Disclaimer: I don't own Riviera or anything in it.

Author's Notes: So… warm… Can't write fast… when it's so damned warm… ugh…

Edit: Thank you Feral Phoenix for pointing out that small mistake.

Inner Fears

Chapter 7

Ein panted slightly. A small stream of blood flowed out of the corner of his mouth, the drops dripping slowly to the ground. His left hand was on top of his chest-wound, trying to lessen the bleeding slightly. But it was useless, as the blood was also gushing out of the other end in his back. His right hand was tightly wrapped around the hilt of his Diviner. Ein noticed that his lower left arm felt numb and kind of hurt. Then he remembered that a rather large piece of the column he crashed into had fallen on it.

Opposite of him, the Ledah look-alike monster had regained its balance and raised its Lorelei look-alike. Ein knew he had to react fast in order for him to stop his wound. The crimson-eyed beast charged forward. Ein did also, but he didn't raise his sword though. Just when the spear was about to make contact with Ein's shoulder, he dodged just enough to the side that it missed.

This was the moment. With as much strength as he was able to spend, Ein kicked his unsuspecting enemy in the gut, hard. A twisted expression full of pain appeared on the fiend's face, but Ein was not finished just yet. He spun around and let his right foot make contact, at full speed, with its face.

The beast flew backwards, crashing over one of the stone benches. Ein quickly took his left hand of his wound and grabbed into his small pack, praying that they were not broken. He breathed a small sigh of relieve when two unbroken glass bottles filled with healing elixir came out. With his teeth he pulled, or bit, off the cork of the bottle. Then he poured the full content of the bottle down his chest. He felt as the cold liquid streamed down his chest and onto his wound, which then began to hurt much less.

The Grim Angel wanted to do the same with the other bottle for the hole in his back, but his opponent had already recovered, and was smiling quite angrily at him. Ein spun his sword in his hand so that it was turned a hundred and eighty degrees. He held it now as an off-hand weapon, this way he could block an attack easier with only one hand. He could now use the strength of his entire arm to block, but this way it was practically impossible for him to attack.

Ein blocked the blows that were thrown at him, but he was slowly being pushed back by it. The monster was attacking him relentlessly. They eventually were in front of the platform with the pedestal on it.

Ein leaped up onto the platform to evade another attack, quickly stepping back towards the pedestal until he was mere inches in front of it. His opponent hovered up onto the platform, its demonic red eyes gazing at the angel. It took a step forward and brought the spear down. Ein quickly sidestepped to dodge the attack. He watched as the weapon headed for the book, Ein was sure it would be cut in half. Then something unexpected happened. The spear stopped just before it was about to hit the book. Ein wondered why.

Why would he care about that book? It must be important enough to the beast to not have it destroyed. Maybe he could use the book somehow? But, last time he tried to touch it, he was almost electrocuted. Well… there was not much choice for him then to do it again. But, then again, perhaps he did not need to touch the book.

While was thinking this, he had pulled of the cork of the second bottle and let the orange liquid flow down his back. Instantly, the pain lessened greatly, and he felt the wound close a bit, lessening the bleeding considerably. Ein spun his Diviner in his hand again to how he normally held it.

"Your time has come fiend," Ein said without a trace of doubt or fear in his voice. He was not afraid anymore, never again.

The fiend only hissed at him hatefully before attacking again, its eyes seemingly becoming a darker shade of red. Their blades clashed when they both swung them at each other, small white sparks of pure energy erupting from where their blades met. The sparks flowed outwards several inches in random directions before disappearing. For the first time, Ein was the one gaining the upper-hand. He pushed his opponent back strongly, causing it to stagger backwards past the pedestal. Quickly it recovered and attacked anew, not seeming to tire even in the slightest. When their weapons met once more, so did the energy that was created by the clashing powers. If he wasn't preoccupied with fighting, Ein would surely have thought that it looked quite extraordinary.

The Grim Angel somehow managed to kick his opponent's foot away, causing it to fall. Then he brought his sword down, but it was already too late. His weapon impaled itself into the ground as the black smoke spread itself in all directions.

Pulling out his sword, he saw the smoke reforming into its look-alike Ledah form high above the ground. Now was the time to see what the book was all about. Ein smiled almost evilly when he kicked against the pedestal, causing it to fall over and the book to drop onto the floor. The beast had a surprised look on its face. Ein liked where this was going.

