"'Hungry?' What do you mean by that?" Wyldfyre was confused.
"Hello? Oni blood here." The being pointed to itself. "Onis eat humans and you guys are human elemental masters! This will be a good feast!" It started shaking out of excitement.
"Being hungry is not an excuse to eat us, there are other plenty animals and berries!"
"I know, but humans with elemental powers are a special delicacy! I just got awakened and already got such a present! I wonder what else this world has in store for me… Maybe big cities that let out breath-taking screams out of terror of seeing themselves and their loved ones killed!" A bit of saliva got out of its mouth but the Corrupted Conduit wiped it away.
"But- But it's not fair! We still have so much to do! I still have to find my parents!" Arin panicked.
"I need to get Jay's memory back!"
"I've got enough memories as I do, lady!"
"I need to find P.I.X.A.L!"
It let out an exasperated sigh, rolled its eyes in annoyance and did the blah-blah sign with its hand, the tongue now sticking out.
"You already had your turn for years! And you did nothing, meanwhile I on the other hand, got created, saved your useless butts from ThumderFang and the Forbidden Five and did all of that in a few minutes! You couldn't be that useful for about 3 decades!"
"Hey, we saved Ninjago and the other realms countless times! So don't you talk to us about being useless!" Cole shot back.
The Corrupted Conduit looked at the Earth ninja for a few moments, as if he didn't expect for anyone to talk back to him and then laughed like a maniac for a good few minutes.
"What's so funny?"
"That was when Ninjago was Ninjago, not the Merged Realms, so, after that you were pretty much inadequate to this whole… New…World." It smiled sharply." Sure, saving a few families and protecting them was…What's the word that I can say without throwing up? 'Nice'. But the whole 'Merge quakes' situation was actually handled by the Conduit, not you, without him you'd be dead." It lowered its body a bit, readying to launch itself at one of the Ninja, but it was unclear at which one.
"H-He's right." Sora's face turned pale. "Without the Conduit – Without Lloyd, we wouldn't be standing here at all! And we just started hunting him, to 'fix' everything… Everything that was already fixed before the tiger showed up."
"My parents weren't 'fixed', Sora!"
"And all those people that were lost in the Merge are still missing or a certain one with… Amnesia."
"I don't have amnesia, didn't you hear me the first time?!" Jay was pretty frustrated.
"We all know what happened and what didn't! But maybe the Merge caused some of us to have a taste of freedom and acceptance! We're not achieving anything by just going after a guy, a friend that might undo something that brought more than half of the Realms good! This is about everyone, not just us!"
"Then stop using everyone else as an excuse for wanting to stay happy yourself, Pinky!" Man, Arin was really blazing with anger inside of him.
"Then how about instead of going on a wild-goose chase, we actually try searching the Merged Realm-"
"Look out!" Cole shouted and pushed Sora out of the way, a huge boulder hit him through the mountain's wall.
Everyone but the Corrupted Conduit looked in awe.
It started sarcastically clapping, another huge boulder under its leg, looking like a regular football ball.
"Amazing! That was a really nice dramatic performance, 'Pinky'. But, seriously, let's get some action."
The being started kicking the boulder up and down, as if playing, then suddenly launched the boulder straight at Sora at lightning speed. "Heads up!.. Try not to evade it."
"What-!"
Jay immediately got up and ran as fast to the girl as he could, safely landing her out of harm's way.
"Finally!"
"What are you doing, Green ninja!" Jay shouted at it.
"I see you're incredibly quick to talk, but not to listen."
It raised one of its hands to the heart and a huge purple and red surge came out.
"Enough playing." The eyes suddenly became bloodthirsty and glowing.
Not even a second had passed and the Corrupted Conduit already already closed in on Jay and game a good punch to the gut, the power surge still flowing through the hand.
The Lightning ninja flew back.
No one had time to react.
The entity gave a lightning fast kick to Arin, Riyu, Wyldfyre and Sora, all of them falling unconscious.
Nya, Zane and an injured Ras got into fighting positions.
Zane froze the being's feet and hands into the ground and Nya put a water bubble on its head, Ras took out his mallet and started punching the entity's body as much as his own let him.
The Corrupted Conduit closed its eyes.
"I-I'm so sorry, Lloyd…" Nya's eyes filled with tears. "This is the only way to calm you for now."
The being's eyes lit up a different shade of purple.
"Are you sure about that?" The water muffled the entity's words a bit.
Nya, Zane and Ras shot back, but the Corrupted Conduit broke free, took Ras by his foot then swung him across himself, the other hand now held the tiger's mallet.
Both hands let go, the mallet flew at Zane and the tiger flew at Nya.
"So… Maybe there was some truth in her words, huh…"
The Corrupted Conduit charged up its fists, blipped to Nya's side and nearly landed a life-ending hit at her.
Nearly…
What stopped him?
Nya opened her eyes.
The Corrupted Conduit was glitching and shattering, then going back to normal again.
The purplish pink that surrounded him as of now only got bigger.
The entity let out an ear-piercing scream, cracks surfaced on its body, bits of tears now appearing on its face.
Then suddenly Lloyd came through and did the fist-and-palm gesture, the pink and green engulfing the purple and red, Lloyd also.
The mountain lit up in a bright light.
Meanwhile, Kai and Bonzle in the crumbling Nether Space:
"You also feel that right?"
"Of course I feel it!"
"Oh, good, then you also probably see the weird brown-haired, purple and red phantom version of my brother, right?" Kai pointed to the core of the destruction.