Chaotic Harbinger of Destruction: Gabriel Soul:
Chrissy trembled and shook as she watched from Heavenly Hall on her knees the monstrous undead-cybernetic-biomechanical amalgamation within Laboratory Zero-7 flare its wings and emit a ghoulish, warped roar. Electrical sparks, shadow wisps, and the Alkemei Ankh's essence all flickered, fluttered, traced, and paced along the surface of the fusion of Dr. Gabriel Ezhno's corpse with the Mother Computer. Much of the organic areas of its body now also gained an iridescent sheen as well. With all the damage and destruction Laboratory Zero-7, Heavenly Hall, and even MAE Command Center in general had endured so far, a massive collapse of both the building and the hill supporting everything was imminent.
"I can't stay here for this," murmured Chrissy, inching further away from the lab. "No, I'm not having any part of this..."
The seven Kruna Yura heard the floating monstrosity before them speak, or try to speak, rather; for whether from its transformation contorting and deforming its vocal chords, or as a result of some malfunction of the Mother Computer's voice, it spoke no clear, coherent sentence. Though it projected loud vocal tones, the Kruna could not decipher any of it. They could only recognize it as syllables strung together without structure. For all they knew, it could have been speaking an unknown language.
However unsure, Bowser and Warra both thought they recognized one particular grouping of distorted speech at the end of the long chain of ghastly, ghoulish noise. "... WRETCHED FOOLS... BOW..."
Gabriel Soul loomed as an imposing fiend on the fringe of life and death in a state unlike either. In the face of the gruesome reanimated vessel, the Kruna Yura prepared their elemental powers once more for another chapter in a saga that had lasted hours on end. With her injured ankle still handicapping her, Neva moved to the very rear of the group. Nova Daisy, Bowser, and Warra stepped to the front, all appearing uneasy with the current situation, though maybe more because of the degraded condition of the lab. Even Daisy showed mild concern, though no one could fault her. They all remembered how the last time they faced a similar enemy went.
The sight of Gabriel Soul shook Ramona and gave her a nauseating feeling of dread. After the night they have had, the last thing she wanted – or even expected – was to face an undead creature boasting extensive power. I am so done with this night! Ramona cried in thought. I just wanna go home! We should've just blasted this crummy computer apart the first chance we had!
Gabriel Soul raised its hands and summoned dozens of portals that fired pink light lasers at the Kruna Yura. Several of the lasers grouped together and converged on common targets, almost all of whom cleanly dodged. Neva had Daisy dive in front of her and fling a wall of earth up as she flipped by, which served as an adequate defense while the room took yet another beating as a result of all the free-flying lasers that had missed their initial targets. The same attack came again, although this time with fewer portals but wider, more powerful light beams. As the others evaded, Daisy not only defended Neva but quick-formed a Crystal Fist that she then timed and swung to smash through the light beams heading their way.
"I guess the best defense can be a good offense," said Neva. "Or is it the other way around?"
"Depends on who you ask," said Daisy, trying to refortify her damaged Crystal Fist. "Even so, my crystals barely held up through that."
Ramona caught a few quick, deep breaths as she unlimbered and adjusted her Sun Shield in a way where she could attach it to her left shoulder like how Athelstan had mounted his own. She felt she needed the extra defense, but did not feel comfortable occupying one hand with a shield here. Right after she, Bowser, Athelstan, Warra, and Marut had all made some defensive adjustments, parts of the floor caved in along the lab's perimeter. Gabriel Soul's attacks had exacerbated the worsening condition of the room.
"Some more of that, and this whole place is coming down," said Bowser.
"Feels like we've been saying that the whole time we've been in here," added Marut.
"We know who to blame," said Bowser, watching Gabriel Soul's power mount.
