WARNING: Graphic depictions of violence and mature themes ahead. Continue at your own risk.


Sonic the Hedgehog: The Phantasy of Archangelus

Paradigm Twenty-Eight - Counterpoints of Apollyon, Grave

"Oof!"

Sonic plowed headlong into the dirt. His face was stuck there for a moment before Sonic snatched it out. He shook away the dirt that clung to his face.

"Oww…!" moaned the Blue Blur, rubbing the back of his neck. "What the…?"

The moment he focused his sights was when he noticed his surroundings. The glow in his irises had gone within a few blinks, but it was never noticed.

"Where am I?"

The darkening amber and violet hues in the sky sent a shuddering uneasiness through Sonic's nerves. A chill accompanied it; it made his quills stiffen. Pyreflies floated aimlessly about, as Sonic could see. He blinked at them, wondering why they were there and where they could possibly be going. The flowery glen he found himself in was glaringly grotesque, along with the multitude of fragrances that made his stomach churn.

"Well…this is uncomfortable," the blue hedgehog was able to mutter, looking around to the ghostly cataracts that fell around the glen. He followed with his eyes as the watery substance rushed over the sides of cliffs and into an unseen chasm below.

Another wave of uneasiness made him quiver. And he noticed it, much to his vexation. He balled both his shaky hands into fists. 'What's going on with me now?' he wondered, frowning a little.

"Aaaahh—Oof!"

Sonic swapped his eyes over his shoulder. He caught sight of Silver tumbling into the glen from behind him. The white hedgehog came to a stop eventually, but Sonic couldn't help stifling a laugh as he sat up and spat out a mess of flower petals. The white hedgehog looked over to see Sonic as well.

Defensive and blushing, he snapped, "Hey! Why are you laughing at me?"

"Because your face…! It's so flamboyant!" Sonic laughed, pointing at him.

Leftover flower petals stained his muzzle with bright pink, purple, and yellow. Silver flinched and vigorously wiped off the leftover smudges, huffing in annoyance.

But Sonic still snickered under his breath. "Umm, where are we, anyway?" he heard the other hedgehog ask.

After wiping a laughter-induced tear from his eye, Sonic shrugged. And with an unsure chuckle, he answered, "Beats me!" But then, he looked around curiously. "…But it sure beats out all the other creepy places I've been to."

Silver furrowed his brows. His own eyes no longer had that beaming sleepy glow either. He eyed some pyreflies that were dawdling idly beside him. He blinked at them; but then shyly scratched the back of his head.

"Umm…pardon me, but do you know where we are?" he gestured to them, utilizing his telepathy.

The pyreflies bobbed up and down, as if to say "yes." Then they danced away, revolving in a slow and melancholy ring.

Silver blinked a little, a bit baffled in the face. 'Did they said we're…in the Farplane?'

"Agh!"

There was a sharp thud next to Sonic and across from Silver. The two hedgehogs shot their eyes over to see yet another newcomer: Sonic's "Black Blur" rival had landed squarely on his back. Sonic had flinched from the harsh "thump" of the painful landing. Flower petals flew up from the spot, and Sonic's eye peeked back to see if he was all right.

"Shadow?" Sonic flew over to see if he could aid him.

The black hedgehog's eyes were shut together tight. Slowly and surely, he was recovering from the shock of the impact. But Sonic lifted up the upper part of his torso and sat him there.

An eerie, intangible breeze made the flowers in the glen sway.

"Hey? Shadow? You okay?" Sonic shook him a little.

Silver had knelt down next to Sonic, seeing if there was any response. He furrowed his brows a little.

"Shadow? Wake up," Sonic coached, while shaking his shoulder a little more.

But Silver halted him, taking hold of the blue one's shoulder. Sonic gawked back at him curiously, but moved aside to let his white rival move closer. From within his gloves' circular markings, a familiar cyan energy coated the underside of Silver's hands. The power was calm and radiated into Shadow's chest, abdomen, and back. The former two were where the psychic's hands were placed.

Sonic blinked in astonishment. "Are you…healing him, Silver?"

Silver slowly nodded for a positive reply.

The restorative glow in his hands faded as he and Sonic caught on to a woeful moan.

