Author's Note: I apologize in advance for this next chapter being so short. I thought that the battle scene we're about to see would go on for more pages.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon (or The King in Yellow).

Chapter 11: False Prophet

Kunzite and Brunhilde's battle against Ace and his undead legion had quickly gotten underway. Brunhilde had produced a glittering silver sword with a golden crossguard in the shape of angelic wings and was currently hacking away at the oncoming corpse soldiers. Unfortunately with each soldier she cut down, it seemed like two more would burst out of the ground to take its place. Meanwhile one of the giant skull-faced larvae would occasionally spew out a green blob of acidic slim down at Brunhilde that she would either simply dodge by jumping out of the projectile's path or knock away with her sword. Artemis had since moved over to Brunhilde's side to watch her progress and assist her as needed, though the feline had no idea how he might possibly help in such a struggle.

At one point, one of the skull larva spewed out a glob of acidic slime that that singed off a few strands of Brunhilde's hair and nearly hit Artemis. Fortunately Artemis had managed to jump out of the glob's path at the last second.

"That does it!" Brunhilde exclaimed as she raised her sword high. As she did, the sword's blade began to glow with a dazzling white light. "Victory Arrow!"

Brunhilde swung her sword downward, and from the blade shot a massive blast of white light that formed into the shape of an arrow at the head. The blast struck the larva that had just fired on her and Artemis, causing it to explode and vaporizing a large chunk of the surrounding corpse soldiers. In a few more moments though, several more soldiers had burst from the earth to avenge their fallen comrades.

"They just keep coming!" Artemis exclaimed. "How the hell are we ever going to end this?"

"The only way for it to end is for Phantom Ace to be taken out," Brunhilde answered. "Which means Kunzite needs to stop taking his sweet time and finish the bastard already."

Not far away, Kunzite and Ace were engaged in a brutal sword fight with one another. Neither one of them was giving an inch. The whole time though, Ace had a confident smirk on his face, which served only to infuriate Kunzite. What got to him even more though was that Ace didn't seem to be tiring at all. Kunzite didn't know if it was because Ace was of the undead, or of it was due to something else. Either way, Kunzite was starting to fear that he'd run out of steam before he could finish things.

"This is really disappointing, you know," Ace remarked as he parried another of Kunzite's blows. "To think that the once great general of the Dark Kingdom and captain of Prince Endymion's guard could've grown so weak. Face it, you've lost your edge."

"That's it!" Kunzite declared as he jumped a step back. "I've played around with you for far too long! Obsidian Lance!"

With a thrust of his sword, Kunzite fired a pitch-black energy lance across the battlefield at Ace. When the tip of the lance hit Ace in the chest though, the masked swordsman suddenly turned into a storm of playing cards that blew away in all directions. Once Kunzite's attack had ended, the playing cards reformed into twenty duplicates of Ace that surrounded Kunzite in a flash, each one letting out a triumphant chuckle. One of the duplicates charged at Kunzite, only for the silver-haired knight to slash him across the chest. Upon being struck, the duplicate collapsed into a pile of playing cards.

Two more duplicates came at Kunzite, only for Kunzite to impale them both and reduce them to more cards. As Kunzite looked around at the snickering swordsmen, he found that he couldn't tell which of them was the real Ace.

"There's one way I can flush you out!" Kunzite declared as he suddenly thrust his sword into the ground. "Ebony Night Wave!"

As soon as Kunzite stabbed his sword into the earth, a spherical explosion of black energy emanated from his body. A second later the explosion collapsed in on itself and sent a black shockwave out in all directions. The wave cut through all of the duplicates, reducing them to playing cards. Alarmed that none of his opponents were the real Ace, Kunzite quickly drew his sword and kept a sharp eye for where the real Ace might emerge. Suddenly Kunzite heard a twig snap from behind him and turned just in time to block the strike of Ace's blade.

"That was actually an unexpected move you just pulled," Ace remarked as he managed to force Kunzite back. "Guess you haven't completely lost your touch."

Suddenly Kunzite knocked Ace's sword from his hand and then jumped back to put some distance between them. "You are indeed a formidable opponent, but in the end you shall never defeat me!"

"Oh, I don't have to defeat you. I merely need to keep you and that Sailor Guardian intruder busy until the end of Mina's wedding to His Majesty, which should be happening very soon now."

"I will end you long before that happens! There's no way I'll let Minako fall into the clutches of that creature!"

Ace let out a hard laugh. "Hasn't it sunk in yet? I've shown you that your existence only brings Mina suffering."

"That may be, but that doesn't mean I'm going to just stand by and let harm come to her. If you truly loved Minako like you claim to, you'd also step in to stop this wedding!"

"Ah. But you see unlike you, I know my proper place. I realized long ago that Minako and I never had a future together, and that true love would always be out of Minako's reach."

At this, Kunzite let out a small chuckle. "How pathetic of you."

"What was that?" Ace asked with a raised eyebrow.

"The idea that Minako, the one who personifies the goddess of love, is not meant for a true love of her own is simply absurd. What you truly realized Ace is that even though you were madly in love with Minako, she would never truly be in love with you. I'll grant that perhaps she might've been infatuated with you at one point because of your good looks, but you must've realized that such a relationship with her would've been a fleeting one. So you decided that if you couldn't have her, no one else could, and so you came up with that false prophecy in her head about her destiny. It seems though that her crush on you must've been quite strong to have taken such a prophecy seriously."

"And do you honestly think that your Mina's true love? Because if you do, then you would only be proving my so-called false prophecy to be correct."

