Every couple seconds seems to reveal another revelation that recontextualizes the entire situation Meditat's in, leaving him once again bewildered as he turns around to find the train of axes raining down on the Fallen as the Devil chases after it.
Watching the clash between two monsters, Meditat just stands still in the air, the blazes fueled by rage in his hands now extinguishing in confusion. He figured that there were two cases occurring, either the two had made a secret arrangement to work together and the Devil was now choosing to make his entrance, or he saw the chaos ensuing and thought it'd be perfect to worsen everything. Though rarely did the Devil forge alliances as he typically viewed potential allies as lesser beings comparatively, however he had on occasion chosen to encounter Meditat during a horrible time with the intent to worsen it. Yet unless this is some strange attempt to deceive Meditat, they seem to be working against each other, as any form of deception would be convoluted therefore pointless. On top of that, the Devil rarely tried to appear as a potential ally to Meditat, the only time in recent history was outside The Peak, which now that Meditat contemplates that instance, never seemed to make total sense to him.
Either way, he rules out the possibility of an alliance, leaving the only option being that the Devil truly has seen the Fallen as an enemy. Thinking back on their extensive history, Meditat does recall several instances where the Devil has actually fought Meditat's enemies, in fact saving him a few cases, however it's always been out of spite for the enemy, wishing to be the one to ultimately torture and kill Meditat. This is the most likely case out of anything else Meditat can ponder, both because it's happened the most throughout history, and it'd make sense if the Devil was angered that another entity was at the top of Meditat's stresses. It was always strange to him, but he figured it to be an odd form of obsessive hate.
In that case, Meditat has the two options of either allowing the fight to occur or for him to intervene. He'd normally only intervene to protect the life of the person the Devil would be chasing after, however this is perhaps one of the first cases where he finds himself having no desire to protect the life of this monster, for it's his own mission to end it. If anything, this would be the perfect time to simply lay back and let the fight occur, in fact being able to disengage would let him regroup with Kokei to ensure her safety and perhaps also assess for potential casualties he missed.
It's just that easy, and yet, it doesn't feel right either. After the last encounter with the Devil, Meditat has determined that they're about equal in power, but Meditat's not at all sure what the Fallen's power is as it seems to fluctuate on necessity. Sure, he seemed to be properly irritating the Fallen earlier meaning he has the capacity to at least be a bother, but with how their first encounter ended, it would be horrendously irresponsible to underestimate the monster. While perhaps this means that the Fallen may kill the Devil right here, finally saving Meditat of the personal pain he's had to deal with for all his life, there's a chance that the Fallen wouldn't be any weaker after that fight, leaving Meditat with a potential loss.
Either Meditat could let the fight play out, and someone likely dies, or he intervenes to perhaps take advantage of a teamup, despite how disgusting it feels to work with a man so deranged. However, if Meditat does nothing, lets the Devil die, and then fails to beat the Fallen himself, the consequences could be far greater and they'd all be Meditat's fault for making such an immaturely selfish decision.
The Devil had certainly ruined Meditat's life, but the Fallen had committed the single most atrocious act in history in just its first appearance. Any chance to take it down had to be tried. At worst, after defeating the Fallen he could then set his sights on the Devil, he'd ideally just need to still have energy by then.
In the second that Meditat pondered this whole sequence of thoughts, the Fallen begins drawing black fog strokes to combat the axes, though the speed of the axes rivals the speed of the strokes at first. But by pushing back just a foot of distance from the axes, the Fallen's able to cover itself with a field of black flashes, automatically destroying the axes close to itself. No longer buried under the train of axes, the Fallen's stone armor is revealed to shockingly be covered in shallow scratches, a feat even Meditat was unable to achieve. The Fallen grunts, or it's perhaps a tired pant, though now that it's created a distance it's able to push against it with a single black fog as wide as the train itself, driving it against the train, working its way up to the Devil.
Noticing the retaliation, Meditat ignites both of his hands, prepared to make his choice. Though he freezes for just a moment upon the recollection of thoughts on that last encounter in the forest outside the Peak.
Never from memory has the Devil acted so desperate, or at least never has he done so without then revealing it to all be an act within the same encounter. He did engage in combat after the pleas, but his tone was still the same, his realistically dreadful expression remaining throughout the encounter.
Even to the end before the surprising getaway, those haunting eyes remain in Meditat's thoughts, unsure of how to interpret them, nor how to interpret those last words spoken.
'I can't stop him, neither of us can, neither of us will.'
Did he know?
Entrenched in the action, Exitium's red eyes widen upon noticing the approaching fog tearing through his attack, forcing him to strafe to the left, using the same traversal abilities as Meditat, having learned to master it simply out of spite to best him in his own game. In this instance though it saves him, letting him rebound by dashing straight for the Fallen, his hands igniting in red flames that manifest a volley of obsidian-tipped arrows that flare as they fly all at the Fallen while he also equips himself with a pair of those same flaring axes with chains attached to the ends of the handles, wrapped around his wrists.
Turning its head, the Fallen draws another fog to tear through the arrow barrage, but in that time Exitium boosts beside the Fallen, swinging his axes into its stone ribs hard enough that the blades seem to actually dig into the armor before they're chipped off by the armor's defensive properties.
