sighs, kneeling next to Jade, clutching her and protecting her with his body. “Th-thank you. How’s Gale?”
He can’t bear to talk about his dying sister anymore.
Jade looks better, but still impossibly weak and damaged. A huge circle of blood surrounds her, staining their clothes.
Abner looked at Gale, mixed emotions present in his yellow gaze, "He'll live." But as he said so his gaze settled on Lucas.
Aly, meanwhile, was tightly gripping Gale's hand, his head in her lap, muttering something under her breath.
Ansat was searching his bag for more healing items.
Jade is still incapacitated, unable to open her eyes and barely able to breath. Each inhale sends needles of pain up her lungs, each tiny movement makes her want to die.
Hunter has green light radiating around his entire body, healing him so fast that a huge halo of light surrounds the two.
Storm breathed, a bit shaken by the last set of events. To distract himself, he decided to get back to what he was doing.... only to notice the console was gone.
He swore under his breath, but at least he had some data stored on his visor.
He just... needed to find what he needed through thousands of files, some which were under passwords and locks he didn't know how to get past.
It took him every fiber of his being not to groan.
"So, how do we get outta here?" asked Ansat.
Hunter turns to Ansat. “We are not leaving until my-“
His voice breaks.
After a two second break, he starts up again. “-until my sister is alright. She’s getting better, but…”
He gestures helplessly at the puddles of blood.
Meanwhile, on the very edges of the universe, an extradimensional voidwalker typed away at CONSOLE_2, messing around with settings until the console run at a normal speed.
He stepped away, gray eyes glancing at Darkshade, "It should work now. What do you plan on doing with it anyway?"
The green light surrounding Hunter vanished, and Jade looked significantly better - color had returned to her face, her wings and ankle were only slightly twisted, and most of the gashes on her body were gone.
Hunter collapsed, completely exhausted. He gulped a potion thirstily, grinning so hard he looked insane.
Ansat smiled. This is so wholesome! he thought. I wish I had a family.
Jade gets to her knees, fighting to stand up. Hunter helps her up, still grinning madly, crying with happiness.
”You’re not dead?”
Jade laughs. “Don’t be so surprised. I’m-ow-tough.”
”I healed you!”
“Oh, whatever.”
Storm, meanwhile, sighed and took off his visor. "Alright you guys, I have good news and bad news. I normally start with the bad news but... it's up to you."
“Bad news.” Hunter and Jade say simultaneously.
Ralph balled up a fist, slamming his fist into the ground, waves of crystals spiking out of the ground being emitted from where he lay, interrupting Storm.
Hunter gasps and drags Jade out of the way, anger burning in his gaze as he faces Ralph.
Before the Voidwalker can even process what’s happening, he’s on the ground with a concussion, a furious Hunter pressing a spear to his throat.
"Screw you," Ralph hissed, spitting out blood, as he covered the CONSOLE in a dome of crystals, which slowly contracted.
Storm glared, then realized- "How did it-?" He didn't get to finish before having to duck out of the way of another barrage of crystals from Ralph.
One thing for sure: That console was weird.
The spear point digs deeper into Ralph’s throat, red spilling out. Hunter’s other hand causes a vine to entangle his throat, slowly squeezing.
”You’re dying slowly, [BLEEP].”
The crystal dome contracted faster, and several waves of massive crystals rushed outwards violently.
Rock shoots upwards, shattering the crystals.
Hunter’s amber eyes stay focused on Ralph, spear cutting deep red lines across his face and plant squeezing tighter and tighter. The Voidwalker sinks into the earth, sharp rocks scraping his arms.
Jade stands on her feet, one hand pressing against the wall for support. Dried blood covers her body, and her ankle is still bent slightly.
Ansat revved up.
On the edge of reality, Darkshade responds by slamming his fist into the left keypad.
Elsewhere-ish, a multiverse begins to net itself into a whole caboodle of s**ttery.
"F**k this!", Felix yelled, he cast an amethyst rainfall.
Blood covers Ralph’s entire body, slick and slippery.
Hunter smiles, one hand keeping him under the earth and the other letting a plant strangle him.
“Don’t touch my sister again. Actually-“ he smirks. “-you won’t be able to. You’ll be dead.”
And yet, that death slips so far away in an instant.
A wormhole tears open beneath the console and the voidwalker, enough gravitational pull to rend the vines asunder. The gray brick of a PC and the body fall in, but the rift doesn't close...
Oh, plus Ralph still has 2 failsafes, he'd have been fine either way.
Hunter snarls, ready to charge at the bloody Voidwalker again… but a huge wormhole stops him.
Storm stared at the open rift with visible displeasure, something glinting under his bangs from the soft glow it let off.
He was itching to use his tech and get them home, to the point it felt like not using it was a form of withdrawal. Yet all he could do was sift through data and hope for the best.
Ansat stared at the rift, contemplating jumping in.
A firm, braced hand stopped him. Storm looked at the speedy wizard with a look of annoyance, "Don't. You have no idea where it goes."
"Fair point." said Ansat
Jade frowns. “I don’t know. It feels… so familiar.”
At the edge of the universe, a crossed-looking teenaged female appeared behind the two voidwalkers.
A mess of brown hair was tied up in a bun, some of it covering her right eye, edges of the hair turning a shade of blue. She was wearing clothing that near-perfectly mirrored a certain tech wizard's preferences, clearly a nerd as well. The teen shook her fist at the sky, angrily muttering, "Lloyd, Jade, I'm only doing this because you want me to."
Then the founding entity pushed up her glasses to on top of her head, and unsheathed a katana, saying one thing to a certain voidwalker, "Just so you know, I'm fully aware of what's going to happen because of this."
And then she struck.
The console, detecting her presence, began to run a command in the background.
The universes... had begun to merge.
And three particular males fell out of a rift, joining a group gathered within a tower.
First, a fairy flew out of the wormhole. Gray skin, amber eyes, huge tattered wings… the spitting image of Starheart. Gale Spellcaster.
Behind him followed a younger boy, black-gray hair, gray eyes, and lightning coursing through a weapon on his side. Kado Wingfeather.
Finally, a man stepped hesitantly out. Black hair, yellow eyes, and a purple shadow still entwined around his hand. Peyton Maelstromer… the Puppet Master.
Jade gaped at the impossibly familiar people, eyes glued to the man.
Hunter beamed. “Kado!” Then he blinked. “Wait, how…?”
A girl smirked, standing next to the first. She fidgeted with her glasses, tucking a bit of chaotic black hair behind her ear. Brown eyes glittered with amusement.
“Oh, here we go.”
She put down the pencil she fiddled with… and clicked the button.
A PRODIGY’S JOURNEY UNIVERSE SUCCESSFULLY UNIFIED
At the back of the group, Luce's eyes went wide... and he immediately ducked behind Aly. Nope, nope, nope, nope, never again, noooope.
Aly's gaze darted from Starheart to Spellcaster, immediately noticing the differences between the two and noting it down for later.
Meanwhile, Storm had spun around and pounded the wall in frustration with his fist, Abner attempting to comfort him. This was TOO much.
The youngest spoke up first. “Hey, Hunter!”
”I… what… Kado, how are you here? You’re in so much trouble-“
While the two boys talk, Spellcaster gaped at his counterpart. “Torn… wings… is that… me?”
”It’s not.”
The fairy flinches. “Look, Peyton-“
“You were younger, and you didn’t have that big cut in your back.” Peyton says, not flinching at all. He’s clearly dealt with horrible injury before.
His eyes settle on Jade’s limp body, on the scars on her wrist. “Prodigy?”
”Former Prodigy.” Jade spits. Some things never change, even inter-dimensionally. “And you’re the Puppet Master! The one who gave me-“ she lifts her wrist and points to her scar like it’s an failed argument for an unjust trial. “-these!”
Aly observed the group, "Storm, I'm guessing another universe been merged?"
He stared at her, managing a strangled "yes", dripping with anger.
She then looked at the three newcomers, "So judging by the... events, you're Kado, Gale's double, and Luce's double." She pinched the bridge of her nose, "At this rate, we're going to need nametags."
Ansat was dumbfounded. "Who are all these people?" he asked.
Kado smirks. “The one and only Kado.”
Spellcaster stares into space, thoughts swirling around chaoticly and brain working overtime. “So… if there are alternate realities…” He mutters something else under his breath.
Peyton just frowns. “I’m not his double. I’m clearly different, and I’m the original Puppet Master.”
Jade speaks up. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. What-“
The portal belches up a last few people.
Mira Shade facepalms. “Father, what did you do?”
”Nothing!”
Her fiancé, Winston Von Loot, smiles. “So quick to blame him.”
Florian says nothing, only stares at a very shocked professor. “You’re the Earth Warden. But I’m the Earth Warden. S-so…”
Hunter promptly slaps his father across the face. “What are you doing here, b**ch? No matter the dimension, I will still hate you!”
The fairy pursues his lips. “I know.”
”You know? You think that’s enough? You still don’t care that-“
”Enough.” Everyone choruses.
Ansat stares at Florian. "You're the good for nothing father who left his children?" he asked.
Hunter nods. “Thank you. Yes, he is.”
Mira assesses them all before pointing at the Voidwalker. “Him.”
Winston frowns. “What?”
”I want to fight him and win. He stole our crystals.”
”Oh s**t, you’re right.”
"That a**hole f**ked you over too?" asked Ansat
Elsewhere, a founding entity is pissed, slamming Darkshade on the ground before fading.
Back at the group, Aly stood up, "OI, SHUT THE FUCK UP, IF ANY OF YOU SAY OR DO ANYTHING ELSE YOU'LL BE DEALING WITH A DEITY ON YOUR FACE." As soon as they quieted Aly sighed, "Thank you."
Storm was the first to notice what was off, "Wait, deity? Isn't Gale the only-"
A very intriguing expression formed on the fairy's face, "Whoops..."
Jade raises a hand. “I’ve waited too long to do this…”
Her voice fades away. “Wait, no I haven’t.”
Abner and Storm exchanged a glance, the Astral Wizard speaking first, "Is there something we should know here?"
While everyone talks, Mira casually flicks a hand and knocking Ralph into the wall. “And that was just a taste.”
”Jeez, Mira.” Winston laughs. “So, you’re all from other dimensions?”
A murmur of assent.
Jade buries her face in her hands. “How is this happening?”
Hunter sighs. “Jade, calm down. Storm, can you check that CONSOLE? I don’t know what happened, but something’s f**ked.”
Elsewhere, a rift unleashed a mute girl and a troublesome fairy.
Elsewhere, a dragon irritatedly explored its surroundings, two wizards being more precautious.
Elsewhere, a cluster of moon and ice fairies got up from their living pile, surrounded by hostile imprints.
Elsewhere, a boy and a phoenix crashed the party, joining the other fairies in their battle.
Elsewhere, a pair of adult twins fell out of a rift, soon joined by a group of wardens.
Elsewhere, a girl with bellowing yellow robes and bright green eyes smiled cruelly, ready to inflict Astral upon the nervous black-haired and shadow-shrouded boy standing near her.
Elsewhere, a girl scowled at her brother, the boy apologizing as he strokes a nervous Keeper pet. The girl rolls her eyes, fluttering crystal wings nervously before concealing them.
