Chapter Fourteen: The Only Man I Ever Feared
Chapter Fourteen: The Only Man I Ever Feared
My eyes turned to pinpricks, and my entire scope of the world, the universe, everything, slowed to a crawl. The blinding white of the open door before me left my body paralyzed. An Architect-class Manipulator presence? No... It couldn’t be. Not now, not after all that time had passed. It fucking couldn’t be—!
A concussive force emerged from the aura of light, in the shape of a human fist, and gladly made contact with my face. How it achieved this when I was several feet away from where I believed the door to be was a mystery I decided to temporarily ignore in favour of my now-broken nose.
The blow flung me backwards, putting distance between my attacker and I. I bounced and rolled across the floor, the flow of Time now properly running at its brisk pace, until my back finally slammed into a support pillar. Cracks spiderwebbed from the impact, and it was only a hasty shield applied purely by reflex that prevented nearly-guaranteed paralysis.
Chilling laughter filled the Throne Room, accompanied by a rather cliché drop in temperature and brightness. As I sat up to recover from the blow, I froze. I’d know that laugh anywhere; it had been haunting me for eons. And of course, there, standing before me in all of his twisted splendor and sadism... was him.
“Impossible...” I whispered to myself. Unfortunately, he seemed to have heard me, for he cracked a silent grin. My heart was pounding in my chest. Every nerve in my body was screaming at me to turn tail and run. Run until I couldn’t run anymore. Run to the very edge of existence and beyond.
It had been aeons since I had last heard his voice.
Millenniums since I watched him, body burnt beyond recognition, covered in deep wounds that had shredded his organs, plummet into the molten core of a collapsing planet, of a collapsing reality. He shouldn’t be alive. If I couldn’t have survived that... how could he?
Nevertheless, there he stood, mocking me with his very presence. Without any signs of the damage he had taken on that day. His attire was pitch-black, and seemed to absorb the very light in the air. His trenchcoat billowed gently in an ethereal breeze, swaying around his pants held up by an obsidian belt and tucked away into midnight combat boots. His hair was shorter than the last time we had encountered one another, and was spiked up in the front.
My eyes immediately locked onto the jagged red scar that ran along the front of his neck, and up the side of his face to end below his eye. A wound I had inflicted on him long ago, a wound whose brother of similar resemblance resided on my own form. My breathing was hitching in my throat. ‘No. Not again. Not ever again with this monster...’
He stood there, grinning down at me from his place in front of Celestia and Luna’s thrones. In one of the distant symbols of Celestia’s sun plastered on the wall, it turned scarlet. And like a switch, the luminosity within the Throne Room followed suit, bathing all of us in a faint, crimson glow. The fresh darkness cast by this shift began to writhe, coming alive and crawling up the walls of the Throne Room, until every ounce of alabaster marble was caked in thundering black.
Already, there was no escape.
His silver eyes glinted in the pale-red light of the room, seeming even more sinister than ever. The cold, lifeless veil behind those eyes seemed to swish and reverberate. Like it was alive. I narrowed my eyes in barely-restrained anger at the man. “Storm!” he bellowed, giving me a small curtsy as the portal-laden door he used to wiggle himself into the Universe snapped shut and vanished with an explosive pop. “So nice to see you again, old friend.” The emphasis made me shudder; the bastard knew how much I loathed those words when he said them. It only reminded me of his betrayal.
“The feeling is far from mutual.” Standing back up, and using a flourish of Editor-driven magic to repair my nose, I cracked my neck. Luna, standing to my left, looked to and fro between us, eyes wide while Celestia stared grimly towards my formerly-dead foe. It seemed no words needed to be shared that the man before them was not to be taken lightly. “You’re supposed to be dead. I killed you. Quite thoroughly, if I recall.”
“You know I don’t die that easily; silly Storm.” I snarled at the condescending tone. “Though the supernova was a nice try. It almost got me.” His focus briefly gravitated to the two alicorns by my sides, and a twisted smirk crossed his face. “Ah, Your Highnesses. It has truly been too long.”
My eyes took their turns to widen as both of the mentioned Alicorns snorted. So, he was the ‘Earthling’ they had encountered before? That had certainly explained their response to me once they heard me lurking about in their countryside. Had I been in their shoes (and in hindsight I have been), I would have also jumped the gun than risk anything. Even then, despite the weeks I had spent in their company, I stood by my reasoning that they were better methods to have discerned whether I was a threat, and they just plain weren’t thinking.
I shook away those thoughts; they were insignificant at this point. “Why are you here?”
“Why, to stop in and see how you were doing, of course!” Coyly, he feigned mock-hurt. “We were friends once upon a time, you know. Surely that allows me to visit every once in a while, no? Besides, I couldn’t find you for ages; and all of a sudden, out of the blue, I rediscover your location!”
“So, the Lock on this Universe is your doing, then?” My eyes traced over his form; there were indeed no scars of the battle that I thought had ended him. No missing ligaments, or disfiguration, or even limping. He infact almost seemed surer, more confident, more... powerful. It seemed his resilience was far greater than I ever anticipated.
He rolled his eyes and grinned menacingly towards me and the Royal Sisters. “Obviously. Though I’m glad our reunion is because of this Lock in particular. I did put considerable effort into this one above the others, after all. You had me worried for a while there that you’d never stumble upon this little oasis in the boondocks of the multiverse.”
Another snort from my sides caused me to glance towards my compatriots. Both Celestia and Luna were anxiously pawing the ground, horns starting to light with a dangerous intensity. Not even my fight with them all those weeks ago had elicited such a response; clearly, as I did, their experiences with... him were far from pleasant.
That silver-eyed bastard casually began stretching his arms out, seemingly unimpressed or unconcerned with the two Goddess-ranked Alicorns ready to end him. In fact, a scoff left him at the scene, before he began fishing for something in his pocket. Wearily, I watched him continue to dig into his coat before he found his besought item. I recognized it the instant it came into sight. “The Black Queen...”
His insidious grin returned, and he twirled the glass chess piece betwixt two fingers casually. “Oh ho! So you do remember this, eh? Well, I’ve made some modifications to it since the last time we caught up. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by its new functions. But we’ll have plenty of time for that shortly, no?” He spun the Queen around on one of his fingers as he stared around at his surroundings.
“I like the new castle, by the way,” he called out to the Princesses. “That old castle was always so drab, so... unbefitting of someone of a higher caste.” A wicked expression spread across his face. “However, I can’t help but notice a distinct sun motif. Tell me, Celestia; when you were designing your new seat of power, did you do so assuming your sister would never be freed from the Nightmare? And that you’d be the sole ruler of this kingdom forever more?”
I glanced at Celestia, whose eyes were now ablaze with a fury I hadn’t seen in a very long time. A brilliant yellow light surrounded her horn, intense as the sun itself. “You’ll pay for what you did to my sister all those years ago!” The princess lowered her head and fired a beam of pure solar magic at our mutual enemy. He was however, much too quick for her.
Moments before the blast struck, the bastard seized his Black Queen and held it before him. An ominous gong, like the distant sound of a bell, reverberated from the chess piece as a pulsing black-violet field formed around it. “Get back!” I shouted, barely able to throw up my own shield around the Alicorns as I anticipated what was happening.
And then the flare struck.
The windows all around us shattered from the force of the impact, and those unprepared for it outside of my defense were knocked to the ground. Celestia’s attack had been diverted right through the wall facing into the Gardens. An explosion of marble indicated that its new target was most likely a statue of some historically-relevant Pony.
“Come now, Celestia. Have you learned nothing?” A cocky, arrogant spark was in his eyes as he neatly tucked away the piece into a visible pocket on his coat. “Holding back won’t be enough to end me.” He let out a deep, hearty laugh as the princess growled in frustration. “Only a few minutes in, and I haven’t had this much fun in millenniums. Who knew reunions like this could be such a blast?” As if he had just recalled something, my foe snapped his fingers. “Oh! Storm; how did you enjoy my little fully-functional Overrider some weeks ago? I heard you had an... interesting experience with it.”
My eyes widened, though I never took my eyes off of his dangerous game token. “That was an Overrider?!” It was a term I certainly hadn’t heard of in some time; the Overrider—the device that had seized my body and directed me against Celestia—was just one of the multiple pet projects both he and I had worked on aeons ago.
...Back during the War of Divinity. But none of those devices had ever been able to work. I wearily assessed my surroundings once more; who knew what other of those experiments he had succeeded in finishing?
“I’ve completed quite a few, actually. I had plenty of time to continue my projects after you lowered your guard and laxed in your real purpose all those years ago.”
I narrowed my eyes. How did he—?
“You should know better than to leave your thoughts so open to me, Storm,” he sneered. “Your basic firewalls may be mostly effective against the mere gods, but you have to try better for your thoughts to elude me.”
Red began to seep into my vision as my mental barriers intensified. The action seemed to only amuse the Manipulator as he continued his lazy pulling on his arms, his damnable smile returning to his face.