"Shadow…?" Sonic sat him up higher, straightening the black rival's back.

The piercing yet somnolent glow had fled from Shadow's red irises. As he blinked, sight becoming less hazy, Sonic greeted him with a playful "Good morning, sunshine!", while Silver half-nodded and half-bowed his head.

"What the…?" Shadow gritted his teeth, snarling softly. "Shut up, you idiot…"

Shadow forced himself—and Sonic's face—away, shoving it away and making the cocky hedgehog fall over. A little, yet playful, groan and chuckle lilted from Sonic; an aggravated anger vein popped out from Shadow's temple.

"You guys…?"

Sonic rolled back up into a sitting position and looked over at Silver. Shadow glanced at one of the many waterfalls behind him before eyeing him as well.

"Umm…according to the pyreflies floating about, we're in the Farplane, a resting place where those who have departed are usually Sent," Silver explained.

And Shadow was the first in the trio, aside from Sonic, to notice the obvious quaver in his tone. He frowned a little. 'The Farplane…?'

"Wait—'departed'? Does that mean we're dead?" Sonic exclaimed, purely panicked and grabbing his head.

"Well, no, not necessarily," Silver began to explain again. "The Farplane is considered sacred grounds to the Guado, native Spirans who protected this place. In my timeline, they are an extinct people and records show that they were the only ones who could detect an Unsent, or wandering soul, by smell." Silver blinked, looking around for an exit. Not seeing one, he continued: "I can tell you now that we aren't dead, based on the fact that the pyreflies have reacted to me, to my memories."

"Huh? But how?" Sonic asked, gesturing in accordance.

Silver smiled a little. "I'll show you."

He got up and moved around the glen, looking for any more of the pearlescent spherical spirits. He glanced around and found a pair ghosting behind him. He smiled.

"Will you help me, please?" he asked them with his telepathy too.

The pyreflies bobbed up and down in response, happily it seemed. Sonic blinked as he saw Silver walking back over to him and Shadow. The glimmering spheres circled around him playfully, bouncing up and down. Confused, both Shadow and Sonic get up as well and observed Silver.

"The pyreflies can tell I'm only a visitor here in the Farplane because they can register telepathic communication," the psychic hedgehog went on, watching their orbit coil upward toward his face. "Just like Aeons."

Shadow could see an aurora-like gleam being reflected in Silver's citrine eyes. He nodded and folded his arms over his chest.

"But they don't have minds like we do, right?" Sonic wondered. "How can they register your telepathy if they're the souls of the dead?"

"Proof of their partial life is their ability to react to our memories…" A solemnity passed over Silver's face, and he lowered his eyes. "Using those memories, they can tell us if the person we're thinking of…" The pyreflies trembled in their place around him. They looked like they were conjuring up some kind of power, an opalescent glitter flickered around them. The aurora-like glitter swirled into the middle of the three hedgehogs.

"…Is alive or dead."

The image of a woman with long mahogany hair and hazel streaks in strange clothes appeared. Her violet-coated smile was sweet and serious, and her brown eyes were no different. In one hand was a microphone.

Sonic made a face. "Umm, Silver? Who is this?" he wondered with a half-shrug.

Silver made a face as well, just as confused, due to seeing the woman's strange outfit. He walked around to see the image's face. "What? This isn't…Lady Lenne…?" He peered closer at the woman's face. 'Is it…?' He hummed pensively.

Sonic and Shadow caught sight of each other within that instant. Shadow softly huffed, while Sonic spoke up again, "That isn't the Lady Lenne you were harping about while hounding me way back when, is it?"

Silver squinted at the fuzzy image. 'Her eyes…are brown, and her clothes seem vintage, and there's…a microphone in her hand?' Silver's frown deepened. 'Wait. There was an Archive Sphere that held contents on the meaning behind each Bevelle Sovereign's name…and this must be Summoner Lenne, from Zanarkand, nearly…twelve hundred years ago.' A single tear trail skipped down the side of Silver's face. He lowered it.

Sonic reached out. "Silver? You okay?"

Silver smiled quietly, and wiped the tear away. Sonic's question reached him, and he nodded to him in positive confirmation. "Why don't you try it, Sonic?"

