Part 4
I land in Faucheuse Plaza, finding it in flames.
The enormous Christmas that was the centerpiece of the seasonal decorations has been burned down to cinders, a massive black mark scorched onto the hard ground, the Plaza wrecked.
Everyone who was in the Plaza has cleared out, I think. I don’t see any bits of charred bodies, and I don’t sense anyone else in the Plaza. This was just to get my attention.
But I saw the cops surrounding the perimeter as I arrived, and when they saw me, they looked pretty relieved.
Pax was right about one thing: this shit is above their pay grade.
And standing where the tree was, I can see the one responsible for this horrific scene.
No, not the Grinch.
I wish it was just the Grinch.
It’s Professor fucking Pumyz, Vulcanus the Incinerator, in his demonic, Octavo-powered shell.
He smiles at me when he sees me land.
“We meet again, just as I promised. Looks like you’re getting COAL for Christmas, Calvin. You didn’t forget about me, did you? I was starting to think that you wouldn’t make an appearance.”
I smirk at him.
“I was occupied by other shit, but no, I didn’t forget about you. You know what I was doing earlier, don’t you? I bet Dehak and his buddies were watching earlier.”
“So where are the rest of your motley crew of self-proclaimed heroes? Where’s your walking oxymoron of a shitrat and the ginger twins? I thought you wouldn’t DARE to face me ALONE. You didn’t do so LAST time.”
“Last time, the circumstances were completely different. You had the power of a Stone of Octavo, and I was far less powerful than I am now.”
SHWEEEE
Clenching my fists, I power up to Luminary Form, my hair turning white and billowy, my eyes glowing bright blue, my body wreathed in a shining white aura, the black of my battle suit turning white, the red, green and yellow lines becoming just red and green.
That last one is just to fit in with the season. I did this last year too, when I busted some bank robbers who broke the understanding.
That understanding being that criminals don’t piss me off by forcing the ChaotiX to fight crime on Christmas Day.
“To begin with, I didn’t have this. And I can take it higher if I have to.”
Pumyz chuckles.
“Ah yes, the powers of light granted to you by the Light of Peace. Once again, you were granted the gift of power and couldn’t muster the decency to be GRATEFUL. Did you know that Pax was waiting for me to die before he introduced himself to you? He feared what I’d do if he tried to poach my hero from me while I was still alive. And even in death, I deserve that fear.”
“I know you’ve still got a little bit of Octavo power in that shell you’re occupying, but it’s nowhere near the power you used to command. Think you said that yourself in Atlantic City yesterday.”
“Oh? So will you go running to the Intergalactic Patrol, begging to borrow the Stones in their custody so you can put me down again?”
No.
For two reasons.
One: because either Pax or Pumyz is banking me on doing that, so bringing those four Stones out into the open wouldn’t be a good idea.
I think we can assume by now that Dehak knows about the Stones. If Lipou didn’t tell him, Pumyz did.
And two: because I don’t need any Stones to beat this asshole again.
I mean, he pretty much told me what I need to do to beat him.
Yeah, he didn’t make that mistake back in Vegas. Maybe he didn’t realize what he was doing in Atlantic City.
Or perhaps becoming a demon did a number on his rationality. We have seen that many times before.
I still don’t get what those rebels in Hell gain from sending our dead villains back to Earth as demons.
And this time, said villain was legally summoned, so there won’t be another angel joining those operating on Earth, right?
Yes, that’s all in the Pacts by which both Heaven and Hell abide.
Okay, but the point is that I know how to beat him.
But if he sees it coming, if I tip my hand too early, he won’t give me a chance to do it.
I need to be cautious about this, stall him a little.
Pumyz smiles at me again, the same smug smile that Pax does so often.
“Or would you like to make another wager with me? That’s a rhetorical question, and here are my terms: you have ten minutes to defeat me. If I’m still Up Here by then, I’ll burn all of Cetteville to the ground. Well? What are you waiting for, a grace period? Not THIS time. Go.”
Okay, now we’re on a narrow time limit.
Fuck it. Caution to the wind!
“Pumyz… you made a big mistake when you told me about your past yesterday… ‘cause now, I know what your weakness is!”
FWEESH
I wreathe myself in freezing blue flames, mingling with my radiant aura of light.
He gasps at the sight of my blue flames, the ground freezing beneath my feet as I approach him.
