Chapter 28: The New Author!
The time had come! An unlikely group, friends, enemies, the dead, league fighters, all of them had traveled together to fight a great battle, the existence of which would be foreign to most Pokemon. Epoliktzus had hidden himself from the Pokemon, only a village and its enemies knew of his very existence. And yet it would be a battle for the fate of an entire world. Even though Epoliktzus was currently playing the role of the author, his ultimate goal was still the same as ever! Annihilation! And as optimistic as Epsilon tried to be on the outside... how could they prevent this? The only reason an entire army had been able to defeat Epoliktzus in her old home was the Pokemon that Epoliktzus had possessed. As he had said back then, the only one who could defeat Epoliktzus is himself! And this time there were fewer of them and the demon was just... free. Somehow. How had it even come to this? The author had not simply released this demon into the world, without any test, without anything! And certainly not to replace himself!

So how exactly had Epoliktzus been able to free himself and replace the author? But all of these were questions that were important, but not essential. The only essential thing was victory. A seemingly impossible victory. And yet, in a moment of rendezvous, Epsilon knew that she had to lead these Pokemon. She had already led an army to certain death against the demon once, and it was the same today! If they did not enter the fight, more death and destruction would follow until nothing remained; if they entered it, Epoliktzus would only need a victory against mortals to do so. And yet, as bad as things were looking... a gaze at her own blade, surrounded by rainbow-colored clouds, gave her courage.

Mountains stretched out around her, steam poured through the valley. In front of her stood a grotto, the entrance bright red. Once a sacred home of the supreme ruler, now behind that light an imitator awaited his enemies.

"So then... are you all ready? If we go in there, there really is no turning back!"
"Of course we are ready! Why shouldn't we be?"

Epsilon turned and looked at her daughter. Visions of horror flashed in her mind. Fields of the dead, homes in ashes, hell on earth. Storms of flames and demons, a fight without hope.

"You have not experienced what I have! Or rather, you do not remember! I have already faced that demon!"
"And you won! Thus we will do the same once more!", Grimmsnarl commented.
"We may have won, but that was not our doing! The only reason was that Epoliktzus took possession of a strong soul so that he could destroy himself! There were hundreds of us back then! And all together we stood no chance! It is possible that even if we all put up the best fight of our lives today, it will not do any good! Maybe our fate is already sealed!"
"And if we do nothing, it is sealed anyway! So let's get it over with!", Kel added.

With one last look ahead, the first empress took a deep breath.

"Very well. Let's go then!"

The team stepped into the brightest light together. However, it faded with the next step and revealed a surrounding area. The interior of a large cave, lit by torches on the walls and otherwise filled with nothing but stone and dirt.

"So you have come! You made me wait. Do you think I have nothing better to do?"
"If you don't want to wait, then don't run away and let us follow you across continents!", Aurora countered.
"Why not? This is the only place worthy of a fight. And I expect more haste from the great plot emperors!"
 "Are you finished talking then? We all know what we are here for!", Epsilon interrupted.

"And yet I will not let anyone take away the time when you can all feel your hopes burning, your world falling apart! After all, you did the same to me! You and the author! You presented by dreams, my wishes, dangling them in front of me like keys, made me believe that the time had come, only to snatch it away from me at the last moment! The deal with the author had always been that if I were freed, the world would be mine! And then he got involved and changed the outcome of the battle? He's a liar, nothing more, nothing less! A dirty traitor, believing in his own superiority!"

"You don't have to tell me what happened in the other time! I was there! And you weren't, you don't even have the right to know anything!"
"Wasn't I? Oh no, Epsilon, that's not true! It was me and myself and no one else from whom you took everything back then! But I shouldn't be angry, after all, my new chance is just as much your achievement as my first one was! It was you who made me an author!"
"If you want to say something, then do it! And don't beat around the bush as if we had nothing better to do!"
"It's only logical that your friends don't understand anything, but you yourself? Do I have to spell it out for you? When you reset time, I came back with you! You brought me back from the dead and placed me in this world, facing an author who did not understand my very existence! His Epoliktus was sealed, but I was free! Because you brought me into this world!"
"His Epoliktus? What the hell do you mean? There are several of you?"

As Hail asked this question, Epsilon started to finally understand.

"One for each story. But thanks to Epsilon, this changed! And now I have subdued the liar who stole my dreams and have become an author myself!"

So that was it… resetting time had such a consequence? This god was not like all the Pokemon in this place. He remembered that time, no, not only that, he came from there! Space and time itself had been distorted, a dead demon brought back to life and all this just because Epsilon could not live with her mistakes? Because wanted a second chance? A chance she never deserved? Then it was up to her… to truly make amends for her mistakes!

