Chapter 7: Shadows of Insanity
Mew needed a moment. Last he saw of their target he was a blob of darkness wrapped around his body, and before then he was a grinning miasma inside of his head. To go from both of those things to a...somewhat cute looking bug man just didn't make any sense.
Mew swung his pointer finger accusingly at the bug man and remarked, "Oh yeeeeah? Prove it! Give me one of your stupid grins!"
The bug's innards clicked and growled and remarked, "That is unfortunately impossible in my true form. But if you're so desperate for proof, I can fill your empty head with reminders of despair."
Mew's eyes slanted shut and he shook his head, laying a hand up beside his head and sighing, "Forget it, there's no one else I know who speaks like that."
Mew cautiously gripped the handle of his katana and inquired, "So what's the big idea with the moth getup?"
"This is my form whom the darkness birthed from its womb...Before those infidel moon and sun deities obliterated it, and left me as that ethereal shell..." "D." growled.
"Yeah yeah blah blah blah, I meant HOW are you in that form now?"
"Heheheh," The demon's devilish smile felt like it was still beaming proudly on its featureless face, "Poor naive Justek. He presumed that throwing me into that infernal void would be the end of me. But I live off suffering, THRIVE on it...Even my own."
"The concentrated light inflicted the purest agony upon my malleable body...But gave just that little bit of extra fuel needed to cocoon myself and regain my true form," "D." curled his talons and murmured, "Though even in this state, my darkness does not compare to the birthplace of radiance in the universe. I would have been trapped in that void, burning for all eternity...Had you not opened the way out."
Mew's eyes narrowed and he hummed with slight annoyance. The demon shook their head and remarked, "Imagine my surprise when I sensed your presence crawling back to me like a desperate addict."
"That you somehow managed to best that fledgling dragon without me only proves that my victory was robbed by circumstances beyond my control."
Each tiny section of his compound eyes blinked at differing points, and when combined their fevered gaze set upon Mew, "So...you have my attention, for now anyways."
Mew glanced back to Riku on standby and he narrowed his eyes, saying "Careful" with his glare. Mew nodded and propped his head back, telling himself to remain calm and focused.
"As tempting as it sounds to have you back in my head..." Mew shifted from sarcasm to sincerity, "I came here to ask you a favor."
"A favor?" "D." set his arms down and chuckled, "Oh, that IS interesting. You gained a better sense of humor in these past days. Fufufu..."
"We're trying to remove some parasites from a friend's head. With Joe Dark MIA you're the only major source of darkness we can rely on."
This demon going silent was always unsettling, but not even Mew could've seen coming what he'd say next. With a twist of its boney wrist he muttered, "You're referring to my children aren't you?"
A chill briefly went down Mew's spine and he had to keep his eyes from widening even a bit. He narrowed his gaze upon the demon and asked, "YOUR children?"
"When my body was obliterated, the shards of my power splintered off and became the invisible parasites you've clearly come to know."
"Ah crap!" Mew subtly glanced at the ship, "And we just HAD to go and bring Mr. Reality with us."
If there was any better time to panic it'd be now. "D." with a reality bender as a meat puppet? That'd create the ultimate Doomsday!
"Wait!" Mew squeezed his eyes shut and thought up a thought, "No. Hang on. Auris wouldn't risk that. That could only mean...'D.' can't control his parasites anymore?"
It was ballsy to risk the fate of the universe on Auris' motivations but it was a risk he was willing to take. He eyed the demon and flinched when they started creaking their head towards the ship. Mew tightened his grip on the katana a little more.
"D." rose a hundred feet with a single flap of its wings and hovered there, quietly. The chill brought on by his laughter barely fazed Mew at this point.
"How sad..." The demon murmured mockingly, "All that hard work the Elemental Overlord put in...Gone to waste."
"Demons, aliens, humans, they're all so quick to blame the other sides for their problems...But the truth is that all mortals are born and bred from the same flawed mold. All wielding the capacity to destroy, to betray, to despair..." "D." was lucid in his words and, never one for restraint, started to visibly sweat a wretched dark yellow moisture.
