Thanks go to EpicSlayerGuy99, Wingah, DoctahSawbones, 10burgers, ZeroaraTheKnight, TiredWhiteMayge, Zillowzest, GMLxAwesome, Acoolnamme, ARegularGuest, Prominent, Minami Kinoshita, and Night4099!
Minami Kinoshita, it's been awhile! I'm really glad you stumbled upon this story again, and I hope you enjoy catching up on it! I know four years of my mad scrawlings is a lot to read lol. But I'm glad to see ya back!
Alright, so this one took twice as long as expected! It's been a rough month for ya boi, and this chapter was more challenging than most. Still, it's a good one, and I think you guys will enjoy it. I hope you'll all be nice enough to leave reviews, it really helps production. :)
Next chapter should go up on Thursday, March 9th!
Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale.
... Am I dead?
Xander Fortune felt like he was floating. He didn't know if he was blind, or if the entire world had just gone dark. If he was deaf, or if there was no longer sound. If he couldn't feel, or if there was nothing left to touch. Regardless, he did not try to make sound. He did not try to feel his own body, he did not try to wave his hand in front of his face. It didn't matter any more.
What was I doing..? Oh, right... Clifford.
For a long time, Xander had hoped that Cliff would be there to greet him upon his death. That there was some afterlife, something cliché. Clouds, heavenly light, blue sky... But he'd always been too jaded to ever really belief in life after death. The lights were supposed to go out, and that was supposed to be it. No more Xander, no more Fortunes, no more pain. It's not like Cliff would be happy to see him now, anyway.
Did I really end the world just to get back at Angel? I guess I really am like grandad after all...
An unfortunate revelation, but Xander didn't feel any point in rejecting it now. Thinking back on it all with a clear head now, it was pretty obvious to him that he wasn't ever much of a hero. Maybe Fortunes just weren't cut out for doing the right thing. If that was the case, it was probably a good thing that he was gone now.
Wish I could say the look on his face was worth it, but...
Why had that jackass reached out a hand to Xander, anyway? Restoring a friendship between him, Angel, Anthony and Lexi... It would have been funny if it wasn't so sad. Xander could hardly take pleasure in their suffering now, he couldn't remember the despairing look on Angel's face. All that popped into his head when he thought of him was that desperate, pleading expression. Reaching out a green hand to him... Xander probably should've taken him up on that deal.
... But I couldn't. Not like it'd ever work anyway, and it's not like I deserve friends anymore.
Well, the lights were out. But at what point was he supposed to fade away, exactly? Maybe consciousness was his eternal punishment now. Here alone in the nothing, with just his thoughts to keep him company... Nothing to be done about it now. He pushed the button, he got himself killed, he probably got everyone else killed. It was over now, but...
Something burns.
Light flickered in the empty black, a bright white flare. Xander could see them, flaming serpents curling up from beneath. They slithered around his arms and legs, they coiled his neck and constricted his legs. It burned... Xander tried to ignore it. That's all there was to do now. However much time would pass, however deep the fire snakes would drag him into the abyss. There was no more fight to be had, there was nothing he could do. He could hear the flames hiss, he wondered if he would burn up and crumble away like his mother's cigarettes. Xander Fortune was all used up, he had crumbled to almost nothing and now it was time to put him out and throw him away.
... What's that..?
There was a different light in the abyss. A dull shine, growing stronger. What color was that..? Xander tried to focus in on it, he let the scorching heat melting him to dust fade further into his perception. Green... Dad's eyes were green. He hadn't thought about that in quite a long time. An emerald shine was twinkling down from above. He thought he might be able to reach out to it, get closer and let it wash away the fire before he crumbled to ash...
But why should I..?
The real question was why did he want to. However long ago it was that he'd died, Xander had accepted his fate. Not wanting to die had caused him nothing but heartache, after all. Still... Could he really accept this fate? Would he truly prefer burning to nothing over... Over what? What did that green shine offer? Xander remembered his father's eyes, he remembered the boy on the other side of the fence. He remembered Angel, reaching out that cracked hand...
... I can't face Clifford. Not like this.
Xander Fortune didn't like it, but if he had a chance he had to take it. Something in his soul demanded that he PERSEVERE. So, he focused on that light. He pushed away those scorching serpents, his consciousness swam through the void. Closer to that light, deeper into its emerald shine. Fine, fine! One more try. He'd call on his DETERMINATION one last time. One last time, Xander would try to be a different kind of Fortune.
Xander's violet eyes snapped open, and the first thing he did was gasp. His body jolted with life, his muscles tensed and his limbs jumped. His eyes blinked and widened, trying to perceive the flickering sky overhead. Wasn't it raining before? Now the sky was clear, but he had no idea if it was day or night... His lips remained pursed, and once the blur left his vision, Xander's eyes glossed to his left and then to his right. Melanie and Ralsei..? What did those pirates want now?
The two white mages leaned back quickly when Xander swung his body up into a sitting position, leaning his head forward and resting his forehead in his palm. His hair dangled over his face, but he couldn't feel any horns jutting out of his head. His hand didn't feel scaly, either... Begrudgingly, his violet eyes opened again, and Xander looked out at the desert his was sitting in. His free hand glossed over his bare upper body, he couldn't find any gaping holes... He slipped his hand off his face, and glanced over his shoulder to Ralsei from between his dangling reddish black hairs. His voice creaked out of his dry throat, "... Where am I?"
"Uhh... It was the center of your empire earlier..." Ralsei shrugged slowly, even offering a sheepish smile. Xander was frowning, but no surprise reflected in his expression. He just blinked his eyes twice... And then leaned his head forward and buried his face in the both of his hands. Ralsei and Melanie shot each other a look while Xander muffled a yell in his palms.
"Why did you heal me..?" Xander spoke again after taking a moment to mourn his devastated property, this time glancing over his shoulder at Melanie The KIND. Unlike Ralsei, Melanie didn't offer him any sort of smile. There was still dirt and blood on her face, it looked like she'd had a pretty rough day too. That was likely Xander's fault, which only made him more confused as to why she would help him. "I would have thought you pirates would be dancing on my grave..."
Melanie didn't speak for a moment, instead opting to throw up her hand. She pointed one finger aggressively out across the horizon, squinting irritably at The Gatherer all the while. Expression still tired and confused, Xander followed the tip of her finger across the distorted skyline, all the way to the flashing color in the distance. Pillars of red and white, crashing monsters and ice, blasts of white hot plasma... Oh, right. Errorphim. Whoops. Melanie's voice was clear and demanding as Xander blinked his violet eyes at the crashing death on the other side of the wasteland, "Fix it."
"Whaddaya want me to do?" Xander looked back over to her, slouching and letting hair dangle in a loose mess over his face. He was sure Melanie had never seen him so disheveled, but he was also sure that he didn't care. There wasn't any point in pretending to be anything but himself now, fake personas had been nothing but trouble for him lately. He explained, "I didn't exactly put an off switch on the thing."
