The Overseer let out a shockwave, knocking everything away. Shadowfang was knocked into a mountain. Huge magical balls of light appeared right in front of the mountain and struck the mountain, again and again. Riselus turned towards the ground. Chunks of rock began to fly towards the mountain. A huge rock shot out of nowhere and slammed into the mountain where the shadow was. It lifted off and hit again, hammering towards the hole which the shadow was in. The shadow shot out, blasting his way through the chunks of rock. The Overseer continued to bombard the shadow with massive beams of light. Then, one of Qassot's swords, thrown wide by the blasts, flashed across the sky and slashed a crack into Shadowfang's helmet. Golden light immediately started spilling through it. Suddenly, time slowed. The rocks settled back down. Shadowfang's horns and fangs flashed golden. It grew legs.
"Run!" Dracoa yelled.
The light balls the Overseer was throwing stopped moving. They shook, moved, and threw themselves at the Overseer. The Overseer blocked them and generated a beam of light which burned the very air, greatly surpassing Aavern's beams in power, following Shadowfang as he tried to dodge it. More light blasts attempted to intercept his flight. Chunks of rock bombarded Shadowfang as he tried to escape the onslaught. The Overseer spoke again.
You're not getting away that easily.
Suddenly, Shadowfang stopped and turned, staring at the Overseer where his eyes should be. He surrounded himself with a black sphere, blocking the next flurry of magic. The sky turned black. Chunks of matter were torn out of the surrounding debris and began to slowly spiral towards Shadowfang. They grew in size, turning into black orbs of energy as they approached him. Flight was hard, it became increasingly difficult to get away from the shadow, as it slowly drew everything towards itself. It turned pure black. A massive black ball of energy, like a tiny black star, began to appear between Shadowfang's claws. Through the crack in Shadowfang's metal helmet, a single dark pupilless eye, filled with the cold embrace of oblivion, shone bright gold. He launched the black ball towards the Overseer. Time seemed to stop as it arced a deadly path towards the Overseer.
The Overseer seemed to sidestep it, somehow ending up behind Shadowfang.
Shadowfang seemed to grab the air, and the ball of pure black energy reversed direction. He caught it as it returned, and whirled around, his claws tracing a black circle in the air. He moved it around the black sphere, creating a disc of black nothingness which he moved in front of him, like a shield. The golden glow in his eye was almost blinding now, and thin streams of gold were now pouring from his claws to bind the unstable disc in place.
The Overseer froze in astonishment.
You- what even is that spell?
Shadowfang threw the disc at the Overseer.
It grew as it traveled, stretching into a massive black circle.
The Overseer quickly gathered magic into a blindingly bright shield in front of it. The pure black void of magic hit the shield with a dull thud that resounded through the world with an earth-shattering shock. There was a dull sucking noise as the blast stuck, grew, and siphoned the creature in. It disappeared, shrinking into a tiny point, which then exploded, knocking Riselus unconscious and stunning Cyil. The gold glow around Shadowfang disappeared. He turned and fixed his gaze on Riselus's prone body.
Dracoa then let out a despairing screech, a single word infused with pure power, commanding everyone to stop. The winds followed the sound, wrapping around the sound and carrying it forwards, amplifying it until everyone's vision was swallowed in the swirl of dust and air. Shadowfang froze and dropped down. The smoke around it began to settle. Shadowfang slowly turned around and looked at Dracoa. For a brief moment, through the crack in the helmet. Dracoa could see recognition in Shadowfang's eye.
Cyil saw Aavern shroud himself in white energy out of the corner of his eye. He shouted something that Cyil couldn't make out. Qassot reached out a claw and sent a stream of blue energy to fuel Aavern. Cyil saw this and felt around with his mind. He felt the energy stored in the black fires, trembling with the shadow's power. He reached out to them with his mind, grabbing hold of the unstable tendrils of power. He pulled on them with all his might. The last vestiges of his will reached out, and the magic responded. The world broke. The edges of the horizon cracked and began to collapse on themselves, splitting and revealing more parts of the Dimensional Link. Giant tears in reality appeared as black streams pulled themselves towards Aavern. The energy streamed through the border, opening massive rifts all around. Cyil fell unconscious. The energy empowered Aavern. A massive white sphere engulfed him. It flickered, as Aavern tried to keep it under control. Then, it began to expand, gathering momentum as it went. Dracoa flew into the midst of the supernova and swept everyone up in a whirlwind, blowing them out. Aavern had passed out. The white wave of destruction moved quickly outwards, but luckily, not faster than Dracoa could fly.
Qassot landed on an island far from the center, watching the shadow attempt to shield himself against the wave of destruction. Everything began to shatter. Floating islands broke apart. Light flickered. Blackness began to spread everywhere. The edges of the world began to implode. Vaporized matter clouded the air. As quickly as it started, the supernova suddenly stopped spreading and collapsed inwards to a tiny but blinding point of light. The shadow's shield flickered and disappeared. The point of light detonated, shattering all islands nearby and throwing Shadowfang violently onto a remaining chunk of the clearing of the earth gem.
Shadowfang collapsed. Black mist began to spread through the air. There was no sound.
"Is it…" Dracoa started.
"Don't say anything," Qassot growled.
Qassot grunted angrily and threw her sword. The bright sword flashed through the air like a streak of silver lightning. A deafening screech shattered the rest of the rocks as it buried itself almost to the hilt in Shadowfang's neck and the stone behind him. Reality seemed to bend and blur. The remaining land around Shadowfang cracked, split, and burst into dust. Shadowfang writhed, trying to free itself from the sword pinning him to the almost indestructible rock of the earth gem clearing. Slowly, his attempts grew weaker and he stopped moving. Dark red blood soaked the air, spreading in a red mist. Qassot stood there, staring at Shadowfang slowly dissipating into smoke. The beams of energy branching from Qassot's gem slowly dimmed. She slowly floated over to the stone her sword was in and yanked it out. She didn't sheath it.
"It's dead," Qassot said, staring into the side of the blade.
Dracoa wrapped the smoke in a whirlwind and slowly compressed it into an orb. She let it fall into the void. She watched it slowly disappear from sight, then sighed and settled down on a small chunk of rock.
Riselus leapt across several chunks of rock to where Dracoa had put Aavern and Cyil. He nudged them with his foot.
"They're okay, right?"
"They seem exhausted," Qassot replied.
Dracoa sighed. "Do you think Azor's really going to do it?"
"Do what?"
"Wake up the Elder Dragons."
Qassot closed her eyes. "I don't think so. That portal he made was connected to a place that was incredibly far away from this place. He can't do much from there."
They fell silent. The wind picked up and sprayed a gentle, warm, sand-filled breeze around the chunks of island, swirling around before spiraling down into the abyss.
"So what now?" Riselus finally asked. "We can't leave the island like this."
"We need to find Azor," Qassot said, "and get the orbs back."
"That land wasn't on Falnear, though," Riselus grunted. "I've never seen that kind of stone before."
Dracoa dipped her head, thinking hard.
"Maybe it was on a different continent," Qassot said, "There might be a scroll or something in Ezarik's fortress."
Dracoa raised her head. "He's not here anymore."
Riselus glanced at her. "Yes, that's what-"
"No," Dracoa insisted, "He's not here anymore."
"What does that-" Riselus started, then stopped. Realization flashed across his face.
Dread spread across Qassot's heart. "The Beyond."
Dracoa nodded.
"Azor's in the Beyond."