So long. So long I had thought he was deceased, dealt with, obliterated. Just a distant, very unpleasant ghost of a memory. Yet here he was. It seemed not even the previous circumstances of our last encounter was enough to end his wretched existence. And that terrified me.
My hands were shaking slightly as I clenched them tight. If my last attempt to kill him wasn’t enough, where I had to implode an entire reality in an effort to save everything, then how was I supposed to now with but a fraction of my former strength? Short of destroying the entire Universe I stood in (an action I was none too keen on initiating, given the Lock still bounded me to the realities holding it together), besting him would be nigh-impossible.
And he knew it. “Check,” he coolly remarked as he tossed his chess piece up into the air and deftly caught it.
Flicking my hand outward, Editor-grade energy began surging around my palm. It crackled with my will and fury fueling it as its sapphire light highlighted my seething features. “I know your intentions here, and I will not allow you to jeopardize the Scales of this Universe. Maintaining the Balance is far more important, and integral to the survival of everything, than whatever you’re plotting. This is your only warning to retreat before I end you.”
A snort of laughter left him as he raised one of his hands into the air, fingers poised as if to snap them. “End me? I see you haven’t lost your sense of humour, at the very least.” And with a movement quicker than even my refined-sight could keep track of, a sonic boom ripped through the air and subsequently my eardrums. It reverberated in the room, and another resonance appeared around the Black Queen, before its effects became apparent.
In the form of several-dozen armoured bipeds materializing and pointing firearms at me and the other Ponies.
“You recall the Irida, don’t you?” Lazily, the Manipulator made a motion towards one of them, their reptilian figures shimmering alongside their steel platemail. “After you left them in your rush to teleport all the way out here, I decided to pick up where you left off. Imagine my surprise when they were more-than-willing to pledge themselves in service to me, all for a shot at killing the ‘Godsent Heretic.’” He made little sarcastic motions with his hands at that name. “And I thought I could be full of myself. Boy, you take the cake.”
I gritted my teeth. Figures that he would pull them into his schemes; the bastard had a frustrating habit of turning individuals against me, both before, during, and after the War. The two Princesses at my sides were beginning to stalk forward, and with them the Guard was preparing to rush their position at gun-point, before I spoke. “Stay where you are, equines. This matter is beyond you.”
Luna looked at me incredulously. “‘Beyond us’? You have no idea what he has done to our subjects. To us.”
“You’re right; I don’t.” My eyes bored holes into his own. “But my history with him exceeds yours by millenniums, regardless of what he’s done. So stay your want for revenge against one you cannot best. This is my battle, and my burden to bear.”
Those damn silver orbs. That twisted, mocking grin. I hated it. I hated him. Loathed his very existence, his taint, and every particle of ground he walked upon. There was no other who I held in the lowest disdain as I practically spat my words. “It is obvious you are here to fight, so let us get on with it. Leave these mortals and Goddesses out of it; I know your goal is me.”
“Oh, Storm. Always so quick to get right into the thick of things. Surely you can wait a few more moments while I—” Before he had a chance to finish his snide remarks, his infuriating monologuing any further, my Editor-driven hand summoned a spear of light to fall from the ceiling at mind-numbing speeds towards his wretched heart. Holy magic had been extremely effective in the past, so it was one of my most immediate reactions. Yet without breaking eye-contact with me, with just one smooth motion, he stopped it with two fingers. And despite the spearhead being mere centimeters from its intended target, he just as casually shattered it with a small hint of pressure.
He tutted at my surprised expression. “Now you see, that’s exactly what I’m talking about. Acting before truly thinking. All these years, and I was hoping you had grown out of that. I mean, if you had succeeded in that little attack, just think of what would have happened to these Ponies here.”
And with a snap, a sphere containing the girls from Ponyville ripped its way into existence.
“No...” I heard Celestia whisper under her breath, her voice nothing but sheer terror and boiling hatred. The only thing I knew that was stopping her from attempting to impale my immortal foe upon her horn was my previous command. But even that was barely restraining her as she took a step forward. “Twilight! Are you okay?”
Despite the apparent shouting of the Unicorn within, there was no audible feedback. “Oh, they can’t answer you, I’m afraid.” As if to emphasize his statement, he tapped the side of the globe. The Ponies flinched as if they were in a fishtank as a tiny sign reading ‘Do Not Tap on the Glass’ popped up on the side of the bubble. “One-way speakers, and all that. Amazing who you can find snooping around in this castle of yours, Celestia. They can hear and see our conversation of course, but their ability to talk to all of us out here? It’s suspended, for now.”
My mind reeled. How? How was he still so powerful after that last battle? It was bad enough that he had miraculously survived, but he stood before me, unharmed. What needed to be done to end his reign of chaos for good?
“Excellent questions,” he said in disinterest. My eyebrows furrowed in rage as I patched up the mental hole in my firewalls. “You see, before that spat we had where you decided to collapse an entire Universe in an attempt to kill me, I too had an ‘Emergency Warp’ function activate.” The fact he knew I had one meant he had to of been tracking me ever since I arrived. His smile confirmed it. “Once things went belly up for me, I was still able to escape. You were getting pretty daring, after all. It was then a simple matter of biding my time in the new space I found myself in, and siphoning the strength of said galaxy until my wounds could recover.”
The two Princesses, and the girls in the sphere, stared at both me and him with horror, fear, and shock. I didn’t warrant those looks. I had no other choice! I did what I had to do to prevent his reign of tyranny, dammit! It was for the good of the Scales, of Balance! Stop looking at me like that—!
“Anyways,” my foe interrupted, though whether he knew about my progressively-insane shouts resounding in my head or not was unknown, “I suppose we best, as you put it, ‘get on with it.’” Twirling his Black Queen in his hand, he pointed the end towards me, its mocking crown glinting in the light of the room. Another gong emitted from the piece as it glowed. “Round One.”
I do not know which of us moved forward first, but we both found ourselves in the middle of the room, flying towards each other at whirling speeds. My hands were outstretched, and raw crackling lightning surged forth from their conduits. He, though, was unarmed. Unarmed save for the Black Queen still in his grasp, starting to create an arc to cleave at my shoulder.
Reflexes took over thought as my arms raised themselves, converting both magicka and Editor-energy into a barrier to defend my being. The Black Queen shimmered, chimed once more with its distant gong, and then with a pulse expanded into a mace. Smug grin never leaving, he swung something my mind hadn’t expected, but my body did.
My body, however, did not expect the mace to bypass my shield with almost no resistance, and crash into my lungs.
A pained wheeze expelled from my core left me as I somersaulted from the force of the attack, crashing back to the floor near the Princesses. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw them try to help me up in their magical auras, before I waved them away, and sluggishly stood by myself. His cackling reached my ears. “Ah, it worked better than I thought it would!”
I bared my teeth at him, the faint tinge of blood licking at my taste while I began transitioning the shock-spell in my hands to a healing haze. However, upon trying to recover from my injury, I realized it was having no effect. I glared at him in anger as my hands hovered over my stomach, for much of the same result. My mind was starting to feel something horrible rising from the bottom of my being. “What... what did you do?”
“You’ll recall that I always had a fascination with other Manipulators and Editors floating about the multiverse, and how these later iterations ticked after ours were conceived. Particularly my interest in turning said technology against those who would interfere with my goals.” Once again, he lazily went back to twirling his Black Queen, its new form now gone, as if it had never been more than a simple chess piece. “My curiosity had yet to be sated when the War drew to a close. The answers I had found in battle weren’t enough. They lacked completion and left me with far more questions and theories than I had started out with. So, I began studying how they worked more... in depth.”
That horrible, inkling feeling intensified. My eyes widened even further, and a growing sense of nausea and disgust started to surge forth. “You didn’t.” His only response was a small smile, one that said ‘what do you think?’, and I shook. No. That was too far. Killing your foes was one thing, a necessity at best, but doing that... to dissect them as if they were animals...
A thought rose up in the back of my mind. Was that the real reason he was here? Had he really been lying in wait all this time, leaving Locks in his wake in the hope that one day I’d get myself trapped? Was he really here just to kill me and study my Editor? If that was so, why wait until now to end me?
I shook my head. Whether his motives were fueled by revenge or not, I couldn’t stand for what he had revealed to me, or any of his past transgressions. It was another tally mark on a growing list of my justifiable reasons to stop him.
My muscles relaxed, but my eyes retained their rage. “I swear I’ll kill you, Shadow.”
His eyes lit up, and his canines glinted in the scarlet glow of the Throne Room. “Very intimidating. But you used my name! I was getting terribly bored of hearing you refer to me as ‘him’ in your little noggin. That’s rather rude, is it not?” Once again, I snuffed out another liability in my mental defenses. They were starting to slip; Shadow’s return was beginning to make me lose myself again. I needed control, over both my emotions and my environment, if I wanted to best him.
