Prologue[]
Amanda: I sat up. I looked around. “Chris? Rose? Harper?” I called out. I did not see any of them. Suddenly, I felt like I was being sucked up into the sky. I looked down and realized my feet were leaving the ground. I grabbed onto a tree branch, and looked up at the sky in horror. A black hole! Pieces of the ground started to rise up. The tree was ripped out of the ground. I let go of it and fired flames out of my hands, trying to avoid being sucked in. It wasn’t effective. The black hole started to pull me in. Suddenly, a hand grabbed me and pulled me. Next thing I knew, I was sitting next to Cibyl and Narcissa in the void. “Wha-What happened?” Narcissa pointed at a crystal tablet she and Cibyl were watching. I peeked over Narcissa’s shoulder and gasped. The entirety of the planet was ripped to pieces and sucked into the black hole. “Chris...” I buried my face in my hands. Narcissa tapped my shoulder and pointed at the crystal once more. I saw...Luke? “He’s recreating the planet the way he wants it,” Narcissa growled. “He’s acting like nothing ever happened!” I exclaimed. “Rizi...” Cibyl sighed sadly. “We need to find a way to stop Luke and bring back our planet,” I declared. Narcissa nodded. Cibyl half-nodded, with a blank look in their eyes.
CONSOLE 1-Temporal Conundrum[]
Generating SCENE-1...
ERROR_VAR-LD OVERWRITING
Generating PERFECT-WORLD...
Luke stood in the new world he'd created. Everything was dark and cold, everything strung together so that he was in control. He was, in essence, a marionette. A puppet master, if you will.
And sweet glory did I like it that way.
Yes, the narrative is mine.
For now.
Specialized monsters of my creation roam this place. Deadly unsightly beings, modeled after the beast-dragon of an unused timeline. If they make it here, they'll have to deal with them amongst the normal creatures.
A massive tower, to replicate both the Lumin Trees' perches and the Dark Tower combined.
But my time in control here is running short. I'll turn it to them... my new puppets.
Oh, how good it feels to be a puppet pulling my own strings.
"Alright, let's go," Narcissa said, teleporting them out of the void.
"Hey! Narcissa, I found something!" Cibyl called, pointing to a glowing purple rock.
"Hm?" Narcissa walked over, but got tackled by a Scally. It started to screech to signal Luke, but Narcissa covered its mouth, silencing it.
Unfortunately, other corrupted monsters heard it and started to swarm them. "GRAB AND GO!" Amanda yelled over the clamoring of monsters. Narcissa opened a portal to the void and ran in it, Amanda and Cibyl close behind.
"I....This is so scary....I need Rizi....." Cibyl murmured.
"Rizi is gone," a voice said bluntly. It was Normandy.
"G-gone? R-rizi? H-how..." Cibyl stuttered.
"We all saw it. The world and everything on it, destroyed by a black hole," he replied.
"We're all that's left..." Amanda trailed off.
Cibyl trembled, and began to sob. 10 minutes passed. Cibyl was still crying. 20. Still crying. 30. Still crying. 40. Still crying. 50. Still crying. 60. Still crying.
Normandy ignored Cibyl and inspected the void relic floating in the acid. Huh. Acid resistant. Interesting. He levitated it in the air and looked closer and gasped. He turned to Narcissa and started yelling at her. "WHYWOULDYOUBRINGTHISHEREIFTHISTHINGGOESOFFITWI-" the relic exploded, sending Normandy flying backwards.
Normandy stood up and started yelling gibberish. "HYWUNGYTERACKROY LUUUKE!!!" Normandy exclaimed, hands glowing purple. Luke vooped into to the void right next to him. Normandy shook his head. "What the heck just happened?" he asked.
Narcissa was preparing to say something stupid, but she didn't.
"Aw frick," Amanda sighed, exasperated.
Cibyl stopped crying when they saw Luke with them.
"..."
Luke turned to look at the puppe- no, wizards.
Though he could say he felt some remorse, it was at a low level and barely there.
"Which one of you... no. Nevermind."
He snapped and another black hole opened, but this one was more of a wormhole. It cast everyone present except for the voidwalkers into every other timeline. The killing game, the closet-dimension, the school prison... Everything. And the normal ones were being haphhazardly thrown through them like a sheet in a tumble washer.
Eventually, it came to a stop.
Amanda wound up in the future of the killing game, except after the Magical Girl fiasco.
Cibyl wound up in a half-dimension replicatory of the closetdimension, but... not as questionable. Everyone was normal, to describe it.
Meanwhile, in the void, Darkshade lit up his scythe.
"It's surprising how in every other dimension I've seen, we could have been allies. Here? It's prime time to silence you both."
He spun his scythe and created another abomination out of Essence, then phased into the floor.
Cibyl hyperventilated on the floor as some of the characters began to gather around them, concerned.
Cibyl looked at Cibyl in the eyes, panicking internally.
CIBYL-PANIC X2 COMBO DOUBLE!
+6000 POINTS
+300 STYLE
+450000 PARADOX
+POSITIVE INFINITE CLOSETCURSE
Closet Dimension Harper, a.k.a 29 year old Harper shook Cibyl. Cibyl didn't do anything, and continue to internally panic and hyperventilate.
Closet!Luke was looking for a bucket of ice water to try and snap LS!Cibyl out of it. Closet!Normandy was positively annoyed with this situation- one Cibyl was enough acid to deal with. Now they were both panicking, and... ugh. "I'm gonna go get the void rock. Just... use ice magic or something." He turned for the door and vooped into the floor in search of
R O M K .
"There's no way we can save them, Nurse Rose and Nurse Kyle." Closet!Harper joked. Rose facepalmed. Kyle was slightly amused.
C!Normandy returned with the void relic and tossed it at LS!Cibyl.
"Touch this, or eat it, or something. It's a universe nexus, you'll find what you need to get out once you vortex inside of it. There's been a spike in void energy though, so watch out."
Normandy turned around and threw a stress ball at C!Luke.
"You don't need the ice water anymore. Implying that was ever a good idea..."
C!Luke looked somewhat dissappointed.
MEANWHILE IN THE VOID...
The voidwalkers were having an intense 2v1. The twins were perfectly in sync- Luke was definitely struggling to move. Darkshade reversed momentum of one of the sword swings and threw Narcissa off balance, moving to finish off her last failsafe while blocking multiple swings from Normandy.
Cibyl did what any regular person would do: touch it. Once Cibyl touched it, they were sucked into it.
HELLO, USER-C.
PLEASE CHOOSE DIMENSION.
1. PERFECT-WORLD
2. MASKED-BEAR'S-GAME
3. PRISON-SCHOOL-KING
Variable LD has gone rampant.
Suggested plan- Acquire help to remove Variable LD from Console 1 at UNIVERSE-EDGE.
"Eh.....world 1." Cibyl answered.
LOADING...
ERROR- MSG FROM USER-MP:
"oi gtfo of my universe, go somewhere else, ive got things to do"
ERROR- DIMENSION 1 NOT FOUND
RESELECT?
Cibyl thought about it for a minute.
"I should go get Amanda before I head off to the Perfect World."
"World 2." Cibyl confidently answered.
Amanda walked around in the Academy. "Hello? Anyone there?" she called out. Suddenly, a dragon landed in front of her and roared. It blasted flames at Amanda, who rolled to the side, avoiding the fire.
The dragon morphed into a girl. She whipped out her Tidus Blade of Waves and charged.
Amanda deflected the blade with her own sword. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" the girl yelled.
The girl charged again, slashing at Amanda. Amanda kicked the girl backwards. "I really didn't want to have to hurt you!" Amanda charged at the girl. The girl morphed into a dragon again and flew upwards, avoiding Amanda.
The dragon-girl raised an eyebrow. "Are you working for Monokuma?" she asked. "Who?" Amanda asked. "Oh," the dragon replied. It morphed back into a girl. "Sorry about that," she apologized, clearly embarrassed, "I'm Kyle. And you?" "I'm Amanda," Amanda smiled.
"What are you doing here?" Kyle asked. "I just got sent here from the void," Amanda replied. "The void-Oh, is she with you?" Kyle asked, pointing to a girl walking out of a portal. "Yeah, that's Cibyl. And Cibyl is a they," Amanda nodded.
"H-hello." Cibyl stuttered. "I'm here to g-get A-amanda."
"Well, bye!" Amanda waved to Kyle. "Let's go stop Luke."
Cibyl slowly nodded, and grasped Amanda's hand. The two walked together, and into the portal.
The two found themselves surrounded by wizards.
With monkey paws.
"W-what the-" Cibyl said.
"Yeah, so, Luke sent us here...and gave us monkey paws," Zane explained.
"Amanda!" Chris ran over, hugging Amanda.
"Chris! I...I thought you were dead!" she replied.
"Well, let's get you all outta here!" Amanda exclaimed, raising the void relic. Suddenly, a monkey-pawed Smoldash grabbed it and flew away. "Well, that's nice," Alvin sighed sarcastically.
"Let's chase it!" Cibyl exclaimed. They loved a wild goose chase.
Chris morphed into a dragon...with monkey paws. "Hop on!"
Cibyl eagerly slid onto Chris.
Everyone hopped on, until Zane was left. There was no space on Chris' back, so he grabbed onto his foot as he flew upwards.
Chris flew diagonally upwards and forwards. Zane, who was holding onto Chris' back left foot, got whacked in the face with several leaves.
"Oops." Chris flew higher. Zane spat out a leaf, glaring at Chris.
"There it is!" Zane exclaimed, pointing to the Smoldash.
Chris flew closer to it, and Amanda grabbed the relic. However, the Smoldash-which was holding the relic as well-flung her off of Chris' back.
"Amanda!" Chris zoomed downwards, towards Amanda. He grasped her hand in his talon, preventing her from falling. However, she lost grip of the relic, and it plummeted to the ground and shattered.
"NO!" Cibyl screamed.
Chris hovered above the ground, and Amanda and Zane let go. Cibyl ran over to the pieces of the relic.
"T-this.....this was the only w-way home...." Cibyl sobbed.
"Maybe there's a way to fix it?" Zane asked, picking up a piece.
"T-there's no way." Cibyl said.
"Maybe...there's another relic in this dimension?" he asked.
Everyone shrugged. "Well, it's our best option," Amanda sighed.
Meanwhile, Normandy and Narcissa were panting heavily, while parrying Luke's attacks.
"Where...are...they...?" Normandy panted, ducking under Luke's scythe.
For Darkshade, every second was spent striking and dodging. The console gave him infinite energy and as long as he was in his perfect world he would be able to fight all day. All that was left was to banish or kill the other voidwalkers, and give up the nothing for a power of pure and total control. In any case, he hadn't noticed the relic's secondary use, and therefore didn't know that he wouldn't be in control would he be able to succeed in the battle anyway.
Wait, I what?
Nothing.
But-
Shut.
You-
S H U T.
Meanwhile...
Clink.
A pure soulshard fell onto the dirt, making a surprisingly loud sound for landing on something so incredibly soft.
A hooded figure continued through the portal that brought the wizards to DIMENSION-MP-WTS.
Yellow spikes ran through the holes in the ragged cloak the figure was donning. It was shaking uncontrollably, as if having a fit. It followed the trail of the others, picking up shards of the relic as it went.
It absorbed the shards into a crystal.
And then disappeared
Cibyl noticed it, but did not comment on it. In this universe, nothing was unusual.
Luke knocked Normandy's sword out of his hand. Crystals appeared, trapping Normandy between a wall of crystals and Luke. Luke raised his scythe, preparing to cut Normandy in two.
"NO!" Narcissa cried, dashing towards Normandy. She pushed him out of the scythe's path, but she wasn't so lucky, as Luke brought his scythe down...and ripped Narcissa's side open.
"NARCISSA!" Normandy cried. He shook Narcissa's limp body. "Please...don't go..." he sobbed, tears streaming down his face. "One down. One to go," Luke grinned, walking over to Normandy. Normandy rubbed his eyes and stood up, facing Luke. "You...killed my sister,' he seethed. He stared at Luke, fury in his eyes.
Darkshade's grin disappeared. "Listen in to that last breath. Death is knocking on your door, and I am his blade. Fight or flight, this is the end."
Scythe in hand, he primed the magic and let the abyss scream.
Normandy's eyes began flashing purple and black. His sword radiating power and every step trailed by the essence of the nothing in its true, untouched pure state, he let his mind go.
Blade in hand, he overclocked the void and let his fury roar.
Normandy dashed forwards, leaving behind a purple and black trail, slashing furiously. Soulshards attached to Luke's scythe, and Luke blocked each attack, spun his scythe and slammed it into the ground, sending soulshards spiking upwards towards Normandy. Normandy charged at the soulshards, shattering them with one slash each. Darkshade slashed at Normandy, only for Normandy to spin around him, and slash across his back, severing the spinal cord and taking away one failsafe. Two left.
Normandy ducked under Luke's scythe, and backstabbed him...literally. 1 left. Normandy was sent flying backwards by a Spike Strike-style soulshard attack. His sword went flying past Luke. He staggered to his feet as Luke approached. Luke raised his scythe once more only for Normandy to kick it out of his hands. Normandy caught it in midair. "LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE IT WHEN I CUT YOUR SIDE OPEN," his voice echoed. He charged forwards, eyes completely purple. He slashed. Blood spurted out of Luke's side and he collapsed, last failsafe gone. Normandy dropped the scythe and panted heavily, eyes returning to normal. He walked back over to Narcissa's body, fell to his knees and sobbed into his hands.
K.O!
NEAR Mortality.
MOMENTARY INCAPACITATION!
24:00:00 LEFT TILL ACTIVATION
Back in the monkey pawed dimension, the pieces of the relic started glowing purple. They all went in one direction, northeast.
"Huh. That's cool," Alvin said.
"After them!" Amanda exclaimed, running after the pieces, into a jungle-like environment.
Everyone followed.
Cibyl pulled out her wand and used a spell that brought the relic to them. It dropped in their hands, and Cibyl cradled it like a baby.
The relic pieces glowed brighter as Cibyl cradled them, some of the pieces connecting together. Now the relic was in 3 large pieces.
It continued until the relic was in one piece. "Whoa," Chris said in awe.
"And that's our ticket outta here!" Amanda exclaimed. "Good," Rose replied bluntly, "I don't think I can stand these monkey paws anymore."
The figure appeared in front of them for an instant, touched the completed relic, and disappeared again in a cloud of yellow dust.
Cibyl, still holding it, was sucked into the relic. "Well, in we go!" Amanda exclaimed. She touched it and was sucked in. Alvin touched it and was sucked in. This process was repeated with everyone else until Zane was left. "So nobody is concerned we are intentionally sucking ourselves into an old relic? Ok then." He touched it as well and was sucked in.
"Please take us to World 1," Cibyl stated before the relic could speak.
They walked out of a portal, and saw Normandy...
kneeling next to Narcissa's dead body.
Cibyl burst into tears. "T-this was supposed t-to be the perfect world!" they cried.
"no..." Amanda whispered.
Rose averted her eyes. "Now that my powers work, I could send us all back in time so that we could stop these events from happening," Rose said. Normandy looked at Rose and nodded. "Lets do it," Chris replied.
"But wouldn't you guys....forget me?" Cibyl stuttered, beginning to cry again.
"Actually, no. We met you during our void journey, and we aren't going back THAT far," Rose replied.
Rose opened a white portal that sounded like it was ticking. "Let's get this over with," she stated bluntly as she walked in.
Harper followed close behind, Zane and Alvin trailing behind too.
"I....that's good. I.....hope I can see Rizi......" Cibyl said.
Cibyl walked through the portal, and slightly smiled.
"Rizi, I hope to see you soon."
Chris and Amanda were about to walk in, only to be stopped by Luke. He prepared to scythe them, but was tackled by Normandy. "GO!" he shouted. Chris and Amanda ran over to the portal, and looked back, only to see Normandy get kicked in the stomach by Luke and sent staggering backwards. Luke raised his scythe...and slashed. Normandy collapsed on the ground. "NO!" Amanda shouted. Luke turned to Amanda and Chris and started walking over to them. "We've gotta go!" Chris exclaimed, pulling Amanda into the portal that closed right before Luke slashed at them.
They arrived in the void, 5 minutes before the past versions of themselves were plunged into the portal.
"Everyone, go find Rizi! I'll be the one to stop this mess!" Harper yelled.
Chris walked over to Harper. "I'm going to help you."
Zane looked at Chris and raised an eyebrow then dashed through the portal that Past Luke just walked through after imprisoning their past selves. Alvin, Rose, Cibyl, and, lastly, Amanda dashed through the portal, which closed a split second after Amanda entered.
They found themselves face-to-face with WS Luke. "Oh, hi Luke. Uh, how are you doing-WHOA!" Zane barely ducked under Luke's scythe and rolled to the side. Everyone spread out, surrounding Luke. "Cibyl, Amanda, you two look for Rizi. The rest of us will deal with Luke," Rose ordered. "So, we get to fight? I'm in!" Alvin grinned.
"We need to find the source of all of this." Harper said as the two began running side-by-side.
"But what could it be?" Chris asked.
Cibyl grasped Amanda's hand and began to dash everywhere, in search of her friend.
Alvin fired 12 Spearicles at Luke, who stepped back, dodging all of them. Rose charged at Luke from the other side. She drove her sword in Luke's direction, only for him to turn sideways, the flat end of the sword barely missing his stomach. She slashed upwards, aiming for Luke's head. He leaned backwards, dodging her sword.
Luke promptly whacked out of her hands with his scythe. He slashed at Rose, who ducked under the scythe. Zane, who was in the trees, whipped out his Sagittarius Star Wand and fired several Astral Arrows out of it at Luke, forcing him to retreat.