Sonic jumped a little, pointing at himself. "Ah—Me? Huhh…well, I guess I could…?" Sonic stepped closer to the two pyreflies. The image they were casting dissipated, opalescent particles snowing on top of the flowers. They twirled over to Sonic, playful and innocent, and bobbed around him for a moment. "Um…?"

"Think of someone, anyone, and the pyreflies will show an image only if the person is deceased." A mild sadness came over his face. "Go on. Try it."

Sonic gulped, a bit harder than he'd intended. The pyreflies swished a little, as if flinching, before continuing to orbit around him. He clenched his hands again, trying to stop them from trembling. He clamped his eyelids together. 'Yuna…is she…?'

Another cloud of iridescent glitter sprinkled forth.

'Please…don't let her be…!'

But the image of a robed man appeared: His head was covered by a hood, like that of a Yevon official, but it was navy and regally embellished with silver plates, with a bejeweled coronet with a tassel cresting from his forehead towards the back. His robe had variegated shades of red; the petal-shaped pieces ranged from dark red to dark mauve, and a small Yevon emblem was encrusted in reverse cameo on the broad sash anchoring down a tan outer vest. In his hand was a custom, tall Summoner's staff.

Silver gaped at the sight of the man's noble, crisp blue eyes. He froze in place.

Sonic blinked up at the sight of the man. "Huh?" he exclaimed a little. Then, scratching his head again, he added, "Well, he must've been on my mind, too, I guess. At the last minute, maybe…? Now that I think about it. Yeah…"

"My Lord Braska!" the white hedgehog cried. "I…I remember!"

Both Sonic and Shadow darted their eyes to him. "Wait. That's Yuna's dad…! How do you remember him, Silver? He's been dead for ten years!"

"He must've encountered him when he and I found out what happened after the Solaris Project's failure, and stumbled upon the truth behind the Iblis Trigger." Shadow was stern with his words. "And we discovered that it wasn't you, Sonic, but—!"

"Her Ladyship herself."

The three hedgehogs shot their eyes over to the source of the voice, but there was no one else there. Another unnerving pit rumbled in Sonic's stomach, as well as Silver's. Shadow threw himself into an offensive stance, ready to engage the hidden potential enemy.

The image of High Summoner Braska perished in a sparkling crumble.

Silver staggered back, clutching his chest. "Is…Is that…?" His irises quivered in and out of dilation.

"Lord Braska, in a way, is the one who started this whole mess. He is also the one who sealed Iblis away within his own daughter…who happens to be a distant ancestor to High Summoner Lenne. As you have all failed to recognize."

As if ascending a flight of stairs, the Illuminated Seymour Guado appeared. A pair of small puddles alternated between Seymour's upward steps, from freezing into ice to rapidly thawing back into water. The Guado Maester's garbs had never changed, save for the missing beaded neck ornament and his slate boots. Once on solid ground, he tapped the taper of his Summoner's staff against it.

"Unsurprisingly so…for it was 'such a fleshly mistake' His Lordship had made…!" His grin was malicious. His vivid blue eyes pierced them, his tiny fangs protruding.

"It's you…?" Shadow kept himself in a combat stance. He snarled under his breath. 'I've seen him…? Seymour? But where did that name come from?'

"Wha—? Hold on, who is this guy?" Sonic wanted to know, shooting his eyes back and forth between Silver and Shadow, who both had apparent ideas on his identity.

"M-Maester Seymour!" Silver gasped.

There was a derisive giggle that came from Seymour. He slid a foot further out, revealing some of the teal wrappings around his ankle. His Summoner's staff was twirled around elegantly. Seymour seemed ready for battle as well, as he stabbed the staff's taper into the earth. He flicked away some robe hems before swinging that same leg around it. His slender fingers traced up along the silver handgrips, and his eyes leered along with them.

"But 'tis what I expected from the lot of you…especially you, Silver." Beaming ultramarines caught the white hedgehog within their gaze; they narrowed at the name.

Silver flinched a little. 'What's happened? Something's wrong with him!'

"Cut the nasty tricks, Mephiles," Shadow commanded, pointing at the Guado Maester. "I know you're in there! I can tell by that gross, eerie cadence…! Now come out and face me!"

