Notes: Alrighty then, one huge caffeine high later, here it is. I will warn you ahead of time, this is the only battle scene I have written since December of '00. Seriously. So it might come off a little dry. Not a single exclamation point in sight! Have fun.
Xaxres Backiou is Shabranigdo's Priestess (or, if you prefer, the Shabranigdo no Miko). She's also Gaav's lover. She is not a creation of Hajime Kanzaka, and belongs to no-one but herself. Visit her at "http://www.geocities.com/xaxres/".
Something Eternal, Part Two
Lei woke to a soft, throaty chuckle.
He opened his eyes and sat up. He was on the floor of a spacious, marble hall. It glowed, or seemed to glow, with a muted golden light. It shone faintly around the edges of the carpet he sat on.
Lei looked up. At one end of the carpet, a grand staircase led to a pair of doors hanging high in the air.
At the other end, a blonde woman lounged sideways on a large throne. There was a box of (expensive!) chocolates on a small table, too.
Lei stood up and bowed to Her. He'd never seen Her before, of course, but he knew who She was. "L-sama."
The Lord of Nightmares moved Her head slightly, but Her hair hid Her eyes so that Lei couldn't tell if She was looking at him or if She was merely shifting position.
"Lei ,darling," She purred. "So nice to finally meet you in person."
"Oh, the pleasure is mine, surely," Lei responded automatically.
"Come here," She commanded. "Chocolate?"
"Why, thank You."
"Oh," She added as She fed him the chocolate. "Do call me Mother."
Lei was feeling slightly unnerved by now, to put it lightly. But, well, if She wanted to play the game, then of course he would play. Besides, he was accounted an excellent player.
Hopefully, good enough to play with Her.
The chocolate melted on his tongue, deep and rich like the sound of Her voice. "Certainly, Mother dear."
Her omnipresent smile widened a fraction.
"Now," She continued, "about the battle. Sit." She pointed to the floor beside the throne.
Lei sat.
She laughed again, and Her right hand drifted down to toy with Lei's hair. Lei tried not to shiver as long nails played along his neck.
"Watch," She breathed.
A flat section of air shimmered, and an image formed there.
In the sky, the Barrier was a visible force, like a solid heat wave molded to the heavens. Within it, dragons fell bleeding to the ground, crushing elves and humans and mazoku indiscriminately. Near a downed Gold, the standard of Gaav's General dipped and fell to one small, desparate elven company. All over the field, mazoku faltered when they saw it. Rugradia screamed a war-cry and drove sharply forward --
-- to be met by Gaav, in dragon form, and Shabranigdo in Lei's body.
Shabranigdo had not forgotten about channeling his attacks through Gaav. As a horde of mazoku led by Xaxres, Shabranigdo's Priestess, engaged the dragons with Rugradia, a twisting, crackling link formed between Shabranigdo and Gaav, and a toxic-red levinbolt flew at Rugradia.
Might it be added, a very large levinbolt.
Rugradia met it with a thick wall of ice. As soon as the levinbolt dissipated, the ice reformed into darts -- very large darts -- that rushed at Gaav.
Flames and levinbolts and ice arrows and myriad other things flew to and fro, sometimes hitting their targets and sometimes not. Inevitably, they did hit something. More often, large amounts of things.
You know what they say. Friendly fire isn't.
Xaxres screamed.
Gaav couldn't.
The Chaos Dragon's three heads and multiple tentacles thrashed and quaked under the blue lightning that lashed over him.
Then he froze.
And shattered.
Still screaming, Xaxres lashed out blindly with raw Power. Those who still could, fled the area.
And then she stopped, and stared wide-eyed at Shabranigdo. Then she nodded curtly and teleported away.
Rugradia had already struck, encasing Shabranigdo's feet in ice.
But you haven't seen the Dragon Slave until you've seen it done by Shabranigdo himself. Lina Inverse, eat your heart out.
Two dragons interposed themselves between Shabranigido and Rugradia's painfullly thin shield. It helped, a little.
With everything she had left and anything she could reach, Rugradia sealed Shabranigdo withing a block of ice. And then she died.
She didn't cry out, but her dragons did.
And from somewhere beyond the Lord of Nightmares audience chamber, someone else did, too.
"That would be Ceiphied," L-sama told Lei. "I'm afraid he's not going to take this very well."
Lei didn't say anything.
The image stilled, blurred, and flashed quickly through a series of scenes.
Dragons flocking to drive the remaining mazoku from their frozen Lord.
Xaxres, seemingly in control of herself, directing the mazoku retreat.
Gaav's soul chained to a human heart.
Rugradia in human form, naked and unconscious, bound neck to ankle in green silk and dangling upside-down in the middle of absolutely nothing. One hand was free, and clutched a sword tightly.
A globe of light, hidden by a magical labyrinth deep within the Kataart Mountains. Later, it would be known as the Clair Bible.
And not far away, the Lei's frozen body with Shabranigdo inside. One could still see the red eyes, glowing fiercely through the ice.
Lei remembered how frantic Shabranigdo had been to escape hs prison before, and wondered what the Demon Lord was thinking now.
And then he remembered what Shabranigdo had said to him about Elysium, and he looked up at the Lord of Nightmares, intending to ask Her what he was doing here.
"I think that's enough for one day, don't you?" She asked. "Off to bed you go. Shoo."
The image of Shabranigdo winked out and was replaced by a Portal leading to what looked like a very large bed.
"The Unendingly Large Featherbed," She told Lei. She sounded more amused than usual. "Go on."
Lei was not amused, but he bowed extravagantly to Her. "I am yours to command, Mother dear." He kissed Her hand, and as soon as he had stepped through the Portal, it shut behind him and disappeared.