Obsidian Fire

Part 10

By Mieren

Mieren descended abruptly, rotating her wings wearily as she plunked down roughly into the thick mud below.  She growled to herself irately.  She had no idea that the area would be devastated like this when she had cast the Exodus spell so long ago.  She idly wondered what the Dynasty would be like in a thousand years with similar energies still soaking the area.  Shrugging, she peered around at the surrounding areas, grumbling to herself.  In the downpour she had lost ground as she tried to stay away from the waters.  Spitting out a curse she was sure would give Sehkmet a heart attack, she started forward on the slimy trail to follow where she was sure the other group would be if they survived.  She quickened her pace when a howl rang through the still air.

*     *     *

Ryo looked around the group as they ran lightly down the never-ending trails through the trees, gradually gaining altitude as they wove through the gradually ascending paths.  Cale had avoided speaking to them for the first hour, grumbling under his breath continuously.  After some time, he had fallen in beside Ryo, occasionally glancing over at him as though he wanted to ask something but didn't know how to phrase it.  For the most part, he only studied his wings and the dark bluish fur covering him in strange strips and swirling patterns with a disgusted expression. Ryo did his best not to laugh aloud at the mortification painting the older man's face.

Kento still had to mostly support Cye, the youngest Ronin still having problems controlling his legs despite his best efforts to change back.  Neris and Siellon hovered by them, never getting more than a few feet from the two.  Surprisingly, Rowen trailed the small cluster too, occasionally looking up from his careful study of the trails.

Dais and Sehkmet were walking by themselves, chatting softly as they ran.  A mock fight would break out occasionally between the two as they tested their own strengths and each other's weaknesses.  They never separated until one cried out for mercy, which rarely happened, or until someone broke up the small war.

Kayura had retreated to the rear of the group, sulking angrily and occasionally throwing something at the two elves or Dais.  Sage was walking beside her in his centaur form, still trying to show her how to change back.  He had tried pacing her normally for awhile, but she had quickly grown irritated and chased him off, only grudgingly accepting his presence when he was in the same form as she was.  So far, she had only learned a variety of new phrases, some of which had Sehkmet and Dais howling with laughter and rolling on the ground.

A blood-chilling howl rang through the trees, answering cries answering from every direction.  Without hesitating, Ryo leapt into the trees, reaching his wolf-like form before he had even completed spinning on the balls of his feet to leave.  Kento immediately followed suit, unloading Cye into the arms of the elves before vanishing into the woods.

Another wolf cry echoed through the cool air, much closer this time.  Siellon and Neris began looking around nervously, unloading Cye on Rowen when the older boy held out his arms amiably.  Cye growled something under his breath and peered around, frantically trying to get his legs to work and failing miserably.  He sighed loudly and motioned for Rowen to put him on the ground.

Something passed by just in the shadows, the sleek form undistinguishable in the darkness even to the sharp eyes staring directly at it.

"What the hell was that?" Sehkmet demanded, holding his twin swords fiercely and standing back to back with Dais, who was clutching six eighteen-inch blades.

"We need a better position," Sage called out softly, eyes shifting to an incredible gold as he peered around uncertainly.  Without thinking, he snagged Cye and Rowen in his arms and led the group to a wider section of trail just ahead, setting his passengers down and ringing the Warlords around them quickly.  The next howl to ring out was immediately followed by an earth-shaking roar.  Sage positioned himself between whatever was coming and the group clustered on the trail.

"Stay in a ring so they can't get behind you," he called to the others, hefting his no-dachi meaningfully.

"What about you?" Kayura asked slowly.

"I'm fine.  Don't worry about me, just watch whatever's coming."

Kayura made a face but nodded reluctantly.  Sehkmet smiled in her direction, vastly amused, handing off his backpack to Cye, who immediately began rooting around for the poisonous bombs the green-haired idiot had made.  He handed a few to Rowen when the others weren't looking.

The area around them began to darken suddenly even to their heat sensitive eyes, causing Cale to scowl and spit out a curse that was far from appropriate even in the current circumstances.  The false shadows began to vanish as he screwed up his face in concentration, dispelling the work of another master of darkness.  After one last fluctuation in the light, whoever was battling with Cale gave up, light returning in full force as Sage began to work with the starlight.

"Thanks," Dais murmured, raising his head slightly.

Sage didn't respond.  He only peered around warily, eyes tight with strain and worry when he didn't see Kento or Ryo.

"Whatever's out there is big," he hissed, taking a step back hesitantly.  "Ryo and Kento need to be here.  So do the elves."

"Here," Neris called softly, waving one hand from the concealing branches of a nearby tree.  An ebony hand appeared a few trees away.  Sage scowled darkly.

"That leaves two missing."

"Wolf-friend above," Neris supplied quietly, pointing to the dark silhouette soaring in the night skies.  The only thing that Sage could make out was the basic shape of whatever was up there by watching the stars wink in and out of existence.

"I'll follow Ryo," Cale said firmly, eyeing his wings uncertainly and glaring in the direction he had last seen the dark elf waving from.

"You'll stay here," Sage snapped, eyes flashing furiously.  "If they tinker with the light again, you'll have to do something about it."  Cale made a face but nodded reluctantly, reclaiming his place beside Kayura.

"That leaves Kento," Sehkmet grumbled, squinting into the darkness of the early night with his greenish yellow eyes.  An explosion sounded in the distance.  Several howls and a large feline's roar were followed by maniacal laughter coming from the direction of the blast.

"Location confirmed," Dais called out sarcastically, grinning unconcernedly.

"Incoming!" Ryo snapped, folding his wings suddenly to land beside Sage.  He didn't hesitate before unsheathing the twin katanas strapped on his back between his huge leathery wings.

No one had time to ask what he meant before a single wolf stepped casually out of the trees, deep yellow eyes shining brightly in the starlight.  Sage gasped and stepped back, craning his head slightly to get a better look at the huge canine whose shoulder was well above his reach.  He leveled his no-dachi uncertainly.