An evil grin, accompanied by a cackle, made the atmosphere grow colder, even though there was an absence of tangible air. Shadow growled, his brows dipped, while Silver also fell into a hesitant combat position.

Seymour's leg clamped tighter around the staff's shaft, his chest leaning onto the silver grips. He traced his fingers along the ornamental design and licked his lips. "Please, Shadow-dear'st, this is no such trickery…though there is reasoning behind it. His Illumination was necessary, so that obtaining Iblis would become a tad less…grueling. For you see, Summoners have a special bond with one another, with the inclusion of Guardians and Aeons as well. The interconnections between the three are vast and widespread, much like the web of a spider. And despite the spans of time, regardless of generation or era, those connections will never fade nor sever. That is why His Lordship Braska recognized you, Silver, ten years ago." Seymour grinned.

"Wha—? Really?" Sonic threw his sights back at Silver.

Silver's breaths were getting a little shaky. "Y-Yes…it was…when Shadow and I t-traveled back in time…to see…w-what was wrong with this whole Iblis Trigger mix-up…and I…discovered that…!"

Flashbacks of the event flickered back and forth in his mind. The Solaris Project corpses, the Underground's ruin, Braska's death-laden stare, and Yuna's impending loneliness all washed over him like a plague. They played back and forth, and soon enough they were in total disarray.

"Y-Yu…Little…Lady Yuna…Iblis…our future…!"

Sonic furrowed his brows in sudden confusion. He blinked, turning to face Silver completely. The white hedgehog's hands crawled up over his face, fingers combing into his spines, and a tinge of rising panic contorting the face itself. His body quaked, and Sonic could hear desperation in his breathing.

"Silver? Silver, what's wrong?" Sonic asked with raising concern.

Seymour kept his eyes trained on Silver. The fearsome gleam in them snaked its way into Silver's psyche. The Illuminated half-Guado's smirk widened as he could feel it drilling through Silver's mental defenses.

And Shadow detected it immediately. "Grr! Mephiles!" He charged a trio of quick Chaos Energy bolts from his palm. "Chaos Lance!" Shadow cried, sending the electric spears hurtling toward Seymour.

Seymour foresaw the attack and before it could make contact, he cast a spell around him, and a yellow light sphere threw itself into the spears' path. The sphere halted the attack, the electric charge in the Chaos Energy absorbed, while the rest exploded.

Sonic and Shadow shielded their faces from the flooding haze. Once it cleared, they both saw that Seymour was still in the same pose, seemingly untouched and unfazed.

And gawked at the sight of the yellow orb rejoining the three others, all of them encircling Seymour now, like nothing happened.

Seymour snickered somewhat seductively. "You can't touch me…!" He was addressing them, eyes still focused on Silver.

Shadow spat, "He didn't even look this way! Damn it!"

"No way! What's that barrier?" Sonic choked.

"NulAll…a White Magic spell that shields me from all Elemental damage. And it would seem that your 'Chaos Lance' has fallen under the Lightning category, Shadow-dear'st." Seymour huffed arrogantly. "Now, limit your interruptions, if you please…"

The sound of flower stalks crunching indicated that Silver had fallen to a kneel. He was still gripping his head and speaking incoherently.

What Sonic and Shadow could discern was the woeful "Our future is gone…" Silver kept repeating. Shadow snarled, while Sonic looked genuinely concerned for him.

"I have a mind I am trying to crush…!" Seymour hissed.

"Hey, you leave him alone!" Sonic snapped back at the possessed Maester.

"Never! His mind has always been too weak to question the incomplete truths I've swayed it with, and that has made him my most marvelous and obedient pawn."

Silver's eyes gaped wider, trembling and brimming with tears. More images of gruesomeness filled his mind's eye. He was beginning to hyperventilate. At a dreadful slow, Silver could feel himself losing hold on his own mind. And he wanted to scream out from the disruption of his mental barriers.

"The Pyromantic Guardian never completely aligned herself with me. She's doubted my wisdom and pondered on the flawed logic of all that has transpired. Especially, whether or not killing you, Sonic-dear'st, was justified. 'Twas something neither she nor Silver could determine on their own. My, how close you were, Silver-dear'st…!" the Maester's voice drawled.

