Chapter Sixty-One: Chaos Vs. The Demon Beast

You know, the start of the battle wasn't as bad as Raven and Beast Boy thought it would be.

For a few minutes actually, it seemed like they actually had a chance at winning!

Which was a welcome surprise, given the fate of the entire universe was at stake.

"Ha!" The flat of Klarion's sword slammed into the landscape. This sent shockwaves out from where Beast Boy had been standing.

However, Raven didn't worry about her boyfriend, as she could still sense his presence nearby.

Sure enough, right before Klarion could raise his sword again, Beast Boy reappeared above his hand in the form of a lion. He then sank his teeth and claws into Klarion's hand.

"Gah! You miserable insect!" Klarion attempted to swat Beast Boy with his shield hand. Yet Beast Boy, wanting to make Klarion's statement literal, turned into a common mosquito.

He easily rode the wave of air from the attempted impact out from Klarion's grasp before morphing into his smirking human form away from the giant.

"Mosquitos. They're really the bane of everything, huh? Even for all powerful Lords of Losers."

Klarion never got a word in against that statement, as Raven slammed the back of his head with the side of a mountain she'd sheared off just for him.

Pow!

It didn't cause him to bleed. Beast Boy's attacks hadn't done that either. But seeing the large boy stagger as red and gold energy leeched off his form was still cathartic for the duo to witness.

"URGH!" Klarion growled and raised his shield overhead as a bright gold Egyptian symbol appeared before Nabu. The Lord of Order was standing on a hovering gold disc, and the symbol he formed in the air unleashed a powerful beam of energy down upon the Lord of Chaos.

The Shield of Order which Klarion wielded though entirely blocked the beam of energy. Nabu was then forced to fly back as Klarion sliced through the air where he'd been standing.

"Let's keep the pressure on him!" Garfield loudly proclaimed.

"Yes, he seems to fear Nabu's attacks the most." Raven agreed. She levitated more large boulders into the air around her, and Beast Boy transformed into a peregrine falcon before flying towards Klarion's large ugly face.

For another minute, the fight continued to progress. Beast Boy switched to one animal form after the other. Raven attacked with a variety of objects or constructs made of her ethereal energy. And Nabu unleashed all sorts of devastating spells upon his bitter enemy.

As they battled, Raven observed how Klarion battled in his new form. His time spent merged with Nabu had apparently given him a supply of Order which he was using to maintain the shield on his arm. However, he seemed rather unwieldy with it, as he couldn't do much more than block attacks with said shield.

It likely had to do with the fact that he didn't have Nabu to focus that energy for him. Had he managed to successfully take the Lord of Order over, then he would have been able to use Nabu's power with absolute ease.

Beast Boy continued attacking various parts of Klarion's body as a variety of different animals to try and distract him. Each gash and scratch that should have appeared let out little bits of red or gold energy instead. Same with the objects Raven kept on bombarding around his head, shoulders, and arms.

It didn't look like they were physically hurting him. Rather, their attacks were bleeding the Witchboy of his Chaos and Order energy, but only in small amounts.

He likely had an infinite amount of Chaos energy as a Lord of Chaos, but that wasn't true of Order. 'Knowledge, do you have anything for me?'

"I predict that if we keep on landing strikes on him, he'll run out of Order Energy, and then he will be at his weakest. Nabu would then be capable of expulsing him from here." Knowledge informed Raven.

Raven's eyes glowed a bright white. 'All of you, lend me your strength.'

"Ahahahaha! I've been waiting for this!"

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"

Klarion didn't turn towards Raven despite the chant. If there was anyone there that was truly a threat to him, it was Nabu. And the sly bastard was being so hard to hit as he flew along the side of his body, unleashing a ray of order along his side.

He swatted at him with his shield arm again, missing entirely. But Nabu retreated back, looking extremely exhausted.

Ha, the old man had spent all this time trying to hold him at bay, now he was having to fight for his life. All he had to do was deal with him, and then-

Slash!

With a loud 'caw!', a huge white ethereal raven creature appeared in his vision and clawed Klarion across the face.

"GAH!" Klarion clutched at his new wounds. They closed over quickly, but a large amount of Chaos and Order energy seeped through them. "WHY YOU!" He slashed with his Chaos blade, but the ethereal creature shrunk, avoiding the strike entirely before growing big again and slashing once more.

Klarion blocked the claws with his shield arm and raised his sword to strike again.

"ROARRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" A giant green T. Rex, almost as big as Klarion, bit down on the bicep of Klarion's sword arm with the force of a car crusher. Klarion screamed out in pain and frustration as the ancient dinosaur's teeth sank down through the skin to the muscle underneath.

