Using the teleporters located throughout the Maze, the group soon made it back to the surface. With the Maze of Tribulations no longer serving a purpose, Twilight made a mental note to destroy the facility after Lemon Puff packed up her lab.
Everyone took a few moments to bask in the sunlight beaming down on the mining town of Kirlsa. Meanwhile, Twilight turned to Lemon Puff.
“You should be safe to log off now, Lemon. If your body is still in the Sphere facility, then rendezvous with either the research team or Azure Lazer’s security team. I’d prefer that you head home for the day until the situation is resolved.”
Lemon nodded vigorously, “You got it, boss!”
“The situation in Sphere is likely going to escalate once Crystal manifests one of the prototypes on the top floor so get out of there as fast as you can.” Lemon nodded again. She then brought up a command display and pressed a few buttons on it before she vanished.
“You mentioned that the second Prototype, Freya, is in the Urssa Lava Caves, but we didn’t find anything that looked like a prototype when we were there,” Maria inquired.
“Crosell was guarding the door to the temple where Freya is kept. The door is in a side room in his lair.”
“Wait, temple?” Nel asked. “I can understand that strange place back there, but I never heard of a temple in the depths of the Urssa Lava Caves.”
“Me neither, and I’ve traveled all across the continent and never once heard a rumor of such a place,” Adray added.
“Same here, nobody in Surferio said a thing about such a place,” Roger added.
“That’s because no fool is brave enough to venture into the Marquis’ lair to explore it for fear of incurring his wrath,” Albel said.
“That and anyone who actually did discover the temple were subjected to memory wipes and a mental suggestion that there was nothing in Crosell’s lair.” Twilight said.
“So what are we going to expect in this temple place?” Cliff asked. Twilight gave the Klausian an apologetic look which gave him an idea that made him regret asking.
“The monsters there are not as tough as the ones in the Maze of Tribulations, but the reason we tackled the Maze first was because I wanted us to be prepared when we faced Freya. Truth be told, Gabriel Celesta was the weakest of the Prototypes. Even Lenneth was stronger than him.”
“What can you tell us about Lenneth?” Fayt asked.
“Lenneth was originally meant to be the guardian of the Ethereal Queen but her stats were set much higher than any of the guardians. I fear that she will be a fearsome opponent when we do finally fight her. The staff had been considering using her as one of the Eternal Sphere’s goddesses over Gabriel.”
“Just how much stronger are the other prototypes compared to Gabriel?”
“Freya is much more powerful than Gabriel and Ethereal Queen is even more powerful than Freya.”
“Wouldn’t be much of a climax if the challenge was a letdown,” Sophia said.
As they continued gathering what information they could from Twilight, the group paused in the conversation as they moved through Kirlsa and into the Kirlsa Caverns where their old acquaintance, Gregory, gave them a ride to the end of the cavern. They didn’t want to risk eavesdroppers learning something they shouldn’t.
They moved through the Bequerel Mountain Path while resuming their conversation. It took them a couple of hours to traverse the paths and enter the Barr Mountains where the dragons residing there gave them a wide berth. They soon entered the cavern where they found the entrance to the Barr Ruins and it was a straight path into the Urssa Lava Caves. They wasted no time getting to Crosell’s lair where they discovered that the dragon was absent.
“Guess he’s out hunting or something,” Cliff said.
Twilight shook her head. “No, something is wrong. If he was out, he would have left an illusion of himself in case anyone tried breaking in while he was gone. Something must have happened.”
“We can worry about him later, we need to deal with Freya before Equestria has to deal with two prototypes,” Sophia said.
Inside of Crosell’s lair, there were six side rooms that they never explored before. Twilight led the group to the one on the back right. The room contained a passageway that appeared to have opened recently. A number of large claw marks were seen around the passage. It was apparent that someone used brute force to get into the temple.
The group entered the passage and came upon a large ornate door like the ones they saw in the Bequerel Mine. This one didn’t have dragon heads, however. A stone monolith stood in front of the door.
“It says, ‘Offer the opposing orb upon the dais to open the way. But know this: That which is the same as the orb offered shall become an indestructible barrier,’” Nel read.
