By: M Monroe Casey
Part One
Moving across the literal empty plains of 1666’s 1982 in northeastern Pyroclastia, Marche Tadala progressed towards his newest goal. On and on.
Left foot followed by a right, he neared where he knew she would be.
A twisted knot sitting in his stomach as he did.
Knowing that she would not be happy he was there with her, he had to try to overcome that, his own waning strength and the legendary “impossible challenge.” But at this point, it felt like just another day in his crazy and unique life. Another day dealing with what seemed truly impossible but trying to find a way to accomplish it still. Simply put, another day as Marche Tadala.
The landscape around him wasn’t as confident. Void of all life, no animals went there so nothing fertilized the ground for the grass to grow. Without the grass, no trees moved there either and each part of the would-be ecosystem that came after that. There was no fish for the water and even now, no natural water either.
Well, it was void for most of life.
Following another sign for the Grand Murder Challenge, Marche walked closer to whatever fate lay ahead for he had now entered the uncharted territory of his jumping adventure.
Anything that happens from here on out he didn’t plan for.
With his midnight shaded black armored boots touching the hard and desolate land, he peered off to his left in brown, determined eyes. Much like the abandoned and decrepit collection of stone rounded huts that he was looking at, a certain sadness was hanging inside of them for now. Eyes that finally blinked before they returned to the path ahead.
The lonely path seemed to continue on forever though as he traversed it slowly, conserving his strength. He had to try and remember why it was described as “beyond possible.”
The only legends he heard from it were that it housed a great and terrible monster and that monster required something from the one attempting to be successful. Something that existed as a sort of paradox. So even if they proved physically powerful enough, they would never be able to overcome that portion.
Hearing that and only that, due to the impossible nature of it all, he smirked weakly as ahead there was only a single thin and steep gray rocky mountain ahead. Matching the same shade as the very ground he tread upon now.
Following the path towards the mountain, he began to slow down as the signs did too. Less and less were available to keep guiding him. Like they too were afraid of what lay ahead.
Watching it live on the Windowsill, Monica paused to ask the big and burning question on her brain for now.
“C… would that challenge be impossible for you too? Or Baleigh?”
“Yes. Because we wouldn’t be willing to give it up.”
“What’s it?”
“The future.”
“What?” A confused look sat on Monica’s face, as she slid her hair tie up on her brown hair.
“According to legends, after six hours, you must then surrender your soul to the creature and the mountain itself at the completion of the challenge, if you can even survive it to begin with…”
“Marche is going to give his soul up to reconnect with Ver?!”
“I have no idea…”
“Can’t we look ahead?! He can’t do that!! It’s not fair to her too!!!” Responded the startled Arizona native.
“Babe, you know we can’t do that but we can trust he has a plan like everything else he has done so far.”
“I know but… C….”
“We just have to trust him.”
“Ok…”
Resuming the image at hand, Marche neared ever closer to the mountain now. Ready to take on whatever it may house. But directly ahead of him now even closer was a closed thin black wooded gate and at the front of the gate on its right was her.
Part Two
“… Marche?”
Leaving Castle Johnson in the same weird moment as her sister and their two friends, Veronica Dancer returned to Arizona first too. She tried to make it work with one of those two boys, it was such a distant memory that she can’t even remember who, but then it all changed when she met Marche outside of a coffee shop in the city center of Phoenix.
“Her Cute and Shy Space Boy.”
They spent those few months together but when he denied her and returned to Pyroclastia, she didn’t take it too well. Well, that was an understatement. She sunk into a deep depression and in that desperation, she found a way to Pyroclastia herself through a small start-up business in the southern end of Izmir, Turkey.
Wandering through the portal in her curiosity, she had to know if he was truly telling the truth or was he just another liar in her long line of being let down.