A burst of chaotic energy went through the arm, and the T. Rex was thrown back. But the ethereal Raven got several more good strikes on him, forcing him to push her back with his shield like she was a mere annoyance.

"I've always wanted to try dinosaur shish kebab!" Klarion then turned to attack the giant T. Rex again.

Only, he hadn't realized Beast Boy would recover so quickly. No sooner had he turned to bring his sword to bear when the giant T. Rex's tail slammed into his face with enough power to launch him back through the air onto his back.

Chomp!

The T. Rex's large mouth then bit down on the villain's exposed foot.

Ick. So disgusting. Beast Boy nearly wanted to gag. Couldn't the boy villain at least have pictured himself with better foot hygiene inside the helmet?

Oh well, hearing Klarion screaming and cussing was more than worth it.

"YOU *&%$&%$ MAGGOTS!"

With Nabu staying back to take a quick breather, the large ethereal Raven and giant T. Rex both continued to tag team the giant Lord of Chaos together. Raven clawed viciously with her sharp talons while Beast Boy whacked with his tail and bit with his teeth again and again again.

"TAKE THIS YOU WORTHLESS PIECES OF-!" Klarion formed a ball of Chaos and Order energy from his sword hand and blasted it at the pair. The resulting explosion, which tore apart the landscape all around, drowned out the rest of his words.

The large raven creature enveloped the T. Rex though, and both of them disappeared into the ground before the explosion hit them.

Klarion looked around, trying to find where the annoying maggots would strike from next.

FWEET!

He looked up at the sound of a whistle. Raven was in her normal form above him, and she smirked as she opened her cloak, revealing a glistening white portal.

A swarm of green angry wasps flew out from it, covering Klarion's face immediately.

Had Raven known that her boyfriend was capable of this? No, she hadn't been aware.

Was it immensely satisfying seeing Klarion stung over and over again despite that?

Absolutely.

"Ow! Ow ow ow ow ow!" The swarm stung his face many times over. Klarion dropped his sword and swatted at his face repeatedly. He couldn't quite seem to deal with all of them though.

If anything, watching this made Raven even more proud of her boyfriend than ever before. His abilities had progressed so far since leaving the Tower months ago. He was capable of so much when he applied himself. And apply himself he had.

Finally, Beast Boy morphed into a hummingbird and darted out of the way just as Nabu reappeared on his golden disc. An infinity symbol in front of his hand.

With a tired, yet determined look on his face, he sent a massive beam of energy straight into Klarion's face.

BOOM!

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

The screaming giant was blasted backward, impacting against the side of a mountain. He disappeared under a cloud of dust that billowed up from the impact, and his scream cut off soon after.

Raven landed on the ground, and Beast Boy morphed back into his human form beside her. Nabu floated down above them, sagging on his hovering gold disc.

"Is that it? Did we win?" Beast Boy asked hopefully.

"That was one of Nabu's most powerful attacks, and it hit him head-on." Raven pointed out monotonously. "We better have won."

…

Nabu was frowning after a moment though. Despite his exhaustion, he started to settle back into a defensive stance.

Seeing it, the two heroes grimaced as they prepared to go another round together.

The cloud of dust started to glow an ominous red. Nabu opened his mouth to begin casting a protective enchantment.

"HUAH!" With a loud scream, Klarion sent off a burst of chaotic energy over the entire battlefield.

The energy spread across the ground like lightning. Raven didn't even have time to think about forming a portal before Nabu's gold disc moved in front of both her and Beast Boy.

The chaos energy slammed right through it and into both her and Beast Boy simultaneously. The duo was flung back through the air before being slammed down into the ground.

As for Nabu, since he'd opted for protecting the younger Heroes over himself with his ride, he'd taken the brunt of the energy attack with no protection whatsoever. He was flung far back across the torn battlefield into the side of an intact cliff face. The surrounding rock shuddered and crumbled as the impact caused a minor avalanche.

With a weak groan, Nabu fell all the way down to the ground alongside the rockslide. He could hardly move afterward.

"YOU WORTHLESS IDIOTS!"

The dust cloud had disappeared from around Klarion. Besides the new mark on his face that wasn't healing, and which was leaking a constant stream of Chaos and Order energy, he still looked as big and pissed off as before. "YOUR STRUGGLES ARE MEANINGLESS! YOU ONLY DELAY THE INEVITABLE WITH YOUR FUTILE RESISTANCE!"

More chaos energy formed over his blade. He sent the blast directly at Nabu, who couldn't even move to block or dodge it.

