Chapter -34: Wrapped in Black
Dark clouds wrapped around the sky, summoning lightning to smite the land.
The Echidna survivors have cowered inside of their homes, hoping to survive to see the morning.
All of them…except Pir'Oth Ix.
Beaten and forgotten in the chaos of these…powerful strangers, he was allowed to spectate everything unfolding.
Though his eyes could not track the movements unfolding, they understood and recorded this momentous occasion in his species history.
"Unbelievable power, Po'Clau." He said while staring at what Nazi had become.
"If the Nocturnus Tribe could harness this…" His ego focused on survival like it was inevitable.
Po'Clau was out of the fight, the strangers were distracting Nazo, everyone else was a coward.
He turned away from the battlegrounds and behind the darkening flashes of lightning, illuminated the sacred jewel, untouched.
Pir'Oth smiled, "Of course."
Nazo held his hand up high against his two foes and filled the sky with energy arrows. With one blind they spread out, stabbing and scarring in curves.
Sarajin slashed and dodged around them while Solomon faced them head on, surprised when they managed to make him budge.
Nazo fired a concentrated blast at him next, and it pushed him back a few inches. Steam rose off Solomon's blackening aura, and with a hard glare he extended his hands and struck back with a larger blast of his own.
Nazo warped to the other side and smirked, brightened by the explosion the darkness unleashed.
Nazo then flew in close and slammed Solomon atop the head with both fists.
Solomon refused to bend and glared at him, flaring his aura to repel him.
Nazo struck back and pummeled his aura, craters shaped like his knuckles rubbing up against Solomon's helm.
Sarajin tackled Nazo and then whipped his sword out, trapping him within a flurry of slashes.
Sarajin then flinched and flew up as one of Solomon's blasts spee by and nearly scraped his feet.
Nazo had just broken free when this attack forced him back on the defensive. He squeezed against the sides of the orb, slowing it down and then cracking it apart.
One final grunt and he swiped his arms across to break it. He then summoned energy in his hands and pulled them out, the energy burning out the air behind him.
He then fired a massive beam at his targets. Solomon shoved his entire body against it, exerting his full might to push it back.
Sarajin flipped upside-down and stabbed his sword along the top of the beam until he had enough light to slice through.
Nazo slipped out of the way last second and rammed towards Sarajin.
Sarajin shielded with his wing and then performed a hard spin to slam Nazo over the head with his sword.
The hedgehog stalled but now put himself in the middle of Solomon's sights, allowing the king of darkness to grab him and blast him repeatedly with bursts of energy.
He kept at it, slowly dragging his enemy into the air and increasing the intensity of the blasts.
When he had his fill he let go and clenched his fist, wrapped it in thick, hazy darkness, and swung.
The attack swept through a large space but was revealed to have only hit empty space.
Nazo revealed himself by punching Solomon hard in the back and then following through with an energy blast to drag him along.
Sarajin sliced through it with a light wave and then fired a few at Nazo.
Nazo toyed around with his speed by avoiding one and then positioning himself near others just to repeat the process.
Yet at the end of his play, Sarajin was right behind him with sword drawn back.
He hit the hedgehog with a hard glittery slash and then followed through with a rapid-fire series of thrusts.
Nazo had to resort to an energy burst off his aura to break free, upon which he peered over his shoulder and vanished with the smirk.
Behind him was Solomon's dark blast, which forced Sarajin to put his sword up on the defensive.
Nazo then reappeared behind him and clobbered him on the back of the skull to break his concentration.
After the darkness hit Sarajin and exploded, Nazo flew right into the fray and started pummeling him all over.
Sarajin steadied himself with deep breaths and swung around to match Nazo's speed and strength.
Each impact ricocheted off in the direction of Nazo's back and punctured the ground and sky.
Sarajin tanked hits with his body if it looked like the damage would reach the valley.
And opening was granted when he saw the moonlight through the clouds. He held his sword horizontally and captured the moonlight to blind Nazo and end his assault.
He then rose and used that moonlight to deliver a shining crescent slash that trapped the hedgehog between the points, then sent him hurtling towards the ground when the moon's image shattered.
Sarajin followed up by matching the speed of his descent and blitzing him with multiple attacks until he hit the ground.
He prepared one final stab when Nazo warped behind him and thrust his hands out.
