Year 902 – Faucher Hideout, Underground
"What the hell are these freaky things?"
"Whatever! We're here for the girl!"
Evelot flinched as Numbers 17 and 24 were smacked aside by her assailants. She backed into the wall, trembling and panting, her eyes spiraling with terror. Seven goons draped in darkness marched into her destroyed room, towering over her like giants. A gleam of evil intent flickered in their eyes as they looked down upon the cowering Mimikyu.
"It's almost tragic snuffing out a life so young," one of the goons said. He cracked his knuckles and scoffed. "But I'm too far gone to get remorseful over that shit."
Evelot pressed herself as far against the wall as her body allowed. Her eyes flickered past the men, spying the pools of blood in the hallway. Tears stained the inside of her costume, permeating onto the outside.
"W…What did you do…to my siblings?" she whimpered.
"Heh." The leading thug reached down and picked her up by the ear. "The same thing we're going to do to you, brat."
"…They're…all dead? Everyone?"
"Finally catching on?"
"…"
Then, Evelot went completely limp.
She hung motionlessly in the man's grip, her eyes turning hollow as she stared endlessly at the ground. The reality finally settled in. The stench of blood that hung around the men before her was palpable. The sight of her own parents meeting their untimely end froze within her mind, stuck on the exact moment their life was cut short.
Her family was dead.
Just like that.
All because of the whims of one woman.
That…vile woman who broke into her family's lab.
The one…who took everything away from her.
"This…This is really happening…" she mumbled.
The men grinned and laughed. "And you're next, sweetheart." The one holding her up reared his fist back. "Time to die~!"
"…" Evelot blinked. "I'm…going to die…"
"Pray for an afterlife, Faucher! Take THIS!"
STAB!
His attack struck true, piercing through Evelot's costume and shooting out through her back. Dark matter sprayed out from the back, splattering over the floor and across the fallen, ancient symbols on the ground. The costume went limp around the man's arm like a towel, dripping with liquid shadow over the floor.
"Ugh, finally," a Politoed goon groaned. "Master Harriet will be pleased with our success."
"We did eliminate every last Faucher in the building, right?" a Combusken asked.
"We should've, yeah," the Toxicroak who impaled Evelot said. He lowered his arm with the costume still wrapped around it. "Master Harriet should be done with upstairs. She will be pleased with our success."
"As long as we get paid," an Absol groaned. The men turned toward the hole in the wall and started making their way out.
HIIIIIIISSSSSSSSS…
The men stopped and looked back startled by the strange hissing in the air. They scanned the room, giving it a sweeping glance, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. The Combusken laughed awkwardly. "Old buildings make the weirdest sounds."
The Absol grimaced. "I'm getting a bad feeling all of a sudden…"
The Politoed gulped. "We should hurry. If he's anxious, best we all be."
The Toxicroak waved them off. "Don't be stupid. We were trained by the best martial artist in all of Virdis. What's a crumbling building going to do to—"
STAB!
The men jolted back as dozens of shadowy claws pierced out through the toxic toad's torso, clawing into the flesh and ripping it open. The Toxicroak stared in horror at his ribcage until more claws ripped through neck and tore off his head. It lobbed through the air, spraying blood over the other goons, before being caught inside a larger shadow claw.
"There once was an innocent Ghost-Type girl who loved her family so much…"
The men staggered back as shadows wrapped around the desecrated corpse, puppeteering it toward them. The severed head lurched in their direction, looking down upon them like a demented Farigiraf.
"Then, one day, bad men came into the girl's home and killed everyone…"
The costumed untangled itself from the Toxicroak's arm and slithered atop the bloodied neck. Its shape reinflated, the Mimikyu standing against on its own with its paint smeared. Black, ink-like tears stained the eyeholes as the creature dwelling inside looked down upon the men with vacant apathy.
"The girl hated the bad men. Hate…is a ghost's greatest strength. There is nothing greater than hate."
The shadows coiled around the corpse, digging their claws through the flesh, before effortlessly tearing it into bloodied chunks across the room. The reanimated costume landed on six shadowy arms holding it up, and dozens more rose out from the blown-out back. Shadowy tears continued to spill out from the eye holes.
"So, the girl willed herself back to life through hatred alone…and used that hate to slaughter everything…"
Phoebe and Magni raced down the hideout stairwell, a struggle for the massive megapede as he shoved and plowed through the tight corridor. With any luck, Amos had made it outside with Evelot, though Babylas seemed sure that wasn't the case. With the Banette now back up to full strength, their chances of securing victory now were near impossible.
