The Primal Shadow

Mother? Lilly gazed in horror at the creature which floated above the well. She looked human but only poorly. Like a puppet which had been made by someone who knew roughly what a human was supposed to be, but had never actually seen one. She had two arms and two legs, but she was thin to the point of starvation. Her skin was pale and her eyes were dark and deep, like looking into a void. Her hair streamed behind her, merging with the living shadow which surrounded her body in a way that Lilly now realised Dusklord's shadow was but a pale copy of.

And she felt ancient. Lilly had never felt that sort of presence before even from immortals. Time radiated from her like an aura. The world around her seemed to wither and blacken as though her very presence was tearing through the layers of reality, one by one. She said nothing. She didn't need to say anything. Her mere presence did all the talking she needed.

"Enough!" Roared Dusklord, and he _did _roar it. His face was pale and his eyes glinted with a kind of anger Lilly had never seen in them before. She'd fought him many times, but even when he was losing he had been laughing. Like the whole thing was just a joke he was in on, a game he played for fun. Winners and losers didn't matter, just that you enjoyed yourself.

He was not enjoying himself now. Lilly watched as he braced, his knees bent and the shadow around him gathered close to his body. Then he pushed himself forwards, _hard. _Lilly had always known that like her, Dusklord was far stronger than a normal human. But he'd never moved as fast as he did in this moment. He shot towards his mother, his fists were balled. His shadow around him expanded and then expanded again. In an instant it became a hundred blades, then a thousand. Swords and daggers and knives of all kinds. A storm of metal **** which hurled itself at her in a constant barrage. She raised a fist and a wave of solid darkness hammered towards him. It was like a moving wall, a swiping blast of solid blackness that tore the blades from the air and shattered them.

Dusklord countered with a blast of his own darkness. Shadow tore at shadow, fighting viciously for control. The two were up close now. Lilly couldn't tell who was winning. The woman loosed a blast of un-light which made her eyes ache. Dusklord summoned a shield of darkness which melted but saved him from the ****. He loosed a series of thick tendrils which tried to bind her in place, but she severed them with a sudden flurry of her own blades. He lashed forwards with a punch but met a wall of solid darkness. A dozen spikes erupted from it and carved for his chest but he deflected them with a barrier of his own.

"You have gotten stronger, mother." Alexi growled as he dropped back to the ground. He was panting, gasping for air. The whole exchange had lasted only a few seconds. "It won't be so easy to seal you away again."

That got her. Dusklord had clearly meant to bait her into taking action and it worked. She lunged forwards suddenly, her pale fingers grasping for his throat. In an instant she'd crossed the room. Dusklord enveloped her with a blast of shadow which surrounded and engulfed her body. He held it with two hands, his face taut with focus.

"Your time is over!" He howled, "Accept your fate! We do not need gods like you!"

The shadows began to shrink, becoming smaller and smaller. The packet of darkness was constraining her, binding her. Holding her in place. Lilly felt a surge of excitement - Dusklord was winning!

Then suddenly the shadow-binding exploded. The **** of it tore her from her feet. Lilly gave a cry as she was **** back, catching herself against the floor with long instinct. Dusklord shot her a worried look but he didn't have time for anything more. His mother came roaring out of the bellowing cloud of shadows. She gestured and a horrifying un-light engulfed the place where Dusklord had been standing. He'd jumped at the last moment for as the shadow cleared Lilly saw that it had simply been erased. Like a chunk had been taken out of the world. Not destroyed, simply removed as though it had never been.

"That one's new." Dusklord commented as he rose. Wings of darkness erupted from his back. He gestured and a blade formed in each of his hands.

Then his mother came at him again. Her aura had become a thousand whips and blades, a storm of blows which rained down against him. He parried and blocked, using both the swords as well as his own aura of shadow. But hers was greater and soon enough he was being worn down.

Suddenly, a blast of shadow slammed into her from behind. The old goddess howled as Alister gestured to her.

"Don't forget me, witch. Your youngest was never your concern was he? Even now?"

Shadows clung to his form, and it looked for a moment as Dusklord did. But then they became more and more solid. They took on shape and substance, texture and weight. Far beyond what Alexi could make. Alister fashioned himself a suit of armour made of living shadow and a blade that glowed with a deep blue to its edge.

Alister joined the fight, striking towards his mother with the sword. The blade burned, it hurt to look at. It clearly had some power of its own. Dusklord laughed, the two brothers united in defiance against their creator.

