I know this chapter may be a little rushy, but it was to match with the mood inside it and I didn't think I should delay the things.

Stay tunned people! We're almost ending this part of the fic. By my calculations, just two more chapters and we can go to the next part, one of the last of the fic. Hold on your chairs for we'll have more fights and some big twists and revelations at the final of this part.

Chapter 35

Light and Darkness

Khan'Tharu threw another frost bolt at Merilius, which he defended perfectly with his Runeblade. The battle between the two had started some time before and until now, just Merilius achieved to land some blows on Khan'Tharu, but they were just scratches to the Linch.

The Children of the Light found the battle quite equilibrated. The Linch was quite cunning in his attacks and strategies. His ice and Linch's magics were really dangerous, but Merilius defended and avoided them all. The cursed creature also defended each one of Merilius' attacks, using just his bony hands or even conjuring a ice shield, which soon disappeared when the Linch was a bout to attack attacked.

Then the magic swordsman felt a change in mana flows of the temple. Khan'Tharu also noticed and the two stopped their fight. The levels of mana of darkness were lower than before. Lloyd and his group succeed in purify the crystal, but Merilius didn't know if it could be considered a good thing, with all that he discovered.

Khan'Tharu knew that soon Saul'Nor would fall and the Summon Spirits would notice his presence there. He didn't have time to lose, so he charged one of his strongest ice magics. One that was casted using also the arts of manipulating the energies used by the demons.

"Arctic Winds!", the Linch pronounced.

Several stalagmites of ice with pointy crystals rose from the ground around Merilius. Strong winds started to blew in spirals around these icy formation and soon some of the iceberg's parts started to being carried by the winds, which formed several cyclones in the room.

Merilius widened his eyes as the big shards of ice were crashing around him. He had heard Khan'Tharu's powers were great, but he never imagined that the Linch could cast such type of spell. Jumping and running, Merilius avoided the falling crystals and wind blades, also full of sharp icy fragments. He jumped even in the flying ice fragments.

When the spell ceased, Merilius landed and looked to the room, several craters and fell ice shards decorated the scenery. In the mess, he lost the sight of the Linch. Looking for Nebilim's loyal magician, Merilius felt a presence behind him and when he turned, a skeletal hand grabbed his throat.

"You come with me.", As Khan'Tharu spoke another stalagmite started to form with cold winds surrounding it. This one, under their feet, enclosing the two...

- - - - -

Shadow saw the fear in Saul'Nor's eyes, now that he didn't have the lights or the crystal to help him. Lloyd and his friends were at the stairs of the altar and seemed to stay there just to observe, as they did in the other temples.

Colette flew from Shadow's back and looked to him. The dark entity hissed:

"He... my... matter...", Colette nodded at Shadow's short speech. Her friends were safe now and she didn't have any motive to fight with Saul.

At that thought, the glow on the blond girl's hands faded. Colette then finally realized what just happened for her to access that power. She flew back to Lloyd and the others, leaving Shadow to deal with the rebel chaos creature.

Saul didn't see how he could scape of that situation. Shadow could easily nullify his powers on the temple and he was certainly the leader of his tribe wouldn't be glad to receive someone that he considered a traitor.

The leader. Just remember of that fool made Saul'Nor grind his teeth. The leader of the elemental shadow of darkness' tribe always came with a babble about equilibrium of the elements and respect for the light dwellers. Saul thought different, like others in the tribe. Why should they stay living in the Dark Abyss if they could easily take over the surface world, where there was plenty of mana?

Lord Nebilim was the one that comprehend that thought. He understood their desires, it was because of that many shadows, including Saul's brother, allied to Ara Tharu, the glorious secret society commanded by Nebilim, which latter would be known all over the world.

"Why do you stay against me, Shadow?", Saul asked to the embodiment of darkness itself. "We should be working together to blot out the light that harm us. Why do you stay like this, without do anything for us that are just like you, beings that live in the shadows, away from the light?"

"Fool...", Shadow mumbled, a tint of anger in his voice. "Darkness... exists... equilibrate all... if absolute... if... without light... no limits... none order... chaos and destruction come..."

Although Lloyd and his group had to repeat mentally Shadow's words to understand all that the guardian spirit meant, they understood the general message and they would have to agree with Shadow.

