Author's Note

It came to me that Grima didn't have a name yet at the time of Marth and was just known as the Creation, so I changed a bit the end of the previous chapter.

Chapter 195: The Creation

“Uh… Who, or what is this dragon??” Sweetie Void asked as she eyed the black roboticized dragon before her. “Seems bad news.”

Glaring at the dragon, Gotoh recounted. “Long ago, a mad alchemist named Forneus used Divine Dragon Blood to create this abomination. When Duma discovered that, it was one of the main reasons why he destroyed the city. He found the Creation deep underground and fought it, only to be forced to escape.”

“You are saying that that thing is more powerful than a Divine Dragon?” Marth asked with dread.

“And probably even more powerful with how much time has passed. It is bigger than what Duma told us it had been back then. It is still growing,” Gotoh said. “It’s probably even more powerful than Medeus now.”

“And that’s not counting the augmentations Eggman gave to it,” Sweetie Void said. “Including that purple destructive energy, which it has a lot of, much more than the elite badniks.”

Eggman laughed. “Oooohohohohoh! Seems like I really hit the jackpot with this one! Soon, this world and many others will be mine! And yes, I gave it the battery with all the remaining energy that Crazy Hand gave to me! That makes it my most powerful creation ever! Or second best. My God Emperor Death Egg is probably still at the top. Hard to say.”

“Of course this energy is Crazy Hand’s. I should have guessed,” Sweetie Void said with a growl. “What is Crazy’s deal, anyway? Is he working for the Subspace Army?”

“The what? No idea what you are talking about. Crazy Hand just wants to spread chaos and destruction across the multiverse, and he recruited me and a few others for that. He never talked about being part of an army. He doesn’t seem to be the kind to take orders.”

Well, that was good news and bad news. Good news: the Subspace Army didn’t seem to be involved. Bad news: that was a new faction to deal with, preferably before the start of the war against the Subspace Army, or else… As to how they will deal with Crazy Hand… Sweetie Void didn’t have the foggiest idea. Finding the universe where Crazy was hiding was impossible.

Unless DD could do something about that? she thought.

I’m already participating. I did send you to this world to stop Eggman. And I sent your friends to another world where another of Crazy’s minions was sent to. However, you will have to find him yourself, she was answered.

Ok. What about you, Writer?

She received no answer. She sighed.

I guess that you are already working on it. You will eventually make it so I end up fighting Crazy, but probably not before some more adventures. But please, do that before the war against the Subspace Army. I don’t want to fight both the Army and Crazy at the same time.

While she was thinking, Marth said, “So all your actions since your arrival in our world are the will of this Crazy Hand?”

“That’s right! But it helped a lot that I saw this as the perfect occasion to begin my empire without that pesky hedgehog interfering,” Eggman replied before he glared at Past Sonic. “But somehow, against the odds, here you are! I just can’t figure how you found me! There is no way you could have known that I was in this universe! And there is no way that you found me by chance! So, tell me, HOW did you find me?”

“As if we will tell you, Eggman!” Present Tails said.

While they talked, more and more heroes entered the room. The flying ones were even arriving through the windows.

Not all could come however. Many were still fighting the dragons outside the walls, or the robots inside the fortress. Two of Sweetie’s doubles were still helping them, but she may be forced to call them if Eggman’s last toy revealed to be as powerful as she feared. Should she send someone to bring the Chaos Emeralds?

No, wait, they were probably scattered all over Mobius. She was told about this little habit of theirs, so nobody would overuse their power. Once, Tails got the idea of gathering them in advance at the Shrine of Angel Island, the only place where they never scattered, to have them ready for the next time they would be needed, but then, it allowed Eggman to come and grab the seven emeralds AND the Master Emerald to power his God Emperor Death Egg. Needless to say, Sonic and co didn’t repeat that mistake.

Eggman glared at Tails, then yelled, “It doesn’t matter! With the Egg Jörmungandr, I will finally be rid of you forever! I won’t have to worry anymore about you ruining my plans!”

“Don’t think you have won yet!” Marth shouted. “Your evil will end today!”

Eggman grinned. “Then come.” Then, with a snap of his fingers, he said, “Attack!”

And the robots attacked. The Egg Zeus, Egg Hades, and Egg Amateratsu fired superpowerful versions of Thoron, Glower, and Elfire.

Thoron sent a beam-like thunderbolt that a general, Draug, was able to get in the way of to tank with his Shield Cloak. Despite the device, however, the superpowered Thoron still hurt a lot, and Draug dropped unconscious, at Death’s doorstep.

