The King Loader provided the leverage the group needed to make their dynamic entry into Chelica's lair. One by one, each of the Slayers made their entrance, and when they went in, they were surprised with what they saw. Everything was organized neatly, though it was a rather dark atmosphere, with an evil miasma engulfing the area, though it didn't affect Etainne and her friends, Elatha did look around his surroundings carefully, and soon he noticed an evil presence, there were demons abound, and there were a lot of them. Taillte wanted to move forward, but Elatha warned her not to move, for there was a trap abound, and Taillte fell backwards on her bottom, causing a sound from somewhere, it seemed like a laugh. Elatha's suspicions were confirmed, a demon was nearby, laughing at Taillte's clumsiness. Etainne grumbled, putting forward her crystal ball, and causing lasers to shoot forth from it, hitting some demons hiding behind the pillars. Etainne sighed, pointing at the mass of demons ahead of them. The group of demons were many, and it seemed that this would be the beginning of a very rough clash, and this would be the start of one of Etainne's toughest and greatest battles yet. The battle against Chelica, the face off against her enemy, it would seem that after this, they still had to take care of the Wayfarer. Maximm stayed back, taking aim at demons that came charging at the group, and also tried to take out demons who were attacking the others from behind. The demons who were getting picked off by Maximm exploded in a gory display of black blood, unlike their radiant explosions in the outside world, he realized that this must be their true essence, an amalgamation of evil blood and essence. Clive's powerful axe drove through the numbers, accompanied by Tellus' mighty fists and Taillte's quick maneuvers with the spear, as the demons still kept charging at them in droves. The demons were mostly the same in appearance, though in the outside world they seemed to have different visages. This confounded Gilthan, who was constantly lobbing hexes and flame spells at the demons who were entering, to stop reinforcements from overwhelming them. He was assisted by Katatonia's mastery over the icy depths, and the boy magician created walls of ice to prevent passage. The demons were confounded with the icy walls, instead they used their primitive thinking processes to find ways around the walls, only Katatonia had completely sealed them in, so they were stuck there for a while. Elatha and Cu Sith were on their lonesomes, slicing and dicing through the enemy ranks with their blades out and about, and it was a deadly display of force. Eine was also using her hammer to smash groups of demons at a time, and the wave of enemies was slowly diminishing. Eventually, the only enemies that remained were those trapped in the ice walls, which Gilthan quickly disposed of with his mighty spells. The room was completely clean, and all they could hear was the echo of darkness.
Etainne motioned for everyone else to follow her forward, it seemed there was only one way to go, and that was onwards. The lair of Chelica was big and vast, and it seemed that in every room there was a place for a massive battle to occur, and considering that Chelica had asked for a defensive, it was more than likely to occur. Etainne warned everyone to stay alert. The dark miasma intensified around them as the group continued their way forward. Taillte and Cu Sith kept an eye out for any stray demons, and so they realized that there were no demons around them. Tellus looked in the distance and saw the next antechamber, and realized that a circle of demons were there once more, but they weren't the small fry that they faced earlier. These demons were larger. Tellus said they were about five times her own size, and Tellus was a giant herself, she could probably beat Maximm in a fist fight given the right conditions. Etainne sighed and asked the Mor'righain woman how many there were. Tellus hesitated to answer for a moment and gave her very dreadful and mournful answer.
"There are as many of them as there are us."
"Stop beating around the bush."
"8."