“There are three sections in the temple,” Twilight explained. “There are going to be a number of elemental blockers that will try to impede our progress. In order to unlock the blockers, we need to put an orb on a pedestal that is related to the opposite element to the blocker. Fire and water oppose each other as earth and air oppose each other. There is a set of four orbs in each of the sections. The real issue is knowing which orbs to use where to allow us to progress.”
“Doesn’t sound too hard, seems like this place will be easier to get through than the Maze of Tribulations,” Sophia said.
“Yes, the staff thought so too. To make things tougher, we enlisted the aid of Discord, the Spirit of Chaos, to use his magic to create what he called ‘Trading Card Mirrors’. We never figured out why he called them that.”
“Mirrors? You don’t think…?” Sophia telepathically transmitted to Thanatas.
“Yep, classic mirror battles, here we come,” Thanatas answered.
Passing through the doors, the group saw two pedestals surrounded by stone pillars, some broken. There were also three massive stone vessels in the room. One on the left had flames coming out from the top of it, One on the right had a breeze flowing from it and a third, which Sophia had to float up to see, was filled with water.
There was nothing they could do there so they moved on to the next room. The fire spirit and red wisp they fought were not worth mentioning.
The next room had four pedestals and a row of stone vessels with wind blowing from them. Sophia floated up again and saw three more rows behind the row of wind vessels. Behind the wind row was a row of fire vessels with a row of water vessels behind that and a row of vessels filled with dirt behind that row. She spotted a door in the back which she suspected was where they needed to go.
Sophia floated back down to the group and told them what she saw. “Looks like we need to find the four orbs before we can move forward.”
Twilight pointed out that there were two doors at the left and right ends of the room each. To speed up their journey and because the monsters in the temple were easy to deal with, they split up into groups of three, with Twilight being a fourth member for Lyra, Maria and Mirage. They took the left side north door. Peppita, Roger and Adray took the left side south door. Nel, Albel and Cliff took the right side north door. This left Fayt, Sophia and Thanatas to take the right side south door.
Each group faced a number of monsters in their hunt for the orbs. Some even realized that the monsters were themed with the elements. Fire spirits and red wisps were associated with fire, slimes and aquaregias were associated with water, bats and harpies were associated with wind and plant monsters and myconids were associated with earth.
Each group soon found an altar in each of their rooms and on those altars were a chest. Opening them revealed a series of orbs that were no larger than their fists. Twilight’s group found a green orb, Adray’s group found a blue orb, Nel’s group found a red orb and Sophia’s group found a yellow orb.
Taking their prizes, the group returned to the central room with the four pedestals.
Before they placed their orbs on their new homes, Twilight warned, “Before you place those orbs there, I need to warn you about what they do.”
“The hint from before said that they ‘open the way’, but I’m not sure what the other half means,” Maria said.
“The orbs are tied not only to the elemental blockers you see…” She pointed at the stone vessels. “...but they are also tied to the monsters throughout the temple.”
“So the ‘indestructible barrier’ mentioned in the hint was referring to the monsters?” Cliff asked. “Wait, don’t tell me…”
Twilight nodded. “For example, using the fire orb will make all water elemental blockers vanish from the room, but it also makes the fire monsters in the room invulnerable. The same can be said for the other orbs and their associated blockers and monsters. Removing the orb from the pedestal is the only way to reverse the effect.”
“So while the monsters here are pushovers, it doesn’t mean a thing if we can’t hurt them,” Sophia figured. “We’ll need to be careful about when and where we use the orbs.”
Everyone nodded in agreement. To make sure they were alone in the room, they checked every spot they could find and dealt with any monsters that were hiding. Once they were sure that they were safe, they placed all four orbs on each of the four pedestals. The altars the pedestals were on began to glow their respective colors in regard to the orb placed on them. This also caused the room to glow different colors: red, blue, green, yellow, then red again.
All four rows of elemental blockers vanished and the group proceeded through the door to the next room.
What they saw next was a surprise to everyone, especially Twilight. What once looked like a large decorated fountain with stairs going to the top was now in ruins and the water that it once held had all but vanished into the ashen soil.
