Chapter 9: Attack on Sancturia

The trio continued their valiant trek up North. It wasn't hard to follow Solaris' via the burning path he left in the planet's surface. The hard part was, at least on Mew's end, not stopping every step of the way to help out the people struggling down there.

Him having his head down a lot did not escape Riku's notice however, "You wish you could do something to help, right brother?"

"Of course!" Mew thrust his head up with a mix of bitterness on his face, "But I get it y'know? If we stopped to help every person in danger, more people are going to die in the meantime."

"Right," Riku bobbed his head in agreement then looked to the ground and drew his brother's attention down, "And its not as though humanity can't fend for themselves."

It was true. Firemen were hard at work hosing down the spreading fires at the edge of the burning chasm Solaris seared in his wake. And there were other people volunteering to put out the flames however they could. It put a worried smile on Mew's face to see some kids using their water squirters to help out too.

He wanted this struggle to reflect positively in Kairi's mind and turned at her to say, "See that Kairi? Humanity's scared, but they're still putting up a good fight just like they always have!"

She stared down before suddenly blinking a few times and sputtering out a "H-Huh?" She had been snatched away by her thoughts for a moment. Weakly, she then spoke back, "Yeah..."

Mew glided in a little closer and patted her softly on the back, "I'm saying that your people will fare just fine...At least long enough for us to get there and put out hot-and-bothered's flames!"

Though the frail truth of the matter was that Solaris got a good lead on the three of them and Mew and Riku were stuck sticking to Kairi's pace. They had already cleared the Canadian border a few minutes ago but the North Pole was still a while's away.

Mew looked into Kairi's eyes and saw melancholy in them, so he backed off for now and let her be. But right as he did so, she asked, "Who is Joe Dark?"

"Ummm..." Mew wasn't quite expecting to hear that. He tapped away at his chin to think about it then turned to Riku. Before even a breath escape his brother crossed his arms and got to work.

"He's the current incarnation of the Dark King. I would assume you know who that is, right?"

Kairi faintly nodded her head. By now she'd run into too many dangerous folk to really care about the addition of one more.

"Well...Joe Dark seems to have a particular grudge against Alex Whiter and anyone like him since before any of us were the Elemental Overlord."

Mew shrugged the whole thing off and jokingly remarked, "But each of us have kicked his ass once by now. Its kinda like a rite of passage I guess?"

"You said he hates Alex Whiter...So he's from this planet too?" Kairi picked up on that surprisingly fast given her mopey mood.

"I'm not 100% sure of that but probably? I've never seen a human with such a bad case of red eye though." Mew replied.

Kairi bit her lower lip slightly then said with a scowl, "His home's in danger and all he wants to do is settle a grudge? Asshole..."

Mew scratched the side of his head and muttered, "Can't say he doesn't have his priorities in check..."

"I don't think that's the case this time," Riku spoke up, "When I encountered him his eyes were...hollow. Almost like he was being controlled."

"..." Mew stared blankly at Riku then started rubbing the back of his head, grunting out a sigh of irritation, "Well great, now I'm just gonna have to assume Justek's capable of mind-control cause otherwise the only other option is that ANOTHER bad guy's involved in all this!"

There wasn't any gentle way to put that in front of Kairi, so Mew sped through it fast, hoping she wouldn't hear most of it. When he was done Riku chimed in with the tally so far, "Solaris, Lunis, Justek, the Phoenix of Destruction...And now Joe Dark."

"Not to mention those strange creatures we fought back in the city. Who knows how many of them are out there?" Mew added.

"We're keeping on Solaris' trail but we have no idea where the others are." Riku muttered, thinking deeply to himself about something right after.

"Well I think we'll find Alex when we find Solaris. He's never one to turn down a fight."

"Its weird...No matter how hard I've tried, I've been unable to sense Solaris' power." Riku sounded perturbed by this.

"Yeah neither have I. Kairi?" Mew turned but she silently shook her head.

"I want to say I might know why?" Mew proposed with a lack of certainty to his voice. He then looked at Kairi once again and mentioned, "You're probably not going to like what I'm about to say though."

Kairi tilted her head to face him and Mew took in a deep breath to say, "I think Solaris and Lunis have God Ki."

