The Eden Crisis
Chapter 17: Castle Infinity

“Raziel, if what you say is true . . . then why would you want to fight him and kill him so we can leave the game?” I ask. “I don’t know for sure it’s my brother. It’s just a hunch. But if he is my brother then I need to know why he did all this. So let’s go to Indagatus and get to the library.”

Lucifer stands up abruptly. “No! If you go to Castle Infinity then I am going with you.” Raziel shakes his head. “No, you will not. If I die that’s one thing, but I will not allow you to die.”

“It’s not up to you, Raziel,” Lucifer says. Turning to me, he says, “Dante, will you accept me in your party?” This is awkward. “Raziel, he is right. We need all the help we can get to defeat the director.” It takes only a moment for Raziel, hearing my words and without explanation, to relent and allow Lucifer to join us.

All of us enter into party and we immediately go to Indagatus. Once there, Raziel leads us to the library, where, once inside, he guides us through the library to a door I never noticed that leads to a basement. “There are monsters in the basement, so everyone be ready,” he says sternly. It isn’t long before his warning comes to life, and we fight what monsters we have to. The library seems to have several basement floors. Raziel is leading us through them all as if he has been here before. How much does he know? I wonder. If his brother created this world then he must have secrets that none of us are familiar with.

We finally get to the bottom level of the basement after fighting an onslaught of monsters. Raziel takes us to a section where there are book shelves lining the room along the walls. He points above the book stacks. “That is the celestial seal. It is identical to the seal of creation except that in the center where the swirl is, there’s a pentagram, which connects to the swirl leading to the rest of the seal.” He begins pulling on the books. They fall off the shelf until finally one that can’t be pulled out triggers a hitherto locked and unseen door to open.

Raziel and I pull on the door. I look back at the others before walking through the door into a dark pathway. Apollo uses magic. Fire shoots past me and lights up torches on the wall, somewhat illuminating the way forward.

I continue with everyone, including Raziel, close behind me. Moving cautiously as, despite the illumination, the path is still dark, I see the torches ahead are not illuminated. “Apollo,” I ask, could you send another volley of fire?” He uses his fire magic to light up the pathway that leads to a large room.

I motion for everyone to wait while I go into the room to see if there are any surprises. I see nothing other than a large door, which, I think, must be the door to the teleportation sphere. I attempt to open the door but it won’t budge.

I hear an odd sound. Could it be a hiss from a snake? I wonder and then dismiss the idea from my mind. A look around the room comes up empty. Then to my shock a large, frightening serpent appears slithering along the ceiling. As it stretches high above me, I realize it’s going to attack!

“Ethereal beam!” Raziel yells as he shoots a beam of energy from his hand. “Hell fire!” Apollo yells as he uses his own fire magic. My two friends attack the snake to save me. I thank them as they race in front of me to continue the attack. I pull out my sword.

Nero and Claire run past me as well and slash the giant beast. I try out my new spell. “Colossal storm!” I yell. Large bolts of lightning shoot from empty space and strike the snake.

“Cloud, Zack, join me in our tri-tech,” Lucien says as he runs toward the snake with his katana. Cloud and Zack run toward the snake with him. “Trinity strike!” Lucien, Cloud and Zack say simultaneously. The three of them attack the snake and finish it off, and we watch as it erupts in a detonation of light. The door in front of us unlocks and opens. I go to walk through but Raziel stops me. “Wait, Dante! That snake may have been a pushover, but I promise you Proto Omega isn’t. It is the most powerful Entitas in the game. Its HP is well over a million. It will take every ounce of strength to beat it.” No wonder this is not a viable alternative.

Raziel continues. “This is a boss like no other. He is the guardian of the god of creation. He has no weakness and has every strength. I am giving you two more of the dragon artifacts and the way to summon the dragons to fight. They are like Entitas in the sense that they are summoned, but you have to have the artifacts to do it. In order to call them you just have to say their name and call them out. Sapphire dragon is Neptune, Amethyst dragon is Jupiter, Ruby dragon is Mars, Onyx dragon is called Malthael and Emerald dragon is known as Venus. The Diamond dragon, whose artifact you don’t have, is called Saturn. The Divine dragon also has a name, but you need the diamond artifact first. If you beat the Divine dragon it will tell you its name. Now, even with all that power on our side it doesn’t entirely solve our problem of Proto Omega. I have a small solution that may weaken it but it will take time. I will need Lucifer and Apollo if it is to work. Oh, and before I forget, there is one additional spell you should have. It combines the power of the four natural elemental-based dragons’ magic and creates an attack called Terra flare.”

“All right,” I say, “the rest of us should be able to keep Proto Omega busy long enough for Lucifer and Apollo to do their spell.” All of us enter the opening to face Proto Omega. Once we are inside, torches all around the room begin to light with purple flames. Above, a giant chandelier also lights up. The light illuminates the room and reveals a large summoning glyph.

The glyph lights up. The light is bright, and in mere moments a giant being is summoned before us. “It is identical to Proto Alpha,” Cloud says. “Only its coloring is slightly different; this version’s is darker.” Raziel, Apollo and Lucifer stay in the back and begin gathering magic for some unknown skill.

I hold out my hand. “Reveal!” I say as I cast my examination spell. Very little information is shown to me.

Proto Omega

Level: 175

HP: 1,250,000

Weaknesses: None

Strengths: All

Attack: 999

Magic: 999

Defense: 999

Info: Proto Omega is the most powerful Entitas in all of Eden. It can only be commanded by Veren himself. Proto Omega’s main attack is Omega flare.