“The Crackling!”
He immediately unfurls his gargoyle-like wings and takes flight out of the Plaza.
“Nope! Not going to happen!”
But I’m not deterred, so I fly after him.
“This is happening! Let’s see how you like being hunted down!”
Back at the School, Jack works on Victor’s portal gun with the tools he happened to have on him in his lab coat pockets, sitting cross-legged on the grass.
When he’s done, Jack closes the portal gun up.
“Okay, if my calculations are correct, my modifications to this portal gun should allow us to bypass the barrier. The catch is, we’ll only be able to send one person through the portal before Pax notices and closes the loophole. So who do we send?”
Pierre kneels down next to Jack.
“The real question is who do we need, and what do we need them to do?”
“Someone who can help Cal deal with whatever is happening at the Plaza, obviously. The sooner he wins, the sooner we’re all free.”
Jeff looks at Jack.
“You have time powers, right? Can’t you just, I dunno, rewind time and tell everyone to move before the dome goes up?”
Jack shakes his head.
“That wouldn’t accomplish much, Jeff. Pax would just put the dome over our new position, unless we scatter, and frankly, I’m not sure that Pax isn’t waiting to clock-block me just to prove that he can.”
Marley waddles up to Jack, looking impatient.
“Wook, jus send Mawwey owt dewe! We aww knu hu daddeh am deaw-win wif, an Mawwey awweady hewped daddeh kiww Vuw-cah-nus wun time.”
Miles nods.
“By the same logic, me and Quin should go, or at least one of us. Hold on: Quin, do you have your Band of Merging on you? I just thought of another loophole.”
Future Quin checks his bag of holding, black like his father’s. He got that after the World Tour.
“Damnit, I left it at home.”
“Merv, do you have any spare Bands on you?”
Mervin checks his own bag of holding, black and white like his robe. Any mage worth their salt has a bag of holding.
“I seem to have made the same mistake as Future Quin, and left them in my tower. Oh, Ebony and Ivory are going to be worried sick. But I’ve got Shaun watching them.”
Miles throws his hands up.
“Are you seriously telling me that we don’t have any bloody Bands of Merging on School property?!? We need to do something about that.”
Shadow shrugs.
“There MIGHT be some in the School, but with the School’s current condition, it’ll take too long to find them, and any time we waste searching is time we’re not sending someone to help Cal. Right now, every second counts.”
Pierre chuckles, but his heart isn’t in it right now.
“I’m afraid that we’ll have to send one person out there. Which brings us back to our original question.”
Jeff raises a hand.
“I’ll do it.”
Everyone’s eyes are immediately on Jeff, all of them baffled into silence.
Even Electra is baffled.
“Jeff, am yu cway-zee?!? Yu am gunna die owt dewe!”
Jeff manages a grin, despite internally screaming at the choice he just made.
“Maybe, but the thing is, I never met that Vulcanus guy, not when he was alive. Even if he knows who I am, he doesn’t know that I joined the ChaotiX. I joined long after he died and went to Hell, after all. So he won’t know what to expect from me, will he?”
He points at the five Klyntar hosts.
“Send one of those guys, he’ll burn them up on the spot. Send anyone with ice or water powers, he’ll burn them too.”
Venom looks up at Jeff, suddenly seeing him in a new light.
“How du yu knu dat he nu wiww buwn YU?”
Jeff shrugs.
“I don’t. But I’m sick of standing on the sidelines every time there’s a crisis. If I’m a ChaotiX member, I should act like one. And that involves doing stupid suicidal shit like this.”
Mark nods in agreement.
“See, I completely get where you’re coming from right now. You’ve come a long way since the day we bathed Electra at the Foundation, Jeff. Respect.”
“Thanks, Mark. Could’ve told me that Rosa has a sister, though…”
“What was that last part? Didn’t quite catch that.”
“Ah, never mind. So if we’re all done wasting time arguing about who has to jump on the big burning grenade, can you guys just let me do this? Like I said, that asshole won’t see it coming. And hey, I’m the most expendable person here. No, don’t even try to say that’s not true, because it is, I’m man enough to admit it.”
Pierre stands up straight, dusting grass off his knees with his silver hands.
“You have overlooked something, Jeff: Vulcanus, or rather, Pumyz is in league with Dehak now, and the latter certainly knows about you. So it is very likely that Pumyz knows about you too.”
