Chapter 23: Legends: Eclipse

"The eclipse marks the end

The masses will run

And from the sky descend

The beast that eats souls

Will take his control

You stand inferior

A celestial waste

I stand superior

And pound you to paste

I am the Light

Your ruled with fright

I end your night

I am the light"

-I Am the Light

Lantorn rushed at a running Lhyna. Lhyna jumped up on various rubble boulders.

Arber pointed the sword at her location, and lightning shot down from the clouds. Lantorn sidestepped a bolt, only for a blast of light to get her side. She tumbled down marble steps. Lhyna shook her head.

Arber pushed aside boulders, and summoned a cloud of fog. Lhyna could not see as Arber charged at her with the sword.

Lhyna anticipated. She swiveled and slapped Arber across the face, staggering him. She turned around, and gave the buck to his head.

The buck ended with a satisfying click from Arber's jaw. He fell down, and she reached for the sword. An orb of light shot down. It blasted her away.

Lhyna hit her back against a wall. She took a deep breath, and saw Lantorn charged an orb. Lhyna's eyes widened and she dodged more orbs as Lantorn kept charging them up.

Arber struggled to his knees, and stood back up. Lhyna dodged eight orbs total, before Arber took the sword. He used the sword to cast wind to propel him towards Lhyna.

Lhyna saw Arber coming at speeds of hundreds of miles per hour. The sword crackled with electricity, and he took a slash.

Lhyna's body shattered into millions of pieces. He realized he only got a clone and the real Lhyna jumped onto his.

She got onto his back. She reached for his arm, trying to pin it to his back. He twisted around, and Lantorn ran at Lhyna.

Lhyna hoisted Arber up, and threw him at Lantorn. Lantorn sidestepped while Arber fell to the ground. Lhyna caught Lantorn midair, with a headbutt to the gut. Lantorn crumpled to the ground.

Lhyna collapsed to her bottom, and scanned the area. Arber dropped the sword. It was only a few inches away, and she reached for it.

Lantorn grinned. The eight orbs that missed Lhyna were still in the sky, and they volleyed down. Lhyna stared up, and the eight orbs shot down. A yellow light took the air, and Lhyna stood in a crater of ash. Lhyna was marred with bruises and scars.

Lantorn felt her gut almost destroyed by the headbutt. She felt like vomiting, she felt like curling up and staying down for good.

Arber could barely feel himself. He had pain in his shoulder and arm, and an aching in his head. Did he suffer a concussion? Some of his vision blurred, and at points he saw two or three Lhynas. Still, he got to his feet again.

Lhyna felt burns around her figure from the impact. Rocks dug into her skin, and each cut had searing pain, like fresh with a razor. She got up too.

Arber knew Lantorn had little strength left. He grabbed a boulder. He squatted and lifted it up, best he could. It was almost as big as he was. He walked to the hole Lhyna was stuck in, and threw it down.

The boulder never met the ground, as two Reflects carried it. They threw the rock back at Arber, and Arber dropped to the floor before it hit. It flew only an inch above his head, he could feel his hairs on his head scraping the rock's surface like a brush. Lhyna laughed again.

Lantorn Reflect rushed up the crater, and jumped down. Its fists were merged and it brought an axehandle punch down onto Arber's head. Arber Reflect didn't rush up the crater, only took a big step over it. The Arber Reflect jumped up and landed back first on Arber, air rushing out of Arber.

Lantorn Reflect picked Arber up, and Arber Reflect stuck its knee out. Lantorn Reflect threw Arber down onto Arber Reflect's knee, cracking Arber's back.

Arber felt his spine almost break from the impact. The two Reflects twirled, and dropped two elbows on him, one on his chest, and the other on his leg. The elbows dug in, and he kicked from the pain and clutched his chest.

Lhyna came three feet up the dirt wall. "You did well, Arber. You served well." She prepared her beam of sleep again. The beam came from the moon and powered her up. She launched it.

A blast of wind came and blew Arber out the way. Instead the two Reflect got caught in the beam and collapsed into slumber from the hit. A new stream of orbs rained down and destroyed the Reflects, making Lhyna run out of constructs.

Lhyna stared over at a fallen temple, and saw Lantorn with the sword against her back. Lhyna shook her head as she stared at her previous disciple, and said, "You are good."

Lantorn charged at Lhyna. No wind as Lantorn removed it to create a slipstream effect. The sword came at Lhyna. Lhyna shoved a pink string at a rock.

