The Dark Brilliance
Chapter 5: Maze Through Fate
"Every way I turn, every way I look, there is a wall, a barricade, a trap. This is no fairy tale. This time, there is no escape."
The Lord of Nightmares closed her eyes in a gesture of sealing fate. The enormous black ball of energy that sped toward her was absorbed; she did not flinch, for the Mother of All Things included being composed of darkness as well.
Pain gathered a sword made of his own perfect darkness into his hands, and made a mad stab at L-sama, trying one last desperate ploy. But it was in vain. L-sama held up her hand, and Pain stopped in place, the black sword of despair vanishing away into the limitless void that was that place.
"Your master is wise to let you die like this," the Lord of Nightmares commented emotionlessly, her eyes reflecting nothing. She held out her other hand, forming a spear of golden light that blazed the radiance that was her own. "But if it is destiny that the plan should unfold that way, surely you wouldn't want to deny the privilege."
She stabbed the spear through Pain, clear through, and dark energy erupted from both sides of the monster. Pain smiled. "Darkness will consume everything eventually. You may be able to stop me, but it is for a higher purpose that you are. My master is invincible." He coughed up blood, black blood. As the darkness dribbled down his chin, he laughed as the energy consumed him, the demon vanishing under a bright flash of golden might.
The Slayers cowered on the ground in pain that seemed an eternity as their opponent exploded in a blast of darkness, just as Anguish had. But the bleak hopelessness that they felt was painful tenfold. They were thrown to the ground by the indescribable evil, clutching their bodies desperately, trying to keep themselves from going mad with the emotion of pure despair.
Somewhere, far away within the fabrics of the realm they were in, the Guardians roared with dissatisfaction; they felt the ancient presence that was dissipating, and they knew that for as long as they had existed, it was never meant to be that such power and evil was about.
His eyes. Pain's eyes. Even as he was vanishing into endless nothingness, it appeared to be bit by bit, cell by cell. His body was still there, although it was being eaten away by L-sama's power. His pitch-black cloak ripped off in the golden wind, consumed by light. But his eyes. They were horribly empty, yet somehow leering and triumphant. Red and black power continued to dissipate from him, as if he had too much wrath to be destroyed so easily. Darkness beyond blackest pitch dripped from Pain, and then a new wave of force erupted from him, sending the Slayers into a new realm of torture. "Even as I die, you will all suffer one last time!" he vowed, and his black laughter echoed, echoed, echoed....
Amelia screamed in pain; it was far worse than when she had died at the hands of Phibrizzo. She even preferred it. Let me die, she thought as new waves of pain consumed her. The others, too, were starting to give up. Pain's power was too strong, not just a stab of darkness like Anguish's. It didn't ever seem to end.
The Lord of Nightmares closed her hand into a fist, and all of a sudden, the light around Pain grew in authority, and the Slayers' torture below was ended. The last thing to go was Pain's eyes, the eyes that were even more sunken and destructive than Anguish's, which gleamed impossibly black in the depths of the golden purity. And then he was gone.
"Get up," stated L-sama, and the Slayers, to their surprise, suddenly all got instantly to their feet. They felt as good as new, fully healed. Reborn again, they were ready to walk to their deaths yet another time.
Zelgadis let out a deep sigh. "Another nightmare... don't tell me it'll get any worse...."
"It will," the Lord of Nightmares replied unblinkingly. "But we must face it without hesitation."
Xellos's eyes gleamed with odd determination, although he knew himself to be pretty much useless in a fight at that point. Filia felt the same way, that her holy spells paled in comparison to the darkness that could consume everything. "Don't try anything rash once we get into that temple, namagomi," she whispered to Xellos, surprisingly.
"It's all right," Xellos replied. "Besides, Lord Beastmaster wouldn't be happy if her lead servant was destroyed, now would she?" He managed a smile.
Gourry stretched out his healed limbs. "I'm not sure what's going on anymore, but I do know one thing," he announced. "We can't give up. Even if this Dark Brilliance thing is a million times stronger, if we stop fighting, then we'll lose no matter what."
"Well said, Gourry," Zelgadis commented. "We mustn't lose our spirit."
Amelia had been feeling oddly useless. It was like that time, an eternity ago, when they had all been separated by the huge explosion at the place of Darkstar's summoning. Am I the weakest again? she asked herself desperately, remembering what she had thought when she was healing. Still, hearing the confident words of Gourry and Zelgadis reassured her, and brought her more strength. She was ready.
Lina had been silent. She gazed in wonder at the Lord of Nightmares. "So, you are the Golden Lord," she said, with strength in her voice. "It's the first time I've truly seen you, in this secret place. I'm glad you can come into this world of your own accord this time. But if you are truly the Lord of Nightmares, you must know. Is there any way we can win?"
The Lord of Nightmares gazed levelly back, her face betraying nothing. "That is for you six to find out. Go into the temple, and conquer your worst fears."
Lina nodded, though dissatisfied with the answer. The six companions walked toward the entrance of the seemingly endless ancient temple with renewed determination, although each knew that the situation was getting more and more hopeless.
The Lord of Nightmares landed neatly on the ground, her golden hair sparkling brilliantly with her aura even on the pitch-black island that floated on nothing. She walked forward, a short distance behind the Slayers. "Do not be afraid. Enter the temple with clear minds and strong hearts, for there are dangers there that even I do not know of, and I fear that the last of the Three will not sit idly once he discovers his brother has been destroyed."
Lina walked into the temple first, followed closely behind by Xellos, who was able to cope with the darkness the easiest. The other four soon followed, ready to cast a spell, or slash with a sword.
Immediately, there was a wall in front of them which blocked their progress, with paths leading left and right from where they were standing into the dark reaches of the unknown.