Boom!

His body was sent ragdolling across the landscape once again. Beast Boy and Raven both groaned as they forced themselves to get out of their respective craters in the ground onto one knee.

"WELL GUESS WHAT?! I'M SICK OF PLAYING AROUND WITH YOU MAGGOTS! I'M GOING TO DEAL WITH YOU RIGHT NOW, AND THEN I'M GOING TO TAKE OVER THAT OLD MAN, WHETHER HE WANTS ME TO OR NOT!"

"AHA! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Klarion's menacing, nasally laugh echoed across the landscape as his massive sword flew back into his hand and charged up with energy again.

'Urgh.' Raven and Beast Boy both groaned mentally at the same time.

"Raven!" "Master!"

"MOVE!" Rage and the Beast yelled in their heads at the same time.

The pair snapped their heads up. Just as Klarion sent another blast of chaos energy at Beast Boy and Raven this time. Fully intent on wiping them out of existence once and for all.

The face of impending doom, Nabu's unconscious form far behind them, and a multitude of other factors made the two tired, beaten-up Heroes know exactly what they had to do at that moment. The only thing that could have possibly given them a chance of facing off against Klarion without Nabu's help.

Boom!

The Chaos energy hit the area, but…

It'd missed Beast Boy and Raven.

Or, rather, it'd missed the Beast and Rage.

"Huh?!" Klarion looked surprised.

The Beast let out a howl as he beat his fists against his chest. And Rage grinned as the four red eyes on her head glowed with malice. The two were standing on a platform of ethereal energy far above the blast.

"I'm sorry, that was supposed to get rid of us?" Rage scowled darkly. She had not gotten over what she'd been forced to do by Klarion earlier, apparently.

Beast Boy was behind the helm alongside the Beast. And while Rage had manifested, Raven and her other emoticlones were still there too. Talking and advising her just like they would with Raven.

"Ah, Ahahahahaha!" Klarion began laughing deeply again. "So just when I'm about to wipe you two out, you decided to let your more powerful alter-egos take over your bodies! Fantastic!"

The Beast and Rage both growled as Klarion grinned maliciously at them. "Not that it'll give you a shot in hell at beating me. I'm more powerful than the two of you could ever dream of! For I am a Lord of CHAOS!" At the word, he prepared his sword to attack them once again.

…

The two looked at each other. An unspoken exchange went between them in the space of a second, and then the Beast nodded his head, getting on his knee before his mate.

"Perhaps you're right." Rage admitted. "As powerful as we've become, there is only so much damage we can do to you. And if even one of your attacks were to hit us head on, we'd have no chance of survival…"

"SO YOU SEE THE POINTLESSNESS OF THIS STRUGGLE AT LAST-" Klarion began to declare triumphantly.

"You fool," Rage's voice cut his victory rant off. "Alone, the two of us couldn't hope to beat you. But together, there is a chance."

Klarion's eyes boggled angrily. "Chance!? CHANCE?! CHANCE!? YOU TRULY BELIEVE THAT YOU COULD STAND UP TO ALL THIS POWER WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!?" He screamed hysterically, spit flying from his mouth onto the landscape.

Ew, gross.

Rage smirked. "You forget. My mate is the amalgamation of all of Creation. And I am the epitome of the rage harbored by all the demons in hell…" As she spoke, her form and the Beast's began to blur together.

Klarion released the charged-up Chaos from his Sword.

Boom!

The platform the two individuals had been standing on was blown up completely.

Only one figure dropped down onto the ground on all fours. Klarion smirked, thinking he'd eliminated one of the pair, only for his eyes to widen when he saw the figure stand up to its full ten-foot height.

The Beast had undergone an upgrade. Ethereal energy pulsated off of its body in Waves. Its already-defined muscles rippled with each movement. Wings of energy came out of its back, and twin ethereal blades formed in its pawed hands.

Instead of two eyes, the Beast now had four glowing red eyes. And its wolf-like face was smirking maliciously at the Lord of Chaos.

"Power of Friendship? Don't make us laugh. With our aspects combined together, I'm just dying to see how an apex predator combined with a demon matches against a Lord of Chaos!" Rage's voice came from the Beast's mouth gleefully.

"Arooooooooo!" The Beast howled right after those words, charging the giant Klarion right after.

This…

This felt like what the final battle should have been like.

Now, there was no one helping them out. Just like before, when they were first on the run.

They had nowhere to go. No Hero to assist them.

It was just the two of them, facing down the mastermind behind it all together.

And they were enjoying it far more than they should have.