Elsewhere, Darkshade's failsafes kick in, and he winces as he gets back on his feet to much s**t-eating grinning by a certain other founding entity.
Even further elsewhere, the Darkshade venturing through the void began to sense the sheer amount of bulls**ttery that was about to befall everything.
He only gripped his blade tighter, leaving soulcrystal dust trailing behind him as he went.
Finally, elsewhere, one last rift opened, a single red-haired, slightly singed wizard falling out of the rift. A pair of dragons swooped out and besides him before it closed, and he painfully got up, assessing the void, voices hissing in his ear.
Elsewhere-eth, a founding entity stares in confusion at his computer.
Far away from the others, the black-haired girl busts out laughing. “They don’t know what chaos is coming for them, do they?”
Back at the tower, Storm breathed through gritted teeth when Aly didn't answer, "WELL, since someone doesn't want to explain the whole deity situation, can we address the good news and bad news now? Because I think this is a perfect time to bring it up."
Jade sighed. “I-I give up. This dimension s**t is gonna kill me.”
She feels weirdly… intimidating for a second, like some sort of horrible villain. She shakes her head to rid herself of the feeling. “What now? How do we get everyone back?”
Abner tiredly rubbed his eyes, "Storm, just tell us already."
In response, the tech wizard conjured a holographic UI, data being sifted at bizarre speed in one window, some unknown counter going up to 9 in another, and a small window displaying a chat.
CHAT_LOG (RAID)
SD> RAID
WAKE UP
OH COME ON I NEED YOU
HOW COME YOU NEVER SHOW UP WHEN I NEED HELP?
R> I'm ignoring you
<Raid has left the chat>
SD> ****ING SON OF A *****-
CHAT_LOG (CLOUD)
SD> Cloud?
Hello?
Your timelooped counterpart is ignoring me.
Look, there's been a bit of a situation-
CT> No
SD> What do you mean no-
<Cloud Thundercaster has left the chat>
SD> OH COME ON
Storm quickly close the chat before saying, "Bad news; at least 9 more dimensions been merged, and I've been running this for a while and found nothing that'll help us get back. Good news; I can open a rift... but it might not take us where we want to go."
Meanwhile, the Elemental silently stood, doing absolutely nothing... mostly.
Within the bloodstream of the ex-Prodigy, void festered.
The nothingness tore at Gale's mind as well- driving thought and memory into a ribbony soup,
Jade bites her lip to hide a scream, trying to ignore the nagging Void rushing through her.
She takes a deep breath. “So you’re all part of a universe where you know me?”
”Yep!”
”Correct.”
”I…” Peyton sighs, eyes shut tight. “I’m so sorry. Look, I was possessed-“
”I know how that feels.”
The former Puppet Master frowns. “But you don’t.”
Jade slaps herself on the cheek. “I don’t know what’s happening to me! It’s… ugh. Like there’s a second me inside, well, me.”
Kado whistles. “Well, that’s fascinating and all, but can we get back home? I was about to do some awesome Titan stuff.”
“I’m sure I was helping you.” Hunter says.
“Well, you were. Then you were all blehhh… gaaahh… blah.” Kado mocks, making grotesque faces. “And you were in another dimension. Point is, we need to get home now.”
Aly sat silently, running a hand through Gale's messy, now-blood-stained platinum hair. He didn't even react, causing her stomach to churn at an emotion that wasn't there before.
Anger?
Stress?
Fear?
She couldn't put her finger on it, but she knew it wasn't fully hers as she noticed the tips of her hair turning a noticeable brown.
Something was going on here, and the person who had answers had decided to stay silent.
Why won't you say anything?
ALY> Because its more interesting to only speak at random moments. :3
Hunter swats Kado’s arm. “Look, we can’t get you home that easily. And Storm, was was the news you were talking about?”
Watching them silently, Jade feels something inside her flicker. Her hair fades into a yellow-brown-green-black mixture, her right eye turning brown and her right eye glowing brightly.
But her appearance doesn’t matter. What does is the two whispering voices in her mind, one cruel and terrifying and the other… she couldn’t put a finger on it.
They swirled in her mind, both clearly annoyed at the Void churning in Jade and her refusal to acknowledge it.
Will you shut up?
You shut up, weakling.
JJ> Both of you, I’m your lord and savior, YOU shut up.
For some reason, the other two voices obliged and went quiet, despite their stubbornness.
JJ> God, you’re all so annoying.
I’m annoying? You’re the one bossing us around.
JJ> I could delete you if I wanted to. Or I could torture you some more, I love doing that.
Wow, you’re cruel as me. I could learn something from you…
JJ> Duh I am. You’re me and I’m you, in a way.
I’m so confused right now.
JJ> Here, let me simplify things.
A rush of Void runs through her body, Jade fighting as hard as she can to hold a scream back.
Thanks a lot.
JJ> You’re welcome! Love ya!
Hey, can you let me do something now?
JJ> Wait. Jeez.
Elsewhere, a founding entity materializes out of an imprint of a pile of extradimensional soft drinks. Acid stains the floor as he hovers, calcium spikes of a hand raking the ground.
There was something horribly wrong with the interaction the others like him were jumping to.
Storm looked incredibly pissed but explained again, "9 more dimensions merged, I can't find anything useful in the data I managed to gather, and if we open a rift it might not even take us home."
Hunter scowls. “There was supposed to be good news.”
Meanwhile, Spellcaster stands immobile, back pressed against the wall. Amber eyes stare blankly at the sight of a mirror image of him, wings torn and all.
His “brother” watches the others intently. “You’re powerful, aren’t you? Warden Trainees, Wardens, and supernatural abilities all in one room.”
JJ> Say “Don’t even think about it.”
I’m not gonna-
“Don’t even think about it, Peyton. We’re not your little puppets.”
JJ> There we go!
Let me do something!
JJ> Shut up.
Aly stared at Jade, shooting her a death stare before suddenly - everything felt normal. Besides the new touch to her hair, that is.
Wait? Gone that fast-
ALY> Hehe, still here. But I'm leaving now because Vibin's complaining-
Who? What? Where? How-
But there was no answer.
Elsewhere, a founding entity with blue-tipped hair appears behind another, twirling a knife between her fingers. "Happy now?"
Back at the tower, Ansat was running around in confusion.
Meanwhile, a very tired dragon, flapped his wings slowly, eventually resorting to scaling the wall. As soon as Chris' talons touched the wall, the tower roof appeared to be lowering to his level, the wall underneath disappearing.
Amanda blinked.
"All we had to do was touch the wall?!" Harper exclaimed.
"I'm...gonna strangle...Luke," Chris panted, climbing up to a window. Harper and Amanda climbed inside. Chris morphed back, climbing through the window as well, landing on the ground breathing heavily. "Hey...what's up?"
"Took you long enough," Lane said.
"I'm just as confused as you are." said Ansat, in response to Chris.
“Aly, don’t stare at me like that, you whiny little coward-“
Jade slaps a hand over her mouth.
Seriously?
Okay, that one was me.
JJ> Vivian is being an idiot, so normal Jade, you’re in charge. At least til I’m finished with Viv and Solo.
Finally.
Little a**es, both of you.
More Void fills her system while she fights to ignore it. She isn’t taking any more damage today.
”Sorry. That was stupid me. Stupid of me. Storm, is there any way we can help?” Jade says once she’s able to form words.
Elsewhere, the acidic founding entity teleported near the other quietly, nothing but the sound of the floor corroding signaling his presence. Gleaming white eyes swept the room, and he locked onto the other of his kind.
"Okay, why the F**K did you decide this was a good idea?" rasped the fleshless emoji of a deity.
The black-haired Asian girl shrugs, looking pretty casual despite controlling the lives of dozens of people. “It’s fun. Never said it was smart. And I’ve got two personas to attend to, plus at least dozen more people. You’re no fun, Vivian.”
A third entity rolled her eyes, currently taking more of a shape that suit her, resembling an icy faen. She retained the odd splash of brown and blue hair, however. "Jade, you're taking full blame for this, along with Lloyd. I wanted to WAIT to cause my mess but noooo, you two wanted me to do it in that moment, when I wasn't ready."
Back at the tower, Ansat was reading a book, trying to keep his mind off of whatever's happening.
Elsewhere, the entity frowns. “I suggested just doing mine, and then you bombed this with ‘elsewheres’!”
While the all-powerful entities argue, their personas are struggling with their own problems.
A scream escapes Jade’s mouth, drawing everyone from her universe over.
Mira frowns. “How is that happening?”
Winston nods. “No visual damage.”
“I’m… fine.”
The acidic emoji hissed. "Shut the f**k up, Jade. Please. Shut up. Call me Vivian again and i'm going to vibe check you."
CONSOLE_OVERRIDE
TELEPORT_ALL_LAMPLIGHT_TOWN
A now furious voidwalker attempted to override the command.
ACCESS_DENIED
But to no avail.
Each of the groups, including the voidwalker recruits, found themselves back in Lamplight Town.
Where everything was...off.
Elemented ponies dashed about, confused. Duplicates or even triplicates of wizards stared at each other, confused.
"What the heck is this?" Amanda asked.
"The result of a dimensional collision," Answered Storm, looking even more pissed than earlier at assessing the chaos.
Meanwhile, the third entity pinched her nose, "Vibin, chill. It's just a nickname."
Ansat was confused and amazed at the same time. "Aight, I'mma check out Pallet Pass to see if anything's wrong there." said the speedster.
TELEPORT_DARKSHADE_VOID-BOUNDARY
The remains of a fallen Academy wafting with shadows flickered in and out of existence below the floating academy, the result of a dimension once removed.
Meanwhile, on the edge of the void, a Green LEGO Ninja minifigure stared at the LS voidwalker.
Jade bites back another scream, both voices in her mind quite annoyed at the Void in her.
Hunter groans. ”Dimensional collision? How many more f**king-“
”Language!” Kado screams.
”-dimensions are colliding here?”
Mira shrugs. “Chill. More people to see.”
”You mean fight.” Winston corrects.
”That, too.”
Ansat dashed over to Pallet Pass, only to see that the dirt was blue, and the trees were green. The rivers and lakes were filled with lava, and there were flying skulls everywhere.
Ansat was on his knees as he saw the animals and pets running away from the skulls. "WHAT KIND OF CRUEL PERSON WOULD DO THIS?!" he shouted.
The lava from a lake spread onto the grass, and then onto a tree. Pallet Pass was on fire, and Ansat had to get outta there.
Elsewhere, suddenly the third entity faded, having matters to attend to. The faen-like entity reappeared, observing the green Minifigure and voidwalker.
The minifigure spun two katanas. "Solo, you gonna join in or what?"
Elsewhere, “Wait up, you-“
The normal human-like one then appears next to other entities, twirling a pencil in her right hand and tapping her knee with her left.
“What the f**k is that? And can I get back to my persona? She’s currently freaking.”
The entity smiled at the minifigure, her gaze icy as her choice in form. "Gladly."
The voidwalker stopped. Blinked. And suddenly...
He started laughing.
"OH MY F**KING GOD. You're JOKING! I pissed you guys off THAT MUCH!?" The supposedly-serious LS Darkshade was basically rolling now. "Never separate an internet user with their 'husbando', huh? Master builder my a**, built like 14 motherf**kers named Zane!" He was choking on air now, barely keeping from breaking down on the spot. "They sent TWO FOUNDERS after me! How the f**k did I do that!?"