“Hmm. I think those female mortals you seem faintly fond of should be allowed to say their piece, do you not?” Without waiting for an answer, Shadow snapped his fingers, and the girls were released.
“Twilight!” I twisted, expecting to see Celestia rush past me and straight towards Shadow. To my thankful surprise, I saw her horn being encompassed in a flaxen glow, before a similar field surrounded the Bearers. In an instant, they were teleported to our side of the room, and stumbled lightly from the feat. I gently took in Celestia enveloping her student in her wings, both of them shivering in relief.
My face turned away, back towards Shadow, back towards my age-old opponent. He was watching the pair as well, and for the first time since his ill-fated return, there was no smug facial expression marring his visage. Merely a look of thought. “Your Student feels stronger than the last, Celestia. Much stronger. It always interests me how mortals can naturally be imbued with so much power.”
“We were mortals once, Shadow,” I called out. “In a sense, we still are without utter immortality. Our power does not make us Gods, not true ones.”
Another condescending look was sent my way, as if he knew something I did not. “It might as well. It is strength that determines the great. And our greatness rivals even the mightiest of Gods. Should we not aspire to live up to our potential?” He returned his attention towards Twilight. “Tell me, little pony: what is your name?”
Twilight, still being nuzzled gently by her mentor, glanced to me. She flinched, no doubt at my still-furious expression. Sighing, I nodded; I needed time to think, to come up with something. Shadow’s return was possibly planned for, but never truly expected. For him to not only reemerge, but unscathed and more powerful because of it? Distracting him was the best option I immediately had. Nodding to herself, as if in reassurance, Twilight spoke. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, Bearer to the Element of Magic.”
Shadow quirked an eyebrow. “Element?” Looking towards Luna, whose eyes reflected rage nearly as fierce as my own, his eyes lit up. “Oh, those Elements! I had nearly forgotten all about those silly things. Didn’t even realize it, but yes, I feel it; you, Twilight Sparkle, and your friends. You all hold Celestia’s and Luna’s former Elements. Interesting. So very interesting.”
Celestia finally disentangled herself from Twilight, and stood next to her Sister once more. Both of their wings were fully outstretched, and their horns glowed ominously. Wisps of arcane power swirled slowly about the two. I merely stood off to the side, trying to analyse everything. Ed wasn’t answering any of my pleads for communication or advice. He was still synced to me, though; that I knew for certain. But then, where in the hell was he?
“Ignore our subjects. If you wish to do battle, then focus not on them.”
Shadow grunted in thought at Luna’s remark, gently see-sawing two fingers unoccupied by his Black Queen, before shrugging. “Eh, personally I was only interested in fighting my old buddy Storm over there, but if you insist...”
The shadows at his feet rose up and surrounded him in a jet-black cloud. Flashes of green lightning arced through the mists for a moment before it all faded away. In Shadow’s place was an Alicorn stallion, with a coat the color of fallen ash and a mane and tail of emerald-green fire.
‘No,’ my mind bellowed from the very bottom of my soul. ‘That isn’t just fire. That’s Hellfire.’ Upon hearing the wretched name, my body tensed and convulsed slightly. Hellfire; probably the most dangerous thing Shadow had ever used against me. The stuff was so potent that a single ember could leave an injury that would take centuries to recover from. On more than one occasion, I had been within an inch of Death from those unnatural flames.
“I do fancy myself to be the sporting sort,” Shadow the Alicorn said, testing out his new form with various shakes and stretches. The Princesses seemed only more enraged at his transformation. “I could use a warm-up, but I don’t want to wipe the floor with you too quickly—” His wide smile quickly vanished as both Princesses fired blasts of pure magical energy, both apparently done listening to him. “Oh hell.”
The twin attacks collided mere feet from Shadow and exploded violently. Chunks of stone and debris launched outwards, chunks that thankfully missed any Ponies within range. In the wake of the attack, there was no sign of Shadow.
“Wait, that’s it?” Luna looked around for any sign of the ponified Manipulator. “We won?”
“It’ll take much more than that to stop him,” Celestia warned. I nodded in silence, and kept my own wits about me. Just because those three were combating one another did not mean Shadow would not transition and come for me or the Elements next. Celestia’s eyes were narrowed as she carefully examined the throne room. “Reveal yourself, coward!”
“Ha! Close, but no cigar, Celestia!” Shadow’s laughter rang out from above. A glance upward discovered his location: at some point or another, he relocated himself to standing upside down on the ceiling above us. “I knew you two would hate me, but that was a bit much, don’t you think?” Before anyone could react, the ceiling began to crack and shatter. “It’s a nice ceiling, though; very decorative. But you know what it needs? Skylights!”
Great chunks of ceiling fell into the room below with the first few pieces crashing between the two princesses. Both managed to leap out of harms’ way just in time.
“See, can never go wrong with skylights!” Shadow laughed. His increasingly-insane tone caused me to back up the Elements hanging around my person. I knew this side of the Manipulator all too well. “I always knew I should’ve been an Architect.” He dropped from the shattered ceiling, landing heavily between the largest pair of ceiling pieces. “Of course, I always thought my calling was professional baseball. I was the best pitcher my high school had seen in about twenty years or so. I wonder if I’ve still got it after all this time.”
His horn lit up with an emerald green light, as a matching glow surrounded the ceiling debris around him. The debris floated up into the air and began to quickly orbit around Shadow. His expression became ever more manic.
“Batter up!” Two pieces of the ceiling broke away from their orbit and fired at the Princesses.
Celestia teleported past the piece sent at her, allowing it to crash through a nearby wall without harm to anyone. Across from her, Luna had created a magical barrier over her eyes before blasting into the other ceiling chunk with a powerful lunge.
The lunar princess shot through the cloud of dust her attack had created, a narrow blade of pure magic floating on the air before her. Shadow responded in kind by creating a pair of gladius swords out of his own magic. Luna’s blade was caught between both of Shadow’s. The Manipulator sneered down at her.
“Come now, little Moon. Is that really the best you can do?” he teased. “When we fought just over a thousand years ago, you managed to cut my leg off in less than a minute. What changed?”
“I’ve become more of a team player,” Luna said back, a sneer of her own to match Shadow’s.
Shadow’s expression shifted to one of confusion. “The hell does that have to do with anything?”
Next to the pair, a flash of bright light flared up as Celestia teleported right next to them, a ridiculously oversized, golden hammer decorated with various sun and moon motifs held in her magical grasp.
Shadow’s eyes narrowed to pinpricks as she swung the hammer toward him. “Oh. That.” A sickening crunch filled the air as the hammer hit its mark and sent Shadow sailing across the room and kicking up a cloud of dust upon impact.
“Thanks for the distraction,” Celestia said with a smile. Luna merely nodded, determination boiling in her eyes as the two Princesses landed before the altar where their thrones were. As the dust settled, and revealed Shadow standing upright in his normal human appearance, another sensation of dread crept up my spine.
“It appears you wish for me to get serious,” Shadow mumbled after a moment, idly reclining against Celestia’s throne. Several heaps of rubble surrounded his form, and like nearly every other attack thrown by the two Sisters, it appeared the strike had little effect on him. His scowl was directed pointedly at the two gaping Alicorns. “Since you are not taking the hint of surrendering, I recommend you take a vacation!”
His mouth turned into an amused snarl. “Allow me to plan it!”
In the next instant, both Celestia and Luna were gone. In their wake was a surge of dark-red energy ripping a gaping hole through one of the walls, and the distant sound of ‘thunder’. It was followed by what could only be an avalanche. I frowned as I stared at the distant landslide; there went the peak of Canterlot Mountain, most likely. Shadow pivoted on a foot, and grinned at me from his position. “I do believe that I just got the mother of all home-runs.” He casually raised a hand. “High-five?”
My response was a bolt of explosive energy removing his outstretched hand.
Shadow growled in pain, though no blood flowed from the wound. I realized too late that it wasn’t because the detonation had cauterized the injury, but rather he was already regenerating the loss. The action reminded me of my own throbbing chest-pains. Attempting to heal them once more, however, actually succeeded, and the pain faded in a wave of white-gold. My brows furrowed. “So, the Black Queen only stuns the Editor...”
“FInally figured it out, did you?” Shadow’s hand was already reinstated as he casually strolled about, apparently indifferent to the fact that I had blown up his hand. “Actually, it disrupts more than just Editors and Manipulators; it alters life energy itself. Shame it can only handle so many modifications before it’d turn itself into a black hole from instability. I take what I can get though. Saved my life when you left me to die, after all.”
I merely nodded, more out of habit than agreeing with a single word that composed the bastard’s potential lies, and noted where everything was. The black veil that had taken residence along the interior of the Throne Room’s walls and windows hummed with demonic whispers of pain and despair. The guardsponies were still being held hostage by the Irida militia, all of whom were beginning to corral the former into two groups on my flanks. And the girls...
