Fire, lightning, and whimsically fluffy tail streaming behind him, Scott's final strength burst through the wall of wind surrounding the hateful bastard. His burning fist impacted the energy shield protecting Red Robe with incredible intensity.

"Oh? So the champion finally showed up to play?" asked the robed necromancer sarcastically as energy crackled from the front of his mana shield.

Scott's only vocal response was an inarticulate scream, but his fist glowed even brighter. His life's essence burned brightly as all of his external powers waned. His few remaining hit points flew away, and the remnants of the energy supporting his bodily functions were all that remained.

A maniacal laugh erupted from the necromancer's lips in such a manner that the entire action seemed well-rehearsed. "Gya! Ha! Ha! Ha! You think you'll break through my mana shield with physical force alone, you fool?"

The cartoon villainy was strong, but the true question was whether it would prove stronger than Scott's rage. Less than a second later the necromancer snorted as the annoying fly pressed against his energy field continued to force his glowing fist against the barrier.

"It's impervious to all physical forms of ass—" began Red Robe, just before a loud cracking sound echoed at a volume above the howling wind.

The necromancer's eyes widened comically as his precious energy field developed fault-lines, little bits of radiant energy that snaked their way outward from where Scott's fist had impacted his defenses.

"That's not..." Red Robe's words died on his lips as the champion that he'd mocked seconds before pushed through his barrier completely. Much like a naive college freshman after she receives a confession of love from the most popular guy on campus, the impregnable field was ruthlessly penetrated.

"Impossible!" cried Red Robe as Scott opened his fist and actually gripped the tear with his hands and began to enlarge the opening. "Mana shields don't work like that! You can't just grab them with your hands and tear them open!"

In no state of mind to respond verbally, Scott merely stared at the necromancer with the empty eyes of a soul-less madman for the briefest of moments. Whether the necromancer's words reached through the cloud of desperate rage obscuring his mind, or if that short space of time was used to come up with an instinctive plan, it was hard to know. Either way, he shoved one hand through the hole in Red Robe's defenses.

Red Robe tried to hurl wind at him in an effort to dislodge the crazed man, but Scott was too close to the mana shield. The wind was directed outward and could find little purchase at the center of the magical storm due to the formation of a fairly calm eye in the evil tornado.

Chaine and the others held onto various things for dear life as the tornadic effect intensified several times over. Everything from a utility pole to a bike rack bolted to the ground were used in a desperate bid not to be taken by the unholy storm.

Several nearby vehicles were caught up in the wind and began to rotate with the storm for a short time before they were hurled away with great ferocity. For the moment, the others could render no aid to Scott without being flung into the air a great distance. While Samantha might survive such a thing due to her armor, there were no guarantees. Everyone else would fare far worse.

"Dammit!" snarled the necromancer as Scott continued to force himself inside of the man's magical safe space. "Hurry up you lazy souls!"

Unable to comprehend the man's words or meaning, Scott pressed on. Meanwhile a stream of soul energy gathered from all across the ruined city continued to converge with the tornado. The whirling storm of mystic evil grew more intense with each passing second.

Scott's shoulder broke through the barrier. His glowing fist was now mere inches of the necromancer's face. Thick beads of sweat poured down the man's face as the unrelenting blue-haired monster continued to mindlessly tear his way through the final defense protecting him from would-be heroes. Instinctively, he pressed himself backwards against his shield and turned his head to the side.

All of Red Robe's power and ability were put into activating the ancient force of evil known as Infinite Sorrow. The current stage was an intermediary step, but it was the most crucial. The power had been unleashed, and could not be quickly called again. At the moment he was nothing more than a bookish man with the power of an average human being. If he was killed before enough soul energy accumulated then all his plans would come to nothing.

"This is bullshit!" screamed the man as burning fingers lightly brushed his cheek. Pain raced through his body as he was touched by the mad power of the impossible creature trying to reach him through his mana shield, the bubble of defense designed to bring him to the second stage of his plan. Between the shield and the tornado from hell, he should have been nigh-impervious at this time. A shield that could completely negate the strongest of physical and magical powers, one that was meant to guard him before the time of his rebirth, could not even stand before the power of an enraged beast man with a fluffy tail!

Scott forced his head halfway through the tear in the shield, but could move no further. Enraged by his lack of progress and dwindling energy he bit one side of the tear like a wild animal and began to gnaw on it. Even as he gnawed and tore at the barrier with his teeth, Red Robe continued to cry out about how the situation was bullshit. It was impossible to do what he was seeing, at least he believed such to be the case.

