I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment purposes only, no money involved.
Sam tried to steady her breath as she looked out across the barren landscape of what would soon be the most bloody battlefield the world of Alayzard had ever seen. Looked upon the army of thousands of monstrous demons of varying size and shapes. Though she was only too aware that if she had just turned her head around, then she would be looking upon three armies of man who had come together under her leadership in order to make one final stand against the demon hoards.
They called her their 'Holy Woman', the proof that the gods had chosen mankind to survive. The entire thing was ridiculous. Sam was just a fifteen year old girl. How on Earth was she supposed to lead an army. Then again she wasn't on Earth anymore, she had been summoned to Alayzard and into the middle of this struggle for survival.
The demon king's castle was a terrible looking thing. Sam couldn't understand why the guy couldn't have just lived in a nice castle with a garden and a nice forest or something. Why is it that 'evil overlords' just had to live in blackened wastelands without a single piece of greenery.
Sam was choosing to focus on this issue. It was something that would keep everything else out of her mind, like the tens of thousands of people who would be dying that day, in her name no less. Sam tightened her grip on her sword and shield, closing her amethyst eyes in order to block out the world around her.
She couldn't look back, she couldn't stand to see the faces of the man and woman who believed in her so much that they would follow her to their deaths. As long as they were only looking at her back then she was the picture of a warrior princess, going into battle on her mighty war horse, dressing in pure black clothes with silver shoulder guards, guntlets and boots, wearing a silver circlet on her shoulder length black hair. But if she had turned around all they would see is a frightened little girl who would do anything to be back home where she could cry to her mother and father and admit she was scared.
She had never asked for any of this, she hadn't been prepared to be summoned. She remembered from reading the news back in her own world that about thirty years back, children ages five to seventeen started to vanish from Earth. Some eventual returned revealing the fact that they had been summoned to other worlds and that they had been shown and taught wonderous things while there, giving them magical powers and other such things. But the percentage of people who did return home using the 'Otherworld Gates' was extremely low, barely five percent. The others either decided to stay in the worlds that they had been summoned too, or much more likely they simply... dead.
Sam remembered all this. She remembered thinking that it was horrible and unjust. She remember being an activist against the use of such people as military weapons if and when they returned to Earth. But she had never dreamed that it would happen to her. And that was it, the entire last three months she had spent in this strange world seemed like a long dream were she couldn't seem to wake up. Actually, considering the situation she was in, it was more like a nightmare.
Guinevere, Sam's war horse, a mare that was as large and proud as any of the man war horse, seemed to sense her rider's unease and the pure white mare shifted about in its own apprehension. Sam tightened her legs on the saddle and pulled back the horses reins in order to try to keep control.
But before she could be thrown off another hand grabbed the reins from beside her horse and a calming presence moved over both horse and rider. "Don't worry Guinevere, steady there." Danny whispered to the horse and he let go of the reins, trying to pass the action off as nothing so that it wouldn't discredit Sam in front of her men.
Danny looked up at her, his blue eyes as clear as calm water stared right through her as he gave her a gentle smile. He couldn't say anything, couldn't make it look like she needed his support, but the look in his eyes spoke loudly enough. 'Don't worry Sam, I'm here for you.'
He was always there, right by her side. Within a week of her being summoned, he had managed to track down the Observant to call in a favor for helping them recapture Vortex. He wanted to use their all seeing eyes to find out which world Sam had been summoned too. And when they had refused to help him, he... persuaded them. After finding the name of the world he was looking for he used the infinity map in order to reach her.
She could still remember it, the Demon King had sent a massive giant to crush the capital, wanting to put an end to her and the hope that her summoning had represented for the world. Sam had thought everything was lost, but Danny showed up, just in the nick of time to stop the giant and save the day.
Despite this, it was Sam that everyone looked to. She had already been introduced to them as the summoned hero, and the nobles didn't want to admit that it was someone else who did the job. Or maybe the real reason was because Danny was not entirely human. Either way, Sam was the one that they put their hopes in. She was the 'Holy Woman' who would bring them victory, while Danny was her nameless shadow, standing forever at her side. She was the visible hero, and he was the invisible one.
At first he had wanted her to return to Earth with him, but when she had voiced a wish to help save the people before she left, he had promised to stay with her.