"Fix. It." Melanie repeated again, this time with more force. She pointed more aggressively to the creeping doomsday on the horizon, and her frown dug deeper into her face. Annoying as it was, her simple order did get Xander to crack a little smile. He looked away from her, ran one hand up his forehead and through his hair to push those loose strands back behind his head. Fix it, huh? The nerve of this girl...
"... Hm." Xander's hand shuffled through his pocket, he straightened his back out and leaned back onto one palm while he pulled his cigarettes out of his pocket. There was just a few left in the pack, but he was feeling generous. So, he held that pack out to Melanie and Ralsei, arching a brow at the both of them. "Either of you want a smoke? Sometimes they taste better with company."
Ralsei and Melanie only answered with disapproving stares, but Xander still smiled. Not his fake, perfect smile. Instead, a disheveled and slimy grin. While unpleasant, it was in fact a more honest representation of what Xander really was. He looked forward and shifted after that, getting his knee under himself. He grunted while he shoved himself up to his feet, and once he was standing he stretched his arms high over his head. A few cracks and pops resounded...
And when his arms dropped back down to his sides, Xander The Gatherer exhaled black smoke through his teeth. His violet eyes settled on the disgusting beast that he'd created, the abomination that had dared bite his hand... And they flashed red.
Chapter 99: A Bitch Ain't One
Or: Attack And Dethrone God (Part 1)
"So, either'a you boys got a game plan?" Lexi's voice called over the crackling winds. She glanced over at Anthony and I from her eye's corner, and the flashing lights of our power began to fade. Frost steamed off her body, she exhaled white fog while those frozen cracks made their way down her cheeks. An icy shine had appeared over her long black hair.
"I think I'm gonna hit him with this crowbar." Anarchy stated plain and clear, and if he was anyone else I would have thought he was being sarcastic. His hair was lifted by his DETERMINED aura and tinted red, the fires of his soul ignited over his left eye. Despite his casual answer, it was clear to me that Anny understood the stakes here. He was, in fact, going to hit Errorphim with that crowbar.
"We clobber him until he spits up Chara's soul." I stated without taking my furious scarlet eyes off the mad god looming above. My scarred hand clenched into a tight fist, scarlet flames burned between my fingers. the feathers on my four ink wings shifted in the updraft of my boiling aura, a few DETERMINED sparks cracked out of my scarlet soul. "Then, you guys can watch me rip his arms off."
"Rip my arms off, huh? Man, that takes me back." Errorphim chuckled casually, shaking his head and putting his hands on his hips. he was smiling as he floated over us there, not bothering with any sort of defensive stance. He winked a socket shut at me and dared ask, "Ay, pencil pusher, ya ever think that you might have Chara back by now if you'd bothered finishing me off back then?"
My teeth grit, my fists clenched tighter. The sight of my fury just made Errorphim smile wider, but he didn't bother watching me for long. Instead, his multicolored pupils glossed over to Anny and Lexi, and he shrugged his shoulders while continuing to run his mouth. "But I mean, you wouldn't have ever lost them if either'a your pals here were competent. You expect me to believe that the multiverse's three biggest flunkies are gonna stop me now?"
Errorphim ran his mouth, but it wasn't worth listening to. He didn't need to try and make us mad, we were already furious and none of us felt like talking. Honestly, I felt like between Frisk and Xander I'd already talked my jaw numb. And it hadn't done me any good - we still ended up here. Chara's soul was even further out of my reach, locked behind the unbreakable ribcage of a Seven Souled God. It was more evident now that it had ever been that talking wouldn't save them, it wouldn't get us back home to our happy ending. If I wanted Chara back, I'd have to rip open Errorphim's chest and pull them out with my bare hands.
"Your era is over now." Errorphim floated higher into that glitching and skipping sky above. He slowly lifted his arms to his sides, light flashed in his sockets while twin Godly Gaster Blasters appeared to his sides. Their maws snapped open, and pure white light shined mercilessly between their jaws while Errorphim grinned. "The Age of Errorphim has begun."
Master Of Puppets by Nick Nitro started playing.
I threw my hand out to the side, and in an instant Beat Cannons popped into existence at our sides. They hissed with heat and sent lasers of red crashing up towards the twin beams of ivory raining down. Anarchy bent his knees as those waves of plasma collided in the sky overhead, and the glassed earth beneath us shattered apart as he fired up like a rocket at Errorphim.
Errorphim's browbones rose when he saw just how quickly Anarchy ascended in spite of his lack of wings, but he didn't hesitate to open one palm out towards the Ivory Ghoul. Between him and Anny green light flashed, and Anarchy's teeth grit as his crowbar smashed into a wall of KIND light. Emerald shards flung through the air as cracks spiderwebbed through Errorphim's defense, but the wall just barely held, keeping the two separated.
Ice crashed, and in an instant Predator curled up from behind Errorphim on a wave of frozen water. She yanked her scythe back as she blasted towards him, only for him to spin around and throw his other hand out towards her. From his palm orange force crashed, and Lexi barely had time to fold her arms back in and guard herself before she was blasted point blank by a wave of BRAVE energy. Errorphim smiled as he watched her get engulfed, but his joy was cut short when Anarchy's hand fired through the splintered wall of KINDNESS and grabbed him by the wrist. "Gotcha!"
Errorphim spun around just in time for a second crowbar swing to crash through that KINDNESS, and he reached up, catching that disgusting tool in his free hand. He winced - the filthy metal sent a repulsive vibration down his arm with its impact. Still his fingers curled around its tainted steel, and his eyes locked with Anarchy's as the two hung in air together, each one with a hold on the other.
"Now isn't this a surprise..!" Errorphim sneered just before having to yank his head back, Anarchy's own head whipping forward. He snapped his jaws at the Seven Souled God, trying to crush whatever he could catch in his maw. But Errorphim kept his body out of his reach, even as his arms struggled to hold Anarchy's in place. His brow bones furrowed irritably while twin bone spikes formed under either of his arms, pointing up at The Anarchist. "How did a savage like you attain-?!"
Errorphim was cut off when Anarchy's leg swung up, smashing into his bottom jaw and throwing his head back. Those skeletal hands released their grip, and Anthony swung with his momentum, backflipping away from Errorphim and plummeting down towards the ground below, those twin spikes firing up just over his head and missing entirely. With Anny out of the way, Errorphim was able to look forward to see me floating right in front of him.
Fury written across my face, I opened one palm out towards the mad god before me. Another Beat Cannon appeared beside me, already spinning and igniting with scarlet power. But to my shock, just before it could fire, a spike of ivory manifested in motion right above it, piercing down and right through its metal and wires. My wide eyes darted to the Cannon just before its power ignited within it, causing white and red flames to explode out of it.