Grunting, the Fallen swings its arm at Exitium who dashes backwards, yanking his arms back to pull the chains, repairing the broken axe blades with more flames before he swings his arms, swinging the axes now being used by the chains to fly into the Fallen's shoulders, again digging into the armor before breaking. Quickly, Exitium tugs on the chains and dashes at the Fallen feet first, and from the soles of his jagged boots breathe flames that exaggerate the jagged soles into long obsidian spikes that strike the Fallen's chest, long enough that the boots don't get destroyed, only half of the spikes.
Attaching himself to the Fallen, Exitium manifests another pair of axes in his hands, winding them back with his focus on the Fallen's neck. The axe blades flare red, and Exitium roars before swinging both of them towards the neck, only for a black flash to appear over his shoulders, severing his arms at an instant. It then throws a punch straight into Exitium's abdomen, knocking him back flying with a large hole in his stomach.
Seeing Exitium now vulnerable, the Fallen deliberately raises its hand to aim its finger at its new target, but before an attack could be made, its aim is knocked to the side, as the arm has been bashed by a circular shield made of frosty crystal, pushing the arm to the side and allowing Meditat to slide directly in front of the Fallen in order to then swing the gleaming short sledgehammer in his other hand straight into the Fallen's stone face, the impact releasing a burst of energy that propels the Fallen's body back by several feet.
Surprised with himself for managing to knock the enemy back, Meditat repairs his tools before throwing his sledgehammer and dashing at the Fallen, raising his shield for another bash.
First the sledgehammer does land into the Fallen, knocking it back slightly but it recovers in time to punch the shield, knocking Meditat back and canceling the bash. Before it can relax its arm, three spears with bright red obsidian tips fly into its chest right before Exitium dashes into the Fallen, swinging a flaring ball attached to a chain straight for the face, landing its hit with enough power that the Fallen's head turns. Before Exitium can swing it again though, a black fog is drawn through the chain, severing Exitium's control of the weapon and allowing the Fallen to backhand Exitium off of itself, however Exitium strafes to the right to dodge the attack. He counters by pointing at the Fallen's face, manifesting a barrage of small knives point blank, causing it to recoil back. It only stops when a black flash destroys his hand, giving the Fallen the chance to grab Exitium by the shoulder, spin, and throw him off.
Just as it frees itself, a shadow grows from above, attracting the Fallen's attention to raise its head just before coming into contact with a huge crystal block.
That block is in fact an entire skyscraper recreated in frosty crystal, specifically a recreation of the X-Prints headquarters tower, so tall that most of it is above the snowing clouds.
Not only is the exterior recreated, but the entire interior is meticulously designed to perfectly mirror the real building, as the Fallen crashes through the platforms of the crystallic observatory-style executive office –which flare right below the spots of impact to make each crash damaging– before falling through the floor. Diving through the tower too is Meditat, who uses cables to zip through the executive office and into the general office level that the Fallen is in, pressing the monster down with a warhammer he swings straight into the Fallen's head.
They smash into another floor that radiates to strike the Fallen's back, straight through the main conference oval desk used by the current C.E.O, through that into a few smaller conference rooms before passing a couple hallways, all as Meditat slams the Fallen with various weapons from a mace to a quarter staff and club. With every strike, they break through another gleaming floor, passing cubicle spaces, laboratories, open office spaces, corridors, every room has intricate sculpting to faithfully rebuild the structure, every detail memorized.
As Meditat materializes a sledgehammer and swings it, the Fallen finally blocks with a black fog surrounding it, forcing Meditat to zip up, distancing from the Fallen long enough for it to fire a black streak the size of its arm off to the side, piercing a hole straight outside after which the Fallen vanishes.
Reappearing outside, the Fallen frees itself from the recreated skyscraper, knowing that at least for a moment Meditat would need to exit too. Yet that doesn't mean it's entirely free either, as many obsidian grenades drop on the Fallen's head, each of them emitting enough energy that they explode.
Those grenades fall out of the flame emitted in Exitium's hand as he dives straight for the Fallen, closing the distance enough to spin and swing an axe for the Fallen's head, though it blocks the axe with its arm. Just then, a pod resembling the design of the sleek black pod used in earlier adventures –albeit with a frosty crystal shell rather than black– drives straight into the Fallen's abdomen at top speed, running it over and propelling the monster backwards.
A cable reaches the pod, pulling Meditat to the vehicle, letting him easily launch himself off it, aiming his left hand at the Fallen which manifests a single crystal bullet that the Fallen blocks with the back of its hand instinctively, opening itself up to Meditat's right hand already reinforced in a crystal gauntlet, throwing a punch in the face.
The Fallen's head gets knocked back, but it uppercuts Meditat in the stomach, sending him flying in the air, letting it face the pod before directing a black streak to raze through it whole. It then stops in place, just when three humanoid robots drop onto it, their bodies armored with obsidian plates. Furthermore their hands have long obsidian claws which they use to scratch the Fallen, forcing it to spin around and throw them off, needing to pick one up off its face to throw it off. While both of its arms are raised in the throwing motion, Exitium dashes straight at it, punching it in the abdomen with his arm heavily wrapped around with bright chains.
The punch knocks the Fallen back, but Exitium manifests a long chain with its other hand to wrap around the Fallen, pulling himself closer with enough chain remaining around his arm –having used multiple layers to be able to endure multiple uses– to throw a second punch. That second one lands too, but it completely burns the rest of the chains around his arm, and so he materializes a hatchet to swing up close, however the Fallen flashes a black flicker right beside its neck, anticipating the hatchet's path which successfully destroys the blade before making contact, following that block with grabbing Exitium's chest and throwing him off. This time, right after throwing him off, the Fallen draws a bubble of black fog completely around itself, forcing Meditat who soars towards it with a dagger in the right hand and gauntlet in the left to dash away, giving up the attack.
