AN: For the first time since I started this I actually sent this chapter to a beta reader (bryguy2324) to make sure there was enough information included to at least suggest answers to the questions I hope everyone will be asking at the end of this thing…
To Butterfly: I mean, if you can't find at least a little humor to break up the tension of facing the prospect of imminent death…
To StarDaPanda225: Very carefully!
"We can't let it get its footing!" Cat Noir shouted to Goosilla. "Keeping it off-balance will give us a leg up!"
He dove to one side to avoid the Maw's massive foot coming down on his head and twirled his staff in a shield to block the trunk-like arm swinging at him from the side. On the opposite side of the Maw's body, he could see Goosilla smacking the Maw with his feather duster. The Maw stumbled and bellowed in rage when Goosilla caught it with one foot in the air, pushing it off-balance. Cat Noir braced his staff against a paving stone and threw himself feet-first into the Maw's side, knocking it to the ground. He contorted in midair to land on the edge of the gaping hole the Maw had left in the ground, and threw out his arms, balancing precariously just above the chasm that appeared to reach all the way to the base of the mountain. The loose tiles under his feet shifted, sending him falling backward over the edge.
"No!" His Lady's desperate cry was almost drowned out by the Maw's enraged roar as its fist slammed the ground and it surged back to its feet. Cat Noir's last sight as he fell was of Ladybug staring at him in horror.
An indigo feather duster flew through the space above Cat Noir, ricocheted off the chasm wall, and embedded itself into the rock just below him, stopping his fall. He sneezed and nearly fell off the feather duster's head, grabbing hold of its handle at the last moment. Hanging suspended within the chasm, Cat Noir closed his eyes for a moment to catch his breath. This monster was so far removed from everything they had fought before… what were they supposed to do in the face of this thing? But at this point all he could do was trust his Lady to solve their problem: she had never led him wrong. The sounds of fighting from the surface echoed down to him. His eyes shot wide open.
Gorilla was still fighting the Maw, but he'd lost his weapon!
Looking around Cat Noir found a small crevice in the rock that appeared to angle up. He wedged the end of his staff into the gap, pulled the feather duster out of the crack it had made, and hit the control to extend his staff. He rocketed out of the chasm on the end of his staff to find Goosilla still standing at the Maw's feet, dodging the Maw's dripping blood. Near the temple gate, Fu, Ladybug, and Felix seemed to be in the middle of a hurried conversation, only half paying attention to the fight within the temple grounds. The Maw swung one massive arm at Goosilla, who had nowhere to go.
"Cat-ch!" Cat Noir threw the feather duster at Goosilla like a dart.
The feather duster reached Goosilla with seconds to spare. He swiped the feather duster out of midair and spun it into a shield, deflecting the Maw's arm. The Maw bellowed in rage as it lost its balance and over-corrected, swinging out its arms and striking Cat Noir's staff. Cat Noir's grip tightened, even as he felt the base shift under him. The soft crack when the stone holding him up broke apart echoed up from below, and the staff fell back, away from the crevice and toward the barn. The moment he looked down and saw solid ground, Cat Noir retracted his staff and spun it over his head in a desperate bid to slow his descent. He hit the ground and rolled backward away from the chasm and the Maw, coming to rest with his back against the temple wall on the same side of the chasm as the barn, the temple gate to one side.
"Adrien!" cried Ladybug.
Cat Noir shook his head in a daze and pushed himself up into a crouch. The gloom – darker by the minute since the Maw first appeared – nearly covered the temple plateau. He looked up to find the Maw already back on its feet in front of him, its arms spread apart wide as though to draw him into its embrace. From the side near the gate, Ladybug and Fu both raced past Pedro in his direction. The half-standing outer wall of the temple stood between Ladybug and Cat Noir, and she leapt nearly ten meters into the air, even as the Maw clenched its colossal fists to smash down together on top of Cat Noir. At the apex of her jump, Ladybug reached toward the red yo-yo that lay discarded on the far side of the chasm. It sprang into the air, arcing past the Maw toward her position. The yo-yo string extended on its own and spun independently around its finger loop. Ladybug landed in front of Cat Noir an instant before the yo-yo reached her, still spinning in a shield. The yo-yo-shield caught the Maw's fists at an angle, and Ladybug twisted her wrist. The yo-yo's angle changed with the movement and redirected the fists into the ground next to them. A spray of stone, tile, and dirt erupted from the gouge created. Finally Ladybug held out one finger and the yo-yo loop slid home. Still holding the yo-yo-shield in place between them and the Maw with one hand, with her other hand she pulled Cat Noir over her shoulder and jumped back away from the Maw just as Fu struck it across the back of one leg with his harpoon on the opposite side, drawing its attention away from them.
"We have a plan," she told Cat Noir hurriedly, dropping him on his feet halfway to the gate. She looped her yo-yo around a slab of stone, lifted it into the air, swung it around once to build momentum, and hurled it at the Maw's chest. "Felix will fill you in. Now go!"
"You got it, Milady!" Cat Noir skirted around the edge of the hole and raced back to where Felix was standing next to the crouching Pedro, arms folded and tapping his foot impatiently, staring wide-eyed at the battle raging in front of him. Cat Noir skidded to a halt and spun around to see Goosilla and Fu standing on either side of Ladybug, fending off repeated attacks on either side from the Maw's fists while Ladybug looped her yo-yo around the Maw's legs, pinning them together. Under the Maw's continuous battering, Goosilla's feather duster fell out of his hands and skidded away to come to rest at the base of a tree, and the Maw grabbed his arm before he could react. Goosilla's mouth came open, his eyes wide, as the Maw let out a bellow that shook the mountains ringing the temple mountain.
