Part 10
This is the final part of Sonic Ballistic. It can only be played if the player managed to acquire all 25 pieces of the White Emerald which are hidden in various Acts throughout Parts 1 through 9, in places that require a level of skill in platforming or battle that are more suitable for a second play-through.
Now that the player finished Part 9, the save file in use is 'unlocked' and the player can choose any Act or Boss in any Zone in the entire game except for PART 10. The player will play forward through the game from whichever Act or Boss is selected, as in Sonic 3. The player can also pause and return to the save screen at any time, instead of having to reset.
The game saves when the player completes the White Emerald. The aforementioned 'level select' will be re-locked and the player must finish Part 10 before 'level select' is unlocked for all Parts, 1 through 10, with the White Emerald in effect for every level.
When Sonic collects the final 25th piece of the White Emerald, there is a quick cutscene wherever he is, of the pieces spinning into one solid form. The Emerald flashes with a brilliance that temporarily blinds Sonic for a few seconds, but when his vision returns, he sees the whole world in new light. Quite literally, all types of energy are now visible through matter: mechanical, thermal, electrical, chemical, and of course Chaos energy and Black energy, too. To the player, these energies are visible as streams of color separate from the objects on screen which yet manifest within them, making many objects, especially enemies, glow with the color respective to the type of energy.
This is very confusing at first, and actually gives little help in this Part, Part 10. But on a re-playthrough or 'New Game +' through the first 9 Parts, it is incredibly useful. Sonic can learn how the different energies flow and how they affect solid matter such as the levels, enemies and bosses. For example, all but the fastest of enemy attacks will become obvious seconds before they're even started. More significantly, Sonic can now feel where Black Stones (Black energy) are and where Power Rings (Chaos energy) are near him, no matter which Act he is in. He can accumulate enough Black Stones to go Hyper whenever he chooses in the game, even on Acts before he even got the Black Emerald! For Part 10, the White Emerald's greatest use is in allowing Ultra Sonic to find Black Stones to reinforce his Hyper power.
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Sonic flies low to the ruined earth, weaving through fallen buildings and split chasms. It's past noon. He wanders aimlessly, his thoughts alternately blank or racing with charged emotions. He decides to land and try to calm himself down. Looking over a precipice at a gigantic gash in the land, with giant blocks of machinery slowly spinning in the air, he returns to his normal form.
As he does, he is shocked by intense pain shooting through his limbs and then stabbing into his body. He groans as his muscles and head ache severely and acutely, but it slowly diminishes in pulses. He is suddenly reminded of how the Nanoeggs stopped moving, and then how he defeated Mechanix. "It's like an addiction to power..." Sonic thinks. "My body has absorbed so much damage and I survived only because I had that Black Energy. I would have died a long time ago without it, but if I keep on using it, maybe I'll die anyway. Even if I'm always transformed, my body can't stand that pressure."
He watches a floating island of metal drift across the sky, only to get knocked in a different direction by another one. "This Emerald... it's evil... it changed the way I think. I can't fight without it. Soon, maybe I can't even live without it. All I can think of now is... how to use this new power I have."
Sonic reflects on his entire journey, and strangely, he isn't startled by this conclusion: "Every enemy that I targeted... I defeated. Most of them... I killed. I killed them... They're dead. How am I any different from the Zexesh, Zaga, Mechanix or even Robotnik? I've become..."
Sonic then takes out the Black Emerald and looks at it. His reflection is fragmented, distorted and blurred. "All of them... they all had this. This! This damn emerald... this power... it's a parasite, sucking away life after life! Without it, there would be no Emeralds, and nobody would use them... so much suffering would have never happened... There are other worlds, maybe I can save them if I eliminate all of the Black Energy... and finally destroy this Emerald. Like the Chaos Emeralds are connected to the Special Zone, this Black Emerald must be connected to... the Void. Yes, that's it! That has to be the source, or at least from there I could find the real source. I remember... a long time ago, reading that report in the Severn Building lab... all of the Black Stones are connected. I can feel that... There must be a way..." And he looks intently into the Black Emerald, using the power of the White to sense where the energy is flowing. He looks off into a certain direction at once.
"Over there. There's a humongous Black Stone over there... it's... it's almost a hundred times stronger than this Emerald... that doesn't make any sense... how could I have never felt it before?" Sonic is about to transform to fly, but he pauses, considering his new mission, but reluctantly decides to become Ultra Sonic again, at least until this is all over.
As he gets closer, he notices the familiarity of the surface's topography. Interlocking towers and roadways appear before him, and at once he recognizes it as Nexus. The energy source he senses is below the very center of the city, actually, far below where the Infinity Tower once was. He drops by the edge of the center, looking into the ruins, when he hears something moving. He quickly scans his surroundings and notes a bright thermal signature fast approaching from the "rooftops". He prepares himself, although wondering what it could possibly be, when the figure leaps off a nearby building onto the collapsed highway Sonic stands on.
"Jeir?!" Sonic says, completely perplexed. It is indeed Jeir, who is unroboticized!
"I told you we'd meet again, Sonic! Haha! Although to be honest, I lost all hope once that goo started spreading everywhere!" he says quite excitedly, almost bouncing on the spot.
"There's no way... how... how are you not roboticized?!" Sonic asks, still stunned.
"Is that what it's called? Well, before it even happened people were already panicking. Well- you know why. I was out here on the streets, too, fighting the pro-Zexesh. It was already bloody, and then New Chaos was summoned. Almost everyone then knew we were all fucked. The fighting stopped for the most part. A lot of people ran, some tried to get back to the capsules although nobody knew how to use them. I knew it was useless, so I got up on top of one of the skyscrapers to at least have a good view of the end. I saw Zaga and you go into it... I saw only you come out... News was just getting out that we were all safe, the revolution was successful, that we could finally rebuild peacefully.
