· · · · · · ·
Filia had come full circle, past boiling anxiety and guilt right into a familiar pit of rage.
Again, she had not been prepared. There should have been a struggle over the fate of the world with Lina at it's center yet instead, it was Volphied and Shabranigdu. The Big Dramatic Tragic Showdown Of Destiny with her sometimes ally sometimes enemy had been skipped over yet again because someone close to her turned out to be an evil god's puppet, and Filia had been so focused on the idea Xelloss would be her enemy that Luna hadn't even come close to mind. While plotting on the island, she had gone over everything she would say in the end. How to rile him but not too much, so he had no hooks. How to ignore whatever he tried to undermine her. How to ignore the inevitable hurt.
When faced with Luna she had had no idea what to say to reach her, if that was even possible. Nothing was fair. Valgarv being dead meant she couldn't even confront him over it and Volphied was the avatar of serene denial and apathy. Everything was an artwork of injustice. Now Volphied had to be destroyed and Filia would be part of it.
The question was how to do that. Xelloss would be a good start, but she didn't have the faintest idea where he'd gone. Calling hadn't helped, scrying didn't work anymore.
Now she ran through the tunnels, trying to reach the station. The place Zelas had dropped her off hadn't been familiar enough to teleport from, and she didn't want to risk long jumps in this unstable area.
She didn't meet anyone. With the walls shaking and cracking, even those unaware of the chaos would've fled by now.
Well, most of them. When she arrived in the station it was swamped with so much people, took took searching to find a familiar face. Humans, elves and dragons in small form crammed on the platform to be sent to the shore.
It was a Zenaffa she recognized first, holding up the crumbling ceiling aided by several golems.
"Hello?" Filia called. "Miss Memphis, is that you?"
Memphis spotted her first when she peaked out her Zenaffa, but Sylphiel was the one to meet her. "Miss Filia, what happened?"
"Volphied took control of the gods through Luna," Filia said. "I don't know her exact plans, but we just need to revive miss Lina somehow. Has any of you seen Xelloss?"
"I saw him while looking around," Naga said as she pushed through the crowd. "He was headed for Zelas, I went on to check on Lina's status. She's definitely dead, by the way. Is Gourry still around?"
"No, he's—they killed him too. You ... you seem awfully non affected."
"I'm more or less dead too, it gives me a fresh perspective," Naga said. "More importantly, you and the cone just need a few circles and a place place to give her a new body, right? Throw in Gourry while you're at it."
"Yes, but we might also need a god," Filia said.
"I'm taking these people to Sailoon and will get something ready," Naga said. "We'll work on finding Lina's soul when we can, you go find your demon first."
"But how? I can't invoke the gods for flow reading anymore, and ..." She looked at the dove in her hands. It was meant for finding things, but it couldn't see directly on the astral plane. Xelloss might not be projecting. "I don't think I can."
"I can, miss Filia," Sylphiel said. "My scrying doesn't rely on the gods but on nature spirits."
Sylphiel set down her rod on the ground and knelt behind it. Filia made a mental note to remind Xelloss of that time he acted like her own method was so weird.
The rod fell to the east. Sylphiel kept her eyes closed a little longer, then said, "He's headed across the sea to the shore station. He's phasing in and out for some reason."
"It's to navigate. Thank you, miss Sylphiel. I'll take my leave now. All of you, please stay safe."
"We'll be," Memphis said, thumbs up. She was the only one in the room who looked sure of it.
· · · · · · ·
Xelloss would've been a lot faster if he wasn't in a distorted area while struggling with how to handle this order.
Had Zelas just defied the Lord of Nightmares? He had to leave and live, but Shabranigdu had won and the world would end.
Go, survive. Find Ruby Eye's portal before this world is gone, anything, just survive.
Anything meant he had a choice on what method to survive through, but he had to survive for ... what? Could he bargain with the logic? Survive what, survive for how long? If the Lord of Nightmares showed up with a desire to end the world, would he be forced to defy her? Fibrizo's defiance had been met with the worst death a devil could have.
When he came to the island he'd once dumped Lina, Zelgadis and Filia on, he stopped. He landed on one of just three roofs still intact.
The theme park had been long abandoned. Signs of Vrabazard's rampage and devil curses hung over it. A few dragons had once made camp here, likely lost when a transporter ray malfunctioned.
Now he looked back. The pillar had turned dark and bled red, but the world walls hadn't broken yet. Not being in immediate danger gave him some time to think. The Temple of Chronos wouldn't be at its last location and he didn't have time to measure space-time damage to figure out where it'd be. Getting into hell was a long journey and he wasn't sure Megiddo could even seal off that world. He could probably exist in the Blue or White World, but he might have to find another place where the world barrier was thin, like Sairaag, and hope that when the world broke entirely he could pass through.
None of them were guarantees, nor what he wanted. This was his world.
Any attempt to decide was interrupted by a golden glow that joined him on the roof.
Great, just what he didn't need, Filia complicating things.
"Oh thank goodness, you're still here," Filia said. "Come, we have to find miss Lina's soul. She died but that doesn't have to stay that way. The flow still works around here and the gods still live and maybe we can get Gaia's help—"
"Shut up!" He didn't hold back on the venom, but it fell on the wrong earth.
Filia grabbed him by the cloak and hissed, "I am not shutting up until this world is saved, Xelloss. I've had it up to here with all the backstabbing and malice and destruction and we are damn well going to stop it even if it's the last thing we do."
He pulled her hands loose and pushed her back. "You can't defeat this with just willpower."
"We have more than willpower!"
"No! I have an order to get out of this world and survive. What I want doesn't even matter, no willpower can bypass that. Look somewhere else for help."
"If that's so, why are you still here?"
Ugh. "Well, it's not so strict that I have to keep moving whether or not I have decided how I'm surviving," he grumbled.
"Good, so let's decide on a way to do that that revives miss Lina."
He wasn't sure he wanted Lina back if that meant she could mess things up further. "If we were to revive her, where would that even leave me?"
"What? Are you joking? You doubt miss Lina? What's with the whole apostle of chaos thing, you just decided that doesn't deserve respect anymore?"
"I didn't decide, I realized it could be deception."
"That's it, it might be a charade? Pot, kettle, black, Xelloss. Never stopped us from cooperation and in case you haven't noticed, the world is ending."
"You're not—"
"And another thing! The last time you were presented with a bad joke, you wanted to murder someone over it and I just barely got you to back down. Why the everliving hell am I now here, having to talk you into murdering someone? I actually agree with you for once. This whole mess with Volphied, is a joke bad enough to kill over. But nooo, Xelloss has to be difficult and useless again."
He should be deciding on how to carry out his orders, but Filia was nothing if not supremely equipped to get his attention in all the worst ways. "You can't shout this away. Go be angry somewhere else, or do you want to die here? Maybe Megiddo can save hell at least."
"I did not pass my weakness seven years ago to where I am now just to be suicidal again."
"You don't get it, do you? There are worse things than death. You won't be anymore if you fall into the Sea of Chaos," he whispered. "You know, I could send you to the afterlife right now, no pain involved."