“What happened here?!” Twilight shouted. “This was supposed to be one of Discord’s Trading Card Mirrors, but it’s been smashed to rubble!”
“Did Belzebub smash it?” Fayt asked.
“It’s possible. She might have shapeshifted into something with enough raw strength to smash it, but it doesn’t make sense. With Crystal in control of Project Valkyrie, the mirrors shouldn’t be a threat to her.”
“Shapeshifted?” Fayt inquired. “She didn’t shapeshift when we fought her and Swift before.”
“That’s because they were holding back,” Twilight responded. “They needed to act defeated so they would have more freedom to carry out their actual plan in secret. I don’t know what those two are actually after, but I’m pretty sure that it has nothing to do with Crystal’s plan.”
“Let’s keep moving,” Sophia said. “We’ll learn the answer to this mystery later.”
The group moved past the broken fountain and into the next room which was a bridge over a chasm that was guarded by a few monsters.
The room beyond the bridge put the group on guard as the stone walls and floors had a blue shade to them, indicating that a water orb had to be on a pedestal nearby. Thankfully, there were no monsters in their general vicinity, especially not water monsters.
A gap in the elemental blockers ahead of them caught everyone’s attention and they inspected it further to find the orb in question on the pedestal. Surrounding the orb were three more pairs of blockers of earth, water and air, with the water and air blockers behind the pedestal.
Fayt was about to go and grab the orb but Twilight grabbed his shoulder to stop him. “If you take that orb, it will make the fire blockers appear and close the gap, trapping you.”
“So what’s the deal with this section?” Cliff asked.
“The door to the next section is blocked by three pairs of blockers: fire, water and earth. We need to find a way to get the fire, water and air orbs to the three pedestals in front of those blockers. This section is trickier than the last.”
Sophia thought about their dilemma for a moment then got an idea. “Fayt, let me grab the orb. You stay with the others.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said?” Twilight said with her voice raised. “If you grab the orb, you will be trapped in there.”
Fayt did what Sophia said and moved away from the blockers. A few moments later, a pair of fire blockers appeared and closed the gap. It was a few more moments after that when Sophia climbed out of a hole she had dug. She then showed everyone the orb.
“Huh? But, but, but…” Twilight stuttered.
“Hah, my cousin decided to cheat a puzzle,” Thanatas cackled.
While Twilight’s brain was rebooting, Lyra carried her while everyone else headed into a room to the left of where they were. The room had a red glow from the nearby pedestal that held a fire orb. Drifting around the room was a fire spirit and a red wisp. Both enemies would be dangerous while the fire orb was active. However, Sophia’s speed allowed her to claim the orb before the monsters knew what was going on and they were maimed in the same fashion by the group.
A pair of earth blockers blocked their way to the next room so they returned to the previous room and headed into the room to the right.
A pair of water blockers blocked their way to the next room but with the fire orb in hand and the pedestal nearby, it was a matter of placing the orb on the pedestal to make the water blockers disappear and allow everyone passage. Sophia stayed behind while everyone moved on to the next room. Once everyone was through, she removed the fire orb and tunneled under the water blockers that reappeared to return to everyone.
The next room glowed green from a nearby wind orb with a harpy and bat nearby. Once again, Sophia quickly grabbed the wind orb while everyone else took out the flying monsters.
The room they were in had two exits to their left. One was closer and one was on the far end of the room. They chose to head through the closest passage. This led them back into the first room of the section except they were now on the other side of the four pairs of blockers that protected the water orb originally.
They headed into a passage on the north side of the room to find a room that glowed yellow, telling the group that the earth orb was nearby. It sat on one of the three nearby pedestals in the room with the passage ahead blocked by the three pairs of blockers that Twilight warned them about earlier.
It was a simple matter of removing the earth orb and placing the wind, water and fire orbs on the three pedestals. This caused the wind blockers in the room to appear, but the way to the next section was open. With that, everyone proceeded into the next section.
Once again, the first thing the group saw in the next room was a smashed fountain, leaving everyone to wonder why Belzebub would destroy a security system instead of using it against them.
