Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½™ or Sacrifice™ or any related characters, terms or concepts.
Author's Notes: Well, it's good to know that you like my style of writing; I must say, I never could have gotten this far without you all. Just one question; Bobboky, what info did I give you?
Apologies for the delay in getting this chapter up; first I had writers block, then a crash wiped out my work when I was about a third of the way done, and then another crash wiped me out when I'd almost resurrected my original writing- I've basically done this chapter three times over!
Part 21: Final Facedown, Part 3
As the Slayers prepared themselves to battle the Ragman, one may well have asked; where were Ranma and Ryoga? Ryoga, as it would transpire, was currently wandering through what was essentially a combination of a library and a labyrinth, seemingly designed by M.C. Escher on one hell of a drug trip, fighting against the various abominations that stalked the place. He wasn't sure which was the greater threat to him though; death at the hands of a monster, or insanity caused by wandering the twisted geography of this place.
As for Ranma, well…
He'd won the battle easily; the combination of Ranma's power and the fury of the Red Rage meant you didn't need to be Nabiki Tendo to know which side to bet on, but he wasn't really in the mood for further battles. You see, he'd come out of the Red Rage just after he'd won, whereupon he'd spent the next ten or so minutes being sick. But then, what do you expect from someone who just came out of a mental fugue to find themselves crouching over a pair of suspiciously mutilated corpses with a disturbingly full feeling?
You see, though the Red Rage does bestow considerable power upon a Mage who gives in to it, those under its influence are notorious for being anything but discerning about their choice of targets. There are many stories (all too vile to be told here) about what Mages under the influence have done to their closest friends and family members. So, really, Ranma should be feeling grateful that his wrath only fell upon his enemies. Of course that wasn't much consolation to Ranma; there are few things more disturbing than having to pick bits of Mazoku pseudo-flesh out of your teeth.
Retching a few more times to ensure he was completely purged, Ranma stood up and looked around the shambles of the room, pointedly ignoring the corpses of his kills. A sign that said "Spawning Chamber" indicated the only way out of the room, barring returning down the path he'd taken to get here. Ranma looked at it and sighed; he did not like the sound of that. As he headed down the dark passageway, he spoke to himself aloud.
"I wonder how Lina and the others are doing?"
The Slayers, as it would transpire, were currently tensing in anticipation as the Ragman emerged from his concealing shadows, the dimensions of the room they were in warping and distorting incredibly as he did so.
The Ragman stood about as tall as the Fragment of Shabranigdo that Lina, Gourry, Zelgadis and Amelia had encountered during their first journeys together and his body was covered in numerous jagged spurs of bone. His overlong arms, which reached almost to his knees, ended in oversized hands that were little more than clusters of spikes. Three eyesockets, only one of which contained an actual eye, stared down at them from a horned, skull-like face. Great wings flapped experimentally in the cool, still air. Slowly, deliberately, the Ragman moved his hands up and down his body, like a model showing off her figure.
"Am I not magnificent? Am I not a true icon of horror and darkness? You should feel honored for the great privilege I have bestowed upon you; you are the first mortals to witness the glory that is my new form. The first to witness, and the first to die!"
The Ragman suddenly shot forward with incredible speed and agility for a being so large and bulky. The Slayers scattered in all directions to avoid being crushed, stomped, smashed or otherwise mangled by the giant abomination, who reacted to their desperate efforts with a peal of sadistic laughter.
"So you intend to struggle against the inevitable- to prolong your agony! Suits me fine; it will give me great pleasure to wring every last drop of torment from your writhing, twisted bodies before I finally allow you to expire. After all, compared to me, you are harmless."
Harmless!
Lina's ego burned at that statement, but any retorts she could have made died on her lips as she threw herself to the ground to avoid the massive spiked tail that whistled inches overhead. She scrambled to her hands and knees, only to freeze and stare upwards as the shadows surrounding her deepened; the Ragman loomed above her, one claw-hoof poised to squash her into a squamous jelly. Her instincts screamed at her to move, but she was frozen solid despite her best efforts. The Ragman sneered as he spoke.
"One down, five to go."
"Don't count your chickens before they've hatched!"
