Episode 62: Light and Dark
On the Seedrian colony ship GSS Dandelion, in one of the transit hallways, Cosmo was on one of the flat conveyor belts extending along the stretched periphiral hallways.
Several members of her clan passed by her, saying hi and greetings like that; one of her older sisters Hortesia, and her best friends Chrysanthemum and Lilac. However, when she got to the drop-off point, she found who she was looking for; her older sister, Galaxina.
"Galaxina!" Cosmo greeted. Her older sister was a tall woman with a beautiful white flower adorning her head, and she had blue hair with purple eyes. She was also wearing a blue dress.
"There you are! You had me and Mother worried all afternoon." Galaxina stated with a big smile on her face.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I got a little careless." Cosmo replied.
"Hey, cheer up," Galaxina said, chuckling, "We're all used to that."
Cosmo crossed her arms and glared.
The two of them strolled through a door to their right, and soon came upon the guiding force of the clan; the plant form of Hertia, former Chieftess of the Seedrian Royal Family. Inside a dome-like room, a huge healthy tree was growing on a massive podium, silent, and still. Long ago, she supposedly had changed into a tree to survive, and had been in that form ever since.
"Hello, Mother!" Cosmo greeted.
"I found her!" Galaxina added. Even though the tree occasionally did talk via telepathy, it was silent. The was a pause, as if the two female Seedrians were waiting for it to reply.
"Hey, just a question that came to my mind; what do you think Mother likes to think about?" Cosmo asked.
"I do not know." Galaxina replied, turning to her younger sister.
"Maybe she dreams about our home planet. I sure do." Cosmo replied.
"Yes, and I'm sure Mother does too. The thought that we might go back there brings great comfort to her." Galaxina stated, her tone starting to sound a little sad.
"But why can't we go back? Why do we have to flee through space?" Cosmo asked.
"We have no choice but to flee from the very being that destroyed our planet, and to flee from the Devil that controls him." Galaxina replied.
"Devil?"
"Yes. I told you about the war," Galaxina was the one who asked a question this time.
"So it's not a legend?" Cosmo asked, "I thought it was just a story you would tell to scare use when we were kids."
"Well, that doesn't mean it couldn't be true. We don't know if Tsali lives; only Mother can say for certain. That is why we must flee through the Milky Way Galaxy, to obtain forgiveness for our sins," Galaxina replied.
"What sins? What did we do wrong?" Cosmo asked.
Galaxina shook her head slightly. "Maybe when you're a little older, you'll understand."
"Oh, okay," Cosmo finished.
"Now, let's get going. We have stuff to do today," Galaxina said,going out of the room. But Cosmo paused.
"Goodbye Mother, see you later!" Cosmo said a farewell, and promptly followed her older sister out of the room.
...
Cosmo was thrown back against the wall by a powerful blast, her nostrils filled with the stench of blood and smoke. The whole colony shook, and pieces of the walls and ceiling crumbled around her. The ship, her home, lay dying in the cold and cruel vastness of space. The bridge of the ship, along with most of the storage areas, had been completely vaporized by salvos of Chaos energy.
But something even more cruel and cold was just outside the ship, decimating it piecemeal. Outside, Tsali, the very one they had been running from for so long, was doing the very thing he had planned to do all along. His quest was nearly over; most of the Seedrians on the ship whad already perished, the corridors slick with their blood.
Cosmo frantically ran down the hallway into the reactor core, trying to find her sister Galaxina. She soon found her all right, but not in the way that she expected.
Down the corridor, far in front of her standing on the lip of the reactor, was Tsali himself, with Galaxina being choked by his robotic hand. His white tuffs of fur were soaked red with gore.
"Tell me where Hertia is!" Tsali commanded in an unnaturally cruel voice.
"W-W-What are you talking about?" Galaxina desperately tried to plead with her greatest enemy. Tsali simply tightened his grip, nearly choking her to death.
