Wow, TvTropes has me in the fanfic recommendations. I honestly didn't think I would get that in less than 10 chapters, but cool. Because it says that it has crossover elements of The Gamer, I did forget to mention that I was also inspired by The Gamer first. Hopefully we can get a full TVTropes page. Here we go.
Also, side note. It's been a crazy summer with everything that's been happening.
"Shouldn't we be doing something about this?"
"I don't think we can. At this point the crown is acting like a supercomputer, and whatever the boss did just activated some sort of firewall protection. If we try to force the issue, it will just lock us out."
"We can't even pull them out as that could end up with their minds trapped inside the crown while their real bodies can become lifeless vessels."
"In short, the boss and his friends are left to deal with this problem themselves. We can only hope that they can handle the situation."
Jake paced back and forth as he heard the news from the businessmen. After returning from the City of Thieves with Penny when it was becoming sundown, he had at least expected them to be done with the crown. To be back and to see the businessmen not in a calm expression, but rather come to a realization that was best akin to something of panic-worthy is what truly set off the alarm bells in the magic dog's head. And it certainly didn't help when they explained the reason for their agitation.
"This isn't good." Jake muttered, the feeling of helplessness washing over him. It was bad enough that he could not only lose two of his friends (he was still iffy on Marceline being a "friend"), but he might also lose his brother in all but blood as well would have been too much for him to handle. Despite his usually carefree live and let live attitude, the thought of anything actually capable of tearing his family apart would set him on edge. He wouldn't know what he would do if someone had threatened Finn, Lady Rainicorn, or (now recently) Penny.
The diminutive thief in question had realized the dog's plight and began rubbing his back in circles.
"Hey, don't worry about him. Finn's tougher than he seems." Penny said in an effort to calm Jake down. It only made him slightly more agitated at the seemingly abrasive attitude.
"Why shouldn't I? I've been with Finn my entire life and I can't do anything to help him. He's stuck in there and we can't do anything!"
"You're right, but Finn's more resilient than he seems. I mean just a few days ago, he explored the Dungeon of the Crystal Eye with me. We all thought that going in there would be suicide, and yet he managed to pull through. I may not have known him for as long as you, but he always seems to have something up his sleeve. Right now, we can only trust him with having a way out of this.
That seemed to get the anthropomorphic canine to calm down, his fur smoothing out after her words. He soon let out an uneasy breath, but at least was more level headed.
"Right, right… Finn's been training for things like this. We need to trust him enough to get through this with PB and Marceline." Jake sighed. "We need to put our trust in them."
And yet, both Penny and Jake couldn't help but take a glance at the crown suspended in the tube with a hint of worry and concern.
'I just hope you know what you're doing, Finn.' the duo thought. 'Because even by our own adventures, this is basically jumping the shark.'
No plan survives first contact with the enemy.
How had that simple notion somehow escaped Finn's mind when he was coming up with the plan to fix the crown? Could probably be chalked up to having the Glasses of Nerdicon on his side, but not everything could be accounted for on the fact that if he wasn't hyperfocused on one specific thing, then he'd go insane, which probably should have tipped him off in the first place.
Go inside the Crown. Fix the Crown. Bring Simon back.
Really, it was the plan boiled down to. It was a simple three-step process. If asked where it had gone wrong, Finn would have said, between dodging and parrying and shooting off magic spells, that it was at stage two. Afterall, no one expected an A.I. version of Evergreen to pop into existence and start giving chase. He would have used his Demon Blood sword, but being digitized inside the crown only gave him the clothes on his back and nothing else.
So how did one go about fighting an elemental?
Using their own element was out of the question as that would do absolutely nothing. Even the Ice King couldn't do much against Patience St. Pim's ice capsule (which, now that he thought about it he really should have brought her to help, but that was neither here nor there). Not to mention that there wasn't any Lumpy Space in the crown to nullify the element itself as that would have been the best option. The only next option was to use fire magic, which was probably for the best as it would help negate the cold around him and prevent any frostbite from building up on him. He remembered the fight between Flame Princess and Ice King and noted just how evenly matched they were, with their battle ending in Flame Princess' favor. He also made a mental note to make sure that fight never happens again in the future.
Back to the fight, the only flame spell that he knew was Blazing Feet, which involved getting up close and personal. Sleep was just about useless that only affected a normal target, not an actively running AI. He wasn't fighting a version of Ice King, who was already a powerful force, but is mostly harmless in nature. Instead, Finn was fighting a version of Evergreen, meaning he had to fight an elemental that's stronger than the crown itself. Add to the fact that it had the crown on, and it was clear that this fight was not going to be easy. Fortunately, it was a crazed version of Evergreen, meaning that this version of Evergreen didn't try to use any hand signs for an elaborate magic spell or anything like that. Thanks to Gunther's view of Evergreen, all this version threw magic around like it was trying to boss people around, and for the most part that was what it was doing. Too bad even though it was as agile as a bus, it still hit him like a bus.
Finn Mertins
HP: 400/1000
"Warning! Sustained damage to your hologram body will cause you to destabilize and be pushed back into the real world!"
There was also that as he had to dodge another oncoming volley of ice spikes. Narrowly avoiding getting his face stabbed through, Finn formed a magic shield to intercept getting grabbed. Despite not being real, each hit that landed on the hero reminded him of the time that Deer broke both his legs in both the tibias, fibulas and femurs. Suffice to say, it hurt.
"Observe!" Finn said as he looked at the crazed holographic elemental. He nearly blanched when he saw the results.
Subject: Urgence Evergreen
Race: A.I.
Title: Ice Elemental
HP: 99800/100000
Only two hundred points of damage on a one hundred thousand health pool. 10 minutes of hit-and-run tactics only did 200 points of damage! This guy wasn't going to go down easy. If only he had others to rely on to fight alongside him. Unfortunately, Marceline was trying to get Simon and Gunther to a safer distance and PB didn't have any weapons on nothing but the clothes on their backs were carried over. The only saving grace about this whole thing was that this Evergreen was fixated on Gunther, only giving him a glancing blow to bat Finn away. However every second that Finn wasn't on Evergreen was every second that this Evergreen would grow closer to the retreating group.
What to do, what to do. His hit-and-run tactic was going to leave him exhausted before he made any significant damage. Going head-to-head was also a bad idea as Evergreen had a nasty tendency to flash freeze everything around him. He was nearly caught in one and despite knowing ice magic to give himself cold resistance, Finn couldn't help but wince at the feeling of being frostbitten by Evergreen's hits.
'Think, Finn. How can I beat this thing? He has a tough defense and a destructive offense, and the home field advantage, but there has to be some weakness. Just need to find it.' Finn thought as he used fire magic to warm his body from the cold. Inspecting the A.I. that was making its way towards Gunther and the others, based on the description that Simon provided for the group during the memory, this Evergreen didn't even look any different from the original Evergreen if Finn was being honest. The only difference would be the crown on its head, being an exact copy of the Ice King's crown. 'Too bad this isn't the Ice King himself. If so, then I could just knock off his crown and…' Finn's eyes widened at that train of thought as realization dawned on him.
"I hope this works." Finn muttered as he formulated a plan as he ran to catch up to it.
"Woah!" Marceline yelped as she narrowly dodged an ice spike railing towards her head. It hurtled towards one of the walls and shattered against it. While there was no damage to the walls, it was easy to tell that that ice spike was sharp and fast enough to penetrate her head had it landed. "This guy's really out for blood." she said, floating faster to avoid the encroaching danger.