"Solo, you beat him up, I promised to hit Vibin first anyway." Said the minifigure.
Elsewhere, a founding entity immediately starts contemplating existence.
Meanwhile, the voidwalker regains composure, scythe sharp as ever in its energy flow.
The human entity backs away, analyzing him with one eye shut. “What the f**k, dude, can I get back to my people? They’re in, like, big trouble.”
Then she shrugs. “Was planning on killing you anyway…”
Throwing knives appear in both her hands, sharp and glistening. “Slowly. Which do you prefer, painfully cutting you to pieces, strangling, or…” She smirks. “A flyting?”
"Who was stopping you, stoopid?" responds the emoji founder. "Do the thing. The multiverse'll think you've got an admin badge."
A Green LEGO Lloyd Minifigure approached the emoji, punching it before returning to the fairy and Darkshade.
The human smirks. “Too scared? I though so. What sort of pathetic person are you, really, if you can’t even speak properly?” After a pause for effect, she keeps going. “Oh, right. Of course your idiotic brain can’t even sling a couple words together.”
"ALRIGHT LLOYD YOU CAN GO AND STEP ON YOURSELF YOU-"
The multiverse conveniently cuts out the ranting emoji from perception.
The remaining voidwalker's emotions are so incredibly snark, the sheer amount could slice a hole through the multiverse. "I can smell the sodium chloride from here."
Ansat runs back to Lamplight Town, with feelings of sadness.
A hand grabs Darkshade’s wrist and slams him to the ground. The entity, Jade, continues, smirking now. “Trying to run, hide from everyone superior to you? Figures. Talk back, little Voidwalker. No computer screens, no Void to hide behind now.”
Darkshade looks… significantly smaller.
”Go on. Say something. I’ll cut you down, and it’ll be easy.”
"Who said I was running? It's over. The fact that you're here... i've already done what I needed to do. Have you checked the last running commands, perchance?" smirked the voidwalker through his teeth. Nothing they did could override account theft of an administrator. Absolutely nothing.
I swear, i'm so f**king smart.
“I’m here to knock sense into your thick skull and for no other reason.
Tell me, how do you feel now you’re all high and mighty? Gonna live out the rest of your sad life without any reason?
Look, you think you’re so special, but any of us can be rid of you in a heartbeat…
Only using words.”
Jade’s smirking heavily now, one hand spinning a throwing knife.
”Now, which part shall I start with? Maybe I’ll cut your head open, see if there’s anything inside.”
"You're not in control of me. He is. And that's the reason i'm still here. You could have killed me ages ago. Hell, that fairy's entity- she nearly did. Trust me, Jade.
I've already done my job."
The voidwalker grins, almost sadistically. He doesn't care less about his own imminent death. Never was he... special, never was he planned to live longer than this.
No, even I wouldn't plan something like that.
Meanwhile, Ansat climbed to the top of a tree in Pallet Pass, only for that to set on fire. He jumped from tree to tree, only for those to set on fire. Ansat eventually made it to an area not set on fire.
The minifigure raised a single, clipped hand. "Jade, wait. Luke, what did you do to the console?"
Jade sighs. “I want to torture him more. His job? Please, we can reverse it in an instant.”
"Oh, no. You'll find that out soon enough. From this moment onward... well, there's not going to be much onward left. It'll all go back. Every collison has happened, can happen, will happen. The void is still growing, has been growing, will keep growing, Lloyd. You can't stop that now... after all, Jade, can someone like you override HIS account?" The voidwalker's cryptic explanations sheds metaphor rays of light onto the situation, which are dim as a broken lightbulb.
Jade smirks even wider, studying her fingernails. “And you think we didn’t cause it? We created those worlds, I’m only here because of the torture you put them through.”
"That's the thing. You created those worlds. And even yet, you constrain yourselves to a tangible point. Your appearance and snark here prove one thing.
This is all obsolete to you.
You don't need this, and you never needed this. You will never need this. This is your game, and we're here to play it out- an oh-so-s**tty game of chess. Can't believe you still got so butthurt about a 'fictional character.'.. after all, you'd have gotten bored of him eventually. Maybe not as fast as me, but... still." Fiction and reality blur. The fourth wall is in tatters. I'm snacking on the glass that once made it up as it tears at my mouth. It tastes so good.
“And? We can destroy you. Why did you do all this, did you want to die in a flashy way?”
"Not necessarily. I expected decapitation a couple minutes ago. You still neglect one thing, however..."
I'm still here.
Get off my accI'm still here, fool.
Shut the fuYou shut uNO YOU SHUALRIGHT YOU CAN GO AND FUSHUT THE F**K UNO YOU
Jade smirks down at the several-foot tall Voidwalker. “My work here is done.”
LEGO bricks of various shapes and sizes materialized, clicking together, forming a massive green mech, the ninja inside. "Step on a brick." The mech's fist connected with Darkshade's jaw, sending him flying. The flight arc was interrupted as Darkshade was slammed into the ground, followed by a fist to the face, cracks spreading along the ground of the void.
"Shut the f**k up."
The console glitches.
The words ring true through the entirety of the multiverse. Every single atom, particle, and fragment of matter/antimatter is filled to the brim with the energy of extradimensional profanity. Eternity itself quivers as the expletive becomes part of reality itself. All that exists now knows complete and total annoyance- the words "shut the f**k up" engrained into existence itself. The bricks and the dagger rumble, shake with the sheer force of a multiverse-netted profanity. Mathematicians, physicists, scientists, all of them are in shock. Every single great of the field- they all roll and scream in their graves as their equations and theorems become obsolete. They do not account for the power in existence that are the words "shut the f**k up".
STfU becomes the final piece to the atomic periodic table. The reason the universe is accelerating is because of the residual annoyance that the console-magnified curse left upon existence. The words become part of the necessary pieces of an atom.
Proton. Neutron. Electron. And a symbol only represented by STfU.
Everything is good.
The fairy-like entity had faded from view, reappearing behind Darkshade, hissing one thing, "You're wrong, y'know."
She immediately proceeded in stabbing, hacking, and slashing at him with her blade, allowing the void to fill in the wounds so she could enjoy injuring him again.
"I'm a strong believer of dimensions, Darkshade. Vibin might be okay using you to torture some random OC, but to me? Somewhere, this is real, and you really are being assaulted by a deity. I'm not even mad about Gale anymore, the events played out so he'll live."
She froze the voidwalker slowly, beginning with his legs and continuing her onslaught.
"I'm mad that you did this. That you merged dimensions that weren't yours to begin with. So now you're probably wondering why I'm attacking you."
The entity held the blade to his throat, taking the pleasure of sinking the blade into his skin ever so slightly.
"Because you deserve it. Because you did this. Because somewhere, you aren't being controlled, you did this on your own accord. Because in that somewhere, I'm not just an internet user with a trash life, I'm just a person who wants to live life in peace - which is exactly what you took from me."
She unfroze him, then slammed him onto the ground.
"You know I don't have to do this to kill you, all I need to do is change one thing and boom, you're dead. I'm doing this because I want to drill this into your head. So... any last words before I clean up your "masterpiece"?"
The human entity sighs. “Oh, f**k it. I’ll let Solo do the work… you’re already six inches tall. Tell me when he's finished, I want to mange his body. Gotta say, it's fun insulting you.. fumbling self-confidence... destroying you but by bit.
”And one last thing before I return to the world of imagination…"
She flashes him a smile, eyes glittering coldly.
"Don’t mess with worlds that you don't understand.”
Back in the dimension of imagination, Jade edges away from her brother.
”I’m fine. We need to-“
Rifts start appearing, nine huge portals from other worlds.
Peyton curses under his breath. “Too late.”
Dimensions collide.
"Man, even Vibin kind of thinks that's bulls**t."
And the voidwalker vanishes into essence, never to be seen in that plane of existence ever again.
But his mark has been made.
Eternity has been in the pot for a long while, and only just now has the river turned all the way up.
All it takes now... all it ever took was to gamble for it.
Who said they weren't mine?
Okay get the f**k off of the account. Go get a snack from the cafeteria and GET YOUR DIRTY-A** ESSENCE OFF THE SET.
...
Is he gone?
Good.
He’s gone, Vivian. You suck.
Meawhile, the founding entity looked at the spot where the voidwalker stood with mixed feelings, before her blade faded, soon fading herself and reappearing in front of the console.
Time to fix this s**t before it actually got out of hand... if that was even possible at this point.
Shut thy royalest trap, Jade. I did a GOOD JOB at being an antagonist, and i'll be f**ked if being f**ked wasn't something you wanted Darkshade to be.
In normal existence, the console runs one single command.
runAs:EuphoricandVibin
password: *************
reloopExistence <PosInf>
overrideKey:false
ERROR: Command irreversible. Activate?
>Y
And reality returns to 0.
Somewhere in existence, a mech element and a Lego minifigure battle to the wonder of canon Prodigia.
And that part of existence becomes now.
How unsatisfying... anyone want to go try and unf**k it while I go get a Canada Dry?
A figure steps out of one of them, glowing yellow robes and green eyes. She’s a mirror image of the Puppet Master…
The Prodigy.
She makes eye contact with Jade for a second before turning to the boy behind her - Peyton.
“I must get back to my world.”
Jade flinches. Voice like hers, but distorted beyond belief.
Five fairies appear, each different.
Miralyn stands shocked, her wings fluttering and gray eyes wide.
Artem laughs in disbelief, a bloody yellow gash at his side. “What is this? I though I was dead…?”
Yue rubs a huge purple mark on the small of her back nervously. “As was I.”
Xue nods, hand running across a long red mark at her neck.
Umbra brandishes a wave of shadow, making the Prodigy hiss with annoyance. “Who are you all?”
An Ivory Fairy, an Ice Fairy, 9 or so wizards, a half-merling, a couple of borgs, a dragon, and at least 5 or so MORE Ivory Fairies popped into existence near the group.
A certain borg looked the most confused, "What the-"
Spellcaster’s jaw dropped. “What the fu…”
He sunk to the ground, sitting with his face buried in his knees. “Oh my…”
Finally, a girl and her brother stepped out, locking eyes with their duplicates.
”You’re me?” Mira Maelstromer gapes at the new Mira. “I’m the-“
”-most powerful wizard of all time!” Shadesong finishes.
The Mech Elemental and the Golden Ninja minifigure reared back and collided once more.
A timeline was formed once more.
Two wizards losing their families and friends. They joined others, to save one possessed.
Another timeline formed, immediately fractured and replaced by another.
Wizards in another struggled to survive and escape a literal death game.
Adventure through the void. The discovery of the multiverse. A mission for the wizards to rescue their friends, the timeline immediately wiped. Yet another void journey, the wizards racing to the top to save the multiverse once more.
And despite this, another timeline was formed.
Teenage wardens, fighting to save the island from disaster.
A jump back to the past, the days of Jacob Greenheart.
And yet, something was missing.
A singular strand, from a separate, more developed universe reached out, filling in the gap. The days of the young warden trainees, and the fateful loss of the wardens.
Fairies massacred.
A familiar gray-skinned fairy, suffering throughout all the dimensions.
They finally meet, trying to save their worlds.
