Okay, time to see if I'm still in the groove of things. We have reached the end battle and we'll probably have two or three more chapters before the end. Thank you all for sticking around and I do hope you're enjoying it! I wrote this to a bunch of Epic Score songs on youtube. For a good read go ahead and listen to that while reading this.
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Disclaimer: I own nothing except the OC's and the plot-line! Onward gents!…..and ladies.
It was chaos from the moment the door opened. Hundreds of Vours swarmed the hotel and they all had set their sights on the group who had emerged for what would be the final confrontation. Isobel flew forward into the fray first and her transformation took place in less than a second.
Her cloak twisted and hardened to become a ridged set of black and silver armor. The metal overlapped itself, akin to the scales of a dragon, but the spikes formed where the plates merged were much more pronounced. Her already white skin faded and took on a pale green glow as her hair rode the border between bright white strands and fog rolling off of her form. Her teeth lengthened into bestial fangs as she let out a hideous wail and collided with Vours before them.
She moved quickly and she seemed untouchable as she used the wind to lift, carry, and push her from all attacks before she launched devastating strikes of her own that scattered the creatures before her. The next one to attack was Viore and in a flash of white hot flame his strong body was covered in armor of molten rock that solidified when struck and molded itself to his movements as it shifted and flowed. Whips of flame sprouted from his palms and snapped forward as he twisted through the forces of the Vours. He shouted, and yelled, and cursed in an ancient tongue as he labored endlessly for every inch they gained. He allowed a whip to dissipate and instead launched a blinding bolt of lightning that chased away the Vours who had managed to pin down Isobel. She flew out with a scream before diving back and blasting a path through the creatures, using gale force winds generated in less than a second.
Zeyphx stood at the head of the group, having molded the rock of his cloak into thick armor that crackled and ground at his joints. His green eyes sparkled with a mad glint behind his helm as he grinned at the chaos around him. He reacted to attacks that had yet to happen and struck down Vours with boulders, stone spikes, and swiveling pillars before the creatures had even reached the group. He shifted the rock and stone beneath his allies to prevent the Vours from landing a successful hit and chunks of earth flew in all directions as he peered into the future and the gift of Foresight quickly proved to be his strongest weapon, provided he remained lucid for the duration of the battle. He reached forward and vines shot from his grasp, wrapping around Viore and pulling from the grasp of twenty Vours. The thick vines burned away in seconds and Viore returned to his job of clearing the path.
Inmoon had shifted to her Hell-hound form, a form Mavis knew well from the Fearscape, and seeing her in battle was terrifying. The giant wolf was nearly faster than the eye could follow as she circled the group, defending at all sides from any attack that might have slipped through. Her strength was unrivaled by any around her and her ferocity, the stuff of legends. When she gained ground she refused to lose any of it and a feral gleam had overtaken her purple eyes as she bayed, gleeful to feel the rush of battle in her veins once more.
Lorelay took the rear, flowing with the movements of the group and her attackers. Her arms were nothing more than streams of water flowing from her shoulders along with her fins and she wielded them as the deadliest of weapons. She smiled, showing razor sharp fangs hiding behind the smooth skin of her thick snout as she launched a wave of mist before freezing it and laughing at the screeching of the Vours. She held them at bay and when a strike was perfect she formed an ice sword coated in protection runes and dissipated her foes quickly.
Mavis was astounded at the ferocity and flawlessness in which they fought together. They moved seamlessly as one and whenever someone fell another would be there to defend and help them back to their feet. It was a far cry from the panicked dash to the safe room, but there were far less people to defend now and all knew how to wield a blade.
She turned her head to gaze at her father and gasped as her eyes met a creature that looked nothing like him. She recognized the massive wings along his back, so huge they touched the ground at his feet and the taloned tips towered at least a foot over his head and the bone tail with blade unsheathed and ready for an attack. She knew it was her father who stood next to her, but the form he had taken for this battle was a terrible sight to behold.
His legs had long since faded into a writhing mass of shadow that lifted and carried him along the carpeted floor. The black faded into his hips and stretched into his torso in thick black lines. A set of obsidian scales covered his back, ending between his wings in an arrow following his spine. His flesh was not the pale white she recognized but tanned and stretched over a strong frame. His ears were pointed far beyond what they normally were and she could see them twitch with every sound made around the group. His face was no longer his own, but twisted and morphed into the face of a demon. The demon Count Vladislav Dracula had returned to world for this one night and she marveled at the power of him.
His jaw had lengthened and widened into a thick but short snout and his teeth resembled those of the Vours that swarmed around them. Hellish spines sprouted from his hipbones and more formed a line along his ribs, curving back to meet at his spine. She could not tell of they were spines or appendages of some kind as they moved and spasmed in the midst of battle like a set of smaller limbs. Spikes jutted from his elbows and shoulders and a set of double horns sat upon his head, two curving up upon his crown and two larger ones stretching out from his temples. Mavis had no doubt that they could be used in battle.