Sam smiled to herself, the presence of her oldest friend gave her courage, just like it always did. Even more so now that Danny had finally hit a growth spurt since they had both turned up in this strange world. He had shot up an entire foot, and even those he wasn't his father's nearly inhuman seven foot two inches, he was still nothing to laugh at when he stood six feet tall. His broad shoulders were much more obvious since he now wore a sleeveless black top, and the two months of training they had gone through had helped add some muscle to his bones. Twin long sword made of glistening ice rested in leather straps on his back, their edges tinted red from the blood that seeped into them during the months of use. But even so, he was still clearly Danny, his messy black hair and goofy smile told Sam that much.
"My Lady, the army are in formation and awaiting your command." Sir. Dennis, a gray haired knight with pointed ears informed Sam as he rode up behind her.
"Then give them my command." Sam said clearly, finding her voice was steadier than her heart. "We are ending this war today!" She shouted, and as her voice rang out a horn blew. The call was echoed throughout the army and moments later several fireballs rained through the air, the mages had started their assault on the Demon King's castle, though the magic that surrounded the castle deflected the brunt of the attack. In truth, it was little more than them knocking on the door, tell the Demon King that the game was on.
The sound of wing beats filled the air and a torrent of winged creature flew out from behind the castle, so numerous that their wings made it seem as though night was falling as the creatures filled the sky.
"They are coming! Stay ready and don't let them see your backs!" Sam shouted as she urged her horse forward in a charge. She could hardly hear the sound of her horse's hoof falls as her army pressed forward, hundreds of voices crying out a wordless battle cry. But she could still feel Danny gliding along side her, quiet as a shadow. The small flash of light told her that if she turned her head she would see white hair instead of black and green eyes where there had once been blue.
The winged demons were almost upon them when Sam closed her eyes and channeled her magic into the earth beneath them. The magic worked fast and great vines over fifty feet in length shot from the ground and began to sweep through the air, swatting at the demons. Some of the planets released spores that blinded the creature, causing them to fall from the sky and crash helplessly upon the soil where they would be trampled to death under the horses.
Realizing that they needed to fly lower to avoid the spores, several of the demons began to dive bomb the cavalry with long jagged spears, and being at the head of the charge, Sam was targeted for the worst of the attack.
Her silver blade whistled through the air as she slashed out at the first of the demons but just as soon as she had dealt with the first monster, four more took its place. Quickly casting a protective charm, Sam through up a barrier around herself. The demon's flocked around the bubble, snarling at Sam with twisted bat like faces. She winced with the effort of maintaining her shield as the monsters bashed at it with their weapons.
But before they could break through Danny was on them, his frozen blades cutting straight through their hides, causing blood to spray through the air. Sam watched at the read liquid splattered across the black soil. She was no long squeamish on the subject of killing. She had been made to grow up.
"Thank you." She said to Danny as he returned to her side, throwing his ectoblasts through the air at any of the demon's that dared to come too close. Sam glanced back over her shoulder at the human army, watching the siege towers being pressed forward.
She needed to clear the path to the walls. They needed to break through if they were to defeat the Demon King. As soon as he was dead, the driving force that united the demon clans with disappear and the threat to the humans would pass. The king was the only piece that truly mattered.
But as she watched, the ground seemed to rise up and take the form of a massive creature with a hunched back and no visible face. "Golems!" A cry sounded from the nearby men. The monsters ignored the humans cries and targeted the siege towers.
"Protect the towers!" Sam shouted as she pulled on her horse's reins, turning the beast to go galloping towards the nearest living mound of dirt. She chanted a few words and a magic circle appeared beneath the golem. Vines shot up from underneath its body, wrapping around its legs and working its way up the arms, pulling the giant of stone down to the ground with a crash that shook the earth.
Sam grinned with the small victory as the siege tower started to more forward again, but she was shocked out of it when a snarl came from behind her.
While her eyes had been towards the sky, dealing the with winged demons and the golems, she hadn't noticed as several smaller ground units had rushed them from some caves in a nearby rock formation.
The smaller dark clansmen jumped through the air, startling Sam's warhorse, but they simply bounced off of a vivid green bubble that appeared around the girl. Moment's later they were swiftly dealt with by Danny's blades.
"Sorry, I should have been paying more attention." Sam said as she regained control of her mount. "We just need to buy a bit more time for the..."
"He's here." Danny said seriously his eyes locked on a point just in front of the dark castle.
A raging column of pitch black fire shot through the air and reduced the siege tower to burning splinters in an instant. Sam's head whipped around and she say him, flouting above the ground a few hundred feet away.
It was the first time she had ever laid eyes on the dark king, but there was no mistaking who he was. Galious glared out at them, his crimson hair and eyes easily noticeable from miles away, dark flames wrapping around his very human-like body over his heavy armor and midnight cape. He was a figure that demanded attention, the most powerful demon king who had ever lived.
