Chapter Twenty: Chaos and Destruction
"Where are we?" Robin asked as he and his group stepped along the stony fields of the strange new dimensions. The sky was a fiery red filled with black clouds and the scent of sulfur and brimstone clung to the air and stung their noses. The land looked as though it was forged by the hardened magma of a hundred volcanoes that decorated the horizon so fully that it seemed that they were located in the only flat plain in a hundred miles. Ahead of them was a visible light source of dim orange and red.
"This is a realm of chaos my little friend," Napharak answered as he followed closely behind Robin with Beast Boy and Terubia taking up the rear. As they moved in closer they could see that the source of light was also the source of the pungent odor they smelt. Standing only a few meters from away, the heroes now saw that they stood before a large pool of bubbling lava, fed by the fire of the earth below and kept in a permanent liquid form unlike the surroundings. Within the lava were several large stones were floating in a circular motion as something created a current in the pool.
"Dude, I'm just sweating just standing here," Beast Boy panted softly as he wiped some sweat from his brow. "Where the heck is this demon lord anyways?"
"Unfortunately green one, our target is waiting in there," Napharak regretfully explained as he pointed to the pool of lava. "Bloody hell…I was hoping to get Emmanrutak but instead we got Rifstrae."
"I take it she's the stronger of the two?" Beast Boy asked, now a bit nervous.
"Not exactly…she's just the smarter of the two and as such, she hates me more than Emmanrutak," Napharak explained as he walked up to the edge of the pool. "I must warn you, Daluram was a realm where strength ruled above all else and Rifstrae has ruled over Daluram the longest – so you can guess what that means in terms of her abilities."
"I'd say the living in a pool of lava to be impressive enough," Beast Boy answered. "Are you sure she's actually in there?"
"Her name means 'Fury of the Sun' and she's got a temper to match it. Lava's like a warm bath to her and she breaths radioactive plasma." Napharak continued as he reached down and picked up a small rock. "Get out m'dear, you're not fooling anybody…" With that he pitched the rock into the center of the lava and watched it slowly sink and melt. Within seconds, bubbles started forming in the center of the lava, which made Napharak slowly back up from his spot. The bubbles soon turned into a growing bulge that burst when the demon lord broke through to the surface, sending a shower of lava in all directions.
One looks was enough for any person, human or demon, to understand why this female Yerwn was a ruler of Daluram for thousands of years. Her black-scaled wings spanned more than ten feet in each direction, her body more than fifteen feet high, and with more muscle underneath her red-and-black-scaled body than one could shake a stick at. The Yerwn was akin to a cross between a human and the dragon, with a scaly body, sharp talons, long neck, and head of a dragon but in a more upright posture. Two thick horns extended from the side of her streamline head, twisting in a circular curl several times before straightening out and ending just a few inches past the tip of her nose. Her eyes were a burning crimson red and every breath she exhaled caused plumes of green plasma to escape between her teeth and nostril.
"Well if it isn't Kronos' lapdog." Rifstrae was high-pitched and rumbled like an overpowered furnace, which was almost enough to make Robin and Beast Boy cringe in discomfort. "You are a fool to be coming here. Mark my words, I shall see to it that you never leave this realm alive Napharak."
"You have always had a way of getting straight to the point Rifstrae," Napharak casually replied. "It is time to bury you along with all the other relics of Daluram so that our people may embrace a new future free of chaos and destruction. You will be the first to fall." Without another word, Napharak fired a bolt of energy from the end of his staff that struck Rifstrae square in the chest, causing the mighty demon to let out a monstrous roar.
"Titans, go!" Robin shouted his trademark catchphrase, signaling Terubia and Beast Boy to spring forward. Beast Boy transformed into a raven, flying high and biding his time for a better opportunity to strike. Currently with Rifstrae in the pool of lava it was difficult to approach on foot. Terubia had little difficult closing the gap as she jumped upon one of the floating stones and used the current to move around the massive demon. "Any last second advice Napharak?" Robin asked as he moved to the demon's side.
"Try not to get hit by the green stuff, it tends to make stuff vaporize instantly," Napharak answered before teleporting several meters away. Robin would've appreciated a more direct warning as he dove out the way to avoid being hit by the plasma. There was no explosion or flying rock as the plasma left only a dimple in the ground of perfectly smooth rock, the surface being vaporized by the heat. Robin joined Terubia on the rocks, keeping the Yerwn's attention on him by hitting her with a handful of explosive discs.
"Foolish little human, you weapons cannot stop me," Rifrtae taunted, blasting the rock that Robin, up until the last possible moment, had stood upon with a blast of plasma.
