16. INFERNO
Nexys comes through the door. He pauses as his eyes scan Light's drenched form.
Light greets the slug-like Shinigami with a short smile and nod. "Did you find it?"
"Yes, she's left it guarded in the dungeons," Nexys says, signaling with his hand. "We'd best move swiftly, sir."
But Light puts up a finger and strolls over to the table. He plucks the pitcher from the table and checks its contents. There's still plenty of wine left from yesterday. Light's smile extends as his fingers caress the pitcher's base. Kinddara hadn't been smart enough to leave it somewhere hidden. Though why would she hide it? She couldn't assume anyone would have the gall to break into her private quarters. Light had anticipated this.
Light follows Nexys down the spiraling flight of stairs. "What about Nym? Any updates?"
"Still looking, sir."
As long as he reaches her throne first, Light should be able to find his Death Note. So far, everything's going just as planned.
He had taken a brief moment in between challenging Kinddara and leaving for his quarters to speak to Nexys and Nym in private. Light had cajoled quite a bit to bring them over to his side:
"Kinddara has a list," he whispered when everyone around them in the ballroom had gone back to their conversations. "I saw it when she brought me to her quarters."
"A list saying what?" Nexys asked, chewing on a shriveled orange.
"Of potential people she intends to kidnap and imprison to use for the fighting pits." Light leaned in. "Your names were on it."
Nexys and Nym chortled together.
"Prove it," Nym said.
"You calling me a liar?" Of course he was lying, but Light had a natural way of blocking out any suspicion with just a change of voice and expression. Serial liars never admit they're wrong.
Nexys played with his golden jewelry. "Who else is on the list?"
"Enough to entertain Kinddara for at least a week," Light said. "She may have made me her champion, but I won't be the last. Once I'm gone, they'll be a new champion, and then another, and then another until there are no Shinigami left to fight for her. You two won't be safe for long. This may very well be the last meal for the three of us."
"How do we know you're not saying this to save yourself?" Nexys glared with his beady eyes.
Light leaned back in his seat and surveyed the room for someone. When he locked eyes with the creature, he turned his head and lifted his cup to his chin to mask his voice. "You see that Shinigami standing over by the door?"
He watched both of them look toward the doorway, and their heads nodded.
"He's a slaver," Light revealed. "He took me and Ryuzaki here while we were searching for the city. He's scouting for you guys."
Nexys ducked his head. "Are you fucking serious?"
Nym did the same.
Light reassured them with a gesture of the hand. "Relax. As long as you two do what I say, all three of us will get out of here unscathed. Do you trust me?" He gave them a look of encouragement.
The Shinigami exchanged glances.
"I guess so," Nexys said.
Nym nodded.
Light forced a greedy smile from taking over his face. "Good. Now listen closely…"
Light and Nexys reach the bottom floor without delay. Everyone who is anyone is watching the fight. Those who aren't are guarding the queen's throne in the dungeon. Light holds the pitcher close to his chest as he peeks around a corner and notices two guards standing before a door.
"It's in there," Nexys confirms. "What do we do?"
Light searches the vicinity with his eyes for anything that can be used as a potential distraction. When he finds nothing, he says, "Improvise." He buttons up his long coat and straightens his collar to obscure part of his face. "Come on."
They step out of the shadows. The two guards stand up in attention. One with reptilian-like features barks, "Halt. Who are you?"
"My good sir, we are here by request of the Queen of Blood to showcase our brilliant new wine," Light says, smiling with his eyes and lifting the pitcher into the air like he's a salesman on the street.
"Piss off, the queen's busy."
"But we have traveled so far to see her," Light insists. "We were told that if we didn't leave it somewhere safe, the queen would be very disappointed."
"What the fuck are you two supposed to be anyway?" the other guard asks, fiddling with his cadaver fingers. "Street performers?"
"Oh, that is an excellent assumption. We were sent here not only to present the queen this rare wine as a gift, but also for her to welcome us into her services. You see, the queen sent a notice to the Shinigami king asking for additional entertainment besides the fighting pits. She requested this as soon as possible, and here we are. We were instructed by the king not to leave until we could be sure that Kinddara has been given word of our arrival."
The guards exchange looks, and Nexys swallows hard in Light's peripheral vision.
"Did you hear anything about this?" the reptilian guard asks.
"No," the skeletal one replies. "But shit. If we turn them away, we might get the axe. Figures we wouldn't hear. The bitch doesn't pay us enough anyway."
"She doesn't pay us at all, you idiot." The reptilian guard turns back to Light and gestures with his head. "Fine, you can leave the wine in the back room. I'll escort you both to a holding cell until Kinddara's available." He opens the door and heads inside first.
Light follows. The room is dimly lit with a couple of torches. The throne has been left among a pile of gold treasure, a bookshelf of Death Notes, perhaps belonging to servants, and a sea of skulls ranging in size and shape. Some appear almost human—her trophies.
Light's stomach churns at the macabre display, but his mind remains firmly on his objective. "Where may I put this?"
"Over by the throne," the guard says. "But don't touch anything."
Light makes the slightest gesture to Nexys and then strolls through the sea of trophies and beyond the bookshelf of Death Notes toward the throne. But as he begins ascending the steps, his foot catches on the stone, and his entire weight comes crashing down. The pitcher slips from his fingers and shatters. Wine sprinkles across the queen's throne.
