Chapter 40: Be Afraid of the Dark (Part 2)

In movies, fights were always shown from the best angles, well-choreographed and easy to follow. Nothing could've prepared Kai for the sheer chaos and confusion of a real battle. Or the raw terror of facing a murderer, one all too willing to kill again.

Kai saw the world in snapshots: Viktor letting loose a bolt of electricity at Synaptak that the alien squid avoided with grace, Crüjo unhinging his jaws to blast away Tini with his howl, only for her to clap her four hands together and unleash her own sonic blast, Zs'Skayr turning intangible to avoid the energy beams Ultimos released from his eyes…

Then something invisible hit her, hard enough to knock the air from her lungs, and carried her away with nauseating speed.

Between one moment and the next, Kai found herself being shoved behind the Rustbucket, away from the fight though nowhere near far enough to be safe.

"Stay here and don't get noticed!" Kevin snarled and Kai felt him vanish in another burst of super-speed.

And while her friends fought for their lives, Kai could do nothing but watch.

Kevin would've much preferred to take their only civilian much farther away from the fight, but that would've taken too much time. Still, he expected the Plumbers to fixate on the Anurians rather than on some random human. They should be too busy fighting to bother going after Kai.

He returned to the fight, noting in the back of his mind that, apparently, Ultimos could fly and Synaptak had telekinesis. But he didn't have the time to observe more. He grabbed Max, who was both powerless and weaponless, and dragged him towards the Rustbucket too.

The moment Kevin let him go, Max rushed towards their weapons storage. Kevin left him to that and bolted back. A quick assessing look showed that both Enoch and Chadwick were armed and the Anurian team could hold their own, so it was time for him to join the fray.

He spent a few seconds to choose his target. He could see Crüjo squaring off against Tini, both of them clearly skilled in hand-to-hand. Zs'Skayr wove around her, fading in and out of intangibility, and kept the Tetramand distracted and off-balance, although with the sun still up he couldn't do more.

The Knights were shooting at Synaptak, and while the alien squid either dodged their attacks or deflected them with energy shields, it kept him from helping the other Plumbers or retaliating against Gwen and Kuphulu, who kept slinging spell after spell at him.

Which left Ultimos.

Kevin saw him fly right into Viktor, knocking the Transylian off his feet and completely ignoring his point-blank electric blasts and the super-strong punches.

That decided it.

Kevin flew towards them and tackled Ultimos in a burst of super-speed, pushing him away from Viktor. Kevin spat slime in his face, which Ultimos cleared away with a blast of heat vision. Kevin deflected it right back at him with his crystal arm, but it didn't seem to faze the homicidal Plumber in the slightest.

Damn. Just how durable was this guy?

Gwen's experiences with telekinetic enemies were hardly the best, so she spitefully focused her attention on Synaptak, peppering him with small blasts of Merchucus Verditis. The simple energy attacks were so easy to cast, she didn't even have to say the incantation, which really saved on time.

Unfortunately, they were also too weak to serve as more than distraction and Gwen was reluctant to make them stronger and waste mana if Synaptak dodged them anyway.

A change of strategy was required.

"Tempestus Incendia!"

A wide plume of flames headed towards the alien squid. Except the fire didn't reach him, because suddenly Ultimos was there, dousing out the flames with his freezing breath.

Then he flew right at her.

"Appendaga Regoria!" Gwen shrieked.

The paralyzing spell froze Ultimos in place mere inches away from her.

Then his eyes glowed.

Living bandages wrapped around her waist and yanked Gwen away before the eye beams could hit her, but it disrupted her focus, breaking apart the spell and releasing Ultimos.

However, before the Plumber could attack, Kevin flew right at him with super-speed and stabbed him in the back with his crystal arm that was shifted into spikes.

It didn't even leave a scratch.

Ultimos twisted around and grabbed his arm in a crushing grip. Cracks spread through the living crystal, but Kevin didn't phase away. Instead he raked the claws of his lower arms over Ultimos' stomach and clamped his fire-engulfed upper left hand over his face.

Ultimos released his crystal arm and simply punched Kevin away. Once again there wasn't a scratch on him.

"Appendaga Regoria!" Gwen yelled again. So far, it was the only thing that seemed to work on the nigh-invulnerable Plumber.

She hoped someone had a better idea for dealing with him.

The battlefield had shifted. Gwen showing herself capable of holding Ultimos in place made her a threat, which meant both Tini and Synaptak were now gunning for her.

