39The four champions traveled from the hospital where Jake and Lady were welcoming their rainicorn pups into the magical world of Ooo. Finn took point, while Simon went behind him, Betty following Simon, and Pyra guarding the rear from any surprise attacks. They followed the Lich's Trail of Death, the one it made when trying to regain power to end life on Ooo. The pink trees were starting to recover and regrow, and various signs of habitation were seen throughout. This trail brought Finn back into his memories, fighting against the Lich with Jake, armed with the Gauntlet of Billy, his idol, which had been destroyed by the Lich. He had come out on top in that battle, and he hadn't heard any whisper of the Lich since then. Despite not having his trusted friend by his side, he had two new friends, and his epic love interest with him. Knowing this filled Finn with hope and confidence.
As they ran over a rainbow bridge, Finn remembered his encounter with Ice King over Princess Bubblegum. In jest, he said, "Hey Simon, you remember trying to fight me for Princess Bubblegum over here?"
Simon, ever the calm one, shook his head with a small grin on his face. "According to your account of my activities while I was possessed by the Ice Crown, that could be almost anywhere in Ooo."
Finn chuckled, amused. "That's true. I'm sorry I didn't realize your chasing princesses as a cry for help from the inside."
"You couldn't have known Finn. There aren't many items like the Ice Crown or the Health Pendant."
"I'm just glad we found each other, so you could stop pestering all those poor girls," Betty joked. "Who would have thought my Simon was such a ladies man on the inside. No wonder I'm so enamored."
"It's the Hero inside them," Pyra said, looking at Finn as she spoke.
"I couldn't agree more dear," Betty agreed.
Finally coming to Iceberg Lake, the group realized they had a dilemma they hadn't thought about. Finn had crossed the lake on Jake last time, and Pyra couldn't handle being touched by water. Simon's teleportation spell wouldn't work since he's never been to Dark Edenia. Ice King had, but it wasn't the same, and it might as well count for nothing, as Simon was quick to point out.
"What are we going to do then," Finn asked?
Simon though for a moment, before coming up with a solution.
"I have three spells, that when used together, could for a solution."
"And they are," Pyra asked, intrigued?
"Sleep, to keep you from panicking once we are out on water, Endure Elements, so if you do get splashed, it won't affect you as much, and Reduce Person, to make you small enough fro Finn to carry you in his hands as we cross. I will remove the first and third spell when we reach the other side of the lake, in case Abracadaniel uses water against you."
"Wow. You really are an amazing mage Simon," Pyra said, amazed he could come up with such a solution so quickly.
"Yeah, thanks man."
"You're welcome. Now I must concentrate to cast the spells." Simon began chanting in his language of Magic to tap into the power still left in the Ooo. Pulling it together, he cast his spells, drawing on the energy of the land to fuel it, rather than his own energy, trying to conserve his strength for the final battle as much as possible.
Pyra began to shrink before everyone's eyes, before she yawned and fell to the ground, asleep and unharmed. Finn picked her up and held her gently in his hand, fearing that any kind of pressure would crush his beloved.
"So now, how do we get across the Lake," Finn asked?
"I actually hadn't come up with a plan for that yet," Simon admitted.
"We can help," a collection of voices spoke from overhead.
Finn looked up and couldn't believe his luck and eyes. It was the balloons that had sworn a blood oath to him, to carry him wherever he needed to go until he released them from their vow, which he had. If he remembered, from there, they had journeyed to the mesosphere to die.
"My Grade A Pranksters! What the math are you doing here?"
"We didn't actually go the mesosphere. Benny chickened out."
"Did not."
"Did too."
"Guys," Finn interrupted. "I released you from your blood oath. You'd still help me?"
"Ooo is in danger. The very life that flows through us, Magic, is fading from the land. We knew you would be involved and we decided to help."
"That's so algebraic," Finn exclaimed. "Will you carry my friends too? I need them to save Ooo."
"Sure. It won't be a problem. We won't even pull pranks on the way to show we're serious."