"Keep up, Magni!" Phoebe shouted. "With any luck, whatever damage we inflicted on him will give us the edge!"
"Evelot be safe—"
The duo suddenly froze midway down the stairs, their hearts stopping briefly as a tremendous pressure passed over them. It was a vile aura that made the air toxic with each breath, staggering their lungs. Phoebe's fur stood on end, feeling a coldness shoot up her nerves. Magni, the resilient megapede that he was, trembled under the pressure's weight as his eyes widened in terror.
"What…this feeling?" he mumbled.
Phoebe's arms fell to her side, her pinprick-sized pupil shaking inside her eye. "This…This pressure…" She stumbled back and fell against the stairs. "I…remember this pressure…"
"What is pressure—"
"Run."
"What?"
"Run. Run, run, RUN!" Phoebe turned tail and raced back up the stairs. Magni, though confused, followed behind her.
No sooner after racing back up the steps, the hideout began to shake. They stumbled over their feet as cracks split over the foundation, bringing down chunks of ceiling and mounds of dirt over their heads. Magni scooped Phoebe between his horns and threw his body into the stairway's wall, landing on one of the underground floors. They turned back in the nick of time as the stairway was buried in rumble.
Phoebe stumbled to her feet, panicking as more of the hideout came undone around them. "We're too late…"
Magni looked around in alarm. "What cause?"
"Evelot…"
Magni's eyes widened. "Who?!"
"Evelot…" Phoebe clenched her teeth, tears brimming in her eye. "We're too late…"
The duo steadied themselves as the ground began to crack and swell beneath their feet. They gasped as wisps of shadow vented through the cracking floor, carrying a furious scream of anger produce only by hellish forces. The intense pressure they felt grew stronger as more of the darkness fumed from the crumbling floor.
"Magni…BRACE YOURSELF!" Phoebe jumped onto the Scolipede's back and covered her head.
The ground exploded open, throwing Magni into the ceiling, and a geyser of liquid shadow erupted from the darkness at full force. It slammed into Magni, breaking through the ceiling and rising higher up the hideout. The intensity of the shadows threw Phoebe off, submerging her within the rising whirlpool of darkness.
"Phoebe!" Magni yelled. He tried to swim after her, but the sloshing of darkness pulled him under. He struggled to keep his head above the surface. "Phoebe!"
Phoebe flailed and kicked against the turbulent vortex of darkness, taking hold of a chunk of stone to keep herself afloat. Her eye widened as the thousands of red eyes opened up across the surface, each one carrying a sludge-like spiral in the center that stared up the hideout.
Phoebe covered her head as the shadows kept bursting through floor after floor. She glanced up and screamed as a chunk of stone dislodged from above and careened over her. She braced herself for the worst
"Hang on!"
She gasped, feeling someone grab the back of her jacket and lurching her out of the shadows before the stone crashed atop of her. She fell onto a stone platform, coughing and vomiting darkness out. She wiped her face and looked up, staring at the concerned faces of Amos and…Babylas?
"Burkhard, are you okay?" Amos asked, pulling her to her feet.
Phoebe stood up, sputtering flecks of darkness, and snarled at Babylas. "YOU!" She tried to lunge at him, but Amos held her back.
"Phoebe, stop!" Amos growled. "We're not in the position to fight right now!"
"This is all YOUR FAULT!" Phoebe snapped. "If you hadn't attacked us like you did, Evelot wouldn't have…" She clenched her eye shut for a moment, then gazed down at the churning flood of darkness. "Evelot…"
Babylas glared. "You can berate me later. Evelot's completely lost control of herself."
Amos grimaced. "This is what happened when she last went berserk? How the hell could she be this powerful?!"
"It's Heavenly Emotion."
Their eyes widened. "What?!"
Babylas crossed his arms. "I didn't think it was possible for an Inherited Will and Heavenly Emotion to coexist at the same time, but the unique circumstances of how Evelot acquired Inherited Will might be the reason why."
"W-Wait, how could Evelot have a Heavenly Emotion?!" Phoebe gasped. "She's not a fighter! She wouldn't have the willpower to muster something like this!"
Babylas stumbled as their platform shook from the raging currents of the darkness. "There is technically a way to circumvent the requirements. I've discovered that two types have a higher chance of unlocking Heavenly Emotion post-mortem. Fighting-Types, who have a naturally strong will, and Ghost-Types, who can manifest intense emotion after death."