The Ragman voiced a startled exclamation before bellowing loudly, more in rage than pain and more in shock than rage, as Gourry darted in from out of nowhere to slash at the Ragman's Achilles tendon with Stormbreaker. The Ragman stumbled backwards, at which Lina shot out from her former position of doom, and began trying to squash Gourry underfoot, the blond-haired swordsman nimbly dodging each "blow" before retaliating with a strike of his own. Finally, the Ragman got lucky with a kick; sending Gourry flying backwards. Hissing, the Ragman took a single step towards the fallen swordsman before being hailed by Lina.
"Hey, ugly! Try this one for size!"
The Ragman spun to face the self-proclaimed Sorcery Genius, only to become the target for a spontaneous casting of each of the spellcasting members of the Slayers. A Dragon Slave, twin Ra Tilts, a Chaotic Disintegrate and a Mazoku spell that resembled a triangular beam of crackling black energy arced through air to strike the Ragman simultaneously, enveloping him in a massive sphere of magical detonation. Lina laughed triumphantly and pulled a V-Sign.
"Score one for the little guys, right?"
"Wrong!"
Lina's smile evaporated and she spun back to face the site of the explosion, where the Ragman was revealed to not only be still standing, but apparently unscratched by the mystical barrage he had endured. The Ragman flashed a malevolent grin, his voice may as well have echoed from the deepest depths of a graveyard as he spoke.
"It will take far, far more than a single cheap shot like that to put me down! But fair's fair; you've shown me your power, now I'll show you mine!"
With a hissing scream, the Ragman's fangs were backlit by a hellish crimson glow, tendrils of energy arcing across his face before he heaved a massive bolt of magical energy at the Slayers. The Slayers, possessing considerable experience in regards to explosive blasts of high-powered magic and how to avoid being caught at ground zero, had started running in all different directions the moment the Ragman's throat had started to glow. Though it saved them from being vaporised, the explosion still hurled them painfully through the air. Groaning as their many aches and pains made their presence felt, they pulled themselves to their feet as fast as they could.
It was about half an hour later, and the Slayers didn't think they'd ever known time to go past so painfully. As well as trying to crush them under his massive fists and occasionally blast them with his breath weapon, the Ragman had demonstrated he still retained all of the spells from his previous incarnation as a Necromancer. So far, the Slayers had found themselves harassed by swarms of blood-sucking insects, engulfed by waves of blood and pus, beset by wailing clouds of ether, blasted with translucent projectiles and beset by screaming winds. But the Ragman wasn't having things entirely his way either.
Gourry was still darting around the Ragman's legs, slicing and slashing relentlessly at the tendons whilst avoiding being kicked or trodden on. Though every wound inflicted sealed over as they watched, Lina was positive that the speed with which the wounds healed was decreasing, and each wound now left behind a faint white scar when it healed, which meant the Ragman's lower legs were now covered in a tangle of white scars.
Swallowing her exhaustion, Lina hurled another Dragon Slave at the Ragman, this time she was definite that the bleeding, smoking mass of mangled flesh healed at a much slower rate. This, combined with the bellow of pain that erupted from the Ragman sent a surge of hope into her heart; it looked like they were wearing him down. If they could just keep this up, then they would win!
As the Ragman prepared to launch another of those energy bolts of his, Lina countered by launching a Dragon Slave of her own directly at the bolt, mere seconds after it left the Ragman's mouth. To her amazement, the Dragon Slave struck the center of the bolt and actually forced it backwards, literally thrusting it back down the Ragman's throat whereupon it detonated within his body, prompting a scream of fury and actual pain from the towering abomination. Lina's triumphant smirk vanished as the Ragman turned towards her, an expression of equal parts rage and shock visible on his face through the smoke gushing from his jaws.
"It seems I have misjudged you, that you are an actual threat to me. Very well, no more games; now I will fight for real!"
Lina didn't like the sound of that. She liked the way the eye sprouting from his brow began to glow even less. She took off running as the Ragman blasted the spot where she had been, leaving a molten crater in the floor. Lina had never liked "Tag" or any such games when she had been a child, and she hated it all the more now that she was an adult- especially when the Tagger was coming after the Taggee with eyebeams. She dodged and wove across the floor, staying ahead of the Ragman's beams by mere inches, until the Ragman got tired of missing and made a hand gesture; at that a pair of rotting hands suddenly shot up out of the floor and latched onto Lina's ankles, almost tripping her.
