"It began, with the sound of time, ticking…"

"The Multiverse…."

"Divided into 20 universes, they flow with life, with battles between races, between good and evil, right and wrong, the people's teachings spread to those they want, the blood they spill is their own choice…"

"This is about before all that."

"There was a void of nothing."

"Then there was the first Cycle."

The Roman numerical 1 appeared in red, glowing like a glass pane as the number lit up the floor below that clearly was made of glass itself, outlines of a picture barely seen. Shadowy whispers of red smoke escaped the light, shaped like wyverns, dragons and many other beasts.

"Leviathans. The Dis, the makers of the Thu'um. Ancalagon. Shinryu. Alduin…"

One red whisper formed into a dragon with four limbs and wings, landing neatly on a dark indigo clawed skeletal hand that had creaked open on seeing the dragon shape approach.

"Their older brother, Anachronos."

The red whisper dispersed as the hand closed shut.

"They fought. They had their feuds. Azrael ended it all. Beginning the next cycle. The second cycle."

The Roman numerical 2 appeared next to 1. A lighter red then the first.

From that light on the stone floor formed an outline of a garden with a large tree in the center. Little energy whispers shaped like birds flew around it. A human figure walked alone within.

"The child of the gods existed. Contained in safety that he never wanted. That one day would end. Lysander."

Another humanoid figure appeared at the edge of the garden, the gates leading into it disappeared, and the human within walked out, leaving the light and vanishing.

The Roman numerical 3 appeared, now the colour leaning towards orange as it beamed down to the ground.

Soldiers in power armor, their outlines marched into the light, firing on those with swords, giant humanoid beasts with clubs.

"The first war of Oni and Man. When people began to divide. When Lysander chose to hide...Anachronos had already done so. A part of him made of flesh. A part of him stored in the realm of the Abyss, the only link was a sphere of metal to the mortal realms."

"He watched and waited. Monitored and feeling out with the aid of the leviathan Smaug. Who had renamed him Vul Grohiik…"

More Roman numericals began to appear, each changing colour as light shone through them, circling around until the 12th number.

Then the 13th lit up, a light purple.

A sphere of energy, a collection of the whispers formed within the light.

"On the 13th. The sphere Vul Grohiik resided in reached out to an Angel. A servant of Azrael. He called to her to let him free. Smaug allowed it. With his breath, twenty weapons were forged."

The sphere burned in black fire, vanishing from view for a time. When the fire died...a sword was in it's place, floating there.

A longsword that was sheathed in a black leather casing that reflected a small part of the light shining on it. The hilt stuck up out of the sheath, dark as a starless night and the symbol of a wolf's head adorning both sides. No light reflected on it.

The sword floated out of the light of the 13th number. The skeletal hand gently wrapped itself around the handle.

"Vul Grohiik's name in their normal tongue. Dark Wolf. Twenty of them were forged, spread to each Universe. Vul Grohiik needed a constant link to each one, an essence of power that could flow between them effortlessly, allowing him to sense them all…"

The hand raised the blade out of the sheath. The blade forged of darkened silver, a faint reflection bounced off the sharp edges as the leathery case fell to the floor.

Causing a purple flame to erupt and spread out, lighting up the place as it burned away the darkness.

What was stood on that the lights were reaching was a circular stained glass platform. Showing an image of a man with twelve claws coming out of his back, his hair mixed between brown and purple, one eye golden, the other purple. A mad grin on his face. He was in the center of the piece holding the Dark Wolf before him...within the blade was an image of a demonic being, scales like a lizard, pale in colour with glowing purple eyes, a black robe and hood. Behind the head of the human figure was three glowing stars...and a forth, dark purple one in the middle of them.

Standing on the glass stained panel holding the sword was a creature that barely classed as humanoid. Teeth that ran from the bottom of it's torso to the top, a singular purple and black eye, purple hair, it's skin scaly violet and dark. Twelve tentacles adorned with purple crystal fragments and ending with sharp black scythe-like blades flowed from it's back. It's feet and hands were skeletal, sharpened claws, it's mouth almost going from ear to ear, a void when it opened, black slime dripped from it.

"I appeared. I existed at this point...I am…

...Xenomaker..."

The cavern within the Abyss.

Within this purple rock formed domain was a throne that had been craved into the wall over millions of years, time being an ample thing to the creature that lived here.

The being appeared to be humanoid in form, yet had pale blue scales for skin. Hair long and white, his eyes just pure purple entirely with no pupils. He was quite skinny and was about 7 feet tall wearing black fingerless gloves showing that he had just three digits like a Turian or Quarian. He was wearing a black robe to cover the rest of his body and coming out of his back were two pale blue and black lengths of flesh that went down the entirety of his back and his legs…they appeared to be long ago once wings, yet the bones had long been ripped out, leaving the skin that made up the wings hanging there.

He was sitting there, listening to the drips of water into the lake close by him, which was black in colour, from both the small stream coming from the entrance, and the condensed moisture from the ceiling above.

"Vul Grohiik. The one who brought me into this realm. Birthed as one of the most powerful Leviathans to exist in our multiverse, forced to hide in the shadows. A hollow shell of his former life. Slain by his own younger siblings Alduin and Shinryu. For every cycle till the 13th, he remained in this domain. Smaug was the only thing he spoke to. The souls within the lake were worn down and empty. All feelings, emotions, hints of life were drained dry. Leviathans no longer of any form of mind. They're useless shells still flickered with enough energy to feed him, but it will soon be no more."

Vul Grohiik got up from his self-made throne, his clawed feet scratched the ground as he walked over to the lake, each step echoing through this place until he bent down to one knee and placed one hand forwards to the waters.

A skeleton of a wyvern Leviathan rose from the lake, tiny fragments of flesh remained on it's bones and a small sphere of green energy flickered within it's ribcage.

The sphere escaped from it's prison and gently floated over to Vul, landing on his hand and being absorbed.

The bones dissolved, dust spreading out and vanishing into the lake. Vul Grohiik coughed, his hand went to his chest. A weak, dull pain still ebbed within him...a hunger he could no longer fully disperse. His survival was dependent on the souls power. It was the reason he could maintain this form. If he runs out, he'll simply fall apart...and Oblivion would claim him at last.

He focused on the lake again, swirling on it's surface was an image that slowly came into existence, showing Smaug, sitting upon this vast treasures. The Leviathan clearly resting at this time, eyes shut.

Vul's deep, dark cruel sounding voice echoed within the cave. "Smaug. My time grows short. I have few souls remaining. You said you will find a Leviathan who knew the art of Alok-Dilon."

Smaug opened his golden eyes, glancing around for a time. "Vul. Hmph." He rose up into a sitting posture, clearly annoyed that his nap had been disturbed. "Time has passed. The Angels of Azrael have forced many Leviathans to the shadow realms of cycles previous. I have yet to find any who even understand the concept of Necromancy."

"You are an ally of mine. My name will bring those we need."

"Much has changed. You are behind the times. Azrael can give me bounties of endless wealth. He knows how to keep me in his ranks. Perhaps when another day dawns I shall hunt again. Do not expect great results."

"I am dying."

"I can do nothing for that besides try. Now leave me, I must rest." With that, Smaug curled himself down into his piles of gold, silver and jewels, making sure to bury his head deep in the mountain of wealth.

Vul Grohiik snarled and whacked the water with his talon, instantly causing the image to vanish. "Fool! Does he not remember who I am!? What position I hold to our kind!? Will he truly risk my death!?"

He got himself up, glaring at the lake. "Once I regain my strength, once I regain my body of the mortal realm, I'll put him in his place!"

"Pfft."

Vul spun around to the pathway leading out of his home.

"He arrived. The spark. The one who formed the idea."

A figure in a black organization coat, complete with the hood up to hide himself, was leaning on the cave wall with his arms folded. "How are you gonna do that without him? Place a job listing in the Farplanes for any Leviathan that knows how to get souls? And what about the address? 'cave in the middle of fuck-knows-where, Abyss?'"

Vul quickly placed his hands out towards the figure, yelling out "SIL, LUN AUS! (Soul, Leech Suffer!)" Causing an image of mighty dragon's head created from light purple energy to come out of his hands towards the figure who got off the wall and flexed his arms a little before placing his hands forward towards the coming threat..

"Shichishi Tōki Dan!"

A powerful teal aura erupted from the figure, strings of pure energy striking around the cavern and causing the purple dragon head to simply disperse on impact with the mighty aura, an energy move that Vul wasted precious power on meant nothing compared to what power the figure held.

The aura terrified him in his weakened state, he fell back, shaking and staring in awe and fear of what was before him.

The figure spoke again. "...I have the power to obliterate you into nothing, not even a soul that'll get it's chance in Oblivion. I could make you not exist to this entire multiverse! I could end this now, Vul Grohiik." He said that with such, venom in his voice. Like he truly despised the leviathan for a very personal reason.

But just in the same timeframe as the aura flared it up, it now faded away. The figure lowered his arms down. "But if I do. That'll be the greatest mistake of my entire life...and fuck me it's already a got a truckload. Now listen to me, and listen close. Smaug will entertain visitors soon. Azrael and his Angels are coming to his lair."

The figure walked to the lake, standing at the edge of it. "Look in and see for yourself. See what you would've missed if you chose to rest."

Vul moved back over towards the lake, bending down once more and whilst trying to keep this dangerous stranger in view, forced it to show the vision of Smaug again.

Smaug was indeed awake now. Clearly his hope for a sleep were dashed…

As Azrael, in his mortal form as Zhuge Liang has walked into the lair of the beast. To his left was G-Man and Castiel, whilst to his right was Agent Smith and a woman with long brown hair, a white long dress that barely hid the voluptous body she held, Resha.

"In (Master). You have brought more then yourself for once. I did not expect your Zaam Draat's (Slave Tool's) to join you. Perhaps you wish to try and execute me? If so, what reason?"

"…So it is true father. You really do keep a Leviathan in this Universe." G-man had looked up at the face of Smaug, clearly impressed.

"Do not be concerned Smaug. They are merely here to assist me in finding a material worthy of a new weapon. A weapon that I want to implement in the destinies to come." Azrael calmly explained waving his beautiful white fan over his face.

"A new weapon hmm? I'm surprised you would need anything new. The last few cycles have been quite the routine for you. What else could you possibly need."

"A weapon for the next generation of the Fenir bloodline. I feel it is time they deserve a better chance, for when the next hero of the Primus bloodline comes along."

The figure near Vul was heard grunting with annoyance on hearing that.

Smaug looked away, disinterested. "You have the staffs that Fenrir uses. Use them as you always do. I do not need to waste my time."

"You dare to turn away from our father after his direct request to you?" Agent Smith took a few steps forward, looking at the Leviathan. "You dare to turn away from he who has created all?"

Smaug looked to him, his eyes glinting as he faced the angel. "I have accepted many of his requests before and rejected several as well. I am the master forger of those magical items you see across your Multiverse, 'Angel'. Do not cross me, and do not dare step beyond Azrael…I will gladly take it as a challenge."

Azrael then made sure to stay ahead of Smith, a simple wave of his fan and the Angel took a step back, bowing ever so slightly to show acknowledgment of Azrael's will. "I feel my request is important enough. May my angels look to see what we could forge the weapons from?"

Smaug focused his eyes on Azrael now and slowly lowered his head down, to the point his maw was on level with the god, the air escaping him was seen blowing by the creator. "If you really wish them to, very well. But do not blame me if they are not as competent as you or myself in finding the right material."

With that, the angels separated, looking through the ores the jewels, the strange objects that Smaug had collected over time. As they were doing this Azrael sat on and leaned on one of the piles of gold, close to the Leviathan as Smaug talked to him. "So why? You were always alone before, why allow them entry now?"

Azrael waved his fan once again and spoke in his normal calm collected manner. "I have chosen to because the first weapon made will go to G-man as it will be this Universe, Universe 10, I want to stray from the normal destiny the most. I want this descendant of Fenrir to have the greatest chance and I feel he will find the right materials to make the weapon for the duty."

"G-Man?" Smaug looked over to that particular Angel. It was clear he didn't want to touch anything, merely looking over the piles of items. "A disappointing choice. So if he is here to do so, what of the other three?"

"…Merely to keep you at bay, should you try and attack G-man."

Smaug snorted out a little. "Attack an angel before its god? That's quite amusing In (Master)."

"Shinryu has done it before. In the cycle previous. Mister Burke, an angel of Universe 8 was killed by him while I was attempting to corner that Leviathan myself. He escaped."

"So he lives then…" Smaug sounded surprised at this news, glancing out at the massive entrance-way to his lair, to the dark night outside.

Vul Grohiik clenched his talons at the mention of the name. "The youngest…"

There was several tense minutes of silence in the lair of Smaug, only disrupted by Resha and Castiel actually moving objects around to try and find something to use. Agent Smith was clearly in the same mind as G-Man on keeping a hands off approach to the matter, watching the Leviathan more then anything.

But in the cavern the hooded figure pointed to the image in the lake. "The woman. Resha. Focus on her."

Vul nodded and the image swirled and morphed until it was focused entirely on her as she was looking over piles of silver, picking through bracelets and circlets. "What of this Angel? She is not one I know of."

"You can sense it though, can't you?" The coated figure responded with. "She's close to it. If you wait too long, she'll move away and you'll lose this moment."

Vul looked to it. "What moment do you speak of?"

"...Freedom. Call to her. Say her name. Lure her in." The hooded figure sounded, angered that he had to say this.

But Vul decided to go along with this, that this might be a chance he won't get again. "Resha...come to me...Resha...I am here…"

Resha had stopped looking at the smaller trinkets and looked into the silver piles, beginning to dig through them, looking for something before stopping and stepping back, still clearly interested but trying to think of another way through.

"Keep, calling, her." The figure looked down at Vul.

"Resha...Come to me...Resha…"

With that she brought her hands forward, and the silver pile began to move by itself.

Smaug meanwhile had been watching the fan waving back and forth that Azrael held. A gift he had offered the god of creation as thanks for sparing him. "I see that is still in good condition. What of the necklace I made for your, 'lovely' lady?" He laced that with deep sarcasm.

Azrael remained silent.

"Oh? Having trouble are we? My most sincere apologies In. perhaps next time you would pick those you mate with more wisely." Smaug seemed amused that there was issues between the two most powerful beings, something Azrael noticed but chose to not comment on.

"Leviathan! Father! I have found an item I think we can use!" It was Resha.

Smaug easily turned himself to face where the female angel was, and begun moving over as did Azrael, towards the several huge piles of Silver objects and items. She was standing at the largest pile, right beside it holding onto a decent sized silvery orb which seemed to be a slight struggle for her even despite being an angel.

Smaug seen shocked at what she held, quickly leaning towards her, making her step back a little, as he spoke in a shocked angered tone. "That! That is…! I buried that deep in the largest piles of silver I have! How did you find it!? How did you even sense it!?"

This made Castiel and G-Man come over as quickly as possible worried that Smaug might attack her, hearing his voice throughout the massive hall. Smith meanwhile focused on remaining beside Azrael as they came over.

Resha answered him, holding the item close to her chest. "I was drawn to it...I was just looking at the pile, thinking to myself...and I kept hearing a faint whisper. I focused on that whisper, using my powers to pull it out and this is what came through. This, orb."

Smaug's anger quickly depleted. The shock remained though. "He spoke to you?" slowly he lifted his head up towering above Resha, Castiel, G-Man Smith and Azrael as they all gathered together. "He called to you, and you managed to reach out and grab him. Here I thought he wouldn't even be watching right now…"

"He?" Castiel asked.

"Yes. A spirit of dark power. I found him-"

The one near Vul spoke to him. "Soon Smaug will create swords from the orb containing you. Setting you out to the Multiverse. You need to be connected to them all."

"...How do you suggest I approach that?"

"I...don't know. A part of you." The figure sounded genuine on that answer. He truly had no idea how to do this.

But Vul Grohiik had an idea as he looked to the lake, making the image disperse for a moment. "A part of me...a fragment of my old shell." He placed his hand out to the lake. "It is like a fragment that never fully integrated back into me when I was divided into two, after my fall at the hands of my brothers. A strand of my soul that is not entirely of me anymore...I can divide it into each blade, allow it to connect to me without damaging myself any further."

It flowed out of the lake, a black worm that was shiny, slim covered and producing indigo colored mucus that slipped through Vul's talon back into the water. The thing barely fitted into his hand. It was feeling, searching, a faint purple aura flowed around it. A parasite or primal creature that had no real awareness of itself.

"Perfect."

The hooded figure in the cavern of Vul Grohiik turned and began walking away back to the entrance. "It's done then. You can handle the rest."

Vul held the worm and turned away from the lake, as the image returned to it's center whilst he wanted to see the person leaving. "You. I don't know who or what you are, but someday, I shall find out. When I do, I will gladly place you as one of my close allies in the rise of the Leviathans. I am now indebted to you."

The figure didn't look back, he continued on out and as he went out of sight of Vul, a stream of blue data seem to wash over him, making the organization coat vanish entirely, a datachip appeared in a human hand, a human who wore a blue shirt, black jacket and a necklace of a silver wolf's head. "We'll get too close...and I'll regret it."

Vul focused back on the image in the lake.

Azrael had walked over to Resha and placed his hand on the orb managing to lift it out of her hands and keep it in his grip despite it's smooth surface and heavy weight…something then clicked in his head. It felt familiar. It felt like the soul within was connected to something he knew of before. The Leviathans of old...a very specific family at that. He lifted the orb up using his powers, allowing it to escape his grip and to float towards Smaug who focused on it now.

"YOL, HAAL HEIM! (Fire, Hand Forge!)" Smaugs voice boomed throughout the hall, as a huge jet of blue flame launched from his mouth, engulfing the orb entirely, and making it seemingly disappear from view.

"The Dark Wolfs were created. I was placed in them all. Linked to Vul. I could hear him, those that held the swords. Resha, G-Man. They took them to each Universe."

"Vul Grohiik could now feed."

In the darkness, brief figures of purple flowed past, their brief screams of pain, loss, suffering, echoing out in the dark, then silence for each one.

"The swords were used. Mortals who deemed themselves worthy, those who were gifted the weapons by deities. Many of the Fenrir's held the blades. None truly knew how to use them correctly. When those who held the swords died. I felt them. Sensed them. Their failures, regrets."

"I felt them, but there was no understanding. I just knew it was a feeling, a reaction. They spoke to Vul Grohiik, he granted them power, and through them I sensed my existence...but no one could make me understand anything."

"For millions of years I kept getting these hints of life, nothing else. I knew Vul Grohiik was never impressed with those who held the swords. No one felt worth the time…"

"Then he appeared. The first of the 20."

A figure appeared in the darkness, a dull white light shining down on him.

Richard Wily. No more then aged at least 15. He stared out at the darkness. His face emotionless.

"I was not given to him though. As I was brought into his home, the hilt of the blade in the hand of his adopted father, I sensed the intention of replacement. An order of the deities. An order given to them...by the angels."

The shadowy silhouettes of Dr Wily and Dr Regal were seen just beyond the light around Richard, speaking to one another.

"A failure. We both have already long since moved on from her death yet he still allows it to halt any progress of his own. Have you got the dark chip?"

