"Ten wise men gathered around a table."
"'One of us poisoned our wine'."
"Suspicions aroused and nobody took a drink. But an empty stomach meant nobody could move."
"Time passed on the clock and eventually one spoke, 'Are you sure the wine is poisoned?'"
"This wise man was the most trusting of the bunch, a clay molded figurine in God's image."
"He braved the sip to prove his virtue and the shadows, the shadows did cry."
"'No. Stop,' He begged, 'It was I, I who poisoned our wine.'"
"And as he sat and confessed his crimes, through his tears, he could not remember why…"
"Why, oh why, did he poison their wine?"
"Brothers and sisters, seated upon the precipice of the divine…"
Chapter 0 (Light): In that Distant Memory
Two streaks in the sky. One white, the other black, made their way to the other side of the world from the depths of space.
There they found their most pristine rock, the moon, glistening with the untouched surface of purity.
Until Solomon landed, his every step feeding a cancer into the rocks and bleaching them of light.
Sarajin paused and didn't want to land. For Solomon, this was simply another place to lord his superiority over.
For Sarajin…this place was Valic's dream. It was beautiful, the one place untouched by Rot.
Valic was right. This could have been the perfect place to rebuild with a few preparations. For one, breathing…
"...!" Sarajin reached for his throat and took a deep breath in and out.
Solomon turned and gestured his hand towards him, "You realized."
Sarajin continued to breathe with some unsteadiness as he descended towards the moon.
"Ha ha ha…" Solomon uttered deeply, "You didn't hesitate, even though you could have died the moment you soared beyond your world."
"But we are simply beyond the point of trivial concerns…aren't we?" Solomon brought his hand down and brandished his cursed aura against the oppression of deep space.
"God has tried to put his many hands around our throats and failed to suffocate us! Do you not see? We are alone in our superiority! There can be nothing but us to stand in each other's way anymore!"
Sarajin armed his blade with light and stared Solomon down. Throughout this fight he's felt so many emotions…
But right now, he just wants to solve his confusion.
"Why now…" He whispered with a hint of bitterness, "What made you open your eyes now?"
Solomon's aura dampened with a twinge of impatience from his demeanor. Thus his answer came across as rushed, still dripping with his callous confidence, "Opportunity."
Sarajin glared at him.
"You didn't kill your half-breed friend. I'm sure it took great restraint not to…but it revealed the cracks in your soul."
"And it made me realize…I relish the chance to see those I deem inferior crumble beneath me."
"But…it is a far greater joy to bring down those superior to me."
Sarajin's eyes widened with terror as Solomon brushed his finger at him.
"I respect your strength, Sarajin. The insurmountable willpower that has triumphed over all forces, even the very gods themselves."
"But something broke you…once."
"In my anger and rage at not being the one to do so, I performed an act of kindness and raised you back up stronger than ever…"
"So you could break me…again?" Sarajin uttered.
"Exactly." Solomon replied with raspy glee.
"All my stray actions finally make sense to me. I have brought reason to an irrational existence and solidified my being."
"But I shall not be completely satisfied with myself until I bring the strongest in all creation to his knees…!"
"This is no longer a fight, but a struggle! And you will lose it to the beast buried within you! Then we shall enjoy the greatest pleasure at the apex of existence!"
"I'm not going to give you what you want!" Sarajin declared.
"You have to! There is no way to subdue me except through death!" Solomon's roar faded out with a cruel reminder of what Sarajin's putting on the line, "But you won't accept that. No no. You will try to find another solution. Anything to avoid bloodying your hands again."
"The longer you prolong the inevitable, the stronger I will become, the more I will destroy!"
"But either way you look at it, you shall become broken. Whether I live or die is irrelevant to me."
"I…!"
"This is what this is all about? How rubbish…"
Solomon paused upon seeing the presence of Xiark sneaking up beside Sarajin.
With most of his body dried and wrinkled, it was a wonder he was ever noticed.
"You…still dragging on, are we?"
Sarajin whispered with dread towards the Titan, "He took your power."
