Guardian

by yasha012

I used to want to save existence... I saw it as this beautiful place, capable of fostering life in all of its many forms. A place with the potential to nurture so much Light. But the closer I got to it... the more I fought for it… the better I could see the Darkness waiting within… the evil we would all rather forget. (Part 4 of the Hero series; sequel to "Eternal Shadow Falls".)

167. Disciple of Light

Disclaimer: I hereby disclaim all rights to all characters (save for those of my own creation) in this fierce battle… especially for the one who returns.

~保護者~

"Disciple of Light"

~保護者~

Finding them wasn't as hard as Steam would've expected. Then again… this was a whole army. So… yeah. He figured that his brief surprise was somewhat unwarranted. That didn't change anything, however, as he charged directly into their forces with his fists aflame. It didn't matter what came at him, as long as it wasn't one of the generals or leaders.

The rest were far from strong enough to pose a threat to him, something he discovered for sure as he tore one in half and used it as a projectile against its own. Eventually this section was more or less thinned down and he let out a sigh. That's not the last of them, but it'll help. If I can do this one more time, it should really make a big difference. Need to save my energy for Armaris, though.

Steam was quick to teleport back to Mobius before he could be attacked, landing outside Shadow's home at the front door. His gaze lifted to the sky and he nodded to himself slowly. Perfect. Sundown. Despite his proximity to the front door, no alarms sounded. That alone was a clear sign that the security systems had been updated not to sound said alarms in response to Steam's presence, much like how they no longer did so with Toru.

Due to his nature and this being a place where he could be shot from any angle at a moment's notice, the hedgehog knocked on the door. As was fairly common, rather than someone physically answering the door for him, it simply unlocked and opened after receiving the signal to do so from Shadow. Since this was the best invitation he'd get, Steam walked in and moved to approach the other man.

The aforementioned hedgehog was still in his room with the door partially open. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, rubbing his eyes as he tried to wake up. Only out of manners did Steam knock on the door to the bedroom, something he had certainly learned after marrying his wife.

With a tendril of Darkness, Shadow tugged the door open the rest of the way in silent permission for Steam to enter. The tendril then vanished. "What?" he asked, lowering his hands. Though his eyes glowed dully in the dark as they'd done the night before (that seemed to be a permanent effect), his pupils were normal for the time being. As such, he was in control of himself and Steam was currently in no danger from him.

Steam walked forward and leaned against the doorframe. "You were turned into a vampire?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes." There was no point in denying it, so Shadow didn't bother. He did huff as he gave that answer, though.

"I assume you've been visited by a few people, then?" Steam questioned, raising an eyebrow. Shadow nodded. "Then I won't bother you with details. You've likely gotten an earful of information from all of them."

"Unfortunately," was the huffed reply. "I was inundated with notes and papers, among other things."

Steam shrugged. "With your intelligence, that shouldn't be a huge issue. You can pick up on it all quickly."

"It is not an issue at all," Shadow confirmed with a shrug. He based his assumption on how quickly he had managed to work out how to entirely control his Darkness over the span of a single night, but didn't bother mentioning that.

"You've fed at least once by now, yeah?" Steam glanced around. "Most likely on Toru, if I had to guess."

That made Shadow frown unhappily. "I would not have if it could have been avoided," he muttered. "It was not something I was able to control for long."

"It's okay, you'll manage control soon," Steam answered. "The issue now is that you're more than a semi-Immortal." Shadow frowned some more but remained quiet so Steam could continue. "If you fed from Toru, he likely was left with a wound that didn't properly heal, yeah?"

"He recovered from the loss of blood, but the bite wound remains present," Shadow explained, crossing his arms.

"Not surprised," Steam admitted lightly. "I'll send you something shortly so you can learn how to heal the wounds you cause, but in the meantime, have you guys spoken to anyone to have that healed?"

Shadow blinked. "No, we haven't. Almost as soon as morning came, I wound up needing to sleep. Toru was watching Lia and Soren because of that."

Steam nodded a little at that. "Makes sense. So you've only been dealing with this for… maybe three days total, if that?"

"Two," Shadow corrected. "It began a mere hour or so before sunset yesterday."

"Have you tested to see if the sun hurts you?" Steam asked cautiously.

"It doesn't," Shadow answered. "I was in the kitchen shortly after sunrise and the curtains on the window were open. None of the sunlight coming in caused damage."

Steam nodded a little, obviously relieved. "Good to know. Anything else that you've noticed?"

After giving the question some thought, Shadow sighed and admitted, "Everything seems to smell much stronger than I am used to. To the point where I almost smelled you outside at the same time the house sensors noticed you."

"Not surprised," Steam admitted in return. "I know a vampire in my timeline that recognized my race wasn't exactly from the main Realm of the Living just by using their nose." Shadow blinked upon hearing this. The green hedgehog shrugged. "Regardless, who all visited you?"

"Saethrim, Eila, and a vampire named Ghune," Shadow answered. Then he added, "Father also stopped by briefly."

Steam's ears perked. "Kaden was here? What did he d- Oh, shit, you meant Black Doom." Steam rubbed the back of his head. "Right. Sometimes I forget that."

Now realizing his own mistake, Shadow sighed to himself. Perhaps Sonic was right that I need to not call them both 'Father', he mused.

"Anyway, I'm glad he stopped by. I assume that means things went okay."

"Yes. They all just talked, explained some things, and eventually left again."

Steam stopped for a second. "Wait, Saethrim came by?" he frowned. "He was just revived, then."

Since he really had no idea, Shadow shrugged. "Perhaps," he said. "I was not told anything from him regarding a revival."

"We would've met him by now," Steam explained. "That guy is Kial's teacher and the former God of Mythical Beasts."

...Like vampires. Though not overly pleased by the idea of a deity having the jurisdiction to govern him, Shadow didn't say so. He just nodded his understanding.

Steam let out a sigh. "I'm gonna have to catch him before he ends up killing someone without knowing who they are…" The green hedgehog then returned his attention fully to Shadow. "Aside from the vampire stuff, how is everything going here?"

"Fine," Shadow answered with a vague shrug.

It was more than obvious that Steam didn't believe this, but he chose not to press it. "Anyway, unless you've got questions about other things, there's only one more matter I want to make sure you guys know about."

"What?" Shadow immediately asked. As usual, he didn't want to be kept in the dark about anything.

"An attack happened recently. Espio and Armaris were abducted. Espio is back and seems okay for now, but Armaris was taken by the God of Demons and is corrupted. We think he's gonna launch an attack very soon."

Shadow scowled at this news. He didn't like that he hadn't known about this but, really, what could he do? He was under rather strict orders (so to speak) to remain home and rest as much as possible. It wasn't as though he would have been able to help even if he'd known. "Where?" he demanded. "What is your plan?"

"We think it'll be Babylon or the home of the da Asani," Steam explained. "So far, my plan is for us to go all out and eliminate the weaker forces in the first wave as best we can, then lock Armaris down before she can cause serious damage." Shadow nodded slowly in understanding. "It's important we confine her quickly because while she's not powerful enough to be a serious threat to people such as Sein and Alana, we're at a disadvantage because there's no way we can let her die here. The sooner she can't be a threat to us, the better."

"Who do you expect to be able to purify her?" Shadow questioned him. "Mother has recovered greatly, but I do not believe she can handle this level of activity yet."

"Whether or not she gets herself involved, I have no say," Steam said with a sigh. "My hope was for Rose to manage it. I got close enough to realize her Light is more or less back to its original strength, meaning she should be able to handle it. Otherwise, I might seriously need Eona."

Lovely. Though he felt like this was leaving too much to chance, Shadow didn't see any point in stating the obvious here.

Steam let out a sigh. "If something happens and we can't purify her immediately, I know how we can incapacitate her temporarily. It's not easy, but it's a backup plan."

"Fine. When do you believe this will take place?"

The green hedgehog fell silent for a moment as he thought this over. "Within the next two days. There's no reason for them to hold off the attack any longer than is necessary. Our saving grace now is that it's gonna take her a while to take on her full form… not that she hasn't had time."

Shadow crossed his arms unhappily as he thought all of this over. "Toru needs to know about this," he soon said. "Espio is his close friend, and I am under the impression that he is at least somewhat friendly with Armaris as well. Even if he does not participate in the battle, he has a right to know what is happening."

"I don't even want Espio involved," Steam revealed quietly. "This is an emotionally charged fight for him. He's already got it rough, and I don't think he should have to see… that." The hedgehog glanced away. "I'll tell Toru still, but for this one I think I'd rather have as many of the chameleons stay here as possible."

