Chapter 21: Darkling Woods Epilogue
Chapter 22: Sacred Stone
There stood Lyon. We three stood still, not moving towards each other.
“Eirika…” he said at last. “Ephraim…”
“There’s no need to say anything, Lyon,” Ephraim said gently. “We know everything, and we’re sorry.”
“You must kill me now. The Demon King will use my body to revive his own…” We stood silent. “You don’t actually know everything. When the Demon King first reached out to me… there was… I must say it… jealousy and envy in my heart. I did not resist as I should have… I am to blame for my unforgivable weakness…”
“No, Lyon. You are not to blame,” I said. “Everyone has weaknesses. I know I do. I’m certain my brother does. We do, we do forgive you.”
“Even now, you are so kind to me…”
Abruptly, the Demon King broke in. “Are you done yet? Huh, making your life over into some sort of epic tragedy… Booooring!”
Ephraim shook himself. “We are going to kill you now.”
“Yes? You think you have the strength to do it?”
Ephraim looked at me, and I gave him a look of determination. “Yes, we can and will do it. You will die this day.”
“I am the Demon King! I cannot die!” It laughed triumphantly and teleported away to a distant point. Many creatures took up places on the walkways to his platform.
“Let’s go, Ephraim!” I cried. “You can go that way. I’ll go this way.” Myrrh, Saleh, Innes, L’Arachel, Duessal, Syrene, Ewan, Vanessa, Father Moulder, Dozla, Rennac, Tethys, Gerik, and Kyle and Forde went with Ephraim and Seth, Tana, Cormag, Franz, Amelia, Lute, Artur, Joshua, Natasha, Gilliam, Neimi, Colm, Garcia, Ross, and Marisa came with me. We blasted through the enemy. I could see the flash of Myrrh’s flame as she disintegrated yet another draco zombie – on my side, Artur and Natasha evaporated another. I had my own work, with revenants everywhere. We were almost literally surrounded by a sea of them, with some bonewalkers thrown in. A Gorgon or two made things interesting.
We just fought, and fought, and fought. We all knew what to do. No one fell, or was even injured severely. With L’Arachel wielding the powerful Staff of Latona, we were protected from most harm.
We rode up and surrounded Lyon. The black eyes glared at us as we charged. Darkness filled the world around us: the Demon King was using the spell that Lyon himself had written, and knew backwards and forwards: Naglfar. Lyon had tried to make it a pretty spell… Now that I saw it for the first time, I saw that it was, but with demonic power poured into it, it wracked our bodies, trying to seize our hearts.
The magic ceased abruptly as Sigmund and Seiglinde’s magic met flesh.
The Necromancer prince crumpled. A dark wind rose and swirled away.
Ephraim dismounted and pulled Lyon into a sitting position with his head on Ephraim’s shoulder. I knelt beside him.
His violet eyes opened, fixed on nothing. “Ephraim… I’m sorry. Everything’s all right now, though, right?”
“It’s all right, Lyon. I only wish… I guess sometimes I’m too ambitious for my own good, huh?” Ephraim’s voice trembled as he attempted to laugh.
Lyon smiled. “That’s not true, Ephraim. Ambition is a good force… only when it turns to darkness – true darkness, not dark magic – it is not so good… I wouldn’t want to keep you back just because I’m not as athletic as you are… Not as good as you are in various things…” Ephraim started to protest, but Lyon’s hand silenced him. “I’m glad we were friends, though.”
After a pause, he began to speak to me, fumbling for my hands. “Eirika, you… are in love with… uh…” He mouthed the word ‘silver’.
I nodded, blushing madly.
“That’s good,” he said, relaxing slightly. “You’ll be happy, I think… I have heard of him. Eirika… I just want to say – I never had the courage to say it – I wish I had – but…” He took a shaky breath. “I love you.”
“Lyon…” He was slipping. Now! Before he left us entirely! I took his face in my hands and gently touched my lips to his. After a moment, he went limp.
Ephraim gently laid him on the floor and we stood. I did not cry. I already had.
There was an earthshaking rumble. Lyon’s body vanished as if disintegrated. I cried out as we heard a bestial roar echoing through the shadowy hall and out through Darkling Woods.
We hastened to the back room of the temple. A swirl of dark light like cloud dispersed, and then we saw a hideous creature, with knotted muscles seething under iron grey skin, a pair of black wings that reached to the ceiling, fluttering in the wind that whirled through the chamber, a massive tail, and a horrible face framed with horns like a ram’s.
“Formortiis!” cried L’Arachel. “The Demon King!”
“The Sacred Stone!” shouted Innes. Ephraim and I held it up, and it left our grasp and hovered in the air above us. A stream of flashes, blinding, then black as the most bottomless pit, multicoloured, streamed into the stone from the chest of the monster. It was over in an instant.
The Sacred Stone went back into its purse and to L’Arachel. “Come, Eirika!” cried my brother. I drew Sieglinde and ran forward with him, dodging a sweep of the razor claws of the Demon King’s still-animated body. My heart was pounding rhythmically, rapidly. My breath hissed in my throat as I struck. The Sacred Twins of Renais hit home, and more than that – Nidhogg’s arrows bit deep into the outstretched wings, Ross swung Garm with incredible strength, and Tana’s Vidofnir went clean through an upper limb. Tana skilfully plunged it in, let go, and grabbed it on the other side of the arm, yanking it out without losing any speed to her flight. To my right, I caught a glimpse of Seth out of the corner of my eye.
“Flies! All flies!” roared the unhuman voice. Then, a blinding, unholy light engulfed me.
The agony was unlike anything else I’d ever known. Worse even than the Gorgon’s spell, it ripped through me, tugging at my very soul.
Myrrh brought an end to it. As my vision returned to normal, I saw her, reared back on her haunches, fire shooting into the Demon King’s face.
“Oh, daughter of the one I killed, you will regret that,” growled the beast as the demon light blasted Myrrh. Spells from our side flew at it in the battle of magic.
Abruptly, all movement ceased. Siegmund, Sieglinde, and Nidhogg had struck again. The Demon King tottered.
Howling, the creature dematerialized as Myrrh flamed him out of existance.
Complete and absolute silence fell.
Seth, to my right, hauled himself up by Altha’s saddle. His face was haggard, as if sleepless for many days. I ran to him and we embraced.
Everyone began talking at once, laughing, hugging, even – I saw Franz and Amelia kissing. Innes glared at me, even as he put an arm around Syrene.
We went out into the daylight, still talking and laughing. I went rather wild with happiness and excitement, rushing around and flinging my arms around Ephraim, who held me tightly, and hugging Tana, and L’Arachel, who ran up to me, dragging Rennac by the hand, and joyfully exclaimed that it was a miracle – we lost no one, and destroyed the Demon King’s body to boot! I smiled and agreed, and then Seth caught me again and kissed me.