Demon Times 4: Darkness before Dawn...The Final Chapter?

Derak continued walking down the great hallway, the small torches on each pillar providing only dim lighting to the massive room. Large groups of demons surrounded him on all sides, but none attacked him. Derak arrived at massive double door and slowly pushed it open to arrive at the throne room.

Shinji looked up to see Derak step right in, the usually cocky and never surprised look on his face. " Well well well, what do I owe this pleasure Derak? Come to finally admit you cannot win this war? " he mocked, the demons in the room staying quiet, watching on how the current events would unfold.

Derak slowly grinned. " No, actually ive come to end your pathetic excuse of a reign..." he announced. Shinji simply chuckled, " What? By yourself? And how do you suppose your going to kill me all alone? Do tell..." laughed Shinji.

Derak's grin slowly vanished. " Simple, im going to cut your god damn head off..."

Shinji's eye's suddenly glowed red. " We shall see about that. " he said as he got to his feet, his cocky expression still on his face. With a wave of his hand, a blade made of wind appeared out of nowhere. " Killing you is going to be far more enjoyable then it should be. " he chuckled.

Suddenly, Shinji leaped towards Derak with great speed. Sword in hand, he brought it down hard, aiming for Derak's skull. However, Derak caught him by the hand before the blade reached his mark. Shinji chuckled. " Well, seems you've gotten alittle stronger..." he joked. Derak suddenly squeezed Shinji's wrist hard, breaking it instantly before letting Shinji go. Shinji yelpped in pain and jumped backwards, examining his wrist. " You bastard..." he growled as he quickly healed himself. His cocky attitude now gone. He charged Derak yet again, swinging his blade hard towards his hip. Derak on the other hand jumped into the air and delievered a hard solid kick to Shinji's face, sending him falling backwards instantly.

As Shinji slowly managed to get back on his feet, his nose and mouth bleeding black blood, Derak shook his head. " I have to say Shinji, im alittle dissapointed. All that power, and you cant even lay a finger on me..." he boosted.

Shinji growled, slowly begining to realize that Derak's power had surpassed his own. He knew it as soon as he felt that kick from Derak, he felt his power from within. This angered Shinji. " How....how did you become so strong so soon Derak!? " he growled.

Derak shook his head yet again. " You still havent figured it out have you? Shinji...Derak's gone. " he grinned.

Shinji's eye's widened slightly as the realization smacked him across the face. He suddenly stood up. " Demons! Kill him! " he ordered. However, all the demons in the room stood there quietly, glaring at Shinji. " I SAID KILL HIM! " he yelled louder, still no movement from the demons.

"There not your's to control anymore Shinji. They belong to me now, and your life is now forfeit. " he said as he walked towards Shinji, sword in hand.

Shinji's anger was now at it's peak, he was soon blinded in his own rage that he foolishly charged Derak, who, with great speed, thrusted Hiro's blade through his stomach. Shinji coughed up blood instantly, his eye's showing for the first time fear. Derak clentched him by the throat tightly and pulled him face to face, forcing him to look into his now blood red eyes. " My name...is Traven..." he growled.

He suddenly shoved Shinji back and whipped the blade around hard. At that moment, the only sound that was heard was Shinji's skull bouncing off the ground.

The Demon King was dead...

Hiro's eyes widened as he felt something. His sword was calling to him. He shook it off and it went away slowly. What was that?
"You feel that Kote?"
"Feel it? I was stabbed with it. Frost doesn't like what Derak just did." Kote replied.
"I think we'd better head back and see just what he's been up to."
Hiro turned to the others, his face pale. "We need to go find Derak. Now. I think he's in trouble." He lied, he knew that Liz... and sadly Talyn... would be all too eager to jump to Derak's side these days.
"Hiero..." Kote said softly. "You have people waiting for your return, just remember that."
"Does he? Well, tell Hiero that his fate will have to wait until I'm done with him." Hiro thought.
He could almost feel Kote smile. "Well said, you can tell him yourself, you're becoming more like him every day."
"We'll see."

