Part 10

…

"Kana, I'm worried about you." Kanako said as she stood before the main altar of the Cathedral of Shadows, her hands on the cold, hard surface of the table. "After seeing what happened to you in that battle with the SASA extremists, you were so close to dying."

"But I'm alive, aren't I?" Kana said, trying to comfort her. "I am a Necromancer and keeper of the Necronomicon, Death is always around me. It is a risk that I have to bear."

"A risk further magnified by your stay on the battlefield." Kanako closed her eyes. "I'm starting to think that…this war…this whole web we are in…I'm starting to think it's not worth fighting for anymore. It's like I'm not worth fighting for anymore. I'm not worth dying for."

"Don't tell me you're not worth fighting for! Don't tell me you're not worth dying for!" For some unknown reason, Kana broke into song. Specifically, 'Everything I Do' by Bryan Adams. "You know it's true, everything I do, I do it for you."

"Kana…I don't know what I'd do…I'd be lost without you." Kanako said as Kana slowly wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. It didn't seem to occur to her that Kana was singing. Either that or she's now used to it. He tended to sing in his sleep after all. "I don't know how I'll find someone like you again."

"Search your heart and search your soul. When you find me there, you'll search no more." Kana could feel that something was bothering Kanako. After all this time, she still felt she wasn't worth all the attention and work Kana was giving her. "I'd fight for you. I'd die for you. I'd fight the world for you."

"Kana…" Kanako lowered her head, losing herself in Kana's embrace.

"Yes, I'd die for you." Kana held her closer, sensing that she was slowly being comforted.

"There's no love like your love. And no other can give more love." Kanako joined in the song, turning to face him and resting her head on his shoulder. "And no other could give more love."

"There's no way unless it's your way, all the time, all the way" Kana answered. Stroking her black hair, he closed his eyes and contented himself in feeling her presence. "You can't tell me you're not worth dying for. I can't help it, there's nothing I want more. Yeah, I'd fight for you. I'd die for you. I'd fight the world for you. Yeah, I'd die for you."

"I know it's true…" Kanako looked up to him and slowly moved her lips closer to his. "Everything you do…"

"I do it for you." Kana said before closing his eyes, slowly moving closer to her for a kiss.

(Kanako: Modified from an ACTUAL conversation we had. He can be sickeningly sweet sometimes.)

…

"This is so degrading." Edwards complained. From being the high and mighty, though somewhat gullible and misguided, Knight Commander, he was now reduced to typing out documents for the young girl that now served as KoM Knight Commander. "And I end up working for a mercenary no less, how disgusting."

"I heard that." Motoko commented as she passed by. "A Knight is someone who takes honor and pride in doing whatever task is assigned to him, no matter how degrading it may be, Edwards."

"Yes, Motoko-sama but…" Edwards whimpered, knowing it was futile. "Forget it. At least she's cute."

"That she is." Motoko nodded her head as she walked away. "That she is."

"Edwards-san…" Mint suddenly popped up behind Edward's shoulder, smiling innocently. "I realize you don't really like working for me and I want to bridge the gap. Would you like to have dinner with me?"

"You want to have dinner with me?" Edwards would have dropped the cigarette in his mouth and burned the papers on his desk if there was one. Somehow, he felt no inclination to resist her. "Of course…"

"Shall we meet tonight then?" Mint asked, still smiling but deep inside, she was flexing her telepathic abilities.

"Tonight is fine, Blancmanche-san."

"Please, call me Mint." She kept that smile on, controlling Edward's mind was of very, very little challenge to her. She then began to bounce happily away. "It's a date then! I'll see you tonight!"

"Damn she's cute…" Edwards commented to himself, watching her walk away. "A little too cute…"

…

"I'll rule the world! And everyone!" Naru sang to the tone of 'Joy to the World' as she rode on the ENE's deadliest weapon. "You will bow down to ME!"

It was a horrible sight, that massive, foul-smelling, mechanical cockroach stomping its way through the SASA border defenses. Those massive antennae literally cutting their way through anything and everything that the SASA military could throw at them. Within the horrid jaws were powerful warhead launchers that blasted missiles in every direction. Sitting atop it was Empress Naru, the vindictive and insane lord of the Evil Naru Empire, with a man embedded into a marble slab not far behind. Odd was that part of him, a third 'thumb' in the lower half of the body was still organic. She laughed madly and gleefully as she watched the SASA peasants scamper away from her weapon, the Death Roach.

"Empress…please let me go me…" Kebinu, now sealed ALMOST completely as a marble slab, with the only part unsealed being the part of him that Naru hired him for in the first place. "I don't want to be a marble slab anymore…"

"That's the price for failing me Kebinu."

"But they didn't get the Book of Shadows!" Kebinu whimpered. "They got a cookbook!"

"No! I checked! The Book of Shadows is gone!" Naru laughed before breaking into another song as she saw the people running away from her, now to the tune of 'Come All Ye Faithful'. "Oh come, all ye fearful! Tremble as I crush you! Oh come ye, oh come ye to be destroyed! Come and behold my evil giant cockroach!"

