The Demonlord Chronicles

Chapter III – The Darkness of Light
29.
Ardan was standing in the middle of the room again, fires everywhere, gradually ceasing. His eyes slowly opened, glistening with a white glow. He saw Hiopa standing in front of him, not much more then a burnt, humanoid something. Ardan felt how her existance ceased, the touch slipping from his mind, as her body dissolved into nothing. And he could feel her energy flowing towards him. Her essence... and...
His arm swiping sidewards, Ardan threw his weapon into the wall, the bonespear easyly piercing into the stone, causing a red spray of blood to cover the rock.
“W-what...” Zuul muttered, his form slowly appearing around the spear, the weapon stuck in his lower chest. “How... how did you...” 
“It was her...” Ardan slowly said, realizing the meaning behind her words. “It was Hiopa. Her sacrifice. The last sacrifice. I killed her... and now obtained her essence...” The glow of his eyes intensified. “And her ability to see through your illusions!” Ardan raised his left claw upwards, a green flame flickering on his palm, slowly growing. Within a few seconds, it formed up to a small sphere, giving off a green, indistinguishable sparkling.
“No!” Zuul yelled, reaching for the bone spear and ripping it out of his own body and the wall, stumbling forward. “You won’t get me like that!” Ardan catched the incoming sword with his bare claw, his talons extending, shooting forward and impaling Zuul’s arm along it’s length.
Pulling Zuul towards him, Ardan ripped the talons free from the demon’s arm, mauling it, whilst reaching for the demon’s head. Zuul tried to dodge off, but Ardan was faster, grabbing the demon’s head, whirling him around, before slamming him down into the ground, face first, all whilst the green sphere of contained fire started growing and sparkled brighter .
Then Ardan’s left struck down into Zuul’s back and an explosion of green flames ruptured through the hall, sending smoke and debris around, stone particles scattering everywhere and burning to ashes at once.
Within the fractal of a moment, the flames were gone again and the smoke ceeded, leaving only Ardan, standing next to a crater filled with black ashes. Dissolving into a black wavering of energy, the ashes started to vanish.
Zuul’s essence slowly raised up and Ardan couldn’t but smile lowly... “Finally... It’s over...” He reached for the demon’s essence, ready to absorb the strength he would need to erect a new era... but the black wavering suddenly backed off, as if to escape Ardan’s grasp. A cold shiver ran across Ardan’s back as he again tried to reach for the wavering energy and it again evaded his claw.
Didn’t I tell you... you cannot kill me... a voice halled through Ardan’s head, causing him to jump back. Slowly, not bothering with a reaction of Ardan, the black wavering essence started to condense, forming a small, solid orb, which then expanded and shifted around, reforming into Zuul’s shape. “Nothing and noone can kill me...”
‘somebody is defying that eternal law... there is someone even you can’t kill...’ Ardan remembered his own words to Seraphim. But... was that even possible?
“All these nice terms about mortals and immortals...” Zuul started talking, whilst casually walking over to Ardan. “In fact, demons and angels, those so-called immortals, are nothing but ‘mortal’s with a lifespan extended belong the length of any measure. But they’re still quite mortal, as you surveyed yourself a few times...
However... I am truly immortal...” the demon concluded with a wicked smile, standing in front of Ardan. “Though I admit, it really doesn’t feel nice to be shattered like that just... It’s... let’s say painful.”

“How... just how...” Ardan muttered. He could have backed off from the demon, who was now standing less then one meter in front of him. He could try attacking him again. But he had already ‘killed’ Zuul. He had felt how Zuul’s essence had been scattered... destroyed... and yet that demon didn’t ‘die’... “It... It’s against the laws of nature!” Ardan exclaimed.
“Probably against the laws of nature you accept... Let’s stick with considering mortals mortals and calling beings like you ‘immortals’... do you want to know what I am? I’m a GOD!” Zuul burst into laughter, slowly circling around Ardan. “How about that, Ardan Flamehearted? Can you kill a god? No? Aww....”
“I... noone can kill gods... but...” Ardan muttered. “But neither of us, nor any other living being was supposed to obtain that power... just how did you...”
Stepping towards Ardan from behind, Zuul lowered his voice, whispering right next to Ardan’s right ear: “Oh, you would like to know that, don’t you? How to leave the borders of normal beings and advance further... Actually, I feel like telling you. It’s not like you will ever be able to do what I’ve done...
I’ve been there, Ardan... beyond the borders of the world as we know it... Didn’t I tell you, if you believe your illusions for too long, they can become the truth? I’ve thrown myself into a dark pit of my soul, accidentally... and there, living through nightmare after nightmare... my powers grew... and I felt it’s presence... the true power... the allmighty being just beyond our realm’s grasp... Do you want to know what I found beyond that border no living being should ever have crossed? It was”
“Chaos.” Ardan completed Zuul’s sentence. “That is what I was supposed to fight... not demons... not angels... not you... but the chaos threatening the balance of this world.” Ardan felt a strang emotion surging through his body.
