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Ruins Of New Babylon

After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red and dark violet dragon with five heads and five horns and one eye on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth. Then war broke out in heaven. Dialga and Palkia and their Elohim fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his Elohim fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. They laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, and bound him for a thousand years; and they cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.

-The Hisuian Coda

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"Ride on, Urshifu," Henry said. "We go to meet Eternatus again."

As foretold, Zacian and Zamazenta would fight once more, win, and Eternatus would pay homage to Arceus and call Him Lord before death. But Eternatus had bested the Two Princes once, and there was no reason that this time would be any different. The Dark Lord exuded only wrath, but little fear and no humility.

Zacian and Zamazenta spoke with a loud voice, "Dragon, serpent, Dark Lord, you will now face the judgment of the One you have opposed from time immemorial!"

"Oh, never!" Eternatus rasped. "The last time you contended with me, fools, it was on the Plains of Har Meggido, and you dared not even bring a reviling accusation against me, but rather fought with words of power! I do not answer to you!"

And then the battle began. How Zacian and Zamazenta fared at first against the Dark Lord none knew, for a great cloud had swelled up to cover the field of battle. There were murmurings of thunder and flashes of light that crackled all through the ruins of Castelia. The initial clash was lengthy, and Henry and Casey went a long way with Urshifu before they at last came to the site of the conflict.

They tried to cross through the whirlwind, but even Urshifu could not bear the winds. The clouds of dust that had been created from the Wrath of the Lamb earthquake's aftereffects were all converging on one point; the barrier was impassable. Lightning leaped from within and then broke into many tongues of fire. "These winds are going as fast as a tornado! We can't get through!"

"You must!" Zacian said. "Eternatus is weakened, but we need a trainer for the final blow. Only a unite of Men and Pokemon-king can overcome the Dark Lord! Pass through the whirlwind."

"That's impossible!"

"There is no other way. Pass through heat and frost, both of you. Share your agony."

Shuttles from the warships above were landing in the plaza. Bronze was with them, holding a blade in his hand. There was Tess and Magnolia, and Moon with a respirator. The Gym Leaders and Pokedex Holders had come forth with their armies into the site of the last battle, but they did not come as a conquering victor. How few men and Pokemon remained! Had that many died in the battle and judgments?

Bronze looked as if he was going to charge Eternatus himself, but then he shook his head, and stepped away. "I am not so old that I cannot wield a blade, but this is no longer my fight. The incense of the prayers of the saints rises in the heavens, and I know that my time is done." He dropped his weapon. "I am no longer a hero or a Pokedex Holder. No one here can help you."

"But we can't go in there!" Casey said. "It's hopeless!"

"My child," Magnolia said. "You must."

Another meteor streaked across the sky, landing in the sea of blood. The golden censer before the Throne of Arceus had been cast down to Earth, as prophesized. There were more peals of thunder and lightning as the scent of the mystical incense rose in the heavens. Rayquaza sent the Four Winds to carry the perfume in every direction, the smell mixing with the fire and sulfur breathed out by the two-million-man army of horsemen.

In the feoter that washed over the ruins of New Babylon, Henry and Casey heard with overwhelming force the prayers and cries of the many martyrs of the Typhoon Struggle and from all time as they asked Arceus for vengeance. The visions came next, a strong wave that passed through the consciousness.

...

When Celebi released the shades of the dead from the golden censer, Henry and Casey saw the souls of those that had been slain by the servants of the Dark Lord, the first and the second, through history because they had maintained the testimony of the Original One.

A man and his family stood before two Pyroar in a Kalosi arena. They were chained to a pole. The Pokemon had been starved, and the Rumhoth would enjoy the spectacle, along with the gladiator matches that would come next. Human torches doused in oil illuminated the unholy spectacle.

"Fear not these beasts. The Lion of Hisui has overcome, and we will be with Him today."

Two Galarians were tied to a stake, as their executioners from the Tribe of Penlod lit a blaze under their feet. A token of Zacian and Zamazenta was on their robes. As the flames grew higher and hotter, the jeers from the crowd became deafening.

"Play the man, Master Ridley!" one man said to the other. "We will this day light such a candle in our deaths, by the Orignal One's grace, in Galar, that I trust it will never be put out!"