Xiark budged forward while ignoring him, "I have never met anyone so bold and yet so equally pathetic."
"Seeking destruction to feed your fragile ego? You're only two shades removed from that parasite."
Solomon raised his hand towards him and murmured, "A lazy creature such as yourself has no right to speak to me."
"Oh? So now you choose to listen. Then listen well. You can bury yourself in darkness all you wish, but you're just hastening towards your own destruction."
"You may think this will bring your own satisfaction, but you're only giving Akumu what he wants."
"Akumu?" Solomon narrowed his eyes and began to raise his darkness to his hand, "That name breeds…familiarity, but not to my knees. I do not bend or serve any master."
"You hardly need to, and that's the scariest part. The dragon's tongue wiggles in your ears."
Xiark then spoke coldly, "You are already his slave."
Solomon raised his darkness further to the point of ravaging the moon's surface in cracks, "Prepare to die."
"I have always accepted it. Only I should have to suffer the consequences that made you."
Sarajin was prepared to defend the Titan when the beast rooted one last tendril into his side and made him still.
Solomon then pulled his head back slightly and let the darkness burn out, remarking in a humored tone, "Did you really think I would fall for your simple trick?"
Xiark sighed, "I suppose I have grown too old after all…"
He then scrunched up his face and yelled, "Sarajin! Freeze time, now!"
Sarajin moved with haste for the stone as Solomon launched an attack of pure pressure to try and reduce the beast to dust.
The moment time froze, Xiark dissolved and all his particles merged into Sarajin's being.
It initially felt cold, but the darkness was welcomed with little conflict.
"Good. It worked. Wish you were not forcing me to put in effort like this."
"What are you doing, Xiark?" Sarajin wondered.
"Quiet. We do not have much time. And…I need someone to hear my confession."
It was the voice of one recognizing the inevitability of death, and true enough Sarajin could already feel the Titan's voice fading out.
He swallowed his questions and nodded to let him speak.
"...I am obviously not like the rest of my brethren. I was birthed from the fragile subconscious of humanity at the beginning of this world. All its darkest impulses, meshed into one malleable being."
"The Phoenix Force, the one you call the Winged Flame, formed a contract with me to shield this world from temptation, give humanity a chance to see the creative side of darkness."
"So I fought and slayed many unknowable beings who wanted to feast on this world unguarded by the Creator until the last one cowered away."
"Then I made my domain. Let humans come and go, inspired by my abstract guise."
"I stood atop creation. Arrogant, strong, sure of every decision."
"Then came a trusting little spider, who sat down beside me. He wanted a little of my Wellspring for beneficial ends."
"I laughed then obliged, harmlessly giving him a little extra as a joke."
"...And that little imbalance was enough to transform his experiment into something hideous…The Rot Horizon."
"I laughed and lorded my power over others, but I was no better. Just a swelling mass of ego, whom now invited the temptation of violence into mankind."
"So I swore off the responsibility of my powers onto the shoulders of others and settled down into a more domesticated form."
"...My brethren blamed the Aurians, and I joined them…Even as the specter of my mistakes stared me blatantly in my face."
"But there's no one who can hate me more than I."
"...Why are you telling me this?" Sarajin wondered quietly.
"Somebody has to know before the truth is lost forever."
"No…you want someone to forgive you."
"And you would be that one?" Answered the beast with a humored laugh.
"..." Sarajin closed his eyes and was very, very tired…
"I don't think it matters who is responsible for what happened in the past," He wielded his sword in Solomon's direction with eyes focused, "Just tell me how to stop him now."
"...OK."
"He stole my Wellspring, but my body can still reabsorb it. And that power, I now gift to you."
"It's my power that allows him to resist the decay the Anti-Genesis Theorem consumes him with. With Luminesca's power, you will be able to shave away the darkness and claim it. Until eventually, he becomes a mindless beast."
Sarajin hunched over and trembled.
"This is no time for pity. You have to act!"