Jeff tries to imitate Calvin’s iconic audacious smirk, but he doesn’t quite nail it.
“Either way, neither of ‘em are expecting me to show up, are they? That barrier probably blocks Dehak’s scrying, doesn’t it?”
Deston shrugs.
“I’d be surprised if it didn’t.”
“Great, so let’s work out a game plan! Doctors, do you think we can salvage some usable gear from the School?”
Pierre turns towards the wrecked main building, his glowing blue eyes flickering.
“Yes, I do think so… and if I’m not mistaken, there are a few cans of fireproofing spray that survived intact, that will be necessary too.”
Pounding a fist into a palm, Jeff tries to give his fellow ChaotiX members his best determined look.
“Then let’s get to work.”
Right now, he’s trying not to soil his pants, and he’s not man enough to admit that.
Toxin rolling their eyes goes unnoticed as the ChaotiX starts searching their trashed house of education.
“Sins wen am DIS gai in chawge?”
I fly over the streets of the city, chasing Pumyz away from the innocent bystanders.
FWEESH
He’s flying like a madman, swerving to dodge the blasts of cold blue fire I send his way.
“Seven minutes left, Calvin! Seven minutes until your precious city burns!”
“Bitch, just try it!”
If he does, I’ll call in a rainstorm, courtesy of Mallow.
I don’t think this asshole’s flames burn as hot as they did when he had the Stone.
FWEESH
My next blast tags one of his wings, freezing it solid and sending him spiraling to the ground.
Unfortunately, we’re still above Cetteville, so he’s falling directly towards Calvin Korkea Street, currently hosting the annual Christmas market.
But everyone sees him falling, and most of them have gotten out of the way, except one little boy wearing a ChaotiX T-shirt who has frozen like a deer in the headlights as Pumyz falls directly towards him.
My eyes widen when I realize what’s about to happen.
“Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap!”
I move without thinking, my body glowing silver as I fly down to the street as fast as I can, just barely managing to beat Pumyz there and throwing the boy out of the way…
thwip thwip
boing
…and just as narrowly creating a web trampoline between two streetlights for the kid to land in, courtesy of Reilly.
CRASH
Seconds later, Pumyz lands right on top of me, and everything goes dark.
I come to face down in a crater, back in base form, heavily wounded, my battle suit damaged.
And as I get to my feet, stumbling out of the crater, I see Pumyz smiling at me.
“No more freezing fire, Calvin? Good. You were out for two minutes, so there’s only five left on the clock now. I don’t know why you even bothered to get back up, you don’t have enough time left.”
The innocent bystanders are giving him a wide berth, but they’re not running away.
Why aren’t they running away?!?
It isn’t obvious? Because YOU’RE here. They KNOW that you won’t let them die.
Despite Pax’s schemes to destroy your reputation, they still have faith in you, Cal.
They still see you for what you TRULY are: a HERO!
Not just A hero: THEIR hero! Cetteville’s hero! Earth’s hero! The universe’s hero! The hero who will fight to the last for EVERYONE who calls this beautiful universe home!
ARE YOU GOING TO LET THEM DOWN, CALVIN KORKEA?!?
Fuck. No.
I glare at Pumyz, trying to make my eyes glow red, but they’re just flickering.
“As long as I… still draw breath… you won’t hurt anyone else. Not them. Me. If you want to hurt someone… then hurt me.”
I charge at him, fists clenched.
WHAM
He punches me into the ground, his body glowing orange for a second.
“That’s fine by ME. I’ve got five minutes to spare.”
I try to get up again, but that last blow took a lot out of me. He must have put every bit of Octavo power he has into it.
WHAM
Pumyz stomps me into the ground.
“But it looks like you won’t even LAST that long. So let’s just put an END to this.”
He raises his fist up, preparing to strike the killing blow.
“Goodbye, Calvin Korkea. When you are gone, your team will follow, and then your city, and then this ENTIRE GODDAMN PLANET. You should have just served as my herald, but it’s FAR too late for that now.”
I close my eyes, waiting for the end, hearing the bystanders murmuring, tears trickling from my closed eyes.
I’m sorry, everyone. I’m sorry I couldn’t win this time.
I’m sorry for failing my teammates. When that barrier falls and they find out what happened…
Well, there’ll be no Christmas cheer in Cetteville this year.
