My march on the Corruptor was a much grander affair than the five previous ones that I had done against the other Destructors, for he had an army that could match mine, thanks to the appearance of the Grox, meaning I had to fight tooth and nial for every inch of ground until I finally reached his location. The genetic heroes were a godsend here, as they were able to shred their way through the Darkspore, giving me time to set up forward bases and get my army rolling to cut down the Darkspore. It was hard, but I wasn't backing down.

Eventually though, I finally reached Xylem lair, and got ready for the final battle .

It didn't take long for Xylem to make his presence known.

"So, at last, I finally have the pleasure to meet the one who has caused us so much trouble."

"Please, the pleasure's all mine."

"Hmph, well, you certainly have a sense of humor, now don't you."

"Well, that;s normally not the case, but seeing as how all of your lieutenants have been such great pushovers, I think that you'll be a cake walk."

"...boo."

"Bite me."

"Were I not wearing a helmet, I would oblige. As is, prepare to die."

With that, Xylem jumped into battle, glowing green. I sent my armies at him, only for him to reduce them to metallic goo with his breath.

Oh right. The Corruptor could use an attack from each of the five Darkspore, such as, in this case, Orcus' viral breath. If my memory was correct (which it was), he could also use chain lightning from Merak, a spectral scream inherited from Nashira, Polaris' gravity wells, and Arcturus' laser beams. Also, he could create portals that would summon minions of the genesis type he was currently in, so bio ones right now.

Combined with the Grox army he had supporting himself, and the fact he would run away, summon a horde of enemies, and come back even stronger, this was gonna be a long fight.

Luckily, I had a horde of killbots with me, plus the genetic heroes, so I was prepared for the long brawl I was going to have to deal with. TO WAR!

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Sage ducked as a blast of flame flew past him. He quickly opened fire, eliminating the offending darkspore before more fire could fly. Nearby, he could see Krel tearing a toxiraptor to pieces, eager to kill the creatures that had brought is kind so much suffer. Nocturna was busy picking apart an animus while Zrin incinerated a laser tank with his right fist and electrocuting a Maser Tank with his left. Meditron had taken up a position in the rear, healing those who were injured while the onslaught dragged on.

The fighting had only just begun, but already they were facing amazing odds: millions of darkspore were upon them, backed up by strange machines unlike anything he had ever seen. Were it not for the great war machines that the last crogenitor had brought with him, he doubted that they would have survived more than five minutes on this world.

Though, in private, Sage doubted that this being leading them was a crogenitor. It looked very different from them, and that was an impressive fact, given that the crognitors tended to modify themselves however they liked. However, Sage didn't really care if this being was a crogenitor, for it was helping them fight the darkspore, and that was all that mattered now. It hadn't expressed interest in ruling the worlds it had liberated either, which Sage suspected would be a triviality for it, given its power. But that was food for thought later on. Now was the time to act.

Soon, the Corruptor retreated, wounds to great to continue. He was not going to give up easily, though, and summoned portals that sent wave after wave of foe at them, backed up by the strange machines he had brought to his side. If the machines had not been helping them, the genetic heroes would have fallen. As is, they were enduring, albeit with some difficulty.

But when the Corruptor returned, and he did not doubt that it would happen, the battle would reach its conclusion, but how was still a mystery.

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Soon enough, the Corruptor returned. He was looking really angry, and apparently he'd decided to swim in black paint. Somehow, he still looked menacing this way. And boy did he back it up: He started off with Nashira's scream, which sent my robots running (even though they couldn't feel fear) then glowed yellow as he fired lasers at me, cutting through a fair swath of my army.

Unfortunately for him, I still had orbital superiority, which meant that I could blast him with impunity via orbital lasers. Suck it.

Pretty soon he was on his last legs. That's when he got serious.

"Well, you have put up a great fight. But now it is my turn to end you," he said, menacingly.

"And how's that?"

"This way," he said, before shooting some kind of beam into the air... which missed my satellites. What a sha-

"Warning, mutation mines inbound," noted HELIX. "Calculations indicate that they are headed for your location. Impact sites being marked now."

WHAT?

Quickly, I ordered my machines and genetic heroes to take evasive action, and I soon followed suite with them. Soon, the mines impacted, only they didn't hit anything important. The problem was, they didn't need to: wherever the landed, Darkspore emerged from the craters. It looked like he was using them as a cross between orbital bombardment and drop pods. And based off the numbers he was sending at me, I needed to kill him fast or else he'd actually manage to overwhelm me.

Alright, time to take the kid gloves off. I'd been setting up some artillery all over the planet, and now I turned all of it on Xylem. While most of the shells missed him, when you fire well over a thousand shells at a target, some are bond to hit.

This put him on his last legs, and gave me the perfect shot with my overcharge.

"Checkmate."

The explosion that followed was something worth watching.

After his death scream faded away, I ordered some bots to go collect his mask, then started up designs for some kind of prison. I was pretty sure that defeating him didn't actually kill him, which meant that I needed to keep his mask secured until I could find a permanent way to kill him. I also sent off some bots to hunt down and destroy the grox, because I wanted those guys to stay dead.

To say that I was surprised when they reported that they had found something odd was, well, not an understatement.

Eager to see what had caused them distress, I followed them to what appeared to be an abandoned dig-site. As I examined it, I noticed that it appeared to have contained something very large, and began scanning the local computers to see if there was any data about what was inside.

Then in noticed the box on the floor of the dig site. IT was small, diminutive and unassuming...

Except it looked just like the one I'd found at the ruins of the grox capital.

Instantly, I moved to pick up the box and take it back to my ship, before returning their as well. Time to examine it.

Or rather, it would've bene time, until I got a transmission from a grox ship. It was on its last legs and making its way toward my ship, apparently trying to make a kamikaze attack. I quickly lined up a torpedo on it and fired.

"DIE SCUM!"

"really? Those are your last words."

"No, those would be 'look behind you, sucker.'"

"Warning," chimed in HELIX, "mutation mine incoming."

I turned around just in time to see the mine making its way toward me as the grox ship exploaded.

Then everything went black.

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