"You realize that nothing you say or do will keep Espio from being there, correct?" Shadow muttered. "He will not sit this out and that is all there is to it."

Steam looked back to Shadow. "I never said I'd stop him." A sigh escaped him. "It would be best for him to stay… but he's going to be involved. I know that. I'll inform Tor- Where the hell is he?" The hedgehog stood up a little straighter. "Usually he'd be over here by now." Steam's ears flicked a few times before he nodded slowly. "Apparently in the kitchen."

This earned a blink, then a shrug. "He insists on being the one to cook the vast majority of the time," was the only explanation Shadow offered. Not that one had strictly been needed, but even so.

"Toru!" Steam suddenly called, prompting the chameleon to appear by Shadow immediately. Yeah, seems about right. Protective as hell. "Hey, are you cooking anything that requires you to pay close attention to it?"

"No, just started getting stuff together," Toru answered. "What's wrong?" Steam was quick to explain it all once more to Toru, to which the chameleon looked at Shadow. "Do you want me to stay here with you and the kids?"

"I don't care what you do," Shadow dismissed, "so long as the barrier situation is worked out first. It would not be difficult to have someone else on hand to help with the children if need be."

Toru looked at Steam. "I'm not sure what can be done in that manner. He can deactivate my barriers."

Crimson eyes rolled. "Which is why we discussed using a barrier of Light," he reminded. "Mother may not necessarily be in the shape to battle, but even weeks ago her energies proved she had the strength to create and maintain powerful barriers."

Steam thought this over before nodding. "Have you attempted to get ahold of her?"

"I did not have a chance to," Shadow answered.

"I'll speak to her for you guys, then," Steam said. Shadow nodded a little in understanding. "Anything else?" When answered with silence, Steam spoke up again. "It's also possible to speak to Ghune about handling the situation of you needing to feed."

Toru frowned openly at this. "Why would we speak to her?"

Shadow blinked. "She runs a society of vampires," he said, "on their own world. Much like how Father governs the Black Arms. It would make sense for her to be able to handle this."

Steam nodded. "She should have a way to help contain newer vampires and keep them from being in a feeding frenzy around others or starving to death."

This made Shadow's ears perk. "...Feeding frenzy?" he dared to ask.

"The state you go in if you can't control your desire to feed… Probably called something different sometimes," Steam admitted. Shadow fell silent, as that at least somewhat described precisely what had happened the night before. "Regardless, she would be a good person to talk to. She's got way more experience with vampires than I ever will."

"How are we meant to get in touch with her?" Shadow questioned. "That was not discussed the one time we saw her."

"It didn't need to be, as I planned to return quickly," Ghune said, walking up to them. "Do you need to be contained for the safety of your allies and family?" she asked Shadow.

Her sudden arrival didn't garner much initial response beyond a silent glance from Shadow. Steam didn't seem to think much of it, but Toru obviously glared a little in her direction. Then Shadow relinquished a sigh. "It is possible."

Ghune blinked once. "I suppose that is fair. I will make the accommodation." Her attention shifted to Steam and she frowned. "There is a battle coming up, you mentioned?"

Steam crossed his arms lightly. "Yeah. The fact that you're bringing it up means you plan to get involved, right?"

The vampire scoffed. "As if I would ignore something that could be so cataclysmic. The God of Demons sending a being such as that to Babylon could seriously endanger species that have already suffered enough."

"So, what does this whole 'containment' thing entail?" Toru questioned, raising an eyebrow at Ghune.

"We have a group of powerful vampires that oversee the newest additions to our society, in that they ensure the desire to feed does not lead them to harm another individual. Shadow is currently not strong enough to break from the confines of that area," Ghune explained.

"And what about feed-" Toru said, only to be cut off by the woman.

"I would not starve a vampire without reason. He didn't even ask to be turned, so of course we will provide for him. We have creatures that he could never even hope to harm by feeding." Her gaze flicked over Shadow and she frowned. "And they are sentient. Some vampires, including him, need the blood of sentient beings. We will provide that."

The hedgehog in question scowled slightly and stood. As he'd done when the wound had first been discovered, he used a hand to tilt Toru's head to the side without asking first. "I should not have been able to harm him, either, yet this has not healed," he revealed to her quietly. Toru didn't even seem to react to this, simply allowing it to happen.

Ghune crossed her arms. "The only possibility is that you are an Immortal." The woman lifted her clothing to reveal a deep scar on her side that certainly went up to her chest. "I have only one wound that was ever left on my body, and I only barely managed to make it get healed to this point. You all have Immortal allies, correct?"

Shadow removed his hand from Toru. "Three," he answered simply.

"Make one of them heal it," Ghune said. "And if the chance arises, I want one to heal my injury. I sustained it fending off one of their evil kin in the past."

"That does not solve the issue of future feeding," Shadow muttered. "Our allies are incredibly busy, to put it as mildly as possible. They cannot constantly be taking the time to heal everything I am forced to bite."

"Then why not learn to heal for yourself?" Ghune pointed out.

Steam nodded a bit. "Yeah. That's… honestly what you'll need to do… unless…" His gaze flicked off into the distance over his shoulder, frowning. "Ignore me. Just thinking."

Shadow crossed his arms. "I do not have healing powers."

"Incorrect," Ghune said. "How did Toru's wound even get to the point it is at now? His regeneration would not be enough."

As much as he was loathe to admit it, Shadow had no idea. It was possible he'd done something the night before, but bits and pieces of said night were unfortunately blank for him. In the end, he was forced to admit, "I don't know."

"You have some form of healing, and I am sure we will discover it soon. Until then, healing of the wounds created will need to be done by other Immortals," Ghune murmured. With nothing left to really say in reply to that, Shadow fell silent. He briefly turned his attention to mentally connecting with his communicator and messaging both Tails and Amy about the possibility of the kids going to stay with them for a time.

Steam tapped his fingers against his thigh, looking between Ghune and Shadow. It was evident to him that the woman wanted him to leave, but she saw that his knowledge was useful… and Toru's unusual irritation was already wearing on him. "Shadow, just let me know anything you find out about the healing power, alright? I know a lot is happening, but I need to get moving. Clock is ticking and all," he said, suddenly teleporting away.

Ghune sniffed the air briefly, frowning. Anxiety? She shook the thought and looked to Shadow. "Do you have time to train now, or do we need to wait another night? I will not pretend to know your thoughts."

At least for now, Shadow was feeling fine and was having no issues with control. Toru was also still here for the time being, meaning the kids were being taken care of. So this was probably fine. "I have time," he conceded easily enough.

"Understood. Grab a weapon and meet me outside. Handle any matters you have left inside," the woman said, vanishing.

Toru glanced to Shadow, frowning. "I don't like her."

"So I noticed," was the huffed reply. Shadow teleported his hand gun into his hand, the one Toru had painstakingly engraved sometime ago.

"She's really fucking irritating," Toru muttered, leaning against the wall.

Shadow huffed again, somehow mildly amused at Toru's complaining. "Is there anything aside from that that you wish to speak about?" he asked. "You were quiet for most of the discussion."

Toru shook his head. "As long as you're fine with all this… I won't get too riled up or defensive. I can't even pretend to be capable of handling all this myself now."

"This is likely the only good option available," Shadow replied. "Mother's Light would likely be sufficient to trap me, yes, but that does not solve the issue of feeding. It slipped my mind until Steam mentioned it that rapid starvation would be a risk."

Toru fell quiet before nodding a little. "So, guess Saethrim's not the only one to have this idea about you becoming an Immortal, huh? What do you make of it?"

"I don't know," Shadow answered with a vaguely aggravated sigh. "It does not make sense to me."

"Then, after all this shit, let's bother Steam about it. He didn't seem surprised in the slightest when that vampire mentioned that. He probably knows," the chameleon said.

"There are many matters he knows about because of his experiences in his timeline. In that context, it makes sense for him to know at least some things about this."

Toru nudged Shadow lightly. "Go ahead and go do your training. We'll worry about that when we get the chance. Focus on getting your new powers and stuff under control."

Before leaving, Shadow told him, "I texted Amy and Tails about taking the children in for a short time. I did not specifically mention Myriu, but if you choose to take her there as well instead of to Hyale she would be welcome."

"I can't leave her alone here and Hyale's not that safe these days," Toru said. "I'll trust that they can handle her and her antics."

"Amy, at least, should be able to. Sonic will likely be the one coming to collect them, so you can warn him directly." Shadow considered that very, very briefly. "Or don't. I don't care if he's caught by surprise." With that said, he teleported after Ghune.

Toru chuckled a little and shook his head, moving to go check on the kids. He couldn't help his thoughts wandering, though. Where the hell has my dad been?

