Mr. X and Zycor stared each other down, the former's rage plastered across his contorted face. Zycor extended his palm towards Mr. X, never breaking eye contact, firing a bolt of white lightning at him. Mr. X put his arms up to protect himself, but still took the bolt head on. He howled in pain as the lightning coursed through his body, electrocuting him. He fell to one knee as he panted, his face cracking and black ooze seeping from them. As he rose to his feet, Mr. X snarled, “You are nothing, boy. So what if you awakened? I am still stronger… better than you.”
An ominous, red glow shrouded in an additional black aura formed in his hand. Mr. X smirked, a red and black flame igniting from it and winding up a throw, “You foolish, ignorant, despicable human! You will not stand between me and the resurrection of the god Itzal! He has granted me this power, so no mortal could hope to stand against me alone!”
He grit his teeth and threw the small flame as hard as he could. After traveling a few feet, the flame expanded into a consuming, blazing fireball. As it approached Zycor, Aisha cried out, “You have to move! Dodge it Zy!”
Instead of listening to Aisha, he stared down the ball of fire that was nearly three times his size as it grew closer. He extended his hand once again, palm up, and a mild distortion formed around the consuming blaze. Zycor assured Aisha with confidence, “Don’t worry, Aisha. Right now, I don’t think I can lose to this bastard.”
Zycor closed his hand and the distortion forced the fireball to implode into itself. As Mr. X’s eyes widened, Zycor pointed his pointer finger towards the ceiling, rocketing the condensed fireball towards it, finally exploding in a brilliant flash of red and ripping the ceiling of the cave to pieces. Aisha, Baz and Mylon looked up with shock and awe, while Mr. X quickly refocused his vision onto Zycor who was taunting him to come and fight. Enraged, the self proclaimed apostle of Itzal charged with a dark aura covering his body. He swung his fist and missed, crashing into the ground, black spikes erupting forth. Mr. X continued his assault, increasing the frequency and quantity of attacks by making additional appendages with his ooze.
Zycor blocked and dodged, but it became apparent that fighting Mr. X alone was not something he could do while still getting used to his new body. A black spike came up from the ground behind Zycor and shot towards him while he was occupied. The attack was blocked by Novos who swatted it away with his electrified claws.
Mr. X forced some distance between Zycor and Novos panting and started to mentally break under his own anger. He ruffled his hair violently, black ooze in the place of blood flying out as his nails dug into his skull, shouting, “No no no! Why does everyone stand in my way?! It’s because none of you know what I do! I have seen the truth! Itzal will bring order to this chaotic world! And through him, everyone will no longer have to contend with dying! Just as I have shed my mortality, so shall everyone else! So why do you stand in my way?!”
With a final shout to punctuate his monologue, over thirty black tendrils shot from his body, aimed at Zycor and Novos. In addition, multiple spikes erupted from behind the duo as well. Zycor stood completely still as a word flashed in his mind. Whether by feeling or intuition, he believed it was his personal skill. With Mr. X’s attack closing in, Zycor took a deep breath in and roared out, “Phantasm!”
Zycor instantly turned around to dismantle the spikes coming from behind them with Novos as a white aura gathered at his back and began to take form. The being fired four elements from each of her four arms in rapid succession, destroying the tendrils. As their shape solidified, Mr. X’s eyes widened in terror, clutching the remnants of his right arm and sneering with a tone of fear, “Y-you’re dead… I killed you!”
As the being made of pure mana opened her eyes, Adria smirked silent, threateningly. Zycor turned back to face Mr. X and see what happened with his personal skill. When he saw Adria, a swell of emotions pumped through him, but he restrained himself. The enemy they faced wouldn’t sit by and let them have a moment, so it would have to wait for later. Volnir watched on through the rubble in sheer horror at the seemingly resurrected Adria. He quickly and quietly snuck through the hole behind him and made his escape.
Zycor stepped forward to stand beside Adria, unable to keep a smile from his face, as he retorted to one of Mr. X’s earlier comments, “You had said I couldn’t hope to beat you alone, right? Well, looks like I don’t have to fight you alone.”
Mr. X began shaking as his fingers dug into his right shoulder. His power suddenly swelled as he exclaimed, “How dare you force me to dip into the power reserves meant for resurrecting lord Itzal! I will be sure your death is painful!”
Two clones of Mr. X sprouted from the ground, made entirely out of ooze, as he cackled, “So what if that witch is back?! One extra person won’t save you from me… no, from us!”
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The two clones both silently extended their hands towards the trio. They both fired a single bolt of black energy aimed at Zycor, but Adria stepped in front to take the attack. The area’s hit instantly decayed and began to spread. Mr. X’s sanity continued to unravel as he laughed hysterically, “I hope you like pain and death! Because that magic will administer both with a single touch!”
