FSE

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On the outer rim of this strange hollow dimension, beyond the reach of the mist and the demon's eye, a spirit came creeping. A room designed like a small laboratory, with spheres crackling light held within claws of stone that communicated to each other, sparkling green panels of fractal shapes that constantly shifted between forms in calculating complex algorithms that she cast her eye across. The sounds of an eerie humming oddly soothed her as she wavered back and forth, singing to herself sweetly with eyes closed beneath the arcs of light.

"Enjoying yourself?"

She turned to see the Cocytan arrive through a shifting portal of pale stars as her voice carried through the air.

Your people have such charming aesthetics, very proto-Alolan.

"I trust you touched nothing?" his claws crunched against the earth as the portal faded. "My work is of a delicate order."

Of course I didn't, I know how important this is.

"Hm."

He tapped into one of the consoles as the orb of white suddenly shifted to an emerald hue, crackling bolts of blue as the spirit lingered behind him. A face of wide eyes and grinning mouth that cracked along dark indigo, with hands floating separate beside her and a collar just above the trailing stem of her tail with a soothing bell attached.

"I have spoken with the Five Hearts," said Noh'jhin, "they are currently resting in preparation for their journey."

That is good...were they alright, are they well?

"I assured that they were," he turned snorting towards her, "why not look for yourself, Kirie?"

You know I can't.

"Only because of your own trappings of guilt, not of my concern."

Have you never dealt with someone for so long that you fear they might just tire of your presence?

"Yes."

His eye burned into hers as she scoffed with a wave of her hand.

Well I thank you for keeping your promise that I would see the end of this demon, but you are a terrible host, you didn't even make ME a picnic.

"You are an incorporeal being, you do not require sustenance."

It is the thought that counts!

The spectre sniffed haughtily as she floated round the central fulcrum, the orb tilting as it shifted colours with Noh'jhin tapping commands into his console. The hum changed to a threatening ire, burning inside her ears as the haunter flinched back from the device which started to change the colours of the other spheres throughout the laboratory.

This will work, yes? This plan with the hearts?

"Absolutely," said the alien, "I have calculated all measures necessary to ascertain their metaphysical potential."

Now we can only hope they work together.

"You have assured that the best you can, the only complications that would arise were between that of James Kennidon and Oddclaw."

I can only do so much, I cannot brainwash them, only plant the seeds of empathy.

"For a half-spirit your skills are lacking."

A cloud of black mist suddenly spawned before him where a screaming face burned from within.

_ DON'T...call me that, Noh'jhin._

"Then earn my respect." His snarl crept along his beakless lips. "Now, hover yourself out of my sight."

With a crackling scream that silently tore across her face, she returned back to her normal state and floated off to a corner of the small laboratory. The sounds of the celestial machinery kept shifting through her ears, resonating lower and deeper pitches that made her essence tremble until Noh'jhin tapped a few more crystalline buttons to make a second alternate hum that turned the spheres to a golden gleam.

What do you even need to do here now that the plan is set?

"I have other duties beside our plan," he kept tapping away, "correspondence with the elders."

I admit you seem more busy than Hau'rhun was.

"He was a renegade miscreant, a stain upon our race."

He was also much nicer than you, you know you catch more combees with honey than vinegar.

"I am a scientist!" He slammed his fist into the panel's side turning to her. "I am NOT a diplomat, my objective was to destroy the demon."

I thought it was to tie up loose ends caused by Hau'rhun.

"Which is why my plan shall succeed, in turn correcting his grievous mistakes, and assuring that neither the demon nor your dimensional vagrant ever cause further trouble again."

Wait...what do you mean?

Kirie floated towards him beneath a deepening sphere of rouge.

What do you mean by...that last thing?

"The Five Hearts make a perfect plan," said Noh'jhin turning back to the panel, "their metaphysical traits, combined with their relationship to the demon, meant that I could devise a plan that would end all of our troubles and erase everything of Hau'rhun's mistakes."

I don't...I don't know what, what do you mean erase everything?

"This."

He tapped one of the buttons as a piercing beam shot from the sphere straight into Kirie, causing her to scream as she was pinned against the wall of the lab and bound by cosmic chains.

A-AAAAAGH! Wh-WHAT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!

"Containing you," he turned to stare her down, "because what I am about to tell you, will surely cause you to try and rebel against me."

Wh-what?!

"Your nature is rebellious, I must take precautions. But I also despise keeping secrets so I will explain to you thus. Once the Five Hearts have activated their keys, their metaphysical cores will expand to overenumerous strength, thereby eradicating both the demon's pieces and their own selves from existence."

You...y-y-you...NO!

She struggled against the binding force with shivering gasps.

YOU'RE GOING TO KILL THEM?!

"Correct," Noh'jhin pulled the wisp of hair beneath his chin, "James Kennidon was not meant to be, an aberration of existence whose very presence infected other worlds to such degree that he cannot be tolerated any further."

YOU CAN'T DO THIS! YOU SAID IF I HELPED YOU I WOULD REUNITE HIS FAMILY!

"That was true at the time of the agreement, when my plan initially was to empower the keys with enough force that their death release from their bodies would be enough to destroy the demon's parts. But after recalculating the metamath, I regret to inform you not even their souls will be saved."

You...y-you BASTARD!

Kirie screamed tearing harder at the ropes of light.

You would kill him, just for THIS!?

"He was willing to sacrifice himself for Hau'rhun's plan," said Noh'jhin shaking his head, "what difference does it make now?"

You should have told them! YOU TRICKED THEM, YOU TRICKED ME!

"Disgraceful. You care about your dignity more than the fate of the worlds beyond?"

SHUT UP!

She tried to burst a shadowy orb from her hand that the alien dodged, a sudden shift of his 10-feet body that almost moved faster than light before she could blink.

"Do you truly think that you, a wretched little half-spirit, is capable of even scratching a Cocytan? A master of Time and Space?"

N-NNNNGH! Why...wh-why, if you just wanted to get rid of James, wh-why his son?! Why his husband and friends?!

"They are far too involved, their knowledge too great of the world beyond. By Oddclaw's very existence, the demon sought out his world as a place of instability, to coalesce and reform itself."

THAT WAS NOT HIS FAULT!

"The sins of the father must be paid unto the son. As for MacGregor, I had no intention of involving his son, but when the demon sought them out, he too gained knowledge beyond his station, and so must not be allowed to propagate."

Why?!

She wracked harder against the chains of golden stars.

Why are you so bent on destroying them all, is there not another way?!

"I am the Doer who Undoes. That is my task, THAT is my mission, the only reason I do not undo you now is because you are of the spectral realm, and therefore beyond the scape of my machinations. I offered you a chance to assist me, to ease the passing of father and son in exchange for aiding your search of James Kennidon's parents."

You used me...you used me just...j-just to make Oddclaw more agreeable to this march towards death you won't tell them about?!

"Correct."

You...worthless bastard.

Kirie shivered with tears trickling down her face, her hands trying to push hard against the dimensional bindings that tethered her essence as Noh'jhin bent closer towards her with his craning neck.

"You must accept this, Kirie. There is only one path towards the permanent destruction of the Son of the Great Father, and that is only by the Five Hearts whose properties I have searched."

And it just...h-happens to be them?!

"Do you not believe in destiny?"

I...believe in the strength of others...in ourselves.

"Then trust in the strength of your friends."

I DON'T WANT THEM TO DIE!

She pushed her chest out hard against her bonds as her tail-wisp fluttered.