Right as Sarajin spun around, Nazo blasted him against a dark sphere that rapidly dragged him up the nearby mountain.
Nazo lobbed a ton of smaller spheres to enlarge it and carve a small valley into the mountain, culminating in it blowing up the peak.
Sarajin's body speared through the center and split the mountain in half.
Solomon descended behind Nazo and fired a blast. Nazo telephoned behind him and launched another blast of his own.
Solomon made a stiff turn and slammed his hand out to hold it back.
Red lightning shot out from the friction between these chaotic forces that warped the fabric of the skies.
Nazo grinned while Solomon's eyes flared outward. Nazo kept feeding into his attack, his body a seemingly infinite reservoir of power.
Solomon found himself forced to use his other hand and soon after, his whole body was being consumed.
It was infuriating that some beast was daring to try and make him kneel.
And Nazo was infuriated that he wouldn't, "Give up and surrender!"
Solomon grunted to draw up his power and push back, but succumbed when Nazo flexed his power one last time.
Solomon was thrown back to the base of the mountain, and the energy silently collapsed before unleashing a thunderous blast that atomized the remainder of the mountain.
Solomon stood in the crater, using all his might to hold back the pressure on his knees.
Sarajin coughed a few times as he got up and dusted off his battered wings.
Solomon then let out a loud growl of frustration and remarked, "What are you doing?! This beast should not be this difficult!"
Sarajin winced then rubbed the back of his head and kept the criticism to his head, "You're making it harder than it should be."
But this wasn't impossible to work with, and he reached out calmly to ask, "Solomon, can you trust me?"
Solomon faced him and narrowed his eyes in silence.
Sarajin then watched Nazo lord his presence over them and pointed his sword at him.
"He's stronger than me, and faster than you. If we can prevent him from using his advantages against us, we can win."
Solomon then slowly faced their enemy and squeezed his hands, solidifying his aura around him.
"Fine. We will do this your way for now. It is preferable to allowing this beast to continue looking down on me."
Sarajin cracked a tiny smile and then fiercely armed his gaze as he grabbed his sword in a way that hid his hands.
"On my mark."
Nazo was summoning energy in both hands.
Sarajin snuck a touch of the Gaia Temporis and shouted, "Now!"
He used time being stopped to get behind Nazo and ready a powerful slash.
When time resumed, Nazo hastened to turn around and blast him, only for Sarajin to break through the energy and deliver a debilitating slash.
And at the same time, Solomon hammered Nazo's back with a mammoth sized blast of darkness.
It forced the first exertion of pain from Nazo's mouth in this new form.
When he tried to swerve out of this zone, Sarajin clocked him in the neck with his arm and used all his strength to drag him back into the attack.
He pinned him down as the energy swallowed him whole, then backed out before it burst.
Nazo tumbled higher into the air and Sarajin performed a few fly-by slashes before using a harder slice to pin him down again for Solomon's energy to strike him from behind.
Nazo growled, "You pests…!"
He flared up his aura through his clenched hands to throw Sarajin back and then attempted to attack him.
But forced between both him and Solomon left him indecisive on how he should operate.
Nazo resorted to using his speed to try and get behind Sarajin and kick him into the path of Solomon's next attack.
But Sarajin used the Gaia Temporis again to reverse their spots and punch him straight onto the beam.
He then hung back and gathered light into his blade, sending it out with a swing along the top of Solomon's beam.
It then broke apart into smaller comets that bombarded Nazo at random points of his body.
Nazo swung his arms out and thrust his own beam to pierce the center and start fighting back.
A glint of light off his side soured his hopes as Sarajin built up speed and then tackled him repeatedly to break his concentration.
When that was failing he relied on his sword to deliver a heavy slash.
Nazo gasped and started to be pushed back, only to thrust his hands out and shout, "You are nothing to my power!"
Sarajin backed away and cupped his hand before his chest, "Alone, maybe! But you're not fighting just one rat!"
He borrowed the light of the moon again to create a glittering sphere and then mixed in some of his own light to make it solid.
"Push with all your might Solomon!" Sarajin screamed as his beam gushed out of the orb like a geyser.
"With. Pleasure." Solomon squeezed his hand tight and the beam nearly doubled in size off his body.
Nazo was quickly pincered between both beams so deep that his screams were muffled into silence.
