Chapter 3: Freedom

Freedom is the third chapter of The Mazkertis Paradox. It details Kakamu's first encounter with his Dark Universe counterpart in the UG pocket dimension.

Summary
Kakamu finds himself in a control station in the UG, forced to wait for the arrival of Monarch's "master".

Not wanting to do that, Kakamu attacks Monarch from behind, intending to damage his suit with shattering power, but finds that he has been stripped of his powers. Monarch responds to the punch by elbowing Kakamu across the room and reminding him to stay down. Kakamu defies him again, running up to him and climbing onto the back of his suit. He manages to remove his helmet by digging his fingers beneath the neck, and sees that Monarch is actually human, like the last Monarch that abducted him thousands of years ago. Monarch chokes and dies due to the absence of air in the room, which irritates Kakamu, because he had hoped to get information out of him before letting him die. Because of this, he begins meditating, focusing his thoughts on his first kidnapping by a man named Monarch and seeing if there was anything in the past that could explain his present situation.

However, Kakamu's meditation is interrupted by a voice entering his head, coupled with a trail of black smoke slithering towards him from an open door. Kakamu converses with the voice via his own thoughts, as a physical conversation between the two entities would be impossible due to the absence of air in the room. The voice reveals itself to be Dukamu, who lectures Kakamu on several things, such as the curse of immortality (after which Monarch's power brings him back to life) and why it encourages suffering (Monarch suffocates again). When Kakamu asks why he is there, Dukamu says that he is bait for a higher power. When he asks what that higher power is, Dukamu shows him a telepathic image of User Kon.

Before Dukamu can reveal too much to his counterpart, User Kon appears in the control room to silence him. Kakamu witnesses the beginning of their battle, but is teleported back to the Claws camp on Malchior IV by User Kon. Kakamu takes a moment to process what just happened, and comes to the conclusion that the multiverse must be saved due to it being favoured by the Users, but they are too busy holding back a larger threat to save it themselves. Running across the beautiful fields of Malchior, Kakamu absorbs the air around him to enable him to fly, and the light from the sun for his battle with Mazkertis. He takes off into the sky, hoping to be reunited with the Claws of the Phoenix on Saskana.

Characters

 * Dukamu
 * Kakamu
 * Monarch (DU being)
 * User Kon