Phoebe's eye widened. "Wha…?"
Amos clenched his teeth. "Are you saying…Evelot died before?"
"…She died two times in one night."
Their hearts stopped at the Banette's admission. "Wha…how is that possible—"
"RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
The trio collapsed, covering their heads and screaming at the intense pressure beating down around them. Looking further ahead in the darkness, they saw Magni struggling to swim toward them. Babylas pulled out Aeros and threw it, lassoing the chain around Magni.
"Give me a hand!" he yelled. Phoebe and Amos took part of the wind-infused chain and helped reel Magni onto the platform.
With great effort, Magni managed to reach the platform and pull himself out of the darkness, collapsing onto his side. He panted heavily, spitting sludge-like darkness out. "Sick…"
Amos grimaced. "How do we calm her down?!"
Babylas struggled to stand up. "We need to find Evelot's core and knock her out! That's the only way she's going to snap out of this!"
"How the hell do you expect us to reach her in this fucking mess?!" Phoebe screamed.
"I have an idea. I just need to—" He saw something flying in his peripherals, and he shoved Amos and Phoebe to the ground. "GET DOWN—"
BAM!
The company gasped as Babylas was smacked away by a giant shadow hand and crushed against the walls, disappearing from sight.
"Babylas!" Amos screamed.
"Lamecaster, look!" Phoebe shouted, pointing to the ceiling. "I see light!"
"The surface! Magni—"
Magni roared, lunging off the ground and curling himself around the duo. He tensed his muscles and braced for impact.
Caractacus ran up on the hideout with Alpha following close behind. As he closed in, he felt the rumbling through the ground and stopped. "What the…yeesh, what's going on down there?"
He froze, feeling an indescribable pressure overtaking him for a second. His vision darkened briefly, then he saw the ground under the hideout swelling. Geysers of shadow jettisoned from the ground, the earthing rising bit by bit with an eerie wail.
"What in the—"
He covered his head as the ground ruptured open, tearing apart the hideout and scattering stone all across the land at high speed. Giant chunks of stone hurled toward Caractacus, stopping against his Negative Space effortlessly. He grabbed Alpha and pulled it within the space as more rock rained down over the area.
"What's going on down there?!" he shouted. He jumped out from behind the rubble, then froze. "What…the…"
Rising out from the crater in the earth was a large, misshapen pillar of darkness covered in a grotesque assortment of red eyes, each one with a spiraling pattern that resembled sludge. Fanged maws opened up across the body, letting loose a horrific shriek as a myriad of shadowy claws produced from the sides and slammed down on the earth.
The horrible shrieking caused Caractacus to falter, feeling his stamina wane. What is that thing?!
He heard a distinct screaming over the cry and looked up, spotting the rest of the company as the plummeted out of the sky. He raced over and dove, using his Negative Space to break their fall.
The group rolled off and landed on the ground, groaning in pain. Amos pushed himself up and coughed up black sludge. "Ugh…thanks, Caractacus."
The Boltund looked up at the towering monstrosity in disbelief. "Yeah, sure, uh…can someone explain to me what that thing is?!"
"It's Evelot…"
Caractacus shot a bewildered glare at Phoebe. "Excuse me?!"
The Aipom fell to her knees, staring vacantly at the ground. "Evelot's lost her mind…"
"That's Evelot?! HOW?!"
Amos growled. "Do you remember what Abel said about Heavenly Emotion? Babylas said that she awoke to it on the night her family was massacred."
"But I thought you needed stupidly high willpower to trigger that before you succumb to death! No offense to Evelot, but that sound kind of impossible for her to trigger!"
Amos winced. "Babylas thinks Fighting and Ghost-Types have a higher chance to trigger the effect. Evelot's wrath and grudge triggered the effects. She must've repressed her memories the night she went berserk. This is what's been haunting her nightmares for the last several years!"
Phoebe clenched her eye shut. "I briefly saw what happened before I passed out. It was awful. I thought I dreamt the whole thing, but it really happened. Oh gods, Evelot…"
The shadowy monstrosity swung its myriads of arms down, flattening the earth before it. Several hands came down on the group, but Caractacus' Negative Space held up as the ground depressed around them. A thick cloud of dust rose up from its rampage, sweeping across the area like a sandstorm.
Caractacus grunted. "Well, what the hell do we do?! I didn't think I'd be fighting some esoteric nightmare monster today!"
