Chapter 8: The Punishment

It has been three days since the night Riolu and Maractus learned the truth about Zorua's deal. Zorua and Riolu have been training nonstop, trying to get themselves stronger. However, the Underworld has been getting prepared for their invasion of the living world.

It is now morning and Zorua starts to open his eyes. After he opens his eyes, he has a confused expression on his face as he sees Riolu and Mienfoo looking out the window with worried expressions on their faces. Zorua asks with a worried expression on his face, "What's going on outside?"

Riolu looks right at Zorua with a sad expression on his face as he says, "It's Maractus… she's…" Zorua's eyes widen with fear as he says, "No don't tell me!" Zorua quickly gets out of his bed, looks out the window, and sees Maractus out in front of the cabin, standing before an angry mob.

Zorua asks with a worried expression in his eyes, "What the devil is going on out there? What's with all of those Pokemon?" Riolu looks directly at Maractus's back as he says with a look of sadness in his eyes, "I'm afraid she's telling them about your deal with the devil."

Zorua has a shocked look on his face and he looks directly at Maractus with the same expression on his face. But when he got a good look at Maractus, his eyes widen with fear when he sees black aura radiating out of Maractus's body.

Zorua looks directly at Riolu with a hopeless look on his face, "Wh-what are we going to do about that?" Before any of them can reply, all of their attention falls on Maractus when they hear her yell out, "And now… I shall sacrifice myself for you all to believe that Zorua and Riolu are Darkrai's apprentices!"

Riolu has a shocked expression on his face as he sees Maractus grab a two bladed scythe out of the shadows and holds the blades up to her neck. The crowd goes into an uproar of anger as they see Maractus taking her own life right in front of them by beheading herself.

Her blood covers the windows and Zorua, Riolu, and Mienfoo jumps back with frightened expressions on their faces. Mienfoo has an overwhelmed look on her face as she repeats the words, "Oh god, oh god… why's this happening to us?"

While Mienfoo goes through a panic, dark Riolu appears from the shadows behind Mienfoo with his scythe in his hands. Zorua, Riolu, and Mienfoo looks right at dark Riolu with shocked expression on their faces and Mienfoo lets out a scared scream.

Dark Riolu grabs a hold of Mienfoo by locking her in front of him with the hilt of his scythe. The blades are pointing right at her neck and Riolu and Zorua are frozen in place. Dark Riolu looks malevolently at Zorua and he says to him with a vengeful smile on his face, "Zorua… you are hereby to face serious punishments for turning your back on Lord Darkrai and disobeying orders."

Zorua's eyes widen with fear as he says, "N-no… you've already killed Maractus… please don't kill Mienfoo!"

Dark Riolu has a serious expression on his face as he says, "Your punishments go way farther than you can ever imagine. Not only have you turned your back on Lord Darkrai, but you have accepted Arceus's aura into your body, and punishment for that is…"

Before dark Riolu could finish his sentence, Riolu quickly appears in front of dark Riolu and grabs a hold of the hilt of the scythe. He slowly pulls the scythe back to where the blades move away from Mienfoo's neck and Riolu says with a serious expression on his face to Mienfoo, "Get away from him, Mienfoo!"

But as Mienfoo tries to get away, her eyes widen with shock when she feels a frightening force coming from behind her. When she looks back, her eyes widen with fear when she sees dark Riolu's left hand inside her body. Dark Riolu smiles malevolently as he says, "Demon Merge: Underworld Overshadow!"

Riolu's eyes widen with fear when he sees dark Riolu disappear instantly into Mienfoo's body. Riolu loses his grip on the scythe as he jumps back away from Mienfoo, who was about to grab Riolu by the neck.

After Riolu lands right next to Zorua, Mienfoo bends down and picks up the scythe. Riolu has a serious expression on his face as he sees a meager amount of black aura form out of Mienfoo's body. Mienfoo smiles malevolently as she says with her voice and dark Riolu's voice combining, "Now… if you excuse me…"

Mienfoo faces the front of the cabin and points her scythe straight at the walls. Mienfoo lifts her scythe up in the air and she finishes with, "I'm going to let you two take care of things from here…" Mienfoo swings her scythe down and fires a wave of destructive energy at the front of the cabin. The wave hits the walls and an explosion of debris and smoke covers the air outside.

Zorua and Riolu are blinded by the dust. After the dust clears away and they both open their eyes, they both have shocked expressions on their faces as they see the angry mob chasing them down with pitchforks and torches. Riolu and Zorua panic and they quickly flee out of the destroyed cabin, running as fast as they possibly can into the forest.

As they ran through the snow covered forest, Riolu looks back and sees the angry mob chasing them both down with angry looks on their faces. Riolu looks straight ahead with a serious look on his face and he says with a troubled look on his face, "Zorua,"

Zorua looks right at Riolu with a serious look on his face while having tears of guilt rolling down his cheeks, "We have no other choice but to defend ourselves from them." Zorua has a shocked expression on his face as he asks, "Riolu… you don't mean…"

Before he could finish his sentence, he sees large amounts of white aura exploding out of Riolu's body. Riolu is a look a sadness in his eyes as he replies, "I'm afraid so, Zorua. We need to get this mob to back off…"

Zorua looks directly at the white aura with a surprised look on his face when he sees a Thunder Plate forming out of the white aura. Zorua asks Riolu as the plate forms into Riolu's body, "Should I use my power as well, Riolu?"

Riolu shakes his head no and he replies as large amounts of electricity bursts out of the white aura, "No… I just need you to protect yourself from this attack, for I have no control of who it attacks…" Riolu stops running and faces the mob of Pokemon as they run straight towards him.