"Nosparatas infidium tosdo!" Napharak chanted his incantations, his staff levitating in front of him, summoning a series of a blue energy blast to fly from his fingertips, The bombardment of energy spread outwards before converging back upon Rifstrae, engulfing her in a rapid series of a dozen explosions. However, even Napharak's powerful magics were no match for the protective hide of the ancient Yerwn, who parted her wings that had shielded the attack and dissipated the smoke. Rifstrae set her sights on Napharak, charging another blast of plasma, though Terubia had other plans in store. Having floated all the way behind Rifstrae, Terubia pounced upon the Yerwn's back, sinking her claws and teeth into the demon's upper back and causing it to throw its head back in shock.
"Robin, throw me!" Beast Boy shouted after he had reverted to his human form and landed beside his friend. After changing into an armadillo, Robin picked up his companion and threw the curled-up animal with all his strength aimed directly at the Yerwn's head. Halfway through the air, Beast Boy changed from a small armadillo to a much larger, heavier hippopotamus that clobbered Rifstrae in the head before landing safely on the other side of the lava pool.
Still trying to get through the thick hide, Terubia was holding on for her life as Rifstrae rocked back and forth in the lava from Beast Boy's attack. Terubia was beginning to doubt she was even being anything more than a stinging pain on the demon's back. "Always wanted to do this…" she chuckled as she began surging electricity through the demon's body. From behind Terubia, the demon's tail rose out of the lava and swatted Terubia like a fly. Terubia only managed a squeak of pain as the wind was knocked out of her and she lost her grip. When she regained her senses, Terubia saw the pool of lava rushing towards her. She expected a quick but painful death but her plummet suddenly halted just a few feet from the lava. Defying gravity and not under her own force, she was carried over and plopped down on the ground. It was then that Terubia realized that she had just been saved by the same demon that she had vowed vengeance upon.
"You should be careful in the future," Napharak remarked coyly after he had set the girl down.
"Don't think this changes anything between us," Terubia grumbled bitterly as she got back to her feet. Before their conversation could continue, a loud impact noise echoed loudly followed by a pair of screams as Robin and Beast Boy slammed into the ground a few meters behind Terubia and Napharak.
"You two still breathing?"
"Just peachy Napharak," Robin groaned, slowly getting back to his feet. "I'm open for suggestions."
"How about running like scared rabbits?" Beast Boy pointed upwards to Rifstra who had taken the sky and was seconds from unleashing yet another blast of plasma.
"This place certainly looks…cozy," Cyborg commented as he cast his gaze upon the open landscape containing scattered rock formations and spires. It reminded him of that one time when he was sucked inside of Raven's mind, except a lot more barren and desolate. The sky was black with periodic blasts of lightning in the distance with low, rumbling thunder. Cyborg was on point as the four heroes – Jacqueline, Raven, Tyrael, and Cyborg – journeyed through the unknown realm in search of the demon lord that resided there.
"You picking up anything on your sensors Cyborg?" Raven asked as she moved to only a few feet behind him.
"I'm getting pretty heavy interference on the scanners but who knows what kind of stuff is present in this dimension," Cyborg answered, trying to reconfigure his sensors to get some reading from their surroundings. Amidst the static and non-specific information showing up on his screen, a single blip of data appeared on the screen for a split-second. "Something big just showed up…real big."
"How big?" Jacqueline inquired, being the third in the single-file line.
"All I could tell was that it was bigger than all four of us put together," Cyborg said reluctantly. "Big and slow too."
"It's likely Emmanrutak then. The High Elder of the Tauranton who was known for his astronomical size and strength," Raven explained as she scanned the horizons, looking for signs of a gigantic bull-like demon. "He's about twenty-two feet tall and is probably still carrying his infamous Bonecrusher war hammer. Short tempered and prefers talking with his "
"Sounds like a pleasant fellow," Jacqueline sighed lightly to herself.
"Well where the heck is he? How hard could it be to find a 22-foot bull?" Tyrael grumbled as he scanned the area behind them for a brief moment. "You sure we don't have the dimension with the other one?"
Raven didn't answer as she stopped in her tracks, shutting her eyes as she tried to pinpoint Emmanrutak's location. The wait was brief as Raven opened her eyes and pointed to a rock formation a distance away. "Cyborg – fire a shot there." Raven was wasting no time in getting down to business. She knew Emmanrutak was more likely to fly back to Daluram than listen to them for even an instant. He had a reputation for being immensely paranoid of people during his rule as High Elder and with over a decade of isolation it was anyone's guess at how bad it was now. Cyborg aimed his sonic cannon and fired at the rock formation, blasting a large chunk out of it. It would not have been able to hurt anything behind it but Raven's intention was to let Emmanrutak know that they knew where he was and what their intention was.
