The Eternal Sphere

by Xarmar13

The Festival Town of Gemity

Thanatas observed as her cousin, now able to realize her full potential at last, was escorted by Twilight to the changing rooms to put her outfit back on. She rolled her eyes as she used her bone transport ability to move to a location that was away from prying eyes.

She sighed and groaned because now came the boring part. Sending a bit of necromantic energy into the ground, she summoned a zombie to the surface. She could call her minions from anywhere, unlike other necromancers who needed bodies to be there to begin with. The zombie she summoned was one specialized in multiversal communication. It looked like a rotting corpse with a television for a head; something she crafted because she was bored.

She pulled out a remote to the television and started pressing buttons on it before the corpse convulsed as electricity surged through it. Each button sent a jolt through the zombie’s body. Thanatas pressed the sequence of buttons she needed and the zombie relaxed as the screen turned on.

At first there was only static, but a few minutes of waiting gave her the results that she was waiting for as the screen cleared up and the visage of Sophia’s grandfather appeared on the screen.

“Status?” Gerald requested.

Thanatas put up a bored expression. “It’s done. It seems your granddaughter finally tamed that beast that has haunted your side of the family for thousands of years. I suppose that makes you glad that her children won’t have to deal with that curse anymore.”

Gerald deadpanned, “You could at least try to sound excited.” He sighed. “Does this mean that we can expect you with Sophia in tow shortly?”

Thanatas shook her head. “Not quite yet. We need to ensure that the plot for this universe reaches its conclusion before we consider the mission fully accomplished.”

“Do you require further assistance?”

“Nah, I could sense her power when she awakened. It definitely rivals my own. I plan to test it while I’m here. The two of us should be more than enough for this assignment. Plus, it’s a good assignment to help ease our little rookie into her new life.”

“Very well, but don’t get cocky. You may be one of our most powerful agents, but we are still prone to making mistakes.”

Thanatas rolled her eyes and silently mouthed Gerald’s words mockingly. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Anyway, can you send over her birthday present so we don’t have to go shopping every time she tries out her Zerg powers and racks up a tally for indecent exposure?” It wasn’t actually her cousin’s birthday, but she counted it as such because she was technically reborn as the being she was meant to be.

Gerald rolled his eyes at Thanatas’ attitude and sighed, “Very well, have whatever receiving device you have ready and it should get to you in about a minute.” He then cut the transmission. Thanatas snickered at the abruptness of the transmission ending without a proper farewell. She knew that she had aggravated the man. She had a lot of fun doing that.

She then summoned an apparatus from the ground that looked like a small bone cage with a crystal in it. The crystal was one of those pylon crystal shards that the Protoss used to transport objects or people through a warp transit system.

Thanatas waited the whole minute for the gift to arrive before it appeared in the cage in a flash of light. She opened the cage and pulled out what appeared to be several stacked rectangular boxes tied together in a blue ribbon.

With the gift in hand, she dismissed her zombies before transporting herself into the changing room, startling Twilight on her entry.

Sophia, now at least wearing her underwear, stared at her cousin in confusion. “Is there a reason doors aren’t things for you to use?”

“Meh,” Thanatas shrugged. “I came here to give you your gift from your grandfather as a celebration for your return to the family.”

Sophia took the stack of boxes from Thanatas and opened one up. She raised an eyebrow as she stared at the blue outfit inside. She opened the other boxes to confirm what she was looking at before staring at her cousin. “This looks exactly like my other outfit. Is this a joke?”

“According to the old man, that version is made of a special organic weave that is imbued with dormant Zerg cells. When in contact with body heat, the cells activate and the outfit adjusts itself to the wearer’s body dimensions. The real benefit of this is that if the wearer goes through a physical transformation of some kind, the outfit is temporarily absorbed into the body until the host returns to their original form. The cells return to being dormant the moment the host removes the article.”

“So basically, whenever I want to use my Zerg abilities, I don’t have to worry about destroying my clothes in the process?”

The undead nodded, “Even partial transformations, such as growing tentacles, would only invoke a partial absorption in the area in question. So let’s get you out of those impractical pieces of fabric and put you into a useful outfit.”

