Chapter 21: Gravitus Phase 3: The 'D.'esperation I'll Pursue

"The sky is bathed in thunderclouds…I'm staring into the face of a man who far outclasses me…And the fate of the universe rests on my crazy plan to work. Just need some memories of my life flashing before my eyes and the clichés are complete…" Mew thought to himself as he grasped his katana in both hands and faces down Gravitus, who calmly floated in the air with his space-like aura surrounding every inch of his body and his scythe grasped in his right hand. "What are you waiting for, little Overlord? Come and fight me. I will not need to move from his spot." Gravitus claimed confidently.

"Yeah…I don't doubt that…" Mew thought to himself before he gripped his sword tighter and then took off at light speed, appearing behind Gravitus and attempting to swing his sword as hard as he could, but the man reacted beyond the speed of light by moving his scythe behind his back and blocking Mew's attack with casual ease. The sword unleashed a swathe of blinding light, but it didn't even make Gravitus' aura budge an inch. Mew was surprised by how fast Gravitus was now, as he didn't even see the man move his arm.

Mew widens his eyes and grits his teeth while speeding off again to get right in front of Gravitus, attempting the same attack again but with a vertically angled slash. But once again Gravitus blocks the attack with his scythe without so much as budging his body. However, the two swathes of light connected together and exploded upon Gravbitus' body in a bright cross-shaped blast that consumed the man entirely, and Mew leaps back while watching the light fade away from his attack.

Gravitus stood there completely unharmed, and his aura had been disturbed just a little bit. Gravitus lifted his left hand up and brushed his shoulder, remarking to Mew with a humored tone in his voice "Cute…I bet you thought I'd burn if you attacked me with a cross." Mew narrowed his eyebrows and said "I wasn't aiming for that type of plan." Gravitus then looked around and saw the light spread out from Mew's last attack converting into a bunch of needles that fly straight down at Gravitus' aura.

Gravitus once more doesn't budge an inch and lets the needles crash and break against his aura all at once, leading to Mew then thrusting his katana forward and unleashed a huge beam of light at Gravitus from the glowing blade. Gravitus lifts his hand up and catches the beam of light, using his aura to collapse it all down with gravity into the shape of a sphere as though it was nothing to him, leading to the light all being clenched around his fingers, but it lasts but two seconds before Gravitus crushes it all.

He then lowers his hand beside his body and creates five spheres from distortions in the fabric of space, all of them being as large as his body and every one containing a distorted variation of his aura. All these were made without Gravitus having to even gesture a finger out from where they were, showing the strength of his Aurian Drive in all of it's frightening glory. Gravitus sends all five spheres at Mew while grinning, and Mew quickly has to raise his katana up and utilize nearly all of his strength to cut one of them down in a blinding swathe of light.

He then folds his wings beside his body and creates a spherical barrier of light to prevent two more of the spheres from hitting him directly, but the spheres just casually swallow the barrier into their beings as though they were miniature black holes. Mew's wings are then pulled towards the black spheres against his will, the bones within cracking to Mew's displeasure, culminating in him letting go of his concentration on them just to avoid any unnecessary pain. The two spheres then vanish after breaking Mew's wings with their gravitational pull, and Mew concentrates another powerful sword slash in order to destroy one sphere that was flying right at him.

But the last one managed to slip on by unnoticed by warping through space, reappearing itself behind Mew and ramming itself directly against his body as Mew had but one second to glance over his shoulder and notice it. The sphere consumes Mew's body and starts making him bear the full weight of it's gravitational might, which surpassed even the pull of Jupiter and Saturn combined. Mew felt his own bones start to give way to the power of the sphere, with his blood veins popping apart and pores in his skin opening so blood could spray out from those broken veins. He pooled all his efforts into keeping his head and heart from being affected, at the cost of the rest of his body suffering for it.

Eventually, Mew tired of the sphere's effects and increased his strength to 100% while yelling at the top of his lungs, unleashing a burst of light powerful enough to shatter the sphere entirely and spread radiance across the sky. But the effects of Gravitus' sphere could not be ignored, as Mew's arms and lower legs were drenched in blood, with any armor related to either parts of his body cracked open with relative ease. Mew panted a bit but still held his hands on his katana while looking at Gravitus.

