Reign of Darkness Part 7 Guns of Death ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sorry for the wait, this was the hardest battle to think up. I have actually got all points of the final battle done, i just needed to get past this one. Casings and Death, the brothers. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Does this hallway go on forever?" Ray kept walking as he answered, "Kun and Cordran always loved the use of long dramatic hallways. I don't know why, I guess they thought it brought fear into their opponents. They were also two to do things with a little class." He shrugged as he continued walking. Abbie yawned, then was tackled by Ray. "What? Does yawning turn you on baby?" "No, but if I hadn't knocked you down," he held out a bullet, "this would be down your throat." Abbie looked at it in horror, "I didn't hear or sense it comming. What it is?" Ray inspected it, "A high velocity silent shell. Experimented with by the Guardians, they perfected it. It was supposed to just be R&D stuff, though. I barely was able to sense it's movements, and those were when it skipped in and out of the Vortex." Another shell flew right at them, but Ray was able to catch it with ease. From down the hallway walked a lone man holding a pistol. "Very good, Chosen One. Not many can even detect silent shells, let alone block and identify them. I must say I am rather impressed. As for introductions, I am known as Casings; the weapons master," The man said in a heavy Australian accent. He motioned to a door on the side of the hallway, "Shall we? And you don't have to worry about your lady-friend, my brother and I are, more refined, than our companions. We fight with honor. That, and we know that you have the power of a god, so we wish to fight you on more even ground. If you chose to accept, I will challenge you to a battle of weapons, and my brother Death, will fight you in a match of energy. Do you accept our humble challenge?" Ray stood in a state of mild shock, this was not what he expected from the final two members of Cordran's "cabinet." But, it was refreshing, and for some reason he felt inclined to believe them. "Alright, I'll give you a chance. It's been a long time since someone wanted to challenge me with the intent of actually challenging me. I accept your offer." He followed Casings into the room, which turned out to be a massive arena. "Here are the rules, you can use any weapon you choose, but they must be standard issue. I know you have a GUN, so please, don't use it in the sake of fairness." Casings stood 20 paces away with his hand over his holster. Ray's eyes narrowed, and simultaniously drew his gun with Casings. The bullets flew straight into each other and canceled out, but the two warriors were not in the same spot anyway. Ray flashed in and out of sight, firing his pistol with obscene accuracy, but Casings was just out of sight every time he fired. Casings finally got a good bead on Ray and knicked his shoulder. "OW! Grrr, EAT THIS!" Ray opened a portal and pulled out two heavy blaster units. Casings lept into the air and performed an inverted triple axle with a dual front flip and landed behind Ray and fired a mini-rocked from his wrist. Ray dodged at the last second, but the shell hit the reactor powering the blasters, detonating it. Ray was able to move fast enough to grab Abbie and get out of the blast radius, but Casings stood where he was and activated a shield to protect him. When the flames died down, Casings drew a Caster and fired a number 9 shell at Ray. "A CASTER! I don't have time to power up a shield, so, here goes nothing!" He held out his right hand a gauntlet appeared on it. In the center was a glowing saphire surrounded by three small rubies. From the saphire opened three wing shaped shields just in time to block the incoming attack. "Nice work Casings, a Caster. But, not many things from any dimension can plow through the Wings of the Lighthawk." Casings looked at him puzzled, "But, your not Jurian. How can you use thier power?" Ray pointed to Abbie as Kouesi reverted to Human form. "Easy, that other girl is my Jurian ship merged with my Dimensional Cruiser. With her connection to the Vortex, I can open three of her six Lighthawk wings with my key, this gauntlet." Death stood at a distance and clapped silently. "He is good, dear brother. And the Wings of the Lighthawk, that's something I wasn't able to predict. His mastery of guns is impressive, but don't let him switch to blades on you. I know only Cordran and the other three like him can match his sword skills." Casings was growing tired of this, Ray was good, very good. He was better than Casings had ever dreamed of. It was time to get underhanded. "You are supposed to be an honorable warrior, honor is not in a weapon, it is in the man. Let's throw down our weapons and fight as men!" Ray was leary of what the fiend was trying to do, but, he knew he could win in hand to hand combat, so this wasn't a big problem. "Fine Casings, we'll play your way." Ray held his gun out at arms length, and motioned for Casings to do the same. At the same time they dropped their guns, Casings fired from a fusion cannon hidden in his sleeve, while Ray quick-drew GUN. The turbines in his weapon came to speed and ionized the shell, the Vortex crystal powered up and the shell shot out with enough velocity to knock Ray back. The two beams collided in mid air, but GUN's shell was too powerful and obsorbed the energy from Casing's attack and hit Casings dead between his eyes, killing him. Death watched in horror as his brother died in such a horrendous way. The anger welled inside him, causing his body to change