"No," she said. "I won't give up or let you give me up and I'm sick of demons telling me I don't get things. I know what's at stake, do you?"
Beyond her, something shifted into physical view. A winged wolf in the colors of Zelas Metaliom. It spotted him and landed behind Filia.
"Lord Beast Monarch? Are you ..."
The beast prepared to speak, but Filia teleported them to the other side of the island.
"What's wrong with you?" Any other time that had been an accusation from her, but this was concern mingled with a low ongoing anger.
He spoke without being sure what he meant to say. "Lina isn't serving the Lord of Nightmares one way or another, and neither is my liege."
"How does that matter?"
"My clan ... our pack was supposed to be the change the will of the Lord of Nightmares! The Beast Monarch is not supposed to decide it doesn't matter! How can we go against our Creator? We're not supposed to question Her when She indicates otherwise."
Now it was Filia's turned to be stunned by him. "You're despairing. You. Are. Despairing. You ... are you kidding me?"
The wolf drone caught up, appearing in the shadows right behind Filia. "Xelloss, return to me."
Return to Zelas.
It didn't outright contradict the other, vaguer order. It was her voice and her form, her words pulling like all commands did. Knowing that she hadn't been in control of the other bodies last he'd seen her wasn't enough to weigh against it. Not when the possibility existed that she'd taken control of them somehow. Shabranigdu had been so slow to try and seize Xelloss, maybe she had leverage still, maybe—
Filia took a step aside, blocking his view. "Are you gonna fall for a trap that obvious?"
"It's real."
She teleported him away again, this time inside a building.
"Then fight it! Are you loyal to what she is, or to who she is, Xelloss? Who she is wanted to escape what she is, right? That was what this whole damned plot was about!"
"It was," he said, but the sound was as empty as the feeling that accompanied it. "She changed her mind, though."
"No, someone else changed her mind! The real Zelas would only be pissed off if you surrendered to Shabranigdu. You who has more freedom than any other devil. You know what it felt like to her when she was betrayed!" she yelled, and in a softer voice, she added. "And you know what it feels like when you betray me and miss Lina and everyone else."
Xelloss almost broke away. Just barely Filia grabbed his staff and tried to jerk it out of his hands. He was too strong for her alone, but it did get his attention.
"You don't know what you're talking about!" he snapped. "She is rebelling against the Lord of Nightmares Herself! And guess what? The only reason she ever took another route was Siephied and Lina Inverse."
Filia teleported him away again.
· · · · · · ·
It had to be bad if he dropped the respectful prefix, but she was just a little bit to angry to tread carefully. Once they settled between two ruined buildings, she rushed out her words.
"Fine, if you're so sure, then go back and die like I would've done. Be a martyr to some concept of equilibrium and chaos, that the Lord of Nightmares does not need and Zelas does not want. It's just all a whim, like you, all of you. Really if it's all so whimsical anyway you'd think you can do no wrong if you either survive or give up, but sure, have an existential crisis over a whim."
Eyebrow twitch.
"I was not having an existential crisis! I am about to be absorbed by the king of demons if I don't get out and I risk the wrath of the progenitor deity! I am not exaggerating or giving up!"
"Oh? You sure seem angsty to me. So where's your plans to talk to miss Lina and Zelas to find out what their deal really is?"
"I can't! One of them is in hell and I just got an order to go back to the island, where I will be absorbed by an untainted devil king! Get that through your thick skull, dragon. I am out of options."
"No, it's not untainted. The piece that miss Lina cut up into a swarm is still there. We know the gates and spells she used to create that. Merging with Shabranigdu does not need to be your end." Filia knocked down part of the wall that kept the island from view and gestured at the horizon. "Look at that. The golden sky, the breaking earth, the boiling seas. Isn't it just the perfect day to murder your grandfather?"
"You're doing it again." He covered his eyes with his hand, but couldn't hide the smirk. "You are the worst dragon in this world."
"Pardon me, but I'm about to be the best. I'll take Shabranigdu within my soul along with you, where we can bleed him out as we need. We fit the scars of miss Lina's Life Law Circle right onto one we will make for your dreamscapes. I have cut into gods and devils before, I can do it again, but I need help. Xelloss, dream with me."
He dropped his hand, serious now. "Yes, you can. If I were to let you in, you'd have a free run on my mind. How would I protect myself against you?"
Filia blinked. "You're afraid of that?"
He crossed his arms. "It's a pretty reasonable fear, you know. You have a recent history of compromising your moral dimensions and there's nothing else between that and rewriting me. I might prefer to die."
"Don't be ridiculous. No matter how low I've sunk, would I do it for my own whims of justice? I will not tear apart any mind unless I absolutely have to. Shabranigdu is that absolute, but you are not."
"No ... you probably wouldn't, but only if I don't go too far, right?"
"Would you to test me again?"
He just shook his head.
"Then you might be the worst devil in the world," Filia said. Gods, how had it come to this, she was about to let a devil possess her and it didn't even feel foul.
"I might be, if you can convince me I could survive this."
"I could've gotten to that sooner if you'd been more sensible." Filia pulled a white dove that had no astral side from a subspace. "While you were gone, I pulled the whole daughter of naivety act so I could steal this from Volphied. It's one of her drones, which can be controlled with the right core and has an astral hollow like Val used to have. If I just tinker a little with it, you can take it close to Shabranigdu and I'll use it as beacon to teleport in without Shabranigdu ever realizing something is wrong. If we're quick, we can plant our magic right atop our enemy."
"I need to be far in before he'll dissolve the voice of Zelas and we need to move quickly after that."
There it was. The calmer Xelloss she knew to calculate and scheme. It'd be alright now, she had to believe. Then again, she had a hard time believing her own plan.
"You say that as if I'll be slow. Anything else?" Filia said.
"If we keep the life law gate open below us, Shabranigdu will have to use it, or admit fear or weakness. A more creative devil would be able to reason it's a challenge to wear down the fusion shield until one of us is down in magic, but Shabranigdu is quite stupid," Xelloss said. "There is the risk he's reject the challenge and invoke Zelas anyway, but I tend to lose awareness of my surrounding when I dream so I might not hear it. It's a risk, but I suppose one we could take."
"Then what are we waiting for?" She shoved the dove into Xelloss's bag.
Xelloss smiled without humor, eyes open as he warped away.
Filia sat back and waited, now alone with the sinking realization she had just taken for granted the need for Xelloss to return and had run with it. Deciding to deceive Valgarv had taken long thought in the valley of the ancients, yet this decision had been reached so easily. It might say something terrifying about her, but that was for later.
The flow of the dove existed on a layer Filia had never knew existed. Having nothing to do with either blessings or curses, Shabranigdu did not affect it. She could see only darkness, but somehow knew the route and distance it took.
As expected, Shabranigdu had used the piece Lina had worked on to create the extra body. Xelloss met Shabranigdu-Zelas in submission, managed to avoid saying he warped because of his cargo, and stepped into the malformed mass. Shabranigdu stopped bothering with the Zelas simulation.
