(Chapter Thirty-Three! That was some epic stuff last chapter, huh? References to Soul Eater, the dub of Sonic X, my high school buddy's Sonic fic The Fastest Thief Alive, etc. And it's only getting bigger!
Well, my aunt has lung cancer and had to have half her left lung taken out, but she's doing fine, and it's just one day after the operation!)
this is surprising.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE:
Who The Hell Do You Think We Are?
no spiral race has ever made it this far, said the Anti-Spiral, their five-hundred-trillion glints of eyes directed on the black knight burning with emerald hellfire - flames of Spiral spirit - with nothing but fear in their gestalt mind. when violated with such potent spiral power, it is not surprising that the möbian messenger was made irregular.
Tails, Super Galaxy Freedom Emerl, Typhoon Freedom Emerl, and Freedom Emerl itself somewhere behind Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's left eye, was mildly disturbed. He had hoped that, by forming Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl outside the galaxy that contained the Anti-Spiral homeworld, that the voice would only emanate from the galaxy below. However, the Anti-Spiral's bleak chorus still came from every direction.
A flicker of blue flames appeared from the galactic arm which contained Avalon.
Then a flare which reached the galactic core.
Then an inferno which engulfed the entire galaxy.
as you wish.
A singular red eye with a bulging black pupil emerged from the galaxy's core.
Four spiny hands emerged around it, followed by black metallic arms with more segments and elbows than any human arm.
The arms grabbed the edges of the great blue fire that engulfed the galaxy, pulling out the ridged torso that connected them, the single red eye clenched in a pair of jaws in the center of its chest, a second and larger fanged mouth below that, which clutched a ball of blue fire within. Two of the arms attached to the demon's pelvis, on either side of a segmented finned tail, in lieu of legs.
And atop its shoulders, a black head, with horns in place of a crown, its jaws hanging open like a predator prepared to devour its prey.
we will battle you on an even playing field, the great dark queen said, using the same form that you find such comfort in.
The dark queen hovered before the black knight, blue flames leaking out of every joint in her body. All four of her fists clenched murderously, her three eyes burning with rage.
あゔぁたー･おぶ･あゔぁろん
avatar of avalon
"What do they mean?" Tails asked uncertainly.
Lucus Darkoak appeared in his eye.
"It is their way," he said. "They are attempting to place us in absolute despair by fighting and defeating us on equal terms."
A brown-furred, black-haired lynx in a purple dress decorated with spiraling lines appeared in Tails's other eye. Tails did not know her, but judging from the sniper rifle that rested across her lap, he could guess.
"So, it is a battle to the death between the forces of evolution and stagnation," Nicole said. "Interesting. I feel humbled being part of this."
Tails gaped. As did Sally, her face appearing on a screen besides Nicole's.
"Lucus..."
"Nicole..."
"Your body is..." Tails and Sally said together.
Nicole's hands left the controls to her Emerl, and she stared at them as though she could not believe her eyes. Her hands went to her face, and she said, "Is this... real?"
Lucus Darkoak said, "This is a Super Spiral Universe, where thought is given form. This body may be temporary, so I would very much like to join you in this fight."
Tails smiled.
"I would be honored."
"Chao!" squeaked Kukku.
Nicole looked to Sally.
"Sally, I may only be a few hours old, but I hope that this body of mine is not temporary. This is a fascinating experience. For the time being, I would like to fight, not as your weapon, but as your partner."
Sally smiled back at Nicole.
"Nothing would make me happier."
In the Emerl beside Tails's - which, at this scale, "directly beside" still meant hundreds of light-years in distance - Cosmo curled her fingers around the controls, somewhere behind Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's right eye. Lucus's face appeared beside her.
"Cosmo... I know that I cannot face you as a father after all that I have done, but... you have done well."
Cosmo smiled, bowing her head.
"Thank you, Father."
A surprisingly gentle smile appeared on Lucus's face.
Shadow appeared beside the image of the former bio-computer.
"Have you been awoken from your two-thousand years of doldrums, Helix King?" he asked.
"I am no king," replied Lucus. "Right now, I am but a simple warrior. Just as you are, Shadow."
"Yes, sir!"
And the showdown commenced.
Beings of such size would ordinarily be impossible to move, never mind constructing on the time scales of any stretch of possibility or on the quantities of mass in any given universe. As an object approaches higher speeds, it requires more and more energy. To reach light-speed, it would take a literally infinite amount of energy for even the tiniest particle of mass.
Both sides had more than infinite energy.
The Great Freedom Fighters had twenty-two Emerls - twenty-two Spiral Power amplification machines - each piloted by exceptional specimens of the Spiral.
The Anti-Spiral had powerful probability alteration algorithms on their side.
The two titans crossed the void between galaxies to face each other (the Avatar of Avalon slithering along on its tail).
First by walking.
Then by jogging.
Then by running.
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl brought back its right fist.
The Avatar of Avalon brought back its left fist.
Their fists collided...
Slid off each other...
And struck their opponent in the face.
Galactic cross counter.
The resultant explosion of force could have smashed Möbius's galaxy to nebulae.
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl and the Avatar of Avalon were blasted backwards from each other. Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl swung a leg around to try to strike the Avatar of Avalon across the face, but the Anti-Spiral mecha grabbed the leg and, spinning in place horizontally, brought a lower arm around, smacking the Great Freedom Fighter mecha several galaxy spans down. The Avatar of Avalon then swung its tail around like an axe, preparing to cut Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl in two. The Great Freedom Fighters dodged...
And a hand grabbed Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's foot, hoisting it into the void, flailing it around violently, with the explicit intent of ripping the human pilots apart with violent faster-than-light-to-zero-in-point-two-seconds jerks.