Elfire sent two fireballs toward the ceiling, the fireballs gaining in power and falling back toward the target in the form of a column of fire. Because of Crazy’s energy, the column was more powerful and much larger than usual. The target, Wolf, had no chance. All that remained of him and his horse when the column disappeared were ashes. Others around were forced to run away to avoid being caught in the spell. The column ended up blowing a hole in the ceiling.

Glower manifested the hieroglyph of an eye beside the target, Marth himself. The eye glared at him, creating light around him. Marth observed the eye and, just as it shattered, he rolled, the light exploding where he had been the previous instant. He had no doubt that this spell would have killed him right away if he had been hit. He wasn’t even sure if anything would have remained of his body. He knew the spell very well, he learned to dodge it, but not everyone will be like him, especially the ones from Valentia.

Meanwhile, the Egg Jörmungandr opened its mouth and charged energy. Feeling the energy’s power, Sweetie Void immediately teleported before the dragon just as it fired. The powerful purple beam of pure destruction hit the filly who absorbed it.

Pain. Intense pain. She could feel her body tearing itself apart from the inside as the energy settled. She was countering it with her healing, and the pain was slowly diminishing, but it left her paralyzed on the floor.

The Egg Jörmungandr went to devour her, but thankfully, Sonic was here. He took her away while her doubles fired a concentrated beam at the roboticized serpentine dragon, sending it crashing with a roar of pain. It quickly recovered however, and holes opened in its back. Out of them came dozens of missiles flying in every direction, each targeting a different hero.

It then glared at the Sweetie doubles and fired lasers from its horns, forcing the doubles to fly around to avoid them while they destroyed as many missiles as they could with Sonic’s help.

Marth suddenly jumped on its snout and planted the Falchion in its head, making the dragon roar again, making the whole tower shake.

While this happened, Gotoh attacked the Egg Amateratsu with Shaver, a wind spell, damaging the robot. However, Yuliya repaired it right away with a Hammerne Staff.

Marth jumped away from the Egg Jörmungandr, but then, Elice healed it with a Recover Staff.

Jubelo tried to approach his sister to rescue her, but he had to leap to avoid a Thoron fired by the Egg Zeus who placed itself beside the young girl.

The Egg Amateratsu fired its Elfire on Wrys. Seeing this, Maria quickly used the Rescue Staff to warp him away from the spell, beside her.

The Egg Hades used Glower on her to stop her from using the Warp and Rescue Staves. Seeing the eye, Maria panicked. But then, she was pushed out of the way just in time by Minerva who took the spell in her place as a result. As Marth had guessed, nothing of her remained after the spell, and a huge chunk of her wyvern also disappeared.

“MINERVAAA!!!” Maria yelled in despair.

Palla, seeing her state, quickly flew beside her and placed her on her falicorn before flying away. At the same time, filled with cold anger, Michalis charged toward the Egg Hades with his wyvern, mindlessly avoiding a Thoron from the Egg Zeus before he pierced the black-robed robot with his lance.

The Egg Amateratsu readied itself to kill him even if it meant destroying the Egg Hades.

Gotoh made a decision, and he raised his arms above his head. He roared, his robe beginning to float in a wind coming from nowhere. Then, light gathered between his hands, forming a ball which then unleashed a powerful beam of light toward the Egg Amateratsu. The beam hit, and the robot disappeared in a huge explosion.

Gotoh dropped on his knees, breathing heavily.

He wasn’t able to avoid the Thoron fired at him as a result.

Marth looked in horror as Gotoh died, but he shook his head and focused back on the Egg Jörmungandr who continued to fire many missiles while flying around. Then, with a roar, it created a black hole.

Sweetie Void, who recovered from absorbing Crazy Hand’s energy, flew into the black hole right away, making it explode from the inside before anyone could be sucked up into it.

Her doubles and Sonic continued to attack the dragon who resisted, even using shields of energy to protect itself.

Sweetie Void gathered her ten cannons into a single weapon to make a giant beam sword, wanting to slice it in two in one go, but then, the Egg Jörmungandr teleported, and in turn, Sweetie Void had to teleport to avoid its jaw closing on her.

The Egg Jörmungandr then opened its mouth again and gathered energy. Marth immediately acted and ran toward the dragon and jumped, slashing at its torso. This made it stop gathering energy as it roared in pain, now with a huge gash crossing its torso.

Elice healed it.