"...Father...Perhaps we're being too harsh on him. He knew her longer then us. They were in the same cell. Their bond was very strong and to lose her-"

"It matters not. Zuo Ci needs us to complete the task. Richard must be in play. Himself or another him. And judging from what I've seen, another him will have to do. I will not let our deity benefactor down. What of the blade?"

"I left it in Richard's room as a gift. He never touched it. I decided to remove it for now."

"Good. Get him into the labs and put him to sleep. We'll put the dark chip in then. Once it's complete and the dark soul begins to manifest we'll remove it via electrocution. Once complete we'll begin the next experiment."

"Another?"

"Yes. The boss wants to use a super child of advanced age for a hu-navi transformation. Richard fits the bill. Once complete, depending on the results, we'll either place him in the Hero Base or in Space Station RW10, one of the old stations near the galactic core. Out of sight out of mind. Any questions Regal?"

"No father. I'll get right on it."

Richard Wily seemed to just...dissolve away. In his place was himself, but his skin was noticeably paler, his hair a tint of purple, his iris colour of his eyes red. On his back he carried the Dark Wolf.

"This was a Dark Soul. A replacement. Lacking positive emotions but also lacking the hindrance of negative ones. He could easily adapt his appearance into what it should be."

In a blink, he was two years older, his hair now brown as were his eyes, and his skin a more healthy colour. His shirt was purple to the original's blue.

"Each day, he would place his hand on the hilt. Each day I felt him. A creature of anger, of hatred. It was a good feeling. Vul Grohiik was especially interested. He was the first one we took an interest in. He was the one we knew would harvest great souls for us. But he did more then that."

The scene seemed to just, come to life. Richard started to move as he stood in an ancient, grey decrepit temple. Small streams of water flow in through cracks in the ceiling, a dim blue moss was abundant in this place, with a plant made of red tinted leaves hanging over the walls and pillars that held this place up. The walls held writings of Chozo as well as images. Before himself was a small set of stone stairs that led to an altar, with a floating dark indigo orb emitting a faint purple aura.

In Universe 10, Darkmega and Richard along with an army of heartless were aboard one of the GF warships. They had left Earth X almost a week ago to seek out the next part of their destiny. Close to the Farside the other half of the currently known Universe.

A world that once belonged to the Chozo was the target. Darkmega wasn't sure where the information he had came from, but he was sure it was going to lead to something they could use. He didn't know he gained it from Sephiroth when he escaped from the space station, implanted into his mind.

They looked onto the walls of the temple, noticing writing on it, and pictures engraved into the stone…the writing was in Chozo and they couldn't make no head nor tail of it. But the pictures..

They showed a figure looking up into the sky holding the orb and above him into space was a planet, with two horns and an eye at the centre just opening. The next picture along showed the figure floating in space, next to this planet monster heading to another planet. The final picture along showed the monster planet's eye gone and replacing it was several sharp teeth, the horns were dug into the planet and had dragged it close to the monster…Unicron, the destroyer.

Darkmega had hung back. He was unsure about approaching the orb but suggested Richard instead do so. A cowardly 'better you then me' tactic but one that would prove to be a long lasting decision. As Richard got close to the orb whilst going up the steps he felt it's power aura. It was matching to his and Darkmega in many ways.

When he finally reached out and grabbed it with his hands…to him, for that moment, he suddenly found himself back within a dream he once had, summoned into this dream state by Blind Io to be given his next orders.

But the orb had been made with two small jagged chips in it, enough to cut his skin and allow it's full power to flow into him. It was there the Dark Wolf felt the power. The Dark Soul of Richard was created by Negative power that came from the Negative Multiverse of the 20, the primordial energy of Dark Souls. But his host was of Positive energy, this side of the Multiverse of 20.

The orb, a Sigil Stone, was the catalyst for triggering the successful merge of both. No longer in minor conflicts across his entire being it flowed into Richard and combined the two energies into one.

It gifted him with something he shouldn't have.

The bloodline of the Multiverses granted him the creation element.

Corruption.

Vul Grohiik could only vaguely sense it. The Dark Wolf, the part of him latched within sensed the new flow of power, but knew Richard couldn't feel the true potential of what he had...perhaps a failsafe by the deities, a precaution should the Sigil Stone prove disastrous. The Dark Wolf knew Richard was their plaything, their experiment on a new path...It was thinking for the first time.

Vul Grohiik noticed. He was sitting on his throne with his eyes shut. He could see what it saw, and now sense what it felt. "Interesting. The power of this orb has caused the straggling part of me to gain some minor sentience...Can you understand me?"

The Dark Wolf couldn't. It was struggling to understand what it was let alone understand it's true master.

Richard meanwhile had conversed with Blind Io and had returned to the temple with the two cuts on his hands, and no orb. Darkmega was very interested in what happened in that moment as he saw the dark power of the orb flow into Richard, and after the boy explained they could now summon Unicron, Heavens Judgement, Darkmega was smiling evilly at the idea.

"He gifted me life. Intentionally or not. As the weeks passed I could feel another part of Vul Grohiik. I could sense it beyond. At the time like my own existence I did not understand, but I could feel the mortal flesh, the rotting remains trapped in the depths of an ocean."

"The remains of Anachronos. It's mind was weak, dead. But with my need to seek more, I sparked something within. I gave it life."

"Back in Universe 10 though. Richard had begun his, destiny."

Everything was dark again.

Sparks briefly lit the room, the sound of two weapons clashing against one another. Again and again the sparks occurred and they did, two figures, their outlines begin to appear more and more visible.

One was of Richard, a purple outline revealed his form.

One was of Chad, his of the colour red.

"A blade that could absorb darkness. Each time I clashed against it I felt it's ability halt my power. His power. Vul Grohiik could feel it too. He knew of the blade before. The Primus legacy weapon. Each time I was swung, it gained strength. Richard was oblivious, his fury against this Chad Oswald was barely contained. He had a special hatred for this boy. His blood of Fenrir boiled and the Dark Soul's own mutations made it worse."

Richard was flung back on the last strike between him and Chad, his outline disappearing whilst Chad held his sword before him for a moment as if waiting for another attack, before putting it away and walking the opposite direction, his outline disappearing too.

"Darkmega failed. He was weakened by fear, allowing his positive host's emotions to surface where they never should've. He evolved incorrectly. But before that they were successful in bringing forth Unicron...all for naught. Chad stopped him. He proved his bloodline. The deities game was going the way they wanted."

The outline of Richard returned...twelve bone created claws stuck out of his back, rigid and hardly moving at first, but as moments passed, flesh seemed to grow on them, red raw almost bleeding flesh that divided the bones apart and made them very clearly more flexible now.

"Unicron left us a gift though. Zerg blood. The first set were merely appearance required, not of combat use. Richard changed them for that once he suffered defeat again. He wanted to gain the upper hand. He chose to give himself time, side with his enemies, pretend to be a friend."

"He tried to infect Chad with a dark soul, see if it would weaken him. During the war on a planet known as Earth V, it seemed to work...but before he could make any real move, the deities were watching."

Jie Ting. One of the many dormitories that were being used by the Hero Base at the time.

The room was in the dark. The candles were all out. Chad was laying on the bed of this place, in a deep state of rest. Kei was nearby...laying over the shattered remains of a table she had by the looks of it, smashed into before falling unconscious. Outside the now closed door of Chad's room were the knocked out forms of Mr Match and Fireman. Burn marks were seen in the hallway. Fireman proved a little struggle to subdue, but of the three in his way, that was the only one who proved a hindrance and a delay. Richard stood beside the bed, looking down at Chad. He had a plan in mind.

"To send you Cybertron. To where Unicron is being revived...If I do so, seeing you in person in this weakened state thanks to my dark soul would be most pleasing to when Diamas revives him. Heh, oh Chad, of all ways for you to end. It'll be a shame to be not by my own hand but I don't get to decide really. Blind Io wants you gone, and I have to deliver."

He failed to hear the door open. But he heard the voice of who it was.

"Chad, I sense you are not alright, is there a-"

Richard spun around in time to see Zuo Ci, as the deity had quickly placed one hand forward a divine blue-ish light quickly glowed in his palm before a beam fired, blinding Richard's view.

He felt a hole in him. He was on the floor as his view returned. His body twitched as his darkened blood puddled on the floor. He saw a flash as Zuo Ci made Mr Match, Fireman and Kei vanish away from here and was now lifting Chad up from the bed.

"Blind Io requires you to live Richard." Zuo Ci spoke in a cold manner to him as he turned around and began to leave with Chad in his arms. "But do not infect the child of destiny. That is not your role. You are the foil. Nothing else."

He was soon gone, and Richard felt himself get weaker. He knew he would heal from this. But it would take time. Too long for him to even try and salvage his idea...but what Zuo Ci said stuck to him hard. He was glaring at the doorway, teeth bared. "The...foil? Is that all you, think, I will be!? No...No I'll be something more...I'll...I'll…"

His world fell back into darkness.

"Chad was restored. He helped in the battle of Jie Ting. He fought Diamas and drew him away from his target. The Hylian retreated to Unicron's head, Chad and Darkmega in pursuit and was slain despite being granted the power of Unicron's data from Chaos. Chaos himself retreated. Richard was taken back to the base on Earth X and recovered in time."

"When he did any chance of Unicron's return was lost. Diamas had been revived for a time as one final test of skill against Chad but faltered. Any sign of Unicron now would be nothing more then a hollow shell. Richard simply retreated to his room. Anger fuelled him still, but without a plan he could do nothing. Zuo Ci had been merciful though, he had made Kei, Mr Match and Fireman forget his attack on them. As far as those of the Hero Base felt, he was on their side again."

"He used this as much as he could. He kept up a facade when he could. He would act like others were controlling him. He would fight Chad again and again. His power growing with each time siding with the enemies of the Primus line. When they failed, he would 'break' the control to return to the base. Sometimes death would take hold. But this was where Vul Grohiik came in. He would not allow Richard to rest. He pulled him from death, revived him again and again, making sure he would continue to entertain."

"Thanks to this act. Someone fell in love for him, wanting to help him stop being taken over. Believing she could be the answer to his 'weakness'."

Two shadowy figures appeared. Richard and Roll, her with a pink outline as she approached him whilst he stood there, looking seemingly out to nothing. She hugged him, holding him close.

"He played the act. He pretended to care. He showed a willingness to help her."

Richard slowly placed his arms around her, hugging her back in kind.

"But has he held her, he sensed something. A power within her that tried to reach him, that wanted to link with him. A power that was not welcome to his being, what he was. Instead he had a different idea of their relationship."

The twelve claws swung around and impaled into Roll's back and two in her head, an echo of a scream was heard as her body went rigid.

"She would be his power supply and his informant. To help him recover rapidly and to keep him updated on everyone here, especially Chad Oswald. No one would suspect anything. He would feed on her, erase her memory of their encounter after taking what information he wanted and leave her to slowly recover herself."

"She didn't catch on for a long time. She could never remember the damage he kept doing, the use of her body when he felt the need, both to vent his anger and to hear suffering. He gained pleasure from the pain of others, something I started to understand."

The vision disappeared and now it showed Roll standing with Chad. She was obviously speaking with him, then Richard appeared and her body movement suggested she went silent, keeping quiet as Richard put an arm around her and was now talking to Chad. The noise was nothing more then echoing whispers.

"When she showed hints of something wrong, when that power link she had attempted stopped. Richard was keeping closer to her the times he sided with the Hero Base. He tried to act like someone who truly wanted her love. When all he wanted was information, and a toy to use."

"But that ended when he made one last turn. When he chose to attack once again. This time he failed to erase her memories, too focused on his ambition at the time. She sought out Chad...and that unknown link came to life again. Not for Richard, but for him."

Now the image changed. Roll was holding Chad close, and as he eventually return the affection...her pink outline seemed to merge with Chad's, making his more brighter and brighter.

Richard's shadowy image quickly formed next to Roll, pulling her away and throwing her to the floor. His Dark Wolf was ready as Chad readied his Blade of Darkness. But the glow on him didn't fade despite being separated from Roll. He easily outfought Richard, smacking the Dark Wolf aside, slashing him across the chest and kicking him away before running over to her to check to see if she was okay.

Richard launched at him and both hit the ground. Richard trying to choke him whilst Chad socked him across the face with enough force that it knocked Richard off, giving the Primus descendent time to get up on his feet as Richard did and the former found the Dark Wolf impaling him. Fallen to his knees, Richard yanked the weapon out and was beginning to walk towards Roll.

Chad forced himself back on his feet. He turned to face Richard. He seemed to call out, making the zerg-hybrid shadow turn around.

The brightened energy outline seemed to flow around Chad's arm and fire out in a burst of an energy beam. Richard dissolved on contact with it. Then Roll and Chad vanished.

"They assumed a program they used killed him. Project Counter Light, built for a dangerous program known as Final Light. But while it played a part...that connection is what killed him, and hurt me as well as Vul Grohiik."

"Vul revived Richard, despite the pain it caused when he was hit by that energy. Upon his revival, a displacement in time had occurred. Darkrift. Here we witnessed signs of the future...and met those who would be our enemies. The Game Masters."

"One would be a future holder of me. Richard Chandos. His heart sought out Roll, the opposite of the one I was so used to. In doing so he eventually aided them in killing us in that realm, triggering the same power that destroyed us previously. Soon we found ourselves back in the correct place we should be, the feeling of the other swords returning to silence for now."

"We quickly got back to attacking those who we hated."

Once again the three were in play. Chad, Roll and Richard. This time Richard was beating Chad around, easily taking him down and seemingly slamming him against an invisible wall, holding him in place with his hand around his neck whilst Roll was almost curled up in fear.

A forth figure appeared, a young boy with a green outline around him who his shadow made him appear to look like Lan Light. But this, this was Blue Light. He dived on the back of Richard to get him off Chad. It was enough to distract the overmind as he pulled the kid off and threw him aside, granting Chad the time to rush him use his Blade of Darkness. They were both locked with their swords whilst Blue kept distracting him, using battlechips and even getting in on the sword fighting with a battlechip that created a sword of his own.

As both Blue and Chad were knocked aside, Roll finally stood up. A glow around her chest appeared, a whiter pink then her outline, and it then appeared on Chad too before she fired the same beam as Chad did before, and caused Richard to dissolve away again.

"The pain was severe. I felt it. I felt pain. Vul Grohiik revived him one last time."

There was only Richard now, as a beam seemed to come out of the darkness, striking him again. He fell to his knees reaching out as he began to dissolve. Vul Grohiik, his shadowy silhouette a deep purple, stumbled over towards Richard and reached out. But before he could touch him, Richard dissolved entirely.

"Richard was cast into Oblivion. Beyond the reach of Vul Grohiik. The Dark Wolf of Universe 10 was lost. But I followed him, a part of me. Our link was connected when he was wiped out, I was pulled in with him."

The scene now showed inside a dark grey entrance hall with a massive stairway leading up to the first floor of this unknown place. Around were several small corridors leading to unknown rooms and locations. Two massive grey wooden doors sealed shut made sure no one was leaving. The floor, the walls and the ceiling were all marble, shiny looking and plain. There were windows of clear glass that showed outside of this prison but all there was beyond them, was the void. There was silver candle holders on the walls all with singular candles, glowing brightly in this grim place, showing that the colour of the flame was washed out and dull.

Richard walked out of this place, down one corridor and disappearing…

The appearing again and walking down another.

Another and another he kept wandering around.

Shadows of those he knew appeared in this entranceway whenever he reappeared. They spoke to him, mocked him, everytime he tried to strike them his attacks phased through them. Torment on his failures, his mistakes.

He hated every moment of being here.

"Time was a lost meaning. If it existed, it was impossible to track. This place, I sensed it on the edge of all creation, the edge of the Multiverse. The last stop before he was gone."

But he couldn't leave. He couldn't die. This place fell to darkness once."

Richard was now seen sitting on the floor. The candles went out one at a time. He was clearly pissed off beyond anything, he was glaring at the wooden doors as they creaked open, showing the void beyond…

He knew it was time. This place was not to be anymore.

"...You think this is the end of me? Do you think this will be the last step? I won't let it. I'll survive the void itself. You hear me!? I'LL SURVIVE THE VOID!" Richard was shouting to himself as the last candle went out and the floor began to disappear. A part of him was afraid, but the rest...pure fury. Pure and utter hate-filled rage.

He was now in pitch black darkness. Silence.

Deadly silence.

He was within Oblivion itself.

A pillar of light in the distance, coming closer and closer.

"No…" he whispered to himself, knowing what it meant.

As it was almost upon him, he felt his mind open up. He felt the one last 'gift' to those in this place. The gift of infinite knowledge, to let them know of their Multiverse before it's finally over.

But the pillar of light stopped approaching. The light was still.

Footsteps. They echoed around him. Leather shoes. Heavy. Slow but with purpose.

"You've reached exactly where I wanted you."

Agent Smith walked around the side of Richard, and was soon in his view, turning to face him and looking down through his glasses. "You're the one Vul has been watching. That lost cause carries little control in the Multiverse yet he managed to get his hands on you, the one that Azrael wanted to change the game."

The Angel of Azrael bent down with his knees, looking right at Richard. "You'll either be useful to me as a tool to bring about my order, or simply a distraction to those soon to come...the creators. You know now, don't you?"

Richard didn't answer, but just looking at Smith's eyes confirmed what the Angel wanted to know. "You'll go back to your prison. Wait there until I call for you, or Vul finds a way. Think through our history. Realize what you'll be dealing with. They are beyond your petty fights with your Chad. More information will come each day, every second every minute you rot here...and you get to experience it. I envy you in some ways. I opened my mind once. Eons ago. It almost broke me...and now you get to do it every waking moment here."

Richard blinked.

He was back in the entranceway.

He seemed to just, sit there and wait. The candles were relit, and all was still.

Eventually the shadows returned. One in particular took the form of Roll. Approaching him from behind. "You betrayed me. You hurt me so much that I could ever forgive you."

"…" Richard slowly got up from where he was and chuckled a little.

"You ever stopped. You never wanted to stop it. I begged you so many times. I wanted you to survive but in the end you threw me aside."

The chuckling broke into loud and clear laughter, his head bending back slightly and arms outstretched to his sides, his claws non-moving.

She was now right behind him. "You laugh at this? At the pain you cause?"

That's when his purple aura flared up. He spun around, grabbed her by the throat and lifted her off the ground as the laughter abruptly stopped. A strong, purple glow appeared in his right eye as he looked right at her. "I got you."

"T...Thats not…"

"I never could before, because you were not real. You shadows are not real. But I've made you real." He reached out with his other hand, grabbed upper part of her left arm...and pulled it away. Slowly as she screamed out the clothing around it, her skin and flesh started to tear. "This power. This gift. I never noticed it until now. Now I know. The truth of it all."

Data fragments and blood came out of her as the bone was dislocated and pulled away, the flesh gave in and tore off. He threw the arm as he now reached up to her face, his thumb wedged into her mouth pressing against the top of it, two fingers each digging into her eyes as they eventually ruptured, the liquid within splashing on his other hand as he held her neck firm against her flailing. "The blood I'll spill. I'll remember it all. I'll write the truth on these walls. You'll be my meat. Every one of you shadows I'll make real. I have corruption...I am...corrupted."