Is This All You Have... The choir of the Anti-Spiral's voices had now risen to an earsplitting din. SPIRAL RACES?
The Avatar of Avalon hurled Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl aside with a powerful punch to its armored head.
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl tumbled helplessly through the void, trailing green flames as it destroyed scores of galaxies.
The Avatar of Avalon let out a mad, witch-like cackle, hundreds of points on its body glowing with ornate red filigree, opening fire with killing light.
The eyes on six of the faces on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's body lit up green, and a green galaxy-shaped energy shield shielded Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl from the enemy blasts.
But it was weakening rapidly.
Tails grunted in pain trying to keep this shield up.
Sally and Nicole appeared in his eye.
"Leave this to us!" Sally shouted.
"We'll handle this!" Nicole added.
Green light poured from Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's left hand, coalescing into a familiar shape:
A galaxy-sized version of Nicole's sniper rifle mode. It had helical designs down the barrel.
Sally and Nicole, manifesting sniper rifle controls in place of their Emerls' typical hand controls, aimed the Tengen Toppa Sniper Rifle at the Avatar of Avalon's head.
"Sally, wait! Look!" Nicole said, zooming in on the pale-blue crystal set into the Avatar of Avalon's forehead.
Inside, they could see a small sphere that was still larger than any star that existed.
"Is that a...?" Sally pondered, as she and Nicole pulled the trigger.
The crystal cracked, chunks of it blasting away, revealing...
"It can't be...!" Nicole pondered.
Cosmo appeared on Sally and Nicole's main screens.
"That is! It's the Anti-Spiral homeworld: Avalon!"
"What...?" Tails gasped. The Anti-Spiral were that willing to take a risk like that?
she is exactly correct, said the Avatar of Avalon in the Anti-Spiral's voices, its attack ceasing abruptly. we anti-spiral were once a spiral race much akin to your own. but when our president merlina revealed that the evolution of spiral power would lead to the destruction of the universe, we exterminated all those who possessed what we determined to be unseemly amounts of spiral power, and sent the few surviving spiral races fleeing to the far corners of the universe.
While it was talking, the Avatar of Avalon began to reach out with its four arms, several directives running through its probability alteration algorithms:
Negating the probability of the nearby galaxies collapsing into the palms of its hands.
Enhancing the probability of those galaxies fitting neatly into the Avatar of Avalon's hands like throwing stars.
Negating the probability of those galaxies being unable to move at faster-than-light speeds when thrown.
Negating the probability of those galaxies flinging themselves apart at that velocity.
Negating the probability of those galaxies shattering harmlessly against Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's body.
Enhancing the probability of those galaxies slicing through the Spiral mecha like a knife through hot butter.
All to take four galaxies - one in each hand - and hurl them at Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl as it finished the words "far corners of the universe".
But Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl dodged, and those galaxies sliced neatly through two galaxies behind the Spiral mecha, thousands of stars going supernova in an instant.
we halted our own evolution and locked ourselves away in this pocket universe. on our homeworld, we sealed away our bodies and any hope of evolution. these lifeless forms are the symbol of our determination!
A torrent of blue fire appeared over the Avatar of Avalon's head, showing countless coffins of metal and glass, several intruments registering the life signals of each body. The view stopped on a stasis chamber containing an unclothed young woman with faded-magenta hair and pale, almost translucent skin that showed faint outlines of intricate tattooing along her shoulders and arms: Merlina daughter of Marlon Merlin's son. Ornate purple robes and a golden staff ending in a blue-green gem rested just before her stasis chamber.
For this was the state of the Anti-Spiral race: five-hundred-trillion Avalonians locked in willful stasis, their minds hooked up to create a gestalt consciousness born of their mutual desire to prevent the Spiral Nemesis. Young, old, strong, weak, male, female: all were part of the whole.
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl lunged.
"You locked away...?" it bellowed in Mighty's voice from its left thigh.
"Your friends and families...?" its left hip shouted in Espio's voice.
"Because you thought you were protecting the universe?" its left shin yelled in Vector's voice.
"That's not nice!" called out Big's voice from its right forearm.
"Take this! And this! And this!" Bark's voice boomed from its left forearm, Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's forearms splitting along mouthes that ran down to its elbows, firing off its fists. New fists were generated in bursts of Spiral Energy, and those were fired off as well.
"I'll help!" its right arm from the elbow up shouted in Cream's voice, a hail of green spurts of energy blasting out from its upper right side.
"Me, too!" its left arm from the elbow up added in Charmy's voice, its upper left side firing off blasts of Spiral power as well.
"And me!" shouted Bean's voice from its right shin, the spiral pattern inside its jaws opening and unleashing a hail of Tengen Toppa Spiral Missiles.
your efforts are futile, said the Anti-Spiral, flinging the Avatar of Avalon through the hail of attacks harmlessly. this universe is under our complete control. your chances of winning here are absolutely... ZERO!
The Avatar of Avalon brought up its upper pair of arms, forming a pair of double-hooked claymores with glowing blades the size of the torso of the mecha which wielded them, an eye on each side of the hilt, bringing them down. The Tengen Toppa Sniper Rifle was produced from its back, but sliced cleanly through.
"We'll determine our chances for ourselves!" Tails bellowed.
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl produced its own set of claymores, each also double-hooked, each also half the size of its wielder, but neither with glowing blades or eyes on their hilts, and Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl let loose a war cry in Shadow's voice as it charged the Avatar of Avalon.
A second pair of claymores appeared in the Avatar of Avalon's lower arms, and the four enemy blades parried the two hero swords.
your blades cannot touch us, taunted the Anti-Spiral.
