Chapter 14
Journey to the Sword of the Mechonis
As I walked to the forest temple's altar, I felt an acute pain in my eye. "Why now? Why is this happening to me right now?", I thought. As I clutched my eye, I gazed upon a vision of two colossal giants fighting- one of them wielding a gigantic laser blade and the other wielding a giant mechanical greatsword, making me wonder if it was compensating for something. All of a sudden, the vision gave way to another- now I witnessed a blue orb and a yellow orb moving together and colliding into a blinding green light. That vision in turn transitioned to another- now I saw three sinister figures in shadow- one of them was X, yet another was a burly hunk of a man and standing between them was a leaner man. All three were wearing sinister dark red armour. "You must remember. You must remember your purpose and why we brought you to Nintentopia.", a voice spoke behind me. I turned around to see a version of myself radiant with holy fire sprouting two wings of radiant crimson and golden flames. "Sorry, who are you?", I asked, extremely confused by the visions I was being shown. Before I could receive an answer, I then saw another vision, this time of Celine, Ivy, Timerra, Framme, Goldmary, Lapis, Blanc, Neptune, Noire, Vert and Melia in my hospital ward looking at my unconscious body. Celica, Corrin, Eirika, Lyn, Rinwell and a woman with short pink hair and green eyes were also there alongside a woman with long platinum-blonde hair and blue eyes and a woman with short red hair and brown eyes. Hanabi, Arashi and Kasane were also there, not to mention Yumi. As I got closer to them, I heard them singing what was unmistakably the Kylie Minogue song "Can't Get You Out of my Head". Why they were singing it was beyond me. After they finished their little "performance", Melia asked the pink-haired woman, "Well, Estelle, I believe we've done all we can on our end.". Turning to the platinum-blonde-haired woman, she said, "Alisa, we need to find more Children of the Full Moon. We have Estelle, Arashi and Lapis already but we need to find more if we're going to successfully complete the Ascension Project.". "Well, I think Lloyd might know one. I just have doubts that we can convince her.", Alisa replied. Celine then turned to the woman with short red hair, saying, "It's such a tragedy. If only his morals didn't get in the way, then maybe he could have properly partaken in our holy ascension. Don't you think so, Alkaid?". At this, Alkaid replied, "Well, so could have Haseo, but he just had to choose Atoli over me and stop Tri-Edge when he could have experienced the Endless now properly with me.".
Before I could get further, I was returned to the temple's altar. In front of me was the green Chaos Emerald. I laughed at this, wondering how the heroes and the Sovereign Empire didn't know how the final emerald for them was right under their noses. "What's so funny?", Clive asked behind me. "Oh, it's just so funny that you didn't realise that the green emerald was right near you all along.", I said, turning around the face the swordsman. "So are you going to hand the emerald over like a good boy?", Clive asked. "Oh my little Dominant, you really think I'd do that?", I asked in response. "What do you mean by Dominant?", Clive asked. "Oh, you've forgotten that already? Well, you possess the power of the dark fire Eikon Ifrit. But then I suspect that being uploaded into Cyber Space has caused you to forget that.", I replied. Angered at this, Clive rushed at me whilst drawing his sword. "Alright bitch, let's do this!", I said, smiling. Clive slashed at me, unleashing an infernal onslaught of fire all the while which I countered with a splash of water; firing up my Tao Mandalas, I retaliated with a sword of compressed wind that Clive countered in turn with a burst of ice. I rushed at Clive after this, covering my fists in a field of black and dark red energy; at this, Clive formed gauntlets for himself fashioned out of earth as if to protect himself against my rushing onslaught. I fired off a series of rapid fire punches which Clive blocked with a giant shield of earth from his right "gauntlet". Undeterred, I wound up for a more powerful punch from my right fist; I threw the punch alright but this caused the energy I had stored up. "Figures. Guess my Semblance isn't fully unlocked yet.", I thought. Blown across the room, Clive then teleported to me in the blink of an eye before unleashing a mighty downward slash which I expertly dodged, causing time to slow down again like during my fight with Giganto. "There it is again.", I said to myself before taking the opportunity to launch an even more furious volley of punches and magic, this time unleashing a mighty fireball followed by a blast of small pebbles that was in turn followed by a small splash of water. Additionally, whilst we were fighting, I couldn't help but notice numbers popping up as I struck Clive with my magic; sometimes the numbers were small and white but othertimes they were larger and yellow. I ignored this, choosing to focus on the fight.