"Look at you…The foolish, bleeding messiah of the Aurians…Running on whatever energy you have left and for what? To stop my efforts at peace? Such is the folly of the Elemental Overlord and his legacy, to not understand when to give up even when they have no reason to fight." Gravitus remarked in a relentlessly mocking manner, and Mew just stays silent for a few seconds to catch his breath before saying "I do have something to fight for…"

Gravitus grins a bit and rubs his chin with his free hand, and after a few seconds of thought the man slowly widened his eyes in realization and remarked in a drawn out manner "Ooooh…Now I get it. The past repeats itself again, but now it's my daughter who is being targeted for love…" Mew widened his eyes, and Gravitus held his left hand out and used his powers to immediately grab Mew's body with his power of gravity and pull the boy right over to him.

Gravitus then grabs Mew by his neck before the boy could get a chance to swing his sword, putting a tight enough grip around the neck so he wouldn't even be able to budge the sword if he wanted to. Gravitus then holds Mew up as high as he could and looks straight into his face with the eyes of madness present on his voice, remarking after a chuckle "Poor, naïve boy…As her father, I do not approve of your desire to mix your genes with Kairi's. Of all the laws the Ten Sages passed, I only ever agreed with the fact that the Aurians and the element tribes should never breed."

Gravitus widens his grin a little more and pierces the skin of Mew's neck with his pointed fingers, telling Mew as he starts to crush his esophagus while he gasps in pain "The future only belongs to those pure of blood in the Aurian race. It was your mistake to assume that your efforts would ever be successful, little Overlord." With a bit of a shrug from his shoulders and a mere shake of his head, Gravitus then remarked "But now you've wasted your time. This is how your short history comes to an end…Used as an example and nothing more."

With one last flex of his metallic muscles, Gravitus unleashed a burst of gravity through Mew's entire body, making his nerves erupt into a torrent of pain and anguish as blood gushes from his limbs and mouth, and he was unable to make even a single sound because of those factors. Gravitus then let go of Mew's neck and let gravity take it's course, sending the boy plummeting straight down back into the Sages' Pyramid, where he crashes against the top floor with enough force to break through. But his body does not stop there, as he crashes through the remainder of the pyramid and slams hard against the bottom floor, his body exuding blood all the while and bathing his pure looking body in the impurity of his crimson blood.

Kairi, barely understanding what happened as she watched the battle unfold from the top floor, exclaimed in shock and fear as she turns to look at the hole Mew was sent through "No! NO!" But before she could run towards the hole, Gravitus uses his powers to grab Kairi and suspend her in her distraught pose right down to the last muscle before lifting her up from the ground and bringing her out of the pyramid, turning her around so she could face him before he let go of her. Kairi, with her rapier still grasped, listened as Gravitus extended his left hand out and grinned, saying to his own daughter calmly "Now…You are welcome to try and fight me again, just know that I still require your body for the Neo Drive to accept you, so don't push yourself to the point of breaking, daughter."

Kairi's mind was racing from how quickly everything was happening and her eyes twitched a bit in anger before she held her rapier before her and exclaimed "You just keeping taking everything away from us! How dare you! You'll pay…YOU'LL PAY!" That was the best she could say in these circumstances before she charged right at Gravitus, who held his scythe behind his back and extended his left hand in front of his face while setting his aura ablaze with electricity, grinning all the while.

But as Kairi and Gravitus were about ready to fight again, something was happening down at the bottom floor of the pyramid. However, it's not what you think was happening at this moment. Mew's body remained motionless and bloody on the ground, not even budging an inch in the slightest. He had returned to his basic form, letting his shirt soak up blood with each passing second. But it was not the body that we should be focusing on at this moment…No, the activities in question that are important to follow are occurring deep within Mew's subconscious…

Within the black void that consisted of Mew's subconscious, a mental representation of his body laid on the 'ground'. He laid in the same pose as he did in the outside world, but without any of the blood and such being dragged in with him. Within this realm of the subconscious, a figure stirred, moving itself slowly towards Mew's body as it's footsteps echoed with every motion. Once the figure stood beside Mew, it kicked him right in the side of his body with all of it's might, remarking in an enjoying but raspy tone "You really think you can fool me with this unconsciousness act?"

Mew's subconscious form grunted in pain as he bounces across the 'ground', landing on his stomach once the act was done. But he quickly opened his eyelids and turned his head to look at the figure in question, pushing himself off the ground with both his hands as he remarked "Heh…Should've known that I wouldn't fool you. But that's not why I did this, 'D.'…" As Mew stands upright within his own mind, he looks at the being in question that he spoke to, and finds that 'D.' has taken one a different form than the mass of darkness he saw before.