I spent...years, so many years doing everything I could to give James a good life, to make him better, to give him a happy ending AND NOW YOU TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME?!

"He was never yours to begin with!" He pulled back stiffening his wings. "He was a pitiful whelp you encountered in the lowest depths of his soul and you felt some small mercy for his wretched state, like a mother bird raising an egg lost in the wilderness, you had no grand scheme, you are a vapid wraith who is desperate to foist others above their station in a misguided attempt to relieve your guilt."

At least I CARE about others!

"I am the Doer who undoes. That is my task." He swept his hands across his laboratory. "Did you not understand the nature of undoing, Kirie? James Campbell was not meant to exist beyond his world, nor Roy MacGregor. The knowledge that Koopin Kennidon has possessed is unnatural, as are the births of Oddclaw and Jacob."

THAT IS NOT THEIR FAULT!

"SILENCE!"

His voice burned through the universe as her face wilted.

"I will not be lectured by a debased spirit. Your purpose is complete, I gave you the knowledge to find the souls of Mary and Gerald Campbell, in return for your promise."

This...th-this was not, what I promised, I promised to keep Oddclaw's world safe!

"And so you have, by the erasure of both demon and host."

WHAT OF ODDCLAW'S FAMILY THEN?! ARE THEY UNNATURAL TOO?!

"No. The bloodline has diluted enough in his remaining children that they will not be of concern. The son that had fallen ensured that in turn, which makes my task easier."

And the others in his world, not meant to be there, will they die too?!

"I have plans for them, to restore the balance that the humans have distorted with their foolish experiments. But for now, the Scissor demon shall be erased, along with James Kennidon and his most troublesome of allies with the greatest potential to interfere with the realm of Spacetime Six."

I cannot believe you...I cannot, believe you would be so callous to rid two families for this!

"Better two families to perish, than a thousand." He brandished a finger upon her head. "You, of all beasts, should know this."

Walking back to his station, he left Kirie chained to the wall as the coils tightened round her ethereal form, stifling her power as her hands pressed against the bindings and her face turned thin from the suffocating force. The spheres of light kept changing as Noh'jhin relayed commands, occasionally showing hieroglyphs of some alient tongue that scattered across the surface of the orbs which he compiled away. Bowing her head, Kirie shivered with a growing fear and quietly sobbed to herself as her struggles turned weak.

"I was an idiot," said James finishing his story, "I got possessed by a demon cuz I wasn't thinking, I was weak, I needed a weapon, these giant scissors that killer were what I needed and over time it took control of me, more and more until it was using my body to kill and feast on souls across like a dozen worlds."

"Until we stopped it," Koopin nodded beside him, "after James managed to beat him down by journeying into his mind, he came back to our world where we exorcised him with the Star Spirits."

"And he was forced into five parts?" Oddclaw stroked his head. "Which came to my world?"

"That seems like it yeah. We thought the pieces would just drift in the depths of eternity, never seen again."

"I'm sorry." James sighed looking up to his son. "I really thought we got rid of him, I'd been trying to destroy him for years and it took so much to even get there, to even GET to the point we could tear him apart and send him to just, forever."

"I un-derstand," the raptor nodded, "I do not blame you for what happened with that, this demon hurt my friend, and made Riptor worse, but I do not blame you."

"Wait, really?"

"But I still do not forgive you for leaving my mother. THAT is your fault."

"No no I get that, god." James rubbed his neck leaning back in his stone seat. "I wish you hadn't gotten dragged into this."

"Same for you," Roy looked to Jacob as they sat on the grass, "ah never wanted you to know about all this."

"Why?" The yoshi shrugged. "Why would you not tell me, not tell mom?"

"Well firstly we're not allowed to, lahk ah said cuz of thuh Koopa Kingdom keepin' tabs on us."

"Well you have to tell me now, I'm all out here."

"Yeah, when we get back we'll have to take you up to them to get in with that."

"Alright, but...when we get back I want you to promise me."

Jacob stood up dusting his knees off of the sweet grass.

"We tell mom everything."

"Wh-whut?!"

"You tell her everything you gone through, you tell me everything as well."

"J-jacob...I...I-i can't-"

"Do you promise me...or not?"

He crossed his arms sternly with the coldest look he ever gave his father. Roy was stunned by the strength in his eyes to the point it rattled him into a brief submission as he stood up in turn.

"Son, you...no, no ah can't tell her-"

"Why not?!"

"Cuz of thuh Koopa Kingdom, we signed a contract-"

"SO BRING HER WITH US!" he stomped his foot. "I have been gone, for TWO YEARS and maybe that alien guy said that we'll be back home in our world somehow without any time gone, BUT I WAS STILL GONE FOR TWO YEARS, I'M NINETEEN NOW!"

"Ah know this is difficult, but we'll get through-"

"I CAN'T DO THIS DAD!"

His scream echoed briefly throughout the dome as he stepped back clutching his face. Tears trickled out between his fingers.

"I don't want...I don't want to do this, all these secrets I can't hide it, I don't want to hide it."

"Jacob..."

"Was that why you had nightmares when you couldn't sleep?!" he looked up around him. "Because of all this, all you been through, you think that's healthy just keeping it all inside you?!"

"IT'S NOT SUMTHIN' THAT GOES AWAY!" Roy snapped. "I HAVE to carry this, all these memories, all thuh terrible things that ah can't share cuz they are too horrible for your mother, too horrible for you an' ah don't wanna take away your innocence!"

"BUT I'M STILL HERE!" he slapped at his chest. "I saw Grimm, I faced her and I survived and I'm still here, I don't wanna hide things from her dad, I've been through too much, I can't DO this!"

"A-alright, alright..." Roy palmed his face with a deep sigh. "We...we do this together. Ah told your mom sum things but not...everything, an' whut ah shared with her did help, but there's a limit."

"I know...but you shouldn't have to shoulder it alone." Jacob took his hand. "I'm not asking you to tell me everything that goes on in your head, you got your right to not say things but...if there's monsters in your head, you can't keep fighting them alone.

"Jacob...please-"

"We fight them together. That's what family does, right, Oddclaw?"

He turned to the raptor who nodded softly.

"That is right Jacob. Family...f-families hunt...together."

Jacob realised his mistake as Oddclaw dragged himself towards the furthest part of the grassy knoll away from everyone else, slumping against the cool moss that soothed his weary bones whilst Roy hugged his son. Looking up at the fog beyond the dome, he saw the glimmering shield of the roof in their small sanctum covet his face with golden motes that danced over the grass, the picnic table still fresh with food that Roy and Jacob and eventually James would pick seconds from. From nearby the sound of a cane thudding into the dirt skipped closer towards Oddclaw.

"I thought you might be thirsty."

Koopin stood over him with a glass of orange juice.

"It'll help you rest better, trust me I know."

"...thank you."

He sat up to drink the sweet refreshing juice, trickling down his throat with a sigh as he gulped down the whole glassful.

"We never got to introduce ourselves," said Koopin sitting down carefully, "I hope you don't mind talking with me."

"It is fine," he shrugged, "I am not angry with you, only my father."

"I understand. And, for what it's worth, I am on your side for this argument."

"Really?"

"Don't get me wrong, I love James, deeply." Koopin rested his staff against his cheek. "But he's not the brightest person, he's done a lot of stupid things, some which took me a long time to forgive him for and during that time he spent months of that making up to me."

"How did you first meet?" Oddclaw looked to him.