Three entities face off with an ever-so familiar voidwalker.
And the multiverse reloops once more.
A Mech Elemental and Minifigure battled once more.
A timeline formed again, another replacing it instantly. It continued this way until a group of teens, normal in all ways except birth and status, fought to save their island.
Strands of developed pasts filled the gaps, making pieces click and the timeline to make sense.
A trip to the past, a technology from the future.
Universes collide once more.
Wizards, hybrids, and fairies alike run through the void and tower, trying to find their way back home.
A single borg typed out commands on an ever so familiar console, trying to ignore the assault a voidwalker tried to inflict on him.
But something happened differently.
The loop was interrupted by a planning entity's hands.
And a single crystal hit the keyboard, running a preset command.
And an Ice Fairy and fairy-hybrid...
Vanished.
Or so it seemed.
TELEPORT_ALY-VAROC_VOID-BOUNDARY
TELEPORT_JADE-VAROC_VOID-BOUNDARY
Brick connecting noises resounded throughout the void as a green ninja minifigure materialized alongside the others.
"Well, let's fix the multiverse."
Aly tensed, blue eyes shining with confusion, "Wha- who are you?"
Somewhere, a founding entity bashed their head on their desk, failing to account for this in her plan.
“Aly…” Jade bit her lip, ignoring the Void growing stronger and stronger within her. “What happened?”
“Aly.” Jade then snaps, clenching her fists as not to start shaking. “What did you do?”
The Ice Fairy glared at her, "What is it with you and thinking I'm always responsible for things? Storm causes more trouble then me- oh f**k."
“Because I sure as s**t didn’t do anything, and-“
She notices the LEGO figurine, picking it up between her index finger and thumb.
”-was it their fault?”
Aly instantly stepped away, having an unexplainable bad feeling relating to manhandling the minifigure. "I think Storm's responsible and that you probably shouldn't be touching that thing-"
“What could a several-inch tall figurine do? It’s not some Voidwalker or Shadow Wizard. It’s just… a piece of plastic.”
Meanwhile, a certain founding entity grimaced at seeing the words on her screen. Too bad she didn't have the reptile tank on hand.
The Minifigure pointed a stud shooter at the hybrid's left eye, rapidly firing and reloading.
Jade leans to the side with a “Woah!”.
“What the hell is that?”
Aly immediately walked up and slammed both hands over the minifigure, trapping it within her palms. "Okay, so who are you and what did you mean by fix the multi-universe?"
All the fairy heard in response were muffled noises.
Jade holds up a hand. “Wait. Uncover him. What did he say?”
Aly held the minifigure arms distance away from her face and lifted one hand enough for it to speak.
"Forbidden Lloyd. And the multiverse has been trapped in a timeloop, resetting the timeline infinitely. To repair it, we need to get to the second CONSOLE."
Jade frowns. “Why do I feel like I know this-“
She buries her face in her hands.
”Oh, f**k it, where’s the second-OW!”
Void keeps thrashing around in her, like a sect inside her body.
Seriously? I’m sick of all this stupid pain!
Aly bit her lip her lip in thought before answering, "Believable enough. So... where is this second console?"
Jade backs away.
Just act like you’re fine, act like you’re fine… maybe it’ll go away.
”Yeah, stupid-ow-plastic chunk. Where is it? And how are you even sentient?”
The Ice Fairy watched the minifigure load it's stud shooter, and shot Jade a look, "Have you learned nothing?"
“A bit too distracted by f**king Void to think straight.” She snaps, fiddling with her hands to distract herself. “Now where’s the second CONSOLE?”
"1. I don't know.
2. I'm a founding entity.
3. ..."
The plastic ninja pelted Jade with studs fired from a multi-stud shooter.
“Dude, stop. The universe is really trying to hurt me at this point.”
Aly sighed, before flying a few feet off the ground and glancing about. Seeing nothing that looked remotely like the device in the tower, she looked at Lloyd, "See anything that might be it?"
Meanwhile, an Astral wizard had arrowed a voidwalker to the wall, helping an Earth Fairy-Wizard hybrid to tend to a mortal deity.
Somewhere, a founding entity paced, trying to figure out a way to get them to the console without actually doing anything.
Jade looks around the Void. “How do we even get around and, more importantly, out of this place?
Aly glanced down at that, "Hopefully, Storm's figuring that out instead of trying to find us. The problem would be finding the group after we find the console. As for getting around..."
The minifigure rolled its eyes. "To get around, you walk."
"Exactly. So, anything look remotely like a console to you?"
"No, but those are voidwalkers," Lloyd said casually.
Jade groans, tensing in pain. “Voidwalkers? Like, Voidwalkers, Voidwalkers?”
As if to answer, and arrow was shot, Aly barely moving out of the way in time. She set foot, voices soon being audible.
"Interesting... so they sent out a founding entity..."
"Cero, stop analyzing and kill them already."
"Nale..."
"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"
Jade sucks in a breath. “No. No, no… Lloyd, get us out of here!”
Another arrow zooms towards them, missing the girl by inches.
Another arrow was fired.
Seconds later, the minifigure had an arrow sticking through it's torso.
"Melanie...did you just kill a founding entity?!" One of the voidwalkers exclaimed.
"Haha, you wish." Another minifigure stepped forward, gold and green, head alight with a green flame emitting from a golden zuken mask. "Say goodbye to a failsafe, you stud-heads." A tornado of gold and green bricks enveloped the minifigure as it approached the general direction of the voidwalkers.
Naleese ran out of the way, taking aim and letting an arrow loose at the fairies as she moved, not once giving away her location.
Aly knocked Jade to the ground, the arrow harmlessly whizzing by where the hybrid had stood.
The one addressed as Cero tensed, twisting his foot into the ground so he won't be knocked over and shifting into a stance that balanced his glaive. prepared to face the entity.
Jade grabbed her sword, screaming as she did so.
But she wouldn’t let the Void overtake her.
Green blade cut one, two, three arrows in half, then it came whizzing towards the two voidwalkers.
Cero dashed in, swinging the glaive to fiend off the blade then striking quickly and repetitively, forcing the hybrid back.
The minifigure took advantage of this, expanding the tornado, drawing the voidwalker in, who was immediately pelted by thousands of bricks.
Aly had stopped in place, looking thoughtful as the founding entity brutally pounded the voidwalkers. Suddenly- "Lloyd, wait, won't at least one of them know where the console is?"
Before Aly can even continue, Jade’s blade slides under Cero’s chin, pressing against his throat.
”Where is-aah! Where is the console?” The girl yells, squeezing her sword hilt so hard red rubs down her plans.
His dull gray eyes narrowed, "What makes you think I'll tell you?"
The instant he said it, enough electricity charged in the air around the two until sparks were visible.
Snow crashed down on the voidwalker, stopping him from conducting the electricity further - a ticked off fairy being responsible.
Something whirs from behind.
A rift is filled to the brim with purple crystal- polarizing with its yellow core.
The Darkshade of Academy's Secret reveals himself.
Green eyes widen. “Oh, fuuuuuu-”
Jade points her sword at him, trying to control the shuddering and Void rushing through her bloodstream.
”What do you want?” She calls. “I can get you a nice death. Would you like it wrapped with a bow?”
Cero blinked at the hybrid's stupidity, then smirked, tightening his grip on his glaive and preparing a strike.
He was not expecting Aly to fey step behind him, nor tackle him, but soon enough, the Ice Warden had him in a chokehold.
Jade turns back to Cero, and the blade tightens on his neck, little drops of blood appearing there.
Out of the corner of her eye, Jade watches Darkshade’s every movement.
”Wipe that smirk off your face before my sword meets your throat.”
The minifigure approached AS Darkshade. Two arrows were fired at the green and gold tornado of bricks, immediately sucked in and redirected straight back at the directions they came.
A wave of dirt with sharp rocks peppering it zooms towards Darkshade.
Crystals block the attacks on command. They fade into yellow dust, coating the floor.
Jade sighs, muttering under her breath, “f**king Void trying to kill me and two opponents.”
She switches targets, letting Aly take care of Cero while she herself charges towards Darkshade, LEGO bricks by her side.
Aly thrust a singular fist into the air, still choking Cero, summoning a pillar of ice to strike Darkshade.
Flowers smother the voidwalker, the smell intoxicating and sickly sweet. Rose thorns and unusually sharp leaves and petals cover his body, piercing him harshly.
The LEGO tornado reformed into a single blast of bricks, launched at the voidwalker as more bricks formed a large mech around the ninja.
The mech raised a single arm, firing two 1x1 gold plates modified with tooth verticals through stud shooters at a time, quickly reloading after each shot.
The flowers cover the whole area, their color vivid and painful to the eye and the smell… it even makes Jade wince.
The voidwalker takes the blows silently- soon enough, crystal bars off incoming assault. The void does the regeneration for him.
Jade snarls and attacks again, waves of light blasting at him.
The voidwalker contained the blast within a void crystal, before crushing the thing into light magenta powder. Dust littered the floor like crumbs on an irresponsible person's bed after eating a sandwich.
Jade raises her sword for another attack…
Then she fell to the ground.
The Void kept rushing through her, consuming her, transforming her.
The LEGO mech punched the voidwalker in the jaw, sending AS Darkshade reeling. He took note of the reeling Jade. "Well that can't possibly be good."
“You think?” Jade snaps, gritting her teeth. She attempts to sheathe her sword, but she just… can’t.
The mech started punching AS Darkshade all over, forcing the voidwalker back. "Where. Is. The. CONSOLE."
A blur of pale green slices at the LEGO figure, making him stagger back.
“Lloyd, Aly, get to the CONSOLE before I do something dangerous!” Jade snaps, backing away from the others.
Somewhere, a founding entity remotely typed out commands, setting up the events just right.
Something flickered in Aly's gaze, but it wasn't long before Cero was held at swordpoint and his glaive was confiscated, sheathed across her back.
"Lloyd, we can find the console without risking anything else, let's go."
Meanwhile, a particular cyborg panicked, searching through millions of gigabytes of data and finding nothing that pointed towards where their friends were - a certain entity made sure of that.
Before Aly could continue, a wall of earth blocked the fairy and the lego figurine from Darkshade.
“You’re not getting anywhere near that console.” Jade says.
"Oh f**k it." Ice burst from the ground, imprisoning Jade in a ring of dagger-like ice. Ice formed within the wall, cracking it from inside out, the Ice Fairy snatching the minifigure from the ground and bursting into a run - Cero being forced to follow under the threat of being impaled.
The trick saved them exactly five seconds.
Earth burst up under the ice, and a huge column of light knocked Lloyd out of Aly’s hands, the figurine being thrown around easily by Jade… as he was a chunk of plastic.
A sword slashed at Aly, movement quick and aggressive.
”Run now-too late.”
Pupils dilated, face went emotionless, sword cut harder and with even more aggression.
The Sword of Earth met its ice counterpart, green on cyan clashing.
Bright blue eyes coldly analyzed the hybrid, then the Sword of Ice vanished - Jade being thrown off balance by her own momentum. The blade reappeared in the fairy's hand, raised to strike, side turned in a war-trained stance.
Jade snarls, one leg sweeping low enough to hit her ankles and tail. Rock encased her feet as she fell, exposing her neck for a split second.
Quick slashes aimed at the fairy, each intended to hit a fatal point.
