Chapter Fifty-Four
Me: Shadow versus Black Doom! The grudge match of the century is on!
Amy: Go Shadow, go Shadow! (dances)
Me: No more words! Let us begin!
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Shadow stood over a heap of Black Arms soldiers that he had slain in another large chamber. In his Super form, they were powerless to stop him, for he did not even have to block their shots. Only Black Doom had any hope of harming him right now. Thanks to his training, he had no trouble maintaining this state at all. He quickly saw another batch stride forward…but these were different. They seemed more shadowy and ethereal…they were Heartless Black Arms. A large one ran forward and swung at Shadow with a giant sword. The hedgehog barely managed to dodge it, but was cut slightly, but not enough to do any real damage.
Still, this made Shadow more cautious. He didn't know that they were Heartless, but he defeated it just as easily as the normal ones. Several bat-like ones glided forward, and were dispatched with a few homing attacks. While in midair, Shadow launched a few Chaos Spears at the remaining group. The rain of energy roasted the Heartless right where they stood. After he landed, Shadow called out again.
"STOP HIDING FROM ME, YOU CREEP! FACE ME HERE, ONE-ON-ONE!" The sound of his cry rang through the halls of the ARK. After a few moments, Shadow got his answer…Black Doom appeared on the upper balcony of the chamber, hovering there as always.
"I agree…I am growing tired of this game of cat-and-mouse."
"…Then you'll fight me?" Shadow asked sardonically.
"We have delayed the inevitable for far too long, Shadow," Black Doom replied as he wreathed his hands in dark purple flames. "The time has come for our fated battle!"
Shadow started the fight in a way Black Doom did not expect: instead of rushing at him headlong with Masamune, the black hedgehog bounded onto the metal balcony behind him and across from Black Doom. As he did, he shot off a barrage of Chaos Spears at his enemy.
The alien warped off the platform and onto the floor below and countered this with a move Shadow was very familiar with: a purple spinning disk that homed in on him slightly. The disk buzzed in Shadow's direction, but he easily vaulted it with a graceful somersault. As he came down, he went straight into a homing attack, delivering a powerful blow to Black Doom's head, sending him reeling. With this opening, Shadow began to repeatedly slash at his hated enemy, all while hovering in mid-air, and finished his combination attack with an aerial dash attack.
Despite all this, Black Doom was far from finished, but was still quite damaged. As Shadow landed, the alien shot several small meteors out of his hand, smacking the hedgehog in the back then quickly surrounded him with illusory clones, all preparing to attack again. In reality, Black Doom slipped out of the chamber. This did not go unnoticed by Shadow, and he quickly eliminated the illusions with a Chaos Blast and continued to pursue Black Doom, enraged once more that he had to chase his enemy.
Shadow was far faster than his enemy, and overtook him soon enough as Black Doom was headed to the outside of the space station, in the massive air bubble. Shadow attacked the alien with a kick that smashed the door down. Black Doom skidded along the walkway and tried to get up, but Shadow stopped him and stood on top of the alien.
With brutal efficiency, Shadow set about disabling the fiend. With more than a twinge of sadistic glee he commenced to slit Black Doom's arms down the middle and chop off his horns. The alien's roars of pain made Shadow's heart swell. He knew that every moment of his enemy's suffering was justice to those whom Shadow cared for. When his thirst for vengeance seemed sated, Shadow gave Black Doom a few last words…
"So this is how it all ends…you lying on the ground, helpless as the innocents whose lives you carelessly took…destroyed by the being you believed would help you achieve your twisted goals. I've enjoyed thrashing you, but now it's time for us to part…permanently. When I thrust this sword through your head, I put my past behind me for good! GOODBYE, BLACK DOOM!"
Shadow grasped Masamune with two hands, raised it high, and as he yelled that final sentence, he drove the katana deep into Black Doom's eye. The strike was so forceful that it also punctured a hole in the walkway as it passed through his head. The alien's body quivered and then went limp.
"…And stay dead…" Shadow mumbled as he withdrew the sword and wiped the purple blood off the sword using Black Doom's robes. As he started to walk away thinking he was successful, he heard a gurgling noise coming from behind him. He whirled around to see Black Doom hovering there. His body was leaking blood, and it seemed like his body was hemorrhaging. Shadow watched as Black Doom made the dread transformation into the twisted insectoid version of Devil Doom.
"THIS…ISN'T…OVER…" Black Doom roared as he swiped at Shadow, knocking him off the walkway. Shadow quickly stopped himself in midair and readied Masamune again. The Heartless alien summoned a large swarm of tiny meteors, and launched them at the hedgehog. He quickly sliced them all apart, but this was only a distraction for Black Doom's real attack: a ferocious claw attack that left a flaming purple trail, which sent his adversary spiraling downward. Shadow again stopped himself. In this moment of respite, he wiped off the blood that dripped down his jaw due to the attack.