---

The denizens of the Eternal Sphere waited over an hour waiting for Sophia to finish getting dressed. Fayt did his best to clear away the thoughts of Sophia in the nude, but being that he was still a teenager, he found that very difficult. Cliff had tissues soaking up his bloody nose while the ladies in the group simply ignored him. Albel kept up his poker face to keep others from trying to guess what he was thinking.

After the stressful day he had been having so far, Roger ended up falling asleep on one of Twilight’s couches. In his sleep-addled state, he didn’t realize that his head ended up in Peppita’s lap. The dancer didn’t fare much better either as her head fell to the side until it landed on Roger’s tail. Neither seemed to mind as they drifted to sleep.

Maria took this time to sit next to Fayt. As she sat, she briefly contemplated recent events and sighed. “After all we went through, I never imagined that we would get a respite from the madness we went through.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Fayt replied. “Part of me believed that we were heading into the enemy compound to find and defeat the leader; that this was the climax of our adventures.”

Maria giggled, “You play too many video games.”

“When I think about it, It kinda does feel like we’ve been living a video game. Then I learned that we were literally living as video game characters. I’m still not sure whether my actions were my own or that I was guided by some unseen hand. And it scares me.”

“Yeah, me too. All I can really do is to have faith that I am still my own person and not someone’s avatar.” Maria said.

The others soon walked into the room. “Aww, that’s adorable!” Sophia softly cooed at the sight of Peppita and Roger. Twilight noticed that everyone seemed tired, which made sense since they had just been through a traumatic experience and had to fight their way through a small army of Executioners. She doubted some of them managed to get any sleep during the transit from Earth to Styx either.

“I think you guys need some rest,” Twilight said. “I have some guest rooms that nobody is using, so we will be resting for a few hours so we will be ready to go to Gemity.”

“What kind of place is Gemity? And why are we going there?” Fayt asked.

“Gemity is a town that was founded by dragons a few centuries ago when they finally developed an interest in civilization. They donated their treasure hoards to its founding. These days, it’s a place that endorses features of the Eternal Sphere without actually being in the universe itself.

“Elicoor II is a very famous world among the fanbase, and as such, they have created replicas of places found on that world. From the shops to the equipment and even the food is based on recipes that originated from Elicoor.

“As for why we’re going there, it’s because you guys need to take some time to take your minds off recent events.

“The hacker can’t make a move as long as I’m not at Sphere. They want the access codes to my top secret project, but they can’t risk being too open about it without risking their identity getting out. I know this because Princess Celestia has her suspicions about who our mysterious foe might be.

“Because of that, we can afford to get some rest and enjoy ourselves in Gemity before we make our big push. I have a feeling that we won’t be able to relax again until we take care of the hacker.”

The group accepted Twilight’s explanation and for those who were being honest with themselves, they were actually tired after everything they went through.

Twilight escorted everyone to the guest rooms with Cliff carrying the sleeping Peppita and Roger. Since the beds were large enough for two people each, they had to pair up. Cliff and Fayt took one room, with the others pairing up in other rooms: Nel and Maria, Adray and Roger, Mirage and Peppita, Sophia and Thanatas, Albel in his own room, Lyra and Sweetie, and Twilight in her personal bedroom.

With comfortable beds to sleep in again, the more weary of the group quickly fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow with the others, who were capable of sleep, following soon after.

---

Everyone emerged from their rooms the next day after some restful sleep. Once they performed their routines, they exited their rooms ready to face what came next.

Sweetie bid everyone farewell once she was ready to leave. She had her own tasks to attend to and was unable to provide any further assistance with their mission.

Lyra led the group to one of the pylon transit conduits that allowed for near instantaneous transportation throughout the nation. “Not many people use these things because of the odd sensations that they feel as they are exposed to the warp fields,” Lyra explained. “We added energy shield safeguards to protect people from the warp, but they say that just looking at the warp stream as they were being transported freaked them out.” She sighed, “Me and the Protoss are pretty much the only ones who actually use this system.

