[Conquest AT] The Weeping Eye of Obscurity

Impressive. Annoying, but impressive.

Only one other person had ever been able to dilute the storm like that. Amara. And she was dead at the time. Easier to deflect blows when your body didn’t need to be preserved in the same way. Erebos chuckled wordlessly, turning on his heel to stare up at the man who’d just teleported behind him.

”Flattered yet?”

Erebos noticed it after he spoke. That was his normal voice? The shadows that made up his body suddenly whisked themselves away on the wind, and he felt a cold chill in his chest. It abandoned him. The spell was still incomplete— still useless!

He panted. Finally, he began to feel the sharp effects of overworking himself. Even so, he did not break his gaze with the demon. He knew both of them were at the brink.

”All that fancy footwork, and yet you still haven’t knocked the smile off my face. Are you sure you actually want to suck the nectar from that grand portal of yours?”

Tapping his sword on the ground impatiently, he took a step back and held his arms out to leave himself wide open.

”Why don’t you try an attack for once? I’m tired of poking you to do something.”

---

The battle began again in dizzying fashion. Despite the pain, he could tell both of them had slowed down. It seemed even their wounds were evenly matched. How dramatic!

Erebos weaved and bobbed, dancing backwards as he laughed. Speed was his specialty. If he could keep this up, force Kamae to get angry? There was a chance. Slim. Impossibly slim, but it was there. And that was enough.

”Try as you might, there’s no stopping me. If you couldn’t toss me to the abyss when you had all the stamina in the world, what makes you think you can touch me now that you’re crawling toward death’s doormat?”

Leaning back further than he should have, the Demon fell backwards, sinking through the floor to evade the next barrage of attacks. With a quick pop, he reappeared behind Kamae, a tap of his sword to get the other’s attention.

”What do you think they’re talking about over there?” He nodded toward the other combatants. ”I bet it’s something quaint.”

With a flourish, he pulled his hands close to his chest, and shrank their arena. Where once their battleground spanned a city block, it now stretched little more than a single street across. Less avenues to run. Little breathing room. The perfect way to bring the battle closer to its end.

---

Erebos felt a tingle in his ears. A sensation he hadn’t felt in ages. Danger was never something he concerned himself with, but, faced with such incredible powers, he wondered if perhaps the twitching of his ears might be an internal danger sense. An odd feature, but Demons were odd.

”I’ll pull back the curtain and admit you’ve pushed me further than most.” He let out a single huff, which sounded almost like a laugh. ”If I wasn’t about to behead you, I’d congratulate you.”

His eyes glanced across the city again. Crotona’s Ki was beginning to falter. No good. No good at all. This duel was one thing, but if he had to face both of these cretins in combat at the same time? Running away wasn’t outside of his vocabulary, but the chance might not come.

Why did he feel so concerned? He should’ve been soaring on a high right about now! Cackling as he hacked Kamae to bits! Then why, why was he considering running?

The whistle of steel came forth, and Erebos began his own attack. Simple, practiced swings. Easy to dodge, but one’s his foe couldn’t just ignore.

”I’m getting kinda bored here. Wanna speed this up a bit?”

---

Clash. Flying sparks. The rumbling of distressed earth. Erebos and Kamae’s clash began for the final time, their attacks sliding off one another as if they were destined to fight forever. The Demon was frustrated at this stalemate. Speed against strength, matched so impeccably that it was almost sickening.

Evasion was one thing, but this couldn’t last. The dam was soon to break, though whom the water would drown was still undecided. It wasn’t a question anymore, though; Erebos was indeed on the back foot. After his last barrage, he still felt the pains of heavy breaths. No good. No good at all.

But he had to try something. Anything, to push his foe to act. Erebos punched his foe’s spear away, the gauntlet clanking like a bell signaling the end.

In the briefest moment between swings, Erebos backstepped, flinging his blade out with a backward leap. It hissed with shadowy energy, killer intent bleeding through the nocturnal substance.

”Come on, then! Make this a story worth remembering! Something the history books won’t deny!”

Tumbling back, he somersaulted backward and landed on one knee, watching, waiting, to see how Kamae would try to end things.

---

His heart pounded in his ears as blast after blast came his way. With his sword snapped, his defensive capabilities were quartered. Normally, he’d have just summoned a new one. But fatigue was deep set, and the onslaught of blasts did not falter. Gasps and grunts escaped him as he bobbed and weaved, with nary a quip to be heard.

Was he losing?

With a clap of his hands, his body dematerialized, allowing the first blast to phase right through him. With so little stamina left, he was forced to materialize again, and push against the next attack. It hissed against his hands, eliciting pained grunts as it pushed him further and further back.

Maybe. Maybe if he had more power. More dexterity. More tricks up his sleeve. Anything. Everything.

But he couldn’t think of a plan with what he had left. The next bolt fired upon him moments after he pushed the first away, impacting against his chest and sending him onto his back.

The disc shuddered beneath them.

Erebos stood back up, pain etched across his body. His hair was wild and unkempt, strands flowing this way and that. Blood trickled onto the floor from his freshest wound, and bits of his armor fell to the wayside as he got to his feet.

This was it. His last chance.

He took a step forward and—

No. He didn’t. Why? He just decided he’d done so, so why not?

Without realizing it, he’d fallen to a knee, and then the other buckled.

”W-what?” He stared at his hands. They shook uncontrollably. Pain didn’t quite register the right way about now.

”This doesn’t… No. I’m not supposed to…”

Vision began to blur.

”Lose…?”

The last thing he felt was his head hit the disc.

In the moments after he lost consciousness, the platform the both of them stood on lost shape. With no Shadowmancer to command it, the shadows began to return to their homes.

Other shadows did the same. Hundreds of little wisps, carried in Erebos’ wristguards, pockets, scarf— all of them slicked free and began to travel the infinite galaxy above and find themselves a well-deserved slumber. They earned it, after all.

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