Chapter Sixteen: Battle in hell
Guy's head reeled from Gades's Destruction Wave. He leaned heavily on his sword, gasping for breath after burning breath.
"You aren't giving up yet, are you?" Dekar asked. Though there was a trace of his usual dry humor in the question, Guy could hear uncharacteristic genuine concern as well.
"By no means!" Guy said. "I'm just conserving strength for my ultimate attack!"
"You mean you are keeping down to prevent your ultimate defeat!" Gades mocked. Guy and Dekar had been fighting the giant warrior for some time now. Both warriors were soaked in sweat. However, Gades's strength and endurance were befitting of the title of Sinistral. He did not even seem winded yet.
"Taste my blade, Gades!" Guy yelled. He flew at the warrior, swinging his blade in a wide arc. It would have been a critical hit on any ordinary monster. However, Gades was a giant, with power to match. Guy's blow did not even faze him.
"You foolish humans are nothing against me!" Gades thundered.
"Ah, but you forget that you are up against the strongest man in the world!" Dekar baited him. "Take this!" With that, Dekar rushed the Sinistral. His blade was a silver blur. He managed to slice Gades's face. Blood gushed from the slash.
"Damn you!" Gades growled. "I will keep this scar as a badge of your defeat!"
"Don't be so sure," Dekar warned him. "It might end up as a mark of your defeat instead!" The warrior crouched, a golden energy building up around him. "Take this! Blast Master!" Gades reeled from the impact and sank to his knees.
"Impossible!" he rasped, his breath like a bellows. "What is this ki?"
Dekar crossed his arms with a self-satisfied smirk. Guy, meanwhile, rushed in, intending to strike the finishing blow. Before he could, Gades vanished. Guy stopped where the Sinistral had knelt. "Erim…"
Dekar looked at him quizzically.
"Erim must have taken him to heal his wounds," Guy said. "Damn her!"
"Forget about that," Dekar said. "Let's go help Artea and Lexis! They could probably use it."
"Okay," Guy said, taking up the sword Gades had dropped. The two warriors set off at a jog.
"You know, Guy," Dekar said. "I was just thinking. Perhaps I should have gone to Doom Island instead of you."
Guy's temper flared with indignation. "Gades would have crushed you like a bug," the blonde warrior countered. By this time, they had reached Lexis and Artea, whose battle was still going strong.
"Hey Artea! Lexis!" Guy called. "We thought you could use some help!"
"By all means," Lexis beckoned to them with a smile.
"Our mission is a success," Artea said, closing his eyes. "Maxim has been revived and so has Selan. Isn't it wonderful to feel their ki again, Guy?"
"Huh? They were revived? When?"
"Only moments ago," Artea said, raising an eyebrow.
"Ohh," said Guy. "I guess I wasn't paying attention, what with rescuing Dekar from Gades and all."
Dekar glared at Guy. "You know you're only making it harder for yourself. Wait 'til we have our fight!"
"Hah!" Guy said, turning to the golden-clad Sinistral of Chaos.
"Shut up, you two!" Lexis admonished the arguing warriors. "He's about to cast Ice Valk!"
Guy and Dekar looked at one another with mock anger that quickly dissolved into sheepish grins. "How could you go wrong, Lexis?" Dekar said. "After all, you do have the strongest man in the world fighting on your side!" Lexis and Artea rolled their eyes.
Meanwhile, Amon finished the incantation for Ice Valk. The Ice Queen materialized in a gust of frigid air. Guy's skin pebbled, slowly losing sensation. The Ice Queen was incredibly powerful when able to channel her spell through Amon's energy. Snow began to build up beneath the party's feet. However, the Ice Queen did not even seem tired.
"We have to disrupt this spell somehow!" Lexis shouted over the din of Ice Valk. "We're going to freeze at this rate!"
"Leave that to me!" Dekar said with a wink. He drew back and flung his axe – since his weapon had broken on the Copper Dragon's scales, he always carried a spare – right at the queen. She opened her eyes, sensing in the wind that the axe was whirling end over end straight at her. She gasped and made her escape. The axe smashed into Amon's armor with a clang. The Sinistral muttered a guttural curse.
"Got it!" Dekar said with a smile.
"Our turn now!" Lexis said.
"Zap!" Artea shouted. The white triangle formed underneath Amon's feet, locking him in place. An explosion ripped through his body. The Sinistral grunted.
