Thank you all so much for the support with the last chapter. Hopefully we can keep that going now with the final battle! Thanks to Namohysip for beta reading this part. Enjoy
Chapter 97: Heaven-Scorching Light of Destruction
~Cornell University, New York~
Geoff made his way past the brown, circular ordering station with students littered around it, slinging his black, puffy winter coat over his right arm. His boots squeaked against the white, stone floor, leaving a trail of slush behind him. Geoff zeroed in on the centermost white, plastic table where a brunette sat in one of the gray, metal chairs, staring at her iPhone.
"Hello, Rebecca. Might I interest a lovely co-ed like you in the pleasure of my company?"
Rebecca looked up from her phone. She brushed hair out of her eyes. "Oh, Geoff. I was actually waiting for Samantha, but—"
Geoff threw his hands behind his head and scratched at his short brown hair. "Ah, shucks. And here I was gonna ask you about the run-up to finals, but I guess they've got you too stressed to even talk. Guess I'll be on my way, then." He put on the most dejected look he could muster, stuffed his free hand into a pocket, and shuffled off.
"Oh, brother. You know I was kidding, right?" Rebecca rolled her eyes.
"Of course I did." Geoff slid into the chair opposite hers. "I was joking, too."
"Looked more like you were desperate," Rebecca said, swiping at her iPhone.
"Well, what's so important that you'd rather pay more attention to your phone than catch up with a friend, huh?" Geoff said, fluttering his eyelids.
"We Snapchatted for an hour, yesterday," Rebecca deadpanned. She sighed. "But it's whatever. My mom sent me this link to an article. It's, uh…" She held up the phone. "Well, just take a look for yourself."
The screen had a mobile version of the Syracuse Post-Standard pulled up. Geoff squinted at it.
Police Search for Missing Driver Continues
By Ophelia Porter
SYRACUSE, NY. A desperate search to find a young man who seemingly disappeared from a major car accident continues into its third day. Two nights ago, authorities arrived on the scene of a car crash near the employee parking lot for Upstate Medical Center. One of the drivers, 35-year-old Angeline Marquez, was found lying against her vehicle's airbag, which safely deployed. Authorities rushed her to the emergency department at Upstate, where she was found to have broken ribs, a concussion, and a BAC of 0.15, almost two times the legal limit. She is facing criminal charges for driving while intoxicated and possible vehicular manslaughter, pending the results of the police's ongoing investigation.
The missing driver in question has been identified by the plates on his totaled vehicle as 19-year-old Shane Whitley of Old Geddes.
"Damn. Whitley? Like… Prissy Nicky's retarded friend?" Geoff handed the phone back to Rebecca, who cringed. "Cripes. I had wondered what had happened to that dweeb. Never saw his name in the college map the old school paper printed off. Figured he got, like, committed to a mental hospital or something." Geoff took a straw and placed it in Rebecca's cup of water. In between sips, he added, "I mean, come on. The guy brought Pokémon plushies with him everywhere. He needed the help."
"Really, Geoff?"
"What?" Geoff froze mid-sip and stared blankly at her.
"Geoff, we're at Cornell. I'm going to rush a sorority after winter break." Rebecca took the phone back and shook her head. "I can't walk around using language like that. It's all behind us." She shivered. "And I never want to talk to another lawyer for the rest of my life."
"Amen to that," Geoff said. Rebecca snatched the glass of water away from him before he could take another sip. Geoff slouched back in his seat. "Well, if he really did bite the big one, least he can finally be together with his boyfriend in the afterlife."
Rebecca's brow furrowed. She got to her feet, looking down at her phone. "I'm sorry. I have to go."
Geoff stood up as well. "Already? Weren't you waiting on Samantha?"
"She just texted me that she got held up at the student health center. I'm going to meet her for a movie later, instead," Rebecca said. She tried to make a beeline for the door, but Geoff blocked her path.
"What are you talking about? Your phone didn't go off," Geoff said, a skeptical eyebrow raised.
"Look. I don't have time to explain. Just…"
The large, LED lights flickered over their heads. All of the students conversing with one another looked up in unison. "The hell was that?" Geoff asked, staring up at the ceiling. "We getting power surges? Cripes, didn't think the snow was supposed to fall again until this evening."
"It's… it's not a power surge," Rebecca whispered, staring out the window. Geoff followed his gaze and his expression only grew more confused.
"The hell happened to the sun? There wasn't a cloud in the sky when I got here," Geoff said.
Rebecca ran for the entrance and threw it open. She ran out toward the parking lot of the old, brownstone Physical Sciences Building, only to stumble to a stop. On the campus roads to her left and right, cars had pulled over to each side, their hazard lights flashing. Drivers and passengers climbed out of their vehicles. Students and faculty filed out of the building behind her. Everyone's gazes were trained up toward the sky. Rebecca looked up. Her heat rate spiked.
Like Geoff had said, there wasn't a cloud in the sky. And she hadn't read anything about any total solar eclipses. Her little brother was an astronomy nut. He'd have been gushing nonstop if one was due to happen. And yet, she found herself looking at a large, black sphere eclipsing the sun. The sky had turned a sinister shade of blood-red.
"What is this?" Rebecca whispered. She lifted her phone up, ready to snap a photo of the strange phenomenon, when a bright white circle appeared on the sidewalk in front of her. "Ah!" Rebecca was so startled, she dropped her iPhone to the ground. The screen shattered instantly. But her gasp turned into a scream when a golden, ethereal arm burst forth from the concrete and grabbed hold of her like a living dumbbell.
"YoU ShOULdN'T HaVe LIeD aBoUT mE!"
"Holy shit! Rebecca!"
Geoff tried to shove his way through the crowd of students, but it erupted into a panicked frenzy. Students fled in all directions, knocking Geoff around as they headed for the parking lot or back inside the building.
Rebecca screeched in pain as golden light surged across her body. Geoff staggered to halt, watching in stunned silence as Rebecca's clothes and skin burned away before his eyes. In their places appeared dark-gray scales and a purple belly with pink, wavy markings. A black, star-shaped mark spread across her belly. Rebecca's fingers lengthened. Her hair dissolved away in shadowy plumes. An invisible force grabbed what was left of her nose and stretched it out, created a snout. Rebecca's eyes expanded. Her pupils shrank to feral slits, her irises vanished, and her sclera shifted from white to pink.
"NoW YoU LOoK lIKe ThE SkAnK YoU ReaLLy ArE!"
Those students who hadn't fled the scene had their phones out, recording every moment of the horrifying transformation. Geoff swatted the nearest phones out of their owners' hands. "Rebecca!" he shouted, finally finding his voice.
He sprinted toward the gold circle in the floor, but it was too late. The arm pulled Rebecca into a circular, checkerboard portal. Geoff staggered to a stop as the portal shut itself, silencing Rebecca's screams. That didn't matter, however, because more volleys of panicked shouts and cries rang out. All around Geoff, portals had opened, revealing more golden arms. Two of them ripped off chunks of the Physical Science building and hurled them into the parking lot, smashing cars apart. Others had grabbed hold of students and were flinging them around like rag dolls.
"Holy shit… holy shit… holy shit…" Arms trembling, Geoff managed to pull his cell phone out from his pocket. He fumbled about trying to turn it on, then could barely keep it pressed to his ear.
"9-1-1. What is your emergency?"
Geoff hyperventilated.
"Excuse me? Is anyone there?"
Geoff blinked, then managed to find his voice.
"My school's being attacked by aliens!"
"Sir? Sir, where are you?"
Geoff was about to answer, when a car alarm blared overhead. He looked up just in time to see a Toyota SUV falling right toward him.