Not on his fucking watch.

Kevin tackled Tini, his invisibility allowing him to blindside her, and flung her as far away from the fight as he could.

"I'll deal with her!" he yelled and flew after her.

Hopefully, this would let the others take down Synaptak, so that they could all attack Ultimos together afterwards. He tried to ignore the thought that nothing they had done before had seemed to harm him.

Calling Appendaga Regoria a paralyzing spell was a bit of a misnomer. It didn't so much paralyze its target as it stopped their movements by locking their body inside a shell of energy.

Gwen hadn't cared about the particulars before. She did now.

After all, a true paralyzing spell would've rendered its target completely helpless. This one didn't. Ultimos might not have been able to move, but he could still struggle.

And struggle he did, forcing Gwen to pour more and more energy into the spell, lest he broke it apart from the inside. She had to focus all her attention on containing Ultimos. She couldn't move, couldn't look away, could barely even think.

She might've kept him from rejoining the fight, but she kept herself out too.

Ben backed away from the fight, desperately trying to decide which alien to use. He knew that he had only one shot at this. So what should he focus on?

Four Arms' evil sister and Xylene rip-off were problems, but solvable ones. Ben had no doubt that their team would be able to defeat them. Eventually. As long as Ultimos was taken out of the equation.

But how was he supposed to defeat someone with this level of strength and durability? There was nothing in the Omnitrix that could counter his frankly unfair array of powers.

Except… Ben grinned. Yes, that might work.

Twisting the dial of the Omnitrix, he crept towards the Plumbers' stolen ship.

Compared to Synaptak, who avoided or deflected every attack as easily as if he was reading their minds (who knew, perhaps he was), and nigh-invulnerable Ultimos, Tini seemed like the easiest target.

She was now forcing Kevin to reconsider. Painfully.

His left wing was throbbing in pain, making it hard to fly, his lower right arm couldn't move properly (he hoped it wasn't broken), and his crystalline upper arm was still covered in painful cracks. To even the score, Kevin was forced to rely on his superior speed that he could only use in short bursts and intangibility, but they were still closely matched.

Because unlike him, Tini didn't rely on brute strength alone. She was an experienced fighter and she easily kept Kevin on the defensive through sheer skill. Even invisibility didn't deter her much.

And she was slowly gaining the upper hand.

Kevin could feel himself being pushed back farther and farther, but he couldn't do anything to prevent it. Not until he heard the charging whine of a fusion cannon behind him and Max's voice yelling at him to duck.

He dove away, but so did Tini, and the shot went wide. But the sonic grenade Kai threw at the Plumber met its target.

Kevin turned intangible before the concussive wave of sound could hit him too. Kai lobbed another grenade at Tini, and Max used the opportunity to charge his cannon again.

Tini barely managed to climb back to her feet, when the shot from the fusion cannon sent her flying. She landed on the ground with a pained grunt.

Kevin didn't give her a chance to get up. He rushed towards her with super-speed, jumped as high as he could, and landed on her chest. Her golden armor was still holding, but Kevin could feel something crack under his feet.

Tini made a wet, choking noise. Her entire body convulsed, struggling to draw breath, yet still she reached towards him.

Kevin lashed out with his tail, knocking her hands away, and drove his fist into her face.

In retaliation, Tini managed to grab his ankle. She pulled sharply and Kevin lost his balance. Tapping into his super-speed, he twisted mid-air and drove his forearm into her neck, making her choke again.

Tini punched him in the face, strongly enough to force him back, and struggled to get up.

"Kid, move!" Max yelled, and Kevin rolled away, tasting blood on his tongue.

Another shot from his fusion cannon knocked Tini down. She didn't try to get up again.

Kevin stood up, struggling to catch his breath. "Kai, what are you–"

Kai grinned at him, pale but determined, a blaster in one hand and more sonic grenades in the other, "Sorry. Had to help."

Max pointed his cannon at Tini and jerked his head towards the ship where the battle was still raging, "Go! We'll make sure she stays down."

Gwen was somewhat aware of the battle raging around her, but she couldn't spare enough attention to see what exactly was happening. She had to keep Ultimos trapped and hope the others would deal with Synaptak and keep him from attacking her.

Oh, and find a more permanent way to contain Ultimos, because she couldn't keep this up forever. Appendaga Regoria was eating up her mana reserves much faster than she had expected.

