"Shit, it's arriving!" shouted Orechin. He positioned his hand forward and a huge blue crystal appeared in front of him and Vane, right before the plushie hit the sphere in its hand with the black club.
The ball was launched at extreme speed. 'We should ha—' Orechin thought that because he had created the blue crystal, the sphere would become slow enough for him and Vane to dodge the attack. But what surprised Orechin the most was that the moment the sphere hit the blue crystal, it shattered it in less than two seconds.
"I'll block i—arghh!" Thanks to Orechin's crystal, Vane had enough time to turn into a polar bear and block the attack with his body. Orechin, behind him, noticed that the sphere, thrown at extreme speed, was slowly winning against Vane's strength. "I must not fall!!" Vane hardened his body as his feet were pushed back.
As he kept screaming, he was able to harden his body just enough to block the sphere. When both of them stopped, Vane had been pushed back at least 2 meters, and still holding the sphere in his paws, he breathed heavily.
"Darian… didn't you say that with her ultimate spell, there was only a single red wire on the huge plushie?" asked Tyel as he took a step back, scared by the hit against Vane.
"Yes… that's what happened…" whispered Darian as he took a step back while his body shook in fear.
"Then why… WHY ARE THERE COUNTLESS RED WIRES COMING FROM ITS BODY?!!" shouted Tyel. Unlike the other huge plushie the group had fought on Karyunz's ruins, there hadn't been a single wire coming from its body. But now there were countless wires, each arriving from a different part of its body.
"I don't know, I don't know…" Darian closed his eyes for a moment and pressed his fingers against his forehead. 'How is it possible… what is the difference between this time and the last one…'
Darian started to remember the first fight and this one, and that was when, as he opened his eyes in fear, he realized why this had happened. "The last time, the huge plushie was already formed…" whispered Darian. Tyel looked at him, confused.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Tyel while his body shook in fear.
"I'm saying that the last time, the spell was used when the plushie was already formed…" whispered Darian.
"And that is why there was only a single wire, like you said…" added Tyel. Darian nodded his head.
"And now, the spell was used before the plushies fused together… that is why there are more wires… IT IS BECAUSE THE PLUSHIES WITH THE WIRES FUSED TOGETHER AND CREATED A STRONGER PLUSHIE!!!" As Darian yelled in fear, the huge plushie in front of them turned towards Darian and Tyel, who took a step back in fear.
"I still have the ball… you won't be able to launch it again." Vane focused on hardening his hands to keep the ball tight, but as the plushie turned around, it pulled the hand forward that had held the sphere before, and the ball returned extremely fast to its hand.
"What?!" Vane, confused, was being pulled towards the plushie's hand. "Vane, leave the ball!" shouted Orechin. "There's a wire attached to its hand!" he added, as he spotted an extremely small wire directly attached to the plushie's hand and to the sphere.
As Vane removed his hands from the ball, he fell to the ground and coughed up some blood. "It can't be possible… I was holding it with all my strength…" whispered Vane angrily as he smashed his fist against the ground. Orechin rushed towards Vane to help him.
As the plushie turned its body towards Darian and Tyel, there was still an eye looking over Orechin and Vane. "We can't even catch it by surprise…" whispered Orechin, annoyed.
"It's probably launching the ball again…" whispered Darian. As he looked at Tyel nearby, he pointed his hand at his own chest. "Ice Armor!" With that, a powerful ice armor was created, and exactly after that, he pulled Tyel away.
Tyel looked at him, confused. "What?" But before Darian could actually answer him, the plushie had launched the ball up and hit the sphere with the black club using a lot of its strength, and soon enough, the sphere was launched at extreme speed towards Darian.
"My armor will not fall now!! ICE ARMOR again and again!!" While Darian's armor was being shattered by the ball, he kept creating other armors, but it didn't work. In fact, after a few seconds, the ball had shattered every single armor Darian had created, and as the object crashed against his body, Darian was launched towards the wall. His body flew for over 10 meters until it crashed against the wall, creating a crater.
"Darian!!" shouted Tyel as he watched his friend's body being dragged away for multiple meters. With that, he rushed towards him to help.
"Let's attack it now! It doesn't have the sphere!" shouted Orechin. Vane nodded his head, and as he jumped, he turned into an eagle and rushed directly towards the plushie's head.
The enemy, who wasn't caught by surprise, tried to rotate its body while Orechin launched a small red crystal towards it. Once the crystal was close enough, it exploded, and Vane hardened his wing to try to hit the plushie directly in its eye.
Once the explosion disappeared, the skin of the plushie wasn't damaged at all, and though Vane hit the eye with all his strength, not even a cut appeared; the enemy simply blinked its eye. Vane, looking at that, clicked his tongue, annoyed. "Hey, that can't be possible…" whispered he.
"I'll help you, Darian!" Tyel had just arrived near the crater in the wall. As he tried to pull him out, he noticed Darian's body completely crushed against the wall, his eyes closed. "Hey, Darian, can you hear me?!!" shouted Tyel, but Darian hadn't opened his eyes yet.
"It weights a lot… " Tyel removed Darian from the wall, but he fell to the ground with his face down. As Tyel looked at his back, he realized that Darian had started to bleed after his body crashed against the ground.
"Let me help you Da—" Tyel was about to kneel down to help his friend when suddenly the plushie swung the arm attached to the ball. Without any warning, Tyel got hit directly in his face by the sphere, and it started to retract until it reached the plushie's body.
As the plushie turned its body towards Vane and Orechin, the ball, before arriving back to its owner, smashed the wall, creating a new passage.
