"In the darkness before time, ten heads rose in the shadows of ten holy men."
"Blasphemous in their ways, they uttered the foul plagues in defiance of the holy commandments, and brought forth the world's struggles."
"Humanity now struggles in the wake of their voices. The end will never come until the final, most unholy word is uttered."
"Guiding them all is one virtuous man. He shines the brightest among all around him."
"But cruel are the rules that govern this world…for whatever creates the brightest light, can only suffer as it births the deepest shadow."
"And in his shade, manifests the final voice…"
"The one who ushers in the end of days, ever-growing, all-consuming."
"The one…who abandoned his name."
Chapter 0 (Rot): Flesh That Ushers in Sin
The Khull Drago wasted little time in targeting both who encroached its resting place, coughing up a blast of blood from one head while lashing one wing out as Sarajin tried to get some distance.
Sarajin pulled away and then was blown around where Solomon used his darkness to clash with the blood.
The two were evenly matched and the merging powers splintered the ground between them, disintegrating the rising chunks of stone.
Solomon thrust his hands out and the energy roared as it shrunk and pierced through the Devil's head.
However, the remaining blood then crashed into him and smashed him through the bottom of the rock spire.
Solomon's armor melted down quite a bit, yet he jumped at the rising stone and grabbed it at the end, stabbing it straight into the back of the beast.
The Devil shrieked and shoved it's way free, stumbling along the ground before rising to pursue it's prey.
Solomon cloaked his fists in darkness and then bashed the beast's main head with backhanded swings, failing to slow it down despite the intensity of the clapping sounds each impact made.
He then clenched both hands and brought them down atop the beast's head to divert it downward.
Sarajin then flew in and slashed Solomon down from shoulder to hip, successfully making him flinch as rotting blood seeped from his armor.
Sarajin rationalized that he had to keep fighting to keep these two contained here, even if he couldn't permanently wound them at the moment.
He took apart the rock spire impaled in the ground and bombarded Solomon with the shrapnel to force him to raise a dark barrier.
Sarajin then focused his energy into his blade and pierced through the direct center to shatter it.
Solomon was pure power, and at this point, exploiting a foe's lack of technique was second nature.
Sarajin pursued this momentum to drag Solomon out of the sky towards the Devil, who was readying another blast of blood.
Solomon wrangled control of their descent by grabbing hold of Sarajin's shoulders and flipping them around.
But then Sarajin swung his sword free and pulled out, getting above Solomon and lashing out a titanic wave of fire to keep Solomon down.
Then the Devil struck him from behind. With fire and acid working together, Solomon's armor was quickly melted through and his body split in half.
Eerily, he did not make an effort to fight back…
Sarajin then clicked his tongue and dodge out of the way of the blood, and in doing so opened himself up for the Devil to prioritize him.
"Shit…!" Sarajin clutched his sword and braced himself, mind, body and soul against the demon's mighty roar.
The Devil had no effect on him now. He was a beast already conquered.
But that was with the help of his allies, and without Aura to back him up, all Sarajin could afford to do was save energy by retreating.
He flew around the many rock spires littering this wasteland and sliced them down to topple onto the Devil's wings.
Slowing it down, but never enough to get rid of its hunger.
Sarajin dropped onto the twisted mountainside and ran towards the top, digging his ignited sword through the rock.
Jumping out of the way of the beast's projectiles didn't divert the path he carved significantly.
He glared at the top of the mountain and charged up the fire to cataclysmic levels as he prepared to swing…
Only for Solomom, pulled back together, to ambush him from below and blast him with a series of dark orbs.
The first few were tanked through but then an increase in size knocked Sarajin's sword out of his hand and sent him hurtling towards the Devil's body.
As the beast shrieked, Sarajin regained consciousness and flipped over it with a quick air blast and then clapped his hands.
The fire he cut into the ground went off into a massive volcanic explosion that consumed both rotting titans.
"Even if they can't be hurt by the elements, I can still slow them down with their properties…"
The hot rock burned into the two's bodies and weighed them down, but Solomon had a faster time breaking it off and getting back to the battle.
