Chapter 74: Making God Bleed
Point of View, Third person
Faster than the average eye could process Mandus shot towards Zygarde in a flash. The lucario smashed his fist into Zygardes chest and caused the legendary to fall back. Water splashed into the air as Mandus ran towards the toppled legendary in an attempt to strike once again. Suddenly the ground around Zygarde formed a giant dome around him and shielded him from Mandus.
Mandus's right paw then began to glow with a strange blue aura as the lucario sprinted towards the rock dome with his fist ready to strike the barrier. Before Mandus reached him, the dome broke into pieces, and all the chunks of rock flew towards Mandus. Mandus slid to a stop and thrusted his fist forward dispersing the blue aura towards the rock chunks in a shotgun like pattern and both of the attacks collided and created a smoke screen from the destruction of the two forces.
A figure flew out of the smoke screen. Mandus lunged towards the figure, but his eyes widened upon realizing that it was just a boulder rolling along the ground. "Down here," a muffled voice called from below.. The ground below Mandus began to crack, and the lucario jumped in the air with an aura sphere charging in his hand. The ground opened and out came Zygarde with a purple light glowing in his mouth. A beam shot towards Mandus and the lucario threw the aura sphere towards the beam. Both attacks created another explosion as they cancelled each other out.
Mandus landed on the ground, and instantly took off running. The lucario then jumped in the air towards a tree, kicking off of it to extend his jump. Once Mandus was high in the air, the blue aura formed around both of his paws. The lucario extended his arms and both paws shot out multiple beams of a concentrated blue beam, just like before, but this time it covered the whole area below him. Before the attack reached Zygarde, the serpent like creature burrowed back underground to safety.
Mandus landed on the ground, with the water splashing into the air as he scanned the area for Zygarde. "Do you really believe you can defeat a legendary foolish lucario," Zygarde spoke from an unknown location. The lucario remained silent, and showed no sign of response to the legendary. Around ten meters in front of Mandus, Zygarde broke out of the ground. "What do you achieve by defeating me?" Again, Mandus remained silent and calmly began walking towards the legendary.
"Have it your way then," Zygarde spoke as he began to glow a bright green color. The ground around Mandus began to tremor, and soon after cracks began to form. Chunks of the ground began to float into the air. Every second that passed by, the chunks that broke off the ground became bigger, until the ground below Mandus broke off, and he floated into the air on his own little floating island. Mandus could see Stark trying to move away from the scene out of the corner of his eyes. The umbreon desperately tried to elude the rocks floating off the ground.
"This is the end for you," Zygarde spoke as multiple boulders of rocks began to float in every direction around Mandus. Mandus quickly got into a defensive position as he began to understand what was going on. "Die," Zygarde commanded as all the rocks flew towards Mandus at once and began to enclose him in a sphere of rocks of all different sizes. The rocks continued to accumulate around him until it was at least six times his size. After the rocks finished crushing Mandus, the sphere fell to the ground, but managed to stay together.
"What a naïve creature he was," Zygarde spoke as he directed his attention towards the tree Stark was hiding behind "Now to finish you up," Zygarde said, referring to Stark.
"Shit," Stark muttered as he looked at the enclosed sphere that contained Mandus. Stark peaked out of his hiding spot to see Zygarde slithering towards him. Seeing that he had no choice, Stark jumped out of his cover and shot a shadow ball towards the legendary. Although this one was different, the instant it collided with Zygarde it created a thick fog of darkness around Zygarde.
Stark then bolted towards the exit they came from, but before he reached it, Zygarde popped out of the ground in front of him. "You're not going anywhere," Zygarde spoke as he cut Stark off from his only escape route. Stark looked in every direction possible for a possible escape, but in the end he spotted no chance of escape.
"Now, you can-" Zygarde began to say before a crackling noise filled the air. Both Zygarde, and Stark directed their attention towards the sphere of rocks Mandus was encased in. A few rocks fell from the sphere letting a blue light shine from the center, before it exploded with a blue aura and all the rocks separated from the sphere. Once Mandus was free from his prison he sighed and wiped the dust off himself in a calm manner as he walked towards Zygarde. Zygarde and Stark both stared at the lucario in surprise.
"How are you alive, every bone in your body should have been crushed into dust!" Zygarde yelled in confusion.
As Mandus slowly walked, he began to pick up his pace, until he was sprinting towards Zygarde. The legendary ignored Stark and slithered as fast as it could towards Mandus. The serpent lunged towards Mandus with all of its force as it opened its mouth wide. Mandus simply slid to a stop and extended his palm into Zygardes forehead and stopped the legendaries greater mass from crushing him. Mandus slid back as the Legendary continued to push forward. Mandus's eyes narrowed as he pushed off his palm and did a back flip. Zygarde flew forward as Mandus's foot collided with his jaw and caused the legendary to tousle to the ground as Mandus finished his kick-flip.