Shadow met shadow and shadow. They struggled. Lilly couldn't see what was going on. Part of her was screaming that she had to intervene but she held back. She only shattered her chains. She had to pick her time. Right now it was a confused melee and she couldn't even see half of what was being done. All three of them were fighting with such speed and fury, delivering three blows for every one she could track. It would be far too easy to do more harm than good.

One thing she did quickly understand: Alister was a very good knight. He wielded the sword like it was an extension of himself, gripping it wityh two armour clad hands. He was swift and mobile, but powerful on the attack. He sued the sheer weight of the blade to cleave through his mother's wall. Barriers that held Dusklord back faltered and shattered before his ****. Lilly began to understand why Dusklord had not wanted to fight him. He was good. Even if he wasn't quite a match for his brother he'd easily be one of the most dangerous people in New Ember City back home.

One other thing she started to understand was how each of them used the same power differently. Dusklord flowed from one construct to the next. Wings, shields, blades, weapons, barriers, he never stayed with one for long. He used whatever he needed in that moment. Alister on the other hand used only few constructs, almost totally just his armour and his blade. But they were solid and powerful and he used them to massive effect. If Dusklord was a flowing river of many shapes then Alister was a rugged fortress wall. Scarred and pitted but defiant.

Then of course there was their mother. She was different again. She could make constructs like them but they seemed alien to her. Like they were always her second choice. She preferred to use streams of darkness, summoned blasts and wild waves that tore into the ground and shook the whole castle. She was primal, elemental.

And unstoppable.

Back home, either Dusklord or Alister would have called for a team of heroes to take on if they were in this mood. Together, they could have mowed through 90% of the heroes of New Ember City without even slowing. Only Avatar, Redwing, and those like them would have presented a challenge. In theory, they should have been easily winning right about now.

But they weren't. Even as they hit her, their mother returned with equal ****. She hammered into them, sent them flying. She blasted them with solid darkness, cracked them into walls. Her body was thin and small but packed incredible power. Even her fists were deadly and any wound she took simply healed up in a matter of seconds.

She was, well, a goddess.

Alister was the first to go down. He sliced through her thrashing tendrils with his blade, carving a path towards her. For an instant there was nothing between himself and his target and the knight lunged. His blade cut a perfect arc but his mother simply stepped into it. Her hand closed around the blade and stopped it in its tracks. The edge was pressed right into her skin, but she was not cut. Then she said her first word of the whole battle.

"Disappointing."

She turned and kicked, Lilly watched as Alister's armour almost exploded with the ****. The chest caved in and her foot crushed his ribs into powder. He was hurled backwards, smashing and rolling through trophies and book cases. When he finally slowed to a stop, she hit him again. This time with a blast of darkness that crushed him against the far wall. He hit the ground, kneeling. For a moment he tried to rise once more, but collapsed and was still.

Dusklord roared and surged forwards. For a moment, his manners were forgotten, his charisma laid aside. He was fury and rage, his eyes sparked with the sort of anger which would drown whole nations in blood and flame.

But the goddess did not care. She used his distraction, hammering him from behind with a curled tendril of darkness. He staggered and twisted, realised too late that this too had been a distraction.

She was right in front of him now. Her hand lanced out and closed around his throat. He hammered a blow into the inside of her elbow. Strong enough to shatter bone.

She didn't even feel it.

His aura raged. It struck at her with a thousand blades, cutting and thrashing wildly.

She simply endured it.

Dusklord started to ****. His aura faded bit by bit, becoming less furious as the seconds passed. His hands clenched and then released, his feet dangled in the air. She held him up so easily. So casually. He was three times her weight at least.

The silence that followed was strange after all the fighting that had blossomed. Dusklord and his mother looked gazes. His eyes were defiant, sparking with fury. He refused to yield even now. But he was too weak, his powers were refusing to respond. She stood there holding him, watching him die. What she did think, killing her child? Did she care? Did she do it in self-defence? Or was it righteous anger after what had been done to her before? None would ever know. She didn't bother to say. Instead she simply held him until the life started to drain from his eyes.

That was when Lilly hit her.

And she hit her hard.

Author's Note: I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know it's not the normal sort we get on this site but I felt in this situation it as called for. Going forward, would you guys prefer if I kept any similar scenes smaller or do you think this chapter was a worthwhile read on its own? Could use some opinions.