Mephiles stumbled backward. The air around him was clear, and he was back in his own body. Shadow collapsed on the ground, but was still very much separated from him.

"What?"

Something slammed into his chest. His body creaked against Eclipse's scythe blade. Sonic roared, pushing with all his might. Mephiles was thrown across the floor of the tower. He crashed into the ground in front of the kishin.

"You failed?"

"So did you," Mephiles spat.

Black blood spilled out of his crystalline body. Mephiles pressed the injury Eclipse gave him. A thick coating of blood covered his hand. Hardening didn't seem possible around the area of this particular wound. He shifted back into a scythe.

"Guess it's time to turn this place into a parking lot," Negative said.

He brought out his tendrils, then jumped after grabbing his weapon. His thrusters allowed him to soar upward until the entirety of Death City was in his view.

Shadow got up from the ground with help from his meister.

"You saved me,"

"That shouldn't be surprising by this point," Sonic boasted. "Besides, it's kinda my fault Mephiles had his greasy mitts all over you,"

"No it's not!" Shadow protested.

"We can argue about that later,"

Eclipse was lying on the ground, still in weapon form. He returned to normal, an act that brought Shadow much alarm.

"Wait, what?"

"We'll talk about that later too," Sonic added.

With the barrier around the tower now gone, Starline and co. moved to join Sonic, Shadow, and Eclipse.

"You're all okay," Starline assessed. "That's a relief,"

"I could say the same thing to you," Sonic replied. "You were hurting the last time we talked,"

"I was indeed. I'll be fine as long as that's dealt with," Starline pointed directly overhead at the kishin.

Sonic observed the changes in the kishin's wavelength.

"I feel like me and Shadow had a good chance against him earlier, but now he's got the rest of his soul. Plus I'm all-" Sonic perked up, then ran his hands over parts of his body. "Wait a minute, I got pretty beat up in that fight, but now I feel fine,"

"We've been resonating since you saved me," Shadow said. "So you're healed now,"

"You can do that?" Sonic sputtered.

Shadow replied with subdued impatience. "I can heal you when you resonate with me. That was another power I gained from Infinite. I healed the cut on your arm after we first used chaos control. You didn't notice?"

Sonic confirmed the cut he'd received at ARK was now gone by touching his arm. "Oh. Neat,"

"So how do we eliminate the kishin?" Blaze asked.

"A question for the ages," Starline gazed upward once more. "He's preparing his soul for an attack. One that can easily wipe out Death City,"

"So we can't run without sacrificing all the other people who are still in Death City," Tails assessed.

"Which means we have to stop the kishin here," Silver concluded.

The weapons and meisters hastily considered their own ideas for how to respond. Shadow's proposal came abruptly without much delay.

"Everyone should resonate with Sonic and I,"

The rest of the group stared at Shadow with uncertainty, aside from Sonic, who stepped forward.

"I'm with you,"

"Is that plan even possible?" Tails asked.

"Resonating as a group is something we'd have covered in class if there'd been more time. Although the goal of team resonance is to increase the strength of one team as a whole, not to enhance a single pair. Most people would be overwhelmed by such an exchange," Starline rambled.

"We're the only ones who can handle that much power. It's our best shot," Shadow stated with assurance.

"Works for me," Sonic glanced around at the others. "Everyone else good with this plan?"

"I suppose the only way we can know for certain if this is possible is to test it out. Besides, I can't think of any better options," Starline ushered everyone else. "The nine of us will resonate with Sonic and Shadow. You two should take as much power as you can manage,"

"Focus on resonating with me. I'll send what I can to Shadow," Sonic commanded.

The group of nine stood in a ring around Sonic and Shadow. Knuckles turned his head to each side in observation.

"We're not gonna hold hands and sing, are we?"

"Only if you want," Starline quipped. "Otherwise, standing like this should suffice. Start resonating with Sonic, gradually,"

A modest gust of wind was the first effect of their plan. Sonic didn't have trouble gathering the soul waves around him and sending them to Shadow. Both hedgehogs kept from amplifying each other's wavelength. For now, they focused on splitting the inherited power evenly between them, first. They could feel the abilities of each of the allies that were linking with them. An indomitable spirit quickly formed within them.

