Chapter 9
The New God
The fighting always seems to go faster in writing than in reality. In person, it feels as if you are there for years, even decades. But when you take one breath, it's as if your life, and the life around you from companions, friends, family, seems to be sucked away with a straw, leaving nothing but what-if's.
Let me ask you a question or seven. If the cock crows, but no one is around, will its sound still carry out its significance? If an idea, like the tumor that it is, dies, will anyone remember? If a girl screams for help, will you hear? Let me restate the question for you to better understand. If you hear yourself scream, will you not go? Will you let yourself die? And more importantly, would you destroy the last remaining memory of all of your misfortunes? Even if it means killing an innocent child?
The Iron Will, the black, brown, and darker gray bulls had done away with most of the mist of the first level of the Alicia. But much mist was to get there, arriving from the darkening, shy clouds from above. It mixed with something awful in the sea to make that atmosphere so glacial and palpable. You could quite literally taste the cold air, slice a chunk of cloud away, set it out on a nice plate with a meal and dig in. The ships next to the Alicia had mixed with a larger fleet from the Iron Kingdom. Their ships matched and overmatched the Acorn Fleet with not only size but with cannons, crew, sails, wood, and hate.
Each time and Iron ship occupied itself with an Acorn ship, it would first rumble from the larboard, starboard or its bow. And the amounts and chunks of wood would fly off onto the sea, and on other ships close by. The first wave of Iron had completely sunk the first line with that tactic. The second line fought back but was overcome with the quantity and strength of Iron. The third line took the Iron's first line but at a cost, and it was at that time when Sonic battled the infamous Regina, the Iron Queen.
"Don't let her out of your sight!" Sally called out, still holding her bleeding arm in pain.
"That kind of takes care of itself, she's not exactly going anywhere fast. Not that she could anyway." Sonic called out, still trying to make fun of the situation.
Max veered from her rear with sword in hand, he hoped he had not been spotted by now.
"My queen!" Mrs. Helmswoman called out from above mid-swiping and sharing steel with another bull.
Sally looked up, "What?! I'm busy here!"
"There are other ships! I think they are friendly!" The chipmunk captain said as she grunted away at the other steel hitting hers.
"Ya hear that Regina! Give it up, looks like your about to lose!" Sally instigated trying to get a rise out of the fat cow lady.
"I don't think so!" Regina spat gallons of bile and chewed up food at the Acorn Queen.
"Now!" Sonic called out as he, Sally and Max from behind all charged at once at the fat queen.
With speed on her side, the Iron Queen only watched as Graal took care of the three with one swipe. It cut through to Sonic's sword, shattering it into a few pieces. It incised Sally's left side near her ribs, just enough to send her on her back. Max on the other hand was completely blocking Graal with his sword until the magic of Galahad's sword took him by surprise, sliced open his other cheek, made him lose his breath with the hilt and was now being held in the air by the queen. Graal shined white but also red on its tip as Max dangled from its steel. He tried to speak or let out some kind of a defiant, painful yell, but could only cough up red saliva.
Sally froze as she witnessed her dangling father, her eyes widened with great disbelief. It was all occurring so fast and yet so slow in her mind. A distant memory of her father flashed before her. It was a painful one. She remembered visiting him in prison, cursing him, disowning him and her from him. Sally raised her hand covering him from her sight, hoping that small gesture would save him.
Regina laughed loudly and pleasingly, she swung the old king's body away and sent him on his back near a wooden beam. He lay helpless and bleeding.
"No!" Sally screamed full of tears, crawling her way through the battlefield and reaching herself next to her father. She held his scar-filled cheek with one hand and tried waking Max up. She checked her father over, seeing a bright red open wound in his chest, still spurting out bright red. Sally attempted closing the wound with her jacket. "Max! Ma- da... dad. Da-" Sally trailed off feeling numb to the battle and everything else. She held her father's head close to her chest and began to wail.
Sonic clenched his teeth angrily and began gritting them. He began to make his palms bleed through his ripped gloves, from his tightening fists. "That's it!" He called out to the laughing queen.
"Come and get me hog!" Regina called out again pointing the very white Graal at Sonic.
The blue hedgehog sped to the queen in a matter of a second, he spun at the fat queen but Graal was there to counter. She spun around her with great velocity, Graal followed wherever he went. Sonic tried hitting the queen in every direction and every possible opening he could think of, but he did not blow a single hit on the queen, instead, Graal had managed to cut open a few of his quills, slice through his hand, and create a few bumpy sores.
Sonic retreated a few feet away, breathing heavily as he did. The blue blur could not manage to outwit the queen. It seemed Graal was just as fast if not faster than he. Sonic looked around for anything but he stopped, thinking of a clear solution. He managed to reconstitute himself and raise his arms in the air. "Alright, "He started, "I give up."
