The Dark Brilliance
Chapter 3: First Hell
"If courage itself flees in terror, what more can be done?"
Lina gasped in horror and pain; an overwhelming wave of death seemed to sweep past her, ebbing from the darkness the creature throbbed. The Staff gleamed brilliantly in the darkness, the only source of light in the now hollow and sinister land. "It can't be!" she cried, in desperation, and in fear. "You can't have snatched the Staff of the Gods. It was destroyed long ago!"
Amelia shivered as she, Zelgadis, and Filia lost the will to cast the barriers. The once-strong protection vanished into nothingness; the darkness absorbed it, just as it had done with everything else. "It'll be all right..." Zelgadis assured Amelia, his own heart throbbing with uncertainty.
"No prophecy could have readied anyone for this..." Filia whispered.
Gourry still stood silent.
And Kyra still watched, cold and foreboding. She and Lina still levitated idly in the air.
"Do you not accept my challenge?" the creature asked again.
Kyra suddenly started. "Give the Staff to me!" she yelled. "You have no right to call upon the power of gods like that when you yourself are only a tool of hell!" Her voice dripped with a venom that had never been heard from her before.
The creature suddenly laughed, and it was terrible. Evil dispensed like water during a monsoon. Every person present felt its presence. "You fool. Hell is MY tool. But I've been ignorant. Did I even introduce myself?"
"Who would want to know the name of a disgusting worm like you?" Kyra spat, and the skull around her hair glowed even darker. Lina could only watch, dumbfounded, and unsure where the conversation would lead.
"You may call me Anguish. It is the closest translation I can get from the true me." Anguish smiled again, and his dead eyes reflected nothing. "I will not conceal my identity; I will not need to, since your deaths will mark my name forever, and it is better to know the name of the murderer, don't you think? I am the weakest of the Three that serve my Lord. You pathetic fools are not worthy of hearing His name, but it won't matter to you, in any case. I expect He is watching now. But you believe I am being unfair, with this Staff? Perhaps the power amplification is a bit too much...." he remarked, casually.
"What are you?!" Zelgadis suddenly shouted, from far below. "Why have you come to disrupt us in this sacred land???"
"Ah, company," smirked Anguish. "Isn't it bothersome?" Without a second thought, he suddenly blasted a tremendous sphere of dark power in the direction of Zelgadis and the others.
"No!" Lina shouted, snapping back into reality. She would never be able to get there in time. She wouldn't be able to save them. The energy was blasting closer. She didn't have time to think.
Gourry knew it was useless to run; it was obvious to him as a fighter that it was coming too fast for them to dodge. Amelia, Filia, and Zelgadis, without any further options, immediately reinstated their shields.
Kyra's eyes flared. "NO, IT WON'T WORK!" she screamed, realizing the power of the attack. In a blur of blue that Lina's eyes couldn't follow, she shifted through space, and shifted herself and the others away.
The explosion that followed was small, but the smell of destruction was unmistakable. To Lina's horror, after the smoke cleared, the land remained as it was, scorched and mutilated. The land could not heal. Would never heal.
Lina looked desperately around for her companions, but decided against it; Anguish would probably destroy her while she was exposed like that. All she could hear now was Anguish's dreadful laughter, echoing inside her being, tearing at her insides. It was impossible. That's what it was. All of the enemies she'd ever encountered, all of the mozaku that had been threatening the lives of herself and her friends... They'd always had some plan, some purpose, and had been tracking her for quite a while. But this thing - it had appeared out of nowhere, she had no idea what it wanted to kill her for, and within a few minutes had almost killed everyone she held dear. The monster.
"You!" she turned, eyes focused on Anguish.
The creature merely looked back on her with the cold, empty eyes. "Ah, yes. The Staff is unfair. Is that where we were? I'm dreadfully sorry." In one swift movement, he lifted up the Staff, and snapped it in half with the merest of movements, and then threw the vanquished tool to the ground. It landed with a dull thud on the ground, and then vanished; the power of the gods was defeated.
"What have you done?" Lina cried. "What is it that you want? Isn't there any purpose in what you do? You came here simply to destroy the most sought-after items in front of me, mocking me?"
