Angie and Vivi later met Tobias. The two had switched to breaker sets; Angie was once again with the Blazebreak Set, and Vivi had the Surge Breaker. Vivi now wielded the Voltedge, while Angie had the Combuster. "So, you two wanna be friends with me? That's very nice, thanks!" Tobias said, in agreement for them all to be friends. Angie gave Tobias the Glacius. "This will complete the Circle of Elements; Fire, Ice and Lightning." Angie said. "Of course! I needed a sword to match my armor!" Tobias said happily. They all laughed.

***

Ender and Max had ran down through the clockworks, looking for the swarm, and vanquishing it. The tower's poles were up to something. The pixels multiplied, causing many disruptions. "Look out! The swarm is multiplying! If we hesitate, the swarm will overrun the stratum!" Max said, and then...Void Geysers splashed out of the ground, Thwackers and Lumbers appearing.

Phantom, Zero and Princess were also doing an expedition, and the same disaster happened. "This is getting nuts!" Zero shouted, Dual-Wielding Valiance guns. He used the blade and the gun parts, but the swarm grew to a tremendous amount. Gears and such broke up and warped out, causing another dimension to be formed, and everything on the stratum would fall into the Swarm Realm, a void of chaos and turmoil.

The 3 friends were also experiencing this, and Tobias was exhausted, and then took a slice from a thwacker, and fell down, hardly breathing. Angie helped him up. "This is getting dangerous! If the swarm consumes us, we'll suffer terminal corruption!" Vivi shouted, and began casting a teleport spell. "We must evacuate!" and then the spell was casted, sending Tobias, Angie and Vivi up to the Arcade.

"This is troubling. We must teleport out of here THIS INSTANT!" Phantom shouted. They all teleported out, to the Arcade as well. Soon, four of the screens turned into static. The following stratums were each stratum before a boss stratum. "What is going on here?" Feron asked. Phantom ran up to him. "Sir, the swarm is corrupting the clockworks!" He responded. "No! They infiltrated the clockworks!" Feron said. Then the static screens turned to the swarm icon. Ender and Max couldn't teleport out; it was too late.

(Guess what happens to them. Hint: What happens to Link the first time he enters the Twilight Realm?)

Ender and Max warped into wolvers, with no warning; the change was sudden, but temporary, until they left the realm. They could still communicate through mind notes, but that was it for communication. "So....we get out of here?" Ender questioned. Max nodded. "Of course, but first we need to get to the end and find the elevator or something." Max replied. The two ran off, clawing and biting at the enemies. Soon, they reached a platform, and a dragon flew in. Their combined efforts tore the dragon to pieces, and caused a portal to form. "We have to jump in there." Max said, and they jumped in, changing back as sudden as the change before.

They had arrived at the stratum after Ironclaw. They had made it out. But the swarm tower was reforming, causing the gates to shift again, two at the left side, two on the right. The two towers merged, forming a huge tower that rose just up. It was the same height, but different shape.

"Wait, Why'd we go on an expedition? Wasn't our goal to destroy all the members of the crimson order?" Ender questioned. "Of course. But we should find the gremlin schematics first, to reveal their locations." Max said, and just a few steps away from them, were the schematics. "Oh look, easy as cake." Ender said, picking up the schematics.

They'd found the map to the crimson order's many facilities, now they just had to kill the Order member inside.

This was only the beginning of an adventure that would take them to the top of cradle and beyond...

Finally time eh?

Oh, darnit. Atleast CC3 will answer SOME questions that kinda were...unanswered.

(We shall all take a moment to remember the music links, which are now RETIRED for the rest of my fanfics.)

"Looks like we found our first building." Max said. "Of course." Ender said, putting away the schematics. While they planned their attack, a laser cannon began charging up, which neither one knew of. Then the laser fired just when Max finished saying "Let's leave nobody alive, shall we?" The two turned around to find a huge laser charging towards them!

Max jumped away from the blast and Ender created a protective force field around him, nullifying the blast. "That was close. Now that cannon's gonna pay!" Ender shouted, wielding the Divine Avenger. He ran towards the cannon and began hacking at it, while Max charged the prominence cannon. When Ender's tornado spin combined with Max's cannon blast, the laser canon overloaded and exploded, revealing a secret slot.

"A warp slot! But we'd need to insert an Energy Sphere to activate the warp." Max said. "I can do such a thing." Ender said. He began charging up energy, which started to cause the area around to glow bright red. Ender's arms raised up, like he was going to conduct an orchestra, and the orb got extremely powerful and started to take shape. Then Ender lowered his arms and the sphere flew to the slot, activating the warp.

