Garuda hurled blast after blast of green energy at Phoenix, but she blocked them all with a burst of flame. His body was burning with power, now, and his rage was near uncontrollable.

Sarene, he thought. Of all the people I thought would betray me, I'm surprised it's you. I thought I broke you millennia ago. I will correct that oversight . . .For those who stand with my enemies, there can be no other punishment.

Phoenix turned to Sarene and Liandra. "I hope this doesn't sound demanding or anything," she said, but a little help would not be refused right now."

Garuda was blasted from behind by a burst of blue soul energy. He whirled around to see Darken behind him, His body cracking with soul energy.

"So," Garuda said. "Darken Blackangel. At last we meet."

"Garuda," Darken replied.

"Kirone's told me a lot about you," he said. "She told me you were a coward."

"Is that so?" Darken asked.

Before Garuda could say anything, the butt of Darken's spear stuck him hard across the head.

"Did that feel like a coward's blow?"

Garuda wiped the green blood from his black lips.

"Physical violence," he said, more to himself than anyone else. "It's been awhile, but I will happily oblige you. I'll fight you on your own level."

Before Garuda could finish his thought, he was struck from behind. Then once again. Someone was battering him, but it couldn’t have been Darken, he wasn't that fast. Or that powerful.

"You have your own problems!" the voice demanded.

Garuda fell backwards to the ground. "Sarene," he said.

Sarene stood over him, crackling with power and rage. "I swear, Garuda . . .I'm going to pay you back for everything you've done to me . . .starting now."

* * *

Darken came to rest behind the wall of fire that Phoenix had put up. Phoenix ran to him and held him tightly. Darken did the same, pulling her into a gentle kiss.

"I thought I’d lost you," she said, her voice thick with grief.

"You can't lose me, Romanova," Darken said.

"I'm holding you to that, Darken," she said.

"Where's Kirone?" Liandra asked.

"She's . . .not coming," Darken said. "I think I've settled things with her once and for all."

"What happened?" Phoenix asked, brushing Darken's hair out his face.

Darken's face clouded, and he looked away. "I . . .I'd rather not talk about it."

He must have killed her, Phoenix said. She knew how Darken took strides never to have to take a life unless it was necessary. She held him tighter.

"Darken," she whispered. "I love you."

"I love you too, Romanova," he said.

Liandra walked closer to them. "Sarene's in trouble," she said. "We have to help her."

Phoenix looked at her. "Liandra's right," she said. "We'll have more time for this later. She and Garuda are the last two."

"Which one is our enemy?" Darken asked.

"Garuda," Liandra said. "Sarene . . .won’t be a problem."

"I see," Darken said. "Then we've got to help her stop Garuda."

* * *

"Did it make you feel stronger?" Sarene said, bashing Garuda with all the desperate strength she could muster. She channeled her power into her strikes, raining them down on Garuda with the force of a madwoman.

"You destroyed everything I was," Sarene said. "I couldn’t kill you enough for that."

"You won't have to," Garuda said, slapping her aside. "The only one who failed you was yourself!"

"What are you talking about? I didn’t ask for you to rape me! To abuse me! To make me into what you thought I should be, a goddess of Despair!"

"It was the only way to persuade you . . .to make you over into my vision."

"Your vision?" Sarene said, blasting him a titanic bolt of energy. Garuda was pushed off the tower and fell backward onto the Dark Tower.

Sarene followed him down, blasting him all the way.

"Damn you," she screamed. "Damn you and your vision! Are you proud of it, Garuda? Are you proud of the ruin it brought to our universe? Are you proud of the imprisonment it led to?"

Garuda hurled a blast of energy at her. It stuck Sarene hard in the shoulder. Her blood poured out like a fountain.

"The razing of our world was a prelude to a new world that I would grow from the old one!" Garuda shouted. "Much like what I was planning for you!"
"LIAR!" Sarene said, blasting him. "You didn’t know how! All you could do was corrupt! You couldn't create anything!"

Garuda felt his warm blood pouring from him body. "All I needed was the power of my fellow gods . . .I could have done it, Sarene. You have to believe that it was all for a good cause!"

"SHUT UUUUUUUUUUP!" Sarene said, now back to frantically beating him. Garuda crumpled under the reign of blows for a few seconds, then leapt back to his feet and kicked her away.

"Ungrateful bitch," he said, spitting the blood from his mouth. "You could not share my vision, despite all the kindness I showed you, and now you will not be a part of it. Embrace oblivion, Sarene Eala Cynara. Your life is at an end, and your power will serve to light my new word, even if the heart that wielded it was too closed to see the beauty of my vision."