Even at their current distance, the low, angered growl of the tauranton before it stepped into view, dwarfing the four heroes and making the elder drakes they had fought early look like a gecko. Standing at the stated twenty-two feet in height, Emmanrutak was like all other taurantons except that he was immense in size and his body hair was very loose and graying in several patches, especially a long beard. His horns were probably more akin to an elk's rather than a bull's with dozens of sharp points branching off two large crescent boney horns. Gripped firmly in both hands was the infamous Bonecrusher that Raven had mentioned – a massive war hammer with a thick metal hammerhead at the end of the shaft with a large axe head on the opposite side.
"Here's the plan, we hit him hard and we hit him fast. Every second count so go!" Raven instructed before the four heroes leapt into action. Emmanrutak let out a monstrous roar of a battlecry before raising his hammer high into the air and smashing it into the ground, creating a powerful shockwave to plow through the earth towards the advancing heroes. Raven and Cyborg both avoided it by going up high with Cyborg firing a shot from his sonic cannon while in mid-jump, though with little effect. Jacqueline and Tyrael were not as fortunate as they knocked aside by the shockwave.
"Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Raven uprooted a handful of large boulders and hurled them towards her opponent. With one broad swing from his hammer, Emmanrutak smashed all the oncoming boulders. Emmanrutak went on the offensive, charging and smacking aside Cyborg as if he was nothing to him before moving towards Raven. However, the demon's slow and cumbersome attacks with his Bonecrusher were never going to hit Raven as she flew around his swings like a buzzing fly. Unfortunately, Raven's attention was too focused on the warhammer that she failed to react in time when the demon threw its horns at her, striking her hard with a headbutt that narrowly failed to hit her with one of the many points.
Gunfire erupted from Emmanrutak's side with Tyrael finally joining in on the fight. He was successful in drawing the demon's attention away from Raven and onto himself and more importantly, away from Jacqueline who was advancing from the demon's blindspot. She jumped towards a nearby spire and then sprang off the rock to come up into Emmanrutak's view just seconds before she drove her guitar straight into his face. The demon staggered back in pain, slamming his hammer into the ground to create a minor quake in order to prevent the any of the heroes from following through with their successful attack.
"Should we try the same tactic as we did with the Elder Drake?" Raven asked, directing her question primarily to Cyborg.
"I'd rather not fry out another sonic cannon, especially since we've got to fight Kronos after this," Cyborg answered before the three earthbound heroes scattered in all directions to avoid another shockwave.
Cyborg and Tyrael began circling around Emmanrutak, firing their weapons off and causing confusion for the demon, who was uncertain who to attack first. Both managed to get a lengthy barrage off before Emmanrutak finally decided upon Cyborg. The hammer swung low and upwards, knocking Cyborg into the air like a golf ball.
"Cyborg!" Raven shouted as she darted over to try and save her friend from a hard landing.
"Tyrael, hammer!" Jacqueline shouted as she slung her guitar. Knowing exactly what Jacqueline was up to, Tyrael tossed his hammer over to his partner before continuing to divert the demon's attention. Emmanrutak raised his hammer and brought it straight down towards Tyrael. Raven wasn't the only one capable of raising shields as Tyrael put both hands forward and a golden energy shield surrounding him and halted the hammer dead in it's track, transferring all the force into the earth and creating a crater beneath him. Emmanrutak began stomping on the energy field, trying to break Tyrael's fortitude. Every strike pushed Tyrael further into the ground until it was almost up to his neck. The strain was visible on his face as each strike weakened the field. Jacqueline moved in to rescue her comrade, timing her strike for the moment when Emmanrutak lifted his leg to stomp upon Tyrael. Jacqueline channeled her energy into Tyrael's hammer, leapt into air, and struck the back of the demons' other knee. The enhanced force of the strike knocked the leg straight out from under Emmanrutak, sending the 22-foot demon to the ground with a tremendous thud.
"Come on Ty." Jacqueline jumped into the crater to help her comrade, who had collapsed to the ground in exhaustion. She helped her friend up to his feet and the two hurried out of the hole seconds before an axe blade came crashing into the ground, parting the crater down the middle. Slowed down by helping to keep Ty on his feet, the two so narrowly avoided being squashed that the air force of the impact knocked them both off their feet.