Sam swallowed hard as his dark magic swept over the land. She could vaguely see some of the other human soldiers turning and running for their lives, all the conviction they had melting away in the face of this monster among monsters. Sam was scared, she wanted to turn away. She knew that as the visible hero, she would be his first target.
But just as always Danny's strong presence pushed away her fears. "Wish Pariah had been kind enough to meet me outside his front door. This will save us a lot of trouble." Danny said grinning up at Sam. "We had to fight him sooner or later. Better make it sooner before we tire ourselves out." Sam's fears melted away. She nodded.
Of course they would have to fight Galious. That had been the entire point of all of this. "Lets go." Sam agree. Then she pushed her mount forward, casting a shield around her so that the dark clansmen were pushed side as she and Danny made their way towards the dark king.
She might not have been a real hero. But she would make sure that everything ended the way it was supposed to.
The dark clansmen didn't even try to stop Sam's charge, after the first few were batted aside by her barrier, the other simply stepped aside to clear a path for her and Danny to their king. Apparently Galious believed that the fight would end up being between the Overlord and the Hero. Sam wouldn't complain. Every moment that the Demon King continued to breath another death was added to each side of the battlefield. For the sake of everyone involved they had to finish this as quickly as possible.
That said, running straight through the mass of demons could hardly be called comfortable. The knowledge that the only things that stayed their attacks were their master's orders and the rumors of her overwhelming power, power that she didn't really have. The tales of her exploits where more that a little tall, spread mostly by the church and the royal families in order to increase moral. Though after some time Sam found that her enemies actually believed the stories that were told about her. That she was some kind of higher being who could wipe out entire armies with a single swing of her sword. It was ridiculous.
Though when the two of them came within the last five hundred feet or so of their target, there path was finally barred by two demons of the apeman tribe. The hairy beast people stood in front of the two young heroes, tall as African Elephants with bladed staves that were made of solid bronze metal.
"Halt!" The two shouted in unison.
"Out of the way! Your king is expecting us!" Sam shouted, though she did pull on her reins, bringing her horse to a stand still as she gripped her short sword. Magic words started to play in the back of her mind as the got a magic circle ready, just incase they attacked.
"Only the hero may pass! The boy stays to die!" The demons said together.
Sam blinked as she tried to figure out what they meant, then it dawned on her. They meant that they wanted her to fight Galious alone... without Danny. "You can't be serious!" Sam shouted angrily, her eyes glanced around to see that the surrounding army was prepared to jump down on her friend the moment she was out of the way. She couldn't leave Danny to fight all of them alone. She couldn't fight Galious without him.
"Sam, you go ahead. I'll catch up once I'm done with this peanut gallery." Danny said, as he took in the situation. The demons laughed but Danny confidently lifted his swords, prepared for the moment they decided to strike.
"But Danny..." Sam mumbled.
"Remember the plan, Sam. We've been preparing for this day for a month. You can do this, and as soon as I'm done here I'll rush over to back you up." Danny said giving his confident grin. "Just make sure you don't do anything too reckless."
"That's my line." Sam said with a soft sigh, though his words had rebooted her brain. The plan, yes there was a plan. "Alright, just make sure you take care of them quickly." Sam said as she steered her horse forward, the two large ape demons letting her through before turning on Danny.
Danny gave a small gulp as he stopped trying to act as if he wasn't nervous. But the shiver didn't last long. "Who's first?" Danny said with a stupid grin. A wave of demons coming crashing down around him. Danny crossed his two icy blades and they erupted onto bright green flames as his spiritual energy pulsed through them. "Take this!" Danny roared as he spun about, sending a circle of the destructive green energy pushing out from around him, blasting the demons back and ripping the ones that failed to put up an anti-magic barrier in time in half.
"What was that?" One of the demons gasped in surprise. He was pushing himself up, a hand pressed to his bleeding temple were he had smashed his head into the ground. "I didn't see a magic circle."
"Magic was never really my thing." Danny said in a off handed manner before driving his right headed blade through the back of the monkey's neck. The thing sputtered in surprise before falling down dead. Danny pulled out the blade and turned to see a dozen fireballs flying at him from his enemies.
Danny channeled some of his cold energy into his left sword and swung it in a wide arc, creating an icy wind that blasted the fire magic in all direction. The ground around the swing froze over as the blade passed through the air. The ice continued to spread, causing some of the nearer groundlings to freeze over before they could get away.