Zorua keeps on running and finds a rock to hide behind. After Zorua gets out of the way, Riolu points right at the mob of Pokemon and he says to them before attacking, "Listen to me, everything that you've just heard was a lie! We are not apprentices of Darkrai!"

But the mob doesn't listen and are about to attack Riolu. Riolu closes his eyes and he sighs deeply. He exhales the words, "Please forgive me, Arceus…" When Riolu opens his eyes, a massive discharge of lightning blasts out of the white aura and strikes the mob of Pokemon with a massive blow.

The trees surrounding Riolu comes crashing down and burns as the powerful lightning strikes comes into contact with them. The rock Zorua is hiding behind gets hit and large chunks of the rock crumble away.

Zorua looks straight ahead at the forest behind Riolu and his eyes widen when he sees an group of demons running straight towards them. Zorua has a worried expression in his eyes as he thought, "With that many demons in a group…" The large electrical discharge ends and Riolu rushed towards Riolu.

Most of the angry mob Pokemon fled, but some got caught by the discharge and died where they lie. As the Thunder Plate forms out of Riolu and forms back into the white aura, tears of sadness rolls down Riolu's cheeks as he says, "I'm sorry…"

Zorua yells out at Riolu as he ran towards him, "Riolu, behind you!" When Riolu looks back with the white aura forming back into his body, his eyes widen with terror when he sees a fifty foot demon the size of a building walking straight towards them.

Riolu asks as he starts to run with Zorua away from the giant demon back towards the village, "How are we supposed to fight something that big?" Zorua has a serious expression on his face as he answers, "It'll be dangerous on my part, but there is one way!"

Zorua and Riolu look at each other straight in the eyes and Zorua says in a serious tone, "I can use my demon form to take the giant down. I just need you to keep me under control during the process."

Riolu has a worried expression in his eyes as he replies, "Alright. Just don't go into a killing spree and go after me." Riolu connects a white aura thread at Zorua's chest. After he does that, Zorua has a shocked expression in his eyes as he feels a massive burst of black aura explode out of his body.

While Zorua's claws, teeth, and horns grew sharper, he glows black and instantly transforms into Riolu. Riolu watches with surprise in his eyes and he thought while seeing Zorua jumping up in the air straight towards the giant demon's face, "Zorua… you transformed into me? But why didn't he transform into Darkrai like he did before?"

The demon looks down at both Zorua and Riolu, stops walking, and lets out a menacing roar. Zorua has a serious expression in his demon like eyes and he thinks, "I can feel it… the Hell Spirit Blade is trying to take control of me. But,"

the giant demon tries to grab a hold of Zorua, but Zorua ends up using Night Slash like a drill and slices right through the demon's hand. The demon lets out a frightful roar and Zorua finishes, "If I keep on focusing my aura on Riolu's, I'll be able to keep control…!"

Before he could finish his sentence, Zorua's eyes widen with shock when he sees his arms transform into Darkrai's arms and hands. Darkrai's hair grows out of the top of Zorua's head while still in the Riolu form.

Zorua has a worried expression on his face as he thinks, "I need to finish this in one final blow!" Zorua reaches the giant demon's face and pierces his Darkrai claws into the demon's face around one of the giant eyes.

Zorua stares into the demon's eyes and he says in the demon language while black aura flows out of his eyes and into the demon's eyes, "Now die… Underworld Illusion: Death's Rampage!" The giant demon's eyes widen with shock as its entire body caught on fire.

The fire is the color blue and black and red cracks starts to form all over the demon's body. Zorua quickly disappears from the demon and reappears right next to Riolu in a flash.

Zorua yells out while running with his body turning back to its normal form while staying as a Riolu, "Let's get the hell out of here!" Riolu runs alongside Zorua and looks back at the giant demon. Riolu's eyes widen with shock as he sees the giant demon cracking like broken glass.

Zorua quickly Riolu into the forest as the demons shatters completely and an ocean of blood pours out and covers a 100-kilometer radius of the island. The trees of the forest come crashing down as the impact of the tidal wave of blood slams right into the trees.

Zorua transforms back to his original body and he says to Riolu as they are being chased down by a tidal wave of blood, "We need to get off of this island now! It won't be safe here anymore with these bastards chasing up down!"

Riolu looks right at Zorua with a serious expression on his face and he replies, "I know, and I've got the perfect place for us to go!" Zorua looks right at Riolu with a surprised expression in his eyes and he asks, "Really, where should we go?"

Riolu replies, "It involves going overseas to a special type of island. I'll explain to you once we get onto the ship!"

Zorua looks back at the tidal wave of blood with a serious expression on his face and he says, "I hate to tell you this, but there's no way we can get off of this island with this tidal wave of blood chasing us down!"

Riolu has a serious expression on his face as he replies with white aura forming out of his body, "I get the idea!" When Zorua looks up at the plate forming out the white aura, he has a confused expression on his face when he notices that it's just a clear plate with blue aura flowing from within it.

Zorua asks while the plate forms into Riolu's body, "What the hell kind of plate was that?" Riolu answers while picking up Zorua off of the ground, "You'll see right now!" Riolu's has massive amounts of white aura flowing out of his feet and his speed increases dramatically.

In a few seconds, the tidal wave of blood is two thousand feet behind them. Zorua shuts his eyes. When he opens his eyes the next second, his eyes widen with surprise when he notices that they have already reached the beach that would have usually taken a Pokemon two days to reach from the village.

The plate forms out of Riolu's body and he says while the white aura takes form back inside his body, "It's time to get off of this island." Riolu puts Zorua back down onto the snow and they both run straight towards a ship at a dock.