A/N: Two chapters after this, and then a really short ending chapter and an ever shorter epilogue, which I will post separately. I'm not going to update them all at the same time, but I'm also not going to wait weeks to post each of them, either. I'll probably post the last three in one week. With the holidays coming up, though, I don't know which week that will be. Anyway, I hope this is entertaining for you, and please let me know what you think!
"Now, Val!" Lecia screamed, pointing towards the ground. The figures of their parents were so small that Gorran could barely see them, but he knew that the bright red aura surrounding his mother was not a good thing.
"Is he down?" he asked his sister, for he knew that she had the better eyesight.
"Yes, the Monster has him," she replied, and they both closed their eyes as Val's massive black body tensed beneath him.
"Laser breath!" the dragon cried, unleashing a terrible brightness at the figures below them. Gorran felt Kerra's arms around him tighten, and he wondered how her parents were faring behind her. Hazarding a peek, he opened an eye slightly and looked down at the world, watching as Val drew a line with surgical precision across the heavily-forested ground. Flames burst from the trees bordering where his laser breath hit, and Gorran wondered if they had just sealed his parents' fate.
"Got it!" Lecia cried, and flung herself from Val's back.
"Dammit, Lecia!" Gorran swore. He hated when she just took off like that, plummeting through the air. Clenching his teeth, he slid off after her, hoping that Kerra and her parents would stay with Val. He respected their magic, but he wasn't sure if having them along was a good idea. From what he had seen of his parents, the thing they were up against was strong, probably stronger than he or his sister, let alone the Greywords family, were equipped to deal with. As he fell through the air, trying to match his dive to his sister's, he saw what she was crowing about: Val's laster breath had cut off the entire right side of the enemy, black miasma hovering about the wound. Fear ripped through his chest as he saw his father on the ground, coughing up blood, and his mother collapsed to the side, face contorted with pain. Glancing at Lecia, he saw her face was a mask of rage, her teeth bared and her scowl as dark as he had ever seen it. Black tendrils of power began to curl from her skin, her eyes flashing as she stared at the strange Monster. The enemy looked up at them as they fell, its strange eyes empty of emotion as they neared. Lecia let loose a bestial cry and readied a dark spell. "You get Mom and Dad, too, if you do that," he shouted, and her attention was upon him for a split second.
"Then get them out of there," she snapped, and pulled up short, hovering in the air.
Gorran glanced at her and sped past, slowing before he got to the ground. Looking up at the sky, he realized that Val was nowhere to be seen. Gorran didn't have time to hope that he was nearby. The smell of smoke permeated the air, surprising him by calling forth memories of winter evenings spent by the hearth, listening to his father read aloud to them from one book or another, and the recollection brought his attention back to his parents. Scrambling over to his father, he took Xellos' hand and held it in his own. "It's okay, Dad, we're here," he murmured. Xellos' eyes were unseeing, their amethyst depths veiled as his breathing came short and fast. Still holding his hand, Gorran turned his head and glanced at his mother. She was out cold, half of her hair burned off from Val's laser breath, along with her hand. Her skin was blistered and black, and he suddenly felt rage toward the dragon, even though he knew that Val had been as careful as he could have and had done an amazing job. Lina's breathing was more steady than Xellos', so Gorran swallowed the lump forming in his throat. "Val, get over here!" he screamed, glancing up at his sister, who was still suspended in the sky, face pale with contained rage.
"Useless," he heard a soft voice say, and looked up to see the strange Monster studying him with its mismatching eyes.
"Who are you?" Gorran demanded, squeezing his father's hand. Waves of evil emanated from the creature before him, whose gender he couldn't even begin to guess at. It wasn't important, anyway, for the darkness he was feeling from the enemy made his bowels tighten with fear. Not taking his eyes away from the Monster, he placed his hands around his father's throat and began to cast the strongest healing spells he knew. He silently sent a prayer to Aunt Filia, thanking her for her wonderful tutelage. If she hadn't trained him, his father would be a goner. His mother would live, but only Val possessed the power necessary to restore Lina's blistered limb.
"I am your end," the creature said, its soft voice filling Gorran's veins with icewater. "You are the spawn of Xellos, and so you must die as well."
"Don't forget about me," Lecia snapped, suddenly right in front of him, and she dealt the creature a vicious kick to the head. It crumpled to the side without blinking, the dark miasma still pouring forth from its body. The cold eyes studied her, devoid of any feeling or thought Gorran was capable of understanding. "No one touches my family and goes unpunished," his sister spat.