A black banner waved over the desert field. Terramist jihadis chanted their prayers to the Mbelekoro. A Gallade lifted its arms, and hewed off the head of each captive who was arranged in a straight row. The blood dried on the sand.

"How much longer?" the cry went. "How long, Arceus, until you judge the inhabitants of the Earth and avenge our blood?"

Now it was a maelstrom of faces that spoke to Henry and Casey.

"Walk through the fire, children!" the icy voice of Crystal said. "Don't let him win!"

"That was a real demon, then?" the shade of an Alakazam said. "Killed me at Armageddon, that one did...you fight him, boy..."

The shadow of Green surveyed the battle with wide eyes. "Don't let go! Don't let him get to you, Henry and Casey...don't let go!"

In another moment, the smoky shape of a young woman with long hair appeared around the vortex. She stood up, and looked at Casey, who was shaking madly by now. Soon, the girl was looking into the ghostly face of her mother.

"Your father's coming," she said quietly. "Hold on for your father...it'll be alright. We'll help you pass through the wind."

And he came from the drafts of incense, first his head, then the body. The obscure, shadowy form of Casey's father fell down like his wife, and then straightened. He walked close to the whirlwind, speaking with the same distant, echoing voice that all the martyrs did. Henry wondered why his own father and mother were absent. Could it be possible that they had not died for Arceus?

"When you pass through, the incense won't reach you," he said. "We will only linger for a moment. But we will give you strength...you must get to Zacian and Zamazenta to command them, do you understand? Eternatus will fight fiercer than any foe you have encountered before. He knows his doom is at hand."

"Do it," Silver whispered. "Do it now..."

With great difficulty, Henry and Casey plunged into the cloud, holding hands lest they be separated, and sending Urshifu back to its Poke Ball.

...

The first thing that they felt was the fire. It was all about them, and they were scorched as totally by the flames as much as the sun had burnt the Eclipse loyalists a day before. No sooner were they in that flame that the two would have thrown themselves into molten glass to find coolness. The fire was kindled to a frenzy by Eternatus, violet flames of spiritual torment.

"I seem to see your eyes already," Zacian and Zamazenta said. "There is no death at this moment. You could spend a thousand years in this flame and not be one hair balder. Walk on."

Then they plunged into a place where the wind felt like deep water, and all was dark. The fire was quenched, but Eternatus's power was now like a thing of slime, stronger than a strangling snake. Cold as the tide of death, it almost froze their hearts. But a voice sang within them of such intensity that the light and power of it overcame them.

Suddenly out they sprang, and even as they emerged into the light of the battle Eternatus fired a beam of flame down at the two. Zamazenta blocked the strike, and a sudden cheer arose from the Two Princes. "You have come! What are your orders?"

"Do we know?" Henry asked, both shivering and burning with an inner fever. "How do we fight Eternatus?"

"In any way," Zacian said. "It does not matter who sees, or who does not, for perhaps in after ages songs will be sung of the Battle of Castelia. But what could they say in song? That they saw thunder and a battlefield crowned in storm? We will use our strongest moves, and you will pour your spirit into us."

"Alright!" Casey said, the torment of the whirlwind almost forgotten. "Giga Impact!"

A great smoke arose from the storm, the sulfur of the horsemen recently passed, and the evaporation of hail and blood. Red vapor and stream crested the ruddy moon. Rubble fell like rain as the Two Princes leaped on their foe. All the large chunks of rubble around the plaza had been crumbled into dust, and the narrow plain was filled to the bursting with burned and broken stone.

...

As Casey fought, Henry began to do what he knew he had to do, and prayed such an earnest prayer that he could never have imagined praying. The wind that he had spoken to at the Tower of Waters carried the sulfur away so that he could see without pain, and so that the people of the Earth would be spared from another plague of hail and lightning.

Next he prayed for the sake of the sea. It lay tormented, without escape from the rash of blood. The stars burned with hate as their light was turned to a red glow against the reflection of the oceans. The gathered mourning of all the creatures in the sea that had been slain came to Castelia at that moment, the springing and dying and weeping and the everlasting groan of grief.

And so at last Henry asked Arceus to amend the harm that had been done to the seas and rivers. The blood boiled up into a sudden and thick plume of steam, which then turned back to water.

