The Dark Brilliance

Chapter 9: Life Is Death

"The pain, the killing... As I watched the blood form into a river, and then a sea, life lost meaning for me. And then I only saw black."

"Luna!" Lina cried out. It was not until that point, that crucial moment that she saw the life leave her sister's eyes, that she realized what an important part of her life Luna had been. Certainly, she had been scary. Powerful. Controlling. But she was always there... not like now....

The Dark Brilliance let out a roar, and then transformed into a dragon of horrible power, utlizing the powers of the Demon Dragon King. He flared up the power of the Golden and Ancient Dragons, and concentrated the might of the Knight of Ceipheed. Even with the two Overworlders he'd absorbed, he had already begun to shine with some odd aura that didn't belong in the Slayers world.

The Lord of Nightmares was a shell of her former self. She had clearly given up hope now, as well. At last, the battle looked lost. And the darkness inevitable.

"Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia called, her voice trembling as she caught up with him. "I... I want to stick together now... I- If this really is the end..... I'd like to spend it with you..."

Despite himself, Zelgadis blushed, something he rarely, if ever, does. He drew his sword, not knowing what it could be used for, but just wanting to have something to GRASP. In this dire situation... "I'd like that," he stated simply, regaining control. The two of them, as they ran away, away from everything and everybody, kept close. As everything died around them, they stayed together; it was the only thing to do.

As the armies scattered, helpless of what they could do, darkness began to engulf them, so that they appeared lost in swirling mists. Chaos. It streamed around them, the living wrath of the Dark Brilliance, and induced fear and terror wherever it spread.

Lina looked at the monster with absolute disbelief. They'd lost... So totally lost... They'd thrown all of the power of the Lord of Nightmares at the creature and still they'd been humiliated utterly and completely... Was it really true, that the Dark Brilliance had no body? Then it truly was impossible...

She let out a surprised gasp as someone put a hand on her shoulder. But she knew who it was. "Gourry..." she whispered, looking up at him. After so long, he was still just as supportive as ever.

Gourry looked back, his Sword of Light still drawn, shining in the darkness like a beacon of... of what? A beacon, perhaps, signalling the heavens to pity them. To reverse the situation and bring some hope back... "Lina, I told you when I first met you that I would be your protector... I still am, and now's as good a time as any to keep on going."

Lina blushed at Gourry's unusual display of intelligence, and at his words, but let out a startled squawk when Gourry suddenly picked her up, holding her in the traditional rescuing-princess fashion. It was so much like the old days, such a simple gesture and yet so serious, that she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Stop, you're embarrassing me. Put me down," Lina whispered, not really meaning it.

Gourry smiled at her. "No way. You can't walk by yourself in this condition. I'll carry you..." And so they were together too, in the darkness...

Xellos teleported straight to his master, and for once Zelas looked like she was in a state of total shock as well. "Zelas-sama!" he gasped, trying to grab a hold of himself despite all that was happening. "What... What should we do?"

Zelas shakily lit a cigarette, taking a long drag on it. When she spoke, her voice was quiet, and even a little raspy. The pride of Wolf Pack Island had died when the arrow of hope had died. "It's over... Do as you wish..."

At these words, Xellos nearly died as well. He had always been commanded what to do. Even in the most extreme, hopeless situations, he had been given orders. And he ALWAYS carried them out, no matter how hard the orders were. But now... With Filia dead, with everyone dying, with the enemy far more powerful than anything he could imagine... His coolness gone, his secrets gone, his personality gone. Everything was destroyed. Xellos was broken. To the purple-haired mozaku, it didn't even register when his master was killed by the Dark Brilliance.

The monster chuckled as the tiny pinprick of energy pierced Beastmaster, and her soul came fluttering back into him. He utilized a new power, and his grotesque dragon and demon self morphed again, accomodating the new dark wolf that had merged with his power. The red cape that had been growing before broke off his shoulders, flying through the air and proudly displaying the tortured souls of all that he'd destroyed, and the blood flowed back into him, strengthening him beyond belief.

"Well, it would certainly be a bother to go about simply blowing up worlds or lands, wouldn't it?" he asked in a booming voice, mostly to himself. "Perhaps I should absorb someone that will allow me to kill in a much more delightful manner..." His evil smile made some of the air around him turn to ice.

