Chapter 29: Cackletta Final: My Son, I Bequeath to You My Hatred…
"Why did it have to be this way?" As Cackletta is attacked without end by Alpha, she asks herself a question. "Why did you have to rob me of him?" She prepares her magic to retaliate, even though she knew that she couldn't do anything to slow the Commander down. "Why did she have to exist…" As Alpha comes down and strikes him, a long-hidden memory emerges from Cackletta's mind.
"It was two-thousand years ago, a few days before the Dark King was to declare war on the Elemental Overlord…He had already lost himself to madness, but spoke to his still loyal men as if he were the same. He only dropped his façade in front of me, when I confronted him at his humble abode…" Cackletta remembers her appearance from back then, when she wore the same cloak and robe but had an elegant female figure with her flowing violet locks and dark-green lips adding a subdued sense of beauty to her blemish-free face. She stood behind the black-armored man, who holds an iron chalice up to his lips and takes a sip of cold liquor.
"Why are you declaring war on him? Have you forgotten already what happened to the last person who tried to defy the Overlord, the man who also defied you and the balance of the universe as a whole?" She pleads to the man in futility, as he downs the clear red liquid and slams the cup down onto the table, breaking it in two. It was a fearsome display, but the hostility in the blow was not aimed at her. "I am not like the other one…I am the Overlord's equal, I know I can succeed…" The man says coldly to the witch. "You claim that…" Cackletta replies, unable to believe what her king has to say. "But unlike the others I know your true intentions…And it is because of that that you are more similar to the other man than you wish to believe…"
"…That is not for you to declare, Cackletta." The man once again says without a hint of emotion. "Killing the Overlord is not going to get her to fall in love with you! Open your eyes and see how consumed by Envy and Lust you are! If anything, his death will motivate her to take revenge against you, not avert her gaze away from the man she cares for!" The Dark King holds his hand up near his face, the flames of darkness burning brightly in his palm as he turns his head an inch to the right in order to peek at Cackletta. "The Overlord never deserved her in the first place, the only reason they joined in matrimony was because it was a contract necessary to avoid an all-out war…"
"And now you are going to instigate a war just to satisfy your own petty jealousy? There is a better option for love out there, you don't need to risk the balance of the universe just to find the one that cares for you…" Cackletta's tone is dripping with guilt at the end, as she hangs her head to the left trying her hardest not to directly admit her feelings. The Dark King pauses in silence, and after lowering her hand to his sheath he pulls out the sword that Smithy created for him and holds the reflective surface of the blade up in front of his face. "No…There is no one else I could ever love more than her…" He never realized it before his death, but that comment he made broke Cackletta's feelings for all eternity, her eyes having widened in shock as tears drip out of the ducts.
In the present, the witch now finds herself wearing a similar expression, but this time because of the pain coursing through her back. As she screeches she thinks to herself once more, "Why did you have to reject me…All I wanted was for you to be happy, for you to live and love me forever…But that day when you rejected me, I could no longer look at you as the same person, you had become unknown to me…To think, at the end of the day, I just wanted to birth your child, so the son born from the unison of our bodies would be able to live bearing the same smile you once wore in the days of our forgotten childhood…" After lamenting the loss of love, Cackletta then wonders something. All the other times she had been killed for the 'Second Life' spell to activate anew, she never experienced the memories of her past. What made this death different from all the rest?
With her body nearly pinned to the ground the witch used her hands to move her body around, her head releasing heavy pants of cold air as she stares at Commander Alpha with all of her fury brimming deeply in her shrunken pupils. She lets out a weak laugh as he folds his thinned arms behind his back and walks over to pull his sword right out of her body. Magnetism in the arms then pull the wires and metal plates towards him, a process of reconstruction occurring that puts them back to normal in a matter of seconds. As the Commander walks past Cackletta without looking at her, the witch once again laughs. "Ehehehe…Ehehehe…"
Now at Mario's side, Alpha turns around and acknowledges the witch's presence with an eyebrow raised. "What is so funny?" He asks. "So you killed me once…It doesn't matter at all…I will just come back to life again…Your attack did nothing to stop my spell…" She claims in an arrogant moment of denial. The Commander closes his eyelids and shakes his head back and forth. "That would be true…If my intention from the start was to stop your spell." The witch widens her eyes, as Alpha thrusts his eyelids back open and gives her a coldhearted glare. "The way I see it, whenever you revive with your Second Life spell you maintain your bodily structure right down to the last cell within your bloodstream. You see, before me and Mario came to this realm I combined the ionic energy in a specific blade with some experimental nanocells that instantly react whenever any new life is detected in a person's body, breaking down the new cells until they die out completely. Each one of my slashes injected more and more of those nanocells in your body, so now I'll leave this last one for you to figure out…Everytime you are reborn, every cell in your body is considered to be a new one, isn't it?"
