Obsidian Fires
Part 11
By Mieren
The Ronins and Warlords watched numbly as twin black dragons flipped across the smooth crystal surfaces on the mountaintop, slashing at each other viciously. They broke away from one another simultaneously and moved back a few paces, eyeing each other carefully and panting heavily. As one, they moved forward again, jaws snapping for necks and talons slashing at gleaming ruby eyes.
"Oh God," Cye whispered, eyes bulging. "Which one is Mieren?"
No one responded to his question for a very good reason. No one knew.
Black flames rose around one of the dragons suddenly, brutal waves of energy threatening to roll the observers off their feet. The other instantly followed suit. Small shock waves emanated from the areas where the rippling waves of obsidian rolled into one another. Cye, Rowen and Siellon groaned and slumped to the ground. After a mere moment, Rowen began to convulse.
"Drop the dark energy you're holding!" Neris snapped, shaking Rowen's shoulder roughly and scowling. "Drop it! You'll kill yourself if you keep this up!"
"What's going on?" Cye demanded, clutching his head in both hands.
"Everyone magically inclined is going to feel the effects of this battle for days. The sheer amount of energy being thrown around at the moment could probably destroy this dimension. That says nothing of the powers that they're holding."
Rowen groaned loudly, refusing to drop the energies he was holding until Cye slammed his fist into the older boy's jaw. Rowen shuttered suddenly and shrank back to his six-foot height, panting heavily and glaring furiously.
"Didn't know you were that strong, Cye," Ryo muttered absently, turning his gaze immediately back to the battle between the twin black dragons. Rowen's gaze followed his instantly and he lurched to his feet, starting forward hesitantly. He stopped and spat out a curse that made both Siellon and Neris jump, glaring at the two combatants with a broken expression, obviously unable to tell them apart. Making a face, he called his bow to hand and readied an arrow.
Both black dragons froze in their fight and spun to direct identical furious glares in his direction. Rowen began looking from one to the other uncertainly as he leveled his bow. Hissing angrily to himself, he loosed one arrow.
The golden bolt flew surely to land between the two dragons just before they resumed grappling on the crystal grounds. One dragon leapt back, the other turned to look in his direction coldly as it gathered black flames around itself. Smiling victoriously, Rowen loosed another arrow in its direction. The golden projectile vanished in a flash of black flames before covering half the distance to its target.
Readying another arrow to try again, Rowen froze, every muscle in his body going rigid as his eyes glazed slightly. He dimly heard his friends calling his name, but was unable to recognize the significance of their desperate cries, let alone respond to them. He pulled the arrow back with as much force as he could and calmly turned to face his friends. He loosed the arrow.
Everyone scattered except for Cye. He stood staring blankly ahead with rapidly dimming eyes. The muscles through his legs and back became watery, depositing him immediately to lie limply on the dark crystal ground. Ever so slowly, his eyes slid shut, tears running slowly from cloudy azure eyes as his breathing grew shallow and weak.
Kento was by his side instantly, staring in abhorrence at the dull golden arrow protruding from his friend's chest. He looked around brokenly, calling out frantically for Sage as he cradled his best friend's head gently in his lap. Sehkmet skidded to a stop beside him, presenting his back fully to Rowen as he yanked the deadly projectile from the boy's chest and set about healing him. A loud cracking noise caused his head to snap up suddenly and he peered over his shoulder blankly before making a face and plucking an arrow out of the back of his shirt. He growled something under his breath about scales that Kento was certain he didn't want to hear.
Cye gasped suddenly and bolted upright, fingering the hole in his bloody shirt numbly, momentarily blind to Rowen's continuing rampage. He hissed angrily and strode forward purposely, cracking his fist into Rowen's lower back while he was occupied with firing arrows at the others as quickly as he could nock them. Rowen snarled angrily and slashed at him with the bow.
After a few seconds of grappling, Rowen abandoned his bow, realizing that the weapon was all but useless at this range of fighting. Cye backed up another few steps, losing ground rapidly to the larger boy. Scowling, he began to concentrate, ignoring the blows that were inflicted upon him. The crystal below him suddenly flickered slightly and shifted to a deep teal before liquefying and swallowing him.
Rowen watched him disappear with blank eyes, frowning and sinking into the crystals after him, the black masses swirling and shifting willingly to allow him passage.