~Ultra Space~
Shane was at a loss for words. One second, he was reuniting with his friends. The next, Lunala had him wrapped him in a bear hug. Through her wing membranes, Shane could make out bright lights and strange geometrical objects. He even swore he saw a comet in the distance. Yet, despite the bizarre sights, something about them felt… familiar. Inviting, even.
It then struck him that he'd been here before… when Necrozma pulled him from the human world following his car accident. "T-Tessa! We're… we're in Ultra Space," he said. "Lunala, what's going on here?"
"I'd like to know that, myself," Ephemeris said, surrounded by a faint shield of golden light. In one leg, he clutched Espy, screaming in terror thanks to the sights of Ultra Space overwhelming her. Silvally wasn't faring much better. He was tense, eyes wide and darting about it. His cheek bolts revved in his sockets, creating sparks that made Ephemeris shift about uneasily.
"Please, you must calm down! I'm not sure I can hang onto you two if you keep this up," Ephemeris said, wincing.
"Calm down? Calm down?! Look at where we are!" Espy cried.
Tessa struggled to make out much of anything. "W… wait. If we're in Ultra Space, then…" Her aura feelers trembled. "What's happening to our world? Lunala, say something!"
Lunala frowned. "I… well, I… um…" Her third eye flickered. "I sensed something… a powerful force. I didn't see any other options but to flee into Ultra Space."
"That could've been Necrozma!" Tessa barked. Lunala squeaked in surprise, but managed to keep her passengers wrapped up.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I just… here, I'll open up another wormhole and—"
A jagged, golden ripple formed in front of everyone. Golden arms shot out in several directions, tearing Ultra Wormholes open as they went. Ephemeris looked uneasily at Lunala. "That… that's not normal."
Lunala's third eye glowed. "No. Energy is leaking out into Ultra Space from our world. That's bad! Really bad! I have to get us back there." She fired a beam from her third eye at the golden light. To her relief, an Ultra Wormhole opened. However, it was asymmetric, with strange shapes in it that didn't match the usual checkerboard pattern her wormholes had.
"I don't like the look of that," Espy whimpered.
"We don't have a choice," Silvally said, tensing up.
"Brace yourselves, everyone." Ephemeris flew into the wormhole first. Lunala took a moment to levitate Shane and Tessa onto her back. Like Ephemeris, she projected a purple barrier around them to keep them safe as they flew into the wormhole.
For a few seconds, they passed brightly-colored lights. Then the wormhole ended. Only, instead of finding themselves staring down at any sort of planet, what they got instead was a complete and total mess of crystallized chunks of land, floating haphazardly with no discernable pattern. In the distance, a jagged rift sat open. White-hot flames danced around the rift and the light it projected was so bright, it hurt Shane to look at it.
Espy's ears and tail shot up. "This… this isn't our world!"
Silvally frowned. His head crest fanned out. "I… I wouldn't be too sure about that." He shakily pointed a foreleg forward. A giant ball of static hung near the rift. Pieces of crystallized debris swirled around it, alongside familiar black, thorny chains.
"Those are ley lines!" Tessa threw her paws up in front of her mouth. Her eyes widened. "No… no, it can't be!"
"Heeheeheehee! But it can!"
Rainbow energy flickered in Tessa's eyes. Shane's tails shot up in alarm. "Necrozma! Get out here, you… you bastard!" Tessa snarled. "What did you do to our world?!"
"Isn't it obvious? I destroyed it! Just as I said I would!"
Shane's eyes widened. His gaze fell toward Lunala's back. "No…" His lip trembled. "After all of that… all of the struggle… you mean to say we failed?"
"Aww, why the long face?"
The giant ball of static energy rippled. Two large red eyes appeared on its fringes, along with a mouth reminiscent of what Necrozma had when he possessed Lunala.
"After all, it's me. Your best friend… not!"
Bolt-like beams shot out in random directions. None of them got anywhere close to Ephemeris or Lunala.
"At long last… I'm finally whole once more!" Now more distorted than ever, Necrozma's voice seemed to come from all around Team Radiance. "You fools were so desperate to save one another… you let me finish everything I needed to unimpeded."
"That's… but that's…" Tessa's aura feelers trembled. "I don't understand. You were possessing Shane, but you were also fighting the gods, weren't you?"
"That's the beauty of it! I was never really there." Necrozma's distorted laughs echoed through the cosmos. "I had my full core back, after all. All I needed was a good source of energy and I could control both Shane and Silvally from a distance. And, wouldn't you know it, the sun — my sun, that I created! — was the perfect instrument for the job.
"I used its energy not only to puppet your friends around, but to make all those Ultra Beast copies to bog everyone else down," Necrozma continued, barely able to contain the glee in his voice. "Then, to really throw you all off the trail, I called on the figurative ace up my sleeve: Zygarde!" Another laugh echoed through the darkened sky.
"Zygarde? Where does he fit into this?" Lunala said, frowning.
"Before Prisma wrestled control of my core away from me, I trapped Zygarde in the Ultra Nexus. After all… the god of order could've posed a serious problem if left unchecked." Heavy, distorted panting sounded. Shane's tails curled up in fright. "I pulled him out of his prison and made him into a doppelganger… and those sad, sorry gods fell for the ploy, hook, line, and sinker!"
The ball of static pulsated. "Was it a foolproof plan? Of course not. I overextended my powers, so my attacks against you weren't very strong. You fools were even able to free your pathetic friends from my grasp. But… heeheeheehee… I still ought to thank you all. Even though my return from the Ultra Nexus has been a grueling struggle… with your help, I've managed to do something even better than gaining back my lost light!"
Shane tensed up. He squeezed his eyes shut, silently begging all of this to be another twisted nightmare. Beside him, Tessa needed every ounce of willpower not to dig her paw-spikes into Lunala's back. Rainbow lines rippled through her fur. Shane quickly wrapped his rightmost tail around her arm, shooting her a pleading look when her aura feelers curled up.
"I didn't just take in light from my sun. No. Thanks to all of the pathetic fools you convinced to take up arms against me… I now have the spirits of everything in this wretched world! Every mortal! Every departed soul residing in the Tree of Life… or trapped in the Voidlands after Dark Matter's last attack! Not to mention every lesser and immortal god… save for these two, of course. Heeheehee… gyahahaha!"
The new laugh made Shane's blood run cold. He saw the look of utter terror on his teammates' faces. Even Silvally, for all the brave faces he had given throughout their travels, couldn't muster one up in the face of this new revelation.
"I am now the single, unopposed power throughout all of reality!" Necrozma declared. "Once I siphon off every last drop of light from the sun, I will flood this world with Ultra Space, then move onto the next one. One by one… each and every world will fall to my light. And it starts with our wonderful human world."
"You wouldn't!" Shane gasped.
"Oh, but it's already begun! Remember Rebecca? That conniving bitch is now stuck in the Ultra Nexus in the body of a Salazzle!" Necrozma thundered. "And when I'm through with you whelps, I'll drag her out kicking and screaming to show her true terror! I will make each and every inhabitant of earth regret the day they were born… useless andhuman. I will give them… despair and death."
Shane's tails shot between his legs. It was horrifying enough what Necrozma had done to his friends with just a few spirits at his beck and call. But now he had every spirit? How were they even supposed to stand up to that? Could they even stand up to it? They'd had a lot of lucky breaks, sure. But even without ESP, Shane could tell that ball of static was bad news.
"Wonderful! Marvelous! Fantastic! Your fear… your hopelessness… I can feel it radiating off of you! See what I did there? Gyahahaha!" The ball of static sucked up two fireballs from the rift. "You don't need to say anything. I know what you're all thinking. Your friends… your family… you miss them all so much. Well, I have good news. I'm more than happy to let you join them… as a part of my being! You will all become one with the void… jUSt aS YoUR WoRLD hAS!"
