Disclaimer: Don't own no nothing, so sue me.
Author's Note: This is a AU/Sequel fic, plus I (The Chief) haven't really finished SO3 yet, so I'll be relying on the Master's expertise to correct any mistakes I might have made. Still, the ending will be different from the original due to the very nature of this fic (AU). In short, the ending and the following events are not the same as those in the game. So please do not expect anything except for what you see.
Full Summary: Fayt and the others had successfully defeated Luther, but he was able to delete the entire universe before being erased and therefore winding up dead. With no other place left to go to, the party has no choice but to eke out an existence in 4D space. But when Blair and her Eternal Sphere team manage to restore and recreate the Milky Way, what will be awaiting the party in their restored home galaxy should they decide to return? SO3/Halo crossover
Prolouge
"Dimension Doo-"
"Too slow, boy!"
WhackThud! Fayt's limp body was hurled across the arena as Luther reached across the distance between them with his spear and cut him off in mid-casting with a savage blow to his ribs. A brutal impact against one of the many pillars that dotted the arena halted Fayt's momentum, and he crashed to the floor.
Cliff came charging forward, eager to avenge his fallen comrade. "Think you can handle this?" He cried out as he lunged forward, fully intending to drive a viscous Uppercut into his opponent's chin, but Luther beat him to it.
"Much less than I would care to handle!" Luther shot back as he dodged out of the way with unnatural speed and drove his spear into Cliff's midsection as the blonde attempted to recover from his failed strike. The Klausian screamed in agony as the bladed tip of the spear impaled him through his left kidney, and he was quickly brought to his knees as Luther brutally yanked out the spear and followed it up with a beam of energy to Cliff's kneeling form, blowing him across the arena and coming to a rest somewhere close to Fayt.
"CLIFF!" Mirage normally didn't lose her head during a fight, but at the sight of her comrade being struck down, she lost all control. Screaming like a banshee, Mirage threw herself towards Luther, kicking and punching for all she was worth. A few swing of Luther's spear, and she was brought down just like the rest.
"Bah. Too easy." Luther spat at the fallen forms of his first three opponents. "Is this the best you have to offer?" He shouted at the remaining five who still stood against him.
Albel growled and set his katana in an offensive position. Time to teach this over-confident maggot a lesson. "You're about to realize you've severely underestimated us, worm!" Charging forward, Albel unleashed a barrage of Air Slashes that even someone as fast as Cliff would be hard-pressed to dodge. Unfortunately for Albel, Luther was even faster than Cliff.
Albel was so concentrated on being on the offensive, so bent on defeating the arrogant worm before him, that he didn't even see Luther's counterattack until it literally kicked him in the face. Staggering backward, Albel dropped his katana and clutched at his shattered nose as he fell to one knee. That's it, now I'M MAD! Albel flexed his claw-arm and brought it backwards, ready to swing. "HAND OF DOOM!" He shouted as he dashed forward, swinging his claw back and forth in a dicing motion, intent on slicing the maggot to pieces.
Luther was much faster. He quickly sidestepped to Albel's right and bent backwards 90-degrees, causing Albel's hasty attack to completely miss. Albel caught himself and attempted to recover for another strike when Luther blasted him with a beam of energy and threw him across the arena, his clothes smoking from the heat of the attack. Albel was unconscious before he hit the ground.
"This is pathetic! And to think that you actually defeated the likes of Azazer, Berial and Belzeber..."
Nel couldn't take it anymore. Already four of her comrades had been too easily defeated by this god-like entity, and now he was goading them on, taunting them! Her self-restraint finally snapped. If she was going to die fighting this god-like entity, she wouldn't die without a fight! "You'll pay for what you've done Luther!" Yelling out a stream of expletives as she threw herself into the battle, she transformed into a frenzy of slashing movements, her dagger moving faster than the naked eye could see.
"Mirror Slic-"
"Die, fool!" Luther didn't even need to use his spear. He caught her completely off-guard with a beam of energy, and she was blasted backwards. Her body, clothing still smoking from the energy beam, skidded across the floor and came to a stop close to where Albel landed.
Maria, Sophia and Adray tensed as Luther turned his gaze towards them. "If we're going down, then we're not going down without a fight!" Maria cried out, mirroring Nel's sentiments. She drew out her pulse gun and started firing, but Luther weaved left and right, dodging all her shots. Maria's face contorted into a mask of rage as she started firing even faster. Her pulse gun started to overheat, but she didn't care. This man, claiming to be the 'Creator', dared to commit such atrocities! He was worse than the Aldians and the Vendeeni put together! And seeing Fayt struck down by him... that was more than enough to push her over the edge. Pulling the trigger as fast as she could, she started running towards Luther, firing as she went. Adray followed her, drawing his sword and leaping upwards to meet Luther's attack as Luther advanced toward them.