Twilight shook with rage and horror at the chunk of missing stone that divided the innards of the Castle, and the distant spire of the mountain. The others fared little better, and all of them had taken to crowding behind me for their defence against the ghastly form of Shadow. Quietly, just on the edge of hearing, I heard one of them whisper under their breath.
“Save us. Please.”
...It did not matter which of them said it. It was all I needed to further my resolve.
Divine judgement, light blessed by Gods themselves and condensed by all the power-reserves in my Editor, began coalescing around my being. It was time I got serious myself, and put down Shadow for good. There was no plan, nor chance of escape. All the opportunity I had was to rush him, full-force while his wits weren’t about him, and finish his existence as soon as possible. And this time ensure he was fully obliterated.
I was exuding such an aura of retribution that Shadow began to comment in a confused, yet still haughty tone. “Oh? What’s this? Finally done letting lesser beings fight me, and have instead decided to get back into the thick of things yourself? Well, it’s about tim—”
“Yes. I am.” And that was all the warning I gave him, before I launched off the ground, and promptly slammed a holy spin-kick into his abdomen. It surprisingly registered, and Shadow flew across the rest of the Throne Room and took refuge in a human-shaped indent in one of the far walls. The dark mist recoiled initially, but began returning to tend to its master. I gave no such option as I rushed forward, and unleashed a massive shockwave of light.
Screams violently echoed throughout the room so loud and screeching that every being, save for me and I could only presume Shadow, flinched at. Rays of sunlight struck the sickly shadows without remorse, and began to drive them back into the recesses of whatever crevice would allow them. The red tint of the room dimmed, and so to did Shadow’s prevailing influence.
“Guards!” My voice cut through the din of the dying shade. “Initiate CounterStrike Beta-Omega!”
There was no resounding response to my command, but it was definitely received. While the Irida recovered from the apparent besting of their Master, the other guardsponies heeded my instruction and retaliated. Unicorns magically wrested the firearms away and unleashed blinding flashes of light. Pegasi took to the air and struck high, while the Earth Ponies strafed behind their quarry and struck low. Short work was made out of them, and before I knew it, every Irida had been disarmed, and subdued. That was two obstacles down, at least. The girls behind me gave shaky, but hopeful sighs. “I... is it over, Storm?”
I glanced at the hole where Shadow went, and my face fell. “Far from it...”
Shadow’s chilling laugh emerged from the indent, and soon so did Shadow himself. He was actually clutching his ribs; though not in pain, but in... laughter. “Ah ha ha ha! Storm! Now this, this is more like it!” He was doubling over now, tickled pink as he reclined against Celestia’s throne to stabilize himself. “You’re reminding me of the good old days!”
His guffawing cut off suddenly, and he straightened up, as if it never happened. “Still going to break you, though.” And then he vanished. I knew better, and once again my instincts responded. My hands shot up, and a row of needles crafted from light formed, just as Shadow reappeared flying towards me. With a flick, my barrage sailed forth in his direction, before he disappeared once again.
“Your reflexes are still adequate, I see. Good to know you haven’t completely put off your training after you fell, Storm.”
The comment made my blood boil further as I shouted into the Shadow-less room. “The one who fell was you!” Suddenly, I felt a shift in the wind, and I intensified my holy aura. ‘I only have a minute or so more, at best, before I completely drain myself. I need to catch him, and dispatch him; now!’ Dust and debris scattered into the air as I struck outward in a cardinal direction. My aim was apparently true, for Shadow’s cloaked form became visible as he flew back.
‘There!’ Closing the distance in a flash, I lunged and grabbed ahold of Shadow. Fashioning the light in my possession into a set of claws, I violently slashed and raked every part of his body I could. Every time he tried to twist out or counter, I’d Blink to another angle and continue the assault. A particularly heavy swipe sent him spinning into the air from the force.
“Get him, Storm!” a voice called out from below. I vaguely realized it was Rainbow Dash cheering me on, swinging her hooves this way and that as if she was fighting alongside me. The other girls quickly chipped in their own support, and I rallied behind it as I kicked off from a disc of light and swung at Shadow.
He spun around before I could make contact, however, and blocked my attack with one of his gladius blades he had used against the Princesses. Shadow’s smirk was pained, but admiring. “Now this, will be a good fight, Storm.” And with a cackle, he swung his other blade. My claws deflected the strike, and with another holy-springboard, I tackled Shadow into the ceiling.
My bladed fingers pierced his chest and sternum as we both slammed roughly against the top of the Throne Room. The air in Shadow’s lungs left him in a whoosh, and a follow-up knee into his kidney further expelled the oxygen. At this point, we were suspended there, face-to-face with our teeth bared at one another. The sheet of lingering aura was still around my person as I twisted the claws in his wounds, causing him to snarl in pain. “Good, Storm! That’s the ferocity I remember, when we stood together and caused Gods to tremble before us. I can see it in your eyes; your urge to kill me.”
He leaned in, a small drop of blood leaving his lips. “Do it. I dare you, Storm: kill me.”
I glared at Shadow, at his condescending gaze and feral smile. How much I wanted to, how much I needed to. He needed to die. He was going to die. Revenge was meaningless if I could just destroy Shadow and truly be done with it. And yet...
I slammed my head against his nose, breaking the cartilage and sending him reeling his skull back into the ceiling. My claws intensified in their burning rage as I planted my feet next to Shadow and against the surface of the ceiling. “I’ll kill you when you’ve paid for what you’ve done. In full!” I bellowed, and pushed off.
The hooked ends of the claws brought Shadow’s form with me, and he maliciously laughed at me like a madman as we went into a freefall back to the marble floor. “You are such an idiot!” With a shockwave of magic, he repulsed me and my claws out of his body. Hellfire began pouring out of his hands as he balled them into fists. “You should have taken my life when you had the chance.”
My reflexes told me to move before my brain even registered Shadow’s Hellfire-consumed fist flying past my face. With haste, I slammed my heel into the injuries in Shadow’s torso as I changed the magical claws into a holy lance. “I think not!” The spear surged forth, and penetrated Shadow as we finally reached the bottom.
The impact jostled me, but I remained steady as my tool of Shadow’s destruction sat lodged in his body. I stared at Shadow’s form below me, the pain rampant in his eyes, as the Hellfire faded from his hands. But I knew he wasn’t dead. Not quite yet. Shifting myself swiftly to his feet, I flicked the lance upward, and Shadow was launched again into the air. But I had no intentions of accompanying him. Prepping my weapon as if it was a javelin, I sent it flying through his chest, which subsequently pinged him off into the stairs leading up to Celestia’s and Luna’s thrones. As his mangled body laid there, I carefully watched him.
In the center of his chest, there was a gaping hole where his heart used to be. The force of the divine strike caused the wall behind him to explode violently outward, leaving me with the view of the two thrones sitting unyielding against a backdrop of the distant valley. I moved away, expecting him to perhaps abruptly rise and lash out, to kamikaze me in his dying moments.
But he laid unmoving. The Elements behind me let out tremendous breaths of air, and practically collapsed on one another. The Royal Guards who had bared witness to the battle gradually released the tension in their muscles. Silence permeated the Throne Room as I heaved deep intakes of air. But it wasn’t from relief.
Shadow’s grin had finally faded.
But it was replaced instead with a grimace of annoyance.
“I liked that shirt you know,” he grumbled as he sat back up straight. Quick as lightning, his arm snapped up, revealing a hand-cannon of some alien design, sleek and with glowing green accents. I didn’t even have time to put up a shield before he put two energy rounds through my left arm. “Going for my heart isn’t going to be enough, Storm. Did you really think I’d keep it in my body after our last battle?”
My breath hitched in my throat as pain spiked through my now-useless arm. No. Not even the old Shadow could have survived that. A pit of despair began welling in my breast. There was regeneration, and even Editor-level regeneration. And then there was... No. He hadn’t. There was no way. With a howl of both frustration and desperation, I summoned a host of arrows crafted from pure light in a dome around my immortal foe, and launched them at Shadow with a gesture.
Shadow responded in turn by slamming his foot down on the ground. The flooring tore itself apart with a series of earsplitting cracking sounds, allowing massive chunks of marble to rise into the air. With a twist of his wrist, he magicked the walls of stone between himself and my approaching attack.
The light met the stone with a tremendous thu'um. The walls and ground shook violently and after successfully dispelling my attack, Shadow’s several barricades shattered. The pieces of the floor-made-defenses remained floating in the air, refining themselves into multi-pointed projectiles that were launched directly at me.
His reversal of my attack was so sudden that I couldn’t hope to defend against it. Viciously the jagged orbs of stone and marble pegged and ripped me apart, repeatedly knocking what little air that could be taken in straight back out again. Shadow chuckled darkly as the cascade finished, and I stumbled to a knee. “So much resolve. Yet weak. So very weak.”