To say the least.
Here I come, Mom and Dad.
I’m coming home.
“MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS, BOY!!!!! I GIVE YOU DEATH!!!!!”
WH--
I hear the rushing wind as Pumyz swings his fist down like a hammer, and I brace myself for the impact.
--UD
But the killing blow doesn’t arrive when I expect it.
“WHAAAAAAAAAAT?!?”
I open my eyes to see why I’m not dead yet.
What I find comes as a surprise.
Someone moved in at the last second to intercept Pumyz’s killing blow, and is still straining to push his massive fist up with both hands, the crowd cheering at this last-second rescue.
It’s the identity of my savior that surprises me:
Jeff fucking Robinson, wearing his training suit, Power Gloves, Pegasus Boots, and with one of Ghurt’s tennebium laser guns holstered on his hip. I detect a whiff of Pierre’s fireproofing spray on him too.
Of all the team members to save us, it was HIM?!? Jesus! You think you KNOW a guy! Honestly, I was expecting Chaos!
Looks like you’ve been a good influence on him, Cal.
But how did he get past the barrier?!?
Pumyz is just as surprised as I am.
“You? YOU?!? What the hell are YOU doing in Cetteville, Jeff Robinson?!? Aren’t you supposed to be killing shitrats in Detroit?!?”
Jeff laughs gleefully.
“Didn’t Dehak give you the memo? I put my dark past behind me! I’m a ChaotiX member now! And today, I finally earn that privilege!”
He looks back at me, still holding Pumyz’ fist up.
“This is me paying you back for yesterday, Cal! Get one of those beans, ‘cause I can’t do this all day--”
WHAM
Pumyz backhands Jeff away, and unlike that kid, Jeff doesn’t get a soft landing.
WHUMP
When he crashes into one of the market stalls and slides off to land face down on the ground, he’s badly burned and bleeding profusely, but he miraculously survived the blow, albeit barely conscious, holding up a shaking finger.
“Come to think of it… I could use one of those beans too…”
I’ve already used the opening he bought me to get to my feet and eat a Hermit Bean, so I throw another one to Jeff, the bean bouncing off his face before he can catch it.
“Thanks…”
I smile warmly at him.
“You’re welcome. Eat that bean and step back. Pumyz is mine.”
Then I turn back to Pumyz, my eyes burning red as I pull my hair tie out and toss it aside.
“You want to end this, big guy? I completely agree.”
FWEESH
I ignite with blue flames once more, back at full strength, clenching my fists.
“No more. No more! THIS ENDS HERE AND NOOOOW!!! I WILL NOT LET YOU DESTROY MY WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORLD!!!!!!!!!!”
SHWEEEE
And I power up all the way to Luminary Form Level Two, the crowd gasping in awe as everything shakes.
I can see Jeff, having gotten up after eating that bean, and he’s staring blankly at me, his mouth hanging open, clearly in as much awe as everyone else.
And judging by the look of that kid stuck in the web like a fly, he’s a bigger fan of the ChaotiX than ever.
WHAM
Before Pumyz can react, I’ve already uppercutted his jaw, sending him flying up into the sky.
WHAM
I follow him up, sending him even higher with a two-legged kick to the gut.
WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM
And I don’t let up, beating him higher and higher into the sky.
WHAM
At the School, everyone stuck inside the barrier can see Calvin beating Pumyz up into the sky.
So now, their theory about who attacked Faucheuse Plaza has been confirmed.
And they know who Jeff bravely left the barrier to help Calvin fight.
The ChaotiX have never respected Jeff Robinson so much before today, and they’re hoping he’s not currently a black mark on the ground.
Judy shouts up, hoping that her husband can hear her.
“YOU CAN DO THIS, CAL!!! FINISH HIM OFF!!!”
Other team members start following her lead, shouting encouragement up to their leader.
“MAWWEY BEE-WEEV IN YU, DADDEH!!!”
“PICCOWO TUU!!!”
“AN SNOWBAWW!!!”
“AN FWOST!!!”
“AN MAWWOH!!!”
“THERE’S BARON BLOOD RUNNIN’ THROUGH YOUR VEINS, OUR CAL!!! AN’ US BARONS DON’T FECKIN’ GIVE UP!!!”
