Weeks of physical training and preparation led to this. Vlad was prepared to fight the Ghost King for his crown. Unlike the first time he went after the crown, Vlad left the Ring of Rage behind. He couldn't risk Pariah getting his hands on it, as that would make him nearly unstoppable.
Plasmius opened up his ghost portal and went inside. As he traveled through the mysterious green realm, he noticed little activity in the normally chaotic dimension. He didn't let that bother him though and brushed it off as he continued on his journey. Finally, after what felt like hours he reached the Ghost King's tomb. He walked through the darkened tomb before reaching the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep.
Vlad slowly opened the lid to the sarcophagus. The tomb glowed brightly as the seal was opened. Maybe if he were lucky, the situation would play off exactly as it did in the simulation. Nope. As soon as Plasmius reached out his hand to grab he crown, Pariah's arm shot up and grabbed his wrist in a bone crushing grip. Pariah then tossed Plasmius into the wall. Plasmius smacked hard against the wall, which would've knocked the breath out of him if he were in human form, and landed directly on his head.
"Vlad Plasmius, you never seem to learn, do you?" Pariah snarled as he sat up and climbed out of his coffin. "Even though you were trying to steal what's mine, you did set me free so I'll reward you with a quick, painless death"
Plasmius wasn't going to wait for his next attack and slammed into the Ghost King at full force. Surprisingly he managed to knock Pariah off his feet and onto the ground.
"I don't think so!" Plasmius exclaimed arrogantly.
"OK, I was going to be merciful but I think I'll show you just how sadistic I can be" Pariah said before grabbing his mace and tossing it at his opponent.
Plasmius easily dodged, ducking with plenty of time to spare.
"Have you really lost that much of your power that you have to resort to using that desperate move against me" Vlad gloated. The mace swung back around straight towards his head, only for the egotistical billionaire to catch it in his hand. "And you're an even bigger fool if you thought I would fall for that"
Plasmius was interrupted by Pariah who took advantage of his gloating and slashed him across the chest with his sword. Green ectoplasm and blood dripped from the wound down his torso. The sight of his own blood not only served to rile up the fruit loop but also infuriated him due to the fact he had just had his ghost outfit dry cleaned.
"You might actually be a formidable foe if you weren't so cocky" Pariah said.
"And you might still be the King of Ghosts if you didn't underestimate your opponents who was defeated by a kid" Vlad replied, forming a sword of his own out of ecto energy.
Vlad swung at Pariah, who quickly threw his sword up to block the blow. The two engaged in a vicious sword fight, slashing and stabbing at each with reckless abandon. Pariah missed with one slash and Plasmius struck him in the back. Pariah shrugged it off and swung around, hitting Plasmius in the shoulder.
Their weapons clanged as they continued their violent clash. During the fight, the two became covered in slashes and bruises. Plasmius was unable to destroy Pariah's weapon due to it being made of almost indestructable material. Likewise, Pariah couldn't destroy Plasmius' weapon because it was constructed out of ecto energy. Plasmius then realized that he could use that to his advantage.
Plasmius raised his sword, counting on his opponent to raise his own weapon to do defend himself. Sure enough, Pariah did just that. Plasmius quickly made his weapon intangible so it would pass through Pariah's sword. Then at the last second, he made his sword tangible again. The sword sank into Pariah's head and dropped the King to his knees.
Vlad, thinking it was over, took a deep breath. Much to his surprise and horror however, Pariah rose to his feet, ignoring the ectoplasm that was flowing freely from his skull. Vlad felt a shiver run down his spine when he saw the madness in the Ghost King's red eyes. Pariah's lips formed into a twisted sadistic smile as he reached up and pulled the sword from his head.
"This is excellent; maybe I did underestimate you because I haven't had this much of a challenge in millennia" Pariah said maniacally. "Shame I'm going to have to end your petty existence, and I was having such fun"
"Don't get too full of yourself" Plasmius told him. "I assure you that I will be walking out of here with your precious crown"
"What makes you think that you could handle the power of the Ring and the Crown without being corrupted?" Pariah asked him. "Although then again, your soul's so wicked there's not much to corrupt"
Pariah shot his powerful red ghost ray at his adversary. Plasmius didn't have nearly enough time to dodge so he opted to throw up a shield even though he knew it would hold. As he expected, the blast shattered his shield completely and knocked his flat on his back. He was lucky that his shield had somewhat softened the impact otherwise he would be dead.
Pariah stood over his and raised his sword, preparing to drive the blade through his heart. Plasmius moved at the last possible second and the Ghost King's blade became firmly lodged into the ground. As he struggled to remove it, Plasmius sneak attacked, blasting him in the back of the head. He then made four copies of himself and sicced them on Pariah. The duplicates and Plasmius bombarded Pariah with energy attacks for two full minutes. A series of explosions from the attack created a wall of smoke.
"Alright; stand down!" Plasmius ordered his duplicates.
When the dust cleared, Plasmius was astounded to see Pariah standing completely unscathed. Pariah tossed his mace at two of the duplicates, destroying them. The mace swung back around and took out the remaining clones.
"Did you honestly think that would work against me?" Pariah smirked before flying at Plasmius at full speed.