The sun was engorged and swollen with fatness and hatred. It was leaving the main sequence of its life, and at last becoming a red giant. But at the request of one boy, confessedly unworthy of having his plea heard, Arceus showed His power and dimmed the sun's radiance. The moon grew dark, and true night came.

Henry collapsed, and Eteranatus would have struck him down if not Latios and Latias have come to his rescue. Latios lifted him in his arms, and watched as the ageless battle of the ages was decided at last.

"Ever is this little one fated to be your burden, friend," Latias said.

"Not a burden," Latios said. "Not so now. Light at a Swanna's feather this one is; he has lost much weight. And now because of his great labor the Sun shines less the bright. Indeed I do not think he needs me to fly him about: were I to let him fall, he would float on the wind that he so strongly prayed for."

"Don't let me fall!" Henry gasped, feeling life in him again. "Bear me down to fight!"

"That is indeed the wish that Zacian and Zamazenta would like fulfilled," Latias said, turning to leave the battle to fate. "Let him fight or die in the doing. It seems that not enough blood has been spilled, even today."

Henry was put down and let alone, and he had only gone a few steps before he found himself issuing commands with the same strength that Arceus had given him during the run from Armageddon to Castelia. Eternatus was overwhelmed, mired in many blows. Zacian struck with the glorified Rusted Sword, now the Crowned Sword. Valient strength was put forth in both the two humans and their temporary wards, ageless, timeless, battle-fury consumed.

The prayers of the saints were carried by the Four Winds into the vortex. With the incense of the golden censer penetrating the whirlwind, millions of spectral orbs gave words of encouragement to the four fighters, and whispered words to Eternatus that not Henry nor Casey could hear. The power and splendor of the Swords of Justice came forth, the wisdom of Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit, the bursting life of Xerneas, and the Great Mystery that was Arceus Elyon.

...

Eternatus was far cooler through the turn of the tide than Zacian and Zamazenta had expected. How infuriating that the Dark Lord should have the power to keep his composure in the moment of defeat!

Escape for Eternatus's soul, if not for his body, was offered. The Dark Lord's disembodied shade might escape, hide in the wild for a time, and grow over the eons again into a new, stronger form. Why not? It had been done before. Even the Evil Djinn, Eternatus's predecessor, although bound again in the Prison Bottle and damned to the Lake of Fire, his very spirit has been poured in ancient days into the world and everything in it.

What was to happen here seemed like a hollow victory. The threat would not be utterly removed for all time, only for many years. Perhaps Eternatus was aware of this, and was content. The dramatic scenes in old stories, Henry thought, where the damned raves and rages on the edge of Hell, did not yet apply.

But the power of the god of the world would not overcome He who was in the Spirit. In the crackling storm of devastation, it was if Zacian and Zamazenta were fighting upon a rock that the Gates of Heol could not overcome. Surely there was a great War in the Spirit World as the Typhoon Struggle went on? Was the absence of Dialga and Palkia, ever the front-line fighters of Arceus's armies, explained by their occupation in another realm?

Casey knew that there was hope. All the disaster had to climax in a concrete end, not merely another delayed scheme for the Dark Powers. But how could both Eternatus's body and soul be removed? She didn't know, but there was no question that she was on the frontier of a magical world where such things could happen.

"You cannot defeat me," Eternatus calmly said as another blow struck his eye. "If I was to die, my spirit would merely tarry for a while in dark places where the days bring strength, not decay. Thence by the strange roads that I came to Earth, I would return again, and you will not be there to stop me!"

"Giga Impact, again!"

"All is not lost for me. For I have the unconquerable Willpower, the mastery of Revenge and immortal Hate, and courage to never submit or yield, and what else not to be utterly overcome? The Original One, even in His might or glory, will never exhort me to bow before Him and call him lord! With no supplicant knee I will deify His power!"

"You're a petulant, rebellious child," Henry said. "Speaking big words to make yourself feel better. That doesn't change the fact that you are going to get what you deserve, along with everyone else who worships you and your other master."

"You! Henry Sword, as a smith, your father once told you to cherish weakness. Little imp, to be weak is to be miserable! To do no good is my delight, but ever to do ill my sole task, as being contrary to His high Will which I resist! Yes, pride and ambition may have made me a rotten thing in your eyes, fighting in vain against Deep Heaven's matchless king, but every time we try to overcome His forces, we come closer to success."