As Clive formed a sword of darkness in his right hand, I glanced behind briefly to look at the green emerald. I smirked, forming a plan in my mind. Appearing to sheathe the sword, Clive gathered power as dark red energy coalesced around him. Forming my radiant orange Aura into a spherical dome around myself, I braced myself for Clive's attack. As if on cue, Clive drew the sword in a brutal attack, the darkness brushing against the shield I created and disappearing. The blast of energy the clash unleashed launched Clive into the air, the energy also shattering the green emerald and causing the shards to disappear. Nonplussed at this, I expelled Clive from the temple with a strong gust of wind. "DAMN YOU!", Clive bellowed as I chuckled. Walking up to the altar, I placed my hand on it before finding myself in a mechanical chamber with several healing pods. I walked up to the pods which then proceeded to open- amongst them were a man with neat yet curly grey hair, a young mechanical child with grey mechanical skin and spiky blonde hair, a woman with short brown hair tied neatly in a bun, a man with blue skin and messy grey hair, a young mechanical girl with short grey hair covering her left eye and two antennae protruding out of her head, a man with short brown hair and wings on the back of his head and a catgirl with green hair and green ears. They rose out of their pods like zombies rising from their graves. Looking at me intently, the brown-haired woman said, "So, if you're here then I take it the green Chaos Emerald has been destroyed.". "Yes, it is.", I replied. "Good.", the catgirl said with a Welsh accent not entirely dissimilar to Mio's. "I'm sorry, but I don't think we've met.", I said. "Typical. Absolutely typical.", the man with blue skin said. "I'm sorry but we haven't met. I think anyway.", I said. Sighing, the brown-haired woman then said, "OK, I guess we can introduce ourselves to you again until you finally remember us. I'm Alexandria.". "I'm Valdi.", the young mechanical boy with spiky blonde hair said. "My name is Zeon.", the brown-haired man with wings in his hair said. "I'm Oleg but you can call me Teach.", the blue-skinned man said. "Call me Segiri.", the mechanical girl with grey hair said. "My name is Isurd.", the other grey-haired man said. "And my name is Juniper. By the way, I'm female in this continuity.", the catgirl said. "But aren't you non-binary?", I asked before Juniper replied, "Yes but only in the original world I came from. This isn't the canon continuity, so I'm female here.". "OK then.", I said. "And we all know who you are so you have no need to introduce yourself to us, Toby.", Teach said. "Wait, why are calling me Toby? My name's Jack Sebastian Arnold.", I said. "Sure it is.", Segiri said. "Who are you people anyway?", I asked. "Call us the Heroes of Aionios.", Valdi replied. "Aionios?", I asked. "The world that formed when the world of the Bionis and the world of Alrest fused together in the Intersection. You know it as the Convergence.", Isurd replied. Struggling to process this, I then asked, "So where is this place?". "Oh, we're underneath the Castle of the Kingdom of Agnus, located in what used to be known as the Indoline Praetorium. You came here when the worlds started merging. Don't you remember, Toby?", Juniper said, her eyes filled with tears. "Um, I'm not Toby. My name is Jack.", I said insistently. "Keep telling yourself that.", Isurd said smugly. "By the way, we were planning on travelling to the Sword of the Mechonis, something that Shulk told us was the sword of this gigantic mechanical Titan so many years ago.", Valdi said. "Why are you going there?", I asked. "Well, legends say that it is residence of the four Titans- Giganto, Wyvern, Knight and Supreme. We're going there to kick Titan arse.", Teach replied. "Wait, I don't think the Titans will be there. I know because I've defeated Giganto at least.", I said. "You, defeat a Titan? Especially with your limited skills?", Segiri asked. "Yeah.", I said. "Anyway, we're still going there, even if the Titans might not be there. You stay here and regain your memories.", Isurd said before the Heroes mysteriously warped away. I raised my eyebrow at this- the darkness they used to teleport away seemed corrupt and vile.
