"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!"
Chapter 14 | Story Index | Fanfiction