The Simulacrum

The very fabric of the Abyss shook as the final, terrible form of the Lord of Inanna coalesced into being.

The wingless Noir Irdu Inanna became a nucleus, a seed of spite and rage around which a new, more terrible reality crystallised. The coalescing energies did not simply wrap around him; they subsumed him. His mortal flesh, his Abyssal form, vanished into the heart of the gestating horror.

From the wellspring of violet light and the black ichor of his own sorcery, the avatar rose.

It was a colossus of rage, an effigy of blazing violet and crystalline void well over five meters tall. The light was not gentle; it was a violent, amethyst radiation that bled into the air, casting long, distorted shadows that writhed like dying things. It was a brilliant, agonised luminescence that screamed of power on the verge of collapse. This violet fire wasn't merely held by the form; it was its lifeblood, pulsing through crystalline veins in sickening, rhythmic throbs that mirrored a dark and furious heart.

The head of this avatar of hatred was of the same obsidian-black material, without any discernible features. Then, without warning, there was a crack in the smooth visage that spread in a jagged line across where a mouth would be, and from it poured not only more amethyst flames, but a roar that was both an explosion of sound and a concussive wave of pure force, a pressure against the eardrums and the soul.

Its torso was a broad, sculpted chest of interlocking black shards, reminiscent of volcanic glass. Through the seams between these plates, the violet light blazed brightest, as if a captive star was attempting to break free from its geological prison. Its enormous arms were unnaturally thick and long, ending in enormous knuckles topped by crystalline claws of solidified night, each digit a wicked shard capable of rending steel and stone alike.

In contrast, its legs were peculiarly spindly, reverse-jointed limbs of the same black crystal, bending at angles that defied natural anatomy. These too pulsed with the internal violet glow, and the feet, great, taloned things, carried it with an impossible gait.

<... Okay, so I don't want to be a wet blanket or anything, but where exactly did that come from? Yeah, sure, final bosses having multiple phases and forms were a grand tradition both in games and battle shounen stories, with the mediums liberally borrowing ideas from each other, but where in the scenario did we have a Watsonian inkling of Crowy ever turning into something like that?!>

"What the hell am I looking at?!" Joshua exclaimed in a stunned whisper.

<Exactly! What even is that thing? Was that even supposed to be here? Hey, bitey bastard? Was this your fault, too?>

"Don't worry about that, Boy!" Deus snapped at him and readied her bow again. "Just think that now his outside matches his inside!"

"That's not a proper answer..." he grumbled, yet soon got back on his feet and readied himself. "Fine. Let's finish this before he turns into something even bigger!"

"Ah! Don't jinx it!" Eleanor interjected, her voice hoarse and strained as she landed by the side of the childhood friend couple. She was still clutching at her throat, wincing every so often, yet she was determined to fight on.

<Huh. No answer. Did he really leave, or—>

«Sly/Underhanded/approaching from the back.»

<Oh, there you are. So, were you the one responsible for—?>

«I/me/myself will not be forced/ridiculed/defined. Your approach/vector will fail. I will find/track/encompass you.»

<What are you even—? Ouch! ... Aaand now he's gone again. Geez.>

"Look out!" Neige exclaimed from above as the Lord of Inanna's new, destructive form started to move, and it moved with much greater speed and finesse than one would have expected from such a monstrosity. The very air shimmered as the colossal body burst into motion, leaving behind a streak of violet afterimages that slowly dissolved into motes of light.

The avatar raised a massive crystalline claw, then brought it down upon Deus and the others with terrifying speed. Joshua moved to shield her, but got sent flying back by a mere aftershock from the attack. Deus and Eleanor narrowly dodged the main impact, and yet even the wind pressure from the descending limb was enough to send them both stumbling backwards.

Joshua yelled, "Holy crap, this thing is fast!" as he used his wings to break the momentum of his fall, sliding across the cracked ground.

The monstrous avatar of the Lord of Inanna let out another ear-splitting roar, its featureless face now cracked and split open wider. The violet energy within pulsed and throbbed, and its form blurred for a moment, as if struggling to maintain its shape. Then, enormous spikes sprouted from its enormous arms and back, made of the jet-black, inky substance of the main body, and with a fling of its limbs, it launched them at the heroes.