"Star dust blow!" Lexis shouted. Flames erupted from the scientist's hands in a spectacular array of gold and white.
"When did you learn that spell?" Artea gasped.
"I had just enough ki built up from the damage Amon dealt me," Lexis said. "This jewel enabled me to focus that energy to make that attack."
"Truly the magic in this cave is beyond wonder!" Artea remarked with a distant look in his eyes. Guy did not need to ask to know that the elf was thinking of his vanished ring.
"Hmph!" Dekar scoffed. "Magic is all well and good. But I am of the opinion that nothing beats swords and strength. Don't you agree with me, Guy?"
"Most definitely," Guy said. He raised the sword that he had taken from the site where Gades had fallen. "Octo Strike!" The blonde warrior flew at Amon, the sword coming alive in his hands. Silver ki radiated from the blade like sharp pinwheels. Guy himself was a mere blur as he slashed at Amon once, twice, three times.
"Incredible," Dekar whispered as he watched Guy cleave Amon's mystical armor.
"Four, five, six, seven, eight!" Lexis counted incredulously. "Guy has improved upon his sword technique much since he fought Gades. I suppose that watching the Sinistral in action awoke some old fire inside of him."
"Or perhaps it was the sword he took up after the Sinistral fell," Dekar commented wryly.
Having completed Octo Strike, Guy returned to the ranks of the party. He was breathing hard, and sweat shone on his skin.
"Most impressive, Guy," Dekar said. "Now, Amon, it's time for you to face the strongest man in the world!"
"Oh gods! Not that speel again," Guy groaned, sheathing his sword.
"Prepare yourself, pompous insect," Amon rumbled. "Chaos Wave!"
Dekar, his mind set on using blast master, was thrown to the ground as Amon's energy wave broke free.
"Brace yourself!" Artea shouted. Invisible waves of energy crashed into the party, chipping away at their mental defenses,. Artea, Lexis, and Guy were prepared for Amon's attack. Guy and Artea had seen it before, and Lexis knew from his extensive research what the ki of a Sinistral could do. Dekar, however, was distracted and knew nothing of what Chaos Wave entailed. As it was, the wave knocked him – strongest man in the world though he was –off his feet. Amon laughed cruelly.
"Dekar! Are you okay?" Lexis gasped. The scientist rushed to the warrior's side, remembering all too well the last time Dekar had fallen.
"Lexis!" Artea shouted. "Stay back! You don't know what Amon's spell has done!"
His warning was too late. Barely had Lexis touched Dekar's motionless shoulders when the warrior jumped to his feet. In the process, he shoved Lexis to the ground. The scientist looked up at Dekar in shock, who had his sword held before him as if he meant to attack him.
"Dekar!" Lexis shouted. "Don't you know me?"
In reply, Dekar ran the blade through Lexis's shoulder. Lexis gasped as Dekar jerked his sword free. Frantically the scientist pressed his hand to the gouge in his shoulder in an attempt to staunch the wound. Blood stained his lab coat red.
"Lexis!" Guy yelled. The blonde warrior dashed to his side to defend him.
"Mwa hah hah hah!" Amon roared. "That's right, you fool! Attack your friends until they DIE!"
Guy's sword crashed into Dekar's in a shower of sparks. Dekar shrugged off the blow and swung at Guy, who parried. Lexis's fingers drizzled red.
"Dammit!" Artea cursed. With the three of them out of the battle, that left him to face Amon. The other three were perfect targets for Amon's attacks. Sweat ran down Artea's face. If only Maxim could help us, he thought desperately, though he knew that Maxim was locked in his own battle with Daos. That left the elf to do what he could against the Sinistral…alone.
{****}
Ki shook the ground and rattled every bone inside of Maxim's body. He thought that he would pass out from the prolonged exertion. Nonetheless, he knew that he could not forfeit this battle, any more than he could forfeit the last battle in Doom Island. Thus far, however, Daos had only been toying with him, battling him with ki alone. The Sinistral had not even needed to draw his sword.
"Surrender, puny man-being!" Daos sneered. "You aren't the victor of this battle!" As if to prove his point, Daos sent a high concentration of ki against Maxim. Maxim reeled at the unexpected move and dropped to his knees. Sweat stung his eyes and stuck to his hair. Nonetheless, he maintained his own barrier of ki. He found it an exquisite and somewhat regrettable irony that battle was the first task that awaited him upon his resurrection.
"No!" Maxim growled, lacking the strength to say much else.
