Sonic and the Reaper/Chapter 13: Mephiles and Iblis

Sonic continued to fall for a long time.
He was beginning to wonder if Mobius was hollow when it came to him that he should probably do something to slow down his fall. The deep hole was too narrow for his wingspan, so he spread out his arms, skidding down the sides of the crevice. His fall started to slow before eventually coming to a dead stop. Sonic sighed. It may be too narrow for his wings, but he was just barely able to grip the sides of the hole. Looking for firmer handholds, he saw two jutting rocks.
Then his current grip crumbled.
Sonic fell again, but this time he hadn't fallen far before he hit a firm surface. It was strange. He felt a strange sense of... power. The surface he stood on seemed rather crystalline. And he could feel another presence. He was wondering if he was trapped in hell before a voice called out to him.
"Who are you, blue hedgehog?"
Sonic spun, spreading his wings in combative pose. The fact that he had the room to stretch his wings shocked him. Where was he, the core of Mobius or something?
The other stepped forward. Its body was crystalline, like the surface they were standing on, but its features were that of a hedgehog. Its primary colour was a deep onyx colour, but it was also streaked with amythest. Its quills, semi-flared like Shadow's, came to triple amythest points. It's arms, fingers, feet, and muzzle were all a sharp amythest. The 'whites' of its eyes were also amythest, and its eyes were a sharp topaz. It had no mouth, but when it spoke its muzzle seemed to ripple like water.
"Well?"
Sonic regained himself. He regained a simple posture, but he kept his wings extended. "My name is Sonic the Hedgehog," Sonic replied. "Who are you?"
The other hedgehog turned away. "I am Mephiles the Dark. Do not take me wrong, I do not intend to harm you. Although darkness is commonly portrayed as synonymous with evil, the two can be different to a great length. Darkness is not always evil, and light does not always fight for good."
Sonic nodded. "Where am I, Mephiles?"
Mephiles turned away and raised his hands. A harsh shine emerged from the amythest over his body, and suddenly, Sonic found himself in a deep area. The crystalline surface he was on was a round, clear crystal orb that had a powerful energy pull from it. Mephiles made it even more shocking when he replied to Sonic's question, "This is the core of Mobius. Why are you here?"
"Why are you here?" Sonic asked. Mephiles gave him a harsh look that clearly said "You go first" and Sonic didn't complain. "I was chasing a hedgehog who calls himself Zyx. He controls darkness, but he's been possessed by some sort of evil darkness creature. Anyways, I was in pursuit of him, and ran into this trap. I tried to save myself from falling, but every time I tried to grip something, it crumbled." He turned to Mephiles. "Your turn. Why are you here?"
If Mephiles had a mouth, his eyes told Sonic he would have been smiling. "For a fact, I am only half of a complete being. The other half is a powerful creature of raw magmic power. Mephiles the Dark, Iblis the Magma. Darkness of Terror, Flames of Disaster. Together, we are Solaris, the inter-dimensional sun god."
Sonic almost screamed. "What? You're Solaris?"
"Part of it," Mephiles replied. "Is it a shock?"
"Well, duh!" Sonic shook his head. "Where's the other half... Iblis?"
"That, I do not know," Mephiles replied. "Nevertheless, I am condemned here, only able to leave should Iblis come as well. Nevertheless, you need to return to the surface soon. Before anything else can happen." A dark energy surrounded Sonic as Mephiles stated, "Stop the one you call Zyx. And show him that darkness is not truly evil."
Suddenly, Sonic found himself on the open plain he was in before he fell. Realizing that he should probably keep in the air to avoid falling into any more traps, he spread his wings and started to take into the air when a voice called, "Hey, Dracon boy!" Sonic turned to see Silver speeding towards him on a motorbike not unlike Shadow's, although his lacked weapon holsters and was silver patterned with cyan rather than black streaked with red. He approached Sonic's side and skidded to a stop. "Where's Shadow?" he asked.
"He should be in there by now," he stated, beckoning to the one standing building in the distance. "Don't bring that with you, though. This place is littered with holes."