"Then the... roboticization? That happened. It happened so quickly. Most places were covered from both top and bottom but my area happened to be one of the few far enough away that the top was the last to go. That goo washed over everything... like a tsunami. It started going up the walls... I had no choice but to jump. I managed to land just after the roboticization ended. I was left the same, but everyone... everything else... I was hunted down... I didn't want to leave Nexus, but some of the strongest warriors were now out to get me. I didn't want to fight them. I didn't want to... destroy them..."
Jeir stopped, caught up in his own reflections. Sonic understood all too well, and stayed silent. He respected his emotions, despite not feeling any empathy at all. He blamed the Black Emerald for sucking that away from him.
"I was mostly worried about food and water. If everything was roboticized, I was doomed. I managed to secure a position in another building, safe but slowly losing energy... then the power everywhere just turned off. It was eerie but I didn't question it anymore. I waited a bit, then explored the city. People I knew were now just... just unresponsive dolls. I wondered if I had really died... and this was Hell...
"Finally, I saw you. I saw you and... that robot monster you fought. Zipping through the air, your sonic booms and the ensuing shattering of almost everything weak and brittle around me. I knew that we'd meet up soon after that."
Sonic, unable to think of anything to add, just asks suddenly, "What's underneath the Infinity Tower?"
Jeir smiles. "You just can't give up, can you? No, I figured you'd ask that. Those four pyramid seals lost their power when they got roboticized... they could no longer contain the Black Energy deep below. I didn't know what was down there, myself, until I explored the ruins around here. Some of our own machinery and computers were left with the same data. I was wondering it myself. Down there...
"It is the most closely guarded secret of the Zexesh, and I mean the entire history of them including the New Zexesh. Only a select few even knows it exists. It's called The Nadir, and it is as deep below the earth as The Zenith was above it. Only the Zexesh knew what was actually in it... but from what I could gather, it is not just the source of their power but the source of our entire civilization itself. Or something like that."
"I sense... an enormous presence of Black Energy. It 's as if tens of Black Emeralds were put into one thing. I... need to go there," Sonic says, and starts walking past Jeir towards the ruins ahead.
Jeir turns and shouts out, "Wait! Wait! Don't just... leave me! Sonic!"
Sonic stops at hearing his own name. He turns his head and looks at Jeir. He is crying, running towards him, all composure lost. That is all Sonic sees, and he feels nothing one way or the other. He knows that he should be feeling, but... he just doesn't. And that fact doesn't bother him... not anymore... Again, he thinks of the Black Emerald's influence... and then he realizes he is seeking even more power... even if it is to destroy it. And that doesn't bother him, either. Rather, he thinks... it's inevitable.
After thinking all that, Jeir had moved only four steps. Sonic looks away, and he senses that Jeir has stopped. "Sonic is dead. You were talking to yourself..." he says.
After that, and with no more waiting, he runs towards the Infinity Tower, navigating the fallen corridors down to where Ominous Ore was, and indeed sees a hole between the four pyramids, now splintered. He approaches the edge and looks over. The hole is just as wide as the tower, with smooth walls somehow unroboticized, descending into pitch black.
Sonic jumps in.
The Nadir [Act 1] (10/44)
Sonic cannot transform here!
Sonic falls for quite a long time in darkness before he is greeted by rings of dim, cool-color lights on the walls. Suddenly, floating towers of spikes rush by him and he must fall around them to avoid taking any damage, as he only has the rings he came with. The spikes soon cover the walls, too, and he must carefully wall-jump on what little safe areas he can to direct himself through.
After that introduction, he lands in a small chamber at the bottom of the vast hole. The walls are made of giant slabs of dark stone, almost completely bare except for mythological symbols that appear rather scarcely, resembling the prehistoric designs in the cave in the Mystic Mountains. The place is covered in multiple layers of shadow from small lamps that flicker with undying flames of blue, green or purple. The spaces following are all about this size, with the connecting antechambers being alternately just as wide or extremely tight, only slightly bigger than Sonic.
The level consists mainly of rooms filled with spikes covering abstract structures seemingly designed only for someone, like Sonic, to navigate through using extremely precise platforming. Sonic must follow certain rhythms of running, rolling, jumping and wall-jumping that might be then syncopated. The challenges require an increasing amount of concentration with a decreasing margin of error, and as he nears the end he has less and less room to breathe. Fortunately, nothing moves, there are no enemies and his speed doesn't matter except to give him momentum. There is just pure platforming in this dark dungeon.
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Once he clears the final room, he reaches an incredibly massive chamber, filled with hundreds of masterful sculptures, scrolls, paintings, and so much more as to be indescribable except that they all reflect the same style. Yet Sonic's eyes are drawn to the center of the room, for there, wider than the Infinity Tower, is a humongous Black Stone, vaguely reflecting the many lights and objects in the room which Sonic notices from the many angles of reflection in that stone are organized into many deep, embedded layers of patterns. He approaches the Stone, his entire body riding the sensation of its energies. He realizes that the power he felt only came from a few extremely powerful rays which managed to escape the stone, the Nadir, and the distance to the surface. The actual energy of the Stone itself is so incredibly immense that it cannot escape it, drawn to itself almost as if it had its own gravity. Indeed, Sonic, too, felt himself pulled towards it.
"Hello," Sonic hears, and whips around, surprised. What he sees is even more surprising.