After most of the power had been passed on to Sonic and Shadow, the swirling air shifted. It moved outward from the two hedgehogs instead, until their fur turned gold. Sonic's eyes became red like Shadow's. The pair floated up off the ground, exchanging astonished looks.

They adjusted to the sudden changes, then grabbed hold of each others' right hand. Shadow became a scythe, which Sonic spun until the weapon was held at the ready. All the strength building between them became exponentially more intense once they resonated with each other. The intensity of their emotions, alongside the hope from the others, fueled the reaction.

Shadow's scythe form grew. The weapon's handle had nearly doubled in length, while the blade's expansion was vast. Additional pointed blades emerged from the tremendous scythe head without uniformity. The richest colors of the rainbow glittered throughout the chaotic blade. Completing the transformation released a brisk pulse that made everyone else flinch.

Negative saw that his opponents had been enhanced. Since his own soul was fully restored, he now had access to all of his own potential. Instead of channeling his soul to create a blast to wipe out Death city, he shifted his focus so he could create a scythe transformation to match Sonic's.

Mephiles's blood ran along his scythe-body, soaking Negative's gloves completely. His weapon was dying, but not fast enough that he couldn't manage one last attack. The scythe would likely expire after this next technique, not that it mattered as long as Sonic and Shadow died too.

He brought out the last of Mephiles's strength, and the scythe began transforming. The weapon's blade curled as it grew larger, forming a wild spiral. The outside of the blade became covered with splintered fangs of serration. The transformation's power absorbed the nearby light, darkening the area around the kishin.

"Seraph hunter!"

Sonic and Shadow burst straight upward with staggering intensity, such that a loud boom erupted from their break-neck acceleration. Speeding up to the clouds, they found the kishin. With his own scythe powered up, Negative swung. Sonic did the same.

Both attacks met. A circle broke into the clouds from the resulting eruption of energy. Direct sunlight reached Death City once again. The air around Sonic and Negative glowed brightly, with currents swirling intensely. Bolts of multicolored lightning shot out from the exchange.

Behind the kishin's attack was an insurmountable weight. Sonic could feel himself wavering against it. Even though he and Shadow had more power at their disposal than ever, Sonic was stuck. Their current limit was unknown, but going any further didn't seem possible. Then he felt a shift in his resonance.

A wave of warmth washed over the meister. It was as if Shadow were standing beside him, pressing over Sonic's hands with his own. Sonic felt the last bit of strength reach him. The scythe moved.

"Kishin hunter!"

Mephiles shattered into a million pieces. The kishin hunter's blade passed through Negative, eviscerating his form. The attack also hit the corrupted clouds overhead. Joining the circle shape from the initial burst was a break that sliced through the dark haze for a mile.

The kishin's tall body began swelling and shrinking bizarrely. His screams were equally erratic, shrilly breaking through the sky in response to the unique pain inflicted by the ultimate scythe transformation. Negative's body melted into blackness. His engorged soul destabilized, then burst.

Souls poured into the sky like a geyser. Some were pure and blue, while others were reddened with corruption. The energy expulsion pushed Sonic and Shadow away. Sonic used what power he had left to steer them onto one of the intact spires of the DWMA. It's roof had been blown off, but was otherwise sound. They landed on the exposed floor of what used to be this tower's attic. Shadow left his scythe form. Both hedgehogs lost their golden glow.

They each checked that the other was okay before turning their gaze outward. Souls had stopped streaming from the kishin's remains. The ones that had appeared were drifting downward slowly, forming a strange, captivating kind of rain.

"We just saved the world," Sonic observed.

"Guess so,"

All the clouds that hadn't been cut away were back to normal. Plenty of light was being let in, brightening the landscape ahead of them. Even the air around them felt more peaceful.

A great sense of contentment brought both Sonic and Shadow some much needed relief. So much had been resolved for them that they had nothing drawing them elsewhere. The pair sat in place, watching.

One thing did pop into Sonic's mind as he thought over the battle they'd just won; the only thing he didn't fully understand.