He slammed hard into Vlad, knocking him through the walls of the tomb. Vlad coughed up some blood and quickly realized he had a few broken ribs. He wasn't going to let that stop him as he knew his healing factor would take care of the injuries. He continued to fight on, determined to get the crown no matter what.
Plasmius started spinning rapidly. He spun faster and faster until he had created a miniature tornado. The tornado had tremendous force behind it and Pariah struggled to stay on his feet. Eventually Plasmius stopped spinning and sent the twister towards the tyrant. Despite his hardest attempts, Pariah got caught up in the tornado which tossed him around the tomb like a rag doll. Vlad himself had to hold on to one of the pillars to avoid getting caught up in his own powerful attack.
The attack left Pariah Dark sprawled out on the floor. Plasmius by now knew better than to count him out just yet. He pounced on the Ghost King and threw punch after punch into his face. He didn't plan on stopping until Pariah was helpless and defeated. He continued raining down punches with one hand while grabbing at the crown with the other. But Pariah still didn't plan on giving up just yet and shot ecto beams out of his eyes.
"That was quite an impressive trick" Pariah said. "You should teach me how to do it"
Vlad was starting to get exhausted, but he didn't let it show. He was beginning to think he should've waited another day to fight Pariah. Suddenly he remembered he had his Plasmius Maximus on him. He didn't know why he had it with him but he was glad he had it. He had only used the device on Danny so he had no idea what it would do to a full ghost, but he was about to find out.
He lunged at Pariah, full speed. Pariah clearly wasn't expecting him to attack like that and was surprised when he felt an electric jolt rip through his body. Pariah immediately felt less powerful and tried to shoot his ghost ray at Plasmius, only to produce nothing.
"What is the meaning of this?" Pariah asked, confused. "What happened to my powers?"
"Don't worry about your powers, you'll get them back" Plasmius said, smirking. "In about three hours or so; in the meantime I'll be kicking your butt"
"Don't think that just because you've shorted out my powers that you can defeat me" Pariah replied. "This will only serve to make our battle even more fun and challenging"
"Still think you're going to win this?" Plasmius asked. "And you say I'm cocky"
Even with no power, I am a greater foe than you can possibly imagine" Pariah proclaimed. "If you spent less time talking and more time actually fighting, you might actually stand a chance"
Plasmius ignored him and tried another straight foward attack. He was shocked when Pariah snatched him out of the air by him throat and brutally slammed him to the ground. Apparently, the Ghost King still had his super strength. He then planted his foot firmly on his chest. Not stomping or crushing the billionaire, but his hold was firm enough to let Plasmius know he could easily do so. This time it was Pariah's turn to gloat.
"You think you're the most powerful person dead or alive, but look at you" He spat. "I could easily crush you if I wanted to and you'd be powerless to stop me"
Pariah lifted Plasmius up by his neck and raised him until their eyes were level and squeezed. Vlad still had a lot more fight in him however and spat blood into his eyes. Pariah responded by viciously headbutting him. Plasmius fought back by shooting a ghost ray into his eyes, temporarily blinding him. Plasmius picked up the Ghost King and tossed him onto his back.
He picked up Pariah's own mace and bashed it into his head. Pariah staggered after suffering the mighty blow, leaving him vulnerable to a hard punch from Plasmius. This punch actually had an effect on him as it knocked him down.
Now the tides of the battle had changed as it was Vlad kicking ass. A swift kick to the side of the head put the king flat on his back. Vlad grabbed Pariah by the horns on his head and slammed his head against the wall. He planted his foot on Pariah's throat, trying to crush it. Pariah simply grabbed his leg and planted him face first into the ground.
Plasmius was starting to get tired of Pariah. He was almost as big of a pain as Danny being much more stubborn and refusing to say down. But at least now he was starting to get some good blows in. It was only a matter of time before he put an end to this nonsense.
He ducked a kick to the face from Pariah and back elbowed him in the face. Vlad threw a head butt of his own as retribution for the one he had received earlier. Pariah fought back with a shot to Vlad's already injured midsection. Vlad instantly dropped to the ground as his healing factor still hadn't fully healed his broken ribs.
Plasmius realized he wasn't going to beat Pariah Dark by force. He was going to have to use his wits. Thinking quickly he shot out a pillar. A portion of the ceiling collapsed and fell on top of Pariah, burying him in rubble. Plasmius took advantage of the dazed ghost and snatched the crown off of his head before he could unbury himself.
"I've got what I came for so I'll be leaving now" Vlad said with a smile.
Pariah quickly unburied himself and was not ready to go down just yet.
"You're not leaving here with my crown" He said.
Vlad sighed, saying "You want to finish this; fine"
Plasmius formed a huge pink ball of ecto energy and hurled it at the Ghost King. A huge explosion rocked the tomb and Plasmius was surprised that it didn't completely destroy the tomb. A bloody Pariah Dark weakly rose to his feet.
"No, I… will not… be… defeated!" Pariah muttered weakly before collapsing unconscious.
"Don't want you coming back and potentially ruining my plan" Vlad said as he lifted Pariah Dark's body and threw it back into the sarcophagus.
Vlad laughed easily as he went on his way. Phase one complete. Now he just had to eliminate Danny's new friend.