Making my way into the castle's lounge, I was hugged out of nowhere by a woman with short pink hair and green eyes wearing a pink half shirt exposing her midriff and a pink miniskirt. "Toby, you've finally come!", she said. "Sorry, who are you again?", I asked. "You don't remember me too? Well, that can be remedied. Anyway, my name is Estellise, but you can call me Estelle.", she said. In the room accompanying Estelle were a woman with indigo hair in a ponytail and red eyes wearing a dark purple dress, a man with bushy blonde hair and mismatched red and yellow eyes wearing a black and dark grey cloak and a man with short dark brown hair and brown eyes alongside a pair of glasses not unlike me and wearing a grey hoodie and dark grey trousers as well as dark brown shoes. Glancing at me, the woman rushed to me. "Oh, you've finally returned!", she said happily. "Now, now, Kyoka dear, you know you can be a bit too caring.", the blonde-haired man said to the indigo-haired woman. "Yes, I know, Kagero, but still, he's come home at last.", Kyoka said to the blonde-haired man. "Uh, what a pain.", the dark brown-haired man said. "Nice to meet you too.", I said. "Now don't be like that, Shiden.", Kagero said to the dark brown-haired man. "It's not like I hate him just because, I hate him because he's a colossal rapist.", Shiden said. "You mean me or Toby?", I asked, . "You know I'm talking about Toby. Not you.", Shiden said aggressively. Suddenly the scene switched to a dark room with a stone throne in the centre; looking at the throne was a catgirl wearing a yellow onesie; like Mio, she had silver fur and amber eyes. I carefully approached her, knowing that anything could happen to warp me literally anywhere. As I approached, she turned around to look at me with a vacant smile on her face. "So you've come back home to Alrest, have you?", she asked with a very thick Welsh accent. "I think so.", I said. "By the way, my name's Nia. You're Toby Octavian Flavius Arnold, right?", the catgirl asked. "Actually my name's Jack Sebastian Arnold.", I said. "That's strange. Besides the hair and eye colour, you look just the same. Maybe it's your beard and moustache.", Nia said. "By the way, what do the Heroes want with the Sword of the Mechonis anyway?", I asked. "About that, the Sword of the Mechonis is a powerful artefact that has existed for as long as Nintentopia has. Legends say that it's a Monado like the sword wielded by the Bionis that can grant the Sovereign the power to cleave all of reality and bring it under his will.", Nia said. "By Sovereign, you mean the ruler of the Sovereign Empire, right?", I asked. "You certainly catch on fast, don't you? Yes, the Sovereign is meant to claim both the Monado and the Sword of the Mechonis and use them to create a new reality if he chooses.", Nia said. "And the Heroes are going there so they can find a way to wield it?", I asked. "That's right.", Nia said. "But why? Doesn't the current Sovereign already have enough power to rule the Empire?", I asked. "Well, Nintentopia is going through a period of great dimensional instability right now, what with the raging war YHVH is currently waging against the Multiverse. The War of the Worlds has a purpose to fuse both Earth and Nintentopia together so to grant the Sovereign the power to destroy YHVH forever and take His place as the ruler of all worlds. And to do that, the Sovereign will need both the Monado in Shulk's possession and the Sword of the Mechonis for the World to recognise him as the next ruler.", Nia said. "It's just that this is actually Cyber Space we're in.", I said. "What pray tell is a Cyber Space?", Nia asked. "Well, it's a digital world the Ancients used to preserve their culture before they were wiped out. I at least know that much.", I said. "Oh. And I thought we only had to deal with the Flood of Light; to think that the Flood could also infect a digital space as well.", Nia said. "Wait, I thought that the Flood of Light was unable to affect a digital world.", I said.