He flung himself straight at Sarajin and started pursuing him with a net of his dark lightning. Sarajin zipped between the gaps, which reset formation every millisecond, and snatched his sword from its descent.
He then swung out and caught some of the lightning into his blade, which backlashes into his hands and caused him burning cold pain.
He carried that pain on his shoulders and grit his teeth to fly after Solomon. The king made a significant attempt to evade around, but Sarajin was simply too precise in his pursuit and managed to deliver the lightning back into his body with a stab.
"GHHH…!" He groaned with genuine pain.
Solomon's eyes became bloodier in hue and he clutched his hands around the blade to cease the lightning. He then applied all his strength to try and destroy the blade, but much like its owner will…it refused to break.
Sarajin pulled free and then flinched, only having moments to fly back before the Devil fired its black beam of death straight at him.
Solomon shoved through the beam and grabbed Sarajin by the face, then made a hard swerve to throw him at the Devil.
Sarajin flipped and hung upside-down as he split down the Devil's second attack and then cut through the head itself.
He then had to beware the presence of the poisonous frogs surrounding the beast's hide while making his escape.
And so leave it to Solomon to use his dark winds and scatter the frogs in his direction.
Sarajin was forced to cut them down and Solomon used that opportunity to appear behind him in the shadows and slam his pointed knuckles into the side of his skull.
That really hurt, every nerve was practically screaming to make it stop.
Solomon decided the end, and that was when the Devil began to take to the skies. At which point Solomon flung Sarajin into the melting mountainside hard enough to obliterate everything that remained.
He then rose over the debris and collapsed it together with a gravity well with Sarajin in the center, squeezing down on him to force out his power.
"Show me it…the unyielding light!"
The Khull Drago draped its shadow behind him and as he turned to attack it, it bashed its head against his body and sent him flying through the air before attempting to blast it with its black breath.
Solomon recovered and held his hand out, forcing death to kneel at his command, "Malignant beast…! You cannot kill that which refuses to die!"
He then started marching against the attack while swinging his hand out to flick the dark meteor into the beast's side and disorient it.
Which also had the consequence of freeing Sarajin, who proceeded to leap at the beast and cut down the tail.
He then grabbed the tail and flung it straight at Solomon, hoping to turn the poison frogs upon him.
The Devil spun around and shrieked, shattering the surrounding area like glass and making rot bleed through the sky.
It then focused its attacks solely on Sarajin, who flew over it and rapidly-fired a bunch of fireballs into its eyes to cover it in smoke.
He then had time to turn around and find Solomon throwing the tail back at him. He slid underneath it and then Solomon charged forward to ram his arm against the bottom of his jaw.
He dragged him towards the Devil and pushed him against the mouth that released death, demanding of him, "If you wish to escape then use your full power!"
Sarajin immediately reached for his pocket and Solomon grabbed his wrist and wrenched it up, cracking the bones.
"This is between you and I! Your precious little stone means nothing!"
Sarajin grit his teeth and then smashed his forehead into his helmet, causing it to break while drawing blood out of his skin.
He then reversed his grip to grab Solomon's wrist and pulled him around right as the Khull Drago fired.
He held him down and used his winds to divert the black breath from his own body and keep Solomon pressured.
Solomon simply laughed it off, "So now you're trying to kill me! Wonderful!"
Sarajin let out a nervous hiss and then remarked, "I'm doing whatever I can to stop you! That's all that matters right now!"
"THEN WHY DO YOU HOLD BACK?!" Solomon's aura roared to life and expanded to encompass both his enemies and then burst apart much in the same way the Devil's did, succeeding in knocking both down to the ground.
He then raised his hand and squeezed it as his eyes burned bright, "With but a gesture of your fingers you can flip oceans! With a single breath you can ravage this world in storms!"
"We have grown beyond the measure of what was seen as possible in this world and beyond! And yet you try to cut me so simply like I am still a being bound to flesh!"
He then thrust his hand out to the left and summoned darkness in a sphere, "Perhaps ten bodies wasn't enough of a tribute…"
Sarajin widened his eyes and immediately flew in the direction the darkness was launched, the air warping around him as he struggled to pull his sword and swing through the darkness.