"He just arrived, we met in a club, he seemed really nice and exotic so we went back to my place. We ended up on an adventure, he saved my life from a cult and we spent four years living together. He tried to hide the demon from me, it didn't work. I learned about the lives he had taken, and even though I knew it was only partly his fault, it took me a long time to forgive him. So he left on a journey, did everything he could and came back with the demon weakened for us to defeat."

"How did you forgive him?" the raptor rubbed his knee. "What did he do to have you forgive him?"

"He retired from his adventures." Koopin grinned. "He stayed at home, he got a job, he started helping the community, he grows vegetables in our garden that he gives to our neighbours for free. He goes up to a grave every month to honour his victims and make sure they're not forgotten. I'm not telling you this so you forgive him, that's entirely up to you, I'm just telling you the sort of person he is now."

"I see." Oddclaw nodded clasping his hand over fist. "I have spoken to others who have met him, they have all told me about a strong saviour. But that only makes me more angry."

"Because he can do all of that but not come home to you?"

"Yes."

Koopin sighed patting his shoulder.

"I'm sorry. He may be my husband, but I agree with you on this. But I can't hate him, I love him too much for all we have gone through together."

"I am not asking you to, he is my father."

"What I will ask you then, is to have this out with him before we leave." He pointed his staff towards the opened door to darkness. "We're going to fight a terrible beast, a monster who will try to turn us on each other, tear us apart and make us suffer with what weaknesses we have. You can't afford to let that happen, so if you have anything you need to say to your father, then do it. I just want us all to go home."

"I...I am..." Oddclaw sighed leaning back, "I have said all I needed, and I cannot forgive him. I have lost...friends and family, just this day-"

"Then tell him," said Koopin, "I know nothing will undo the forty years of absence...but what if he can do something for you after all this is done?"

The raptor said nothing, turning away from the koopa who stood up and let him be with a heaving gasp of his knees before hobbling away back to his husband. James gave a look towards his son, still sitting apart from them as they decided to take a rest in the warmth of the grassy dome, sleeping beneath the false sun in pairs except for Oddclaw. Time never passed, not in this realm as they soon woke up feeling more refreshed and with a stretch of their arms they ate up the last of the food and stood together towards the exit.

"Alrigh'," Roy started cracking his knuckles, "we gotta do this right, whut Noh'jhin said-"

"We find the five pieces and stop the guardians," said Oddclaw walking front.

"Did he say WHAT pieces we had to find?" Jacob asked. "Like specific ones?"

"I don't think so," Koopin shook his head, "but it should be clear when we get there."

"Scisso's never been about subtlety," said James crossing his arms, "trust me we'll find out what piece is what, he can't help being a show-off."

"You know about him more than any of us, is there anything we should be ready for?"

"Just don't hold back against any of his shadow goons, whatever they are...though I don't got a weapon on me."

"Ah, I see you have rested."

The voice of the alien came sleekly through the air as Noh'jhin reappeared with a transcendent wake of his wings flicking strands of light.

"You are about to embark on your great mission?"

"Yep," Jacob patted the stone wand fused to his chest, "with your uh thingies to help us."

"Very good." He turned towards James. "I overheard that you lack a weapon."

"Yeah well when we got sucked up," he scratched his head, "we were just hanging out in the Toad Town square, I gave up having a weapon years ago."

"I shall offer you one that I constructed, a gift if you will for your undertaking."

"Aw really? Nice, thanks!"

With his claws he spun a thread, slowly but surely emanating from his feathered sleeve as it took the shape of a long fine silver sword with a circular handle. Then it became two, splitting apart to an X-shape that turned all of them nervous despite the blades being inscribed with angel's wings when Noh'jhin planted it in the hands of James.

"Woaaaahohohohhh."

"I understand this type of weapon carries a terrible history...but your skill and dexterity most aligns with it."

"Are you fuckin' SERIOUS?!" Roy gasped.

"Hey-ey don't insult the guy!" James felt along the blades. "It's not the same as the one before see this one's a lot cleaner, handles are different!"

"You couldn't have just given him two swords?!" Koopin cried.

"If I wanted you to fail, yes," the Cocytan raised his eye with a snobbish look, "is that to your liking James Kennidon?"

"Yeah it sure is!"

He stepped back from the group to swing his new blades, testing the weight in his hands with a triple slash, a spinning turn that carved the ground in an overhead strike before he channelled flames from his hand to shoot out along the scissors and spark furious like a gun from its tips.

"Helllll yeah...just like old times, the good times that is."

"I'm not having that in my house," Koopin warned, "soon as we're done with all this, you're giving it back!"

"I assure you I will retrieve it," said Noh'jhin with a pensive nod, "it is only for the duration of this mission."

"Fine by me," James swished his weapon fine, "uhhh, can I get a sheath for this too, I can't just carry it all the time."

"Very well."

The creature tapped the earth and wove from the grass a long green sword sheath of tightly-wound materials, offering it to James with a strap that allowed him to wear on his back.

"What happens after we kill the demon?" Oddclaw asked walking to him. "What of the things he has done to my home?"

"I will take measures to correct the damage caused to your world. I cannot bring back those who were lost, but I can cleanse the land of further impurities caused by the demon's plan."

"What...do you mean by that?"

"That the damage he has caused I will correct." His eyes slitted upon the raptor. "Now, please go forth, and fight with all the strength in your hearts to defeat this wretched beast."

"Got it," Jacob nodded patting Oddclaw's back, "come on pal...let's go."

"...right."

He sighed with a heavy heart, the yoshi rubbing his arm with a hopeful smile that he did not return. James kept out of his sight, staying behind as he practiced sheathing his scissors and unsheathing them out ready for battle before they departed.

Into the darkness they went, the soft grass of the sacred dome now leaving them as they stepped onto the hard staircase, winding downwards into a slow creeping spiral that at first seemed like a pleasant journey downwards to the depths of hell. Then it started to twist, angling upwards into a corkscrew fashion despite none of them falling off or feeling the change in gravity. It was only looking back did they realise they were soon walking upside down as they ventured further and further beneath. The fog became thicker and changed from its silver shade to a deepening black that smouldered around their bodies, trying to creep over their arms and almost pull at their skin with ice cold fingers.

"I can't believe this," Koopin shook his head, "I...I really am in another world."

"Welcome to the club," James wrapped his arm around him, "that just sunk in for ya cutie?"

"Yeah it did, is this what it feels like, when you went travelling?"

"Sorta, but most places were a lot nicer than this."

"Most of 'em," said Roy looking to them, "also they didn't try to keep trippin' us up twisting thuh road lahk this."

"Yeah this is new, this vertigo, this is new."

"Feels like the rollercoast at Pinna Park-hrrkh," Jacob looked up and immediately regretted it, "nnngh jeez this is really weird."

"Yeaaaah but, just another notch on thuh road huh FG?"

"What does that mean anyway?" his son asked rubbing his hand. "You keep calling him eff-gee?"

"Just an old nickname," James shrugged, "Roy's the only one that calls me that."

"Just a force o' habit," Roy smirked.

"You tried to have a nickname once didn't you?"

"Uhhh we don't hafta talk abou' that?"

"Aw now I HAVE to hear this!" Jake grinned grabbing his arm. "Come on what was it?"

"Nawwww you don't need that."

"I thought you were gonna tell me everything, right uncle Koopin?"

"Hmmm, you're right," Koopin tapped his cane against his husband's leg, "I too would also like no more secrets, absolute."

"Alriiiight," Roy rolled his eyes, "so, your uncle, he won a tournament back sumplace, got called thuh Final Gamer."

"So Roy here," James clapped his back, "called himself MG, or the Master Gamer, back when we were rivals."