His fingers had thickened and lengthened into cruel looking black talons, the color in them invading the flesh of his hand and fading into grey as her sight traveled up to his wrist.
"Concentrate on the fight Mavis." Shadow spoke in her head and she shook herself from her thoughts.
The demon Vladislav Dracula raised his hand and summoned to him an army the world had not seen in countless millenia. The shadows heeded the call of their master returned and flew to his aid, taking shapes and choosing forms amongst their ranks as they swept into the fray with gleeful cries, eager to taste the blood that had been so denied them by their lord. They rejoiced in the song of battle, finally loosed upon the world and allowed to follow their true nature once more. Reality warped around their victims as they swarmed like scarabs to a rotting carcass.
All around his shadows took form, many remaining mostly shapeless masses of churning darkness but a select number were more than their brothers and sisters and quickly rose to power in the battle as they chose forms of nightmares. One remained mostly humanoid but its arms stretched forward like the gnarled, bare branches of a winter tree to swipe and ensnare its prey. There were many poor souls who had not made it to the safe room, scattered throughout the hotel as they were. Now they lingered within the Fearscape as Vours perverted their bodies to further a war, and many would never again see the light of the moon above their heads.
One of the larger ones took a form filled with beady yellow eyes and thousands of gnashing teeth as it swarmed and devoured any whom its commander decreed an enemy. Another chose a humanoid form that appeared to be made of countless needles and spines that draped down in an imitation of a robe. It shreiked with a voice known only to its master as it spun and whirled in a tornado of movement, slicing through and shredding anyone it touched.
"Ya better keep tha damn thin's under c'ntrol this tahm Drac!" Viore shouted as the shadows surged forward.
"They know better than to betray me!" Dracula responded with a snarl as he directed his army with naught but the force of his own will.
The remainder of the group wielded the weapons of the Pillars themselves and gave no quarter as they fought through the growing swarm of Vours and possessed victims. Griffin leaped forward, twisting and turning with the movements of Isobel's double bladed scythe. With a blade on each end it was a truly dangerous weapon but Griffin handled it with the swiftness and intensity of a whirlwind. Frank decimated the Vours around him with the heavy weight of Inmoon's war hammer in his hands. Murray fought with Viore's katana and its whip form gave him no problems, despite his girth he was a powerful foe to face. Mavis held Sirith in her hands and felt somehow comforted by the weightlessness of the huge blade and Johnny fought beside her, using Zeyphx's staff. Wayne fought much like Inmoon and showed no mercy in his intensity as he slashed at his opponents with Lorelay's iron reavers fixed over his own sharp claws.
Each weapon was decorated with protection runes and all that was needed was a single touch and the Vours would dissipate, banished back into their realm until they poured from the rift to rejoin the fight.
"There's got to be something we can do for them!" Frank yelled as he fought back monsters who were once peaceful and simply enjoying the celebration of the Winter Solstice.
"There is nothing that can be done!" Dracula yelled back. "Do not hesitate to kill them! I promise, they will do worse to you! Once we close the rift we can worry about whoever is left!"
"And if you're not here?!" Griffin hated voicing the possibility.
"Then Mavis can teach you what you need to know!" He bellowed as he lunged forward with his tail to strike a Vour who had slipped through their defenses.
"Quit jawin' an' figh'!" Viore yelled as he swooped overhead.
During the fight he had changed forms into a massive Phoenix that stood as tall and Inmoon's shoulder. Lightning poured from his beak and crackled in his eyes. His four wings were made of feathers blazing with the intensity of the sun itself. Purple lined the underside of his front wings and the top of his back wings. The underside of both wings, his chest, and head were black as coal. A deep red hue coated the top of his rear wings and slowly faded into orange and then gold on the front pair. A mixture of bright gold marbled with white, and orange covered his underbelly and merged with the purple on the underside of his front wings. Atop his head sat a proud pair of feathered ears akin to those of a horned owl.
Without the potion, Frank would have been useless next to a being of pure fire.
They yelled, screamed, and fought their way through the hotel to reach the ballroom and the rift that lay within. There was no time to gather their senses as Isobel blasted the door off its hinges and everyone surged into a room filled with Vours, and at its center lay the rift.
A rip in time and space loomed above them in the center of the room. A literal tear that leaked cold and dark into the hotel as Vours swarmed and screamed. It crackled and hissed with energy as the group took their places amidst the swarm of Vours.
The Pillars formed a circle beneath the rift with Inmoon at its center. Frank, Wayne, Murray, Griffin, Johnny, and Mavis moved around the room mingling with the shadows as they loyally defended their King. Mavis and Johnny did their best to ignore the itch of blood as it dried to their skin and hair in messy splotches.
A minute ticked by as they fought and Dracula merely stood, staring at the deep black of the void before him, he tilted his head and listened to the crackle and pop of energy as the fight raged on around him.
"Dad!" Mavis yelled. "Hurry!"