And a flurry of swipes, parries, ripostes, and stabs unfolded.
no matter how mightily you struggle, you will never achieve all that you hope to accomplish!
Blades locked, and the opponents glared at each other between their swords.
you have Never understood the consequences of your actions!
"That's not true!" Tails returned. "We know about the Spiral Nemesis!"
but shouldn't your concerns be more... immediate? why do you fight us Now? that irregular that you are trying to save - the one you call cosmo - is nothing but a virtual lifeform that we created.
The Avatar of Avalon actually glared.
if we are destroyed, she will disappear with us!
Do You Not Understand?
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl froze, and twenty people gasped in horror and shock, faces registering mingled terror, fear, sorrow, and loss. Only Lucus and Cosmo's expressions became stony and emotionless, their eyes closed.
But no one was more paralyzed with doubt and fear than Tails.
"W... what...?"
The Avatar of Avalon violently swiped its four swords, shattering Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's blades with a shriek that made the Great Freedom Fighters' ears bleed.
failing to understand even such a basic causal relationship...
Its claymores dissipating into blue flame that receded into its ebony armor, the Avatar of Avalon lunged at Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl.
You Stumble Blindly Onwards!
The two titans trailed blue and green fire as Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl was forced through countless hundreds of unfortunate galaxies that were in its way.
Why Can You Not Understand That Such Recklessness Will Lead To The Destruction Of The Universe?
Finally, the Avatar of Avalon stopped pushing Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl, and the Spiral mecha, its emerald flames nearly extinguished now - its drive to battle put out in the most brutal way possible - remained perfectly still.
How Can You Lifeforms Drunk On Spiral Power Boast Of Having The Same Determination WE Do When You Panic At The Thought Of Killing One Irregular?
The Avatar of Avalon's face on its chest roared, a jet of blue fire lancing out into the empty void between galaxies.
Then it looked up into the whirling galaxies off in the direction they had come from, and their tone became calm again, returning to a more nostalgiac voice.
we were prepared to defend the universe by killing our former fellow spirals, and halting our bodies' evolution. do you possess resolve on par with That? Do You?
The Avatar of Avalon punched Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl in the chest. The green orb set in the Huenlonix Head clenched in the jaws in its stomach cracked deeply.
NO!
The punching continued, and instead of flickers of green flame, spurts of red energy like blood emerged.
no no no No No No NO NO NO NO NO!
The Avatar of Avalon brought back its upper right fist, which swelled to twice the size of the mecha itself...
NOT IN THE LEAST!
And punched straight through the upper jaw in Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's stomach, torrents of blood-colored flames spilling out front and back.
The Avatar of Avalon grabbed Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl by the right arm...
You Possess Neither Will!
And tore it in half down its length, red energy pouring out.
It then took the Spiral mecha's left leg...
Nor Resolve!
And drove a fist up through its ankle, smashing through bone and rending flesh, flares of crimson energy bursting out of the wound.
A great spiny hand took one side of Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's chest...
Nor REASON!
And tore it apart, tearing the great red shades to pieces.
And so the Avatar of Avalon, the greatest mecha in the Anti-Spiral's virtual databases, began to tear apart Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl, ripping its mighty arms apart, tearing its great legs asunder, smashing its shoulder guards to pulp, tearing the torso in half at the jaws, wresting the Huenlonix Head from the lower jaw and hurling it aside...
You Use Your Spiral Power To Selfishly Achieve Your Own Means, And So DROWN In It! That Is The Spiral Races' Fundamental Limitation!
At last, the Avatar of Avalon brought up the limbless torso, leaking green and red energy...
And It Is For That Reason That We Must ANNIHILATE YOU!
And tore its head off violently, a final spurt of red energy flowing from head and shoulders as Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl...
The hero of kings...
The king of heroes...
Was defeated.
And as the shattered remnants of Spiral life's last hope drifted through the void, the pilots in their Emerls succumbed to despair.
They had failed.
The Anti-Spiral had won.
Cosmo's life was forfeit.
Möbius would fall.
And as their hearts filled with sorrow for their homeworld, their latent Spiral power activated the Spiral Realm Perceptual Teleportation System and initiated a space-time bypass...
Opening a portal from the Anti-Spiral's artificial three-dimensional universe between the tenth and eleventh dimensions, back to the third dimension.
A pale blue disc could be seen through the portal.
interesting. so, that is your homeworld, is it not? the world that you yourself fled to, lucus?
The Avatar of Avalon raised its hands.
燃えてばかりでいいのかい？
With the Parliament Complex in ruin, the temporary capital building for Sonic City - and all of Möbius - was located around 121 Chestnut Lane - the residence of Elias & Meg Acorn, both off to face the Anti-Spiral in direct battle.
This way, Blaze could be on hand both as Silver's assistant - and, when he needed a lift in mood, his lover - and as a caregiver to Alexis. Of course, it was only three hours since the Super Galaxy Great Freedom had departed to defeat the Anti-Spiral, so not much was being done as of yet.
Marine was hanging laundry out on the line - it was a warm, dry, windy day out - when...
Marine's jaw dropped, and the towel fell to the lawn.
"Mates! MAAAATES!" she screamed, running back into the house.
She pushed Ash and Mina, who were overseeing the reconstruction effort from the Acorn residence as well, into Cobar, pushing them into Silver, then pushing them into Blaze (carrying Alexis).
"Whoa, Marine!" asked Mina, speaking for everyone.
"What's the big emergency?" Cobar asked anxiously.
Marine, having pushed everyone outside, pointed to the sky.
"Look! Up there!"
They did...
