CHAPTER 61

Franklin was making good progress. He'd run into a few formations, grotesque monsters or tentacles or other such stuff that tried to stop him, but he just smashed through them and kept going, barely even stopping. At one point, a bunch of saws appeared in his path but he just ran right through them, breaking them apart on impact.

He was running at full sprint. He'd never really thought about testing his limits here but apparently with his increased strength and invincibility, he also had great stamina as he was already reaching the giant tree.

He didn't know why it gave him such bad vibes. It was now bigger than the skyscrapers and was still growing. He wondered how big it would grow. And who was responsible for all this? He wanted to contact the others but he'd left his phone behind at the deli. He hoped they had responded faster than he had and were already up there, trying to take out whoever was responsible.

He'd noticed as he got closer, not as many formations were appearing to block him. He would have thought the opposite was true. He looked around carefully for any traps. He'd already narrowly avoided falling into more of those liquid street areas several times already. He knew if he fell now, no one would be able to help. The entire city here was deserted. He just hoped that the people had managed to get out in time.

It took another few minutes but he finally reached the tree's trunk. He gaped up at it, trying to think of how he could get up there.

"Damn," he muttered, realizing there was no way he could do it as he was. It would take him an hour to get up there, maybe. He needed a faster way. But he didn't see any handy jetpacks around and he was pretty sure the earth tree wouldn't have an express elevator to the top.

He was tempted to just start climbing anyway when he heard a sudden roar from behind him. Frowning he turned and gaped again as he saw an actual dragon flying through the air. It was obviously a formation, looking like it literally came out of a street. But it was definitely shaped like a dragon with the wings, claws, and snout. As he watched, he saw it breathe a column of fire at a small figure that just managed to avoid it.

"Luke," he muttered in realization and started running again. But he hadn't even made it two steps before he felt himself sinking again. "Damn it, not again!" he growled, ripping his legs free before they could sink any further. But no matter where he stepped, the ground gave way beneath him. He was tempted to punch the ground but didn't really think that would help so just kept pulling himself up one step at a time.

He felt a soft impact on his arm and instinctively swatted whatever it was away. But then he felt something land on his other arm. And then on his shoulder. And then on his head.

"What the hell?" he murmured, smacking a few of the things off before looking over at his arm. On it was perched a small, multi-legged creature made out of rock with sharp teeth and claws, about the size of a crab.

"Go ahead and attack me all you want," he said to it, pulling his leg free again. "Nothing you do will penetrate my ski…hey, what are you doing?" he asked suddenly as it began to move, crawling towards his neck and then up to his face.

To his eyes and mouth.

"Oh crap," he muttered, instantly grabbing it and crushing it into dust. But more kept landing on him. He glanced up and saw he was under one of the large spikes made out of stone, the rocky insects forming right out of that.

He didn't know if his eyes or mouth were as invulnerable as the rest of him and he was in no hurry to find out. He crushed as many as he could while simultaneously doing his best not to sink into the earth. But he was already almost up to his knees and he wasn't even lifting his feet out of the ground anymore, just lifting them high enough to move.

"Just…have to…keep… going," he grunted, ripping a fresh batch of stone crabs off of him. "No…matter…wha-GAH!" he cried out, a particularly large one slamming on top of his face, tiny stony tendrils reaching right for his mouth. With one blow, he sent it flying away but its landing had surprised him, forcing him down on one knee. And he couldn't get back up.

"Aw damn it," he muttered, sinking in deep while more of the crabs fell on him.

"Well since that one is gone, I guess I'm stuck with you three," the Sculptor said in a bored tone that made Gabriela mad. "At least do something."

"You got it," Travis said before rushing forward. However, he didn't move to attack the Sculptor. Instead, he grabbed hold of the cage and Gabriela saw all the lightning suddenly converge on him until he was glowing brightly, electricity shooting off randomly. "Ah, all powered up," he said, cracking his back. "That is so much better."

"Damn, how do I get some of that," Gabriela muttered, half to herself. While she still had a good amount left in her, she knew it was still nowhere near enough to take on the Sculptor. She could only watch as Travis began to shoot lightning bolts at the Sculptor, all of which just bounced off his armor.

"Let's see how fast you really are." With a finger snap, the acid lake bubbled and then erupted in another geyser.