Amos glared. "Babylas said that the last time this happened, Evelot needed to be knocked out."
"Oh yeah, brilliant idea! Let's get closer to the demonic shadow mountain!"
Amos jabbed the Boltund and explained, "We need to find her core. I'm guessing that means her main body. You're the only one who can get close to her without getting hurt."
"You do know what happens when you look upon a Mimikyu's true form, right?"
"It's either this or letting her run rampant! We just need to figure out a way to get past all of that—"
"GUYS!" Phoebe screamed.
A cluster of hands dug through the ground and ripped it open, sending the group catapulting backwards in the landslide. Magni, after coming to his senses, scooped the ground up and landed against the shifting rock. He roared and charged headlong into the storm of stone with Caractacus spreading his Negative Space around the megapede.
"Must find Evelot!" Magni roared.
Amos growled. "Magni's right! We're wasting time bickering over this! We need to help Evelot!"
Caractacus groaned. "I came back to this nonsense of my own volition…" He shook his head and glared determinedly. "Alright, fine! Magni, get us up there!"
Another cluster of hands careened toward the ground, but Magni leapt over them and ran across them. Several arms spawned from the cluster and thrusted at the group, deflecting off the Negative Space.
"So, how do we even find her main body?" Caractacus asked.
Phoebe winced. "I'm not sure. We nearly suffocated on the way up here. I'm not sure we can swim through this stuff."
Amos glared. "I'll see if I can spread my Sand Sensory through the darkness. As long as we have Caractacus' barrier up and running, we should be—"
SNAP!
Their eyes widened as a shadow hand suddenly shot through the barrier and grabbed Caractacus by his coat. He gasped. "Are you kidding me?! Again?!"
"Evelot has Phantom Force!" Phoebe screamed.
Amos and Phoebe lunged for Caractacus, but he was snatched off Magni's back and thrown backwards through the air. "GUYS! Someone! HELP ME—"
SHIIIIING!
A fiery slash cut the arm off, and Caractacus plummeted through a shadow portal back onto Magni's back. The group looked up in shock as Babylas sailed past the severed limb with his flame sword in hand.
"Babylas!" Phoebe gasped.
"He's alive!" Amos shouted.
Babylas tilted his head, glaring at the distorted monster of darkness as he sailed down. I was fortunate to have thought ahead and position a Shedinja away from the basement. Managed to swap places in time, even if it costed me another one.
He dove through a portal and leapt out from the shadows of Magni's cloak, landing in front of the ground. He pocketed Agni and glanced up at the beast. "It's been years since I've last seen her like this. Her anger's gotten out of control."
Phoebe snarled. "Yeah, no thanks to you!"
"This is not the time."
Amos nodded. "He's right. We need to focus on subduing Evelot and snapping her out of it." He glared at Babylas. "Truce?"
Babylas nodded. "Truce."
Caractacus groaned. "Wonderful, now what's our plan here?"
Babylas covered his left eye. "I can't see much of anything with all this darkness surrounding her, but I should be able to pinpoint her location. I can use Endless Darkness to blanket the area in shadow and freely reach her core. However, it's going to take a moment. Projecting that much darkness instead of just controlling existing shadow is a lot more difficult to maintain."
Amos nodded. "So, just focus on attacking?"
"This isn't her main body, so go nuts if you have to."
Phoebe grimaced. "Evelot…"
Amos sighed before raising his pincer gun. "Focus on evasion! We need to buy Babylas time to reach her!"
Magni growled. "Right!"
Caractacus huffed. "This is going to end badly."
"Broken Glass Alchemical Company! Move out!"
The team launched off the shadow arm and threw themselves at the monster. Grabbing hold of its sludge-like body, they raced across, beating down upon it with a plethora of attacks.
Amos glided around, firing sand bullets into its many eyes. "Evelot! Whatever Absalom showed you, you have to resist the temptation! What you see isn't worth this rage!"
The monster howled in outrage, launching its shadow arms at the airborne Gligar. Amos boosted his Sandstorm and glided out of the way, weaving around claw strikes by the skin of his teeth. He dragged his pincer blade through its hide, swinging himself around, and opened fired across the arm, causing it to split down the middle.
The monster recoiled, roared in defiance, and tried to squash Amos between its cluster of hands. He tucked his wings in and dove out of the air, dodging the attack. He opened fire on the eyes again as he fell, then swooped back into flight as an underhanded swing came at him.
