I stepped back into Night’s Bastion to find a crowd waiting. Right outside the portal building, in the ruins, was an assemblage of the Council, as well as my friends and Drake. I stood face them, power flowing through me and around me, and said, “Well?”
Council members looked nervously at each other until Drake stepped forward, pulling out his sword. He nodded at me once, and plunged it into the ground as he said, “I renounce my position as Champion of Nyx and Darkness.” I have a feeling he’s going to prove an excellent ally in the days to come. Loyal to whoever can best help Darkness.
Renessa called out, “The Council has changed their vote. You, Shadow, are now Champion of Darkness.” She looked smug and satisfied with herself. I should remember to watch her though. She’s only in it for power.
I nodded, and allowed myself a smirk. “Well then, time for things to change. The lot of you may have noticed that Darkness hasn’t won a fight in ages, a war in longer. Some of you,” I glared at Fitzdonald and continued, “may accept that as being a better alternative to the ‘old ways’. The lesser of two evils. But see. I don’t give a damn about what’s more evil. I care about power, and about results. Your honorable ways and careful tactics resulted in Nyx almost falling by an invasion from a single element. Your whole army hasn’t been able to accomplish anything in years!”
The darkness flowed around me, rising behind me and casting a long shadow that gave me greater menace as I said, “I just annihilated a small army of Light and their fucking Champion all by myself. I fought him, and I won, and I did it using my tactics. My power. My way. So whatever you old bastards may think about me and what I’ll do to Nyx, you can’t deny that here and now I just saved this world, and I’m the only chance you have at rising to what Nyx once was, what Darkness once was!”
Someone snarled, and I was surprised to see that it was Margiotha instead of Fitzdonald. Where is he, anyways? “You’ve made your point, Shadow. You are Champion. You’ve won. No need to gloat, and insult us all further.”
“Oh, I’m not done. See, now that you’ve all seen my power, you can’t deny what I am. You can’t deny that I am the woman who has the power to change the universe. The woman who can upset the balance and alter everything. I’m not your Champion, your figurehead, your general to be used. Drake is Champion of Darkness. But Darkness as a whole is moving past that. Now I’m the Warrior-Queen of all Darkness, and I rule this world! We’re going to start doing things my way, the Council will start obeying me, and Darkness is going to start winning our wars!”
“No. I will not allow this.” Fitzdonald stepped out from behind a building, and he looked different. I’d never paid attention to his outfit before, but I knew it to be loose and boring, the clothing of a politician. Now…
Now he looked ready for battle.
Armored gauntlets and boots, a mantle and hood, and a soldier’s uniform that radiated a bit of defensive magic. A sword sheath was at his side, a slender wand was strapped to his belt alongside several glowing vials, and there was a ring on his right hand that contained so much energy I could feel it from where I was standing.
Faded violet hair.
Midnight black skin.
Piercing amethyst eyes.
My mirror, in an entirely different way from the construct in the dungeon.
“Fitzdonald.”
“Shadow.”
“You finally called me by my name. Forced to acknowledge my power, and thus my true self, perhaps?”
“Kiana Vessian is dead.” He spoke with intense bitterness and hatred. “There is no point in using her name anymore. I knew from the day I read your files that you were a monster, and now everyone can see it. You aren’t an elemental, not really. You’re a monster, a villain, a destroyer, a defiler. You are the shadow of an age that I thought Darkness had put behind it. But it seems I was wrong. So I will strike you down, Shadow. I’m tired of trying to stop you through politics, tired of arguing and debating in an attempt to save this thrice-cursed world. This ends here.” The Council, Drake, and my friends began to back away, getting behind rubble.
“You’re right. It does.” I made a motion to direct the darkness at him, but he made two quick gestures and suddenly he vanished, invisible, and then I went blind. I twirled about, raising wards all around me in an effort to block attacks from any direction. I shuddered as the wards were barraged by something that nearly tore them all apart in one strike. I desperately focused my magic to remove the curse of blindness he’d put upon me, and managed to obtain sight just in time to see a second barrage, of what looked like spears of darkness.
I rolled to the side, but a few caught the edge of my shields and shattered them. Fitzdonald’s voice emerged from right behind me and shouted, “You’ll pay, Shadow! You’ll suffer for how you’ve made me hurt and how you’ve destroyed my friends, and then I will snuff the life from you and save this world!”
I spun around and sliced through empty air. Panting, enraged, my eyes wildly darting about for any sign of my opponent, I called back, “This world will be mine, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me! My power is beyond your imagination, beyond all the stars in the sky!”
