Author's Note:

Before anyone gets to reading this, I have to go over a few things.

First off, those of you who are coming here because this is listed under Marvel Comics need to back out now. This story is connected to my Clash of the Elements fic series, and there is a Marvel character who does appear in this story, but to understand a lot of what is going on you'd need to at least read all of the Part 4 stories I've done.

Second, despite this being listed under Marvel, there will be a lot of references to video game series here. There's going to be a major one that acts as the catalyst for this fic's story, and a lot of cameos in the second chapter. But the reason this is listed under Marvel in spite of that is because the one Marvel Character that appears plays a huge role in the overall story. I can't call this a real crossover either because the crossover elements act as plot points, not active character roles, if that makes sense.

So if you want to read on, I can't stop you, but I thought I'd just give a fair warning and I wished I could've found a better way to handle this...


"So…We've finally reached this point. Since the birth of that boy, I have watched over him and written down his tales in my books, continuing my duties as the Chronicler like I have since the beginning of time. The downfall of the land blessed by the golden force, the end of the consciousness born from a sentient planet, the sealing away of the strongest galactic warrior, the freedom of the dragons light and dark, the defeat of the ultimate life form, the reunion of the divided worlds, and the destruction of the Lord of the Underworld…The boy has accomplished so much at this point, but he is still not done yet."

"Every life can be considered a journey. They all have a beginning, and they all have an end. In my existence, I have written down the journeys of innumerable life forms…From the mightiest gods to even the lowest of sentient life. Everything dies in due time, but a premature death is the worst fate one can truly suffer in this universe. And twice before I have seen an entire universe be wiped away, once by the cruel hand of fate, and again by an unwilling puppet…"

"Fufufu, I suppose I am just rambling on at this point. Those of you who have arrived here blindly have likely already left at this point, but those who have patiently followed this journey are wondering just what tale lies ahead for the boy. As I said before, all journeys have a beginning and an end, and it is at this point that I will see fit to write the end of the boy's journey. He has come far, but even he cannot hope to defeat the last remnant of the second old universe…"

"…Of course, I am not exactly omniscient, now am I?"

CLASH OF THE ELEMENTS SPECIAL 2:

THE LAST EXODUS

It has been about a month since the incident with the Lord of the Underworld on the last world Riku had visited. He was currently flying quickly through the depths of space surrounded by a shield of air that allowed him to breath. He was feeling pretty optimistic lately about life in general, especially after dealing with the problems that had been plaguing his mind through most of his life. He never had to worry about being alone either, as he had the voices of the two dragons of Light and Darkness, Sodenko and Takashi respectively, speaking to him every now and then from the other realm they inhabited.

Speaking of which, as Riku began to fly within range of a sun similar to the one near the Earth he was born on the black dragon remarked "Riku, wait a minute. There's something familiar about this place…" Riku stops and floats upright in the middle of an asteroid field before looking at the area around him, and said in a realizing manner "Oh yeah, this is the area where I met the two of you. Can't believe I ended up running into it again."

As Riku gets a little nostalgic while lowering his head, Sodenko remarks gently "You fly a lot faster through space than you realize. No machine could ever make the travels you've accomplished, even with a hundred years time." "Yeah, I really never felt like I was going that fast while I was traveling, but I knew enough about distances in space to realize that something was up with my speed while I was in space…" Riku remarks in a rather curious tone before he looks towards the sun and says "That'll still be burning bright for millions of years…"

"I thought you said you couldn't affect the Sun?" Takashi remarks in a humored tone, and Riku says to him right away "I said I couldn't affect the Sun, but that doesn't mean I can't sense it's age and remaining lifespan." "Heh, how contrived, but that's not my concern I guess. Hey, maybe you should try and find the old asteroid you used to hang around on for your training." Takashi suggested in a rather eager manner, but Riku remarks quickly "Actually, if we're near this asteroid belt, then we'd probably be really close to planet Pop Star. I need to start fulfilling my promises to revisit old worlds, and Kirby's would probably be the easiest one to reach at this time."

"Of course, that does mean that you'll be turned into a Kirby yourself once you go there again." Takashi says in a humored manner, and even Sodenko joins in for a moment to chuckle at the thought. Riku sighs and says "Yeah, that was a pretty silly time…But I'll be willing to go through the change again so long as I don't have to recollect all of my elements." "Then if my memory is right, you will want to go to the other side of that sun and then fly straight forward. If you go as fast as you can in your base state, you should make Pop Star in about an hour." Takashi advises promptly.

