Chapter 20: Egg Chimera II: The Venomous Wyvern
After leaping through yet another rift in time and space, Riku finds himself a little farther into the future than he was before, but still quite a good deal in the past. He landed atop a levitating square platform in a row of four in the center of a large darkened metal shaft, with each platform having rails on both sides of his body. There was another set of platforms off to the left of where Riku stood, but they were quickly destroyed as the Egg Chimera rose up from the dark depths below and brushed the platforms aside with his wings.
With Eggman's machine making it's gargantuan presence known, Riku turns towards it and spreads his arms out, summoning forth spheres of darkness between his aura-borne claws and creating just enough excess energy that black lightning sparks around atop the platforms. The teenage Overlord fires his spheres at the chest of the Egg Chimera, but Eggman counters the attack by using the lasers from the tips of his wings to lock-on to the specific energy signature and counter them seconds before they impact.
He then uses another burst of lasers to home-in on the boy in the center of the four platforms, forcing him to leap to the left and roll along the ground to dodge the explosion radius of the lasers, and once he lifts himself up he skids a couple feet and ends near the edge of the platforms. Eggman then rises up and detaches the disk from the sides of the Egg Viper tail of his combined mechanoid and put them on top of each other at the opposite end of the platforms.
After having them spin around for a few seconds to charge-up their rotation Eggman launches them along the platforms at the boy at the same time. Riku leaps up a mere second before they ram into him, landing on top of the discs and quickly slamming his claws into the top of them so he can keep himself from getting dizzy and losing his balances as he spins around atop the discs. But at the same time Riku has made himself a sitting duck by allowing Eggman to lock-on to the top of the discs and ready another attack.
Eggman swings the Egg Chimera's drill towards the boy and makes it spin around fast enough that it could drill through a mountain in a matter of seconds. Riku notices and hears the actions of the drill in front of him and realizes that taking a drill head-on would turn him into paste even with his current level of strength. Thus, Riku decided to be a little innovative with his predicament by forming talons that pierce into the metal tops of the discs and allow him to stand up and face the drill in a different manner than he would have been able to before.
The teenage Overlord holds his hands out, thickening the aura of the darkness that formed his claws and waiting for just the right moment to slam his claws in the sides of the drill as it is thrust his way. The moment the drill and claws collide, the discs are forcibly stopped while hundreds of sparks fly off between the drill and the tips of the claws. During this clash Riku grits his teeth and finds himself a little blinded by the sparks as they impact with his aura directly in front of his eyes while he simultaneously uses all of his lower body strength to prevent the discs from rotating again.
The moment he allows he discs to budge even once is the moment he loses the battle against the drill. The plan here was to stop the weapon's mass rotation and push it back, causing a recoil effect that will stun the Egg Chimera long enough for Riku to strike at the machine nice and hard. Even with the amount of darkness in his claws, the teenage Overlord was having difficulty slowing the drill down. In fact, it was clear that Eggman was trying to keep the rotation up to ensure that his plan would fail.
With this idea failing with each passing second, Riku decides to go for another course of action, which he utilizes by pushing the drill forward, working against Eggman's attempt to force it against his body. By pushing the drill towards the direction of the robot, the teenage Overlord hears a light crunch coming from the joints, signifying that pressure was being applied to the machinery.
Eggman naturally didn't approve of this event and quickly pulled back on the drill to avoid losing yet another weapon to the boy's efforts. Riku took in some deep breaths as he was given a little freedom from the Egg Chimera's assault, commenting in his mind "Should have just leaped off the discs…"
As he notes this matter, Riku leaps off and flaps his demonic wings to keep away from the discs as Eggman brings them back to the sides of the Egg Viper tail. The teenage Overlord then smirks and notes that his power has weakened out of a combination of a drop in aggression along with the amount of damage he has taken throughout the battle. "I might need to change forms again soon…I think I can take care of the Egg Viper part of this machine before I have to do that though…" Riku notes.