Gwen stubbornly held her ground, refusing to move, refusing to break the spell even when she felt something move behind her. She braced for the attack that didn't come.

Kuphulu slithered into view, his body a mass of bandages rather than anything humanoid, and surged towards Ultimos, starting to carve a complex spell pattern into the ground.

He didn't get the chance to finish the spell. The pale white glow of Synaptak's telekinesis engulfed Kuphulu and send him flying right at Gwen.

Gwen gritted her teeth and focused on her spell, trying to keep it stable.

It worked. The spell didn't break even when Kuphulu knocked Gwen off her feet and landed on top of her like a tattered heap of fabric.

"You're running out," the Thep Khufan hissed and shoved a storage crystal into her hand. "Recharge!"

Gwen didn't know, nor did she care how he could assess her mana level. It didn't matter. What mattered was the fact that she couldn't recharge without losing control of her spell.

"Can't," she groaned, feeling her mana deplete even faster.

Kuphulu didn't need further explanation. He spat out something that sounded like a curse and rushed back towards Ultimos to finish his spell.

Once again Synaptak stopped him, but Kuphulu seemed to be expecting it. As he was lifted into the air, his 'bandages' stretched in all directions, pale shimmering light gathering on their tips.

"Ta'aluq alwib!"

Before the spell could coalesce fully, Synaptak flicked a tentacle, sending an arc of energy in his direction. Several 'bandages' fluttered to the ground, neatly severed, but the spell didn't dissipate. The remaining points of light twisted and stretched, forming a shimmering spiderweb of energy. A net that hurtled towards Synaptak and pinned him to the ground.

Gwen allowed herself a small sigh of relief. Unable to fly, unable to dodge, Synaptak would be an easy target.

At least, that was what she thought, but Synaptak wasn't defeated so easily. He surrounded himself with a forcefield, deflecting first Viktor's electric blast, then the Knights' weapon fire.

Then his entire body started to glow.

Gwen desperately tightened her grip on her spell when Kuphulu wrapped around her, raising a hurried shield against a wave of pure destructive energy Synaptak unleashed.

The shield held. Gwen's spell didn't.

When the energy wave faded, Ultimos was free once again.

But before the Plumber could attack, something moved behind him with a clanking noise of rearranging metal. The Anurian ship was moving, rising, and the circuitry covering its hull glowed Omnitrix-green.

Gwen couldn't help but laugh, "Took you long enough, doofus!"

Ben was stretched thin in incredibly literal way. Never before had he tried to possess a piece of technology this big: even when fighting Xylene's giant robot, he had only tried to control the main processor.

But this time? This time he had swallowed the entire ship.

The magitech this ship was composed of made his insides burn with alien energy, easing his way into control rather than blocking his attempt at possession as he had half-expected. Even then, the strain was almost unbearable.

Ben gritted his nonexistent teeth and kept going.

As Upgrade, he rarely shifted the technology he possessed into something different. He controlled, he repaired, he improved, but he didn't outright change.

He did so now.

The Anurian ship shifted and rearranged. Landing gear became four stocky legs, the wings angled up, and weapon turrets moved over the sides of its hull closer to the pilot's cabin that rose up like the narrow head of a dragon.

Then Ben turned his head towards Ultimos and took aim. The blast his weapons released slammed the annoyingly sturdy Plumber down with enough strength to crack the ground.

Then he turned his attention to Synaptak.

The energy attack Synaptak had unleashed before had flung the others away, but it seemed to have drained his reserves. Ben doubted he would be able to pull off another move like this.

Good.

Ben raised his front paw and brought it down on Synaptak. The alien shielded himself in time, but Ben's sensors showed that it wouldn't be long before the shield fell apart under the pressure.

Then something hit his side strongly enough to make him stagger. Ben twisted his neck and snarled at Ultimos who was hovering in the air right in front of him.

"Stay down!" Ben yelled over the charging whine of his own weapons.

He took aim but the shot went wide when something yanked his head to the side.

Synaptak.

Ben sharply brought his head down, hitting Synaptak with his nose. Another energy shield prevented him from inflicting any damage.

Ben yelped and arched his neck when something painfully hot burned into his wing.

Ultimos' heat vision.

Ben turned towards him and charged his weapons again. But before he could retaliate, Kevin barreled straight into Ultimos, knocking him away.

Knowing that this was only a short reprieve, Ben refocused on Synaptak. He had to take down at least one of them, because fighting on two fronts was more than he could handle.