If there wasn't darkness, then they would never knew what was light like. If there wasn't darkness inside their hearts, they would never knew how to recognize a selfish, bad feeling from a virtuous, good one. Regal and Yuan stated this observation to the group, which nodded. It was the truth, they couldn't deny it. But Saul, obviously, wasn't capable of see it.

"What are you talking about? We are the elemental shadows of the darkness. We know how to deal with chaos energies..."

"Not chaos... you know... original Chaos... of the beginning... chaos you use... changed by mana... original... can't dominate... can't control... cause destruction...", Shadow interrupted, now using more words at each stop he made to give emphasis to his speech.

The heroes didn't understand what Shadow mean by two different Chaos, but they decided that maybe it was another subject that wasn't for them to know. Maybe the Summon Spirit was talking about destruction itself or something that could cause it. Anyway, Shadow seemed too serious when he talked about it. It seemed it was something that could really cause a lot of trouble to the world.

"So is it what you think of us? That we can't control the energy that was our birthright?!", Saul'Nor exclaimed, seeming angry at the entity.

"Foolish... deal with... cannot understand... light... isn't cruel... light... bring equilibrium... to us..."

"It's right.", another voice came from behind the head of the rebellion. Turning Saul saw Luna at his front. She seemed angry. "We don't covet the destruction of each other. I am the light and I speak this because its not my goal to destroy my opposite. Without him, light would also be without limits and it would turn useless without darkness to maintain it alive. And if we turn absolute, there wouldn't be any order either."

Before Saul could reply, another entity came. A glowing bird appeared at his side with a boy descending from its back and going to the group of heroes reunited at the altar. Aska spoke:

"You shouldn't have tried to mess with the order when you don't understand the basis of the equilibrium. There must be opposites to regulate each other, that is a law. And like you tried to break this law, you will now be punished!"

The three attacked at the same time. Saul was too much startled to defend at the right time and received the blows of the two different elements. Luna hit him with her staff and made several rays of light feel upon the rebel shadow. Aska cut the shadow with his talons, hit with his two beaks and flapped his wings, sending several balls of light against the dark shadow. Shadow hit Saul shaping his hands into several weapons, like arrows, ax and a sword's blade.

The energies in the blows sparked by all over Saul's body. The elemental shadow tried to hit them by also shaping his hands into blades, but Shadow easily catch the shaped arms and Luna and Aska defended from it with none difficulty at all.

Lloyd's friends watch as Saul'Nor was overpowered by the three guardian entities in a matter of seconds. Any attack that Saul tried to do on Luna, she defended or Shadow defended, by going in her front and taking the attack. The most powerful spells and attacks made the spirit of darkness incline his body backwards, but he soon inclined it back to an erect position, like he was playing the Limbo.

"Well, I wouldn't say he doesn't deserve it. He revolts because of something he don't even know well. Serves him right.", Yuan commented, and turned to Colette. "Speaking about it, you did a good job handling against this creep. I must say that I'm impressed."

"Thanks Yuan!", Colette said, smiling happily. "And you know what, I discovered how I can use this technique.", the group turned the attention to her. "It is because I want to protect you all, because of when I saw I had to do something to protect my friends. So I feel like my heart calls something to help me and I feel this power and that I can control it like I want."

"Ha! It only could be something like this. It's just like you to draw some kind of awesome power by your heart.", Zelos spoke. "I imagine if I also could do it. Hum, what kind of feeling would awake this power on me?"

Before Zelos' mind could start to work, what in Sheena's opinion meant a pile of stupidness was about to come, Yuan interfered, saying:

"I sorry have to destroy your dreams, Chosen One, but I doubt you would be capable of perform this technique. All the Chosens that were capable of do it had affinity with just one specific element and this element was the one whose mana they could control. We tried to train this with other Chosens with a general knowledge and affinity with several elements, but it happens that the control was equally distributed between the different elements. They didn't have a special control on a specific one, so they weren't capable of use this technique.", Zelos pouted, sighing. He could almost imagine himself showing his ability to control the mana of an element to his "hunnies".

From her place, Raine looked to Zelos and sighed. She could guess what kind of thinks were passing through the red headed pervert's mind. That made she think again if he could really change sufficiently to have an proper relationship with someone.

