"It seems like uh…Subject - TA33y was successful in discorporating the…er…ghosts…hm?" asked .
"Indeed he was, I had quite a fright when those cursed spirits lured him away from me, but it seems like he became more diligent than I thought." replied Dreambert.
The short elderly scientist chuckled at the Pi'illo's remark, the two of them were currently observing Antasma's progress as he slowly made his way towards the reactor, where the third, and last resurrected villain dwelled.
During the early developments of the revival project, Dreambert had personally invited Professor Elvin Gadd to his ship for the purpose of aiding in the research; the knowledge of the dead had piqued the king's interest and he wanted the ancient scientist's technology to create a nano sculpt of the cybernetics. The recovery of the corpses was the easy part, the main issue was reviving them. Considering that the magic is tied to the soul and not the body, the specially designed cybernetics wouldn't be able to function without the ghost in the machine.
And now, the king had, again, requested for his presence on short notice due to the mysterious situation of the disappearing door and Antasma's progress towards the final villain.
The scientist clutched his clipboard with an eager grip, staring at the bat with a riveting appetite. He had been studying the ways of the supernatural ever since the first ghost that had popped into his life, and to think that now, he had such an opportunity to learn about combining the essences of the soul with the steel of living, it was such a rare treat that he was glad to made the decisions on implanting the cybernetics into his body. He'd stay alive for as long as these spirits continued to exist.
"So…it appears that the subject has proven my theory correct, when multiple agony inflicted spirits are within the vicinity of one another, they condense together like a cloud and form some sort of hive soul that lures others into a non-consensual recruitment in order to expand whatever power it has."
Dreambert snapped his head towards in surprise as the old man kept staring at the screen.
"Wait what? How do you know what's in there?" He asked.
The scientist smirked behind his clipboard, "I have my ways." He replied.
The Pi'illo felt irritated at the vagueness of the old man but he made no demands about it, the professor was always someone shrouded in mystery. Dreambert knew that both he and his enemy's technology all came from that old man, he wasn't on anyone's side but his own and only provided weapons in exchange for information on his own research. Both sides had tried to capture him for his products but he was simply too slippery, not to mention he could easily hijack the systems, having played a part in their creation, and thus, being incredibly knowledgeable about the components. Because of this, the Pi'illo made no move to subdue the scientist. He'd just escape anyways and come back for more.
At least he knew what took his precious little bat away from him, he was going to make sure to relocate future iterations somewhere else.
The king returned his gaze back to the monitors as he watched Antasma kill some Beanish soldiers and destroy a few more Futuristic Pi'illodiums along with their variants. The fight had become too easy for the bat, Dreambert could tell that he was bored out of his mind as another fell to his newly acquired blade.
The Pi'illo chuckled lightly as he watched the bat for a brief moment before glancing back at the professor,
"I think it's time for us to let the dogs out, wouldn't you agree?" He asked.
The professor responded with a toothy grin, "Indeed, it seems like he has gotten very cozy with the machines, I suppose a new challenge wouldn't hurt."
Antasma was quite positive that the drop from the way down was shorter than this,
How long had he been traveling? He had just burned through around three groups of enemies and his objective was still leading him towards more. There had to be a point where he could at least take a small break right? It was getting exhausting and he needed a mental rest, perhaps a nap would suffice. It wasn't like he could enter his own Dreamworld anyways.
However, as Antasma entered the next room, he was greeted with such a wild scene that he had to stop in his tracks and gawk.
The room he had entered was incredibly lavish, like, out of place lavish, he had just left a room with the quality equivalent to that of a sewage system, and now he was in some sort of pub. It was fully decked out with a table that stretched across the room and equipped with several hovering bar stools, there was a total of four pool tables in the middle of the room with several vending machines at the other side that sold various commodities and items (was that one selling used Pi'illo panties?). It had a black marble tiled floor with a gigantic crystal chandelier that hung from the ceiling, along with various gilded candles that floated about the room. Antasma sniffed, there was a cinnamon scent in the air. A smell that he could barely tolerate.
