Ascension Part One : Beginning of the End

[Shae the Bat]

The Prime Universe lays in a state of dire distress. The Demon, the darkness, Syntaru, the Prophet Demon God of Destruction is on the verge of his re-entry into existence. With the gathering of his shattered Soul Gem shards, his power increases. He has planted the seeds of his evil, set in motion the birthing of his queen. The Apostles, Shae, Andre, Shade, and Legion all wait in turn for the next wordfrom their dark Lord.

On the reverse end of the ethereal spectrum, the Goddess and her court of Vanguards set their plans to launch a Holy offensive. Celestius Nova. A tactic calling for relentless force, showing no mercy, and winning at all costs. The last ditch effort by the forces of light to save the Universe from utter destruction. In this the fifth time the Prophet Syntaru has tried to resurrect, all actions are last ditch. It will take everything the Vanguards have to succeed.

"Paladin, leave Stealth.. you have more important matters to attend to, ourcourse is being enacted, call the Vanguards through the Angellical Horn.. we will meet in the Archway.. Warriors of Mobius, I leave you to your own devices." said the Goddess.

She disappeared from sight and left her heroes to their charges. Highup on Mt. Kahkari the last of the Apostles is informed, and just as such is done, Sytnaru summons them into his chamber.

"My Apostles, the time has come for us to gather the final shards.. Shae.. you are going to Mt. Aeres.. Andre you are going to Heavy Canyon.. Legion you are heading to Aegis forest.. Shade.. you are chagred with guarding Tala in the Hot Crateer Zone, and reclaim the Gem from MY temple at thesame time.. once the Gems have been recovered I will call you all to the island and I shall ascend into perfection once more, reigning over this pathetic Universe.." said Syntaru, opening 4 Shadow Holes and dispatching the Apostles through them.

The end of existence is looming like a dark storm, clacking thunder and flashing lightning seen in the surge of Syntaru's power.. the falling rain representing the downfall of light.. this truly has become.. the beginning of the end.

[Lucian]

Having recieved his orders, Paladin dispelled the circle of sealing. Looking one last time in the foxes direction, though the meaning of the stare was unclear, he left and dashed off to the palace. A few moments later, a resounding echo, a mornful tone eclipsed the whole of the Chaos Realm. The Horn of Summoning hadn't been used in a long, long while. Like down from a dogwood tree, spirits from around the Zone floated to the Palace. Formless globes of light, ghostly images, and very solid vanguards all made their way in the forms of their choosing to the creationary station of the Light Side's Ultimate Attack.

At the Archway, Paladin stood with his arms crossed. He didn't know what he role in the upcoming battles would be, having no dominion to forsake in the cause of the light yet, but he knew one thing. There would be blood shed, and lots of it. And if he was familar with anything it was pain.

Meanwhile, Tala bowed to her Master and bid the Shade come hither into the portals draw. Already the attitude of command and authority was worn well on the lemur, and being an obidient slave the living shadow followed her with out question or reservation. Through the twisting bowels of darkness the Queen talked with her subject. "The time of our master is finally neigh! No longer shall those impudent fools stand in the way of the true ruler of this realm and ALL OTHERS!"

Her normally lamp like yellow eyes flickering to infernal life with crimson fires, an effect not lost on the traveling darkness with her. With out a sound, the long lost friend of Syth merely nodded and hefted his blade. He was charged with a mission, and he intended to follow it through, to the letter.

Meanwhile, again. . .

Lucian was pondering the fate of the still missing Dr. Eggman. He had expected some sort of communication attempt by now, and the small radio he had in a back room taken from the land rover wasn't picking up anything except Bloodclaw Army relays. It would seem Ivo had gone to ground in the hiding sense or the dead sense. Either way, the vampire cared not.

With a sigh of an old man finally going to bed after a long day of toil, the insane undead cast off his tattered clothes and laid down in the blackest of graves. A small rhyme followed by a giddy giggle was uttered before the coffin lid snapped shut, sealing it's tired occupant inside.

"I have traveled far and wide.
And still I remain dead inside.
Whilst the dead do not necessarily sleep.
There are remain old pacts to keep.
The thought of dreams and slumber a jest.
As I lay down my head in hopes of rest.
The darkness comes and Oblivion calls.
Wrapped in these midnight cast walls.
Repair the shell, mend the puppet's strings.
Avoiding at last the Day Star's stings.
With out cause for woe or fright.
To rise again, once more, the next night!"