"Oooooh how I missed this. The scent of carnage, a fever rising in the heat of these blood-soaked lands...How wasteful all this negativity went. And how pitiful that I was not the cause of it..."
Mew pretended to close his eyes and fall asleep until "D." stopped pleasuring himself with his words and decided to come down. Then Mew snapped his eyes open and remarked, "Sooooo, about my problem?"
"D." creaked his head and hunched over, "Now that I have my body back I've regained something very important...A sense of longing."
"Yesssss..." "D." clawed his left talon out towards Mew, "My body hungers for blood and screams. For all my life I've been deprived of a true sense of...satisfaction."
"For as long as I can recall I engorged my flesh with the torn shreds of feeble, yellow-eyed creatures, vying for supremacy in the womb...And when I was finally released my first act in this world was a slaughter cut woefully short."
The demon twisted its body around and hung his head towards the ground, with Mew unable to tell if he was being looked at or not.
"Shackled to that pitiful 'king', rotting away in that prison planet, trapped within your ugly, cheerful mind...I have been a terrible emissary of darkness."
With a grimy, gurgling sound from its stomach a slit cracked open on the demon's face and slime salivated out of it, "All who could oppose me have perished at last. My time is now."
Mew turned to the side and started to unsheathe his blade. "D." flinched and stood upright, the ends of his wings sharpening as they pointed towards him.
"I will make you an offer...I'll remove those parasites from your friend's head. In exchange, you surrender your body to my crusade to turn the universe red with blood!"
"You know..." Mew whipped his katana out in a flashy streak and pointed it at the demon, his eyes flared wide open with determination, "I figured that was your answer about three minutes ago."
"D." clicked with laughter, his whole body jiggling as he lurched his head upright, "Then you shall make me submit?"
"If that's what it takes." Mew firmly stated.
"Then you should've brought the third one..." The demon's eyes turned to Riku, "Cause a man and a half will not even make me try."
Mew shook his head and smirked, "One's enough."
He looked back at Riku with a terse nod. Hesitantly, Riku withdrew a few feet away. Mew tightened the blade in one hand and pointed it up at the rising demon.
"Always so cocky. But that's fine..." "D." spread his wings out and darkness exploded like a bubble, shoving all the dust off to the edge of these ruins.
"I've always preferred ripping the screams from the body rather than the mind...!" "D." lunged at Mew faster than the blink of an eye and lunged his talons at his face.
Mew whipped his sword up to his palm and twisted his body left, diverting the demon's path right past him. He then made a floaty hop back and pointed his katana at the ground. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath in, and felt soothed at its release.
He thrust his eyes open and a calm wave washed over the land. He then leaped towards the demon and swung up at his wrist. "D." dragged his arm down the blade and thrust his palm open to fire a hellish black flame bullet.
Mew shifted right and the darkness grazed his shoulder. He then pushed a little further up, digging his blade into the demon's skin so he could drag him overhead and smash him into the ground.
"D." bounced back and glanced at the blood on his arm. He shivered, a subdued chuckle freed from his face.
"This...will be fun!"
The True Face of the Calamity: "D."
Mew placed his sword in the sheath and stood upright. With a short nod he remarked "Yeah" and spread his wings in-sync with the demon's, "I've been wanting this fight for a long time."
"D." lunged across the ruins and sunk underneath the shadow of a fallen arch. Mew turned right then felt a shift in the wind to the left. The demon scurried under the ruins' shadow, zipping around in circles beneath his feet.
The ground shifted, a sharp black tendril erupted from the ground to his right. He pulled his katana and cut through the top, only for it to immediately regrow and thrust with even mightier force.
Mew hopped back and the tip of the tendrils scraped his chin. He swiped the blood onto his gauntlet and turned around when the ground shifted under his heel. Another tendril made an attempt at his neck, only to be cut down the middle.
The tendril went in two and curved along towards Mew's shoulders. With one impaling thrust they virtually had him at his mercy. Mew hardened light on his wings and flapped them forth as shields, giving him the thrust he needed to pull back.
He then bounced straight up off one of the slanted rocks and whipped his katana out, sending multiple slices into the ground. "D." emerged straight through the middle of them and thrust his talons towards Mew's chest.
