319: A Plague of Phantoms: A League of Their Own III

"Everyone ready?" I asked as I sat cross-legged in the center of the control car. Alberto and Bo sat on my left and right side respectively. Each placing had a hand on one of my shoulder, funneling mana into my body which I was circulating throughout my body and back into each of their own bodies in a complete circuit. Iris, Damon and Astrid sat behind me in a triangle formation with Iris at the point. Iris had both hands on my back and channeling mana into my body with Damon and Astrid each holding onto one of Iris shoulders and channeling mana into her.

"Ready!" Alberto and Damon replied.

"Good to go." Astrid and Iris replied.

"Let's just get going already! This shit is tiring!" Bo snapped.

"Stop cursing!" Everyone in the room snapped. Bo rolled his eye then huffed.

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Focusing on my breathing, the flow of mana from everyone, and feeling the mental presence of all my evos. I took one more deep breath and suddenly I felt time slow down to a crawl and space start to stretch and pull.

I opened my eyes and found myself standing at the top of the tree that represented the crossroads of my farm crystal. I wasn't alone either, Alberto, Damon, Iris, Bo, and Astrid stood around me. They all gasped and stared at the massive tree.

"It's a tree this time?" Iris gasped.

"Yes, this is just the crossroads." I said then walked over to the edge of the tree's massive branches and peered down towards the roots and pointed. "The biome is down there."

Iris and Bo stood beside me and looked down towards the portal. They both shivered and took a step backwards.

"That orb thing wrapped in tree roots?" Bo asked. I nodded which elicited another shiver from the duo.

"What's up with the bloodlust from that biome. It's like it's radiating off it in waves." Iris replied.

"That's the subject…he's being a bit of a ass and keeps trying to escape his biome." I replied. The subject took that moment to try and escape again, shaking and rattling the entire tree. The shaking knocked everyone else flat on their asses while I managed to barely stay upright. "Like that…"

"Okay…Damon and Astrid let's get to work. You don't need us to follow you into the Biome do you?" Iris asked, standing up and dusting imaginary mental dust off her legs.

"No. As long as you three keep in contact with the tree you'll be funneling mana into me. Bo and Alberto…you two will wait outside the biome until I give the signal to come inside." I said looking back at everyone. Bo and Alberto shared a look then looked over the edge of the branch down at the sealed off biome.

"How are we going to get down there?" Bo asked. Alberto narrowed his eyes at me and took a couple cautionary steps back away from me.

"If you kick me down there Chase I am going to strangle you in your sleep." Alberto warned. I rolled my eyes then jumped off the branch, I fell for a few feet before gravity kicked in and pulled me towards the trunk of the crossroads tree. I turned in time to see Alberto groan loudly and face palm his forehead. "Of course the gravity inside his head space is fucked up…"

"Matches his personality." Bo said then jumped off the branch after me.

"HEY! I HEARD THAT!" I snapped and shook a fist at the falling Bo. Bo landed on the tree trunk a foot a above me and stuck his tongue out. Alberto jumped off the branch and landed near Bo. I turned and fixed my eyes on the biome below.

"Where are your evos?" Bo asked.

"Never far…" Bone-lasher replied, emerging from the shadow of the tree trunk and walking to my side.

"That was the coolest entrance I have ever seen…" Bo said with a gasp.

"Yep…" Alberto agreed.

"Leave it to that immature gill breather to be dramatic." Alpa'nagia grumbled as he emerged from the branch that housed their portal to his biome.

"Shut it spark worm!" Bone-lasher growled. Alpa'nagia hissed as lightning started sparking off his three horns.

"General Bone-lasher, General Alpa'nagia, we are here to execute our lord's will! Now is not the time for petty squabbles." Empress exclaimed, suddenly appearing from a branch below us. Bone-lasher and Alpa'nagia shared a heated look then both huffed and fixed their gazes towards the Biome of the subject.