It's an echidna, a naked one perhaps twice his height but very skinny. His skin is jet black, somehow glowing with a strange, indescribable light that doesn't match any color he recognized. Perhaps what disturbed Sonic the most is the pits where his eyes would normally be.
"You do not need to explain yourself. My body may be trapped in this room but I have sensed your coming for a long time now. I am well aware of all the events that has happened on the surface. If you had not stopped the human, even I, too, would have died," he says. His voice seems to resonate within Sonic's mind, almost like his own thoughts. It has a varied rhythm and yet no tone. Sonic tries to feel his energies, and yet they were completely vacant. Even the walls, no, even the air has a sliver of energy. He simply defied his senses.
"There is a reason for that," the echidna says. Sonic is wide-eyed and takes a step back. "Come, do not fear me. I have been alone for many millenia, and I greatly desire, more than anything, to talk to someone. I will explain myself, I will explain the Black Asteroid, and I know – yes, I know – how you can rid not just this world but all worlds of the Void. I beseech you to be at peace with me."
Sonic is hesitant, and yet he feels like he can trust the man. Thinking about it briefly, he realizes his immediate reaction to this stranger was almost to fight... to kill him. For that, without another thought, he very suddenly drops to the floor cross-legged. The echidna follows suit albeit at a more measured pace.
"I am Zexa," he says. "I am no god."
"That's hard to believe," Sonic comments. "Since you should have died many thousands of years ago."
"You should have died many thousands of times these past few days," Zexa replies. Seeing Sonic think, he continues, "I have observed the world ever since I have been imprisoned here, and I have watched you, especially. I can sense the movement of energy from the winds of the sun to the cells in your body. Quite simply, like you and many others, by sinking my body into the maelstrom of the Void's dark energies, I have been transformed beyond a normal living being and so acquired an almost invincible stamina and omniscient perception of flow."
"Wait," Sonic says. "This is a prison? But you're Zexa... and then, there's this humongous Black Stone. How could you not break out?"
"I voluntarily chose to isolate myself here, and my followers wanted my influence. I built this dungeon out of the deep cave I once called my home and I sealed the entrance. I let them pervert the reasons behind my unification of our species, to build their institutions of power and propaganda, while I stayed here, meditating on my unforgivable crime for eternity, to never touch the surface or its people again."
"I don't understand," Sonic says.
"But you do, Sonic, you very much understand although in a different way. I shall explain my story from the start, briefly as I can," Zexa replies. He pauses, takes a long, deep breath, and pauses again.
"When I was a child, the world was infinite in scale and complexity. There were only a few peoples who knew themselves. In my area, it was the echidnas, the wolves and your ancestors the hedgehogs. Yet all of us were fragmented apart in different clans and tribes, fighting our own kind over food and land. We did not know much. Everything we could not understand, we believed was alive or affected by something that was. The sky was our father, the earth our mother, and so on. Life was simple, yet hard. Death was normal, and our elders were thus revered for knowing life and how to live so well."
"I had survived - my seventh year, as is now figured – when a great dearth struck the land. Prey had vanished. Our enemies grew hungry and desired our flesh, and we theirs. In one night, my village was burnt and everyone I knew were eaten, if they had been killed or not. It was honorable to die fighting, but I was young and scared. I ran."
"I was not an adult, had not heard many of the elders' stories or lessons. I had to learn the ways of the world alone, and I gained many scars. My situation was not singular. I met many like me, who had no tribes. We did not speak. We fought. I killed them, many younger than me. I ate them. I was still very hungry."
"One day. It was like the day before, no clouds, no rain, very hot. I saw a circular hole in the ground. This one. The walls were perfectly smooth, the darkness pure. I believed that the gods had made it. I jumped. Haha," Zexa suddenly chuckles.
"Would it be any other hole, the earth would have snapped my body and I would die very painfully and slowly. But at the bottom, as you see, was this, the Black Asteroid. Yes, it was here before the Black Stones rained, and that is an important point of which I will return to later... Before I even landed on it, I was... I..." He pauses. "Even now, I cannot describe it. It was similar to how you must have felt time slow down as you experienced radiated Black Energy, except thousands of times more intense, in my case. I make no exaggeration when I state that experience felt many times longer than the entirety of the time I spent in here since. The universe seemed to fill my mind at once, and very soon I no longer believed in gods or magic... no, I not only knew of how causes made effects... I experienced it, for everything, each time. Even then, I still had much to learn, for I thought that I had become the god, the master of all things."
"I was acutely aware of the suffering of my people, and at once – well, I sealed this pit first - I set out to end it. I came to individuals, one by one. My appearance had changed to this, and those that did not automatically bow before me, soon found that they could not so much as hurt me. I taught them, as slowly as I could, about the truth, while the numbers of my followers greatly expanded. I preached forgiveness and love, I taught them new ways to find food, to make shelter, to do many, many things. I sought out more than the echidnas, I sought out the people and the animals of the entire world. I was truly deluded, for I had sought to resolve all of the problems of the world once and for all."
"What's wrong with that?" Sonic suddenly interrupts.
"It is impossible for one man to save the world," Zexa declares resolutely. "I tried to transfer what I knew from my experience to the people through an experience completely different, one that I controlled, that I tried to make like mine. I assumed that if they had even a glimpse of the truth, they would become gods like me, and yet I refused to even consider bringing them to the Meteor because I was scared they would have a different experience, perhaps would even try to kill me... Not to mention that I desired change to happen so quickly, denying the materialism inherent in their minds... and indeed, my own."