It was here that she found her way while her best friend and sister, Monica, left her behind too. She couldn’t stop Monica from living with CJ, she knew that. But that didn’t mean it hurt any less though. In that pain, she found resilience and strength while navigating here and through that, a piece of her was found again. A piece that easily bonded itself with the sad and desolate mountain.
The creature there began to respect her and they developed a bond much like her sister’s lover. The legendary CJ and Tadala. Agreeing to help oversee the challengers that came and went, she found a new home for herself after it seemed like everyone else let her down along the way.
Seeing his face only brought back the best memories but as he signed back, she still wasn’t going to be easily convinced that he just “magically changed his ways.”
(Hello Veronica…)
“What are you doing here?”
(I’m here for the challenge.)
“Why? Aren’t you already a ‘high and powerful prince of superior royal blood’ or something?”
(Fair. But I’m here for that and for you.)
“Go home. The damage is done.”
(Just listen to me. I only went back to Pyroclastia because I felt like I had too. Udo made me think I had too and I had those scars of the past that were weighing me down but I just took care of those. It wasn’t that I wanted to hurt you… Honestly.)
“You aren’t the Marche I know… you are far too kind and aware of the rest of the world… That still doesn’t mean we are okay though. Just a change I’m glad to see.”
(Correct. He’s currently having some sense beaten into him by the other three and okay.)
“Ok. So, does that mean you are from the future or something?”
(Yeah.)
“Wow. Didn’t work out for you so well then… Well, as the overseer it’s my role to give any willing combatant a chance, I guess… so… step on up.”
Opening up the gate so they may move closer to the mountain together, Marche paused for a second in place. His brown eyes now were seeing the images from his most recent blue ones. His history-changing-choices were finally starting to catch up with him.
Doenca the God-Like walked up to LightBlaze as it lay on the ground in the thick green grass of the Southern Hills, a devilish smile as he picked it up and made his pretty standard and typical wish to never be defeated. The other personalities of those Doenca he bested and assimilated were now within him but they didn’t say a word or act at all. His jealousy overpowering all of them put together.
God-King Doenca found DarkFlame in a similar position but in the thick yellow grasses that were above the Caverns of Sand, north of the Fire Mountains and the City he soon wished to subjectate. His wish was the same. His hopefulness overpowered the others too.
Both of them complimented the event with a moment where they each said, “YES!!!!!”
But it wasn’t like he was seeing someone else’s life, it was almost like he could feel their emotions and feel inside their brain too. Like he was somehow them. Each part of their massive personalities and then much to his own horror, he felt the same feelings as when he dreamt he was Evander or Walter too. It all was beginning to connect ever so slowly. Because maybe those weren’t just dreams and visions. Maybe it was something else entirely.
Realizing in that moment the bigger ramifications of stopping the Lord Jadix ascension, the super-swords now have fallen to another unknown threat, he couldn’t stop what he was doing now though.
Whatever this may be, he’ll solve it. He’ll solve it with the help of the creature that lay at the end of this and his love by his side. This came first. It had too. Simple as that. She came first. Above all.
Agreeing to the conditions by passing through the gate, he officially committed to starting the Grand Muder Challenge.
Part Three
Four blue eyes sustained their eye contact across the dark red rock ravine in the center of the Fire Mountains.
Feeling the other obtain a piece of their ultimate goal in the still intact Hive Mind of the Doenca, it was only fitting that they would then clash as soon as possible. Complete with a strong breeze coming in from the northwest, they neared their long awaited and long desired fight.
God-King Doenca on the left.
Doenca the God-Like on the right.
Seeing the update on the Windowsill, CJ clicked it without hesitation as the image was immediately pulled up. Marche and Veronica were only walking in a very awkward silence right now anyways.
Wearing his golden armor, God-King offered the first comment to his adversary as he gripped DarkFlame tightly. The black and red blade burned with an intense malice that even the viewers of the Windowsill could feel. “You made a poor choice today, Jealous.”
