54: "Night of a Million Bad Guys"
Fearing that what had transpired was only a taste of the tribulations to come, the Senshi put themselves on patrol duty all night long, splitting into groups so as to cover the city better. Sailors Moon and Jupiter were covering Harajuku in central Shibuya-ku; the others stretched as far as Shinjuku-ku and Minato-ku, a six-kilometer radius in every direction. It was old habits resurfacing again, and Jupiter couldn't help but smile a little, in spite of what she had been through, and what it would take to see this task to its end. From time to time she looked over to Sailor Moon, who was covering the other side of the street. At first, she was into her work, bounding from rooftop to rooftop, fast and vigilant like an eagle, a true inspiration. But Jupiter quickly noticed her old friend faltering, slowing, even stopping at points. She put her patrol on hold to investigate, even though she knew what was troubling her friend. The very same difficulties tugged at her own heart.
Because they had known each other so long, there was no need for words at first. Jupiter knew, and Sailor Moon understood that unspoken bond. Then she dug out that same watery smile she always used to settle everyone around her, the one she pulled out when things were most unsettling.
"Sorry. My mind wandered there for a sec."
"We don't have time to space out, moon-girl. You know why we're doing this."
Spoken not without compassion. She nodded.
"Maybe we'll get lucky and find this guy. Then we can end this."
"Yeah, a blitzkrieg sounds nice. And there's nobody that knows blitzes better than me!" Sailor Moon's smile remained as Jupiter leaped away; she took a deep breath and resumed her search, reminding herself of the task at hand whenever her thoughts went blurry. Something far more tangible appeared before her as she rounded a corner: a living being, draped in luxurious finery, his hair long, straight, and colorless; his face the same, save for the eyes, which pierced with bloody emptiness. He looked terrible, but feeble, certainly not human at any rate.
"We meet at last," he whispered, his voice like a little breeze. "Truly there was no mistaking the moon-sailor."
"I guess you're with those gods, then, though by your looks, I'd say you're not on good terms. What did they call you? A Druj?"
"Every race has names for our kind. Since you already know what we are, introductions would be a waste."
"I'd agree with you, but all the same, why not put a name to the face I'm about to shove my boot into?" The creature cackled, a dry, rasping, hacking sound, baring teeth like shredded metal.
"We have many names," it hissed. "We believe in the lore of Tellus, it is said: '"My name is Legion," he replied, "for we are many."'"
"Oh, great," she sighed, "an enemy with multiple personalities. Oddly enough, you wouldn't be the first."
"You mistake our—" She rammed her boot right into its mouth, just as she said, crushing the creature's skull and sending it tumbling to the ground. Sailor Moon reeled from the anticlimactic affair.
"Really? Is that it? After all that? Sheesh, I've had sneezes that were worse—"
A crushing blow hit her from behind, while another grabbed her with ferocious strength. She pried her eyes open long enough to see the creature she had killed grinning back at her—and another one behind.
"The foolishness of your kind has not changed, moon-sailor!"
She responded by head-butting him, grabbing him as he recoiled, and throwing him against his duplicate. Sailor Moon stretched and rubbed her neck as she dusted herself off.
"Like I said: sneezes."
Her legs were shoved out from behind her, forcing her to the ground. Immediately great weights were pressed upon her; resounding blows followed. She punched and clawed her way through, now finding herself surrounded by four of the creatures. She took a moment to assess this curve.
"You guys are really getting on my nerves."
"We have not even begun, pitiful one!" They all rushed her, but she became a whirlwind, channeling all of her built-up anxiety into rage. Eight more copies lunged after her; each blow sent one flying, obliterated, only to be replaced by two more. She was pinned to the ground; she was struck, bitten, pulled on, hurled, knocked senseless.
Her eyes flashed as she removed her tiara. She flung it hard; it ricocheted off each one, bouncing wildly until it had dusted them all. With a flick of the wrist, it returned to her forehead.
"And that's why you don't mess with Sailor Mo—"
A terrible crushing blow knocked against her jaw, sending her tumbling over the edge of the roof. She clung tight to the edge, but four of the monstrous creatures were already smashing her hands, while two jumped on her back, pulling her long hair. There were at least five of the creatures wandering along the rooftop, staring down at her with murderous grins.