"Oh, no," laughed Anguish. "That wouldn't be right at a-"
"HAH!" yelled Kyra, as she slammed her elbow into the creature's back. Anguish uttered a surprised squawk, and slammed into the ground below. Kyra motioned at Lina to run. "Hurry! I've moved the others to a safe location. It's true he wanted to hurt us by breaking the Staff here, but the breaking of the Staff is in itself very important. It means that apocalypse is already upon us, as you can see already, and that the world shall be split just like that Staff if evil isn't stopped."
Kyra grabbed onto Lina, who was still trying to pull herself together, and did the shifting movement. Lina suddenly felt like she was in two separate places, and her body moved through space as if taking a shortcut. Almost-
Suddenly, another dark blast flew through the air, very fast, and hit Lina. She gasped, and although she didn't feel intense pain, she felt as if a tiny bit of her soul had been burned away, like it was lacking something. Kyra had already disappeared; it seemed that the blast had caught the movement just when Lina was beginning to shift.
"What is it you WANT?!" Lina demanded, not at all sure of herself.
Anguish suddenly materialized a short distance from her, in the air. He was completely unharmed, though he looked vaguely amused. "You," he stated, and then shot the same type of enormous blast that Zelgadis and the others had almost gotten killed by.
A hand grabbed hold of Lina's arm from behind. She shifted.
Lina blinked. Her companions looked back at her, expressions of fear and worry on their faces. And surprisingly, Xellos was there as well.
"Miss Lina!" Amelia cried, running forward. "I'm so glad you're all right!"
Lina looked off into the distance; she could see Anguish as a speck, far away on the horizon. "It's all right," she reassured her.
"Were you injured?" inquired Zelgadis.
"No, everything's fine," lied Lina. She still felt the burning from the blast that had hit her - such cold evil... it was unbelievable.
While Gourry and Filia also joined the hurried conversation with Lina, Xellos looked off at the speck that was Anguish, unusually silent. Kyra, as well, regarded the distant menace coldly.
"I can feel its evil," Xellos whispered, mostly to himself. "Even the mozaku race doesn't have this kind of energy... its wrath is not of this world..."
He had materialized in the small clearing the Slayers were in a short while after Kyra had shifted them there. Although he was away, mostly sulking, he felt an urgent sense of despair back where the Slayers were, and had teleported back to their location. Although they had been surprised, they had hastily filled him in on what had happened, while Kyra went back to rescue Lina.
"You're right," Kyra nodded, surprising Xellos, who hadn't thought anyone was listening. "It's too ancient to be of this world."
"But... what is it?" Xellos asked, cautiously.
"It is the essence of evil, not truly an individual lifeform, if you can even begin to call it 'life'. It is merely made with the fabric of true evil - that which is called the Dark Brilliance. But you're a monster, are you not? Why should you care?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu," Xellos managed to reply, although his voice trembled a bit. It's true - the purpose of the monster race was to destroy everything, and return it to chaos, but this being - it was simply wrong.... as if its very existence defied all natural laws. Even Xellos, normally so uncaring, felt a strong sense that Anguish had to be stopped.
Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, and Filia rejoined the two, having had a brief discussion. "Are you going to help us, Xellos?" Lina asked, gesturing at the darkness that had long since swallowed the tranquility. "If you're against us now, you know that we're all doomed."
"You'd better make the right decision, namagomi," Filia half-threatened, reaching for her mace. It was strange, but its gleaming spikes, normally so dangerous, seemed curiously to make the Slayers feel nostalgic, rather than frightened, against the growing darkness in the sky.
Gourry, having been so silent for so long, suddenly smiled, causing everyone to stare at him. "Oh, c'mon. We don't have to be so harsh. We've fought battles like these before, haven't we?"
Lina sighed. "I'm not so sure about that... I don't even know what it is that we're facing."
"I'll aid you," Xellos stated bluntly, to the surprise of the others. "Lord Beastmaster had wanted me to investigate what the appearance of the Staff of the Gods meant, and now this... it would be my orders to fight against this thing, anyway. The mozaku race is meant to destroy the world, not THAT..."
Zelgadis gritted his teeth. "Xellos! You bring up destroying the world at a time like this?!"
Filia put back her mace. "Don't betray us," she said, loosely.
Xellos looked like he was going to say something back, but suddenly, Kyra's eyes glittered dangerously.
