Watched the new Scott Pilgrim anime. Not what I expected at all, and I'm happy because of that.
Also, to the person that demanded I write their Loud House fanfic: go fuck yourself.
Anyways, here's your chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
The Knight, for the first time in a while, was actually caught by surprise. Impacts rang out. sparks flew from his armor with certain hits, and the rare sound of mental being dented echoed out through the air. The small sound of glass being cracked was the last thing to ring out before Salem's mysterious tank actually fell to a knee. He wasn't entirely down, but the armor actually suffered some damage from whatever they'd summoned up.
Instead of just one servant though, the parts that Pandora had called upon had all combined, jester scythes forming into a clawed hand, with various limbs coming together to form a bulky arm or leg. In the end, her small army had joined together into this jumbled mess of puppet parts in the vague shape of a person. But that wasn't the biggest problem. Pandora had added one final puppet into the mix that changed how the battle would work. Somewhere within the massive jumble of parts was a small, almost tick-like puppet exuding a continuous stream of thick, black smoke. That smoke filtered out into the air and just seemed to surround the Knight in darkness, blinding them specifically.
"Aww, don't tell me you're breaking down already," Pandora giggled from the darkness. "Come on stand back up~ My puppets want to play~"
The Forever Knight felt the amalgam's giant hand smash into the back of his head, and he was sent to the ground hard. The force of the attack almost knocked the helmet clean off, making the knight uncharacteristically concerned.
The knight gripped his energy weapon tighter with one hand, while the other quickly shot up to adjust the helmet. Now was not the time for this to happen. He'd gotten the attention of what seemed to be a majority of the guards that patrolled this little outpost, so what was taking them all so long?
The Forever Knight huffed underneath his helmet, trying to focus on a second wind. Je stood back up, having gotten just that, and closed his eyes. He needed to focus. He created a new, sharper-looking weapon that looked ready to shove its way through Pandora's chest. He listened for the puppet amalgam, the creaking and clattering of all of its mismatched parts, from the jesters to the mannequins. The knight breathed one faint breath then held it for multiple seconds.
And then he was off. His movements were so fast and quiet, undetectable to the human eye.
He definitely heard the sound of his blade finding its mark, severing the limbs of the golem puppet that Pandora had summoned up, but it still felt that he wasn't doing much. Strike after strike connected with the puppetmaster's servant, so why did it refuse to go down?
"Maybe you should change it up again? Hacking away's just getting boring to watch," Pandora yawned. Though she was wondering something now, a simple question. Why? Why was this stranger attacking a stronghold of an enemy he clearly knew next to nothing about? Surely this knight didn't just walk up to a fortified outpost without a plan, right? He didn't seem that stupid, so what was he trying to accomplish?
The knight kept on hacking and slashing his way through the dark, landing hit after hit but still missing the blinding tick puppet. Now, his armor wasn't invincible, nothing could truly be called invincible. Cracks and slashes kept appearing on his body as the armor was starting to give out. While he was fine with sacrificing whoever was under all the protective plates, it would be hard to engage in combat without a body.
Pandora was not only getting bored of this, she was getting suspicious. Given how her servant was performing right now, she felt confident enough to leave it to finish the knight. She turned and made her way back into the outpost, wanting to investigate a small hunch she had. On the way, she summoned up two more jester puppets to accompany her.
"Try to at least make your finale flashy. Hate it when the shows end without a big finish," the puppeteer advised.
"I promise you...a big finish." The Knight said, gripping his sword even tighter. He thought his battle might end in his defeat for a time, but he managed to get lucky. He thrust his blade into the amalgam and destroyed the smoke-producing puppet, dispelling the darkness from his vision. The amalgam roared, a sound like clattering wood, before it took a swipe that the Knight easily leapt over, taking to the skies and racing after Pandora. He landed, in front of Pandora's newest puppets, swinging the sword wildly, creating chaotic slices that could easily rip apart his opponents.
"I'll hold you to it~" Pandora raced away to follow up on her hunch while her jesters were cut down. Her first creation, the one that almost brought down the knight, turned back to face him again. The construct, made up of all the severed pieces of the puppets he had brought down before, focused down on him and charged at him, seeking to both bury him and add the newly destroyed jesters' limbs to itself.
"I see...you're sewing the puppets together to make new amalgamates. Hmph," The Knight's armor began to light up and a gear began to turn within the Knight's suit. He was saving this as a trump card, but this armor was on the way out. Might as well use it now.
The sword he held turned to a blazing red, the gear channeling energy into the weapon. As great of an ace this might be, it was still somewhat experimental. Still, something to try out. The blade burned and heated up, starting to glow as the power coalesced in the construct.
"What...is this?" Pandora tilted her head.
"The power of Dust, something from Earth," The Forever Knight held his blade. The blade was completely alight now, glowing like a raging inferno. The puppets coming closer would serve as good kindling.
"Hmm, something to remember then," Pandora mused. She smirked and made her way back into the outpost proper. The amalgam puppets charged the knight and swung three of the integrated scythe-blades at the knight, who was just barely able to bring up a shield to block them. The energy shield actually cracked from the sheer force behind them, the puppet putting forth all of its strength.
"Then, please. Remember this."
Pandora turned around out of curiosity. Such confidence no doubt meant something wondrous was about to happen, and she was not disappointed.
The shield exploded, knocking back the puppets and swallowing them in the flames. The knight held up his sword, and began to swing it wildly, eventually spinning at great speeds. Pandora took a few steps back into the outpost, hoping to put something between her and the the wild, fiery carnage that evolved into a flaming tornado.
"...interesting." Pandora said, eyes wide.
Back inside the outpost proper, the group had emerged from the core cellar and had begun to sneak through the corridors. Well sneaking may not be the right word. With so much attention drawn to the knight, they could easily walk through the halls, stopping at corners just to be on the safe side. Cass would sometimes break off from the group to open a room and look inside. If it was important, she'd call the rest over, but so far, she found nothing of the sort. Just a few more storage rooms.
"This place feels so normal compared to everything out there. It's so ordered." Cass said.
"Addwaitya doesn't like our typical disorder." Michael frowned. "Controlling bastard."
"Wow he'd hate us wouldn't he?" Mercury said, in reference to Salem's inner circle's modus operandi of spreading chaos.
"No, he'd throw out the red carpet for us," Emerald hissed.
"Well he's...a piece of work, isn't he?" Michael asked.