"This is no longer about ideals. End this lifelong curse. Bury the final sin in the darkest depths of space!"
"I know!" Sarajin yelled out in haste, "I know…"
He steadied his sword and remarked, "I have too many people riding on me to succeed."
Xiark sighed, then spoke in a weak melancholic voice, "Sorry. Thank you for granting my final request and…letting me have closure."
"Ophelia was right to be interested in you."
"Now stand up, Sarajin Stratos. And defeat the enemy before you!"
His dark voice faded into an echo and Sarajin's chest felt tight.
It stiffened his body against the pressure of Solomon's attack when time resumed.
Solomon looked out and muttered with mild curiosity, "Where did he go?"
He then saw Sarajin's glare and remarked, "You…something has changed. Are you finally ready?"
"...Yeah," He replied in a gasp, "I'm ending this. Now."
"Good." Solomon brushed his hand out and the Devil's wings spread briefly off the back of his aura.
With eyes narrowed he chuckled, "Then no more wasteful words. COME!"
Sarajin thrust himself cleanly across the ground and started rapidly slashing away at Solomon to drag him along.
Solomon's hands parried every strike and caused the ground beneath their feet to tear apart.
He then clenched his fists and rose within an electrified sphere that automatically repelled Sarajin's stronger slash.
Solomon then launched the sphere and Sarajin dodged out of the way. Within a second the sphere traveled out to space and exploded into a massive gravity well.
Sarajin drew his blade into his sheathe and summoned four hard light figures of himself to attack Solomon and pin him down.
Solomon bore their attacks and sunk his claws into them to shred them, or throw one into another to leave both vulnerable to annihilation in the darkness.
Sarajin whipped his sword out in heavy strokes and managed to force Solomon into a crater. Solomon then caught the final attack and dug his claws in to poison the light and make it solid.
Sarajin flinched and was thus able to be dragged in and clobbered across the chest, the backlash creating an adjacent crater a mile deep.
Sarajin took a deep breath to manage through the pain and landed an aura infused stab into Solomon's gut.
He then dispelled his sword and flew back while bombing him with enough light to fill the crater.
The light bulged upward and burst open to the might of darkness and Solomon rose out, capturing the darkness into the rough shape of a dragon's claw to swing at his foe.
Sarajin used his wings and sword as shields and then ran up the length of the palm before diving to take a swing at Solomon.
Even putting his best forward he could only manage shaving off little bits of darkness at a time.
He matched Solomon's reflexes and outpaced his attempts to backhanded him by hinting the blunt side of his elbow with his blade.
The crater doubled in size but they remained locked in combat floating in the center.
Solomon stared him down, still unsatisfied, while Sarajin continued to press against him and grind through his armor.
Solomon unleashed a hellish arrangement of spikes from his armor to push him off and then launched them as projectiles that weaved violently through the air before exploding like missiles.
Solomon then hunched forward and took a deep, ragged breath as his body tried to reject his being.
He solidified himself and then launched a massive sweeping beam through the remaining missiles to swallow Sarajin up in the explosive field.
Sarajin was launched towards the edge of the crater and Solomon was right there to drag his foot up into his gut.
Sarajin raised his sword up in the nick of time but felt a massive recoil in his shoulder that paralyzed him.
Solomon then warped above and dove both his feet into him to smash him into the moon, where the lowered gravity made him bounce back up.
Solomon then kept kicking him down until they were on the dark side of the moon, where a final kick planted him beneath the surface and dragged up a massive fissure.
Sarajin spread his wings out of the dirt and clenched his sword in his sheath alongside his teeth, his body twisting to a stop as Solomon burned faintly like a wild star of darkness above him.
Solomon summoned the Devil's power to raze the depths of space with a shrieking black beam.
Sarajin bluntly threw out a glare and remained undefeatable in his demeanor as he drew his sword and cleaved the beam in two with pure radiance.
His stance held as the energy went screaming far into the depths of space and then exploded in silence.
Solomon smashed down into the ground in front of him and raised up the elevation Sarajin was on, flooding it with a lake of darkness.