What the current non-magical necromancer did not realize was that Scott's physical prowess was completely in tune with his mystical energies. He did not rip open the shield with physical or magical power. He used both along with other energies. The shield was assaulted by powers from multiple universes at the same time and could not completely defeat such a dynamic, if basic seeming, assault.

Despite Scott's best efforts, however, the light in his eyes soon began to dim. The power he generated began to flicker. His life's energy had dropped to dangerously low levels. The shield began to push him back.

Would he lose to the power of Red Robe? Did he have one final push left inside of him, one that would allow him to crush the man once and for all? Unfortunately, in the next moment the point became moot.

Red Robe's eyes suddenly blazed brightly with an evil red light. "At last!" he screamed, a split-second before a wave of magical force erupted outward from his body.

Several things happened simultaneously. The tornado died completely, even as the mana-shield exploded like an egg caught inside of a microwave. Scott was sent flying away with incredible force and struck the wall of a badly damaged building nearby.

The champion hit like a bug slapping against the windshield of a speeding car then fell limply to the ground below. Shattered by the force of the impact, the wall collapsed down atop the fallen Ferakai warrior.

"Scott!" shrieked Kitty as she began to move toward his location. She was not alone. The others called out for him as well. Samantha, seeing that the others were already seeking to help Scott, turned her attention back to the necromancer. No matter what Scott's status might be, if the hateful creature was not stopped then they were all dead. She opened fire, and even went so far as to perform a super jump in a bid to reach the necromancer directly.

Red Robe merely released another wave of force that blew everyone away. Most of them smacked against a building or tumbled through the streets like trash caught in an ill-wind. Chaine and Vita were sent flying through a formerly intact store window and received several deep lacerations for their trouble.

The necromancer threw his head back and laughed maniacally, becoming even more cartoonish in the process. "It's time to come home to me, my bastard children!"

Souls wailed in agony as they streamed down into their new dwelling place, a prison inside of the necromancer's heart. Red Robe's body underwent a sickening transformation as the seconds passed. A viscous snot-like substance began to flow from his pores. Disgusting rope-like tentacles grew from his flesh, and his body began to morph into a twisted caricature of itself. His limbs lengthened and thinned, while his torso became bloated like an engorged tick.

"That's disgusting!" cried Kitty as she rose to her feet. "We have to do something!"

Saelil staggered forward while favoring, her obviously dislocated arm. Blood ran down her face from a severe gash on her forehead. "The magical energy surging from that thing is incredible! I've never seen anything like it!"

Samantha did not speak. She raised her weapon and charged up for a maximum power overload shot. Three seconds, that was all it would take.

It was three seconds too long. Just as she fired, the ground rumbled. Her aim was knocked off course and her powerful energy blast rocketed to the left side of the hateful necromancer. A small shop on the other side of the street exploded in a heavy rain of debris and frustration. Nothing remained but its foundation, and surprisingly, a portion of a single interior wall that offered access to a stainless steel urinal.

The ground behind Red Robe broke apart as a massive fist rose up from beneath the ground. Tremors from the rising monstrosity caused the pitiful remnant of the recently destroyed building to fall over backwards.

Samantha opened fire. Saelil squatted down on the ground. While the armored mercenary did her best to earn her pay, the team necromancer drew a sigil on the asphalt using her own blood.

The weapon's fire did little to disrupt the bloated thing that Red Robe had become. If anything he seemed to grow even more quickly. Soon the snot-like substance began to harden into a crystalline outer covering.

The elf maiden took a deep breath and muttered, "It's really all I can do now, but it won't be enough."

"Saelil, aren't you too hurt to do that?" called Kitty, as the catgirl came to her side.

The dark elf ignored her for the moment and began to chant in a disturbing language. The air itself began to blister as her mystically charged words tore at the fabric of reality.

The fist rising from the ground was accompanied by an arm. Soon, another arm broke free of the underground.

The dark elf threw her head back at the height of her chant and cried out in a more intelligible language, "Come to me, my child!"

Her eyes soon rolled back in her head as her life energy was used to fuel the power of her magic. A massive whirling vortex appeared before them, starting from the center of the magical sigil.

"What did she do?" asked Samantha before she tossed Kitty a health tonic.

Kitty caught the tonic and called back, "I have no idea!"

She immediately used it to try and restore some strength to the fallen girl, but Saelil's color was slow in returning. Meanwhile the vortex continued to grow.

Uncertain what else to do, Kitty pulled out one of her own remaining health tonics and used on her team mate. Not long after, Saelil's eyes fluttered open. Her wounds remained, but her health returned to the extent that she was now awake and somewhat coherent.

"What did you do?" asked Kitty, while she looked on at her team mate in concern.