My wings beat and launched me back away from the blast while I threw up one arm to guard my eyes. Just as I remembered where my focus needed to be and my head whipped back towards Errorphim however, one of his huge skeletal hands snapped shut around my face. He'd fired forward on his six wings, grabbed me by my face and now we were plummeting down towards the jagged sands beneath.
Before Errorphim could slam me into the dirt however, that dirt bubbled and shifted. Rapidly ink curled up from the dead earth, growing into a shifting pitch black mass. Errorphim reeled back, tried to release me before the both of us plunged into that inky void and pull up out of its reach. But my hands fired up and snapped shut around his wrist, and as my wings beat in defiance to continue dragging us downward, Errorphim could see the red shine of my furious scarlet eye from between his fingers.
Massive black tendrils fired up around the two of us from that growing black pond beneath. Four tentacles swung down at us after reaching high over our heads, looking to drag us both down into the bubbling and seething darkness beneath. Before they could crash down onto us however, Errorphim's body exploded with light. The vibrant, brutal shine of his ERASURE exploded out of him, and my eyes widened as the pain of having my atoms shook crashed through my body. That ivory shine blasted apart the tendrils crashing down, it was an orb of white that rapidly expanded all the way to the black lake beneath and made it vanish right with the dirt beneath it.
Fading just as fast as it came, I found myself being held up by the face when the light of that ERASURE disappeared. Errorphim smiled wickedly as he lifted me up over his head, I could tell nothing made him happier than the sight of me in pain. My eye twitched furiously as I glared from between his fingers, and all four of my wings curled instantly into drill shapes. They launched down at his smug face, but before they could drill him four new eye sockets, power crackled in the palm pressed to my face. From point blank range a blast of orange light blasted out of Errorphim, a wave of BRAVERY that slammed into me like a semi-truck and made me remember just how much it hurt getting punched by Cliff while I was sent firing back through the sky on a streak of ginger sparks.
I barely managed to lift my head as I fired back through the air. My teeth ground together and my wincing eyes locked onto the mad god reaching out towards me with violet glowing fingers. PERSEVERANT strings fired out from his hand faster than I could react with BRAVE electricity still makes my nerves twitch, but just before I was ensnared Lexi fired up from beneath at mach speed.
One slash of her scythe was all it took to cleave those strings apart, and she spun in air as she continued to ascend with her jump's momentum. I reached out while my wings spread wide to stop my backwards launch, and just as Lexi righted herself in air a platform sized W key appeared behind her. It stood vertically, was in exactly the right place for her to swing her legs back and kick off of it. The key shattered under the force of The Predator's jump, and with a Valkyrian battle cry she fired across the sky at Errorphim, yanking back the crescent blade of her scythe to make another attempt at cleaving his head from his shoulders.
A wall of green light appeared in her path just before she reached the mad god, but Predator swung her scythe anyway. Its curved blade hooked around the side of that emerald guard, and she yanked with all her might, swinging her body around Errorphim's defenses in an instant. His sockets widened at her speed, he wasn't able to pull his head back fast enough and a shockwave of frosting winds blasted out around the two of them as Lexi crashed her leg right into the side of his skull!
Her hair blown back by the chilled winds, Predator stared with furious eyes into Errorphim's smug expression. Her kick had connected, but his skull had not budged. Frost was creeping out across the side of his head, where her leg was still pressed against him. In the next instant Errorphim's hand shot up, Predator winced as his skeletal hand snapped shut around her ankle. Then, effortlessly, he yanked her right up over his head like she was weightless. His grip on her tightened, he cocked back his arm and prepared to shitwhip her right back into the sands she'd launched out of.
But, before he could, a red blur shot up from beneath. Lexi's eyes winced as she watched red flash out in a brutal shockwave around Anarchy's impact. He'd fired up from beneath, crashed his crowbar into Errorphim's chin with enough force to send his head whiplashing back. The lights in his sockets went out for just a moment, and as his fingers loosened their grip and slipped off Predator's ankle Anarchy's own raised hand released his crowbar and let it slip back down his sleeve, just so he could grab Lexi by the ankle instead.
She knew what his plan was the moment he grabbed her, and she was happy to play along. Pulling her scythe high up over her head, Lexi screamed her battle cry in unison with Anthony's as he yanked her down with all his might, swinging her and in turn swinging her scythe like an executioner's ax down at the stunned Errorphim. A streak of red followed their shared slash just before that chilled steel sliced over Errorphim's divine body, splitting his ivory aura. A blast of ice cold winds exploded back with a scarlet shine, and Lexi and Anthony watched their attack land with matching madwoman and madman grins.
Though his bones did not give out, the power of that shared strike did send Order's Mad God crashing back and down through the air. Pain twitched in his expression while his godly aura crackled and filled back in where it had been cleaved open, and the lights finally came back on in his sockets as his wings spread wide to stop his momentum. Above him, Anny and Lexi landed on a key panel that appeared just beneath them, and to their sides two more Beat Cannons appeared, spinning and smoking with power.
A wall of KINDNESS appeared above Errorphim just as those waves of scarlet death blasted down towards him, and a cone of red heat fired out to his sides when his defenses were struck. Cracks and chips appeared here and there in that green barrier, but it held until those DETERMINED flames died down. Before the smoke could clear, however, I blasted through that stolen KINDNESS with my red cracked fist. Errorphim's brow bones rose at the sight of me punching through green and shining with red aura, his jaws curled into a smile.
My wings curled back so that I could drop down towards him faster, but as I yanked back my right fist with my left still leading my charge, his own right hand swung up. Knuckles cracked against my cheek, effortlessly Errorphim backhanded me aside. But, as I was thrown to his right, the arm he'd used to strike me was pulled outward, and his wide eyes darted to the ink whip wrapped around his wrist. Using my own strength with the momentum he gave me, I wrapped both hands around the other end of the tendril that I'd used to snag that mad god, keeping his arm pulled to one side.
He tried to turn his attention to me, but Predator's battle cry made his head whip back upwards. She dropped down towards him fist first, her scythe on her back to free up the both of her hands. Without thinking Errorphim cocked back his left hand and backhanded her aside as he had done me. She was swatted to his left effortlessly... And then Errorphim's only free hand was yanked out with her.
Sockets widening further, Errorphim's stare darted between the ice chain attached to one of his wrists and the ink whip attached to the other. Then, annoyance creeping into his expression, his eyes traveled up the ink whip to see me smirk while my wings kept me in air. His head whipped to the other side, and he saw a similar look on Lexi's face from where she stood on another key platform, both of her hands wrapped tight around the ice chain she'd used to snag Errorphim's left arm.