Cosmo, scared for her life, was too stunned and horrified to move.
"Where the fuck is she? Tell me and I'll make it quick," Tsali yelled at her again.
"I don't... Please..." Galaxina once again pleaded.
"Where is she?" He asked again, tightening his grip. At that moment, Galaxina managed to look around, and spotted Cosmo in frozen terrified stance, just down the hall.
"COSMO, RUN! GET OUTTA HERE!" Galaxina shouted to her sister with all of her strength. However, Tsali also looked back. Cosmo felt an icy wave freeze over her body as she and Tsali locked eyes.
He briefly turned his head around, and glared at Galaxina, who froze immediately in horror.
Turning, Tsali reached out his hand and pulled. A large pipe in the ceiling promptly split apart, a jet of white-hot flame and burning fuel scorching the floor. Cosmo didn't understand, until he dragged her sister next to it by her hair.
"No... NO!" Galaxina cried in desperation, struggling with all her power to no avail, "Please I beg you! NO-"
Tsali, with no difficulty or hesitation, pushed her face into the fire.
The deathly scream of unimaginable agony haunted Cosmo forever. She couldn't even look away as roaring flame consumed her sister, burning her head - her eyes melting in their sockets, her scalp sloughing into bits of charred flesh - and then her whole body. She could barely hear her sister's agonizing screams over the cacophony.
When her horrific cries finally cease, Tsali promptly threw her half-melted corpse behind him. The skin of his arm had melted from the heat, revealing his metal skin.
She knew it was the end. Cosmo closed her eyes, and awaited her death.
Death did not come. A great wind surrounded her. Cosmo opened her eyes, and before her stood a very tall figure entire shrouded in a jet-black cloak.
Then she heard Tsali's voice. "You..."
A great scythe, its absurdly sharp blade shifting with screaming demonic faces, appeared in her hand.
"Me."
...
Cosmo's eyes snapped opened and she gasped in surprise. The young girl was standing on a grassy field next to the Blue Typhoon. Tails and Knuckles stood a few feet away.
"The Chaos Emerald is somewhere around here, but I can't locate it," Tails communicated to Chris.
"It must be underground somewhere," Chris concluded.
"Well, then let's not just stand here twiddling our thumbs, let's look for this thing!" Knuckles impatiently stated. The picture feed of Chris changed to picture feed of Sonic.
"Yeah, hurry up down there, will ya?" Sonic said. Both Tails and Knuckles gasped from the surprise.
The X-Tornado flew overhead, piloted by Sonic and crewed by Chris and Cream. Tails waved to them as they passed by.
"Good luck everyone!" Cream yelled from above.
Up in the air, the three on the X-Tornado looked over their friends. However, Cream also noticed a particularly sad expression on Cosmo's face, even from this height.
"I wish there was something we could do," Cream mused as her eyes scanned the devastated world below them, "All these planets..."
"We're trying. But I won't lie to you; things aren't going as well as we hoped. Tsali's still out there, and now there are even worse forces behind all this," Chris replied.
Sonic turned and smiled to them, "It doesn't look good, but we've been through worse."
"I know," Chris nodded, "but I just can't shake the feeling..."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, what else don't we know about Tsali and the Metarex? And these... these 'Demons' and 'Angels'?" Chris shifted in his seat, "There's so much about this mess that doesn't make sense to me. And the more we discover, the more scared I get. Like we're digging into something we shouldn't, or like we're being watched."
Cream's ears drooped, "I'm scared too. I wish Mom was here."
"It's okay to be scared Cream," Chris put his arms around her, "You've been very helpful, and I'm glad to have you here with us."
The little rabbit hugged him back.
"Well you're right about one thing buddy," Sonic turned around again, "It isn't quite the adventure we hoped for, but we'll make it through."
Chris leaned forward, "I hope you're right."
...