His gaze zoomed to Phibrizzo, who was starting to become hysterical again, mostly because he'd been so easily defeated twice now... and that he would end up dying once more at the hands of someone he had no control over... "Ah, Hellmaster," the Dark Brilliance chuckled. "You will do..."

Everyone down below was still dissipating, struggling to find cover, but they all turned to watch as the Dark Brilliance made a "come here" gesture with his finger. Phibrizzo's eyes suddenly widened with fear, and he made choking noises as it looked like he was dragged up into the air beside the Dark Brilliance with a noose. "Now, you love killing, don't you?" the creature asked, gazing at Hellmaster with his beyond-hell eyes. Phibrizzo continued to gasp and choke, unable to say anything. "Well, you'll be getting a lovely taste of it soon." Endlessly, the Dark Brilliance's cruelty and ruthlessness entered Phibrizzo's soul, torturing it to the like of its tormentor. The monster's eyes flared, and Phibrizzo let out a heart-wrenching shriek, his mozaku body blown apart from the inside.

The Dark Brilliance's eyes flashed again, and the pieces of Phibrizzo were absorbed, along with his dark soul. He laughed, the horrible grotesque form hovering in the air. As the people on the ground looked in horror, he held out one of his many death-like hands, and in them appeared soul orbs. But black ones, stained with the purest, purest evil. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" the Dark Brilliance laughed out loud in triumph. "Now you get to see your creations murdered one by one, 'Mother'. So much for being the most mighty in the universe!" The Lord of Nightmares couldn't say anything... her golden radiance had diminished manyfold, and she merely stood on the ground with a defeated look on her face. It almost looked like the normal Kyra was back again...

Some of the beings from the other two worlds were slain by a sudden burst of the Dark Brilliance's power, and the monster absorbed their souls greedily. His bizarre form morphed still further with the beings' addition, sprouting new extensions and altercations indescribable in comparison to humans. But they were obviously demi-versions as well, for now the horror that he spread was understood equally by all of the beings on the blood-stained battlefield.

Ceipheed, Shabranigdo, and the other gods and demons didn't know what to do anymore. Being the original creations by the Lord of Nightmares, they had the most allegiance under her, and so didn't possess much independence on their own. Since the Mother of All Things was now withered, and the fighting between the gods and demons had been rendered obsolete, there seemed to be nothing left for them to do except to watch and wait...

One of the odd luminescent creatures from the world of Chaotic Blue suddenly let out a horrible shrieking/squawking sound, taking off into the air via some type of odd glowing extension in presumably a fit of rage. Several others followed it, and they all communicated by flashing lights into the air via another protrusion, letting out sounds to emphasize their point. They fired many projectile attacks at the Dark Brilliance also with their mouths, and some of them were presumably casting spells, judging by the slightly larger aura around them before they fired something else. The blasts were all absorbed, and the Dark Brilliance killed them all by making a bored motion with his fingers. They let out terrible yells, and then plummeted to the ground, their souls meanwhile entering the enemy's being and strengthening him still more. All killed except for one. The original creature that had started the attack.

"Ah, what an excellent opportunity for me to demonstrate the fun we're going to have from now on," the Dark Brilliance chuckled. "No doubt many of you have noticed that I've been letting you off pretty easy, for a creature as 'evil' as myself." He laughed. "I'm destroying you with a simple explosion, or getting you caught in a ray, or something similar, resulting in a quick, albeit perhaps painful, death. But that won't do for someone of my caliber, would it? No, it's time for you all to get a taste of your inevitable fate."

With that, the Dark Brilliance suddenly morphed, concentrating his energy into a dark humanoid form, and the evil suddenly intensified to the point that it was almost a solid, living entity. The terrified creature let out more sounds and colors of alarm, but the monster paid it no heed. Souls that had been taken circled around the two, screaming in agony, and begging to be let free. The Dark Brilliance's endless eyes suddenly flashed a brilliant pure red, and his mouth opened much further than possible, showing teeth that weren't teeth, disgusting protrusions plastered everywhere made from the excess pain absorbed. He reached out a horrible hand that pulsed with perfection. Even on his skin, there were faces and heads and bodies, their faint outlines arranged in nightmarish screaming postures, moving and wriggling, shrieking with absolute anguish. He removed something from atop his head, revealed to be a dark hood that had apparently once been part of his head. The hood fell back, and dead hair the color of chaos wrapped around the creature from the world of Chaotic Blue. They squeezed various parts of it, and the creature's sounds got considerably louder. It wriggled and squirmed in a vain attempt to get free. The Dark Brilliance stabbed through the creature with his hand, laughing as blood streamed down out of the resulting wound. "You only die when I decide you've had enough!!" he declared, evil dripping with every syllable. Everyone else down below was frozen, watching with dread beyond dread, especially the others from Chaotic Blue's world, since they understood exactly what they were seeing. Even those from the other worlds, however, could guess how painful it was, regardless.