With the monster's attention briefly set on Amos, Phoebe ascended the beast's back until she reached a plateau of eyes and bubbling shadow. She pulled out her heated dagger and gulped. "Evelot…please forgive me for this!" She spun the dagger into a reverse grip and stabbed repeatedly into the eyes.
The eyes ruptured in flame. Dozens of mouths split open across the plateau, letting loose horrific shrieks of pain. Phoebe rushed to another cluster of eyes to give them the same treatment, but a cluster of hands reached out from the umbric hide and tried to grab her.
"Maelstrom Cleave!" She whipped out her wind cleaver and sliced the arms apart with a single wind slash. "Evelot, don't you recognize me? It's Phoebe! You wouldn't hurt me, right?"
Her eye widened as mounds of darkness swelled across the plateau, bursting into the shape of dozens of Mimikyu-like golems of darkness. The left eye of each golem flashed red, and a horrific maw opened up across the faces with rows of black teeth.
"Apparently not—AH!" She ducked for cover as the golems let loose a swarm of Shadow Claws, ripping apart where the Aipom once stood. Phoebe retaliated with a swing of her wind cleaver, cutting off several golems' heads. However, more spawned out of the shadow hide. "Evelot…!"
Over with Magni, despite his protective instincts toward the Mimikyu, he charged across the monster's hide with reckless abandon, ripping open the shadows with his Stinging Spear like a farming plough. He flailed his head wildly, tearing into the monster and ripping its body to shreds with each charge.
"Must save Evelot! Evelot is friend!" Magni roared.
Higher above Magni, the dark hide twisted before expanding outward, taking the shake of a giant, slithering, fanged maw with dozens of eyes opening across its surface. It roared, twisting downward and lunging at the Scolipede.
Magni leapt out of the way, wincing as the slithering maw nicked his side with a single fang. Outrage, Magni stomped his feet down, spun toward the fanged maw as it turned back around, and roared.
"COME AT ME!"
The slithering maw accepted his challenge, launching back at the megapede with far greater speed. Magni kicked his hindlegs back, roared, and charged toward the monster as his horns grew into toxic, dual blades. Faster and faster, he kicked his legs, feeling his Speed Boost kicking in as he flew like the wind. He locked on to the slithering maw as it opened its mouth, revealing an entire cavern of fangs waiting to tear all who enter apart.
"RAAAAAHHHHH!" Magni launched himself into the attack, expanding his horns into sharper, deadlier blades. "Stinging…SCISSORS!"
SHIIIIING!
The slithering maw split in two, parting around the Scolipede as he charged through the cavern of fangs, tearing through all in a single slash. Magni slammed his feet down, sliding to a stop, and looked back as the slithering maw collapsed across the monster's hide, splattering into sludge-like darkness.
"Magni is strongest!"
On the other side of the monster's body, Caractacus ran through a forest of shadow arms rising out of its hide, piling together to crush the fleeing Boltund. Unable to risk using his Negative Space for defense, he opted on his speed to get through the danger, dodging and sliding around attacks as they crashed down around him.
"Alpha!" Caractacus touched his cube-shaped companion, drawing upon its energy, and opened his jaw. "Positive Cannon: Auto Scatter!" He fired a barrage of electric shots against the raining array of arms, blowing them apart effortless with the added boost from Alpha's energy.
Sludge-like darkness rained over Caractacus, splattering into his fur and coat. He dragged his claws down as the arms ceased their attacks and retreated back under. Before the Boltund to catch his breath, the ground gave way under him, finding himself hovering over a pit layered in a wall of teeth.
"CRAP!" Caractacus fell backward into the pit, which started closing above him. "Oh, hell no!" He curled his limbs together, concentrating his energy around himself. "Negative Space: Repulse!" He released his energy, blasting the pit apart with his expanding barrier. The teeth were flattened against the walls, and the pit widened back open so hard that it split open along the walls.
Alpha swooped down, catching Caractacus, and floated him out of the crumbling maw. As the Boltund pulled himself up, more maws opened up over the monster's hide and extended out into slithering masses chomping their fangs in his direction.
"Positive Cannon: Auto Scatter!" He bombarded the airspace with a cluster of electrical shots, blowing up the inside of the slithering masses before they could reach him. He and Alpha were thrown out of the air from the blast wave and crashed back down onto the monster's hide.
Amos jumped between clusters of arms, throwing himself around on currents of sand. His eyes widened as a lumbering shadow covered in rows of teeth hovered above him. Before he could protect himself, Babylas sailed in and cut down the shadow with a single swing of Agni.
