The Dark Brilliance

Chapter 8: United At Last

"Together we fight to the ends of this earth, Once mortal enemies awash in rebirth."

Golden light swept over the dead land, and at once the knowledge was transferred. The arrivals saw. Knew. Understood. And what they now knew staggered many of them, though the eight gods and demons stood strong and proud. The pain that the Dark Brilliance was causing ceased as the Golden Lord's power swept over everyone like a river bathing a wound.

Naga was silent, for once in her life. She had often laughed at danger, and laughed at anyone that opposed her. But even she knew that there was no laughter in this sinister place. No life, no light... Also she was silent at the sight of her sister. Amelia... Naga hadn't seen her in so long, and yet there was no mistaking her. And... Lina. Ever since their separation on the roads so long ago, they hadn't met again either. And now her former rival was here fighting this unknown evil. She ran toward the Slayers, as the massive armies began to unite together.

Luna looked at her little sister with some sense of reminiscence. To think that Lina would've turned out in this kind of battle. She would have to have a long talk with her afterward...

Martina and Zangulus were just about completely overwhelemed. They'd just been enjoying their honeymoon when this suddenly happened! But Martina and Zangulus both felt what neither had felt for 6 years... the sense of total despair in the air from the battle with Phibrizzo... intensified a thousandfold, and the situation grave beyond belief. They had received the information from the Golden Lord, whom they had never thought they would interact with again. But this time they knew far more about the situaiton at hand... and they understood just how powerful both sides of the battle were.

Sylphiel felt this too. She still performed duties as a priestess, and her black magic skills remained as low as ever. Still, she was more than ready to cast the Dragonslave to help if needed. And she would see Gourry dear again....

And everywhere, people thought about what was happening as they began to group together. They looked at the Dark Brilliance and shivered at its power. If not for the Lord of Nightmares, none of them could begin to comprehend the horror that had been going on. They were all weighted down like an anchor so big that it had capsized the ship of hope on which they were riding.

"Sister..." Lina gulped, as Luna arrived alongside her. How strange that she should still feel such fear towards her sibling when such an awful evil threatened the universe. But that was just the way things were...

"Ah, Lina..." cooed Luna. "Have you been behaving yourself?" she laughed, her eyes hidden as usual by her hair.

Lina shuddered. "Y-y-yes, sister."

Luna smiled. "Good! Then we can talk more after this battle is finished." Her presence was filling Lina with fear as usual, and her incredible powers could be felt by the confidence in her voice.

"O-of course, s-sister," Lina managed, trying to keep her focus on the enemy.

Surprisingly, Amelia and Naga simply didn't have much to say to each other. They met, exchanged a few words, thought of their mother, and then fell silent, also trying to stay focused on the battle. Two sisters lost for so long from each other, and only reunited by the greatest darkness of all; the Dark Brilliance had this power, to destroy hearts and minds.

Lina exchanged a quick word with Naga as soon as she could edge away from Luna, but their old relationship had been lost. After about 10 years, the spark of their now-childish adventures was gone.

Sylphiel and Gourry were deep in conversation when the mozaku and gods arrived.

Gaav and Hellmaster, walking side by side, seemed to be twitching involuntarily. Apparently they were trying to resist L-sama's power, in order to try killing each other. They weren't succeeding, however, and their expressions steeled when they saw Lina and the rest of the Slayers.

"Lina Inverse!" Hellmaster greeted her, still in his child form. "I suppose you think this is funny, the casting of the Giga Slave turning against me more than once." He sneered at her.

Lina ignored him; she was busy wondering if their powers were going to be enough, but of course she had no reading of the Dark Brilliance's power to base it off of. She could tell it was going to be a long, difficult battle, however. It was definite that many would die, god, demon, dragon, and human alike. And from what she'd seen so far, the Dark Brilliance would enjoy it. And the fallen could never be brought back... trapped forever in darkness... unless the Dark Brilliance was defeated, that is; at least, she hoped so.