They didn’t dwell on this for long and continued forward. Looking around, they found four chests in the room. They were immediately checked and found a full set of orbs for them to use for the next section.
Aside from Twilight, everyone was curious as to why they would receive all four of the orbs for the next section right off the bat. It wasn’t until they crossed the threshold into the next section that they found out why.
The next section was one giant room and there were elemental blockers covering most of the room, leaving no path to follow. Twilight pointed out that the only way through this room and to Freya was to use the correct combination of two orbs on the two pedestals before them. Twilight already knew the two orbs needed so she placed the fire and air orbs on the pedestals.
A path opened through the countless blockers and everyone followed it to the end of the room.
The next room was another stone bridge over a chasm. Nothing else got in the way between them and the final door.
Tensions ran high as the group marched toward the door and to their toughest fight yet.
Sophia pushed open the door and everyone entered the chamber. The inside was similar to the room that Gabriel Celesta was stored in. The constantly moving pendulums moving back and forth with a ticking sound at each apex. The glass floor was different from Gabriel’s room. The floor here shifted in color from red to blue to green to yellow.
In the center of the room stood a familiar black insect-like being with purple eyes. Her insect wings fluttered occasionally. She wore a purple jacket with yellow lining along with matching shorts. Inside her jacket was a yellow sweater.
Standing next to Belzebub was a little girl who looked a little like Lenneth. She had long blonde hair and wore green armor lined with gold. She wore a hat that was green at the top and white on the sides. The bottom of the hat was a circle of black lined with gold with a gold rune in the center.
Belzebub turned her attention to the group. “Looks like you made it. I take it Swift gave you that speech about how we’re mercenaries who will do whatever is asked of us for the right price. He’s not wrong, but even I have my principles. For example, if I take a job that I don’t like, I’ll still do the job but I’ll also do something that will make my client regret hiring me.”
She sighed, “I never wanted to take on a job that would put me against Sweetie Drops. She is a hero to my entire species, she saved my ancestors from famine, she gave us a place in Equestrian society.
“She gave us a future.”
She paused for a moment. “I wouldn’t mind if you captured that idiot, Swift Burial. I’m fond of him, but he could use some prison time to rethink our policy with future clients.”
Another pause, “I have to fight you all now, my contract demands it. I honestly hope you all win and derail Crystal’s plan. That egomaniacal bitch needs a heavy dose of reality.” With that, Belzebub faded into the prototype.
With the fusion, Freya’s body began to grow. In moments the prototype had grown into a physically mature form. Her bright skin darkened several shades and her blonde hair turned purple. Freya’s eyes opened, revealing green irises and purple sclera.
“Now,” Belzebub began. “One against thirteen seems a little overwhelming for me. So I think that I will even the odds a little.” She raised a hand in the air and the shifting colors on the floor stopped at blue. The glass floor appeared to show ripples, as if the floor was water. The group quickly realized that this was an illusion.
A flash of light erupted from the floor and when the light subsided, the group’s eyes widened at what they saw before them.
Ten people appeared before them. Although there were features that mirrored their own, their appearances were also different in terms of color and clothing.
Fayt’s copy had brown hair and wore black armor like Klausians wore. His greaves were reddish brown.
Cliff’s copy had red hair and wore a yellow sleeveless shirt and blue jeans and red shoes.
Nel’s copy had black hair and she wore white and blue armor. Her scarf and sheaths were crimson.
Roger’s copy was a little on the wild side. He had no helmet and his hair was scarlet. He didn’t wear overalls but his leggings and belt were yellow with brown tiger stripes. His tail was the same way. The edge of his axe was stained in blood.
Adray’s copy had darker skin and his tattoos were yellow instead of red. Unlike the dragon tattoo on Adray’s back, this copy had a tattoo of a japanese kanji character on his back. The copy wore a white robe without the upper part with triangular patterns along the bottom.
Maria’s copy had dark brown hair and wore a light gray zip-up dress. She also wore a periwinkle half skirt, vest and shirtless sleeves.
Mirage’s copy had olive green hair and wore a zipper blouse of the same color. Her jacket and shorts were maroon lined thickly with light and dark gray.