Mew locked his katana in the center of his body and blocked the demon's palms. The talons bent around the blade and stabbed into his armor.
Mew grit his teeth and thrust his blade to shove the demon off. Then he pulled it behind the head and dove down, ramming the bug into the ground with his shoulder. He then bounced off and unleashed all the light in his blade with one mighty swing.
The mile deep fissure in the ground was a nice show of force but it didn't impress the demon, who hastily retreated into the shadows and left a floor filled with tendrils to delay his foe's pursuit.
Mew locked his blade in the sheath and closed his eyes. He sensed the individual tendrils flying in a knotted thrall and then thrust forth right as they gathered together completely. He cut his way through the center and the darkness burst, splattering upon the ground like a blood rain.
Mew continued forward and hopped atop one of the tendrils, sprinting along even as it twisted to throw him off. Other tendrils were cut down with ease.
"Where'd he go?" Mew darted his eyes around.
With a pale shriek "D." erupted from the tendril he ran on and dug his slimy talons around Mew's skull, smashing him through the tendrils and into the ground. The demon then pulled away and thrust its chest up to shake the sky with its shriek.
The remaining tendrils converged upon them, blotting the sky with their ebony might. Mew held his hands up and erected a domed barrier for the tendrils to smash upon. The ground trembled around Mew as the darkness bent around his protection and completely enveloped it.
The comfort of Mew's own light provided little help when the tendrils ripped him off the ground and started flailing about, bashing him into the ground over and over to crack the barrier.
"D." lashed his talons around, commanding his beauties like a mad concerto. Mew kept his eyes closed and took a deep breath while his body was rocked like a pinata.
Every time he hit the ground, a little light loosened from his body like a wave of echo location. Subtly, barely visible, with the demon having the time of his life it would go unnoticed.
Once Mew had an idea of where "D." was he widened his eyes and burst his barrier like a miniature bomb to split the darkness widen open. He then hurtled straight across the ground and clocked the demon in the neck with his arm.
"D." gagged like a man dying while he flipped a few times around. Mew dug his feet in and whipped around for a second strike, punching the demon squarely in his bare chest.
They hurtled hundreds of feet in seconds, struggling against the pressure to turn upright. Then with one flap of their wings they grounded themselves and used their talons to try and stop. A loose bit of debris snagged one of his talons and knocked them back up.
Mew swung a few blades of light into the demon and finished closing the distance once they had connected. His sword was grabbed and shoved into his chest. The demon spread their wings and thrust forth with incredible vigor to force him back.
Mew held his free hand over the blade and blasted "D." with a cone of light. The demon leaped to the ground and the sizzling steam on their body quickly lost strength. "D." swiped the sharp backs of his talons under his chin and muttered, "Something's not right here..."
His many eyes bulged at his surroundings, which were covered in blades of light pointed at him. Mew snapped his fingers and the blades converged upon his location. "D." narrowly managed to escape them and the ensuing burst.
"Ghhh...!" But the radiance was so grand it burned his feeble eyes.
Yet the scent of his former host was so unforgettable, so sublime, that he could see through the light and ensnare his blade as it thrust for his chest. But curiously, it had little force behind it.
"D." paused for a moment, the look of utter shock he wore snapped like a photo in Mew's head before he plunged his diving foot into the hilt of his blade. The katana's tip penetrated the demon's chest, then scarred along the right of it as he flung it away.
Mew flipped back and charged the demon when he landed. "D." summoned a wall of tendrils to block and snag Mew's fist. Mew used all his strength to rip free and the tendrils came falling down like a tidal wave...Only for more to rise and fall behind it.
Mew zipped away lightning fast from the ever-growing tidal wave. It towered like a skyscraper at its highest point by the time Mew got to the edge of the ruins.
The ground trembled with fear and anticipation for its fall, but Mew stayed as calm as ever and called his katana back into his hands. He tucked it beside his hip and closed his eyes, gathering the light into his blade.
He charged forth without ever opening his eyes and cut cleanly through the darkness, landing and breaking into a run with his ignited blade still at his side.
