Land of Phantoms

"I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I'm your worst dream ever come true. I'm everything you ever were afraid of."

- Fred as Shadoweaver Land of Phantoms is the sixth and final episode of the Anur Chronicles mini-series.

Plot
We re-open up in Anur Vladias. NegaBlank jumps off his pillar, extending his wings as he takes into the skies. Fred stands on top of a cliff, looking into the battlefield.

Fred: This... can't be.

Van Helsing: He's obviously with Zs'Skayr. He had no right to be with us!

Fred: I've known Blank long enough to know that he isn't capable of something like this.

Van Helsing: Well, now you know.

Fred: It could have been the alien that Blank turned into. Well, I can't go after Blank now. I have to get to Anur Phaetos and end all this. We're all on a time limit after all, and once that's up...

Van Helsing: If we're lucky, we might find him there.

Fred: Then we should be going.

Fred slams the Novatrix dial.

Haywire: Haywire!

Haywire summons nanochips, and they form a space jet. He flies into it, and the nanochips attach him to it like cords.

Van Helsing: Ugggh... I despise this type of technology.

He begrudgingly jumps in, as the space jet takes off into the air. It leaves the atmosphere, and arrives near a huge wormhole-like location. Haywire's eyes widen, and then a sudden energy rift hits the jet, knocking it out of the sky. It rapdily falls towards the wormhole, and shatters, as the jet sinks into the wormhole.

[Theme Opening!]

The space jet falls in a dark misty atmosphere, and then it crashes into the ground. Haywire comes out of the debris, and Van Helsing throws a piece of debris off him. Haywire reverts back to Fred.

Fred: I guess this is the place.

Van Helsing: In all the time I spent in the Anur System, I never thought I'd end up in its disgusting underbelly. Welcome to Anur Phaetos.

Fred: Underbelly?

Van Helsing: Anur Phaetos is the least desirable planet you'll ever want to be on. A world of darkness and lugubriousness. They call it the Land of Phantoms...

Fred: Dude, that gave me the chills.

Van Helsing: Always stay on alert and watch your back. We're probably spied on at this very moment.

Fred slams the Novatrix dial.

Opticus: Opticus.

Opticus activates infrared vision, and spots an intangible Ectonurite hiding behind a rock.

Opticus: You were right! We were being followed!

Van Helsing: I was just working on a hunch is all.

Opticus activates infrared vision, and spots an intangible Ectonurite hiding behind a rock.

Opticus blasts the rock with a laser blast. Massive swarms of Ectonurites spawn and target Opticus and Van Helsing. Opticus disintegrates a couple of them with a bright glow. He struck fear on the Ectonurite and killed them, leaving only one. As Opticus was about to kill the last Ectonurite, Van Helsing stopped him so that the ghost could be interrogated.

At first, the Ectonurite did not comply to being interrogated, as Opticus was threatening him with his laser beam.

Van Helsing: Lemme handle this.

Opticus reverts.

Opticus: Ok...I guess.

Van Helsing: All you have to do is answer my questions, and I’ll let you live.

Ectonurite: Earlier this evening, we received an urgent call from Zs'Kayr. He said he needed a bunch of us to go on a hunt for two people. The order came from the top. Something about you interfering with plan.

Ectonurite: But I’m pretty sure something big is about to go down. That’s everything I know, I promise. You weren’t lying about your end of the deal, were you?

Van Helsing: No, you're free to go.

The Ectonurite flies away and phases into a wall.

Fred: Then we have one more problem to worry about.

Van Helsing: As if we didn't have enough.

A fiery explosion takes place, sending them flying forward. In the sky, NegaBlank throws a punch, destroying an Ectonurite.

Fred: ...and that's our main problem here.

NegaBlank: Out of my way, Blake!

He dashes through, ramming through two Ectonurites.

Fred: Stop this madness!

Negablank rams Fred aside, and phases into the ground.

Van Helsing: Your friend is out of control.

Fred: Not for long.

Fred rotates the faceplate and slams the dial.

ConDuckt: ConDuckt'll shock some sense into you!

NegaBlank's hand phases out of the ground and grabs onto ConDuckt's leg ramming him to the ground several times.