There was a horrible snapping sound as one of the Dark Brilliance's strands of hair grabbed hold of one of the extensions and pulled with a sudden ferocity. The creature let out the loudest shriek yet, but stopped squirming as much, not being able to move with the pain. The Dark Brilliance laughed and laughed, and shouted to the battlefield, "Do you see what happens to those who oppose me?! Submit yourselves quietly, and perhaps your torture will be a little less painful!" Each strand of hair suddenly turned on the creature, stabbing through every spot, and the Dark Brilliance opened his mouth wide. The creature let out an earth-shattering screech of pure torture, and then the "teeth" snapped it in half, blood running down into the being of the Dark Brilliance as the soul was added to the creature's collection. "Wonderful..." the Dark Brilliance gasped, his power growing a surprising amount. "The more negative emotions, the more pain and terror and helplessness; that's what strengthens me." He flared up his power further, and he transformed back into the bizarre mix of parts that he'd been before. His form was his to choose, and chaos swarmed around him, ready to add to his power if he so chose.

Gourry sprinted as fast as he could from the battlefield, still holding Lina, who had went into a state of total shock. "I... can't... believe.. it..." he gasped out loud, to himself. "I..." Even someone as dense as Gourry knew exactly what had just happened, and his mind couldn't erase the images. The screaming. The pain. And it wasn't even someone from their world. He didn't want to see any more of it... Lina shouldn't see any more of it...

Amelia had fainted when the creature had been seemingly eaten by the Dark Brilliance, a

"hair" impaling every spot on its body. Zelgadis had picked her up too, now, and was trying to find a safe place for cover. Damn it all to hell! he thought miserably. This creature... its evil is beyond imagination... It's... this situation is completely different from any other battle. We're all going to die... NO! Zelgadis's eyes flared up with determination from an unforeseen source. We're not all going to die... Amelia won't die... I won't let it happen...

"Now, for these," the Dark Brilliance continued, as if nothing had happened, juggling a couple of the dark soul orbs with one hand. "I wonder who I should kill first... Those of you who think your deaths will be as easy as those done by that coward Hellmaster are thoroughly mistaken. My Chaos Orbs won't simply kill you, you realize..." He let out another dark chuckle. "No, it will be pain beyond imagination... Still, be thankful if you are killed by these... Those who survive to the round afterward will wish that they'd killed themselves a lot sooner!"

Martina and Zangulus held each other closely. It was almost eerie how history seemed to repeat itself; they were again trapped in a helpless, hopeless situation. Only this time, they were not in danger from simply a great force, but a great evil force. Zangulus smiled weakly, yet somehow he still gave Martina confidence. "Let's pray to Zoamelgustar together," he whispered.

Martina managed a smile as well, and agreed. She remembered their previous serious battle so long ago. She remembered how they had prayed. And now they both still held hope. To the very end.

One of the black soul orbs lifted up higher than the other ones, spinning uncontrollably and throbbing with a strange, hidden power. It was lifted up by the Dark Brilliance's other solid hand. "Let's see who will die first..." he chuckled. The endless masses below seemed to hold their breath as one, each trembling in their own way. The evil being held the orb between two fingers without compassion. His grotesque mouth and endlessly hollow twin pools of hell called eyes loomed over the crowds with a sense of impending doom. He smiled. Such a cruel smile.

The soul orb shattered into bits between his fingers, the pieces like beacons in the darkness, glistening and shining with awful power. Dynast suddenly let out a blood-curdling scream, then began to shriek and convulse uncontrollably. His limbs swung around wildly, and demons and gods alike were horrified by the Dark Lord's behavior. He screamed and screamed, his body undergoing inexplicable pain. Suddenly, he choked, blood gushed out of his mouth, his eyes clouded over, and Dynast died. He slumped to the ground, and then was still. Completely still.

The Dark Brilliance savored the pain as the soul washed into him. Parts of his disgusting body froze over with steely ice, adding a sharper look to the looming horror. His darkness got just a bit more defined. He looked with satisfaction at the dark orbs that he still juggled in his other hand.