Tails, Knuckles, and Cosmo entered the ruins of a town near a mountainside. Sun-bleached skeletons lay in piles about the ruined buildings, and some were even jutting slightly out of the ground. More rusting Metarex robots had joined them in their death throes. Shattered trees and shrub covered them.
"The Planet Egg's gone. There was a big battle here between Tsali and the Metarex years ago. Nothing's left," Tails grimly reported as they strolled through the ghost town.
"Another planet ruined," Knuckles muttered as he strolled with them, "Ya know, I'd like to actually save a planet for once."
"You're not the only one," Tails replied.
Knuckles turned and smiled at the fox. They all came to a pause under an arch as Tails investigated where to go next.
While he was doing it, Cosmo stared sadly. "People once lived here. They worked and lived out their lives. Children once played here without a care in the world... Sometimes, I miss them all so much..."
"Huh?" Tails asked.
Cosmo's cheeks flushed pink as she hunched her head. "Nothing."
"Hey Tails, take a look at this!" Knuckle's voice came from a few yards away. The duo rushed over to his position.
The came upon the edge of a vast ravine, the bottom completely shrouded in a curtain of shadow. The rusting hulks of destroyed Metarex robots dangled along the cliffs where they lay.
Knuckles, for the heck of it, threw a large rock into the gorge. A few seconds passed by, and there was no sound of it landing. Tails checked his bearings.
"Aha! We're still getting a signal. The Emerald is somewhere in the gorge," Tails grinned.
Just a few minutes later, they began to investigate Knuckles climbed down the wall, while Tails held Cosmo and slowly descended into the darkness with his tails.
"Look, over there!" Cosmo called out. Indeed, not too far below them was a rock ledge, with a cave mouth hollowed into the side of the gorge.
"Let's check it out." With that, Tails and Cosmo landed on the edge, and cautiously strolled into the cold, dark void. The faint sound of dripping water could be heard from within.
"I can't see a thing!" Cosmo said as she moved along they wall ahead of Tails. Suddenly, she felt a metal object on the wall depress under her hand, and several lights came on it. The Seedrian gasped.
"What is it?" Tails asked.
"I don't know, but I think I just pressed a-" Cosmo said as she started to take a step backwards.
Too late. With a mighty shake and deafening groans, the cave started to collapse in a hail of boulders and the floor opened up from below them into a connecting chamber. Dust and rock rained everywhere.
The young kitsune spotted a huge rock about to crush Cosmo.
"Cosmo!" Tails cried out, leaping at her. With sheer speed, her pushed her out of the rock's way, saving her life. Unfortunately, this also sent them sprawling into the fissure in the floor.
Tails could only let out a scream before shock overtook him, and he blacked out.
...
The fox woke up not too long later. The very first thing he saw was the beautiful blue eyes of Cosmo, staring at him with great concern and worry. The cavern they were in had small pools of water in the corners, and had bright crystals glowing around the walls.
"Ahh... What happened?" Tails asked, sitting upward. A sharp, throbbing pain filled his senses as he felt a large cut on his forehead; blood slowly pumped out of it, some of it staining his white glove when he tried to touch it.
"Wait, don't move!" Cosmo desperately said. Tails looked upward; in the roof of the cavern, there was a crack, in which light filtered through.
"That's odd. We fell through the floor...?" Tails asked himself.
"I'm so sorry. If I hadn't pressed that button, none of this would have happened," Cosmo apologized.
"Don't worry, this might actually be a good thing. It's unusual that a button was there in the cave; something must be hiding here," Tails checked the signal of the Chaos Emerald. It was still there, and was much stronger.
"We're still getting a signal, so it has to be down here somewhere. Let's go!" Tails said, but Cosmo held him down.
"Wait, let me patch that up," Cosmo said, ripping off a small strip of her dress to use as a bandage.
"Cosmo I'm fine, don't worry," Tails tried to assure her.
