A/N: Things have really escalated at a velocity of shit hundred and fuck, haven't they? What started as a 1v1 duel has spiraled into a battle between entire armies. William has summoned an army of demons from Hell in the depths of Mike's mind, generic in nature but still dangerous in large numbers. But as for Mike…one could argue that what he will bring to the table to counter this threat is even more sinister…
Fnaffan: Not that familiar with super-late Pokemon, sorry :/
FireFlamer: I actually tried to find your recommendation on TV Tropes but couldn't. Unless you're Tropemaster849.
Rockstar Ballora: Maybe. I'm still thinking about it, and the current arc has put other considerations on the backburner anyway.
Logbook: Ehh…I probably would have been more receptive to the idea earlier in the fic. At this stage, it's a bit late in the fic for that.
Dash456: I won't be having Mike adopt Michael and Evan, it just wouldn't really work in my fic especially since they're both already free to go to Heaven. As for whether the Nightmares are Affably Evil…it really depends. Nightmarionne is the only one who definitely is on a consistent basis. Nightmare can be Affably Evil, Faux Affably Evil, or just not give a shit about any sort of politeness whatsoever depending on his mood and his opinion of the person he's talking to, though his demeanor towards Mike does fall under the first category since he does have genuine respect for the man and is willing to cooperate with him to get revenge on William Afton. Nightmare Fredbear is more along the lines of Faux Affably Evil, though he does have some respect for Mike as well (albeit not nearly as much as Nightmare). As for the rest, they haven't gotten enough screen time to say for certain.
Ghostlyassassin Jesse: You pretty much hit the nail right on the head :P.
Anastasia: What can I say? Plans change 😊
Chapter 79 – Battle in the Mind, Part 3
Mike had always known about the darkness that existed in his heart and mind. In his childhood and teens, that darkness had taken the form of fear and hopelessness, manifested as the monsters that had hunted the child in his dreams. When he had told Oskar about those nightmares, and how brutally he had hunted and destroyed them in turn, the retired colonel had warned him that he could be just as capable of evil as he was of good, and that he needed to truly understand his inner darkness if he wished to rise above and master it. Mike had taken his words to heart, and though he would never be able to truly destroy his inner darkness, he would defy it with everything he had. After his decision to rise above his despair and sacrifice his life as a Night Guard in Freddy Fazbear's pizzeria, the darkness would never trouble him again.
And then seven ghostly children entered his life decades after his tainted childhood had come to a close. Seven ghostly children desperate for peace and forgiveness, who had given Mike the happiest years of his life and the true family that he had never had. But for all the joy and light that they had brought into his life, the ghosts had unintentionally reignited Mike's darkness in a new form as well.
Ever since he had learned about the depravity of William Afton from Charlie and the atrocities that he had committed, Mike had felt nothing but disgust for the murderer. And as he grew to love the children as his own, that disgust had evolved into sheer hatred and loathing far beyond anything that he had felt even for his abusive father. A hatred that his children had seen in fleeting moments and dreaded in the depths of their souls, even though it had never been directed towards them and never would be.
And as that hatred had grown, so too had the darkness within Mike. The monsters that had once preyed on the man's fear now fueled their strength with his hatred of William Afton, and had grown to the point that they were now even more powerful than they had ever been when they had hunted a scared, frightened child in the twisted streets created by tormented imagination.
But though the monsters in Mike's mind might have been stronger than ever, the relationship between them and Mike could not have been any more different than it had been in the past. Before, Mike had been a frightened child, haunted and hunted as prey by horrors created from his own fear. Now, Mike was the lord and master of those monsters, and they were united both in purpose and in mind. Together, they shared their overwhelming hatred and desire for vengeance against William Afton for all the atrocities that he had committed.
And together, they would destroy him and whatever pathetic army that he dared to summon.
A shadowy portal leading to a black void opened behind Mike, almost as large as the portal that had brought forth William's demonic army. William could see numerous red eyes within its depths, all emanating the same malice and hatred that Mike had been exuding throughout their entire battle. The moment the portal fully formed, the shadow monsters within wasted no time in spilling out of the portal onto the arena like a black tide of death. Many of the shadow creatures were little better than primal beasts driven only by their need to attack everything in their path: savage wolves, feral bears and boars, all howling for the blood of William Afton and any that dared to align themselves with him. There were other, less mundane creatures thrown into the mix as well: chimeras, Cerberus hellhounds, even alien creatures like Xenomorphs and Outriders, all of them as black as the shadows save for their menacing red eyes and the dark metal armor on their heads, shoulders, and claws. And right alongside them were several berserkers carrying massive battle axes and wearing only minimal armor save for fearsome horned helmets, the ferocious and bloodthirsty expressions on their faces almost indistinguishable from the demons that William Afton had summoned.
But just as Mike had overcome and conquered the darkness within him decades ago, so too had order been imposed upon the chaotic nature of the shadows. As the beasts and berserkers left the threshold from the portal, snarling at their infernal counterparts with only Mike's iron will keeping them under control, the rest of Mike's army of shadowy beings followed them into position. Organized soldiers with the discipline of a true army, each wearing different degrees of armor and weapons depending on their specific purpose. The front line of this new force was composed almost entirely of heavily armored juggernauts bigger than even the berserkers, each carrying a massive tower shield in their left hands and a spear with a tip that crackled with the same malevolent electricity that Mike had been throwing at William throughout their battle in their right. Behind them marched several rows of humanoid warriors that carried a diverse array of swords, axes, and lances, with varying degrees of armor dependent on how much they prioritized mobility or defense. And at the rear were a combination of smaller, nimbler shadow archers and a few figures robed in black cloaks, wearing only bone white pauldrons and horned helms fashioned in the shape of a ram's skull for armor. In their right hands they carried staves made of bones with the same horned skull for their heads, giving them dark sorcerers an almost shamanistic appearance that accentuated their sinister presence. But even with all the diversity in Mike's army, there were some themes that remained the same.
All of them were beings of shadow born from the darkest depths of Mike's soul, and all of them possessed the same scarlet eyes that burned with loathing and hunger for vengeance against their master's sworn enemy.
