The climax approaches!

***

SLAYER INHERITANCE
"The Darkness Explodes! Triumph of the Beastmaster!"
by Michael Hopcroft

"No time to talk now! We're in a huge crisis here on Wolfpack Island! 
Valgaav, Cardanis
and I are chained to the wall and can only watch as Titania is brought 
before Beastmaster
Xellas! To say this doesn't look good is to understate the situation 
tremendously - we
may have a front-row seat to the end of the world!"

Titania stared at the Beastmaster. "Wake up? I don't want to make up?"

Beastmaster Xellas smiled in a predatory way. "Your attachment to human 
things is your
great weakness, darling. It's what keeps you from achieving your full 
potential. Your
power is greater than you can imagine, greater than you could have dreamed."

Titania shook her head. "All I can do is destroy. I don't want that kind 
of power."

"But there is glory in destruction! There is power! There is grace and 
beauty in
destruction!  All things that live just eventually die, all things that 
are built must
eventually be destroyed. You are an instrument of the universe's will to 
obliterate itself."

Titania tried to pull her hand away, but the Beastmaster's grip was too 
strong.  "No! No, I
don't believe that! You let me go!"

Anya, hanging from the wall, cheered. "You tell her, Titania! You don't 
have to -"and
then, as Anya continued talking, she discovered to her horror that no 
words were coming
out of her mouth.

"That's enough out of you, Anya Inverse!" said the Beastmaster. "You 
just be quiet"
Anya screamed back obscenities that nobody heard, because she was silent.

Cardanis awoke, and tried to call out to Titania, only to find that his 
voice too was gone.
He looked to either side and saw Anya and Valgaav both shouting in 
complete silence.

Beastmaster turned back to Titania and smiled wickedly. "Now that that 
distraction is out
of the way, Titania dearest, now you can listen to your granny."

"You're not my grandmother. I don't even know you. All I know about you 
is that you're
an evil monster?"

"Evil?  You wound me, darling. I am no more evil than a typhoon or an 
earthquake. I am
no more evil than a disease. Destruction is part of this world, as 
important as creation and
greater in power. Good and evil are meaningless concepts in this world 
where sorcerers
call on the power of demons for altruistic ends. Doesn't it seem strange 
to you that when
your friend Anya casts her most powerful spells she calls on the power 
of beings like me?
Or didn't she tell you that?"

Titania looked up sadly at Anya, silently screaming at the Beastmaster. 
She trafficked
with demons? Anya? Her friend?

"You see, darling, you are not just a force of what you call 'evil'. 
Your power can be
used for what you see as good as well. So why not embrace your power and 
let its force
go where it will?"

Involuntarily, Titania began to blow with a black, dark light. "No, no." 
she murmured.
"What's happening to me?"

"You're waking up, darling. You're becoming a Mazoku, discovering your 
true self."

Titania looked up at her three friends, hanging on the wall. Then she 
saw Cardanis. He
was not screaming in silence like the others. Instead, he was mouthing 
words slowly and
carefully. Although fire was burning inside her body, Over and over 
again, the same three
words: "I Love You".

Titania then turned her eyes to the Beastmaster, who was smiling almost 
with
benevolence. "Yes, you can let go of them now. Your earthly ties are 
finished now. You
can come to my side, my beloved grandchild."

"Grandmother, do Mazoku seek destruction of everything?"

"That is what we were born and bred for."

"Even themselves?"

"Yes. The final oblivion is joyous to us."

Titania smiled. "Then let me give you a birthday present from your 
granddaughter."

The Beastmaster blanched. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I give you destruction. Your fondest wish, your greatest triumph."

"But who will guide you? Who will lead you along the path?"

"I can guide myself. It is time for your end, Beastmaster." Tatiana 
spoke the last words
with blood-chilling calm. "Die."

The black light flowed from Titania's body to the Beastmaster's, 
enveloping her and
slowly consuming her. Beastmaster screamed in agony. "What - what is 
happening?" the
Beastmaster cried. "Nobody is this powerful!"

Xellos approached the scene almost timidly, in awe/. "Such power! I 
didn't know you
had it in you, my darling daughter."

Beastmaster gave one last scream of "Darling!" and then dissipated. 
Where she had stood
there was nothing but black fire.

Titania turned her eyes, now glowing red and burning with heat, towards 
Xellos. "What
do you think of your darling daughter now? Should I give you my gift next?"

"Thanks, but I'll pass. The joy of obliteration can wait for another 
day.' And with that
Xellos vanished.

Titania screamed. 'XELLOS!" Black flame shot from the top of her head, 
struck the
ceiling of the great hall, and exploded.

"TITANIA!" Anya screamed, discovering that she could speak again. 
Instinctively she
case Levitation on herself and her two friends, as the chains holding 
them crumbled to
dust."

The black flame continued to spread around Titania. "Are we really 
seeing what I think
we're seeing?" Cardanis asked.

Valgaav clenched his teeth in frustration. "Titania is out of control. 
She just slaughtered
one of the Five Lieutenants without breaking a sweat. Is there anything 
that can stop her
now?"

The three floated down to the floor. Anya said "Our only hope is that 
there is some trace
of humanity left in Titania, Otherwise, she's going to keep rampaging 
until everything is
destroyed."

Titania turned to her friends. In here eyes Anya could see no trace of 
the friend she new.
There was only power. Anya instinctively threw up a protection sphere 
around her three
companions as Titania's flame washed over it. The wall behind them 
shattered and the
ceiling started coming down on top of them, burying the wall of 
protection under rubble.

There was an explosion from underneath the pile of rubble and pieces 
flew away,
revealing Anya surrounded by a glowing yellow flame. Valgaav and 
Cardanis looked at
her in awe-struck terror. "Go get my sword." Anya said.

"But that means...." Cardanis objected.

"Do it!" Valgaav raced over to the remains of Beastmaster's throne and 
picked up Anya's
still-glowing sword. He threw it to Anya, who took up a defensive posture,

Cardanis was shocked. "You can't do it, Anya! Titania is your friend!"

Anya gave him a grim, hard stare. "Listen, Your highness! This is the 
world we're talking
about here! The whole stinking world! Yes, Titania is my friend, and no 
I don't want to
do it, but that thing isn't Titania anymore. It's something different. I 
don't want to do it.
And if I can find a way to avoid it I will, but you'll just have to face 
the fact that if the
world is to survive Titania may have to die!"

TO BE CONCLUDED....




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