“I’S CAN’T BE ‘AVIN’ WITH IT IF’N YOU’SE SURRENDER!!!”
“NIGGA, YOU GOT THIS IN THE BAG!!! YOU A STONE-COLD OG!!! ICE-COLD, EVEN!!!”
“SO BLOW HIM AWAY LIKE THE NORTH WIND, CAL!!! ROCK HIM LIKE A FUCKING BLIZZARD!!!”
“YOU’VE BEATEN PLENTY OF DEMONS BEFORE!!!”
“TWY TU WEAVE SUM FOW SWAYEW!!!”
“HIS TIME HAS RUN OUT!!! IT RAN OUT IN NEVADA!!! SEND HIM THE SAME WAY I SENT ADAM!!!”
“THE TRINITY OF TERRA STANDS BEHIND YOU, CAL!!!”
“WE ALWAYS HAVE!!!”
“AND WE ALWAYS WILL!!!”
“SCAWFACE KNU YU GUT WUT IT TAKE TU WIN!!!”
“GO!!! FIGHT!!! BE STRONG, CAL!!! EIRA KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS!!!”
“KICK HIS ASS BACK TO THE STONE AGE!!!”
“WE AREN’T THE ULTIMATE LIFEFORM, CAL!!! YOU ARE!!! BECAUSE YOU CAN SURVIVE ANYTHING THE UNIVERSE THROWS AT YOU!!!”
“YOU’RE NOT JUST SAVING THE WORLD…”
“YOU’RE SAVING CHRISTMAS TOO!!!”
“EVEN THOUGH I STILL DON’T REALLY GET THIS WHOLE KRIST-MESS THING!!!”
“YOU GOT ME AND IKU TO GET ALONG, CAL!!! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS?!? IT MEANS YOU CAN DO ANYTHING!!!”
“YOU EVEN GOT MY PEOPLE TO END THEIR GENOCIDAL CRUSADES!!! INYAKO IS RIGHT ABOUT YOU!!!”
“THE KELMU FORCE STANDS IN SUPPORT OF YOU!!! AS CAPTAIN, I KNOW MY MEN AGREE WITH ME!!!”
“SO DON’T GET YOURSELF KILLED!!! YOU GAVE ME ENOUGH OF A SCARE ON NEW TENNEB!!!”
“RIP ‘IS SHOCKIN’ TEETH OUT AND MAKE A NECKLACE, MATE!!!”
“CRIVENS!!! IF IT WERE NAE FOR YON BARRIER, I’D BE OOT THAR TA GIE THA SCUNNER A KICKIN’ FOR ME CLAN!!!”
“PUMYZ AIN’T ONE O’ US NO MORE!!! DER GROOPHAR BASTARD MUST PAY!!!”
“YEAH!!! YER DER ONLY ONE WHO CAN KILL ‘IM, CAL!!!”
“KOBUL AND BURIK ARE RIGHT!!! REMEMBER THE SECRET TO SURVIVAL!!!”
“YU AN WE AM BOF WEE-FAW PWO-TEK-TOWS!!! WE HAF BOF WOWN DA MAN-TUW OF VENOM!!! SO DU WUT VENOM WUD DU: WEE-FAW-WEE PWO-TEK DIS WOWWD!!!”
“YU AM DA BESTEST HOOMIN!!! WIVE UP TO DAT TAI-TUW!!!”
“THIS IS A ROYAL DECREE FROM THE PRINCE OF ALL SAINGANS: YOU WILL DEFEAT HIM, AND YOU WILL COME BACK TO US!!! TRESPASS INTO THE DOMAIN OF THE GODS, AND USE THAT MIGHT TO CONQUER PUMYZ!!! DO NOT DISAPPOINT US!!!”
“THAT’S A DECREE FROM DRAKUS REBORN, TOO!!!”
“AND THE PRINCESS OF DRAKONIA!!!”
“AND THE EMPRESS OF URSHUUL!!!”
“KILL HIM FOR GOOROO!!! FOR THE MAN WHO SACRIFICED EVERYTHING TO END THE INCINERATOR!!!”
“AND WHO RAISED US WHEN OUR FATHER WOULDN’T!!!”
“GIVE HIM HELL, LITTLE BRO!!! MAKE HIM SUFFER FOR WHAT HE DID TO ME IN DEATH VALLEY!!!”
