Dark Eden

The group had been traveling interminably. Gadorian had again returned to his pensive silence ever since Izael left. He knew the boy, the man, was still alive and mostly healthy, but he still on that night he was unsettled by an indescribable wave of dread, no doubt coming from his brother of the sword.
It had become apparent that their journey was nearing its close the further they went. The grass slowly turned from green to brown until all they walked upon was dirt and rock. The dwindling population of animals they encountered acted more and more queer, obviously touched by some of Dark Eden's corruption. And now they had finally achieved their goal, perched atop that hill overlooking the twisted citadel.
Most of the others surrounded the camp fire, conveniently positioned on the slope away from Dark Eden, for none could bear to keep the monstrosity in their sight if they didn't have to, but Gadorian wandered towards the hill's peak. Upon reaching the summit, he was to take a moment to survey the fortress before them. Barely after he stopped his hike, however, he let out a shout of a strange mix of confusion and excitement. "That light! Look at the light!" Novanus and Lent came running up, perplexed. "I don't see anything." "There! Down in the valley!" It appeared to Gadorian as a brilliant glint, as if the greatest beams of sunlight were bouncing off some prismatic mirror, yet the others seemed the think him mad.
Gadorian sprinted down the hillside, faster and faster, closer and closer to the light. The world around him became a blur until his vision contained only the light. Were he a human his skin would have surely been ripped from his face at the speed he ran. Finally, stumbling to a halt, he reached his goal, the light, Izael, the sword. Before he could so much as greet his lost friend, however, the radiance was eclipsed by a great shadow.

Lessa was at the fire when she saw Gadorian. Novanus and Lent rushed down the hillside. She ran to the top to see where they had gone. She could see them far ahead and in front was Izael. Lessa smiled - they had found him. However, the smile did not last long. She saw Gadorian stop as a shadow came between them and Izael. The shadow pulsed, then came together to form a shape that was human in nature, but it showed no features, just like her own shadow on the wall. The only thing that showed on the face was a pair of glowing red eyes.
Lessa called the now healed Seth to her. In this place he could not conjure up his horse form so it was his true form that she could see. He ran to her without stopping and Lessa jumped onto his back. As he ran down the mountain, Lessa kept her eyes on the others. They stood frozen in shock at this thing in front of them. The shadow thing took a step forward and drew a blade Lessa had never hoped to see. The blade was very long, the edges seamed serrated, and it glowed with a red light akin to the thing's eyes. At the hilt was a carving of the enemy, and in its eyes were rubies that also glowed red. It was the blade that all vampires feared and never hoped to see found. It was the Vukodlak.
Gadorian was just standing there looking at the blade. Lessa jumped off of Seth and pushed Gadorian to the ground as the shadow took a swipe at him. "Move it, Gad!" Lessa shouted as she got up. They scrambled to their feet as the thing came for them. Lessa grabbed Lent's and Novanus' wrists as she ran past them and dragged them with her. It seemed the blade would stun nearby vampires and make them stand there stupidly as they were cut down. They ran as the thing chased them laughing.
Lessa ran with the others as the shadow chased her, but suddenly it was in front of her. Lessa gasped as she rolled out of the way. She brought the flame sword up to block the next blow. It was so fast, and it swiped at her again and again. It took all her strength and will to meet the attacks. She knew she would lose.
Meanwhile, Novanus had turned round to see Lessa fighting with the thing. He took a step forward to help her when more shadows came out of the dark. They flew at Novanus and the others, claws and teeth gnashing.

Jessie dodged the nearby shadows. Her friends could deal with them. She went straight for the leader, the one with the great sword Vukodlak. She was a wraith, so the blade held no dreadful curse for her. It was, therefore, the logical tactic for her to distract this Shadow Lord while her friends dealt with the lesser minions that could not poison their blood. As for Izael, he was too precious to risk here.
The Shadow Lord turned to face Jessie, surprised to see someone eagerly rush to meet the blade Vukodlak. A deep, rasping voice emerged from the direction of Jessie's opponent, "It's been a long time since I've faced a worthy opponent. No human is strong enough and no vampire is crazy enough to give me a good battle." Jessie replied, "You have no idea how crazy I truly am!" and with that, they started in to fight.
The Shadow Lord charged at Jessie, swinging Vukodlak in an arc aimed to take off Jessie's head. Jessie raised her own sword right in front of her and the blades clashed, sending off sparks in all directions. Immediately both combatants recovered and they clashed swords again.
The Shadow Lord was advancing, causing Jessie to back up in response. Jessie sensed Novanus behind her and realized that she couldn't back up any further without putting him at risk. She stood firm when the Shadow Lord struck at her, then she took advantage of a slip on his part to begin driving him backwards. Behind her, she heard a small scream as Novanus dispelled one of the shadows. She refocused her attention on the glowing red eyes of the Shadow Lord as he took a step back and strangely he ceased attacking. This made Jessie instantly suspicious. What was he planning to do?
Jessie and the Shadow Lord began to slowly circle around each other, each trying to come up with a strategy to defeat the other. So far, in terms of swordsmanship, they seemed to be evenly matched. Jessie suddenly felt the probing presence of the Nerayan reaching for her mind in full force, but she did not lose control over her senses. The shielding she had mimicked from Lamediel seemed to be successfully blocking them out for now. However, Jessie realized what the Nerayan's assault meant: they were about to do something really bad and had wanted her out of the picture. An instant later, her assumption was confirmed. The Shadow Lord laughed and darkness poured out of his body, surrounding him with a large cloud of the void. She could barely even see the evil glow of the great blade Vukodlak. This was definitely not a good sign.

