Chapter 25: Nil
A/N: Ugh. So much for getting this chapter out sooner. Guess what happened?
I got fricking sick! Horribly sick. Literally not even two days after releasing the last chapter, I got sick for like 4 days and re-learnt the real meaning of suffering. I wanted to wait until I was completely well again before I even considered trying to get back into my normal routine.
... And then after that, writing this chapter was a huge pain. I was going to make it longer, but... I suck at writing stuff like this, and if I wanted to make it as long as I'd originally anticipated, then it'd have probably been, like, another week.
So... yeah. Sorry, but at least it's not entirely my fault?
I thought about my life. Everything that led up to this moment. Traveller bringing me here. Meeting the kid, befriending her, accompanying her for her journey. Taking that knife for her. Defeating Snatcher. Exploring and saving Alpine Skyline. Going on the cruise, and nearly losing her after it crashed. Being forced into Empress' gang and only barely escaping her after we took our Time Pieces back. Fighting Moustache Girl for the sake of the timeline and the planet.
And then... all of our adventures afterward, with Moustache Girl's redemption and being adopted by Cooking Cat, the directors finally befriending eachother, Snatcher putting us to work in a less mean way, meeting Zena...
And finally... adopting the kid and giving her a name she loved.
... Was it all worth it, to end this way?
I didn't get the chance to answer the question before I heard a battle cry and braced for impact.
Uh...
Instead of feeling pain... or death... I heard a loud metallic clang.
I opened an eye and looked up.
I had no idea what to be expecting...
But it DEFINITELY wasn't THAT.
Of all people, ZENA was standing there, and she'd blocked Empress' katana with a metallic gray-blue staff, with crystals on both ends that glowed the same as Subcon and Alpine's glowing flowers.
She then rapidly spun the staff around in one hand, knocking the katana out of Empress' hands, and thrust her staff forward with a burst of light, knocking Empress backwards.
"Well... this won't do..." I heard the dark me mutter.
I looked up at Zena, who was conjuring some sort of barrier and then turned to me once she was finished.
"You..." I said... "You're just... full of surprises, aren't you?"
She didn't smile, she didn't respond.
She helped me get to my feet and gave me a serious look.
"How did you even get here?" I muttered.
"We can talk later, I'll deal with these two. The kind of magic I know is perfect for dispelling shadow types. You need to get out of here," She ordered with dead seriousness.
"And leave you here to fight two extremely dangerous people all by yourself?" I scoffed, "Like hell."
"Be quiet. You are in no condition to fight anyone, Markus. You're leaving, whether you like it or not," She hissed.
"No, I'm not," I stated firmly.
She groaned in annoyance.
"How would I bring it to Hailey that her newfound father is dead?"
I crossed my arms.
"How would I explain it to your whole civilization that their leader and protector for A THOUSAND YEARS is dead? And that I did nothing to save her?"
She was silent.
I heard a rumbling, and saw that both Empress and the doppelganger were furiously attacking the barrier with their weapons, and noticed that the barrier was beginning to crack. We wouldn't have much time to rest before it broke.
I sighed, and heard the barrier cracking more.
"I just... couldn't forgive myself if I just ran... and you were gone because of it," I explained, "Besides, you will need all the help you can get. They can't win, no matter the cost. I don't want to imagine what they'd do after this battle if they won."
She looked down.
"I guess you're right..." She sighed, "Fine... drink this, it'll restore your strength and imbue your attacks with light."
She then handed a glowing white potion to me.
I did as she asked. It tasted weird, not sure how else to describe it.
Oh...
Instantly I felt a surge of power akin to if not better than an adrenaline rush.
We turned to face our two darkened opponents, who had damaged the barrier quite a bit more and both looked extremely angry.
"Just know that if you get hurt, I'm teleporting you away immediately," She said.
I sighed and nodded. There would be no convincing her out of that.
"I'll fight Darkus. Show them who's superior," I stated.
"'Darkus'?" She asked skeptically, "Is that actually its name, or did you just make that up?"
"I made it up. Good or bad, it's easier than calling it 'my shadow doppelganger'," I replied.
She sighed, then grabbed my wrist. I felt my heart skip a beat (but why though?)
"Please... just... be careful," She begged.
I grabbed her wrist as well, as the cracks on the barrier reached all the way around it.
"You be careful too," I replied.
The barrier shattered.