“AN PWEASE, PWEASE NU WET JEFF DIE!!!”
Amitsu pumps all four fists into the air, everyone following his lead too.
“QUENCH THE UNQUENCHABLE FLAME ONCE MORE, CAL!!! IN THE NAME OF THE PEOPLE OF ARKAY!!!”
Tommy, Leo and the other hippies pull lighters out of their pockets, lighting them and holding them up like they’re just at a concert.
“YOUR FIRE BURNS HOTTER THAN HIS, MAN!!!”
“BUT YOU’RE COOLER THAN HE’LL EVER BE!!!”
Even Duwen can’t stop himself from going along with everyone else.
“LOSING IS NOT AN OPTION, CAL!!! NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO FALTER!!!”
He catches Merlom grinning at him.
“What?”
“You just called him Cal. That’s what his friends call him.”
Duwen blushes as he replies in a defensive tone.
“I just-- just got caught up in the heat of the moment, is all! If he dies today, I can’t have my rematch with him, now can I?”
Merlom smiles a smug, narrow-eyed, knowing smile, and Tennebites are among those beings to whom smiling smugly comes naturally.
“Suuuuuuuuuure. Whatever you say, Brother.”
“Please don’t tell Scha about this. He’ll never let me hear the end of it.”
On Calvin Korkea Street, Jeff and the innocent bystanders watch Calvin and Pumyz’ ascent too.
Some of them can be heard chanting in support, just like Calvin and Jeff’s teammates at the School.
“CAL’S OUR PAL!!! CAL’S OUR PAL!!! CAL’S OUR PAL!!!”
There are, of course, fluffies in the crowd as well, chanting along with the humanoids.
“MISTAH CAW AM OUW PAW!!!”
Yes, the voices in Calvin’s head were right.
He’s still a hero in everyone’s eyes, and saving that little boy at his own expense proved it.
Even now, he’s fighting for all of them. Their faith in their city’s greatest champion is absolute.
He brings hope to the good, and fear to the wicked.
Jeff doesn’t know what to do, so he settles for saluting up at Calvin.
“Cal… I hope you make it back down here. There’s a lot I didn’t get to say to you.”
He’s taken his Power Gloves off, shoving them into a pouch of his training suit.
The little boy Calvin saved earlier has been freed from his spiderweb, and he looks up at Jeff, not really recognizing him, but recognizing the logo on his chest.
“Are you one of Mr. Cal’s friends?”
Jeff bites his tongue, not wanting to hurt the kid’s feelings with one of his usual snarky comments and catching himself just in time.
He hesitates as he tries to word his reply more gently. He tends to feel a bit uncomfortable around children.
“I… guess you can say that by now, yeah. Just call me Jeff. You’d probably recognize me if I had my sweater on.”
The kid didn’t really pay attention to that last part, and is looking up at the sky.
Calvin and Pumyz can’t be seen anymore. They’re too high up for a normal human’s eyes.
“I hope he comes back too. He’s the only one who can stop that mean Pax guy. I saw Pax on the TV earlier. He was scary.”
“He scares me too, kid.”
“Mr. Jeff?”
“Yeah?”
The boy hugs Jeff, his mother awwing at the sight, along with the rest of the crowd.
“Thank you for saving Mr. Cal from that rock monster. You’re a good guy, like him.”
Jeff blushes, genuinely touched by the boy’s gratitude, awkwardly ruffling the boy’s hair.
“…You’re welcome. But I’ve done all I can do for Cal.”
He looks up to the sky, like the boy did.
“The rest is up to you, my… my friend.”
WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM
I keep beating Pumyz up as we rise up, the air getting almost as cold as my flames.
WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM WHAM
If we go too high, there won’t be any air for me to breathe, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t need to breathe anymore.
Unless the dumbass has forgotten about that.
WHAM
Once we’re high enough, I punch Pumyz away, and then I put my hands together at my side, charging a blast of icy blue energy, courtesy of Olaf.
“It’s been ten minutes! But I don’t care! Because you’ll still lose!”
This is called cryo-energy, Olaf and Zamorozit developed that power after the Cunning Man’s attack.
“But let’s dial it up a notch to be sure! GEMINI BURST!!!”
FWOOSH
The red and blue aura of Gemini Burst joins the blue flames and radiant aura, and my blast grows bigger.