"More than you know," Hope sighed.
"What's to gain from ruling a place like Ledgerdomain? And how come you guys can't really beat him?" Mercury asked.
"Addwaitya is from the stars. While others of his kind have moved here, they were never a native. What's more, his species is rather, um, odd." Hope explained. "They're naturally immune to mana, spells and whatever else. His body already came with a sturdy natural defense, so when he adds the Charms of Bezel and the Alpha Rune to his arsenal, he just makes it seem as if he's untouchable."
"Could use one of the Relics," Cass threw out, "Maybe not the best way to use one but if nothing else works, right?"
"Maybe. If we knew how they actually worked," Emerald answered.
"Relics?" Michael asked, a bit confused.
"Don't worry about that. Addwaitya probably doesn't have any use for them." Hope frowned. "He's already got everything he needs, doesn't he?"
"Probably, but you know tyrants. They'll think of any justification to try and grab more power," Michael answered. The group rounded a corner just in time to see one of the doors be flung open.
"Shit!" Emerald hissed, readying her weapons. Were there still guards in here? Even with the beating the Knight was dishing out up front? How many were actually here then?!
"I don't care what they're saying. They're in the way." A gruff voice said. "Those unwilling to move for him are simply signing their own death certificates. I'll handle it as soon as I can."
Cass's eyes narrowed. That sounded like Kevin? She had to be hearing things, right? Why would he be here?
Mercury must've picked up on that too, given the look he was now giving her. Cass turned and shrugged, unsure of what to make of it herself. The obvious explanation for how Kevin got to Ledgerdomain was Min. But something seemed off with the voice; it was deeper and it sounded like there was something missing, not that Cass could tell exactly what.
"Sir, violence needn't be our answer-" another voice asked.
"It's our solution. People won't listen to the words we speak. They'll see the results, and they'll learn NOT to be like the examples." The Kevin voice said. Cass frowned, this Kevin was far more violent than the typically laid back Outcast.
Cass decided to make the first move then. If this guy was going to be a problem, better deal with it quickly. She nodded to Mercury and motioned for him to follow her. The two broke away from the group, despite Emerald trying to stop them, and snuck up to the door. Cass, with her weapons at the ready, was just waiting for "Kevin" to walk through the door. Catch him by surprise then deal with whoever else was in the room.
"What's the best way to deal with them?" the other voice asked, her voice was muffled under a helmet. "Kill a few, let the rest live?"
"I find the message more impactful if there's no survivors." the Kevin voice chuckled.
Ok, what the fuck? Cass thought to herself upon hearing that. Kevin might be brutal when he's fighting, his mutated forms are probably somewhat to blame for that, but he wouldn't suggest mass slaughter like that. Either way, when the Maiden heard footfalls get closer to the door, she reared her arm back, getting ready to surprise whoever stepped by.
"I can sense you."
That made Cass stop dead in her tracks while Mercury just grit his teeth and growled.
"The energy around your body, it's strange, unique. I've never seen magic like that before," The Kevin voice bemused. He stepped out, and that's when Cass and Mercury finally saw his face. Appearance wise, he looked very similar to Kevin, but he had a few key differences like a small set of horns, longer hair and, honestly, he looked like he could be a distant relative.
Cass didn't waste any time though, and, even though he'd somehow found them out, threw her punch. The horned Kevin simply smirked and grabbed her fist with his own, but then something felt off. Cass' eyes widened when she felt it and she tried to make him release his grip, only for her other hand to be grabbed as well. Mercury was about to launch himself at the brute but suddenly found himself blasted by a ray of black energy that, upon contact, actually seemed to surround him and block out all color, leaving him monochrome. The one who was keeping the beam up used the attack to lift Mercury into the air as she walked out of the room and past Kevin's doppelganger.
"Not what I was expecting, but," Darkstar turned her attention to Emerald and the others, "Close enough if your weapons are anything to go by."
"Who the hell are you?" Cass frowned, as the Kevin clone stared at her blankly.
"You're...not from here." The Kevin copy deduced. "This magic is weak, and can only perform a basic shielding spell...with an added bonus. I see. You must have come through the door."
"Oh, you want magic? Fine then," Cass smirked and her eyes flared up with power. But instead of concern, the clone just raised a brow.
"Interesting. I didn't sense that before now…"
Cass leaned back, before spewing a burst of flames from her mouth, forcing the Kevin expy to release his grasp on her and quickly dodge away from the attack.
"Hm," the doppelganger hummed, cracking a smile.
"What? That catch you off guard?" Cass smirked.
"No, not really." The faux Kevin said. "I was just worried you wouldn't be a good fight." He put his hand to the bronze-brass floor and began to absorb it. Cass watched in confusion as the Kevin clone was suddenly coated in the same material as the floor.
"That's different." the Maiden frowned, as Kevin's clone morphed his hands into two blades.
Without a second thought, the doppelganger raced in and began taking wild slashes at Cass. She either blocked or dodged out of the way, taking the chance to throw in a hit of her own at any opening that was left to be exploited. Only, on the first time she tried that, her hand just clanged against the metal, making her cry out in pain and reel her hand back.
As for Mercury, he was still in the air by Darkstar before Emerald opened fire with her weapons. A black shield quickly appeared to tank the shots, rippling like water when the bullets made impact.
Darkstar coated her fists in that dark energy as she began to drain Mercury of his energy- Mercury yelled in pain, feeling his very vitality and energy to fight leave his body. His aura was doing the best it could to handle the attack.
"That's it," she smirked, feeling the energy flow into her. Before she could get any further though, Hope intervened, summoning up one of her Stone Creatures and unleashing it on the energy vampire from behind. Forced to drop Mercury, she quickly spun around and brought the shield up to block the stony fists that were brought down on her.
Hope then looked over to Cass, who, despite not taking any damage herself, didn't actually do much to Kevin's duplicate either.
"Think you can handle her?" Hope asked, motioning to Darkstar.
"We can manage," Emerald said, putting away one of her weapons and letting green energy envelop her hand. That did get Michael's attention, though. Hope must've taught her; it was actually rather impressive the more he thought about it.
"What's the deal with this girl?" Emerald asked.
"That's Darkstar." Michael frowned. Emerald gave him a weird look. "Don't worry. No relation but, she has the power to drain the life energy of a person and can boost herself with it. Drain them enough, and they're left a husk."
