The captain was the first to die. He lunged at the wraith and was immediately sheared in two when the swept its claw-like hand across his belly. His blood gushed; he died with his eyes open.
The Gust descended like a bomb, jumping from one of the ruined buildings and landing with a fwoosh as his landing sent air rushing in all directions, scattering sorcerers.
The Psychic leapt out from another building, and engaged in mental combat with the Psychic who had come with Ven from Earth. Flynn, her name was. The masked Psychic sank to his knees, and Flynn began to tremble.
The wraith swept through the soldier's ranks, murdering with ease. His claw-like hands ran over throats and stomachs, and blood gushed. He loomed over Ven, Lani and Mort.
"So," said the wraith, "You are the ones who own the sorceries of Power, Space and Time. How intriguing. How fitting that you shall be the ones who stand in my way."
"We're going to stop you," said Ven.
"Well. You can certainly try," the wraith flicked his hand, and the three keys glowed. Ven, Lani and Mort suddenly froze in place. They tried to move, but couldn't. Ven was being held in place by the power of Space, Lani's time was being constantly reset so that she couldn't move more than an inch before she was back to where she'd been a second ago, and Mort was being held in place by sheer Power.
The wraith held up the keys. They began to shine.
A low, haunting, moaning call warbled across the ruined city. Black lightning crackled across the sky. Then, a fork of black energy streaked down, struck the sandy ground, and the sand swept up, forming a dark archway. A doorway forged of black sand. The inside of the doorway was pure black.
The moaning increased in volume, and then a gunshot roared, and the wraith was roaring in anger as the keys flew from its hand. The doorway closed.
The man, a bloody cut across his forehead, changed his aim, turning to the wraith, but the wraith was already hurtling toward him. The wraith picked him off the floor and slammed him headfirst into a wall.
A bolt of energy streaked through the air and struck the wraith. It slammed into a wall with an inhuman shriek.
When it turned, Lani had teleported Ven in front of it, and Ven clamped her hands on the wraith's grey head and energy blazed and then ash was fluttering to the ground like black snow.
There was a long silence.
Then, with a soft fluttering sound, clouds of darkness billowed from the ground. They gathered and congealed, and a pair of glowing white eyes opened in the center of the darkness.
The portal had, indeed, closed. But not before something had wandered through.
"I am the Significant Other. I am the ruler of the Shadows. And I have come to destroy your world," hissed a voice from the cloud.
•~•
"You can try," said Mort, "But we're going to stop you."
From Mort's perspective, time slowed down. From everyone else's, he sped up. That, after all, was what time was about. Perspective. And so it was that from Mort's perspective that a whip of shadow burst from the cloud, faster than him, snatched him by the ankle and slammed him into a wall.
That was the problem with dealing with entities older than time and space and from alternate bloody dimensions.
Lani's eyes widened as the dark creature materialized in front of her and slammed her into the ground. It loomed over her.
"No," it uttered, "You won't."
"Hey!" shouted a voice. The Significant Other turned. Ven gripped the Key of Power in her hands.
"Lani. Get Mort, get the other keys and get out of here," said Ven.
"Hmm. Yes, Lani, get out of here. I'll hum you down soon enough," hissed the dark cloud.
Lani hesitated. She was no fool. If she left, the Elders would deem a return trip far too dangerous to risk, and they would be right. If Ven survived, she would be stuck here forever.
Then she and Mort were gone with the keys.
"And what do you plan to do?" asked the Significant Other.
"Whatever I can," said Ven, quietly. The Significant Other could've killed her then. It could have sent needles of shadow through her eyes, pierced her body with shadows. But it was curious, and didn't.
It should've, though.
"Mort and Lani and me... our ancestors were the last of the Eternals. They crafted these keys. The power within these keys belong to us. That's why we now have a fraction of the power stored within. In the keys, the power merely inhabits a vessel. But in us, the power is magnified," the key shattered, turned to ash, and a sphere of energy was released. It shot into Ven. She began to glow.
The Significant Other cursed in dead languages and sent shards of darkness a her. Then, a wave of light erupted from Ven, destroying the shadows. The Significant Other's roar of anger echoed across the galaxy.
Then everything was silent.
•~•
Where the planet had been, there was a sphere of energy. Of light. Housed within the sphere was an almost immortal creature in the form of a girl, and a Shadow of an alternate reality.
"You're trapped. You can't leave the light. You can't use your powers," said Ven to the Significant Other.
"But I can make you suffer," snarled the dark king.
Ven shrugged. "Ah well. A bit of suffering never hurt anyone,"
And now the dark creature smiled. Internally, for its surface was so dark it absorbed all light, and so whether it smiled with its body could not be seen. But inside, it smiled.
"But that's not really true, is it?" it hissed, looming over Ven, "And I know something else. You can't use any of your powers while holding me here. And there is no physical wound I could
inflict on you that would kill you in this near immortal state."
Ven looked at it silently.
She wasn't silent much longer.
Her screams didn't reach as far as the Significant Other's roars of pain, but that was probably for the best.
They went on an awfully long time, those screams.
