A/N: The following three chapters were written as a single piece and then broken into smaller pieces for the reader's benefit. The final battle for the fate of the universe begins now. Will Lucy and Kohta triumph in the face of the vast darkness of Calidor and find the peace they covet so? Read on to find out how it all ends.

Beowulf Caverias

Chapter 36

The Heart of Darkness

Yuka looked out of her crystal prison, humming the Lilium silently while noticing the castle had become eerily silent. A feeling of deep creeping dread swallowed her in the silence. "Rayden…I'm scared," she called to him with her mind. "…and I don't know why."

"You must be calm, Yuka," Rayden replied. "…and don't be afraid. Calidor feeds on fear. But your fear may be justified. I can sense an impending doom approaching, like a storm of unparalleled fierceness is about to descend on us."

"What can we do?" Yuka asked. "I don't want to die."

"You're not going to die, my precious angel," Rayden declared. "Your family is not going to allow it and neither am I. Calidor's worst mistake was bringing your living soul into this inner sanctum of the damned. Now the power of your life-force is weakening him because of your undying love for your cousin and your family."

"Do you really think Kohta will come for me?" Yuka asked, her mind filling with doubts and irrational fears.

"He will come for you," Rayden answered confidently. "You must trust me and him. He loves you more than you can ever know. It's such a powerful love that even I can feel it. He is coming for you. But you must not let Calidor steal away your hope. Sing the song, my angel, and feel its connection to him to reassure your tormented soul."

"No one is coming for you, little soul," Calidor growled, having heard Rayden's words of encouragement to Yuka as he entered the throne room. "No one who enters my domain ever escapes. I will kill that pest myself and eat his soul in front of you. Then you will see the folly of your foolish hope. You are mine…FOREVER!"

"Don't listen to him, Yuka," Rayden retorted. "He is a master of lies and deceit!"

"Silence, Rayden! I told you not to interfere," Calidor snapped. "Now pay the price for your arrogance and interference." Calidor raised his hand and electricity surged from it, striking Rayden's crystal pillar, electrifying it. Rayden shrieked in agonizing pain, a shriek that echoed out through the halls of Nielfheim and out into the Collective, causing every soul to pause.

"Stop it!" Yuka pleaded. "Please stop hurting him! He's no threat to you!"

"He never was, human germ," Calidor snarled. "But he has to learn who is master here. I'm not going to tolerate insurrection to my rule. Worlds without end have fallen to me, as will this one. No one defies the Lord of the Chaos dimensions."

"Don't listen to him, Yuka!" Rayden screamed in blinding agony. "He lies. He is neither the master of my soul nor yours!" As the electricity surged around and through Rayden's crystal prison, the hairline fractures in the crystal matrix tripled in number and expanded, weakening his prison even more.

"That's enough! Stop it, monster!" Yuka begged. "Please stop it now or I'll sing the song you hate so much!"

Calidor turned his head towards Yuka and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, the little human germ thinks it can save her friend with a song? You presume much, human, to think that you can tangle with me. Since you think so much of your friend here, why don't you join him in his agony!" Calidor pointed at Yuka with his other hand and electrified her prison too. She screamed in mortal terror and pain; a shriek that reached out across time and space to Kohta and Lucy, galvanizing their resolve. "How do you like that, human germ? Is that sufficient to silence your trifling mouth?" Calidor taunted.

At that moment in the wastelands outside of Castle Nielfheim, Kohta flinched, feeling the burning electrical fires tormenting Yuka. He groaned, staggering to a halt. Lucy began to ask what troubled him when she too felt Yuka and Rayden's torment. "Lucy," Kohta hissed in pain. "We must help them; strengthen them against this inhuman torment."

Lucy grabbed Kohta in a tight embrace. "We shall send our strength to her and Rayden," Lucy snarled through the pain. "Together we can stop this torment." Kohta nodded and returned the embrace. Together, they sent their strength through the genetic channels unknown to Calidor or Yuka, empowering her from afar.

"Sing, Yuka…Sing the Lilium, Yuka, and free yourself of this torment," Kohta called out through time and space with his diclonius power, tapping for the first time his deep genetic connection with Yuka as his cousin.

Yuka heard Kohta's voice reach into her mind as a surge of strength that surprised her filled her being. She abruptly stopped screaming in pain as the surge of strength overrode the searing pain of Calidor's electrical torment. Instantly, the Lilium erupted from her, directed at Calidor. The song increased in intensity every moment she sang it while being electrified. Rayden suddenly joined in, pushing past the pain, giving Yuka support in her attack on Calidor.