Heh…now things are getting interesting, Shadow said to himself. Now I can show him some of my new tricks. His mind sifted through possible attacks to throw at Black Doom at lightning speed, and then he hit upon one. He warped onto a railing behind Black Doom, bounded off of it and started rolling, but held Masamune out so it spun with him, acting like a spinning buzz saw. The creature had no chance to react, and was repeatedly slashed in the back. Shadow stopped spinning, and followed up by grabbing the alien's serpentine tail, and swinging him around like an Olympic hammer thrower, then tossing him into a nearby wall, creating a large cloud of dust. As Shadow paused to see the damage he'd done, Black Doom pulled an ace out of his sleeve…seemingly out of nowhere, hundreds of bat-like Black Arms, and began to swarm Shadow. The ones closest to the center began gnawing away at him, trying to reach his heart. The hedgehog couldn't move much.
Suddenly, he felt something crack in the rear of his mind…a barrier was falling away, and an energy yet untapped was there waiting to be taken hold. He took a hold of this new energy, and he felt power unlike anything he had ever felt before. It soon came apparent what this was: it was the pure and unshackled energy from the Chaos Emeralds. It was time to show Black Doom the ultimate power of Chaos.
This power began to pour out of the black hedgehog's body, and it was a Chaos Blast unlike anything he was ever able to perform before. When he had cleared off the Black Arms, the nature of his newest level of power was apparent. His fur was flashing brightly in different colors, and his quills were standing up even higher than before. It was Shadow's Hyper form.
"WHAT'S THIS…ANOTHER LEVEL? HA!" Black Doom did not realize just what he was up against. That soon became apparent when Shadow warped in front of him.
"OH, I'M SUPPOSED TO BE SCARED OR SOMETHING?" the monster taunted.
Shadow smirked. "Maybe you'd be more scared if you knew that the Master Emerald just broke." This got Black Doom scared…he knew all too well that the Master Emerald was the one thing that kept the powers of the four heroes in check. With it destroyed, there seemed to be no limit to how strong they could get. But before he could react, Shadow grabbed Black Doom by a horn and tossed him down toward the planet, outside of the air bubble and into the vacuum of space. The lack of air was the least of his worries, as Shadow warped close to him, and after speeding himself up with Chaos Control, he unleashed a veritable blizzard of slashes, and finishing off by cutting the creature in two. But he wasn't done. Shadow used his immense power to divide himself into four, three of them semi-real. All four Shadows charged up some sort of beam move, whose name was the last thing Black Doom would ever hear…
"Chaos…FLARE!" The four beams smashed into Black Doom and utterly incinerated him, but passed across Shadow without harm. When this amazing attack was over, there were no visible particles left of the fiend…the attack had broken him down to his very atoms.
Victory at long last, Shadow said to himself, warping back to the walkway where the second round had begun. As he did, he suddenly collapsed from fatigue…he felt like so much of his life had been pulled out of him. And then he sneezed...and Shadow realized that he was getting a cold…and that meant he was no longer immune to disease. Still, this was something entirely new, and he viewed the experience with as much wonder as discomfort.
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Akuma smiled as he surveyed the damage he had done. The Master Emerald, Nazo's tool of maintaining control over the power of the Chaos Emeralds, had been shattered by Akuma's own two hands, and he had also gotten to lay a good beating on a small army of angels. Nazo was nowhere to be found, but he didn't care. His mission was complete, and soon after he had smashed the Master Emerald, he felt four massive rises in power on different parts of the planet, and knew what had happened. His four students were victorious in their battles.
My work here in this world is done…now I can be with you again, my beloved Kari…
Akuma began to fade out of existence and be pulled into the spirit world…Nazo's curse was lifting. He could already feel the touch of his ancient love, and finally he melted away from the material world, his heart filled with gladness…
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Amy stepped out of the forest and gazed at the looming mountain fortress in the distance. In the past year, Ragozine had built a new castle atop another mountain. Being the egomaniac that he was, he had his gruesome half-dragon face carved into the mountain, with that evil grin on it…the grin that haunted her for so long. She remembered scribbling his name on paper in moments of drowsiness…she remembered him controlling her body…she remembered losing her mind thanks to him.
But in the end, wasn't it he who allowed to experience these amazing levels of ability? He had given Doctor Ullundara the key ingredient…dragon's blood. But it didn't matter. The dracomancer was going to be destroyed by the very being that would have been his most powerful servant.
Amy shifted to her Heroic form, hefted Mjolnir and took off toward the mountain, ready for anything that could be thrown at her. To her surprise, the giant mouth of the dragon started to open with no enemies coming out…it was if Ragozine wanted her to come. It had to be a trap, but then again, she had no other choice. She flew into the stone dragon's maw, prepared to face her greatest trial yet…
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Me: (Gasp) 1.5 pages of nothing but fighting! Phew!
Shadow: Great…now I have a cold. (Sniffles)
Sonic: It's just a cold…besides, you just owned Black Doom as much as physically possible!
Me: Next chapter…a surprising encounter, then Amy vs. Ragozine! Stay tuned!