I saw a flicker, a wand being held in a gauntleted hand, and then another barrage of spears flew towards me. I threw a shield of energy forward and dodged to the side, escaping unscathed, and a fourth barreled towards me. I faced it head-on, and with an effort of will I raised my adaptive wards once more, and this time when the barrage struck it did nothing. I saw the wand flicker into visibility and hit the ground, snapping in twain.
Breathing heavily, half to tension and half to rage, I roared out, “Show yourself! You’ve been a coward all your life, now end it with some dignity!”
Then, something moving at lightning-fast speeds slammed into me, shoving me back and shattering my wards. Fitzdonald flickered into existence, a slender blade in both hands, and I swiftly brought up my own in defense. I managed a quick slash at him, but his armor made my attack pointless, and I returned my efforts to the act of staying alive.
He pressed against me with the strength of a mountain, and I looked at him in shock and lack of understanding. He snarled out, “You dare to call me a coward when you lead through manipulation, deception, and callousness? Now I can finally show you that you are a fool! You thought I would do nothing as you amassed power, as you became stronger and stronger! You thought I was weak, and too afraid to fight!”
His gauntlets glowed, and one hand moved away from his sword to point palm-first at me. A blast of energy shoved me back, and he swung again and again and again, punctuating each with another yell.
“You!”
I was forced to take a step back.
“Were!”
A chip of metal fell away from my sword, and I slammed into a wall.
“Wrong!”
I twirled to the side of the third strike and swung at him with full force, but in an instant he’d shifted to block my attack. He said, “I have access to resources that you have only dreamed of possessing, and you simply assumed I would not use them! But no sacrifice is too great to stop you.”
I gave myself a boost of magic and jumped back, landing a few meters away. Before he could move again I sent a huge wave of dark energy at him, tendrils and shadows and every bit of darkness in my arsenal. “Too bad all your sacrifices won’t be enough!”
He made a gesture I’d never seen before, and the darkness was torn apart, the scraps flowing to him and infusing him with the energy. “I know ancient magic the likes of which make you useless, for all the power you wield. Darkness is mine to command, for I have read the ancient texts and understand it more fully than you could ever dream to.”
Fury surged through me, but a cold fury that drove me only to greater cruelty. I smiled, a smile that promised the destruction of everything he held dear, and said, “Then it’s a good thing I command more than just darkness.” I stretched out my arm, and sent a beam of light tearing through his gut, leaving a gaping hole.
He gasped in pain, but quickly waved his hand and healed the wound. Gazing at me with nothing less than pure loathing, he took out both vials on his belt and drank one, which seemed to give him even more power, and then he threw the second at my feet, where it shattered and became a dull mist. He cast his blindness curse again, blocking my sight, and I laughed.
“Really? That trick again? I’ve already shown that I can get rid of it, so why would-
My question was cut off by something sharp tearing into my throat and staying there.
My focus immediately shifted from my sight to the intense pain surging through my body, tearing apart the spell that was supposed to block the pain of injuries.
Blind and choking, I stumbled into a building and fell to my knees. I tried to heal my throat or take out the spike with my willpower, but the pain was too much and then my hands were at my throat, clawing and tearing and trying to get rid of the spike.
Everything started to get numb.
Weak.
I stopped feeling my hands on my throat.
I could feel my lungs, starved of oxygen.
I couldn’t even gasp anymore, my mouth was opening and closing and nothing was coming out because my throat had been torn open and my hands were only making it worse and everything was fading and…
I sunk lower to the ground, and fell on my side.
I could barely hear the footsteps coming towards me.
Pain.
Hatred.
Suffering.
Fury.
A growing coldness, deep inside.
It was at this point that in the story of a hero, the villain (I) would die.
Desperately, madly, helplessly clawing at her throat, the villain would breathe their last, and expire.
The hero (Fitzdonald) would run the villain through, as a mercy kill, an attempt of the narration to justify his actions.
Actions that would not be justified to himself.
The servants of the villain, the minions (Malk, Clary, Wabbit), would flee, perhaps to return in a later struggle, or perhaps to never be seen again.
The sycophant (Renessa) would renounce her previous allegiance and fade into obscurity.
The hero would gain prestige, and honor, and would reject it all, claiming it was an act of duty.
They would constantly grapple with a moral quandary, the crux of their character arc.
Was it justice, to slay the villain?
Was it righteous to take the life of another of the same element, even if that elemental had done the same to countless others with far less reason or justification?
They would live a full, happy life, but plagued by their fatal flaw, they would one day be forced to face death.
And on their deathbed, they would at last have clarity to the question, and be at peace with what they had done all those years ago.