“That’s not my name, I am THE Doenca the God-Like and you are the one who made the poor choice… you couldn’t hope to shine like I do. No one can,” he gripped the blue and orange LightBlaze tightly too. Silver armor to compliment it. Radiating like a sun, the blade was the true antithesis of his enemy at this moment.
“We need hope. We need life. We need immortality. We need our God-King on high.”
“No. We need a new beginning. One created in my image. The best image to ever exist.”
“HOPE!”
“JEALOUSY!”
In the darkness of the night that has fallen upon them, they then charged at each other. A left sided slash from God-Like was met with the right sided one from God-King. Then, just like the fight between Augustin and Jadix that Monica remembered witnessing before, the swords attempted to absorb each other before they were ripped apart again.
Forcing the same release of a star-birthing equivalency of energy.
Protected under the wish they both made, it was sadly not the same condition for the landscape around them as it began to change its condition too.
Each and every connection resulted in that same level of energy release as the rock walls around them began to crumble away at the true force of their clash.
Boom.
They clashed again.
Boom.
Once more.
Boom.
Intent on seeing it through to the end of this epic clash, an urgent notification entered the top part of the Windowsill that brought them right back to Marche for now though as he was now standing in the gray rock bowl of the mountain’s top. With nothing happening there yet, Veronica then pulled out a small black feather of a bird.
Tossing it into the air, she muttered a quiet and incomprehensible phrase before a loud screech overtook the air around them. But it didn’t just stop there. It continued into a whole chorus of screeches and caws. Feeling a literal change of pressure in the air, Marche knew this had to be it.
Standing his ground without fear though, he looked on as from beyond the wall of darkness ahead came a small mountain’s worth of crows. Their little dark and mysterious bird bodies carrying them across the air through the flapping of their wings. Beady black eyes staring him down as they neared ever closer.
Each and every one flying directly at him.
Part Four
With a number of ten thousand in total, the small menaces swarmed him from every possible angle.
Beaks to the left.
Wings to the right.
Talons to the front.
They were truly everywhere as his whole form was overtaken by them. Freezing him in place.
For now.
With a deep breath in, he knew it was now or never. Thinking about what Bnonoa recently said about why he couldn’t just be happy for everyone else and how it worked out for them. He responded once more to it but out loud at this moment.
(That’s not my future. Not good enough. Not. good. ENOUGH.)
Dropping himself down and punching a metal gloved fist into the hard rock, he used the small dust cloud to free himself from their binding onslaught. Bursting forward and towards the wall of darkness that they came from, he ran ahead with a make-shift plan in mind.
Swinging his clamp into a group of the birds on his left, he saw it then as they merely disappeared into a cloud of black ash. Poofing away in an instant. Continuing towards the darkness ahead, he leaped into the air and swung his clamp down towards his feet, taking out a few more.
Over and over again, he attempted to thin the herd as they still swarmed from every direction. In numbers far greater than his current energy would allow him to deal with in this way.
Batting down two hundred of the ten thousand, he decided to change his strategy then. Instead of reeling in the clamp, he then recalled a moment from his fight with the Armor in Old Pyroclastia and kept it out. Picking it up and swinging it to his right, his feet followed as he started to spin.
And spin and spin and spin.
Building up more force and speed as he did it, the clamp was sustaining itself in the air through the sheer force of gravity and power.
Black ash began to repeatedly fall to the ground as they were one by one overtaken by his metallic tornado of doom.
With a crazy amount of force built up, Marche decided to call upon those wonderful physics given to a few very fortunate powerful souls and in a second, he stopped the spinning. Releasing all the pent up and contained energy in a wave at once. Crushing every last crow that attempted to fly to safety.
Standing as the victor of the first part, he merely watched as the ashes picked and guided themselves back to the wall of darkness. Then again, he heard the series of screeches and caws. This time though, there were only six and they were much deeper and louder.