Of course, Ben wasn't alone either and his allies took the chance to get their bearings and return to the fight.

With Kevin distracting Ultimos, Gwen could spare a few seconds to drain the storage crystal in her hand. The mana filling it felt cold and otherworldly, like a night sky above an alien planet, but Gwen couldn't afford to waste time on discerning its flavor. All that mattered right now was refilling her batteries before she had to use magic again.

Fortunately, the others seemed to be getting the upper hand over Synaptak.

Ben, who was currently possessing an entire ship, crushed down the alien Plumber with all his considerable weight. And Synaptak couldn't do anything to retaliate, having only enough strength left to shield himself.

And that shield was slowly but surely starting to fade.

The moment it did, Ben's front paw crashed into the ground. Synaptak dodged, but he wasn't fast enough to avoid Crüjo, whose howl knocked him right into Viktor's arms. The Transylian caught him in a grip strong enough to crush two of his tentacles to a bloody pulp, and unleashed bolt after bolt of electricity into him. Synaptak screamed, until his electronic voice turned to static and his remaining tentacles went limp.

The ship that was Ben's current body shuddered. He took a step back, "Is he–?"

"Alive," Viktor curtly replied. "Îneacă mintea!"

It sounded like a spell and Synaptak's body glowed yellow-green for a brief moment.

"But he won't wake up any time soon."

Ben straightened up. "Good. Now we gotta beat Ultimos and–"

Something slammed into him so fast, Gwen couldn't even see what it was, and with enough strength to knock Ben right off his feet. Ben crashed on his side, the edge of his wing digging into the ground. He arched his long neck, the weapons on the sides of his head searching for his attacker.

Another blow slammed his head into the ground, breaking one of the turrets.

Ben tried to get back to his feet, but a hit in the back brought him down. His body sprawled limply on the ground and the green circuitry streaked through it began to recede.

His paws refused to move and his back was throbbing in pain. There was a hole torn right through his hull. And the strain of controlling the ship was becoming too much.

Then Ben felt something move inside him.

Something. Someone.

Ultimos was tearing apart his internal walls, heading unerringly towards the reactor inside his belly.

Ben let go.

His liquid metal receded, snapping back like a rubber band, leaving him momentarily lost and confused in the guts of the ship he could no longer control. Ben forced himself to move, slither towards the reactor full of corrodium and merge with it right before Ultimos punched through its side.

The violet light of corrodium radiation washed over them both.

Ultimos didn't visibly react, but Ben could feel it. The radiation burned, as if his entire body was drenched in acid.

The Omnitrix shrieked.

Ben bit back a scream of pain and forced his uncooperative body to stich closed the hole in the reactor before it went into a meltdown. Then he flung himself off it, the corrodium once again fully contained.

The radioactive burn lessened. It didn't stop.

Ultimos smirked, the expression rendered all the more malicious by the violet light radiating from the piece of corrodium he was holding. "I wonder, how much radiation your species can take, shapeshifter?"

The Omnitrix shrieked again, flickering between green and red. Ben didn't want to know what this radiation would do to a human.

Fortunately, he didn't have to.

Zs'Skayr faded into visibility and phased the corrodium right out of Ultimos' hand. Then the seams on his chest split open and he shoved the corrodium right into his ribcage, wrapping his tentacles around it and closing his skin over it.

There were plenty of corrodium deposits in the Anur System, so the species inhabiting it evolved a degree of resistance to its radiation. Ectonurites in particular had an affinity towards it and they were quite a sturdy species in general.

That didn't mean that holding a piece of corrodium inside his chest didn't hurt.

Zs'Skayr shuddered. It burned worse than sunlight, but he only wrapped his tentacles tighter around the radioactive material. Corrodium was lethal to other species but he could handle it. More than handle: he could feed on it, drain its energy to make himself stronger.

Radiation poisoning would catch up to him eventually, but he could survive it. Now he just had to survive Ultimos. (Something he had already failed to do once.)

At least here, in the darkness of the stolen ship, he didn't have to worry about sunlight.

Zs'Skayr flexed his claws, tearing through his sun-skin from the inside. He didn't have the time to retract it properly. His body shifted under the effect of the corrodium: long spikes grew on his shoulders and elbows, tearing up his outer skin even further. He could feel his teeth sharpen and another row of spikes grow down his spine.