"No way, I'm not leaving any of my friends to get hurt," Cosmo vowed as she tied it around his head. However, when she finished, she noticed that Tails's cheeks were red.
"Hey Tails, what's wrong?" Cosmo asked. Tails smiled and giggled nervously.
"Well, uh..." Tails stuttered, "I'm fine."
"Let's keep going," the Seedrian said. She started to walk farther into the cave. Tails followed her through, still feeling embarrassed.
Tails and Cosmo continued through the dark cavern. The duo had just figured out that their radio connection to the Blue Typhoon had been cut off.
"I'll modify my receptor once he get out of this cave. It's useless if there are certain places where it doesn't work," Tails said.
"Yeah," Cosmo replied blankly as they walked, though in reality, she wasn't paying much attention.
"Better yet, I should invent a whole new research device. Chris's shoes gave me a whole new idea. If..." Tails started to go on a happy tirade about his new idea, not realizing that Cosmo was wrapped up in her own thoughts.
I've been so foolish. How could this happen to me? The Seedrian girl kept walking on as she heard Tails keep ranting in the background. Everything I do seems to backfire and make things so much harder. I keep putting them all in danger. Sonic's Planet Egg would never have been stolen if I never arrived, and then, he and his friends would never have been dragged into this mess.
A memory came to her; the very first fight between Sonic and Tsali on Sonic's home planet months ago. Then, it came to her in the X-Tornado with Tails, watching Tsali escape with their planet's Planet Egg.
"It's all my fault..." Cosmo muttered sadly, tears starting to well up in her eyes.
"Cosmo?" The voice of Tails rang in her ears. Suddenly, she felt like almost all of her bad memories had been gone, and her tears immediately faded at his soothing voice. The Seedrian did not get why that was, but she brushed it off and saw Tails standing right in front of her with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Sorry I bored you with my whole mechanics speech," Tails apologized, "Sonic usually stops me when I get too into it."
"No, it's not what you think!" Cosmo hurriedly replied, "Here me out. It's my fault we're trapped here."
"Don't worry, it's all good. Even if you don't feel safe with me," Tails replied. Cosmo almost looked shocked by what he said.
"No, not that at all! I'm sure you're someone to rely on," Cosmo praised him. Tails's expression softened.
"Really?" Tails asked.
Cosmo smiled and blushed in reply. "Of course! I'm sure."
However, their conversation ended by the suddenly appearance of a horde of tiny lights coming up from the ground that floated in the air around them. The tiny light started to form a swarm, and in a line, they started to fly further down the tunnel. Cosmo simply stared at them in awe.
"Look, they're lighting up the cave," Tails turned, "Let's follow them!"
After only a few turns, the lights had led them into an amazing place. In front of them was a gigantic cavern with numerous dull-purple factory buildings suspended from it and attached to the various walls. The cave, lit by enormous searchlights, was surprisingly easy to see across.
"Whoa," Tails exclaimed in wonder, "No wonder there were traps in these caves. There's an entire base down here."
Cosmo crept forward, "That must where the Chaos Emerald is."
...
Inside the factory, Tails and Cosmo peeked around a corner.
Down the hall past them, they spied a purple snakelike Metarex robot carrying a long sharp spear patrolling the corridor.
"I don't think I've ever seen this type of Metarex before..." Cosmo whispered to Tails.
"But aren't they trying to protect you?" Tails recalled.
"Yes, but don't forget, the Metarex are programmed to think that you are Tsali, so they'll attack us on sight."
Tails's ears rolled back, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Then we should lay low."
The robotic guard obliviously patrolled right around them.
"Now!" Tails whispered. He and Cosmo scurried across the corridor behind the Metarex guard, still completely undetected.
The next corridor, however, had a guard that was advancing towards them. The duo hid behind a wall so that when the guard passed them, he did not see them hiding. As soon as the Metarex had passed, they took off quietly down the hall and into a large room.