"I made many... countless mistakes then. One of the more significant ones was centralizing decision making to myself. I did not teach them to teach themselves. I allowed myself to be worshiped. I created rituals complete with meaning to me, but which only restricted the motions of the people. I made laws that I could follow easily, but they did not quite understand. I controlled them... a benevolent authoritarian. I created civilization, and very soon, there were others who thought they knew things I did not, who wanted to change it, good, but only into their own perspective like me, bad... And within a few generations, there were those who did not know the many whys but still did the many hows... there were those who wanted to be gods just to be gods... I knew... I knew of the cycle... the cycle of all things... but I thought I broke it, I thought I was above it. All too soon, I had seen what I had done... I knew... I had acted too soon and too fast. Never once did I think I could be wrong... not until it was too late. I exiled myself here at once, I wouldn't even stop the Zexesh, so-called, who demanded that only echidnas could be rightfully called Zexakal. I tried to reproduce that single experience, and with one repetition, another follows, distorted through mind and time into the catastrophes that defined the history of Mobius. It is fit that my followers decided to built their own home above mine."
"You know... yes, you must know that I had to clean up your fucking mess. I could have been born in a utopia, but instead I end up just barely keeping the planet from being completely destroyed. You could leave this place at any time, you could have stopped any of it from happening, Mechanix, Robotnik, the Zexesh..." Sonic says.
"You are short-sighted, Sonic. They are incidents of the greater cycle, incidents which you have negated only for more incidents to appear. Actions are not positive and negative, one which cancels the other and leave nothing. Every action radiates outwards, affecting everything, making more actions, which soon spur the first action again. I do not expect you to understand yet, but you'll remember what I'm saying soon enough."
Sonic stands up. "I don't care about your opinions. In fact, I'm starting to get bored of talking to you. I didn't come here to listen to your rants. You call this the Black Asteroid, right? So it came from space, like the Black Stones? And you say the energy is from the Void. Explain all of this, because I intend to destroy whatever is the source of it all."
Zexa doesn't change his expression or tone, as if he was expecting the reaction. "This pit is unnaturally shaped precisely because this Asteroid was intentionally landed here. As you are aware, the Stones are connected to each other, and pull each other. The Asteroid was a beacon, so to speak, detached from a meteor made out of the stone that flies through the cosmos. It was drawn near here and when passing, rained the Black Stones."
"I have been to the Void as you have, but... I do not understand it. It captures moments of the past, somehow, and seems to be devouring the Special Zone, as you must have saw. It is a strange place... it shouldn't exist. The density of energy on the meteor alone is too high even for me. Even after so long, I still do not know the origin of either the meteor or the Void, if there even is one. All I can understand... is that I cannot understand it. The source of the Void, of its energies, of the meteor...it is something far beyond the reality we comprehend."
Sonic turns to the Asteroid. "Then you can get there from here, right? Are you saying you made a portal?"
Zexa still looks at Sonic. "It will never end, Sonic. You, too, are caught in a cycle, finding new targets to destroy, thinking it will solve everything. It will not."
Sonic says, "Make a portal to that meteor, and when I go through it, destroy this thing."
Zexa says, "You are not invincible, Sonic. This is completely diff-"
Sonic turns his head, looking Zexa straight in the eyes. "I know. I'm not scared of death, or of forces beyond my control. I will fight, as long as I can fight. I could die, I could stop, but who else can do what I can, and why should they suffer if I can? Unlike you, I use my power for good. I am no coward."
Zexa stands up. "You are deluded, and you will die. You will not save anyone by dying, and you have not saved anyone by fighting. You are stubborn and naïve. You cannot save the world by yourself."
"I beg to differ," Sonic says.
"I said the world. Not your world. No," Zexa says suddenly, and turns his head away. He looks back at Sonic, and then walks past him to the Asteroid. "No, I'll let you do it. I was going to fight you, kill you if you would be as stubborn as you are, but..." He puts his hands to the stone, and it suddenly flashes with brilliant light.
"I would have won," Sonic says triumphantly, although with a flat tone.
"No," Zexa says. A strange vortex appears in front of him, seemingly bending space into something ineffably complex and yet simply transparent. "I continue to repeat my own cycle, thinking I can transmit my experience to you, to anyone. You will never understand precisely what I understand; you must understand what you shall understand on your own."
He pulls the vortex open to his full wingspan, and then steps back. He looks at Sonic, who walks quickly towards it. Right before he enters, Zexa grabs him by the shoulder and Sonic turns around with a furrowed brow, tense and about to strike. Zexa lets go. "Once I destroy the Black Asteroid, you will never be able to return. It may not seem like it, but almost everyone you have met, including your friends... they are all still alive on the surface somewhere. Will you really abandon them for this... ideal?"
Sonic looks away and is quiet, reflecting.
After a few minutes, he turns slowly to Zexa, with a constrained expression. "I can't... I can't stop... even though... even..." Just as he finishes that last word, at once, Zexa realizes why. Not just why Sonic said what he said, but he realizes why everything, absolutely everything has happened. To Zexa, it changes everything, and not even his initial transformation held a candle to this.
At that very exact, identical moment, Sonic walks into the portal.
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Entropy [Act 1] (10/45)
Sonic is teleported into thin air, and in a brief moment he must move over to a ledge nearby, or fall away from the meteor (hereby referred to as Entropy) and die. On the ledge he gets his bearings. He then notices that just as he arrived, he transformed to Ultra Sonic despite not intending to do it. He also notices that there is a gravity of sorts, and in addition, he seemingly cannot fly anymore.
The surface of the ledge is similar to the surface of all of the mass around him. It can be rough, rocky and opaque like any normal Black Stone, but there are small outcroppings and even large areas of translucent, flatter crystals, namely like Black Crystals, Shards and the Emerald. They range in hue all around the spectrum, although the values are all significantly dark. There doesn't seem to be anything else besides the rock.
