The Wielders of Chaos part 29
"The Secret of Solaris,"
The three heroes arrive at Castle Soleana still surprised by the darkness leaking out every nook and cranny from this place. It was a rather depressing sight and eerily silent. The only thing that made noise was the brief rush of wind that would sound. There were no monsters and no people. Just an empty feeling. Miles, Cinos, and Mikaela glance at each other. It was as if they each were having a silent debate as to who would go first. Eventually, Cinos and Mikaela silently agreed to stare at Miles who eventually relented with a scoff. He approaches the wooden doors to push them open. The darkness swirled around their feet as the door opens revealing a large archway. The entrance was very enclosed within stone, two large windows to the left and right of the doors. Multiple seats as if this was some type of audience chamber. The three walk in gazing around cautiously. Things were still quiet. The only constant sound being their footsteps on the carpet flooring. The darkness was like a heavy fog that was a bit suffocating.
"Something is here…" Shadow spoke finally breaking the silence.
"Yeah, but…what is it exactly?" Silver asks the golden question on everyone's mind.
"Mephiles?" Sonic questions.
"No, this feels different, but it does feel very similar to Mephiles. What could he want from the people of Soleana to keep such a chokehold on them?" Shadow wonders aloud.
"Well, Miles, it's your feeling that brought us here. Lead the way," Cinos states nudging Miles. With a heavy sigh Miles leads the way. Following the nagging that has gotten even stronger at this point. He continues through the chamber up the stairs leading to a pair of wooden doors. Miles pushes them open leading to an open bridge that leads back outside. This bridge connects to the rest of the castle. And it has been broken in half. The three of them look to see if there was possibly another way from that side of the castle. They couldn't see anything that was obvious to their eyes.
"Whatever this thing is, it might be keeping the people of the castle trapped," Mikaela states floating over to the other side. Cinos and Miles quickly join her easily jumping over the gap. Once the three of them are on the other side Miles opens the door leading to the other parts of the castle. Once open their mouth drops upon what they see. It was an open courtyard that was position on the roof. The larger towers of the castle were centered around this courtyard. Clearly a once beautiful garden now lay dying, dry, and gray. It was a terrible sight to see. But what really drew their attention was the creature laying in the center of it all. It was unlike any monster they've seen so far. Maybe Mephiles thought it would be funny. Keeping a princess trapped in a castle, guarded by a dragon.
This dragon creature was completely and utterly black. Upon their appearance it turns its head to reveal glowing green eyes. Sharp tattered wings, a single horn on is head, a bulk muscular form that looked like real scales. The fog that had consumed the entire castle was actually being expelled from the creature's mouth as it breaths. It rises to its hind legs before unleashing a powerful roar that scattered the fog and shook the very ground under their feet. It also it opens its wings revealing their about as big as an entire bus maybe bigger! It drops back down to all fours it stares the three of them down. As if studying them closely. The lack of irises in its eyes made it difficult to figure out who or what the monster was looking at. It snorted out a puff smoke that blew into the three carrier's faces.
"What a surprise to see you here," it spoke in a rough gravelly voice. Male voice obviously, with a low growl in the back of its throat. Seemed like it was either done on purpose or just simply how it talks.
"What are you?" Cinos asks.
"Merely a byproduct of the great Mephiles the Dark. A construct given life and purpose. My task is to keep Soleana under his control. You have no business here, leave or die."
"We're here to see the princess of Soleana!" Mikaela fires back.
"She is currently indisposed. Leave, you will not get another warning."
"Wow, a monster of Mephiles that actually understands the idea of mercy?" Cinos questions.
"Not mercy," its eyes narrow. "There is no such thing as that in this world. The Dark One wishes to take the hope from this world all at once himself."
"Well we aren't interested in what he wants. Our business is saving the day, and you're in our way of doing that!" Cinos exclaims.
"Then so be it…" it responds.
After those words are uttered the dragon inhales. The three of them knew what was to come so the three of them instantly split up as black flames smash into the ground. The dragon breaths flames all over the courtyard setting everything ablaze. Mikaela flies high into the air in the dragon's face. She unleashes a barrage of psi blasts into the dragon's face. Aside from annoy it appeared to have little to no effect on it however. It reacts like a cat though quickly snatching Mikaela in his grasp. She cries out in panic. It appears to begin crushing her until a Chaos Lance smashes into its hand. A brief flinch that allows Mikaela to warp out of its grasp. After she teleported away another barrage of Chaos Spears are unleashed into the dragon's face. It shrugged off the attacks to glare down at Cinos. It breathes out another flash of black fire scorching the earth below. The very pressure behind the fire was enough to tear apart the very ground beneath their feet. Smashing into the ground like small meteor. Exactly what the dragon wanted as it flaps its wings spreading dust and smoke with every flap. It felt like a small hurricane with every flap off its wings slamming into the ground below. Luckily wind is hardly an issue for Cinos as he rides along with the wind to fly into the dragon's face. Then after a quick spin attack into the dragon's face caused it to flinch again. Cinos follows up with a barrage of spin attacks. The dragon inhales to unleash a stream of black fire with so much power the explosion of fire from its mouth throws Cinos into the air. The dragon turns its head to scorch Cinos to ash. Mikaela quickly flies in scooping up Cinos before that could happen.