The bat was effectively flabbergasted at the sight, luxury was not something uncommon for him, in fact, he has quite a taste when it came to lavish items,He is a king after all. But something as out of place as this was just quite…exotic.
What in the bloody hell did he stumble upon? Was he even supposed to be in here? He checked his objective…and indeed, he was not supposed to be here. His marker was leading him somewhere else, he must've spaced out during the killing and just entered here without noticing the marker's direction. The path had been mostly linear after all, he probably just opened the next door via muscle memory.
He checked the map to see what this mysterious place is…before proceeding to double over laughing when he read the label.
Dreambert's Guilty Pleasure Room
The bat was rolling on the ground in screeching laughter, not only did Dreambert not block him mentally from entering, but he also had access to it. He was not expecting that the Pi'illo King would have a room like this, or that it was somewhat of a secret place for him. He must be quite ashamed that his worst enemy could just enter into his private areas with no issues, perhaps he could find other places like this to clown around with. Maybe take a few photos to blackmail him, that would be funny.
He decided to enter the area and have a closer inspection of the place, the bar table was made from some sort of ivory with gold trimmings on the side, there was no visible bartender but he could see a stationary hovering pad behind the counter, so he assumed that the place must be automated in someway.
But then…why would there be multiple chairs and tables here? If this was something private for him then why was there space for guests? Perhaps this was a secret friend group getaway for him, Antasma cracked his neck at the thought, imagining Starlow or Bedsmith being here was a completely ludicrous idea, neither of those two seemed to be into whatever Dreambert had set up here (yes, not even Bedsmith), so the bat had no idea who this was for.
He could even see suspicious looking poles somewhere upstairs of this pub, there was no way that Dreambert could've fallen this low.
The bat shook his head in disgust, Dreambert was always someone who preached righteousness and glory in the past, maybe he might've not been so…righteous now, but it seemed like he had completely abandoned any notion of himself from before. How pathetic.
Antasma gave one last glance of the secret getaway before leaving, he had no interest in indulging in whatever Dreambert had here. The nightmare did not care for the desires of a corrupted dream.
"...You have a-?"
"One word, and I will skin you alive. "
The old scientist chuckled at the threat, "Sure thing, sonny."
Dreambert had been silent during the entire time that Antasma was exploring his forbidden room, he was silently hoping that the bat would simply just leave after seeing it by the doorstep, but of course, he checked it out, before proceeding to burst out laughing as a result.
Every laugh that came out of his mouth fanned the flames within the Pi'illo, he was so confident that Antasma couldn't have possibly stumbled upon this room that he had momentarily forgotten how good that bat was at ignoring orders.
"He was supposed to go LEFT , he was supposed to go down that hallway and get ambushed by the dogs." He snarled.
chuckled with amusement, "Well, I suppose that things don't always go how you want them to, life is often that."
"I don't need your advice old man, in fact , I'm older than you. So don't tell me what to do." The Pi'illo spat.
The professor simply smiled, "Whatever you say, sonny."
Once the bat had gone further away from the room, he leaned against the wall and sighed, he could see that Dreambert was going to deploy something up ahead, there was a fine line between where he was standing and where the thing was going to spawn, he could see it with his X-Ray, so he was basically immune to whatever ambush the Pi'illo wanted to throw at him, but that didn't mean that he was immune to attacks.
He still had to fight.
So with an irritated huff, he pushed himself off from the wall and passed the line.
However, what dropped in this time…was something new.
Antasma could hear growling and scratching coming from the walls, the bat was skeptical. Obviously, this didn't sound like a Futuristic Pi'illodium or a Laughtron, it sounded…like…a wolf?
That assumption was quickly confirmed when a fleet of canine-shaped mechs bursted out from the walls and attacked him, the bat swiftly dodged the strikes and quickly retreated into a good distance between the wolves.