Interlopers in the Mountains of Omnipotence, the thought rang through the heads of the gathered Ronins and Warlords.  And one of them a master of darkness.  The huge maw opened, lips curling back in the eerie semblance of a malicious grin, bloody foam flecking the enormous muzzle.

A second wolf walked in to stand beside the original female, blood running heavily from his muzzle down his neck and front legs.  The female turned to him slowly.

Did you kill the other one?

Yes.  The great cat is no more.

Unseen by the others, Cye pushed himself to his feet, muscles rippling through his legs and back as he pushed past the stunned Warlords to approach the wolves.

"Where is he?" he snapped, eyes flashing from ruby to a darker crimson.

I know not where the souls of the deceased pass to, the pale gray female snarled.  The darker brown male shifted to stand beside her, licking the blood from his teeth almost contemptuously.

May I have this one?

An unseen signal passed between them, causing the brown male to charge.  Cye stood his ground, holding up his hand to keep the others from getting in his way.  The look in his eyes made Ryo's blood run cold and he immediately leapt back, pulling the others with him before the wolf had finished his first stride.

Cye waited until the last instant before lobbing something in an underhanded throw that splattered on the forehead of the charging male.  He threw his hands up in front of him calmly, almost insolently, and formed a thin dome of water from the moisture in the air.  The massive wolf crashed into it with a pained howl, scrubbing his head against the ground as heavy black smoke began rising from his thick fur.  He only struggled for a moment before going limp on the ground.  The gray female only watched.

Impressive boy, to be able to kill a cub, she sneered, looking to the comparatively small corpse on the ground a few strides from her.  As she finished the last word, she leapt forward furiously.

Cye lobbed a few of the small venomous bombs at her, blanching when the venom beaded and slid out of her fur, doing no damage.  His dome of water melted before his disbelieving eyes.  He bunched his legs up beneath him, leaping into the air just before the wicked teeth in a jaw bigger than he was reached him.  He surprised even himself when he more than cleared the charging wolf, rising more than forty feet into the air and clearing the tops of some of the smaller trees.

Realizing that he was about to become a chew-toy when his ascent slowed, he arched his back and reached out wildly, grappling for something, anything, to cling to.  Several arrows sunk into the thick fur of the monstrous wolf below him, one even drawing blood.  Sage suddenly became air-born, flying past him in his early descent when the female wolf swatted him out of her way for coming near her with a sword.

Ryo could only watch in horror from where he laid sprawled crippled on the ground as Sage was roughly thrown through the air in the follow-through to the swing that had hit him.  A single swat from a heavily muscled leg almost as big around as he was sent them both flying, but he had landed against a tree after crashing through the Warlords instead of being thrown upwards.  The wolf raised her head leisurely, lips curling back from her teeth in anticipation as Cye neared her, arms flailing and crimson eyes wide.  He cried out pitifully as the monstrous jaws snapped him out of the air, horrifying crunching noises echoing through the tiny clearing.

The massive female cried out sharply and lurched back frantically as an arrow plunged into one golden eye.  A mass of bloody meat fell from her teeth as she clawed at her face with one monstrous paw.

Dropping the bow he had appropriated from the startled dark elf, Rowen strode forward angrily, not even looking at Cye's mangled form as he passed.  Sage fell in directly behind him, sprinting brokenly on three legs, the fourth hanging limply at an appalling angle.  He dropped to the ground beside what was left of his friend.

Cye lurched to his feet before Sage even had a chance to check him, spitting out a mouthful of blood and falling in beside Rowen.

Forgetting about the pain stinging in her left eye, the wolf bitch took a swing at Rowen, who casually threw up one arm to block the swing.  The paw bounced off his arm harmlessly, and continued in Cye's direction.  Cye stood perfectly still as the paw crashed into him, stopping abruptly in its path as it contacted him.

"Neris.  Siellon," Cye snapped, not looking away from his opponent.  "Take the master of venom with you.  Find and heal the earth master."

The two elves nodded and vanished into the night.  Rowen only looked at him strangely for a moment before turning to regard the wolf once more.

Little boys, she sneered.  You invite death by nearing me.

"Then why do you quiver in pain?"

Such things you say elf, considering that you must be dying.

"My friend is stronger than you think," Rowen hissed.  "Stronger than myself, I believe.  And you know what I am."

Yes, dark one.  I know your kind.

Cye's eyes rippled from a brilliant ruby to a swirling teal, glowing softly in the night as he regarded the wolf furiously.  He started forward slowly, the blue fires residing in his eyes flaring brighter, whites and pupils vanishing in the swirling depths.  Rowen only looked at him for a moment before retreating to the others, tossing Sage across his shoulders as he passed, which was a rather awkward stunt considering what form the blond was in at the moment.

Ryo watched with disbelieving eyes as the blood covering Cye dried and flaked off, falling to the ground as he strode forward purposely.  The blue fires in the boy's eyes flared brighter, bathing the surrounding area in a soft teal light.  The female growled at him threateningly, but took a step back all the same, her remaining golden eye growing wide.  A heavy spike appeared on the side of each of Cye's forearms, extending slowly until it looked as though he held a longish spear in each hand.  Lips peeling away from wicked fangs, Cye leapt forward, planting the twin spikes deep in the massive chest of the gray wolf.  She shuddered and went limp, pulling free of the spikes impaling her as she slid bonelessly to the ground.  Cye only looked at her blankly before moving back to the others.

"How did you do that?" Sage demanded, pulling Cye free of the ground as he approached.  Cye blinked at him with his strangely luminescent eyes before freeing himself easily from his friend's iron grip and looking to the others.

"I figured out the shapeshifting thing," he said slowly, willing the blue light in his eyes to die.  He had already rid himself of his fangs and the spikes on his arms.  Lips twisting thoughtfully, he casually regained the height and muscle mass he had lost when his ancestor accidentally turned him into an elf.  He fixed his ears almost as an afterthought.