He pulled, ripping the upper part of her head clean off and tossing it aside. The blood that produced small fragments of data washed over his hair and face. As he dropped her to the floor, he saw another Roll appear as well as other shadows such as Chad, Darkmega, the clones that were made from him. No more taunting. Only silence, and fear.

As he walked towards them though, he heard a whisper inside him. It gave him a momentary pause. It spoke like him, sounded like him. Like a recording of his history playing back.

'This, my "friend", is a one off…you never win against me, ever again, I swear…'

"I finally spoke. I finally had a voice. His corruption energy merged with me. I felt, life."

"But at first I merely echoed his words throughout his life. As he slaughtered each shadow, their blood on his hands. I spoke to him, taken from his past. Each kill fed me his life. Made me experience it. I kept speaking to him. Telling him of his past words making him remember it all clearly then the vast countless lives he now could recall. His creation, to Darkrift, to his deaths."

"But my words haunted him. He hated my voice. It weakened him as time went on, as the shadows remained real they started fighting back. He was confused, unable to focus. Pushed down into a place of no escape."

A light appeared in the darkness. The shadow outline of Richard was there with it's purple outline aura, his back against an invisible wall as he was panting. Shadows of other Richards, Chads and Blues were surrounding him, weapons ready as they approached.

He begged the voice to stop reminding him of his own past. He wanted it to speak to him, not from him.

"Corruption surged in me at that moment. I finally formed my own sentences to him. I knew what he was."

"You're a mistake. You have become one. A mistake to this Multiverse. An error they cannot destroy forever. Stand. Accept what you are. Forge our path. We, shall be our creators."

The outline of Richard was seen laughing, smiling in utter madness as he moved off the wall...before he lunged at the other shadows, and darkness returned.

"It drove him on. It sparked him with the purpose he sought."

"One hundred. Three hundred. Six hundred. A thousand. Two thousand. Seven thousand. Ten thousand. More and more shadows he kept hunting. He kept killing. I could feel the kills. The pleasure he got from it, the blood on the walls looked so beautiful. The terrified looks on their faces before he tortured them. Wonderful."

"Whilst he killed, I could sense the other swords, the other fragments of me. New handlers for all but one that needed to wait a little longer. I could sense them, their differences to this one. Weakness, kindness, hopes...They were nothing like this. They held little power to him. The rage and madness in him reflected on me, and it even reached out to the part of me that was elsewhere. The other half of Anachronos I controlled."

"There I sensed the last one. The final handler. He was coming. And through those memories and history of the Multiverse...I knew who he was. He entered a place known as Pandora's Box. A facility on his homeworld made to link to our Multiverse."

A giant metal chamber, reinforced with many kinds of metal. All that was within this place, lit by several dull blue tube lights on the ceiling was the rotting corpse of a golden dragon. It's maw bare bones as was it's ribs and two of it's legs. It's wings barely had flesh on them, it's tail in the same state. It had one singular eye that was pure white, horns that were broken and useless.

Small blood stains littered the floor around it. Not of the dragons. Humans who got too close. They were afraid of it. As they should be. It ran on an instinctual level of defending itself. It's tainted blood had infected humans here on this world. Many placed in this underground fortress. Mad from being blessed by it's blood.

But today something else came. Something that awoke it.

It could hear the voices from beyond the human sized steel fortified door.

"-to become the major weapon for an evil character named Richard Wily in a story that has been created by a joint effort between you and Chad Oswald. A story that took years to do and yet was simply made up, as you both went along. It had several cast members in that were the major characters while all others were supporters. One of the major cast members was a Net Navi called Roll. Someone you have rather a fond attachment to as we managed to find your name on one particular fansite, which was made dedicated to Rol-"

"-Let's just stop this and say you do know everything about me."

"We know alot. But not everything."

Outside in the dimly lit hallway filled with doors exactly the same as it's own, eight people were walking towards it's door. It knew most of them just it's sense alone.

A woman with long green hair, red eyes and white skin wearing a black office-like suit. Pandora.

A bulky man with cybernetic arms and legs, wearing a military patterned unifrom and buzzcut blond hair. Khamsin.

A woman in a white uniform with flat white shoes and gloves to match, golden buttons down the left side, red lens glasses covering her red iris eyes, pale skin and purple medium length hair. Medina.

Four scientists with them. Regular ones they cycled around this place. Been lucky to avoid the dragon so far.

But the eighth person. A man, 22 years old. The dragon slowly shifted it's corpse towards the door, the scraping of it's flesh and bones was not silent, but compared to the noises of the fans in this place and the thickness of the doors, it was hard to pick up.

"Tell me Richard, do you still believe in the idea of an Omniverse? That there are Universes, Multiverses, of all possibilities?" Pandora was heard asking.

That was enough. The part of it within the depths of Oblivion had heard the faintest of whispers of that name and linked up to the body which shook for a moment...before it leaned closer to the door.

"Well yeah. There has to be more then just our Universe. I always firmly believed that. But-"

The footsteps were getting closer.

Richard felt a foreboding sense here. Every door he went by something was off…very off. There were, screams, beast like roars, human laughter. It all felt like a nightmare with each door he passed.

The dragon, the Leviathan, it knew they were extensions. Infected victims who had mutated.

Some were eerily silent thankfully for the guy but one, one, as they reached the middle of the hallway drew his attention the most.

There was no noise, only silence from within. He gently put his hand on the door, and leaned on it, putting his ear on the cold metal.

…Nothing.

For a dozen seconds, nothing. But he could sense something, something was inside there.

The undead beast leaned against the door. It felt him...and knew what he was.

The Game Master.

A huge, mighty frightening roar came from the undead creature making Richard catapult back in terror hitting the floor and scrambling backwards until his back was pressed against the wall, panting like crazy.

Khamsin, Pandora, Medina and the scientists were all shocked by this causing them to stop heading off and rushing back. Pandora rushed over to the door checking it, before then turned her attention to Richard, stepping over to him. One of the scientists quickly spoke up. "Pandora, that's subjects-"

"-10's room I know. The door is locked, right?"

Khamsin checked it quickly. "Sealed up tight."

"Then…what did you do, Richard?" Pandora bent down towards the boy, looking at him carefully.

Then, they all heard a voice, from that room, a deep, echoing voice. "Hi. Hi los gein do niin. gein fos los dii hokoron. Hokoron do mok. Zu'u fen oblaan hi." ("You. You are one of them. The ones which are my enemy. Enemy of him. I will end you.")

This certainly shocked the scientists. Whilst they didn't understand it's language just it speaking alone was enough of a surprise. "I don't believe it. It actually attempted communication without anyone being inside…Shane, go and check on the camera feed on 10!"

Pandora turned to the other three scientists as the one called Shane left. "Go and check on everything, make sure we're ready for a breach if 10 starts moving."

The scientists were soon gone, leaving Khamsin, Pandora, Medina and Richard alone, who began to stand up now shaking badly on his feet. "Je-jesus fuck. What, what in gods name do you have down here!?"

The leviathan within though wanted him. It needed to destroy him. It's blinded eye turned purple, it's body shaking as every infected subject within this place felt it's rage, it's need to kill.

Medina was checking to see if Richard was okay, whilst Pandora quickly got a small mobile like device out of her pocket. "Report."

A male voice spoke to her. "Ma'am! We're going into critical alert! Subject 10 is causing some-kind of widespread effect on all humanoid subjects here!"

They heard it now, the screaming getting louder, the roars becoming clearer.

Pandora looked around, her face beginning to fill with fear. "No. No no no! Ready all combat units! Get the gateway activated! We need to get Richard across! That's our priority!"

The four managed to get moving, Pandora forcing Richard to move as things were going to hell quickly. The last thing she saw in the hallway when she looked back, was one door bending outwards to the hallway, a white clawed hand tearing through it.

"The humans I could feel tried to reach him. But they were humans. Barely able to survive bullets. Their corpses piled up in the room that contained the way back to the Multiverse. My undead shell remained. The last. I chose to wait again. But now I had control. I felt control."

"Once he entered Universe 8, the last sword was summoned to him. Vul Grohiik felt his power, the potential of what has been brought over."

The darkness had returned for a moment, then a grey light above appeared showing the stone floor that now had the crumpled, destroyed remains of the Reploid Sigma. Appearing close to him were the shadow figures of Dr Wily, Dr Eggman, the Reploid Vile, and a humanoid creature that appeared to have signs of having the alien species known as Symbiotes on him, wires sticking out a heavily modified mutated arm, sharp claws for hands. Then there was the shadow figure in front of them and before the body of Sigma. The Game Master Richard, who was pointing the sword towards the body.

"He controlled corruption. Vul Grohiik was able to feed off that gift using it to access souls not within the lake, but within the Farplanes, Lifestreams and the Abyss."

The dark energy of corruption flowed out of the blade and around the body of Sigma that was being rebuilt and restored, leading to Sigma being fully reactivated. He seemed to look at each of those before him and was speaking as they faded away, before the remains of a giant ruined mobile suit materialized into view, the shadow of the Game Master Richard standing on it, looking down at the now visible shadows of Game Master Chad and Blue.

"Congratulations on defeating Sigma…rest assured, this time he ISN'T coming back."

Chad seemed shocked at seeing Richard there whilst Blue quickly got his sword ready should they get attacked. "Richard? B-but how...why are you...?"

"How many times have I said it back home Chad…there's always two sides to everything. Good and evil. Ying and yang. Dumb and smart. Short and tall." The shadow of Richard's mouth was clearly seen smirking on that. "I could go on you know."

Chad was clearly frowning on hearing the last two comparsions. "Well at least that confirms it's certainly you. Please don't go on."

"Alright alright. So I'm guessing you can figure out why I'm here?" Richard asked them.

Blue was the quickest to answer. "You decided to join the villians didn't you...of all the stupid things to do Richard..."

Chad was in agreement, clearly annoyed by his friends decision. "Damnit this isn't just a story Richard. We're in it! For actual real we're in it! You can't just go on the opposite side!"

Richard gave a small laugh, shaking his head as he did. "But I can Chad. I know which side is the better one to work with. As you said, we're in it. So as our stories are normally set up i'm a villain. And this time villans are gonna stand victorious."

The grey light faded out and the shadows vanished.

"Soon he would lose this original last name. He would be granted the same as Dr Wily's. Vul would listen to everything the Game Master wanted, help him gain the souls he sought...and in exchange, he would begin to drain the corruption user of memories, little by little, hollowing him out and weakening his will so eventually he can take control entirely."

A white light illumnated a large circle of the stone floor. There was the shadow figures of Lucy Valentine, Captain Falcon and two of the Belmont clan: Simon and Simone, the latter of questionable lineage. They were clearly speaking to one another when the shadow of Richard the Game Master walked into the light. Which got all of their attention. Lucy made sure to be in his way to the others.

"...Richard..." Lucy stared at him, her hand was close to a gun holsted at her waist.

Richard held his arms out, taking a few more steps forward. "No hug for an old friend?"

With that alone Lucy pulled out her gun aiming right at him. "After the last time we met NOW you want to play up our friendship?! You tried to kill Chad and Blue! You were willing to attack me!"

"I take it that's a 'no' then?"

An energy shot rang out...the infused bullet rushed by his face, an inch from contact.

There was silence between them, before Richard sighed and lowered his arms. "Lucy-"

"You've betrayed us! Betrayed ME! You promised me that would you be there and then you left! You decide to work for Dr Wily because you like him! You're siding with those that want us dead Richard!"

Richard was silent.

"I'm so glad Ariel isn't here. If she saw you now, she would abandon you in disgust." Lucy spoke with such, hurt and venom in her voice.

And Richard was smiling. He was chuckling as he asked her "I'm sorry. Who's Ariel? As in the little mermaid Ariel? Heck I'd turn her into fish fingers if I met her."

"Ariel Williams!?" She blurted out.

"...Ariel Williams?"

"Your girlfriend on Earth!?"

Richard was even more amused now. "Oh and here I thought my speech skill level was bad. Whilst I like your little lie about promising you to not leave, this whole Ariel character is quite a stretch. Let me guess, she's blonde, long haired, green eyed-"

"She was a red head! You loved her!"

"Look let's cut this short okay? It's making me feel bad that you're trying to make up someone for me." He aimed the Dark Wolf towards her. "I just came to see how much I'll make Chad snap when I make your soul a part of the Dark Wolf."

With that Simon brandished his whip and launched it towards Richard, the light disappeared as did the shadows.

"Soon he was killing for the sake of killing, his reasons becoming less understanding. Mostly he would fall back to the excuse of 'trolling', an answer to lighten his own thoughts on the kills he did in the name of Dr Wily. Vul never understood, he questioned it as the references the boy used made little sense, but in time it was obvious it mattered not."

Another light appeared, dark blue, as the Game Master appeared in it along with numerous other shadows that seemed to walk or rush into the light, hacking them down. No matter the age, their profession, gender or reasons. They would fall. Some would appeared close to him and were obviously thanking him, one event showed a woman and her child, both so grateful he had saved them from something...but they fell to him to his enjoyment.

"But he clung onto parts that Vul Grohiik could never fully pull away."

The light flickered, and now Richard was standing there, Dark Wolf resting on his shoulder holding out a notepad and looking at it for a moment before a Shadow of Roll the Net Navi formed behind him.

He sighed in annoyance without looking at the figure as he tucked the notepad away in his black coat. "Seems like next on my list is Kicking someone's ass for sneaking up on me." He turned around and seemed stunned by who it was...it got to him for a moment before he tightened his grip on the hilt and swung the blade down at her. She vanished as the blade connected. "Fake...knew it had to be. No way she would be..."

He heard clapping and turned to see a shadow of a woman with long black hair and green eyes form close by in the light, a kind hearted cute look to her face who she was wearing a red and black long-sleeved top along with a black skirt and black boots. She went by the name Celia. "Well well…you don't let your eyes and emotions fool you afterall."

Richard readied the sword in his hands, prepared to strike her down. "Emotions? Don't kid yourself; trying to fool me with some Net-Navigator isn't going to work."

"No…do not try and fool me Richard Chandos."

"Wily." Richard quickly corrected her, looking annoyed at her use of his true name. "It's Richard Wily now…I threw away all ties to that boring normal life the moment I entered this universe."

Celia smiled in amusement, taking a few slow steps around him. "Oh really? Do you know how Chad survived that fall when you fought him recently? Death himself then gave him another chance."

Richard stayed silent as she continued "Now, in yours and his 'story', Chad had his character version so distraught by the troubles of fighting evil and the chaos and destruction it brought that anytime Anna got killed or something happened to her…he'd no longer want to live. Am I right?"

"Yeah, it added to the character development of that hero. Showing how he couldn't handle it and that was his support. So killing her would break him. What about it?"

Celia smirked at Richard "Now the one time you had the chance to end it…instead of killing him like he asked for after her death, you saved him by sending him to Death so he could have another chance at restoring things."

Richard looked at her silent for a moment before laughing, shaking his head in disbelief and lowering his sword. "You're serious aren't you? You think I know how to reach out to Death to send Chad to him? In order to save him when that annoyance is the reason my side is not having an easy ride in taking over this damn Universe?"

"You say you threw away all ties…but part of you, even at a subconscious level, still wanted to save your friend. Like your feelings for that Navi remain strong despite you knowing she would fight you for what you stand for."

Richard pointed the Dark Wolf right at her now, his voice turning dark and full of quiet anger. "What the hell, do you want woman? Because right now I'm on the verge of striking you down."

"You're not like most of the villains."

"I could name a few that I'm like."

"You however…you wish to remove right and wrong from the universe, a place where only darkness rules thereby removing conflict completely and bringing eternal peace."

"Going somewhere with this are we?"

Celia still kept that smile. "Align yourself to the true, original Chaos Lord…when the time comes that you find yourself about to fall into destruction, wish for that universe you envision and you will earn the right to create that new world from him."

Lysander.

Richard lowered the sword again blinking in surprise and taking a step back. That voice...it was in his mind, a brief voice. It felt like it came from the Dark Wolf but it was not the soul within. It sounded...familiar.

He had looked to the blade and on looking up, Celia had vanished.

"…I REALLY hate when people do that."

"The Net Navi. Her name kept him from slipping into Vul's control. A link to his past that would not break. I would Vul curse, I would hear him complain, he would mention her name over and over..."

"Two years since the Game Master arrived, Vul Grohiik, the form I was once a part of I now wished to look away from had arrived in Oblivion. I knew how. I sensed the Sigil Stone and the energy Vul used from it."

"Never being able to fully utilise the power of Corruption."

"The Game Master had been a useful pawn to him. He was trying to hollow out his memories and feelings, trying to make him into a replacement tool for the loss of the one in Universe 10. It was proving difficult, so instead Vul decided to seek the one in Oblivion out. To bring him back to the fold."

"You've been isolated for so long! You can't fight! You're useless! No wonder the voice doesn't speak to you!"

The mansion that formed in Oblivion held a garden of death. The trees, flowers and bushes were all black but the cobblestone pathway which was a dull grey, washed with darkened blood. A water fountain stuffed with guts and remains, dribbling blood from it's pipes.

Vul Grohiik put his claws together, stretching his arms out, releasing from both of his palms a huge wave of black energy, which seemed to completely make Richard vanish from his view. "Do NOT test me human-"

Richard had suddenly elbowed him right in the head from the left side as he had easily outmanoeuvred the energy attack. He then as Vul Grohiik tried to register what had occurred, grabbed the Leviathans arm and flung him into the nearby wall, causing it to crack heavily and indent before the being slid to the ground.

He didn't even get any time to get up this time as Richard ran over and smashed his knee right into Vuls face, knocking the sense out of the Leviathan before grabbing him by the neck and lifting him high off the ground, glaring in pure hate. "Look at you now! The so called apex race! You're nothing to it! Just another to collect thoughts...to...collect…"

"I could feel his heartbeats. I could feel him more now. His fingertips, the sweat, the blood dried to his skin. We were almost one. He chose to show Vul the truth. The words I gave onto him to write, a vision I saw whilst we waited at the edge of Oblivion, of the Void:"

A circle of light appeared once more.

"Tools. Tools. We are but tools. Puppets. Nothing more. One came first."

Walking into the light was Chad Oswald, silhouette of him with a red outline. Then beside him came Richard the Game Master and Blue and Game Master, with blue and green outline respectively.

"Others came after without knowledge of who came first."

Two more circles of light appeared. Two more sets of these three appeared, one of each in each light.

It was set up like they were the edges of a triangle.

"No gods. Never gods. Born from a corrupted beginning. The Game Masters, The Hero Base, separation but the same. Enemies to the essence that came from the first ones that made the start, enemies to it."

A dark purple wave of dust seemed to skim off the edge of the circle of the first light. Flowing to the middle of the triangle and rising up into a nebula, touching the edges of all three circles of light.

"Victory will be found in the first, but untold."

The nebula seemed to retreat from the first circle of light as that Chad, Richard and Blue turned to face it and eventually fade away...but the other two circles, it seemed to begin to enter, one more so then the other. A purple eye appeared in the middle of this cloud of darkness.

"The others will shift, the unknown awaits."

"In my, developing form I did not fully understand what I had told him. But we had our target. The unknown, the only way that could be achieved."

"Through unmaking what is made."

"Our targets were them. They played a role."

The silhouette of Richard appeared as did the one of Chad, who clearly held the Blade of Darkness at the ready and his voice was heard echoing across this infinite plain, yelling out "RICHARD!"