Sarajin sheathed his sword again and jumped away from the spectral hands trying to hold him down.
Solomon clapped a shockwave through the middle of the lake and Sarajin leaped out of the way, but got snagged in the legs and sent tumbling.
He still lashed out his sword to send multiple light slashes around Solomon and keep him down for the time being.
Once Sarajin recovered he dove straight down and tried to cut Solomon across the chest.
But the man snatched him out of the air and spun him around before throwing him against a sludge covered wall of darkness.
As he recovered from the rebound the sludge lashed out and bound him around his wings and arms.
Sarajin slammed his feet into the wall and pressured it with light exploding out of his body until cracks started to form.
Only for Solomon to rush in and smash his chest and gut to disorient his aura.
After a few seconds of beating him down Solomon grabbed both of his hands and smashed him across the chest to break the wall down.
Sarajin grit his teeth and refused to go flying anywhere but forward, lashing out with a spinning slash that ground through his enemy's armor and pushed him back.
Upon landing Sarajin swept him off his feet and then stabbed his sword through his chest, the light spearing space hundreds of feet out.
Solomon was suspended like he was standing in the air and started marching towards Sarajin, his body poisoning the light dark purple until he reached the blade.
Solomon then tried to grab him by the wrists and force the black death into his veins.
Sarajin groaned in pain as the cold grip pierced straight through his bloodstream into his heart like a thousand needles.
Solomon squeezed harder out of an utmost demand to force him to awaken to his rage.
Sarajin grit his teeth and began shoving in desperation, Solomon's resistance razing a fissure through the ground by his heels.
Sarajin then jumped and performed one quick burst of speed to force Solomon to topple back, where he rammed his feet into his chest to break free of his grip.
Sarajin then sheathed his sword and sent a small battalion of hard light clones to ram Solomon down and explode until he gathered enough light to strike him down with one massive slash.
Solomon's eyes widened as he found himself unable to raise his arms in defiance and continued to be buried deeper into the moon.
So he turned around and punched his way straight through to the other side of the moon, followed by punching out two shrieking dead dragon heads to travel back around and collapse on Sarajin's location.
Sarajin spread his wings and enforced them with light to hold off their bite, feeling the unwelcoming pressure of his enemy warping towards his location.
Solomon dove with his hand out and landed in Sarajin's shadow, emerging behind him and grabbing hold of his head to plant his face in the ground.
After tearing his way across the moon he threw Sarajin in the direction of their planet and pursued him with a volley of dark blasts.
Sarajin spun around and waved his hand out to fire an equal volley of light arrows, creating a series of blending explosions that Solomon lunged through to try and grab him in his claws.
Sarajin pushed past his body and delivered a clean slice through his hand that forced him to stagger forward and bleed rot from his limb.
His back bulged with discord until he raised his aura and made it yield, then forced his hand back into place.
But by the time he turned to slash Sarajin with darkness, he had already sped far behind, thrusting forward like a golden arrow to ram him back into the moon.
Sarajin then bounced off and slashed dozens of light waves into his body. Solomon rose to his feet using simply one hand to block the onslaught, then clapped his hands to disorient Sarajin with a ghastly wail.
While shaking this off Sarajin summoned a ring of golden swords around his body to shred into Solomon's armor when he went in for a follow-up attack.
Then when he was healed, he ducked under Solomon's punch and stabbed him through the gut where the scar was forged.
He then pulled away and flicked his wrist out to impale the swords across Solomon's body and set them to explode.
Sarajin took a deep breath and regained his focus, while Solomon hunched over, squeezing his hands and laughing in an excited baritone.
Monstrous, indomitable. Humanity died in his heart the moment he turned his back away from the throne that bound him, and ever since every step has been trampling over that corpse.
Sarajin nevertheless still couldn't bring himself to feel comfortable with this fight. There was nothing to enjoy about it, nothing to prove…
It was just the two of them, the strongest beings of their world, fighting where no one had ever dared to tread.
