Link Fangirl01: So many things happening so little time, Mortis did in fact die, he can never return to the wakfu universe, but both he and lillith have power over death so he won't likely stay dead forever (don't worry Seraphin kills him eventually, a little later down their storyline). I kinda just threw Vartai in their for no good reason to be honest, it just means that they have visited that universe sometime before they came to this one.

Author's note: nothing of great consequence has happened so far from the last chapter, providing that I actually get this done today (a feat that has become more and more difficult as of late) there still won't be. However if This takes me another day to write maybe I'll have something to talk about at the end. Did you manage to get it finished all in one go future self?

Chapter 27: Darkness and Corruption

The young eliatrope hadn't expected his entire world to shift so heavily all of a sudden. Not really understanding what was happening Chibi became afraid. As though living in a nightmare he suddenly fell sideways like the ground stopped being the ground, and now it was the wall. Grougal had a slightly better understanding of what was happening since he was flying at the time, he understood that the world moved, not him.

Chibi was yelling and breathing heavily, Grougal tried to pull him back to his rightful place on the floor, but the boy was many times his own weight for reasons the little dragon could not determine. Chibi continued to yell for several minutes before something happened. A wave of emotional pressure washed over them, invisible to the eye, but there nonetheless. Chibi could feel that this had something to do with Elely and Flopin, but He didn't know what.

The emotional wave was trying to overtake his own emotions, this resulted in him calming down, but otherwise seemed ineffective on his mind. Grougal could feel that the wave existed as it washed over him, but he was not effected in the least, he was instead annoyed that such a thing even existed, let alone thought it could change his mind on anything. Unable to lash out against and intangible Grougal huffed fire and landed on the floor, only to slide down towards the wall to join his brother.

The shadowed arm that Kura'Shatal had was by far his most effective weapon, as a result Percedal had to keep a portion of his power occupied keeping his aura bright enough to repell it. This forced the tormentor to use other means of attack, mostly odd knives and various tools that Percedal didn't want to think about. It was clear that this shadowy character's bag of tricks was full of torture implements designed to inflict as much pain as possible with minimal effort.

The two clashed, Rubilax's metal slamming against the twisted knife that Kura'Shatal held. The battle was not going to end quickly, this annoyed Percedal as he preferred to overwhelm his enemy with superior power and end things as fast as possible. It also forced him to fight differently than usual, even a Iop knew to srike at the opponent's weakest point to cause maximum damage with minimal effort, the problem was: Percedal didn't know this one's weak point.

He slashed another imp that tried to grab him, then there was that problem, the imps that constantly helped him in battle. They were quite annoying.

Percedal leapt into the air and shot his arms out in a cross formation "Celestial Cross!" he yelled and from above him energy formed into cross shapes and slammed downward towards the ground with great force. The imps were culled, cutting their numbers dow to a more manageable size, and Kura'Shatal dodged, barely getting out of range in time.

That blow would have hurt Kura'Shatal thought darkly as he leapt back out of the way of the war god's crosses of light. His imps weren't so lucky, most of them were turned to ash or black goop, their power returning to him. He could only hold so many, but after they were destroyed it was some time before they could be re-summoned. The war god didn't know this, he was just annoyed at their attacks, but if he wasn't careful he would figure it out.

"Shadow Wall!" Kura'Shatal uttered as the war god came in for the kill again, a large wall of darkness rose from the ground to shield him from the blow, the blade made contact, even cut into the wall, but it wasn't enough to break it. Kura'Shatal smiled and pushed his hand forward exerting his power over the shadows. The wall slid backwards and slammed the war god into the bulkhead of the ship.

Percedal didn't like this at all, the guy could manipulate shadows themselves? It was very irritating. Percedal was crushed against the wall by another wall, this one made of shadows. He intensified his aura pooling a great amount of power into it and it began to glow a heavenly white orange. With this the shadow wall lost integrity and burst setting him free.

"Seems the weakness to his shadows is some kind of light," Rubilax pointed out to the dimwitted god.

"So it would appear." Percedal responded

The tormentor looked none too happy he seemed rather agitated that his wall of darkness didn't work. "Shadow doll." He uttered with a dark angry voice.

Above the tormentor a form began to take shape, the form of a little girl in a dark purple dress with elfin ears and purple eyes, a periwinkle shade of skin.

"Yes my master," the doll said "Why have you summoned me?"

"I need you to kill these insects." Kura'Shatal answered darkly.

The little girl's face twisted into an unnatural and disturbing smile full of ecstasy and joy "Of course my master!" she said and rushed towards Percedal.

Kain would have complained that four to one was unfair, but it was clear that Jack meant to finish this himself. He had ordered the others to keep any more Deum Tenebrea occupied as he battled with Kain. The two had a score to settle a big one, one Jack had been hunting for nearly 300 years.