To their shock, this room was filled with storage capsules, each containing a Planet Egg so distended and bloated it looked like they were about to explode. The one in the middle, however, had the Chaos Emerald they wanted.
"Look at all these Planet Eggs," Tails said, quietly opening the middle capsule and taking the Chaos Emerald out and giving it to Cosmo.
"What are the Metarex doing to them?"
"It looks like they're growing them - and then draining all the Chaos Energy out of them," Tails figured, " Looks like they're siphoning Dark Chaos Energy too. But why..."
"Dark Chaos Energy?" Cosmo asked, pointing to the blue substance being siphoned from each Egg.
"It's the negative power of the Chaos Emeralds in its most pure form. You see, whenever the Chaos Emeralds are used for evil ends, their power creates this destructive substance. It's deadly if you come in contact with it. It can mutate organic matter and corrode nearly any substance," Tails explained, "And it looks like Planet Eggs can produce it too. How interesting."
The kit then noticed that Cosmo was looking sadly at the Chaos Emerald, with tears welling up in her eyes, rather than listening to his nerdy interests.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Tails asked, noticing the sadness in her eyes. Cosmo looked up at him with depressing eyes.
"I... I shouldn't be holding a Chaos Emerald," Cosmo replied.
"What do you mean?"
"Because my mind and heart have been filled with hatred for years! Hatred for that two-tailed monster that murdered my family! If that kind of anger would tap into this power that you speak of..." Cosmo replied, sniveling a little bit.
Tails embraced her. Cosmo returned the hug, her face burning with blush. All of her sadness simply seemed to fade away in that instant.
"Don't worry, we're all here for you," Tails calmed her down. Cosmo suddenly smiled and closed her eyes, as more tears came down, but these were tears of happiness. The two of them parted finally.
And then they heard movement in the hall around the corner.
"Something's coming," whispered Cosmo, wiping away the tears on her cheeks.
"In here!" Tails pulled her away and both of them crouched behind the capsules.
Suddenly, just as they took it, a blue flash erupted throughout the corridor and the Planet Egg storage chamber. The snake Metarex, noticing a disturbance, readied its halberd - and then it shut itself off and fell to the floor with a loud clang. More faint clangs echoed down the corridor
"What was that?" Cosmo rose from her hiding place and investigated.
Tails looked over it. "Something shorted out their systems. Like some kind of electromagnetic pulse or system failure."
"But what could've done this?"
Before Tails could reply, the room filled with an unearthly blue glow, both horrifying and awe-inspiring at the same time. The Planet Eggs began to pulse with cobalt light, and so did the Chaos Emerald in Cosmo's hands.
The Planet Eggs began to shrink and shrivel, their siphoned power coalescing in the storage chamber beyond. Cosmo dropped the Emerald onto the floor in surprise.
"What is it?" Tails turned to her.
"I don't know, but I-"
She didn't finish her sentence. Her brain felt like it was burning inside her skull, her nerve endings flaring with agony. Cosmo cried and held to her head, desperate to make the torment end.
"Cosmo, are you alright?" Tails held her, trying to understand what was happening.
And then both of them heard a Voice. A whisper in the glow, an ethereal murmur.
Death is close.
Tails' ears perked up in surprise. It didn't sound like any of their friends. "Did you hear that?"
"Yes," Cosmo looked around.
"Sonic? Knuckles?" Tails called, "Are you guys out there?"
All that you know will fade.
Tails' sharp sense of hearing immediately picked it up. "There! It came from over there."
The fox and the Seedrian followed it into a large two-story room with a huge containers of Chaos Energy in the center. Pods of the gel-like element around the walls. Cosmo was holding the Chaos Emerald in her hands.
As Tails and Cosmo ran into a large storage room containing several capsules of Dark Chaos Energy, one of the largest storage tanks of the dangerous element was glowing and slowly shrinking as it was absorbed. In a few seconds, the whole thing disappeared.
Behind it, as Tails and Cosmo saw to their disbelief, was a figure.