Another death-covered black blast soared toward the Slayers, and Kyra managed to put up a sky-blue ultra-barrier with a gesture of her hand. The darkness pushed against it, but her strength held, miraculously. "RUN!" she yelled.
"Don't you think you've been talking long enough?" Anguish chuckled. "I thought I'd give you a few moments to make your reunion or whatever that was dramatic... but I've grown bored..."
The Slayers took off, with Lina leading, and the others trailing behind her.
"Where are we going?" Filia asked, her eyes glancing nervously at Anguish, behind them.
"We can't stay together; that's for sure," yelled back Lina hurriedly. "We're much too easy targets if we're grouped!"
Demonic energy soared through the air at the Slayers once again, somehow glittering black against the darkness.
"Scatter!" Lina shouted, and they were barely able to move when the energy struck the ground again, rendering it unhealable as well.
"This is ridiculous!" muttered Lina in exasperation as she fled again. "This enemy may seem to be unbelievably powerful, but I can't keep running like this forever! I... I have to face it."
A wind picked up in the everlasting night, and it howled like a person going through horrible torture. Darkness as its source, it picked up, and blew savagely into the dead surroundings.
Lina suddenly turned around, and, with determination glowing in her eyes, decided. She grimaced, and then yelled out to the creature, "I accept your challenge!"
Anguish acknowledged this with interest, and another horrible laugh escaped his dead lips. Clearly, it had been expecting this all along. "Then let's try making things a bit more amusing now, shall we? Like, about these blasts... you all seem to be dodging them pretty easily - let's make them homing!" He grinned hideously.
"What?" Lina managed to say, before twin blasts of energy, each one several times larger than before, hurtled towards her. The air crackled with pain - the unending decay and destruction was straining the very threads of matter.
Zelgadis saw this event from a short distance away, and immediately began racing toward Anguish. There was no escape by hiding. He would catch that monster from behind...
Gourry witnessed the event from afar; he'd run to Lina's side and help; it'd be just like all the other battles they'd had... he hoped...
Amelia readied herself for a Ra Tilt, the most powerful attack in shamanism; she wanted to see just how powerful Anguish was...
Filia began to call upon the powers of Ceipheed. For a creature of this darkness, perhaps a spell of the gods would be the solution...
Xellos, the farthest away, began teleporting back as fast as he could... he would charge Anguish head on, and show the creature who the rightful destroyers were...
And Kyra watched the entire event from above. After Anguish had overpowered her barrier, she had shifted above everything. She would aid the Slayers at the crucial moment if needed...
The attack began. Lina cast twin Fireballs at the two approaching blasts, and then enabled a Ray Wing, flying as fast as she could towards Anguish. The two spells were harmlessly engulfed by the darkness, and the darkness followed her, the most perfect homing missiles.
Gourry ran full-out, and managed to almost get to Lina. Turning around, he held his Sword of Light to the ready. It had absorbed spells before; perhaps it would be able to do so again.
Lina let out a gasp of surprise when she saw him there. "No, go attack!" Gourry shouted as the blasts drew closer. Lina nodded, and then ran forth again. Anguish was only a tiny bit away, and he was still smiling, the cold, lifeless eyes as menacing as ever.
Suddenly, a huge blast of energy exploded around Anguish; the Ra Tilt had hit its target, and the creature managed an expression of surprise before Zelgadis impaled it with his Astral Vine attack. The atmosphere, dark as nightmares, brightened a bit as the holy spell Chaotic Disintegrate hit Anguish with its full force. Finally, an enormous dark wave of energy struck the creature with its full force - Xellos's attack. The mozaku then impaled Anguish with his staff, as if to punctuate the variety of attacks.
All of this had happened in a few seconds.
"Get out of the way!" Lina yelled; Xellos and Zelgadis jumped aside, and ran to safety as Lina readied fired her amplified spell - "DRAGON SLAVE!"
Even as the enormous blast of red energy coursed through the air, Lina knew that Anguish couldn't have died; he was too powerful, too invincible, too dark. Summoning the last of her strength, she managed to chant her final spell, with authority that a thousand bandits would have quailed under: "Sword of cold and darkness, free yourself from the heaven's bonds. Become one with my power, one with my body, and let us walk the path of destruction together. Power that can smash even the souls of the Gods! RAGNA BLADE" A full-powered Ragna Blade was suddenly held ready, in the trembling hands of the young sorceress.