Now 'D.' was beginning to copy Mew's body, having his main body, legs and arms and half of Mew's head replicated perfectly around himself. The hands and feet were made of pure black flames, and the upper half of the head was a mesh of dark black merged with the 'flesh' he created while his hair was made of black flames and his eyes were demonically yellow with reddish pupils. Mew remarked nonchalantly as he brushed his shoulders off "I see you're getting used to being in my body."

'D.' creaked out a rather intrigued grin made of bloody fangs before he spoke through them "Hehe…You know it's only a matter of time before I am a perfect copy of you. So…have you come to take one last trip down memory lane before I take over your body for good?" Mew shook his head a bit, taking 'D.' by surprise as Mew told him bluntly "I made it clear that you're never going to have my body, and I'm sticking to that. I don't think you seem to understand that I have intentionally chosen to force this meeting between us."

"Fascinating…And just what could be the point of this?" 'D.' inquired with the utmost intrigue in his voice, and Mew brandishes his right pointer finger at the demon within his subconscious and told him "You're going to willingly let me use your powers of darkness." The bluntness of Mew's demand completely surprised 'D.', but his shocked expression quickly returned to the joyous grin he's most known for having as he began to cackle merrily at such bold words before telling Mew after a raspy squeal of delight "Oh that is absolutely rich. You sit on your death throes, your life fading away with each passing second. Bringing yourself into your subconscious is delaying that inevitability, yes, but what makes you think that I would ever give in to your demand, human?"

"You know you can't live without me. If I die, you go with me." Mew pointed out, but in somewhat defiance of that logic 'D.' rubs his chin and remarks "Yes…It's true that in my current, ethereal state I cannot survive without latching to the subconscious of a host body…" He then grinned and said "But you also forget that the closer you get to death, the weaker your subconscious becomes, and thus the easier it gets for me to take you over."

"You think I didn't consider that? But what good is it to attempt demonic possession when the body doesn't exist anymore?" Mew stated, and at that point 'D.' perked his eyes up and remarked "Wait…Are you seriously suggesting…?" Mew nodded his head to stop the demon from talking, going on to say himself with full confidence and seriousness in his words "I have enough energy left out there to blow my body up. I'd rather let Gravitus get his way than allow you to have control over my body."

'D.' paused for a moment, blinking his 'eyelids' twice before breaking into abrupt but prolonged laughter that echoed within the confines of Mew's mind, much to the boy's dismay as he grimaced a bit in annoyance. Once the demon was done laughing, he said to Mew while crossing one leg atop the other and levitating slightly off the ground "Bravo…Bravo…None of my hosts have ever gone as far as to threaten to kill themselves in order to put an end to me…However!" 'D.' suddenly narrowed his eyebrows and glared at Mew, lifting a hand up from atop his leg to point at Mew and state bluntly "I know you aren't going to go through it."

"Do you really want to take that risk right now D?" Mew firmly remarked while laying a hand against his chest and ignite the palm with flames, and the demon grinned and merrily said while holding his arms out a shrugging his shoulders "Go right ahead, but you and I both know what you are really after here. And that's what humors me the most about this whole situation." Mew didn't respond to that and kept his confident glare towards the demon as it said to him while barely containing his laughter "Never in a thousand upon a thousand years would I have ever guessed that your desperation for love would bring you this far, Mew."

Crossing his arms, 'D.' said afterwards while leaning his head forward and widening his grin to an unnatural degree "You'd risk the possibility of death just to visit me, hoping that the being whose existence borders close to that of the devil himself would simply accept your request and give you the power of darkness to help you defeat Gravitus? Do I have the gist of what you are going for here, or is there something I'm forgetting?"

Mew raised his voice at this point, lifting his head up high and exclaiming "I can't expect a demon to understand my emotions at this moment. I am angry, so incredibly angry at everything Gravitus has done and wants to do, but I've been keeping that anger held back as close as I can to the limit to prevent any of those remaining barriers from breaking to my deepest subconscious. And it's not just anger towards Gravitus I have. I hate YOU with every fiber of my being, demon!"