Twilight placed a hand on Lyra’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, one day we will convince everyone else that the transit system is safe.”

“So how does this work?” Fayt asked.

“Me and Twilight will focus our psionic energies into the crystal while focusing on the name of the location. Each conduit is designed to respond to key words and once the conduit is charged up, it will transport the passenger and anyone who is mentally or physically connected to the main passenger or passengers along the warp network until we reach the resonating crystal on the network.”

“The system is still being perfected,” Twilight added to Lyra’s explanation. “But at least the fail safes are in place. If something happens to the resonating crystal, the network ejects us at the nearest conduit. There are private networks, but that costs a fortune to set up.”

“So all we gotta do is touch you while you work your magic?” Cliff asked.

“Or touch the person who is touching the navigator, as long as you are part of the chain that is in contact with the pilot,” Lyra offered. “Also, once we’re in transit, don’t let go. If you let go and don’t focus on the destination, you could end up anywhere on the network. Not every location is as pleasant as this one.”

With the warning given, Lyra and Twilight channeled their magic into the pylon crystal with the other members of the group forming a contact chain, holding tightly to whoever they were touching.

A few moments later, everyone felt the sensation of space warping around them as they were converted to energy and pulled along by an unseen force. Remembering the warning, each person held on to someone for dear life. Reality warped around them and some of the group could associate the feeling with being in gravitic warp without a ship. Thankfully, a shield wrapped around their bodies prevented them from being exposed to warp space. None of them were willing to find out what it felt like to be stretched and twisted in horrific ways.

The experience lasted only a few moments before the space collapsed and they found themselves in a brightly lit area. The ground was crystalline and transparent while circles of light rotated slowly beneath their feet. Decorative purple lights defined the outer border of the town. The town itself had a futuristic and rustic feel at the same time with shops constructed in the style of the Elicoorians and lamp posts that reminded them of the ones they saw in Peterny. The numerous species wandering the area dressed in the styles known by the Elicoorians.

“It’s like Aquaria had merged with this world,” Nel noted in awe.

“Is there even anything fun to do here?” Albel asked while grumbling.

“I’m glad you asked,” Lyra responded. While we did model a lot of the area after Peterny, this town is also a theme park that is always celebrating the Eternal Sphere. There is an Eternal Sphere access terminal here as well as other features to be had such as the Bunny Races, Runic Chess puzzles, and everyone’s favorite feature: the arena.”

That got Albel’s attention. “Arena? As in a combat arena where you can slaughter your opponents?”

Lyra nodded. “Yep, players log into the arena as their characters that they have painstakingly leveled and practiced with in order to rise up in the arena rankings in order to get their chance to challenge the current arena champions.” She pointed to a holographic poster displaying a unicorn mare with a brilliant white coat and a silvery mane and tail wearing a decorative purple witch’s robe and wielding a black staff with a scarlet jewel on top between a pair of silvery wings. She was standing beside a bright orange earth pony stallion with a golden blonde mane and tail wearing a blindingly golden suit of armor and wielding an ornate broadsword with a jewel-encrusted hilt. “The mare is Diamond Crown and the Stallion is Solar Point. They also act as announcers during arena matches when they aren’t competing.”

“I’ll be the one who takes them down,” Albel declared.

“Said the hundreds of ponies and creatures before you,” Lyra countered.

“They’re not me.”

“Refer to my previous comment.”

“Bah! Whatever, fool! I have some champions to take down.”

“I really should make tee shirts, because I feel like it’s easier to point to one that says ‘Said the hundreds of ponies and creatures before you’ than it is to keep saying it over and over.”

After a bit of laughter at Albel’s expense, the group explored the town and partook of the local delicacies.

Gemity was like Peterny in a way. The architecture closely resembled what was found in the trading town. Despite low demand in Equestria overall, Artisans could work in Gemity or on underdeveloped planets in the Eternal Sphere, honing their craft that had become somewhat obsolete thanks to advanced technology.