Van Helsing: Kid!

He fires a bat-like projectile, hitting NegaBlank's hand.

NegaBlank phases back up, and unleashes a sonic wave.

ConDuckt stomps his boots into the ground, charging electricity.

ConDuckt: What? Shocking, I know!

He claps his hands, creating an electric wave that counters the sonic wave.

NegaBlank: Not bad, but can you stop this?

NegaBlank fires a gigantic lightning bolt at ConDuckt, overloading him. ConDuckt screams, then channels the lightning, blasting it out from his limbs.

ConDuckt gasps, breathing heavily.

ConDuckt: How did he do-? Blank!

He looks around, and his eyes widen.

ConDuckt: Blank!

Van Helsing slices an Ectonurite in half with his claw, and lands next to ConDuckt.

Van Helsing: I took care of the Ectonurites. Where did your friend go?

ConDuckt turns around, and starts walking towards a bunch of dark trees.

ConDuckt: Wait a minute. Trees. There weren't any trees a moment ago.

Van Helsing: Then there must be something controlling the landscape.

ConDuckt continues walking, and scans the area.

ConDuckt: Or someone. Someone like-

He trips by a vine, and falls forward. He hit the ground, but it is intangible, and he phases way down, still screaming. Meanwhile, ConDuckt appears falling down from atop of a floating huge purple boulder. He charges his boots, and hastily stomps at the wall, trying to stop his fall. His Novatrix beeps purple, and it times out with a purple flash, smoke coming out of Fred. He falls down across the void. His decent suddenly becomes slow. Below him, a huge black hole appears, and Fred's eyes widen. He tries flapping his arms, but he continues falling towards it in a low speed. He slaps the Novatrix, but it gives out, beeps, and makes a faint transformation noise. Smoke comes out of it, as Fred looks in shock. The blackhole sucks him faster, and Fred closes his eyes, waiting for impact. Van Helsing flies down, and grabs Fred. He struggles against the blackhole's force, and swims up in the air. Van Helsing phases up the ground again, and puts Fred down away from the trees. He lands next to him.

Fred: What was that?

Van Helsing: I have not been to Anur Phaetos before, but I've been told, there are things like this...

Fred: What is this?!

Van Helsing: That blackhole you just saw... is a portal to the Darkness itself.

Fred: I know that it's evil, but what is it?

Van Helsing, We know that it's evil, but beyond that, zilch. No one knows. No one has survived to tell the tale....

Fred: No one...?

Van Helsing: No one....

Fred: So are we safe now?

Van Helsing: Safe? No! Of course you're not safe! There's about a billion other things out there just waiting to kill you, but if you want to pretend you're safe just so you can sleep at night, then, OK, you're safe. But you're not really.

Fred: We should really get moving.

Van Helsing and Fred continue on their way. A swoosh sound is heard behind them in the shadows. Van Helsing realizes that they're being stalked.

Van Helsing: Fred, don't look now, but we're being followed.

Fred: What're you gonna do?

Van Helsing: Go rescue your friend. I'll take care of our stalker and meet you later.

Fred: Don't take too long.

Fred slams the Novatrix dial and transforms into FrostDragon. He turns invisible and flies away.

Van Helsing: Whoever you are, I know you're back there. Show yourself so we can get this over with.

A Loboan leaps in front of Van Helsing. It possessed demonic features such as horns and tentacles and glowing purple eyes.

Van Helsing: What kind of Loboan are you supposed to be?

A voice is heard in the shadows.

Mysterious Voice: The chaos corrupted kind.

Van Helsing: Who are you?

Voice: You will know soon enough.

The mysterious goes silent and the Chaorrupted Loboan attacks Van Helsing.

Van Helsing: Insolent fool!

Van Helsing fires projectiles of crystallized blood at the Loboan. The Loboan counters with Chaotic sonic howl.

Van Helsing' crystallized blood extends out to form a protective shield. He then turns the shield into a blood scythe and impales the Loboan on a nearby rock formation.

The scene cuts to Fred walking through a forest of Chaorrupted trees with an expression of fear on his face. Screams and voices of Fred's path are constantly tormenting his mind until he can no longer stand it and collapses on his knees.

