Notes: Please, ignore all the sexual innuendo in this chapter, it really wasn't intentional. -_-;;. Sorry...
- Raya

Something Eternal, Part I

-- Kouma Sensou, Citadel of the Water Dragon King --

In the skies above them and the valley below them, ryuzoku forces struggled vainly against a mazoku army. The Water Dragon King, Seiryu-o Rugradia, fought alongside her people in her dragon form, perhaps to compensate for the loss of a full dragon wing earlier. Or perhaps because now that the Barrier had sealed her off from Ceiphied, there was little else she could do to help. Either way, she was still losing.

Three men stood together on a mountainside, a ways back from the main tide of the battle, watching. And waiting, for Rugradia to weaken. The army was under the competent direction of Gaav's General, who understood his role as a distraction perfectly.

Further down the mountain were guards, just in case. Gaav's trusted retainers (despite what the rest of the world thought, mazoku were very loyal to their masters).

Of course, there were no guards actually with the three watchers. Some things, as the old saying went, couldn't be bought for love or money. After all, this had never been done before, so no one, not even the three watchers, knew for certain what would happen. And almost no one wanted to be the first to find out.

Almost.

One of the three harboured doubts. Not about the outcome, but about the specifics of it. He leaned on his sword and watched the other two as well as the battle, brooding on both. He was Chaos Dragon Gaav, Mazoku Lord under Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo.

Outwardly, the second man presented a calm that on another world might have been called Zen-like. Inwardly, though, he was as tense as a cramped muscle with anticipation. His name was Lei Magnus.

The third and last had no outward features to present, so he relied upon the second as his source of information. This was The Man Himself, Ruby-Eyed Shabranigdo.

Shabranigdo's hunger pulsed through Lei like molten rock, fast and erratic and completely out of time with Lei's own heartbeat. It was hard to think coherently through the maelstrom of the other man's obsession in order to time the summoning right, harder to do so and maintain his tranquil façade...

He gave it up. No point in wasting energy. "You watch," he told Gaav. "Tell me when."

Gaav nodded curtly, and Lei closed his eyes. Thank all the gods that they had managed to erect the Barrier without mishap, and never mind that the gods were the last people he should be thanking. Habits of speech died hard, he had noticed. Thank L-sama, then, that the gods hadn't been able to stop them.

::How soon now?:: came Shabranigdo's voice in Lei's mind, sharp with eagerness and pent-up energy. The Demon King paced his confines impatiently -- more than impatiently, deeper than impatiently. Hunger, pure overwhelming lust flowed unchecked down the link between him and Lei.

::Soon enough,:: Lei replied. ::You've been waiting five thousand years, a few hours more won't hurt.::

::I want out,:: Shabranigdo insisted, ::and I want out now! Don't worry about Rugradia, the bitch doesn't stand a chance, especially without her precious Ceiphied. I've been trapped for aeons in this Chaos-fucked place, and she helped put me there. Let me out, and all those fucking ryuzoku bastards are dead.::

Lei wondered, sometimes, about whether Shabranigdo wanted "out", as he put it, in order to continue with the slaughter he was Created for, or in order to extract revenge on Ceiphied through the ryuzoku for putting the world he ruled beyond his reach. Or whether he was past all that, and wanted only to escape his prison.

::It's only until we're certain that Rugradia will fall,:: Lei placated him automatically. Only a formality, really, it wasn't as if Shabranigdo ever listened. ::Remember to channel through Gaav, that'll magnify the power.::

::I don't care, I'll scale her with my teeth if I have to, I'll gouge out her eyes with her own claws and eat them - no, feed them to one of her precious ryuzoku, she's dead as soon as I join that battle, I promise it, just GET ME OUT!::

Gaav shook Lei's shoulder roughly. Lei opened his eyes. "She's startin' to slow down," Gaav informed him, gesturing with a jerk of the chin. "As I understand it, summoning the Lord will take some time, so maybe you'd better get started, milord."

"Thank you, Gaav." Lei laid down his ruby-topped staff - it would be of no use to him, it was meant to channel to and from the outside world. This was purely internal. Then he keyed in tiny but effective spells to shut down his senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste, feeling -- all gone. Other men might require complicated rituals, elaborate pentagrams and the like... But he was Lei Magnus, first Bearer of Shabranigdo, called the Greatest Philosopher, and for this all he needed was himself and Shabranigdo.

The Demon King remained silent, though at another time might have made some derogatory comment about Lei's ego. Not that it would have made a difference: his tension was so strong it was like a scream, like a screech of claws on stone.

Lei found the bond between himself and Shabranigdo, and, as always, marvelled. For it was made of deep, throbbing white light, forged of Ceiphied's power and untainted still, in defiance of all the dark power that had coursed through it. Every time, Lei was amazed at it's mere presence. Surely, there was nothing more unsuited for this place than that?

He reached through it to Shabranigdo's power, used that power to weave his body and his mind and the bright pulsing link even more tightly together, to form of them a living conduit for Shabranigdo to step through into this world.

Dark, crackling black energy strained against to brilliance of the link, barring all passage.

And, for one crucial moment, cutting Shabranigdo off from Lei. In that moment, he stood alone, devoid of the presence that had shared his mind for so long. He felt something of his being drawn into the bridge then, something indefinable and infinitely personal

-- something essential --

being sucked into the midst of the twisting, snapping black-and-white, a mirror of the battle outside, but where that something touched it turned the conflict golden and liquidy-smooth...

And he was being pulled along with it, and then at long last he was afraid, he who had come so far down this path without faltering because he'd thought, he'd believed he could handle anything, but no, the gold and black and white terrified him with the enormity of what it represented, and he struggled against it's pull like a small child will rebel against their parents while they are growing up.

But then it was all golden, slippery-silky-slick all the way through, and he could feel Shabranigdo again at the other end.

::You have to go through first,:: the Demon King told him, ::before I can. It won't be so bad for you,:: he continued, voice gently insistent. ::You'll die, unlike me, you'll go to Elysium, and when you want out you'll be reborn. You won't be trapped forever, not like me. Come on, we don't have much time left. If we fail here, there'll never be another chance. Not for you. Come on.::

Shabranigdo's hunger, that burning need to getoutnow! was still there behind the coaxing, soothing tone, just temporarily held in check for the sake of getting Lei past his fear so that Shabranigdo could get out. And maybe... to say thank you?

With anyone else, Lei might have said yes to that last.

But further than that -- maybe even beyond Shabranigdo -- there was something... welcoming...

Lei relaxed and let himself be pulled through.

next part * splattered ink * e-mail Raya (wannabe_elf@hotmail.com)