Palmyna

"Can you just finish up your petulant little life story already?! You're not winning now, or ever!" Mal yells, seeing Cardes once again healing. Teleporting forward, he opens up all his arms. A pulse shoots out across the sealed realm, fragments of the broken platform floating upwards as if gravity were turned off. In the air in front of him a large crack forms, a bluish ethereal mist erupting forth. "Mgahnnn nglui hup ph' n'ghft'drn, ng ah'n'ghanah fahf ph'nglui ah'legeth ahororr'e!"

The massive rift cracks open shooting out a massive swarm of black eel-like creatures which begin to maddeningly snap at each other in a frenzy, wrapping together into a vicious knotty mess, quickly weaving together into some kind of structure. Soon the structure becomes more and more clear, first the biceps, then the triceps... then the wrist, the hand and fingers... an arm, a MASSIVE ARM MADE OF NOTHING BUT EELS! Reaching down the arm grabs hold of Laadan who gasps, not even she expecting this turn of events! And with a sudden rush of strength, the arm draws back into a fist, tossing Laadan up into the air.

"Heal from this, you pompous overly glorified sycophant! Take this, my love, my anger, and all of my fist!" Swinging the large hand, he aims straight for Cardes' face, which upon impact will most definitely blast into a mass. Not only that, but now descending, Laadan draws back and comes down into a nosedive, head first aiming down at Cardes, glowing like a falling star of various brilliant colors, also straight at Cardes's head. They were most certainly not going to let this guy get a break, or ease up on attacks.

As Fancy was knocked back by the sudden shield that Cardes spawned, the Chosen Few watched helplessly as the God regenerated again. It seemed that no conventional weapon could wound Cardes enough to kill him. Of course, it seemed that the jester had more of a chance as he spawned a rift in the air which produced black eel-like creatures which wrapped together to form a giant fist. The fist seized Laadan and flung her into the air, and the fist would swing itself at the God's face, untangling into a mass of writhing eels. Meanwhile, Laadan went for the kill and performed an impression of a tactical missile, aimed at Cardes' head.
It was time to end this charade. Adam would leap at the stunned God and impale his incandescent sword into it's heart, or where it should be.
Max would grab at Cardes' left arm from behind and proceed to dislocate it by the elbow, bending it in the opposite direction to it's intended movement and drive his fist into the elbow.
Fancy would vault towards the God and let loose a flurry of slashes in the abdomen. He cannot give Cardes a gaping wound like Adam, but he can make enough cuts to drain an elephant in a minute.
Jack, after exhausting the sudden burst of ideas with the thundercloud, decided to take a small break whilst he replenished his mental energy. Toons and their gags are like wizards and their spells, sometimes needing months to fabricate a spell before using it. More powerful gags require more energy and, therefore, more time to assemble. Due to the ongoing fight with the mechanical Cogs, shops have been selling pre-made gags for Toons to bring into battle, to save them the time and energy. Of course, some of them prefer to create gags through planting them in their estates, the idea of the gag dispersing into a type of tree that bears that gag. Rather unreal, but then again, Toontown is a silly place.
Meanwhile, John had quickly reached into the portal and grabbed his suitcase, the portal making it as if it were only a few feet away, and proceeded to rummage for another weapon. What can help in fighting an infinitely regenerating God? Perhaps a device that would disable his rejuvenating abilities for long enough? He found a gun used to siphon the life force of a living being, a cross between a ray gun and a portable vacuum, and decided to test the theory of whether you could weaken a god through draining his life force. As Fancy began to slash at the God, John would walk at a normal pace to the God, holding his gun close to his skull like an armed police inspector, his eye sockets fixed on the wound Adam made on the chest. He would then aim the gun and fire it. The beam that was launched from the weapon could be related to a beam used for catching ghosts. Arcs of energy danced across the green beam, but backwards, as if the gun was firing in reverse. John knew that it won't be long until the gun could hold no more energy, but he was desperate at this point.

Cardes let out a stifled groan as the fist slammed into the barrier that had just formed shattering it before slamming in his face. Of course Laddan also gave him a nasty slam to the head using her head like a massive headbut causing him to reel back once again. The attacks did not stop there, Adam soon stabbed him in a chest causing him to spurt out a bit of blood, he did not need his heart...He was a God, a divine being! He would not die easily to these worms!

Cardes soon faised a fist to punch Adam away, that was until Max got to his left arm and dislocated his arm causing his to growl in anger. Impossible! He was being backed into a corner. A massive ball of energy formed near him before slamming into Max to get him away. Soon enough Fancy came in swinging with his pencil, John also followed behind and began to drain his regeneration powers. With a growl of anger, with more marks on his body he send more orbs of energy into Fancy and John.