This battle looked to unfold as one eerily similar to the Osiris Soul fight in the future; only this time, the Kruna Yura did not have Andrew, or even Marissa, helping. They did, however, have the Alkemei Vranzer, the Pendant of Fate. Daisy tapped on her Vranzer several times and tried directing her power through it in an attempt to get it working, but she fared no better than she did on prior attempts.
Aw, come on! thought Daisy. What good is this pendant supposed to be if it can't activate when I want it to? It can't counter the Ankh if it doesn't do anything!
More terrified than she had been all night, Ramona felt her body quiver and tremble to an uncontrollable degree. She watched stone debris rise from the floor and loose portions of the ceiling tear lose, all pieces gravitating toward Gabriel Soul and melding together into several projectile-like shapes. Those rocky shapes then lit ablaze with intense flames and melted into lava, which Gabriel Soul then stabilized. The Mother Computer alone had demonstrated elemental control over all eight elements; but now combined with the Master Pendant and the vessel of Dr. Ezhno's corpse, there was no telling what limits Gabriel Soul had. As lightning flickered and jolted into existence with spinning dry ice icicles around each of Gabriel Soul's lava masses, Ramona grew even more fearful.
This creature is doing things I've never even seen natural wielders do! Ramona screamed in her head. How do we fight something like this?! How can we beat something like this?! How?! How...
And for a brief moment, Ramona's mind stopped paying attention to reality and instead directed her focus within...
Ramona's mind took her back to a weekend evening a couple of years ago, where she and Andrew sat together on the edge of a Christmas Village lake's boardwalk to watch the sunset, mere hours after getting through a clash with the most powerful elemental wielder they had encountered at the time, a wielder who had a personal vendetta against them. The elemental wielder had largely outclassed them both in nearly every way, but they still found a way to beat her.
"I still don't think I know how we both got out of there," Ramona said. "It feels like such a blur. I've never been so scared before. I just wanted us to run."
"If we ran, that would've just prolonged the inevitable," Andrew said. "She would've stalked us both again and beat us on her own time, and she would've had the added ego boost of thinking we're scared of her and can't ever beat her. Now that we've stood up to her, and won, we won't ever have to deal with her again."
"I don't get how you don't freak out when stuff like this happens, Andrew..." Ramona mumbled. "I mean, the kinds of things that she did... How can you think you can win against someone like that? How can you think that you can do something so difficult?"
I don't really think; I just believe, Andrew's voice echoed through Ramona's mind as she stared at Gabriel Soul. You gotta have confidence, Ramona. You gotta stand up to the challenge and face it head on. If you don't try, you'll never know what you can really do. Even when the odds are a trillion to one, there's still a chance to succeed that you can't give up on. Sure, you might fail; but everybody fails sometimes. That's just how it goes. There's no certainty in anything except in making sure we do our best. If you don't have heart in what you do, you will fail every time.
Gradually, Ramona's mood lifted out of dejected fear. Her morale built and reflected in the elemental power she called forth and surrounded the Solar Greatsword with that she now raised over her head. A spinning, low cyclone of spiky light flared around Ramona as well, which snagged everyone's attention.
Andrew, I try to remember that as often as I can, Ramona said in thought. I see, it's how you stood up to Elkon, to King Boo, to Marissa, to everyone; and I have to make sure I do too. It's so difficult to keep that in the front of my mind, especially in situations like these. It's been so much harder with you not being here... But, wherever you are, I can still feel your presence. Though you may not be here, you're still with me. And I know that dead or alive, your heart is with me too.
To the Kruna's utter surprise, they saw a shift in Ramona's energy. The golden waves acquired a dense collection of glimmering, shimmering sparkles and a smooth richness that appeared both hyper-dense and easily malleable. The changes were intriguingly similar to the shifts in Daisy's elemental energy whenever she enters her Nova Form.
"I can feel your spirit!" Ramona shouted. "And I will fight on just like you would have! It's what you would have done, and what you would have wanted me to do!"