"OOOOOH BALDY!" Anarchy's giddy voice caught Errorphim's attention next, and his eyes darted up just in time to see The Bastard Son jump off the platform he'd been standing on. He plummeted down towards the restrained Errorphim, the wind yanked back his mane of white hair while he threw back his left arm. His crowbar fired up out of his sleeve and into his hand with that motion, and his shadow writhed on Errorphim's body as he prepared to put that metal right through a god's forehead.
Immediately, Errorphim's jaws snapped open. It was an uncanny sight, a Sans opening his mouth. But still, his fangs effortlessly parted, revealing a crackling bulb of ivory light. A single circle appeared around that vibrating, baseball sized orb, just before it exploded out in a beam of lightspeed death. Anny's eyes went wide as that death ray fired clean through his right shoulder, slashing up as Errorphim threw his head back and slicing his arm right off his body and instantly cauterizing the wound.
But, even as his severed arm flung through the air and plummeted down to get lost in the sand, Anarchy's grin only got wider. His grip on his crowbar tightened, and with crushing force he sent that metal blasting down towards the recoiling Errorphim. His Inheritance crashed down with so much power that a bolt of scarlet lightning fired up past Anarchy's face and into the glitching sky from the impact, illuminating his mad expression in red for just a moment. His restraints released the moment that cruel steel struck between the mad god's eyes, and Errorphim was sent blasting with a sonic boom down towards the sands beneath.
Anny smiled at the sight of Errorphim blasting into the earth, landing on the computer key that appeared beneath him while a mushroom cloud of dust and sand crashed up around the impact. Lexi's own computer key platform floated over to him, and my wings beat, flying me over to join the both of them there in the air above our foe. The moment her key connected to Anarchy's, Lexi grinned over at him and exclaimed. "Alright, we've got him on the ropes!"
"... No, somethin' ain't right." Anarchy answered, his grin replaced by a frown. His scarlet eyes watched the sandstorm beneath carefully. Red was flaming off of his scorched shoulder, new flesh and bone was rapidly bubbling out into a new arm while his one remaining hand kept a tight grip on his crowbar. His stare glossed over to the blood crusted metal, "I hit him hard, real hard. But nothing gave, his skull didn't break. Nothin' chipped."
"Well then hit him harder!" Lexi stated like it was obvious, furrowing her brows at Anarchy and slapping his arm the moment it finished regenerating. Anny's eyes narrowed irritably at her, but he still flashed her a sharp toothed smile. Unafraid of her friend's ghoulish expression, Lexi gestured frantically down at the rumbling smoke beneath while she went on. "Sure he's sturdy, but this guy was gettin' waxed by Character twenty minutes ago! Even in a god's body, Error can't keep up with the three of us."
"Yet." I was quick to add, my scarlet eyes squinting into the dust beneath. Why hadn't Errorphim returned yet? Where was the counter attack? If what Anny said was true (and what Anny said was always true) than Errorphim certainly wasn't dead, and he likely wasn't stunned either. My feathers shifted, my cracked fist clenched tight... "Seven Souled Gods don't typically stick around long, that's why we've hardly seen their full potential. I reckon infinite power takes a minute to get a good comprehension of."
"So you're saying the longer this fight goes on..." Lexi's expression tensed some while she pondered my theory. Her eyes too drifted off me and down to the devastated world beneath. A total and complete death had overtaken the land, unfocused with potential generally untapped. As soon as Errorphim learned how to expand upon his now infinite capability, once he could focus that total death...
"The harder it's gonna get to kill him." Anthony finished Lexi's thought from where he crouched down on the key platform. He glanced up at me, took his eyes off that settling cloud beneath and frowned knowingly while he asked. "That's what you're gettin' at?"
"Not just harder to kill him. It could become impossible to contain him." I glanced back over to Anny, shaking my head and returning his knowing frown. "Doesn't matter if we can kill him if he can just vanish out of our reach and start instantly ERASING timelines while we try to catch him."
"Then we're wastin' time!" Lexi fearlessly interjected, yanking her scythe high up over her head. Instantly a torrent of chilling wind blasted by the three of us. I watched in awe as from nothing at all a swirling mass of frosty air currents twisted into the shape of an iceberg before us. A huge frozen mass, its cyan shape reflected the three of us standing together just before Lexi swung her scythe down, and that supermassive ice chunk dropped out of the sky. It plummeted with increasing speed and velocity down into the settling dust below, sending an updraft of frozen winds blasting up past us.
Like a frozen meteor Lexi's iceberg crashed down towards the wasteland beneath. Its gravity sent harsh winds blasting out, it made sand and dust fire in all directions. But, before it could hit the ground... A Beam of white light fired up, piercing right through the ice's bottom and blasting out of its peak in the blink of an eye. Seven different colors flashed in the teal glass, just before that white beam rapidly expanded into a pillar of godly light. A shockwave of heat from its expansion blew that iceberg apart, and the three of us were all forced to plant our feet and guard our eyes with an arm while we were assaulted by the crashing winds.
That tower of crackling white rose high into the flickering sky, clouds vanished to nothing on its impact. In the flashing light, the shadow of a Seven Souled God rose high over our heads. It loomed within the crashing power, unaffected by the strength that made the world rumble. My head lowered, my jaw tightened as I watched scarlet lightning crack over that ivory tower. My fists trembled with rage... And then a bone fired up through the keys we were standing on.
My wings beat and launched me into the air, but I watched in shock as Anny and Lexi were both thrown back and off the only footing they had. Sky scraper sized bones were firing up all around us, crashing out of the sands beneath. I reached out to try and catch my friends with ink whips, but another huge spike shot up beneath me and forced my wings to beat. I threw myself out of the range of its point, but this momentary distraction was all it took to put Lexi and Anny out of my range.
Growling with aggravation, Lexi's hand clenched tight around her scythe while the wind dragged her long hair upwards. She was plummeting quick, but this fall wasn't shit compared to the drop from Fortune Bridge into Fortune River. So she threw her free hand out to the side, and ice grew on and blasted out from the side of one of the massive bones that had launched outta the dirt beside her. Her ice raced out, curled unnaturally and caught its queen from the air. Predator back flipped while in air, landing on her feet on that ice platform and glaring into the crashing power tower before us.
Anarchy flipped over so that he was dropping towards the ground face first. It was how he preferred to plummet, it made his brain produce all the chemicals that made him feel alive. He couldn't help but crack a smile, his smile couldn't help but change to a grin. Far beneath, on the ground that his body was sure he would splatter against, his shadow expanded. Grew from a drop to a puddle to a pond to a lake, and from within that lake a serpentine head exploded.