Part Five
With an update from the other fight, the two lovers switched it back to God-King as he was now standing up all alone in the crater they created. Completely obliterating the walls of the ravine along the way. Laying on the ground in front of him was a defeated God-Like, complimented by LightBlaze missing most of its previous glow. With a devious chuckle, God-King brought the tip of his sword to LightBlaze and merely tapped the handle. Absorbing the weakened world-shaping instrument, he now had two of the three.
Absorbing God-Like too, the golden glitter covered him as he then overtook every personality trait of every fallen Doenca at his hands too. All that were defeated and assimilated by either himself or God-Like was now his. Possessing all the couple thousand different ones but a select few now, it was nearing closer and closer to the perfect time. Everything he saw. Everything he suffered. It will all soon be worth it.
“With it all in place, they will then appreciate. Then, they will all worship. Yes. All of the Cosmos will never cease to worship me… For I am hope itself. Long live the God-King.”
Looking up through the still settling and dusty battlefield, God-King’s blue eyes saw through it and up above to the large and rocky shape of Crowopolis slowly coming closer and closer to greet them all. With Monica and CJ knowing it was Crowopolis as well, they flipped it back to Marche as he saw the shape and then bodies of six crows that equaled the size of that same small mountain.
Swooping in right at him.
Prepping a punch to the left side of one, he then was picked up in the talons of another and carried above to the sky while Veronica watched on. Commenting to herself.
“… why is he doing this?”
Punching the same talon that carried him, he was quickly dropped back to the ground before another bird came in from behind, smashing its beak into him.
Dropping down to the ground, it was becoming more and more clear that his strength was waning and failing even more now.
But he had to keep fighting.
Standing up, he was almost immediately knocked down again. Hardly into the hard rock.
And again.
And again.
Watching this man go through this level of torture for her, Veronica almost stopped the challenge then and there as tears were beginning to form in her eyes.
She could ask her friend to stop this.
She was close to the Crow of the Mountain like that.
He was knocked down once more.
She just had to learn why he was doing this specific thing for her though. He came from the future, he could have just gone back to that old moment where he denied her specifically and punched himself in the face or something.
He didn’t have to endure this.
“So… why are you doing this specific challenge for me? Wait….”
It was in a moment after he was laying on the ground then got drilled in the back from a beak that she knew exactly why.
“Only to give you a story…”
Crawling away from the merciless attack of the enhanced magically ridden creatures, he slowly stood to his feet now. After the first real struggle of any of this jumping adventure, he still wasn’t ready to surrender. Not yet. Not when he came this far.
“That’s it… he told me that. I remember now… He just wanted to make me laugh and entertain me. To help me never be bored again and to break myself free from the lies I told myself… To help me understand just how precious my life truly is. No way… he was right. He literally came back in time just to do that. He broke time and space for that. He really meant it when he said, ‘In your arms is my time and space…’ wow. But… really?”
Hearing her from across the hallowed and holy ground, Marche nodded back at her before he signed back his reply.
(Always.)
Feeling a surge of energy from the smile creeping back on her face at this realization, Marche cracked his knuckles before bringing a fist to two more of the crows’ attacking beaks.
With a screech, they fell to black ash as two more of them joined them shortly after.
With just two crows with around 333 meters of height remaining, he didn’t charge them but instead he stood and waited.
Letting them come closer and closer to him this time.
Within a few meters of him, he swung his clamp from left to the right at the conserved full strength, instantly ashifiying them where they once squawked and strutted towards him.
With a confident smirk, he then looked on as once again, the larger piles of ash gravitated back to the wall of darkness to reform into the final part of the challenge. But this time, there was no chorus of caws or screeches. There were no multitudes of wings soaring.
There was only the sound of one pair of fluttering wings.
Complimented with a bird call that literally shook the ground they stood on.
Part Six
With it barreling in on him after soaring to the sky above, the two thousand meter behemoth overtook first the moon and then the stars too, blocking them from his vision.
Not moving from his spot, he looked ahead at it.