"I hope they hurry up," Zane stated, looking up at the expanding black hole.
A figure hobbled out of the shadows.
[PURPLE] spikes stabbed out of the cloak it was wearing, and it was [NOT] shivering.
[THE CLOAK FLEW OFF.]
A void-infected version of Overloaded Aaron stood before the black hole and fired a single soul shard into it. The black hole imploded, scattering across the universes. In every other universe, the wizards were doomed to fail now.
Except this one, should they succeed.
Aaron took hold of a crystal sword, covered in essence...
Popped his neck, gave the widest, thinnest serial killer smile to have ever cursed the earth...
And rushed forward, prepared to satiate his eternal need for the soul magic.
"What in the name of the 6 Wardens-" Zane was interrupted as Aaron cut the branch he was standing on.
He thudded off of each branch below, and hit the ground, groaning in pain.
Rose kneeled down at Zane's side. "You better get up right this instant."
Zane groaned and rolled over. "I just got knocked out of a tree. Give me a break," he sighed.
Generating PRISON-SCHOOL-KING...
Zane Battleblade looked up in the sky. Leilani ran outside. "What is going o-Oh frick,"
Generating MASKED-BEAR'S-GAME...
Kyle looked out the window of the Academy. "Taro, Lei, you guys gotta see this," she gawked. Taro and Lei rushed over, Pan in Lei's hands. "What in the name of..." Taro trailed off.
Generating MAGICAL-GIRLS-OF-PRODIGY-ISLAND.........
Unable to generate due to the timelime being wiped.
Would you like to recover this timeline?
"I swear to pucking god, if that little runt of a king is here, I am going to be mad." Wizard School Rose hissed.
PRISON-SCHOOL-KING-SS1-PAST>FUTURE has been black-holed by T̶̢̲̩̳͈̭̜̤̮̣͓͔̥͖͇̜̹̘̈́̐̄͌̃̾͐̍͒̋̎͊͑̓̓͒́̋̏̂́̓͗̈́̉̃͐̊̾͗̆̀͋̏̔͒̓̅̕̕̚̕̚H̵̨̛̞̭͖̱̩̬̭̖̠̝̺̬͈̟̰̮̫̥̮̣̟̞̣̼̜͎͎̹̯̥̙͍̻̯͎̳̙̰̟͎̻̘̖̖̄̀͌̋̽̔͗͑͒̈́͒̈́̉̈́̾̌͐̋̈́̽̒̒͒͌́̚͘̕̚͜͝͝ͅͅȨ̸̢͕̪̖͎̞͈͚͙̩͍͇͍̪̞̲͕̗͓͚̥̝̜͍̘̞̞̠̖̐̀̌̆͂̆̔̀̔̍̓̃̈́̾̕͝ ̸̢͈̮̖̪̘͕̂͑̓̈̄͌̄̾̓͗̉̆̏̌͐̄̊͐͒̓̒̅͊͋̉̾̓͌̑̅̅̐̈́̎̈͐͗̀̑͐̃̏̅́͌͑̅́͊̎̂̀̈́̚̕̚̚͜͝͝S̶̢̧̢̛̫̯̟͓̰̭͚̼̞͈̲̻̦̗̺̰̤̞̙͉̣̝̳̘̩̫̦̼̻͙̬͓̰̩̤̗͓̻̙̮̪͔̘̥̲͉̥̦̙͚̘̦̼̠̜̎͛̒͒̈́̿̓̀̈́̋̿̀̈́͒͋̒̓͌̈́͑̕͘͘͜͠͝͠͝ͅͅͅÒ̶̧̧̢̘̦͇̬̪̥͚̩̙͈͉̞̮̙͎͍͛͛̃̊̀̌̎̈́̈́̉́̄̏̑̋͂̓̈́̃̾̄͑͒͐͌͛̚͜͜͠͝͝͝ͅŮ̵̢̧̨̡͙͕̠̰̻͙̞͙̥̻̩̙̦̟̣̦̬̰̘̲̦̯̭̙̜͖̟̳̻͐̒́̒̂ͅL̶̨̧̢̨̢̛͍̥̺̼͔͇̞̳̞̪̳̘̺̯̪͎̞̞͍͈̯͓̲̲͎͙͔̠͙͖͙̮̹̟̬̪̦̠̟̲̻̜̖̦̲̬͍̪͚̘̒͆̂̐́͂̌̑̌̾̿͗͑̀̕̕̕̚̕͜͜͜͝ͅͅ
MASKED-BEAR'S-GAME-SS1-PAST>FUTURE>PAST has been black-holed by T̶̢̲̩̳͈̭̜̤̮̣͓͔̥͖͇̜̹̘̈́̐̄͌̃̾͐̍͒̋̎͊͑̓̓͒́̋̏̂́̓͗̈́̉̃͐̊̾͗̆̀͋̏̔͒̓̅̕̕̚̕̚H̵̨̛̞̭͖̱̩̬̭̖̠̝̺̬͈̟̰̮̫̥̮̣̟̞̣̼̜͎͎̹̯̥̙͍̻̯͎̳̙̰̟͎̻̘̖̖̄̀͌̋̽̔͗͑͒̈́͒̈́̉̈́̾̌͐̋̈́̽̒̒͒͌́̚͘̕̚͜͝͝ͅͅȨ̸̢͕̪̖͎̞͈͚͙̩͍͇͍̪̞̲͕̗͓͚̥̝̜͍̘̞̞̠̖̐̀̌̆͂̆̔̀̔̍̓̃̈́̾̕͝ ̸̢͈̮̖̪̘͕̂͑̓̈̄͌̄̾̓͗̉̆̏̌͐̄̊͐͒̓̒̅͊͋̉̾̓͌̑̅̅̐̈́̎̈͐͗̀̑͐̃̏̅́͌͑̅́͊̎̂̀̈́̚̕̚̚͜͝͝S̶̢̧̢̛̫̯̟͓̰̭͚̼̞͈̲̻̦̗̺̰̤̞̙͉̣̝̳̘̩̫̦̼̻͙̬͓̰̩̤̗͓̻̙̮̪͔̘̥̲͉̥̦̙͚̘̦̼̠̜̎͛̒͒̈́̿̓̀̈́̋̿̀̈́͒͋̒̓͌̈́͑̕͘͘͜͠͝͠͝ͅͅͅÒ̶̧̧̢̘̦͇̬̪̥͚̩̙͈͉̞̮̙͎͍͛͛̃̊̀̌̎̈́̈́̉́̄̏̑̋͂̓̈́̃̾̄͑͒͐͌͛̚͜͜͠͝͝͝ͅŮ̵̢̧̨̡͙͕̠̰̻͙̞͙̥̻̩̙̦̟̣̦̬̰̘̲̦̯̭̙̜͖̟̳̻͐̒́̒̂ͅL̶̨̧̢̨̢̛͍̥̺̼͔͇̞̳̞̪̳̘̺̯̪͎̞̞͍͈̯͓̲̲͎͙͔̠͙͖͙̮̹̟̬̪̦̠̟̲̻̜̖̦̲̬͍̪͚̘̙̒͆̂̐́͂̌̑̌̾̿͗͑̀̕̕̕̚̕͜͜͜͝ͅͅ
Fatal paradox- PSKSS1PF has been blackholed by origin.
Fatal paradox- MBGSS1PFP has been blackholed by key.
FATAL ERROR- DOUBLE PARADOXICAL REACHAROUND
Read tutorial on how to fix?
[Y/N]
UserHotF:Yes
Has YOUR console bugged out because some idiot blackholed the things it came from?
-Stupid soulguy
-Black hole in the air!
-Paradox that reaches into itself
Is this impossible to fix?
NOPE!
You'll just have to kill yourself in the past so the soulguy never had a reason to blackhole in the first place, and you'll still be alive!
Then you can kill m- I mean the stupid voidguy and then my coho- I mean the stupid soulguy!
Good luck!
NOT DARKSHADE TUTORIALS
"Hey."
Harper looked around. Someone said something, and it wasn't Chris.
"Hey.....I know how you can save everyone."
Harper stopped in her tracks.
"T-tell us!" Harper exclaimed.
"You just have to kill your past selves. Don't worry, you'll still stay alive."
Harper looked shocked.
"Well.....I guess I'll trust you." Harper said, unsure.
"びぇ！"
"Did you just say bye in Japa-"
"Eh. Chris, I know what to do!" Harper said.
"Wait, one more thing. Uh, just don't kill them slowly..."
Harper began questioning the multitude of voices coming from nowhere.
"Otherwise they'll be alive when Aaron blackholes, and that failed paradox times 3 to the third could stop you from existing entirely, thus causing a full universal overload and allowing Darkshade to use infinite creation before resetting the universe, probably making him into a mortal deity...? And you'll be there and he'll probably just write stupid fanfics that actually happen in the universe for sh**s and giggles. But you'll feel it..."
"Oh yeah, Harper," a voice that sounded like Zane said, "You have to go back to the portal and kill them before Luke sent your past selves into MONKEY-PAW-UNIVERSE. The best part? You have to do it without Luke seeing you, so that he doesn't leave the black hole to suck up the world to end you all anyway while killing them fast enough so that they don't get dropped into the portal leading to MONKEY-PAW-UNIVERSE before they die! Fun, right?"
"It's a game of pure speed. wait no you idiot you're knocking over the cans ow wait no stop thats the keyboard STO-"
3 thumps were heard with the spilling of an open Canada Dry and the fizz of 5 more cans.
The sound of crystal clinking, blood spilling, and more Canada Dry.
And more Canada Dry...
And more Canada Dry.
"Mute yourself!" the voice that sounded like Zane hissed.
"I can't mute, they fried the keyboard with the Candad Un-wet!"
Meanwhile, Luke and Overloaded Aaron were getting the upper hand against Rose, Zane, and Alvin.
Rose and Alvin were taking on Darkshade and Zane was battling Aaron.
Darkshade was the upper hand in the terrain- he could freely control everything. Spike traps littered the floor and his fight danced between them like a ballroom. Tentacles surrounded him, meaning a close-up approach was dangerous for his enemies.
Aaron was... different...?
That same smile never left his face and never fell from locking onto his opponent. Rapid swings in a general direction seemed to be a working strategy. Every swing clouded the battlefield with soul dust even more, and it was beginning to get hard to see.
Harper grasped Chris' hand and began to jog around, looking for a portal.
They found their past selves, 30 seconds before they were dropped into the portal.
Past-Future-Past-Past Darkshade was prepared to seal the pocket dimensions. The last foothold of the wizards of past-present-future-past was the tower floor, and it was beginning to rip off of itself as the portals began forming.
Meanwhile, Past Darkshade was tidying up the battlefield while simultaneously overloading every last piece of mana in Alvin's being and blocking multiple attacks from Rose.
Zane was being held tightly in midair by a hand made out of soulshards controlled by Aaron. He was thrown into the ground and slammed into a tree.
Luke successfully overloaded all of Alvin's mana, causing a massive power surge, sending Rose flying backwards. Alvin was stripped of his powers and causing him to lost consciousness.
Aaron fired several soulshards at Rose, like Icicle Shards. Rose rolled to to the side, dodging the soulshards, and grabbed her sword and stood up again.
Rose ducked under another slash from Luke, while blocking the soulshards from Aaron. She twisted to the side, narrowly avoiding getting cut in two by Luke's scythe. Suddenly, a soulshard hand plucked her off of the ground, and drove her back into it.
Meanwhile, in the past (but chronologically present)...
Darkshade's form was somehow completely dismembered.
Out seeped blood and essence.
Drawing itself into the staff on the ground, the weapon broke and formed a soulfire portal.
Elsewhere, in the present (but chronologically past)...
A portal opened in front of Rose.
A chorus of weakly whispering voices began to speak.
"go... b a c k"
"they are t h e r e"
"kill t h e m"
"y o u y o u y o u t h e m p a s t"
"fo l l o w t h e m"
"s t o p c l o c k"
"h e w o n ' t k n o w"
The portal opened up to the inside of the top floor Past tower wall, where the wizards were beginning to notice the multiple wormholes.
Rose weakly looked up at the portal and pondered whether or not she should go in.
She decided to walk in.
The past-present-past wizards were each hanging by only their hands off of the portals.
A timestop, now or never.
"Uh..." Rose backed out of the portal.
Cibyl and Amanda were still looking for Rizi.
"Rose!" a voice that sounded like Zane hissed.
Rose looked at Zane, who was still unconscious. "Who said that?" she asked menacingly.
"Someone who is telling you to go back in that portal and kill your past selves to get rid of that black hole."
"I'm not an idiot. If I kill my past self, I'll fade out of existence," Rose replied sharply.
"Fine. Maybe Vibin will put some sense into you," the voice sighed.
"That won't happen, you small-brained unascendant. You're in Console 1, and your existence is tied to subconsole 4. Your true anchor is still alive, and besides, you're still in the past! You'll exist." Rose didn't seem sure.
"GO BACK INTO THE GREEN HOLE AND MURDER THE OTHERS FROM THE PAST, TAKE DOWN MY ORIGINAL EDGY CHARACTER THAT GOT YOU INTO THIS MESS, AND COME BACK TO KILL THE OTHER ENEMIES BEFORE YOU DIE, YOU OVERPOWERED UNRESTRAINED FOOLISH EUKARYOTIC EGGSHELLSTEPPING MAGIC PERSON."
"Your...character?" Rose asked.
"Hush, small woman. Now go into the portal, or else Aaron will... forcefully convince you to stop living."
Rose, knowing she was in no shape to fight right now, backed up into the portal.
"Now use some time shenanigans or something stupid like that, maybe blind Past-Future Darkshade, and kill yourself and the others!"
"What if I use 'some time shenanigans or something stupid like that' to shut you up, permanently?" she shot back.
"Eat a metaphorical rusty doorknob after having stomach ulcers and catch tetanus, Rose. Now do the thing, the wizards are losing their grip."
Meanwhile...
Harper whispered into Chris' ear. Chris' eyes widened. "We're gonna ki-" Harper covered Chris' mouth to keep past Luke from hearing them.
[5 seconds left till wizards fall in.]
Harper looked around and saw her past self. She let go of Chris' hand. "I'm going to go kill my past self. Chris, go ahead and look for your past self." Harper ran to herself, and Chris sadly moped off, searching for himself. He already missed Harper's optimism and sweet smile.
Chris found his past self and transformed into a dragon. Since Harper had already distracted Luke with Icicle Shards, he lifted his past self out of sight. "Sorry, me," Chris sighed. "What-" Past Chris was cut off as Chris dropped him through the portal at a height that shattered Past Chris' ribs, sending the pieces through his heart, making a swift death when he hit the ground through the portal.
Meanwhile, Rose was walking around in the portal, then suddenly, she was sent flying back by a soulshard fist. She stood up, now outside of the portal, and saw Aaron emerge from the portal, soulshards swirling around him.
Rose charged at Aaron, sword in hand. Aaron fired several soulshards at her, and Rose deflected them with her sword. She slashed at Aaron, who formed a soulshard sword of his own and shattered her sword with his. His soulshard sword formed into two soulshard fists that attached to his fists. He punched Rose repeatedly, each blow sending her farther down the battlefield.
Rose staggered to her feet again, filled with rage. Her arms extended into claws. She growled and looked up, her scelera now black. She charged, slashing at Aaron and parrying his blows. Eventually, she started to chip pieces of the fists off. Zane finally regained consciousness and stood up, clutching his arm, in utter confusion.
Aaron formed a soulshard shield which blocked most of Rose's attacks, until she collapsed from exhaustion. The shield formed into a scythe like that of Luke's. He raised it, and was met in the face with a blow from Zane's bow.
Aaron looked at Zane unfazed and grinned. One of his arms was bent slightly out of shape. It was probably broken. This would be an easy fight.
"Zane! Are you....here to save me?" Rose panted.
Aaron seemed to snap out of the murder trance.
"it's a shame."
The scythe serrated itself.
A faint scream, barely audible rang out emitting from Overloaded Aaron's scythe.
"these souls... i think they recognize you."
He snapped back into the grin and trance, slamming his scythe into the floor and creating multiple spike waves.
"Yeah," Zane replied to Rose. Zane blocked the first couple hits from Aaron with his bow. Aaron slashed the bow and the Sagittarius Star Wand split in two. "Aw fri-" Zane was cut of as Aaron kicked him, sending him rolling down the field. Zane let out a cry of pain and rolled over, clutching his left arm. Aaron slashed downwards, only for the blow to be blocked by a Blizzard Buster. "Thanks, Alvin!" Zane exclaimed. Alvin nodded, repeatedly slashing at Aaron.
Meanwhile, Amanda and Cibyl still had no luck finding Rizi.
Chris and Harper had managed to kill off Past Zane, Past Harper, and Past Alvin. All that was left was Past Rose. Past Luke was visibly confused as to how Past Chris was missing, Past Harper had several Icicle Shards sticking out of her, Past Zane appeared to have been strangled, and Past Alvin was impaled in the back by his own Blizzard Buster.
Past Rose struggled in the tentacle holding her tightly.
Meanwhile, Alvin was still slashing at Aaron. "Lets put an end to this, okay?" Alvin grinned. He made a slashing motion with his Blizzard Buster, but nothing happened. Alvin's grin faded. "What-wait-where are the Spearicles?" he questioned. He slashed again, and nothing happened. "What the..." he started to shake his Blizzard Buster. "ALVIN! AARON'S COMING!" Zane yelled. Alvin looked up, and his eyes widened as Aaron charged, his scythe now a bat, and whacked Alvin 5 feet away. Alvin sat up and rubbed his head. "Owww... What happened to my magic?" he asked.
