Chapter 25: Of Science and Magic II: Two Sides, Similar Methods
Ok, lets recap everything that has happened over the last few hours. First, I encountered Alpha in the Frozen Palace and began confronting him in battle, but unlike the rest of the heroes he doesn't bear the appearance of a "Shadow", meaning that he is the real deal. Second, it turns out that someone was controlling him, who then turns out to be a revived Cackletta, much to my abject horror. Finally, the Chronicler, the one being I've been able to trust throughout this entire journey, is someone whose words I'm beginning to doubt in light of circumstantial evidence. So with all these events unfolding at once, I though to myself…"Was coming here really worth all this trouble?" While I sigh and plant one hand against my face.
The witch laughed at my confusion, taking pleasure in it as she pulled her head back and folded her cloak together to hide her arms temporarily. Once she was done enjoying herself, she looked down at me as I peered through the gaps between my fingers and said to me "What's the matter young Overlord? Are you afraid of me after all this time?" in a manner that wonderfully befit her arrogant personality. I pulled my hand away from my face, glaring straight at her with my head leaned forward slightly to stand bravely against her words before saying to her in response "I'm not afraid, I'm just surprised to see you alive yet again…"
My left hand twitched slightly, an unconscious, fearful reaction to Cackletta's existence. I tightened it into the shape of a fist quickly, but my action was not performed fast enough for it to escape the witch's glance. "Then why do you tremble in my presence?" It was a question designed to strike at my psyche and make me flinch, but having prior knowledge of her tricks thanks to Alex's memories alongside my lack of gullibility allowed me to pump my fist out in front of my face and proudly declare to her. "What reason do I have to tremble because of you? All you are is a fly, here one second, and then gone the next…But last I checked, someone finally stamped you out for good, so what's the deal? Why are you suddenly alive now?"
"Ehehe…" Cackletta merely brushed off my comeback with a laugh as if it were nothing, and after looking at me with her usual grin she began to walk around Alpha's frozen stiff body. "How curious that you would call me out on being dead, especially when you should be dead yourself after what my creation did to you. Of course, for my accusation to hold any water you'd have to be the real deal and not a clone." I widened my eyes briefly in surprise as the witch stood in place beside Alpha and folded her arms in behind her back, causing her cloak to part accurately in turn. "How do you know about that…"
"The answer is simple my child…The one to whom I owe the gratitude of reviving me also implanted into me the memories of all the events that had transpired in my year of absence." She tilted her head, not to look at me but to glance down at the Commander with her eyes widening with sadistic glee. "You can thank your little Commander friend for my death…Well, him and that wretched plumber, to be exact." She turns her head around eerily, stepping across the floor until she stands as close to Alpha's body as she physically wants. She kneels down, drawing her right hand from her cloak and wrapping her fingers around his chin and using them to force him to stare straight into her callous, wretched eyes.
"Still though, to think that after all those years of careful planning along with the many rituals I had performed to extend my own life so I could live until the right moment, that I would be bested by the lowest form of life on this planet who only knew of my plans for thirty years of his wretched existence…" Alpha grimaced while Cackletta so bitterly described the fact that her plans were undone by him. After giving the Commander a menacing smile and cackling to herself quietly, Cackletta raised her body up while saying "But as my body crumbled and regenerated multiple times from the cells he implanted inside of me, I came to realize begrudgingly how much I respected the Commander for his ever persistent efforts and careful manipulations…"
"It was rather easy to accept that I was defeated by him…After all, he understood my twisted behavior more than anyone else ever could've hoped to, because that's the type of mind he chose to have in order to combat me in our everlasting game of wits. And the stress of keeping that behavior away from the world drove him paranoid of everyone both friend and foe alike. However, it HAS been a year since my demise, so I have to ask…" Turning and looking down at Alpha, Cackletta grins widely and says to him in a curious yet mocking tone of voice "How have you been conquering your inner demons thus far?" Alpha wanted to say something, but his lips were sealed tightly by an unknown force while he continued to flinch and grit his teeth in anger at the witch's presence.