Riku then looks towards the sun and flies towards it, his powers over the elements preventing him from getting burned by the heat even as he circles around it to the other side. Once there, he takes Takashi's advice perfectly and just keeps flying straight ahead, moving so fast that the stars streak past him like blurs in a black expanse. As he goes towards Pop Star, Sodenko can be heard sighing in the other realm, which causes Riku to remark to her "Are you feeling ok, Sodenko?"

"…Yes, I am feeling just fine." The white dragon replies, lying through her divine teeth towards the perceptive Riku. Riku says to her "It has been almost a year since I met you two…And speaking of unfilled promises, I do need to free you from your chain sometime soon, Sodenko. I can tell that's the reason you're sighing…" "So long as you haven't forgotten that promise, Riku, I won't worry too much…" Sodenko says in a docile manner before going quiet once more. Riku and the two dragons don't have any more words to say to each other as Riku makes his way to Pop Star.

Once he has flown far enough, Takashi tells Riku to slow down, but the moment he drops out of his high-speed movement he is greeted by something he was not expecting. He had arrived at Pop Star, but the yellow star-shaped world had undergone a significant change since the last time Riku was there. Specifically, the planet was now encased in a perfect sized, blue crystal shell. "W-What the hell? What happened to the planet?" Takashi remarks in a surprised tone as Riku stared blankly at the planet, his mouth agape for a moment before he closed it and didn't hesitate to fly towards Pop Star to investigate what was going on.

"Be careful Riku, we don't know what's waiting for us down there." Takashi advises in a slightly unhinged tone, and consider the black dragon's usual demeanor that type of reaction caused Riku to nod his head to acknowledge the warning fully. The first thing Riku remarked on was the atmosphere of the planet, saying to the two dragons "The atmosphere is gone…There's not a single trace of it left." This observation is especially noticeable once Riku reaches the point where it should've been and doesn't transform into a Kirby like he did before.

"…Riku, I am seriously suggesting that we turn around and forget what we've just seen." Takashi says in a firm and rather serious tone, which causes Riku to stop his descent for a moment in order to say in a puzzled tone "What are you talking about, Takashi?" "Every atmosphere in the universe is connected to the 'higher-ups'…For someone to completely eliminate the atmosphere of even a single world would require a power almost on level with them, and that is far, FAR beyond anything you have ever faced."

Riku takes those words into consideration, but then after a nod of his head he continues to fly down towards the surface of the planet. Takashi was naturally infuriated by this as he bluntly remarked "I thought you got over having a death wise!" In response, Riku calmly told him "I have to at least see the full extent of what's happened down here. If I run across anything I can't take on, then take me to your dimension right away, but only if I make the call."

"Guess it only makes sense…" Takashi begrudgingly admits, and at that point he stays quiet as Riku lands on the surface of Pop Star. Immediately, Riku notices how dark and cold the planet felt, with the stars in the sky looking exactly the same as they did in space due to the lack of atmosphere. Riku heats up the air around his body before he starts running across the crystallized planet, and he recognizes all of the sights he sees since they had been perfectly preserved under the crystal layer.

But the most disturbing thing about what had happened to this planet was that not a single iota of life could be detected on it. No plants, no wildlife, just nothing but an empty and lifeless air spread across the planet, and Riku felt a shiver crawling through him the further he ran across the planet. "How could this have happened…?" Riku inquires to himself as he turns his head to observe whatever he could find along the way. But when he centered his vision in front of him he found himself stopping in place almost right away as the worst possible scenario was discovered on this planet.

Frozen in place with an unknowing smile of happiness on his face was the little puffball Kirby, who was in the middle of eating a piece of strawberry shortcake. His home, his food, all of it was crystallized, and Riku could not detect any life coming from his body. Riku runs over to Kirby and kneels down, extending his hand out to touch the crystal covering him, remarking as the cold sensation of the crystal moves through his nerves "Kirby didn't even encounter whatever did this to him…He was just living his life like he always did…"

"Do you think he's dead?" Takashi inquires, and Riku pulls his hand back and shakes his head before remarking "I don't think so. He's just being preserved underneath this crystal layer…But I get the feeling he'd die if I tried to force the crystals off of him." Standing upright, Riku takes another glance around himself and says in a tone of quiet concern "Who would do something like this?"