Time for Filia to go.
When she reappeared at the other end, she instantly flared out all holiness she could. It blended perfectly with Xelloss's darkness, encasing them in an egg shaped shield. The sickening pressure wrapped around them and she fumbled to create a life law circle.
"This place is so small, can't you like become a tepee so we can cover that with fusion?"
"Excuse me, I am not a tepee! I am a cone."
"Yes, exactly. Tepees are your geometrical twin," she said while shoving Xelloss off the ground.
"That's a gross exaggeration, I am not a manmade construct."
"Then get your feet off of my circle!"
"Hmmph."
"You take orders from a dragon?" The voice thundered through her bones.
"Sure," Xelloss said. "Normally I'd object but when it's between her and you there's no contest."
Filia had to finish her circle by hand and resolved not to respond to that low bar.
"What do you think you and her can even do?" Shabranigdu roared. Filia's ears began to hurt already.
"Why don't you come in and find out? Or are you afraid to come in this way?" Xelloss said. "Pathetic."
"How dare you insinuate that!" Shabranigdu blared.
The pressure lessened somewhat, now turning to the life law circle. Xelloss dropped to his knees.
"If I wake up and find you painted something silly on my face, I'm sure you understand there will be serious consequences." The taunt fell flat because of the anxiety in his voice. Hearing that in Xelloss was nothing short of unsettling.
"Wholly deserved ones." She stood behind Xelloss, so he wouldn't topple over and she could use both hands. "You can worry, but keep talking to me, okay?"
"I will."
She laid both hands on his solar plexus and cast another life law circle. "Ready?"
"As much as I could be."
She detached her astral body just a little from her physical ones and brought him through the circle, into her soul.
· · · · · · ·
There was no difference between astral plane and any other sensation here. It was worse than hell, which at least had layers. It was worse than imagining, because there he still stood somewhere. Here was only him in one body and an impenetrable world around.
Filia's dreamscape, if it was hers at all, felt both resilient and pliable before he could make out any shapes.
Once the world took form, it appeared as a massive dome over green lands first, forced by intricate gold. Clouds floated far above and countless villages lined the scenery, though far in the distance lands were barren and ruins of massive temples lay. It was the kind of picturesque human scenery mingled with guilty memories like only Filia could envision.
Filia herself looked the kind of cozy bright she had when she went to towns and pretended to be human. Even her ears seemed rounded, like she denied or had forgotten how to be a dragon. Not that she ever would.
"It's like when a soul departs to Megiddo, but as a window and not a door," she said. "Don't worry about how it feels, you just need a concept of it and I'll do the rest."
"I'm ready, let him in."
They opened the window. He wasn't sure how, he just decided to and it happened.
Shabranigdu poured into this one opening with all his force, bringing sickness and rot over the scenery. Grass turned to malformed flesh and crept up their legs, the sky filled with toxic fumes.
Filia screamed out and curled up, but not for long. She forced herself back into standing tall.
Incorporeal yet but clear to their senses, Shabranigdu drifted around them.
"Why are you doing this, beast priest?" Shabranigdu said. "Why did you become such a traitor?"
"It's not treachery. I was never your ally. The Wolf Pack is allied only to chaos." More he couldn't say when he had his doubts.
"Chaos is on our doorstep yet you turn against me, who would bring us there!"
"Really now? In the old times, chaos meant absolute order. The stillness, the blackness, the nothing. Now we know our Lord and Mother as a Sea of Gold. Perhaps She too has changed. Now these days, chaos means erratic, movement and unpredictability."
"You will pay for your treachery!"
Shabranigdu pushed forth, not as one, but through many different bodies. Neither Xelloss nor Filia had expected that. Just barely Filia reimagined the environment to be full of walls, but it turned out to be the walls of the demon over run Kataart temple. They were amid the hall of the Aqualord, albeit it had dried out.
It took Shabranigdu only moments to come pouring out the door.
The dragon statue on the other end animated to launch itself like an avalanche onto them, only for Shabranigdu to scatter in all directions. The instinct to withdraw to the astral plane didn't work, there was none here. A swarm of igdus whirled around them, leaving no room for escape.
The statue reassembled and twisted it's long body to wipe as many away from Filia and Xelloss.
"How are we supposed to unravel him if there's so many?" Xelloss said.
"Patience, craft and the usual." Filia released a whirl of wires from her hand, which surrounded them as a razor thin net. The pull at his dark magic told him it was to be fusion, which he gave into.
The statue cleared some of the space around them and what got through cut itself on the wires, but Shabranigdu only responded by turning more like a liquid.
"Fools, I have millenniums of experience navigating souls!"
Not dreamscapes, but that was close enough. The beasts whirled around their shrinking barrier. Many had lost their chimeran elegance to Shabranigdu's clunky flesh. Malformed humans and half grown Ruby Eyes that carried the scent of burning blood.
Shabranigdu as a whole wasn't this. He'd manifested through the many fragmented pieces that Lina and Zelas had broken off, which was both a benefit in that they didn't need to deal with a coordinated rot, and a weakness in how they'd have to defeat multiple forms.
One in the lead was dressed as Xelloss's weakness. This was humanoid, but wore a wolf skull over its head. One eye was human, the other pitch black; as the eyes of Zelas had been.
More blood than solid now, they poured around them over the floor. The defensive statue soon dissolves in it like molten butter.
"Hold it!" Filia said, but it was her who had more trouble keeping the net steady. Only when the mass touched them did they gain matter, just to try driving their claws into them. Pain felt both distant and more concrete here, perhaps as mortals did. Xelloss could bite through it, but not fight the effects. He couldn't even gauche the effects in this realm; how badly was he damaged? Or at all?
Filia cried out and lost he grip. All the threads vanished.
For her the darkness had to be worse. He was about to pass to her, but the leader of the mass stepped between them.
"Xelloss, who are you to disrespect me like that?" the wolf head said. "Should you not call me lord?"
It was the voice of Zelas. Unlike the drone, it also felt like her own power.
She couldn't be here, she'd be dead, right? He had to believe that, if only for the chance it'd weaken a command to him.
"Xelloss, give—"
"Don't listen!" Filia's voice drowned out the rest, then utter silence fell. Only Filia herself still made sound, if only in her burning herself through the clawing mass.
She collided with him as she staggered past the false Zelas. Golden wire shot from the net and pulled the enemy back, putting all force on that core. The lesser bodies still attacker her and him.
Quickly, she pushed him in a certain direction before taking the lead. Her light scorched the unrelenting lesser devils better than his own fire did.
They settled into a pace through the darkness, the attacks fading away; left behind or warded off, he couldn't tell.
He focused on Filia and Filia alone, trucking away any thought and doubt about Zelas, lest it give Shabranigdu something to exploit. The last thing he needed now was to lose himself into some dream corridor about what Zelas truly meant.
Filia did not bleed from the wounds Shabranigdu had caused her, but she shed more than a few drops from other wounds. Had those been there before?
