Chapter CCXIV: Darkness Unwavering ~Multehx

The interior of the Spectrum was dead quiet. Everyone inside was not in the hallway near the door, so none saw the silhouetted figure enter. He glanced around, eyes narrowed as he surveyed things. Seeing no trace of anyone, he proceeded in. A strange tendril emerging from his shoulder held the limp body of Multehx707 in the clawed hand attached to it. He turned the corner, heading in the direction of the individual rooms and further down the lounge area.

As he continued down the passageway he stopped at an open door. Glancing inside he found the chamber vacant. Further inspection noted that the bed-sheets were matted down in one spot, as if something rather large, like a storage box or something, has been sitting there. By what his senses were telling him, the bodies of Kyanosa and Josh lie on the beds in the connecting room. He lay Multehx on the bed with his third hand after pulling the covers down. Setting the agent on the bed, he pulled the covers back up over 707’s head.

This way, if anything is seen, nothing will be revealed quite yet.

Walking quietly out and closing the door, Havering turned and scrutinized it for a minute. He slowly ran a gloved hand down its front and a demonic symbol glowed upon it in black light before fading into it.

The demon smirked. “Now it will remain shut tight with remarkable force...I think the agent would figure to leave out the window when the time comes.”

The Time Bender chuckled to himself and walked to the engine room. Omega was hard at work on realigning the controls. Pseudo retracted his extended extra arms and crossed his two main ones, leaning on one side of the doorway, smirking. Omega didn’t seem to notice the presence of another besides himself until he heard someone clear their throat behind him. He turned slowly and calmly, a wrench in one hand, a screw driver in the other, but each fell from his hands and clattered to the floor as he set sight on the newcomer. He shook out of fear and was too taken back to reach down to his leg and draw his sword. Havering smiled casually and flexed his arm, looking at it with half interest. “Hmm, I still think purple silk is me, don’t you agree?”

“H-HAVERING?! Y-you’re...ALIVE?!”

Pseudo glanced over and snickered. He deftly turned a cupped palm up, summoning his trademark monogrammed brandy snifter, half full of a red liquor about half way. Putting it to his lips, taking a sip and lowering it he chuckled darkly.

“Quite. I have once again attained my physical embodiment, and my powers are as strong as they were upon the moment of my untimely demise back on Zolott.” Snickering he clenched his free right hand tight. “In fact, I feel room for even more power development now! I must have absorbed some of the agent’s energies as well as my own.”

“Multehx won the fight??”

“He pulled a trick using my abilities that took us all by surprise and allowed an easy victory.”

“But...where is he?”

Pseudo tossed aside a bang of his deep blue hair that was obscuring his vision. “In the third room from the entrance/exit. I sealed the door so no one would find out; he’ll probably vacate by the window.”

A noise from back within the train caused both to look down the hall.

Havering frowned and waved his left hand, snifter vanishing instantly from it. He turned and began heading down the hall, saying back to Omega, “Don’t bother...it’s for me, and it’s a pair I’ve been waiting for.”

-------

Multehx groggily opened his eyes. He recognized the area well. The white alabaster chamber, the dais and on it the white marble throne. Staring out the window to the right of it, a pale-green-skinned Twilighter stared, hands folded behind his back. Multehx was in his Twilighter form as well, minus the damage he had incurred in the fight. He walked over to just across from the being, folding his own arms.

The figure continued staring out the window, then sighed to himself. “It really is a work of art, isn’t it? All this devious scheming for power and conquest?” He turned slowly, facing Multehx. The man looked like a Twilighter of the same face, scar and all, but older with graying hair. He also dressed in fine flowing robes of exotic kinds seen on Caelum’s demon nobles.

Multehx nodded in reply. “Yes, it certainly is, Rhyjulian.”

Rhyjulian shook his head and paced over to the throne. “To think....Pseudo would go this far bad and more and more of the race became subject to this moral decay...demons or not, we’re only becoming more and more like the evil rouges the humans portray us as.”

Multehx nodded again. “I’ve already pondered over that. But what is there to do?”

The other demon sighed again and a determined look crossed his face. “There is only one answer...”

“And that is?”