Gabriel Soul held its position and waited, both its eyes and the gem of the Ankh focused on Ramona as a great transformation overtook her body. The light brown of her eyes brightened to an intense gold, coinciding with a bronzed sheen her skin gained. One thick, gold, obtuse-angled, v-shaped streak appeared along her eyes and ran under her hair to go around the circumference of her head. The glittery, sparkling, starry aspects Ramona's elemental power had acquired now amplified further. Ramona's hair then raised and spiked primarily up and out front in random directions, while her rearmost hair curled upwards into a rigid curve. Her morphed hair bore similarities to Nova Daisy's; but whereas Daisy's seemed reminiscent of an off-balance tree or leafy plant; Ramona's, when viewed from the side or rear, now largely resembled refracting light.
"Yo, what's going on with Ramona?" Marut asked. "Hey, no, wait, that's not..."
Bowser's face filled with awe. "Is this..."
Daisy watched Ramona intently, wondering what the sudden transformation was and what it meant. However, even more wonder and bewilderment came moments later. Despite all that had changed around, on, and within Ramona, all of it reversed and undid itself. Even her light power reverted back to normal. Before long, it was as if nothing had happened to Ramona. Regardless, Ramona still stood with fierce resolve and continued building up her light power. The Kruna Yura of Light seemed unaware of her very temporary metamorphosis.
Perhaps out of impatience, Gabriel Soul then launched its many lightning-laced, dry ice-braced lava masses in all directions. The combination of elements that composed its projectiles offered no tangible chances to effectively counter, which meant the Kruna had to act in evasion again, and which also meant that the laboratory took another beating. Following the last of Gabriel Soul's attacks crashing into the walls and floors, the room began to wobble and shake.
"Athelstan!" Daisy yelled. "Move to the back with Neva! And support the room with your power!"
"I'll try!" Athelstan replied as he backpedaled. "But I don't think anything'll keep this place together if that thing is gonna keep churning out blasts like that!"
With Athelstan exerting his stone influence on the rocky ceiling, the paved concrete walls and floors, and the few metals in the room that MAE had not proofed against stone wielders, the Kruna had bought themselves some time to work with before the laboratory imploded. However, that left five elemental wielders available to combat Gabriel Soul, and two that needed defense. Gabriel Soul wasted no time in preparing another offensive move, now generating fire, shadow, light, ice, and air altogether into melded, mixed masses of layered elementals.
"This is a lot to have to focus on all at once!" shouted Athelstan, already straining with his concentration split across holding the entire room together. The task rose in difficulty as Gabriel Soul flung its four elemental masses of flaming ice encased around light and shadow power wrestling with one another. Gabriel Soul's bursts swept in curves through the gusting winds that backed them, and they exploded on contact like grenades with whatever they touched. No square-inch of the lab came out from the attack unscathed. Likewise, the blasts blew all of the Kruna out into Heavenly Hall – all except Daisy, who got caught up in a corner of the room.
The other Kruna scrambled to their feet as Gabriel Soul floated out of the now collapsing Laboratory Zero-7 with the Ankh's energy escalating and surrounding its hands. No one saw Daisy anywhere, and they did not see her rush out of the imploding lab. Just seconds later, the entirety of Laboratory Zero-7 fell inward on itself as the ceiling filled up all the space within its room boundaries. Some of the rock and rubble even bounced out into Heavenly Hall behind Gabriel Soul, but no Nova Form Kruna Yura of Earth had appeared.
"No, Daisy!" Ramona cried.
"Crushed," Bowser said, wide-eyed. "That might be us soon, if we get unlucky like that."
Gabriel Soul crossed its hands and let the power gathering around its palms and wings surge to unprecedented heights. With a fierce flick of its hands out to its sides, the undead monstrosity ripped the relatively narrow Heavenly Hall wide open. The walls of Heavenly Hall tore loose from the foundation and rushed far out away from their opposite sides, tripling the amount of space available but pulverizing whatever was still in the other rooms in the process. Through a titanic thrust of its hands down, Gabriel Soul covered the entire floor with an alternating, slow-strobing side-scroll gradient of light and shadows. Whether or not the latter change was just aesthetic or had some special purpose remained to be seen.