The Ronins, Warlords and elves looked around blankly before turning to the two black dragons, everyone tensing and clustering into a small group when they saw the now empty battlegrounds. Only the golden arrows that had held their armors remained. Their armors, as well as Anubis, were gone.
* * *
Mieren lay still in the swirling black crystals, her eyes remaining dark so her double couldn't see the meager light reflected through the onyx depths. This was potentially deadly for her and she was willing to bet that it wouldn't bother her mirror image in the slightest. She had to come up to breathe eventually but her double shouldn't have to if she was correct in her assumption of what had happened. Even after three thousand years, her past haunted her still.
A flash of light shot by her and she almost lashed out blindly. Her eyes bulged when she saw Cye slid past her through molten crystals that shifted to a deep turquoise as he passed through. Rowen followed immediately behind him, engulfed in black flames.
Distracted by the two Ronins attempting to pound on one another, she failed to notice the minimal fluctuation in the light behind her.
* * *
Kento sent an order into the crystal grounds to produce Rowen and Cye, along with Mieren and her double if they were in there too. He only received a sharp refusal. Making a face, he tried another tactic, asking for the location of the four he was seeking. This time, he received an answer, though it was slow in coming.
"Cye and Rowen are over there," he murmured, pointing in a vaguely northern direction. He pivoted slightly to face northwest. "Mieren is there and the double is approaching from that way," he muttered, waving one hand southward.
"What about Anubis?" Cale snapped.
Kento looked at him blankly and tried again. He shrugged wearily. "He's with the armors but I can't find out where that is. The fields won't answer."
"What do you mean the fields 'won't' answer?" Sage asked slowly, his crystal blue eyes narrowing dangerously.
"They refused to tell me. They wouldn't shift to let me pass or to bring Rowen and Cye to the surface either. Seemed kinda reluctant to tell me where Mieren and her double were too."
"Does the ground normally respond to what you ask?" Dais continued, beginning to see where Sage was going.
Kento blinked at the unexpected question. "I've never received an answer before. The ground always does what I tell it, nothing more."
"The fields are alive," Sage snapped, eyes locking with the ground. "And it has four of our friends and all of our armors."
"'In the blackest shadows of the night shall a figure emerge, and he shall stain the ground with the blood of his friends before freeing the world to the light,'" Kayura quoted softly, never looking away from the obsidian crystals at her feet. "What time is it?" she breathed, refusing to shift her gaze.
"I don't know about time, but it's getting dark," Sehkmet murmured.
"Hey elf," Dais growled, hauling Neris off of the ground by the front of his baggy shirt. "What time is it?"
"Time move different on mountaintop," he whimpered, squirming fitfully in his grasp. "Near midnight."
"Have we bled enough to be safe?" Kento grumbled sarcastically, flinching at the answering glares. "What?"
No one had time to growl out an answer. A huge crack appeared across the black fields, molten blackness seeping from the shattered crystal. A deep rumble began somewhere from within the onyx depths, rising slowly in volume and pitch until the sound was a loud wail.
"It's bleeding," Kayura murmured, moving away from one of the black streamers running across the smooth crystal surface.
"What in the hell did the dark elves do?" Ryo hissed, moving away from another tendril of gleaming onyx blood.
Neris called out something to Siellon frantically, paling drastically at the response. "Field already alive. Dark elves not do it. Only worked with what here."
Sage swallowed thickly. "So the mirror image of Mieren…"
"Isn't a spell. It's alive," Cale finished for him.
"It's the living essence of the field," Kayura summed up, looking decidedly ill.
"You mean Rowen has to kill something that's a match for Mieren?" Ryo cried out frantically, looking as though he was ready to faint. No one bothered to answer him, instead turning to the shifting obsidian fields to wait.
* * *
Mieren only grappled with the talons sinking into her back for a mere moment before her features degenerated into a snarl. Eyes flashing garnet, she grated out a spell with the last of the air in her lungs, silently congratulating herself for casting in such a way that her double did not understand her and thus did not move to stop her wild chanting.
"Turning against the light, an angel falls from the earth. He has been banished by the light of the world and dimension. Turning against the wonders of life, the dark warrior destroys the world. I will bring about this destruction! Exodus!"
Streaks of silver-laced black energy shot through the black crystals, massive cracks appearing along its length. Her mirror image shrieked in pain, losing her now precarious hold as Mieren twisted in her grasp and sped through the molten blackness before her. She was distinctly aware that the thing following her was closing in quickly and was not at all happy about what she had done.
"Ieyenden mieris!"