All of a sudden, I found myself in a desert wasteland facing a sword-shaped mechanical bridge. "Wait, is this the Sword of the Mechonis?", I asked, looking deeply at the bridge. "That's correct.", a girl with short red hair and brown eyes said behind me. I turned around to look at her; I noticed that she was wearing a white and red kimono. "And you are?", I asked. "My name is Alkaid.", she said. "Wait, you're one of the girls I saw in one of my visions.", I said before I experienced another bout of pain in my right eye. "Oh, it seems that you're starting to awaken.", another female voice said. I looked toward the source of the voice, seeing a girl with long platinum-blonde hair and blue eyes wearing a black half-shirt exposing her midriff and a red miniskirt and a red shapka on her head. "And you are-?", I asked. "My name is Alisa Ilinichina Amiella.", the girl said. "Wait, you said I was starting to awaken. What am I awakening as?", I asked. "Oh, you'll have to ask Tsugumi on that. She sensed a majestic light within you, similar to the light Alphen radiates. You need to focus on manifesting that light for yourself.", Alkaid said. The pain continued as I then saw a black and dark purple flame emanate from both Alisa and Alkaid, the flame coalescing into what appeared to be a dragon with a split nose. Filled with fear, I ran across the sword, only to run into the Heroes who were emanating the same black and dark purple fire. I then found myself in Garreg Mach again as Celine walked through the door. "Celine, what's happening to me?", I asked. "Oh, I really can't say for fear of spoiling the plot. Please, stay here. Save your strength- you'll need it when you finally awaken.", she said with a sinister smile on her face. The pain grew stronger. As Celine calmly walked out of the room, I saw a vision of a dragon with a split nose inside a black and dark purple orb; as the dragon opened its eyes I found myself in a strange room with the 12 Emblem Rings surrounding a stone altar. I walked to the altar; at this, the rings suddenly lit up and emanated a wispy black smoke. I wiped the smoke away to find myself in a very lavish bedroom with a red velvet carpet and the windows having crimson satin curtains. I noticed three beds- a magnificent four poster bed sandwiched in between two more normal beds with all three having dark crimson satin quilts. In the left bed, I saw Eunie and Taion sleeping and in the right one, Lanz and Sena sleeping. Compared to the four of them who were sleeping normally, I saw Noah and Mio in the centre bed snuggling together with Mio's head resting gently on Noah's left shoulder. The scene then shifted to the observation deck of an advanced space cruiser which looked very similar to the Sovereign Empire's castle; from there, I then found myself in the hospital ward again, with Ardyn saying, "Do you remember now?". "No, not really. To be honest, I'm more confused than ever.", I replied. "No matter. All that is required of you is to ascend as the next Sovereign; from there you shall have command over all kingdoms, empires and republics. You shall be the Multiverse's next supreme ruler.", Ardyn said. "Seems a bit too good to be true.", I said.
Suddenly, I found myself facing the Sword of the Mechonis again. "So, you really don't remember who you are?", Veyle asked behind me. "No, it's not that. I think my memories are more disconnected than me not remembering. At least that's what I think.", I said. Saddened at this, Veyle started to cry. The pain in my eye started up again; now I found myself in a strange mechanical temple with mechanical people all walking about. Walking over to the altar, I saw a recreation of the Sword of the Mechonis from which I sensed a strange resonance. "Looks like a fine replica, doesn't it?", a deep manly voice said behind me. I turned around to see a giant of a man with crimson skin and spiky black hair with a white streak on the left side. He was wearing yellow sunglasses and a pair of giant mechanised gauntlets on his hands as well as a tight sleeveless red jacket, a brown belt connected to a red armoured skirt and a pair of beige boots. "Incidentally, my name is TR-009 Tager.", the giant said before he suddenly vanished. "Again with all the sudden disappearances.", I grumbled.