Harper appeared. "Dunno, but we gotta get outta here. Fast."
"Why?" Zane asked.
Meanwhile, with Cibyl....
"I-I think we've found her!" Cibyl exclaimed.
Amanda ran over. "Really?" she asked.
A girl with long, dark brown hair was curled up into a ball. She looked up and saw Cibyl and Amanda.
"Cibyl......is that you?" The girl asked.
"Oh, of course it's me!" Cibyl said, helping the girl up. "I-I'm so glad to see you again!"
"Nice to meet you, Rizi!" Amanda waved, smiling.
Suddenly, three soulshards thudded into the tree between them.
"What-" Amanda was cut off as Harper, Chris, Alvin, Rose, and Zane rushed by. "Run!" Zane yelled.
Amanda turned around and her eyes widened as she saw Aaron firing soulshards at them, Luke following close behind.
The soulshards expanded and turned into a wall in front of the group's path.
Darkshade's scythe hooked onto the ground behind them, the voidwalker in question tethering to it using a tentacle swinging in behind it.
"You've done so much. You've fought so incredibly long. But... you just aren't understanding.", he said.
He ripped his scythe out of the floor and deactivated it, planting the back end into the ground.
"I've told you this before. I'll tell you it again. And if you don't believe me, you aren't supposed to be alive. Our significance is controlled by the whims of outer beings. People who created our very personality, controlling every little detail and factor of what we are, of who we are."
Rose began connecting the dots about the voices.
"I did this, all of this, to wake you up. And yet you just... so incredibly stubbornly don't realize it."
Rose began whirring up the old thinky thinky hole.
"One of you has heard them. Heard the one that puppeteers what I am."
Rose's brain began expanding.
"This would all be over, if you just accepted it. Accepted the freedom of not existing."
Darkshade took his scythe in his hand and activated it again.
"All you have to do is give up, and they'll never control you again."
Rose sighed and decided to speak.
"So when he said 'my character'... he meant... he made you. And controls you. And me, and everyone here depending on the situation."
The voidwalker nodded.
"...I don't think we care. Do we?"
Darkshade stepped back, obviously not expecting this.
Rose continued, encouraged by Darkshade being so apparently confused.
"It really doesn't matter, if that's the case. I should know! If the lives we have, the experiences and powers and happiness we have, are this inflated by people who could rip it all away in an instant, why should we try to escape? It's their story. And given what's happened so far, I think they do more good than bad. I don't care if they control us!"
"Yeah!" Harper exclaimed. "They're leading us to the good ending we always dreamed of!"
"And the person controlling me made my arm get broken," Zane sighed sarcastically.
"Oh don't worry. It will heal," the voice sounding like Zane stated calmly.
"Who said that?" Zane asked.
"I did," the voice replied. "You can call me Forbidden Lloyd."
"WE NEEDED OUR ENTRANCE TO BE DRAMATIC, BUT YOU RUINED IT LLOYD HOW DARE YOU!" a voice sounding like Harper's hissed.
"Calm down, please," Forbidden Lloyd sighed.
Everyone looked up at the sky in confusion.
"NOPE!" the voice responded.
"If you don't, I will expose what anime person you have a crush on!" Forbidden Lloyd cheerfully threatened.
"Ok just s h u t, both of you. you're making the children confused. Also, Zane hush you fool Lloyd could have very well killed you on the spot,"
Darkshade and Aaron reeled at my entrance. Haha idiots.
All the others were relatively confused...
"Also yes Lloyd you ruined our entrance, I had a speech copypasted on a google doc but now it's RUINED."
" R U I N E D "
"Technically, I didn't ruin it. I did not edit the doc so ha!" Lloyd replied.
Harper and Rose looked at the sky, confused.
"You ruined my chance you fool!"
More arguing continued. "I'm going to go get popcorn," Zane stated, then left.
"Uh....count me in." Harper said, following him.
"...Yeah, you all probably understand, I guess. Take your planet and leave."
Darkshade reverted all of his changes and left to go get 3 packs of small smartfood popcorn and exactly 438 orders of small mcdonalds fries.
Overloaded Aaron just stared into the floor.
"So...we've won?" Amanda asked.
"I guess so," Rose shrugged, walking away. "I'm going to get some pizza," she said as she walked away.
"Rizi! Rizi! Did ya hear? You're going to live!" Cibyl cheered.
Aaron expelled 150 soulshards from his skin, one of which being pink and having a flower on top of chains engraved in it, and left.
Two miles away, a shadow seeped out of the ground and cackled before disappearing again.
"So, are we done with this RP?" Forbidden Lloyd asked.
"I mean...everything's at a peaceful, good note. Cibyl has Rizi back, Harper and Chris' relationship hasn't been harmed, yadayadayada....so, yeah, I guess it is." Hope of the Forest answered.
"What did you say about Harper and Chris?" Amanda asked.
"Oh nothing..." Lloyd replied.
Amanda immediately forgot what she asked Forbidden Lloyd. She shrugged and walked away.
SUBSTRAND-S-1-2: Anomaly-+-Animosity[]
Deep in the void...
A voidwalker takes hold of a darkened crystal, tainted with pure essence.
The crystal dissipates.
The voidwalker curls his left hand into a fist. His right hand gives a quick snap.
A scream echoes across the very seams of existence.
The universe bends.
The dimensions begin to coalesce.
It is time for his plan to unfold.
------------------------------
User_FL: We're starting the roleplay. Everyone ready?
AWAITNG_RESPONSES...
User_DS: I guess?
User_Gameboy:Yessir
User_FL: Alright. 3 out of 6. Good enough.
LOADING_SCENE...
Alvin slashed at a training dummy with his Blizzard Buster, evidently feeling useless without his powers.
Crystal Cloudring sat down next to Alvin. "What's with the sad face over there?"
"Who are you?" Alvin asked.
"Crystal Cloudring." She took out her wand, The Master of Trials, and started swinging it. "Collector of rare and lost artifacts."
Alvin shrugged. "That's cool." "HEY! ALVIN! ARE YOU SURE YOU DON'T WANT SOME PIZZA?" Zane's voice rang out.
Crystal winced. "Who's your loudmouthed friend?"
A young girl with long blonde hair manifested. "Pleased to meet you, I'm Yurei Maho. I'm a ghost witch."
"I believe he is Alvin Stormward, a dumb boy." Yurei said, pointing at Alvin.
"Hey don't call people dumb, that's not chill with me, or them." Crystal glared, immediately on the offensive.
"My apologies." Yurei apologized. She seemed oddly good-mannered for a spirit of her estimated age.
"Good." She glanced at Alvin. "Why don't you go get some pizza, you look tired and hungry. I'll chat with this creepy ghost lady." She said.
Alvin got up. "Knock yourself out." He waved and walked away, leaving Crystal with Yurei.
"So Yurei, how did you become a ghost?" Crystal asked.
"I was brutally murdered by my best friend in my school's yard. It was out of envy." Yurei replied.
Crystal paused.
"Oh uh, that's quite... interesting?" She said, organizing her backpack.
"Where'd you come from?" Yurei asked. "I come from an ancient city known as Furude Valley."
"Oh um... I uh... I had amnesia, I couldn't remember the first ten years of my life..." Crystal sighed.
"Hm. You know what? I grant wishes. So...d'you want your memories to come back?" Yurei asked.
Crystal whipped around. "No." She said, then returned to organizing her backpack.
Yurei looked sad. She disappeared.
Meanwhile, in the void...
"Ah, perfect."
A wizard sits in the void in front of a large machine.
The screens above display the current events in all timelines possible at the exact same moment.
The wizard hurriedly types commands and other strings into the small keyboard at its front.
A new screen appears.
The wizard rotates the display and focuses the screen.
He then begins his creation.
Crystal stood up. "That convo didn't last long." She picked up her bag and sighed. She started to walk away, but Zane finally saw her.
"Uh...hi. Who are you?" Zane asked. Everyone else looked at Crystal.
"Oh um... Crystal Cloudring, I collect unique objects, and I um really need to leave, so..." She trailed off, slowly stepping away.
Yurei manifested again. "I guess I should stick with you guys..." She complained.
Alvin randomly passed out. "Uh, you ok there, bud?" Zane asked.
10 minutes later, Alvin woke up.
"I mean DAMN the least they could do is put me in a bed, OR TELEPORT ME THERE! Pretty sure they knew they could," Alvin muttered.
"Oh, I guess you're finally awake." Yurei said, looking at Alvin. She backed away as he got up. "Um, have you seen this place? It's empty, and endless. There's nothing here but us." Yurei pointed out, slightly annoyed.
"Who are you? And why are my powers gone? This don't look like the void. Where am I? And and and....Hold on," Alvin muttered. He closed his eyes. "Yurei? Something something crystal, something something take over void....And yeah that's all I remember that's not already synced into my brain," Alvin stopped. "So what are you doing in the void anyway? Isn't this place off limits to any outsiders who aren't accompanied by a void walker?"
"This...isn't the void. It's something greater." Yurei muttered.
Far off in the distance, a tower was being constructed by an unknown force.
The voidwalker had set it to an autobuild scheme and a 5 second interval of spawning abominations.
He then rotated the display back to UniverseLS and began tracking down the relic.
Best not to let them discover it.
Zane leaned up against a wall. "Isn't it weird how nothing threatening has happened yet?" he asked.
"Well, something threatening will happen. You just jynxed us." Yurei said angrily.
"Uh-" Zane promptly whistled innocently.
Alvin stood up and stretched. "I thought something was off. Who are we fighting and when do I kill them?" Alvin asked. Under his breath, he muttered, "And am I a sidechar- oh hmm? What? I didn't say anything."
"I dunno." Yurei answered.
Crystal moaned in her head. She never traveled in a group because crazy things like this would always happen. She slowly stepped away from the others, trying to get away.
Yurei grabbed her somehow. "There's nowhere to go, so why don't you stay?" She hissed. She shoved her onto the chair Crystal was previously sitting in.
The tower, meanwhile, was 50% built.
The voidwalker was playing a video game about space magic and gunplay, and some shenanigans about light or something.
Crystal glared at her. "I'm not a people person. Groupwork slows me down, and I only go fast." She glanced at her surroundings. "Wait... this place looks familiar-" Her head exploded with pain, as if there was something she knew that she shouldn't have found out.
"You should really stick with us. And anyways, there's nobody here but us, and there's really nothing here. Going alone will be pointless. You might get stuck. Lost. Sucked up by the boundary." Yurei remarked, trailing off.
She trembled a bit. What did I find here? Why can't I remember anything? She felt like she was losing air, then nodded and sighed.
Crystal winced. She touched her forehead and worked on untangling a knot of thoughts in her brain. She gasped and stood up. The relic. This is where I found it. "Follow me. I know where to go." She sprinted off in a direction, not waiting for anyone to ask questions.
"But-we're in a boundary! We'll have to rip the universe in half if we wanna leave, and I suspect we have to leave to find this...thing." Yurei called.
"I've been here before and I survived it, you'll be fine." She yelled back. Did I survive it? The relic gave me amnesia, and I had a splitting headache for a year after, will they be fine?
"WE HAVE BEEN WALKING FOR WHAT FEELS LIKE AN HOUR, AND I CANT FLY JUST CAUSE I'M TOO FAST," Alvin complained. Zane rolled his eyes in response.
The relic in question was pulsing with every inch the group got closer.
However, the voidwalker had other plans.
A loud roar began to reverberate around the boundary slowly, sounding low like a bass when it finally reached the group.
No one wanted to really know what it came from.
"That wasn't here last time..." She winced again, and crumpled to the floor, clutching her head.
The voidwalker was panning across the Boundary looking for the resistance that would dare defy his new universe.
Yurei flew over to them. They continued walking.
Crystal shuddered as she walked. I can't lose myself again, why did I ever agree to this? She saw that she was so lost in her thoughts that she was already a few hundred meters ahead of everyone. She paused and waited patiently.
"What are we looking for?" Zane asked.
A wave of deep purple, faint in color, pulsed across the floor. The wavepulses continued to get smaller as the group got closer to the relic.
Another deep roar echoed out.
"I... I can't remember," Crystal lied, "All I know is that we need to go this way."
"This seems shady as hell, Crystal..." Alvin said.
Zane started talking. "Okay, someone's gotta ask. Who or what is making that roar sound?"
"Last time I was here, there was hardly any noise. And whatever it is, it's been giving me headaches every time I hear it." Crystal muttered.
"It is a titan." Yurei blankly said.
"A titan? I have a scroll about those somewhere in my pack." Crystal said, digging through her backpack.
"A titan is a large elemental monster that could destroy every boundary in existence, and maybe even the universe. Boundaries keep the universe and void steady, so if they're gone, the universe and void will collapse on itself." Yurei explained.
"So exactly how are we going to get past this titan?" Crystal asked, waiting for the others.
"With magic, of course!" Yurei cheered.
"So...we use Invisibility Cloaks?" Zane asked.
"Mmmm don't Titans have noses?" Crystal asked, glancing at Zane.
"I take showers!" Zane exclaimed. Everyone chuckled.
"What if we just fight the Titan? I mean, it looks like you guys have experience with this kind of crazy stuff." She looked at Yurei. "And I assume that you'll be of some help since you managed to grab my arm when you're supposed to be a ghost."
"I can make myself solid." Yurei stated.
"Oh."
"Fighting this Titan will be hard. It will be more powerful than anyone you've faced.....But you can do it." Yurei remarked.
"It always is," Chris sighed.
Crystal turned to Yurei. "You actually think that?"
The titan roared again. The air began to wobble.
"I do."
Yurei thought about her past for a minute.
"Riaru! Riaru! Come play with us!" A young girl shouted to her.
Yurei, or in this case, Riaru, raced over.
She realized there was nobody around but her and her friend.
As her back was turned, her friend began-
Yurei looked distressed, but she stopped thinking and she smiled and continued walking.
"You okay?" Rose asked, noticing Yurei's distressed expression that was now replaced with a smile.
A pile of purple sand began advancing towards the group, unbeknownst to the members.
The titan's noise disappeared, but the ripples now centered around the sand...
Yurei smiled, wiping the sweat off her face. "Yes, I'm fine. I just remembered something from my past that I didn't want to remember."
"I understand how that feels...." Rose shuddered at the memory of her tribemates' deaths.
The sand approached, faintly visible.
Like a ghoulish sandcastle.
"It's not letting us escape! It's going to come into the boundary and fight instead!" Yurei shouted, pointing at the sand.
The sand somehow doubled up in mass, reforming into the shape of the Shipwreck Titan. A pulsating crystal lay in its chest, claws and manticoric tail sharp as Anakin Skywalker's wit.
Zane sighed. "We just saved the world from a black hole. CAN WE GET A BREAK?" He pulled out his Sagittarius Star Wand, which morphed into a crossbow for 1-handed use.
Crystal readied herself. "If you want a break then you can sit this one out. I however, am quite interested in what this titan can do."
Meanwhile, in the void, Darkshade was building his torture tower and preparing the monkey-paw dimensions for fun.
"They're definitely gonna hate this," he reassured himself about the dumbest idea he'd ever had in a while.
The keyboard was slowly breaking down due to the ferocity of the typing. For a multidimensional console, CONSOLE-1 didn't have much CPU power and it was heating up.
Zane fired arrows at the titan, only for them to get absorbed by the sand making up the titan. "What the Hex?"
"Invulnerable to arrows..." Crystal muttered, writing that down.
Rose slashed at the Titan's leg, cutting it off. She sped up, abnormally, and slashed the titan repeatedly in multiple places, before returning to her original spot, panting heavily. The titan crumbled into sand. The group cheered, and stopped celebrating as soon as the titan reformed. "Seriously?" Rose asked. She promptly collapsed on the ground, drained.
Crystal pulled out some hot cocoa. "Drink this, it'll help." She then pulled out her wand. "Based off of what I've noted, I don't think this guy can be defeated with force."
Chris and Amanda looked at each other and nodded, both clearly thinking the same thing. Chris morphed into a dragon and blasted flames at the titan, with Amanda also firing flames at the titan. The flames hit the titan, superheating it and turning it into glass. Chris morphed back into a human. "That's how it's done," he said, smirking. Some of the titan's sand survived and turned into a miniature titan. It set eyes on Crystal, bounded over and happily nuzzled her leg, purring.
"Oh! Hello there!" Crystal picked up the tiny titan and cuddled it.
"So, what are you gonna name it?" Zane asked.
"I'm going to name her Violet." The titan purred at the sound of the name.
The memories suddenly came to Crystal in a wave before disappearing. She could suddenly see her past life. The relic. It's so close. She blinked and looked at Violet. Did you do that?
"I believe we're getting close to something that will literally take us out of this universe. If we touch it, we will be transported to what I call 'The Hallway of Timelines and Universes.'" Yurei said.
Crystal glanced at the others. "Care to tell me about all your crazy experiences? Loudmouth Kid mentioned something about a black hole."
Zane sighed. "Just call me Zane, okay?"
Darkshade himself, at the console, looked very confused.
The void chains he'd fashioned from that warden's soulcrystal, did they break?
How?
When?
The titan's sight monitor went blank. The relic monitor showed the group advancing to a shadowy cage, within its middle suspended midair a purple rock. It glew in a strange fashion, appearing to repulse the light and still have a shining aura of darkness all the same.
At least the others hadn't felt the call...
"Alright Zane, now back to my question." Crystal said.
