Assault on the City of Shadow

[Raeghan]

A wicked smile flashed across her face as Sitherack spoke to her, an almost sexual feeling washing over her body as the thrill of what was about to unfurl played through her mind. She merely nodded at Sitherack, her grip on the Arc of Earth tightening slightly as she vanished suddenly, her form melting down into the dark earth below.

Her body flowed from Tarthia to the Shadow City in moments, the speed of her travel amplified from the complete darkness that existed where she dwelt. Her new powers were intoxicating, the rush of the blackness and the strength of the earth dancing together as one. Soon she was outside Cyrida, looking up at the city from within the soil of the planet.

“Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. You never paid me proper attention, father. You underestimated the strength of the earth…”

Within the crust of earth her hand stretched forward, and likewise a massive hand began to rise out from the landscape outside of the Shadow City. It stretched upwards as if a giant were pulling itself from the depths of the planet’s core. The wicked smile flashed back across her face as she forced the hand forward, leveling a quarter of the city in a mere swipe. Eerie laughter danced from the Dryad Woods as she continued her attack, the trees echoing her thoughts and glee north to the city that was being destroyed.

As the hand began to run through the city, the ground below started to shiver and soon erupted into a cataclysmic earthquake. All that was left untouched by the golem-like hand would have begun to shudder violently, reducing even the Tower of Shadows to mere rubble within minutes. As the earth continue to quake below, it seemed to begin to sort of shift, the darkness and stone beginning to come together creating a black quicksand.

The rubble of the city lurched and at a rapidly increasing rate began to vanish down into the darkness, the delight echoing from the Dryad Woods becoming more and more haunting. The hand, too, seemed to melt into the black quicksand and in its place her form shifted upwards from the ooze like substance, the shiny almost metallic darkness clinging to her body as she emerged from it. It fell away from her like it had suddenly been frozen and shattered, shards of the darkness disappearing back into the quicksand as she surveyed the destruction, resting lightly on the Arc of Earth with the same wicked smile dancing across her face.

[Zinerva]

The Darkness building around the city woke her with a start. For a second she thought it was Sitherack launching an attack on the city, but that fear gave way, she knew the Darkness that Sitherack used, could feel his personality on it, this was similar hauntingly so but had its own distinct flavor so to speak, and she could tell the difference. Her relief lasted only a second however then the Tower itself began to shake, panic filled her but anger was a close second.

She felt the Tower giving way under her and as surprised as she was her form vanished rapidly in an exploding flash of Darkness that congregated together in a relatively unaffected as of yet portion of the City. There were not many Sedi left in Cyrida but those that were, were busy dying or running, there was no respectable defense against the attack being mounted, none had the power to face what was being wielded at them. She felt horror at the sight, it bothered her that yet another city would be laid to waste a city where she was just beginning to rebuild the dark Empire she had worked so hard on before. It didn't matter to her that it was the capital city of her enemies, to her it was all she had left.

"I'll not allow it!”

She gathered the Darkness infusing the massive golem like hand that was crushing the city causing it to crumble away into harmless dirt. Drawing the amplification sword from her sheathe she pulled more Darkness into her ripping it out of the quicksand stilling the sinking motion and quaking devastation of the city and ravaging her own body in the process, blood began to leak from her nose from the effort of containing it all, but only for a moment as she turned the energy into her own use, bursting through the Darkness that had shattered away from Raeghan herself she appeared quite suddenly in front of the woman.

Darkness pooling around them both sealing them off from the rest of the city creating a kind of arena for the two she leapt through the air as soon as she appeared, the element of surprise on her side, the gleaming razor sharp edge of the sword flashing through the air straight for Raeghan's throat with the intent to sever her head from her body.

[Zinerva]

There were no surprises in the dark. There were only two things; flight or fight. Either knowledge in the darkness, or fear of it. She not only knew it, she lived and breathed it. Since the immersion in the Darkness Well and return to her usual under-earth habitat, the flood of power she felt was nothing she had ever experienced before. It was intoxicating to say the least and now she felt a quiver in what she now considered her life’s blood.
“Hello sister.”

Her voice was like a snake, hissing through the darkness that pulsated through both of them. Her face twisted into an almost sinister smile as the image of Zinerva flickered through the darkness, appearing suddenly before the Earth Sedi with such hostility. The darkness around the two seemed to echo her giggling-like laughter as Zinerva would have been stopped suddenly, Raeghan’s skin suddenly becoming as hard as the hardest and oldest stone that covered the earth. The Arc of Earth seemed to shimmer slightly as the form of Earth Daughter shifted.