"What the hell?" Calidor cursed, feeling the song sapping his power. "This is impossible!" He lowered his arms, ceasing to punish Yuka and Rayden with his electrical attack while trying to defend himself from the harmonic frequency attack of the Lilium.

"Not impossible!" Rayden retorted as Yuka sang on furiously to punish Calidor as much as he had done to her. "Your own arrogance has led to the discovery of the ancient weapon that defeated you long ago. I understand now how this song is so detrimental to you. The harmonic frequencies of this song disrupt your dark power! Had you only left Yuka's soul alone, you would not be in this situation. But you didn't! You had to grab her for bait! Now you're undone by your own arrogance! Sing on, my angel Yuka! Punish him as he punished you and the rest of us for thousands of years!"

Yuka smiled in her mind as she cranked the intensity of the song up a notch, not caring at this point if she lived or died. The only thought she had was to punish Calidor as much as possible for his abuse before he could kill her.

Calidor staggered back, holding his head with his hands and howling in agony. Black blood began to ooze from his nostrils and ears. "Enough!" he roared, snapping his arms downward, sending out a hammer pulse of dark telepathic power that silenced both Yuka and Rayden within their prisons, knocking them into unconsciousness with a shriek. When the song stopped, Calidor grumbled, shaking his head, surprised that a mere human could inflict so much damage on him with a mere song. Staggering back, he slumped on the dais steps, gathering his wits. "Seems I underestimated this human germ," he murmured, feeling a bit of admiration for Yuka's valiant attempt to survive against all odds. "You are much stronger than I thought. I'll not underestimate you again. Your soul will provide me with much power when I finally absorb it." He coughed and blood rose in his mouth. Spitting out the black blood, Calidor again cursed. "But you've hurt me with your attack, human germ. For that, you shall pay for your impudence by watching me destroy your family before your eyes."

Abruptly, Calidor sensed Lucy approaching at a distance within his domain. A wicked grin crossed his evil lips. "Thought you could hide from me within my own domain, did you, my foolish Queen?" he cackled. "You thought wrong. Let me provide you with an appropriate reception. Mariko!"

The young diclonius girl Kakuzawa sent after Lucy and Nana appeared before Calidor. Her eyes blazed with hatred for him as she glared at him. "What do you want, Beast?" Mariko snarled.

Calidor slapped her viciously with a vector, throwing her up aside Rayden's pillar. "Mind how you speak to me, bitch. I am master here."

Mariko slowly rose to her feet, leaning on Rayden's pillar and feeling his power oozing out of the crystal through the hairline fractures in it, strengthening her. A wry smile crossed her lips as she said, "Right. What do you want me to do?"

"Lucy has entered my domain with her pestilent consort," Calidor stated venomously. "Bring them to me so I may destroy them."

Mariko's grin grew wider and more devilish. "May I have some fun with them first?"

Calidor reached out and strangled Mariko with a vector. "No, you bitch! Lucy is mine! If you so much as scratch her, I will eat your soul myself and throw your rotting corpse to the worms! Now get out of my sight and don't return without her." Calidor tossed Mariko against the wall near the entrance to the throne room, briefly stunning her. When she rose with a glassy-eyed look, Calidor added, "Take as many souls as you need to bring them here. Go. And if you see that traitor Bandoh, destroy him."

Mariko nodded and staggered out of the throne room, thinking, He's going to pay for that if it's the last thing I do. No one treats me like that and gets away with it.

When Mariko left the throne room, Calidor looked at Yuka with disgust, formulating a new strategy on dealing with his adversaries. A despicably horrendous thought came into his head that brought a huge smile to his demon face. "I know just what to do now, my dear," he crowed. "You will regret your actions this day as I rip your precious family and friends to bits in front of you." Calidor slapped his hands together and vanished in a flash of light and smoke, his maniacal laughter echoing throughout the throne room.

Lucy and Kohta followed Bandoh through the burning wasteland of the Fury in vector-spawned concealment. Hordes of fury-crazed diclonius under Calidor's control watched from the shadows as Bandoh weaved through the maze of canyons and rivers of molten rock, slowly surrounding him, Lucy, and Kohta. Yet they stayed back a discreet distance, fearful of Bandoh's own dark power…a power they quickly learned to respect as much as Calidor's. Bandoh kept a close eye on them as he moved like a ghost across the burning terrain.

"I don't like this," Kohta whispered. "They know we're here, even though we have concealed ourselves."

"Quiet, you little prick," Bandoh hissed. "They see me, not you, so don't blow your cover. We are close to the castle so don't tip your hand prematurely."

