The Demonlord Chronicles

Chapter III – The Darkness of Light
12.
“We... we did it!” “Yes, we did it!”
Now Ardan could feel it: It was like a radiating warmth, like a sun of glowing power. He could see how Xoreyi’s body dissolved into what appeared to be a bright orb of light. And he realized it was her essence, her entire strength as demonlord.
“We will be strong!” “We will be demonlords!” “We win!”
Ardan saw how the orb slowly split up, lightly raising. This was... 
Cyra’s voice was shaking. “N-no... mother... how could we... we...”
We killed her...
Ardan was sure Cyraminon was going to collapse onto the ground, right there, her eyes opened widely in shock. Then a light flashed through the room and within the fractal of a second, Ardan could see one of the two orbs striking past him, hitting into Cyra’s chest and causing her to stumble backwards. A surprised roar made him realize same had happened to Rihukan as well.
He quickly turned to the two attackers again, preparing for the attack aimed at him... to realize Ronin and Ninro appeared as surprised as he was, staring over to the three siblings. “But... we killed her!” “This... this power... belongs to us!”
‘either of these three ... who defeated me’
Ardan finally realized the meaning of Xoreyi’s last words. He heard a static crackle to his right. Turning his head, he could see Rihukan shaking his head, snuffling and shaking his head, as sparks danced down along his neck, his flankes and up to his tailtip. “Thi-this... is...” he could hear Cyra stuttering. “A... a.... amazing... utterly... amazing...”
When an immortal killed another one, the victorious one could claim the energy of the defeated one... but apparently, if someone defeated an immortal... and somebody else killed him... or her, in this case...
“Ardan...” A set of meterlong, thin talons brushed over his back and chest when Cyra reached for his shoulder. “Please... stand back.” He realized what she was talking about and quickly took a few steps backwards.
You two... Rihukan slowly stepped forward. You two who killed our dear mother... A low growl emerged the dragon’s throat. You two... WILL PAY! With a mad and raging roar, the dragon started charging forward, right at the two demons.
Angling their swords and taking a defensive stance, both of them did not appear to attempt evading the dragon’s charge. Of course not, they could simply do so whilst slicing up Rihukan’s body with the power of his own momentum! Ardan was about to call out a warning to his brother...
When suddenly a bright, blue light erupted from the dragons body, electric sparks dancing all across his body, every single of his scales starting to glow in a dense light. Thundecat! The ground started to break and scatter, not just below his claws, but all around him.
The two demons’ eyes went wide and Ninro quickly reacted, shoving his brother out of the dragon’s path, whilst quickly leaping to the other side. Apparently not quick enough, though, because the demon was, without even touching Rihukan, suddenly propelled forward, flying a few meters and crashing into a sidewall.
Smoke rose from the point of impact and Ardan could smell burnt flesh. Rihukan turned to the hit demon and let out a ear-shattering roar, the force of the sound alone strong enough to cause the already damaged wall to start crumbling.
“Ninro, brother?! You bastard of a half-breed, I will...” An energetic buzzing cut of the Ronin’s words when a red flash flew past him, detonating in the wall next to him, creating a cloak of dust in between him and Rihukan.
“You! Are mine now! You belong to me! You, your puny live and everything you can still give me as a ‘fight’!” Cyra taunted, casually walking towards Ronin, her talong glowing red with uncontained, demonic energy. Then she raised one of her claws and let her tongue dance along the tip of one talon. “And you better make it a good fight, or I’ll have to entertain myself with you in other ways... those ways you will not enjoy.”
Ronin did appear to be less interested in fighting Cyraminon, and more in checking his brother... but it was obvious that Cyra would attack him the second he turned his back on her. The demon gritted his teeth and said: “Can’t we... eventually... talk about it?” He quickly dodged sidewards, when two more cresecent-shaped blades of energy sirred past him.
Cyraminon chuckled. “Take that as an implicit no.”
On the other side of the room, Ninro was picking himself back up, leaning himself against a boulder of the previous wall. Now Ardan realized where the smell from before had come from: The demon had lost his right arm, his shoulder merely being a black, burnt something. Yet he was still holding his second sword in his left, angling it at Rihukan.
The dragon purred with a tone Ardan couldn’t describe as anything else but sinister, and shook his head once more, a set of sparks again running down his neck, his flanks, up to his tail, which whipped through the air, causing a short bolt of thunder to connect the tip and the ground below it with a crackling sound similar to a striking thunder.