Ice cracked the rock, the frozen stone infested shards levitating with a slight tinge of cyan before striking Jade. She moved forward, striking quickly and rapidly, transforming her weapon from a sword to bow as she needed it, ice creeping into every wound she inflicted, freezing from inside out.
As Aly’s sword zooms towards her, a vine wraps around it and lets it crash to the ground… buying Jade a few seconds.
The hybrid ignores the wounds - she’s certainly felt worse before - and continues fighting. Dodging the arrows, countering each sword strike. A dark green sword hilt hits the Ice Fairy’s back, sending her sprawling for a second.
The sword stabs downwards.
The LEGO mech tackled Jade, sending the two sprawling across the floor, leaving the girl's sword embedded in the ground.
The sword zooms back to her hand, elongating and changing properties. The blade wraps around the lego figurine and knocks him to the ground.
Aly got to her feet, teeth gritted, and took advantage of the opportunity, ice filling the hybrid's wounds more rapidly than before, to the point blood flow actually slowed.
Jade slumped, and Aly drew back, the ice stopping before it reached the point of no return.
”You don’t defeat Void that easily.”
Black rushes through Jade’s system, the entire area on which they stand engulfing both Aly and Lloyd.
Aly snatched the minifigure, fey stepping out of Jade's range - where Cero was trying to sneak off.
"Oh no, you don't."
She set down Lloyd to deal with the voidwalker, tensed and expecting Jade to move to attack.
Attack she did.
The girl spawns into existence behind Aly, sword slashing and earth striking relentlessly.
That did it.
Aly struck fiercely with her blade, blow after blow being blocked just barely by the corresponding weapon.
Out of random, she would aim lower or higher, trying to strike recognizable vital points, but soon having to settle for something simpler.
She rapidly moved her blade in a clockwise motion, the flat end of the sword striking the hybrid's wrist, Sword of Earth being dropped out of agony - and snatched by a gloved hand, flipped to be held properly in a swift trained motion.
She lowered her left arm as her icy weapon pointed at Jade's heart.
Her next few words were a chilling hiss, all humanity lost, "Any last words?"
”Don’t mess with Void.”
In a move so fast Aly could barely comprehend it, Jade reaches up and grabs the hilt of the sword, using it as a lever to kick her in the chest.
The Sword of Earth is grabbed, changing property again as its ice counterpart meets it. The cyan sticks against green, Jade pulling her sword back and sending Aly tripping forwards.
Her tail lashed and she threw back her shoulders, the Ice Fairy regaining balance before she could be impaled. Anger burned in her gaze, sword vanishing before she twisted her body so that she could kick Jade's weapon out of her grasp, tail lashing wildly to keep her from falling back.
But this time she didn't aim to take the blade, and allowed it to sail past her, watching it strike ground farther than any of them could fey step to.
Her gaze moved back to the hybrid, an eyebrow raised, "Did you really think that would work?"
“Perhaps I knew it’d kill her. I’m willing to sacrifice this thing now. It’s too weak. It’s falling apart. Kill it… or let it die on its own.”
It was true.
Jade fell to the ground, wounds and pain and exhaustion and corruption catching up with her.
Tired gasps, eyes fluttering shut. Heart slowing too much, breath ragged.
Jade was dying.
Aly stared at the crumpled form of Jade and turned to the minifigure and voidwalker. If there was a drop of pity in the fairy, it wasn't showing now.
Somewhere, a founding entity stared at the screen, stonefaced, willing herself not to feel.
Jade sighs, closing her eyes. I can’t wait to die.
It’s a matter of seconds now.
She’ll finally be happy.
A Glacier Shield crashed down.
The Ice Fairy scooped up the minifigure again, glaring at Cero - but not once turning back to look at the hybrid.
AS's eyes flared purple and yellow as the contrasting dust littering the floor drifted towards Jade.
The void had activated the first failsafe.
The abyssal element(?) repaired and reinvigorated cells, thoughts, and nerves, physical damage being healed in a twisted and unnatural way. The void ate at the mind to provide sustenance for the body. Jade would not be allowed to die, no matter how she felt- if she wished it or not.
The fairy, at first, didn't seem to notice anything was amiss.
Then she burst into a run, clutching the lego minifigure and Cero being forced to continue to follow.
Anger and annoyance ripples across Jade’s face. Was the universe trying to thwart her? Probably.
The hybrid struggles to her feet, ignoring the instability in her mind.
Aly wasn't taking chances, trying to put as much distance between her and Jade as possible.
She finally slowed when they were out of sight, and immediately turned to Cero. "Now, where's the CONSOLE?"
"As I said earlier, why should I tell you?"
She glared and held up the LEGO minifigure in his face, the founding entity holding a stud shooter.
Jade clutches her head, biting back screams. Her mind bursts in a migraine, and her vision blurs and flickers. “f**k… you… all.”
The voidwalker scoffed in amusement at the minifigure. The founding entity put away the stud shooter and pulled out a rapid-fire stud shooter, unleashing all the studs on the voidwalker, reloading without haste and firing again.
The voidwalker burst out with a chorus of foreign profanity, holding up a hand in an attempt to shield himself from the barrage of studs.
Aly's icy gaze watched the voidwalker with hidden amusement before she finally said, "The console. Now."
"FINE! JUST GET THAT THING TO STOP."
The minifigure paused, fired the last stud and put the stud shooter down.
Cero shot the lego a death stare before grumbling and leading the two through the void, past imprints and crystals, finally reaching a device resembling a gray brick - CONSOLE_2.
Jade emerges behind them, eyes closed. “Give. Me. Your. Sword. Now.”
Her own sword is tossed somewhere in the Void. “Please.”
Aly spun around, seeing the hybrid and immediately cursing herself for failing to lose her.
AS Darkshade appeared from behind the CONSOLE, a couple wires splayed in his hand. "So... why are you here?"
Somewhere, a founding entity stared at her screen. She blinked, once, twice, before screaming profanity in at least 5 languages at the screen, ending with "F**K YOU, YOU SON OF A B**CH, VIVIAN".
In the void, the fairy spun to face Darkshade, Cero looking smug in the background. Aly's eyes narrowed at seeing the wires, figuring out one thing - the console was toast.
Somewhere, elsewhere, the entity that was cursed out chokes on air with laughter.
AS let the strands of copper alloy hit the floor. "So I might be making a mistake with destroying the entire CONSOLE. The multiverse could implode and utterly destroy the entirety of existence. I could have just killed us all- but then again, that was the plan the first time around, so whatever." The voidwalker seemed indifferent as he bent down behind the CONSOLE again and started rummaging within the circuitry.
Elsewhere, not to long ago, a borg run a single command before the console was quite literally torn apart.
TELEPORT_STORM_VOID-BOUNDARY
The guts of the console were spread out onto the floor behind the brick of a computer, occasionally sparking and flashing.
The fairy and LEGO barely got the chance to inspect the damage before chaos erupted behind them as a certain tech wizard teleported in.
"CERO?"
"YOU AGAIN?"
AS stared on in mildly apathetic confusion at the two.
The two burst into a yell session in some alien dialect before the voidwalker and borg looked equally pissed - one gripping a saber and the other charging void magic at their fingertips - both having equal amounts of electricity flaring in the air around them.
Meanwhile, an Ice Fairy also looked on in confusion, before saying "Oh." as the pieces clicked in place.
The voidwalker blinked once. Twice. Then he slinked off to go chug liquid popcorn or something, I don't know what the f**k he does when he hides in his room for 20 minute periods without any breaks or overtiGET THE F**K OFF OF THE COMPUTER.
Jade winced, looking in horror at the group of people. “Aly, give me your sword! Before I-I…”
She upturns her palms.
Elsewhere, the original CONSOLE ran a single script from the past, generated by another founding entity, and the multiverse relooped once more.
Failure, the one thing a particular founding entity hated more than herself.
Timeline after timeline flickered in and out of existence after a lego minifigure and mech elemental collided, finally stopping with one final timeline, one with teen wardens.
The present, the past, the past yet again. An elemental's rising, and then the universes collide-
A race through the void and tower, trying to save their worlds.
Then the same difference as before, but altered slightly.
TELEPORT_STORM_VOID-BOUNDARY
TELEPORT_ALY-VAROC_VOID-BOUNDARY
TELEPORT_JADE-VAROC_VOID-BOUNDARY
An entity frowned, frowning at her computer screen. “She’s joking.”
She leans back in her chair. “Welp, they’ll be having some fun.”
Jade frowns, burying her face in her hands. “Where the f**k are we? Aly, what did you do?”
"OI, I didn't do anything, if you want to blame someone, blame Storm."
The tech wizard crossed his arms, "It wasn't me this time!"
“Fine, Storm, can you and your visor tell us anything? I know we’re in the Void-“ Jade gestures around at the murky black. “-but this Void s**t is crazy.”
A LEGO minifigure materialized next to the three. "Alright, let's try this again."
Storm edged away from the minifigure, "Who the f**k are you?"
Aly stared at the Lego, "What do you mean again?"
"Universe is stuck in a reloop, yadayadayada we need to locate the 3rd CONSOLE and hope WS Darkshade doesn't screw us over like the other two," the minifigure replied. "The name's Lloyd by the way."
That managed to grab Storm's interest, a hand immediately slapped over his mouth.
The Ice Fairy stared at him, "No endless questions."
He pushed away the hand, "Fine."
Jade mutters curses under her breath. “Okay, great, so we just find a mysterious plastic guy and trust it? How does it know about the CONSOLE? Or Darkshade? And what is ‘WS’?”
"Oi, that applies to you," Aly said with a glare. She then turned to Lloyd, "Where is the third console, Lloyd?"
"You expect me to know? This is a void. There are no coordinates where we are."
“Do you have an estimate?” Jade asks.
"Wherever the void boundary ends and leads to the WS timeline," the minifigure replied.
"I have no idea what that's supposed to mean but okay- STORM, NO."
The tech wizard promptly closed his mouth and glared, clearly wanting to speak but knowing the fairy wouldn't let him.
A distance away, a hooded voidwalker approached the group, taking aim as the drew an arrow.
Jade tensed, feeling a force behind her…
She whirled around, cutting the tip off an arrow with her sword with a shhhk.
Panting, she turns to Lloyd. “Get us out of here!”
Void continues rushing through her bloodstream, consuming the girl.
A second voidwalked slinked through the shadows, anger burning in his gaze.
Nearby, his fellow voidwalkers were planning their own approaches, each targeting a different individual.
One of them smirks, knife pointed directly at the Lego figurine. “Permission to kill?” She whispers.
"If you want to be killed by the other entities, go ahead." The hooded voidwalker responded.
"Oh come on, seriously?" Lloyd sighed, "You know what, screw it."
An incredibly large number of LEGO bricks of all shapes and sizes swarmed the voidwalkers, encasing them all in a massive structure that rendered each of them immobile, except Cero, who was stuck in his own individual structure, pushed towards the group by more LEGO bricks. The LEGO Ninja pointed a rapid-fire stud shooter at the voidwalker. "Where. Is. The. CONSOLE."
His eyes widened in surprise, but quickly narrowed, "And why should I tell you?"
The minifigure said nothing, checking the loaded studs, before spinning the barrel and unleashing the barrage of studs on the voidwalker, loading another stud with each 60 degree rotation.