"… no."
Shane's head snapped toward Tessa. Her eyes were flooded with dread. "Are you crazy? We don't need to make him any more upset," Shane said, ears folding against his head.
"What did you just say? Speak up, spineless runt!"
"I said no. I refuse your offer… and every other offer you can possibly come up with! We can beat you! This isn't over!" Tessa said, her voice trembling. Her aura feelers quivered.
"Gyahahaha! Fool! You truly don't get it, do you? You have nothing left to fight for. Literally!" Necrozma said.
"That's not true! I can fight for the spirits you imprisoned." Tessa raised a shaky paw. It flickered with blue flames. "For all the hopes and dreams that you tore away from them!" She looked at Shane pleadingly.
"Imbecile! Hopes… dreams… life itself. All of these things wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the void. They are meaningless! I will erase them all and leave only chaos behind!" Necrozma declared. "In fact… why am I even bothering with this exchange? My Z-Power courses through all of you. With my powers… I can control the lot of you with just a snap!"
The last word came out as a roar. Shane braced himself for some sort of strike, but nothing happened. His ears twitched. The sounds of snapping claws echoed through the air. "Grr… I said… I can control the lot of you with just a snap!" Necrozma hollered. Again, nothing happened. "What is the meaning of this? You four should be tearing your mounts limb from limb!"
"It's not going to be that easy, Necrozma," Ephemeris said, a golden glow radiating off his body. "As the former god of rebirth… I won't let you get your greedy claws on any of us."
"Fool! I don't know what world you crawled out of, but I will make you sorely regret sticking your neck into this," Necrozma roared.
Shane looked back and forth between Tessa and the ball of static, then nodded slowly. "No, you won't. Because Tessa's right! This world… it's had more than its fair share of miracles! So, what's one more? If we're working together… I think we can take you down!"
Espy winced. "Whether we resist you or not… you're gonna kill or control us anyway. I'd rather go out fighting!" She nodded at her teammates.
"Golem built me to destroy gods!" Silvally narrowed his eyes at the ball of static. "It looks like, after all this time, I'm finally going to fulfill that dream of his… by taking down his other creation!"
Ephemeris and Lunala nodded at one another. "And, of course, we'll assist you as best we can," Lunala said.
"So, you really intend to stand against me… Void Necrozma? Heeheeheehee…"
The ball of static faded away, revealing a monstrous, golden light dragon that towered over both Ephemeris and Lunala. Necrozma spread his four wings apart, revealing rainbow, hexagonal tiles trailing from his wing joints. He opened his two, multicolored eyes. A third, red eye with a reptilian, slit-like pupil appeared on his forehead. Large spikes jutted out of his chest, each one bearing a winged-heart sigil. He opened his mouth and golden energy vapors streamed out of it.
Shane's tails shot between his legs. "B… big. So big," he whimpered.
"Then you will die as you lived… complete and utter idiots!"
Golden light flashed inside the rift. Multiple golden energy balls appeared around Necrozma. He pointed an upper wing forward and the energy balls homed toward Ephemeris and Lunala. Ghostly energy gathered in Lunala's wings. She fired a purple beam straight at the oncoming projectiles.
"Useless!"
To Lunala's horror, the golden energy balls burst through her Moongeist Beam with little effort. "Ah! Hang on, you guys!" Lunala spread her wings out and dove down.
"Ha! There's no escape. You can't do anything to me!"
Lunala, Shane, and Tessa gasped. An unseen force propelled them up toward the geysers. Shane and Tessa screamed. Lunala managed to fight off Necrozma's control, however, and corkscrew past the energy balls right before they erupted in giant, golden geysers. Shane felt the energy brush against his tails. They crinkled up against his waist.
"Th… those were… like the golden energy ball attack I used," Shane said, blinking slowly.
"Of course they were. After all, it's my Photon Geyser!" Necrozma bellowed, his voice so loud it made Shane's ears fold against his head. "I must say, I'm impressed you escaped that so easily. Perhaps your status as an Ultra Beast affords you some protection against Arceus' Gravity."
Tessa's aura feelers shot up. "Wait… Arceus' Gravity?"
"Heeheeheehee! You don't expect me to just let these spirits fester inside of me, do you?" Necrozma grinned. Golden vapors drifted out of his open mouth. "Of course not. I'll use their powers to see you to your ends!" He raised his upper wings. The space around him began to distort.
"Stay on your guard," Ephemeris shouted. He spat up a giant golden fireball. Necrozma's multicolored eyes flashed. Some of the chains surrounding him stitched themselves into a Bronzong that harmlessly absorbed the fire.
"You cannot even so much as touch me! I'm not simply immortal… I'm invincible!" he boasted. Hoopa rings appeared around Ephemeris. Giant, crystalline hands shot out. Epehemris threw his wings up. A golden energy shield appeared. Ephemeris buckled. The hands pushed against his barrier. When it looked like it was about to crack, a Moongeist Beam engulfed the hands, shattering them along with the ring portals.
Lunala sighed in relief, only to turn and squeal at the sight of several approaching vortexes. She flapped her wings, thrusting herself backward. Shane and Tessa yelped, hanging on for dear life. The pull of the vortexes proved too strong, however. Tessa was plucked off Lunala's back and sucked toward the Spacial Rends.
"Tessa, no!" Shane hollered. He tried to grab hold of her with his ESP… but it didn't respond. Shane's eyes widened.
The vortexes vanished in a plume of golden fire. Lunala shot forward and caught Tessa in her psychic grip, then planted her on her back and sped off to dodge a blinding-white beam from Necrozma's eyes.
"Are you okay?" Shane asked, though one look at Tessa's face gave him all the answer he needed. The colors had practically drained off her fur and her limbs were shaking. Shane growled in frustration. "Why didn't my Psychic work?"
"Gyahahaha! What a fool! You really think I'd let you keep those enhancements you got from my Dawn Shards? Don't make me laugh," Necrozma said. "Oh, wait, I already did. Too bad." His multicolored eyes flashed. A dozen circular runes with winged-heart sigils appeared around him, forming what looked to be crystalline bows.
"Look out!" Espy cried as the bows shot Rayquaza-shaped arrows into the air. Each one turned into a gleaming emerald comet that made a beeline for Ephemeris and Lunala.
"Both of you… back me up with your strongest attacks," Lunala begged, her third eye glowing. Shane stared at the Rayquaza arrows, each glowing with the energy of what he assumed was Dragon Ascent. He gathered as much ice in his mouth as he could muster, but the Rayquaza arrow was easily five times the size of Shane's Ice Beam.
Nevertheless, the ice combined with gray energy from Tessa's paws and a crimson Night Daze shockwave from Lunala. It proved enough to destroy one arrow and permit safe passage to avoid the others. As Lunala flew past the arrows, a warm, tingling sensation flared up in Shane's left foreleg. He looked down and was startled to find that not only was his naturia looplet somehow intact, it was flickering orange.
"Huh?" Shane blinked in surprise. "Hey, Tessa, take a look at this." He tried to lift his forepaw to show his teammate, but Lunala banked hard to her left, barely rolling out of the way of a swipe from Necrozma's massive tail. Vortex-shaped energy blasts surged out in all directions. Tessa grabbed hold of Shane to keep him from sliding off Lunala. She stole a glance at her teammates, then sighed in relief when Ephemeris flew over the Spacial Rends.