The impact of the sword on the suddenly impenetrable surface shattered the blade and sent a painful tingling shock up her arm causing her to drop the hilt of the fragmented and now utterly useless weapon. The amount of Darkness she could handle dropped drastically with the destruction of the prized weapon. She however managed to handle the shock well and landed on her feet on the other side of Rae's form, chest rising and falling heavily from the strain of maintaining a grip on what power she had left. It was still amplified through her armor, but only mildly giving her an edge on Rae's ability to handle Darkness.

Her words washed over Zinerva ineffectually, there was too much shock and rage in the woman to rationalize anything the woman said at this point, everything was directed into an attempt to stop the destruction and that meant stopping this woman, which was proving significantly more difficult than she thought it would have been.

The power the other woman wielded from Earth was a completely different story, she had no defense against that, and the Arc gave her unlimited strength as long as she was in contact with the earth itself. First thing she needed to do was put an end to that advantage, she knelt and placed her palm flat on the ground, icy blackness expanding rapidly outward covering the ground acting as a thin but efficient barrier between their feet and the earth itself. Her eyes remained locked on the other woman, not daring to give her a split-second of unsupervised time.

The smile remained plastered across her face, even as her flesh became obviously softer. It was partially because of the sudden darkness that broke her contact with the precious earth below. The other reason was more personal in nature. All her life she was the smallest of the twelve daughters, and her father never paid as much attention to her as he did the other daughters. Her grip around the Arc of Earth tightened slightly as she forced her will through the artifact.

Darkness and Earth energies shot downward as holes in Zinerva’s barrier formed directly under Raeghan’s feet. Root-like growths shot downward from her feet, rooting her deep into the soil like some sort of ancient tree as she locked eyes with the Daughter of Darkness. The air around her shimmered as the raw power of the Arc of Earth came back into contact with the soil itself, her connection renewed. The primal energy and feral blackness once more swept through her body and the sinister smile twisted into a sneer.

“I’m not the runt anymore!”

Her rage was manifested as the soil below Zinerva’s feet suddenly fell away, a deep it forming beneath the Darkness Sedi as the thin barrier became the only thing between her and falling to a most likely ultimately demise. Her free hand lashed outwards as the power of the darkness flowed through her, tendrils of the blackness attempting to move away from Zinerva’s feet in order to remove the barrier below her.

Shock and surprise filled her features as the darkness of her shield was ripped away and the earth fell from beneath her. She was very much aware of her own inability to fly, and was immeadiate in taking action to prevent her own demise. She saw the tendrils striking out at her darkness to pull it away from beneath her, and reacted immediately by sending Tendrils of her own lashing out. They snagged around the rooted form of Raeghan to support her and keep her suspended in the air.

She had laced the Darkness with power from her own life force, it was a risky move but it could interact with Raeghan's own life force weakening both of them to a point of inactivity. She was willing to risk her own life at this point in the defense of all she thought she had left, the last potential Darkness Sedi in the world and the slimmest hope of rebuilding an Empire she had worked so hard on.

The darkness that touched her now was different than she had felt before, and instead of embracing the new, fierce energy she reverted to her original element, to what she knew was tried and true. One more the Earth Sedi forced her will through the Arc she gripped, and her body seemed to almost rip into two, her skin shifting into a deep brown and rough texture like that of a tree. Once more her laughter rippled through the darkness as her form shrunk back down into the earth, the holes of darkness where her feet were icing over with the blackness and the ground below the Darkness Daughter filling in as well.

Once again, Raeghan was underground through the aide of the Arc of Earth. The sudden surge of energy she felt would have rippled upwards from the darkness that Zinerva controlled. The power would be overwhelming for only an instant, the sudden rush being cut off as Raeghan shattered the tendrils that were connected to her from her sister.

She resided within the crust for only a few moments, enough to break the brief bond the two shared. Once more her form seemed to surge from below, appearing under the blanket of darkness as though she were standing under a sheet. Like before, the blackness expanded and fell away from her body, shattering into a million shards as once more her eyes locked onto Zinerva’s the wicked smirk reappearing.

[Zinerva]

Zinerva was almost exhausted, the small revitalizing surge doing little to restore the energy lost in the struggle. It was now clear she was fighting a lost cause, a hopeless battle against an inexhaustible enemy. Had she known the extent of the power she had rushed to face she would have used her energy to evacuate the city rather than attempt to defend it, it was too late for that now, she didn't have the power left to transport anyone away, barely enough really to fight back against this woman any longer. The sorry truth was that she didn't have any real energy left to speak of other than what she herself needed to keep on living. There was always that though.