"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT, I'LL TELL YOU." As the lego minifigure stopped, he grumbled, "It's better that I show you, you'll get lost anyways."
The bottom of the structure disassembled, allowing for mobility of the legs, whilst keeping the blocky structure around Cero's torso, inhibiting movement of the arms. The excess pieces reformed into a stiff leash of sorts, which was now held by Aly.
In other words, the ice fairy was now holding a LEGO stick structure connected to a seemingly chonky voidwalker.
"Lead the way," Lloyd said calmly.
The voidwalker glared, but reluctantly led the way, occasionally glancing back and observing them, trying to figure out a way to get out of this mess.
Yet he didn't manage to find a way to escape before a certain device was in viewing distance.
Jade follows, occasionally backing away to stop herself from attacking her allies.
Aly looked at Lloyd once they got near enough to the console, keeping a distance away from uncertainty, "Now what?"
"Disable CONSOLE-1 or something and revert the collision of universes ROTW, LS, AS, and WS."
At that, Aly shoved Storm forward, who nearly lost his balance.
"HEY! Now you want me to do something?"
"Just do it already."
"Fine..."
He walked over to CONSOLE-3, trying to ignore the way Cero was staring at him and began to type out multiple commands, flying across the keyboard.
ADMIN_LOCK_CONSOLE-1
ERROR
ENTITY-ALY, ENTITY-EAV, OR ENTITY-FL REQUIRED
"What the heck-" He glanced up, "Hey do any of you know the admin passwords to this thing?"
“Get the f**k out of here before I kill you,” is Jade’s only response.
"Well I'm one of the admins, but I can't near the CONSOLE without setting off Darkshade's multiverse collision command," Lloyd responded.
Storm bit his lip and turned back to the console, trying something else but having the same result has before, "Then can someone please explain why the f**k Aly's marked as admin?"
The Minifigure looked around, evidently no longer wanting to be there.
“What now?” The hybrid asks. She shoots a sideways look at Aly. “You have any plans?”
"No, and Storm, what do you mean I'm an admin on the console?"
The borg shrugged, "Come see for yourself."
The Ice Fairy walked over, and sure enough, a user called "ENTITY-ALY" was marked as admin.
Storm peeked over her shoulder, "Maybe you can run it?"
Yet as before, the error showed up when the command was run.
Something whirs from behind the console. The sound of shrieking abominations fills the room. Again.
Someone's approaching.
"Aly-" Storm had begun, immediately being snapped at by the fairy.
"I know!"
"Just guess the password already!"
"How am I supposed to know what the password might be- oh." She immediately typed out bizarrely long credentials, the command immediately being run.
ADMIN_LOCK_CONSOLE-1
ADMIN_LOCK_CONSOLE-2
Storm shoved her aside, typing out the next set of commands.
RELOOP-EXISTANCE_FALSE
ERROR
ENTITY-FL, ENTITY-EAV, OR ENTITY-ALY REQUIRED
He bit down an irritated yell, "Aly-"
The sound became louder. Footsteps began to echo. The void began to ripple underfoot.
Not much time.
The fairy barged in, once typing out the credentials, hands flying across the keyboard.
The command ran...
...and the footsteps stopped.
The fairy spun to face the source of the former sound, Sword of Ice appearing in her grasp - a borg powering up a saber beside her.
"...Well, you actually managed to do it after all, huh?"
The void continues to ripple and quaver- keeping balance becomes a challenge.
"I'm impressed."
The murky dark encloses in the corners of the group's collective vision.
"You're just as big a threat as LS said you were."
The dark is volatile. Balance is a treasure.
"...I wonder, can I stop you now? Let's find out..."
The figure steps from the shadows, crystalline staff gleaming through the deep.
The Darkshade of Wizard School/Camp reveals himself.
Bricks connected, and the minifigure was now encased in a mech, charging at the voidwalker, fists clenched.
Aly moved in a clock-wise semi-circle around WS and Lloyd, careful to keep her side facing them, calculating her next move.
Meanwhile, Storm gripped his with generally less experience, but knew enough not to charge in while the minifigure did his thing.
WS thrust his staff forward, creating multiple LEGO namebrand 630 brick separators in a flurry of connecting and ripping pieces off the mech. His free hand found its way to the console, and he began inputting undo commands.
Storm dove in, slamming "cancel" on the console while brandishing his saber, soon engaging in combat.
The void reacted at the slightest twitch from WS, sending spikes and barricades running around the CONSOLE. Something was being formed behind the battle, but that was ignorable over the spiked tendrils and tentacles lashing from the floor.
Aly ran over, cutting down any nearby tendrils/tentacles as Storm began vaporizing them.
The creation behind was nearly complete. WS' assault increased in caliber.
"Dang it, brick separators," Lloyd muttered, constructing a massive projectile launcher, consisting of rapid-fire stud shooters, normal stud shooters, 1x2 stud shooters, and spring-loaded dart launcher, before unleashing the thousands of projectiles on Darkshade and the tentacles.
The void barricaded the assault, firing separators and those spring-loaded launcher projectiles back.
Behind the group, wings beat and separated into fleshy tendrils.
Claws raked the ground in waiting.
Jaws snapped and hung in hunger.
The creation was finished. Again.
"Ooh, Ffodnarg's active again!" exclaimed the voidwalker, obviously thinking it would have taken longer.
Storm blinked, briefly letting his guard down, "What's... Ffodnarg-"
In response, a massive void creature akin to the Father of Dragons crashed onto the battlefield, spiked and velvet tendrils where its wings should have been ripping and twisting through the air. Its bottom jaw split and sporadically shut and opened. Its eyes were wild- bloodshot through the blackened mass, darting in every direction. Soon enough, it locked onto the group, and released a deafening roar-screech.
Jade’s eyes widened. “Oh f*k*…”
She turned to the group. “Run before that kills you… or before I do.”
"Uh, could someone teleport the WS wizards, Felix, and Olivia here? Like NOW?!" Lloyd exclaimed.
The tendrils swept the room, jabbing and releasing acidic velvet energy at incredible magnitude and rate. The false dragon raked at the hybrid with its claws, charging something in its throat.
Meanwhile, a specific relic-wielder remembers how she died to the thing the first time around.
“Get out NOW!”
Jade’s pupils dilate, her face turns blank, and… she’s done this before.
But the girl has exactly two seconds to ponder that idea until Void takes over.
Storm took one look at Ffodnarg, then a quick glance at Lloyd, before running around a mass of tendrils, vaporizing any pesky tentacles, then slamming a series of commands into the console.
Soon enough, a group of wizards teleported into the midst of the battle.
Only for them to be knocked back by a blast of rocks.
Jade panics, her mind slowly deteriorating but her magic strong as ever.
The tentacles regrew as Ffodnarg shrieked in protest. The crimson energy in its gullet flared through flesh as it lowered to ground level, and soon enough, a scarlet deathbeam around 35 feet in diameter was being shot in the general direction of the group. Anyone caught inside was singed and charred to horrible capacity, blown back through the course of the laser.
WS smiled.
Jade winced, but plowed on and kept fighting the WS members while they were still disorientated.
Rose (WS) parried the attacks, Zane (Battleblade) launched fireballs at the earth fairy hybrid, not exactly sure what was happening, and Leilani...well she fainted upon hearing the dragon roar. "What the heck is THAT?!" Zane exclaimed, the group barely dodging the laser, Rose dragging Leilani out of harm's way.
The false dragon's beam fizzled and died as it returned to normal posture. Its throat began to charge once more- its wing-tendrils joining together, letting it take to the air.
"Whatever it is, it's going to die," Amy said, launching chains at the dragon, wrapping it's mouth shut. She glanced at Rose, who nodded in understanding, both climbing up the chains onto the dragon's head, swords in tow. They slashed at the dragon, doing little noticeable damage. "What is this thing's scales made out of?!"
Storm shouted out, reminding everyone he was still standing in the corner - casually dodging murderous void-infested tentacles, "My best guess? Judging by the way the tentacles keep F**KING GROWING BACK, I would have to say weirdly mutated Void."
Before Storm could keep talking, the edge of a blade came zooming at him, and he barely dodged in time.
"And what's up with her?!" Zane exclaimed, currently pinned to the ground, his Magmischief's Fire Rod being the only thing preventing Jade from plunging her sword into his chest. His Sun's Embrace blazed brighter and brighter as the sword was slowly pushed harder.
Blue ice suddenly crawled up Jade and around her torso, freezing her in place.
Aly charged in, blade raised, slicing down a mass of tendrils. "I have no idea, she just went insane again for no reason."
The hybrid struggled, unable to run but still raising her blade to stop Aly’s attacks.
The false dragon sent a tendril coursing with crimson light towards the floor, where it spiked up and jabbed into the ice. The void energy appeared to be neutralizing the existence of the ice itself- it was fading, likely coursing into the void imprint of the Ice keystone. Meanwhile, Ffodnarg sent another beam raining down, this time splitting its jaws all the way, nearly doubling the diameter of the laser as it blazed into the center mass of the group. It began to prioritize Storm off the rest, blasting its lazer an uncomfortably small amount of centimeters away from his unburnt side.
The cyborg became pale as he flinched away on instinct, becoming noticeable more reluctant to continue combat.
The laser singed the ground as it traced Storm's location.
A green blade clashed against the WS wizards, Jade grinning manically.
The tech wizard momentarily froze before retreating, running out of the way of the laser and continuing running to avoid it.
Felix leapt out of nowhere off his rainbow cloud and slammed his blade down towards Darkshade, a ray of sharp amethyst spikes sprouted out of the ground towards Darks**t.
Olivia blasted 5 giant super-nova sized storm spheres
The voidwalker stepped literally 2 times to the side and avoided every single one of the very linearly-moving crystals.
Lloyd approached Darkshade from behind, a mech's fist connecting with the voidwalker's skull. "Your attempt to collide the multiverse? We'll render that void."
Two vines wrapped around Felix and Olivia and slammed them into the ground, pulling the two downwards.
Zane drove his staff into Jade's back, causing the hybrid to stagger forward, slightly unbalanced.
The voidwalker rolled with the punch and let the void heal the minor damage of cheap plastic. More separators.
The girl vanished and reappeared behind Storm, using the flat of her blade to knock him to the ground.
A saber was powered up once again, being held at a vertical angle between the borg and hybrid.
The dragon continued to raze the void with its beam, now launching rays from the tips of its tendril-wings in a general radius around the main.
Jade manages a few words. “Get to the f**king CON-“
Her sword swings at Storm.
WS inched towards the console once more, inputting another 3 undo commands for good measure.
The tech wizard swung his saber in precise a counter-clockwise motion, destroying the hybrid's weapon beyond repair.
The wizard then powered down his saber as he broke into a run and slammed into WS to knock him away from the console, smacking his hand down on the "cancel" button with unnecessary force. He then powered up his saber again, turning to face Darkshade.
Jade turned to the people fighting the dragon and began rushing around, cutting down people occasionally while they were still focused on the dragon.
Felix reached for his blade
Before he could use it, his sword was jerked out of his hand and forced to the ground.
The false dragon turned all of its lasers toward Storm, enclosing him in a laser-like prison. The beam was stemmed in Ffodnarg's jaws, head darting about in wait.