A fox just like Tails, complete with his signature mutation. But it wasn't Tsali. It wasn't black, but deep blue, with a smoky aura of dark energy about it. The fox stopped levitating, putting its feet on the ground, and slowly strolled from behind the capsule, into the plain sight of our heroes.
Cosmo, the moment she saw it, recognized it. And she trembled. She hid behind Tails. Dread filled both of their minds.
The dark fox paused and stared at them silently, its blank creamy-white masses unmoving. It was... wrong. Tails didn't have any other words to describe the creature. Everything about it radiated wrongness.
"What are you?" Tails asked forcefully, breaking the silence, "What do you want?"
The fox did not reply, for it had no mouth, but only kept staring at them. It did not move.
Then he heard the whispers again and stronger than ever. His head began to throb, his heart racing and stomach churning in sheer unease. Cosmo did too, for she fell to her knees in woe once again.
Perish.
And then, to Tails's horror, he noticed that a bright-blue energy ball had formed in the creature's hand. Miles, without thinking, grabbed Cosmo by the arm and immediately lifted her into the air with his flight ability.
Just in time. A shotgun blast of Dark Chaos Spears just barely skimmed Cosmo and started breaking the wall into chunks. Letting her down, the Seedrian ran and took cover behind one of the storage tanks in the corner of the chamber.
"Stay there!" Tails shouted.
Before he could react, the abomination raced upon him with a powerful shunt. Tails' fur burned and every muscle in his body exploded with torment. He fell backwards in shock.
The creature came upon him again, but now Tails was ready. He spryly dodged a hail of Dark Chaos Spears that tore through the tanks and boxes behind him.
Now Tails regretted not learning how to fight. He had no idea what to do now, or how to even slow down such an implacable hunter. So he did what he always did when he was in trouble.
"Sonic, can you read me? It's Tails!" He shouted into his wrist communicator.
Before Tails could get any response, the dark creature appeared in front of him and immediately took the fox by the scruff of his neck. The dark power surrounded the fox; he could taste metal in his mouth from the radiation, thousands of tiny needles stabbing into his body.
Tails desperately tried to struggle against the freezing-cold hands of his dark copy, but he couldn't possibly break the creature's hold.
Then he couldn't move. His torso collapsed with such anguish that it paralyzed him. His vision faded, his hearing turning dull and florid. Tails felt his whole self go numb. as he felt something strange and slimy crawled over him - and then it crawled into him, squirming through his entrails and innards.
The creature let Tails down, and the fox blacked out before he even hit the ground.
"TAILS!" Cosmo cried out.
The dark fox turned to her, and Cosmo froze in terror. She knew she had just give herself away and would probably die for it.
Then she heard a rushing wind from the ceiling. As if on cue, a tall figure with a black cloak suddenly flew in from the ceiling, spinning a huge scythe like it was a chainsaw. The fox's body split apart and disappeared in millions of dark-blue atoms that filled the room.
"Tails! Wake up!" Cosmo shook the boy. But Tails did not move, his glazed eyes focused on the ceiling.
"Not good," the cloaked figure said. Cosmo stood up and looked at the woman.
The figure threw back her hood. To Cosmo's great shock, the figure was actually an adult woman Seedrian, one of Cosmo's species, whom she thought to have been almost totally wiped out except for Cosmo herself. Her hair was black, and her eyes were hybrids; one of them were purple, the other was a blood red. Her skin was a deathly pale, and part of her face was seriously scarred. She was wearing a black leather cloak with tall boots. Wires and metal pieces jutted from her shoulders.
But somehow, Cosmo recognized her. It was as if she saw this member of her race in a dream.
"I know you," the Seedrian said.
Then Cosmo remembered. Her ship, her sister. This figure, this Seedrian, had saved her all those years ago. She didn't know how or why, but in her heart she knew it was true.
Cosmo smiled, "I... I think I know you too."
