Me: Chapter 21!
Jack: Are you back as your normal demented self?
Me: Yes! I'm actually quite happy.
Mike: Why?
Me: Because I have my dissection kit!
Jack: Holy Shit! He got a set of knives and pliers to open people?! Run, to the hills!
Me: Ignore him. Now, I admit I'm a bit saddened by the lack of reviews, but that won't discourage me to continue this story! I started it, so I want to finish it!
Danny: Good. He only owes me, Angie and the Idiot running around warning people to run to the hills.
Me: Let us plunge into insanity once more.
The blondes have passed all the Trials except that of the Twins. We join them in front of the Central Spire…
"I'm sorry, but you'll have to continue on your own." Danny said, stopping in front of the door. The blondes looked at him with shocked expressions. "I can read your faces, it's because you don't need a guide anymore. Your path is clear now. You, Link, must go to the black tower and you, Angie, must go to the white one. It really isn't very hard." He said and started to phase through the wall. "See ya later." He said and vanished completely, leaving two very confused blondes.
"Why do you think he did that?" Link asked. Angela shook her head and began walking to the white Tower. "Well, I guess I should get going as well." Link said to himself and walked to the black Tower. "Holy-!" The Tower was far more imposing up close. It was made of a black metal that seemed to absorb light, giving no glow, it had a multitude of turrets and strange characters were engraved on the metal. The door, made of obsidian, had an upside-down five pointed star drawn on it. Link stared at it feeling strangely drawn to it. He shook his head to clear it and opened the door. The hallway was empty, except for a few candles with flickering black flames here and there. The whole place gave Link the impression of being back in the Shadow Temple. "This place is creepy, but I feel like I have nothing to fear here…Odd." He said to no one in particular and continued to walk, oblivious to the glowing red eyes that seemed to follow his every movement. He arrived at a huge black gate with runes engraved on it. "Damn it! I can't read these chicken scrawling!" He yelled and didn't notice the two figures that stepped out of the shadows behind him.
"How could I've been defeated by this idiot?" Asked one of the figures. Link turned around and saw someone, or rather something, which he had hoped would have stayed dead…his shadow.
"What the hell are you doing here?!" Link asked while unsheathing his sword. Dark Link chuckled and waved his hand up and down.
"Relax, I won't try to kill you now. The Master forbid it and explained that if I had killed you, I would've died as well." Dark Link said. Link looked at him with a suspicious glare. Dark Link was about to punch him when a gauntleted hand fell on his shoulder. Link noticed the other figure for the first time and nearly chocked on his own saliva. There, standing behind Dark Link, was Damian's Shadow. Link though for a moment and nearly slapped his own head about how stupid he had been, of course Shadow would be here, it was the freakin' Tower of Darkness for the goddesses' sake.
"Hey, Shadow. Long time no see." He greeted. Shadow merely looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"You saw me about three days ago. That's not long." Shadow answered in a voice calmer and a bit slower than Damian's. While Link pondered this a new revelation hit him like a brick. Shadow talked! Come to think of it…since when could Dark Link talk?! "Before you ask why we had never talked before, I'll tell you. You have been touched by Darkness. Only those who have mastered most of the dark elements can communicate with shadows and you, my friend, have mastered four of the five dark elements. That's why you felt draw to the Pentagram of Darkness. But I digress…you have to enter the throne room and get the key of shadow to open the Central Spire where my Master awaits. The message says 'Darkness and Light are not to be torn apart. Be together they must for they both shall endure while the other lasts.'" Shadow translated and stepped into his namesake, motioning for Dark Link to follow. Dark Link sighed but obeyed and soon the both vanished into the Darkness from whence they came.
"Ok, here goes nothing." Link said to himself as he opened the gate. The throne room was practically bare, except for a tapestry depicting a starry sky and the throne itself. He allowed his eyes to adjust to the even dimmer light and began to look around. He spotted a tall figure staring at the tapestry and walked closer. "Darkness, is that you?" He asked quietly. The figure sighed and turned around.
"You are that kid, chosen by those little girls." The figure said in a voice somewhat different from Damian's. Link nodded. "Indeed, I am darkness. I am the first kin hater and the first one to feel love…and how I hate that." He said and, as his eyes grew more accustomed to the darkness, Link noticed the man's clothing. He was clad in black armor and wore a tattered black cape, Link realized that this wasn't a part of Damian; all of Damian's emotions wore the same kind of cloak and leather armor, while this guy wore a cape and metal armor.
"Who are you?" He asked and the man smirked a little, looking exactly like Damian for a moment.
"You said so yourself. I am that which opposes Light. I am the original Darkness, Erebus, Son of Chaos." He answered and Link took a step back in surprise.
"You're Damian's father!" Link yelled and Erebus looked a bit saddened at the mention of Damian's name.
"Yes, he is one of my children. The greatest after Thanatos. I am sure that he still bears a grudge against me." He said. Link watched Erebus' expression carefully, he remembered that he was supposedly the strongest demon ever to exist. But curiosity got the best of him.
"Why are you here? Damian told me he killed you." Link asked and Erebus looked at him with a slight smirk.
"He did, only he forgot one of the main laws of Hell. 'If a Demon kills another in combat, the survivor gains the powers, title and responsibilities of the deceased.' That is the law and all Demons must abide by them…even half-bloods. So, he absorbed my consciousness with my powers and status. That shadow you fought in the wet place was not mine, I don't have a shadow." He said and Link looked bewildered.
"Of course it was yours! That shadow looked exactly like you! Even Damian said that it was your shadow!" Link yelled but Erebus shook his head.
"He was confused, his anger and his hatred must've clouded his mind. I don't have a shadow since-" He started but stopped in the middle of the sentence.
"Since what?" Link asked.