"It's just a matter of time," the thing whispered, and a smile curled the corner of its mouth. It was like no smile Gorran had ever seen; it was the most threatening expression he had ever laid eyes on.
"I can't do this alone," he told Lecia. "Val needs to take care of Mom."
Lecia's head swiveled toward him, and for a moment he swore he saw her eyes glow. "I wish I could help," she said.
"Me, too," Gorran grunted, sweat trickling down the side of his face as he tried to keep Xellos' spirit in his body. It was more difficult than he would have imagined; Xellos' soul was absoluely immense, and it was so dark that Gorran couldn't sense a good three-quarters of it. He had always heard the stories of his demon sire, but he had never understood what they meant until that very moment.
"I'm here," Val said in Gorran's ear, and he uttered a sob of relief as Val's slender hands moved over Lina's broken body. "She'll be fine," the dragon murmured. "I'll fix her arm as good as new."
"Watch out!" a voice cried, the sound shooting through the smoky air, cutting Gorran's attention in two, and he nearly lost hold of his father. Zelgadis had entered the clearing and was pointing at the creature, who was knitting itself together. The miasma disappeared from the air and swirled back inside the creature's body. It was beautiful and terrible to watch. The material that passed for its skin merged and sealed as if it had never been torn at all, and the cold eyes settled on Lecia.
"You will pay," it said, the two tones of its voice flat.
"Dug Haut!" Zelgadis called out, thrusting his hand into the ash on the ground, and the forest rumbled all around them. Gorran picked up Xellos, trying not to notice how light the slender man seemed, and ran towards Zelgadis at a dead run, aware of Val doing the same. Amelia and Kerra appeared out of the smoke, Amelia immediately laying hands on Xellos.
"You've kept him. I can do the rest," the queen said, and supported Xellos' head as they laid him on the ground. Kerra nodded and set to work as well, the soft, white light of their hands constrasting with the blackened ground.
"Go help Zel," Val ordered, Lina sighing and twitching beneath his ministrations.
"As if I need to be told," Gorran snapped, racing back to Zel's side. The Monster had escaped Zel's chamber of stone and was standing on top of a rock spire, looking down at them.
"I am not in the mood for games," the thing said, and raised its hands. With a single motion it tore off the fingernail of its index finger, and as the nail came away a dark strand of energy appeared, trailing whiplike from the end of the finger. Raising its hand, it brought the black whip toward them. Zelgadis crouched, readying for impact, when Gorran tackled him and knocked him to the side. The ground where Zeladis had been standing was a molten gash in the earth.
"Yeah, I wouldn't touch that," Gorran said.
"I've been fighting Monsters longer than you've been alive," Zelgadis snapped, but clapped Gorran on the shoulder gratefully.
"And my dad has been a Monster longer than all of our lives combined, and you saw what happened to him," Gorran said. "I don't think we want to touch this guy."
"Then don't!" Lecia shouted from above them. "Dragon Slave!"
Gorran quickly threw up a shield, sharing power with Zelgadis to reinforce it as the land around them was blasted away, revealing the bedrock beneath. The earth continued to rumble even after the ruby light and smoke cleared away, dirt raining down upon their heads. "See?" she said with a grin.
"No!" Gorran cried as his sister was batted aside, revealing the creature behind her. Lecia screamed as she hit the earth holding her arm, which was bubbling black between the fingers of her opposite hand.
"It didn't even affect it!" Zelgadis gasped. "Lina was at least able to damage Phibrizzo with a Dragon Slave, but this thing's twice as strong."
"It is because we are two lords instead of one," the thing intoned. "You will never beat us."
"I don't care what you are!" Gorran bellowed, rage blinding him. They had touched his sister, the person that had picked him up when he fell and got scraped knees, the one that tackled him in the yard and pinched him, the one that shared her ice cream with him when he dropped his in the road, the one that sat on the roof with him during the summer and watched the stars. She was his best friend, his most precious companion, and she was lying on the ground mere feet from him, her flesh dissolving between her fingers. With a cry he unsheathed Scundabran, the blade immediately vibrating with the power in the air. Heaving the weighty weapon, he swung it to the side and jumped into the air, aiming for where the thing's neck met its shoulders. A small, cold smile appeared on its face, its eyes flat and empty.