Mew winced one eye shut and forced a smile out. Kairi narrowed her gaze and a bit of her spunk resurfaced just to say, "What is with you and Dragon Ball?"

"I know I know but I'm being serious here Kairi. Nothing else really makes any sense!" Mew exclaimed confidently.

"I'm willing to vouch with my brother on this," Riku chimed in, believing his word would mean something to Kairi, "But brother, I hope you realize the implication of what you just said."

"...Yeah," Mew hesitantly replied, "It means we don't know how strong either of them are."

"But that's alright. Cause we got a trump card." Mew cocked his head towards Kairi with a smile.

She looked straight ahead then more towards the sky. There was a flock of birds flying their way and she commented, "The wildlife is being scared off."

Mew and Riku narrowed their eyes up towards the sky. The birds weren't making any sounds, not even a single "Caw!" to show their distress. So when the birds suddenly started dropping towards them, there was no hesitation for either of them to draw their blade.

"Those aren't real birds!" Mew proclaimed as the fiendish fowls made of foggy darkness spread their four-winged forms in the shape of a wide "X". They bolted towards them faster than lightning's descent and Mew had to use his elbow to shove Kairi and give her time to react.

One of the bird's wings sliced across his cheek as it passed. He had time though to turn around and cut the fowl down the back with the tip of his blade. The bird went hurtling out of the sky and disassembled before hitting the ground.

"Heads up Riku!" Mew had the perspective to say, and his quick warning gave his brother time to turn around and retaliate. The two of them flew backwards as the flock curved up into the sky, spinning around before drilling their way back down to their location.

Mew and Riku readied their blades to fight back. But a large bird made of aura swiftly came by, tearing its way straight through the entire flock with its sharp wing span. It then rose into the sky and disappeared letting loose a screech.

Mew lowered his weapon and slowly faced Kairi, who turned off her Beast Tamer Drive but turned on a very furious look in her eye.

"Nice one Kairi!" Mew said with a hearty thumbs-up.

She glared at him, for good reason he knew, but then started turning back around while saying, "These mobs aren't getting in our way! We're almost-"

By the time she finished turning her energy looked instantly depleted. She finished her sentence with a whisper of "There..." and then fell into a lull of silence.

Mew and Riku turned to see what she was seeing. The frozen waters of the North Pole were bubbling. The once hidden city of Sancturia was spurting out flames. And more of those strange creatures were being flown in, carried in on platforms hauled by those birds the three just encountered.

Mew quickly looked at Kairi and saw her trembling as the fire reflected in her eyes. She gripped her staff tightly and after shedding a single tear flew straight for the city. Mew swung his hand out but Riku put his own on his wrist to lower it.

"This isn't the time for that brother. Lets go." Riku sternly told him.

Mew nodded his head then swung his blade over his shoulder and darted for Sancturia with Riku at his side. Before they passed through the barrier they cut down the birds and caused their passengers to drop into the ocean.

But when they got inside it proved to be a minor inconvenience for their enemies. Hundreds of those creatures had already invaded the city and were flying and stampeding about, picking away at the Aurians and their homes.

They landed and Riku took a moment to survey the new scenery. Mew stepped ahead of him and poked his head up trying to make out Kairi in the madness.

"She must've gone straight for her house..." The city was too large to try and play hide-and-seek right now. But Mew had enough faith in her strength to not make finding her a huge priority.

"They're getting massacred out there..." Riku commented in a somber tone. Mew saw plenty of Aurians trying to put up a fight, but not a single one of them could land a hit on these creatures to save their lives...Which was admittedly a terrible way of putting it.

Mew braced his sword by the handle and started turning to the left. Riku wondered aloud rather bluntly, "I thought these people were warriors like Kairi?"

"Haaaaaa...Riku?" Mew stepped up as the maturer of the two and set his brother's priorities straight, "I'm going to clear out the left side of the city, you clear out the right. If you find Solaris, then raise your power, otherwise meet me at the center of town. Got it?"

Riku glanced over his shoulder then cocked a proud smile and swung his arm down, sword floating past the palm. "Got it" He affirmed with his narrowly fixated on the enemy swarm close by.