"What is... that monster?" Blaze breathed. Alexis, who was smiling and clapping her hands on Auntie Blaze's cheeks until now, was beginning to cry at the sight in the sky.
It was a heavily armored, demonic black suit of armor, a single red eye set in its chest, a pair of arms and a sharp, segmented tail in place of legs...
And its four arms spanned out, reaching from north to west, east to south.
"Is... is that...?" Silver stammered.
Mina, pulling out her laptop, paled.
"We're getting a reading from the Perceptual Teleportation System!" She looked at the readings for how large an object was to be expected from the Perceptual Teleportation System...
And gaped, her pupils shrinking.
"It's... it's an unbelievably huge reading! A hundred times taller than our galaxy is wide!"
"Is that... the Anti-Spiral?" Silver finished.
Straight-grooved drills sprouted from the Anti-Spiral's hands, impaling some things over Möbius's horizon that shot out red, blood-like energy.
And when these drills were brought up, they saw black-gold shreds of armor impaled on them.
And in the Anti-Spiral's upper left hand, the Anti-Spiral's upper right hand closing in upon it with a large black drill...
"It's got Emerl!" Marine gasped.
俺のＸＸＸは宇宙一
and now we have broken your spirit, your source of strength, at its most fundamental level, man of the spiral, said the Anti-Spiral, their killing drill closing in on the severed head of Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl. it is time to end this.
But a drill emerged from the blue gem in the galaxy-sized Emerl's forehead, impeding the Avatar of Avalon's drill.
"Broken my spirit...?" Tails said weakly, wiping blood from the corner of his mouth. "Who said anything about that?"
Tails did not know how, but he would resist the Anti-Spiral to the very end, and, if possible, defeat them, then use his Power of the Spiral to bring Cosmo back and beg her for her forgiveness for his basically having murdered her...
But before Tails could think of breaking free of the Avatar of Avalon's grasp, a pearl-white drill with glowing-green grooves spiraling down its length, attached to a golden staff with glowing-green helical grooves down its length, thrust itself between the Anti-Spiral's drill and Tails's, smacking the Avatar of Avalon's drill aside.
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's head sprouted stumpy arms and legs, a flare of green flame emerging from the back of its head, and it flipped away from the Anti-Spiral.
Tails looked at his savior, and gaped.
The drill was held by a white hand attached to a white forearm, with a golden elbow guard, and a grass-green arm, with shoulder guards shaped like goliath leaves. It had a green torso with a red orb at its core, a white battle skirt with green trim, white legs with green knee and ankle guards, and...
Its head was white, with two blue orbs for eyes, a green motif on the top half of its head, red drills on either side of its head - like rosebuds - and... a curtain of green flames pouring down its back like hair.
"That's right!" the Tengen Toppa Gizoid shouted in Cosmo's voice. "No matter how difficult it is, Tails will never give in!"
天元突破
ホワイトシード
Tengen Toppa
White Seed
"The Tails that I love and believe in, will never let his Great Freedom Fighters spirit be broken!"
Tails was baffled. Wasn't Cosmo by his side when Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl was defeated? Then he realized, that Cosmo had apparently taken advantage of her Messenger capability of warping to leave his side to fight for him.
And as Tengen Toppa White Seed entered a battle pose, facing the Avatar of Avalon, the Anti-Spiral spoke.
you would dare to stand against us, irregular?
"I was created by you," Cosmo said simply. "That is a fact of my destiny that cannot be changed." Tengen Toppa White Seed spun its staff around, pointing directly at Avalon, in the Avatar of Avalon's forehead. "But I can resist that destiny up to the end!"
Tengen Toppa White Seed charged.
"I'll show you that I can!"
And with a great battle cry, Tengen Toppa White Seed dodged the Avatar of Avalon's arms as they attempted to smack her aside, diving on the Anti-Spiral homeworld and preparing to impale it and end this conflict once and for all
And her concentration on keeping herself together faltered.
For a fraction of a second, but it was a significant pause.
Cosmo managed to pull herself back together before she would have dissolved into inconstituent pixels, but Tengen Toppa White Seed's impaled the eye in the Avatar of Avalon's chest instead of the Anti-Spiral homeworld. Dark-red blood spewed from the skewered eye as the face on the Avatar of Avalon's chest screamed in pain.
Cosmo attempted to pull her staff free, but a flurry of drills from the Avatar of Avalon's mouth sent her flying away, severing Tengen Toppa White Seed's left arm and knocking its staff aside.
Tengen Toppa White Seed floated helplessly through the void now.
how amusing, said the Anti-Spiral coldly, all four arms outstretched and launching a score of drills from each hand at Tengen Toppa White Seed.
Cosmo glared balefully at the drills, but the sympathetic pain of losing an arm the size of a galaxy was too great, and she could not do anything to defend herself.
No one could.
One would need about a hundred arms to block that impossible attack.
A chaotic flare of emerald-green Spiral Power appeared between Tengen Toppa White Seed and the Avatar of Avalon, and when the ebony drills passed through it, they emerged from the other end, all eighty of them caught and stopped.
The flames and their chaos came under control...
And a gleaming white torso, forty-eight faces splayed across it, appeared. Two heads, each wearing a highly decorated golden crown, sat on its shoulders.
Fifty faces total.
But the main aspect were the hundred arms emerging from the flames coming from the figure's sides and back.
天元突破
アークヘカトンケイル
Tengen Toppa
ARK-Hecatonchire
"The one you're supposed to fight..." a golden face in the middle of its chest roared in Shadow's voice. "Is me!"
The remaining twenty arms flashed green, and black swords with red blades appeared in each. Twenty flashes later, and the four-score Anti-Spiral drills were severed.