"Pfffft, what?!" Jacob snorted back a giggling fit. "Daaaad come on that's super dumb!"

"Ah wuz barely older than you!" Roy cried. "Besides your uncle done sum stupid stuff too we all know!"

"Hey I admit it!" said James sweeping his hands. "I'm not gonna hide that, Oddclaw knows he gave me a black eye."

"Hmm."

The raptor in front had said nothing. His silence infected the group as they took deep breaths and marched on towards the depths. At the end of the twisting stairs, a giant black orb greeted them with a swirling howl that seethed with a familiar hatred. All of them knew its source as their skin crawled with a tightening rigor.

"Should we...go through?" Jacob whispered.

"It is her," Oddclaw hissed, "she...she is there."

"Wait she?" Koopin muttered. "I thought the demon was a guy."

"He means Riptor," Jacob added, "something was wrong with her, this black ooze was dripping out of her stomach and dragged us in here."

"Hey-ey wait!"

Oddclaw went through without even waiting, the black mist swallowing him up as Jacob tried to grab him and stumbled through the fog with Roy following after, then James and lastly Koopin. On the other side they found a wholly different place. A place of sorrow and ruin.

"Woah...that's different," Roy gasped.

"That's it," James nodded, "that's where he lives."

"How do you know?" Koopin asked.

"I've seen this place before. The mansion where he lived."

Upon a floating hill of crumbling stone, there lied a grand stately mansion that loomed with a fearsome sound of decrepitude. A long thorny path twisted up to the entrance where the doors swung with clanging thuds, the wind gasping through broken windows where lights and shadows passed between the flickering curtains. The stone edifice of the manor was covered in wretched wounds where gouging claws and shattered blades buried themselves into the mortar. And there above the world, shining in darkest gleam almost piercing the heavens above, was a clock tower of dark glimmering face, the hands twisted to become mangled remnants never to move again. James took the lead as he caught up with his son, giving him a silent nod as he walked first up to the mansion's steps, drawing his scissors as he pushed the door open to watch it almost crunch off its hinges. The entrance hall loomed before them, a grand red carpet that filled the room, broken marble stairs leading up to the second floor where a thick ceiling of black mist permeated above their heads with chunks of stone scattered throughout the place, the sound of a dark and stormy night suddenly bursting through the windows the moment they all stepped into the forsaken mansion.

"Be careful," James warned them, "this is his house, he won't hold back."

"Such an opulent place," Koopin whispered hobbling his cane, "this is where he used to live?"

"Yeah...something about it's different though, I don't think my memory's gonna help."

"Where is the demon?" Oddclaw asked turning to him.

"If I had to guess...wait."

The father closed his eyes for a moment and raised his hand, feeling a flicker of darkness thread through his fingers as he nodded.

"Thought so, he's in the clock tower."

"How do you know?" Jacob asked looking up.

"I can sense him...you don't spend ten years with a demon inside you and not have a few scars left."

"Is he like...pulling you back to him?"

"No it's...it's like my soul sorta telling me where he is ."

"A scent," Oddclaw sniffed the mansion air, "I sense it too, it is from above."

"Alrigh' then," Roy tightened the grip on his spear, "where we headin' first?"

"We go up," James pointed, "but the stairs are barred off, so we have to head through that door and just navigate through the place."

"And the five pieces?" Koopin started walking.

"They're gonna be in the tower, trying to put himself back together."

They marched off into the first door in front of them. The hall twisted like a kaleidoscope of wine and chartreuse, the walls creaking as they carefully walked in single file keeping a hand on each other as they quickly leapt over doors and tried to find the nearest stairs. Two hallways they passed, with doors hanging open underneath and above them with rooms of luxurious beds and broken mirrors before they found the second great hall as they stepped out onto its ceiling. The carpet above was torn with moth-eaten holes, the stairs crumbling like an ancient ruin as the centre of the hall revealed a gaping skylight where the stained glass formed a broken stairwell.

"This is like the boo mansion again," Koopin groaned palming his face, "I hate this place already."

"Everything smells off," Oddclaw shook his head, "do we go down there?"

"This was where I first met him," said James walking closer, "broke through that window and faced me with those scissors."

"Ah thought he WUZ thuh scissors?" Roy raised his brow.

"You know what I mean...but those stairs made of glass are new."

"That really does not look safe," Jacob bent down at the edge, "should we even go, what if we cut our feet?"

"You're wearing boots!"

"What about you?!"

"We're raptors!" James shrugged. "We got hard feet, we don't care about glass in there."

"He's right," Roy chuckled, "FG's never worn shoes his whole life."

"Oh that's just gross," Jacob shook his head.

"Hey be glad you can afford them," said James pointing at him.

"Hey how come you never wear any back home?"

"I do! When...out on like meetings."

"We are wasting time," Oddclaw leapt down to the skylight, "come on, let us go."

"Right behind you son-"

"Do NOT call me son."

James backed up hearing the feral snarl as Oddclaw leapt down onto the stained glass stairs. The path spread out into the depths of space, thunderous skies around them in a deep burning scarlet with crackling sparks of magenta filling the air. Taking their time to step carefully in the "downwards" descent, they found a small room with a single sofa facing towards a TV in the corner beneath a macabre painting of twisting faces. Looking around briefly to find no doors, they stepped closer to the television as they saw someone's shadow on the sofa behind them.

Can't leave

A voice whispered as they saw a body's shape depress the cushion.

Can't...leave...my house

Koopin put a finger to his beak bading them quiet as the TV turned on with a flickering static.

The last time I walked outside

My father died scattered across space

I hate your pointless words

I hate her stupid voice

I hate his sickening smile

You ruined my favourite show

You destroyed my happiness

I don't care about your feelings

All of you ruined my LIFE

You got less to give than a kid with palsy

The box turned off. The room suddenly became a broken-down apartment, old pizza boxes and wallpaper peeling off the side with a single crummy chair in front of the TV. The glass screen had gone and they saw within another room that James recognised vaguely, reaching inside to feel a floor inside of it as he started crawling through.

"James, what are you-"

"It's fine, trust me."

"You really just...think that's a good idea?"

"No other way outta here," said Roy shrugging, "this place don't follow rules."

Stepping through the old TV frame they reached the second room, a child's room with a soft-looking bed of feathery down and several broken toys that laid scattered across the place, dolls and spinning tops along with an old record player that sat on a dresser. It started to play a song, a gentle waltz as they felt a presence.

All I wanted was to play

Two of the dolls stood up, a mouse and a little black mannequin with a large hat that began to dance across the room.

All I need is one fool

All I wanted was a friend

But they all break so easily

No one ever made time for me

Why should I make time for them

Why should I have to be a prince

They all ran away and I had no one left

Why should I bother with an empty kingdom

When I can have the entire world

I didn't want to grow up

The bed suddenly dragged across the floor by an unseen force, revealing a hole underneath that they peeked down through and found the exact copy of the bedroom but in a far different light. Torn and decrepit, sodden with water from the open window where a constant pouring of rain drenched the floor and drowned a dozen mice, soft gentle corpses drifting across the sea like ships in the storm. They walked towards the window and saw a bridge across the roofs, a balcony that extended to another room as Roy beckoned them to follow, Koopin requring help from James as he lifted his husband up over the railing and he pressed down on his cane to steady his feet across the slickened gap. The next room was a macabre place, a hall of trophies and collectives from the natural world as they watched the heads of stags and lions stare in death across the room, beside the corpses of eagles propped above shelves and cabinets of jars full of floating viscera, from giant bugs to desiccated fish.