"How pathetic! All you can do is dodge and dodge and dodge. You're not resisting… you're simply being stubborn!" Necrozma sneered, his third eye wriggling along with his head tendrils. "Why continue this farce? Is your will to live truly that strong… even knowing that all you are protecting is an existence where fear and survival instincts are all that drive people's actions?"
Necrozma's wings flared up with multicolored light. His main eyes shimmered. "He's getting ready for something big," Silvally said. "We've gotta attack him!" He shot a dragon-shaped energy beam that spiraled through the air. Necrozma's third eye flashed. He pulled one of the floating chunks of land in front of him and snuffed out Silvally's attack, along with the Psychic rings and golden Sacred Fire that followed.
"This was a fun warm-up, but I've had enough of this! Prismatic Laser!"
A rainbow beam as large as Necrozma raced toward Team Radiance. Tessa screamed and buried her face in Lunala's ethereal back. Lunala tucked her wings in and dove as fast as she could. The energy was growing closer. Shane completely lost sight of the warped battlefield, blinded by Necrozma's attack.
Lunala fanned her wings out and skimmed the base of the beam. Third eye glowing, she unleashed a Moongeist Beam. It surged toward Necrozma's golden, crystalline leg… only for a spectral Braviary to appear and harmlessly swallow up the attack. Braviary disappeared in a trail of light while Necrozma looked down at her and grinned.
"Heeheehee… gyahahaha! What did I tell you? It's useless." Necrozma opened his mouth wide and spewed a large flamethrower. Lunala raced ahead, zipping between Necrozma's legs. "Fool!" Necrozma prepared to strike Lunala with his tail when an Ice Beam and bright-white ball of fairy energy smacked his cheek.
"Stay away from them!" Silvally snarled. Necrozma turned toward them, summoning more Rayquaza arrows. Ephemeris turned tail and flew off as fast he could. Behind him, the arrows brimmed with emerald Dragon Ascent energy and large, fiery, V-shaped crescents.
"Your fates are sealed. You cannot defy them. This reality cannot defy its fate… to fall before my light!" Necrozma thundered. Espy and Silvally failed to destroy the nearest arrow with a Psychic-bolstered glob of water.
"These worlds do not deserve to exist! Gods and mortals continue to squander the gifts they stole from the void, be they humans, Pokémon, or Ultra Beasts."
Ephemeris spun around and unleashed a huge gust of wing. Silvally added Air Slash crescents to the wind storm. His tail wagged when three of the Rayquaza arrows veered off course and broke into emerald fragments.
"Fear brings suffering to each and every world. And with that suffering comes anger. Then the anger turns to outrage… and that outrage to hatred. And then the hatred begets more fear and more suffering."
"You're… nrrgh… full of nonsense!" Espy cried, forehead gem smoldering as she tried to repel the last remaining arrow with her psychic powers. Silvally pivoted and shot a massive Hyper Beam into the arrow. With Espy's Psychic backing it up, it broke through the V-Create and chipped the arrow's head. The rest of the crystal construct fell apart in bursts of emerald fire. Espy and Silvally smiled and bumped shoulders.
"Bah! Living creatures will do nothing but perpetuate the vicious cycle until they destroy themselves. That's why I'm skipping a few steps!"
Lunala managed to escape Necrozma's tail, but in the short time she was near him, Shane's looplet went from flickering to positively glowing. A familiar rush of vitality surged through him. It was like the times he'd touched the Dawn Shards and the full Dawn Hourglass. "Tessa… is your looplet glowing?" Shane asked.
"Huh?" Tessa was still trying to process the sights of the battle and Necrozma's unhinged ranting. She managed to look down at her looplet. Her aura feelers stuck up. It was glowing. "What does this mean? Should we… do we use our Z-Moves?"
"I… I don't know." Shane's brow furrowed. There was no conceivable way he could fire off a Z-Move while clinging to Lunala's back. He stared at his paw, biting his lower lip.
"Hey, if you two have any ideas, this would be a good time to speak up!" Lunala said, trying to weave through pink energy balls Necrozma sent toward her. Ephemeris was in a similar position, only Espy and Silvally were able to blast some out of the sky with their own attacks. Necrozma watched the whole scene with a bemused grin as more light gathered in his wings.
"He's going to use that Prismatic Laser attack again," Tessa realized, aura feelers trembling. "What should we do? All of our attacks don't even so much as phase him and I need to be able to at least stand to use a Z-Move." She looked despondently at her looplet.
"I… I…" Shane's eyes darted around. He had an idea, but it was a spur of the moment thing. Could it really work? "Lunala! Can… can we channel our Z-Power into you?"
Lunala deflected the last of the energy balls with a purple shield. "Hmm? Oh! I… I'm not really sure, to be honest. But it couldn't hurt to try, could it?"
Shane nodded. Given their situation, he'd take any opening he could possibly get. One quick glance at Necrozma told him another Prismatic Laser was seconds away. "Quick, Tessa. Focus on your Z-Power and try to push it into Lunala."
"I'll try!" Tessa drew up the Z-Power from her looplet. As its familiar warmth filled her body, she concentrated on Lunala. To her surprise, the warmth faded, but a brilliant orange aura surrounded Lunala.
"Ah! I… I feel so full of energy!" Lunala gasped. Her third eye glowed as brightly as Necrozma's wings.
"Gyahahaha! You won't escape me this time!"
Lunala brought her wings up. Small, moon-shaped crystals formed around her. Each one fired off a purple laser. The lasers converged to form a single, gigantic beam. It struck Necrozma's top chest spike and shattered it. Necrozma gasped. All of the energy gathering in his wings dispersed. When it did, Shane's eyes narrowed.
Ephemeris flew up beside them, a look of shock on his face. "Wow! Was that Z-Power? You actually managed to hit him."
"So, the key to beating him is Z-Power? But I used my Z-Move saving Silvally," Espy said, only to look at her looplet and realize that it was glowing, too. "Wait… what the—"
"Ah! That's it! That's how we try to turn this around," Shane said, ears twitching.
"I'm not sure I follow," Tessa said, frowning.
"All of these attacks Necrozma's using are releasing tremendous amounts of light. Light energy is the basis for Z-Power! As long as we're fighting Necrozma, we've practically got unlimited Z-Power at our disposal," Shane said, his heartrate picking up the more he spoke. "If we can keep avoiding Necrozma's attacks, we can keep charging up our looplets and funneling the power to Lunala to attack Necrozma!"
"Fools! You really think that's going to work against me? My powers are infinite! Any damage you do… I'll instantly heal right off!" Necrozma snarled, third eye wriggling. Soft moonlight appeared above him. The shattered chest-spike reappeared, as good as new.
"Come on! You've gotta be kidding me!" Espy said. She had to stop herself from smacking Ephemeris' back.
"No. This doesn't change anything," Shane said. "We stick to the same plan."
"But what about us? Can Ephemeris take Z-Power like Lunala?" Silvally wondered.
"It's worth a shot, isn't it?" Shane said. He looked to Tessa.
"Absolutely," Tessa said, offering Shane the closest to a confident grin she could manage.
Espy and Silvally exchanged looks, but nodded their support. "We're with you," Silvally said.
"Good. Because there's one other part to this… and I'm not sure you guys are gonna like it." Shane cleared his throat. "Ha ha! Boy, you really outdid yourself with this one, Nicky!"
Necrozma froze in the midst of gathering magma around his wings. "What did you just say?"
"Come on, dude! This is just like all the times we acted out our own Pokémon battles, isn't it?" Shane said, ignoring the stunned looks on his teammates' faces. "Making them as ridiculous as possible, using all the craziest moves, and creating a whole bunch of explosions! The bigger the better!" A goofy grin crept onto his face. "You really went above and beyond, here!"