He brakes and faces the bubble, watching it disperse but for the Fallen to immediately appear distant, about fifty feet away. Ready to close the distance, Meditat flips the dagger and catches it in reverse grip as Exitium dashes towards him, causing Meditat to reflexively raise his right arm to block an attack for his face, only for Exitium to airbrake a couple feet away, tilting his head in confusion to the suddenly defensive gesture. Meditat faces him with an aggressive glare, but it washes away as frowns before dropping the arm, realizing his own instincts had taken over. He returns his focus on the Fallen as does Exitium who equips himself with two axes, both men standing side by side in the air, facing the monster ahead.
Staring back at the two through hollow sockets, the Fallen just stares in silence, perhaps waiting, perhaps thinking. It lets out an annoyed grunt, clearly having grown more irritated with the direction of the fight. When fighting against Meditat, sure he was capable of getting back up and was getting annoying every now and then, but even then there were pauses in the fight. Since the moment Exitium joined, there has been no such pause for the Fallen, every attempt to make space just resulted in another fighter closing the gap. One of them was manageable, for most of the fight the Fallen still dominated Meditat with relative ease, as it only had to resort to a truly impressive attack once and that was to simply remove an environmental advantage from its opponent. Yet to even make that gesture may be impossible given there's no breaks to deal its own attacks, only counter ones it faces.
An exhausted, and somewhat reluctant sigh emits from the Fallen before it mutters to itself, "I hoped I wouldn't have to do this so soon...," as it slowly raises its left hand up to its face as that hand oddly begins to discharge shadowy black tendrils that circle around, stopping the hand in front of its face, the middle finger between the eye sockets.
Prepared to attack, Meditat glares and bends his knees before launching into a dash, but immediately Exitium shouts: "Wait!"
Reflexively Meditat stops, suspending his dash just a foot forward, turning to Exitium before demanding, "What? Someone needs to make the first move, it's better if I do."
Exitium frowns before glancing at the Fallen, then back to Meditat. He winces uneasily before admitting, "Something looks...off...just wait."
Meditat grunts, annoyed not only at the suggestion halting him, but at himself for ultimately abiding by the suggestion as he stays still and faces the Fallen.
Slowly and in a grotesque manner, the Fallen bends its fingers and slips its pointer and ring finger into its own eye sockets, upon which the void layer underneath begins discharging these shadowy tendrils in all directions, though they curve vertically like a beacon which emits a deep hum.
One side of the beacon drives into the flattened city while the other soars to the sky, piercing through the white blanket with such power that it blows the entire white sky apart, incinerating the entirety of the clouds covering over the city at an instant, letting the cyan evening light bleed through instead from the now visible supersun.
Both Meditat and Exitium's eyes widen in a mix of complete befuddlement but an innate sense of dread, having no clue what they're witnessing but unable to shake the feeling that it'd result in their situation becoming far worse. Snowfall no longer drops on their shoulders as there's no snow at all, as the weather has been forced to change by the sheer power of the process.
Slowly, the Fallen pushes its fingers deeper through its eyes, causing the secretions of the void to pour out of the body more, thickening the beacon tendrils more that they begin to discharge their own branches and sparks, overwhelming itself.
Those tendrils begin to bend about fifty feet from the body, spiraling into flat disks that grow wider to about a city block in width. The spirals become dense enough that they appear as purely black within, and from those disks emit a strange, deep alien growl not like the Fallen itself but something like a foreboding hum that feels demonic in nature, far greater than the brute.
Then, the two disks above and below the Fallen slowly begin to move, sliding through the beacon towards the body at the center, which keeps its fingers in its sockets, its body continuing to spew these dark strings.
That's when an epiphany dawns on the Fallen: At first the relentless mix of attacks from both Meditat and Exitium felt overwhelming to deal with at its current power, but upon further consideration, the two of them are simply swapping back and forth. All that has changed is the time between attacks, but the attacks themselves are no stronger than earlier.
In truth, the two are hardly functioning together as a team, as they're doing nothing to support each other, whether protectively or strengthening one another's attacks. They let the other be sent flying off just to open the fight for themselves, limiting their strikes to only the strength of their individual.
The Fallen wasn't fighting the combined forces of Meditat and Exitium, it was simply fighting them one at a time, just switching back and forth. It was clear in its first meeting with Exitium, and it was clear when nothing had changed when meeting Meditat: The two were not truly allies. Perhaps they were temporarily working towards the same goal, but they were not working together, in fact they don't seem to like having to work together. They hate each other, and so even if they try to set those feelings aside to face the same goal, they're unable to do so with the effectiveness of a proper bond.
The Fallen isn't facing off against a stronger group, only two independent fighters swapping back and forth.
So under its breath, it decides in a calm, almost relieved voice: "Not yet," and it pulls its hand back, reeling its fingers from its eye sockets.
Watching the sequence nervously, both Meditat and Exitium watch as the Fallen draws its hand out of its face, all the sudden halting the secretion of those humming tendrils from its body, those tendrils being the ones powering the disks which therefore disperse with the growls.
Before either of the two can understand what has just transpired, they both feel the cold, stone hand placed on their shoulder, for the Fallen reappears between both of them, standing in the opposite direction facing past.
Meditat's starry eyes are wide, just now reacting to the blitz but realizing he's already been grabbed.