"Noted." Emerald said. "Follow my lead." Emerald darted off, as she started to activate her Semblance.
Michael took note of what she was planning while letting golden energy surround his own hands. The dark shield held strong, before Darkstar morphed it into a blast and fired it point-blank into the Stone Creature's chest, shattering it.
Hope, meanwhile, fired off a beam of mana at Kevin's doppelganger to draw his attention from Cass. It looked like she needed the breather. On the last swing from him, the Kevin clone turned and swung at Hope instead.
Hope immediately erected a powerful shield, one that rippled as the Kevin expy hit it. Hope steeled herself- she knew that she needed to break apart that armor that he'd coated himself in. Hope's eyes lit up, before she began chanting a spell.
"Magnetes Opus!" Charmcaster unleashed a powerful pulse from her hands, as the Kevin clone was blasted back- no, not blasted. He was being forced back into a nearby wall. The Kevin lookalike found his body pinned against it, unable to move.
"Clever. Magnetic magic." the double noted, almost impressed at the simple move.
Cass smirked at that, rolling her shoulders a bit and getting ready for the next round.
"That armor. How easy is it to break?" Cass asked.
"Not very, but if you're asking for an energy boost," Hope began.
"One of the rock guys should work."
Darkstar shifted her focus to Emerald, ready to drain her dry, only to see three of her, each with both of their weapons drawn.
"Smoke and mirrors? That's it?" the helmed mage asked before sighing. Black energy surrounded her hands before she fired off a massive, almost blade-like burst that cut all three Emerald's in half, before she watched them disappear.
"More than that fortunately!" Emerald called out, blasting Darkstar in the back with her own magical beam of green energy.
Darkstar nearly avoided the attack, but the beam hit her face- some of her helmet shattered, revealing her grotesque face and horrible eye, staring daggers at Emerald.
"...you've made a huge mistake." Darkstar said, dropping Mercury- he was shivering on the ground. Darkstar disappeared in the blink of an eye. Emerald could barely process what was happening before Darkstar warped behind her and rabbit punched her in the back.
Emerald stumbled a bit from the hit, but recovered relatively quickly and tried to slash at the energy vampire with her always-ready blade, but Darkstar didn't even give her the chance to properly react. Darkstar simply followed up with another punch and a blast of dark energy that blasted Emerald away. She charged up another shot, only for beams of golden energy to strike her from the side.
"Forgot there was one more person here, didn't you?" Michael smirked.
"Of course it'd be you," Darkstar seemed very irritated with this predicament.
"I take it you two know each other?" Emerald asked, taking note of that hate.
"We're bitter rivals! Enemies! Good and evil, locked forever in combat!" Michael said. He was seriously hamming it up, which, given that he looked like a drama club member, made sense.
"One star, reviled and dying and one burning bright. My hatred runs deep for you, Morningstar," Darkstar hissed.
This might actually work to her advantage. Given that kind of hate, Emerald could easily play on-...wait a minute. Emerald's train of thought was interrupted by a realization. It made sense for Michael to be going over the top with it. If this woman hated him so much, why was she playing along? Usually the dramatics just annoyed people's worst enemies, for example, Rose and Tennyson with Zs'skayr or Cinder. Not once did those two really play the part, unless they had an advantage.
She knew how to play a long con, hell, she acted chummy with Miss Optimist and Mr Self Righteous back at Beacon, and she hated every second of it. No one would play along with this unless...
Unless...
Emerald looked back at the Kevin counterpart, he was sure taking that beating from Cass and Hope comfortably. It was like he wasn't even making an effort to strike back.
Their guards were lowered because it was going too well.
"Ohhhh shit. HOPE!" Emerald called out, only for Darkstar to quickly turn her attention back to the illusionist. She cursed under her breath and fired off another barrage of black energy bolts.
Morningstar's demeanor quickly changed as well- that charming smile quickly turned sour, and any sort of light left his eyes. He quickly gathered magic power in his hand, and generated chains of light which quickly wrapped themselves around Emerald's body.
"E-emerald!?" Hope yelled, before King suddenly let his armor down- he responded by quickly striking back at Cass and Hope's faces, knocking Hope to the ground...but Cass stood her ground.
Emerald struggled in the energy grasp, trying in vain to get out. Her own magic flared up for a moment, but the light was almost completely drowned under the golden energy.
"How'd you figure it out?" Darkstar asked. Black energy enveloped her hands again, ready to try and drain Emerald of her energy now. The illusionist ruined the show so, in Darkstar's mind, it was the least punishment she could dish out.
"Never play the bit up...too much!" Emerald answered, before unleashing a burst of magic- Michael was knocked back, as Emerald quickly pulled out her weapons.
Emerald's eyes lit up as she started to use her Semblance. They started to focus on Michael, making the world around him grow darker and darker- she was obscuring his vision.
Only for black energy to distract her, taking her focus off of Darkstar's literally brighter counterpart. Emerald dodged out of the way after the first blast hit her. Michael started to get back up, his vision clearing up, only to remember that there was one other person here.
"Yeah, you forgot about me didn't you?" Mercury smirked.
"You made a quick recovery..." Michael frowned, as Mercury drew his guns. "How annoying."
"That's what most people say about me." Mercury quickly flipped his guns around and pistol whipped Michael in the face. Michael stumbled back, giving Mercury ample time to spear kick him dead in the chest.
Michael steadied himself after the hit, charging up another golden blast to throw at Mercury, trying to blast the one opponent he forgot to really take account of. Mercury simply dodge out of the way, taking pot-shots at Michael in a strafing run, aiming more to distract him or force him to take cover.
Emerald, meanwhile, had her green mana flare and she slammed her hands to the ground, hoping to simply slam Darkstar with pillars of earth. She was...semi-successful, slamming the energy vampire with not earth, but a pillar of water. She might have messed up one of the words for the spell. One word in the incantation makes all the difference.
Cass smirked when she realized King's armor was down. She slammed her fists together and rushed in before he could armor-up again. She actually landed a few good hits during the quick melee, but King landed a few of his own as well. The Maiden could feel her Aura flare from the damage and from the impacts providing power for her Semblance.
King blocked the hits as best he could- kinetic energy was one of the only things his magic could not absorb. Always too hectic to get a feel for. He needed to find a good opening to absorb something, anything that could take this barrage of strong attacks.