Veronica, Monica and CJ watched on too.
Looking back at Veronica then he signed something of the utmost urgency to her.
(Is this mountain important to you?)
“What are you talking about?! Marche defend yourself!”
(Answer my question, please.)
“Yes, it’s my home but Marche, you need to defend yourself!! Fight back!!”
(I am.)
“What do you mean?!?! MARCHE!!!!!!!!!” Screamed the terrified Veronica.
With the two watchers of the Windowsill gasping, he didn’t move as the creature neared within five meters of him.
(I am fighting for us.)
Looking ahead once more and dropping his fists to his side, he relaxed his posture and signed to the Crow of the Mountain instead.
(I surrender to the Mountain.)
Stopping in an instant that almost seemed to confuse the Crow itself, it didn’t know how to act anymore. Befuddled, it still accepted though as Marche completed the impossible yet again.
Knowing they would still have time to explore together before they would return home here to live out their days with their friend here, it didn’t matter if his soul was bound to it. Either that or his new secret master plan would work out and it wouldn’t matter anyways, now only time will tell.
But first, Veronica came in to give him a hug then stopped for a second, still questioning why he did it.
(I can’t be tied down to a place or a person I don’t want to leave.)
“But Marche… don’t you want to go home eventually?”
(You are my home.)
Hugging for a few moments in the still emptiness while the Crow watched on, Marche paused the embrace to look down at his other arm now. Opposite of Freezecry.
There was a new marking of a black feather that now resided there.
Glowing with a white outline, it proudly shone on his armor. Creating another badge to mark his legendary journey.
Looking at it together, they then looked off into the distance and talked as the bright yellow sun was beginning to rise on a brand new day.
“So… what happens now?”
(Not sure yet but it’s our time to decide now.)
“Wow. Okay… So, what are you thinking?”
(I need to go back to where I’m from. But… I got to make a quick stop first.)
“Okay my love and where?”
(It’s hard to explain but I feel there is something bad about to happen in a place called Nuevas Amigas. When I was in my grief, I created two monsters, they created more monsters and it’s now all coming back to haunt me again. Before the challenge, I felt a sensation from one of them. So… it’s time to investigate.)
“Woah… good luck…” Hugging the future version of her beloved, Marche smiled under his helmet and nodded back to her.
(Thanks and see you soon.)
Accessing the power of his newest acquisition, the Crow of the Mountain rapidly and suddenly emerged from the vast blackness of the sky behind him as he climbed aboard. Flying straight up into the starry skies of the Cosmos above.
Higher and higher he rose up on its back as this method proved to be exactly what he predicted. One of the few ways to travel from planet to planet without a portal.
Soaring on the back of massive wings that blocked out the moon wherever they flew, Marche brought himself straight to the normally far off destination of Nuevas Amigas. Passing through a gap in the normally strong and intact planetary wall. The sensations from the visions guiding him here.
Entering their atmosphere within a few moments under the help of his new friend, he soared above the highest building to look down upon a situation that was turning very dire.
Four people stood off against one in an intense card game match as the one seemed to activate his very own “doomsday machine.”
Watching even more of the planetary walls around them begin to completely shatter and fall now with the power of this machine, he knew it was time to act.
Using the fourth portal for this, he opened it up to only a few minutes prior.
Riding the crow closer and closer to the impending danger ahead, with more time to spare now, he brought the talons of the beast to the antenna at the top of the large silver box that was causing all the building tremors that would soon be released. Ripping it clean off before it could get worse. Simultaneously opening up one more silver portal ahead for jump number five. Finally, back to the modern age.
Soaring above them all, high above, all he could see was one of the four below was then turned into golden glitter that gravitated towards him. Following their trajectory. Despite the intense speed.
Instantly feeling a strange sensation from this too as he involuntarily assimilated this strange glitter, Marche Tadala had no time to act though about it because before another thing could be done, the fifth and final portal sucked him up inside.
The End.
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