The pack growled and snarled at him as it circled him, the bat quickly scanned and observed the creatures. The mechanical wolves by themselves had a sleek and sharp design with a spear-like head and a huge striped mace the size and shape of a watermelon on the tip of their tail. The canines were painted with a firm white coat that matched with their fading red and green energy strips.
The wolves glared at him intensely with a red flickering light, each of them emitted a low growl as they circled him. Antasma held his stance while he tried to figure out a strategy on fighting these beasts.
The wolves that were surrounding him were called Ku-Nine, which was quite fitting as he could only see nine of these things facing him. Perhaps that's how these beasts worked, they only attacked when nine of them were present. Their data was already added to his terminal, so he'd check it out later once he had defeated these ones.
However, strangely the wolves hadn't yet made a move yet, the two parties were currently at a standstill, not one of them had made a move, they were all just circling him as if they were waiting for something.
Perhaps they were waiting for a strike, an opening from him so they could attack while he's still swinging.
Antasma chuckled lightly underneath his mask.
Such cheap tactics wouldn't work on him.
The bat immediately activated his module and swiftly escaped the wolves' grasp, he turned back to the frozen pack, now facing nothing in the circle, and unleashed a blast of slicing dimension slashes that hit all of the wolves at once and ended his module early.
The pack instantly got blown away by the attack and was scattered helplessly across the hallway. The wolves were obviously not expecting the blast and were now struggling to recuperate from the impact. The bat took advantage of the disorder and striked.
He managed to corner one wolf, and striked at the canine with a slash. However, unsurprisingly, the blade bounced off the wolf's head harmlessly as the animal's robotic skull was fashioned tightly to withstand a good amount of force. The bat scowled in distaste, it looked like he'd need to focus on its weak yet slim body.
So with a swift dodge from the incoming strike of the mace from the tail, he slashed at the wolf's body as it struggled to remove its mace from the floor. The weight of the thing caved into the ground, effectively leaving the wolf helpless and trapped as the nightmare continued to strike at its frail body.
And with one more strike, the wolf's body caved and was sliced in half by Antasma's blade. The bat turned back to the remaining group with an unseen sinister grin.
One down, eight to go.
Now that the group had lost a member, the wolves changed strategy and decided to attack him in pairs rather than a pack. Hoping that the differently timed strikes would confuse him enough to throw him off guard.
However, unfortunately for the wolves, he was already used to dealing with weirdly timed strikes, so the bat was more than prepared for facing this strategy.
The first pair launched at him with their spear heads, intending to pierce right through the bat and cleave out his organs. However, Antasma simply parried the strike and easily stunned the wolves. And before the second pair could go, the bat eviscerated the first pair with a fireball and easily dispatched the couple.
Three down, Six to go.
But the deaths of their comrades did not deter the incoming pair, in fact, for whatever reason it only strengthened them in their foolish plan, the bat could not care less for what these dogs thought they were going to do. If they were willing to throw themselves into a death trap, then so be it.
The pairs came at him more rapidly now, Antasma dodged, parried, and striked at each incoming hit. He weaved around the wolves with incredible agility, one that he certainly didn't possess in his previous life.
And just like that, he slowly wore down the wolves and fended them off one by one,
Four down, Five to go.
Six Down, Three to Go.
Then along with its partner, Antasma slain the wolf with ease. Now there's only two left, the bat grinned. It's time for this battle to end.
He leaned forward, and with his blade drawn, he pounced.
He could already taste the victory through his mask, all he needed was two more clean strikes, and it'd be over.
The pair crouched against the wall, in this situation, it would be understandable to assume that the duo was cowering in fear, after all. Both were stuck in a position that guaranteed certain death.
But these hounds were robots, they did not feel fear.
And in an instant, they pounded too, Antasma grinned. Yes, come to him. He shall shed their Castaphrose onto his blade and consume the fuel with glee.
But what Antasma didn't expect was for the wolves to split up, the bat drove his blade straight into one of them while the other dodged to the side, then, while his blade was tangled up with the remains of the first pup, the other pounded, pointing their spear head right at the bat's heart.
