Chapter 26- Judgement Day: Two Weeks Left Before The End

Back at Metropolis, Shiki descends back to the highway where Shadow and Silver are at, after his metamorphosis. "Infinite knew that you lot would go after the Gaia Temples to rejuvenate the Chaos Emeralds powers, so he had the other Generals guard them."

Even though this revelation startled Silver, Shadow remained calm and collected. Shiki charges at them at heart-stopping speeds, as Shadow pushes Silver away from harm's way and fires off several Chaos Spears at Shiki.

Shiki blocks the spears with a protective wall made out of earth, and continues on sprinting without having lost either momentum or speed, unimpressed at Shadow's attack. "Is this all the Ultimate Life Form has to offer?"

Shiki hits Shadow with a strong gut punch that sends him flying off the rooftop clean through a skyscraper. Shadow crashes through the tops of several other buildings before eventually stops and lays incapacitated for the moment. Shadow's squadron notice the commotion nearby and are worried that either Shadow or Silver are having trouble with a General.

Silver leaps towards Shiki while screaming his name with intense rage. "SHIKI!"

Their clash breaks the building apart and they both crash to the ground. Silver levitates a large piece of the building and throws him at Shiki, who easily slices it in half with a wind slash.

Silver circles around to strike Shiki from behind, who easily avoids the attack, angrily demanding Shiki to answer his question. "Why must you and the rest of Chronos always have to spread misery…believing wholeheartedly that this will bring peace to the world!"

Shiki traps one of Silver's feet with hardened earth and cuts across his shoulder with a slash made of wind that pierces through his flesh, with the injury forcing him to the ground. "You could say the same to those who constantly preach about achieving everlasting peace through negotiation and always end up fighting amongst each other, thus continuing the cycle for future generations. Infinite knows this and is the only one who could end it all"

Enraged, Silver rushes at him at full speed. Shiki riddles Silver with numerous wind slashes that cut him all over his body, that knocks him back into a building but doesn't knock him unconscious. "I commend your resilience, but you should accept your fate. You and Shadow"

Shadow spuns himself back to the fare and unleashes another Chaos Spear V2, but Shiki dodges to the right. "He didn't use his ally's wind ability to dodge my attack, that was just by his own natural strength."

Shadow helps out Silver back to his feet, holding on his Inhibitor Rings. "Things are going to speed up from this point on. Would you be able to keep us with me then, Silver?"

Silver is slightly hesitating, but nods back to Shadow. "Y..Yea"

Shadow took off his Inhibitor Rings, now showing his 100%, Shiki senses Shadow's near-boundless surge of energy and assumes a distinguishing battle stance.

Before he could react, he's blitzed by Shadow having shifted into an even higher gear of speed with his inhibitors gone and lands a rapid-fire barrage of roundhouse kicks. "All of his attacks have been heightened well above his previous striking potency!"

Silver tries to reactivate the state he used on Infinite and is about to hurl his Psycho Knife at Shiki. However, the thoughts of defeat against Infinite and his PTSD moderately reemerge disrupts his focus, narrowly missing Shiki.

Shadow picks up on this and retreats back to his side. "Calm your nerves and disregard all that is distracting you right now…Focus solely on the battle in hand and synchronise with my vision. Let your instinct take control."

Shadow's words of guidance helped Silver suppress some of his negative thoughts. "...Yea…I will!"

The two re-engage with Shiki, standing side-by-side with each other, till Shadow goes back to engaging in combat with Shiki once more. Silver at first struggles to keep up with their movements with his eyes, but remembers Shadow words and begins collecting what he can get on Shiki's plays and positions in the battle reflexively. He gradually enters the state of total immersion of the battle as his dual aura slowly makes its return.

Shadow with a side glance sees this and lands a right hook, giving Silver the opportunity to seize with Psycho Shock V2 now reborn in his Psychic Force state. This blows back Shiki's defences, as Silver begins to grasp more of his hidden potential

Shadow utters to Silver who has reawakened his hidden power at will, with a smirk on his face "Ready?"

Silver returns with a smirk on his own, nodding confidently. "Yea!"

Shiki removes his damaged-up shirt, recognising the strength of his opponents. "I must take the two of them quickly, before they become too much of a problem than they already are!"

Shiki does his best to deflect and parries simultaneous attacks from Shadow and Silver on each side of him, Shiki goes back and forth using both his earthen and Kaze's wind ability. Shiki fires two large, humanoid creatures composed of rock at the duo, but they both easily smash through them by surrounding themselves in a projectile-shaped energy shield, ending with a hard back-to-back punch at Shiki. Shiki coats his forearms with hardened earth to defend himself, although he admits that their strength is enough to cause cracks even with his supposed unbreakable defences.

Shiki recalls a conversation he had with Infinite, about the mental restraints he has unconsciously placed upon himself. "Forgo your rational mindset, consume yourself in your hate from this world and devour those who oppose you hideously, Shiki."

Smiling with a crazed expression, Shiki releases the constraints on himself and becomes much stronger as a result. Shiki summons an enormous tornado around him, encasing his body entirely made of solidified rock as armour for his body with a mask and a larger physique. He then manipulates the wind to act as a veil, forming it into a "X-shape" on his body, which resembles wings.