"Hey! Heads up!" Lloyd shouted, a massive cube of LEGO bricks materializing above Ffodnarg's head, before driving itself straight down, slamming the false dragon's head into the ground. "Blockhead," the minifigure snickered.
Near the console, Storm was having a nervous breakdown, becoming a drastic pale as he stepped away from the nearest laser.
Crimson beams jetted out between the cracks of the bricks as they split apart. Ffodnarg's grand cannon released from the dark, the laser cage being maintained all the same as it took back to the air. The main beam whipped around and traced the minifigure- the false dragon was pissed.
Rose smacked the dragon on the side of the head with her sword repeatedly.
The dragon swiped Rose haphazardly out of the air with its right foot, digging in claw as it followed through.
The wizard let out a cry of pain, rolling over and clutching her now bleeding side. Amy fired a chain, wrapping it around the dragon's neck, squeezing it tighter while pulling it back. Zane rushed over to Rose, quickly pressing his hand against the wound, attempting to stifle the bleeding.
The laser stemmed its flow as Ffodnarg thrashed and pulled against the reincarnated wizard's chain like a disobedient dog. It recklessly tugged and clawed, sending lasers flying everywhere as the chain continued to delink and became gradually more brittle. Finally, the false dragon clamped its jaws around the chain, swinging it around behind itself and slamming it into the floor. Unfortunately, Amy went with it- the wizard having been stuck in a small crater as the chain dematerialized.
The breath was driven out of the mech-elemental, who just lay limply in the crater, aching all over.
Countless spikes of blue ice erupted from below Ffodnarg, varying in size.
A certain Ice Fairy had thrusted her arm into the air to aid her concentration, blue eyes narrowed as cyan essence gave her away as the culprit.
While the dragon was distracted with the ice spikes, the LEGO mech gripped the dragon's neck, increasing the pressure, only for the dragon to toss it's head forward, sending the mech sailing towards the ice fairy.
Blue particles took place of the fairy, Aly popping into reality a safe distance away - wincing as the mech crashed to the ground.
Ffodnarg air rolled out of the way of the spikes, beginning to descend. Velvet energy coursed around its body- muscles tensing beneath scales. It suddenly appeared to be much, much more agile.
Hundreds of plants sprouted out of the mech, entangling it in itself.
"Dang it," Lloyd sighed, climbing out of the mech, only to be entangled in another vine, brought closer to Jade.
Another array of flora entangled the mech, but this time it didn’t fall.
The minifigure struggled in the vine holding him above the mech, but to no avail.
Amy struggled to her feet, firing a chain at Jade.
The hybrid yelped at the chain zoomed toward her, crashing to the ground.
She grit her teeth, look in her eyes like that of a cornered animal.
Get the f**k out of my head, Void.
F**k you.
The chain wrapped around Jade, and Amy tied it to the dragon's leg.
Vines and rocks flew everywhere, striking everyone from Ffodnarg to Aly.
The dragon screeched and thrashed against the chain, breaking its hold over itself in no time with its buffed physical strength. The fragments only added to the hail before they disappeared.
Jade, meanwhile, leaped to her feet and sent a barrage of rocks at the WS gang, breaking whatever weapons she could.
Aly got up from a pile of rubble, officially pissed. Ice formed in the air above and below Ffodnarg, frozen spikes crashing down or thrusting upwards at the creature.
The false dragon crunched and clawed at a few of the spikes, letting the others crumble on its scales. It winced, hissed, and screeched as the fragments pelted and stabbed into its flesh, but remained all the same. Soon, it was recklessly charging at Aly, not caring for whatever was on the floor.
Jade had the sense to get out of the way, sending a rock at Aly and knocking her over.
She grabbed a random weapon and threw it at the Ice Fairy, letting it elongate and sharpen.
The dragon barreled towards the ice fairy, who was stood up, staggering backwards. The dragon continued its charge, gaining speed.
Until it felt a sharp pain shoot up its foot.
Ffodnarg roared in pain, staggering backwards, revealing a stray 1x2 Tooth Brick on the ground, evidently having been recently stepped on by the false dragon.
Aly took the opportunity to fey step, a weapon crashing where she once stood.
Jade reappeared behind her, sword in hand. It wasn’t her style, and it was much too short and heavy, but it’d do.
A sword sliced at Aly, nearly striking her if it weren’t for the fact that it was much too short.
Aly spun on her heel, icy blade in hand and striking the opposing weapon.
Jade curses under her breath and blocks the blade with the hilt of her own.
Instead of going on, she sends a series of rocks at Aly and disappears amongst the other wizards.
A shield of ice walled off the attack, Aly looking discontent.
The world blurred around Rose, the wizard lifting her bloodstained hand, looking at it, before letting it fall to the ground.
Nearby, void magic lurked, inching towards the open wound.
Felix stared at his blade.
An invisible force made the blade clatter to the ground, zooming instead into Jade’s hand.
"Oh god," Felix sighed.
His own weapon swings at him, the bearer’s grip on it so tight her palm is bleeding.
Jade stabs at the wizard, but hesitantly, as if two people are controlling her… because they are.
Felix's eyes turn a misty color, and a dragon made of fire is made behind him.
The dragon crashes into Jade, but a huge wall of Void blocks it just in time.
The dragon breathed fire hotter than ur gf/bf on the wall.
The girl stumbled backwards, letting Void crash around the group of wizards and fairies alike.
The dragon slashed at the vines holding Felix and Olivia.
Jade thrust out her hands, Void swallowing up the dragon of flame.
"Oh my god," Felix groaned in frustration.
The wall of Void crashed to the ground, along with Jade.
The hybrid grits her teeth, biting back a scream.
Rose jerked in Zane's arms, convulsing. "Rose? ROSE!" Zane shook Rose lightly, but with no response. Zane silently retrieved his hand from Rose's bloodied side, laying her down. Just then, the body twitched. "Rose?"
The blue haired wizard opened her eyes, glancing around. She looked at her side, seeing it completely healed, but with with strangely colored scars.
They were purple and black.
Ice shot out of the ground, trapping the hybrid and crawling up a weapon, the ice causing the metal to grow brittle.
Meanwhile, more shards of ice formed in the air, targeting Ffodnarg's weak points - some flying for its eye and forehead, some towards its neck and chest, and a questionable about of ice trying to puncture the weaker underbelly.
An Ice Fairy dashed throughout the void, trying to avoid staying in one place too long whilst controlling the frozen bother.
Cold pain rushed through Jade, freezing ice and consuming Void mixing into hellish torture… which she’d had enough of.
Rose turned her head towards Zane, silently gazing at the stunned wizard. A pillar of rocks slammed into his head, rendering Zane unconscious. Wait. What did I just do?! Eyes shifting to a purple color, Rose stood up, walking towards Jade and Aly.
You're mine to control now.
Ffodnarg hissed and screeched as it tried to shatter and deflect. Ice dug into its skin, and while the void neutralized the projectiles, the wounds remained. The false dragon screeched deafeningly and repeatedly fired its grand cannon beam in Aly's path.
Aly dodged, and icy pillars mirroring the ones that restrained Jade burst from the ground around Rose, the Ice Warden's eyes narrowed.
The ground burst from under a certain hybrid, ice spraying everywhere and Jade falling to her knees.
Incomprehensible pain was all she felt.
A simple thunking sound emanated from the pillars. Cracks spread throughout the pillars. A single black claw smashed through a pillar, before slashing through the rest. Rose glared at Aly, her scelera now black.
Y'know, I kinda like you.
Screw off and get out of my head.
Haha no.
The wizard dashed at Aly, dodging or slashing through all incoming pillars and spikes.
A beam of blackness was shot at Aly, while another one of light blasted at Rose.
Jade turned her attention to stopping Rose, resisting the urge to attack Aly and the insanity that still lingered.
Light surrounded them all, blinding and harsh.
Rose was knocked to the side, writhing on the ground.
Get. Out. Of. My. Head!
Pity.
Rose yelped as she lost her brief moment of control to the void once more, slamming her fist into the ground, unleashing a pillar of rock below Jade, before resuming her charge on Aly.
Felix struggled.
Jade crashed to the ground, blood pooling around her. She got to her feet only to fall again, crying out in pain.
A wall of blue ice shot from the ground, deflecting all of the hybrids attacks, while a a stream of cyan essence ran down the warden's arm as a frozen sword formed in her grasp, she dashed at Rose, striking quickly and viciously, ice beginning to do it's work with every blow.
Rose grabbed the icy blade with a black claw, crunching it in her fist.
A guttural scream, and everything explodes.
Well, not everything.
Swords shattered, arrows were reduced to dust, anything made of earth was vaporized.
Jade turns her gaze to Aly and Rose, unsure of who to attack.
Despite being out of the explosion impact, Felix's blade still soared.
Meanwhile, the icy blade shattered into a fragments, flying at Rose and puncturing multiple needle-size holes in her skin before reforming into a long staff with a crescent moon-shaped scythe blade. The fairy began landing blows, attempting the strategy of forcing Rose back.
Rose yelped in pain, staggering back from painful whacks on the shoulders and arms.
Aly readied her her staff to knock Rose to the ground, but before she could, Void lurched out from under her and made Aly stagger, while plants burst out from Rose’s body.
Amy unsheathed out a black sword with coral, jagged streaks and hacked through the vines holding Felix and Olivia, freeing them.
Felix ran over to his blade and pulled it out.
Olivia whistled and her DJ set up came.
Vines zigzagged through the whole place, creating an obstacle course of sorts.
They swallowed up enemy and ally alike… not that Jade could differentiate the two.
Aly's tail lashed as she regained her balance. With a quick blow from her staff, the fairy forced Rose to the ground, reforming the weapon into a bow and nailing the loose ends of her robes to the void in order to restrain the wizard. Aly then turned to Jade, another arrow loaded and taking aim.
Before she could, the hybrid Fey stepped to the side.
Aly swore under her breath before adjusting her aim and letting loose the icy arrow, loading a second one immediately, this time Astral.
Jade winced, examining the arrow embedded in her forearm before raising her hands in surrender.
”Look, just-f**k you-get it out of my head. Please.”
Aly didn't lower her bow, "Yeah, I can't do that. You need Lucas or Gale. Yet in the meantime..."
She let loose the Astral Arrow, expelling hopefully enough Astral Energy to knock the unstable hybrid out.
Aly spun to face Ffodnarg, who was still before Darkshade. Multiple spears of ice formed, aiming to open the previous wounds to the point of no return. Multiple more shards of ice formed, puncturing from above and below.
She took aim with her bow, a single astral infuse arrow being aimed for its forehead.
Ffodnarg, albeit all of its efforts, could not prevent the arrow from piercing its skull. The gleaming edge buried itself within the head of the false dragon, bleeding and firing purple essence from its wound. It screeched and roared as it flung lasers and claws in every direction, but it was not long before the creature's body was overcome by the light.
All that remained of the false dragon was volatile essence on the floor- revealing a voidwalker mashing in command after command, sealing redaction away within the prompt. He leaned back, stretched, and stared in mild surprise at the death of his creation.
Then he collapsed onto the floor.
*street fighter K.O*
Storm stared at the unconscious form of Darkshade momentarily before rushing back to the console, no longer having to worry about getting singed by one too many lasers.