Tengen Toppa ARK-Hecatonchire faced Tengen Toppa White Seed.
"Please step back, Princess!" Shadow said.
Cosmo smiled at him over their comm channel. "Thank you, Shadow," she said.
Cutting off his comm channel, Shadow grinned to himself.
"Being able to protect the Helix Princess at the very edge of the universe..."
He thrust his Emerl's controls, his eyes glowing like green suns.
"I'VE NEVER BEEN MORE GRATEFUL FOR A TWIST OF FATE!"
Tengen Toppa ARK-Hecatonchire's remaining eighty arms produced identical black-and-red swords.
The Avatar of Avalon produced its four double-hooked claymores again, the blue flames coming out of its body expanding into a cloud, producing identical tentacle-esque arms, with identical blades. All told, the Anti-Spiral called forward forty-four more arms - and forty-four more claymores - to fight Tengen Toppa ARK-Hecatonchire.
This Will Not Work! the Anti-Spiral shouted, their blades clashing against Shadow's.
The four-dozen Claidheamh Mòr wielded by the Avatar of Avalon were much weightier - and much sharper - than the hundred Ddraig Goch blades possessed by Shadow's Tengen Toppa Gizoid. Moments later, all one-hundred of Tengen Toppa ARK-Hecatonchire's blades shattered, becoming a cloud of black and red.
"We'll see about that!" snarled the Tengen Toppa Gizoid, leaping upwards over the Avatar of Avalon...
Allowing a blue cannon and four purple rifle barrels to point directly into the Avatar of Avalon's face.
The Anti-Spiral had only just enough time - eighty-seven microseconds - from the moment of registering the appearance of the enemy cannons, to the moment that the enemy cannons fired, to calculate the exact probability change that would need to occur to ensure that, for all the galaxy-crushing power of these two Tengen Toppa Gizoids' attacks, their homeworld would survive. Their gestalt consciousness would not long survive without its bodies.
The Avatar of Avalon's head vanished in a double blast of Spiral Power, reforming moments later around its unscathed homeworld, to regard its two new opponents.
One had a yellow five-pointed star on each breast-shaped protrusion on its chest, the rest of its torso deep-blue, with a purple chassis resembling an engine around its lower waist. Green fire poured from its back, but red flames burst from the back of its head in three ponytails; the two shorter ponytails rested on its chest, braided with beads.
"Prepare yourself, Anti-Spiral!" Nicole shouted from its chest area.
"I won't let Cosmo's feelings be for nothing!" Sally shouted from its head.
And it opened fire with two four-barreled rifles latched onto its chassis.
天元突破
エイコーンキャノン
Tengen Toppa
Acorn Cannon
Its companion was mostly pink, with a blue engine-like chassis on which the cannons which took up its arms from the elbows down were affixed. From each shoulder there emerged a score of missile silos. Green flames emerged from its back, and brown fire from its head down to its waist.
"I won't let you destroy my daughter's future!" Meg yelled, thrusting the controls.
And each missile silo opened fire with Tengen Toppa Spiral Missiles, the double cannons blasting away as well.
天元突破
アレクシストライカー
Tengen Toppa
Alexistriker
Under the double barrage of Tengen Toppa Acorn Cannon and Tengen Toppa Alexistriker, the Avatar of Avalon was pinned down.
They could not move from that spot.
So...
A flare of blue fire appeared beside Tengen Toppa Alexistriker, producing a segmented arm like the Avatar of Avalon's four, and the arm lashed out knocking Tengen Toppa Alexistriker sideways into Tengen Toppa Acorn Cannon. The two Tengen Toppa Gizoids fell over, their attacks ceasing.
The barrage abated, the Avatar of Avalon grabbed a pair of galaxies and hurled them at its enemies.
Tengen Toppa Acorn Cannon's right arm turned to green fire, then to a double-barreled cannon that spiraled around itself in a double helix.
Twin missiles launched out, jaws opening with killing intent...
But the galaxy-sized missiles were sliced into four, detonating without destroying the galaxies.
The galaxies whirred into the chassis affixed to the two mechas, finally severing them.
Sally, Nicole, and Meg screamed in agony.
Another two galaxies hurled at them, the Anti-Spiral reasoned, would be sufficient to destroy them.
But two large black hands appeared in twin flashes of Spiral Power fire, attached to a forest-green torso that formed instantaneously, catching the two galaxies. It had two large faces for shoulder guards, two on its broad chest, and two between its shoulders. A pair of drills came from its feet, and green flames raged out of its back.
天元突破
ダブルブルーザー
Tengen Toppa
Double Bruiser
"What's so big about these galaxies?" growled its left head in Bark's voice.
"We've got something bigger than them..." said the right head in Big's slow voice.
"OUR APPETITES!" they bellowed, crushing the galaxies in their fists with a war cry, raising their fists in triumph.
From behind Tengen Toppa Double Bruiser - and Tengen Toppa Acorn Cannon and Tengen Toppa Alexistriker - raced another pair of Tengen Toppa Gizoids; one wide and bulky, the other slim and sleek.
A ring of green fire erupted around the Avatar of Avalon, the Anti-Spiral mecha looking about in bemusement.
Then energy attacks came from all directions. The Avatar of Avalon wrapped its four arms around itself in a makeshift cocoon.
Then something stirred in the flames, and suddenly some invisible force had ensnared one of the Avatar of Avalon's arms, wresting in away from its face.