"Thanks!" Amos yelled.
Babylas landed against the hide, mowing through shadow arms trying to grab him. He covered his left eye and focused on sensing out Evelot. "We were unlucky this triggered so deep underground. It seems the more darkness she's surrounded in, the greater her Ghost-Type moves become. Even the moves she once knew have been altered. A repressed arsenal her psyche buried for her own protection."
Amos swept his pincer, gunning down clusters of shadow arms in a barrage of bullets. "If this is from Heavenly Emotion, what the hell did she get from Inherited Will?"
"I have a guess…" Babylas mumbled. He shook his head and continued scanning the monster. His eyes widened, spotting a strong red beacon deep within the monster's center. "I've got a lock on her!"
"Can you reach her?!" Amos yelled, cutting down another cluster of shadow arms.
"Almost. Like I said, projecting darkness onto the area takes a lot of energy. When I used it on you and your friends, I only had it open for a few seconds. I may need more than that for this, and I don't think merging my technique with this darkness will bode well."
"Do what you can to reach her!"
"…" Babylas frowned. "Amos. You understand that this won't change what she saw. She's been obsessed with finding out what happened that night. Even if we calm her down now, what happens next will end the same."
"…" Amos glared. "We'll reach her. I promise."
"…Better you than me." He took a deep breath and leapt into the air. "Okay, I think I've got the rhythm! I'm going to open Endless Darkness and reach her core! All of you need to stand clear!"
Amos shot down one last shadow cluster and shouted, "Broken Glass Alchemical Company, retreat!"
Phoebe, Magni, and Caractacus ceased their brawling and jumped off the monster, sailing alongside Amos for the ground. Phoebe grimaced. "I can't believe we're putting our trust in Babylas for this!"
"It's our only hope!" Amos shouted. "This'll be over before you know—"
The party froze as hundreds of eyes suddenly opened up across the shadow monster. Its middle split open like an iron maiden, and within its center was a giant, spiraling eye that released a vast pressure across the landscape. Hurricane-like winds blew against the company, roughly throwing them out of the air and onto the ground.
"RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
As the company picked themselves up, they stood paralyzed by the monster world-shaking scream. The area darkened under the intense shriek, a miasma of dread filling the air as they gazed upon the monstrosity. The light faded from their eyes, and their ankles buckled under their weight, feeling their stamina rapidly declining.
"W…What…?"
One-by-one, the BGAC passed out and fell to the ground, their eyes locked open wide with a dark haze flowing within.
Babylas looked down in alarm, feeling his own heading thumping from the monster's scream. Evelot's getting out of control. Got to make this fast!
"Time to wake up, Evelot!" Babylas yelled.
The monster's eyes locked onto the hovering Banette. Its central eye focused in, and several shadow arms rose up, locking together. Babylas' left eye shimmered brightly, as did the monster's central eye. The cosmic cluster swirling in the left eye versus the sludge-like swirl twisting in Evelot's manifested right eye.
They were reacting to each other.
Two eyes gifted by a binding pact made five years ago.
Eyes that shared the same fate.
A half-completed ritual making its mark.
"Endless Darkness/Endless Darkness!"
A wave of darkness fluttered to life behind both casters, then expanded upon the atmosphere like crashing waves meeting on the ocean. Their rivaling darkness crashed into each other, instantly wiping away the afternoon light and twisting together to dominate the other. A cosmic alignment of purple and red stars filled the empty void, mirroring the shapes dancing within their eyes.
Neither had the advantage, and both were at their strongest in the dark.
The monster roared, calling upon a legion of giant shadow hands from the abyss and striking down on the floating Banette. Babylas instantly vanished inside the darkness, flickering and speeding through with complete dominion of his position in space. In this space, he was the fastest.
But for Evelot, she was the strongest.
Hundreds upon hundreds of shadow hands called down from the abyss' ceiling, slamming down around Babylas as he continued weaving in and out of the way, flowing like the wind.
"Natura!" He summoned the remains of his torn axe, twisting it into a massive club as he battered through a forest of hands to reach the main body. "Evelot! Listen to me!"
"Don't…!"
Babylas glared. "What?"
"Don't…take this away from me!" The monster opened its many maws, casting down even greater numbers of clawed shadows.
Babylas twirled and spun around the attacks, bashing them apart with quick swings of Natura. However, the sheer number of attacks beating down on him tore through the former axe, its pieces being shaved off from the briefest contact against their ultra sharp claws.