Driven by instinct, he spun around, his claw striking out, sending Zuul flying backwards against the next wall. The demon hissed at the pain, but then started laughing. “Hah, good guess. But that doesn’t change the fact you can’t kill me...”
The marks running along Ardan’s scaled started to glow lowly, but opposed to earlier, the glow was not just a single, but many colors. He felt how something started to rise in his own mind. Something old. Ancient. Unforgetable. He closed his eyes, whispering: “Yes... I can’t... but they can...”
It wasn’t exactly an explosion, but the sudden radiance of light was hard to describe otherwise, as even Zuul had to lift his hand, covering his eyes from the sudden burst of brightness. As he lowered his hand again, the demon blinked in surprise. “What the...”
A single, deep breath. “It has been a long time...” a strong, yet young and partially amused voice said. “I wasn’t sure whether it would ever come to this day...”
“I never doubted it.” a second voice answered, deeper, more sinister and cold to it’s very core.
“Hope dies last... I prayed we would never be awakened again...”
The dark voice sighed. “I’ve told you it wouldn’t go that well... but at least this world defended itself...”
Zuul took a cautious step forward, rising his re-appearing sword towards the two figures in the middle of the room. Did Ardan... transform into something? Or rather, two somethings? Two figures, of humanoid, broad proportions... though they were visibly covered in scales, the one in dark violett, the other in crimson red.
The first figure turned it’s head, eyeing the demon. “Oh... there he is...” Both of them turned around, facing and mustering Zuul.
The demon cautiously took a defensive stance. “You know, duplicating yourself will not aid you in killing me, Ardan!” Zuul yelled, but his insecure voice indicated he was aware something had changed.
“Ardan?” The dark figure asked, before it’s dragonic face lightened up. “Oh, of course...
I think you mean the being which set us free...”
“’set us free’? Who the hell are you, to begin with?!” Zuul responded, still threatening them with his black weapon.
The crimson figure sighed again, gesticulating towards it’s neighbour. “See? I told you we should have erected a religion or something... noone, not even those with an unlimited lifespan, remember us properly... After this, I will create a church to carry on a fix set of rules and stories... that will help...”
The violet figure started walking forward, smiling warmly. “Your name is Zuul, right? It’s actually simple to say who we are... and given your trembling, you probably realised it by yourself, didn’t you?”
Zull couldn’t but step back as the figure approached him. There was something... something undenyable... he couldn’t raise his weapon towards them. His very soul itself was too afraid of them. And the one figure kept coming closer. “You... you...”
“We are the twin gods, Dar and El.” The crimson figure said.
“Damn it, El! I told you not to call us ‘gods’. You know how I hate that term!” the violet being, apparently Dar, scolded. He turned his head to Zuul again. “It’s a term mix-up... even we were once born mortal... though, measured by your viewpoint...” He turned his face, grinning at the demonic being agian. “...our powers are probably godlike...”
El walked forwards as well, catching up to Dar, both of them now standing in front of Zool, who had already backed up against a wall. Zuul made a quick dash forward, striking at Dar, but as the sword was about to touch the being’s scales, it simply scattered, causing the demon to be catapulted backwards, crashing into the wall.
The crimson one chuckled. “Didn’t you say it yourself before? One can’t kill gods.”
Zuul recovered from the impact, but his body started shivering, as he realized he was utterly helpless. “How.. who... why...”
“Zuul...” Dar started, pointing at him with one of his talons. “You have passed the borders we had set up for this world. Ages ago, we created a world free of war, intending it’s inhabitants to live in glorious peace. But the more we acted to ensure that peace, the more of it spread: chaos. Whenever we changed or fixed something, two other things broke. It’s the wheel of fate.
That’s why we withdrew from the continent Serpia and instead created Dania. And we swore not to touch this world ever again, to prevent Serpia’s history from repeating. We created the gods of life and death, Gaia and Seraphim, to watch the mortal realm. And we scattered our own power, creating light and darkness alike, angels and demons, to permit this world’s inhabitants to preserve it’s own balance.
But even though we ensured to be as passive as possible, yet those initial actions were enough to leak just a trace of chaos into the world... we knew this.. and took precautions: If chaos was ever to rise in this world, a pure heart would be able to call for our help, by uniting light, darkness, life and death. And that one you named Ardan... did that.”
“And here we are...” El continued. “... to protect our creation from it’s only flaw. You have attempted to spread the chaos into this world, travelling past the bounds of living beings, trying to obtain power which should have remained locked...”
“... and as such, there is only one single action we can take:” Dar continued, raising his claw alongside El’s.
Speaking in unison, they said: “Zuul, who you have attempted to harness the chaos itself: We banish you from this and every other world. Begone into the chaos you desired so much!”