Epilogue: The Converging Fates

Far, far away from any hospitable planet, there was a lone asteroid. There are thousands of asteroids in the Milky Way Galaxy alone, so what makes this one so special? Because, out of all the possible encounters this asteroid could have had, this one happened to catch a man who, by all means, should be as dead as dead could be.

With his body unraveled, and the pieces of his body and ego floating along with him, the former ruler of Sancturia Gravitus lied atop this asteroid barely able to move. He growled, embittered by his defeat and the helpless state it left him in.

But just when he thought it couldn't get any worse for him, fate had its way of spitting in his face. A tall, lanky boy with pale skin, shoulder-length black hair, and sharp red eyes landed to the left of him. With nothing but a black shirt with a skull on it and tattered beige pants to his name, the boy exuded an impossible to breech air of aggression, and lorded over the man with nothing but indifference towards him.

"I sensed a great power coming from here and thought it was Whiter..." With a nasally voice the boy sneered his upper lip and grumbled, "But instead I found a mangled corpse."

"Y-You..." Gravitus growled at him to the best of his ability, "It seems our paths are destined to keep crossing...Joe Dark."

The boy gently raised his brows and muttered "Do I know you?" before committing to a more certain assessment of the man, "Oh wait...I remember now."

He stamped his right foot down on the man's abdomen and crushed right through it, cracking the asteroid underneath. Glowing with pure, hazy darkness, Joe Dark raised his left hand to the man's chest and remarked, "You're that fool who tried to recruit me...Didn't I decapitate you?"

"I...will never die...to the likes of you." Gravitus smirked with confidence.

Joe Dark's hand swallowed the light encapsulating the air and compressed into a sphere of dark energy, "I'll make sure to make it permanent this time..."

The moment Joe Dark fired his blast Gravitus swung his left hand up and a strange symbol appeared on the back of it. Joe Dark's attack obliterated Gravitus' hand and all of his chest, the devastation extended high above as a pillar of black flames.

Gravitus let out a heavy cough and Joe Dark pulled his hand a little further up to his head. Growling in annoyance, the boy remarked, "You really are a stubborn cockroach to put down..."

"That's quite enough, Dark King." A regal voice drove its contempt into Joe Dark's ears before striking the boy in the back with a saber attached to an hourglass handle.

The boy turned but found his movements sluggish. He grit his teeth and, faced with a ragged, elven man, raised his hand aglow with darkness and proclaimed, "Come to die too eh?!"

Pluto swung at Joe Dark quickly with his blade to slow him down further and further. The attack Joe Dark managed to release did nothing to Pluto's Divine Drive but mildly irritate it. And before he could try again, Joe Dark's time had been frozen completely by the power of Pluto's blade.

Pluto started to drop and planted his sabers into the ground. He panted and coughed up a mild bit of yellow blood, then rose back up and crossed his blades against Joe Dark's neck.

"It is you who has come to die, foolish boy..."

"Wait!" Gravitus mustered the energy to yell, halting the blades' decapitating strike, "T-There is still use for that boy..."

Pluto softly withdrew his weapons and murmured "As you wish..." then approached the man to help him stand. Gravitus had just enough energy left in his body to repair it, but from then on he'd be unable to take a single step forward.

"I can't believe you found me, Pluto..." Gravitus remarked with sincere gratitude.

"Though I wish it hadn't been necessary..." Pluto narrowly glared at the man for a moment before turning around and remarking, "So I take it the plan failed then? The girl has the Neo Drive..."

Gravitus raggedly drew his breath in and out, then slowly spread a grin. He propped his right hand down by his hip, and slid the handle of his scythe out of hit.

"Yes." Gravitus said as he scooted one step forward.

"Then what is our plan of attack no-" Pluto turned around and Gravitus extended the blade of his scythe through his chest.

Gasping in shock, the elven king said "W-W-Why...?" as Gravitus drained him of his energy to regain his ability to stand tall.

Gravitus drained Pluto to the almost very last drop, all while whispering faintly into his ear, "Pay unto evil, as evil deserves..."

Pluto widened his eyes and Gravitus grinned in triumph, "This is your final act of repentance...Disgraced King..."

Gravitus pulled his scythe out and Pluto dropped onto his back immediately, barely having the strength to breathe. But with that tired breath, the king raised his hand and cursed the man's name.

"I...believed in you...traitor..."

Gravitus turned away and put his full attention onto the boy who would be called the Dark King. Gravitus flexed his powers slightly by squeezing his hand and slamming the motionless boy flat against the asteroid. He then raised his hand to his face and remarked, "Good as new..."

He then looked down at Joe Dark and was undoubtedly pleased by how helpless he looked. Though it made no difference, he muttered in delight, "You will make a perfect gift...For what's coming next."

He then raised his left hand and that strange symbol was no longer there, "Two keys have been used..."

He stared up at the endless, starry depths of space and stretched his arms out to remark in a mildly humored tone, "And so the last one is left in your capable hands...Phoenix of Destruction."

To be continued...

Author's Note:

And so Part 5 comes to an end...Again. I'm really proud of how it turned out overall, especially in comparison to the clunkiness of the old Part 5.

Next up on the list is rewriting Part 6. I got the outline and everything all ready to go but I still need a couple weeks off to take care of some things before I begin. So at around the start of June I'll see you all again. Same place, same title as the old Part 6.

Thanks for reading!