"What?" Daos roared. "You dare to defy me?!?!"
"Yes!" Maxim answered, spitting blood to one side. "And I will continue to do so until the moment I die again!"
"That moment is soon coming, human!" Daos warned. "Prepare yourself!"
{****}
Why did she do it? Selan wondered, holding Tia's staff in her hand. As the blue-haired woman attacked Erim, Selan watched her closely. She loved Maxim as much as I did. Yet she restored my life too… A strange feeling came over the green-haired warrior woman, so strong that it became energy with which she could fight. Suddenly Selan knew the words to all the spells to which the cave erased the memory. We three are a triangle, she realized. Nothing else in the world connects us, save for the love of one man…Maxim. And that connection is so powerful that it led us here…
Selan could sense Erim's ki, dark, mysterious, even evil… Yet within the Mistress of Death, she could sense another presence as well. To her dismay, this being, too, loved Maxim. Then Selan knew that the Mistress of Death was growing weaker from her costly resurrections that she had performed.
Together, Selan suddenly understood, Tia and I, and that woman who is inside of the Mistress of Death, we three will rise against the Mistress of Death to destroy her.
{****}
Artea leaned heavily on his spear and bent to one side. Tremendous rasps shook his frame as he coughed up blood. Terror twisted his heart. Amon, out of cruel pleasure, had targeted Artea exclusively while Dekar fought against Guy. Artea was feeling the ill-effects of Amon's attacks to the point where he feared he might pass out. Three rounds of battle had passed. Artea knew that they had no curative items for Dekar's madness. Guy had his hands full with dealing with the strongest man in the world, and Lexis had his own wound to worry about. However, none of Artea's attacks against Amon were effective. Amon had learned to defuse Zap and to disrupt the elf's summoning spells Firebird and Ice Valk. Artea knew he was no match for the Sinistral in hand to hand combat. I have to do something! Artea thought frantically as his head began to spin. Blearily he looked to Guy and Dekar's battle. The two of them were crouched over their swords, their eyes smoldering. Lexis looked remarkably pale. Artea suspected that Amon's Chaos Wave had poisoned the scientist. And, as luck would have it, the party had no antidotes either.
Artea was about to despair when he saw the opening between Dekar and Guy. If he could just slip in and attack Dekar, the pain might free him from Amon's terrifying phantasms. The elf turned his back on Amon just as Dekar's Blast Master went off. The elf gasped in pain as dirt and flame showered over him in turns. He ran a hand over his brow where a huge gash had opened up. Blood stung his eyes. However, that was nothing compared to the beating that Guy and Lexis had taken. Lexis was bent double over a gaping wound. Guy's skin was raw from Dekar's Blast Master explosion.
Artea's skin crawled with the harrowing way that the battle was going. "Champion!" He could not help but include Dekar in the spell's range. He supposed it was for the better, since he would be attacking him in the next minute. Just as the color returned to Lexis and Guy's faces, Artea stole to Dekar's side with the stealth of a stalking cat. "Forgive me, Dekar," the elf whispered. Dekar's face was no longer ghastly white from poisoning, but his clothes were in tatters. Artea noticed an old wound on the warrior's left side. The elf grimaced stabbed at the weak flesh. Dekar's scream pierced deeper than the elf's enchanted spear did. Artea reeled away from the warrior wondering if he had killed him. Blood fountained from the opened wound. Dekar swayed and dropped his sword so that he could cover the wound with both hands. His jaw was tight and his eyes wide from pain. However, Artea could tell that Dekar was no longer in Amon's thrall.
"We must get back to the battle!" the elf yelled.
Guy and Lexis spared Dekar a sympathetic looked as they staggered back to Amon with Artea. Amon chuckled. "Are you prepared to do that again?" the Sinistral asked. "I have a special attack that I've prepared just for you – even made it stronger with the fear you are radiating. Chaos Wave!"
Once again invisible energy tore through the group like a riptide. Artea felt his mind getting dragged along against his will. He gripped his spear tighter, allowing his ki to build. At the last possible moment he released it just in time to deflect Amon's power. He did not stop to see what the Chaos Wave had done to his comrades.
