End of Infinity IC

An angelic being stood in the solid clouds of his world, staring down at a tiny universe. He thought, Some idiots are trying to save the galaxy, how interesting. He considered joining them. With a sigh he looked through some more realms. Being the Observer had it's upsides, he could look anywhere in any universe just by looking down over a cloud. Although some realms deny his requests. Exactly what happened a few years ago, he tried looking into the Upper Prime Realm, where his creator resided, but the view point got cut off, and was replaced with deep emptiness. He's been noticing a lot of them lately. A lot of emptiness around certain places, thus he didn't know if there was something there, or it was blocked off from his view.

The Observers territory is to only be inhabited by him. Unless they could fly, they would fall right through the clouds back into a low tier dimension, maybe even the Destroyed Realm.

Mallis grew taller and more muscular. Spikes shot out from his body and poked out of his skin. Tentacles and vines writhed around him and his fangs elongated. Limbs sprouted from his sides and extra eyes spouted from all over his body. Each eye glowed blinding purple light.

"You think I'm afraid of you? Neither of us can die! Why do you think they call me an Immortal?! Honestly, I am jealous of you. But do you know how LONELY I get? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'VE BEEN THROUGH SAIREI? Tell me, were you beaten senseless by bullies every day of your life as a child? Did your brothers and a sister die from a terrible disease, leaving you to be the next heir to the throne? And did your parents not like that? Did they disgrace you? Were you tricked into devious arts by a dark royal adviser? You know, I had so much love in my before I was corroded. But when my parents banished me and Decay tricked me into going to Dark Mountain, EVERYTHING CHANGED!" he growled. His voice sounded warped and distorted.

"Do you know what it's like to be hungry EVERY DAY? I can only keep myself going with the sufficient supply of souls. AND IT'S STILL NEVER ENOUGH! I haven't felt the warmth of another person in my arms for literally, centuries. Even my own daughter hates me now because of what the Darkness did to my soul! Do you, really get what I'm trying to tell you? I do have reasons for being jealous of you. I'm jealous of you and Twilit, I'm jealous of Ariana and Lethor, I'm jealous of Tharan and Bella, EVERYONE! But I'm not jealous for no good reason..."

He looked at Twilit. "AND I HAVE MORE THAN ONE SOUL YOU TWIT! If you could really see that good into me, you'd know I'm full of billions of them, they act as proteins and they're all merged into my own core soul. Idiot!"

Zal-Tek brought himself up, raising his long neck so that he was at eye level with Mallis.  He narrowed his pupilless, two-toned eyes, and laughed.  Unlike before, it was far from a happy laugh.

"I won't waste your time with my own tragic backstory, because you know what?  It's not important, and nobody cares."  He shook his head sadly, "but really, you think you're a genius don't you?"

He looked straight at Mallis, locking eyes with him.  "You're not."

"I got past what happened to me thousands of years ago, all that I have left from that is loyalty, not bitterness, and definitely not jealousy. All you've proven to me just now is that you're dumb enough to tell me all about yourself," his voice lowered to a whisper, "and yes, that will come back to bite you," he went back to his normal speaking voice, "and that you're just a child who, with all the thousands of years you must have lived already, can't get past something that happened so long ago it hardly matters."

He cleared his throat, blinked, and sat back down in a dignified manner.
"Now would you care to calm down? We have more important issues at the moment than who hates who and childhood grudges at the moment."

Mallis grabbed Zal'Tek by the throat and pushed him over, slashing his face. He would have done more damaged but he was rendered unable to by sadness. A catch in his throat.

"You... you don't get it... I can't love people. I'm a physically unable to. I am physically unable to understand happiness, unless it's evil happiness. I am unable to discover loyalty. I am unable to feel such things. MY SOUL IS ALTERED!" he screamed. His extra eyes disappeared, leaving his main two. They began to grow a different color of purple, near indigo. A glowing blue liquid began to pour out of them. They slid down his face and detached, turning into vapors and sliding around in the air, yet they were still a liquid. He tried to swat them away but he failed.

"W-When you're corrupted by the Darkness, your soul is magically corroded. I can't do such things. There's only one way to free me and the Darkness has prevented me from b-being able to speak it to anyone. So I'm going to live forever in this state..." he cried.

His head drooped. He whipped tears from his eyes and sobbed. He was embarrassed. He'd never cried in front of the group before and didn't want them to see him in this state.

"You... have n-no idea what I've been through... and w-what I've done..."

"THERE IS NO ONE TO FIX IT!" Mallis said. "Don't you get that? The Darkness has rendered it un-fixable... Actually, I take it back. There is one way to fix it. But I'm not going to tell you. Besides, it's weird." He looked at Twilit. "Have you been forced to go back to your home, kill your parents, assault your sister, devour little kids in a nursery, attempt to drown innocent people? Have you ever been forced into a situation called the Corrosion where your body is magically charmed with torturous dissemblance curses--which is literally the worst pain you could ever have. When your soul's been disassembled was it then reassembled into a hallow shell that is only filled with curses? Are you ever day of you life met with coldness?" He met Twilit at eye level and glared deeply into them.