“How...” I attempted to rise from my kneeling position, but couldn’t find the strength. “In the past, holy magic was your bane. You couldn’t even handle the stuff without becoming violently ill!” My mind was in full-blown panic mode: I was drained both in mind, body, and Editor-reserves. Nothing was working, not even Light spells, which I had always relied on in the past to give an advantage. What was I supposed to do if my only edge was dull?!
Shadow tilted his head towards me in what looked like genuine befuddlement. “I’m surprised you haven’t realized it yet. All those tries and attempts have failed, and it hasn’t registered in your head yet, Storm?” His malicious grin reappeared. “The key words there was ‘in the past.’”
I felt the world stop. “No... you haven’t.... you can’t have...”
Shadow’s grin was psychotic. “Oh yes, I am.”
With that, my divine aura... my only conceivable trump card... faded. My vision was shaking, both from terror and the excruciating pain from my broken arm. That confirmed it; whatever this being before me was, whatever held the face of my former friend... it was not Shadow.
Not the manipulative traitorous bastard I remembered, at any rate. The same body and voice, perhaps; but not the same soul. There was something else behind his eyes. The mischievous light they once held was gone. Even his twisted smiles and wicked laughs seemed forced, unnatural and awkward. The change was jarring, as if I was staring into a distorted mirror.
Maniacal laughter erupted from Shadow as he spun about. “Amazing what near-death experiences can unveil, is it not? I haven’t felt this in-touch with my Manipulator since before the War! No, it’s even stronger! It’s empowering! Glorious, even! Ha ha ha!”
“Enough...” My head twisted painfully and sluggishly around to my side. Standing next to me, mane downcast over her lowered muzzle, was Twilight. Her voice was monotone, and flat; but there was something there. Something fierce, and deadly. It became more pronounced when the violet in her coat began fading away to an alabaster-white, and her mane began animating itself into a pantomime of fire. “That is enough, Shadow.”
Shadow quirked an eyebrow in interest. “Is it now? Then tell me, Twilight Sparkle—student of Celestia and wielder of one of her precious Elements... what are you going to do about it?”
Twilight’s head snapped up, and I was stunned to see her irises had been replaced with pure, blinding light. Her voice seemed to be an echo from the very depths of the planet. “I am going to protect. My. Friends!” With an explosive pop of magic, she cleared the distance between herself and Shadow. In my condition, I couldn’t hope to stop her against the futile action. Her horn was encased in a spear of magenta light, and before Shadow could react, she impaled his stomach.
A growl of pain left Shadow, but aside from that, there was no response from the man. He merely looked down in irritation, and vague amusement. “A fine attack. Worthless, however.” With a hand under her head, the Manipulator hoisted Twilight by the throat. “What heart though. You would make such an interesting apprentice. How about it, Twilight Sparkle?”
Shadow’s eyes flashed, and my body convulsed as I realized what he was trying to do. “Twilight, don’t look in his eyes!” I croaked as the pain from my injuries caused me to hunch over. The other Elements tried to get near me to assist, but I tersely ordered them back. I glanced back up at the pair. “He’ll use you and betray you. Don’t... listen to him...”
Shadow smirked as he stared into Twilight’s eyes. “Nevermind Storm. Why should you even consider his words? He jeopardized your Princesses, your friends, and yourself. He is not as good of a person as you think he is. Storm only protects you out of fear for himself, not for concern of you and your people. He is just as worse as I am. But forsake Storm to me, and I’ll leave your Universe alone. Join me.”
With willpower in my veins, I finally stood upright to break his influence. I ended up not needing to as Twilight spoke. “Even if that is true...” Twilight’s mane ignited into pure fire as her coat fully embraced its alabaster hue. “Even if Storm is protecting us just for his own sake, even if he’s done evil things in the past... he is still a friend.” Her words stunned me; she considers me a friend? Shadow seemed equally surprised as he flinched. Twilight’s voice became ferocious as a violet aura surrounded her. “And I won’t ever betray my friends!”
Before Shadow could respond or make any sort of retort, Twilight Blinked, and appeared above his stunned person. With a yell of pure, unadulterated rage, she lobbed a ball of energy from her horn that detonated and sent the Manipulator flying straight towards me. Knowing my purpose, I steeled myself and got back into the fray.
While my Editor-reserves and mana were drained, and my left arm deadened, I still was not completely defenseless. Digging deep and finding one of the few weapons linked specifically to my soul, separate to the Universal Editor, I extended my hand outward. “I summon thee to my aid; Requiem’s Ballad!”
With a flourish of white and black sparkles, the Keyblade formed into my right hand. Its long, menacing appearance intermingled sable, ivory, and gunmetal vines as it climbed up the shaft to represent my struggle for Balance, and its three fanning azure spikes manning the head resembled its Keyblade brethren. It was my pride and joy. And I was about to make a home-run of my own.
Right before Shadow’s tumbling form reached me, I single-handedly swung the weapon and ricocheted him back towards Twilight. A crafty smirk appeared on her face as she readied a giant, arcane phantom of a flyswatter, which she used to bounce Shadow back to me. I returned the serve, and she met me, shot for shot. The sight of me and Twilight essentially playing tennis with Shadow as the snarling, injured ball might have been humorous, if it wasn’t for said ball recovering his wits and teleporting out of his predicament.
“You should be careful whose fights you involve yourself with, Twilight Sparkle.” A sinister sigil began to form under Twilight. But before I could tell her to evade, Shadow reappeared before me, and on reflex I raised a block. This ended up being the proper thing to do, as me and Shadow stood in a blade-locked struggle; my Keyblade against his dual-pronged energy-sword.
Despite the desperate situation, I couldn’t help but conjure up a retort. “A Covenant energy-sword? And you mock me for borrowing weapons.”
Shadow laughed. “And you, wielding one of those idiotic Keyblades. I suppose old favorites are ever so hard to pass up.” With a thrusting kick, he broke the lock we were in. As I stumbled back, I got a clear view of Twilight. Purple magic swirled violently around her horn as she charged up an attack, before Shadow stepped back into my line of sight and blocked her from view. “And to make sure it’s fair~!” His fingers rang out with a snap, and Twilight let out a shrill cry.
“Twilight!” I heard shouted behind me. Even though I should have known better, I removed my focus from Shadow to look past him. There, encased in cables formed out of solid Hellfire, was Twilight. Another choked scream left her as the binds tightened around her frame. But I couldn’t do anything about it, and returned my attention to Shadow. Faint glowing lights lit up his skin around and in his wounds as they were rapidly repaired.
“You son of a bitch,” I growled. “I’m going to make you wish you’d died the last time we fought!”
Shadow met my charge with his own, mad grin present all the while. “Oh, I’m quaking in my boots!” He met my attacks swing-by-swing. With only one arm available to me, I knew that this was more me trying to survive his onslaught than besting him. Still, I didn’t stop trying to get past his guard and getting just one crucial blow in. Shadow seemed eternally amused. “Even with one arm, you’re a swordsman that can outmatch the greatest mortal masters of it! For a while there, you had me thinking old dogs couldn’t remember their old tricks!”
Clenching my jaw and throwing my health to the wind, I knocked aside his sword and swung my disabled left-arm into a physics-propelled haymaker. The sidewinding blow took Shadow off-guard, as well as sending spikes of pain that would have rendered me comatose if I wasn’t determined to put down the Manipulator. I took the opportunity to lunge and jab my Keyblade right into the wound that Twilight had left and Shadow had yet to fully recover from. I gave a cruel laugh of my own as unconsciousness encroached on the fringes of my mind. “Lux!”
Viciously, the Keyblade ignited with purified light within Shadow’s body. He began to practically foam at the mouth, and clawed at the Keyblade embedded in him. Shadow’s silver eyes locked onto my own, and he gave a coughing laugh. A large splatter of blood landed on my torso. “Excellent. Fantastic, even. Using a broken arm as a weapon to stun me and allow you to catch me in this little trap.” A shaking laugh left his frame. “Spectacular, Storm. I had truly misjudged your resolve. Even after becoming so weak, you refuse to yield. You haven’t changed a bit.”
Hellfire consumed his hand as he gripped the Keyblade. “But it will never be enough, Storm.”
With a tremendous force of will, Shadow pulled the holy-charged implement from his body, even despite my efforts to keep it lodged within. He turned the blade to the side and pulled hard, dragging my arm with it, and putting me within range of his fist as he lashed out. The blow sent me tumbling with Requiem’s Ballad, blood streaming from my mouth. Shadow held his arms wide, and laughed. “Perhaps it is time I ended this fight.”
I anxiously backed up as dark tendrils began crawling out of the innards of Shadow’s trench-coat. Slowly they contorted around his form, until he was entirely encased in the foul shade. Wordlessly, he lifted an arm, and a shard of condensed Hellfire left his fingertips. The fact he was able to turn it into a physical projectile caused me to hesitate for that single microsecond, and gave the attack time to strike me.