Fred: What's happening?! It's like my whole past has come to haunt me!

A maniacal laugh is heard.

Fred: Ah!

The Gilded Knight appears before Fred.

Gilded Knight: Your mind is troubled. Still your mind, Fred. Do not let illusion deceive you.

Fred takes a deep breath.

Gilded Knight: Have the visions ceased?

Fred: I see only you.

Gilded Knight; Good, you will need this skill for the path ahead.

Fred: And what path is that?

Gilded Knight: The path of freedom.

Fred: Freedom?

Gilded Knight: Yes, freedom. You waver from sound mind to illusion in the beat of heart. Is that any life for a great warrior? Fight the chaos, Fred.

The Gilded Knight disappears.

Fred clears his mind. Gifted with prophetic sight, he continues his way.

The scene cuts to a dark figure observing NegaBlank from afar. He summons beasts of darkness next to him.

Dark Figure: Kill him. His persistence only means his death.

The scene cuts to the beasts charging at NegaBlank. He begins to beat them uncontrollably over and over, kicking them on the face and throwing them against rocks before disintegrating them in a huge blast of light.

NegaBlank: Your beasts could not defeat me! I will find you! And you will not see the end of this day.

The Dark Figure stays hidden in the shadows and does not answer.

The scene cuts to Fred walking up and spotting a large castle and surrounded by various spikes. The scene cuts to Fred at the front of the castle where the gate gives the impression of an animal's jaw.

The gate opens and Dr. Viktor walks out.

Transylian: I, Dr. Viktor, am here to put you in your place as you clearly miscalculated. You have no idea what you're up against.

Fred: No, you miscalculated. You are the ones outmatched.

Fred dials up Boulder and slams the faceplate.

Boulder: I can't waste any more time than I already have.

Dr. Vicktor: Than I'll be sure to make your death as painless as possible.

Boulder: You know you can't be Boulder with your kind of power.

Angered, Vicktor delivers a heavy punch to Boulder's abdomen and follows up with a ferocious kick, one that sends him flying back a few feet. Boulder and Vicktor charge at each other and their punches collide, sending out an Earth-shattering shock wave. They pull away from each other and a trickle of blood falls from a cut on Vicktor's cheek.

Boulder: I've had enough!

Boulder traps Dr. Vicktor in an earth shell. Dr. Vicktor struggles to break free but is powerless.

Boulder reverts.

Dr. Viktor: Only death awaits you at the end of your journey.

Fred: Death cannot hold those with purpose.

The scene cuts to NegaBlank crashing and breaking into Zs'Castle Zs'Skayr. Zs'Skayr, with two mysterious figures standing beside him, cracks his head right side up.

Zs'Skayr: Blank Speedy, as I live and breathe... not!

NegaBlank: Zs'Skayr. you're still alive? I thought your henchmen would have done away with you by now.

Zs'Slayr: Alive? Interesting word choice.

One of the mysterious figures steps forward.

Xhadam: You're actually smarter than you look. Now tell me, how did you predict that we would overthrow Zs'Skayr?

NegaBlank: I guess dark minds think alike.

Xhadam: It's a pity we will have to get rid of you as well.

Zs'Skayr: You dare declare your treachery right before me!

Zs'Skayr peels back his skin, and projects an energy beam from his tentacles at Xhadam.

The second mysterious figure jumps behind Zs'Skayr and discharges his chaotic energy into a punch.

Xhracleb: You think one lousy ghost is enough to beat the embodiments of chaos and shadow themselves.

Xhadam: Your arrogance will be your undoing Zs'Skayr. You should have never underestimated us.

Xhadam creates a spiraling vortex of darkness that overwhelms Zs'Skayr and peels off most of his skin.

Zs'Skayr: You fools! You cannot defeat me! I can regenerate from a single strand of DNA!

Xhracleb: Then we'll have to make sure there isn't any left.

NegaBlank (to himself): I'll just wait this out, it'll save me the trouble of battling Zs'Skayr.

Xhadam breathes out a malefic breath of darkness at Zs'Skayr that almost pulverizes him. Then Xhracleb finishes him off with a blast of chaos, creating a massive explosion. The smoke clears and a crater is revealed where Zs'Skayr once stood.