"The edge on this guy huh?" Cinos states.
"You could say that again," Mikaela responds. The dragon turns the flame directly at them. Cinos teleports the two of them away quickly coming into the dragon's blind spot. "Our attacks aren't doing enough damage though…"
"Yeah, maybe wasn't such a great idea to go on this venture without our heavy hitters…"
"It has a weakness, everything does, we just have to find it and exploit it," Shadow assures them.
"Or just hold out until Miles finds the princess and then the three of us can kick his butt," Mikaela points out optimistically.
"You'll find that difficult to do," The dragon speaks up with a snide look on his long face. "The princess is nowhere in this castle. The fire within her is what fuels me," He says as it reveals to them the princess has been swallowed up by the dragon. A slight shine comes from the creatures chest. The glow takes a human form until they can see. Princess Elise is brought to the surface revealing the girl is unconscious and from what they could tell rather frail looking. She couldn't possible survive being trapped there for too long.
"THERE SHE IS DUDE GO!" Cinos yells. The dragon hardly had a moment to think, to even realize what was happening. Suddenly, a blast of wind punches right into its gut. The dragon feels winded for a moment. But just over its shoulder he can see Miles with the princess in his arms.
"How…"
"Cocky, Miles had looked through the rest of the castle while you were fighting us. We figured you'd get cocky and tells us where she was. Thanks, now let's tear him apart!" Cinos smirks before he grasps his emerald. Mikaela and Miles do the same. "CHAOS-,"
"CONTROL!" Miles and Mikaela finish.
The three emeralds release a blinding flash of light warping space and time. The distortions were powerful enough to completely eradicate the form of the dragon. The three heroes stand before the remains of the creature being a black tar like substance. It was strange, but the three of them paid it no mind. Miles notices the princess starts to come to. Miles had found a place in the castle that she could rest and instructed his friends to quickly follow him. Once inside the castle they moved through the foyer toward a bedroom where numerous castle denizens were gathered.
"We've prepared a bed for her as you requested," a woman speaks holding the door open.
"Well you really work fast Miles," Cinos points out.
"I am the fastest thing alive," Miles remarks as he sets the princess on the bed. "That dragon had took power from her so she's pretty weak."
"Allow me to check her," the woman responds moving into position checking on the princess' vitals to gauge her health. "She is stable, but indeed weak. It will take some time before she will be able to move again. A few days longer in that thing and it would be a different story."
"…thank you…" a weak voice speaks out. Attention shifts to the princess who is now awake.
"Princess Elise please savor your strength, you must rest!" the attendant quickly moves over to her side.
"Indeed I will…but…there is…something…they must know…" She reaches out a hand toward Miles. Suddenly it clicks.
"It was you, you were the one I felt calling to me," Miles says in realization as he moves to grab hold of the princess' out stretched hand. Her hand felt cold to his touch as did her body while he carried her here.
"Thank you for coming…"
"Better late than never. I want to thank you for your help back then too. If it weren't for you I wouldn't have been able to start on this crazy journey. Or make all these crazy friends."
"We're a few of said crazy friends," Mikaela says waving. Elise's eyes trail over Cinos and Mikaela warmly as she smiles.
"You found them… all…of them?" Elise asks. Her voice devoid of strength but still caring an air gentleness.
"Yes, I did princess, now we're going to defeat Mephiles and return the sun to the world."
"Not…without…the truth…please all of you come…closer…"
"Princess you must rest," the attendant advises. Miles was unsure of what to do, but the Princess had called him here. Maybe it wasn't just to save her, but to tell him something. He decides to hear what she has to say. He gestures for Cinos and Mikaela to step forward.
"I imagine…it is no coincidence…that you three…are here again…this day…your emeralds," She says. The three hold their Chaos Emeralds up for the princess to see. She looks to her attendant to help her sit up. Although she was greatly against it, she recognized the graveness in the princess' face. So she oblidges with helping her sit up. Elise holds up her hand to the three emeralds. "Mephiles is a product of an event…that happened many years ago, but…at the same time it didn't. A timeline that no longer exists. But those memories will live on, allow me to give you those memories in hope that you may defeat him." A bright white light flame appears before her palm. "The Eternal Flame, reignite those memories." Fire leaps out toward the emeralds making them catch fire. At first the wielders are panicked seeing that happen and hearing their partners in the emeralds grunt in pain. However, the flames die down after a few moments. Then the emeralds shine as the heroes take control of the bodies.