An icy-blue aura brightened the glyph on Seymour's abdomen, and the half-Guado unraveled his leg from around his staff. He stood poised with the staff, the side of his forehead pressing against the silver handgrips and legs crossed elegantly. The sleeves of his robe billowed in an intangible breeze as he raised one arm outward and kept the other attached to a handgrip. The ultramarine glow in Seymour's irises and facial veins had brightened as well, before melting downward through his circulatory system and into the floral greensward.

Shadow and Sonic backed away. They glared at the phenomenon strangely, and both could feel that ominous aura emanating from a large glyph that stretched out beneath the Guado Maester's feet. The same glyph that had been on his stomach.

"Damn…! Brace yourself, Sonic! Here he comes!" Shadow warned over his arms and the chilled blast of air that swept past.

Sonic nodded in acknowledgement, also shielding his face again.

"So close…you both were," the menacing drawl continued.

A near-lifeless blackness hazed over Seymour's vivid blue irises. The moan he let out was weak, and it preceded his body's full-on collapse.

"Seymour!" Shadow called out, reaching out for him.

"But alas…!"

Shadow and Sonic glowered at a ghastly familiar figure remolding itself from the fumes the glyph's tracings were permeating. They gritted their teeth with disdain.

"From where I stand, your hunt for the Iblis Trigger was a waste, and a failure, Silver-dear'st."

A menacing and striking face sculpted itself from the miasmal fumes. Branching from its head were a torso, arms, tapered legs, and a great furling cloak. The cloak was pure darkness, its hems streaming into the flowers within range of him. The flowers crumbled to ashes on contact.

Sonic pulled himself away from the decay that was seeping into the ground. "What…in the—?" he whispered, pure disbelief wisping in his voice.

The details in the figure's body became more and more defined: eyes, lips, ears, and quills were becoming more visible. Ice crystals sharpened the quills on his body and the tufts on his ears and chest. His muzzle was pale as death, and the grin was brimming with malevolent intent. His snicker released an odd haze past fiendishly jagged fangs.

"Just. Like. You." the familiar voice stamped with emphasized blatancy.

"Wait…he looks like…?" Sonic's inquiry trailed off as the figure solidified further.

Chaos bled into the sclera of the figure's eyes, their demonic pupils slivering. A fierce glow from the irises stabbed into Silver's psyche.

It caused the vulnerable hedgehog to desperately cry out, "Ha-agh! Stop it!"

"No! Silver!" Sonic cried. "Rrgh…! What are you doing to him?"

"Why, I'm playing with my toy—bending and twisting his mind until it breaks." A demented grin upturned his lips, jagged fangs gleaming. "Telepathy is quite the powerful double-edge, is it not?"

"No! Mephi…! Stop—Aagh!" Silver screamed.

"One's most treasured gift can also be his most crippling weakness!"

Suddenly, brambling vines lashed out of the darkness cloak's sunken hems. They locked Sonic, Shadow, and Silver within their binds and anchored the former two down to a helpless kneel. All three hedgehogs struggled and wriggled, but quickly noticed that there were thorns tearing through their flesh as a consequence. Both Sonic and Shadow snarled from the painful nips, but were rustling less within the binds in hopes of them eventually unraveling.

"Those vines will not loosen so easily, gentlemen," Mephiles hinted at them. "My special plants act like flytraps, tightening to every quick thump of your pulse; they will loosen only if there is a significant drop in heart rate." He snickered haughtily. "Ahh, a significant cessation, more like."

Shadow twitched from the multitude of stings; he snarled in frustration.

"Crap!" Sonic snapped, equally as frustrated. He shot his eyes over to see Silver. "Oh no!"

Silver was in no better condition; in fact, his was a lot worse.

"Silver!"

"Please! Please, make it stop!" Silver panicked. His eyes were jittering madly.

The Dark giggled under his breath before disappearing into a toxic purple fog.

"Mephiles! Haah!" the white hedgehog shrieked.

"He needs to calm down before he kills himself," Shadow warned, his huff testy and impatient from his mind racing for quicker solutions.

"Silver! Silver, listen! You've gotta calm down," Sonic tried to coach the slightly younger hedgehog. "Panicking is only gonna get you killed off faster! Silver, c'mon, please! You have to listen to me—!"

"I can't! You have to get him out!"