While Cackletta wasted her time away focusing on the one who caused what she-called her premature demise, I came up with a startling truth about just why the witch had been revived, the answer of which stemmed from the various things she continued to exposit about without end. To Alpha, Cackletta represented the part of his personality that he didn't want to exist in the presence of others. Knowing this probably from warping reality to learn of his past, Mr. Reality chose to revive Cackletta to act as the Commander's "Shadow" instead of bothering to have the 'Midnight Channel' create another being from his subconscious.
But that left one major question lingering right on the tip of my tongue, and after staring at the two beings for a prolonged period of time as Cackletta freakishly stared at the Commander I said to her "What the hell have you done to Commander Alpha?!" I was somewhat furious at the helpless state Alpha had been put into, though at the same time there was a part of me that was glad to see him having to be forced to endure such pain, this emotion originating from the memories of Alex's past where the Commander had tortured him in order to draw rather pointless information from his memories.
The witch turns her body around , folding her arms into her cloak once more as she grins at me and says "What I've done is make it so that he acts as my puppet. Admittedly, I had not originally learned a spell that allowed me to control others against their will, but the person who revived me told me from afar of a spell called 'Imperio', which when cast allows one to perform that very action. At first I was reluctant to listen to the voice, but when the being gave me the Commander as a test subject and said 'I'm certain that you will enjoy using him to destroy the Elemental Overlord' I was able to determine that he understood what type of person I was, and so I willingly subjected myself to the effects of the realm he covered this planet in just to add authenticity to this game of his while at the same time giving me the chance to destroy you and truly end the Overlord's legacy once and for all!"
Well that makes sense. Mr. Reality played Cackletta like a sap just to get her to be a part of his game. Honestly, it was rather funny to see the witch speak with an air of arrogance around her as if she had full control over her situation. Just like with the "Shadows" before this point, her purpose will be fulfilled the moment I release the Ice energy reserve. Instead of revealing this information to her though, I merely grinned and decided that I'd be able to get a good kick out of watching her villainous breakdown as she is deservedly wrenched from the mortal plane and sent back to hell where she truly belonged.
Of course, that's assuming I'd even make it through this fight. It was bad enough I had to fight Alpha, but now Cackletta was around to cause trouble for me. This terrible mixture of magic and weaponry would be difficult to overcome, and I had already been weakened a bit from some of Alpha's attacks. If there were any saving graces though, it was that the Commander was showing signs of resistance, which means he might be able to hold back enough to let me knock him unconscious, at which point Cackletta, in theory, should be a piece of cake to deal with. It also helped that I had already gotten a few hits in on Alpha.
"Now then, shall we continue?" The witch speaks out to me while I was deep in thought, snapping me out of it with a snap of her fingers as I hear the quick rumbling of thunder in the air above me. I look up, and immediately jump back to avoid a lightning strike that crashes into the ground and nearly blinds me in a flash of light. In the midst of my leap, the witch summoned one of her holes and fell into it, emerging behind the Commander and swaying her right arm out to command him to charge straight at me. With the smoke from the smoldering rocks rising off the ground to cover my presence, I bent my lower legs backward, sticking my bare feet to the wall with the help of my powers as I quickly stamp my left palm behind me to keep myself steady while I coat my right arm in diamond and hold it outward to block a direct attack from the bulk of Alpha's arm that was aimed at my neck.
"Well at least now I know why you have been rather sadistic in where you attack me, Alpha…" I thought to myself as I pressed forward to keep the Coommander at bay in mid-air. I took my left hand off the wall and called for my weapon wherever it may have been, allowing me body to get pushed backwards against the wall even though it hurt to let my back muscles get bent the way they were. Thanks to Cackletta's eyes, Alpha was able to see my weapon coming at me, and promptly opened a compartment in his arm that summoned forth a small thing mechanical clasp that launches itself at my wrist and grabs it tightly.
The sudden pain that wrenched itself through my arm caused me to lose my concentration on my hammer as it was just a second away from going in my grasp. But as my weapon began to fall down beside the Commander, I re-established a connection with it, commanding it to perform one quick swing so it would hit Alpha square in the side of his body. The head of the hammer connects with the skin for about one second, and the next few are spent watching Alpha get launched away from me, his clasp being torn away from the rest of his body as it lets go and falls onto the ground with a single bound and a "clink".
