FLIPSIDE

The skies above are decorated with millions of stars scattered among many colorful planets among them.

What happened?

…

I dug into the Demon Lord’s armor and then… I’m not sure?

“Eryth!”

Twisting from side to side I see no sight of her upon my back. But this place… this isn’t inside the dark spire… is it?

This–this place is a village within the leaves… odd flowery bulbs illuminate the tree carved homes sprinkled through here. Walking among trees there are… pale spirits, no they’re daystars? Not ones I have seen before, rather these have what look like wooden textured bodies, but those horns have to mean it's them.

My shovels still retain their transformed shape, but my armor has been dispelled. The Demon Lord must be hiding among these ghosts… maybe this is his dream?

As I pass the alien apparitions, I come across a living daystar… She has long white hair draped down to her waist and white horns that almost look like cat ears atop her head–except there’s something strange about her… She looks familiar.

She turns around–

“Woah–King nice uh, horns.”

“Eryth? You–you have a body? Wh-what’s going on here?”

“Yeah I don’t really know to be honest… But isn’t this great!”

I comb my hand through my hair, coming in contact with two sharp bumps that were not there before. Feeling around to find horns that curve from the top of my forehead back to my ears. My hand grips them, and tries to tug them around. They don’t budge in the slightest… I guess I have horns now.

“I don’t really know how to feel about this, I hope it's not permanent.”

Eryth walks over and slaps her hand down on my shoulder, with joy.

“HAH–I hope it is! What do you think your bros will say when they see you like this?”

“Forget about me–Eryth, you have a body!! This is amazing!”

Eryth’s face blushes a bright red, the first time she’s likely ever changed color, she turns away and covers her hands to her face.

“Yeah I mean… it's pretty awesome… I can finally do the things you can do… I’m really excited.”

She squeals and hops around with excitement, however quickly coming to stop to focus on the task at hand.

“King… The Demon Lord–he’s somewhere in this place.”

“Right, and when we find him, we’ll finally destroy him for good. Here–”

I hand Eryth the red shovel.

“What–but this is!”

“You should use it, fighting with two super long shovels is kind of a lot harder than I thought it’d be, so I want you to use it.”

She takes the shovel, adjusting to the weight of it and brandishing it as her own.

“Thanks! I’ll take it–and we’ll kill that scumbag Demon Lord together!”

…

The spirits that wander amongst us through the trees whisper short conversations as they pass by.

“It’s finally the big day…”

“Launch day already huh?”

“Why would he say something like that?”

“That’s just the way things have always been.”

“What do you think they’re talking about, Eryth?”

She ponders a moment before delivering her response.

“They speak of a launch day, maybe they’re launching something?”

“Very astute observation.”

“Meh, how should I know, but it sounds like they’re having some problems I guess.”

“He’s seriously holding himself in the shuttle?”

“Yeah, the lord’s brother is a real piece of work.”

“Why does he have to do this on today of all days?”

“Where are we headed this time?”

“Some planet called Earth, it wasn’t Lord Almza’s first choice.”

Eryth’s ears perk up.

“Almza–he’s here? And what’s this about him being a lord?

“Who knows, but I bet if we find Almza, we’ll find the Demon Lord.”

The gossipping spirits bring us to the foot of a massive ship. One I’ve seen many times before. This ship was the first to crash land on earth. I never thought I would actually see the real thing in person, it's flipping huge!

The spirits are going up a ramp leading into it–I guess we go to.

Walking past the masses we reach what’s likely the edge of this world–the ship as we go deeper slowly distorted into space becoming a part of the sky. The ground ahead of us is withering away and standing just by the line that breaks the living from the decaying is the Demon Lord and a spirit resembling Almza.

The Demon Lord’s body is more broken than before, now pieces of him have begun withering leaving portions of his body without solid form. He stands with his back to us staring ahead at the withering land.

“Brother we cannot stay here.”

“The longer we linger, the sooner the withering will destroy us all.”

“We must leave to be reborn in a new home.”

“If we perish there will be nobody ever capable of stopping the withering.”

“Lucifer, this withering will consume the entire universe.”

“It can’t be defeated.”

“All we do is run away from it. Every time the withering reaches our side we retreat to another world and repeat the process. We run from it when we could use it to conquer every world! The withering is a weapon the gods have granted us, don’t you see Almza–we were chosen, chosen to claim the universe as our own!”

“DEMON LORD!”

The withering foe turns toward us, his face filled with hate he swipes away at the spirit of Almza standing near, causing the apparition to fade away.

“So you’re here too Strider? You would dive this deep into my Soul just to kill me? I’m flattered.”

“It's not just him! His shield, Eryth fights by his side!”

“Sigh–what a day, first you crash my party then attack me here of all places… I’m going to destroy your worlds… And even if I fail–the withering will continue. No matter what you decide here, both of your homes are destined to be eaten away by darkness!”

The Demon Lord raises his hands to the sky creating sabers of red lightning twisting ever slightly with the infectious darkness.