The two entered the warp, to the find the Sentrymaster Hachkong. "It took you long enough, but time's up! The swarm shall take all the members of the Crimson Order to a satellite made by the Guardmaster, where we shall rule all!" Hachkong monologued. "And I'll leave both of you to die!" Four cannons opened up from the floor, and fired beams at the two, causing them to electrocute and be under full control of the beams. "Let's see how well you can survive before I throw you both away!" Hachkong shouted.

He manipulated the beams to make Ender and Max crash into each other. The tower charged up to fire a powerful blast. The earthquake caused severe damage. Then three orbs appeared, then they made a triangle. The swarm bursted out of the portal, corrupting Hachkong to unimaginable power, and then the beams shattered Max and Ender into small sparks, then threw both groups of sparks into the orbs, forming portals, and sending the sparks into the portals. Hachkong jumped into the portal and it closed, being warped to the Swarm Satellite. The facility was obliterated in the process.

Ender was flung into space, during the time when the skylark crashed. Max was thrown into an Owlite Keep in the future, about 1000 years after the war started, where the swarm has conquered cradle and is leaving the entire planet to die after the core swallows the shadow tower and is used as a vessel to corrupt the homeworlds of the Spiral Knights.

The two were thousads of years apart from each other, but how will they ever find each other?

The group of sparks reformed.

Max got up, and was astonished by what he saw. A group of papers lied just meters from him. Max picked it up. It read:

"July 18, 7892. The war has ended and the swarm has won. The core is gone, and it's being used to corrupt our planets. We have no salvation what so ever, and now we are all condemned to live on cradle, which is still moving, thanks to gremlins, but the planet's wildlife has started to die off. Only the strongest of creatures, like the Snarbolax, have survived.

Maybe we all would end up like the legions of almire, forgotten in ashes. But there's just ashes. No fire. Lord Vanaduke still lives on, but there's no way to reignite the fires in the castle. The surface has become inhospitable, forcing us to retreat to the clockworks. One day, we will all finally find hope.

-Vaelyn"

Max was totally shocked by the paper. "Then...this is our future? If we fail?" Max says. His words echo through the keep. Elevators still work, and Max landed near one. "Maybe I can find the knights that survived." He said, walking to the lift, having it short-circuit, and it falls. Max lands in a concrete jungle, that is coated in ashes. "The city must have burned down.." He said, walking through the ruins. A group of rabid wolvers scurried across a cracked street. On the ground was a fireburst brandish. "This might be handy, it's getting cold.." Max said, picking up the sword.

Max arrived at another lift, and this time, the lift fell into a clockwork terminal. Several knights were there, one of them who looked very young. "I-I hope you can set a fire.." The young knight shivered. It was obviously very cold where the terminal was. "Well well, another knight to the manslaughter. Look." One of the knights said, pointing at Max. The other knights were standing by the walls of the terminal. Max walked over, not sure what the survivors were going to do.

"So you managed to find us, huh." The knight who had pointed at Max said. "Wait, those documents.." "Of course. I found them after being thrown from the present." Max said, handing over the documents. "Wait, you're n-not from this time?" The young knight asked. "Me and another friend of mine were on a task to kill the crimson order, and then one of the members used the swarm to send me and my friend into a portal. I'm sure he's around here som-" Max turned around and was cut off from shock, that Ender wasn't with him. "Oh dangit. He must've been sent to another time."

"That's alright. Maybe you can help us set a fire here." The knight, holding two rocks, replied. "And these documents are from our last leader. It describes the Snarbolax and Lord Vanaduke being alive. Anyway, my name is Storm. The little knight there is Jenny, and the guy who's trying to ignite a fire is Terrence." Storm said. Another knight was trying to open a arsenal station.

"And that guy there is Mouse. He's trying to open the station, and I think he's getting it." Terrence said. Mouse opened the station up, and the door broke off, crashing into the wall. "Phew, finally took 3 days, and it was worth the effort!" Mouse said.

"Well, whatever life is left here, is here. I saw a pack of rabid wolvers back by a burned down concrete jungle." Max said. "That jungle..it burned down when a chunk of the citadel fell into the land, and started a fire. But that's a thousand years ago. I bet there's nothing left." Terrence said, clicking two stones together. "Maybe I can help with that fire." Max said, pulling out the fireburst brandish. Max slashed at a bunch of plants that were untouched by the city fire, and the vines were ignited. "Thanks, m-mister." Jenny said. "So, what's your name?" Mouse asked.