"Lets get 'em outta here!" Mew yelled before dashing to the left.

Mew laser focused on the closest creature, which had a sludge based composition unlike the rest of them. It vaguely resembled a toad and had three tongues lashed out at the ground, which created puddles to extend the length of them and allow it latch onto the legs of three other Aurians.

The Aurians were being dragged into the sludge puddles and were inches away from it when Mew jumped and threw his blade down into the toad's head. This caused it to disassemble like the other creatures, whereas Mew then landed atop the handle of his blade and crossed his arms with a smile.

"Hey guys! Really hasn't been that long has it?"

Two of the Aurians were silent, the third spoke up with a panicked gasp of relief, "Oh thank god you're here! We really needed the back-up!"

Mew kicked flipped off his blade and by doing so made it spin around in the air, taking out a couple of those birds. He then slowly walked up to the Aurians and shrugged his hands up, "Yeah but you know I can't be everywhere at once right?"

Mew's sword coolly dropped into his right hand and he hung it over his shoulder. One of the other Aurians held up their weapon, a short sword with a tassel at the end, and wondered, "B-But how are we supposed to fend off these creatures on our own? They're so strong!"

Mew blinked slowly once then tapped his blade up against his back. He then spun around and cut down some horned creature that tried charging at him, barely having time to register it. All the while he asked of the trio, "Ok you three! Get out your weapons, quick!"

He turned and scanned them over one-by-one, "Ok so we got a short sword, a hammer and..."

He stared blankly down at a glock in the rightmost person's hands, then at the person's face. They crinkled out a wry smile and shrugged their shoulders. Mew slowly backed away and stuttered, "N-No this is fine, this is good! You guys are equipped to handle this!"

"We are?" The three said.

"Yeah!" Mew had to tell it like it is but do so quickly, "A short sword's good for quick attacks which'll be useful against the slower ones. A hammer can match the stronger ones if you hit them right. While a gun is useful for shooting down the flying ones when they dive at you."

"Just make sure to power up your weapons with aura. Those creatures don't seem to have good enough defenses against that!" Without receiving thanks for his advice Mew ran past them. They seemed to hold their weapons a little more confidently than before he had arrived. But just to be safe he turned around and yelled, "You guys got this! Oh! And pass on this advice to anyone else you run across!"

"That should help out a lot. But I can't slack off...!"

While mowing down the crowd of enemies Mew faintly heard some children crying on his right. He dashed straight towards the sounds and as they got louder it became easier to see them. And with them was a familiar face – Bobby, the rather unsung hero of the battle against Gravitus.

All the kids he was watching over couldn't have been any older than five. They weren't capable of fighting. They couldn't even throw a punch. Bobby was their only line of defense and for as firmly as he held his rapier and stood his ground, his body looked like it was in a terrible shape.

"S-Stay behind me!" He said, gritting his teeth against a truly titanic monster.

This creature was the biggest so far standing at twenty-feet tall and being ten feet long, including the tail. It looked like a dragon made of bones with its rot seeping into the ground. But when children were in danger, Mew was more than ready to step up and be their knight.

"Hey bone breath! Eat this!" Mew's boisterous claim to fame got the beast's attention just in time for Mew to go flying in and punch it straight in the side of its jaw. It staggered the beast away from the children. Mew landed and felt some sweat festering on his skin.

"Ugh, this ugly one's got a stronger dosage of the Theorem than the others..." Nevertheless he threw up his dukes and ran at the beast, throwing a punch straight at its chest with all his might.

Just then a second head popped out from the chest and bit its fangs into Mew's wrist. Mew grit his teeth and ripped his fist right out, breaking the fangs in the process. A lot of blood started dripping down his hand until he could slap the other one down and cauterize the wounds.

"Well that's a nasty trick..." He squeezed his hand onto his wrist and started raising it to draw his sword. The twin-headed dragon opened both its mouths to unleash a beam of darkness from them, forgoing the expected wait time.

Mew flinched. A wall of aura appeared in his path, and the two energy blasts were bounced back into the dragon to take it out. Mew looked to his right and saw Bobby holding up a very shaky hand. It plopped down to his side and he looked hard of breath.

"You...you alright Mew?" Bobby said on friendly terms.

