Shades of Time

Chapter Eight: The ** Hits The Fan...

Yup, the above image is the Temple Guardian

"That doesn't belong to you," Goth said, glitching heavily on the last word.

The creature cackled. It appeared to be a humanoid lizard-thing, with a hunched back and legs that showed it was more at home on all fours due to their structure.
Pitch black scales covered its body, with protruding spikes in key places. The creature's head had a crest of spines protecting its skull from damage.

Its eyes were whiteish yellow in color, and seemed very unfriendly.

Puffs of smoke slipped from its fanged maw, escaping from between the two largest fangs that trailed down towards its chin. At each wrist and ankle were patches of looser skin that was darker in color, most likely poison sacs.

To finish it off, the nasty beast had a long, slim, scale-covered tail that split in two, ending in small, fan-like sections that dripped poison.

The creature hissed, and leapt.

It was also lightning-fast, apparently.

Claws dug into the floor where Goth had been only seconds ago, leaving grooves that smoked and hissed.

Of course it was acid, not poison.

He'd rather deal with poison.

Goth grinned, a mad Error grin, and his tear marks faded into existence on his face, even as his scythe fell into his hands.

"Let's rumble," he growled, leaping forward.

He had part of a soul to retrieve.

OoOoO

Geno froze.

"Geno?" Reaper asked his spouse.

"Goth is doing stupid and needs to be grounded," Geno growled.

Reaper was both relieved and upset. Relieved that Geno could now sense their child, and upset because, apparently, Goth was in danger.

He grit his teeth, he just hoped that they'd find the gentle skeleton safely, and soon.

OoOoO

The Guardian's claws made awful noise as he used his scythe to deflect them, acid dribbled on its edge but thankfully didn't damage the weapon. Unfortunately, it didn't damage the Guardian either.

Maybe he should shift forms, his Error form was stronger.

Except he couldn't, he seemed to be stuck in his smaller, more fragile form.

A single lavender eye light glared at the creature, which had white liquid splashing down to the ground from its mouth... liquid that melted the solid rock of the floor.

"Aw, that shit's not cool," he swore.

OoOoO

"Very grounded," Geno said, his single eye light narrowed.

"With soap," he continued.

Reaper fled, his waifu was on the warpath and he had to find the kiddo asap.

OoOoO

The Guardian screeched as Goth summoned his strings to throw it further away, followed by a volley of blasts from his Gaster blasters.

He could hear his battle music filling the background, his true battle music... not his Error battle music, but a theme all his own.

He ran forward, the edge of his scythe glowing with magic.

The first hit should have killed the creature, as even though he was the destroyer, he was still a death god, and nothing escaped death.

...Unless it wasn't alive in the first place.

He slid to the right, avoiding a whip-like swipe of its tail and the resulting splatters of acid from the fan on the tips.

Then he screamed.

He hadn't even been able to follow the attack that hit.

One moment the Guardian was ten feet away, and the next, marrow and magic were gushing out from a painfully broken rib, and several other much less dire injuries.

'The poison, too,' he thought as the pain greyed out the edges of his vision.

He could feel his HP dropping, so here was something able to almost instantly kill the destroyer who even Ink could barely scratch.

Pathetic.

He was going to bleed to death just like his mother almost had, but there was no save screen, nothing here to save him.

Stars... he was going to take this freak down with him, then.

OoOoO

"I can feel Goth! He's using a lot of magic!" Reaper yelled to his mate, appearing in their home.

What wasn't said was that Goth would also have to be very hurt for Reaper to sense him like this.

"We'd better go," Geno said, grabbing his husband's hands.

And then they were gone.

OoOoO

"What the..." Goth exclaimed as his injuries began to heal rapidly.

"Shades!" A familiar voice called.

'Searcher?' he thought, bewildered, but he couldn't see his other anywhere as he dodged more acid and poison.

Suddenly a tail slash slammed into him, and he felt darkness begin to claim him as he slammed into a wall which began to crumble around him.

"SHADES!" a voice yelled.

Suddenly, he could hear a Gaster Blaster charging.

"DON'T GIVE UP!" Searcher cried.

The creature screamed as the Gaster Blaster hit, and Goth used its moment of distraction to get to his feet and slice.

This time it went through the beast like a hot knife through butter. The creature's life ended without a whimper or scream, and Goth watched in bewilderment as the Guardian turned to stone, then cracked into shards.

"It's... over?" He asked the air, cautiously limping over to the remains and fishing the half of a soul from them.

Worried about his counterpart he opened a window and sent a message.

((Thank you, be careful))

The temple began to shake as the magic holding it together began to fail, and he teleported away to heal and clean his bloodied form. He'd spilled enough of his own blood today.

OoOoO

"No... no," Geno cried, as they landed in a place void of their eldest child.

"We'll find him," Reaper whispered.

"We know he's alive, and we're getting closer."

"But he could die... look at all the marrow and blood," Geno croaked out, leaning down to gently touch the still all too wet marrow that shone with Goth's magic.

"He's not allowed to die," Reaper promised, and pulled them from the AU as the temple finally collapsed, the cave it was in no more.