This was also the best place in Equestria where one could purchase the finest kitchenware available. Twilight visited one of the shops and purchased a well sharpened kitchen knife before placing it in her pocket dimension. If they were planning on returning to Elicoor in the near future, she would need to be prepared to continue with Grape Vine’s request.

Her shopping also brought her to the book store where, after looking through the selection, found yet another of the mysterious books. This one was marked with the number 'five' which, thinking back on all of the other books would mean that she had located volumes one through six. If there were only six then she had found them all. She opened the book and studied the five words in the tome. They read, 'summon of god goddess ethereal'. She put the book back on its shelf and walked out of the book store while writing down the words on a piece of paper that listed the words found in the other five books.

Everyone split up to check the festivities. Some checked out the shops while others checked out the activities. Albel, Cliff and Mirage went straight to the arena to test their skills, with Cliff taking the time to stare at every shapely female along the way. Twilight and Lyra went to win some prizes from playing Runic Chess.

Meanwhile, Sophia decided to try her luck on the Bunny Races. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a good feeling about her chances. She wasn’t sure if the races counted as gambling since the ticket costs were fixed and the only thing you got for winning was points to be used for purchasing prizes.

Thankfully, she was still allowed to spend her money on the races. She used her gut feeling to choose the winners of the races that she placed a stake in. She purchased a perfecta ticket, picking which two bunnies would emerge victorious.

On the screen relating to the race she bet on, she saw the four bunnies hopping along an oval racetrack. Sometimes, one bunny would hop high into the air and stomp the track hard enough that it caused all of the other bunnies to lose their balance and fall over, allowing the offending bunny to race ahead of their competitors. The bunnies were quite aggressive but in the end, the two who Sophia picked emerged victorious.

The employee congratulated Sophia and awarded her nine points.

She decided to keep going with the races for a while. Surprisingly, she kept picking winners, which made other participants suspicious of her. The clerk also wondered if the rabbit girl was cheating somehow, but Sophia explained that she was simply relying on her gut instinct.

By the time she was finished throwing money at the races, she had amassed over a hundred points. She spent those points on a broken sword. She had a feeling that Twilight might find it useful later.

After leaving the Bunny Race building, Sophia made a note to return later to claim the trophy.

She soon regrouped with Twilight and Lyra. Both mares had looks of satisfaction on their faces. “Hey Sophia, how’d the races go?” Twilight asked.

“I think I have a knack for them. I won enough points that I spent for a bent sword. I had a feeling that you might find it useful later.” She handed the bent sword to Twilight who looked it over. She could sense some magic in it but the state of the weapon had caused the runework to slowly bleed magic. She shrugged before placing the blade in her pocket dimension.

The three then headed over to the arena to check on the others. On the way, they regrouped with Fayt, Nel, Maria and Adray.

The seven entered the arena lobby and found Cliff, Mirage, Albel and Thanatas awaiting their turn in the arena.

“Where are Peppita and Roger?” Sophia asked.

“Peppita decided to do some street performing and Roger stayed behind to watch,” Fayt replied.

Sophia smirked, “Roger seems particularly interested in Peppita lately.”

“Ah, young love,” Adray said. “I still remember my first love interest. She was the only one who put up with me long enough for Clair to be born.”

“Enough pointless sentimentality, fools,” Albel said. “I’ve swept through the B rank fights while you were having your fun elsewhere.”

“How is the arena set up?” Sophia asked.

“There are single battles and team battles,” Lyra explained. “Single and team battles are divided into five divisions, each with contenders facing five consecutive matches. They are ranked from D to S rank. Win five battles in a row and you win a prize. There are also ranked matches but you can only challenge them as a team. Only fifty teams may be ranked while unranked teams may only challenge those among the bottom four teams to claim a rank and knock off one of the other teams. Beyond that, you may only challenge teams up to four ranks above you to jump in the ranks. Losses cost you a rank. Only those who reach the first rank may challenge Diamond and Solar.

“There’s also some stupid rule that forbids princesses from challenging the rankers because of how powerful they are. That rule got put in when Bon Bon and I swept the ranks and took down the champions with ease.” Lyra grumbled bitterly.