"Acid!" Gabriela cried out. Next to her, Madison instantly moved and a force field appeared around them right before the acid could hit them. She hissed each time a drop landed on the field but nothing got through. Gabriela looked out and saw Travis standing nearby, looking physically fine though he did look a little shaken.

"Could have gone my whole life without that experience," he muttered. Gabriela was pretty sure they could all go their whole lives without any of the experiences they'd gone through these last few weeks, but whatever.

She focused back on Sculptor. There had to be a way to take him down. She just needed to figure it out. The armor was the real problem and if she had to make a guess, she would say that the diamond segments were the most essential, keeping the other elements melded with his powers. Take that out, and problem solved.

Unfortunately, diamonds were only broken from a really hard impact or pressure from the inside, and she didn't have any heavy hitters with her.

"Guess we're back to improvising," she said to herself. "Let's just try not to do a repeat of Mr. Delton's drama class."

"Oh yeah, that was really bad."

"Shut up Travis."

She shot up into the air, dodging past all the fire strands and nitrogen balls, lighting her whole body up again with her power. She was a living conductor of energy. At least she thought so. That had to be able to do something against this guy.

She felt her power growing inside of her but she needed more. Much more.

"Travis! I need time!"

"You got it!"

In a flash of movement, Travis sped right over to the Sculptor, attacking him head on with a lightning bolt to the face that was deflected like all the others. Still, Travis kept it up, constantly on the move as he attacked over and over again with both his fists and with lightning.

Gabriela focused, gathering more of her power, but was forced to push herself to the side to avoid a nitrogen ball. She couldn't concentrate with all these things after her.

Just as she thought that, a force field appeared around her, blocking another nitrogen bubble from hitting her. It struck the field and seemed to be trying to freeze it but whatever the field was made of wouldn't let it. Still, it left a dark mark on the shimmering blue.

Gabriela glanced down and saw Madison there, hand raised up to her. The girl was also on the move with several of the diamond tentacles after her, but she kept them at bay with a constant supply of new force field bubbles.

"Hurry up!" she cried up to Gabriela.

"Right," Gabriela said, mostly to herself, refocusing.

"Well you are at least putting up some sort of fight," the Sculptor called out. "Though I must say I was hoping for a little more than this."

"Oh you want more?" Travis cried. "How about some of this!"

Gabriela glanced up as everything suddenly lit up, Travis disappearing into a storm of pure lightning, apparently gathering all his electricity into one hand. She'd seen him do something similar to Swarm last night, the one that had disabled all his microbots. While it worked there, she doubted it would work against the Sculptor.

Unless…

Her eyes widened and she redoubled her efforts, pouring everything she had into this.

"Eat voltage, you wannabe god!" Travis cried, his whole body glowing with static power and his hair flying around wildly above him. He charged forward one last time, striking the Sculptor right in his chest.

"Madison!" Gabriela yelled, sending a harmless beam of light down on her. The girl blinked, looked up and then released the force field. Gabriela instantly shot forward, her entire arm shaking and burning so bright it looked like the sun itself from the amount of power within it.

"Well…" the Sculptor said, coughing a little. "I will admit that that was…" He paused, looking up just as Gabriela flew at him. "Wha-"

"Boom," she said, striking the exact same spot on his chest that Travis did.

The explosion was immense, the shockwave sending everything flying backwards. There was a blinding light that eclipsed everything and Gabriela herself had to blink. She found herself unaffected by the shockwave or the explosion itself, still standing in the same place. But when the smoke cleared and the light died down, she saw the Sculptor had been sent flying, striking the cage around them and nearly breaking it open, already bending it back almost all the way.

She looked down at her arm, it looking like her regular arm again but it wouldn't take much to get it to that power level again.

"Damn Gabriela," she heard Travis say. "That was totally awesome."

"Thanks," she replied, but her eyes never left the Sculptor, watching him as slowly got back up again. "But this isn't over."

"Well now," the Sculptor said as he stood up and Gabriela felt a swell as she saw she'd actually managed to crack the diamond, acid and nitrogen dripping down around him and his armor beginning to fall apart with steam wafting from where she'd struck. "It appears I may have underestimated you."

Gabriela hissed as she realized there was something off in his voice. The sarcastic, laid back guy was gone. He was angry now but there was also something else in his voice

Fear.