"Oh...oh stars this," Koopin shivered, "this place is sickening."

"What is this?" Oddclaw muttered. "Why did they keep the bodies, there is no meat left."

"It's a trophy room," Roy thumbed his chin, "some cultures kill for sport, just for thuh thrill of killin' sumthin' bigger an' faster than you."

"But not eat it? Disgusting."

Worthless

A voice came from above as the animal heads spoke as one.

Worthless degenerates

All living beings are prey to me

They hoard their wealth and weaken the land

When I am so much richer for the souls I harvest

Their scales shine as if to mock the sun

The hunt can always end swiftly

But victory is sweeter when their hope is gone

A soul always tastes its best when in greatest despair

And I shall gift the world with their extinction

Their faces started to melt, the walls following suit as hair and fur dripped from bone to reveal a much more startling appearance from beneath. From the heads of the animals they saw the skulls of dragons, hollowed and picked clean and from the walls of wine red they saw purple scales beneath, the flesh of a hundred dragons skinned.

"Wh-wh-what...what?" Jacob clutched his dad.

"Don't think about it," Roy said patting him, "Scissoraptor's just one messed up demon."

"But I don't recognise this," James shook his head, "not these scales, not that stuff from the TV or the room with the mice."

"Do not let him trick you," Oddclaw sniffed around the room, "he is trying to slow us down."

"You're right," Koopin nodded with a sigh, "just don't think too hard, like Roy said, find the exit."

"Here."

He pointed to one of the dragon's heads, sensing a breeze from behind the wall as he climbed up on the shelf to grab at its horns and twist them downwards in a mighty pull. The wall crunched with a shudder and rose up into the ceiling with head and all whilst the cabinets parted to reveal a way forwards. Through a dark passage, of which they kept close keeping hand in hand, they found a fourth room in the form of a humble library, a small place with only four bookshelves and a mural on its wall depicting a ritual.

"What's that?" Jacob squinted.

"I think it's supposed to be how he got summoned," James scratched his head, "but...something's not right."

"Wait...James?" Oddclaw gasped.

"Wow you really not gonna call me dad-"

"No, no him!" he pointed at the mural. "That...that is James, my friend!"

The wall depicted a small green-haired figure standing upon a cliff, facing the dreaded cloud of darkness that swooped over the land as he raised his sword up high with many others like him cowering in the valley below. Some of the books however started to slip from their shelves as pages were suddenly torn from their roots, fluttering on the wind to paint words on the wall.

I had to stop the darkness

I must claim my title

They refused to understand

My rightful place as judge and jury

I must become the saviour

I must become Death itself

Is that not why I was named

Is that not why I was summoned

I cannot let the darkness come again

"What happened to your friend?" asked the raptor James.

"The demon," Oddclaw sighed, "he was...he was a good friend, kind and clever, but...he became obsessed, he tried to control darkness, he brought a city to my home and became infected with something...I know now it was that demon, the scent here is the same."

"Is he alright?"

"No. He was banished from my home, back to his. I do not know what happened."

"That really sucks, I'm sorry-"

"He was named after you." Oddclaw gave a cold look. "He wanted to become you. Like the saviour he said."

"Wait, your friend..." James shook his head, "he was named after me?"

"Guys, look!"

Jacob pointed at the mural suddenly shifting, a twisting of colours as the little figure was consumed by the cloud of darkness and a faint scream could be heard from an existence away, turning his hair to strings and his cloak into tatters as the island soon disappeared beneath the blackened mist, leaving a barren wasteland of ice that swept through the room as they felt a deathly chill and white snow cover the shelves as the books fell to ashes, scattering dust over the floor that burned through the stone and formed a portal that set itself alight, causing them to pull back as it revealed the room below.

"Is that, a cage?" Koopin asked leaning over.

"That's one big cage," Roy shook his head, "thank god it's empty."

"I am sick of this."

Oddclaw leapt down first, quickly pulling out his gun to check the area before calling down the rest of the group, their weapons out and ready upon landing to find a giant cage within a much larger wooden shack. In the darkest corner was a raptor's corpse, slumped against the wall as Oddclaw approached noting its familiar scent. His eyes sharpened with nostrils flared as he came closer, blood trickling out of its body to slowly creepy across the floor and start climbing over the wall to paint a message in tandem.

I am destined for greatness

It is the only path I have

I cannot let the weak usurp me

I was born to be a godslayer

I was summoned to be a god

I cannot fail my tribe

All who dare face me shall suffer

I shall make my tribe greater

For I am Death itself

And the future belongs to me

The raptor's body suddenly awoke, its head half-eaten with pieces of its skull crumbling down the side of its face when it lumbered forth with a shuddering hiss from its wretched throat. With a violent crack its flesh snapped free from its bondings as its bones tore apart to bury into the wall next to the cage, gouging the wood and ripping through the seams to open a path towards the great infinite beyond. The flesh of the raptor suddenly stretched out to form a winding path of scales, twisting and writhing to become rigid as they saw the shape of an old cathedral in the deepening fog.

"I feel sick," Jacob whimpered clutching his stomach.

"Don't think about it," Roy rubbed his shoulders tight, "s'all fake here anyways, none of this stuff's real."

"It feels real enough."

"Well...you said you faced worse didntcha? C'mon, let's see that Captain Toad smile son."

The yoshi smiled forcefully. Roy immediately pulled a face with hard raspberry that suddenly made Jacob laugh as the father giggled back.

"See whut ah tell ya?!"

"Pfffthahaha c-come on dad that's not fair!"

"Still made ya smile, now you gotta smile fer me, cuz that's whut a hero does right? When skies are dark-"

"A smile shines through...yeah." His smile turned genuine. "Alright, let's go guys!"

"Right behind you," Koopin patted him, "right hun?"

"Always," James nodded

"I will not leave you," Oddclaw clicked his gun with a spark, "let us go."

Taking the path of scaled flesh, they tried to keep their spirits despite the cringing feel of the road beneath them, cold hard skin pressing against their soles as they watched the mansion fall behind them in fractured pieces, halls crumbling and rooms severed apart as the further they walked, the more distant and alone they ever felt in their lives at the edge of one's reality. The path of skin soon turned to stone, as they found themselves standing before a cathedral where the great shadow of the clock tower loomed above them, casting the front of the chapel in darkness.

The old church was left in ruins, with arches fallen and the weeping of angels now bereft upon the dirt with broken wings and silent faces trapped in eternal suffrage. Several rooms led off from the central hall they now stood in, where old broken pews laid crumpled and shattered into splinters and burnt tattered pages littered across the central aisle leading up towards an elevator in the back that made Roy clutch himself with a trembling nerve.

"Wuzn't expecting this," he said, "thuh clock tower yeah but not a church, why he gotta do this kinda shit?"

"Don't try to figure this guy out," James shook his head, "let's just rest up and get ourselves ready for the big fight."

"There a room nearby we can rest in?"

"That one looks good," Jacob pointed to a well-lit study, "looks nice an' cosy."

Checking inside it was indeed cosy, much to their relief with several old plush chairs between walls of sealed books, closed off forever behind glass cabinets in ancient scripture that none of them understood. The five of them sat down together, taking a deep breath and steeling their nerves for the final ascent.

"Let's take our time, alright?" said Koopin clutching his cane. "We only have one chance, so if there's anything to get off our chests, now's the time."

He looked pointed towards James and Oddclaw who both looked away. Roy and Jacob looked to each other with hand in hand, squeezing tightly as they braced themselves before sinking back in their seats.