Thanatas tapped her chin with a finger for a moment before an evil grin appeared on her face. “Lyra, do you still have your rank?”

“No, it was stripped from me when the rule went into effect. Since it was just me and Bon Bon, I couldn’t reclaim my rank because I had to be part of a team. I had to give up looking for a teammate because someone had been going around blackmailing any prospects, most likely one of the arena rankers.”

“How would you like to repeat your rise to the top alongside myself and Sophia?”

Lyra thought about it for a moment and mimicked Thanatas’ grin. A nod from the mare was all the agreement that the undead needed.

The two then walked over to Sophia who quickly read Lyra’s mind and parroted the facial expression. A silent agreement was made.

The trio walked up to the clerk who asked for their names. After giving their names, Sophia submitted their team formation request. The three mentally communicated with each other and decided on a team name. A mutual nod from the three finalized their decision.

“We’ll call ourselves War and Death.”

The clerk pressed a few keys and nodded to the trio. “Alright, you’re all set. Who would you like to challenge first?”

“We intend on crushing all fifty teams,” Sophia declared. “We’ll start at the first team, ‘The Bandits’, and work our way up.”

“Alright then, your opponents are ready and you will be transported to the arena in three…two…one…”

A blinding flash of light filled the trio’s vision briefly before it faded and they found themselves in the arena of the Kirlsa Training Facility.

“Figures…” Sophia mumbled.

They suddenly heard a female voice, but couldn’t see where it was coming from. “Welcome everyone to another exciting ranked arena battle! I’m your host, Diamond Crown! The stunning Stallion sitting beside me is none other than my co-host, Solar Point!

“Great to be here, darling!” said a male voice with a baritone pitch. “Let’s look at our contenders. It looks like Lyra Heartstrings has finally found a team for herself and seems intent on reclaiming the top spot in the rankings. Looking at the other two, one looks like a scary-looking human wearing some very grim-looking armor. That sword looks absolutely terrifying!”

“The third member of the team appears to be a rabbit-like creature,” Diamond continued. “I’ve never seen her like in Equestria before and I’ve never seen her kind in the Eternal Sphere either. Still, if she’s looking to compete in the arena, she’s bound to have some interesting tricks up her sleeve. Let’s find out if these newcomers have what it takes to return Lyra to the top.”

The first match was a major letdown. Their first opponents were a trio of thieves who appeared to be at the same level as the thieves they encountered in the ruins on Vanguard III. However, instead of going for overkill against the unfortunate bandits, Lyra, Sophia and Thanatas mentally planned on their arena experience before they entered.

The plan was for Lyra to solo sweep through half of the ranking teams while the other two stood back and watched. The idea was for them to fool the spectators into believing that Lyra was carrying the whole team. Once they started taking on the upper half, Thanatas would start assisting Lyra until they reached the top ten when Sophia would finally be able to show off her unleashed power.

The three bandits barely lasted a second, but only because they spread out that most of that second was spent traveling from one bandit to the next.

After that, the trio fought match after match in their climb to the top. The forty-eighth rank team involved a trio of ghostly hags who were physically a lot tougher than the previous two ranks but were mentally fragile. The forty-sixth ranked team was a trio of Protoss Zealots, but Lyra showed them why she was still the master templar.

The forty-second ranked team involved a pair of lizardmen and a new creature that the group had not encountered yet. This one looked like a sand-colored lamia with a snake-like lower body and a humanoid upper body. Its fingers were long and sharp. Twilight, who was observing the matches with everyone else, identified the creature as a yuan-ti. “The creature was first discovered by the kirin so they got the honor of naming it,” she claimed.

The yuan-ti attempted to freeze Lyra with its Ice Needles but the mare was too agile and dodged the spell. It failed to react in time when Lyra appeared behind it and separated its upper and lower body in one slash.

The thirty-eighth rank involved fighting a pair of floating children like the ones they encountered in the Barr Ruins and the Mosel Depths. Since the secret was out, Twilight was finally able to inform everyone that the characters were known as Robin Winds. “They are a humanoid-type creature who specialize in wind magic and are able to stir up whirlwinds on command.”