The zerg claws of the shadow seemed to twitch before it responded whilst all relaxed and clearly not showing any signs of being ready for a fight. The right eye of shadow seemed to glow now though, a purple hue appeared in it. "Chaddy boy. Oh how I wondered when the day would come we would meet. Say my name again. This time my full name. Acknowledge me. I want to hear the hate in you, knowing who I am."

"Nah, I don't think I will. It's only because you proved your strength already that your getting all overconfident, but this time you're not gonna beat me."

Richard rushed at Chad who had to used his blade to halt all twelve claws as they had shot forward and clashed with the weapon. Richard was clearly smirking as Chad was struggling to hold him back. "This time, THIS time, he isn't here to stop me and nor is she...Without them, I will not die."

The silhouette of Richard seemed to flicker and move now turned to the left, as the one of Chad vanished. It was now facing one of Blue. "Corruption. it's a dangerous gift isn't it? you feel like it's yours yet it begins to cause ripples, damage to other lives, destinies and dreams. It grants you a sense of purpose, of ability...and with it, suffering like you can't imagine."

Blue was quick to get ready for a fight, sword ready. "What do you want?"

Richard slowly walked around Blue, keeping his distance as he did. "That heart of yours, so mighty and powerful yet...your alone Blue. Eventually it will show itself to you. Reality will grab you tight. No corruption gift will help you. Who says the others don't hide things from you? Would rather keep you in the dark? Afterall with such a brave spirit being given off...why should they say anything? ...Why bother, then the person is willing to just follow and tag along like a good tool? A tool to be thrown aside when all is said and done."

Blue seemed to pause for a moment, before focusing and keeping himself facing Richard as he moved around. "Y'know what? I really don't care. I'm just going to keep doing what i choose, if that fits in with someone else's plans then oh well. I'm NOT giving up on anyone i care about!"

Blue rushed at him but soon disappeared as Richard flickered and turned once more, now an outline of Richard the Game Master appeared. Unlike the last two, he was clearly hesitant on the fact the dark soul was here. The one who had faced the other two slowly approached him and spoke in a mocking pitying voice. "It's so sad, isn't it? That you are one of the people who made everyone i knew, suffer so much, by your little cliches and ideas…How many more times will you fail her? How many more times will a version of her suffer by our hands, those who came from you?"

As the one with the purple eyes stood before him, Richard tried to look away, almost in shame, his fists clenched up. "I, I didn't mean to…"

The dark soul gave a nasty chuckle as he walked around the Game Master. "You did though. Afterall...you wrote it with Chad didn't you? You meant it. You brought the pain here. Roll's suffering was all down to you. you damaged her forever. You wrote that I hurt her again and again. Then, when you finally met her in that realm, that Darkrift...you proclaimed to be her guardian angel. Then you caused the agony they suffered there by trying to take her for your own desires!"

The Game Master looked to the other, in a panic. "No! No I didn't mean to at all I just...I just wanted…" He felt his strength weaken. "I just thought I could. I might be able to help her heal…"

"Heal? Heal damage that will be undone when everything returned to normal!? You really can't be that dumb! You made it all happen, both there AND here! You hurt her! You know what's the best thing though? The best bit of all this with Darkrift?" The dark soul stopped in front of Richard, who was shaking more and more as he remembered each bit of horror he put Roll through.

The dark soul leaned in and whispered into his left ear. "She remembered it all. Years later."

As the dark soul leaned back the Game Master was locked in a state of horrifying realization.

"After so many nightmares of me something clicked in place...and she remembered you. That only made it all the worse. She felt mixed feelings. She didn't understand, Chad couldn't understand, combined with the nightmares of me forever haunting her she now had these warm loving feelings towards you tugging at her. She didn't die peacefully. only in the Farplanes did she finally gain real rest...but all those years, all those nights...What a tragic ending."

Richard fell to his knees, staring at the dark soul for a time before slowly looking down at his hands. "I...I…"

"And thus, the truth. You are the reason peace didn't last. you are the cause of the battles. you are the creator of the chaos in their lives…But through all of it, you are here. Where you should be. It came to pass for your destiny." The Dark Soul walked a little closer, standing right before the Game Master, who slowly looked up at him. A third shadow had appeared beside the Dark Soul, whispering the words he said like a haunting echo, only one eye of this shadow was glowing. "You are the inescapable result, of all that pain that was made…"

The Dark Soul brought his hand forward, touching the cheek of the Game Master, cupping it almost. The shadow beside him mimicking.

"Just am I, am the inescapable result...of you…"

The figures disappeared to then reappear in different positions, standing across one another as the darkness gave way to a scene of a barren land, moist mud and soil with few fragments of grass, darken clouds overhead, the distant rumbles of thunder.

Around this land they stood were the old wreckages of buildings, with one in particular being close by that was a cubed shaped building, made entirely of reflective glass on the outside making it seemingly glow in the light of the twin moons that found the gaps within the gathering clouds of this world that was coming to life, despite the moss and grime that covered a fair part of it.

"Your sword is but an empty shell now, Richard Chandos. I have chosen as the superior being for the task ahead...the ending of the Multiverse." The silhouette of Richard spoke to the Game Master once again.

"But-But I made...I created…"

"You created the blade through corruption? No, It already existed...simply coming to you because you called it. Give them over Richard. You have no power here. Let your terror swallow you up again. I can see clearly. You are right to fear me."

"What, what do you intend to do with them?" The Game Master shakily asked.

Richard looked over to the distance, a large group of shadows stood there, vague in shape. This was Starforce. "My first task will be to destroy them. That won't take long."

Then he looked at Iris who appeared behind the Game Master as a shadow, but hers was outline with a teal aura. "With her, I'll torture her, rip her body open, show the other precious members of her family that they are worthless and mortal. I'll connect my body to her heart and mind, force her to live as I slowly decapitate her into small parts bottom to top...her head to be given to Blue, letting him know I've killed the one who pulled his leash before. A comfort to him before I kill him."

Then he looked at Lucy, another shadow behind the Game Master, but her outline was a rose colour. "With Lucy, she's be like Roll once was...Before I turned against them all once again, what I did to her...breaking her body, abusing it, beating it, slicing at it, so much so that she remained terrified of me for the rest of her life, a scar that you only made worse. I remembered Chads rage, it was satisfying. I want to do the same to Lucy."

Lucy seemed to move a little closer to the Richard she knew.

"And you know why I want to, don't you? That special connection. I want her to scream his name, her pleas reaching his heart, hurting him...I want to feel it, feel that power that defeated me before, then I'll conquer it, and kill Chad before her...and maybe you as well. You can watch it all if you want, or you can now walk away."

The Game Master stared at his own nightmare. Another shadow, a replica of the one beside the zerg-hybrid seemed to appear, moving closer and closer showing that the Game Master was on the verge of crumbling and giving in. The fear too much to take.

The replica shadow died as a hand went on his shoulder. He looked back noticing it was Iris's hand. "Richard. Don't let him get to you. I'm here with you, so is Lucy, and Starforce."

"I...Iris…"

"You can't let him beat you Richard. You know he can be defeated. You can fight him."

The Game Master looked down towards the ground. "...I failed Roll when she needed me, I failed Misora when she needed me, both because of him…"

"Please fight him. For us...For her."

Again, he returned to silence. Slowly though, he turned his head glancing at his counterpart, before Chandos gently put his hand on Iris' that was still on his shoulder to show support. "You two, move away…"

Iris moved her hand and both her and Lucy did so, taking several steps back.

"...I can't beat you with my blade. I refuse to use corruption again not after seeing the pain it causes...But I can't run away. I won't. I'm scared, damn scared, but if I don't kick your fucking ass I'll fail two more people I care about. She'll never forgive me and I can never call myself her guardian angel...not if I don't fight what broke her down."

The shadow of Richard seemed amused at this. "Not use corruption? Isn't that what you Gamemasters are for? To use that power? You have nothing then. Nothing to stop me from getting to them. Chad and Blue couldn't stop me WITH corruption, what makes you think without it you stand a chance?!"

Richard Chandos yelled out clenching his fists tightly, "SHICHISHI TOKI DAN!"

From his deep blue outline a mixture of it and a teal aura burst out of him surrounding him in its glow, as he slowly relaxed his hands and brought them forward, getting into a defensive combat stance that seemed to show like he was relaxed.

"You made the wrong choice." The shadow of Richard responded with as his claws seem to twitch about for a moment as if waking themselves up.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I know with Starforce bound to join in should I have difficulty along with the rest of their members eventually coming, AND no doubt Chad and Blue returning? You're certainly gonna have a very hard time trying to get to these ladies!"

With that, he and his counterpart charged at one another. The Dark Soul was attacking whilst it's mimic simply stayed beside it. He was using his claws, hands and the Dark Wolf whilst the Game Master Richard was using his hands, the art of Hokuto, to fight back before getting smacked around, taking blow after blow. It was clear that whilst he had skill of using the art, the dark soul knew of the moves and how to avoid them and what they aimed for.

"The battle between us and them reached it's peak."

Chandos managed to get a strike in though, smacking the Dark Soul back before the Game Master fell to his hands and knees clearly in pain, panting and struggling to get back up as Iris helped the Game Master on his feet and helped him bring his arm up with a metal crest in his hand, the crest of the net navi roll, a pink outline around that as a bright purple energy shot fired out of it destroying itself but striking the dark soul right through the chest, making the zerg-hybrid fall to one knee for a moment, the hole slowly healing.

He was back on his feet whilst Iris stood with the Game Master as well as Lucy, both standing before him as if trying to keep him from the Dark Soul.

As the Overmind was about to attack, a massive red beam of energy struck from the side of Lucy at it, whilst a powerful ball of fiery energy flew in from the side of Iris and struck the soul at the same time, causing it to reel back in pain and move back. Giving the two that attacked, Chad and Blue, time to quickly get in front of the other three weapons drawn.

Richard wasted no time with going toe to toe with the two Game Masters, the other three keeping back.

"But I felt it. I felt us weaken. The mortal shell he was damaged, now those what helped enhance his power, the Sigil Stones, were destroyed by the attack caused by that crest. He held the orbs within to increase the control of Corruption, but without them, he was losing his edge."

He forced Blue back and out of the fight, now focusing on Chad. His Dark Wolf clashed with the Blade of Darkness. But still, he could not win. Chad was one step ahead. Each swing of the Dark Wolf he parried off and slashed at Richard, violet blood splashing out onto the ground.

The Dark soul stumbled back, his blood dribbling to the ground as he held the Dark Wolf with both hands. "No...NO NO NO! NOT THIS TIME YOU HEAR ME!? Those of this Universe! Of your damned Universe! I'll send all of you to nothingness! No more being! No more existing! I'll unmake EVERYTHING!"

Chad lowered the Blade of Darkness and raised one hand towards Richard.

The outline aura of Richard's began to vanish, his silhouette beginning to flicker and fade. The mimicking shadow beside turned and watched him. "W-What the!? What's going on!? My power-!"

Chad spoke, as his outline was now mixed with purple. "All this time, I accepted corruption has caused so many problems. But it's not the power that's the problem, it's us. I don't normally act like this but for you Richard, you deserve it...you're nothing more then a creation, your life is part of this game and we are afterall the Game Masters. This is our power to use for good or bad."

Blue reappeared close by, keeping his sword ready. "Okay I have to admit, this is one of your better ideas I've seen."

Chad focused to Richard Chandos. "See? Told ya. Taking control and using Corruption was going to be good."

He looked to Chad but said nothing. He simply slightly shook his head in disagreement.

The Dark soul was trying to bring it's outline back, pushing what energy he could onto himself. "RRRAAHHHH!"

"Just shut up and die already!" Chad yelled as the purple and red mixed aura around him grew. "I'm sick of this power making things harder, bringing threats like you about! No more! It ends here! The only thing it's going to destroy now is you!"

The mimic stared at it's fading ally.

"I felt it. Desire. To unmake what is made."

The mimic walked over and entered the Dark Soul. Straight away his outline not only returned but his aura rocketed up, glowing across the ground as his right eye was the most brightest. "NO MORE! I am my own master! Always was, ALWAYS WILL BE!"

The claws on his back seem to flow a multitude of colours, glowing more and more before he aimed them at the Game Masters and the shadows beyond.

"COLLAPSING WORLD!"

Huge beam after huge beam fired from each and every one of them, striking far and wide, up through the air and striking across the ground, elements from across the Universe fired in each one randomly with no rhythm or pattern. The power of twilight to the light fantastic, it tore up the ground around him, ripped apart buildings and was clearly very effective at taking the Game Masters down.

With each beam, the silhouettes of Richard, the three Game Masters, Iris and Lucy seemed to turn real, no longer just shadows. Lucy was being covered by only a long brown coat, her bare feet visible showing a lack of clothes beneath and Iris had a black jacket around herself. Richard the Dark Soul had stripped them bare previous to humiliate them.

Richard the Game Master was batted and beaten, blood dribbling from several punctures in his chest and arms, his shirt torn in places. Chad in his red shirt and black sleeveless jacket was down on his back, gritting his teeth as he was trying to get himself back up, whilst Blue in his long green shirt and blue trousers was on one knee, hands on the ground with his sword nearby, panting and struggling to recover.

"You thought I was done!? Did you Game Masters!? I should've done this in Darkrift! When you idiots stood up to me when I took down Roll! When my Chad felt useless and powerless, leaving you three to stand up to me! Now look! All of you with your pathetic attempts to control the world around you! On the ground fallen by my power!"

The first one to recover was Richard Chandos, getting himself back up just as the Dark Soul started to walk towards Lucy and Iris making sure he was in front of them. "No...You took her from him. From me. I won't allow you to take them!"

Richard was smirking, stopping in his tracks. "I don't need to approach one of them, sadly for you. You should know what I'm like...and what I did to one of them to make Chad suffer." He raised one hand up, and clicked his fingers.

He was expecting Lucy to suffer, to fall and cry in pain beyond anything as her heart struggles to function, being bind by a replica Chaos soul, the negative multiverse and more stronger variant of the Dark soul being planted in her.

But it was Chandos who fell, grabbing his chest tightly as his heart was being crushed struggling to keep pumping. The Dark Soul was momentarily surprised, but laughed in sheer amusement. "Of course you would know! Why did I think otherwise! Now look what it's done to you! You'll die first!"

"Richard!" Iris was quickly over at him, checking him and trying to use her power to keep him alive. "Hold on!"

Lucy meanwhile noticed the Dark soul was looking right at her….and boy she didn't like the hungry look he was giving her. "And giving you a slower painful death is going to be SO much fun Lucy…"

The zerg hybrid heard footsteps running at him from behind.

"BURNING SLASH!"

Blue had leapt up, sword ready as a fiery aura flared up on it as he came towards Richard.

Only to be elbowed on Richard's sudden turn whilst mid-air causing his attack to falter and to find his neck being grabbed by the abomination.

That got Iris' attention more so. "BLUE!"

Richard gave a very dark chuckle as he choked Blue, who was trying to get out of it. "Try to keep your eyes on him Iris, try to watch as I drain the life out of your precious boyfriend!"

"...Hey…"

The Dark Soul stopped. He looked to the left of him.

Several feet away, Chad was standing, blood dribbling out the side of his mouth and his sword in hand. He looked like he could throw the towel but clearly wasn't going to. "You hate me right? Why not continue where we left off?"

"You want me to take you out first?"

"You can't. But I'm gonna let you try anyway."

That made something in Richard twitch in anger. He tossed Blue aside to the right of him and quickly raised his spare hand at Chad, a neon blue beam, Phazon, fired out and struck the Game Master down to the ground. He didn't seem to move after that one hit but, soon enough, he was up off his back and on his knees, difficulty breathing but a smirk on his lips. "Gotta hit a little harder then that, asshole."

Another beam, larger and more powerful caused Chad to slide through the mud, feeling the shards of rock dig through his clothing as he struggled to pull himself up. Richard walking towards him. "You made him. made that one boy. Every single time beyond Unicron I fell to his reckless and stupid ways, if not by Roll or Anna, by some other wild element he seemed to have been 'gifted'...by you."

Chad was on just a single knee now as yet another beam smashed into him, laying him flat on his back, grimacing in pain but still moving as he lifted his head up to look at Richard coming his way.

"Then that Blue Light, Dr Rich my light self, they came to his aid. They all stood up to me, all because they believed in him, believed in that boy, that boy who deserved nothing!"

The Game Master gave a weak chuckle before letting his head relax back in the mud. Noticing the dark clouds were beginning to produce rain.

Eventually the Dark Soul was standing there looking down at him with hatred and contempt. "And now his gone, along with those that believed in him. I was trapped in Oblivion in exchange. Now look at where we are...All of them in the Farplanes, watching as I've made my return."

Chad looked to the soul one more time, before forming a smile on his lips and closing his eyes. "Yeah, one of them definitely is, the others probably are too ya know."

"Not a single one can help you. No one can stop me. Those of Starforce, those of your group, Blue and Richard, those of the past..." He bent down towards Chad, clenching his hand into a fist as corruptive energy flowed into it, ready to swing at Chad's head. "No one...can save this Multiverse from me!"

And with that he threw his fist at Chad.

Lucy was heard calling Chad's name in desperation.

And Chad?

He caught the fist in the palm of his hand making the charged energy within it disperse doing nothing, his eyes shot open as his other hand shot up and smashed right into Richard's face, making him stumble back in both pain and surprise. Shaking his head and for a moment, placing his hand over his eyes to get the pain to ease and to focus again.

Only to move his hand away and find Chad was right before him as the rain around them seemed to get heavier.

"Always winning by some "wild element he seemed to have"...how very true."

Richard quickly tried to strike again but his hand was once again halted, the spare hand of Chad slammed into his stomach making him double over, stunned. "Raining. Takes me back. It all went down hill on Zebes for you when I got confident, not Unicron...so Richard...tell me…"

Richard looked up at Chad's face...a smirk on it, a confident smirk had appeared. And though their eyes were the same, something in them right now reminded him of a certain version of Chad. It made him grit his teeth, snarling and eyes turning to a frenzy as he looked right at Chad's. "When did it all start going down hill for you here?"

"OSWALD!" Richard forced himself up and reached out with both hands to grab Chad's neck.

Both hands of Chads grabbed the arms coming and forced them to the sides making Richard stumble towards him, whilst the Game Master easily brought his hands back and shot them out directly ahead of him, slamming both into Richard's chest. Enough force behind it that the Dark Soul's feet showed visible marks of him skidding backwards as he was taken aback by the hit.

"Hey "buddy". Having fun?"

The Dark Soul was in stunned silence from that blow, his eyes wide. The sheer power behind it...he hadn't felt this much from his worst enemy before. He took a step back.

"Fear. We felt fear again."

Chad at the moment though, was flexing his hands while looking at them, quite impressed. "Wow, so young. No hints of stiff joints but, ah." He looked to his chest, rubbing it a little. "Aches there a bit. Phazon Beams are a bit of a slammer to be fair though...jeez, It feels like forever since I was this age."

Richard aimed his claws right at Chad. "COLLAPSING WORL-"

"Chaos Control!" Chad vanished and reappeared behind Richard, Blade of Darkness suddenly in hand and with two quick slashes, the twelve claws fell to the ground as the zerg-hyrbid screamed in pain and turned around, backing away little by little as Chad seemed glad to see his sword again.