"D." widened his eyes and spread both arms and wings, rallying the suffering of this world to his side as vortex of screams. He hurled the metaphysical whirlwind straight at Mew, who paused and let it wash over him.
He braced himself within the howling maelstrom and felt his face grimace against its will. So much crying, so much screaming. It was the wail of a world long dead, distilled to its purest, agonizing essence.
But for "D." this was just another obvious move from the same old bag of tricks. Mew took one hard step forward out of the maelstrom and the demon lurched back, visibly shaking at the legs.
Then when Mew took the next step out, he lunged straight at the demon as if having never been stopped. "D." clapped his talons together to catch Mew's blade but the boy quickly shoved him down towards the ground.
"Off me...!" The demon screeched, letting itself fall to then fling Mew over him.
Mew flipped around and badgered the ground with light slices. "D." scurried under the ruins until under Mew and then smashed the rubble apart, flinging it wildly through the air.
The debris battered against Mew's folded wings and he cautiously eyed his surroundings. But where he should've been looking was...
"BEHIND YOU!" "D." announced with glee as he slipped out from the shadows cast by Mew's wings and grabbed him by the neck.
"Tsk...!" Mew grunted and tried to turn around before the talons clamped on too tight. The demon's true face was very revolting this close. Thank god he hadn't finished that breakfast this morning...
Mew gripped his blade in both hands and swung for the demon's hip. But the speed of which he was forced down threw off his aim. After "D." smashed him into the ground he stood up and went feral on him, slashing away at his armor with both talons and quickly making it to the skin underneath.
Thankful for his armor's service, Mew used the time it gave to gather energy in his body and force the demon off with a burst. The demon bounced back, only to lunge out the moment Mew saw fit to try and stand.
Mew ducked and the demon flew over. He dug his feet in and turned around, where the demon sprang back without pause. The demon tried a downward slash that Mew avoided by stepping one foot back. He then whipped his sword out and cut "D." along the chest, firing two light blades into the wound.
The demon staggered back a couple feet and whipped his body around, shrieking in delight. He then spread his wings and thrust forward, a mess of tentacles erupting from his back.
Mew widened his eyes and cautioned his next move. The first tentacle came from the right and was cut down, leaving him little time to cut the second before it could grab his arm. The third and fourth worked in tandem while the others regrew to try again.
Mew lost the strength in his right arm from their strangling hold and had to let go of his sword. "D." dragged his face in uncomfortably close and drowned Mew's sight in pure black.
Mew's other arm was ensnared and the darkness crawled up his skin like a million tiny slugs seeping into his pores.
"You will be mine again..." The demon said with certainty, as if the last few failures hadn't gotten through to him. Oh well, this time, it'll be a permanent lesson.
Mew's eyes remained flared open, burning through the demon so white-hot that it made his foul sweat trickle down his face. The demon chuckled as it fed, and in its lucidity...Failed to recognize that he was being played like a fiddle.
With his mind Mew moved his blade upright and caught the hilt atop his foot. Then with one vigorous shove he thrust the blade straight up through the demon's skull. Blood burst forth from both ends like a small geyser and the tentacles retracted to flail around.
"D." lurched forth, swaying to-and-fro as it struggled to get a grip on the katana. When he finally ripped it free he slammed it upon the ground and left his blood to ooze upon the ruins.
Mew closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His heart beat slowed. The demon, in contrast, was starting to pant heavily.
"Why...aren't you saying anything?" He questioned, barely slowed by all that he had lost, "Don't you have a joke on the tip of your obnoxious tongue? Wouldn't you like to taunt me when I appear so feeble in your eyes?"
The darkness exuded like a thick fog from his body and his eyes lit up brightly within it, "Where is your fear? Where is your anger? Where is your hate? Your suffering?! Must I crack you open and feast on your innards to claim it?!"
Mew gently opened his eyes and for a brief moment, flashed a smirk. This enraged "D.", who split the air with the clap of its talons and shoved Mew a good hundred feet back. The demon then lunged in and shoved its talons towards Mew's face.