Etainne sighed and looked into the distance, and counted the silhouettes she saw. They stood out as there was a lamp in the middle of the antechamber, and then she saw that there were indeed, eight hulking demons standing in a circle. Elatha said there was no use but to outmaneuver the demons and strike all over. Katatonia cleared his throat, he said the best way to dispose of a large group of large demons is to distribute the pain rather than to focus on one, as focusing on one tends to confuse the aggressor and it leaves more of the enemy healthy to act, instead it would be wiser to weaken all of them bit by bit until they lack the energy to fight, and then finish them off with whatever means they have at their disposal. Gilthan nodded, his son had grown very much since they last properly did something like this. Soon, the group entered the chamber to meet their adversary, it was indeed a group of eight large hulking demon minotaur. Each of the minotaur wielded a different weapon to correspond to the group's own. Katatonia's suggestion would be crucial here, as focusing on one of the demons meant the others could use the strengths of their weapons to decimate them. Katatonia grinned to himself, muttering "I told you so." before beginning with the first strike, rolling to the side and casting a spell, it was a field of glacier to cover the arena, making it easier to see, and harder for the enemy to maneuver properly with their large size. Gilthan gave a thumbs up, but Katatonia warned his father not to abuse the spells of flame, lest the glacial tundra give way. Gilthan nodded and restricted himself to debilitating hexes, weaking each and every minotaur with deadly hexes, as everyone else weathered the minotaurs down. Maximm was in the corner, shooting the minotaur with a slingshot. First, he aimed at its arms, causing it to drop the slingshot and yelp in pain, before shooting it once more in the head. Yet, it still lived. Maximm gasped for a moment, this was the first demon that survived a shot to the head! Maximm growled and shot at the minotaur's head again, it lived once more. Soon, the minotaur was close to Maximm, and it roared fiercely, a drop of its saliva fell on the man's head. Maximm remained calm and aimed another shot to the minotaur's head, and pulled the trigger.
BOOM! HEADSHOT!
The demon fell backwards, one had been felled. Maximm gave a thumbs up sign to Katatonia and Gilthan, who smiled. Maximm reloaded and began to distribute his fire to the other minotaurs. Elatha tussled with a minotaur wielding a zweihander. The prince knew that he could not win this fight with brute force alone, he needed to use his wits and his shield in order to counter the minotaur's deadly blows. Elatha maneuvered quickly, passing through beneath the great demon's legs, and jamming his sword into its legs. The minotaur roared, feeling pain, kneeling, but it still could fight, and it swung its sword in front blindly, yet Elatha was already behind him, the prince clung to its back and drove his weapon through the demon's neck, causing him to make a bloodcurdling scream, and it too, joined its fallen ally. Elatha grunted and ran off to help Eine, who was having some trouble. The girl could easily evade the massive maul the demon here held, but her own hammer was having trouble causing damage to the minotaur's tough skin. However, before Elatha could make it, both a gun shot and a dagger hit the minotaur's face. The bullet hit its right eye, the dagger stuck to its left. It screamed horrifically, inciting fear within all, but it fell to the ground, and Eine was empowered, soon she smashed her hammer down on the demon's head with such force and invigoration that it exploded. Eine cheered to herself silently and saw that Katatonia was maintaining his spell, but there was a minotaur holding a giant spiked mace approaching the boy. With anger, the charged at the minotaur, and her hammer suddenly enlarged in size as she ran, and eventually, at some point, it became so huge, her swing caused the giant mace in the demon's hand to get knocked away, and then snap in half. The mace was also made of steel. The demon growled, it was confused, but before it could regain its wits, it was knocked down with the force of Eine's giant hammer. Elatha ran to that demon and stabbed it straight in the heart, and it died instantly. There were four demonic minotaurs remaining. Etainne faced a minotaur with her trusty crystal ball, and suddenly concentrated hard, she soon kept shooting an endless barrage of thin cheeto lasers at the minotaur, each laser hitting the minotaur made it flinch, and it loosened its grip on the giant flail it wielded, and after some moments, it lost its grip on it, and dropped the weapon it once held. It growled and forced itself to brave the endless barrage of lasers Etainne shot at it, but behind her, another minotaur armed with two giant scimitars was about to behead her, until someone roared fiercely, and a spear flying out of nowhere pierced right between the eyes of the demon. Taillte leapt high into the air to retrieve it, pulling out her spear and driving it like a stake into the demon's heart, like a vampire slayer. Taillte cried forth in a rage before calming down, she looked around, and saw that the demon that Etainne was shooting at had already died from the overdose of light energy. Etainne stashed away her crystal ball and dusted herself. Clive and Cu Sith were stuck facing the two toughest minotaurs, one wielded a huge demonic battle-axe and the other was coated in armor so strong Cu Sith's daggers couldn't pierce through at all!
