"Son of a bitch!" Blaze growled.
She swept her arms across Starline's desk, knocking the monitor and all nearby items off the desk. The doctor reached forward before letting out an involuntary yelp of some kind. Each of the items hovered in the air instead of crashing onto the ground. Then, they floated back and arranged themselves on the surface of the desk.
"Thank you Silver," Starline sighed, rubbing his brow.
"I knew Lord Death was hiding something! I asked him if there was a kishin threat and he lied to my face!" The princess paced back and forth as she ranted.
"Why is there a kishin under the DWMA?" Tails asked.
"Yes, why hasn't it been destroyed?" Blaze snapped.
"I can't give you all the details, but the reason is that we can't fully destroy the kishin. Keeping it dormant is the best course of action. Lord Death built a machine to keep it contained, while powering said machine with his own soul. Now that he's trapped in null space, he won't be able to fight the enemy or keep the machine running,"
"That's ridiculous! Lord Death should have countless ways of destroying an enemy. Especially one that's dormant!"
"It's not that simple,"
"Why not?"
"Enough," Starline's voice was raised, but his composure was still intact. "As much as I would love to give you all the answers, I have limited information as well. The reality is that we're under attack right now. If we don't do anything about it the kishin will be revived,"
"Then let's stop them," Sonic proposed.
"Yes, let's," Starline said.
Professor Gamma appeared in the room suddenly holding a large container. The robot placed it on the ground. It revealed various familiar clothing items upon opening.
"Uniforms for Death Scythe and Meister acquired. I have brought pairs of the relevant students' usual outfits. Do not ask why I have these,"
Starline removed his tie and tossed his suit jacket onto the desk chair. "Everyone, prepare for combat. I'm not certain of what our enemies have in store for us, but I've no doubt it will be the most important battle of you lives thus far, if not the most difficult,"
Starline exited his office and waited just a few moments. Each of the meisters and weapons emerged shortly after with their clothes changed except for Silver, who had been given an exact copy of the suit he was already wearing. The three pairs of fighters followed their professor through the halls of the DWMA.
"Miles, there's something else you and Knuckles should know," Starline began.
"What's that?
"Our enemies have revived a once extinct type of weapon called the black arm series. They are incredibly powerful. Shadow is the only other weapon of this series that we know of and the enemy might target him,"
"Previously extinct weapons that are really powerful?" Tails pondered for a moment. "What about Shadow's amnesia? We don't have his memories, but if we knew the cause of their disappearance, it could give us more information,"
"Shadow doesn't have amnesia," Knuckles looked around, seeing everyone staring back at him with impatience. "Wait, seriously?"
"Yes," Tails sighed.
"Why didn't anyone tell me?"
"Didn't want you to lose any sleep over it," Shadow replied sardonically.
"Wow, thanks," Knuckles sighed.
"The only thing you need to understand is that our enemies have access to many powerful and seemingly unnatural abilities. They will use these abilities to kill each of you if given the chance. Don't give them that chance,"
The conversation was interrupted when the mobile group ran into someone's mom.
"Starline?"
"Vanilla? What are you doing out here?"
The doctor checked using his soul perception and saw that she was indeed real.
"Avoiding Lord Death. He was acting like he was ready to dance, so I got lost for a while," Vanilla winked.
"I've never been so glad that Lord Death is romantically inept," Starline sighed dryly. "We're under attack by the way,"
Vanilla quickly became concerned. "Are you serious?"
"Afraid so. Lord Death and the others are trapped inside a magical prison. All of us here are the only active members of the DWMA for the time being,"
"Cream and Amy are trapped as well, then?"
"Yes. Likely unharmed, just cutoff from us. As much as we're limited without him, at least Lord Death is looking after the students,"
"I'll put my faith in him, then," Vanilla sighed. She glanced at the others, then back to Starline. "Are the invaders after…"
"The kishin? Yes, I've filled everyone else in. Now that you're here, our chances have improved dramatically,"
"Then we better get going,"
The group continued through the halls led by Starline. A crash came from a distance; concerned glances were exchanged by the group.
"They've entered the crypt," Starline noted.
"Does that mean we've lost?" Tails asked.
"No. The kishin is deep inside the crypt under the city. It's a large facility that will take them some time to cross. We'll use that time to catch up and stop them,"
The DWMA remnants continued until they reached a massive opening that was torn into an already sprawling wall of the building. Reinforced metal doors were now bent and broken, revealing a wide, stone stairwell entrenched in darkness.
"What's that strange energy?" Tails asked.
"The kishin's chaos wavelength," Starline began as he led the group down the stairs. "You'll sense more of this power as we get closer. Despite being dormant, the kishin still emits a dreadful energy that will wear away at you. If our enemy manages to revive the kishin, the chaos will become even more intense. Madness will spread across the whole world,"
"No pressure, guys," Sonic joked.
Tails recalled his last dark power in the air now felt a lot like the power that came from Sonic's resonance that night. He wasn't certain, so he said nothing.
The group ran into a spacious entry room of sorts. The ground was composed of stone brick. Many different old statues sat on the room's perimeter. Tikal stood in front of the room's exit with a sadistic grin. Her party clothes were gone, replaced with the sleeveless black robe that revealed the markings on her arms.