Cye shot by just in front of her once again, a huge blast of bluish black flames, as well as Rowen, following him easily through the crystals. Mieren made a face and dove deeper into the black depths, shaking her head wearily when she heard Rowen spit out the words to the fireball spell a second time. Grinning maliciously, she pivoted suddenly and spat out the same spell in Japanese, knowing that her double could not prepare to block something she didn't recognize.
"Rend asunder the world with eternal fires!"
Somewhere in the distance, Cye and Rowen both cried out in shock and pain, emerging from the depths of the crystals to leap around wildly on the surface of the burning fields. Mieren grimaced. She could cast spells much stronger than they could, and it hadn't even crossed her mind that this one undoubtedly was beyond their ability to block or evade.
Eyes tightening with strain, she wildly ascended through the blackness, surfacing suddenly almost directly beneath the Ronins and Warlords. The elves leapt away from her, screaming obscenities that she made a mental note to ask them about later. Some of the phrases they were using were quite creative.
Mieren glanced around wildly, spitting out her own expletives when she didn't see her double anywhere. Cye and Rowen were on the other side of the field, still pounding on one another viciously. Features tightening with poorly contained fury, she shot a blast of raw energy at Rowen, shattering the spell her double had placed on him when he attempted to interfere with their battle.
She didn't have time to see it her intervention in their fight had worked. Black tendrils of crystal wrapped around her tightly, pulling her back into the obsidian depths. Her yelp of surprise barely had time to resound across the field before she vanished completely from view.
* * *
Anubis felt like screaming. He was trapped in molten blackness, blind to the world and his friends and completely unable to move. He vaguely knew that he was inside the field somewhere, but he had no way of knowing where. He only managed to grunt softly when the crystals around him suddenly burned fiercely. In the crystal depths far from him, he distinctly heard Cye and Rowen yelp in pain and surprise.
The crystals shifted suddenly, propelling him to the surface. He wanted to cry out joyously at the prospect of being free, but his vocal cords didn't seem to be working at that particular moment. He couldn't even seem to smile, and that was more than slightly disconcerting.
Surfacing suddenly, he tried to look around with no success. Directly in front of him, he saw Mieren being pulled into the ground as she bucked futilely. Across the field, Rowen and Cye were staring at each other blankly. Out of the corner of his eye, he could vaguely see that the others were standing in a small cluster, staring at him incredulously.
Anubis's mind short-circuited when he spun and darted towards his friends, howling out a war cry involuntarily. He dimly heard the other armors following him in his mad charge.
His mind reeled at him furiously, but he was unable to stop his charge. His armor appeared to be doing as it wished, and he had no way to stop it, let alone free himself from its rampage.
* * *
Rowen froze in surprise when pain exploded behind his shoulder blades. Cye leapt further away from him while he was momentarily distracted, snapping his hands up defensively. Rowen only looked at him blankly for a moment before peering around in confusion and spitting out an oath that made Cye choke.
"Well, it sounds like you're okay," Cye muttered sarcastically, slapping him on the back of the head with an open palm for good measure.
"The double hit me with something, didn't she?" he growled softly. Cye only nodded irately. Remembering what he had done suddenly, he grabbed the front of the younger boy's shirt and lifted it forcefully to peer at the small white scar on his chest. He grimaced. "Uh, sorry."
Both of them froze when they heard a phrase that made their blood run cold.
"Quake With Fear!"
"Tell me I didn't hear that," Rowen demanded as he spun to face his friends. He was awarded with a scene of total chaos.
All of the armors, one containing Anubis, had circled the others and closed in. Weapons on both sides were meeting in showers of sparks as Ronins, Warlords and elves alike leapt about frantically in reckless leaps to avoid lethal blows. Neither Cye nor Rowen hesitated before charging into the fray.
* * *
Ryo rolled to his feet stiffly. He had barely managed to evade Anubis's sure-kill before it slammed fully into him. As it was, he was certain that he would be feeling this fight for a month.
Crying out loudly, he snapped his slender katanas in front of him just before his armor sliced him in half. Straining all of the muscles through his back and legs, he managed to hold off his armor as it struggled to kill him. The runes running along the sides of his blades flared to life, white light bathing the area immediately around him and throwing his shadowed red armor away from him. Something inside of him snapped, and he felt the blades growing stronger, more dangerous.