"Owww…" Tyrael groaned as he rolled onto his back as he saw Emmanrutak towering over the two of them. "This is going to be painful…"
"Ass…" Blackfire grumbled leaning her back against the wall she had been supporting herself with. She was panting softly while she cradled her limp arm carefully as throbbing pain still sapped her strength. Starfire's starbolts were nowhere near as painful as this and she wished she could just slip into unconsciousness just so it would stop. Blackfire knew the next few seconds would hurt like all holy hell. Grabbing her wrist, Blackfire pulled as hard as she could on her arm, driving her shoulder right back into its socket with another loud pop followed by a stifled scream. "Now there's a pain that I can go without ever again…"
"You shall suffer for that," Kronos spoke up as he pulled himself out of the hole in the wall he had left behind. Blackfire ignored the lingering pain still in her arm as she charged a fresh starbolt. The starbolt flew through the air and knocked to the side by Kronos, as he started walking towards Blackfire. The ease at which he deflected the attack worried Blackfire so she began firing additional bolts. Each one was knocked aside like a tossed tennis ball as he closed in at his leisurely pace. When he began getting too close for comfort, Blackfire started edging backwards and continuing to fire her starbolts. Ten feet turned into seven feet, which turned into five feet, which turned into arm's length. Concern turned into panic as she took to the air to try and get away but Kronos grabbed her by the ankle. One sharp jerk was all it took to ground Blackfire once more, flattening her into the concrete before slamming her into the brick wall that had once supported her.
"Varblark!" Blackfire cursed as she fired her eyebeams into Kronos' chest, knocking him off of her. Blackfire started peppering Kronos' position with a flurry of starbolts, putting what energy what she had left in one desperate attack. Almost a half-minute of constant starbolts, though the amount of smoke and dust it kicked up made verifying any hits impossible.
Nonetheless, Blackfire breathed a sigh of relief as the smoke began to settle, only to reveal an energy blast hurtling towards her. The blast knocked her through the brick wall and several layers of drywalls after that. Blackfire eventually came to a rest in a pile of books after shattering an old wooden bookcase into splinters, one of which she could feel lodged in her upper shoulder…unfortunately the good shoulder too. Several more curses were muttered under her breath as she pulled the piece of wood out of her shoulder. When the light in the room went from dimly lit to a dull red, she realized that something was coming. Blackfire dove to the side as a fireball impacted where she was standing moments ago. The fire ignited the books and quickly spread through the bookshelf and the drywall. Blackfire knew her sister was still out there and likely still semi-conscious from Kronos' previous attacks – she couldn't loiter about. She had to engage.
Charging back out of the building and onto the street, Blackfire found only a crater with her sister still barely conscious in it. "Where is he?" she grumbled as she began scanning her surroundings but it was nothing but an empty street. Blackfire didn't know what to do at this point. Her concern was with her sister but she knew she had a mission to accomplish. Eventually, Blackfire made her decision and hurried to her sister's side, pulling her out of the crater and dragging her to the side of the road.
"Come on sis, wake up already," Blackfire whispered, patting her sister on the cheek, trying to get her to come to.
Alas, her sense of security was grossly misplaced as Kronos was watching the pair from a distance. He extended two fingers towards Blackfire and a small bolt of energy fired from his fingertips. The beam of energy pierced through the air and punctured right through Blackfire's lower leg, sending a pain flaring through her entire body. She let out a scream before falling onto her back, clutching at the bleeding hole through her leg. Danger was afoot and Blackfire tried to get onto her good leg as quickly as possible. Her eyes scanned the area and she found her target, now standing confidently once more down the road. Fear was coursing through her body again as she watched him fire another blast. This shot pierced through the thigh of her good leg, crippling Blackfire. She groaned in agony - her dislocated shoulder was by far more pleasant than the pain of being shot through both legs. A trail of blood was smeared along the concrete as she tried to drag herself to safety. A third shot was fired, this time cutting through her shoulder and immobilizing Blackfire.
"Valbernelk…" she growled, propping herself up with her good arm.
"Insolent child," Kronos remarked, standing over Blackfire and pressing his foot down onto the wound on her thigh, paralyzing Blackfire with pain.
Down the road, Starfire was beginning to regain consciousness. Her vision was still a bit blurry but she could see Kronos overtop of her sister. Kronos grabbed Blackfire by the neck and hoisted her off the ground while Starfire struggled to get enough strength to get back to her feet, but found herself drained.
"Farewell Blackfire," Kronos said, staring Blackfire in the eyes as he formed his energy sword in his free hand. Both Starfire and Blackfire's eyes widened as they watched the events unfold like two trains colliding in slow-motion – absolutely nothing they could do could stop it.
"Blackfire!" she shouted out as she watched the blue energy blade pierce through her sister's body, causing her sister to tense up before falling limp in Kronos' grip. Kronos threw the limp body of the Tamaranean towards Starfire, landing only feet from Starfire. "Sister!" Starfire dragged herself over to her sister's side and propped her sister up slightly in her arms.
"K…Kori…" Blackfire groaned softly as she kept one hand covering the hole through her chest located just below her sternum.
"Don't talk…" Starfire whispered softly.
"I…I'm sorry…" she said, her voice weakening before her eyes drifted shut and her body went still.
"No. No…NOOOOOOO!"