The beams expanded into two halves of a miniature celestial body fighting for domination over each other, the backlash forming deep cracks in the sky.
Both fighters released and the energy was forced to collapse upon Nazo, dragging the perspective of the sky inward around it.
Once it was the size of a head, it burst wide open and created an ear-rupturing sonic boom.
There was smoke everywhere and while Sarajin cautiously had his sword at the ready, Solomon wasted no time thrusting another blast of darkness to flush Nazo out into the open.
"Keep the pressure on him until he's dead, you fool!" Solomon shouted.
Sarajin flinched and then took a swing at Nazo's smoking body.
He noticed at that point that Nazo wasn't healing any of the damage. He was just simply incredibly durable.
Sarajin started focusing on pushing him closer to Solomon and in the meantime, the king of darkness assaulted him with large black and red energy balls.
Nazo swung his fists in meaty hooks and landed a couple of clean hits, but nothing that could snuff out that irritating look of determination on Sarajin's face.
"I-I am supposed to be the strongest!" Nazo howled bitterly.
To which Sarajin mumbled with a hint of sympathy as he readied his next attack, "It's not a good feeling, is it?"
This next swing sent him plummeting all the way into Solomon's range, and he proceeded to wind his fist back and summon a misshapen fist of darkness to hammer Nazo into the ground.
The impact spread out to cover a large space and burst the ground open with gushing darkness.
Even then, Solomon continued to pummel away with two dark hands until he was absolutely sure that Nazo was paste.
Only Sarajin dropping down and shouting "He's not there!" got him to stop.
Solomon raised his head and asked bluntly, "Then where IS he?"
Sarajin pointed his back towards him and readied his sword while observing the landscape.
Turns out, it wouldn't matter where he was.
Red light flushed out between the cracks at an incredible speed and after gritting his teeth Sarajin took flight.
Solomon however stood amidst the destruction and clenched his fists, preparing to dive straight down the moment the ground split open.
However, he was met with intense opposition that his raw strength could not pierce through, leading to him being flung back closer to Sarajin.
Nazo floated in the center of a hole penetrating deep beneath the surface, gasping for air.
Solomon chuckled slightly, "This is a more fitting look for you, beast."
He then held his hands out and mocked him, "You sought perfection, only to learn how imperfect you truly are."
Sarajin readied his sword and took on a serious tone, "Let's finish this."
Solomon settled down and aimed his right hand at Nazo, eyes burning cold with contempt, "Yes. Lets."
Nazo shook, his pupils shrunken, a maddening grin crossing his mouth, "Everything about me…has become perfect."
As two powerful attacks flew his way, Nazo's raspy voice uttered in confidence, "Chaos…Control…!"
Before Sarajin could let out a syllable Nazo was behind them both with a weary smirk as he got to enjoy them being pummeled by hundreds of his punches simultaneously.
Solomon broke free first and lashed darkness back in a wave only for Nazo to chop through it.
He then tackled Solomon with a fierce aura and started battering his fists against his armor, managing to make light dents to it.
When Solomon retaliated Nazo pulled away then dove back in without looking like he moved at all, "You're too slow!"
Nazo then hammered both his fists atop Solomon's head to send him crashing to the ground.
Sarajin attacked Nazo from behind and the hedgehog shifted his head aside until the blade was far enough into view for him to grab it.
He then used it to pull Sarajin's face into the back of his elbow and knock the sword out of his hand.
Though staggered, Sarajin managed to call his sword back into his grasp and keep on slicing. Nazo surrounded himself in his aura to block most of the attacks while building up his energy to blast his enemy point-blank.
Sarajin swung his wing out as a shield and only lost a bit of distance between them, and made up for it with his speed.
He took a deep breath and pushed his body a little beyond its limits to surround Nazo like a blinding blur, delivering repeated slashes across his body to continue wearing him down.
The battle was being determined by whose stubbornness would win out, and unfortunately, Sarajin's was stuck on a time limit he had lost track of somewhere around a minute ago.
Nazo was being beaten, they hadn't lost sight of victory just yet.
Fueled onward by the will to win, Sarajin pushed his body even a little further, hurting his muscles to slam Nazo around like a full force hurricane.
And only after his body was beginning to rebel against his recklessness did he tighten his grip and deliver a bright, rending slash to throw Nazo towards the ground.