Silver writhed, and yelped as a consequence. The thorns were biting deeper into his flesh. But his fight-or-flight mechanism had been engaged, and he was trapped within the futile, inescapable bind. He found himself unable to fight or fly.

And Mephiles had long realized this; he was already feeding off Silver's full-fledged panic.

"Damn it…! Silver, no…!" Sonic looked away forlornly.

"He's thrashing so badly that I can feel his pulse," Shadow noticed. "If he keeps at it, he's going to die…and his heart rate is ridiculous already!"

"But I'm not gonna give up on him!" Sonic threw his sights back over to see Silver. "Silver—!"

"He's…He's everywhere! Inside my head…and I can't get him out!" Silver yelled. "Please! Please, somebody—get him out of my head!"

"His telepathy's gone into overdrive and he can't shut out Mephiles' thoughts," Shadow gasped, nearly in disbelief. His scowl deepened. "He's flooding his head with his own thoughts, and whatever he's seeing is on a constant playback…! His psychokinesis must've been disabled because of this…so he can't fight back! Damn that conniving son of a—!"

Silver couldn't help screaming "Get out of my head!" and "Please help me!" over and over in broken syntax. The pyreflies floating above seemed powerless and frightened by the scene. But they were as helpless as Silver was for himself. The eerie purple fog had wafted around the glen and back around Silver.

"…er death was your faul…!" Mephiles' voice echoed out.

Sonic and Shadow threw their sights around, looking for its source.

"Agh! No! Let him go!" Sonic ordered, almost desperately. "You've done enough already, haven't you?"

"…ot until he is broken…!" Mephiles snapped back.

Blood began to seep from between the bindings holding down Silver. The Psychic Guardian's alternating instinct to fight and get away was still engaged, and despite the pain, he was desperate to get out of the vines.

"Lady Lenne! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry I couldn't save you!" Silver bellowed distressingly to the titian firmament hanging over all of them. Tears flew from his eyes. "My Lady…I love you! I love you still! Forgive me! Forgive me, please—!"

"Hush now, Guardian."

Mephiles had suddenly rematerialized in front of Silver, who had gasped dreadfully. The young Guardian's eyes shook even more madly at the sight of those nauseatingly green eyes. A calm, loving thumb pressed the middle of Silver's forehead. And an instant wave of silence washed over him. Different parts of his body twitched; the painful gashes made his flesh throb. His heart was still racing, and skipping erratically, with his eyes beginning to slowly flutter back into his head. The tears that were left fell.

"Hush now, dear'st," Mephiles whispered seductively, tracing a different palm along the underside of Silver's jawline. Another snicker hazed from his mouth and chilled his prey's flesh, the fur on his neck prickling.

"You stay away from him!" Sonic barked. "Hands off!"

"Now now, Sonic-dear'st, mind your number of interruptions too, if you please." Mephiles snickered again, showing his gruesome fangs.

Silver coughed. Bloody saliva leapt from his throat and trailed from a corner of his mouth. He was hyperventilating, beyond frenzied now, and struggling to get his breath and force out a moan. His eyes were still trembling, but quietly now. Shortly after coughing again, he was wheezing.

The pain in each of those desperate breaths sounded like nails scraping against a chalkboard to Sonic's ears. His own eyes were getting misty, afraid of what was going to happen next.

"You don't want to crush him by accident, do you?" Mephiles smoothed his palm over Silver's cheek. His thumb caressed it and wiped away an upcoming stream of blood. He hissed, "Now, dear Psychic Guardian, I will personally and honorably relieve you of your service to High Summoner Lenne. Your mission is finished, and it was a complete and total…success."

Silver choked on a gasp.

"No, he's trying to trick you!" Shadow shouted vehemently. "Don't listen to him, you idiot!"

"There there, Silver-dear'st, everything will be fine soon enough. Let me have you, dear'st…!"

Within the barbed vines' hold, the thorns were getting sharper and thinner, biting into more of the young hedgehog's flesh. More blood leaked from in between the bindings.

"P-Please…help…" Silver croaked, nearly breathless. Endless tears poured from his eyes.

"Silver, no! Don't listen to him! You have to snap out of it, c'mon!" Sonic begged.

