Thanks to the help of Meta Knight and the Delta Warriors, combined with the death of the Followers of Zalgo, the battle completely turned in favor of the heroic army. The demons were just fruitlessy trying to run away, only to be massacred. In that part, the heroes already won.
...but something that would soon happen would make them rethink that.
Amy Rose finally found her weakened, scared and mumbling friend Peridot in the middle of the bushes.
"Are you ok?", Amy asked, only to recieve a groan of pain. Somehow...she decided to ask a question that she already knew the answer of (but dreaded). "What's going on?"
"Amy, he comes...", Peridot said, with wide, horrified eyes.
Soon, the air circling the dreamish land felt...eerie. Strange. Heavy. It was like dread was coming in and out of everyone's lungs.
"Everyone, gather around me. We have incoming.", Sonic announced in the communicator.
"What the hell?", Pearl asked, as she, Lapis, Susie, Ralsei, Rayman and Ly looked around and above the air, expecting a new ship or something of the kind. But nothing.
Until Star Butterfly saw a reddish-blue cloud of teleportation dangerously next to the group. It was the Space Stone transporting someone...Zalgo. Now, the Hivemind of Chaos was only one Stone next to fulfilling his goal; Amy had her hammer ready, but her emotions covered in shock, while Peridot almost couldn't contain a comical scream.
"Eyes up. Stay sharp!", Sonic announced, preparing his "shields" and rushing.
Zalgo's steps were heavy, slow. It couldn't be told if it was because of how he had to lose pratically everything he had to reach so close to his goal, or if it was because the Soul Stone was forcing him to feel the anguish of too many souls that feared him, but still wanted to twart his plans.
Star was the first to reach him, ready to slash him with her sword, but Zalgo used the Space Stone to make her transparent, until she was stuck in a rock formation. Even being known as the fastest hedgehog alive, Sonic couldn't even touch the Hivemind of Chaos before being launched by a non-lethal blast of the Power Stone.
Rayman spinned his fist and leaped towards Zalgo, but was caught by his "body" and punched towards the ground, as he temporarily lost the connection with his hands and feet. Lapis screams as she prepares to fist down Zalgo with her wings, but the Power Stone destroys them, sending her plummering to the ground.
"Amy!", Peridot whisper-screamed to her pink friend. "...it's time."
"No!...", Amy cried, refusing to believe she actually had to...
"They won't be able to stop him. But we can! Look. You got a rock strong enough to destroy the Stone!"
"Don't...", Amy said.
"You have to do it, Amy! We don't have any time!", Peridot cried, sounding just mildly annoyed.
"I...can't...", Amy confessed, crying some tears.
"Yes, you can!", Peridot optimistically said, holding one of Amy's hands. "Look, if that clod gets the Stone, half of the multiverse will be his!"
"It's not right...", Amy said.
"I know you didn't want to be this person, but you are. It's ok, you could never hurt a friend!...I...can feel you now."
Amy lifted a trembling hand with the green Chaos Emerald, pitfully casting a Chaos Blast to destroy the Mind Stone. Now, all the other heroes had to do was buy time so the Mind Stone...and probably, Peridot along, could be destroyed for the sake of the Multiverse.
The War Trio flies in and throws every weapon they imagine having at Zalgo, until he uses the Space Stone to cripple the three armor's flight and drop the trio agains't the ground. Bismuth and Knuckles enter, fists prepared and yelling, but they are swiped away by the Power Stone before they can even have a chance.
Pearl, Ly, Susie and Ralsei run in. Pearl throws one of her spears while Ly powers it up with her fairy magic, but Zalgo catches it with the Power Stone and throws it agains't the two of them, while trapping Susie and Ralsei in a unescapable, tiny jail make out of earth. Cornet plays the loudest trumpet song she can, with the company of Ami and Yumi's guitars along, but Zalgo just briefly slows down with the musical efforts.
Amy watches each of her allies, new and old alike, getting beaten and having their efforts twarted, one by one. She looks back at a Peridot gasping in pain, and can't help but cry, despite Peridot's attempts at words of comfort.
Sonic slides under Zalgo's left arm before using his arm-shields and kicks to descend the longest beatdown he can on the Hivemind of Chaos. Once Zalgo extends the gauntlet hand towards him, Sonic catches it, much to the Hivemind's surprise and amazement. While he impressed that Sonic was struggling and yelling to keep him in place, Zalgo still knew he was just a goal on his way, and punched him down once again.