One last swing against the arms caused Natura to shatter in Babylas' grip, leaving only the measly remains of its hilt. He chucked it at the incoming cluster before dashing away.
"Evelot! You don't want this!" Babylas shouted. "You can't fight Harriet! You'll die!"
"You don't…decide that!" Shadow Mimikyu burst out from the monster, flying at Babylas like projectiles.
He summoned his bident, Aquamarine, and slashed at the shadow golems, redirecting their movements with the flowing water trailing off the prongs. More and more clusters piled up around him, attempting to bury him, but a quick twirl of his bident sent them flying back in a wave. He leapt into the air, hopping along the golems and slashing through the rest.
"It's not fair! It's not FAIR!" Hundreds more hands reached out from the monster, attempting to crush Babylas between them.
Babylas sliced and vaulted his way around the hands until a cluster got hold of his bident. Before he could pull it back into his storage, the hands tightened their grip and snapped it to pieces out of his grip. He shielded his face from the flying shrapnel before dashing along the arms, avoiding their omni-directional onslaught.
"Why? Why did I have to lose everything?! Why did this have to happen to me?!" Despite the distortion on the voice, Evelot's strained cries permeated louder. "What did I do to deserve this?! I try and try so hard to be good in this world of monsters, and all I get is suffering!"
Babylas whipped out his Breaker knuckles and applied Shadow Armament, punching his way through the clusters of hands as they continued diving on him in droves.
"I get bullied by a wannabe thug! I get hunted by flesh-eating psychopaths! I'm hunted by two idiotic bounty hunters! I'm held prisoner by a crime lord! My family is at the center of all the pain in Virdis!" Sludge-like tears flowed out from the monster's many eyes. "And now, the one person in the world I thought I could trust tries to kill my friends and holds me hostage all for my sake! I didn't ask for any of this! NONE OF IT!"
The hands nearly buried Babylas alive, but a quick flick of Majestic Wind sliced the hands to ribbons, allowing him to launch toward the monster. He twirled the whip sword and sliced a hole into its center.
"No matter how hard I try, nothing I say or do will matter in the end! This world is filled with sin and cruelty! Everyone just takes and takes what they want! Nobody cares about anything but themselves! It's so easy giving into that level of self-satisfaction! The world doesn't matter in place of one's own GREED!"
Babylas dove through the monster as the hole closed up behind him. More hands spawned from the darkness to grab him, but he continued diving down, slicing his way through his Agni. He focused through his left eye, spotting the light of Evelot's right eye in the center.
The Mimikyu floated in the air wrapped in a web of darkness. She lifted her hollow gaze as Babylas pushed harder and harder through her defenses to reach her.
"All I wanted…was to believe there was still good in the world. But was I wrong? Is there no point to trying? Is this just how things were meant to be? I'm just as delusional as these monsters." She clenched her eyes shut. "If I'm going to fall just like them, then the only thing I want most of all…is to murder the BITCH who took my family away from me!"
"Evelot—"
"YOU DON'T DECIDE FOR ME ANYMORE, BABYLAS! NO ONE BUT ME!"
A cluster of colossal shadow claws burst from the darkness, soaring toward the careening Banette. Twirling his fire sword into a reverse grip, Babylas twisted his body around the first hand, dragging his sword through its hide and riding the way down as the rest of the hands gathered together to smash him. He weaved around their strikes, slicing apart claws to make a path for himself.
A giant hand surged up his path, creating a fanged maw in its palm. Babylas pulled Agni from the shadow hide and rode the way toward the impending attack. Taking his sword in both hands, flames bursting wildly off the blade, he swung and cleaved the shadows in two in a curtain of wildfire. He pressed his hand to the back of the blade, keeping it steady as he sawed his way through the middle until the entire arm fell apart.
"EVELOT!" He lunged into the air, soaring high above the suspended Mimikyu with his katana raised high. He glared at the cluster of hands reaching out behind her, launching at him in droves. "This is for your own good—"
"Evelot may be a bit of scaredy cat, but that doesn't give you the right to upend her whole life under the self-proclaimed pretense you're protecting her!"
"If you truly cared about her, you would let her figure things out for herself!"
"Evelot is coming with us, and we will keep her safe from those nightmares."
"…" Babylas gritted his teeth and swung at the cluster of shadow hands.
Both forces struck, but one side was lacking in conviction.
The will to fight…had been burnt out.