Gourry, in the meantime, was struggling with the twin blasts that were pushing hard against the Sword of Light; the darkness couldn't be absorbed, and the swordsman couldn't take the pressure much longer. "Agh!" he yelled, trying to force the energy in the other direction. Lina ran forward with her Blade of Darkness, and swung it, absorbing the dark energy.
With one final cry, Lina Inverse hurled the chaotic energy into the explosions that were consuming Anguish's very being.
"Clear out!" Kyra ordered from above, to everyone's surprise. "ULTIMA FLARE!" The enormous blast surged through the air, making the darkness glow brilliantly, and then it hit the ground.
The ground exploded.
It didn't just explode; it seemed to disintegrate entirely. The enormous amount of power had finally connected together, and the shamanism, black magic, and holy magic complemented each other's might, increasing in immense magnitudes. The air and space around them began to crackle uncontrollably from the amount of energy released, and small explosions began erupting everywhere. The planet trembled uncontrollably; it hadn't felt this magnitude of power since the battle against Darkstar, and even then, the energies were far different from now.
Then, suddenly, the barrage's effects stopped. The smoke cleared. And Anguish was there. He was scorched terribly, and parts of his bones were visible. But his infinitely deep eyes were unharmed. To the Slayers' horror, they watched parts of him begin to heal almost immediately. The darkness he controlled swirled around him, and he used it to absorb into his being. His left arm, which was a battered, hanging mess, righted itself, and then all of the injuries healed.
Just as suddenly, he slumped forward to his knees. Gourry, taking this opportunity, lunged forward, and with one swift movement, stabbed the Sword through Anguish into the holy ground.
Suddenly, Anguish threw up his head and laughed, one last time, even as black darkness erupted from his mouth. "Don't you realize? Don't you see what you've done?" he choked, coughing up more dark energy. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! You're only part of a game; this is the first in the pattern! And all of the blasts you've fed me shall increase my master's strength. My purpose is fulfilled. I see now that I was never meant to kill you, Lina Inverse. I am the first pawn, the initiation of His plan. And as hell is my tool, I will never truly die. My essence now returns to the Dark Brilliance. And we shall meet again!"
In an instant, the darkness erupted in its entirety, and terrible fear, hatred, greed, jealousy, wrath, frustration, desperation, and countless other negativities soured through the air in every direction.
The Slayers, and Kyra, all dropped down to the ground at the power, their very souls feeling unbelievable pain and torment as they experienced all of mankind's negative emotions. The powerlessness was so total and complete - Lina had never felt it before, even fighting against Darkstar; it consumed every fibre of herself that wanted to stand up and fight. She wanted to give up when she felt the horrible energies.
The dark energy shot upward, and a crackling black and red dimensional portal opened up. Even as the energy all swarmed in, everyone present knew what was happening. They would not face Anguish again - the Dark Brilliance knew that that creation was too weak. But they would face that essence again; it would be reused, but it would be far, far stronger.
"Wait a second..." Zelgadis spoke up, breaking the silence first, although his eyes were clearly bloodshot with horror. "I know what pattern he's talking about now... this battle... it was almost entirely like... the battle with Copy Rezo. The way we attacked, the formations we used; although it was a far greater power we used, he died in exactly the same way. Just as Lina had pinned the Copy to the holy tree Flagoon with the Bless Blade, Gourry had pinned Anguish to the holy ground with the Sword of Light. It must... it must mean something!"
The rest of the Slayers, however, couldn't respond. They all were seeing the image of Anguish's "death" again and again. It just wasn't right - he had laughed, laughed with triumph when he was defeated. And that was never meant to be...
Kyra's eyes had lost their usual shine. She looked troubled, and she shook her head, trying to clear her mind of the horrible images. It was clear that she knew far more about the matter than what she had told the Slayers, but she wasn't ready to reveal it all yet. Even in her mind, she hadn't been prepared for the onslaught of Anguish, and his "glorious" defeat. The skull around her ponytail shimmered, and became a dagger. Her eyes gleamed all of a sudden, and she looked off into the far distance.
"We've been through the First Hell," Lina whispered. "But knowing that, how will we ever survive the Second...?"