"This freak's totally out of control!" shouted Neva.
"It looks like it's under some strict control, I think," said Athelstan.
"Are you sure?" Bowser said.
Gabriel Soul emitted a decibel-breaking, pained roar that made everyone cover their ears as it amassed even more power and called forth water, fire, air, stone, earth, and light to its body. Under the intense forces Gabriel Soul generated, the whole of Heavenly Hall rumbled and rattled. All of the shaking soon doubled, yet not from anything Gabriel Soul did. It appeared as though the second surge of tremors came from behind Gabriel Soul, where there used to be a Laboratory Zero-7. A harsh, earth-shaking, gratingly raspy scream later, seismic energy roared forth and blasted copious kilos of debris out of the destroyed lab into Heavenly Hall. A majority of the debris crashed into Gabriel Soul as Daisy exploded back onto the scene with a glittering, sparkling Nova-enhanced aura of silver earth power surrounding her heavily-battered body. While Gabriel Soul recoiled, Daisy launched herself at the undead creature and smashed a phenomenally strong, attack-disrupting kick into it.
As Daisy landed out of her jump, an onslaught came from behind her. Bowser in his Whirling Fortress move tackled Gabriel Soul, which Marut followed up with a Drill Dash that Neva surrounded with ice shots from her rifle and Warra subsequently backed with an electrocuted Tidal Wall. Pushed back into the wall behind it, Gabriel Soul then suffered under the crushing force that Athelstan brought through a jumping, stone-encased, Odina-powered swing of his Mountain Hammer. The Kruna Yura's combined vicious assault inflicted a considerable amount of damage on Gabriel Soul, even deforming some of the creature. Before it could move, Gabriel Soul endured yet another heavy attack, this one in the form of a Volt Fusion light burst from Ramona that held a ludicrous amount of power and burned an electrified hole clear through the decayed flesh making up the unarmored portion of Gabriel Soul's chest. In a sudden, abrupt jolt, the subsequent magnetic discharge repelled Gabriel Soul back and up against the ceiling and mangled wall behind it.
Bowser smiled. "Alright, good to know our Volt Fusion tools can still do extra damage to that thing."
Daisy pointed at Gabriel Soul. "But look."
Unfortunately for the Kruna, the Alkemei Ankh activated soon after Ramona's attack. One of the Ankh's many effects worked its magic on the severe burn from the Kruna Yura of Light, sealing it off and regenerating much of the damage. The Ankh then did what it could to heal much of the harm the Kruna had inflicted on Gabriel Soul, greatly reducing the net damage the undead body had sustained.
"We'll need to attack quick and stack moves," said Warra.
"Or attack with something to obliterate it so that it can't regenerate," said Neva.
"Anyone have a move strong enough to do that?" asked Athelstan.
"Andrew," said Marut.
"Anyone else?" asked Athelstan.
"I bet I could do something with some plasma," Bowser said.
"I might have something in mind," said Daisy. "But I'll need your help, Bowser. And yours too, Neva and Ramona."
Bowser raised a fist and ignited super-hot fire around it. "I'll try some plasma first."
Daisy called forth earth and converted it to crystal as Bowser's extreme thermal energy birthed the plasma he intended to attack with. "Then in the meantime..."
While the Kruna had prepared their next set of moves, the Alkemei Ankh prepared something of its own. The Ankh projected an intense glow and catalyzed another metamorphosis. Under the Ankh's influence, Gabriel Soul's organic body broke down further. Showing complete, egregious disregard for both the former corpse of Dr. Ezhno and the complex durability of life's creation, the Ankh's power ripped apart what remained of Gabriel Soul's organic limbs and tore open a gaping gash in its torso much larger than what was already there. All of the inorganic components of Gabriel Soul then warped and stretched; dismantling and reforming, shifting and reorganizing, degrading and refusing, all culminating together to build a new, more grotesque shape.