He immediately pulled up the command console window, trying to figure out what the voidwalker had been running in the background.
>run feckoffwiddatBullshiet
REVERTING ALL CHANGES WITHIN CURRENT RELOOP BY VAR_SD
Storm stared at the screen for a solid five minutes, trying to make sense of how the hell such a pathetic command could do so much damage.
"ALY!"
The Ice Fairy groaned, "Not this again..." Yet she ran over regardless, slamming in the password over and over as Storm ran command after command.
Whilst Storm continued with his flurry of commands, Aly suddenly remembered a certain deity.
She walked over to a mass of vines, blade forming within her grasp as she began to cut through them, finally reaching an annoyed-looking Minifigure.
"So you finally noticed, huh?" Lloyd muttered sulkily.
"Sorry."
As the fairy picked up the LEGO minifigure, a certain tech wizard finished running the commands.
Again.
Jade groaned, getting to her feet. “What happened?”
Aly tensed at hearing Jade's voice, gripping an arrow as she turned to face the hybrid.
"Heyheyhey! Not so tight, please," Lloyd complained.
Jade raises her hands again. “I’m fine. I think. Well, I’m not fine… I just won’t attack you again. Fair?”
Aly loosened her grip on the minifigure, but still didn't put away the arrow.
Storm, in the meantime, had looked up from the console and cleared his throat. "Um... what now?"
“Now we get out of here.” Jade answers. “And where the f**k is my sword?”
"Uh......." Felix trailed off.
The tech wizard sighed, "Let me clarify - what do we do now to get home and stay there? If we just unmerge all the worlds and run whatever command that'll teleport us home, this guy-" He gave the unconscious form of Darkshade a kick, causing the voidwalker to roll over onto his side, "-can just do whatever f**k he did to bring us here to begin with, and we'll have to do this again. I can't just brick up the console, or we'll be generally bringing the universe to an end."
“So.. what? Lloyd?” The hybrid suggests, fiddling with her nonexistent sword handle.
"...uh lock their CONSOLE access?" the minifigure offered.
"They're using an admin account," Storm informed them drily.
“So we get a certain admin to do it.” Jade added, shooting a glance at Aly. “Or will that not work? And where the f**k is my sword?”
The Ice Fairy blinked, "I'm not a-"
Yet the borg didn't let her finish, "I don't want to put up another wall, but an admin can override another admin."
The minifigure hopped out of Aly's hand, the entangled mech disassembling and reassembling around the minifigure. The mech approached the CONSOLE, typing on it.
USERNAME: Forbidden Lloyd PASSWORD: ********
LOGIN_SUCCESSFUL
RESTRICT_ACCESS_VAR-LS
RESTRICT_ACCESS_VAR-WS
RESTRICT_ACCESS_VAR-AS
ACCESS_RESTRICTED
DELETE_COMMAND_MERGE_UNIVERSE
>You are about to delete a CONSOLE command. Proceed?
>>Y
>This command is administrator-only. Confirm password below.
>>********
COMMAND_DELETED
UNMERGE_LS+AS+WS+ROTW
UNIVERSES_UMERGED
The minifigure kept typing out commands.
REMOVE_INSTANCE_ELEMENT-VOID
>What instances of ELEMENT-VOID would you like to remove?
>>VAR-WS-ROSE, VAR-JADE
>All instances of ELEMENT-VOID have been removed from the listed targets.
EDIT_ROTW
REPLACE_ELEMENT-VOID
>What would you like to replace void with?
>>VAR_EOS
>ELEMENT-VOID has been replaced.
Jade sighs. “Thank god. Now to get back.”
The void begins to shriek.
And then the multiverse is silenced.
The nothing stops existing. All of Creation spreads thin as the boundaries dematerialize into nothing. Atoms become inches, meters, kilometers wide.
Forever itself means jacka**.
Nothing no longer exists. It's all something that does exist.
And that's the issue.
All that has been and will be conglomerates and reloops upon itself, in a primordial s**t show of a multiversal blob. The cause of existence's balance has been disrupted entirely. Even the "shut the f**k up" energy has been reduced to but a concept.
You gambled Eternity.
And the cards did not come out in your favor.
TIMELINE DOOMED
One particular entity took his glasses off, slammed them on the desk and yelled "Purple" at his computer screen with murderous intent.
Another entity slammed her forehead against her keyboard, typing out a bunch of chaos. “I swear, if I knew where Vivian lived…”
Psuedo-reality shattered at the dawn of time itself, a LEGO Minifigure and Fairy appearing in the space, both bearing their respective weapon.
A human appeared behind them, spinning a hunting knife. “Thanks for inviting me to the party. And where the f**k is Vivian, I want to murder him.”
A floating, fleshless, acidic emoji precariously pooled his... blood? near the human with the knife. The floor(?) hissed and burnt at contact. He rasped only a few words before lining up his acid with his blade-like phalanges, all straight and pointed. "Watch it, grand saltsoress."
“Oh, shut up. Now fix the universe before I make use of my knife. And hurry, please. I’m bored.”
The fairy sighed, pushing her glasses onto her head with her free hand, wings fluttering to keep her aloft every so often, "Can we get to recreating the universe already?"
"Alright then. Who wants to throw the first punch. Me or one of you?" the minifigure asked, pulling on it's hood.
“Dibs on first.” Jade says, smirking.
The girl punches the emoji’s… face thing so hard it rolls over.
”You suck.”
"Jade, I don't think- Nevermind." Instead, the fairy dropped to the psuedo-ground before knee-kicking the LEGO, immediately moving to strike him with her blade.
"silENCE, JADE." hisses the emoji, regaining balance. "Do you want to finish this s**t or not? I've got better plans."
“I’m booooored.” The human complained, sheathing her knife and moving to fiddle with a ring. “And yes, I want to finish this s**t so I can murder you off-screen where there are no age-“
She cleared her throat. “I just broke the fourth wall. Sorry.”
"THEN PUNCH LLOYD IN HIS FACE BEFORE I MELT IT OFF."
The fairy temporarily looked up from holding Lloyd at sword-point, "You idiots, I already did."
“Please. Shut. Up. And. Get. On. With. It.” Jade snapped, moving to punch the emoji again.
The minifigure swarmed the group with thousands of green and gold LEGO bricks, tackling the fairy and unleashing a burst of Golden Power.
The emoji hovered out of the way before inspecting the combat Aly and Lloyd were in. "Not enough *fight* yet. Put more vigor into beating the f**k out of each other."
A pillar of green bricks slammed the emoji into Jade.
Quite literally, every brick froze in place, the fairy glaring at the emoji, "Fine."
She immediately proceeded to landing a blow to the Minifigure's face - with notably exaggerative force.
A human with a sheathed sword and a crossbow with arrows appeared behind everyone, "Wait what the f**k-"
"Okay that stings a little."
The ground shattered into structures formed from white 2x2 plates, hovering about. The minifigure's hood glowed a bright green, exploding into a large amount of flames, charging at the fairy, ultimately smashing her into multiple platforms, all of which shattered upon impact. The minifigure backed away, hovering in midair.
"What the fu-"
Jade sighed. “F**k you all.”
"Ummmm, what am i doing here"
“Being an entity.” Jade answers, whaling on Vibin with throwing knife in hand.
"And what am I supposed to do?"
The fairy stood up in the manner of a genuflect, however, ironically it was not in the manner of respect or surrender.
Instead, she spread out her green and blue wings to their full span, launching herself into the air, sword freezing over with unspeakable energy, and struck the Minifigure with full force.
The minifigure flew back, regaining its bearings before launching itself at the fairy, driving her through layers of the disassembled ground.
The entity gritted her teeth before forcing her weapon upwards, aiming to impale the LEGO.
"Anyone going to answer my question?"
"Punch the crap out of that emoji!" the minifigure yelled, firing a green energy blast that launched the fairy farther down with more force, whilst keeping him out of stabbing range.
"Wait what?" Amethyst's hand instinctively shifted to his sword.
The emoji hissed and sent acid spraying everywhere as it clawed and scratched at Jade. The LEGO pillar was reduced to but a pool of multicolored liquid on the floor.
Knives flew at the aforementioned emoji, the thrower smiling.
”Fix the universe, people! I’m not an admin, somehow the boys are, so F**king FIX IT!”
She sends two more knives at the fairy and minifigure, hitting the former’s wings and the latter’s plastic body.
Ice formed in the air around Lloyd, pelting him, similar ice forming and deflecting the knife. The fairy entity took advantage of the distraction, flying back up into the air and striking the Minifigure.
“Amethyst, you gonna help me beat Vivian up? Cause lego idiot and icy fairy are busy at the moment.”
A plant entangles the emoji, choking it to the ground.
The emoji rabid-coyote bit at the knives, crushing them into metal and liquid.
"Ehhhh fine," Amethyst bow spammed Vivian out the wazoo.
The rattled minifigure unleashed multiple waves of green bricks in all directions, pelting all the entities.
Amethyst took out his sword and slashed at Vivian.
“Thank god,” Jade mutters, unleashing a whole pack of wolves.
The wolves burned to bone and crisp at contact with the acid. Vibin looked repulsed for a moment before slashing at Amethyst's blade with his own acid.
“Animal abuse,” Jade grumbles, knives cutting red across Vivian’s ugly face.
Amethyst's gold hair glowed. Dodging the acid he sliced at Vivian.
The whole place was dominated by throwing knives, two long hunting knives glistening as they sliced at Vivian.
Meanwhile, up and in the air, a fairy stopped bothering with flying the old-fashioned way, wings spread and somehow suspending the entity without needing to flap them. She held out a hand and all the bricks zooming in her direction stopped, hovering in the air before ice caused them to go brittle and shatter, pieces falling towards the entities below.
Amethyst's arrows came back to him and he fired them again.
Two lionesses tore at Vivian, both of which had the same murderous glare as Jade.
The emoji winced and hissed as flesh and calcium rose to the surface of his outer layer, healing the injuries as the attacks burnt away. He grimaced, reeled back, and let loose an earsplitting screech- sound waves rippling across existence. A ritualistic circle now surrounded the floor where he hovered, evidently covered in not demonic symbols, but emojis of different cursed variety.
Jade retaliated with more knives, occasionally backing away to let her impressive array of canines, wild cats, and birds of prey tear at him.
The attacks had no effect. The ritual circle glew more with every continuous assault and battering.
The green minifigure unleashed a barrage of attacks on the fairy, only seen as a green blur crashing into the fairy from all sides.
Cyan essence blasted back the minifigure, a cold chill present around the beam of energy. The fairy flicked her hand and multiple other streams of essence formed, all targeting him.
The minifigure shielded itself, creating a dome-like LEGO build around it, blocking all the blasts, before unleashing the pieces on the surroundings. The two entities reared back and charged at each other.
The impact was felt throughout the multiverse, as it reconstructed once more, every character placed back in their respective dimensions.
An entity sitting behind his computer, slid backwards in his chair, letting out a sigh.
CONSOLE_CHAT
FL> Let's NEVER do that again.
JJ> Gives me an excuse to kill Vivian, at least. Speaking of that, can I do it?
FL> ...
FL> Anyway, let just end this RP, shall we?
LOCK_ETERNITY'S-GAMBLE
TIMELINE_LOCKED SUCCESSFULLY