Abel kept well away from the battle, but for good reasons. "My friends," he whispered to those who could hear, "guard me whilst I concentrate." The kindred shut his blind eyes and held his staff out before him at arm's length, slowly letting go, holding his arms outward at his sides as he let the artifact hover there effortlessly. In a gentle voice he began to recite his learned spell, almost singing the ancient words.
The Shadow Lord snarled from its inky black form, now splitting its attentions between Jessie and the cleric's summoning magic, not quick enough to decide who was the more threatening one as the ground began to quiver and quake.
Like a being rising from primordial clay came a great, eyeless beast, its thick, arms outstretched as if crucified. Abel's eyes snapped open, his head turned from the sky, and his once golden pupils were now overtaken so his eyes were like shimmering gold almonds. The great earthen creature loomed its lizard-shaped, gorilla-like mass forward toward their adversary, drawing its great arm back as it mimicked its masters gesture from far off and swung with all of its might as Abel willed it with his deadpan order.

Izael watched the battle. He realized that his friends would not have much chance. The Lord of Shadows would hold them down, while more and more shadows would pour over them. Time was running out. They needed to get moving, and there was nothing he could do. He had been paralyzed and two shadows were guarding him. The Sword was on the ground, so near...Only if he could move. Could he use the sword without touching it? And what could he do? Izael started to concentrate. He no longer heard the sounds of battle or the beating of his heart. To his joy the Sword started to glow in pure white light. Izael concentrated harder, and again his form dissipated into shards of light. This time the trip was short, as Izael used the Sword to appear directly above the Shadow Lord. Izael dropped through the shadowy mist that formed the Lord. He dropped to the ground with a thud. His head started ringing and his body ached, as he hadn't been able to shield himself from the fall. Luckily it had been a short one, one that had disrupted the Lord greatly, as it was forced to re-materialize closer to Jessie. Jessie immediately used the opportunity and stabbed the Lord. Izael tried to smile, but was still paralyzed. Worse, he was almost fainting from exhaustion, as he had been forced to concentrate hard to be able to teleport.

The Shadow Lord gathered his form again and drew his sword out. Lent stood posed and ready. "Lent," Lessa called out to him, "That sword is deadly to our kind."
Lent turned to listen to what Lessa was saying just as the Shadow Lord took a swing at him. The sword slashed his sleeve and cut his arm. The Lord laughed. Lent inspected his arm, which healed instantly. All that remained was the cut on his sleeve. "Impossible!" the Shadow Lord said. "Your foul magic does not work on me. Return from whence you came or be driven into oblivion."
The Shadow moved towards Abel, and Lent moved with him, going so fast his feet never touched the ground. The Shadow Lord took another swing and Lent jumped into the air. In a seemingly impossible acrobatic feat, he jumped again, pushing off of the very air itself, and fell behind the Shadow Beast. The shadow split into two beings, with his cursed sword on the right one. Lent went straight for the new creature on the right whilst Jessie attacked the being on the left.
These two were quicker than the other larger entity. Lent deduced that it was because he was in a somewhat weaker state. He would eventually try to rejoin with himself to be strong again. In that moment, he would be vulnerable.