"Oh crud, he's gaining on us." Simon said on the undead vampire's back as he saw the AI moved through the maze with such ease.
"Oh geez!" Gunther exclaimed, holding onto Marceline's arm as she carried him away
"I don't mean to intrude, but can you fly a little higher?" Bubblegum said as she clung to Marceline's other arm as she noticed the floor become ice beneath her.
"I'm trying, but I've never carried this many people before!" Marceline strained. Sure, she could turn bigger to make the carrying less difficult, except that would make her a bigger target easier to hit. And that AI was scarily close to blowing her head off. "Where's Finn with his idea to stop this thing? This guy's gaining on our tail."
"Somebody called my name?"
That was all the warning everyone had before the group saw Finn leap over one of the crown's walls and struck the AI program with both feet in a mid air dropkick. The AI construct even seemed to widen its eyes at the sheer audacity before feeling the contact on its head. Then, despite being an AI and thus lacking any physical nervous system, it registered immense pain.
What came out of its mouth was something akin to a groan as its advancement was ground to a halt and surprisingly enough, sent back a few feet from its charge. As it tried to get back up, Finn turned his right hand into a tiger's claw and proceeded to go for a straight jab to the AI's temple with enough force to knock the construct into one of the crown's many labyrinth walls. The cyber Evergreen was dazed from the quick attacks. This gave Finn the opportunity to look at the rest of the group, or more specifically, Marceline.
"Go now!"
That seemed to jolt her out of it as she transformed into a giant bat and, now with the added benefit of increased strength, grasped the three others in the group and placed them on her back. Spreading her wings, she took off at a much faster and easier pace. Seeing this, Finn sighed in relief as he looked at the recovering construct.
Subject: Urgence Evergreen
Race: A.I.
Title: Ice Elemental
HP: 90000/100000
The young hero smirked at that. "So you're weak to blows to the head. Should have been obvious, really."
If the Ice King loses his powers whenever he loses the crown, then there should have been a similar reaction to whenever the crown was knocked off. So it should have stood to reason that the same should apply to this guy.
"Alright then, catch me if you can." the young hero said as he stuck out his tongue and ran, notably in the opposite direction of the group.
The AI comprehended the events that just occurred in seeing the human flee: away from its target. With that, it made a move towards its prime target.
However, before it could start to gain momentum, it also processed what had happened as it was chasing its target before. Being a carbon copy of Evergreen's mind, it began to think about something other than its target. More specifically, the kid that hit him.
"GUNTHER, NO!"
That insignificant brat surprised it.
"Gunther, no!"
He had the audacity to hurt it.
"Gunther, no."
He had the audacity to taunt it.
"Gunther, no..."
It was satisfying watching him squirm as he tried to hurt it before, but this time was different.
"…"
The incompetent brat was now actually starting to hurt. It could ignore him and go about continuing his objective.
"Sig… rat…"
He couldn't let that go unanswered.
"Insignificant brat…"
Besides, it already knows where its target is.
"Insignificant brat."
Time to teach this brat a lesson
"INSIGNIFICANT BRAT!"
With a speed it didn't display before, the AI ran in the opposite direction of its target like a bat out of the Nightosphere. Moving through the labyrinthian walls with ease, the construct was quickly catching up with his new target. Turn after turn, it wasn't long before it caught up to Finn, who was currently standing with his hands glowing as they were clasped together. The moment the two locked eyes, Finn, pushed his hands outward as he released his Ultimate Magical Hand.
The construct's eyes widened again as it was grabbed and hoisted into the air. Before it could retaliate and fight back, its sense of vertigo was changed as it was now facing downward. It also noticed that the ground was getting closer at a fast rate.
CRASH!
Momentarily stunned, pain registered throughout its body as it felt its crown bash into the ground at such high speed. The pain quickly subsided and was now replaced with newly found rage. With a pulse of magical energy, the AI flashfroze the area surrounding him, including the hand that was grasping it. Seeing the ice crawl towards him, Finn dispelled his Ultimate Magical Hand before the ice could reach him. Evergreen wasn't finished as it stomped on the ground causing ice to grow at a rapid pace towards the hero.
Trying something different, Finn had decided to use his wings to gain some distance. Like the swift, hard-hitting fighter he was, Finn was making use of his enhanced body to try and avoid the ice while trying to land headshots at the AI. Finn's body had been stronger and faster thanks to his training in both physical and magical aspects, so he was going to need to use them both to his advantage. Looking back into the fight so far, Evergreen would flash freeze everything around him whenever someone had attacked him, but it wasn't every time he did it. In fact, Finn could recall giving him a good two to three hits before the AI did it again.
'Either it's timed or he needs time to recharge before doing it again. Either way, he can't use it rapidly. I can use this.
Using his Vorpal sword hand, he deflected the ice spikes hurtling towards him in an attempt to stop him from going rushing towards Evergreen. As expected, Finn rushed into Evergreen's range, but it didn't go off, allowing him to ram his sword into and through Evergreen's exposed abdomen!
Subject: Urgence Evergreen
Race: A.I.
Title: Ice Elemental
HP: 60500/100000
"GRAAAH!" the AI yelled an unholy roar as its health had been reduced to less than 3 quarters of its health. Lifting his arms, it intended to smash Finn that was still in front of it. The young hero saw this, dissipated his sword hand and moved out of the way before its fists hit the ground, causing a shockwave of ice to form around Evergreen. Finn barely avoided getting frozen by it.
"Okay, that's new." he said, on edge at the new development. 'If only I got his head instead of his stomach, the fight would have been over. I need to train more on flying accurately.' he thought before seeing Evergreen do something that made him widen his eyes. Evergreen's fists glowed with magical energy, the air itself glimmered around the AI as ice shards manifested. The frozen air floated around it, almost like an ice explosion that was frozen in time. Needless to say, it put Finn on edge. "And that's not good."
With a literal cold look, Evergreen moved his hands and fired an ice beam. However, confusingly enough, those ice beams weren't aimed at Finn himself, but rather at one of the floating shards of ice. That confusion turned to alarm when that beam of cryonic energy reflected on the frozen sheets of air. The reflected beam hit another frozen sheet of air, and then another, and it kept going. Reflecting and reflecting in bizarre patterns that made Finn lose track of its point of trajectory.
That is until he saw it heading towards him.
With barely a second to react, Finn reflected the spell out of the way, but it was cold enough that it felt the frostbite on his fingers. Note to self: don't do that again, unless there's cryo immunity.
Finn Mertins
HP: 375/1000
"Warning! Sustained damage to your hologram body will cause you to destabilize and be pushed back into the real world!"
"Sonnova…" Finn muttered before his eyes widened as he saw Evergreen fired again at another chunk of floating ice. Like a snowflake, the pattern wasn't the same, but Finn had already activated his Dragon Eyes to keep up with it and moved out of the way in time. Seeing that, Evergreen decided to go for multiple ice beam projectiles, ricocheting off of the glittering ice shards in multiple directions. Each beam came at Finn one after another in a seemingly random pattern. Using his agility, he dodged some beams, backstepped others, ducked when one came for his head, and rolled out of the way when three of them aimed from different frontal directions at the spot he was previously standing in.