"There isn't much I can do in my current state. It was a gamble, but I used everything that I had left to call upon the one option that might help us even slightly in this situation," said Saelil before she closed her eyes tightly and fought down a wave of pain that raced down her arm from her dislocated shoulder.

Samantha shot another powerful overload shot toward the snot-covered creature, but to her annoyance the impact merely sent the mucus flying around the area. The creature seemed relatively unharmed.

A dark laugh warbled out of the bulbous thing as its exterior continued to shift and harden in some places, even as it softened and grew more flesh in others. Soon the monstrosity took on the form of a massive evil egg that pulsated in a sickening display of puss and mucus.

"Well, I'm not sure what to think about that power of his... but I'm infinitely sorrowful that I had to see it," grumbled Samantha before she took off sideways and strafed the hateful egg sack with rapid-fire plasma shots. She rotated between energy shots and her other specialty weapons. The freeze beam seemed to at least slow the pulsating of the hideous thing, so she focused on using it as a main attack option. There were still no signs of damage, no matter how many times she fired, however. Worse, the rate of fire with her freeze beam was much lower than her normal plasma shots.

"What's coming out of the portal thingy?" asked Kitty, before she offered Saelil another bit of healing. Their items were running low at this point, but the purpose of them was for helping each other survive. There was no reason to hold onto them if their team mates died.

Saelil rose up to a seated position after taking the next tonic. She offered one to Kitty in return for what was spent on her restoration, and took her last one to heal her wounds further. "It is my darling child. Bringing him across realms is possible, but it is a costly endeavor and I can't even seal the spell at my current level."

"So, even if you wanted to do it you couldn't have just prepared a spell to bring it out sooner?" asked Kitty before she leaned down and helped Saelil rise to her feet. Her head wound had healed over, and her shoulder seemingly hopped back into its socket only a moment ago.

"No, not at my current level. I can still cast higher level spells if I have the reagents and perform the rituals directly, however. The cost is severe, but it can be done," replied the dark elf before she looked to the growing portal vortex. "My child comes."

A massive silhouette appeared in the whirling energy. A roundish creature that easily stood twenty feet tall waddled out of the light. Saelil's eyes burned with pride and with joy as she saw her child step forward into the hell that this world had become.

"It's..." began Kitty, her eyes going wide.

A new voice broke into the conversation. "What's with the giant purple onion?"

"Chaine!" exclaimed Kitty.

"Me too," said another voice. Albeit this voice was weak and unfamiliar to the catgirl.

"Yeah, and Princess Vita," mumbled Chaine before he helped her forward. Much like Saelil, the princess could barely stand. "Used the last of my healing items to try and keep us alive."

Saelil ignored them all. Instead, she cried out, "Mama needs your help baby! That mean thing over there wants to hurt me!"

"Mama no!" screamed the massive purple onion in a strangely childlike voice. The thing stepped forward ponderously, its weight supported by surprisingly small legs that resembled roots.

"Mama?" asked Vita incredulously. "Don't see the resemblance."

"He takes after his father..." murmured Saelil, while never taking her eyes from her summoned child.

"His father?" asked Kitty in a curious tone.

Saelil's cheeks reddened slightly, but she said nothing. Her attention was heavily focused on her strange purple child.

Ponderously, the onion waddled over toward the pulsating egg sack and sucked in a deep breath. Not long after it unleashed a purple cloud of gas that instantly killed all of the vegetation that stood between it and the hideous thing that wanted to hurt its mama.

The egg sack released a shrill sound not unlike a scream of pain and then began to pulsate irregularly. Whatever hideous thing resided within began to pound at the edges of its disgust home.

"Onion Meteor!" cried the giant purple child. The onion radiated a bright purple light then flung itself high into the air. It was a surprising sight if one considered its comparatively tiny little feet.

Saelil's purple love-child crashed down from the sky and slammed into the egg with an obscene level of force. The egg flattened outward like a hideous gelatin dish that had been punched by a madman. However, despite the forces unleashed by the blow, the egg rebounded back to its original shape and shoved the onion back with enough energy to knock it onto its back.

The purple hamburger accessory kicked its stubby little legs furiously and rolled around in an attempt to right itself once more. It was a slow, but humorous, process.

"Your child..." said Kitty.

"He's mama's special boy," admitted Saelil sweetly.

"Where did you get that thing?" asked Vita, shocked by the ridiculousness of it all.

"He's not a thing. His name is Onion," said Saelil in a slightly petulant manner.

"Ah, where did you get Onion?" amended Vita.