Still, Shadow and Silver are unperturbed by this and let out furious roars and charges at Shiki, unleashing a salvo of synced-up attacks. Shiki throws a right jab at Shadow, but he catches it, twists his arm, and pulls Shiki's face into two quick strikes. He finishes his combination of attacks with a two-handed palm strike that sends Shiki flying through a railing. Silver uses his psychokinesis to wrap the railing around Shiki and Shadow kicks him into a wall with enough force to collapse it. Silver throws a chop feint that gets Shiki momentarily off balance for Shadow to land a strong roundhouse kick to the back of his head, as they swiftly follow up with rapid-fire punches, but Shiki continues to parry and deflect them all.

Shiki skates backwards to gain some distance away from Shadow and Silver, who are flying towards him in hot pursuit. Shiki creates a large golem that shoots out a concussive wind blast from its mouth, Silver stands in front of Shadow channelling his pure psychic energies to manifest an energy shield.

Shadow uses Chaos Control and kicks Shiki away, Silver is captivated by how incredibly focused he is right now. "I can feel it…the sensation of being in the zone"

Shadow looks back at Silver, locking eyes with him feeling the sense of immersion as him. "Synchronise with me Silver! Follow the scent of my Chaos Energy!"

With a single glance at each other, Shadow and Silver demonstrates their combined rush attack they have been working with for a while. The two use Chaos Control to rapidly trade places while barraging their opponent with strikes. Unable to ascertain the rate of the warping, Shiki's judgement is split as he can't accurately defend based on his near-perfect level of synchronising with each other's strengths that dramatically outweighs their collective weaknesses. Chronos's strongest General quickly finds himself at the mercy of their "Chaos Control Onslaught" after absorbing blow after blow.

Silver bit by bit better links up with Shadow, thinking on the same wavelength and briefly warps places with him without even looking at him. By supporting him through their shared vision, Silver minimises the time it takes for Shadow to use Chaos Control and increases his play speed on the fly, clearing out any gaps that Shadow may leave out.

Whilst reeling from one of their blows, Shiki can see Silver fully in the zone with him using his Psychic Force at maximum power indefinitely and spread evenly throughout his body delivers three exceptionally strong attacks in a row, imbued of his psychic energies. Silver hits Shiki with an enhanced uppercut to the body, kick to the head and lastly a chop to the back.

This makes Shiki weary of the silver hedgehog's dangerous innate ability and anticipates the next switch. However, Shadow fakes using Chaos Control with his overall speed to teleport in front of him. This makes Shiki focus on Shadow, leaving his blind-spots open for Silver to let's loose his Psycho Blaster.

Shadow appears in front of the staggered General. "Let's FINISH THIS!" Shadow backflips kick Shiki that sends his opponent in the air, and flies upward from below and kicks Shiki brutally in the stomach. He then elbows him downwards, as he chases after him charging up his Chaos Spear V2 with its original colour scheme as a spear-shaped energy construct. Silver teleports behind him and channels his energy into Shadow, greatly increasing the explosive power of Shadow's Chaos Spear V2, even changing into the colour red with yellow bio-electricity around it operating almost chaotic by the sheer power of it.

Shiki takes in the incoming attack aiming at him, like a living missile of pure destructive force. "Can't get hit by that…I need to use my ultimate move!"

Shiki creates a great wave of sharp earthen spikes that reaches the length of a skyscraper and wind bullets at Shadow and Silver, who pierces through them all with a few light grazes and cuts. Shiki tries to defend himself by encasing his body in a hardened defence. Shadow makes a straight fist with his Chaos Spear V2 and obliterates his defences, creating a massive explosion.

Shiki tries to stand up, with Shadow and Silver panting heavily having won against him.

A small, thin, very fast and concentrated laser-like beam of energy from someone's index finger, barrels down and pierces Shadow in an instant. Though it does not kill him, Shadow is hurt very badly and falls to the ground semi-conscious, enraging Silver. "SHADOW!"

But, the few minutes of rage was soon turned into a state of pure fear once Silver saw the person revealed to be Infinite. Infinite speed-blizes Silver and gives one hit that knocks him out and almost kills him, he was about to kill Silver off with an energy blast, but Shadow pleads Infinite not to do it. "Infinite…Please don't kill him. Kill me instead!"

Infinite surprisingly stops and walks towards the defeated Shadow, before banishing him into Null Space. Before arriving, Infinite wipes out 80% of the Resistance's army, forcing the remaining troops to retreat before the Resistance is completely annihilated. He leaves them with a vague statement "In two weeks time, everything would fall upon their hands. Run from it as you can, but in the end Chronos will be the victor of this war between us"

Infinite and Shiki (carrying the unconscious Kaze on his back) retreats, as what remains of the Resistance at Metropolis find Silver and takes him back with them.

Now with one of their strongest also banished into Null Space, what would the Resistance do about this? The next chapter would resolve around the other groups with each of their fights operating at the same time with the battle at Metropolis.

See ya!