Dead silence. And then total pandemonium. Lina and Amelia regained control of themselves, but they continued to let themselves be held. They didn't see what had happened, but they knew that the situation had grown even worse.

Evil laughter washed over the land, echoeing endlessly. A new stage of the battle had begun - the desperate, hopeless stage. The Dark Brilliance reveled in the turmoil, the chaos, and the pain. He killed with wild joy now, holding back none of his dark ambitions. He brought out soul orbs by the handful, breaking them with his many bizarre extensions. And as had been predicted: Many died. Many, many died.

Dolphin broke out in wracked screams of torture as her body was torn apart. The Fire Dragon King roared his last as he was ruthlessly destroyed. Sylphiel couldn't stop shrieking for Gourry, but Gourry wasn't there to hear her... Everyone, everything.... was dying... The Overworlders died in undescribable anguish. The creatures from the other two worlds... they were ripped to shreds in a flurry of agony.

The Dark Brilliance was at the center of the killing, his evil darkening the black air around him even further. The orbs' shards rained down through the darkness as he howled with laughter. His form kept rippling and shifting, changing and shaping into more and more unbelieveable ways. And the masses below kept running in vain, for the Dark Brilliance was everywhere, and his chaotic orbs spun madly in his many hands. With every flap of his endless wings, the very depths of space and time quivered for a moment, the sky cut open like a gaping fish, and streams of black blood falling into the chaos below...

Lina couldn't take it anymore. The absolute victory that the Dark Brilliance was commanding. But for some strange reason, she felt not afraid at all. As if there was something important she was forgetting that would aid them. Something big. But what was it.......?

Gourry was still running, away from the huge mass of evil above them. But he knew that no matter how far he ran with Lina in his arms, nothing would change. He could truly protect her from nothing.... And he knew that distance held no value with the Dark Brilliance's power. Suddenly, Lina moved in his arms. She was conscious and awake, and wanted to be put down. He reluctantly obeyed her command.

"Gourry, I feel in my heart that there's still one last chance. I feel that it's not time to give up yet."

"But Lina... this battle looks done. I may not know a lot about monsters, but Gaav and Phibrizzo were killed just like that. And that uh... Kyra was destroyed, too."

"Kyra was the Lord of Nightmares. And the Mother of All Things would not die quite so easily, I believe. She could even have absorbed all of us to fight this evil, but instead she wanted me to channel her with the Giga Slave. She made us fire that final attack, which wouldn't have been quite as effective as if she had fought the evil one-on-one. I still think there must be some other way to win."

"All right, Lina. I believe in you."

Before the two knew what was happening, they stumbled into two others in the darkness. Amelia and Zelgadis were both running as well, by now, and they let out sighs of relief when they saw each other.

Each was so serious, so stern. They had lost all their innocence. Their exploits with even Valgaav were left far behind in the past. They had been altered forever by trauma. Never to be back again. But they still wanted to live. As with Valgaav, they didn't want to give up their humanity.

Zelgadis sighed. "I realize now what I should have realized long ago..... What would have spared me a lot of dead ends and countless frustrations...... There is no cure. There never will be. Rezo probably specifically formulated that spell so that there would be no counter-curse. And maybe he even did it to teach me a lesson or something. All the hate that I've felt toward him all these years has held back something in me, and that was his goal all alone. The cure won't be something solid that I will find. This 'cure' is what I had to realize - that I can live with who I am." He bowed his head a little, and then turned to look at Amelia, his words hovering in the air. He smiled one of his rare sincere smiles.

"Oh, Mr. Zelgadis!" Amelia cried, genuine tears in her eyes as she hugged him. Zelgadis flinched a little from surprise, but then returned the gesture warmly. The princess shed tears of both joy and sorrow at how Zelgadis had finally settled down, and how the situation looked like it would change nothing. And Zelgadis held on to Amelia dearly; his stony emotions were over and done with.

The union brought faint smiles to both Lina and Gourry, and they briefly embraced their last as well. They both suddenly realized how important that gesture may be - it might never happen again.

"We're still going to fight to the end!" Lina pumped her fist, displaying false strength.

Zelgadis grinned. "You never change, do you, Lina?"

