Chapter 37: The Unknown Antithesis

I fell out of the portal I had entered through just a while ago. The prior battle went by much faster than I thought it did, and that was honestly a good thing considering what everyone is doing outside the citadel. I was now past the stone cavern and inside the citadel itself, which had been robbed of all its beauty by a monochrome effect eerily similar to that of the 'Midnight Channel'. "Oh great, am I going to have to deal with more Shadows in here too?" As I grumbled that comment through my lips without any mention of the two people I fought before, I looked up past the incline and saw a staircase that led to the next room. Truly, I had no way of navigating this place, and only had an assumption to go on as I moved forward.

That assumption being that Mr. Reality was on the top floor of this place, and only a steady climb through the many floors would allow me to reach my destination. Hopefully, the place's defenses are down, especially since the alien mentioned that this citadel is actually a massive battleship the original Overlord used in his crusade against the darkness. Either way, with my mind and body braced with caution I ascended the staircase, whose width was nearly three times that of my body if I stretched my arms out. Each step was three feet tall, which was rather steep all things considered, but I made my way up them with relative ease.

I looked at the walls, paying attentions to the cybernetic strips that were still pulsing with energy even though their colorful glow was now gone. "You know, I would have rather liked the pristine, pearly atmosphere, even if it would be a bit cliché'd in this temple. Especially after all this grey I've been dealing with throughout this adventure. It could be worse though…This place could be entirely black and there the cries of ghouls could fill the air, leaving no hope for weary travelers as they ascend the cavernous staircase into the gaping maw of despair, which would soon devour their breaking souls until the tears of agony become blood red with fear.

….Ok, I'll be honest, I have no idea where that all came from. It was rather grim dark for me of all people to be saying, even if there was some precedence for me bringing it up. "Come on Mew, focus, focus…" I took a deep breath in and paused on the halfway point of the stairs. Collecting my thoughts for a moment, I looked up to see the way to the next area just a few seconds away, and with my sword once again at the ready I continued climbing the stairs. "Something feels off though…" I said, my neck hairs tingling as I glanced behind me, the quiet echo of a footstep trailing from afar before it stops in tune with the brief pause in my walk.

"Hmm…" I slanted my eyebrows towards the stairs I've already ascended, and though I assumed that I would be able to detect a presence my effort proved futile in the end. "What is going on here…" A nervous sweat drop trickles down my face and pitters onto the ground, and the eerie chill refuses to leave my body. All I could hear is a laugh that crept into my eardrums and tickled them with an otherworldly feeling of ecstasy, and suddenly the air around me thickened with a dripping sensation of fear. "Come closer…" The voice stated, and just like that my body turned around subconsciously and my head lifted up to look at the glowing rim of a blue portal that has suddenly appeared at the staircase's apex.

A small, shadowy figure pops up in front of the portal, their body surrounded by a hazy black mist and their eyes seething yellow as they take their right hand and wiggle their fingers in front of their chest. Whoever it was, it was plain to see that they were trying to lure me in, and their ethereal form slipped into the portal not a moment after I realized that. It was another one of Mr. Reality's pawns, and with their presence I had no choice but to take them down in order to continue. With a rather short dash up the remaining steps I leaped into the portal straight-on and sunk into the darkened descent beyond. Yet again, I was greeted by golden text, only this time a more gruff, deathly narrator spoke them to me…

"In the prime of his life, the king of darkness was an equal to the overlord who governed the seven elements and the light. But many a follower believed that the man could overcome his supposed equal, and felt that his morals and emotions were binding his true potential. The man preferred the stagnation of his role though, for though he was bound to that duty he truly enjoyed having the ability to go to and see the many splendors of the universe without ever coming to odds with his more pure counterpart. There was only one thing that he was jealous of though, and that was that his counterpart had whisked from his arms the woman he wished to love for all eternity, even though said love at first only came to be via a contract between two tribes."

"The man's second-in-command, a being chronicled to be the true embodiment of the truly despicable aspects of darkness, tried his hardest to manipulate his leader to take action, especially after the man's mind became conflicted after witnessing the Overlord's decision to seal away one of the universe's greatest threats instead of killing him as his duty dictated he should have simply because he was once his closest friend. It did not help that witnessing the happiness the woman eventually grew to have around her contracted husband caused his balance of control over the seven deadly sins to weaken with the increase of his Lust and Envy."

"Eventually the chain of events, from the loss of what he believed to be his along with his belief that the Overlord was unworthy to govern the balance of light after his fool hearted decision in the prior war against his friend's tribe, grew into bitter seeds of rage and jealousy, which split the shell of the once honorable and misjudged man and left behind a being of pure malice and sadism. He then sent his men into war against the Overlord, his army pleased beyond belief by their leader's sudden change in views and relishing the slaughter they were now fully able to commit to. The Dar King confronted the Overlord himself on their home planet's moon, engaging in a battle that shook the very stars themselves, many of them threatening to go supernova or become black holes depending on who held the advantage at the time."

