"Indeed." The Abomination snarled at the memory of its humiliating defeat and exposed a row of white, pointy teeth made of Decay. "You broke me down into many small pieces but I had all the time I needed to rebuild myself.
"At that point, I just had to take the passenger seat in your life and wait for the right opportunity. Whenever you practiced your spells, I learned from you. Whenever your so-called children, my parents, passed their knowledge onto you, I learned from them as well.
"While you wasted your time playing family, I worked my ass off to find your weak points in both mind and body." The Vastor-Abomination's laughter was joyless, filled only with spite and cruelty.
"You should have wondered why over time controlling your Abomination half became harder to control instead of easier. It was because I was learning how to counter your will and replace it with mine.
"You have no idea how many times I've tried to possess you in your sleep and kill that sack of flesh, Zurya." Hearing the clone threaten Zinya and diss her by not even remembering her name filled Vastor with rage.
Yet rage was useless against a being much stronger than him that had already exploited Vastor's weakened and battered body to replace his willpower and energy.
"Too bad that you always kept that damned staff close by. Whenever I was about to take over at night, you would grab the staff and kick me back to the curb. Even in your sleep, you were a massive pain in the ass!
"Not even these pesky undead would have been enough to bring you down if I hadn't messed with you the whole time. I had to bring our black and bright violet core out of synch and keep you distracted just for those morons to hurt you enough to lose control over me."
Vastor gasped, realizing why back at the deep violet he had stood against Baba Yaga, and now at the bright violet he had experienced so much difficulty handling undead without a full red blood core.
"It's over, old man." The Vastor-Abomination clone said. "Our throat is cut, our limbs are crippled, and our heart is frozen. I'm the only thing keeping us alive. Surrender now and you have my word that once I deal with the undead, I won't lay a hand on your precious kids.
"Your life in exchange for theirs. It's a fair deal."
Vastor needed but a thought to assess the conditions of his body and mana core. Time in the Mindscape was slowed down, but only to the point that it allowed him to better take in how desperate the situation was.
Without anyone bothering them anymore, the undead in the back line were almost done cracking the Dominator armor and the Yggdrasill staff was out of spells.
The decision he had to take was as painful as it was obvious. n/-1n
"No." Vastor replied, his voice reduced to a hiss as he clenched his right hand around the Abomination's wrist and started to squeeze it as strongly as he could.
"No?" The Abomination echoed in disbelief.
In the real world, the undead charged at the Abomination, raining tier five darkness-based spells mixed with other elements. Final Sunset, Burial Ground, Dark Ages, and more darted at the Vastor-clone from every direction.
The creature smirked, raising his hands to dispel such trifling spells with a wave of Chaos yet nothing happened. His smile turned into a confused expression and the spells hit their mark with surgical precision, not one iota of darkness gone to waste.
"No." Vastor repeated. "I'm not going to surrender. I'm tired of failing. Tired of giving up just because the task at hand seems hard. I'm done losing."
The battered body of the Abomination now bore several holes big enough to see through them. He tried to escape but the perfect teamwork of the undead coupled with their numerical advantage locked him in a perfect trap.
More spells struck the dumbfounded creature whose spells and bloodline abilities kept failing him.
"So nice of you to be stupid enough to believe that you were the only one capable of messing with our body. Keyword, our." Vastor said with a sneer, his grip tightening as the Abomination's loosened.
"What are you doing?" The clone was going crazy due to the pain from the wounds and the psychic struggle. "I told you already. I'm the only thing keeping us alive. If you keep up like this, we'll both die!"
"So be it." Vastor replied, taking a third volley of tier five spells without so much as a grunt. "If that happens, I won't lose. We are just going to settle for a draw."
"A draw? Are you insane?"The Abomination whined, his knees buckling until Vastor's feet touched the ground again. "There's no victory in death, just oblivion."
"But there's no defeat either." Vastor let go of the Abomination's wrist, moving his hand onto the clone's throat. "If I die, it's going to be because I refuse to yield to a piece of trash like you.
"Right now, the undead are my instrument against you and you are my only enemy."
"You don't understand." The Vastor-Abomination's voice turned hoarse from the increasingly strong hold in the Mindscape while in the real world, another volley of darkness spells blasted more holes open in the Chaos that comprised his body.
"Our form is in tatters. We are alive only because I have no vitals. You have to release me and let me use my powers. There's no other way out of this."
"No." Vastor looked down at his clone, further tightening his grip and bringing their faces centimeters away. "There's no guarantee that you're going to give up on control after that and as I said, I'm done losing. I'm not going to lose anything and anyone ever again."
The Master could hear the children screaming, their voices giving him the strength to fight for them and also for himself.
"You truly are a pathetic being." As he spoke, the essence of the clone was ripped apart by Vastor's will and absorbed by his telepathic projection. "You claim to have learned my secrets while looking at Mogar through my eyes, yet clearly you've learned nothing.
"You hid yourself like a coward all this time, avoiding any struggle and pain by using me as a shield. You've deluded yourself into believing that my power is your own, but you are wrong. So wrong."
"I am right!" The Vastor-Clone fought with all of his strength but he could only slow down the inevitable. "It's not your power. It's our power. I am a part of you."
Between the agony from the grievous wounds caused by the undead and Vastor's relentless onslaught, the mind of the Abomination faltered. His willpower flickered with every injury he suffered while his essence and consciousness were devoured by the short, insignificant man in front of him.
"Wrong again." Vastor clenched his hand so tight that his fingers almost touched his thumb. "You are not a part of me. You are a tool I've created. A means to an end. A war dog bred only to be sicked at my enemies.
"It's time I teach you once and for all who holds the leash." Vastor opened his mouth wide, biting the Abomination's head.