Before he could do anything, a black and purple streak split the skies. A red blade of energy cut through him, cut deeper than his skin. He crumpled to the floor, clutching his sides. Liandra landed in front of him, her fairies pulsing with light.

"Leave her alone," she said.

* * *

Instead of splitting their efforts, they assaulted Garuda with all their powers, working in tandem. Liandra and Darken rained their soul energies down on Garuda, while Phoenix turned the very ground under his feet into an inferno.

Sarene aided Phoenix in assaulting Garuda, but Garuda, despite his wounds seemed to be holding his own.

Liandra tried to stab him with her Soulsword, but to no avail. Garuda seized the blade in his hand, ignoring the pain it was causing him.

"Not this time, little one," Garuda said, turning and smiling at her. "I saw it coming."

"Did you see this coming?" Liandra asked as her fairies flew into Garuda 's face. They fired a tight, brilliant bolt of energy straight into his eyes. Garuda screamed in pain, and let go of the sword, thrashing about in pain.

"You will pay for that," he growled, firing wildly. "When I am done with this world, I will keep all of you alive, just so I can kill you with my bare hands."

"So you say," Darken said, tripping him with the spear. Garuda fell into a pile of rubble. "But I don’t think you’re that strong."

"Darken!' Garuda said, swinging where he had been. Darken ducked and slammed the butt of his spear into Garuda's stomach. Then he brought it up to his chin, smacking him hard with it.

"You rely too much on your power, Garuda," Darken said, knocking him back down to the ground. "A real fighter doesn't need it. Just training and awareness."

"You arrogant mortal!" Garuda said.

"Arrogant? Look who's talking!" Phoenix said, flying in and catching him full force in the stomach. Garuda pulverized another wall of the Dark Tower on his way out. "You’re the most insufferable excuse for a god I know! All this talk about how the strong should conquer the weak! But I see now what it really is . . .fear."

"I'm not afraid!"

"The hell you aren't!" Phoenix said, drawing her Phoenix Spear. "You’re afraid that you aren't needed in this world any longer, and you know what? You’re right!"

"These mortals have to see that we are superior!" Garuda said, hurling a wheel of green fire at her. Phoenix swatted it away with her spear. "The strong must rule the weak!"

"No, the strong are there to help the weak become strong themselves," Phoenix said, narrowly missing him with the spear. "We don’t need despotic gods like you anymore!"

"Phoenix," Sarene said, digging her hands into the support beam of the Dark Tower. "Get ready to move."

"Sarene . . .?"

"NOW!"

Phoenix, Liandra and Darken took flight as Sarene summoned the last of her desperate strength and pulled the entire Tower down around Garuda. She was able to roll clear, but felt her own body, battered and bleeding.

If it finished Garuda, she thought. It was worth it.

Phoenix helped her to her feet. "Are you all right?"

"Fine," Sarene lied. "I hope that did it."

"It didn't."

The rubble before them shook, and with a pillar of green energy, exploded outward. Garuda rose above it, his clothes tattered, his body bleeding, but defiant to the last. "Never in a million years have I seen people like you," he said. "Are you so obstinate that you won't join me?"

"Let me think," Phoenix said. "Uhm . . .no."

"Then look around you," Garuda said, waving his hands around them. "Even in this blasted warzone, there are innocent lives. If we continue to fight, they will die. Can you live with their deaths on your conscience?"

Darken blasted Garuda full-on with his Soul Calibur. Garuda was knocked backwards and into the palace wall.

"If the alternative is leaving them to you?" Darken said. "Death is a release!"

Darken was upon Garuda, strangling him with his bare hands. Garuda looked into his eyes for a moment, stunned by the fury he saw in them.

This Darken is mad, he thought. He would rather his entire world . . .worlds, be destroyed than be mine. He is dangerous to me, then. Fighting him will be like fighting the soul of this world. It will not be subjugated easily.

Darken struggled with Garuda, until he shoved him off. Darken's wings beat frenetically to stay his descent. He regarded Garuda very coldly indeed. Such arrogance, he thought. Garuda cannot conceive that he's wrong about his vision for the world.

"You would fight by these gods' side, you who are half a god yourself," Garuda said. "Only your weakness prevents your greatness, Darken. I ask that you join me. Don’t you also seek a new world for the peoples of this world?"

"I seek a new world," Darken said, circling Garuda nervously. "But not your world. I seek a world where every man is free to choose his own destiny, without meddling gods to play with their destiny."