"Solomon!" Sarajin shouted.
The black-armored king stood tall on hollowed ground and raised his right hand, extending his reach with darkness, and fueling it with a black and red mist.
"Perish...!" A wild cascade of energies consumed Nazo and pierced the clouded sky for miles out.
Nazo was nowhere to be found inside, and had in fact used Chaos Control to get the jump on Solomon from the side.
Solomon jerked his head in his direction and with the glow of his eyes, called forth a black wind that dragged Nazo right into his grasp.
"Conceited beast...!" He then made a sharp turn and rammed Nazo into the ground, letting go so he would bounce up.
"C-Chaos-"
Solomon called upon the black wind to force him back into his grasp again and then slammed him down the other way, alternating the direction he was hitting the ground per second.
When Solomon finally let go he expelled darkness around his body to launch the hedgehog in Sarajin's direction.
Sarajin immediately slashed Nazo vertically and split the sky into fractured pieces, the shards dispersing as many light slices filled the space between the cracks.
Nazo forced himself to stiffen into place, his chaotic aura roaring tall as the light crashed against him and was broken.
He then went into a frenzy and used Chaos Control every movement to start wailing on his enemies wherever he could feasibly land a hit.
Solomon could withstand the brunt but Sarajin was starting to wear down and there was only so much light he could spare to reinforce his wings without taking himself out of the fight entirely.
The rest of his focus had to go into his blade.
Even the tiniest of split seconds was all he needed to pin Nazo down.
He widened his eyes and swung his sword up, dragging light into a feathery pillar that struck Nazo the very nanosecond he returned to attack.
Solomon followed this by swinging his hands up and dragging dark orbs out of his body that spiraled around the pillar and dove into it, battering Nazo around and infusing the light with impurity.
Solomon then formed the orbs into a ring and they crunched down, pinching the light at the perfect spot to twist it into a sharp pointed cross.
Intense friction rocked the planet as Nazo's aura continued to flare stronger than before, the sheer chaos that composed his being warping the planet's sky and causing lightning to reduce anything it struck to nothingness.
"I will not let you get away with this! I am perfection!"
Nazo flung large orbs at both his enemies and Solomon grabbed his in one hand while Sarajin slashed through it and faced the hedgehog head-on.
Pure madness burned in that yellow sclera and the brief moments he let it be visible stunned Sarajin.
Nazo used Chaos Control to get around Sarajin's speed and batter him around in place. Sarajin took an opportunity to reach into his pocket and beat this out with the Gaia Temporis.
Except this time, he was caught off-guard as Nazo was still capable of moving within stopped time, just at a normal pace.
This allowed him to deliver a devastating kick to Sarajin's arm that forced him to pull his hand out and expose the Gaia Temporis in the open.
Time resumed and Nazo mumbled in annoyance, "So that's your secret!"
He then punted the stone out of Sarajin's hand towards the nearby mountain.
And this just so happened to be where Po'Clau took residence to heal his wounds and endure this...apocalyptic fight.
That is, until the stone connected with his head, where at that exact moment it had already begun the process of warping back into Sarajin's possession.
This led to a melding of his mind and the temporal properties of the stone, forcing his mind to see glimpses of sights he did not recognize.
Another hedgehog, blue and cheerful, fought alongside what appeared to be his descendant and a two-tailed fox against a mechanical monstrosity that was absconding with their sacred jewel.
The hedgehog would later turn golden to fight another monstrosity in the deep recesses of space.
And time and time again, the hedgehog fought back evil forces threatening the planet with a good-willed smile on his face.
Po'Clau collapsed onto his knees and breathed heavily, trying to make sense of what he saw, "T-That was...the future?"
Meanwhile, Sarajin was taking heavy damage from Nazo's desperate assault. His endless reservoir of power focused solely on ensuring his survival but more importantly, his superiority.
Sarajin was surprised when he felt the Gaia Temporis sitting snuggly back in his pocket again but took it as a sign of relief.
Now that he was privy to Nazo's true speed, he reached down for the stone and gave it a quick tap to stop time. He then ducked under Nazo's kick and flew behind him, clocking him on the back of the head with the hilt of his blade before immediately leading into a slash.
Time resumed and Nazo was staggered twice over, giving Sarajin more than enough ample time to draw in light towards his blade.