Necrozma's tail lashed at the air. His head jerked to the side. The sight was hard to miss. "Shane, what are you up to?" Silvally wondered.
"When Necrozma tried to trap my spirit… I saw something. I… I think Nicky's still in there," Shane said.
Espy frowned. "Shane, I thought we went over this all the way back in Cosmic Cavern."
"We did. This isn't about trying to appeal to him or anything. It's about trying to rile Necrozma up so he gets careless with his attacks," Shane said, his eyes narrowing. "That's our opening… but it's only going to work if you guys back me up."
"Heehee… heeheeheehee! How much of a naïve fool do you take me for, boy?" Necrozma said, red expanding in his eyes and rippling down his body. "This is nothing like those sorry games of pretend. All I ever did was roll over and end up a doormat while you gave yourself the most amazing powers ever!"
"Move left. Left!" Shane hollered, wishing Lunala had fur or scales he could tug on. Lunala followed his instructions, veering away from a bevy of giant fireballs that surged right past her. Epehmeris banked in the other direction, but was never in any real danger of getting hit.
"Wow! Was that a bunch of Fusion Flares at once? Pretty crazy," Shane said, smirking. "I always thought you were more of a Zekrom guy, though."
"What does it matter? I have both of their powers! I could combine them and gain the bolstered effects if I chose to!" Necrozma said. Flames bristled in his right wings and electricity crackled in his left wings. "How does it feel for the shoe to be on the other foot, Shane? Instead of you getting all the godly powers… I have them! After all these years, it's finally time for me to win!"
Shane's tails shot up. Was his strategy… actually doing something? Sure, there was still the same burning anger in Necrozma's voice from earlier, but instead of deranged ranting, there were complaints about the games of pretend Shane had played with Nicky. And, well, what he was saying was true.
"T-Tessa, I think the plan's work—"
Necrozma jerked his head violently to the left. "SiLEnCE, wHElP! ThIS Is My MoMEnT oF trIUmPh!" Flames and electricity mixed together by Necrozma's chest. Plasma shockwaves spread toward Team Radiance. Lunala flew underneath one, but couldn't pull up fast enough to avoid a second one. She screeched in pain. Shane and Tessa also tensed up, but the pain proved minimal. The attack didn't even knock Lunala off course that much. She was able to right herself quickly and fly toward Ephemeris.
Golden glimmers of light appeared on Necrozma's wing joints. The crystalline hinges opened up, revealing four reptilian eyes much like the one on Necrozma's forehead. The eyes stared Team Radiance down in unison. Shane raised a curious eyebrow.
'Those eyes… I don't think Necrozma really wants them to be there.'
He cleared his throat. "You're going to have to try harder than that to stop us." Shane conjured up a burst of white energy and sent it toward Necrozma. Espy added a Dazzling Gleam of her own.
"Pathetic!" Necrozma formed a Hoopa ring. It swallowed the combined Dazzling Gleams up. A second Hoopa ring appeared by Ephemeris. He caught sight of it fast enough to let shoot out a golden fireball. Silvally added his own Flamethrower to the mix, blowing apart the Hoopa ring before it could release the Dazzling Gleam.
Shane looked down at his looplet. It was glowing again. "It's working," he said. "We can keep using the Z-Power. Lunala, next time you attack, you have to focus on one of those eyes on Necrozma's wings. Can you do that?"
"I can certainly try," Lunala said, flying up to pull even with one of Necrozma's upper wings.
"What should I do, Shane?" Tessa wondered. "I can fire Aura Spheres and Flash Cannons, but I don't think they'll do any good."
"I need you to help me keep talking to Necrozma," Shane said.
Tessa's aura feelers shot up. "Are… are you sure? I'm not really sure what to say to him. He's, y'know, totally lost his mind."
"Just say some of that determined stuff you said before," Shane said, offering an assuring look. "I trust you, Tessa. We can pull this off… together." He shifted his right paw toward her.
Tessa looked at his forepaw, then nodded. She joined her paw with his. "Hey, Necrozma! You big bully! You spent all this time ranting and raving about how the gods betrayed you. So, why are you using their powers, huh? Makes you look like a giant hypocrite!" Tessa wondered if she was overdoing things, but Shane gave her a reassuring nod. "Are you too scared to face us with your own powers? I thought that was what you wanted your core back for!"
Necrozma's main eyes turned bright orange. They twitched. "Insolent little rat! The gods were never supposed to exist in the first place. Their mistakes and backstabbing are proof of that! I've taken back what rightfully belongs to me!" Necrozma summoned more gold energy balls. He struck them with his wings, knocking them at Lunala and Ephemeris.
One thing Team Radiance had on their side, though, was that Necrozma's size made his attacks painfully telegraphed. By the time the Photon Geysers moved forward, Lunala was already by Necrozma's right side. Shane and Tessa activated their naturia looplets in unison, sending more energy surging through Lunala's body.
She raised her wings up, unleashing six purple beams. Lunala swiveled them forward, where they merged together. Necrozma's eyes flashed. The purple beam struck against an invisible barrier. "I won't let you get away with that again," Necrozma snarled. "I am destruction incarnate! You cannot stop me!" Light tendrils surged toward him from the rift leading to the sun. Lunala's eyes widened as the barrier pushed back against her beam.
"Keep it up! He's just saying that to mess with us," Shane said through gritted teeth. His looplet burned against his foreleg, but he refused to give in. "Isn't that right, Nicky? I know how much you enjoyed big, bombastic boasts!"
"Is that alliteration supposed to be cute? What a farce! I didn't enjoy it! You made me play the bad guy every. Damn. Time! You— ngarrrgh!"
Lunala's Z-Move broke through Necrozma's barrier. The beam struck his upper right wing at the same time as a monstrous golden fireball. An explosive chain reaction engulfed the wing. Necrozma kicked at the air with his legs. His distorted screech split the multicolored, static-filled skies.
"The wing's gone," Espy realized, squinting to see through all the smoke. Her forepaw was sore after giving off Z-Power, but she forced herself to keep a brave face. "But he's going to heal it again, isn't he?" she said, frowning.
Silvally's cheek bolts whirred. "Not if we attack the spot it had grown out of!" He released the Hyper Beam he was charging up, but a gigantic thunderbolt vaporized it before it got very far. Necrozma thrashed about, eyes flashing between red and purple hues.
"StOP iT!"
"No! I'm going to beat them!"
Necrozma smacked the empty joint where his wing had previously been, then a bright flash surged through is body.
"Hmph. You can pelt me with attacks as much as you'd like, but it won't do any good," Necrozma said between bouts of hyena-like laughter. He looked at the smoldering stump where his wing was supposed to be. His eyes flashed white… but nothing happened. "What the—" His eyes glowed white… but he failed to do anything. "Bah! Whatever! It doesn't matter. I don't even need these wings to fly! And I don't need them to destroy you all!"
"We better get back," Tessa said, aura feelers tensing. Chains swirled around Necrozma's head. While she was happy Shane's idea had done something, she wondered if they could really afford to keep this up. "U-Um…" She cleared her throat. "Oh, look, using your dumb alchemy chain stuff again, are you? Boy, that routine is getting tiring."
"Yeah! I'm sure you detest Golem as much as I do! So, why are you using the same techniques as him, huh?" Silvally barked, cheek bolts revving. "Even though you don't want to admit it, you're really no different than him! All you know how to do is hate!"
"Fool! Hatred is what made me into this. Hatred is the pox rotting these undeserving worlds from their insides out," Necrozma said. "I'm not using the same techniques! I've evolved them into something greater!" The chains finished forging a gigantic axe with a head resembling Arceus' wheel. "Now perish!"