Lina, Amelia, and Zelgadis all cast barriers over the four of them, and Gourry drew his Sword of Light again, for lack of anything beter to do. They had come a long way, and they wished to continue going. The loss of Filia had been devastating to them, but they were the original four that had kept going from the beginning. They would try one last time.

The original four... "Wait a second," spoke up Gourry. "Where's Xellos?"

Lina sadly shook her head, ironically in the same gesture Xellos had when she had been taken over by the Lord of Nightmares. "He's gone."

Almost everyone was dead, now. The huge armies that had came forth had been completely annihalated. Stragglers of each race dutifully continued to retreat, but those who finally fell from exhaustion were probably killed with the soul orbs, and then absorbed. Martina and Zangulus had been long killed, but their love had kept their pain from torturing them, even as their souls flew back to eternal hell. The souls kept feeding the Dark Brilliance, and the bodies kept plastering onto him, feeding the original chaotic source.

He laughed ruthlessly. "Don't think you creatures are any different!" he called as his gaze drifted over the eight gods and demons who still dumbly stood rooted to place. With the blink of one of his many eyes, his now much stronger power incinerated Darkstar, and the demon's absolutely colossal body was torn apart, and slashed many times with light. The monster roared in the way only a pure demon can roar, and then his anguish was put to a stop after an excruciating death. The power of the Dark Brilliance swelled even further as this entity was added, and he couldn't help cackling with glee as the new power rushed over him. "More..." he breathed, black blood dribbling down his chin. With a huge blast of wind from a titanic wing, the other gods and demons were awash in commotion, and then seven dark orbs were crushed simultaneously by another extension. They roared and shrieked in the most holy and demonic ways, but nonetheless, the result was the same. The Oldest had finally all been destroyed. Their powers were added to the Dark Brilliance. The terror was complete.

With the sudden addition of these seven souls, the Dark Brilliance felt a great surge of... not power... but togetherness. And he realized that his impossible form now held no purpose for all of this raw strength. It was unwieldy and large. It had to be concentrated in the most chaotic way possible. A form of balance.

With an infinite unholy wail of triumph that reverberated around the air itself, the looming dismal form of the Dark Brilliance folded upon itself like paper being rolled into a ball for a much stronger form. His wings, his eyes, his souls, they combined and connected and warped in the most erratic fashions. Dark and light exploded out of him like Furies, and the remaining creatures were blinded from every angle. Space itself pulsed and rearranged itself to accomodate the terrible new transformation. The wailing went on and on, the screams of souls streaked the air...

All of a sudden, to the horror of all, a HAND huge beyond imagination reached out of the swirling chaos toward the one being who would ensure their loss - The Lord of Nightmares. Golden light faded, majesty gone, she stared without seeing, stood without feeling. There was no radiance. There was no reaction when the hand enveloped her completely, and then the Mother of All Things was absorbed by the one thing that she had not been a Mother to - Evil itself.

There was a tremendously ghastly pulsation that caused everyone to fall to their knees, and the land erupted in dangerous patterns everywhere. The Slayers only watched. It was all they could do. But they knew that the addition of the Lord of Nightmares to the Dark Brilliance's power would terminate many chances. Then there was a sucking sound as the Dark Brilliance's form turned into a vacuum, doubling upon himself. The huge pieces and souls flew in, in a powerful flash of strength.

The howling grew to the point that the creatures below had to hold their ears in pain. The noise intensified further. Black, red, white, and gold swirled. The vacuum grew in size. The Dark Brilliance was almost gone inside himself. And then...

Silence beyond any silence. So silent the presence of it pounded against one's skull. Then there was a great explosion, and the Dark Brilliance was there again. Oh, how he looked now. He was of humanoid form again, his entire body simply a dark golden entity. Power emanated from him with driving force. He looked up. His face was grotesque no longer. His eyes were as hollow and emotionless as a skull's. One could see screaming souls inside if one looked enough. His mouth was drawn in a perfect straight line. The most perfect being in all of existence. And yet so wrong...

He spoke not at all. The creatures were rendered immobile with fear. He held no dark soul orbs. He had limbs as only a human had, if you could call them limbs. They were too dark to make out. His face betraying nothing, he held out the pointer of his right hand. He bent it in a random gesture.