Mew shook his bitten hand with impressive vigor then raised it up high above his head, clenching it into a fist, "Yeah seems fine to me!"

"But you..." He took that hand and pointed it at Bobby.

"Look like shit?" Bobby sighed and tried his hardest to stand up in front of the kids, who were trembling something fierce. He then took a couple steps forward and whispered, "W-What's going on man? Fifteen minutes ago some nut job invaded Sancturia, called us all traitors, then bailed for the Pyramid while leaving his army behind..."

Taking that info in Mew could only respond, "Even I don't know but...You said someone went towards the Pyramid?"

Bobby raised a hand over his head and murmured, "He was this tall, head looked like it was on fire?"

"Yeah that's the guy we're after!" Mew exclaimed, "By the way, have you seen Kairi come this way?"

Bobby quietly nodded and mentioned, "Last I saw she was tearing through dozens of those creatures on a one-women warpath to the North."

"So I was right on the money," Mew pumped his fist against his chest a couple times to Bobby's bewilderment. Then he looked at the boy and told him, "Leave the fight to us! You should take the kids further South, it should be cleared out by now."

"Yeah...I'll get right on that." Bobby responded. After sticking around a little bit to see Bobby reassure the kids, Mew hastened North towards the Aurora household, taking down any stragglers he could find.

On the opposite side of town Riku was dealing with all the creatures without taking a break. He glided around to throw the thoughtless beasts off-guard then cut them down with quick swings of his blade. His mental command over his blade sliced through the birds and punctured through entire lines of enemies on the ground.

After cutting through the bull-headed monsters his sword stuck into the chest of one of those twin-headed dragons, where its second head came out and devoured the blade whole. Riku slid to a stop then whipped his right hand to the left.

The blade broke free from the beast's skeletal gut, where Riku continued to whip his hand around to puncture the beast. His blade was a blur, rending the beast in the blink of an eye. He then looked around and saw that the immediate area was cleared out.

"Their numbers are limited, but they aren't the biggest threat here..." Riku closed his eyes and concentrated throughout Sancturia. He could feel his brother and Kairi fighting hard, and another high power in the center of town. But it felt nothing like the Phoenix of Destruction...

"Hey aren't you that guy who fought Gravitus?"

Riku's attention was disrupted by some guy asking him that question. He tilted his head to the right slightly and wasted little time on an answer, "No, I'm his brother."

"Oh," The person sounded mildly disappointed and their appreciation after was very neutral, "Well...thanks a lot dude."

"Don't mention it," Though Riku didn't care too much. His main concern was to tell them and the people around him, "But you need to get somewhere safe. This isn't your battleground."

"Safe?" The Aurian looked around, swung their arms out, and proclaimed, "Where?! Where is safe?!"

Riku looked around and saw so many houses either burnt down or destroyed. This was the only home these people knew, so for him to say that...

"...Sorry." He closed his eyes and muttered that out in a sincere tone.

He then felt his brother's power rise slightly and noticed him stopping all of a sudden close to where Kairi was. "Is that where...?" Not knowing who he might've been fighting, Riku hastened to his brother's side and continued to take down more of those creatures.

Around that moment Mew finished off a crowd aiming to target a single house and instantly knew, "Ok yeah, this is the one."

He put his sword at his back and valiantly swung open the cloth door to take a peek inside. "Hey Aur-!" He stopped and saw the gal in question sitting comfortably on the couch with a heavy bottle of liquor twirling around in her right hand.

"...Is this really the time for this?" Mew said, utterly baffled.

Auris sat upright against her couch and cocked a small smile as she remarked, "You really need to learn not to keep a lady waiting, Mew."

Mew clamped his hand around the door frame and was desperately fighting the urge to tell her off. But instead he lightly whacked the door with an open fist and said, "Could you at least have given us a warning about this?"

"Who's to say I even could have?" Auris cryptically replied while taking a deep sip of liquor. Mew narrowly glared at the side of her head and that seemed to make her put the bottle down.

"And besides, I'm not the lady in question..." She said in a more firm, motherly tone.

Mew perked his brows up and said, "So Kairi already ran by here?"

"Yes. She headed straight for the Pyramid once I told her that Gabriel was fighting Solaris."

