31st Rebirth Moon, 908 – Early Hours of the Night – Mt. Algus

Evelot traversed her way through the darkness, almost on autopilot. She hardly considered where she was going, only that she was going in the right direction. The darkness warped her sense of time. Days turned to hours. Hours turned to minutes. Minutes turned to days. Repeat, repeat, repeat. No light at the end of the tunnel waiting for her. It was just this.

Thoughts of her friends occasionally surfaced to her mind, but were drowned at by the shape of her family's killer, overtaking the whole of her mind. Nothing but the sounds of her family's screams in their final moments. The rage of that night burned deep within her core, a feral desire clawing to the surface and only being suppressed by the Mimikyu's need to conserve her energy.

There was no point to anything anymore. She needed this. Nothing else but this. Would it make her feel better? Would she find satisfaction in that monster's death? Perhaps not. But what else mattered in the end? The world was still a cruel, uncaring place. Monsters will always exist. Monsters create monsters. She was a monster on the hunt for the monster that created her.

There was no good left in the world. There was only this bleak darkness.

How naïve, she felt, to believe there was a chance for kindness in this horrible world.

No matter how much she wanted to believe good and kindness were the keys to a perfect world, it was nothing more than a fantasy.

She will slaughter Spring-Loaded Harriet. Then perhaps she will become the new face of terror in the world. Who knows? Nothing else matters.

Evelot rose from the darkness, feeling the sudden night chill breeze across her tattered costume. She lifted her hollow gaze, peering through the night to see the base of Mt. Algus standing before her.

A mountain of grand scale, towering so high that it vanished within the clouds accumulating around it. A mighty mountain that housed a mightier kingdom, said to be unconquerable thanks to the Algusian people's adaptation to the high terrain. Strong of body, adapted to the high altitude, and resistant to the cold, only the strongest could live on such a towering landmass.

Evelot ceased her marveling and shuffled through the snow to the main road up the mountain. As she approached it, her eyes fell upon someone guarding the entrance. She didn't waver in her approach, hardly giving the guard a passing glance even as she detected his immense aura despite his idleness.

"…You finally made it." Two red eyes gleamed from within the guard's hood. "So, you've chosen this path. Is this the tapestry you wish to weave?"

"…" Evelot shuffled past him. "I just want to see her dead."

Absalom nodded slowly. "Fulfill your destiny, Evelot Faucher. Will you survive this battle or fall victim to the demon that awaits you? Two destinies intertwining with each other, all fighting to resolve a feud unseen. Thus the cycle of hatred continues."

She ignored the Annihilape, instead focusing on her climb up the mountain, bundling herself tight in her costume for the frigid air. She glared daggers to the obscured peak, sensing the source of her contempt. Waiting for the Mimikyu's arrival.

Blood was spilt years ago, and now Evelot was here to return it in kind.

Absalom watched the Mimikyu ascend the path, then exhaled a deep breath. "What outcome will come from the weaving of this tapestry? What role has Fate left up to you, Young Faucher?"

Great Ruins Canyon

An eerie howl flowed through the canyon residing within the abandoned ruins of Virdis, haunted by the ghost of death. The hissing of mist as it traveled along the wind like the shadow of Zacian herself turned feral. Mist-like claws dug through the sides of the rock walls, carrying the mass of toxic fog that brought about ash and dust wherever it set foot.

What little life that grew in the ruins decayed with the earth in the presence of this monster. It lurked in the dark, hunting its prey that had escaped. A single-minded desired haunted the scattered consciousness of the beastly fog, gleaming red eyes piercing and scanning. The armor of glowing eyes chained across its body let out low, screeching screams that howled like rain.

The ghost of Plouton, lumbering and howling, raised his head to the sky and laughed, desiring only one thing: to destroy all.

"Where are you, zygotes?! Don't you want to see…the pinnacle of scientific might?!"

Even deep within the walls of the canyon, safe for the time being by the monster looming outside, they could still hear his roars. Every little sound they heard made them tense as they traversed deeper into the rock, using the Burrowing Bullets they had sparingly while blasting down the tunnels to cover their tracks. Eventually, to preserve what little air they had, they made a small burrow to rest.

Phoebe pulled out her heated dagger, providing the bare minimum of light they needed, and stabbed it into the wall. She and Amos kept their breaths at a minimum, fearing how much air they had before they were forced to surface. They weren't entirely sure how deep they entered the earth. Amos, using what little of his Sand Sensory he could, manipulated Sandstorm to weather out a passageway straight to the surface, praying to bring some air down to them.