"Impending death makes everything seem so clear, doesn't it?" they taunted. "Perhaps now you will appreciate the magnitude and meaning of our power, for we are Legion!" Sailor Moon grit her teeth, unable to hang on. More and more of the monsters piled onto her back, putting too much weight on her, and her fingers were ready to give. She was saved as a flurry of sharp leaves shot through the air, picking off the demons and lifting her back up. Just for good measure, Sailor Jupiter punched one of the monsters as she swung in, sending it falling to the surface with a piercing scream.
"And that's why you don't mess with Sailor Jupiter!"
"Way to steal my thunder, Makoto," she grumbled. Jupiter laughed.
"I'll pretend you meant that metaphorically. So what's the deal with the skinny guy? He's not very robust."
"Yeah, but there's a lot of em'. There was a lot of them."
"Not anymore!" she grinned. The roof suddenly began to rumble, and Jupiter shrieked as an arm burst out of the stone. More and more erupted out, each one belonging to a copy of the creature she and Sailor Moon had defeated. The rooftop was overwhelmed very quickly, so much so that it began to collapse under the weight. Jupiter took Sailor Moon by the hand and ran to the next roof, but there were already copies waiting for them there.
"Ack, I take it back!" she screamed. A lightning blast cleared the way, but now the copies were catapulting themselves across the distance, disregarding accuracy for sheer quantity. Jupiter balled up a huge orb of crackling lightning and tossed it over the gap, hitting the other building with tremendous force, clearing out all the enemies that had swarmed there. Sailor Moon took care of the ones that had made it over, wielding her scepter and scorching them mercilessly. The two stood panting as the skyline was cleared.
"How many...of these guys...are left?"
"Who knows? Could be...an infinite supply."
"No way! There's gotta...be an end...somewhere!"
Predictably, things began to shudder. Unpredictably, it was the entire building.
"Run," Jupiter hissed, and she and Sailor Moon bolted for it just as a hundred of the creature clones shot out of the windows and began suffocating the structure. Jupiter let out a lightning bolt, Sailor Moon waved her scepter, but they kept coming, and soon the building was lost. They ran and landed on another, but now the monsters were on the street, and they were multiplying, five grown for every one lost. They began climbing up in droves.
"Now what? We're gonna run out of rooftops before they run out of copies!"
"Are you sure about that?" Sailor Moon winced. Jupiter didn't have time to answer; she had to call down strikes against the columns of enemies crawling closer. Sailor Moon took to kicking them off; as one fell, it inevitably struck others, creating a domino effect all the way to the surface. Even with the two of them going at it, though, more and more appeared, swarming over the windows and walls until the building was covered with them. Jupiter cursed.
"This isn't going to work! We'll have to find someplace more stable!"
"How about there?" Sailor Moon said, pointing to a stadium on the other side of the street.
"Well, yeah, but if we touch down on the surface, we'll get mobbed! We're too busy to call on our avatars, so what else do you suggest?"
"Just hold them off for a few seconds!" Sailor Moon's smile was far more assuring than it was awhile ago, so Jupiter trusted her friend and went on defensive. Sailor Moon pulled out her transformation pen, stuck it on the edge of the building, and called out, "Line link!" A strong cable stretched from the building to the stadium; she unclasped her tiara and hung onto it. "Whenever you're ready, Jupiter!" She pushed herself off and went whizzing down the line, but shrieked as she saw several of the copies forming a ladder from the surface. They reached so high that they were able to grab onto the line, and with their combined strength, easily snapped it in two, causing Sailor Moon to plummet.
"NOO! Usagi!" She shrieked as she fell, but was just as quickly silenced as a massive bubble encased her. No sooner was she shielded than a huge snake of fire tore through the streets, clearing them of the copies. The bubble snapped as she touched down, and both Mercury and Mars were there to greet her.
"Hell yeah! That's what you get for mess—"
"Messing with Sailor Mars, right?"
"What? Darn it, Usagi, you—"
"Stole your thunder?" Mars went into spasms.
"Why did—how did you—what in—you just—I didn't..."