The rest of the flames coalesced into a black gorilla-like Tengen Toppa Gizoid, with a red stripe down its back and a golden-yellow face on its chest, a small monkey face between its shoulders. It held in its hand a long spiral-design staff of gold which, with a flare of green fire from its back, struck the Avatar of Avalon across the head.
The Tengen Toppa Gizoid floated back and held its staff in a defensive pose.
天元突破
マイティーフィスツ
Tengen Toppa
Mighty Fists
"Before we joined the Freedom Fighters, we were called the Chaotix Brothers," Tengen Toppa Mighty Fists shouted in Mighty's voice, "But now, we're the Super Galaxy Chaotix Brothers! Mighty...!"
"And Espio!"
The pressure on one of the Avatar of Avalon's arms let up, and a fierce purple tyrannosaur appeared out of nothingness there, green fire flaring around the drill on its back. A goldren drill came out from between its nostrils, and its tail curled like a chameleon's.
"WE'LL MAKE YOU REMEMBER US!" the reptilian Tengen Toppa Gizoid roared.
天元突破
エスピオナウルスレックス
Tengen Toppa
Espionaurus Rex
Its fists swelling to gargantuan proportions, the Avatar of Avalon grabbed Tengen Toppa Mighty Fists and Tengen Toppa Espionaurus Rex and clenched them tightly, fissures of unimaginable scale rupturing their outer layers of Spiral steel.
What Insolence! the Anti-Spiral bellowed.
Green pulses of light began to home in on the hand holding Tengen Toppa Mighty Fists.
A lime-green Tengen Toppa Gizoid, flat as a crocodile's head, but with two large horns on either side of the small head between its shoulders, the face on its chest snarling and the flames of Spiral Energy flaring from its back as it raised two microphones.
天元突破
ベクタープライム
Tengen Toppa
Vector Prime
"Alright!" it cheered in Vector's voice. "Time for Thundering Vee~ee~ee~eee~e~eeee~~e~e~~~e~e!"
The pulses of Spiral Energy from Tengen Toppa Vector Prime's microphones caused cracks to appear in the Avatar of Avalon's fist, while repairing the fissures in Tengen Toppa Mighty Fists.
Finally, the Avatar of Avalon's upper left fist exploded, and Tengen Toppa Mighty Fists sprung free.
A golden Gizoid resembling a knight's helmet, with a smaller helmet set on its flaming shoulders, each with diagonal slats for sight, drew a pair of Japanese-style swords.
天元突破
オドネル
Tengen Toppa
O'Donnell
"Murasame Swords!" it shouted in Lobo's voice.
The blades beginning to glow white...
"WHIRLING DEATH STRIKE!"
Tengen Toppa O'Donnell spun on the spot, the blades turning into razor-sharp particles of light that cut through the Avatar of Avalon's upper right fist and sealed the ruptures in Tengen Toppa Espionaurus Rex's armor.
The Avatar of Avalon's fist shattered, and Tengen Toppa Espionaurus Rex sprung out, falling back beside Tengen Toppa Mighty Fists.
Lobo grinned in his cockpit. "Can't let you do that, Anti-Spiral."
Vector held the cigarette in between two fingers, addressing the two on the monitor beside him.
"Okay! You ready, you two?"
"Yes, Mister Vector!" Cream said cheerily, taking her Emerl's controls. "We're ready here!"
"And we're not gonna lose to 'em, either!" Charmy grinned.
The Tengen Toppa Gizoid that emerged from a flare of Spiral Power now was colored orange down the left side, and cream down the right. It had a simple yellow crown on its head, two triangle-shaped eyes on its chest, and generally resembled a streamlined Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl.
天元突破
フレメラルド
Tengen Toppa
Fremerald
The galaxy-sized Fremerald produced a Tengen Toppa Spiral Handgun in its left hand and a Tengen Toppa Spiral Rifle in its right.
The Avatar of Avalon raised its upper arms, forming fists larger than normal at the end.
You Little...!
But Tengen Toppa Fremerald tore off in a blast of emerald fire, buzzing about the Avatar of Avalon and firing at it with both weapons, dodging the Anti-Spiral mecha's flailing arms and remaining just outside of striking distance...
Before rejoining the other Tengen Toppa Gizoids, and all of them opened fire. (Tengen Toppa Acorn Cannon and Tengen Toppa Alexistriker, their chassis severed, settled for a Tengen Toppa Sniper Rifle and a Tengen Toppa Spiral Bomber, respectively.)
The Avatar of Avalon was hard-pressed defending itself against such raw fighting spirit. Where had all this come from? Was this... because of the Irregular...?
we told you that It Is Futile!
But cannonfire came from another direction.
All Tengen Toppa Gizoids were accounted for.
So...
What was...
The Avatar of Avalon turned...
And saw a Tengen Toppa Gizoid far larger than any other.
A golden dragon with purple eyes, five nostrils, and purple drills over its eyes.
And a golden-yellow horned figure riding on its back, a flag of Spiral Power held in its right hand that bore the mark of the Great Freedom Fighters, a golden sword greatly resembling Great Freedom's prow held in its left.
The now-nonexistent Great Freedom, astride a dragon-shaped Super Galaxy Great Freedom.
天元突破
グレイトフリーダム
Tengen Toppa
Great Freedom
"Yoo-hooo~o!" it cried in Bean's voice, the Tengen Toppa Great Freedom circling around the Avatar of Avalon and joining its allies.
Tengen Toppa Great Freedom's torso opened its mouth, and a thicket of missiles emerged.
"Take this! And this! And this! And thiii~is!" Bean shouted.
It Will Not Work! shouted the Anti-Spiral.
The missiles were firing wildly, none of them aiming for the Anti-Spiral.
