Chapter 35 - Nemesis

The ground all around Sierra, Valandt, Presto, Imunzo and Astral began to shake as lava began too ooze from the volcano. A deafening sound was also coming from it and getting louder with every moment that passed. Suddenly the lava began to shoot upward and from it emerged the monolithic figure of Goreoth. Goreoth stood with his head nearly touching the clouds, his skin was a dark brown and he was built spanning almost as far across as he was tall. Goreoth looked down menacingly on the five below with his diamond shaped red eyes, just below which was a jagged slit in his face which was Goreoth’s mouth and at the top of his head sprouted two gigantic horns. “This is all humanity has to offer me?” Goreoth boomed at the five below looking down at them all with disgust. “You shall be no match for me” he said, and with that Goreoth raised one of his skyscraper like arms and smashed it into the ground, causing it to crack up. Valandt instantly dived for Astral and took her out of harms way while Sierra and Presto dived in different directions out of the way of the gaps that were now in the land, while Imunzo remained still and looked up at Goreoth. “Who are you to oppose me?” Goreoth thundered at the lone warrior who remained looking up at him.
“I am Imunzo. Last of the Djiani” Imunzo replied, who now had a hand ready on his katana.
“Ah yes. The destruction of your land was merely a taste of what will happen to humanity once I am finished” as Goreoth spoke the earth shook but even this did not phase Imunzo.
“Humanity will survive. It is you who shall go no further, I shall see to it personally” Imunzo retorted. “I think not” Goreoth bellowed and with that two columns of fire swept across the land, when the smoke cleared Goreoth was surprised to see all five still standing.
“Your evil is no match for us” said Presto, who had saved everyone from the fire by enclosing them all in protective balls of energy.
“Your evil is no match for this” Sierra then added, holding up the sword of Drakahor.
“What is this?” Goreoth said mockingly “The sword of Drakahor?”
“And Chalhor” Valandt added, holding it up.
“Chalhor and Drakahor. I may have underestimated you all but no matter. You shall die here. Evil shall begin its reign here”
“That‘s where we have the advantage” Valandt then said. “You need me”.
“What? I need you? How so?” Goreoth bellowed back.
“I am the Gloariax” Valandt replied “You cannot kill Paix without me” looking high up into the sky Valandt could see Goreoth attempt a smile.
“You are of no use to me foolish boy. I could have you torn to shreds. It is your evil spirit which holds the key to my victory and that I shall take after I have disposed of you. My demons, destroy them!” Goreoth roared, summoning demons from the sky. Imunzo instantly drew his katana and began to jump into the air, taking down groups of demons in seconds while Presto began firing bolts of lightning like energy at anything that came so much as close. Valandt and Astral stood back to back and Astral tore the demons in two with her energy whip while Valandt ripped them apart with his sword. Sierra meanwhile stood her ground and swung around at the demons, taking them down from all angles. Goreoth soon grew tired of his demons inability to get close to the five and cast them away “enough!” he shouted angrily as he did. “I see you are all skilled on the battlefield” Goreoth roared with a hint of cunningness in his voice. “In this world however there is always another side. For every good there is an evil. For every warrior is their opposite. Their nemesis. One who will push that warrior to the limits of his skills” as Goreoth spoke the five below regrouped, all getting close to each other as they listened to him. “You five shall now face that nemesis.” Goreoth then paused and the ground began to shake violently, flooring the group of five below. As the shaking continued, from the ground rose five tombs with each one standing opposite one of the group. “Firstly Sierra. In the entire history of the Shadow of Death, you had never been captured. That was until your battle with this man. The nemesis which you shall face will be, Raiguarde” and with that the tomb opposite Sierra opened and from it came Raiguarde, his skin now pale and worn away in places so that his skeleton could be seen. “Secondly, the Djiani, Imunzo. The only man to ever beat you, the man you let die in the final battle for