"This guy's not giving me time to recover. If only there was a way to distract blind it." Finn said as he observed the next pattern of attack. Thanks to his Dragon Eyes, it felt like time had slowed down, allowing Finn to keep track of it. Without it he would have been too fast to catch sight of it. Even still, from the multiple projectiles coming at him, it was like trying to keep track of every fly that is swarming you. Looking back at it the first time, it kind of reminded Finn of something. The pattern was erratic, spontaneous. And the sound it made whenever reflected on something was like a sharp crack almost like…
"That's it!" Finn's eyes widened in realization as he dodged another reflected ice beam. As soon as it passed him, the young hero moved his hands and shot out colorful sparks that made loud hissing sounds as it raced towards Evergreen. The AI saw this and motioned for the floating ice shards to block them. Finn grinned when he did so and charged up his Blazing Feet while recasting his Beauteous Wings.
As expected, the ice shards blocked the hissing colorful streams and went to focus on his target, not being bothered by the ones that avoided it entirely. What the AI didn't expect though was for those streams to suddenly explode in bright and deafening booms. White flashes danced around the AI's vision as it tried to regain focus and find its target. It didn't help that the light was being refracted back at it due to the floating ice shards, making it even more brightening. The loud booms and bangs made it impossible to follow the target's sound and it felt the stinging sensation of the heat the fireworks made.
Simply put, too many things were happening for it to make heads or tails of the situation. A situation that Finn took advantage of.
"HEEYAH!" The young hero moved with the swift speed again towards Evergreen. Thanks to his Blazing Feet, each step that touched the ground gave him a smaller boost of speed, increasing until he moved with breakneck speed until he was only a few meters from Evergreen. Then he jumped up, going for a long jump. Then, he maneuvered his body to jump kick his opponent square in its jaw. The flaming feet connecting with the AI Ice Elemental still had the same effect as if a snow golem came in contact with a fire wolf.
Subject: Urgence Evergreen
Race: A.I.
Title: Ice Elemental
HP: 45000/100000
"GRAH!" AI Evergreen shouted in pain as it fell, giving Finn enough time to gain some distance. Twisting and turning through the various labyrinth's walls, Finn decided to sit down and use some of his magic to heal himself. It wasn't as effective as using Cyclops Tears, but it was better than nothing, he supposed. Every moment Evergreen had of getting back up was another moment Finn could rest.
Finn Mertins
HP: 500/1000
Sighing in relief, the young hero got up and began running in a various direction, so long as it was to keep away from an undoubtedly pissed off Evergreen. He was right to do so as only a moment later, the area he was resting in was bombarded with ice spikes. The very ticked off AI followed soon after. The burn mark on its face indicated its sustained damage, but that did very little to mitigate the apoplectic rage displayed on its face.
"YOU INSIGNIFICANT BRAT! I'LL TURN YOU INTO A FLASH-FROZEN CORPSE!" the AI said, now showing a significant boost in its choice of vernacular.
'Welp, time to bail.' with that thought, Finn fled in another myriad of directions before Evergreen's ice overwhelmed him. This was proving to be more dangerous than he thought. The more damage he did to Evergreen, the more unpredictable the AI became, even making coherent sentences now instead of just a phrase it says at random. The fragments of frozen ice were now spinning around it, occasionally some of them shooting off towards Finn at the speed of a bullet. Using the crown's walls, he dodged the attacks and used it as cover to gain distance. Unfortunately, this time, Evergreen was faster, its attacks more complex and hitting harder. Some of those attacks even got a lucky hit on him, making him grit his teeth as he endured the pain.
Finn Mertins
HP: 250/1000
"Warning! Sustained damage to your hologram body will cause you to destabilize and be pushed back into the real world!"
"Damn it." Finn swore as he felt his health deplete again. He was thankful that he recovered some health otherwise, he would have been knocked out of the simulation. Concentrating on just running for now, he didn't notice when an ice blast hit him in the back. "GAH!" he screamed as he fell and rolled on the ground before slamming into the wall in front of him. His body splayed out as he tried to sit back up.
HP: 50/1000
"Warning! Critical damage sustained to your hologram body! Heal now or risk being ejected!"
"I think that's too late…" Finn muttered to the screen in front of him. In his vision, he saw Evergreen, slowly walking towards him.
"Insignificant brat, you've been a thorn in my side. Getting in the way of my plan, trying to stop me, telling me what I should and shouldn't do! YOU THINK YOU KNOW BETTER THAN ME!?" Each word it said carried more and more weight of anger until the AI was screaming in rage at the battered human. Finn wondered why, then came to the realization that it must be because that would be what the real Evergreen would do. Now if only he wasn't in an aching mess. The AI sighed as it stared at the human. "Doesn't matter now. My objective is nearly in my grasp and soon everything will go back to normal. Just as soon as I punish that incompetent dinosaur for his insubordination. He honestly believed that he could be taught magic. How preposterous!" it scoffed as it raised its fist as blue cryokinetic energy pulsated on its hand. Finn felt anger at such cruel undertones towards someone he considered a friend.
"You can talk now. I'm surprised. Here I thought you would only devolve into using single phrases the more I beat your head in." Finn said. "But you know, Gunther is a lot more adept at magic than you'd think." That alone nearly got Finn's head taken off as Evergreen punched the wall next to his head. Oddly enough, Finn didn't have to move out of the way as it was the Evergreen AI itself that punched the wall in a show of intimidation. In spite of that, Finn didn't back down. "You call him incompetent at magic, but you never even once tried to teach him, you just used him as a pack mule."
Evergreen looked at him with disdain, but Finn kept going on. "I won't lie, you are a great wizard, and maybe your plan could have worked." That made Evergreen's eyes widen. "The crown itself is a testament to your greatest achievement. However, because of your overreliance on your abilities, it made you blind to the fact that your plan might not work; that something can go wrong. You were so wrapped up in your plan and potential victory, you never spent time thinking about if you failed and what the consequences would be. Well news flash: you failed and your consequences for failure are not only entire lifetimes worth of people who have had to suffer for your mistake, but also an untold amount of people who were affected by those whose lives were destroyed."
"Enough of this drivel." Evergreen snorted before he manifested an ice column, where on the end facing Finn was sharpened to a sharp spike. "You are just a foreign entity in this realm. Once I'm done with you, I'll deal with the other foreign entities and then everything will be back to normal. Now begone with you!"
Finn for all intents and purposes, despite knowing that he would wake up back in the waking world, still closed his eyes as the ice spike rushed towards him.
*BAM!*
One second. Now two. Then three.
After 5 seconds, Finn slowly opened his eyes as he still hadn't registered the pain of getting one's head splattered against the wall. Upon the image of the ice spike not actually hitting him, but rather a few inches next to his head, he turned to see why Evergreen missed.
"Oh…" Finn could only say as Evergreen's head and body had snapped in one direction, as if he had been suckerpunched in the jaw. Upon activating his Dragon Eyes, he could see why.
"What the?!" the AI expressed in shock as nothing had somehow hit him with enough force to nearly knock him off balance. It tried to swipe at the physical force that had hit him, only to hit nothing but air. Soon that same air had hit him in the back of the head with enough force to topple it over on the ground. Evergreen had about enough of this.
"RRRAAAAAHHHH!" with a bestial roar, everything with a few meters had instantly become a flash frozen icy landscape. Finn was luckily just outside of the range of the blast. However, what had been hitting Evergreen wasn't so lucky.