Rhyjulian turned his head, frowning seriously. “We must bring about the technique I was working on before my death in battle.”

Multehx took a half step back as Rhyjulian spun, his flowing robes billowing for a moment, then settling. “Tell me, Tony, what is the Shadow Blast technique?”

Multehx instantly responded, “The process of honing the dark energy within one’s self into a sphere of energy and releasing it upon some target, in a weak to medium strength shot.”

Rhyjulian nodded and scratched his chin. “Yes, and what is the Shadow Blaste Maximae?”

“The concentration of a dark being to call upon and draw power from the darkness around him/herself, focus such in a spherical blast, and to unleash it upon the enemy. Usually it involves holding the hands like so,” Multehx cupped his hands downward at waist high height, “Concentrating the darkness/shadow energy into a sphere, and releasing it with a slight forward movement of both hands.”

The older demon nodded but looked somewhat hesitant. “Yes, that is what it is, but also what we must work on.”

Multehx blinked. “Wha? Work on?”

“Yes. It’s not quite right yet.”

“What’s wrong about it?”

Cupping his hands at waist height and moving them slightly the other demon replied. “This; the blaste is being released only with its natural momentum and diminishes in power somewhat by the time it reaches the target. Also, some are fast enough to dodge it. By increasing the velocity from which it is launched, that is a thing of the past.”

“But how can its velocity be increased then?”

Rhyjulian nodded as if he expected the question and raised a finger. “Well, simple, I was working on it before as I said, and I have been all the time I’ve been alive in your essence. I feel I finally have it – the Master Shadow Blaste Maximae. Just do what I do.”

Multehx stepped back as Rhyjulian prepared the attack’s demonstration. He started by bending his left arm horizontally and the other vertically behind it, forming a cross of sorts. He closed his claws slightly, holding his cupped hand with the palm facing himself. The wind slowly began to pick up around him and his hair blew lightly in it. The very room almost seemed to grow darker and a black aura seemed to dimply form about him. In his cupped hand, a small orb of pulsing, black energy began to gather and form. As it grew to fit his grasp, he began to draw the hand downward and back.

“Shadooww...”

As the hand stopped drawn back behind him, claws still facing forward, they slowly shook as they tensed and the blackness of the sphere glowed brilliantly.

“Blaaassste...”

His hand slowly raised a minute bit, shaking with the intense power that had built up within it.

“Maxiiim-”

Then, almost instantly, he thrust the withdrawn hand forward, bellowing at the top of his lungs, “-MAE!!!”

A rush of cold air shot out from around his hand and into the room as the sphere rocketed forward, cutting through the air at blinding speeds. It hit the wall, and though it was small, the bricks comprising the wall and a portion of the ceiling either vaporized or exploded violently out and away from the area the shot hit, depending on their proximity to that area. Multehx winced as the flashing black and white light caused by this was near blinding. From what he could make out, black trails of electricity were sparking and leaping about the area where the blaste collided.

Multehx shielded his eyes slightly with a portion of his cloak and Rhyjulian stood tall and unwavering, hair blowing in the aftermath of things until the wind died down and the reaction died away.

Multehx slowly lowered his arm, blinking his eyes in awe. “Extremely supreme...” he muttered to himself.

Rhyjulian shrugged his shoulders and walked back to the throne. “It’s also more energy consuming than the normal Shadow Blaste Maximae, so you’ll need to make up for the lost shadow energy if you wish to be doing any other of the rituals.”

Groaning slightly, the demon let himself down into the immaculate seat, resting his arms on the arm rests as he settled in.

Multehx stepped towards him slightly. “...What shall I do now, Sir?”

Rhyjulian closed his eyes wearily. The attack must have drained a good amount of strength from him, the agent reasoned.

Heaving a relaxed sigh, the older demon replied. “Well, now you shall be returning to the blackness as our time is limited together. It would be time for you to return to your unconscious mind. Can’t exist here in your soul the entire time you know.”

Rhyjulian chuckled and shook his head.

At that particular moment, Multehx began feeling more and more light-headed, growing slightly dizzy as he felt the strength leave him and he fell to his knees, then collapsed, sprawled on the floor. Blackness overtook him again.