”Mighta been nice to know that sooner,” Cliff said.

Twilight ignored Cliff and continued watching the fight.

It didn’t last long once the two Robins created tornadoes and tried to send them at Lyra who moved around them. Lyra trapped one Robin in a Void Prison to reduce the competition before she vanished and reappeared behind the second Robin and slashed at him until he vanished. The first Robin was still trapped in the prison for a few more seconds but that was too long as he was helplessly cut down from within his cell.

As the trio climbed the rankings, Twilight received a transmission from Grape Vine. She brought it up on her holographic display. The image showed a maroon-colored earth pony mare with a bright green mane wearing her company uniform. “Hey, boss, is this a good time to talk?”

Twilight smiled, “Sure, do you have more inventor requests to send me?”

Grape nodded before she transmitted the profiles. “Also, I don’t want to alarm you, but some of us are growing concerned that the hacker’s attempts on our more precious systems are becoming more aggressive. I’m not even sure it’s safe to say anything without the hacker finding out. We might need you to come back to Sphere soon.”

Twilight nodded, “We’ll be over there in a few hours, that’s about all the time that I can allow our friends to prepare themselves for the coming danger.”

Once the transmission ended, Twilight took a look at the new profiles. The first on the list was an old alchemist of unparalleled skill. His age and wisdom would lead anyone to refer to him as a sage. Ansala was often seen around Castle Aquaria pestering the busy workers. Rumors have stated that he was looking for an apprentice. However, his standards were very high and they would have to show him something that would make any alchemist’s eyes gleam.

The next on the list took Twilight by surprise. She was not prepared for one of her employees to join the inventor list, but here she was. Lemon Puff was one of Twilight’s top researchers and a skilled chemist. She was also known for being eccentric, though. For some reason, other players seem to rub her the wrong way. More importantly, she was also one of Twilight’s lead developers for Project Valkyrie. She was likely at one of the sites in the Eternal Sphere, so she would visit her if fate ever led her there.

Last on the list was a father and daughter pair, which was strange to Twilight and got stranger as she read more about them. Apparently, Evia used to work as a runologist but developed an unhealthy obsession for doting on his beautiful daughter, Aqua. His obsession ended up spoiling the girl but he couldn’t care less. His obsession grew to the point where he was fired, which he took as an opportunity to be with his daughter more.

“And I thought Rainbow’s parents were bad,” Twilight mumbled.

Evia signed on to the guild as a craftsman to make sure Aqua was still well provided for.

Even so, Aqua worried about her father and his unhealthy habits. She often referred to her father as an idiot who has to be reminded every day to eat his meals.

The two were last seen in Peterny. Evia was apparently looking for someone to fund his daughter’s future.

By the time she finished reading the profiles, the trio had reached rank twenty-five and defeated a pair of giant stone golems. Their slow speed made it easy for Lyra to slice them to rubble with her energy blades.

The rank twenty-four match pitted them against a trio of warlocks who called themselves necromancers. This time, Thanatas joined the fray and showed them what a real necromancer was capable of when she raised an army of skeleton warriors and overwhelmed the amateur spellcasters.

The seventeenth rank featured a trio of tough-looking anthropomorphic goats with white and brown fur, wearing armor and carrying what looked like spear swords as the handles looked as long as the blades.

The goat warriors attempted to use their imposing size and weapons and overpower Thanatas, but they failed to account for the unrestrained strength of an undead who could still use her muscles and quickly found themselves overpowered. Once the warriors were unbalanced, the undead channeled unholy magic into her sword before she moved forward and delivered shallow cuts into their bodies. The unholy magic afflicted a disease upon the warriors which quickly festered and spread in their bodies. Once the warriors were no longer able to continue with the disease rotting them from the inside out, they vanished.

Thanatas grumbled in disappointment. “Stupid parental guidelines…I wanted to see them explode in a shower of gore.”

Sophia patted her cousin’s back in sympathy, “There there, there are plenty of other universes that will allow you to blow corpses up.”

After dealing with the tenth ranked team, Sophia was allowed to join in. She grinned widely in anticipation as she had been waiting a long time to get to show what she could do now.

