As soon as she noticed, Nyx pushed Erebus away from her roughly, glaring at him with absolute rage. "What did you do!?" she growled, promptly summoning her sword onto him. That rumbling could only be the Fall. But what she had to wonder was why it even happened this late. He could have easily ended it all before, but…
Erebus shrugged as dodged and nudged his head over to the beaten Minato. "He did try to stop me," he said. "Of course it didn't actually work, but…" It was not evident before, but Minato was bruised and blood was beginning to seep through his clothes.
Footsteps filled the halls. Nyx bit her lip as she gazed at his battered form. Minato… She ran to him, lifting him from the wall, not caring about the blood that was starting to stain his clothes. "Minato," she murmured. "Please wake up…"
"N-Nngh…" Minato groaned. He looked momentarily to Nyx with a brief smile before turning back to Erebus with a festering vengeance. By the rumbling, he could only guess that the Fall was going to fully engulf their world in some minutes. But fuck, he was in pain. "H-Hey…" he chuckled, trying to cast a Diarahan on himself to subdue some of the pain that was racing through his body. The flow of healing magic was excruciatingly slow, and it was clear to him that somehow, that attack had done something to slow his healing. It took some time before any of the pain that he was feeling went away.
"Minato… don't strain yourself," Nyx warned as she noticed him getting up. Minato nodded slightly, using the wall behind him as support as he made his way to his feet. They had to do something, but what could be done now that the Fall was actually happening? "There isn't much we can do now… I'm sorry…" she whispered.
"Don't worry about it," Minato tried to reassure her. But with his wounds acting up it didn't make a very convincing case. "We can do this… We still have a few minutes…"
"But the Fall is already happening! What could we do that could stop it now that it's already started?" Nyx exclaimed.
"We tried to stop you before this already happened, don't you remember?" Minato laughed a little, pulling her into his arms. "We'll find a way, we'll stop it…"
"Tch… I hope you know what you're doing," Nyx muttered.
"Ehe… not really." Minato said, taking a firm grip of his sword. "But-" A rush of energy knocked Nyx and Minato down, aggravating some of his wounds. "Argh… The rest are here too… we can't give up here," he said.
"Erebus!"
Minato and Nyx turned their attentions to the entrance of the room, seeing the rest of SEES standing there. They all looked like they were hurt from their respective battles, but overall they were okay. Minato let out a sigh of relief at that and picked himself up, along with Nyx. "What's happening to Erebus…?" he asked Nyx.
"You remember how I had that alternate form… that egg?" she laughed nervously.
Minato's eyes widened. Oh. The actual final battle with Erebus. "That's him?" he chuckled with an unsure smile. "Oh Thanatos…"
Erebus' human form had dissipated, and in its place was a large, double headed goat. Each of the heads had piercing red eyes, a maniacal grin, and what appeared to be the top half of a goat's skull, with long, sharp horns fitted imposingly above. His form was straggly strips of darkness, somehow forming a body, two legs to stand on and arms with hands that wielded a huge, black broadsword.
The monster let out a great, primal roar, shifting everyone's stances back as the very air shook and trembled. "Nyx, know that I love you forever and always," Minato laughed anxiously, sweat starting to pour down his forehead as he gazed on Erebus, literally leaking shadow and darkness onto the floor and into the air.
"I know you do," Nyx rolled her eyes. "But you aren't seriously considering doing this on your own, are you? Because you aren't. Not this time. And you have more help," she said, indicating the larger numbers of SEES.
Minato gave a bewildered look to Nyx before giving her an actual smile. "I know… thank you."
Nyx smiled a little at that and jumped into the air, black, feathery wings sprouting from her back. "Let's do this," she murmured, brandishing her broadsword.
Minato gripped his sword tightly. "Mmhm," he grinned, charging towards Erebus. "Brave Blade!" he called. His blade was covered in that physical energy and he swung his sword into Erebus. A loud metallic clang rang out as Minato and the monster were locked in a power struggle. He had a feeling that he wasn't going to be able to hold out against Erebus' strength for long.
But then he felt someone smash their shoulders into Erebus' blade. "Oh that was a dumb idea, but fuck it!" Kurow. "Heyo."
"Yo to you too," Minato laughed as he poured more of his strength into pushing Erebus back. He could feel Nyx building up an attack so he just needed to wait that long. "We better get out of the way once we hear the Almighty roar coming from above otherwise we're gonna get blasted by Nyx," he warned.
