Together, we Conquer

On the Homestretch

As Madran's group went on from the encounter with everyone's shadows, one more thing bugged her, and she turned to talk with Elizabeth and Margaret.

"Hey, guys, um, what if he also summoned shadows of you two?"

"Well, that would be rather difficult. I feel that our images appearing alongside yours was just a scare tactic, and nothing else."

"Well, I'd hope so..."

Madran shivered, with her thoughts running rampant about two shadows with Elizabeth's and Margaret's powers. She then snapped back to attention when she scanned a shadow up ahead and got ready for a fight. Once it got near, she jumped it and began a battle. Two Kaiwans appeared, as well as a new shadow. This one appeared completely robotic, with rusted metal, a doctor-like coat, and only one eye, with a large "4" on the other side of its face. Madran then began a scan.

"Ok, this shadow is Ippon-Datara! He is weak to Bufu and resists Agi, Kouha, and Eiha. Rumor, do your thing!"

Maya directed a Crescent Mirror at the shadows, which killed both Kaiwans and severely damaged the Ippon-Datara. Then, Chicory utilized a Rising Slash on him, but didn't kill the enemy. After that, Ippon-Datara utilized a Vicious Strike, but it was counteracted by Suga utilizing a Mediarama and Maya killing him with a Bufudyne.

"Goodness, that was intense."

"Yep. Let's hurry along."

The group ran along, and Madran noticed that the ground began looking very ruined, and the background began to turn dark.

"Hey, um, Fwoosh, does this mean we're close?"

"Well, I think so, I can scan where the two are, and they are pretty close."

Madran walked along more until she began to notice that it drastically resembled the area at the start. She began a deep scan, and began to see weathered blocks slowly appear in the middle of the air.

"Hey, what's this supposed to mean?"

"Hmm... whenever I touched the wall when it was all weird, I had just thought that it was some barrier keeping us from falling off. But, maybe..."

Madran intensified the scan, and saw that the blocks were forming into the full-on catacombs from before.

"Maybe it was just an illusion?"

The group walked cautiously onwards, with an old, musty smell overtaking the newly-discovered tunnels. They then heard a loud, clanging noise, and the ground began to shake. The tunnel began to collapse behind them, and Madran broke off the scan.

"Oh, shit, run!"

The group began to dash for whatever exit might be ahead, and saw that the collapsed area behind them seemed to not resemble the psychedelic background before. However, they made it to an open area, and the rumbling stopped. Everyone quit running and looked around.

"...Is it over?"

Madran scanned once more.

"Yeah, I think so. Wait..."

Madran looked over at the other door to see it open. Two figures stepped through, and Madran froze. Shadow Elizabeth and Margaret both had walked through the door and looked at the group.

"Well, I would think that the trick worked well, yes?"

"Quite so."

"Wait, what happened?! Tell me answers!"

"Don't worry, Madran, for we have all that you need to know... Philemon simply created us when he saw that you had led yourself into the catacombs, and through us, created the illusion that you were in some underground area of his realm, and not a cave. However, after the other shadows that were created were accepted, the illusion fell apart."