Djian. Your nemesis, the warrior Kagemusha” once Goreoth stopped speaking the tomb opposite Imunzo opened and from it came Kagemusha, leaving Imunzo stunned. “The queen of Palestar, Astral. This woman killed your father and would have killed you for it not for a freak accident. Your nemesis, your step-sister. Icsha” a third tomb opened as Goreoth stopped speaking and from it came the now almost skeletal figure of Icsha. “The wizard, Presto. You think you are the greatest wizard of all time? ha. Meet the very first and best, your nemesis. Lijitman.” when Goreoth grew silent a fourth tomb opened and from it came Lijitman, causing Presto to jump backward. “Lastly, Valandt. The events which occurred that day in Gorhenge could not have gone any sweeter. Every detail of that day was orchestrated by me, just so you could get close to the crown. Your nemesis was the king that day. Valandt, meet Golan” Goreoth began to laugh as he finished and the final tomb opened, from which came a pastier version of the Golan which Valandt had killed that day. Sierra, Imunzo, Astral, Presto and Valandt all stood alert, watching the faces of their nemesis opposite them. “Yes, look upon the faces of your death. I shall enjoy watching this. Kill them!” Goreoth ordered, and the five nemesis’ leapt into action. Icsha instantly dove for Astral, taking her to the ground and wrapping her hands around her throat. “You killed me, so I shall now return the favour” Icsha cried as she began to choke the life from Astral. Astral put her hands on Icsha’s and used all her strength to prise them from her neck, she then threw Icsha over her shoulder. Icsha got to her feet quickly and threw a fist at Astral, who blocked it with her open palm, Astral then leg swept Icsha off her feet. “You killed my father and your own mother. You got what you deserved” Astral quipped as Icsha got back to her feet once more. “Nevertheless, I shall finish the job I started on you all those years ago” Icsha said as she drew a dagger from her pocket. Astral smiled as Icsha began to charge at her and waited for the right moment, when it came she produced her energy whip without warning and wrapped it around the dagger, then pulling the dagger from Icsha’s grasp. “So you are a necromancer now?” Icsha said after Astral had plucked her weapon from her grip. “No matter, you are not the only with powers” Icsha smirked and looked up at Goreoth, who extended one of the fingers on his huge hand and from which came a bolt of red energy that went straight into Icsha's body. The colour from Icsha’s eyes disappeared and they were now all black, with tiny bolts of energy shooting from them. Astral stood her ground and looked deep into the blank eyes of Icsha, waiting her to make move. Icsha stopped motionless for a split second and then threw five lightning like bolts of energy at Astral. Astral hardly had a second to react but still managed to contort her body into such positions that avoided the oncoming bolts, having to spin out of the way to avoid the last one. “Is that all you‘ve got ?” Astral quipped as she came back around to face Icsha, who then fired more bolts at Astral. This time Astral was ready for her attack and stood her ground, producing her energy whip and almost casually batting them back at Icsha. “So you can take care of my magic. You shall be no match for this” Icsha said smugly as she looked back up at Goreoth. The ground in which Astral was standing then began to shake and rise, taking Astral off her feet as Goreoth hovered his finger above where Astral stood. From Goreoth’s finger then came a burst of flames, aimed straight at Astral, who would have been engulfed in them had Valandt not jumped onto the raised platform which she was on and picking her up, then jumping down and carrying her to safety. “Thank you!” Astral exclaimed as Valandt landed with her in his arms, she then kissed him as he let her down to the ground. “Anytime my love” Valandt said as Icsha made an appearance and Astral dived for her. At that moment, just as Astral resumed her battle with Icsha, a sword came in Valandt’s direction and he had to act quickly by putting up his sword to avoid being cut down by it. Golan cut through the air with the greatest combination of power and speed that Valandt had ever faced. “Ah, what's the matter? You cannot face me when it is a fair fight, is that it?” Golan said to Valandt as Valandt continued to back off from him.