The tunnel they entered hadn't been here before either, Xelloss had to remind himself not to question it.
All the whole, Filia cursed below her breath. It was the usual spiel about useless devils, except it echo sent back words like garbage and sewer priest. He supposed it wasn't really breaking the agreement if it was just her subconscious, and if it wasn't, well, it might be a tad petty to complain about being called names when he'd done worse. It was also a tad worrying he made that connection without prompting.
The deeper she pulled him into — what was this, a cave? — the more she took on an astral form, albeit the human shaped one with the long ears and tail. Normally astral bodies of organic beings are but outlines of energy, but here hers took on the scars of her life. In a place where he could not feed on pain, he was left to only see the consequences.
Oh, so that's what the wounds were.
Bones of orihalcon did not protect her from what would cut the flesh above. Every time Val had touched her had turned to scorch marks, leaving little of her face and arms bare. Where Valgarv had pierced her through the torso boiled in red flame, leaking in a trail behind her.
The marks on her limbs where Xelloss had struck her burned the same way, but the smattering of bruises stood out more to him. Marks from every time he had dropped her or lured her to smash into something or otherwise. High electric tension surrounded her like droning whispers, anything from expecting to be killed to fearing he'd pop up to ruin something. Hold onto the pots, dress quickly, cancel social events, pay attention to the doors. Would he take Val? Would he kill her once he got bored?
Many small wounds added up, yet she didn't even seem to notice them. She had always brushed off his abuse as easily as his insults. It had been expected. Funny. Normal. Food. Entertainment. Now it only looked like pointless destruction to him, which he could not undo with any magic.
The swarm of Shabranigdu was right at his back now, or so it felt. Incessant whispers leaked through Filia's blockade, putting a name to what he felt and warning him against it. Don't concern yourself with other life, beast priest, for how can you still be if you play with antithesis?
The blue dragon hadn't gone down this road. He didn't have to either, probably. It'd be harder.
The years of connection between himself and the dragon had corroded, almost entirely by himself. No, he had something to do ... what was it again?
Severe it.
He held a thread without remembering when he picked it up. It meant he could have something at the cost of pain, or have neither and no pain.
"Where are you?" someone called. He knew her, she was the reason.
Curiosity, in part, made him press forward. Self preservation was another. After that it was easier.
His enemy tore at his mind, telling him not to go, but could not give a good reason. That he didn't want him to go was all the more push. He had to catch up to the other end of this connection.
Like there were many to his enemy, there was more to him than just this one self. On the other end was a light, blending with his power to guard them both. It's what held the enemy at bay.
When he caught up to the light, she sat in a pile of rotting kitchen waste, knees pulled up and wings around her against the darkness.
"Where were you?" she asked, casually indignant as if this was a normal place to be. As if ... well, it probably was. After all, this was where unwanted food parts went. Here he'd thrown all the parts of her that didn't interest him; zeal, compassion, suffering, kindness, righteousness, all waste to him yet so important to her.
The words of a storybook princess hero came back to him. Because she's your friend and you hurt her a lot.
If he died today because she wasn't strong enough, it was on his own head. That's the sense and cost of caring, or choosing not to. It got a wholly self directed chuckle out of him.
"What's so funny?" She didn't seem to notice what she appeared like, perhaps because it felt so normal to her. It had already been years since he put her here.
"Nothing," he said. "Nothing was. Where do we go now?"
As she stood up, he offered his hand. She only briefly glanced his way and said, "I'm fine, this is nothing. Did Shabranigdu get to you?"
"Shabranigdu? Who is that?"
She froze up. "Xelloss? What's wrong?"
Tilting his head, he asked, "Can't you tell? Everything is wrong with you, while I am ... "
No, he wasn't fine, but he shouldn't think about the mother wolf. Unsure why, but it'd weaken him. He had to focus here and now, stay with the light.
"I will be better once we escape from the enemy. You too," he said. "What's the quickest way out? You know that, right?"
The one who sensed the flow, so she had to know. Why did she hesitate? Silvery wire slipped past him, wrapping through both of them.
She stood up and of all things, took his shoulders to shake him.
"Xelloss, you're dreaming. You lost lucidity, but you can find it back if you focus! I did not dive into ultimate evil just for us to die cause you got reckless!"
The enemy surrounded them, they had to focus on getting out of here, but something about her sparked the need to argue back. "We wouldn't be having that problem if we got out of here!" He stepped back, holding onto her arm. He didn't actually know whether that was the way out, but he'd come from there, right?
She anchored into the ground and wouldn't budge. "Xelloss, please. Think. We came here together to destroy Shabranigdu."
The enemy destroyed? No chance. The enemy was far greater than either, but they could flee while he self destructed. He had to survive, she should survive to. Only way to do so was to leave.
"Are you listening? Remember why we got here!" She pried her arm out of his grip. "And keep your hands off me."
Should she be stronger than him?
The answer came in her voice and the echo of a deity, knowledge more than sound. She was this world, he couldn't move her if he wanted to.
"You can feel our fusion magic, right? It will stop once we don't have the same goal anymore, so listen to me or we will die. Then you will have disobeyed Zelas and failed Lucifer."
That last name shook him to the core. One moment of weakness was enough for the enemy to lurch forward. A wolf jaw closed around his neck. Fangs pierced into his body. Almost like a mortal death, but she surged her power forward and scorched the enemy back. The grip loosened just enough for him to tear loose.
Barely was he out or she — Filia pulled him deeper into the dreamscape. The demon king's bloodlust seemed to fall back to a distance.
The reality of his near failure hit him like a brick. He's gotten lost because of ... what was it, guilt? Care? Something Amelia would have a field day with either way.
"Well, uh ..." This was embarrassing. So, so embarrassing. "How did you—"
"With how often I've covered for you, you better be about to say something other than rumination on how implausible this is. You messed up, I helped you."
"I know."
Filia kept pulling him along through a hall so high a dragon might fit in. Dragon statues decorated the far ceiling. Likely, this was what her old temple had looked like from the inside. Dark veins already crept up the walls; Shabranigdu would be here soon.
The silvery threads drifted behind him, but they weren't of use now. He kept them in the shadows.
"Where are we going?"
"Down a cavern I made at the end," she said. "We're going to make another soul gate there. I'll bait them into the net, you wait at the other side."
"Miss Filia—"
"If we anchor the fusion magic right on my soul walls, you won't need me to pay attention to it. It'll work."
"This isn't—"
"But that's not gonna work if you're not sure of yourself."
"You are too confident! Shabranigdu was made to quell the light and that's all that you are. You can't handle him alone!"
"So what? Once you control this piece you can break out. It's not like I plan to die. I can't, I still have to save the world."
He couldn't just think up another way. That Shabranigdu was simple enough to be easily tricked also meant that he was too simple for anything more complicated. Speech and charade wouldn't be enough.
"Fine, we'll do it like that."
"Excellent." Filia grew her wings while staying in human form, or at least that's what he saw. The ground below her crumbled into a dark pit. Without another word, Filia fell in.