For now, it was a waiting game.

The constant battles in the last several days took their toll on the duo. Amos' clothes were in tatters, barely having the resemblance of a poncho hanging over his shoulders. Phoebe's jacket was torn to shreds, leaving her only with a tunic and her weather trousers. Both were riddled with cuts and bruises, especially Amos who slowly developed a black eye over his left. He had to remove his goggles to keep pressure off the injury, thankful the light from Phoebe's dagger wasn't too bothersome.

Tired. Afraid. Sad.

The reality of their fighting finally sunk in.

"…" Phoebe pulled her legs up to her chest and buried her face into her knees. "Magni…"

Amos closed his eyes. "We pushed him too hard."

"He wanted this. He went through so much just so we could reach Evelot." She clenched her teeth, feeling tears drip down her cheek. "D-Dammit. Dammit!" She punched the wall with her tail. "Why? Just why?! Of all the creatures in this Arceus' forsaken fucking world, why did it have to take it out on Magni?! Why him?! Why Evelot?! Why?! Just why?!"

"…I don't know."

"Why can't anything just go right for once?! What did we do wrong to deserve this?! It's this same shit every time! Jerks like that get what they want, and the rest of us get screwed over! If he wasn't already dead, I'd be stabbing that fucking skunk's neck until his head fell off! I just…I just…" Phoebe grabbed her face and growled. "WHY?!"

Amos didn't know what to say. He agreed with the irate Aipom. His entire life revolved around tragedy after tragedy. No rest for the weary, no justice for the forsaken. The very nature of the world, down to its primal roots, favored bloodshed and wickedness over kindness. Creation took effort. Destruction comes naturally. The mightiest structure could be built, a testament to time itself, and all it took was a single individual to deface and ruin what was held sacred. That was the way of the world. A world filled with sin.

Phoebe wiped her eye, shuddering as she tried to hold her anger in. "What do we even do now? We can't fight that thing. What was the point in Magni saving our lives if we're just going to end up like him? Putting his faith in us? He'll have died for nothing! It's hopeless!"

"…" Amos rested his head against the wall and sighed. "I miss him, too, Phoebe."

"…" She glared at the floor, sniffling. "He understood me better than anyone. Understood these…complicated feelings I have about my savage ancestry. This bloodlust inside of me. These instincts, this savagery, I feel. He understood that. He never needed to say it, but he understood. I wish, I wish, I could've talked to him more about myself. I wanted to know more about where I came from. I didn't want to feel like an outcast. He made me feel…normal." She closed her eye, grinding her teeth together. "I'm so angry. Why couldn't I have been stronger? Why did he have to die…?"

Amos narrowed his eyes unsurely. "I don't know."

"…Do you think people are born cursed?"

"Do you believe in curses?"

"If I asked Caractacus, he'd laugh in my face." She rubbed her eye. "I'd probably laugh, too, but look where we are now. Fighting the closest approximation to a demon we can get without invoking Arceus' wrath or whatever. Where are you now, Arceus? Is this more punishment to cleanse the blight off our souls? Just kill us already and get it over with!"

"…" Amos sighed. "There are mysteries in this world that stand the tests of mortality. There are things in this world we'll never understand in a lifetime. Just a speck in some grand scheme."

"Nothing but uselessness." She glanced at her dagger. "Do you think we'll be able to talk Evelot down?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think we can kill that thing outside?"

"…"

Phoebe grabbed the hilt of her dagger. "The way I see it, we could just off ourselves now so he doesn't get the satisfaction of ending us himself. One last act of spite before oblivion takes us—"

"I'm not killing myself. I don't plan on dying today."

She sighed, removing her hand from the weapon. "I didn't mean it like it was a good idea. Just a little dark humor to lighten the mood."

"It wasn't a good joke."

"It was to me. Screwed-up head, remember?" She sighed. "Sorry. Still…processing everything, I guess."

"…" Amos glared. "I don't know if we can kill Plouton anymore, but I rather not die and put Magni's sacrifice to waste. I just want to get out of here."

"And what about finding Evelot?"

"It's late out. We have no means of getting to the Algus Kingdom in time. It could take weeks to get there on foot, especially in our current state. We don't have food, either. I don't see how we could begin to reach her."

Phoebe frowned. "True…"

A silence hung between them, save for Amos' efforts to drill an airway for their burrow.

"…Hey, Lamecaster."