"You think to harm me with a blade?" it asked, smirking, and Gorran grinned, the expression feral.
"It's not just a blade," he grated, and brought it down on the creature with all his might. The Monster's smirk turned into a grimace in the moment before it screamed, the beauty of its face marred by its grotesque expression. Gorran's muscles flexed as he forced the sword through the miasma, fighting against the dark force that pushed against him. Suddenly the blade caught against something, and he was thrown back so violently that he went sailing through the air. He tried to cast a spell to right himself, but something was wrong, something wasn't working.
A pair of strong, slender hands caught him. "That sword wasn't meant to absorb such power," a smooth, familiar voice said, and Gorran's head snapped around, eyes full of tears. Xellos was holding him by the shoulders, their eyes on a level, but the man simply stared straight ahead at the writhing demon. "I'm afraid that Scundabran won't be of much use."
"You're okay," Gorran breathed, gazing at his father with adoration.
Xellos nodded, never taking his eyes off of the enemy. "See to your sister, Gorran," he said, and Gorran heard steel in his father's voice. It made his hair stand on end.
"But Mister Zelgadis is already-"
"See to your sister." Gorran stared, dumbfounded as Xellos moved past him, strands of dark and silver hair alike being tossed about on an unnatural wind. The flesh on Gorran's body constricted with the amount of power being gathered to his father, and he found he couldn't move a muscle. Sweat dripped from his damp curls, but he made no attempt to wipe it away, intent on what his father was doing.
"Nobody hurts my family and gets away with it," Xellos intoned, voice low and deadly as he echoed Lecia's words from moments before. "I don't care who you are, you are mine."
"You're a mere mortal, Trickster," the Monster wheezed, holding its shoulder to the rest of its body with its good arm, obviously trying to minimize the leakage of the miasma. "You can do nothing to us."
"Oh no?" Xellos asked, and darted forward more quickly than a viper, touching the good hand and quickly drawing something. The demon shrieked as its hand fell to its side, useless, and the miasma began to evaporate more quickly.
"What have you done?" it screamed, eyes wide and wild.
Xellos merely smiled, the expression so malicious that Gorran could hardly believe it was his own father standing there. He knew, however, what Xellos had done; he had used runes to turn the Monster's hand to stone. "I'll show you another trick in a moment," Xellos murmured.
"Don't hog all the fun," another voice said, and Lina emerged from the smoke, her black cape whipping about her. She winked at Gorran, and for a moment he thought he saw her bathed in golden light. Where had he heard of that before? His mind raced until it hit upon the answer. Of course, and he could do it, too. Nobody knew, not even Kerra, not even his sister. If things got really desperate he'd have to use it, but not until then...
"I'm sorry, beloved," Xellos said, bowing to Lina and gesturing her forward. "By all means, take your turn."
Gorran had never really seen his parents work big magic, not with intent to actually use it on something, and therefore was shocked when a blade of darkness crackled to life in between his mother's hands, the echoes of her chant fading into the smoky air. "Ragna Blade!" she cried, and leapt at the creature, bringing the darkness into the cut Gorran had made.
The creature bellowed once more, and Gorran saw something in its eyes shift. "No, move!" he cried, but his parents just clasped hands, the dark blade still crackling in his mother's hands.
"It's okay," Lecia gasped beside him, supported by Zelgadis. Her arm had stopped bubbling, but the skin was black, and fragments of her flesh kept sliding down her arm and driping off the ends of her fingers.
Val, Kerra, and Amelia appeared as well, Val's face going ashen when he saw his lover's arm. "Oh gods, what did it do to you?" he choked, and immediately began healing her.
His attention whipped back to his parents as he heard a terrible noise issue forth, and he saw that the Monster had tried to land a blow on Xellos' head. Lina stood in front of him glowing with power, the dark sword blocking. "You things are always underestimating me," she growled.
"Well played, beloved," Xellos said smoothly and stepped around her, raising his staff. The Monster was in a heap on the ground, sea-green and blue hair blocking their view of its face. Xellos drove his staff through its body, the demon jerking and twitching as he did so, and cast a powerful spell. Gorran cursed and helped Val erect a barrier as Kerra, Zelgadis, and Amelia reinforced it. Even with their powers combined the barrier wavered and shook, barely able to withstand the force of Xellos' spell.