"Stay here," Lina said, casting a Levitation spell. "I'm going to see exactly what kind of place this is." She floated above the wall, being careful not to hit her head on the ceiling in case it came sooner than she expected. "Lighting!" she chanted, and as the light lit up the area all around her, her eyes widened with confusion and horror.
For what she was seeing was impossible. Constructed from chaos, oldest of the old, the temple in which the Slayers and the Lord of Nightmares stood was built of stuff that humans cannot comprehend. What Lina witnessed is not possible under the reaches of the human mind to perceive...
As the redheaded sorceress looked out upon the landscape, she saw a labyrinth. An endless labyrinth that stretched out further than infinity. Paths snaked around each other, beginning sooner than the wall they emerged from ended. It was interconnected, crossed, twisted, overlapping, and paths went square through the matter of another, the spare atoms that were left over from the transformation shooting off into the further, invisible darkness. Even below, from where there had been two simple paths leading off, the paths were now seen to be simply not there. They were replaced by a billion possibilities, and the probabilities made them warp to be billions of miles away. Walls chased paths, the darkness throbbed, and the landscape changed and changed and changed.
But that was not the unperceivable portion. Perhaps a genius or a brilliant scientist could work out the workings of probability through the most advanced mathematics known, could investigate the formations of atoms and examine their origins, could see the walls and paths and draw a conclusion. Perhaps.
But no one could ever understand what Lina saw. For as Lina looked cautiously upward, she saw the same thing, only magnified, crossed, intertwined in impossible formations with the structure on the ground. From the sky, diagonal walls shot down from the unseeable beyond, and warped into a path on the ground. Paths also snaked their ways into the sky, and then vanishing within each other, warping and transforming so that every time the sorceress turned her head, a completely different formation was seen. Paths were going through her, walls shooting past her. A labyrinth that surpassed the capabilities of three dimensions, the maze continued to intertwine and turn until it wound itself into the distance, into herself, into nothing.
She lost consciousness. She fell. She fell through the walls, the paths, the ground. Lina Inverse was absorbed into the temple that wasn't to be.
Far below, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, Xellos, and Filia watched what was happening to Lina with amazement. For while one moment, she was floating there normally with a Lighting spell, the next, she had flew in every direction at the same time, the parts of her being zipping onward into the infinite beyond.
"What the? What in the world happened?" Filia asked, bewildered.
Xellos staggered back a little, gripping the staff he carried tighter, glancing cautiously in every direction, while Zelgadis and Gourry drew their swords.
Amelia looked around in vain for Lina's whereabouts, wondering what sort of holy spell could possibly work.
The Lord of Nightmares knew what had happened. "This place," she thundered. "Humans were not meant to come here! You have to get through this temple as soon as possible, or you will all be absorbed, and then tortured by your own fears!"
She fired a beam of golden light from her limitless essence, and as she did, her golden aura grew tremendously, so that the Slayers almost collapsed from the power. The light went into the sky, exploding in a billion ways, and the magic falling onto the walls. The structure groaned, and some of the walls exploded, making ways for paths that snaked their way through the debris. From the sky above, new walls fell with great speed. "Go!" she ordered, as she held out her hand to summon another bit of power.
Gourry took off down the path where the wall used to be, whipping out his Sword of Light to hack at the bits of wall that were threatening to crush him. The temple's anger kept up with his movements every step of the way, but still he ran.
Amelia and Filia ran down the left path, and the ground they were standing on began to move. "Chaotic Disintegrate!" Filia yelled, firing the holy blast into the ground. The path was temporarily subdued, and Amelia fired a Fireball spell at the bits of wall that were crumbling all around them. They continued to fight their way through the ancient temple, hoping against hope that holy magic would be enough to subdue their surroundings.
"Astral Vine!" yelled Zelgadis, taking off down the right path as all this was happening. The crimson sword that gleamed in his hand was able to destroy a wall that stood in his way, and he dropped to the ground and rolled as another bit of wall and a winding path snaked its way toward him. He narrowly dodged it, and used his free hand to destroy the things with a shamanism spell.
Xellos used his teleportation techniques to race as fast as he could down the center of the temple, not even spotting Gourry as he passed him. More than one time, a wall almost crushed him as he landed in his new location after a teleport. He fired beams of energy with his staff to clear his way. He spotted a path that was snaking downward from the sky out of the corner of his eye, and destroyed it by flaring his evil power.
The Lord of Nightmares expanded her golden aura once more. "Evil temple! If you will not recognize me for the Creator I am, I shall see to it that you are destroyed myself! Your methods of confusion work nothing on the Mother of All Things." Her eyes not flickering one bit, she let herself be absorbed by the temple.
Filia and Amelia were separated as a huge wall fell downwards between them, and though they scrambled to get back next to each other, new paths and walls wound violently through each other in an attempt to crush them. The endless temple was determined to isolate the intruders so that it could destroy them properly.
Filia let out a yell, transforming into her dragon form. As she flew with renewed speed into the darkness ahead, she fired lasers from her mouth to destroy anything in her path. Her tail swatted aside any spare bits of rock behind her.
Zelgadis gasped in pain as a path slammed into his stomach. He used his sword to frantically cut the thing to bits, but the damage was done. He breathed less easily, but he still managed to keep running. "RA TILT!" he yelled, destroying any bits of the nightmare around him. However, the dark power that the temple wielded would not be dissuaded. With renewed force, the walls came down faster and faster, and the paths zoomed through the walls, causing debris to rain down upon the stone-skinned warrior. A rock fragment slammed into his chest, and then another into his back. Zelgadis coughed up blood, and then, collapsing, was absorbed finally into the temple.
Gourry, for all his expert swordsmanship, couldn't keep up as the temple increased the level of its frenzy, more and more paths and walls exploding out from the sky, the ground, empty air. It and wound in a continuously confusing manner. Gourry handled the Sword of Light with unbelievable speed, destroying every little bit of rock as it zoomed by. "Give back Lina!" he cried, as he let a powerful projectile explode from his Sword. The blue blast disintegrated the danger near him, but then the temple speeded up still more. A wall fell down from above, and as it crushed him under, he lost consciousness. Gourry was absorbed.