Exitium's starry eyes also widen, reacting to the act that has occurred within a blink.
Facing the other way above the two, the Fallen's hollow eyes just stare blankly, the void underneath once again surging with white caustics like lightning in a storm.
All three of them connected by the stone hands, one on the golden pauldron and another on the dark steel pauldron, neither Meditat nor Exitium can move a muscle before their entire surroundings flash black, after which the blue sky above them is substituted for a black void only colored by white glitter amongst blue and purple cloudy streaks. However, a strong source of cyan light is cast on Meditat and Exitium's capes, though it doesn't reflect off the Fallen's body.
Only then does the Fallen raise its hands off the two, to which they immediately dash forward evasively, leaving blue and red trails from where they just stood. Without rush, the Fallen slowly spins around, turning to face Meditat and Exitium who have both separated fifteen feet away, having been the ones initially eager to close the distance but now reopening it.
The two of them spin to face the Fallen with wide eyes, their heads shaking around to take in their surroundings. Beneath them isn't the pure void but the spherical, rocky gray landmass of the Moon, defined best by its craters.
It's not just any Moon though, as in front of the two of them, past the Fallen who stares back is the colossal cyan supersun completely consuming their periphery, for it's so close that they can observe individual solar flares off its surface, the scattering of heat in concentrated zones among relatively dimmer regions.
Both of the fighters have bewildered reactions, but for different reasons. Exitium spins around as he hasn't quite understood what even happened or how, as this has been the first experience where he's been instantly warped by the Fallen, left to try understanding the move itself.
Meanwhile Meditat does know what had happened as he's already experienced it, but he's left to try understanding why of all times it would now happen. He was trying to allow it earlier, practically instigating it by letting his guard down, yet the Fallen seemed completely disinterested with moving their fight, and now it does to the exact same location it moved to in their first encounter. There's only one idea that comes to mind for why it'd choose to move the fight, that being to isolate him from Exitium to prevent the barrage of swapping flurries. That reason is immediately demolished though as Meditat glances to his side where Exitium stands, as it would then make no sense for both of them to be transported.
Any other reason is practically conspiracy, perhaps the Fallen wants to make Exitium experience the same journey Meditat was put through earlier, or the vacuum of space is somehow more freeing to fight in, but neither of these reasons felt right, only haphazard guesswork that has little legs to stand on.
Whichever is the case, technically Meditat did finally get what he wanted: distance from the city where he wouldn't need to worry for potential casualties, allowing him to expand the domain of his strikes. He keeps in mind to now try avoiding physical contact more in case the Fallen intends to repeat the same path as in their first fight, though in the boundless arena of space, Meditat feels fairly confident doing that.
His eyes sharpen as he returns his mind to the mission, bending his knees and launching himself with a dash straight at the Fallen, closing the distance back as he raises the dagger to which the Fallen winds back its arm for a punch.
Meditat raises his left arm, blocking the punch with his armored gauntlet, letting it shatter while he stabs the dagger into the Fallen's chest, staggering it for a moment to wind back his left arm as his gauntlet reconstructs before then punching straight into the stabbed point, knocking the Fallen back a few feet, though it counters with a black streak flying straight at Meditat, prompting him to strafe to the right to dodge it while throwing the repaired knife at the Fallen's face.
Noticing the throw, the Fallen places a black flash over the knife as it moves, erasing it entirely. It keeps its face forward as the red comet flies straight at it, from which Exitium spins swinging both axes, though the Fallen draws its own black fog along the angle of Exitium's spin, cutting through both axes, disarming Exitium to then be grabbed and thrown straight for the moon.
Meditat dashes straight for the Fallen, but it vanishes completely, leaving Meditat alone to break his dash and spin around desperately.
Flying towards the lunar surface, Exitium breaks his fall with a countering dash just before the Fallen appears in front of him, throwing a punch straight at the stomach, landing which propels Exitium's body faster to collide into the rocky ground, forming a new crater with that single hit.
The Fallen then raises its head to find Meditat rocketing straight for it, commanding a fleet of missiles that passes him.
Vanishing again, the Fallen begins to reappear further back to dodge the homing missiles, leading Meditat in a chase over the Moon's surface. With each reappearance, the Fallen sets its eyes on the closest missile, firing a black streak that cuts straight through to dismantle it at once, some of those streaks nearly reaching Meditat if not for his quick evasive dashes.
Chuffing after a close call that grazes his shoulder, Meditat throws his arm forward as he simultaneously regenerates the shoulder while releasing a flame that constructs a replication of the evacuation trains, coated in crystal most significantly at the front, successfully crashing into the Fallen though it shields itself with its arms to block the force of collision.
Letting the train run through it, the Fallen stands in the train cars, the interior carefully reconstructed with rows of seats facing the central aisle. At the other end of the crystal car emerges Meditat, dashing straight at the Fallen while firing at him with a pair of submachine pistols to which the Fallen uses its arm to block the bullets. Able to close the gap by keeping the suppressive fire, Meditat reaches the Fallen and drops both guns –which just float in the airless vacuum– in favor of a single crystal-chained chainsaw which he swings into the Fallen, grinding against its stone shoulder. It only holds contact for about a second before a black flash chomps the entire blade, freeing it to throw a punch at Meditat who dashes backwards before his hands fire cables onto the car to pull him back, reinforcing his right foot with a crystal boot to kick the Fallen in the face, causing it to stumble backwards.