On the dimly lit edges he could see simple engravings like she favored on her ceramics. He hoped they'd still be there on the other end.
· · · · · · ·
Filia willed the path to close after her. Dreaming with Luna had never required her to control the scenery in a defensive way, she needed all her attention to steer it. It worked nothing like controlling her own body, instead depending on roundabout imagination. Half of the work was fooling Shabranigdu into limiting his own movements by raising the idea of barriers. Maybe on this plane there was no difference between false and real.
For her, it felt like a descent less than it was immersion, but she had to see it as a place so Shabranigdu would. As along as he believed it, she had the advantage.
She couldn't tell the line between just power and herself anymore, but the line between herself and the devils was all the starker because of it. It made it harder to ignore the sheer absurdity of her undertaking. When in the rush of rage it was easier to gloss over the "oh heaven I'm taking a dip in the soul of ultimate evil" part. How Xelloss didn't suffocate in Shabranigdu, she couldn't imagine.
Was he actually not suffocating? Had that been what had lost him just before? Well, he better be stronger.
The deeper she went, the more complex their fusion net became. It only worked by threads because that's how she thought. If she hadn't been refining cat's cradle, it might have been clay instead. As long as it was some craft she was familiar with, its function should be right.
The red swarm was close on her trail, too close. Once a claw ripped at her wings and there a tooth nicked her tail. Yet, her fear was less about Shabranigdu than whether Xelloss would be there still. She could believe she was faster than Shabranigdu, but Xelloss she was never entire sure of, be it his choices or his vulnerabilities.
To her relief, the circle of Xelloss himself approached where it should be. Filia had but a few seconds of head start to adapt the seal. She landed at the nearest edge, holding onto the rock more for comfort than need.
She attached the net to the corners of the circle and wrapped out through the rings. There, she briefly traced her hands of the strange, familiar symbols.
Xelloss has taken the inspiration of this one from Luna, hadn't he? While working, in the marks and sensation of the energy. Somehow, it reminded her of Lina moreso than Luna. What was going on here?
Shabranigdu roared and hissed too close. No time to wonder.
Xelloss waited beyond the seal, both eyes open. Filia had never really seen him from the front like this, not so clearly. She'd once thought he looked like a stranger, but no more.
He held out his hand. In passing by, she gave him the one thread left. She turned around only behind him.
The Zelas headed one barreled ahead, only to lead the flock into the cutting net. Shabranigdu's raw forced pushed it to its limits, Filia felt it through her soul.
Yet now Xelloss hesitated. Just plain stopped. The nerve he had!
She stood behind him and reached around, putting one hand on her arm and the other on his back. Not quite pushing, she leaned in with her last holy power.
"You know, you ... " She left a very pointed silence for him to imagine to the word garbage, accented by trash dropping aside of him. "If we fail because you hesitate over being stronger than Zelas, you'll die knowing I was right about your existential crisis. But sure, do go ahead hesitating. At least that's one thing I'll win."
He chuckled. "Well, I can't let that happen, can I?"
Their last bit of magic fused with a refined intent.
· · · · · · ·
Xelloss took the face of the enemy, tearing it clean off a human skull. Any semblance to Zelas became meaningless.
Without turning the head, he pushed it on his own face. It inverted until he felt no difference, but he heard the change. Shabranigdu's voices rose to a cacophony of howls and commands. They enticed him to tear apart the light at his back, pushed rot into every corner of the dream, twisted around and clawed at the soul edges Xelloss had never sensed. He could recoil from nothing, but he could not die either. Filia's soul kept either of them together and she would never muster the hatred for the world that Shabranigdu needed to escape.
What Xelloss gave the screams in return was nothing like sound. No hint of his method, he just turned every fragment over power piece by piece. Talking wasn't worth anything, Shabranigdu had nothing worthwhile to say.
"Filia, let go of the net," he said.
"Are you sure?"
"I need to see through their eyes."
When she released it, they fell into the void around them. Having nothing to claw it but open to what little flow Filia had, Xelloss could connect at ease. Shabranigdu's words became worthless, he could ignore it better. Far more fascinating than his incessant threats was his raw power. Somehow closer to chaos, purer and more malleable. The borders between effective energy and mind were dim enough to drive his will through and pull out. In the dreamscape, the writhing bodies pierced open by black spikes growing from within.
Xelloss created knots and contradictions within Shabranigdu's simple mind, tearing him apart with his own fangs. How pathetic, really. Shabranigdu only had had leverage because he had more power, but now that meant nothing anymore. As an astral being Xelloss didn't need to replay memories like mortals did, but he could and he most definitely would if it hurt Shabranigdu. He drowned Shabranigdu's awareness into a sea of memories, each and every one that he'd loved. Erratic humans driven to their goals at all costs, chaos was never more beautiful than when breaking within the confines of order. New chaos, not empty old void.
Everything converged here, his fascination with intricacies, pain, manipulation's craft and sometimes even the fire and light. He could wield it in the same way as his old hobby of needling people just to refine a specific emotional flavor. Oh, admitting out loud to people that he might like anything would be mortifying, but to a dense fool like Shabranigdu who suffered from it, he could more than manage. Hmm, maybe Amelia had a good head on her shoulders in more way than one.
He trapped Shabranigdu in the body of his very first human host just to chase him through a market, then in the body of a host who'd loved too much to set him on the throne of an amusing empire, then an aristocrat who had spent his life chasing fame only for the demon to engineer his downfall. One host had killed himself, another had loved the world despite misery, another had hated it despite a better life. All those difference he pulled out and pushed back onto Shabranigdu. The more Shabranigdu lost focus, the easier it became for Xelloss to slip into the other hosts. All he had to do was imagine to be them, while Shabranigdu wrestled with being long dead hosts.
Being a priest had never meant anything in the way humans did, but like this he felt it. Priests are to be shepherds of humankind, so wasn't it befit for a devil to shepherd the humans that had been demonic? Rather than save humans from the devil, he used their legacy to tie up the devil.
Shabranigdu panicked, which fed Xelloss all the more. Any idea of retaliation never went beyond the simplest; kill his dragon, feign his liege's voice, threaten with Lucifer's name. This wasn't about raw strength anymore.
Xelloss opened his eyes to the dreamscape outside of the inmost circle. Rather than two, he looked out through dozens.
All of Shabranigdu's bodies had turned to the beasts Zelas had intended them as, but now they were only Xelloss. The missing ingredient had been the plane shaped by imagination. Had Lina kept that back on purpose, when she and Zelas had worked? Ah well, he'd find out eventually.
Shabranigdu alone was but a distorted blob of red flesh now. Xelloss was about to see what other torture he could inflict when the scenery changed.
Right, Filia was here still. If she felt guilty for what she hadn't done, using the power she gave him for torture would would incite that even more. What would he do to the world, if he wasn't under Shabranigdu's command anymore? Filia feared the worst and she wasn't all wrong. The odds he'd never again feel like murdering anyone were not worth even considering, none the least because he would rather like to torture Shabranigdu to death.