With his army fully mobilized and fielded out, Mike dissolved the wall of black flame that had prevented either side from attacking the other. With this last obstacle gone, the more savage and bestial creatures on both sides began to froth and roar as they strained against their masters' leashes, eager for the slaughter to begin. Then, Mike raised a scythe with a blade wreathed in dark flames into the air, while across the arena William did the same with his claw. And as they threw their arms forward towards their enemy, one shouted out his command and the other bellowed out a feral, bestial roar. But the meaning behind their gestures was clear, and it was exactly the same.
"KILL THEM ALL!"
Howls, roars, and laughter erupted from the two armies as the more savage creatures and warriors broke from the main ranks and charged frenziedly towards the other side, both wanting nothing more than to slaughter as much of the enemy as possible. From the moment the two forces clashed, the battle became a gory and violent bloodbath on a scale that even the earlier battle between Mike and William couldn't possibly have hoped to reach. The Shadow Xenomorphs and Outriders were the first to leap into the fray, enhanced by razor sharp claws worthy of any Nightmare and empowered by Mike's fury. They immediately started tearing apart any demon warrior in their path to splatters of flesh, ash, and ichor, crushing and devouring the faces and heads of any demon unfortunate enough to have survived their initial evisceration. The axe-wielding berserkers were only a few paces behind, adding to the massacre with mighty cleaves that easily sliced a regular demon in two and in some cases killed more than one demon simultaneously. And right behind them, the many animalistic shadows that Mike had summoned were either tearing apart their victims with their claws or consuming them with flames of pure darkness, ironically more composed than the aliens but no less deadly in their assault. The demons of William's army who had rushed ahead of their fellows, confident that the manifestations of one man's darkness couldn't possibly stand a chance against them, were completely unprepared for such a terrible show of strength and brutality, and the shadows wiped them out almost instantly with one vicious death or another depending on their whims.
The slaughter of the cannon fodder quickly educated the rest of William's forces on the deadly nature of their enemy, and even the more bloodthirsty demons quickly realized that they would need to take this enemy seriously. The shadows were individually more powerful than the average demon in their forces, but they had the advantage of numbers, and grudgingly understood that they would need to cooperate if they didn't want to get slaughtered. As the "berserker" shadows tossed aside the last of the broken corpses of the first line, they quickly began to group together and attack each shadow as a team, for it had already been shown that they stood no chance against a shadow creature individually.
With their newfound teamwork, William's demons could now properly retaliate against the onslaught of Mike's most savage shadows. Even as little as three demons could find success where only one had failed miserably, and it wasn't long before they were hacking away and destroying the beasts made of Mike's darkness with their own claws and blades. Every shadow creature killed by a demon dissolved back into wisps of darkness that faded into the grim atmosphere of Mike's mindscape, while every destroyed demon released an infernal shade from its butchered remains that faded out of existence almost immediately after being released from its corporal form. But even though the demons' new teamwork and tactics were able to greatly slow the momentum that Mike's shadows had seized with their initial assault, they were not able to halt the tide completely, let alone seize momentum back.
Some of the beasts and berserkers had noticed the newfound cohesion in their enemies, and quickly began to aid each other in turn. Mike watched with mild interest and approval as a Cerberus about to be overwhelmed by a group of five demons was rescued by two berserkers who had already killed everything in their immediate vicinity, and working together they slaughtered every demon before the Cerberus could be destroyed. Other shadow creatures began to work together even without any immediate danger; the Xenomorphs and Outriders in particular made for deadly combinations with the former either outright butchering or stunning their enemies with their stinger tails, and the latter finishing the gruesome work that the Xenomorphs stared. Even in cases where a shadow monster gave up its life to rescue another, the sacrifice of a wounded and weakened creature was well worth the life of one that was healthy and at prime fighting condition, especially since the surviving monster would now be driven with a desire for vengeance at the destruction of its comrade.
After several moments, the lines of bloodthirsty demons and shadow beings had thinned to the point that there were only a few demons and shadows of the first wave left, the two sides having effectively destroyed each other in the hideous bloodbath. William decided that it was time to unleash the rest of his army on the shadow creatures, and ordered them to charge Mike's army with another terrible roar. As his legions surged forward, he turned his baleful gaze over to Mike's shadows, expecting them to do the same.
To his surprise, they did no such thing. Instead, the surviving creatures turned around and ran back towards the safety of the warriors that made up the bulk of Mike's forces, even the Xenomorphs and Outriders. The heavily armored warriors parted to make room for the berserkers and beasts and closed ranks once they were safely past, slamming their massive shields onto the ground as they held their spears out in front of them. The warriors looked up and glared at the oncoming demons, as if daring them to try and break through their immovable defense. All too soon, the shrieking demons crashed into the front line of juggernauts, who stood their ground as they repelled the tide of fiery savagery and death. A few of the demons had been either stupid or unfortunate enough to run directly into the tips of the spears, and were rewarded with an agonizing death as they were simultaneously impaled and electrocuted with the force of Mike's wrath. The rest merely crashed into the line of defenders, fruitless trying to claw or strike at any weak points they could find in their heavy armor.
Far behind them, the sorcerers and archers prepared their retaliation. The dark shamans had begun chanting spells in a harsh, guttural language akin to the Black Speech of Mordor, the horned skulls on their staves igniting with dark purple flames similar to the ones that Mike had been using in the earliest stage of his battle with William Afton. Others had instead turned their attention to their archer allies, choosing to empower their arrows with the same dark flames instead of launching any direct attacks of their own. Once they were ready, the archers and sorcerers immediately began firing arrows and dark fireballs into the hordes of demons attacking the front-line juggernauts, destroying several of the demons that had managed to escape being instantly impaled.
For a while, it seemed as though this defense alone would be enough to stave off William's army completely, and that the archers and shamans would be able to pick off the demons at their leisure as they fruitlessly tried to break through tower shields and heavy armor. But a small portion of the demons William had summoned into Mike's mind were berserkers quite similar to the ones Mike had created, and in an unexpected display of cunning William had restrained most of them from attacking in the first wave. Now, William unleashed them in full to break apart the front line that was causing his weaker forces so much trouble, and though the heavily armored juggernauts could have held off hordes of cannon fodder with ease, there was almost nothing they could do against an overwhelming, concentrated attack that could actually break through their defenses. The demon berserkers, caring very little if at all for the arrows and shadow flames that hit them, tore through the shadows' front lines, their axes, greatswords, and hammers either smashing apart or slicing through heavy armor and tower shields with terrifying ease as they carved open paths for the rest of the demons to pour through.
