Chapter 21 Finale: Slur, the Magnum Opus

Chapter 21: Finale
    "Hello, I am Slur. As you may know, I was in that capsule for thirty years, growing, getting more powerful. Adrian must have told you that you five are his only hope, as he has tried to stop me multiple times, but, they all failed." Slur stood by the capsule. By the dastardly purple capsule, there was a flowing, black lake covered by many trees. The room that Zeus was fought in was revealed to be on the second floor of the house.
    "Wait, how exactly do you know about about all of this?" Alex asked, getting in a fighting stance, holding the silver violin bow in his hand
    "Well, let's say that I can see all." Slur said nonchalantly.
    "Look, you seem like a nice person, maybe we can be friends, and maybe stop the whole dying planet fiasco." Terri bargained. Artemis knew that since the pendant would likely be needed for defeating Slur, they gave the pendant to Terri.
    "I wish it would work like that, but you can only have one, me or the Earth." Slur started adjusting her hair from boredom.
    "So, are you saying that we can only save the planet if we, kill you?" Kayla grasped the small story she obtained from Corrais.
    "Yes." Slur said with sorrow in her voice. Kyle grabbed the garnet stone he obtained from Aster, which now had cracks in it emitting a bright, yellow light.
    "So, are you all ready?" Julian grabbed the pistol-type weapon from his pocket. Ura and Artemis also prepared themselves to fight. Slur lazily floated over the capsule, two narrow, sharp-looking, light blue beams of light formed from her wrists.
    "En Garde." Slur slammed into the ground with the saber-like beams, producing many blue lights shooting from the ground traveling in a swirl pattern. Ura was able to dodge the light and shoot a light green burst of light at Slur. Slur quickly held her palm out, making a pink, disc-like shield block the attack.
    "Darn, she's going to be more difficult than I thought." Ura decided to shoot two yellow beams of light that traveled at a curve at Slur. The lasers targeted at Slur's sides, but she was able to successfully dodge the lasers, making them collide and explode.
    "You didn't really think I would've just stood there and take the blow, right?" Slur stuck her tongue out at Ura. Slur shot a large, purple beam at Ura, but he dodged the beam.
    "Okay, I'm stepping into this now!" Artemis yelled. They grabbed a dagger from their pocket and dashed towards Slur, trying to get her with the dagger, but missed. A gauntlet made from light formed around Slur's hand, and she delivered a punch to Artemis.
    "You're good at this Artemis, but-" Slur was cut off mid-sentence by Artemis, who successfully stabbed Slur through the chest "Oh would you look at that." Slur looke at the dagger as if she was regularly impaled. She pulled the dagger out of her chest, and hit Artemis with it.
    "Wait, what? How did you do that?" Artemis appeared to be frustrated with Slur.
    "Oh, Artemis, Ura. You two just brought swords to a gun fight, if you were rusty, dull swords. I find it amusing that you thought that just hitting me over and over would result in a win for you." Slur looked at Ura and Artemis, she held out her hands, and controlled them like puppets. She sent Ura and Artemis out of the dark area, and make the fog around them even more dense. The area didn't seem like what it used to be anymore, it was very familiar to Lunarside, but an array of colorful lights flashed around the new battlefield.
    "Now, this is when the real battle starts!" Slur aimed her palms at the children, and shot an array of colorful bullets at them. The stone Kyle held onto started crackling and blocked some of the nearby bullets, but dodging was still necessary.
