Citizens across the planet were swimming in a sea of black mists. Yet, they laughed and played as though they were in the grandest of parties. In their minds, they could hear the melodic music of Lady Echidna as she sang their deaths to them. Presidents and Prime Ministers, the Pope and Dali Lama all waltzed about with the surrounding people, unaware of the dangers that lurked in the corners.
“No! Stop!” Tri-Blade raced across a dock and caught two people who were about to dance right into the ocean. He threw them back into the city street. Undoubtedly, his rescue caused them injuries, but they simply rose to their feet, laughed, drank from invisible champagne glasses, and continued their dance.
The massive Charybdis plowed through the ocean waters directly for the dock. It’s gaping maw swallowing everything before it. The flow of water toward its open mouth broke part of the dock under Tri-Blade’s feet. He jumped backward and got onto solid ground, his eyes never leaving the approaching beast.
“Watch out!” Nebula tumbled next to him, landing in a crouched position. She took down five shadow wolves bounding toward him.
“Thanks.” Tri-Blade whipped out his blades and readied for more beasts. “What is BADGE saying?”
“I don’t know. This fog is causing trouble with the comm.”
“Dammit! We need Nova. He would know how to fix this.”
Hundreds of heroes came swarming from all directions, attacking the monster in the sea. They drove it back, away from the city, but the fight was just beginning.
Nebula readied her attack as she said, “We can’t wait for Nova to return to us. We have to fight this ourselves. Let’s cut this fish up!” She launched herself off the dock with Tri-Blade on her heels.
***
Lady Echidna, a shadowy monster herself, dove toward Nova and lashed at him with large swaths of darkness billowing off of her.
Nova spun out of the way and deflected her attack with his sword. He then held up his hand and a blinding white light emitted from his palm. She screeched and lurched back. In her stumbling, he raced toward her, swinging his blade.
After being sliced across the middle, Lady Echidna's mid-section produced only smoke. She re-congealed and then hit him in the face with a blast of pure darkness. The force threw him backward across the snowy ground.
Rising, the cloud beneath her billowing as a sick fog of silky black, she said, “This is pointless, Nova! I contain the power of all four beasts combined with my own. There is nothing in this world that can bring me down.”
Nova used his enormous sword to get back to his feet. “I know. But, I must try.”
She laughed, her cracked chortle echoing around him as a thunder. “Pitiful warrior angel. I never could break that spirit of loyalty and honor in you. You were amazing. I enjoyed fighting beside you. I enjoyed laying beside you as well. But you will never accept that you broke yourself when you fell with me. There will never be enough light in this world to contend with what I am. You cannot find it any longer. What was in you is gone. I can feel it, I can see it in your eyes.”
Nova struck a fighting pose, holding his sword in both hands. His eyes locked with hers as the surrounding light grew. “The light you should fear is not that which I once wielded. It is all around us, every day. We just need to look for it. Seek it. However, I’ll show you just how strong I still am.” The light from him erupted, with his wings appearing in a blinding flash. When Lady Echidna lurched back at the sight, he lunged for her. She gathered her strength and lunged at him. The light and the dark meeting in the middle of the icy planes of Antarctica.
With each swipe of his blade, the continent beneath them cracked. With each lash of her shadow, the skies grew darker. The sun overhead, hardly bright enough to reflect on the ocean, seemed to turn to blood as the fight continued.
***
Torrik stopped firing at the barrier with his magic when Santa lowered his BADGE weapon. They both watched the world flash with explosions of incredible brightness as the battle waged.
“Look at them fight. The sheer power.” Torrik whispered this.
Santa said, “I’ve never seen Nova at this strength. I knew it was in him, and I feared it.”
“Why fear it?” Torrik asked.
“Because the only time he would ever harness it would be the day he was certain the world would end unless he gave his all.”
Torrik almost spoke when there came a crack like thunder breaking a thousand times at once. The flash of light shook the skies and lit up the world as if daylight had returned for a moment. However, darkness replaced it quickly.
Santa screamed, “NOVA!”
Torrik said, “The barrier, it’s falling.”