He soon raised his only working arm now that his regeneration was halted. "Enough!...Feel the power of a true God!" He called out as the massive amount of magic he gather soon manifested above him like a massive sphere of power. "Stellar Freeze..." He spoke with narrowed eyes as he slammed the massive sphere into the ground which soon expanded and created an actual event horizon and began to unleash an aura of energy which began to sap at their life force...and the cloer they were the worst it would be. It was his ultimate attack, an attack that he used to try and eliminate everyone. To use it against mere mortals and worms showed that he was getting to his limits.

Vargas, Selena and Kira all had to hunker down for it. Kira slammed both his weapons into the ground and anchored himself. Vargas and Selena did the same only they were slowly inching closer to the massive vortex of doom. "Hold on to something! We cant fall here! We almost have him!" Vargas yelled.

With another agitated grunt, annoyed that this was STILL ONGOING... Mal had finally snapped his last chord, as he anchored his astral tendrils onto the platform below, even his life force draining from the event. Laadan herself had to grasp down onto the platform as she lands.

Mal was having none of this... if this was his final desperation move, then he'd make damn well sure it was his final! Gathering the scattered eels, they begin to eat each other in a ravenous fury, compounding together into a denser and denser black mass. It was here that the eels became so dense that it was becoming painfully obvious that it was starting to generate a gravity of its own, crushing down into a singularity, light wrapping around the writhing mass, violent fluctuations radiating off of it. What used to be the eels was now a spatial anomaly, no longer power but the dissolution of power. With a strained motion, the jester points his finger out, straight at the singularity, now just the size of a shooting marble.

"If you love your power so much, you can keep it! I don't want it anymore! Take it with you into oblivion!"

Finally reaching, he thumps the black mass, radiating with rings of black. There was a ringing sound, as time and space wrap in on itself, and then, the sound like a tape winding back up, the singularity shoots out in a blurred streak, aiming not for Cardes, but the event horizon!

John would roll to the side to avoid the balls of energy that were coming towards him and keep firing. It's working! He cannot regenerate any more! He's-
He watched as the God released his final attack, forming a massive ball of energy that, when brought to the ground, became a black hole which started to drain the life force of everything. Knowing his dependence of his anima, John started to walk backwards, still firing his device at the God, trying to keep away from the event horizon that was pulling him in.
Adam would impale his sword into the platform to stop himself from falling in. Max would crouch down sumo-style, trying to make the most of his mass to slow down his progress towards the impeding doom. Fancy and Jack would respectively grab on to Adam and Max, as they had no other method of anchoring.
This was just like the fight with Maxwell, except for the black hole. Hopefully they can hold on for long enough before they keel over.
They then became aware of another pulling force besides the event horizon. They turned to Mal, who had just created a miniature singularity from the black eels and threw it into the event horizon. They redoubled their efforts to stay rooted to the platform. John would fall as his feet slipped in front of him and grip onto a flagstone with his free hand, his gun still draining the God.

As Mal's singularity impacts the Stellar Freeze, the attack began to lose its gravitational pull until eventually its power would suddenly be reversed and begin to pull Cardes forward. With his mounted injuries even he could not stop himself. "No!...Impossible!...I cannot!...Die here!..." He roared as his form took him closer into it.

Selena of course while rooted still had magic to use, and she was planning to get one in for everyone that the Gods had killed. "White World!" She called out as she made a motion with her hand as a white sphere suddenly surrounded Cardes before it exploded.

Cardes let out one last groan as his body was now covered in cuts as his form fell forward before flying into his own attack, to meet his ultimate and final end as the God of Truth. The massive singularity soon met a final and violent explosion marking the end to everything.

"We did it?...We did it! Yeah!" Vargas cheered patting Selena hard on her back. Selena gave a sigh as he did this, but ultimately she was proud that everyone not only survived but worked together to beat Cardes. Kira of course rolled his eyes at the gods destruction, he wanted to get more hits in but watching a God die was decent enough.

Falling to the ground, his glow dimmed, Mal looked, for lack of better terms, exhausted. His extra arms receding back into his strange form. Raising his head, he looks at last glimmer of Cardes's existence and lets out a tired sigh.

"Yes siree, nothing like that, ack... mortals, I ache in ways you can't even imagine..." he says, putting an arm against his back like an old man. "Actually, not sure what to do now really, came here to consume a god, destroyed him instead, my plans really went through the wringer, y'know? Ehhh... a good deed is its own reward I suppose..? The guy was a jerk." Floating slowly over he looks down where Cardes once was, the final bits of his energy dissipating, before looking back at the others. "So, heh, sorta funny feeling... this... 'team' thing."