"What?" Regina asked.
"What?" Sally also asked.
"You have something up your sleeve." Regina suspected.
Sonic looked within his gloves and simply stated, "No."
"Are you insane?" Sally wondered still through quiet tears now.
"No." Sonic said, "But I think I've finally met my match." He finished still with his arms raised.
Regina laughed noisily, "That's it? You're the Sonic? You're a joke!"
Sonic corrected, clearly looking at something else other than the queen, "Oh, no. I wasn't talking to you." He pointed at what Regina was holding.
"What?" Regina said very unpleasantly.
"You." Sonic stated again, clearly not very patient at how slow his opponent was being. "You, I mean, not you queeny, I mean you, Graal." He looked around to Sally making an is-she-serious?- face. "Get a load of her." She said pointing at the Iron Queen. "Oh." He apologized, "No offense, I didn't mean load… I meant, get a ton? Yes, a ton of her." He tried sizing up the queen.
"You worthless imbecile!" Regina spat back.
"Hey," Sonic looked offended, "Graal beat me, not you. Aren't you going to finish me, oh great Graal?"
"Of course!" Regina charged for the hedgehog but found that he slipped away a few feet next to her. The blue hedgehog yawned in boredom. "Fight me!" She charged again but found the same outcome. Regina lazily swung Graal but was unable to give it its usual sting or speed. Meanwhile Sally noticed what Sonic was attempting to do.
A few lazy shakes later and the large attempt of the fat lady, Regina dropped her sword and her fat self on the ship, out of breath. Sonic picked up the very white Graal as Regina yelled at him, half looking at the hedgehog, "This… isn't… over!"
"Eh, looks pretty over to me." Sonic sighed in victory, admiring Galahad's sword. He looked out to the other ships, "Those new ships, are they helping us? Hah!" He pointed at the fat queen, "I knew this wouldn't take long."
It was true, the new ships were Far Easterners battling the rest of the Legion ships and a few had started to battle Iron ships as well. The faster ships were being lead by Obasi, Espio and Salma.
Silently the fat queen began to laugh, and laugh away at something unexplainably funny.
"What is it queeny?" Sonic asked the Iron Queen, looking over her.
"You fool! I told you this was not over!" The Iron Queen did not try to get up herself but waited.
Noiselessly and without any alarm, Sonic felt a slight sting on his neck. He dropped Graal and noticed Sally was under the same predicament. She was being threatened by a small pair of knives by a spider woman dressed in black. The Bride of Endless Reach pulled the chipmunk up to meet the queen. It seemed that many of the Acorn ships were being surrounded by the three clans.
Finally the Bride of Conquering storms helped lift up the Iron queen with some of her clan sisters.
"Did I not tell you it was not over?" Regina laughed a monstrous billowy laugh again.
The Bride of Rich Nights spoke to Sonic, nearing her blade closer to his throat, "Any last words pig?"
"Uh, oh." Sonic responded looking at the coming projectile. Both he and Sally quickly ducked as the rest watched the fires in the sky.
There was a loud explosion that hit the Alicia starboard side, making a giant hole where wood and bats and spiders and lynxes and Iron Queen used to be. Sonic tasted blood on his lips, he looked around for Sally. He spotted her under a wooden beam and some tattered sail. He lifted the beam of and asked, "Sally! Are you hurt?"
Sally coughed, "What… happened?"
Sonic looked up, he himself did not know the answer until he saw it in the sky, "Eggman."
Sure enough the Egg-Maelstrom stood atop, overlooking the entire battlefield. Covering all ships with its gigantic shadow. A loud crackle could be heard in the sky coming from the massive ship, and Eggman laughed, "I couldn't have you have all the fun!"
After Eggman was done he sent a barrage and fleet of missiles to all ships alike, whether they were Acorn, Iron, Legion or Knottingham, it did not matter. The ships echoed and blew up with precise unanimity, sending chunks of animals and wood all around the Long Sea. Eggman started again over his speaker, "Thanks to these seven Chaos Emeralds, I am invincible!"
"Careful doctor!" Decoe piped in.
"Yeah doctor, you don't want to blow a casket!" Bocoe chipped in.
"Quiet!" Eggman retorted and continued a second barrage.
"Consarnit Eggman!" Sonic yelled over what was left of the gangway. Sally looked over at the changing sea.
"Sonic?" Sally asked.
Sonic looked over and saw the look of terror on the Acorn queen. She had been looking at what was the now thunderous and earthquake of the sea.
"What in the seven gods…" Sonic trailed off as he witnessed the one thing that had been there for millennia. The silent serpent, the fiendish foe… the creature.