The axe disappeared in a flash of light, only to pop up between Necrozma's legs. He gripped them with his claws and flew toward Ephemeris, the axe trailing behind him.
Espy's eyes widened. "Fly away. Fly away!" she screamed.
"Too late!" Necrozma crooned. He spun around, bringing the axe up, and slammed it down. A crystal piece of debris swerved into the axe's path. It struck with a thunderous clang. Shockwaves of golden energy raced forward. They swept Ephemeris up, drowning out his startled squawk and the pained cries of Espy and Silvally.
"Oh no!" Tessa looked to Shane.
"I'm on it!" Lunala's third eye glowed. She managed to grab hold of Ephemeris and his passengers and pull them away before Necrozma slashed at the air a second time. She barely got them out of the way of the shockwaves in time. "Are you all right?"
Espy's looplet shined so brightly it was hard to stare at her. "Ow." Her fur smoldered. Likewise, Silvally's beak and feathers had black streaks running through them. Ephemeris' feathers were also completely disheveled
"I'm… hanging in there," he said. Ephemeris got Espy and Silvally safely positioned on his back. Golden healing energy raced up toward them, undoing the damage from Necrozma's attack.
"You stupid, foolish oversized chicken! I will obliterate you!" Necrozma said. He spun around, ready to strike with the axe once again.
"It's now or never!" Espy cried, pumping Z-Power into Ephemeris' back. Shane and Tessa followed suit. With the axe barreling toward them, Ephemeris and Lunala unleashed a golden firestorm and giant purple laser, respectively. They connected with the eye in Necrozma's lower left wing. He screamed in pain. Explosions swallowed up the wing. The axe vanished seconds before it would've slashed Ephemeris, Espy, and Silvally in half.
"What's the matter, big guy? You're not looking so hot! Maybe all this anger and destruction is giving you a bit of a guilty conscience," Espy said, trying to sound tough but betrayed by the slight tremble to her voice. She wished she could've said it was adrenaline, but the fear that the crazed look in Necrozma's eyes sent down her spine was all too visible. Right when it looked like he was about to say something, his head jerked to the right.
"EnOUGh Of ThIS! I Am VoiD NEcROZma, DivInE LiGHt Of OBlivIOn! I WiLL noT sInK to YoUR leVEL! I dON'T PlAY bY AnY Of YOuR RuLEs. I'Ve EvOLvEd BeYoND aNy RuLEs!" Necrozma thundered. "UlTImA!"
"Ulti-what?!" Silvally gawked as Necrozma craned his head up and spat a brilliant golden fireball into the air. It exploded into an entire series of concentric golden runes with a large pentagram directly above Necrozma's head.
"BeGONe, aLl Of yOu!" He pointed his remaining two wings forward. A ring of golden light pillars surrounded him, then raced toward Lunala and Ephemeris. They both tried to weave their way through, but more light pillars appeared in the outermost circles of Necrozma's giant rune. There was nowhere left for them to fly.
"Quickly, Lunala. With me!" Ephemeris said, spreading his wings wide. Lunala flew up toward his stomach. Ephemeris pressed his wings to hers. They both channeled their energy together, forging a half-purple, half-gold barrier. A light pillar struck them from above. Though their barrier cracked and Team Radiance collectively cried out in a panic, they managed to hang through the attack.
"LoAThsome pests. You are doing nothing but delaying the inevitable!" Necrozma hissed. Silhouettes of various gods appeared all around him. He pointed at his opponents and the silhouettes took off.
"We're not delaying anything! You're getting desperate," Tessa said. "All this time, you've done nothing but act for your own selfish, twisted desires. But the world doesn't work that way. We get strength from one another! And it's time you learned that lesson!"
"Liar!" Necrozma's voice grew less distorted and his eyes twitched. The silhouettes of Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina sailed wide of Ephemeris. "There's no strength to be had in any relationship in any world! People only know how to look out for themselves. Selfishness and survivability are all that matters to living creatures. Subject their relationships to even the tiniest bit of stress and they collapse like an weathered bridge."
"That's not true!" Shane said, barely hanging on as Lunala pulled up from a dive to dodge the exploding silhouettes of Reshiram and Zekrom. He spat out ice breath to dispel the lingering flames and lightning.
"It is! Two worlds I tried to put my trust in others… and in both cases I had my life ruined because of it!" Necrozma roared.
He then jerked his head to the left. "nO. PaY No ATtEnTIoN tO THoSE MEmORiES!" The remaining silhouettes exploded. Ephemeris and Lunala shot toward the debris. Espy, Shane, and Tessa stuck their limbs up to gather up as much of the stardust as they could.
Their looplets shimmered in unison. They wasted no time in sending Z-Power to their rides. Once again, a purple laser and golden fireball split the sky. Necrozma's third eye looked ready to burst out from his forehead. He released a purple beam much like Lunala's.
"I don't need anyone! I don't need anything!" Necrozma snarled.
"You're… wrong! Everyone needs help! Everyone needs support!" Tessa said, arcing her back as her looplet burned her fur.
Necrozma's beam faltered. The combined Z-Moves struck his upper left wing. It detached from his body and fell away in a stream of bright, fiery explosions. Necrozma's roars grew so distorted they didn't even sound like roars anymore. His third eye swiveled about in his head at random.
"Enough of your stupid prattling! You don't get to use my power against me! It's mine! Every last drop of energy across every world belongs to me! To me! To me!" Then, to the group's collective shock, Necrozma turned away from them, rainbow energy bursts surrounding his body. "Prismatic Laser!" He fired the giant rainbow beam not at Team Radiance, but high into the cosmos. It soared into the darkness until a brilliant explosion shimmered far in the distance.
"W-What just happened?!" Espy squeaked, shrinking closer to Silvally.
"I… I don't know. But I've got a terrible sense of dread… and I don't think it's the Absol spirits in me." Silvally subconscious slid close to Espy.
"Gyahahaha! It's time you all met with a terrible fate!" Necrozma declared. His multicolored eyes sparkled with silver energy. A heart-shaped portal opened over his head. Gigantic, flaming pieces of rubble streamed toward Team Radiance.
"What the heck are those? Meteors?!" Tessa squealed. Lunala banked hard right to avoid two of the projectiles, then barely managed to get a Moongeist Beam off in time to destroy a third one.
"No. It's… it's the moon," Shane said, watching one of the pieces of debris sail right by. The crater within the huge, jagged chunk of land was unmistakable. "He blew up the moon and he's attacking us with it!"
"You catch on quick! Remember how you were so scared of it as a kid? All because of that one dumb game you made me beat for you!" Necrozma crooned. "I lost out on my best years trying to salvage a friendship I got nothing out of!" Pink energy encased the moon shards. They increased their speed.
"On your right, Ephemeris!" Espy screamed, burying her face in Silvally's hide. Silvally turned and fired a Hyper Beam, but it plinked off the flaming moon shard as despair spread across his face.
"Both of you… hang on tight!" Ephemeris cried. Silvally threw a foreleg over Espy's back and dug his claws into Ephemeris' feathers. But the instant Ephemeris began to roll, Silvally's grip slipped. He could feel Espy sliding out from his foreleg. Her eyes widened in terror. A moon shard was heading up behind them.
Silvally shifted to his steel memories. His body hardened into metal. Silvally squished Espy against Ephemeris' backside. They managed to hang on as Ephemeris rolled out of the way of the moon shard. He then blew another one up with a powerful burst of Sacred Fire. "You two doing okay?"
Espy shook like a leaf. "N… not really…" Her ears drooped and her tail curled around her waist. Silvally leaned over to nuzzle her.