High over head, through many hundred feet of stone, the blazing sun was rising and already heating up the harsh environs of the Shifting Sands Zone. And now that the screaming had finally stopped, Lucian's Court knew peace at last.

[Stealth Greyblade]

Stealth did not look back at the deathhog as he had closed his eyes biting back the pain. when the goddess metioned for the mortals to going back to their devices, stealth went back to his, to keep light and darkness from ripping him into two. He silently cursed the goddess and that chamber for starting all these changes inside him. He allso growled at the thought of the lemur. Oh how he wanted vengence agaisnt her, for the ease of his defeate and for those words she spoke. The ones that gave the doubt in his heart that made his darkness stronger.

Stealth knew in his heart thatthe darkness wouldnt go away this time. Like the light it was permeinating on his body. The marks on his fur were evidence on that. Unlike the others light in his body coudlnt exist without shadow. Stealth just let out a low moan as he felt like needles were filling his belly. THe fox just had to find a way to fix this but how...light and shadow were in him. The chamber taught him to use his light as a weapon. It was then he opend his eyes. A weapon.....mabey he could use the darkness in him as well....it would certainly surprise the boogeymans cronies. So mabey if he quit fighting the powers rushing into him...

Stealth closed his eyes and relaxed letting the powers rush over him. A black feild seemed to cover but was soon mixed with white stripes,the black and white arua swirled around him as the blakc web like trbial fur markings seemed to cover his fur Two crimson eyes stared out among the swirll. Till finaly it faded. Stealth couldnt help but let out a sigh...the pain was gone...yet he felt funny, cold and warm, kindess and anger..the will to defend..the will to destory.. .all flowed though him. For he had light and dark in his soul now. But as he stood up His crimson eyes blazing he knew it in his heart he could control his darker nature. Stealth jst smirked as he looked over his new markings. "New look...same great taste."he said with a chuckle.

Simon said not a word as he walked into the shadow gate. Yet he couldnt hide the look of disgust he felt twords magic so he was relived when he reached his destination in ageis forest. Right next to a deactivated hydra from the battle before. "Thats right....eggmans base is here..the one I tried to attack...This might make things easier on me. hehehe."he said as he kneeled down next to the hydra and took off a panel and began to fure wires back together.

[Tonixion]

Andre Demockstro heeded his temporary master's words without much comment in his mind. He had been so rudely disturbed from returning memories that he had been in shock to find himself standing in front of silhouette of evil that barked instructions. With a steadily-sinking heart, the devil stepped his way through the door to darkness. Before he knew it, he was in what appeared to be a large canyon of rock and gritty sandstone. Syntaru seemed to have an affinity for sending him to the most barren of places, and it might've been by coincidence or to the ironic humor of the Prophet.

The shadow walker peered his way through this canyon, as various de-evolved wildlife scittered this way and that way. Primal animals of times which had been forgotten lived here, unlike the lifeless Baron Plains Isle he had been forced to trudge through. He cursed under his fiery breath, pounding a near-by boulder into a sandpile. There was some feeling that he knew, but every time he was sent to reclaim one of these shards he always knew where it was located. The Prophet never gave him instructions or directions to where the temple was located, he just knew. With a shrug the giant began his cynical march towards either another eternity of damnation, or another lesser evil. Killing had to come eventually, it wasn't that easy. It just wasn't.

Aurora forgive him.

[Luminous]

The blaze of power caused the white echidna to cover his eyes. Never before had he seen...no, he had never seen such power due to his previous blindness, but the feeling...he knew the feeling was greater than he had ever felt. Removing his hands from his eyes, he gazed up Stealth, seeing the mix of darkness and light melding perfectly in the fox' body. Walking up to him, he set a hand on his shoulder, smiling. "Your trail...well, this part is over, I guess. How do you feel, my friend?"

[Lucian]

Hot Crater Zone was easily home to nothing natural. No living creature, save for a few insects, and warm climate loving lizards would ever dwell in the sweltering magma ridden zone for long. The very earth seemed to hold a taint to it, as if Syntaru's touch was felt through out the ages radiating from the defiled temple near the center of the area's total lay out. Admist crags and juts of scarred, broken rock the lemur and shadow consort touched down out of the shadow hole that took them to this light forsaken land.