"Whoever did this has to be the same person that captured that god of death, Thanatos." Takashi remarks, and Riku blinks a moment before snapping his right fingers and stating "Now that you mention it, these crystals look exactly like the ones surrounding Thanatos. But why is it that this being would cover one planet in crystal but not the other one?" "I was going to suggest that the person was looking for something and after meeting resistance they retaliated with this…But that puffball doesn't seem aware that anything was about to happen to his planet."

Takashi's remark regarding the situation made Riku quickly say to him while folding his arms in thought "A swift and planet-wide attack, the theft of a god of death…Takashi, I know you're worried about my safety, but we have to do something about this." "…Do you even have an idea where to start?" Takashi doesn't raise any objections, knowing that Riku wouldn't yield no matter what he said, but his one concern in regards to the pursuit of the being responsible for this attack on Pop Star leads to Riku saying "Maybe I do…"

"The crystals are based around the Earth element, and whoever made them didn't bother to hide the signature exuding from them. All I have to do is focus and I should be able to track down the source of these crystals." Riku explains calmly, and Takashi says to him "Just be careful. For all we know, this could be a trap." "It's very possible, but that's the risk we'll have to take. Sodenko, how are you feeling right now?" Riku's inquiry comes as a surprise to the light dragon, as she was indeed feeling some uneasy at that moment.

"…The lack of life on this world is painful to experience…" Sodenko says, and Riku quickly says in a reassuring tone "It won't be long before we're off of here. I just need to find the source…" Riku then fully invests his concentration into connecting the crystal to the place it came from. A planet's worth of crystals meant he was able to expand his search out quite a ways through space in all directions, but Riku is quite surprised when it only takes a minute for him to discover the location of the source.

"It's not very far from here…That must mean the attack on Pop Star either was recent, or the person has been lingering around for some reason." Riku remarks, and Takashi says "We can try and get answers from this person when we get there. If you have an idea of where to go, then you'd best take off now." Riku nodded in agreement, and after glancing at Kirby's crystallized body and saying "I'll free you and this planet quickly…I promise" he takes off towards the direction of the source.

Going as fast as he could through space, Riku eventually comes across what he was looking for. It was a gigantic distorted castle covered entirely in crystals that was roughly the size of a small planet without any of the gravitational pull of one, and the only thing that had nothing to do with crystals on the outside was a platform of thick rock that acted as the base of the castle and the gargantuan front door that was covered in dragon scales. As Riku approached the front of this strange castle, all he could say in a disturbed tone was "…I can't sense any life in this castle."

"Does that mean we're dealing with a sentient castle?" Takashi wonders, and Riku says while cautiously descending towards the front of the castle "I don't know what it means, honestly. This place looks really bizarre though." Once Riku lands on the ground, he takes a look at the doorway into the castle and says "Whoever designed this castle must have killed a lot of dragons to build the front doors…"

"How barbaric…All those scales must have belong to thousands of dragons. Whoever owns this castle must truly be depraved…" Takashi remarks in a disturbed tone, and as Riku climbs towards the doors he responds "We won't know for certain until I've gone inside…" The teenage Overlord reaches out for the door, but before he can exert even a bit of force on it he senses something really foreboding coming from above and quickly looks up. He doesn't sense a person, however, but rather the glowing green ball of fire flying straight at him.

Sensing the volatile energies within that fireball, Riku quickly leaps backwards out of the way before he's struck with the attack. Keeping his barrier of air up, Riku watches as the fireball touches the ground, where a miniaturized nuclear explosion goes off that strikes the teenage Overlord anyways, pushing him further back and causing him to drop from the air and land on his back. Though the poison from the nuclear blast spreads through the area, Riku's air shield protects him from it, but not from the blast itself.

While lying on the ground, Riku lifted his head up and watched as a being descended down in front of the door. It was a teenage human with glowing yellow eyes that had a hazard sign surrounding the pupils, and he wore the tattered remains of a hazmat suit that had hardened crystals of nuclear energy poking out across his skin through the holes of his suit. The hair of this human was erratic and burning green, and most of the skin surrounding his deformed teeth was burnt off.