Red light began to seep through the white coming from the runes until his blades trailed ruby flames that seemed to linger in the air whenever he moved his katanas. Ryo wasn't sure exactly what had happened to the blades, but he liked the resonance of power emanating from the shimmering metal.
His armor moved back a few paces and raised its own katanas threateningly, joining the hilts together and swinging the combined blades in smooth arc. Ryo's eyes bulged as his own sure-kill shot towards him. Unable to move out of the way in time from a blast at point-blank range, he snapped his glowing katanas in front of him.
The blast of power shifted to move around the red fires, half of the sure-kill passing harmlessly on either side of him. He grinned weakly, silently thanking the elves for creating the enchanted blades.
Looking around quickly, he wasn't sure whether to grin in relief or curse furiously. It was infuriating that they were fighting their armors, but thankfully everyone in the fray was still up and moving, though both Kento and Dais were trailing blood. Everyone sporting an elfin weapon was surrounded by flames of some sort that were successfully deflecting the sure-kills.
Kento darted by him, spitting out curses that would have made Sehkmet beam with pride. Orange gold flames trailed from his blade-tipped staff as he leapt out of the way of his armor's sure-kill with wide eyes and wildly flailing arms. Not watching where he was going, he slammed into Siellon, the two of them ending up in a tangle of arms and legs and interesting phrases that wouldn't have been out of place coming from Rowen in the early morning. Siellon temporarily down, Neris raised his single sword defensively as Anubis approached again, readying his sure-kill.
Ignoring the others, Ryo turned to his full attention to his armor as they locked katanas once again.
* * *
Siellon barely managed to evade a near lethal slash from Anubis when the older man ripped one of his short swords out of his left hand. He spat out a variety of curses when Kento slammed into him trying to avoid his own armor, pushing the boy off of him to leap to his feet and turn Anubis's attention away from Neris before his light cousin was slaughtered.
He sighed heavily as he leapt out of the way of a vicious hook kick, scolding himself mentally for getting involved with these people. He had joined them under the deception of a blood debt for a number of reasons, the foremost being so that they wouldn't kill him. He had intended to keep an eye on their movements and to kill them if necessary if they came too close to these fields. He had intended to turn against them much sooner. He had! But, so help him, he liked the Ronins and couldn't bring himself to do it.
He had known perfectly well when he first joined them that they were going to be trouble, from the moment that they had told him that they were seeking a dark one, the Child of Hashiba no less, and the Destroyer. But he had ignored his instincts that had told him to run, to get as far away from them as possible. He had thought that he would have gotten away from them much sooner, that he would have killed them and been done with it. But no. He had to get to know them. He had to talk to the Child of Mouri. And now, he fought for his life against one of the Armor of Chains.
He leapt out of his thoughts and frantically deflected a deadly blow from coming in contact with the light elf fighting beside him. Neris was nicer than he had thought a light elf could be. It had shocked Siellon to the core when he realized some time ago that he considered them to be friends.
He peered around quickly, looking for a familiar mop of hair in the fray. He spotted the russet head a ways from him and sighed loudly in relief. Cye was still alive. He had been worried that his friend would fall to his armor's vicious attacks with the yari it sported, not to mention the claws on the armor's right hand or the tanto on its back. The boy, more than any of the others, even the light elf, was his friend. He grimaced at himself for the thought. Friendship. The very word was as alien to his people as loyalty. Yet in such a short time, he had learned both and could not bear to lose either.
Cye had been the only one to stand up for him, the only one to argue with the others to spare his life and save him while he laid dying on the bloodstained ground. He had been the only one that Siellon had originally intended on sparing when he turned against the group. The boy was so quiet, so reserved and kind. It was unbelievable that the boy could maintain such a relaxed, compassionate demeanor considering the troubles and sadness that his subconscious mind hid from his waking thoughts. Something terrible had happened to him long ago, and it saddened him to know that there was nothing he could do to change it. What was even worse, no one, even the boy, seemed to realize the heartbreak that he suffered from so long ago.
Siellon was snapped out of his train of thought when Anubis moved back, the other nine armors following to form a protective ring around him. As he raised his arms, the armors began to glow, pulsing softly with a corrupted light. The Ronins, Warlords and elves could only watch in shocked silence as the armors vaporized before their eyes, the tainted mists flying unerringly towards their respective owners. Only Siellon's sharp vision awarded him with a view of the tears glistening on Anubis's cheeks as he began chanting softly in an archaic language from times long past.