He couldn't afford just one meager slash, but to divide it into multiple pieces within a nanosecond lest one fragment get past him.
His pupils then shrank as he refused to abandon this momentum and propelled himself straight after Solomon to pierced his abdomen and drag him into the ground.
They proceeded to battle it out beneath the planet's surface as everything crumbled or disintegrated around them.
And the Devil was barely far behind them.
They pierced out to the other side of the planet behind Canofloe and Cryofloe and Sarajin proved victorious in their tussle, grabbing hold of Solomon and throwing him back into the hole, which dragged the Devil down with him.
Solomon suffered a few lapses in consciousness from the twisting gravitational pull and in that moment Sarajin approached and cut him up across his body.
Then he backed away and allowed the Devil to get a few shots in with its blood breath.
Once they were back where they started Sarajin ambushed them with a series of storm clouds, firing a powerful lightning bolt from every single one into one titanic bolt that burned straight through them both.
He then held his sword out to keep the electricity from reaching the other side of the planet.
Even for how unstoppable the Devil touted itself to be, it fell upon the ground singed black and struggled to get back up for a few seconds.
Solomon in turn trembled as he rose, refusing to bend a knee towards the ground for even an inch.
He then pulled his fists down and surrounded them in darkness as the skies continued to darken with storm clouds across the planet.
As Sarajin clashed with him above the chasm in the ground it became clear that this wasn't something caused by their actions.
The immense pressure of the Titans rising across the planet reached their souls, causing Solomon to divert his gaze and mutter, "Seems that parasite has riled up their attention…"
"Auris…" Sarajin began to connect the dots as he noticed the Titan's energy forms poking their heads over the horizon.
Solomon slammed his electrified hand against Sarajin's blade and tried to grind down the material that composed it, "If you're so concerned for your monster then you need to hurry up and kill me!"
Sarajin gripped his sword in both hands and repelled him off, for a brief moment flickering with a white light around his body.
He then took a deep breath and tried to concentrate on the power outside of himself.
For as strong as Solomon enforced his presence on his surroundings, the gap between them wasn't wide enough to need the power of Light, especially with the timer being a dangerous fit against an invincible pair of enemies.
Speaking of the other threat, the Devil divided its black and blood breaths between them, seeming to realize that death was something that the king of darkness would never kneel towards.
Solomon and Sarajin turned their attention to the Devil and focused their attacks on its wings to cut them off and render it immobile for a bit while they continued fighting.
Solomon surrounded Sarajin with dark orbs and set them off one at a time while prepping electricity in his hands to catch him as he tried to escape.
Sarajin grabbed the lightning in his sword and swung it back, but Solomon caught it in his hand and collapsed it into a sphere infused with his darkness.
He then launched black lightning that scarred and drew smoke from the very sky.
Sarajin rolled out of the way and dove at Solomon in a desperate attempt to cut off his hand.
Solomon swerved aside and then kneed him in the gut, lifting him up while his hands slammed down onto his back, drawing out a massive CRUNCH from his spine.
Sarajin gagged and wheezed, with his performance in retaliating suffering as a result.
Solomon then grabbed his head between his fingers and dug the tips in while simultaneously unloading a bunch of dark orbs into his body.
Sarajin eventually swung his legs out around his arm and forced his wrist upward. With the pressure off, Sarajin used the rest of his strength to pull Solomon overhead and throw him to the ground.
Solomon landed on his feet and while winding up another massive attack, was struck from behind by the Devil's black and blood breaths.
The beast was acting out in desperation, like its domain was threatened.
Solomon glared, exuding the presence of one who already ruled these lands long before this beast existed.
He then channeled his darkness to blast the death breath back into the beast's face, causing it to shriek out in pain.
Solomon then threw his hands down, hammering the beast repeatedly with a downfall of darkness.
This forced the beast to reveal its spinal head and let out a blood curdling roar that split the skies open further and unleashed the terrifying torrent of hail, fire and lightning upon the battlefield.
Solomon begrudgingly backed off and attempted to assault it from afar.
Yet Sarajin summoned ice from the ground to trap him by the feet and force him to suffer the hellish bombardment.