Darkstar began to charge up- dark particles surrounded her body, before morphing them into tiny blades. Darkstar yelled as she began to toss these blades at Emerald, who quickly erected a shield to block the blows. Michelle's next move was to create a multitude of dark tendrils around her body, and began striking at the shield wildly. If any of those tendrils touched Emerald- her energy would be drained for a good while.
One of the tendrils lashed out and managed to wrap around Emerald's arm. She cried out in pain, before smirking and vanishing. Her Semblance was still active, even if Michael wasn't the target anymore, and Michelle fell for it. The tendril simply gripped the air where the illusion had once been, letting Emerald get a decent hit in with her own blast of green mana.
Michael, meanwhile, had formed several golden shields and surrounded himself with them, to cover every angle Mercury could fire at him from...except above. Seeing that, Mercury smirked and fired off his greaves, launching himself into the air and coming down on Darkstar's counterpart with an axe kick. Michael was barely able to dodge it, but now he had to deal with Mercury in close quarters.
Mercury began smashing his face in, punching the self centered bastard until his nose was bleeding and his face was bruised. Michael wasn't used to such physical attacks. This was horrific for him.
And he promised Mercury would pay for each punch.
King, meanwhile, managed to land a good right hook to Cass' jaw, forcing her to stagger back from the hit. He quickly brought his hand up to the wall and reabsorbed the material, bringing his armor back up. He needed that extra defense for this one. Cass just smirked, rubbing her jaw a bit before her Aura flared.
"Thanks for the charge-up," the Maiden smirked.
Hope got back to her feet and her eyes quickly focused on Darkstar. She felt betrayed right now. Betrayed and furious. She wouldn't steal the hits from Mercury, but she needed to vent. And Darkstar was the perfect target to work out some of that anger.
Hope opened her hands, unleashing a smokescreen of some sort of odd dust- she quickly formed them into multiple black arrowheads that floated in the air around her. She began to fling them into Darkstar's body- the dust was a part of some sort of armor piercing spell, and it would eat the metal around her helmet so that she and Emerald could easily knock them out with some more concussive spells.
Darkstar staggered back when the first dagger stabbed into her. She looked at the blade as it seemed to disintegrate on the spot, turning into what she could only describe as magical, living rust. The rust began to slowly spread across the metal like a virus. After the second hit and added to the rust a mere second later, she started to weave through the thrown daggers or conjuring up a shield to let the dagger shatter against.
Emerald took the opportunity to attack Michelle from behind, slashing at her with Thief's Respite. Michelle wasn't in a good position here. Blades on one side, rust on the other.
Darkstar needed to get some space- no one could see her face, it would destroy her…wings manifested on her back, and she quickly flapped them. Emerald and Hope stepped back, as Darkstar covered her face with her hands.
"Stay BACK!" Darkstar yelled.
Hope and Emerald shared a look before nodding to each other, focusing their fire on Darkstar's wings.
Mercury delivered a roundhouse kick to Michael's jaw, knocking the radiant traitor onto his back. Michael coughed a bit from the hit.
"Really...really wish you weren't this good," Michael coughed.
"Why? So you wouldn't get your ass handed to you?" Mercury scoffed.
"No...so you wouldn't have to deal with this," Michael quickly held his hand out behind him and fired off a small golden orb. A few feet away from him, the orb expanded into a bright golden portal.
"You idiot! We can handle this!" King called out.
"Doesn't look that way to me!" Michael shot back.
"They're HUMANS!" King yelled, as he threw another powerful punch at Cass' face. She simply absorbed the blow, and returned the attack at twice the force.
"Right," Michael huffed. "I promise you. He will make you suffer for this trespass…"
"Great, going vague," Mercury sighed.
The portal got Hope's attention, though. She didn't need to hear who the portal was meant for, she knew. She could feel the magic that was pulsing from the other side of the portal and it was terrifyingly familiar.
"...we need to go. We need to go NOW!" Hope shouted.
"What? Why?" Mercury frowned. "We got this guy on the ropes! What, he gonna bring out some monster that's gonna crumple like pap-"
And then an overwhelming magical pressure filled the room. Mercury felt it, like a sudden cluster headache overtook his body.
Emerald felt it too. A hand jolted up to her forehead on reflex; it felt like all of her senses were getting blurred by whatever this was.
"THAT'S WHY!" Hope said, fighting through the effects of the pressure and throwing three last daggers, each aimed at one of the opponents. King's armor was scratched by the dagger, putting the magical rust on the metal shell. Michelle deflected the dagger sent her way with her conjured wing. Michael just rolled out of the way of his, letting the dagger ricochet off the ground and up towards the portal where someone quickly caught it.
"Well, fuck..." Cass said when she saw that.
The hand that caught it was not exactly a hand, more like a fin, similar to a turtle's own. It sported five, long claws and was covered in scars and callouses. Hope's eyes shrank in horror as she watched the rest of the body pull itself through.
It was Addwaitya and he had changed from when she last saw her. For starters, the metal shell was new.
The turtle-like being looked over the dagger in his claws, ignoring the eyes locked on him for the moment. Aside from the metal shell, the feature that drew the most attention was his head. Instead of something, well normal may have been a strong word, but even still, no one was prepared for seeing the tyrant of Ledgerdomain's head entirely engulfed in purple flame.
"Hm...Karat. A sound option, given King..." Addwaitya mused, before he waved his free hand over the dagger and turned it to normal dust.
"You…" Hope's eyes were wide and scared but her teeth were grit, barred like she was ready to strike. "You took everything from me."
Addwaitya looked right through her. "I don't even know who you are." He said, coldly ignoring her.
Gunfire suddenly echoed in the corridor. Emerald brought out both her weapons and just began firing at Addwaitya. The shots that landed sparked against the metal shell the tyrant now sported. All the other bullets seemed to either miss or were stopped by something else, a magical barrier set up around the turtle-like creature maybe? Addwaitya simply sighed and held a hand out in Emerald's direction.
The gunfire came to a sudden halt. Emerald tried pulling the triggers on both a few more times, but nothing happened. The tyrant then balled his claws into a fist, and the barrels of Emerald's started to glow with heat. An instant later, the guns exploded at the barrels, launching Emerald back and dealing a big hit to her Aura.
"Fall." Addwaitya commanded, and suddenly, Emerald was on her knees and arms, bowed as if she was praying or apologizing. Addwaitya walked over, unamused.