Derak, or Traven as he now called himself cracked his neck and turned to the demons. " Burn the body and gather the army underground so suspicion will be avoided. Im going back to the others, dont screw this up..." he growled as he wiped the sword and sheathed it. As Traven headed to the door however, a strange scent filled his nostrils. It was magic, but a magic Traven knew quite well. " Hiro...he's preparing to come here. " grunted Traven as he cracked his neck once again, his eyes returning to the sapphire blue. " Not if I can help it. " he muttered as he quickly drew a circle, writing down the required symbols. Within moments, he reappeared infront of Hiro, seeming normal.

" Im back, sorry for the delay. I ran into some demons. " he said, ironically telling the truth...partially

Hiro motioned to his sword. "I heard it cry out in anger, what did you do to it?"
"You asking him Kote?"
"On it now."

Syrius groaned and sat back in his favorite chair back in Aina, the sword had some powers of that he was sure, but they were illuding him. He rubbed his eyes and then in frustration swept everything off his desk with a growl "damn it! what the hell is the damn swords secret!!" He paces the room and sighs at the mess he had made

"Sire? is something the matter?" a servant asks entering the his room with his evening meal

"no...nothings wrong Sylvia...i had the false heroes in my paws and they escaped...but i did manage to keep one's sword. its enchanted...but i cant figure the damn thing out..."

"Your father and your uncle Talon are fighting again...theres talk that your father is going to impose exhile upon himself again...and become sorvahr again."

"my father is an idiot...whatever his decision i wont fight for him again...and if he tries to take my mother....well...i dont know what this sword does...but it will taste his flesh. Thanks for bringing my meal Sylvia...i dont think there will be many more nights i'll have to ask this of you"

"it is my pleasure my lord" she replies and curtsies setting down a plate of food on his desk "if it pleases my lord i shall take my leave now"
Syrius nods his assent and she leaves in a swish of skirts. "i'll have to talk to father tonight...he truly cant be fool enough to leave again...he caused far too much pain last time." he says to himself.
(meanwhile)
Talyn eyes derak suspiciously "ran into some trouble with demons? how many? where at? and how is it that you teleported back to us right as we were about to go find you"

Derak grunted. " The hell is wrong with you all? I went to my old home to see if there was anything my father left. Sadly enough, demons had taken residence there. I delt with them. However I didnt find anything of use so I came back here. And how I found you? Simple, I recongized Hiro's energy signal and focused on it to find you all. " lied Derak, who quickly took notice that Hiro was eyeing his sword. ^ Hmm, he's trying to communicate with it...sorry, not happening. ^ he thought as he secretly focused some darker magic through the blade, blocking any form of communication with it.

" And Hiro, your sword cried out? It must of not liked how I handled the situation. Two of the demons threw down their arms and pleaded for mercy.....I slaughtered them. I dont show those bastards mercy..." he growled.

Ophelia eyed the angry one. He was too defensive to even seem truthful. Her eyes darted to Hiro who she knew didn't trust him. This whole group seemed to be untruthful with eachother. She laughed at the thought.

"He blocked it!" Kote raged.
"What?!"
"He blocked my communication."
"That bastard... he's hiding something big this time."

Hiro sighed. "I would have thought that Syrius would have kept guards on the house. But I guess not. And after he was tracking us for so long, I assumed he would have all of our bases guarded incase we moved there. I'd like my sword back. You seem to have brainwashed it and I dont quiet like that."

Derak grunted and tossed Hiro's blade back to him. " Take it then, I honestly have no idea what your talking about. " he argued. " But we can discuss this issue later. In the mean time we should head for the nearest city. Unless you have something else you wish to accuse me of? " he growled.

Hiro felt his blade for a moment and then looked up at Derak. "Yeah... how about killing the Demon King, can I accuse you of that?"

Liz stared at Hiro for a second, then turned to Derak almost beside herself. "YOU DID WHAT!?" she demanded. "How? He defeated us dozens of times! How is it possible that you can simply end him in this short amount of time?"

Derak glared at Hiro briefly. " I have no idea what your talking about Hiro. And quite frankly im getting sick of you accusing me every chance you get. If anything, I should be accusing you of plotting against us! Why else would you be trying so hard to have everyone against me? It seems to me that you want me out of the picture! " argued Derak, hell bent of hiding the truth.

Suddenly, a sudden burst of energy seemed to shoot through the ground around them. " The hell was that? " asked Derak as he glared at Hiro. " Another one of your tri...." Derak stopped mid-sentence as he noticed Hiro's blade had fallen dim completely, almost as if it was lifeless...