"One more slash...!" He felt his body's strength waning and desperation started to take hold over him, "N-No, not yet!"
He held on tight, pulled from the light of the stars above if he must.
But it was all in service of delaying the inevitable, that his time in this form had run out, and his slash felt like a paper cut on Nazo's back.
Nazo turned with a look of surprise as Sarajin began to fall from the sky, his sweating face turning from despair to arrogance on the spot.
Sarajin wasn't completely exhausted, he would be able to stand once he hit the ground, but he needed this strength to fight Nazo.
He wasn't willing to wallow in despair just yet though. He had put in plenty of work. Solomon could handle things just fine on his own.
Red light collapsed behind him as Nazo tried to finish him off. But at the moment before impact Solomon's darkness overwhelmed the attack and moved past it to hammer Nazo away.
Nazo staggered in place and stared down at the king of darkness as Sarajin's body hit the ground behind him.
Solomon took one glance back and upon confirming the sound of his groans, he glared back up at Nazo with the intensity in his eyes burning like a dying sun.
Nazo shivered, realizing that he had wasted so much time trying to deal with one pest that the other one still had plenty of strength to spare.
His pride would not dare think it...but he was in danger.
All the speed in the world wouldn't mean anything if his enemy only needed to hit him once.
Gritting his teeth, the hedgehog frantically turned around in search of something he could use to turn the fight in his favor.
Then he remembered, "The sacred jewel...!"
With a confident smirk he bolted out of range of Solomon's frightening might and went straight for the altar.
And what did he find when he arrived there but the disgusting sight of Pir'oth Ix sitting atop his throne, the sacred jewel planted atop it.
"Oh? Looking for something, beast?" The albino Echidna taunted.
Nazo's pupils shrank as he scowled, "That is MINE...!"
"Then come and take it." Pir'oth wagged his staff in his direction.
Nazo rammed his fist towards him faster than the blink of an eye, but was repelled by a mystical emerald colored barrier around the throne.
Upon landing Nazo squeezed his fists and uttered, "H-How...?!"
Pir'oth mocked him thoroughly, "You overlooked the sacred jewel because it was 'a mere rock' before your great might. Foolish. The sacred jewel is the most powerful artifact in the entire world, nay, the universe!"
"And soon, it will be MINE!" Nazo tried to punch through the barrier multiple times but kept failing.
Pir'oth continued to laugh, "You don't get it. The sacred jewel's power is not meant to be tapped into by living beings. But machines, they can draw out it's true power perfectly."
"Your pitiful machines?! Don't make me laugh! I am the Ultimate Life Form! The strongest in the universe!"
"And yet here you are, running scared from those who have contested your claim to might!" Pir'oth stamped his staff at the floor of his throne and stared down the hedgehog with mercilessness coldly beaming from his eyes, "You may have gotten a power boost from Po'Clau's bold move, but it's insignificant compared to the sacred jewel."
He pointed his staff back at the mines behind the altar, "Take everything from that cavern, it would be irrelevant! Because the sacred jewel is not just powerful, it is infinity, a peak not capable of being reached by any life form, not even the 'perfect being'."
Nazo froze up and shivered with rage, "Nooooo...!"
Pir'oth crossed his arms and laughed, "You've enjoyed looking down on everyone...But all this time, a 'mere rock' has been more powerful than you could ever imagine!"
"No...no...this is impossible...!" Nazo flared up his aura to maximum. The quills on his back started to rise, a cold sweat rising as Solomon marched over the mountains in pursuit.
Sandwiched between the unsurpassable and the unconquerable, Nazo's worldview of his own superiority was being dragged down to the ground to be shattered into a million pieces.
And yet it was Pir'oth's last taunt that was the most damaging play of them all, "You lost before you were even born, Nazo. Cursed to be subordinate to a 'rock'. Ha ha ha, how I pity you."
"Pity...me...?!" Nazo's aura roared and obliterated the bridge he was standing on, his voice reaching a raspy peak as he exclaimed in sheer lunacy, "PITY YOURSELF...! If I cannot have ultimate power, then no one else WILL!"
He then rocketed far above the ground before Solomon's attacks could reach.
Solomon then craned his head back and watched a crimson blip cast terror over the land.
Nazo, drunk with insanity over his bruised ego, swung his hands up and summoned his chaotic energies to create a massive black orb, one that could eclipse the image of the moon in the sky.
