Pokémon Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Path of Valor

[Ambyssin]

Chapter 123: Out of the Shadows​

The golden energy ball Leo shot into the air turned to black bolts that rained down on Xeromus. But like with the other times Leo used Judgment, the silvally let the attack strike him. His hind legs twitched a bit, but he otherwise stood his ground. The chains around his legs sliced away at the Blue Flare coming in from his left.

"You're all wasting your time!" Xeromus bellowed. He dug his claws into the ground. Purple tendrils emerged all around him.

Leo jumped back, tail crinkling. Just being near those tendrils left him with the same strange feeling as Gene's Dark Matter powers: something clawing at his insides.

"No we're not!" Widget countered. The reshivally spewed another Blue Flare from Xeromus' left. Leo shot a Dark Pulse from his forehead to back Widget up.

With unhinged laugher, Xeromus spun around. Black shadows trailed his tattered cloak, shredding through the Blue Flare and Dark Pulse.

"Your happy ending is a fantasy!" he declared. Xeromus charged toward Widget with a surprising burst of speed. Leo moved right to try and intercept, but Gene beat him to the punch. He struck Xeromus' head with a purple and black spoon.

"I know that's not really you." Gene swung again.

Xeromus parried with a swipe of his foreleg. "You haven't known me in ages!"

Leo tried to take advantage of Xeromus' back being turned. But Zamazenta's phantom emerged to swallow the Dark Pulse up. Zamazenta slashed the air with his forelegs, sending red shockwaves rippling forward.

The cosmic arceus jumped skyward, hovering in the air while the shockwaves raced underneath. Unfortunately, that only seemed to anger Zamzenta. He lunged skyward after Leo, who took off galloping.

"C'mon, dude!" Leo looked over his shoulder, then ducked a shockwave with a gasp. "If you're all brainwashed you gotta fight it! There's no freaky-deaky helmet anymore!"

"If you try to stop us, this world will crumble!" Xeromus said, between the clangs and bangs of his clashes with Gene down below. "Everyone's souls lost between worlds!"

"You're, nngh, the one who... taught me to shoot... for the moon!" Gene fired back.

Leo jumped higher in the air to dodge a few more shockwaves. He had enough time to swap the Dread Plate for the Pixie Plate. Leo didn't know if Zamazenta's phantom was actually fighting-type, but those shockwaves sure felt fighting.

"C'mon, wake up!" Leo slung a Moonblast down at the phantom. Zamazenta's shield-shaped head glowed red. A barrier absorbed the Moonblast. Leo's shoulders sagged. "Do I need a superpowered dog whistle or something?"

The glow didn't fade from Zamazenta's shield. Instead he lunged toward Leo in a blur of red and gray energy.

"I was joshing you!" Leo barely managed to leap over Zamazenta. He fired another Moonblast. This one caught the phantom in the back. Zamazenta turned and snapped uselessly at the air before dissolving back toward Xeromus.

"You still don't get it!" The shadow silvally struck a startled Widget with glowing talons. Widget hit the ground hard and rolled toward the stairs leading to the wrecked altar. "Even if there was a miracle to be had... you will never see it, Voice!"

To Gene and Leo's shock, his Shadow Ball went right through Xeromus. Xeromus slapped a hind paw against the ground. Zamazenta darted behind Xeromus like a red bolt. Gene barely managed to Phantom Warp out of the way.

Scrambling to his feet, Widget squawked, "W-What's that supposed to mean?"

Leo waffled back and forth on whether to change plates. Like Gene's Shadow Ball, so many of his strikes had done nothing to Xeromus. Only dark-type had actually hit Xeromus and that barely seemed to phase him.

What was going on with his typing? Why had his Blank, Fist, Earth, and Zap Plates all whiffed completely?

"Do the math, Voice!" Stained glass Stone Edge spires erupted all around Xeromus. Widget scrambled up the altar stairs in a panic. Xeromus caught Leo's gaze and, laughing, smacked the glass spires. Fragments shot through the air toward Leo. He galloped to the right while Xeromus turned back toward Widget.

"If a miracle puts the worlds back where they are... everything will go back to how it was!" Xeromus continued between his fits of laughter. "Those given second lives will return to the land of the dead! Your friends will separate back to their respective worlds!"

With two leaping bounds, Xeromus landed higher up the altar stairs. He frantically slashed at the reshivally, who kept ducking or jumping back.

"And you, the sum of these worlds' Voices, will break apart and cease to be! The same as Giratina!"