The moment that space is made, the Fallen draws a black fog wall between it and Meditat, cleaving the entire train, leaving the Fallen's side accelerating while Meditat's left in the severed remainder. Just as the open space becomes visible to the Fallen once more –letting its side of the train continue on past it–, it notices an approaching red dot like a shooting star fly straight for it, and so the Fallen fires a black streak at it.
Dodging the streak, Exitium rapidly approaches the Fallen as he unleashes a flame that manifests a large swarm of tiny drones the size of flies, each of them armored with red hot obsidian. That red swarm flies into the Fallen, crowding around its stone body, trying to grind through it with a thousand papercuts.
The Fallen surrounds itself in a bubble of fog to eradicate the swarm, raising its head to find a huge obsidian hammer dropping towards its head, the head wider than the Fallen's body, being carried by help of hidden propulsors being guided by Exitium's hands that grip the twenty foot handle.
The Fallen uppercuts the hammer head, shattering it into pieces, but opening its body up to Meditat who flies directly at its abdomen with two crystal gauntlets, using his own body like a torpedo. Before he can make contact though, the Fallen vanishes, reappearing about twenty feet further, leaving Meditat to chase after it again as it keeps transporting itself further back whenever Meditat nears it, always staying just out of reach. Trying to close the distance, Meditat releases flames constructing rockets that independently chase after the Fallen, furthermore behind the crystal heads are barrels that wrap around the main rocket body, barrels that fire barrages of crystal bullets as the missiles themselves carry guns.
At first the Fallen blocks the incoming barrages with black flashes, but as more missiles are made each of which practically carry machine guns, the Fallen reappears higher above Meditat to stay out of the line of sight.
As the missiles begin to rise, capable of homing, higher above Meditat follows Exitium in his own red trail, pursuing the Fallen too from a higher angle. Joining in, he throws a red flame that manifests into a swarm of countless arrows all propelled at the Fallen, each of them flaring bright red. Facing the arrows, the Fallen fires a wide black streak that blasts through most of the swarm, forcing Exitium to dash down to avoid being consumed in the blast too. It then fires smaller streaks quickly at the missiles chasing after it, the streaks too fast for the missiles to evade, resulting in every shot hitting.
That only serves to motivate Meditat and Exitium, accelerating faster to try closing the distance, prompting the Fallen to blink at a faster rate with longer distance between each move. They chase the flickering monster over the moon, but regardless of how fast they travel, it's never able to surpass that of instant transmission. Trying to stagger that transmission is their best hope, which they try to do as Exitium throws swarms of spears while Meditat builds large drones firing machine guns, which he uses to zip between, gaining further momentum.
Dodging the spears while tanking the bullets, the Fallen remains mobile to which Exitium poses his arms as if holding only a polearm as his hands release flames that shoot up along that hypothetical pole, not aimed straight at the Fallen but angled off to the left. As Meditat deploys three missiles to chase after the Fallen, the red fire pole splinters a far wider crimson flame which manifests into a titanic obsidian axe, about half the size of a city block, which isn't attached to a physical handle but instead has its own propulsors to guide it in a swinging movement towards the Fallen who teleports to dodge the crystal head of one of the missiles, placing itself right in the path of the sweeping axe.
Noticing the incoming axe, the Fallen draws a black fog to cut through the axe along the same sweep, though at that very moment the missile it dodged opens up to release crystal cluster munitions, many of which reach within range to erupt, exploding over the Fallen which staggers it backwards.
A brief moment but a moment nonetheless, both Meditat and Exitium make the jump straight for the Fallen, closing the gap within half a second using a single powerful boost, Meditat's fists reinforced with crystal gauntlets and Exitium's with wrapped chains, having the same idea and entering at different angles.
Both strikes land simultaneously, releasing a mix of blue and red energy so great that they bleed into a purple flash that manages to crack the stone in the Fallen's right breast before being launched back at a downward angle significantly further than any strike before.
Sent back nearly half a mile, the Fallen grunts as the cracked stone over the left breast is repaired as if healed like a body, being the first time its body endures a strike that leaves a notable mark on the armor. That mark is covered swiftly and the Fallen freezes itself to stop its plummet, watching Meditat and Exitium both rocketing straight for it.
As both Meditat and Exitium wind their arms after repairing their gauntlets and chains, hoping for a second hit after their first successful combined attack made out of sheer luck, the Fallen reappears not to change its position but its rotation and pose, appearing upside down to completely dodge both punches while simultaneously grabbing both of their faces to which they both instinctively manifest protective masks.
The Moon now above it, the Fallen throws both Meditat and Exitium over its shoulder, hurdling them for the surface. They both fly up towards the surface, their attacks canceled, but prepared to brake before they'd be hitting the ground. They however collide into the environment earlier, crashing through not rocks but a huge metal wall, one that staggers them out of surprise.
Exitium immediately brakes upon instant familiarity with the area whereas Meditat crashes next into a large spike made of blue-toned metal, though that's when he's able to reorient himself and fire a cable onto the spike to suspend his fall. He pulls himself onto the top of the fractured spike –which has lost its tip from the collision– to glance around to which he finds himself surrounded by many more of these spikes, some ranging from the size of sheds and others into short towers several stories tall. What catches his attention most however are the five huge spikes, one of them significantly larger than all others, standing in the center, though all five have black ballpoint spheres at the tip.
Meditat finds that this field of spikes sits within the bounds of the ring wall he had crashed through, and past that wall is the huge telescope machine facing the sun, several rings hovering along that path and back.