Anthony's Wyrm fired right out of The Dark, launching up and opening its jaws wide. Anny cackled as he plummeted into its open maw, and that jagged snout snapped shut the moment he hit its tongue, blocking out the mad laughter of the Wyrm's master. That grand snake rose higher into the sky then, lowering its head and looking straight forward. The scales atop its skull shifted and bubbled... And then a head of white hair popped out of The Dark. Anthony The Anarchist rose up out of that shifting black liquid without a single drop of it sticking to his skin, and with one hand in his pocket and the other dangling limp with that crowbar in its grasp, he grinned up into the fading light.
My eyes drifted up from where Predator was perched on her ice and where Anarchy stood atop his beast's head beneath, back to the six winged being floating across from me. My scarlet eyes narrowed while my four wings spread wide, and Errorphim smiled when he saw the look on my face. Anny was right - he'd gotten blasted right between the eyes with our Inheritance and there wasn't a scratch on him. I thought back to when Chara and I defeated Error three years ago, how slow and methodical we were. The way we played with our food...
"Gotta say, it looks like you've really come along since the first time we met, pencil pusher." Errorphim continued to smile as he spoke, like he was really giving me a compliment. But he wasn't, of course he wasn't. We both remembered how things ended last time - with Error a victim of Chara and I's combined cruelty. And if Chara was still by my side, I would feel absolutely certain that we could destroy him again. But, instead... "From a snot nosed brat to a being with wings to rival my own. Funny how crazy things have gotten without me around to keep you glitches in check, eh?"
"... Give them back, Error." I dared demand, my express tensing with fury. Scarlet flames crackled out of my scarred left arm as my fist clenched tight, the fires around my left eye burned brighter. My crimson soul flared bright, but its shine did not reflect on Errorphim's divine body. In fact, his ivory aura fell over me... "Hand over Chara's soul, and we'll let you go."
"That's a good one Angel, but I've heard it before." Errorphim folded his arms behind his back as he spoke. He shook his head like he was disappointed, squinted his sockets at me like he was trying to figure out if I was an idiot or not. "What, do you think you're cutting me a deal here? That you're somehow bein' nice by saying you'd spare me if I gave up the power I need to defend myself from you?"
"No. You're threatening me, Angel." Errorphim frowned at me, and my own eyes narrowed. What was he getting at? So what if I was threatening him, what did he care? And how did he know my name? Was it knowledge from Chara's soul, or some divine omnipotence? Errorphim must not have expected me to understand, because he went on. "And that's what I hate about you. It's all under the guise of KINDNESS. You act like you're trying to do the right thing, but the truth is you just kill whoever gets in the way of what you want."
"When what I want is for someone to get home safe to their family and the person in my way is a bloodthirsty lunatic who wants to kill trillions of people, I reckon murder might be justified." I fired back irritably - was I really getting high-roaded by this asshole? I threw my arms out to my sides, tendrils of boiling hot ink fired down my forearms and coiled immediately into harsh whips. "I'm not gonna debate morality with somebody who wants to destroy infinity. Give me back Chara's soul and stop going down this path or I'm gonna kill you."
"Always through your eyes, always from your perspective. You can't threaten me and you can't kill me, so you're not gonna get what you want." Errorphim's jaws pulled up just a little, into a slight smirk. Then, he unfolded one hand from behind his back. He held it out to the side, opened his palm... A flash of red reflected in the inky glass of the flower behind my ear, and a scarlet blade appeared in his grasp. My eye twitched at the sight of the DETERMINED steel he held, before my furious stare darted back to Errorphim's cruel expression. He grinned, "You'll never see Chara again."
"We'll see about that!" I snapped, whipping my arms forward and sending six ink whips lashing out from my arms at that wretched soul thief. Errorphim hardly flinched, with the flick of his wrist he slashed that blade of Chara's DETERMINATION upwards, cleaving through those whips and sending them splattering through the air in useless droplets. The moment his blade wielding arm was lifted Errorphim reached out towards me with the other hand, and with a single beat of his powerful wings he closed the distance between us.
Hastily I tilted my head to the side, wide eyes darting to the sharp fingers that jabbed over my shoulder where my face had just been. Then, my DETERMINED stare darted to Errorphim's wretched sneer, and my left hook followed immediately behind. From the side my cracked fist fired up, and it blasted into Errorphim's jaw with all my might. Red flames blasted out of my arm's scarlet scars... And my eyes went wide when Errorphim's head didn't budge.
In the next instant that stolen steel swung up, and my jaw tightened when I felt the familiar sting of Chara's blade slashing up my chest. I'd managed to lean back enough to not get cut in half, but my vision still blurred for a half second and I could still see my ink stained blood spraying through the air. Errorphim had cleaved up right along one of the trenches already scarred in my chest, the one Chara left when they killed me for the last time.
For just a moment it felt like everything was in slow motion. With wide eyes and shrunken pupils I stared into Errorphim's cruel grin from between the many droplets of my own blood. I could see my own agonized expression reflected in the red of that DETERMINATION saber, my eyes reflected green... Errorphim's hand opened, that saber vanished in favor of another bone spike floating overhead. It fired down, drove right through my chest and sent me blasting down towards the sands beneath.
Plenty pleased with himself, the moment Errorphim lifted his head he spotted a beam of pitch black water firing towards him. A geyser of Darkness screamed from the maw of The Anarchist's Wyrm, and Errorphim hardly had time to manifest a wall of green light before that deadly pressure was upon him. KINDNESS hardly shined as that deep black Chaos exploded into Errorphim's defenses, washing in a cone out around him and encasing him completely in its void.
Disgusted, Errorphim's socket twitched as his stare darted between the slithering Dark spraying around him. Something beyond even his perception slithered in that vantablack, he could feel eyes resting upon him... With the flex of his mighty souls, a shockwave of orange power exploded out from around him. Shattering that KIND wall to pieces, Errorphim's blast sent the Dark waters of that geyser exploding out into a rain of mad droplets. He floated there with his hands held out to his sides, sneering down at the wretched beast that had dared try to blast him... Before every one of those Dark droplets stopped in air, and froze solid.
In the next instant, slivers of pointed Chaos were firing at Order's Mad God from all directions. His wings folded inward, wrapped around him and shielded him from the thousands of droplets trying to shred his divine body. He floated as an orb, curled into a ball as mad ice bounced off the crackling veil of white aura that shined around him.
This went on for several seconds before the onslaught came to a sudden end. The many slivers of ice were futile on their own, they could not pierce his defenses. But, Lexi realized as she dove down from an ice platform above, Errorphim had bothered to guard against them. So, she surmised while she yanked her scythe up over her head for those black ice shards to gather around, Error's new light was hardly a fan of Anthony's old Dark. So, she commanded those vantablack crystals to meld together around the blade of her scythe, forming a larger, Darker blade. And as she plummeted down towards Errorphim and cleaved down at him with her new attack, she roared its name. "GHOUL SCYTHE!"
