"Shadow!"

Watching his weapon be enveloped in darkness almost distracted Sonic long enough to take the kishin's next hit. He dodged a murky energy blob, then sprinted forward. Negative's body had only just begun repairing itself, so he was still severely injured. His left arm was mangled and blood-soaked while his damaged left leg wasn't holding his balance well.

Sonic threw out a punch to the kishin's face, but the man didn't flinch. He tried kicking his opponent on his wounded side, but Negative still wasn't phased. Sonic's balance shifted awkwardly in response to the lack of impact from his own attacks. Negative was able to use his good arm and land a punch. The blue hedgehog choked on a pained groan before being thrown aside.

"Nice try, but…" Negative limped over to Ivo's broken soul. "...you're not even close,"

The kishin swallowed the grim reaper's soul. Not long after, his body's rate of reconstruction increased. His leg was much less crooked while his arm was almost back to being functional.

Sonic clutched his aching chest with one arm, using the other to push himself back up. Now he was even farther from the black cloud surrounding Shadow. He felt a change in the kishin's wavelength, so he concentrated on his soul perception. Negative's soul was oddly shaped, much like Ivo's had been, but its form started filling out.

"So, Eggman had the rest of your soul?"

"Yep, we were both working off half of one soul. His has been passed down through many generations of Robotnik clones, while mine was stuck inside me all this time. Of course, the grim reaper that created me had a complete soul. I was meant to be the ultimate Grim Reaper. Ageless. Unstoppable. A ruler without flaws,"

"Ageless? You don't look ageless. You look like an old goon,"

"Why don't you try staying young and juicy with only half a soul in your body for decade after decade? I'll have a sick gun show once my soul is complete," Negative flexed his good arm. "Anyway, I was meant to take over as Grim Reaper eventually. Apparently others viewed me as defective. But I wasn't going to let them start from scratch without a fight,"

"Is it true that Eggman couldn't kill you?"

"I'm sure he could have found some way. The problem is, dying with half a soul isn't ideal. The amount of power required to kill me would have likely ruined my soul. Plus, he didn't have a way to consume souls without transforming into a worse version of me. My mind would easily take over any of the other Robotniks if they weren't careful. None of the reapers could stay alive very well without me. That's why I was always kept close"

"So the machine keeping you imprisoned was also keeping him alive?"

"Exactly. I could do what I want after escaping, but he was stuck on life support. Now that I've got my soul back, all that's left is cleanup,"

The kishin brought out metallic tendrils from his healed body. The appendages began generating thrust, allowing him to close in on Sonic in a heartbeat. Negative threw a punch that was so reckless, he was on course to lose balance. When his hit missed, the metal tentacles touched the ground to keep him upright. This allowed him to try a kick alongside another punch. Despite his unorthodox line of attack, Sonic was able to avoid every strike.

"Will you-" Negative punched again unsuccessfully.

"-stop-" Another failed hit.

"-dodging!"

The kishin punctuated his statement with a yell, followed by a powerful blast of energy. Sonic moved out of the attack's range with ease.

"You're annoyingly quick. You shouldn't be able to move that fast alone," Negative assessed.

"Maybe you're just slower than you thought?" Sonic prodded.

"Not likely," Negative replied. "I know you struggled to wield Shadow for quite a while,"

"Word about me really gets around,"

"Mephiles told me all about you and Shadow. He actually talks about Shadow a bit too much if you ask me, but it's to be expected. Being asleep for so many years will make anyone restless,"

"Yikes,"

"Resonating with a Black Arm weapon is incredibly difficult. Most are too weak to handle them without being corrupted. Even people who aren't completely weak struggle at first. But once they figure it out, they find themselves tapping into more power than they've ever known. You seem to be benefitting from that circumstance,"

Sonic shrugged. "Meisters get stronger along with their weapons. That's always been true,"

Negative shook his head. "Not like this, they don't. You're on a much higher level than you should be. I really wish I didn't have to kill you. Studying you further would be quite interesting,"

The kishin tried more attacks. When Sonic saw a potential opportunity to run past Negative, he took it. He'd almost made it when the kishin's leg swung in front of him. Sonic blocked the kick, but energy exploded from the limb once he did. The hedgehog fell onto his back, hopping up before another attack could land.

"See, that kick should have killed you. You're definitely not normal," The kishin pulled on his repairing arm. A series of popping noises came and it was properly straightened. "You may be quick enough to dodge most of my hits, but you'll need to do better than that to reach your friend. I'll be back at full power soon, now that my soul is back in one piece. Go ahead and keep trying. It'll be fun,"


"This is bad," Starline observed. "The kishin's weapon is absorbing Shadow,"

"Absorbing him?" Silver asked. "Like devouring his soul?"

"Yes, but he's doing so while Shadow's still alive. I can see both souls blending together. Their bodies too, somehow,"

Blaze used her soul perception to observe the inside of the barrier. "Can Shadow break free?"

"If Sonic can resonate with Shadow, he'll have a chance at saving him from Mephiles," Starline explained. "The problem is, he's currently fighting the most powerful being on the planet, and he's barely hanging on as it is,"

"We can help them, right?" Tails asked.