"That is NOT fair," Kayura grumped, looking herself over again.

"You'll figure it out soon," Sage murmured, limping over towards her.  A pale green glow surrounded his hands as he healed her bruises and moved on to the next person.  Cye watched him curiously for a moment before smirking and placing one hand on the hind leg that Sage was still dragging.  Sage flinched but didn't say anything or try to move away.

Silvery turquoise flames licked Cye's hands gently as he worked.  After a few seconds, Sage's leg straightened abruptly with a pop, the torn muscles restructuring before his disbelieving eyes.  He looked to the younger boy with an incredulous expression painting his face.

"When did you learn to do that?"

"Just now," Cye murmured, spinning to vanish into the trees before anyone could say a word.

*     *     *

Mieren skidded to a halt in a small clearing, panting raggedly as she peered around wildly with crimson eyes.  Something had protected this area from the flooding rains, the ground decorated with hoof marks being only slightly damp.  Her lips peeled away from her teeth in a furious snarl.  A water master had been here.

"Damn them!" she shrieked, eyes blazing.  "I told them they were not to come!"

Her fury shifted to mortification instantly.  She looked to the skies with eyes burning from unshed tears.  Unbidden, she repeated the last lines of the warning she had left with the world ages ago in a breathless whisper.

"Restored to health, new life shall rise, followed by a swift demise."

Howling into the rising winds, Mieren darted forward with a newfound desperation tearing at her soul.  The others should not have come, especially here.  In a way, it infuriated her that they could learn the location of the dark elves' spell sooner than she could.  She screamed out in frustration and fury as she surged forward to find the others, praying to the light that she would not be too late.  She knew what awaited them on the mountaintop.

*     *     *

Mia sighed for the third time in so many minutes, glaring at White Blaze furiously from atop her precarious perch.

Roars had resounded throughout the house for hours before White Blaze had calmly pushed open the door to the basement, indicating that she was to follow him.  She had nearly had a seizure when a leopard had butted up against her legs demandingly, looking up at her with shimmering golden brown eyes.

It had taken some time to calm her down enough to realize that the enormous spotted feline wasn't going to hurt her, and even longer to convince her to get on its broad shoulders.  She glared at the spotted hide beneath her and swore under her breath.  The thing was as large as White Blaze.

Shifting uncomfortably from atop the leopard, jaguar, or whatever the thing was, she squinted ahead into the darkness and resumed grumbling.  She had been riding the great cat for hours and they were still moving further into the woods.

The leopard came to a halt suddenly.  Mia would have been unseated had she not had a death-grip on the enormous animal beneath her.  As it was, she slid along its back unsteadily, her final seat falling between the well-muscled shoulder blades of the feline.

The great leopard growled softly and looked at Mia with luminescent amber eyes, lowering itself slightly so that its passenger could get off a little easier.  Stretching stiffly, Mia peered around in the blackness, sighing noisily when a gentle mouth closed around her wrist and tugged her forward gently.  She gasped and dropped to her knees when the leopard released her and nudged a mass of bloody rags that glimmered weakly in the moonlight.

Reaching out hesitantly, afraid of what she would find, Mia twitched aside the edges of the blood-caked rags and peeked at the messy contents within.  Her breath froze in her throat when she saw the bloodstained mass in the center of the heap, distinctive sapphire hair shining in the dim light.  She placed her trembling hands on the cool flesh, gasping and jerking back when pale silvery blue eyes opened tiredly to peer back at her.

"My God," Mia whispered, pulling the infant to her chest when he cooed insistently, holding up his arms towards her.  She didn't hesitate before climbing onto White Blaze with then baby snuggling up to her lovingly.  The white tiger beneath her obediently started back towards her mansion in a smooth gallop, something akin to a smile appearing on his face as he ran.

*     *     *

Ryo staggered to a halt with wide eyes, not even flinching when Cale ran into him from behind.  The others filtered into the small thicket, similarly freezing at the sight before them.

Enormous paw prints circled the area where a battle had obviously taken place, blood splattering the grass and trees heavily, unidentifiable pieces of flesh littering the ground.  In the center of the carnage was the still form, or most of it, of a massive cat drenched in its own blood.

"Kento," Ryo choked out, eyes misting as he staggered forward.

"Gruesome, I know," a soft voice whispered at his shoulder.  Ryo turned numbly to see Sehkmet and the two elves looking at the area with pale faces and tight features.  He was shocked to see Cye regarding the carnage disgustedly before stalking off further into the trees.  He stopped just before he passed out of their view.

"Kento!" he shrieked, cocking his head as he listened to the echoes carefully.

Sage flinched and moved forward, knowing what it was like to lose a best friend, the pain and the helplessness that inevitably followed.  He reached out to place one hand on the younger boy's shoulder, thinking he had completely snapped from the loss of his first and best friend.

"Cye," he began raggedly, pausing when Cye gave him a look that could have cut through steel before turning to peer into the trees once more.  Cye grinned suddenly and started through the trees in a swift run that the others were hard pressed to keep up with.  Sehkmet began cursing steadily under his breath when he was hit in the face with a branch, glaring around in the darkness angrily for any other obstacles.

Cye swung into one of the larger trees, vanishing completely in the thick branches.  Ryo sighed and prepared to jump into the tree when Cye dropped out of the upper branches with a shadowed form across his shoulders.  Grinning delightedly, he deposited the bloody mass at Sage's feet.

"We'll have to work together on this one," he murmured, eyes flashing from ruby to turquoise as he looked up at Sage expectantly.  Sage and the others could only gape.  Breaking free of his shock, he dropped down beside the younger boy and healed the mass of lacerations and broken bones as quickly as he was able.

Ryo dropped to the ground numbly when Cye moved back.  The younger boy threw a furious glare at Sehkmet and the two elves.