* * *
Rowen could only watch in horror as the sickly blue fog descended on him. The fog began to solidify into his armor, pain lancing through his muscles and tearing at his thoughts and very soul. In desperation to maintain his sanity, he closed his mind and retreated into himself, shutting down conscious thought entirely. He was dimly aware that he and his armor slid limply to the ground. In the furthest reaches of his mind, he heard the others screaming.
* * *
Ryo slumped to the crystal ground, tears streaming from his eyes as the pain racing through his veins intensified viciously. He could feel his body shifting, almost in self-defense, and screamed out mentally for it to stop. It couldn't help him now and would only make it harder for the others to stop him. Coming upon that thought, he forced objecting muscles to raise his head enough to look around blankly for his friends through watering eyes.
Sage was curled up as much as he was able in his centaur form, clutching his head in both hands and panting heavily as he struggled not to shift into a more feral state. He was losing quickly. Kento had already lost that battle and had regained his feet, peering around with hollow golden eyes. Sehkmet was slowly rising to his feet, greenish gold eyes watering slightly as he looked around with a malicious expression. Kayura and Cale still bucked in defiance as their armors forced them to stand and move to where the others were congregating. Dais sauntered by them almost arrogantly, a sneer painting his face as his one eye watered and softened in a last show of defiance.
Ryo lurched to his feet against his best efforts to remain where he lay. He tried to cry out, but his throat was not responding to his demands. He was barely able to roll his eyes to look to where Cye and Rowen lay side by side. Rowen was simply unconscious, but Cye continued to thrash and howl in defiance to his armor's control.
The shock of seeing Cye almost snapped Ryo's mind back to clarity. Almost. The last thing he saw before his vision faded entirely was Cye, his eyes blazing an incredible teal before shifting to the deepest black. His armor rippled and bulged strangely for an instant before the back exploded outwards, enormous leathery blue wings unfurling wildly before going limp. Cye threw his head back, howling angrily as his hair faded into a shimmering pearly color. Hissing deep in his throat, he curled up on the ground, contorting strangely as his mouth extended suddenly into a thick muzzle and he sprouted something akin to a barbed tail, every muscle throughout his body bulging.
One last thought raged through Ryo's mind before he lost consciousness. A blue dragon with a white mane, just like Kento said. 'Blue armor framed in white.' Torrent. Oh God, we're going to fight Cye.
* * *
Mieren thrashed wildly, her double smirking at her in wry amusement. She knew what her double had done above, but she couldn't do anything about it. She sent out a minor scanning signal, eyes widening at the response.
"A thought has come to you, Destroyer. I will know what it is."
Scowling at her double and the havoc she was wreaking on the Ronins' minds, she sent out a vicious shock wave to destroy the bonds holding her. She didn't hesitate before tackling her sneering doppelganger, praying to the light that Rowen could still pull his mind free. Cye wasn't completely there upstairs and he needed help.
Cye's appearance troubled her though. The fact that he could shapeshift at all was beyond inconceivable, yet he was taking the form of a dragon no less, the most powerful of all of the demons. She had thought that she was the last of the dragons to survive the Dynasty's invasion. Talpa had instructed his minions well to destroy every dragon, and except for herself, she had thought that he had succeeded.
She was the first and now the last of the dragons. Of the many she had created over the years, none had survived or procreated. She was certain that it was impossible for one to spontaneously come into being. So how had Cye managed to take that form?
* * *
Rowen opened his eyes slowly, wishing he could close them again when he looked around hesitantly. The surrounding area was enveloped in black fogs that stretched as far as he could see and undoubtedly beyond. He was the only person there.
He rose to his feet slowly, confused horribly when he saw that he wasn't wearing his armor, or anything else for that matter. He shrugged uncomfortably, not overly concerned since no one was here to see him. It took him a moment to realize that his fangs were gone as well. For some reason, it seemed natural that they were missing.
"Where am I?" he wondered aloud, looking to the endless abyss of blackness above him as though begging for an answer.
When he didn't get an answer, not really having expected one, he started to peer around curiously at the molten black fog. He remembered suddenly where he was supposed to be and swore loudly.
"The mountaintop," he hissed aloud. "Where is it?" Only silence answered him.
Growling to himself, he swung in the direction his mind told him was north, instantly gratified when he saw the trail to the crystal fields in front of him. He sprinted towards the trail, preparing to lift into the air. His initial leap earned him a headache when he planted his face forcefully into the ground. Spitting pebbles and dirt, he pushed himself to his feet and resumed his mad dash, cursing loudly about the inconveniences of having to remain on the ground. It would take him days to get to the top at this rate and his friends needed his help now.