"He! He isn't a human!" A demon shouted in panic. The words stung a little, but Danny ignore them, he had work to do if he was going to catch up in time. "How about you all come at me at once! It will save me a bit of time!" Danny taunted, crossing his blades again and starting to channel more power into them. They glowed bright green. "Don't worry Sam, I'll end this quickly, so just hold on."
There was an empty patch of land a hundred feet across just underneath where the king of the dark clans flouted in the air, his dark cape flowing in the wing and he looked down at Sam's progress.
Sam slowed her progress as she drew closer, the fact that she was standing alone in front of the single most powerful Dark Lord to ever appear was causing her to get nerves feet. "Just remember the plan. Remember the..." Sam stopped muttering to herself as the dark king started to lower himself to the ground in front of her.
He was bigger than any human Sam had ever seen, standing a head and shoulders above even the giant Jack Fenton. His dark red eyes stared at Sam as he sized her up, and Sam must have failed as the demon scowled. "So you are the one that the humans refer to as 'hero'." The demon said. Sam was actually surprised by his voice. It wasn't nearly as dark or conceded as she had been suspecting. It was a deep, sad voice, carrying the cares of a world on its back. Sam almost wanted to stop and ask him why he was fighting in the first place, though it was neither the time or the place for such talk. "The human's 'goddess of victory'. You're just a simple girl, barely any older than my own daughter. And yet those selfish bastards throw you to me and flee for there lives. Disgusting cowards."
Sam took a swallow, building up her famous stubborn pride until she could find her voice again. "Yeah right you old fart! I'm not here as a sacrifice! I'm here to kick your ass!" She said as she built up her magic and pointed her sword at the demon king. "So do you have any preference on how you are displayed!? Because if not I'm just going to mount your butt on the wall of your castle once I take it!"
Galious looked a little taken aback by the outburst, as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard. But then he broke into rather good willed laughter. "You show spirit girl! Truly the stories of your noble grace are the tales of liars!" He laughed long and hard about it. "But that matters not. For how you care yourself does not a hero make. Nor does the prayers of the people you fight for." Galious's right hand shot out and dark flames gather around it before clearing to reveal a long black sword, at least ten feet long, wider on the top than the handle so most of the weight was pushed towards the tip to harden the swings. Dark red line decorated its face but it was otherwise dark as a starless night sky. "No, only a Dark Lord can truly name a hero! So prove onto me that you are worthy of the title, girl from lands beyond!"
Sam had been ready for it, but it didn't make the Demon King's attack any less terrifying.
As the dark sword swung around in a wide arc, pitch black flames emanated from it, turning into a roaring inferno that shot across the empty landscape towards Sam.
Calling on her magic, Sam produced a large network of vines that sprang from the ground between them, forming a wall to protect her from the flames.
Sam could only gasp as the heat from the attack leaked through her wall of greenery and pressed against her, pushing the air from her lungs and stinging her eyes. But even though the fire was intense the vines had been covered in a naturally accruing oil that resisted the flames, making them fire proof.
Once the fire dead down the wall opened up, extending towards the sky to reveal several pods on the top of them which Sam commanded them to throw at Galious. The pods sailed through the air towards the demon but not nearly fast enough to take him by surprise. He neatly cut each one of the five cannonball like pods in two, stopping them from reaching his body. Sam grinned. It had been just as she had been hoping for.
Each of those pods had been filled with an airborne toxin that would weaken the reflexes of anyone who inhaled it, and as time went on its effects would get steady stronger. Now that the poison was all over his weapon it would be feed into his lungs as the fight continued. Now all she had to do was draw the fight out until the demon king was to confused to walk in a straight line.
"Is that the best that you can do, girl from lands beyond?" Galious said angrily. "And the kingdoms of man dare to ordain you a hero?"
"After today is done I don't give two shits about what those idiots think." Sam said watching the king, preparing a defensive spell to counter whatever his next attack might be. "In fact, I think the first thing I'm going to do once this is all over is going to be to tell all those stuck up nobles to castrate themselves and do the universe as a whole a favor."
The demon king paused, letting those words roll through his mind. "Are you sure you are the hero I'm supposed to be fighting and not one of my own generals?" The king questioned Sam with a raised eyebrow. "Sorry its just... I was expecting something... I don't know..." The king rubbed the back of his neck. "Forget it. I'll just finish this quickly."
Sam stiffened as Galious prepared to charge. She quickly created a magic circle, filling it with as much spiritual energy as she could spare and let it loose. The vines leaped from the ground, but to Sam's surprise they were not fast enough. Galious rocketed over them and straight at Sam who raised her shield to block the brunt of the attack.