Walking outside the temple, I found myself in a strange mechanical city. Well, it would be more accurate to say that the city was nothing but engineering and technology all the way through. Off in the distance I saw a man with neatly combed grey hair and red eyes wearing a black and dark grey coat; I walked over to him hoping to make contact. Noticing me, the man said, "You're Jack Sebastian Arnold, right? I've been waiting for you.". "Wait, who are you?", I asked. "Typical. Absolutely typical. Though I wouldn't necessarily blame you for your amnesia; after all, that was an unintended consequence of you being uploaded into Cyber Space. Anyway, my name's Fubuki Spring of the OSF.", the man said. "Wait, how do you know my name?", I asked. Fubuki chuckled. "Well, we know many things about you. By the way, have you seen my older sister Arashi?", Fubuki said. "Oh, she's in the Sovereign Empire's capital.", I said. "And have you seen my friend Karen?", Fubuki asked. "Yeah, I saw him at Garreg Mach Monastery.", I said. At this, a vacant smile appeared on Fubuki's face, just like the one I saw with Goldmary whilst a sinister crimson aura appeared around him. Unnerved, I steeled myself and prepared to fight, only to warped away to the hospital ward again. Once again I saw Maruki, Melia and Ivy looking at me. "Hopefully you now know our plight, Jack.", Melia said. "But why am I being warped all across Cyber Space, though? Why is this world so unstable?", I asked. "That's simple. When you were uploaded into Cyber Space, one of YHVH's angels named Mastema was lying in wait to further torment you. Of course, when he found his golden opportunity, he then seized it, locking you in this here Nightmare Void, a corruption of the Cyber Space dimension specifically tailored to protect and nurture you; sensing that something was wrong, we Scions of the Chosen entered Cyber Space to stop the distortions only for most of us to be absorbed into the illusion too. Indeed when we found you, we were ever so heartbroken that you forgot us after all we'd done for you. And you kept forgetting every time the loop reset.", Melia explained. "Wait, what do you mean by 'loop'? Do you mean a time loop like in Groundhog Day?", I asked. "I don't know what a Groundhog Day is but yes. Well, when he first started his attempt to conquer the Multiverse and establish the World of Light for realsies, we started up a time loop system to reset the loop and stop YHVH's progress each and every time he would seem likely to succeed. However, what we didn't predict was that YHVH would take control of the loop and use it to reset things every time things didn't go the way he exactly wanted; by our count, you were specifically involved in 169 loops, losing your memory every time. Worse, when you entered Cyber Space in the 169th and final loop, YHVH kept the loops going but localised them to the Nightmare Void specifically to torment you. That is why you're the key; we need you specifically to destroy the Titans and gain the strength to destroy YHVH. We also believe that the Sword of the Mechonis will help you greatly in that regard, only you're not able to reasonably take on Wyvern, Knight and Supreme and win, especially not with how limited your powers are. But we're in no position to rush you anyway.", Ivy said.
Taking a moment to absorb the information I was given, I then asked, "But why is Cyber Space so unstable?". "Well, that is because when we entered Cyber Space to save you, it ended up reading and loading our memories. The reason it's so unstable is because of our memories contradicting each other beyond Cyber Space's ability to process. And Cyber Space was used by the Ancients to store all their memories, too.", X said, strolling in. Looking at me, she smiled. "How's Giganto's power?", she asked. "It's alright.", I said. "Wait, you know Lady X?", Maruki asked. "Well we met at Garreg Mach after I defeated Giganto.", I said. Suddenly, I found myself outside Garreg Mach again; there, I saw a young woman with brown hair worn in short twintails and green eyes wearing an olive green hoodie and khaki shorts with forest green boots and short dark green socks. She turned around to face me and smiled. "Hi, my name's Jack. Who are you?", I asked. The woman's smile faded slightly before she said, "You've forgotten me too, have you? Well, no matter; I'll introduce myself to you as much as it takes until you properly remember. My name's Shania Reid.", she said. "Nice to meet you, Shania.", I said. "So you've destroyed the green Chaos Emerald, huh? I had a feeling that they weren't real in this world anyway. Keep it up and maybe you'll be able to help us all escape from this digital dream.", Shania continued, barely missing a beat before walking into the monastery. I decided to follow her and face the music.
The story continues in the next chapter.