Zs'Skayr ripped off the rest of his skin, then turned himself invisible and intangible. He flew towards Ultimos and clawed at his head, but some invisible barrier stopped him from phasing in and rendering the Plumber unconscious.

So even removing his skin and using the corrodium didn't give him enough strength to pierce through whatever defenses Ultimos had?

Ultimos laughed, "Did you forget? Yours isn't the only species in the galaxy that can turn intangible. And do you really think that our scientists haven't studied your DNA and found ways to counter your abilities?"

Zs'Skayr hissed. He hoped they hadn't, but in truth he knew very little of what their science was capable of.

…Science, not magic. The Plumbers had no magic. They wouldn't know how defend themselves against it.

Especially not from the most insidious kind.

Zs'Skayr grinned and lashed out with his tentacles, wrapping them around Ultimos with all his corrodium-enhanced strength and turning them both intangible. Then he phased them through the hull, away from the reactor and the rest of the corrodium, away from the currently human Ben, and towards the rest of his allies.

The setting sun cast too much light outside, forcing Zs'Skayr to stay in the shadows beneath the jutting wing of the ship, but he knew that even the night wouldn't have been enough for what he was planning.

He needed darkness. Absolute darkness.

Fortunately, it didn't have to be natural.

"Make it dark!" he yelled to the mages, not caring which of them would react.

"Tempestus Tenebris!"

"Alzalam Yasqut Ealaa Alard!"

"Evoca Întunericul Și Alungă Soarele!"

Three different spells, three different magics collided together. They twisted and merged, reinforcing each other. The sunlight disappeared, as if swallowed by the depths of a black hole.

The darkness was intoxicating. It soaked into his skin and filled him with power, dousing out even the painful burn of radiation. Inside his chest, right next to the piece of corrodium, his magic core grew ever-stronger.

Ultimos wasn't yet struggling, wasn't trying to break his hold: he was too arrogant, too sure of his power.

Zs'Skayr didn't mind: it made things easier. He stoked the magic flame inside him, fed it with darkness and radiation. Let it grow into an inferno of power.

Blue light shone through the seams of his skin, pouring out between the twists of his tentacles: half magic, half natural power that wanted to break free.

Blue light was everywhere.

Ultimos was looking at it, he had to be. There was nowhere else to look.

Blue light didn't allow him to look anywhere else. It demanded attention and it refused to let go.

Ultimos was starting to struggle.

Blue light seeped into his mind, filling its every corner. It chased his thoughts and swallowed them whole. It dredged up every memory, every emotion he had, and shredded them apart.

Ultimos was screaming.

Blue light burned everything it touched, leaving behind a scorched wasteland etched with nothing but pain and fear.

Ultimos kept screaming.

Blue light wouldn't let him stop.

By the time Kevin dragged himself back to the ship, the fight was already over.

He warily looked at Ultimos. The Plumber was lying on the ground, still without a scratch on him. But he didn't move, didn't talk, only stared silently into the sky.

Kevin didn't know what happened to him, and he wasn't sure he wanted to know. Those screams were horrifying.

"Zs'Skayr says he'll recover. Probably. So I'm keeping an eye on him until Viktor gets a cell ready," Gwen said, noticing his scrutiny. She raised a black storage crystal, "Thanks to this, I actually have some mana left in me."

Kevin nodded. "You okay?"

"Got knocked around for a bit. My back is gonna be one giant bruise, but I'm fine," Gwen replied. She jerked her head towards the ship, "Ben's in there, getting treated for corrodium exposure." Before Kevin could panic, she added, "Kuphulu says it's not at dangerous level – the Omnitrix probably protected him – but he still gotta be decontaminated. Go see them: I'm pretty sure Anurian healing spells should work on you."

Kevin rubbed his aching upper right arm: the crystal was this close to shattering. Not to mention, his left wing could barely move. "Yeah, sounds good." He laughed, "Another battle over. Time to patch ourselves up."

Gwen smiled, "Another battle won."

"I hate radiation and I hate corrodium," Ben grumbled.

He was sitting on a bench in the small medbay, kicking his feet, while Kuphulu cast cleansing spells on him. They felt itchy and annoying.

"No argument from me," Zs'Skayr rasped.

He was coiled into a ball of misery, still missing his outer skin, with tentacles covered in radiation burns, and barely a drop of mana left. Ectonurites were much sturdier than humans (sunlight notwithstanding), but Zs'Skayr got a much, much higher dose of radiation than Ben did. And while it wasn't lethal, it also wasn't pleasant in the slightest.