"The name's Max." Max said. "Max, huh. Welcome to the club. Even though there's no confetti since the solstice event, Jenny says there's solstice crests somewhere here, but she isn't sure where they are." Storm says. Jenny warms up a bit. "Why don't we try checking the corners?" Jenny asked. Max looked around, and saw a purple glow. "The glows of the summer and winter crests. I think I found them!" Max called out.

Mouse ran over and began digging it out with a Super Slime Slasher. The crests were found. "We need to keep these safe, they're still in perfect condition." Mouse said, picking up the winter crest. Jenny ran over and picked up the summer crest.

Max needed to help this lone group of knights, and find a way back to the present time.

Zero, Phantom and Princess were at the meeting room in the Spiral Order's headquarters. "We need to find this codex and learn more about almire for sure!" Zero said. "Yes, Zero. The Almirian Codex is something we need to learn the secrets of almire and understand why they are attacking us." Feron answered. "You, Phantom, Princess and Tsuna will go to the necropolis we pinpointed and recover the codex." "I won't let you down!" Phantom said, standing and saluting. Princess just nodded.

When the group got to the lift, they found everyone had left to go down and recover the codex. The four quickly ran to the elevator to get the job done. When it arrived at the Necropolis, they found Desna. "The rest of the recon rangers have left but they never came back! I'm not sure if they survived!" Desna told them. "We'll find them, right Phantom?" Tsuna asked. "Let's go bust some skulls open." Phantom said. He quickly pulled out his Leviathan Blade and darted off. Zero, Tsuna and Princess trailed behind, taking out the bombies and almirian crusaders.

When the four reached the elevator, they found everyone dead. Every last ranger. Phantom turned on his comlink and told Desna the devastating news. "No. This isn't true!" Desna shouted. Zero took a picture and sent it. "Good luck...I suppose." Desna said. The knights went into the inner sanctum, and arrived at a bridge. Almirian Crusaders ran towards them. "Here they come!" Tsuna shouted, pulling out a Faust. Phantom pulled out his Leviathan Blade, Princess got her Glacius and Zero used his Valiance guns. Phantom quickly charged in and began slicing and hacking at the undead.

Zero got too close to a crusader. The two were locked in combat, fighting with close range weapons. Zero was struggling heavily. Princess was too busy fending off the Deadnaughts who kept coming back to life, and Tsuna and Phantom were gaining the advantage against the undead army. Then Zero got stabbed in the middle, right where the sanctuary power was. Zero collapsed onto the floor, his head leaning off the side of the bridge. He was breathing heavily as the crusader gazed at him, ready to finally kill him for trespassing in the necropolis, when Phantom smashed the crusader. The spear pushed Zero closer to the edge. Tsuna came to his side.

"Are you okay Zero..?" Tsuna questioned. Phantom and Princess ran towards him too. "Tsuna, he can't be saved. Being hit in the heart is very fatal." Phantom replied to Tsuna. "Th-there's...just one thing I want you to...do." Zero weakily said. "T-take of my...penta-heart pendant..." Tsuna pressed a button on the back of Zero's neck that unlocked the pendant, and Tsuna took it. Princess grabbed a Valiance from one of Zero's hands, and Phantom got the other. Then, Zero fell to his demise.

He was falling very, very fast, heading towards the core. Suddenly, the orb that contained his power flew out, leaving a gaping hole where it was. Zero closed his eyes for the final time, and his eyes faded away. The corrupted core absorbed him very quickly, while the sanctuary orb flew to a concrete jungle, at depth 27.

Continuing Chapter 7.

The camp at the terminal was moving along steadily, but winter was fast approaching. "This fire won't last forever, Mouse. We'll have to re-ignite it with logs. But where can we find those?" Terrence said to Mouse, looking at the fire. The fire would burn out in the cold and harsh winter winds. The sunlight began to fade as the darkness of winter began. Suddenly, a huge gust of wind blew Jenny off her feet. "Aaaaah!" She shouted as she got flung into a wall by the wind.

