The Light blazes with a furious golden-white fire, brightening all the world with its shining power. It is a banner, a beacon, a call, and a challenge not to be denied.
All the others find themselves battling nothing but mist and fog, as well as their own memory and fear. Over everything an awful and suffocating silence falls, blotting out all other sound as the Dark draws to itself everything that it can, everything that it is, and every scrap of power that it can build.
The built malice of thousands upon thousands of years of the Dark, now free from restraint and augmented to a degree by the wild anger and hatred that the White Rider had evoked, pulls together into one tall column of malevolence, poised and waiting.
And then it moves toward them, toward Will Stanton where he stands with his arm thrown up and the crossed-circle scar burning like cold fire before the fallen form of Bran Davies, in whose hand Caliburn lies sparking still, toward the winged shining figure that stands behind Merriman Lyon, here at the last now as he had been at the first, so long ago.
It comes for them in a murderous spinning pillar of fury, towering and wild , and the promise of the destruction of all existence is clear in its existence and seething chaos--
--and it falls upon them, striking with all its power at the burning golden shield held up in the Light's defiance and absolute renunciation of the Dark.
It is said that only the Dark can destroy the Dark. That, in itself, is true.
But it is no less true that the Dark's power can be broken, and that breaking does not differ greatly from destruction. For the Dark is destruction, the all-consuming need to rend and tear and annihilate, and never is that threat of annihilation greater than when Light and Dark are in direct, open conflict...as they are now.
The spell that Merriman has worked into the golden shield is a spell specifically designed to break the power of the Dark. He has used it once before, against the White Rider's colleague. He had nearly used it on one other previous occasion against the Mordred of his own world, in a last desperate defence of his lord Arthur -- but had stayed his hand, at the last moment. Both occasions were moments of dire need.
As is this one.
The Dark strikes the shield with a force almost beyond mortal comprehension. Everything that the White Rider of the Dark was and everything that the White Rider of the Dark wished upon all of creation is focused in that single blast of power. It is the crushing weight of despair and the blind rage of murderous fury, the twisted pain of betrayal and the choking nausea of terror, seeking to consume its greatest enemy.
For a moment no longer than a heartbeat, there is a gaping sense of nothing --
the high joyous sound of many bells ringing
-- and then there is a great flash of searing Light, and the world turns in on itself in a soundless explosion.
Black mist and blinding fire: the pure burning light of star-fire, the heart of the sun and the heart of light and Light, and the horrible howling malice of the darkness beyond. Merriman is glowing with power, and the same pale half-seen light swirls around Will, but they are both obscured by the white-gold radiance of the One's Champion.
The air is thick with gathering power. For the Dark, the Dark is falling to crush them all, and the Light is rising as in the last defense it ever has and ever will.
"Get down," Will cries hoarsely, and the wind tears away his words. He has no idea whether anyone else has heard, and no attention to spare for it, because the Dark is plummeting with a pressing weight like iron, and there is a hollow feeling of free-fall, of non-existant ground rushing up to meet him--
Not the oppressive, unnatural silence of the rising Dark...but rather the exhausted yet tranquil silence that remains when a great storm has vented all of its fury, and is no more.
He is, of course, both there and not-there. An observer, only, for he feels no need to join in. The fight is a personal one, and thus, isn't his business, is none of his concern.
But even he is not expecting the results. The sudden light. The palpable absence afterwards.
Shock is an emotion he had long since done away with, and, in this moment, is like a physical blow to him. His cold, blue eyes narrow immediately; his mouth opens as if he were about to utter a curse, hastily bitten back. It cannot...
He did not know it could be done.
His lips curl in a silent snarl of malice and contempt, unseen but directed at everyone involved, and the Black Rider is gone.
All the others find themselves battling nothing but mist and fog, as well as their own memory and fear. Over everything an awful and suffocating silence falls, blotting out all other sound as the Dark draws to itself everything that it can, everything that it is, and every scrap of power that it can build.
The built malice of thousands upon thousands of years of the Dark, now free from restraint and augmented to a degree by the wild anger and hatred that the White Rider had evoked, pulls together into one tall column of malevolence, poised and waiting.
And then it moves toward them, toward Will Stanton where he stands with his arm thrown up and the crossed-circle scar burning like cold fire before the fallen form of Bran Davies, in whose hand Caliburn lies sparking still, toward the winged shining figure that stands behind Merriman Lyon, here at the last now as he had been at the first, so long ago.
It comes for them in a murderous spinning pillar of fury, towering and wild , and the promise of the destruction of all existence is clear in its existence and seething chaos--
--and it falls upon them, striking with all its power at the burning golden shield held up in the Light's defiance and absolute renunciation of the Dark.
Reply
But it is no less true that the Dark's power can be broken, and that breaking does not differ greatly from destruction. For the Dark is destruction, the all-consuming need to rend and tear and annihilate, and never is that threat of annihilation greater than when Light and Dark are in direct, open conflict...as they are now.
The spell that Merriman has worked into the golden shield is a spell specifically designed to break the power of the Dark. He has used it once before, against the White Rider's colleague. He had nearly used it on one other previous occasion against the Mordred of his own world, in a last desperate defence of his lord Arthur -- but had stayed his hand, at the last moment. Both occasions were moments of dire need.
As is this one.
The Dark strikes the shield with a force almost beyond mortal comprehension. Everything that the White Rider of the Dark was and everything that the White Rider of the Dark wished upon all of creation is focused in that single blast of power. It is the crushing weight of despair and the blind rage of murderous fury, the twisted pain of betrayal and the choking nausea of terror, seeking to consume its greatest enemy.
For a moment no longer than a heartbeat, there is a gaping sense of nothing --
the high joyous sound of many bells ringing
-- and then there is a great flash of searing Light, and the world turns in on itself in a soundless explosion.
Reply
The air is thick with gathering power. For the Dark, the Dark is falling to crush them all, and the Light is rising as in the last defense it ever has and ever will.
"Get down," Will cries hoarsely, and the wind tears away his words. He has no idea whether anyone else has heard, and no attention to spare for it, because the Dark is plummeting with a pressing weight like iron, and there is a hollow feeling of free-fall, of non-existant ground rushing up to meet him--
(all shall find the Light at last)
and the world goes white.
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(lux aeterna luceat eis)
There is no sense of pain, for even that burns away in the face of the Light within and the Light without.
(et lux perpetua luceat eis)
And then, suddenly, there is no sense of impact.
(nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine,
secundum verbum tuum in pace)
But finally there is silence.
Not the oppressive, unnatural silence of the rising Dark...but rather the exhausted yet tranquil silence that remains when a great storm has vented all of its fury, and is no more.
Reply
But even he is not expecting the results. The sudden light. The palpable absence afterwards.
Shock is an emotion he had long since done away with, and, in this moment, is like a physical blow to him. His cold, blue eyes narrow immediately; his mouth opens as if he were about to utter a curse, hastily bitten back. It cannot...
He did not know it could be done.
His lips curl in a silent snarl of malice and contempt, unseen but directed at everyone involved, and the Black Rider is gone.
Reply
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