"Oh, do tell…do tell…" 'D.' nonchalantly urged, leading to Mew brandishing his other finger out and exclaiming "You've infested my mind for the last two years, your constant presence preventing me from getting close to anyone out of fear that I would someday lose control of my emotions and bring you out, which would then lead to their deaths! And the worst part of it all is that I can't for the life of me remember just how the hell you even got into my mind in the first place! I've been holding back all of this anger against you, but now that we're both in my mind there's no way I'll let my emotions destroy the remaining barriers, and that's why I'm not afraid to tell you everything, demon!"

Mew stamps one foot forward and widens his eyes before stating "I want to have more friends! I want to love! I want to be able to rage with all of my might without having to have some monster decide how I should act! Look into my eyes, 'D.', and you'll see just how genuine my anger is! You want to feed on this anger, then fine, do it! Go ahead and test the rage of a desperate man, and let it be the last moment of your callous existence!"

For once in his life, 'D.' was actually left relatively speechless at Mew's anger, but it didn't take long for him to curl his lips into a cheshire's smile and laugh some more, clapping his hands together out of genuine praise beside his head before he stated "I must admit…This has been by far and beyond one of the most entertaining moments in my life. As a demon who has existed since close to the dawn of time itself, that is quite the accomplishment. Alright then…" As the demon moves his hands away, a panting Mew remarked "So you're going to listen after all?"

"Ah ah ah…Lets not get ahead of ourselves here. I admit, I am very tempted to allow you the chance to use my darkness against that bold man Gravitus…But at the same time, dealing with demons is always supposed to come with a price." 'D.' said, unfurling his arms and remarking as he pointed to Mew's body and grinned "Draw your sword, Mew. Face me here and now…While time slowly to a crawl within your subconscious, you still have enough time to battle and very, very possibly best me…Or at the least impress me the rest of the way. "

Mew swings his right arm out and summons his sword into his hand after a heavy blaze of fire emerges, remarking afterwards with a determined expression "I have nothing to lose here! Come at me with everything you've got, demon, and I'll fell all of your doubts!" Mew then pulls the white trigger and switches into his Light Form, with 'D.' cackling a bit before summoning two more arms from his body and exclaiming "Make peace with your gods, for even they won't be safe once I have taken you over, boy!"

"Not a chance!" Mew says, swinging his sword up and sending forth a wave of light across the ground that travels towards 'D.' and then rises up into a wave of gushing light, but 'D.' slashes forth two of his darkened hands to create crescent blades of dark wind that cut through the light, splitting it apart enough to create a gap that he is able to slip through. But before the demon charged at Mew the boy pulled back on his sword to drag the remaining light backwards at him. The light washes over 'D.', but the demon creates a barrier of black flames to take the brunt of the attack for him.

Mew leaps off the ground and tries to cut 'D.' with his glowing katana, but the demon brought two hands out and created dark replicas of the sword Mew wields in his basic form, using them to parry Mew's attacks while making two of the other arms create spheres of bright black and red electricity. Mew steps back and moves his head to the right as the demon fires one of the spheres his way, but the other one is thrown right at his armored chest, causing the electricity to erupt into a diagonal X-shape before knocking Mew back onto the ground.

But Mew just slams his elbows against the ground and uses that to flip himself onto his feet, pointing his katana at the demon without breaking his stride before he remarked "I guess I shouldn't be surprised you've picked up on using my elemental powers." 'D.' grinned as he created four fireballs in all of his hands, replying to Mew's observation with "I observed the original Elemental Overlord well enough and learned how to control the elements because of that. Seeing how your mind is a fertile ground for elemental energy to be born, it's quite easy for me to keep using these type of attacks against you."

"And yet that doesn't concern me at all. How else can I hope to face her again unless I learn to surpass myself?" Mew remarked nonchalantly, this time ignited his katana with light and grasping it in both of his hands before swinging it over his right shoulder, keeping a defensive stance with feet spread apart while 'D.' holds all of his arms together and merges the four spheres of black flame into a singular orb, unleashing it all into a gargantuan beam of fire that roars through the atmosphere of the mind.

Mew presses forth against the ground, charging up into the air while blanketing the front of his body in a shell of white light, allowing him to push against the front of the black flames and put up a great deal of resistance against it for a few seconds until 'D.' applies more flames into the beam to increase it's size and power. Mew starts to get pushed back towards the ground, but he had figured this was going to happen and had prepared appropriately. Bringing his sword out from over his shoulder, Mew slashes hard against the beam of dark flames, sending forth a large wave of light that burns through the center of the beam and goes straight for 'D.'