Mew raised his sword but found himself bamboozled by an afterimage. The haze of crimson from the demon's form blinded Mew's sensed to his approach from behind, allowing them to impale his talons through the bony part of his angelic wings.
Mew bit his teeth and whipped around, creating a wide cutting shockwave. "D." flipped over it and landed on Mew's back with enough force to ram him face-first into the dirt and grind the pointed grains against his skin.
"D." grabbed Mew by the shoulders and pulled him up to slam him down, putting his all into it. He used his tentacles to grab onto Mew's arms, twisting one and tugging the other one back, tearing its muscle fibers at the armpit.
These were the actions of a desperate man. Perhaps freedom wasn't all its cracked up to be, eh? Mew clenched his fists through the pain and took a deep breath.
And then with one exhale he unleashed a hefty burst of light from deep within, one great enough to force the demon off.
Mew turned the other way and pushed up with both hands, feeling immense pain in the twisted arm. He grit his teeth, wound fist back, then socked 泥. right where his jaw should be. His knuckled buckled down under pressure and gave it their all to really make it hurt.
The demon stabbed their sharpened wings into the ground and didn't go far. "D." hunched forward and dug their talons into their face. Then they started rapidly clawing apart their skin and covered their hands in their own blood.
"I...MUST...FEED...!" He exclaimed and hastily took to the sky.
"This planet's already far gone! All I need to do...!" The demon spread its arms and wings and red lightning shot out from him in all directions, at first pulling tiny gravel off the ground towards him.
"IS OBLITERATE YOU!" And shock of all shocks, he started gathering darkness above his head in a massive, pulsating orb, complete with a hellish crimson core capable of devouring entire planets in its pull.
Mew closed his eyes and shook his head with a sigh, "Why do they always resort to this?"
He locked one hand around his katana and zipped through the air to get behind "D." with his blade drawn all the way behind his head.
"W-What?!" "D." proclaimed, barely getting the time to turn back before Mew cleaved his blade along the demon's back.
The resulting energy wave quickly grounded the demon deep in the dirt of the ruins he loved oh so much. And from there Mew stabbed his blade up into the pitiful orb of darkness, filling it to the bursting point using light.
He then sped back down in front of the demon. They lunged a tentacle out through the dust and around his leg. Mew stabbing his blade down was enough to deal with it, and when the tip reached the ground it kicked up the wind needed to push the dust away.
D. was halfway upright, his arms and wings wobbling. He forced himself to breathe heavily, and each time it sounded like a different person dying. He looked at Mew with all his beady eyes and muttered, "W-Why...Why can't I break you?
Mew stood over the demon with his blade on standby and his head at a slight tilt, "I'm not the same person I was a couple days ago, 'D.'"
"L-Liar...mortals do not have the capacity to change. They are always ruled by their fears..."
"And what was my greatest fear? That's right...being alone," Mew briefly closed his eyes and spoke softly, "You lorded the possibility of going out of control over my head, and I didn't want to risk getting close to others because of it."
"But that all changed. I met Kairi, and Auris, and the Planetary Aurians, and even reunited with my brothers. Now I know that I don't have to be alone. I have plenty of friends who can stick by my side. And so all that fear I had? It wasn't stupid, or bad. It was just something I had to overcome."
"You're...thanking ME?" "D." said in an utterly revolted tone.
"I guess you could say that. You challenged me 'D.', and I almost lost because I underestimated you. That's why this go around I knew better than to go blindly charging into battle. I remained calm and focused, remembering how you fought and exploiting your weaknesses to the fullest."
Mew cracked a smirk and perked up a bit, "When you occupy somebody's head long enough its kind of a two-way road on knowledge, ya?"
"D-Did the Gods create you for the sole purpose of spiting me?" "D." scoffed, "Yet you can brag and boast but nothing changes...Even if I must scar my very flesh my agony will sustain me for eternity. I cannot be killed...And sealing me only delays my inevitability!"
Mew stretched his hand out and the demon was at a loss for words, "There's more to life than causing misery and suffering. I could show you...If you'd be willing."
D. froze there for a good long while with the silent wind as his company. He then reached his hand out and took Mew's into his. Mew smiled, and it appeared as though the demon did the same.