"Kohta's right," Lucy agreed. "I can feel it. They are being drawn to me because of what I am. It can't be avoided. They sense my power."

"Quiet, bitch," Bandoh retorted. "They don't see you."

The canyon they traversed suddenly opened into a small valley at the base of the volcano of Castle Nielfheim. A gentle rain of ash fell on them as Bandoh stopped and surveyed the scene. He didn't like the open nature of the ground between him and the castle. A disapproving growl rose from him.

"Why did we stop?" Kohta asked.

"Something's wrong here," Bandoh snarled. "It's too quiet."

"Is this the only way into the castle?" Lucy asked, not liking the openness of the path before her either.

"It is," Bandon replied. "But it is usually guarded. The fact that the guards are not around bothers me."

"You better not be leading us into a trap," Lucy hissed venomously.

Bandoh chuckled wickedly, folding his arms across his chest. "I don't have to. You walked into a world of shit when you crossed into Calidor's domain. This whole fucking world of his is a trap. Isn't that right, my fellow prisoners of Calidor?"

Without warning, Lucy, Kohta, and Bandoh found themselves surrounded by countless fury-crazed diclonii that cut off their escape. They howled like bloodthirsty hellhounds ready to descend upon their hapless victims. "You might as well drop the camouflage…both of you," Bandoh crowed. "They and Calidor have known of your presence since you crossed over into his domain."

Lucy and Kohta dropped their vector camouflage, reappearing out of thin air. Kohta's face twisted with anger. "You fucking son of a bitch!" Kohta roared. "You purposely led us into this trap! Why the hell did you do it if you never intended for us to help you?" Kohta started to attack with his vectors when Lucy restrained him with her vectors.

"No, Kohta…This is not the place," she declared. "We're not in position. Besides, I fully expected this treachery from him. It's a part of him. He can no more ignore it than we could ignore the Fury." Kohta backed down with her words, seeing the truth of her statement but not liking the implications of it.

"You'd best pay attention to the bitch, Kohta," Bandoh said sternly. "She knows me better than you realize. Besides, you are only seeing part of the picture here."

"What are you talking about, you shit-faced fuck?" Lucy retorted, turning a stony face to Bandoh.

"Oh wouldn't you like to know, bitch," Bandoh crowed with insane delight. "Now I have the means to exact my revenge on everyone responsible for me being here, including you. You and your fucking boyfriend have been a bur in my side ever since we met. It's a pity that neither of you will survive your meeting with Calidor. Now are you going to come quietly or do we take you to him one piece at a time?"

"You're going to pay for this, Bandoh," Lucy declared stonily. "I promise you."

Bandoh clobbered her with his metallic fist, drawing blood and sending her crashing to the ground. "Put it on my tab, bitch. You owe me for my eyes and arm. Besides, you don't have the power to take Calidor down anyway. You never did. Otherwise you would have disposed of me the moment you suspected I was leading you into this trap."

"If she doesn't do it, I will," Kohta roared, infuriated that Bandoh struck Lucy.

Again, Kohta started to attack when Lucy called out, "Kohta…Stand the fuck down! You know what's at stake here!"

"But he…" Kohta stammered.

"I said stand down, Kohta," Lucy insisted coldly as she stood up, blood oozing from the corner of her mouth. "This is not the place for this pissing contest! After we get Calidor, then you can rip him to pieces if you like. BUT NOT NOW!"

"Better do as your freak bitch of a girlfriend says if you want to live for the next few minutes," Bandoh warned. "Calidor's herald is coming as I speak. It's someone I think you'll recognize, you fucking bitch."

Bandoh pointed down the valley toward the castle. The sea of fury-crazed diclonii in that area parted, showing a small diclonius girl coming toward them with an army of her own. Lucy looked and her eyes grew wide as she both recognized and felt Mariko's approach. "Mariko," Lucy hissed, remembering her last encounter with Mariko at the shrine.

"I knew you'd recognize your own fucking kind," Bandoh growled. Turning to Mariko as she approached, he said, "I've done my part, bitch. Now it's time for you to do your part."

"You made a deal?" Kohta asked, floored by the realization that Bandoh had so convincingly deceived him and seemingly made a deal with Calidor.

"And why is that so difficult to understand, you stupid prick?" Bandoh snorted. "I look out for only one person and that's me. It's been that way since I was born. The only person I can rely on is me and no one else. You should've killed me when you had the chance."

"I'll get you for this," Kohta raged. "I swear it, even if I have to come back from the dead to do it."