"The situation isn't lending itself to coherency," Mercury noted, not without a chuckle. Mars calmed a little.
"So what the heck's going on here?"
"Oh, you know," Moon sighed, "just a never-ending supply of enemies."
"Not with that! With you and...the other thing!"
"The coherency?" Mars glared at Sailor Mercury.
"Not...helping...Ami!"
"Sorry," Sailor Moon chuckled, "it's just one of those nights. I sort of got the same flak from Jupiter. ...Oh, crap, I totally forgot! She's still up there with like eighty more of these things!"
"Way up there?" Mars said, peering up at the building. She saw flickering lightning, and heard the distant shouting of her friend, but... "Well, shoot. Mercury, do you think you could get us up there somehow?"
"I don't think that'll be an issue, Rei," she said, zooming in on Jupiter's position with her visor. Jupiter had fallen off the roof—or perhaps she leaped off—and was coming down fast. The three Senshi backed away as she touched down on a flagpole, backflipped off, called up her lightning, and hit the pole with it just as the swarm came tumbling after her, shocking them all with one fell swoop. One, however, survived, gracelessly dropping from the horde, smoldering and groaning.
It burst as Venus's crescent beam split it asunder.
"Ha HAA! That's what you get for messing with...aww! I only got one? No fair, Jupiter, you stole my thunder!"
"See?" Moon said to Mars. Jupiter chuckled bashfully.
"What can I say, it's just one of those nights."
"At the risk of repeating myself..." Sailor Moon added. Mars rolled her eyes.
"Whatever! So was that the last of them?"
Mercury activated her Heads-Up Display. She grimly noticed they were surrounded.
"It would appear not."
They came from all directions now, countless numbers of them, each one a perfect replica of the original creature, each one grafted with malicious glee.
"Now do you understand?" one of them spoke. "We are Legion. We are many."
"And we are the Sailor Senshi!" Venus shouted. "Your numbers don't mean diddly squat!" The Legion surged, swarming all at once, causing the earth to tremble. The might of the five Senshi burst out in every direction: intense heat lashing and thundering with the lightning that slithered with sparkling blasts of energy curling into swirls of gushing water that dashed fluidly with beams of searing light. The horde was kept at bay as the five women continued their relentless onslaught, but the enemies continued to multiply—and they were now taking the high ground. A stream of them fell down from Tokyo's rooftops, crushing the five Senshi. The women fought them off but there were hundreds now; the rabble tore at them like rats.
"Hey, moon-face! Duck!" Sailor Moon thrust her attackers off and squatted, just as a gust of Sailor Uranus's wind knocked the enemies away. Mercury sensed what would come next, and formed huge ice barges for the Senshi to mount, just as the streets flooded, washing the filth away. Mercury steered her own barge into a crowd, crushing them with the large block, leaping off as the water receded.
"Well," Sailor Neptune said, "that's what you get for—"
"Don't say it!" Mars snapped. Neptune drew back.
"Oh! What?"
"Don't pay any attention to her," Sailor Moon smirked. "This day's been really stressful for all of us."
"What's the situation, buns?" Uranus said. She noticed the weary, beaten expressions of her contemporaries. "You girls look like you've been through a war."
"I almost wish we had. Whatever we're fighting now can multiply itself."
"That's one hell of a multiplication," Uranus remarked, glancing at the piecemeal devastation she and Neptune had caused. "How long has this battle been dragging?"
"I'd say about forty minutes. It all started with just one guy, and kept escalating."
"To the point where there were hundreds of them?" Neptune remarked. "Good heavens! Do you think we got them all?"
"The growth seems to be indefinite," Mercury said. She looked up at the skyline, now cluttered with clones glaring down at them. "And exponential," she added darkly, moving into battle stance. Uranus sneered as she saw the danger.
"You have got to be kidding me!" She and Neptune threw their attacks with deadly precision and grace, but the monsters kept falling. Many perished as they struck the ground but every one was replaced by five, seven, ten, sometimes even fifteen more, pressing onward endlessly. Mars called Pluto for aid while Sailor Moon got in touch with Saturn; they both arrived together in a car which was quickly consumed. The two women fought off the swarm but their efforts only served to increase the threat. Eventually, all nine Senshi were backed together, encompassed by the Legion.