It actually caused him to exert grunts of annoyance and forced him to release his darkness to burst free.
He then aimed straight for Sarajin and tackled him, getting into a brief tangle where both sides tried to force the other into the storm.
Solomon locked his hand around Sarajin's right wrist and squeezed until he let go of his sword.
Sarajin then called the sword into his other hand and stabbed it into Solomon's armor.
He then managed to turn and pushed him towards the storm. Solomon raised his power and pushed back, throwing two quick punches into Sarajin's face.
Sarajin broke out and then tried to hit him with a wind blast, only for him to counter with his own.
He then disappeared into darkness and reappeared out of Sarajin's shadow.
Sarajin glanced back and then used his speed to get behind him and slash. They exchanged their movement feats back and forth for a while, with the Khull Drago making an effort to attack them.
Eventually Solomon tired of this game and used one hand to block the Devil's onslaught while the other punched Sarajin across the chest to knock him away.
And then Solomon turned his hand to divert the black breath where Sarajin was going.
Sarajin stalled in mid-air and slashed the breath in half, his heart racing with panic as the energy grazed his skin.
Solomon then appeared before him and beat him down with air shattering punches, culminating in grabbing his face and sword hand and holding down.
"Break, damn you, BREAK…!"
Bone and skin were cracking under pressure, but Sarajin was holding onto what mattered the most…his soul.
He glared Solomon down and tried to push his sword up in retaliation, only for the pressure to overpower his strength.
And with his enemy at his mercy, Solomon walked him towards the hell storm, presenting him as a treat for the Devil.
The Devil's wings reformed and it took to the skies towards them both, with Solomon whispering in a gravelly tone in Sarajin's ears, "This is the last mercy I offer you."
The Devil prepared its black breath to deliver certain death upon his prey.
And Sarajin, wincing in pain, his focus strained, was moments away from giving Solomon what he wanted, logic be damned.
But then a bolt of pure essence went through his brain from the center of the world.
He recognized Auris' fighting spirit prevailing over all this oppressive darkness, the purest light eclipsing every doubt he held in his heart at the moment.
Then he clutched his sword tighter and remembered everything he taught her about the power of aura, and all the times she fought to the best of her ability.
His blade unveiled a pristine sky blue glow that caught Solomon's eye and made him grimace.
Sarajin then forced his way free of his grasp and stabbed the sword into Solomon's gut. He then kicked off his chest to flip away, striking the stab wound with a flaming slash from afar.
A large gash spread across Solomon's abdomen and he lost aerial control, lurching forward with a visceral gagging noise followed by rot seeping from the bottom of his helm.
And then he covered the wound and found it was struggling to heal up.
He glared up at Sarajin and growled with sincere rage, his body buckling under it as his armor cracked and roared with darkness.
His eyes hollowed out, leaving nothing but an empty black void inhabiting this armor.
Sarajin felt cold, and limp like the dead.
Even the Devil paused.
And just as soon as the rage started, it was quelled with a simple utterance of, "No."
Solomon rose and constrained the darkness into his being as he stared up at Sarajin and told him in a slightly unhinged tone, "No."
"I will not let you end it like this."
He squeezed his hands until the metal creaked and then thrust his hand up with a shout, making a pillar of darkness erupt underneath both his enemies.
Sarajin immediately slashed down to divide it while the Devil was blown higher.
It steadied itself and while making its descent it rained down blasts of black breath.
Solomon focused all his attention on attacking Sarajin, his darkness manifesting phantom limbs that broadened the range of his mighty swings.
Sarajin tried to focus in the same way he had before to manifest his aura, but found it was only as effective as all his other elements against pure darkness.
He relied mostly on weaving projectiles between his swings to deal consistent damage to Solomon's body.
Solomon crossed his arms and tore up parts of the ground to slam against Sarajin repeatedly until he was disoriented.
Then he summoned a large rock to drag him up towards the black breath.
Sarajin regained concentration and rolled off the side of the rock and dropped straight down to cut Solomon vertically.
He then froze and fired a lightning bolt through that cut. Solomon flinched and then rot gushed out of the wound.