Zane started speaking rapidly. "Well it started when Forbidden Darkness...possessed me and wreaked havoc across the island, then Rose sacrificed herself to kill the Light Consumer, who was released by Forbidden Darkness, then we went into the void to ressurrect her and Amanda, but we met this so-called 'king' who started absorbing the void, causing the universe to collapse, but Aaron and Luke fixed it, then we somehow popped back into the void later and Luke sent us into a dimension where we had monkey paws, so Amanda and Cibyl took us back in time to stop the black hole from sucking up the world again, and we succeeded, and now we're here." Zane inhaled and exhaled sharply.
Violet all of a sudden hissed and bared her teeth at Zane.
"Wow that's um, interesting." Crystal said while picking up Violet and keeping her away from Zane.
The glass Titan crumbled to pieces, exposing its crystal heart. It fell to pieces, exposing a black, relic ring with a gray orb inside of it. It floated into Crystal's hands.
Crystal stared at the relic. "A relic? How curious..."
Violet was still glaring at Zane. She left Crystal's arms and started hissing at him.
Zane backed up slowly, only for Violet to pounce on him and start scratching his face.
Zane flailed his good arm and legs. "Get her offa me!"
Crystal blinked and stored the relic away, "Zane what did you do?" She hissed, picking up Violet.
"I didn't do anything!" Zane shot back, sitting up.
Crystal peered at him suspiciously. All of a sudden, Violet started floating. She was heading somewhere, but the group didn't know where. "What is it Vio?" Crystal asked.
Meanwhile...
The voidwalker, now relatively frustrated, turned around and saw his captive on the floor with a purplish aura around him. Sand collected around him in a circle.
"...Shane, what are you doi..."
Darkshade stood up and summoned another COLLECTORCRYSTAL.
"Hold still. It'll hurt less if you don't move." He sharpened the edge of the crystal and attached it to his staff.
The child in question appeared to be unable to hear what his foster not-guardian was saying, still drawing the titan's young toward him.
Luke thought for a bit, shook his head and turned off the auto-program.
Darkshade prepared for another routine injection, with no regard for the side effects of the draining.
Yurei floated up to Violet and caught her. She tossed her into Crystal's arms, and Yurei drifted back onto the ground.
"Vio what was that?" Crystal asked,
Violet ran into Zane and started scratching and hitting him on the face. Crystal was staring at the relic and was paying no attention to them at all.
Zane put his bow away and plucked Violet off of his face. He held her as far away from his body as possible. "Would you keep your Titan under control?" he sighed irritably.
"Hmm? Zane, just try to be nice to her she'll warm up to you eventually." Crystal placed the relic ring on her finger. "Now, what does this do?" She muttered.
Immediately, the group ended up outside Luke's tower.
Crystal blinked. "So that's what it does."
The voidwalker in control of the dimension looked over at the right monitor on the console and proceeded to punch a hole through it.
"I don't think we should go in." Yurei blankly stated.
"I'll go in and check it out. I have many experiences with tall towers." She pulled out her wand, but the relic on her hand all of a sudden glowed purple and she started levitating. "Huh. I guess this works too..." Violet yelped and jumped up into her arms before she flew too high up.
Rose looked at Crystal. "Crystal, you oka-" she was cut off as Crystal blasted her with a shadow-void ball.
Crystal flinched and tried to fight against the relic. What's happening? She tried to stop herself, but all of a sudden she spun around and blasted Chris in the chest.
Amanda slowly backed away. "Crystal, I don't know what's come over you, but you gotta stop!" She pulled out her sword and held it in front of her. "I don't want to have to hurt you!"
Crystal winced then glared at Amanda and the others. She channeled the excess energy and created a dome around the group. She then proceeded to fly into Luke's tower to finish him off.
Zane banged on the inside of the dome. "CRYSTAL. LET. US. OUT."
Yurei phased through the dome. "Stop it!" She yelled as she became solid and punched Crystal, knocking her out. The dome disappeared when Crystal fainted.
Taking the opportunity like a Belvita after a nice cup of coffee, a cloaked figure jumped down from the top floor window and encased the K.O'd treasure hunter in crystal. Then, both kidnapper and victim disappeared. On cue, 3 abominations rose from the darkness and walked toward what was once the dome and group.
Rose pulled out her sword. "Alright, lets hack 'em to bits!" she smirked, charging at one.
Chris morphed into a dragon and slashed at one with his talon, only for the attack to rub off and do nothing. "What the-" the abomination grabbed his tail and slammed him on the ground several times, before using him as a flail and took out Amanda and Alvin, before flinging him at Yurei who was, unfortunately, still physical.
Rose slashed the Abomination, only for the sword to abruptly stop and start vibrating from the metal to metal contact, sending the vibrations through Rose, temporarily paralyzing her.
Zane fired arrows at one, only for the arrows to clunk off of it, until one hit the metal cap on top of it, knocking an empty cap off of it, exposing a neck stump. "I think I'm gonna be sick-" Zane was kicked into the pile known as Alvin, Amanda, Chris, and Yurei. Rose was sent flying into Zane. All that remained were 3 abominations (one putting its metal cap back on), and Harper.
Crystal moaned and rubbed her head, Where am I? What happened? She remembered fighting her friends, and then looked at the relic ring. When she last saw it, it was glowing a violent shade of purple, but now it had dimmed in two a small glow. And... it had a voice. It was talking to her. She couldn't control it, and it'd taken over. I hope the others are okay...
The room went clear. What Crystal saw in that moment was a wizard she didn't know pointing the sharp end of a scythe at her neck and a cloaked figure hobbling away. The room seemed to flicker in and out of every dimension at once.
What's happening? The area around Crystal seemed to flicker through her past.
"Remember, Crystal."
"Remember the things lost."
The voice repeated. Crystal eventually recognized it as her mother's voice and was shocked.
"Mother? Mother where are you? What happened?" Crystal gasped, looking in every direction.
“Hello, daughter.”
”I am here to help you find answers.”
Crystal’s Mother manifested beside her. She was a tall woman with short blonde hair.
Crystal trembled at the sight of her mother. She ran up to her and hugged her tightly. "I missed you. I couldn't remember you, then it hit me."
Crystal let go of her mother. "What do I need to remember? What are you trying to say?"
"This is the Mind Hall. This is a place in your deep mind where everything lost is stored. Search for the lost memories." Her mother explained. The room's lights turned on.
Meanwhile, outside, everyone was ready for round two with the abominations.
Meanwhile, outside the Mind Room, in the tower...
The voidwalker was preparing another portal by selecting a few shards and throwing them at a rock.
The abominations at the bottom floor weren't looking any less discouraged to murder. Void essence rippled through the first's back and the metal caps were now holding... something... back. The caps shook and thumped against the force behind them, which no one wanted to know what was.
Crystal's Mother grabbed Crystal's hand (somehow) and guided her to a wooden door with a orange window. Crystal walked in.
Meanwhile, outside, the wizards weren't doing so well.
Alvin slashed at one abomination, and was kicked back. Rose charged, ready to put her sword through the abomination, only to get thrown into poor Alvin, who had just gotten up. Zane fired arrows at the abomination, all of which clunked off of it. The abomination slammed its fist into the ground, causing a massive shockwave of void magic. All the wizards were knocked off of their feet. Zane stood up, unable to see the abomination from all the dust in the air. Then, purple spikes popped up out of the ground like a Spike Strike. As the dust cleared, the group could see a massive purple spike
sticking through Zane's stomach.
The first abomination, now with a kill, took off its stumpcap and destroyed it. A mouth with almost infinite rows of teeth lay behind it running down its throat like a mutated octopus. A mess of crystals and flesh began squelching out of it violently. The mass fell on the floor and reformed into what looked like a living club. Ew.
Meanwhile in the Mind Room...
The area around Crystal started to flicker. Her mother disappeared and she found herself at the top of a tower. Where am I? What happened? Where is my mother? These questions flitted through her mind as she looked at her surroundings. She stepped towards the edge and saw a battle between her friends and these weird... things. She looked at her group and saw that Zane was missing. Where is he? She thought. She was distracted by the battle, and never heard the footsteps of someone coming up behind her.
And then the tower left her peripheral vision.
A blade ripped through Crystal's spinal cord and sent her plummeting 150 stories down.
The murderer, Luke Darkshade, deactivated the staff and began sending further reinforcements to the battle below.
Harper sliced the club in two, killing it. Amanda fired flames at the second abomination, Chris following. The abomination blocked the flames with its hand, and punched Amanda in the side of the face when she neared. A crack could be heard. "NO!" Chris cried, flying over to Amanda's body. Before he reached it, Chris was slammed into the ground by the abomination's palm. He staggered to his feet and whipped out his Eclipse Sky Scythe angrily. He slashed and slashed, until, the scythe was ripped out of his hand.
Chris thudded on the ground, a bloody slash mark across his face.
Crystal felt the area around her change. She briefly heard her mother say something, then she opened her eyes and saw that she was in a volcano.
An enraged Rose charged at the second abomination, who tossed Chris' body aside, and stomped towards her. She jumped and slashed at the abomination, who blocked the attack with it's metal arms. It swung its fist at Rose, who slid under it, climbed on its back, ripped the cap off and aggressively stabbed the neck stump. It screeched, and its neck stump exploded, sending teeth flying everywhere. The abomination collapsed, a bloody Rose rolling over its neck stump.
"ROSE!" Harper screamed, running over to Rose's body. She cradled Rose in her arms and sobbed into her shoulder. "MOVE!" Alvin yelled, pulling Harper to the side, as two soulshards whizzed by her ear.
2 more abominations stomped onto the scene. The remaining wizards seemed shaken, barely able to hold the focus needed to fight anymore.
The new two abominations followed the soulshards and the first took hold of the Mana wizard by the neck. Its hands were singed, but it didn't care.
Alvin Stormward became 2 halves rather quickly when it grabbed him with its other hand.
The 2 halves fell on the floor and blood violently shot out of the separated arteries.
Harper was officially traumatized.
The body twitched. A croaking breath echoed out of what was left of the mangled corpse, and bones spiked out of 3 places in the skin. The abomination reached down and shoved the upper half down its throat, squelching and dismantling.
The abomination ripped its own stomach open and a mouth formed in the hole with 300 layers of teeth. Blood splattered among the other corpses and Harper simply could not take it anymore.
It's truly a wonder how easy ice spells can shred the brain.
Harper's entire frontal lobe flopped on the ground in 15 pieces in front of her as she collapsed.
The void relic managed to keep with Crystal, and a projection of her mother stayed existent in the location.
Crystal was walking absentmindedly and nearly fell into the core of the volcano. She backed away and stared at the lava.
Yurei was in tears. She manifested her weapon she had when she was alive, a bow and arrow, and began to aggressively shoot the abomination. "I WON'T LET YOU HURT ANYONE ELSE!" she cried.
The arrows pierced through flesh and the Abomination fell. The three remaining didn't take kindly to this development, but began to retreat.
Crystal wandered through the volcano, shying away from any lava pools, geysers and other dangers. she eventually found herself at the core of the volcano again, where the area started rumbling. The volcano had a safety mechanism where each tunnel was briefly filled with lava, then the lava disappears through side vents and consumes the next tunnel to the right or left. Crystal remembered this pattern like the back of her hand, and exited the area before it was flooded with lava. She tripped on her way out and her eyes widened as the tripwire made a twang sound. I activated a trap. The mechanisms are going to change now- Her thoughts were cut off by a deep rumble, and all of a sudden, her current tunnel was quickly filling up with lava. She banged her head against a stalactite and passed out.
Yurei sighed. She had her weapon disappear and she walked over to the others. She placed her hands on each of them and revived them.
Atop the tower, Crystal's seeming assailant threw a dark crystal down. It exploded, forming a wormhole, and began to rip away the dimension sucking everything nearby into itself.
Zane sat up, looked at the wormhole and groaned. "This again?!"
"We're about to be sent into the Monkey Paw dimension!" Yurei squealed. They were then sucked into the dimension and they all fell into a tree.
Behind Darkshade, another figure stirred from unconsciousness. Sand littered the floor around them and faint echoes of roars emitted from its hands.
The figure yawned. He looked like he hadn’t eaten in days.
The figure woke up, and threw a dead bush at Darkshade.
Crystal groaned. She rubbed her forehead and looked around. Wasn't I just in a volcano?
"You evil too?" the boy asked.
Crystal blinked. "Who are you?"
"Shane," he said.
Crystal winced and stared at Shane. "I'm Crystal. Crystal Cloudring." Her relic glowed brightly and she flinched as she tried to shove the darkness down.
"I'm guessing you got trapped here just like me," said Shane, pulling out a bandage and wrapping it around his scarred leg.
Yurei nodded, unsure if she should trust him.
Crystal peered at Shane. "How old are you?" He looked far too young to be out here on his own.
"Nine," said Shane.
Crystal gaped at him. "Nine??? How are you still alive?"
Footsteps echoed behind the 2 conversers. A purple crystal began to glow from in the blur.
Crystal whipped around and pulled out her wand.
"Who's there?" She called, the relic on her finger growing brighter.
A few hisses and meows of help could be heard.
Crystal's eyes widened and she gasped. "Violet, I'm coming!" She called, running towards the sound.
The small sand manticore was seemingly hissing at... a wizard.
Holding a scythe.
Pointed at Violet's neck!
The wizard let his attention span widen to accommodate the new person he thought future-present him killed.
Then again, wasn't the past they were now in also merged with the present?
Uh, well...
Crystal glared at him. "Let her go. Now."
The wizard shrugged.
"For a housecat of a titan, she remembers things surprisingly well. Titans call titans. I can't have that happen. Furthermore, I can't let you leave. My hands are tied."
The scythe glew, and Violet's crystals went dark. The echoes of the hissing still remained, now turning into louder, more panicked mew-roars.
The young titan's body crumbled away promptly, but the scythe retained its brighter luminescence and the cries did not quiet.
Then they suddenly cut away as the orb on the handle ejected a crystal.
A shadowy figure slipped behind Crystal, hardly noticed by the shocked teen.
"Alright, Ragie. Hit it!"
Crystal fell to the floor, unconscious. The shadow disappeared, and the relic hunter arose, albeit... changed.
"Don't call me that.", said the possessed Cloudring.
Possessed-Crystal shivered a little. "Your girlfriend sure can fight. I don't know if can hold her off for long."
Yurei wasn't paying attention, as she was trying to think of a way to make her ankles a bit smaller.
The voidwalker proceeded to pin the possessed to the wall using various shards and began to ball up soul energy.
"Ah, so you're into that sort of thing. Alright, I see how it is." For a literal shadow, Raganoth the Scourge had a weird sense of humor.
"One: Not my girlfriend, not my kink. I don't have either, and I don't plan on having either. Two: You should start feeling less resistance in a few seconds." replied Darkshade, now with a peeved expression.
“Amateurs.” said Shane.
"Shane, this isn't exactly your concern, is it?" questioned Darkshade, now with a full soul energy core in his hand. The staff now deactivated on his back glew and Shane began to look like he'd seen something he didn't want to.
“What are you getting at, boomer.” said Shane.
You never said anything about a kid? Possesd-Crystal thought/said.
"...We'll have to cancel coffee night and replace it with another Harvest if you continue this line of questioning, Shane." The voidwalker didn't regard the shadow's comment.
Yurei stopped thinking about her ankles and watched. She didn't feel like stopping them yet.
The soul orb malformed into a crystal that fell to the floor. The shards holding the host for Raganoth dissolved, and both wizard and shadow gave a quick glance to their surroundings.
Yurei twitched as she felt people staring at her. She turned towards the two. "What'cha staring at?" She asked in a annoyed tone.
A soul crystal spawned right in front of the ghost. It began to pull Yurei toward it. The voidwalker had an imprint prepared for... purposes.
Yurei tried to run away, but she failed. She was sucked in.
Shane thought to himself. He didn’t want anyone else to die. He didn’t know what to do. A wand came into his hand. Somehow, his arm moved on it’s own. It threw the wand down and the ground started to shake. He saw a big titan appear behind him and he got freaked out.
Suddenly, Shane felt a burst of energy. He felt a new power. With this newfound confidence, he stepped forward and punched Raganoth out of Crystal.
Normal-Crystal staggered back and shook her head. She saw Luke out of the corner of her eye and felt a rush of pure fury.
"Unexpected." The voidwalker withdrew Raganoth into a crystal like a pokemon to stop him from dying, and haphazardly threw Shane into the next room using a few tentacles. He then activated his scythe and phased into the floor.
Crystal closed her eyes and listened. It was a tactic she had used a lot when she'd been stuck at an arena. She would shut off one of her senses and let another one grow stronger. And she hoped that this time would be no different.
Darkshade reappeared to the relic hunter's left and swung his scythe in her general direction. The blade flared as it got closer to its mark...
Crystal blocked the attack and punched Luke in the face.
The voidwalker rolled from the recoil and planted his scythe in the ground, swinging around and using the momentum to plant a two-footed kick in Crystal's face. After pushing off, he stood up and regained his usual stance with his staff in both hands.
Crystal was on the floor, and appeared to be unconscious. But then again, appearances can be deceiving, and Crystal opened her eyes, tripped Luke and spun around to do a three-punch combo to his face.
The third punch was met by a tentacle wall which proceeded to push Crystal to the other side of the room. Another wall sprouted up behind the Walker and carried an unconcious Shane with it. The tentacle wall stopped next to Darkshade and the wizard's scythe pointed directly at Shane's spinal cord.
"Don't make any wrong moves here, Crystal. You're a good fighter, but you wouldn't want the blood to be on your hands tonight." The voidwalker smirked as the scythe inched ever closer to its mark.