Before Alpha recovers, I jump off of the wall, grabbing the hammer in mid-air and giving it another swing before I grab the handle in both hands and raise it vertically above my head. I bring it down with much gusto in my roar, and a row of rocky stalagmites rupture out through the ground in a single line towards Cackletta. The witch casually avoids them by sidestepping to the left, and she raises her right hand up ready to smite me with another lightning bolt. However, I quickly pull my weapon up, holding it outward as I spin clockwise and hit the tip of the first stalagmite in such a way that it becomes chipped off and launches itself as a jagged projectile straight towards the witch.
It collides straight into her chest, pushing her body along the ground a few inches thanks to recoil as it crumbles. This attack of mine also makes her lightning re-direct and land a few feet away from me. After recovering from the momentum of my powerful swing, I stood still and looked at Cackletta, waiting for her to lift her body up so she could try another attack. However, I also felt a vibration coming off of the wall to the left of me. After turning in that direction, I perform a backflip, holding my hammer downward to block the poke of Alpha's sword with the handle before raising it upward quickly to use the head to break the energy off from the rest of his arm.
As my legs are the first to descend towards the ground, I prepared myself to strike the ground and rupture it with a shockwave that would knock Alpha into the air, only for my vision to avert away from the Commander as I heard a hole opening below me. Falling into it without having any time to escape, I reappear straight in front of Cackletta, who has armed her hands with a pulsating array of red and yellow magic that fizzled in and out of existence with every blink of her eyelids. Before I could strike her with my hammer she summoned forth a cylindrical prison made entirely of forbidden runes.
I was stunned, my arms bound to my body as I could sense Alpha turning around and flying my way. With little time to react, I used my mind to call on the shuriken that were still lying on the ground, levitating them to the point that I would have to rely on my own guidance to allow them to connect with my target. I heard the swish of Alpha's blade through the air, and immediately flung the projectiles out in an arch while I was unable to turn my head back to see where they were flying. I had to aim them correctly, or I'd be cut down here and now. As a nervous sweat trickled down my spine, I heard two "Shink!"s and only a second later did I feel the cold steel lip of Alpha's sword barrel pressing against the part of my skin that protected my heart.
The fizzling of electricity alerted me that my shuriken had cut off the wiring that allowed the sword to function, and the only harm done to me was a light bit of pain caused from the Commander pressing against my nerves, seeing as he was originally planning to puncture my heart and all. Of course, I wasn't out of the clear yet. As the witch forced Alpha to work on fixing the damage with his opposite hand while still keeping his barrel pressed against my back, I forced myself to look back at her as she grinned with certainty, thinking that my efforts were futile in the long run. But it would be far too simple to escape, and all I had to do was keep myself calm and close my eyes to concentrate.
After summoning forth a light tremor to act as a distraction, I focused on the chunks of rock that had been broken off of the pillar earlier, slowly lifting them off of the ground so they don't get noticed until its far too late. After opening my eyelids up, I hear one of the shuriken falling onto the floor, realizing that it won't be too long until the other one follows suit. With the rocks still grasped in my terrakenesis I break through the paralysis of the prison long enough to snap my fingers, the up-until-then unaware Cackletta flinching once in surprise before turning in the direction of the rocks just as they bombard her all across her body.
In the ensuing cloud of dust her concentration on the prison is broken and as it disintegrates I am freed, allowing me to quickly rise into the air the very moment Alpha's sword returns and he swings it out to the right in a failed attempt to get me while he still had a chance to. Once I am on the air I take the dust surrounding the witch and draw it to me, swirling it around my body as a ring that I can use at any time for other attacks. I then fly backwards as Alpha rises up and tries to cut me through the center of my underside. However, the Commander is quick to react, flipping himself around and kicking me square in the face as he also had a larger clasp lash out from a separate compartment in his right arm and wrap itself around my gut, making it so the nerves in my back get briefly pinched by the bones to cause a slight amount of paralysis.