"AAGH!" Marceline cried out as she felt her legs become frostbitten, too overwhelmed with the sudden pain to keep up her invisibility.
"Well, another pest decides to bother me." Evergreen recovered, standing near the fallen Vampire Demon. "No matter, in the end this just saves me time to get rid of you."
The AI made a move to destroy Marceline only to get swept and caught up in a net that was thrown at it. Looking around the Finn, Marceline and Evergreen looked at the culprit.
"Did you think we'd go down without a fight?" Princess Bubblegum said, holding a makeshift net gun. The fact that she'd been in the midst of reloading it, made it all too possible that she had fired the first net. Evergreen had only managed to freeze the net and get out of it before both Marceline and Finn had recovered just enough to rush in to throw in a quick punch towards its head. The Vampire Demon's natural strength with the young hero's tiger claw enhanced fist impacting the AI's cranium with enough force to knock it back. They both had enough wherewithal to evade before another flash freeze had hit them.
"So Finn, any idea how to beat this guy?" Marceline said, not keeping her eyes off Evergreen.
"Any plan would suffice at this point." the candy royal said.
"So far, just keep hitting him in the head. Most of his body has a high defense except for his head. Kind of like how the Ice King without the Crown."
"Got it." Bubblegum acknowledged before switching towards another weapon, this time being some makeshift repeating crossbow. Finn took notice of it, as well as the small armory of weapons in her makeshift backpack..
"Quick question, how long was I fighting for you to make all those?"
"Since we last saw you going to fight that by yourself: about 10 minutes."
Finn pondered on that. With the added help of PB and Marceline, he could now wait for the perfect timing to strike.
"Can you two buy me an extra 3 minutes? There's this one move that I think could work." Finn said.
"You think?" Marceline raised an eyebrow.
"We can't do hit and run as that would take too long, and we can't stay close to him thanks to his ice powers. I've been thinking of finishing this with one move I've been developing. At the moment, I need to concentrate in order to use it, but I might end this fight if you can keep him busy long enough for me to pull it off." Finn said with a serious tone. Seeing Evergreen get back up to stare at them set them on edge.
Subject: Urgence Evergreen
Race: A.I.
Title: Ice Elemental
HP: 30000/100000
"You sure you can pull it off?" Princess Bubblegum said as she readied her weapon.
"When I'm ready, pull back so I can hit him." Finn responded with confidence.
That was all that needed to be said as the group avoided a blast of ice hurtling towards them. Evergreen was now focused on all three targets. Two of said targets moved forward to intercept.
"So, Bonnie, any bright ideas to keep this thing distracted? I can't exactly touch this guy without being turned into an ice statue." the undead vampire said, wishing that she could use her battle-axe bass right now. As if hearing her thoughts, Bubblegum tossed her a handmade one, causing her to raise an eyebrow at the candy royal.
"It's not as good as your own, but we only need to buy time. So distraction and attention grabbing. Think you can do that?" Bubblegum said. Marceline only rolled her eyes playfully.
"Please, who do you think you're talking to?" she teased before flying around the ice elemental, garnering its attention. It raised its hand throwing a few ice projectiles floating around him towards Marceline. The demon-vampire moved out of the way before any of them could reach her. So invested in attacking this intruder, the AI didn't notice when Princess Bubblegum got on top of the labyrinthian walls and began firing her repeating crossbow. A volley of ten bolt arrows flew, most of them managing to only ping off the remaining crystalized air, but a few managed to actually land true to target, if only to ding off its body. Sensing the irritation, it moved its other arm towards the offender, blasting ice beams and frozen air projectiles at her. The candy royal had just enough time to start sprinting out of the way before the spot she was previously occupying was coated in ice. Even while on the move, she continued firing bolts from her crossbow, albeit less accurate than before. It still proved as a suitable distraction as Evergreen now decided to put more attention on Chatsberry's reincarnation. Even in a new form, that blasted Candy Elemental still refused to see it his way.
Marceline saw the opportunity arise and take a chance. Turning invisible yet again, she threw her makeshift battle-axe like a tomahawk. Unlike the bolts from Bubblegum's crossbow, the battle-axe had more weight and, given the undead demon's strength, speed to it. Despite being intercepted by a floating piece of ice, the frozen air broke on impact, allowing the battle-axe to fly true and strike its target in the side, causing it to stumble. Such a momentary distraction was enough to stop the AI from continuing its attacks. In the instant that it was staggered, Marceline blitzed towards it, still invisible while morphing her hand into sharp claws. She knew that Finn had a plan, but if she could take out this thing, then she was going to take it. Aiming for the neck, she went to behead the AI.
"GRGHK!"
A blow reached its intended target, causing the victim to stagger in their tracks.
"Did you think I wouldn't know where you are because you turned invisible?" Unfortunately, the only blow that was struck was Evergreen throwing an ice-hard punch to Marceline's throat, causing her to cough out as she no longer became invisible. Before she could move out of the way, the artificial intelligence had grabbed her by the throat and hoisted her up until she was dangling in its grasp. "I'll admit that I was caught off-guard the first time, but I can sense temperature changes around me, and thus, I can sense creatures that give off a heat signature… or lack thereof."
"MARCY/MARCELINE!
The demon vampire hybrid had managed to pick up on the concerned shouts of Finn and Princess Bubblegum. The young hero wanted to move, but a look from Marcy said everything: Don't waste your chance. Finn stayed in place as he nearly let his anger for his friend's pain cost him his one chance at stopping Evergreen. For now he had to keep a cool head, even as Princess Bubblegum tried to help her friend.
Unfortunately, it was proven for naught as an ice projectile hit her in the face faster than she could perceive it. It was a good thing she was made of candy as well as being a digital construct at the moment, or else the force of the hit would have caved in her skull in. Nonetheless, the pain still registered, causing her to groan as she dropped her weapon.
"PRINCESS!" Finn yelled, his concern turning into rage as he saw someone else he held close to his heart in pain. That rage spiked as he heard Evergreen laughing.
"Looks like in the end, it was all for naught, you insignificant brat." the AI said cruelly as he finally looked at Finn. "Did you really think you had an edge over me? I'll admit, bringing an undead demon with Chatsberry's reincarnated form did put me on edge, but it seems it was all for naught. For one, this creature…" It held Marceline up just a bit higher to indicate who it was talking about, "while I can see the resemblance, she's nothing like Hunson Abadeer; no brutality." That caused Finn and more importantly Marceline's eyes to widen in shock. "The same could go for Chatsberry's reincarnated form. Her elemental powers haven't even been unlocked yet. How pathetic." Without warning, the AI then threw Marceline at Princess Bubblegum, causing them to become entangled as the Candy royal fell to the ground, before they could get up though, they were both blasted with enough ice to encase both of them, their heads being the only thing free to move. "Well that takes care of those weaklings. Now to deal with the main thorn in my side so far."
Anger…
It tenses the muscles and sends energy coursing through them. It was always Finn's way of fighting through most monsters, giving him enough adrenaline and power to fight. His anger could be akin to a fiery volcano, ready to go off at a moment's notice. It was how he succumbed to the Fire Elementals influence, being consumed by rage. He kept thinking to himself, 'How can he store and release his energy like this?"
"Now then, how about we put an end to this farce? Or are you still going to try and put up your meager resistance?"