Recalling the recent events in this very base, Exitium frowns to himself, though that brief pause in thought opens himself to the Fallen suddenly appearing in front of him and punching him straight towards the central tower.
Also remembering this base to be the first sight of this decade, Meditat falls under a trance only broken by the boom that he raises his head up towards, watching Exitium's body crash straight through the central tower and out the other side towards the colossal telescope. Needing to disregard the resentment surrounding that first memory, Meditat boosts after Exitium, launching himself off of the broken spike.
Hurtling through space, Exitium's reaction speed seems oddly reduced as he doesn't heal the gaping hole in his stomach before the Fallen appears in front of him to punch him in the chest, again sending him flying, now straight towards the telescope, crashing through inside it.
Rather than immediately pursuing him, the Fallen instead turns around to find Meditat soaring straight at it, carrying with him a legion of missiles. Facing those missiles, the Fallen again begins firing black streaks to cut through them, again all of them penetrating straight through with some almost striking Meditat if not for his quick boosting weaves. He evades in zig zags to avoid the many streaks nearly grazing him, though is able to work his way towards the Fallen, manifesting a gauntlet and throwing a punch towards the ribs, though the Fallen counters with a backhand swing for the face, forcing Meditat to evade again with a strafing dodge as he instead manifests a crystal glaive and swings for the hips, landing a hit though it's just as the Fallen swings its other backhand, also landing on Meditat who at least manifests a mask to protect his face from direct contact.
The backhand does send Meditat flying nonetheless, passing over the ring wall of the base and towards the path of the rings between which there's a tunnel of faint cyan radiance, almost like solar flares being carried through the rings. Meditat flies through that tunnel, sucking him up and immediately carrying his body through, down to the black lens of the colossal telescope, gritting his teeth the whole way as the sensation is burning, though his body isn't directly injured from it.
He crashes through the lens, entering the telescope through the largest lens, crashing through several platforms holding smaller lenses connected to tubes which connect to canisters all along the walls filled with contained cyan energy. The pull of the tunnel continues to carry Meditat through the entire telescope, his back slamming through more platforms and bridges, passing small laboratories built inside the telescope full of adults who scream as they race for elevation platforms to evacuate, already having started well before Meditat's arrival.
Passing them with a frown, realizing their fight is now getting dangerously close to civilians at risk, Meditat tenses his face as his hips project cables to hold him in place, attaching to different platforms above him.
Without even realizing it, he suspends himself right next to a platform where Exitium lays, having regenerated his wounds but seemingly strangely despirited. Meditat doesn't notice as he clenches his teeth to resist the solar currents, his focus set on the exterior lens at the end of the telescope.
Despite being repelled by the solar current, Meditat slingshots himself back up, aided with a powerful constant boost that thrusts him against the sun's power. He screams under clenched teeth against the burning sensation, powering through the flares being absorbed by the telescope responsible for converting its energy. Through those winds, he manages to reach the end of the telescope, surpassing the broken lens and entering the open abyss where he strafes out of the tunnel, freeing himself from the current just as the Fallen appears to punch him in the stomach, sending him flying along the tunnel towards the supersun.
Back in the telescope, Exitium stares up through the broken lens at the top, watching Meditat soar towards the supersun as the Fallen flickers towards him to continue the pummel.
That miserable expression on Exitium shifts to despair upon the sight, which then transforms to desperate determination as he clenches his teeth with a flare in his eyes. He pushes himself up to his feet, raises his hands, and projects a pair of translucent red chain cables to the platform above him. Readying himself, he takes a deep breath before also slingshotting himself into the open current, initially blasting down on him though he pushes back with boosts, fighting against the flares to rise through the telescope.
Flung in outer space against his will, Meditat clenches his teeth and regenerates the hole in his stomach as he crosses his arms, manifesting a circular shield just in time to absorb another punch from the Fallen, accelerating him further back.
He only has the time to repair that shield before he takes another jab from the Fallen, and then another, as if the Fallen is trying to effectively push him towards the sun with every hit, leaving little of a window for Meditat to counter or even dodge.
Further back he flies, Meditat's only able to prepare for another hit, repairing his shield in anticipation for the next strike, and that seems to come to fruition as the Fallen appears before him again, its arm already winded back.
That arm however gets struck by several obsidian hooks attached to chains, many more striking the torso and wrapping around, staggering the Fallen and warranting it to turn its head around to which it finds that all of those chains are wrapped around a large, flaring obsidian boulder racing straight for it, and riding on the top of the boulder is Exitium, both of his hands projecting their own translucent crimson chain cables that grip the rock. It moves fast enough to smash into the Fallen's back and face just before Exitium detaches his cables to leap off, letting it explode on contact as the Fallen's own body shields Meditat to absorb its total force, drifting forward from the heavy strike.
Finally having a window, Meditat strafes to the side and suspends his motion, stopping right beside the Fallen's rib to manifest a dagger and stab it into the rib with one hand as his other winds a bat that he uses to slam into the same spot, knocking the Fallen forward slightly.
Once again dealing with two opponents, the Fallen aims its fist at Exitium –who dashes for a strike carrying a mace– and lands a blow, launching him closer to the sun, reappearing closer to Exitium to follow up that hit while distancing from Meditat, but its following strike is interrupted by a missile straight into the back from the very man he was trying to avoid, instead knocking the Fallen forward.
Meditat catches up to both of them as he dons crystal gauntlets and Exitium arms himself with axes, the latter being the first to start swinging at the Fallen who blocks the blades only to be struck in the chest by Meditat.