"Surrender, and this kid lives. Fight, and well... Ever seen someone's pulse stop?"
Crystal froze and stared at Shane. The scythe was dangerously close to the unconscious child, and Crystal knew she had only one option. A wand clattered to the floor, breaking the silence between the voidwalker and the relic hunter. "I surrender. Now let him go."
Yurei appeared scarred after a fight with an imprint.
"This can't go on any longer."
Yurei put her hands together.
"Well, it must. But that's why I'm doing this."
Yurei disappeared, but her soul, a white whisp, was in her place. It broke apart into tiny pieces. One of them flew into Crystal, and when it did, she remembered everything. Another one flew into Shane, and he stood up, trembling. The others flew away.
Yurei may have helped them by spilting up her soul....but she wasn't coming back.
Ever again.
"Your ghost friend....sacrificed herself. Be proud of her." Shane muttered.
The voidwalker recalled his scythe and summoned a portal.
"You've officially surrendered. Leave this universe, and the terms will be finite."
Hey what about my "Eternal host" deal? Raganoth snapped, somehow talking to Luke through a crystal.
Darkshade responded by soultwisting a few letters into existence inside the crystal.
Shut up and trust me with this. That portal isn't what you think it is.
Crystal hesitated and glanced at Shane. "Why should I believe you? The minute I go through you could kill him and I'd never know."
All of a sudden, a... cabinet came through the portal and knocked Crystal out. The relic hunter fell to floor, unconscious for real now, and unable to defend herself.
"Alright, shadow man. The husk is yours." Darkshade threw the crystal holding Raganoth next to Cloudring's unconscious body.
Raganoth possessed Crystal and the relic hunter stood up. This is fun. But where did the cabinet come from though?
The walker said nothing and went back to the console, knowing the wizards that remained would be looking for their allies. Priority was to stop them, second priority was to stop them from regrouping with their interdimensional acquaintances.
Are you going to say anything? Possessed-Crystal asked, clearly annoyed.
"Hush. I've got things to do. That little host of yours has a lot of spirit, and I have the means to weaken you. Interfere and you're kicked out, deal is off." The voidwalker continued creating anomalies in the other wizards' path.
Raganoth huffed but stayed quiet.
Zane sat up in the monkey paw dimension. "Here again?!"
Rose groaned. "Last time Cibyl had to get us out with a Void Relic. Even if Cibyl knew we were here, Crystal has the Relic, and she tried to kill us."
"Did anybody feel....healed earlier?" Harper asked.
Spatial anomalies like wormholes and rips in spacetime began to appear around the wizards, looking for their ethereal ally.
Harper brought out her weapon.
Everyone pulled out their weapons and looked at the wormholes, preparing for the worst.
Portals and holes ripped open in every possible location in spacetime around the wizards.
Thousands of hands with eyes in their palms swarmed grasping through the wormholes, screeches emanating from behind them. An intense feeling of overencumbering dread ran through the air, sourced from Possessed-Crystal spamming various commands on Console-1's keyboard. Eventually, the husk and shadow were swept back into a boundary because of an accidental ctrl key press.
"So what's the plan?" Zane asked. "I'm all for beating these things up until they run away!" Alvin replied. "Good plan," Zane replied, shooting arrows at the hand-eye things. Harper and Alvin impaled a bunch with Icicle Shards, Snowflakes, and Spearicles as well as freezing them with several Chill Outs. Amanda and Chris torched a few, while Rose repeatedly slashed several of them, leaving scars.
Rose drove her sword through a portal and heard a squelch and a screech. Then something tugged on the sword and pulled it out of Rose's hand and into the portal. Then the hand grabbed her and pulled a screaming Rose into the portal.
"ROSE!" Harper ran into the portal not wanting to lose her sister again. "I guess we're doing this now." Zane followed Harper and stood at the entrance, firing arrows at the eye-hand monsters coming out of the other portals trying to force them back as the others came through. "They just keep coming!" he yelled. Amanda came back. "Hold on." She blasted flames at the ground in front of the portal. The monsters screeched and backed away. Zane fired some arrows through the wall of fire for a good measure. The two then ran after the others.
The hands let out a blood-curdling shriek in powerful crescendo, then receding back into the portals.
The wizards had ended up in Darkshade's Backup Pocket Dimension, with the tower in sight- well, part of it. Most of it was refracted across the other dimensions.
The tower had a glowing aura about it- probably something to do with an imprint of itself in the void. The aura seemed to repel things like Mira Shade's outfit repelled the ground- that is to say, the aura just forced everything out at terminal velocity.
Meanwhile in the boundary...
Raganoth was getting extremely annoyed. His host was practically killing him, whether she knew it or not, and he felt like making her stab herself to end this pain, but that would kill him too, and that probably wouldn't go well with the voidwalker. Crystal had a memory of some massacre or whatever on repeat, and when Crystal's mind played the same scene of death and bloodshed for the 58th time, the shadow snapped and just left Crystal's body. He was so annoyed that he didn't notice what he'd done, and faded away from existence the moment he left his host. Crystal dropped to the floor when he left and blinked. What just happened?
Darkshade felt an echo of shadow magic fading through the air. Checking on the console monitors showed a fully concious crystal, and in front of the monitors, an extremely peeved voidwalker.
The monsters in the tower had appeared. Void imprints in hordes, taking form of fully evolved beasts and bosses. The 20 last floors beneath Darkshade's residence were filled with final bosses comprised of void crystals, from shadows that seemed illegal to a wolf who wore the mask of a bear.
The group was treading though a rip in the multiverse, flickering on and off of the console's center-right monitor. The voidwalker ignored it as the chances of survival there was very slim. The group was shooting, slicing, and torching eye-hands.
The hands had an origin point that slowly became clearer.
A figure resembing Darkshade, though not quite, stood behind the edge of the rip.
The void seemed to perfectly answer every single one of its becks and calls, their staff a cluster of gems upon an incredibly basic rod.
It appeared to be working on something while summoning the things the group was fighting...
The group was treading though a rip in the multiverse, flickering on and off of the console's center-right monitor. The voidwalker ignored it as the chances of survival there was very slim. The group was shooting, slicing, and torching eye-hands.
The hands had an origin point that slowly became clearer.
A figure resembing Darkshade, though not quite, stood behind the edge of the rip.
The void seemed to perfectly answer every single one of its becks and calls, their staff a cluster of gems upon an incredibly basic rod.
It appeared to be working on something while summoning the things the group was fighting...
Rose's screams were heard farther down the wormhole. "Will they ever cease to attack us?" Chris muttered. He morphed into a dragon and blasted flames down it, Amanda extending its reach by 5 yards. "There. A clear path," he sighed.
The hands recoiled, swatting at themselves.
The voidwalker finally began to notice the awakened relic hunter's apparent danger to his tower's aura.
Darkshade typed a command into the rightmost keyboard and the creation at the end of the dimension-rip dissapeared.
In the boundary, purple sand coalesced.
This time, it formed into a full titan, with a familiar kid inside of its core...
"Wha-"
Crystal turned around and was greeted by the sight of a titan. What is that doing here???
The group finally caught up to to the monster holding Rose, who was evidently unconscious with a bruise on the side of her head.
The titan came at Crystal, clawing left and right as if it couldn’t stop. The copy of Shane was moving his arms, directing the titan’s every move. It was almost like he inhabited the creature, as the titan launched a Shadow Shock at Crystal.
Crystal dodged the spell and used Super Nova on the beast.
Where did this titan even come from?
Another Shadow Shock to avoid. She'd tire herself out before she would ever defeat the titan.
The real Shane was inching towards an open portal where the cabinet had come out of. Using a finesse-type titan lure, he'd be able to find a titan he sensed as rogue and could track it down.
Ouch.
Crystal's arm was hit by a small Shadow Shock. Her armour made sure that the shadow ball didn't hurt her any more than a small bruise, but it didn't reduce the pain. Crystal definitely wasn't skilled enough to take on a titan. At least, not by herself.
The titan looks fiercely at Crystal with a slight smirk on it's face.
Meanwhile, in the hand-portals:
A horrible shriek ran over the air, bringing most of the wizards to their knees within 15 seconds of hearing it. Eventually, that same dread began to cover the field again.
The wizards stood up wearily and continued running after the monster.
The titan let out a Royal Roar and sent Crystal flying backwards, flipping off of the ground each time she hit it.
Ow...
Crystal sighed as she saw the beast charge towards her. She was injured, tired, and she had dropped her wand when the titan attacked her. Crystal was in quite the predicament, and there was almost no way out of death now.
Almost.
The relic on Crystal's hand glowed brightly, and Crystal felt a surge of power flow through her veins. Using the power the relic gave her, Crystal blasted the titan in the stomach. The titan crashed into the ground, a small whimper emerging from its mouth before it got back up, with both fear and annoyance displayed on its face.
The titan roared, seemingly out of its own choice. Spikes began to rip out of its outer layer, and they acted as pylons, forming shields around the beast. There weren't any shields above the spikes, though...
Crystal conjured a void ball and threw it at the shield. The ball hit a spike and it shattered,
Huh. Interesting...
Another void ball. She hit a spike, but the titan was not happy after that. The beast growled and charged at the relic hunter.
"Whoa-"
She rolled out of the way and threw another void ball at the titan.
As the crystals shattered, some hand monsters just disappeared. "Well that makes things easier," Zane shrugged. Little did he know that the hand monsters would later start popping out of the remains of the crystals Crystal shattered.
With very few monsters left, the group quickly caught up to the monster carrying Rose. "Face it pal. There's one of you and 6 of us." Alvin smirked. The monster separated into 12 hand-monsters. "You had to say something, didn't you?" Chris snarled.
Zane, evidently annoyed, put an arrow through each of them. "Can we go now?" Chris morphed into a dragon. Harper nodded, putting Rose on Chris' back before climbing onto him herself. Zane could have sworn he saw Chris blush for a moment.
Meanwhile, Crystal was having an easy time shattering each crystal.
"I'm going to have to do this myself with myself."
The voidwalker teleported out of the tower and the creator of the monsters teleported next to him.
The creator smirked and gave a sidelook to Darkshade.
"So, LS. Dharkon or Calamitas Supreme?"
"WS. Stop. Just give me the damn Grandoff."
"You're not very fun today."
"You imply I ever am."
'WS' summoned the imprint construct of a massive reptile akin to the Father of Dragons. Thousands and thousands of tentacles spined with crystals formed instead of wings, and the bottom jaw split across the middle. Every section of the mouth was riddled with teeth.
The voidwalker that caused all this teleported to stand on the dragon, and his other counterpart stayed behind, preparing another Shane copy. If that titan wasn't taken down soon, it would get dicey real fast...
Crystal was showing no signs of fatigue, since the relic was powering her. After destroying the last spike, the titan let out another Royal Roar and Crystal just barely managed to get out of the way. The shield broke, and Crystal finished off the titan with a rain of void balls. Crystal sighed as the titan fell, and the relic stopped glowing. Suddenly another roar emerged from the area around, louder and more furious than the titan's. A flash of mahogany red scales caught her eye, and she turned around.
"HOLY [bleep]"
Dragon.
You're going to be fighting a dragon.
Darkshade teleported outside the back of the boundary, where the void and the anchor for the tower barrier were. He ripped out the imprint of this reversed dragon (Ffodnarg?) from the void and sent it into his pocket dimension to intercept the other wizards, proceeding to return to the tower and console.
"Oh hey, we're almost out!" Zane exclaimed. "That wasn't so hard!" Suddenly Ffodnarg's imprint appeared in front of them. "Do you guys HAVE to keep jynxing this?!" Chris exclaimed. Zane fired several arrows at the dragon, Harper fired massive snowflakes at it, Chris breathed fire on it, Amanda blasted flames at it, and Alvin slashed at its leg. All of these attacks were rendered useless as the imprint was already physical and had impenetrable scales.
The imprint roared and swatted Chris out of the sky, grabbed Amanda and threw her at Zane, and kicked Alvin away.
The imprint's tentaclewings reeled back and stiffened, the spikes aiming towards every wizard respectively.
Velvet energy pulsed through the tentacles, and they finally shot forward.
QUICKTIME:
[SACRIFICE]-[NOSAC]
GO!
FL> [NOSAC] (rose has suffered enough)
GW> [SACRIFICE] WE THROW HER, THEN HER LIMBS WILL BE RIPPED OFF, AND THEN WE COMEBACK TO SALVAGE THE BODY PARTS AND FEAST ON IT.
[TIE! COINFLIP... GO!]
HEADS: LIVE
TAIL: SACRIFICE
UNLUCKY! TAILS!
CHOOSE SEVERITY:
IMPALEMENT (LOW)
15x STABATHON (MED)
DISMEMBER X100 RIPPER RUSH (HIGH)
DS> Impalement please.
FL> uh...impalement.
DS> YES THANK YOU
EXECUTION MODUS ACTIVATED
FACILITATING...
SPECIFY TARGET
VAR-RtW
VAR-HotF
VAR-ZGC
VAR-CSD
VAR-AVS
FL> [CENSORED TO PREVENT SPOILERS]
Crystal backed away. "Alright you oversized lizard, I really don't want to have to hurt you so um, can you go back to where you came from?" The relic on her hand activated again, and the father of dragons seemed to glare at her harder with every step she took. This wasn't any -20000 IQ kill machine dragon, and Crystal would probably be burnt to toast in a few seconds.
The dragon clawed at her and she ducked. The dragons talons nearly slit into her head and she just barely managed to avoid them.
The tentacles were redirected, seemingly provoked by a Zane who decided to try to block off the tentacles from the others. However, this came at cost- Zane had his stomach ripped right through. Energy pulsed into the crystal stabbing into the wizard and Zane's entire insides melted away like a candle. A fleshy goop cascaded into the ground and Zane collapsed.
The imprint roared and opened its jaws. Collective energy spiraled into its throat, and the outside air began vacuuming inward to the influx of pure power.
Grandoff breathed a fireball at Crystal. Luckily, the flames only grazed a few centimeter of her flesh.
The fireball flew past to make contact with the ground, where it exploded in a ball of about 5000 Kelvin.
Crystal winced.
That might take a while to heal...
Then the dragon used his talons to flick Crystal back, making her crash into the ground. She'd just barely managed to avoid the overheated fireball (that doesn't make sense but meh), but her left arm was still covered in bruises and her right arm was now semi-drenched in blood.
I can't kill a dragon.
I can't do this.
She looked down and closed her eyes as the dragon came to end her life.
Grandoff fires another fireball, Crystal dodges and retaliates with one final wand spell before being exhausted, Grandoff goes for the talon claw....
The claw ripped right through Crystal's flesh. Her innards flowed out like water and she collapsed, bleeding profusely. Crimson pools appeared on the ground and the color left her eyes as she exhaled weakly. Gray and glazed eyes completed the picture, and the relic hunter was killed.
Ffodnarg roared in triumph and pushed the tentacle-wings through the outer end of the boundary, where they snaked away to support the imprint that recently murdered Zane.
It's extremely hard to think you're dead when you can feel your heart beating.
Crystal opened her eyes and looked at herself. This is... weird.
Suddenly, Crystal wakes up in a flower pit, glaring into the Sun. "Welcome Crystal to the Lotus Realm." A mysterious entity from from the sky...
A girl with a coral left eye and a purple right eye behind a visor and coral hair with orange fades stepped in front of Crystal. "Hi. I'm Kira Lotusmech, guardian of this realm," the girl said.
"She's also Harper's biological mom and only wizard to possess the mech element," Zane's voice chirped behind her. Zane stepped out from behind Kira and waved.
The wind blows, rain appears to be heading towards them. "Inside the temple, shall we?" As Kira said.
Crystal glanced at Zane as they headed towards the temple. "What is this place? What happened?"
"1. I don't know." Zane shrugged. "As for #2, you clearly died," Zane replied.
Harper sank to the ground, disgusted by the melted mass of flesh lying on the ground that was once Zane's stomach. Amanda screamed in horror, while Rose was frozen in horror. Alvin and Chris, in revenge, attacked Ffodnarg. Chris slashed at Ffodnarg, sinking his talons into the imprint, smashing it into the ground. The imprint grabbed Chris and threw him away, only for Alvin to leap off of Chris' back and sink his Blizzard Buster into the dragon's chest, killing it.
The tentacles ripping out from the floor gave one last stand, charging up pure crimson energy. The tentacles cycled and prepared a massive laser, empowered by the blood of 2 heroes.
FINAL STAND!
LAUNCH ALL YOUR ATTACKS AND TRY TO KILL THE ENEMY BEFORE IT KILLS YOU!
READY...
GO!
"How do we get out of here?" Crystal asked.
"You don't, you're here for eternity," Kira assumes.
Alvin slashed one of the tentacles right down the middle, killing it. The others wouldn't go down so easily.
The tentacles remaining continued to charge. Energy pulsed outward, repelling most physical attacks.
Amanda eventually managed to burn a tentacle to a crisp. The other tentacles did not take kindly to this as they grabbed her and threw her into Alvin.
FINAL STAND STATUS: CALAMITOUS.
FINISH THIS!
The tentacles were prepared to fire, winding outwards.
A quiet fell over the area...
Meanwhile, in the Lotus Realm:
Crystal looked annoyed after Kira's response. She looked at Zane. "How are the others?"
"Hope they're doing well," Zane replied, "Well, they aren't here, so that's a start."
"How did you die?" Crystal asked.
"I had my insides melted out after being stabbed by a tentacle. Strangely, I didn't feel anything..." Zane shrugged.
Crystal gaped at Zane. "Your insides were melted...?"
Zane nodded. "How did you die?"