Eggman continues his assault against the boy by raising the artillery cannon and firing a hazy blast of Nega Hyper-go-on energy at him. Riku gets back into the swing of battle and slashes at the orb with his right claw to tear it apart, mocking the doctor for his attack with a quick remark of "You know Eggman, that hasn't worked on me at all. You might want to try something different with that cannon of yours."
The doctor doesn't take that remark well, as he jabs the artillery cannon at the boy while swinging the rest of the Egg Chimera to the side, and after a few seconds of charging energy in all four barrels Eggman fires out four thick streams of violet Nega Hyper-go-on energy while rotating the cannon around to mix the streams in a swirling vortex. Riku glides along to the right to avoid the attack while it burns away at the walls surrounding the shaft. The teenage Overlord then takes advantage of Eggman's angered attack by charging straight at the tail, flying right underneath he beams as he swings his right claw back and extended the fingers outward to increase the amount of damage he will do.
But even with anger guiding his actions, Eggman knew which part of the Egg Chimera would need to be protected while he was performing his assault, and he quickly swung the very end of his tail up to fire a swift piercing shot of Hyper-go-on energy at the boy. The laser was miniscule, and thus Riku failed to notice the attack as it punctured through his right shoulder. Though the teenage Overlord endured a hefty amount of pain from this attack, he pushed onward towards the Egg Viper tail with his claw outstretched.
In fact, Eggman might have made a miscalculation in attacking that part of Riku's body, since the pain only reignited the aggression that he had lost earlier. With his power mostly regained, the teenage Overlord goes for the tail and uses his thickened claw to slash right at the head of the Egg Viper, cutting three large gash marks into the metallic underside but failing to reach the wiring buried behind it.
Riku grits his teeth upon noticing this miss due to the lack of static flowing through his aura and makes a quick remark of "Darn it!" in his head as he flies away from the Egg Viper and loops around the edge of the room until he ends right in front of the glowing violet scar left by the artillery cannon, but before he strikes at the Egg Chimera again the machine uses it's tentacles to fire a multitude of spiky Nega Hyper-go-on balls at the boy.
The teenage Overlord decides to take a risk by throwing his left claw out to grab onto one of the spiky balls, and with the protection of his aura preventing him from being punctured by the spike Riku pulls his claw back in and quickly flies down to avoid the remainder of the spike balls. With the Egg Viper vulnerable again, the teenage Overlord flies straight at it with a plan in mind.
Keeping the spike ball protected by wrapping it in a double-layered sphere of darkness, Riku decides to force his right arm to move again in spite of the pain that flares through his shoulder so he can tear apart the Egg Viper's metallic surface even further.
Eggman naturally swings the tentacles downward, using float-y thrusts of the heads to launch down Nega Hyper-go-on lasers one after the other, forcing the teenage Overlord to weave back and forth through the shaft as he heads towards the Egg Viper tail. Coating the right claw in a thicker aura, Riku swoops in a downward arc towards the underside of the tail towards the glowing gashes he left behind in the metal, and with another slash of his claw he breaks further into the Egg Viper's surface, this time around reaching into the wiring buried underneath.
Riku quickly alternates to his left hand while grimacing at the jolt of pain coming from his right shoulder, throwing the spike ball wrapped in darkness into the wiring and releasing the veil to make the spiky ball explode within the innards of the Egg Viper. The explosion was bigger than the teenage Overlord expected, causing him to be launched back by the burst of Nega Hyper-go-on energy as a chain reaction is activated within the Egg Viper.
Eggman growls in surprise as a series of explosions occur within the Egg Viper, launching multiple parts across the shaft with every passing second until the doctor is forced to detach the tail before the explosions spread across the rest of the Egg Chimera. The Egg Viper drops down the shaft, watched by Riku's eyes until the machine is annihilated for good in one massive fiery explosion that sets the darkness in the shaft aglow with red and yellow light.