Xhadam: Now, sorry to keep you waiting.

NegaBlank quickly propels himself with fire and lands directly on Xhadam. Before electrocuting him, Xhadam turns the throne room of the castle to absolute darkness, negating vision. The darkness fades away immediately and NegaBlank appears collapsed on the floor with Xhadam and Xhracleb standing at both sides of him.

Xhracleb: I expected more of a fight from him. He seemed so promising at first.

Xhracleb strikes at him with his chaos spear. NegaBlank's skin cracks up and a green glow emanates from them. The glow fades to reveal Blank reverted back to his normal form.

AmpliFire blasts into the room and assumes an awkward fighting stance. He spins and suddenly sends a blast of purple fire toward Xhadam. The scene cuts to the side of the fight to show a wall of purple fire colliding with a black darkness beam. As the wall begins to die, AmpliFire leaps up on a jet of fire and kicks his legs forward, sending a wave of fire from his feet during each of his three spinning kicks. He leaps forward with a blast of fire that he swings at Xhadam. Just as he is about to be hit, Xhracleb thrusts his palms outward to create a wall of chaotic purple energy that slices the purple flame. The scene cuts to an overhead shot of the flames as they slowly die down.

Blank wakes up after having been unconscious.

Blank: Good to be back. I'm not taking any chances this time.

Blank quickly dials his Omnigizer and transforms into Nova Hero.

Nova Hero dashes toward Xhracleb at high speed and battles him in hand-to-hand combat. Xhracleb blocks his attacks without much effort. Nova Hero fires an energy beam from his third eye which Xhracleb deflects with ease.

AmpliFire fires one last fire blast at Xhadam and switches to Lightning Edge and zooms into Xhadam then quickly out of him in godlike speed, electrocuting him from the inside out. Xhadam falls to his knees.

The scene cuts to Xhracleb battling Nova Hero. Xhracleb breaks through his shield, envelops his hand in chaos energy and places it on Nova Hero's Omnigizer faceplate. Nova Hero's body is partly coated in purple vine-like structures.

Xhracleb: Let's see how well you fare against your best friend.

Xhracleb and Nova Hero both charge at Lightning Edge while Xhadam recovers from the potentially deadly attack.

After having suffered numerous blows, Lightning Edge reverts to Fred and strained to the ground by a black goo like substance created by Xhracleb.

Fred: I'm not going to make it. I failed.

Within a flash of light, the Gilded Knight appears before Fred.

The Gilded Knight: You haven't failed, Fred.

Fred: I have. I couldn't save Blank, I'm letting him down.

Gilded Knight: You already saved the world. And you'll save the world again, but you can't give up.

The Gilded Knight places his hand on the Novatrix which creates an intense golden light.

In the midst of the flash, the Gilded Knight disappeared.

Xhracleb: What was that?

Fred breaks out of the black goo.

Fred dials the Novatrix faceplate. It glows the same golden light. He slams the dial and transforms into a white humanoid demonic alien.

He just walks forward, laughing maniacally all the while.

Xhracleb: What's up with you? You do realize you're about to die.

Shadoweaver: Haven't you ever heard of the healing power of laughter?

Xhracleb fires a chaos blast directly at Shadoweaver who takes it without suffering any damage.

Xhracleb: What are you?

Shadoweaver: I'm every nightmare you've ever had. I'm your worst dream ever come true. I'm everything you ever were afraid of.

Shadoweaver sends a dark beam coursing at Xhracleb. The beam intensifies into a dark energy ball. The darkness ball slams into him, knocking him back. Shadoweaver and Xhracleb fire out their respective energy beams, but Shadoweaver focuses his beams to overpower Xhracleb's, eventually knocking him back. Shadoweaver runs forward, but Xhracleb shoots out chaos tendrils toward him, which he catches and uses to immobilize and grab him before slamming him to the ground. Shadoweaver leaps forward and holds Xhracleb's head with his right hand, while clenching his left hand preparing to strike him. Before he has the chance, he is attacked by a chaorrupted Nova Hero. Nova Hero opens his palms, releasing a light. Shadoweaver, who is shielding his eyes from the glare of the light, stops his attack, releasing Xhracleb. As he recovers from the glare, Xhadam, recovered, fires a darkness beam at Shadoweaver. Shadoweaver dodges and attacks Xhadam with a more powerful darkness blast. Xhadam dissipates into the sky in an explosion.