“Nova!” Santa snapped the reins, and the sleigh blasted off at incredible speed, moving where the barrier prevented only moments before.
***
Lady Echidna hovered around Nova, who was on his knees in the snow, his arms held out, his back arched so that his face was looking directly up. A silent scream falling out of his open mouth, and a shadowy dagger lodged directly in the middle of his chest. His wings faded away, crumbling across the ice.
She looked down upon him, a sense of pity in her otherwise bitter face. “So it ends. The last Arcblade to hold on to hope. Yohan is mine, the universe is mine. Nothing can stop me now.” She looked up at the portal in the distance and let out a victorious, sly smile.
***
Chase held EB, who sobbed uncontrollably in her arms. Gar looked as though he were about to fall over. He could shed no tears, but he was just as sad.
“What do we do now?” Chase whispered.
Justin looked back when another alert siren activated. “What else could go wrong?”
He raced out of the office and down to the Operations center. “Report, I… oh God, no!” He looked at the screens.
Robot 10915 said, “We detected these in the shadows moments ago.”
Justin watched the giant, shadowy figures of Charybdis, Fenrir, and the Hydra marching across the world. A dryness hit his throat as he asked, “What is their projected destination?”
10915 calculated and then said, “As far as calculations can determine, their destination is Antarctica.”
Justin said, “She has summoned her sentinels. We have no time. Send out a signal to all heroes they need. .. “
“Systems are not responding. Interference from the black cloud is creating a signal blackout.”
Justin said, “Hack every single communication satellite in orbit. Activate any that are dormant. Send the Black Alert out on repeat. Use Morse Code, flashing lights, anything. I need communication! I will be in the office.” He left operations and ran back into Nova’s office.
Gar met him with, “What is happening now?”
Justin went straight for EB. “It can’t get much worse. We have three shadow monsters heading for the portal and Lady Echidna is there. I don’t know if we can get to her in time, but I need to tell the heroes to move. EB, I need your magic.”
EB held Chase, his face buried in her shoulder. “I can’t go on like this. The darkness, the pain. This world is doomed.”
Chase said, “There is always hope. Nova was always the hope, even when people didn’t realize it. We have to find hope in another way. We have to try.”
EB hopped out of her arms and stood on Nova’s desk. He looked at the empty chair as he held the ruby in his paws. “I love this world, as does Santa. We are the last of our kind to live here. But, we didn’t stay just because we love this place. We stayed because Nova displayed honor unlike anyone we have ever known. Even Lord Dragon failed in the end. But Nova never failed. I swore an oath centuries ago that I would stand beside him in his darkest days and never let him fall, as long as he remained honorable. He has fallen... this world has fallen.”
Justin said, “No, you can’t say that.”
EB turned and shocked them all with his red, glowing eyes. “If we can’t save this world, by GOD, I will may that witch’s victory as hallow as I feel right now. I will tear her apart!” His body glowed as he rose in the air.
“EB?” Chase frowned.
He said, “Get out of here, now. Run.”
Gar quickly grabbed Chase and Justin and ran out of the room. He shoved his back against the closed door and pressed the emergency seal.
An explosion echoed, and the station shook so hard that half the robots tumbled away from their stations.
“Alert: hull breach in section alpha. Alert: Hull breach in section alpha.” The computer announced.
Justin yelled from his place on the floor, “Emergency force fields!”
“Activated. Decompression interrupted. Deploy repair drones.” The automated system reacted as programmed.
Justin got to his feet. “What the hell just happened?”
Gar pointed at a monitor. “Is that EB?”
They all looked at a video feed of what appeared to be a meteor blasting toward the planet’s surface.
Chase got to her feet and read the charts. “The energy readings are unbelievable.”
Justin watched the monitor. “Nova always said that EB was far more powerful that any of us knew.”
“But is he powerful enough to stop her?”
Justin checked his comm unit and smiled. “He isn’t alone.” He saw the comm line open on the main screen. Justin activated their rigged communication system. “Justin to all Heroes. Head to Antarctica and take down the shadow monsters and Lady Echidna. We have one shot at this or it is the end of the world. This is a doomsday alert. Do not hold back! For Earth... for Nova.”
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