~保護者~

Keeping his cool enough to maintain this uneasy peace with the Void was proving more and more difficult for Jet as time wore on. With all that was preparing to go down, the entity was growing increasingly bloodthirsty and riled up. It lashed out once, just once, near his kids, and that had been plenty motivational for him. He'd already explained in a piecemeal fashion what was going on, so when he insisted they needed to seek shelter from him by going elsewhere, they hadn't argued. They'd just shared hugs with him, said sorrowful farewells, and gone on their way toward New Babylon.

Now the Void wasn't the only one who was pissed off.

The two fought briefly. It was mostly verbal, until it wasn't. Being blasted through a wall and cut across the stomach made things very physical straight away. Jet didn't appreciate being manhandled, flung around, and struck like some goddamn toy. It seemed only fair to subject his unwanted companion to the same treatment.

Between the two of them, they brought down close to a quarter of the castle within moments. Jet was quick to repair it all, because damn if he wasn't furious about his home getting trashed, but that didn't stop the fight. What finally did interrupt them was his communicator sounding off with no warning. He and the Void stopped, glared at one another, then finally dropped their offensive stances. Jet collected his communicator and read the message he had received. The hawk couldn't help but relax instantly when he saw it was from Wave.

"Call me."

There didn't seem to be any sense of urgency to the message, or else she would have just called him herself. Or even come to talk to him in person, all associated risks be damned. So it wasn't with any degree of trepidation that he did as she'd asked and gave her a call. He heard her yawn when she answered, and that managed to tease a faint smile out of him. "You could have waited until you were properly awake to text me."

"Nah," Wave answered with obvious drowsiness in her voice. "I wanted to talk to you as soon as possible, so I texted when I woke up. That made the most sense to me."

Jet took this in before replying, "Talk to me about what?"

"Nothing much, if I'm being honest. I just wanted to check on you." It sounded like she shifted around, possibly getting off of whatever bed or couch she'd been sleeping on. "It's been a bit since we last talked, and you were doing pretty… iffy at the time."

Well, that was an understatement. Jet tossed a new glare in the Void's direction, but was pleased to find that it seemed to have turned its attention elsewhere and was momentarily ignoring him. That meant he was free to talk in peace without interruptions. "I'm fine," he told her before adding more honestly, "...for the moment. The Void is restless and agitated about the upcoming battle. It wants to participate and is furious that I intend to stay away from the fight precisely for that reason."

"Jeez… That doesn't sound even remotely pleasant." Wave was quiet. Then she suddenly seemed to perk up. "...I'm an idiot. That is to say, an idiot who just had an idea that should have been crazy-obvious before now. Give me maybe two seconds." She hung up without another word.

Few other than Wave managed to so easily and so utterly confuse Jet. She had certainly lived up to that reputation here. He blinked at his communicator and the "call ended" notification, then set it down on the table it had been resting atop of before. He'd gotten the distinct feeling that she intended to show up where he was momentarily, so all he really needed to do was wait for her to do just that.

Sure enough, Wave arrived. Only, she wasn't alone. Not exactly. Furthering Jet's confusion, he spied some tiny… creature on her shoulder. But that wasn't exactly right, he soon realized. This was a being of pure energy, like Zenith, Eona, and the Void. Which meant it surely had to be- "Jet, this is the Aether. Aether, this is Jet. We're extremely old friends, he and I." She gestured across the room. "And I'm gonna go ahead and assume the energy I sense over there is probably the Void." That she could sense its presence at all (she was the first one to do so thus far) threw Jet for a loop, until he decided it shouldn't have and this actually made sense. Still, he stayed quiet for now due to the lingering surprise.

The Aether hopped off Wave's shoulder and grew to stand at about the same height as Jet and Wave. "Oh, wow. So you're the guy she likes so much?" it asked in admiration.

Jet tossed the woman in question an embarrassed look, but her barely stifled laughs proved that she wasn't going to save him from this. He sighed. "...Yes," he admitted in a mumble. He was fully aware of the fact that he could often be way too shy in regards to romance, and Wave's mirth over the whole thing was most certainly not helping him.

"Are you two, like, together together or do you just like each other?" The Aether smiled brightly. "Cause you like her too, yeah?"

Wave thankfully answered this time. "We were together officially one time a long while ago, but we haven't quite taken the jump again. It's in the cards though." She tossed Jet a smile so warm that he couldn't help but nod in immediate agreement. Which was fine because, well, she was correct after all.

"I hope you guys get that card soon, then," the Aether said. "I like Jet." It soon bounded off toward the Void and tilted its head. "So, you're the Void?" The response it got was a withering stare and nothing more. The bright creature only smiled in reply, turning back to Wave. "This is so cool!"

"Not sure that that's the word I'd use, but sure," Wave answered with a shrug. "Think you can… I don't know, make that thing calm the heck down?"

The Aether turned back to the Void and tilted its head again. "Hey, can we like… talk for a second?"

"No." This was the first time the Void had ever spoken aloud to Jet's knowledge, and that again utterly surprised him. He could still hear its voice echoing in his head like usual, though, despite how that one-word answer had been spoken.

"C'mon," the Aether said. "I know we're not the same and all that, but maybe there's something we can do here."

"I am not interested in your fanciful ideas."

"I don't know what that word means." This reply was answered with a snort but otherwise ignored. "Anyway, so, how are you?" the Aether asked.

"Go away," the Void responded snappishly.

"Well, I uh, kinda can't right now," the Aether said with a shrug. "But maybe we can help each other?" The Void shot the much younger being another glare. "I mean, here's the thing. We're meant to balance each other out and all, so if you'd just hear me out, maybe we can make something work here?"

"I have no interest in your words," the Void muttered. Jet tossed the entity yet another glare before Wave distracted him with some quiet words.

"You do, otherwise you'd completely ignore me," the Aether said. "Besides, I can help you actually have things to destroy." That finally succeeded in getting its sibling energy to pay a bit more attention, though it remained openly angry about it. "See, my job is to preserve life while you're around to destroy it. If I'm around, I can make sure there's always something to kill or destroy."

"If your purpose is protecting life and ensuring it remains, then what you have said is nothing more than a lie."

"Then you aren't paying attention," the Aether huffed softly. "When you destroy stuff, it's my job to make sure that it can recover. Preservation is more than just keeping it from being destroyed."

"Fool," the Void accused. "The things I destroy leave existence. That cannot be recovered from."

"You sure?" the Aether asked, smiling. This earned yet another glare. The Aether smiled further. "Neither of us know everything, so the more we work together, the more we both know. Besides, we're both against Nareish, here. Wouldn't it be a good idea for us to at least make sure we can beat her?"

The Void paused. It thought. Then it said, "You speak of the leader of the Trokkelar Army. Correct?"

"The big mean lady that's been messing with people, yeah," the Aether agreed.

"I am not against her unless she gets in my way or threatens Jet," the Void answered simply. "Otherwise, I don't care what she does."

The Aether frowned a little. "She's going to be and she will threaten Jet," it answered. "You should know it's only a matter of time."

"I will take action when that time comes. It is not worth my attention until then."

"Alright, but just know that it might be too late once it's 'worth' your attention," the Aether said. This comment went ignored. Once this point had been made, it trotted back over to Wave and rubbed its face into her shoulder. "Alrighty!"

Wave looked between the pair a couple of times. "I don't know how in the heck that settled it down, but I guess it worked somehow." She gave the Aether a smile. "Thanks for the help."

"I just needed to see what it was like. Being around me alone should help, but I gotta watch my words. It's stronger than I am." "I'm always happy to help!" It shrunk down and flew up onto her shoulder, settling down.

Although initially surprised by hearing the Aether's voice in her head, Wave was quick to roll with it. "Yeah, it's dangerous… to put it mildly. I'm glad you were careful." She turned her attention to Jet. "Listen… if you start really having troubles again, now you can talk to me and the Aether. We'll try to help as much as possible."

"...Alright," Jet said after a short pause.

The Aether beamed at him. "I'll always be happy to help. You're cool." The hawk just shrugged a little. Watching this, it took a long moment to observe him before suddenly coming to a conclusion. "Oh! You don't know how to accept praise! That makes so much more sense."

Seeing Jet's expression subtly change to one more sullent, Wave gently pointed out, "Hey, just for future reference, that's not always the nicest thing to point out to someone's face like that. I know you weren't trying to be mean, it's just so you know next time."

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" the Aether said quickly. It looked between Wave and Jet. "I didn't mean it at all like that. It just explains what's going on and-" It cut itself off before it could make anything worse, laying down on Wave's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Jet."

This display caused Jet's demeanor to subtly shift again, this time to something more sympathetic. "It's fine," he told it easily. "You can relax."