"Yeah?"

"Sorry for…the things I've said before."

"You've already apologized."

"Well, I'm apologizing again. Sure, you weren't the nicest guy in the world, but I wasn't any better. So, I'm sorry. Truly."

"…" He sighed. "I've said some things myself. I'm sorry, too. Where's this coming from?"

"We're stuck in here together. Just…wanted to get it off my chest. Let you hear it again and stuff." She hugged herself. "Maybe Evelot's been rubbing off on me. I couldn't imagine myself being nice to anyone until I met her. She…helped me figure myself out, and this little road trip helped me come to terms with myself. As fucked up as it's been, I'm…glad you stumbled into our lives."

Amos sighed. "I've been a terrible person for most of my life, and I've yet to come to terms with who I was. No, the person I still am. I see myself as beyond redemption."

Phoebe glared. "Oh, shut up. I don't need this melodrama crap stinking up our hidey hole, too. Look, you were an asshole and did some fucked up things. Some people will never forgive you or let you forget who you were. Me, personally? You're hundreds of times better than the jackasses up there who have been stirring the pot for centuries and meddling with our lives. I'd rather deal with a jerk who's open about himself than some lying scumbag who meddles and manipulates. At least you'll call me a bitch to my face instead of spreading that fake friendship shit."

Amos smiled bitterly. "Heh. Thanks, I guess." He lifted his pincer and stopped the sand flow. "My sand breached the surface. We should have air flowing down."

Phoebe stuck her hand towards the manmade vent and felt a small, frigid airflow passing through. "Will this be enough?"

"It'll need to." Amos crossed his arms and leaned back. "Let's try and rest until morning. If we're lucky, Plouton will give up and leave."

Phoebe scoffed. "One can only hope." She frowned. "…I hope Caractacus can reach her. I really do."

"He will. I know he will. Unlike before…"

"Caractacus isn't going to abandon a friend in need."

Running for several hours straight, Caractacus' legs trembled as he marched through the heavy snow. Barely giving himself a moment to rest, the Boltund panted heavily as the fire in his lungs diminished. The cold air blew in his face. His metal jaw radiated with a blistering cold that could be felt inside his mouth. Snow coated his back, which he shook off.

Alpha floated dutifully by the Boltund's side, making beeps and whirls at the exhausted inventor.

"I'm…I'm fine…" he huffed. He flicked the snow off his paw before brushing his face clean. He stood there a moment longer, catching his breath, before looking ahead.

In the distance, sitting above the horizon, was Mt. Algus. Wrapped in a light fog with snow blustering about, even at a distance, the mountain towered so high above the earth that its peak wasn't visible. A treacherous climb for the unprepared or faint of heart.

Caractacus wiped his nose, trying to sniff out his location through the cold air. With the wind blowing in his face, a scent traveling along caught his notice. It was a familiar scent. Not recent, but not from too long ago.

"Evelot…" he mumbled.

He sniffed the air again, catching whiff of another scent. This one, he wasn't as familiar with, but a memory from weeks ago resurfaced, linking him to the scent's origin.

He grimaced. "Oh no…he's here, too."

Alpha beeped at the Boltund, wondering what their next move was.

"…" Caractacus took a deep breath and continued his slow trudge through the snow. "Don't have a plan yet. Only…Only that we get to Evelot before anyone else. That's as close to a plan as I'll get for now."

Though he didn't look forward to what awaited him at the mountain, he swallowed his nerves and pressed on ahead. Time was of the essence now.

Great Ruins Canyon

Hiiiiiisssssssssssss

Amos' eyes fluttered open, his sleep disrupted by a low, hissing sound nearby. Feeling groggy and stiff from his injuries, he took a moment to stretch and wake himself up. He blinked twice, getting his eyes used to the darkness, and searched around for the source of the noise. He assumed the wind picked up outside and was making the sound through their airway.

"Hmm…?" He glanced at the airway, placing his ear close to it. Gradually, his grogginess faded as he focused more on the airway, realizing no such sound was coming through it. "What the…?"

He looked around, trying to pinpoint the source of the sound. Feeling around the wall, his metal pincer grazed past the source, briefly disrupting the noise. Amos looked toward it and instantly felt his heart sink.

A deep purple smog was penetrating through the earthy walls, seeping its way into the den. A glowing red orb appeared within the small trail of smog, locking eyes with the stunned Gligar.

"Shit…SHIT!" He jumped back to the other side of the den. "Phoebe!" He stomped on the Aipom's stomach, knocking her awake with a wheezing gasp.