“Its not that, its that I‘m waiting for the right moment” Valandt said, just as he lunged for Golan and cut him on the forearm. Golan looked down at the cut and smirked. “You‘ll have to do a lot more than that to defeat me boy” Golan remarked as he kicked Valandt in the stomach hard, flooring him instantly. Golan raised his sword high above his head and brought it down with the speed of three men, Valandt managed to roll out of the way with a small piece of his jacket being all that got caught in Golan’s path. Valandt then took the opportunity to sweep Golan from his feet. Once Golan was floored, Valandt went to jump on him, but Golan put his feet in the way and pushed Valandt backward with him slamming into one of the sides of the platform which Goreoth had raised out of the ground. Valandt bit his lip as the pain he felt subsided and his blood began to boil, he then dived for Golan and tackled him to the floor. Valandt picked Golan up by the collar and looked him in the eye. “I may have killed you behind your back before, but how’s this for face to face” Valandt said, a split second before delivering a severe head butt to Golan’s head something which cause the both of them to bleed. Golan roared with pain and put his hands on Valandt’s waist, he then lifted him into the air and rose to his feet with Valandt still in his arms. Golan then raised Valandt high above his shoulders and threw him down to the floor. Valandt landed with his back in agony, he hardly had time to get to his feet before Golan grabbed him by the hair and pulled him to his feet. Valandt had been winded by the fall and struggled to breath as Golan picked him up and as a last resort to get Golan off him, Valandt elbowed him in the gut, followed by punching him hard in the jaw and flooring him. As Golan got back to his feet and wiped the blood off his lip, Valandt retrieved his sword. The sturdy figure of the unarmed Golan and the breathless Valandt began to stare each other down with neither moving for a while before Valandt launched himself at Golan. Golan stood firm and awaited Valandt’s attack with his fists just in front of his face, ready to fire at any second. Valandt drew closer to the stationary Golan, who was biding his time and waiting for the correct moment when he could attack. Valandt rose his sword ready to cut Golan down and Golan saw his opportunity, jumping toward Valandt and grabbing the sword. Golan pulled the sword toward him, taking Valandt with it and then swung it the other way, with Valandt being thrown off the sword and landing on the floor some distance away. As Valandt got to his feet Golan spotted his sword on the ground and picked it up, he then began to run at Valandt, swinging both swords in various directions. Valandt had hardly gotten to his feet before the berserk Golan drew close. As Golan attacked initially, Valandt jumped backward onto his hands, then used his hands to push himself high in the air, landing on the shoulders of Golan. As he landed Valandt’s chest was right in Golan’s face, Valandt then made sure his legs were tightly secured around Golan’s neck and leaned the rest of his body backward as Golan swung his swords in the air aimlessly at him. Once this was over, Valandt leaned his body back up and spun around, so that he was facing the same way as Golan. He then kept his legs wrapped tight around Golan’s neck and dived down to the ground, through Golan’s legs and taking him to the floor. Valandt jumped to his feet and kicked both swords from Golan, he then smirked at him. Someway across the field was Golan’s daughter, Sierra, who was too busy with Raiguarde to take notice of her father. It was Raiguarde who had first seen the true face of the Shadow, Sierra taking off her mask so he could see it during his last breaths. “It can‘t be you, it can’t be!” Raiguarde had cried, having seen the pictures of Sierra during his days as a young soldier at Legia castle. At one point, the teenage Raiguarde had a crush on Sierra, who was not much older than him herself but all the two shared now was a mutual dislike. Raiguarde made it his purpose to find and track Shadow, the scourge of Legia who had killed numerous soldiers all in a vain quest. The resurrected Raiguarde swung at Sierra with all the speed he had when he was alive. Sierra twirled and spun out of the way of Raiguarde’s blade as if she knew exactly where his sword would go before it had gone there. Sierra’s perfected skill of anticipation now became enhanced by that not only was she managing to avoid