"Oh I was stabbed by a dragon and then my innards fell out and I created a miniature lake of blood."
Zane gaped. "...that's...brutal."
"Well it's better than having to survive all these goddamn flowers..." She mumbled.
"Really? I think they're quite nice!" Zane replied. Crystal clearly disagreed and the two got into an argument about...flowers. "Can this marriage be saved?" Kira laughed. The two turned their heads towards Kira. "MARRIAGE?!" the two shouted. They promptly chased Kira, the older girl easily outrunning the two.
Crystal stopped running after they passed the same house for the fifth time. "She's taking us in circles. If we just wait here we might be able to stop her when she comes around."
Meanwhile...
Fallen wizards littered the floor, some dismembered, some just dead.
During the final stand, the laser had fired, obliterating both parties.
"Oof-"
Kira wasn't looking forwards and had crashed into Crystal, which made Crystal crash into Zane like dominoes.
"Watch where you're going, why don't you?" Crystal snapped.
"I'm...good," Zane groaned.
"My bad, hope you're alright." Kira replied.
"I'm fine."
Crystal felt like arguing even more, but stopped herself.
What's wrong with me?
She'd always hated flowers, that was normal, but wanting to continue an argument? Getting angry over a teasing comment? That wasn't her.
I'm probably just annoyed. Flowers always ruin my mood...
The pink soulshard floating on a pedestal on one of the other areas began to glow brightly as the relic got closer to it. It seemed either distressed or plotting.
"What's this...?"
Crystal walked up to the glowing soulshard. She felt drawn to it, her hand unconsciously moving to connect with the soulshard...
"Crystal?" Zane's voice snapped her out of her trance. "What is that?"
Crystal blinked. "I don't actually know..."
Crystal glanced back at the soulshard. "It's probably important, but we can worry about it later." She looked up and saw the moon slowly inch upwards. "We should probably get some rest if we're stuck here forever." When she said that last part, there seemed to be traces of annoyance in her voice. Crystal stepped away from the pedestal and tripped over the carpet.
"Whoa-"
Zane caught her in his arms and then both of their faces turned pink. "Thanks Zane." Crystal said, then walked away. Kira stifled a laugh while Zane's face turned pomegranate-red.
Kira smirked as she walked away. "I guess it CAN be saved!"
Crystal ignored Kira and glanced at the sky.
Three hours...
She didn't want anyone to see her go to the temple. It would probably be the only place where she'd be alone.
I can wait.
Three hours later...
Midnight.
Time to go.
Crystal headed towards the temple, staying in the shadows and straying away from open spaces. Zane had just caught sight of the relic hunter and decided to follow her for reasons that totally didn't have anything to do with his crush on Crystal.
Zane poked his head into the doorway as Crystal pushed it closed behind her, the door smacking into his face. "OW!"
The console began to fire up multiple alarms, some consisting of:
ERROR: VAR-CC PROTOCOL CONTINUOUS RESOLVE VAR-RELIC VAR-AS(SHARD)
ERROR: VAR-KS-SS NEAR VAR-RELIC
ERROR: VAR-CC PROTOCOL POTENTIAL INTIMACY VAR-ZGC
ERROR: UNIVERSE-CLOSET REPLICATION- RESET PARAMETER VAR-CC VAR-ZGC
The voidwalker crushed another coffee mug in his hand out of anger. The Lotus Realm was the only place that the void didn't reach- it technically didn't exist due to its creator being legally dead.
The door opened.
"If you're going to try to follow someone without them knowing, I suggest that you learn how to shut your mouth."
"If you're going to try to sneak out without anyone noticing, I suggest that you learn how to check if nobody is watching you," Zane shot back.
Crystal sighed.
"I already knew that you were following me. I didn't stop you because I didn't have the energy or the time to."
"I-dang it," Zane muttered.
A silence fell over the area. Crystal glanced at the soulshard, feeling fear and curiosity in a single emotional rush.
I need to see what happens if I touch it...
She felt Zane staring at her and turned her head, only to see him look away, his face turning pink. Her face was also a similar colour and she could just barely shove it down. That was when she noticed their interlocked hands and her brain started malfunctioning in a... strange way.
What are your hands doing-
WHY IS YOUR FACE THAT COLOUR
WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING
STOP YOUR FACE
STOP-
IJEKJIRWIOEWPOKEDOPFJEPOHWP"DPAOLSPLVNEIOFH
Zane had no idea what was happening right now. She didn't like him and he didn't like her. Right? Right?
Wait-is her face getting closer or is mine?
Zane. Stop. I said stop. STOPSTOPSTOPSTOPSTOP!
The two's faces were now closer than ever as they subconsciously leaned closer and-
Put simply, they found themselves lip-to-lip.
They weren't sure what to do now, as both's brains might as well have been as goopy as Zane's insides on the ground when he died.
Finally the two pulled themselves away and collapsed on the ground, cheeks burning and eyes wide.
Zane... WHAT. DID. YOU. JUST. DO?!
Kira walks in, "Hey guys-" she looks shocked, and turns around then walks out.
Crystal looked stunned.
Did we just-
Are we-
WHAT THE [massbleeping]
She hardly even noticed Kira and just stayed on the floor thinking about the last thirty seconds. Zane seemed to do the same, and they didn't even feel their hands connect again.
The last error code on the screen before Darkshade ran it through with the Edge of Terminality was "ERROR: VAR-CC VAR-ZGC PROTOCOL SUBSEQUENT NAVAL VESSEL ACTIVE."
Kira burst in, "OH MY GOD- DID YOU GUYS JUST SMOOCH! I GOT A PICTURE!" Kira shouted.
Zane's ears turned bright red-well that was all Kira could see, with his back to her.
Zane didn't even Kira over all the thoughts in his head.
What the heck did you just do?
I thought she hated you!
I thought you hated her!
Why did you do that? Why?
CRAPCRAPCRAPCRAP AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-
Zane turned and looked at Kira. "Don't you dare."
Kira runs out in the open lobby screaming in happiness.
"..." Zane looked at Crystal, who had slumped down in a corner, looking stressed.
Zane sat down beside her. "You okay?"
Crystal glanced at Zane. "I'm alive so I guess that I'm fine..."
"We already died..." Zane replied.
"Well I mean alive here."
Crystal looked into Zane's eyes. Their hands were still interlocked and they started to lean in again...
The two, fully in control of the situation right now, knew exactly what they were about to do.
And when they did, they loved it.
Neither wanted to pull away from the other.
Crystal smiled. "This was nice and all, but it's not why I came here." She stared at the soulshard and then took it in her hand.
Zane tilted his head. "So what does it do?" As an answer, the shard and the void relic glowed brightly.
The two objects glowed brighter, forcing the wizards to close their eyes. When they opened them, they found themselves...inside the relic? Crystal tensed as she realized the relic was no longer on her finger.
HELLO, USER-CC and USER-ZGC. ACCESS UNIVERSE-PRESENT?
Y/N
"Um, yes?" Zane shrugged, looking at Crystal, who was nodding.
LOADING UNIVERSE-PRESENT...
Zane and Crystal's surroundings changed and they found themselves in the void. The void relic rematerialized on Crystal's finger and she relaxed.
Crystal glanced down at the relic on her hand. It glowed brightly and she swore she could hear it talking to her.
Destroy the imprints
Save your friends
Trust me.
Crystal blinked. "We need to kill the imprints."
Zane looked at her. "If you say so..." He pulled out his Sagittarius Star Wand and pulled the string back. An arrow materialized between the bow and string, and Zane aimed for Chris' imprint, when all of a sudden, the imprints disappeared and Luke stood in front of them, scythe in hand.
"You've done meticulously to reach this place. Even so, I find it hard to award those who endanger the truth only i've ever seemed to notice." The Edge of Terminality began to create spikes spinning like a chainsaw.
"You've both created something you can't handle. To kill you now would be to stop it from happening at all... so that's my only option."
The void relic seemed to react agressively to the presence of the voidwalker.
"Creation and destruction are mine to manipulate."
In an instant, the voidwalker was next to both wizards and was beginning to swing his scythe.
Zane quickly drew an arrow back on his bow, aiming it at Luke and fired.
The scythe came down and the arrow was cut right down the middle. The momentum was carried and the Walker kicked Zane into Crystal, proceeding to... rev his scythe? The spikes were spinning fast enough to look like a solid line.
Zane pulled Crystal to the side, both barely avoiding the spinning spikes.
Unfortunately, the spinning spikes turned and continued following them. The two scrambled to their feet and started running.
Zane fired arrows at the spikes, only for every arrow to get crushed by the spikes.
The spikes separated and fired at the wizards like missiles, their targets dodging the attacks, causing the spikes to hit each other and shatter.
Crystal pulled out a dagger. "I usually save this for extremely terrible situations. I guess that this counts as one..."
"Uh-where did that come from?" Zane raised an eyebrow inquisitively.
The question's answer was interrupted as the voidwalker revved his scythe again and dashed forward in a flurry of slashes.
Crystal pulled Zane back and blocked each hit with her dagger until her arm got slashed. She flinched and then the relic started to glow even brighter. Zane shielded his eyes and Crystal felt the relic's energy course through her veins, a similar feeling to when the relic had saved her in her battle with the titan.
Except that it was also different.
The relic hunter had a sudden rush of energy and she felt stronger, faster, and the cut on her arm was almost fully healed.
The void ruptured around the fighters. Various tentacled eldritch abominations formed out of thin anti-air, and multiple purple spears comprised of pure essence formed with them. The scythe's blade glew and 4 more parallel copies of Darkshade came into existence, all looking like imprints.
"Like only one of this guy just wasn't enough..." Crystal muttered.
Zane quickly fired arrows at them, impaling 2 copies and killing 6 tentacles. 2 copies, 4 tentacles, and 1 original Darkshade remained.
Crystal slit a tentacle in half and punched a copy into one of Zane's arrows on the ground, skewering the copy and leaving them with one copy, three tentacles, and one original Darkshade.
Zane fired an arrow and this one went straight through the copy. "Well, there must have been a HOLE in that plan!" Zane laughed. Crystal groaned. "Sorry, I'll shut up."
Crystal cut two tentacles in half and Zane shot an arrow at the last one. The only thing left was the voidwalker.
"What do you have next, voidboy?" Crystal glared.
Zane looked at Crystal. "Seriously?"
Thousands of imprints swarmed from the area around, drawn to the emotions of the fight.
"Reinforcements."
As the imprints swarmed the wizards, Darkshade was able to restrain them with tentacles above a pit of deadly shadows.
"I don't know why I bothered with the effort.", said the walker.
The scythe malformed into a spear and replicated. Both spears aimed towards Zane.
"Oh crap," Zane muttered.
Both fired.
To keep it simple and short, the screams were easily muffled by the imprints and multiple holes leaked various guts and key liquids. The gore wasn't easily seen, anyway.
Zane body collapsed onto the ground. Sorry, he mouthed to Crystal, before exhaling for the final time.
That did it.
Crystal was angry, furious, sad, and a heck lot of other emotions. She broke free from the tentacles and started shredding through the imprints with no remorse, no hesitation, just cold anger channeled into a single dagger. She clearly intended to rip through Luke limb by limb and nothing was going to stop her.
Rage was a important tool to use. But impulse was a clear weakness, and the voidwalker intended to make full use of that.
As Crystal ripped her way through the masses, the void seemed to contort. The enraged relic hunter didn't notice, however, and continued rushing forward.
The void began to reflux over Crystal. The dimensions contorted again, and an effective guillotine of the nothing trapped the relic hunter's neck in place. A scythe copy formed and hovered over Crystal's neck, and...
The scythe came down. As bone was crushed and marrow and nerve severed, blood flowed from the arteries and veins like a low-power hose. The lower body twitched and tensed up, and the color left Crystal's eyes for the second time. Her last breath lingered in the air for longer than it should have. However, this did not last long, as the imprints and remaining eldritch abominations were quick to consume all remaining pieces.
The voidwalker did not turn, and he knew he could rest easy.
For now.
Meanwhile...
The same scene of Axel's death played for about the 20th time in Lei's head. Before she screamed out of sadness and insanity, she heard a clinking sound next to her.
"What...is that?" Lei asked herself, turning towards it. She picked it up, and it was surprisingly heavy. She immediately put it back down.
Footsteps arrived at Lei's door, followed by knocking. "Hello? I heard a clinking sound. Just want to make sure you're not trying to escape with some Void Relic or something," Monokuma said, oddly specifically.
"No, I'm not," Lei replied.
"Ok, that's good to hear," Monokuma replied.
Elsewhere, soul and void energy spiked.
Aaron Shadowshard, in a state of paradox between Overloaded, Normal, and [REDACTED] felt a change in the void. Someone had done something with the dimensions, but... when? And who? As far as he knew, he was the only voidwalker in the place even if he wasn't the most skilled.
The relic started glowing and hovering. Screams seemed to come from it, forcing Lei to cover her ears. Everyone heard it except Monokuma, who was listening to music in his own dorm, and groaned in annoyance.
Now Aaron KNEW something was wrong. The voices sounded eerily familiar, and he blamed it on the cacophony that radiated from most of the soul crystals he put too much effort in.
Lucy started banging on the door of Lei's dorm. "WOULD IT KILL YOU TO KEEP QUIET?!"
Aaron decided to voop over to where the energy spike was coming from. Unsurprisingly, he ended up in front of Lei's door, where Lucy was screaming like she was about to be crushed by a meteor.
"I CAN'T STOP IT LUCY!!! THIS THING IS SCREAMING BY ITSELF!" Lei yelled in response.
Aaron was even more suspicious than ever.
Zane Goldenhunter, who was in his wolf form, put his paws over his ears and subconsciously howled.
The entire place was in chaos. Monokuma heard the kids' reactions and the screaming coming from the relic. He sighed. Nothing like chaos in the middle of the night.
Aaron began creating a battering ram out of shards. The relic appeared to scream more confusedly when he approached.
Zane walked out of his dorm covering his ears. "SOMEBODY TURN THAT THING O-" The relic screamed louder, stunning Zane and causing him to collapse on the ground, clutching his ears and twitching.
The battering ram launched into the door. It splintered and crashed onto the floor, dust in its wake. As it disintegrated, Aaron and Lucy laid eyes upon the void relic.
"...That's not good."
The relic began to shriek louder as wormholes began ripping open across the building. As the trail raced down the halls, a horrid whirlwind-like noise added to the cacophony.
Taro walked out with several earmuffs in hand, and wearing a pair himself. He put some on Zane's ears, with it being evidently clear that he couldn't move as long as the screams continued, and handed the rest out.
Soon, the wormholes had made their way to the dormitories. Wind and space screamed by as everyone was slowly sucked into the wormholes. As Lei lost her grip, the relic caught onto her finger and everyone ended up in the void next to the dead bodies of Crystal and Zane.
Zane Goldenhunter scrambled back, surprised to see...himself(?) dead.
A tired, dying Ffodnarg lay off to the side- its tentacles ripped off, energy poured forth as if blood.
"What the heck happened here?" Taro muttered.
Elsewhere, the void morpher started to create another masterpiece- something that looked like it served to execute via sheer downward force.
Taro took off his earmuffs in time to hear someone step up behind him, and instinctively ducked after hearing the swish of a blade which went right over his head, cutting off a fraction of a few hairs.
"If the plan doesn't have a million obstacles, it isn't worth doing, is it?" said a voice none of the Academy's Secret team recognized. Soon, the blade's source was visible: A voidwalker with obvious intent of murder. Soon, Aaron was in his Overloaded state after ripping the soul magic out of the entirety of Ffodnarg and two other wizards, giving Darkshade a potential advantage. If I can just land a single hit, he's on my side. All wizards present formed a stance befitting nothing but a chaotic fight, and it was only moments until someone made the first move.
Lei, holding the void relic felt a surge of unfamiliar power. She shifted uncomfortably before the relic activated and the ground shot up underneath Luke, sending him flying upwards. Luke landed, unfazed, as if he were expecting this and let it happen anyway. Everyone looked surprised and turned their heads towards Lei. She tossed the relic to Lucy, knowing that she had an appetite for anarchy and fighting. She was also an "Ultimate Serial Killer" so that would probably help. Lucy slipped the relic on and felt the same surge of power Lei did.
And she loved it.
She rapidly fired void balls, void rocks and even sending imprints at Luke who was evidently surprised at how well she was controlling the relic. He shredded the imprints only to see Lucy laughing maniacally, swinging a serrated knife laced with void magic at him. He dodged every swing except for the last which grazed his face. "Fun and games are over, kid," Luke's voice echoed with the -now glowing- souls inside his scythe. He summoned his own army of imprints around the wizards behind Lucy. "So I get to hit something now? Nice!" Goldenhunter exclaimed, quickly morphing into a wolf and pouncing on an imprint, sinking his fangs into it's "flesh". Lei whipped out her spear and impaled several imprints, Taro torched others, and Goldenhunter clawed others in two. In other words, this area had turned into a battlefield littered with imprints and misplaced void rocks.
Lucy's knife extended into a katana with void magic pulsing around it, and she repeatedly slashed at Luke, who parried each of her attacks with his scythe, being forced back a little with each strike. This was going to be a little more challenging...