Her only warning was a slight cracking sound beneath her. By the time she looked down, the diamond tentacle erupted from the ground, wrapping so tightly around her she thought it would crack her in half right there.

"Gabriela!" Travis cried, moving towards her but even he was too slow.

"Goodbye," the Sculptor said and the tentacle drove her down. She only managed a glance to see the acid lake coming right for her before she was driven straight into it, the liquid consuming her. Within seconds she was screaming, trying to break free as it began to eat away at her, but the tentacle just kept pushing her down deeper until she couldn't see the surface.

Soon, all she could feel was the burning.

Emily cracked her knuckles and did some squats before looking up at the massive tree in front of her. The Sculptor had to be at the top alongside a few of her friends. And she had a plan to get up there. Not a great plan. A pretty stupid plan actually. But all the great plans had taken a vacation, so she was stuck with stupid.

"Alright, here we go," she said, taking a deep breath. This was just like any challenge for her. She'd even done this before, though with only her arm last time. But it had worked, so this should too. She just had to remember one crucial rule. Never touch the earth.

"And…liftoff," she said, stretching her legs as far as they could do. She shot upwards, rising fast next to the tree. She smiled at first before getting her serious face back in place. She kept going, up and up, feeling a little like one of those scissor lifts she'd seen on TV, though way faster.

Of course, pretty soon her legs began to ache. She ignored it as best she could, trying to focus on continuing up, but soon the pain in her legs became almost unbearable and she stopped stretching, coming to a rest. She took a few breaths and wiped her brow, not even realizing she'd been sweating. She looked down, not even really seeing the treetop she was standing on. It was like she was looking through a see-through floor right now, not balancing as best she could on her own super-elongated legs. It was exhausting, stretching that much. But she'd made it about a fourth or less of the way. Not bad at all.

"Though now comes the actual hard part," she said to herself.

She'd realized earlier that the Sculptor couldn't reshape organic matter, which was why he kept using the earth and why she had been safe on the trees. Or safe enough. It was why her legs were currently standing on the top of a tree way down below and why she had tied bark around her feet as well as her hands using strips of her shirt. That way, she would never physically come into contact with any of the Sculptor's reshaped earth.

That was the hope anyway.

She was currently in the spike region, though the spikes had since grown and wrapped around each other to form a vine-like barrier around the trunk of the tree. Well, it wouldn't be stopping her from reaching the top. She raised her arm and extended it over to the nearest vine, her bark-covered hand landing firmly on it. She winced at first but nothing happened and she sighed in relief. Her theory was sound.

She stretched out her other arm, planting it next to the other one, and then carefully stretched her legs further, wincing as the pain grew. She had to do it at an angle now too as she leaned forward, wobbling a little, until she was position directly above the vine. Then, she began the process of retracting her legs, sighing a little as she felt them fly up to her.

"Good thing I never skip arm day," she joked, as she held herself up with only her arms. It took a few more seconds before she finally felt her legs return to their regular height. She gave them a second more to recover before swinging them up and planting them on the vine as well, pushing her hands off.

"Now then, onto the next stretch," she said, looking up to make sure this position didn't have anything in her way as she went up.

Fortunately, there wasn't so she got into a proper stance and began to stretch herself up again, though this time she went more slowly, her muscles and bones still aching.

She was about reaching the halfway point and thinking about coming to a stop when she heard a loud screeching noise. She frowned and looked around, not seeing anything.

And then something struck her leg.

"Ow!" Emily yelped. She moved to kick whatever it was away and only barely caught herself, wobbling for a second as she regained her balance.

"What the hell was that?" she muttered to herself. Well, she wasn't planning on finding out, so she instantly stretched for the next vine, ready to grab it, when she felt another strike on her leg.

Madison could only stare in horror as Gabriela was shoved deep into the acid lake. She could have stopped it with a force field but she'd been too slow, drained from her constant use of it. And now Gabriela was being killed. And she had no idea how to save her.

"Damn it!" Travis screamed. "You…you…" He suddenly unleashed another blast of lightning at the Sculptor but it was blocked like the others.

"Do try and control yourself. You'll run out of power like that and then that'll be it for you," he said. "And what, did you think I wouldn't kill her? She's my enemy, trying to stop my masterpiece from being born, just like you. She just proved to be a greater threat so I made the rational decision in killing her off before she could inflict more damage on me. You do understand this a battle to the death, right?"