"Dragon!" Artea screamed. His spear flared with pale blue. The energy was so immense that it knocked him to the ground. From the spear emerged a dragon, fully as large as Amon himself, formed of shining water. The dragon halted before Amon and screamed its challenge. Amon raised his spear. The dragon, however, clamped down on the end of the spear and tore it from the Sinistral's hands. Amon growled, exerting ki to tear the dragon apart. The dragon's outline wavered. Then, with a sound like an ocean wave crashing on the rocks, the dragon broke into a million droplets. Artea cried out in dismay, and he looked again at his wounded comrades. Ki flared from the elf's body. The dragon droplets sparkled and reassembled. The embodiment of Artea's ire, the dragon dove at Amon. The Sinistral raised his arm to block the blow, but the beast smashed into him. This time the particles of the dragon entered Amon's body. Light began to shine from within the Sinistral. He fell to his knees, moaning as the beast devoured him from within. Artea watched, horrified, as Amon vanished with a gurgling gasp.
"Erim again," Guy said bitterly. "We must defeat her, or this battle will never end!"
Artea refrained from pointing out that even though they had beaten the Mistress of Death on Doom Island, her defeat in no way ensured the end of the conflict with the Sinistrals. "Are all of you alright?" Artea asked.
Lexis struggled to his feet, swaying slightly from the poisoning he had incurred. "I'll live," he said, straightening his cracked glasses. "That was quick thinking on your part, Artea," the scientist said. "How about you, Guy?"
"I think I'm getting old," Guy muttered, looking at the notches in his sword from his fight with Dekar. "How is the strongest man in the world faring?"
Dekar groaned and said nothing. His wound had not stopped weeping. The warrior's face was ashen.
"Dekar," Lexis whispered. "It's the old wound that the other Tia…no…Erim couldn't heal. Will you let me take a look at it? I might not be able to heal it right now… But I can make the bleeding stop."
Dekar shook his head. "We don't have time for that," he insisted, stubbornly rising to his feet. The effort proved too much for him, however, and he hunched over.
"Don't strain yourself!" Lexis warned him. "If you do, the damn thing might never close!"
"He is right, however," Artea said. "Truly, we have no time. We have as long as it takes Erim to cast her foul healing." The elf's tones had no emotion in them whatsoever.
"Please trust me, Lexis," Dekar pleaded. "I can make it to Erim. And I'll stay in the back!"
Lexis shook his head. "I couldn't bear it if I had to tell Tia that you perished here after all."
Dekar flushed at the mention of Tia's name. "That's right…Tia. She's fighting Erim right now, isn't she? Come on!" Dekar urged them. "We have to go give her a hand!"
"There's no arguing with an idiot," Guy remarked.
"Hey! I heard that!" Dekar snapped.
"At least press this against the wound," Lexis said, handing Dekar a handkerchief. "Might as well make an effort to close it..."
"Yes, yes!" Dekar said rather ungratefully, for Artea and Guy had already started to follow Erim's trail of ki.
"And Dekar," Lexis persisted. "Be careful! No Blast Masters or throwing axes this time, okay?"
"Okay, already! I'm the strongest man in the world!" Dekar said. "I'm not going to let a little cut take me down!"
{****}
Selan could sense Artea and Guy's ki as they approached the rapidly ending battle with Erim. The Mistress of Death was already weak from casting countless resurrections. With Tia and Selan against her from without and Iris fighting her from within, the battle's outcome was not in the Sinistral's favor. Throughout the fight, Selan was able to admire how much stronger Tia had become, how her true potential shined. As Selan was about to cast the final blow that would defeat Erim, she was grateful that the Doom Island Four would all be together to face Daos. She could feel that Maxim would need their help.
"Fire Storm!" Flames rained from Selan's sword as she struck at Erim, steel and sorcery woven together in an undefeatable technique. The sickening sweet scent of charred flesh filled the air. Erim screamed. Her ki shot off sporadically. Selan countered with her own burst of energy, protecting herself and Tia. Erim gave ground, backing away slowly. Selan sensed that she was about to make her escape. She wondered if it was true that only the Dual Blade could truly defeat the Sinistrals. The green-haired woman felt the presence of Iris, who was depleting Erim's energy from within. Finally Erim gave in and vanished in the chime of a warp.
"Where did she go?" Tia gasped.
"To lick her wounds," Selan said. Abruptly she realized that the situation was not good. The Sinistrals could run to the ends of the earth after defeat. It still took the Dual Blade to dispatch them completely.
"What's wrong, Selan?" Guy asked as he and Artea joined the girls.
"We need the Dual Blade," Selan said. "Our power alone really isn't enough!"
"That can't be!" Guy protested.