Albel’s copy had white hair that was tipped with blue. His clothes were similar to Albel’s except dark blue instead of purple.
Peppita’s copy had purple hair and had lighter skin. She wore a purple sleeveless turtleneck shirt with a maroon and black shirt over that. Her shoes matched her shirt and her cape was blue with green orbs at the ends.
Sophia’s copy was more surprising to Twilight than anyone else. This one was still human and had long brown hair and wore a pink jacket lined with yellow and had a purple mantle. She wore a white laced undershirt with a choker around her neck. She also wore a dark blue skirt, black leggings and pink boots.
Sophia sensed Twilight’s surprise. “Something you want to share?” she asked.
“Your doppelganger, she looks just like the original Sophia; the one who died when you replaced her.”
“So she’s going to be the most dangerous of the bunch?”
Twilight shook her head, “Not necessarily, you are a foreign entity in the Eternal Sphere. It’s most likely that that version is what the original Sophia would have become at this point in time. She is a mage type fighter who wasn’t born a Human-Protoss-Zerg hybrid like you were.”
Sophia groans in disappointment, “You mean I get the easiest opponent?”
“No, I’ll take her. It would be better to have you, Thanatas and Lyra deal with Belzebub while the rest of us deal with the doppelgangers.” Twilight then frowned and looked at Belzebub. “Can you answer me a couple of things? Why did you destroy the trading card mirrors? How did you manifest these copies without the mirrors?”
“I intended for them to manifest here but the other mirrors were drawing power so I had to destroy the fountains and divert the chaos magic to this room where I could use the power of the mirrors to their fullest potential. The elemental energies here were in harmony for the sake of maintaining Freya but the chaos magics disrupted the balance and allowed for the water energy to dominate the other four which made it possible to produce more than one mirror clone,” Belzebub explained. “The energies turned this room into one giant trading card mirror.”
With that question answered, Sophia opened a rift to an unknown location. Trusting the bunny templar regarding the rift’s destination, Lyra and Thanatas moved to enter the rift along with Sophia. As Thanatas entered the rift, she pointed her blade at Belzebub and pulled her into the rift with them with her necromantic magic.
With Belzebub no longer a concern, Twilight and the Eternal Sphere warriors prepared for one huge chaotic battle with their doppelgangers.
On the other side of the rift, Sophia, Thanatas, Lyra and Belzebub emerged into a familiar room. This room was the one that was being guarded by Crosell originally. The large open space would make for a suitable battlefield.
Everyone took their battle stance and waited for someone to make the first move.
Belzebub attacked first by smiting the trio with a spiraling wave of light that forced everyone to jump backward to avoid. Thanatas countered by pointing her sword at the hybrid and striking her with black lightning bolts. Belzebub barely felt that attack and fired back with a large blast of light in front of her, forcing the trio to jump aside with barely enough time to avoid her wide blast.
The trio moved to surround Belzebub and forced her to choose who to attack. She quickly chose Lyra before she created a long manticore tail and sprayed a wave of corrosive venom at the mare. Lyra easily avoided the attack. Meanwhile, Sophia placed her hand in one of the venom puddles left behind and licked the poison, figuring that she could make use of the substance later.
Lyra quickly rushed behind Belzebub and grabbed the tail before cutting it off, resulting in a pained shout from the hybridized prototype and a blast of light that knocked Lyra halfway across the battlefield.
Belzebub shapeshifted into an ursa minor and charged at Thanatas, jaws open. Her charge was stopped when Sophia shapeshifted into an ultralisk to match the bear’s size and rammed her from the side, sending her flying toward the platform that Crosell slept on.
Growling in frustration, Belzebub returned to her hybrid form and teleported behind Sophia and unleashed a blast of light that grazed her as she dodged, but the force of the attack still sent her flying forward a small distance. Belzebub repeated the process with Thanatas who was too slow to dodge and took the full brunt of the blast, sending her flying toward the cavern wall. Thanatas softened the blow by unleashing a blast of icy wind toward the wall. She jumped off the wall and landed a moderate distance from Belzebub.