The sword spun at Lhyna, and Lhyna used the rock as a shield. The spinning sword slashed past the rock, and several slashes cut Lhyna up. No massive wounds, only superficial, before Lhyna kicked on the gravitational pull.

Again, everything was suspended dozens of feet into the air. Lantorn surrounded herself with a sphere of air and charged Lhyna. Lhyna jumped onto the side of a rock and ran up a 110 degree angle. Lantorn ran up to meet her, but Lhyna turned the pull off.

All things fell, and Lantorn shoved the sword into the rock's surface, before she stood on the flat part. She jumped and reached for Lhyna, but Lhyna slapped her across the face with claws on her cheek. Lantorn fell, grabbed the sword, used a burst of wind. Lhyna reared up before a slash cut her head off, still, Lantorn did a drop kick to Lhyna's chest forcing her to fall.

Lhyna fell spine first onto a concrete block and she fell to her side again. Lhyna shot several pink string out from her claws at various rocks as she pulled them around her, like she was a moon.

She was the planet, the rocks were the moon. It felt perfect as the rocks spun around her. Lantorn stood back.

Lhyna propelled the rocks with the psychic magic. The sword hovered over Lantorn. She used it to spin around and slashed the rocks in half before they reached her. Next, she crackled with electricity and used the rocks as platforms.

Lhyna watched Lantorn, whose body was lit up and armored. Lantorn struck Lhyna with the armor, once, twice, as many times as she could by first hitting Lhyna's side, then rocketing back onto a rock. The rocks fell and the barrage ended.

Lantorn stood in front of Lhyna, and Lhyna gave a slap to Lantorn again to knock her down. Lhyna collapsed to her side, burns running across her. She could feel her form twitching, as the lightning tried to hijack her. She stood up again.

Some rocks wrapped around Lhyna's tail, and formed a sword. She whipped her tail around and went at Lantorn's throat, but the Sword of Winds locked in to form an x. Lhyna released and kept slashing.

The two fenced each other, with Lhyna having to look back as it was her tail that was armed. Lhyna conjured more rocks, and formed more swords, before slashing.

Lantorn watched the swords swirl around her. Her swordfight skills parried several blows, but the flat of a sword caught her in the head, and blood leaked. When it came to a blood wound on the head, the sucker bled a lot. Still, Lantorn, being a construct, bled liquid light which oozed. Lhyna straightened the swords, and all came at her.

Lantorn avoided evolving into ShiskaLantorn by jumping up. The sword pierced into the ground, and she stood, in a delicate way, atop the structure of swords.

Lhyna wondered what it would take to off Lantorn. Her own student had beaten her. She had no tricks left in her bag, no skills left in her mind. Lantorn had it all.

Then again, there was the fact that a hundred sleeping bodies stood near. Lhyna used the gravitational pull of the moon one last time, and Lantorn heard the rushing of water.

Lantorn jumped up onto more fallen temples until she got onto a still standing pillar while Lhyna jumped on a rival column. The wetness touched the crowd, and woke them up.

Lhyna grinned and said, "Now, watch them all fall in fear with each other." They locked eyes with each other, all seeing each be conjured as a beast of horror, and then they fought.

Hyenas into wolves, butting against the other. Crimsons fighting off Violats. The grin turned to a look of shock, as Lhyna saw them all war.

"This is not right," Lhyna said. "They were supposed to run. I know they would run. They were supposed to worship their gods."

Lantorn said, "Fight or flight, Lhyna, they chose fight."

Lhyna growled. "You knew this would happen. You knew this would happen, and you thought not to say it? They are going to die because of this."

Lantorn looked back, shrugged, and said, "You fell. Now you know that you fought in fear. You tried to do it all to be a goddess again. You thought all would worship you. The wolves will not worship you again, nor the crimsons. I think you should leave it at this."

Black lines ran down Lhyna, like the vines that glowed on Lantorn. Lhyna shook her head. "No, this is not how it will end."

A blue gem rose into the air. It glowed, and Lhyna said, "The Eater of Planets is lurking, and if they will not act as they should, they will die to him."

Lantorn watched the Eater of Planet's form into a rough wolf shape, before a fist came and punched it across the jaw.

Arber stood again, broken and battered, but still kicking. He jumped up and brought his knee into the Eater of Planet's face before picking up the still forming monster and throwing it into a pillar. Arber ran and did an elbow drop on the Eater of Planet's, then a jump up, and crashed his whole body weight onto it.