· · · · · · ·
She didn't have to say it, he could tell from her dream. Beyond this dark swamp lay the Kataart mountains mingled with her desert home and the ruins of her old temple, littered with bodies. Dragons, humans, elves, beastfolk, all of them pierced by those same black spikes. The scene shackled her down, because this time she'd done something that would lead to a world where he'd have so much more chances to do harm.
"It's my power now," he said to Filia. "Whatever I do with it, it is neither your choice nor responsibility. Don't you dare make me into your next Valgarv."
"You'd never fit the template, Xelloss," she said. "Don't worry, I'm not going to destabilize over this. I'm used to it."
He didn't seem convinced, but he summoned every inch of darkness to himself and let her pull him out of the dreamscapes altogether.
They woke up to near darkness. The soul gate below had become dim; Filia was short on power. There was no flow and something was wrong with the earth since they were floating.
Xelloss didn't stir until she withdrew her hand and folded his soul gate shut. Mere meters from them Shabranigdu started growing a face. They'd been noticed by the rest of the pieces.
"Well, that was interesting." The way Xelloss smirked told her it'd been more than that. "Say, miss Filia, I think it's time to leave and regroup. What do you say?"
"No need to ask on doomsday," she said. Despite everything she could smile a little. They had bested the king of demons. It was a fantasy come true that only little dragons in playtime could believe in, that their faith and willpower could stand up to someone vastly stronger than them. Even as the reality was far uglier than a child's story, it was one old belief that had come true.
"Hold onto that pride, miss Filia," Xelloss said. "You might need it because we're not gonna get further. Shabranigdu won't fall for this again and I don't know how fast I can get to the flow. But, uh, try not to be too prideful forever. It can be quite obnoxious."
"Hmm. With the low standards of my company I have, it will be such a chore not to feel better," she said; she could resist but didn't want to.
A pained rumbled drew their attention to just outside their barrier. Shabranigdu's barely humanoid face managed to look quite upset. "You are disgusting."
Xelloss wagged his finger. "Ah ah, lava pits shouldn't call kettles black."
"You can't keep this up forever, traitor!"
"You could at least try to respond to with something more original," Xelloss said. "Is it any wonder I allied with a dragon? She's always exciting, for better or worse. You're just boring."
Shabranigdu grumbled more about getting them. Filia would love to prove him wrong, but she wasn't so sure yet.
First she closed the life law circle below them. She took in a deep breath and prepared for the next stage. Taking the fusion down was necessary to use her remaining power for teleportation and to let Xelloss navigate, but it would leave them vulnerable. It was tempting to stretch out the seconds, but no. All time was precious if they wanted to get to Sailoon and revive miss Lina.
The moment they dropped the fusion shield, all of Shabranigdu's power bore down. Xelloss just barely caught the onslaught by pushing out all his power into a shield, but it was less energy and more matter than before.
Filia saw only a glimpse of the gray sky before wings and beasts surrounded her. Xelloss pushed out limbs and wings as much as he could. In the process he make a mess of fur and horns and flesh himself, but he kept the semblance of animals over the eldritch thing around him.
Wind tore so hard she had difficulty breathing, when it wasn't the water tear up the pillar. While Xelloss struggled out of Shabranigdu's grip he could only do so much against that. She crawled under a wing and held onto the fur of its owner, but kept her own flow open and eyes out.
The nearest of Shabranigdu finally understood something was amiss. Xelloss almost froze when the semblance of Zelas was pushed out again.
"It's not her," Filia whispered.
"Submit to me!" the form said.
"Don't worry, miss Filia," Xelloss whispered through the wolf nearest to her. "I know how his illusions work now. It's not her or he'd be able to detach her."
His main wolf head peered down at the construct and said, "Oh, but isn't that exactly what I did? It's not my fault that you did not tell me not to eat you when I did, Shabranigdu."
"It's not enough. Join the main body." Ha. Zelas never spoke with contractions.
"I say not," he then declared with Shabranigdu's undertone. "My liege, if you are still there, please forgive me. I must command you : do not speak to me anymore and do not listen to the other pieces of Shabranigdu again."
Even if she wasn't there, this would signal Shabranigdu he was at a stalemate when it come to this piece. And indeed, Shabranigdu dropped it.
Instead, there was the voice of Lei Magnus. "Clever, she'd get to choose if she lived. Not that it will matter. The world will end whether you can like it or not."
"But we do wish to end the world, just like you? It's just that unlike you, we'd put it back together better."
Most devils could be tempted to distraction with words, Shabranigdu no different. In the moment Shabranigdu geared up to respond, Xelloss tore himself loose all the way. Spreading his wings he leaped into the sky, one blink of a massive chimeran monster before he pulled all his power close to Filia, compact in his human form.
Filia encompassed them with the last of her holy magic, just before Shabranigdu's past scorched through the air.
Only upon arrival did she realize just how astray she'd gone with the instability of the area.
There was no air, but there was a floating rock ready to collide into her.
· · · · · · ·
So far up the earth's atmosphere he could see nothing on the astral plane. It took him several seconds just to orient when he had no sense of direction or magical flow. When he projected, he was upside down.
Two things were of immediate note : he was far enough above the planet to see both earth and sea tear into a pitch black hole and he had lost Filia.
He speed shifted through the falling orbit debris, trying to see with both sights. More than both, actually. He could project his new bodies across more than immediate surrounding, allowing him so much more eyes. Raptor eyes were the best, he forced all of the bodies to developed those until he could cover enough ground.
She wasn't too far, floating motionless just beyond the reach of gravity. Either collision or the lack of air had knocked her out — how long had passed since they'd emerged here? How did atmosphere even work here? He should've pursued that time he'd become curious about orbit, but too late now.
Once he reached her he scooped her up, but had nowhere to take her. All of the earth was in a state of catastrophe. Seas shifted and sands cracked, even the tectonic plates moved. No country was safe.
They were far above the breathable atmosphere, but not far enough for his power to reach. Using the principles of wind magic, he summoned air to seal into a projection of his own. Like this he turned into a hollowed pyramid, which his extra bodies amassed in. Here they seemed more ghostly than when separated, he could barely tell them apart when looking over the plane only. All wolves and chimeras of other beasts on the physical plane still. He didn't know how to will them into anything else yet, but that wasn't a priority.
Central to the core was a dried out wolf large enough to fill a king's hall, suspended on nothing. It resembled Zelas a little, albeit stripped of any human hint. Bare fur covered the leathery hide, but the wings were feathers as they should be. He tried not to think about why it resembled Zelas or why he couldn't will it away. It just mattered he could put Filia down there and focus on other things.
Filia didn't breathe, but her soul hadn't left yet. There was still time.
He moved a little lower to the planet so gravity had a grip and he could focus himself better. Adjusting the air pressure required more, which he had to summon.
Filia had made it more than clear that she didn't like being touched without permission, let alone when asleep when wings were involved. Sure, the planet went boom so there wasn't much option, but Xelloss was nothing if not practical. He pulled a cloth from his satchel subspace, a blanket he used sometimes used for picnics or pretended he needed protection against cold. This he spread out on the wing before laying Filia down, making sure none of the feathers outright touched her.