The next few seconds fly by faster than I can comprehend, as Alpha drags me into his body and lets go of the clamp, following on the positioning of his body by charging shoulder first through the dust ring and checking me straight in the gut, curving my body in the opposite direction as he presses onward through the air, carrying me along towards the wall as the air blows across the side of my face. My impact with the wall causes a hole to be busted through it, but it also manages to snap me out of the paralysis and quickly take my left hand through the screeching velocity of this flight and place it down on Alpha's arm, using it as a stand to push myself away from the Commander so he instead goes flying past me instead of continuing to keep me through the air.
My back felt a bit sore after all the things it went through, but at the very least I knew it would heal in time. As Alpha was swerving his flight to come back around and strike me, I quickly turned around and went back inside the temple through the hole he made, watching as Cackletta lifted her right arm up in full and opened a vortex in the sky that launched forth a massive beam of electricity meant to singe me. I twirl around to the right, my left arm nearly scraping the edge of the coursing electricity as I continue to fly towards the witch. But with her masterful manipulations she manages to force Alpha to raise his shield before the attack hits him, as noted from the corner of my eye.
Still, this gave me a moment to one-on-one the witch while the beam died out. I rushed out her, noticing her raising her other hand as a hole begins to form within the void of air. Considering the circumstances that occurred last time I fell through one of those, I obviously knew not to charge through this time around. So with yet another twirl to the right I dodged the gap and got my hammer held behind my head, swinging it outright straight towards Cackletta's skull as she looked down at me with a confident grin still on her face. She raised her right arm up into the air, and magic began to swirl around it.
I knew what she was planning on doing, so at the last second I decided to surprise her by lowering my weapon ever so slightly so that my strike would be aimed at her undefended ribcage instead. However, the lifting of her arm unfurls her cloak behind herself, revealing a miniature hole behind it that is positioned just in the line of my hammer's swing. Before I had time to even wonder how she could've predicted my move as well as she did, my hammer swung through the hole and emerged from the other side behind me, colliding straight into the side of my body with enough force to derail my flight and send me hurtling away from Cackletta, a process which also pulls my back weapon through the hole. You really don't want to think about how that maneuver worked, trust me.
Either way, as I'm sent flying away I peek my head up to look at the witch as she lowers her arm and gleams at me with a grin on her face. I wasn't about to let her get away with such trickery, so as I was flying I forced my right leg to slam down against the ground, the sole pounding down with such force that it causes a sea of miniature rocky spikes to spread out towards Cackletta, catching her off-guard surprisingly and knocking her into the air. Of course wouldn't you figure I wouldn't be able to take advantage of it after lowering my other foot down and grinding my body to a halt, since Alpha was flying back my way with his sword still brandished.
I quickly tossed my hammer off to the side, coating my arms in diamond and throwing out a left hook that forced Alpha to swerve out of the way of my blow, only for his face to meet the hardened ends of my right knuckles, causing him to be launched back through the air, where he collides with Cackletta midway through and both get sent flying across the room, giving me a moment's reprieve for the first time in a long while. I stand still, leaning over and catching my breath as sweat drips down my face. "Shoot, this is ridiculous…If I had the ability to switch forms like I did with Gemini and Geno's 'Shadows', then this would be a piece of cake, but for now, I'm running out of environment and ideas to use against these two…" Analyzing the situation as it currently was, I grit my teeth and see the Commander burst into the air with his wings spread wide.
His arms were breaking apart piece by piece, each one landing on the ground until all that remains in the grip of his molten gold human-like arms is a silver handle with a blade made entirely out of ionic energy. "Whoa…I've never seen Alpha do this before…" I widened my eyes, worried about this move of the Commander's considering how unexpected it was. Cackletta rises up off the ground, bruises and dirt covering her greenish skin as she looks at me and says with grim intent "This is the end for you, foolish young Overlord. What you are about to die at the hands of is the same move that ended my own life!"