"We are Legion," they chanted. "What do you have to say for yourselves now?"
Saturn took a deep breath, turning to her companions. "Sailor Planet Attack?"
All of the Senshi shared the same anxious expression.
"Yeah," Moon said, "Sailor Planet Attack. All together now!" The women focused all of their powers to a single point, trusting in Sailor Moon to focus and shape it. They called out the names of their guardian worlds; they shimmered with unyielding power; they clasped each other's hands, linking together for a gigantic, united attack. Sailor Moon glared as the army closed in.
"Here goes nothing!"
"You could at least come up with a better line!" Mars shouted. Sailor Moon flinched.
"For crying out loud, Rei!"
"I gotcha covered!" Venus bellowed: "Let's see you freaks survive THIS!" The blast exploded out from the epicenter, sending a wave of unstoppable energy in every direction, completely eradicating the evil that had infested the city. The Legion forces offered only a single piercing shriek before they were removed, and silence fell once again.
The Sailors stood panting, their energy exhausted, their spirits waning. The entire city was desolate, smoldering, fatally still. Sailor Moon fell to her knees, the glow of victory dark upon her face. Mercury had her visor up, scanning for further signs of enemy life. Pluto stared out at the city around them.
"It would appear we have defeated it."
"Yet every time someone says that, it comes back," Jupiter noted.
"I find it difficult to conceive of an enemy that powerful. Very few can withstand the combined might of all nine Sailor Soldiers."
"That big-ass dragon did," Uranus said. Pluto nodded grimly.
"The exceptions are rare. I do not believe this one was of the same make. If it's anything like the Biblical Legion, it would not be so strong."
Slowly, the silence was broken as the ground began to shake.
The entire ground.
Everywhere.
"Of course, I do make mistakes."
Sailor Venus turned pale. "I got a bad feeling about this."
"We'd better Sailor Teleport," Mars said. Saturn glanced around her. The buildings were trembling; glass panes were falling off; lights were flickering; car alarms went off. This quake was citywide, perhaps nationwide.
"Where?"
"Someplace high," Sailor Moon said, looking up at Tokyo Tower. "Someplace very, very high." They united their powers one more time, creating a large prismatic column piercing heaven and earth, transporting the group to the highest observation point of the tower. They broke free of their circle just in time to see the whole world below them bursting with countless Legion clones, millions upon millions, breaking out of the ground, pouring out from sewers and subways, shattering windows and crumbling buildings as their sheer numbers overwhelmed Tokyo. They were so numerous that they flooded the streets, clogging every road and passage until only the tallest skyscrapers remained. Then, the masses took shape, forming into an enormous Titan composed entirely out of bodies—arms, legs, a head, everything. Its bellowing echoed throughout the city.
"Oh, COME ON!" Jupiter screamed. As the Legion opened its mouth, thousands of its selves came gushing out, their unnatural quantities ripping apart everything they touched. Its arms grew long, hundreds of bodies bridging together, wrapping around another structure, massing until it fell from their weight. It lumbered into a much taller building, pressing itself against the stone and steel, whittling it away with thousands of hands and teeth. In no time at all, the Legion broke through, and continued undaunted.
"WE ARE LEGION!" it boomed. Saturn whirled her glaive into the air.
"Then try this on for size! Death Reborn Revolution!"
"CRAP! HIT THE DECK!" The Senshi dove for cover; the world-devastating blow found its mark, blasting the Legion to bits, drawing the survivors into a perpetual vortex of destruction. The masses reformed, creating five Titans of similar size and power, and the swarm kept increasing.
"Well, darn," Saturn whispered. "That didn't do any good."
"Got any bright ideas, moon-face?" Uranus cringed, backing away as the Legion waves crashed against the tower. They had conquered all of the city with their vast numbers, covering all possible means of retreat, save for Tokyo Tower, which they were now converging onto. There was no escape left.
"I guess I could try one last thing," she murmured, brushing against her brooch. Mars knew what she meant and went pale.
"But what if that doesn't work? So far, this freak's taken everything we've thrown at it, and it only got stronger. I'm not sure what all we can do."
