//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: Ω // Story: Apple Bloom's Mansion 4: The Castle of Death // by Lucar //------------------------------// Thanatos was very excited as he watched the hunters enter his apartments. He then took the last golden piece, a pony skull, and placed it. "My greatest creation... Powerful, but totally loyal to me, unlike another creation which I won't name. Deadly, but magnificent. He was made to be the End. He is the result of centuries of perfecting my powers. I'm even proud enough of him to consider him my son! And he already started to play with you, that little rascal! Now, be ready to face... the Ω!" Door closing and locking itself behind them? Yup, they were near the last guardian! But it will still take some time before they could fight whatever it will be. The part of the fourth floor they were in only had one hallway traversing it South to North before turning West at the end, and from what they could see thanks to the visors despite the near total darkness of the place, there was a total of seven doors. Suddenly, five of those skeletal claws came out of portals in the hallway and faced the hunters. One of them signed them to approach while another did a rude gesture and a cackle came out of the portals before they each passed through a door (the portals following them so they could move). The only doors where none of the claws went through were the last one in the right and the last one in the left. Understanding what they had to do, the hunters entered the closest room: the first one in the right. It led to a more private dinning room worthy of a king with a small table and only one chair below a chandelier, along with a clock beside a window, a picture of an army of skeletons playing trumpets, and a portrait of Thanatos. There was also a door in the East side, near the Northeastern corner. Then, the claw which was present in the room pointed a finger at the picture with the skeletons, and said skeletons came out of it and began to attack the hunters with music notes fired from their trumpets! That thing could give life to pictures, like Pyrite! Thankfully, the skeletons were easy to destroy. The main difficulty was that the claw was attacking them at the same time, notably by throwing the table around without even breaking it. So, even if they destroyed some of the skeletons, the hunters mainly targeted the claw to make it stop. Once the claw retreated through the East door, they then finished the skeletons, ending the fight in this room. The hunters then passed the East door and entered a balcony where they had a more basic fight against the claw, like in the third floor. The claw attacked them with different attacks they were starting to get used to, and the hunters countered with the Poltergun beams until it disappeared into its portal. The hunters then went to the next room, the first one in the left of the hallway, the living room, with a very comfy couch in front of a fireplace with a giant portrait of Thanatos on it. A small round table with a tea set was at the left of the couch, and there was a bookshelf full of books against the South wall. Some potted dead plants in the corners and a few stuffed heads of ponies hanging from the walls finished to decorate the room. And the claw in the room used its powers to give life to the books, to the couch, to the pony heads, and to the fire in the fireplace! "That's Eternal Rest all over again!" said Sweetie Belle. "Excepted that Eternal Rest never animated fire," said Apple Bloom before she fired water at the animated fire. AJ dealt with the couch, and the clones of goo burned the books, leaving only the pony heads which were disturbingly floating around trying to headbutt the hunters. Little Ghost made short work of them, and the claw decided that it was time to retreat. "How will we be able to capture that thing if it continues to disappear into these portals?" wondered Scootaloo. "If we continue to push his claws back, he'll be forced to show himself," said Apple Bloom. "But he may not be the only danger. I don't know if you remarked, but I think that we're in Thanatos' apartments," said Little Ghost with a small movement of her head toward Thanatos' portrait on the fireplace. "Who knows what he has hidden there." Apple Bloom shivered at this. They exited the living room and passed the next door, the second one in the left side of the hallway. They entered a room with four wardrobes and some shelves full of shoes, hats, and even some wigs. Between two of the wardrobes was a body-sized mirror on the wall, and there was even a mannequin of Thanatos in the center of the room. Mannequin that was given life by the claw in the room. But the claw did more than that, he also animated the wardrobes and even the clothes to make them look as if they were worn by someone invisible. The hunters remarked that some of the clothes were made of fur, and none of them wanted to know from where that fur had come from. At least, the clothes, like the books in the previous room, were easy to destroy. A lot of fire was involved while Applejack and Little Ghost destroyed the wardrobes with, respectively, mighty bucks and powerful blasts of energy. They discovered at this that one of the wardrobes was actually the entrance to another room. The claw entered said room, leaving the hunters to