Don’t you want to step closer and play with me? I won’t bite, I promise... With immense speed, Rihukans neck darted down, bringing his snout at angle with the demon and Ardan could barely hear the renewed crackling of energy before a bright bolt of thunder shot forth from Rihukan’s maw, barely missing the dodging demon and literally pulverizing another part of the wall.
Ardan could feel how both of his siblings had changed. Within mere moments, their strength had amplified vastly. But after all, it appeared like each of them had inherited half of their mother’s power. Since she had considered them to, previously, have a combined strength surpassing hers... this would mean both, Rihukan and Cyraminon, now were stronger then Xeroyi, on their own, not to mention together... even though he was for sure not on the side of his sibling’s enemys... this thought was still somewhat freightening.
The Draken’s thoughts were interrupted when something dashed past him and he suddenly saw one of these red crescents flying right towards him. He sidestepped it and the wall behind him was shattered, showing up a vertical hole. “Gah, Cyra! Watch where you’re aiming those things!” Turning around, he could see how the demoness was... well... ‘making him dance’would probably fit what Ardan could see:
Ronin was constantly dashing and dodging around, a trail of impacts and dustclouds following him closely, as Cyra was constantly waving her arms around, sending energy crescents one after another, chuckling amusedly as she did so. At some point, she stopped her barrage and instead spun around herself once, before whirling her claws about, sending a single, large crescent right into Ronin’s path, though this one was covering three meters of width. Not exspecting a horizontally angled one, Ronin tried to jump above the wave of energy, but Ardan wasn’t surprised when the demon suddenly screamed and one of his legs flew, cut off, against a wall.
Incapable of running further, the demon swordsman fell to the ground, in front of the throne, using his remaining leg to spin himself around, facing Cyra again, his sword held ready to defend against another projectile. A few meters to his left, another blast of Rihukan struck the wall, and Ninro emerged from the resulting cloud, stumbling over to his fallen brother.

With a self-sufficient growl, Rihukan stepped forth from the dust as well, walking closer to the two enemies, Cyra approaching as well. In a gesture of resignation, Ronin pierced his weapon into the ground and used it as makeshift crutch to pull himself up onto his remaining leg again.
Ardan knew it, his two siblings knew it and the twin demons knew it as well. This fight was over. And the victor had been clearly determined from the first second. Rihukan positioned himself in front of the two and Cyra leapt onto his back, leaning against his erected neck.
“At least” “we were not” “defeated by weaklings,” “but by future” “demonlords.”
Ronin turned his head and looked over to Ardan. “You there, young one... Do you need a weapon? This sword was forged in the vulcan of souls itself. It would be a shame if a weapon like this would simply go to waste...”
Ardan stepped closer, until he was standing next to Rihukan. “Even if I would need a weapon... this one is way too long and too heavy for my taste... But I think I would know someone who would like it.”
Ronin reached for his brothers shoulder, using it as support instead, when he pulled the sword from the ground and let it fall over to Ardan’s side, who quickly catched it’s grip. He had to add a second hand as well, the sword possessing a weight far above what normal metal would have.
Ardan took a few seconds to inspect the weapon. It was forged from a black material he couldn’t identify. With somewhat less then three meters in length, it was probably even shorter then those swords Hemlat was usually carrying... but Ardan could tell this weapon’s blade was far superior then any sword forged by humans.
The sword’s itself was more similar to an oversized sabre, not consisting of a thin, dual-sharpened blade, but of a broad, flat strip of metal, with only one side sharpened into a cutting edge. To it’s edge the, blade was bent until it met the tip. A couple of inches below the tip, there was a hole in the metal.
“The weapon’s name is ‘Bloodhowl’. It’s former owner told me when the weapon is swung with enough force, the hole will create a terrifying howl whilst cleaving through the air and terrible screams whilst cleaving through your opponent’s flesh. I’ve never heard it howl... but may you will do... or somebody else.”
Ardan nodded. Hemlat would definitely like this weapon. Assuming the Darag-Ur would actually develope enough strength to wield it... Then he said. “Thank you for this weapon. I will ensure it’s coming wielders will remember your name, Ronin. You two have fooled us well and fought even though not standing a chance... I respect you for that... But I’m not to judge over your lives...”
Ardan turned around and walked off, passing the dual doors, previously the only entry to this hall, which was now filled with holes and debris. He didn’t need to turn his head to see what was going to happen, he had read it in Rihukan’s mind.
He could hear how the air started to whisper with buzzing and crackling, continiously intensifiying, until... a loud explosion, the sound of stone debris flying off and against walls, the sound of sand and pulverized stone raining down upon the ground.
And he felt how to the presence of two demons faded.