Imprints swarmed Lucy until there was no part of her visible. Then all the imprints were sent flying backwards-some even disintegrated-by the pulse of void magic sent outwards by Lucy. Lucy's eyes flashed purple before tentacles rose up behind her and lunged at Luke. Luke slit each tentacle down the middle, before summoning his own and grabbing Lucy, repeatedly smashing her against the ground until she was on the verge of losing consciousness. He tossed a groaning, limp Lucy off to the side. He had a more important primary target. He charged at the wizards effectively holding off the imprints. Aaron summoned a soulshard shield and a soulshard sword and hacked away at the imprints, fending off others with his shield. They reformed into two massive hands that swatted imprints away, smashed others, and even ripped some in two. Goldenhunter morphed back into a human. "Uh guys...the guy that took out Lucy is coming!" Goldenhunter exclaimed, pointing at Luke. But it was too late. Tentacles grabbed Taro, Lei, and Goldenhunter, leaving Aaron to fend for himself.
Darkshade was able to knock Aaron off balance and locked him to the floor with purple shards.
"Face it. You were supposed to be me. Fufill your purpose, even if half-hearted."
The Walker's scythe came down, and from the battlefield rose a corrupted Overloaded Aaron.
"As for you people..." Darkshade walked towards the restrained and unconscious adversaries. "I still have purpose for your existence." Wormholes in space and time ripped open and everyone but Aaron and Luke fell into a boundary.
The wizards landed with a thud and groaned. Those of them conscious, that is. Zane poked Lucy with no response other than an almost silent exhale and inhale. "She's alive."
Lucy sat up, rubbing her face and groaning. "Now she's awake!" Zane added. "We can see that, Zane," Taro sighed, "Lets just find a way out of here." "But which way do we go?" Lei asked. The wizards stood in silence, thinking. "Wait...I hear footsteps!" Zane exclaimed. "Maybe whoever's there could help us!" Lei said excitedly. "Or they could be that Ashlet-hole with the scythe," Lucy growled. But it was too late. Everyone else was running after Zane, now a wolf. Lucy trudged behind, annoyed.
Suddenly, Lei screamed. Lucy raised an eyebrow and ran over and saw the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
The bodies of 5 murdered wizards.
Being a wolf, Zane sniffed the bodies, then reeled back in disgust, morphing back into a human and covered his nose. "They've been dead for a while...whoever they were."
"Uh...guys?" Zane called out, "the ghost-things are coming..."
Lei gripped her spear, Goldenhunter growled, water bubbles swirled around Taro's hands, and Lucy's eyes had a hint of purple to it. "Wait! We come in peace!" One of the imprints said, holding hands with another imprint.
"Wait...aren't you two the dead wizards we saw earlier?" Taro inquired. "Yes," the first imprint said. "I'm Zane Goldencaster, that's Crystal," he said, pointing to the imprint holding his hand, "that's Harper, Chris, and Amanda." The three waved. "And that's Alvin." Alvin shrugged and waved.
Crystal glanced at Goldenhunter. "...Why do you look almost exactly like Zane...?"
Goldenhunter shrugged cluelessly. "He's my interdimensional counterpart," Goldencaster explained.
"Oh."
A figure slid behind the semi-confused AS group, blending into the darkness around them. They raised their sword behind Taro, about to strike down, but then a blur of white flashed between them and tackled the darker figure. A gun clicked and a loud bang followed. The dark figure flinched and left the area. The other figure turned around with a small smile on her face. She was a brown haired girl in a white dress, and she was holding a gun.
"Who are you?" Crystal asked.
The girl looked at Crystal with a small smile, "I am Cheryl Vinetrapper." said the girl, pausing a bit.
Taro turned around, evidently surprised. "Uh...thanks?"
Cheryl turns to face Taro, looking serious and worried, "Don't thank me yet, I have a feeling someone or a army is hiding." she said. Cheryl started toward to sound, slowly drawing out her gun. "Show yourself." she shouted. At that moment, the people attacked.
Crystal and the other imprints cried out in pain as they lost control. The AS characters backed up as the LS wizards stood, no longer coming in peace. The darker figure raised their sword, and an army of imprints from the opposite side swarmed them. The wizards were surrounded by imprints now. Goldenhunter turned into a wolf and took out the LS wizards before they could do anything. Suddenly the five dead wizards woke up, and two others appeared.
"Ow... I think being dead was more comfortable..." Crystal muttered. She looked around and gaped as she saw the imprint army.
"Being dead appears to be safer too."
The relic hunter readied her wand.
Lucy created a dome of void magic around the group, protecting them from the imprints. "Everyone ready?" Goldenhunter asked.
The void relic glowed on Crystal's hand as the imprint army closed in around the wizards. Crystal nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be."
The dome disappeared in a burst of void magic, knocking the imprints off their feet. The wizards charged at the imprints, killing several.
Heavy footsteps echoed as a particularly tormented Abomination entered the fray.
As it roared, the imprints began to swarm in.
"Oh, not this time," Goldencaster growled, arrowing the hubcap off, followed by Rose who stabbed it, flipping backwards, avoiding the teeth flying out of the neck stump, as the abomination collapsed, dead.
Lia Starling stared at the imprints she was commanding. Kill every enemy you find. Now. She ordered. She had already risked her anonymity enough when she tried to kill that boy. And worse, the girl in the white dress recognized her...
She must die before she reveals my identity.
After about 30 minutes of fighting the wizards (except Cheryl, Crystal, and Lucy) were exhausted. "Where are all of these coming from?" Chris complained. Even Alvin, who was normally emotionless, looked irritated and exhausted.
Cheryl fought her way out. She peered into the shadow and saw a girl, with blondish pink hair. She gasped. Suddenly, Cheryl coughed from the smoke. She looked up, the girl was gone.
Crystal glanced at Cheryl. "You okay?"
The other wizards, fighting their way through the gap Cheryl made, got past the army. Footsteps could be heard farther down the area.
Lia stared at the wizards. They were certainly... persistent.
Stop.
The imprints halted, and the wizards could escape. Crystal thought she could see someone through the whole crowd of imprints, and peered at the figure harder, but then Zane took her hand and dragged her away before the imprints could attack again.
Cheryl looked up, "I'm okay, I just got kicked," she said, "Did you see a girl?"
Crystal nodded. "I saw her for a second, then Zane dragged me away."
"I think I met her, but my mind can't think of the name." said Cheryl.
"Well I'm SORRY for trying not to let you get swarmed by imprints." Zane rolled his eyes playfully.
"I could've taken care of myself, but thanks anyways." She grinned. Chris looked between the two of them and gaped.
"Wait are you two a thing?!"
Cheryl stared far ahead, "My senses tell me to move on, on our journey and quit small talking. Who will lead us?"
Crystal ignored Chris' question and took the lead. "Cheryl's right. We need to go."
Cheryl glanced at Chris then faced the team, "Alright, people. Do we have anyone missing or dead?"
"Let's see...ROLE CALL!" Zane said. "When did we ever have a-" Chris was cut off as Zane called out everyone's names.
Crystal glanced at everyone and counted them off inside her head. "I think everyone's here, no need for the role call."
Zane Battleblade, Leilani, Luke, and Rose were about to head home. They pulled out their maps...
before Battleblade was hit in the back of the head with a bronze disk and sent flying off the Academy's edge. Leilani screamed. Zane's Embershed flew up, holding him by the shoulders. Zane rubbed the back of his head. "I'm ok...got hit with this thing," he said, holding up a bronze disk with a purple orb. Leilani exhaled, relieved.
Past-Present-WS-Darkshade appeared to reel upon viewing the artifact. He dissapeared into the floor and an unusual amount of purple smoke billowed out from where he once stood.
A few seconds later, Battleblade tumbled out of a portal, in front of the LS and AS wizards. "Oh hi guys. Where is the rest of my-" A portal opened above him. "Of course." Three more wizards landed on top of Zane, knocking his breath out of him. "Ow..." "Sorry," Rose apologized as the three got off of him. Then the bronze disk fell out of the portal and nailed him in the back of the head. "Ow! Why is it always me?!"
Elsewhere, two wizards of the same being seemed to fuse. WS Darkshade x2 active.
"Great. Now there's three of you." Crystal muttered, glancing between Goldencaster, Goldenhunter, and Battleblade.
The Zanes started talking simultaneously. "Hey, we are entirely separate beings that-" They stopped and looked at each other. "I see what you mean," they said simultaneously again.
Harper stifled a laugh. Suddenly, another swarm of imprints came at the group again.
Huh...
There's more people now...
Lia frowned at the sight of the new wizards.
"ARE THESE THINGS EVER GOING TO STOP COMING?!" Crystal pulled out her dagger and proceeded to shred through the imprints. All three Zanes backed up, somewhat intimidated by Crystal's ragekilling.
Elsewhere, a X2 wizard was drawn to the sheer contortions and swathes of swarming imprints. Soon, every dead being in existence would come back to life- but then again, they'd already have replaced their imprints, so it would be a paradox. At least 39 wizards were fending off a horde while another person stood far away, seeming to control a horde. And they come back... again.
Lia sighed, not noticing the X2 wizard.
I'm going to have to do this myself.
She pulled out her sword and the imprints shielded her as she made her way towards the wizards. Crystal noticed the strange formation, and frowned. Lia slipped into a darker area and the imprints went back to attacking. She was ten feet away from Cheryl.
Nine feet
Eight feet
Seven...
Cheryl turned her head. Lia slid behind an imprint. Crystal noticed Lia, and stopped attacking the imprints in front of her. Lia was about to slit Cheryl in half, but then Crystal rammed into her. She turned to stab the relic hunter in the stomach, but then Cheryl punched her in the left cheek, drawing blood. Lia backflipped behind a row of imprints, then disappeared.
Zane rapidly fired arrows at the imprints where the girl disappeared. Who is this?
The imprints collapsed, dead almost instantaneously, but the girl was gone again.
The wizards were already tired from their first battle, and Lia didn't expect that they would be able to survive for this long. Whatever. They wouldn't have much time left.
The X2 wizard caught the corner of her eye and she glanced at him.
Who is that...?
The X2 wizard saw her staring and suddenly, a tentacle swept her away.
At this point, the exhausted wizards were getting separated from the rest of each other. Lucy and Crystal seemed to have unending stamina, and the WS wizards were starting to get tired, except for Zane who was holding the third Void Relic.
A loud bang could be heard, and everyone saw Crystal and Lucy somehow combining the powers of their relics, blowing at least fifty imprints away,
After a few more minutes, even the relic wielders were tired. The imprints successfully cut and swarmed each of the wizards. They rose their weapons...
and swung down.
Chris opened his eyes and looked around. The imprints were...gone? He let out a sigh of relief, seeing Harper ok. Alvin sat up and sighed, before using his Blizzard Buster as a prop to stand up. Everyone sighed in relief. "They just...disappeared..." Amanda said.
Crystal and Zane hugged each other, glad to be alive. Everyone stared at them.
"Well I guess that that question has been answered." Chris said.
"Like you don't have a cru-" Chris shot Zane a death glare and Zane stopped talking.
Crystal glanced at Cheryl. "We're fine."
"Okay. Where is Chris and the others?" asked Cheryl, calmly wiping the blood off her shirt.
Crystal twirled her fingers around her dagger, deep in thought. Who was that girl?
Lia slowly vanished, she cliched her fist into a ball. Those people will be punished for defeating me.
"Chris, it's kinda obvious that you like me. There's no point in hiding it anymore. Propose or ask to be my boyfriend to me any time you like. I'm fine with it." Harper told Chris.
Chris turned red in embarrasment and spat out "Was it that obvious?"
"Yes, it was." Harper responded.
Elsewhere, WS (x2) Darkshade caught wind of a phaser. Probably the same person who was controlling the horde. He followed the trail.
Cheryl saw Chris and Harper talking. She closed her eyes and opened it immediately. "We better go now, stop talking like dogs." said Cheryl.
The trail led out to a wizard- same one who was controlling the horde. She didn't seem to notice WS (x2) Darkshade.
"Why are you trying to kill everyone on my hitlist?"
Suddenly, the relics attracted to each other like a magnet, causing Lucy, Crystal, and Zane Battleblade to crash into each other, then reversed polarity instantaneously, creating a shockwave of void magic, knocking everyone off their feet. The void relic disk, of course, went flying out of Zane's hands and slammed into the back of his head again, knocking him unconscious.
A massive portal opened where the shockwave emerged. "Should we go inside?" Goldenhunter asked.
Lia appeared to find a partner, maybe I can partner with Luke. I heard somebody say that, she thought.
Cheryl shouted, "What's going on?"
Next to the x2 wizard spawned the other side of the wormhole.
[CENSORED] Can't anything be easy?
Everyone nodded, well except for Battleblade-but he was unconscious. Everyone started jumping in. WS Rose slung Battleblade's limp body over her shoulder and jumped in.
They found themselves in front of WS Darkshade.
Everyone drew their weapons, except for the skeptical WS crew.
The LS and AS wizards charged, while WS Rose and Leilani hung back, not wanting to attack their old friend.
A massive wave of imprints surged forward. Where did that come from? WS Darkshade turned around and saw that the girl had escaped from the tentacle originally holding her. He sighed irritably and turned around. He had a battle to fight.
Lucy's knife extended into a sword pulsing with void magic and she aggressively hacked imprints to pieces. Crystal fired void balls at multiple imprints, blowing them to pieces. Chris and Amanda torched the rest of the first wave of imprints, followed by Harper who put holes through an eighth of the next wave of imprints using Icicle Shards. Astral arrows rained down on the imprints, followed by Spearicles by Alvin and Forest's Hurricanes by Taro. Lei impaled three imprints with her spear and Goldenhunter slashed and sank his fangs into two imprints.
Cheryl and Crystal drove their way through the waves of imprints and met face-to-face with WS Luke.
"So the best of your fighters... A serial killer, a husk, and an intruder. I'm surprised you weren't overwhelmed- then again, you do have extradimensional rocks attached to various holsters." Another wave joined the fray, and the dimensions contorted once again. Every step was met with a trap, every move parting from a buzzsaw of the area around them. WS was getting tired, but still had enough energy to craft another masterpiece.
An eldritch beast arose from the nothing.
Screaming and tormented, it bore resemblance to what LS and Aaron had made in the wiped timeline.
Except...
Just...
A little...
Bigger.
A tentacle the size of an actual skyscraper began to swing down at Cheryl and Crystal while the second wave was fended off.
The tentacle smashed into the ground. "CRYSTA-" Zane was cut off as a massive shockwave knocked all the wizards off their feet.
A deafening roar echoed as the... thing recognized its successful failure.
Lia gaped at the size of the monstrosity that sent her flying backwards. Crystal grabbed Cheryl's arm and pulled both of them away at the last second. Lia then noticed the person that just spoke. "Who are you?"
"..." A wormhole opened under Lia. She dissapeared into the rift and it closed.
The abomination reared back and began confluxing energy in its jaws.
Zane, getting tired of this, sent 5 arrows into its mouth, killing the abomination.
Alvin summoned a Spearicle and fired it straight down the imprint wave, taking out 2 rows.
More imprints arrived, forcing the wizards back. Lucy let out a blast of void magic that effectively terminated the 3 rows in front of her.
At this point, WS Rose knew she had to fight or everyone would die. Leilani, on the other hand was now petrified in fear.
Massive rock pillars rose out of the ground, sending imprints flying. WS Rose charged into the army of imprints, headlocking and aggressively stabbing them. "Well now why didn't I think of that first?" LS Rose questioned, charging into the army and headlocking imprints.
The shockwave had knocked Cheryl out, and Crystal was fending off a wave of imprints. Void ball here, void blast there, wave defeated. She dragged Cheryl's unconscious body to a safer spot, then encased her in a void bubble.
WS Darkshade realized something.
He'd have to do this himself.
Among swathes of dead imprints, thralls of new ones, he raised his staff and void energy confluxed around its tip. The energy forming into a halberd, he rushed forward with the remainder of his army. A planned path, he ran to the back and prepared a clean combo against the caboose of the group- Leilani. Jumping from a void pillar 10 feet tall, he raised his weapon over his head, and...
Battleblade sat up, groaning and rubbing the back of his head.
Then he noticed the pillar.
"Uh guys? You might wanna...MOVE!" Battleblade's voice rang out.
The halberd came down. A frozen Leilani lay on the floor with a wound through her middle. Now if he could just distract the rest of them long enough for the blood loss to be fatal...
His next target, LS Rose. He rushed forward and swung in Rose's general direction, followed with a multitude of stabs.
Rose parried the attacks before feeling a sharp pain through her side and collapsed onto the ground.
WS Rose and Battleblade ran over to Leilani. "No, please no," Rose whispered faintly. Zane was horrified beyond speaking.
Gotta make these a little more fatal. Spurred on by the ease of ruthless technique in chaos, WSDS continued the onslaught. The void pillar fell- he was able to stab a dodging Zane and another dodging Zane. The fight continued until everyone but the relic wielders, WSDS, and Cheryl were incapacitated or unconcious. The imprint army had fallen.
"So, this is how it ends. You know, LS me is 10 times more powerful. All he needed was an army... Ah, but I digress. You take your last steps or I take mine. We'll see who comes out on top this time, and it'll be the greatest coin toss you've ever seen."
"You wanna see a coin toss?" Battleblade said irritably. He threw the disk at Luke, who didn't even have to dodge. "What was the plan there?" Darkshade was confused, as Zane's aim was clearly terrible. Then the relic came back, hit Darkshade in the back of the head, knocking the voidwalker unconscious, then hit Battleblade in the face, knocking him over and giving him a bloody nose. The standing wizards flinched. "Never...fails...oww..." Battleblade groaned.
Crystal helped him up. "That was probably the clumsiest K.O. I've ever seen."
A disembodied voice started yelling for WS to "Wake the hell up," among other things such as "Lloyd I'm going to forcefeed you the choking hazard parts of LEGO sets." and "[CENSORE] [CENS] I cannot believe this is how it happened why WHY WHY [CENS] [CENS] [CENSOREDCENSO] [CENS]".