deal with what remained, which didn't take long. They then followed the claw to the other room, which revealed to be some kind of treasure room full of, not gold or jewels, but artefacts. Amulets, staffs, weapons of all kinds, shields, robes, masks, and so on. The claw then animated the masks before it used its powers to take the staffs, weapons, shields, and amulets. It then disappeared with them in its portal. "Darn. He will power himself up with all these artefacts," said Sweetie Belle. Then, one of the masks flashed, and the next instant, the ponies dropped on the ceiling and walked upside down on it. «Oh my Celestia! The Gravity Mask!» shouted Twilight. «Wait, I recognize all these masks. I saw all of them in books. Be careful of the red one. If it places itself on your face, your body will explode the next few seconds. It was a trap mask.» "There's one who just disappeared," said Applejack. «The Invisibility Mask. Use your visor to spot this one. Beside the invisibility, it doesn't have any other power, but it still could be a nuisance. As for the last mask... Well, avoid to have it placed on your face too. It turns whoever wears it into an enraged beast. Saddle Rager full berserker.» «Ouch...» said Spike at this. «I don't think it will work on a robotic body, so Applejack and Scootaloo should be safe from it. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, however...» "Thanks Twilight. So, me and Scootaloo'll deal with that last mask," said Applejack before she walked with Scootaloo toward their target which was already approaching them with the red mask. "Applegoo and Sweetiegoo should go after the red mask. Even if they explode, they will come back," said Sweetie Belle. "The problem is that they do whatever they want and don't always listen," said Apple Bloom. But she didn't have to worry in the end. Applegoo and Sweetiegoo followed Applejack and Scootaloo to deal with the red mask and the berserker mask. "Well, that's good. Little Ghost, ya'd deal with the Gravity mask. Ya won't be affected if it changes gravity again," instructed Apple Bloom. "Yes ma'am!" replied the filly ghost. "This leaves the Invisibility Mask to us, Apple Bloom," said Sweetie Belle before she started to look around with her visor. "Here it is!" "Ah see it too! Let's go deal with it," said Apple Bloom. The masks were hard to hit, but they weren't too hard to destroy thankfully. The Gravity Mask was the first to be destroyed thanks to a simple energy ball from Little Ghost, returning the gravity to normal. The Berserker Mask then went after Apple Bloom while Applejack and Scootaloo recovered from the fall that resulted, but the filly saw it coming and used the handle of her Poltergust like a bat to hit it and send it flying away, making it crash into a wall. It wasn't enough to destroy it, but Scootaloo finished it by rolling on it in her scooter form. Meanwhile, Applejack barely avoided the red mask and attempted to punch it, only for it to avoid her before trying to get on her face again. But it was then hit by an ice shard fired by Sweetiegoo, giving the mare the opportunity to break it. At the same time, Sweetie Belle caught the Invisibility Mask, placed it on the ground, and smashed it. "Well, these masks weren't that hard," said Sweetie Belle. «Of course. Their purpose was to be worn,» said Twilight with some sadness. These masks were priceless, especially the Gravity Mask. "But now, the guardian has all these artefacts. Have you recognized some of them, Twilight?" asked Little Ghost. «I recognized the Dark Sword. It was a sword made by Sombra, full of dark magic. There was also the Sea Lord Trident, but it won't be of much help here. Whoever possesses the trident has total control over the oceans, but there are no oceans in the Spiritual World. The Shield of White Sun, a shield that can absorb magic and other projectiles of energy and fire back the accumulated energy into a powerful attack. The Fireshield Amulet which augments the bearer's protection against fire. The Windcutter, a sword that can cut even the air. The Dragon Slayer, another sword that can cut though the scales of a dragon as if they were butter. The-» Having seen the number of artefacts the claw took, the hunters had the feeling that this would continue many minutes, so they decided to go to the next room while Twilight talked. It was much further down in the hallway, the second door in the right side. It led to a big bathroom with a huge bathtub that was filled with water. Water that the claw in the room animated before flying through the South wall where there was another door. And while the hunters froze and destroyed the golem of water, Twilight continued to list the artefacts she recognized. «The Eternal Shield, which is said to be totally indestructible. The Feather Amulet, which makes you lighter to the point that you can walk on water. The-» «I think you should stop there Twilight. They can't listen correctly while they fight,» said Rarity. «But they need to know all the artefacts that thing took!» «Then tell them while they don't fight,» said Rainbow Dash. «Mmh... I suppose it will be better. Alright. They shouldn't take long to destroy that water golem anyway. Aaand they're done.» Applejack bucked the frozen golem, destroying it. Then, before Twilight could restart to list the artefacts, the hunters passed