    "Wow, I knew that these were needed to defeat Slur, but I didn't know they could do something like that." Kyle shrugged and tried making the stone directly attack Slur, but it didn't work.
    "Let me take over, I think what I have wil do more on the offensive side." Julian tuned the pistol until he knew the shot would be safe. Julian aimed at Slur and shot two black and blue axes made from solar energy at Slur. Slur was able to block one of the axes with her shield, but one of them hit her in the chest. Unfortunately, the shot didn't seem to affect her at all.
    "I, I just told Artemis and Ura that just blatantly attacking me won't work!" two medium-sized, teal crystals formed on both of Slur's sides. They both started shooting many colorful bullets at the group. The stone started blocking the bullets again, but the wave of bullets were stronger than the group thought, so they had to retreat behind a bush. The group was safe from the bullets, but they weren't safe when running to the bush. A bright, cyan bullet hit Kayla and left a wound that ran across her entire arm.
	"I, I don't know what we can do here." Alex mumbled, still holding the violin bow.
	"Well, let's see, Kyle's rock doesn't work, neither does this pistol. We can eliminate the other three because they seemingly have no offensive purposes. Now, maybe something else will work..." Julian tuned the pistol, hoping for the bullet produced to stun Slur. Julian aimed the pistol at Slur, and pulled the trigger. The shot produced was yellow, and in the shape of a lightning bolt. The shot was able to stun Slur, the crystals dropped and shattered, and Slur was immobile.
	"Okay, time to end this battle, finally." Alex jumped from the bush, bow in hand. He ran towards Slur and motioned the bow in a stabbing motion. The bow left a small hole in Slur's chest, as if the bow was acidic.
	"Y-you couldn't just let me win, could you..." Slur's sclera turned black, and she fell down as if there was no more life in her body.
	"Uh, I didn't know it would have been that easy-" Alex was cut off. Slur got up, and seemed to be twitching. The entire scenery changed again, now red and yellow lights flashed everywhere. Three more eyes (sclera black, no pupil) and a ring of crystals orbited around her. The empty hole in her chest was now filled with a blue, transparent bullet. The crystals orbiting around her was now a bold red instead of a calming blue. The crystals started orbiting faster and faster, often switching from clockwise to counterclockwise. Alex ran back to the group.
	"Okay, so it seems like that bow was her weakness, but also made her stronger I don't think there's anything else to try, is there?" Kayla stared down at the story Carrois gave her, and wondered what use it would provide in this situation.
	"Well, Slur seems kind of robotic, right? Maybe something like water will stop her?" Julian tuned the pistol yet again, and shot three blasts of water at Slur. Slur held her palms out to stop the blasts of water.
	"Ah yes, water, my only weakness." Slur said mockingly. She shot the blasts of water back to the group.
	"Ugh,  nothing's stopping her!" Alex yelled. This time,  the stone blocked all three of the blasts of water, but interestingly, a small sapling formed from the stone's light grew from one of its cracks.
	"Well, that's new." Kyle set the stone down. Seeing the sapling, Slur sent the ring of crystals at the group. The crystals flew at high speeds, and a stray crystal bashed into Alex. After hitting the house, the crystals boomeranged back to Slur, but not before commanding the crystals to shoot at the group, hitting Julian in the left leg, Terri in the chest, and Kayla in the other arm. A piece of paper flew from the stone. Terri grabbed the note, and read it out loud.