"So you DO know-!" Mew paused with a fluttering of his eyelashes then started pulling away from the door.

"Brother."

"AH!" Mew turned around and Riku was standing a foot away, his stare as cold as ice. He then planted a hand on his chest to calm down and say, "D-Didn't think I'd run into you again so quickly Riku!"

"What are you doing?" Riku said, mildly confused.

"Ummm..." Mew hastily turned aside and parted the door. Auris turned and waved at them with a close-eyed smile.

"Riku, Auris. Auris, Riku!" Mew swung his hand towards them both in tune with their names.

"Its a pleasure to finally meet you Riku." Auris said.

"Same to you?" Riku wasn't too confident in his reply and started a prolong stare into her eyes. His brows started to arch and her smile turned wily.

Mew firmly patted Riku on the shoulder and told him, "Get to know each other later! We gotta make haste for the Pyramid!"

"...Alright." Riku slowly drew himself back out of the house, keeping his eye on Auris as she reclaimed her liquor bottle and slumped back into her couch.

"Be careful at the Pyramid you two. You may run into some unexpected company." She whispered as the curtain door closed.

"What?" Riku was once again confused as he ran by Mew's side towards the Pyramid.

"Brother, did you ever mention me when around her?" Riku's blatant observation over what transpired caught Mew in a situation he wasn't expecting to be in.

"N-No...?" Mew squeezed out an answer through a tight grin and Riku looked at him but immediately let it go while saying, "Ugh alright fine I'll tell you, but you gotta promise not to tell Kairi ok?"

Riku's change in expression showed he wasn't very happy or eager to hear what his brother had to say now but he nevertheless valued the weight of this promise by nodding his head.

"So full disclosure? Auris is clairvoyant."

"She can see the future?" Riku's eyes perked up.

"Yeah though she's kinda...particular about it." To put it loosely.

"...I see." Riku turned his head away and didn't utter another word.

"Oh, that was easier than I expected!" Mew let out a sigh of relief and focused on making it to the Pyramid.

Once they were there they could feel the ground trembling. A battle was raging on deep inside, and Mew prayed they weren't coming in for the climax. Riku kept up with him throughout their journey across the first couple of floors. As they hit the staircase going to the fourth floor however, they found Kairi starting to make her way up it.

"Kairi!" Mew hollered, hoping to hold her back long enough for them to finish catching up.

She turned around momentarily with her face pale and pupils shrunk and said, "Y-You guys!"

"Gabriel's just up ahead right?" Mew only paused to say that and get the confirmation nod from her. He then quickly gave a thumbs-up and said, "Then lets go save him and put a stop to Solaris' warpath!"

She steeled her gaze with determination and the three finished their climb to the next floor. The beautiful cherry blossom garden was flooded with flames, the bright embers filling the ceiling with smoke and ash.

"Oh man..." Mew solemnly withdrew his usual cheeriness to mourn the lose of this garden. The flames were forced their way by a shockwave of raw power booming out from the center of the room. Mew stepped forth shielded Kairi from them with his body, but some of the hotter ash got in his eyes and made it hard to see.

There were two shadows dancing in the flames. One stood over the other, like an ogre besting a samurai in a tragic take on an old folktale, and beat his fists down onto their shoulders like they were parts of a drum. Gabriel's stern grunt of pain could be heard through the flames, and as another shockwave rocked the floor the man dropped to his knees.

Kairi picked up her feet and ran through the flames covering her advance with a shield of aura before her arms. Mew and Riku ran after but she made it through in the nick of time.

"BASTARD!" She yelled, drawing Solaris eyes skyward as she jumped at him and prepared to break his skull with her staff.

"Oh come on!" The Sun God yelled as he jumped back and watched the ground break upon her staff.

She stood and thrust the weapon at his face with Gabriel knelt at her back, "Are you alright Gabriel?!"

"K-Kairi...?" Gabriel stuttered weakly as he put one hand on his chest and let out a very agonized grunt. Mew and Riku were quick to get to by Kairi's side and cross their swords at him.

Mew looked over his shoulder and knew right away what ailed the samurai, "His chest still hasn't healed up..."