The Moonblast Leo readied fizzled against his forehead.

"What?" he whispered. His eyes widened and he prayed he'd been too quiet for Xeromus to hear.

Widget seemed just as shocked, but managed to spit blue flames right in Xeromus face. His tail turbine whirred to life. He shot into the air.

"Like I believe that!" he said as Xeromus staggered back, hissing.

Leo's eyes widened. The flames hurt Xeromus. More than any of the arceus' dark-type attacks had.

His salmon wheel turned red. Flames gathered around Leo's head.

"Why should we believe anything you say?" He pointed his forehead down, raining a fiery Judgment down on Xeromus. Widget scrambled the rest of the way down the stairs before the flames bombarded Xeromus.

"Don't stop. Please."

Leo froze. That voice. Within the flames. He'd heard it in that vision.

"Nova!"

A purple and black blur blew apart the smoke gathering around the stairs. Gene stood in the middle of the stairs, holding Xeromus up in his glowing hands. His feathers, tail, and mechanical parts were back to the turquoise that Leo had seen in Gene's old photos.

"That's enough." Gene squeezed the shadow silvally tightly. "I can... remove your shadows. I must be able to. Just hold still and—"

"Rocks..."

Gene blinked. His red core dimmed. "What?"

"Use rocks... weakest..."

Xeromus' body lurched. Dark violet consumed turquoise. Gene recognized it immediately and tossed Xeromus away before conjuring his spoon and sticking it into the open maw of Zamazenta to stop it from biting his head off.

Explosions rang out behind Leo, followed by shouts from the others. He turned around and saw a silvally leap off a broken pillar and blow itself up. Grishi's Protect barely held up against the blast, while Jade was knocked out of the sky.

"No!" Widget shifted to miraivally and zoomed underneath Leo. He headed for another silvally that was glowing white. "Stop it! Don't!"

The silvally charged toward the other end of the Spear Pillar. It exploded before Widget could catch it.

"Hey! Pay attention!"

Gene's harsh order snapped Leo's attention back to the altar, where Gene struggled to keep both Zamazenta and Xeromus at bay. A stained glass Stone Edge spire knocked him into the air. Gene flew up. Zamazenta charged after him.

"Stay with the dog, then," Leo said. He dropped from the air, shooting a few fireballs to drive Xeromus toward the top of the altar. Leo landed at the base of the stairs.

"There are no happy endings here!" Xeromus charged down the stairs. Purple energy swirled around his claws. Leo kept flicking fireballs toward Xeromus, but the shadow silvally charged through them.

Xeromus lunged for the bottom of the stairs. Leo had enough time to move left and Fire Punch Xeromus' right flank with a forehoof.

"Your miracles don't exist!" Xeromus stood firm and swiped with a glowing foreleg. Leo jumped back. He swiped again. Leo continued back. "Your perfect solution preserves worlds full of meaningless, empty lives!"

His chains unraveled and furiously whipped around at the air. Leo sprang up, but the chains sliced apart the Flamethrower he shot from his forehead.

"Our lives aren't meaningless!" Leo growled. "You're the one who's making those other guys blow themselves up, aren't you?"

"That was always their fate!" Xeromus slung Air Slash crescents up at Leo. "But now they can fulfill it for a greater purpose! Just like you!"

Leo couldn't get away from all the wind blades. Some of them nicked his forelegs. Xeromus then shocked him when he took off running through the air just like him. Glowing talons swept the cosmic arceus' legs out from under him. Leo dropped from the sky with a holler, crashing over by the stairs.

Xeromus was ready to strike again when Hurricane's torrential winds whipped up around him. Leo got back to his feet and found Gene hovering overhead, restraining Zamazenta in his telekinetic grip.

"Use that big attack again, kid!" Gene ordered.

Almost reflexively, Leo pointed his head into the fading Hurricane winds. A fiery Judgment lit up the air over the altar. Xeromus plummeted to the ground a dozen meters away, smoke trailing off his body. His cloak was totally gone. Only the chains were left.

Like the last time Judgment hit, Xeromus' dark purple had faded.

"Pl... ease..." Xeromus wriggled on the ground. "Rocks. Get the... other guy... to use rocks. Then hit me."

Leo's brow furrowed. "But we're trying to rescue you!" He looked up. "Gene, let's switch again, so you can—"

"You can't." Xeromus coughed up... some sort of strange black liquid. "There's... only one way to end this."

Before Leo could respond, the shadows swarmed Xeromus' body again. He rolled over. Two black tendrils skewered Leo's right foreleg. Hissing, the cosmic arceus staggered back.

