Chapter 7 – The Element

            Lazer shot across the wasteland to meet this new threat, the katana his sole comfort. Fear was churning within him… without healing energy he had no guarantee of survival, but he'd be damned if he let Thanatos' pet run amuck. He landed a mile away from it and gaped.

The Thing was a mountain of an animal, if the dark energies swirling before him was an animal. It stood on two legs with talons sunk deep into the earth. It was top heavy, its chest must have spanned an entire football field. The arms hung, its claws slowly clenching and unclenching with loud clicks. The head had three horns, two at the sides and one pointing upward like a lightning rod. The only part of the creature that was not shadows were its eyes, a pair of golden suns set deep in its head. It saw him before long and hunched forward to stare with those unnerving yellow flames in its head. It had no mouth, but its voice caused the ground beneath Lazer to vibrate.

            "You. Hedgehog. One of the two Brothers of the Rainbow! You denied me freedom. Then, you were powerful, but where is the Rainbow now, and your brother?"

            As he knew, none but the two Brothers of the Rainbow could stop this foul beast of shadow. What he had faced two years past was a far weaker manifestation of this same creature, inside Hannah. Now he was alone, with neither Brother nor Rainbow to aid him.

            "You hesitate? Be gone! That splinter and your Emeralds are pitiful."

            "Really. You haven't even tried me yet!"

            He launched off the ground in a red comet. The thing swiped razor claws at him causing hurricanes of wind in their wake, coming several times too close for comfort. Only close up could he grasp how truly enormous his foe was, he and his sword were pitiful indeed. He hacked where the stomach would be and shot off to the right, cutting a gash running halfway across the creature's side. He had only scraped the thing but it reeled back and held the glowing scar, uttering an indignant bellow.

            "Ugh! What is this stuff?" Lazer cried. Some of the black matter (its blood?) stained his katana, and was creeping up the blade! He fired the sword with Chaos energy and the black stuff evaporated quickly.

            "No. This is the same burn I felt that day…"

            "Yes, I can destroy you after all, without help."

            The creature threw its head backward and shouted to the heavens.

            "Thanatos! My maker, my god! Restore the power the Ancients denied me for far too long!"

            Glancing upward Lazer saw a black spot appear in the bright sky. Clouds retreated from it as a black rain began to fall upon the wounded beast. The spot closed as silently as it had opened.

            "Yes. Yes! It is now as it was before I was imprisoned."

            Something on the creature was reflecting sunlight. Squinting, Lazer noticed glossy black armour covering the creature from head to talon. Instead of forearms, the creature now had a mace on its right and a sword on its left, both proportionate to their wielder's size. Crossing these weapons across its restored body, the thing spoke,

            "Now, you perish, for I am the Element of Thanatos!"

            "Alright, Element," Lazer displayed his blazing katana, "It's now a fair fight!"

Its enormous size allowed Lazer to interpret its moves well beforehand, although its titanic weapons swung with astonishing speed. The mace came down again, each spike thrice his small hedgehog length, and struck the earth with a terrible shudder. Lazer appeared where the weapon joined the Element's arm.

"Wanrikken style. Sword-Hand Crescent!"

The curved energy blade of golden chi energy ripped through the shadow, wide enough to completely sever the mace at its thinnest point. The spiked ball struck the ground with a resounding crash and the Element jerked back. It slashed horizontally, but Lazer was already gone.

"Hmm, your weapon was weak. Perhaps your armour is, also."

"Underestimation was the death of many enemies on other planets."

"What?"

"Mobius is the latest in the line of worlds he has taken for his own. I was not there at the beginning, but he created me to be his perfect servant."

A new mace was sprouting from the Element's truncated arm.

"I remember one planet, one opponent my own stature. She removed many of my limbs, but, in the end, her limbs did not regenerate."

Lazer stared blankly for a moment. This thing's being was comprised of a whole; there was no single weak point. It would simply reform whatever it lost. Wanrikken, for the first time ever, seemed useless.

"Ah, I savour the moment when my opponent grasps the futility of fighting me."

"I wounded you before. I can wound you again."

The Element drew its weapons upward.

"But never kill me," it snarled.