Filia was still managing herself pretty well, the fast zoom of flying giving her a high advantage by avoiding all of the chaos down on the ground. Even as the walls and paths began to pick up speed, she was able to maneuver past them, and her laser breath continuously cleared the way. Still, she was beginning to tire. How long could she keep up?
As Gourry and Zelgadis fell, Xellos teleported with amazing dexterity with increased fervor. The mozaku suddenly realized something - the temple still looked the same. Everything about it was exactly the same, except that now the entrance wasn't visible. Was there really an exit? He fired thousands of black cones from his body in all directions, and they destroyed some paths that were threatening to smash into him from behind, as well as the walls in front of him. He held his staff at the ready. "What are you?" he yelled in frustration. "Don't underestimate my power!" He flared up his black aura, and the stuff around him was disintegrated yet again, but this time, it was to no avail. The walls and paths that came in endlessly from every direction were too many to be handled. As Xellos was struck from every direction, he let out a pained gasp, and then was absorbed.
"I can't keep up with this much longer!" Amelia cried, firing shamanism spells in every direction. Even the Ra Tilt only cleared the way for still more of the design to come rushing at her. A sharp piece of wall stabbed at her thigh from behind, and she fell to the ground, gasping. Cringing, Amelia managed to start casting a healing spell. But she wasn't fast enough. Another piece of wall hit the back of her head, and she was absorbed as well.
Filia knew now that the situation was hopeless. She didn't even believe that she was gaining any ground, no matter how fast she flew. Everything in the endless labyrinth looked the same. Her wings got more and more tired, and after she fired one last laser breath, she collapsed to the ground. The last Slayer was absorbed.
***
Lina woke up. She looked all around her, wondering what had happened, and vaguely remembered the temple, though she couldn't remember what she'd seen. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and wondered where the others could possibly be. "Hello?" she called, seeing if anyone was around.
Immediately, two ENORMOUS red eyes opened, and glinted evilly in the darkness. For the first time, Lina noticed that the ground under her was squishy, almost like a living thing. And as she opened her mouth in horror, she beheld the twin eyes blinking at her with caution. She gulped. "Lighting..." she forced herself to choke, and as the light illuminated the surrounding area, she let out a bloodcurdling scream.
She had been standing on a giant slug, a colossal one. As she looked behind her, she saw that she couldn't even see the end of the slug she was on, which was at least 10,000 times larger than her. "L-sama help me..." she breathed, trying to get a hold of herself.
The slug opened its gaping mouth wide, and the sorceress could see Gourry inside. "Gourry!" she yelled in desperation, but even as she struggled to get closer, the slug let out a roar, and she was blown back by the power.
Lina gazed up at the slug, terrified beyond belief. "What is this place? What do you want?" she screamed.
Phibrizzo's face suddenly came into view, dancing in the shadows near her. "Hopeless as always..." he chuckled, the soul orbs dancing dangerously in his hands. "Why didn't you save them? Why couldn't you save them when they died?"
"W-What are you talking about?" Lina staggered back in horror.
"Don't you remember?" Hellmaster chuckled, as he tossed the orbs up and down idly. Suddenly, Lina was surrounded by the memories of all of her companions dying, dying, dying. She collapsed to her knees, fighting Hellmaster's magic, struggling to get a hold of her mind. "Let's watch them die again, shall we?"
Lina screamed in protest, clutching her head in pain. The gigantic slug roared, and Gourry yelled out, "Why didn't you save me? Why are you letting this happen to all of us?"
Phibrizzo laughed and laughed, and Lina couldn't do much but accept her torture.
***
Gourry fought back hard, matching his opponent at every turn, but his heart ate away at him.
"What's the matter, Gourry? Can't win?" Zangulus taunted.
Gourry gritted his teeth, and he suddenly felt his skill slipping. Zangulus was getting the better of him... wasn't he supposed to be an ally? He couldn't remember... what was happening... "WHO ARE YOU?!" Gourry yelled. He had to rescue Lina, Lina was imprisoned... she was gone somewhere...
Zangulus laughed, dropping the Howling Sword to the ground. Gourry slashed at his opponent in vain, each hit of the Sword of Light bouncing harmlessly off. "I'm your defeat!" he laughed, and as Gourry watched in amazement, he transformed into the Demon Dragon King.
The Howling Sword flew up off the ground into Gaav's hand, and as it did, it transformed into Gaav's huge sword. "Why don't you try beating me again to get to Lina Inverse? Hellmaster won't save you this time!" he roared.
Gourry, not knowing what else to do, stabbed at Gaav with his Sword of Light. Gaav caught the Sword effortlessly, and then uppercutted Gourry, sending him sprawling backwards. "You'll never win! Insolent worm!" he laughed, flaring up his power.
***
"RA TILT!" Zelgadis yelled with all his might, but to no avail. The explosion did nothing to harm his opponent, and it was only absorbed.
Rezo laughed at him. "Will treatment like this earn you a cure, Zelgadis?" he chuckled. "I would've thought you'd have more manners!"
Zelgadis let out a roar, charging with his sword again, and stabbed it straight through Rezo. His eyes slowly widened with horror as he saw that Rezo was unaffected, even with the sword going straight through his body. Zelgadis staggered back, with the sword still impaled in Rezo.
"How foolish..." Rezo muttered, holding out his hand, making the sword fly out of his body and into it. He was entirely unhurt. "Perhaps we should reshape the way you look. That golem look really doesn't suit you!" With that, he threw the sword towards Zelgadis.
Zel managed to dodge it, moving quickly over to the left. Rezo immediately attacked him from behind, firing a barrage of spells that made Zelgadis collapse to the ground, gasping. "You won't win again!" Zelgadis vowed. Although he didn't know where he was, he was desperate to get his revenge.