"So, are we finally going to end it?" Kain said with contempt

"Only if you don't squirm away like the snake are." Jack said glaring at the dark Aetherian "Again."

"I never flee," Kain said, "I follow my orders, I retreat when necessary."

"Call it what you will," Jack said "The time for words is done."

"Not quite," Kain said "Let's play fair for once, I will tell you my orders, I have a limited time to accomplish this. Ignis has sent your flagship into disarray, it will soon destroy the planet below."

Jack looked behind him to find that kain was telling the truth as the World of twelve's gravitational pull forced the Valorous to fall towards it, a ticking time bomb waiting to destroy the planet.

"Now," Kain said "If your forces can stop the lethal blow, I will have to try another tactic, because destroying that planet is my mission. You must kill me before then if you hope to end this fued."

Jack Grimaced "You bastard!" he yelled

"Or you can let the planet die," Kain said mischievously "And we'll have all the time in the world."

Jack wasted no more words, Kain was stalling trying to run him out of the precious minutes he needed. He gritted his teeth and charged at the betrayer, bone render drawn in order to kill. Kain moved aside and parried the primordial blade by forcing Jack's hand away from him with his own. Jack's other hand glowed red and he slammed it into kain's helmet shattering it one blow. The dark aetherian seemed annoyed by this and retaliated by striking Jack with his sword and drawing blood from the immortal's side.

Kain didn't stop there however he pressed his advantage twisting his body and sending his foot towards the immortal's head, he summoned the atoms of space to create an iron shield at the boot tip to make the blow all the more powerful. Jack's head turned and his eyes glowed an eerie red before blasting out a large ray of red power that instantly melted the iron and scorched the betrayers boots before the aetherian twisted his body forcing his legs over Jack's head.

Jack grabbed the legs and pulled Kain down, head-butting him and causing a grunt of pain to come forth from his lips. Kain looked around to see that his forces were thinning, the other Armis Lumari would be converging on him soon, he had to finish this fast if he wished to accomplish his goal. Jack wasn;t making easy, he was shifting too and fro, he slashed Kain several times with bone render, nothing major, but enough to cause him to bleed and slow down.

The Valorous was no longer descending, it was actually fortunate for the aetherian, despite his power, it seemed Jack was truly intent on killing him this time, not a situation he wanted to be in, the greater immortal was feared among aetherians for he had killed many, his primordial blade, Bone render, a secret weapon that slew his foes regardless of race or power.

"It appears it is time for me to bow out." Kain said with a smile, his form disappeared into dust as he moved towards the ships at near the speed of light.

Flopin's consentration was waning, but it was okay, he had accomplished what he had set out to do, the others were working to bring the ship steady, ironically he had learned a great deal about the ship and space travel itself by combining his power with his sister's. He was, to some small degree, able to see into the minds of those aboard and had convinced enven those who were not generally needed to work on helping.

The Valorous shuddered as several ships forced themselves beneath it's left side moving to force the ship back to rights. Unphased by Flopin and Elely's powerful emotional barrage Rosaline was working with several others to restore guidance power and had taken a manual control herself, it seemed the ship would not crash after all.

The joy was short lived however as a Black vessel broke from it's formation, forcing itself down towards the planet.

The doll was a problem, it had the ability to force his life energies out of him and drink them up as though empty of fluids, this caused the doll to grow and become more powerful, though it had not reached an equal standing with Percedal, the Iop god was concerned it very well might not too long from now.

As the doll rushed at him again with knived extended the ship tilted sharply, gravity changed and the doll fell back towards the wall, Percedal fell with it and the doll's blades were forced into the chest of the immortal who wielded her.

Kura'Shatal screamed in pain, but with Percedal pressed on top of the doll for the moment, neither was able to move. Gravity shifted again, this time slightly to the right? Left? Percedal wasn;t sure which way was what anymore. But he heard voices beyond the wall, they were talking about something, they didn't sound like they were part of the crew.

A maroon colored sphere began to drill through the wall that was, for the moment, above them and three figures fell out. As this happened Gravity shifted again, this time causing the newcomers to fall near percedal's feet. He was surprised to see Eva's sister there, piled on top of Lucian, with Ush floating down far more gracefully still within his sphere of cards. The Ecaflip demi-god shook his head at the ridiculousness before him, then looked to Percedal.

"Sir Percedal?" he said in surprise "Why are you here?"

"Well," Percedal said "I'm trying very hard not to die."

"And failing!" a voice said from beneath him as he was pushed off the doll and Kura'Shatal stood, his footing uncertain as he called the doll back to him momentarily.