"Yeah, we should be able to do something," Knuckles agreed.

"Sonic has just enough strength to keep himself alive. The kishin is having trouble ending the fight. He already had to take a witch hunter head on and I can tell he's weakening the barrier to give himself a better chance,"

"Then let's bust in there!" Knuckles suggested.

"It's not THAT much weaker. If all of us work together, we might be able to create an opening for one person. We just need to get a weapon inside that could help him,"

"You better believe I'm going in!"

"Knuckles, you know that won't help. He needs a death scythe," Tails argued.

"I'll go," Silver proposed.

"Silver has great utility with his kinesis, but Sonic isn't familiar with using a sword or your powers," Starline considered.

"Then it should be me," Vanilla decided.

"That might be our best bet since a hammer is fairly close in fighting style to a scythe,"

"But Lord Death was defeated while using Vanilla," Blaze contended. "Will Sonic really be able to reach Shadow using a hammer?"

"It's true. I'm not the type of weapon that grants much agility. I could grant Sonic strength, and heal him, but would that really help him in this fight?"

"It's tough. There are plenty of factors to consider. But we don't have much choice," Starline chuckled. "It's not like we have a powerful scythe with a wide range of powers that Sonic's resonated with before, right?"


More frantic blows and blasts thrown out by the kishin were dodged by Sonic. He knew he was barely doing more than playing defense at this point. That fact gave him plenty of worry. He desperately needed to reach Shadow, and the kishin knew it. With his power growing, Negative continued throwing out strikes and unleashing dense soul wave bursts to keep the hedgehog at bay. He edged closer to his opponent in small increments. A killing blow was near.

The sound of a spinning weapon slicing through the air came from above. An object nearly hit the kishin, before sticking into the ground. Negative had stopped attacking so he could avoid it, and was now staring confusedly at a scythe sitting between him and Sonic.

It was black all over with a crooked handle. One jagged point of serration protruded from the scythe's otherwise smooth blade. A strip of red stood out amongst the metal.

"Sonic!"

"Eclipse?" Sonic blurted. "I didn't know you were a scythe!"

"Me neither!" The darkling made his declaration with confidence.

The kishin lurched forward to grab it first, but he still wasn't prepared for how unusually quick the hedgehog was. In just a moment, Sonic was stabbing Negative in the chest with his newly acquired scythe. Pulling the weapon back violently tore open the kishin's chest cavity. Black blood poured out, but not for long. His cyborg body was hastily repairing itself.

Negative fired one blast after another. Sonic used the increased speed from his resonance with Eclipse to run throughout the tower. The kishin was standing in place, attacking from long range while keeping a close guard over the darkness imprisoning Shadow. Sonic kept running along the edge of the tower's barrier, dodging the attacks while moving closer.

"This feels weird," Eclipse stated matter-of-factly.

"No kidding. How'd you pull this off, anyway?"

Eclipse couldn't shrug while in weapon form, but Sonic felt a movement within the weapon's soul wavelength that gave an equal sentiment.

"Everyone said you needed help, so I tried becoming a scythe. It worked,"

"Nice job. Any other secret powers I should know about?"

Eclipse thought for a second. "I can stand on my head for a while,"

"Not really helpful now, but I'll keep that in mind,"

The kishin got in Sonic's way before he could get much closer to Shadow. More blasts were fired, but dodging was even easier for Sonic now that he had a demon weapon. He slid underneath the projectiles, then drug Eclipse's blade across the kishin's side as he passed by. Blood escaped the man's body for a moment.

In order to avoid being ambushed from behind, Sonic faced Negative and continued fighting instead of running straight for Shadow. Avoiding many energy blasts right after, reassured the hedgehog that he'd made the right decision. The first scythe swipe he tried was dodged, but spinning the weapon allowed follow-up blunt strikes to land.

Negative did stumble from the force of each attack until his mind snapped back into focus. He stopped Sonic's assault by blocking multiple hits, then realigned with his thrusters. Moving in a semicircle, he fired a continuous beam. Sonic leapt high so he could avoid it, but the move left him vulnerable in the air. Negative thrust forward and slapped Sonic to the side, but the hedgehog landed on his feet.

"Ready, Eclipse?"

"Okay!"

Their level of resonance increased dramatically. There was a percussive effect that rattled his body. His quills darkened until most of the blue was gone. A dark aura hovered around him.

"Shriek hunter!"

Swinging Eclipse's scythe form unleashed a tidal wave of liquid shadows. Negative used his own wavelength to brace against the impact of the attack. The energy moved around him like water, with bizarre, wailing mouths forming along the pseudo-fluid. Cackling laughter escaped the kishin's mouth as he matched that attack's chaotic wavelength, making it harmless.

Then, the black waves produced a series of thick spikes that pierced the kishin's body. They did minimal damage, but each of them were embedded enough to immobilize him for just long enough. Negative roared with frustration when he realized what was about to happen. He fired a drastic wavelength pulse with his soul to dispel the spikes, but it was too late.

Sonic reached the swirling darkness around Shadow. He couldn't see much, but he could sense both souls. Their overlapping wavelengths made them difficult to distinguish. After sending out his own soul so he could link with the two scythes, his mind left his body.