"Hm," Rezo said, and then with a flare of his power, caused Zelgadis to cry out in pain once again.
***
"No! Mother, no!" Amelia cried in pain, as she witnessed the bounty hunter's act of murder. She tried to rush into the scene, so save her mother, so that everything would be fine, but an unknown force held her back.
The bounty hunter laughed, and transformed into Kanzel. "You can't do anything to help! You couldn't even save your own mother! Now that your father is dead as well, what will you do?" He smiled horribly.
"Daddy isn't dead!" Amelia protested, tears streaming from her face. "It wasn't true! It wasn't true! He was never killed by you!"
Kanzel's eyes flared, showing no mercy, and Amelia was thrown against a wall. "Your father was killed because of YOU!" he accused.
Amelia felt herself being pulled by an unknown force through the walls of the palace, out into the sky. And as she looked down, she gasped in horror. For all of Seyruun was burning. The people screamed in the streets, and as they looked up, they pointed, shouting, "It's your fault! What justice is there in Seyruun when there is no protection?"
"It isn't true!" Amelia sobbed. "I didn't do any of these things!" Kanzel laughed and laughed....
***
Filia fought the Ancient Dragons, even though she didn't want to. Her body was being forced to. "Stop this, whoever you are!" she cried, as she killed another of the enemy. "I don't want to do this!"
The other Golden Dragons charged at their opponents, ignoring Filia as though they couldn't see her. "You are endangering this world!" the Supreme Elder shouted. "You must all be destroyed!"
"NO, there must be another way!" Filia yelled in pain.
Valgaav appeared, floating beside her as her laser breath killed yet another dragon. "So this is what you have done," he stated. "Why must you murder my people? I thought you were different; I thought you cared."
"VAL!" Filia yelled desperately. "Please, none of this is true! You're not supposed to be grown up! You're not supposed to be in this battle, and neither am I!"
The battle suddenly ended with a brilliant explosion, after which the Golden Dragons and Ancient Dragons were both dead, except for two - Filia and Valgaav. "You had to kill us, didn't you?" Valgaav asked quietly. "It was because of you that both of our races had to suffer, had to be tortured, had to die..."
Filia collapsed with pain, struggling not to cry.
***
Xellos was surrounded by darkness, by evil, in every direction. He was being tortured, tortured because the darkness was deeper than him. Tortured because he was powerless, and the evil around him was too strong to be countered.
"Xellos Metallium!" a voice called. "You call yourself a member of the monster race? You are nothing! A disgusting servant! A powerless piece of filth!"
Xellos's eyes flared, and he gripped his staff more tightly. He fired blasts off into the darkness, but to no avail. "Come out and face me!" he called.
"You have no right to summon me forth!" the voice called. "I may be anything. I am your worst fears."
Suddenly, Xellos was overwhelmed by images, visions of horrible clarity. He was so strained that he couldn't keep his human form anymore, his mozaku form of a black cone coming into view. He saw the monsters being slaughtered by merciless gods. He saw himself being chopped to pieces by the Demon Dragon King. He saw Phibrizzo turning against him, killing him for his own pleasure. Xellos had no voice any longer. He could only behold the visions with terror.
***
The Lord of Nightmares hovered in darkness that spread out in every direction, and her eyes showed no fear, only supremacy as always. "Show yourself!" she commanded. "Do not hide like a coward!"
Dark laughter filled the air, echoing in every direction, and the amount of evil affected even the Mother of All Things. The cold whooshed in from nowhere, darkness approaching with ice.
And all of a sudden, L-sama felt herself being teleported. Herself and all of the Slayers were being moved from the mysterious temple to the outside world once again. In the Outer World.
***
At this point, the six Slayers were suddenly teleported out of their nightmares, of which they were most grateful. They appeared next to the Lord of Nightmares under the pitch-black sky. Red lighting struck from above, and chaos danced everywhere. Not one spoke; they were too weak to speak.
The Slayers looked on as their visions came back, and then shot out of their minds into material form. Rezo, the gigantic slug, Kanzel, the destruction of Sairaag, visions of horror, the destruction of the Golden and Ancient Dragons, Gaav, Hellmaster, Zangulus - they all zoomed out of the Slayers' hearts into the dismal air, and spun more and more quickly until it was a spiral of fear and power.
The darkness... Icy, the darkness... it was overwhelming, and even L-sama herself was surprised at the strength. The memories of Anguish and Pain played idly in the Slayers' minds, but then were washed away by their sheer insignificance in comparison to this enemy.
As the spiral spun faster, the darkness grew deeper, and walls and paths flew out of the sky into the mixture, spinning faster and faster and faster, fear and hatred absorbed everywhere....
And the spiral stopped.
And there was a figure.
And it looked at them with unrivaled power.
The creature was horrendous beyond anything the Slayers had seen so far. The cloak was not red and or black that it wore, but it rather was weaved from chaos and negativity. Its face was absolutely monstrous, and the Slayers down below could see reflected in it all of the past enemies they had faced. They could see their worst fears. They could see pure darkness. The eyes were worse still than Pain's, the absolute soullessness of it enough to drive a man insane. Its hair streamed down its back, the dark energy still extending out where the hair ended.
L-sama's eyes were unwavering, yet powerful as always. Her wisdom reflected in those eyes, and golden light exploded from her as she allowed some of her might to run free. "Who are you that dares to disrupt the balance in the four worlds?" she asked, levelly.
The creature looked back with equal confidence, and as he held out his hand, twin wings forged of chaos erupted from his shoulders, horrible beyond compare, frightful past imagination. In his dreadful hand, he held the fate of the world. Dark power erupted from him, and the land around the area screamed in protest, mountains jutting up out of the ground, piercing the sky, which also groaned in agony. The sun had long since died.
"You may call me Fate."