"It was so long ago, and my memories are distorted by my time in the underworld," said Saelil, in a tone just above a whisper. "But he is my dear child all-the-same."

Samantha turned toward the rolling onion briefly then seemed to stop and consider something. Soon, she morphed into a ball of her own and raced toward the egg. In the background a giant made of metal and rotting flesh continued to rise from the ground.

The armored powerhouse rolled around the egg in circles while unleashing plasma bombs. Explosions rocked the area for a brief moment causing dust and raining debris to obscure the battle.

"We need to get in there and help," said Chaine just before he glanced at the barely standing princess, and their equally injured team mate.

"I need to check on Scott, too," said Kitty.

"The princess and I will withdraw a bit and watch out for each other," said Saelil. "You two go on ahead."

Chaine glanced to Vita. She nodded quickly and he returned the gesture in kind before looking to Kitty. "I'll go on ahead. I'm sure Scott is fine."

"Yeah," said Kitty before she lashed her tail and leapt away toward her original goal.

The hero of Ha-Ruul gazed at Kitty strangely for a moment then looked to the debris that acted in the manner of a tomb for the fallen hero. His eyes narrowed and he drew his sword and raised his shield. There were no words to speak. The creature at the center of the city square had taken enough from everyone. The situation could not be allowed to continue as it now stood.

Even as Chaine ran toward the dust cloud up ahead, Onion rocked his way back onto his adorable little undead feet. "Cry for me!" it screamed in an oppressive child-like voice. The air distorted and a powerful sonic blast slammed into the oversized head of the humanoid monstrosity that had nearly climbed up from its hidden lair below the square.

The rotting giant nearly lost its grip on the asphalt, but it was not stopped for long. It drew itself further out of the hole.

Chaine ignored the egg and rushed toward the rising monster. Soon, he leapt into the air his divine sword shining brightly against the darkness. He cut a heavy gash in the monster's forehead that caused its hateful flesh to sizzle and burn. Thick black smoke wafted upward from the wound even as purifying flames licked around the edges of the injury.

What followed was a rapid series of slashes and strikes that tore into the beast, though surprisingly the thing did not fight back in the slightest. It merely continued to crawl upward from the earth below.

Explosions, the cries of an oversized Onion, and the furious blows of a sword wielding fantasy hero raced through the square while Kitty attempted to shift rubble away from their downed leader.

For nearly a minute, the pattern held. The group fought with everything they had and did as much damage as they could. However, a new horror soon arose. The cry of a newborn child echoed across the square as the hateful egg began to split apart. The terrifying wail grew into a loud roar as a being of black smoke and fire rose up into the air.

A maniacal cackle erupted from the horrible visage, followed by the voice of Red Robe. "At last! The final stage!"

Before anyone could react, the being of smoke and flame coalesced into a larger, more powerful looking, version of the necromancer from before. He no longer wore a robe, or any clothing for that matter. His body, now rendered physically perfect, radiated a dark red light that gave him the appearance of a demon prince freshly crawled up from hell.

Samantha tried to fire on the cackling bastard, but it was pointless. Once again he was shielded from her attacks. Her shots deflected away from the necromancer's body at odd angles, while revealing a formerly invisible crystalline shell. The protection could not be seen visibly until an attack registered, but upon contact an opaque film of radiantly shining prismatic crystal would appear in the vicinity of the impact.

The giant that rose from the earth, stood up to its full height. Chaine attempted to cut apart its legs, but no matter how many times he struck it, the creature showed no signs of noticing his efforts.

The chest cavity of the giant opened to reveal a bio-organic cockpit, complete with a seat made of flesh and bone. The necromancer shot toward his new throne and settled down.

Suddenly, a wave of energy knocked everyone away from the area though no one was hurt in the process. Onion fell on its bulbous behind once more and flailed its little legs in agitation.

Ash, smoke, and flames whirled around the giant mecha, the same giant zombie mecha that Scott fought during his original battle with Red Robe. All of the damage taken faded away. The rotting flesh was soon covered by writhing tentacles that formed together tightly to create hideous armor.

Wing bones sprouted from the monstrosities back, and the entire device began to take on a form that seemed to be a cross between a reptile and an insect or crustacean.

The armored reptilian head of the beast formed a mouth that split open like a crab. Fins appeared down its back, and bone spears arose from its shoulders. A long crocodilian tail made of bone slide down from its grotesque backside. Viscous black and red mucus slid down along its massive frame before hardening into something akin to a carapace.

The monstrosity threw its head back and roared out, "I am complete!"