"Y'all cool with us takin' a nap?" Roy asked.

"I think we're good," said James, "let's just take it easy, like Koopin said."

"Right," the koopa nodded, "we...we can't let ourselves get weighed down with any regrets, right James?"

"...right."

The raptor stiffened up in his seat, with a glance towards Oddclaw who slumped back in his chair and fell asleep.

In the silence of Noh'jhin's lab, whilst the Cocytan was absent, Kirie kept struggling against her bondage as the chains of light continued to clutch at her form and seal her essence. Not a single wisp of her purple smoke was allowed to leave, pulled back by the forces within the restraints as her claws grappled feverish against them, crying out with a desperate shiver before she slumped back against the wall.

N-no! AAAAARGH!

Her face heaved with frustration, soft whimpers escaping her with the tinkling of her bell, as the humming of the lab filled the room to a smoulder in her ears.

I can't...I-i can't...I'm sorry James. I never...I just wanted to make your family happy...just...just all of them, so one day when you would be...when you would pass on you would see them again...and your son, and his family, the same for them too, I just...I just wanted to give you all...peace, when you would pass on years from now.

She started to weep once again, bitter tears drifting down her cheek to disappear in wisps of ash from the cosmic glint of her chains. The heavenly spheres began to form shapes, drifting from orb to cube to hexagram with ever-shifting complexity, a sinister sound whistling through the air as she tried to lose herself in the haze, the background noise of Spacetime Six like static through old signals. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the sounds of dimensions interminable almost soothing to her soul as a familiar sound she had known from her travels. Then she felt something, deep in her being.

Wh-...what?

A soft flicker of warmth began to pulse from her heart.

Is...is that...oh!

She opened her eyes with a weak grin from the speck of light growing inside her body. It started to push against the chains, reaching out a small strand that pointed towards a stone desk.

Is that...no...is that it?

Kirie gasped with a creeping smile.

That is...that's it. I know how to save them, I know how...but that means am...am I...no.

She shook her head with a stiffened lip.

I have to stop him, I have to save him. I promised you, I promised I would not fail.

Keeping her eyes open Kirie waited for her captor's return, which came around ten minutes later as Noh'jhin stepped out of a tear formed from the stars.

"They have left for the demon's lair," he said trailing the dust of ages beneath his wings, "now we wait."

Are you happy with yourself?

She pulled against her chains showing a fight.

You have all this knowledge of the great heavens, of worlds beyond your own and you choose the quick and easy?!

"Correct." He returned to his console as the shapes continued shifting. "Why waste the effort searching for other solutions, when the one I have before me works perfectly?"

And you call yourself a scientist? HAH, a true scientist would test and test again until they found the perfect solution!

"And so I have, you are simply belittling me for your inefficacy."

Oh yes.

Kirie rolled her eyes looking to the desk with several stone rods upon it.

You and your worthless inventions that if it wasn't for my good friend James would mean nothing!

"That 'worthless' invention is what will save many, half-spirit."

A true scientist would have found better means than some cheap everstone you carved out of candy rock!

"Oh?"

He turned with a glimmering white eye and stepped over towards his desk.

"And you can do better, than this?"

I HAVE done better than this, if you bothered to ask I could have made a far more exceptional tool than this reject that not even a farfetch'd would want!

"You would mock my craft?!"

You call a baby's rattle made of pebbles a CRAFT?! A baby cubone makes better rods than that!

"Insolent WRETCH!"

Noh'jhin grabbed one of the rods and marched forth to thrust in her face.

"THIS is the culmination of my research, through countless moons of hard labour to devise the perfect metaphysical resonance staff!"

You and your STUPID WORTHLESS STONE WANDS MEAN NOTHING TO ME!

"Worthless?! This is what will save us, no thanks to you and that vapid malingerer Hau'rhun!"

He was far better an inventor than you, is that why you're trying to erase his work?! Are you jealous, are you nothing but a pathetic little weedle trying to follow the steps of an onyx!?

"You will NOT INSULT ME!"

The moment he struck her with his rod she smiled as her chest burst with light. Noh'jhin gasped with a shock widening his eyes as the staff almost fused to her essence, sparking a powerful explosion that threw the alien back and shattered all of the binding chains.

"NNNGH! Wh-what...what is this?!"

Hmhmhmhm...you should learn by now never to trick a haunter.

Kirie slipped free from her bonds as she floated on the breeze.

I'll prove you wrong. I'll prove you that things don't have to end this way.

"Stop, I forbid you from leaving!"

Didn't you say that spirits were beyond the reach of your machinations? Good luck trying to catch me.

"NO, get back here!"

She faded through the wall, fleeing from the lab and shooting across the mist like a will-o-wisp in the monsoon, drifting through the impenetrable fog with ease as she broke through its boundaries with tears in her eyes. The howling breach of dimensions beyond tried to force her still, tried to tear through the flesh and bone to the molecular level of any mortal foolish enough to break the boundaries of reality alone. But for a spirit it was no worse than treading water, clawing through the threads of existence as she finally broke through.

Hah...there.

In the space between dimensions, beyond stars and dreams ethereal, there lied Spacetime Six. The place where all existence met, a grand kaleidoscope of every single colour both known and unknown to man, dozens upon dozens of jade, rose, azure, gold, silver and copper streams mixing together into a symphony celeste. There was no sound, no voice, not even the winds that beckoned her home. But beyond that, on a higher realm of existence unseen to the mortal eye, was that of the Farplane. The realm of spirits where Kirie ascended to, and found the swirling cosmos of infinite souls. The lights of a billion alone gleamed off her bell, numbering far greater than the stars and shining far brighter.

I must find them...I must find...others to help me, others who can...their time has passed, they will give themselves to keep them alive.

The warmth in her heart flickered stronger as she looked towards a violet stream.

There...yes...there has to be others there.

Trailing through the ether Kirie searched, feeling her heart guide her stronger towards a certain region of the farplane where other spirits drifted past her, faint and withering with regrets long since passed from their earthly bonds. Some however were more recent, more tragic and sudden, lost and adrift without understand why, or how they had died. Some of them tried to clutch at her face, pulling at her heart, desperate for comfort, desperate to return, the lost lights of eternity for whom their lives, their needs would forever be left unfinished. A few were content, some even peaceful as Kirie closed her eyes and heard their songs of peace between the howls of sorrow that would fill the universe in a grand orchestral movement that would never end.

Where are you? I need your help, I need...I need five hearts to destroy the demon! I know I ask too much of you, for the great sacrifice you have already made but so much more will be lost if I do not find five hearts to please...h-help me...please help me save Oddclaw, James...Koopin, Roy and Jacob, this is not their time!

The phantom shivered clutching her chest, her heart pulsing stronger as a light grew sharper to the point of agony.

I don't want to lose him...not after everything I have done. I cannot lose him, please...p-please help me...I know we can never be together but...I love him. I love him.

"KIRIE!"

The voice of Noh'jhin burst through the depths of space as another light came flashing behind her, a howling rift that caused spirits to scatter like fireflies in fright.as the grand Cocytan burst forth through the tearing of reality with wings resplendent in flight.

"Did you truly think you could escape my eye and impede my progress?!"

I had to try! Your plan costs too much to me!

"So you would threaten the lives of existence over one unrequited? You are nothing more than a pitiful child, longing for the one thing they shall never possess."

That's not the point! I can find others who have already lost their lives and have so much more to give!

"What does it matter if it is the five we have now, or five you MIGHT discover later?!"

The alien swept his hand and shot forth a ball of cosmic spark that streaked across the heavens as Kirie dodged.

