Read The Bridge

“SOOOOOMMMMBRAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

The crystal kaiju charged forward too fast for Sombra to dodge or block, grabbing the tyrant and smashing through the roof in a blue blur. The green smoke and dark shroud around Cadance’s eyes vanished with Sombra’s influence. Her nightmare ceased and her eyes dried a bit. Celestia’s lessons on dark magic rang true as her horn glimmered. She concentrated on a lot, filling her mind with love. An old couple she called mother and father. A kindly princess who took her under her wing. A shy classmate who years later held her hoof under an alter. The darkness ebbed away as her horn lost its glow, and she fully returned to reality. It only took her a moment to see the gaping hole in the ceiling and loud rumbling from above to figure out where the stallions went. Slowing her heart rate, she spread her wings and half sprinted and half flew up the staircase to another chamber. By the sound of it, they’d just broken into the roof near the reliquary. Sombra was one of the strongest dark magic users in history. Dark magic’s best counter is benign magic. In a desperate time and situation, she didn’t know if she could risk her last resort option. But it looked like her back up plan was the best plan.

Sombra meanwhile skid across the floor, some of his armor being torn away as he flopped and rolled across the ground. Xenilla, eyes still caught in an inferno, stomped towards him. Red energy sparked along his entire body, the ground with every step. Sombra attempted to swipe at him with his scythe, but a furious smack by Xenilla’s axe swatted it down. The crazed kaiju raised his axe and swung down, Sombra trying to intercept it with his scythe. But instead of locking up and pushing down as the sparks flew, Xenilla stomped down on Sombra’s bare leg and smashed the weapon down again and again with ever increasing fervor. Each time Sombra tried to force him away, and each time he failed. Until, with a thundering crash, steel at least conquered aerenth. The ancient scythe shattered into unrecognizable pieces, shards flying every which way as expanding cracks flew up its length. The war axe continued to descend down, hardly even slowed down by breaking the ancient relic. Barely missing Sombra’s head, it hit with such force that it buried itself in the floor all the way to the handle. Not that Xenilla needed a weapon any more. Strands of telekinesis strangled the dazed tyrant, lifting him up as an enraged Xenilla roared in his face.

“Do you have ANY idea what you did to me?!”

Sombra’s eyes and horn ignited with a green flare, a fireball of dark magic shooting out and engulfing much of Xenilla’s upper body. But the psychic hold never faulted, and Xenilla stood exactly as he was when the smoke cleared, despite half his torso and neck being horribly burned. The kaiju cocked his head back and head butted his rival hard enough to reopen the broken nose Cadance caused. Sombra struggled and writhed, attempting another blast; but a second face first crash broke his focus. Xenilla hissed, fighting through the nightmares that still plagued his vision with every heartbeat.

“Do you know what I lost?!”

A strong hoof to the face bruised Sombra from the cheek to the brow. The former monarch’s crown flew off his head and rolled against the floor as Xenilla towered over him. A stray limb broke free of psychic control and ushered a return blow; smacking the kaiju across the face, bloodying his nose and snout. The retaliation was far from dignified.

Xenilla chomped down, bending the metal greave and rupturing skin under tooth and fang. A loud crack signaling a shattered hoof and leg bone. Nearly shocked by his own pain, King Sombra’s entire body glowed with a flare of green light as he put as much force as he could into one more blast. Taking advantage of Xenilla being blinded by his hex for a split second, Sombra ducked his head down and lunged up. Recurved horn stabbed into Xenilla’s collar, burying itself and almost the entire magical shock wave shot out from it into the kaiju’s body. The psychic binding was fractured and Xenilla flew across the room with a trail of smoke. Crashing into a chair, Xenilla was a bit slower to rise than Sombra; falling back to the ground. The tyrant king struggled up to his hooves with a noticeable limp, keeping one limb off the ground.

“I fashioned a prison none could experience without living your worst fear.”

Xenilla struggled to get up, his wound sparking as his healing factor tried to patch it to the best of its current ability. Sombra huffed coarsely to regain his breath, levitating up a sharpened shiv that used to be part of his scythe’s shaft as he limped forward. He took aim as Xenilla’s throat.

“For you, it must have been like tearing off your own arm… But it ends here, the beast dies alone…”