Nyx would be stable.
Fitzdonald would be at peace.
Darkness would keep their honor and their nobility.
Good would win.
But this was not a hero’s story.
It was mine.
I tore the spike from my throat.
I stood up, and my vision became clear.
I pointed at Fitzdonald, and I unleashed my power.
Light, frost, storm, air, water, earth, fire, and darkness.
Fitzdonald was thrown against a building, and slumped to one knee, fear in his eyes, a desperate fear full of finality. His body was ravaged, darkness pouring from him, and his armor empty of magic. His gauntlets cracked. His sword fell from his hand. His belt empty. All that remained was a single ring, and his cloak.
I walked with purpose, and when I stood before him I asked my final question of him. “Why? Why have you defied me for so long? Here I am, about to kill, and I have to know. I know you think I’m going to change things for the worse… but how? What future have you foreseen that was dire, you stood against me, you defied a goddess, what future could have driven you to that? What insane idea made you do this?”
Fitzdonald looked up at me with the last vestiges of his scorn, and said, “It’s not an idea. It’s knowledge. I know that if you rise, you will send Nyx and all of Darkness back to the days of bloodshed and destruction, back to the days of horror.” I scoffed and was about to respond when his voice rose and he exclaimed, “If you rise, Nyx will return to the old ways, to the ways that almost destroyed us! Nyx will become corrupted, and that corruption will sweep across all worlds like a tide of death and malevolence! The new era you believe in will be an era of destruction and anarchy!”
“My era will be one of stability, of unity! Of order!”
He snarled at me, “The order you wish is the kind that will in the end breed only chaos! War is what has ruined all elements for so long, and if you rise there will be a war the likes of which none alive have ever seen!”
Fitzdonald stood, and his ring shattered, darkness flooding out and surrounding him. His flesh fell apart, and became a revenant of darkness, standing before me in all his hatred, his voice echoing with power. “If you rise, WE WILL FALL! I will not let you win! I will not let your corruption sweep across this world and all others!”
He slammed into me, and I grappled with him, calling light and dark to me and blending them with each strike as I hammered against his form and he slammed me into wall after wall, shattering my bones only for them to be healed by my will.
He threw me forward, and I rose. He surged at me, darkness all he was now, and I sent light blazing through him, and he was torn apart. As his broken body, barely held together, began to expire, he breathed his last words. “I only wanted… to do one last good deed… for the world.”
“Don’t you know, Fitzdonald? No good deed goes unpunished.”
A tear rolled down his face, and at last Fitzdonald died.
With a cold, grim scowl, I levitated his skeleton, and strung it up on one of the spires of nearby, for all the Council to see. They slowly emerged from hiding, gathering around me. I turned to them, to the Council, to Malk, to Clary, to Wabbit, to Drake, and asked, “So, anyone else got a problem with me ruling Nyx?”
They were silent, and my scowl turned into a grin of wicked evil. “In that cast, hail to me, Shadow, Warrior-Queen of Darkness and the ruler of Nyx.”
Clary and Malk were the first to kneel, saying their vows, and soon Drake followed, and then the Council members knelt one by one until all were on their knees before their new queen, their future goddess, their greatest slayer and most powerful caster and their dark messiah… me. “Hail to Shadow, Warrior-Queen of Darkness!” they cried as one.
“Hail Shadow, Warrior-Queen!”
I allowed myself to soak up their adulation for only a few moments. “Now that we’ve settled that, there is one last thing to attend to. War is coming. I have risen, and now I will conquer. Drake, consider yourself both Champion of Darkness and Lord Commander of my legions. I have… plans, that will require both titles. Malk shall be High Slayer, while Clary shall be High Caster, each in charge of their respective forces. Wabbit shall be my personal assistant. Together, we will sweep across all worlds, and darkness will fall upon them, and they shall bow before me.”
They all nodded, content, and I looked back at the portal. “Soon, very soon, the war will begin.”
I heard Drake start to speak, then hesitate, then continue. “What about… what about Light? They may have lost today, but they were expecting an easy victory, not a prodigal destroyer of worlds. Next time they’ll be ready, and they won’t be bringing just a few forces. You know how powerful Light is. They’ve always managed to beat us, in the end. Why do you think we can stop them this time?”
I smirked.
“Light will always fade, but Darkness is eternal. And besides, you have me now. Dark will rise, and all will fall before me.”
I looked to the portal and then to the corpse of Fitzdonald, and gave my final proclamation for that fateful day in the ruins of Night’s Bastion.
“I am Shadow. I am the conqueror of worlds.”