EHYEH-ASHER-EHYEH (I AM THAT I AM): An Elena Duran/Corazon Negro
Vi Moreau (vmoreau@directvinternet.com)
Wed, 25 Sep 2002 13:20:34 -0400
Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh (I am that I am) 31.0/34
Julio Cesar divad72@prodigy.net.mx
Vi Moreau vmoreau@directvinternet.com
The moaning grew stronger, echoed, and redoubled in Zarach's mind. She was
blasphemous. He tried to shrink back from the clamor of the truth, to draw
himself inward. The wall of reality ruptured his defenses. It broke in upon
his sanctuary and dragged him back out. By all that was holy, Lilitu was
pregnant! Somehow, she was with a child! And whose child-?
"Can you feel him, my beloved? Your child is growing inside me," she
answered his unasked question. "The first Immortal born from Immortals. It
took me thirteen millennia, but just like a Goddess, now I can grow life
inside me! You cannot undo this atrocity, this miracle. You cannot end my
reign!"
"Stop it! You're lying!"
"You know I am not, my beloved." Lilitu said, then her voice took on a more
ominous tone. "This is your child. Would you kill him too?"
A sound invaded the cave. It was not Zarach's cry moving out over the
darkness, but that of a child. A small, frightened child.
"No!" Zarach yelled, recovering his senses. No matter what else happened,
Lilitu was not going to get away. There was going to be a reckoning. He ran.
His reflexes, his speed, everything was greater that he'd ever remembered.
"Mother!" he challenged.
Standing partially hidden in the shadows, Lilitu smiled. "There's no way out
for you, my beloved."
"For either of us!" Zarach replied, his eyes glowing with the power that
filled him.
Lilitu brandished her sword and inscribed a salute in the air. "Then come."
Zarach responded at once, racing toward her. He flipped through the air,
landing perfectly. Lilitu swung at once; bringing her sword around in a
blinding arc that would have taken the Son of the Endless Night's head off.
Only Zarach wasn't there when it arrived. He flipped back out of reach,
avoiding the deadly blade by less than an inch. He came down on his hands,
pushed and tried to regain his feet, only to have two shadows attempt to
waylay him.
Zarach whirled both his sai, carving deep into the shadows, which
disappeared at once. He spun to face Lilitu, bringing his weapons into the
en garde position. He blocked the next sword swing, sparks crashing as steel
ran on bronze, her magical sword. Then he reposted, ripping his weapons
through the air only inches in front of Lilitu's face.
"You're good, my beloved," Lilitu said, turning both sai aside.
"Wait till I get warmed up," Zarach said, pulling back as Lilitu swung her
sword.
There were more attacks. No matter how fast Zarach pushed himself, Lilitu
seemed to be faster. It was like Mother was plugged into an unending source
of energy. Zarach started taking more chances, trying to slip his weapons
inside her guard. Lilitu brought her sword down on his shoulders, cutting
deep into the muscle and bone.
A smile twisted Lilitu's lips. "Come on, my beloved. Get it up. You're not
fighting a common Immortal."
Controlling the pain, knowing that the wound was part of the risk he had
chosen to take, Zarach rose to the challenge. He didn't think about his
weapon's movements anymore-he became the movement, became the tridents
themselves.
There was no fear, no hope, no friends; just one enemy. There were only his
weapons and the unforgiving net of steel he move around himself. Sparks
jumped along the lengths of both sai, grating hisses of razored edges echoed
around them.
Zarach parried and riposted, blocked and slashed, cut and thrust. Lilitu's
defense was immaculate, a perfect rhythm to everything Zarach had to offer.
His lungs ached, burned from their need for oxygen. Salt from his own
perspiration stung his eyes.
Zarach concentrated on the void. He was movement, perfect and pure, better
than anything Lilitu could ever be. Then, in a flash, he saw his opening as
Lilitu pulled her sword back. Zarach stepped in, slashing at Lilitu's
exposed arm.
The sai cut entirely through Lilitu's arm at the elbow. Zarach drew back,
regrouping, not letting the triumph touch him yet.
The sword fell from Lilitu's grip as she dropped to her knees, but the
severed hand spun through the air. Zarach took a fresh grip on his weapons
and stepped in to deliver the coup de grace that would literally part Lilitu
from her existence.
Zarach wasted no time, putting all his increased strength into a swipe
across Lilitu's neck. The Son of the Endless Night had expected the sai to
grate on bone, to hand on sinew, and to saw through muscle as it cut off her
head. But the sai passed cleanly through Lilitu, slicing her neatly in
half. In the last second, Lilitu had stood.
Lilitu's upper body separated from her lower, toppling backward. Startled at
first, a sudden confident smile lit her features. Power strings leaped from
Mother's two halves, taking the place of the intestines and internal organs
that Zarach had expected to see come spilling out. The power strings pulled
Lilitu together again like rubber hands, and the two haves of her body
joined into one once again.