Clive growled and motioned for Elatha to come close as he leapt back to dodge a great blow. Any attack from this demon would cause its victim's head to split and explode, indeed, it would be wise to evade its attack. Clive motioned to strike at its head, but soon, several gunshots were heard, and the demon fell backwards, it had been head shot to death by Maximm. The glacial tundra generated by Katatonia helped insanely in limiting the demon's movements. The last one was alone, in impregnable armor, and it stood still, defending itself, for it knew that it would die, the best way was to try and take enemies down with it. Gilthan coughed and flicked a hex at the demon, causing its armor to melt in its place. The demon moaned and braced itself, wildly swinging its arms, but it was quickly put down by gunshots from Gilthan and Cu Sith throwing his daggers at it. The demon fell back, and all the minotaurs were defeated. Katatonia stopped his spell, and he panted. Etainne pointed forward at the wide corridor, saying that they had to press on, even if they were tired. Gilthan agreed, saying they had to finish this job very fast. Katatonia shambled forward, he looked feverish. Eine tilted her head curiously and picked the boy up in her arms like he was a damsel in distress. Gilthan laughed, thanking her for caring so much. Gilthan at first was afraid of the relationship going awry, but he realized that Eine was so much stronger physically than Katatonia would ever be, and he would greatly benefit from her love. Maximm laughed too, accepting that love could not be stopped if it was this intense. Etainne motioned for the sappy stuff to stop and move on. Elatha sighed and told Etainne to calm down as they all ventured down the corridor. The miasma became thicker, and it eventually became harder to breathe. The one who suffered from this most was Etainne, being a spirit. She coughed. Taillte sighed worriedly and placed an arm around her, and helped her to go forward. Eventually, the group entered another chamber, this time this chamber seemed to lead to the throne room. However, a familiar face accompanied by two giant archdemons armed with scythes made himself visible. It was Chrysaos, and he was looking royally pissed. He stepped forward and growled at Etainne.
"Let's not sugarcoat this, witch," he said. "I am going to guard Chelica with my life. All of you will perish under my hand!"
"Not if I can help it," Taillte scowled back at the demon.
"Enough! It's time for you to know your place!"
Chrysaos instantly charged at Taillte, armed with a long sword, but the girl blocked his assault with her spear, and kicked the demon back, causing him to spit at her face. Taillte screamed with much anger and hatred, as Etainne calmed her down and told her that was what Chrysaos wanted. He was much better at fighting a disrupted opponent than one who knew what he or she was doing. Taillte grumbled, and soon Maximm shouted forth for Chrysaos, and shot at him. Soon, the demons armed with scythes flew from afar and stepped in, separating Etainne and Taillte from everyone else. Chrysaos laughed, saying that it was high time to even the scales. Chrysaos would fight the two who started it all, while his minions would deal with the rest. The demonic double of Chelica laughed, his sword was shining, a stark contrast to his demonic nature. Taillte growled while Etainne tried to make her friend tame her own emotions. Taillte kept her spear at the ready as Chrysaos walked nonchalantly towards her, his own sword brandished, and soon Taillte charged forth first, causing the first strike, it was by surprise, the demon did not see it coming, and so his face was scarred by Taillte's spear. Chrysaos gasped, and countered, slashing at Taillte, in fact, his blade grazed Taillte's side, and she yelped in pain, stumbling backwards. Etainne called out for Taillte, and she tried to stem the bleeding with a spell, and it worked, but Chrysaos grumbled and did not like healing in that case, he wanted to finish her! And so Chrysaos flew into the air and charged at Etainne. However, the girl was calm and quickly brandished her crystal ball, and shot lasers at Chrysaos. He was forced to maneuver away, disrupting his aim, and even so, he was damaged significantly by the lasers. Chrysaos growled, kneeling a ways away, and soon Taillte looked down on him, and raised her spear, and attempted to drive it down through his head, but he quickly retrived his sword and blocked the tip, barely, by the nick of time, and kicked her aside, knocking her into the wall. Taillte felt the impact and groaned from the pain, and tried to stand, and noticed that Chrysaos was still up and kicking. Etainne grumbled, pelting more lasers, but this time, they didn't seem to be so effective.