Thanatas smirked at her cousin, “Show them the might of the new goddess of war.”

Her first opponent since her rebirth was a trio of scumbag thieves that looked like they coated themselves in a metallic substance.

As she was preparing to fight them, something caught her eye about all three of them. She could see, through greatly enhanced vision, something on their bodies that was so small, that it was practically subatomic in size. She raised an eyebrow at her adversaries before shrugging and used her blinding speed that only Thanatas and Lyra could keep up with. She channeled a small concentration of psionic power into her fingertip before rushing up to one of the scumbags and touching the tiny spot on his nose then backed away.

The scumbags were confused about what the girl did at first before her victim started turning to dust from the point she touched them until his body completely disintegrated. The other two were shocked about what the girl did and tried to run away, only for her to repeat the process on the other two on different parts of their bodies. The two disintegrated as well.

“What did you do?” Thanatas asked.

“I’m not sure, but I think I saw some sort of weakness in their physical structure on the subatomic level and exploited it with a tiny psionic explosive. The explosion likely caused a cascading effect and destroyed their metallic bodies.”

“How were you able to plant that bomb in the right place?” Lyra asked.

“I think it was a mix of instinct and sharpened senses. It was like my body was guiding me on planting that bomb so I went with it,” Sophia guessed.

“Subatomic precision strikes? You are definitely a force to be reckoned with,” Thanatas said with awe.

“I think that the reason they disintegrated was because they were made of metal. If they were organic, that would have likely caused internal damage at best. At least, that’s what my instincts tell me.”

The announcers were sweating from the trio’s display. Not only did the challengers have Lyra on their team, but also a powerful necromantic knight and a rabbit girl who just turned someone to dust with a simple touch. They would be troublesome opponents in the future and they knew it.

Diamond and Solar had princesses banned from the arena because they would be a threat to their place as the champions of the arena. With Lyra back with a new team of heavy hitters, and no reasonable excuse to bar them from challenging them, they knew that their days as champions were numbered.

Up until the second ranked team, the opponents were torn to pieces when Sophia turned her fingers into razor-sharp tentacles. At first, steel blades from a trio of red floating armors wielding swords seemed to chop up the tentacles until Sophia adapted and increased the tentacles’ hardness, making them impossible for the armors to cut and led to the armors getting torn apart. A group of knights armored in the likeness of the Black Brigade ended up quickly impaled when Sophia stuck her fingers into the ground and five tentacles erupted directly underneath the warriors.

The second ranked team was in a league of their own, compared to those before them. This team was a pair of powerful fighters. One was a blonde female wearing a brown and gold outfit with brown wings. The succubus blew a kiss in the direction of her opponents. The other was a blonde man with long, thin horns that curved toward his face. He was wearing a black outfit lined with gold and was carrying a flaming sword. The man’s smile revealed his fangs, immediately telling the trio that he was a vampire.

“These two look tough,” Lyra noted. “Sophia, you deal with the succubus while me and Thanatas handle the vampire.”

Once the battle began, Thanatas rushed toward the vampire and began clashing with him in a sword fight. The succubus moved to interfere but Sophia grabbed her hand and threw her into a nearby wall.

The succubus glared at her opponent and launched a spread shot of hearts. Sophia ducked under the shots and quickly closed the distance. The succubus teleported next to the vampire to get some support from her companion but that plan didn’t end well when Sophia launched herself from the wall and slammed into the succubus and used the demon’s body to cushion her impact on the opposite wall.

As the succubus attempted to recover, Sophia removed herself from the wall first and gave her foe a look of disappointment as she placed her left hand on her hip. “I don’t think you get the concept of a one on one challenge. You might want to accept that your partner isn’t coming to help you.”

The succubus looked toward her partner to find that he was indeed being pressured hard by Thanatas and Lyra. The impacts from the undead’s sword were forcing him back little by little while the mare was exploiting openings that Thanatas created. The vampire attempted to unleash a wave of fire around him to force his enemies to back off but Thanatas countered that with a powerful wave of frost that blew his flames away.