"I don't even know what they're casting anymore," Zelgadis shouted over the noise of the magically-generated wind. "They're in a different league altogether."
"United, they're stronger than anyone, I'm sure of it," Amelia added, eyes shining. Gorran found himself grinning, his expression matched by Kerra. Pride welled up within him, and he saw his feelings mirrored in Lecia's eyes as Val worked on her wound.
"Still not good enough," the Monster hissed, and the color drained from everyone's face. Lina grabbed Xellos by the waist, the magic in her hand sputtering out. Her jaw was set defiantly, just as Xellos was staring at the demon with narrowed eyes. It raised its stone hand as its wound sealed up once more. "You're not the only one that remembers ancient magics," it chuckled, and raised its head, slowly tracing a pattern on its hand. Gorran recognized it as the counter-rune to the one Xellos had drawn. Clenching his teeth, Gorran hefted Scundabran and quickly wrote a few more runes on the blade.
"Please, no," Kerra begged, looking up at him with dark eyes.
"I have to," he said. "It's the only thing we can try right now."
She hung her head, lips pursed. "I'll back you up, okay?"
"Okay," he replied with a grin, and took hold of her hand, giving it a squeeze.
"What do you think you're doing?" Lecia asked, voice tight and low. "Not even Mom and Dad could scratch it."
"I have to try," he said, and took off at a run. Leveling his blade at the Monster's head, he dashed past his astonished parents, thrusting Scundabran right in between the demon's mismatched eyes.
"You can't kill me with that, boy," it said, the two voices buzzing in his ears. He was close enough to it that he could tell that no heat radiated from its flesh; its body was chilly and clammy, as if an iceberg had wandered too far into tropical seas.
"No, but I can cause you pain," Gorran grated, shoving Scundabran to the hilt. The runes on the blade activated, fire running its length, and the jewel in the pommel glowed as it began to absorb the Monster's power.
"Let go, Gorran!" his father cried, but he wasn't about to do so. He had to give the people he loved enough time to figure something out, and his weapon was something the Monster couldn't defend against, even if it wasn't strong enough to kill the thing. Gorran wasn't about to just let his family and friends die.
"Fool," the demon hissed, its voices dissonating. Gorran grunted as he gave Scundabran a final shove, digging his toes into the exposed rock. For something that didn't actually have a physical form, it sure was solid.
"Maybe so, but I'll do whatever it takes," he said, and heard his sister scream. The pain didn't register until a split-second later, when suddenly red-hot agony laced through his hands and into his body, forcing him to release Scundabran. Ash-filled sweat rolled down his temple as he staggered backward, muscles twitching uncontrollably from whatever the demon had done. He wasn't able to move when he saw a clawed hand, the nails unbelievably blue, dart toward him and sink itself in his abdomen. Looking down, numb with horror, he watched the hand twist, dully aware of his parents crying out in unison. His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he watched blood spurt from his gut, and the world tipped on its side as he crumpled, his eyes threatening to roll up in his head. The rock was warm beneath his cheek, his eyes filling with ash as he blinked. His parents were blurs of amethyst and ruby as they rushed toward him, but he was only able to make out two faces clearly: Lecia's and Kerra's. His heart skipped a beat and he grimaced, tears washing away the ash falling slowly all about him. He saw his sister's mouth rounded in a scream, but he couldn't hear anything but the rushing of the blood in his veins. Kerra's eyes, the eyes he loved so much, were brimming with moisture, her beautiful face pale. How he loved her. How he had wanted to live with her and raise a family, healing the ills in the world together. He had wanted to make love to her, just once, and show her what she meant to him. And Lecia- no longer would he sit on the roof, watching the sky, and feel her by his side.
A roar so loud it pierced his consciousness sounded above him, and he blearily gazed up at the sky only to find it blocked with dragon. Val had reverted to his true form and tenderly picked him up in a claw. Gorran's legs hurt with their own weight, but he felt oddly safe in the dragon's mammoth clutches. Val was blasting the earth where the demon had stood with all his might, melting the very rock and fabric of the world. He realized how much he loved Val, too, and then it was too difficult to think. It was getting cold, and he was tired. Val looked down at him with an enormous golden eye, and suddenly the eye wasn't Val's at all, but the eye of a gigantic wolf.
"I see I can no longer stay uninvolved," a smooth, husky voice said, and everything faded into darkness.