the South door. And she didn't start in the next room because she was has shocked as everyone else at seeing what was in there: a pool. A pool of blood. Thanatos had a pool of blood in his apartments. "Ugh... This guy's no limit..." said Apple Bloom. Then, she saw the claw pointing a finger at the pool and paled. "Wait... It'll-?" And yes, it did. The claw fired a bolt of energy at the pool, and the next instant, the blood formed a giant golem. "That's one golem that I never wanted to encounter..." said Sweetie Belle. The claw then flew away again, passing through the South wall and leaving the hunters to fight its creation. But even if it was bigger and made of blood instead of water, the golem could still be frozen, so the hunters began to fire ice at it while avoiding the tentacles of bloods and projectiles of blood. Because of its size, freezing it took time, so the hunters broke the frozen pieces to reduce its size and make it easier. They also made sure to throw the pieces through the windows in the East wall to ensure that the golem wouldn't reabsorb them. Eventually, the golem was destroyed with an energy blast from Little Ghost. "I thought we had gotten past the bloody stuff after the North Wing and the dungeon!" shouted Scootaloo. "We'll get past the bloody stuff once we're out of this castle," replied Apple Bloom. At this, they followed the claw again. They passed the door at the South and entered a sauna. It was very hot in there, and there was so much vapor that the ponies couldn't see beyond their muzzle. Thankfully, they had the infrared visor to see where it was cold so they could see the emplacement of the claw (because it was well known that it was cold around ghosts). But even with this, they could barely see the attacks coming, so some of the hunters sucked up the vapor while the others attacked the claw. Before long, they could see well enough without visor that they could fight and force the claw to retreat into its portal without taking much hits. This left only one claw. «Ok, Twilight, you can continue while they move to the last Bony Hand,» said Pinkie Pie. «Bony Hand?» asked Rainbow Dash. «Somepony had to name these things. Apple Bloom hadn't done it yet.» "Ah's waiting to name whatever they belonged to," said Apple Bloom. «At least you now have a name for these things instead of just calling them 'things' or 'claws'.» «Anyway, I will do like you said, Pinkie, and restart my list where I stopped it while you go fight the last claw... Uh... Bony Hand,» said Twilight. «So, there was...» And so, while Twilight continued, and finished, the list of artefacts she saw the Bony Hand take, the hunters returned in the hallway and passed the third door in the left side behind which the last Hand awaited them. And the room... It was probably the worst room of the castle. Yes, worst than any other room the hunters explored in this castle until now, even the North Wing and the dungeon. What if a torture room also served as a game room (like the one beside the Great Hall in the second floor, but worst) and also as an art room? It was this room. A part of this room was full of objects made from body parts. For example, there was an harp made from bones and skin, the strings were catgut, and the head of a pony decorated the top. The other part of the room was full of corpses, victims killed in various ways, messages depicting how they died or why Thanatos did this, like "This one didn't escape the water tank in time!" beside a locked water tank with a body inside, or "Made a tournament to see which one lived longer. Without surprise, the pegasus won. Should have cut the wings to make it more fair. The earth pony lost first." beside the hanging corpses of an unicorn, an earth pony, and a pegasus. Thanatos at his best! Or rather, his worst! He plays with his victims, and then he uses them as material to satisfy his artistic fibre! For a moment, the ponies almost forgot the Bony Hand in the room. It animated the corpses and the objects! In the few cases where the animated corpses were trapped (like the one in the water tank), the claw also freed them. The ponies were used to fighting animated corpses by now, the graveyard had been full of them after all, and they were more than happy to destroy these abominable objects. Some still targeted the Bony Hand first to force it to retreat to make it stop from attacking them. With the number of objects and corpses in the room, Little Ghost decided to use attacks that could hit wide areas. Sweetie Belle used her singing to boost Applejack's strength so she could create more powerful shockwaves. Thanks to them, the battle was quickly over, turning the room into a bloody mess. So, once they were done there, the ponies quickly left the room. They thankfully didn't have to search where to go next. Immediately when they returned in the hallway, a Bony Claw came out of a portal where it turned West and signed the ponies to follow it before it flew away. The ponies immediately followed it down the hallway and saw it pass through a door at the end of it. And so, they entered the room that was just above the auditorium, which was just as large, but not as tall (only one level, and the ceiling was sloping in the extremities because they were just under the roof). It could have been an attic for the castle, but it revealed to be used