Hellmaster couldn't get any closer to Lina; L-sama's power was holding him back, and he was furious that he was rendered so helpless. And Gaav didn't even try it; he was still so angry at Phibrizzo for humiliating him. "I would've ruled the monster race if it weren't for you!" he raged, swinging his sword dangerously but to no avail.

Valgaav ran up at this point, and greeted Lord Gaav appropriately. Because of the revival of Volpheed and Darkstar, he was now just a mozaku / Ancient Dragon fusion, but still exceptionally powerful. Gaav left Phibrizzo with a withering glare before turning to talk with his former servant.

Xellos greeted Beastmaster, eagerly discussing the events so far, while Dynast and Dolphin wandered around with their revived servants.

And suddenly all was put to a stop. Lina stopped thinking of the battle, Gourry stopped chatting with Rowdy, Amelia stopped wondering what she should say to her sister, Zelgadis stopped yelling at Rezo, and Xellos stopped talking to the Dark Lords. All was silent when L-sama called attention, though some of the Dark Lords were evidently struggling to move of their own accord. She made another wave of golden light flash over them with a flick of her hand, and suddenly all cooperated, knew what they were fighting for, and were ready to fight to the death to save creation.

The Dark Brilliance was watching all this, and laughed mercilessly at the bizarre army. "This is your 'army', 'Mother'?" he mocked. "I would've expected better! Did you not see? Your own forces quarrel among themselves; I would say some of them didn't even know of your existence. And each one is so unbelieveably weak; what a useless distribution of power. And no doubt there are still many more of your pathetic 'creations' that you didn't even summon forth, wasting their time when they're all about to DIIIIIEEEEE!" At that last word, the Dark Brilliance flared up his power and everyone on the ground stumbled back.

The fight had begun.

Milgazia led an army of Golden Dragons to attack the creature from the left, and the Dark Brilliance gladly flew up to meet them and shot a Laser Breath at them, scattering them in all directions. His hollow eyes still reflected only the deepest pits of hell, and his body bled black blood, singing the air around him. His body conveyed the most deadly aura, ready to absorb souls and strengthen him. He licked his dry, cracking lips, the darkness erupting from him in a frenzy to kill. He laughed and laughed as he managed to kill a dozen dragons, and their tortured souls fed back into him in a swarm of pain.

"You have no idea what horror is!" he declared, and letting out a yell, transformed into a monstrous dragon with many many wings, and tails that lashed out that all that dare get too close. There were stretched mouths on his wings, shooting lasers in all directions. And his eyes remained the same.

"Look out!" cried Amelia, and Zelgadis dodged neatly aside from one of the many lasers.

Zelgadis rolled, and then got to his feet. "I'm not going to stand by and suffer any longer. Amelia! Cast it!" Amelia nodded.

"RA TILT!" they yelled together, causing the earth to explode in lights beneath their enemy. One of the tails merely swiped at the blast, casting it back into the ground, creating a crater that helped nothing.

Xellos teleported up into the air, throwing millions of sharp cones down to try and penetrate the Dark Brilliance's shield. It didn't even have to defend; they did nothing.

"Ah, trying to hurt me with such a pathetic attack?" the Dark Brilliance asked. He cocked his head in Xellos's direction, and at once his shields reflected the blasts, sending Xellos teleporting for cover as they doubled back on him.

The Ancient Dragons tried attacking with the same tactics as the Golden Dragons, but even their superior power was no match. Their Laser Breaths created huge craters everywhere as the Dark Brilliance reflected them. And more simply got killed and absorbed.

"Stop it!" cried Sylphiel. "I won't let you destroy more lives!" She cast an improved Dragon Slave that she'd been practicing on into Gourry's waiting Sword of Light, and the swordsman swung with all his might so that the blast raced toward the Dark Brilliance.

Come on, Lina, thought Gourry. We're not going to hold out at this rate. You've always come through before.

The Dark Brilliance was completely incinerated by the Dragon Slave, and dark blood continued to drip everywhere as he formed himself back together again.