Momentarily stunned no one reacted to the outcry of the beast. However, the necromancer was not done by any stretch of the imagination. The mecha lowered its head then glared at the others with baleful red eyes. Chaine and Samantha started forward once more, while Onion continued to make attempts at righting himself. Kitty, not slowed by any of the current situation, continued trying to dig Scott out of the debris.

A maniacal laugh echoed from the creature just before it cried out, "You pathetic lap dogs of the gods expected to win, but it was me, Waldo!"

Everyone stopped in their tracks once more. Chaine blinked owlishly and asked, "Waldo?"

"Is your name really Waldo?" asked Chaine before he took an involuntary step backwards and away from the strangely named man.

"What's wrong with my name?" snapped the necromancer now known to be named Waldo. "Is it too glorious for insects like you?"

"It's kind of—" began Chaine before he lightly shook his head, "Don't you have another name? Something more... Well— appropriate for this sort of thing?"

"Seriously? Is he doing this again?" asked Vita from a nearby roof top.

"What do you mean?" asked Saelil.

"Chaine's a hero. He does his best to protect the people of Ha-Ruul, but he has a few odd quirks," said Vita.

"You— What are you implying about my name?" asked the giant Waldo, an incredulous expression on its reptilian face.

"I can't believe this!" exclaimed Chaine, before he sheathed his sword and put his palm over his face.

"What can't you believe? How beautiful and power I am compared to you?" asked the giant mecha.

Chaine sighed loudly, "All this time... I barely survived the attack where you kidnapped the princess. I ran through a rotten city that smelled worse than a certain pig-sorcerer's underwear drawer. I battled my way past horrors and monstrosities that would give most people a heart attack just looking at 'em."

The mecha tilted its head to the side while gazing down at the ranting Ha-Ruulian like he had lost his mind. "Fool... I care nothing for—"

Chaine lifted his hand and made a stopping motion. "No. Stop talking. You don't even know how all of this works!"

Vita groaned loudly then placed her own hand over her face. "Chaine, you idiot..."

The blond hero ignored his princess' remarks and made a dismissive gesture toward Mecha Waldo. "The heroes are supposed to show up and act with justice and righteousness. We trade barbs and battle to see who comes out on top."

"Are you done?" asked Waldo in annoyance. He could not fathom the purpose of the blond fool's remarks.

"You don't get it?" asked Chaine, before he unleashed a strangely charismatic growl.

"Heroes have heroic names! Villains have villainous names! This way, when the winner tells the story it sounds that much better," said Chaine in a manner that made it seem like he was speaking to a particularly unintelligent child.

"Chaine! Stop being an idiot! This guy is going to kill us all!" cried out Vita.

"No chance," said Chaine dismissively. "There's no way that a guy who went through all of this evil sorcerous junk, destroyed all these lives, and still proclaimed his name to be Waldo could beat me. It just isn't possible."

"Why you—" snarled Waldo, only to be cut off by the princess' next retort.

"Chaine, that's the most asinine thing I have ever heard!" cried the princess.

"Well, excuse me! Not all of us can get spending money from daddy to buy pretty dresses for our boy toys—" began Chaine, only to be interrupted by a heated shout from Vita, "It's a tunic!"

"What is wrong with you people?" snapped Waldo, before he took an enraged step forward. Plasma shots impacted uselessly off the side of the beast, showing that at least Samantha was till focused on the task at hand.

Chaine snorted and continued on with his rant. "Some of us have to work for a living, you know! Who's going to call upon the great hero who defeated the evil sorcerer Waldo? Just being near this guy is a pay-cut waiting to happen!"

Waldo stopped mid-step then unleashed a low growl that reverberated across the square. "Oh, you knife-eared little shits! You dare mock me so openly?"

"What did you just call me?" asked Vita incredulously, her eyes growing wide in the process. She clasped her hands to her chest and acquired a look of absolute mortification. "How rude!"

"My name isn't good enough?" snarled the beast. Whirling masses of dark energy appeared at several points around the mecha. What little sanity the beast had remaining fell away as he cried out, "I'll carve the fear of Waldo deep into your pathetic souls!"

The whirling masses of energy shot into the air then arced downward before impacting the ground like meteors striking the earth. Several small craters were formed, and at the center disgusting eggs made of flesh began to writhe and pulsate.

"Rise my children! Rise and feast on the flesh of these obnoxious idiots!" cried Waldo.

No one was able to attack the eggs before they began to split open. From out of each of the hellish omelet ingredients there arose a high-pitched wail akin to the sound of a crying infant. Soon, spider-like limbs began to slide out from the tattered remnants of their former homes.

Waldo cackled madly, even as more whirling masses of energy formed around him. "All will know the invincible power of Waldo!"