"A noble aim," Garuda said. "But such a world is too chaotic."

"Such a world is free, Garuda," Darken said, swinging his Dive Spear above his head. Garuda met him, holding the spear above his head, trying to stay Darken's desperate strength.

Garuda grit her teeth, pushing against Darken. Garuda went sprawling after he was cut down by Phoenix's Talon.

He felt his side. The wound was deep, but he could still move.

Enough of this, he thought. Time to end it.

He drew his Godslayer weapon. He hadn't wielded it in battle for so long it felt alien to hold it in his hands. He kept it out of sight, slowly drawing to his feet.

Darken and his friends drew closer, Liandra stepped forward and put her Soulsword at his throat.

"So many of you want my blood, it seems," Garuda said. "It's almost flattering."

"You shouldn’t be flattered," Phoenix said. "You don’t belong here. You never did. The time for your dominion over the universe is over."

"Perhaps," Garuda said. He noticed Sarene was fixed on him, watching his every move.

"LIANDRA!" Sarene said, pushing her out of the way. Garuda smiled as she fell over him. One arm snaked around her neck. The other arm, with the Godslayer, waved over her. She thrashed about, futilely.

"Now," he said. "Are all of you so eager to attack me."

"It doesn't matter that he has me," Sarene said. Garuda tightened his grip around her throat. "Finish . . .it . . ."

"That's enough out of you, Sarene," Garuda said. "Time's wasting. You can surrender, and she lives. You can defy me and she dies."

"Then we surrender," Liandra said.

"LIANDRA!" Darken and Phoenix said at once.

"I can't let her die," Liandra said. "Not after I was the one who freed her from his influence."

"Liandra this is . . .more . . .important . . .then me," Sarene said. She tried to thrash around, but she couldn't wriggle free. "Stop him."

"I . . ." Liandra said, her Soulsword wavering in her hand.

"Please," Sarene said. Tears were flowing out of her eyes.

Liandra sighed, turned away, and raised her blade. It only took a split-second for the blade to reach Garuda, but that was all it took for the end to come.

"The choice is made," Garuda said, plunging the Godslayer into Sarene's chest. He felt her power flow into him as she died. He felt his wounds closing and healing. He also felt himself move closer into phase with this plane of reality. His power was easier to command now.

He knocked Liandra aside with a careless display of power and threw Sarene's body aside. His field of vision cleared a bit.

Darken and Phoenix took the time to merge their powers once again. It was the only way--they both knew that now. Darken flew toward Garuda, wings aflame and blasted Garuda full force back up to the tower.

* * *

"Sarene," Liandra said. "Oh gods, I'm so sorry!"

Sarene took her hand in hers. She seemed to be less dying that fading out. She felt less substantial to Liandra now . . .like she was dissolving.

"Liandra," she said, her voice quivering and pained. "Don’t be sad. We knew this day would come . . .my kind can't belong here. Not in this world."

"But you were different!" Liandra said. She got down on her knees, pulling Sarene into her lap. "You would have been different."

"No," Sarene said. "It has to be this way."

Liandra sighed heavily. She had come to understand Sarene in a way that only two who had survived what they had could understand one another. And now she was gone.

This could have been my fate, she thought. She gestured to her fairies. They began to rain golden dust upon Sarene. Sarene soon found herself falling asleep. The least I can do Sarene is make your passing easier.

Sarene, still sleeping, faded into nothingness. Liandra felt tears slip down her white cheeks. She had hoped Sarene would find a way to go on, but that hope was dashed. The least she could do for her was finish what she started.

Reluctantly, she rose to her feet. She felt exhausted--the soul power had taken so much out of her, much like it had Darken at first.

Is this the end of our world? Liandra wondered, taking wing, her fairies following close behind. Have we ever been so close to the end of the loss of the Seven Spheres? No, not even when Lanicrus had destroyed one of them.

As tough as he was, he wasn't a god, she thought. But god or not, if we don’t stand against him, it's the end of everything.

* * *

Garuda had been knocked sprawling into the ruined remains of the throne room. He looked around in horror. Kirone! Garuda thought, fear rising in him. Beloved, where are you?

He began digging through the stones and rubble of the room, throwing aside the charred ruins of the site of Darken and Kirone's final battle. He began working faster and faster, a terrible fear now gripping his heart like an icy glove.

Recriminations and regret filled him mind. Then he caught sight of Kirone's hand, under a pile of rubble, and the ice grasping his heart spread to his whole body.