It favoured the sword this time, great sweeping blows that missed by a hair's breadth each time. The body was vulnerable, Lazer thought, but he couldn't get close enough. He concentrated on the enemy sword, knowing he'd have to remove it. It flashed downward, missed, and split the ground in two, lashing deep into the soil. The Element was having trouble removing it.

Now!

While Lazer dove downward to meet the huge blade, he curled into a spiky ball and began to spin, his sword held outward, in a whirling flashing tornado of Chaos energy.
            "YAHHH!!!"

At speeds faster even faster than he had predicted, he hit the dark sword's cold edge with blazing steel. Sparks flying, the sound of the clash ringing in his ears, Lazer's sword snapped in half as if it were a twig.

WHAT?

In slow motion he saw the broken half fall to the dirt at the Element's tremendous armoured foot.

"Damn," he grumbled, slightly dizzy, "And I was going to name it Element Sonic…"

His mind switched itself off from the present and decided to lapse into the past for a moment, connecting this event with one of his Sensei's sayings. The old man had had a saying for everything.

             "A sword can fail the samurai. What does the samurai do when this happens, Lazer?"

            "He searches for a stronger sword!"     

While dueling Hannah two years past, his blade was broken when it pierced her energy shield. The Element was of the same dark energy, and he could destroy the damn thing if he had a blade that could resist the darkness. Old-fashioned, Xadran steel was out. If there were a sword of pure Chaos Energy, however…

That's it!

Retreating a safe distance to land, he stretched out his paws and blotted out everything else in the universe except the chaotic red energy coursing through him. He directed all of it into his paws alone, willing a sword into existence. His head began to throb in its intensity of concentration. An image of his old sword flickered into view, slowly gaining form. Sure, he could blast Chaos Energy any which way without even looking, but forcing it to stay in one place was raising hell with his endurance. The sweat came, pouring off his forehead, but he couldn't stop now. The sword was complete! Just like the old one. He relaxed slightly, looking the Element in the eye with a smug grin, and the perfect blade exploded. Damn! The energy couldn't stay together unless he willed it!

"What are you doing?" the Element challenged with poorly concealed mirth, "No weapon in the universe can stop me! Your flame is but a spark, ebbing away beneath my dark fury…"

By the Walkers, he's full of himself, Lazer thought, then, with resignation, Even if my head explodes I'll have to hold the sword together…

Once more he attempted to create the sword, lost from sight within the red flare. The Element stood back and laughed, the sound of it echoing to the four corners of Mobius.

"This hedgehog is more spirited than many opponents I have faced. His death will be swift, MY will be done!"

The black blade scraped the clouds…

            Hurtling among the galaxies faster than mere light, the burning fragment felt another flame. How curious was this flame! Not of the Stars, but of a living creature! Like itself, the being's flame was incomplete, thus the fragment was drawn to it, altering its timeless journey. It searched out the imperfection amongst the infinity of space, ever drawn onward to be whole again…

           

            Form, form, form!

            The outline of his sword was blurry and the black blade was about to descend. His will won over the Emeralds at last: the sword stood completed. He couldn't feel its grip (it was, after all, raw energy) but he held it ready to counter the Element. The gigantic dark sword fell, whistling earthward. Momentarily Lazer's mind wavered… fatigue was setting in… the sword shifted out of focus, threatening to dissolve.

            No! I won't allow myself… to be killed!

            A fresh, searing fire bloomed inside his head and spread over his body, settling in his paws and radiating outward. The sword snapped into focus, and… how strange… he could feel its grip. In fact, the sword seemed to be growing. Not asking questions, Lazer bellowed his best battle cry yet and slashed upward to counter the Element.

            Where the blades met was a supernova of red and black energy. The earth and sky were engulfed in its fury. After the initial blast, everywhere was thick swirling dust. High above could be heard,

            "IMPOSSIBLE!"
           
The roar of the Element shook the ground. Lazer still held his new giant sword, but half of the Element's black blade projected from the earth where it had fallen.

            "My being… is not regenerating!" it cried, gaping in profound astonishment at what Lazer's sword had done. Where the blade had been cloven, insatiable red energy was eating away at the Element's arm. It was slowly spreading to its shoulder.

            "No! How can this be? This power burns more fiercely than the Rainbow! It is destroying me!"