"I'm…not sensing any life coming from this person…" Riku thinks to himself as he slowly pushes himself to his feet. He finds the presence of this human boy disturbing, especially with the way their body appeared. "Who are you?" Riku inquires before summoning forth his helix-bladed sword, Muchitsujo out in front of his extended right hand. The human he was facing leaned forward and said in a barely-hinged tone "I have no name. But you are trespassing on Lord Cryxis' domain, Elemental Overlord, and for that reason I will annihilate every last molecule on your body."

This nameless human recognizing Riku by his title surprised him for about a moment, as the more curious issue was just who this "Cryxis" person was. "And just who is this Cryxis person you answer to?" Riku tries to inquire, but the nuclear human just widens his eyes and exclaims "You will refer to him by his title, worm!" The person then lifts their right pointer finger up and fires a barrage of tiny nuclear fireballs straight at Riku.

Riku quickly swings his sword out and uses some of the air surrounding his body to send out a wave of condensed wind at the fireballs, but the moment the wave touches just one of the projectiles not only does a nuclear blast occur but the attack Riku fired is completely wiped away. The teenage Overlord quickly leaps back and takes flight before the remainder of the attacks can strike him. He watches explosion after explosion go off on the ground, but none of the blasts even scratch the rock below, much to Riku's surprise. After firing off the barrage of tiny fireballs, the nuclear human lifts his right hand up and a shockwave of green light shrinks down in front of his palm before he fires off a fast and head-sized bullet of nuclear energy through the poisonous smoke he created from the earlier barrage.

Riku decides to try and slice through this next attack with his sword the very moment he notices it's presence, but even cutting the bullet in half does no good as he instead manages to create two nuclear explosions from the halved projectile. One explosion below and above Riku causes him to be pushed directly backwards quite a few feet through space. This time he took a direct hit from explosion, which weakened him a little bit.

Now that he was far away from the castle, Riku glanced forward and saw the nuclear human lurching forward with arms swinging back and forth and an insane giggle coming from his disjointed mouth. Holding his sword up beside him, Riku remarked "He doesn't seem to be able to fly…That's an advantage for me. I just need to attack his body from afar and victory will be mine." He didn't speak with full confidence though, since he suspected there were still some tricks up this human's tattered sleeves.

The nuclear human raises their right hand up, the palm radiating with hellish nuclear fire as he continues to laugh. Riku then sensed a disturbance in the energies around his body, and was quick to fly at high speeds to the right before a nuclear explosion goes off where he once was. The explosion was the biggest thus far, but Riku was out of way before even the edge of it could touch him. But that one explosion wasn't the end of the attack, as another explosion goes off close to the edge of the first one, followed by a series of them that closes in on Riku's location.

Riku takes a moment to glance over at his opponent to see them swerving their hand to follow him with the glow still around the palm, and it was at that point where Riku flew forward and went for the side of the castle before the nuclear explosions could catch up with him. He was experiencing a moment of panic as he flew, but once he made it to the side of the castle and flipped around to press his back against the crystal wall he was able to safely look to the left and watch as the nuclear explosions came to an end near the corner of the castle, with the last explosion merely blowing Riku's hair around a bit.

Taking a moment to catch his breath as he feels his heart beat against his chest, Riku remarks "That's a dangerous power…He was using the very atoms surrounding me as catalysts for his nuclear blasts." "You should be thankful that his powers seem to override the possibility of an atomic explosion, or you'd need your higher forms just to escape the blast radius…" Takashi remarks, being somewhat berating in his tone. Riku says to him quietly afterwards "I've never fought anyone that controls nuclear energy before…But I guess now's the best time to get some experience, right?"

"You're being way too optimistic about this…" Takashi says, and Riku says in agreement "Probably, but I think my opponent has shown off all of their tricks. I won't need to transform to get the edge over him, since save for his nuclear blasts he's not that powerful." Riku then dispelled his sword for the time being and said "He can't fly, so I just need to get back around and strike him with a powerful beam…"

"What an interesting idea. Now would probably be the best time to strike me then, worm." The voice of the nuclear human surprises Riku enough to get him to turn his head immediately, where he finds his foe standing on the wall with his right hand raised and gravity seeming to be a non-issue for him. Riku quickly tries to use his speed to get out of the way while looking rather shocked, but the human fires off another bullet of nuclear energy that strikes Riku clean in the chest and sets off a nuclear explosion that launches him straight towards the depths of space below the castle.