"Elise…" Sonic states in realization. "I…remember…"
"Nice to remember you again Sonic…" Elise says with a small smile. "Hopefully this will help you in your fight."
"It makes all the difference in the world," Sonic steps forward to give Elise a hug. "Thank you."
"Of course…" Elise sighs as the last of strength fades and she loses consciousness.
"Princess!" The attendant exclaims reaching for the girl checking her vitals again. The ordeal had weakened her more, but with some rest she may recover. "She should be fine."
"Good," Sonic turns to Silver and Shadow who look solemn. "Seems like we have a lot more to discuss."
"Yeah…sorry about the whole trying to kill you thing," Silver remarks.
"Eh, you wouldn't be the first, right Shadow?" Sonic responds with before he nudges Shadow.
"Hmph…let's hurry on back to Central City. This new insight into our enemy could change everything."
"Wait, what's going on?" Cinos asks confused.
"Why did you guys take our bodies all of a sudden?" Mikaela adds.
"What did the princess do? And how do you know each other Sonic?" Miles also inputs.
"Gosh, so many questions, we should probably clear things up with these guys first huh?" Sonic points out as the three stroll towards the exit of the castle.
"Might as well make it worth the effort of racing out here and the fighting," Silver states with a shrug.
Shadow sighs before pulling out his Chaos Emerald. "First thing is first, let's at least return back to Central City," Shadow raises the emerald in the air as the trio step out the castle. "Chaos Control." Suddenly the group was coated in a red light before vanishing. The three then reappear on the outskirts of Central City. "Now, I guess we should compare notes…"
"So guys here is the rundown. There was this guy called Solaris-,"
"Guy? That's a serious downplay, he was a super-dimensional being that could devour reality!" Silver exclaims.
"Whatever, point is, Solaris was worshipped by the people of Soleana as the Sun God."
"Solaris…I thought most of the stories about him was just myth and hokey religion. You're saying that the god they worshipped was real?!" Miles asks.
"Very real, at least to the point that the former monarch, Elise's father tried to harness the power of Solaris. All he ended up doing is causing death, and splitting Solaris into two beings."
"One of those beings was Ibilis the flames of disaster that had originally ruined my timeline covering it in endless flames," Silver explains.
"The other, was Mephiles the Dark. A formless creature with the power to time travel and other mystical abilities."
"Wow….but wait Sonic does that mean you beat Solaris?!" Mikaela exclaims.
"Heh, naturally," Sonic says with a smug look as he rubs under his nose.
"Yes, after Mephiles had killed him…" Shadow retorts.
"Geez Sonic, you died to the same person twice…kinda embarrassing…" Cinos mutters.
"The three of us were able to defeat Solaris simultaneously. Since he existed in all timelines, we had to destroy him through multiple timelines all at once to do so."
"After that, Elise and I were able to see the original flame of Solaris. His original form before he became so powerful. Elise blew out the light pretty much eliminating Solaris from ever existing and that whole adventure never really happened."
"So that means…" Silver began.
"Mephiles is a living time paradox!" Mikaela exclaims.
"A what now?"Cinos asks.
"Sorry, time travel talk. That means, he exists but at the same time he doesn't."
"Well looking around he seems to exists alright," Sonic motions to the withering grassland all around them.
"Yes, he exists, but he doesn't. He exists enough to cause all of this damage, but not enough to where we remember him. He's either desynced himself from time or removed himself from the timeline altogether…"
"If he can time travel does that mean we can never defeat him…"
"Quite the opposite. Time travel is complex, but one thing is for certain it's a force of nature. Time isn't something that can be changed easily. At times it doesn't want to be changed as any interruption to its flow will be corrected. Mephiles probably needs the Chaos Emeralds to anchor himself in this timeline. The moment he weakens enough. The timeline will correct itself."
"Which means…"
"No more Mephiles the timeline will snap back to normal. The time paradox will have been dealt with."
"GREAT….how do we do that?" Cinos questions.
"Well that's what we aim to figure out. But first let's get back so we can get some sleep," with that Shadow returns control back to Cinos. The other two hedgehogs do the same for Mikaela and Miles. Surprisingly the trio was two winded from the hedgehogs having control. Then again, being so tired that they don't notice a little more tiredness might be the case as well.
"Almost at my time limit," Miles mutters glancing at the time on his communicator. "Alright, see you guys tomorrow!" Miles calls running off back to Rob's house. Miles made it back with barely a minute to spare as he moves to open the door Rob and Tony come rushing out crashing into him. "Hey…guys…" Miles was met with two relieved sighs, before being stared down with angry glares. "Yell at me later, we're gonna have a lot to talk about."