"I am Venus," The dark woman said, "and I am happy to see you still live."
Cosmo didn't think she looked happy - her face remained completely stoic - but there were more important things to worry about now.
"How is he? Will he be okay?" Cosmo asked as she looked over Tails.
Venus crouched and took a single look at him. The huge wound in his chest had already begun to fester and writhe with all manner of putrid filth.
"Shroud..." The black Seedrian held out her pale, sickly hand over the wound, "Chaos Regeneration."
Power radiated from her arm, and his wound began to supernaturally heal. Cosmo noticed the jagged, rusted mechanical parts cross-crossing underneath her extremely pale skin. It sickened her.
"He hasn't turned yet," Venus muttered, "How can that be..."
"Thank you for saving us!" Cosmo bowed, "I owe you my life."
Venus didn't hear what she said or didn't care, Cosmo couldn't tell. Either way the Seedrian did not respond. Instead, she stood up before turning to Cosmo.
"I think you dropped this. Keep it secret, keep it safe," the adult Seedrian said and dropped the glowing Chaos Emerald at her feet. Cosmo picked it up, "Lord Maledict bless you."
"You're going already? Why don't you come with me and my friends?" Cosmo asked.
Before Cosmo was able to get an answer, her savior had already vanished in a flash of green light.
Cosmo was interrupted from pondering what just happened when she heard a soft moan coming from the ground behind her. She spun around. Tails had awakened.
"Ouch! What happened? Where's that fox?" Tails asked.
"He's gone," Cosmo replied. She figure that she would tell him about Venus later.
Both of them were once again stopped from going on when they heard a loud crash from the ceiling. At once, the familiar figures of Knuckles, Sonic, Amy, Cream, and Chris all jumped down into the room, with a ladder in tow to get back up to the surface.
"There you guys are! We were so worried about you," Amy exclaimed.
"I'm fine Amy," Cosmo assured. Sonic and Knuckles, meanwhile, walked over to Tails, who was still stumbling a little, and they noticed his condition and the bandage on his head.
Tails wobbled on his feet, "What took you so long?"
"Sonic decided to take the scenic route," Knuckles rolled his eyes.
Sonic smiled, "What happened to you?"
"Got a little beat up," Tails replied with a little stutter and an embarrassed smile. All three of them chuckled.
...
As the Blue Typhoon left the planet and jumped into Warpspace, a cloud of blue atoms appeared and came together into one being. A dozen Warpspace portals appeared, and Demon warships poured from them. A Chaos Emerald was here, and it would be theirs.
But as they returned to real space, they did not even power down their drives before a hurricane of dark power assaulted their minds and souls.
The Demon ships, the ones who recovered long enough to get their weapons online, opened fire with everything they had. Clouds of plasma torpedoes and plasma lances filled space on their approach, turning the world's atmosphere a hellish orange.
Alas, they were futile. The fox spoke his words, the voice echoing through space and time, more terrible than any nightmare thought up by the minds of mortals.
I am the Dark. I am key and guardian of the Dark. Past, present, future, all are one in the Dark.
As electricity danced along its skin, the fox unleashed his power. Its words reduced the crews of the foolish ships to gibbering madness or useless piles of dead flesh. Storms of Dark Chaos Energy formed, reducing the creature's foes to nothing but floating scrap and corpses.
With another word, a nebula of dark power spread over the planet below, corrupting the very fiber of the planet. Animals perished in unimaginable agony, trees and plants shriveled into dead stumps. Rivers and lakes dried up. Death covered the land.
Dark Chaos Energy filled the void, seeping through every canyon and gorge, corroding every artificial structure. Shadows came alive as eldritch energy seeped into them, stalking the world and bringing ruin in the name of their god.
The whole world began to glow, its life fading as corruption consumed it. The fox paused and looked down upon its handiwork from above.
That is not dead which can eternal lie... and in darkest aeons even death will die.