"Wow... I see good reason they'd be trying to get you out of the picture." Ophelia referred to his rather obvious anger problems and crossed her arms. She jumped at an odd feeling and watched Derak's eyes trail to Hiro's blade.
So very... screwed up she thought of the group.

Lightning quick talyn went from scared and unsure to the confident dragoness she was, swords in hand she was at deraks throat in a minute the twin weapons edges digging dip into his soft vulnerable throat scales "something's wrong with you derak....your...not right...we all care for you...Hiro..liz...myself....but your actions now arent of the same person of just a few days ago"

As fast as Talyn had moved, Derak quickly pushed her swords off his throat and clentched her own, lifting her off the ground a few itches. " Did you ever think for one second that maybe im under alot of stress right now!? Ive got something dark in me, im being accused of everything, and now I have to defend myself from your stupidity! GET OFF MY BACK! " he yelled as he threw her down to the ground. " I dont want to her you but if any of you try to advance on me I will defend myself! "

Talyn gives a low growl as she looks up at derak her eyes holding his fiercly, she didnt want to hurt liz yet, so she mouthed the words "i know you arent derak" before dusting herself off and climbing to your feet. still holding his gaze she shakes her head "derak...we all care about you...stop this...your hurting hiro...your hurting me...and most importantly your hurting liz! Doesnt she mean anything to you?"

"You did kill him then..." Hiro said, raising his blades. "I think it's time you told us who was really in control... My sword has told me everything... and I'm sorry to say I'm ashamed that Derak would be defeated by you."

Derak growled as he looked around at the others. Realizing there was no way around this, he suddenly started laughing. " Your all as stubborn as always I see..." he laughed, before launching a blast of wind towards Hiro, throwing him a dozen yards away. " How pathetic, once a weakling always a weakling I suppose. But I have to admit, you caught me sooner then I expected. " he grinned. His eye's turned blood red along with his scales, his fangs grew noticibly longer as with his claws. His muscle's bulged slightly as well. Even his horns curved slightly.

" Let me retroduce myself, my name is Traven...and Derak is dead...."

"That's impossible. He's harboring you. He cant be dead or you would have died too." Obviously Hiro had run into this sort of thing before with Terris.
"That and if you die, I die." Kote said quietly.
"Really?"
"Yeah, so be careful, there are two of us in here now." (guess this quote!)
"Got it."

(Halo)

" Wrong, he was harboring me. But over time I slowly consumed his soul from within. Now, all thats left is me. You dont realize it, but ive been among you for quite sometime...months infact..." he grined evily

(ha that's funny. I didn't remember the exact quote but the first thing I thought of was Cortana and masterchief.)

Ophelia sat back on a rock watching everyone. She crossed her legs casually and laughed in her head. This group was going to kill eachother off. These weren't the heroes she'd heard of. The one's she had planned to betray her clan for. No... These people were lost in a large number of things.

Talyn readied her blades prepared to fight at her loves side ((taking a liberty here with storyline)) "hiro...i dont think we have a choice...i know we havent had much practice with that yet...but i think its we may have to fight in that way marcus left for us to fight"

Hiro nodded, adopting a counter stance and getting ready. "If we dont get this right though... he'll kill us for sure." he thought to Talyn. "We need to make it as perfect as possible in our current state."

"You're going to try that technique?" Kote asked.
"Yeah, you got any other ideas?"
"Get your memories back?"
"Nothin doing."
"Damn."

(Correctamundo)

Traven stood there, grinning at the two. " So what? Arnt you two going to try and stop me? " he mocked, tapping his foot on the ground. " Im unarmed...so come at me...."

Talyn's stance adjusts slightly to perfectly compliment hiro's own "gods be with us." she whispers under her breath her tail giving a loving stroke before briefly entwining with hiro's. Ready she begins the chant "To the light that I call, hear my plea, In lights embrace, with darkness twined and time displaced, hearts and minds entwined movements mirror as one, form doth blur and form doth fade as two are replaced with one" as she finishes their forms begin to blur, both begining to look as the other. a mix of both their bodies, a mixture of both their minds, talents, skills, magics, but unknown to hiro...something was off, something critical wasnt in place, and that would be the downfall of their battle this night

((and now i leave the fight to Hiro))