Chapter 89: Apex
Perspective: Various
Fire only just flew out of the way of fear's glowing talons, which were nose each half a metre long. He steadied himself against what remained of the staircase. Voidblade teleported on to the ring of the staircase above him, holding Kay's forearm. The two crouched down.
"What do we do now?" Asked the enderman aloud.
When Freak broke Shadow and Astro's shield that had disrupted their telepathic communication network, and Kir was still trying to keep Tyron's reflexes at full capacity as Freak bore down on him. The cloud of smoke had not yet cleared where the two mages had stood. Fire threw a concerned glance where he assumed his sister to be but was soon forced to focus on the battle at hand.
His eyes shot to the activation mechanism. Steve and Jennifer mined away even more frenetically than before, but there were still several layers of obsidian alloy to go. Steve saw one of Freak's briars creeping toward him and equipped his improbably efficient shield. He just about managed to block the thorns while still ensuring his pickaxe struck true.
Fire called out: "No matter what, we have to keep the Brines free to break through to the switch."
Voidblade nodded and Kay stood up.
"Very well, first the briar, then the Freak," he proclaimed with some of his old bravado.
That was when Freak's gold-and-black arm shot out to strike the staircase. Voidblade grabbed Kay again and they teleported away, trying their best to work in tandem as Kay had once done with the Book. Fire only just glided off to the side. The phantom's talons pierced his armour and cut through the scales on his arm. As he landed, he realised it was time.
"Let's see if you took our talk to heart." He murmured.
Fire's eyes dimmed before turning black entirely. Claw surged forward, zweihander at his side, winding up for a large upward cut.
The glowing phantom slid back, grinning away unfazed. He batted Tyron aside and shrugged off a blow from Amanda.
"Hey buddy! Didn't expect to see you here! Pete must be getting pretty desperate, huh?"
"Shut the fuck up, Freak!" Claw roared.
He then launched into a series of ruthless swings, Freak managed to avoid some but the sheer speed that Claw attacked made sure that occasionally he landed a hit, each time tearing away more of Freak's freshly formed nightmare-flesh. The pace with which Claw attacked was unsustainable, but a Mencur-Besh's definition of unsustainable was different to that of many others, and Claw intended to show just how great the margin was.
Freak flashed a grin and thrust his arms up. Claw struck out at his exposed flank, and the mixture of gold-and-black seemed to unravel, allowing the blade to pass through unharmed. Freak then brough his talons down, shattering the ground and forcing Claw back. He moved to thrust forward, when suddenly - Crack!
A shield shattered against Freak's arm, staggering him, and making him miss. Astro flew out from the smoke and immediately began to pelt Freak with spells to little effect. Then the smoke cloud exploded outwards until it dissipated, revealing Shadow and a small yield dome protecting the fallen Urist. A disintegration beam shot from her hand and struck Freak full in the chest. The phantom took a step back, clasping the wound as it healed. Claw profited from this and struck him across the jaw with the zweihander. Black blood spilled from Freak's face as he reconstructed his signature grin.
The phantom wasted no time in attempting to regain the advantage. Tyron threw a wall of earth and Freak cut through it. He unspooled his right bicep to allow Rose's daggers to pass through without serious damage. He shot his arm out into the air to route Amanda. He sent razor-sharp tendrils out from his back to pursue Astro.
Voidblade and Kay appeared behind him and the enderman thrust a spear at the same spot Fire had stabbed so shortly before. A gaping mouth formed and bit the spear clean in half, and a tendril shot out and slammed into Voidblade's helmet. Kay severed the tendril and turned to catch Voidblade. However, as he willed the wounded enderman to teleport, Freak rounded on them.
The phantom leered down and drew back the talons stopped of his left hand. A single downward thrust would reduce both of them to bloody smears on the ground. Kay looked down at Voidblade and saw purple blood dripping from the crack on his helmet. The enderman thrashed to and fro with eyes scrunched shut. The General turned back to Freak and braced for death. The phantom struck down.
The talons stopped. Freak howled. Kay looked up to see Fire standing over him, clasping the Entity's zweihander. The blade had passed between the two central talons and cut halfway into the Phantom Lord's hand, sending black blood pulsing every which way. He looked back and Kay saw black eyes. His own widened.
