Chapter 16
The darkness of the ruins of the fortress were slowly being eaten away by the flames that Radkon's spirit had set to his home. Shadow and Aloy were puzzled and still restored the last Chaos Emerald. "We can talk later, at least we have the seven Chaos Emeralds back!" Shadow told Aloy, snatching the newly reborn Chaos Emerald from the pillar. "Hold it, Shadow. You're not leaving the tapes behind, are you?" Aloy Morningstar replied, but Shadow told her that it didn't matter and Gaia and Iblis were to be destroyed immediately. As the Chaos Emerald opened the spot of the pillar, a dark red velvet smoke shot out and traced through the ruins, throwing the debris and metal violently and setting flames to the outside of the computer room the Chaos Duo had found themselves in.
The smoke trail continued outside of the fortress and a purple mist formed and replaced the smoke. That was when a giant jagged head traced into something real and the whole body, similar to Gaia, was created. But that's when Shadow realized it was no ordinary creature. It was truly Gaia in an gargantuar size. "You believed Radkon's filthy lies? Ha! That tape was only to trick y'all into thinking his death would make a difference. He ended up believing he gets stronger by killing who he thought he was, a weak and pathetic being. But this was all a joke. He is what he thought and that means, the pathetic leader killed himself. That Death Iceball Robot was nothing to his efforts and easily let the Resistance win. Now, pass me the Chaos Emeralds and join us in the Underworld." He finished.
As always, Shadow refused to join. Gaia's anger suddenly broke into excessive limits and began swinging its arms around the fortress, knocking the top part down, as Shadow and Aloy sprinted their way to the shuttle, as Gaia looked around, searching for them. "Where are you, little sewer rats?!" Shadow and Aloy were rushing to ignite the engine of the shuttle to escape, as Gaia caught wind of their plan. It tried stretching its arm onto the top but it zoomed away suddenly and Gaia roared in anger. Shadow used Chaos Control to increase the boost and block back any projectiles of fireballs and debris of the Redemption Empire Fortress that were left. The attacks only bounced back off of the protective shield and impacted the fortress and caused more damage than what there already was.
"Good, we escaped for now. Luckily, the Chaos Emeralds are back to normal and we can revive Zay," Aloy told Shadow. However, he simply looked out the window where the nighttime sky was filled with purplish stars around the full moon. The shuttle flew on back to Resistance HQ where everyone patiently waited for them to return. Aloy sat on the red lounger couch and thought about all the adventures they went through together. The world they knew and loved revolved around them for so long that all the places they went brought them to where they belong as heroes of our universe and society.
"We should be back in 30 minutes, depending on how we make it without being attacked. Until then, rest up because we have a fight soon with Gaia." Aloy said to Shadow, lying down on the couch before wisping into a deep sleep. Shadow simply looked out the window and entered a daydream of his frightening past. As a kid, he was never social to anybody and was mostly quiet during his time at middle school. Shadow had only a few friends, one of them respectively being Zay at the time when he protected him from being beaten by a group of kids older than him.
But Shadow was also too affected by this. He was laughed at throughout the hallways and was clearly a laughing stock for his fears that he held, including fitting in. Some of his friends were supportive but mostly turned away and encouraged all the hate. The quiet vents shuttered and shook slightly from all the air conditioning pressure the shuttle was working hard on, when the radar detected a large energy ready of unknown origin. "Warning: large energy reading. Source: molten lava and stone."
The PA intercom said as the Freezie Fleet ship was suddenly struck from below, waking up Aloy and Shadow. They scurried in a panic and found out what woke the duo up, as the nose of the shuttle pointed directly down. The thrusters were completely unrepairable now. As the ship crash landed, Shadow and Aloy braced themselves from the impact as everything inside was thrown violently around. When they looked outside, everything was silent but the city they crashed near happened to be Westopolis, Shadow's home city. "But, how did we-"
Shadow's question was interrupted when a large serpent-like body ripped from the ground and was heavily armored with molten rock and lava. In the head was a giant green snake eye, that appeared to be sensitive to damage. Shadow and Aloy stepped out to see the creature rising up in extremely large size. "This giant worm just won't stay dead, will he?"