But as each one reached the point it was supposed to detonate at, it seemed to just disappear, and then explosions wracked the Avatar of Avalon's body.
Rotor recognized this phenomenon.
And smiled.
"Hurling the Anti-Spiral's own Probability Alteration Missiles back at them?" he quipped from his Emerl. Every one of them was in an Emerl of their own in a room greatly resembling the Super Galaxy Great Freedom's No. 1 Bridge.
"That takes some real guts, Bean!" Chris chuckled.
"Good thinking," Helen said, surprised that she was saying those words to Bean of all people.
"Sure!" Bean grinned. "When it comes to spacey interruptions and pinpoint accuracy, I'm your man!"
"Tengen Toppa Spiral Engine, activate!" Lupe said, smiling.
Down below, in the Tengen Toppa Spiral Engine, the former Lucus Darkoak Head clenched the controls of G-Merl, green energy pouring out easily. "Tengen Toppa Spiral Engine, activated," he said.
Elias clasped his Emerl's controls. "Alright, let's go, Ari!"
"Got it!" Ari replied, saluting, then following suite.
"SUPER-DIMENSIONAL ANCHOR!" Elias and Ari shouted together.
The purple drills over Tengen Toppa Great Freedom's eyes launched forth, trailing lines of green energy, wrapping themselves about the Avatar of Avalon's torso tightly, the two violet-colored drills locking together on the Avatar of Avalon's back.
Tengen Toppa Great Freedom took the rope in its arms, and swung the Avatar of Avalon about, smashing it through galaxies unceremoniously.
"'I'VE GOT THE BEST WIFE IN THE UNIVERSE' SWING!"
Meg - and Tengen Toppa Alexistriker - blushed furiously, placing a hand to their cheeks, chuckling, "You dummy."
Finally, a galaxy-shaped energy shield appeared, summoned by Tengen Toppa Great Freedom's, but for a different purpose than Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl:
So that its enemy had something more solid than a galaxy to crash into.
The Avatar of Avalon smashed against it painfully, cracks appearing all over its body. One of its horns actually cracked off.
Down on Möbius, the three million people watching this spectacle unfold cheered.
The severed head of Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl hovered at the front of the group, its pilot Tails stunned by just how awesome that whole thing was that, just because Cosmo stood up, everyone else did.
天元突破
エメル
Tengen Toppa
Emerl
"Thank you, Tails," said Cosmo, appearing in Tails's eye. "You came so far to save me. I am happy with just that."
And she looked at him, and she smiled, and she had nothing but love in her gaze.
But Tails...
"Cosmo..."
She knew better than anyone that her life would be forfeit if she continued the fight. But still, she went on... Tails could only admire her spirit... But... if she went on...
Tails did not know what to do.
Except to cry.
"Tails..." Cosmo continued. "You came all this way so that you could finally do what you had to do. Isn't that right?"
Tails's burning eyes began to burn, not with tears, but with a pure gold light.
Tengen Toppa Emerl's flames reached higher than any other Tengen Toppa Gizoid's, even Tengen Toppa Great Freedom's.
"Yeah... You're right," Tails said to Cosmo.
Then he faced the Avatar of Avalon.
Just another ugly enemy to crush.
Cosmo would let him bring her back later. That's what this was about.
"Do you see, Anti-Spiral?" shouted Tengen Toppa Emerl in Tails's voice. "This is my resolve, and the resolve of the Super Galaxy Great Freedom Fighters! We'll say it as often as it takes!"
And the Tengen Toppa Gizoids roared in the Super Galaxy Great Freedom Fighters' voices, in a single voice that shook the entire Anti-Spiral dimension:
"WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?"
The Anti-Spiral bellowed furiously, the entire half-a-quadrillion of their race letting loose a mad roar as they were faced with such an indomitable Spiral race. The blue flames burning within the Avatar of Avalon now burned blood-red.
But when they spoke again, they were calm.
Murderously calm.
to think you could manifest spiral energy within our closed-off universe. so... that is how you were able to escape the extradimensional labyrinth.
but... This Isn't Over Yet!
The Avatar of Avalon attempted to reach out and crush Tengen Toppa Emerl, but Tails's Tengen Toppa Gizoid produced a silver drill from its fist and punched a hole through the Avatar of Avalon's palm.
"Of course it isn't!" Tails shouted.
Rotor appeared in Tails's eye.
"Tails! In the Tengen Toppa Spiral Engine!"
"What?" Tails asked.
Rotor's image was replaced with a golden figure, its shoulder guards closed over its headless shoulders, its red shades intact, its arms and legs producing galaxy-sized Giga Drills, a blood-red cape flowing down its back... the Huenlonix Head clenched between its jaws...
天元突破
フリーダム
Tengen Toppa
Freedom
"Ah! I gotcha!" Tails said.
Tengen Toppa Emerl's legs retracted, replaced with a great drill.
"Tengen Toppa Emerl... IMPACT!"
And, its green flames becoming a comet, Tengen Toppa Emerl shot like a bullet down Tengen Toppa Great Freedom's gullet.
With a twitch of Lucus's will, Tengen Toppa Freedom pulled its arms and legs free, its shoulder guards moving aside as it blasted towards Tengen Toppa Emerl.
They impacted.
Gold darkened nearly to black along Tengen Toppa Freedom's body, its arms and legs lengthening, and its cape turning into a mane of emerald fire.
"Universal Combining!" Tails and Lucus roared in unison. "TENGEN TOPPA FREEDOM EMERL!"
Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl, reborn, put its right fist in the air as Tails yelled...
"TENGEN TOPPA..."
A silver drill five times the size of Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl emerged from its right fist, pointing itself out the direction that Tengen Toppa Emerl came...