"So you are an anomaly! And you know that! That's why you have to go!"
"I was once a part of the world before I was made an anomaly! And now I will rise from the anomaly to become the ruler! My rise began when you begged for your second chance and was destined to succeed from the very first moment!"
"And yet you were afraid enough to set us up against Grimmsnarl's village to get rid of us!"
"Call it fear, what do I care? The author had already laid the foundation, I just wanted to save myself from having to kill you myself if I didn't have to. But obviously..."

Epoliktzus began to glow in a bright light. Around the brave warriors, figures seemed to emerge from the ground. Dragons, monsters, Pokemon whose images were made of blood.

"Obviously you want to feel the pain only I myself can bring! Look around! See the power I now have! I can create creatures..."

At the same moment, all the figures disintegrated again and left behind only puddles.

"...I can change the world..."

The cave turned into a wide, idyllic meadow. But only for seconds, before red skies covered the idyll, ruins, lifeless bodies. It was an exact replica of the battlefield on which this Epoliktzus had already fallen once. But this didn't last long either, as the Pokemon soon found themselves back in the cave.

"...I can control it all! Because I am the new author! I am the god I deserve to be! God of a world that will soon no longer exist! Because I will write the final chapter! And my first wish as the new king... will be your end!"

Flames filled the hall as the blood monsters all rose again. Now the warriors were surrounded, while angel wings formed on the monster's back and its crippled grin appeared. The fight was about to begin! The fight against the one who controlled the world?

"Any last words?"

Epsilon looked down at her blade.

"Or do you see that words have no value? Well then... go on then! My wish as an author is your death!"

For the next few seconds... nothing happened. Aurora looked around in confusion, while even the grin disappeared from the demon's face.

"I said that I wish for your death! Go! Creatures! My creations! Why don't you obey me! I am the author! You must follow me!"
"You want to hear final words? Then speak them yourself! What if I don't care about your wish as the author? What if I want to control the world instead? Go, blood creatures! Die! Disappear and never return!"

Epoliktzu's expression showed fear, for the first time since Epsilon had known him. And that was because his creations followed the enemy's word.

"What... is this? Why can you control them, Epsilon? That is the task, the power of the author!"
"That is, because you are not the real author! And the original is on my side!"

The Zoroark looked delighted at her shadow blade, still streaked with rainbow-like clouds.

"I had already wondered what this weird smoke was supposed to be. Now it makes sense! You just needed a place of retreat, am I right, Jason?"

With a violent swing, the shadows seemed to fall off the sword, like water rolling off glass. What was revealed beneath the darkness was a real sword. The handle was golden, the blade seemed soft, but in reality full of power.

"Finally! Finally I have it back! My beloved Feathersword! My masterpiece! My blade!"

The rainbow smoke now ejected from this feather, not remaining on it, but disappearing to the ceiling of the cave.

"Jason! It's you! The wannabe author! The liar! Are you trying to get in my way again? You don't have your power! You are not a true author! Perhaps you can still suppress my powers that I, as the rightful author, have, but more? Do you think I need it? Do you think I need YOU? I can deal with all of you anyway! If I use my own power! Epsilon!"

Determinedly, the Zoroark grabbed the sword that she had missed for so long. At the same time, she noticed that all of her companions were also moving forward with determination.

"I've had enough! You freed me once, but in the end you fell when you brought the Plot Warrior back after the author betrayed me! Now you have freed me again, truly giving me the freedom I desired! You will not stop me again! You will not break my dreams again! You are a nobody in my eyes! And today I will let you feel who I truly am!"
"I have already defeated you once. But I know myself that this was only possible because I was not alone. Conveniently enough, I am not alone today either. Congratulations, Epoliktzus. For the second time now, you have managed to get a lonely madwoman like me to bury her conflicts and ally herself with her former enemies. In other words: You are so misguided that Pokemon would rather ally themselves with me than to accept you!"

"Pokemon are the mistakes of this world! Mistakes that I am to correct! And no Pokemon proves this more than you do! Do you really believe that you deserve a happy ending? What have you done in your life that truly speaks for you? How many good deeds have you performed that have not only corrected your own mistakes? And Pokemon like you are given chance after chance, a happy ending, the author literally gave you control over space and time! A being that no one should trust! The fact that there are reasons one might consider to ally with you is the reason I even exist!"
"And beings like you are the reason why I can prove that I am not always just wrong. The difference between us is simple: I know that I am wrong and act anyway, in the false belief that there will be positive consequences. You are not even able to admit that you are wrong!" "Heroes, villains, who is in the right is decided by one thing and one thing only! Victory! The victor rewrites the past! And this, Epsilon, is why you will always be the villain! Because Epsilon will never be victorious!"
 "Oh, bet? Because today we'll prove to you that even an Epsilon can succeed! As long as she's not alone!"