"Morningstar. Bless you for bringing these intruders to my attention." Addwaitya waved his hand, and Michael's wounds vanished.
Mercury started to take a few steps back, fingers on the triggers of his guns. He'd seen what just happened but, better the separate guns then his legs if Addwaitya pulled that stunt again.
Darkstar simply looked at Hope and smirked under what was left of her helmet. The girl was too scared to do anything, so here was the perfect chance. Michelle summoned up a shadowy lance and took aim, ready to impale Hope on the spot. Cass, however, was able to quickly overcome her shock and saw Michelle ready to throw. She threw one last punch into King before dashing over to Hope right as the lance was thrown. Cass tackled Hope out of the way, knocking Charmcaster free of her fear-induced paralysis.
"Hey! Run now, freeze up later!" Cass said, before unleashing all the stored kinetic energy from her Semblance in Addwaitya's direction, aiming to break his concentration on Emerald and give them something of a distraction.
Addwaitya held up his fin, and the energy dissipated around him. He looked unamused. "A Semblance…a failed attempt to recapture Earth's magical glory days. Pathetic. Do you want to see how a real burst of kinetic energy should feel?"
"Thanks, but think I'll pass. We've got somewhere else to be!" Cass yelled. Mercury took a few shots at the tyrant to distract him, while Cass tried to help Emerald up. Thankfully, even though the energy didn't hurt him, the lapse in concentration meant that Emerald had control over her body again. With Cass' help, she got back to her feet and grabbed Hope's hand.
While Mercury gave a few last shots of covering before running after the others, Hope had come to a realization. The metal shell Addwaitya sported, she knew why he had it.
"Is he following us?!" Cass shouted back to Mercury.
"No idea! But unless you wanna stop and check!" Mercury yelled back.
"Alright. I will." Hope said, as she came to a halt, and spun around. Her eyes locked onto Addwaitya, as she studied him up and down a few more times.
"Is something…amusing?" Addwaitya frowned.
"In a tragic comedy sort of way, yes," Hope admitted. While she was still scared out of her mind of Addwaitya, she just had to know. Was she right?
"What?! Wait a minute, that wasn't a fucking suggestion!" Mercury shouted back, "Emerald, what the hell is she doing?!"
"And what exactly is that supposed to mean?" the tyrant asked. That definitely caught his attention.
"That shell…the last time I was here, you didn't have that." Hope noted. "I'm assuming you only have it because of an accident or hard fought battle…"
"You talk as if I've impressed you. Praise will get you nowhere." Addwaitya scoffed.
"Impressed? No. That shell's all the proof I needed to see...my father gave you a scar to remember him by."
"Your father?" Addwaitya asked. For the first time, surprise actually crept onto the tyrant's face and then all the pieces clicked together in his head. Spellbinder. This...this seemingly random girl was Spellbinder's daughter.
"Of course you'd come back." Addwaitya growled, his face becoming unusually calm and the room becoming unusually warm, "You came to avenge him. To beat me. Of course you would."
Hope's eyes shrank in fear. This heat- she'd felt it once before.
"You were so young when he and I fought...in fact, I'm not even sure you saw what happened. But...if you were...and time simply faded the memory..." the flames surrounding Addwaitya's head burned brighter and began to spread, down his neck and across his arms.
"Allow me to remind you."
Cass and the others watched in shock as Addwaitya's form was changing, elongating and burning bright. Wings sprouted from his back, as his body grew massive. Hope's pupils were barely even noticeable anymore- they'd shrank too much…
Emerald didn't waste any time, rushing to grab Hope by the hand and pull her after her as the others began running.
"Why the fuck would you do that?!" Mercury yelled back, "If there's one thing you should've picked up from Salem and Zs'skayr, it's never taunt the insanely powerful overlord!"
Hope didn't respond- her eyes were still frozen in fear, trained on the growing heat around them. It was sweltering, like they were suddenly in a desert at high noon…
"Hope?" Emerald asked. No response.
It was terrifying to see Hope like this. Ledgerdomain and Addwaitya were always, well saying it was a sensitive topic was one of the biggest understatements someone could make. Even mentioning her home made Hope freeze up and now she was face to face with the tyrant himself. The fact she still had some courage to try and taunt him about the shell was astounding, if definitely double edged.
Because now Addwaitya was chasing them, no doubt with the intent of burning them to ashes.
The group quickly ran back, retracing their steps through the outpost, Addwaitya's heat never fading. When they got back to the core-cellar, Cass thought now was the best situation for her earlier plan. Time to bring this place to the fucking ground.
Cass busted down the door, and began to look around for some cores. Mercury quickly caught on, and followed her inside.
"This is probably the craziest thing I'll ever do...for this month, at least." Mercury said, grabbing some cores- God, they were heavy as shit.
Cass just rolled her eyes at that. The cores weren't that heavy, but they have just been the case for her. The two gathered together as many cores as they could, stacking them near the door to the cellar. First these would go, then the explosion would be amplified by the rest.
"Come on! Hurry! Mr. Shellraiser's gonna be on our case any second now!" Emerald yelled. "Worry about your bomb shit later!"
"Last one!" Cass said as she placed the last core in the pile and ran back to exit. This was gonna be risky. She readied one of her shots outside the cellar and fired down into it when she felt the heat from Addwaitya starting to reach her.
The heat was enough to make her feel dehydrated- she shook off the pain, and quickly regrouped with the others.
"Emerald, how far can you teleport us?" Cass asked.
"Pretty far, honestly, but we're not all together right now! Where the hell is the Knight!?" Emerald said.
As if on cue, the Knight was suddenly thrown towards them, thudding on the ground before them.
"Great...gang's all here, now we can die together," Mercury said.
"The hell happened to you?" Cass asked, noting all the damage on the Knight's armor.
"I got matched with a psychopath." The Knight grumbled, standing back up.
"You look like you're due for a check in at the shop," Mercury quipped, knocking on one of the arms and it promptly fell off. Mercury was a bit caught off by that and even more unnerved that there wasn't an 'arm' underneath the armor.
Cass raised an eyebrow. "...well then."
"Are you...remote controlled?" Emerald asked.
"Yes and no." The Forever Knight huffed, picking his arm up. "You needn't worry about me...worry about yourselves."
"Oh, we are. We need to go," Mercury said, looking back to the cellar, surprised that nothing's gone off yet. He honestly thought it would've been more volatile.