            Lazer glanced at the sword he held. Never had he seen such a weapon. The pommel stone of the sword was a pyramidal red gem, blazing with inner fire. It was not of Chaos Emerald energy, he both saw and felt. The handle, almost too thick for him to hold, ended in a huge hilt shaped as a five-point star. At the apex of the star was another, larger red jewel, diamond-shaped, with shining inner flames. The blade… he estimated six feet in length and a foot in width. It was single-edged, and, oddly, its heart was hollow running from the hilt to where the sharp edge curved to join the flat edge. Of what metal the sword was Lazer could not even guess. The star-shaped hilt and handle looked like translucent gold. The blade was brilliant white on its sharp edge, and solid black on its flat edge.

            "What are you?" he breathed.

            R'Thrys, it whispered to his mind.

            "No, I will not fall to you. Your splinter may have grown to a thorn, but I have assimilated many weapons before…"

            The mace changed in shape, and the Element stretched forth its mighty clawed hand. R'Thrys slipped easily out of Lazer's grip.

Well, heck, it was too big for me anyway, Lazer thought helplessly. The Element covered R'Thrys with its terrible hand for a moment - black vortices swirled. From the top of its fist a thick double-edged blade sprouted, with veins of red fire running over and through it. A grotesque handle and twisted hilt followed. The Element soon held a flaming black sword its own massive height.

            "Behold, your weapon is now mine, its power magnified to reflect my own."

            The Element turned to one side and carved a nearby mountain down centre. The ground heaved upward in waves of rock and earth, quaking so violently that Lazer was forced to forsake it, hovering well above the rent earth. The cloven mountain burst into flames, casting hellish shadows across the battlefield.

            "Happy with your new toy?"

            The Element drew itself up, and its new toy, until the sword was lost somewhere in the clouds.

            "Yes!"

            R'Thrys fell. Lazer floated there, watching the sword fall, and the Element's arm along with it. Both slammed into the ground, followed by a horrendous earthquake that made the last one seem like a hiccup. When the dust cleared the Element was straining to lift the sword with its unhurt hand.

            "Twice has this thorn defeated me?" it grunted with disbelief, "Twice has it resisted my might?"

            Dark R'Thrys was immovable. The Element withdrew and set about converting its free arm into another blade, dark energies converging. Lazer flew near to the abomination and rested his tiny paw on the massive handle, 'ten times thicker,' he would later describe, 'than a century oak tree'.

            "Fool," the Element scorned in its great booming voice, "That fire is hidden forever."

            Lazer's paw, then entire body, became submerged in the black energies surrounding R'Thrys. Moments later the earth around the evil perversion rippled. Even the Element had to shield its eyes from the explosion of red fire that followed. The shadows screamed in full retreat from R'Thrys, forsaking their sword shape to return to their Element.

            Lazer wielded R'Thrys again. The Element towered over them and rumbled.     

            "You…"

            "Silence!"

Lazer's command was unexpectedly obeyed. They hefted respective weapons, light and darkness, and saw in the other's eyes that it was the final bout.

            "Die. Die!"

            While the Element roared the black blade sung through the air.

How foolish of this insect to think it can overcome me!

My blade brings death to him!

I have conquered planets! This creature is…

The black edge nicked Lazer's left ear but the lingering shadow did not last long in the crimson flame.

A slight miss... it does not matter. One more attack and I will…

Unfortunately for the Element, Lazer did not miss his mark. R'Thrys embedded itself in the Element's left breastplate, where its heart would have been, if it had a heart. The Element grasped the glowing handle with thumb and forefinger but by then the ravaging inferno had spread upward and outward, to its remaining arm, its head and past the midriff to eat up the shadowy pillars of legs. The Element bellowed a single, horrified cry before it was consumed whole.

***

The city had not escaped the effects of the literally earth-shattering struggle. Most of its buildings were in ruins. All streets and bridges closest to the battle were rendered unusable. The spirit of the citizens, though, was not broken, since the growing number of injured had awoken afresh the survival instinct of all the city folk.

In a small house whose western wall had collapsed Hannah, Emess and several of his clan had a makeshift hospital going. The clinic had collapsed not half an hour ago from the first of the earthquakes.

Emess turned away after tending to an elderly squirrel. Hannah was having an awkward time setting a broken raccoon tail. She would learn, he thought, and walked to Jubel (tireless she was, carrying the injured in and out of the room).