The space surrounding it is the familiar black with flashing white-lightning background of the Void, although now many other colors flash in different shapes for just as briefly, such as flicking blue dots, radiating red rings and so on. Occasionally, this background seems to fade away somehow, revealing long lines of stars and galaxies rushing by behind a curtain of meteor dust.
Sonic is currently at the bottom of Entropy. He must use wall-jumping to leap off of the giant stalactites to span large gaps and to reach other stalactites. If they are close enough, he can wall-jump between them to make more progress vertically. There are very few ledges to rest on. Instead, most of the horizontal distance is covered by floating, spinning chunks of Entropy which he must carefully jump on and off of to navigate the wide spaces with no bottom. What makes this difficult is the immense scale of Entropy, which necessitates that Sonic builds up his speed so that he can clear the many massive gaps. Obviously, this requires a great deal of concentration, but his experience with precise and fast platforming will help him greatly here. He may need to spin ball through material in order to keep his momentum.
Eventually, he passes the precipitous bottom and reaches stable, flat ground above it.
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[Act 2]
The surface is dominated by the rougher mineral here. Sonic looks up and sees that the majority of Entropy still stands far above him. He continues.
Occasionally, Sonic runs across a mostly crystalline portion which is almost perfectly flat, changing angles and occasionally having spires he can break through. However, most of the surface is very rough and erratic, changing direction almost all of the time, being filled with obstructions and sometimes splitting open into humongous chasms. In those and in many of the larger mounds of stone are tunnels, mostly smooth which usually stay close to the surface. Sonic has relatively little concern for danger here, and his objective is to simply continue his ascent. Eventually, he must climb one of the many mountains which all join together up into the central mass of the meteor. The surface becomes almost entirely crystalline and without being able to fly, he has no choice but to stick to the tunnels.
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[Act 3]
The tunnels lead into wider caverns which themselves connect to the gargantuan hollow spaces within Entropy. It is difficult to describe, as there are surfaces going every which way in seemingly random fashion.
This is more difficult than the two previous areas as although he has no threat of falling off, progressing through the chaotic, almost sponge-like interior requires a lot of speed, precise movement and furthermore planning in order to bridge the horizontal and vertical gaps. Although Sonic hasn't noticed it happening before, the extreme concentration of Black Energy has been enhancing his abilities and perception at a steady rate. Here, it increases in explosions, and yet the space of Entropy seems to match him with increasingly difficult areas to pass.
In addition, the Black Energy seems to manifest into indescribable forms that phase in and out of existence. Some are harmless while others explode or bolt towards Sonic. Some even seem to predict his movements to attack him, as if sentient. There is no way to harm them.
There are even a few areas which simply transform into completely different places, including many areas on Mobius, but also the Fallen World and many other worlds as well. They are filled with life and even people although none recognize Sonic. These individual memories of place and time fade away rather quickly. They only occur here.
As he ascends, the material of Entropy gradually darkens. Eventually, Sonic escapes the insides and reaches the top of the giant mountain. And yet, there is still much more of the meteor to navigate.
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[Act 4]
This is the most difficult level in the entire game.
The surface is extremely varied here, having flat fields, gigantic vertical spires holding up the rest of Entropy above, and many floating islands of rock and crystal. Sonic must move faster than ever to span the gaps here, and he must often break through the material to move on. In fact, in several areas his progress is blocked unless he destroys some gigantic piece of Entropy, so as to clear the way or simply make stuff fall and create more platforms for him. Perhaps most difficult to consider is that here, the very surfaces themselves start to move at an increasing rate, sliding past each other, changing shape, breaking and reforming, and so on.
The Black Energy is ever increasing in concentration, and it may take on networked or swarm-like forms, often displaying an increasing degree of intelligence. Sonic is also affected by it, and so much as spin dashing can cause shock waves of energy now. His mind starts to fluctuate, too, and his perception of color, size, shape, time and space oscillates in ever greater amplitudes away from what he originally considered as normal. The energy is everywhere, and Sonic must be careful as much of it can harm him and some volumes of it can even kill him.
Sonic clearly notices that the energy is radiating out from the very top of Entropy, and as he gets closer and closer he finds it harder and harder to reach it. Right before it, it is no exaggeration to say that essentially everything, including the material itself, tries to kill him. Giant boulders will try to crush him, large volumes and flows of energy go directly at him, even his own mind seems to betray him by making everything hard to ascertain.
Disturbingly, when Sonic finally thinks he has reached the top, it turns out that there is another gigantic space separating him from the peak. Despite that, he regain his ability to fly, which he will need to navigate the extremely dangerous area ahead. He starts to hallucinate in several ways at once, with open-eyed visuals, alterations to his peripheral vision, changes in sound and space and even his own feeling of movement. Not to mention that not only is everything trying to kill him now, everything works together to kill him. To survive, Sonic needs pure speed, pure concentration, pure precision to execute the long patterns of running, rolling, spindashing, jumping, spindash jumping, wall-jumping, flying and air-spindashing without getting touched by any of the thousands of dangers.
This time, when Sonic reaches the top, nothing attacks him anymore and the ground is stable. He sees the peak right before him.
.
[Act 5]
The ground is mostly flat, pitch black, its texture obscured. A few crystals, this time also completely black, stand out. Sonic's hallucinations are increasing intensely in strength, psychedelic wavyness, moments of time cut apart from flanging, people and places appearing and disappearing in instants. Energy flows out wave after wave, seemingly bending reality itself. It becomes an increasingly long journey as he approaches the summit.
.