The blow shook her entire body as she was launched off of her horse to fall hard against the rough barren earth. Sam let a hiss escape her lips as she skidded across the dirt, peeling away her skin. Only the magic infused in her body stopped her from breaking every bone in her body.
"You are no hero." Galious said as he turned to her. "You are weak. Far too weak to every hope to beat me." He started to raise his sword again, dark flames appearing along the blade's edge and the symbol engraved on its face began to glow. "I wish you peace, girl from worlds beyond." Galious said, closing his eyes, as if he didn't wish to see Sam's death by his hands.
But suddenly his eyes shot open again and he spun around, holding his sword pointing downwards, towards the earth. The sound of something heavy striking metal rang loud through the air and the air next to Galious's blade shimmered. "Here I thought I would sneak up on you. Shows what I know." Danny said with a grin, his two swords only inches away from Galious's side.
"You dare interfere with a battle between a Dark Lord and a hero?" Galious said, growling at Danny as he pushed his sword up, causing Danny to flip over the demon king to land next to Sam.
"You can think of me as a simple phantom." Danny said twisting his swords to the ready. "You alright Sam?"
"You're late!" Sam snapped as she pushed herself up. She winced as she felt her injured arm struggling to bare her sword. It was no good, she couldn't keep a hold on it, so she dropped her shield and switched the sword over to her left hand. "Would it kill you to be on time for once in your life?"
"Hey I'm not that late." Danny said indignantly. "Now how about we get this show on the road. For real this time." Danny said. His swords began to glow with bright green flames.
"Right." Sam replied, gathering up magic and creating more plants to launch her toxins.
"Teaming up on me? Not very noble of you." Galious said coldly. "No matter. Whether there are two or two hundred of you weaklings, the result will be the..." Danny didn't wait for him to finish. He rushed the Dark Lord, swinging his blades as rapidly as he could. The sound of his icy blades hitting metal went from being individual rings to being a contain noise as Danny refused to let up, striking over ten times a second as he used his aerial maneuverability to keep Galious from escaping his range.
But to his credit, the dark king was managing to keep up, even with his massive sword he was still fast enough to block every single blow from Danny's twin blades. Seeing an opening to counter, Galious focused spirit energy into his left hand, lifting it from his sword and creating a magic circle. Boiling hot water poured from the circle, blasting throw the air where Danny had just been, but the ghost boy had sensed the focusing of the energy and had jumped up into the air over the king before blasting downwards with one of his ectoblasts.
Galious was a little surprised by the speed of the attack. Their had been no channeling, no magic circle, and it seemed to have come from the boy's own body. Though it was unmistakably spiritual energy, the force that was most commonly used to fuel magic circles. But even with the speed of the attack, Galious was still able to block it.
Galious tried to turn to face Danny, but his found that his feet had been anchered to the ground by vines that had appeared through cracks in the soil. The plants had grown quickly and covered his chest within just a few moments. Galious pulled his right leg up, snapping the vines that held it to the ground, but before he could fully free himself, flowers appeared along the vines on his chest and released a enormous amount of pollen.
Galious coughed violently as the pollen filled his eyes and lungs but he could still feel Danny's power moving towards him and blocked a forceful attack that had been aimed for his head. But as he pushed the ghostboy away he was blind sighted by three more of the pods that Sam had shot at him earlier. The pods hit him hard and knocked him to the ground as they burst, covering the king in the toxins that filled the pods.
Danny tried to get in a quick strike on the king but a magic circle appeared beneath Galious and a gust of wind blew the invisible hero back. "Insolent... brats..." Galious said as he struggled to his feet, but he seemed to be swaying around as the toxins started to effect his balance. "Poison? You would use a cowards weapon? And you call yourself a hero!" Galious spat angrily, a line of drool coming from the corner of his mouth.
"Fair play is for idiots." Sam said with a grin, believing that they we on the verge of victory. "We know you are stronger than us, so we will do whatever it takes to beat you and saves the innocent. That's what it truly means to be a hero."
"Innocent." Galious growled. "What makes those humans anymore 'innocent' than my kin? They cast us out, force us to live on only the most barron of lands, treat us like nothing more than animal! What right do you have to judge us, interloper!" Galious's voice grew into a roar as a blood red magic circle appeared around his feet. The dark king's eyes glowed a sort of black light as dark flames leaked out from between his teeth. "I will not let my kin suffer any longer!"
Danny and Sam were rooted to the ground in shock as the demon's body began to grow. His clothes stretched and finally tore to pieces and his body was covered in a thick coat of red fur. His mouth pressed outwards and two ram's horns grew out of his head as his feet turned to goat hooves. By the time the transformation stopped the king stood nearly thirty feet tall and his sword witch had seemed to be a massive claymore before was now closer to that of a butcher knife to be swung with a single hand..