It shifted its eyes away, embarrassed. "I… okay."

Wave gave the Aether a few gentle pats. "Here's an idea," she suggested. "Do you want to go meet my little brother? We've been busy today getting ready for the upcoming battle, so why don't we go say hi before I take him somewhere safer?"

That seemed to perk it up and it leapt to its feet. "Oh! I'd love to!"

"Great, glad to hear it." Wave closed the distance between herself and Jet long enough for them to share a hug, then let him go. "I'll see you again soon, okay?" Once he nodded, she vanished with the Aether in tow.

Left alone with the Void again, Jet stifled his renewed irritation and sat down in the nearest chair. He had no sooner done this than his communicator sounded off again. That confused him to a degree, because it was the specific notification sound he'd set for Sonic something like half a lifetime ago. He didn't think Sonic knew yet about the upcoming battle, so why was he suddenly reaching out?

A moment of thought told him that that was his recent negativity affecting him. They hadn't interacted much, if at all, since the literal moment before Petry had abducted him. It made sense that Sonic, his friend, was trying to remedy that despite how busy and preoccupied they'd both been recently. So, with that in mind, he grabbed his communicator and checked the message.

"Hey," it read. "You mind if I call you?"

Jet blinked, then went ahead and placed the call himself. Sonic answered straight away. What briefly ensued was nothing more than their usual banter, and Jet relaxed significantly as a result of it. That relaxation vanished instantly when Sonic turned more serious and asked, "How are you doing?" he asked. "After what happened with Astra, I mean."

The hawk almost answered with a simple "fine" on impulse. However, he paused before the word could escape him. "...I don't know," he eventually admitted. When any sort of more adequate reply didn't enter his mind, he left it at that.

"I can't say I blame you for not knowing," Sonic sighed. "And don't feel bad for it, by the way. It's okay to not know right now. But is there anything you do know about your emotions and thoughts about all of this?"

"I don't know," Jet said again. "I just… I can't separate what is the Void's influence and what is from… ...that." He was reasonably sure he had never mentioned the Void to Sonic before but he was equally certain that just about everyone knew by now. As such, he didn't elaborate.

"That's about what I expected, honestly. And, Jet, did you block out the memories of the event again?" This question didn't garner a response. "I'll take that as a 'yes'. You know what I'll say about that, because it isn't a healthy way to cope, but I won't give you too much crap right now. There's a lot going on for everyone, including you. This is going to be addressed in the future, though, for your own sake."

"I don't want to," Jet mumbled. A sinking feeling of dread made itself known in the pit of his stomach at the mere idea of it.

"It's not going to be right now," Sonic assured.

When he paused in a way that, coming from him, tended to mean it was okay to change the subject now (it was a conversational cue he had worked on Jet with a good bit in the past), Jet didn't hesitate to take the offer and run with it. "How is Kaden?" he asked quietly.

Sonic let out a long, heavy sigh. "Not good?" he offered weakly. "He's… Okay, let me back up a bit. We know that he's safe, because Mom figured out where he is. For now, he's in the Realms of Death being watched over by Zenith and some guy named Ylden. Armaris's dad, I guess. So, he's safe, but other than that… Honestly, he's not doing so hot. I don't know why I thought he would just be okay after being purified, but he isn't. He was killed by some demon yesterday and now there's a new God of Demons, but then he was immediately revived. After that he took off to do who-knows-what and, from what I've heard, he's suicidal. To the point where he had to be taken to those realms for his own safety. He can't be left alone right now."

Hearing all of this, Jet bit down on his inner cheek. However, he caught himself quickly enough to avoid doing any damage and stopped. "Is Zareil with him?"

"Actually, yeah," Sonic said. "Mom purified her and the triplets. Not sure how she got away with doing that, but yeah. They're all with him right now."

"Good. Is your mother with you?"

"Yeah. She warned us about this big fight coming up. Did you hear about it?"

"I'm aware of it," Jet confirmed quietly. "It isn't safe for me to join the battle. However, I don't have reason to believe it will go badly. Armaris will be saved and everyone will survive. For once, I can say that with confidence."

His friend let out a breathy chuckle. "I've gotta say, man… that confidence is reassuring as hell. Thanks for that." Jet managed a slight smirk. "Anyway… I have a kind of random question."

"What?"

"Back when Malevolence was wreaking havoc - you know, before I became an old coot - do you remember what happened with the other Immortals? One of them got possessed and killed the other two. It's been on my mind lately. How was that even possible?"

"It wouldn't ordinarily be possible," Jet explained carefully, "unless one were to take the possession power away from an Immortal who happened to have it."

"Wait, there's an Immortal possession power?" Sonic paused very slightly before continuing, "Or do you mean that someone who happens to be an Immortal could have that power and it would automatically be an Immortal variant of that power because of it? Because that makes way more sense to me."

"For a guess, that was oddly specific and detailed."

"Yeah, well, I am smart enough to figure out some things." Sonic sighed again. "So, let me get this straight. Someone, presumably Nareish, got ahold of some Immortal however long ago who had that power, stole it from them, and then gave it to Malevolence?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Jet confirmed. "The only good news is that it has not deigned to use that power even once since that day. I don't know whether that will continue to be the case, but up until very recently it wasn't a true concern given the fact that it was in hiding so that it could recover from various battles."

"And now it's kinda-sorta active now and then… as the activity of some of its spawn now and then has proven," Sonic grumbled. "Like that Infinite guy."

"And its 'daughter' as well," Jet added. "The first spawn of any sort that it actually birthed, somehow. Also the mother of Shei, as it turns out."

"I heard a bit about that from Espio," Sonic revealed. "I texted him to check up on things in Hyale back when Shei was still missing, and it was mentioned briefly. I didn't get details, though." He was quiet for a short time before speaking up again. "Speaking of Malevolence… When it was rampaging back then, Kym and Lia said something about it being their fault. I don't remember specific details about it, though, or even if they gave any. Kym heard about Malevolence being around still today, though, and she's been pretty… upset about it. What details do you have about what happened? I just want to know so I can understand what she's feeling."

Now it was Jet's turn to let out a heavy sigh. This wasn't something he'd thought about in a long time, but he did in fact know the full story more or less. "Back when everyone was still actively fighting the Nocturnians, there was a period of time when everyone was teleported away from one another. Particularly the children. Those two wound up on Mobius, particularly on the far northern continent of Artika. I don't know if it was because of the cold and snow or for some other reason, but they wound up going into the home of someone they referred to as a while cat."

"I think I remember that, yeah," Sonic said.

"I don't know all of what was said or what led up to this happening, largely because neither of them can remember," Jet continued. "Lia was only six at the time, and Kym was somewhere around four. Too young to recall the event with any great level of detail. But through some means or another, she convinced them to go to what is known as the Black Gate. It's a doorway, essentially, into a realm of blackness where Malevolence was sealed in ancient times."

Rather than let Sonic speak, he pressed on. "Prior to that, I know some of what she told the girls. She said that freeing Malevolence was part of their 'inheritance'. I didn't know back then what that might have meant, but these days… I think it was alluding to the fact that they inherited Darkness from him, and continually dallying with forces like Malevolence could all too easily set them on the wrong path as well. It may have also been to pique their interest to further convince them to go and do it. But anything else she said was a blatant lie."

"But why?" Sonic demanded. "Why them? They were just kids."

"That is precisely why," Jet murmured. "Too many people find children extremely easy to manipulate. And, aside from that, they are not just any kids. In particular, in this instance, Kym was not just any child. Analia's great-grandfather is the man who sealed Malevolence away the second time, after it killed Satsuno many years prior to your birth. Malevolence left him with a grievous wound, however, and he used virtually all of his strength to seal the beast away. Together, those factors ended his life. But he had descendants, descendants who would then become the only ones capable of interacting with that gate unless an Immortal with a very specific level of power chose to. That involves a specific magical ability Nareish never managed to steal."

"So that woman was after Kym specifically, but Lia happened to be there… and ultimately wasn't any harder for her to manipulate."

"Most likely."

"Why, though? Why do this?"

"I can only assume it was at Nareish's behest," Jet answered him. "That woman, Sonic… She is no cat. She is a demon. One even Malevolence refers to as the Widow. I don't know how many Stones of Lore you listened to the day I sent you to them, but she has reigned strong since the days of the second generation of Immortals. One of them, Urath, recorded an account of an epic struggle including her and ending with his generation's presumed demise. Later on, Lukan of the third generation helped describe the upcoming demise of himself and his three kin as well, also at her hands. That she managed to permanently kill at least those six Immortals means she was granted great Privilege from Nareish herself, who then proceeded to steal all of those Immortals' powers before their souls had a chance to leave this realm."