"Geez...Damn it all you old coot!" Solaris swung his fist at Gabriel and was unabashedly rude towards him, "You can't even give me a good fight anymore and now you called for back-up?!"

He clawed his hand up by his face and set it ablaze with a pillar of fire towards the ceiling. His eyes turned vein-y likes a dragon's as he proclaimed, "You're making my revenge against your traitor ass so goddamn flaccid!"

"Leave him alone!" Kairi yelled, refusing to take anymore of the Sun God's shit. She nudged Riku aside with her staff and stepped forth to oppose Solaris with her grit and anger alone, "What did Sancturia ever do to you?!"

"What did they do?!" Solaris narrowed his gaze and lashed his hand down, setting off a wave of fire at the ground to repel Kairi back, "It'd be easier to tell you ants what they didn't do!"

Kairi's expression didn't budge in the slightest. For once, Solaris seemed to take interest in the people he deemed beneath his notice. With a cocky smile he said, "You know what, that fire in your eye reminds me a lot of the old hag who used to look after us. Maybe you'd actually make a decent opponent."

Solaris started to hunch over as fire wreathed his goliath frame, "It'd certainly be a better use of my time than entertaining this washed up sack of green shit."

Gabriel started coughing up blood at that moment. With his strength to stand dwindling he used that energy to warn Kairi, "Don't...underestimate his power...He is..."

"Haven't you said enough old man?!" Solaris barked in a fit of rage, "God you wouldn't believe him! He did nothing but chew me out the whole time we fought! And look where it got you!"

Mew stepped forth a little more and put his sword up near the tip of Kairi's staff. He then looked Solaris in the eyes and told him, "Sorry pal, but we're a package deal. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!"

"You should have just kept running and never looked back. This is where you die, Solaris." Riku added.

"Uuuughh...!" Solaris groaned like he had a mild stomachache then stared up at the ceiling and yelled, "Father! I could really use some back-up to weed out these flies!"

Mew scoffed and joked aloud, "First thing he does with his back to the wall is yell for daddy to come bail him out. Some Sun God you turned out to be."

"Ah will you can it loser?!" Solaris crossed his arms and waited for a dark rift to open up beside him. Joe Dark crawled out of it with dagger already in hand.

Mew recoiled slightly. His first experience with the reborn Dark King wasn't exactly his fondest memory. For the demon in his head however, it was a delightful recollection.

"Hard to believe that wannabe king is still alive after the thrashing we gave him. Hohoho, and he still retains the power of darkness without that soul to bind it...How very interesting."

Mew ignored "D." and looked Joe Dark straight in his eyes. He did indeed bear a hollow stare, and though they were looking his way Mew didn't feel any emotion coming from them.

"Alright you sad puppet, whaddya got for me?" Solaris asked.

Joe Dark raised his other hand up from behind his back and gave the Sun God the same type of device that summoned the Corrosive Hannibal. With that in hand Solaris cracked a smile and proclaimed, "Thanks father! I love it!"

Mew withdrew his blade for the time being and pointed at Joe Dark. With his quick wit he came up with something that was sure to grab the Dark King's attention, "Come on Joe Dark, two of your least favorite people are standing right here! What's the matter, got cold feet?"

Joe Dark creaked his head towards the center of their little formation and in the blink of an eye he broke right through it, bowling them over.

Upon landing Kairi heard a gasp for air and looked up to see Joe Dark throwing Gabriel unconscious with a punch to the chest, and promptly hauling him over his shoulder.

"Gabriel!" Kairi was the first back on her feet and took a swing at the back of Joe Dark's head. The Dark King turned and used the samurai as a shield, dissuading further action.

Kairi bit her teeth and watched as Joe Dark suddenly bolt for the stairs down, the flames doing little to stop him.

"Go after him!" Mew proclaimed as he got up and gave Kairi a gentle shove on the back. As she looked back he had already turned back to face Solaris with blade drawn, "Riku and I can handle this poser!"

"...Ok!" Kairi steeled her gaze and went running after the Dark King. Mew and Riku stood shoulder-to-shoulder and drew their weapons at Solaris.

"Aww man, why'd the interesting one have to go and leave me with you two dead weights?!" Solaris stamped his foot down and rolled his eyes.