Alpha charges at me, his body arriving in front of me in the span of a second due to a massive increase in his speed. I barely react to his slash as he passes by my body like lightning, the blade cutting into my left leg and sending a sharp bolt of searing pain through it that forces me to kneel down as I grit my teeth and clasp my hands to slow down the blood dripping out of the wound. He curves around behind me, the breeze of his flight alerting me to his presence as I widen my eyes and quickly duck to avoid another slash that would've lobbed my head right off of my shoulders. However, despite seeing the light of one slash, I felt the breeze of three spread out across the air.
Letting go of my leg momentarily, I thrust my arms forward and perform a somersault to get out of the way of a downward slash, turning my body around and rushing to my feet just in time to leap over a slash that cuts in three different directions. I try to slam my palms through the air, taking the remaining dirt in the air and throwing it out to try and blind Alpha, but he bursts through the air to avoid it, releasing a shockwave that tosses me backwards and making Cackletta assume that I'm at the mercy of the Commander's might. I had no clue where he was as I tumbled about, but I couldn't take the risk of predicting just where he was going to be.
I concentrated on my entire body, stiffening my muscles as I folded my legs and arms inward. I had to coat all of my skin in diamond, but this effort would leave me motionless and cause me to fall onto the ground for a few seconds as I defended myself. The coat of diamond began at the feet, crawling up my legs as I felt a breeze begin to swirl around my body, the velocity increasing rapidly until it becomes like the wind, and even more until a tornado is formed around me. However, by that time my body had become encased in diamond, my mind still functioning so I can free myself when this is all over.
My body was kept in the eye of the tornado as all the debris and rocks that had been created up until this point was sucked in. I couldn't see it, but I could feel it around me. I heard the whirring of light from Alpha's blade, and with speeds nearing that of light itself the Commander unleashed a furious combo of sword slashes from every point that he could possibly strike me from, scratching my body in futility as I just floated precarious, my heart pounding beneath the layer of diamond surrounding me in fear for my own mortal life. The only saving grace was that Cackletta couldn't see what was happening and do anything to break my protective shell.
And as I worried about what could occur, the torrent of slashes finally comes and end, likely because his efforts were amounting to naught. I could hear the winds dying down, so I removed the diamond shell from my body and looked up after moving all of my limbs outward. Alpha charged downward without warning, stamping his foot into my gut and slamming me into the floor below, the pressure of his weight in combination with the thickness of the ground knocking me for a loop as my eyes bulge out in pain and a cough thrusts itself through my open mouth along with a few drops of blood.
The Commander spread his wings wide, obscuring the rays of light behind him so I could get a full view of his body as he raises his right sword far above him and grasps his left hand around my neck to keep me suspended in place. He was gritting his teeth in pain, struggling as hard as he could against the control Cackletta had over him. He was sweating profusely, his right arm quivering as the witch edged him on callously. His angered glare was not directed at me, but at the person he couldn't bring himself to turn his head towards. Deep down within him I could see his disappointment at this situation, and as I looked into the reflection of myself cast within his pupils I whispered to him "Sorry Alpha…But I guess Cackletta won after all…"
There was a purpose in my act of false submission, and as I closed my eyelids tightly to pretend that I was accepting this death of mine I kept a smile on in my subconscious soul. As I waited patiently, I heard a loud "shink!" echoing in my left ear, and quickly opened my eyelids up and pretended to widen my eyes in surprise as I turn and notice Alpha's blade planted into the ground beside me. He was leaned over, gasping for air due to how tough it was for him to resist Cackletta's control for just that moment. "Not today kid…Not now, and not ever…" It worked. By relying on the part of Alpha's personality that absolutely abhors the witch, he was able to break through her control long enough to give me the opening I needed. But first…
"Alpha, this is really going to hurt us both, but do you trust me from here on out?" I asked with a whisper. "Yeah kid, just work quickly, or you will lose your neck…" He responded in a trusting yet rigid tone of voice, just like I expected him to. With a nod of my head, the Commander slightly loosened the grip on his left hand and moved the arm away, allowing me to take in a breath of oxygen as I lifted both of my arms up with all of my might. I coated them nice and slowly in Lutetium Metal, the strongest metal known to man. However, unlike all other things I can spread across my skin, this metal makes my muscles feel sore from the weight pressing down upon them from all sides.