"Agreed-" the Knight began before the group felt the ground shake and saw one of the puppet amalgam emerge, scythes at the ready to cut them all to shreds.
"Well that explains the armor," Cass muttered to herself.
"No time to run back to the door and I don't know how long until those bombs go off..." Emerald cursed.
"Lemme guess, we need to hold that off for a few minutes? Yeah, sure, not like it tossed around the walking tank for fun," Mercury said, getting ready to fight. He was quickly starting to hate magic.
"No need for fighting. We need to get Hope back to base. Consider this scouting mission over." Emerald said, as her eyes lit up, glowing a bright green color.
"Hands on me, we're warping out of here."
The three quickly gathered up with Emerald, Cass placing one hand on her shoulder and the other on Mercury's. The energy started to gather around the group before culminating in a massive flash. When the light died down, they were gone. The timing was perfect as well, since the amalgam had reached them and brought several of its blades down on where they had been mere moments ago. One second slower and someone would've wound up impaled.
Emerald was falling again, and so was everyone else- it was brief, momentary but it still put them all in unease as they landed a good distance away from the base. "Come on!" Emerald yelled, as she motioned for the group to follow her.
Emerald didn't need to say it twice, as the group quickly followed her. Far behind them, they heard the echo of a massive explosion, large enough to shake the ground all the way out here. Cass turned around to see the pillar of smoke that was her handywork and smirked.
"Think he survived that?" the Maiden asked confidently.
"Considering everything...it would not surprise me," the Knight said.
"You try to be optimistic about something..."
"No. He survived it..." Hope finally spoke, eyes still trained on the pillar of smoke. Emerald turned to look at her, a bit scared. "He always does...he always will..."
"He is invincible," a familiarly gruff voice smirked.
Emerald spun back around to see Michael and Darkstar, standing before them, blocking their path. "Leaving so soon, Hope? But you just got back..."
"How did-" Emerald began.
"You really think we didn't have a means of following teleportation spells? I'm honestly insulted by the implication," Michael chuckled.
"Besides, don't want you to miss out on the real main event. One of you has already seen it, but I think this one could benefit from a repeat performance," Darkstar added.
"Why the hell would you join with Addwaitya?!" Emerald yelled, tightening her grip on Hope.
"Simple, survival." Michael frowned. "Triumph at any cost, victory in the face of dread, victory no matter how long and difficult the journey; for without victory, there is no survival. I need to be on the side of winners."
"And Addwaitya...Addwaitya is my survival. My hope." Darkstar said, the ground around her decaying as her voice became rough. "My only freedom from the Hell I find myself in."
"Why do I feel like the ghost would just love to have a talk with this guy?" Mercury muttered, getting ready to fight again.
And he didn't have to wait long for someone to throw the first punch. Darkstar conjured up two more shadowy lances and launched them at the group, one aimed at Emerald, the other at Hope. Emerald was able to make a shield large enough to block both projectiles and she watched the lances shatter. Of course, that gave Michael the opportunity to get in close and surprise Cass. A charged beam of golden mana slammed into her side and almost knocked her on her back.
However, a hit with that much force behind it was sure to give the Maiden's Semblance quite the power boost.
Cass unleashed a blast of kinetic energy that sent Michael back- he landed on the ground, and quickly conjured up a sword and shield. The sword had notches, something Cass quickly took note of- that wasn't just a sword, but a sword breaker. The shield was interesting too- the shield had an oddly demonic design to it. She probably needed to watch out more for that.
Cass narrowed her eyes, as she grabbed her own weapon.
Of course, it wasn't just Cass Michael needed to worry about. Before the Maiden could attack, a similar type of energy weapon, a flail this time, flew towards Darkstar's counterpart. He quickly raised the shield, letting the flail itself bounce off. The Knight didn't let that stop him, racing in and shifting the construct from a flail to his own unique broadsword. With the backup, Cass made a charge towards Michael as well, chain and blade at the ready.
Mercury, meanwhile, was left to help Emerald and Hope deal with this self-styled fallen angel. He fired off a few rounds from his pistols, only for them to impact against a manifested shadowy wing. The wing wasn't even damaged, but that did let Emerald get a spell ready. The green energy around her hands shifted into an icy blue as a jet of cold mist sprayed from her hands. Darkstar quickly manifested the other wing and took to the air before the spray could do its work. Even with a few seconds of exposure, small bits of ice crystals had begun to form on her armor.
Darkstar quickly shook the ice off her body, as she formed a massive, pitch black broadsword that looked like it could slice through their bodies with ease. Mercury fired more rounds from his pistols, but Darkstar boredly blocked the attacks. She slashed her sword, sending a massive crescent shaped projectile from her sword. The two thieves dodged the attack, as Darkstar rushed towards Emerald. She began slicing at her furiously, getting faster and faster-
"INDIGO NIGHTMARE!" Darkstar yelled.
Emerald barely had time to react before a wave of shadows shot out of the tip of the greatsword, cutting through everything, and phasing through her body. It didn't cut her in two- no, it more felt like her body was going into shock. She collapsed on the ground, unable to move. A massive chunk of her energy had been drained, and she looked very emaciated.
"...fuck," Mercury cursed to himself when he saw the effects. When he turned to take aim at Michelle again she seemed...different. When Hope and Emerald had chipped away at her mask, Mercury could've sworn he saw something different. Now she almost looked like Michael, if a bit paler and her eyes an odd mix of gray and light blue.
"Ohhh that's much better," Michelle smirked and turned her blade towards Mercury, "One more of those should be enough I think."
"W-what the hell?" Mercury asked. "You two twins?"
Michelle flipped her regrowing blonde hair. "I can understand your confusion, but...yes and no." Michelle grinned. "Are you familiar with doppelgangers?"
"...I've heard the term." Mercury said, cocking his weapon. "Someone who not just resembles you, but is an exact double, right down to the way you walk, act, talk, and dress..."
"It's something like that with me and Michael." Michelle smiled. "I'd love to explain it more, but I'm running out of time to retain my beauty."
Mercury just rolled his eyes and fired off another barrage of pistol shots. One of her wings moved in front and tanked the shots, but Mercury planned that. With a shot from his greaves, he launched himself skyward and landed a roundhouse kick to Darkstar, the hit even more devastating thanks to an extra shot. The wing actually had a crack form in it from the impact, much to Michelle's surprise.