The tree that will end the suffering
grows on a square stone the color of love.
A story of friendship, the emblem of a couple's love.
The stone needs the music of angels to grow.
Lastly, like any other tree, water and sunshine.

	"No, don't listen to it!" Slur shot a burst of violet flames at the small, rectangular paper.
	"Hm, I wonder what the paper means by 'A story of friendship...'" Kayla grabbed the small story from her pocket and set the story by the stone. The stone produced a bright light, and the spindly sapling had leaves and a thicker trunk. The black fog seemed to clear up near the tree.
	"Please, stop it!" Slur seemed to be getting weaker. She summoned her gauntlet and slammed her fist on the ground. Instead of blue lights, large, grey spikes protruded from the ground. Four grey spikes formed around Slur. They revealed their single, unsettling eye. The spikes started to shoot yellow beams of light at the group. One of which hit Kyle, and left an open wound in his leg.
	"Yet again, Slur is getting weaker, but stronger at the same time, it seems." Kyle tried to run back to the growing tree. Terri looked at the pendant again, and it hit him.
	"Wait, I bet this is the emblem of a couple's love!" Terri threw to pendant to the stone, and the tree started growing branches.
	"Okay, you can stop now!" Slur dashed towards Kayla and Alex, forming sharp beams of light from her wrists, and attempted to slice the children. Alex and Kayla were able to successfully dodge most of the slashes, but Slur formed a crystal between the two to keep them on their toes, and landed a hit with the beams of light. now, a horizontal cut were visible on both Alex and Kayla's legs.
	"So, how would I play music if I don't even have an instrument?" as Alex said this, flowers formed on the tree in the shape of musical instruments. Kayla distracted Slur with a sweep kick, surprisingly knocking Slur off her feet. Alex ran towards the tree and plucked off a violin-shaped flower, which became the same size and texture as the bow. Alex tuned the violin and started playing a simple melody. A bright light flashed again, and the tree grew again, now taller than Julian and the flowers were now bright, colorful fruits. The fog cleared again, but the terrain was still flashing red and yellow. However, the fog was clear enough for the last ingredient, sunlight, to come in.
	"N-no! Please stop it! I don't want to die this way!" Slur tried resisting the tree, but couldn't. Slur decided to grow along with the tree. Another ring of crystals started orbiting around her, and two large, black wings sprouted from her shoulders. The wings seemed to have been comprised of red and black bullets. The crystals also grew, going from a four sided shape to a twelve sided shape, there was a glow with each individual crystal, they seemed to be producing an endless amount of bullets. The four grey spikes started flashing bright colors, and gained another eye that didn't match the other eye, but seemed familiar. The new eyes looked like Slur's eyes.
	"Yes, now, I don't even care if I die, as long as you go down with me." Slur held her hand out, and shot a large, purple beam of light at the group. Alex still played the melody, but was hoping that a few thousand bullets don't come his way. Slur summoned two large gauntlets and slammed them onto the ground. Now, fire was erupting from the ground, leaving Terri and Julian severely burned, the other three also suffered from burns as well.
	"I, I don't think I can fight much longer..." Julian mumbled.
	"Okay, maybe my final attack will end you all-" Slur stopped mid-sentence. From the fog, a small beam of sunlight shined on the tree. Finally, with everything mixed together, the plant was now a full grown tree, and towered above everything else (even the house).
	"Y-You did this to me, I hope you can deal with knowing you killed an innocent child today!" Slur tried to retreat, but the tree prevented her from leaving. The large spikes and crystals turned to dust, and Slur fell to the ground, her wings disappeared, and her eyes turned to normal, and any additional eyes were gone. Slur became increasingly shorter, until she was shorter than Alex (the shortest one in the group) but, she was still alive. The fog cleared, the house disappeared, and all life around the area returned. Slur appeared to be confused, and struggled to get up, Alex and Kayla helped her up.
	"Wait, how am I not dead? I thought I was the source of all of this suffering." Slur struggled with standing up, but she still managed.
	"Well, Zeus planted the capsule holding you, so maybe he was eliminated too," Alex picked up the pendant that contained a picture of Zeus and Hera. Instead of Zeus, Hera was sitting with a taller, purple Figure wearing a dress similar to that of a peacock "Who's this person?"
	"Oh, that's Aries. I know that if Zeus was out, Hera would get with her. It's nice to know that since Zeus kind of never existed now, Hera decided to be with Aries." a tear went down Slur's eye.
	The group (and Slur) walked from the area and met up with Mikey, Ura, Hera, and Adrian.
	"Oh, it's nice to see you-" Adrian stopped mid-sentence, everyone was covered in cuts, bruises, and other wounds, and were all on the verge of tears (Slur, Kayla, and Alex were crying).
	"Well, I heard that Slur was in the capsule. Is that her?" Mikey pointed to Slur.
	"Yeah, but don't worry. We were able to stop the Earth from dying without killing her." Alex reassured, his voice was shaking.
	"Well, I am so sorry if the battle was emotionally destructive for all of you," Adrian pulled out a keychain and pressed a blue button on one of the keys, making Apollo's handship fall to the ground "I know that there's no way to repay you, but maybe we can all get some ice cream?" the chosen ones cheered, and everyone followed Adrian into the handship (Slur, Hera, Mikey, and Ura came as well). The ship flew off, but Slur still had a question haunting her.
	"What exactly is ice cream?"

                                                         ~FIN~



Author's note: Well, this was fun, I loved writing this for you guys! I plan to start the next major chapter next week, all I can say is that there will be larger roles for some of the minor characters here, and new Prototypers will join the fray (Specifically CrashBomber, Tails, and FemaleForte). If you have reached this final sentence, please tell me what you loved about Megabound, and what I can do better~