Return of the Black Knight

I decided to meet Phoenix and Amaya in the Adventure District. After travelling to the treehouse, I found a note explaining that everyone had moved to the Futurology District so we had to go back there. Inside the dome, I spotted them and gramps amidst many cardboard boxes and crates lining the walls. The moment we had discovered Duncan left in the middle of our spat, I was disappointed.

Right as we entered, gramps greeted us with a smirk.

"I've been wonderin' when you'd show up," he said, placing his hands against his hips.

Glaze huffed, "Hey, it's not our fault that Merlin was late."

"Simmer down, will ya?" Shaking his head, gramps glanced out the window, "Right now there's somethin' else we ought to talk about."

Tank tilted her head and rubbed at the tip of her nose, "What do ya mean, gramps?"

"Not you too!"

"His actual name is not gramps," Glaze said.

"You guys ever heard of Hera?" Gramps asked, "I hear she's in town."

"Zeus' jealous wife?" I asked, "I met her on Gaia."

Gramps scowled, and he looked directly at me and said, "A goddess, man, she's a goddess and a nasty one at that!"

"Nasty's an understatement," Phoenix shook her head, "She's the reason the darkness has come for this world. Don't take her lightly."

"So, wait a minute," Frowning, Tank stroked her chin, paying close attention to what gramps and Phoenix both said, "Are ya sayin' that she's controllin' all the demons?"

"We lost our world, thanks to her," Phoenix said. She clenched her fists at her sides. She squeezed her eyes shut and turned away.

"That's awful!" Glaze said.

Gramps shook his head, "I wager she's been cookin' up some kind of plot for a while now."

For the past few minutes, Phoenix and the gang listened to me and the others explain what happened over the past few days. From our crazy experiences in Wonderland to the battle with Cerberus, everything got covered in detail.

Suddenly Skye burst into the room.

"That demon knight thing is back!" she said.

Me, Glaze and Tank ran outside and found ourselves face-to-face with a familiar demon, the Black Knight I thought I had killed earlier.

"This guy again!" Glaze said.

“Are you kidding me,” I groaned.

Right as the demon raised its gauntlets, I jumped back, shooting an ice spell at its torso, while Glaze and Tank moved to his sides. Seconds later, the spell clashed against the Black Knight's chest, causing it to pause briefly before it shot one of its gauntlets straight down at me.

But the gauntlet didn't hit me; before it even had the chance, Tank blocked its path with her shield. Meanwhile, Glaze cast a lightning spell on the knight's head and torso before blasting multiple fire balls at its legs.

To top it all off, I charged again, attacking with a fierce array of strikes and slashes. After my vicious barrage, the the knight's parts whirled through the air… and then they all fell to the ground and lay still.

Was that it? Somehow, the black knight seemed much easier than before. For a few seconds, I watched its motionless parts before I stepped up to the fallen demon, giving one of the gauntlets a hard kick. Nothing moved.

Glaze and Tank looked at one another and then the black knight's fallen pieces. They both let out a sigh of relief.

"That was... easy," I said.

But before we could celebrate, the Black Knight's pieces rose back into the air, rapidly reassembling; the battle was far from over. To my shock, the black knight did something I could never have expected. It did a handstand. I looked at it, confused, as did Glaze and Tank.

Its torso detached from its arms, followed by its legs. The torso spun upside-down, and landed on its arms. The legs reattached to the torso there its arms should have been. Hands became feet, feet became hands. Another pair of arms popped out where the legs should have been, making the demon resemble a centaur. Out of the knight's feet came sharp blades.

There wasn't even time for us to attack before the knight's torso rapidly spun round, creating a whirlwind of blades.

I rolled out to the side, unleashing a burst of ice. All the while, Glaze and Tank jumped and darted out of the way of the knight, retaliating with magic and sword.

The gauntlets pinned Tank to the ground, the whirling blades close to her face.

Glaze tried to move to protect Tank but I stopped her.

"If the blades touch you, you're dead! You can't take a lot of damage compared to me and Tank. Leave it to me!" I said.

I got up close to the knight. My Chainsaword was actually able to block the whirling blades. One of the arms sent me flying and the knight chased after me. I jumped out of the way, striking hard and fast on the spinning blade legs on my way back to the ground. My strike sliced off one of the legs. The knight attempted to strike me with the other one but the torso was spinning slower now. Slicing the other leg off wasn't difficult. The knight jumped into the air.

Its gauntlets grabbed onto the torso, which rotated so that the bottom faced us directly. Immediately, a bright, blue sphere formed in the torso's centre. Seconds later, it began charging an energy blast.

Brow furrowed, Glaze shot a blast of fire at the torso, but the magic did nothing to stop it, as the blast continued to charge.

She groaned and hurled another spell its way, but once again it failed to stop the rapidly increasing energy sphere.

Finally the knight unleashed an enormous energy ball straight at us. I hit the energy ball with my Chainsaword, intending to send it back to the armoured foe like I've done in Legend of Zelda.

"What the fuck!" the helmet shouted.

I didn't know the thing could talk.

The armour was sent flying.

"Hey, Felix, I've got an idea," Tank said, getting down on one knee and positioning her shield.

I ran to her shield and once my feet were touching it, she used it to launch me into the air. I went flying at the knight and sliced through the armour. Upon landing, I watched as the whole armour collapsed.

We returned back inside the dome. By now, the Great Fox was fixed.

"Well, I figure you're all set," gramps said.

"Gramps, nice job!" Tank marvelled.