"Shit." Sam cursed as she realized what had just happened. The Dark Lord had quadrupled his size, meaning that in order to produce the same effects as before with the poison, they would need to use sixty times as much of the stuff.
"With your deaths I will secure the future for my people!" Galious scream filled the air as he swung his sword down to the grow with enough strength to shack to earth, releasing a shockwave of magic that flew straight towards Danny and Sam. They both put up shields, but the amount of power in the strike still blew them aside.
Galious turned towards Sam. "I will finish this. I will finish this!" A magic circle appeared above him, white as the light of the moon and electricity shot through the air, coiling around the demon's sword.
Sam had heard of this spell. It was Galious's signiture attack. A spell that was not composed of spiritual energy, but divine energy. Sam could do nothing but watch as the power grew stronger. She couldn't dodge lightning or out run it, and an antimagic barrier would do nothing against it, you couldn't stop divine power with a shield meant for spiritual energy.
"Die, girl from worlds beyond!" Galious roared as he brought his sword down, pointing towards Sam. The world seemed to slow down as Danny appeared out of thin air, standing between Sam and the on coming storm.
The attack hit Danny head on, and the boy let out a scream of pain. His clothes begin to smoke and holes appearing in them as they were burned away, his swords shattered and his hair was pushed backwards as the energy poured over him. "Danny!" Sam cried in shock as she saw his skin turning back and blood oozing out of the burns. It only lasted a second, but it took much longer than that for Danny to fall to the ground.
"Foolish boy. He will have dead for nothing." Galious said as he saw Sam running to her downed friend. But to the Dark Lords shock, Danny started to get back up.
"N...not going to lie. That is probably the second most painful electrocution I've ever head." Danny said as he pushed himself to stand up straight. His burned skin was being replaced before the demon's eyes.
"Impossible." Galious said, not believing his own eyes. But then he connected the dots. "You... you aren't a human are you? You are a spirit of damnation."
"We prefer the term ghosts." Danny said with a cocky grin. "And your still only half right."
"Danny, you sure you're okay?" Sam asked.
"Can't afford not to be." He answered, not taking his eyes off of the dark king. "I guess we are going to have to move onto plan B, huh?"
Sam's eyes widened. "Danny, your body is already hurt!"
"Don't worry Sam, I can handle it." Danny assured her. "We don't have a choice."
Sam hesistated for a second but then nodded. She placed one hand on Danny's back and took a deep breath. A magic circle appeared on Danny's back, just underneath Sam's fingers, and Danny's spiritual energy exploded.
Danny's spiritual energy was too pure to make magic circles himself, but if someone made one on his body, then he could pump it full of his energy in order to get extremely powerful results.
Danny's body glowed a shining white that was almost too bright to look at as his energy moved faster and faster. "Now then, lets start the real fight!" Danny shouted as he rushed Galious.
The Dark King tried to slash the boy but Danny slipped around it, and when he got close enough to Galious, he stopped and clapped his hands together. A snowstorm seemed to appear out of nowhere and engulf the two of them. And then in the blink of an eye, they were gone.
"Danny... please be careful." Sam said, thinking back to the Pariah's Dark incident. Danny had never been careful. Shaking her head she called on another magic circle. She had three minutes. She couldn't waste a second.
)))
Galious couldn't understand what was going on. He seemed to be standing in the middle of a blizzard. The roaring winds cutting him off from the world, he could neither see or hear anything else. "By the gods..." He said, glad for the thick red coat of fur that covered his body. The cold could have shattered steel.
Galious heard a low growl coming from behind him. Turning around he was forced to defend himself as a white wolf the size of a small horse jumped out of the airborne snow, long silver fangs flashing in the light that came from its bright green eyes. The wolf's teeth wrapped around Galious's right arm, trying to tear through the layer of iron fur that protected the Dark Lord.
Though the wolf was relitively small compared to Galious himself, the demon found that it was not a simple task to remove the wolf, he tried grabbing at it with his free hand and pulling it off, but its teeth were buried deep and all he managed to accomplish was further injuring his arm. Finally Galious raised the air the wolf was holding onto and brought it down with all his strength, crushing the wolf's head beneath his elbow.
To Galious's surprise the wolf vanished, bursting into a cloud of snowflakes. "What is going on here!?" He growled as he lifted himself to his full height. It wasn't until then that he saw dozens of bright green eyes staring at him through the wall of wind and ice. The growls if the wolves that surrounded him could barely be heard over the raging storm.