Meanwhile, Elatha and the others were tied up trying to deal with the two gate guardians, and their scythes were great weapons, however, there were only two of them. Eine placed the now unconscious Katatonia to the side and procured her hammer, and forcing one of the demons to lock weapons with her. The hammer collided with the scythe, and it stunned a gate guardian, who was then promptly shot to death by Maximm. The first one disappointed Eine, but she was soon almost sliced in half by the gate guardian behind her! However, Gilthan quickly muttered a spell and had her teleported to safety in the nick of time. Maximm was caught by shock for a moment, but shook his head and realized Eine was well and alive, and she was now tending to Katatonia. The second gate guard roared, but Elatha and Clive were quick to respond. Clive kept the great demon's scythe pinned to the ground, while Elatha was in a rage, stabbing the demon wherever he could drive his sword, and the gate guard succumbed to the accumulating pain, it was great, and it could not feel anything anymore, and the gate guard crashed. The rest turned to see Chrysaos braving the assault of Etainne, and soon, Chrysaos was a swordstrike away from Etainne. The spirit instantly stopped, and for the first time in her life, she felt fear. A demon like him had never been this close to her, let alone one who was very intent on driving a sword through her being. He readied his blade, but there was a cry from far away.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Taillte had risen from the rubble and driven her own spear through Chrysaos before he could attack Etainne. Chrysaos turned his head around a bit and saw the burning hatred in Taillte's eyes, he knew that he was gone now, because he felt his energy fading away. He laughed and felt every fiber of Taillte's hate through that spear, and with his last breath, and his remaining power, he uttered some very ominous words.
"Win... or lose... The Wayfarer has awoken... Ahaha..."
Then, Chrysaos faded away, his body became limp, and Taillte expelled the spear from him and looked down at his corpse, now disappearing into dust. Chelica remained in the room ahead, but Etainne couldn't help but wonder if they were too late, for Chrysaos had said that no matter the outcome of this battle, the Wayfarer had already spawned. Etainne grumbled, she definitely had reasons to be afraid now, but she had no choice but to press on, and hope that Chrysaos was just playing a very cruel joke on them. Eine shook Katatonia, but he was barely stirring. For a moment, Eine thought her lover had died, but she was relieved to see that he woke up slowly, but surely. The boy looked around him and saw Etainne and everyone else looking ahead, he opened his mouth to speak, but Eine quietened him down, telling him to conserve his energy for the fight with Chelica ahead. Katatonia nodded and stood up, but Eine stopped him, saying she was much more comfortable with carrying him around. The boy did not protest, and allowed her to carry him effortlessly, and so Eine carried him forward to join Etainne, who was now leading everyone into the last chamber, to face off against the Demon Ronin Chelica at last. It would no doubt be a hard battle, but given their luck, it may not be so hard after all, but they really couldn't say for sure. Tellus looked forward, and saw that Chelica was ahead, sitting on her throne, and accompanying her were four of those gate guards from earlier, but they looked tired. Chelica groaned and soon stood up, she could sense Tellus watching her, and yelled out for Etainne to hurry up. Etainne heard Chelica's loud and powerful voice, and soon she could feel the energy emanating from her, and she warned everyone to stay on their guard. When they entered the throne room, they could see Chelica standing, her wing still had a hole from when Maximm shot her that long time ago, and she laughed when she saw that man with a rifle, and said that she wouldn't fall for that trick anymore! Etainne grumbled and demanded an answer regarding what Chrysaos said before he died, and Chelica said she would only say if she were to be defeated in battle. "Then so be it!" Etainne said, then releasing her crystal ball and concentrating a mass amount of energy, then releasing a spread barrage of lasers, hitting everything in its way, burning through the gate guards, it seemed that this was instantaneous, so strong, so powerful, fuelled by determination, and the gate guards were incinerated. Chelica giggled, not anticipating this turn of events. She looked grim for a split second before pulling her katana from one of the nearby pillars, and pointed it forward.
"So it seemed I DID have to do this on my own. All eight of you, even with that stupid gun user, can't defeat me in my lair! I'd love to see you try!"