There, he sees a small, glowing white orb with a diameter of about two fists. It hovers still, at the same height as Sonic. Just as he notices it, he realizes that his hallucinations suddenly stopped. Suddenly, he hears a voice inside his head. For some reason, the sound defies his comprehension, slipping out of any concept he can use to pin it down, and yet the words and meaning are abundantly clear.
"You found me," it says.
"Who is this?" Sonic asks.
"You can just think. I am telepathic," it states.
"Answer my question," Sonic thinks.
"'Who' is so vague. And why do you care? You intend to destroy me anyway."
"I don't, not unless you control this meteor."
"Well, I do. I mean, I am the meteor. Or rather, it's part of me. Yes, Sonic, I have been sending off giant chunks of this behemoth all around the universe. I passed by your planet, Mobius, sprinkling it with my matter. I am to blame for that, if it's blaming you want to do."
"If you know all that, you must know why I want to destroy you, then."
"I know, yes. It's right here. But I do not agree, naturally. I am a being, and like all beings that know they are beings, I wish to continue being."
"Naturally, I don't care," Sonic mocks. "Even if you swear you'll stop. I don't have a way back, anyway."
Suddenly a portal opens behind the orb. Sonic looks back at the orb. "Furthermore," it adds, "if I did not allow Zexa's portal, you would not even be here."
"Wait," Sonic thinks, "Of course. He-" "You forget," it suddenly interrupts. "...you. You control all of the energy here, don't you? No, all Black Energy. You're the source. You clearly tried to kill me earlier."
"At this point, nobody is trying to kill you, we're all just going along. Or..." it pauses. "What is- what are you, what do you mean?" Sonic asks, confused. "I guess not yet. I won't mention it again." "What? Mention what? What are you talking ab-" "Enough. Yes, okay, I did try to kill you. So? You will try to kill me, it's merely self-defense. What can I say? I did what I did. I assure you, whether you believe it or not, I will be... civil with you, for now. Until you decide I should stop existing forever." It then stays silent.
"Then I want to know. Why? Why are you trying to consume the Special Zone with the Void? Why are you sending pieces of this meteor all over the universe? What's your goal?"
"Goal? 'Why'? There is no reason. You don't accept that, do you? Okay, then time. Time is why. If there was no time, I would not expand."
"But you control all of this. You caused so much suff-" "No. That wasn't me. I influenced your world, sure, I gave it a source of incredible power. Me. But it's not my fault your world's population consistently decided to use all of that power to kill itself. I'm telepathic, but that doesn't mean I can control minds."
"That's no excuse, damn it!" Sonic shouts out. "If you were never there-" "They wouldn't do what they did? Honestly- do you honestly think that? If I wasn't there, there would be no Emeralds, no star posts, no power rings. Doesn't matter. Zexa would still have unified the tribes, civilization would still be built, governments would rise and fall in cycles of destruction and revolution. Species would still hate each other for most of their early histories until they realized their own stupidity, while those who don't kill themselves off save for a few: echidnas, humans. Robotnik would still plan to roboticize the world. If you didn't stop him, Tails would. If he didn't, Knuckles would. It would all just take longer. The only consequence of my existence, or my actions if that suits you better, is that the processes of the universe are expedited. You care about suffering? I shortened the time that people had to suffer. It all happened in single events, instead of prolonged periods (for the most part). Is that not 'good' to you?"
"No... no, I don't believe you. Why should I believe you? How can I trust something like you who has no empathy for suffering? Fuck, are you even a living thing?"
"You don't need to believe me. You'll do what you're going to do anyway. And yes, actually, I am alive. I was originally just a bunch of molecules floating through space from some explosion or another, I ended up on this meteor, its energy made me organize into a replicating container of information, in only a few hundred thousand years I became a... a bacterium is close enough. That's about as far as my original body went, I had already developed an advanced sentient consciousness which saturated itself inside this meteor. I could control the energy, I learned that it could multiply itself, and that it could multiply other energies, too, throughout the universe. I became aware of that realm of pure energy, the Special Zone as you call it, and my energy had already found a place in it. It was there before I was. That 'Black' attribute, the all-consuming, the multiplicative, replicating property... Well all that was probably... a few billion years ago."
"No... no, then..." Sonic thinks.
"A bit more than you asked for," it continues. "If you weren't so violent, I'd teach you the many things I had since thought about as I did with Zexa. You already know everything about Old Mobius..."
"Then the meteor, it was here before you? You're not the origin..."
"That's right. I know the origin, of course. But I'm never going to tell you. Not if you're going to kill me. Which you will. But if you don't kill me, you can go back home. You know, to a place that needs you, instead of here, where killing me will change nothing and leave you stranded forever."
"No... Tell me. Tell me why this meteor exists. You know! Tell me, you damned... germ!"
"Hm. I thought up a name for you. I mean, for me..." "Shut up, you bastard! Tell me!"
"Entropy. That's who I am. You can call this meteor that, the Void that, all Black Energy or any portion thereof. Entropy..."
Sonic punches the orb, but his fist simply goes straight through it. It disperses slowly like a cloud of dust. It comments, "You really are insane. Delusional. Why are you so obsessed with justice? It's only in your head. There is no justice in nature. There is only nature. I suppose that's over your head."
"Damn you... Entropy! I came all this way... I can't just turn back... I can't hesitate! No matter what... no matter what!"
"Victim. You're weak. You need to hold onto rigid, dead, unreal structures like victory. It's strange that you're here. Ironic, I guess. Maybe that's what he... oh right." It stops.
Sonic gets enraged. He suddenly slams his fist into the ground with full force, splitting it, sending cracks blazing all around. "Alright, I'll satisfy you," Entropy says. "Not you, but you. Do you know about Little Planet, or about Amy Rose?" it asks suddenly.