"Damn!!" shouted Orechin right before the ball crashed into his body and sent him flying towards the side wall, creating another crater.
Vane glanced around and realized that he was the only one left who could fight. Orechin, below him, had just crashed against the wall and hadn't opened his eyes yet. Tyel, after getting his head smashed by the ball, had broken his nose and started to bleed uncontrollably, and as he tried to get back to his feet, he fell again. Meanwhile, Darian, who luckily hadn't been hit directly by the ball, remained on the ground with his back bleeding.
'Shit… and I have to be the one saving everyone?' thought Vane in fear. As he realized what was happening, he noticed the club about to hit directly on top of his body. "I'll have to resist!!!" shouted Vane. With all the strength in his body, he was able to block the club with both his wings, but soon enough his body became weaker as the pressure grew stronger, and he was pushed to the ground.
'I won't resist for long…' Vane looked under him and realized that the plushie was moving its other hand. 'It can't be possible…' Vane noticed that the plushie had just thrown the ball to hit directly under his body.
Vane, who was able to look at the attack just in time, hardened his body just enough to resist the impact of his body being crushed from both sides.
As the plushie called back the sphere and the club was retrieved, Vane's body fell to the ground, and at that exact moment, he returned to human form. His whole body was bleeding, his vision had already become blurry, and his eyes turned black. If he were to use his magic a bit more, his body would become transparent and he would reach the last stage.
"I… I can't… can't fall here…" Vane tried to get back to his feet. In front of him were both the Seamstress and the huge plushie. Without any warning, the plushie swung its club towards Vane's helpless body, sending him flying away. As his body crashed against the debris of the wall that had fallen before, he closed his eyes and fell unconscious.
"We've lost?" whispered Tyel with his eyes locked on Vane, but soon enough he shook his head. "I can still go back… I can prevent this from happening. I just need to get killed by that thing." Tyel gulped in fear, thinking that getting your body crushed against the wall like it had happened to the others must hurt a lot. But still, he took a step forward when he felt something touching his shoulder.
"Don't worry, I've got it." As Tyel looked at his shoulder, he realized that he had Darian's right hand on it. But the thing that caught his eye was the tails over Darian's hands. One… two… and three?! Tyel, caught by surprise, realized that there were three tails at the point where Snowy had fused.
"You've always used two, right?" asked Tyel, while Darian walked towards the plushie, nodding his head.
The moment Darian was hit by the sphere and got crushed against the wall, he had found himself again in his mind. Under him, the path of ice was still the same as last time, and as he glanced around, he spotted him again: Snowy was floating right in front of him.
"What happened… I remember trying to block the sphere with the armor…" whispered Darian as he positioned his hand over his head, as it was hurting a lot.
"That would have never worked… that attack was too powerful for you to block it without my help," answered Snowy as he looked Darian directly in his eyes.
"And because I'm here, does this mean that the fight is already over? Were we defeated?" asked Darian as he started to think of the worst thing that could possibly happen. In the white space, scenes of Darian getting tortured again by Zrelekai were seen once more.
Darian looked confused at the sight of that. He even took some steps forward to see the scenes better and realized that it was exactly as he was imagining them. "Remember that this is still your mind; everything you think of becomes real," said Snowy as he slowly followed Darian from behind. "Oh, right…" answered Darian, remembering that this place was still his mind.
"Still, you haven't lost. The others have all fallen unconscious, but Tyel hasn't given up yet." After Snowy finished talking, Darian heard the voice of Tyel, who had tried to save him.
"I know I can't remain here and I need to help the others… but that plushie has been too strong for us. How are we supposed to counter it?" asked Darian as he sat down, swinging his feet over the infinite white void around him.
"I'll help you…" said Snowy as he landed near Darian, sitting next to his leg.
"Still… will the two tails be enough? I feel like it's way stronger than most of the enemies we've faced so far…" whispered Darian as he positioned his head between his knees.
"In fact, they will not be," answered Snowy. Hearing these words, Darian's eyes opened in surprise. "What?" asked he, confused.
"I've told you, two tails aren't enough… but I can't allow you to die here, not after everything that has happened." Snowy started to float again, and as Darian, still caught by surprise, returned to his feet, Snowy came out of the ice zone and started to float in the white void.
As Snowy positioned himself in front of Darian, he shook his head. "You're strong enough, Darian. You'll get the three tails once you wake up again."
Hearing these words, Darian took a few steps back. "Three tails?" asked Darian as his body began to shake in excitement. "Exactly. Now, go." Suddenly, Darian felt tons of power reaching his body and the ice zone expanded. Now, other than the frozen river, some trees made of ice could be seen.
"It became bigger… does it expand every time you use a tail?" asked Darian, Snowy nodded with his head. Suddenly, Darian's body turned to ash as he was gaining consciousness once again.
"Thank you, Snowy. I promise I'll come out of this alive." These were the last words Darian spoke while smiling, before his body disappeared in front of Snowy.
"You have to, Darian… after everything we've gone through, I can't allow you to die now," whispered Snowy. But now that Darian couldn't see, Snowy changed his expression for the first time, unlike the other times that he was simply surprised and it just felt for Darian and he couldn't be sure if it was true, now it happened really, Snowy's mouth moved and a warm smile appeared on his face.
Darian, now standing in front of the plushie, looked it directly in its eyes. "I'm stronger now… and I'll be able to defeat you!" shouted Darian. The plushie, which had turned its body, looked him directly in the eye, and soon enough, the fight broke out.