Maximm tried to interrupt her with a gun shot, but she saw it coming from miles away this time, and teleported, reappearing behind Maximm, and about to stab his back. Eine called for her father to watch it, but Elatha rushed forward and blocked the blow for him with his shield, and he snarled at the demoness before swiping at her, but she teleported away once more, now appearing next to a pillar which she was now leaning on, and so she laughed, saying she couldn't be defeated in this way. Etainne sighed and cast a spell, and the room became illuminated in a bright light, and so Chelica cursed. Her strength was the room, the darkness gave her power beyond all belief, but now that benefit was forcefully taken from her, she had to fight under the Slayers' terms, and she grumbled, looking at Cu Sith and Tellus, who were now eager to give someone a bruising. Maximm aimed once more at Chelica, and shot her other wing, tearing a hole in it. She squealed, and soon saw Eine carrying Katatonia, she was vulnerable, so Chelica dashed towards them, sword drawn, in an attempt to cleave both of them in two, but Etainne stood nearby, in Chelica's path, stuck a foot out, and tripped her over. Eine laughed, and so Taillte drove her foot on Chelica's back and raised her spear in the air.
"Not so strong now, ARE you, you cur?!" she asked.
Chelica laughed. "Kill me if you want, you're too late! The Wayfarer's seal is already broken. All I was... I was just a meat shield! I was buying time so the seal could be broken! As you waste time here killing my minions and I, the Wayfarer is making his appearance!"
Before Chelica could burst out in maniacal laughter, Taillte silently impaled the demoness under her foot with her spear. Taillte spat on Chelica's corpse, her face was unusually ecstatic, and so Etainne pointed towards the way out, which was the way they came in. All of them rushed out, Katatonia was now asleep in Eine's arms, and when they arrived outside, they landed on the King Loader, who proclaimed that it was as Chelica said, the sky was now darker, the Wayfarer was now alive. Etainne grumbled, indeed, they were too late, but that was where the final showdown came in. Everyone was now ready with their Constructs. Balor, the Chimaera, was also nearby, Elatha and Clive had helped in finding it, and so Elatha asked Balor why he was here, and in response, King Loader mentioned he called his friend to come and assist in the battle. With Mormegil in arms with Tlachtga, it would make the battle with the Wayfarer and the Ultimate Evil trivial mostly. But they still needed to wait for his arrival, though the Wayfarer had resurrected, he could only call his power from the center point of chaos... Which happened to be Thelesia, the entire time. Etainne asked why this was the case. The King Loader explained that this village was the place of all the demon attacks, the place of Chelica's lair's siege, the place where the Claiomh Solais was drawn, this was the place of many events. Chaos breeds from the actions of man, and from this chaos, the Wayfarer and the Ultimate Evil feeds and utilizes this energy to call upon its evil power. The Ultimate Evil was capable of devouring entire dimensions to fuel itself, it endlessly drifts across dimensions, swallowing them whole and with it the negativity of the people and animals who live in it, and from it it grows stronger, until everything that existed in the universe was gone, turned into nothingness. Etainne looked with concern at the King Loader, and wondered what was going to happen now. She wasn't even sure what the Wayfarer looked like.
The King Loader sighed and looked up at the sky. It was now pitch-black, as if under a permanent eclipse. The only light emanated from the Slayers, and it seemed Etainne was capable of putting up a spell of light for a short amount of time to provide vision. Taillte sighed and said it was time to invoke their Constructs and steel their will for what would most likely be their final battle on this land. Taillte sighed, she really didn't want to stay apart from Etainne, and pondered joining her in death, and at the same time, wondered if that was a smart idea as well. Elatha and Clive silently went to Cuculainn and Dierdre, whereas Cu Sith embarked on Crofh Cruzarch and Tellus went with the Dark Warrior Nemain. In fact, everyone except Taillte and Etainne embarked on their Constructs. Etainne looked silently into the distance and then looked down at the grass, shadowed by the darkness that came from the uprising of the Wayfarer. Taillte looked at Etainne, and then gave her a deep kiss from out of the blue. This sudden display of affection took Etainne by surprise, but she knew she was going to perish, so she could only react with a smile. Taillte looked at Etainne silently before going to invoke Lughnasadh. By now, everyone except the key player, Etainne, had invoked their Construct.
Etainne looked forward at the sky, and then sighed one last time.
She gave Thelesia one last look before she went to Tlachtga.
"I CALL YOU!! HEROIC AMALGAMATION TLACHTGA!!!"