"What? Hey! Let go of me!"
"Struggle all you wish; your doom is at hand."
Lina stopped trying to pull herself free and turned towards the Ragman, her eyes wide at the sight of the leering monster, his eye aglow. Was this how it was all going to end?
"In the name of Justice, leave Miss Lina alone!"
"What!"
The Ragman spun around, only to receive Zelgadis and Amelia's combined Ra Tilt directly into his third eye. The brilliant beam lanced into the core of the monster's eye which, a split-second later, exploded in a geyser of pus and ichor, eliciting a scream of pained fury from the Ragman, whose hands leapt up to cover the spurting wound. His concentration broken, the Ragman's spell upon Lina was lifted and she was freed. And just in time too.
"You conceited wretched humans! I'll kill you for this!"
It looked like the pain from that injury had caused the Ragman to loose it altogether. Either that or that Ra Tilt had fried some of his brain. The Ragman shot randomly across the room at his full speed, though his agility was –fortunately for the Slayers- shot to hell due to his lost eye and his rage, going after first one Slayer, and then another. Each Slayer he targeted managed to dodge him, and then retaliated in turn with a spell or a blow from their weapon.
But their luck couldn't hold out forever; the Ragman's claws finally closed around Xellos, who found to his horror that he couldn't teleport free. The Ragman gripped Xellos' legs in one hand and his upper torso in the other and savagely pulled in opposite directions; he was trying to literally tear Xellos in half! Xellos gasped softly, a faint trickle of what passed for blood amongst Mazoku splattering his jaws, and then hoisted his staff into the air and buried its pointed end into the Ragman's wrist-joint. The Ragman bellowed and hurled Xellos through the air before clutching his slowly bleeding limb, glaring at the Slayers as hatefully as he could with two empty eyesockets and one burst eye.
"You have wounded me mortals, injured me for all my power. I will not deny that I am impressed by your prowess. Once I have destroyed you, I will use your souls to create my next batch of Mazoku New-Breed."
"Who's gonna destroy who Ragman? You can obviously tell that we're the ones kicking your ass, and you still claim you can win? You give new heights to arrogance!"
Proclaimed Lina, trying her hardest to keep her exhaustion from showing, as the other Slayers rallied behind her. The Ragman simply began laughing, something that Lina didn't like.
"And you give new heights to foolishness! Did you not realize that I had only completed the ritual of transformation mere moments before you entered my chamber? I was at barely a fraction of my true power! That and that alone is the reason you were able to wound me! But now I have reached my full potential!"
As the Slayers watched in horror, black energy surged across the Ragman's body. Wherever it touched, damaged flesh was knit anew, burned meat peeling away in great strips to reveal new, healthy tissue beneath. The bleeding wound in his arm vanished, and even his punctured eye was restored. The Ragman spread his wings dramatically and roared, a sudden wave of translucent energy erupting from his body and sweeping over the Slayers. In its wake, they felt weak and tired, their exhaustion evidentially magnified a thousand-fold. The Ragman sneered as he strode towards the immobile Slayers.
"You fought long and well mortals, but the victory is mine, as it was destined to be! Any last words?"
"How about… Moko Takabisha!"
A tightly focused beam of brilliant blue energy suddenly split the darkness, slamming into the Ragman's back and engulfing him in a wave of blue light. The Ragman snarled and turned towards where the beam had come from. There, crouching in the shadows, was a form that Slayers were positive was none other than Ranma Saotome. The Ragman sneered with disdain as he spoke.
"A futile gesture; that didn't even tickle. Now you too shall meet doom at my- WHAT!"
The Ragman broke in mid-speech, howling as a sudden surge of blue energy arced and crackled across his body, the pain evidentially sufficient to knock the monster to his knees.
"What in the name of Charnel! What have you done to me?"
Though the Slayers could not see his face in the shadows, they could practically feel Ranma smirking in reply.
"It is clear that you have failed to study your new form, otherwise you would have been aware that strong sources of positive emotions can sap the strength of Mazoku such as yourself. The Moko Takabisha focuses and concentrates pure, undiluted confidence and self-esteem into a blast of energy, one which is like poison to creatures such as you."