Cackletta's stunned expression at the final question shows that she has quickly come to a revelation about what Alpha had done. Thanks to the nanocells that now reside within her, every time she revives with her 'Second Life' spell they will activate and head out to destroy every cells in her body, killing her again and again until the spell is finally incapable of working. And with how many of the nanocells that have probably been implemented into her body the process will happen quickly every time, leaving her no time to use her magic to remove them and end her cycle of death and rebirth. It was a worse fate than her 'Second Life' spell being negated and her dying once at the Commander's hands. Because of what he has done to her, she will suffer many times until whatever force above chooses to let the cycle end. She had been outwitted, on one end, but as she suddenly feels the pillars of darkness stopping their descent her confident grin returns.
The two heroes look up and notice the machine is starting to die down. The fog clears from the orb above the door, revealing the form of a spherical dishwater-violet orb with a black star in the center and several spikes around the circumference. But the object turns to dust, sinking down into the chamber as the glass orb spins around to unlock the doors. Both Mario and Alpha's horrified expressions please Cackletta immensely, as even with her death her other plan was able to succeed. She turns her head to stare up at the two heroes, saying with absolutely arrogance, "Sorry Commander…Looks like I still win…"
Behind the doors is nothing but pitch black darkness. No one knows who or what lies within them, but something is in fact moving. Some eyes look around, confused about its surroundings. It at first can't feel, a few seconds spent with the person wondering where it is at. It then suddenly realizes that his body exists, his right hand being raised up and the tips of his fingers grazing against the cold steel of the door. "Am I…Still alive? Where…Where am I?" The emotionless voice calls out for an answer, and the doors slide open, corresponding to his will. He sees the darkened realm, his eyes focusing to what little light that can be found so he can determine which figures the blurs belong to.
As he takes a nervous step out of the machine, Alpha and Mario stare at him in utter disbelief. It was the boy who as of now is the Elemental Overlord, Alex Whiter. No…It wasn't truly him, but a clone born from the machine. His appearance differed greatly from the original though. His hair was a smooth black, his shirt was a darkish grey while his pants are a foggy black and his shoes purely white. His right eye was black, his left eye was white, and his skin had a pale-ish hue to it. The only thing missing from the clone was the glove on his right hand, but it clear that Cackletta had done it, she had created a nearly perfect replica of the Elemental Overlord that at the same time controlled the darkness of the Seven Deadly Sins, just like the Dark King once did.
The witch could tell from their bewildered, fevered faces that they couldn't comprehend the sight standing before them. She whispers to them, "This is a part of my plan I had yet to reveal…In the aftermath of the confrontation between Joe Dark and Alex Whiter, I plucked one of the feathers from the Elemental Overlord's Phoenix form and used it as the catalyst for the new Dark King…In the end, it looks like I still win…There is only one thing left to do now…" Inching her body to the right in order to turn and look at the Dark King she had worked so hard to create, the witch is noticed from the child's point of view, his emotionless lips muttering out the word, "Mommy?"
Cackletta grinned with maniacal glee, converting her face to a pitiful yet at the same time angered expression in the presence of the boy as her body begins to turn to dust and the cycle of death preparing to welcome her into its grasp. With her right hand weakly held out, she declares to the new Dark King, "My son…Oh my wonderful son! I had tried to hold them off for as along as I can in order to protect you until you were healed…But it seems as though my time is now up, even though I succeeded in my goal! I wanted to help you defend the world from the evil that threatens us all…But now you are the only one left, so I bequeath to you as my final gift a wish of vengeance…Avenge me my son, destroy everyone in the universe, everyone who robbed me from your loving arms and plagued the world with their malignant goals and dreams! No one can be trusted, no one can ever help you in this world now besides yourself…KILL THEM ALL MY CHILD, MAKE THE WORLD A BLANK SLATE THAT GOOD CAN REPOPULATE ONCE MORE!"
Having played up her final message to her son as hard as she possibly could in order to get him to carry out her final wish, Cackletta's face fades away with an overzealous grin as her fingers fall flat against the ground and in time turn to dust as well. All that is left in the area is absolute silence, as the now alone child stares solemnly at the area where her mother once was, unable to express anything. But then his body starts shivering, the loss of his mother's life having impacted this "emotionless" creation more than anyone could ever have predicted. However, Alpha and Mario look at this clone and come to only one conclusion. "Alpha, I know this person looks like Alex but…"
"Right, despite appearances we have to take him down while he is still frozen in sadness by Cackletta's death." The Commander and the plumber, despite weakened beyond belief, still have enough energy within their bodies to take down a clone of Alex that is at the lowest possible level of power. With the witch's death they were confident that there would be nothing to stop them as they start to make their way over to the child. As the shivers begin to increase in intensity, the boy mumbles to himself, "Mommy…Mommy…Is gone? She is…Gone?" Then there is a sudden snap, the clone's eyes widening as a sharp pain thrusts itself through his body.