Riku quickly recovers, albeit with some burn marks on his body, and flies directly underneath the castle before he can be struck by another bullet launched straight at him. Once below there, he calms himself down and remarks "See, this is why it's never a good idea to assume your opponent's power set…He can walk along the sides of this castle, but he's probably not that fast otherwise he would've attacked me sooner. But now's the perfect time to strike…" Taking little time to rest, Riku quickly holds his right hand out and summons an orb of flame that grows in size until it's burning as bright as a red sun but was as big as Riku's head.

The teenage Overlord then swung his arm out beside him as he flew to the front of the castle's underside and curved upward behind the nuclear human, who was currently walking down the wall to pursue Riku. Without saying a word and focusing entirely on his foe, Riku swings his arm out and unleashes a tunnel-sized blast of flame, hoping to turn his foe's ability against him by igniting the nuclear crystals coming out of his skin.

But Riku would find himself surprised again when the human turned around and just let himself get hit by the flames, which caused the crimson fire to turn a pale green before it all exploded into a series of nuclear blasts that trailed back to Riku. Flying back immediately after the first explosion went off, Riku held his arms out like he wielding a bow and summoned forth one made out of lightning, remarking without losing his composure "Lets try this instead…"

He then fired off a series of lightning arrows through the smoke left behind by the explosions, and he fires off a larger one once the initial salvo left his bow. All arrows meet an untimely end before they can scar their intended target, but as each explosion goes off Riku quickly holds his right hand out and concentrates on the rock connected to the underside of the castle. After a few seconds a talon-shaped formation of stone grows out of the rock and curves through space to try and puncture the nuclear human.

But the man just laughs madly at the attack and raises his hand up, firing up an aura of hazy nuclear energy that touches the stone and causes it to immediately blow up after spawning green cracks across the surface for a moment. But the blasts only go to the origin point of the talon, the rest of the rocks are completely untouched. Riku pays attention to this and quietly says "So he can't harm this castle…"

The nuclear human, with aura still surrounding his body, swings his right arm and madly proclaims "You can't touch me, worm! And because of that you will never even step foot in Lord Cryxis' domain!" He then launches off a nuclear energy bullet larger than the last ones have been, but Riku flies out of the way of that attack and moves towards the front of the castle while quietly saying "You will never hit me from there."

The nuclear human grinned and proceeded to walk along the side of the walls to return to the front of the castle, where he finds Riku standing on the ground where the battle originally started. While Riku waited for his foe's next move, he firmed his fists and thought "If attacking with my elements isn't going to work, and I can't use my sword to strike him, then my best bet would be to force him to destroy himself…"

But Takashi quickly remarks "Or just go into one of your forms and kill him so quickly that he won't hit you with the ensuing nuclear explosion." Riku says in response to that while raising his right hand up before his waist upon seeing the nuclear human ready to launch another attack "We don't know how much our opponent knows about us. Best to keep the other forms hidden unless absolutely necessary."

The moment the man fires another bullet of nuclear energy, Riku is ready to defend against it by swinging his right arm up and summoning forth a large stone wall that takes the attack and shatters in the ensuing explosion. Riku flinches a bit as the stone bits fly back at him, but then finds his opponent standing in front of the door once more with both arms held out beside himself and a nightmarish grin on his face. "Face complete obliteration, worm! Galactic Meltdown!" The man exclaimed as the green fire around his body grew big enough to consume him entirely, with every single one of his fingertips burning so brightly with nuclear energy that it was a wonder that his skin didn't melt off.

Riku did not have much time to react to the incoming attack, so he instead chose to stall out it's release by slamming his hand on the ground and sending out a wave of frost on the ground that reaches the feet of the nuclear human and covers him in a thick block of ice. Riku then leaps back and flies away from the area as the heat from his foe's nuclear fire melts the ice and allows him to continue his attack. The man swings his palms together in front of his body, and all of his glowing tips send out beams of energy that connect together and form two stars.