"You..." Darkus scoffed, staring at Zena, "You're a mage of light."
Zena took a defiant stance.
"I am. What of it?" She replied, "Have you, by chance, looked in a mirror?"
I grinned. She always seemed to know exactly what to say.
"I thought the mages of light were eradicated..." It scowled.
"Well, I don't care what you are," Empress growled, "You denied me my kill. Do you have any idea how much I hate being denied what's rightfully mine?"
"Not really, and I don't quite care," Zena retorted with extreme sass.
Empress growled and charged at her. Zena quickly dashed out of the way. I ran to help her, but was stopped by a wall of shadow. I looked around and found that I was trapped in a large square by these walls.
"I suppose I forgot a single mage to eliminate. I should've known it wouldn't be that easy..." Darkus mused, "But no matter. This mistake of mine will soon be rectified by my new champion."
I turned around, irritated at how confident it was.
"Speak for yourself, pal," I growled, "I don't like you copying my style and thinking you're better than me. So, if you don't go away, I'm going to rectify you."
"I'd love to see you to try, fool," It scoffed, "You are nothing compared to me. You don't even deserve to be in my presence."
"Oh really?" I replied, "If I'm so worthless, then why are you copying me? Oh wait... I guess that means you're worthless, too! Who was your champion? Me. Who saved a whole planet? Me. Who's gonna save the whole damn multiverse? ME."
I threw my arms into the air.
"And what have you done? What will you do? Nothing, that's what. Don't even try to compare to me."
It growled.
"Well, if you're so confident, then I suppose I'll have to put you in your place. Let's dance, you and me, a dance of death," It hissed.
I sighed. I supposed I'd just have to hope that Zena could hold her own against Empress. Had she ever fought anyone before?
For now, though, I'd have to show this stupid identity stealer who's the real deal here.
I grinned and took a defensive stance.
"Gladly."
It turned into a cloud of darkness and and began to fly in circles around me at an ever increasing rate.
Once it reached a fever pitch, it quickly turned back to normal and lunged at me with its baton, which I narrowly dodged, then countered with a firm hit to the head.
It growled and retreated.
"How did that hit me?" I heard it grumble to itself.
I flashed my baton, which was now glowing with white light.
It chuckled.
"I see. Well, I suppose it would be rather anticlimactic to crush you instantly anyway," It replied, "En garde!"
It dove into the ground, becoming a very dark circular shadow on the ground, looking like a two dimensional black hole.
Said shadow instantly snapped under my position, and I ran out of the way, but it followed my every movement with surgical precision. It seemed like it'd either drag me down into the void or attempt to jump out of the shadow to attack me.
I continued running around, hoping it'd miss.
The ground rumbled, and the shadow quickly darted in front of me. I barely skidded to a halt before a large pillar of darkness erupted from the spot on the ground, followed by Darkus quickly jumping out of the ground. I intercepted its entrance with a lunge.
It flew backward into the air and conjured a ring of large shadow fireballs around itself, which it proceeded to throw in my general direction.
I quickly rolled out of the way of many of them and watch as one fizzled into the ground in front of me, leaving behind a medium sized pool of very painful looking darkness.
Darkus then dropped to the ground, and I ran toward it to attack it. That seemed a bit too easy...
It seemed to predict this and swung heavily with its baton to intercept me, but I'd seen this coming, rolled behind it, and countered with a whirlwind strike, knocking it back into its own shadow wall with a loud thud.
It was silent and stayed on the ground.
"Get up," I barked, "I only hit you, like, four times. Is the 'great vessel of void' really weak enough to be defeated in four hits? I think not. So, get up so I can kick your ass."
It growled and got to its feet.
"So cocky..."
It flew into the air.
"Let's see how you handle this!"
It covered itself in an orb of darkness and proceeded to bounce around the arena, creating dark ripples across the ground every time it landed.
"You know I've seen an attack like this, like, four times before, right?" I mocked as I easily dodged its attacks.
"But of course."
The orb of darkness it was inside split into three, which began jumping around the arena in tandem, creating tons of shockwaves. It was quite hectic, but not enough to overwhelm me... although one of the orbs did almost land on me.
Eventually, though, the orbs faded, and I quickly dove in for an attack, knocking Darkus back.
It quickly counterattacked by throwing three dark lances in a spread pattern toward me.
I wasn't expecting this new attack and one of the lances grazed my side.