"Hhhhhhh- HYAH!" thundered Gaav as he fired a colossal energy blast at the Dark Brilliance.

"Dodge this!" challenged Phibrizzo as he threw down an even larger ball of Hellfire from above.

The Dark Brilliance decided that he wouldn't play games this time. "What devastating attacks..." he said sarcastically, and then caught both huge balls of energy with his hands, and then combined them. "Catch!" he said, throwing it at Phibrizzo with unbelieveable speed.

Hellmaster didn't stand a chance to dodge it; the blast hit him head on, and he fell to the ground like a wounded bird. He was still barely alive... he couldn't even maintain his child's form in the Slayers world any longer. L-sama hit him with healing, and Phibrizzo charged towards the Dark Brilliance with more attacks once more.

The battle didn't look as hopeless as it did before. Although no attacks were doing any visible damage to the enemy, there were just so many people that it seemed there was a chance...

Obviously, most everyone wanted to remain attacking from a distance. They knew that if they got anywhere close, they would most probably be killed. The overall strategy was just to fire as many attacks from a distance as they could, and perhaps that would be enough to overwhelm the opponent.

None of the main gods or demons had attacked yet; L-sama had not wanted them to. They were the trump card, to be used to channel power and fire a final attack if all else failed. For now, she would just let things play out as they were, and see if she could spot an extent to the Dark Brilliance's power.

Valgaav began firing energy too, each one a symbol of the rage of the Ancient Dragons, each one a symbol of the ferocity of the mozaku race. They shot holes through the Dark Brilliance, but the holes merely sealed back up with more chaos.

The sky was long gone. The earth was long gone. The air was long gone. The land they were on had turned to darkness entirely, and one didn't know for sure where one ended and the other began. They only knew to fight, and that's what they did. Continuously, again and again, but to no avail.

"I'm not going to let your creations attack me freely for much longer, you know," a bored Dark Brilliance said to the Lord of Nightmares, who was watching the battle from above. "And when I strike back, you and all of creation will lose. Inevitably." His aura deepened.

Everyone was fighting now. Lina called upon her talismans and fired one huge spell after another. Zanifar reared back its heads and let loose a barrage on the Dark Brilliance. Kanzel and Mazenda did their share by attacking fiercely as well. The Overworlders used their own type of immensely powerful attacks to try to turn the tide of battle. Zangulus attacked with his Howling Sword, and Martina attacked with her own energy sword, which she'd been training with. Even the odd, impossible-to-describe creatures from the worlds of Death Fog and Chaotic Blue attacked in their own way; they were of a different kind of existence, just like the Overworlders, and so their attacks were strange and indescribable to the people of the Slayers world.

They fought for a long time. But nothing worked. The Dark Brilliance laughed at their futile attempts, laughed at how much weaker the Lord of Nightmares was than him.

So the forces of the rightful chaos decided to go for their final chance.

"Lina Inverse!" the Lord of Nightmares called. Lina met up with the Mother of All Things, awaiting her instructions.

"We're all going to get killed at this rate!" Lina gasped in fear.

The Lord of Nightmares looked at Lina with her calm, placent eyes. "That is why I have chosen you to receive."

"Receive what?"

"The secrets of the Four Worlds."

With that, L-sama touched Lina's forehead with one hand, and all of a sudden Lina felt a huge jolt of information and power. She suddenly knew things she would've had no hope of knowing before. She felt things that could not be of this earth. She knew spells. New spells and new techniques. Techniques that wouldn't even need spells...

"Aah!" Lina cried out, as the information suddenly stopped. "What... what was that?" she asked.

"Those were the ancient spells and powers that you now possess. They comprise of every elemental, of every type of magic, of every type of attack. They were created from all four of these worlds, the products of many thousands of years. And now you understand them all. You can understand all of the extents of spells and physical attacks, even from the worlds that you knew barely anything about. You, Lina Inverse, will be the final hope if all else fails."