“I’ll ask one last time, although I believe I know what stupidity you’ll respond with… This world and the next, they are all doomed to be destroyed, no matter what we do. But who cares! With the shovels we can dig away at the bits that offend us, we can craft ourselves a perfect world with the withering making us all powerful tyrants to stand above the weak! We’ll be unstoppable gods! Doesn’t that sound just a little bit enticing to you?”

“JUST WHO IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE! Eryth and I are the heroes who can do the impossible, even break the unbreakable! If the withering is as scary as you say it is, we'll fight power with power!"

“YEAH! The withering, as much as I’d like to understand it better for what it truly is and why it does what it does… Complete and utter destruction of the world is meaningless. I thought I wanted that for a time. I thought if all life died then it’d be fine, because I was just a monster among them. But King showed me that I matter, that I have a place to belong, we all do! I may be different, I might be a weirdo, but I’m me and nothing's going to change that! If you’re going to end that existence, then you’ll have to do it over my dead body!”

“Yeah I assumed as much. Well said and all that. Time to die.”

Arcs of electricity rip into the ground behind him, absorbing the dark withering terrain increasing the power of his lightning blades.

Black lightning swells across my body through my shovel and arcing towards Eryth’s, it's almost as if the lightning has a mind of its own. It knows just as much as me that we can do this if we fight it together!

“Ready when you are King, let’s kick this tyrant to the curb!”

“Hmph. Yeah, it's time.”

SNAP–

Together we clink our shovels together, sending a flash of energy sparking through us, the jolt that will guide to victory!

We mimic each other, readying our weapons–we dash forth to make the first strike…

“How cute–”

As the Demon Lord attempts to mock our public display of teamwork our shovels slash his body, kicking up a small blast of darkness as they scrape by. He stumbles backward into the withered land, his red siphoning tendrils breaking as he moves–he slashes at the air and begins his own charge!

“What no, incantations this time!? Are we getting serious!? – HAHA my blades will send your red flowing, with my [Infernal Coating]!”

An intense heat of power engulfs his body in a fiery veil. Eryth, caught off guard by the sudden shift in senses added to her when becoming a daystar, becomes overwhelmed by his burning coat dropping the red shovel.

The greedy Demon Lord goes for the disarmed weapon, while Eryth remains there unable to rebuild her strength.

SNAP–

The red shovel vanishes, clattering into mine just a few feet away. With it in hand I make a sudden spinning slash against the caught off guard Demon Lord! Landing two heavy strikes across his back conducting a string of static that releases his hold on Eryth! As he falters I drive my foot into him sending him flying back further!

“Thanks!”

“Here, do you want the shovel back?!”

“No wait, hold onto it for a second!” She responds while slamming her fists into one another, her Arx glowing with each impact– “I’ve got an unfinished pummeling to dish out!”

She stands over the beaten down withered Demon Lord, her hands glowing with golden magic.

“We’re doing this again darling?”

She prepares a punch and then begins a barrage! Not before the red blades converge around the Demon Lord’s own fists to create some shocking boxing gloves!

“URO URO URO URO URO URO URO URO URO URO URO URO URO, URO!”

“KURO KURO KURO KURO KURO KURO KURO KURO KURO KURO, KURO!”

The clash of red lightning sparks and golden fists of unbreakable magic illuminate the battlefield with a fierce aura. Every impact flashing a brighter blinding light greater than the last.

As their barrage nears its conclusion Eryth catches both of the Demon Lord’s hands–to counter he sends a blast of energy into her palms, but her [Arx, her unbreakable defense] holds true! With his hands grappled she releases the magic and channels it to her forehead as she headbutts the restrained evil!

Breaking off from the take down, I toss back the red shovel and together we attack!

But the Demon Lord shakes off the attack, reigniting his blades.

He clashes with our shovels managing to still keep up with our nonstop attacks! His blades only grow larger as he absorbs more darkness, he creates an explosive shockwave of lightning blasting us backward.

BOOM–

“You guys really piss me off!” – He holds the bolts of red lightning together, merging them into one massive weapon.

“You know if you throw that I’ll just channel it into my attack again!”

“Who said anything about throwing it?”

With the massive lightning bolt in hand he begins his final charge!

“Eryth to me! We’ll counter with our own attack!”

“Your armor of thunder and my unbreakable defense! We’ll dig straight through his spear!”

“[Electrostatic Discharge]!”

“[Arx]!”

“Two shields–one clearly better than the other, but put them together and you’ve got…”

“[Electrostaic Unbreakable Arx]!”

My armor expands beyond myself, engulfing Eryth as well in the power. As does her unbreakable shield. Together they fuse together into an ultimate glowing shield of power and defense!

“OUR [ARMARX]!”

The Demon Lord half way to us, we counter with our own run up!

His lightning bolt only grew with more and more electrifying power!

But can it break our power–NO!

“ERYTH!”

“KING!”

“THE FINAL ATTACK!”

KAAABBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM–

Shovels and electricity collide. A massive explosion repels the darkness bringing light to the black and withering dream.

Despite his desires the withering failed him, his magic shattered at the edge of two shovels, or rather two heroes.

The Demon Lord is dead.

END CHAPTER 40