Lhyna injected her black lines into the ground and they wrapped around into the forces. The lines covered the area, and she said, "It was a bad idea, I'll admit, but I fix it now."

The fear increased and they started fighting harder. She kept it up, trying to get them to retreat, but instead, they fought harder.

Lantorn said, "Fear is not the answer, why are you doing this? Are you trying to appease her?" Lhyna felt like telling Lantorn to shut up. Lantorn only told the truth, and Lhyna knew she would fail the jump, and get cut up. "It's time to give up."

Then, a rainbow colored wave spread past the area. The black lines faded as the rainbow fell over all of the fighters. They saw each other clear again, and they stopped the fight.

Lhyna's white form faded back into yellow, and her black lines went away. The vines from all floated into spheres and whisked away. Lantorn saw even the Planet Eater take a rest. It was all done now.

Lhyna stared over at the masses. "I think I have something to say. I feel right now. Like I know who I am again. I think we need to know who I was." The masses seemed mixed on whether to listen or whether to take a potshot at her and kill her. The favor of the crowd went to letting her talk. "I met someone who offered me power. I was afraid I was to be a lost nature spirit, and you all would forget who I was. I let part of that grow."

Vanos, sober again from the wave, said, "I was with Lhyna. I was with this real Lhyna, not that beast. She is, well, she means well." Vanos nodded as he agreed with what he was saying. That sounded about right in that she never had the intent of harm in her brain. "She tries to do good."

Lhyna tilted her head, and told Vanos, "Thanks Vanos for the help." Her tone came out flat as she knew what he meant.

Vanos asked, "What was with those black lines?"

Lhyna said, "There is a force like the three traits. There is one that is the opposite, and there is one that is fear. I was fear and now it has gone away like that. May we all know peace for good."

Lantorn stared at Lhyna, and at the crowd. "I think now we can heal who we are, and maybe we can move forward?"

Lhyna told Lantorn, "That is what I feel too. I know that you and I were good friends. I know that you are wounded by what she did. By what I did."

Lantorn said, "You still will struggle with your feelings, right? I can be the light that guides you." She whirled the sword around with the mental link between the sword and its current wielder. She said, "I still have one thing to say."

Lhyna allowed her to speak.

"I'd rather watch you die by now." Lantorn slashed the sword at Lhyna. The lightning crashed into Lhyna and the wind blasted her away into a pool of water. The lightning would cause paralysis and she would drown. Lantorn stared at the sword, dripping with fluid.

"She was, why did you, Lantorn, what was that?" Vanos stared at the sword, as Lantorn jumped from her pillar and onto the ground.

The sword flew around Lantorn before it went to her back. "I did what I felt was right. Now that she is dead, we have less to think about."

Arber took a step back as the light formed, not needing to prevent its birth now. "I think it's about to hatch, Lantorn."

Vanos stood next to Mynt, and they stood with the old ice cream pack. But the wave of rainbows grew again, and something came from the rubble in a sphere of rainbows.

It was Ahmond, it was Lilu, it was Kyofi, and it was Rosod. With that came a beast that looked like a wolf. She was colored like space itself. A sleek black coat, with star patterns. She had a star shaped crest on her head, and from it came orange, purple, and green tassels. Her tails split into red, yellow, and blue too.

Then the creature from the gem formed and it was a wolf with an orange back but was white under, and was plump like a planet.

Lantorn ran over to the jewelled beast, and said, "I now welcome you to a being I rule over as the Goddess of the Winds." She stared at the other beast, and said, "I guess that's what you turned into Mosor."

Mosor stared down and said, "No, not Mosor. My name is Prisom. I am the Will, the Depend, the Empath, and the Mosor fused. I am the traits, and I am who the goddess of Lightning made to fight you. I am the one to seal you." She focused on Lantorn and the other wolf.

The other wolf said, "My name is Eclypse and what is going on?" He stared at the others, and at Lantorn. "I am not serving any of you."

Lantorn blinked and Eclypse walked down. The aisle cleared as all eyed him, but he sang a tune and walked away, without much to say.

Lantorn said, "I guess Lhyna thought it out less than I thought. I should have thought that part out." Arber stood next to her, and Lantorn stared up at Prisom. "Is this the part where we run? I feel like it's time to exit stage left." She turned to run but Prisom stamped the floor.

A pink wave came out and went into Lantorn. Prisom said, "I will be seeing who you are, and its time to know why you lived in fear, Lantorn."