The Mother Computer Core existed within the large cavity in the torso of the remnants of Dr. Ezhno's body. The figure of a shadowed man outlined the mangled corpse, emitting pink, light blue, and red light, with a gleaming pink halo above its head and two sets – one large pair and one small pair – of segmented wings now made up of metal fragments, computer pieces, and even some bone. Several chains of mechanical parts also hung off of the body. A single, bright, glowing eye sat where the left eye socket would have been on a physical equivalent of the shadowed, man-like silhouette. Its crown-shaped shoulder armor contorted into a more curved, angular form, while its dismembered hands now had a mixed composition of decaying tissue and technology.
Neva groaned. "Now what?!"
"A transformation," said Daisy. The teal-silver Crystal Fist she had crafted around her left hand hardened into a far more dense mass and gained orange shades as she upgraded it into the Final Crystal Fist.
"Is that oil running down its body?" asked Athelstan. Continuous streaks of dark reddish-brown fluid leaked off of Gabriel Soul's hands and the bottom of its torso.
"I hope it's oil," said Marut.
"Me too," Daisy said, breaking into a speedy sprint the next instant. Each step echoed and splattered the light and darkness that Gabriel Soul had covered the floor with. Somehow, Gabriel Soul had manipulated the light and dark into a stable layered mixture with a purpose that had seemed unclear until just before Daisy reached the undead body. When Daisy brought her Final Crystal Fist up to strike, Gabriel Soul plummeted straight into the melded floor and disappeared. Gabriel Soul reappeared moments later on the far left side of the expanded Heavenly Hall as Daisy whiffed her hooking punch.
"Hey, what the..." Daisy mumbled, whipping her body around to face the undead being.
"Daisy, watch out! The floor!" Ramona shouted. "That monster's combined light and shadow to warp through space, like Andrew and I did!"
Gabriel Soul spawned a popping green fireball in its palms and thrust both hands down into the light-shadow floor. Its hands reached in front of Daisy the very next instant. The Fanning Torch that Gabriel Soul had created sprayed out immediately as a result of the point-blank range, coating Daisy in a fan of fire. She threw her arms up and got her Final Crystal Fist in the way to block some of the heat, but she could not block all of it. Warra and Neva both sent their elements flying at Daisy in a hurry to counteract the Fanning Torch before the green flames burned into Daisy too much. In a swift reaction, Daisy slammed her Final Crystal Fist onto the hands of Gabriel Soul just before they could slip back under the portal floor; an attack that, on contact, mangled the left hand's fingers and launched the hands back under the portal to reappear and crash into Gabriel Soul as if they were projectiles.
"Thanks, guys; I wasn't expecting that one," Daisy said, her Final Crystal Fist breaking down.
"A huge portal, and Bowser's Fanning Torch," said Athelstan. "That must mean it still has access to the Universal Database, and can still copy techniques!"
"Or, it is the Universal Database now," said Warra.
"Hey, why ain't we falling through this floor?" asked Marut.
"It must still be exerting influence on it, to lock us out," said Ramona.
"Which means it can appear wherever, and we're at a big disadvantage," said Warra.
Projecting another roar, Gabriel Soul elevated its hands and generated streaks of lightning that curled down and tracked all along the altered floor. Lightning soon emerged from the floor in random locations throughout Heavenly Hall, catching and zapping Athelstan and Neva. Some of the other Kruna noticed the trick and went on the move, but the randomness of the lightning led Warra into shocks. Marut simply went airborne, while Ramona dashed to Bowser and erected a light shield around them both so that Bowser could keep his focus on his plasma creation. Almost struck herself, Daisy catapulted to a wall and stabbed her Crystal Grip into it. From her wall hang, Daisy watched lightning shoot out of the floor and clang with the spherical light shield Ramona had formed.