Ryuzaki can barely keep his head afloat within the flurry of attacks. When he blocks one attack, another comes swiftly afterward and cuts through a part of his cloak, grazing his skin. The pain lingers for a few seconds until a new pain arises somewhere else on his body. Earlier, pain didn't have any affect of him. In fact, he barely felt anything when Light sunk a knife in his back and reduced him to a pile of meat on the ground. But something seems off. With each blow of Kinddara's axe or wings, he grows weaker, more timid. An overwhelming fear of vulnerability sweeps over him. If he does die, will he return? Will he be able to keep fighting for as long as Light needs him? Would L have backed down by now?
L…
Suddenly, as if he has been dropped into limbo, Ryuzaki finds himself no longer standing in an arena. The dirt and sand has been supplanted by green grass and the smell of honeysuckle. It's a familiar atmosphere.
And then comes screaming.
The scent of honeysuckle in the air vanishes as wisps of orange and yellow flames engulf the grass, crinkling it until there's nothing but charred remains. The screaming rises with the fire's fury.
Hands lift to eye level, soaked in sticky blood. He claps them around his ears in a desperate attempt to cover the screams from sliding inside his head and polluting his mind. His knees buckle, and he drifts to the ground. The fire seems to draw closer, while the screaming grows more profound, as if it's become a part of the wind. His eyes shut. Smoke fills his lungs. He senses it: right here, in this very spot, he prepares to die.
And then something pulls him out of the inferno. His lungs breathe in fresh oxygen instead of smoke. His mind swims like it's been at sea for days, riding the waves of disorientation until he finally reaches shore.
A voice both rich and firm says to him, "Didn't you say you wanted to be a hero? You give up. You fail. No hero gives up. Not even in death. Are you a failure, boy?"
The question sinks into him like a tattoo to skin. It comes from a familiar voice, whose origin he can't quite grasp. He reaches out, blindly seeking its source, and his fingers graze wrinkles.
"Are you?" the voice insists.
He shakes his head.
"Then get up. Heroes never back down. You may lose a battle or two, but you're still fighting a war."
Ryuzaki snaps back into reality as Kinddara's axe comes down upon him. He barely manages to block the blow, but it knocks the wind out of him, and the hood from his head.
He stumbles back as a wave of gasps encompass the audience.
Kinddara's mouth drops. "You," she hisses. "You're supposed to be dead."
Ryuzaki recovers, wiping his forehead of bangs with the heel of his remaining hand and leaning on his scythe for support. "I got better."
"If you're here, then…"
"You idiot!" The reptilian guard kicks Light to the side, and his back hits the wall. "Kinddara will return, and this'll be on your head."
Light shifts until he's sitting on his knees and bows apologetically to the guard. "I'm so sorry. I tripped on the stairs."
The guard grumbles, grabs him by the neck and tosses him toward the opposite wall. "But I think I'll soften you up first. I'll make sure to tell the queen that Rafael has personally rid her of this pest." He cracks his knuckles.
The impact knocks the wind out of Light. When he recovers, he's sitting below a blue-lit torch. The guard stalks toward him but stops when Light raises a hand. "I do have one question, Rafael. Has Kinddara taken your Death Note?"
"What?"
Light stands. "Has she?" He nods to the bookshelf.
"Why the fuck do you care?"
"Don't you? After all, it's yours to take." Light crosses his arms behind him and straightens his back. He feels Ryuzaki's hand stroke his own, as if it knows his plan. "Let me guess, Kinddara's kept control over you this entire time because if you do anything to offend or displease her, your notebook will suffer and thus you will, too. Now that she's distracted, this is the first chance you've had to take it back since she's stolen it."
Rafael's brow furrows. "What is this?"
Light takes the torch out of its holder and nods to Nexys. "I'm not Kinddara. I'm willing to give you a choice, Rafael. You can either walk out of here peacefully with your Death Note in hand or you can try to kill me and die."
Nexys scurries over to his side with Rafael's Death Note in hand. Light takes the notebook from the Shinigami and hovers the torch's flames right above its pages. "Now, which will you choose?"
After a few tense moments, the guard lowers his fists and relaxes his shoulders. "Give me my Death Note."
Light hands it to him. "Good choice." He nods to the other guard, who's watching from the doorway. "And you?"
The skeletal guard nods vehemently. "I'm Hans." He extends a hand, and with a nod from Light, Nexys hands him his Death Note as well after locating it in the bookshelf.
Light approaches the throne with the torch's flame rippling and cracking.
"Who the fuck are you?" Rafael asks.
Light turns and flashes a subtle smile. "I am Kira." He tosses the torch onto the throne, and the seat bursts into a wall of fire.
Orange and yellow flames encompass Kinddara's most prized possession. As Light watches what remains of the queen's lifeline, he imagines Kinddara's form crumbling into a thousand pieces and those pieces morphing into dust that the wind picks up and devours. The smile on his face grows as the fire consumes the last few parts of the queen's treasure.
Elsewhere, Ryuzaki watches in a mixture of horror and awe as the Queen of Blood's wings snap off, her armor breaks in half, and her fearsome being becomes nothing more than a pile of ash and bones on the arena floor. All that is left of the Queen of Blood are her wings that flutter in the wind before resting on top of the mound of ash and bones. They glow with some kind of otherworldly power that draws Ryuzaki toward them.
But he hesitates when the audience stands. Everyone's eyes watch him for a moment and then wander off into the distance. Ryuzaki follows the many eyes to the tower, where a thick smoke releases between the stones and rises into the gray sky as a black cloud. The world's attention seems to tilt sideways without his full knowledge of why.
Then, as soon as he questions whether he's witnessing reality or another hallucinating, a figure walks out from the tower and appears at the top of the stands like a ghost haunting overhead. As the smoke thickens, streams of fire come into view around the figure, revealing his face.
And half of the audience welcomes the birth of their new King of Blood, Light Yagami.