"GIGA DRILL DRIVER!"
The Tengen Toppa Giga Drill spun wildly, the green flames bursting from Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's back showering the Tengen Toppa Spiral Engine with power as it shot back out of Tengen Toppa Great Freedom's mouth...
"EAT THIS!" Tails shouted.
NEVER! cried the Anti-Spiral, producing an identical Giga Drill, save for the straight grooves down its length and its black colorization, and thrusting it at the Tengen Toppa Giga Drill.
The drills shattered on contact with each other.
Each produced another from opposite arms.
But these drills shattered against each other as well.
you would go on fighting, even knowing what you know now?
"Of course we would!" Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl shouted in Tails's voice, forcing more Spiral Power into this next Tengen Toppa Giga Drill. Sweat dripped down his face as he forced more and more into this, to keep it from shattering against the Avalon Giga Drill. "The future we're trying to grab for ourselves... is not the future you set out for us!"
The Tengen Toppa Giga Drill shattered, as did the Avalon Giga Drill.
Tails produced yet another Giga Drill from Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's opposite arm, while the Avatar of Avalon produced a pair of Avalon Giga Drills from its lower pair of arms.
"It's the future we chose, that we chose for ourselves!" Tails persisted, despite the strain of having to hold back two Avalon Giga Drills. "Our tomorrow, one out of all the infinite universes!"
As he spoke, the Avatar of Avalon brought back its top two arms, each of which produced a third and fourth Giga Drill. With a crash that shook hundreds of galaxies apart, the number of Avalon Giga Drills pressing down on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl's one doubled.
But the Super Galaxy Great Freedom Fighters' ultimate mecha, the king of heroes, the hero of kings, was advancing, pushing the Anti-Spiral back!
"We'll keep moving forward!" Tails bellowed. "We'll keep fighting, and protect the universe, no matter what! We'll stop the Spiral Nemesis, too!"
This proclamation, more than anything, broke the Anti-Spiral's cool.
YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY DO ALL THAT!
The Avalon Giga Drills shattered, one after the other.
"Just watch us!" Tails yelled, bringing the Tengen Toppa Giga Drill back and socking the Avatar of Avalon with his other fist. The Avatar of Avalon reeled back.
On Avalon, the Anti-Spiral's gestalt consciousness was beginning to fray. Their trillions of minds were becoming unsettlingly dissonant from each other, something no Spiral race had ever done in their two-thousand years.
They had to finish this quickly and get time to settle down.
such haughtiness coming from a lowly life form that we kept suppressed!
The Avatar of Avalon retreated to a safe distance of three billion light-years and grabbed another four galaxies, but instead of hurling them at the Super Galaxy Great Freedom Fighters...
We Will Make You... REGRET YOUR ARROGANCE!
It crashed them together and compressed their energy tightly inwards into a singular space smaller than a hydrogen atom, and the resultant ball of energy was infinitely brighter than the sun, and no one could look on it even with their light compensators at full output.
"I'm picking up an unfathomably large energy reading!" Chris cried from the Tengen Toppa Great Freedom.
"It's on par with the birth of the universe!" Rotor added, sweating nervously.
"It's... almost like..." Helen stammered.
"The Big Bang...!" Tengen Toppa Acorn Cannon gasped in Nicole's voice.
"And they're gonna hit us with that...?" Tengen Toppa ARK-Hecatonchire said in a shaky Shadow's voice.
The Avatar of Avalon clenched both of its jaws - several teeth snapped from the force - and brought its four arms over its head...
INFINITY... BIG BANG... STORM!
And thrust the ball of energy at the Super Galaxy Great Freedom Fighters, the inferno blazing in a straight beam of rainbow-colored energy from the Avatar of Avalon's hands. The Tengen Toppa Gizoids' pilots each contributed to raising a singular shield of Spiral Power...
But it was not enough.
The Infinity Big Bang Storm broke through like it was nothing, and when it flared out past the Tengen Toppa Gizoids, it split apart into countless millions of galaxies.
BURN IN THE EVERLASTING HELLFIRE OF THE UNIVERSE'S GENESIS! BECOME UTTERLY ANNIHILATED, DOWN TO THE VERY LAST! SCRAP! OF! DNA!
The Tengen Toppa Gizoids were breaking apart under the universe-creating energy.
"Hang in there, Cream!" Charmy grunted through his comm with Cream, in the right half of Tengen Toppa Fremerald.
"You too, Charmy!" Cream fought back tears of pain as she returned Charmy's sentiments to said bee in the left half of Tengen Toppa Fremerald.
"Ahh, FUCK!" Tails shouted, clenching the controls of Emerl tightly. But, no matter how hard he tried, the Tengen Toppa Spiral Shield would not unfurl again.
"This is bad!" Lupe grunted. "We can't take much more of this!"
インフィニティ・ビッグバン・ストーム
The current most powerful people on Möbius stood outside of 121 Chestnut Lane, gazing up at the twister of seven-colored energy that was threatening to tear the Freedom Fighters apart.
"Tails..." Marine breathed.
"Knuckles..." gasped Blaze.
"Rotor..." Cobar sighed, clasping his hands in prayer.
"Don't give up!" Silver was clenching the front railing like a lifeline, and he had never looked more determined in his life. "It looks bad, but it'll take more than this to finish them!"
つづく
To be continued...
次回予告
Next Episode Preview
All the fighting spirit in the universe doesn't matter in the ultimate fight in the universe...
If you don't believe in yourself and your comrades.
Next time on Tengen Toppa Freedom Emerl: "Try Believing In Us Spiral Races".