Shane looked at his shaken teammates and glared at Necrozma. "Hey, come on! You're taking all of this way too far!"
"Too far? Too far? I'm not taking any of this far enough!" Necrozma retorted, his eyes turning blue. "You took away any semblance of happiness I ever had! All because you refused to use your head and think about anyone or anything besides yourself!" Two blue, winged-heart runes formed on either side. "And now… you expect me to stop? To let you have a fairy tale happy ending with new friends? To fall in love when I got my heart stomped on in two lifetimes?! Never! You will all burn! I don't care about your bonds! I don't care if you two idiots are too dumb, dense, and cowardly to say what you really feel!
"YoU wILl DiE BeFoRE yOu CaN EvER sAY yOU LOvE EaCH oTHer!"
Tessa's eyes widened. But if there was a retort she wanted to give, it faltered in her throat the moment Necrozma's runes created two gigantic, serpentine dragons made of pure blue energy. They spiraled through the air, looking to barrel into Team Radiance.
"That's the dragon-type Z-Move!" Lunala gasped and rolled right, but one of the dragons gave chase. "I can't make an attack strong enough to counter it on my own!"
"Ah! R-Right…" Shane looked down at his looplet, but it hadn't recharged yet. His brow furrowed. Sure, he seemed to have gotten through to Nicky somehow, but all it did was dredge up all the resentment Nicky had for Shane. Deserved resentment, if Shane had to be honest, but it did nothing to help the team's current situation.
"I… I… have… an idea," he said, wincing as Lunala dove down to avoid the charging energy dragon.
"Another one?" Tessa said, aura feelers tensing.
"We fly toward Necrozma. If his attack follows, he'll have to snuff it out himself, right?" Shane said, the look on his face suggesting even he thought it was nuts.
"Are you crazy?"
"Yes!" Shane blurted out. "But all of this is crazy!"
Tessa frowned. "I… um…" She squeezed her eye shut. Then, to Shane's surprise, she grabbed his forepaw. "Okay. I'm trusting you on this."
"R-Right." Shane said, face burning. "Lunala… full steam ahead!"
Lunala sped toward Necrozma. Ephemeris, tangled up with the other serpent, spotted her and copied the gesture. Necrozma's eyes narrowed when he saw his attack heading for him. "Imbeciles! What good does trust do anyone? Nothing! Trust is the key to future heartbreak and inevitable despair. I'll show you exactly how little trust means." Necrozma summoned two circular runes with fire symbols in them.
"Oh no! He's gonna try another Z-Move!" Espy cried.
"Espy, your looplet! Strike first!" Silvally said, nudging her foreleg. Espy looked down, then hastily drew on the energy gathered in her looplet. A surge of warmth rose in Ephemeris' throat. Before Necrozma had the chance to unleash more attacks, he launched a golden fireball at Necrozma's last remaining wing.
Necrozma retaliated with two giant fire torrents of his own, but doing so caused him to lose focus on the energy dragons.
"Now!" Shane squeezed himself tight against Tessa, who threw an arm around his shoulders. Lunala abruptly pulled up. Necrozma's energy dragons swallowed up his flames, then slammed into the eye on his wing's joint. He tumbled backward, crystal shards falling away from his body and disappearing into the multicolored abyss below them.
Lunala steadied herself. Tessa's aura feelers throbbed. "That… that actually worked? It actually worked!" Tessa squeezed Shane hard, nuzzling his cheek with her own.
"Ow! Ow! Chest spike! Chest spike!" Shane was torn between elation from Tessa's gesture and the pain of getting jabbed in the ribs.
"O-Oops. Sorry." Tessa softened her grip. "Got a bit caught up in the moment there." Her face flushed.
"It's. It's okay." Shane fought to hide a blush of his own. "But we're still not done yet."
"ImBEcILE! YoU'Re RuINinG eVErYThiNG! tHIS iS My BOdY To CONtROL!" Necrozma thrashed at the air with his legs and tail.
"But we're out of wings! What are we supposed to attack?" Espy said, tilting her head to the side.
"His third eye!" Tessa said, pointing her marked paw forward. "Maybe we'll be able to blow off his head? That's gotta be where his core is, right?" She looked at Shane.
Shane nodded. "Yeah. Let's do it! I'm with you!" The two locked arms and checked their looplets. They were almost charged. All they needed was one last attack from Necrozma. "Hey, Nicky! If love and trust don't mean anything, then why are we still alive and kicking while your big, flashy body is falling apart on you?" He narrowed his eyes. "Know what I think? I think you're letting your anger get the better of you!"
Necrozma roared and kicked his legs together. "Don't you dare lecture me about anger. Which one of us spent yearsthrowing temper tantrums at teachers? That was you." Necrozma's eyes twitched. His third eye spun about at random. "You think you're some sort of hero? What a farce! You're a failure at anything and everything you've ever set your mind to. And that includes your life as a Pokémon. You only found success because of your partners!"
Shane frowned. "I, well…" He blinked slowly and glanced at Tessa. Realization slowly washed over him and a confident look overtook his frown. "If I found success because of my partners… then that just proves how right we are! Relationships are important! They're sources of strength that everyone needs!"
Necrozma's eyes widened. The third eye pulsated like a giant heart. "IDiOT! StOP it! StOP… Be SiLEnT…"
Shane smiled at Tessa. "I care about my team! So, I'm going to do everything in my power to support the friends who've carried me this far! And that starts with getting rid of you and fixing all the damage you've done!" He narrowed his eyes at Necrozma, who slammed his head into his own top chest spike.
"Heeheehee… gyahahaha! 'Fix the damage?' There's nothing to fix! I've destroyed everything! And everyone!" Distorted ripples flickered in front of Necrozma. "All of their precious memories… gone! Eternal fuel for my undying flame! You will never get them back. You've lost. Now, stand down and accept your defeat!"
A black, crystalline husk appeared in front of Necrozma. It bore striking resemblance to the creature Shane remembered seeing in the video footage after Golem took away Necrozma's light. "What's he up to?" Shane wondered, brow furrowed.
Necrozma fired a golden beam at the husk. The energy struck it and refracted, splitting into multiple beams, each with a different color. A yellow beam clipped Ephemeris' wing, drawing a pained squawk. Electricity surged down Ephemeris' back. Silvally barely switched his ground memories on in time to avoid any damage. He bit down on Espy's satchel and used it to hoist her into the air. She squealed in terror as she stared at the rainbow abyss far below her.
"Is everything ok— agh!" Shane had to spit up globs of ice onto his forepaws to freeze them to Lunala's back and keep him from slipping off as she spun away from a purple beam bursting with ghostly energy. "Come on, Nicky! Enough is enough! We don't have to keep doing this anymore. You've made your point."
"It will never be enough! Not until you surrender. You don't get to win. None of you get to win." Necrozma's eyes flashed. In a burst of light, the copy he summoned split into two. "You say your bonds are pure… but they're not. Time will rot them away, just as it does to everything else across reality. All living creatures are beyond salvation. They aren't worth caring about. Everything must be purged! Destruction is what every world deserves… no matter how sweet and lovey-dovey the inhabitants are!"
Another gold beam struck the Prism Necrozma copies. An array of different-color energy beams raced out in each direction like a laser grid. Lunala spun away from a red beam, but then a gray beam struck her right in the face. Ice encased Lunala's head. She tumbled downward, with Shane and Tessa screaming in terror.
Ephemeris saw her falling, but couldn't get past two giant green beams. His attempts to counter with a Flamethrower failed, even with Silvally adding fire breath of his own. "All it takes is a touch of fear to expose the lies in every relationship. Why do you think this world was so dysfunctional in the first place? It was built upon a foundation of fear. All I did was stretch things to the breaking point!" In another flash of light, he summoned three black copies, then shot another golden beam into them.