"With the threat of the universe's safety on the line though and a stronger belief in his righteous victory, the Overlord conquered his counterpart, capturing and binding his body in the strongest chains of light he could muster. The decision was made to seal the Dark King's spirit away in an infinite chasm on a simple, run-of-the-mill planet called Plit, where the Elemental Overlord's powers would also be sealed in order to preserve the balance of light and darkness. But the Dark King refused to let fate be as it was, even with his spirit rotten amongst the screaming banshees and hallowing cries that plagued him in the chasm."

"As the years passed by in what felt like a nightmarish eternity, the Dark King managed to let slip a small essence of his spirit into the mortal world, trying his hardest to get even one soul to listen to his manipulations so he could make anyone his vessel. But the people of the world were for the most part too pure to even hear a whisper from him. It was only two-thousand years later when a young kid who held a high amount of malice within his heart came to Plit, and through the help of the witch Cackletta he came to become one with the Dark King's spirit and continued on his dark legacy of killing the previous Elemental Overlord…Or so the Dark King thought…"

The voice fades away, and I fall out of the portal onto a large rooftop composed entirely out of sandy looking bricks and decaying moss. Everything seemed dim around me, as the light had been flushed from the landscape and replaced with a hazy black fog similar to the one I saw around the mysterious being. With my body standing straight up I looked around, finding no edge to this rooftop and nothing but dark clouds in the sky that were crackling menacingly with electricity and felt ready to burst at any given moment. As I readily drew my flaming sword out, I looked around once more and felt my heart pounding one steady beat after another.

Suddenly, something catches my eye, a forced movement from the right corner of my eyes. I turn in subconscious fear, raising my sword at arms length as the thicker dark mist from earlier swirls together to form a solid human being on the opposite side of the roof. The being makes their entrance by opening their glowing red eyes and giving me a rather sadistic looking, fanged smile. My grip almost immediately loosened as my body temperature dropped and my pupils shrunk in shock. Appearing before me with the exact same age and appearance he did once before was Joe Dark, the new Dark King who Alex had successfully killed over a year ago. In the grasp of his out held right hand was a sharp dagger that could rend the flesh from bone, and his clothing consisted of a brown shirt with a gruesome skull and tattered blue jeans.

As cliché'd as it sounded, at least there was precedence for his choice of clothing, if I recall. But his appearance mattered little, for all it took was his bloodlusting gaze for me to suddenly become concerned with my situation. After everything else I had dealt with, it was hard to believe that this remnant of Alex's past could unnerve me as much as he was. Or perhaps it was because the Dark King's spirit was within him right now, and by peering into his pupils I perceived the spirit's true form as well. Whatever the case, I leaned forward slightly and raised my blade in cautious defense, my eyes twitching in fear as they tried to focus upon my opponent and wait for his next move.

The boy creaked his head upward slightly, looking down upon me with a bewilderingly high amount of malice as he said to me in a subdued yet echoing tone of voice "Die, Whiter…" As my cold sweat trickled off of my face I blinked and failed to keep my focus together, and in the instance it took for that all to happen Joe Dark had appeared behind me with his dagger primed and ready to be impaled into my spinal cord. I had to react quickly, my body flipping around and blocking his blow with an instinctive swing of my sword that had the downside of forcing my body to skid backwards across the ground for a total of six and a half feet.

He didn't stop though, and lurched forward across the air like a rabid beast. He swung his arms out wildly, managing to place the dagger in the opposite hand every time he reached the top of his motions so he could continue on without end. His mounted offense proved difficult to handle at first, as I had to move my guard left and right in tune with his movements. Each colliding slash of his pushed me farther towards the edge of the roof, until it reached a point where one more slash would make me tumble backwards against my will and give him an easier chance to strike me down.

I leaped backwards in the nick of time though, straightening my body before pushing it forward and bringing my sword down quickly to launch a wave of fire at my menacing foe. But as quickly as I drew down my blade so to did the boy swing his sword horizontally at my attack, cutting it through the center point and breaking it down before both halves could even touch him. He grinned brightly, his eyes widening as the phantasmal glow in his eyes dies down and a pale black aura spawns around his body. "That's right Whiter, fight back…Make this futile battle of yours pleasurable for me!" He bemoaned in ecstasy, and as my body stood in the air mid-flight I didn't even flinch at the boy's words and made sure he wouldn't leave my sight again.