"Fuuuuuuck…!" She cradled herself onto the ground, holding her stomach. "Why was that your wake-up call for—" He grabbed her by the collar and lifted her in view of the smog. Phoebe raised her heated dagger to get some light and shrieked. "Fuck, fuck, fuck!"

"There…you…are!" Plouton's ghastly voice projected, a more defined shape taking form as more smog entered the den. "Thought you could escape me~?"

Amos quickly loaded his mechanical pincer and fired a Burrowing Bullet through the wall, creating a tunnel. "Run!" Grabbing their stuff, the duo raced down the tunnel with Phoebe's dagger lighting the way. Plouton cackled, his gaseous body prying itself from the wall and giving chase after them.

Amos fired and created another tunnel for the duo to duck into. He reloaded immediately and unloaded the bullets into the walls, creating six different paths. He grabbed Phoebe and pulled them both down one tunnel heading straight down just before Plouton caught up.

"Where do you think you're going? Don't you want to see the pinnacle of brilliance firsthand? Don't you want to make history like your worthless steed?"

Phoebe nearly shouted back in anger, but Amos covered her mouth just as they reached the bottom. They waited for Plouton to check one of the other tunnels before continuing their escape. Amos loaded up his pincer again and created more tunnels, undoubtably alerting the gaseous skunk to their location.

"More tricks, huh? Nothing I can't overcome!"

Phoebe winced between each shot and shouted, "Please tell me you have a bottomless bag of those!"

Amos dug around in his bag and grimaced. "I only have a few cases left. You?"

"I've got some, but not much." She punched herself in the forehead. "You've got to be shitting me! Going through the canyon was the worst place to escape to! He has us trapped!"

"Don't panic yet! We can still get to the surface!"

"I don't think that'll end our immediate problem here!"

They felt the heat rising behind him. They mistakenly looked over their shoulders to see a rush of superheated light flooding the tunnel on a direct course for them.

"Shit!" Amos gasped.

Phoebe quickly armed herself, smacking a bullet into her rifle, and fired. "Brace yourself, Lamecaster!"

The bullet connected, releasing a supercold wave that flash-froze the tunnel instantly. The laser instantly dispersed, flooding the tunnel in mist. They heard Plouton screeching within the tunnel, seemingly retreating.

Phoebe laughed awkwardly. "Hoo boy, that was too close…"

Amos stumbled, covering himself as the deathly cold hit him like a landslide. "Th-Think that s-s-scared him off?"

CRACK!

They turned their eyes up and gasped as the tunnel started sinking above them. Amos fired another Burrowing Bullet, and the duo leapt into the new tunnel before the earth collapsed over them. Mist and ice were thrown at them by the time the tunnel was completely submerged.

"He's in the walls!" Phoebe screamed. "He's in the Arceus-damned walls!"

"He was already in the walls, you idiot!" Amos fired and created another tunnel for them to escape through. "I don't know if I have enough to get us back to the surface, especially with him above us."

"How the hell do you fight sentient gas?!" Phoebe shouted.

"Ask the nearest Gastly if we don't die first!"

Right as they were about make another tunnel, jets of gas penetrated the walls, disintegrating all it brushed against. The duo flailed backwards to get away as more gas pumped into the tunnel, causing more of the earth to collapse over them.

Amos glared. "Let me try something! Sandstorm!" He raised his arms and blasted down the tunnel with sand, pushing the smog back and using it to drill a path through the earth.

Phoebe gasped. "Lamecaster, you absolute madman!"

"Go!" They raced down the tunnel, funneling as much of the gas through Amos' Sandstorm to keep themselves safe while drilling their way through.

"Can't protect yourselves forever!" More gas pumped through the tunnel behind them, causing another cave in. Worst of all, the gas they had gathered was starting to lose its potency the further down they went.

"Please tell me you had a backup plan!" Phoebe shouted.

"You can come up with some ideas yourself!" Amos snapped.

"My specialty is more in line with stab everything in that general direction!"

Amos watched as the last of the funneled gas dissolved in his sandstorm. He stopped and turned the storm around, blasted it into the approaching gas. However, Plouton just flooded the other end once it was no longer being obstructed.

"Don't you get it? I have evolved beyond weakness! I existed on a plane of reality you could never reach! I have truly become one with scientific brilliance! Oh, Cain's theory worked wonders! If only he could see the results himself right now!"