The battle between the two airborne combatants was brief, but spectacular. Adray was clearly fighting with all his might, brilliantly attacking and defending against Luther's attacks, thrusting, slashing, and parrying with all the strength he could muster. For a brief moment, it seemed as though Adray could possibly defeat Luther, that is, until Luther found a gap in Adray's defenses and made full use of it.
With two quick thrusts, he had Adray on the defensive. Then, he ducked left to dodge Adray's counter attack before piercing out with his spear. Forming a shield with Symbology, Adray protected himself from the brunt of the attack, but was still thrown back slightly by the impact. It was now that Luther struck.
Blood exploded outward from Adray's gaping mouth as the thrown spear impaled him through the stomach and pinned him to the ground. He weakly grabbed the shaft of the spear and tried to pull it out, but his strength failed him at the last moment, and his limp arms fell to his side. He twitched twice, and finally stilled
Eager to avenge the old man, Maria shifted her pulse gun to 'auto' and sent a hell-storm of pulse blasts in the direction of the all-powerful creator. The bright flashes burnt holes into the walls behind Luther, but the Creator was unfazed by the attack.
"Trying to defeat me with what I created? Foolish girl…" Luther muttered as a snap of his fingers shattered her gun to mere scrap metal.
Her vision flooding red with rage, Maria leapt into the air, attempting to slam her foot into the Creator. But this was what he had planned all along; his provocation worked. Just as she was about to deliver a hard kick to Luther's head, he spun around and grabbed her ankle a split-second before it impacted with his cranium. Spinning around for a few times to gain momentum, he finally threw Maria with all his might towards the nearest wall, right next to Sophia.
The resulting impact was... painful, to say the least. From where she was standing, Sophia could hear the agonizing sounds of several bones breaking as Maria slammed against the wall with a pained scream. Sophia quickly rushed over to Maria and tried to catch her as she fell, but she failed and Maria fell to the floor with an audible thud, no doubt worsening her injuries. Small fortune; Maria was unconscious when she hit the floor, sparing her any pain.
"Bah. What a waste of my time..." Sophia audibly gulped at Luther's remark. Luther smirked. "You're next, little girl!"
Sophia was sweating rivers by now. She was extremely afraid. If Luther could beat the other so easily, what could she possibly do against him? There was only one thing she could do. Praying that she would have just enough time to cast this final spell before Luther ended her life, she started the invocation of the symbol, even as Luther started advancing towards her.
By the time Luther was winding up for a strike, Sophia was already on the last syllable of the invocation. Just as Luther thrust his spear towards her heart, she yelled out "RESURRECTION!"
Immediately after she screamed out the final syllable of the word, Luther's spear impaled her through her chest, missing her heart by mere inches. Her scream caused Fayt's head to shoot up from its resting position on the floor, and he cried out, "No! SOPHIA!"
Luther yanked out the spear and turned towards Fayt. Staggering to his feet, Fayt used his sword as a crutch to support himself. The other party members, who were also revived by Sophia's desperate restoration spell, also slowly got to their feet.
Luther snorted derisively. "So these are my opponents? Weaklings who can barely stand up on their own two feet?" He threw his head back and laughed heartily, clearly mocking the party.
Albel stumbled and slowly got up, paying no heed to his bleeding nose, his katana still clutched determinedly in his hand.
Cliff and Mirage slowly pushed themselves up with their arms and got to their feet, wavering unsteadily and using each other as supports.
Nel also stumbled to her feet and unsheathed both her daggers, holding them out in a ready position.
Adray pulled the spear out of his stomach with newfound strength and, with a quick healing spell, sealed the wound and retrieved his sword from the ground.
Maria, ignoring the several cracks that she heard coming from her bones, pushed herself to her feet and staggered unsteadily.
Fayt, still staggering, moved over to Sophia's bleeding, unconscious form, and silently pulled out an Analeptic. As he opened the vial and poured the contents onto Sophia's wound, the party staggered over to where he was and rallied behind him.
Luther arched an eyebrow. Were they really thinking of fighting him like this? A futile gesture…
"You're wrong Luther. We aren't weaklings." Fayt suddenly said. Luther was terribly tempted to laugh at this. Not weaklings? Then how did he manage to completely kick their rear-ends just now?
"You seriously need a lesson in humility, Luther." Albel's serpentine voice resounded across the arena as he twirled his katana in a circle
"Never underestimate a pissed off Klausian, Luther." Cliff said in a grave tone. The sound of Mirage cracking her knuckles punctuated Cliff's sentence.
"You can't possibly expect forgiveness after what you did to Sophia." Fayt stated darkly. Already, a divine aura was starting to envelope him.