Chapter 5: Maze Through Fate
"Every way I turn, every way I look, there is a wall, a barricade, a trap. This is no fairy tale. This time, there is no escape."
The Lord of Nightmares closed her eyes in a gesture of sealing fate. The enormous black ball of energy that sped toward her was absorbed; she did not flinch, for the Mother of All Things included being composed of darkness as well.
Pain gathered a sword made of his own perfect darkness into his hands, and made a mad stab at L-sama, trying one last desperate ploy. But it was in vain. L-sama held up her hand, and Pain stopped in place, the black sword of despair vanishing away into the limitless void that was that place.
"Your master is wise to let you die like this," the Lord of Nightmares commented emotionlessly, her eyes reflecting nothing. She held out her other hand, forming a spear of golden light that blazed the radiance that was her own. "But if it is destiny that the plan should unfold that way, surely you wouldn't want to deny the privilege."
She stabbed the spear through Pain, clear through, and dark energy erupted from both sides of the monster. Pain smiled. "Darkness will consume everything eventually. You may be able to stop me, but it is for a higher purpose that you are. My master is invincible." He coughed up blood, black blood. As the darkness dribbled down his chin, he laughed as the energy consumed him, the demon vanishing under a bright flash of golden might.
The Slayers cowered on the ground in pain that seemed an eternity as their opponent exploded in a blast of darkness, just as Anguish had. But the bleak hopelessness that they felt was painful tenfold. They were thrown to the ground by the indescribable evil, clutching their bodies desperately, trying to keep themselves from going mad with the emotion of pure despair.
Somewhere, far away within the fabrics of the realm they were in, the Guardians roared with dissatisfaction; they felt the ancient presence that was dissipating, and they knew that for as long as they had existed, it was never meant to be that such power and evil was about.
His eyes. Pain's eyes. Even as he was vanishing into endless nothingness, it appeared to be bit by bit, cell by cell. His body was still there, although it was being eaten away by L-sama's power. His pitch-black cloak ripped off in the golden wind, consumed by light. But his eyes. They were horribly empty, yet somehow leering and triumphant. Red and black power continued to dissipate from him, as if he had too much wrath to be destroyed so easily. Darkness beyond blackest pitch dripped from Pain, and then a new wave of force erupted from him, sending the Slayers into a new realm of torture. "Even as I die, you will all suffer one last time!" he vowed, and his black laughter echoed, echoed, echoed....
Amelia screamed in pain; it was far worse than when she had died at the hands of Phibrizzo. She even preferred it. Let me die, she thought as new waves of pain consumed her. The others, too, were starting to give up. Pain's power was too strong, not just a stab of darkness like Anguish's. It didn't ever seem to end.
The Lord of Nightmares closed her hand into a fist, and all of a sudden, the light around Pain grew in authority, and the Slayers' torture below was ended. The last thing to go was Pain's eyes, the eyes that were even more sunken and destructive than Anguish's, which gleamed impossibly black in the depths of the golden purity. And then he was gone.
"Get up," stated L-sama, and the Slayers, to their surprise, suddenly all got instantly to their feet. They felt as good as new, fully healed. Reborn again, they were ready to walk to their deaths yet another time.
Zelgadis let out a deep sigh. "Another nightmare... don't tell me it'll get any worse...."
"It will," the Lord of Nightmares replied unblinkingly. "But we must face it without hesitation."
Xellos's eyes gleamed with odd determination, although he knew himself to be pretty much useless in a fight at that point. Filia felt the same way, that her holy spells paled in comparison to the darkness that could consume everything. "Don't try anything rash once we get into that temple, namagomi," she whispered to Xellos, surprisingly.
"It's all right," Xellos replied. "Besides, Lord Beastmaster wouldn't be happy if her lead servant was destroyed, now would she?" He managed a smile.
Gourry stretched out his healed limbs. "I'm not sure what's going on anymore, but I do know one thing," he announced. "We can't give up. Even if this Dark Brilliance thing is a million times stronger, if we stop fighting, then we'll lose no matter what."
"Well said, Gourry," Zelgadis commented. "We mustn't lose our spirit."
Amelia had been feeling oddly useless. It was like that time, an eternity ago, when they had all been separated by the huge explosion at the place of Darkstar's summoning. Am I the weakest again? she asked herself desperately, remembering what she had thought when she was healing. Still, hearing the confident words of Gourry and Zelgadis reassured her, and brought her more strength. She was ready.
Lina had been silent. She gazed in wonder at the Lord of Nightmares. "So, you are the Golden Lord," she said, with strength in her voice. "It's the first time I've truly seen you, in this secret place. I'm glad you can come into this world of your own accord this time. But if you are truly the Lord of Nightmares, you must know. Is there any way we can win?"
The Lord of Nightmares gazed levelly back, her face betraying nothing. "That is for you six to find out. Go into the temple, and conquer your worst fears."
Lina nodded, though dissatisfied with the answer. The six companions walked toward the entrance of the seemingly endless ancient temple with renewed determination, although each knew that the situation was getting more and more hopeless.
The Lord of Nightmares landed neatly on the ground, her golden hair sparkling brilliantly with her aura even on the pitch-black island that floated on nothing. She walked forward, a short distance behind the Slayers. "Do not be afraid. Enter the temple with clear minds and strong hearts, for there are dangers there that even I do not know of, and I fear that the last of the Three will not sit idly once he discovers his brother has been destroyed."
Lina walked into the temple first, followed closely behind by Xellos, who was able to cope with the darkness the easiest. The other four soon followed, ready to cast a spell, or slash with a sword.
Immediately, there was a wall in front of them which blocked their progress, with paths leading left and right from where they were standing into the dark reaches of the unknown.
"Stay here," Lina said, casting a Levitation spell. "I'm going to see exactly what kind of place this is." She floated above the wall, being careful not to hit her head on the ceiling in case it came sooner than she expected. "Lighting!" she chanted, and as the light lit up the area all around her, her eyes widened with confusion and horror.
