Chapter 84 - Final End of Known: Harbinger

“Chaos Assist! Chaos Slam!”

Kievkenalis opened the battle with a boost to Hero Machina followed by an immediate attack on Morcii. He impacted the Nanocreature leader within a second, knocking him toward the back of the cavern where Davídrius appeared and launched him upwards with a bicycle kick. Christeané quickly grabbed a nearby pillar, completely uprooting it and swinging it toward Morcii as if he were swatting a fly out of the air, but the Nanocreature threw the two Sendous Chakrams and obliterated the pillar before disappearing into the debris cloud. Kaoné instantly coalesced the cloud into a small, compact stone, trapping Morcii inside — only for him to easily break out and rocket downward, crashing into Siyuakén with incredible force.

{”YOU INSOLENT FOOLS!”} he roared as he summoned back the Chakrams and began attacking the Electrotechnic with all three Ayas Weapons in his possession, dealing a flurry of blows that she was barely able to keep up with. {”YOU BELIEVE YOU CAN DEFEAT ME? ME—”} He clashed blades with Siyuakén and then smashed his foot into her stomach, sending her flying tens of meters back. {”—A GOD?”}

“The only thing you’re a god of is delusions!” Siyuakén retorted as she blasted him with a lightning strike, stunning him just long enough for Rebehka to summon a massive ice spire around him. Christeané immediately bounded forward, both arms covered by the Matlés Gauntlets as he smashed his fists into the spire and instantly destroyed it, allowing Kaoné to fling Morcii back into the air by rapidly raising the ground beneath his feet. Kevérin quickly intercepted the Nanocreature leader with a cloud of flame, but Morcii simply ignored the attack as he detached his lower pair of arms and transformed them both into laser cannons that opened fire on the Pyrotechnic as the Nanocreature himself zoomed in, bringing down the Arcán Claymore overhead. Kevérin barely managed to block with the Tanivas Staff, deflecting the blade strike but failing to dodge as Morcii lunged forward and dealt him a fierce head-butt followed by a roundhouse kick that sent him flying into the far wall over a kilometer away.

“Chaos Mach Eight Cannon!”

The hypersonic projectile tore through Morcii’s body, ripping his legs and tails away from his torso as Kaoné flung chunks of Chaos Matter at the Nanocreature. He quickly recovered and easily evaded the projectiles as he reunited with his lost limbs — and then merged his legs together into a massive downward-facing laser cannon. He immediately opened fire, sweeping across the platform below and leaving a multi-meter wide path of smoldering Chaos Matter in its path. A lightning strike from below drew his attention just in time for Davídrius to appear over him and dunk him with a fierce kick, creating a crater as the Nanocreature leader impacted the ground nigh-instantly. Christeané and Rebehka both quickly approached the crater, but when the debris cleared, Morcii was gone — only to appear out of the ground underneath Rebehka, smashing his fist into her chin and then grabbing her arm and throwing her at Christeané. The Cryotechnic immediately responded by freezing Morcii’s feet to the ground and trapping his tails in a block of ice, which Kevérin quickly superheated and caused a massive steam explosion. “Chaos Slam!” Kievkenalis shouted, rocketing forward and impacting Morcii with a shockwave, launching him out of the cloud of steam as he followed with “Chaos Targeted Nullify!”

{”NULLIFY MEANS NOTHING TO ME,”} Morcii snarled, detaching his arms and splitting them several times over before transforming all of the pieces into dozens of tiny laser cannons with which he opened fire on Hero Machina. {”IF I WERE A CHAOTIC IT WOULD WORK, BUT I AM BEYOND THAT—”}