'D.' cuts off his connection to the flames and moves to the right, but not before the light cuts through his left arms and burns them right off. 'D.' doesn't even grimace though from losing his arms, instead feeling a bit of pain from the light Mew sent his way as he remarked with an intrigued tone "Hehehe…So you can harm me with light. I suppose I haven't regained enough of my form yet to be able to do something about that." Mew lands on the ground and sheathes his katana before swinging his right hand out and sending a large wave of light out in the form of a whip, remarking bluntly as he does so "Good! Then I'll take advantage of it however I can!"

Regrowing his two lost arms, 'D.' swings them both across the front of his body and grabs onto the side of Mew's whip of light as it comes towards him, letting his hands burn to the touch as he grins and remarks "Don't get the wrong idea child…It is never that simple." At the cost of his reformed hands, the demon crushes the whip of light into nothingness from the point that he was touching it at, followed by him swinging one hand under his left arms and sending forth a blast of black frost from his palm at Mew.

The black frost strikes Mew's right angel wing and instantly freezes it over, dragging it down to the ground and pinning it in place as the crackles of it's being echo through the mind. Mew was left a little off-balance from that move, and he had to use his sword as a stand to keep himself from falling down all the way while he exerts energy on his right wing to break through the ice. 'D.' doesn't wait for Mew to break free though, and immediately flies above him and lashes all of his arms down at his body.

The arms turn into claws and slash away at Mew's armor, tearing it apart bits at a time but never once getting close to his skin. Even so, it hurt Mew's ears as the claws screeched against his armor like nails to a chalkboard, but in the time 'D.' spent attacking Mew was able to shatter the ice from his wing and swing it upward to send bright feathers at the demon. 'D.' flew to the right to avoid the brunt of the attack, though some of the feathers pinned themselves to his right left arms and blew up to take them out.

Mew then positioned himself upright and grabs onto his katana before zipping right up to the demon, hoping to cut down his other arms as well. 'D.' uses the two arms on the right side of his body to create flaming swords while slanted sideways in mid-air, letting the attack Mew swings at him connect against his blades to push himself back and put some distance away so he could have some time to regenerate his left arms.

But Mew had already readied himself to apply more pressure to 'D.'s' body, moving swiftly behind the demon and stabbing his katana right into 'D.'s' gut as the demon turned around to try and defend himself. But while the light from Mew's katana burned a hole into 'D.'s' body, the demon took one of his swords and performed a retaliatory stab into Mew's left shoulder. But this only made Mew grimace a bit, and he twisted his katana deeper into the demon's body and unleashed a beam of light to tear away his entire midsection and launch the remains down towards the ground.

The demon's body crashed against the ground, split up into his arms, legs and head because of Mew's efforts. But this just brought a smile to 'D.'s' face as he slowly reformed his body and remarked "So even as a warrior of that accursed light, you have the ruthlessness of a warrior of darkness." Mew dropped to the ground behind the demon as it stood upright, holding his katana out directly atop the demon's left shoulder while exclaiming "I've had a lot of pent up aggression to get out on you, that's why!"

'D.' grinned widely, stating with intrigue in his voice "Good…But…" before suddenly warping through the darkness of Mew's mind and hovering high above him, planting two hands flat down to create a dark violet six-pointed magic seal that shakes the very foundation of Mew's mind as it glows brightly. While 'D.' held two hands against the demonic center of the seal, he raises the other two up and creates two large red and black meteors that burned with the most hellish violet flames.

With the eyes of madness on the demon's face, he exclaimed down to Mew "Do you have what it takes to do what the original Elemental Overlord couldn't?! To accept the demonic side of humanity within yourself and forego all selflessness for the sake of a single Aurian girl?!" The demon then slams both large meteors against the magic seal he created, making them pass through the center of it and multiply into dozens of other meteors that fly down in a broad range towards Mew, all the while 'D.' exclaimed "Perish Meteor!"

But as the meteors dropped from the sky towards Mew, the boy just held his katana behind his back and leaped bravely towards the meteors, pulling his katana out to swing it at one of the meteors while bathing the air with swathes of blinding light from how rapidly he was slashing forth. He cut down the meteors and dispelled the darkness surrounding them, proceeding up towards 'D.' as the demon tried to apply more pressure to Mew by adding dark lightning to the mix through the magic seal, creating large bursts of multiple electric streams through the air with every time he slams a hand against the center of the seal.