Gene's spoon struck Xeromus' head from above, but the mega mewtwo couldn't do much else. He had to return his attention to keeping Zamazenta restrained.

"Nova, please!" he begged. "If there isn't another way, then we make one! Isn't that what you taught me?"

"That was before I knew the truth!" Xeromus' shadow tentacles slashed furiously at Leo. His foreleg gimped, Leo struggled to hold a Protect against the tendrils.

"Widget!" Leo cried, giving into Xeromus' plea from his moment of lucidity. "Get over here!"

Rocks. Why did he keep mentioning rocks? What would rocks do here?

... Wait. Was rock his weakest type? Is that what Xeromus meant?

Leo's shield was about to burst when another Hurricane flung Xeromus around like a shopping bag in the wind. Leo took the opportunity to limp closer to the altar stairs. He tried Recovering, but his leg still ached. This shadow energy was awful. He couldn't get hit again.

"What? What is it?!" Widget hovered to a stop by Leo's side right as Gene's Hurricane faded. Leo eyed Xeromus wearily.

"Can you use a rock-type move?" Leo asked. Xeromus tried and failed to bring Zamazenta to him, so he charged Leo and Widget down.

"Uh, Rock Slide, I think?" the miraivally said. He hovered higher in the air. With a pained wince, Leo joined him.

"Then use Rock Slide!"

"On Xeromus?"

"He said to use rocks!"

Widget's cheek bolts cracked. "Right. Just, uh, gimme a sec to tune my aura to it."

They didn't have a second. Xeromus had run into the air again. Leo spewed a Flamethrower at him. Xeromus forced himself past the flames.

The cosmic arceus coated his forelegs in fire. He met a swing of Xeromus' glowing foreleg with his Fire Punch. Then they stalemated again. And a third time. But Leo's flames grew weaker with each punch.

"Down!" Widget called.

Leo dropped from the air, hissing when his hurt right foreleg hit the ground. But the combination of pained howls above him and brown dust sprinkling around him told him Widget landed the Rock Slide.

Xeromus hit the ground with a thud seconds later.

"Again!" Leo said. He pointed his forehead toward Xeromus.

More rocks hammered Xeromus. He flailed on the ground, howling in pain. Zamazenta had gone limp in Gene's psychic grasp.

"What's going on here?" Gene drifted closer to the ground, on the opposite side of Xeromus. "What are you doing? We're rescuing him, remember!"

Flames gathered around Leo's forehead.

Use rocks... then hit him...

"WAKE UP!" Leo cried, before Judgment's flaming arrows pummeled a battered Xeromus.

As soon as the last flaming beam struck the shadow silvally, white light exploded out from him. The altar and the sounds of battle died down.

Leo staggered back, squeezing his eyes shut. Was that it? Had they done it? Why was there a burst of light instead of shadows? Shouldn't the latter have hurt him?

When Leo slowly opened his eyes, everything was still bright white. There was no altar. No broken pillars. No sign of Widget or Gene or any of the others fighting in the background.

He looked left. Nothing but white.

He looked right and found the same.

"What the—" Leo spun around in a panic. His foreleg still hurt from the movement. So, this wasn't a dream. Had Xeromus baited him into triggering some sort of trap?

After a few seconds, and a pause to catch his breath, Leo finally saw a figure hobbling toward him. Getting clearer with every step.

When it was close enough for Leo to make out cheek bolts and a head crest, the figure spoke.

"It's over. Finally over."

Xeromus stood opposite Leo in the white void, looking off to his left.

... No. That wasn't quite right. The shadows were gone. This silvally had no chains, either.

Leo leaned over and whispered, "Nova?"

Silence at first. Tired eyes stared off into space. Contemplative, maybe.

Then the silvally's expression sharpened. "I need you to listen to me. We don't have much time."

Leo's starcloud fur pulsated. "What do you mean, Nova?"

He stepped forward. "Look at you. And you... you sound lucid. The shadows are gone... right?" Leo looked around at all the white. "That's why we're here?"

"The shadows are gone." Nova slowly nodded. "But it's already too late for me."

He finally met Leo's gaze. "When this... pause runs out of energy, I'm going to Explode. You'll need to put up a Protect to keep yourself safe."

Leo's eyes widened. "What? Why Explode?!"

He took another step toward Nova, but the silvally backed away.

"We... we're helping you." He looked down at his hooves. "I could hear you."