Bandoh slammed Kohta with his vectors, knocking the wind out of him. "Your threats mean nothing to someone who is already dead. Now I'll have my revenge on you for killing me that first time. Mariko, take this shit and his bitch girlfriend to Calidor."

Mariko stared at Lucy, locking eyes with her. For the first time since their battle at the shrine, Mariko understood who and what Lucy was. She nodded and winked at Lucy with a devilish grin on her face. Lucy nodded solemnly, saying, "Take us to your master, Mariko."

"My pleasure," Mariko chimed. "But first we have some unfinished business to attend to." Without warning or provocation, Mariko launched a vector sneak attack on Bandoh, knocking him out and disabling his vectors. Turning to Lucy, Mariko said, "Your powers are much greater now than the last time we danced. But they will not help you. You cannot stop the unstoppable, indomitable darkness that is Calidor."

"We shall see," Lucy replied coldly. "Are you with me?"

Mariko winked at Lucy while sporting a sinister grin. "We diclonius are so unpredictable and untrustworthy. You never know exactly where our allegiances lie or what we'll do when cornered. You know what needs to be done. Don't fuck it up."

"What is she talking about?" Kohta asked, feeling completely in the dark about the conversation.

"Shut up, Kohta," Lucy snapped. "Everything will become clear when they take us to Calidor." Turning to Mariko, she ordered, "Do it, Mariko, and make sure to bring Bandoh."

"As if you need to tell me what to do," Mariko chimed wickedly. "Hold still, human…this will only hurt for a moment." Before Kohta could ask what she meant, Mariko knocked Kohta and Lucy out with a quick punch from her vectors. Lucy and Kohta collapsed without a moan. Mariko then called out, "The Queen is ours! Let's take her and her consort to Lord Calidor so they may merge with us!" A roar of triumph rose from the sea of fury-crazed diclonius souls surrounding her. Mariko snatched Lucy and Kohta up with her vectors. "Grab the turncoat," she ordered one of her handpicked diclonius soldiers. "…and bring him so he may taste the wrath of Calidor's vengeance. No one turns on the Dark Lord and gets away with it." A soldier picked Bandoh up and followed Mariko as she carried Lucy and Kohta unconscious into the heart of darkness within Castle Nielfheim.

Back on the Chimera, Sen and Fargo sat in the infirmary with Mayu, Myra, and Nana, keeping them company. Nana's eyes grew wide as she felt Lucy seemingly slip away. "Oh no," she moaned. "Lucy has been captured! All is lost!"

"All is not lost," Fargo corrected. "Lucy has allowed herself and Kohta to be captured so they can get close enough to Calidor to deal with him. You must have faith in her and Kohta. They will set things right."

"The Captain is right," Myra agreed. "You must have faith in them. They didn't come all this way to trip at the finish line."

"I believe in them," Mayu stated, holding on to Nana. "Izanami will not allow them to fail."

"I feel so helpless," Nana whimpered. "We must do something to help her."

"But what can we do?" Sen asked. "She insisted that we stay on board the Chimera to protect you, Mayu, and Myra. If we go after them, then we betray their trust and jeopardize their plan to take down the King. We must do as she says and stay here."

"Sen is right," Fargo stated. "To try and help by going after them will just cause an unwanted distraction that may prove fatal to us all. We must stay put and pray to Izanami that they succeed."

As he spoke, Myra noticed a browning of the lights in the infirmary as a feeling of doom swept over her like a tsunami. "Uhhh, guys…do you feel that?" she asked.

"Feel what?" Fargo asked.

"I've been at war many times and my instincts seldom fail me," Myra stated. "I think we are about to have company of a hostile nature."

Nana checked her diclonius telepathy and felt a wave of darkness reaching out for them. Her face went pale as she cried, "Oh no, it's him! The King has come for us!"

"Impossible," Fargo retorted. "This ship is impregnable. There's no way he can breech our shields."

The lights in the infirmary began to flicker wildly as a raspy voice came across the intercom, saying, "Not impossible, you foolish diclonius germ. Your technology means nothing to one who has swallowed entire worlds. The bitch queen's family and friends are mine."

Fargo rushed to the console and pressed the alarm. The alarm wailed as Fargo shouted furiously into the microphone, "Intruder alert! Intruder in the infirmary…all hands to…"

The microphone exploded, throwing Fargo back ten feet, and burning his face and hand. Sen caught him before he smacked his head against a table. "Too late, you stupid prick. Now you'll share their fate," the voice growled. "It's time for you to join your queen in the heart darkness." Every active light and computer display in the infirmary flashed and exploded, plunging the infirmary in to darkness. Mayu, Nana, and Myra shrieked while Fargo and Sen cried out in fear in the stygian blackness before the darkness swallowed them whole.

