Soul Eater but it's Sonic

Chapter 52

"You must have wanted Shadow here alone so you could ambush him. But since I'm here, you decided to half-ass a fake memory to freak us out, right?" Sonic alleged.

Zero recovered from the resulting daze that came from having his mind snap back to his body.

"Denying the truth won't change anything. All demon weapons are an affront to nature, but the Black Arms are an especially degenerate class of weaponry. You really think you can wield one without consequence?"

"Yup," Sonic replied cheekily.

"Idiot!" Infinite raged. "I hunted them over decades. They destroyed everything around them; they were a plague on this earth! I should be revered as a hero for saving this planet, not locked away for fifty two years!

"Yeah, yeah. Black Arms bad. Already heard this spiel before, pal," Sonic dismissed.

"You meisters are so delusional. You think wielding magical abominations will change anything? You're still just a weak, stupid hedgehog!"

"I've heard that one before, too,"

Zero sneered. "You're both too far gone. I'm not letting you off this island,"

He ran away while duplicating himself intermittently. Each of his illusions sprinted at Sonic. The meister wasted no time cutting through all of them so he could chase the real Zero. Unfortunately, more copies were appearing in groups of four or five, preventing any advance. Sonic quickly removed one cluster when another manifested. He threw out a heavy swing that made him spin all the way round. Every one of the duplicates was cut in two.

Zero jumped, floating through the air until he passed through the hole in the glass of the observation room. The mask belonging to his new identity was sitting on the console right where he left it. Infinite put on his mask before he began pulling various switches. His gloved hand adjusted a microphone that protruded from the terminal. Decayed intercom speakers warped Infinite's voice while spreading it about the spacious room.

"Don't be too upset, Shadow. You're not entirely alone in this world. A sibling of yours is here to see you,"

He slammed his fist onto a button. Spinning lights on the ceiling activated alongside the dinging of an alarm. A wide section of the floor opened up beneath Sonic, pulling him along while it went. He had just jumped off when a groaning elevator platform came up fast. It clicked in place and revealed its cargo.

The body of a massive reptilian beast lay motionless on the ground. Its scaly skin was a mixture of red and orange with darker scales lining its underside. A round machine was embedded into its back. Tubes ran out of said machine into each side of the monster's head and body. It very much appeared dead. Half of the abomination's face was lacking any flesh. The lifeless eye socket of its skull seemed to stare at Sonic and Shadow. Patches of meat were missing from other sections of the corpse as well, exposing blackened muscle tissue and pale bone.

"This is the biolizard. It's a disgusting freak, just like you," Infinite laughed. "Even if it is just a failed imitation, it'll give you a good idea of what the Black Arms really are,"

The device on the monster's back activated. Black blood started dribbling out of the monster's incomplete face. Its muscles tensed and relaxed until a sense of balance had been regained using its four legs. Then the monster's neck craned around. A digital sensor on the intact side of its head served as its only eye. It noticed Sonic, and let out a roar.

Dark energy poured out into the air. Sonic clutched his scythe and braced himself against the pressure. Static built at the biolizard's mouth until a cloudy orb formed. The orb was fired with great force but Sonic still jumped out of the way in time. The attack burst upon colliding against the far wall, creating a deep crater.

The biolizard spit out smaller charges of static. They moved slower, without shooting through the air. Instead, they crawled along the ground, shifting their path in pursuit of Sonic. He ran from them, then dove out of the way of each orb as they came. The intense energy of each attack made his body react as they passed by. Once he was in the clear, he shivered like the room had suddenly become ice cold. He focused, then moved in for a counter attack.

Shadow felt intense hesitation over resonating with Sonic. Infinite's testimony on his past was suspicious, but resonating at a high level still had risks that Shadow had already seen firsthand. Just enhancing Sonic's physical abilities now made him nervous, but there wasn't a better option while his meister's life was threatened. He'd have to do what he could for the time being.

Sonic ran with the intention of landing a basic strike so he could see what kind of effect it would have. He dodged more projectile blasts on the way until the biolizard changed its behavior. Black sparks crept across its body. Wobbling globules formed from the power and floated into the air. Each of the objects lined up into a protective grid that shielded the undead reptile.

Sonic couldn't attack directly now, so he stopped. He was searching for an angle to bypass the shield when an obvious magical energy set off his soul perception. He moved instinctively, dodging an attack from a newly formed jackal figure.

More copies sprung up around Sonic. Of course Infinite wouldn't just sit by and watch. The hedgehog let out an annoyed exhale. Despair over his circumstance would have hit harder if the biolizard hadn't shifted its attention to Infinite's copies. It roared, then swept its long tail across the floor.

Sonic backflipped over the entire appendage, but the magical figures of the glowing mob weren't as agile. A fair chunk of them were removed. Many of the orbs surrounding the biolizard broke away to destroy more doppelgangers, leaving an opening that could let Sonic get close.

"So you prioritize magical wavelengths? Figures," Infinite grunted.

The biolizard tracked the last remaining source of magic. Immediately after its sensor locked onto Infinite's real body, a blast was fired at the observation room. Everything inside was enveloped inside a destructive darkness. While the monster was distracted, Sonic resonated to take full advantage of the opportunity. Shadow felt concerned again, but he knew he could do this much without losing control. His weapon form changed until his blade became a wide crescent.

"Witch hunter!"

Running up the lizard's back was easy enough thanks to the slope of its tail. Sonic drug his scythe along his enemy's spine, then swung in an upward arc once he was within reach of the power source. The generator embedded in the biolizard's back was blown open. The monster craned it's head back around to fire a desperate blast.

"Not done!"

Sonic jumped off the biolizard's back. He tore through the monster's throat easily with the Witch Hunter's blade. A deluge of black blood spurted out into the air. Once the blue hedgehog landed, the fluid rained down on him in the form of thick, heavy droplets. Some of his blue hair was stained black as his clothes dampened.

"Ugh, it's all cold. Gross!"

The biolizard's detached head flopped onto the ground nearby, making Sonic flinch. Black blood continued pouring out of the rest of the body as it returned to lifelessness. A sizable pool formed shortly. Splashing came while Sonic walked through the dark pond between him and the room's exit.

"Now where's Infinite?"

Sonic sensed the witch's wavelength in the previous room, but it was unnervingly intense. Instead of running, he merely creeped cautiously through the open doorway.

Entering the room did let the pair find Infinite. In fact, multiple Infinites were found. A legion of magical copies had been assembled; enough to fill most of the room.