"This book seems important to you," he said, raising his sword above his head. "I wonder what will happen if I do this." and with that, he brought his sword down, stabbing it into the book. Electricity flowed once more through his sword into his body, but he ignored it. He could care less about pain at the moment. It was either win or die, and he wasn't feeling like dying anymore…

Black liquid was bubbling out of the book where Einherjar impaled it, soon covering the entire surface of the book. Ein looked up when he heard a very, very painful cry of pain. The beast fell out of the sky, speeding towards the ground. Strange black… strings, or something that looked vaguely like it, where coming out of random parts of its body. With a loud and painful sounding thud, it crashed onto the ground. Ein had a look on his face that clearly said: 'Ow, that's got to hurt!'

Looking down, he saw that the bubbling had stopped and the book seemed to be… dissolving itself? Well, it didn't matter anymore. Ein pulled his sword out. He had won. Simple as-

A loud, and familiar, laughing echoed through the cathedral. Ein groaned slightly in annoyance as he looked up. When was this going to end? He thought the book would do the trick. The beast had seemingly rid itself from its Ledah form, and was now a black figure that looked to have a, not completely solid, humanoid shape. The strings seemed to have become more like thin black tentacles, and were coming out off almost every body-part, calmly wiggling around in every direction. Its crimson-red eyes shone darker then ever before. And even though it did not appear to have a mouth, it was able to speak.

"You are a complete fool, angel," it said mockingly. "You have set me free!"

"I w-what?" a completely flabbergasted Ein said.

"By destroying the book, you freed me from the last restraints that bonded me to this filthy place. I was not able to destroy it myself, because then I would destroy myself."

"What is your purpose, fiend?" Ein asked, trying to focus himself again.

The fiend laughed. "My purpose? I have no purpose. I do as I wish."

"And what is it you wish to do?"

"My wish is it to taint this world black with their own fears and feast upon it, even in their nightmares!" the fiend hissed hatefully.

"I can't allow you to do that," Ein said while leaping of the platform. He raised his sword and took a battle stance.

The fiend laughed even harder this time. "You can't stop me, puny angel! There have been others far stronger then you who tried to stop me, and they failed as miserably as you will. The best they were able to do was temporarily banish me into that stupid book. And it took them an entire army to do so. You have no chance!"

"Perhaps… but I will not just give up. I will try, and do my best. Even if failure is ensured, giving up and running away is never an option, ever."

"Fool! Can't you see that I can not be beaten? I am a God!"

"Even Gods can be beaten. Even Gods can die."

"I have had enough of you. It is time to erase you from existence!" it lowered its head. Ein gripped his Diviner tighter. Suddenly the fiend let out a horrible, ear deafening cry. Ein covered his ears, while still holding his weapon in one hand, in a futile attempt to block some of the sound of entering his ears.

The fiend began to change shape. It looked as if parts of its body began to turn into black flames. Two enormous white skeleton wings burst out of its back, making a revolting flesh ripping sound when they did. The black flames began to disappear and pale skin began to show. It started by the fiend's hands and feet, and slowly began to make its way up to the head. Clothing began to appear also, following the appearing skin by a mere inch or two.

Ein realized what the fiend had turned into. It had turned into… him.

It did not exactly look like him. Instead of dark blue eyes, the fiend had its own crimson-red ones. Its skin was much paler then Ein's, and it had two giant skeleton wings attached to its back. It had the same clothing as him, but it was mostly colored pitch black. The tentacles that were coming out its body were changing shape now also. They started to turn into something shiny and silver colored.

Then he saw what it was.

It was barbed wire.

The barbed wire was dancing around the fiend's body, as it looked at Ein hatefully. Then the barbed wire started to wrap itself tightly around the body-parts of the fiend. The arms, legs, wings, and even the face. It did not appear like it hurt the fiend, or even cause injuries for that matter.

"Why?" Ein questioned.

"Just see it as proof that you can not even defeat yourself," the fiend answered simply, its voice still the same as before. It raised its hand. The barbed wire around the raised arm loosened and shot up and began to twirl around just above hand. After a short moment, it shot back down and wrapped itself back around the arm. Where the barbed wire was just a second ago was now a black Einherjar, hovering slightly above the fiend's hand. The fiend grabbed it out of the air and looked at it.

"Come little angel," the fiend said, pointing the black Einherjar towards Ein. "After I have killed you, I will destroy everything that was ever dear to you. And I think I will start with that little red-haired slut of yours!"

Ein took a deep breath, trying to channel all his anger into his next attack.

...He would pay for insulting Cierra like that!

Ein began his charge, going faster then he had for a long time. He was confident that he could win, because he had to… He was almost whole again… Only one piece remained, and he had suffered far too much togive upnow.