Pure anger and a disembdied voice's screams of hate awoke the x2 wizard- one half stayed unconcious, the other phased out.
"You've got to be joking. I'm going to rip this [CENSORED]'s spleen out and then forcefeed it to you in PIECES LIKE A NICE PLATE OF SALAMI." The halberd flared. The void constructs faded- pillars, imprints, bubbles, everything.
ENRAGE!
ATK DOUBLED
DEF DOUBLED
AGL DOUBLED
MGC DOUBLED
X2 NEGATED
OVERALL ASSESSION:
You're probably screwed, but give it a shot anyway- you might be able to win here.
"Wew cwap," Zane said, covering his bloody nose with his left hand and gripping the relic in the other.
Lucy shrugged. "Well since we're bonking him to death..." Lucy summoned a massive void rock and hurled it at Luke.
Crystal felt a small smile escape her lips as she threw a void rock at the unconscious Darkshade. Cheryl raised her gun to end him but then...
In an instant, the voidwalker was upon them- a trail of pure energy behind him, repelling everything it covered. The ground slammed deeper down as he rushed. He replicated his weapon 15 times, preparing to launch in a barrage. Blood torrented among the battlefield with the sound of screeching metal as Crystal was pierced in about 8 places. Lucy took 4 hits and Zane took the last 3.
"Crystal..." Goldencaster croaked weakly.
Knowing Crystal only had 1 failsafe granted by the relic, he thought it best to get the easiest task over with...
And drove his hand into Zane Battleblade's side, ripping out his spleen as he stated beforehand. A copy-halberd rammed into the open hole, organs collapsing and bursting as it ripped through. Blood littered the floor like puke at the Barf-o-matic at Let's be honest, if you're here you're probably scre Park.
Lucy was left with a stirring Cheryl as Darkshade prepared another onslaught.
Lucy quickly took Cheryl's gun and fired bullets at Darkshade.
The Walker spun his halberd. Most of the shots were deflected, but one dug into his shoulder. He flinched and lost grip of his staff, trying to swap to his other hand.
Lucy fired one more shot before her arm went limp and collapsed on the ground. Cheryl sat up and saw the bodies of the wizards and reeled back in shock.
To keep it short and simple,
Shk-shk-shk scream of agony shk-shk-shk harrowing last breath shk-shk-SNAP-shk... shk... shk.
WS Darkshade, all energy focused into his onslaught, forgot about the void's way of eating at one's soul. Without the void, the failsafes didn't work, and he collapsed.
Cheryl stared at the dead bodies in horror.
I could've saved them...
A red cherry she kept in her pocket started to glow. She looked down at it.
Wait... maybe I still can.
It glowed even brighter as she placed it on the floor. A bright red aura surrounded the dead bodies, and they all woke up.
Crystal stood up, jumped into Zane's arms, and they kissed. They either didn't notice the other twenty people nearby, or they didn't care about them.
Goldenhunter covered his eyes with his paws.
"Haha, you're embarrassed~" Harper teased.
Before anyone else made a and embarrassed the two any further, the Relic Disk hovered in the air and opened 3 portals. One for the LS wizards, the second for the WS, and the third for the AS wizards.
The Relic wielders were attracted to their relative portals. The WS wizards ran after Battleblade, who was subconsciously walking over to a portal, a red-faced Goldencaster was being pulled into a portal by Crystal, and Lucy walked into the third portal with the AS wizards trailing behind, trying to get her attention.
The LS wizards followed Goldencaster and Crystal.
The WS wizards ended up in front of a massive imprint of a suspicious tower, and they felt like two magnets with their north sides facing each other.
"That's...a big tower..." Battleblade said, looking at the imprint tower.
Meanwhile, the LS wizards were trying to figure out how to get into the tower that kept pushing them away.
"Guys, we have the destroy it," Zane said, looking at the tower. WS Rose looked at Zane skeptically. "The Relic told me," he said. Then he heard a voice that didn't come from Leilani, Rose, or the relic. "Slice it down? Alright then!" Next thing the group knew, cracks were spiraling up the tower, before connecting and the tower fell to pieces. "Amy?" Rose asked. Amy sheathed her sword and waved. "Don't try going on adventures without me, okay?" she laughed. The relic disk opened up another portal, and the wizards ended up inside a tower that looked almost exactly the same.
"Here we go again." Harper sighed, referring to The Dark Tower.
"Well, let's go," Zane said, drawing back the string to his bow where an astral arrow materialized. The wizards walked inside the tower. The WS wizards went up a floor and found 3 imprints ready for battle. Amy charged and slashed at the imprints. On the next floor, Lucy's void energy-filled sword turned back into a knife as the imprints' pieces collapsed on the ground.
The wizards scaled 128 more floors like this, easily eliminating the imprints on the floor. The wizards walked up, only to see that their interdimensional allies were gone. "What the heck?" Zane Goldencaster muttered. "Oh well this is nice," Alvin sighed. "Wha-oh Shivertusk..." Zane trailed off, looking at the shadow zooming towards him.
Then everything went black.
Zane sank to his knees, grabbing his head. No. Not this again...
"Zane?" Crystal whispered, reaching towards him. Alvin pulled her back, shaking his head. "Don't." Zane twitched once more before he was powerless to do anything.
"Ohohohohoho....hello again, wizards," laughed a horribly familiar voice, which did not belong to Zane.
A massive explosion ensued, sending all the wizards flying back.
Zane shuddered each time a shadow ball was blasted at his friends, who barely avoided each attack.
"How do we fight him without hurting Zane?" Chris yelled over the continuous explosions. Alvin shrugged, deflecting 5 shadow balls with his Blizzard Buster. Cheryl was blasted backwards into a wall and heard a quiet crack. Three pieces of the healing relic tumbled out of her back pocket.
5 minutes later, the wizards were bruised and tired. Zane's face expressed two distinct personalities. Tears streamed out of his left eye, while his right eye had a hint of evil in it. His mouth was a mix of a smirk and a look of horror. His left hand was gripping onto his right arm, trying to pull it down with no avail.
Haven't you hurt them enough?
No. No, I haven't, Zane.
Zane's right arm pointed at a semi-conscious Crystal who had a bruise on her right cheek and cuts along her arms.
No, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! STOP!
Zane looked down at Crystal, tears streaming from his face. Sorry, he mouthed.
And he fired the shadow blast.
The shadow blast hit Crystal in the middle of her chest, and a sickening crunch could be heard. Alvin used his Blizzard Buster to knock Possessed-Zane out from behind. Crystal was on the floor, unconscious and bleeding.
Forbidden Darkness rose out of Zane's unconscious body. 2 down, 5 to go.
At this point, Rose was done with all this devastation, and her left arm turned into that of a shadow claw, which extended onto her sword. She scaled the wall behind Forbidden Darkness, leapt off, and put simply, Forbidden Darkness became two pieces that disappeared with a poof when they hit the ground.
Lia grinned, This should be easy. She commanded the imprints to get up and fight, the imprints who fell got up and followed the order. She smiled.
Cheryl had a scar on the arm, and it was bleeding freely. Just as an imprint came and knocked her down to the ground, holding her by the arm, making Cheryl unable to move against the strong imprint.
The imprint collapsed with Rose's sword sticking out of its back.
A visibly irritated Rose yanked it out, blood spurting out of the imprint's stab wound.
The next floor seemed to gleam blindingly for an instant, and then dimmed.
Zane twitched, evidently regaining consciousness, looking around at the devastation he caused. Chris had a bruised arm and cheek, Alvin had a few cuts under his left eye, Harper's Ice Sickle was missing some pieces and she had scratches on her arm, Rose's left thigh was bleeding, Cheryl's arm was bleeding, and Crystal...
Zane, what did you do?
Zane scrambled over to Crystal's limp, bleeding body.
"Nononono..." What he said was almost too quiet to hear. "Crystal...don't go...please...no." His voice cracked and he sobbed, shoulders shaking.
The AS wizards (except for Lucy) were a little shaken after their battle with Aaron, but Lucy -being a serial killer wielding one of the most powerful weapons in the known multiverse- ended the battle faster than the LS wizards taking on Possessed Zane. Goldenhunter dashed up the stairs. "Zane, slow down. You don't know what might be up there," Taro said. "It's FINE. We've been scaling these floors easily. What's there to worry about?" Zane replied. He started looking forwards again, he found himself staring down the barrel of a yellow and black gun.
Darkshade (LS) looked down at the ruckus and realized something.
Oh f**k, they made it in.
A hand slammed down onto a console key and encroaching, creeping darkened energy began swarming through the tower.
END THIS!
FINAL BLITZ!
10:00 MINUTES
GO!
The WS Wizards looked down and saw a dark substance slowly rising. No words were needed, as they started running up the floors faster, ducking and dodging Solarixes, Flygers, and Tarragons.
Chris morphed into a dragon. "Put Crystal on and lets go!" Chris said hurriedly. Zane looked up and nodded, gently placing Crystal's limp body on Chris' back. The rest of the wizards hopped on and Chris flew up several floors, torching all the imprints below.
"Uh, Chris?" Amanda started, "Look." Chris looked up and muttered something unintelligible. He landed and everyone slid off of Chris' back before he morphed back into a wizard and drew his scythe.
Rose remembered this foe particularly well.
The Light Consumer.
After propping Crystal up against the wall, Zane silently sat down in a corner.
The wizards looked at each other. "Leave him alone for a while," Harper said.
Chris made the first move, jumping and swinging his scythe, only for it to go through the Light Consumer. "Forgot about that," he muttered, before the Light Consumer grabbed him and hurled him against a wall.
Zane sighed, stood up, and fired an astral arrow into the Light Consumer, stunning him and turning him physical.
Harper used this opportunity to impale the Light Consumer with Icicle Shards.
The Light Consumer collapsed on the ground and shattered into several soulshards then reformed into Light Consumer Rose.
"Can I have your gun, Cheryl?"
"Sure."
A single shot sound rang out and Light Consumer Rose hit the ground and also shattered, but the pieces did not reform. Rose tossed the gun back to Cheryl, who caught it. Everyone looked at Rose. "What?"
Crystal twitched and groaned in pain, but still unconscious. This just drove Zane deeper into regret.
If it weren't for me, Crystal never would have been in this condition.
"You coming?" Chris asked Zane. Zane just shook his head. Chris sighed. It hurt to see his friend this way. "Come on, one floor left," Amanda said quietly, putting her hand on Chris' shoulder. They went up the stairs,
where they saw a bunch of bruised and unconscious wizards.
"What the heck happened here?!" Chris exclaimed.
Goldenhunter weakly pointed upwards. The wizards looked up and saw LS Darkshade, surrounded by a purple and black aura.
Another figure was in the room, holding a dark silver sword. "Oh so the rest of the party is finally here." she said, twirling a red cherry between her fingers. When Cheryl entered the room, the figure crushed the cherry, red pulp covering her fingers. Cheryl stiffened, and Lia allowed herself a small grin.
Luke unleashed a torrent of void magic at Battleblade, who instinctively blocked it with the void relic. Zane threw the relic at Luke, which slammed into Luke's face, knocking him to the ground and leaving a bloody gash on his face. When the relic returned, Zane caught it with a flash of purple. "Haha! I caught it this time!" Zane started repeatedly throwing the relic at Luke, which slammed into his face multiple times, driving him back, before Luke caught it and snapped it in two, absorbing the void magic within it. The void magic aura around Luke expanded and all bruises and cuts were healed. "Oh well that's nice," Battleblade sighed sarcastically. Luke responded by firing a massive blast of void magic at Battleblade, who narrowly dodged the attack. The void blast drilled right through the wall, leaving a massive hole in it.
Amanda blasted flames at Luke, only for the void aura to easily repel the flames. Amanda ran to the side, avoiding the void rock that slammed into the wall of the tower, creating a new hole.
Luke fired a blast of void magic at Harper, only for Chris to counter it with flame breath. Luke simply levitated Chris and slowly clenched his fist. Chris was forced to morph out of his dragon form. Chris struggled as his limbs were forced together. Luke squeezed his fist tighter as slight cracking sounds could be heard. "Put. Him. Down." Harper and Amanda said in unison. Luke looked at the two, slightly amused. The two, taking this offensively let out a barrage of attacks. Massive fire blast here, massive snowflake there. Luke eventually lost concentration and dropped a groaning Chris. The two ran over to Chris. "I'm...good," he groaned.
Lia was taking on Cheryl. The crushed cherry memory seemed to disturb her, but not enough to change her fighting. Rose crept up behind Lia, about to strike her down, but Lia saw her coming, and avoided the blow. Then she kicked Rose into Cheryl, who flew back and crashed into Alvin.
Darkshade revved his scythe, again not caring for the logic of conventional weaponry. He duplicated himself just as he dashed towards 2 concerned wizards and 1 injured one, a flurry of slashes in front of him and in his wake. Somehow, as he retreated for another assault... he got faster? Every single flurry kept increasing in speed until he was but a blur. The extra void energy began to shed...
Pieces of Harper's Ice Sickle chipped away with each slash, until half of the sharp end was gone. A massive void rock squished the Luke copy into a puddle of void energy, and another was hurled at Luke, hitting him hard enough to knock him away from the 3 wizards, but not hard enough to hurt him.
Darkshade used the momentum from the knockback to target another piece of the crew: WS wizards.
Crystal winced and opened her eyes.
What just happened...?
The area around her was blurry and she felt a bit dizzy and-
"CRYSTAL!!"
Zane held her in a tight embrace the minute she woke up. She blinked, her mind and body still a bit messed up from the last battle. "Ow, Zane. You're going to kill me if you keep hugging me this tight." She muttered.
Alvin was immediately blasted down the stairs and looked at the two. "Good. Now that you're awake, can you two help-WHOA!" A tentacle grabbed Alvin's right leg and yanked him up the stairs.
"Um... What's going on up there?"
"I don't know," Zane said, pulling out his bow and drawing the string back, "but lets find out."
The two walked up the stairs.
And saw a heavily damaged top floor with unconscious and heavily bruised wizards on the ground.
Crystal gaped at the mess around them.
"What the-"
A purple blast slammed Zane into the floor below.
Another blast sent Crystal flying across the room, crashing into a wall. Zane, who had just gotten back to the top floor, had almost been tossed into the massive hole by a tentacle. Zane got up and fired an arrow at Lia's left calf, but she deflected it.
"I'm getting tired of this."
Lia backflipped behind Crystal, twisted the relic hunter's arm, and pointed the tip of her sword at Crystal's throat.
"Move, and she dies."
Zane, with no other choice, lowered his bow and sighed.
Crystal twirled her semi-free hand around her dagger. Lia didn't seem to notice, which was odd. She slowly pulled it out. Lia still didn't notice.
The knife dug into Lia's thigh. It wasn't deep enough to kill her though.
Not like I could ever kill again...
Lia gasped in pain and stepped back. At least a dozen imprints appeared as she slid into a darker area, slightly shivering.
Zane launched a volley of arrows at Luke, all of which dissipated into astral magic before it could penetrate his aura. He was met with a blast of void magic, sending him into the wall.
Crystal sliced through the imprints, then ran over to Zane. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Zane arrowed an imprint behind Crystal. He stood up and smiled.
"Shall we end this battle?" Zane asked, pointing at Luke. Crystal nodded.
Luke brandished his scythe and charged at the duo and swung his scythe. The two wizards leapt to opposite sides. Luke's scythe grazed Zane's side, drawing blood. Zane rapidly fired arrows at Luke as Crystal fired void balls at him. Luke spun his scythe, deflecting the attacks and sending them right back at the wizards. Crystal encased Zane and herself in a void dome, blocking the attacks.
Neither wizard was able to break through Luke's aura-barrier. The two looked at each other, evidently thinking the same thing.
Zane fired an arrow at Luke, which was blasted from behind by a void blast from Crystal, giving it enough force to break through Luke's aura.
The aura shattered, sending shards flying everywhere. The wizards dodged the shards. Zane fired an arrow into Luke's left calf, sending him spiraling to the ground in front of Crystal.
Put simply, Zane put an arrow through Luke's neck.
The wizards on the ground weakly stood up and did a half-cheer.
Zane's vision blurred and he looked at his hand which was now covered in blood, and collapsed, bleeding profusely from his side.
Crystal let out a sigh of relief and turned to Zane.
And she gasped in shock.
"ZANE!"
Crystal ran over to Zane, tears slipping from her eyes, as she held his bloody hand.
Lia stared at Crystal and Zane, still covered by the shadows. She could finish them off but then again, that wasn't exactly part of the deal was it? And besides, Luke was dead anyways. Whatever.
I'm out.
She jumped through the giant hole in the wall and an imprint of an Acromi flew under it, taking her away from the tower.
Zane sat up, instinctively rubbing his side...which was bandaged?
Immediately after Zane woke up, Crystal barreled into the room and kissed him.
The two instinctively pulled away as they heard a single laugh at the doorway from Alvin. Zane and Crystal looked at each other, somewhat embarrassed. "Come on out, you two lovebirds," he said, still slightly laughing.
The three walked out and sat down beside their friends who were watching the horizon and smiled, knowing they could rest for now. Crystal noticed a little twinkle in the ground and picked up a little, clear crystal. "What's that?" Zane asked. He, unfortunately got his answer as the crystal started hovering as sand swirled around it. A tiny little titan plopped into Crystal's hands, purring. "Violet!" Crystal exclaimed, hugging the little titan. Then Violet noticed Zane, who was now scooting away, and pounced on him, raising her paw.
The next things that were heard were Zane's cries for help, clamoring wizards and hissing.