for another purpose. There were stuffed ponies and other creatures a little everywhere, like statues. Beings that were killed by Thanatos and that were left there like trophies. And apparently, Twilight recognized some great historical figures that had mysteriously disappeared. Then, Apple Bloom saw something and gasped. In the middle of the ground was Applejack's body! Reconstituted, but still trapped in crystal in the monstrous form it possessed when she had been killed! Like all the other bodies in the room, it was on a pedestal, a very small one because the body was already almost reaching the ceiling, and on it was a plate with written: "The Element of Honesty, Applejack Killed by her own sister" Beside the pedestal was another one, taller, with a plate on which was written: "The Greatest Ghost Hunter of All Time, Apple Bloom Lost to one of my games" Apple Bloom growled. "He dares use Applejack's body as a trophy?" Applejack also growled. "And he's planning to do the same to ya if ya die." «Nice of him to at least acknowledge your competence. He doesn't do that often,» said Discord. "Uh... Don't you forget about something?" asked Little Ghost before she pointed at the Bony Hand floating beside Applejack's body. Apple Bloom's growl deepened. "If that thing dares..." The Bony Hand suddenly fires a bolt of energy at Applejack's body, animating it, crystal included. "It dared. That thing definitively joins mah list of beings Ah hate most with Thanatos, Eternal Rest, and Pyrite," said Apple Bloom. "Ah CAN'T wait to fight him, now. Ah really can't." While she talked, the Hand animated the other bodies in the room. There was a little of everything. Ponies, zebras, minotaurs, griffons, yaks, the bipedal cats whose ghosts she had fought from time to time, and so on. But Applejack's body, because of its condition, was by far the most dangerous. At least, there wasn't any dragon. For this one, Apple Bloom decided to turn herself into a ghost. She wanted this to be over quickly. So she blasted Applejack's body with enough power to make it explode, and then, she teleported beside the Bony Hand and cut it with her new necromancy powers, making the thing it belonged to yell in pain before the portal closed. The now disembodied Bony Hand then disappeared before Apple Bloom returned herself to normal. With the two main threats gone, the other animated bodies were easily defeated. «Crimini, Apple Bloom! You sure made him regret what he did! I didn't even know it was possible to dismember a ghost,» said E. Gadd. «It's part of the power of necromancy. Necromancy can shape a soul, so dismembering it... or even killing the soul...» said Discord. "Wait, what? Ah can kill a ghost, now?" asked Apple Bloom in shock. «That's really one of the top powers of necromancy. You can turn the soul back into the energy it was born from, thus totally erasing it. But don't worry, it's not something that can be done just by beheading the soul. It's more... complicated.» "Okay... Ah don't need to know. Ah don't intend to erase anybody from existence, not even Thanatos. Ah've something else in mind for him." Apple Bloom then looked around at the pieces of Applejack's body. "Isn't there something we can do about AJ's body?" «Not unless you get the pieces out of the castle. The only other way is to get rid of the castle's ward that's interfering with my magic,» answered Discord. «If you capture Thanatos, this should be easy.» Apple Bloom nodded, and at this, the hunters left the room and returned to the first part of the hallway. Only two doors remained, and after verification, the last one in the left side of the hallway simply led to a restroom, so the ponies opened the last door in the right side and began to climb the spiral staircase that started just behind it. The last tower of the castle, the tallest one. They climbed. And climbed. And climbed. Every now and then, they passed a window that showed good views of the castle below. That they managed to explore all of it still was very impressive for them. Then, they reached the top of the stairs and entered what seemed to be Thanatos' chamber. A super king-sized four-poster bed was present in the West side of the room. The columns and panel on top were made from bone tissue, with a pony skull decorating the front of the panel. Not far in front of the bed was a small table below a chandelier made of bones, and there were tapestries on the walls depicting Thanatos. Finally a door-window leading to a balcony was present in the East side, not far of the stairs. Above it was the skeleton of a pony holding a scythe hanging from the wall like a gargoyle. A Bony Hand then came out of a portal, now equipped with some of the stolen artefacts (only amulets, around the fingers), and animated the skeleton above the window-door before attacking. Some of the amulets only boosted its already great powers while others added protections, so the claw was much more dangerous than the previous times, but it still was only one Hand against seven hunters. While it was busy sending dozens of projectiles of energy at Apple Bloom, the others, who had already destroyed the skeleton, attacked it from the sides and from behind. Some well-placed shots even managed to destroy one of the amulets. Then, the Bony Hand stopped attacking before it was enveloped in a purple aura. Its palm then