"You made one mistake by giving us something Luther," Maria said staring at him with her menacing eagle-eyes, "Determination."
Ok, looks like they mean business this time… Luther thought as he prepared for whatever the party was planning to do. He started to prepare a defensive aura, but the sheer ferocity of the party's sudden attack caught him completely off guard.
"MAX SHOCKWAVE!" Cliff smashed his fist into the ground and sent forth a powerful shockwave that smashed through Luther's defensive shield like a stone smashing through glass. Luther recoiled from what managed to penetrate his shield, and he attempted to quickly recover from the blow, but Mirage was already there to follow-up Cliff's attack.
"BLAZING CANNON!" Two lightning-fast uppercuts had Luther in the air, and then he was pummeled by repeated blasts of energy bolts. By the time Mirage was finished with him, Luther's fury had been drained so much he couldn't even hope to evade the next attack, much less put up a defensive shield.
"AIR SLASH OF FURY!" "SPLITTING SKY!" "EMOTION TORRENT!"
Albel, Nel and Adray attacked at the same time, completely devastating the still-airborne Luther. Between the numerous shockwaves being sent forth by the Crimson Scourge, the lightning bolts emanated from the Blades of Ryusen, and the explosive power of the orb created by Adray, Luther fell to his knees before the terrible assault. Even as he struggled to get up, the attacks weren't over yet.
"RADIATION BOTS!" "METEOR SWARM!"
Eager for revenge, Maria and the recently revived Sophia unleashed their full power on the Creator. With the radiation bots taking their cues from the numerous meteors crashing down on Luther's kneeling form, the Creator was completely and utterly driven into the ground by the incredible forces that were pummeling him over and over again.
This… cannot be… I am the creator… I cannot be defeated! Still refusing to believe that he had been defeated, Luther slowly crawled forward, feebly attempting to get up. He stretched out a hand to his fallen spear, desperate to retrieve it, but a familiar booted foot kicked it out of reach.
Turning his gaze skyward, Luther was greeted by the sight of Fayt Leingod towering over him, surrounded by a divine aura.
"Going somewhere, Luther?" Fayt inquired, his eyebrow arched sardonically at Luther.
Luther chuckled to himself. These fools had no idea what he was fully capable of…
"Hey! What's so funny?" Cliff shouted. Luther started to cackle loudly.
"Ahahahahahahaha! You fools! You actually believe you can defeat me?" Luther continued to cackle insanely. "You'll never win! I'll delete your entire universe before I let you win! Hahahahahaha!"
Pulling a small data pad out of his pocket, Luther rapidly pressed a number of buttons and firmly pushed his thumb on the 'execute' button.
Instantaneously, the entire party was overcome by an overwhelming sense of loss. Cliff and Mirage's knees buckled and they collapsed to the ground, clutching at their heads, trying desperately to cope with the raw emotions raging about within their minds. Albel collapsed to the ground, his metal arm clawing madly against the ground as he screamed in nameless emotional agony and grief, his mind revisiting all his childhood nightmares. Nel simply fell to her knees as her pupils dilated in complete shock. She scrambled backwards against the wall and huddled against it, whimpering. Sophia was lying on her back, sobbing madly as she tried to gasp in air. Maria simply stood in a comatose state, not believing that she was experiencing such emotions again. Adray fell to his knees, banging his fists repeatedly against the ground in frustration, not being able to comprehend such emotions.
Only Fayt stood strong against the onslaught of negative emotions that Luther was unleashing upon them. Staggering up to the Creator's prone form, the divine aura around Fayt flared with sudden brightness.
Luther continued to cackle insanely, but he faltered slightly as the sight of Fayt standing before him, body literally glowing with power that the Destruction Gene granted him.
"You think you'll win with that fancy symbology you've got! I'm the Creator! I'll never be defeated!" Luther continued to cackle as he clutched onto his data pad and continued deleting the Milky Way.
Fayt had had enough. He had to stop this madman before all was lost. His mental barriers were already starting to weaken; he didn't know how much longer he could last.
It was now or never.
Pouring his entire self into concentrating the power within him, he rose into the air and extended the wings that the gene granted him.
Luther stopped laughing and gazed upward at the Angel of Destruction that hovered above him. He tried to turn away from the vision of Death and Destruction that was before him, but his muscles wouldn't respond to his commands.
Fayt was more than ready. The power within him was practically screaming for release. All he needed was focus. If he let his powers run amok, it could very well destroy his enemy, as well as all those dear to him. Thoughts of people like Cliff, Mirage, Nel, Maria, Sophia, Albel…
His eyes shot open and he shouted out the last words that Luther would ever hear.
"ETHEREAL BLAST!"
Well, this is where the prologue ends. What do you think so far? I hope the OOC-ness wasn't too bad…
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This is the Chief, signing out.