Tessa's aura feelers shot up. With Lunala in a tailspin, there'd be to no way to dodge all the refracted lasers. Tessa raised a glowing paw and slammed it against the ice encasing Lunala's head. It shattered. "Lunala, help!" Tessa cried.
Lunala looked up to see red, yellow, and orange beams heading right for her. She tucked her wings in, diving down so fast that Shane and Tessa could barely hang on. "H-How much longer to we have to keep this up?" Shane said, his mane falling over his face.
Tessa glanced at her arm. "Our looplets are charged! Quick, Lunala, we have to get closer to Necrozma."
"Right. Hang on. I, uh…" Lunala barely managed to squeeze past two blue energy beams. Once she did, she headed back for Necrozma.
"I WiLl dO ThE SaME tHInG to EVEry WoRlD iN OuR ReaLITy. The PEoPLe wIlL lOoK uPon MY poWER aND, OnCe DeSPaIR hAS gRIpPed ThEM, THeY WiLL tuRN On OnE AnoTHER!" Necrozma shattered the copes he'd created, then summoned four more that began to spin around one another. "ThEN, I WiLL TakE ThEIr LIgHT aND RiP TheIR worlDS apArT unTIL NoThINg rEmAInS BuT The chAOs of ULtRa SpaCE!"
"I don't understand… why does it sound like Necrozma's feuding with himself?" Tessa said, a chill running down her spine. She looked to Shane who, in turn, looked down at his glowing looplet. "Shane," she whispered.
"We got through to Nicky… I think. He's wrestling for control of Necrozma with the void. But all our comments are making him remember things that made him so upset to begin with, so he's still trying to kill us. Right now, Necrozma's like… like a flying-type whose wings are controlled by two different people," Shane said, face twisting into a grimace. "I'm not sure if that's made things better or worse for us."
Tessa put her free paw under Shane's chin. "Well, there's only one way we'll know for sure, isn't there?" She glanced at her looplet.
Shane nodded. Together, they funneled Z-Power into Lunala, hoping this would be the blow that would finally end things. Lunala fired another set of purple beams.
At the same time, Ephemeris launched another giant fireball. Both attacks went right for Necrozma's head while he charged up to launch what Shane and Tessa assumed was meant to be a true finishing blow. They watched their attacks fly with baited breath. Necrozma's third eye widened, but it he realized what was happening too late.
One final roar split the skies. The Z-Moves struck home, blowing Necrozma's head apart in streams of golden light. His body simply floated there, surrounding by ripples of distortion. Shane titled his head and frowned. "Is… is it over? Does this mean we win?"
Espy's ears drooped. "Why isn't what's left of his body falling apart?"
"Oh no…" Tessa's aura feelers crinkled up. "You don't think… his core wasn't in his head, do you? Maybe it's in the middle of his body?"
Silvally's head crest fanned out. "If that's the case, then we have to hit him with everything we've got!" Frosty energy swirled around his cheek bolts.
"Silv, wait a sec—"
Silvally launched a large snowstorm in Necrozma's direction. It mostly struck one of his chest spikes… and failed to do anything. Silvally's head crest drooped. "Aww, c'mon. Do we need more Z-Power?"
"Silv, hold up for a second, please." Espy had a forepaw on his talons. Silvally looked down, fire memories activating. He nodded. Espy squinted as she looked toward the direction of where Necrozma's head had been. The distorted energy had faded and now a black fog swirled around Necrozma's golden neck. Her tail fell between her legs. "Um, guys? You see that fog over there?" She pointed a forepaw forward.
Everyone stared ahead. Shane's tails shot up. "Wait. Is he healing himself?" After the grueling battle, Shane wasn't sure he could muster enough resolve to keep going if Necrozma bounced back.
"I don't know. But that fog…" Espy's expression darkened. "It looks like the fog that shrouds the entrance to a Mystery Dungeon in the Mist Continent."
Tessa's aura feelers quivered. "You're kidding!" She stared blankly at the fog. Though she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't argue with Espy's assumption. Necrozma had used ley lines throughout the battle. In fact, his giant body was probably made of them. "But… but what does that mean for us?"
Shane's ears folded against his head. "I think it means that… if we want to get to Necrozma's core and destroy it… we have to go inside Necrozma."
"I… was afraid you'd say that," Tessa said, shivering. Even if Necrozma was more ethereal than flesh and blood, nothing about that idea sat well with her. She'd have puked on the spot if her nerves weren't already so frayed from all the battling.
"Well, maybe we can come up with another idea," Shane said. "I—"
Tessa sighed. "I appreciate the concern." She put her paw on Shane's shoulder. His tails stiffened. "But, at this point, I say we go for it. I told the other teams that, no matter what it took, we'd stop Necrozma." She bowed her head. "If we have to, uh, take the plunge, then so be it."
Shane blinked. "Are… are you sure? Because if you want to raise and objection and call this idea stupid, I'm perfectly willing to—"
"Shane, be serious. Our job isn't finished yet," Tessa said, her expression stern. "If we're going through with this, I need to know you've got my back."
"I, uh…" Shane bit his lip. "I'm worried that Necrozma will be able to take control of me. Like, I dunno, maybe Ephemeris' protective aura will fail inside of Necrozma or something." He grimaced. "I don't want to hurt you again."
"Look at me, Shane." She shakily put her paws on each of his cheeks and swiveled his head. "I won't let that happen to you. We're in this together… until the end."
Shane looked into Tessa's eyes. A flush fell over his cheeks. "I… I got it." He nodded slowly. "Okay, Lunala. You can fly us over."
Lunala floated toward the black fog. Ephemeris flew beside her. The closer they got, however, the thicker the air became. When they were on the cusp of reaching the black fog, chains shot out from Necrozma's neck. Lunala was so startled, she couldn't properly form up an attack. Some of the chains grabbed Shane and Tessa's limbs. Both went wide-eyed and hollered in fright.
"Shane! Tessa!" Silvally shouted, only for Espy to cry out. Silvally looked left and found Espy getting pulled into the fog by the chains. "Espy, no!" He leaped off Ephemeris' back, turning on his flying memories. He went for the chains holding Shane and Tessa. But the chains lurched violently. They all crashed into each other, then the chains yanked them inside Necrozma's neck with a loud squelch.
Lunala tried to fly into Necrozma's neck, but struck off a barrier. She shook stars from her vision and looked at Ephemeris. "What do we do now?"
"I… I'm not sure. I think we have to try and find a way to break in, don't we?" Ephemeris said. "I hope they're all still in one piece.
Light of Oblivion, Void Necrozma
The combined might of Necrozma, the light of the sun, and the spirits of those dwelling in both the living world and spirit realm. Devoid of all care and compassion, he seeks nothing but the complete and total annihilation of all living things. His body is so full of energy it seems to naturally repel any attack that strikes it. And any puppet spirit struck down can be quickly replaced by another while it recharges with the sun's light.
Hang tough, Team Radiance! Surely, there's a weakness that you can exploit!
And that's part one of the final battle in the books. Another chapter that was a herculean effort as far as writing goes. So, any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated.
memes: Someone had to make the joke, I suppose. I brought it on myself.
Anon Omega: That may be true, but his attacks here have a combination of different sources, including Final Fantasy IX's Necron. The naming schemes were too similar. I had to do it.
SuperOmegaGuest: Believe it or not, that's not why I'm referring to this as the golden ending. The real reason should become clear next chapter.
OverThePiranha: I dunno, you tell me. How was Team Radiance acting in this battle?
Next time: Into the belly of the Ultra Beast.