"Holy hell," Sonic breathed. "So she shapeshifted to blend in when the kids encountered her… And she tricked all of us for years in doing so."

"Yes. I didn't learn the truth of the matter until a scant few eons ago. Kym and Lia were dealing with an extremely high ranking member of the Trokkelar Army, one of the only individuals Nareish puts any actual faith into. Among that small number of people, the Widow is among the most trusted."

"It's not hard to see why. That monster obviously gets results. Good ones, from Nareish's point of view." There was a poignant pause. Then Sonic asked, "Oh, fuck, if she's still around, are we going to start seeing her?"

"I can't pretend we won't," Jet admitted, "but I have no idea when Nareish might see fit to send her back out into the field. It may be in five minutes. It may be in five eons. I have no means of finding out the actual answer, due in no small part to how spontaneous and spur-of-the-moment she is. Nareish acts on whims and fleeting desires just as often as, if not more so than any sort of plan."

"So… we're fucked," Sonic suggested, no doubt deeply unhappy with Jet's response.

Jet could only shrug and be honest. "Perhaps."

"Thanks for that. Real reassuring. I feel all better now." There was another pause, this one shorter, and it was soon broken by the pair of them simultaneously devolving into mutual chuckles. Then Sonic said, "I'd honestly love to keep talking, though about way less serious stuff, but I've gotta go. We're all getting ready for whenever shit goes down. You won't be coming, right?"

"Not unless I have to," Jet answered. "With the Void attached to me, it is unsafe even in the best of situations."

"Right. I think the plan is for your dad to stay with you while we handle this, so he'll be there soon probably. And I'll touch base with you again as soon as we're done out here. Alright?"

"Alright."

"I'll call you again later, then, or at least text you. Bye."

Once Jet said his own farewell, Sonic hung up. Stifling the urge to sigh again, Jet stood back up and walked off to his room. Suddenly, getting a short nap in before shit hit the fan sounded like a great idea.

~保護者~

It took Cere a moment to calm down after leaving Finis. Once more the emotions flowed through her and her body radiated with the red energy that was Judgement. Not only had Armaris been attacked, but Han as well. One of her kind. Her senses honed in on where Wave was and she seamlessly appeared nearby, calling out to the woman with her presence alone. Wave teleported to her immediately. Despite the power difference between them (Wave was at least marginally stronger these days), she regarded the obviously angry woman with no small amount of wariness. She waited for Cere to state her business rather than daring to speak first. It took a moment, but Cere managed to calm herself and contain her energy. "How is Han?"

Whatever happiness Wave had managed to conjure up in Jet's presence evaporated and Wave visibly deflated. "...Oh. ...He… Cere, he doesn't remember anything anymore. Not me, not Alec, not Ylden, not what corruption is, not what the Faein are, nothing. Ylden's talked to him about accepting their help to be purified, but-" Wave blinked back tears and looked away. "But Dad said he didn't want help."

Cere shifted forward and pulled Wave in suddenly, holding her close. "I wish we could have prevented it," she murmured softly. Wave could only nod, hugging herself tightly and struggling to breathe past the growing lump in her throat. The far older woman held the younger gently, any traces of her previous anger ebbing. "Calm, Wave," she murmured soothingly. "I need you to speak to me." Wave swallowed hard and tried to take in a deep breath. Cere continued to hold her for a moment before letting go. "How aware are you of recent events regarding Espio and Armaris?"

"I know what happened," Wave mumbled. "I've been filled in on everything."

"Have you seen Jet recently?" Cere asked softly.

"A few minutes ago," the younger woman answered with a shrug.

"...How is he doing?" Her attention suddenly locked onto the sight of a tiny creature on her shoulder, blinking once. I see.

"Somewhat okay in some regards, but mostly not. He's having a hard time with the Void." Wave sighed softly. "I'm pretty sure they've been fighting more than just verbally."

Cere frowned and sighed. "That's not pleasant to hear… but now I must ask what this creature is that you have tagging along with you?"

Wave blinked and glanced at the creature in question. "The Aether," she stated matter-of-factly. "Aether, this is Cere. She's a close ally and, in a lot of ways, a sort of mom figure to Jet."

It apparently hadn't even been fully awake, but soon it was looking up at Cere with wide blue eyes. "Oh, Cere… Goddess of Judgement?"

Cere raised an eyebrow in vague amusement. "Ah, so you've spoken of me?" she asked to Wave.

"I haven't mentioned you yet but, like the Void, the Aether pays attention to a lot. I'm not surprised it's heard someone mention you." Wave then looked more fully at the Aether. "You know, I don't like calling you an 'it'. One of these days, you should find a gender identity that works for you or something."

The Aether tilted its head at Wave, blinking. "But… I don't have a gender. At least, I don't think." It curled up into a ball for a moment before popping its head back up and shaking it. "Nope."

"Identity is about more than just physicality," Wave shrugged, "but it's up to you." This momentary distraction had lifted her spirits just a bit, and it showed in her demeanor.

It frowned in deep thought, not really seeming to understand it before simply seeming to shrug and hopping off her, spreading its wings and floating beside Wave. "I'll think about it." It looked to Cere, blinking a few times. "You seem ups-" It cut itself off, remembering its meeting with Jet and accidentally upsetting him.

"It's okay to mention someone seeming upset," Wave explained gently. "You just can't be pushy or rude about it. Which you don't do anyway, so don't worry. It's also important to remember to back off if the other person doesn't want to talk, unless you really think it's important to press the issue." She looked at the Goddess in question. "For the Aether's sake, would you mind directly saying whether or not you're okay with talking about it? It hasn't had time to learn how to read everyone's body language or anything yet."

Cere let out a long sigh. "I am okay with it. The God of Demons has taken and corrupted someone I view as a daughter," she explained softly. "As well as one of Nareish's minions bringing harm to a close ally."

The Aether seemed saddened by this news. "That's awful…"

"It is," Cere agreed. "But I have intentions of exacting my revenge. One has already tasted judgement."

"We will be saving Armaris," Wave murmured, speaking to both of her companions together. "Even Jet, as pessimistic as he can be sometimes, is completely confident about that fact. She's getting saved whether that new god likes it or not."

Cere let out a slow breath, and this action alone seemed to be enough to frighten the Aether into hiding behind Wave's shoulder. "We certainly would… but that is not enough for me."

"Let me guess, you're planning on throwing some punches directly into the guy's face. Right?"

"I have every intention of showing him how bad it'll be any time he touches Armaris or one of my allies," Cere murmured.

"Good. Just don't kill the guy. So long as you're careful, I'm on board." Wave reached an arm around to pull the Aether back over and gently petted it a few times.

Cere nodded. "Absolutely. I will be careful in that regard. This means I will not be present on the primary battlefield, however. I am entrusting the handling of everything that comes for you all."

"Yeah. We'll handle it." Wave was quiet for a short bit before looking away. "Cere… after all of this is done, what are we going to do about my dad? What even can we do?"

A sigh escaped the older woman. "The best I can hope to do is attempt to convince him that purification is necessary."

"But what if he keeps refusing?" Wave asked in a small voice. "The Faein won't help if he won't let them."

"Don't stop trying," Cere said. "It's all I know, so I can't just give it up." Wave shrugged a little. She didn't know what else to say. Cere set a hand on the other woman's shoulder with a gentle smile. "I will always do everything I can… even if it seems like it will only fail. You, Jet, Armaris… you are like my children, and I would do anything for you all."

Wave caught herself starting to tear up and forced herself to choke it back. "Thanks," she said quietly. "It… means a lot."

"Of course," Cere said. "Now, get your rest, alright?"

"I'll try," Wave promised, "but I've got to mind Alec. I won't be sleeping much."

The Aether suddenly perked up. "I'll rest for you!"

Cere managed a soft chuckle. "Then, you do that, okay? Counting on you guys," the woman said. The Aether beamed. Wave, meanwhile, managed to give a small yet mostly genuine smile. After a long moment, the older of the two women turned away and teleported, intent on beginning her own plans.

~保護者~

By now, Steam had already gotten people in place after word came from Cere and Therin that the new God was on the move. Everyone who could safely fight was divided between the da Asani homeworld and Babylon, while the Shadow's kids and Myriu and anyone else who couldn't handle a fight like this was left on Mobius with Tails, Amy, and Wery.

Cere actively communicated during the new God's approach toward Babylon. It was painstakingly slow. Steam sent a message to Jet, letting out an exhale. "Do you see anything unusual?"