"But-"

"Goodbye, until we meet again! My thy Rusted Shield and Sword chip and shatter!"

With a mighty upheaval of smoke and fire, Eternatus retreated in the glory only of his own self. Zacian and Zamazenta looked up in shock. The Dark Lord had left in willing cowardice, trying to rewrite fate. The bulk of the demon drowned out the moonlight as he fled, Galar Particles surging about him, ready to bring him to a far-flung land in a final gasp of tachyonic speed.

Latios and Latias descended, and grabbed Henry and Casey, chasing after Eternatus as Zacian and Zamazenta ran with a speed to match the Dark Lord. But it seemed already too late. Eternatus had reached the now-healed sea, and was now ready to fly once more into space.

Not now! We can't let him get away, not now!

...

And then another miracle happened. The sound of the horn that heralded the amassed armies of Deep Heaven sounded, clear and cold, over the skies. The ocean erupted, churning with forty-foot waves. Heaven opened, and out of the sky burst a new army, shining with a convicting flame of fire.

Dialga and Palkia came forth, victorious in the battle over the Spirit Realm, glowing with a diamond and pearl-colored aura of power. They rode on no steed, flying on air. They did not look like their Pokemon forms any longer. They looked like warriors clad in brilliant adamant and shining sea coral, their eyes shining like balls of ice, Dialga wielding a spear the size of a tree trunk, and Palkia with a heaven-forged blade in his armor-covered hands.

"Now, my brethren!" Dialga cried to the legions of flying Pokemon and Elohim following him. "Strike for Arceus!"

"No!" Eternatus bellowed after a moment of stunned silence. "No!"

Heavenly warriors descended with massive lengths of chains made of diamond and pearl, casting holy light much like the radiance that rested on Zacian and Zamazenta's glorified forms. The Two Princes met again with Eternatus, his escape attempt utterly foiled. They seized chains in their mouths, and swung them like lassos to ensnare the Dark Lord, throwing lines across his horns and the curls of his body.

Eternatus shook and roared and threw some heavenly riders and Pokemon down, and his struggles destroyed many, but the many confrontations over the long course of the Typhoon Struggle had greatly weakened him. He had no more strength to either run or resist. There were too many chains for him to shake off.

Belial, Baal, and Ashtaroth went from the city to the docks to fight for Eternatus, but they were overcome by Palkia, swinging his blade. "Like the Original One, I take no please in the death of the wicked, but that is justice here, and that is your sentence."

As the three shrieked, their avian bodies burst from their feathers and exploded, leaving a mess of blood and down and skin that soon burst into flames and was carried away by the wind. The Elohim utterly passed away, leaving nothing but red smoke.

Zacian hurtled the Crowned Sword and impaled Eternatus in an eye. Black blood, demon blood, spewed from the wound, making a torrent as tall as a great tower. The blade threw back to Zacian, floating beside her. Laser blasts flew wild in response, but Zamazenta protected the elder and intercepted the beams.

The other gods struck with overpowering force. Dialga rode in and stabbed Eternatus in the face. The Swords of Justice cut the monster with a dozen Sacred Swords. Latios and Latias shot a blazing volley of Luster Purges and Mist Balls. And Zacian and Zamazenta continued to pound the Dark Lord with blows until finally, slowly, the water rose, beginning to smother Eternatus like a cocoon.

Eternatus sunk under the weight of the chains. The prayers of the saints and the holy incense gave the Heavenly Host new strength. The Dark Lord bellowed in agony, struggling with such force that waves sloshed onto the decimated shore, soaking thousands of fighters and splashing over the docks, but then Eternatus's head went under a seething whirlpool, and he was gone.

...

All seemed quiet. The Heavenly Host circled overhead, watching the sea where Eternatus had sunk.

"Be careful, lords," Zamazenta warned. "The Dark Lord might have more strength than he yet seems to have. The Abyss is not open."

"It will be soon," Palkia thundered. He swung his glittering blade, and the seas below him began to part. A colossal hole had appeared, issuing smoke and sulfur so rank that those in the city had to cover their noses. The smell of the holy incense was overcome. Blue fire and demonic screams billowed up, up, from the hole, a portal that led directly to the deepest part of Heol.

Bronze and his entourage had left the plaza, and now lay at a safe distance away from the portal. Eternatus was nowhere to be seen under the waves. The Darkest Day still continued over Castelia.

