Damnation suddenly roars with shadows as it bucks back and forth like a bull, the shadowy veins detonate everywhere. At the same time, like with the razor saw barrage but this time spiked-tip chains fly out in an attempt to again subdue 'Glom'. Phantom drains all of the substance on one of his arms to fire a thin concentrated beam aim at its head. He recovered only just enough to continue fighting. This creation was truly something to marvel at.

"ARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHGGGGHHHH!!!!!"

Glom bellowed out loud as Damnation was resisting heavily, flaring up its veins and moving its sharpened chains across the body of the beast. The green armor emitting from Glom's right side continued to press and spike out some of the chains and remove the bodily intruder. However, it didn't see the laser from Phantom as the beam created a big explosion across the face of the juggernaut. The smoke didn't clear however it still looked like Glom withstood the beam-

"Tch! Focus on healing yourself, I am going to look for a weak spot!"

The Lizard scurries around, attempting to flank and get a good look at the monstrosity's build. Nothing apparent is showing, however the Lizard does notice Damnation is nearly taken out of the beast!

The Professor laughs!

"Kekeke...nice try! But it will take much more than that to take out my little friend..."

The Professor then looks at an interesting red switch near him, wondering if he should unveil that now that the fight has gone on this long...

Far above all of them however, on a wall hundreds of feet in the air, cracks begin to show...

Phantom finally decides not to attack 'Glom' anymore and stands in a meditative-like stance. Small streams of shadows flow on the ground and spiral around him to be absorbed. He begins a quick observation of the room in which he was fighting in. The Professor seemed like he was up to something. Maybe another surprise for them. Though what caught his eye first were the cracks in the wall that seem to be building.

Phantom feels a sharp sensation, indicating something dire from the direction of 'Glom'. A burst of wind rushes through the room as Phantom sees a familiar shadow fly past his head and clank harshly against the ground. His Damnation was brutally ripped from Glom and thrown closely at him, the blade itself looks quite worn from trying to pin the beast down. As the dust settles the beast looks somewhat still in peak shape, with a few gaping wounds that it doesn't find discomforting to its combat capability. It twists its neck back and forth before rearing its legs behind it again and rushing at Phantom, channeling!

The events following seemed to happen over a long time, but it only took a moment to occur...

Before Glom could finish off Phantom by trampling him over, the wall above all of them suddenly broke open and pieces of rubble crashed down around. A huge shadow landed with a mighty 'thud' on the hard metal below, right in the path of the raging Voidborn and in front of Phantom. It quickly grunts as it intercepts the charge, and uses Glom's momentum to lean back and throw the undead fiend over itself and Phantom! Finally, although Phantom couldn't see clearly, his eyes were looking above at the time and saw Glom's body seemingly receive a few flashes of light before crashing behind him! Another figure barely visible flips around landing on the ground to Phantom's side.

"-ey! Whatcha slouching fer?"

The voice, the tall giant that intercepted Glom was none other than Gormak the Cyclops! His arm which helped flipped the massive Glom looks like it got a lot of bruises though. Glom behind Phantom however begins to get up, suddenly the chain on his glaive breaks as does the largest portion of an edge. A few slashed wounds appear along its back. Phantom's flank is the other individual, cloaked in an unusual black garb-

"....."



The figure, seemingly a man, doesn't say a word, though a bit of grayish white hair is shown from under the hood, and the familiar eyes of crimson and blue are visible under it as well...

Phantom held out his hand as Damnation flew back into it. The blade was then moved to his back where it seemed to have melded into him. Damnation's usual whispering had died down to silence, but its spirit, so to speak, was still alive as if it still hadn't given up yet. This weapon was growing on the shadow warrior. Something was always off about the blade by the fact that from the point it was created, it could not be dispelled and somehow Damnation itself felt alive in his hands.

Timing was everything with Phantom and it seemed that he manage to do it again just barely. This fight has been going on long enough. The shadows had stopped its movement and Phantom let out a small chuckle before facing Gormak and then the new figure next to him. "Let's say that I had a few...challenging encounters. Anyways it is good to see you both Gormak and hoping my head is still screwed on right, Glass." With one last laugh, he turns to 'Glom' with one fist igniting with black, fuming fire and the other crackling with violent, dark energy. "Now, I believe it would be best to finish this fight. Oh and Professor, I would like to repay you afterwards, personally."

"....!"

Glass overhears the Professor's name being called out as he looks up above, at the screen with the assumed panicing Voidborn. Indeed from their point of view, the creature looks a bit frantic-

"No no no no no no no~! This simply won't do!"

The Professor is rubbing two tentacles against its large eye like it were having a headache, the intercom still seems to have his voice crackling-

"Why did two independant variables come into play? That is both cheating AND ruins the experiment right before the climatic result! Ugh this is most dreadful!"

It seems the Voidborn is completely in its own thoughts, ignoring Phantom's blantant threat. Glass however was looking at this Voidborn harshly. Gormak scratches his chin-

"Huh? Dat's da Professor? Tiny lil' thing...wait...heya Glass you...thinkin of askin?"

