PokèDruids [PkmnWattys2016]

Boss Fight

Eros, riding upon Sicily's back, had finally made it to the castle. He was tasked with finding the Marquis and defeating him, and nothing more. Maybe once he's defeated, the undead will go away, since he's evil and that's generally how it works out. And so, he made his way to the castle with the greatest haste he could.

As he approached the castle, he could see the Marquis staring out the window, lost in though. Taking this to be an opportunity, Eros mentally advised Sicily to dive-bomb towards him; And as she did, he hung from her arm, using his claw to use the move Ariel Ace with enchanted strength. The Marquis' robes acted as some kind of Kevlar-armor, which came apart with the strike but managed to protect his body from too much harm. The only resulting damage was a long line across his body and his robes and pants coming off, revealing a pair of pink boxers.

Eros and Sicily stopped after they struck him, landing in the room safely and turning to him. Eros greeted him with, "Oh my Arceus, I didn't mean to do that!"

The Marquis took a moment to understand what happened, deciding to wave his staff about and surrounding the three in an aura of darkness. "Well? Are you going to stand there, or fight me?"

Sicily said, "Hold on, I'll make this quick." She then started flying about the room, releasing tens of magical missiles at the Marquis and exhausting the two of their magical energies. The bolts had completely obliterated the man within seconds, slowly tearing the flesh from his bones bit by bit, eventually completely obliterating the body and leaving but the bones of his feet. "That... Was easy."

"Yeah." Eros then stepped off and started to throw up, having been sickened by the rapid spinning. "Hey, uh, more of a heads up next time, alright...?"

"I told you!"

"Well, I-" Then, in a miracle of necromancy, a large image of light appeared from behind Sicily, disappearing a moment later to reveal a skeleton clad in dark robes and glaring at Sicily with eye sockets holding orbs red with fury. The Marquis reached out and touched Sicily, immediately and silently causing her to collapse and fall unconscious. For some unknown reason, Eros found that his bond with her was also severed, meaning he could no longer feel Sicily's presence. "Sicily!"

The Marquis was about to poke her again, but then an odd sensation overcame him. Some feeling, emanating from Eros' outstretched hand, had forced him to cease his movements and prevented him from killing Sicily then and there. The Marquis spoke, "I'll be damned..."

"Get your bony hands away from her."

"Eros, do you know what this means?"

"I don't care, get away from her."

"You and I..." The Marquis spoke in a calm voice, no longer harboring the furious voice from before. "Did you even care to think about what this field was?"

Eros was silent.

"We are no longer in your world. The significance is that your Equilibrium will no longer save you, and neither will the gods. They are deciding to stay in their own world. You cannot be helped now."

"... How?"

"Magic. And I need you to understand something: I want you to kill me."

"... What do you mean?"

"It would be hard to explain without telling a long story."

"... Fine."

The skeleton seemed to lose tension, becoming more relaxed. "If you insist. Now, how should I start? Eros, I need you to kill me. Only you can kill me.

"You see, I come from a world different from yours, in the sense that should I have never traveled dimensions, we would never meet. My world was much different from yours, though. Arceus was the one who bode evil, and Giratina was the one who rewarded those who were good. Of course, Arceus has more influence above the earth, and so the world I come from is naturally evil. That didn't stop the Druids from trying to reform it themselves, though, and the Druids in that world challenged Arceus himself. He didn't care enough to fight them, and so they were successful in their plights, but they could never fathom to defeat all the evil in the world on their own. The only way to stop evil was to raise good, and so the Equilibrium was built. The world was in conflict, but trust me, it was so much better than the times before the Druids.

"But that didn't stop all the Druids from becoming faulty. My father, a Druid, had crossed his ways with a mere human, giving birth to me. It was truly a miracle. Of course, something had to go wrong. From my very birth, my body and soul couldn't tolerate the magical part of me, and something corroded. Something changed. My soul was no longer a soul, but something stained by magic and unable to protect me from misfortune. I would never be like the people around me. Nothing good could befall me.

"And yet, it did. I once had a pet Treeko, who I adored from childhood 'till my later years. I myself, much like you, eventually rose to the rank of headmaster of the Druids. I was easily the most powerful magician in the world. Nothing could stop me. Me and Treeko- who eventually became a Grovyle- were happily roaming the world and going on our little adventures. We were great together. But, unlike him, I was immortal. Druids don't age. But he did. And eventually, he had to go. I didn't want him to go, but he did. I... I still can't bring myself to accept it...

"And I made a promise. I promised him that I'd destroy all the evil out there, so that he could rest in peace. I loved him very much, so I decided I would. I would quest out and destroy all the evil in the world, until there was no more. And then I could rest. But when I said I'd do that, I was challenging Arceus himself, and all the rest of the life in the world. Eros, listen to me when I say this: Everything is evil."

"I disagree."

"But it is! From the littlest plant to humans and Pokemon, life is based off of the destruction of the environment and other life. Even plants heartlessly compete with one another for the land, killing each other in order to claim every last beam of sunlight. People think nothing of the plants they kill, because there's no other way to go on living. So what could I do? Kill every last living thing? That was the only way to truly fulfill Grovyle's wish.

"Of course, I didn't think that. I knew that was impossible and wrong. But I made a great mistake so long ago, and that was transposing the poor excuse of a soul I had for power. I didn't care about it. I just thought I could do my work so much more easily if I did. When I did so, I gained control over all who have lost their souls, either by force, death, or any other means. I also learned how to take the souls of anyone I saw. Nobody knows how to resist having their soul removed from their body. It's impossible. I even claimed the souls of Lugia, Mewtwo, and some other legends at one point. I had gained more power than I could ever require; For you see, souls are nothing more than a great source of power. If you know how to burn them, you would have access to incomprehensible power...

"But when I gave up my soul and started collecting others, I gained true immortality. Every time I die, a mere sliver of my soul- which is all that remains of it- destroys a fraction of one of my collected souls and restores my body. I cannot die any more. I just keep on coming back. And Arceus made sure to torment me with that every day. Soon, my age drove me to madness, and I started to kill everything on my own. And then I discovered other worlds. Other worlds, ripe with evil, which I could never hope to destroy. My soul cannot rest until I destroy all the evil, and I have suffered so long for it.

"I have completely and utterly destroyed twelve worlds now. I was driven from only three, and that was because I was forced out of those worlds. No one has been able to kill me. I didn't know what to do. I myself became evil, and it was just so that I could finally rest. I don't even try to destroy evil anymore. I just want to die and pray to Giratina that Grovyle can forgive me.

"Eros, you are just like me. For every world I've been to, I've always faced the headmaster of the Druids and taken their souls. But you... You are so much more like me. You, too, can control the undead, and you don't know it, but you have the ability to take souls. I need you to destroy my soul so that I can finally rest in peace. Kill me so all the evil in the world can end, and so that I can finally rest in peace. I don't even care whether I go up or down, or anywhere at all. I just want this nightmare to end."

Eros looked at him. "But I don't want to kill you."

"You have to! Or else I'll kill Sicily!"

"I... I... But then I won't be any better than you..."

"I know what you fear. If you do this, you may very well become exactly what I am. You have already developed control over the undead. You will not die of age. If you kill me, you will almost certainly become me. But... I need this favor. I want it all to end. And only you can help me."

Eros didn't have a word to reply. He didn't want to know any more. This was really only a simple choice. He could either die, or he could kill him and take up his role. He didn't want to do either of them, but they both seemed to be mutually inevitable. So, gathering whatever will he could, he moved over to the Marquis, raised his arm, and...