"I told you to find Kento!  You couldn't even do that?" he hissed, looking back towards the quivering form on the ground just in front of Sage.

"I thought that that mess back there…" Sehkmet stammered.

Cye made a face.  "The mess back there was a lioness.  Are you blind?"

"How did you know he was here?" Kayura asked incredulously.

"I called his name and waited for him to respond."

"You could hear him?" Dais wailed, his one eye bulging.  Cye shrugged.

Golden eyes turned to them weakly.  "I don't go down that easily," Kento murmured, slumping back to the ground wearily.  He grinned ruefully.  "You'd probably like to know what happened.  Yes?"

"Yes!" Ryo snapped, jumping to his feet.  Kento snickered.

"I ran into a pack of around twenty wolves and they were not happy to see me.  After we pounded on each other for awhile, some great cats appeared.  Lots of them.  They were losing quickly, being much smaller than the wolves.  You wouldn't believe how big those things were.  Especially that gray female that led them."

"Oh we'd believe," Sehkmet muttered sarcastically.  "After all, Cye killed that female you just mentioned."

"Really?" Kento hooted, looking up weakly.  "That's pretty neat.  The only reason the great cats survived at all was that they were cubs and their mother arrived.  She was HUGE!!!  I only came out in one piece because she thought that I was one of hers.  Didn't have time to look at me closely and verify that I wasn't.  Anyway, the gray wolf sent her pack to kill the huge black panther and she started chasing down the cubs.  Last I saw, she was heading kinda in your direction after some lion cub that escaped her initial rampage.  Guess you already figured out that part."

"No kidding," Cale muttered.

"Heh.  The wolves managed to kill the panther, but most of them died in doing so.  Only one was still up and running, so he left to find the gray female.  I ended up fighting the others that were still kinda moving.  I didn't do so good, so I hid when I was too tired to fight," Kento admitted sheepishly.  He looked up suddenly with a wide grin.  "Hey!  Cye!  You changed back!"

Cye opened his mouth to respond when leaves began raining down on them from the surrounding trees, blanketing the forest floor in seconds.  He paled instantly.

"The next cycle has started!" he cried out, tossing Kento on Sage's back and darting towards the top of the mountain.  The Ronins and Warlords paled at the fear in his voice, sprinting down the trail after him frantically.  "Damn it!  This one is the worst of the set!  Run!"

No one questioned him, sprinting down the trails at full tilt, their lungs burning as they pulled in ragged breaths as they charged blindly up the final trail.  They entered a clearing suddenly upon reaching the peak of the mountain, a field of black crystals meeting their disbelieving eyes.  Tendrils of molten flames moved swiftly through the black fields, the fires burning a deep garnet streaked with black.  At the center of the huge clearing was something akin to a cross surrounded by nine perfect obsidian spheres.  An armored figure hung limply from the cross.  Dried blood ran down the arms and chest of the figure, making it clear to the Ronins and Warlords that someone was in the armor.

The Warlords were the first to recognize the shape of the blackish armor, the long reddish hair spilling across the breastplate stirring slightly in the gentle breeze.  Cale cried out softly and increased his pace, Sage shooting by him in an instant as he lengthened his strides.

"Anubis!" Cale cried out desperately, swinging onto Sage's back as he passed.

Upon hearing his name, Anubis raised his head weakly, blood streaming down his arms as his movements broke the tender scabs covering his wounds.  He looked at the approaching figures with dull eyes before his head slumped to his chest again.  Sage lost his footing as every muscle in his body suddenly screamed in agony, sending him crashing to the crystal ground below.  Black flames began to shoot around the crystal fields wildly as the nine perfect crystal spheres around the massive cross cracked.

*     *     *

Rowen darted forward with the others as they started across the crystal fields, straining to gather more speed.  He skidded to a halt when Sage crashed to the ground just ahead of him, grunting in a blend of irritation and pain.  Rowen gasped and took a step back as Sage struggled to his feet, black flames rising out of the grounds to cover the shimmering fields.  The cracking of the nine spheres didn't even register in his mind as he watched his three friends in front of him in horror.

Sage looked around in a state of numb confusion and panic.  He looked back at Rowen with haunted eyes as his hair and thick fur slowly grayed before going completely white.  His skin began to grow leathery as wrinkles accumulated at an alarming speed.  He dropped his head slowly to look at his withering arms, his muscles dissipating rapidly under some unseen force to leave his skin hanging limply from sharply protruding bones.  He sagged slightly, becoming distinctly swayback before slumping to the cool translucent crystals below.

Rowen tore his gaze from his best friend to look to where Kento had landed after Sage had tripped so abruptly.  The sight before his sapphire eyes causing him to whimper and step back shakily.  Kento lay trembling on the ground in his human form, thinning gray hair falling limply around a heavily aged face.  He lurched strangely as he tried to rise, his devastated muscles refusing to respond.

Cale still pushed himself forwards towards Anubis, his once blue hair now streaked with white as he pushed himself forward.  Although he wasn't aging as quickly as the others, he looked to have put on fifty years in the last few seconds.  Crying out softly, he collapsed to the ground, still clawing his way forward as he struggled to reach his friend.

Reluctantly, Rowen turned to the others.  Ryo was already sprawled across the ground, snowy fur now replacing the raven black as he lay unmoving on the ground, panting desperately for breath past a wizened muzzle.  His once strong wings lay shriveled and useless beside him as his eyes slowly glazed and his breathing grew shallow at an alarming pace.

The Warlords were doing no better than Cale had, all of them sprawled on the ground, Kayura crying softly as she tried to push herself to her feet weakly.  Neither Sehkmet nor Dais made any move to get up.

The two elves staggered forward blindly, their molten gazes slowly dimming as they moved on.  Neris's pale blue hair had lightened to the purest white, and he was now sporting heavy wrinkles on his once flawless face.  Siellon was doing much worse, apparently having been quite a bit older than the light elf to begin with.  His flesh was already hanging slack from his slight frame as he pressed on, grinding his teeth and refusing to give in to the final cycle.