The battlefield distorts like usual afterwards, and after Eggman proclaims while swinging his wings outward alongside his drill "You little winged pest, I will finish you off in the next time period!" The doctor then summons a time rift and drags the Egg Chimera through it. Riku clasps his right shoulder with his left hand and notices that his aura of darkness was starting to fade away. He had taken far too much damage to take down just the bottom segment of this mighty machine, leading him to believe Eggman's claim that Sonic would have lost to his ultimate weapon.
Even with the pain in his shoulder, Riku flies through the time rift to follow Eggman to the next era in time he wanted to fight in. This time around once he goes through the rift the boy finds himself landing atop another set of platforms similar to the ones he started on in the last time period, only these had a more defined appearance to them with cybernetic edgings and see-through centerpieces. The platforms were assembled in a large nine-square spread, and there was a heavy wind draft coming at him from behind.
Looking up, Riku sees the Egg Chimera descend from close to the underside of the large crimson battleship known as the Egg Carrier, which was burning apart at the back while debris fall down around his machine. The aura surrounding the Egg Chimera breaks apart any debris that falls on top of him, ensuring a lack of damage as it prepared for the next phase of battle.
But just like he was feeling in the museum on the Egg Continent, Riku curiously wondered how Eggman could have traveled to this particular point in time, considering the events that led to this point were supposedly erased from history. As his aura of darkness fades away while he keeps his hand placed on his pained right shoulder, the teenage Overlord decides to take advantage of his current state of weakness to ask Eggman some questions, playing on the doctor's arrogance to ensure that he would get his answers.
"E-Eggman…How could you possibly remember this time period? I know what happened here, and there's no way you'd know…" Riku says as the wind brushes against his body.
Eggman lowers his machine to look down upon the boy clearly, saying with a sly smirk on his face from the safety of his cockpit "I'd think it would be obvious if you know as much as you claim you do."
The doctor swings his right arm out as he goes on to explain "When time reset to compensate for the erasure of Solaris' existence, those close to the epicenter of the reset retained a slight fragment of their memories from the original time period, though for some the events were buried further into their subconscious than others. For one of high intelligence such as myself, it was easy to remember everything with the help of a machine, and at the same time recall my plans for the Egg Wyvern so I could utilize part of its designs in the creation of the Egg Chimera."
"The original time period still stopped existing, so how could you travel to it?!" Riku asks, to which Eggman responds simply with "Who said it stopped existing? All it did was end at a specific point because Solaris had erased our world forever. The events that occurred before that point still existed, meaning with the help of the Time Eater I could travel to it whenever I want."
This answer made Riku tilt his head and remark in a puzzled tone "The T-Time Eater? Wait, are you insinuating that…" Before he finishes his sentence, two small rifts open up in time and space, and pushing through them are two mechanically golden claws covered in a black and dark purple smoky mist that let out a clockwork ticking noise as it emerges.
Eggman then goes on to mention as the large claws float on both sides of his Egg Chimera "You think I would create this conglomerate machine without including one of my finest creations of all time?! Even after both Sonics defeated me and my past self, I was able to go back to the white void of time and salvage most of the Time Eater's parts so I could integrate it perfectly into the Egg Chimera. And now, I will show you exactly what I'm capable of doing with it!"
The doctor lifts the Egg Chimera higher into the air and throws the Time Eater's claws at the platforms Riku stands on, utilizing a combination of the energy exuding around the claws and the Hyper-go-on mix to summon a large dome of orange, purple and black misty fog around the teenage Overlord, trapping him inside as Eggman taunts from the outer part of the dome "Lets see how you fight when you can't even see your opponent!"
Sure enough, the field of energy was thick enough that Riku couldn't see even a fragment of the Egg Chimera anymore, and because of the nature of the energy source the boy couldn't even sense it's position. Knowing all too well that Eggman was probably moments away from attacking, the teenage Overlord lifted his right hand out in front of his body and stood tall and proud, summoning forth his sword as he closed his eyelids and thought "I haven't used this since I unlocked it…But I haven't forgotten my new line of thinking, and I still am staying true to it…"
Both white and black on the helix-shaped blade glow as Riku focuses on both the Light and Darkness within him, combining them together as his body is wrapped in a shell of both elements that swirls together into a neutral feeling vortex that scatters apart mere seconds after it appears. The katana from his Light-form that Riku grips is not the only change to his appearance as the energy vanishes. He now wears a perfectly fitting sleek black metallic armor that had the top halves of dragon's skulls attached and extended out past the width of his shoulders, while along his arms were pulled back angelic feathers that ended before his wrists, which were surrounded by a shining golden and silver halo on his right and left respectively.