"I have no desire to interfere with spirits, even the lesser ones such as you, but if you dare interfere with my plan you shall forfeit all hope of recompense!"

I DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR RECOMPENSE, I CAN MAKE THIS RIGHT!

Upon his second shot towards her, the phantom charged up a ball of darkness that slammed fast into Noh'jhin's body and startled him with twitching pains.

I know there are other souls out there for whom they can give so much more, who desire to give all they want to save the lives of those still living. I will NOT be silenced, I will not let James die nor any of his friends, not after all the years I have spent, GUIDING THIS ONE POOR BOY SO YOU COULD KILL HIM!

"HE IS NOT A BOY!"

Noh'jhin flared his wings sending six streams of light piercing across the realm to strike upon Kirie as she dodged all but two that ripped through her essence.

"He is nothing more than a wretched fugitive, a worthless vagabond whose very presence invokes CHAOS!"

AND I MADE HIM BETTER, HIM AND HIS SON HAVE SUFFERED TOO MUCH TO LET YOU END THEIR LIVES!

"Why do you obsess over this debased MALEFACTOR?!"

BECAUSE I LOVE HIM!

Kirie lashed out a dozen ropes from her body that struck against Noh'jhin and forced him back.

I love him more than I have ever loved anyone, all I wanted was for him to succeed, to do better than he once was and if you want his death, YOU'LL HAVE TO KILL ME FIRST!

Her body glowed brighter, the light of her heart beaming a stronger core that almost blinded the Cocytan who flapped back confused. Kirie spread her hands wide with a face severe as Noh'jhin came charging towards her, powering a ball of light from his fist as she waited to counter before he suddenly phased out of existence and whammed the back of her head in a teleporting strike. Kirie flew hard across the space, crying out as she turned and hurled another shadow ball towards the alien who parried it sharp with a strike of his pale wings. The souls of the nameless thousands bore witness to the starting battle, the spectre against a ruler of Spacetime Six who formed a star within his fingers that suddenly expanded to a wide scorching beam that he shot across the realm of spirits. Kirie flew beneath the first wave, then over the second before she was caught by a vertical beam that Noh'jhin surprised her with that sliced through her spirit form like a guillotine, scarring her essence as she quickly shot out a vine of emerald deep that plunged into the alien's soft feathered down. With a gasp he felt something sucking his energies, the vine forming a rope that twisted further like a knife as he ripped it out with his claws feeling a soft trickle of green escape him, his blood filling down the length that returned to Kirie as her shadowy form healed with a darker hue.

"You, PARASITE!"

Lashing his arm he made a sweeping star that formed another wave as Kirie kept her distance, dodging between lines of purest white both horizontal and vertical that ripped through the ether and disturbed the spirits beyond to separate and flee, like swords carving through a field of blossoms before the haunter flew up high and hurled another sphere of shadows towards Noh'jhin. The scientist suddenly shifted through space, a pale shimmer of wings before he suddenly reappeared behind Kirie to strike her down with a solid punch, his fist wrapped in hard light to crunch in her surprised face as she went tumbling downwards through the farplane. Recovering mid-fall she floated back from Noh'jhin's advance as he produced two solid orbs of burning gold that he hurled towards the spectre. Standing her ground she waited for them to pass each other in a double helix route, spiralling fast to try and trap her before she dodged straight through the middle and forced a dozen ropes to spread from her body, wrenching the Cocytan hard towards her in a vicious pull of his limbs, trying to tear them from its joints before he suddenly pulled his arms together with tremendous force and clapped his hands together in a mighty shockwave of aurum that ripped through Kirie's bonds and threw her back.

GAAARRGH! You...you will not stop me, I WON'T LET YOU HURT HIM!

"What difference does it make if the five of them perish now or in thirty years?!" he swirled another orb in his hand.

How could you even ASK such a thing?!

"Because this infantile obsession of yours will have many others perish now instead!"

Not if I can find the other five, I know they are here, I hear them!

"ENOUGH OF THIS!"

With wings aloft like an angel of death, the grand Cocytan burst six streams of light from his body that shot in a spiral towards the spirit. In a desperate move Kirie slammed a dark pulse into the air around, a black circle that swallowed the light and seethed with the pit of despair that managed to deflect most of Noh'jhin's projectiles, bending the path of light to curve round her but one came too close and seared past her eye in a tearing shriek like a bladed comet. Shuddering from the pain she raced towards him and shot out a vine from her hand that he dodged in a golden blur. Kirie turned fast on an instinct and shot out a second vine straight into his stomach, sucking the blood free as he bent over in a gasping shudder and tried to hammerfist the haunter with a burning punch that she dodged in a cloaking shadow, drawing more of his life force until he pulled the umbilical free with a vicious tear.

Chanting with archaic tongue, Noh'jhin clasped his hands to form several spears transfixed above his head bearing down upon Kirie. She dodged the first two with a strafing cloud of darkness as she shot back another shadow ball, the third spear shredding through one of her hands as she screamed clutching herself, but one of her orbs punched Noh'jhin through the skull and sent him reeling back as she charged across the space and slammed her fist into his chest, following with a second punch into his jaw before she flew back to avoid the sweep of his golden claws, a snarling rage building in the Cocytan as he lunged towards her with wings outstretched, shining death and fury as he shot a piercing beam from one of his hands, the spirit raising her hands to slam down a deep pulsing dark that repelled his strike as Noh'jhin rushed to crunch his burning fist into her face, tossing her back far across the plane as spirits scattered behind her and the flickering ether parted through her form until she righted herself. The gasping breaths of eternity from a dozen colours continued around them, bracing themselves as Kirie tightened her fist with a flicker of green inside.

Charging each other once more, the haunter swerved beneath a myriad of spiral lights that Noh'jhin blasted from his wings and pummelled across the plane, not harming any other spirits as they dissipated once they missed when Kirie spun through between them and tried to stab the Cocytan with a piercing vine to drain his life, but the scientist shifted out of reality briefly to evade as he teleported behind her, causing her to turn with a slashing dark claw that he disappeared and reappeared to her side to punch her across the space, but not before she shot out several ropes that pierced through his body and wrapped round his soul with a tightening choke, strangling him from within as he struggled and kicked with a frantic burst of energy as Kirie pulled him closer with suffocating force. With a monstrous roar exploded from his being, tearing the ropes apart as several rings of shining light formed around his body, levitating closer as he shot out a long golden thread from his finger and cast it upon Kirie who dodged out of its path and hurled another sphere that Noh'jhin parried with a backhand of light.

"I have tolerated your bleeding heart for so long, but now you try my patience!"

I tolerated far more of you than anything you've done!

She flew through the spectral rift and tried to trick him with a ball of darkness hurtling to the side of his head before he countered to shoot a spear towards her that the phantom dodged.

All I ask, is you let me TRY!

"There is no time LEFT, you pathetic wight, you are simply clinging on to a childish hope that never was going to be!"

YOU KNOW NOTHING, BECAUSE YOU NEVER TRY! All you do is find the easiest solution at the cost of everything!

"And all you do is complicate the NARRATIVE!"