After running for only a few minutes, weariness seemed to sink into his muscles and very soul. He swore loudly at his lack of stamina, wishing for his strength to return to him. He could hear a soft chuckling in the distance.
"I thought that you didn't want that power," the voice laughed at him.
"Who are you?" Rowen snapped into the boiling fogs, eyes narrowing as he squinted into the darkness, further irked when he couldn't get his vision to slip to infrared despite his frantic efforts.
"Why do you want those energies back? They've never caused you anything but grief," a soft voice taunted him as it emerged from the deepest of the shadows of black fog. Rowen blanched and scrambled back when he was presented with something that looked frighteningly like him, although it was not human. It was him, but it wasn't. Long fangs glistened in the dim light that came from nowhere and everywhere at once, his eyes blazing a deep blood red.
"Who are you?" Rowen asked again, his voice barely a whisper. His double looked at him for a moment before a slow grin appeared on his face, giving him an almost predatory look.
"I am you," he said softly. "I am the part of you that came into being the moment that you became one of the dark ones. You were afraid of what you had become, so you walled me up here in the recesses of our mind at the same time you unwittingly split your soul into two pieces."
Rowen shook his head in denial and stepped back again. "You're lying."
"We are of the same soul, you and I. The only difference between us is that I have accepted what we have become, and you have not. Opposing halves of the same whole. Our soul's yin and yang, if you will."
Shaking his head vehemently, Rowen stepped back again. It wasn't true. It couldn't be. He could never accept what had happened to him, what he had become.
"And why not?" his double demanded, eyes flashing. "Your friends have accepted what they are. Why do you still resist?"
"I'm not a murderer," Rowen whispered, face pale.
"Nor am I! What does this form entail? Unfathomable strength? The ability to survive mortal wounds? Immortality? What?"
"Death."
"No. Life. The ability to save yourself and your friends. You are whatever you chose to be."
"I choose to be human," Rowen whimpered.
"At the cost of your friends' lives? Damn it, I thought our combined mind was smarter than this. You are a shapeshifter of sorts. Physical forms are only what the mind makes them. They are determined by strength alone, and to reach an acceptable strength, the halves must be made whole. You can do as you wish, whenever you wish, but you must accept who you are. How can you use energies that you do not understand because you refuse to learn and haven't the strength to wield?"
Rowen blinked and looked up from studying the ground. He sighed heavily, clenching his jaw and squeezing his eyes shut. He nodded.
His doppelganger smiled slowly and moved forward towards him. Rowen's double took his hand and pulled him forward gently into his embrace. The world went white as the two became one.
* * *
Rowen's eyes fluttered open weakly and he groaned loudly, lurching to his feet strangely when his armor resisted moving. His gaze immediately rested on eight armored figures circling two elves and a shadowy blue figure that looked startlingly like an armored dragon. Something in the back of his mind clicked and he recognized the blue dragon lunging around wildly to evade the deadly blows from the armored figures surrounding him. Cye.
Spitting out a vulgarity that made everyone jump, he strode forward, slapping armors out of his way irately as he moved in on the two elves and his friend.
"You okay, Cye?" he asked slowly, eyes hard.
The blue dragon blinked at him incredulously before nodding. "Yea. I'm fine so far. But how did you know it was me?"
"Don't know. Don't care. Probably your armor if I had to guess."
Neris and Siellon looked at him carefully before nodding in unison and dropping to one knee in submissive positions, arms widely outstretched. As Rowen watched in bafflement, they presented him with their blades, hilts raised towards him in offering.
"What are you doing?" he asked slowly, looking over his shoulder to make sure the others were holding their distance so he didn't have to pulverize them again.
"In the blackest shadows of the night shall a figure emerge, and he shall stain the ground with the blood of his friends before freeing the world to the light," Siellon murmured, eyes downcast.
Neris raised his head minimally to look up at him with respectful silver eyes. "Free the world to the light, dark savior."
Cye looked over to him with deep onyx eyes framed by impossibly dark teal scales. His lips peeled away from a mouthful of pearly fangs in the approximation of a grin as he turned to face his friends.
"Shatter the spell," he murmured, rising awkwardly to his hind legs and beginning a deliberate pace forward. "The ground has thus been stained. Now the world must be freed to the light," he whispered, eyes glazing slightly.