…At Marceline's knowing look, Finn had to immediately cool his head. He didn't force his anger to dissipate. He locked it away deep inside and sealed it there. He knew that the time to spring into action was and that his anger would give him the mimum outburst needed to fuel his attack. He didn't know how much energy his anger would give to his magic, so that's why he asked Marceline and Bubblegum to stall for time. Every second containing his rage at his true target was just a little more power being added. His blue eyes glowed with magical energy as he got into a specific stance as if to draw a sword. Something that Evergreen took notice of.
"So you still choose to fight. For what, the two women I just bested? Or is it for the people of this realm? For Gunther and Simon? You can all come on out, I know you're there!"
Slowly, shuffling could be heard as the other villagers came out of hiding. All of them sported a look of fear as they witnessed Evergreen defeat Marceline and Princess Bubblegum with ease. The only one with a hit of anger was Simon as he couldn't do anything as he saw someone he considered a daughter in such a bad state.
"Heh, look at all of you. You think that this brat is going to liberate you? Only one of you still have a body to go back to, and even that won't last long without my magic. The rest of you will be gone, no longer alive. Your bodies have been turned to dust long ago while your soul is either in a dead world or reincarnated tens of thousands of times over. Freedom here would only mean death. Is that what you really want?" the AI said maliciously. The residents in the crown shuffled as they all looked towards each other. While they all wanted to escape from this place, the hope of such had been so infinitesimal, that they all gave up on the idea. At least, that's what most of them thought.
*Thud!*
A wooden stick had bounced off his body, not even dealing damage, but still getting Evergreen's attention to its attacker.
"I would rather die a million more times than stay in this hell!" Simon yelled. "It's because of this crown that we were all forced to live here with no way out. How many of us wished to die, but couldn't in this nigh-endless nightmare? How many of us had tried to escape, only to give up? How many lives have been ruined and destroyed simply because of the act of putting on the crown? Who among us has left someone behind because of it!? Ho-grk!"
That was all Simon got out before Evergreen fired an ice beam at the antiquarian, hitting him in the mouth and silencing him.
"PROFESSOR!" Gunther yelled in concern, reaching out to him, only to stop as a beam of ice nearly turned him into a statue.
"You stay right there cretin! You are the reason why my plan failed! And you wondered why I never taught you magic!" Evergreen raged in recognition of the dinosaur.
The therapod hesitated, but unlike the last time he was with his master, this time he stood firm and muttering something that was almost imperceptible."
"Shut… up…" it was still loud enough for the AI to pick up on though.
"What…?" Evergreen rasped as its hands glowed with even more power.
"SHUT UP! I always looked up to you and did everything for you and helped you with everything. All I wanted in return was to learn magic from you. I know I wasn't the best at doing things, but I at least gave it my all. All you ever did in return was berate me and boss me around while throwing magic around. You may be smart, but you're also an arrogant jerk!"
"SILENCE WORM!" Evergreen said as he blasted ice beams towards the crowd, some of them getting caught and getting frozen. "You have no right to talk to me like that! I made you the way you are and that alone should be reason enough for you to never question me. What gives you the right to say otherwise?"
Gunther, who was one of the residents caught in by the ice beams, could only shiver as he tried to defiantly raise his head. However, what confused Evergreen wasn't the fact that the dinosaur was raising his head to see it. Afterall, despite most of his body being frozen, he could still move his neck and one of his arms. No, what confused Evergreen was the defiant smirk on Gunther's face.
"Just one thing: Zap!" Gunther said, as he successfully launched a bolt of lighting to shoot from his fingertips. However, despite the successful spell casting, Gunther was still a beginner in comparison to the spells that Evergreen threw around. Thus, while only weakly hitting Evergreen, causing the AI to widen its eyes as it backed up on instinct. "Now, Finn!"
Evergreen didn't have a chance to retaliate against the dinosaur, it had to now focused its attention back on the last of the foreign entities in the crown.
However, just as soon as the AI did so, Finn, for lack of a better term, exploded.
Like a volcano that erupted, Finn used every bit of his energy to rush forth, his face contorted in something akin to apoplectic rage, his face red as veins bulge out on his forehead. The only sound that was heard was his Blazing Feet roaring as it propelled him forward. Before Evergreen could retaliate, Finn was already blitzed towards and past the AI, and outside of its flash freeze range.
Evergreen could only blink as Finn moved like a rocket but seemingly missed his target. Then he stood straight and exhaled an intense heat-filled breath. His right hand, which had become a vorpal sword during it all, had also shrunk back to normal. Evergreen, despite all this, only scoffed at the seeming show of bravado.
"After all that, you still missed? Now that's disappointing."
"Oh, I hit you, I got that part down, but you still saw even after three minutes of prepping." Finn nonchalantly said, all his anger seemingly no longer existent from his body.
"What?" Evergreen said, confused. Finn almost chuckled at how flat it sounded, reminding him of how the Ice King sounded when he first did it.
"I guess it would make sense, I've been training on the swing of the sword, but not my body's movement speed. So I needed to improvise."
Before Evergreen could so much as raise an eyebrow, it felt pain. Its eyes move upward to register a slash. Confusingly even more so was the fact that the pain kept going downward.
"It seems like I was only capable of getting the first part down, but I guess I'm not fast enough for my blade to remove all wind resistance for my entire body."
The slash went down from its face to chest and stomach, then finally groin.
"But still, it's a good warmup. It's not the Shadowless Thrust…"
For the first time in Evergreen's conscious thoughts, it came to one thing. 'This insignificant brat…'
*SLASH!*
That was its last thought as the AI was nearly vertically bisected.
Subject: Urgence Evergreen
Race: A.I.
Title: Ice Elemental
HP: 0/100000
Finn smirked as he saw the status screen
"…so how about the Rocket Thrust."
The residents of the crown could only gape in awe, speechless.
They just saw Evergreen, a symbol of fear and control throughout them all, a peerless individual in stature, fall in defeat.
"He did it!"
It seems like not everyone in the crowd was speechless.
Gunther, who had slowly gotten himself out of the ice encasing part of him, managed to break free and run towards Finn. That managed to get everyone else out of their stupor and began clamoring to each other. Some even provided aid to the trio that stopped Evergreen.
The young hero in question had begun exhaling in exhaustion. He had faced off against an opponent far stronger than himself. While he had done something like this multiple times in his past life, this new body was still getting used to something like this. Still though, it felt good to take on such a threat to him and his friends.
'We did it… I won! We won!' Finn shouted in his mind, glad that the battle was finally over. However, it was still too soon to celebrate victory after such a pitched battle.
Victory will only happen after he and his group achieved their real objective.
"Alright… need to get up…" Finn huffed between breaths as his impromptu move had left him more physically tbattle-axeed than ever before. "Need… to see if… PB and Marcy…"
"Don't worry about that now, Finn." the young hero turned to see Simon and Gunther heading up to him. The ice covering the older human's mouth had broken off enough for him to talk again. Seeing the younger human's plight, the antiquarian offered him some assistance, to which he obliged. "I've already got some people working on thawing them out."
Turning his head in the direction of the two, the Candy Princess and Vampire Queen were already halfway thawed out.
"Not ruthless enough… that bastard is lucky I'm nothing like him." Marceline muttered under her breath, trying to break free from the rest of the ice.