"I kind of expected a little more of a plan from you people," drawled Felix, arching an eyebrow at Cat Noir. "How you ever managed to defeat Uncle Gabriel like this is beyond me…"
Cat Noir set his mouth in a thin line. "Ladybug said there's a plan now?" he prompted, tensing as the Maw drew Goosilla closer to its gaping mouth. Across the temple compound Ladybug pulled her yo-yo back, threw it around a tree, and wrapped it around Goosilla's leg before tugging sharply to free him from the Maw's clutches. Fu struck the Maw's arm with the shaft of his harpoon, and its grip on Goosilla's arm loosened fractionally. Goosilla flew out of the Maw's grip mere meters from the monster's mouth and rocketed back into the tree, which bent and flexed with the collision. One hand landed on his feather duster while with the other he rubbed the back of his head.
Felix nodded. "Right: the plan." He drew the Dark Sword of the Mundane from its sheath on Pedro's back and carefully handed it to Cat Noir. "Wait for Fu to use his ability and then… do what comes naturally."
Cat Noir nodded and watched Fu sidestep another attack from the Maw, raise his harpoon, and shout, "Horn-Fade," before burying the harpoon up to the shaft into the Maw's leg, where it stuck.
The Maw howled and stomped its foot right where Fu had been standing, moments after Fu had rolled out of its way in a backward somersault. The Maw stumbled forward, and Ladybug caught Fu in her yo-yo and pulled him back and to the side, out of the Maw's path. Before she could get out of its way herself, the Maw swung its arm and smacked her across the back, sending her careening through the air across the temple complex.
"No!" The moment Ladybug was struck, the edges of Cat Noir's vision faded to black, focusing in on the Maw. Felix took a hesitant step back. Ladybug contorted in midair so she hit the barn wall feet-first, and sprang off of it into a flip, landing on one knee in a crouch, her yo-yo already up and spinning as a shield to protect herself from the follow-up blow that never came. But Cat Noir had eyes only for the monster that had dared to threaten his partner. The Maw turned in all directions, its eyes unfocused as though unclear of where its opponents were.
Cat Noir could feel Cataclysm energy bubbling just below the surface. Sword clutched in his left hand, staff in his right, he charged across the battlefield to Ladybug's aid. Halfway between Pedro and the Maw, just in front of the remains of the temple wall, he kicked his heel into the ground at his feet. The ground cracked beneath him with a sound like a detonation as the mini-Cataclysm propelled into the air, leaving behind a small crater where his foot had been. Black Cataclysm energy surged through his body. All their attacks had failed to do more than slow the Maw down; maybe even the Dark Sword itself wouldn't be able to pierce it to its heart. But if he could weaken it slightly… "Cataclysm!" he roared at the apex of his jump, feeling the Cataclysm energy emanate from his miraculous and resonate with his staff. The staff hummed comfortingly as the energy channeled through it.
And yet, he could feel more of the Cataclysm energy in his left hand, emanating from where the Ring of the Guardians had come into contact with the Dark Sword of the Mundane. The ring shone black for an instant, as did the sword. Cat Noir's breath hitched. The Dark Sword thrummed with the Cataclysm energy, the red-gold handle glowing, a red-and-black yin-yang appearing on the pommel, the black half of the yin-yang shining out like a beacon against the growing darkness as the sword resonated with the energy surging through it. Cat Noir spun the sword around once in his hand, pointing the blade downward.
Finally the Maw turned toward Cat Noir, his bellowed attack breaking through the monster's dulled senses and alerting it to his presence. It spread its arms apart and roared, moments before the Cataclysm-infused staff struck its chest directly below its gaping mouth. A patch of darker black appeared where the Cataclysm expended itself on the Maw's thick hide, and the Cataclysm-infused sword plunged into that weakened spot an instant later. The Maw let out an agonized bellow and collapsed backward as Cat Noir rode it to the ground, driving the sword into its body up to the hilt. Its limbs splayed on all sides limply and twitched once before they stopped moving.
"I don't believe it…" whispered Pedro, barely audible from his position near the temple's entrance.
"It will not stay down for long!" warned Fu, racing over to Cat Noir with Ladybug and Goosilla on either side of him. "We must hurry!"
Cat Noir hacked away at the spot, sawing the blade back and forth through the monster's thick hide until he had created an opening wide enough to fit his hand inside. Without hesitation he spread the cut apart with his staff and the sword and rooted around until his hands closed around something roughly four times the size of his own fist and oblong, which had become lodged on the end of the Dark Sword. The object beat steadily against his palm as he ripped it out with both hands and held it out to Ladybug along with the sword.
Ladybug grabbed the Dark Sword's hilt, the midnight-black heart still skewered on the sword's tip, and opened her yo-yo to extract the damaged Peacock Miraculous. She carefully pushed the miraculous into the heart right next to the Dark Sword's blade and squeezed it shut, trapping the miraculous inside. Finally she held the Dark Sword aloft in the same hand with her yo-yo, the heart still stuck on the sword tip. The red-and-black yin-yang symbol reappeared on the sword's pommel, the red half gleaming brightly in the returning rays of the setting sun, as she shouted, "Miraculous Ladybug!"