Star: He looked up at the giant mechanical Archangel in horror, noticing strange black and red bloody vines wrapped around its once golden armor. Its tone was more demonic. "What is this thing!?"
Radna: "Corvex Protector!" He shouted towards Star, "They are designed to protect unknown entities from grabbing hold of powers they shouldn't have!"
Star: "What is it doing here then!?"
Radna: "From the looks of it, Lucium got to one of his four shards before we could!"
Star: "He corrupted it!?"
Arch-A: It held its black spear up, and a red mist shifted and moved around the handle and tip. Its eyes glared red as it walked towards them, quickly picking up the pace as it pointed its spear toward them.
Radna: He summoned his hooks to his hands, "Get Aiden away from here! This thing isn't going to leave until all of us are dead!"
Star: "I am not going to just leave you here!"
Radna: "Don't worry, I'll try to hold it off for as long as possible!"
Arch-A: "Entity detected: King Radna. Objective: Erase." It suddenly became a blur, its movements kicking up dirt as it appeared beside Radna, swinging its fist at Radna's face. The shockwave of the hit knocked Radna into space, and the crust of the world shook aggressively.
Star: "Radna!" He attempted to fly after him, but his cape was grabbed by the mechanical angel, and slammed back down into the dirt, all of the plant life was eradicated from the area from the shockwave. He shook his head, looking at all of Aiden's hard work fade away, "No..."
Arch-A: It slammed his foot down where Star lay, but his outline turned into dust, "Impossible." He looked over his shoulder right as Star landed a hit on its helmet, its body burrowed through the ground, ripping apart the land until it finally slowed down. It gripped the ground, standing up slowly.
Star: "You are not welcome here machine! Leave before I have you dismantled!" His eyes shot to the dent on its head, noticing that it buffed itself out, "It can heal itself?..."
Arch-A: "Failure: Inevitable. Resistance: Pointless. Death is the only escape for you." It held its hand outwards, a spear suddenly sliced the side of Star's arm as it was called back to the being's hand. "All hail lord Lucium."
Star: He quickly healed his wound, kicking himself forward off the ground, and swinging his fist at the machine.
Arch-A: Blocked the attack with its metal wings, the energy of the impact surged throughout the metal and was reflected in a burst of blood-red power. "Assessment Complete. Strength Status: Mediocre." It flew forward, grabbing ahold of Star's body, and raising him into the air. "Strength Level Increased: 25%. Destruction of Timeline Initiated." Its fist began to glow a bright red, and a massive amount of destruction energy spiked within it.
Star: He squirmed attempting to escape the machine's grasp, but its force was too powerful. He noticed that the machine suddenly just stopped moving, he stared at it confused.
Arch-A: Stared forward, its eyes glared a brighter red than before. "Incoming Force." It raised its charged hand, grabbing onto Radna as he was coming in, its large hand engulfed his head. The energy was burning up Radna's head, the machine looked toward Radna, "Pulsar Charge Engaged." The energy was fired outward in a disc-shaped formation, and ⱦħē ꞡłⱥꞩꞩ ⱳⱥłł ꝋӻ ɍēⱥłīⱦɏ ⱳⱥꞩ ꞩħⱥⱦⱦēɍēđ in a straight line, ꞩꝑłīⱦⱦīꞥꞡ ⱦħē timeline into two. They all rested in a blank white place, in between the two halves.
Star: He sat up, he looked at the two halves, witnessing his world be split into two. "No...", his eyes shot open, darting his sight toward's Radna. "Radna are you alright!?" His eyes trembled as he witnessed that Radna's skull had a huge cracked hole on the right side. "Hang on, I'll try to heal-"
Arch-A: The machine kicked Star in the side, launching him into the broken wall of reality and out onto the half of his planet. "Status of Radna: Incapacitated. Location of Spirit Aiden: Unknown." It walked toward Radna's unconscious body, summoning its spear once more, raising it above him. "Objective: 33.33% Completed." As it thrust the spear down, a blur blitzed by, moving Radna out of the way. "Interference."
Aiden: He placed Radna far away from the machine, "Don't worry Radna, we will keep you safe." He placed a glowing green pouch of fluid on Radna's cracked skull. He stood back up, facing the machine. He pressed a button on his wristwatch, blue sparks traveled throughout his body as nanobots formed a metallic blue suit over his body.
Yellow streaks formed over different portions of his body, symbolizing lightning bolts, a spiked helmet formed over his head, and lightning bolt-shaped yellow eye visors gleamed. Yellow tesla coil-type spikes protruded from his elbow and shoulders. "I will not allow you to harm anyone else!"