Rowen only looked to him for a moment before nodding and turning to find Mieren and her double. He glanced at Cye one last time as he sank into the black crystals, grimacing as the blue dragon that was his friend was pulled to the ground in a frenzy of attacks. The only thing he could do to help him now was destroy the essence of the living obsidian.
* * *
Cye was nearly unhinged when Rowen suddenly leapt to his feet and stormed over towards him, eyes swirling to obsidian as he neared him, effortlessly swatting the others out of the way. His aura radiated power like nothing he had ever seen before, surpassing even Mieren for an instant when he glared at the others with a malicious glint in his dark eyes.
When Rowen finally turned to leave at their demands, he heaved a sigh of relief, wishing he knew what had happened to his friend as he turned to face the others once again. Without Rowen here to hold them off by intimidation alone, he would have to fight. He managed to dodge sure-kills for almost a minute before someone got lucky and slammed a blow into his armored side, throwing him heavily to the ground. Lacking the necessary time to get up, he lurched sideways and curled into a ball around the virtually defenseless elves and patiently waited for the blows to end, praying that Rowen would hurry.
* * *
Mieren swore silently to herself. She was all but helpless in the dark crystals surrounding her. The lighter magics still would not come to her call and the darker were tearing her mind apart. Her double was wielding powers that Mieren would have sworn were impossible, one of the last blasts nearly obliterating both her and the mountain. Only a frantic counter-spell had blocked that last incantation, thoroughly exhausting her and leaving her broken and helpless until her mind recovered from grappling with the black energies.
Looking up numbly, she saw two shadows approaching from the west. She stiffened and moved to hide herself, eyes watering in helplessness. The closer of the two figures was undoubtedly her double judging from the way the crystal rolled off of the dark form like thick water. The other, however, was closing in at a terrifying speed, the black crystals screaming at the passing presence and all but shattering as they were forced out of the way brutally. The aura of the second shadow was excruciatingly strong, the mere resonance of the energies he held causing her to writhe in pain. She wanted to cry out brokenly when she recognized the figure engulfed in black flames, her heart shuddering painfully in her chest as the two approaching shadows met in an explosion of power. Rowen.
* * *
Rowen didn't bother with a fair fight as he approached the black dragon just ahead of him in the dark crystals, instead slamming forcefully into the well-muscled side. He knew that this was the double, the crystals had told him. Not willingly, but they had told.
Wrapping his arms around the thrashing figure, he surfaced, unwilling to allow his opponent to have any advantage if he could at all avoid it. He realized suddenly that he didn't have to drop the squirming figure. It couldn't get away from him. He was too strong for that to work. Instead, he tightened his grip until he heard ribs creaking loudly.
His armor immediately retaliated, tightening painfully until he was almost unable to move. Grinding his teeth, he shifted his hold to strangle the beast in his arms, grunting in pain as his armor closed in on him further. He gasped when a section of his armor formed a spear on the inside of the breastplate, effectively impaling him. What is it with holes in my lungs today? he wondered absently, eyes tightening in agony.
"Child of Hashiba," the dragon sneered, peering over its shoulder to look directly at him. "You cannot win. Release me or suffer retribution for your treachery. You belong to me."
"Bite me, spit me out, pick me up, and bite me again," he snapped, eyes flashing. Without waiting for a response, he punched one armored hand through the scaled chest confined within his arms, grinning viciously when he heard the answering gasp.
He was about to finish the job when thick fangs sank into his left arm, passing through armor and flesh alike. He smirked for a moment, preparing to inform her of the futility of escaping like that when he saw what she was doing. The grin slid from his face as he stared in abhorrence at the tiny black tendrils moving through the blue metal of his armor like thick veins. He paled further when he realized that that was exactly what they were. Veins. He could feel his armor growing stronger as the black creepers grew in number, streaking the dingy blue of his tainted armor with black.
Howling in defiance to his armor's increasing control, he snagged the black wedge shaped head in one hand and twisted viciously, not stopping when he heard an answering crack. Putting all of his energy into one last blow, he ripped the head free and threw it well clear of himself as he dropped the corpse in his arms and backpedaled furiously. A single thought rang clearly in his mind as he slumped wearily to the ground.
This is not over, Child of Hashiba.
To Be Continued…
I am the dread pirate Roberts! There shall be no survivors! Wait… wrong storyline. Oops…