Filia still didn't breathe, but she stirred her arms a little. Then without warning, she contracted and her eyes shot open. She tried inhaling, but only garbled sounds came out.
"What's wrong?"
She tried to speak, but could only sputter and gasp. A spike of panic flared out, but she quickly closed her hands around her throat and tried healing. At the end of her power she didn't have enough, so she released the hell gem and forced some power out of it with one hand. It wasn't much, but enough. Xelloss relaxed along with her.
"A-are we- Are we out?" she stammered.
"Yes. You can rest," he said. "I have control of my new power and we're more or less safe here, for now."
"I don't ..."
"Shabranigdu's slow, there's time," he said, pointing a finger up. "Really, won't you be more use—better at saving the world if you're well?"
He didn't need to convince her further, she slipped away on her own. Or maybe exactly because there was nothing immediate to worry about. It was common enough that people collapsed the moment immediate danger was over, so he hoped it was that and not worse. He didn't really know what happened to dragons once their magic was drained entirely.
Only able to wait now, it left him alone with the realization of the ending world and no way to shut his eyes to it. Even if he blinded himself on the physical plane, he could see the astral world with increasing clarity. All the muck was sucked in, revealed the exodus of all life. Spirits of nature, souls not yet hellbound and demons alike were drawn to chaos. Soon, he would be forced to join them.
He could never again say that the way the Lord of Nightmares had changed him didn't matter. Right now it was the worst he could be : aware of the Void and terrified to the core. He felt he might flee, regardless of Her Will, if It came too close. To think he'd have to put effort into bowing before Her.
Zelas might as well be dead already. If she was truly a traitor to the Lord of Nightmares, that shouldn't matter. What was he if he didn't follow her? He'd never been made to lead and there was no more world to lead in.
He could only reach one conclusion : he would much rather not be in a philosophical mindset.
So Xelloss stayed where he was and let his new power fall into to handling this much raw energy. He made sense of himself by projecting through the flock. The bodies retained the forms that Zelas had given them, but he could will them into others as easily as his own.
Perhaps more easily, actually. The flock contained basic knowledge of various forms. Cats were included in each and every one of them. Xelloss became a little self conscious of his jarringly simple truest form. Why had his lord and creator brought him into the world like that?
Claire had entertained the idea Zelas might've made him for killing Shabranigdu, but Xelloss wasn't so sure.
Thinking about Zelas was inescapable. He could withdraw and reshape any of his new bodies, but the corpse of Zelas stayed as it was.
The thought of Zelas's rebellion lingered. Now he'd tried empathizing with her, if only once, a chain of thoughts followed up. There was a difference between what he knew and what he understood. Xelloss knew plenty; hoarding eccentric facts and details was his version of Filia's obsession with antique ceramics. He understood not as much as he had assumed. Zelas had instilled in him that this was the right way to take, they weren't truly rebelling. This was creed to him, but perhaps it had been mere coping for her. He knew what that was and even that it made people easier to manipulate, but that wasn't the same as understanding.
Less familiar was this new form, so strange to move with. The moment he wanted to do something, several of the other bodies moved and even collided, like he'd just gained all these extra limbs. It wasn't unlike the first time he'd tried walking in human form, but at the same time stranger. So much conflicting sensations even here. He forced them to focus, but that only had every eye settle on Zelas's shadow. It was that or the end of the world.
It was too late to ask Zelas now, and he wasn't sure what to ask anyway. Xelloss didn't fear the way organic creatures did, but he began to understand what fear about and for others was. Filia had lived her life like that, Xelloss could manage too, should there be a life left to life. And if this was the last time he would think, it could have been spent worse.
It could also be better.
His human and cone body was the one he felt most at home in, his core so to say. This one he shifted away to lower in the pyramid, where he held the remnant of Shabranigdu.
While Xelloss had more power than ever before, it wouldn't hurt to feed. Volphied was still out there and he might soon have to reincarnate Lina Inverse. Anything could help.
Shabranigdu was but a tiny red flame left, which pushed little more than a meter wide blob out onto the physical plane. It bore resemblance to the Raugnut Rushavna, albeit with a little more awareness. Good, because torturing lesser demons didn't give as much as say, the demon king. How much humiliation and hatred could he wring out of him? Emotional energy wasn't limited by how strong or weak the feeler was, it's just that the best came from sapient beings.
Xelloss appeared before him in his human form, looking down.
"Don't you think you'd want to try take the others of me too?" Shabranigdu said.
"Oh please. You honestly think that after I have come so far, such a basic temptation would change my mind? Don't insult me, I know my limits." He set his staff on Shabranigdu's shoulder and leaned on it. "In fact, isn't it my turn to play butcher? Let's start simple : the law of the strong lost because we took you down by being smart instead and guess what? We have more plans. You can't end the world because the Lord of Nightmares created us in such a way that we change. I am the answer and the outcome as much as you would have been, if you had won."
"We'll win! You're just a flaw!"
"That's the best you have? How boring." He pushed the staff through Shabranigdu. "No wonder I'll be the last devil standing. You just don't learn, let alone adapt."
"And where did adapting get you?"
"Why, here of course!"
"You are more a human than a devil now. You shouldn't regret like you do, let alone worry for anyone!"
"I am a devil all the way. Humans do not have providence to that alone." Xelloss set twisted his staff a little, causing just enough pain to make talking harder for his victim. "I should because either make me more careful and, well ... I'm alive because that's what happens when people care for others. I know, this sounds terribly mushy, but that's the point. I find that if I do it in my own flavor, I can emulate a kind of spiritual attack curtsy of the very princess of justice. You know Sailoon, right? It's a saccharine hell, but quite educative. "
He started peeling off the outer layer of Shabranigdu's power, a last remnant of what held him together. Once this was gone, he had no more ability to even move. That part of his mind would simply be gone, making him almost entirely dependent on Xelloss just to stay in one piece. Xelloss could easily kill him, but he wanted to see how long his hatred would last. Both for vengeance, and because this kind of pure negativity tasted quite excellent.
"Speaking of learning things, I learned pottery. It was fun and creative, except when miss Filia was obnoxious. I didn't really hurt her for that, by the way, well ... not enough for you to approve," He started ticking it off on his fingers. "I also had a lovely dinner with the Knight of Siephied lately. Miss Claire, also know as the Aqualord, makes a moderately engaging philosophy conversationalist. Oh, and Siephied's alive. She's a miss now and has leveraged her curse in a most delightful way. Did you know she can just order devils to explode with mere words? She's wiped away armies and the only reason you survived is because you never met her."
"You're lying!"
Xelloss wagged his finger. "Now, now, I wasn't created that way. Or perhaps I just really integrating the idea of deceiving others without untruths. Typical devil identity stuff."
"No, you can't be that way. You were corrupted. Zelas got corrupted somehow and you were corrupted by that dragon! Don't you get it? They get inside your mind! But you can still undo it. It's just an inexperienced dragon, she can't rewrite a true devil."