Michelle flapped her wings, knocking Mercury back. Mercury knew he had to strike now- Emerald was still on the ground, twitching and slowly regaining her energy. Michelle guarded herself again, just in time, too as Mercury lunged forward and threw out a high kick aimed right at his opponent's neck. He swung his other leg forward to land a powerful kick hard into the opponent's stomach and the wings SHATTERED.
Michelle was not expecting that, seeing the shadowy shards float in the air for a moment before disappearing. She fell to the ground with a thud, Mercury landing right in front of her. He gave one last kick to her stomach for good measure.
Meanwhile, Michael was forced to stay on the defensive. Heavy swings from the Knight and quick slashes from Cass forced him to constantly change the direction of his shield. Of course, such openings meant he did take some hits, barely avoiding being cut in half by the construct-blade or sliced through by Cass' chainblade. Unlike Cass or Emerald, he didn't have Aura, so the longer he was fighting like this, the more likely he'd just die from all the smaller cuts. On Cass' next strike, Michael lashed out and managed to catch her blade in one of the notches of his weapon.
"Gotcha!" Michael grinned. Maybe this was the break he was looking for! Or not, considering this was Cass he was dealing with.
Cass clenched her weapon tightly- "Bad move." She hissed, as her kinetic energy traveled up the chain. Michael had his body shocked by a burst of violent kinetic energy. It felt like his stomach had exploded- and that's when Cass decided to show Michael the force of the Summer Maiden.
The wind began to howl, as a vortex of wind lifted her up into the air. Cass unleashed a powerful burst of flames, shards of earth, and torrents of water in succession to strike her opponent again and again and again-
Whatever wounds Addwaitya had healed earlier, Cass' onslaught reopened them and added more fresh wounds on top of that. The fire burned and the earthen shards sliced at him. The water slammed into him over and over, finally knocking him to the ground. Suffice to say, Michael was ready for a lot of things...the Summer Maiden was not on that last.
"Hm...efficient," the knight...complimented? It was as close to a compliment he'd ever given honestly.
"You're injured. I have to pick up your slack." Cass smirked.
"That was Earth's magic?" Michael sounded a bit disappointed. "Hm, I figured there'd be more kick to it. Painful but still very unrefined. No real spells, just sheer power...would you like to see a real demonstration?"
Michael's hand lit up- he tossed an orb at Cass and the Knight, and it exploded, flashbanging the two of them-
"Son of a bitch!" Cass called out, blinded by the sudden light. It was hard to tell if the Knight was heavily affected by the light, but considering he didn't try to stop Michael from racing past him, it was safe to say he was. Michael summoned up another orb and threw it, blinding Mercury as well.
With Emerald still recovering, there was one person Michael forgot to account for. Why would he, she was suffering from her trauma.
Hope- small and tiny as she felt, she was the only person that could even save the day now. Her body just felt so heavy and corpse like- what use did she have now? What power did she have over Addwaitya? What powers did anyone have to kill a God?
Hope crashed the second she realized her dad died, thinking he made a dent in Addwaitya, but nothing changed.
Michael, meanwhile, had gone over to his counterpart and voluntarily gave her some of his own energy; enough to wake her and enough to restore some of her own beauty. Given the amount of mana Michael had, it wasn't too big of a problem. Michelle shot up when the energy started to flow through her and sighed.
"Thanks...now then," Michelle said, her eyes locking onto Emerald. She ignored Hope as well, figuring Addwaitya would want to deal with her himself. She got up and summoned up her shadowy broadsword, before walking over towards Emerald. She would at least kill one of the people who almost exposed her personal hell to the world.
"You seem unimportant..." Michelle huffed. "You seem lonely...and that makes it easier for you to disappear."
Michelle's sword exploded in size- the second that sword pierced Emerald, she was good as dead. Michelle paused for a few seconds, lined up her stab...
AND THRUST-
Only for something to go wrong. A stone jaw had clamped down on the blade and pulled it aside, making the blade miss and stab into the ground instead. Michelle's eyes widened in surprise and turned to look to the right, looking over the stone creature that had interfered in her thrust. Hope's arm was outstretched, hand open, but her head was lowered.
"She was lonely...we both were," Hope finally said, "You're not putting either of us back there. You're not going to force her to be alone again."
Hope's head shot up, her eyes glowing a dangerous pink color. "And by God- I will destroy you for trying to even take her from me."
Hope let off a magical burst of energy- a growing, pink vortex of energy that expanded quickly. Michelle couldn't get away from it, and was caught in the blast. It was focused directly on the dark mage, as the environment and the lover seemed unharmed. How? How was Hope doing this!? Such magic took a lifetime to learn...
Whatever the reason, it didn't matter at the moment. The vortex tore away at the remnants of Darkstar's helmet, another piece being torn away by the vortex of energy. Michelle's hand shot up to try and cover the new exposed part, even if she had her former beauty back. It would fade in time, it always did. Her free hand flared with black energy, trying to absorb the energy of the vortex, only for the black energy to spark and fade.
"What?!" Michelle yelled, only even faintly heard by herself. The vortex just drowned it out for anyone else.
Charmcaster was angry- and this energy was something beyond any magic the group had seen. Michael was...enraptured, just looking at it. The magic, the energy...this was a bread he had yet to taste...
And he wanted her even MORE now.
Hope, almost like she could tell what Michael wanted, turned her attention to him and moved her arm towards him. As she moved, so too did the vortex.
"You...you betrayed us, didn't you? Everyone in my hometown, whatever happened to them you played a part in it..." Hope said, her voice low and ominous.
"Oh, please. I never betrayed you..." Michael smiled. "I was always in on it from the start. Like I said I had to adapt, survive...and feed."
Michael's grin, it needed to be destroyed. It was such an ugly smile.
"That just makes this easier then," Hope said and quickly moved the vortex over to encompass Michael as well. He didn't even have a chance to react before the vortex swallowed him up as well.
Emerald gasped as the last of her energy returned to her, coughing a bit from that awful feeling of being drained. She looked up and saw Hope absolutely destroying the two "Star" counterparts. Hope had this kind of power all along? It was awe-inspiring really.
The vortexes were tossing the two around, smashing them into the ground and negating any sort of magic for them to defend themselves. Even Hope had no idea how she was doing it, but...she just felt nothing but hate and neglect for these two, these monsters who had never thought twice about-
BOOM. Hope's eyes stopped glowing, and the vortexes faded. The two Stars dropped on the ground, annihilated by the attack. Hope's attention turned back to smoke...