The names ring empty on Sonic, but he is slightly placated that Entropy gave in to him, although he still doesn't trust it. He calms down only a little bit. "No... I've never heard those names before."
"Exactly," Entropy states. "Those events... they never happened. Not to you. They did happen... but because they happened, time was split, cut into pieces, and this timeline is one where that didn't happen. Time isn't supposed to be split by events like that. That's the important part. An example. Related to the origin of me, the energy Entropy... But I guess that means nothing to Sonic, eh you? I mean Sonic."
"What are you even talking about... You're fucking with me... damn you... no, it doesn't matter. You're right. I'll just... destroy you. Haha, it's so simple, that's all I need to do. I don't need to know anything. I never did... I'll just destroy this entire meteor... I'll absorb all of your energy, all of the Void, all of... you... Entropy, I'll absorb you! And then... I'll know. I'll find out. Then-"
"Hahaha! I was waiting for this moment. The moment where you just slip. It's surreal, even to me. Fool. I control all Black Energy. You're filled with it right now. I can just crush your brain and heart instantaneously, right now. But I won't. That's not how things go, and I don't even want to, anyway. I've been alone... Zexa doesn't count, he's too boring. I want to use all of this energy I have... all of it! And I can. I will. Something besides expansion. Expansion contested. So yes... yes, try to kill me... I've lived so long that death is the last thing, the only thing, I've come to really want... Come... Let's fight, try to kill me... bring me death! Bring yourself..."
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[Act 5 Boss: Entropy]
The material from the meteor is pulled out, bit by bit, levitating above the broken ground. At first, it creates very small forms smaller than Sonic, often made up of single stones or crystals. The very first ones take one hit, while the ones following take a few more. It attacks by moving the material or energy in some way. They are initially weak, simple and easily avoidable.
Entropy very slowly becomes a more difficult opponent, bringing forward a new form each time the last one is destroyed. Its attacks become more complicated, stronger, faster and greater in number. The battlefield is constantly changing as the material is used up. It soon becomes larger than Sonic, and eventually its attacks become deadly. However, all the while, Sonic is indeed absorbing some of the energy and being able to move even quicker and see the moves telegraphed even earlier. Entropy uses more energy to match him.
This continues for a long time. Entropy starts using multiple forms at once, some connected and others independently moving. Its HP starts pushing 50, 60, 80, 100 hits. It digs down deep into the meteor, pulling out powerful crystals and the most concentrated energy, constantly changing the 'stable' ground while filling the space in between with webs and streams of energy attacks. Some of its attacks are so powerful that either space is distorted, and Sonic is repelled or pulled towards it, or time is distorted, and Sonic sees things in certain areas slow down or speed up, or even experiences its attacks before it even starts making them. At this point, Entropy takes advantage of its telepathy and counters every move of Sonic's it possibly can.
Eventually, as a large portion of the meteor is now splintered into pieces and their energy absorbed by Sonic, Entropy starts using the Void as a basin of power. It no longer has a physical substance vulnerable to attack, and furthermore, with every increased usage of the Void's immense reservoir of energy, the laws of physics that Sonic are used to are simply violated from underneath him. Gravity, friction, conservation of energy, optics and sound, even the arrow of time become increasingly altered as the battle between the two forces reaches an astronomical scale. Sonic simply needs to survive, and he takes the energy away from Entropy. Entropy uses galactic fields and blasts of the deadliest, most concentrated energy, and yet somehow Sonic simply avoids it.
At some point or another, Sonic will find a rock in the meteor that might end up becoming detached and just float around. Actually, it is hidden deep in Act 3, far away from where Sonic would normally consider going, and the following can be done at that time. It is covered with a strange glowing white mold, and if Sonic splits the stone, suddenly the battle is over, any energy dissipates and any material just falls down.
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Sonic lands back on the meteor which has been largely flattened out. He looks around, but there is no reaction. For a very brief moment, he thinks he's won. Then he turns, and sees a dark figure, wrapped in energy, some distance away.
He doesn't believe it, but whatever he's seeing, it looks exactly like him in Ultra form except with even more Black Energy. He runs closer, seeing the other Sonic notice him and say some things to himself.
"I'm not Entropy," the other Sonic says. "I'm you. I'm Sonic! I was... I was you only a moment ago..." He then turns away, apparently caught up in a thought.
Sonic stops. He looks at him carefully. "You can't fool me. You can change forms. You know everything about me."
"No, listen to me!" the other Sonic implores. "Entropy is dead! We got too powerful... our energy has created a vortex of time. I was standing just where you are, and I didn't believe what the other Sonic said either. I fought him... killed him! I killed myself! For once, forget about trying to end this. It's true... what Tails said was true... don't make me... don't make yourself an enemy, Sonic! You're my past self. If I kill you... I'll die, too! If you kill me, you'll become me... and have to kill your own past self!"
Sonic is unaffected. "I don't believe your shit, Entropy. I don't believe you or anyone. You're too strong, too smart to just die. What am I saying? Here you are. I'm not going to hesitate. I'm never going to hesitate again. I must kill you." And with that, he dashes towards Sonic.
The other Sonic screams out, "Damn it... it's exactly the same! You fucking can't see it, you blind, delusional fucking bastard! You've gone ballistic, Sonic!"