"This is not something that can be rushed Mavy!" Shadow boomed. "We have to find the correct frequency! We can waste no energy!" Dracula finished. "Just hold on a little longer!"
His eyes burned with intense concentration as he tilted his head from side to side, attempting to hone in on what he needed.
The battle was overwhelming, even to those who were no strangers to blood and battle. Mavis never left Johnathan's side as she constantly shifted between human and mist form, defending him on all sides as he, in turn, defended her. The group did their best but there were simply too many Vours and possessed monster lunging forward, jaws dropped in hideous screams of rage as they boomed curses and promises of vengeance upon the Pillars.
This world held within it everything they could not have, everything their own world lacked and the wanted it like nothing else. The blissful warmth and relief from the bitter cold, the light, and an endless supply of bodies to steal spurned them forth from the abyss like a roiling black waterfall. Such senseless and stupid creatures inhabited the plane before them and taking it would be all too easy once the Pillars, their eternal enemies, were vanquished. They ran through body after body, the person meaning nothing more to them than a pile of mobile flesh, easily replaced when its purpose was fulfilled.
"Come on Vlad." Lorelay whispered under breath as she kept the Vours from distracting him.
Suddenly a manic laughter bubbled forth from his lips as he snapped his arms out and wrapped tendrils of black pulsing energy around the pillars in a loop that wound around the circle and snapped forward to connect to Inmoon, creating a pentagram between them.
"Feel our energy! Match it!" They laughed with a crazed grin that split their already demonic face in two.
It only took a few seconds for the remaining five to match Dracula's and Shadow's energy and once they did streams of red, blue, green, white, and purple lashed out and wound around each other as they completed the pentagram around them. They gasped in unison as their energies merged and when their eyes opened they blazed with white light.
"All together now!" They shouted in Dracula's Romanian accent. "Do not stop until the rift is sealed!"
They all nodded before spreading their arms wide and sending a blinding stream of energy through the link and Inmoon directed the flow into the rift above her head. The sound of the beam clashing with that of the rift was deafening and the heat was blistering. Johnny yelped in pain and Mavis was forced to drag him away as blisters bubbled upon his fragile human flesh. The Vours howled in rage as the shadows screamed in frustration before they were cast back by their lord to prevent their own reign of terror should they be released from his hold.
"Mavis!" Wayne shouted. "Protect Johnathan! We've got this!"
She reluctantly followed the command of her uncle as the Vours flooded the room in desperation as they felt the harm that was befalling their doorway.
"I'll be alright Mavis!" Johnny yelled.
"I'll believe you when you can stand." She replied sternly as she defended him.
A terrible scream pulled everyone's attention to the center room and their eyes widened when they saw the scene that lay there. The Pillars, faces turned skyward, were screaming in pain as rivulets of crimson dripped from their eyes, nose, mouth, and ears. The white glow of their eyes grew brighter and brighter as smoke rose from them and the screaming grew louder.
"Do something!" Mavis wailed as her father's form was reduced to the one that she knew and loved. "Help him!"
The pain on her father's face was unbearable for her to witness.
"Do nothing!" The elements boomed in their heads.
"What?!" Johnny screamed. "They're in agony!"
"Physical forms are insufficient! The full energy will burn them, tear them, and break them!"
"Then do something!" Mavis cried as she cut down Vours.
"We can do nothing! All power is running to the rift!"
Mavis screamed in despair as she unleashed her rage on the hideous monsters around her. She cared for little else other than revenge on the terrible creatures that were the reason behind her father's pain. The louder he screamed the angrier she became.
The Pillars screamed in terrible agony as they channeled untold energy through their bodies. The pressure and burning behind their eyes grew to be too much and they burst in a spatter of blood and milky fluid. Their sockets gaped, charred around the edges as their flesh began to bubble and split.
"We must….hold...on!" Dracula's accent rose from Lorelay's bloody, torn throat as smoke rose from her smoldering hair.
The scent of blood and burnt flesh filled the room as the seconds ticked by. Their breathing turned to ragged gurgling and the cycle continued as their flesh tried to knit itself back together only to be torn asunder once more. They screamed and screamed and screamed even as their throats split and knitted and their lungs filled with blood. The agony was overwhelming, like the sun itself lurked beneath their flesh and broken glass filled their heads. Hearts beating as one they pushed onward and refused to surrender.
For if they surrendered, if they broke and succumbed to their torment, who then would rise and protect this world? The Vours would swarm and devour the planet, covering all the lands in a sickening darkness and proving to all that hell really did exist. They were no ordinary beings. They were the Pillars. They were the oldest people on the earth, bonded to the oldest beings in creation. They were monsters, they were family, they were gods from myth and lore and surrender was not in their nature.
So, they surged forward and pushed even more energy at the rift even as their bodies burned from within.
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Okay. Wow why was this so fricken hard to write?! Ugh! I suck balls at battle sequences! Alrighty. One more chapter after this and that is the epilogue! See you then and I will get it up as quickly as I can for you all! Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this messed up story of mine.