His hand shot out a devastating light, the rings around his body charging up faster to energise his power causing the blast to widen farther and greater before it turned to an incandescent sun that ripped through the fractals of space, and burned upon Kirie's face to a vile sickening gleam of pale death as she struggled to guard herself against it. The shadowed pulse emanating from her body turned thicker than black, shieding around her form as she screamed against the raging light. Noh'jhin roared harder, pushing all his strength into this dreadful star that glowed with a monstrous power that caused the farplane to bend and twist around it with a gravitational surge that almost tore Kirie apart, her screams swallowed within the depths of the grandiose orb as the alien shivered with building fury, wings tightening to the point of almost crackling like stained glass as he pushed harder against to crush the phantom beneath its entire weight until it finally collapsed in a heavenly implosion, deafening the realm of spirits with a colossal shockwave that rendered the sun-like into a shrieking black hole that faded as quickly as it came.

"You forced my hand, Kirie." Noh'jhin stepped back from the fading star. "I would have hoped that you were more noble in accepting that this is the only means by which this wretched tale shall end."

He flapped his wings with a small curtsy and began to float back towards a portal opening behind him, stars and fragments twisting into existence briefly as the silence of the farplane burned in his ears.

No.

He turned with blinking eyes as he heard a shudder behind him.

N-no...I will not let it END THIS WAY!

The scientist gasped as a shadow burst from the collapsing star, a piercing white emanating from its chest as Kirie lunged forth in a sudden shot towards his face with a crunching fist of darkness cracking his jaw and penetrating his skull with vicious ire.

"GUHHH! What...WHAT!?"

I won't...let you end it this way.

The spectre's body was now deepest black, eyes of shining gold and a pale light pulsing from her heart to form half of its shape.

"I...am sick, and tired of your sycophantic MEDDLING, YOU FALSE-SPECTRED MALCONTENT!"

With a wretched blast of light Noh'jhin charged forth to backhand her across the face, causing her to flinch as she countered with a point-blank shadow ball to his stomach that threw him several feet back in surprise at her sudden strength. He countered with claws outstretched as he clapped them together forming violent waves of blinding gold, tearing through the space in sudden diagonals that the phantom strafed under and over with precise movements, almost turning to a cloud of blackened smog to reach towards Noh'jhin and drive her fist in his face. He teleported quick from her sight as a blurring of white, shifting to behind as she suddenly burst a tangling of ropes from her back with a howling shriek that surprised him, stabbing a dozen times through his feathered chest and forcing him to recoil back with spears of heaven twirling above his head, shooting them down upon the spirit who slammed her fists together and guarded herself with echoing black pulse that shattered each strike.

Kirie screeched as she sent out a twisting vine that thrust for Noh'jhin's head, the scientist ducking beneath and grabbing its tendril to crack it under his claws and wrench Kirie forth to try and pummel her senses. But the phantom lashed out with another vine that became a rope that tied to his arm and pulled him even harder, forcing the two in a war of attrition briefly with struggling grip and shivering hands before they separated, the grand Cocytan spreading his arms up high and collecting spheres of light from his wings to form a shimmering display of moons bathed in sunlight. Hurtling upon the spectre, he rained meteors down across the eternal plane as Kirie dodged between the burning rocks, drifting between realities of life and death with her blackened fog and the briefest sight of her snarling wide face with rictus grin twisting to a seething roar as she charged a burning ball of darkness in her hand, slamming it towards Noh'jhin's head with a soul-shattering crunch, blackening his mind to a brief concussion as his synpases shuddered from the deep cold infernal before he blocked fast with a shimmering shield of dodecahedron. His body guarded in the light mathematical, he watched Kirie suddenly crush against his shield and start hammering upon its pentagon faces, burning with rage and her face consuming his vision. Every punch she drove upon his shield made an impact of darkness, a small circle of black ringing off the golden shapes with each pounding shudder through her being whilst Noh'jhin stared down upon her from behind his guard.

NNNRAAAAAARGH! AAAAAAAARGH!

"STOP, FIGHTING you malevolent cur!"

I, WILL NOT, LET YOU DO THIS!

"I do not CARE!" he barked with a bitter sneer.

FIGHT ME YOU COWARD! FIGHT MEEEE!

"Why? So long as you waste your efforts on me rather than interfere with the five hearts, I shall let you rage against my defences for as long as you wish, and the moment you exhaust yourself I shall render you gone from this existence along with the demon, James, Oddclaw and all these dimensional vagrants!"

NNNOOOOOOO!

Her fists slammed even harder as the darkness dripped through slightly.

I WON'T LET YOU HURT HIM! I WILL NEVER STOP!

"You would destroy my efforts for such a feeble excuse of the heart?!"

I WOULD KILL YOU FOR THEM TO BE HAPPY, AND IF THAT IS WHAT I MUST DO, THEN SO BE IT!

Kirie never stopped, the alien watching her relentless screaming pounding fists that pummelled until her essence turned weak, her hands shivering and her blackened form starting to fade back to its purple shade as Noh'jhin smiled at her growing fatigue. Then he felt something. The light in Kirie's chest, the half-shape as the shield started to creak and bend inwards as he stammered:

"What, what is this?!"

NNRRAAAAAAAARRRGH!

"Stop, STOP THIS NOW!"

_I WILL NOT, LET YOU, HURT MY SOOOOOON! _

The last punch drove straight through his guard, shattering the light into a dozen pieces of gold that scattered across the planes. Her lunging fist drove into his chest and tore through his being, rending his soul with a screeching howl as their faces were briefly consumed by the light inside Kirie. Noh'jhin fell back by several feet, hovering weakly with a sputtering cough of of green blood that thickened on his lips.

"GHRRKH! Wh-what...what have you done?"

My...m-my son...I won't let you hurt him.

Her voice whispered with a softening gasp as she struggled forwards.

_Touch...my family, and I kill you. _

"Your...wh-what?"

...no.

Kirie shook her head with eyes widened.

Not...not mine but...hers.

She clutched at her chest with a growing smile.

Her son...the one who gave me half her heart. The one I promised, that I would save her husband, save her family.

"No, you can't mean-" Noh'jhin staggered upright with a coughing shudder, "his...his mother?!"

Yes. I promised her...I would keep her family safe...her son, her husband...so that when the day comes when he would pass away...they would all be together again.

The spirit hovered above him with burning gaze as the Cocytan shuddered back from his wound.

This is not his time. You don't get to decide, when he dies.

"This...th-this is...how can you overpower me?"

Because...our will is greater than yours.

She pointed behind him as he turned with a shivering breath. There were four lights from the depths of eternity, slowly drifting towards Kirie's side as she closed her eyes with a deep sigh of relief, their voices beating to her heart.

Are you the ones...who heard me?

We have come to your aid.

Yeah, that wuz sum fight you had, reminds me like how I went.

Ahhh...thank you. I know I am asking so much...but you know about Oddclaw, yes?

I wuz trying to find him! But everything's so big I didn't know where to go!

But you can take us to him yes? And I thought I was done fighting demons, goodness.

Thank you...

Kirie shed a soft tear as she pulled back from the Cocytan.

I'll take you to him...are you sure you want to do this?

Yah, I have to save everyone, I promised!

I already slept fer too long so yeah, count me in.

My mission remains, even if my programming has ceased.

After all that's happened, it would be terrible if things ended this way.

I agree...I do not know any of you, but I am in your deepest debt.

"W-WAIT!"

Noh'jhin forced himself up with a frail flap of his wings.

"If...if your mission fails...you realise that all of this will be for naught."

I will not fail.

Kirie turned back to him with a hand to her heart.

I never failed him.

Her smile burned into his eyes as she departed with the four spirits in tow, drifting back towards the dimensional fracture where there lied the demon and the end of all things. Noh'jhin cursed himself, his body struggling to keep himself upright as he forced the last of his energy to open another portal, and await the results back at his lab.

"I only hope...I delayed you long enough from your foolish quest."