"You all put up a valiant effort, but I'm afraid it was all in vain." Spoke Grimshade. He held up a hand, holding a white book that seemed to emit its own light. Then the other hand, which held a black book that seemed to consume the light around it. "The book of light… and the book of darkness… together once more." He said with a voice of victory. Yoshi ran forward to try and snatch the books but a surge of magic pushed him back. "This day, this day marks the beginning of a new Gaian age! The age… of chaos!" Grimshade shouted as he brought the two tomes together above him. They began melding together and turning a deep crimson as the dark mage leader let out a grand laugh of triumph.
~ Ch.8: Standing Against Chaos, Part 1.
Dark thundering clouds filled the sky over the southern forest. Winds ripped through the area, spreading the flames faster. The village was now the only spot left of the forest untouched by the raging inferno. Speeding above the flames a mech/jet was nearing the western cliffs. The pilot looks up at the sky. "Where the hell did this weather come from?" Remmy questioned. "Forget the weather anomaly for now, we have incoming." Diesel said getting the small zurg's attention. He had the mech stop in midair and hover upon seeing the sight in front of them. "Prime the egg cannons Diesel." He said in a serious tone. "Egg cannons primed." Diesel informed. "Alright, now BLAST THAT MOVING WALL OUT OF THE SKY!" Remmy panicked as a wall of dark mages swiftly approached.
In the center of the village, the situation looked pretty grim as a field of magic energy shielded the laughing Grimshade from all Yoshi's and Ethan's attempts to get the book. The elder was left too weak from his injuries and was told to hide somewhere. As a last ditch effort, Yoshi swung Brim at the magic shield. Sparks flew from the shield as it cracked but it repaired itself and blasted Yoshi back with twice the force he swung with, knocking him over. "Yoshi! You ok?" Ethan asked. The pirate got back to his feet and ran in for another strike getting the same result. "There's got to be a way around this thing!" He said as he got up once more. "There's something wrong." Brim spoke. "Whoa! Your sword talks?!" Ethan asked in surprise. "Of course something's wrong Brim, the tome of chaos is returning." Yoshi said to which the sword shook. "Not that. Look at Grimshade's face." Brim said. The pirate and bunny looked at each other before turning to the laughing dark mage leader. The site shocked them. Grimshade's face was covered in tears and he looked like something was torturing him. Come to think of it… the laughing started to sound like cries of pain. "Wha- what's happening to him?" Ethan asked. "If I had to guess, I would say the tome of chaos is too powerful for him. It's consuming him." The blade theorized. A sudden wave of energy swept through the air nearly knocking Yoshi and Ethan down. "You are correct, animated blade." Spoke an echoing voice. The two looked around trying to find where the voice came from. Their eyes then fell upon the floating red book.
Running along the edge of the shield around the village, the search and rescue group was slowly getting everyone out of the village. They had found and healed four out of the five remaining mages who managed the shield. It was too late for the sixth as he was seen outside in the inferno, possibly due to the shrinking shield. There were other mages who were stepping up to help with the shield as well but they weren't experienced enough to hold the shield and cloak themselves as well, so most of them were talked into evacuating. Some though were too dedicated to the village to see it fall and said to evacuate them last. When the storm clouds and galeing winds picked up they knew something was wrong. "I hope Uncle Ethan's ok." Wendy said worried. "Hey, from what I seen earlier he is no slouch in combat. He may very well even be a match in skill to Yoshi, who may I remind you is back there with him." Neko said as he emerged from the shadows, having just evacuated another of the village mages. "Is he really that good? I've never seen anyone as strong as Uncle Ethan." Wendy said as they started moving to the huts to look for more of the hiding mages. Neko turned to Wendy with a smirk. "And I have never seen anyone who can take down Yoshi, especially when he has someone or something to fight for."
Looking for the voice they heard, Yoshi and Ethan turned to the newly reformed tome of chaos. It had grown in size and its pages looked tattered and worn out and its red cover seemed to be pulsating, but its most striking change was the yellow eye on its cover that looked back at them. "My my my, is this magic user truly the fabled dark hearted mage who reformed me? How pathetic." The tome said in its echoing voice with distaste as a dark purple aura flowed out of it. The dark energy felt from the book had Yoshi and Ethan frozen in shock. It was the strongest power they ever felt. "Oh well, a body is a body, and I can't rule as a simple book now can I?" The tome spoke as the energy condensed along with the magic shield into the book. A stream of magic then bolted down onto Grimshade who let out a shriek of pain as his appearance began to change. His skin turned dark as the night, his eyes red as blood and all around him a dark aura was flowing off him like steam. After a bit of silence from him the changed dark mage let out a low echoing chuckle that slowly shifted to a booming laugh that rivaled the thunder above the village. "I am the shroud of chaos, and my power shall spread through all of Gaia and cover it in chaos." Yoshi shook his head to clear it from shock and glared at the force in front of him. "Not if I have anything to say about it!" He shouted, internally cringing at how cliche that line is. Hearing Yoshi's declaration of defiance to the shroud of chaos snapped Ethan out of his shock as well and he to glared at the force before them. "So… the mice seek to take on the lion." Shroud said with a smirk. "Very well, may you be the first to feel my power." He said as he reached up and grabbed the tome he came from.