faced upward, and it clenched its fingers. The next instant, the walls and the ceiling were enveloped in the same purple aura before they were levitated and thrown away, freeing space and revealing that the balcony surrounded the round room. Then, five more Bony Hands, all of them equipped with artefacts, came out of portals and surrounded the hunters. "Try to destroy the artefacts, girls!" shouted Apple Bloom. «Remember that some of them are indestructible!» said Twilight. "Watch out the shield that can absorb energy, Little Ghost!" said Sweetie Belle. "Which one is it?" asked the filly ghost. «The one with the white sun symbol,» answered Twilight. «Energy attacks don't work on it, but physical attacks still do. As much as it pains me to say this, if you hit it with enough force, you should break it.» Some of the artefacts, mainly the swords, staffs, and shields, floated beside the Hands so they could still attack normally, and they didn't hesitate to abuse it, attacking both with the artefacts and with beams, lasers, and other projectiles, or with attempts at crushing the hunters or pushing them beyond the edge of the balcony. Twilight's advices really were indispensable. Knowing which artefact did what helped the hunters from avoiding bad surprises such as that sword that could charge energy to send it in the form of a wave or that shield with a face that could fire a laser from its mouth. Applejack was able to destroy the Shield of White Sun with a buck boosted by Sweetie Belle's singing, leaving the way open for Little Ghost to do a carnage without too much risks. Thanks to her, the artefacts were destroyed one after another, making the fight easier and easier. The ponies had less difficulties firing at the Hands, but in return, the Hands did some new team attacks like that one where they all smashed the ground repeatedly at the same time, repeatedly creating six shockwaves. One of the Bony Hands created a big energy ball and sent it at another Hand. The second Hand then punched the ball and sent it toward a third Hand which did the same thing. One after another, the Hands punched and punched the ball, each time making it go faster and faster until one of the Hands finally sent it to crash on the ground in the center of the arena where it created an explosion that caught Sweetie Belle. While the Hands had been busy with the ball, the hunters attacked without remorse and destroyed a few more artefacts. So, when the Hands finished with the ball, they retreated into their portals, giving a moment of calm for the ponies to recover. It didn't last long. A huge portal suddenly opened above the castle, and out of it came a giant skeletal purple ghost. The hunters couldn't make out the details because of how fast the ghost was flying as he slithered between the spires and towers of the castle, but they could already see that he was like a giant snake that was so long that he could probably wrap the main wing of the castle with his body. He possessed six very long arms (it looked like the one that Apple Bloom cut regenerated), and a head that didn't seem to be snake-like. Actually, the upper body looked more like the torso of a minotaur. After it wrapped some of the spires and towers of the castle, the ghost then flew toward the tower the hunters were on and began to climb it from the base while wrapping it. He rapidly reached the balcony and revealed himself to his full glory to the ponies. Just the torso was almost as big as a dragon, and the arms reminded more of spider legs ending with the claws the hunters were now used to fight. The head was the one of a pony proportionate to the torso, but it had the particularity of having two curved horns more like the ones of a goat, and he only had one big eye! And his mouth was filled with very sharp fangs! And then, two giant bat wings revealed themselves on his back, obscuring part of the sky. Also, all the artefacts that hadn't been destroyed yet were still presents, either floating around him or worn around his fingers or his horns. Because of his skeletal body, it was hard to say if he was smiling or not, but the ponies could easily guess as the thing cackled before saying "MY NAME IS Ω! REMEMBER THIS AS I DESTROY YOU, BODY AND SOUL!" He then roared at the sky, and dark purple clouds materialized and began to swirl far above before purple lightning bolts started to rain everywhere on the roof of the castle. Your End Ω Ω looked down at the ponies, cackled again, and began to smash the balcony alternatively with two of his claws, each hit creating a shockwave which forced the ponies to continuously jump as they began to fire at him with everything they had. One claw began to sweep the area with lasers from its fingers, another fired homing projectiles of energy randomly at the hunters, a third one fired spear-like projectiles at the sky so they rained randomly all over the area, and the last claw directly attempted to slap the ponies. With all this, the ponies also had to be careful of the purple lightning that hit the area every now and then. The fight already revealed to be the hardest so far. Not only there were more attacks to avoid, but what served as the arena was much smaller than all the previous ones, and they had to watch out to not fall down the stairs or beyond the edge of the balcony. Already, Applegoo had been destroyed