"You don't understand, my beloved! Even without the powers of the Dream, I
am the new Goddess!" Lilitu roared. More of the power strings jumped from
her severed arm and quickly knitted her a new hand. The skeletal foundation
was laid, and then filled out with sinew, blood and flesh. When it finished,
not even a scar remained to show the miraculous healing.
Lilitu stamped her foot on the sword on the ground. The sword spun through
the air, the hilt thudding into her waiting new hand.
Zarach backed away, giving ground as Lilitu lifted the sword into a
challenge position. How the hell was he supposed to kill her if he couldn't
touch her?
Sword in hand, Lilitu launched a snarling attack at once. Zarach
concentrated on the gleaming razor's edge of Mother's sword. Maybe he
couldn't touch Lilitu, but the sword was definitely tangible. However,
seeming invulnerability hadn't been the only transformation Lilitu had
received. Her strength was incredible, way beyond anything the Son of the
Endless Night had encountered before. Lilitu was faster than anything Zarach
had ever seen.
Sai crossed sword, and sparks flew into the air. The cacophony of grating
metal erased even the sound of Zarach's heart beating frantically in his
ears as it tried to supply his oxygen needs. Black comets threaded through
his vision, blotting out his peripheral vision and reducing the combat to a
narrow tunnel that balanced on a turn of the wrist, a quick shift of a foot.
Without warning, Lilitu trapped Zarach's both sai, holding them clear of
their bodies. She drew her hand back and slammed it into Zarach's face,
knocking him backward as if he'd been caught in a bomb blast.
Zarach's lungs emptied in a rush as his feet left the ground. He flew
through the air, flailing for balance, but driven so hard by the blow that
recovery proved impossible. He smacked into the cavern wall behind him,
hanging for just a moment while the centrifugal force created by the blow
finally gave into gravity. Then he fell.
Lilitu leaped high into the air, propelling herself at Zarach, flipping in
the air with the uncanny grace of a trained acrobat. She landed on her feet
in front of Zarach, her sword shifting to the en garde position in front of
her.
Weakly, Zarach forced himself to his feet. It hurt to move, hurt to breathe.
But there was no fear in him. He let the hate take over, focusing on it,
remembering how Lilitu had destroyed their ancient way of life; how she had
created the Game. His arms came up, and his moves felt surer. Lilitu moved
into the attack, and Zarach met her weapon-blow to weapon-blow. Steel rang
out, filling the cave again, echoing long and hard in the shadows that
twisted around them.
Zarach dug deep into himself, dredging up all the old hate, all the skill
millennia had given him, the things he'd learn on his own. Even wounded, he
was more than human, more than anything he'd ever been in his life.
Lilitu swung at his head, the blow coming edge on, the movement barely
picked up in Zarach's failing peripheral vision. He pulled his body into
motion, making the defensive step and mirror thrust to block the sword. When
it hit, the blow felt like it tore something loose in his elbow and
shoulder. Before he could recover from the agony that burned through his
arm, Lilitu seized his wrist in a visible grip that felt like it was going
to shatter the bones. So strong! How could she be so damned strong!? He
despaired.
"I don't think so," Lilitu snarled in savage triumph. She released Zarach's
wrist, moving so quickly he couldn't block the slap that nearly took his
head from his shoulders.
Zarach flew backward, turning a cartwheel in the air, and landed on his
side. His lungs worked in vain to suck in oxygen.
"You lose, my beloved," Lilitu announced, coming closer, sword dropping into
position.
Even then, the hate inside Zarach wouldn't allow him to give up. He'd fought
all his life, and his hardest opponent had always been that dark nature that
lurked within himself, his own evil. But he was tired; as tired as never
before in his entire life. Worse, Lilitu knew it. She could see it in his
eyes. It was just a matter of time, and she would win this battle.
Zarach concentrated for one last time. Suddenly his two-colored eyes changed
their color. Black pits took form where once eyeballs had existed. Using the
last of his energy, his last bit of power, he released himself from his
prison mentally. The energy sank into Lilitu. Grabbing his two sai, on in
each hand, adopting a fighting position and ignoring the pain in his legs,
Zarach waited.
His energy surge crackled through Lilitu, and her white-skinned, beautiful
body was seized by a spasm-she was held there, a prisoner of the pulsing
power, helpless.
Zarach watched as Lilitu howled in rage, crackling blue bolts of energy
veiling her. Then, the surge ceased, and she staggered forward. She was
breathing hard, hunkered over. Swallowing, trying to regain her dignity, and
her balance, she straightened. She looked at Zarach and raised her arms,
summoning her telekinetic power to attack him once more.
But Zarach did not rise as she had expected.
Lilitu began to laugh-a raspy, almost maniacal cackle that echoed in the
chamber. "Very well, my beloved. Well done. But you are completely empty.
You have no more surprises now!"
Zarach frowned. She was right. His face was tired, his gaze sad. "Now we are
the same," he whispered. Then he attacked, one last time.