"I'm being called again. Be right back."

Smiling, she touched his hand with her paw and he left. Striding outside to the chaos of rubble and the sounds of a city in crisis, he located an abandoned hoverbike tilted over on its side. The keys were there, thank God, the bike had been left in a panicked hurry. Righting the vehicle and swatting dust off the seat he checked the ignition. Growled like Jubel, though its rear antigrav cylinder was shaky. Gripping the handles, he wondered if twenty-five years had erased his memory of how to ride. When he zoomed off and drifted a corner with ease, however, he realized that though his mind had forgotten his body had not.

***

Lazer caught R'Thrys before it fell out of nothingness.

"Ah! It's over. By the Walkers," he handled the blade, making mighty arcs in the air, "Where did this come from? Its fire…"

"For this, you will perish."

"Thanatos!"

Lazer saw the horizon being devoured: night was approaching far too quickly. He spun around in a full circle. A black tidal wave was coming toward him from all directions! Had Thanatos overwhelmed Mobius during that battle? An entire planet of shadow was converging on him!

"Show yourself!"

"I will give you merciful release, hedgehog."

Burning eyes came into existence everywhere. Horns grew, black armour formed, weapons of death sprouted from unspeakable limbs. Lazer shot to the zenith, and the creatures followed him, assembled in the firmament: an army of Elements, hundreds upon hundreds strong, that had learned to fly.

"Now you realize why none have ever stopped me. With this knowledge you shall leave this plane of existence forever."

"I think not, Thanatos. Do you not know me?"

"You are alone. Wanrikken will not save you."

His words rang with grim finality. Lazer was alone, the other Six too faraway to help.

"So be it."

Drawing from his limitless Chaos energy, he held R'Thrys in defiance to the god. Elements converged upon him, but he had the final say, a solitary point of light at the heart of Evil's night:

"I will not die without trying! Wanrikken!"

***

            Glancing up, Emess saw a red sun send beams of fiery light into the midst of dark shadow forms. During the last few very bumpy miles the rear cylinder gave out, causing the rear end of the bike to drag and almost rattle the teeth out of his head. Emess jumped off and hit the ground running. There Lazer was, in the distance, a falling star. A small cloud of dust went up and then there was only the sound of the wind and Emess' rapid footsteps as he scrabbled across the broken terrain. Above, it was once more a clear sky.

            Over the crest of a crumbling hill Emess looked past the fallen hedgehog to behold a cloven sword and mace, each bigger than a house. While he hurried to Lazer he stopped to watch the dark pieces melt. The resulting shadowy puddles slid silently across the ground and melded into one, which gained form as a gaping mouth. The same mouth now rushed toward its prone adversary, Lazer, intending to chew him up or something awful like that. Then Emess saw R'Thrys, and knew it was that which had called him. Gripped by a sudden urgency, Emess, who had never held a weapon in his life, snatched R'Thrys off the ground. With the natural skill of a master he leaped, switched the blade in midair, and drove the shining sword into the black maw! It screamed thrashing about the ground, straining with its dark might to get away. Emess stood firm, leaning all his weight on the sword that blazed with diamond-bright fire. He endured a gurgling screeching cry before the final Element exploded into air.

            Slowly at first, then in a torrent, unwelcome images flooded into Emess' head while he held the sword R'Thrys. It was a world, not Mobius - one filled with creatures like him, and they too were unhappy. In a sustained blast the hatred of billions of minds violated him, tore him up inside and when he couldn't stand it any longer he let go of R'Thrys.

            "Why?"

            He sunk to his knees in shock, forgetting to breathe. He wished that R'Thrys had simply killed him instead of hurling him into the midst of Hell for one moment. No wonder, he thought, that half of the blade was black. How could evil be mixed with holy? Why did this sword have a connection to that other world? It mesmerized him. He tried to get up but fell to one knee. God seemed too far away after that black rush of sin. Then he realized: God always feels that same Hell he felt for just a few seconds. Remembering his faith, he murmured words from a hymn.

"May Thy rich grace impart

Strength to my fainting heart

My zeal inspire…"

            He was able to stand up then, and began to understand R'Thrys while he sung the remaining lines to an empty sky:

"As Thou hast died for me

O may my love to Thee

Pure, warm, and changeless be,

A living fire."