Lucian was more or less in the dark, he could kind of see some light and was vaguely aware of Ush talking with someone, but he was trapped under something heavy, not sure what it was. He moved his hand and felt something soft, he was able to squeeze it, but only so much hw wondered what substance he was clutching for a brief moment before deciding that it didn't matter. He pushed the weight off, and only after he did this did he realize that the weight had been Cleophee.

He was still clutching her chest as he pushed her off, that's weird he thought my chest doesn't squish like that. It took him several moments before he remember a conversation he had had with Ruel and Percedal, one where they had been talking about women and their differences from men, he remembered also being strictly warned that you should not touch a woman's chest or butt, not even as a joke.

His face turned very red with embarrassment as he recalled the converstation and his hand snapped back to his side, he began murmuring something, but was not entirely certain what to say except: "I'm sorry!"

Cleo was trying very hard to be calm, a part of her wanted to be very mad at Lucian for daring to touch her there, but another part of her was trying very hard to remember that he was a naïve four month old child who really didn't understand culture or social norms and had to be given a degree of grace.

Before either side could win out a blade slashed at her shoulder and she felt weaker somehow afterwards. she was somewhat relieved by this as it forced her to make that decision later, because Lucian's lack tact, whatever the reason, was not as important as not dying.

The Cra turned to see Ush and apparently Percedal facing off against a tall, skinny, shadowy humanoid who appeared to be controlling one creepy looking doll with blades for hands. One of the blades had new blood on it, and she was certain that it was hers. Channeling the 'rage' reaction from earlier into battle action she pulled her bow back readying an ice arrow and letting it fly. The arrow hit the doll and froze a prtion of it's body making it clucky and heavy. This was what the Cra had hoped for as the doll plunged to the ground unable to keep its balance in the air.

Just as the group believed they were making headway there was a massive impact jostling everyone and forcing them to fall towards what now seemed to be the front end of the room, relative to the ship.

"How the devil am I supposed to do my Job," Kura'Shatal said angrily "When the pilot runs around ramming other ships!?"

The vibration of metal grinding on stone or metal was both felt and heard for several moments before the ship finally came to a stop. Kura'Shatal stood, only to be subdued by Ush Galesh who had tired of his doll and cut her strings, using his blades he forced the immortal to the ground and Percedal cut off its head. Black fluids drained from his neck as the Immortal died.

Cleophee nodded, that was done, on to the next thing. They needed a way off the ship, but none of them knew the layout, unless Percedal had somehow come across information on this, though the Iop was just as unlikely as her to be able to decipher it.

Lucian had been watching, but his face was still red with embarrassment, Cleo was fortunate no one else had been watching, she decided to once again bury this and concentrate on something else, primarily getting out of this ship.

"Well, I suppose this would come in handy now." Ush said as he pulled a lightly glowing red object from his robe. The object was rectangular, but not very thick and had metal cylinders at each end.

"I picked this up from one of the officers we fought earlier" He stated "It looks like some sort of map, perhaps it will help us get out of this place."

Percedal looked at the object "Aren't maps usually made of paper?" he asked.

"On our world yes," Ush answered "But we know nothing of the people who work for Achron and Seraphin, perhaps they make their maps from other materials, materials that don't exist in the world of twelve."

"Paper would be simpler," Percedal said

Lucian watched this debate from his position "What's paper?" he asked.

This earned him an odd look from Ush and Percedal, but Cleophee actually giggled aloud at the prospect of his lack of knowledge.

"What?" he asked "What's so important about paper, what even is it?"

Cleo started laughing and Ush and Percedal looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders.

Yugo was frustrated, Adamai had taken him towards the space battle only to pull him back when they discovered the flagship falling towards the planet, they had aided in bringing the ship back to its proper position. They had gotten word to other ships which had wedged themselves under the Valorous' engines, forcing the ship back to rights before the engine turned back on keeping the ship steady once again.

Afterwards one of Achron's ships had thrown itself into the world of twelve, it had been far too small to destroy the world, but it had certainly caused a lot of damage. He was staring at It from above, Jack floated down to join his new friends.

"Curse that damn Kain!" he said earning Yugo's attention, "he's attempting to destroy your world, by smashing his own ships into it."

"What?" Yugo said "We can't let him!"

"Don't worry," Jack said "Even he won't be moving for a little bit after that crash, we have a bigger problem."

Like a rocket The golden glowing form of Seraphin shot down to the World of twelve and collided in a field nearby causing a massive crater to form. He was followed quickly by Achron who slammed his knee into the other aetherian's gut forcing a scream out of him. Yugo and Jack could hear the loud snap of Seraphin's ribs breaking from their position below the clouds.

"We can't let him remain here," Jack said "He will destroy your world by his mere presence, it is a dark and corrupting one."

"Then we have to stop him!" Yugo said enthusiastically.

"Are you mad!" Adamai said "Seraphin beat everyone we had, everyone! Even you couldn't match his power, and this guy is killing him! How do you expect to fight that?"