"Hrargh… I'll kill you for this!"
The Ragman visibly forced himself to keep from screaming as more tendrils of blue energy arced across his boy, constantly and randomly twisting and turning and splitting. Wherever two or more tendrils intersected they produced a small but violent explosion of blue flames, leaving behind an oozing crater in the Ragman's flesh. As the Slayers watched, the Ragman began to crackle and spit as explosion after explosion began detonating across his body. The Ragman forced himself back to his feet, taking first one unsteady step towards Ranma, and then another.
"You think that this pain will destroy me? I will overcome it!"
"No doubt you could, given time. But I am not so foolish as to rely on just one attack alone to defeat the likes of you. For you see, by becoming what you are now, you have forfeited the immunity you once possessed. Oblivion awaits you Ragman! Death comes to claim thee!"
The Slayers blinked at that unexpected bit of drama, but could only watch as Ranma, his body suddenly engulfed in a crackling, screaming aura of dark energies, slammed his open hands upon the ground, a network of darkling glowing cracks suddenly racing the floor to surround the Ragman, who looked incredulous as they suddenly erupted into a brilliant vortex of energy. The Ragman screamed and frantically hurled himself against the vortex, but each time he touched the walls he was repelled.
As they looked on in mute fascination, ghostly green flames began consuming the Ragman's body, erasing it completely before being drawn down into the bottom of the vortex. The Ragman screamed, a long, drawn out and terrible sound of equal parts fury, terror, pain and despair.
"No! NO! NO!"
The Ragman's final words trailed off into a ghostly scream as he was entirely consumed, becoming little more than a plume of otherworldy fire that was sucked into the vortex, which began to consume itself before their eyes, closing in on itself, growing smaller and fading away until not a trace was left of it. The moment that occurred, the Slayers found themselves able to move again. Any desire to rush Ranma and either congratulate him, beat the hell out of him or simply question him was cut off by the violent tremors that began shaking the floor. The columns that had survived the battle, and even chunks of the far-away roof, began to topple to the splintering floor.
"What's happening? It feels like this place is coming apart!"
"But of course. With its master dead, the Citadel of Night and Bones is crumbling back into the primordial darkness from which it was made. Unless you want to go with it, I suggest you take the portal."
"What portal?"
Ranma pointed to the pillar of light that had suddenly appeared on the floor.
"Oh, that portal. Wait a sec; what about you?"
"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. I'll go get Ryoga- now hurry! This place is collapsing faster than Soun Tendo's courage."
Any thoughts about pulling the noble act and staying behind to help were quickly killed in the womb as a massive chunk of ceiling smashed to the floor mere inches from the Slayers, who promptly dove into the pillar of light and disappeared, the pillar itself vanishing behind them.
"Now that I've finally gotten that lot out of the way…"
Upon entering the pillar, the Slayers had been blinded by a brilliant light, and experienced a feeling of gentle falling. When the two wore off, they found themselves standing on the grass outside the fortress (which was currently erupting blasts of light and sound), Ranma and Ryoga standing besides them.
"Wow, you sure found him quick."
"What are you talking about? Skip it- I suggest we get as far away from here as possible."
Seeing as how the explosions from the fortress were currently getting more and more violent, the Slayers concurred with that suggestion. They took off running as the fortress erupted in a Dragon Slave-esque blast of energy behind them. From a safe distance away, Ranma, Ryoga and the Slayers looked back at the deep, smoking crater that marked where the fortress had once been. Ranma sighed, dusted his hands off and turned to the Slayers.
Well, that's that take care of, yes?"
"Yeah. Wait a minute- we want to talk to you two."
Ranma blinked at the strangely steely tone to Lina's voice, but, tired as he was, he knew he could defeat them if it came down to a battle. Coupled with his curiosity, that knowledge was all he needed to make him nod in agreement and follow the tired adventurers back to Filia's house.
Okay, I know I promised that Necro-Ranma would show up in this chapter (technically he did- if you catch my drift), but he will show up in the next. I hope the fight scene wasn't too big of a disappointment, but I felt I should give the Slayers a chance to strut their stuff too. Ah well; feedback please!