With that message, he turned his gaze out to space. He could see the demonic forces approaching with their god at the head. Armaris was shortly behind him and the two generals who were being brought out to this fight. I promise we'll save you.

Jet was watching things from afar, being careful to stay well away from everyone just in case the Void acted up. From his vantage point, he could see much. "Nothing unusual," he responded briefly. "They're approaching quickly. Get ready."

Steam gripped his sword tightly, reading over the message. He could see Tianak now, and then… he couldn't. A few seconds passed before he realized that they were completely gone. He immediately called Jet, pressing a button to force the call. "Did he teleport them all?" he asked cautiously.

"Yes," Jet answered almost before Steam could finish speaking. "You need to go now."

"Tell everyone that isn't there where to go. I'm going to intercept Armaris," Steam answered, teleporting away. Jet just hung up to do as instructed, not wasting further time with responding to Steam's command.

The battlefield was already chaotic when he arrived, lightning arcing through the sky from Saethrim as a lightning elemental. Deft movements allowed him to pass through the hordes with relative ease, his sights set on the monstrosity that was Armaris's demon form. Other people were already battling, too, as the frequent aura attacks proved. So, it was simply a matter of buying time for the others. Steam was quick to engage, blasting the tendrils that formed and shot at allies to destroy them.

Merely a couple minutes later, Mobian allies arrived with Locke leading the way. Sonic was with him, alongside his mother and son, Espio, and Toru. Steam's attention briefly shifted in their direction, letting out a deep sigh of relief. Thank fuck.

Locke closed the sun portal he'd used to transport everyone and immediately demanded, "Tell us where you need us."

"Locke, I need you handling the hordes and keeping the demons away from everyone as much as possible. Any magic users aside from Wave, I need on Armaris to keep her contained. As soon as Rose arrives, we have to make an opening for her to work on combating the corruption. Everyone else, focus on protecting anyone that's engaged against Armaris." Steam's attention fell on Analia. "Until Cyril and Eila arrive, I need you to focus on containing her. Once they're here, I need you to provide extra protection."

Analia inclined her head. "I understand." She said nothing more before teleporting off to Armaris's location. Locke didn't hesitate to also depart.

However, Sonic lingered. "I'm gonna go ahead and assume that you don't expect me to try to use my limited magical skills to try to contain that," he groused.

"I wouldn't try it," Steam said, turning his head to look at a newcomer. Holy shit, Ghune already made it. He watched the vampire woman for a moment before refocusing on Sonic. "For now, fight as you usually do. There's no way you have the knowledge of how to use your magic to that degree, and it's better if you're using that blade of yours anyway."

"Sounds good to me," Sonic agreed before vanishing into the fray.

Silver piped up. "I can help with containment if you need me to," he said. "That's why I came along."

Steam nodded. "Focus as much as you can on those tendrils and the fog that radiates off her. If it gets through and surrounds you, retreat because it will begin suffocating you, got it?" he said, frowning.

"Got it, don't worry." Silver flashed Steam a weak grin before teleporting away.

With this, Steam returned his attention to everything around him. People were arriving still… and he could feel Cere's presence even from the distance separating them. Don't you dare kill him… "Espio, Toru. For now, focus on fighting the weaker demons. Don't so much as approach Armaris." His attention fell on the two chameleons. "Her Darkness could get a rise out of yours, but if you spot any generals, as always, take them down."

Though far from happy about this, Espio didn't utter a single syllable of complaint. He just unsheathed his sword (the one Nareish had stolen from Li and all but thrown at him) and vanished from view. Toru watched the massive monster that was Armaris for a long moment, sighing, before he too disappeared to join Espio. With that group handled, Steam teleported a short distance to give everyone a beacon of where to teleport without being directly in the middle of everything, then went right back to fighting Armaris.

Running along the writhing tendrils, he rapidly blasted others with Light to temporarily destroy them, keeping her attention on him as much as he could. Once he was close enough, he slammed into the body of Darkness that had formed around her, blasting into it before being rebounded. Shit, my Light's not enough to break through. She's not weakened, he thought to himself. A burst of flames tossed him into the air above her where he slammed into the head of this massive creature as powerfully as he could.

Not a full two seconds after he'd executed this attack, a fierce bolt of Lightning shot past him and blasted apart a tendril that had been poised to attack. Hannah, the former queen of Babylon, hovered calmly a few feet to the side of that tendril's previous location. With nearly unreadable eyes, she scanned the scene unfolding around them. Steam immediately saw the need to call for her attention. "Hannah! Don't destroy this one! It's a corrupted ally!" he said, whipping around and slicing through another tendril.

Hannah turned her attention to him and nodded slowly. "Understood." She dodged an attack, then blasted apart another tendril with her lightning. Rather than take the time to question who Steam was or how he knew who she was, she instead asked, "Where do you most need aid?" As she asked this, Suri appeared beside her sister, looking around in dismay. She, much like Cyril, hated fighting and bloodshed.

"Focus your efforts on protecting people from Armaris," Steam said. "Do you have a way to contain that fog emanating from her?"

"Our auras can handle that," Suri assured him. Like her sister, she'd placed her faith in him immediately. "We can keep it from spreading around."

Steam nodded. "Good." His attention flicked to Eila and Rose arriving where he'd placed his beacon, the latter of which immediately tore through the battlefield with a wave of Light as she rushed toward them.

Seeing them, Suri smiled brightly and called out, "Hello, Rose!" She offered a happy wave, then vanished to a different part of the battlefield to begin doing her part. Despite her relaxed, happy, and innocent demeanor, she was taking this matter entirely seriously and it showed in how powerfully her aura surged forth when she began to use it.

The older sister blinked slowly. "It would seem I have many questions to ask you and others when this is over. Stay safe in the meantime, will you?" The order, such as it was, was coupled with a calm glance at Steam and then Hannah departed to help Suri.

As Rose arrived, the hedgehog grabbed her by the hand and yanked her back, keeping her away from a blast of Darkness that crashed right where she'd been. "Slow down for five seconds," he said immediately. "Give me a second to draw her attention. Gather your Light, then work your way toward her so you can purify her."

Wordlessly, Rose nodded and vanished, hiding herself as much as she could while Steam redoubled his efforts to keep Armaris's focus. I can't so much as make a dent in this thing.

An attack sailed toward both of them from some demon or another, only for grey defensive magic to surge up and powerfully guard them both. Storm walked angrily into view, staff in hand, and demanded, "What the hell is going on?"

"God of Demons took an ally and is trying to kill shit," Steam explained, flipping over a tendril and lobbing a ball of energy at the demon who Storm had defended them against. Golden magic exploded in the distance. "That's all that matters. Rose is getting ready to purify her, but she needs time. Can you use your staff to protect her?"

Storm twirled the staff and focused all the magic around her in a protective bubble. "Yeah, I've got it. Nothin's gettin' through on my watch."

"Good," Steam said, taking a few steps back. "I can't keep her attention. She's focused on something else entirely."

"Yeah, and somethin's got the rugrat's attention, too," Storm said, gesturing at the very much adult Suri. Though she was still fulfilling her duty in full, it was evident that her attention had strayed. Then she smiled brightly and waved at someone. Seconds later, little balls of glowing energy peppered the battlefield from above, each one detonating on impact. Soon enough, Ten came into view as he unleashed more of his attack on the surrounding hordes.

Steam nodded a little, looking elsewhere. Everything is going okay for now, but I have no doubt Nareish is going to do something. It's a matter of when she does it… The hedgehog glanced at Ghune briefly, watching as the vampire unleashed her Blight Magic and dropped a wave of the enemy on her own. At the same time, at various points on the battlefield, Cere, Finis, Therin, Sona, Nier, Pyrun, and Yareis all arrived to lend their aid. While Therin, Sona, Yareis, Cere, and Pyrun helped tackle the writhing hoardes of demons, Finis focused on using his powerful defensive energies to guard Silver, Analia, Steam, and everyone else who was exceptionally close to Armaris. Nier used some of his runes to locke Armaris's feet into place as best as he could to help further contain her.

Ghune's attack caused many of the smallfry to start specifically swarming her, no doubt wanting to prove their worth by being the ones to stop her. However, this only made them easier for everyone to kill, since these demons had grouped together so tightly and foolishly. She didn't even flinch, knowing that any of the pathetic demons that approached would die to the pestilence swarm around her if another didn't pick them off.

Steam returned his attention to Armaris. Since he hadn't even been attacked, she didn't care that he was there. The magic protecting Rose however was being assaulted, so Steam did the rational thing and waved to Storm while calling upon his magic once more. "Arcana!" The magic snake formed around him and he wrapped its massive body around Armaris, coiling tightly and latching down with fangs. Rose used this opportunity to approach the section most heavily armored, busting her way in with a burst of Light and gripping Armaris's arm to begin the process.