Jiggles, Grimm-Guard, Fours, Bellial, and Mzazzi all appeared from their own biomes and floated around the tree all their attention turned towards the subject's biome. I steeled myself for a tough fight and took the first couple steps towards the biome, each subsequent step getting harder and harder as the weight of the subjects madness and fury came pouring out of the biome.

"Chase what the hell did you take into your farm crystal?!!!" Alberto exclaimed, only a few steps behind me with Bo by his side.

"How the hell did you take this into your farm crystal?!" Bo yelled.

"I'm beginning to wonder that myself." I replied and stopped about ten feet away from the biome. "Alpa'nagia, Bellial, Empress, and Mzazzi; you four attack from range and keep the subject's phantoms at bay. Bone-lasher, Jiggles, Grimm-Guard, and Fours with me and help me pin down the core so that Bo and Alberto can come in and start channeling mana."

"What's the signal to come into the biome?" Bo asked.

"You'll hear a loud scream that probably shakes the tree. That'll be the subject getting restrained." I replied.

Bo and Alberto both nodded then took a couple steps back. I looked at all my evos, battle ready and prepared for the tough fight ahead. I could feel my heart beating against my ribcage, despite the calm façade I was portraying I was nervous as hell. I was planning to attempt to alter the warped genetic structure of the first and only tier four evo created using techno-splicing. This was beyond anything I had attempted before, even fixing Bellial's fucked up structure would be a cake-walk in comparison.

'No time for second guessing myself…' I told myself then crouched and started running towards the biome's portal.

"LET'S GO!"

A small portion of the roots that were wrapped around the portal moved out of the way to give me and my evos enough space to fall through. A bright light flashed before my eyes as I found myself falling for a split second then submersible into a thick red sea and getting dragged deeper and deeper into the depths. The sound a heartbeat echoing around me.

Eventually I reached the bottom of the sea and found the mental projection of the Subject: A warped and mangled evo fetus, wrapped in an embryonic sac. It was thrashing wildly at nothing, sending phantom Liger sharks in all directions.

[KILL! SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER!] The subject roared.

<Slaughter this!> Bone-lasher growled then channeled mana into one of his crystal gauntlets and started casting an offensive spell sigil while also chanting. <Zap, burn, blitz to bare, in the name of boss: leave not even ash!>

A second offensive spell sigil formed around the first spell sigil. Flames and lightning shot from his clawed hand and formed into the shape of a dragon the flew around Bone-lasher and settled on his forearm. He fired a fireball from the modified Draco lance at the subject drawing it's attention. Several phantom Liger sharks swam in the path of the fireball causing it to explode into a column of fire underwater that sent sparks of electricity coursing through the red sea and hitting other phantom Liger sharks.

I swam around the explosion and saw Empress sending burning feathers at the subject, Alpa'nagia bombarding the subject with sonic screeches and lightning bolts, and Bellial freezing the water around phantom Liger sharks that were spawning near him to keep the Subject's attention divided.

That didn't work however as the subject's mind was too fractured to hold attention on anything it simply attacked everything that moved. It created thousands of new phantom Liger sharks that swarmed and bit down on anything that they could; including themselves.

<Bone! Alpa! Scorched earth!> I ordered them swam as far away from the subject as I could. Hearing my order all my other evos did the same.

Lighting sparked off both Bone-lasher and Alpa'nagia before they vanished in a bright flash of lightning. Twin bolts arched through the water electrocuting and slashing phantom Liger sharks in two by the dozen in a matter of seconds. The two bolts danced and clashed with each other before coalescing above the subject. Alpa'nagia's crystal horns glowed with a bright blue light as a tornado formed and whirled around his and Bone-lasher's bodies. This sucked up any remaining Phantoms close enough that Bone-lasher could unleash the remaining shots from his Draco lance spell.

<Grimm-Guard! Bind it now!> I ordered.