"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!" Leon D.S. Geeste, The Butcher, the new Imperial Ambassador was in the head of the Death Roach, piloting it. He took particular glee in crushing the humans, especially children, with the legs of the Death Roach. He was not even half the Butcher he was when he slaughtered Kana's village but he was a Butcher nonetheless. "Die you stupid little humans!"

"Oh come and be destroyed now! Oh come and be destroyed now!" Naru was still singing to the tone of 'Come All Ye Faithful'. Oh come and be destroyed now you stupid humans!"

"My Empress is a sick, twisted psychopath…" Kebinu sighed. "But at least I get laid!"

…

"I don't believe this!" Baka-Alaskan paced around his office worriedly. "Shinobu-sama is missing, Su-sama is once more working on something underground and the ENE is invading! I can't believe this is happening! My plans are being screwed over!"

"That really serves you right you know." Shiara, the Sadistic Shadow appeared from the shadows. "You plot behind the back of a sweet woman like your goddess like that is just despicable."

"Wrong! I am a patriot! I have done nothing but plan for the glory of Shinobu-sama!" Baka-Alaskan then revealed that he possessed what Talon and Silver went to Hinata Sou for, the Book of Shadows. "And even a setback like this cannot stop me!"

"Is that the Book of Shadows? Wait, you're after the Necronomicon too…" Shiara then realized what he was planning. "No…you can't possibly…"

"Oh yes. I do intent to summon forth the sealed power of the Light of Evil." Baka-Alaskan grinned maniacally. "The light at the end of the long, dark tunnel will fill that tunnel once more, annihilating everything in its path."

"You're mad! That's the reason why the two books were separated in the first place!" Shiara saw the mad glimmer in Baka-Alaskan's eyes. He was beyond madness, beyond patriotism; he was now, simply put, pure evil. And yet, he sincerely thought he was doing what was good for Shinobu. Shiara took out her dagger, prepared to stop him from his mad plans, even at the risk of her own life. "The Light of Evil must never be released upon the world again!"

The Light of Evil, the very mention of this would fill anyone who knew of its power with a cold sweat. It was the light of The Morningstar, the vicious creature of chaos and destruction. It was centuries ago when the goddesses, working together for the first and last time in their existence, to seal The Morningstar's power, the Light of Evil, for all eternity. It required two books, the Necronomicon, which held the secrets of the realm of the dead, and the Book of Shadows, which holds the secrets of the magic that created the universe in the first place. Shiara learned of this power through her mentor, Kanako and her dark consort, Kana. She could only imagine that absolute evil.

"All hail, the swords rebel," the madman began to quote an incantation from the book. "Let nothing pierce this immortal shell!"

"Damn you!" Shiara's eyes flared as her blade broke upon making contact with the shield of pure light. She could see Baka-Alaskan's pleased grin through that light. "You're insane! You'll kill us all, you nut!"

"Now, you die." The mad Prime Regent of the SASA grinned. "By nature's hand, by crafts of dark, what once was one…now FLY APART!"

Shiara saw the horror. The Book of Shadows, a collection of mystical incantations that held half of the power needed to seal the Light of Evil within. She was struck by a powerful, destructive wave of energy. She was hurled by this power through solid rock walls. As she summoned the shadows around her, as Kanako taught her to so well, the rocks suddenly crumbled over her. The madman, Baka-Alaskan moved past the rubble that covered her, thinking her dead. Slowly, Shiara used the shadows to slip out of the rubble that threatened to crush her if she stayed there any longer. She was bloodied, wounded, dying but she knew she had a job to do. Baka-Alaskan was coming for the Necronomicon. He was coming for Kana.

"I…have…to….warn…them…" she struggled to take every step. In her condition and being a mere human, she knew that she could not use the shadows to take her all the way to the Cathedral. She had to run to the closest faction headquarters she could think off. "I…have…to…get…to…Talon's…citadel…"

To Be Continued…

Kanako: Edwards, She's the GA Mint. *takes a deep breath* Oh yes. This little War is coming close to taking a very, very twisted turn. I'm not going to kill everyone and give an honorable, respectable death to those one or two who are going to die. Next episode! Tama-zilla versus Death Roach! Naru continues her invasion of the SASA! Kana begins the invasion of the KoM while the KoM are busy "crusading" against the KFH! And Talon calls a...ceasefire? Oh, and Kebinu, never mind Kana's appearance in "Road Trip". He says he wants to maintain minimal involvement with fanfiction.net once he leaves. Minimal meaning reviewing the occasional story and no more SIs. By the way, I will be ending this war sooner than expected. This chaos is really starting to bore me. I had an event in mind that would result in mass destruction but with many of the characters surviving. While the War was slated to go on after that, it would be rather anti-climactic. So, you guys will have to make the events that follow on your own. By the way, prequels have been cancelled too. Now, for something serious...