Flying backwards, Diesel let out shot after shot of energy eggs at the army of dark mage clones that approached. "This is definitely not good. We're barely making a dent and their too close for the scattershot to be effective!" Remmy panicked as he desperately thought of what to do. Diesel then sensed something in the distance. "Scanners are picking up energy fluctuations and more life signatures." He said as Remmy opened the screens for the scanners. "It seems to be at the edge of the scanners range, but we could get there in no time flat at top speed. But that doesn't change the fact we got a LITERAL WALL OF CLONES TO GET THROUGH!" He said, still in a panic. "Wait… through… I have an idea!" The zurg said as he hit a few buttons. Diesel's legs twisted and shifted inward before being replaced by a drill. "Flying drill mode engaged! If we hurry, then we could take out the cloning mechanism and come back to finish these guys before they reach the village, plus we'll have the distance for the egg cannons scattershot!" Remmy said with a smirk. "Yet another genius plan!" He said with a laugh. Diesel sighed at Remmy's ego but could not deny it was their best shot. "Probability of success is 83% but we could do it." Diesel informed. "Alright then. Full steam ahead and take out as many as you can on approach!" Remmy said as Diesel primed the egg cannons and flipped his rockets from reverse to forward. With the push of a button the drill at the front spun at high speed before Diesel fired the energy eggs… and an interesting effect took place. The energy eggs got caught in the wind generated by the drill in a sort of centrifugal force effect and shot them out at an angle. The surprise of the effect caused Diesel and Remmy to stop and watch. "Welp… didn't see that coming." Remmy said with a sweatdrop. The energy eggs then scattered and took out half the dark mages to the sides. "Whoohoo! Definitely didn't see that one coming but I'm glad it happened!" Remmy cheered. "I assume the added force from the drills spin destabilized the energy eggs and sped up the scattershot process." Diesel theorized. "Well whatever it was, we got a new tactic that changes the odds! Now let's smash down this wall!" Remmy said as Diesel primed the egg cannons once more.
Back in the village center, things were going from bad to worse. Shroud was nearly untouchable while Yoshi and Ethan were struggling to dodge his blasts of dark magic. "Surely you two can put forth a better effort than this. This is barely even an exercise for me." Shrouds voice echoed. Ethan then made a dash forward to which shroud shot a blast of magic at him. Barely dodging it with a swift sidestep, Yoshi was revealed behind him and swung Brim like a bat, hitting the spell back. Shroud brought forth the tome of chaos and it seemed to absorb the spell into its eye. The book then opened and from its pages a beam of magic streamed out, which the two barely dodged as well. "This is ridiculous. Those spells are insane. This guy's speed is insane. That dang book is insane!" Yoshi shouted in a short frustrated rant. Ethan's face turned cold serious. "I hate to say it, but I think the best option would be to fight insane with insane." He said as he reached for his moonstone amulet that he loosened when the battle to protect the village began. "What do you mean by that?" Yoshi questioned. "You'll see, and I advise you to stand back." Ethan said as he stepped forward toward Shroud. "So, the rabbit seeks to fight me alone? Well then, may rabbit season begin then." Shroud joked with a wicked smirk. Ethan chuckled. "There is more to me than you realize, and underestimating me will be your undoing. I now introduce you to the power of Bloodmoon. And by the way, I'm not a rabbit…" Ethan removed the amulet and dropped it aside, glaring with his blue shifting to red eyes at Shroud. "I'm a bunny."
As Ethan's eyes shifted, Yoshi sensed an intense force growing from him. "He was holding back this much power? … No, this is too much power, that amulet must've been sealing it." Yoshi said as he observed. Shroud looked impressed. "My my, so much power, if I had to guess, I would say you can barely control it when fully unleashed, am I right." Shroud said. Ethan didn't reply, only glare. The bunny then swiftly raised his cane and let out a burst of magic at the possessed dark mage. Shroud's eyes widened before he shot his own burst of magic to intercept. The colliding spells filled the air with smoke, which Ethan used to cover his approach. Before Shroud could sense him, Ethan emerged from the smoke and fired a massive burst of magic point blank, sending Shroud colliding with a nearby hut that collapsed on top of him. The bunny stood in place, not taking his eyes off the fallen hut as the smoke cleared up. Yoshi, who was watching the battle was impressed, but at the same time, worried. "This, 'Bloodmoon' power Ethan holds, it feels greatly similar to ours with Crimson." Brim stated. "But he could actually control his unleashed power to a point it seems. We cannot unleash Crimson, ever." Yoshi said in a greatly serious tone. "Yes. The risk is too high." Brim stated. Yoshi turned back to watch as a dark echoing chuckle was heard from the hut.
The rubble from the hut began to shift and dark purple light shone through the wreckage. The debris was then blasted away as Shroud unleashed a burst of magic. He lifted his arm to his mouth to wipe away some blood. "My my, this battle suddenly got interesting." The possessed mage spoke as he rose up from the destroyed hut. "That was a point blank hit Ethan did! How is he still so unharmed?!" Yoshi wondered. "This being truly must be an embodiment of chaos. This battle is not going to be easy." Brim stated. Yoshi grit his teeth. "There must be something we can… wait." Yoshi turned his gaze to the tome of chaos. "Perhaps we don't have to defeat Shroud to win this battle." He said with a smile that turned to a frown. "But we can't risk getting in Ethan's way though." Yoshi said clenching his fist. "In that case I would say our hands are tied… if I had hands." Brim joked earning a chuckle from Yoshi. "Now I wouldn't say that. We just need a way to get him to hear us out without Chaos's puppet hearing us." The pirate said. A crash was heard that brought their attention back to the battle. This time it was Ethan that was blasted into a hut… and a lightly injured Shroud was on approach to the hut. "Shoot, no time to plan now!" Yoshi said as he made a move to dash into the battle. Before he could, a white burst of magic whizzed by from off to the side and struck Shroud hard. "Leave Uncle Ethan alone!"