Mew keeps cutting down the meteors in his way while braking every now and then to put up shields for defense against the electricity before continuing onward without any further pause. Along the way he states to the demon boldly "I've already accepted how selfish I am! But that doesn't mean I'll turn evil like you or the former Dark King! If I didn't have the capacity for good, then why would I have the ability to control the power of light?! To forego what selflessness I have is to betray this power and all it stands for!"

"But it's not enough! You know it's not enough! I want you to admit it to me, Elemental Overlord! Scream that anguished desire at the top of your lungs!" 'D.' exclaimed as Mew was inches away from breaking through his magic seal, and with his eyes widened with determined fury Mew held his right hand out and ignited it with bright white flames before exclaiming "I NEED THE POWER OF DARKNESS TO SAVE THE ONE I WANT TO LOVE! NOW HAND IT OVER YOU GODDAMN PARASITE!"

Mew punched right through the magic seal with his white flames spreading out through the pieces and brightening the confines of his own mind, and as he levitated before the demon for just a moment 'D.' grinned and quietly laughed before Mew grabbed the front of his face and started dragging the demon towards the ground, releasing pounding shockwaves of bright white flames while yelling at an accelerated increase of volume until he slammed the demon against the ground and erupted forth a pillar of flames from his hand. Once the flames had faded away, Mew can be seen standing triumphant over 'D.', whose body save for his head was burned away for the moment, and Mew had his katana pointed at the demon's forehead.

Panting a bit, Mew enjoys his triumph before sheathing his katana and letting the demon reform his body, and by the time his hands came back he was already beginning to clap them together slowly while grinning in delight. While slinking his body off of the ground to stand upright, 'D.' remarked "Hahaha…Very well then, Elemental Overlord, I'll let you use my darkness. In fact, for once in my life I'll even cut you a bit of a deal…You can go unrestrained against Gravitus, use whatever anger you have welled up inside of you against him. Show him the true ferocity of a demon if you so wish."

Mew folded his arms together and remarked "You're being way too generous here. What's the catch?" 'D.' shrugged his shoulders and said "Can a demon not be a tiny bit lenient sometimes? It's more beneficial to keep the possessed happy every now and then. Don't get me wrong though, I will still attempt to break through your subconscious barriers after you've bested this Gravitus person." Mew blinked a couple times and said "…Yeah, I figured that would be the case."

The demon grinned, followed by him raising his four arms up and stating "Now then, I grow tired of speaking with you. Humor me with a fine performance out there, Elemental Overlord." Mew closed his eyelids and felt as 'D.' used his arms to push his darkness into the representation of Mew's body within his subconscious, which would actually affect him in the outside world. After 'D.' has placed enough darkness in Mew's body, the boy widens his eyes open to reveal that his irises have turned yellow.

Back in the outside world, where only a couple minutes had passed due to the differences in the flow of time between the subconscious and reality, Gravitus has already heavily damaged Kairi's body without still moving from the same spot as before. Gravitus grinned as he looked at Kairi's bleeding and tattered form, with Kairi's sweat mixing in with the blood to increase how much it flowed across her skin and armor. She panted for a few seconds before Gravitus lifted her left hand up and said "Just remember, dear daughter…I gave you the chance to do this willingly."

Using his powers of gravity, the man binds Kairi with his aura and then sends her hurtling down against the ground within the top floor of the pyramid, with her screaming sharply in pain for a few seconds. As she lies against the ground and watches Gravitus slowly float back to the pyramid, she grits her teeth and thinks in a panicked tone "W-Why? How can anyone ever hope to beat that monster? W-Was this all for nothing? Was I never intended to win from the start? Shina…Mew…Everyone…I'm s-s-sorry…" Kairi then widened her eyes as the ground gave way below her and sent her plummeting deeper into the pyramid, all the while she let out a prolonged "Aaaaah!" of fright that echoed as she fell.

Gravitus looked at the situation unfold and remarked in annoyance "Hrrm…I'll have to waste a little time to retrieve her, but whatever…" But before he made his move, Gravitus sensed something very peculiar rising up from the bottom floor of the pyramid, something grim and angry in nature. With an intrigued grin on his face, the man rubbed his chin and remarked without a care "Now…What is this I'm sensing?"