With every word he said, Madison felt her rage grow. She'd never felt so angry before in her life. She'd never really been angry at anything before, except maybe Todd the time he put a centipede in her bed, but now it roaring through her.

She barely understood what she was doing when the force field appeared around the Sculptor, contracting around him so fast he had to press his hands to the side to keep from being crushed. She didn't seem him as Eustace anymore. She just saw him as a monster that needed to be put down.

"Well looks like you have a fire inside of you!" the Sculptor grinned at her, infuriating her even more. She pressed hard, doing her best to squeeze him tight, but then she felt something tear into it. She saw his hand was now covered in a diamond blade that was also dripping acid, pressing it into her field. She grimaced and kept pushing, trying to ignore it, but then more were added, his diamond blades growing all over his body, stabbing right into her field. She grunted, feeling those sharp points in her mind, drilling into her, until she finally dropped the field, gasping.

"A good effort, but now…oh," the Sculptor said in surprise right before his tentacles could attack her. She had activated invisibility, quickly disappearing from his sight. "Well, that would be a handy trick if it wasn't for the fact that your feet still need to touch the ground. And all of the ground is under my control."

Madison felt a clench of fear right before the ground began to sink beneath her feet. She quickly made another force field, pushing the soil away and lifting her up away from it.

"Madison!" Travis was suddenly there, shooting another flurry of lightning bolts.

"Do you even think of trying any other attack? This is getting annoying. Here." The area suddenly became very cold and Madison saw Travis stumble to a stop, shivering. Before he could react, the ground broke open beneath him and a cage of frozen metal surrounded him, trapping him. As Madison watched, icicles with deadly points began to grow on the inside, all pointed at him. He used his lightning to shear off a few of them but it seemed the cold was affecting him as his bolts weren't as powerful before and the icicles just started regrowing as soon as he cut them off.

Madison moved to help but the Sculptor stepped in her way. "Nuh uh, I've got something else planned for you."

All the soil around her suddenly turned a metallic shade and then rose up around her. Madison gaped and then erected another force field around her just before washed down on her, completely smothering her. She tried to expand her field and push it all away but it was too heavy, pushing her down instead.

"That's liquid titanium, by the way," she could just make out the Sculptor saying. "So good luck getting out. I will be impressed if you do."

Madison felt like she was drowning without actually drowning. The metal was ten times worse than the earth from before. It was pouring on top of her from every direction, entombing her. She couldn't expand her force field at all, could only do her best to maintain its shape, but even that was shrinking. She screamed out, trying to hold on, but she wasn't even sure she'd last a minute.

Eustace could only stare as Madison disappeared beneath the metal. Sumin had gone over the edge and now Travis was about to be impaled while Gabriela drowned in acid. They were all dying around him, because of him and there was nothing he could do about it. He tried pushing back, tried desperately to regain control of his own body, but he couldn't do anything.

"Oh that's not true, Eustace," the Sculptor's voice said. "That's not true at all. You can watch as I tear this world apart. Watch as everything you know is consumed. That is what you can do?"

"I hope they kill us both!" Eustace screamed at him.

"Oh, I'm afraid that no one has the power to beat me. This is the end."

Darian hadn't felt like this in years. He was anxious and scared as he watched the tree go, now beginning to tower over the city's skyscrapers. Its roots were tearing up the streets and buildings, its branches blocking out all light below. He could only imagine what below ground looked, the bigger roots down there, slowly digging for the core. Richter was there, doing his best to hold them off but even he couldn't last long.

Darian wanted to help. It wouldn't take much to destroy the tree. But even if he did that, the Sculptor would just recreate it. His power must be immense at this point. Soon there would be no stopping him.

"Update me," he said to Stormcloud.

"Almost all the population have been evacuated. We lost a few at the start I'm afraid."

"Unavoidable," he said, shaking his head. "And Master Dark?"

"Still keeping all this quiet," Stormcloud confirmed.

"Good. Prep the warhead. We launch in ten minutes."

As Stormcloud left, he looked up at the top of the tree, praying the Cloak Guard were up there, still fighting. Come on, you damn rookies, he thought. We're all counting on you now.