"I'll reduce this planet, and that 'sacred jewel'...to DUST!"
Sarajin had managed to pull himself up to the mountain nearby and looked up with horror. There was so much energy coming from that orb that he wasn't sure if Solomon could still handle it.
He reached for his sword, took deep breaths, and told himself, "I-If I can just launch a sneak attack...!"
He fell on one knee and his expression turned towards a state of panic.
Solomon, meanwhile, watched that orb continue to grow with mild interest, "Hmph..."
He held his hand out and began charging dark energies inside.
The ground around him broke apart and bits of debris were being pulled towards the orb. This power was impressive, almost...wasted in the hands of this immature beast.
His body began to tremble, his heart beat growing louder.
He could hear heavier breathing, the sound of destruction growing muted as gargling whispers penetrated his ear.
"Take...it..."
He continued to hold his hand out and create more darkness.
"Take. IT."
Slowly...the darkness faded from his hand, and he closed it against his palm. With a deep, disconcerting breath, he opened his hand up again and remained motionless.
The orb was hurtled towards the planet at a blistering velocity and Sarajin could only silently wonder what the heck Solomon was doing.
Seconds before impact, Solomon's eyes glowed and a deep crimson fog surrounded his hand.
His fingertips clawed into the orb and held it in place. The energy started to shrink down, not deleted, but rather...consumed.
The energy pulsed into Solomon's body through a series of noises like the wind gasping within a humid atmosphere.
The disasters the energy could have wrought were completely nullified, leaving Nazo withdrawing into a state of utter disbelief as the orb was soon no bigger than the man he tried to kill.
"No...he can't be doing this...!"
At the energy's last whimper, Solomon raised the tiny orb before his face and then squeezed it, his body letting off a pulse similar to the activation of the seven jewels.
And then he spoke with confidence, "I understand now."
He craned his head back towards Nazo and uttered with his arms outstretched, "What was that technique called?"
He squeezed his fists and in the blink of an eye he appeared directly in front of Nazo, towering over him with a pitch black presence and deep red eyes, "Chaos Control?"
Nazo began to retreat one cowardly step at a time, swinging his hands blindly at his enemy, "W-What...what ARE you?"
Solomon grabbed him by the mouth and his eyes glowed brighter as he proclaimed, "A king...!"
He then used Chaos Control again to bring them to the ground, where he started dragging out Nazo's power while applying force to his head, "Now...learn to kneel...feeble beast!"
Nazo put up a struggle but his arms quickly fell limp as his body returned to its original state, where his legs lost the will to fight and were forced down onto his knees.
There, Solomon continued to drain him until his skin dehydrated, and from there, was reduced to dust.
After which he stood tall with his arms at his side and the heavy glow of his eyes settling down upon him clenching his fists.
This victory was a relatively silent one, as Sarajin was left to interpret this in the only way that made sense to him.
"Was that...?" He picked himself up and slid down the mountain to be by Solomon's side. Nothing immediately felt...off, just that Solomon felt a little stronger now.
Sarajin took a deep breath and then asked, "That was new. You can drain dark energies from others?"
Solomon looked at his right hand for a long time and then slowly closed his fist, answering as best he can, "...I suppose so."
"Hmm, well, guess you learn new things when you have to exert yourself, huh?" Sarajin patted him on the shoulder and he recoiled away from him.
Sarajin saw this and chuckled, then looked around with a little less lightheartedness towards all the destruction across the land.
Solomon remarked, "Does it always end like this?"
Sarajin laid his hand on the back of his head and sighed, "No, usually it's a lot more clean than this."
He then glanced aside at him and gestured out, "Might as well help patch things up a little bit."
He then winced and looked behind him to see Pir'oth Ix trying to fly off with the sacred jewel. He narrowed his eyes and muttered, "Speaking of which..."
He had reclaimed enough strength to catch up to the fleeing Echidna and get in his path with his hand raised, taunting him playfully, "I don't think that belongs to you."
Pir'oth leaned into his throne and chuckled, "It's mine to possess, human. And I doubt you'd threaten to destroy the planet to try and make me yield."
Sarajin pressed two fingers together and smiled, "Nothing that flashy."
With a quick snap the shield protecting the Echidna went down, the sacred jewel's connection broken as Sarajin pointed out, "Machines are still run by electricity."