Thus ensues a clash of flurries between the three as Meditat and Exitium swing back and forth, working together again to pressure the Fallen as each attack shifts its attention from one to the other. Furthermore, when the Fallen fixates on one of them to reach for Meditat, he simply dashes around him, swinging a nunchuck like a saw against the Fallen's back, yet even then the Fallen has to focus on Exitium to block a knife to the gut. Though the Fallen isn't limited to its hands, blocking the knife with a well timed black flash in the knife's path to chip it off before grabbing Exitium's arm and yanking it close, kneeing Exitium in the stomach to send him flying back. Similarly it handles Meditat by drawing a fog over its back, destroying the nunchuck's crystal end and chain, but Meditat is quick to dash back and use a large revolver to fire close shots, nearly point blank, while using a physical crystal chain to hook onto the Fallen and pull himself around.
Enduring the gunshots, the Fallen fires a shot of its own straight through the revolver as a black flash cuts the chain, its hands free to jab Meditat. That extended arm gets run through by a jagged knife by Exitium who dashes back into the fight, passing behind the Fallen to then stab its back before boosting into the back and kicking it with reinforced boots. While the kick lands, the Fallen grabs Exitium's leg, pulling him around before crushing it entirely just by grip alone, though Exitium has already armed himself with a spear which he drives straight at the Fallen's eye.
That weapon is driven straight into a black fog protecting the eye, destroying it in the process as a black flash destroys Exitium's elbow, leaving two limbs that need to be healed. Though he has time as Meditat dashes back, throwing crystal chakrams into the Fallen's torso, followed by a greatsword swung for the head which gets parried with a fog stroke for the Fallen to reach forward, though Meditat weaves around while equipping himself with a katana held horizontally, dashing backwards to let the blade slide into the Fallen's neck. A black flash in front of the neck shatters the blade, though the Fallen's attention first moves to Exitium who swings a pair of axes that the Fallen counters with its arms before barrages of hatchets support him to cover the Fallen's body, all as Meditat fires a flame down well below the Fallen's feet, seeing that he's not being focused on. The Fallen instead deals with the hatchets, grunting before drawing a wave of black fog that passes in front of itself and for Exitium, who strafes to the side but doesn't relent himself as he materializes a battleaxe, striking the shoulder though the Fallen cuts the handle with a blink before throwing a hard punch to blast Exitium away.
Freeing itself from one, the Fallen turns to face Meditat, who points his hand up to the Fallen's perplexion, just before it's struck by a flood of frosty shrapnel so densely packed that it appears like a beam of energy, so wide that it consumes the entire stone body, thrusting it upwards. That beam emits from an enormous cannon beneath the Fallen, one with a single barrel wide like a rocket's thruster, though the most unique aspect of the construct is its incredible length as a tower in its own right, for it needs to be in order to store the amount of material being fired all at once. It doesn't use its entire ammunition though before that beam of shrapnel is challenged by a beam of pure black fog, which devours the tower whole.
Grunting, the Fallen turns towards Meditat who claps his hands together, his arms flat, hands upright, the clasp centered in front of the Fallen, who a moment later is then struck by two colossal crystal flat hands that press against it from both sides, attached to white forearms that have their own propulsors that drove the arms at bullet speed, mimicking Meditat's gesture.
Both hands meet to complete the clap, seemingly crushing anything in its path, though a moment later two trains of black fog push against those hands, annihilating the arms to reveal the Fallen in the center just as Meditat materializes a large cannon with a single barrel attached to a sphere, and he kicks off that cannon as the fog disperses, taking the chance to dash straight for the Fallen, swinging a warhammer directly into its stone cheek.
Freezing himself right in front of the Fallen, Meditat drops the mace in favor of a pair of swords which he begins rapidly slashing at the Fallen's torso before the cannon fires a round as big as the Fallen's back into that very spot, knocking him forwards for Meditat to erase both swords and use one hand to construct a riot shield as his other hand swings while manifesting a missile which he grips to strike the Fallen with point blank, landing the hit and raising the shield, resulting in the Fallen being blasted back by the explosion which does also eviscerate Meditat's arm, though the rest of his body remains protected by the shield, otherwise only suffering a minor knockback.
Just as that happens, Exitium glances to the side and his eyes widen upon realizing just how scarily close they are to the sun's surface, for he nearly entirely disregarded the environment for the sake of exclusively concentrating on defeating this opponent. His focus returns to Meditat, realizing that minor knockback from the point blank explosion is sending him even closer, but furthermore, he can't see that past the frosty explosion, the Fallen closes its fist and winds it in preparation for another hit, one more likely being enough to send him too far.
Out of pure instinct, Exitium thrusts himself straight at Meditat, extending both arms forward with his left hand firing a flame that manifests an obsidian wall in front of Meditat to block the imminent strike, though knowing the force of the hit would generate enough power to propel anything behind backwards, he still dashes for Meditat himself, firing a chain cable from his hand towards Meditat with the intent of yanking him back, needing to dash to get a proper angle.
His cable does reach Meditat, letting him pull Meditat away from the wall just as the Fallen lands its hit into it, shattering the wall and propelling those fragments straight into the supersun.
Saving Meditat, Exitium detaches the cable, but just as Meditat's body drifts close to him, that's when the Fallen appears between them, grabbing the tops of their heads at once.