Before the beasts could attempt an attack, Galious summoned up a wave of black fire to push them back, dispersing the blizzard as he did so.
With the snow storm no long blocking his view, Galious could see where he was. The goat like demon's jaw dropped as he took in his surroundings.
He was in the middle of a frozen tundra that stretched out as far as his eyes could see with nothing but a few pillars of ice to stop it from being a completely flat and empty landscape.
The sky was something that he had a hard time wrapping his mind around, it was a vivid sight, a endless mixture of greens and whites swirling together so that any attempt to stare at it let the Dark Lord feeling a headache coming on. Twenty seven moons hang in the sky, each in a different lunar phase.
"Where... am I?" The king mumbled in shock.
"Welcome..." Danny's voice echoed through the air, catching Galious by surprise. The king looked around him, trying to find the organ of the voice. "This is the first time I've used this in actual combat. Not a skill that is easy to pull off and I can't do it as well as Clockwork or Pariah."
Galious finally found the boy, sitting on a pillar of ice a distance to his left, surrounded by six of the monstrous wolves that shared his green eyes and white hair. "What is this place? Where have you taken us, spirit?"
Danny grinned. "It has many names; the inner world, the bounded field, the dreamscape, territory, liar..." Danny said waving his hand as if to say 'so on and so forth'. "But in short you are inside of my soul. So again I say welcome. You're in my world now."
With a simply wave of the hand Danny's wolves went into a frenzy, rushing towards the Dark Lord, their paws making no sound as they fell on the icy landscape.
Galious growled himself, preparing for the pack that was almost on him. As the first of the hounds lunged for him, the demon jumped, pushing off the ground with his heavily muscled legs and jumping over fifty feet into the air, letting the wolves pass beneath him.
Galious brought out more of his dark fire magic, covering his blade with it and releasing it in an arc down onto the waiting wolves, blasting them into a white powder. Danny jumped down from his pillar, holding is arms out to each side and let his cold aura pass into his hands. His twin swords began to reform, longer than before, each a little longer than Danny was tall, making them just short of Galious's own massive sword. Danny rushed the king, and their blades clashed, sparks flying as the black flames licked at the frozen blades.
But to the Dark Lord's surprise, the blades didn't melt. "How can it be that your ice can withstand my flames?"
"I told you. You are in my world now. I make the rules here, and I say; ice does not melt!" Danny said as his pushed the king back. Galious may have had a huge weight and height advantage, but it seemed that neither meant anything in this strange world of ice.
Galious gave a cry of shock as a wolf formed behind him out of some drifting snow and took a bite out of his left leg. And even as Galious's hand flew down to slash at the creature with clawed fingers, three more appeared.
Galious was completely on the defensive, having to defend himself from both the spirit boy with his twin swords of ice and the fangs of his wolves. Mobility became his ownly option, depending on his large form to allow him to jump long distances to keep out of the middle of the mob where he would quickly have been surrounded and brought down.
He stroke down one wolf after another between blocking or parrying Danny's strikes. A few of the wolves managed to get a tooth into the king's thick fur, drawing some blood, but none had gotten deep enough to do serious damage before being destroyed for there insolence. But this gave Danny's swords the chances they needed to sneak through Galious's guard and get at his arms. With each new cut that the boy managed to land on the demon's arms, the Dark Lord became more and more worried.
This was insane. In this place, the boy was almost on the level of a god. How could he have just dismissed him as a human boy?
But as time went on the bright glow the surrounded Danny's body became fainter and fainter. And soon after, Galious noticed the child panting hard. "So, you cannot maintain this spell field of yours?" Galious said, rather relieved as he saw one of the wolves dissolve into snow without him slashing it.
"Suppose so." Danny said, not even bothering to deny it. "But I just need one solid hit to finish you off. I'm pretty sure I can manage it before my stamina runs dry."
"I would not be so sure, spirit child." Galious said as he bright his sword up into the air above him. He called again on the white magic circle. "I wonder if you can survive my attack now that you are so tired."
Danny straighten, holding his twin swords together on his right side. "Guess we'll find out." He said with a cocky smile. The blades began to give off bright blue and green light even as Galious's own sword came alive with electricity.
The two stood across from one and other, each wondering if the other's next attack would be the death of them. Dealing with the fear and the rush of the knowledge that the next few moments could be their last. The time leading up to the charge only lasted two seconds, but for each of them it seemed to drag on for hours.