Errorphim's head whipped up as his wings and body unfolded from that ball, his sockets went wide. Hastily he threw up one arm, and he winced as the point of The Predator's Ghoul Scythe drove down into his forearm. His ivory aura crackled and writhed, and pitch black steam rose from where Lexi's black ice blade met Errorphim's bone. Still, his divine body refused to give out. Bone did not crack or cut, so Lexi shifted her weapon's point, letting its curve hook around Errorphim's arm and swinging herself down under his lifted forearm.
She swung her boots up and blasted a drop kick into Errorphim's chest, but he didn't budge. The moment that his glare darted from where her wretched blade was pressed to his arm back to her, Lexi kicked off of Errorphim's sternum and backflipped away from him. As she flipped in the air overhead, Anthony's Wyrm fired right under her, and Errorphim's sockets went wide as its massive jaws snapped down towards him.
Hastily that mad god reached out, and in his powerful hands the both of those jaws were stopped dead. The momentum of Anthony's Wyrm came to an instant stop, the effort it took to stop that freight train chomp hardly even showed on Errorphim's face. Far more taxing was the sight of that Wyrm's expansive maw - Errorphim could see nothing but Darkness down the beast's throat, so he opted to shine a light within it. His own jaws snapped open, and once more an orb of concentrated white light shined in his mouth, surrounded by an ivory halo.
But before that ray of death could shoot out past Errorphim's teeth and shred through the Wyrm's skull from the inside, the beast's snout rippled and shifted like a shaken puddle. Suddenly, its Dark scales splashed open as though its entire body was made of the black waters that it could spit. From within the Wyrm Anarchy's upper body launched, and he flashed a berserk grin as he yanked his arm straight up, sending his crowbar firing up his sleeve and into his grasp. "PEEK-A-BOO!"
WHAM!
A red shockwave flashed across the flickering night/day skyline, and Errorphim was sent blasting down towards the earth below. His head was thrown back from another brutal crowbar strike, he was blasting skull first towards the dirt when his sockets snapped back open. Anthony continued to grin at the sight of this as Lexi landed behind him atop the Wyrm's head. She crouched down and cracked a smirk at him while she laid her scythe's snath along her shoulders, "Gotta say, your black magic party tricks are pretty hilarious when you're using them to beat up people I don't like."
Anthony spun effortlessly in his Wyrm's face, rotating to face Lexi and pointing one finger gun at her. He winked his eye shut and clicked his tongue, before being suddenly and jarringly sucked back into the flesh of his beast. Predator recoiled just a little this, before jumping when Anarchy shot out of the scales behind her like he was spring loaded. "Thanks, I think it's pretty funny too!"
Predator glared over her shoulder at Anarchy, who was grinning knowingly from where he stood behind her. If she'd had the time she would have spun around and scolded him for startling her, but there were more pressing matters at hand. Because down below Errorphim yanked his head up and spread his wings wide, stopping his rapid descent.
The gold of his accurate eyes locked on to the beast that loomed over him and the wretched glitches standing upon its head, before suddenly Errorphim had to yank his body to the side and turn to his right. The moment that he did, a massive pen exploded up and out of the sands beneath. It fired right past him, missed his wings by just a few inches. But, before Errorphim could make sense of this strike and retaliate, he spotted me blasting towards him at top speed. Scarlet light flashed across my body, a streak of DETERMINATION trailed behind me as I yanked back the very same bone that had shot through my already healed heart just a minute ago, and Errorphim hardly had time to widen his eye sockets before I stabbed that spike right into one! "HAHH!"
The lights in Errorphim's eyes went out as I shoved his head back. I drove him backwards skull first, crashed through the pen I'd tried to skewer him with and launched through the air with his head driven on the pike he'd tried to smite me with. A furious roar was firing out of my throat as we blasted over the Valley of Shadow and Death, DETERMINED flames blasted out of the cracked arm that I used to hold that spike.
Head first I sent Errorphim crashing into one of the enormous bone spires he'd defined the terrain with. He crashed up to his shoulders into the ivory before finally our momentum stopped, and even though I wanted nothing more than to keep driving that stake until crashed out the top of his skull I had the sense to let go of it and beat my wings, firing myself backwards. It was a good thing I did; the mass of that bone pillar shifted and wobbled like it was water. It exploded open unnaturally into dozens of jagged spikes, but the beat of my wings carried me just out of their range just for another massive bone to blast out of the sand beneath at a diagonal angle and smash into my side.
"Angel!" I heard Anny's voice cry out as agony vibrated from my left side to my right. My body contorted around the blunt shape of that bone before the force sent me skyrocketing diagonally through the sky. When I shot over the head of Anny's Wyrm however he dove upwards, getting right in my path and opening his arms wide. I slammed into his sturdy frame and it felt like a hit a brick wall, but unlike most brick walls I'd slammed into Anarchy didn't crumble. He winced from my impact and the two of us still shot back through the air now slower and on a downward arch, but still his arms wrapped around me to assure that I didn't fling out of his protection. I might have objected to this, if the left side of my skeleton wasn't now detailed by all sorts of fractures.
While Anny and I started to drop from the sky and back towards his Wyrm - which had hastily slithered beneath us - the bone that I had buried Errorphim in continued to shift and change like it was more fluid than solid. His body disappeared into its ivory as it twisted and swirled, before the peak of the bone unfolded in long strips. It opened like a flower blooms, what was once basically a massive femur now resembled some ivory spider lily. And at the center of its death bloom floated Order's Mad God, unscathed.
My wincing eyes locked onto Errorphim, and they snapped open wide right with Anny's when that mad god's maw snapped open wide to reveal another crackling orb of white hot death. But, this time, that orb grew. It's size doubled, tripled, quadrupled until it was a crackling sphere trapped between Errorphim's unhinged jaws and pinched between his teeth. And his sockets narrowed with satisfaction at the sight of concern on my face, just before he bit down.
That balloon of death popped between Errorphim's jaws, and with a flash a tidal wave of white hot energy flashed out across the skyline. A sweeping horizon of boiling energy crashed out from Errorphim's maw towards Anny and I, and my wings couldn't possibly unfold in time. But, just before we were struck, an ice cold chain whipped up and wrapped around Anthony's ankle. Down below Lexi wrapped both hands around her end of that aquamarine steel and grunted as she pulled with all her might, yanking Anny and I down out of the sky and right under that sweeping wave of explosive force.
Lexi dragged us both down from the sky above, but a rumbling in the ground was the only warning she had before a pyramid of calcium spikes jutted out from beneath the Wyrm on which she stood. She hardly had any time to dive off the side of the beast as spikes of bone stabbed up through its underbelly, but she kept a grip on the chain she pulled us with even as that Wyrm's agonized scream made the air vibrate.