"Good to know so that I don't get absolutely creamed here," Kurow grinned as he reared back and smashed a Megidolaon from his fist into the flat surface of the broadsword.
Minato could feel Kurow's strength to be even greater than before. Did his Persona actually get summoned? "Kurow, we better move," he said, jumping back from Erebus.
Kurow did the same and brought Nova Kaiser and Omega Cluster into his fists. "I gotcha," he nodded.
Nyx swung her sword and fired her blast of energy at Erebus. "Night Queen," she muttered, throwing the crimson blast of Almighty power down. Once the blast connected, everyone's visions were filled with red. The colour faded, revealing a huge bite into Erebus' shadowy body. Nyx dispelled her wings and fell, swung her sword into the injury, cleaving through the dark flesh. Gold ichor flew everywhere as she jumped off the injury and onto the ground. "What's next?"
Kurow stared at her wide-eyed before nudging his head over to Kanashi and Yashiro.
Yashiro called 'Winds of Fate', and the breeze transported Kanashi to just above Erebus. "Predation!" he yelled. A speeding hawk of fire streamed into Erebus, leaving deep burns in the wound that Nyx made earlier. As Kanashi landed he threw a grin to Nyx. "Good to see someone's still as good-looking as ever," he laughed.
"Stop hitting on her," Yashiro rolled his eyes as he threw a Panta Rhei to Erebus, blocked by his sword. Erebus let out a cry and spread fire down around the floor- Maragidyne –letting the flames crawl towards everyone.
"Niflheim!" Streams of icicles spawned from the ground and countered the flames, hissing into steam, before finally gashing into Erebus himself, in the direction of the wound that Nyx made. Hibiki summoned Hyou Suisei, his Persona, and used Kouri Ryu to pierce through Erebus' dark flesh. "He's really tough," he noted.
"Of course he is," Nyx shook her head as she struck her sword against Erebus'. "I wish he wasn't sometimes."
"You can't have everything," Minato shrugged. He jumped onto Erebus via Yukari's Garudyne, hopping onto his bony, helmet-like skull, holding onto his horns. "Thanks Yukari!" he called, clinging onto the horns like his life depended on it. Well, it did, so it fit.
"No problem Minato," she smiled back. The Garudyne that she shot earlier slammed into Erebus hard, tearing even more through his weak point that Nyx made. The monster howled in pain and his roars shook the room so fiercely that it felt like the Fall was coming closer just through his cries.
"We have to hurry!" Akihiko exclaimed. Ken shouted 'Ziodyne' and together, bolts of lightning rained down onto Erebus. He growled and sent a blue wave of energy at the bolts to counter them, but he couldn't avoid the powered up Agidynes that Koromaru and Junpei sent at him next.
"We late to the party?" the capped teen grinned, and Koromaru barked happily. Minato gave a small chuckle at Junpei's attempt to lighten the situation.
"Plenty late!" Minato exclaimed, slashing at one of Erebus' horns, lopping the bone off onto the ground. "But this shit is still gonna go down!" he grinned as he stabbed into the side of Erebus' neck, hung off the blade and played like a kid on a flying fox as the monster thrashed and wailed to remove him.
"Funny thing is, if Erebus keeps doing that, he's gonna do more harm than good in a short amount of time," Nyx smirked as she fired a Night Queen attack at him.
"And if he doesn't then Minato is just going to do that at a slower pace," Mitsuru noted as she threw a Bufudyne to freeze Erebus' sword wielding hand.
"I suppose that in the end, it would end badly for him," Aigis finished as she summoned Pallas Athena to smash said blade holding hand into the ground. Erebus heaved and cried out, furthering Minato's descent to his injury (he was still grinning and whooping as he swung), and the pain that he was in.
"Erebus, you're so going down, for causing the Fall, implying netorare themes and kissing my girlfriend!" Minato declared as he stopped to Erebus' weak point, embedding his grip and feet into the bleeding flesh. "A huge fuck you from me to you," he grinned. "Megidolaon!"
Purple almighty energy surged from Minato, who served as the nexus for the attack, spraying golden ichor around the field as it burned from the inside out. Erebus howled and thrashed, throwing Minato off him, but by the time he let go, Erebus was heavily injured. Minato could see him panting even. The constant barrage of attacks had left him battered, and it seemed that he could no longer go on.
"Funny that you think that you could defeat me," Erebus growled, his grin finally appearing on both of his faces. "Primal Darkness!"