Wait! Why am I thinking on this? It's not my matter if he'll change or not., Raine scolded herself. And it's not like he's really interested in me. Well, not beyond my appearance and body at least., she reassured mentally.

Zelos noticed Raine's glance and looked to her while the others turned their attention back to the battle. The half-elven woman saw that and quickly turned her head to the match before them, making Zelos thought he just imagined things.

One people, though, was paying attention at the fight and at Zelos and Raine, at the same time. When Sheena looked to Raine's expression and the way she glanced back to the fight when Zelos looked to her, she started to think on what all of that could really mean. Maybe she would investigate that latter. At least it could prove to be quite fun.

When everybody was with their attention back on the match it was already on its end. Saul'Nor was with his hands on the ground and seemed to be panting by have been hit so many times by energies that corrupted the ones that held the matter on his body together.

Luna was at the front of the elemental shadow and Aska was on its back. The female embodiment of the light was floating inches away from Shadow, who also was on Saul's front. The chaos being looked to them with an angry face, the matter on his body was starting to fall, turning into some kind of black fog.

"You may destroy me... but my brother will avenge me... and Lord Nebilim will brought the true order... to this world...", Saul said, between large breathes.

"Your Lord and brother didn't defeat us in the past and we don't have the intention to let them do so now. They were defeated by the heroes who lived in that time and, again, they shall fall by the hands of the new generation of heroes.", Aska pronounced in a solemn tone, like he was stating the future.

"Evil... shall fall... Nebilim... won't win...", Shadow hissed.

Luna then pointed her staff to Saul'Nor and on its point a big, bright ball of light appeared. Aska also pointed his two wings to the chaos being and on it appeared another light ball, identical to the one that Luna had. Lloyd's group knew what attack was that.

"Light Embrace!", Luna and Aska shout at the same time, letting the balls flew to Saul.

The familiar yellow runes appeared under Saul'Nor, who didn't have any strength to scape, and the balls of light collided, creating a great pillar of light. The elemental shadow let out a roar of pain. Shadow melted in the ground and transformed into two lines of shadow, circulating the base of the pillar of light. Then another pillar, this one of dark lights, rose from the ground, enveloping the first.

After some moments, both pillars faded and none signal of Saul was visible. Shadow turned back to his habitual form as Lloyd and the others stood and came to then, congratulating the two for the incredible performance in that battle.

Aska and Shadow thanked them, but Luna was looking to upwards, to the upper levels of the temple. Noticing that, Presea asked why she was like that, attracting the attention of the rest of the group and the other spirits.

"I don't know... but I thought I just felt my child's presence...", she said, sounding worried.

When the spirits dismissed them, going back to their work to repair the mana flows, doubt was on the mind of party. Luna certainly wouldn't make a mistake in that matter. But if Merilius really was in the temple, why didn't he showed up to them as they climbed to the exit?

- - - - -

In an island, at Balacruf's coast, a strange ice Stalagmite appeared in the air and exploded, letting fall a swordsman half-elf dressed in a marine-blue and white shirt in the sand. Merilius quickly stood and looked to the floating Linch above him.

"I could just end with your life, but now it's not the right moment. Be glad for Lord Nebilim decided to spare your pitiful life.", Khan'Tharu said in his ethereal voice. "But stay in our way, and you and the other of your kind shall be purged from this world, ending with your filthy lineage."

Merilius was ready to throw a reply, when one of the cursed creature's phrase struck him. Did he hear it right?

"'I and the other of my kind'? What do you mean? I'm the last of my family!", Merilius spoke.

"So, you still didn't find it out yet? Hu, your ancestor, Vallor, may be a blind fool to the great truth, but he at least was smart. A quality that you didn't seem to have.", without any other word, Khan'Tharu made another ice Stalagmite enclose him and disappeared.

The Children of the Light stayed in his place, thinking on what the Linch had just said. Could it be another of Nebilim's trick? Merilius didn't see how Nebilim could think that a new about one surviving member of his family would be something that would stop him. No, definitely it wasn't a trick.

But if that was true, then who was his other relative that still alive. Merilius tried to think on someone that could have had a chance to survive Nebilim's curse. Someone that had the chance to escape from death.

An image from a rainy night on a forest immediately jumped on Merilius' head. He knew a member of his family that disappeared and he never found or heard of again. Amile. His baby cousin. If there was someone of his family that could be alive, it must be her. But where could she be. Another memory then came to Merilius. One from a moment of doubt that he had.