"Thank you guys. Simon, Betty, these guys are going to get us across the lake."
"That's wonderful Finn. Let us be on our way," Simon said, as balloon strings wrapped around his waist and under arms. Betty and Finn got the same treatment, and they flew gently over the calm lake of icebergs and memories of past conflicts.
Finally reaching the other side, Simon returned Pyra to her original size before lifting the sleep spell. Finn and Betty thanked the balloons profusely while he worked, crafting the necessary counterspells to awaken their fire elemental. Once it was finished, it didn't take long for Pyra to regain consciousness. After filling her in on the trip over Iceberg Lake, to which she was slightly sorry she had missed, thegroup moved through the remains of human civilization. As they traveled, they felt a sense of foreboding, something that was telling them to turn back. They weren't heroes for nothing though, and shrugged off this feeling of danger ahead.
It wasn't long till danger found them though. As they approached the descent into the sewers of the ancient human city, undead rose all around them: skeletons, zombies, even a few vampires. Finn drew his Holy Sword as Pyra charged up her fire power. Betty and Simon stood back to back, with her staff raised and his hands cloaked in bright blue energy.
"No going back now," Finn said, eyeing the undead with determination.
"We knew this might be a one way trip," Betty replied, and shot forward, smashing through a skeleton with her crystal staff, the blue lightning shooting out and turning the remaining bones to ash.
"Magic Missile," Simon cried, as five bolts of concussive force shot from his hands and struck enemies in front of him to the ground.
"Flame Shower," Pyra yelled, and threw her fireballs into the sky, which split into smaller fireballs and landed on the vampires and zombies, burning their undead flesh.
Finn roared a battle cry and smashed through skeleton after skeleton , breaking them apart, and the holy magic of the Sword kept them from reanimating again.
"Cone of Frost," Finn heard Simon shout before he let out a cry of pain. Finn turned and saw Simon clutching a dagger that had been thrust into his side from a skeleton behind him. Pyra shot a wave of white flame that burned all enemies in her path and she ran to Simon's side, defending the wounded mage, quickly followed by Finn and Betty.
"Can you heal him," Finn asked desperately?
"Yes," Betty replied. Kneeling beside her beloved, Betty touched him with the Blue Crystal Staff and whispered, "It will be alright my love. It will all be alright." A bright light flashed, and Simon's wound had disappeared. He jumped up quickly, and shouted, "Lightning bolt," casting a bolt of energy, shooting it through the vampire that was about to taste Finn's blood.
"Whoa, thanks Simon."
"My pleasure dear boy," Simon replied, before rejoining the battle with vigor.
A few more undead and the ambush was defeated without any more serious complications or injuries. Finn took a moment to breathe and look around at the enemies they had already defeated together. He knew it was only going to get harder. He couldn't have been more right.
They descended the stairs into Dark Edenia, moving slowly, Pyra lighting up the room and everyone on alert for traps or enemies. It wasn't until they fell right into it, did they know how much trouble they were in.
Suddenly, a black hole opened under their feet, causing them to fail into the portal without any way of stopping it. Finn heard Simon try a spell, but nothing changed, just endless falling. Finally, Finn landed inside a room with two cages, and a chair between the two. Finn looked around, but Betty, Simon, and Pyra were no where to be seen. Finn was alone.
Suddenly he wasn't as Abracadaniel appeared in the chair, watching Finn.
"I'm here to stop you," Finn declared.
"Oh Finn. You can try. And you can fail. I'm stronger than you know. You're nothing to me. A mere speck in my unending power. You have nothing. Or rather," he said, gesturing to the cages, asPrya appeared in one, and Jake appeared in the other, "you will have nothing."
"Oh glob. Jake. Flame Princess. Are you guys ok."
"We're fine buddy. Take this guy out," Jake encouraged.