These two stars are launched simultaneously at the spot where Riku once was, but in the transition process they spin around and form a three-dimensional shape that glows as bright as a newborn star. Once the attack collides with the ground, Riku finds that he would not have made it out of the way fast enough as an explosion goes off as big as the very castle itself, with enough force put into it to obliterate half a planet. Riku is struck by the shockwave emerging from the explosion, and he can feel the very depths of space rumble around him as he braces himself in place despite the heavy damage being inflicted upon his body.

But with this very powerful explosion comes an opportunity, as the nuclear man managed to create a very large cloud of poisonous smoke that would linger around for a bit and obscure Riku's body. After doubling the layer of wind surrounding himself just to be safe, Riku summoned his sword in his left hand and thrust his right one out in front of him before thinking "This is the chance to strike…"

Back on the ground, the nuclear man kept his hands raised and exclaims maniacally "Come out, come out wherever you are, worm!" He then targeted the atoms of the smoke and used nuclear blasts to try and find Riku within them all, unaware at the moment that his opponent was using his powers to summon forth tree branches from the ground behind him. But the moment the wood gets close to the man's aura and explode he is alerted of what's going on and quickly prepares himself as a fireball is sent at him from the right, and he swings his arm out to blow it up while remarking "Have you become a coward, worm?!"

The nuclear man then keeps swinging his arms out, alternating between left and right to deal with any attacks that Riku sent his way before pulling them back in close to his body. Riku fired off fireballs, lightning arrows, summoned trees and rock formations, but all of them were destroyed by the man's powers, making it seem like a wasted effort in his eyes as he proclaims in an unhinged tone "I'm untouchable! Just face it, you'll never get past me!"

But this man, so consumed by his own insanity, could never hope to realize what Riku was planning with these seemingly pointless attacks. While having the smoke continue to shroud the man, Riku uses his elements to force the man into a pattern of attack with his hands, using the last bit of energy remaining from the elements to keep track of the ways the hands were moving. Once the right hand was raised up with the back of it facing out, Riku's eyes widened and he sent his sword flying in a curve towards his opponent.

"You can never destroy this sword…" Riku quietly remarks while staring down coldly at his foe and using his right hand to guide the flight path of his sword perfectly. Once Riku lodges the tip of his blade into the back of his foe's hand, the man was naturally puzzled and brought his arm in front of his chest while laughing and saying "You think an indestructible blade is going to stop me?! Such a predicta-" Before his sentence ends, the true nature of Riku's attack comes to light, and with one last push Riku causes the blade to force the palm of his foe's hand to touch the rest of his body.

At that very moment, Riku mentally dispels his blade and holds his hands out to surround himself in a very thick sphere of stone that he pulls away from the castle underside. Without being able to say a word, the nuclear man's body is swiftly filled with glowing cracks that extend out from his palm, and once he is covered entirely he blows up cataclysmically. His explosion spreads out in a blaze of nuclear green fire and obliterates Riku's stone barrier the moment it makes contact, but because of that Riku himself in unharmed from the explosion.

Waiting until the heat from the death of his foe has died down, Riku descends from the sky and blinks a few times, unfazed by the result of his battle for one reason alone. Once he lands, he takes a few steps across the radiated ground and glances down, where he finds all that remains of his opponent…A crystal, human-like mannequin was lying in front of the door with arms crossed in front of a skull that was in a hollow hole centered on the chest. "And that explains why I didn't sense any life coming from that person…" Riku murmurs as he finds himself sickened by the existence of this mannequin.

"So someone created that opponent for you by using that mannequin as a vessel? Unbelievable…" Takashi remarks quietly, and as Riku lifts his head up to look at the gargantuan door in front of him he says rather seriously "It seems you might've been right about our foe being incredibly powerful, Takashi. The ability to create life through vessels and turn an entire planet to crystal…I can't imagine what type of being this Cryxis person is, but no matter how dangerous he is, I have to find and face him…"

Riku clenches his right fist up beside himself, trembling a bit in both anticipation and fear before he composes himself with a deep breath. He then held his hand out and touched the right side of the gargantuan scaled door, pushing it forward with such a heavy creaking noise that he twitched a bit in pain. But when he opened it well enough, he found himself ready to go through and see just what exactly this person named 'Cryxis' was…

Next Time: An Embrace