“Prepare yourselves,” I tell everyone. “This is no normal Entitas. Its stats are maxed out.” I use every defensive magic I have to protect us from the attacks of this most powerful entity. I don’t know how much it will help. Cloud, Lucien and Zack immediately attack the Entitas. Claire uses a holy-based sword attack that does minimal damage.

I try my unholy sword skills and, like Claire, my attack does minimal damage. Lucien, Cloud and Zack are doing a lot of damage, but with the amount of health that Proto Omega has it doesn’t mean a whole lot.

Nero is the last to get an attack in, and like Claire and me, he barely lays a hand on the boss. Proto Omega makes his first move and releases an energy attack from its eyes. The beams inflict a great deal of damage to everyone’s HP despite my defensive magic. All right, time to step this up.

I hold up my hand. “Colossal storm!” Lightning shoots down from the roof and hits Proto Omega. Its HP only takes a small hit. I use the other spells but they also have little effect on it. Meanwhile, Omega continues to use its attacks and hurt us. I use a healing spell on all of us and use regenerative magic to keep our HP up.

I place my hands on the ground. “Malthael! Use your great dark power!” Black smoke erupts from the ground and Malthael appears before us. My great dragon attacks Proto Omega. The rest of us join in on the attack while Malthael is the main target of the Entitas.

Omega twists three hundred and sixty degrees and nearly knocks us all down. Malthael continues his attack. The Original Onyx dragon uses his ultimate attack, Shadow Flare. I dismiss my dragon before it is beaten by Proto Omega.

“Dante!” Claire shouts. “I used an examination crystal. The last attack brought him just below one million. I don’t know how long we can keep this up.” Before I can say anything Proto Omega releases a surge of energy. Its shoulder blades open up to reveal numerous cannons. Its chest also opens up. Two words appear above the beast: Omega Flare.

This attack could kill us, but it’s unavoidable. Even Eos will be unable to do anything to thwart it. Nero runs toward Omega as a main ball of energy is fired from its chest. Nero jumps up and takes the full blast. He is blown out of the room. I hope he survives as he has so fortunately done in many other fights.

Omega’s cannons release several flares of purple energy. They are weaker than the main flare but are still strong. We are able to overcome the strength of the attack and live to fight another day.

I restore our health. I look to my rear where it seems Raziel, Apollo and Lucifer are done charging their spell. My three friends use their powerful magic. “Banish! “they command. A magic shoots towards Proto Omega and hits it with fierce strength. Its HP drops below five hundred thousand. “Good job, Raziel!” I say. “You took out so much of its HP.”He shakes his head in disappointment.

“No, the spell was supposed to kill it. It failed!” The great Entitas groans. Supreme wave. The words appear above Proto Omega. It holds out its hands, and energy forms. Proto Omega shoots the energy toward us, and it soars in the room. Apollo, Raziel, Lucifer and I use powerful defensive magic to diminish the attack.

But the energy wave shatters our defenses. We all take damage from the attack. Raziel quickly heals us. The next thing I see is Nero running past us. “Divine slash,” he says as he attacks Omega.

We all join Nero and attack Omega, too. Our combined attack does a good amount of damage though the Entitas retaliates with a physical attack and also magical attacks against us.

“Ethereal beam,” Raziel says as a beam of blue energy shoots from his hand and into Proto Omega. Lucifer holds a hand up. “Chaos blast!” A dark ball of energy shoots from his hand and hits Omega. Apollo uses his strongest magic. Everyone else uses their greatest skills to hit the powerful summon. “Dante, now!” Claire yells out. I hold out my hand. “Terra flare!” Blue energy forms in my hand and shoots toward Proto Omega.

The attack collides with the Entitas. Proto Omega isn’t going down without a fight, though. It uses magical attacks to try to kill us. My attack keeps going until the great Entitas’s HP falls to zero. Proto Omega groans. I stop my attack.

Proto Omega’s body begins to crack. Final End appears above it. The cracks continue. Energy wave after energy wave is released from Omega, and the waves are damaging us. Raziel and I use healing magic to counter their effects.

Omega slumps over and lets out another groan before it finally explodes. The energy from the blast hits all of us. It brings me to my knees.

“Holy healing,” Raziel utters quietly. Everyone’s HP is refilled. I stand up with the others and look ahead. There it is, the teleportation sphere to Castle Infinity. I activate the sphere but before we use it I have to ask Nero a question.

“How is it you constantly survive these fatal attacks?” I say. Nero lifts his shirt. It’s a seal! “This is the Reaper’s seal,” he says. It appropriates all effects of consumable items, as Apollo once said. I sacrificed a revival elixir to the seal. I can’t be killed. I will not let any harm come to any of you as long as I have this seal.” That will be helpful, I think.

We all go through the teleportation sphere and enter the castle. The castle is beautiful. It’s indescribable. In the center of the main foyer is a statue of the god Veren. Like the others, it wears a mask. I look around the room and notice there are many paths that can be taken.

My thoughts are interrupted by slow clapping. We all look and see Noel walking down some stairs from the upper floor. “Congratulations on making it this far,” he says. “I would never have guessed you could fell Proto Omega. So you wish to challenge the castle and fight the director?”

“Let us pass,” I say. “We’re going to end all of this now and kill the director for sealing us in this game.” Noel chuckles. “How foolish you all are,” he says. “Feel free to challenge the castle, but know that there are more trials inside.” He then mockingly smacks his forehead. “Oh, I almost forgot. You all are violating the rules of Castle Infinity. The castle has a strict two-man party until the final chambers. So I am afraid I will have to separate you.” Noel snaps his fingers and a wisp of dark fog surrounds us all.

The last thing I see in the room before the fog blocks my vision is Noel with his cocky smile.