"I'm going to kill you!" Zygarde yelled at the top of his lungs, causing a rummble in the cave, as he recovered from the kick. The legendary then began to slither towards Mandus as multiple rocks floated up from the ground. "Ground types have the advantage against fighting types, so why won't you die!" Zygarde yelled towards Mandus.
"Only if you can hit me," Mandus responded as each rock flew towards him. Mandus then jumped in the air and his body lit up with that same aura and he twirl-kicked Zygarde in the face. The legendary jolted back and he shook off the pain.
"Then how did you survive being crushed, that one hit you," Zygarde questioned as he began charging another attack. The attack shot towards Mandus in the form of a beam. Mandus stood still as an aura formed around his body, but then the Aura expanded into a sphere around Mandus, and blocked the beam. As the aura shielded Mandus, it also pushed the ground near him away, and left a small hole in the ground right below Mandus.
"I see, so your aura sphere was used to shield yourself. There is so much potential in you, yet you waste it on being a criminal," Zygarde spoke. Mandus just stood in place and crossed his arms as he looked towards the legendary with a bored expression. "Who are you, and why are you doing this?" Zygarde asked.
Mandus remained silent for a moment before even bothering to respond, "Names have no value, and you don't need to know what's in store for you and your legendary brothers and sisters," the lucario spoke as he took off running towards the legendary. Zygarde flinched back and launched a beam towards Mandus. As Mandus sprinted he ducked below the beam and kept his pace.
"But, I will give you the honor of my name," Mandus said as he continued sprinting towards the legendary with aura pulsing throughout his body. "My name is Mandus, and I seek to break this Hell you legendaries look down at while laughing!" Mandus shouted as he extended his paw towards Zygardes face. Time froze for a second for the two, as Mandus looked into Zygardes eyes, and Zygarde looked back into his with fear. "This is true divine power!" Mandus yelled before time returned to normal. As his fist smashed into Zygardes face, all the aura around Mandus's body flowed toward the point of contact, and the aura exploded sending the legendary flying backwards. The legendary landed on the ground with a loud thud and stayed on the ground barely conscious.
Mandus walked over towards Zygarde and looked down at the legendary, "If you truly are a protector of this world, then why is it countless pokemon suffer every day? Why is it that pokemon wake up every day not knowing if they'll live to see another dawn? Why is it that you legendaries condemn us? Why is it that all the legendaries are just sitting by and allowing this?" Mandus asked as he looked down at Zygarde. Silence filled the air for a brief moment, but no response came from Zygarde.
"As I expected. No reason at all," Mandus said in a cold tone, "If you legendaries won't fix this broken hell, then I'll take your powers for myself to do what needs to be done."
"You're crazy, you could never win against all the others," Zygarde said in a quiet voice. Mandus kneeled down and looked Zygarde in the eyes.
"Is that what you truly believe? You're only alive because I need you. You seem to think that you're untouchable when you're below me and my comrades," Mandus said bitterly, "If you can make God bleed, then everyone will lose faith in him," Mandus said in a cold tone as he stood back up and raised his hand up, "This victory will be the catalyst of a new dawn, but this new world will only be achieved through the bloodshed of the false deities that have clouded humanities judgment," As Mandus finished his speech he smashed his fist into Zygarde's head and the legendary fell unconscious.
Mandus let out a sigh as he looked down at the unconscious legendary, "So it begins,"
Point of view Stark
"Come out Stark, it's finished," the familiar voice of Mandus called out to me. I cautiously came out of my cover to spot Mandus standing over the unconscious body of Zygarde. I walked towards Mandus, not really knowing if I should be ashamed of myself right now. I have never been that scared in my life before, and honestly the feeling was very foreign to me. I was used to most people fearing me. On top of that, seeing what Zygarde could do made things worse. But… Mandus was superior, and it almost appeared that he hardly struggled against Zygarde.
"Is he dead?" I asked as I looked at the legendary.
"No, just unconscious," Mandus said.
Seeing that Zygarde was no longer a danger, I looked back at my comrades. Through all the chaos, I forgot about them, and I wondered if they were still alive. I scanned the area to spot Scarlet in the water, just now recovering from that Attack. Scarlet held Flynn's head above the water to prevent him from drowning. I looked even further back to spot Vincent still lying on the root we set him on. Before I checked on Vincent, I ran to Scarlet since she was closer.
"How are you holding up?" I asked Scarlet as she slowly recovered to her feet with Flynn in her arms.
"I'm managing," Scarlet bluntly responded in her usual monotone voice.
Scarlet and I made our way towards Vincent. Although, Scarlet moved slowly with a limp since she was injured. Once we reached Vincent, Scarlet set Flynn's unconscious body next to Vincent on the root. "Vincent, are you alright?" I asked the white espeon. The espeon looked at me and gave a weak nod. I looked at his wounds and noticed that he was no longer bleeding, and on top of that his wounds didn't look as bad as before.
"So what the Hell is Mandus? He demolished Zygarde alone and we all failed together," I questioned as I looked at each of my comrades for a response.
"Mandus... is Mandus," Scarlet replied.