"Scatter!" Deus commanded, and her words were heeded immediately.

The spikes shot through the air, each one trailing a wisp of violet fire, and they impacted the ground with a series of deafening explosions that shook not only the crater, but also blew large chunks out of the still-standing remains of Castle Shamash. Each detonation was a vortex of destructive energy, tearing at the very fabric of the world. Joshua and the others were already in motion, their forms blurring as they weaved through the chaotic assault.

"Is he out of his mind!?" the Celestial girl yelled in outrage after dodging a projectile, only to answer it with an arrow of her own. Unfortunately, the missile of light bounced off the crystalline exoskeleton of the avatar, barely making a mark on its dark surface.

"Wasn't that already obviously even before he turned into that thing?!" Joshua quipped back, making Deus stop for a moment and glare at him.

"Don't mouth me, Boy! This isn't the time!"

Meanwhile, Neige also tried to counter the projectiles with ice spears of her own, while Eleanor kept dodging, her mouth silently whispering, "Ah... I knew I shouldn't have used True Dragon Fire yet..."

<I guess the bony bastard really is gone for now. Good. That means I can finally start working on this... mess. In peace. But where do I even begin?>

The destruction wrought by the amethyst explosions didn't only affect the young heroes. Even the feuding patriarchs of House Ninhursag and Ninurta were forced to interrupt their battle, scattering to avoid the unpredictable bombardment.

On the other side of the battlefield, the battle between Penelope, Amelia, and the Nergal Patriarch was also disrupted. The brutish Lord of the Abyss was forced to abandon his assault to shield himself from the falling debris and shockwaves.

<Right. This is the final battle, so dividing the party like this is not great. Let's see what I can do about that...>

"{Amelia, we need to focus on Noir. We're running out of time.}"

Judy's transmission made the bespectacled girl turn a pair of unamused eyes her way, behind the Matron's protective bubble, and she yelled, "Don't you think I know?! Grimmy also keeps pestering me, but we have our hands full here!"

As if to accentuate his words, Penelope was sent flying by the warhammer in the Abyssal Lord's hand, caught off-guard after her footing was compromised by Noir's avatar of rage shaking the ground underneath them.

"{I'll have Elly tag you out, then you can focus on ranged support. She can't get close to Noir, anyway.}"

Right on time, Eleanor's pained groan was audible from across the crater, as she narrowly avoided a sweeping claw from the violet monstrosity. As powerful as her draconic form was, she was too drained from her last attack to fight with her usual ferocity. Lacking any means to attack at range at the moment, she would certainly better serve against the Lord of Nergal than the colossal form of the Lord of Inanna. Amelia, too, seemed to grasp that much.

"Fine! Tell her to come and back up Penelope, and then I'll—"

<Aaand that should do it. Go.>

However, before they could make good on their plan, the whole battlefield came to a momentary halt as a sudden guitar riff overpowered the clamour of the fighting, the beginning of a rock opera anthem that resounded across the crater and the ruins of the castle.

"There's nothing to fear! The Axis of Evil is here!"

In tandem with the music emanating from somewhere, a familiar group made their entrance, appearing from the sky, the shadows of the broken walls, and even one rising from a fissure in the ground. All dressed in the colour-inverted suits of Bel of the Abyss and wearing featureless black-and-white masks, they descended into the battlefield with a bombastic flair that completely undermined the dire nature of the situation.

<Hey! I'm just working with what I have on hand.>

«Specious/Preposterous. Are you taunting/baiting? I'm the predator/hunter/investigator, not you.»

<Oh, and now you're back too. Where are you even...?>

«Your trace/scent, I follow/sort. Soon, I will grab/hold/question. Prepare/Dread.»

<Ow, hey! Don't just barge in here like that and... he's gone again, isn't he? Goddamn bony primadonna.>

...

"Oh, crap. Not these clowns again, not now!" Josh yelled in a voice equal parts outraged and exhausted. "The whole Abyss is about to explode! We don't have time for—!"