Lexi hit the sand back first, finally releasing that chain after one last powerful pull. Anny let go of me, red mist had put my bones back together. He flipped and landed crouched beside Lexi, and my wings spread wide, slowing my descent and letting me land gracefully on the other side of her. And as Anthony took Lexi's hand and helped her to her feet, the three of our gazes lifted up that twisted flower skeleton and to the mad god that sneered down at us. The music faded out.
"This is cute, really. You three honestly think you can just punch me out?" Errorphim cocked a brow bone at us, his smirk only growing. He shut his sockets and shook his head, and while he gave a 'tut tut' we could see clouds starting to form in the flickering sky. The sunshine and the moonlight alike were rapidly blocked out by a wall of black clouds, and when Errorphim opened his sockets and looked back down at us, seven separate colors flashed like lightning flickers in the overcast. "I'm beyond your mortal tools now. Beyond flesh, beyond metal and magic. Your attacks are worthless, and your resistance is futile."
My eyes narrowed, my jaw tightened. I didn't want to agree with his words, but the fact remained that he'd taken plenty of hits and still remained without a scratch. Lexi's scythe, my magic, even Anny's crowbar could not break through. With my scarred left hand, I reached up and took ahold of that golden heart chained around my neck. I felt it beating... My resolve strengthened. Even if his body didn't break, it did feel pain. And if I really couldn't kill Errorphim, I could still torture him until he spat out Chara's soul.
"My attacks, on the other hand..." Errorphim started to chuckle then. Those shifting, electric flashes in the clouds overhead began to pool together in a single spot. A growing orb of white light, it looked from where we stood that the sun was just barely shining through the clouds... But we knew better. Errorphim slowly lifted his hand, reaching up to the heavens he commanded and grinning wide as that orb of lightning began crashing and vibrating. "Will obliterate every blasphemous glitch in my new reality."
We stood tense, all our eyes carefully watching that crashing ball of electricity over our heads. Could we move fast enough to dodge it? Could any of us conjure something up to block it? Would we all be able to survive whatever blast was about to strike down at us? Errorphim's sockets went wide, he inhaled to start cackling, and just before he threw that hand down... That orb of lightning flashed from white to magenta, and Sleep Now In The Fire by Rage Against The Machine started playing.
CRASH!
What was surely planned to be an evil laugh was instead an agonized roar, and me, Lexi, and Anthony all watched in shock as that massive tower of lightning was pulled down in the blink of an eye... Just to engulf Errorphim. The mad god and the tower of bone that he stood upon was totally engulfed in cracking violet voltage. With his own power turned against him, Errorphim was in that instant just a shadow writhing in the ungodly light of a king's wrath. His arms thrown out to his sides and his wings spread wide, his skeletal body jolted and twitched within the electricity pouring down on top of him.
"Blaspheme? I assure you, creature, you don't know the meaning of the word."
A powerful voice was clear through that lightning crash. Effortless steps left scorched footprints all the way up the arch of the same bone that had smashed into me minutes ago. The claws of a scaled hand smacked the bottom of a little black box into its opposite palm until one cigarette jutted out above the rest, and though the electricity was starting to fade molten heat was just beginning to boil up beneath that pretentious pillar that Errorphim was perched atop.
"I'm not sure how you became so delusional. You believe yourself a god when you are in fact an attack dog. A tool, created by me."
That cigarette was pulled from its pack, its filter was gripped between the fangs of its overlord. While we watched the sands beneath Errorphim's pillar explode up in geysers of molten lava, a lighter was carefully lifted to that cigarette's end and a hand was cupped around it as the lighter was flicked open. Engraved in its front were heavy initials: W.F.
"Biting the hand that fed you, turning on your creator. That is blasphemy, you stupid animal."
He hated it, but Errorphim could not object to these words. He was forced onto one knee, his vision still flickered as he stared at the back of the trembling hand he had to use to steady himself. Godly electricity, his own might turned against him and used to paralyze him... Smoke was rising off of his bones when he felt his pillar shift and rumble. A Lake Of Fire had rapidly poured out from hell's gates, and now a serpentine shape was rising out of that scorching heat and coiling Errorphim's ivory pillar, dragging it deeper into the scorching abyss.
"I created you, Errorphim. I am your god, and I. Am. Angry."
As that scorching orange light shined up onto Errorphim's still twitching and struggling body and the pedestal he'd made for himself was sinking into a Lake Of Fire, the kneeling god managed to lift his head. His teeth grinding, his momentarily useless wings twitching, Errorphim glared furiously up from his sinking tower... And into the eyes of Xander Fortune. With a cigarette smoldering between his teeth and horns flaming atop his head, Errorphim's god looked down his nose at his creation with narrowed eyes. As lava began pouring onto the platform where Errorphim knelt, and the head of the magma cobra lifted high above the blasphemous skeleton, opening its maw wide to devour him, The Balor King gave his creation one way out of damnation.
"So beg for forgiveness."
Lexi, Anny and I all watched with wide eyes as that molten serpent crashed down atop Order's Mad God, shoving him into the depths of Xander's Lake Of Fire. And the moment Errorphim disappeared beneath the bubbling surface of melted stone, all our heads turned at once to watch Xander jump from his perch. He dropped all the way down to us, sands kicked up with a few heated gusts as he landed in front of all three of us, his back to Errorphim's magma tomb. He glanced over his shoulder at those searing flames though, exhaled grey fog from the corner of his mouth opposite to the corner where his cigarette was held... Then, he turned his head forward, and looked right at us with those powerful scarlet eyes.
"... Well, shit, Xander! You really can't help but make an entrance, huh?" In the seconds of tension that followed The Gatherer's entrance, The Predator was the first one brave enough to speak. She put her hand on her hip and flashed him a smirk, but still her fingers gripped the scythe slung over her shoulder just a little tighter. She narrowed her eyes, and asked the same question I myself had been wondering. "Just wanna be sure - who's side are you on?"
"... The three of you all reached out to me when I was low, but I wasn't strong enough to take your hand then." He answered in a voice that was... Calm, collected. The madness that had flickered in his eyes and that despair that had darkened his stare had faded now, I thought Xander looked a little more like The Fortunate Son I remembered. His words surprised me and I think they surprised everyone else, we all must've had trouble believing Xander would ever admit his own shortcomings. Still, Xander Fortune did not hesitate to lift his hand and stretch it out to us. "I'm sorry that it took me so long, but... If the offer's still on the table, then I think there might still be a 'we' after all."
"..." There was another pause, just a moment. Lexi opened her mouth to speak, but hesitated. Her eyes glossed from that outstretched hand and to Anthony's gaze, before the both of them looked to me. I was surprised at first, but after a moment's thought it made sense. If anyone understood second chances it was me, and I was the only one among us who might have truly hated Xander. With that in mind... I stepped forward, and I looked Xander in the eye as I grabbed ahold of his hand with my own. "... Fuckin' A Xander, if it means I won't have to deal with you as an enemy anymore I'll shake your hand a thousand times."