Barely raising my leg to defend my midsection, I felt the searing-hot splinter enter my shin and magically scorch the extremity. The force of the blast also caused me to become off-balance, and so I fell onto my back, hissing and clutching my leg in agony. The other ponies dared not interfere; they knew they would only be a hindrance to me.
I could hear his footsteps closing in on me, slowly and deliberately like a predator stalking its wounded prey. My vision was now severely fluctuating, and there was no doubt my life-experiences were the sole things that gave me the physical fortitude and willpower to retain consciousness. Though being able to move and recover hastily from the concentrated Hellfire was impossible.
I was a sitting duck.
Shadow’s face emerged from the veil of black that obscured his face, his expression twisted into a stern frown. “Well, this seems familiar, does it not? Me, standing above you with all the power and none of the morals you possess. And you, lying at my feet, pithy and injured, and weak.” He tsked me and put a hand on his hip. The dark-armour on his body shifted to accommodate the movement. “Oh, Storm. Such a disappointment. I was expecting a bit more from you for our reunion.” And raising his arm once more, another shard fired, aimed right for my immobile head.
“Storm!” A pulse of cobalt-blue energy surrounded me, and the Hellfire was barely repelled before both the barrier and the missile vanished. My eyes widened; was it really...? My thoughts turned out accurate as the form of Ed solidified before me, the wisps of his defense-protocol fading from around him.
My immortal foe merely tilted his head in both confusion and irritation. “That’s odd. How did you escape my trap? Oh, of course; Storm and his ‘holy-stab.’ I suppose that must have done it.” He shrugged complacently, and glanced at his fingernails. “In hindsight, it would have been dull to best Storm so simply without involving our A.I in the battle.” Shadow lolled his head back some. “Right, Creed?”
A spectral phantom as red as scarlet formed behind Shadow, an equally-demented grin rising from under the hooded form. “Agreed.” My face furthered into its scowl as Ed made his hologram more opaque to support me back to my feet. Channeling a great deal of his own being, he semi-recuperated the injuries to both my arm and leg (just enough to clear away the pain but not the damage) as I stared at the pair of villainous individuals before me.
Creed was Shadow’s A.I.; a polar-opposite of what Ed was to me, in a sense. While Ed was my closest friend, companion, and advisor, Creed was just a foil Shadow used to further commune with his Manipulator. My experiences with it had always been limited, but each one always left me with a dreaded feeling in my pit of my organs. Ed picked up on this as he stood keeping me upright with his shoulder under my right arm. “Sorry I’m late. It seems Shadow’s entry when you opened the door stun-locked me in a space with me and Mr. Hoodlum over there.”
I couldn’t help but let out a ragged, relieved breath. At least Ed wasn’t compromised. “What happened to the door being alright?”
My A.I. gave an apologetic shrug. “How was I supposed to know Shadow was still alive and was going to use it and you to secure an anchor to track your location and Warp here?” I let out a sigh as I moved away from Ed; I guess he couldn’t, and so holding it against him would be both unfair and impossible. Besides, that very moment was not the time to be dawdling. There was still Shadow to fight and beat, and now that Ed had arrived, I could already feel his presence swelling my resolve and strength.
“How about we do some tag-team and knock them down a notch, eh Storm?”
Ed’s boxing-stance, while humorous to an extent, put wind in my sails as I brought Requiem’s Ballad up to rest on my uninjured shoulder. “It’s been some time since we’ve had to rely on your Literal Combat Systems, hasn’t it?”
He gave a smirk. “Quarter of a million years, but who’s counting?”
Shadow snorted at our companionable banter, and motioned his head towards Creed. “Take his A.I.” Creed gave a nod, and unnerving smile never leaving, he drew a katana from the depths of his cloak. Ed shifted slightly, obviously against not fighting Shadow with me, but began strafing away to at least give distance to occupy the Manipulator A.I. Creed followed suit as Shadow turned his attention back to me. “I do hope you have some tricks up your sleeve, because otherwise you’ll die a very unsatisfying death, on my part.”
The word caused my eyes to fractionally widen. Up my sleeve...? Now there was an idea. Shadow seemed fit to wait for me to make a move, as Ed and Creed faced each other off at the opposite end of the Throne Room. Out of the corner of my peripheral vision, I could see that Ed had summon a cavalry officer’s saber, and was slowly twirling the blade about his holographic form.
I raised Requiem’s Ballad, an action that roused Shadow to raise his own energy-sword. I gently tapped my left arm with the Keyblade, and hoped that Ed’s mere presence would give enough juice to heal the wound fully. A small burst of green particles covered my arm and sank into it, but aside from some control of the wrist, it was still very unable to fight. I let out a haggard sigh and readied myself. ‘Looks like I’ll have to settle with just one arm for this.’
Shadow appeared ready to say something, perhaps a taunt, but I intercepted it with throwing the Keyblade at him. He calmly stepped to the side, avoiding the maneuver. I however took the opportunity to Blink forward and seize it, before spinning into an attack. Shadow met me with ease. “Nice trick, that Strike Raid is; though predictable.”
A grin overcame my face as we began to fight. Some meters away, the clashing of Ed’s and Creed’s blades rang out, sometimes in tempo to my own against Shadow. I just needed a single opening, just one chance to use my ace. But the Manipulator allowed no such option; keeping an eye on my smirk, he would constantly keep a few feet from me, as if he was aware of my plans. I double-checked my mental firewalls to ensure he actually didn’t.
“You’re starting to bore me here, Storm,” Shadow said after he parried one of my slashes. “You impressed me a few times before. Surely you’re not already out of...” During his gloating, his energy-blade moved just a single inch to the left. Just enough space for me to use my ace. Whatever else he was saying, I didn’t bother to catch, as I sprang forward and swung with an overhead strike.
He blocked it without even blinking. “Are you even listening to me?” Shadow’s eyes widened as I let go of the Keyblade, and flicked my wrists. “You cheeky shi—” I cut him off as I revealed my Assassin hidden blades. With what little control of my damaged left arm that I could manage, I promptly slammed it down into his hip. And without hesitation, I inserted the right blade into his jugular.
But I wasn’t done. It sent arcs of agony through my exhausted person, but I grabbed hold of both his pants and his throat, and with a tumultuous heave and twist, I threw Shadow’s form over me and slammed him into the ground. Small hairline cracks formed under him as he smiled bloody teeth at me.
“Sneaky bastard,” he hissed. “And here I thought you might’ve stopped using those ages ago. No matter.” He reached up and grabbed the side of my face. A searing, blinding pain shot through my head instantly as his Hellfire covered his hand.
I cried out, the waves of scorching pain making me briefly lose both my sight and where I was. My body reacted on its own as it swatted aside Shadow’s arm, and stomping on his head to gain distance. The frantic attempt to get away from his Hellfire only seemed to amuse Shadow. The trickle of blood that flowed down his neck from the stab stemmed and stopped in seconds. “You just don’t know when to quit, do you?”
“Storm!” I twisted around to see Ed staring at me in concern, apparently forgetting his fight as he began to charge energy around himself to open fire upon Shadow. My eyes widened as I saw the approaching form of Creed, cruel grin and crimson eyes giving him the appearance of a demon.
“Ed! Brace!”
I was too late.
Creed’s blade cut through Ed’s form like butter, before he even had a chance to defend against it. Creed let out a foreboding chuckle. "Target eliminated. Combat efficiency score of opponent: 45. Rating: pathetic." A strangled cry left Ed as he toppled over, and faded away. I couldn’t even scream in shock, or mourning, or anything.
Because then the pain came.
Writhing and clutching at my temples, I squirmed on the floor of the Throne Room, the destruction of Ed’s hologram causing intense agony to detonate throughout my brain. Shadow chortled, darkly, as he stood over me. At least, I thought he was. I couldn’t tell, with only half my vision and a quarter of my awareness actually stable, at the time.
The Manipulator crouched down, and leaned into my pain-stricken expression. I hardly noticed him. “And this, Storm, is why you’ll always fail. To care about another so, leads to weakness, a lowered guard. You would gladly sacrifice your own life to save another, even if in the end it would result in the death of you both. You are a fool. A pathetic, weak, insolent fool, given power by the luck of the draw and the idiocy of the Authors.”
But Shadow’s teeth glinted in my barely-registering sight. “I was better than you. I am better than you. I was the one that won the War, that dealt the final blow against those who gave us power. I am the one that is now truly immortal. And yet you; the Fates chose you to have the better technology, to have the greater natural strength. And with it, you accomplished so much. Power and strength you didn’t deserve, you used. Even if the reasons were stupid, you knew how to exercise your authority.” He patted me on the shoulders. “And that is why I cannot kill you. I know you are better than this, but if this is as powerful as you can be now, then you are not yet ready. You are able to handle darkness, and power, and once you were able to ignore such petty things as ‘justice’ and ‘honour’, but it is not enough. Not quite.”