The pressure exuding from his body increases spontaneously as he holds his hands against the sides of his head and pulls it back to let out an aggrieved scream. A pocket of darkness bursts, releasing a wave of energy out that pushes the two heroes back across the ground. In the aftermath of this wave a pool of swirling dark-purple energy surrounds itself at the clone's feet, a pure black hole opening itself from the bottom of his neck to the top of his pants. Something rounded starts to emerge from it, demonic tendrils lunging themselves right out of the skin in the child's back with greenish slime covering them as they flail about. The object emerging is recognizable in due time, as the living two-dimensional black star on the front makes the heroes quickly realize how swiftly the situation is changing for the worse.
The screams abruptly end, drowned out by the callous laughter of the malicious force known only as the Dark Star. When its spikes come into view, the hole is sealed shut, the object now forcing the body to stand up on its own, the head hanging to the side as the lifeless eyes of the clone look on ahead. The tendrils become steady before they start wiggling again above and under the arms of the clone. The body then starts rising up off the ground, the Dark Star now attached firmly to the chest with its full glory returned as its laughter comes to an end. Everything was fine before, when the clone was defenseless, but now that the most vile, sentient force known to Plit had hijacked control of the body it was able to access a level of darkness that matched Alex Whiter's power in his basic human form.
Having the body sniff the air around him, the Dark Star absorbed the smell into its receptors and let out a joyous sigh. "This air is riveting…The darkness is thick and the malicious intent from its inhabitants is strong." The being looks forward, seeing the two heroes standing before him but only paying any particular attention to Mario. His eyes slanted in scorn, as memories from the past of the original Dark Star begin to flow into him. "I…Remember you…You were one of the three 'heroes' that defied me when I was released a while ago…" The Dark Star says in a tone of disgust. He then has the body holds its hands out in front of the head like a puppet master, swinging them down to make sure that he has full control of the clone's functions.
"Excellent…" He says in sadistic glee before acknowledging the heroes' presence once more. "I am willing to let bygones be bygones though…If you bow to me and give your loyalty to me in full, I will let you both live. You are both exhausted from a previous battle, so don't think you stand a chance of stopping me any other way." Mario and Alpha don't even need to think about the Dark Star's foolish offer to surrender peacefully. No matter how weak they were, they still followed their instincts and got into their battle poses. The malignant force let out a deep, echoing chuckle. "Very well then…Perish." The hands of the clone are flung up, a thick wave of darkness shooting out once they are level with his chest.
The wave collides with the two heroes quickly, knocking them onto their backs a few yards away without them exclaiming anything in pain. The Dark Star lowers his host's arms and feels as though that one attack got the job done. He then twitches slightly after a victorious grin, sensing something inviting him from afar. "A portal to the outside world is it? Hehehe…Looks like I won't be forced to derive pleasure from just here after all…" Using the clone's ability of flight post-haste, the Dark Star has it speed off like a bullet surrounded by darkness, leaving the two heroes behind as his malicious laughter echoes through their eardrums.
Once they are certain that he is gone the two heroes lift their bodies up and weakly get on their feet. They took more damage from the attack, but their Star Spirit forms are still capable of being maintained. Alpha takes this change of situation in stride, scoffing lightly to himself as he folds his arms behind his back. Mario can't help but wonder two things though. "I don't get it, how did we live through that? And more importantly, why do you look so unconcerned about the Dark Star taking over the clone's body?" The Commander turns to the plumber and says to him in response, "The Star Spirits were originally the ones to seal the Dark Star away. Logically, this makes our forms the perfect defense and offense against its power. As for why I'm so calm, it is because that even with the power the Dark Star now wield it'll take it quite a long time to break through the barrier set up on the other side of the portal, and with about an hour left Alex should be able to deal with him once he does break throu-"
Suddenly, Alpha's eyes widen in fear, a cold sweat forming on his forehead as something he hadn't taken into consideration up until now. "Oh no…" He turns his head in worry, and the plumber expression of concern quickly returns upon seeing his ally's reaction. "What…What is it?" He asks. "That clone has Alex's genetic signature…And since Alex is registered in the M.S.I. database, that means the Dark Star will be able to use his body to get past the barrier and reach Plit without any resistance!" The Commander's quick revelation chills Mario to the core, as with the amount of time left until the boy Overlord is freed from his confinement that means there is no one alive on the planet strong enough to combat the Dark Star. As the two heroes stand motionless in the face of this startling bit of news, they can only toss their hopes out that when they get back to their homeworld, that there will even BE anything left of it for them to return to…
Next Time: A Star Powered Showdow