The sulfuric stench wafted about the air with ease, denying the fresher airs prevelant in the high altitude climates because of the constantly rising heat. The ground felt warm as Tala touched down, her still fleshed paw feeling the naturally heated stone, a touch altogether different from the sun warmed solids she was used to. In rising her gaze, and waiting for a steam vent to clear, the view to the Temple of the Demon was clear.

It was the only temple set in all black stone, the obsidian volcanic rock sticking out as an afront to nature in every way. Simply by standing it was an infection on the world of Mobius, an necessary plague the lemur thought. Her fanatical mind forever ensconced in the doctrine of her dark lord. In gazing at her Master's House in the realm of the flesh she let her eyes focus out of the standard sight and into the eyes of the damned. An orange tone lighting her normally yellow irises, and this change portrayed an entirely different scene for the future Queen of Darkness.

Shadow, bands of it, ribbons of ebony death slithered and coiled about the grim building. Suddenly it became clear why this damned facility remained standing in a once light dominated world. It was protected by her Master, though unattainable to him by the compacts made with his wretched sister. Just thinking of her holiness made Tala skwirm inside, that manipulative matron ruling over the living like some benevolent benifactor only to leave those undeserving to suffer alone, there would be none of that once the true Nightmare King reined again.

But enough introspection, there was a Soul Gem Shard to retrieve. A simple hand motion sent the living shadow gliding across the hot air currents toward the midnight mansion. When it seemed like the scouting effort was about to be sucessfull, Shade was rebuffed by those roiling ribbons of darkness protecting the temple. As if they couldn't sense their Master's servant bent on doing his will, keeping out EVERYONE, not just the lackeys of light. Cursing her own foolishness, the lemur with little trouble, teleported to an outcropping of stone on the same island pillar as the Temple but a healthy distance from the rotating shadows.

"T'would seem that one a member of the Royal Family or an Eternal may enter this Temple unscathed. Stay outside and guard my rear per our Master's Command. I will return with the Soul Gem Shard once I circumvent this cursed place's security."

With a short bow that sent the dark copy of Syth in a poof of shadow, Tala was alone, and she mad her way to the Temple's Entrance unobstructed and unbothered.

[Tsubasa]

Kurenai was twitching, still in the same spot she crumbled in when Syntaru over powered her with his shadows. Even though much time had passed, pain still racked her body, causing her to wish very much that she was dead. Death would have been a relief, compared to what she was going through physically and the way she mentally degraded herself. If only I was stronger… If I worked harder this never would have happened! she repeated like a mantra. If only I hadn’t frozen like that… I could have helped stop him, if only for a little while.

[Psychosis]

Psychosis, momentarily blinded by the flare in Stealth's power, had suddenly caught wind of the cries through space from young Kurenai. He looked to Ci Ci and hung his head.

My sweet.. I have deceived you, and for this I deeply apologize.. perhaps you can forgive me after I explain.. but that will have to wait.. as our friend and ally, Kuri is in dire pain and in need of rescue.. I must go to Mt. Kahkari to save her..

He gave a second bow of his head, a look of humility in his eyes, shamed he had been dishonest with a feline girl such as Ci Ci, that had come to love and trust this hedgehog. Time heals all wounds, and time was something that was running out. With Aurora leaving the mortal coil to their own, Psy was free to act and as such teleported out of the Chaos Realm and back into the mortal world. Before his form completely transported from realm to realm, the solitary words "I love you.." could be heard in only Ci Ci's ears.

Spade, on the other end, was dazed and deeply confused about the events that transpired infront of his eyes. Kuri and Shade disappearing into the dark hole, leaving him alone in the temple, no way back to Mother, weakened, a failure.. he chunked his axe into the wall in anger. Pulling it out again before exiting the temple and returning to his village.

[Tonixion]

The dust had recently begun to dance in the wind of Heavy Canyon, as the cue to an unseen chorus to start when the demonic giant set his first foot down near Temple grounds. This was The Temple of Fate, a fitting name for the one who seeked to lay hands on the gem within itself. There was not much too it from Andre's point of view. Only a few scattered rocks and two hefty sized boulders were strewn about, and he saw it as rather unimportant for such an important name. Another large charcoal foot stepped forward under that ominous cloak of his. The ground suddenly began to shake as if he had stepped on the spine of Mobius to his surprise. Andre's eye almost widened as he saw the various rocks begin to move with a will of their own, and begin to form an enemy of troubling proportions.