By now, the excruciating pain was subsiding. Just enough to where I could better focus on my surroundings. I focused my one good eye on Shadow’s silver orbs, and with what little energy I had left, I raised a middle finger, and spat on his boots.
Shadow merely tutted at me, as if I was a disobedient child than someone who had killed Gods, and wiped the mixture of saliva and blood away from his shoe. “No, Storm, I certainly cannot kill you. Not yet. Not when you have so much purpose left in you. In time, however; I’m a very patient man, after all. You will join me, willingly, or I will destroy that everything you treasure so much. So no peace of death for you; I need you alive.” Abruptly, I felt a pressure on my windpipe as Shadow relocated his soiled foot. “But that does not mean I’m against you suffering. Gotta keep you motivated.”
With a hand raised in the air, Shadow began muttering dark syllables under his breath. Not even I, with all of my life-experience, understood what language he was speaking. But I felt the power, and I felt the influence. And slowly, before my eyes, a strange device began to form in his outstretched palm: a bronze-plated, orb-shaped machine, that split open like an orange to reveal eight inch-long needles.
The instant I recognized its general design, I began to spasm.
No.
He hadn’t.
He wasn’t.
Not this.
Shadow tilted his head at me, and if I doubted his demented smile could grow any wider, he disproved it. “You know what this is. You were the one that made it, after all. Or rather, you designed it. You never were able to complete it. But I did.” His thumb pressed against the side of the device, and it thrummed to life. “Care to see the fruits of your labor?”
And with little regard for my health, he slammed the barbed machine into my left shoulder. Another flash of agony flooded my vision as I felt the multiple needles drill into my flesh. The whirring and buzzing of the device filled my senses as Shadow continued to speak. “A Limiter. Truly an ingenious invention. And such a noble purpose you had for it, too. You didn’t want to kill the Manipulators during the War, oh no; you wanted to wrest their power away peacefully, and without casualties. You wanted to save them.” He barked a harsh laugh. “Ha! As if they were the ones that needed saving.”
Any chance for a retort from me drowned in gurgled breath, and the feeling of unnatural liquid flowing from the needles and into my veins. I could feel the serum of the God-forsaken device inside my body, working its unnatural power and technology into my system. And with that torrent, I felt my connection to the Universal Editor dim as the Limiter sealed off the traces from me. “Thirteen. That’s how many Editors and Manipulators I had to kill, and tear apart, and inspect in order to gain enough understanding to finish building it. It was one of the hardest of your projects to complete, Storm, but I did it. And I dare say the results were worth it.”
Everything grew steadily dimmer as Shadow gloated, and my strength was fading rapidly. Farther, and farther, it floated away...
Until...
Shadow gave me a mocking grin. “So tell me, Storm. Tell me how it feels... to be mortal.”
-WTIN-
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>inb4 people saying the story is alive
5383718
Well this is new: it's alive!
Cake?
A fellow dimensional traveler? And an experienced one at that? This may prove interesting...
5384047 And possibly similar to my human OC, Storm Stone.
5384047
Last name is never going to be revealed. Storm will always be Storm, and I will never say what his old 'real' name was. I feel as if giving him an actual name kind of boxes him in, if that makes sense. Any similarities he has is also unintentional, as I made Storm roughly 3~ years ago, and based a large amount of his personality off of just your usual pretentious stereotypical hero. I think. Actually, I don't know where I got his personality from. Hmm.
5384089
It shall be explained next chapter. ETA being... uh, when it arrives.
Lots of things to think about now. Terms mainly.
Authors: Authors do one thing well, they create
Editors: Editors are those that correct or change what the authors have made
Manipulator: Seems to be in the same class as an Editor, I don't have enough information for more.
Architect: One who designs (they have to work with what is currently there, they cannot create)
Sorry, this is just my thoughts one what all these things are. It's a great thought experiment.
As more information gets released and before you flat out tell us, I think I'm going to speculate.
Ed is gone, isn't he....
~Adjier
saw this as a possible outcome now bad guy gonna get cocky.
*Sigh* Bad guys beat good guys (relatively speaking) => good guys regain strength (somewhat) and goes up against bad guy again with noticibly weaker power (or weaker then their prime) yet still win in the end....Is this how this story will turn out???
Never the less, the editor idea is nice, another good chapter, things are starting to get hotter...Though, compare these guys to SysAdmins of another story/stories...they are nothing...a good SysAdmin can end their existence in a few minutes...or seconds, depending on how skilled and how high their ranking are. Don't know why I think of them...I guess it's because of the ability to "Edit" the world/universe or something. SysAdmins in the LoHAH/LoHAV verse.
It was a long time coming, but worth every second I spent waiting. That fight was, honestly, absolutely ridiculous with all the references to games and such, but extremely well-written. Well done, author, well done.
5384695
You're funny. Every victory of Storm's that he can pull out of his arse will be limited and by the skin of his teeth. If he ever does win this conflict (still have a few potential endings I haven't fully decided on), it will cost him. Direly.
I hope you keep this in mind as the story progresses, because I'm curious if you'll keep that opinion.
-----
5384723
It was kicked about that the battle would be done using actual weapons and named artifacts never before seen to the public. But it was deemed too boring by yours truly, and was replaced with a sleuth of unoriginal references crammed into several thousands words of Storm pissing himself and our new player Shadow the Manipulator ripping him a new one.
...I like this option more, at least.
I'll admit, the Keyblade and Animu-style fight that lasted 12000 WORDS! kinda ruined the chapter for me. I was honestly expecting it to be more....well, I don't know what I expected, but I suppose it starts with "more."
HOWEVER! I will continue to read this story when it updates, and I am going to say this: Keyblades make no sense as a legitimate weapon, as they are hard to use properly, can be easily deflected by armor when swung, are unworthy of being called blades due to not actually having a cutting edge/blade, and just look stupid overall.
Just saying.
5386704
Can't say it could have been done much differently. You have two moderately-to-progressively insane humans wielding devices that warp reality going head-to-head, both with tens-of-thousands of years worth of living. The "animu-style" fighting was pretty much a given, when you have two entities of that caliber battling. Was there some silly shit in there, like the Twilight flyswatter and whatnot? Sure there is; it's why I have a Random and a Comedy tag on this story that occasionally doesn't take itself seriously when it should be.
Another given. In real life, nobody in their right minds would use that clumsy of a weapon that's more of a magical spiked-club than anything. Thankfully, WTIN is far from reality, and its setting is within the confines of a magically-centered world. The Keyblade's appearance, while cringe-worthy to some, is not so out-of-place as you'd believe. It was the first thing that popped into my head for Storm to use that was bound to him separately from his Universal Editor as well, which is pretty much the whole reason why it's there.
Had I cared enough, I might have bothered to just invent something else. I unfortunately was sick of staring at an unfinished chapter for four months, and promptly threw my hands in the air and declared it would be a Keyblade. It is what it is, i guess. Sorry the fight ruined the chapter for you; if you want or could provide further insight on what you disliked about the chapter, please feel free to reply to me. Thank you.
5386230
Since when have the victory for the good guys been easy and without consequences in these type of story, that would just be stupid but same for making it utterly hopeless.
Let's see...They are beyond immortal as some had put it. This new bad guy is simply Immortal. They aren't bounded by 3D/3.5D world...those high skilled are at least 7D up, the only way for us to even see them is through their chosen avatar which isn't really them in a way. They can remove immortality of other or simply remove their existence altogether and do it on universal scale without any problem really...the guy in the other story is utterly OP. You can't manipulate them because the only thing that can even affect them in anyway is their chosen weekness (though that weekness doesn't kill them, weaken them, maybe) or the so called 'Eternal Void' or I can just quote this to make it simple:"The virus has infected Skynet""No, Skynet is the virus" <= It's somewhat like that, though a whole lot more complicate. The only way to change is for you to suddenly make them a SysAdmin-like which make no sense and feel like you're trying to..eh...against this comment. You can only become SysAdmin when the 'Eternal Void' or a high ranking SysAdmin chose you and both of them have a somewhat strict policy on what kind of person will get that and then the 'Eternal Void' will "remake" those chosen to fit the role of a SysAdmin. They also don't have a finite pool of power to runout unless they limit themselves or not quite 'high' enough and can have any sort of powers or equiments they want. Yeah, I can't really see you be anymore OP compare to that type of character. Of course there are a few other things I left out but this wall of text should be enough to get my point across.
5387466 Wow! Butt hurt mate...Don't react so strongly.
Also, who ever said that the SysAdmins were made to have a 'normal story' type?
And you can write better stories then some of the rather noticable authors? Doubt it.
Also, LoHAH/LoHAV is a new idea, a change in the usual stuff. and it has not even reach over 200 stories last I checked unlike many hundred thoudsand if not millions of stories on fimfiction with thoudsands of stories with each type. LoHAH/LoHAV is just a little bit of chaos in the grand scheme of things...I'm all about a good mix of chaos and order.