Joe Dark, having now increased his strength, proceeded to limply raise his left hand into the air, the backside aimed at me until he lifted it up and drew demonic energy towards the palm. With a single gesture a beam of dark energy is launched my way, leaving me no choice but to quickly fly to the left in order to avoid it. However, the boy surprised me by swinging his hand to the right, making the beam follow me as it bends like a whip. Its speed rivaled that of my own, and I couldn't outmaneuver it due to Joe Dark turning his body around one step at a time in order to keep up with his own attack.

So with no other option left I paused in place, turned towards the beam, and cut down the section of darkness to the left of me. The rest of the beam is dispersed momentarily as the whip passes to the side of me and regrows its lost segment, but in the meantime the surprised yet pleased Joe Dark gets struck with a swift ball composed entirely of wind blades to the face. The boy's head is pushed backwards against its will and the beam is dispelled, leaving his hand crossed in front of his chest as he creaks his head back up to reveal that the smile on his face is still present, even with all the miniature scars that I have now inflicted upon the surface.

"You have got to be kidding me…" I begrudgingly noted as the boy in black took his left sleeve against the bottom part of his face where the most blood was dripping from and wiped it clean off, leaving the dried up bits to be licked off with a pleasured swing of his tongue. "Ok Whiter, if blood is going to be involved now…Perhaps its time you spilled some of yours for me to consume!" Joe Dark then lashed out at me without any other warning, slamming his left hand against my face and launching me higher into the air with one powerful push. My body was sent spinning, and though I tried to recover the boy wasted little time in appearing beside the point where he predicted my back would be and jabbing his elbow into the lower segment to get me to flinch forward from the recoil of his blow and give him a few more seconds to attack.

Not content with what he has done though, Joe Dark dispels his dagger for a moment by converting it into a dark sphere of energy and slamming it against my hip, the momentum from his blow creating a shockwave from the burst of his sphere and twirling my body around multiple times. I catch his next action from the corner of my eyes. He took his hands out to the side and drew dark electricity from the clouds so they would wrap around his fingers, engulfing them until they formed the shape of jagged claws, at which point time itself paused and I caught a glimpse of his eerie smile as he brought his claws down through the air so quickly that the air was left permanently scarred by red, glowing gashes.

The claws rip through my body, but leave no physical wound as I seizure in place for a few seconds. I am then thrust to the ground back first, the impact failing to break apart the rooftop and leaving me to bounce once into the air, my eyes widening in shock as my innards suddenly felt hollow and my sword fell onto the ground beside me as my limb itself fell limp. He didn't tear into my body because that was not his target. He rend through my soul with those claws of his, weakening it immensely and making it even more difficult for me to fight back. "No way…This is insane…"

I breathed heavily as I looked up at Joe Dark as he descended towards the ground in front of me. "Its impossible…I don't care how badly this kid's life went…There is just no possible way that someone like him could hold in this type of malice and still reasonably function…Even with ghoulish and demonic features he still looked like a human being, just as he was when he was born into this world…" I tried to force my hand onto the handle of my sword, picking it up along with my body off of the ground and getting onto my feet, even if I was rather tipsy from the damage brought onto my soul.

I glared into Joe Dark's pale eyes as I felt the cold hand of death looming behind me, ready to pluck me away at a moment's notice. "Your time draws to an end…" Whether it was death or Joe Dark speaking of me, the truth was still there, echoing in my eardrums no matter how much I wanted it to go away. I could see that I stood no chance against Joe Dark while fear kept me from going all-out, and it also made me realize that though I was Alex's clone, perhaps I hadn't truly inherited all the courage he had displayed in the past. Or maybe the problem was that the stress from concern for my friends left me more vulnerable to fear of the boy's malicious whims.

Of course, even without the fear and concerns, Joe Dark would still have an advantage over me, seeing as he had two more forms to go through, both of which I felt would surpass my remaining forms with ease. "Should I really allow things to end like this?" I asked myself a rather stupid question, taking a deep breath in as Joe Dark finally landed on the ground with the right side of his body pointed towards me as he lifted his eye up and glared brightly with ecstasy. A rational answer came from the moment I took to collect my thoughts, each segment presented in the form of question after question "Do you have promises to keep? Do you want to die? Do you feel fulfilled in life?" Yes was the answer to only the first one, and with my conclusion I stood up straight and held my blade at the side of my body.

Looking out towards Joe Dark with fierce determination, I put my blade behind my body and kneeled down, bracing myself to either strike or defend against the next attack much like a samurai would in this situation. I didn't care about how much death wanted to reap my soul, I wasn't going to let him grab it prematurely. I was going to lose it my way, not his. "Come on Joe Dark, strike me with all you got!" There was a rather calm sensation that fell upon my body after I said that, and as the boy giggled and raised his dagger towards my heart. "Very well…Perish, you weakling…" As an ethereal energy blade spikes out from the tip of the dagger, I blink once and prepare to fight back when a familiar noise yells out triumphantly through the air.