"Then the celestial sailors must be witness to even greater power!" The night that had fallen over Tokyo abated as intense brightness surrounded the city, heralding the appearance of the gods—specifically, Shamash of the sun. His countenance had always been gigantic and luminous, but now it seemed greater and brighter, a smaller sun within the sphere of Earth, so terrible that none could gaze upon him. He gestured and the swarm was devastated, countless millions blotted out in an instant.
"Behold thy doom, Legion!"
"I still don't think that's going to..." Before Venus could finish her sentence, the horde reformed, surging over the god like an immense tidal wave, drawing him into their number, and consumed him completely, leaving only a shortened, gurgling scream.
Venus turned pale. "Work."
"This is not how I planned on dying," Neptune said, as she and everyone else backed into the center of the observation platform. The only place they could go was up, and then...
"We're not giving up yet," Sailor Moon said, but not with any conviction.
"Oh, so you do have a plan?" Uranus said. Sailor Moon cringed, but Sailor Mercury, who had kept a level head throughout the whole ordeal, was gradually coming to a realization.
"I wonder," she whispered, slowly walking back to the ledge. She looked over the platform, down at the citywide mass, seeing not horror but opportunity, or at least the possibility of one. Quickly, she called out a gush of water and threw it at a patch of enemies. They were dispelled, and just as quickly reinforced—but instead of watching them regroup, she kept her eyes to the sky. Several thin, wispy strands were flowing through the air, drifting in a very definite direction. The cogs in her mind started whirring, and—partly inspired by her lover—an unhealthy dose of madness was sprinkled in.
"You guys," she called out, "I'm about to do something incredibly dangerous and very desperate!"
"How is that any different from our normal affairs?" Jupiter called. Mercury blushed.
"Oh, good point." She then startled everyone by jumping off the tower and dove directly into the horde, calling out a frothy wall of bubbles. Some of them cushioned her fall, but most blasted the enemy numbers, destroying quite a few Legion clones. As she theorized, black wisps of vapor rose out of their remains; she focused her thoughts and took hold of one of the vapors, clinging on for dear life.
"Mercury!" The Senshi raced to the edge of the tower, just in time to watch their friend fly off into the distance—and vanish before their eyes. Needless to say they were stunned.
"Where'd she go?"
Mercury found herself deposited into a dark, claustrophobic space, onto a harsh, dry surface. She had only a fraction of a moment to take in her surroundings before she saw the black wisp wriggle from her hand and fly straight into the chest of one of the Legion. He drew it in, like one drawing in a deep breath, and exhaled, glowing white-orange as he snarled. Then, he settled, and noticed the intruder. He and Mercury stared at each other for a very long time.
"Clever girl."
Frigid crystal spikes burst from her hands, piercing the monster immediately. She gestured, and the shards rent the monster asunder, crushing and chopping it to shreds. At the same time, all the Legion copies groaned and perished, dissolving into muck, the great sea collapsing upon itself until there was nothing left of it but a filthy film, and all the havoc it had left behind.
Sailor Mercury grinned to herself as she dusted her hands.
"Yeah. I'm a badass."
Only then could she appreciate her situation. Devilish eyes glinted at her from dark crevices. A foul stench of sulfur clogged her throat. Wicked voices, growling, the clink of chains, the clack of claws scraping against the surface, all drew nearer. Abominations dredged up from millennia of human nightmares glared at her.
"Oh dear."
She had got in—how was she supposed to get out?
A bright flash blinded her; before her stood one of the luminous ones.
"Mercurial sailor, grab hold of my cloak!"
Right now it really didn't matter if she had been fighting these things a few days ago; their company was preferable over those other things. She immediately took hold and was returned to Tokyo in the very same instant. The shock of it all hit her, and she fell back, dazed. Ea stood before her, utterly astonished from the look of things.
"Thou hast destroyed Legion!"
"Ah...I did what now?"
"Be healed, noble one," he said, waving his hand over the Sailors. "Thy mind will mend in time as well. Few of thy race hath seen the Dry Lands living, fewer still return. Tis' a spectacle I once thought I'd never witness!"