SNAP!
Overwhelmed by the severity of attacks, Agni shattered from its hilt, sending flaming shards of metal flying into the void. Babylas stared at his shattered sword vacantly before being grabbed by the clusters of hands, each one digging their claws into his flesh. He dropped the hilt as his limbs were stretched apart, leaving his body suspended within the void.
Ectoplasmic blood dripped down his face as the claws dug across his skin, gradually pulling on his body. He felt his limbs and face being pulled on, the fabric-like skin being bent and torn under the strain.
Despite this, he looked upon Evelot with a vacant stare. The Mimikyu hovered up to his level, glaring at him with burning hatred. And yet, the sludge-like tears stained her costume and continued to pour out.
Nothing was going to talk Evelot out of her revenge. All that pent-up rage and grief that she didn't have an outlet for, years of internal questioning and confusion all coming undone at the seams. It's true what they say: the Outlands brings out the worst in everyone. Evelot was another casualty to the cruel nature of this broken land.
This was something she desperately needed to figure out the maelstrom of her twisted soul. But if she went through with it…
"…" Babylas smiled sadly, then sighed. "Alright. You win…"
Evelot's scowl tightened, her shadowy arms gripping and pulling on Babylas even tighter. Splits started forming around his shoulder and face.
"I was wrong. You're not a little kid anymore, Kit…Evelot. You don't need my protection. You had every right to learn the truth, and we failed you. I'm sorry. I won't get in your way anymore. I promise. If you think this is the only way you can find satisfaction, then do as your Greed tells you. That's how I lived my life."
The rips across his body grew louder, blood spraying and dripping from his body. A large split tore through the left side of his face, close to being torn in two.
"But at least allow me one piece of advice: there's a reason it's called the unobtainable treasure. Some things in this world are desired more than anything, and the destination to that fabled treasure can drive a man insane. However, the journey can make it enrichening. I admit it. I only accepted the job as your bodyguard to learn the secrets of immortality, something the Fauchers have been researching. But regardless of what I desired, my time under your family was genuine. If all we ever focused on was what we desired and not the journey getting toward that impossible destination…that's the Greed you're feeling right now."
The claws tightened deeper into his skin, tensing up for the final attack.
Babylas grinned as his body started tearing apart. "I won't get in your way, but…I promise, I'll still be doing my job from the shadows. Watching over you. All you need to do is call my name, and I will save you—"
RIIIIIP!
The Banette's body was torn to shreds with one final pull of the shadow claws, sending his fabric-like skin fluttering through the darkness. Evelot stared at the fluttering mess and scoffed as darkness faded from around the flesh, revealing nothing more than the broken shell of a carapace in their place.
The darkness encompassing the atmosphere receded just as quickly as it had formed, returning light to the outside world. Evelot hovered high above in the air, her right eye permanently aglow in the swirling red. She turned around and glared into the distance, seemingly focusing on something.
Down on the ground, the darkness that invaded the company faded from their eyes, and they awoke with a startled gasp. They coughed and sputtered, throwing up black sludge onto the ground before picking themselves up. The world spun around them, their bodies staggering as if strapped down by anvils.
"W…What happened…?" Phoebe groaned.
"Did…Did we make it in time?" Amos muttered.
Caractacus found his senses first and looked toward the sky. His heart sank. "Guys…"
Everyone looked up and saw Evelot floating high above, the intense glow of her eye shining like the brightest star. She was a mess. The paint on her costume was smudged, the costume itself was in tatters, and the eye sockets were stained in the permanent black tear marks.
"My destiny…the 31st Rebirth Moon…" Evelot muttered. "I'll find Spring-Loaded Harriet, and she'll pay for her crimes."
Phoebe's eye widened. "No…Evelot?"
"Evelot…?" Magni mumbled.
Amos smacked his tail down and launched himself on a geyser of sand. He reached out with his mechanical claw, shouting, "EVELOT, DON'T—"
He missed by a few inches before the Mimikyu vanished within a portal of darkness. His pincer snapped over the lingering darkness, catching only a shred of Evelot's costume.
The Broken Glass Alchemical Company stared in horror at the lingering cloud of shadow, the weight of their efforts finally crashing down over them. Having survived death, running for days in the hopes of catching up with their friend, and battling through the toughest fights of their lives, they found themselves back at square one. They failed to save her. Again.
No. It was worse than that.
Evelot Faucher, the sweet alchemist that entered their lives…
She may be gone forever.