Raiguarde’s blows, she was managing to get in attacks of her own, leaving Raiguarde partial seconds to react, however every time Sierra tested Raiguarde, he always managed to survive. The two continued to exchange blows at incredible speed with neither being able to get an advantage over the other. Raiguarde stepped up the pace of his attacks, hoping Sierra would not be able to keep up with his increasingly rapid pace but she still managed to match him blow for blow. Sword clashed against sword with the sound resounding back numerous times every second, the two then became locked with Sierra’s blade being jammed against Raiguarde’s. The two pushed on their weapons and got in each other’s faces and exchanging menacing stares, with Raiguarde then pushing Sierra off his blade and too the floor. “Ha!” Raiguarde sneered as Sierra went to get back to her feet. He didn't give her the chance, kicking her in the face hard when she was on her knees. Sierra spat the blood that had gotten in her mouth out and wiped her lips clean, she then icily stared down at Raiguarde and dropped her sword, advancing on Raiguarde with a aggressive look on her face. Raiguarde stood with his sword at his side and waited for Sierra to get close. When Sierra was close enough, he swung at her and Sierra ducked it, punching Raiguarde in the stomach twice and then punching Raiguarde on the chin. Raiguarde instantly fell too the floor as Sierra uppercutted him. “Get up!” Sierra called as she stood over Raiguarde, who reached for his sword and cut Sierra on the back of her left leg. Sierra groaned in pain and held her leg as she fell on her back and Raiguarde got to his feet. “Now what don't you get up eh?” Raiguarde said as he reached down and pulled Sierra up by her hair. Sierra looked into Raiguarde’s eyes as he pulled her to his feet and lost control, punching him to the floor violently. Raiguarde fell to the floor and clutched his now bleeding nose as Sierra limped over to where she had dropped her sword and picked it up. As Raiguarde walked over to Sierra, she went to walk back over to him but put too much pressure on her injured leg and then falling down. Raiguarde smiled as he walked over til he was standing over Sierra and raised his sword high into the air, then as he was about to lower it a purple blur kicked him off his feet. Imunzo landed next to Sierra and helped her with her leg, ripping a part of his kimono and telling Sierra to tie it around the wound. Imunzo turned to come face to face with Raiguarde and Kagemusha as Sierra got back to her feet, they then both looked at each other for a split second and nodded. Imunzo and Sierra then leapt at Kagemusha and Raiguarde. Kagemusha and Imunzo had once been great friends. It all arose from one battle at the Bishamon school all those years ago in Djian. Imunzo attended the school for seven years and only lost once with him having to fight sometimes several times a day against multiple opponents at a time and that one loss was against Kage, which is what Imunzo grew to call him. After Imunzo had lost to Kage, he instantly gained Imunzo’s respect and the two became friends. When Imunzo returned from the mountains to face Kaiazal he found that Kage was the head of the Spirit clan and the two once again worked together to get to Kaiazal. When Imunzo went into his final battle with Kaiazal, Kaiazal already had Kage captured and gave Imunzo the choice whether to save Kage or save Djian. Imunzo chose to go after Kaiazal and then had to watch as Kage died. The resurrected Kage advanced on Imunzo determined to return Imunzo for leaving him to die. Imunzo and Kage traded katana blows at lightning speed with dozens of sword clashes happening in the space of a second. Neither Imunzo nor Kage had landed a blow on the other and they continued to assault each other with their sword clashes producing sparks now. The power behind both Kage and Imunzo's blows grew more and more until both swords clashed at such velocity that they both flew off in different directions. Imunzo looked to the right at where his weapon had landed as Kage looked to the left where his had landed, the two then looked at each other and both dived for each other. Kage threw fist after fist at Imunzo who blocked these with his knees, with Kage advancing on Imunzo a few paces before Imunzo then began to advance on Kage. Imunzo began to extend his knee attacks, making them full high kicks as he advanced on Kage with his muscles already having gone past the point of no return. Imunzo then