Everything went silent after the voice reached Eto.
The group stopped running and slowly turned around. The voice made everyone feel chills down their spine and fear struck them.
Eto looked back and he saw that even captain Hanzou and the robots looked back at the ship.
On top of the stair where the door to the ship was, something emerged from the darkness within.
At first, multiple hands emerged from the darkness and grabbed the edges of the doorway.
The hands had more fingers than a human hand and the fingers were long, bent in weird ways. They looked skinny and malformed.
Eto’s heart made a little jump. Even though he didn’t have any memories or returning memories, he had a feeling this wasn’t the first time he encountered whatever called him.
The hands grabbed the edge tight and pulled whatever it was outside.
A huge creature came outside and the group was shocked by what they saw.
The skin of the creature was just as pale as the fingers. It had multiple arms and legs but they all were long and weirdly shaped. It’s body looked like it had not eaten in days and you could see the bones coming though the flesh.
Long black and dark red hairs and feathers were scattered on the body, like a bird that was plucked.
The head had longer hair that was shaped as a mane, with horns sticking out and a pair of big yellow eyes looking outside.
‘Eto,’ the voice said again and they could see the creature talking.
Its voice was clear to everyone, even though they were standing far away from the creature.
‘Master, wait! You are not strong enough!’ Hanzou yelled back at the ship but the creature threw up one of his arms.
‘Silence!’ it screamed as it had trouble getting down the stairs.
Like it was tired or hurt, it slowly moved from the stairs to the planet's ground.
From a distance, he didn’t look that big but when the creature got to the robots, they saw it was three times the size of a robot's length.
Eto slowly stepped back into the direction of the creature and the robots.
‘Eto, wait!’ Veronica yelled but he didn’t respond. It was almost like he was hypnotized.
‘Who are you?’ Eto mumbled while walking but the creature reacted with his head, like it heard him.
‘My dear Eto,’ the raspy voice said and slowly it moved through the group of soldiers to the front.
‘Don’t you know me?’ the creature asked but Eto did not respond.
‘I’m so sorry to hear that. Then again, we haven’t probably seen each other.’
Suddenly, Eto remembered the memory back at the ship. From a dark cloud swallowing planet after planet. Eto had a feeling this creature was linked to that.
‘You. You are the one who did this, aren’t you?’ Eto asked and he pointed to the darkness at the edge of the open area, surrounding the planet.
The creature started laughing, filling the emptiness that filled the place.
‘It seems my work speaks before me,’ and he tried to get closer to Eto.
Eto, on the other hand, took a step back.
‘What are you afraid of Eto? I can help you with your destiny,’ the creature said and Eto raised his eyebrow, questioning the creature.
The raspy voice of the creature didn’t help to make him sound reliable.
‘What do you know of my destiny?’ Eto asked.
‘The creature, still laughing, responded.
‘Is it not that you have to travel to the center of the galaxy? To reach the last world? I know why you need to go there. I can help you with it.’
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Eto could hear footsteps coming from behind him and he saw that the group slowly had approached him, weapons ready and their eyes focussed on the creature.
‘Your friends can’t help you with that Eto. I can. I can bring you to the last world and let you walk your destiny.’
Eto did not trust the creature but he wanted to know. He wanted answers to what his destiny was.
‘What is there? At the center? What is the last world?’ he asked, almost yelling.
The creature turned his head a little, making the sound of bones cracking.
‘That is for you to find out,’ the creature said and he raised his hand as an invitation, making more sounds of cracking bones.
Eto looked at him and captain Hanzou slowly came standing next to the creature, as some sort of servant.
‘It would be wise to listen to my master, Eto. No one can defy what master Xeladross has planned.’
That name, Eto thought. He had heard it before.
Flashes came again, only this time, his head didn’t hurt.
He saw the darkness from his memories again, swallowing planets. Meanwhile the voice of his grandpa could be heard, as Eto remembered something he told him.
‘Xeladross, the pure darkness. Like a fly it came to the last world, swallowing the world, hoping to get what is inside it. He is pure evil and must be stopped before he swallows the whole universe with darkness.’