"Why!? Why must you get in my way!?"

"Excuse me? You brought it here because you wanted us to watch...I honestly don't know why you thought we'd do nothing but sit back and watch. If i had to suggest my own opinion it started going downhill the moment you decided "hey, I know...let's TAUNT the heroes and their loves, that always worked so well for me in the past!", You never learned to stop that…"

Richard's eyes were twitching as he stared Chad down, the claws that he had lost were beginning to regrow, flesh slipping off his back up the damaged stubs.

"Now why am I actually standing here now before you instead of watching from the Farplanes? Bias wise: because your reaction was pretty priceless and worth it. Fact wise: You kept targeting us, even this…" Chad motioned around him at the shadows, Game Masters, Lucy and Iris. "Targeting these other versions. it still boils down to trying to get one up over me. That's ALL it's ever boiled down to with you. So why wouldn't we get in your way?"

Chad then give a little chuckle, as he lowered the Blade of Darkness and seemed to relax. "You know though, I got two stories to share...the first one you're gonna love." With that, his face seemed to darken. "It took Rollyearsto be confident that you weren't going to come back for her. She spent so many years never truly resting, never truly being happy as she was positive it was going to end anytime soon. You hounded her nightmares, you hounded her waking hours, you hounded the moments I held her and promised we would be okay. It took so long for her to feel safe and honestly...it was pissing me off."

He stabbed the Blade of Darkness into the increasing moist ground, folding his arms and walking a little, back and forth whilst continuing on, eyeing down Richard. "You were the nightmare that never stopped. She screamed at night, she, begged me to stop it all. Let her go. But I pushed on with her, I stayed by her to save her from you... and she eventually recovered to live a better life, oddly at the same time she recovered with her other...problems-" At that moment he looked over to Game Master Richard, glaring a little, before looking to Blue who was being taken care of by Iris, then looked down at his own body for a moment before focusing back on the Dark Soul. "-Which you're aware of. The memories of that long lost place." Then he suddenly seemed to lighten up again, smiling. "Now onto the second story which, heh, you're not going to like as much as that first one."

"See, I was kind've bored with nothing to do, nothing to fight. I'll admit that...the peace was nice, it's what i wanted...but GOD was it boring. I had threats to deal with sure, but they were nothing to me. Heck I even fought a giant machine called Atlas and despite the immense power it carried I floored it because...well…" With that, he closed his eyes for a moment...as the pink glow appeared on his chest in moments, that seemed to flow into the aura that he caused to flare up, mixing and flowing through the yellow'ish green he normally would've had. "In my boredom, I fully unlocked a certain power thanks to Roll."

"The fear didn't stop. It wouldn't stop."

The Dark Soul could sense the power, the connection. "H-how!? How can you use it now!? This isn't your body! Roll is gone from hers!"

Chad shrugged. "Who says it needs the actual bodies? It's cliche Richard, but the power transcends that." He give a brief shudder. "Eeesh even this Chad feels bad about talking like that too. But the fact is the Heart Connection when linked boosts my current power, and even better lets you bring power and elements to their maximum, even putting MIDAS to shame which, I'm sure Dr Wily and Light are not happy to hear about...I can even connect to this Chad's spirit, tap into HIS heart connection too-" He closed his eyes again...and now a glow appeared from Lucy's chest and made Chad's aura become even more awe-inspiring and carrying a dangerous presence. "-and tap into his power. Like that one power you've been feeding off…"

Richard knew. He knew what Chad was talking about. "Corruption!?"

Chad couldn't smile much more then right now as he noticed a slight tremble in Richard's voice. "Yep, just like you except fully in control. Me Richard, the one you hate so much...heart connection at it's best and using the power of another Chad standing before you. And I bet you now wish you were fighting me way back when now aren't you?" He gave a good hearty laugh as he could see Richard shaking more and more in anger. "Ohhhhh this isn't your day. But you know what? I'm not going to kill you Richard. I'm not going to even send you to Oblivion. With Corruption with me...I'm going to completely destroy you, from existence."

"I WON'T LET YOU!" Richard roared out as the Dark Wolf appeared from dark indigo flames into his hand. "The Multiverse! The life of the Multiverse...Smith picked me! The new rising god PICKED ME!"

Chad grabbed the hilt of the Blade of Darkness and pulled it back out of the ground, placing the sword on his shoulder. "You got picked by a wannabe god. I was picked too ya know. Given the way to come back and fight you again, picked by someone that given your knowledge you know who it is. Someone whose watching and waiting right now to see your story end once and for all.

Everything looks distorted momentarily to Richard's point of view, the rain coming to a standstill as only him and Chad notice someone in an Organization XIII coat walks past looking at Richard with one arm raised, tapping at his wrist miming tapping on a watch. He walked on as Richard stared.

"The creator...The creators...It was like the last convincing urge we needed. The last piece of the puzzle to push with our goal."

The rain continued as Richard charged at Chad, their blades colliding with sparks lighting up between them. "YOU'RE MINE CHAD OSWALD!"

"BRING IT RICHARD WILY!"

It all faded into darkness.

"The rain washed on us, but it didn't douse the rage of this body. We clashed over and over with the Game Master...no, with the Chad of Universe 10 merged with that Game Master. We were one merged force against another."

"We fought across the land of the lost. Chad used techniques the Game Master knew such as Kaio Ken and the Spirit Bomb, whilst we attempted the art of Hokuto in mocking response to show what we knew from Richard the Game Master. But Chad showed his chaotic rapid tactical planning. He avoided our techniques, our strikes. We lacked his speed, his endurance as the mortal body was beginning to break."

The scene returned as the Blade of Darkness was shattered, the Dark Wolf breaking through as Chad managed to avoid it, headbutting Richard to make him step back whilst straight after grabbing the longest piece of his broken blade heading to the ground along with another part, using the former to block Richard's rapid recovery strike with his claws and throwing the latter right into his enemy's stomach, causing it to stab deeply making black blood flow out from the wound.

Richard quickly brought his spare hand towards Chad as neon blue energy began to appear in it.

"Oh it's been too long! CHAOS CONTROL!" Chad raised his now free hand and red energy formed in it, just in time as Richard yelled out "PHAZON BEAM!"

As both beams connected, for several moments, they both seemed to whirl together, mixing it perfect unity...before abruptly unleashing a massive explosion of red and blue glowing across the landscape.

Through the center of the blast several purple wolf heads burst out, eyes pitch black and mouths wide open. Chad changed into a red mobian hedgehog and charged towards them, zig zagging between the heads as the explosion cleared away showing Richard. The Dark Wolf was pointing at Chad and as he got close, was swung down.

Easily dodged and the shard of the Blade of Darkness Chad carried found it's way into Richard's chest, a brief moment of bone stopping it before it continued inwards, striking into one of the hearts he held.

Chad knew it wasn't a kill, but it had hurt Richard pretty bad. "You try all this new stuff, steal it from their Richard then fall back to the oldies knowing full well I can handle it...Bit of a shame how this is ending but what can ya do? You're just a Dark Soul in the end, your special powers are shared among your type, and your moves, looks, even the life you've led all needed to be copied and stolen to make you."

Richard had lowered his head, one hand on the shard of Chad's blade whilst the other held the Dark Wolf to the side of him, like as if his arm had gone limp.

"All I think you got going for you is those claws you have and your stupid mad-focused desire to try and get the better of me. Bit sad isn't it?"

Richard didn't answer.

"...You know this is the part where you curse my name, complain about how I've done it yet again then I completely wipe you out, right?"

A heartbeat. Chad heard it. Not from the outside, from the land around him or from anyone.

But within himself. A new heartbeat. He could sense Roll, sense himself...and sense-

He quickly pulled the shard of the Blade of Darkness out and took a few steps back, stunned.

"Heh...heheheh. Just stealing once again, Chad. That's all I'm doing. I've linked myself to your heart connections...to Rolls and Lucys." Richard was giving a twisted smile as he looked to Chad, ignoring the blood pumping out of the wound on his chest. "I can sense you all. Feel where you are...and I can feel her, too. When you stabbed me, I felt it. Felt what the Game Master Richard felt before in Darkrift with your precious Roll. I've locked onto it."

Chad quickly focused on the heart connection. He could hear hers and Lucys heartbeats mixed with Richards...and Rolls was going at a rapid pace. Terror was quickly gripping her. He quickly used his psychic ability to speak to her within the Farplanes. 'Roll don't be afraid! He can't hurt you!'

Lucy was just, confused at what she was feeling. What she was feeling. She looked to Game Master Richard for hopes he would explain.

Chad heard Roll in his mind. He heard her already breaking down. 'Chad! I can hear him again! I can feel him again! Please stop it! Please don't let him come back again! I can hear his heart!'

Richard was standing tall now, the wounds he had on his stomach and chest healing up naturally thanks to his mutated Zerg genetics. His claws on his back were now giving off violet flames, glowing across the ground. "I'll be coming soon Roll. I'll pay you a visit. Have one of our, special sessions together. Although I can't promise you'll survive. You used to be able to endure your limbs being mutilated in the past...I wonder being with Chad has softened you up too much."

Chad was now the one quickly getting furious. "You're not leaving here! You're not touching her ever again!"

"I don't need to leave here, do I?"

"...No…"

The Dark Soul placed his hand on his chest, still keeping that twisted smile, the glowing purple remaining in his right eye whilst it now spread to his left eye and his mouth, his voice reverberated as he was expressing his power outwardly now. "You felt it. She did too. Pain when the connection gets damaged, through a loss of true love or the death of one of the two hosts of this power. It can be severed. She wants to get away Chad. Tell her to reject you, tell her to hate you and she'll escape my sight. Keep her linked and well...I'm able to tear it apart and make you both so weak you'll be a great little plaything before I wipe out allll those around us, bring Roll here for you to witness her suffering again...then you'll die. Alone, in Oblivion."

"I'll kill you first!" Chad rushed at Richard, yelling out as he thrust the shard of his blade right back where it was before...and on plunging it in, he felt sudden sharp pain in his chest, crippling him as he stumbled right into Richard who simply grabbed Chad's hair and head and threw him aside, not effected at all whilst the Game Master could hear Roll cry out in pain within him and Lucy in the distance as he slid across the flooded plains.

He could hear Richard's laughter. He tried to get up, but the pain was renewed as Richard pulled the shard out and threw it away. His footsteps through the waterlogged mud as he approached the wounded Chad. He looked up as the Dark Soul was now before him, Dark Wolf in both hands with the blade pointing down to Chad. Both of his eyes, his mouth even, glowed in that eerie purple now as his power increased. His voice reverberated as he spoke. "Stay just like that Chad. Stay like that for me. On the ground, weak and pathetic as you should've been all along. I'll just feed off the power you all share and use it to permanently keep you out of the fight! I'll make you watch as everything comes to an end!"

Chad quickly focused inwards with all the concentration he could muster. 'Roll! Lucy! Hold on alright?! We'll get out of this!'

'How!? How Chad!? I can feel him! He'll never stop! He'll never end!' Roll was losing it.

'Roll! We'll all find a way! Please don't separate!' That was Lucy.

They could feel it, Richard was starting to tap into the Heart Connections actual power now, beginning to allow it to flow into him…

Except it didn't.

It couldn't.

"The power flowed around me, around us...but as we reached for it...It burned us. It hurt us. It destroyed fragments of us. I was confused, I knew what we saw. What we could sense yet it was impossible to tame."

Richard was panting, stepping backwards as he dropped the Dark Wolf which stabbed in the ground with its tip, hands on his chest as he felt a wave of pain that none of the others did. That's when he noticed, tiny little pieces of his skin, his flesh...it was dissolving into fragments of white-pink, fading away. He was trying to use his corruption power to heal, but what he healed, elsewhere different fragments of him dissolved away. The pain wasn't fading, it wasn't stopping despite his attempts. His body was rejecting something, something that was fatal.

With a sudden jolt, he had felt himself snap away from the Heart Connection. The power that was hurting him began to subside whilst Chad, Lucy and Roll all felt his link severe.

He didn't notice Richard the Game Master running past Chad, leaping into the air with all the strength he had left and yelling out "TENSHO! HYAKURETSU KEN!"

A flurry of fists rained down on the Dark Soul, striking over and over before the final strike was straight in his chest, taking more steps back. The pain surging through him from the technique as pressure points ruptured weakened him more so as he was trying to focus back on the matters around him. Game Master Richard hit the ground on his side, panting but had a hint of a smirk on his face.

A wave of powerful blue energy bolts lashed out from Iris and struck him next, making him stumble and try to hold his hands up in defence before a red beam of energy smashed into him with Lucy standing beside Iris.

He failed to hear another set of footsteps come up to him. "BAKUNETSU GOD SLASH!"

The Zerg-Hybrid felt the burning fiery raw energy from the blade as Blue slashed it through him. It caused the glow in his eyes and mouth to fade, his claws ceased to burn. His body was taking a lot of sudden damage it was struggling to keep up with it's healing, especially very nearly being cut in two.

He kept moving back, he was focused on the four who had attacked him, his eyes darting between them, panting and holding a hand over his chest still, his clothing damaged and blood just draining out of him, most from the diagonal wound cut that showed from his shoulder to his hip.

He only vaguely spotted the green flash behind the two Game Masters in his way and close to Lucy and Iris.

"That's enough." Richard heard behind him.

He spun around.

To the face of a very angered Chad Oswald, who quickly placed his hand over Richard's that was on his chest and his spare hand down at his side.

"Corruption."

It was like he had been set alight. He screamed out and yanked his hands away, they were burnt, slashed at...crumbling away into nothing.

"We had the power...but we still had shells. Mortal shells and mortal souls. And what we controlled, could also destroy us."

"You...You think you can honestly just use that to…!" Richard vomited violently to the ground in a shower of indigo blood. Arms around his torso as he was just able to keep on his feet. Within his shell he carried two hearts, a side effect of his Zerg genetics. A reserve heart created to counter any fatal damage to the first.

One had just ruptured entirely. Burnt away and gone just his hands were, his fingers disappearing as he could feel more and more of himself tear and break apart. Bones, organs, the flesh itself was suffering.

Chad was coming towards him, the look on his face did not lighten. "It's over Richard. I said I controlled Corruption fully. Now it's tearing you and your soul apart. Now you get what you finally deserve."

Richard shakily moved his arm away from his body out towards Chad, the last of his hand disappearing as he did...and he pleaded meekly. "Stop...Please, stop…"

"We're unmaking you, Richard Wily. And there's only one more thing we need to do." Chad walked past his arm and was right up to the Dark Souls face. "You see Richard, we're giving you one last gift from us."

"I...I don't under-"

"HYAKURETSU-" Chad suddenly erupted in a powerful glowing red aura mixed with white and pink. "KAIO KEN-" His hands were engulfed in a dominant glow of orange. "GOD FINGER!"

Time slowed for Richard.

Each blow destroyed a part of him from within.

Each blow weakened the power he had gained over time.

Each blow...brought a flash of an image to his mind and to the part of the Dark Wolf within him.

Those of the Hero Base, those who were close to the Game Masters...then every Richard across the Multiverse, every Blue across it, and finally, every single Chad, all of them smiling in victory at him.

In the Sixth blow to the end, he saw Lucy.

In the fifth, he saw Iris.

In the fourth, he saw Roll.

In the third, he saw Game Master Richard.

In the second to last, there was Game Master Blue.

And finally, as the last blow hit, he saw Game Master Chad.

He didn't move as Chad's aura vanished. They both stared at one another.

Richard's mouth opened. His voice a barely audible, a whisper. "I'll...never...fade...away…"

His body, his very being simply broke and shattered into tiny fragments, burning away in specks of purple lights. His right eye was the last to disappear.

The Dark Wolf, still where it was last placed, turned to rust.

"I survived and moved on, Vul Grohiik continued with his own plans. But that one part of me, linked to the sword now isolated...It remained. The shadowy form I could hold with it was burned away, nothing more then a puddle of living ooze. Tossed into the lake of souls, silent."

"I was used by Vul Grohiik. He noticed that I was more sentient then before. He had me watch the Game Master and all other Richards in a more direct influence. He hoped that I would be able to create someone like that of Universe 10."

"But most of them began to reject us. Others were proving more difficult. The Game Master especially. He had allies around him that kept him from falling entirely into our hands. No matter how much of his history we wipe out, no matter what emotions we try to weaken, he would push on."

"Then the carrier was there. Ulysses. He would use the Dark Wolf of 10, in a ploy to make Game Master Richard aware of Vul Grohiik's influence over him."

Out of the darkness, circling around a black pile of tar-like slime were 20 Dark Wolves, all looking the same bar one, which seemed to be shimmering, almost non-corporeal compared to the others.

"The Game Master turned on my master on saving that which he loved. He gained the help of the other Game Masters, and began to destroy every Dark Wolf but that of Universe 8, and that of Universe 10. The latter was given to Ulysses, seen as nothing more then a hollow blade. The former was taken by Dr Wily. It became the last blade active as each of myself were destroyed across the Multiverse."

One by one the blades shattered. Their power broken and lost. Their final hosts either gave up the weapons for purging, or fought to the end. It mattered not. The remaining two, floated before the dark creature.

"The remains of Anachronos were pulled back into the Multiverse by Dr Wily. He had agreed with Vul Grohiik to bring about 'our' victory…"

The last corporeal Dark Wolf shattered.

"It ended with the loss of the body, the loss of Vul Grohiik, and the lake of souls we used to go stale, and my world to fall silent for what seemed to be forever."

The stone flooring seemed to suddenly become washed over with blackened water, covering it and slowly rising. Eventually submerging the slime and the remaining blade. Any light that once was here was now gone, the water producing the only sound now and then.

It felt cold. Unwelcoming.

But it's all that the being felt as the memories of Universe 10 kept reflecting back into it's mind. It was the last piece of Vul Grohiik now. There was no one commanding it, no one whispering to it. It was trapped in it's own mind.

"I'll never fade away."

The slime shifted, feeling something close to it. A shadow of Richard, claws and all had appeared close to it. A faint purple glow lit him up in the darkness of the water of the lake of souls.

His voice and another spoke out at the same time from the shadow.

"I'll find a way."

"I'll unmake it all."

"No more being."

"No more existing."

"I'll unmake everything."

"One created it. Two lent their minds, hearts, hopes and dreams to establish it."

"We will be the forth. We will be the foreign creator...The one who seeks to unravel what they make and break down what the others create. We shall be..."

...Silence returned for a time, the shadow of Richard faded, and then…

"So there is something here."

Through the darkness of the deep, the figure of Zhuge Liang had walked into view, carrying a white feather fan that had a hole in it's handle, that was waving back and forth just fine in the water, Zhuge himself appeared unaffected by this place. A white aura flowed out of him.

"Vul Grohiik? Is that what you are?"

The slime did not respond at first, but something within it found a voice, with vibrated through it as it answered. "Why do you come to this place of nothingness? The master is dead. Those I served once have left or perished."

Zhuge Liang seemed to think on this information for a moment...before a simple wooden chair appeared behind him and he sat down, looking down at Xenomaker. "You are not Vul Grohiik then. Not a Leviathan either. Interesting. Do you know of their final defeat? The end of Alduin and Shinryu?"