There was a crowded moment as the God fell into his own black hole, "hoisted by his own petard" as John would have said, too exhausted from his wounds as he was pulled into the singularity. The Chosen Few looked around at the now empty platform, the malevolent mist in the air dissipated from Cardes' death. Then, all at once...
"Yeah!"
"We did it, guyth!"
"Heck yes!"
"Good show, everyone!"
"We did it, we did it everyone!"
The toons would run towards each other and go for a brief group hug before remembering themselves and detaching, looking rather embarrassed. "Well, we did it, lads," said John after a few seconds of awkward silence. "That's one Fallen God taken care of."
"Man, I've never felt like this since that fight with a rogue Celestial construct," said Max. "Who knew a Construct of Death was a dumb idea?"
"Yeah, that wath fun," said Jack. "Thhame about, y'know..."
"Oh, it's alright," said Adam. "To be frank with you, I never really trusted that guy."
"He was only a teen who was cursed with a demonic companion," said John. "I believe there are other teens who would have envied them, as they do not know the true cost of the power. That's the trouble with youths, these days; take one look at a demon and they think it's 'cool'."
"Yeah, but did you see how powerful he was?" exclaimed Max. "I thought that was odd."
"A mere error in the ladder of power," said John loftily. "One that was easily rectified by a Celestial. If I can be honest, I say to hell with him."
"Well..." said Fancy.
"Fancy Pants, it's time you come to face facts," the Governor said sternly, now inches from the stick man. "There are those who are blameless for their condition, but must be put down for the sake of the Imagiverse. You may think it should be nice for everyone to get along, but there are those besides demons who still threaten the course of things today. Herobrine was just one of them."
The figure would look down at his feet. There was a murmur that only John heard.
"Good," said John before turning to the others. "Well? Where's our next stop?"

As everyone took their well earned break, the next topic was the next stop. "Well, the two of us will be continuing on our journey immediantly! There is no rest until the remaining fallen Gods are gone!" Vargas spoke as he clenched his fist.

"Vargas...Relax, the next God is purposely sealed as a defensive means. And I am so tired after this battle...I want to relax for the brief moment." Selena replied as she was sitting down exhausted.

Vargas was about to say something but nodded. "Alright, still we can count this day as a great change! But Selena I do love you sometimes!" Vargas laughed heartily earning a red flush from Selena. "I mean, when you can provide heals then I don't have to worry at all! And I do love heals in the middle of combat!" He added.

This caused Selena to slowly facepalm. What an embarrassing thing to say! And then to say he loved her heals afterwards made it awkward!

Kira simply sat down grumbling to himself. Working together was a pain, but it worked out in the end.

The only question left was that it seemed no one knew what to do afterwards.

Listening to the others, the Jester does something with his back turned, his more unassuming facade returning to him as his body shrinks down. Glancing back he chuckles slightly, though it seems even more fake than usual. The Chosen Few had attained his particular attention, them speaking about protecting the order.

"Be warned, there are those that feel that we are the threat to the course of things, and are so compelling that even perhaps the order will aligns itself to them, the Edge has it's own 'heroes' now," he says, somewhat cryptically. He then turns towards Vargas and Selena. "Anywho~ what is it that you guys will do now that you are down one tyrant? I suppose now rebuilding can go more smoothly without the looming threat of utter destruction, eh? Try not to get too bored, Flame Hair, heh."

Laadan, returning to her previous size, went to sitting on the ground a bit off from the others. Satisfied as she was to win, she wasn't sure what to do at this point. This whole adventure lead up to this point. Looking to Kira, she laughs.

"So, another time to prove who's the strongest? Good work out there anyways, when you're not trying to beat us up, you actually do some good things, pretty cool," she says, a half joke on the side. "Or blowing yourself up, for that matter. Try not to do that anymore." She then chuckles for a moment and then stares out into the expanse.

The toons were slightly perplexed in Mal's response to their conversation. What did he mean by "the Edge has it's own heroes now"?
"Well," said John expansively. "We might as well, head back and find somewhere to stay. I feel that we have a lot more work to do."
"Hey, haven't we been here long enough?" snapped Max. "I don't wanna sound lazy, but I don't want to be running around this place for too long. Think of the other worlds that need our attention!"
John would consider this for a moment, his gaze directed at a specific point in what you could call the sky, before speaking. "The Imagiverse has it's own heroes. Equestria's got it's Elements of Harmony, Toontown's got it's entire population and every other world's got it's equivalent. I believe we are those who must go where others will not, to rectify the troubles beyond the reach of other heroes. If the Edge also has heroes, I would like to meet them and see which side of the coin they're on."
"What are you talking about, John?" asked Fancy.
This time John would turn to Fancy. "I say stuff them." The Chosen Few would make their way to the portal. "Now, where's the nearest bar?" he continued.
"In the last continent, John," said Adam.
"Oh? Then let's just find somewhere to relax for a while, maybe a tavern or something, there can't just be forest in this area."
"You know, I could murder a kebab," said Max.