Lina blinked. "But... but why me, of all of your creations? I'm not the strongest. It should rightfully be that of a powerful god, or even a powerful demon..."

L-sama looked back without a flash of concern. "Because you are unique," she stated simply. Her aura flared up, and she charged with all her might at the Dark Brilliance.

Golden weapons and energy blasts launched themselves at the horrible enemy from the aura of L-sama, and she herself charged at her foe, even as blasts from her creations all over ravaged the air around her. Using hand motions, she moved the very air, slicing the Dark Brilliance into a billion pieces in a devastating attack. And the pieces crumbled to dust as the energy blasts incinerated them once again.

But even before any guesses could be made, fine powder and running blood began to shape back together. The first thing that came together was a horrible arm, and it grabbed the Lord of Nightmares by the neck with sudden force. L-sama remained calm. "You still don't see that you can never win against my chaos?" the Dark Brilliance asked, as his mouth formed together. "Give up. And perhaps your creations' souls will not suffer as much when they are locked inside of me for eternity."

The Lord of Nightmares looked straight at Lina. "Now," she said.

Lina suddenly understood. The Lord of Nightmares and all her creations would try one final ultimate attack, and she, a mere human, would be the one to lead it. It was her leadership that would decide whether or not their universe survived or was torn into oblivion by darkness. They would use the Darkstar weapons.

"Sirius! Erulogos! Overworlders!" she called, catching their attention. "We will need the Darkstar weapons for our final attempt at victory!"

"Lina, what are you doing?" Gourry asked, edging closer to her.

"WE are going to win," Lina replied, her eyes set in determination once more.

Gourry held up his Sword of Light. "Then I guess I might finally be of some help," he said, getting himself ready.

The Overworlders hung onto their weapons, so Gourry went to stand beside them.

All the rest of the army readied themselves for their final attack, and the eight demons and gods also steeled themselves for their first attacks.

The darkness they were surrounded by warped into chaos, and screams of tortured souls ripped through the air. The Dark Brilliance began powering up, and waves of despair washed over the Slayers and their allies. The Lord of Nightmares also began charging up to maximum, and the golden light washed over them and made them stronger.

It BEGAN.

"Darkness beyond deepest hell," Lina chanted, causing red lightning to flash, connecting sky and earth. The mozaku, including the four demons, let out furious yells, creating an unbelieveable surge of power that whipped through the air to hover atop the Darkstar weapons.

"Brilliance beyond the purest heaven." With a flash of healing light, the gods, dragons, priests, and priestesses summoned all of their power, causing a wave of tranquility that somehow held the same deadly force that the darkness had.

"Lord of All that kills and loves." The two powers began circling each other atop the interlinked Darkstar weapons. The energy crackled with the force of ten thousand nuclear explosions. They combined.

"Atop this Perfect Sea of Chaos, glowing with power beyond wrath of omnipotence." The titanic amounts of light and dark energy began circling higher and higher, growing and growing atop the Darkstar weapons until shapes were formed. Elegant dragons chased each other, gods and demons fought battles that never ended, black and white co-existed in balance that never ceased.

"I swear myself to thee." Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, and Xellos looked at each other. They had come a long way together. They nodded at each other as they charged up for their most powerful attacks. They knew that if anyone had a way to win this evil over, this horrible creature so complete with darkness that even speaking, walking, breathing was a torture, it was Lina. It always had been.

"Pledge my very soul to thee." The blue energy in the Darkstar weapons began to glow black, red, and white simultaneously, and the incredible energy from the army flowed into them.

"Let the fools who stand before me be destroyed by this river of rightful chaos!!!!" Lina yelled, finishing the spell. "Let this single arrow pierce the being that wrongly walks this earth! HYAH!" Lina fired her essence and knowledge toward the Darkstar weapons, and the attack began to launch.

