-1OMG AN UPDATE!
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"It's getting worse," Shadow reported, "Now I'm getting a definite sense of cold." Maria nodded solemnly. "We're running out of time." As they pressed onward, searching each and every corner and eliminating every robot and/or alien they found, Maria made a realization. "This is the exact same path I took to confront both you and Black Doom. This has to be the way to where he took the Chaos Crystals!" It was then that Shadow voiced the suspicions he'd had since the feeling hit him. "This impending-death sense I've got… It's him, isn't it?" The look on her face was stoic yet sad. "Yes," she said finally. "The blood must link you two… it has to. You're part of him. I don't want to think of what that could have meant had we not taken him down as fast as we did, but right now it's an asset. But once he dies we can't track him, so hurry." Still they continued to eradicate every enemy in their path. "Hah! 'The Black Arms are forever', huh? Well, once we're done there won't be any more Black Arms," Shadow growled to himself.
They entered the indigo-hued altar room to see the Chaos Crystals lying scattered on the floor in the center of the room, glowing brightly as ever. "We've found them," Shadow said, satisfied, as he gathered them up. Maria had only one thing to say. "But where's…" One look at the altar area itself answered her question. The stone floor was awash in that same violet-hued blood, cascading down the steps that led up to the altar to pool at its base. Black Doom sat, not floated, sat, in front of the altar, leaning against it for support so he wouldn't collapse fully. The previously fine robes he'd been wearing were a shredded, stained mess, the comet-shaped bangles encrusted with filth and congealed blood, and even more of the violet-hued liquid was cascading from a wound in his chest, even though he was trying his best to hold it closed with one hand. His whole body shuddered with each heaving, struggling breath he took. Smirking, Shadow walked closer. "Well, well, well," he said. "So you haven't died yet. I'm impressed, after what we did to you." Black Doom barely had the strength to look up. "Shadow… you…" The dark hedgehog nodded gravely. "I just finished eradicating every last creature in your 'mighty' army, rendering the Black Arms pretty much extinct. What do you say to that?" Rage gave the dying alien the strength to reach up and seize Shadow's throat in a weak grip, leaving a smear of blood on the tuft of white fur on his chest. "H-how… dare you… harm… your own… kin…" That statement, alluding to the way Black Doom had tried to trick Shadow, angered the dark hedgehog. Returning the favor, he grabbed the alien by the throat, his grip powerful and firm, his superior strength allowing him to lift his 'creator' clear off the ground. "I am nothing of yours," he growled. The weakness of approaching death seized Black Doom once again, forcing him to release his grip on Shadow's neck and just dangle in the dark hedgehog's grasp, going back to clinging to life just as he had been doing before. Shadow tightened his grip a bit, rather enjoying his enemy's suffering. "You claimed to be all-powerful, but now you're just pathetic," he said. "If you weren't already dying, I'd kill you." Pivoting swiftly, he thrust his pinioned enemy up against the altar with enough force to shake it and almost enough to break Black Doom's back. As it was, the alien gave a loud, wavering groan that spoke volumes about the pain and suffering he was being put through. By this point Maria had already decided she'd had quite enough for one day. "Stop it! Shadow, stop!" He stopped. Just like that, he stopped. "Maria?" Stepping closer, she said, "Shadow, we've already won and then some. The Black Arms are defunct and this guy's on his way out. Doesn't what you're doing seem just a little unnecessary to you?" Pausing a moment to regard the now limp form of Black Doom. The alien still clung to life with a tenacity that would have done Eggman proud. Shadow growled, "She's right. Finishing you isn't worth the effort." A moment later, he threw down his foe and watched impassively as he actually bounced off the stone floor, then came to rest lying face up in yet another pool of blood, almost at Maria's feet. "Which is why I'll let her decide what'll be done to you next, monster."