A huge spiral and an actual maelstrom began forming from within the Long Sea and it began pulling in all ships. From within and all corners of the sea came out with great speed, massive tentacles. They were leagues high and easily touched the angry clouds up on high, which made them cry ferociously. The atmosphere turned black and wet with the coming monstrosity from down below.
The springing, spiky tentacles amassed and began reaching for the Egg-Maelstrom. Eggman could be heard struggling from his speaker and so could his robots. Eggman fired up all of his engines trying to be let loose, but the creature would not let go. Eggman tried firing a barrage but that did not help, it only angered the creature more and produced more spiky tentacles. The creature itself could be heard from below, giving off a stench most putrid and sounding as a hundred thunderstorms. Eggman finally detached his escape compartment base, pulling his other robot's escapes as well, until he was unseen higher and higher in the sky.
"Whoa." Sonic and Sally both watched and hung on as a gigantesque tentacle began to wrap itself on what was left of the Alicia. But not before long they saw Knottingham's flagship nearing them. Just then they heard and felt the splash of the Egg-Maelstrom, and it sunk with the creature. Dindrane's flagship slammed full force against the Alicia, making the tentacle let the ship go and pushing it further from the maelstrom.
Sonic quickly noticed a pink hedgehog he hadn't seen in a year. He wanted to call out to her from the other ship.
The tentacle also came back with full force and slammed on both flagships, this time they too would sink. All animals were sent overboard and into the depths. Both the Alicia and Dindrane's flagship were irreparably damaged.
The blue hedgehog was also sent into the sea next to the falling wreckage. Luckily Amy noticed him go down and was able to dive for him. As Amy entered the sea, she felt her body completely reject the water. She was unable to move because of how cold it was. Amy shook herself around, she had lost her target but she still began to swim down.
Sonic fell deeper and deeper into the ocean. Sonic felt his last breath leave his body, and the last thing he saw, was Amy, the pink hedgehog, swimming after him.
Amy finally reached the hedgehog, she was almost out of breath in that dark place. She shook her fears away, losing more breath, running out of time. Amy wrapped her arms around the blue hedgehog and began to kick, kick with all of her might.
Amy gasped loudly as she reached the surface and quickly tried to reach for a wooden flotation device. The wood was large enough to climb on but she could not lift Sonic all the way. His head was still below the surface. She cried as she tried lifting again. This time she went underwater and pushed from there, lifting the hedgehog onto the wooden debris. She looked at him with pause. He wasn't moving. Amy slapped him. Nothing.
"Sonic." Amy tried. "Sonic." She tried again. "Sonic! Sonic! Sonic!" Still there was nothing. And he and she were still. Amy checked behind her. Galatine and Arondight still clung close to her belt. Amy began paddling with one hand and checking for Sonic's pulse with the other. "Don't!" She cried as she began pushing with her hand on his chest. Amy must have been there for ten minutes until she began paddling again.
She was suddenly spooked as she something white coming at her. It clung loudly next to her, next to Galatine. She looked over, it was… another sword. She shook her head still paddling, maneuvering away from debris, dead animals, and all the wood in the world.
"Sonic!" She called out to him again a few minutes later. "I won't… let you go." Amy began to feel tears well up in her. Her chest became agitated, her hair seemed to stand up in all that water.
Hours later, Amy saw behind her, the last remnants of ships being sucked down by that horrid thing. "Mother…" She whispered, "Merlin… Sonic." She began to tremble violently and felt that her legs were no longer kicking with great speed.
Come nighttime, Amy never did let go of Sonic, but perhaps she did let go of a few vestiges of hope and sanity for that moment. Even in the dark she could still hear people… dying, screaming, and calling out for help. But what could she do for them now? Amy was also dying in the freezing and lowering temperatures of the sea.
This is it, she thought, this… is how we both die. Amy closed her eyes, she only saw Sonic in her mind's eye. But she had finally given up. Everyone was dead, to her. And she soon would be dead too.
Amy opened her eyes, she could see him there, pathetic and motionless. Perhaps it was time to let him go, all over again. Again, and again. That's all she ever did those days.
Amy witnessed an unbearable truth being fed to her from the new god and from its depth-filled home. For the new god, like its many brothers, sang a song of woe, a song that whispered, and a song that made the mind ache until there was no more sanity. And that servant of the Faceless One- the new god, whispered its name to the young hedgehog, a name that would forever be chiseled in the farthest deeps of her dying, corrupted mind,
N'Zoth.
Amy closed her eyes. It seemed peaceful now. Maybe this was the other side. Amy felt her pruned fingers letting go of the wood. She opened her eyes. There was a light.
End of Part 1