Aurora shot into the darkness within, using her wings to propel her along, helping her to navigate the corners. A blast or two redirected her trajectory and a few times she leapt to skate along a wall and back to the cavern’s floor.  As she went, she cranked up her luminescence to its zenith.  It was as though the sun was being swallowed by the cavern.

 

As soon as she crossed the barrier line where the void energy lurked, Aurora felt it gnawing at her aura.  She could only illuminate a short distance ahead, no matter how she blazed.  When she reached Redline Racer’s position, Aurora panicked, thinking they’d crash, but Redline’s reaction time allowed her to dodge to the side with a gasp.  As Aurora sailed past, Aurora spotted the edges of Crimson Coil’s dress. 

 

“This way!” Aurora yelled over her shoulder to Redline.

 

In a red blur, Redline slid past the angel.  Aurora caught up in time to see Redline strike the Crimson Coil. Meanwhile as Aurora rocketed onwards, all the while the void energy feasted on her.  The darkness continued to encroach, eating at her life energy, but nonetheless, Aurora aimed towards the darkest part of the corridor to fire.  She waited in the depth of the darkness.

 

Her beam lanced through the darkness, defining it, almost as though a construct had been created by the contact of light and pure darkness.  The beam moved and slid.  It seemed drawn to something, somewhere, as though it was the subtle flowing of an underground river.

 

You’ve found Gothschilde, the darkness wielder. She’s fighting you.

 

Aurora gritted her teeth and focused her beam, keeping it bright and strong as she forced it back to where Gothschilde was hiding. It almost felt as though the light was affecting the motion of the darkness when she focused.  She’d managed to escalate things to the point where she’d flipped the table.

 

“AH!Leggoleggoleggo!” Redline cried behind. There was a gust of wind that slammed through the passageway.

 

The darkness started to intensify and Aurora narrowed her eyes as she focused on the end of her beam where the forces clashed.  It transformed, going from a blast of energy to a light construction, a great lance of sunlight.  

 

Aurora lifted it and thrusted with a yell, “Take the power of starlight!”

 

There was a shocked gasp as the lance slammed home and pierced the shroud of dark energy.  The tip of her great spear was blunted as the shadows gnawed desperately at her spear. Pure darkness entwined around it like a serpent to bite her arm.

 

Aurora changed the spear. This was a battle of constructions, now!  The spear sprouted many spikes along its length and the spiral of darkness formed to resemble a serpent recoiled as it was pierced.  Aurora jumped off her skateboard and sent it flying into the shadows, at the shadow caster, Gothschilde.

 

Shifting her construction again, Aurora changed it to a great broadsword and dashed forward to slash the epicenter.  Her light plate was eroding the closer she came to Gothschilde, but she was close enough to get a glimpse of her opponent now, barely outlined in the thickest shadows.  Gothschilde was cradled in the void.

 

Aurora swung when she reached her opponent and the edge of her sword neared Gothschilde, but a large red fist caught the blade of her sword and snapped it off.  A large demon materialized as if summoned in a moment of desperation.  

 

It was Big Evil, himself!  He grimaced in pain and shook his fist.

 

“Heh… you’re lucky, Childe,” he grunted at the barely visible girl.  Aurora was able to see her clearly enough to notice that sweat drops stood on her ruddy face.  She started grasping at the darkness to recloak herself.

 

Aurora didn’t allow the appearance of the fearsome demon to give her pause.  Extending both hands, she brought them together to release a strong blast like releasing a wave of energy, but it broke into two to strike the both of her opponents.  The both struck their marks with one knocking Big Evil right off his feet. He grunted in pain and didn’t immediately rise after falling, giving Aurora some hope.

 

Gothschilde, however, scattered her blast with darkness as a small portal of void energy opened in front of her and absorbed her energy while diverting it.  Yet another portal opened up behind Aurora and Aurora’s eyes widened.  Her own blast struck her from behind, but it had absolutely no effect on her, restoring a portion of her energy to her.

 

Seeing that her ploy had no effect, Gothschilde gasped. “Worth a try.”

 

Big Evil hadn’t risen to his feet yet. Gothschilde’s lips spread into a grin while tired sweat streamed down her face. “I’m going to take all that light from you.” She half-grunted as blackness rolled off her in a wave.

 

So close to Gothschilde, Aurora was unable to avoid the wave of void energy that washed over her.  It was a clammy darkness that clung to her and ate at her armor in a single sweep.

 

Reflexively, Aurora cranked her light emanation up a notch to form a little sphere of normal light around her.  Gothschilde extended her hands outstretched before her as if pushing something with all her loli weight.

 

With a bit of breathing room, Aurora was able to slam her wrists together again to create a single massive blast, putting as much energy she could into it, pushing the amplification up as high as possible.

 

“Let my light dazzle and blind you, Gothschilde!” Aurora cried as she released.

 

A flood of warmth flooded Aurora’s body as she blazed with energy.  It was a reassuring feeling, given the clammy feel of the darkness that clung to her.  Aurora’s eyes narrowed a little more as the light even started to hurt her eyes.  The warmth of her light pushed the clammy feeling of the darkness back, blazing more than ever.

 

There was a feeling like her ears popping and she lost all sound for a second as everything in the cave became perfectly visible for half a second and all was still while their eyes recovered.

 

Aurora was filled with the anguished cries of Redline, Crimson, Gothschilde and Big Evil.

 

“Wh-what the HELL are you?!” Big Evil cried, clutching his head in agony.

 

Gothschilde had flown backwards, slammed into the wall behind her.  Aurora’s knees knocked together and she nearly blacked out from exhausting so much of her energy.

 

“Very impressive, as I thought.” Black Angel said softly by Aurora’s side. Aurora fell to her knees, clenching her teeth. With supreme effort, Aurora forced herself back to her feet. Even though the compliment had come from Black Angel, it gave her a bit more determination.  She’d been tired before, but nothing Aurora had experienced so far had been so draining.

 

“I’m an Angel of Light.” Aurora panted. “I won’t let any darkness--- no matter where it may comes from--- beat me.” 

 

Aurora opened her eyes to wince.  Her body had become like a welding torch.