The shadow creatures and berserkers that had survived the initial stage of the battle immediately charged forward to intercept the berserkers, both because they were eager to slaughter enemies as savage and ferocious as they were and because they were the ones best suited for the task. But the damage had already been done, and there was little to stop William's demons from charging past the now painfully open front line. The more "standard" shadow warriors that Mike had summoned readied their weapons, and as soon as the wave of demons crashed into them the battlefield dissolved into complete chaos as demon and shadow warred against each other, both focused completely on destroying as many of the enemy as possible for their masters. Ironically, much of the actual fighting itself was much less chaotic compared to before, at least from Mike's side. Most of Mike's forces were now disciplined warriors instead of bloodthirsty beasts, and though they were slower in killing William's demons they possessed both skill and a sense of self-preservation that helped them survive longer. Despite this, they still killed their enemies brutally and violently whenever they had the chance; Mike watched as one of his more nimble swordsmen sliced his blade across a demon's chest over and over again, before finally stabbing the sword right into the monster's brain, all while letting out a silent, cruel laugh.
Throughout all this, Mike and William watched the battle unfold, tracking the progress of both individual warriors and the armies as a whole but not actually participating. Perhaps there was a twisted, unspoken agreement between the two commanders not to interfere, despite the overwhelming hatred that each had for the other. Perhaps they were intrigued that such a battle had come to pass in the first place, and merely wanted to see in what direction the fight would turn without any interference on their part. But regardless of their motivations, neither Mike nor William made any move to join their armies in the slaughter, preferring instead to observe from afar.
All too soon, however, the armies of shadows and demons slowly began to visibly decrease in size, and individuals who had desired to attack either William or Mike directly now had the opportunity to do so. There were many demons in William's army who wanted the glory of defeating the mortal soul who had proved to be an unexpected challenge, and none of the shadows had forgotten that their goal and purpose was to destroy William Afton, first and foremost. Several creatures had broken away from the main fight and rushed towards the two leaders, eager to achieve glory and victory while fulfill their craving for violence in the way that mattered most.
And in both cases, that decision would be a fatal mistake that the fools wouldn't live long enough to regret. The moment he saw some of the shadows charge towards him, Nightmare Springtrap's mouth stretched into a sickening grin. Ever since he had first started fighting Mike, he had longed to unleash unspeakable and horrific violence upon the man's soul. And though he might've failed to get his hands on the man so far, he would be more than willing to take out his frustrations on a few pathetic wretches that were powerless in comparison.
A shadow wolf lunged at William, and with a fluid motion he grabbed the creature by the neck and brought its pounce to an unceremonious halt. Savoring the look of surprise and panic on the wolf's face, Nightmare Springtrap chomped down on the shadow creature's head, tearing off the top half as it let out an agonized scream. Sneering, William spat out the essence that he had bitten off and kicked the corpse away, not even bothering to watch it disintegrate as he turned his attention to the other shadows. An axe-wielding berserker was the next to attack, and though he could have easily evaded the incoming cleave, Nightmare Springtrap instead chose to grab the blade of the axe as it swung downward, holding it in place as the surprised berserker desperately tried to push the axe down through William's claws. The demonic murderer let out a cruel, mocking laugh as he slammed his head right onto his enemy's, sending the warrior reeling backward as he ripped the axe out of his hands. Nightmare Springtrap took great pleasure in chopping off both of the berserker's arms with his own axe before he finally smashed the blade deep into the original owner's head, splitting it wide open and killing him instantly in a twist that was as ironic as it was gruesome.
After these two deaths, the shadows quickly realized just how much more powerful William was compared to them, and started grouping together to try and overwhelm the murderer with a concentrated, simultaneous assault. But William had both expected and prepared for this possibility. As the shadows began their charge, Nightmare Springtrap unleashed the full power of his infernal aura just as he had tried to do against Mike. The raging firestorm that William summoned around himself this time was far more effective than it had ever been against Mike or his Nightmare simulacrum, simultaneously incinerating the very essence of his enemies and burning away their strength, leaving them all helpless for William to brutally massacre them in any way that he pleased. As he strangled a shadow Outrider that had tried to ambush him from behind and viciously snapped its neck, he noticed one of the few chimeras that had survived the initial bloodbath. The chimera was one of the few creatures that didn't seem to be significantly affected by his inferno, which for William was merely an excuse to deal a more personal and violent death. As the chimera's snake tail snapped downward, its fangs glinting, Nightmare Springtrap reached out and grabbed it close to the head. Ignoring the creature's desperate attempts to claw at him, William swung his claws down and sliced the tail clean off, instantly killing the snake in the process. The chimera howled furiously as it reared up on its hind legs and unleashed several blasts of dark flames at William, who only laughed at how weak its attempts to fight him were compared to the devastating power that Mike had unleashed on him minutes earlier. Not even bothering to defend himself, Nightmare Springtrap grabbed the chimera in the chest with his left hand and began swinging his claw across the chimera's lion head over and over again, savoring the beast's suffering as he tore apart the lion's mouth, nose, and face, before finally gouging out its eyes and leaving only the goat head remaining. Ignoring the other shadows' fruitless attempts to attack him, William grabbed the goat's right horn and pulled, aiming to either tear the horn out of the head or even decapitate the chimera entirely. The chimera wailed as William ripped the horn out and impaled deep into the beast's skull, stabbing through both of its eyes at the same time and finally destroying it once and for all. "A PITY…" William mused as he watched the chimera's carcass dissolve into the shadows from whence it came. "I WOULD HAVE LIKED TO ENJOY MY HANDIWORK FOR A LITTLE WHILE LONGER." He turned his attention to the shadows that still remained. By now, some of the warriors had broken away from the carnage and were also attempting to attack him directly, an observation which brought another twisted grin to his face as he flexed his claws. "BUT NO MATTER. THERE ARE PLENTY OF SHADOWS TO SLAY, AND JUST AS MANY WAYS TO SLAUGHTER THEM!"