"...You're so naive." The demon muttered as darkness erupted from his hand to quickly consume Mew's arm.
Mew's smile widened and he pulled the demon off the ground, stabbing the katana right through his chest, "Yeah I know...but this time it made for some good bait."
Mew's fingers hovered the black trigger on the hilt and for the first time in his life the demon shivered in fear.
"Whaddya mean Riku?" Mew leaned in attentively in the chair as Riku waved his arm out and began to explain.
"First, be honest, did you actually have a plan?"
Mew sucked his lips in and glanced around with a long, loud hum. Riku sighed and shook his head, "Its fine...I got an idea now."
"Even though I lost my Dark Element to Ganondorf, I was still able to reclaim it by plunging my sword into his body. Since 'D.' was the source of your dark element, couldn't you do the same to him?"
"Could I?" Mew sat up and summoned his sword upside-down and was shocked to find the black trigger still present on it, "Huh...But 'D.' is a spirit. I don't think it'd work that way on him."
"Why not?" Mr. Reality stepped in and looked Mew in the face, "When you took on my challenge you plunged your blade into each energy reservoir representing your elements. What's the difference between energy and a spirit, really?"
"Oh yeah that DID happen. A lotta of that event's still a blur to me, sorry..." Mew scratched the side of his face and cracked a smile as a genius idea began to brew, "Heheheh. Oh yeah! Its all coming together."
D. trembled. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't consume more of Mew's body into the darkness.
"What...are you...doing to me...?!" He hissed in confusion.
Mew closed his eyes and muttered, "Taking my darkness back, minus one psychopath's voice in my head."
"You...can't! What I am IS darkness!"
"Ah..." Mew lightly rolled his shoulders, "Bummer then. Maybe you should've thought of that before you shared it with me."
D. went completely silent save for the few resisting hisses he could still muster.
"You ain't lucky demon. You're just a big joke. Lemme show you how an expert does a punchline," Mew pulled hard on the black trigger and widened his eyes with a big grin, "Yer 'D.'-one!"
The demon's body broke down and was quickly sucked up into the katana faster than he could give his last breath. As the last atom was swallowed up Mew's arm pulled back and his sword vanished in a black, hazy light.
The darkness surrounded his body completely and he shed his armor. He clutched his chest and then thrust his arms out as wings similar to the demon's spread out of his back. But these were smoother, and had a bit more meat to them. Black goop surrounded his arms and limbs and hardened. Otherwise though, he was in his normal clothes.
He stood there, clenching his fists as a wry smirk crossed his face. Riku approached him from behind slowly and asked, "Brother...? Did it work?"
Mew glanced slightly left and chuckled to himself. He then creaked his head over shoulder and flashed a grin.
"Whatever do you mean...'brother'?" He said in a raspy voice.
"...Really?" Riku groaned.
Mew turned around and spat "Bah" before rubbing the back of his head and murmuring, "I'll try that again when you've gotten a sense of humor Riku..."
Riku waved his hand up and remarked, "Are you feeling ok?"
Mew rolled his shoulders and cricked his neck, "Stiffness aside I'm great! I'm in full control and there ain't even a whisper in my head!"
"That's great." Riku smiled.
Mew walked up and held the appropriate hand out, "Couldn't have done it without your advice Riku! C'mon, gimme five!"
Riku took a few seconds to reciprocate but put his all into it. Mew then whipped his fist over his head and proclaimed "Yeah! Victory!"
And thus with nothing better to do on this planet the two brothers returned to the ship, where they found Mr. Reality hovering near the controls. He turned around and remarked, "Everything go ok?"
Mew have one firm nod and said, "Yep, everything's settled! We should have enough darkness now to get those parasites outta ya!"
"That's wonderful news," Mr. Reality smiled, "But...can you wait until we get back? Just in case something goes wrong I'd hate for us to lose our ride."
"Good thinking! Well, fire up the engines and lets BLAST OFF!" Mew thrust his fist in the air and was feeling like sunshine. This was a great step forward, and a good sign of things to come. Now all they had to do was get back, and they'd take care of another problem lickity-split!
Next Time: Unforeseen Problems