"You're probably right about that at least. I'm definitely not worthy of Minako's love. Twice, I have sold my soul to the darkness and became her greatest enemy, betraying her and everything else I held dear. But just because I am worthy of Minako doesn't mean I'll simply stand by and let her fall into even greater suffering than the kind I've inflicted on her! Neither of us may be Minako's true love, but of the two of us, I think I'm the only one who's truly in love with her!"

Ace suddenly gritted his teeth in rage and picked his sword back up. "You know nothing of how I feel about Mina!"

With that, Ace came at Kunzite with full force. His attacks had become wilder and more aggressive. Kunzite found though that he was having little trouble blocking Ace's attacks. Ace had totally lost his cool, and Kunzite realized that for the first time in this battle he now had an advantage against his opponent.

"I adored Mina from the very first time I laid eyes on her!" Ace continued as he continued to strike at Kunzite wildly and force him back. "To me she was a light greater than the sun, but I knew that light could never be mine! But I also realized that no ordinary man could be worthy of her! Don't you see? By telling Minako that true love wasn't in her destiny, I set her free from a constant string of heartache!"

Ace then swung his sword down Kunzite's skull. Kunzite easily sidestepped Ace's attack though and kicked him away. "And you think you're still showing Minako kindness by handing her over to an abomination like your King in Yellow?"

"Don't you see? Only a god is worthy of Mina's heart, and a god who I have given her to! I've proven my love to Minako by guiding her to the only being who could be her true love!"

"That thing you're talking about isn't capable of love! It only intends to use Minako as a tool and a puppet for its own twisted agenda. If my existence only brings Minako pain, then so does yours!"

Ace cried out in rage and charged recklessly at Kunzite again. As the masked swordsman swung his blade at his silver-haired opponent, Kunzite knocked the sword out of Ace's hand. Without hesitating for a moment, Kunzite took Ace's head clean off with a swing of his own blade. As Ace's head and body fell to the ground, both pieces became withered bags of skin and bone. When Ace's mummified head finally dropped to the earth, it rolled over to Kunzite's feet before collapsing into a pile of dust, leaving behind only a tattered and dirty mask. Ace's body had fallen to dust as well, leaving behind and empty and torn uniform.

"Kunzite!" a familiar voice called as the silver-haired general sheathed his sword. Kunzite looked to see Artemis dashing up to him.

"I thought you were with Sailor Brunhilde," Kunzite recalled.

"Brunhilde told me that the only way to stop those soldiers she was fighting was to kill Ace, so I came over here to see if I could help you somehow," Artemis explained. "I did get here just in time to hear most of your little conversation with Ace."

"Minako must've fallen for Ace pretty hard for her to have taken his love prophecy about her seriously."

Artemis nodded. "Mina's always been a sucker for a handsome young face. She'd fall in love, or at least in lust almost at the drop of a hat. Ace was a little different though. Mina's crush on him was stronger than any other she's had. And to be honest, I didn't really object to Mina believing that his love fortune about her was true. I had always discouraged Mina from pursuing these romances of hers because I thought they'd only get in the way of her duty. Maybe if I hadn't done that though, Mina wouldn't be in the mess she's in now."

Kunzite shook his head. "There was no way you could've known that anything like this would happen. And I think Ace was right about one thing. No mortal man is worthy of Minako. Certainly not me."

Suddenly a huge explosion of white light came from not far away. As the light from the blast faded, Brunhilde walked into view. Her long hair was disheveled and an expression of annoyance was on her face.

"About damn time you finished off that masked pretty-boy!" Brunhilde protested. "What the hell took you so long?"

"I'm sorry, but Ace proved to be quite challenging," Kunzite explained.

"Never mind! It probably won't be much longer until Venus's wedding to Hastur gets started. If we don't get to the castle and put a stop to it, everything that just happened here will have been for nothing!"

Both Kunzite and Artemis nodded. Artemis jumped back onto Kunzite's shoulder as he and Brunhilde began to run at top speed towards Hellmouth Castle. As they ran, all three of them prayed that they wouldn't get there too late.

One-Eyed Pete escorted the King and a terrified Minako out to a large area behind the castle. In this desolate area was a vast gorge so large and so dark that it looked as though it went all the way into the very depths of Hell. A long narrow cliff jutted out from the edge of the gorge over the opening. As the three came out to look, four walking corpses dressed as servants were busy setting up chairs.

"This is where the ceremony will take place," Pete informed the other two. "I trust the site meets with your approval."

The King nodded in response. Meanwhile all Minako could do was stare blankly out at the gorge. The King's presence horrified her too much to allow her to do anything else.

"We shall be ready to begin in half an hour," Pete continued. "I shall inform you when all is prepared."

The King nodded again and escorted a compliant Minako back into the castle. Minako at that moment wanted to flee, but her fear and the burning sensation of the mark on her arm prevented her from doing so. She had been caught tightly in the King's trap. In half an hour both her life and her sanity would come to an end, and she knew there was nothing she could do anymore to stop it.

Author's Note: Again, apologies for such a short chapter. As I said at the beginning, I really thought that Kunzite and Ace's battle would end up being a much longer scene. I guess I could've shown more of Brunhilde's battle against Ace's army of darkness, but at the time I felt like that would've just been filler. Plus I'm still not great at doing large-scale battles like that. I am pleased with how Ace and Kunzite's battle turned out though.

Well, in our next installment, the story finally reaches its climax. So until then, please review and let me know what you think.