Eto shook his head as the memory faded and then looked again to the creature.
‘Are you Xeladross?’ he asked, ignoring what he just heard from Hanzou and the creature laughed again, harder this time.
‘I’m glad my name isn’t forgotten in these parts of the universe. It would be wise to remember it,’ Xeladross said and he bends his fingers quickly, showing that his invitation still stands.
‘No,’ Eto mumbled and Xeladross stopped laughing.
‘That is unfortunate,’ Xeladross said slowly.
After that he suddenly jumped up, moving his weird body in ways that seemed unnatural as it rushed towards Eto.
The group wanted to attack but Eto raised his arm to stop them.
The creature called Xeladross came rushing toward them with speed.
‘Get the ship ready. I will deal with this,’ Eto said.
Even though they wanted to go against it and help Eto, Djon pulled everyone back to run towards the ship.
Eto slowly walked towards the rushing Xeladross.
He was coming closer but Eto was prepared for the attack.
‘You are the darkness that swallows planets. You are the one that destroyed my home and took my grandpa. I won’t let you take my friends, ' Eto said.
He put his arm aside and he thought of something he wanted to try for a while. A feeling he had for some time but never knew how it would turn out.
He focussed deep and thought of the feeling back on Etoile, against the Vulture knight. The darkness that had surrounded him and the power that overwhelmed him.
Slowly his arm started to glow as always and Eto opened his eyes.
‘Ring formation,’ he said and the light on his arm started to change and divide.
Eto kept thinking about what he wanted and he felt his power being channeled inside his body.
The light started to form in rings all over his arm, all the way from his hand to his elbow.
Xeladross was closing in with his rage as a mad creature and Eto took a step back to stand steady.
He pulled his arm with the rings back as he wanted to punch and right before Xeladross would reach him, Eto punched and he saw what he wanted to happen.
The rings followed his punch through his arms and out of his fist, a ring of light shot away, getting bigger and bigger with the distance it made.
It hit the creature Xeladross, who let out a scream of pain and sent him flying away to the side, crashing in the sand of the ground.
The ring didn’t stop and destroyed almost the whole group of robots before impacting on the big black ship of Generation Zero.
It created a huge explosion and smoke came from the ship as the lights of the ship flickered out.
The light on Eto’s arms faded and he could feel that he had lost a lot of energy, but this didn’t stop him from running back to the ship.
He grabbed the arm that he just used with his other arm and he could feel it becoming paralyzed, as if he used up all of its power.
The tortoise had already started and it was waiting for him. Slowly it started to rise above the ground, waiting for Eto to reach it.
After jumping in, Djon made sure to close the hatch and fly away, leaving damage at Generation Zero behind them.
The storm and darkness hit the ship hard but Djon ignored it. His only objective was getting out of here and leaving this planet as fast as he could.
The tortoise had left the sky and vanished through the darkness. Captain Hanzou, who barely dodged the attack of Eto, was rushing towards the body of his master.
He saw it lying broken on the ground and when he wanted to help him, a hand pushed him away.
Leave it, fool’ Xeladross said. Hanzou took a step back as his master tried to get up on his broken body.
‘That boy is more trouble than he is worth,’ Xeladross said with anger.
His voice sounded even scarier than before and Hanzou was afraid how his master would react to what just happened.
After standing up, the creature called Xeladross looked at Hanzou.
‘You are no better,’ he said with anger.
Hanzou's face could not be seen behind his mask but that comment stung him.
‘Return to the dark master. Let him decide what to do with you. You are not worthy to help me,’ Xeladross said as he slowly tried to walk.
‘What about you? My master, my lord,’ Hanzou quickly said, not knowing what to do after the comments of Xeladross.
At first, Xeladross didn’t say anything but after a while, he slowly spoke.
‘I will leave this weak vessel behind and return to my former body. There I will wait until I am strong enough.’
After those words, the body of Xeladross collapsed as if something had left it and it was now an empty shell, leaving Captain Hanzou behind in the storm of darkness.