Solomon then fell towards the ground, but kept swinging away at Sarajin.
He was then cut up more, making the strength of his swings lumbering and his breathing labored and moist with rot.
His body kept trying to drag him to his knees but he refused to yield.
Sarajin had to slow down his attacks because he found himself draining himself dry by using his aura.
The two fell face-to-face and Sarajin pointed his sword at Solomon's chest while trying to plead with him, only to find that there were no possible words that could feasibly reason with his warped state of mind.
Solomon leaned forward and laughed, "You will not end me like a coward…I refuse! You WILL fight me at your best!"
Before any consideration could be taken the Khull Drago dove at Sarajin and rammed him into the sky ready to blast him with its mightiest death breath.
Sarajin grit his teeth and drew upon his aura one more time while speeding straight through the Devil to split it in two.
He then launched a wave of fire back to trigger the nullification of its regeneration and bring it crashing down to the earth, where its blast did little but fissure the ground with decay in front of it.
Solomon stared at the fallen writhing beast and began to hear whispers in his head.
With the simple glow of his eyes they were silenced, and he looked to his right hand as the void appeared from it.
"Of course…" He uttered with an eerie sense of calm.
As the beast managed to just finish putting itself back together, Solomon waited for Sarajin's attack and then dove into the shadows to appear from the Devil's.
He then dove straight at it like a starved beast and shouted, "Rejoice! You shall serve a greater purpose!"
Sarajin felt he uttered something out in defiance, but nothing was heard.
Solomon slammed his hand on top of the Devil's head and immediately began swallowing it into his being.
But the desecration was a fighter and consumed him back. His eyes glowed and the tussle that followed rapidly devolved into an unstoppable maelstrom.
The faces of the beast pulsed out of the sides and shrieked.
Sarajin tried to attack the storm but it was growing too chaotic too fast. His heart grew cold and helpless.
"Solomon…what have you done?" He said with an ounce of pity.
The Devil's fight would soon drag in more than a few Rot Walkers to give it strength.
No…the whole sky was soon filled with Rot Walkers being pulled from every corner of the land and sea.
And yet, the maelstrom did not submit to a single power.
Within its confines, Solomon found himself without mass, simply and ethereal presence amidst a soul storm of thousands trying to damn him into silence.
"NO!" His presence screamed like stars hurtling towards a black hole.
"You had your time in this world and FAILED…"
The souls tried to disperse him until he could not identify his individual parts of his being.
"You failed at peace…so the world called for destruction, and now…I ANSWER."
The particles of his being tore down every individual soul while pulling back into him.
"You can bury me. Burn me. Strip me of all I am…but I shall not be forced into serving as a good-natured man!"
"In each facet of humanity there lies many shades…But I…AM ONLY ME!"
"NOW…YIELD…!"
With the crushing of his hand upon the last soul, the maelstrom collapsed upon the land with a terrifying, deflating shriek.
Sarajin felt goosebumps rise all over his body as the pitch black silhouette rose from the dust.
Nothing changed, and yet everything had.
The Rot had been purged from the world, but in its place something worse had been birthed.
Drenched in pale rotting slime, Solomon craned his head back and opened his eyes towards the sun.
Sarajin held his sword up in both hands but his knees were trembling.
Solomon had appeared behind him in the same pose.
As Sarajin turned around Solomon laughed and merely uttered, "I am done with this world."
Sarajin bit his teeth tensely and Solomon gestured his hand up, appearing to wear a smile.
"Why stand upon a measly planet as brittle as the falling leaves?"
He took one step forward and the ground crumbled to dust for a mile around in a second.
Sarajin jumped into the air and Solomon levitated, his darkness now emitting the stench of pure death.
"This is your last chance to show me your true power."
Sarajin took a deep breath and upon exhaling, went straight into his Light Form.
Solomon smiled deeper, "Good…you finally understand your purpose."
Sarajin responded with, "I'm going to stop you…that's all I can do."
"Then come…" Solomon brushed his hand out and began to ascend, "I want no more interruptions from these…fleas."
He flew straight out of the atmosphere and Sarajin followed closely.
Their next destination? The moon…
Next Time: The Confession of Xiark