However, before he could finish talking, everyone froze mid-motion again, even the Lord of Inanna's monstrous form, as the last member of the Axis of Evil descended from the sky on feathered wings, landing right behind Belette Ugur Nergal with a thud. Then, before the bullish Abyssal Lord could even understand the situation, the burly man wrapped his arms around his waist from behind and, with an effort that made the dapper tailcoat stretch taut over his bulging muscles, lifted him into the air in a perfect suplex.

"Whaaa—!?"

The man's horned head hit the grey ground with a resounding crack, and the rest of his body followed with an even louder one, his weapon rolling to the side. For a long moment, he was lying on his back, but then he roared with outrage as he scrambled back to his feet and looked back at the man who had so brazenly attacked him.

"What is the meaning of this, minion of the Emperor!?"

"Oh, this?" The masked man made a theatrical scraping bow, his arm movements mirrored by his wings, while the rock opera anthem in the background swelled into a triumphant chorus. "We're simply following the orders of the Emperor. Did you really think he didn't foresee your betrayal and make contingency plans?"

"What are you blathering about? What betrayal!?"

Belette Ugur Nergal was all too eager to join the fight beforehand, never bothering to question the state of affairs, and so he was still completely unaware of Noir's backstabbing of Bel of the Abyss. The dapper man simply chuckled and pointed up at the giant violet monstrosity, a gesture that was as much theatrical as it was accusatory.

"Being unaware of a law does not excuse the crime, my good man, but even if you were an unwitting accomplice, looking at this ugly creature should have at least made you wonder if you're on the right side of history."

"I... erm..."

Flabbergasted by the development, the Lord of Nergal didn't have a witty rebuttal, and he wasn't the only one. The Ninurta and Ninhursag patriarchs also stopped their struggle, and their heads snapped in the direction of the Axis of Evil, their confusion plain as day, and the less said about our heroes, the better.

"I'm... so confused right now..." Joshua uttered in a daze, and despite the incessant music, he could be heard clearly by all of the others around him.

"That makes two of us, Boy," Deus answered, her bow still at the ready and eyeing the masked troupe with suspicion.

It was then that the song in the background came to a literal screeching halt, and the winged man, seemingly the spokesperson of the whole group, turned to face the bubble barrier in the heart of the battlefield and pointed a finger-gun at the people inside.

"This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we in the business colloquially call a 'heel-face-turn'!" He then raised the same hand in the air and clenched it into a fist with a loud, "Axis of Evil, to the rescue!"

And with that, the masked men and women began to move in unison, descending upon the two enemy patriarchs, as well as casting various healing and support spells on the heroes like a well-oiled machine.

"I'm... somehow even more confused right now..." Joshua noted, but Deus didn't answer this time, as she was just as stunned as the rest.

"Um... Auntie Judy? What are they talking about? What does that mean?" little Éolienne Ashur asked, sitting in Judy's lap, where she could make sure he wouldn't get caught up in the chaos of the battle.

Judy Sennoma adjusted her glasses, her expression as deadpan as ever, and she tapped the communicator with a morose line of, "{Beluga to the pod. The Axis of Evil is on our side. I repeat: the Axis of Evil are now designated as allies. Cooperate with them to the best of your ability, over.}"

"A-Are you sure?" Neige messaged back while flying in circles overhead, and while he didn't speak up again, Joshua's expression on the ground was practically screaming the same.

"{This has the Chief's fingerprints all over it,}" she answered, and that was the only explanation everyone needed.

"{I-I don't know what that means, but I trust Judy's judgement!}" Penelope answered as she grabbed Amelia and gestured towards the towering violet colossus. "Let's go! The others need us!"

And like that, all the heroes converged to make a final stand against the monstrous avatar of the usurper, their spirits lifted, if also somewhat confounded, by the sudden and inexplicable support they received from their former foes. The final struggle to determine the fate of the Abyss, if not the whole world, was about to begin in earnest.

<And if a certain ornery ossified obstacle remains silent, we might even finish it before literally everything implodes. Oh, who am I kidding? As if I'd ever get so lucky...>