I had to act quickly, and I folded my arms just an inch above my chest, looking left and right at the underside of Alpha's elbows. With a mighty swing my arms collide straight into them both, the thin limbs barely being able to handle the force that struck them and after a quick snap rings through them both the Commander winces in pain and releases the grip on his sword, his body falling right on top of me as I feel a teardrop trickling from his only organic eye. He was knocked unconscious from the sharp pain, but I wasn't really faring any better after using that metal to deal the final blow. My tendons were shot, my skin felt ready to bruise at various vectors, and it was hard to know if the blood would ever flow again.
With what little strength I had left in my upper limbs, I brushed Alpha off of my body, standing up as a familiar cackle rings through the air, much to my eyelid-shut annoyance. "EHEHEHEHE! I must admit, I didn't expect you to survive all of that, child. Even for a clone, you are as stubborn as the original." The witch's praise wasn't without a hint of mockery, especially considering how beat up my body looked. Even so, I glanced at her from the side of my left eye, arching my eyebrows downward with my vision somewhat blurred. "But what does it matter if you beat the Commander? I am still alive and prime for battle, while you look ready to collapse at a moment's notice."
"Is that what you really think?" I said in response, bravely making a stand even though I was really in no such condition to do so. "Its like you said, I'm stubborn, and so long as I have even an inch of life in me I'm going to keep standing against you." "True, the real you would say the exact same thing if faced with this crisis, but there's a point where not even determination and stubbornness can allow you to live. I am the master of your life as of this moment, and I have chosen for you to perish." Cackletta holds her arms out, filling them with magic ready to deal the final blow, but I had one last thing to say to her, and I still had confidence in my plan even with this grim outlook.
"Master? Man, I can't believe that you would call yourself that right now. In this game of Mr. Reality's, you aren't even a pawn, let alone a player, and far from the title of master. You may have been used to being in control when you were alive, but now its only because of the alien's control of this world that you are even alive right now. Face it witch, your time has long passed." Cackletta slants her eyebrows and growls at me, hesitantly admitting without saying it that I had a point. "So what?" She rebuttals. "So long as I know that I took you down with me, I couldn't care less about that detail."
"See, that's the thing…You aren't going to take me down. Let me show you why…" As I turned my body to the left to stare at her with all of my confidence brimming in my pupils, I lifted my right arm up and snapped my fingers. My hammer, seemingly forgotten in the midst of battle, quickly flies up into the air and spins around towards the altar. With a mighty blow to the top of it the snowflakes shatter, releasing the energy reserve trapped within and causing the usual light show to flush itself through the confines of both the temple and the world, much to Cackletta's surprise, and in turn the color returns in full along with my appearance going back to its original state. After that I smirk at the witch, calling my sword back into my right hand even though it caused me to wince from gripping my fingers around the handle.
"What did you just do?" The witch asked out of curiosity, as I looked into her eyes and noticed that they were now back to their normal, purplish selves. "You don't know? Geez, and here I thought you kept tabs on everything so your plans would go off without a hitch. I'll tell you what I did…I broke the realm's influence on a singular section of the world, allowing me to change into whatever other elemental forms I want to. And you should know by now that when I do that, my body becomes completely healed, meaning that we should be on a more even footing…So, do you still wan to fight me?" I egged her on, pointing my sword in front of me as she kept her magic attached to her hands.
"Eheheheh…Oh no, I know what battles I need to fight and which ones are futile. Besides, everything is as it should be. Since I've been reborn, the Nanomachines that prevented my Second Life spell from keeping me alive indefinitely have been removed, and I've learned some very valuable information about the affairs of the universe since I died. We will have our battle, but only at a later date, child…" I didn't really care about anything Cackletta had to say right now, and I watched as the witch took her right hand and waved it beside her, opening up a capsule shaped portal of black and blue darkness before she folded her arms into her cloak.