"Oh," she said, coughing herself back to sanity, "oh, that. Yes, um, I figured he was the original, so... Anyway, is everything all right now?"
"All right," Ea whispered, too stunned to comprehend anything, really. "All right. Is everything... By Apsu, what are they...?" He shook his head, trembling, and left the Sailors there on the tower, in the midst of a city that had been through the eye of another storm, and survived.
…...
Revilement. That's what it was. Turning the nose up, curling the lip, sneering. Disgust, waste, rank, all around. The wind carried it everywhere, recklessly. The stench was enfeebling. There was some visible effort at removing it, but no effort of humanity's would easily blot this out. Dancing around the word fallout only made one conjure up those images more. Nuclear fire. Disaster. Endless hopelessness. The lingering remnants. And this war was by no means over.
Victory was bitterest medicine. Usagi was stricken so deeply by what followed their so-called triumph that she secluded herself, away from those she could normally confide in, and sought emptiness, wishing to remove something that would curl around her memories and cling like a cancer. Time and effort would, theoretically, eliminate the stench. The wreckage would be a thing of the past as well. People would one day be able to look back—she hoped. Presently the Senshi were still being praised as saviors of the city, in spite of what was spread out for every citizen to see: despite the fact that the city, the world, perhaps reality itself, was in considerable danger.
"I don't understand," she whispered to the foul wind. "I just wanted to be with them again. I wanted to see them, to be like it was in the old days. Is this the kind of price I have to pay?"
"Happiness cannot be achieved without sacrifice." The voice gave her a start, and she turned, panicking. Before her was the epitome of death, darkness, hopelessness, dread. The god called Nergal had a terrifying beauty and grandeur which even the others did not seem to possess. His seemed even more noble, truer, more stark but more attractive. Eons spent in the Dry Lands had stolen his glow, but Usagi knew she'd still be able to see this stunning creature even in pitch black, and know exactly what it was. She didn't need to ask. So, for the moment, she faltered, her mouth open somewhat, reaching for something to say.
Nergal bowed as if she were truly the queen of some long-lost kingdom. "It is a supreme honor to finally meet you, moon-sailor. I had wanted to speak with your contemporaries, but recent observations led me to believe a singular meeting with you would ultimately be more rewarding. No doubt you have accusations to make, questions to ask. I am willing to provide."
But of course she did; thousands of them were running their course right now. Choosing one—heck, choosing a hundred—would be impossible. So she cut right to the core of it:
"What do you want?"
"Immediately, congress with the famed moon-sailor. I can address you as such, correct?"
"Ah...I suppose. M-my name is Tsukino. Usagi Tsukino." Nergal smirked.
"Moon-sailor suits you better, I feel. But to expand upon my answer, in the long term, I am hoping to bring my beloved Ereshkigal into this world. She is my wife. You can relate somewhat, can you, to the emptiness which a lost loved one leaves behind?"
She nodded tentatively. He smiled coldly.
"I thought so. Let me pose a question: what lengths would you go to to ensure their safe return?"
"I wouldn't kill anyone," she hissed. "I wouldn't...send out monsters into an innocent population. I wouldn't plot against my family!"
"Is that so?" he mused. "Suppose the family you are plotting against, and killing, was responsible for their loss? Suppose they did everything in their power to humiliate your beloved, drag their name through the dirt, scorn them, insult them, ignore them in their time of direst need, sentence them to an eternity of despair and anguish. Suppose your love for this person clouded what would otherwise be considered sound judgment. Suppose a long-term observation of this same beloved family justified the deeds which you consider to be terrible. Or do you not have anyone you love?"
"But I would never...! They would never..."
"None of us know what we're capable of until we are desperate," he whispered icily. "Are you honestly saying that if the one you loved was tortured, made miserable, and sealed away in a vacuum of endless darkness and despair, you would not...deviate...from your normal disposition? That you would not sell just a little bit of your soul to have them back?"
"No," she hissed, tears of anger bubbling, "never!"
His mouth curled wider, exposing his teeth. A cruel laughter spilled out, sharp and quiet like the knives of a bitter enemy.
"You've clearly never been in that situation. I wonder, though, how you would act if you were. Say, for example, if your beloved Mamoru had met such a fate."