On the other side of the battlefield, Mike had chosen to fight the demons that were attacking him with sorcery over close-quarters combat, but his attacks and tactics were just as cruel and vicious as William's. The moment he saw his enemies start attacking him directly, Mike swung his arms from side to side, the purple flames on his blades deepening to a menacing crimson for a brief moment. A ring of energy with the exact same color formed around his feet as he did so, and as soon as he completed his movement, a host of shrieking spirits suddenly erupted from the ground beneath him. Blood red specters emanating a black aura with horrific and ghoulish faces, the spirits opened their mouths to an inhuman length and screamed their master's hatred in its most savage and unrestrained form. Wielding spectral falchions and scimitars with cruel edges, the nightmarish shades lunged at the demons, violently and brutally tearing their enemies apart with terrifying ease as the demons futilely tried to fight back, their own weapons harmlessly passing through the summoned spirits. Only the destruction of their physical forms spared them from the specters' rage, as the demons' souls vanished almost as soon as they were forced out from their dissolving corpses, inexplicably removed from the battle before the shades could try and attack them as well. Eventually, the horrific specters faded away, having killed many of the demons that had tried to attack Mike but leaving behind more than a few that could now pick up where their companions had left off.
Unfortunately for them, Mike had no intention of showing any more mercy to them than his summoned spirits had. Concentrating, he began to fly into the air, the flames flickering around his body transforming from purple to bloody red. As the demons grew closer, Mike's entire body began to crackle and glow with the same black and red lightning that he had used against William Afton throughout the second stage of their battle. Nightmare Springtrap might have suffered horrific agony whenever he had been hit with the lightning, and his demonic essence might have been stolen rather than natural, but he still had some of the power and especially the endurance of a Nightmare to match Mike's power. And the demons he had summoned were weaklings in comparison.
With a sadistic grin, Mike started to spin in the air as he summoned his corrupted lightning from the sky and blasted it onto the battlefield in a wide radius around himself, creating a devastating countershield that struck down any demon in its path while also protecting him from any possible attack. The demons, so eager to claw and hack away at Mike's soul, were soon howling in despair as they were thrown into a world of atrocious agony every bit as horrific as the Hell they had been so desperate to escape. They could do nothing but flail helplessly as Mike's lightning bolts flayed the skin off their bones even as it scorched the flesh and organs underneath. The remaining ones that had been far enough the radius of devastation watched in amazement and even dread as Mike's lightning reduced their fellow soldiers to piles of ash and melted skin that quickly dissolved into wisps of essence and sulfur, their spirits only given time to let out one last scream of horror before they were plucked out of existence and removed from the battle like all the rest. Their hesitation and stupor would prove fatal, as Mike was now the one charging them. His scythe blades whipped out from their handles on snakelike chains as he spun them frenziedly at his foes, attacking with such speed and ferocity that his weapons looked less like blades and more like fiery wheels of death and destruction. The demons had no time to react as Mike slaughtered them en masse with a viciousness that would have given the likes of William Afton and even Nightmare pause, though unlike the former Mike dismissed violent and brutal executions in favor of efficiency and simply killing as many as possible. Even when the demons actually began to fight back they stood absolutely no chance against the deadly force and skill that Mike now possessed. The massacre, for it was unworthy to even be called a battle, finally ended when Mike impaled the last surviving demon with his scythe and flung the unfortunate fiend behind him, the extra length granted by the chain giving more than enough distance to hurl the demon beyond the edge of arena and into the fiery abyss beyond.
Even as William and Mike utterly destroyed anything that dared to attack them, the battle between demons and shadows raged on. While the shadows might have been superior warriors on average, with archers and sorcerers to support them from behind, the demons had been able to match them in overall strength thanks to sheer overwhelming numbers. For a while, it appeared as though the two sides would be locked in a deadly statement, neither side gaining an advantage even as individuals butchered each other without restraint.
Then, a deafening bellow suddenly echoed from William's portal, and the demons not preoccupied in combat began to cheer triumphantly as reinforcements from the Inferno arrived. Five hulking, monstrous demonic steeds that looked like a combination of bull and rhino, yet larger and mightier than any such creature on earth. Their hides were covered with black metal armor, and the flames of Hell burned in their eyes and spewed from their mouths and nostrils. A demon rider stood at the top of these monsters, guiding them with chains that extended to the sides of the creatures' heads. As one, the beasts of battle roared their unstoppable fury into what passed for a sky, and began charging straight towards the shadows. More than a few of their own allies who failed to get out of the way in time were crushed underfoot, but it was a small price to pay for the devastation that they unleashed on the shadow warriors. The warriors, for all their discipline, lacked the raw power to deal anything beyond the slightest amount of damage to the beasts, and were easily trampled, crushed with humongous hands, or burned to a crisp depending on the whim of the beast. Even the sorcerers and archers fared little better, and some of the demons took advantage of the distraction to try and attack them directly with varying degrees of success. Only the creatures and berserkers from before were powerful enough to deal meaningful damage to them or cause them any visible pain, but there were few left and the beasts could destroy them just as easily as they could any other shadow.