"Claw?!" he yelped.
"Communications back online!" chirped Kir with only a fraction of his usual enthusiasm.
That was when Astro swooped down and lifted him away. Kay looked back to see Shadow do the same with the injured Voidblade. Tyron, Rose, and Claw entered into a fierce melee with Freak, with Amanda circling above.
"Is that Claw?" Kay asked telepathically.
The wizard set him down and scowled.
"Yeah, looks like, keep your shit together. Claw's small potatoes now."
"Careful, remember that I could have killed you back at the hill. But we have bigger problems than the past now," said Claw as he cut deep into Freak's leg.
"Claw friend?" asked Kir.
"Really not the time, Kir!" stressed Tyron as he just about pulled Kir out of the reach of a maw which had formed on Freak's shoulder.
Kay rubbed his leg and reassumed a fighting stance. Nearby Shadow set down Voidblade and, after planting a protective rune around him, began firing more disintegration beams at Freak.
"Don't worry, I'm not complaining. We only got out of that dreamscape because I bit the bullet and worked with Hamish."
"I'm sorry, what?"
Astro's eyes collapsed into a squint and his jaw dropped open. Amanda swooped down to glare dismissively at Kay after yet another rocket bounced off Freak without effect.
"Did you hit your head more than usual?"
Kay frowned and tried to explain himself, suddenly chewing his lip as he tried to remember the dream through the fog of battle.
"No, the charm Freak used just made us imagine our worst fears. I just used my training to get Hamish to do what I knew he would: attack Freak."
Astro's eyes widened. He looked at Shadow, then Kay. He spoke aloud.
"What happened?"
"It was weird, I just wanted to startle him, but Freak started thrashing around like Hamish was physically there. Like he was actually hurting him."
Astro laughed nervously and glanced at his rings.
"Shadow, please tell me if I'm wrong, but could it be possible to reactivate Freak's spell, just on me?"
Shadow replied: "It's been active this entire time. I've been contesting Freak over local reality so he couldn't imprison us again. I could put some additional effort into it, maybe you could manifest something yourself that way. Just be wary that if I do that, I can't help you otherwise."
"Alright," Astro laughed breathlessly. "Um…"
"Whatever you're planning, do it fast!" Interrupted Jennifer. "We've still got four sheets to go, and that phantom keeps looking really angrily at us!"
"It's not much more fun over here!" snapped Rose.
Astro grunted and relayed some final instructions.
"Okay Kir, when I give the signal, make sure everyone can see what I see."
He then turned to Kay.
"And I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I need your advice. Talk me through how to do this."
Kay's face suddenly shone with hope.
"Great," he grinned. "Tell me about the dream we're working with."
As Kay began to explain to Astro how to best manipulate his nightmare, the fight raged on. Freak dealt Tyron a blow on the leg, dodged a blast from Shadow, then struck Rose backhandedly. The assassin went flying and slammed into a bookshelf. She seemed to shred through the wood and bindings, vanishing from sight in a cloud of pages. Just as the Phantom Lord tried to shoot off a gloat, he found himself blade-to-blade with Claw.
As the other combatants struggled to stay standing, Claw and Freak entered a duel for the ages, the ultimate hunter against the personification of fear. Meanwhile, as much as it pained her to do so, Shadow stopped firing spells to support her brother's flipside, and intensified her efforts. Darkness deepened, lights intensified, it was as if reality was filled to the brim with itself, threatening to burst.
Freak, however, only seemed to grow stronger. Claw made a strike that was too predictable, and Freak caught the zweihander between his talons. His smile widened to impossible lengths. He retracted the talons on his other hand and struck Claw in the face. And then again, and again.
"Do I have an angle on you now, Claw?! What do you truly fear, now, huh?!" howled the Phantom Lord.
He stopped the barrage and extended his talons once more.
"The Entity's not here to protect you now, Claw. There's only one thing left for you to fear, and that's me," he panted like a dog faced with a meal.
Amanda fired another missile at him. It struck the side of his face and forced him to flinch. He glared after her, vowing to pluck her straight from the sky next time.