Standing right beside me, Nova Hero suddenly kicked both Shadoweaver's legs. He loses his support and slams to the floor.

Shadoweaver: Guhah!!

Shadoweaver's lungs were emptied from the impact, involuntarily making that sound. With his hands once again propped on the floor, his head looked upwards. Xhracleb hung a venomous smile across his lips - while holding his Chaos sword in his right hand he stabbed me in the back without remorse.

Shadoweaver: Gah...!

The flames coursing through his nerves were extinguished by the sensation of thick metal piercing through his body. The center of Shadoweaver's chest was pierced through by the sword, which seemed to be deeply rooted in the floor. When a groan leaked out of his mouth, Xhracleb howled in laughter. Xhracleb’s shrill laugh turned his guts inside out as it echoed in the darkness. Shadoweaver clenched his teeth and put his right hand to the floor, pushing himself to his elbows with a voice that sounded like the cry from a beast near death.When he tried to lift his body, the sword which had pierced through the middle of his spine hung with an overwhelming pressure. Together with the short roar, He used all the power of his body and soul to lift himself up. With a dull sound, the sword slipped out of his back, and rolled to the ground.

Xhracleb: Stay down!

Xhracleb fires a piercing energy blast that would end Fred for good. The silhouette of a person charged in between Xhracleb’s purple blast and Shadoweaver at an incredible speed. Everything moved as if in slow motion as the energy blast ripped its way through Nova Hero before it stopped. He had regained control of himself.

Shadoweaver reached out with both hands towards Nova Hero as she fell backwards towards the ground. He collapsed on the ground without a sound.

Shadoweaver: I’ll kill you!! KILL!! I WILL DEFINITELY KILL YOU!!

Fred cried, but all that was drowned out by Xhracleb’s mad-sounding laughter.

Shadoweaver draws his right hand backward and thrusts it into Xhracleb's body.

Of course, it wasn’t enough. There was no way it could be enough.

He lifts Xhracleb's body with his right hand still impaling him and than fires a darkness beam straight through him. Xhracleb turned ghost-like and kept dissolving, and for the several seconds before completely disappearing he continued shrieking without stop. The scream slowly faded, and before long, his body disappeared. The energy supporting Shadoweaver body also ran out and he slid to one knee on the ground, reverting back to normal.

The torrent of helpless feelings changed form and began flowing from his eyes as tears. Tightly holding Blank’s slender body, he cried. He couldn't say anything, He just kept crying.

The screen turns black and switches to Fred a fair distance away from Zs'Castle Zs'Skayr as it explodes destroying the the Anur System's nuclear plans.

[Read the Epilogue for more...]

Characters

 * Fred
 * Blank
 * Van Helsing
 * Gilded Knight

Villains

 * Zs'Skayr
 * Xhadam
 * Xhracleb
 * NegaBlank 2.0
 * Chaorrupted Loboan
 * Dr. Vicktor

By Fred

 * Haywire
 * Opticus
 * ConDuckt
 * FrostDragon
 * Boulder
 * AmpliFire
 * Lightning Edge
 * Shadoweaver

By Blank

 * NegaBlank
 * Nova Hero

Trivia

 * Ahmad gives Charbel full credit for most of the scenes, and considers them some of the best drama/thriller scenes ever, suspecting an inspiration from the God of War gameplay.
 * This episode also concludes the whole Blank and the Omnigizer series.
 * It is followed up by an Epilogue to end the story for good.
 * While this ends BATO, this is merely the Season 1.5 for 40: The Last Splixson.
 * Xhracleb and Xhadam are the manifestations of the writers Charbel and Ahmad respectively. Xhracleb's and Xhadam's names are also anagrams of CharbelX and AhmadX, similar to the Nobody naming system from Kingdom Hearts.
 * The last alien ever used by the Omnigizer is Nova Hero.