Rowen felt his heart twist at Cye's pained expression.  He was sporting several white streaks in his russet hair, deep wrinkles appearing quickly around his eyes and mouth.  He already looked to be in his sixties, which was better than any of the others were doing.  Eyes blazing crimson, he began a mad sprint towards the cross and cracking onyx spheres.  He collapsed just before he passed Rowen, rolling brokenly across the cool crystal ground, crying out softly when he was unable to regain his feet.

"Rowen," he whimpered, struggling to keep his vision clear without success.

"Oh God, Cye.  What do I do?"

Cye only looked up with haunted eyes and whimpered again.  "Free the world to the light."

Rowen shook his head slowly, eyes clouding with tears as he looked to his aging friends.  Only his immortality protected him now.  He could survive this, but his friends could not.  "I can't," he breathed, tears sliding down his cheeks.

Cye forced his eyes open and scowled at him for an instant.  "Then you want us to die?" he snarled, forcing himself to his feet painfully.  He managed to take another three steps before collapsing.  He didn't get up again.

Fighting back the tears building in his eyes, Rowen levered himself to his feet numbly, looking one last time at the broken forms of his friends lying unmoving across the onyx fields.  His tears were quickly replaced with a snarl.

Howling into the rising winds, Rowen gathered the flames licking the crystal fields, closing his eyes painfully as the powers converged around him.  In the furthest reaches of his mind, he heard the shattering of the black spheres ahead and recognized the danger that approached him.  He was dimly aware that he was gaining height and muscle mass as his conscious mind slipped just beyond his grasp, struggling to remember above all else that he had to break the spell causing all of this.  Burning tears slipped from his eyes as all conscious thought fled.

*     *     *

"Kento!"

Mieren froze as the single cry rose into the stilling airs.  Her eyes narrowed with strain as she pushed herself to new extremes as she battled futilely for speed.  She swore loudly and wished once again that it were possible to teleport in this area.  She had to hurry.  They were nearing the mountain's peak and the last cycle would begin any minute.  Leaves began to rain from the trees in virtual waves, causing her to cry out from the pure futility of her running.  She whimpered again as she realized she couldn't reach them in time, and even if she did, there was nothing she could do.

*     *     *

Rowen looked around the crystal fields blankly, his battered mind not recognizing the crippled shapes littering the grounds.  He knew vaguely that there was something that he was supposed to do, but could not remember in the slightest.  His gaze inevitably kept leading him to the shriveled centaur quivering brokenly on the smooth ground not far from him.  Unable to remember what he was supposed to do, he prodded the decrepit form with one toe, his face twisting into a sneer when the thing had the audacity to look up at him and reach out with one hand as if to touch him.  Faded blue eyes locked with his own.

"Rowen."  The whisper barely reached his ears, but he stepped back uncertainly.  Something clicked in the furthest reaches of his mind.

A spell.  He had to destroy a spell.  He looked around blankly to the surrounding area, the cross holding a dying man and the crumbling spheres.  He sent out a shock wave of raw energy, staggering when the powers were magnified and shot back at him.  Rowen slipped to his knees and lashed out again stubbornly.  Something in the distance snapped and the pain shredding the inside of his head abated.

Rowen looked around with eyes watering in agony from the original backlash of energy.  Nine piles of rubble lay where the onyx spheres had stood.  In the center of each pile of shattered obsidian swirled an essence of living blackness that slowly struggled to take shape, all of them humanoid in form.  Horns and spikes deformed some of the shapes and all of them sported weapons of some sort.  Behind them, the man hanging from the cross began to buck and scream out obscenities wildly.  The red-haired man saw him and froze in utter shock.  He began calling out something but was silenced as the mouthpiece of his armor snapped into place with more force than was strictly necessary.

Something slammed into his left arm, causing him to gasp in pain and stagger back in shock.  He looked down numbly at the tarnished golden arrow protruding from his forearm in mortified recognition.  It was one of his own.  He raised his obsidian streaked red eyes to the offending attacker.  He had to lurch to the side frantically as another arrow flew in his direction with appalling accuracy.

The dingy Armor of Strata unleashed a hail of arrows in his direction, all of which he evaded easily now that he was watching.  His mind reeled into clearness for a moment from the shock of being attacked by his own armor.  He blinked in confusion.  His mind was supposed to be clouded by whatever he was doing, but it was not.  He clenched his teeth stubbornly.  Now that his mind was clear again, he intended to keep it that way.  He lashed out with a spell of his own and tied it off as he dodged another arrow, lips twisting into a wry grin as he could feel the current cycle screaming in fury now that it was cut off from the mountaintop.

His armor leapt forward and took a swing at him with the rusty golden bow, missing him horribly when he calmly sidestepped the blow.  He immediately looked to the nine stone spheres with a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

The closest of the piles of rubble no longer had the black essence swirling above it as did the other eight.  A sickly red color pulsed weakly from within one of the masses that was still taking shape.  The others each contained their own mass of pure fires within the murky depths.  His seeking eyes immediately picked out the emerald lights trapped within the molten darkness.

Scowling furiously, he dove past his armor to slash at the blackness containing the green fires.  Somewhere behind him, Sage howled in agony.  Rowen froze.  His lack of motion nearly turned out to be a fatal mistake, an arrow grazing his cheek immediately.  He hissed angrily and spun to face the Armor of Strata, refusing to look towards his friends, a few of which were struggling to regain their feet.

Snagging the next arrow out of the air as it neared him, Rowen whipped his arm forward and planted the tarnished arrow into the breastplate of his armor.  He screamed in agony as a ripping sensation exploded behind his ribs, blood flowing freely down his chest from a puncturing wound through his right lung.  He raised watering eyes to the arrow protruding from his armor that matched the location of the hole in his lung.