Fifteen seconds later, the door opened to the infirmary and Dr. Ravenclaw, Jericho, and Captain Guildo rushed in with a security team five other diclonius crewmembers, shining flashlights around the darkened infirmary searching for Fargo, Sen, Myra, Nana, and Mayu. "Fargo!" Guildo called out urgently as they walked into a pall of sulfurous smoke that made them choke. "Captain Fargo!"

Ten seconds later, the emergency lighting came up, bathing the infirmary in a hellish red glow. The pall of yellow sulfurous smoke dissipated in the light revealing the entire infirmary wrecked with Fargo, Sen, Mayu, Nana, and Myra nowhere to be found.

When Guildo didn't see them, he barked, "Search the infirmary! Find Captain Fargo and our friends now!" The security team searched the infirmary top to bottom, finding no trace of Fargo and those who were with him.

"They're gone," Jericho breathed in horror. "They just vanished without a trace. How can this be? How can they just vanish?"

"I don't know," Guildo stated grimly. "But at this point, we can't rule out anything. Jericho…set up teams, and search this ship from bow to stern. We must first confirm that they are not somewhere on board. Also, be on guard because Fargo's last message suggested that we had an intruder on board the ship. He, she, or it may still be here. Go."

"Aye sir," Jericho replied with a snap salute. He and the security team left as Guildo and Ravenclaw continued to search for clues. "This is not good," Guildo stated. "I fear the King may be responsible for this disappearance."

"You may be right," Ravenclaw agreed. "Just before the Captain sounded the alarm, I felt this overpowering darkness overshadow me. But it was not after me. It was after Lucy's family. Of this, I am certain. What should we do if we find out that Fargo and Lucy's family are no longer on the ship?"

"I don't know," Guildo stated bluntly. "My first instinct is to go after them. But Lucy made it perfectly clear that we are not to come after her under any circumstances. At this point, we must think of the rest of the people on this ship. Their safety is our primary concern."

"That's a bit cold, don't you think?" Ravenclaw retorted. "Couldn't we send a small contingent to warn her?"

"No option is being dismissed at this point," Guildo answered. "But let's first find out if they're still on the ship before we make any other decisions."

"That seems logical to me," Ravenclaw stated. "I sincerely hope we find them on the ship. The alternative is too gruesome for me to even consider at this point."

"Me too, Doctor," Guildo stated. "Me too. You should check on your other patients to see if they're still here too."

"I'm on it," Ravenclaw replied, heading out to another section of the infirmary where his other patients were being treated.

Guildo felt a deep, dismal fear settle into the bottom of his heart. "I hope they're all right, wherever they are," he murmured before heading out to secure the ship.

Back in the throne room of Castle Nielfheim, Calidor surveyed his catch: Fargo, Sen, Nana, Mayu, and Myra. He smiled wickedly at his prisoners as he encased each of them in a crystalline pillar up to their chests with their arms buried in the crystals. These new crystals sat in a semicircle on the opposite side of the throne room from where Rayden and Yuka remained imprisoned in their crystal pillars. "Each player is in position and the curtain is about to rise," Calidor crowed. "Now the game can truly begin."

Fargo came to first and found himself immobilized within the crystal up to his chest. He also instantly realized the crystal dampened his diclonius power, rendering his vectors inoperative. "What…where are we? Who are you and what have you done with my friends?" Fargo demanded.

Calidor turned and slapped Fargo with a vector, drawing blood. "Don't take that tone with me, diclonius pest. I devour souls like yours every day, draining their life and power, adding it to my own."

Fargo's complexion paled as he realized to whom he was speaking. The evil oozing out of Calidor revolted Fargo's clear mind. "Oh my god…you're the one at the root of this madness! You're Calidor!"

"And the germ wins the kewpie doll," Calidor crowed. "Welcome to the Fury, Washi Chen Fargo. You and your compatriots there will have the distinct pleasure of being the last living souls I destroy after I suck the Queen and her pestilent consort dry of their power and destroy this pathetic mud ball of a planet. Now be silent. I cannot have you warning the Queen and her pestilent human consort of the reception I have planned for them." Calidor clipped Fargo with a vector, knocking him unconscious. Calidor looked over at Rayden and Yuka, seeing them still unconscious from his telepathic hammer hit earlier. "Excellent…That bitch queen will never know what hit her." He flitted off into the shadows with his maniacal laughter echoing throughout the castle.