He immediately held up two of his tails, catching Davídrius’s incoming foot and hurling the Velocitechnic overhead. The Nanocreature then transformed his other two tails into long blades as he blasted forward, piercing the ground on which Davídrius had landed barely a second earlier. He quickly followed by summoning and throwing both Sendous Chakrams at the Velocitechnic before knocking away Christeané with the Arcán Claymore and turning his laser cannons on Siyuakén. The Electrotechnic quickly slammed her own Claymore into the ground around her, shattering the ground and dislodging several pieces of Chaos Matter that she manipulated with electric fields to rest in front of her just in time to block the initial laser blast. She then massively increased the power behind her electric fields, crystallizing the very ground beneath her feet and deflecting Morcii’s lasers — but failing to deflect the Nanocreature leader himself as he rocketed forwards, piercing the fields with ease and throwing his foot forward in a powerful kick. Siyuakén managed to block the blow with her Claymore but the pure force still launched her backwards. Morcii crouched down, prepared to give chase, but tripped due to the bounds of ice that had appeared over his feet. Kaoné instantly launched him skyward as Kevérin and Kievkenalis followed up with a multitude of flame and Chaos attacks, ceasing only when Rebehka crafted a massive ice-club midair and smacked Morcii toward Christeané’s waiting fists.

“Gotcha now!” the Forcetechnic shouted with a grin as he thrust his fist forward, completely pulverizing Morcii’s chest — only for it to immediately reform around his wrist.

{”NOT QUITE,”} the Nanocreature responded with a malicious smirk as he whirled around, releasing Christeané from his chest and sending him flying toward the ceiling. Davídrius moved to intercept the Nanocreature leader but Morcii launched into the air before he could, slamming into Christeané midair and driving the both of them upwards into the ceiling — and through it.

“He’s getting away!” Kevérin shouted as the entire cavern began to rumble violently, the ceiling around Morcii’s impact point beginning to collapse. “After him!!”

Kaoné paused to create a platform for Kievkenalis, Davídrius, and herself as Kevérin blasted upward, filling the hole Morcii had created with flames just before entering. His vision went black as the tunnel blocked out all light, but within seconds the air above him opened up, revealing the twilit sky and blue surroundings of Elecal’s surface. “…We were this close to the surface?” he muttered to himself just as Christeané tumbled past. The Pyrotechnic immediately returned his attention to the battle just in time to summon the Tanivas Staff and smash it into Morcii’s face the moment the Nanocreature leader passed him, sending him stumbling forward. Christeané was instantly upon the downed Nanocreature, lifting his hands into the air and then smashing them into Morcii’s back and creating a hundred-meter crater — which was immediately inverted as Kaoné blasted her way through.

As soon as her platform was clear, Davídrius and Kievkenalis leaped off, with Davídrius instantly locking onto Morcii’s location and dashing over to him, only to be knocked away as the Nanocreature intercepted him with the Arcán Claymore. Morcii immediately took to the air, narrowly evading another blow from Christeané as he ignored a blast of fire and deflected several incoming Chaos Cannon shots with the back of his hand, each of which went on to smash into and demolish distant mountains and plains. The Nanocreature then detached all of his limbs from his body, separating them into dozens of flechettes and laser cannons that spread out across the sky and began attacking the grounded Chaotics. Within a second of opening fire, a massive ice sheet appeared in the sky, trapping each of the pieces until Morcii broke them out half a second later — but he then failed to react in time as Davídrius leaped up through the shattered ice, summoned the Hastryth Chain Weapon, impaled Morcii, and dragged him down to the ground. The Nanocreature dislodged himself from the weapon before actual impact, summoning enough flechettes and laser cannons back to himself to reform two arms and grab Hastryth’s chain, thereby jerking Davídrius to a stop. He then lunged forward to deck the Velocitechnic across the face, sending him flying nearly a whole kilometer away before spinning around and instantly forming a shield in front of him from the rest of his cannons and flechettes to block a lightning blast followed by a punch from Christeané. The Nanocreature then resisted a call of “Chaos Control,” but the effort tripped him up just long enough for Kaoné to launch him into the air again before creating a block of stone midair and spiking him back to the ground at Kevérin’s feet. Without missing a beat, the Pyrotechnic blasted Morcii with fire and then stabbed him with the Tanivas Staff, rapidly heating the Staff and the air around it until initiating an incredible blast of heat that incinerated everything for several meters around. But the Nanocreature leader emerged unscathed — he immediately grabbed the Staff and ripped it out of Kevérin’s hands and then slammed his fists into the Pyrotechnic’s chest, sending him flying away just in time for Morcii to whip around and block Rebehka as she attempted to slice him open with a blade of ice. Kevérin quickly summoned the Staff back to himself, momentarily robbing Morcii of a weapon until he summoned the Arcán Claymore and blocked Rebehka’s next blow — only for the Cryotechnic’s blade to freeze to Arcán on impact.