And then a thing of filth and scales leaped toward the sky, flying on sodden wings. With great difficulty, it tried to flee, spitting and hissing from a partially-shattered face. The hooks of broken chains stuck to its exoskeleton. Red smoke trailed from the monster's wounds as it made another race for the outer solar system.

Suddenly, by divine providence, a blade was in Henry's hand. Bronze felt a weight leave one of his pockets, and realized that his long-held Logarian dagger was gone. Latios and Latias dove toward the Dark Lord as the Heavenly Host readied to attack again. Henry was now directly by Eternatus, seeing an exposed piece of skin just under his left wing.

Casey rammed the Dark Lord from the left, causing Eternatus's hide to come within an inch of Henry's body. Without thinking, he stabbed the blade into the demonic flesh.

The blade shattered. It had not been a deep or grievous cut, but Eternatus howled. His many eyes glowed like flowing lava. The Abyss and seas shook, causing Latios to fly wildly away. An aura of energy surrounded Eternatus, growing brighter and brighter. Souls of the dead saints rejoiced, as their torment had been, at long last, avenged.

The Dark Lord's skin fell away into smoking pieces, dissolving when it hit the water. Flaming pieces of Eternatus flew everywhere. A ball of fire rolled up from the Dark Lord's mouth. As Eternatus's body crumbled into tar and steaming black blood, a force like an atomic blast blistered Henry's skin and crackled his lips. The layers of the Spirit World unraveled as demons everywhere were torn to oblivion.

The parts of Eternatus's body that had been apart of his skeletal ribcage went shooting into the sky, dividing into thousands of shining flecks. They mixed with the stars, falling in a single wonderous tapestry all over the ruined Earth. The Wishing Stars left Eternatus; their power was no longer his. The living lights went on the Four Winds, to every land, not just Galar.

Palkia's great horn blew once more. The Heavenly Host seized the disintegrating body of Eternatus, and Dialga and Palkia went down into the Abyss. Eternatus could be heard giving a final scream as he was sealed at last.

Dialga and Palkia ascended from the smoldering, smoke-belching chasm, with a key in each of their hands. Their lustrous armor was dimmed, their splendor tainted by Eternatus's poison, but they had won. The Dark Lord was nowhere to be seen.

Zacian and Zamazenta smiled as they reached the docks in a single bound. "That was a good blade, Henry Sword. Was it yours?"

"Mine, actually," Bronze said, stunned. "Well, that was unexpected. Hm, the seas are no longer blood. That was also very unexpected."

...

The next few minutes passed in a string of images. There was cheering, and rejoicing at the fall of the Second Dark Lord. There were tears, and many awed whispers directed at Dialga and Palkia's presence. The Host of Heaven had returned back to the Hall of Origin, but the two Princes and Powers of Space and Time stayed with the mortals.

Bronze conferred with the heavenly beings, leading the ragged remains of the Vengeance Fleet for a last debate. How had the final defeat of Eternatus happened now, when Cypress and Emrett were still alive? No one could imagine, but the next part of the fight would involve Dialga and Palkia. It was certainly something that no one would want to miss.

"And now you have seen the glory of the Heavenly Host," Dialga said, "the glory that comes from the Original One, full of grace and truth. Amen."

"Amen!" the people shouted, and many seemed to be comforted.

Palkia concluded: "Then I saw an Elohim coming down from Deep Heaven, having the key to the Abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he cast the Dark Lord into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished. Amen."

"Amen!"

Still the smoke rose from the bottomless pit. "Sirs, if I may ask," Bronze said. "But why has the Abyss not been closed?"

"There will be two more who are to be damned to it today, whether by death or capture," Palkia said. "But just as the Second Dark Lord was for us to overcome, the next two Great Enemies are Men, and they must be defeated by Men for justice and vengeance to be done. It would be foolish to think that the battle is finished just yet."

But the march on the Eclipse bunker would be long in the making. Finally, Henry felt a twinge of hunger, thirst, and a new wave of fatigue. The blessings of Arceus that had sustained the Army of Humanity seemed to have left when the last effects of the judgments had vanished. Without instruction or orders from Bronze and his commanders, the soldiers wandered about, slowly scattering to return to their friends. Henry would have to meet up again with his old companions and learn who had survived, and who had not.