"I know." Nova turned around, crest drooping. "It can't be stopped. When this fight started, I managed to reactivate that old kill switch Matriarch built me with."

More silence. Even though Nova said they didn't have much time, Leo struggled to choose his words.

"Why?" he whispered. "What about Gene?" Leo gestured with a foreleg. "He... was starting to have hope of getting you back."

Nova winced. "I know. And I wish it hadn't come to this, but..."

He lowered his head. "Even if this wasn't happening, we wouldn't get a happy ending."

"That's—"

"I've been shadowed too long." Nova's fur stood on end. His muscles tensed up like prey sensing a predator nearby. "You have no idea what it's like to be a prisoner in your own body. Suffocating. Drowning. Watching yourself do things that you don't want to.

"There's no 'back to normal' from that." Nova turned away again. "Gene and I... we aren't the same anymore."

The silvally took a deep breath. "But at least this way... I can go down fighting. And try to plant the seeds... for a miracle."

His expression hardened again. "With the shadows gone and me exploding, the hex over Zamazenta will break. He can help you guys in your fight. Especially against Isola... or should I say Enamorus?"

Leo blinked several times, before remembering the end of Chiron's memory. "Then Isola really is that Sage?"

Nova nodded. "And she subjected Zacian to a similar hex." He grimaced. "Sealed within her own sword. A Red Chain fragment binding her in place and empowering Enamorus further."

"Why did she do something like that?" Leo wondered.

Guilt ate at him. If these were Nova's last moments, the cosmic arceus should be trying to comfort him. Not talking business.

Although Nova clearly wanted to talk business. Perhaps it was best to go with that.

"Zacian and Zamazenta naturally resist Eterna energy... including the Red Chain," Nova said, tracing a circle in the air with his claws. "Not entirely sure why. I think in other worlds, they're heroes that defeated other versions of Eternatus. But that's beside the point."

He lowered his foreleg, tracing a sword on the ground. "If you can separate the sword from the Red Chain fragment, you can break the hex and free Zacian, too. And hopefully stop Enamorus. Paradox, too."

"Right..." That all sounded good. But Enamorus and Paradox were symptoms of a bigger problem. "And Zodiark?"

Nova grimaced. He took a shaky breath as the white void rippled around them.

"Damn it." Nova's gold claws dug into the white space. "Running out of time."

Leo took another step forward. "Then let me help you."

"No." Nova stood up taller. "I have... to help you."

"Huh?"

"Listen to me." Nova stepped toward Leo. "When Zodiark says he's evolved beyond life and death, he means it. He's a force. You can't kill a force. He must be sealed."

Leo frowned. Wasn't that exactly what happened before? With the Space Globe?

"A better seal than what Matriarch was doing with the Space Globe," Nova said. "An Eternal Seal. And you're the only one who can make it."

Leo's eyes darted around. Eternal Seal? What was that supposed to mean?

Damn it, and Leo wasn't exactly in a position to bombard Nova with questions. "How am I supposed to do something like that?"

Nova's expression turned grim. Leo's pelt darkened.

"... Wait." He shuffled backward. "No. You're not saying—"

"That it requires a sacrifice?" Nova's shoulders sagged. "It does. And I meant what I said about Widget and Yuna, too. They don't stay in one piece if these worlds are put back in their rightful places."

His expression sharpened. "But it's our one shot. Our one miracle that could pave the way for everyone else to have a future."

He stepped toward Leo. "Zodiark's Eternaverse can never happen. Living forever? Being happy because that's how he tells us to feel?" Nova shook his head. "That's not living.

"Yes, there's pain in life. Suffering, too." His crest drooped. "Sometimes a lot of it. But that's part of what gives our lives meaning."

A pause. "And our deaths, too."

He stomped a foreleg down. "I think this one chance can give my death meaning. Pave the way for Gene and I to be together again. Without the burdens of this struggle weighing us down."

Nova looked Leo in the eye. "This... this miracle. It's why I held on. Why I continued to suffocate in the shadows. Waiting until you'd gathered enough plates and gotten enough experience with your powers that I could pass this onto you."

The white void rippled again. Leo's legs shook. The gnawing pain from the shadow attack was even worse.

"B-But how?" He squeezed his eyes shut. "How can I... how can I just..."

"Think about the others," Nova said. "You have to hold them close. Because those bonds... will give you the strength to make the toughest choices."

When Leo hesitantly opened his eyes, Nova's head was glowing. His beak opened up... and a golden card emerged.

Leo tilted his head. "Your Paradigm fragment?"