The arrival of such reinforcements would have easily turned the tide of the battle in favor of William's army…if Mike didn't have an answer for his own. With a grin, he snapped his fingers, and an equally mighty roar answered from the depths of Mike's own portal. Out of the portal stomped five towering shadow creatures fashioned in the form of the dreaded Olog-hai of Mordor and Gundabad, each covered in black armor and wearing a dreadful, skull-like mask. Some carried a massive spiked mace in their right hands, while others wore heavy metal gauntlets on both hands from which massive, cruel scythe blades extended. The shadow trolls glared hatefully at William's demons, their scarlet eyes burning with both savage fury and primal cunning. Mike stretched his scythe out as a command to attack, and the shadow attack trolls roared as one as they charged with a speed rivalling that of Nightmare Springtrap's battle beasts. The shadow Olog-hai began wreaking havoc on the demon army to the same degree that the infernal steeds had on the shadows, their maces either crushing or flinging away their unlucky victims with such force that they were splattered upon impact or even knocked into the fiery abyss. The infernal beast deepest into enemy lines immediately focused its attention on the closest attack troll, which met the challenge eagerly as it lifted its gauntlet and the scythe blade attached to it into the air. The moment the Olog-hai got close enough, the steed let out a huge blast of hellfire from its mouth right onto the creature's face and upper body. To both the steed and rider's surprise, however, the flames seemed to barely singe the attack troll at all, and in fact had only served to enrage the creature. The battle beast reared on its hind legs to slam its fists and claws down upon the troll, only for the Olog-hai to swing its blade right onto the creature's head. Such a blow would have instantly killed any animal on Earth, and still managed to stagger the beast and force it back onto all fours despite its supernatural durability, its head wracked with agony with demonic essence pouring out of a gaping wound as its rider struggled to maintain its balance. The infernal steed and attack troll began to trade blows, but it was clear from the beginning that the shadow had the advantage. The infernal steed's flames could only inconvenience the Olog-hai, and it could not use its fiercest attack of lifting its front legs to stomp on the troll. In contrast, the attack troll could freely swing its blades onto the beast from whatever angle of attack it desired, tearing more flesh from its head and body with each strike. The duel finally ended when the attack troll, suffering nothing more than cracks and dents in its armor, smashed the infernal steed's head again with its right gauntlet's scythe, this time splitting its skull open and killing it instantly, before grabbing its rider and throwing it across the arena, over the edge and into the fiery abyss beyond.
Mike's shadows let out howls, roars, and cheers of triumph as they realized that their monsters were stronger than William's. The victorious Olog-hai was almost immediately swarmed by vengeful and desperate demons seeking to equalize the score, but the shadows almost immediately leapt to its defense, and the attack troll was able to claim several more kills before it was finally brought down and destroyed. But the duel had been enough for William to realize that, if he did nothing to aid the reinforcements he had summoned, they would slowly be killed one at a time by Mike's attack trolls. He had no choice but to join the battle personally, no matter how much he wanted to leave his demons to do the work for him. Nightmare Springtrap let out a terrifying bellow as he charged into the clashing armies, slaughtering any shadow that dared to challenge him with his scorching flames and lethal claws. His eyes fell upon another hellish battle beast and shadow Olog-hai dueling each other, and with another howl he leapt at the shadow troll, the impact of the collision forcing the attack troll to stumble away from the infernal steed. The attack troll roared and smashed its spiked mace down towards William, but Nightmare Springtrap was far nimbler and more intelligent than a hulking animal like the infernal steed could ever hope to be. The murderer effortlessly dodged the mace and swung claws wreathed in flame at the troll's armor, ripping through it and tearing at the dark flesh underneath. Moving far too quickly for the attack troll to properly react, William frenziedly attacked the Olog-hai, tearing gaping wounds in its body with terrifying ease as he demonstrated just how powerful he could truly be against an enemy unprepared to face him. The only time the attack troll even had a chance to strike back was when it unexpectedly grabbed the murderer with the gauntlet covering its left hand, but even then William was able to simply pry the creature's fingers apart and stab into its hand with his claws, forcing the troll to release him. As the Olog-hai struggled to stay on its feet thanks to the gaping wounds in its body, William saw an opportunity to finish it off once and for all. He clenched his hand into a fist and swung it straight into the troll's groin, the raw power behind his fist great enough to cause essence to spurt out of the impact even without needing his claws. The troll swung a punch of its own towards William, but it was too slow, and his fist smashed harmlessly into the ground as William snuck under its legs and sunk its claws onto the creature's hip. The Olog-hai flailed about as Nightmare Springtrap climbed up its back, taking great care to impale his claws deep into the shadow monster's flesh with every movement. Once he was on top of the attack troll's head, he impaled his claws deep into the creature's head. The troll tried one more time to shake him off, actually managing to throw Nightmare Springtrap into the air. But William merely turned around as he came back down, perfectly in position to sink his claws right into both of the troll's eyes at the same time. The Olog-hai screamed in agony as the murderer gouged out its eyes with one devastating blow, William grinning in triumph as he landed on the ground with both feet as the attack troll fell backward onto the floor, dissolving into wisps of darkness before it even hit the ground.
The demons howled in triumph and delight as William gloated over his triumph, turning his attention to the next Olog-hai to destroy. And in doing so, he had failed to notice the dark flames on Mike's body flare and intensify. The father of seven had been willing to simply act as a bystander so long as William did the same, but now that the murderer had decided to directly involve himself in their battle…it was now time for him to do the same.
A pillar of pure darkness suddenly erupted from the ground around Mike, causing the entire arena to shake as the man prepared to cast his most powerful and deadliest spells yet. The moment the darkness sunk back down into the ground, Mike threw his arm forward, banishing his scythe as he stretched out a hand wreathed in flames towards the invading army. A black vortex suddenly tore itself into existence in the middle of the demonic army, far larger than the one that Mike had thrown at William earlier. This time, the vortex was far more chaotic and destructive, an all-consuming void that hungrily devoured at anything that it could suck in with its howling, unstoppable winds. Most of the demons were utterly helpless to prevent themselves from falling into the depths of absolute darkness, and even a beast of battle unfortunate enough to be caught in its radius needed all of its strength merely to slow its pull into the vortex. But that was only the first half of Mike's spell. The man snapped his fingers before anyone could even think about interrupting his spell, and the vortex suddenly exploded violently, the radius of the blast extending far beyond that of the initial spell. Chaotic dark energies blasted through a huge portion of the demonic army, and Mike smirked as he heard the last screams of the demons caught both in the vortex itself and the surrounding explosion. When the aftereffects of the explosion finally faded away, nearly a third of the demonic army had been reduced to ashes and dust. The only creature that had survived the explosion was the infernal steed, and even it was on its knees, demonic essence spilling from its ruined flesh and its rider long since obliterated.