Arch-A: "Confidence identified: a mechanism of arrogance." It threw its spear toward Aiden.
Aiden: Blue sparks of lightning built up as he blitzed to the side, grabbing a hold of the spear and using the momentum of his speed to throw it back at the machine.
Arch-A: It grabbed ahold of it, but before it could react, Aiden kicked the spear into the being's chest. Its feet dragged against the glass-like floor of the void from the impact, but it seemed to be unphased.
Aiden: "Yes!" As he was celebrating his landed attack, he noticed the machine's body shifting. "What the-"
Arch-A: The metal vines on its body wrapped around the spear, breaking it off as its body absorbed the sharp end. It held its hand out and a newly formed spear shot out from its palm, it clasped it as it finished forming. "Futile efforts." Its wings flapped, launching it toward Aiden, shattering the void floor beneath the impact.
Aiden: "Ah!" He jolted, quickly blitzing behind the machine before it could grab hold. A bolt of blue lightning formed on his forearm, serving as a wrist blade. He slashed the machine in the back, cutting off its metal wings. But just as quickly as he cut them off, they regenerated. "How are we supposed to hurt this thing!"
Arch-A: Its fist charged up, flying up into the air before slamming its fists down where Aiden stood. It raised its hands, noticing Aiden was no longer there. "Enemy speed is problematic, Speed Level Increased: ∞" Red lightning began to surge around its body, and it suddenly vanished.
Aiden: He slowed his body down, frantically looking around. "Where did it go!", he began to vibrate his body to see if he could spot it, and for a split second he saw a blur in front of him. "What-", before he could react, he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, but nothing was there. His speed began to slow down more and more until he could see he was covered in slashes and stabs. "I didn't...see it...attack." He passed out from the amount of blood he was losing.
Arch-A: It appeared before Aiden, the lightning dissipating slowly. "Threat eliminated, one remains."
Star: He crashed back in nearby, as he stood back up, his eyes widened at the chaos this thing was causing. He saw Radna unconscious and Aiden seriously injured, he stared at the floor, incapable of properly processing everything that was going on.
Arch-A: It peered over its shoulder at Star, gripping onto its spear. It suddenly appeared behind Star, thrusting the spear into his back, but upon contact with him, the spear tip shattered. It did not take time to question it before launching its fist toward the back of Star's head.
Star: He grabbed ahold of the machine's hand, their arms shook from the combating forces. His eyes burned a bright reddish gold, and his hair erupted into a golden flame, energy erupted from his hands and feet as he crushed the machine hand within his palm. "Fueled by the hope of those who have fallen..." He dashed forward, punching the machine in its chest and launching it backward. "...You shall not prevail."
Arch-A: Its body quickly regenerated, its gaze snapping onto Star. "Strength Increased: 50%. Reality Casualty Risk: Irrelevant." It charged toward Star, its fists surged with destructive power, swinging its fist at him.
Star: He swung his own punch in return, their two fists clashing together cracked the white void, revealing darkness behind the white wall. "You have harmed those who I care about, destroyed the place I call home, and continue to try and destroy my reality! I will not allow it!" The spark between their clashed fists flashed a gold and white glow, and suddenly the black crack was gone.
"I will not allow you to do any harm to anybody else, no matter how much I have to fight! Even if it kills me, I would rather die than allow another soul to perish!" The positive energy overwhelmed the machine, launching it back into the other half of the cracked wall of reality.
Arch-A: It sat upright, slamming its fists into the ground, "Assessment Complete: You talk too much." It stretched its metal wings, flapping them to send out wave after wave of sharp metal feathers each sparked with red lightning.
Star: He narrowed his eyes, and sent out a barrage of punches to block the incoming blades. He began to think to himself, "This thing doesn't get tired, it doesn't get distracted, I can't keep fighting it forever, especially if this is just 50% of its power...I have to try to find a way to close it off." Before he could think of his next move, he noticed sparks beginning to build up around the machine's body and then it suddenly disappeared.
He frantically began to look around, but then he remembered his 'canvas' technique. He closed his eyes, and as everything went black he began to witness an infinite number of scenarios play out within his mind of where the machine could attack. He took a deep breath, then felt the machine use its immense speed to attack from all directions at once. With absolute perfection, he dodged the attacks just as they were played out, his body became what appeared to look like a million afterimages.
Arch-A: "As Master Lucium had predicted, you can play things out before they happen. Adaption Complete: Action now possible." He grabbed ahold of Star's chest piece, slamming him into the floor, shattering the ground of the void a bit. Some pieces fell apart, revealing what looked like an unimaginable amount of golden strings, flowing through a blue abyss of creation. "Resistance is useless, you will only cause more death." It reached into the abyss, ripping up a string.