"Ugh, swollen area of impact, bruising, and I somehow have a nosebleed. Either that was one mean throw, or I have a skull fracture. Although that shouldn't be possible as my body is malleable." Princess Bubblegum groaned, more than content to let the other people help her out of the ice.
"Hold still you two. Just a few more moments and you'll be free." Sveinn spoke. However, he was still speaking in his foreign language that hasn't been spoken in over a millenia.
"Alright, fine. Whatever." Marceline spoke in his language, surprising him as she huffed.
"Don't mind her. That's just her way of saying thanks." Princess Bubblegum chimed up, also speaking his language.
"It's surprising to know that you two can speak Old Norse." The girls saw the man dressed in red approach them. "I've been the one to help translate languages around here."
"Well, the language is a branch of the Germanic dialect, which I speak. I just studied the other branches and its subdivisions. I've had a long time to practice." Princess Bubblegum said with enthusiasm.
"And I've been traveling the world, exploring different places and fighting monsters. I might have sucked the soul of some evil creature that speaks the language at some point. I think it was called a… Draugr. Anyway…" Marceline's eyes then quite literally sparkled in excitement. "Are you actually-?"
"Oh please, I haven't been called that in a long time and I no longer reside in the real world. Please, call me Saint Nicholas. I no longer use the term "Santa Claus." he waved it off. "Although, it was good to see new faces around here. Even if it's short lived."
"Glad to see everyone getting along…" Finn said as he was hobbling towards them, being held by Simon and Gunther.
"Well, if it isn't the man of the hour." Marceline grinned at him. "Honestly, I'm surprised how you managed to fight that thing for so long. Me and PB barely lasted against that guy for 3 minutes."
"Indeed. That must have been more difficult than anything you've faced." the Candy Royal said.
"Like you wouldn't believe." 'Even Patiences St. Pim wasn't this difficult to deal with. Although it was just her not being as confrontational.' Finn said while keeping his thoughts silent. "Anyway, now that Evergreen is defeated, we need to focus on getting back to the tower. Hopefully, we can now reprogram it or something."
"Unbelievable…"
That everyone's attention as they turned to the source of the sound. Still lying on the ground, Evergreen was looking at seemingly nothing, until it turned its eyes towards Finn's group as they were closest to him. Naturally, all of them were wary. Tired from the drawn out fight, they tried to prepare themselves.
"Don't bother. I'm already defeated. Somehow, I'm more lucid than ever, like waking from a foggy dream." Evergreen said, its artificial body slowly glitching. "To think that my greatest creation ended up causing so much pain. If I hadn't been arrogant and tried to do everything myself, then perhaps things could have been different." The AI then looked towards Gunther. "If I had taught you magic, then things could have been different. Instead, I scorned you for wanting to know and learn more about the world around you. Instead of nurturing that, I was callous and mistreated you."
Gunther looked down at the AI of his former master with sadness.
"I didn't expect this to happen, but since it has, there's nothing I could do other than repent for all that you've been put through." lamented the AI. "If possible, I ask you to try to fix my mistake, won't you?"
"That's why we're here." Finn determinedly said, the candy royal and vampire queen both nodded their heads.
"Then I'll need you to do this…"
After hearing the AI's instructions before it phased out entirely, the group of 5 had begun their trek back towards the tower. However, this time they weren't the only one's going down the path.
"So they really did it, huh Julemanden?" Sveinn muttered to the man in red.
"I knew I had a feeling about those three. Though we may no longer inhabit our own bodies, just knowing that we'll be free from this place is good enough for us." St. Nick whispered to the young boy. All around them, the rest of the crown's inhabitants had also been following the group to the tower. Not too long ago, these people would have been more interested in tending to something else to keep themselves busy, staving off the everpresent boredom after an epoch of staying in this domain. After today though, not a single person was unaccounted for in the march towards the tower. All around two, conversations could be heard.
"This feels so surreal. After all this time, we have a way out of this place."
"Finally, after countless eons, there's a way to escape."
"But won't we be unable to do anything since our bodies are long gone?"
"Eh, honestly, anything is better than staying in this place at this point."
"Honestly, even if we have to stay, to see even one of us make it out is hopeful for any other poor sap that gets stuck here."
"Man, do I wish I knew where to look sooner, then I could go back to my body. Oh well, that's what I get for being too lazy to explore the crown."
Conversations of the like kept popping up, all of them giving off hopeful rhetoric about escaping the crown. None of the conversations leaned more towards idle chit chat. It was impossible to say any were just talking to catch up, as they've all known each other for countless eons. Some were even holding hands as they walked, showing that they had formed relationships.
Honestly, at times the crown would feel more like a close-knit community than a mental prison.
"I honestly don't know how to feel about this." Svienn said. "On one hand, I've made peace with the fact that I wouldn't be able to escape from this place. On the other hand, to see one of us having a chance to get out of here makes me jealous."
"I'm sure that's how most people feel, but I wouldn't think too much about it." Nick countered. "If anything, I have a feeling that they won't just leave us the way we are now."
Svienn could only look at him in bewilderment. That only lasted for a second before giving him and annoyed, yet flat look
"You know, I'm starting to think you like saying cryptic things on purpose."
The man in red chuckled.
Time moved forward that everyone had finally managed to reach Evergreen's tower. For most, it was a sight of wonder and trepidation. After all this time, they've finally reached the destination that had eluded their previous searches. Some had tears streaming down their face, a combination of newfound hope that this place had indeed existed and of remorse for missing out on their chance to escape. However, even though they all couldn't escape, they could still see Simon Petrokov, someone they all thought of as a mentor, off on his way to reclaim his body, something that the antiquarian couldn't help but cry tears of sadness and joy at. They didn't need to go inside, as they felt no need to, but they at least wanted to be there.
Finn and his group had already gotten up the tower and back to the room where they first encountered Evergreen. In the center of the main laboratory was the same pedestal that released the AI of the former Ice Elemental. However, instead of a holographic image of the crown, in its place was some form of holographic console. Princess Bubblegum, immediately recognizing such apparatus, began to look into it. Almost immediately, pages upon pages of binary started coming forth.
"Hmm, odd." the candy royal muttered as he continued reading. "This is all just information about everyone who's ever worn the crown."
"What?" the rest of the group said, stunned. Marceline moved towards it to see what she was talking about.
"Holy crap, it's true." the Vampire-Demon exclaimed.
"Wait a moment, how do you also know?" Princess Bubblegum couldn't help but ask.
"Well I uh…, did learn how to code machines and read binary from when I was younger. I always found it to be boring, though." Marceline confessed, as if it was embarrassing to say.
"Wait a minute, did you learn that from me?" Bubblegum said, a bit shocked about the revelation.
"N-no, it was longer than that. Besides, I never really used it unless I had to." Marceline denied. A little too quickly for everyone to not notice.
"Is that so? What a coincidence. I've used binary when coding my machines. Although, that was around the time I first met you. I guess it's just a random chance." Princess Bubblegum said, although there was a hint of smug and pride in it.
"Sh-shut up!" Marceline indignantly said. Though the blush on her face showed that there was no real animosity towards Bubblegum.
"Those two get along quite nicely." Simon pondered with a fond smile. Even Gunther couldn't help but giggle at it. Finn couldn't help but roll his eyes at the banter with a small smile before getting the duo to focus.
"So what does the information say exactly about the users?" Finn asked, causing the women of the group to remember what they were looking at.