It was faint...but she saw something launch into the sky, obscured by the smoke. She didn't need to see it though, she knew exactly what it was.
In simple terms...it was their cue to leave.
"Go." Hope said, as her eyes lit up again, her mind racing in overdrive- she needed to get Emerald out of here. If Addwaitya could hold that form any longer- they'd be dead.
Once the light had faded from Mercury's eyes, he took the hint and bolted. Cass rubbed her eyes as her vision came back before looking to the pillar of smoke. It took her a minute, but she saw what Hope was looking at.
And then she heard it too. Were those wingbeats?
"GO!" Hope yelled, as she took off running towards the door- it wasn't too far, just a quick jog away. But no one could take their eyes off of Addwaitya, and his horrifying form...
"That's..." Cass began, eyes wider than dinner plates.
"Yeah. That's a fucking dragon." Mercury said in shock.
While everyone else made a break for the door, the knight remained oddly calm. He checked over the integrity of the file and nodded when he was sure the recording was intact. A chuckle actually escaped from behind the knight's helm. He couldn't help but acknowledge how fitting this was.
"Knight! We need to go!" Emerald called.
"You need to go," the knight corrected, "A beast that size will have no problem following us through the door. That is, if it doesn't incinerate us before we get there. Unless it's attention is elsewhere."
"Are...are you actually...?"
"Yes. Surprising, isn't it?"
"But-! But, Salem-!" Cass yelled.
"Yes, but my role in Atlas is small. Trust me. I will return to you soon." The Knight said, drawing his sword.
"Well, I'd say it was nice knowing you, but aside from how well you kicked ass, it really wasn't!" Mercury called out. The Knight only rolled his eyes; what else would he expect from Mercury.
"You're on empty. And that suit isn't gonna hold! How the hell do you expect to make it back-" Cass yelled.
"I have my ways! Now GO!" The knight yelled as the dragon roared loudly.
"Not really much of a choice, is there?" Emerald said. The Knight didn't answer and simply started walking towards the flying beast. A knight battling a dragon...how fitting. Salem would probably enjoy that twist the most, honestly.
"This body…it has served me well. But, it's not invincible nor is it quite as spry as I would have liked, but I will give you a vikings funeral," The Knight said, as he picked up his speed.
The remaining members of the group could only continue their dash towards the door. If the Knight really was going to sacrifice himself here...better not make it in vain. The four quickly reached the door and Hope began to recite the words to open it again, each rune lighting up in quick succession.
Emerald turned to look back for a moment, just in time to see the dragon land in front of the Knight.
To see the dragon up close was horrifying- it was twice the size of Addwaitya, and the flames running off its body made it look like it had spawned from hell itself. Emerald stumbled back, before racing off with the other group.
The last rune lit up and the energy once more flowed down from above. The door creaked open and Cass quickly started to pull it open faster.
The dragon seemed to hear the door creak open and looked out towards the group, its eyes narrowing at them and their exit. It was about to just push past the knight, ignore him completely, were it not for a sudden stab into the beast's back leg. This was their fight, and the Knight wanted to hammer that point home. He forced the blade deeper into the reptilian behemoth's leg, causing it to roar out in pain somewhat. It whipped its head to look down at the Knight, accepting that he had to go before Spellbinder's legacy could be ended.
"You...you hide yourself in steel, too cowardly to even show your face...others hide their face to hide who they are, but I can tell you this..." The dragon got close, gnashing his teeth. "I don't even think YOU know who you are."
The Knight said nothing as he made a new sword.
The Knight's distraction was working, though, Cass was able to fully open one half of the door, just enough for everyone to race through. Cass and Mercury went first, followed by Emerald and Hope. Once through, Hope turned back and caught once last glimpse of the battle that was beginning. The Knight, now holding a shield in conjunction with his blade, endured a tail swipe from the beast, forcing him to stagger back. From the hit, he turned and swung at the beast. Hope didn't know if the hit connected, because that was when the door closed. The energy faded from the Door to Anywhere and, soon, it looked like just another piece of time-eroded ruins.
The group stumbled back into Vacuo, out of breath and exhausted. Mercury nearly collapsed on the floor, but instead fell to his knees and started coughing.
"What...the fuck...was all of that!?" Mercury yelled.
"Now...now I understand why you were so reluctant to go back..." Cass sighed.
Emerald would've snapped back at that. Reluctant? That was one way of putting it! The only reason Emerald didn't say anything to Cass was because Hope took priority. She was...it was hard to tell exactly, but ok definitely wasn't one of the words the illusionist would've even considered.
Hope was running on fumes, and she looked absolutely distraught over everything that just happened.
"...Forever Knight is dead." She whispered, looking absolutely shocked. "He's dead and it's my fault- I should have never agreed to any of this-"
"Hope? Look at me. None of this is your fault. If there's anyone to blame it's Addwaitya and...Zs'skayr. He probably knew about all this and thought to use us as fodder," Emerald said. Addwaitya's crimes were known to both of them, so need repeating them. Zs'skayr though...if Emerald had the power, she'd make sure that ghost would never rise from a grave again.
"Can you guys just...leave me here for a bit?" Hope asked, voice small. "I...I'll come back to Salem when...when I feel ready. I need...I need just like. Some time off to myself."
"What? In the desert? Are you sure?" Emerald asked, definitely concerned now.
"I mean, she can teleport back any time she wants but, siding with Emerald on this one," Cass chimed in.
"I…I just need some time away. I'm gonna collect myself here for a little bit longer, and then I'll just make my way to the nearest town." Hope frowned. "I don't want to see that bastard again, and I don't want him to reopen old wounds. I'm not even really needed in this next phase…"
Emerald wanted to try and argue the point but after everything that happened today, it was clear Hope needed that alone time.
"Promise you'll at least let me know when you've reached a town?" Emerald asked.
"Yeah. I'll send a sign." Hope said, slowly lowering herself to the ground. "Just…just go on without me for right now. I'll come back when I'm ready."
Emerald nodded; she understood that Hope needed this, it was just the location that really bothered her. But this was Hope she was talking about. She could handle something like this...right? Emerald tried to ease her own worries, worries that were really only natural in a situation like this, with that kind of reassurance. Vacuo was nowhere near as bad as the madness they just left behind, by leagues.
…still.
A break never meant anything good.