once. Red Mode was a must, but they had a hard time reaching the head (excepted Little Ghost) so they simply continued to attack from a distance. Regularly, Ω changed attacks, using everything he previously used when he had just shown his claws as well as whatever the artefacts could do (the Dark Sword was as dangerous as Twilight told them). At a moment, he lowered himself so his eye was at the level of the balcony and fired a big laser from his eye, moving it back and forth and changing its height so the ponies either had to jump or to duck to avoid it. More artefacts were destroyed, but this didn't seem to change much as Ω remained very powerful. With a swing of an arm, he created several dark crystals that moved through the arena. Using his fingers like guns, he fired at the sides groups of giant balls of purple fire that changed direction to traverse the arena. And he even created entities from shadows that were, thankfully, easy to destroy. Then, he caught Little Ghost, and he enveloped the claw holding her in purple electricity. The filly ghost's scream could be heard from everywhere. Apple Bloom turned herself into a ghost and did like in the trophy room; she cut the claw, freeing her friend and making Ω yell in pain. The claw almost immediately regenerated and Ω slapped Apple Bloom with it, sending her crashing into a spire. She however teleported right behind his head and slammed herself into it, making him faceplant on the balcony. She then returned to normal and activated the Red Mode, catching Ω's head, and she was rapidly joined by the others. But then, as she was about to overheat and to stop sucking up, the tower began to shake. Ω's tail, still wrapping the tower, squeezed it more and more until it broke it at several places, making the whole tower collapse. Little Ghost quickly acted and levitated everypony while the tower broke into pieces that fell on the roof around, destroying some of it as well as Clover's tower that was just beside it. Because of this, a good part of the fourth floor and a small part of the third floor were now without roof, in ruin. Little Ghost quickly moved to make everypony land among the ruins, back in the fourth floor, but Ω went after her. So she fired a powerful explosive ball at his face. By the time he recovered from this, the ponies had landed in what remained of Thanatos' bathroom. But they quickly had to deal with Ω grabbing a spire with his tail and using it like a club! Little Ghost had to use a lot of energy to destroy it before it could hit them! The good part was that it left the tail in range of their Poltergusts in Red Mode, and they gladly took the occasion. They made sure to take turns to avoid that they all overheated at the same time, leaving some of them the possibility to protect the others by attacking the head. It didn't last long however as Ω swept the floor with one of his arms, hitting almost all the hunters and freeing his tail. When they recovered, the ponies restarted attacking the head, Apple Bloom keeping an eye on the Spectral Transmograftizer's cooldown. As they ran from room to room to avoid Ω's many attacks, the cooldown eventually reached zero, and Apple bloom immediately transformed. As a ghost, she then flew to Ω's face and sent him flying with a giant energy blast. She then took a page from his book and levitated a spire that she used to impale him, making sure to put in some necromancy magic so it REALLY hurt him. While Ω recovered from this, she then took his tail with her power and brought it back to the others so they could restart capturing him. And before Ω could stop them, she attacked him by cutting one of his arms again. He raised one of his arms to the swirling clouds above and unleashed a huge column of electricity on her. Despite the pain, Apple Bloom resisted and sent some of this electricity at Ω before she sent another huge blast at his face. She then quickly flew back to the others to return to normal, and she joined them in capturing Ω while he recovered from the blast. He was very weakened by now, but he still recovered and sent purple bolts of electricity from his six claws at them to force them to stop. Some of them yelled in pain, but despite this, they continued to suck up, taking turns to avoid overheating. After a few seconds, Ω began to charge energy in his eye. He didn't get to finish. His tail began to disappear inside Applejack's Poltergust, to his shock. He grabbed a nearby spire in an attempt to avoid his fate, to no avail as the spire broke. He still made several more attempts as he moved between towers and spires the more he was sucked up, but they all failed. "I AM Ω! I AM YOUR END! YOU CAN'T BE MY END! NOOOOO!!!" His torso entered the Poltergust, then his head, and last came his claws, and he was no more. The last golden key with draconequus skull appeared beside the hunters. And the swirling purple clouds disappeared. Victorious, the hunters smiled at each other, then did a group hug. "It's almost over! Almost!" shouted Apple Bloom. Thanatos chuckled as he threw away the piece representing Ω. All the brown pieces that remained also disappeared with a snap. He then materialized a diamond piece with a crowned draconequus skull and admired it. "Yes, Apple Bloom. It's almost over." He finally placed the piece in the throne room. "Come. Let's end this game."