"Will this ship fly again?" Ben asked.

The reactor hadn't exploded after his rushed patchjob (yet), but the danger was still there.

"Viktor is the expert," Zs'Skayr replied, "but he needs to secure the prisoners first."

Ben nervously rubbed his wrist, "Will you be able to hold them?"

Zs'Skayr nodded, "Once defeated, it is much easier to keep the enemy subdued. Don't worry: their injuries alone will keep them down. Once we return to Anur, they will go straight to prison."

Ben slowly exhaled and tried to smile, "Okay. I guess, that's one problem less for us to deal with."

When Ben was finally released from the medical, the sun was already down and the first stars were dotting the rapidly darkening sky, though the heat was still overbearing.

"I see you're finally free?" Kai asked, leaning against the warm hull of the Anurian ship.

Ben wrinkled his nose, "I hate radiation. You weren't hurt in the fight, were you?"

Kai shook her head, "No, I'm fine. Kevin already beat that woman down and your grandpa told me to stay away from the main fight." She huffed with a self-deprecating smile, "I wouldn't have been much help there anyway."

"Do you have any idea how many people would've just run away?" Ben countered. "But you didn't! You grabbed a weapon and fought back! You kept Tini from returning to the fight, so that Kevin could go back to help us. That's what teamwork is all about!"

"…So the comics were right: superheroes really do make these epic speeches," Kai teased.

Ben blushed and rubbed his neck. It was still weird to hear someone refer to him as a hero, but he was glad to see Kai more at ease.

"I'm sorry you got caught up in this," Ben said more seriously. "I really thought it would be safe."

"I wanted to get involved," Kai replied. "I pretty much blackmailed you into bringing me along the first time. And you did warn me. I thought I was ready for everything…" She sighed heavily, "Turns out, I wasn't."

"But you really did great in the fight!" Ben hurried to reassure.

Kai smiled at him, "Thank you. Really. Despite everything, these last two days were the most amazing thing that's ever happened in my life. I'm glad I could be part of it." She looked up at the distant stars above, "What are you going to do now?"

Ben shrugged, "We gotta stay here until the ship is repaired, but then we'll have to leave. We still have SECT on our tail. But we'll keep in touch! And hey, when we don't have a secret organization hunting us, we can come to visit again!" He paused self-consciously and added, "…That is, if you want to?"

"I'd like that," Kai smiled.

She had a really nice smile and it was easy to smile back.

"Let's hope the next time we meet things would be less crazy."

Kai laughed, "Something tells me, that's just wishful thinking." Before Ben could apologize again, she added, "I don't mind. I know that there are more threats out there. And I want to be ready to face them."

All prisoners had been secured, all injuries had been treated, and Ben's haphazard repairs were still holding. It would take more work to make the ship flight-capable, but the damage wasn't as severe as he expected. With Forever Knights supplying the materials for repairs, Viktor claimed he would be able to fix everything within a day or two.

Under the bright glow of the moon, Ben sprawled on the angular wing of the ship and watched the glimmering stars. The desert was cold at night and Zs'Skayr's intangible presence inside him was even colder, but he didn't mind.

It was strange how relaxing possession felt to him.

'Do I need to force you asleep?' Zs'Skayr asked. 'One would think, after a day like this you would be out in seconds.'

Ben shrugged, 'I think I'm getting used to this.'

'…You shouldn't be used to risking your life. It's not fair for one so young.'

Ben traced the dial of the Omnitrix with his fingertips. 'I didn't really get a choice.' The thought didn't feel bitter. 'But how much choice does anyone really have? We can't choose our parents or siblings. We can't choose where and when we are born… I have no idea what will happen tomorrow.'

'You can choose which road to walk, but you never know what will await you at its end,' Zs'Skayr mused. 'And do you wish to keep walking this road, Ben?'

Ben looked at the stars above and smiled, 'Yeah, I think I do.'

The thought wasn't bitter. It felt like acceptance.

A/N: I'm using Romanian for Transylian magic (because, you know, that's where Transylvania is located) and Arabic for Thep Khufan magic (because good luck finding Ancient Egyptian in Google Translate). Both are probably horrendously incorrect.

Ta'aluq alwib – glittering web.

Îneacă mintea – drown the mind

Alzalam yasqut ealaa alard – darkness falls across the land.

Evoca întunericul și alungă soarele – conjure the darkness and banish the sun.