He then waved his hand out and Pir'oth leaned his fist into his cheek and muttered, "Fine, better to live to fight another day. But this won't be the last you've heard of Ix, leader of the Nocturnus Clan!"
Thus, Sarajin took back the Echidna's clan's sacred jewel and returned it to the altar.
In the aftermath of Nazo's reign of terror, Sarajin and Solomon helped repair some of the damage alongside the rest of the Echidnas.
But there was one loose end that still needed to be addressed...the seven jewels that Po'Clau had crafted in desperation still remained and had power.
Yet to the surprise of the vocal minority urging for their destruction, Po'Clau carried them to the altar, where seven pillars were erected around it to hold them.
Sarajin observed and helped out the process, where Po'Clau secretly confided with him, "I cannot thank you enough for everything you've done. And yet, our meeting has left our people...on a different path."
After propping the seventh jewel onto its pillar, Po'Clau put his fists behind his back and looked over his shoulder, "I saw a vision. When that stone of yours impacted my head."
"A hedgehog...a blue one, with a spirit as free as the wind. Someday in the far flung future, he will need the power of these jewels to save the world."
"The Knuckles Clan can no longer call themselves the guardians of our sacred jewel, but protectors of a hopeful future."
He turned around and held his head high with confidence and a hint of regret, "This...is how I can redeem myself for the creation of Nazo."
"This is probably the point Yen Sid wanted us to reach, but..." Sarajin looked down at his pocket with confusion, "Seeing the future? The Gaia Temporis...can do that too?"
With a light shake of his head he gestured at the Echidna with a smile "I hope it all turns out well for you guys."
"There is one thing though," Po'Clau turned his head towards Solomon standing idly beside the pillar, "The seven jewels require balance to retain their full power. Is it possible...that you can return the energy you took from Nazo?"
Solomon pulled away and glared at the Echidna, "This energy is dangerous in your hands, you've already proven yourselves unworthy of it."
Po'Clau hung his head, "You're not wrong, but I am sure that it will lead to a brighter tomorrow."
Solomon took on a defensive tone, "Or lead to that beast coming back to life."
Sarajin didn't like what he was doing and stepped in front of him with a steady look in his eyes, "Solomon, we don't have the right to take this energy from this planet. It's not ours. So please, just cooperate with them."
He didn't want to admit it, but his heart was feeling so uneasy at the thought that he wound up muttering, "Unless...you want this power for yourself?"
Solomon glared at him and tension wedged between them as he began to clench his hand, whispering deep inside his head.
He then extended his hand and drew out the chaos energies contained within him, disinterested in this pointless argument, "Fine, but we shall not clean up their mistakes again."
Sarajin nodded, breathing a light gasp in his head as he smiled.
They were then able to spread the negative energies across the seven jewels, bringing them to balance with the sacred jewel in the center keeping them in check.
Po'Clau then breathed out, exhausted but proud of what had been accomplished, "This will be the dawn of a new era for the Echidna race. I will spend my last days carving out pictures depicting the future I saw, so that generations from now, our people will not forget what they are protecting."
"These seven jewels, which fight to maintain the balance between positive and negative energies...Shall henceforth be known as the Chaos Emeralds."
"And it is only fitting that these servants have a master. Yes...I think renaming our sacred jewel the Master Emerald is the only thing that makes sense."
Sarajin said sincerely, "I'm glad we could help make this possible."
Po'Clau looked over his shoulder, "I wish your names could be honored in history, brave humans. But...I have a suspicion that wouldn't be allowed."
"Instead, I will pass down your bravery to my son Pachamac, who will pass it down to his son, and any children that may come after."
Sarajin laid a hand against his chest and his face melted, "T-Thank you, that means a lot."
He then directed his attention towards Solomon and nudged him a little, "You saved the world too, didn't it feel good?"
Solomon turned his head the other way and with a weak gesture of his fingers he muttered, "I suppose it was an...adequate use of my time."
Which was as good of a response as any, "Little by little. We just...got to work on your manners."
There seemed to be nothing left for them to do, as they were whisked away by Yen Sid.
In the final moments of their time though, Solomon looked at his right hand, hearing those whispers get louder and raspier...
His heart beat...he could hear it.
Next Time: Violent Firestorm