Was it happening, then? Was Nova dying?

The silvally shook his head. "It's not the fragment the others saw in Herbrides. It's the twenty-second Paradigm fragment."

It drifted over to Leo. He could faintly make out two words written in silver letters.

(Art by Raph)

WILD CARD

"I don't... understand." Leo's fur prickled. The card appeared from nowhere. Yet it was... practically calling out to him. Begging him to absorb it.

Nova's breathing grew shakier. He had to sit down. "When the... when the time's... the time's right..." He slowly slid onto his belly. "It'll... give you... the piece you need. The piece you need... to make the... Eternal Seal."

Almost reflexively, Leo touched the card with his snout. It dissolved into his starry fur. A warmth spread over him.

And, as that happened, Nova's body began to fade.

"Nova?" Leo's eyes widened in alarm. "Nova, what's happened? Stop it!"

"Cuh... can't..." The silvally fell over on his side. He was down to his head, chest, and front forelegs. "Out of... time..."

Leo galloped over to Nova. Tears blurred his eyes. "C'mon, man. Don't do this! There's gotta be another way!"

He crouched down. "Don't give up! D-Don't..."

"Duh... don't..." Nova somehow managed to press a talon to Leo's right foreleg. "Don't... tell... others..."

Only Nova's head was left. Leo had mere moments if he wanted to say something. But what was there to say?

Ultimately, Leo decided to agree to Nova's last request. "Okay." He swallowed hard. "Our secret."

A faint smile tugged on Nova's beak. And then his head was gone.

The white void vanished in an instant. Leo was back at the Spear Pillar, staring down Xeromus. Golden light spilled out of cracks and fissures in his body.

Leo immediately remembered Nova's warning. He conjured a Protect.

A second later, Xeromus exploded. Golden light flooded the mountaintop once again. The force of the blast pushed Leo along the ground, but his shield held tough. This time, instead of silence, there were shouts and startled cries. None louder than Gene's. And some rumbling overhead made Leo worry the blast was going to make the crystal dome collapse on them.

The blast's pressure let up. Leo dropped his shield and got to his feet, ready to open up a rift if need be.

However, though the hole from earlier was larger, the dome withstood Nova's Explosion.

Leo turned around. The few silvally left had all crumpled over and lay unresponsive on the ground. A couple of pillars down, Valkyrie nudged one with a claw, before looking at Leo and shaking her head.

By the pillar opposite the garchomp, Igneous landed beside Shimmer and Scarlett. The grovlazzle looked between Leo and the altar.

"What the hell?" Igneous pressed his claws against the sides of his head. "No. He... he didn't..."

Leo slowly turned right. Where Xeromus had been standing... was a small crater.

A small crater with Zamazenta lying inside of it.

Bits of metal and broken chains lay scattered around the crater. Gene landed on the edge of it, trying to scoop up some of the chains, only to have them crumble to ash in his hands.

Legs trembling, Widget approached the crater's edge. "H-He..." The cosmic silvally's neck ruff deflated around his neck. "He just... he just..."

Unable to form the words, his eyes darted around in a panic.

Leo wasn't sure what to say. Gene hadn't taken his eyes off the crater. His hands balled up into fists. Bits of ash trickled between his fingers.

An uneasy silence lingered over the mountaintop, save for a faint wind blowing in through the hole in the dome. Out of the corner of his eye, Leo caught the others staring at the crater and disbelief.

He looked back at Gene. The mega mewtwo kept staring silently at Zamazenta.

After a half a minute, Leo heard wingbeats coming from the hole in the dome.

"The hell happened in here?!" Nikki shouted from high in the sky. "We saw some huge burst of light spill out of the hole!"

Noctum descended from the hole in the dome first, carrying Nikki on his back. Yuna followed them, looking at the crater.

"Is that Zamazenta?" Yuna's griseous core pulsated yellow. "What's going on? Where's Xeromus?"

As Leo limped around the crater and behind Widget to meet Yuna, Gene Phantom Warped in front of him.

"Battle's over." Gene opened his hands. The ash spilled down by his feet. "We won."

Yuna's tail crinkled up. "But where's Xeromus? All I see is—"

"Gone." Gene turned away from the crater. "He blew himself up. Tried to take Leo down with him."

Recognition flashed in Yuna's eyes.

"Oh, Gene..." She rubbed her right shoulder. "I'm sorry. I thought—"

"I'm fine." Gene's shoulders crystals smoldered with purple energy.

Nikki slid off Noctum's back. "You don't sound fine, dude."