Pure wrath. At once, the dark battlefield below turned into the living embodiement of hell. Enormous pools of red appeared on the ground, and scaly arms as big as the tallest mountains erupted out of the ground, making many creatures die of fright on the spot. The impossibly large hands stabbed through many hundreds at a time with their nails. Souls and more souls shot back to the waiting form of evil in the sky. Golden light bathed them and then trapped them forever inside him. Dark creatures looking perfect like the Dark Brilliance walked through the dead land, killing creatures using the most unimaginable torture possible. Xellos had lost it. When he was absorbed by a pool of red, he didn't flinch. He merely died.

Lina, Gourry, Amelia, and Zelgadis had broken out of their shield the second the eruptions had started. Everything was chaotic in its totality. "Ra Tilt!" yelled Zelgadis and Amelia together, firing their blast at one of the dark creatures. To their horror, the blast went right through the creatures, and though the explosions completely enveloped their foes, the things just kept walking towards them as if nothing at all had happened.

Amelia let out a cry, firing a holy purifying spell at one of the creatures. That, too, went right through with no effect. It was as if the creatures were of a completely different dimension. "They.. they're like the Dark Brilliance. They have no body," Lina whispered. "I guess... I guess he's taken that term to the next level."

"Damn him!" Zelgadis cursed, as the four of them were forced to fly elsewhere for cover, dodging the horrendous obstacles on the way.

"Is it over?" Gourry asked.

"There must be one more way."

The Dark Brilliance had killed everyone except for the Slayers with this final maneuver. What had once been huge armies had been reduced to tiny armies, then to stragglers, and then to nothing. No one was a match for the dark creatures or the gigantic arms. The monsters had dared to challenge the beings of pure evil, and when nothing worked, they were killed. The gods had attacked the beings, and even the mountain arms from the pits of hell, with their holy attacks, but of course, nothing worked. They were dumbfounded, and killed in their confusion. The dragons flew pointlessly, aimlessly. They were smashed to bits by their foes. The Overworlders attacked with their complex weapons and tactics, but their bodies were broken by the dark beings as well. The humans were helpless; everyone was killed without the batting of an eye. The beings from the other two worlds did what strange things they could. They perished at the hands of the Dark Brilliance's living evil. They were all dead when put at the mercy of the purest abomination.

The Slayers still lived. They'd always survived before. Even though they didn't know how to deal with this new loss, even though they couldn't cope with all that had died, they still lived on.

The Dark Brilliance moved his finger back to its original position. The landscape abruptly returned to normal. The Slayers were plunged into darkness. The dark golden being turned its perfect gaze on the four that still survived. There was no emotion whatsoever on his face. "Now do you see?" he spoke. The sound of his voice threw the four to the ground. It took all of their strength to drag themselves back up.

Lina trembled uncontrollably. It didn't register. It just didn't register. Her sister dead. Naga dead. Filia dead. Xellos dead. Sylphiel dead, Martina dead, Zangulus dead, the Overworlders dead, the unknown creatures dead, the Golden Dragons dead, the Ancient Dragons dead, the demons dead, the gods dead, the CREATOR HERSELF dead! EVERYONE WAS DEAD! Beside her, her three companions said nothing, but each knew what the others felt.

"Everyone is dead?" the Dark Brilliance inquired, his eyes staring into them. "No, of course not. Only those who were summoned here. There is still much killing to do. There is everyone else on this part of your world. There is all that you know from where you came. There is this entire world to destroy. There are three other worlds to destroy. And beyond these four worlds, there is creation itself to eliminate. The perfect being will be the one to destroy everything."

"But... but why?" Amelia choked out. She didn't see what the purpose was.

The Dark Brilliance smiled then, his first smile in his new form, and his black teeth showed in the darkness. "Because I want more strength. Because no one else deserves to live. Because the torture will feed me!"

"You monster!" Gourry yelled as loud as he could into the darkness at their foe.

The Dark Brilliance laughed at that. "Monster? I am far more than that..."

But then Lina began to wonder something very important. The same thing she had wondered before. Had the Dark Golden Lord really been defeated? She would surely not have given up so easily. And that strange power that she'd been feeling within. The reason why she still wasn't frightened. Then, suddenly she understood.

As thousands of dark soul orbs appeared out of nowhere into existence, hovering everywhere surrounding the Dark Brilliance, and souls began to scream in protest once more, Lina spoke up.

She spoke in a loud, commanding voice that surprised both her comrades and her enemy. "You are a fool, Dark Brilliance!" she declared proudly. "I realize now what you do not! I realize now that what you have overlooked will be your ultimate defeat!"

Everyone waited. The dark orbs glistened in the air.