Star: Upon a closer look, he could see that it was made of some kind of stardust, but it was losing its color fast. He could hear the screams of all of those who resided with that timeline strand. The voices called out to someone, and he felt them call out to him, this surge of desperation and hope empowered Star as he found the power to break free from the machine's grasp.
He punched the machine up into the air, grabbing hold of the string before it went up, gently placing it back in its place, and watched as its color was restored. "Thank goodness...Now, where was I." The golden glow within his fists grew too powerful for his gauntlets to contain, they shattered into pieces from the overwhelming positivity.
Arch-A: It spread its wings in the air, and black lightning surged around its body. "I am incapable of feeling emotion, and yet somehow you make me feel great hatred for you Star! This ends HERE AND NOW!" The machine roared as its fists glared with black energy, fueled by the gifted power and hatred as it flew down toward Star.
Star: He roared out as golden energy erupted from his body, clashing his fists with it, both of them sent barrages of punches at each other. "You are right, this does end here, BUT NOT FOR ME!" Positive and Negative energy exploded out in massive shockwaves, shaking not just the void but the ꝋᵾⱦꞩīđē ɍēⱥłīⱦɏ as well. The walls of reality rebuilt and shattered themselves again from the clashing forces, growing closer and farther at the same time.
Arch-A: It grabbed ahold of Star's fists, staring into his eyes as Star tried to fight against its gripping force. "I was made to constantly update and adapt to you and any of your little companions from this world, there is no escaping this ending! Master Lucium has great plans for this world and every other! And as for you and your friends...I WILL HAVE YOUR HEADS ON PIKES. POWER LEVEL INCREASED: 100%!"
The machine somehow became more corrupted with each coming moment, becoming more villainous with every sentence. Just as it tried to crush Star's hands within its grasp, a hook went through its chest, and a chain attached to it pulled it to the ground. "What is the meaning of this?!"
Radna: He stared at the machine, panting as he was still recovering, he uncovered the much smaller crack on his face. Through the crack, a black and purple eye glared at the machine as a sudden burst of energy was sent through the chain into the machine. "RUNE POWER: ɆȾɆꞦꞤȺŁ ɃĪꞤĐĪꞤ₲!"
A large purple runic symbol flashed over the machine's body, and within a split second, the machine dropped to the ground, no longer fighting. He retracted his hook back into his body. He collapsed to his knees, panting from the overloading energy. With what strength he had remaining with his magic, he healed up his crack and Aiden's wounds.
Star: Without a second thought, he grabbed the two of them, leaping out of the void back into reality. Using the remaining power overdrive of positivity, he closed the two ħⱥłꝟēꞩ ꝋӻ ɍēⱥłīⱦɏ, trapping the machine outside. His body turned back to normal, "What...was that? How did you get it to stop?" He leaned down to Aiden, his hands glowing green to speed up his healing.
Radna: He caught his breath before speaking, "It's an old runic spell I learned from before...It ceases the continuation of a being or entity's 'creation lines'. In other words, I stopped it from adapting and growing stronger before it could do more damage..."
Star: He leaned toward Radna, using his magic to regain his lost energy. "I have no idea what half of that means, but I'm glad it worked. I couldn't maintain that form for much longer. Oh! Speaking of which, I think I still have some magic left over; I can use it to repair the damage to our world." He clapped his hands together, and a large burst of golden stardust spiraled out in a spherical shape, restoring the world to its lush state.
Radna: He chuckled weakly, "That's not fair, I was unconscious for most of the fight I didn't get to see this new form."
Star: "No offense, but given the overwhelming power I felt then, I hope you never have to witness it. Such extremes shouldn't be necessary."
Radna: He gently patted Star on the back. "Don't be too hard on yourself. Because of that new transformation, you were able to hold your own against that machine for as long as you did and save not just our lives, but who knows how many others."
Star: He stood up slowly, picking Aiden up. "My main concern right now is making sure Aiden recovers, help me find a comfortable area for him."
Radna: "Aye aye, captain." He stood up, stumbling just a bit but was able to regain his bearings as he walked with Star back to the open field.
As the three heroes began their journey back, a fourth presence was felt nearby—far above the atmosphere and beyond the planet's reach. Indeed, something was watching.
Galacor: "An interesting display of power Star, but it will not be enough to save you from the power of the Phantom Emperor..." He turned toward the Phantom, and then back into the distance. "Allow them to recover from this fight, I will not battle Star in a weakened state, but then we shall have our fight..."
Phantom Emperor: "Yes Master."