The Vampire growled, he was slowly being cornered and he needed to find a way to fight back. He decided to use his Flashing Sword technique to teleport around and strike his foes’ blind spots.

Sophia and Lyra were able to read the vampire’s mind. Lyra was able to anticipate the first attack on her and blocked his strike with her blades before she delivered a roundhouse kick to his gut. The vampire teleported behind Thanatas who encased herself in a block of ice which repelled the vampire’s attack. He then teleported behind Sophia who blocked the attack when she grabbed the succubus and used her as a meat shield. The vampire failed to stop his attack in time and struck his partner.

The succubus managed to teleport away after the attack and the vampire saw this chance to attack Sophia again but was pulled back toward Thanatas when she grabbed him with a bolt of necromantic energy from her sword.

In one desperate act, he unleashed his dark aura and plunged his sword into his shadow. This caused a demonic avatar of blood to emerge.

Thinking quickly, Thanatas used blood magic of her own and placed a special curse on the succubus. Thanatas took the vicious assault from the blood avatar and developed a painful headache as the avatar attacked her mind, but she withstood the attack. However, the curse inflicted the same damage to the succubus who screamed in agony as her mind and body were damaged equally.

The vampire dropped his guard as he became concerned with the damage that he inflicted on his partner, which was all Lyra needed to plunge her blades into the vampire’s back and rip him in two.

With the vampire dead, the succubus, now greatly weakened, knew that her chances of winning were nearly zero.

Sophia appeared next to the now despairing succubus with an innocent smile on her face. “Are you ready for this match to end?” The succubus only shuddered in terror. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Sophia delivered an uppercut to her chin which sent her flying upward. The bunny templar then flew up to her victim before spatially locking her into place with her psychic powers then delivering a series of energized punches and kicks that all but destroyed the poor demon. This was followed by Sophia’s fists slamming her out of the spatial lock and impacting hard on the arena floor. Sophia’s final blow came in the form of a devastating ax kick while she was roaring like an ultralisk. The explosive impact destroyed part of the arena and obliterated the succubus.

Everyone was stunned by the display of intensity from the templar. Silence reigned over the town who watched the fight. Not a word was said but a thought was made by a certain undead. “I’d better keep up with my training if I don’t want to fall behind her.”

Once the announcers regained some of their wits, Solar announced the winner of the battle.

The trio had one more match against a dragon rider and a powerful dragon to reach the first rank. This match was less intense but just as surprising as Thanatas transformed into her bone dragon form and showed everyone why she was the superior dragon when she crushed the other dragon by herself while Sophia buried the dragon rider into the arena wall and snapped the neck of the dragon mount.

The trio was considering taking on the champions now, but Twilight decided that it was time to end their fun. “I received word that the hacker is intensifying their attempts to hack into my project. We need to go to Sphere before they find a way to bypass my security measures. I might have underestimated their patience. Given who Princess Celestia thinks it is, I should have known better. Still, I hope everyone had fun.” Everyone nodded or voiced their agreement. “Alright, let’s head to the conduit and get ready to deal with your real enemy.”

Everyone headed back to the pylon transport conduit, prepared to face whoever was behind the problems with the Eternal Sphere.

Author's Note:

Before you ask, no. The story isn't nearly over. There is still plenty more to come and they will need all that power to face their final opponents when they come.

All six pieces of the puzzle have been given. Look through the previous chapters and try to figure out the message if you wish. I will give the answer once the event the puzzle forewarns about happens. If you learn the answer, please keep it to yourself.

Comments

[Black--Soul]

I am surprised they don't confront the threat outside the Eternal Sphere. There is enough of a threat to take someone into Investigation custody. But why spoil the plot when ass kicking is more fun. I just dislike the idea the hacker might literally hack himself advantages like last time...
I wonder if a Blueblood decendand is behind his. Familie of him would have enough pride and cliche revenge plots are fun for a reason

I guess a Canterlot Nobel with the help of one of the Familie members that are the self proclaiming guards of timelines?

[Black--Soul]

They sure had fun and time improvig themself. Time well spend!