"And now for your pathetic creature…" Mike snarled the first words he had spoken since he had given the order to kill, not bothering to wait for the creature to keel over and die. Mike cast another spell, and the sigil of darkness engraved on his robes appeared in the air above the wounded steed, a wheel with four smaller circles at its spokes surrounded by large purple flames on all sides. The sigil and flames almost immediately vanished as soon as they had appeared and a malevolent, black miasma descended upon the beast, obscuring it from sight even as lightning made of destructive energies crackled within the depths of the ominous mist. The cursed fog disappeared, and both William and his demons watched in disbelief as the body of the battle beast decayed and collapsed into bloody pieces, the various chunks and segments of its corpse dissolving the moment they hit the ground.
/
Nightmare Fredbear roared with laughter as he watched the corpse of the battle beast disintegrate. "HA HA HA HA HA!" he cheered, applauding even as Charlie watched with growing dread at the malevolence that she had just witnessed. "AN EXCELLENT SHOWING, MUCH MORE IMPRESSIVE THAN ANYTHING YOU HAVE DONE UP UNTIL THIS POINT. SHOW ME MORE, SCHMIDT! SHOW ME WHAT YOU CAN ACCOMPLISH WITH YOUR HATRED AND MALICE UNLEASHED IN FULL!"
"How…how is this even possible?" she asked numbly. "How was William Afton able to summon an army of demons in Dad's mind? And how is Dad able to defeat them so easily…and so viciously?"
Nightmare Fredbear bared his teeth at her in an amused grin. "IT'S QUITE SIMPLE," he explained. "THAT SLIME VUCARIK MUST HAVE OFFERED WILLIAM THE SERVICES OF HIS ARMIES…OR AT THE VERY LEAST, WHAT'S LEFT OF THEM AFTER MY BROTHER ANNHILIATED THEM. NO SELF-RESPECTING DEMON LORD WOULD EVER GIVE COMMAND OF HIS MOST POWERFUL ARMIES TO A MERE MORTAL, NO MATTER HOW USEFUL…BUT NOBODY CARES ABOUT THE LIVES OF CANNON FODDER. THE BERSERKERS AND INFERNAL STEEDS ARE THE ONLY THINGS IN WILLIAM AFTON'S ARMY THAT ARE EVEN REMOTELY IMPRESSIVE…BUT WITH THE POWER THAT YOUR FATHER NOW WIELDS, HE CAN SLAUGHTER EVEN THEM WITH BARELY A THOUGHT."
"But how can there be so many of them in Dad's mind?" Charlie wondered. "How hasn't Dad's head exploded from all of those demons crammed in it?"
"WHEN THOSE DEMONS ENTERED THE WORLD OF SCHMIDT'S MIND, THEY UNKNOWINGLY SUBJECTED THEMSELVES TO THE LAWS AND BINDINGS WITHIN," Nightmare Fredbear replied. "AND EVEN IF THAT WAS NOT THE CASE, YOU FORGET THAT THERE IS ANOTHER BEING IS IN THERE. MY LORD AND BROTHER, WHO EVEN NOW IS CASTING HIS SORCERY TO STRENGTH THE STABILITY OF SCHMIDT'S MIND AND ENSURE THAT IT CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURE OF SO MANY DEMONS AND SHADOWS AT ONCE."
Charlie glanced within the portal nervously. She just wanted this battle to end, not just because she wanted Mike to be safe and William defeated as quickly as possible. Before today, she had only seen glimpses and brief moments of Mike's darkness, and it had been enough to chill her soul to the very core. Now, that darkness was displayed in full, both by Mike himself and by the many shadow monsters that he had summoned to answer the threat of William's demonic army. She had seen more of Mike's darkness in this one night than she had in the days leading up to it, and the hatred, cruelty, and malice that emanated from the man who had always been kind and loving to them terrified her in a way that even her own brutal murder at William Afton's hands never could. "Dad should've convinced Nightmare to come and save him as soon as possible…" Charlie muttered.
"PERHAPS IF YOUR FATHER WAS AS HELPLESS IN HIS OWN MIND AS HE WOULD BE IN REAL LIFE, I WOULD BE INCLINED TO AGREE," Nightmare Fredbear countered. "BUT MY BROTHER HAS HIS OWN CODE BY WHICH HE CONDUCTS HIMSELF. HIS WORD WAS CLEAR: HE WOULD SAVE YOUR FATHER FROM THE WRATH OF WILLIAM AFTON AT HIS MOMENT OF GREATEST NEED. BUT YOUR FATHER PROVED MORE THAN CAPABLE OF FIGHTING BACK IN A MEANINGFUL WAY. AND IF HE INTERRUPTED THE BATTLE NOW, NOT ONLY WOULD NIGHTMARE BE DEPRIVING HIMSELF OF SUCH WONDERFUL ENTERTAINMENT, BUT HE WOULD ALSO BE INSULTING YOUR FATHER IN WHAT HE WOULD CONSIDER THE GRAVEST AND MOST EGREGIOUS MANNER. HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN FIGHTING THE BATTLES OF THOSE CAPABLE OF FIGHTING THEM ON THEIR OWN. BUT HE WILL DO WHAT MUST BE DONE TO ENSURE THAT A FAIR BATTLE IS ACTUALLY POSSIBLE."
Charlie's face roiled with conflicting emotions, but before she could say anything to either thank Nightmare Fredbear or expressed further doubts, a horn suddenly blared out from William's side of the field. Nightmare Fredbear and Charlie both watched as a second wave of demons emerged from the fiery portal, an army almost as large as the first. Charlie's eyes widened in panic and horror at the reinforcements, but Nightmare Fredbear's eyes caught Mike's expression. The man didn't seem disturbed or negatively affected by the sudden reinforcements at all. In fact, he seemed more bored than anything else. "ON WITH THE SHOW…" Nightmare Fredbear hissed. "LET'S SEE WHAT ELSE YOUR FATHER HAS PLANNED…"
/
William grinned as he saw his new armies arrive onto the battlefield, letting out a howl of triumph that was soon echoed by all his followers. "AHH…" he growled in satisfaction once he had calmed down. "IT APPEARS MY TRUE REINFORCEMENTS HAVE FINALLY ARRIVED. I MUST ADMIT, SCHMIDT, YOU AND YOUR ARMY OF SHADOWS HAVE IMPRESSED ME. BUT IT IS ALL OVER NOW. YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF SHADOWS TO FIGHT ON YOUR BEHALF, AND AS SOON AS THEY ARE DESTROYED, YOU WILL HAVE NOTHING LEFT TO HIDE BEHIND! IT WILL ONLY BE A MATTER OF TIME BEFORE MY DEMONS AND I FINALLY BRING YOU TO YOUR KNEES, AND WE WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER THE TORMENTS OF HELL ITSELF FOR DARING TO DEFY ME FOR SO LONG!"