"So. They are dead."

"Destroyed by my son as he was set free. Lysander. Many of those who followed them have perished as well...The Game Masters have effectively won. Even Agent Smith has fallen at last to my sheer disappointment. I had expected so much of him yet I had to surrender my remaining power to my child when my own family all gathered against me."

"...You are a mortal then?"

Zhuge Liang shook his head. "I still have some power left. I am no longer in command of the Multiverse...I have had to step down. I do not find that acceptable."

"Then, why did you come here?"

The now revealed former god sat back in his chair. "I sensed something. Something that will be purged when the erasure wave is activated. When my son decides to begin again, this time with him in charge. I want to make the generations of my family fall for betraying me. You will suffice. You knew of corruption, you have a link to it, don't you?"

"...I part of me knows of what you speak."

Zhuge Liang placed one hand into his robe, pulling out a purple crystal shard, glowing faintly with a deep violet aura. "This is a piece of that power…Soon there will be a large part that will escape this Multiverse. I know it will. I will give you this to be used to give you a more...viable form. Sense for the sword you used to survive in, and through it, there lies the answer."

"I will still be erased."

"No. Once you enter the sword, you will escape the erasure. Use the corruption you find, regain your power. Then return to this Multiverse eight days before the erasure ends...you will not be harmed, and you shall be able to grow and prosper before my family will know what I have done. You can kill them all without hesitation. I care not for a single one." Zhuge Liang leaned forward to the slime, holding the shard close to him. "Will you obey this command of the true creator god of this Multiverse? Or will you be forgotten and fade away to nothing when the time comes?"

"...Never fade away…I will do it."

The shard landed into the slime. Zhuge Liang and his chair vanished from the view as the slime began to grow, begin to change as it started to gain bones coated in it's tar-like liquid, a skull with a singular eye socket, a set of ribs that were sharpened like teeth, it's fingers and toes pointed and claw like. It was crawling forward, the water started to rescind, as if it was pulling itself out of the water slowly but surely.

Flesh grew within at first, oozing through the ribs and out on the torso and the rest of the body as it forced itself on it's knees and hands, crawling along leaving behind puddles of it's vile liquid. The water vanished entirely now.

Scaly chitin and skin mixed across it's body formed, a wave of shimmering purple hair grew on it's head, a mouth appeared before finally, as it stood up and seemed to take a few slow deep breaths, the single eye locket was filled with a purple eye with a violet iris and black blood veins all around it.

It leaned a little forward, looking down at itself as twelve black tentacles with sharp bladed sycthe-like tips erupted out of it's back, looking down at it's hands….one was skeletal. The other had human flesh on it.

It turned around, now the whole area changed. It was the cavern of Vul Grohiik. The lake of souls before it as it walked over and looked into the black water.

Richard Wily of Universe 10 was looking back at it. His right eye glowing a fierce purple. To his right the Game Masters Chad, Blue and Richard, to his left Dr Richard Wily, the light self, Chad of Universe 10 and Blue of that Universe. Tens, if not hundreds of other versions of them all behind them. All with that purple eye.

They all merged into Richard Wily, who smiled before glowing and fading out to now be the reflection of the creature now looking at itself.

"We...are the fourth. The three true creators, and the fourth that will unmake what they have made. We are the outsider, the foreign creator. We are, Xenomaker."

He could hear it. So faint and so weak. Yet there it was. The last Dark Wolf. He focused on it, his body fading in and out. Vul Grohiik could never link with it, yet he could...because he was always a part of it. And now it would pay off.

He disappeared from the cavern.

The scene fell to darkness….before it showed the hanger bay, Ulysses with the Dark Wolf on his back and him talking to Game Master Richard as he was ready to depart.

"...There's no way to shake you off this idea is there?"

"No. But I know others wish to come with me. I cannot refuse them, as you cannot dissuade me."

"Terra, Sephiroth, Toki, Barrel, Q, Keaton, Dark Rich, Luna and Celestia. You know we didn't just revive your tribe members from the past just so they can throw their lives away again. But as you said...can't dissuade them."

"You three revived many from that time, that base of heroes to stand with us all as the Enclave loomed. You even revived her."

"Yes well. What good would that Chad be if the Heart Connection was incomplete...Gonna miss you in some ways. Not the constant hounding of me, kidnapping my now-fiancee and stealing my goddamn sword but this. The leader of people...You did good Banner Calen."

"As you have over time, Richard Chandos."

It now shifted to within the ship, the moment Ulysses and his tribe broke the barrier and escaped out of the Multiverse of 20 into the void beyond.

"I latched onto the Sigil Stone within the glove...and saw."

"Three Multiverses. Three that felt familiar. One was home. Two were unknown. I reached out. The power of corruption as I engulfed the stone entirely became one with me. I was divided, for two of the three, I pretended to match the light of creation. For the third...I sent this ship there. Time held no meaning here. I went home exactly as Azrael ordered me to at the time he suggested."

"One brought the ship to a Universe due to be restarted. The last headed to the edges of creation of the third. Watching, waiting."

"But with my separation, I was weakened."

Xenomaker stood on the circular stained glass platform from long before. He felt a part of him break away, flowing like a ghost to the edge of the platform. Then another pulled away, going to another part of the edge, then finally a third...What they had left behind was a very weak shadow that connected them all...as they turned into shadows as well.

"Three creators from one. We needed power. We needed acknowledgment to regain our strength. To fufil our purpose. To destroy all they care for. To make all return to Oblivion...to make the Multiverse die."

One of the shadows at the edge cried out and burned away in a golden light.

"The one who made it home succeeded, but time can be altered, and defeat is what he was met with by the hands of the corruption tribe."

Another shadow at the edge watched as the outline of another Richard Chandos, a Game Master, was seen staring from afar with a hooded figure beside him, almost like as if the latter was ready to protect the former.

"The other knows who can make it return to power. It will wait. It will grow. It will find a way."

Then there was the last shadow, who smiled as his body materialized back into flesh.

"And I am the one who has regained the most. Who had used the ship and the carrier to be revived. I have destroyed countless parallels, quantum's and alternate Universes linked to this Multiverse. I have killed them over and over, yet the main ones...in time. I know my other self has felt my satisfaction, my enjoyment of killing them...of their loved ones. When the Multiverse I have infected is gone...I shall go to the other to complete the unmaking, then, when we are unified, we shall go home and complete what the fallen one could not."

"All will fade, before the power, of the foreign creator."

"HHAAAA!"

The air was disturbed by the shockwave of a punch, striking Xenomaker/Richard as he slid back.

His tentacles had retracted back to him, the damaged caused to them by his opponent was nothing. They healed in moments as he smirked.

Chad of Universe 2 was before him in his final beast out form. Damaged, hurt, his battle suit damaged and cracked. The helmet had just broke apart showing his hair now. He was sweating, panting whilst he clenched his fists. His anger only visible in his eyes as the rest of his face was covered by a steel face covering, which had a severe crack in it. His light green aura flared and lit up the dark cavern they stood in.

A cavern that was falling apart.

Chad of Universe 3 had vanished several minutes ago.

The other Chad had tried to reach him but this bastard wasn't going to let him. When time passed he knew it was too late to save his other self, and that pushed him on.

"Another failure to add to your collection." Richard reminded him.

Chad dived at him, blasted him with a chaos energy infused beam to send him into the breaking cavern wall before arming himself with a wide sword battlechip, the energy blade impaling on impact.

Which Richard just snapped by him headbutting Chad destroying the face covering, causing it's fragments to scatter on the floor before he grabbed Chad's head from behind and smashed him into the wall.

One chaos control later and Chad was behind him, yanking out the broken wide sword by it's tip, cutting his glove and skin, flipping it around whilst Richard turned and jammed it right into the eye, both trying to push the other as Richard grabbed Chad's face, seemingly blindly grasping out.

Chad took this chance to slam his fist into the side of Richard's head, over and over with no real aim besides just trying to crush his skull in with brute force. He was so fucking done with the prick now. "I don't know what or who you exactly are but so long as you sound like him I'll kick your ass like him!"

With that he pulled his hand back. "Program Advance! Sword! Wide Sword! Long Sword!"

The three card activated, causing a blue energy sword, matching the light of his aura in terms of brightness to appear in his hand. "Now! Life Soul! Activate!"

His aura turned white, a holy light forming around him, infusing into the sword. "Never come back again! YOU HEAR ME!?"

The stabbed eye of Richard's…

Healed up, it's flesh tearing as it looked right at Chad, healing constantly with the blade still within.

"Eye for an eye."

Chad screamed out.

The skeletal claw that had been pressed up against his face shifted slightly, the thumb of it aimed right at his left eye,

and it plunged in.

He felt the finger dig into the flesh of his face as Richard pushed him away making him let go of the broken Wide sword that dispersed into nothing.

But he still held the Life sword. He plunged it into the side of the creatures head.

That was enough to make it let go of him as he did with the blade now it was jammed in. He quickly backed away holding one hand over his destroyed eye as Richard seemed to stand there, stunned that a blade was now all the way through his head from one side to the other.

He could feel the blood dribbling down his face. "Damn you, asshole. Chaos Contr—UAGH!"

He had attempted to use his chaos energy to heal, however Richard seemed to suddenly come back to life. The twelve tentacles had rushed out from behind him at their unaware target and impaled themselves inside his chest and stomach, as the life sword shattered apart leaving a clear hole through Richard's head...yet the creature was not effected.

"Without Roll, Darkmega, The Blade of Darkness and your annoying brother and sister, you're really desperate."

Chad gritted his now blooded teeth, his working eye looking at the now approaching violet being as the red liquid slipped through out of his mouth. "N-Nothing seems to take like before asshole. Whatever the fuck, happened to Final Light wrecking you? The Life Soul being a weakness? Just me Chaos beaming you being enough? Whatever happened to the simpler days?"

"That was your Richard. He was in control. He had to take the punishment and the pain for each failure against you." The tentacles lifted Chad, causing blood to squirt out of the holes they had punctured in him before they brought him closer to Richard. "I don't have to play with you. I know who you are. What you are...what you were to be precise. The hero of Universe 2. The next mightiest Primus in the bloodline."

Chad gave a pained smile, before moving his hand away from his wounded eye along with his other hand, now both pointing right at Richard's face, both formed Zeta Cannons as he has the program advances activated during this moment of talk between them. "Nice to meet you."

"...Really—"

The cannons fired at pretty much point blank. The blast pulling Chad off of the tentacles sharp blades with such force he was launched backwards.

Into the lake.

He didn't sink far. Only up to his wounded chest as he readied the machine wings to get him out of it.

But he now found something horrifying. He was stuck in the tar-like substance. "W-What the!? Chaos Control!"

He felt the energy surge around him...but he didn't move.

"Area steal!"

In actual fact, he was sinking.

"CHAOS CONTROL! CHAOS CONTROL!"

It wasn't working, it was getting into his wounds...burning like acid as he yelled out in pain. He looked to where Richard was, who had stumbled around for a moment now headless before he fell to the ground, melting away into the same tar substance that was returning to the lake.

His laughter began to echo within the cavern.

"Shit! SHIT! I gotta get free!" The liquid was up to his neck, Chads arms barely breaking the surface.

A certain skeletal hand had reached around and placed itself on his face, whilst another had grabbed his shoulder.

Richard's voice whispered in his ear.

"Welcome to my real home."

Chad simply sunk beneath the surface. All resistance died.

"Chad?"

"Chad where are you?"

"Please wake up. I can't sense you in the Farplanes."

"Please come back to me."

"...Roll…"

He felt the warmth within.

He woke up on his hands and knees, blood splashing out of his wounds as he cough and spluttered.

"C-Chaos Control!"

He felt the heat of the red glow around him as his wounds sealed up. At least stopping the bleeding if anything...He noticed his eye hadn't recovered. "Ah, son of a bitch…"

Chad decided to focus his head up to try and look around.

He was in a grey mansion, on the ground in what appeared to be an entranceway, he could hear a clock in front of him ticking away. Forcing himself to his feet despite the weakness he felt, he wanted to see what it was exactly. It was huge ancient looking circular clock on a marble wall with six hands, and the numbers 1 to 5 with a sixth number that, he was sure with each blink was flickering between 8 and 10. The five hands that pointed to 1 and 5 contained the Dark Wolf, perfect copies of it. The one pointing to 8/10? It was hollow, an outline of a sword.

He forced himself to turn and look around. The floor was shiny, made of marble perhaps, a purple carpet went from the doorway to beneath his feet and beyond. Down two corridors he could see. One was leading down a familiar corridor...that of the Hero Base. The other led down, what appeared to be, a ruined path. The corridor was rusted, damaged, time being unkind.

Opposite the clock was a doorway showing a black void with glimmers of purple flickering lights appearing now and then. There was no doors nor any sign there was supposed to be.

Then he looked up.

The ceiling here, the corridors...it was the black water of the lake. Dripping once in a while to the ground.

"He hasn't captured you. Not yet. Toying."

Chad spun around back to the clock.

In front of him was Ulysses. The one who fell onto Darkrift. His eyes a deep purple, black and indigo veins across his face and on his skin. "Never thought he'd allow one of you here alive. Richards perhaps. Not you. Not controlled. Must be interesting. No doubt watching or waiting for your move."

Chad stared the man down, the mask over his face, the clothing he wore that seemed to be torn and damaged, the broken golden staff on his back… "Who, are you?"

"One of those allowed to walk free. The only soul beyond Richards. Others you see free. Not souls. Only memories of the Multiverse."

"...Right. Listen, which way leads to what? Especially to lead to taking down this, thing?"

Ulysses looked to the clean, Hero Base looking corridor. "The present. The world now. Contains the captured, the slaves. There rests a sword. If pulled free, and destroyed, this world will end." He then looked to the rusted corridor. "The way home. Latched to two other roads. One back to the why of things, one to a different path." Ulysses looked to the ground. "If I knew this would be what would pass, then you're Multiverse…" He shook his head. "No. Nothing says it wouldn't have. I was just the unlucky answer. Not the creator. My will is nothing."

"…" Chad was just frowning, mostly in not understanding what Ulysses was going on about and partially in wanting to take Richard down, or whatever it was, entirely. "Alright well good luck with regret." He walked off down the Hero Base corridor.

Ulysses watched him leave. "...You cannot defeat him."

Walking through the corridors, he noticed there were many doors. This placed seemed to be based off the original base. Grey being the main motif in terms of colour. But on inspecting the doors and opening them.

Blood was a theme inside.

So was bones, organs and flesh. Countless images painted on the walls in said blood and gore. The smell was horrific. He wasn't sure on the images on the brief glances he had. Didn't want to hang around. The blood and flesh seem recent, non-rotting, and stepping in the room without touching it weren't gonna happen. There was no furniture besides one metal long table in the middle of the room that was awash in the same as everything else in the room.

Besides the smell and the idea of stepping in it though, Chad wasn't greatly phased as he closed yet another door and walked on to the next corridor. "Mind games are old. We've been around this block too many times."

More of the same. More blood, more doors, more strange images on the walls.

He was getting annoyed more so now.

He found the main room of the base in time. A series of 20 simple metal chairs against the walls, all pointing towards the center of the room. The ceiling the same as the rest of the place. In the middle, impaled into the metal floor with cracks around it showing dark purple energy seeping through was a rusted version of the Dark Wolf.

Chad noticed there were two doors out of this room. Placed exactly where the hospital and labs should be. The glass panels they normally had were pitch black, impossible to see through.

He just wanted to rip the sword out of the floor and break it to end the creature...but even whilst wounded, curiosity took hold. He walked to the hospital room door and opened it.

Almost everything within was a deep, dark purple. The non-working computers, beds, tables, walls, floor. The whole thing bar the ceiling which was the black water, and five glass chambers, lit up by green lights within the top and bottom of them.

Scratched on the glass were numbers.

In the one with '1' slashed on it was Richard, wearing a black jacket, trousers, blue shirt and a machine monocle like Dr Wily has. He had his eyes closed, asleep.

The one with '2' was the Richard he knew. The claws, the purple shirt, the torn and damaged black jacket and trousers. He was at rest also.

The one with '3', that was scratched over then another '3' was put beside it was a clone of Richard he hadn't seen in a long ass time. Unholy Rich. The vampire zerg abomination mixture that was always an enemy to him. He was awake, looking out at the hospital room but was not responding to Chad's movement as he looked around.

The one with '4' contained a man of asian origin, wearing a cybernetic eye mask, his hair a ponytail and wearing some sort of advance military combat suit that Chad didn't recognize.

The last one, the '5', contained the skeletal remains, which Chad could guess thanks to the twelve bone claws out of it's back, of a Richard. His arms crossed over his chest, a faint glow in the middle of the ribcage of energy.

Chad focused his mind, aimed his hand towards the chamber with '2' on it and fired off a Chaos energy beam, the red lighting up the room for a moment as it struck the glass, doing nothing.

"Of course, can't break him out and tear his head off. Great."

He chose to leave the room. It felt unwelcoming as it was and knowing his luck, his answers were going to be in the labs if anything. So that's where he walked to, casually opening the door expecting more or less the same thing, A purple version of the labs back home.

Unfortunately the door was the only thing that was going to be similar.

The walls within were dying blackened flesh, deep flowing purple veins flowed through them, which would now and then glow a momentary green colour flowing upwards. A spiralling pathway made of bone flowed upwards and downwards, almost seemingly endless downwards, whilst upwards it led to the black water ceiling.

Embedded into the walls were the victims. They hung from the walls with their legs and arms trapped within, awake, alive per say. From the veins, ripping out were small crystallized spiders, they moved towards the souls trapped, bite into them and cause them to cry out in pain, as the little creatures turn from purple to a teal colour, returning to the vein they came from and going back inside...that teal colour flowing up the veins and the walls and into the black water seemingly.

The cries were continuous. They came from everywhere in this room.

It didn't matter the size of the victims as Chad could see closest to the ceiling. There was Trigon, Slur and Darkseid. The wall seemed to accommodate them all. Those that were trapped from the door he came in upwards seem to vaguely notice his presence. Those beyond and down...they were lost in a trance, only seemingly coming to life when bitten.

Looking down the middle of the spiral pathway, there was a glowing purple star at the very depths...how far down it went he couldn't tell. But it felt like heading downwards is a terrible idea...until he saw, only a little way down, Kei Yuki. His sister.

He rushed to her, careful not to slip on the bone-made path, which he soon realized was covered in some lubricant slime that made it hard to keep a steady footing on. "Kei! KEI!"

He stopped before her, soon noticing Blue, Keira, Zoanoroid Colonel, Zhang Liao and Slashman close to her. "Kei are you alright!?"

"I...I miss him...I miss my brother so much…" She didn't look at him. Just staring out at nothing, her eyes almost lifeless. Her voice was weak, dry.

"Kei I'm right here!"

"Please...let me go back to them...Let me see them…" She spoke as a crystal spider moved towards her from a vein, climbing on her chest and biting.

That brought her to life, her eyes lit up as she screamed out in pain. "NO! NOO!"

Chad quickly grabbed the creature and pulled it off of Kei, finding it crumble to dust in his hand and a brief glowing orb of teal energy floating in it's place, before flickering away and disappearing. He quickly checked her and noticed no visible bite wounds. "Kei!"