"Aren't you getting ahead of yourself dog," Abracadaniel spoke, staring through Jake. "What we have here, is the Hero's Dilema. I will let one of these people live. At least till they're swallowed by my power. But one will die, for certain. You have to choose, Hero of Ooo. Who do you save? Your best friend? The one who has been your brother, your companion, your rock, and your salvation? Or will you let your Epic Love Story end here? There are, after all, more princesses, but only one Jake. What will you do Finn?"
"You can't do this," Finn said in distress, charging Abracadaniel, only to end up running into a portal and returning to the beginning of the room.
"You can only save one. Choose," the Void mage demanded. "You have three minutes before they both die because you couldn't make a decision."
"Finn," Pyra began.
"Don't," Finn interrupted. "I'll save you. I'll save both of you."
"Finn. Buddy. It's ok. I know what I have to do,"
Finn, bewildered, turned to Jake and asked, "What are you saying?"
"Look man. Promise me you'll look after Lady and the Pups for me. And Shelby. She sometimes forgets to eat her dinner. And BEEMO."
"Jake, no man. I can't choose."
"I know. That's why I'm choosing for you. I met my pups Finn. They know I'm their daddy and they know I love them. But I also love you. And I know how much you love Flame Princess. You can't choose and if you don't, you'll lose both of us. There's no reason for that."
"Oh my, this is getting interesting," Abracadaniel commented, watching with interest, opening a black hole beneath Jake's cage.
"SHUT YOUR FACE," Finn screamed at the Void mage, rage overtaking him as the realness of the situation they were all in settled in his mind. "Please Jake. Don't do this man. I need you."
"You're a man now Finn. You don't need your dog anymore. You've made a life and you have friends and people that love you. People that would die for you. I'm one of them."
"You're not my dog. You're my brother. My blood."
"And I have to protect what's most precious to you. It's my job, to watch out for you when you can't watch out for yourself." Jake looked at Flame Princess and said, "Promise you'll take care of him. No matter what happens. Promise me that."
"I promise Jake." Pyra said, lava tears streaming down her face.
"I guess this is goodbye then," Jake said as he made scissors out of his hand stretching it above and poised to cut the rope dangling him above the black hole.
"Please Jake, don't," Finn cried, crying and begging for his only brother, his only family, not to cut the rope, his literal lifeline.
Jake looked into Finn's eyes and said, "Bye Finn. I love you man," before cutting the rope, and descending into the darkness.
As Jake disappeared and the hole closed, Finn's eyes were wide in shock, Jake's last words playing over and over in his mind on repeat, until finally; a laugh broke his stunned state.
"I love this Game," Abracadaniel laughed on his chair.
Screaming in pain and loss, Finn hurled his Sword at Abracadaniel's head, hoping to end the mage's life. He simply disappeared into a black vortex and reappeared under Pyra.
"As promised," he said, and made Pyra fall through the bottom of the cage into the ground, before disappearing again. His disembodied voice floated through the air, "Come and get me Finn. Avenge you brother," and a light appeared moving slowly towards a tunnel behind the chair that Abracadaniel had been sitting on.
Pyra crawled to Finn, in shock herself. She had thought of Jake as a brother figure for herself as well as for Finn. He approved of her and helped Finn and her be together when everyone else wrote it off as a lost cause. This one thing, this Ultimate Act, his life for hers, broke her inside. She knew Finn was worse. She knew she had to stay strong for him. She just didn't know how. So she settled on the next best thing: resolving to burn that mage to dust.
Finn wished it wasn't real. This wasn't real. Jake should have been at the hospital, guarding his pups, and in turn, guarded by Gunter. This shouldn't have happened. Jake shouldn't have had to die for him to love. It wasn't fair. It wasn't supposed to happen like this. Finn bottled it all up, his love, his anger, and all of his sorrow. He would bottle it up and let it grow with every step he took inside Dark Edenia, every step he took that brought him closer to Abracadaniel. When he finally would be face to face with him, that bottle would break, and while he knew Abracadaniel wouldn't survive it, he wasn't sure he would either.