Mike's mouth twitched into a smirk, and his eyes began to glow with amusement and condescension. "You really think that bringing in a second army will give you the win you so desperately want, when the first army was nothing more than a huge steaming pile of worthless cannon fodder with very few exceptions scattered here and there?" he sneered. "You're even more of a fool than I thought. I was going to wait and let our armies fight this out…but since you're so eager to get involved yourself, I guess it's time for me to do the same." His eyes flashed menacingly. "I could have wiped out your entire army from the very beginning, and I'm going to prove that to you right here and now!"
"STOP HIM!" William bellowed, but even as his demons advanced, the remaining shadows reformed their ranks and created an impenetrable wall between the murderer's army and their master, backed by the shadow Olog-hai that were still surviving. Mike raised both of his scythes to the air and slammed the weapons towards the ground, impaling the blades deep into the arena floor. A massive fissure cracked into existence from the impact point, glowing with the same fiery light as the flames in the abyss beyond the arena as it split the earth and snaked towards William's side. Both shadows and demons were able to easily avoid the fissure and the flames that burned from it, but it had never been Mike's intention to attack any of the demons. The fissure tore its way to the fiery portal that had brought William's army into Mike's mind in the first place, and Nightmare Springtrap stared in blank shock as cracks began to form in the portal itself the moment the fissure collided with it. He and his forces could only watch dumbly as Mike's spell shattered the portal completely, leaving only broken fragments of hellish energy that dissolved into nothingness. The man had not only cut off any future reinforcements from coming to William's aid…but also destroyed the infernal army's only means of escape.
"Nowhere to run," Mike hissed. "And nowhere to hide. Congratulations, William Afton. You have led your legions of demons to nothing but their own death." With an inhuman roar, he swung his scythe high into the air…and the flames that burned in the pit surrounding the arena answered his call. Massive molten fireballs shot up high into the sky from the depths of the abyss, before plummeting down onto the battlefield with the force of unstoppable meteors. Every time a fireball struck the battlefield, it created a devastating explosion that instantly killed anything caught directly underneath the collision and severely wounded those unfortunate enough to be nearby. Spread out over the entire battlefield, the meteor storm that Mike rained down was even more devastating to William's armies than even the black vortex that Mike had summoned earlier; even some of his own shadows that weren't able to evade in time were destroyed by the impact of the meteors. Mike noted with vindictive pleasure that one of William's remaining battle beasts had been struck directly with a fireball and had been brought down to its knees, and he promptly summoned a Nightmare head that chuckled menacingly as it unleashed a blast of hellfire, searing the creature to cinders before it could recover.
The demons began to panic and look around wildly, realizing just how powerful Mike was in the world of his own mind. They desperately sought out any means to flee and were already beginning to curse William Afton for summoning them, but there was no escape possible, for the demons lacked the power to try and escape Mike's mind into the real world, and Mike had destroyed the only portal leading back into the Inferno. In the midst of his impotent fury, William noticed something off about the shadows. Even though the momentum of the battle had swung decisively in their favor thanks to Mike's actions, the shadows didn't seem to be celebrating or taking advantage of the demons' distraction. In fact, the shadows were jittering agitatedly without any thought to attacking their foes, almost as though they were just as afraid of their master as the demons were.
What Mike said next didn't help in the slightest. "Retreat now, my forces," he commanded. "Or die." William watched incredulously as an army of shadow monsters and warriors that had proven equal in might to a legion of Hell turned and fled through the portal that had summoned them, a disorganized retreat as the shadows focused only on getting the hell out of the arena as quickly as possible. The shadows' actions made no sense considering their violence and relentlessness only seconds earlier…which only made William even more wary. What was Mike about to do that the very manifestations of his inner darkness were fleeing in terror?
The man would answer that question the moment the last of the shadows had fled and the portal that had brought them to the field closed. Mike raised his scythes to the sky, and the sigil of darkness appeared in the air again. But this time the dark wheel was a fiery orange with six spokes rather than four, and the sigil itself was much larger than before, towering over William's army with even more orange flames surrounding it. Just like they had before, the sigil and flames vanished, leaving the battlefield with a brief moment of peace juxtaposed with a sense of impending doom.
And then Mike unleashed Hell upon the battlefield.
A vortex of flame suddenly erupted into existence, even larger than the shadowy void that Mike had summoned earlier. This new cataclysm spewed out death in the form of scorching fire rather than darkness, and the demons' innate protections against fire proved utterly worthless as scores of them were incinerated to death almost instantly. Even as the demons desperately tried to escape being burned to ashes, the abyss surrounding the battlefield spewed out gigantic, swirling pillars of flame into the sky, some of them even feeding into the firestorm that had already been created by the first part of Mike's spell and making it even stronger. Nightmare Springtrap immediately began to flee towards the edge of the arena, throwing demons aside and behind him to put as much difference between him and Mike's wrath as possible without caring even slightly for the allies he had called to his aid. The murderer barely had time to hide behind one of the arena's pillars (ironically putting him dangerously close to the edge of the abyss) right as Mike closed his fist and slammed both the pillars and the vortex directly onto the demonic armies.
The explosion that followed could have been comparable to a nuclear blast if it had existed in the real world. There wasn't a single part of the battlefield that wasn't drowned in waves of hellish flame, the mighty roar of the spell drowning out any sounds from the demons caught within. In the center of the battlefield where Mike had thrown his spell directly, a column of flame the size of an entire building was spiraling into the sky with such height that neither Mike nor William could see the top. The two stayed perfectly still, the former immune to the effects of his own spell and the latter hiding behind the relative safety of his column, as the spirits of the demons caught in the conflagration begin to fly away from their charred and dusted carcasses, screaming in horror and primal terror as the extreme trauma of their deaths wiped away any sense of thought and rationality away from their minds, leaving only a primal urge to escape from the nightmare that Mike had unleashed upon them.