"Twilit, count your blessings. You're lucky. You have Sairei. The two of you have each other and together you are not lonely. You have someone to hold, someone to care for. You have someone to talk to, to share your feelings with... My minions aren't even other people. They are me. I split my soul into millions of pieces to make them. If I made myself a girlfriend, I'd be dating myself" Mallis went on. "And thanks to my corruption, nobody has found favor in me. You might have had a tragic history, but do you have a tragic present-day?"

"I've never said it to any of you before, but I honestly am quite lonely. I'd be satisfied even with a regular friend, even if it wasn't some sort of mate or wife. The closest person I've had to a friend since the Corrosion has been the Destroyer named Corruption. And he was more of a business partner anyways!" He turned from Twilit and looked at Sairei.

"Do you want to see Keros? I'll take you there. You can see what I mean" Mallis offered.

Zal-Tek was not normally one to sympathize with people, but he had to admit that Mallis had it worse off than him.  He bowed his head slightly, ignoring the cut across his face.  It would heal within days, and he had taken much worse without scarring.

He looked at Mallis for a moment, then had a thought.  He brought a paw up in front of his face and closed it.  His eyes flashed, and when he opened his paw there was a single pure black scale in it, a small hole drilled through the base for a cord of some sort of dark material.  Zal-Tek took a deep breath, then put it around his neck.

Instantly the area seemed to darken slightly, and there was a presence about the room, as if some dark creature was watching them.  This wasn't far from the truth.  The scale seemed to glow, but instead of light it was shadow.  A figure coalesced in front of Zal-Tek.  A wyvern consisting entirely of shadow, with large red eyes.  It regarded Mallis curiously.

Zal-Tek smiled faintly.  "This," he said, "is a Theldrakon.  Little more than a golem, my brother's creations.  This amulet was given to me by him, and is not only the most powerful dark amulet, but the only one that will never corrupt it's user."  He smirked, "Well.  Me, that is.  If anyone were to use it without my permission, however..."  He shook his head.

"Anyway," he finished, "I thought you might like it.  There are others like you, you know."

"I assume so" Mallis said to Zal-Tek. "Impressive, I'll say."

He looked at Twilit. "Well, I thought you would have been aware of that. Since I did try to kill you both as well as Tharan when I was in disguise as Arcelis. In actuality I've been plotting to kill your girlfriend for almost a year now."

He looked at Sairei. "I know what you're thinking. I'm not going to trap you. But if you're that paranoid, I'll just let you see it from out here. Let me open a looking glass" he said rolling his eyes. He slithered over to a spot away from the group and made a hand gesture. Suddenly a small black and purple orb opened up. He used his claws to pry it open and gave many loud wheezing noises. The looking glass opened, large enough for everyone to step through if they wanted.

"Go ahead, look at it from this distance" Mallis said moving to the side.

Inside of the portal was a world that was made of black clouds that shot purple lightning at each other. Riding inside of the clouds were thousands of slime-made creatures with glowing purple eyes. They reached out their claws to the looking glass, but they could not cross through since it wasn't an actual portal. The sounds of yelling, crying, moaning, groaning, shrieking, and screaming came from Keros.

"FOOD! FOOD! LORD MALLIS BRINGS FOOD! FOOD!" they shouted. "SOULS! FOOD! ENERGY! FOOD, FOOD! LIFE ESSENCES! GET THE FOOD!"

Mallis shook his head, looking at the ground. Then he yelled back at them, "THEY ARE NOT FOOD!"

The creatures pawing the portal's edges backed away, but still looked at everyone with hungry faces. Mallis sat on the ground, sighing. "You wanted to see Keros, step up and get a good look at it. Do you like my home? Do you see how filthy it is? I'd gladly trade in my home for an empty void like yours. One without my people--who are really just me, in there crying. See all of those little people in there? That's just little pieces of me. That's why I can so easily control them."

Mallis looked back at Sairei. "I get that you can't show me sympathy. Sympathy isn't what I want. But do you really think that I have done this to everyone on my own choice?"

Suddenly Mallis's eyes glowed green. A white glowing hand shot out from his chest. Mallis screamed as another body, looking almost identical to him started to ooze out. It had green eyes and glowing white skin.

"HELP ME!" It shouted. Mallis's black form had no choice but to shove the creature back inside his body and consume it again. Mallis breathed heavily as his eyes returned to purple.

"Sorry, that was... me, before I was like this. I'm lucky I'm able to speak this. Normally the Darkness would have used its firewalls to prevent me from talking in this peaceful, emotional manor. I guess Lovius is starting to cut in. But he won't escape unless... unless I find some form of affection from someone" Mallis groaned. "I hate saying that. I sound so... girly. But yes, if someone finally loves me, I'll be free. You happy now?"