Exitium's eyes expand wide in horror, his mind having been so focused now on saving Meditat, somehow believing that by watching the Fallen prepare its fist, it couldn't act so instantaneously, letting his concentration waver from reacting.
Meditat's eyes expand wide in horror, having been so tunnel visioned on ending this battle that the sudden yank away completely scattered his thoughts, enough for his reaction speed to slow enough from countering in this critical moment.
All the Fallen stares at is its goal: the supersun, right in front of it, with both fighters in hand.
Before either of the two can react, the Fallen is the one to dash into the supersun, dragging both Meditat and Exitium in with it, straight into the solar flames, straight into what they can only imagine to be their annihilation.
Through the surface, from Meditat's perspective, they get a glimpse of the supersun from within, a pure white void. Deeper into that void, that total whiteness is clarified as countless white rays that race forward along with them, straight for the center. Past those white streaks is a gray void, like the dimmer portions of the sun. As if through the sun is the tunnel to the afterlife, all Meditat can do is watch, unsure of if he was truly alive and experiencing such a sight, or if this is a sight past death.
The sun isn't ferocious with the sounds of roaring flames, oddly enough it's instead filled with the sounds of voices, countless voices all together in an incomprehensible sea of gibberish.
That's when Meditat tilts his head, finding that the Fallen is right there, still gripping his and Exitium's head –Exitium's crimson eyes pulsating from its white pupil out like the ripples of a lake–, and realizing that all around him are those same rays, the rays composing the walls of the tunnel.
That sight is what awakens the horrible revelation within Meditat, his eyes widening –also pulsating white– before he instinctively grabs onto the Fallen's wrist, trying to pull the hand off his head as he shouts in a haunted voice, filled with desperation and despair for knowing what has occured: "GET OFF ME!"
The Fallen lowers its head to watch Meditat, maintaining its firm grip as the black void underneath its layer of stone armor begins to glisten a dark green radiance.
Exitium turns to face him, shocked by such intense emotion, for he seems more stunned by where he finds himself. His attention is grabbed personally when Meditat faces him and declares, "EXITIUM, WE NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE!"
He then turns to face the edges of the tunnel, sharpening his glare in intense concentration, trying to recall how to open a branch of his own. He attempts to conjure the thought of a location he'd want to return to, home.
Yet he's unable to, not when half of it is gone.
Overwhelmed by the unexpected consequence of flying into the sun as well as the genuine terror from Meditat's voice, Exitium nods his head and reaches his open hands forward in an attempt to construct a tool for them, able to release a crimson flame, but it disperses without shaping into anything. Perplexed, he tries again, setting his other hand ablaze, only for it to extinguish after.
Trying to free himself using his hands physically, Meditat grunts as Exitium looks at him in bafflement. Meditat then turns his head upon noticing that the rays passing them from above begin to bend up, forming a branch as more rays conform to this newly forming fork. The Fallen raises its head to it, and the three suddenly rise to the ceiling, entering through the different branch to which Meditat faces down this branch, finding a black void at the end to which he grunts aggressively, returning to hitting the Fallen's stone wrist desperately. He then claws at it while swaying his body back and forth, trying to swing off the hold, using anything that comes to mind to loosen the grip.
Meditat switches back to trying to punch the wrist, doing anything he can, with one of the punches discharging a blue spark that makes the Fallen grunt in pain, though only tenses the hold, all of which Exitium watches.
Noticing the glimmer of success, Meditat tries harder to punch the wrist, hoping to activate the same spark upon recognizing that it can perhaps damage the monster. He doesn't stop attacking ferociously, his punches are not perfect as he has to curve his hits, but it's all he can do from this position. Another punch lands with blue sparks, enough to make the Fallen chuff and nearly loosen its hold, though it tightens it once again, fighting to maintain its grip.
Also intrigued by the sparks, Exitium begins trying to free himself too, first trying to peel up the individual fingers gripping him, but when that's unsuccessful he starts trying to follow Meditat's procedure and begins punching the wrist, hoping to repeat the same effect.
As Meditat repeatedly tries to weaken the tenacity restraining him, all of the rays surrounding them begin to shift colors, changing into an azure blue tone which pulls Meditat's attention to the side, aghast.
Returning its gaze forward, the Fallen watches the rays encompassing their tunnel then transform into a cyan shade, then turns its attention down to Exitium.
Still unable to trigger even one spark, Exitium begins losing hope as his attention wanders towards the recoloring rays with a mixture of awe and sheer puzzlement at the sight. Furthermore, those rays again start to change, oddly shifting back to a white color, seemingly returning to their former tone as if nothing has happened.
Even Meditat's initially perplexed, but he then turns to face down the tunnel, realizing that unlike last time, the rays aren't bending to close off the tunnel, but rather that black void begins approaching quickly, or rather they approach it.
Again Meditat tries to aggressively peel the Fallen's grip off him, switching between punching the wrist and scratching it, doing anything he can. Yet no matter how fast he strikes the wrist, he's unable to ignite those blue sparks, and so not a single one of his attempts seems to even be perceived by the Fallen for it's entirely unbothered, raising its gaze up to the void.
Exitium turns to the void too, entranced by the ethereal sight, dropping his arms to the side as a surrender.
Meditat doesn't stop, continuing to pry at the Fallen's hands all as they reach the end of the tunnel towards the darkness, as they reach the edge of the tunnel where the rays cannot go any further, for they do not dissipate, they do not fade, they do not turn, they simply continue up to the void, up to the edge of the abyss, up to the end of infinity.