Once the two finished this moment of recovery they were at each other's throats again.
Sarajin managed to drag Solomon back to the moon while whittling down his armor, upon which Solomon retaliated with a roar of darkness erupting from his body to repel him away.
He then swung his arm out and made the darkness expand into a massive field that slammed Sarajin across the surface of the moon back to the dark side.
There, Solomon emerged from the shadows and stabbed his right knee into Sarajin's back.
As Sarajin coughed up blood the Dark King grabbed hold of his wings and tried to tear them off.
Sarajin hardened them with light and then kicked off his armor, rolling across the ground as a wave of dark hands rose from the shadows after him.
Sarajin dodged around and cut down where necessary until enough light was gathered into his blade to stab into the ground and disperse most of the shadows a mile around.
Solomon marched into the light with greedy abandon and stretched his arms out, encapsulating them in the thickest darkness.
As he lunged forward, bringing down his fists summoned claws that tore the light to shreds.
Sarajin matched his strength with every sword swing and the shockwaves tore it's way into the moon and could even be felt in the sky back on the planet.
Sarajin locked Solomon's strength down and the man growled in anger as he forced himself forward, stepping on Sarajin's feet while forcing the blade closer to his face.
Sarajin dispelled his sword and flashed Solomon in the eyes with a shotgun blast of light, followed by pummeling him in the chest and gut with a flurry of one thousand starlight punches in a second.
After snapping his arm back, Solomon froze up, until the impact marks forged into his armor and sent him tumbling onto his back.
Solomon lashed his claws against the ground and got on all fours with his eyes glowing violet. And then he summoned the visage of the Devil from his back, using all ten heads to unleash a dimension tearing shriek upon Sarajin.
Sarajin's left wing got snagged in the tear as he tried to escape, where rot bled out onto the feathers and discolored them.
Solomon lunged forward and slashed down Sarajin's chest with his beastly claws and caused the tip of his wing to snap off.
Solomon then rose and dragged both claws up through Sarajin's chest, managing to make him bleed out.
Sarajin gasped with his heartbeat quickening. His hand was then forced onto the wound to heal it with an infusion of light.
He swung his sword around and used his speed to cover some distance while Solomon rampaged across the ground after him.
But Solomon found sanctuary on the light side of the moon, using the light of the sun to fuel his blade and stab it down into Solomon's chest.
This stopped him completely and Sarajin pressed on, using his other hand to melt the blade deeper into Solomon's armor.
Solomon squeezed his hands and forced his knees to remain standing, his presence overwhelming Sarajin's efforts to the point of making him begin to sweat.
Solomon then towered over him and bashed his fist against his face to send him hurtling off the moon.
And from there Sarajin had a long look at the moon to realize how much damage was being done to it. It had lost a lot of its luster, decay was spreading through it like a cancer.
And then Solomon began unleashing a relentless torrent of darkness from his body, which lashed out on both sides to bind the moon in a ring, with the sphere around him expanding to resemble an eye.
There was no escaping this attack, for it was aimed straight at the planet.
Sarajin's heart skipped a beat and he clenched his fists and teeth with irritation.
He had no other choice but to surround himself with golden light and charge forward with all his might and speed behind him.
"YOU'RE NOT DESTROYING OUR WORLD!" He screamed, piercing through the roar of Solomon's attack the moment before it was let off.
Sarajin slammed into him and pierced him through the moon straight out into space on the other side.
The darkness left behind filled with light and then burned a clean ring into the moon's circumference.
And Sarajin simply kept going and going, punching the laughing king of darkness as their battle left their home as a speck in the distance…
And in the aftermath of her battle with "D.", Auris could barely find a moment's rest as she felt the way the battle was going between her husband and that monster.
And yet, for as strong as their bond was, she was unable to sense his presence for long.
"Sarajin…" She said with dread swelling in her throat, her hand clutched tightly in her chest, "You have to make it back…"
As to what would happen next? Only those two mighty warriors would know the truth.
The final battle…had truly begun.
Next Time: Carry on the Flame