And then, almost as soon as they were appeared, they were gone, plucked out of existence like the soul of every other demon whose blood had been shed in the chaos of battle. When the fires finally died down and Mike's ultimate spell finally ended, not even the ashes of the destroyed demons remained – it was as if no army had ever been called to the field in the first place.
Before Mike could wonder where exactly the souls of the demons had gone – he couldn't sense them in his mindscape anymore and from the few pieces of information Nightmare had given him he doubted that any of them had escaped into the real world – he heard the sound of a frustrated snarl coming from one of the pillars. Nightmare Springtrap maneuvered around the pillar and back onto the arena. His actions before the spell had been unleashed, as cowardly as they were, had proven wise in the end – while all of his armies had been burned to oblivion, all he had suffered was a darkening of his skin thanks to his greater power and the fact that he had avoided the worst of the flames.
"I AM GETTING REALLY TIRED OF YOUR SHIT, SCHMIDT!" William snarled, enraged at the fact that his most valuable backup plan had failed miserably like all of his attempts up until this point.
"WHAT AN ODD COINCIDENCE," Mike replied mockingly. "I WAS JUST ABOUT TO SAY THE EXACT SAME THING."
William was about to retort, but one good look at Mike caused his words to die in his throat. For Mike's appearance had changed again, and though his appearance was still largely similar to what it had been when they had first entered the fiery pit, the differences were enough to make him seem less human than ever. The flames that surrounded his body, which had previously been merely an unnerving purple and restrained in nature, were now permanently blood red and raging wildly around his body. Mike's eyes were also now permanently glowing with molten, unbridled wrath, instead of merely flashing whenever he cast a spell or spoke with particular venom towards William Afton like in the past. The shadows no longer covered his mouth either revealing a maw filled with razor sharp fangs gritted together in a hateful snarl. Even the sigil of darkness on his robes now matched Mike's new color with the same scarlet hue.
But the most terrifying changes were not on Mike himself, but on his weapons. The flames on the scythes themselves had also turned to the color of blood, and were raging just as wildly as their master's. And the skulls that had been carved into the heads of the weapons, which had seemingly served no purpose other than decoration, now had eyes that glowed with the exact same loathing and malevolent intent as their master's. Chaotic red energy dripped out from the mouths of the skulls almost as though the scythes were bleeding from their mouths, and though William couldn't make out the details, he could have sworn that the mouths of the skulls were snarling in hatred.
"YOU HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE BEHIND NOW," Mike growled, his voice echoing with unearthly power exactly like William's. "NO MORE ARMIES. NO MORE TOYS. AND NO MORE DELAYS. COME, WILLIAM AFTON. LET US FINISH THIS." He lifted one of his scythes and pointed the blade directly at William. "YOUR SLOW CRAWL TO OBLIVION SHALL FINALLY COME TO AN END."
/
A/N: I know I said this would be the final part of the battle, but I ended up writing so much that I couldn't fit everything that I wanted in this chapter. So next chapter will be the last part, and I really do mean the last part.
Unlike many of the arcs and chapters in this fic, the battle between William Afton and Mike is one that I've had in mind for a very long time. But the idea of both Mike and William summoning armies to do battle in their name was actually a much more recent idea. Apart from the novelty of seeing two armies slaughter each other instead of two characters, the battle served the important purpose of giving WILLIAM some time to shine. Mike was able to handle himself perfectly fine against William throughout their battle, which diminished the credibility of Nightmare Springtrap as a threat. I didn't want William to just be reduced to a joke, so I decided to show just how powerful and devastating William could be wielding the stolen power of the Nightmares against enemies who aren't at a similar or greater power level. There's a reason the Rockstars couldn't do a damn thing against him, and in the world of Mike's mind he doesn't have to hold back for fear of attracting unwanted attention from either Heaven or Hell. Of course, Mike can slaughter William's demons just as easily as William can butcher the shadows, and as the ending of the chapter indicated, his power is only growing…
The inspirations for this chapter have also shifted, moving more towards "God of War" and "Fire Emblem." Kratos is obviously a huge inspiration for this chapter, but I've actually split aspects of Kratos' combat mechanics to both Mike and William. Fitting his murderous and violent nature, William got many of Kratos' Brutal Kills, while Mike got more of his "regular attacks"/combos and ESPECIALLY the God of War's Magic. The spells that Mike used when he slaughtered the demons that tried to attack him directly were based on Poseidon's Rage and Army of Hades. And yes, this is God of War 1 Poseidon's Rage and Army of Hades, which are widely acknowledged to be two of the most brokenly overpowered spells in the entire series. Watch any GOW1 walkthrough that features these two spells, and you will quickly learn why those demons didn't stand the slightest chance to even land a hit on Mike, let alone beat him.
As for the "Fire Emblem" inspiration, those were mostly the spells that Mike cast when he got bored with all the shit and decided to just nuke the fuck out of William's army repeatedly and violently. The "shadow vortex" described was Ereshkigal, the powerful dark magic spell used by the main villain in Fire Emblem 7. The storm that Mike summoned to finish off the infernal steed was Gespenst, a very powerful Darkness spell also from FE7. And the massive flame nuke that Mike used to wipe out the entire army was based on Forblaze from FE7 (yes, all FE7 lol) with a couple of modifications thrown in. I highly encourage you to watch these spells in action on Youtube, so that you can truly understand the visual effect I was trying to go for.
The infernal steeds/battle beasts are based on Khornate Juggernauts from "Warhammer 40K", albeit toned down. And for those of you not familiar with Lord of the Rings terminology, Olog-hai/attack trolls are the giant armored trolls with maces that started beating the shit out of the Gondor soldiers when the gate of Minas Tirith was breached by the wolf-head battering ram Grond in Return of the King. Finally, the Outriders are the beasts that attacked Wakanda in Infinity War.
That's what I have for now, hope the wait was worth it! The longer wait times will unfortunately have to continue, as my rotations aren't giving me a ton of free time to write a chapter every week, especially chapters as long and as important as these.