Revaluate their life? I know that those author have a rather decent life. They still have school, they still go to work, they still doing the stuff that they are suppose to do in real life.
5387512 I'm reacting strongly to this simply because it's one of the dumbest things I've ever heard, and I feel it's my moral obligation as a sapient life-form to object to it.
First off, when it comes to writing stories better: that has nothing to do with it. I do not HAVE to be a better author to say a concept is stupid. Much like a person does not need to be a professional critic to badly rate a movie. But nice try with that little insult.
Secondly, the LoHAH/LoHAV has to be one of the most unoriginal concepts and ideas that I've ever heard of. You make no new characters or plots; you just simply copy and paste with the same boring and overdone intro over and over again: guy dresses up as character 'x' from fandom 'x', goes to a convention, and then is transported to Equestria as the character. It makes me want to gag, in frankness.
Because at that point, you're just bandwagoning things and pulling a crossover card for the sake of cheap views. Maybe it was interesting the first time or so. But now? Even if it isn't at 200 stories, that is still too much saturation of a mediocre plot concept. And most of them are terribly executed to the point where people most likely bleached their eyes to remove the stains.
5387583 And? Choose the good ones and read or the one that fits your view of good story...No one stopping you from choosing.
I have my reality filter, you have yours
It is not your duty as a sapient life form because sapient life form never have such a duty. it is to live, to thrive, to enjoy the fruit of our own labor....or to LIVE
Nice try but not good enough.
I'm done with this debate, not gonna reply anymore, cya.
Two things i spotted:
Scarlet is a color...
nice
Well this was quite the fight, but I kinda predicted that Storm will be doomed to fail - after all, Shadow seemed really overpowered already from the beginning.
Still, amazingly written, very thrilling, and keeps us at the edge of our seats in order to see what will happen next!
... assuming we can remember what happened once you release a new chapter
5386925 Okay, I'll give you some ground for that, simply because I've been there. I suppose that were it me, I'd have waited until quite a bit later in the story to make the confrontation happen. Of course, I just have more patience for that sort of thing, and unless it has an actual use for characterization, I don't do overtly random things. Still, it's your story, and not mine, so you are entitled to do whatever you wish to it. I suppose that it's my love for pragmatism and realistic everythings got in the way of it all. To be honest, I would have been perfectly fine with the fight if it wasn't for the keyblade, simply because the appearance of that skewed my imagination of the fight from something that seemed legit, to an episode from the Kingdom Hearts saga.
Shadow is quite the jolly fellow ain't he?
Well...
I suppose that limiter did its job, now didn't it?
Finally caught up to the current chapter on this, and its giving a really good explanation of just how hard it is to write something about entities that have greater than mortal powers, and yet stay coherent and relavent. After all, any entity with power who doesnt keep full access to that power and merely uses a appearence limiter instead has insane powers, bt makes for a pretty useless story.
Unfottunately, the problems I looked at with reality editors were just how much power do you have, so first you have rest mass, that is you can spare a few grams of body fat or water to power a total cnversion detonation to remove a city. If you had any sense, you would use th cities mass instead.
My favourite one though, which I beleive would come under reality collapsar, is the Gensis laser, which uses the underlaying subquantum foam of the universe, reality, as its power source. Result? A pinapple contains enough energy to vapourise a planet. Or, better still, scan it to teh quantum level, store the data as backup, and restore it as needed.
the trick I used to teleporting, I believe has been mentioned in another story, but I wish I could rememhber which one, is that you surround the object in question with the equivalence of a boseeinstein condensate. You make it a single quantum particle. Doesnt matter if its a gold nanoparticle or Cageworld, its a single simple teleport.
My favourite computational system. Start with a heavy duty quantum entangled super turing optical computer, thats designed to generate its next gen replacement, using higher particle energies. Takes less than a second for Univac to evolve. Meet God. Read the Dune series, last book to find out just what it implies. Simply put, totally useless..
The best thing I can do though. Most entities are used to existing in one reality and manipulating themselves in that. I found out the basis of not only spreading someone through realities, but also selecting which realities and occurances they underwent.
I remove my spectacles. The observer causes a collapse of the wave function.
Writing OP charactersgets ever more difficult as simple to use massive power becomes commonplace.
By the way, the current record for looking foward in time, affecting the past, in the laboratory, is 10 billionths of a second. Still waiting for them to add a one thousand km fibre optic reel to the experiement, to get 3 milliseconds, then bounce light of the Apollo Lunar Retroreflectors t get a couple seconds each way.
If you really wanted to interact with a reality, why not doing like a comuter, and just send a robot, or rather a field form in, like the Tardis, and sit back safely elsewhere, which is what a Necromancer tries to do?
How high an Editor level is Discord, given he chews up mega chunks of reality at a whim?
Well... Shit just went down...
5384426 Unless he gets restored from a backup, yeah, Ed's gone.
Also, to add onto the Editor/Manipulator idea; I believe they are of the same level, whereas one edits out the errors and bad code of the multiverse, the other changes it for their own gain. Like someone manipulating a story/article/literature to fit their own views, versus editing and correcting the grammar/spelling. (I never knew how plausible it was to meta lessons on good writing practices without turning the story into a bash/trollfic. If this wasn't done on purpose, is it now unintentionally intended?
)
*sees the part where there was a thing taking his power* %#$#$@%$%#$@%@&**()(*&^%$&%^& YOU DID IT AGAIN! BAD DUMBGAMER! BAD!
though this was a interesting story. but I'll wait for the next chapter.
5548552
Beg your pardon? I didn't realize anyone even had an issue with that concept.
5549523 sorry, usualy in story's where a man's powers are taken, it just loses all epicness to me and leaves a empty shell in my wake. though for others, this isn't a problem.
5549523
5550292
Totally agree, I absolutely Hate it when that happens. This is a very VERY well written story, but I've read way too many (Ok fine, one.) where the guy gets all of his powers taken away and then is forced to live out his days as a puny mortal. I really really really reeaaaaalllyyyy am praying that it doesn't happen again.
Edit: Keep the story up though, I'll still read it and enjoy it no matter what happens.
5557196 agreed. I am continuing to pray he at least has SOMETHING to get his powers back or lots of tricks up his sleeve, or otherwise defeating shadow is going to be dues ex machina (which I despise and rarely love) or bullshit (which no matter what I hate.)
5578976
Currently undefined, though starting next chapter you'll start getting a rough estimate.
Oh my fucking god. Never before in my life have I been so pissed off that an over powered OC has just gotten their powers taken away. I'm not even joking right now.
5704115
In all frankness, I cannot tell whether you meant that in a good way, or a bad way. Could you please enlighten a fool?
5715225 I'm saying that the main character is awesome and seeing him lost his powers makes me wanna destroy something
i really really really hate it when characters lose there powers!
On one hand, I want to be mad because you aren't explaining shit about what is going on, on the other, spectacle type stories are usually fairly good at what it says on the tin. So for now I am waiting for you to actually show off a real spectacle. Because so far, all I have seen is a reality bender with claims to agelessness and a lack of real intelligence. Honestly, if I was him I would just make a pocket dimension with a constantly growing and changing lock, then shove beings like Shadow into it. Don't give then anything, and just leave them in a literal void. It wouldn't kill them, but it would stop them, then tie it into the Editor, and wait for them to go insane, then sane then back, and repeat while locking down every reality. Then dump them in a reality of choice. Not just let them roam about even if the realities their in collapse, but actually tie their existences to the relevant strands and if they die, well that's their problem for destroying the strands, isn't it?
Update?
K
6726097 dis ain't right
It's dead Jim.
6385174
Wow...
You really thought it out didn't you.
7353481 Oh no, that was just me being annoyed. If I really wanted to think it through, I would probably just rewrite the story entire to show that he is in fact ageless, back up the descriptions claim that he is a balance enforcer, and then dump him in Equestria.
7354103 true
Why? Why must most every well written story like this one die? What drives the writers to abandon the joy they've created for others and themselves?
7693953
Needless to say, after 6 years from the last chapter. This story shall remain incomplete indefinitely.
Sometimes the Author burns out, sometimes the Author dies. I'm a member of several amateur writing sites like this one, and I hate to say it, but I’ve seen several occasions where good authors have died, leaving good stories unfinished. One instance was a good up and coming horror Author named "Abyss" Not to be confused by our "The Abyss" which is a different Author and one that is still alive. Anyway, we found out that the kid died on the way home from work, a Red Light runner T-Boned him. Wife logged in and posted all his notes and rough drafts in one big story. Mods of that site took it down for breaking the rule of it not being an actual story, but it raised so much shit that they backed off and put it back up. I think the mods eventually closed the account a year or so later and all the stories were lost.
Sad really
Monk
10883477
So that's what happend to them...thanks for telling us who didn't get the chance or found out about out their death...
Aw man :(