~保護者~

The only reason he hadn't immediately gone to the battlefield was because he didn't want to immediately leave what he was working on (as it now directly pertained to being the God of Death). That, and there was a very angry woman rampaging through the Realms of Death that he had every intention of retrieving.

Once it was apparent that she was finished with whatever she'd been doing, Ylden collected her and they both left for the battle, arriving in the midst of it all. The cat looked around, his eyes falling on Armaris. They seem to be able to handle her… he thought to himself as he waved a hand through the air and struck a number of the demons above him dead.

Seiko, meanwhile, ran off into the fray and cut down whatever was in her way until she made it to Sonic, immediately questioning, "What in the hell is going on?"

Her grandson nearly yelped as he spun around to face her, then sighed heavily. "Please don't do that. I may not look it, but I'm frickin' old and I scare easily." Sonic cut down a demon that tried to sneak up on him, then gestured to Armaris. "From what I understand, you knew Espio when he was little, right? That massive demon over there is usually a person, and a good one at that. Moreover, she's someone he cares about a lot. She was corrupted, and we're trying to hold off all these other demons long enough for an ally of ours to purify her."

Seiko blinked a few times, obviously confused. "If you were anyone other than a family member, I may have smacked your soul free for such a ridiculous statement." Despite her words, she looked at the massive demon and frowned. "So that's an ally? You all have some weird people you work with."

"It isn't ridiculous," Sonic grumbled. "And yes, she is. She's only a half demon, like how Shei is only half… whatever you wanna call Malevolence's 'race'. She's usually just a pretty ordinary cat."

The female hedgehog huffed a little. "Regardless, I will believe you."

"Mind helping us with crowd control?" Sonic asked. "...Wait, actually, no. If you can use your magic to help contain her and keep her from rampaging so freely, that would be great."

Seiko nodded to him. "Understood." Without another word, she teleported away to do as Sonic had requested. Relieved, Sonic ran off to continue doing his part to help.

Seconds later, there was a flash of neutral Darkness on the other side of the battlefield. Satsuno appeared from it, having used his power to teleport, and skidded backward on his feet through the bloody grass. He formed a Caliburn-sized sword of Darkness (the same weapon he'd been carrying when he'd been revived) and swung it violently forward just in time to cleave a limb off of some hulking demonic beast.

That it had been pursuing him and chased him here was clear to Sonic, who watched as the demon roared and charged his grandfather. The normally stoic man smirked faintly, absolutely exuding confidence on the battlefield in the sort of way that only a king truly could, and met the charge head-on with his sword held in one hand. In an instant, the beast was relieved of its head.

Thinking fast, Sonic called out, "Hey, Satsuno!" Grey eyes turned to look at him in surprise. That emotion grew more visible when Sonic suddenly tossed Caliburn his grandfather's way. Predictably, Satsuno caught it easily in his free hand. I knew it. A blade of Darkness won't have the same weight as a real, solid sword, but he's obviously just as used to the real deal. "Go ahead and use that!" he explained. "Demons are a lot like Malevolence! Darkness doesn't work on them, and weapons like you were using aren't as effective!"

His grandfather thought this over for just a second or so before making his created weapon vanish. He gave Caliburn an experimental twirl, not unlike what Kaden often did with Saika. Then, seeming satisfied, he whipped around and cut through another demon. Sonic was pleased by the sight and dashed off to fight with what little magical ability he had (plenty enough to battle these smallfry) instead.

Satsuno was soon joined by Seiko, who accentuated her appearance by pushing a demon in the way of his sword while she sliced another apart. "It's been too long since I've seen you," she said with a smile.

"And whose fault might that be?" Satsuno huffed, though there was a distinct lack of sincerity in his words. He was teasing her, plain and simple.

"I had some people to punish, you decided to wander," she teased back, winking. "Not that I minded. We both had things we wanted to do."

Satsuno let out a vague hum, then idly sliced through another couple of demons, then gave his borrowed weapon another idle twirl. "What exactly is happening here?" he asked her, being serious once more. "A rogue demon chased me to this location by forcing me to flee the heavily populated city I was in at the time. Needless to say, it did not deign to explain anything to me."

Seiko held out her blade in time for a demon to skewer itself and she idly tossed it off. "Apparently the largest demon here is an ally that got corrupted. They're trying to purify her."

Turning his head, Satsuno openly frowned at the hulking creature in question. "...Odd," was all he eventually said. He was unable to picture any version of that being somehow being an ally but… well, there was no point in really questioning it right now.

"That's how I feel," Seiko said, shrugging. "I chose to believe Sonic. I doubt he would lie about such a thing."

"He does not strike me as a liar in general," Satsuno agreed. "Nor does his brother." Upon his own mention of their other grandson, he suddenly took notice of the aforementioned man's conspicuous absence from this place. He is not weak, and has an air about him that speaks to a seasoned combatant. Yet he is not here. ...Perhaps it is because… He let that thought trail off and cut through yet another demon's body. It died by his feet. Blood sprayed his shoes and legs, much to his annoyance.

Seiko watched in vague irritation as the demons simply continued swarming the sky. Gripping her sword with two hands, she channeled her magic through the weapon. A slash rended the sky briefly and evaporated anything above her. She lowered the sword and smiled. "That's a little better."

Rather than respond to that, Satsuno leapt high to avoid a blast of energy from a stronger demon nearby. Much to his surprise, as he landed, there was a second blast that sent a very familiar (though certainly older) magenta chameleon skidding backward in a crouch between him and Seiko. The shinobi didn't acknowledge either of them, almost didn't seem to register their presence. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, leaving a sudden trail of headless corpses in his wake. ...Espio?

Seiko watched this silently with a deep, concerned frown on her face. "Something feels wrong."

"Very," Satsuno murmured. "His Darkness does not feel especially active at the moment, but the anger that is radiating from him regardless… It does not bode well."

"Should we try to speak to him…?" Seiko asked cautiously.

"I would advise it," Satsuno said. "No one else appears to be addressing it at the moment."

Seiko vanished, following the trail of corpses at a rapid pace. Holy fuck… Satsuno hastened to follow, Caliburn resting atop his shoulder as he ran but somehow never cutting into his shoulder. The sheer number of bodies Espio had left lying about in the last minute or so was positively staggering and he couldn't help but grit his teeth. This really didn't bode well at all. "Espio!" Seiko yelled out. "Where are you?"

Upon hearing his name, Espio responded. He appeared standing just a couple of feet away, sword in hand but kept down at his side as opposed to being poised to strike. Somehow, in spite of what he'd been doing, he was surprisingly clean, though blood dripped ominously from his weapon. "What?" he quietly demanded. That he didn't recognize them was clear, but he could hardly be blamed for it given how young he'd been when he'd last seen them. It did strike Satsuno as odd that Espio didn't ask about their identities, though.

"Are you alright?" Seiko asked softly, frowning.

Amber eyes regarded her with no small amount of suspicion the moment she showed any kind of concern for him. "...Fine," Espio answered after a lengthy pause.

"You would not remember me," Seiko acknowledged quietly. "I knew you when you were a child." Amber eyes looked on in silence. Espio didn't give a response to that beyond a subtle frown. "I am friends with your mother, but this is not the time for us to reconvene. I simply wanted to ensure that you were okay."

Espio blinked slowly, an ancient memory tugging at him. ...Mother did know some hedgehogs… once. As did Father. "I'm fine," he told her again. He teleported several knives into his free hand and threw them high over Seiko and Satsuno's heads, killing some flying demons that had been trying to approach.

The king of old looked on in silence at first, then turned away from the conversation to focus on guarding Seiko's back. That way, she could talk a bit more if she so wished. It wasn't like he had much to say to people most of the time, anyway. Better to leave it to her.

Seiko twisted around and pointed her blade at another demon, firing a bolt of magic that sought it out, then began flying for other enemies. "I cannot help but notice that your Darkness has become active. I will ask once more and no more from here on, are you okay?"

After a long pause, Espio slowly, gravely moved his sword to point up at Armaris without ever looking over. "When she is," he murmured, "I will be."

The woman glanced over at the demon quietly, nodding a little. "She means a lot to you, then," she acknowledged quietly. "That only affirms what Sonic told me."

What exactly did he say? Rather than ask that, Espio lowered his arm again. "She can be saved," he said instead. "My aim is to ensure that happens. I will manage until then."

"Care for yourself as well," Seiko said, slinging a blade of magic idly with her free hand at a larger demon. "It will be worse if you are not in a good condition."