"We'll see," Artea said. "It sounds perfectly probable to me."
"Come on," Selan said. "Maxim is fighting with Daos over there. I bet that where we find Daos, we'll find Erim as well."
{****}
Maxim's ki ran through him so swift
and furious that he felt that he must lose control of the power. He panted, trying frantically to overpower
Daos.
The Sinistral smirked. "You are mighty, mortal man. But before me, you are still as a worm, though you are the greatest of your species."
At last Daos did what Maxim had been hoping he would do, drawing on his blade. However, Maxim wasn't certain how much more of Daos's power he could withstand. Nonetheless, he persisted although Daos's power smashed even hope. The Sinistral focused his energy in the blade and easily cut through Maxim's defense. The impact flung Maxim backwards. He smashed his head against the cave floor. His vision swam. Dimly he could hear his friends approaching. He could also make out the hum of Daos's ki as he built up his power. No! he thought frantically. Please, stay back!
{****}
"Maxim!" Selan cried out. Tears ran down her face.
"Oh no," Tia whispered when she saw that Maxim had fallen.
"Come on, Artea!" Guy shouted. "We have to go help him!"
Their weapons raised, Guy and Artea dashed towards Daos, not heeding the Sinistral's energies. Before they could reach him, a flash burst before their eyes. A green-haired woman clad in red materialized. "Wait!" she begged them. "Do not rush carelessly into the arms of death! You who are half of the Doom Island Four!"
"Iris?" Artea gasped in disbelief.
"Get out of our way!" Guy snarled. "We're no good as the Doom Island Four if Maxim isn't with us!"
"Just trust in me," Iris commanded him, bowing her head. "Maxim isn't going anywhere if I have a say in it."
"But you're the Mistress of Death!" Guy protested. "Why would you help us?"
"I am Iris," Iris replied to Guy's confusion. "Erim is the Mistress of Death. Now do you see?"
"A split personality," Artea mused.
"Huh?" Guy said.
"Oh forget it," Artea said.
{****}
Maxim… The gentle voice in his mind…he felt that he knew it from somewhere. Then memories melded.
Iris!
Yes, Maxim. It is I. Listen. The Doom Island Four are mighty beings. But the Sinistrals cannot be completely dispatched without the Dual Blade.
So it is true… Maxim remembered the three Mystic Stones he had destroyed to save Parcelyte from being crushed by Doom Island. The third stone had claimed both the warrior's life and his sword.
That does not matter, Maxim, Iris said, knowing these things as she always had. The Dual Blade is more than a tangible weapon. It is also energy, which you can call to you in times of crisis. Admittedly, it takes powerful resolve. But I think that you and your friends can do it.
Iris wait! She was gone. Maxim opened his eyes to see his friends standing outside of Daos's barrier. Selan! Tell everyone to focus their hearts on me! Iris has told me a way that I can call back the Dual Blade!
{****}
But Maxim! Can you beat Daos on your own?
I won't be alone! This sword will embody all of your strength! Everyone's! All they can give! Even Tia, Lexis, and Dekar!
I think I understand, Maxim! Be ready! Selan opened her eyes. "Everyone," she said in an ominous tone. "This is the deciding moment. We cannot get past Daos's barrier to fight. However, we can send our ki. It will embody our wishes and help Maxim to carry them out." Selan closed her eyes. Silver ki blazed from her body like sunlit frost.
"Maxim," Artea whispered, adding his ki to Selan's. Guy too added his ki to the warrior woman's. By this time, the energy that Selan had amassed had begun to throb.
"I think that Maxim will need your energy too," Artea said, looking at Tia, Lexis, and Dekar.
"Okay," Tia said. She closed her eyes tightly. For a moment, nothing happened. Then ki flashed about her, fading in and out. Gradually it stayed until it formed a solid aura about her.
"Me too," Dekar said. "And no, I won't overexert myself, Lexis," the warrior said. Like Tia's, his ki flickered like a candle at first, eventually solidifying. By this time, Artea, Selan, and Guy had raised their ki to the next level. The ball of ki that hung suspended above Selan's hands had expanded so much that she could not have wrapped her arms around it. When Dekar added his energy, sparks began to flare at the edges. Tiny rings began to branch off the edges, zipping and hissing before they returned to the orb that was their source.
"It doesn't seem very scientific," Lexis admitted. "But I might as well give it a shot. Who knows? This might be my next breaking theory." The scientist's ki ruffled his bangs and stirred his lab coat. The collected power had grown so much that Selan needed Artea's help to keep it from going off like a bomb.