The name sent ice ripping right into her, and her eyes flashed. How did he know that name?! How did he know Usagi loved him—perhaps enough to commit all those atrocities, and maybe more? She tried clinging to rationale, the only weapon she knew of that could match such madness.
"But...he didn't. He couldn't."
"But what if he did, moon-sailor? I think your Mamoru is dead."
"He's not."
"Then where is he? When was the last time you saw him? Or spoke?"
"He..."
"It was a long time ago, wasn't it? Long enough for death to claim him and silence his love."
"But he's not!"
"Are you certain? Do you know for a fact?"
She stammered. "I...I just have faith, that's all." He cast a forlorn expression at her, gushing with empathy.
"I once had such strong faith. Look how it has betrayed me, moon-sailor. Look what I have been reduced to. Do you honestly believe for a moment I enjoy this monstrous company I keep? Or that I take senseless delight in meaningless fratricide? The stronger the faith, the greater the disappointment."
"Shut up! I don't care what you say, I know in my heart that—"
"Then why haven't you seen him, moon-sailor?!" he demanded. "Why have you spent all this time without the one you love? Can any bond be so strong as to endure long eons of cold loneliness? If he is not dead, what is his excuse? Ah," he purred, suddenly realizing a darker possibility, "perhaps those bonds are not so strong after all. He has clearly forgotten about you and...found someone else."
Usagi didn't need to say anything. She became the moon-sailor and pointed her scepter directly at his head.
"One more word out of you, and I swear, I'll kill you!"
"Your defensiveness betrays you," he replied softly. "A part of you...a great part...feels that I am right. Such little faith..." She blasted him; he raised his hand, shielding himself from her piercing power. His hand trembled once the light abated, issuing smoke, but showing no sign of injury. He stared at it for a time, mesmerized.
"It would seem Marduk's contributions to our abilities canceled each other out. No doubt if I were to attack you, my efforts would be equally futile. So: we are truly alike after all, from our veneer down to our deepest dreams."
"I am nothing like you!" she scowled, readying another blast. "And I swear, whatever evil you're planning, I'm going to stop it!" He smiled deviously, then began to chuckle, then threw his head back for a mighty cackle that echoed across the city.
"By all means!" he roared. "Use all of your might to vanquish the dread forces I bring into this world! Come at me with everything you have and more! I shall welcome it."
"You think I can't?!"
"Oh no," he said grimly, "I have every reason to believe in your power. No doubt that if all the celestial sailors were to unite, there would not be any nightmare strong enough to counter them." This took her aback. She had run into enemies that taunted and challenged the Sailors before, each one overly confident in their abilities, but none who seemingly embraced their own destruction. Was that part of Nergal's great twisted design? How did defeat figure into his plan to restore his lover? Simply being around this creature opened Sailor Moon to too many doubts.
"I have to admit, I've never heard that one before. What do you really plan on doing?"
"Perhaps my beloved Ereshkigal will fill you in on the details. For now, moon-sailor, do consider what I have said. You can safely assure yourself of your virtue only because you have not known that other side. Until you have experienced true suffering, true loss...if it has not happened already," he added with a sick grin, "you don't know what you're capable of. Perhaps there will be an event in the future that will change your mind." With that unsettling shot, he vanished, his face lit with twisted glee. Sailor Moon had no time to sigh with relief: she had every reason to believe that creature had some monstrous plan in store, and it would unfold very soon—if it hadn't already. Without wasting another moment, she surrendered to her fears and contacted the other Senshi, leaping across the skyline.
Author's notes:
Lately I've been getting questions asking when this story will be finished. What's wrong, is it getting boring already? Actually, I'll admit it's a bit long in the tooth, but just hang tight: we've got three more Big Bads to take care of before the last showdown, and I promise, the finale is going to be spectacular!
Remember when I said that mythology was pliable, and anybody could add or variate anything on it and still be "correct", so long as they kept the true spirit? Well, I just did that with Nergal and Ereshkigal. Nergal's little speech doesn't fit with who Ereshkigal is or what happened to her, but that's mythology. Not every author writes King Arthur the same way, but that doesn't take anything away from his story—it actually makes it better.