"Right. Let's see…" with that, the female duo began looking through the various lines of code. "All of this is information regarding the users, their memories and personalities. Skipping all that…" PB muttered before continuing. "Oh wait a minute, I think I got something."
Picking out a few lines of code, the princess used a display to show it to everyone else. "This says here that there is a function to gain control. I'm assuming that it means allowing someone to regain their senses and body back. And then there's this mind transference thing that does exactly what you think it does and then some."
"What do you mean by that?" Finn asked.
"Well, it says here that there is a spell to use to transfer an aspect of someone's personality construct and send it into someone else, such as madness." PB added.
"Wait, you mean that there was a way for Simon to retain his sanity?" Marceline said, shocked by the revelation.
"But at the cost of someone else's sanity, correct?" Simon hypothesized when hearing the explanation. When he saw PB nod, he could only sigh. "Figures as much. If that's the case, then I'm glad I never tried to do it before. To put someone else through that, I could never live with myself if that person ended up doing something they would never do normally."
"Is there anything else besides that?"
"Well if I'm reading this correctly, then it could also transfer minds from the crown into something else."
"You think we can transfer everyone else to like, different robot bodies?" Finn asked, making PB blink. "It's just that these people have been here for so long, they deserve to have a second chance, even if they are digital constructs trapped in the crown."
"Hmm… it may take me some time, considering the amount of people here, but I think I could do it. I would need something on the outside to transfer their digital constructs to a thumb drive or something."
No sooner did she say that did a slot open to the side of the terminal, catching everyone's attention.
"What the—?" Marceline cocked her head to the side.
"Oh right, the businessmen were also watching us." Finn mused.
"Wait, who?" Gunther and Simon asked simultaneously.
"They're the ones outside the crown that have been helping us." Finn explained before turning to PB. "I think that's your cue to place the previous users in there." The candy royal nodded before turning her attention to the terminal and typed in a command. Soon after, another screen popped up showing a data transference happening.
Outside of Evergreen's tower, the people of the crown village soon began disappearing one by one, as if blinking out of existence. Bright lights would encompass them before they were digitized out of the crown and transferred to the USB. Obviously, none of the previous crown users knew this and began panicking.
"Hohoho…"
Well, most of them were in a panic. Svienn, hearing the sound of laughter amidst the panic, turned to the source with a twitching eye.
"I am really starting to hate you for being right." he said before he too vanished.
"HO HO HO! THAT'S A LIE!" the main in red guffawed before vanishing as well.
"Almost done." PB said as she looked at the screen.
"Well, you two, it won't be long before you find yourself back in the real world. Moreso for you, Simon." Finn said.
"It's been a millennia since I've seen the outside. I'm pretty sure the world has changed a lot since that time."
"Like you wouldn't believe, man. If you need someone to talk to about it all, don't hesitate to talk to me about it, ok." Marceline, being done with the terminal, said as she floated to them.
"I would very much like that, Marcy. I just can't believe that you're all grown up now. You used to be able to ride on my shoulders." Simon said, doting on the Vampire Queen, making her blush.
"Simon, stop! You're embarrassing me!" the millennium old Vampire Queen in question sputtered out, now acting more like a teenager being embarrassed by their dad instead of a powerful being. Gunther giggled again at the antics.
"She's funny." the dinosaur said. Finn turned his attention to him.
"So Gunther, I really am impressed that you got the magic down to use zap. Though, you need to work on your concentration for a bigger impact with spells. How did it feel when you finally did it?"
"At first, I was just trying to go through the motions. But after being frozen by Master Evergreen, for some reason it just clicked. Like I had to focus on what was in front of me." Gunther said seriously. However, it wasn't long before he started giggling like a kid in a candy shop. "That being said: I DID IT! I DID IT I DID IT! I finally was able to learn and use magic! WOOHOO!"
Finn chuckled at the honest reaction. Seeing that the transfer was almost complete, he decided to say one thing.
"Just remember what I taught you until I see you again in a new body. Then I'll teach you all the magic I know, ok."
"For real?" Gunther asked, his eyes growing misty at the thought. Finn just grinned.
"It's a royal promise." he swore, causing Princess Bubblegum to perk up, but didn't comment on it.
Gunther, at a loss for words, just lept towards Finn and hugged him, which the human returned quickly to not lose balance.
"Thank you! I'll look forward to learning more from you, teacher!" the green dinosaur said. Before Finn could respond back, Gunther soon vanished in a bright light. The screen at the terminal showed that the data transfer was complete.
The only digital constructs left in the crown were the four occupants in the tower's laboratory.
"That's everyone except you, Simon." Princess Bubblegum said. "With this, all that's left is to give you master control of your mind again. Afterwards, you should be able to wake back up in the real world."
"Just in case putting on the crown again makes you insane just remember this chant." Finn said before telling Simon a concentration spell. "Remember, keep chanting it as you put on the crown. Got it?"
"Got it."
"Alright. PB, ready when you are."
"And done." the candy royal said as she pressed one last button. Now, another screen popped up showing a reset bar. "There, this should allow the crown to give you self-control once it resets."
"Alright, I guess all that's left is to just wait then." Marceline said before turning back to Simon and hugging him. "It's been nice talking to you, Simon. I really needed to talk to you again."
Simon instantly returned the hug. "And I'm glad that I could see you again after so long, Marcy. And now I owe you so much for doing this for me. I'll finally be able to see the real world with you after so long."
"Please, you don't owe me anything. If anything, I owe you more than anything. Even with the crown messing with your head, you still took me in when I was a little girl and helped me when the world had gone to Nightoshpere in a handbasket." Marceline said, burying her head in the crook of his neck to avoid anyone seeing her allowing herself to cry.
"Language." Simon chastised, but didn't let go of her as he shed a few tears.
Finn and PB only stared at the scene with a smile and let them have their moment as the progress bar was fully reached.
For the second time for the group, the whole room, and for the first time the whole crown, went white.
Getting back to the real world was a hectic experience to say the least. For one, the moment that Finn, Bubblegum, and Marceline removed their VR equipment, Jake didn't hesitate to hug the trio in the heat of the moment, even hugging Marceline without hesitation. Then Penny joined in the hug and it wasn't long before the businessmen decided to join in on it.
The second thing that happened was Simon waking up.
"Ugh, my head… feels like I suffered the worst case of brain freeze ever… of all time." He groggily opened his eyes to adjust to his surroundings. The most surprising thing about him was that his nose was considerably less longer than before, but still protruded from his face, as well as his white shrinking back to shoulder length. He still had blue skin and eyes. He caught sight of the trio that was in the crown of magic and immediately called out to them, the group, noticing the significant change, went to greet him. After getting past the initial questioning, such as where he was and letting him regain his bearings, he decided that he wanted to immediately test if everything they went through had finally worked out.
The third thing was for Simon putting back on the crown. After Princess Bubblegum was handed the thumb drive that housed all the other personalities, she put it in a container that reminded Finn of the container for the royal tarts. The drive suspended in midair, not hitting the inside of the container.
Back towards Simon, everyone made sure that there were contingencies in place in case the Ice King personality showed up again.
"Just remember the concentration chant as you put on the crown Simon."
"Right." the antiquarian said as he held the crown above his head. With a deep breath he began chanting as he lowered the crown.
"Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos."