Lessa got Izael out of the way while Jessie and Lent battled the Shadow Lord. Jessie's adversary did not have a weapon, so Jessie easily dispelled it. However, it reformed as quickly as she could hack it apart. She watched Lent fight out of the corner of her eye. He was doing quite well, especially considering that he had not bothered to draw a weapon. He was taking on the Shadow Lord and Vukodlak with his bare claws and he appeared to be winning. 'Very impressive,' thought Jessie. However, raw strength alone wouldn't win the battle. They needed a plan, and Jessie began to work on one.
She continued attacking her half of the Shadow Lord, then right before it reformed, she moved slightly around so that she was facing Lent. The Shadow Lord fragment reformed directly in front of her, taunting her, every single time. After a short while, both halves of the Shadow Lord were right next to each other and were between Jessie and Lent. Jessie and Lent attacked from opposite sides, driving the halves together in order to lure the Shadow Lord into rejoining into one being. He took the bait.
The shadows began to pull together, forming a swirling ball of black mist with red eyes and the Vukodlak. Lent took full advantage of this, running in and swiping upward with such force that the Shadow Lord was thrown high up into the air. Lent and Jessie both jumped up to attack him on the way down. Lent furiously tore the Shadow Lord to bits with his claws while Jessie repeatedly sliced at him with her sword. The Shadow Lord didn't know which one of them to attack first and this hesitation cost him dearly. Jessie's sword sent the Vukodlak hurling away.
The Vukodlak hit the ground and lodged into it, standing upright as if inviting someone to take it, at the exact same time as its master's body hit the dirt. Jessie and Lent came down right on top of him, still attacking. Lent backed away a bit after deciding that the Shadow Lord was not going to get up any time soon. Jessie held her sword out in front of her and it began to glow very bright green. She touched it to the fallen form of the Shadow Lord and a sweeping tide of grey radiated outwards from Jessie's sword and covered his body. Bits of him crumbled and fell away as his energy was drawn into Jessie's blade. Amazingly, though, he retained enough mental clarity to communicate because Jessie heard his laughter. She wondered what his last words would be. Probably some taunt or another, maybe a curse, she had heard almost everything throughout her long life. What the Shadow Lord actually said, though, came as a complete surprise to her.

Novanus blocked an overhead blow. The claws of the shadow rent through his flesh as if it were no more than parchment. He snarled and thrust his clawed hand into the shadow, which dissipated as soon as its form was compromised. With a lunge, he leapt into another shadow, but froze in his tracks as a telekinetic blow thrust him to the ground. His mind exploded in a world of pain as the consciousness of the Nerayan assaulted his mind and the shadow warrior his body. It was so strong. Novanus cried out in rage and tore apart the assaulting shadow with his bare hands. He then collapsed to the ground even as Lessa blocked the blow of another shadow, defending him. Novanus grabbed his head, cradling it in his hands. The pain was excruciating.
Your will crumbles Novanus. The emotionless voices of the Nerayan laughed. "I will not be your pawn," Novanus uttered defiantly, trying even harder to block them out. His right forearm seared with pain as his skin blackened and the all too familiar mark the Nerayan had laid on him not so long ago strengthened. Novanus uttered a heart-wrenching cry and leapt into the air just as Lessa had finished another shadow warrior and turned to help him.
How high up Novanus had flown he didn't know. All he could feel was the pain of the Nerayan leaking through his shields, the suffering of the inhabitants and, at the same time, the need to help and join those voices. This was Novanus' struggle for his own sanity.

Lessa watched as Novanus flew up into the air. It was then that she saw the hated blade, still in the ground, start to quiver. The Nerayan meant to kill Novanus! Lessa called Seth to her and, leaping onto his back, she sent him soaring to Novanus. Out of the corner of her eye she could see a shadow form around the blade and jump at Novanus, but Lessa got there first. Grabbing Novanus, she put him over the saddle. This all happened in a split second, and as Seth began to fall back to earth, Lessa could see the shadow coming towards her. She couldn't move or it would kill Novanus, so she did the only thing she could do. She jumped to meet him, Flame sword drawn.
The two beings clashed in midair in a great blow and fell to the earth. Lessa got up and saw the shadow run at her, so she brought the blade up to block the first blow, but the second impaled her through the side. Lessa screamed in agony; the creature laughed. "Did you think you could save him, little one?" it asked as it drew the blade from her. Her body convulsed forward as he pulled out the blade. He raised it to kill her completely, laughing and taunting all the time.
Lessa gripped the flame sword tighter as her rage boiled inside her. "Now you die!" the shadow cried triumphantly as he brought the sword down. "NOT JUST YET!" Lessa yelled, bringing the flame sword to meet Vukodlak. The blades met with a flash. The flame sword was glowing white-hot, fueled by Lessa's rage. It smashed through Vukodlak, shattering the blade. Then the flame sword sucked in the power of Vukodlak and, as Lessa smiled, an explosion of light and fire came from the flame sword. A ring of fire swept out, destroying the shadows that where left.
When the dust settled, Lessa could see that they had gone. She looked to the flame sword that now looked black. Even as she watched, the sword turned to dust and blew away in the wind. That was that, then, her sword was gone, but at least she had destroyed the blade Vukodlak as well. Suddenly Lessa felt a sharp burning in her side where she had been stabbed. She looked down to the wound and saw as she expected...where red blood should have flowed and healed her, only black remained. She fell to the floor as a new wave of pain hit her.
Lessa knew she was going to die, had known it when the blade had gone through her flesh. She sat on the floor thinking. Memories came of Vorador. She must tell him the good news, that the blade was destroyed, but she didn't have the strength to whisper him. Again the pain hit her, she could feel it spreading now. She lay down hoping Novanus, Lent, Gadorian and the others where okay.