{”YOU—!”} Morcii scowled, barely able to react as Rebehka tore Arcán from his grasp and then, with a single motion, summoned the Tsern Spear and impaled him, instantly freezing his entire body to the polearm. A split-second later, Davídrius appeared and smashed his foot into the frozen Nanocreature, completely shattering him and creating a cloud of ice and silvery debris that Siyuakén rapidly charged, triggering a myriad of interior lightning strikes. Kaoné then encased all of the debris in a large stone, but before anyone else could attack, Morcii exploded from the stone and rocketed up to nearly a hundred meters high in the sky. He paused for a moment to glare at the Chaotics and dodge a blast of flame before whipping around and flying off, raising higher into the sky.

“He’s escaping!!” Kevérin shouted, attempting to give chase as Kaoné summoned the Mystryth Bow and began firing arrows at the Nanocreature leader, only for all of them to miss.

“He’s too fast!” she exclaimed, “what— what do we do?!”

“…No… he’s not too fast,” Siyuakén countered, eying the dot that continually grew smaller with distance before bracing herself and rapidly raising the electric current through her body, quickly surpassing the voltage levels of any of her previous attacks.

“Siyuakén?…” Davídrius glanced toward the Electrotechnic warily as the hair on the back of his neck began to rise. “What are you doing?…”

“Everyone, back away,” she replied through clenched teeth as the energy in the air around her began to cause chaotic winds and sparks began leaping from her body. “…This… is going to hurt. But I’ll bring that bastard back. He can’t escape me!”

…I SEE. YOUR CORRUPTION IS THE KEY; IF YOU CAN ONLY—

I know, Arcán, I know! Now help me out here—!

“Cha… os… Charge!”

The electric charge in the surrounding environment suddenly jumped to unprecedented levels, triggering arcs of lightning from Siyuakén to random spots on the ground several meters away as Kievkenalis offered her a quick wave and then teleported away.

Ha… thanks. She smirked, lightning beginning to jump from the air itself to the ground as Siyuakén generated enough energy to cause the stone for meters around to crystallize and liquefy. She summoned the Arcán Claymore — which immediately began to glow and spark — and slowly pointed it at the sky as she closed her eyes. Morcii had long disappeared from eyesight, but she had no need to lay eyes on him. Even attempting to sense his influence on electric fields wasn’t necessary, for Siyuakén possessed one trait that allowed her to always know Morcii’s location: she was corrupted. And as powerful as Morcii was, there existed no way for him to permanently and completely cut himself off from Nanocreature nanites.

There! Siyuakén’s brow furrowed as she located Morcii, several hundred kilometers high and rapidly ascending. Immediately, she directed the Arcán Claymore toward him — and fired an incredible blast of energy, a lightning strike streaking through the sky at thousands of kilometers per second, even piercing the vacuum of space to hit Morcii with an inescapable shock that lit up the entire region as bright as day before fading away to nothing.

And— now!

In the moment that Morcii was struck, Siyuakén seized control of his body and yanked him back, sending him careening through space and atmosphere. He quickly regained control but was unable to slow himself — and was unable to react as the Electrotechnic held up Arcán and cleanly impaled him on the blade. Immediately, Christeané bounded onto the scene, having been launched forward by a kick from Davídrius as he reached forward and grabbed Morcii’s head, tearing the Nanocreature off of Arcán and slamming him into the ground. He then grabbed two of Morcii’s tails and yanked him into the air, twirling him once overhead before releasing him into the distance at hypersonic speeds — which Davídrius easily matched and exceeded, intercepting Morcii and spiking him back to the ground with a fierce kick. The moment the Nanocreature leader hit the ground, a massive spike appeared, impaling him again as Kaoné raised several more spikes around him — followed by Rebehka suddenly flash-freezing the entire area, creating a fifty-meter ice spire that completely swallowed up Morcii — and then exploded in a cloud of steam as Kevérin rapidly superheated the object, destroying everything encased inside due to the sudden pressure and temperature change. Then, without waiting for the steam to clear, Kievkenalis teleported to the center of the cloud and shouted, “CHAOS BLAST!”