Chapter 3: First Hell
"If courage itself flees in terror, what more can be done?"
Lina gasped in horror and pain; an overwhelming wave of death seemed to sweep past her, ebbing from the darkness the creature throbbed. The Staff gleamed brilliantly in the darkness, the only source of light in the now hollow and sinister land. "It can't be!" she cried, in desperation, and in fear. "You can't have snatched the Staff of the Gods. It was destroyed long ago!"
Amelia shivered as she, Zelgadis, and Filia lost the will to cast the barriers. The once-strong protection vanished into nothingness; the darkness absorbed it, just as it had done with everything else. "It'll be all right..." Zelgadis assured Amelia, his own heart throbbing with uncertainty.
"No prophecy could have readied anyone for this..." Filia whispered.
Gourry still stood silent.
And Kyra still watched, cold and foreboding. She and Lina still levitated idly in the air.
"Do you not accept my challenge?" the creature asked again.
Kyra suddenly started. "Give the Staff to me!" she yelled. "You have no right to call upon the power of gods like that when you yourself are only a tool of hell!" Her voice dripped with a venom that had never been heard from her before.
The creature suddenly laughed, and it was terrible. Evil dispensed like water during a monsoon. Every person present felt its presence. "You fool. Hell is MY tool. But I've been ignorant. Did I even introduce myself?"
"Who would want to know the name of a disgusting worm like you?" Kyra spat, and the skull around her hair glowed even darker. Lina could only watch, dumbfounded, and unsure where the conversation would lead.
"You may call me Anguish. It is the closest translation I can get from the true me." Anguish smiled again, and his dead eyes reflected nothing. "I will not conceal my identity; I will not need to, since your deaths will mark my name forever, and it is better to know the name of the murderer, don't you think? I am the weakest of the Three that serve my Lord. You pathetic fools are not worthy of hearing His name, but it won't matter to you, in any case. I expect He is watching now. But you believe I am being unfair, with this Staff? Perhaps the power amplification is a bit too much...." he remarked, casually.
"What are you?!" Zelgadis suddenly shouted, from far below. "Why have you come to disrupt us in this sacred land???"
"Ah, company," smirked Anguish. "Isn't it bothersome?" Without a second thought, he suddenly blasted a tremendous sphere of dark power in the direction of Zelgadis and the others.
"No!" Lina shouted, snapping back into reality. She would never be able to get there in time. She wouldn't be able to save them. The energy was blasting closer. She didn't have time to think.
Gourry knew it was useless to run; it was obvious to him as a fighter that it was coming too fast for them to dodge. Amelia, Filia, and Zelgadis, without any further options, immediately reinstated their shields.
Kyra's eyes flared. "NO, IT WON'T WORK!" she screamed, realizing the power of the attack. In a blur of blue that Lina's eyes couldn't follow, she shifted through space, and shifted herself and the others away.
The explosion that followed was small, but the smell of destruction was unmistakable. To Lina's horror, after the smoke cleared, the land remained as it was, scorched and mutilated. The land could not heal. Would never heal.
Lina looked desperately around for her companions, but decided against it; Anguish would probably destroy her while she was exposed like that. All she could hear now was Anguish's dreadful laughter, echoing inside her being, tearing at her insides. It was impossible. That's what it was. All of the enemies she'd ever encountered, all of the mozaku that had been threatening the lives of herself and her friends... They'd always had some plan, some purpose, and had been tracking her for quite a while. But this thing - it had appeared out of nowhere, she had no idea what it wanted to kill her for, and within a few minutes had almost killed everyone she held dear. The monster.
"You!" she turned, eyes focused on Anguish.
The creature merely looked back on her with the cold, empty eyes. "Ah, yes. The Staff is unfair. Is that where we were? I'm dreadfully sorry." In one swift movement, he lifted up the Staff, and snapped it in half with the merest of movements, and then threw the vanquished tool to the ground. It landed with a dull thud on the ground, and then vanished; the power of the gods was defeated.
"What have you done?" Lina cried. "What is it that you want? Isn't there any purpose in what you do? You came here simply to destroy the most sought-after items in front of me, mocking me?"