"Ack! STOP IT!" Klarion smacked and electrocuted parts of his body with Chaos energy, trying to hit a glowing blur that moved along it like lightning.

That glowing blur was the Beast. Or, rather, what I'll label henceforth as the "Demon Beast", as its combination with Rage had upped it into an already higher power tier than it'd been in already.

The two mentally worked together in sync to control the body. The Beast worked the muscles while Rage controlled the boundless energy coming off the form.

The improved muscles made the Beast's already insane speed break limits it hadn't known before. He was like lightning, moving all over Klarion's body while his claws and swords dug into any inch of skin he could get his hands on. And Rage either protected them with her energy or assisted with the energy wings, teleportation, or platforms to further improve their mobility in this form.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The multiple booms came from the repeated times the creature broke the sound barrier. One such instance happened right by Klarion's ear, making him howl in pain as his eardrum was destroyed.

The Beast realized this was nothing like his fight with Superman. He could easily outspeed him and the Flash as well as their progeny in this form! He could have ran laps around the world and not been exhausted in the slightest!

They were the definition of speed! And thanks to Rage's magic assistance, they could hurt Klarion more deeply than ever before!

"RURAGH!" With a scream of frustration, Klarion formed armor over his arms and legs to both protect himself from further damage and to try and remove the Demon Beast from his body.

"Awooo!" With back claws enhanced by Rage's ethereal powers though, the Beast was able to leave long gashes in the armor and skin beneath as he raced from one limb to another.

The magic-enhanced claws and the swords in his paws also had the distinct advantage of being harder to heal than normal physical attacks. Meaning the gashes Klarion was inflicted with stayed open for longer than Beast Boy's regular physical attacks.

This continued for another minute, with Klarion trying desperately to swat them and cover himself in armor. How had this creature become this annoying?!

Finally, he landed a lucky hit, launching the Demon Beast off of himself and into the air. He tried swiping upwards with his Chaos Sword, but the Demon Beast disappeared into a portal and came charging out on the landscape below, digging its swords into Klarion's feet as they ran by.

"GAH!" Klarion electrocuted the ground around him with chaos energy, but the Demon Beast not only jumped up to avoid it but formed a large ethereal extension of its leg that drop-kicked the Lord of Chaos in the face while midair.

Klarion stumbled backward, his attack cutting off before the Beast landed on the ground. He scowled as the last piece of his armor, a glowing red and yellow helmet, appeared over his head. "YOU ARE SERIOUSLY PISSING ME OFF NOW!"

He sent blasts of Chaos energy from his sword at the duo one after the other. Unlike his charged-up attack, he could fire these off much more quickly and multiple at a time. Creating what looked like a hailstorm of Chaos energy.

The Beast's insane speed helped it dodge most of this storm, and what it couldn't dodge was protected from by the energy from Rage's wings.

Klarion scowled as the Beast maneuvered through the storm. Jumping onto an energy platform and another with blazing speed until it jumped through the air over his sword.

His Shield moved up to protect himself, but the Beast managed to land yet another punch on Klarion's smug-looking face through his visor.

The Lord of Chaos stumbled back, screaming and cursing as it felt like the bridge of his nose had been broken. But he managed to backhand swipe the Rage Beast out of the air using his Shield.

Pow! Boom!

This time, the Rage Beast slammed into the side of a mountain. "YOU WON'T WIN! I WON'T LET YOU!" He began to charge forward, his sword gleaming with energy as he swung down.

Clang!

A large glowing sword extended from the dust cloud, forcing the Lord of Chaos to defend himself. His eyes were wide with surprise.

The dust cleared from around the now hulking ethereal energy Beast. The Beast itself was in the center of it like a beating heart, but Rage and him were both working in tandem just like before.

"Nice! Looks like we're capable of becoming a giant in this form too! I really wish we could have had this opportunity a lot sooner!" Rage's voice howled gleefully.

The Beast howled in agreement alongside his mate. This was truly beyond anything it ever thought it'd possibly be able to attain.

Klarion stumbled back, fear actually appearing in his eyes now. "Th-There's no way!"

"There is." The Demon Beast's second ethereal sword appeared in its other hand again. They were just as long as Klarion's giant Chaos blade. "You did away with the rules of magic in our dimension! There is nothing you can do now that we can't!"

"I HAVE UNLIMITED POWER!" Klarion howled.

"Eh. I still have more than enough energy to maintain this form. You can thank Raven for this idea, by the way. Since she's been capable of doing this while combined with her other aspects in the past." Rage smirked at the Lord of Chaos as the meaning sank in.

"Yeah, you're not just facing me or Beastie. You're facing all of us together! And our desire is more than obvious at this point!"