threw a unexpected left fist at Kage, who managed to block it with the palm of his right hand. Kage then threw his left fist in Imunzo’s direction and Imunzo, just like Kage had done, managed to block it with his right hand. Imunzo and Kage stared each other down for a moment before Imunzo moved his hands so that he grabbed a handful of Kage’s sleeves at the top, while Kage had a handful of Imunzo’s. Imunzo then went to throw Kage over his shoulder but Kage stood firm and then pulled Imunzo over his shoulder, the two then began to roll as Imunzo countered Kage’s momentum and continued to pull him, with Imunzo then kicking him clear. Not so far away at the same time, Presto and Lijitman were battling it out with neither being able to overcome the other. Presto was almost breathless and out of energy as Lijitman stood staring blankly at him. Lijitman looked to Presto and launched a ball of ice at him, which Presto halted in its motion and blew back at Lijitman, Presto followed this by firing a dozen more ice balls at him. Lijitman blocked the first few with an energy shield but the fourth managed to hit Lijitman on a part not covered by it and the ice slowly began to take over Lijitman’s body, until all that stood was an ice replica. Presto then went to fire a final ball at Lijitman to shatter him when he noticed the ice was beginning to melt. Suddenly the ice-Lijitman exploded and from it came Lijitman, surrounded in a red ball of energy. Lijitman began to float in the air and stared down at Presto, he then threw five balls of fire at him, with one landing in front of him, one behind, one each side and one hovered above his head. From the ball of fire above Presto's head came a line of fire which linked up with the four on the floor around Presto, the fire then spread so that it surrounded him from all angles. The fire engulfed where Presto once stood and Lijitman began to smirk as suddenly Presto rose from the flames, surrounded in a blue ball of energy. Presto floated in the air as Lijitman closed his eyes and held his palms in front of his chest facing each other, in the gap then grew another ball, this time grey. A strange noise could be heard in the distance as the grey ball which Lijitman made grew until it was the size of Presto himself, from it then appeared a chain. Lijitman picked up the huge ball by the chain as if it were weightless, he then began to swing it around his head and got close to Presto, hoping to knock him out of the sky. Presto managed to float out of the way of Lijitman’s ball and chain and let the energy ball around him drop, he then zapped the ball and chain with a bolt of lightning, the energy going through the metallic chain through to Lijitman. “Call yourself a wizard.” Lijitman angrily said as he made the ball and chain disappeared and Presto dropped to the floor “You shall see the true power of black magic” Lijitman bellowed as he summoned four huge balls of energy, yellow, blue, red and grey being the colours which the balls bore. The four balls surrounded Presto and circled him, getting faster and making Presto dizzy as he attempted to watch them. The balls grew faster and faster, until the blue ball zapped Presto, turning him to ice for a second before the red ball zapped him with fire, melting the ice and burning him. Presto groaned as the metallic grey ball hit him in the stomach and winded him, making Presto double over. The final, yellow ball, then zapped Presto with a strong electric current, making Presto fall to the floor in agony. “Now you shall die” Lijitman said as he slowly walked up to Presto. the strange noise that Presto had earlier heard grew closer and closer and the ground suddenly began to shake and . Lijitman looked up to see a hoard of men, armed with swords and shields coming toward them, Skhyzard and the Legia army had arrived. Lijitman turned to face Presto once more and closed his eyes as Skhyzard and the army got closer to them. Skhyzard saw Presto laying down and instantly dismounted his horse and drew his sword, then began to run toward him. Just before Skhyzard was about to reach Presto, Lijitman opened his eyes and from his hands came a huge bolt of energy and electricity, aimed at Presto. Skhyzard jumped into action immediately, jumping in the way of Lijitman’s attack and absorbing all of it. Skhyzard then fell to the floor, his body charred due to the intensity of Lijitman’s attack. Presto dived over to Skhyzard and put his arms around the corpse. “Oh father...” Presto said as a tear ran down his eye.