The Reality Marble - Robless and Vabin

The being of shadow stared into his soul. The Thel-ghan'che already trained him on how to defeat it.

Reality. Switch.

In an instant, Robless ripped his conscience from reality and placed it within his own soul, in his own world with no escape. His own little bubble of reality that he controlled. Grass rolled gently in the plains, a few trees scattered about, the sky blue, with fluffy clouds.

Robless himself was clad in heavy silver armor. His helmet's faceplate was lifted up and his steel grey eyes stared into Vabin's.

He stretched his hand out over the green grass. A blade levitated through the earth, cracked the dirt, and was clasped tightly in his hand.

It was simple and elegant all the same. The sword was the shape of a normal knight's longsword, with the blade's edge made of reinforced gold and the flat of the blade comprised of obsidian. Its hilt was beautiful, also black and gold but with a ruby inset at the bottom.

Robless looked up. "So. Were you not expecting this?" Vabin's hideous appearance did not unnerve him, for the parasite's was far worse. "Is it...not according to plan?" He flourished the blade and held it down towards the ground at his side, gripped in one hand. "Let's dance, Shadow." The helmet closed on his face and the single visor slit across his eyes glowed blue with energy.

Vabin twirled round and round. He hissed at Robless, for though while his appearance did not scare him, the voice of someone as old as life would always make even the bravest tremble. "What have you done knave?" Yet Robless didn't flinch. "Fiiiiiiine then...... but know that none have danced the waltz of the damned with I," He looked straight up, spread his wings as far as they could, and a shadow began to creep across the ground and sky, a slowly expanding dome of darkness,

"Lord Vabin The Iron-Winged! Know that I personally witnessed your birth, raise, infection, domination, defeat, and rebirth! Know that I am more than just shadow! Know that this choice you made Valderis Robless, will only further the Dreadlord's goals! Know that just minutes ago, Marauder I suffered grievous damage. Know that even in success here, you doom one of your number to death by going to Crenel. BUT ENOUGH TALK!" He lowered his mummified face to meet Robless's eye's.

"Show me the power....." The rust on Vabin's wings shot off, the wings now stainless steel.

"Of fate's puppets!" And now, when the right wing lunged out at Robless, it did not make the awful screech it made before.

Now it sounded like the clean and clear whistle

Of a sword slicing through the air.

Robless did not flinch. His free left hand reached towards the dome of shadow, and clenched into a fist. The shadow itself contracted into a compact ball of energy. "Fate is not a puppet master..." He threw the energy to block Vabin's strike-- "...for I hold fate's strings in my hand!" --and twisted to thrust upwards at Vabin's unprotected body with the golden obsidian blade.

Both struck at exactly the same time, Vabin's wing parried and a powerful strike cut through the fabric of bandages, tearing a few strips off Vabin's torso. Not willing to give him any time to recover, Robless tore a veritable mountain from a hillside and brought it crashing down on Vabin while his sword came down upon Vabin's body like an executioner's axe, cutting him apart even more and weakening his blows.

Vabin recoiled from the blows, and left himself slunk over. Then he began to laugh. And as he laughed, his arms fell from his shoulders, uncrossing themselves from his chest. He lifted himself up and looked at Robless. "Impressive. But you should know better than anyone. You're past, YOU.... are STAINED with shadow," As he said this, his bandages reattached themselves, save for the ones on his arms, which were left draping and ripped.

"You cannot fight me with what I am!" And the world was blotted out, like some one had dripped a dot of ink on the entire world. Save for one thing. An electric purple eye. Then all the darkness compressed and condensed into a small orb that Vabin was containing between his hands.

"Embrace your sins, Commander." And the darkness flooded towards Robless.

"Embrace them? I AM them, fool!"

The orb of darkness struck Robless head on, he did not attempt to block them. The once silver armor was stained into black, and the visor now glowed deep red. His gold blade seethed with red energy, emanating from the ruby.

"Ah, I am not only stained by shadows, I am the very embodiment of them." Robless laughed darkly. "If I simply cannot fight you with what you are, I will simply be you. Rest assured, friend. Ha. Aha. Hahaha. Rest assured. Who said light and shadow were two separate things?"

In one hand he held a red, glowing sword. In the other, he held an orb of blue energy. It flowed through him, intensifying in white energy with each second. Robless' voice lowered to a near demonic tone. "Even death will have met its end."

He seemed to travel through time and found himself directly in front of Vabin. The gauntlet in his left reached the blue orb into him while he used his right hand to guide the blade with two powerful slashes across Vabin's chest from his shoulders.

The shape of a blue circle with a cross through it became purple, and then white as Robless channeled deadly power through his arms. It grew brighter than all the light in the universe, and let out the sound of a million lightning strikes as it sent Vabin hurdling backwards, crushing him against the wall of reality and striking him constantly and with no remorse.

Robless teleported directly in front of Vabin and brought his sword down over his skull. "Death is too kind an end for you. Let me show you the true end befitting such a wretch, a fate far worse than mere mortality."

"You think.... that I can die? You......... think....... I can....... suffer...... more so than I already am? Hehe....hehehehe..... BUT..... ENOUGH." He struggled to his feet. "OF THIS! LET US END THIS GAME! ROBLESS...... LET ME SHOW YOU TO THE GATES OF HELL!" And Robless could see the wrappings bubling and rippling, as at first muffled moans could be heard. Then the moans became screams of agony, at deafening volumes, begining to rend the reality of this world apart. Only when the first tear in Vabin's body could Robless understand what he was doing, when he saw a universe of screaming tortured people. Vabin was sharing all the souls he had with Robless's mind.

"You know how many of these I've seen personally? How many of those I killed?"

Somehow, Robless' quiet voice spoke through the screaming. "I am not so weak as the universe itself. Fly free, my souls of the universe." Instead of recoiling from the voices that drove Vabin to what he was, Robless stepped forward and thrust his sword straight into the mass of tortured voices.

The screams stopped momentarily. He stared into their eyes and they stared into his. "Forgive me." The sword twisted and the ones he killed in his bloodied life disappeared. "Welcome back, lost souls. Now you die, for one last time. I will lay you to rest."

"Now, Vabin. Those were the gates of hell, you said? Allow me to show you hell itself, then."

The souls of Vabin's hell now cried out in unified agony as Robless ripped the sword directly through the walls of the soul repository, leaving Vabin stunned as the sword literally came out of his chest. Then he took the countless souls of in his left hand and crushed them in his hand. Nothing but dust remained. They would no longer suffer eternity.

"I am done here. Get out, fool. You waste my time." Robless twirled around and struck Vabin directly in his purple eye with his sword.

Vabin roared so loud the world vanished. "I AM NOT DONE WITH YOU!" And his hand thrust itself into Robless, and gripped his soul."YOU WILL JOIN WITH ME! FOR EVEN THOUGH YOU TOOK MILLIONS FROM ME, MILLIONS MORE I WILL RECLAIM! THAT I RETAIN!" Vabin slowly began tearing Robless's soul from him. "Join the darkness of eternity." It was already too late to stop Vabin entirely, but not too late to do something. "GIVE IN TO ME!" What would he do?

"No."

And with that, Robless cut Vabin's arm in half, the arm dissipating and Vabin disappearing from Robless' reality.

Reality. Check.

His mind flashed and he was back to reality in an instant. Instinctively, he kicked forward and heard metal clatter against the stairs as Vabin's wing scraped the ground.

Robless reached out for the Lyikos, but a hand gripped his arm. "...Fels?"