For what she was seeing was impossible. Constructed from chaos, oldest of the old, the temple in which the Slayers and the Lord of Nightmares stood was built of stuff that humans cannot comprehend. What Lina witnessed is not possible under the reaches of the human mind to perceive...
As the redheaded sorceress looked out upon the landscape, she saw a labyrinth. An endless labyrinth that stretched out further than infinity. Paths snaked around each other, beginning sooner than the wall they emerged from ended. It was interconnected, crossed, twisted, overlapping, and paths went square through the matter of another, the spare atoms that were left over from the transformation shooting off into the further, invisible darkness. Even below, from where there had been two simple paths leading off, the paths were now seen to be simply not there. They were replaced by a billion possibilities, and the probabilities made them warp to be billions of miles away. Walls chased paths, the darkness throbbed, and the landscape changed and changed and changed.
But that was not the unperceivable portion. Perhaps a genius or a brilliant scientist could work out the workings of probability through the most advanced mathematics known, could investigate the formations of atoms and examine their origins, could see the walls and paths and draw a conclusion. Perhaps.
But no one could ever understand what Lina saw. For as Lina looked cautiously upward, she saw the same thing, only magnified, crossed, intertwined in impossible formations with the structure on the ground. From the sky, diagonal walls shot down from the unseeable beyond, and warped into a path on the ground. Paths also snaked their ways into the sky, and then vanishing within each other, warping and transforming so that every time the sorceress turned her head, a completely different formation was seen. Paths were going through her, walls shooting past her. A labyrinth that surpassed the capabilities of three dimensions, the maze continued to intertwine and turn until it wound itself into the distance, into herself, into nothing.
She lost consciousness. She fell. She fell through the walls, the paths, the ground. Lina Inverse was absorbed into the temple that wasn't to be.
Far below, Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, Xellos, and Filia watched what was happening to Lina with amazement. For while one moment, she was floating there normally with a Lighting spell, the next, she had flew in every direction at the same time, the parts of her being zipping onward into the infinite beyond.
"What the? What in the world happened?" Filia asked, bewildered.
Xellos staggered back a little, gripping the staff he carried tighter, glancing cautiously in every direction, while Zelgadis and Gourry drew their swords.
Amelia looked around in vain for Lina's whereabouts, wondering what sort of holy spell could possibly work.
The Lord of Nightmares knew what had happened. "This place," she thundered. "Humans were not meant to come here! You have to get through this temple as soon as possible, or you will all be absorbed, and then tortured by your own fears!"
She fired a beam of golden light from her limitless essence, and as she did, her golden aura grew tremendously, so that the Slayers almost collapsed from the power. The light went into the sky, exploding in a billion ways, and the magic falling onto the walls. The structure groaned, and some of the walls exploded, making ways for paths that snaked their way through the debris. From the sky above, new walls fell with great speed. "Go!" she ordered, as she held out her hand to summon another bit of power.
Gourry took off down the path where the wall used to be, whipping out his Sword of Light to hack at the bits of wall that were threatening to crush him. The temple's anger kept up with his movements every step of the way, but still he ran.
Amelia and Filia ran down the left path, and the ground they were standing on began to move. "Chaotic Disintegrate!" Filia yelled, firing the holy blast into the ground. The path was temporarily subdued, and Amelia fired a Fireball spell at the bits of wall that were crumbling all around them. They continued to fight their way through the ancient temple, hoping against hope that holy magic would be enough to subdue their surroundings.
"Astral Vine!" yelled Zelgadis, taking off down the right path as all this was happening. The crimson sword that gleamed in his hand was able to destroy a wall that stood in his way, and he dropped to the ground and rolled as another bit of wall and a winding path snaked its way toward him. He narrowly dodged it, and used his free hand to destroy the things with a shamanism spell.
Xellos used his teleportation techniques to race as fast as he could down the center of the temple, not even spotting Gourry as he passed him. More than one time, a wall almost crushed him as he landed in his new location after a teleport. He fired beams of energy with his staff to clear his way. He spotted a path that was snaking downward from the sky out of the corner of his eye, and destroyed it by flaring his evil power.
The Lord of Nightmares expanded her golden aura once more. "Evil temple! If you will not recognize me for the Creator I am, I shall see to it that you are destroyed myself! Your methods of confusion work nothing on the Mother of All Things." Her eyes not flickering one bit, she let herself be absorbed by the temple.
Filia and Amelia were separated as a huge wall fell downwards between them, and though they scrambled to get back next to each other, new paths and walls wound violently through each other in an attempt to crush them. The endless temple was determined to isolate the intruders so that it could destroy them properly.
Filia let out a yell, transforming into her dragon form. As she flew with renewed speed into the darkness ahead, she fired lasers from her mouth to destroy anything in her path. Her tail swatted aside any spare bits of rock behind her.
Zelgadis gasped in pain as a path slammed into his stomach. He used his sword to frantically cut the thing to bits, but the damage was done. He breathed less easily, but he still managed to keep running. "RA TILT!" he yelled, destroying any bits of the nightmare around him. However, the dark power that the temple wielded would not be dissuaded. With renewed force, the walls came down faster and faster, and the paths zoomed through the walls, causing debris to rain down upon the stone-skinned warrior. A rock fragment slammed into his chest, and then another into his back. Zelgadis coughed up blood, and then, collapsing, was absorbed finally into the temple.
Gourry, for all his expert swordsmanship, couldn't keep up as the temple increased the level of its frenzy, more and more paths and walls exploding out from the sky, the ground, empty air. It and wound in a continuously confusing manner. Gourry handled the Sword of Light with unbelievable speed, destroying every little bit of rock as it zoomed by. "Give back Lina!" he cried, as he let a powerful projectile explode from his Sword. The blue blast disintegrated the danger near him, but then the temple speeded up still more. A wall fell down from above, and as it crushed him under, he lost consciousness. Gourry was absorbed.
