2Chapter 28: The Beginning of the End III

"Squeak."

I know, brother. Can you do it?

"Squeak squeak squeak! Squeak!" The mouse anxiously waved its paw around before pointing out of the shadows at the two unmoving bodies beneath the Acolytes' feet. "Squeak!" Haiti finished with a determined stomp and flexed its muscles.

I hope you are right.

Then, on the count of three.

One.

Two.

"SQUEAK!" The tiny Hope mouse roared, charging out with its bottle swinging and followed by the ethereal green hue of the levitating Sylph mouse. Before the two Lords could catch their surprise, a tremendous gust of wind blew across the room stirring up gravel and sand. Through the localised sandstorm, furry feet worked furiously to bring Haiti to its targets where it then gave the two acolytes a solid smack to the head each that the bottle cracked from the impact and was promptly rewarded with a loud howl of pain. Dumping the weapon, the Hope mouse quickly melded back into the chaos and set about to its true objective even as a barrage of purple blasts came hurtling in its direction.

"I see you have taken the human's side." The Lord of Death spat. "The mouse of the wind, and of the earth."

"Gamma."

"There." The Lord of Shadows calmly stated, before vanishing in a puff of oily smoke. The shadows attacked in a flash and the wind died down with an ailing cry, bringing vision back to normal. Technically the best time to flee would be then but even while injured, the Sylph unflinchingly stayed to face the two most powerful mice ever head on.

"Sylph, I see that you brought Gnome here." The other acolyte swung his head sideways, as though trying to figure out where the latter who had attacked them would be. "Why, today might just become the day we genocide two entire races!"

Your forgotten army had ruined enough, Acolyte. There are many who want vengeance against you, least of all the Gnomes.

"Hah!" Beta snorted. "You dare to talk, elemental mouse! When your kind refused to act against the pesky humans we merely did our job."

"Cleaning house." The Lord of Death hissed, just as the controlled Jack Plankrun sprang into action.

A powerful charge of the Acronym fired right towards the Sylph, only to splash into a shield of solid air. Sharp blades of wind sliced out of the shield as a counter attack which was immediately taken by the elder Plankrun head-on. As a controlled minion with no hindrances of pain, he charged through the cutting air without as much as batting an eyelid and slammed the living tower of magical fury right into the floating orb of air. For a second there, purple lightning arced as wind battled against the arcane, only for the shield to fail against the arcane might of the Acronym. The Sylph, without any more protection, was batted mercilessly to the floor. In an instant, the Lord of Shadows was by the wind mouse's neck with its blade at its throat.

"You never had a chance, Sylph." Gamma sneered from beneath his hood.

"Now tell us where Gnome went to."

The normally stoic mouse of the wind curled its mouth up into a wry smile.

He went to ascend.


Catherine.

Catherine woke up to the call of a familiar voice, albeit one she usually heard in another language.

"H… Haiti?"

She was back in her mind again, only this time with a brown glowing thing in front of her that was all of her field of vision for company instead of the Sylph. The spirit shook its head lightly in answer to her question before returning a gaze she thought she knew but not quite known.

I am one of the Earth, last of the Gnomes. It twirled and back-flipped, strangely reminiscent of the time she and Sylph were in the same situation.

Haiti of Hope was just another me. Sorry for lying.

"It's… alright I guess." Even with another appearance and form it still had some measure of Haiti's overly-dramatic personality in it after all. Not that there was much to forgive, but Catherine would probably still forgive the mouse anyway especially with how cute it looked with its head bowed. With her affirmation of forgiveness, the earth mouse instantly reverted back to its usual cheer.

Quick, you have to wake up now Catherine or you will die. Sylphy said he would distract them for me, but I don't know how long he will hold out. I had also bandaged granny over there so help her first!

"Umm, don't I need to convince you of anything? Like what Sylph needed back then?"

You had already convinced me plenty.

Then, the world fades back into light.


Fire exploded. Remnants of chaotic energies swirled about charred craters. Gears grinded and the golems began to roar, once again activated by the spill-over of the Trap's unholy power. In the backlight of the purple glow, two figures blurred as they manoeuvre around the clearing. Neither gave ground, for a single mistake would mean a terrible fate.

"I would ask you what you were trying to do, but I don't think you would tell, mouse."

The Acolyte smirked. "I told you I was waiting."

Crevice Zugzwang reared backwards from an impact point where an arcane blast struck, pulling his portal guns out at the same time to return fire. The hydraulics groaned in protest, the extra mechanical support from the Rhinobot frame was all that was between him and having his bones broken a hundred times over from the cruel laws of physics. Yet, the boy did not bat an eyelid from all the extreme stunts he was pulling, instead focusing fully on the battle at hand. There is something the Acolyte is up to, and he had to stop it. This was no longer personal, nor was it about Catherine Plankrun anymore. This involved something larger than the pride of his grandfather – the fate of the entire Gnawnian kingdom.

Could it be that the Acolyte mouse was waiting for the portal to be fully opened so that it could pass back into its realm? The True Onyx stone, or half of it, was in its hands, but what could it do with only half the power of the Master of the Dojo? The Trap of Infinity, while designed to fully nullify the powers of the Forgotten army, should be able to withstand half of that power. Unless…

Crevice's eyes widened from the realisation of what the mouse's true motives are, but was interrupted by a sudden pop of air filling a vacuum. Sharp pain racked his entire arm as the left gauntlet disintegrated from trying to absorb a blow from the mouse that had teleported above him for an overwhelming aerial blast. He barely withstood the arcane flay and when the attack faded he immediately countered by an upper trust of his Obelisk of Incineration only to swipe empty air.

"It seemed that you have figured something out, boy."

"I am smart." Crevice steadied himself and determined his adversary's new location. A smile crept across his face when he realised where it was.

Gotcha.

"Zugzwang's Last Move, ACTIVATE!"

Across the battlefield, four pieces of chess figures sprang into life and instantly converged right at the spot where the Acolyte was currently standing with their weapons ready to strike. Startled by the sudden move the mouse had no choice but to dodge out of the way from the incoming attack, only for it to land right into the path of a charging Crevice. Slamming into his opponent with the full force of a growing boy and a Rhinobot, the descendent of Zugzwang thrust the entire length of his Sword of Incineration into the mouse's body and was promptly rewarded by a mouthful of burning rodent blood on his visor.

"Hello." Crevice scathingly said, before slashing five Explosive bases into the column of fire that was his blade and detonated them right at point blank of the back of a horrified Acolyte mouse, momentarily turning the whole Forbidden Grove into blinding white light.