Then... she is... of course! She never get to know her parents and was found when she was just a baby!, Merilius thought. Then another problem came: how would he tell her who she really was?

Before Merilius could think more on that another thought clicked on him. He had a mission to accomplish. Damn, he almost forgot that! He had to run to the Temple of Lightning and encounter Lloyd and the others there to tell them about the crystals and Nebilim's plans. He could deal with the subject of Amile latter, now he had his duty to take care of.

Sheathing his sword, Merilius murmured some words and a yellow aura glowed around him. In an instant, the magic swordsman disappeared in a flash, going to the continent, so he could know to which direction was the temple of Volt...

- - - - -

The heroes of the worlds arrived at the entrance of the Temple of Lightning. They wanted to end with that as soon as possible. Then, after one night of rest from all the fight in the Temple of Darkness, they boarded the Rheairds and went to the temple of Volt.

The member with elven blood in the group could feel that the mana flows around the temple were almost out of control with the overload of mana of lightning. Another motive for them to end with that soon.

Volt was near the entrance, which strangely seemed more peaceful than in the other temples. None corpse or change in the mana, save by the one that was already made, could be sense, which indicated the elemental shadows hadn't tried to attack the area around the great tower.

"...", Volt spoke to them in his language. Raine translated it, saying that Volt asked them to hurry because soon the mana flows would be so overwhelmed that it could rip the stability in that local and destroy anything that wasn't made out of mana of lightning.

Lloyd and the others just nodded as they entered. Genis, already knowing that he couldn't help, stayed out with the electrical entity at his side. The young warlock could sense that the mana of lightning was so strong there that it was almost as it was trying to take him. Luckily, Volt was doing his best to change the mana around him and maintain the stability as much as he could and that brought some comfort to Genis.

The party climbed the stairs without any problem, save by the few traps they had to pass. They already drew their weapons in the case that the elemental shadows appeared at the altar, just like in the Temple of Earth and in the Temple of Darkness. They also decided that Colette and the others that could attack at long range would deal with the head shadow as the others purified the crystal, ending with this problem once for all.

When they arrived at the room with the stairs that gave access to the altar, they saw none signal of the elemental shadows. All that there was in the room was some parts of what seemed to be a big, silver metal armor, laying in the ground.

When they tried to place a foot on the stairs, lightning fell from the roof just where they were about to stand if they hadn't stopped. Looking around, the group saw the pieces of armor were being lift from the ground by several electrical flows that connected them to the ground. Lloyd and his friends then realized it.

The parts of the armor shot to the center of the chamber and started to combine, forming a complete upper armor with many drawings on a dull gray, shoulder protectors with three pointy spikes and an helm. The spaces where the body of the wearer should be were quickly filled with several electrical sparks, which soon formed an being that seemed much like his other brethren, but made out of pure electricity.

"The lightning lives.", the creature said in a crack like voice that was accompanied by the sound of sparks. The accent of the elemental shadows was almost imperceptible to anyone that didn't know it, due the sparks that crackled at each word the shadow spoke. "I'm called Naum'Kir. And you won't stop me from turning this land into a great conductor to me and my brothers. We have Lord Nebilim's support on our side."

"That support didn't save your companions and it won't save you!", Lloyd said, Material Blades at hand and in a battle stance.

"You won't do what you want with this world, for we shall not allow it.", Regal said. "You're just causing destruction and disrupting the equilibrium of the elements."

The shadow gave what seemed to be a laugh. The image of his face flickered as he seemed to smile. It was difficult to say what was the shadow's expression, due all his body was just a mass of running electricity. The yellow eyes were the only thing that indicated the shadow had a face.

Closing his gaze upon them again, the elemental shadow spoke, sparks crackling at his speech:

"How funny. You humans always like to say these pretty words, but end up doing exactly what you call destruction."

"Not all the humans are the same.", Yuan said. The group looked to him with surprise, it was actually the first time they heard him say something like that. "There's good humans and there's good people in the surface, but you seem to have forget it."

"Then let's see who's right.", at this last statement the shadow stretched his hands and lightning rays shot from them.

Lloyd and his friends jumped to the side and prepared to combat the last of that rebellion...