Filia was still managing herself pretty well, the fast zoom of flying giving her a high advantage by avoiding all of the chaos down on the ground. Even as the walls and paths began to pick up speed, she was able to maneuver past them, and her laser breath continuously cleared the way. Still, she was beginning to tire. How long could she keep up?
As Gourry and Zelgadis fell, Xellos teleported with amazing dexterity with increased fervor. The mozaku suddenly realized something - the temple still looked the same. Everything about it was exactly the same, except that now the entrance wasn't visible. Was there really an exit? He fired thousands of black cones from his body in all directions, and they destroyed some paths that were threatening to smash into him from behind, as well as the walls in front of him. He held his staff at the ready. "What are you?" he yelled in frustration. "Don't underestimate my power!" He flared up his black aura, and the stuff around him was disintegrated yet again, but this time, it was to no avail. The walls and paths that came in endlessly from every direction were too many to be handled. As Xellos was struck from every direction, he let out a pained gasp, and then was absorbed.
"I can't keep up with this much longer!" Amelia cried, firing shamanism spells in every direction. Even the Ra Tilt only cleared the way for still more of the design to come rushing at her. A sharp piece of wall stabbed at her thigh from behind, and she fell to the ground, gasping. Cringing, Amelia managed to start casting a healing spell. But she wasn't fast enough. Another piece of wall hit the back of her head, and she was absorbed as well.
Filia knew now that the situation was hopeless. She didn't even believe that she was gaining any ground, no matter how fast she flew. Everything in the endless labyrinth looked the same. Her wings got more and more tired, and after she fired one last laser breath, she collapsed to the ground. The last Slayer was absorbed.
***
Lina woke up. She looked all around her, wondering what had happened, and vaguely remembered the temple, though she couldn't remember what she'd seen. She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts, and wondered where the others could possibly be. "Hello?" she called, seeing if anyone was around.
Immediately, two ENORMOUS red eyes opened, and glinted evilly in the darkness. For the first time, Lina noticed that the ground under her was squishy, almost like a living thing. And as she opened her mouth in horror, she beheld the twin eyes blinking at her with caution. She gulped. "Lighting..." she forced herself to choke, and as the light illuminated the surrounding area, she let out a bloodcurdling scream.
She had been standing on a giant slug, a colossal one. As she looked behind her, she saw that she couldn't even see the end of the slug she was on, which was at least 10,000 times larger than her. "L-sama help me..." she breathed, trying to get a hold of herself.
The slug opened its gaping mouth wide, and the sorceress could see Gourry inside. "Gourry!" she yelled in desperation, but even as she struggled to get closer, the slug let out a roar, and she was blown back by the power.
Lina gazed up at the slug, terrified beyond belief. "What is this place? What do you want?" she screamed.
Phibrizzo's face suddenly came into view, dancing in the shadows near her. "Hopeless as always..." he chuckled, the soul orbs dancing dangerously in his hands. "Why didn't you save them? Why couldn't you save them when they died?"
"W-What are you talking about?" Lina staggered back in horror.
"Don't you remember?" Hellmaster chuckled, as he tossed the orbs up and down idly. Suddenly, Lina was surrounded by the memories of all of her companions dying, dying, dying. She collapsed to her knees, fighting Hellmaster's magic, struggling to get a hold of her mind. "Let's watch them die again, shall we?"
Lina screamed in protest, clutching her head in pain. The gigantic slug roared, and Gourry yelled out, "Why didn't you save me? Why are you letting this happen to all of us?"
Phibrizzo laughed and laughed, and Lina couldn't do much but accept her torture.
***
Gourry fought back hard, matching his opponent at every turn, but his heart ate away at him.
"What's the matter, Gourry? Can't win?" Zangulus taunted.
Gourry gritted his teeth, and he suddenly felt his skill slipping. Zangulus was getting the better of him... wasn't he supposed to be an ally? He couldn't remember... what was happening... "WHO ARE YOU?!" Gourry yelled. He had to rescue Lina, Lina was imprisoned... she was gone somewhere...
Zangulus laughed, dropping the Howling Sword to the ground. Gourry slashed at his opponent in vain, each hit of the Sword of Light bouncing harmlessly off. "I'm your defeat!" he laughed, and as Gourry watched in amazement, he transformed into the Demon Dragon King.
The Howling Sword flew up off the ground into Gaav's hand, and as it did, it transformed into Gaav's huge sword. "Why don't you try beating me again to get to Lina Inverse? Hellmaster won't save you this time!" he roared.
Gourry, not knowing what else to do, stabbed at Gaav with his Sword of Light. Gaav caught the Sword effortlessly, and then uppercutted Gourry, sending him sprawling backwards. "You'll never win! Insolent worm!" he laughed, flaring up his power.
***
"RA TILT!" Zelgadis yelled with all his might, but to no avail. The explosion did nothing to harm his opponent, and it was only absorbed.
Rezo laughed at him. "Will treatment like this earn you a cure, Zelgadis?" he chuckled. "I would've thought you'd have more manners!"
Zelgadis let out a roar, charging with his sword again, and stabbed it straight through Rezo. His eyes slowly widened with horror as he saw that Rezo was unaffected, even with the sword going straight through his body. Zelgadis staggered back, with the sword still impaled in Rezo.
"How foolish..." Rezo muttered, holding out his hand, making the sword fly out of his body and into it. He was entirely unhurt. "Perhaps we should reshape the way you look. That golem look really doesn't suit you!" With that, he threw the sword towards Zelgadis.
Zel managed to dodge it, moving quickly over to the left. Rezo immediately attacked him from behind, firing a barrage of spells that made Zelgadis collapse to the ground, gasping. "You won't win again!" Zelgadis vowed. Although he didn't know where he was, he was desperate to get his revenge.