Amos stopped blasting the smog away and coiled the storm around himself and Phoebe as it closed in. They stood back-to-back, keeping their distance as the sandstorm funneled and shifted the smog in front of them. Phoebe glared over her shoulder and whispered, "What the hell is that quack up to if this was an expected result?"

Amos growled. "I'm not too keen on answers, unless one of them has the solution to getting us out of here."

Phoebe clenched her fists. "There's nowhere to escape to! He has the entire underground completely locked down. Even if we get back to the surface, he'll chase us to the ends of the earth. On top of that, he's a sentient fucking death cloud!"

As much as he hated to admit it, Amos knew they were completely out of their depth. They were dealing with forces beyond comprehension all in the name of finding their lost friend. After countless tiring battles, was this eldritch abomination going to be the thing that does them in?

He wondered how the Dukes were. Some part of him wanted to believe they were still out there, alive and well, but they, too, must've been fighting for their lives. The constant running and fleeing from danger would take its toll on the bravest of souls, and now they were faced with odds stacked so high against them that death was the only foreseeable mercy.

"We're all in this together, Amos. Either way, we're at risk of dying. This way just offers us the best chance to escape."

"…" Amos clenched his teeth. "Althalos…" He snapped his pincers together and glared at the encroaching fog. "I'm not dead yet!"

Phoebe winced as the fog nearly brushed against her face. "Please tell me that's your way of saying you have a plan!"

With not much to work with, Amos dug through his bullet pouch, hoping to have one that could serve as the key to escape. However, he stopped searching for a moment, then looked to Phoebe. "Wait, we don't need bullets!"

"Huh?"

"Forced Drawing!"

"…" Phoebe's eye widened. "Fuck, that's right!"

"You won't be able to use Metronome for a while, but—"

"Just tell me what move we need!"

"Force out Teleport! I'll use Mimic on it!"

The sandstorm barrier slowly disintegrated around them, and the fog moved in to ensnare the duo. Phoebe forced herself to activate Teleport through her Forced Drawing, and Amos immediately used Mimic to copy the energy flow. He grabbed hold of the Aipom and focused before teleporting out of the earth.

Amos and Phoebe reappeared above ground, crashing down onto their faces. They groaned, pulling themselves up and looking around to confirm their environment. It was pitch-black outside, and the air was frigid with snow sprinkling through the air.

Phoebe cackled with relief. "Hoo boy, what a rush! That was too close! Nice going, Lamecaster—"

"I wouldn't celebrate just yet."

The two stepped back as geysers of deathly fog jettisoned from the ground, rising into towering plumes. The signature eye patterns opened across the shape, chain-like patterns holding them down. The beastly skunk took shape within the fog, pressing his claws down and burning the snow under his paws.

Plouton's face took shape, and he laughed. "Oh goodie! You plan to run away, little zygotes? Run as far as you like! I'll never stop chasing you! Last Autumn will never stop chasing you! Not until we've seen the new world reborn!"

Amos glared. He opened his mechanical pincer and loaded it. "We're not running away this time." He snapped it shut and aimed. "We're going to end this. Here and now!"

Plouton cackled. "You think you can challenge me? What hope can two inferior lifeforms hope to accomplish against an ascended being?"

Phoebe smirked, feeling her previous fears and doubts dissipate in favor of her rage. "You're no god, asshole. Doesn't matter if you don't have a physical body anymore. After all, this is just science, right? Meaning, it has an explanation…and a way to destroy it!"

Amos glared. She's right. This may look overwhelming to us, but it's not magic or something absurd. He keeps boasting about this being science. He focused on the eyes chained around the skunk's gaseous form. And whatever's holding Alpha's kind hostage in that misshapen death trap is the key to the truth.

"Foolish! Absolute foolishness!" Plouton taunted. "I am a genius! What can you hope to accomplish with minds so pitiful and inferior?"

Phoebe laughed. "I may not be too smart, but I know how to kill! You're just a different type of science project for me!" She grinned at Amos. "Come on, Lamecaster! Magni put his faith in us to kill this asshat, so let's show him what two psychotic, rookie alchemists can really do!"

Amos steadied his arm, peering down his mechanical pincer with a fire in his eyes. "Right there behind you."

Plouton smirked. "Oh, so that's how you want to play, huh?" The eyes across his body screeched even louder as energy and gas erupted out across him. "Well, I'd be ever so glad to continue this experiment. I'll even do you the service of sending you directly to your friend. Straight toward oblivion!"