The trio kept their eyes on Belzebub, waiting for her next move.
The battlefield was in complete chaos.
At first, Twilight’s group attacked their corresponding opponents from the mirror group. Things started off when they used their simpler moves such as both Fayts clashing blades and using their Blade of Fury techniques. As the battles continued, they started using more destructive skills and more advanced symbology.
Twilight kept her eye on Mirror Sophia. Every now and then she appeared to be chanting a powerful spell and the alicorn was sure that she didn’t want the girl getting the spell off.
There were those who were more reckless with their attacks. Roger pulled out a remote with a button that he pressed that caused a number of rifts to open and showered the field with meteors and debris drifting in space. The last thing that flew onto the field during this attack was a large missile that impacted the ground and exploded, blowing away friend and foe alike. Mirror Roger attempted the same stunt but Mirror Peppita grabbed his remote with her cape and dropped it on the floor and smashed it with her boot. Both Rogers received glares from everyone.
Both Rogers looked ashamed and Mirror Roger backed away from everyone and stepped on one of Roger’s Land Mines. Hearing the explosion and seeing his double flying in the air, Roger quickly jumped into action and fired a rocket from his bazooka at his mirror copy where the explosion kept him in the air for longer. It was long enough for Roger to take out his axe and empower it before running up to where his tiger-striped counterpart would land. Mirror Roger landed hard on the floor before feeling the heavy impact from an empowered axe. The crushing impact caused Mirror Roger to vanish.
Thanatas began wandering around the perimeter of the room while moving her lips, as far as Belzebub could tell. She had a feeling that the undead was up to something, but for now she had to contend with Sophia and Lyra. The slashes from their energy blades moved too fast for her to fully dodge so she received a few deep cuts during their latest skirmish. Charging her fists with her ether light power, she managed to punch the two fighters back.
Having enough of the fight, Belzebub levitated into the air and charged a massive amount of her power into a powerful blast that she intended to aim at the ground. The trio sensed what was coming so Thanatas cast a trap spell under Lyra’s hooves which caused her to fall beneath the floor while Sophia and Thanatas went underground. The immense blast of light flooded the entire battlefield and blew away some of the rubble in the room.
The explosion lasted for a few seconds. Once they sensed the energies subside, the bunny and undead emerged from the ground while Thanatas canceled her trap to allow Lyra to surface.
“Yo, can you two keep her from using that attack again?” Thanatas thought, knowing her allies would read her mind. “I have an idea to really put the hurt on her but that attack can undo my progress.”
“I think we can manage that,” Sophia answered. “Anything you need?”
“Yes, blood, and plenty of it. A small army of sacrificial Zerg should do it.”
“I’ve never created that many Zerg from my own body before. I’m gonna be ravenous when this is over.”
“Bonnie should help with that once we get back to the real world.” Lyra said telepathically. “A hybrid like you will love the taste of Zerg flesh.”
“Leave the Zerg in their egg state until I give the signal. When I do, hatch all of them and have them recklessly rush her.” Thanatas instructed.
“Alright, I’ll distract Belzebub while Sophia spawns the eggs,” Lyra said.
With their plan hatched, the trio got to work on their roles.
With everyone unleashing their strongest moves all over the battlefield, the Valkyrie workshop was taking heavy damage. Between the Fayts’ Ethereal Blasts, the Marias’ Energy Bursts, and the Adrays’ Sirocco abilities where they jump up and crash into the ground, unleashing fiery maelstroms, parts of the workshop were starting to look like molten slag and glass.
One such attack from Adray created an opening for Albel to finish off his mirror copy by grabbing his katana with his metal arm and decapitating his clone with his own katana.
At one point, both Nels jumped into the air and wrapped themselves in a spherical shield of hexagons before they unleashed a potent ray of lightning at each other. Mirror Maria had to dodge an Energy Burst from Maria but she failed to keep an eye on her surroundings and ended up in the lightning crossfire and was vaporized. When the attack subsided, Albel took advantage of Mirror Nel’s weakened state and thrust his katana through her chest where he knew her heart was. Mirror Nel coughed up blood before vanishing.