as he transformed into a super-human. Ray sat back on the floor for a few seconds to catch his breath. "I knew he had some trick up his sleeve, but I didn't expect it to litterally be up his sleeve. I give him props for that, but, I'm just glad I kept GUN armed." Without warning Ray threw Abbie high in the air and swatted away an energy blast headed toward them. "WHO'S THERE?" Out of the ground ascended a black hooded figure carrying a sythe. "I am Death. You have killed my brother, now, you shall join him!" Death said nothing else as another blade appeared on the other end of his sythe and it seperated in the center with a chain between the two halves. Ray drew his sword, but felt something strange emenating from Death. He shrugged it off and attacked with a great fury. Ray swiped his sword at Death, but was blocked by his sythe. Death in turn twirled one end of his sythe and threw it at Ray. Ray was able to dodge it, but was hit in the head with an energy blast. Ray smiled, but then he felt something coming out of the wound. "Blood? He actually drew blood?" Looking down at Death, Ray grew angry at this simpleton. "YOU DARE TO SCAR ME?" Ray detached the auxilary blades from his sword and threw them. Death stood still and let them hit him .... and they passed right through! "HAHAHAHAHAHAH! You can't kill me by physical means," Death threw open his robe, revealing a skeleton held together by pure energy, "I am an energy-based lifeform now!" Ray flew back a few feet in horror. "So, when you went superhuman, your body couldn't handle the power and thus destroyed it. fortunatly, my main fighting power comes from energy!" Without warning, seven rings appeared on his fingers, and his sword turned back to pure energy: "With the power of evil and hatred, with the calling of death and destruction, and with the power of the Dimensional Vortex: I SUMMON THE BLADE OF DARKNESS!" The Blade of the Chosen One and the Sword of Darkness appeared, but instead of combining at the hilt, they combined blades, forming a 7 foot long black sword with a purple spike running up the center. The two auxillary blades sprung out at their 60 degree angles. "This sword is pure energy in physical appearance. So DODGE THIS!" Ray flew at full speed and put a clean slice in Death's gut. But, Deat healed instantly and laughed. "Pitiful mortal, is that the best you can do?" Death sprung up and put his fist through Ray's stomach. As he fell to the ground, Ray transformed to Chosen One. When he landed, Ray transformed to Ultimate Chosen One. "You're stronger than I gave you credit for. But, I'm stronger than you'll ever be. This form allows me the greatest use of the energy based attacks!" Ray held out a hand forming a ball of power with it: CLUSTER BOMB!" The beam fired and split into a hundred small orbs of power, then Ray started firing more beams that did the same till the room was covered in them. Death looked around boredly, "Is this the best you can do?" "No, those are to keep you in place, get within six inches of any of them and they'll all go boom. But Death lauged again, "Nice try." Death flew right up to one of them, detonating all of them. When the smoke cleared, Ray searched for him, but he was nowhere to be found. "Where did he..." Dodging at the last second, Death appeared out of the Vortex swinging his sythe at Ray's head. Ray was not going to let his source of power help this fiend. Ray shoved his sword into the air and swung it around in a sphere around him: "CIRCLE OF DESTRUCTION!" Reality ripped apart and the room was opened up to the Vortex. Ray found Death in an instant and charged him, Ray fist began to glow with power and he used the now present Vortex energy to increase his power. "VORTEX PUNCH!" Ray nailed Death in the chest with his fist, and the power fired out, opening a hole that covered half of Death's chest. Ray then charged his sword with energy. "VORTEX CUT!" He sliced death vertically, horizantaly, and at both diagnles. He then shoved it in the hole in Death, then detonated it. "How, how can I be losing?" Ray stood over the fallen death, "Because your no longer a man, you died with your body, this, is just a shell." Ray stood back and his body began to glow, "I have gained balance with my physical and energy halves. That is why I can transition forms at will." Ray's body became pure Vortex energy, "Now you will see my ultimate attack as the Chosen One: VORTEX DRAGON!" Ray became a massive serpentine energy dragon, then he rolled down with his mouth open and swallowed Death whole. Death's final attempt to save himself was to fire an energy attack. But Ray swallowed him anyway, "Hmmm, salsa. Just what i needed with that bland personality." Cordran stood up and looked on in disgust at this display of power. "You were always one to do things with style, Chosen One. But, I must say, that even impressed me. Using your Vortex form to become an energy beast. Most impressive. I now look foreward to killing you, if nothing else than to prove I am the most powerful being in the omni-verse!" A stab of pain surged through Cordran's black heart, "MY MASTER! WHY DO YOU TORTURE ME? SATAN, MY LORD, FORGIVE MY INSULENCE! I WILL DESTROY HIM, I WILL! THEN WE CAN STORM THE GATES OF HEAVEN!" The pain subsided, and Cordran fell to the ground. "When I defeat the Chosen one, I will take his power with my own, and then, Dark Lord, I will take your place, and take controll of the World, then Heaven itself!" --------------------------------------------------------- FINALLY! It's about damn time I finished off the Six. Now, on to Cordran. These should go by a lot faster from now on. 3 More parts of Reign of Darkness.