We came to the portal, which was screaming as if it were in pain. We knew this "screaming" to be the Profound Darkness trying to escape once and for all. Chaz drew the sacred sword and I removed the Techne-Bow from its leather catch. Then, we saw it. In the distance inside the portal, we saw the Darkness coming towards us. It was gargantuan as it flew towards us at an incredible speed. It finally stopped before us, towering over the party. It was greenish in color, with huge fangs that dripped with translucent saliva that boiled as it hit the ground below it. Wren immediately put up his NRG barrier that covered the entire group with a soft buzzing field. Rika cast Saner as I draped the entire party with Deban. Rune and Chaz converged with the mighty GrandCross, and made the first big hit on the demon.
The monster retaliated by unleashing ShadowBreath on Wren. He sparked and sizzled as he fell to his knees. I instantly dashed to his side and hooked up a Repair-Kit to his back, When he was on his way to recovery, I rejoined the party and fired an arrow of Nafoi at the Darkness. Chaz plugged away using Rayblade and Crosscut, while Rune blasted it with Nawat. It fell very easily, and we were all kind of perplexed that it did. I screamed to Rune over the commotion, "This can't be it! It went down too easily!" He nodded his head in agreement and was about to say something back, when the second beast appeared from within the portal.
"What in the Light is that?" Chaz screamed. The next phase of the Darkness pushed its way through to portal as Wren replaced the NRG barrier around us. "I thought we killed it!" Rika yelled, concerned. I whirled around, to ask Rune a question, when we were hit by a powerful burst of AnotherGate, much like the spell Lashiec had used on us in the Air Castle. We all flew back and hit some sort of invisible barrier, no doubt to keep us from fleeing. Rune and Wren decided to see how Shooting Star would effect the giant monster, and quickly combined their skills for the attack. It was useful, and they did it one more time.
I then got an idea, from a story that my parents had told me long ago. Hollering to Chaz to strike with Rayblade, I summoned the power of Astral, and we combined out attack in the devastating Paradin Blow. The Darkness screamed in pain, or anger, whatever it was. It lashed out a giant claw and swiped Chaz and I off our feet. Rune ran to my side to help me up and we combined to produce a large Blizzard. Rika was relentlessly plugging away with DoubleSlash, while Wren was attacking with his colossal Photon Eraser. Chaz and Rune then consolidated their powers into three giant blows of GrandCross. This battle seemed to go on forever and a day, and we hoped to the Light that this would be it…we were wrong.
After attacking the beast for a good twenty-five minutes, it finally exploded, leaving a sort of lull, for a moment at least. Then, the ground below our feet started to shake violently, almost sending us falling to the earth. Lightning began to strike, first inside the portal, then outside, dangerously close to the group. Wren reinforced the barrier to keep the lightning, at least for a little while, away from us. We frantically scanned the area for the next phase, but it was nowhere to be seen. Still, the lightning kept striking and massive shockwaves rocked the ground. "Whatever it is," Chaz yelled, "its MAD!" We grouped closer together and waited for the monster to show its ugly face.