Shadow complained as the creature was none other than Iblis. But it wasn't the only one Shadow and Aloy had to fight. That was when more miniature sizes of Iblis' first phase appeared. His minions were here to back him up. "Looks like they don't want us to leave." She said as Iblis began to release a wave of flames that began tearing through Westopolis and the radius of 10 feet surrounding them. Shadow tried speeding around the top of the creature to hit the eye, but was knocked back with powerful brute force, being sent back through a glass skyscraper.
He finally stopped inside when hitting a white freshly painted wall. Shadow got back up from his knees and ran throughout the office of papers. He was speeding around, finishing everyone's work and presentations they were close to presenting in the matter of seconds, and somehow boosted the stock market. One last thing he got was a cup of coffee, french vanilla with a teaspoon of caramel, just how he likes it before rushing back to fight off Iblis.
Aloy was only able to hold off the Iblis minions for so long that they began winning this one. But then, a miraculous sight began soaring above the skies. What appeared to be three people flying on a hoverboard, leaving the same neon trail of light blue and green, similar to when Zay was riding that hoverboard throughout the city of Summit. They tore through the defenses of the Iblis minions and once they were finished, there was the long lost and thought-to-be-gone Lucifer and Johnny Morningstar.
"What!? It's not possible! I thought you were-" Lucifer interrupted Aloy and told her, "There's no need to worry. We're perfectly fine. And for you Shadow, I haven't seen you in years! How's life and your girl doin'?" He turned to Shadow, but now wasn't the time for conversation as they had to fight off Iblis. "Come on, I know how to maneuver around his attacks!" Aloy called to the trio, as they swung around, bashing into the armor in hopes to break it. No avail was shown to the creature taking damage, but Shadow managed to hit the eye that was open, causing Iblis to screech in pain of the impact and gurgled out lava and breathed fire in anger.
He then made a huge devastating jump into the sky and landed near Shadow, trying to move away. The living flame monster was unstoppable. All it could simply do was regenerate itself and keep fighting for as long as it pleases. So could Gaia unless the power of three Super transformation users could kill the core of Solaris, and erase them all from existence. "Johnny, call in the air fleet!" Lucifer called Johnny. He gave him a quick thumbs up in reply and said something to his wristband communicator and then a horde of air fleet ships were charging in.
"Alright, war hawks flying in!" The ships charged in with maximum firepower of Wisps and shot at everything they could, with one heavy cannon making a shot on the eye of Iblis, causing significant damage. "The armor. It's breaking!" Aloy shouted after discovering mysterious orange and yellow spots of molten rock appearing from the dark brown coiled-like armor. But just as Iblis was close to reaching his helpless and invulnerable state, that was when Gaia teleported in front of the air fleet attempting to do a second strike, and launched them directly flying into buildings and the ground, being set ablaze.
"I've finally found you Iblis. Now, let us merge and become Solaris to set this world to slumber." He roared. At this point, the city of Westopolis was set to immediate evacuation as Guardian Units of Nations (G.U.N.) soldiers came in to fight off Gaia and Iblis. Aloy, Lucifer, Johnny and Shadow all got inside of the shuttle and rushed away. Despite the thrusters being damaged, they managed to fly with occasional bumps and turbulence from the air. Shadow and Aloy couldn't believe that Iblis was hiding near Westopolis and the citizens never knew of this at all. Now Gaia found Iblis and were just merging to Solaris.
As the shuttle ran out of fuel close to landing at Resistance HQ, it just scraped through the pavement on the landing skids before breaking completely. It was broken, wires exposed and completely nowhere close to repairable. The squad rushed in and everyone was shocked to see that they returned from their mission. "Welcome back, Team Chaos. Oh, Lucifer and Johnny! What a surprise!" Cece said. "There's no time. Let's hurry!" Shadow said, cutting the conversation as the squad all went outside to an area of pillars with strange symbols where in the middle laid Zay.
"Oh, Zero. I knew you were such a good hero. A gentle giant you were." Lucifer sighed after seeing this. Vivala, Rah, Aggie, 32op, Wassim, Zire, and Mustapha all appeared and stood around his grave, as the Chaos Emeralds were placed around. It took only a few seconds for Zay and the seven mystic relics to float mid-air. Aggie stepped closer to Zay and as everyone was gathering, Blackheart, Marie, and even Radkon came. "What is he doing here?" Everyone asked when they saw him. He sighed softly and said, "I want to make an apology for making this war happen. It's my fault Zay was killed and I didn't take time to acknowledge how good it would be to lead such a team that listens. So, I hope to see Solaris be defeated. And Blackheart, I hope you put the Phantom Ruby to great use." He finished, Blackheart chuckling to Radkon's comment before they fist bumped. "Zero, return to this universe and destroy the living flame and set it to slumber. Go back to the past of Solaris as only a simple candle, and set it out. This kills the spirit, therefore Gaia and Iblis don't exist."
