The Curse of Taloncrest Manor

Chapter 33: Reckoning

The heroes darted around the rooftop as the monstrous scientist relentlessly landed blow after blow on them with his appendages. At one point, Octavio managed to grab Dischord by the neck. "Silly 'vizier'....." the doctor taunted. "For you to think of your kind as equals to us, when your very existence depends upon ours!" Without a reply, Dischord swiftly used his rapier to swiftly cut off the tentacle that was keeping him restrained, making Octavio reel backwards. "What....how....? Who do you people think you are?!" he asked in an enraged tone.

The scientist, momentarily dazed, almost stepped on Elijah before Ricardo managed to pull him out of the way at the last second. However, it wasn't long before Octavio managed to fully recover. "Enough! Let's see how you handle this!" With a simple gesture of his hand, Octavio began to levitate all of the seats that had been lined up neatly before the altar, and began flinging them at the heroes. With barely anything to hide behind, they had great difficulty avoiding his blows. Cooper cut off another one of Octavio's limbs, but didn't see the white chair hurtling quickly towards him. Luckily, Melody stepped in the way and telekinetically shattered it before it made impact.

Cooper breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks!"

Octavio readied his glowing blade and prepared to strike Ricardo with it, but before he could do so, he found his main arm being forcibly held back by a strange force. "Wait....is this....?" the doctor muttered before looking over at Jane, instantly remembering her from his last encounter with the group. "Why....that infernal jewel! You're the one who kept restraining me last time, too!"

He tried reaching out with his other main hand, but Melody's lightning had short-circuited the cybernetic components on it, rendering it mostly useless. Instead, Octavio programmed the spectral blade in his hand to shoot itself out of its socket instead as a ranged attack, successfully striking Jane and knocking her to the ground. Melody and Dischord ran to check on her, but she was unresponsive. Meanwhile, Octavio, now free, gleefully taunted them. "Looks like you don't have your cheat code anymore," he mocked. He recalled the bladed projectile back to his gauntlet, making it forcibly exit Jane's body in the process.

"No.....wake up! Please!" Melody cried as she shook Jane's body frantically. Dischord briefly turned around and saw that Octavio was regrouping. "Grand Magistrix, it's not safe up here right now! We can take care of her after this abomination is dealt with!"

Just then, Octavio used the blade to draw a massive fissure in the ground separating Melody, Dischord, and the unconscious Jane from Ricardo, James, Cooper, and Elijah. "I'll deal with you later," the doctor sneered at the ghosts, before turning his attention to the boys. The group expertly deflected all of Octavio's initial blows for several minutes, but he soon gained the upper hand, swiftly disarming them and tightly restraining them one by one. Ricardo and the others could feel Octavio's grip getting more and more relentless by the second, with Elijah's face visibly turning blue from lack of oxygen.

"C.....can't.....breathe....." he gasped.
"No.....you can't do this...." was all a weakened Ricardo managed to say.
".....It can't end.....here.....this can't be happening....." James sighed.
Cooper had already fainted from shock.

Melody futilely tried to assist them, but the fissure had created a barrier that was blocking all of her attacks. She could only watch as Ricardo and his friends slowly had the life squeezed out of them.

"It won't be long now, insects," Octavio gloated. "Rest assured, this world will come closer to balance because of your sacrifice. When I remake it, I will be sure to create a holiday named after you four," he joked darkly. He then paused for a moment when he saw their expressions. ".....Shouldn't you be smiling? Aren't you happy? Excited? .....Because this planet is finally going to be free."

Octavio was so busy gloating that he didn't notice Jane slowly beginning to get back up. Melody and Dischord saw this and quickly rushed to her aid, making sure to not make too much noise to draw the doctor's attention. "The jewel....it's still intact...." Jane said wearily. ".....I think I have an idea. I need one of you to get his attention for me."

"Hey, Octavio!" Melody yelled. "You've seen what I can do, right? Shoot lightning, disintegrate normal people at will.....surely you want to assimilate me and take those abilities for yourself, do you not? It would make your plans a whole lot easier.....!" she said, trying to tempt him. Octavio dropped the four boys almost instantly and re-drew the fissure line using his blade, lowering the barrier. "Get over here, 'Grand Magistrix'!" the doctor commanded as he tried to grab her several times, but to no avail. He did manage to corner her once at the edge of the rooftop, but Dischord intervened and sliced another of the scientist's limbs off at the last second.

"You want power.....?" Jane asked him. Octavio turned around, and his eyes widened in shock when he saw that she had gotten back up and was aiming her gem right at him. "Then take it."

Jane used the gem to fire a massive icy blast that lowered Octavio's body temperature slowly, but drastically.
"Oh, come on!" the doctor cried. "You do not know of the horrors that await you! A human race this divided.....cannot hope to stand......against what is to come....." he warned cryptically. Eventually, he was unable to move any of his appendages, and became frozen to the rooftop's floor, completely motionless.

"......You know, he kinda looks like an ice sculpture. A sick, twisted, demented ice sculpture," James commented, tapping his finger against Octavio. "Yeah, yeah, yeah.....I'm just glad he's out of the way." Ricardo said, as he continued to tend to Elijah's injury.

".......Hmmm.....maybe we can take this creature back to the Conservatory! I can use him to practice my swordplay skills!" Dischord suggested. "What do you say, Grand Magistrix?"

Melody thought about it for a moment. "......No, I believe I have seen enough." She then telekinetically shattered Octavio into pieces with one effortless movement.

Cooper was still keeled over, trying to catch his breath. "Okay.....that thing is definitely dead now....come on, let's go! We've got business!" he exclaimed.

"Hold on, hold on," James cautioned. "We've gotta make sure Elijah's in good condition. Plus, Octavio destroyed the portal conduit, so I don't see a way to get it to reopen."

As if on cue, the portal reappeared, with Thomas stepping back through it. He took a long look around the rooftop, seeing the place he had decorated so grandiosely now shambling and in ruins. The red carpet was torn in several places, with blue "blood" splattered on it. The white chairs were strewn all over the place and shattered to bits, and shards of ice lay scattered everywhere, with Elijah lying back-first on the shingles. He paused for a bit, in shock. ".....I do not know or care to know what has happened here since I left, nor why the portal seemingly closed on its own without me having to do anything," the butler remarked. "Who knows....? If the six of you can cause this much destruction within such a short amount of time, you may have a chance at taking me on. Just a small one." he teased darkly.

"You'd better act quickly," Thomas added. "Once my ritual is finished, all the ghosts will be permanently bound to this mansion....forever. If you think you have the guts, follow me to Abdiel's Dimension. There, we will all decide the fate of this house.....together."

With that, the butler headed back through the portal, disappearing in the process. However, the heroes noticed that the gateway remained open this time, without any external interference. Ricardo slowly got up, assisting a newly-recovered Elijah as well. "We're coming," he said.

"And we won't give up!"