Before Athelstan, Neva, or Warra suffered another shock, Marut threw out his Gust Boomerangs with a slight electrical charge to them. As the boomerangs flew around the room, they drew out all the lightning Gabriel Soul sent through the floor and absorbed it into their forms. Once Marut caught the now highly-charged boomerangs, he slung both one after the other at Gabriel Soul. On contact, each Gust Boomerang let all the gathered lightning explode out at the undead creature.
Ramona dropped her light shield. "Great, Marut! That stopped its attack!"
"You gonna do something with that plasma?!" Daisy shouted.
"Now I can," said Bowser. "This'll nick a large portion of my remaining power; but if it's successful, it'll be worth it."
"I WILL LIVE FOREVER..." the voice from Gabriel Soul echoed as the last of the lightning dissipated from its body.
"Wanna BET?!" Bowser yelled, firing his plasma burst.
Strangely, Gabriel Soul made no effort to spare itself from the plasma. Bowser's blast hit Gabriel Soul dead on and pierced through its torso with ease, but the undead creature's reaction was minimal. Despite the incredibly severe burn it had suffered, Gabriel Soul hovered as if nothing had penetrated it. Instead of seeing Gabriel Soul in pain or hampered in some kind of way, the Kruna saw the undead creature generate a Shadow Ripper in its left hand and a Crystal Fist in the other hand.
"THE SINGULARITY..." the Kruna heard next from Gabriel Soul.
As the other Kruna recovered, Gabriel Soul augmented its Shadow Ripper with swirling bands of icicles. Gabriel Soul then encased its Crystal Fist in a mixture of light and fire that amplified exponentially in seconds before water and ice then doused it and revealed a Diamond Fist in place of the original creation. With a slow spin, Gabriel Soul drifted into the portal-covered floor.
"Everyone, move!" Bowser screamed. Aside from Daisy and Marut, who were not standing on the floor, the Kruna all sidestepped as quickly as they each could. However, Gabriel Soul did not aim for them. The Ankh-controlled corpse rose from the ground directly under where Daisy clung to the wall. Caught by surprise, Daisy detached her grip just an instant too late and met a walloping Diamond Fist uppercut that crunched her into the rocky ceiling. The force behind the Diamond Fist made the portion of the ceiling it connected with implode and collapse, dropping Daisy along with its debris.
Gabriel Soul whipped its body around and rocketed with its Shadow Ripper in the lead now at Marut, who rolled out of the air and back to the ground. That left nothing but more of the ceiling for Gabriel Soul to crash its attack into and blast away, furthering Heavenly Hall's destruction. With two colossal chunks of the ceiling blasted away, Heavenly Hall's already compromised structural integrity worsened. One wrong move, and the whole corridor would crumble and flatten everyone within.
"THE ABSOLUTE..." the voice from Gabriel Soul hummed.
"Daisy! Get up!" Ramona yelled. "Come on!"
Though still maintaining Nova Form, Daisy found herself in obvious difficulty. She could not move without intense pain rushing through the entirety of her midsection. Every breath she took stung with agonizing discomfort, and she felt fluid build up in her chest and deep in her abdomen. On sheer will power alone, she rocked herself out of the rubble and onto her hands and knees. Grimacing and groaning, she could not push herself any further.
"Aw man, she looks bad!" said Marut.
"From one hit?" Athelstan said. "She endured more than that before..."
"No earth wielder durability will lessen a hit from diamond, I'm sure," said Warra. "That one hit must've injured something inside."
"Somebody get her a Mushroom!" said Bowser. "At the very least, it'll get her to stand up!"
As Ramona ran to Daisy, Gabriel Soul began generating more power and elementals. The Ankh flashed and worked its healing abilities on Gabriel Soul to lessen the severity of the damage from Bowser's plasma. Again, the Kruna heard the voice from Gabriel Soul speak, this time simply declaring, "I AM GOD..."