"But how did he manage that alone?" I asked again, restating the question somewhat.
"Because he's going to be the savior of this world, and nothing will stop him from achieving world peace," Vincent answered, without a clear explanation to how he pulled off such an act.
"Stark, I need a favor from you," Vincent asked me.
"Huh?"
"I'm still too weak to walk and… Well Scarlet is injured and she shouldn't move much," Vincent said.
"Uh huh," I said lazily.
"And I need to tell Mandus something, but I can't walk to him…" Vincent said awkwardly.
"I see," I responded not knowing what he was trying to ask me.
A sigh escaped Vincent's mouth as he nodded his head in disapproval, "Can you just carry me to him."
Then a switch flipped in my head and I understood what he wanted from me. "Seriously?" I responded in annoyance.
"Just do it," Scarlet added in.
"Fine," I scowled as I carefully got Vincent onto my back.
"Ow, Arceus dammit," Vincent said in a pained tone as I began walking towards Mandus.
"Don't say Arceus's name in vain, apparently this mythical stuff is real," I said jokingly.
"Oh, so are we crazy now?" Vincent asked me. I couldn't see his face now, but I'd imagine he's have a triumphant smirk on his face right now for proving me wrong.
"Just shush up, and you're not going to tell the tooth fairy is real next are you?" I joking questioned.
"Actually, the next phase involves the tooth fairy," Vincent teased.
"Okay, don't talk to me anymore," I said as we approached Mandus who was still next to Zygarde. I gently set Vincent down on the ground, and thankfully Vincent was well enough to sit up on his own, which meant I was free from babysitting him any longer.
"I think I understand how all of this works," Vincent said to Mandus. The lucario remained silent, and only looked towards Vince as a response.
"When we confronted Zygarde he was underground in a sphere with a bunch of roots connected to him. It took me a bit to understand this whole room, but I realized that it's very special to how Zygarde is able to watch all of us," Vincent said with a small pause to catch his breath. 'All the trees in the room connected to Zygarde from underground. Now, think of it like this, it's like a giant web and Zygarde is at the center of it all. All the tree's in this room connect to him, and the trees go up to the surface. Then those trees are connected to the trees on the surface and etcetera." Vincent said as he gave Mandus a second to let that sink in. "The swamp above us goes on for miles, and it would be easy for Zygarde to link up to plants all around Kalos. I'm guessing that this plant web can go from any form of plant such as grass, wheat, weeds, and vegies and so on," Vincent finished.
"So…" I said awkwardly not fully understanding the explanation.
"Basically all the plants in Kalos are in some way connected, and that is how Zygarde is able to watch over the ecosystem in Kalos. And that is also why Zygarde had all the water flowing down here, so he could give the trees water to survive. It may be possible that he needs a lot of water to feed these plants due to them needing more waterto survive versus a normal plant," Vincent added.
"I see, so now what do we do from here?" I asked my comrades.
"Well that hard part for you is over, now for me to serve my purpose," Vincent said as he slowly forced himself to stand up.
"What are you talking about," I asked Vincent as the gem on his head began to glow a powerful red color.
"Now, I need to secure Zygardes mind, I'll only be able to brainwash him so much until we get back to Sanctum, but once we do, I'll have many other psychics there to help rewrite his brain to our needs," Vincent answered as the gem on his head glowed brighter.
The strange red glowing light on Vincent's head continued to grow stronger, and then a red energy began to form around Zygarde. Vincent began to grunt from the amount of concentration he was using. As he continued to rewrite Zygardes brain, his nose began to drip blood, and I could see his body shaking from the strain he was putting on himself. After a few seconds of watching this, the light on Vincents head ceased and Vincent fell straight to the ground.
"Vince," I called out to the weakened espeon who was now gasping for air on the ground.
"I'm fine, that just took a lot out of me," Vincent responded in between pants.
Scarlet and Flynn then joined the scene. It was reassuring to see Flynn conscious again, but I was a little more concerned if Vince was going to be alright. "Did he just capture Zygarde?" Flynn asked.
"The capture is a success, we can go home now," Vincent said as he panted in exhaustion.
Chapter End
Author Note: Well their is the finale of book one of the Black Dawn. But their is still one chapter left to tie up some loose ends before I begin book 2. Please remember that book 2 will still be posted in the same spot. Anywho, this was my first attempt at third person fighting, so feedback/criticism never hurts :)
Question1: Out of all the members of the Crimson Dawn that have been introduced so far, who is your favorite.
Question 2: What is your opinion on Mandus and how do you view him?
Sorry for asking so many questions, and you don't have to answer if you don't want to. But if you do, you make me happy :D
Thank you genericgamer for helping on this chapter, and all previous chapters.
Fun Fact about Mandus I originally got the name Mandus from the horror game Amnesia: A machine for pigs. I don't quite understand why I choose this name, but I felt it was a good name for someone who is cryptic, and mysterious, but also exhibits great power. Anyways, feel free to make recommendation on ideas for fun facts I should share about the story, of course spoiler free ones XD.