He backpedaled as the armor neared him, unsure of how he was going to fight back without killing himself.  His indecision earned him another hole in his shoulder as a single katana slid through his flesh.  He spun and lashed out instinctively, his hands tearing through the Armor of Wildfire as though it were tissue paper.  Ryo screamed.

Rowen flinched at the sound of his friend's cry, glancing over towards the shattered spheres fearfully.  The other armors were emerging, the once bright colors clouded, tainted.  The final armor to emerge was Kayura's, the bronze light within the black flames losing the battle for dominance and dying out as surely as the others had.  He sprinted around the armors to Anubis's side, watching the armors fearfully.

"How do I break the spell?" he cried out, snagging another arrow out of the air and tossing it to the ground before it hit the battered form in front of him.  Pained eyes slowly raised to regard him, blinking in hopelessness.  Rowen ground his teeth and reached out to the mouthpiece, trying to move it back with brute force.  Anubis whimpered and tried to pull away, his eyes flooding with tears.  Undaunted, Rowen hissed in vexation and ripped the faceplate free of the armor, tossing it to the ground.

Anubis wheezed painfully past a shattered jaw, looking up at him with clouded eyes.  His demanding grunt warned Rowen at the last second to spin before he was cleaved in half by a wicked no-dachi.  Retreating from the Armor of Halo, he shrieked as a slender venom-laced sword slid through his abdomen from behind.  Lurching forward off of the sword only earned him a series of holes in his chest from a carefully placed yari.  He wailed and moved away from the armors by simply leaping over them and darting down the hill faster than they could follow.  Vampire or not, injuries like this could still kill him if he accumulated enough of them.

Arrows followed his retreat, making him lunge side to side constantly to avoid the vicious projectiles.  He spun on his toes when he heard a pained cry from behind him, freezing momentarily at the sight meeting his burning eyes.

Cye had regained his feet and was trying, without success, to avoid the wild swings his armor was making at him with an already bloody yari.  Whimpering in the back of his throat, Rowen tackled the Armor of Torrent, intent on holding it until he made sure that Cye was clear of its swings.  Cye cried out angrily as he thrashed on the ground, unable to move his arms or legs more than feeble twitching.  Rowen's eyes clouded in frustration and helplessness as he turned the helmet in front of him gently to the side and watched Cye's head swivel accordingly.

Grinding his teeth, he hefted the armor above him and threw it forcefully across the crystal fields into an open region, twitching when Cye grunted and jerked violently.  He lurched to his feet with blood streaming from multiple lacerations along his slight frame, looking around frantically before sprinting over to Sage.  Rowen watched him run dejectedly, wishing he could do something, anything, to help the others.  He consoled himself with the fact that the others were slowly recovering from the last cycle now that the protective dome around them was blocking the effects of the spell.  Cye appeared to be in his sixties again, which meant that the others still wouldn't be moving anytime soon, assuming that they were still alive.

Making a face and forcing his mind away from such morbid thoughts, he looked around for the armors.  He spotted them easily, their slow, almost insulting, hounding movements towards himself and the others.  He peered carefully at the wounds in his chest and stomach, at the thin layer of skin covering injuries that would have killed him had he not been what he was.  They were healing quicker than any wound he had ever seen, but still too slow for the current situation.  If he took many more hits from the approaching armors, he would fall, leaving his friends utterly defenseless.

Grinding his teeth and growling loudly, he darted towards the armors, vaulting over Kento's armor to slam into Cale's.  He barely had time to raise his arm to block a swing from twin Starlight Swords before he was decapitated.  He whimpered in pain as his arm was nearly torn free, spinning to kick the legs out from under the nearest armor.  He pushed Sehkmet's armor into Ryo's and slashed at his own in his follow-through with no regard for his own health.

Ignoring the deep gash across his ribs and the trench in his left calf, courtesy of the Armor of Hardrock, he suddenly had an idea.  He didn't have to fight the armors.  He only had to keep them from moving.

Darting away from the armors again, he tackled his own armor brutally, ignoring the new lacerations appearing on his back as they skidded across the crystal grounds.  Growling, he wrenched the bow away from his armor, hissing angrily when he felt three of his fingers snap in response.  He abandoned his armor and entered the fray once more, determined to attack his own armor last in case he had to do some serious damage to it.

Concentrating furiously, he was able to summon several arrows to his hands.  He readied the first hesitantly, looking around to where the others were laying limply.  His gaze immediately fell on Sage, Cye kneeling beside him with his hands pressed carefully across a deep trench that passed almost completely through the older boy.  Rowen's breath caught in his throat.  Had he lashed out at Sage's armor just a little harder, he would have killed him.  As it was, blood ran freely across the smooth onyx grounds topping the mountain.

His inattention earned him another slash down his back from Cale's armor, the dull no-dachi now shimmering a deep crimson.  Jaw clenched, Rowen fired a single arrow into the foot of the Armor of Darkness.  Cale cried out softly and spat out a curse that Rowen was glad he didn't hear judging by the expression on the older man's face.  He experimentally stepped back, grinning weakly when the armor took a step in his direction with its free foot before crashing to the ground, effectively trapped.

Making a face and silently apologizing to his friends, he fired off his remaining arrows to pin the armors in place, turning to his own last.  Closing his eyes, he leveled his bow and fired.

The arrow passed cleanly through the left foot of his armor.  An immediate matching pain radiated up his left leg.  Groaning wearily, Rowen slumped to the dark crystal below, cradling the wounds blanketing him gingerly.  Alternately whimpering in pain and cursing under his breath, he pulled himself over to where Sage still lay unmoving on the ground.

"Sage?"

Cye looked over at him with tight eyes.  "He's unconscious.  He should be okay, though.  I fixed him."

"Won't he be mad about that?" Rowen said softly, lips twisting upwards in a rough semblance of a grin.  Cye thought about his wording and made a face.

"I healed him," he grumped, smiling despite himself.  "How come you're still sane, anyway?"