"I don't know, but I have to!" Yugo said "I can't let him take away everything that is precious to me!"

"I don't want to lose again brother!" Adamai said "I already did once, my own fault, but this time, this time there would be nothing I could do."

"There is something you can do adamai." Yugo said "You can fight with me this time, at my side, instead of bickering like we did last time. This time it's all or nothing, even you have to see that, if we do nothing we lose our world."

"But-" Adamai started

"I'm not waiting." Yugo said as they watched Achron's arm raise up, the dark aetherian looked different, more human, his skin tone had changed as had his hair and eye color. He held a sword in his raised hand and was preparing to bring it down on the light aetherian's head.

Yugo dashed away disappearing in a flash of blue, like a bolt of lightning he rushed at the dark aetherian a sonic boom blasting out as he instantly broke the sound barrier. Adamai looked a jack with concern.

"Don't look at me," he said "We immortal's can't fight all your battles."

Adamai grimaced, he knew he what he had to do, and he didn't like it.

Achron stood, finally victorious over this stupid ignorant brat that called himself "guardian". It was about damn time he got rid of this nuisance once and for all. He'd finally be able to concentrate his forces on real threats, like Canis' Order of the wolf. This would-be replacement for Leonus would be gone, and Achron could once again force the others into obscurity and he destroyed the omniverse from the inside out.

He raised Mordred high ready to strike down his enemy once and for all. That was ehn something terrifyingly powerful hit him. Like a drill it slammed into his body and ripped through his flesh carving a hole in his belly and cauterizing the wound as it went. The waves of unbearable pain shot through his body like lightning. His hand dropped his sword and he bent over in pain as whatever it was exited his body and landed gracefully on the ground behind him.

"What," he croaked out angrily "What was that?"

Yugo didn't think he just acted summoning two wakfu blades this time and using his aura to spin like a bullet. He shot towards his target at his fastest speed, a mute world quicly growing white, but he felt when he hit him, drilling through the dark aetherian. As he exited he twisted his body and landed on his feet dispersing his blades and trying to stop himself with his hands. His finger burned red with friction as he came to a stop.

Achron seemed to wonder what had happened he was in the process of asking when he let out a terrifying scream, a sound of such pure horror Yugo stood still, shocked beyond movement by it's sound. It was not a scream that help pain, it was a scream of hatred and frustration and rage, mixed together in a boiling pot.

The dark aetherian turned to face his new enemy as the wound he made began to bleed again, the cauterization wearing off. Black muck began to fill the hole forming organs, then veins and arteries. Yugo watched at nerves and muscles grew into place anf skin grew over it, brand new as though the wound had never occurred.

"You," Achron growled out in anger "Who are you? What right do you have to strike me!?"

Yugo stood, he sensed his brother approaching "I am Yugo the Eliatrope," he said "Firstborn of the goddess of life and the god of destruction, twin to the great dragon Adamai!" he summoned his blade, he was actually surprised at himself, this was not something he often did, perhaps Seraphin was rubbing off on him. "And I'm here to kill you and end your reign of terror!"

Achron stared for a moment, as though he couldn't comprehend what he was told, then he let out a dark and foreboding laugh, Adamai arrived and stood at Yugo's side as the laughter increased.

"You are mere deity at best little gnat!" he said "I am the supreme conqueror, the king of all Aether! How do plan to end me, little gnat?"

Yugo watched his enemy, everything around him seemed warped and distorted, the ground his feet stood on turned black and died, the air that touched him became like ashen dust using wakfu vision he could see more. To Yugo the very Rivers of Wakfu that traveled through the skies, and the earth, and all living things turned black as soon as they touched him, little by little this being's very precesce was disrupting and corrupting his world.

"I don't know," Yugo said "But I will end you and save my world!"

Achron smiled "You will try, and you die as you do."

And so the final battle begins. Yugo and Adamai vs Achron, the fate of the world hangs in the balance and the greatest enemy ever fought now brings his destruction and corruption to the world of twelve. Can our heroic duo face the champion of darkness and win?

Author's note: No past self, I did not, because life sucks and I wanted to watch Naruto, A LOT. Too much work, finished this on my day off from it. I'm getting excited now though, this battle will be the last, we are now in the home stretch as they face off against the ultimate enemy.

Also, I feel that to some degree I am forcing some of these details out, I wanted all this to happen, but I'm not sure if it's happening as naturally as it should. Kain still has to be fought and defeated. I think I'll concentrate mostly on that next chapter as it will bring some more character development to Elely, Flopin and Lucian. The rest of the Brotherhood also has to make it to the world of twelve and at this point I'm afraid I might have to dues ex machina that part, bleh, I hate dues ex machina, I feel like it's cheating.