Chapter XLII: Cion Sky (Cont. II)

West shrugged, “You have a point.” He drew out a cigarette, counting two more sitting in the bundle. “Well, let’s get on with it then.” He lit a match, only for it to be put out. “Damn it,” he sighed. He reached to strike another, when Blackheart held up his hand.

“Feel that?” All began to look around as the rubble of the hallway began to rattle and the wind began to spiral around them, the roar beginning to grow more and more as the hall began to buckle inwards. The entrance to Cion collapsed far down behind the group as the hall began to collapse more and more as they turned and raced for the center room.

Samden glanced back at the buckling halls, “What’s happening?!”

Thyrus stumbled over a piece of rubble, “I’m not sure! This isn’t supposed to happen.”

Eza dodged a plummeting shard of glass and perked up as a sound began to be audible above the roar, “LISTEN!”

All stopped to hear the great laughter, the torn and mad laughter of a man who had lost all he had ever desired. All eyes fell to the room ahead of them, where Baen descended slowly, floating to the ground, laughing and crying at the same time. All were frozen before the spectacle of the figure that rose to stare out the doors for but a moment, the orange eyes of the thirteenth watcher replaced with eyes that looked like they were but flowing blood, small sparks of purple fire spilling from them with each blink.

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Baen rose slowly from his crumpled stature, hunched against the floor like a beaten slave. His taloned gauntlets lay outstretched, each finger slowly curling up and cutting the floor, revealing lines of white. And slowly, the dark eyes of the demon stared at what he had done and he began to laugh again, first with the dark mirth of the victor, then with the dark melancholy of the miserably lost. Slowly, unsteadily, he rose to his feet and stared up at the white spark rolling across the ceiling, his eyes filling with fire and blood as his laugh began to echo into a blood curdling scream of absolute anger and tyranny. This was all he had fought for, all he had dreamt of, an illusion…bested by trickery.

“CURSE YOU!” Baen screamed at the top of his lungs as the wind roared into the room and spiralled about him, tearing at his hair and hurling the rubble around the room and lifting Adelia off her feet. “CURSE YOU GOD! Look what you have made of me!” Baen’s voice boomed over the wind as the great hall doors flew up with a wave of Baen’s hand and crashed back into the doorway, blocking the heroes. The slams of their weapons could be heard on the other side as Baen’s smile slowly rolled across his face again, but now it had lost all its intentional malice and was replaced with the insanity of the wretched and the evil.

“What….what is happening?” Adelia’s voice echoed through the room as her head began to turn towards Baen. She stared at him with confusion as she tried to fight against the darkness and keep her mind.

Baen smiled at her wickedly, then glanced up to the flickering light above. “So she is it, is she? You think that all will be all right with her aid? I know what you expect of her, though she still does not know.” Baen drew his blade and held it in the growing wind, his eyes flickering and flashing with darkness. “What if I slay her, then? What would you do then, fools?! I know how you plan to rid this world of me! I KNOW! But I shall not let it be! NEVER!” Baen marched over to Adelia’s floating body, her arms struggling to break whatever spell held her. Her mind shot out, but found nothing. All she could do was watch Baen march forward and raise his sword above his head, the runes beginning to glow. Then, slowly, he stopped. “No…..I shall not.” He turned back to the ceiling, “I SHALL NOT GIVE YOU THE PLEASURE! I shall best you at your game with all the pieces…..no handicap…just you and I!” Baen’s voice hissed through the room as he marched into the center.

“Come out you wretches! Come out you who damned me to a life of eternal suffering upon a lesser plane than I belong! God made me the demon that I am, and I shall not let you judge me, for he is MY sole judge! What right do you have to hurl me away for what I was made to be? What right do you have to deem yourself better!? Did I not serve evil and the Watchers, did I not do what each of you do so well!? You corrupted fools, you hypocritical bastards!” Baen sheathed his sword as the wind began to grow and a strange aura of shadow began to cluster around him. “And all this time, this grand journey I have taken! The keys I gathered….the armies I assembled, all the tricks and magic I used to defeat you, and it was all for nothing? All for this….this……illusion? You all toyed with me yet again!? GAH!” Baen swung his hand with a cry of anger, a spray of flames suddenly consuming half the room as Baen’s other arm flailed out and fire poured across the main hall of Cion Sky. Blue and purple flames spilled everywhere and roared with thunder and crackled with heat. Adelia watched awe-struck at the monster who continued to hurl the fire in every direction.

“You think you are better? You think that you have won, just by tricking me this much? COME OUT! COME OUT! What wretch am I? What wretch am I to be toyed with and played with and deemed unworthy of love and affection? God gave me my burden, does that not demand honor and respect for me not renouncing him but serving him? And then to be cast aside like a nothing, like a rock, a pebble, a lifeless, worthless little thing? I have worth! I am not a nothing!” Baen screamed again, his scream shattering several of the tiles on the ceiling, their shards cascading down to the floor and marking it up.

“Baen! Stop! You’ll kill us all and bury us in here! You can’t destroy Cion Sky…it will erase existence!”