"Just admit you're scared, and I'll let you go."
"I don't need the damn Entity anymore, and I don't need your mercy either! I am Claw! I am a Mencur-Besh! And I. Fear. Nothing!"
The phantom's neck cracked.
"Such a shame."
He drew one hand back for the killing blow and raised the other to block Shadow's expected spell. The disintegration beam came and singed the skin of his arm. He hardly even felt it.
"I was starting to like you, Claw."
Then, just as he started to thrust forward, he noticed a green glow to his right. His jaw dropped just in time for a crackling ball of energy to slam into his side and blow open his black-and-gold flesh. He roared and skidded across the floor, finally stopping himself with his talons.
"Woah!" Tyron yelled.
"What just hit him?" Jennifer asked alongside a craning of her head.
Astro stood behind the ruins of the staircase, a single hand raised in the air.
"Show 'em, Kir,"
Freak looked up.
A man of average height with messy dark hair and stubble stood across from him. His shoulders were draped in a dark blue jacket, and a leather breastplate clung tightly to his chest. On his wrist, a black, mechanical gauntlet crackled with green electricity.
"No way!" Amanda shouted.
"David?!" squealed Steve excitedly, almost missing his swing.
David, boyfriend to Destiny, slayer of the Sovereign, heir to the Third Legion, stepped forward, and began to speak.
"Hey Freak, been a while. Remember when you stabbed me? Good times. I hear you're the guy who killed my girlfriend, is that true?"
The phantom forced a grin.
"Well, your death did the hard work, I just gave her that last push."
David scrunched up his eyes and clicked his tongue, then started slowly walking forward. No one knew how to react.
"Oh, that's just awful Freak. I really want to kill you for that. I'm bound to make a stupid mistake rushing you after saying that. But, of course, I'm not the one you've pissed off the most."
Astro raised a second hand.
In the corner of Freak's eye, he glimpsed the flowing of a ponytail in flight. He turned to defend himself, only for an icy javelin to strike him through the eye. Before he could even howl in pain, his assailant held out their other hand and the temperature in his face rapidly increased. The icicle skewering Freak's glowing face began to evaporate, scorching his face with steam.
As the Phantom Lord screeched, Destiny landed on the floor. She summoned an icy sword and a fiery buckler shield, then took up a fighting stance. Claw and Tyron had begun to close in. Shadow continued her efforts to contest local reality, and Kay continued to enthusiastically guide Astro through his summoning.
"Didn't Destiny normally use a bow?" Tyron asked.
"Yeah, but you should have seen her use the sword-and-buckler arrangement back at the portal facility. She did some serious damage," explained Astro.
"She was a real menace, we can agree on that," elaborated Claw.
"Miss me, Freak?"
"Like a headache," he chimed.
He lifted his hands from his face and revealed the wound already healing.
"You're almost as creative as me when it comes to torturing folks, you know that Dez?"
The shade of Destiny didn't respond, she just circled around to David, Tyron, and Claw, who had now interposed themselves between Freak and Shadow. Shadow, of course, stood in front of the ruins behind which Astro was doing the summoning. And behind that, Jennifer and Steve continued to break through layers.
"Just three more layers!" Jennifer promised.
David and Destiny's shades instinctively touched hands. Drifting above, Amanda averted her gaze in dejection as she remembered what she had lost.
"So, this is what you have for me?" Freak laughed. "Tyron-on-ice, Claw, and then two ghosts? Those were the big desperate trump cards you came up with?"
The phantom lord began to add additional branches of talons to his arms once more. Briars began to emerge from his feet and spread out across the ground.
"The ghosts aren't even substantial reinforcements! Look, I'll halve the benefit they provide right now."
Freak thrust his arm out at Amanda. It hurtled forward like a spear, unceasing, unquestioning. She was moving so slowly, and the reach of the talons was so wide! She realised she could not evade. She popped off one last firework at Freak's head, hoping it might buy someone an opening, then closed her eyes. Astro clenched his fists.
"Stop!"
Boom! Freak's talons struck a magical shield which exploded on impact. His talons broke. Magical shrapnel shot down alongside Amanda's rocket and showered Freak in pain. He looked up.