Cliff and Mirage worked together to face their mirror copies. Both knew that if the battle dragged on for too long, they would end up too exhausted and they needed to conserve their strength for the final battle against Crystal. The four fighters continued their bouts, switching to offense and defense often.
Eventually, Cliff gave Mirage an opening when he ran up to Mirror Mirage and groped her chest. This caused the mirror woman to briefly lose all interest in her target and focus on punishing the pervert in front of her.
Mirage took this opportunity to rush Mirror Cliff. Just like her Cliff, his skills in their shared style of martial arts were still below her level and she was able to rush Mirror Cliff with her Avenger Charge which followed into Infinity Kick which knocked him into the air. She finished off the mirror copy by unleashing a fiery blast of her qi in the form of her Blazing Cannon technique which incinerated him until he vanished.
In her anger, Mirror Mirage failed to see through the strategy of her fellow Klausians and ended up getting double teamed by Cliff and Mirage. She ended up attacked from the front and back by a pair of Acrobat Locus attacks; the combined fury left her body crushed and unable to continue.
The two Peppitas continued unleashing their attacks and dodging with the grace of the dancers that they were. Neither Velbaysian could lay a hit on the other. Summoning their Faerie Friends only resulted in a slightly entertaining monster battle that ended in a draw.
This dance continued until Mirror Peppita was hit in the back by a flying menodix using his Flying Torpedo technique. Mirror Peppita cried out in pain as the spike on Roger’s helmet pierced her skin and wedged into her lower spine, causing the mirror copy to lose feeling in her legs. Peppita put her copy out of her misery by summoning her Dream Hammer and smashed her until she vanished.
As the battle finally began to wind down, Twilight finally managed to use a trap spell to root Mirror Sophia’s feet into place. In her desperation, she quickly attempted to cast her destructive spell but Twilight hit her with a Silence symbol to stop her casting. The girl’s eyes widened in horror and despair as Twilight began casting her Deletion symbol.
Mirror Sophia’s moment of salvation came when Mirror Adray shoved her out of the spell to avoid Twilight’s attack. That moment was short lived as a giant silver sphere, in the form of Adray’s Emotion Torrent, flew at them and exploded when it hit Mirror Adray, sending him and Mirror Sophia sprawling on the floor. Twilight ended both of them using a Crush symbol, dropping a massive weight on the two of them.
Mirror Fayt refused to go down easily. He kept his eye on all of the enemies in the room around him and thought about his next move when he realized that all of his allies were defeated. However, he didn’t have time to think as Fayt continued to rush him with his attacks while everyone else watched. Many times the sound of metal hitting metal was heard and many times were their attacks parried. Even when the Fayts used opposing elemental blades, neither could gain the upper hand.
It was when Mirror Fayt saw everyone taking their battle stances again that he became worried that he would be attacked from all sides. This left him open to a series of attacks from Fayt which began when he jumped into the air and unleashed a barrage of aerial shockwaves with his Air Raid attack. Mirror Fayt took the attack head on and was thrown off balance. He then got a facefull of small explosions when Fayt hit him pointblank with a Shotgun Blast. When Fayt charged his dark aura for a Dimension Door, Mirror Fayt acted in kind. However, still off balance, he wasn’t adequately prepared in time before Fayt unleashed his and forced Mirror Fayt to abandon his attack and try to parry the blade. Fayt’s attack overpowered him and sent him flying back.
The battle finally ended when Mirror Fayt was too weakened to stop Fayt from charging up an Ethereal Blast to finish him off.
Belzebub was having trouble trying to counter the trio’s strategy. This was because Lyra kept avoiding her attacks and when she tried going after Sophia, who was busy spawning eggs along the walls, or Thanatas, who was moving along the perimeter of the room in a circular fashion, Lyra unleashed an attack that she couldn’t ignore.
Belzebub tried blasting her away with her light attacks but the pony templar kept dodging her. When she tried blasting the room with an Ether Strike, Lyra gave her a headache with a psychic feedback.
Occasionally, an attack would graze Lyra. This didn’t last long as she used the power of the void to steal life from Belzebub and heal herself.