"FLAME CANNON!"

In a matter of seconds, the crisping sound of flames covers my eardrums as a massive tunnel of fire thrusts across the ground in front of me and intercepts the energy blade, burning it to a crisp along with scorching the ground with a black streak of ash. "Huh?" Genuine shock was my first reaction to both the sound and the attack, and for a moment Joe Dark actually stops in place and look out towards the figure responsible for saving my life. A few footsteps ring in my eardrums, and before I know it standing before me is Alex Whiter, still in the cloak gifted to him by the Chronicler but with his famous arched sword burning brightly in the grasp of his gloved right hand.

"Whiter…" Joe Dark growled at my original's presence, and though I was grateful for his appearance I couldn't help but ask him "Alex…H-How did you get here?" The young Overlord turned his head to look at me, but his first comment was not directed towards my question. "Stand up straight, you have no reason to worry anymore." I nodded my head, thanking him for noticing that and positioning my body correctly as he turns back towards Joe Dark and says to me "As for my appearance here, I just took an alternate entrance that lead to the staircase you were climbing up. I managed to slip by everyone's radar since they were either busy fighting Heartless or were focused on the citadel itself."

"Well that makes sense…Now a better question would be…Why are you here?" I asked calmly, trying to not bring up the bitterness of the end of our last meeting. "…After I left so suddenly yesterday I realized only a few hours later that I had left something behind at the Nova Cesspool, and upon returning to that area I saw it was gone and assumed you had taken it. I was unable to find out where you were until Mr. Reality attacked Toad Town, so I followed you here…Of course, I think you'll be needing it to save the day, so for now I'll let you borrow it and also bail you out of this situation."

"Wait, what do you mean by-" "HEY! Reality bender! I know you are watching here, so I have something to say to you!" Alex ignores the rest of my bewildered response and calls out to the dark clouds above, where a voice replies to him in piqued curiosity. "Yes, child?" "I can understand you having a problem with Mew right now, but to create an illusion of Joe Dark to try and break his soul before he reached you? Come on, you can't tell me that you don't have enough morality to realize how wrong that sounds, right? So I have an offer to give you…In exchange for letting Mew continue on to face you, I'll stay here and fight Joe Dark one-against-two to keep you entertained for a while. Does that sound like a fair bargain?"

The alien was silent for a few seconds, and all throughout that pause Joe Dark did not move an inch. "Very well, I will accept your bargain…" And just like that, a blue, ethereal portal is suddenly thrust open into existence behind me, with Alex tightly grasping the handle of his sword as the flames grew brighter. He looked on ahead at his opponent, taking two steps forward as I realized that something was off about what he said. "Wait, what do you mean one-against-two?" With a heavy sigh, the young Overlord tilted his head over his shoulder and said to an unknown force "Come on Reaper, I know you've been summoned here too…"

With the chill of death crawling over my body and causing my single to tingle with an otherworldly sensation, the Reaper I had seen earlier spawns from a ghastly, incomprehensible fog and appears behind Joe Dark, his eyebrow arched in anger at Alex as he says in his usual tone "So we are back to square one, young Overlord…And this time I will be certain to finish the job…" As Alex stood there with a thick air of confidence, I couldn't help but feel concerned about his well being and said to him "You can't do this Alex. Let me stay and fight along side you. Together we can best the both of them and then go on to-" My original raised his left arm into the air to stop me before I finished.

"Mew, I gave you a chance to go on here…Don't waste it just because you are suddenly concerned for my own well being." "With disregards to the commitment you just made to the reality bender, I do believe that you would at least stand a marginal chance of winning if you teamed up, child." The Reaper interjected after Alex had finished speaking, and my original turned towards the embodiment of death and said to him with firm confidence "You are just saying that because you want to reap Mew's life along with my own. Listen, you think you may have had an advantage before, but that's only because the aspect of death is more powerful than the aspect I wielded that was more prominent than the elements I had. Now I'm free of that aspect, which means I have the full strength of the elements to use against you."

Alex tried his hardest to avoid bringing up the subject of the Time Stone, which meant that he was feeling confident that it would be the one thing I needed to take Mr. Reality down. Still though, with a little bit of concern still lingering in my mind as I began to back up towards the portal, I said to Alex "Are you sure about this?" To which he turned to me with a warming smile and said "I won't even have to use my Phoenix Form." After which he looked away and prepared himself for battle, leaving me to do nothing more than entrust Alex to win this battle in my place while I leaped into the portal and headed back through the darkness towards the citadel once more.

Next Time: The Bringer of Karm