Before the Egg Jörmungandr could attack Marth, Sonic jumped and hit Eggman’s cockpit, Sweetie Void planted her ten swords all over the dragon’s body, and her two doubles fired beams. But then, the dragon created many purple beams that it rained all around it, forcing everyone around it to escape. Sweetie Void had to use powerful shields to protect the others more than once.

It then resumed gathering energy in its mouth. Again, Marth approached, only for it to teleport. Sweetie Void teleported after it and kicked it under the chin, moving its head upward so it ended up firing its laser breath toward the ceiling which then exploded. The explosion sent everyone on the floor.

Afterward, there was no ceiling anymore. The top of the Eggman head of the tower was entirely gone.

Everyone quickly recovered and resumed the battle.

Michalis was able to destroy the Egg Hades, leaving only the Egg Zeus, however, it wasn’t letting anyone get close to it. Yuliya remained close to it, repairing it each time that it was damaged because of a spell or an arrow.

Mycen suddenly galoped toward it. As expected, the Egg Zeus fired Thoron at him, piercing him with the thunder beam.

What the Egg Zeus hadn’t seen, however, was that above, Clair was approaching, using the diversion Mycen created. But then, as she was just above the robot, Clair and her falicorn transformed, and suddenly, she was Marth, sword in his hand. The Egg Zeus found itself sliced in half vertically.

When the two pieces of the robot dropped on the floor, Marth transformed, and in his place was Xane who sighed.

He looked toward the now dead Mycen, beside whom Alm and Celica were kneeling and crying, and silently thanked him. He easily put the program-destroying device on Yuliya afterward.

Seeing his robots destroyed, Eggman made the Egg Jörmungandr teleport above Elice, remaining close to her. The robot then began to gather energy in its mouth again, not minding the Sweetie Voids and Sonic attacking it as Elice healed it anyway. But then, without warning, it suddenly stopped and fired eye lasers toward the approaching Marth.

Nobody had time to react. The lasers hit Marth in the head, killing him right away.

The battlefield suddenly became silent as everyone saw the now lifeless king drop like a puppet with its strings cut. Everyone could only look in shock and horror.

Except Eggman who laughed.

“MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Got you! Your leader is dead!”

Elice saw her brother dead, and she became immobile. Despite the programming, she yelled, and then she ran toward his body, yelling his name.

This surprised Eggman. “Uh? She was able to fight the programming? I guess that love is really that strong. Well then.” He began to fly toward the sky. “Time to end this!”

Finally, Sweetie Void got back to her senses, and she glared toward the Egg Jörmungandr. Then, mane and tail turning into pure void, she and her doubles flew after it.

While it was flying, the Egg Jörmungandr was gathering energy in its mouth. Then, once it was high enough, it turned around and fired a large beam at the fortress.

Sweetie Void was ready and fired her own beam, the two beams clashing and exploding. The resulting explosion could have wiped out the fortress if it had been on the ground.

Eggman growled.

Sweetie Void and her four doubles, having called the two that had still been fighting the dragons and robots, flew through the smoke resulting from the explosion and charged toward the Egg Jörmungandr. They surrounded it.

The dragon charged energy again and fired another beam toward one of the Sweetie Voids who teleported. The beam continued its course toward the horizon, eventually hitting the ground and causing a huge explosion. Eggman made the beam go to the next Sweetie Void who flew away, causing the beam to sweep the horizon, spreading the explosion.

Eggman then saw something behind him and immediately made the Egg Jörmungandr teleport, barely avoiding a large beam fired by a double, the beam hitting the ground far away and causing another explosion.

When the Egg Jörmungandr reappeared, it immediately flew away, breaking several times the speed of sound and disappearing in the horizon in just a few seconds. A few seconds later, it returned, energy covering its wings. The resulting wing blades, spreading left and right at least one kilometer, were cutting the very air itself.

Sweetie Void and her doubles flew up or down, avoiding the wing blades as the dragon passed, then it disappeared in the horizon again, only to return for the second time.

But this time, Sweetie Void was ready and placed herself right in its trajectory. The Egg Jörmungandr ended up ramming her snout first, and the filly opposed it with all her strength. To Eggman’s surprise, his Egg Jörmungandr slowed down, then stopped.

Keeping hold of the snout, Sweetie Void then spun with it until she threw it up in the sky. She and three of her doubles then fired a beam at the same time, and they exploded upon hitting the Egg Jörmungandr, creating a small sun for a few seconds. After that, they saw the dragon dropping for a few seconds before it recovered.

The Egg Jörmungandr then roared, making the world shake as dark clouds appeared and covered it, purple lightning beginning to rain everywhere.