Even though it was the tiniest little prick, it hurt like HELL, causing me to grunt in surprise.
I quickly assumed it was because of the darkness and noted that getting hit here was not an option.
It seemed very (sadistically) pleased that it managed to land a hit, even though it barely scratched me.
While it was reveling in its accomplishment, I quickly managed to land another hit.
"You know, it's weird that you're celebrating barely hitting me," I muttered, "What, were you expecting me to curbstomp you without even getting hit?"
All it did was laugh, and flew into the air again.
... I felt like I should've been worried...
I shook the thought out of my head and turned my attention back to the battle, as Darkus was charging another sphere of dark fireballs again. I noted that there were more than last time.
This time, it proceeded to throw them at me rapidly, one by one, simultaneously as it threw multiple randomly into the air.
Fortunately there weren't enough to cover the whole arena, so I was able to evade them all, although I did feel the heat from the shadow fire.
I jumped into the air and swatted it out of the air once the fireballs were gone, knocking it back down to earth. I landed on my feet afterward.
It got up and raised its baton to the sky, shrouding it in darkness, then slammed it into the ground. Three orbs of darkness appeared around it, which began to charge darkness and spin.
I dove out of the way as they began to fire large dark deathrays outward, and ran alongside them as they began to pick up speed.
I slowly got closer to Darkus and swung at it with my baton, but was repelled by some dark forcefield.
I groaned in annoyance and continued to run along with the lasers, before they suddenly stopped and began to turn around. I was barely able to start running the other way in time before I could get blasted.
After a few more seconds of this, the orbs vanished, and I attacked again. As I thought, the shield was gone, and I knocked Darkus back.
I smirked and beckoned it forward tauntingly.
It got up and dove into the ground.
This time there were two areas of void in the ground, that began to orbit around me.
All I had to do was stop moving right before the attack could connect, and easily counterattack, knocking it back again.
It then flew into the air and sent dark lightning into the ground. A checkerboard pattern of darkness appeared over the ground, and I quickly dove out of the way before it erupted from the ground in the darkened spots.
It happened again, this time in the opposite checkerboard pattern, but I had plenty of time to get out of the way.
Darkus wasn't done yet, though, and a wave pattern of this dark attack emanated from the center, barely leaving any room to not get atomized by it.
After this, Darkus fell to the ground, leaving me a perfect chance to attack, which I gladly took.
It dove backward, and this time I saw it conjure a lance of darkness into its hand. I now knew to jump out of the way as it fired spreads of lances again, this time repeatedly. I managed to block one with my baton, pick it up out of the air, and throw it back at Darkus, taking it by surprise and causing it to yell out in pain and fall backward as the projectile connected with its center.
"Aw, what's the matter? Can't handle a little bit of darkness, princess?" I taunted, "In fact, that shouldn't have even worked!"
It clenched its fist, yanked the lance out of its side and made it vanish, then stared at me with extreme violent intent.
"That's it," It growled, "I've had enough of your idiocy. It's time I paint this place red with you!"
I recoiled at that.
I mean... I've heard some violent things yelled at me, but never quite something that graphic.
I didn't have time to dwell on it though, as Darkus flew high up into the air and gathered all of the shadow nearby into a giant orb, almost as big as itself, that crackled with dark lightning.
It raised said orb above its head and looked down at me.
"Return to ash, you worthless vermin!"
It threw it down beneath itself, causing a massive pool of void to spread across the arena.
I threw my arms up to block the attack, but couldn't prevent being engulfed by the shadow.
It felt like my whole body was dropped into a pool of sulfuric acid...
Everything burned.
It felt like my entire body was being ripped apart on an atomic level and put back together hundreds of times per second.
The worst part was, I couldn't even scream.
I couldn't do anything.
All I could do was somehow endure the torment.
It seemed to go on for eternity... I honestly felt like I was going to die, be absorbed by the shadows.
I was going to, I knew it. I could feel it consuming my life.
But... I couldn't give in. There was too much riding on this battle. The whole planet would be in peril otherwise. Hailey would be as good as dead.
That last thought alone made failure not an option.
So, with whatever willpower I could muster, I kept hope that I could live... that I could win.
And eventually, after seemingly a hundred years, it cleared.
I collapsed to the ground.
Movement hurt. Breathing hurt. Light hurt.
I gathered the energy to look up and found that Darkus wasn't doing much better, it was on the ground as well, on its knees. It must've put everything it had into that attack.