"KIROOOONE!" Garuda screamed, flinging rubble every which way. He saw her prone body at last and took her in his arms, seeing the cruel slash that had stilled her heart forever.

"Kirone," he said, his voice thick with hurt and agony. "I was doing all of this for you, my love. You can't be dead . . .you can't be dead!"

"She is," Darken said, hovering over her. "Like you, her evil had to end. At least you'll be together in hell."

Darken and Phoenix pooled their energies and the sky seemed to erupt in a blaze of fire. He began to gather the power in his hands, focused on Garuda. Garuda looked up, and shielded Kirone's corpse with his own body.

"So you were the one who killed her," he said. "I will make you suffer for that."

"VALKYRIE . . .FIRE . . .REVOLUTION!" Darken yelled, unleashing a bolt of fire at Garuda. The energy released blew the rest of the palace to smithereens, sending dust and pulverized rock everywhere. The remains of the palace groaned, shook, and telescoped in on itself.

Darken landed close by. He didn’t break the merging yet. He and Phoenix had both seen Garuda cheat these kind of deaths more than once.

"Ashes," came Garuda's voice. "That is all I have left of my sweet Kirone. Thanks to you. You and that feeble excuse for a goddess."

"Garuda?" Darken called. "Show yourself."

Garuda formed out of a shadow. He seemed different now. On his chest was a glowing green disk, surrounded by the image of a black bird. A green halo of flame framed his black wings. Red eyes and starlight filtered through like gashes in a dark reality.

Garuda extended his hand and closed it. Darken felt his chest tighten, like someone was crushing his heart.

"I now have access to my full power," Garuda said. "And that makes me more powerful than you."

He opened his hand, and Darken and Phoenix found themselves being split forcibly. They landed with a painful, plaintive thud. They looked at each other with shock. In both their eyes was the same question.

How could anything be this powerful?

Liandra swooped towards Garuda, but she found herself caught. Garuda kicked her twice, flinging her towards Darken and Phoenix.

"I think," Liandra began, gasping as she got her wind back. "I think he's gotten stronger."

"He has," Phoenix said. "We may have just missed our window for stopping him."

Darken got to his feet, but Phoenix grabbed his hand.

"Darken," she said. "It's up to me now. You and Liandra go on."

"No," Darken said. "I can't do that. We'll see this to the end together."

"You won’t see it at all!" Garuda said. He gestured, and a green shaft of energy appeared in his hand, streaking towards Phoenix. Darken shoved her out of the way at the last second, as the javelin pierced him through the back.

"UGHHHHH!" Darkens screamed. He fell forwards, into Phoenix's arms.

"DARKEN!" Phoenix screamed, cradling him in her arms. Darken looked up at her, his eyes dimming.

"Romanova," he said, his voice little more than a whisper. "I . . .love . . .you."

He slumped into her arms. Liandra put a hand on him. Through her fairies, she saw Phoenix's expression.

"Now we're even, I think," Garuda said. "Now, Phoenix, let's fight as we should . . .one on one for the destiny of this world and the universe beyond. If you think you can."

"He's fading fast," Liandra whispered. "Maybe I can stop him from going over . . .the soul power in him might be holding him back from death."

"Do it," Phoenix said. "Please, Liandra. I can't lose him."

"I know," Liandra said, smiling a bit. "Neither can I."

Phoenix stood up. She summoned her own full power. "You want a fight, Garuda? You've got one. No more weapons and no more battling you physically. If I have to burn this whole world down, I don't care . . .I am going to kill you!"

"Come on then," Garuda said. "Show me your full power."

There was a flash of fire and emerald flame, and the sphere of the angels was rocked by the sounds of battle.

* * *

"Come on Darken, damn you!" Liandra said, using another healing magic. "Come back. I lost Sarene already, I won’t lose you!"

She frowned as the effects of the spell failed to take hold. Whatever Garuda's power was, it made it incredibly difficult to heal him.

It's attacking him on more than a physical level, she thought. It's working on his heart and his soul.

His soul.

Maybe the answer's in his soul power, she thought. Maybe that's keeping him from coming back as well as keeping him from death. But what am I supposed to do with it? How can I get him to come back?

She looked down. An idea began to form in her mind. It was a risky one, but it could work. It could not, for all she knew. It had never been tried before.

Then again, we've never been in this kind of trouble before, she thought, summoning her Soulsword once again. She took a deep breath and plunged the word into Darken's heart.

I'm coming, Darken.