At this moment, Sweetie’s fourth double arrived.

With the Falchion.

Sweetie Void herself had her ten double beam swords ready, surrounding her, glowing black.

The Egg Jörmungandr gathered energy, then fired, and the five Sweetie Voids scattered, the beam hitting the ocean and causing a huge explosion. Having missed, the dragon flew away, followed by the filly.

As they flew at what was probably Mach 20, Sweetie Void moved ahead and began to slice open holes in the fabric of space, the holes firing space beams in the Egg Jörmungandr’s path. The dragon tanked the beams and fired back its own beam at Sweetie Void who flew away, the beam following her. Again, the beam caused huge explosions whenever it hit the surface.

As the Egg Jörmungandr continued to fire its beam, one of Sweetie’s doubles rammed it from the side, sending it out of control right into a wall of spikes of ice made by a second double. The dragon crashing into it caused it to explode. A beam was then fired at its back from a third double. Finally, the fourth double, the one with the Falchion, came and sliced off the first left wing in the blink of an eye.

Roaring, the Egg Jörmungandr created hundreds of beams in the air that it fired in every direction. Sweetie Void and her doubles, however, simply avoided them by teleporting before they began to ram the Egg Jörmungandr again and again and again, Sweetie Void cutting it repeatedly with her beam swords while the double used the Falchion. The dragon quickly found itself missing all its right eyes and its second right wing.

Suddenly, the dragon began to gather energy, again.

A lot of energy.

And it began to fly toward space.

“What? I didn’t order it to do it! And that’s too much energy!......... Oh! It is gaining back control! The pain is turning him berserk! It will destroy this world!” Eggman shouted in panic.

Sweetie Void immediately stopped attacking and gathered her ten cannons, beginning to charge her Ultimate Doom Laser.

The Creation stopped ascending and turned around, facing down the planet.

Then it fired.

Sweetie Void fired.

The two beams clashed high in the atmosphere, blowing away the dark clouds.

The clash didn’t even last one second before Sweetie Void’s beam overpowered the Creation’s. Rapidly, the filly’s beam was gaining ground.

Seeing the beam approaching, Eggman grabbed some kind of device and pressed a series of buttons. The next instant, he disappeared, just a few seconds before the beam reached the Creation.

The dragon quickly put up the most powerful shield it could create.

And it was engulfed by the beam.

With a roar of defiance, the Creation began to fly into the beam. His shield quickly shattered, but it continued.

Sweetie Void stopped the beam only to see the Creation still alive, even if very badly burned, and quickly approaching. Dismissing her ten cannons, she grabbed the Falchion from her double, and then she charged toward the Creation, putting energy into the sword.

The Creation charged energy, then fired again, a less powerful beam.

Sweetie Void pointed the Falchion forward, and the beam hit the tip.

The beam scattered all around Sweetie Void as the filly continued to fly forward into it.

She eventually reached the Creation and flew right into his open mouth. In a flash, she was out the other side.

One by one, each of Sweetie Void’s doubles, the twenty three of them, came, armed with an energy sword, and they each sliced the Creation one after another. All twenty four Sweetie Void then gathered above the falling Creation, and in another flash, the twenty three doubles planted their swords on the dragon. Sweetie Void herself ended it by planting the Falchion right on the Creation’s head, between the eyes.

With one last world-shaking roar, the Creation crashed onto the ground.

Still on the dying dragon, Sweetie Void removed the Falchion.

To her surprise, the Creation chuckled.

“Enjoy your victory, because it is only temporary. One day, I will come back, and then… this world… will…”

The dragon couldn’t say more. It breathed its last.

As the wind blew the last clouds of dust away, Sweetie Void could feel a foul air around the corpse.

Sweetie Void teleported back in the tower. There, to her surprise, she found Marth, alive, sitting on the floor.

Then she saw Elice beside him, beside a depowered staff, and she understood.

The Aum Staff. Elice used it to revive her brother.

The two were hugging when they saw the filly approach.

Tears in her eyes, she said, “It is over. Eggman has escaped, but he has left this world. We won.” She then presented the Falchion. “You still fought at my side. This is as much your victory as mine.”

Marth smiled at her, then silently petted her in thanks before he grabbed the Falchion and got up.

He raised the sword and yelled, “You heard that, everyone? The war is over! Eggman is gone!”

“AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!” everyone around screamed in victory. Screamed for the end of this nightmare. Screamed for their well earned freedom.

They saved the world.

Many were crying while screaming.