"Since I met the mother of my last children." Erebus finished and Link nodded for him to go on. "She was the enemy commander in the last battle that has been fought…well, the last declared battle of the War anyway. I was not commanding at the scene at the moment but rather had my shadow do it. Fifty years after the battle started, news reached me that my shadow had been destroyed by the enemy commander. At first I was enraged, but then I felt something that I had not felt for millennia…the excitement of battle. I sent no message but rather left immediately and arrived at the scene of, not a battle, a vicious routing. Our cavalry laid dead, our archers were outmatched and even our great battle dragons were having difficulties. Needless to say I was thrilled, there I was at the scene of one of the greatest battles of the War and, for the first time in centuries, the enemy appeared to have a decent commander! I charged forward and slew most of the enemy army, giving an order to the highest ranking officer present to withdraw. Once I had slain the enemy knights, she arrived." He said and his eyes glazed over, he was lost in his memories. "Wearing an armor of Aionis, a metal that is only found in Heaven and in a comet orbiting a strange world in another reality, and wielding a golden sword made of condensed light, she appeared to be my exact opposite. I wore my Necrosilver armor and summoned my dark blade and we began the dance of death. She struck more often that not, but I was stronger and every blow I delivered hurt her more than five of her blows hurt me. So entranced were we by our dance that we didn't notice a Fallen that, acting under Lucifer's orders no doubt, was aiming at my heart with a bow. The coward shot from afar and nearly hit me, only that I dodged a blow that she threw at me and that saved me from a bothersome wound…she wasn't so fortunate. The arrow pierced one of her lungs and she fell. One of the few remaining dragons saw this and ate the little bastard, but I felt strange. I didn't want her to die, so I removed the arrow and healed the wound. She woke up a few days later and when she saw me she asked why I had saved her." He chuckled a little. "I remember the look on her face when I answered her. She was so shocked that if I had had a camera with me I would've taken a picture." He started laughing. Link still couldn't imagine what was so funny.
"What did you answered?" He finally asked the laughing Demon.
"'For Honor'" He answered. "She looked at me as if she thought that I ought not to know that word. After a little small talk, the next thing I know is that I am holding her against me and I'm doing something I hadn't done in so many years that it isn't even funny…I was kissing her. I lived with her in the Void between dimensions and about…nineteen years ago, our child was born. It was amazing how closely he resembled my Father in aura, but he had his mother's eyes…or I would like to say that but he had mismatched eyes, something that had been unseen for as long as my Father had been dead. I made my first parental mistake then…I gave him some of the blood I kept in storage for special occasions so he would be quiet but that drove him crazy and he nearly obliterated the Void. We moved to Hell, since his mother had been banished and I'm not exactly popular up there, and that's when the real hell began…pun intended. I was forced to act as if I didn't care about him and I saw as he grew resented but powerful. Once he turned four, I sent him to recover the Scythe his eldest brother forged and I could not mask my pride when he returned, bloodied and injured, but victorious. When he turned seven he was as powerful as I was…maybe even more so. But, alas, I could not give him the title I was saving for him, for tragedy struck our family. My wife, his mother, died while giving birth to my last child, a little girl that so closely resembled my dear departed Nyx that she was named Lilith Nyx. My son managed to juggle being the Angel of Death, his research of weaponry and taking care of his baby sister and for a while it seemed that everything would be alright…but fate has a way of kicking us in the balls when we least expect it and it hurts us the most. Most of the other Lords began whispering that my son was developing weapons of demon-bane and that he spent too much time training in Angelic spells. They voted me to go and demand that he hand over the weapons he developed. He refused, saying that those weapons were for mortals so that they could protect themselves from the Demons and Angels that hunted them for sport. I made the biggest and most stupid mistake I had in all my existence…I attacked my son. He flew into frenzy and managed to defeat me. As I laid dying, I saw him take his sister and flee. Next thing I know I'm here. I am sure that he hates me, Darkness and Light are both hate and love and I am in the Tower of Darkness. I can put two and two together." He finished sighing sadly.
"You've obviously never been to the Tower of Wind. One of the Hallways is covered in drawings that depict the happiest moments in Damian's life and one of the most detailed ones is when you placed your hand on his head when he returned with the Scythe. He forgave you when he defeated that shadow in the Water Temple. He loves you and respects you. That's why you are here, he doesn't hate you." Link said. Erebus looked at him and gave him a weak smile. "Ok, now that is creepy. Damian looks so much like you that it isn't funny!" He yelled and Erebus gave a short bark of laughter.
"He is my son after all. Here, take this key." He said and gave Link a key that appeared to be cut in half with an upside-down Pentagram on one end. "That is the Dark Key. You have to use it along with the Light Key to open the door of the Central Spire. And, when you see Damian, tell him I'm sorry for everything that I put him through and that I was always proud of him." He said and Link nodded. Erebus turned his back on him and Link understood that Damian's father wanted to be alone. He left whistling a Saria's Song and throwing the key up and down.
Me: Sorry! I'm gonna have to cut it here for now. Now, I know that this chapter probably was not what you might have been expecting, but I still have not gotten over my writer's block and school's been a bitch. I also wanted to explain Damian's past through his father's eyes, since I'm pretty sure that most of you that spared some thought to him saw him as a heartless son of a bitch and had branded him as a villain (And I as sure as hell didn't help by setting that shadow back at the Water Temple…). Next time…Angela's pass through the Tower of Light and some other points of Damian's past revealed by someone who you probably have already guessed. Oh, before I forget, Lilith is a Hebrew name that means 'the nocturnal (Female)' and obviously Nyx means night. Remember her, she will make an appearance in a future fic. That's all for tonight folks! Read, Review and remember, if you want more info on Damian send your question in a review and I'll see if I can squeeze the answer in the story. R&R.