<Star Boss!> Grimm-Guard yelled as he flew through the water and plunged head first into Alpa'nagia's tornado, wrapping his long body around the embryonic sac of the subject. Fours and Jiggles grabbed me under my arms while flipping and flung me towards the subject.

[SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER! KILL! KILL!] The subject roared as it thrashed and tired to escape Grimm-Guard's hold.

I rocketed through the water, guarding my face as I crashed into the tornado and was buffered by gale force winds that sliced the flesh from my arms. Passing through the wall of wind I felt tremendous pain but that quickly faded as I reached the eye of the storm and passed into a space that wasn't filled with blood red water but air.

<BOSS! > Bone-lasher roared, descending from above writhed in lightning and grabbed me by the waist of my pants before dashing along Grimm-Guard's centipede body and jumping into the air above the Subject's head. <GO! GET HIM BOSS!>

Bone-lasher spun in mid-air and threw me towards the thrashing and panicking subject. The malignant embryos eyes fixing on me as wave of blood, hatred and pain surged from it's sac and knocked Grimm-Guard clean off it.

<SLAUGHTER! SLAUGHTER! SLAAAAAAAUGHTER!>

The same wave crashed into me and sent me flying back into Bone-lasher. The force of the wave so strong it sent us both flying half a mile into the air before we crashed into a wall made of solid golden light.

<I have you! Great One!> Mzazzi exclaimed. She flew into view casting an offensive spell sigil and firing three fireballs down towards the Subject. However fresh waves of red water extinguished them before they could hit.

<A PUP LIKE YOU SHOULD KNOW YOUR PLACE! SPARK WORM! SKULL BRAIN! FROSTY TIPS! UNLEASH HELL!> Bone-lasher ordered with a commanding roar. He quickly grabbed me around my waist and kicked off the gold wall towards the edge of Alpa'nagia's tornado.

I felt waves of pure unadulterated rage flow from three distinct directions. Red lightning streaked through the air from above and struck the ground below, leaving massive craters with each strike. Black crystals emerged from the ground below, creating a sort of dome, deflecting each lightning strike and redirecting them towards the subject. A blistering blizzard blew so suddenly that I nearly flash froze from the suddenness and frigidity of the winds.

Alpa'nagia descended from above, wrapped in red lightning and his eyes glowing blood red with fury. Grimm-Guard emerged from underground, his pincers clanking hard and his own eyes glowing red behind the skull plate of his exoskeleton. Bellial plowed through Alpa'nagia's tornado, the temperature dropping even lower than before as visibility dropped to near zero save the deep red glow in his and the other three evos eyes.

<DON'T ORDER US AROUND! FANGS-FOR-BRAINS!> All three evos roared in response.

Regardless of their words all three responded to his orders and his insulting nicknames. Grimm-Guard created a drill shaped spear in mid-air above the stunned subject. Alpa'nagia concentrated all his lightning into the spiral javelin, making it glow a bright crimson; while Bellial directed his artic winds around the glowing javelin and created jagged, frozen blades that spun on their own.

<SHO'LAJAH STYLE: THREE STAR ART OF RAGE: FUCK YOU BONE-LASHER!> Alpa'nagia, Bellial, and Grimm-Guard all roared in unison as they fired the magic javelin towards the subject.

[SLAUGHTER! SLAAAAAAAUGHTER!] The subject roared as it tried to Deflect the javelin with a torrent of water but the javelin froze the water then shattered it on contact as it soared through the air. It struck side of the subject, tearing open the embryonic sac and sending the fetus falling onto the ground.

<NOW BOSS!> Bone-lasher roared as he spun and threw me again. I flew towards the subject, it's pain and panic filled screams echoing in the air.

[SLAUGHTER! PAIN! SLAUGHTER! SLAAAAAAAUGHTER! DEATH!]

I skidded along the ground, coming to a stop in front of the subject with my hand raises in the air and charged with as much mana as I could physically muster.

<Time to change your vocabulary! The word of the day is: PEACE!> I snapped as I slapped my hand on the head body of the subject.