"Hey maybe you haven't gotten the hint bud, but the two of us are Elemental Overlords too!" Mew proclaimed.

"Big whoop! I control fire, but I don't go around calling myself the Flame Overlord!" Solaris waved his pointer finger at them both and yelled, "You ain't nothing compared to the big guy from back then! Now HE would've been a great opponent!"

"Now the Phoenix of Destruction?!" Solaris widened his grin to almost orgasmic levels of joy, "I'm gonna cause a ruckus so big it'll draw that monster outta hiding and give me the fight of my life!"

Solaris raised the orb above his head and proclaimed, "But first, you two need to scram! So magic orb, bring me someone really nasty to eviscerate them to pieces!"

Riku widened his eyes and his blade sped out of his head straight for the orb. Solaris suddenly threw his arm behind him, crushed the orb, and laughed in Riku's face by proclaiming, "TOO SLOW!"

He used the orb to summon a massive rift. It was bigger than the last one, and just barely reached the ceiling. The heavy clang of metal rung throughout the room as a bipedal mech walked out. It was a towering mass and black and gold parts too mechanically detailed to describe down to the letter. The most important features were its long bladed fingers, jet engine abdomen, the laser cannon on its back, and its face. Its face had a damaged black jaw with spikes protruding three up both sides of its "cheeks", the last of which connected to a pair of bent blood red horns. Red energy flowed through the machine, it too resembling blood.

The machines immediate response was to observe its surroundings and declare in an echoing, gravelly voice, "What is the meaning of this?! This is not Sword Valley!"

"Oh, so this time its Metal Face..." Mew mumbled to himself. Though the "robot's" peak hearing caught on to what he said.

"Eh? I recognize that voice..." With a nasty turn of tone the lumbering machine hunched down and turned its small, rickety eyes upon the two Overlords, "Yes...I remember you. The pest with the black-hair..."

"What?" Riku remarked in return.

Mew glanced at his brother and whispered, "Did you run into this psychopath on your travels?"

"No, his world wasn't one of the ones I went to..." Riku said, certainly perturbed.

"Oh so you're familiar with these losers! That makes this a hell of a lot more interesting!" Solaris grabbed Metal Face's attention and they leered their head down at him.

"And just who the bloody hell are you pipsqueak?" The two were right away on bad terms and Mew was almost happy to just let them bicker cause it might lead to Solaris frying him alive.

...This was the worse time possible for the Sun God to show an ounce of restraint. They reached into their pocket to pull out another vial of the Anti-Genesis Theorem, shoved it into Metal Face's...face, all while declaring, "Just shut up and accept the boost!"

Metal Face recoiled upright and started screaming in agony. It sounded like what remnants of flesh he had was being burned alive inside. His hulking mass trotted around the room, smashing up the ashen trees. Finally he stopped behind Solaris with his claws crossed before his face, with him panting heavily for air.

The experience was so visceral that it stopped Mew or Riku from moving. That certainly stopped when Metal Face lashed his arms down and bellowed a vigorous roar of renewal. His body's "veins" burst open, full of crimson light.

Metal Face then slowly fiddled his fingers before his face, his still face expressing a lot of pleasure in that particular moment.

"This power...So much power!"

"Hahaha! Have fun you clunker!" Solaris used this distraction to run between Metal Face's legs and continue climbing the Pyramid.

Metal Face swung his arms out and stood in the two Overlords' way, "Don't think I forgotten what you did to me boy! You will pray you hadn't regained the use of your arm...When I slice it off, DOWN TO THE BONE!"

Mew clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and swung his sword down by his side, "Looks like we got an obstacle in our path Riku!"

Riku arched his brows, nodded his head, then swung his sword down while declaring, "As long as you're at my side brother, we're not going to slow down for anyone!"

A barrier started to form around the three of them, taking them to a warped dimension untouched by Solaris' flames. Metal Face stood upright, armed to the teeth with weapons galore, and beat back their boasts with one of his own, "Then you can die...TOGETHER!"

Mechanized Eviscerator: Anti-Genesis Theorem Metal Face

Next Time: Unfinished Battle

Author's Note:

I'll be taking a week off for health reasons. Don't worry, its just a cold.