A shade of Warnado floated in the air. He had one arm wrapped around Amanda's shoulder, which he was already using to maintain a second shield. His other arm was being used to hold a colossal demonic hammer.
"Hammertime, dork."
He swooped down to strike Freak on the head and all hell broke loose.
Shadow fired her disintegration beams with reckless abandon, all the while advancing her attempts to wrest control of the local reality from Freak.
Claw continued his relentless onslaught, only barely taking enough caution to keep himself safe.
Tyron slashed out with Kir and Excalibur. He summoned spikes of ice and walls of stone.
David and Destiny's shades were the great unit the others had heard so much about from the Remaining. Here Destiny planted an icicle in Freak's side, allowing David time to charge. There, David finally rushed forward with the gauntlet pulsing with energy, blowing away Freak's flesh and allowing Destiny a whole new opening for assault.
Amanda swooped this way and that in a campaign of harassment, while the shade of Warnado unleashed an onslaught of sorcerous and demonic powers. He summoned energy weapons of all varieties. He shot demonfire. He opened small dimensional rifts.
And now standing atop the ruins of the staircase, Astro held his hands aloft like the Prophet on his hill. His eyes were closed, and his grin was wide. The ruptured stars containing worlds now loomed larger and closer than ever, shining molten rays of fear down into the Throne Room. The terrible winds, too, had reached down, and Kay roared over them, conveying words of encouragement and command into Astro's ear.
Freak fought with interminable strength and speed however, dodging sword and spell and chainsaw. He conjured terrors from the air. He stretched limbs out to kill. His talons just seemed to grow longer and sharper. His briars crept further and further across the floor and stabbed their thorns out at anyone then could. Until, finally, a decisive encounter came.
Claw swiped at Freak, and the Phantom Lord drew back for a strike. Only, he found his arm gripped by a powerful demonic hand. Claw swung again, this time at Freak's gut, and he unravelled the flesh to avoid the blow. However, as it relaced itself, David leapt forward, his gauntlet crackling with energy, and blasted away a chunk of Freak's gut. He tried to retaliate with his free arm, only for Tyron to summon a pillar of rock to encase it, reinforced with ice by Destiny. Amanda and Claw helped Warnado with his arm, and David ran to help Destiny and Tyron. They had him trapped.
He looked forward and saw Shadow slowly advancing, reality unravelling at her fingertips, small rifts opening and closing like black lightning.
He realised what she was about to do. Unlike the Entity, he was not her opposite. She could destroy this form, at least for long enough to disarm the machine. He roared like a beast of old, refusing to be beaten like this. His briars stabbed into her, but they had no effect, simply disappearing into the Void. He needed another target. His briars crept elsewhere.
That was when Astro raised his hands all the way above his head, and then fell to his knees bringing them back down. A figure in a waistcoat and a white shirt fell from the sky and flopped onto Freak's shoulders. He had an old almanac on redstone circuitry in his hand.
"Okay, Book, let's do this!" said Fristad through gritted teeth.
He touched a hand to Freak's head and lightning shot through the Phantom Lord. He froze rigid, a look of fury trapped on his face. Shadow continued to charge her spell.
"Just one more layer!" thought Steve and Jennifer in unison.
A glorious hope began to burn in the party of remaining heroes as they continued hammering away at the obsidian.
Atop the pillar, Astro continued his summoning. The wind of the storm lifted his hair like the death of gravity. Kay continued to propose new helpers.
"Is there anyone else out there?"
"I see… Bokane… No, Wise One, a king of the Realm."
"Can he fight well?"
"Not really, he's about ninety."
"Then why did you mention him?"
Astro laughed triumphantly.
At that moment, Kay's heart froze. He saw a briar creeping along the staircase's remains like a snake. The end was about to blossom into a-
"Look out!" Kay screamed.
He ploughed into Astro, throwing him from the ruin. The point struck him in the gut, cracking armour on the front, then piercing through the back. Blood ran. He collapsed.
"Kay!" Astro yelled, running to the fallen General. However, his attention was immediately forced back in the opposite direction by another scream.
"Helix!"