The energy from the other four Darkstar weapons flowed with immeasuable power towards the Final Weapon, the bow. The Overworlder let out a mighty roar, and then let loose the arrow. The other four weapons' attacks were fired, and all the other attacks that were being charged were let loose. The arrow of chaos absorbed all of this, concentrated everything that the Four Worlds had. Shabranigdo, Ceipheed, and the rest of the Oldest creations flared up all of their power, and the arrow swelled.

The darkness was so powerful it was defeaning, and yet the power of the gods illuminated the hope of all as the perfect arrow ripped swiftly through the air at the Dark Brilliance. Right where the creature's heart should be.....

"HA!" the Lord of Nightmares yelled, flaring up all of her power. The arrow almost seemed to have exploded with golden radiance. The full power of the Lord of Nightmares swelled up inside it, blending with the chaos. It was so powerful it was a miracle that it could remain in an arrow form; it absorbed the power from the very air around it. The fate of the gods and the demons hung in that one weapon.

The Dark Brilliance looked at the arrow with surprise. Even he could tell that it was far, far more powerful than anything he'd tried to defend himself against so far.

The arrow sped up so fast it couldn't be seen, and...

It impaled itself perfectly through the Dark Brilliance. The incredible energy ignited, and the disgusting creature was completely engulfed by raw power. Following was an unbelieveable explosion, throwing everyone back in an uncontrollable force. Dragons' screams of pain filled the air as the souls that the Dark Brilliance had absorbed also felt the terrible pain.

Lina shielded herself against the wind that was blowing everywhere as a result of the explosion. So much pain... It was all going to be ended, once and for all. She could tell that the Dark Brilliance hadn't expected an attack of that magnitude. Perhaps it had caught him off guard enough to have completely destroyed him.

The others steeled themselves against the wind, watching the sky. The darkness... it was starting to lift a little... they could almost see the blue of the sky.

"Finally, I can go back to my simple search for a cure," whispered Zelgadis, not wanting to see Rezo ever again after this.

Xellos's eyes opened wide for, for the first time, relief. He had never felt such destruction before. Also, he wondered what was going to happen to him now. One of the goals of the mozaku race had been to revive Shabranigdo, but all of the Dark Lord was already revived. Everyone was revived. Did it really make any sense to easily destroy the world now? After they'd just saved it.... Also, the Golden Lord surely would stop them once again. Or maybe....

BOOM. The sky suddenly caved in on itself, enveloped by darkness once more. Chaos ran in intricate patterns everywhere, drawn in apparently blood. From the distance, a figure trudged back from the shadows.. And before anyone could blink, the Dark Brilliance was back again.

He laughed at them, laughed and laughed. It made even Luna's blood run cold, and the gods and demons nearly completely collapsed in despair. "A very good attack, for weaklings such as yourselves. I suppose you thought that would've killed me. And I also suppose you weren't paying attention when I said I could not be killed. I have no body to kill, you pathetic fools." He snapped his fingers, and the unbearable pain started anew, now torturing many instead of few.

And worse yet, the Lord of Nightmares looked withered, gone. She had been defeated, and there was nothing left to do.... the Dark Brilliance had won.

He chuckled, and anyone looking into his eyes would have gone insane, the cruelty and emptiness had intensified with more and more growing confidence. And the souls still strove uselessly to get out. For inside the Dark Brilliance was torture beyond reckoning.

A cape descended from the Dark Brilliance's shoulders, a cape made of blood. It grew and grew, and soon all could see the screaming faces embedded in the blood; one was Filia's, and her wailing went on and on. The blood dripped down to the ground, spattering the darkness with patches of red. Like a painting of death.

"Well, since you're all done," the Dark Brilliance continued, a horrible smirk on his face. "Then now it's my turn!"

He blinked, and Luna suddenly let out a yell; her body burned up in black flames, and her soul was wrenched from her body. He waved a hand, and the Demon Dragon King suddenly got a huge gash across his chest, causing him to collapse to the ground and become absorbed as well. He made a flicking motion with two fingers and two Overworlders' hearts stopped.

And as his power grew, that's when the massacre began.