The chameleon's attention strayed from her for a moment, watching as Satsuno shivered and then very noticeably moved away from a seemingly empty patch of dirt while still fighting off various demonic creatures. "Mind him," Espio warned softly, looking at Seiko once more. "There are many spirits around these days. Demonic possession is a problem this group has faced once before. He will be much more easily taken than she was." With this semi-vague warning given, he vanished back into the fray.

Rather than question the knowledge Espio had, especially since he had already left, Seiko instead focused on planting her sword into the ground and used her magic to expel the spirits around them for her partner's safety. I see. I will have to ask him about that later.

Satsuno looked around with a note of relief when he saw that the spirits that had been approaching. His tense shoulders relaxed a touch. "Thank you," was all he said before launching back into the battle. Seiko gave him a nod in response, twirling her blade once in a flourish to rejoin the fight in a spray of demonic blood.

~保護者~

Time, quite literally, slowed to a crawl when Kath spotted him.

The only ones unaffected were the person he'd just laid eyes on, Sein, Alana, and for some unknown reason a chameleon - the latter of whom promptly took advantage of the situation to begin killing as many demons as he could while they were unable to react. But that wasn't something Kath took much note of. Only one thing truly held his attention, and that was the face of the man who had just teleported onto this battlefield, looking no different than Kath remembered from his childhood. The sole difference was the clothing, but that did nothing to conceal the newcomer's identity.

It was his father.

Shocked though he remained, Kath gradually got ahold of himself enough to undo the effects of his powers. And not a moment too soon, either, as things had begun to inexplicably reverse as opposed to just remaining slowed down. Not a moment later, his father was there. Those familiar, strong, loving arms wrapped tightly around him. Everything froze entirely this time, including freezing Sein, Alana, and that chameleon. Yet, like before, T'alo and Kath remained free to move.

In the end, it was just as well. This freeze allowed the two men all the time they needed. Kath had enough of a chance to recover and slowly return the hug without needing to worry about the battle just yet. They had the time to exchange some words, to promise one another that they would talk more later, and hug once more. After that, Kath forced himself to allow everything to move forward once more.

This time, parting ways wasn't nearly so devastating.

~保護者~

Covered in blood was how mpest Tempest liked to be, and that she was. Demons were flattened by magic, her fists, and her hammer anytime they got too close. It was a feeling almost intoxicating enough to want to taste it… but just this once she figured it might be better to ignore it in favor of not potentially killing herself due to consuming the blood of a demon. "Eirza!" she yelled. "How's it going?"

The embodiment of storms appeared by her in a gust of wind. Her normally unruffled expression was taken over by a mild scowl as she clutched at her stomach with a bloodied hand. "Things could be better," she muttered. "It is the only one I have seen thus far, but a demon from Nareish's forces joined this fight. I underestimated it somewhat, though it is dead now regardless."

Tempest growled at her. "Hey, if anyone is gonna get injured it better be me, dumbass." The woman twisted and brought her hammer down on another demon, satisfied by the crunching sounds that ensued. "Next time, tell me."

"It was not urgent and therefore was not necessary," Eirza argued easily. She didn't argue against the rest of her friend's statement, however, choosing instead to instantaneously freeze large swaths of the battlefield and then shatter her frozen enemies with lightning.

The Therian focused for a short moment on concentrating her magic, collecting the broken pieces of ice and creating a small cyclone with the shards, throwing it at the oncoming waves. "So why aren't we taking down the big demon?" she questioned suddenly, frowning. "It should've died pretty much immediately."

"That is a demon now, yes, but normally she is just a girl. And an ally at that. We aim to save her, not end her life." Eirza killed a demon with a bolt of lightning.

"That's boring," Tempest said, sighing as she grabbed another demon by the head and tore it in half with her hands.

"Necessary," was the calm rebuke. Eirza encased a stronger demon in lightning for several moments before finally releasing it when it had died.

Tempest let out a grumbly resignation and hefted her hammer over her shoulder. "This is getting seriously boring."

"Perhaps you should go strike up a non-violent conversation with your newest interest," Eirza suddenly suggested, tossing a meaningful glance over to Ylden. "That should keep you plenty entertained while you fight."

The woman blinked, openly hesitating to go in that direction. Calypso said he probably didn't like me just fighting him like that. "Dunno if that's even a good idea."

"Talking will not hurt you or him," Eirza shrugged. "There is nothing wrong with it. The worst that can happen is being ignored, though I doubt that will happen this time."

Tempest snorted at Eirza. She didn't have much else to say, so she simply moved on and allowed her presence and magic to be enough to repel approaching enemies. Immediately she teleported the necklace she'd been working on into her hand, then shoved it into his when he was focused on something else. "This is yours now."

Ylden blinked, maintaining his spell with one hand and holding the necklace in the other. "Where did you get this?" he asked. He was very much in a neutral, detached emotional state at the moment. Too much had been going wrong as of late for him to be doing any better than that.

"Made it," she answered with crossed arms. "I make jewelry."

The cat blinked again. "Oh… that's…" He looked at it again, studying it more carefully. It was a fairly intricate design of a skull, that of which he didn't know the origin, formed out of some gemstone that he couldn't immediately identify. It was a beautiful smoky blue, however. "Thank you. It looks incredible."

Tempest turned away. "Good." She didn't acknowledge anything else, and with her sudden departure, Ylden was simply left briefly stupefied as to what was going on.

Seeing that her friend had actually managed to be genuinely nice, Eirza did something she almost never did: she smiled. She also gave praise. "You did well," she murmured.

"Shut the fuck up," Tempest mumbled. The fact that she'd done this at all meant she was embarrassed to some degree. Eirza just smiled a bit more and flew a short distance away to continue fighting… and to give her poor, flustered companion some space to think.

~保護者~

Armaris had put up a fight this whole time, despite Rose's attempts at purification. She didn't want to push it any further lest she harm the cat, but at the same time… her eyes wandered briefly over the various cuts and lashes she'd received as a result of this exchange even with the magic that was currently protecting her.

The black cat grabbed Rose's head in the brief moment she'd been distracted and slammed it against her own, once more drawing blood. Rose didn't falter, only tightening her hold on Armaris. Only a little longer. Just a bit more… You can save her.

She wasn't sure when Armaris had become so physically strong, but Armaris was strong in this moment. The demonic cat fought like… well, a demon. Every hit was becoming increasingly hard to take, and it was so hard to breathe. It was only now that she realized how dark everything around her was. For a brief moment, she didn't notice the warm feeling flowing over her torso. When she did, her eyes widened. Everything seemed to stop for her in that moment, watching blankly as one of the many tendrils Armaris had been using this whole disappeared from within her.

The last bit of her strength, everything that she had, was poured into the purification (which she somehow succeeded at) and subsequent incapacitation of Armaris. Rose couldn't teleport her to safety… but what she could do was send her to the ground so she wouldn't be hurt.

Then, Rose fell as well.

For a moment, she was so sure she could hear a few voices. Kial… he sounded angry? She couldn't process this. Saethrim as well. They both sounded so upset. What really hurt was Eila's voice, hearing the pained shriek of her older sister as blackness overtook her. I'm so sorry… I had to save her.

She knew the darkness of death, but this felt different. Her soul floated in some infinite space. If only because of her knowledge and perception… She could tell that time didn't flow in this moment. Rose gazed about, peering into the vastness of all of the beauty that was existence. Then, she felt it. She turned and Rusen, Rose knew it was him by how he simply… felt, floated before her. A hand touched her soul, and a smile was given. He spoke, in the gentle way that she only ever had heard from a being such as the Faein. "Well done, Disciple of Light. You are whole again."

Rose involuntarily blinked and the sounds of battle came back to her, a loud gasp escaping her. Light surged outward from her body and she took on a new form. It felt distinctly familiar to her Light form… but the only difference she could tell was how she felt. She felt something at the back of her mind, and heard Rusen's voice once more. "Congratulations once more. You are becoming an Immortal… and this lovely state that you have become is what you will be when you have achieved the highest potential possible. You will not gain special powers from it yet… but I certainly see no harm in you using its appearance."

As the voice faded from her mind, she was sure she could feel the faintest of smirks… something pleasant. Rose's senses returned to everything around her and she swiftly grabbed Eila into a hug as she let loose a devastating pulse of Light, annihilating as many demons as she could manage before pulling her sister tighter. "I'm so sorry, Eila," she whispered. Eila didn't understand what had just happened, nor had she fully comprehended that her sister was alive. All she could do in this moment was sob in Rose's arms.

~保護者~

15,075 words this time. Many thanks as always to Blazing Winds for all of his help and support. Posted at about (10:55 p.m.) 10-24-21.