Silver laughed. "Hey, psychokinetic, remember?" Clamping his hands on the handlebars, the rings on his hands glowed. The glow flowed throughout the patterns on the bike, where Sonic saw many rings nearly identical to Silver's as the bike coated in white psyckokinetic energy. "I don't suppose Shadow though to make his flow with his Chaos abilities?"
"No," Sonic replied. "Come on, let's go." The two hedgehog shot towards the building, being all the warier of the holes that crumbled into being beneath Silver's wheels. When they reached the entrance to the building, they saw Shadow's bike and skidded to a stop beside it. Sonic gave the bike a once-over, then turned to Silver. "You want any of them?"
Silver shook his head, leaping off his bike. "Not really. The most I'm used to is energy beamers. You?"
Sonic also shook his head. "Firearms do not agree with me and Shadow took the sword." Nevertheless, Sonic brought the rifle in case Shadow should switch weapons. After making sure they were geared up, Sonic stepped forward.
Silver held him back. "You fool. Come on, I may be naive, but even I know not to go trudging into a building like this undefended." He layered Sonic's body with white psyckokinetic energy, then did the same thing with himself. "Now it's a safe bet."
Shadow had made it out of the first floor and through many layers of traps to the twenty seventh floor before he faced his first problem. He was stepping forward to ascend to the next level of the building when he ran into one of the girls. Blaze was waiting for him on the room, made into a jungle, her lavender corrupted into a murky green. Shadow saw her, but was unphased until she lit the jungle-like room ablaze.
The black hedgehog froze, gripping the Red Dragon in the backhand grip he had accustomed to as Blaze formed a magmic rapier. Shadow sighed. "So it's come to this, has it?"
Blaze brought her blade down across her body. She was silent, but that didn't stop Shadow from bringing his blade up into a defensive arc when she dashed for him, then weaved into a flurry of slashes, each of which Blaze parried, as he worked his way around her before dashing onto the next floor. Sonic and Silver chose that moment to arrive on the next floor to see Blaze, holding her Sol Blade in a defensive pose.
Silver stepped forward, but Sonic held him back with one of his wings. However, the rise of his foot off the jungle floor had Blaze spinning, the corrupted green flaring. "So," she stated, "You've come, have you?"
"Did you expect anything else?" Silver hurled back. "Why, Blaze?"
Blaze laughed. "You're naive, Silver. The darkness is actually quite comforting. Fighting it is futile, I have learned. But joining it is enjoyable. Will you accompany me, Silver?" The burning jungle blazed higher as Blaze lit her hands, saying, "Or will you fall in an attempt to fight?"
Silver closed his eyes. A single teardrop fell from his eyes. "I may not be able to kill you," he stated. Then he raised his head and called, "But let me see how well you can do without!" He raised a hand, holding a white gem above his head. "Sol... MAGIC!"
Blaze's eyes widened for a few seconds as time froze. Silver was holding the white Sol Emerald above his head. Dark aura was waving around Blaze. Sonic had stepped back in shock. Then time resumed, and darkness spiralled around Blaze and parted from her, leaving the murky green to fade into a burning lavender as she fell to the ground in sudden fatigue. Weakly, she rose to see the darkness wrapping itself around Silver, flowing into his body as his bright silver became a dark grey.
Sonic jumped back as Silver opened his eyes. He turned to Sonic and tore the rifle from him, then spun and levelled it on Blaze's head. His voice was emotionless as he stated, "Die, pyrokinetic."
Blaze raised a wall of flames, melting the bullet before it reached her, then stepped back in shock. "Silver..."
Silver didn't respond. He levelled the weapon on Blaze's skull again, but before he could pull the trigger, it vanished in a flash of blue. Blaze formed a plate of Sol energy as Silver threw a ring of psychokinetic energy at her. Many a strike faltered against her Sol arts, but many more passed through and struck Blaze. Blaze only defended, never attacking Silver in response.