"Come on Beastie, let's finish this game and go home!"

The Beast howled in agreement as it swung at the Lord of Chaos repeatedly.

What had been a battle of speed vs. brawn became more of a dual between two opposing giants.

Nabu groaned as he began to regain consciousness. He put a hand to his head.

His entire body hurt. By all accounts, he should have been dead. So how…

At the sounds of battle going on, he looked up across the landscape, only for his eyes to widen in shock.

"It's… how is this possible?"

Even without him… they were still fighting so fiercely?

"RAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Klarion's Chaos sword left a small gash on the giant Demon Beast's arm, causing it to hiss. But while Klarion managed to protect himself from one sword thanks to his Shield, the giant Demon Beast managed to slash through the armor of Klarion's left calf, leaving a large gash underneath.

"GAH!" Klarion howled with pain, and the Beast pressed its assault with its twin blades of dark ethereal energy.

The Chaos strikes hurt the Beast like nothing else. The wounds on the ethereal body simmered like boiling water. But the Rage Beast wasn't just leaving marks on Klarion anymore.

These attacks were larger, and harder to heal than the ones of their small form. Energy, both Chaos, and Order, leaked out of Klarion like a constant stream.

The Chaos Blade blocked and struck just like the Order Shield. But unlike its counterpart, the Order Shield was chipped away at slowly with each strike it blocked, with each time it was used as a blunt object to strike the Beast with.

Nabu watched the two great mountains battle each other. His eyes were wide with shock as, for all the millennia he'd lived, he had rarely witnessed a battle such as this.

"No! NO!" Klarion howled as he brought his sword up again.

The Rage Beast's first sword interlocked against it. Then its second sword slammed down on Klarion's sword and Shield.

Klarion continued to howl in anger and frustration as the Rage Beast bore down with its blades.

He was a Lord of Chaos! He was an immortal being of unlimited power! He had on the Helmet of Nabu! He was supposed to be able to turn the universe into his personal playground!

So how!? HOW WAS THIS THING PUSHING HIM BACK!? HOW WAS IT MANAGING TO WIN!?

"YOU CAN'T WIN! I WON'T ALLOW YOU!" Klarion howled with rage.

The Rage Beast didn't bother with a response. It only pushed down harder, knowing the severe amount of damage it could inflict if Klarion's guard broke and-

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" And then, the Order Shield, which hadn't done anything other than block attacks the entire fight, let out a blast of energy into the chest of the Beast.

"AWOOOOOOOOOO!" The Rage Beast howled in pain as it stumbled back.

"AHA! AHAHAHAHAHA!" Klarion began to howl crazily with laughter as he closed the distance again. His Order Shield struck the Rage Beast's left sword out of the way, and then his Chaos Sword cut its left arm clean off.

"NO!" Nabu screamed as the massive howling Beast clutched at its missing limb.

It couldn't be! Not when they'd come so close!

"THIS PROVES IT! I AM ALL-POWERFUL! EVEN TOGETHER YOU NEVER STOOD A CHANCE!" Klarion began swinging his Chaos Blade at the Beast over and over again in rapid succession.

The Rage Beast tried to block with its remaining sword, but it was badly hurt. Klarion then uppercut the creature with his shield, crashing it through the side of a mountain.

"IT'S TIME I FINISHED YOU ONCE AND FOR ALL!"

The combined individuals looked up. Klarion's sword came down from above his head. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The badly injured Rage Beast tried to raise its sword, but it was too late.

KABOOM!

A large red explosion emanated outwards from the point of impact.

Nearby mountains crumbled under the shockwave of power, and dust filled the air for a long time.

…

…

…

"Ha… hu… ha… hu…" Klarion was breathing heavily when the dust finally cleared from around him. "That… that should do it…"

He glared down at the area before him as the dust cleared.

…

The Rage Beast laid on its side. Its large size was slowly dissipating away. Chaos energy sparked off its body repeatedly.

A large gash bled in the center of its chest. Staining the ground beneath it red.

"No…" Nabu nearly collapsed to the ground at the sight.

The Rage Beast was dead.

Klarion turned, smirking lightly at Nabu. "Now that that pest is dealt with, it's time I dealt with the brat once and for all."

…

Nabu slowly got back into a defensive stance. "I'll… I'll fight till my last breath if I have too."

Klarion laughed. "This won't be long then." Chaos energy blazed along his sword once again as he grinned. "One more blast ought to do it."

Nabu charged an infinity symbol in front of him in retaliation. But they both knew how this was going to end.

All hope had been lost.