Around his belt was an ancient runic belt covered in monochrome gemstones with two sheathes, one for his katana and another for a thick, curved dagger. On Riku's back were two sets of wings, one of angelic nature and another of demonic intent. His eyes had changed, with the left one now pure white and the other having a dark yellow tint.
In this form, Riku felt a combination of calmness and melancholy and his wounds had healed up. The teenage Overlord immediately turns to the right and notices a rift opening up as the drill arm thrusts itself through to try and drill the boy apart. Riku takes his katana and switches it into the grasp of his other arm with a gentle flow of the wrists, positioning his now freed right hand out so the drill impacts with the center of his palm, which doesn't even have a hint of aura protecting it as it grinds rapidly against the skin.
The teenage Overlord fires off a shockwave of both light and darkness from the palm of his hand that forces the drill back through the rift with ease, causing Eggman to comment in a puzzled murmur "W-What?" This remark confirmed for Riku that the doctor also had no vision of what was going on inside the dome, meaning that for the next few moments, he could see if there was anything else Eggman had in his arsenal before he cut through the dome to deal with the Egg Chimera for good.
Next up, Eggman used his titanic mech to send forth a barrage of lasers right through the dome, each one emerging from the tips of his wings. The laser burn tiny holes through the energy and impact with the platforms around Riku's body, creating tiny explosions that do little more than make the boy glare at them as they miss completely.
Standing in place, the teenage Overlord take his katana as the holes in the dome are filled with spiked missiles launched from the Egg Chimera's upper torso and cuts two of them down in two calm yet swiftly performed attacks. The explosions that ensue behind him as the broken missiles land blow his wings in front of him, but simultaneously dismantle the platforms surrounding him.
As Riku is left with only one spot to stand on, he looks towards the holes in front of him and watches as Eggman thrusts both of the Nega-Wisp Armor's tentacles right through them, opening the mouths to target the teenage Overlord on the remaining platform. "Eat this you little gnat!" Eggman declares as two lasers of raw Nega Hyper-go-on energy pulsate through the mouths of the tentacles and head straight for the boy.
From the teenage Overlord's perspective, the lasers moved rather slowly, allowing him plenty of time to take out his dagger and cross both weapon in front of his body, where he creates a emblem of light and darkness to not only protect himself, but to reflect the lasers back at the tentacles with enough pushback to force both limbs to retract through the dome in pain.
With the holes now wide-open, Riku comments to himself "I guess I shouldn't expect anything spectacular from this junk pile…" After sheathing his dagger the teenage Overlord uses a swift cut of his katana to slash through the dome from afar, surprising Eggman as the energy composing the dome breaks apart into nothing and allows him to see the new form the boy had taken.
"Wh-What? What is this supposed to be?" Eggman comments as the teenage Overlord flies straight at the Egg Chimera in a blur of white and black flames, using two swift slashes of his swords to cut down the Egg Wyvern's wings with relative ease before retreating in front of the main robot and watching as Eggman is forced to use rocket boosters at the bottom of the titanic machine to keep himself afloat.
The battlefield begins to distort, and as Eggman slams his fists down on both sides of his pod he looks up at the boy and proclaims "You've got to be kidding me! You still have this much power left in you?!"
Riku doesn't respond to Eggman's comments, leading the doctor to growl furiously at this development as he slams opens a rift in time and space with a backhanded punch from one of the Time Eater's claws and slips through it. The teenage Overlord glares at the rift and says quietly "Where will you go now Eggman…" before he flies through the portal in pursuit of the Egg Chimera.
Next Time: A Slow Battle