Astro turned to see all the shades he'd so carefully summoned vanished in smoke. Freak stopped shuddering and clarity re-entered his eyes, then fury.
Meanwhile, panic entered Shadow's gaze. She loosed the spell, sending the ball of unmade reality spiralling at Freak.
Freak sensed the otherworldly fear and felt renewed strength. He swept one hand to the side, hurling Claw and Amanda from him. Then, with no support from the shades, Tyron's stone restraint was easily shattered. Freak scrambled aside to avoid the ball of rifts, and it grazed his hip. The rifts slowly began to spread across his side, but it was like ants spreading across a mountain. Too slow and too small to matter.
Freak began to advance shakily.
"Well done, you guys really had me scared there."
He deflected a blow from Claw. Then, wincing, he unleashed a second blow. It struck Claw's firesteel breastplate. The zweihander went flying from his hand, and the alloyed metal warped, then burst apart. He landed flat on his front, unmoving.
"Not scared, really, moreso… concerned. Like I couldn't remember if I'd left the stove on or not," he swerved lightly to avoid Amanda's rocket. "But it was a mundane bit of excitement at least."
He reached back to grab the teenage girl's wing in flight. She turned back to snarl at him. He laughed and she tried to hit him with her crossbow.
"Tiresome creature."
He hurled Amanda over in the direction of the activation mechanism. She slammed into a bookshelf and then crashed in a heap on the floor.
The sound of skittering stones turned his head. Kay had hauled his way over the ruins of the staircase, coughed blood, then collapsed against the rocks.
"That's how I'd describe most of you, to be honest."
He stepped over the staircase ruins and found Tyron limping in front of him. He raised a fist and briars struck the swords from his hands. Kir trilled in desperation, and Tryon tried to grab for him, but Freak would have nothing of it. He stepped on the sword until it almost cracked. The Dragoknight hissed and bared his fangs and claws. Freak retracted his own claws, gritted his teeth, and then struck Tyron in the face.
Tyron skidded to an unconscious halt at the feet of Astro, who now ran his hands back and forth as though smoothing out a clay ball. Freak smirked at the near-childish gesture, and then Astro thrust his hands out. A complete release of energy. It struck Freak head on. An attempt to shatter the very structure of Freak's body. The Phantom Lord felt the weight upon him, and it made the unreality spreading glacially on his flank all the more sapping, but it did not harm him.
He stepped forward, and Astro slid back. Freak grinned. He stepped forward again. One of Astro's rings burst from exertion. And they continued to do so with every step Freak took until…
"Three, two, one… And that's your reserves used up." Freak sneered. "Do you really want to risk using your own internal battery, Astro?"
The wizard continued the barrage. Freak sighed. His eyes felt heavy. He stepped forward. Astro collapsed.
Only one remained before the Brines, that tiny, awful mage who had made all of this possible. She tried tearing another rift into reality, but as Freak approached that quickly became an impossibility.
"I suppose I should thank you. If not for that little tear in reality you made, I'd be nought but a humble torturer."
He smirked. The storm was now behind him, pushing him toward the activation mechanism. Up above, the Tower's white mirror looked like a needle ready to pierce flesh, carrying disease and cure all at once.
"You must be furious that the Entity isn't here. You'd found your opposite, a true equal, with only experience separating you! Instead, it's just little old me. How about you let that anger out, one last time, before it ends. You'll have an eternity to fret!"
Shadow obliged, tearing a gap into reality but being forced to stop just barely short of Freak's body, then followed up with a disintegration ray that Freak only barely registered.
As Shadow made her final stand, Steve and Jennifer exchanged a look. A look which said 'Only one of us needs to break the last layer…'
"Jennifer," Steve said. "If Shadow goes down-"
"-Steve," she insisted. "You don't even have a weapon."
He struck the obsidian. The cracks spread. He tried not to wonder if he was behind or ahead of her. It could only be so much of a difference, he told himself. But, of course, it could be. It had all gone so fast they had no way of knowing.
A pale imitation of the Sunbeam struck Freak from above.
"I have the shield. And it'll take him longer to get to you."
"Yeah, a second or two longer!"
Shadow drew her amorphous blade and plunged it into Freak's chest. He laughed.