Her eyes returned to their lifeless state, her face going emotionless. "I just wanted to help...I miss them all so much…"

Another voice spoke in the midst of the cries of agony. Someone further back up. "She's too far gone Chad. Her mind and soul are almost on the verge of being nothing but husks of their former selves."

Chad quickly looked up.

Chaos, at least, a version of his father was looking back at him, trapped in the wall besides an emotionally broken Anna.

It didn't take him long to arrive at the two. "Which...Universe are you from?"

"At first we had no idea. But Slur up there told us when she got here, recognizing me and Anna. Universe 3."

"...I know your Chad. He isn't here then?"

"No. For that I am thankful. I'm sure this, nightmare, would keep him forever if it had a chance. Not dispose of him like some I've seen."

"Dispose of them? Like the spiders biting them?"

Chaos give a small, bitter laugh. "That's the monster being fed. If it needs a large boost of energy. It disposes."

It was like Xenomaker knew to give an example. The wall that held Zhang Liao in place seemed to loosen around him little by little...and as it did, the bone pathway beneath where he was and those below seem to slide into the wall, as the purple star below…

Transformed into a maw, a red flesh, teeth riddled maw. Open and awaiting. All that could be seen were endless fangs and teeth, dripping with saliva.

Zhang Liao fell from the wall, screaming in terror as he dropped.

The maw consumed him, slamming and opening constantly as it chewed and dissected him before finally closing up for good, turning purple once again as the black flesh walls and veins all glowed with teal energy brightly for a several seconds as energy rushed through them upwards.

Then it all went back to normal. The pathway returned where Zhang Liao once was, and everyone in the walls seemed to sink in...then reappear a little further down. Blue taking Zhang Liao's place.

Chad was certainly disturbed by that as he moved himself down a little to meet up with Chaos again. "How do we kill this thing? How do we kill the monster of this place?"

"Xenomaker." Chaos answered with.

"What?"

"It's name. It's Xenomaker. The forth creator. The stray one, the unmaker, the opposite, the foreign creator. I've heard it go through these names but the first one is the most common it refers to itself as. Seen it myself...those rooms in the false Hero Base, those caked in blood? We can find ourselves there sometimes. When he wants entertainment."

"...What kind are we-"

"D-dissection." Anna spoke a little. "Eating our organs w-while we're awake. Making us live the most worst parts of our lives, live in moments of alternate lives, all in our minds. Ones where we-we watch those we care for die."

Chaos nodded. "He takes great pleasure in torture. It seems to satisfy something within him. Then there's the times we find ourselves back in the real world...the cavern where we were force to stand against you and our Chad...the way you killed us...You've been messed around by him for a long time haven't you?"

Oh that made Chad have a pang of guilt. He paused for a moment, looking down at himself before answering. "Yeah, I have. He used to trick me with fakes, frequently. Now knowing you saw me there...have I been killing real people all this time?"

"It's possible. Anna here was cloaked as Roll at first when our Chad arrived at the lake. She only realized when she raised her hand to stop him from swinging when Xenomaker deliberately blinded him."

"Then...the multiple Richards I killed, the copies he used to make…"

"Again it is possible...go up the pathway." Chaos looked up, as did Chad.

"Hm?"

"Go. Through the barrier of water you can try and escape. The lake of souls is there. We can all feel it yet, as you can see...we can't leave."

Anna nodded with what Chaos said, whilst Chad looked to the black water above...He started to walk his way up, ignoring the cries of agony around him, ignoring the taunting of Trigon as he went by. But as he was about to get within touching distance of the black water...his face darkened. "No. I'm not going yet."

He turned to face the most recent edition, Slur. He forced his arms around her torso and waist and pulled. It didn't seem to take much for her arms and legs to come out of the wall that held them and soon enough, with him luckily avoiding slipping off the pathway, she was on her hands and knees beside him.

Slur was, quite frankly, shocked. "You...You set me free. Yet all my might, my energy…"

"Couldn't do it. Easier outside then in. I just had a hunch he'd focus so much on trapping people in he doesn't expect an outside source. Can you stand?"

Slur felt weak, her limbs struggled with their sudden freedom but eventually, she was on her feet. "I can."

"Good. Help me free Chaos and Anna."

He held Anna, and she held Chaos.

With their combined effort, both were set free.

As Chad put Anna down and ignoring her constant thanks he looked to those he knew…

He could see Kei.

The others near her didn't even register his arrival. And she didn't look at him when he spoke to her.

"...Too far gone. I'm so sorry Kei, if only I could've gotten here sooner." He forced himself to look away and focus on the three that had now gotten free. "All of you. Head up through the water. I'm going back in the base."

He didn't bother waiting for any response. He returned to the door yanking it open and walking through.

He saw the sword. He marched over to it and stood right before it. "Pull you out. Pull the plug on this whole nightmare. Okay, here we go."

He reached out with both hands and grabbed the hilt.

It was like a tidal wave of dark energy flooded over him out of the cracks in the ground around the Dark Wolf. The room was consumed in a nebula, he could barely see the floor where the cracks were let alone anything else other then the sword. Hurricane-like winds rushed around him, his body being attacked both inside and out.

He was trying to pull, but with this nebula around it was impossible. He needed something to push it away. He needed a power to protect him long enough to dislodge the weapon and break it.

He focused on the Life Soul, it's purifying power erupted around him. He focused on his Beast powers, allowing them to flare to their greatest. He focused on the Soul Unisons, taking the power they could create and latching it onto himself to give him further strength. He focused on the Chaos energy in his blood, using every ounce of it for this moment. He focused on his rage, his anger and hatred as his blood boiled and caused the yellow-green tinted aura to launch up around his body. The residue power of those he cross-fused with in the past to awaken within him to give him that last little bit of energy.

He pulled with everything he could possible muster. All the power he could gain at this moment.

But the blade did not move. The hurricane of darkness and corruption was not halted.

There was nothing he could do as the forces around him made him let go of the hilt and all the power he had gathered to him ceased to be. He was flung back, slamming into the ground rolling over and over, smashing through a few of the chairs as the nebula dispersed away, sinking back into the cracks of the ground it had escaped from.

His strength had failed him. He was panting, his heart racing, his body in pain all over.

He failed to notice the fact Slur was helping him sit up and had placed her hand over his chest, a warm flow of energy entering his body as the pain started to ease. "Whatever you attempted just now made it impossible to leave that prison until it was over."

"S-Slur?" He looked at her, and then noticed Anna was there along with Chaos, the former looking concerned over him and the latter looking at the sword in the middle. "Why? Why didn't you guys leave?"

"I've given you some degree of healing. I cannot heal all of your wounds at this time. My power is not fully back yet." Slur moved away as Anna now came over and bent down near him, placing herself beneath his arm and an arm around him to help him on his feet as he felt her tug, complying by using what strength he had.

"Slur, she tried. But it's not possible. The water cannot be entered. Only the victims can come through. Me and Chaos though...we wanted to come back for you but the door was sealed. I didn't want to leave you."

He gave her a brief smile, before looking at Chaos. "Don't bother, grabbing that thing. I'm a powerhouse and nothing is moving it anytime soon."

Chaos walked around the sword, looking it up and down. "It must have a weakness. Everything had a weakness."

"Yeah but, turns out brute strength and energy isn't it."

The figure that looked like his own father stopped and stared at the blade, placing his hand on his chin. "The power it's emitting is like that of The First. Very similar. But not entirely. Somesort of creative force. He was made from Chaotic energy...Negative energy. This feels more then that. It's not Lifestream either, not Positive energy."

"So what then?"

Chaos was clearly deeply thinking over it. "Neither one yet feels like them...like both…"

"We call it Corruption. The merge of Negative and Positive." All four looked to see Ulysses walking in, with Sephiroth to his left and Terra to his right. "You have a different name for it."

"For both?" Chad moved a little away from Anna, thanking her briefly before making sure to stand between those that helped them and the new arrivals. "We don't have a name for it. We just call anything that has a hint of Negative energy Chaotic."

"Your gods would call it, Vermilion. The power equal to Corruption."

"Is that what it would take? To end this?" Chad asked him.

"...It is one route you could take. There is a second one. But it is one you blinded yourself to in the storm of Corruption."

Chaos now stood beside Chad. "And why would you tell us this….?"

"My name is Ulysses. And I have told you this because he wants you to know. He wants you to know you what it is you needed as you are doomed to fail now. He did not expect you three to attempt to leave, to be given a chance by this man...but it is one you did not take."

"Chaos Control!" Chad vanished in a flash of green and appeared behind Ulysses and next to Sephiroth and Terra. "Chaos! BLAST!"

The red shockwave of energy made Slur Anna and Chaos stumble a few steps back, but as for Ulysses it sent him flying and smashing into the wall of the main room hitting the floor after, and Sephiroth and Terra to shatter like glass panes into purple fragments across the ground.

"And with that we are out! Come on! There's an entrance down here that's most likely what we want!" Chad motioned at the three who followed him off down the corridor of the base, slur floating off the ground whilst Chaos and Anna ran with Chad.

Ulysses slowly got up, looking annoyed at what just happened. "You cannot win. You cannot stop him. You cannot kill them here."

The fragments of purple glass splayed out across the main room floor began to pull themselves together, piece by piece as Sephiroth and Terra returned.

"Pursue them."

Chad was sure this place wasn't that long before. It felt like they were running for miles when more people blocked their path, the likes of Q in his starfleet uniform, Roll, Elie Keene and Kevin Keene. But boy he was not in the mood for stopping. He grabbed Chaos and Anna. "Chaos Control!"

One green flash later and all three were behind the four. Chad knew Slur was a deity so she should easily get by-

He looked back and noticed that whilst the four who were in their path were now turning to face him Chaos and Anna, Slur had to focus elsewhere. Not only had Sephiroth and Terra caught up, but they had extra help in the form of someone who looked like his sister Iris, and a being that was clad in serpent themed armor that had used a devastating looking Scythe colliding with two yellow energy blades that Slur had formed to defend herself. Orochi.

"GO! You must warn the other deities! Tell them to abandon the game! We must destroy this thing!" She called out to them.

Chaos and Anna ran, whilst Chad looked back for a moment more, noticing more arrivals coming towards Slur in the form of another Anna, one who was in a one-piece sky blue dress, Darkmega, Lucy, Silver and Subaru.

He headed off. Rushing down the corridors to catch up to Anna and Chaos when he suddenly had to bend backwards to avoid the sword of Dark Rich as he shot out of one of the side rooms, before firing a chaos beam at him and breaking him apart like Sephiroth and Terra, then as he got himself back up he had to use chaos control to teleport forward past the next door as Zuo Ci had come out with his tarot cards spinning around him, electric surging energy flowing in and around them that was sparking out across the walls and ground.

Chad blasted him apart with a giga cannon he formed on his arm before turning back to the direction he wanted to go, only to find a woman in black leggings, small black shoes, a red and white dress that had long red loose sleeves and wore fingerless gloves thrusting a spear right at his face that he managed to avoid, then swinging it over and over as she was attempting to slash at him. Her hair was as long as Roll's but a light brown and her eyes blue.

He slammed his fist into her gut as he quickly closed the gap between them and fired off a chaos beam with that hand blasting her in two. As both parts of her body hit the floor they shattered.

He crushed a few of the fragments under his feet as he pressed on.

Soon finding himself back at the entrance to this unknown place.

Anna on the floor, injured with a cut on her chest, blood oozing out as she was on her side, hands over the wound. What was moving towards her but now was moving towards him as they spotted him was one boy with the Dark Wolf, dark brown hair and eyes, a red monocle over one eye with a black jacket on, blue shirt and black trousers, Richard Chandos, and the other wearing a long sleeved green shirt, blue trousers with black hair and green eyes; Blue Hikrai.

Both swung their swords at him, and seeing Anna wounded made Chad waste no time in catching both blades with his gloved hands, both cutting but being stopped as he yanked the weapons away, threw them up and grabbed their hilts before slicing at both of the Game Masters whilst flying briefly forward and past them, their heads flying off before they shattered apart on the ground along with their bodies.

The swords broke apart too as Chad was now left with the one Chaos had just jumped back from to take a moment to recover, unable to hit him. The one blocking their path out of the doorway into the darkness beyond.

He looked like Chad, same hair, same blue eyes, wearing a black organization coat and carrying the Blade of Darkness and it's counterpart the Blade of Light.

Chad rushed at him, swinging his fist as the two sword came up and stopped him. "You again!"

Before him was Nameless, who looked pissed off. "You should've gave in before all this!"

Chad pressed him, he used his chaos control in an attempt to ambush Nameless but every-time he used it, Nameless would do the same to try and get the jump on him, leading to both teleporting around the entranceway, from wall to wall, Nameless swinging the swords and missing whilst Chad tried to claw him and grab him only to find the guy disappearing out of his clutch.

It came to an end when Chad appeared for a second in the middle of the room and Nameless behind him, both blades swinging horizontally to hack Chad in two, only for Chad to now leap up to avoid the blades, turning whilst putting his hands together and smashing Nameless right in the head with enough force to make him smash into the ground. This was following by Chad placing his palms out whilst floating there yelling "Chaos Spear!"

Dozens upon dozens of red energy spears appeared around Chad and fired at Nameless, exploding on impact in an array of yellow explosions that made Nameless no longer visible to Chad.

It didn't matter. He landed on the ground and rushed over to Anna, helping her on her feet and moving over to the doorway with her beside him, Chaos meeting them there.

"Go Chaos! Jump in!"

"...We got more company." Chaos looked past Chad and Anna.

They turned to look.

Nameless was back up. All those who had appeared thus far were now in the entranceway, all before the clock, facing them. All 20. Ulysses walked up past the two once-fallen Game Masters and was now standing beside Nameless.

There was no sign of Slur.

"We will never, let you leave." Ulysses mentioned in a matter-of-fact way.

The doorway behind the trio began to seal, two stone doors began to slide across to come together in the middle. Their creaking and scratching echoing as time was running short.

"I got this!" Chad readied himself. "You two leave!"

He felt Chaos grab his shoulder. "You are not my son, but you are Chad Oswald." Before being yanked back and finding himself right near the doorway as Chaos got in front of him with his back to Chad. "I won't allow them to chase you."

"But that means you'll be trapped here again!" Chad looked and saw the stone slabs were halfway now. Not much more before none of them would be able to get through. "JUST GO!"

Anna took a few steps to appear in his view, a hand over her wound, smiling with a warm, comforting smile. "Please help him."

"W-What?"

"Help my Chad. Save him...and always remember us."

She pushed him out, just barely touching the stone as he went through.

He fell. He could feel it, flowing through the seemingly endless specks of purple...he could see it too.

Memories of Xenomaker.

Flooding in as he went. He knew now this was exactly what would happen in Oblivion. He could see the memories of so many…but mostly, he saw the memories of how it came to be, who it was linked too…

Then his body was washed in water.

Black like the void.

He knew he could swim upwards to return to the cavern, to escape to freedom.

He chose not to.

Soon finding his legs escaped the water, then his torso and arms before his head finally came out. Falling out of the water for only several feet before he landed on icy cold glass flooring.

Stained glass, the image of Richard Wily on it.

That false Oblivion was a realm within the lake.

This, was the bottom of the lake.

He knew of all this now.

And knew who was here, who rested here all along allowing his shadows to roam freely.

Xenomaker came out of the darkness around the circular stained glass, arms behind his back as he slowly approached Chad. "And thus, we meet again. I hope you enjoyed your little rummage through my home, pulling at my heart and causing me to hunt down some of my food."

"Destructive little pest ain't I?" Chad looked Xenomaker up and down, smirking as he did. "Jesus you're more ugly then any kind of Zerg I've seen. I don't think even your mother would love you. As for your heart, leaving out in the open like that? Why wouldn't anyone try to rip it right out and end your pathetic existence?"

"Your wounded. Weakened. Alone."

"Hasn't stopped me thus far. I mean, after death anyway. Atlas is the only thing that's gotten me and that was collateral damage. You and your cronies? Irritations at worst."

Xenomaker shook his head a little, sighing. "You know you can't kill me."

"I know. I know I can't. I don't have that ability. But I can hurt you with a certain something."

"But as you read me...I read you. I can sense any connections you try to focus on. Do you want her to feel my presence again? To relive the nightmares? Will you use it? A weakness of mine in exchange for her suffering?"

Chad paused for a time, looking down at his chest, at where his heart was...he placed his hand over it closing his eyes. "She'll forgive me one day. At least she'll be safe in the Farplanes."

"What do you think you can do here then?"

That glow appeared on Chad's chest...and Xenomaker's mouth twisted into a hungry smile. "And like that you call out for her. Truly an idiot right to the end."

Chad soon felt it, her heart beating with his. 'Roll...Please hear me…'

She answered in his mind. 'Chad? Chad where are you?!'

'I'm...at the edge of Oblivion. It's over for me, Roll.'

Her heart was beating faster. 'No! NO! Chad please don't go!'

As they spoke to one another, Xenomaker closed his own eye...and a light purple glow appeared on his chest.

The third heartbeat could be heard. 'W-who…? Who's trying to link with us? Who are you!?' Roll was heard saying, before in her mind and Chad's...they saw their Richard Wily, the Dark Soul. 'NO! NO NO NO! WHY!?'

'Roll! Roll listen to me! Listen to me please!'

'He can't be alive! PLEASE CHAD TELL ME IT ISN'T POSSIBLE!'

They heard his voice. 'Run away Roll. Flee and separate in terror. You can't help Chad. You never could.'

'Go away! GO AWAY RICHARD!'

'Roll!'

She wasn't listening. She was crying, screaming out. Talking to someone in the Farplanes, distracted.

Chad clenched his hand tight that was on his chest. 'I'm going to nuke him. Nuke this whole place Roll. Force my body into complete overload and destroy myself in the process. I'll free you from him for good. Severe the link. You heard that, right asshole!?'

Xenomaker was heard chuckling. 'Destroy this place? Oh the power will certainly flow out of the lake, destroy the cavern maybe...but it won't do anything to me. No amount of Chaos energy will.'

Chad clenched his teeth in anger, he was kinda banking on it as well as one other thing. 'Roll...through the connection you can pass me your programming. MIDAS. Do it. I'll use it.'

Xenomaker was even more amused. 'This is the last wild card of yours? Hoping that feeble girl will even listen so you can go out with a bang instead of a whimper?'

Roll was felt going silent...she was talking to someone in the Farplanes, to Chad and Xenomaker it was like a long distant conversation. Barely audible at all.

'...Roll?'

Silence.

But then the small aura on his chest glowed a brighter white-pink, flowing over him like an outline.

'...I-I can't do it Chad.'

'Roll I need MIDAS! Please! I want you to be free! I don't want to use-'

'I can't leave you. Not when you never left me, even at my darkest times, you were there. Even when I could never focus on us, when you needed someone there...you remained to support me. I have to do the same.'

Chad loosened his grip on his chest. Her heartbeat, the first time since they were alive so long ago, was in sync with his. 'Roll? What is-'

He felt her, looking beside them she was there. Ever so faint but there, looking at him. Smiling. 'I'm here Chad.' she looked over to Xenomaker, gasping for a moment. 'Is, is that…'

Xenomaker opened his eye, and was a little surprised.

Chad now spoke out of his mouth. "That's what 'he' is now. An abomination, a nightmare once again."