"Flame haired?...Well my hair is like the color of fire so I guess that makes sense! As for what we are going to do with one fallen god down there is still no time to rest. Plenty of monsters need to be stomped out! Plenty of dangers still loom! I will still be busy and training at the same time! And when the times comes to wipe the floors with the next fallen God I am ready!" Vargas replied with a nod of his head and a hearty smile.

font=myriad]"As for where we go...We can go back to the Agni Empire for food and drink...Or if you guys are more curious you can return to Maxwell with good news and talk to her more..."[/font] Selena replied obvious that she still did not trust Maxwell completely.

Kira scoffed at Laadan's comment. "Whatever, you guys were just in the same space as me. At least most of you did not get in my way...And I'm the strongest one here..." He added as he picked up his weapons and began to leave the group behind. He clearly was done here.

"Well, I guess this journey is over my friends! Let us hope we meet in the future! Well I shall not hold you guys up! I'm heading back to Agni for some food and refreshments!" Vargas spoke as he got a move on.

"I'm going back home...Maybe go explore the sea and see the world a bit..." Selena spoke as she was also heading her own separate ways.

"Gee, can't even take a compliment," Laadan says, perching her cheek on her right hand. Scratching her chin she looks around at the others... it was becoming clear that if there was any further adventure out there, it would likely not involve these two. Sighing, she stands up and pretends to dust herself off, only splattering the floor with a few drops of goo. Her tone had changed greatly since the first time she landed in the Imagiverse, speaking in third person, and just overall more animalistic than she is now. "Everybody seems to know what to do from here, while... I don't. For the first time I feel... satisfied, which is weird because usually I'm all about LAADAN SMASH... but now... dunno, outgrown that a little, I suppose."

"Sounds like you leveled up, gecko," Mal responds.

"Not a gecko," Laadan retorts.

"There's nothin' wrong with geckos, they are fine members of the reptilian family, heh," Mal responds, waggling a finger at Laadan, who slaps her hand over her face in response. "But honestly, I agree, I've had to detour my plans considerably, but I'm not mad about it, nope! I mean, originally I planned to get all that guy's power and go off to the edge again to bump off an extradimensional tyrant... BUT! What is time lost to the timeless, am I right fella's!? But... haha? I'm now without a plan, a destination... sooo," moving swiftly over beside the portal. "I heard something about a bar. C'mon, eyes-of-newt."

"Not a newt, either," Laadan retorts.

"Heh!"

"You heard them, John," said Max. "There's the Agni Empire if we wanted a drink."
"Capital. I will go for a gin and tonic."
"I'll have a pint of ale," said Max.
"A lemonade for me," said Fancy.
"One of thothe fruit cocktailth would do me," said Jack.
"... I'll just go for beer," said Adam.
On that note, the Chosen Few and John would exit through the portal. In time, they will return to the Agni Empire to relax after days of toil, and then continue their adventure through Grand Gaia. John was excited for this opportunity of discovery after a very long time of familiarity, but he knew that the fight with the malevolent God had tired his comrades. Still, another day, another Skull (the currency equivalent of a pound or dollar in the Underworld).
The Chosen Few, however, were thinking different things. Cardes had mentioned a God Emperor, which meant that there was a head honcho Fallen God somewhere organizing all this. They had a feeling they will have to face this Emperor if they wished to rid Grand Gaia of the God threat. Before that, though, a drink will do them good. As they went through the portal, they silently congratulated themselves of a job, among many, well done.

Epilogue:
The narrative eye will find itself in a dark room, expansive by the small echoes of chittering things that lurk within the corners. As the eye adjusts itself to the darkness, it finds out that it is furnished, a large carpet spanning from the blackened oak doors to the expansive desk, whose contents declare their owner as a man, or something, that prided itself with it's evil; a withered old book whose cover tells of dark secrets hidden within it's pages, a gnarled lamp which emits only a dull, red light, and a black goblet inscribed with a phrase of unthinkable origin, "Hinc decurrit calicem e sanguis".
It is difficult to decipher the shape of the owner, or the being in front of it, but the scenario is the same in all dark places where dark things are being planned.
"And where are they?" This voice, sourced from the one behind the desk, is deep and clipped, hinting of a person who is used to giving commands.
"We do not know, lord," replied the other figure, it's voice raspy and reptilian. "The last time we could locate them was in the Centre, then... they vanished."
The first figure would contemplate this for a while. "Perhaps they've found another world? A world, if I may hazard a guess, that is defunct in stability?"
"We are unsure, sire, but we will locate them as soon as possible."
"Good. Off you go then." The second figure, which was small and hunched, would slither back into the darkness towards the doors. An alien appendage, which on closer examination looked like a large pinky finger, would wrap around the goblet and lift it towards the large entity. No sound that hinted of anything being drunk could be heard.
So... they have found a new world after all, went the thoughts of the God of Fear. All the more for the taking then.

End of Chapter One