She smiled back at Raeghan's wicked smirk, and for the briefest of seconds she looked almost completely rejuvenated, fresh as she had been at the start of he battle, sure the sweat still streamed down her face, her breathing was still labored, but there was serenity in her eyes that came only with a supreme kind of confidence.

“Come then, runt finish it if you can.”

“Oh you’d like that very much, wouldn’t you?”

She took several steps forward, the darkness flowing away form her feet as if she were made of pure light itself. Raeghan peered deeply into Zinerva’s eyes as she gripped the Arc of Earth, bringing the staff up and down in a quick motion to strike the ground. The earth below responded instantly, sagging up and down with the Arc’s movements. Once more Darkness and Earth were forced through the weapon and the rising and falling of the darkness cloaked earth.

The arena like structure Zinerva had erected around the two seemed to shimmer for a second and then shatter much like the blackness around Raeghan had done as she emerged once more from the earth. Millions upon millions of tiny shards of darkness clattered silently to the dark earth below as Raeghan’s grin grew wider and wider.

“I have other plans for you. The Darkness does not like when its kind stray away…”

The quicksand-like sucking feeling would return as the whole of Cyrida began to give way once more, the faltering energy of the Darkness Daughter becoming evident. If Zinerva would begin to sink down, it would be almost crushing like, but only in feeling. In actuality she would be shrinking downwards into a pocket of earth laced in darkness, in essence a sort of holding cell Raeghan would be able to engulf her sister and transport her to the Darkness Well in the north. A prize her master would, hopefully, relish.

Zinerva watched and waited, she was completely at peace for the first time since learning of Tarthia's demise, her eyes were locked on Raeghan's, no power welled up in her, she readied no darkness to strike, no tendrils formed. The Arena around them shattered as Raeghan began her work, it was the moment Zinerva had been waiting for. In truth she had expected to be terrified but she wasn't. The last thought that went through her mind whilst she still had a mind was that Daegan had gotten off far too easily on their bargain.

The moment Raeghan's attention shifted to manipulating the earth, when her concentration was divided even a split second Zinerva acted. The quicksand did not pull her downward because there was no longer a body for it to pull, Darkness had abruptly consumed her body entirely as her soul opened the floodgates and took more than her body could handle. She became in essence a living spear of darkness that flashed forward with a single purpose at her target. That Target was Raeghan's Sedian Soul. Without warning the darkness would flash towards Raeghan's form, given their close proximity she would have little chance to dodge, because the Darkness was her living soul incarnate consumed by the element it was non manipulatable it wouldn't even take a second to flash through her, as it was incorporeal.

It wouldn't harm her body in any way, she would suffer no physical injury, and would likely have no knowledge of what it actually had done, until she tried to embrace the Arc of Earth, her Earth element itself or the Darkness inside her. The spear had been directed at the link between the Sedian soul and its natural connection to its elements. Designed to sever that link leaving her unable to tap into those powers for the rest of her life, or until something were able to heal her actual soul. An artifact like the Rod of Souls, or the Arc of Life and Magic used in combination could do it.

The Results to Zinerva were devastating, she would reemerge on the other side of Raeghan whether the attack had been successful or not and collapse lifelessly on the ground. Her soul had been used in the attack and though her body lived it was in a vegetative state now, the Soul separated and left to wander.

The sensation that streamed through her was like being thrown into a pool of ice water. She gasped for air at the feeling, patting her chest in an effort to ensure there wasn’t some sort of massive hole now gaping in the middle of her torso. She frowned, turning around to glance at the seemingly lifeless body of her sister. Raeghan’s hands curled around the Arc of Earth, but the horror of what just happened smashed into her like she had just run head long into a wall.

Once again she tried to force the power of the earth through the Arc, but she could not feel the familiar surge of energy from the weapon. Even the new sensation of the darkness was foreign to her and with a scream of frustration she swung the Arc of Earth as hard as she could into her fallen sister’s body. Blow after blow rained from above as Raeghan pummeled the fallen Zinerva, unable to call her elements to her. It was as if she was immersed in some foreign vat of nothingness, completely cut off from the world.

In one final act of defiance, and as a sort of memory as to who caused the carnage of the half-sunken City of Shadow, she drove the Arc of Earth deep into the gut of Zinerva. The sinking quicksand and growing darkness had all but faded and Cyrida was left sticking jaggedly out of the earth like it was some ancient relic of the past. She was disgusted at what had just transpired and the Arc sank deep into the ground and through one of Zinerva’s spinal rods, leaving only a few inches sticking up above the flesh of the Daughter of Darkness.

It was going to be a long walk back to Tarthia.