Finally, they charged forward, bringing their blades to clash against each other. Divine power striking against spiritual power that had been focused to a near divine level. The two forces strained against each other, until one won out. Even if it had been Danny's world, built upon his ideals, the power of a divine being was simply beyond what he could stand up against. The lightning crashed through his blades for a second time and light up the sky of his world a pale white as Danny was forced back, defeaten.
"So you still breath. Your kind are resilient to be sure." Galious said as he stared down at Danny's body. He could hardly believe it. No one had even survived his signature attack once, let alone twice. The Dark King actually felt drained from the effort of calling on the divine power twice in one day.
"What can I say... I've always been shitty at the whole dying thing." Danny groaned. The two had returned to the world of Alayzard the moment Danny's energy had ran dry. The boy was barely able to stay awake. His own attack had managed to take the edge off of Galious's finishing move, but it had still shocked him good, and his body was tired, having released too much of his strength to maintain the bounded field.
Four minutes. He had managed to keep it up for four minute. It was longer than he had been able to do in practice. And it was more than long enough.
"Hey! Jackass!" Sam shouted. Galious turned to see the girl standing a short distance away. A massive magic circle underneath her feet and bright green energy covering her entire body. "Eat shit and die!"
Galious had been caught by surprise, vines wrapping around his feet to hold him still. He tried to break free, but his arms and legs were still covered in cuts from his fight with Danny, which weakened him.
Sam put her hands out in front of her and a bright beam of green light came flying straight at the king.
Galious put up an antimagic barrier to protect him, but too his shock the beam went straight through the magic circle without even slowing down. He had managed to get his sword up and in the way of the attack but after a few second the metal cracked and shattered, the blast cutting through his lower stomach, leaving a four foot wide hole in the demon king.
Galious stood there for a second longer before his legs seemed to register that it was no longer connected to his brain and his collapsed backwards, hitting the ground with such force that a cloud of dust was knocked up, concealing him from a few seconds. And when the dust settled, he was back to his original form. Lying on his back, quickly bleeding out.
'I am going to die.' Galious thought as he lay their, bleeding out. He wasn't anger about it, or scared. He had expected it as fact that he would one day be killed for his actions. But he had still had to try to build a better life for his people.
He heard movement around him and the king's eyes drifted up to see the girl from another world supporting the spirit with her shoulder. The two of them were looking down at him, not with triumph in their eyes, or pride, but pity.
"Girl from lands beyond, boy of the lost spirits. You have bested me, and so I name you heroes." Galious said simply. He couldn't quite feel the pain. He supposed that meant he must be pretty close to death, or his nervous system had been shot by that last attack. His lungs still seemed to be working. The hit must have been too low to damage them. That meant he would have a little time before he finished bleeding out. "Please... tell me what that last attack was, was it divine magic?"
Sam shook her head. "No, the opposite. I gathered the life energy of this world and used it as a weapon. Life energy and spirit magic don't mix well, so the attack is hard to get under control and takes three minutes to charge. But it can't be blocked by spirit magic." She explained.
"So a demon who believed himself to be at the level of a god was kill through mortal power. How fitting." Galious said nodding. He glanced over at Danny trying to keep eye contact as his vision started to fade. "I hear your kind... listen to the last words of the dying. Will you hear mine?"
"I will." Danny said calmly as he pushed himself to stand on his own. His strength was slowly returning as he breathed in the dying air.
"In my castle... my daughter... blood of my blood..." Galious said, forming full sentences was becoming more and more difficult for him, but he struggled to hold on, he couldn't die quite yet. "Though she is young and innocent... destruction is her fate. Whether she is slain by the humans for being of my blood, or lorded by my kin to take my place. Killing will follow her." Galious swallowed hard and could taste blood in his mouth. "Please... if you truly wish to stand for the innocent... don't... don't let them... my daughter... Protect her..."
And with his last wish voiced, his eyelids drifted downwards. That was the end of Galious, the strongest Dark Lord the world of Alayzard had ever known.
"Danny... did we do the right thing?" Sam asked quietly as they looked down upon the man who had spent his dying breath begging for them to protect his daughter.
"Sam, we knew what was at risk when we came here. We did what we thought was right." Danny assured her, even if he was not so sure.
Sam heard the should of hooves coming closer and could see her army coming to witness the end of the war. "Danny... go ahead. Find her." Sam said, and Danny disappeared from sight.
The war had ended. But the story was just beginning.
There are like no stories for 'Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero', which is kind of sad because it is a very interesting setting, despite the actual animes more... perverted events. So I'm starting up a story for it.
Hopefully I can inspire people to do there own stories about it.