Rowen shrugged.  "Not a clue.  I remember being surprised that my own armor was attacking me.  I nearly had heart problems when I realized that I was thinking clearly again."

"Again?  That would imply that you were thinking clearly in the first place."

Rowen smiled good-naturedly before remembering what he had just done.  "How are you guys doing?  I tore up our armors a bit…"

"We'll live.  What about you?  You didn't really fight.  Hell, you didn't even dodge.  You took some really bad hits even in the short time I was watching you."

Rowen was about to respond when an open palm cracked into the back of his head viciously.  He craned his head backwards and struggled not to flinch.

Ryo made a face at him, which looked quite odd considering what form he was in at the moment.

"Yes?" Rowen asked carefully.

"Did you have to pin our armors like that?"

"Do you have a better idea?"

"That's not the point!" Ryo snapped, eyes blazing.

"That is the point," Cye said quietly, exhaling noisily.  "There wasn't much else he could do without seriously hurting us.  We're lucky that's all he had to do."

Ryo was somewhat mollified, but not entirely.  "Then what about the spell?"

"I don't know how to shatter it," Rowen admitted softly, staring intently at the dark crystals beneath him.

"Living obsidian," Cye murmured, his eyes blanking for a moment before he scowled and forced them back.  Ryo nodded thoughtfully and began peering around.

"Damn your infested hides, go get Anubis down!"

Rowen jumped at Cale's imperious demand, peering sheepishly over at the older man where he stubbornly pulled himself forward towards his friend.  Grimacing guiltily for not thinking of that sooner, he limped brokenly across the fields, using his tarnished golden bow as a crutch.  Nearing Anubis, he dropped his weapon and reached out to pluck his friend off the cross unceremoniously, trying not to flinch at the resulting grunts.

"Tuk yoo lon 'nuff," he slurred past his shattered jaw, doing his best to throw a glare in Rowen's direction.  "Wha happenta yoo?  Yur hidiyus."

"Gee, thanks," Rowen grumped as he halfway carried the near crippled man back to where most of the others were still laying, irritated by the fact that in his present state, his passenger was over two feet shorter than him.  "Dark magic does this to my kind.  I can't really help it seeing as how the lighter magics are still blocked."

"Yur kind?  Hell, thawt yoo died."

Rowen flinched.  He had forgotten that Anubis still didn't know what had happened to him.  "I was brought back to life.  Umm… you do know what a vampire is, don't you?"

Anubis blanched, his eyes threatening to roll from their sockets.  Rowen, recognizing that look all too well, sighed loudly.

"Nice to see you again too," he grumbled.  "Now that we're done with the pleasantries, do you know how to shatter the spell crippling the lighter magics?"

Anubis threw a wary look in his direction before shaking his head weakly.  "I don know mashic.  Yoo wurk ith it, why don yoo know?"

"Cye's the one that's good with stuff like this, not me.  Do you know anything about living obsidian?  That's supposed to be the source of it."

"Ow do yoo know tha?"

"Long story, so just trust me on that one.  We'll explain later," Rowen murmured as he deposited his cargo near Sehkmet and Dais.  Anubis made a choking sound and looked up at him demandingly.

"Wha thuh hell happenta 'em?" he cried out, eyes wild.

"Target of a few practical jokes when they pissed off the elves," Rowen chortled, ignoring the black looks the two terrorized Warlords threw in his direction.  "Cale and Kayura were hit too."

Anubis nodded blankly in Kayura's direction and began peering around uncertainly.  He immediately spotted the two elves slowly working their way in his direction, chatting companionably with each other.  "Wha happenta Cale?"

"This," Cale grumbled, plopping down on the crystal ground just a few feet from his friend and nursing his bleeding foot.

Anubis smiled minimally around his limp jaw.  "Wha'd yoo do?"

"Nothing.  Dais and Sehkmet pissed them off, then turned them on us."

"I had nothing to do with that," Sehkmet grumbled, glaring at Dais angrily.

Cye plopped down beside them, placing his hands on Anubis's shoulder carefully.  Anubis gasped as his jaw suddenly set itself and healed instantly.  He blinked, opening and closing his mouth experimentally.

"Why didn't your armor go nuts too?" Cye mused aloud, arching one eyebrow slowly in consideration.

"Mine was the focal point of the spell.  I was trying to tell you that all you had to do was yank me off the cross to get the chaos to stop, but my armor wouldn't really let me," he muttered, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

"Umm, oops?" Rowen offered when several glares were directed in his direction.  "Oh, come on.  How was I supposed to know?" he grumbled, flashing his teeth at the others without really thinking about it.  No one thought a thing about it except Anubis, who eyed him warily and made a face before growling softly.

"Does this always happen every time I ignore you people for a little while?" he grumped, looking around irately.  "Rowen is alive again but is no longer human.  Cye is human again and has picked up the ability to heal.  And all four of you idiots have been screwed up," he finished, making a face at the Warlords.  "If I didn't know better, I'd swear you were doing this just to irritate me."

"Like we have nothing better to do with our time," Dais scoffed, leaning over to whisper something to Kayura, who immediately reddened and slapped him.

"The answer is still NO!" she all but shrieked, jumping to her feet and heading unerringly in Sage's direction.  Anubis shook his head wearily and rolled his eyes.

"I say we mess him up to match us," Sehkmet whispered loud enough to be heard halfway across the mountaintop, peering evilly in Anubis's direction.  For his part, Anubis jumped to his feet and all but sprinted over towards Sage and Kayura.  Ryo and Kento watched him run by with interest, poking each other as they headed towards the larger of the two groups.

"I give it one minute before they run him off," Dais hooted softly, peering after his friend with an amused expression.

Rowen watched his friends with a relieved expression painting his face.  Free from the effect of the last cycle, the last traces of the unnatural aging were now vanishing from the others.  Blood painted the ground from his fighting the armors, but his friends weren't seriously hurt.  He was so preoccupied with watching them worriedly that it took him a few seconds to realize that someone was talking to him.