"Oh, no," laughed Anguish. "That wouldn't be right at a-"
"HAH!" yelled Kyra, as she slammed her elbow into the creature's back. Anguish uttered a surprised squawk, and slammed into the ground below. Kyra motioned at Lina to run. "Hurry! I've moved the others to a safe location. It's true he wanted to hurt us by breaking the Staff here, but the breaking of the Staff is in itself very important. It means that apocalypse is already upon us, as you can see already, and that the world shall be split just like that Staff if evil isn't stopped."
Kyra grabbed onto Lina, who was still trying to pull herself together, and did the shifting movement. Lina suddenly felt like she was in two separate places, and her body moved through space as if taking a shortcut. Almost-
Suddenly, another dark blast flew through the air, very fast, and hit Lina. She gasped, and although she didn't feel intense pain, she felt as if a tiny bit of her soul had been burned away, like it was lacking something. Kyra had already disappeared; it seemed that the blast had caught the movement just when Lina was beginning to shift.
"What is it you WANT?!" Lina demanded, not at all sure of herself.
Anguish suddenly materialized a short distance from her, in the air. He was completely unharmed, though he looked vaguely amused. "You," he stated, and then shot the same type of enormous blast that Zelgadis and the others had almost gotten killed by.
A hand grabbed hold of Lina's arm from behind. She shifted.
Lina blinked. Her companions looked back at her, expressions of fear and worry on their faces. And surprisingly, Xellos was there as well.
"Miss Lina!" Amelia cried, running forward. "I'm so glad you're all right!"
Lina looked off into the distance; she could see Anguish as a speck, far away on the horizon. "It's all right," she reassured her.
"Were you injured?" inquired Zelgadis.
"No, everything's fine," lied Lina. She still felt the burning from the blast that had hit her - such cold evil... it was unbelievable.
While Gourry and Filia also joined the hurried conversation with Lina, Xellos looked off at the speck that was Anguish, unusually silent. Kyra, as well, regarded the distant menace coldly.
"I can feel its evil," Xellos whispered, mostly to himself. "Even the mozaku race doesn't have this kind of energy... its wrath is not of this world..."
He had materialized in the small clearing the Slayers were in a short while after Kyra had shifted them there. Although he was away, mostly sulking, he felt an urgent sense of despair back where the Slayers were, and had teleported back to their location. Although they had been surprised, they had hastily filled him in on what had happened, while Kyra went back to rescue Lina.
"You're right," Kyra nodded, surprising Xellos, who hadn't thought anyone was listening. "It's too ancient to be of this world."
"But... what is it?" Xellos asked, cautiously.
"It is the essence of evil, not truly an individual lifeform, if you can even begin to call it 'life'. It is merely made with the fabric of true evil - that which is called the Dark Brilliance. But you're a monster, are you not? Why should you care?"
"Sore wa himitsu desu," Xellos managed to reply, although his voice trembled a bit. It's true - the purpose of the monster race was to destroy everything, and return it to chaos, but this being - it was simply wrong.... as if its very existence defied all natural laws. Even Xellos, normally so uncaring, felt a strong sense that Anguish had to be stopped.
Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, and Filia rejoined the two, having had a brief discussion. "Are you going to help us, Xellos?" Lina asked, gesturing at the darkness that had long since swallowed the tranquility. "If you're against us now, you know that we're all doomed."
"You'd better make the right decision, namagomi," Filia half-threatened, reaching for her mace. It was strange, but its gleaming spikes, normally so dangerous, seemed curiously to make the Slayers feel nostalgic, rather than frightened, against the growing darkness in the sky.
Gourry, having been so silent for so long, suddenly smiled, causing everyone to stare at him. "Oh, c'mon. We don't have to be so harsh. We've fought battles like these before, haven't we?"
Lina sighed. "I'm not so sure about that... I don't even know what it is that we're facing."
"I'll aid you," Xellos stated bluntly, to the surprise of the others. "Lord Beastmaster had wanted me to investigate what the appearance of the Staff of the Gods meant, and now this... it would be my orders to fight against this thing, anyway. The mozaku race is meant to destroy the world, not THAT..."
Zelgadis gritted his teeth. "Xellos! You bring up destroying the world at a time like this?!"
Filia put back her mace. "Don't betray us," she said, loosely.
Xellos looked like he was going to say something back, but suddenly, Kyra's eyes glittered dangerously.