"Hm," Rezo said, and then with a flare of his power, caused Zelgadis to cry out in pain once again.
***
"No! Mother, no!" Amelia cried in pain, as she witnessed the bounty hunter's act of murder. She tried to rush into the scene, so save her mother, so that everything would be fine, but an unknown force held her back.
The bounty hunter laughed, and transformed into Kanzel. "You can't do anything to help! You couldn't even save your own mother! Now that your father is dead as well, what will you do?" He smiled horribly.
"Daddy isn't dead!" Amelia protested, tears streaming from her face. "It wasn't true! It wasn't true! He was never killed by you!"
Kanzel's eyes flared, showing no mercy, and Amelia was thrown against a wall. "Your father was killed because of YOU!" he accused.
Amelia felt herself being pulled by an unknown force through the walls of the palace, out into the sky. And as she looked down, she gasped in horror. For all of Seyruun was burning. The people screamed in the streets, and as they looked up, they pointed, shouting, "It's your fault! What justice is there in Seyruun when there is no protection?"
"It isn't true!" Amelia sobbed. "I didn't do any of these things!" Kanzel laughed and laughed....
***
Filia fought the Ancient Dragons, even though she didn't want to. Her body was being forced to. "Stop this, whoever you are!" she cried, as she killed another of the enemy. "I don't want to do this!"
The other Golden Dragons charged at their opponents, ignoring Filia as though they couldn't see her. "You are endangering this world!" the Supreme Elder shouted. "You must all be destroyed!"
"NO, there must be another way!" Filia yelled in pain.
Valgaav appeared, floating beside her as her laser breath killed yet another dragon. "So this is what you have done," he stated. "Why must you murder my people? I thought you were different; I thought you cared."
"VAL!" Filia yelled desperately. "Please, none of this is true! You're not supposed to be grown up! You're not supposed to be in this battle, and neither am I!"
The battle suddenly ended with a brilliant explosion, after which the Golden Dragons and Ancient Dragons were both dead, except for two - Filia and Valgaav. "You had to kill us, didn't you?" Valgaav asked quietly. "It was because of you that both of our races had to suffer, had to be tortured, had to die..."
Filia collapsed with pain, struggling not to cry.
***
Xellos was surrounded by darkness, by evil, in every direction. He was being tortured, tortured because the darkness was deeper than him. Tortured because he was powerless, and the evil around him was too strong to be countered.
"Xellos Metallium!" a voice called. "You call yourself a member of the monster race? You are nothing! A disgusting servant! A powerless piece of filth!"
Xellos's eyes flared, and he gripped his staff more tightly. He fired blasts off into the darkness, but to no avail. "Come out and face me!" he called.
"You have no right to summon me forth!" the voice called. "I may be anything. I am your worst fears."
Suddenly, Xellos was overwhelmed by images, visions of horrible clarity. He was so strained that he couldn't keep his human form anymore, his mozaku form of a black cone coming into view. He saw the monsters being slaughtered by merciless gods. He saw himself being chopped to pieces by the Demon Dragon King. He saw Phibrizzo turning against him, killing him for his own pleasure. Xellos had no voice any longer. He could only behold the visions with terror.
***
The Lord of Nightmares hovered in darkness that spread out in every direction, and her eyes showed no fear, only supremacy as always. "Show yourself!" she commanded. "Do not hide like a coward!"
Dark laughter filled the air, echoing in every direction, and the amount of evil affected even the Mother of All Things. The cold whooshed in from nowhere, darkness approaching with ice.
And all of a sudden, L-sama felt herself being teleported. Herself and all of the Slayers were being moved from the mysterious temple to the outside world once again. In the Outer World.
***
At this point, the six Slayers were suddenly teleported out of their nightmares, of which they were most grateful. They appeared next to the Lord of Nightmares under the pitch-black sky. Red lighting struck from above, and chaos danced everywhere. Not one spoke; they were too weak to speak.
The Slayers looked on as their visions came back, and then shot out of their minds into material form. Rezo, the gigantic slug, Kanzel, the destruction of Sairaag, visions of horror, the destruction of the Golden and Ancient Dragons, Gaav, Hellmaster, Zangulus - they all zoomed out of the Slayers' hearts into the dismal air, and spun more and more quickly until it was a spiral of fear and power.
The darkness... Icy, the darkness... it was overwhelming, and even L-sama herself was surprised at the strength. The memories of Anguish and Pain played idly in the Slayers' minds, but then were washed away by their sheer insignificance in comparison to this enemy.
As the spiral spun faster, the darkness grew deeper, and walls and paths flew out of the sky into the mixture, spinning faster and faster and faster, fear and hatred absorbed everywhere....
And the spiral stopped.
And there was a figure.
And it looked at them with unrivaled power.
The creature was horrendous beyond anything the Slayers had seen so far. The cloak was not red and or black that it wore, but it rather was weaved from chaos and negativity. Its face was absolutely monstrous, and the Slayers down below could see reflected in it all of the past enemies they had faced. They could see their worst fears. They could see pure darkness. The eyes were worse still than Pain's, the absolute soullessness of it enough to drive a man insane. Its hair streamed down its back, the dark energy still extending out where the hair ended.
L-sama's eyes were unwavering, yet powerful as always. Her wisdom reflected in those eyes, and golden light exploded from her as she allowed some of her might to run free. "Who are you that dares to disrupt the balance in the four worlds?" she asked, levelly.
The creature looked back with equal confidence, and as he held out his hand, twin wings forged of chaos erupted from his shoulders, horrible beyond compare, frightful past imagination. In his dreadful hand, he held the fate of the world. Dark power erupted from him, and the land around the area screamed in protest, mountains jutting up out of the ground, piercing the sky, which also groaned in agony. The sun had long since died.
"You may call me Fate."