As he kept repeating the chant, he lowered the crown until it was sitting atop his head. The moment the item rested upon his head, he immediately stopped the chanting, this caused everyone to tense up as they looked at him with nervousness. Finn was silently thinking of the many ways this could have gone wrong, something he must have overlooked, a step in the process he missed. He was about ready to give up in despair until he heard the man with the crown of ice speak.
"I'm in control…" he said, hjs voice barely a whisper. Looking at his hands, he realized that they were in fact his and that it was himself controlling them. He even willed forth a snowflake, which had manifested above his hand. "I don't believe it, for the first time in over a millenia, I finally have control again." he was about to laugh in joy, only to be immediately glomped by Marceline hugging him as started doing the laughing for him
"Simon! Oh thank Glob that you're back!" Marceline yelled as she buried her head in his chest, not even trying to hide the fact that she's crying. She was just happy to have someone she always viewed as a proper father figure back in her life.
"M-marcy! Can't breathe…" Simon rasped as he felt the strength of an emotional Vampire Queen bearing down on him. It seems like in her emotional rush, she forgot her own strength.
"Oh right, s-sorry." she said, blushing in embarrassment, but still refusing to let go, afraid that this might be all a dream if she did.
Finn was releasing a breath he didn't know he was holding. The anxiety in his chest disappeared as he too started to laugh exasperatedly, almost as if his body had finally given out from all the mental strain. The same could be said for Princess Bubblegum, though more joyous as she realized that someone like Simon was now in control of the crown. She was almost ready to give up in despair at the thought of not being able to fix the crown or that she forgot to properly input a command. To see that her work had proven true was enough to make her faint. Luckily she was caught by the businessmen before she had hit the ground.
It had been an absolutely chaotic few days afterwards. Princess Bubblegum had to call in another Princess Day despite the last one happening 2 months ago, much to the frustration of every Princess.
"You better have a good reason why you decided to host another Princess Day, Bonnibel." Breakfast Princess said, hiding her rage as she and the rest of Ooo's royalty had been seated in the main auditorium of the Candy Kingdom. Princess Day was supposed to be held by her next year, so to see someone else hold another in such short notice was more than annoying to say the least. Every other royal had given similar responses, ranging from annoyance to anger as they had to leave their kingdoms again to come here.
"I know that this is on such short notice, and I'm sorry for that, but I've gathered you all here today for something that is of utmost importance." the Candy Royal announced, calming everyone down. "There is someone that has wanted to speak to you all in regards to his past actions."
This captured everyone's attention, causing the princesses to talk among themselves.
"What do you mean by that?" Wildberry Princess asked what was on everyone's mind.
"It would be better for him to say it." Princess Bubblegum said as she stepped away from the podium. As soon as she did that, the person in question walked towards the podium, wearing a hood to conceal their face.
"Thank you for that." he said to Princess Bubblegum before turning his attention towards the rest of the crowd. "Hello everyone, my name is Simon Petrikov, better known as the Ice King." He said as he removed his hood.
The silence was deafening, which lasted for about a few seconds before the castle of the Candy Kingdom was filled with screams and shouts.
"Oh Nightosphere no!"
"What's he doing here?!"
"Like, Oh my Glob!"
"This guy shouldn't be here!"
"Screw this, I'm outta here!"
That was the sentiment that most Princesses latched onto and immediately headed straight for the exit. Or at least, they tried to leave.
"Why are you blocking the door, Marceline?" Breakfast Princess said what every princess thought.
"Look, I know this wasn't ideal, but hear him out, please?" the Vampire Queen shockingly pleaded. Unfortunately, her words only fell on deaf ears.
"And why should we listen to a word he says? All he's ever done is lock us up and force us to marry him." Slime Princess angrily said.
"Yeah, and he threatens us all the time when we try to escape." Hot Dog Princess chimed in.
"Like, I am not even going to entertain the notion of speaking to Ice King." Lumpy Space Princess said, something that many of the princesses were in agreement with. Though why she was here was another story as she wasn't invited (not that anyone cared at the moment).
"I figured it would be bad, but to this extent, I had no idea." Simon said remorsefully, gathering everyone's attention again. "I honestly can't say I did those things in the right state of mind, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse for my previous actions." he said as he took off his crown and did something that shocked them all.
"I know I can't go back in the past and fix my mistakes, and neither is asking for your forgiveness for everything that I did in the past. All I can say is that I'm sorry for all that I've done." Simon said as he got on his hands and knees in an apologetic dogeza as his head touched the ground.
"While I can't simply apologize for all the things I've done to you all. I'm willing to do anything you ask of me." Simon said.
"Within reason." Princess Bubblegum and Marceline added.
"Even if you tell me to never bother you again, I'll understand." Simon finished.
For the second time, the room was shrouded in silence despite the large crowd of people.
Finn honestly didn't know what the decision's the various princesses made in regards to Simon, but at least he was becoming more acclimated to the world of Ooo. Marceline had been more open to helping him, usually staying in the Ice Kingdom for days on end, only returning back to her home to grab something red. Finn was happy for the both of them to reconnect with each other.
With PB working on making robot bodies for the various users of the crown, life for Finn had relatively gotten back to normal for him. The businessmen had gone on a vacation (as per Finn's insistence), it would just be himself, Jake, and Penny in the treehouse for now.
"So why did you decide to take that risk and go into the crown anyway?" Penny asked as they played video games on BMO.
"You know me, I couldn't help it. Once I knew that the Ice king was a tortured soul that wanted to be out, the rest was history." Finn explained.
"I still can't believe that you raided the Dungeon of the Crystal Eye just to use the thing as a makeshift power source." Jake pondered as he ate ice cream.
"Yeah, PB definitely chewed me out for that one. And now she's chewing me out for having to build all those robots for her. Though, knowing the businessmen, them on vacation probably means that they're helping build those robots anyway." Finn said before sighing. "But don't worry. After all that, I'm just going to relax and let the adventures happen whenever they come, like old times."
The trio had played video games well throughout the day before it was time to go to bed.
"Alarm! Through your perilous journey into the crown succeeding, you have been blessed by a glob! Congrats :) *clap clap clap*"
"…what." Finn stared blankly at the message in front of him. The last time he woke up to something like this was when he first got these messages. Knowing that this was different than the first, he looked more into it.
"GOLBetty has decided to bless the world with the gift of "Chaotic Growth!"
"What?" Finn asked as he scratched his face which was surprisingly itchy at the moment. He tried to get comfortable, but for some reason his clothes felt a bit restricted at the moment.
Now that he was awake, he didn't see the need to go back to sleep as the sun was already up and out, so he decided to go to the bathroom to freshen himself up. As the water drained from his fingers, he let out a sigh and stood up straight, staring at the mirror. He saw his face staring back at him. He blinked. The reflection blinked at the same time. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary then, and yet he kept wondering why it was his reflection kept calling to him. He looked as he always had, with his strong jaw, long, golden hair, some facial hair showing signs of puberty. He sighed in relief as he felt worried over nothing. Perhaps all this going out of bounds in his normal adventuring had made him more paranoid. He could be forgiven at his young age.
His age…
Which was 12 now, not him at the age of 18.
As he now was at the moment.
Finn could only stare at himself, fully recognizing that the tightness was because he had grown. Finn took a deep breath.
"WHAT!?"
And proceeded to shake the treehouse with his voice.
Arc 1: Completed