"Farewell for now…" She turned towards the portal and began walking towards it, while I lowered my arm and stayed confident in my theory. As she neared it, the portal suddenly shut, leaving her frozen in place with a bewildered expression on her face. "Eh?" She murmured, but when she tried to raise her arm again she found that it refused to budge from where it was positioned. Not just that, her entire body had been frozen in place by a, quote-on-quote unknown being. "What is this?! Why can't I move?!" The panic and confusion in the witch's normally composed voice brings a smile to my face, as does the attempts at shifting her face around to look for any signs of a binding object or spell.
"With the energy reserve released, you have no right being here anymore, witch…" Mr. Reality's voice echoes throughout the room, berating Cackletta with a level of harsh judgment the likes of which I had never heard before. "N-No! This isn't right, you have no jurisdiction in this matter!" Cackletta yelled out in fear, her eyes widening and her pupils shrinking as they move around to try and seek out the one responsible for the voice to no avail. "I don't? Tell me, did you honestly believe that with all the deplorable acts you have performed throughout your lifetime, that I would ever be lenient enough to let you live after your purpose had been served?"
"You told me that you were a villain though, that you would grant me freedom if I were to survive the game!" The witch was dripping sweat in desperation, her demeanor crumbling to reveal the scared, pitiful being lying beneath it. She had never been so helpless before, but as Mr. Reality pointed out her acts are far too deplorable for forgiving, and she would not gain any of my sympathy as the alien continued to tear into her vocally. "You misinterpreted what I said. Though it is true that I am a villain, I have only taken upon that role because it was one that needed to be filled. Even if I have acted the way I have thus far, there still exists a being with morals and standards…One who is disgusted just by the mere sight of your presence, witch…"
As Mr. Reality talked, I heard Alpha rising up off the ground behind me, his groan signifying the pain wrenching his head as he turns around and opens his eye to see what is going on. "Forgive me, Commander Alpha, for using you the way I did…I can assume that forgiveness will not be earned through a simple apology, so I would like to offer to you another chance to destroy the witch that had plagued your life so many times before." Mr. Reality spoke to Alpha politely, and as the Commander looked up and raised his eyebrow in a manner that showed that he recognized the voice, he chuckled and said in response "Ha, yeah, you got that right about forgiveness…However…"
I could literally feel Alpha's thin, golden arms radiate with a magnetic pull from where I stood, likely because of the pull it had on my blade. In a matter of seconds all of the parts he dropped fly back to him, reassembling the complex, mechanical limbs to their full state of existence as he moves his arms through the air, positioning them so his left hand is strapped around the right elbow and the arm itself can turn into its cannon form, primed and ready to fire with Cackletta dead in his sights. "I definitely won't pass up another opportunity to blast this bitch into nothingness…Though I will ask, did you or did you not shut off her 'Second Life' spell?"
"I did, of course." Mr. Reality responds to Alpha's surprisingly docile inquiry, and as the Commander smiled brightly at the news he nudged his head as a warning for me to get out of the way. With the whirring of energy and the clicking of gears as an advent, Alpha launches the mother of all ionic beams from the barrel of his cannon, which proceeds to burn through everything that lies along its pathway of destruction, leaving not a single atom around until it sears right through Cackletta's body, slowly disintegrating both flesh and bone as the witch lets out a blood curling screech as her last act of living. Needless to say, by the time Alpha was done with his attack along with everything else we had done during out battle, the throne room looked more like a gravesite instead of the beautiful palace it once was before.
The Commander lowered his seething cannon, swinging it around to disperse the smoke as his body returns to its normal, brownish skin and black trench coat appearance. "And that's finally the end of her…" Alpha says cheerfully "So it is…Well then young Mewmaster, you only have one more temple left to go, and I am looking forward to seeing how you handle that. For now though, you look injured…Allow me to help you recover a bit." As Mr. Reality ominously ends his sentence, my body is swiftly struck with the weightlessness of exhaustion, and not only does my sword dispel from the grip of my hand, but my eyelids become heavy and I begin to tilt forward. I can feel a sensation similar to sand digging itself into my tear ducts, and as I fall forward I notice Alpha quickly turning my way in concern, but I am unable to see what he does as my body…Falls into a deep…slumber…
Next Time: The Second Piec