Antasma couldn't move, the dying wolf had held him tightly in its grasp, the bat was bound by the canine's grip as its comrade charged at him with its spear-head.
Oh crap, maybe he shouldn't have been so cocky or he might've actually won it sooner than now.
But suddenly, before the spear could strike him, a white aura appeared around him. It only happened for a split second but the strike was reflected by the aura and recharged his Castaphrose level at a sufficient amount for him to force the other wolf off of him via his signal jammer.
The aura only lasted for a moment before fading away, but the bat could clearly see it being the same halos and symbols that the spirits had bestowed upon him.
The bat smirked, maybe helping them wasn't the worst idea after all.
He drew his blade once more and glared at the last wolf, its comrade was already dying from its wounds, the vent of the signal jammer shut it down completely.
So now, there was only one lone wolf remaining.
The pup stumbled up and growled at him, still acting fierce even against the approaching doom. But it knew that there was no hope.
Soon, the former nine Ku-Nines were nothing but a pile of scrap.
Antasma cackled happily at his work, it had been a while since he had fought something new that didn't result in him getting horrifically injured. Maybe he was getting better at this, maybe, just maybe.
The bat then left the hallway with a gleeful thought, fully prepared for whatever he was going to face next.
"...Well, I certainly wasn't expecting him to…wipe out the pack that quickly." huffed unhappily, "It felt like he didn't really put up much of a fight until the end! Like…seriously, what are those glowing things?"
Dreambert stared at the recording of the fight as the professor angrily wrote down on his clipboard.
"Hmm…I'm not sure what those purple thingies that he vented out were, but I know who created the tech for it, so once I get him trained up, I will open his chest plate and inspect what that thing is and see if I can lead it back to her." He responded,
almost face palmed at the King's obliviousness, "No, I meant the white glowing things, the thing that appeared for a split second and blocked the deadly strike of my precious machines."
Dreambert blinked, "Oh…that?"
The king rubbed his chin as he watched the footage again.
"To be honest I have no idea what that is…." Dreambert responded, "But….I do have a theory on what it could be."
The professor was intrigued at the monarch's response, the Pi'illo did not usually share any possible information to the scientist as he considered him as an unreliable ally, but it seemed like this impression might've changed, albeit only for this anomaly.
"And…? What do you think?" The scientist asked.
The Pi'illo clicked his tongue before continuing, obviously considering whether or not he should tell the professor his thoughts, but a deal is a deal. The researcher only provided them with weapons in exchange for information that only mattered to them, and them only. So it wasn't like this was a confidential conversation, it was still very much within reason.
"I think…that the Hive Soul you mentioned earlier might've had something to do with it…" Dreambert replied, "I think…Antasma might've…freed them."
The professor's eyes widened, "What? Freed? Him? The Villain ?" he exclaimed.
"...Yes…free them…the bat might've gotten some sort of reward from his work." The Pi'illo snarled. "Reward…could you imagine that? REWARD? For one singular good deed?"
Dreambert was breathing heavily now, everything that he'd done for his kingdom, the wealth, the alliances, and the sacrifices. He did it all, and yet what did he get? A flimsy office in a tiny ship that he was limited to because a majority of his people didn't want to pitch in and support him. The King barely got anything in return for what he did, and yet, this bat, this nightmare, this…sad excuse of a villain, who never had to build themselves up in virtue and stress about their reputation. WAS REWARDED JUST BECAUSE HE DID ONE GOOD THING?
Dreambert smashed his desk in rage, backed away from the king as roared in fury, the scientist wasn't exactly sure what to do while the monarch was destroying his office so he simply stood on standby while he watched the Pi'illo throw his monitor across the room. Perhaps he should have left while the king was rampaging against his office supplies, but he concurred. The bat was going to enter the nuclear reactor room pretty soon, and the scientist didn't want to miss the fight between the King of Boos and the "Ultimate Weapon."
So he simply waited it out while the King of Pi'illos threw his tantrum