"I'm. Fine."

Leo couldn't tell what sort of look Gene gave Nikki, because the mega mewtwo's back was to him. Judging by Nikki's mohawk shrinking, it wasn't a good one.

"In the end... I didn't have to kill him." Gene kept walking away. Past Yuna. And Nikki and Noctum. "He at least... left me with that act of mercy."

The others converged on the altar. Bahamut kept glancing at Yuna, but the cosmic lucario wasn't saying anything to her.

"What about Dreamweaver?" Leo asked. They had blasted Yuna out of the mountain. If they weren't coming here in any danger, then did they beat it?

"Gone." Nikki wiped her hands.

"Gone?" Leo raised a brow.

Nikki shrugged. "Broke apart and shit."

Noctum stepped forward, twiddling his claws. "What she means is... we can't be entirely sure what happened to them."

"Nor can we be sure whether Zodiark's machinations will allow the emperor to pursue us here." Bahamut paced along the edge of the crater, still stealing glances at Yuna. "We cannot stay here any longer."

"H-Hang on." Leo raised a forehoof. "We should take a look around this place. Make sure we didn't miss anything. Or, y'know, unearth something in all the fighting."

"Hmph." Bahamut crossed his arms. "This place is derelict." He flicked his snout toward the altar. "And functionally useless now that what little was left of that core is gone."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Scarlett slithered between Widget and Bahamut. The cosmic silvally was still staring slack-jawed at Zamazenta. He hadn't budged the entire time.

"If the core's been totally destroyed, then isn't the world going to start to break or something?"

Leo shook his head. "I don't think so. Zodiark... made it sound like he'll keep it together."

"To build his stupid ass Eternaverse!" Nikki threw her arms up. "I'm with Bath Mat. Freaking exhausted over here." She sat down on the ground. "Puh-lease tell me one of you can get us a rift back to the outpost."

Predictably, Noctum and Yuna both looked at Leo. He was the one with unrestricted rift powers.

Still, this was all too fresh. Leo looked back at the crater, then at Widget, then over his shoulder. Gene stood atop the pointed end of a broken pillar, facing the hole Dreamweaver had blown in the dome.

"I'll get you guys back." Leo looked at the group. "But, uh, maybe give me a little more time to look this place over first?"

Bahamut narrowed his eyes at Leo. "What do you think you're doing?"

Leo stood up. "It'll just be a few minutes. Promise." He faced Bahamut's glare with a softer expression.

After several moments of silence, the cosmic lucario huffed and turned his attention on Jade. "Grab Zamazenta." Bahamut pointed to the crater.

"Huh?" Jade pointed at her face. "Why me?"

"You are the biggest one here aside from Leo," Diamond pointed out.

"Oh yeeeeeeaaaah." Jade rubbed the back of her head with a wing, laughing.

Bahamut's eyes flickered gold. "Go. Now."

Tail flaps curling up, Jade approached the crater to gather up Zamazenta. Bahamut returned his attention to Leo.

"Make the rift. We can't dawdle any longer."

"Right." Leo sighed. He only had to concentrate for a second before he found the spark of power needed to open up a purple rift. The hangar's blue glow spilled out of the other side.

"It's ready." He tilted his head toward the rift. Leo barely finished saying that when the various resistance members quickly converged on it. He tried to step in front of Gene's path, but Gene Phantom Warped right through him and into the rift.

Then Leo felt a small hand on his left shoulder. He locked eyes with Yuna.

"Everything okay?" she said.

"Yeah."

It wasn't. But Leo promised Nova he wouldn't say anything. So, he had to redirect.

"And you?"

Yuna looked down at the ground. Now that all the fighting was over, she looked downright exhausted.

Widget still sat beside the crater, however. Staring at its empty basin. Completely frozen in place. It was what Leo feared. And why he couldn't leave quite yet.

"We'll, uh, talk later," he said.

Yuna nodded, then flew into the rift. It shut behind her, leaving Leo alone with Widget and his thoughts.

There would be a lot of resistance members who would need to talk later. He just hoped they would actually do that.

XxX

~The Dark Omen: Xeromus~
To the silvally who led the warriors that freed the Affirmer from His prison, He bestowed the truth. That said silvally once fought a losing battle against Him. That the Renegade collapsed his home in the immediate aftermath. And that he had once again been led astray by false beliefs and promises.

Unable to grapple with the truth, the door to his heart shut. Shadows blanketed his spirit. His blighted form wandered the world, driving people to accept the Affirmer into their lives.​