This persisted for a few minutes before Sophia finally joined the battle and the distractions from the undead doubled.
At this time, Thanatas had completed her circular pattern and was now shambling around the room, dragging a foot as she went. Belzebub had no idea what the undead was trying to do, but she had a feeling that if she didn’t stop her soon, the fight was not going to end well.
While she considered Thanatas a higher priority, Lyra and Sophia kept pressuring her with their attacks and forcing her to keep her attention on them. In one desperate act, she tried abandoning defense to blast Thanatas, but realized too late that her attacks had slowed greatly. A brief look at herself led to the discovery that her body was covered in acid spores. She looked at Sophia to find her mouth was dripping with the same poison she used earlier. Her hands were also dripping with poison.
“Showtime!” Thanatas finally shouted. Reacting to that call, Sophia psychically ordered the eggs to hatch. Hundreds of zerglings and hydralisks emerged from the eggs. All of them charged toward her the moment they were free of their shells.
“You think this will stop me?” Belzebub shouted as the army of Zerg bore down on her with fangs, claws and spines. The prototype shapeshifted into a giant praying mantis with razor sharp claws and began slicing the many Zerg in two. The attacks cost countless Zerg their lives as their blood and viscera formed a giant growing puddle from the center of the room.
Belzebub was breathing hard after killing all those Zerg but was able to chuckle a little as she emerged victorious in that bloodbath. “Is that the best you can do?” she taunted.
Thanatas smiled victoriously, “Thanks for the show, you have done plenty to ensure our victory.”
Belzebub’s eyes widened in horror and watched the spilled blood flow into the grooves that Thanatas had been making the whole time. She soon realized that Thanatas had been drawing a giant magic circle around the room and that the Zerg blood served the purpose of empowering the circle.
To ensure that Belzebub couldn’t escape what was coming, Lyra and Sophia used their psychic powers to mentally lock her body into place in the center of the circle.
Thanatas’ smile turned wicked as she plunged her sword, Evermourne, into the ground. The blood glowed and the room turned an eerie red. Panic swelled within the prototype as dark clouds formed on the ground around her. Soon, she saw black, shadowy claws swiping at the air in her direction.
Thanatas chuckled as she called out the spell’s name, “Blood Ritual: Grudge of the Fallen Army.”
It was official. This was not worth what she was being paid. While she was still able, she mentally issued a logout command to escape the coming hell. She was very glad that she had succeeded in her escape, though she had to leave the prototype behind and leave it to its gruesome fate.
The many claws from the hundreds of fallen Zerg ripped and tore at the now vacant goddess prototype. While the controller of the prototype was now gone, the vengeful souls claimed the body and cast it into the infinite abyss where nobody would ever be able to find it.
Still, the souls were not satisfied and demanded Belzebub’s soul. However, Thanatas simply tossed an orb into the center of the circle and the souls were pulled into it. Once the souls were captured, the ritual magic lost its power. The undead went to the orb and picked it up and stored it away for later.
She cackled as her wicked thoughts raced through her mind. “Well, in the least, if she decides to be naughty again, these souls will be ready to show her what hell is.”
“Freaky, now let’s go see how Twilight and the others did with their fight,” Sophia said.
“That won’t be necessary,” Twilight said as she and the others entered the room. The alicorn could sense the blood magic from the second section of the temple but decided not to ask about that because she really didn’t want to know for her own sake.
“Well, that’s two down,” Cliff said. “Where do we go for the last one?”
“It’s too late to get to Ethereal Queen’s workshop,” Twilight said. “Our best bet is to head her off as she manifests on the top floor of the Sphere Institute.”
“Alright, but can we pay a visit to that Zerg farm we saw earlier?” Sophia asked. “I used up a lot of biomass in that last fight and I am starving.”
“Do we have time for that?” Lyra asked.
“I don’t think you have a choice,” Thanatas warned. “I suspect that if we let her hunger pains go on for too long, she might start considering pony and human meat as part of her diet.”
“One trip to Sweet Apple Acres coming up!” Twilight loudly and quickly declared and issued the command to force all of them to log out of the Eternal Sphere.