Cye screwed up his face and started again.  "You intending on shattering the spell anytime soon?  I can't work with the dark magics without going absolutely stark raving mad, so you're going to have to do it."

"I know!  But I don't even know where the spell is, let alone how to unravel it."

"Living obsidian," Cye murmured again, peering around thoughtfully.

Anubis scrambled back over to them with a fearful expression on his face, glancing behind him warily as he plopped down behind Cale for protection.

"Told you it wouldn't take long," Dais snickered.

Anubis scowled.  "You knew about them?" he asked dangerously.  Dais adopted an innocent expression before glancing over to where Kayura and Sage were talking softly, holding hands no less.  He hooted softly and muttered something about miniature centaurs running around sometime soon in the future.

"Siellon?" Rowen asked softly.

"Well, I guess they could have kids, but I can only imagine what they'd look like."

Cye laughed aloud and repeated his comment for the others.  Rowen made a face and tried to keep from pulverizing the dark elf, reminding himself firmly that violence was wrong.

"I wanted to know about the living obsidian," he growled, eyes flashing from garnet to onyx.  The dark elf took one look at him before scooting away quickly.

"I don't know," he said quickly, still edging away.  "I am unfamiliar with the spell that my kin initiated.  I have yet to figure out how they even got up here alive in the first place."

Rowen had barely translated what he said for the others before a shadow passed above them.  Heads craned wildly to follow the silhouette circling the translucent black dome that Rowen had constructed.  The shadowed figure folded enormous wings to plunge into the dome with them suddenly, landing heavily on the crystal field a few paces from them.  A small black dragon sporting brilliant ruby eyes and a snowy mane darted over to them immediately, studying Rowen and the dark elf carefully.

"Mieren!" Rowen cried out joyfully, wrapping his arms around the dragon still staring at him blankly.  Neris and Siellon blanched and darted well away from them.  Still staring at them studiously, Mieren shifted back to human form, only keeping her wings to conceal her current nudity.

"I'll yell at you later for coming here when I told you not to.  Now how in the hell did you survive the cycles?" she murmured, eyes blatantly disbelieving.

"When did you learn how to speak?" Cye countered.  Mieren didn't even look over at him.

"Rowen taught me when he was here.  Now, answer my question."

"We toughed out the cold.  Ryo and Cale dealt with the heat.  Cye dealt with the water and the wolves," Rowen began, cutting off when Kento cleared his throat loudly.

"I helped with the wolves too," he muttered.  "Rowen blocked the last one just before it took us all out and fought our armors while we recovered."

"You fought your armors?" Mieren asked carefully, eyeing the battlefield numbly.  Snorting loudly, she rounded on Rowen.  "What the hell happened to you?"

"Dark magic does this," he murmured, staring at the ground carefully.  "I can't stop using it until I find the living obsidian to shatter the final spell."  Mieren paled.

"Living obsidian?" she breathed, leaping to her feet and peering around quickly.  She stiffened and immediately placed herself between the small group and the cross with wide eyes.  "Sage!  Kayura!  Get over here now!"  Sage and Kayura didn't say anything, leaping to their feet and darting over to the group in full gallops, trusting Mieren completely when she snapped an order at them.

She didn't have time to explain what was going on.  The cross cracked, blood seeping from the thin lines streaking the black crucifix.  The blood congealed slowly, rising into a strangely dragon-shaped blob as it darkened to a deep black.  Thin streamers of blood ran along the crystal fields towards the figure where the Ronins and Warlords had lain bleeding.  The pools of blood collecting at the shadowy dragon's feet began to swirl about it eerily, giving distinctive features to the roughly shaped figure.

"I think we should be going," Dais muttered sarcastically, edging further away from the thing along with the others.

"Do not leave the dome," Mieren snapped, positioning herself more directly between the small group and the forming creature.

"Oh God.  The cycle," Rowen breathed, eyes widening.

"We could teleport out," Cye murmured softly, freezing at Mieren's answering hiss.

"Do not attempt to teleport in this area if you value your lives."

"What'll happen?" Kayura asked carefully, still eyeing the forming dragon warily.

Mieren glanced at them over her shoulder, chewing on her lower lip as she struggled for the proper words.  "You'll emerge from the other side of your portal inside out if you're lucky."

"And if we're unlucky?" Ryo choked out, face paling.

Mieren paled slightly.  "I'd rather not have to describe what happened to the last elf who tried it."  The Ronins and Warlords exchanged terrified expressions.  If it was bad enough to make Mieren pale, they most certainly didn't want to know.  At her furious snarl, they hesitantly looked to the cross as it slowly crumbled and the creature before it.

Rowen looked on with trembling eyes.  The creature had completely formed and was now approaching them slowly, its steady deliberate pace speaking inarguably of unfathomable strength.  It wasn't its strength or deadly grace that thoroughly unnerved Rowen, however.  It was the beast's appearance.  The obsidian dragon approaching them was a mirror image of Mieren in her transformed state down to the last onyx scale.

Without thinking, Mieren shifted to her dragon form, trotting forward steadily to meet her double before the battle came too close to the others.

*     *     *

Crossing the last few feet between herself and her doppelganger, Mieren tensed her muscles and turned her last stride into a barreling leap, slamming forcefully into her mirror image.  She sank her teeth deep into the heavily scaled throat in front of her, not surprised when the motion was returned.

For a moment, they grappled, neither gaining an advantage as they rolled around on the smooth crystal field.  Claws extended, they made slashing motions at one another, hides tearing and blood flowing freely as claws met legs and ribs in a chaotic jumble.

Mieren broke away and rolled back to reconsider her tactics.  Her double was a match for her in strength as well as speed.  She had to find another way to fight.

To Be Continued…

There once was a man from Nantucket… wait a minute, this fic isn't rated for that.  Um… nevermind…  ^_^;