"The school nurse really is a witch," Tails breathed with disbelief.
"They're splitting up to stall us. We'll break up our numbers accordingly. Running past an enemy to proceed will only create an opportunity for them to ambush the whole group.
"Vanilla, we'll keep Tikal entertained. The rest of you will go on ahead," Starline prepared to catch the death scythe once she began transforming. Soon, her body became a hammer that was as big as Starline himself. Starline grabbed the hammer from the air with ease.
"Tikal is planning on fighting all of us while the others proceed to the kishin. There's a second line of defense ahead as well,"
"The darkling," Sonic recognized the distant soul through his soul perception.
"Yes. Given all we know of the darkling, physical attacks aren't very useful. Cutting him with a blade will only cause him to bleed. His ability to control and weaponize his own blood makes him even more dangerous in that scenario. So here's the plan: Tails will fight the darkling while Blaze and Sonic move on to intercept the others,"
"Me?"
Tails was worried. He'd learned about the darkling after Shadow's injury. Such an unnaturally powerful enemy seemed beyond him.
"Blaze couldn't meaningfully damage the darkling during their last encounter despite her burning wavelength. Sonic and Shadow would be even worse off. Their witch hunter and Blaze's fire will be far more useful against the witches that are heading for the kishin. You, on the other hand, have a blunt weapon. You're also the only one who can attack using soul force.
"Feels good to finally be appreciated," Knuckles said.
"The darkling's blood is also his weapon, so focus on disrupting his resonance. Breaking his resonance will cause his blood to destabilize and he won't be able to attack anymore. If you use your soul force while keeping Knuckle's spikes in check, you'll win. Before that, we have to get you all past Tikal," Starline stepped forward, death-weapon in hand. "I'll create an opening. Don't try attacking; focus only on getting past her,"
"I'm more than happy to stand here chatting all day, but are you sure it's a good idea to let me hear your whole plan?"
"Tikal, don't you remember? We spoke about this earlier," Starline readied his weapon to begin a swing. "It doesn't matter what you know if you can't do anything about it!"
The hammer came down, sending a shockwave across the distance between Starline and Tikal. Chunks of rock were ripped out of the ground from the impact, transforming the smooth ground into a sea of jagged plateaus. Tikal stumbled when the ground beneath her shifted. She floated off of the ground by propping herself onto tendrils of her magical energy, then saw Sonic, Blaze, and Tails charge.
"Chaos arrows!"
Pointed tendrils of magic shot forth from the witch's arms and spread out into the air toward each of the meisters. Sonic and Blaze resonated to move more quickly. Both cleared the attacks then reached the exit. Tikal redirected any remaining arrows back at Tails, who was about to be hit by the first round. Tails used his tails to fly, and somehow gained enough speed of his own to dodge all the attacks.
"No, you don't!"
Tikal prepared to attack the three meisters while they had their backs turned, but she was stopped by Starline's approach. She had to stop her attack so she could dart out of the way of his open palm. Soul waves fizzled out into the air between them. Starline followed up with another hammer strike.
The corridor that Sonic, Blaze, and Tails were running down, shook violently with each strike of the hammer.
"Wow Tails, I didn't know you could fly this fast,"
"If I combine my flight with Knuckle's gliding ability, we move a lot quicker," Tails wobbled suddenly, making his speed for a moment before increasing again. "It's still tricky to maintain,"
"The darkling's close," Blaze announced.
"First one there gets to fight him!"
Sonic resonated with Shadow, then a blue energy surrounded him. His speed increased dramatically. Tails was left behind in no time.
"Sonic, wait!" Tails yelled.
"That idiot," Blaze resonated with Silver to boost her own speed and follow Sonic. Tails did his best to keep up.
The darkling sat in the middle of a large room filled with evenly spaced columns connecting to the ceiling. Staring at the entrance, he held onto the handle of his broadsword with the blade resting on the ground. Footsteps echoed through the tunnel before Sonic arrived, followed by Blaze soon after. They both stopped, and the cat approached the hedgehog looking annoyed.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Blaze demanded.
"Setting up a rematch," Sonic replied.
Tails exited the tunnel too. "Sonic! What about Starline's plan?"
"You know you're the least equipped to fight that thing" Blaze added.
Sonic's eyes were still fixed on the Darkling. "We'll see about that,"
Tails seemed unsure. Blaze stared ahead while considering how short on time they were. She stepped forward.
"If you want to get yourself killed, go ahead. Miles, you're with me,"
"Okay,"
"Looks like I get to bring these babies out after all!" Knuckles declared as two spikes emerged on the knuckles of his gauntlet form with a zing.
Tails followed Blaze once she decided to run at Eclipse. The darkling reacted by resonating and scraping his sword on the ground.
"Screech Alpha!"
A plume of black energy rose out of the ground, sliding towards the three meisters. A wailing mouth appeared from the dark energy. Blaze sent a fireball into the darkness, making both attacks erupt into smoke. Eclipse couldn't make out where each of his enemies were through the smog, and only found them once it was too late. Tails emerged high in the air overhead with Blaze jumping over the darkling completely. Both meisters continued onward. Sonic was left alone with the darkling.