"Back there, I was worried our attack might not work. It felt impossible for a second. Then, your wavelength changed. You helped me get through,"

"Yeah, I did,"

"But how'd you do it? What changed?"

"I realized something,"

Time passed without further comment; more than Sonic exprected. He gave his weapon an inquisitive look.

"You're not gonna leave me hanging on that, are you?"

Shadow only needed to take a half step to be close enough. He placed his hands over his meister's arms and pulled him even closer. Shadow pressed his lips over Sonic's.

It was a one sided affair at first, with Sonic tensing up in complete shock. An enthralled exhale passed from his nose as his body relaxed. Sonic found himself kissing Shadow back. Both invested in the exercise a bit longer, tilting their heads ever so slightly, and moving their mouths in response to the others'. When they each pulled back, Shadow spoke first.

"That I love you,"

"Sh-Shadow!"

Sonic's arms crossed reflexively. The warmth pouring into his face might have been mistaken for a dire fever in different circumstances. Pounding from his heart rattled his ears and his head felt like it might explode.

It wasn't as outwardly obvious, but Shadow was in a similar condition. He went back to watching the spectacle of the souls falling through the air, hoping to ignore his own obnoxious heartbeat.

After Sonic dared looking at his weapon again, he felt worried that he might have given off the wrong impression while feeling overwhelmed by Shadow's affection. He did know of something he could say to help resolve the disparity.

"I love you too,"

If there were any doubts left in Shadow's mind at this point, they were gone now. He gave his meister a grateful grin. Sonic returned the expression, albeit with some leftover sheepishness. Neither of them were sure of what to say next. Sonic continued speaking shortly.

"Guess I was never too sure about it. Felt kinda weird to think or talk about, you know?"

"Yeah. I think part of me was afraid you'd know my feelings while we were resonating. I stopped holding that part of myself back in the end, and we won,"

"So that's what that feeling was," Sonic placed a hand over his heart, as if the gesture would help him search his own emotions more easily. "It made me happy. I wanted to win no matter what after that,"

A most mild mischief hit Shadow. "Surprised I'm the one who said it first, honestly,"

"I mean, I almost said it when Mephiles was trying to take your soul,"

"Sure you did,"

"I thought about it!" Sonic protested. "He wanted me to let you die. It would have been a great mic drop moment, too!"

"Uh-huh," Shadow dismissed. His attention fixated on a particular soul drifting down from overhead. "Speak of the devil,"

Mephiles's soul resembled an esoteric crystal ball. Blackness swirled freely throughout the soul, occasionally revealing the slightest amount of light. The orb appeared as if it were filled with shards of onyx that fed into the ominous power being emitted from it.

Shadow calmly devoured Mephiles's soul. Sonic needed a second to believe his eyes

"Wait. You're not worried about the whole 'ninety-nine corrupt souls plus one witch soul' limit?"

"I was never meant to have the limits of a normal death scythe. Mephiles's dark powers made him strong, but they also make his soul even more vulnerable to consumption. After this, I'll be the ultimate death scythe." Shadow laughed once. "If I wasn't already,"


Dying was a process that left Mephiles in quite a daze. His next conscious thought took place inside of Shadow's mind room. Everything was back to normal, appearing just as it had when he first arrived.

Something stirred within the walls of the room after a drawn out period of silence passed. A strange creaking came as the space seemed to be shrinking ever so slowly. Mephiles knew he was being devoured; he could already feel it.

It was a rapturous sensation for the demon. He laid back on a particularly comfortable chair, letting out a most pleased sigh.

"Home at last,"


Shadow felt a strange uncertainty within himself. Suddenly having everything he'd ever wanted left him wondering what to do next. He watched the land below them, finally sparing some thought for the others.

"Maybe we should head back?"

Shadow didn't receive a reply until he felt Sonic grab hold of his hand, interlocking their fingers.

"We can. Later,"

Shadow could feel himself being hit with an overwhelming happiness. One that was beyond anything he'd experienced through his whole life. Taking more time to enjoy and understand that feeling seemed like the only thing worth doing at that moment. He set aside any worries that might lie outside the broken spire on which he stood.

"Okay,"


Epilogue is under way. Please bear with me. ;)