Max was in the gloaming wildwoods, finding any logs that could still be around, and taking them back to camp. The path to it was a really harsh one, involving the scarlet fortress, an owlite keep, and a concrete jungle. Max ran as fast as he could, after seeing snow starting to fall. Storm was also running to get the wildwood logs to the camp too, and found a blue hat, lying on the ground. "It looks like it's in good condition. Why is it?" Storm asked, then put it on. He proceeded to head back to camp. When the two arrived, they saw Jenny, against a wall.

"What happened?!" Max questioned. "Jenny got caught by the wind and was blown into a wall. She needs to be somewhere where the wind won't blow her around. It's crazy out here!" Mouse explained. Terrence quickly took a log, and pulled out a tempered calibur to try and cut the wood to make some sort of shelter to keep them out of the wind. Hours and hours went by and the temperature only got colder. The snow lied everywhere and the fire was starting to weaken. Storm took a log and cut it too. His speed was blinding fast, and then threw the log pieces into the fire, which keep it burning.

"I'm almost done cutting this log...." Terrence said. The logs were finely cut, and Terrence started lying logs against the wall. He was going to try to build a shelter.

The knights ran through the massive labyrinth, and found each other. Vivi found Tobias, Magnus found Phantomahamachi, Ender found Max, and Angie found Princesspuff. They all entered a room. The bosses, corrupted by the swarm were in the rooms, and it was Vivi and Tobias VS The Rabid Snarbolaxes, Ender and Max VS The Ice Queen, Angie and Princesspuff VS the Red Roarmulus Twins, and finally, Phantomhamachi and Magnus VS Darkfire Vanaduke.

If they all succeed, then they will all unite to enter Void's room, where he would finally be stopped, even if it means killing Ender's big brother.

Magnus jumped to a mace swing, and Phantom took out the Carnavons. Then, Phantom was struck down by Vanaduke. Suddenly, the spikes on his helmet and suit connected. The helm's spikes connected to the bag at the back and the suit's spikes connected to the bolts on the helmet. Then Phantom let out a massive blast of electricity, blinding Vanaduke, Magnus and the undead. When the light cleared, the armor had turned to a bright blue, the spikes' tips white, and his eyes were visible. "Time to die, Vanaduke. Even though Vog cursed you, I still have to kill you to stop Void." Phantom says to Darkfire Vanaduke. "Is that so? You idiot. You cannot kill our god!" Vanaduke bellowed.

Then the two struck blades, and Phantom's Leviathan Blade gained the upper hand, from the high amount of energy applied to it. The mace went flying and smashed carnavons before cracking, shattering and causing a huge explosion, which mortally wounded Vanaduke, breaking his mask. "Finish him, Magnus." Phantom said, his armor turning back to normal as the spikes withdraw from the slots. Magnus soared up high and stabbed Vanaduke in the back, toppling the monstrosity and killing him. "Mission accomplished." Phantom said, the two running to leave the area.

Elsewhere, Princess and Angie were having trouble. The twins were very fast, harming Angie and Princes, but then Princess emnated an icy aura, forcing the twins to freeze like water. Her Glacius was powered up and she began attacking. Angie did the same, with the Combuster. The two fought hard, and the scuttlebots couldn't reach them. The twins could still fire nukes, and they did that to harm Angie and Princess, knocking them down. They didn't give up, and once one exploded, so did the other. "Let's go!" Angie said, the two running to leave the area.

Max and Ender had the upper hand against the ice queen, since it was just an ice edition of the Royal Jelly. "My husband told me you would be a very terrible menace. You are what he said." The Ice Queen boomed to Ender, as Ice Polyps froze him in place. Monomi began shooting at the ice. "Max, we need some help here!" Monomi shouted, shooting faster and faster. Max shot the prominence cannon at Ender, shattering the ice. Ender jumped, ready to deal a heavy combo to the Ice Queen, while Max powered the prominence cannon to cause serious damage. The two synchronized as the queen exploded into jelly. Her crown laid down on the floor, shattered. "Let's move." Ender said, the two running to leave the area.

Vivi and Tobias were having tough times with the rabid snarbolax, only managing to take one down. Vivi used his stun balls and Tobias dealt very little damage with the Glacius. The Snarbolax turned from green to black, and it began to get simpler. Then Tobias and Vivi switched and Vivi used a Final Flourish to deal severe damage. Vivi caused several holes in the snarbolax's hide, and finally managed to kill it. "Let's go!" Vivi said, the two running to leave the area, and meeting the rest.

"Now, combine your powers!" Monomi said, her shooting a heart to start the power combiner. The rest used clones of the sanctuary orbs to fill the slots, and the chamber opened. And there was Void.