"And those seconds have to count!"
He struck. The cracks spread. It would only take a few seconds longer than he had. An eternity in miniature.
Reality solidified around Shadow, metaphysically keeping her in place.
Steve looked up at Jennifer.
"I love you," he said.
He swung his shield around to meet Freak's talon. It splintered immediately but by that shield's queer miracle he was unharmed. He cast aside his pickaxe and equipped a shield in either hand, charging into Freak.
The phantom staggered as the wood struck his chest. Steve grinned. Seconds won!
Two quick strokes. They shattered. Freak slashed upwards and caught him on the brow. Steve fell back into his nightmare. Freak smiled at his power regained, the last of the mage's interference suppressed. He smirked down at Steve.
Crack! Jennifer's pickaxe broke through the seal! A simple lever sat before her, begging to be turned. She thrust out her hand. The lever seemed to slip away. She hit the floor. A briar had wrapped around her leg and pulled her away. She equipped her bow, but before she could get an arrow there were briars all over her, covering, crushing, smothering… She passed out.
Freak approached the broken defensive dome and leaned against it. His toothy grin had faded into a cold smile. With everyone dealt with, all he had to do was wait for his moment in every limelight until the end of time. He could afford to enjoy one last quiet moment. He savoured the music of the storm, the spectacle of the molten rays of light, the gentle dance of the scar through which the Entity had entered and exited Nexus. It was serene, beautiful, a perfect calm before the-
He heard armour rattling and whirled around. He saw the girl, Amanda, thrusting out a hand for the mechanism. He lifted his hand and stretched out his talons, only for something to stop him.
There was a pressure all over Freak's hand and much of his upper body. At first it seemed to come from nowhere, then he saw its source: That living shadow the eponymous mage carried with her had taken hold of him. Freak scoffed and moments later became translucent, depriving Wodahs of anything to grab onto.
Something snapped. Amanda had her hand on the lever.
Click!
His heart stopped. The music of the winds stopped. And nothing else.
The molten rays of fear remained. The ruptured-star portals above remained as close and huge as they had been a moment ago. Everything had just been paused. Even the little scrap of deteriorating reality on his side seemed to have stopped. He choked down a laugh.
"Okay, I've been meaning to ask, what's the big plan now?"
"Well…" Amanda said, nervously. "I don't know."
He tasted the fear on her. Complete uncertainty. Majestic!
"Did you just not think past this point?" Freak cackled "Or did the others count on someone who knew what they were doing lasting to the end?!"
Amanda tried to back away, but Freak became solid again and grabbed her. Wodahs grabbed him again and he shone an intense, fearful light on the shade's entire form, rendering her powerless. He lifted Amanda.
"Allow me to expose, by a simple demonstration, the error in your plan." He pressed a talon against the mechanism. "I just flip the lever back, like so."
Clack!
Something was wrong. From one moment to the next the worlds in the sky had disappeared, in their place only the blackest nothingness remained.
Laughter rang out, laughter that was not just heard, but permeated every sense. The source of this laughter was Shadow who now stood upright a short distance away from Freak. With each passing moment it became harder to make out her exact shape, even Freak's supernatural senses revolted against themselves as they tried to perceive that which, by all sane and even most insane sets of logic, simply could not be. The only parts of her that were clearly visible were her eyes, burning like red suns.
Freak recoiled away but stumbled as the patch of non-existence rapidly spread across his legs and crept further upward.
He said: "Well… I never liked this body anyway. Back home to the dreamscape it is."
What remained of his body began fading out as its owner's consciousness slowly drifted out of existence, but just as he was about to disappear entirely, a radiant light began manifesting around the tattered remains of Freak's body, pushing him back into being.
Another voice spoke, one that was familiar to many of those present, but both Freak and Shadow heard it for the first time.
"You will not slither your way out of this, Freak!" The Lady of Dreams screamed.
As the nothingness spread further across Freak's body his futile attempts at struggling slowed down and came to a stop. When only his head remained, Shadow leaned in and placed a hand-like appendage of pure Void on Freak's face.
"What is it, little Phantom Lord? Scared?"
Those were the last words Freak heard before the world folded in on him.