It dropped his emotionlessness as he shouted, "Fight back, pyrokinetic!" Blaze didn't. She only defended, never fighting. "Fight back, you coward!" Silver shouted again. Still, Blaze refused to, and Silver eventually shattered her Sol Plate and locked her in place with his mind before raising a ring-glowing hand to her neck. "Why the hell don't you fight back?"
Blaze closed her eyes. A teardrop fell from her eyes as she stated, "Why fight?"
The tear burst into flames, knocking both of them back. Sonic rose to the floor and reeled back, keeping his hands on the frames of the door as the teardrop hit the ground and desintegrated it. Sonic, Silver, and Blaze all fell through the floors as the ignited tear fell through the floors until it hit the base level, erupting into magmic energy. Sonic could only watch as it turned into a huge magmic beast, jagged and humanoid but a lizardlike face with three eyes.
Silver cursed, "No! Not the Flames of Disaster!"
Sonic spun in a shock. "Flames of WHAT!"
Blaze raised her hands. The Jeweled Scepter appeared in them, but, surprisingly, she leapt onto the Flames of Disaster. Wielding the Jeweled Scepter like a spear, keeping herself airborne with flames, she twirled the Scepter over her head and jabbed it into the head of the Flames of Disaster. The magmic creature roared, but when Blaze materialized the Sol Emeralds around her one by one, it calmed with each one. Finally, Blaze snatched the white one from Silver with a burst of flame, and the Flames of Disaster seemed to be... obedient.
But that obedience changed sides when Silver snatched the Sol Emeralds from Blaze with his psychokinesis. He gave a violent shout, "Flames of Disaster, heed my call! Eliminate this worthless pyrokinetic! You control the element of fire! Should she attempt to use it against you, null it and eliminate her!"
The Flames roared, but Blaze made no attempt to fight back until a blur of blue passed in front of her and she vanished. The Flames froze, and Silver reeled back in shock, his inverted eyes scanning the room in shock. "What the hell!" he shouted, spinning. What used to be several floors up, Sonic was standing on one of the stairways, Blaze in his arms, wings stretched. He set her down carefully and turned to the flames, wings arcing around him.
"This is bad," he stated. For the first time, fear was in his voice. "This is very, very bad. How are we going to eliminate half of Solaris?"
Blaze raised her head in a shock. "Did you say... Solaris?"
Deep within Mobius, Mephiles raised his head and froze. "After all these years," he stated, "Iblis has appeared."
Silver raised his head to the two of them. "Flames of Disaster," he shouted, "eliminate them!"
Sonic waited until the last second, then grabbed Blaze and leapt off the alcove as a burst of raw magmic power eliminated the side of the building. Blur and pyrokinetic landed and turned to the flames.
"How do we stop it?" Sonic asked.
Blaze turned to the gems that were floating around Silver. "Get me the Sol Emeralds," she stated. Sonic wasted no time in vanishing with pure speed, away from a burst of flames. Silver was about to shout a command when the sound of wind materialized behind him.
"I'll take those," Sonic stated, all buisiness. The Sol Emeralds vanished and reappeared around Blaze as she closed her eyes and gripped the red and blue ones Silver saw what was coming and vanished, reappearing at Blaze's side. Yet no sooner had he materialized than Sonic had kicked him out of the way, locking him back as Blaze called an incantation.
"Eternal Sun! The living flam that tears apart stars with your heat! Fall back into your burning slumber, Flames of Disaster!"
The Flames closed its three eyes as it melted into an orb of magmic energy. The Jeweled Scepter fell and embedded in the ground as the Flames swirled around the Sol Emeralds in Blaze's hands, then flowed into her soul. She closed her eyes, then spun towards Silver. The darkness had faded from him, and he was watching her with shock.
Finally, Sonic broke the silence. "Hey, mind if I say adios? I've got to go save the other Draconian." He unfolded his wings and shot into the sky, but not before he turned to the other two and stated, "Good luck with Iblis."
Silver turned to Blaze. "What..."
Blaze turned away. "Apparently, there are many similarities between our dimensions. One of them is the legend of Solaris. Evidently, I hold half of it.
"I hold Iblis."Category:Sub-pages