"The concentration of this thing is enormous," Artea said, straining to contain it. "But it's still not enough! We need more power!" The elf closed his eyes. "Truly, the potential of the Dual Blade must be beyond all measure!"
"This is as hard as fighting," Guy wheezed.
"Please hurry, everyone," Selan pleaded. "The Dual Blade will do no good if Maxim is not alive to use it!" Her urgent plea woke a secret reserve of power in the Doom Island four. Selan's body began to shine white. The sparkle passed to Artea and then to Guy. The accumulated energy that Selan and Artea held expanded yet again in the violent fashion of a growing star. "Guy!" Selan gasped. "We need your help here!"
"No sweat!" Guy said. "Whoa," he said as he put his hands underneath the ki. "This is amazing! How did Maxim ever control a blade of such power?" the warrior marveled.
"He is an incredible man," Tia said, placing her own hands underneath the ki. The energy became to rumble and sputter. We're almost there, Selan realized. "Lexis, Dekar…come over here and help us send this thing off!"
The scientist and the warrior did so. The ki flashed beneath the fan of outstretched hands. Ghostly
silver gave way to solid white. The white pulsated and turned blue. "Now!" Selan shouted, though she wasn't really certain what would happen next. She turned, barely able to glimpse Maxim through the massive barrier Daos had woven. "Send this energy to Maxim," she told everyone. "He's the only who can make it ring like the Dual Blade!"
They launched the ki, which was simultaneously heavy and light in the odd nature of energy, at the barrier. "Get back!" Artea warned. "There might be an explosion when the two powers collide!"
The party scurried out of the way. Only Selan and Tia remained, dangerously close to the barrier, to make certain that Maxim got the energy. Roaring and rumbling, ki strained against ki. The barrier held fast before the ki that Maxim's friends had gathered. "It can't make it through," Tia whispered in dismay.
The orb continued to strain against the blockade. At length, it drew back almost to where Selan and Tia stood. Then it lurched forward, gathering speed to crash into the barrier. When the orb hit, the resulting explosion knocked Tia and Selan off their feet. The two women recovered quickly, however. They grinned at one another in triumph. The energy formed of their wishes had broken through Daos's barrier.
{****}
Maxim panted raggedly. Daos perceived his weakness and brought his sword smashing down around him. He only gouged a hole in the ground and notched the blade. Maxim rolled away to safety. I don't know how much longer I can keep this up, he thought. Without the Dual Blade, Daos was a nearly impossible opponent. Maxim supposed that the Dual Blade had given him some sort of insight and increased agility. Or perhaps it wasn't the Dual Blade at all, but the presence of his friends fighting at his side. It didn't really matter, however. Maxim knew when he was beaten, and this was one of those moments. Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Maxim prepared to make his last stand. An explosion from behind him knocked him flat. He lay on the ground, his lungs on fire. Daos, too, had been caught in the blast of unknown origin. He covered his eyes with his hands, groaning in pain. Maxim looked around to see if he could find a source from the powerful ki. Then he saw her, the woman in red.
"Iris," Maxim said. "Are you here to fight alongside Daos?"
"No," Iris replied in her gentle voice that gave no clue to her great power. "I am here…for you."
"For me? I don't understand."
"I bring a gift for you…from your friends." Iris spread her hands. Ki bloomed from her palms in such bounty that Maxim was startled. "It is up to you what you do with it. Open your hands and receive it."
Startled, Maxim did so. "What do I do with it?" he asked her.
"That is a vast amount of ki," Iris said as she walked away. "Think of what I said to you before about the Dual Blade."
Suddenly Maxim understood what she was talking about. "Thank you, Iris," he said. He studied the ki in his hands. He could sense the energies of the other Doom Island Four as if they stood right by his side. Yet there were other powers mingled here as well. "Dekar…Lexis…and…Tia!" Maxim's own ki flared with renewed vigor until he appeared as a man aflame. At the sight of the new light, Daos moaned and hid his face in his cloak. Maxim added his own power to the substantial ki, molding it, working it without method, without knowledge. Somehow he knew he was searching for the Dual Blade in the midst of all this gathered power. At last he felt the pommel in his hand. Because the light had faded, Daos dared to show his face again. His cold eyes were unreadable when he saw that Maxim had a weapon at last.