It was staring right at me in weak, confused shock.
I could also see its form beginning to fade slowly. It clearly put too much into the attack, the fool.
"How..."
I mustered the strength to stand up, nearly falling down again, and stared down at it once I gained my balance.
"How are you..." It muttered.
I frowned.
"How are you not dead?" Darkus scoffed.
"It's simple, really," I replied.
I knelt down so that we were face to face.
"You underestimate the will to live of a man whose family he needs to protect," I spat.
Darkus was silent.
"And on that topic..." I said, "You. You merely are a threat to me and my family. You have no friends or family of your own, no people to lead, absolutely no place in this world. You say I'm worthless? Well guess what? You are nothing! Nothing but pain and misery."
It looked down and began to shake with rage.
It'd likely recover its power soon... I needed to finish this.
"So it's time I do the world a favour."
It attempted to stand up, but couldn't muster the strength, and collapsed to the ground yet again.
I raised my baton, put all my willpower into it and watched it erupt with light, and activated both my badges as I brought it down for the finishing blow.
I was sent flying back by a massive shockwave, and I heard a twisted version of my own scream that slowly faded.
I looked around and saw the walls of shadow gone. Nothing remained of Darkus. So I quickly stood up and turned around to see what was happening.
What I saw shook me to my core.
Zena had lost.
She was collapsed on the ground, and I saw a kunai sticking out from her stomach.
Empress stood over her with her katana poised to strike.
I didn't even think. Pure instinct drove my next action.
I charged at Empress full speed and swung at her with a primal fury unlike anything a human being should be able to feel.
It sent her flying backward so far she crashed into the window of her own jewelry store.
I quickly ran after her. Like hell she was going to get away with this.
I ran into the jewelry store and saw Empress on the ground by the counter, which was now dented, and saw her unconscious.
Just to be sure she was, I kicked her forcefully. I wasn't usually one to kick someone while they were down, but this was Empress we were talking about here. And she'd just wounded Zena, possibly fata-no, I couldn't be thinking like that.
She didn't even budge. She was out.
I saw my Shadow Badge and took it, then examined it.
Not five seconds later, it crumbled into dust.
I let the dust fall to the floor, and bolted for Zena, kneeling down beside her.
She looked up at me, and smiled weakly.
"You won, didn't you?" She asked.
I nodded.
She sighed.
"Of course you did..."
"We need to get you to a hospital..." I muttered, "God... why can't I do anything without somebody I know getting hurt?"
I looked around and saw that the Nyakuza had basically already lost. There were only a few left, most were surrendering.
... The police would probably be way too busy to help me.
I sighed and picked Zena up in my arms slowly. I heard her hiss in pain as I did so... it was a depressing sound.
"Try to stay awake for me, okay?" I said.
She nodded weakly, and I began to walk toward the police... they could at least help me get to an ambulance.
She took a deep, shaky breath.
"What a gentleman..." She whispered.
I didn't respond. I just kept moving.
I had to be fast enough. I HAD TO be.
... I didn't know what I would do if I wasn't.
A/N: Cliffhanger onto a cliffhanger. I honestly didn't intend it this way, it just ended up happening! So uh... sorry.
But as I was saying earlier, I suck at writing combat scenes. Thinking of attacks, dialogue, how to make it interesting, how long to make it... it's probably the thing I suck at most, aside from writing platforming sections. So if the battle with Darkus seems short, that's why.
Fortunately, this is the last bit of combat we should be seeing for a good, long, while.
As for what's next, guess you'll just have to see.
And yes, I know, I'm an asshole for doing this.
... Anyway, review time.
Phantaum: Hehe, sounds about right. I wasn't entirely going for the meme, but I thought it'd fit.
XStarInTheSkyX: Hey, it's not much different from Celeste players referring to Madeline's dark self as Badeline. Hehe.
Jetman615: Oh... You're not gonna be happy about this, then. Heh... And as for the delay, well, stuff happens. I really did want to get this out sooner, but life had other plans.
And as for Moustache Girl, well, do you really think Cooking Cat would let her travel to Nyakuza Metro by herself? I think not. However, I haven't forgotten about her. She'll appear when I think it fits, simple as that. So don't worry, she's still here.
Thanks for the reviews again.
Hopefully, the NEXT chapter I can get out sooner! I'll even start work on it right away to try and avoid another massive delay.
So, see you all then.