In an instant, everything within fifty meters was completely obliterated, creating a smooth crater that Kievkenalis and the remains of Morcii dropped into. The Chaostechnic immediately summoned the Aldrace Glaive and pierced the Nanocreature through his stomach, pinning him to the ground. Morcii attempted to get up, reaching up with his three remaining arms and tugging at the polearm — only for the Tanivas Staff and Tsern Spear to suddenly smash his shoulders, shearing his arms off of his body. Each arm slowly rose into the air… and then fell back to the ground as the rest of Hero Machina converged on the scene.

{”…YOU…”} Morcii groaned, his third arm and his tails dissolving as his body reverted to his normal form, the Sendous and Arcán Ayas appearing in the air over his chest before dropping to the ground and tumbling to the side. “…YOU… DEFEATED… ME…!?”

“We told you it would happen, didn’t we?” Siyuakén countered as she stooped down to pick up the Arcán Ayas. “You lost.”

“NOT… POSSIBLE. I… AM…”

“A god?” Davídrius snorted. “If you’re a god, then what’s that make us?”

“Ha! I’d gladly take the title of ‘god-killer,’” Christeané remarked with a smirk.

“YOU… GLOAT TOO EARLY…” Morcii responded, slowly picking himself up — only to be shocked and slammed back to the ground with a club of ice.

“You stay there.” Siyuakén glared at the Nanocreature leader as Kaoné covered most of his body with steel sheets, effectively trapping him in place.

“THE AYAS PRIOR STATE?” Arcán prompted.

“I know,” the Electrotechnic muttered, and then took a deep breath. “…Prior State: Ayas Arcán!”

The Arcán Ayas turned into a small cloud of light blue particles before translating through the air to Siyuakén’s hip, where it reformed and locked itself into her form, leaving it completely inseparable from her body.

“…YOU CAN’T DO IT,” Morcii snorted as she summoned the Arcán Claymore again. “YOU… USING A LINK DRIVE AGAINST ME… HA. YOU’LL DIE… YOU CAN’T LIVE… WITHOUT… ME.”

“I don’t want to live with you,” Siyuakén countered as she grasped the weapon with both hands and leveled it toward Morcii. “I don’t care what happens to me. As long as I can end you, forever…!”

“HA… AH HA HA, HA HA HA HA HA!” The Nanocreature launched into deranged laughter as the Electrotechnic raised Arcán over her head. “END ME? FOREVER? HA! YOU THINK… THIS IS THE END…? THIS… IS ONLY… THE BEGINNING. AH HA HA…!”

“Your threats are meaningless! This is the end, Morcii. You won’t be missed!” Siyuakén shouted back as Morcii continued to laugh to himself. “Link Drive: Menace Hunter!!”

A bright flash of white light momentarily blinded everyone present as the Arcán Claymore began glowing a brilliant golden color, the golden aura extending nearly two meters past the end of the blade and forming a sharp surface of hard light as Siyuakén brought the weapon down on Morcii, carving a massive hole through the ground and Nanocreature alike. The moment the blade touched Morcii, his eyes went blank — and then his body exploded into a silvery cloud that rapidly lost its sheen, turning into nothing more than dust as the golden light disappeared from Arcán. Silence followed before Kaoné gathered the dust together and coalesced it into a small block that Rebehka quickly encased in ice. When nothing followed, the seven Chaotics of Hero Machina let out a collective sigh of relief.

Morcii… was truly dead!