"So, Maxim… You at last managed to call a weapon to you. Not that it will do you much good as insubstantial as it is." The Sinistral laughed cruelly. "Come. Let us finish this!" He swung his sword at Maxim. Moments before, Maxim would have dodged the blow. This time, however, he raised his own sword to parry. The blade, he noticed was transparent. Within it swirled ghostly particles that looked like blizzard snows. However, Maxim knew they were particles of ki. His sword met Daos's with a crash. With more strength than he knew he had left, Maxim shoved back at Daos's enormous sword. Daos swore as Maxim shrugged off his blow.
"Damn you!" the Sinistral roared. "What weapon have you summoned to you?"
Just as the Sinistral asked the question, the spectral sword in Maxim's hand began to emit a silver-blue aura. To his horror, the Sinistral could make out a low ringing, the sound which only the most powerful of ki could make. "No! It is impossible!"
"Then you have the impossible before you!" Maxim shouted, beginning an attack of his own. The sword became a silver arch. Sparks flew from both blades at they met in crashes that resounded to the ends of the chamber.
"It cannot be…" Daos rasped.
"Yes!" Maxim paused, his eyes locking with Daos's. "It is the Dual Blade, reborn from the wishes and ki of the Doom Island Four and the other people who are dear to me! You Sinistrals will never prevail against us!"
"How is that so? Power is power, no matter who wields it. And who is more fitting for it? A puny man being, or a mighty Sinistral?" Daos swung his sword wildly. Maxim's heart caught in his throat as he parried strike for strike. Though Daos had yet to land a blow on him, he knew that he was losing ground. The Dual Blade would do him no good if he were destroyed by Daos's hellacious barrier.
"You Sinistrals are mighty by yourselves, it is true…" Maxim conceded. "But you are solitary beings! You have no feelings for one another!"
"Those things are marks of weaknesses appropriate for humans like you!" Daos retorted. Golden sparks flew from his blade. Maxim shuddered under the ferocious blow.
"They can be weaknesses," Maxim agreed. "But…they are also the thing that unites us in battle! Our comrades are the reason we fight on when we despair, the reason we have faith despite our doubts!"
"Nonsense!" Daos snarled, having little breath for anything but fighting now.
Maxim began to gain ground again. "You are fooling yourself not believing me, Daos. Just as we humans fool ourselves when we deny your existence! The proof is before you in me and the reborn Dual Blade!" Maxim feinted to the left. Daos clumsily attempted to parry. Maxim slashed the Sinistral of Terror on his left side. A river of blood ran from the wound.
Daos grunted. "I will never concede that such feeble beings can wield the Dual Blade!"
"That's as may be," Maxim said. Power blazed from his bloodied sword and shone red in his eyes. "But together, we 'weak' humans, as you call us, are capable of anything – even overcoming Super Beings like you!"
"No!" Daos gasped, backing away from Maxim. The light of the Sinistral's sword was slowly dying. "Erim, damn you!" Daos hissed through his clenched teeth.
"Wave Motion!" Maxim's sword resonated with a ringing like an anvil on a fiery forge.
Daos screamed, clutching at his head. "Stop the sound! Stop the sound! Erim!"
A red aura arose around Maxim as his wounds and weariness disappeared. "I shall end this for you, Daos," Maxim growled. His eyes blazed with the fires of the Dual Blade. With that, Maxim raised the blade and brought it crashing down, cleaving the Sinistral's life from him. His opponent vanquished, Maxim nearly collapsed. He rammed the Dual Blade into the ground, trying to stay upright. His breathing came painfully.
"Maxim! You did it!" Selan's voice at his side.
"We all believed in you," Artea said. "Thank goodness you came through for us." He smiled.
"It wasn't just me who fought the battle," Maxim reminded them. He raised the Dual Blade, watching the light dance inside of it. "I had all of you there with me." His face broke into a smile. "Thank you, everyone," he whispered.
"Maxim, are you getting emotional?" Guy asked teasingly.
"Leave him alone," Dekar said.
"That leaves one Sinistral for us to defeat," Tia said in a small voice. "Erim…"
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Hee hee. You know, Doc, I'm not really a fan of Maxim either. I laughed for almost a half an hour when I first saw his sprite (no joke!) I kept hoping he would die like Crono did so I could be rid of him for a while, but no joy. Sigh. I'm incredibly glad that you're still reading. Thx for sticking around and for your good wishes w/r to college. The gods know I'm going to need it. I'm such a spaz. ^_^