"She might not get the result she wanted, but she wouldn't and hasn't. I chose to change on my own and you know what that left me? I don't need word tricks to call her friend."
"You disgrace!"
He almost missed Valgarv because he at least had a theory and goal. Shabranigdu was forever bland.
"I'm quite happy to be a disgrace to you, because you're worthless even to the Lord of Nightmares. I'm most likely not." Now he opened his eyes again. "And even if this world returns to the Sea of Chaos, there are still ways out for us. We will survive. The true Megiddo still exists and you will know existence continues."
· · · · · · ·
Filia couldn't tell the difference between sleep and trance anymore as she purged all the last devil energy from her soul. Of Xelloss nothing was left within, though the remnants of their neglected immortality pledge lay around her soul still. She cleaned it away too before closing her soul gate entirely.
She opened her eyes, only to doubt whether she had woken at all.
Right above her was an oversized animal skeleton, just floating in the dark. Pale light shone from whirling flames within the ribcage. After drowning in Shabranigdu, the sight inspired little more than vague curiosity.
Unlike Luna's twisted astral body, these bones were smooth and had simple markings. Near the leg joints, dried out muscle hung, but not as much as the wing joints. Those stretched out until they sprouted unmarred beige feathers all around Filia. She lay in the crook of the folded wing.
Xelloss's energy all around was strong, but she didn't see him. "Xelloss? Where are you?"
"Here." His human form flickered into view to her right, but she didn't see the cone on the astral plane. In fact, she saw nothing but astral black.
He near the edge of the wing, eyes open with a frantic gleam. Yet his voice sounded controlled. "Are you better?"
Filia tried sitting up, but it was difficult to even prop herself on her elbows. All her energy had been spent and she couldn't replenish even through the world's flow.
Where was the flow?
"Where are we? Is this a pocket space?" She looked past him, trying to see byeond the skeleton. Perhaps it was just light remnants on her eyes, but there appeared everchanging geometric shapes turning into beasts and back.
"No, this is all me," Xelloss said. "I don't know whether it's the extra power or the unique composition of miss Lina's reformation, but I can project multiple bodies now without this resulting in budding."
To demonstrate, swarms of beastly forms projected in and out of the physical world. They were asymmetric, fur, wings and teeth in sharp contrast to the smooth walls. Little rhyme nor reason existed to this space, but she began to see the overall shape of the space ... Filia laughed despite herself. The top was wide, but narrow to a point below.
"I knew you had a relation to tepees."
"Pardon me, this is a pyramid."
"Too much cloth. Tepee."
"Pyramid!" He crossed his arms. "I have corners now."
"I bet you only have physical corners so you can deny being a tepee."
He just looked and didn't twitch.
"I can't do this," he said after a pause. "Not now."
"What's wrong?" She thought they'd won this one battle at least, couldn't that lend some cause of levity?
"You're not wondering why we're not in Sailoon, or even how long you slept?"
Right, that was odd. "Excuse me for being hazy in the head, I just hosted a demon king in my soul."
"So you did. Want to wait before I tell you what's wrong?"
"Oh get real, I can handle it," she said, sounding sure but growing fear. He was too serious.
Xelloss turned away and dangled his legs over the edge of the wing. She couldn't see his face anymore. At least, not the human one. The beasts around her were his faces too, but she couldn't read wolf faces.
Filia struggled to sit up. The wing shifted a little to make it easier, so she could look over the edge.
The wall turned glassy, revealed the cold of the night sky and ... only parts of the horizon. The rounded horizon.
A river of rushing gold spun below them. One might have mistaken the motion was water, if water had more intricate shapes. Oftentimes spirals spun out of it and small stars were born and extinguished within its flow.
Chaos had a motion, after all, but only due to its impurity as it mingled with existence. The river began in many arms around space and ended in a pitch black hole. Even the surrounding starlight bent into it. On both planes it looked exactly the same, across all layers.
"W-what? Xelloss, where is the sea? Where is everything?"
He pressed his jaws together. "Gone."
"What do you mean gone?"
"You might have seen the red walls before we confronted Shabranigdu? That was the breaking of the ragnarok. Chaos took a chunk out of the planet, disrupted its orbit and ruined the atmosphere. It's been steadily getting worse while you slept. By now, life on the surface shouldn't be possible anymore."
When Filia strained her eyes against the physical light and through the shadow of Xelloss's form, the blue-white flame of Megiddo was just barely visible. It flicked out pretty quickly.
Everyone was dead.
She lost one scream, then the will to even make sound.
Everyone was dead and the world died with them. How could she save anyone if there was no planet to live on?
"See it on the on the bright side : we're not going to have to fight each other for now."
Everyone was dead.
No. No way. Not acceptable. The world wasn't allowed to just end like this.
No matter how much she kept pushing on and on, everything only got worse. Valgarv was right in one thing, that the Lord of Nightmares was cruel. Whether by indifference or malice did not matter.
Xelloss ran his hand down the back of her neck, little more than a light touch over her hair.
"I'm terrified too," he said. "I have to take back what I said before, about it making no difference that She took away my instinct to end the world. I can't want it. We have to find a way to live, even if it's in another world."
Let it be the end of the world that Xelloss's presence was welcome.
"Another world ... is hell still there?"
"That would depend on Megiddo, but it's not preferable. Not that we have much options."
It would have to do. As long as she had something to try, she could keep anger in place of despair. If nothing else, hell still had people who could do something. Lina, the Ancient Dragons, whatever angel still existed ...
First she had to wipe clear her eyes. She steadied her hands and pulled the hell gem from her own pocket space. It was intact, but all of the energy was gone as much as her own. She'd drawn from everything she could just to survive.
The sun still existed, shining just beyond the edge of the translucent area. Maybe, if they had time, she could regain some holy energy.
"Can you let the sun in? I think your dark magic blocks some of its natural power."
"Let me see ..." The walls shifted and somewhere from his pocket space, actual glass fell. Mostly expensive wine glasses, a fish bowl and other random things. His magic pulled it apart and mended it into a sphere that he worked into his walls. The light passing through this was stronger than anything she'd known on earth.
"That enough?"
"Yes, thank you." She was about to move over, but the wind adjusted itself so she could sat back in the crook of the wing to get the most light.
Xelloss withdrew his human projection, but his voice stayed. "If you're so at ease, does that mean you have a plan."
"Not quite, but I'm not about to be unprepared again when this shitty world throws more at me. I'm having sun for lunch, I need to figure out what I'll say to miss Luna once we free her and we're going to fix the world." Maybe she lied to herself, but that was better than despair. She had more than enough of that already, she could at least pretend. "You wouldn't happen to have any more cat books, do you?"
"Unfortunately no, but there is tea and ..." Several cat shaped drones jumped up. "Actual cats."
"That doesn't count," she said. "They're just you. I'll take the tea, though, and I'm sure you have some interesting stories about the world we're definitely going to save."
With that, she put the last notion of sacred matter to the grave and had tea with the dragon slayer while the world ended.
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