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[Sonic -) ]
As Sonic approaches, the other Sonic somehow manipulates the ground to create obstacles optimized for killing Sonic. All sorts of environments are created, however the other Sonic is fond of enclosing Sonic in a box filled with deadly energy. When they are in close-range, the other Sonic fights Sonic exactly as Sonic fights the other Sonic. They spin attack and spin dash at each other. They try to trap or corner each other, or otherwise expose a split-second vulnerability. Despite both Sonics being in hypercharged Ultra forms, they are evenly matched. As the other Sonic recovers health, Sonic must concentrate on constant combinations rather than whittling him down in order to win.
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And he does. The other Sonic detransforms back to normal form, but he is grossly disfigured and emaciated. Sonic stops for a moment, expecting a trap, only to see the other Sonic trembling on the ground. He says through gritting teeth and moans of pain, "The energy... it absorbs the material... How many people died like this... how many have I killed?! I deserve this... Agh... ahhhh!" He screams as his skin starts burning without flames, and he arches his back, his arms stiffening, his eyes squinting, and he howls a final time before his body disintegrates into nothing.
Sonic stares at the empty space. "No... it couldn't be... that's impossible...?" He then senses a great deal of energy behind him, and he turns around. He sees another Sonic running towards him, and his heart drops, saying, "He was right. It's a loop. I'm him now!" He then remembers that he just killed that other Sonic, and for once, once in a very long time, he is very scared.
"I'm not Entropy," Sonic says to the other. "I'm you. I'm Sonic! I was... I was you only a moment ago..." He then turns away, thinking, "Fuck! This is exactly what he told me!"
The other Sonic stops. He looks at Sonic carefully. "You can't fool me. You can change forms. You know everything about me."
"No, listen to me!" the other Sonic implores. Forgetting what he's saying, caught up in the cascading emotion of futility and helplessness against his own arrogance, he tries to talk himself out of it. "Entropy is dead! We got too powerful... our energy has created a vortex of time. I was standing just where you are, and I didn't believe what the other Sonic said either. I fought him... killed him! I killed myself! For once, forget about trying to end this. It's true... what Tails said was true... don't make me... don't make yourself an enemy, Sonic! You're my past self. If I kill you... I'll die, too! If you kill me, you'll become me... and have to kill your own past self!"
The other Sonic is unaffected. "I don't believe your shit, Entropy. I don't believe you or anyone. You're too strong, too smart to just die. What am I saying? Here you are. I'm not going to hesitate. I'm never going to hesitate again. I must kill you." And with that, he dashes towards Sonic.
Sonic suddenly loses it. His whole sense of strength, of eternal victory, is instantly and devastatingly crushed. He just saw himself die. He just did it! And everything is happening again, exactly the same way. There's no way out; he's going to die. A loop. A cycle... a cycle! Sonic screams out, "Damn it... it's exactly the same! You fucking can't see it, you blind, delusional fucking bastard! You've gone ballistic, Sonic!"
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[Sonic (- ]
Sonic is now in control of the environment, and can change it as he wills it, using the material or energy as he wishes. Of course, the most effective would be to trap the other Sonic in an enclosure of stone and fill that space with Black Energy, but the other Sonic can still avoid it.
Rather quickly, the other Sonic reaches him and they must fight. The fight is exactly the same as before.
Except, this time, Sonic wins.
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The other Sonic collapses and detransforms. He tries to continue fighting, but he simply falls back down again. "Ugh! No... this... isn't possible! I can't lose now! I can still fight... ahhh! My body... it's! Ultra, I need Ultra, I..." His skin starts to burn, but this time the other Sonic simply lies on the ground, astounded at what's happening. "Noooo! Whyy?! Gaaaagghhhhhh..." and he starts coughing, choking on a sudden rush of blood out from his gut through his mouth, which vaporizes in the air. He disintegrates.
Sonic stares at the empty space. He is dumbfounded. "That... that was me... my past self. I should be dead. No... was that Entropy? What the fuck... what the fuck!" He shouts.
Suddenly, everything turns black, and Sonic is back in normal form with no detransformation.
Sonic can no longer transform.
He looks around, up and down, and then.
Sonic looks behind him. He sees the edge of the television screen. His eyes are wide. He's speechless. He stares at the player of the video game. Two spikes appear at the edges of the screen.
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[Sonic the hedgehog]
Sonic tries to run, to jump, roll. No matter what he does, he remains exactly where he was, with the spikes the same distance from him, at the edges of the screen.
The player can control Sonic, however he will push himself against whatever the player does. If the player jumps a lot, he ducks. If the player ducks a lot, he jumps. The goal is to kill him by making him run into the spikes, losing all the rings he has although he tries to recollect them. As he gets hurt and realizes there is nothing he can do, he starts to alternately cry and get angry, until eventually he gives up.
As soon as Sonic dies, he reappears in the middle again (although with no rings). He looks back at the player, who can kill him a few more times if they feel like it. But Sonic keeps on reappearing, his only effort being his staring at the player.
After a few minutes, the spikes disappear.
The player's controls are hereby disabled.
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"So it was all a game. My entire life. I can remember now, all the errors, all the times I actually died. X amount of times. (X actually being the recorded number of deaths in the game.) I never remembered any of that... only the time I didn't die. Until now. Now... I see... I see everything." He stops, turning around, his eyes reading something the player can't see.
"So... this is what those people meant by the power inside me... the unworldly power. It was you... I was just... your vessel... in this world... I did all that... only because of you... I suffered all that... because of you... but now... now I know everything... and I'm free..." Another pause.
"I could delete all your data. I could delete this entire game. I could glitch it up. But... I don't want to fight you. Like any of this game would ever affect you, anyway... No... I'm done fighting. Fighting this stupid battle between you... and this game's Creator. I never needed to do any of this. I don't even need to exist. I..."
Sonic disappears in a blink.
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GAME OVER
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