His laughter began to subside as Adria stood unfazed, the decay ceasing and her body reforming. More cracks began to form across Mr. X’s body as his fury and madness begin to meld together. He lets out a distorted, inhuman shout, numerous tentacles attacking wildly. Zycor, Adria and Novos are able to fend off the stray tentacles slamming towards them. However, a few of the tentacles descend upon Aisha, Mylon and Baz who are too injured to dodge in time. Zycor grits his teeth in preparation to launch himself towards them to put himself between the tentacles and his friends. Unfortunately, he is stopped by a handful of said tentacles crashing down towards him. He coats his gauntlets in white lightning and roars, his fists colliding with the tentacles, knocking them aside, but also staggering Zycor himself.
He looks towards his friends trying their best to move and reaches out a hand and cries out, “Stop it!”
Two additional flashes of white light form in front of the injured trio and parry the tentacles. As their forms solidify, it is a man and woman, both rippling with incredible mana reserves. The man cloaked in a wreath of fire and the woman in water. Feeling the sudden surge of power, Mr. X looks back at the scene, his eyes going wide yet again. He takes a step in retreat, clenching his teeth in anger, “No no no… I spent so much time killing you two, so how… How have you come back, heroes?!”
Zycor’s heart stops as he takes in the visages that stand as a shield for his friends. The woman glances over at him and gives him a wink accompanied by a smirk. Zycor took a tentative step towards her and asked, “I-is that you, mom? Dad?”
Mr. X’s head whips towards Zycor and exclaims, “A child of the heroes survived?!”
With little warning, Mr. X’s clones jumped in front of him, getting cut down by a sword made of ice wielded by Zycor’s mother, Mira. The clones’ wounds froze and shattered, defeating them. She quickly ducked, revealing Zycor’s father, Barlo, extending his hand out. His fire accumulated until it became plasma and he fired it at Mr. X. The latter put his hands up, but it was in vain. The beam of plasma pierced straight through him, leaving a gaping hole in his chest. He smiled sinisterly and cackled, his wound closing, “You morons! An attack like that can’t hurt me!”
His bravado was short lived as Mira, whom he had lost track of early, appeared at his side, swinging her ice blade. Mr. X drew upon more of his stockpiled power to dodge upward, thinking back on what happened to his clones. Mira followed through with her slash, missing Mr. X, but freezing the ground in front of her in a cone. Mr. X grit his teeth, cracking some of them as he glared furiously at the two. He moved out of the way quickly sensing danger from behind, but his left leg was still grazed. Looking down in pain, he saw actual blood had been drawn.
Scanning the room to find who it was, he saw Adria, all four of her hands together and aimed at him. She smirked, firing another beam of arcane magic at his head. He managed to move in time, yet again drawing upon more power, but still getting grazed on his cheek.
Mr. X began to prepare another attack, but before he could, he heard from behind him both Novos and Zycor say, “Converge!”
He whipped his head around and saw a condensed mass of lightning crackling between Zycor and Novos’ hands. Together, they fired the lighting bolt that knocked Mr. X out of the sky. Landing on the ground, Mr. X’s mind raced, considering his options. He finally stood up, staggering a bit on his left leg and mending the wounds he could, “As fun as it would be to eradicate you fools again, I have more important matters to attend to. Thanks to you bastards, I must now spend six months to recharge the stockpile of mana I was forced to use. Once I have broken the seal and released lord Itzal, I promise to use everything leftover to finish this.”
Mr. X began to melt into black ooze as he finished condescendingly, “But do try your best to stop me~, crushing pests is no fun if they don’t at least try and fight back~.”
Zycor raised his hands to try and stop him but suddenly fell to one knee. The white aura surrounding him faded as his body cooled, returning to normal. Novos caught Zycor, preventing him from falling down completely. The dragonkin chuckled, “Well, that was certainly fun, wasn’t it master?”
Zycor panted heavily, glancing towards Novos who began to revert to being a dragon. He looked down at himself and huffed contentedly, “Looks like the goddesses mana has run out. The mortal plane cannot sustain my true form. I won’t remember much of my time in this form as those memories are locked within this current form. I hope to one day speak with you again, until then… try to not be so suicidal.”
Novos reverted to normal and passed out, acting as a cushion for Zycor in the process. Adria watched Zycor with a smile on her face. She turned to face Mira and Barlo. Mira gave a small bow of thanks for watching over their son, and Barlo gave a thumbs up. Barlo’s form dissipated while Mira turned back to face Aisha, Mylon and Baz. She knelt down and hugged all three of them before she also dissipated. Adria closed her eyes and followed suit, fading away and returning to the afterlife.
As Mylon and Aisha sat at a loss for words, Baz exclaimed in confusion, “What the hell just happened?!”