Amy was the only obstacle left for Zalgo's goals to be fulfilled. But Amy wouldn't let her friend be hurt that easily; she pulled out the purple Chaos Emerald and casted in the fastest way she could a Chaos Blast to fetch Zalgo away. He blocks it with the Gauntlet, but the energy of infinity doesn't surpass the energy of chaos, forcing Zalgo to try and walk on his own towards Peridot. But fortunately, the Mind Stone was already showing visible cracks...
"I'M SORRY PERIDOT!", Amy apologetically screamed. "You will always be a friend...*sobs*"
"Wow, thanks...", Peridot said, softly and smiling in peace, as the Mind Stone's fragments began to jump out of her right cheek, and a explosion of yellow energy shaked trees, finally interrupting the blasts of the Chaos Emeralds.
Amy was thrown back by the pulse, right in front of a unaffected, but surprised Zalgo. Just like how everyone feared, Peridot's physical form was destroyed in the explosion of the Mind Stone. But her gem was also showing some heavy cracks.
"P-peri...peridot...", Amy almost whispered those words of horror and sadness, as Zalgo slowly approached her.
"I understand you, my child. Better than anyone.", Zalgo said with sympathy, being able to relate with the pink hedgehog over being forced to kill a beloved, green-clothed friend.
"You could never understand.", Amy growled, and nearly flinched as Zalgo descended one of his hands down her hair-like spikes, in comfort.
"Today, I lost more than you can know. But now is no time to mourn. Now...is no time at all.", Zalgo calmly stated, walking forward as he activated the Time Stone, with a gesture similar to the first time Garnet ever used it.
A pulse of yellow light began to gather itself back, and Amy gasped once the cracked gem of Peridot, once in her hand, flied to the same spot it was before being launched off. White, clean and cloud-like smoke began to father itself back as well, only to take the shape of a intact Peridot.
"NO!", Amy yelled, getting up to reach Peridot, only to be clawed away in the cheek by Zalgo.
Zalgo picked a struggling Peridot by her neck and lifted her until they were face to face. He slowly and carefully held the Mind Stone with his claws.
"Stop it! Stop it, you CL-", Peridot said, before being poofed due to the Mind Stone being removed out of her. Zalgo threw away Peridot's gemstone like it was thrash, much to Amy Rose's horror.
Finally, Zalgo thought, as he began to aim the Mind Stone to the last slot remaining in the Infinity Gauntlet: the middle of the backhand. Once it was inserted, he velt a strong, strong shock of energy over his torso and head, and he gasped in pain before proudly looking at the complete Infinity Gauntlet.
But suddenly, a thunder felt down on Zalgo, pushing him back meters away. Soaring up high, Meta Knight and Kris (the latter holding into the former) aimed their Twin Overlords at Zalgo and threw them agains't him. Zalgo tried to deflect them, but much to his horror, he found out the two weren't slowed down at all; the beam of the complete Infinity Gauntlet just caused a colorful bowshock that ends when Zalgo is hit, both swords craved into his chest's top mouth.
Meta Knight and Kris landed on the ground, looking to a weakened Zalgo with nothing but hatred.
"We promised.", Kris quietly said.
"That you would pay for what you did.", Meta Knight completed, before Kris could dig the two swords deeper into Zalgo, making him scream and bleed heavily.
"You two should have...argh...you should've...", Zalgo said, gasping for his life as he stared back to the hateful eyes of his killers, before suddenly speaking in a stronger way, and with a cruel smirk, "You two should've gone for my seventh mouth!"
Then, he lifted his Infinity Gauntlet fist high...
"NO!", Kris and Meta Knight screamed together as Zalgo fulfilled the snap.
…
Zalgo slowly woke up, in a strange, black void. He realized the wound he had in his chest's top mouth wasn't there anymore. What he didn't precisely realize is that his subconscious actually was inside the Soul Stone, to see for one last time the one responsible for him getting it. After walking some steps, he found a younger-looking Chara, sitting in the hints of purple ruins.
"Chara?"
"Did you do it?"
"Yes."
"And what did it cost?"
"...everything."