It was a stone golem. Demockstro had faced many of these before in his unknown previous life, but there was something disturbing about this one. For one, it was slightly taller than Andre himself. Despite not being comfortable with being overshadowed, this thing exuded holy power. It was a being for the Light. The thing itself was crudely shaped to a humanish form, with hollowed out recesses in a smaller stone for eyes. Gravel-looking rocks formed the powerful fingers, as they did the toes. Not a moment was lost as the thing immediately went on the offensive, swinging a longer-than-expected arm with a wrecking ball fist.

The Reckoner was hefted from the Void and the stone-hard fist crashed into it, pushing Andre a decent distance backward. A sudden crushing force brought the demon to one knee, two large hands pushing The Reckoner and him to the ground in an attempt to smash the object it knew to be tainted by evil to a pulp. There was no doubt that this thing was not going to be an easy fight.

[Lucian]

The lemur having freshly dismissed Shade, made her way idly towards the Temple of the Demon's only entrance. Upon growing close to the fluttering shadow ribbons they coaleced in front of her to bar her way. A ferral growl surprised Tala herself as an irritated backhand sent the flowing darkness strands akimbo. Her own infernal power stronger than the sealing on the temple she strode into the cursed churches halls.

In the main foyer there was a titanic tile portrait. The individual colored rocks all placed with precision and expertise forming a rather unsettling family tree. At the top, stood a mobius circuit, the symbol for infinity and time. An unending route in which energy is neither created or destroyed. Just below that sat three Eternal Icons, one a pair of wings clothed in light, one a pair of horns shouded in darkness, and lastly a gray skull. The lackluster bone being the smallest of the three.

From what could only be Aurora came tiny civilizations that represented the varrious races: hedgehogs, cats, dogs, echidnas, the insects, the bats, and other goodly races. Decendant from Syntaru were: the demons, the monsters, the shadow beasts, the Fallen, and the Damned. And in a small offshoot only two creatures seemed to have left from Death's Will: the deathogs, and the dragons. In passing this most enchanting and bewilidering artwork the lemur barely noticed the strange simmering field she passed through on to the next hall. And when the world reversed so that she found herself falling towards the ceiling she lamented rather angrily, "I've got to learn to pay attention!"

[Spynmaster]

Thunder felt cold and numb, yet he felt himself drifting, falling endlessly. He couldn't understand why or how it happened, but he was pretty sure it happened when he end up on the kill-end by his own weapon, thanks to Legion. He'd been racking his brain for a while. How, with all of his training and determination, could he have been defeated so easily? Maybe Stealth was right. Maybe he was just a whelp...

[Myst the Hedgie]

Myst's shuttle came to a landing in Mobotropolis, the city was quiet, nighttime had fallen on this side of the planet. The Shuttleport wasn't as busy as one would think a major port would be, still, Myst grabbed her things and made her way to the waiting dock, quietly thinking to herself until her transfer shuttle to the Mobian Desert arrived. The weather was miserable and rainy in Mobotropolis, a wind was blowing water in Myst's face. She wiped it off and stared into the clouds.

"In a matter of hours I'll be at that place.. the grounds the scrolls said the Dark Shadow would be born again and where the light would make its final stand.. and I will be there.. and I will bare witness to our final defeat.."

She had become obsessed.. every bone in her body ached to see the darkness destroyed. Not only because she had been made a fool of so easily, not only because the demon tricked her by playing her heart like a lute, but because her instincts told her that the Dark Shadow was behind her mentor's death.. and she demanded justice..

[Stealth Greyblade]

Crimson eyes looked back at the enchida and he flicked the guys hand off his shoulder."Im feelin allright so back off, Im not tin the best of moods after that chamber thing turned me into this freak. I look like a freakin yinyang symbol."he grumped. Yes He had a new look but stealths heart,mind and soul was still his own.

Simon pattedthe mechanical beast as the now working hydra followed him like a lost puppy, obdeiantly following its master."Ahhh it does feel good to have minions under my command instead of just being one...not like Im complaining of course. Now my pet lets find that temple shall we?" he said as he fliped on his scanner. His cybernetic eye glowing as he scanned the area for arcane energies.