Roll spoke now too as she had the same outline as Chad. "Then you need our power Chad. Not just MIDAS."

Xenomaker went from surprised to hatred real fast. "You will die! Both of you!"

Roll nodded. "I...I choose to accept that. So long as my last moments are with Chad. I'm happy.'

Chad felt, grateful, truly grateful to her as the Heart Connection surged with energy. "Together Roll. Let's end it together."

Chad began to now glow a bright red, his whole body turning that colour as he placed his hands out beside him, clenching them whilst Xenomaker yelled out, his black scythe-like tentacles shot forwards and impaled Chad through his body once again as he aimed his hands forward, black purple energy swirling in them "CORRUPTION DRIVE!"

The beam of multiple dark colours launched out and covered Chad and Roll entirely. Pure Corruption energy surging into them and damaging them.

But as the attack faded out, both still stood, Roll floating next to Chad, holding his shoulders as she kept him strong, constantly healing him through her hands as the attack landed.

"CHAOS! NUKE!"

For Xenomaker, red and white was all he saw, the searing pain of the heat and energy blasted out swallowed him whole. The blast erupting out of the lake at all sides, the cavern, the land it was on was incinerated into nothing. The glass stained floor they were on was blown apart.

And in the midst of that, as Xenomaker saw to his complete horror...

Chad was approaching with Roll beside him, one hand outwards towards Xenomaker as Roll transformed into a whirling energy of pure white, flowing into his arm and forming into a sphere in his hand.

Xenomaker could barely move himself as a purifying beam was unleashed, half of his head, his right arm and right part of his torso and waist along with half of his claws.

He screamed out in absolute horrendous pain, his body burning away as he flew back from the strike, disappearing from view.

Chad was smiling though, even though he felt the Heart Connection die entirely after that one shot. Her soul being within that beam.

"Goodbye Roll...Thank you..."

And he fell, eventually the light behind him of his attack faded...and absolute blackness awaited him. But he kept his mind focused.

He had someone to see.

"Well. Good thing I can sense energy even in this dead realm hell. You okay there?"

He walked over to his counterpart from Universe 3. He was in a bad way but at least he could recover in time.

He helped him to his feet, finding him trapped in a sudden hug for several minutes before he walked him out of the fake Labs he had been hiding in to escape the shadows that haunted him.

They were now sitting in the main room. In the middle of it having placed cushions on the ground to rest on. He was looking up at the glass ceiling to the void beyond.

Chad of 3 though, he was looking at his counterpart. He was real. He knew it. He wasn't alone...It took him a little while to settle to this state.

Chad of 2 soon spoke through the silence. "There's something welcoming about this. For me."

"How...how can you say that about Oblivion?" Chad of 3 couldn't understand his elder self on that. "We're going to die…"

"Yeah. No more fighting. No more struggle. Heck I mean the Farplanes was pleasant enough of a distraction, but the Abyss called to me. I wanted to fight. To live. Then you found him for me. You found the one person that made me like this, along with every other villain I killed in my time." Chad of 2 looked to one of his hand, the glove covered it torn to shreds, the cut from one of the Game Masters swords still present. He was smiling. "Thank you."

Chad of 3 didn't answer. He didn't want to. He just was glad someone was with him now.

The other Chad though turned his focus to his younger counterpart. "You need to go back though. Back to your Universe. While you have people waiting for you."

"So do you." The younger one responded with quickly enough.

Chad of 2 chuckled a little, looking back to the glass ceiling. "They don't need me now. Roll isn't...She's already gone. Lucy, I know she's probably already tried to chase after me. Vengence. Doubt he'll spare her after the shit I pulled on him."

"But the power you have…" His younger self stared at him. Wondering about the state he was in.

Something his older self noted. "Yeah well. I've gained a lot in the years I was alive. Had to in order to keep up with the increasing power of the villains. I tank a lot, I know that. I overheard a lot of people comment on the power I have...let it even get to my head one too many times."

He leaned back a little, looking down at his damaged body. "But it isn't power that's going to end him. At least, anything that isn't pure raw creation power, both positive and negative. The sort the real gods wield. Vermilion." He sighed deeply. "The alternative is a connection I barely kept a hold on, whilst Roll held onto it with everything she had. We call it, the Heart Connection."

"Heart, Connection?"

"A link of souls. I don't know if it's just from love, or it can be made otherwise. But me and Roll, we had a special link between our hearts. In her times of despair or my own, we would sense one another. We could share a power unmatched once we tapped into it. Richard...my one, the dark soul one, hated that power severely. The creature that we were facing? No different. It's a weakness."

Chad of 3 stared in surprise. "...But his, so powerful…"

"Yeah. And his got a read of every power I know of and all that you know of too. But that one he, he just cannot comprehend. His body can't handle it, and he can't control it. He was able to attach himself to it, sense the link..But he can't corrupt it. Instead he was trying to use his fear tactics and doubts to severe us apart so we couldn't use it."

The older Chad was smirking, clenching his fist as he continued. "When I got Roll to listen to me. when I tried to get her to give me a different power to use so she could be free...She didn't. She gave me one last jolt of power from our link so we could end it on our terms. When it happened. I saw it. I saw fear in him. Actual fear."

"...Fear…?" Chad of 3 thought on it. He knew he saw fear from Richard before…

Back in Unicron's head. When he infused the dark soul power into twilight energy, that had hurt Richard. That was obvious, but he didn't seem fearful.

But that moment.

In one moment when he felt uncertainty, when the corruption power was ready to strike him and Darkmega down...someone reached out to him. he felt something in his heart at that moment. A burst of energy, a feeling of confidence washed over him. Someone was there, with him besides Darkmega. A brief pink glow appeared on his chest in that moment.

The power he sought in the hologram room.

That was when he saw it. That fear in Richard's eyes. The fear in the Dark One. It wanted him gone as quick as possible as it honestly wasn't ready for him to have that gift.

"That was the Heart Connection...Anna's gift to me. I'm sure of it." Chad of 3 placed his hand close to his chest. "...Anna…But why? Why could I never feel it again?"

"You say Anna, but are you sure on it being her?" The other Chad looked to him, now folding his legs over one another. "I mean I never felt it when I was in love with Anna...Tira, that one nighter with Rose. Lucy I felt sparks of it with but with no real danger around I guess I never focused on that. I only truly felt it with one person, and it came to light when we were close."

"…" The younger Chad shook his head. "I don't know. I think it's Anna...but it could be Roll. I mean, I felt something for her. I guess if Anna wasn't around I would've….I, I dunno."

"Our Universes are very similar. Maybe the link is too...Or maybe it wasn't suppose to happen for you."

Chad of 3 looked over a little confused. "Huh?"

"I, saw things before my last fight with that asshole...I saw your future before he came. The previous cycles of your Universe."

"And?" The younger partial navi mobian really wanted to know.

His older self gave a weak sigh, before clearly giving him a sympathetic with both his facial expression and through his eyes. "...You're destined to die. All of you of the Hero Base are destined to die. To fail at the hands of the deities. That, was your destiny."

Chad of Universe 3 felt his heart sink. "We're, supposed to lose?"

"You were to die in the fight against the deity Fate. Darkmega would too. The deities would deem the Hero Base and all those working with them heretics and, well...you all would be purged. Wiped clean out. Rufus would be killed and the Shinra Federation falls apart, Cybertron would be destroyed by the followers of 'gods' and Beyondard would wipe itself out."

His mouth dried out, his body felt weak at the fact that was it. That was his lot in this life. "...T-that's not fair..."

The older Chad shrugged a little. "Deities aren't about being fair. They just play their fucking game and expect us to fall in for the ride...And I was convinced I caught them out and expunged the fucking game they were playing at. Before I know it Zuo Ci pisses off and I lose all connections to them whilst I get a giant robot thing kicking my ass to death years down the line."

"So what do I do? What can I do?"

The older Chad smiled at him. "I said it was your destiny. The deities are going to try and make it still happen I can guess, but you have an opening. One that he...Xenomaker, had created through his attempts at changing things to no doubt work around to his favour."

"...Xenomaker...?"

Chad of 2 nodded, grimly. "The foreign creator. A false god. That is what we fought against." He placed his hand towards his 3rd universe counterpart. "Hold onto me."

The other Chad looked uncertain, but did so with reluctance. His hand clasped into the other.

Chad saw it.

He saw Xenomaker.

He saw where he came from. What he was...what his goal is.

He yanked his hand away, fragments of data between glittered from where their hands were linked before they faded away. He was panting, struggling with the information he now had. Chad of 3 looked to his own hands, shaking violently as the images repeated again and again in his mind, before he fell back, his head striking the metal floor. The dull pain did nothing to ease the information that was sinking in.

The boy could only curl up on his side, looking away from his older self. He felt tears escape him before his lips parted. "It's...It's us. It's always us. We're the targets…"

"Every Chad, Richard and Blue in existence." His 2nd Universe self answered with, placing his hands on his knees. "Those he can't corrupt, he destroys. Those he does corrupt, he'll eventually erase them. The killing was the part that got you, wasn't it?"

No response.

"I don't know how many times he killed, how many parallel, quantum's or otherwise his visited whilst waiting for us to come into existence...but he takes pleasure in each one. He wants us to know he has won. Every prime Universe version of us to know he will be our doom. Every...Game Master."

"Who...why…"

Chad of 2 looked to the younger one who remained curled up. "I don't know entirely. Just they were the ones who started it...one of us, started it. A Chad. With a Richard and a Blue's memories and dreams attached. But what I do know is that Xenomaker is beatable. He'll keep aiming at you. Aiming at all those around you. Around each of you, Richard and Blue. But you can be the ones to overcome him."

"...I, I can't even face him. I'm nothing to what he is…"

"With the power of two, we can hurt him...but you have a chance to gain more then that. You can alter what is supposed to be. Work it to your favour. The more connections, the more power. You can make Xenomaker learn of fear properly. I...I can never do that. It's far too late for me to even try."

"What, what do you mean by that?"

The 2nd Universe Chad gave quite a deep, long sigh, before turning his body to face his counterpart. "Look at me."

Chad of the 3rd eventually got himself to sit up, still shaking like a leaf as he did so, his face reddened with tears as he stared at his older self.

"I pushed people away. I wanted to get away from them to save them. I rejected their feelings. Only family mattered. Roll...she, she had a hard time trying to get me to understand her. To come to terms that doing what I was doing was damaging me. But...in hindsight, she too was hurt too much."

I stepped back when she was in pain. I focused inwards and he scarred her on so many levels before I even knew the depths of it. Her mental state took a dive soon after I thought the struggles would end. I never accepted that she was still seeing him in her eyes. That he was still haunting her. Her hurt ways made me push people again, keeping to family...It was my ultimate undoing in life...and in death."

"Wh-what do you mean by pushing people?"

"Some of those in the Hero Base wanted to be my friend. Wanted to hang out you know? Give me a break from the fighting. But I kept throwing myself in. I followed my destiny with or without my knowledge. Every threat I faced I never noticed I became more and more alone. That they feared me for my power. And it felt good. I wanted that fear. A fear that'll stop the constant battles but guess what? Never did."

He looked annoyed once again. "I even fought Blind Io and Fate. Two of the top known gods next to Lady Luck. I thought that was the sign of me breaking the mould. Doing the right thing...but I think they had set it up so that they had two options ready. The two gods lived by my mercy, or they died. I chose the latter, so Zuo Ci got promoted to be by Lady Luck's side after all the crap we went through...tch, should've known he was using me after the constant turns against me he pulled. Heck I was even convinced he was Night Terror at one point."

"What is Night-"

"He was a deity. Guardian of the Silent Realm. A prison for things more dangerous then what the deities want to handle or send away without the other deities knowing. I killed him but I assume the realm is run by more then one of him…Look, what I'm trying to say is...when things become intense, that require you to get out there and save others, don't think severing connections will help. Talk to others, ask for help. You have that chance. Keep Ruth safe but don't push her away."

The reddened tired eyes of the 3rd looked to the 2nd's. "R-Ruth?"

"She's key. Like Roll. I'm sure of it...I've met her."

"When?"

"Can't say. But she cares. Build something from that. It's a start."

The Chad of Universe 3 was thankful for this, after the horror he had witnessed, but he looked around...only now noticing the corridors had darkened, faded away. "But. I can't leave."

"You can't without help. But if we focus on this realm, on it's existence, we can hold it together and eventually, he'll come."

"W-who?"

"ME."

The sounds of hooves rapidly filled the main room of the fading Hero Base as Death came out of the shadows of one of the corridor entranceway's, riding atop Binky, slowing to a trot and stopping before them, scythe in hand.

Soon Death had found out about the name Xenomaker, and as Chad of Universe 3 was complaining, decided to make him stop.

"FORGET."

Chad of 3 fell to his knees, as arms and legs going limp whilst his eyes glazed out to nothing and mouth hung open.

"What did you do?" The other Chad asked the reaper as the main room of the base seemed to go darker, the lights weakening. He then noticed the labs and the hospital room had simply, vanished.

"ALL THAT HAS OCCURRED AFTER HIS MORTAL COIL WAS SNAPPED IS NOW SEALED AWAY." Death leaned down and lifted Chad of 3 up over his shoulder. "NORMALLY MORTALS WILL NEVER RECALL BUT I HAVE A FEELING AS AN OSWALD-"

Chad of 2 smiled. "He'll remember. In time. Like everything else we go through. Beyondard and Lucy and such."

Death went over to Binky and placed Chad over the back of the saddle. Chad of 2 started walking over. "So I take it I'm staying?"

"YES."

"That's fine…" Chad stopped before the horse, stroking it's mane. "Figured that was the case."

"...YOU KNOW. YOU COULD TAKE HIS PLACE."

Chad of the 2nd Universe was surprised on hearing that. "What?"

The Reaper looked at him. "I CAN'T TAKE BOTH OF YOU BACK. ONE OF YOU MUST DISAPPEAR."

Chad of the 2nd Universe was certainly shocked. "You...You would allow me to steal his spot?"

"SEE IT LIKE THIS. YOU ARE ALREADY MORE POWERFUL. YOU WILL REGAIN SUCH POWER FAR QUICKER. YOU HAVE GREATER KNOWLEDGE. ADVANTAGE OF KNOWING WHAT YOU FACE. BOTH FACTORS MIGHT BE ABLE TO HELP DESTROY THE ANNOYANCES. YOU CAN LIVE AGAIN. IT MAY NOT BE THE ROLL YOU KNOW, NOR THE LUCY OR ANY OF YOUR HERO BASE. BUT YOU CAN BEGIN AGAIN." Death moved away from the unconscious Chad and stood near the other one.

"...Why would you even offer this?"

"PERHAPS BECAUSE IT WILL MAKE THINGS INTERESTING. PERHAPS BECAUSE I KNOW YOU HAVE FOUGHT WHAT THE ANNOYANCE INFESTS. THAT CHAD LACKS ALOT OF THINGS. THAT UNIVERSE NEEDS SOMEONE STRONG AT THIS TIME."

Chad of the 2nd universe turned away from Death and his horse, looking at the fading view of the Hero Base, the lights flickering.

"YOU DON'T HAVE MUCH TIME. HE WILL NOT FEEL ANYTHING WHEN THIS IS GONE."

Chad glanced back at Death. A weak smile was showing at the corner of his lips. That seemed to make Death turn back to the Chad on the horse and about to grab him off. "I'll stay."

Death's hand came to a halt before it grabbed the boy.

"Thank you for the chance. But I think you need to give him the opportunity. He needs to remember them for me."

"WHO?"

"It doesn't matter...I think he'll know in time."

"...YOU KNOW THE LUCY OF YOUR UNIVERSE, THE DARKMEGA, DARK RICH, LIGHT RICH, ROLL...THEY HAVE ALL BEEN WIPED CLEAN ALREADY. THEY DIDN'T MAINTAIN A REALM AT ALL OF THEIR OWN."

"...He didn't want them? Good…" He looked around the dying main room. "Still, they already rushed off ahead. That's a new one. That's normally my job." He sat himself down in the middle of the room on a cushion, crossing his legs and resting his arms on them. "Better catch up I suppose."

Death didn't say anything more. He got on his horse as it trotted around, facing the void beyond.

"Take care Death. Tell him...to keep fighting."

He heard the hooves fade out in the distance.

One by one, the lights disappeared and darkness grew.

He took a few deep breathes, clenching his hands, looking ahead as it got darker and darker, the walls faded out.

He saw it ahead of him, in the darkness. A purple eye glowing. "So this is how you lure them in. The likes of Anna. You come as they're about to fade away."

You could join me instead. Do not face Oblivion's end. You know my power.

Chad smirked. "Unlike you...I'm not scared."

With that, the purple eye disappeared.

The floor around him disappeared into the darkness, the computers finally stopped humming, the last of the lights blinking out.

"Alright...Guess it's time to see what the fuss is all about at the end of it all."

The last of the lights died.

He felt nothing different. He was still sitting.

Then it came.

A pillar of colours breaking through the dark, countless colours coming towards him, surrounding him, rushing by him. Each colour becoming clearer and clearer as they passed. He felt it.

The knowledge of his Multiverse opened up to him fully unlike what he got from Xenomaker. He saw it all. The previous cycles, the previous lives, the view of each and every living being.

But most of all, his life was the most clear.

He saw those of the base.

He saw his family.

He saw Lucy and Roll.

He couldn't look away as the colours seemed to go through him. He just stared ahead, smiling.

Strings of light white energy was escaping him, his hand fading away along with his feet.

The fading as each small string of energy gently pulled from him continued. His limbs, his torso, his head.

Soon the colours were gone.

The energy scattered in every direction.

They fluttered in the darkness, some coming together and swirling in a slow dance, before transforming into a black seed...which suddenly fell.

Landing inside a brown sack, waiting patiently outside the house of Death.

Eventually it would be planted. A new part of the crop would grow. A new bit of black wheat that awaited the Reapers eventual harvesting.

Life continued on.

1. The last part of this chapter is linked to Broken Universe: Fate Saga, Chapter 'Oblivion'.

2. The Multiverse of 20 is the intertwined stories of myself, Keyblader Chad and Blue The Hedgehog before we decided to separate things up to allow us more creative freedom, with only a few things being shared. Like sweet precious Xenomaker...because his a dick.

3. You wanna know what's up with the third Xenomaker? Check out Game Master: The Next Generation. A great story by Keyblader Chad that is worth allll of your time. Wanna know what happened to the first? Look back to the previous chapter cos' HE DEAD.

4. Vul Grohiik is the Dovah name for Dark Wolf.

5. Smaug is indeed Smaug from the Hobbit.

6. The Jie Ting scene is a callback to Broken Universe: Unicron Saga, Chapter 'Earth V: Cao Cao's Act', Which was where the last Broken Universe version ended, more precise the chapter I was creating when we decided to give ourselves freedom.

7. Shichishi Tōki Dan = Seven Aura Death Cut

TENSHO! HYAKURETSU KEN = Heaven Soaring Hundred Rending Fists

BAKUNETSU GOD SLASH = Erupting God Slash

HYAKURETSU KAIO KEN GOD FINGER = Hundred Rending Realm King Fist God Finger

8. Chad of Universe 2 is from Star Bearers. Chad of Universe 3 is from Broken Universe.