Another death-covered black blast soared toward the Slayers, and Kyra managed to put up a sky-blue ultra-barrier with a gesture of her hand. The darkness pushed against it, but her strength held, miraculously. "RUN!" she yelled.
"Don't you think you've been talking long enough?" Anguish chuckled. "I thought I'd give you a few moments to make your reunion or whatever that was dramatic... but I've grown bored..."
The Slayers took off, with Lina leading, and the others trailing behind her.
"Where are we going?" Filia asked, her eyes glancing nervously at Anguish, behind them.
"We can't stay together; that's for sure," yelled back Lina hurriedly. "We're much too easy targets if we're grouped!"
Demonic energy soared through the air at the Slayers once again, somehow glittering black against the darkness.
"Scatter!" Lina shouted, and they were barely able to move when the energy struck the ground again, rendering it unhealable as well.
"This is ridiculous!" muttered Lina in exasperation as she fled again. "This enemy may seem to be unbelievably powerful, but I can't keep running like this forever! I... I have to face it."
A wind picked up in the everlasting night, and it howled like a person going through horrible torture. Darkness as its source, it picked up, and blew savagely into the dead surroundings.
Lina suddenly turned around, and, with determination glowing in her eyes, decided. She grimaced, and then yelled out to the creature, "I accept your challenge!"
Anguish acknowledged this with interest, and another horrible laugh escaped his dead lips. Clearly, it had been expecting this all along. "Then let's try making things a bit more amusing now, shall we? Like, about these blasts... you all seem to be dodging them pretty easily - let's make them homing!" He grinned hideously.
"What?" Lina managed to say, before twin blasts of energy, each one several times larger than before, hurtled towards her. The air crackled with pain - the unending decay and destruction was straining the very threads of matter.
Zelgadis saw this event from a short distance away, and immediately began racing toward Anguish. There was no escape by hiding. He would catch that monster from behind...
Gourry witnessed the event from afar; he'd run to Lina's side and help; it'd be just like all the other battles they'd had... he hoped...
Amelia readied herself for a Ra Tilt, the most powerful attack in shamanism; she wanted to see just how powerful Anguish was...
Filia began to call upon the powers of Ceipheed. For a creature of this darkness, perhaps a spell of the gods would be the solution...
Xellos, the farthest away, began teleporting back as fast as he could... he would charge Anguish head on, and show the creature who the rightful destroyers were...
And Kyra watched the entire event from above. After Anguish had overpowered her barrier, she had shifted above everything. She would aid the Slayers at the crucial moment if needed...
The attack began. Lina cast twin Fireballs at the two approaching blasts, and then enabled a Ray Wing, flying as fast as she could towards Anguish. The two spells were harmlessly engulfed by the darkness, and the darkness followed her, the most perfect homing missiles.
Gourry ran full-out, and managed to almost get to Lina. Turning around, he held his Sword of Light to the ready. It had absorbed spells before; perhaps it would be able to do so again.
Lina let out a gasp of surprise when she saw him there. "No, go attack!" Gourry shouted as the blasts drew closer. Lina nodded, and then ran forth again. Anguish was only a tiny bit away, and he was still smiling, the cold, lifeless eyes as menacing as ever.
Suddenly, a huge blast of energy exploded around Anguish; the Ra Tilt had hit its target, and the creature managed an expression of surprise before Zelgadis impaled it with his Astral Vine attack. The atmosphere, dark as nightmares, brightened a bit as the holy spell Chaotic Disintegrate hit Anguish with its full force. Finally, an enormous dark wave of energy struck the creature with its full force - Xellos's attack. The mozaku then impaled Anguish with his staff, as if to punctuate the variety of attacks.
All of this had happened in a few seconds.
"Get out of the way!" Lina yelled; Xellos and Zelgadis jumped aside, and ran to safety as Lina readied fired her amplified spell - "DRAGON SLAVE!"
Even as the enormous blast of red energy coursed through the air, Lina knew that Anguish couldn't have died; he was too powerful, too invincible, too dark. Summoning the last of her strength, she managed to chant her final spell, with authority that a thousand bandits would have quailed under: "Sword of cold and darkness, free yourself from the heaven's bonds. Become one with my power, one with my body, and let us walk the path of destruction together. Power that can smash even the souls of the Gods! RAGNA BLADE" A full-powered Ragna Blade was suddenly held ready, in the trembling hands of the young sorceress.