"Let me take you, dear'st…!"

"You idiot, wake up!" Shadow threw in, vexed and somewhat frightened.

Silver's wheezing was still rapid, but deeper. "I…don't want…to die…"

Mephiles placed both hands on either of Silver's cheeks. And with half-motherly and half-malicious intent, he planted a kiss on the psychic's forehead. Silver gasped, a familiar light gleaming sleepily in his eyes. His eyelids drooped in the same manner as well. Mephiles' sharp, glowing eyes leered up from the kiss and over to see Sonic and Shadow.

"Let me hold and embrace you, Sick One, so that I may rid you of your failure."

What Silver heard through the kiss on his forehead was deceptively soothing. But before he had the chance to match the voice from the poison lotus with Mephiles', it was too late: one last agonizing cough was expelled from Silver's lungs, removing his chances at inhaling again. And with that, every single thorn in his flesh finally heeded the command to impale it. They stabbed through his body in a single synchronized strike, thrusting themselves through the muscle and bone with so much force that they pierced through the other side.

Sonic and Shadow froze, horrified in varying extents.

Blood had leapt everywhere within the range of Silver's death. A splatter of the red liquid was licked from Mephiles' upper lip, as his snicker simmered with triumph.

"Oh no…! Oh no—! No way," Sonic couldn't help stuttering. "Silver…? Silver!"

The bloody ivy retracted their barbs before uncoiling from around the psychic hedgehog's corpse. It slumped over on the glen's soil in a sideward heap. The eyes had rolled back into the head. The blood flowed from the agape mouth, as well as the huge fleshly holes and gashes. The droplets left in the tear ducts leaked out, sluggish and full of mind-numbing misery and despair.

"Such marvelous blood." Mephiles hovered over the white hedgehog corpse. His eyes leered over it for a moment as he licked the remaining spray from that corner of his mouth. "And such lonesome tears."

Both Sonic and Shadow were wordless, numbed by Mephiles' raw brutality. Shadow was able to seethe under his breath, though. With lips curled and teeth gritted threateningly, he gulped a bit loudly.

And it was loud enough for Mephiles to hear. Repulsive lime-green irises turned to capture Shadow's fearsome crimsons. Not feeling daunted, his draconian pupils slivered. The wicked daemon licked his lips, purposely vicious and slow. A small sigh wisped past his grin. "You are mine next, Shadow-dear'st."


M.P. Lilith: Oh my gosh, me! When you say "Updates weekly", it means sometime within the week after your latest submission~...so I changed it to biweekly. =P

Bet you guys couldn't wait for our main-hedgies return, eh? Well, here they are, along with an unfortunate addition. Sonic, Silver, and Shadow have found themselves in the middle of the Farplane, a metaphysical dwelling for those have been Sent by a Summoner upon their death. As a side-ish note, Zanarkand Summoner Lenne was revealed by the pyreflies since High Summoner Lenne, aka "Silver's Lenne", technically doesn't exist at this point in the timeline. She is also the Lenne I had mistaken to be "Silver's Lenne" in the previous version of this fic. So Zanarkand Lenne = canon, "Silver's Lenne" = OC. Just clarifying, but I'm sure you all knew that. *winkwink*

But Mephiles, oh my gosh...so brutal. He's doing all these terrible heartless things: he's planned the demise of Spira, possessed Seymour, and killed Silver already. Due to this, the Fiction Rating has been upgraded to Rated M, just so those of you who might wanna find this story again. This is within good reason, though; I'm sure some of you are like me when I was, like, 14 and 15 years old; at a time when I didn't personally understand the gravity of death. Especially, dying from being impaled at multiple angles. *sadfaces* In fact, when I watched the in-game cutscene for Sonic's death in Sonic '06, I wanted to know where the blood was. Considering the game was rated E10+ at the time, I'm now confused as to how they could show Elise kissing Sonic, but not show blood...?

But I digress.

Don't you just love my fun facts? Here's (perhaps) one more: Mephiles isn't doing all this because he wants to. O n O;

Once again, I appreciate all your support, you anonymous readers, you! The storm intensifies in Paradigm Twenty-Nine. Leaving two main-men hedgies left...and our one creeptasic demigod-hedgie. How will they fare...if they fare at all?