Blackheart said. He used the Phantom Ruby to do an unknown symbol traced through the air and the Phantom Ruby released a mist that surrounded Zay. The ritual was finished as a blinding white light took over everyone's sight, and the unthinkable stood upon everyone. The jackal that everyone knew was colored golden yellow and had blood red eyes shining like the Phantom Ruby. "Wow, you went Super, Zay!" Epic101 said in surprise of this sight. "I wouldn't say he isn't blinding my eyes, but this better do the job." Radkon said. "And Solaris is a super-dimension life form that threatens to destroy time itself. It's insane that he chews down dimensions for his dinner." Marie added.
Since then, she'd been studying up on what Solaris was and knew that it was impossible to defeat him without the might of three Super States just to inflict harm. "Shadow and Aloy, it's time we unite to defeat Solaris once and for all!" Zay said, as Shadow and Aloy stepped inside of the ring of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Shadow's black fur turned yellow with bright red streaks as Aloy's color of darkish grey turned golden yellow as well. "Hope this Resistance is ready to take down this monster," Zay said to 32op.
Rah stepped in to say, "As a matter of fact, we do." She suddenly nodded to Zire and Wassim who rushed back inside of the headquarters with Epic. Zay was puzzled about what would possibly be able to help them defeat and erase Solaris from existence. A sudden rumbling came starting underground when a large piece of land opened up as a giant sentinel powerhouse robot rose above to surface. It was egg-shaped with a narrow pelvis, heavily armored but stubby legs, and thick gauntlets, cap-shaped shoulders instead of the use of bars, and thin arms with forearms the shape of a cone. Three spiky claws pointed forward for fingers and had a jetpack for levitation. The head was the shape of a dome and had a red cycloptic eye sensor and red field of a mouth. Glowing orange outlines here and there shone on the metal of grey and black. "Introducing...the Death Dorito. I know this thing is gonna work." Zire introduced the robot, which was automatic and fought for the Doritos Empire. "Alright, everyone. Gather around for a crucial announcement. We are ending this war with evil tonight, meaning all troops are mandatory and now must fight for the Doritos Empire! Thanks to our allies of Pirates and Light Troops, we will defeat Solaris for good. Some may not return but if you do not, always remember that you've given an advantage for us to win. Alright, let's go everyone!" Zay called to everyone, and the army roared in hype for the fight. They all got on board the shuttles and ignited the engines, and began flying up to Westopolis. The Death Dorito was flying throughout the air with its jetpack, soaring through clouds and whatever was above. "Be ready guys, use your Wispons at all times. This is the endgame of this war now." Shadow reminded Zay and Aloy, flying around Summit before heading to Westopolis. Shadow's home was under siege, and he wasn't going to put up with it. And soon, they made it to the city where Solaris was floating up in an unbelievable sight. Iblis and Gaia's minions rose up from the ground up to fight the thousands of soldiers that came from the shuttles. Solaris was of light shells that were golden yellow with eyes and horns, and a pair of wings that was of five segments. In the center was the core of it, that was to be protected at all times. All the soldiers below and the Death Dorito stood upon the monsters from the Underworld. Pirates, Light Troops, and the Resistance with a heavy strike air fleet were ready. Zay closed his eyes for a few seconds, praying that it all ends on this very night. "For the Resistance." He whispered as Shadow gave out the order to rush. "Attack!" He shouted to everyone, as they let out their war cries and rushed in. The soldiers ran in with their Wispons and swords and shields, flintlock rifles and grappling hooks, throwing spears of fresh gold and the Death Dorito stomping in front of the scurrying crowd. They were all fighting the monsters that were screeching around, and took out their forces. The Death Dorito hurled back meteors that Solaris threw with its mighty telekinesis, saving a good thousand from oblivion. While the ground fights continued, the air fleet was diving in and sent a heavy strike of rockets and Wispon power. All of that laser artillery would've even hit Solaris, but it was not enough. Super Zay, Shadow and Aloy all flew up where Solaris was. The monster that threatened time by even creating time-space rifts to disorient the fabric of reality the world had was about to go down.