From Kairi's perspective, she suddenly felt her fall come to an end when she landed on something she did not recognize. Opening her eyelids, Kairi watched as she was rising up back towards the top floor of the pyramid, as though something was carrying her there. Confused, Kairi immediately looked to the left and was left completely taken aback when she saw Mew's face in her presence. But there was something certainly different about him. His body was now surrounded by a hollow black aura, and demonic wings made of a thickened black goop were attached to his back, with his irises yellow in color.

"M-Mew?" Kairi stuttered, amazed and confused as to how Mew could possibly still be alive, and as Mew brought her up to the top floor of the pyramid she felt her wounds healing up as Mew poured his energy into her body to help her. Once on the top floor, Mew lowered his arms and let Kairi get down onto her feet, and she willingly made the choice to drop her Angel Drive and return to her normal clothes to preserve her aura. Gripping one hand around the middle of her other arm, Kairi's heart raced a bit as Mew looked at her with his demonic eyes.

Mew smiled at her with the same happiness he usually did, showing that he had not forgone his kindness while in this demonic state. Kindly, Mew said to Kairi "It's ok now. Everything is going to be fine." In the face of what seemed like the ultimate despair, Kairi could believe what Mew was saying to her, but asked all the same "W-What happened to you?" Mew laid both of his hands, which were wrapped with darkness in a way that looked like pointed claws, on both of Kairi's shoulders and told her while looking clean into her eyes "For the first time in a long while…I feel alive."

Kairi glanced away from Mew and said in a stuttering tone of voice "Y-You're…g-going to fight Gravitus again, aren't you? He's a monster…How can you possibly hope to win?" Mew tilted his head slightly and said with an aloof expression "Well, let's see here…I got the proper motivation, I'm full of energy, and I have the perfect form to use against him. I'd say my odds are a lot better than his at this point." After that, Mew looked at Kairi with a serious, smiling expression as he pulled his arms away, making a two-fingered gesture beside his head before he says to her "Kairi…When all this is said and done…I'm going to be done with all my lying. I'll tell you everything I want to, no more secrets, I promise."

Kairi nodded her head twice, saying all the while "Y-Yeah! There'll be no more secrets from me either…" Clenching her fists close to her chest while holding back her tears slightly, Kairi added to her sentence as she hung her head slightly "Please don't die…" "Heh…I'd like to see someone out there who could kill me. I'm too stubborn to die." Mew said before he rose up from the ground and turned away from Kairi, making his way up into the sky to fight Gravitus while she looked on at him.

Once Mew floated face-to-face with Gravitus again, the man spread his arms out and said "Heheh…So it's true what they say…An Elemental Overlord is as hard to kill as a cockroach. But I did not expect you to come back to face me with merely a new coat of paint on your body, little one." Gravitus remarked while rubbing his chin, followed by Mew grinning much like 'D.' would and stating "What can I say, I die hard." Gravitus flinched a bit upon seeing that grin, and put on a more serious expression as he held his scythe beside his hip and remarked "That smile…So all this time that parasitic demon has been inside of your subconscious."

"Oh? You've seen him before? Well good, then you know just what I'm capable of now." Mew said with a humored chuckle, and Gravitus lifted his left hand up and stated while preparing his aura to use his powers "You're capable of putting up little resistance yet again, little Overlord…" Mew's body is wrapped in Gravitus' aura, but after a few seconds of trying to make the body bend to his will via his powers Gravitus finds that Mew isn't budging in the slightest. Dropping his powers for a moment, Gravitus grit his teeth slightly and muttered "What type of trick is this?"

Mew suddenly raised his eyebrows and said with a justifiably confident tone "Tell me Gravitus, why would you ever assume for a second that pure darkness could bend to the will of gravity?" Gravitus growled a little upon hearing that, and Mew said to him while cracking his knuckles "What was it you said me earlier? 'Your short history is at an end'? Gravitus…There's only one person whose history is coming to an end here, and that's yours. You and your tyranny, all the suffering you've caused, I'm going bury it away with the powers of darkness."

Gravitus was now frustrated by Mew's words, and he quickly flew back quite a few feet away and created those spheres he made earlier from his aura. He threw them right at Mew for his attack, but Mew quickly dodges one of them while distorting the air a bit, then extended his claws out enough that he could rend through the remaining spheres with a single swing. Mew then put on a blunt and serious expression as he held his arms in front of his face, stating to Gravitus "Ok then…PREPARE YOURSELF, GRAVITUS!" Mew then flew right at the angered Gravitus as the man flared his aura up, ready to initiate his greatest battle of all.

Next Time: The Dark Hero