Xander's lips lifted some as I spoke, the two of us shaking hands right there on the battlefield we'd created. Though his smile was darkened some by the cigarette smoke pouring out from between his teeth, it still looked more honest than any smile he'd given me in a real long time. He didn't have to apologize about everything just yet, showing up to help us fight god said enough about his change of heart. Deciding that me n' him could smooth things over if and when we got outta this mess, we let go of one another's hand and nodded to each other. We weren't friends, and all was hardly forgiven... But we didn't hate the idea of working together, and that was enough.
To our right, Anthony looked between the two of us. First to Xander, then to me, and then over to Lexi... Then, he cracked a smile. A big one, in fact. Despite our grim situation, Anny started to laugh. Xander and I both turned our head to look at him in unison and we both gave him the same confused look. Lexi tilted her head and furrowed her brows with a similar lack of understanding, but it was Xander who questioned Anarchy first. "Something funny, Anthony?"
"Oh, no, it's nothin'. I was just thinking," Anny waved a hand to dismiss Xander's worries, wouldn't want the Fortune Son to think he still wanted to rip his limbs off. Anthony arched his own brow at the three of us then, and he posed his own question with a slight smirk. "When was the last time all four of us were in the exact same place, at the exact same time?"
"Hm? Oh, well that was-..." I went to answer Anny's question first, I thought the answer was obvious. But, it only got half way out of my mouth before I furrowed my brows again. I skeptically looked between Anny and Xander, pointing to one of them with my thumb and the other with my pinky. "Wasn't it back in DoubleScramble? Felt like everyone I'd ever pissed off was there to kill me then."
"Not everyone." Lexi uncrossed her arms just to lift one hand, drawing our attention to her. She shook her head, looking similarly perplexed while she shot down my theory and purposed her own. "I was knocked out before that fight. It wasn't all the way back at Jevil's Circus, was it?"
"Couldn't'a been - I was busy fighting Character when that happened." I shook my head, and Lexi's eyebrows rose while she leaned her head forward some. She gave a higher pitch, inquisitive 'Really?', and I nodded. Then, I took ahold of my chin and glanced to the side. "What about when you guys scraped up my carcass after the DoubleScramble fight?"
"My memory gets a little hazy between when Anthony stung me and when I woke up just a few hours ago, but I believe I was long gone before then." Xander's words drew Lexi and I's focus back to him. He rested his elbow on the forearm of his opposite arm, which was folded under his chest. With his lifted hand he held his chin, and he stared with furrowed brows at the ground for a moment before he glanced over to Lexi. "Surely it was the first time you guys wrecked my house."
"It sure wasn't, because I wasn't there for that!" Anny drew all our gazes back towards him - his knowing grin told us that he already knew the answer. This just confused me further... Before my eyes went wide. Anny grinned wider when he spotted the bewilderment on my face, and that combined with another quick search through my memories told me I'd found the right answer.
"... Oh my god it was Fortune Manor." The words tumbled out of my mouth, and Anny nodded excitedly. He gestured to me with one hand while he looked to Lexi and Xander, indicating that I was right on the money.
"Wait wait wait, no, that can't-..." Lexi shook her head and started to refute, before she glanced to the side. Her eyes widened some, and she looked back to Xander, who slowly shrugged his shoulders and shook his own head. Lexi's jaw hung open for a moment before she finally managed to get sound out, "You mean to tell me that we haven't all been face to face once in the ENTIRE TIME we've been on this Undertale acid trip?!"
"It would appear so..." Xander spoke quietly, shifting his stare to the sand at our feet. He took his cigarette between his fingers and pulled it a few inches away from his face, exhaling a grey fog stream and shaking his head lightly. Then, he set his cigarette back between his lips and lifted his head, glancing over his shoulder back to the bubbling lava lake behind him. "How about for our next reunion we just do lunch? Preferably on neutral ground."
"Is that why ya tried to kill me in DoubleScramble?" I snerked, arching a brow at Xander as he turned around to face that vibrating Lake Of Fire. Lexi and Anny turned their bodies towards the rising waters of that molten lake too, it was looking like the reprieve Xander had earned us was approaching its end. Still I laughed, "You were worried I'd bust your house again?"
"Look around you! Were my worries really unfounded?" Xander squinted his eyes back at me irritably while he gestured to the wasteland that was an entire empire just this morning. His confession made me laugh harder and got a good chuckle out of Lexi and Anthony too. We might have felt bad about Xander's devastated property, if he hadn't spent the better part of three years being a pain in one, two, or all of our asses. He didn't seem overly bothered by the amusement we derived from his comeuppance however, fighting a small smirk while he shook his head. Had it really been over three years since the last time we all shared a laugh?
Regardless, the time for laughs was quickly coming to an end. Dead ahead of us, a skull was lifting out of the bubbling magma. Lava streamed and dripped off of Errorphim's divine body as he gradually walked out of the Lake Of Fire Xander had tried to drown him in. First the top of his head, then those furious multicolored eyes. The rest of his head and neck, his shoulders, his upper body and all six pairs of his wings... Glowing white with heat that would have melted all but him, Errorphim planted one foot on the sands and immediately turned it to glass with his touch. His arms hung limp with his wings to let that lava run off of him, and through his gritting teeth he exhaled white hot steam before he growled. "Xander The Gatherer... You should have stayed dead."
"Ah, Errorphim! I'm glad you survived - there was something else I wanted to say to you." Unfazed by the threat of a mad god, Xander Fortune smirked with that cigarette between his teeth. Leaning his weight more onto one leg and resting his hand in his pocket, Xander once again took his cancer stick between his index and middle fingers and pulled it away from his mouth. He breathed that stream of toxic fog, and then he continued at his leisure. "See, that thing you said about this reality being yours? That was wrong too."
"Keep digging that grave." Errorphim encouraged, despite the frown on his face and the wrathful glare he gave his creator. If I had to guess, he was tired of playing with us now. But, that was fine. We were together now, we were ready for him. His skeletal hands curled into fists, and behind him his wings spread wide, flicking droplets of lava back onto the lake he'd clawed his way out of.
"This reality? It's not yours, Errorphim. Never was and never will be. This reality... " Xander happily obliged Errorphim's request, tilting his head some with that cigarette still between his fingers. To his left brandishing her scythe was our thief and our assassin, The Predator. To his right, holding tight the crowbar he inherited from the man that had destroyed Xander's lineage, was our enforcer and our boogeyman, The Anarchist. Behind him, I spread my wings wide and floated higher so that I could get a better view as our all seeing eye, The Hacker. And at the center of our group, placing his cigarette back between his teeth and smiling a perfectly imperfect smile was our leader and our mouth piece, The Gatherer.
"Belongs to The Fortune City Four."
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