Gourry, in the meantime, was struggling with the twin blasts that were pushing hard against the Sword of Light; the darkness couldn't be absorbed, and the swordsman couldn't take the pressure much longer. "Agh!" he yelled, trying to force the energy in the other direction. Lina ran forward with her Blade of Darkness, and swung it, absorbing the dark energy.
With one final cry, Lina Inverse hurled the chaotic energy into the explosions that were consuming Anguish's very being.
"Clear out!" Kyra ordered from above, to everyone's surprise. "ULTIMA FLARE!" The enormous blast surged through the air, making the darkness glow brilliantly, and then it hit the ground.
The ground exploded.
It didn't just explode; it seemed to disintegrate entirely. The enormous amount of power had finally connected together, and the shamanism, black magic, and holy magic complemented each other's might, increasing in immense magnitudes. The air and space around them began to crackle uncontrollably from the amount of energy released, and small explosions began erupting everywhere. The planet trembled uncontrollably; it hadn't felt this magnitude of power since the battle against Darkstar, and even then, the energies were far different from now.
Then, suddenly, the barrage's effects stopped. The smoke cleared. And Anguish was there. He was scorched terribly, and parts of his bones were visible. But his infinitely deep eyes were unharmed. To the Slayers' horror, they watched parts of him begin to heal almost immediately. The darkness he controlled swirled around him, and he used it to absorb into his being. His left arm, which was a battered, hanging mess, righted itself, and then all of the injuries healed.
Just as suddenly, he slumped forward to his knees. Gourry, taking this opportunity, lunged forward, and with one swift movement, stabbed the Sword through Anguish into the holy ground.
Suddenly, Anguish threw up his head and laughed, one last time, even as black darkness erupted from his mouth. "Don't you realize? Don't you see what you've done?" he choked, coughing up more dark energy. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! You're only part of a game; this is the first in the pattern! And all of the blasts you've fed me shall increase my master's strength. My purpose is fulfilled. I see now that I was never meant to kill you, Lina Inverse. I am the first pawn, the initiation of His plan. And as hell is my tool, I will never truly die. My essence now returns to the Dark Brilliance. And we shall meet again!"
In an instant, the darkness erupted in its entirety, and terrible fear, hatred, greed, jealousy, wrath, frustration, desperation, and countless other negativities soured through the air in every direction.
The Slayers, and Kyra, all dropped down to the ground at the power, their very souls feeling unbelievable pain and torment as they experienced all of mankind's negative emotions. The powerlessness was so total and complete - Lina had never felt it before, even fighting against Darkstar; it consumed every fibre of herself that wanted to stand up and fight. She wanted to give up when she felt the horrible energies.
The dark energy shot upward, and a crackling black and red dimensional portal opened up. Even as the energy all swarmed in, everyone present knew what was happening. They would not face Anguish again - the Dark Brilliance knew that that creation was too weak. But they would face that essence again; it would be reused, but it would be far, far stronger.
"Wait a second..." Zelgadis spoke up, breaking the silence first, although his eyes were clearly bloodshot with horror. "I know what pattern he's talking about now... this battle... it was almost entirely like... the battle with Copy Rezo. The way we attacked, the formations we used; although it was a far greater power we used, he died in exactly the same way. Just as Lina had pinned the Copy to the holy tree Flagoon with the Bless Blade, Gourry had pinned Anguish to the holy ground with the Sword of Light. It must... it must mean something!"
The rest of the Slayers, however, couldn't respond. They all were seeing the image of Anguish's "death" again and again. It just wasn't right - he had laughed, laughed with triumph when he was defeated. And that was never meant to be...
Kyra's eyes had lost their usual shine. She looked troubled, and she shook her head, trying to clear her mind of the horrible images. It was clear that she knew far more about the matter than what she had told the Slayers, but she wasn't ready to reveal it all yet. Even in her mind, she hadn't been prepared for the onslaught of Anguish, and his "glorious" defeat. The skull around her ponytail shimmered, and became a dagger. Her eyes gleamed all of a sudden, and she looked off into the far distance.
"We've been through the First Hell," Lina whispered. "But knowing that, how will we ever survive the Second...?"