Zal-Tek shrugged and took the amulet off, causing the room to return to normal and the Theldrakon to simply melt away. He avoided looking at Mallis for a moment, though that was hard to tell, considering he had no visible pupils. He didn't speak, but clenched the amulet in his paw again. He couldn't send it back, and he didn't want to wear it anymore. After a moment's thought he tied it to his tail blade. It would be fine there, and if it fell off he could just summon it again.

Finally, he looked back up at Mallis. He couldn't say he liked the strange creature, but he couldn't help feeling at least slightly sorry for him. He doubted that was what Mallis wanted, but it was what Zal-Tek felt. Perhaps...

"I'm afraid I can't help you there, but..." he paused, then smiled, "I wish you luck."

"Well I wasn't expecting that from you now was I?" Mallis rolled his eyes. "Any luck of me finding affection from anyone has run out. I've been alive for ninety four hundred trillion, eighty four hundred billion, sixty three thousand, seven hundred years. If I ever would have been able to grow so lucky, it would have happened a long time ago."

Zal-Tek blinked.
"So that's it?" he said, somewhere in between surprised and angry, "You just gave up?"
He stared Mallis down, "So what have you been doing? Just destroying every world you set foot in without so much as a hello to anyone?" he snorted, "no wonder you're having such bad luck."

He shook his head sadly, "I am, apparently, trillions of years younger than you," he said, "and yet I am the one who understands that things don't just fix themselves."

Mallis waved Zal-Tek down. "Honestly, you think I'm going to walk into some own and meet a girl that likes all of this?" he gestured to his claws, spikes, tentacles, and other horrible features. "You really think someone wants to kiss these lips? I HAVE NO LIPS I HAVE FANGS!" Mallis rolled his eyes again.

"But you're right in the aspect that I should try harder... But in some areas, the Darkness won't let me. I think it's not stopping me from telling you all of this because I'm in Sairei's home. Somehow it doesn't have as much control over me..." he said glancing at his fingertips.

"I guess so" Mallis said. He got a confused look. "Wait, if I don't exist, who's controlling the Darkness? He put his hand up to his chest and reached inside. He ripped out a glowing purple organ hooked to his inside by veins made of vapors.

"Oh. Somehow I still am..." He said confused and put the heart back inside of him. He dusted off his smokey claws and sighed. "Well, now that you all know waaay to much about me... Let's talk about something else. I'm sick of sob-stories. Onto the problem about my magic fuel. Are you going to get me some souls to eat or not? I'm starving here!"

"If we were in Keros I'd visit the Soul Snackbar... But it went out of business when we ran out of souls. Tharan would try to kill me if I took a quick sneak into the Vale... Got any other ideas?"

Zal-Tek briefly considered, then shook his head. "I know someone in Arcan who sort of.. Collects souls. It's her job, though personally I think she enjoys it way too much..." he shivered, "Not that it helps at all, if I went back to Arcan now I wouldn't have a way to get back, the planet I had my portal bound to no longer exists." He thought for a moment longer, then added, "she probably wouldn't give any of them up anyway."

The Observer looked down at the robots. He thought to himself, The least they could do is get more advanced androids instead of cheaply built robots. He knew from experience that androids were much more efficient. He crossed his arms and thought about his old friend. He hated them, all of them, all his friends, they've all left him or betrayed him somehow. His younger sister, the Watcher served the Deathcapps. His best friend, the Overseer, worked for Corruption as a gatekeeper. The Observer frowned. Perhaps it was time to go dismantle some robots.

He stretched and took a step forward off the cloud. He fell from his perch, through the mist and clouds into a universe where the Eradicators resided. He appeared on a peaceful planet that wasn't yet been destroyed by them. It seemed very barren.

The planet he landed on was one of 5 worlds circling a star. It was a barren wasteland, similar to the moon, with lakes of frozen methane covering liquid oxygen. The planet was peacefully still, helped along by the lack of atmosphere due to the temperature.

Several hundred million miles away, the Eradicators were busy destroying and glassing a world that had once boasted shining cities and lush forests. Now all that remained was a hellish world of cracked, semi molten fields of glass.

Mallis looked at Sairei. "I thought you couldn't die little miss Fate?" he hissed, narrowing eyes. He looked at Zal-Tek. "Thank you, that would be of much help." He said it in a way that was almost painful for him to thank someone, but he forced it out.

He looked back to Sairei, "You have to do this. Otherwise you stand no chance against those machines. You want my help? I have my prices. You're lucky I'm even agreeing to do this at all. I could just go to another realm to search for food. I could just go back home and not help at all. You understand that I'm doing this in my own choice right?"

The Observer sent out a very strong signal from one of his spirit rods, hoping to get some attention. He readied his holythorn and started absorbing the surrounding particles. He remained calm and patient, waiting for someone (or something) to answer his call.

The shadows watched the figure with great interest. That's when Veriska sensed a signal, it was coming from his direction. The machines were already going to find him, but this way she guessed that he'd alert more of them than he bargained for.

She remained put and patiently waited for the show.