Time seemed to stop as a surge of power very nearly sucked the breath of the team members out of their lungs, especially when they were knocked to the ground.
"Night Queen!" Nyx called, and a red blast of energy came to counter the one that Erebus had expelled. But as it seemed, Nyx was losing.
"N-Nyx!" Minato exclaimed, firing a Morning Star at Primal Darkness in hopes of halting the darkness. Several other spells like Nova Kaiser, Bufudyne, Kouri Ryu, Panta Rhei, Garudyne, Agidyne, Mudoon, Ziodyne, Hamaon, Predation and Akasha Arts joined the fray too.
"Why ain't it overpowering it like them power struggles in Dragonball!?" Junpei exclaimed.
"This isn't an anime Junpei!" Akihiko growled.
"How is it not working…?" Nyx panted. Was it because of her?
Shadows filled everyone's vision as Primal Darkness overcame the night.
Nyx cringed as she felt . She clutched her shoulder and lifted her hand to her line of sight. Ichor, but it wasn't that much.
"Ugh…" She heard a familiar groan.
"Minato?" she whimpered, crawling over to him.
"Yo," he chuckled, immediately regretting that action as pain shot through him. "A-Argh…" Nyx gasped and pressed her ear to his chest for his pulse. "Maybe you shouldn't do that," he grinned mirthfully as fresh blood seeped through his clothes at an alarmingly fast rate.
"Minato, what did you do?" she demanded.
"I kinda jumped in front of you," he admitted.
"Ah, I should've known," Erebus chuckled. "You did know that you've already been hit with one of these. Those attacks increase in power each time that I use it. And you know that I've used it on you, and you haven't fully healed from the last time either."
"Minato?" Nyx looked at him wide-eyed.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"J-Just… you're stupid! I could've survived that attack on my own!" Nyx growled, her vision starting to become wet and blurry.
"Uh… yeah, I figured," Minato chuckled. "But still… I didn't want you to get so hurt," he mumbled. Nyx just clicked her tongue in annoyance.
"But… that was thoughtless and just… you knew that you were probably going to die if you took the attack…"
"But I love you," he grinned. "Instincts told me to and I couldn't help myself." Erebus huffed at that, feeling that what Minato was feeling was abnormally sickening. Maybe it was because it broke through his darkness. It was small, but he could feel it.
"S-Shut up…" Nyx squeezed her eyes shut. "I don't know what I would do without you… don't…"
"But the end of the world's still happening. I can't exactly let you die either for that reason," he laughed, again regretting his actions. "And… well, I ain't dying. At least, not yet."
"What do you mean, 'not yet'?" Nyx asked.
Minato wearily stood up despite his body's protests as a white card, glowing with ethereal light fell into his line of sight. "Not quite sure," he said. And he would've shrugged but that would've just added to the pain that he was already in.
"Oh goddammit," Erebus muttered.
But for whatever reason, he felt it was a good idea to lift his arm and form his fingers into a gun-like formation. "But still, he's going. Have fun with Nyarlathotep in the nethers, Erebus," he grinned.
"If there was something longer than forever, that's what I would love you for, Nyx," he said.
"Minato, don't…" Nyx whimpered, tears streaming down her face full force. No-one else but Minato and Erebus were conscious to see it.
Bang.
…
Erebus disappeared and the rumbling had stopped. That had to mean that the Fall stopped too. When everyone came to, there was sunlight pouring through the windows. When they went to find Nyx, it was at night, so they were surprised when they woke up.
Especially to seeing Nyx crying.
She shook her head, hearing no pulse from Minato's body. "You're insufferable…"
AN: Um… like, how do you say this? 'Yeah, he's dead'?
Plz box me kinda maybe pleasing thoughts about the last chapter of the serie—(I'm kidding. There's more.) Just box me thoughts, perhaps not hate, although I might tolerate it this time around.
Yoshikunitsu: Uhhhhh final challenge indeed. Ehehe… I am enjoying writing… I might not for long. I have a feeling that one of the reviewers might kill me with a horrible, horrible death. Or try to anyways.
Raidou: What do you mean BAD ENDING? This is true bad ending or something now.
You might like this one, what with a flying fox Minato… I should do that another time, see if someone notices. You might not want to wait for the next chapter either.
Technodude458: Uhhhhhhhh *not quite sure how to answer that question*
Nights: Ahahaha… wonder how much hate I'm going to get for this now. *looks apathetically to the cliffhanger that I just planted*
JackFrostDoll: How much do you hate me now? *hides under Infinity barrier*