“AND TO BE EXTRA SURE…”
My energy blast starts sparkling, as I pump it up further by adding the power of the Stardust Breaker. At my current level of power, using that by myself is child’s play.
Pumyz tries to fly out of the way, but his body is covered in cracks and patches of frozen rock everywhere I hit him, and his wing’s still frozen, so he’s not very fast anymore.
“No, wait! I still haven’t told you what you actually are! Kill me again, and you’ll REALLY never know--”
“I ALREADY KNOW WHAT I FUCKING AM!!! SIR CALVIN KORKEA!!! THE EIGHTH CHILD OF QUINTON AND ELLEN KORKEA!!! THE PROTÉGÉ OF THE TRINITY OF TERRA!!! THE LEADER OF THE CHAOTIX!!! THE NEMESIS OF FATE!!! THE HARBINGER OF CHAOS!!! THE STRONGEST MAN ALIVE!!! THE LAST, BEST HOPE OF THE UNIVERSE!!! AND SO MUCH MORE!!! I DON’T NEED YOU TO TELL ME WHAT I AM!!!!!”
pop
After teleporting up close to him, I thrust my hands forwards.
“MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS, PUMYZ!!! I GIVE YOU OBLIVION!!!!!”
VA-VOOM
And I unleash a massive blast of cryo-energy, hitting Pumyz at point-blank range.
He screams as the blast engulfs him, freezing him solid and breaking him apart, just like the Crackling he feared so much that he became a monster to stop it.
“NO!!! NO!!!! NO!!!!! NOT LIKE THIS!!!!!NOT LIKE THIS!!!!!”
His body glows orange, but his remaining Octavo power quickly flickers out as his shell crumbles away.
“MY POWER!!!!! IT’S FADING!!!!!”
When his shell is broken apart, his true body underneath is revealed, a demonic Silicoid as I expected, looking much like Pumyz did in his little display yesterday, but blood red and black, and with horns and wings like a gargoyle.
“Not… like this… so much left to burn…”
But his true body quickly falls apart in my freezing blast too, and in seconds, there’s nothing left of him.
Without that Octavo-powered shell, he’s no stronger than any other Silicoid.
Oh, silly me, let me correct myself.
He was no stronger than any other Silicoid.
And now, he’s not even that.
As the blast dies down, I revert to base form, panting heavily.
“That… -haff- …was for Jeff… -haff- …for Scott… -haff- …for the people of Arkay… -haff- …for the beauty of Silics… -haff- …for Old Las Vegas…. -haff- …and for everyone else you’ve ever hurt… you son of a bitch.”
I can’t sense him anymore. He’s dead, and he hasn’t left any remains this time.
He was summoned by Dehak, and if I remember what Sander told me correctly, summoned demons still go back to Hell when they die on Earth.
That’s why I threw the Stardust Breaker in there. It can purge stuff like evil energy, and after Sander summoned a pedophile demon from Hell to help me test a theory, we learned that it can purge demonic essence too, erasing demons just like if they came to Earth without being summoned.
So Pumyz isn’t Down There now. He’s gone.
For real this time.
His shell was the same size as his Vulcanus avatar, so I think Dehak used all of those remains by summoning him.
Even if Pumyz somehow escaped erasure, there’s nothing left to summon him with anymore. His only personal belonging was his Stone of Octavo, which Federation scientists confirmed wasn’t tainted like Ternis’ was.
Either way, Pumyz isn’t coming back from this. It would take a Stone of Octavo to do that now.
He has met the same end as every other two-bit, bottom-rank demon who dares to come Up Here and cross me.
Good riddance, I say. And now you’re gonna be TWICE as popular on Arkay.
With Pumyz gone, the barrier sealing the rest of the team in at the School should be gone too.
I still want to know how Jeff got past it. Do you think Chaos is behind his miraculous rescue?
Well, we’re not going to get any answers hovering up here.
Yeah. I’ll have to eat another bean on the way down. I should have nanomachine cartridges in my bag for MIKA too.
The School is trashed, the Plaza is trashed, Calvin Korkea Street is kinda trashed, and we still have loose ends to wrap up, but we all made it out of this with no casualties on our end.
That’s pretty lucky, considering how hectic things got.
Lucky, Niv? Lucky?
Nah. I know what this is.
It’s a fucking Christmas miracle.