Gormak inquires, and Glass doesn't offer a response. Finally, his body language shifts facing the screen, ignoring the now stationary Glom who has frozen for the moment observing and tallying the new foes-

"So...this is the Professor huh..."

Glass's voice seems lower, Phantom notices a bit of discoloration beneath Glass's jaw, around the neck. It looks faintly like the Void corruption from before.

"Hey, question Phantom."

Glass's eyes shift to Phantom-

"Me and Gormak have been plowing through this hellhole for some time, and we found out something I gotta ask, is that thing up there really the Professor?"

The battle seems to have reached a pause...

Phantom was about to fire or throw something at the Professor before he was asked by Glass. The shadow warrior turns around and nods. "That little eyeball up there is him all right. An insane scientist whose experiments are for his own entertainment and he also plays children's games given the opportunity. Oh and to eliminate one possible question, we found out the cannon's weakness except the tool needed for it is on eyeball up there."

Glass's face seems to darken, his glare penetrates straight at the Professor, who has finally noticed the oppressive look-

"Ho? Why the long look...oh? HO, wait, those eyes..."

The Professor's eye narrows-

"Ah, you must be...Glass, yes, the human with the special eyes...interesting. And the other one...some cyclops, whatever. Anyways, you seem to be giving me quite the look, you must have something to say no~?"

Glass's body doesn't really shift from the Professor, however he seems to speak louder-

"Phantom, Lizard, did you two find something akin to the letters V, H, and N in this place? Well, me and Gormak had to plow through a lot of rooms and guards. On the way, we broke a large blue tube."

Gormak interrupts-

"Yep! My bad, but when I accidently ran into it, the liquid went all over the floor, and well....it was some weird liquid Nether"

The Lizard, still cloaked, hears this-

'Liquid Nether? How did-' As the Lizard was mentally communicating, the Professor interrupts whimsically-

"Oh, yes, the blue tubes hold a very special amounts of Nether in them, so what? Its a renewable resource..."

"That wasn't the only thing...further along we smashed up some containers filled with the Green liquid..."

Glass says, his hand starts trembling. Gormak looks to the ground, his eye was twitching-

"Whatever was in that, immediately send visions of death...and suffering to our minds. We heard voices screaming in pain and torture. But they sounded really distorted and dark, like..."

"Like da Voidborn, yep. Dat Green stuff, I felt many cries of ma brethren, I know it! Den, I checked the containers, they were marked 'V'"

Gormak finishes the chat, and the Lizard looks carefully at the many dozens of tubes in this room, and all over the facility. The green and blue tubes were everywhere...but...what exactly is all this? The Professor hears all of this, and looks up, thinking 'innocently'-

"Well, that...would be a fairly logical guess...and probably not too far off. Kehehehe..."

Glass and Gormak immediately react, Glass's hand is trembling more-

"I...see. Well...then..."

Glass's voice seems a bit shaky, he can't really fathom it, but...maybe he can ask Phantom.

"Phantom...just...a thought. If...the labels of the VHN...the letters are named after certain ingredients. The N is Nether...the V is assumingly Voidborn....then....the H...."

Phantom was totally dumbfounded in a way to realize that all of these tubes were containing Nether and the essence of dying Voidborn. Was that some kind of sick necromancy energy that the Professor had came up with in his experiments? Then seeing Glass' and Gormak's reactions worried him even farther in all of this. The H was probably the red tubes, but is there an energy source that would fit in a place like this. "I don't know...the only logical answer would be..Hell?"

((I seriously have lost my head thinking up what other H word that would fit all of this.))

{{ It comes out. }}

"Hell? Ahahaha! Funny you should mention that, originally I HAD tried using the soul essences of demons and other things from there through luring them, but frankly it wasn't quite as stable as another realm..."

The Professor admits his failure, but the condescending look of some twisted triumph shows as it looks more sinister down at those who question some hidden truth-

"Indeed, I did use specialized liquid nether, and I took nearly dead Voidborn and 'liquified' their essences, even now they are between life and death, and...well, the noise of their screaming was getting to some of my subjects here, so I filtered it out."

Gormak can't help but spit in disgust-

"You...slimy *******."

"Kekeke....hehehehahahaHAAHAHAHA!!! Oh I love the looks you are giving me, that high and mighty look of 'morality'! Please! Science is hindered by such a concept! Only one person understood my desire to make all of this with the souls of Voidborn, Nether, and the other 'thing'. In fact..."

The Professor looks to Phantom and Glass-

"That Savior you were searching for, I believe over a century in YOUR Valorian time ago, gave me the idea to use said...ingredient which is condensed in the red tubes around my facility."

"..-! Wait...!"

Glass's eyes widen, and his teeth grind a bit-

"You...you said Valorian...then...the H stands for...!?"

'....Humans....' The Lizard mentally says to everyone present, still stealthed.