Feast of Veritas (Continued)

Konbei backed up, watching intently.

Veritas' breathing got heavier and faster as he searched the ballroom for the one who had hurt him so much.

"You..." he growled when his sight finally fell on Konbei. "You...will PAY FOR THAT!!!!!"

With superhuman speed he had never shown before, Veritas dashed to Konbei's position and delivered a strong punch to the Nova's solar plexus.

With the speed at which Veritas had come at him, there was no way Konbei could defend himself. Before he even registered Veritas, he was thrown back into a wall - totally winded. He coughed and groaned as he tried to get his breath back. He wrapped an arm around his middle and staggered to his feet.

Practically in a blur, Veritas went to grab Konbei by the neck and toss him out to the middle of the ballroom.

Konbei was grabbed and tossed, but he managed to compose himself and at the first opportunity swiped his blade at Veritas' eyes again.

Veritas dodged the strike with ease, not going to make the same mistake of underestimating the Nova. He countered by summoning a spike on the floor to stab Konbei's calf, in order to effectively cripple his opponent.

Macabre growled in pain as the sword cut into his skull. He swatted the sword away and went to punch Nuala in the gut.

Nuala took her knife and went to slash down at Macabre's wrist as he tried to punch her.

----

Unaware of the spike, Konbei stepped back and dropped to one knee as it pierced through skin and muscle. He gritted his teeth in an effort to push away the pain, he reached back and painfully yanked the spike from his leg.

The wounded aristocrat glared at the wounded man with murderous intent. "You have taken my eye from me, whelp. Now I shall return the favor."

He summoned a sharp scalpel to gouge Konbei's eye out, silently hoping the mortal would try to run away; it would make slowly killing him all the more satisfying.

(An eye for an eye!)

Konbei staggered to his feet and winced in pain when he attempted to put weight on his wounded leg. He glared back at Veritas with the same look in his eye - it was not in his nature to give up.

"Go on, then," he said, his tone full of hate.

Veritas frowned. This fool wasn't going to give him the pleasure of seeing him beg for mercy. Oh well.

"Fret not, Konbei Lorbane." the bleeding aristocrat smiled sadistically. "I shall keep you alive long enough to feel every cut!"

He went to drive the scalpel deep in Konbei's pupil, when his hand suddenly stopped. It trembled in paralyzing pain and let the surgeon's tool fall to the ground, where it evaporated into black mist.

One of Gwene's blades stood imbedded in Veritas' left eye; holding it was a wounded and exhausted Dane. The gentryman leaned in closer to the aristocrat's ear to whisper in it.

"Never. Call me. Common."

Dane pushed the sword deeper into Veritas' skull, and a scream worse than a thousand Redeads enveloped the hall. The ceiling trembled as parts of the chandelier rained down on the dance floor. The columns began to crumble and fall, and with it chuncks of the deck above. Shadows flew violently around the room in agonizing panic. Yet out of all the terrible changes to the ballroom, Veritas' own appearance was by far the most horrifying. He had grown three feet, his fine clothing ripping apart at the seams, his bloody face twitched and aged before eventually rotting away muscle by muscle. His teeth grew jagged, sharp, and rotten. He easily gripped a long rotting hand around Dane's neck and lifted him off the ground.

The monster roared in pain and triumph. "THIS IS THE END!!!"

(Phoenix wright reference time: OBJECTION!)

"Your right about one thing!" Deserax spun his sword a few times.

"This is the end!" Deserax then gripped the handle of his blade tightly and then stabbed right for the Chest-Veritas' heart.

The chest-Veritas echoed the screech before, black fire erupting from his mouth and eye sockets. The flames took on a life of their own as they danced around the ballroom, destroying the fading illusion completely and revealing the damp dark arena the final battle took place in.

Deprived of his firey lifesource, the chest-Veritas withered away in a black mist. Halfway across the room, the other Veritas let go of Dane and crumpled into a shriveled corpse, before evaporating as well.

Dane coughed as he tried to get up. "We...won?"

Deserax took out the eye of truth. He looked around, and from what the eye told him...

"I can't see him now... We ACTUALLY won!" Deserax put the eye of truth and jumped for joy.

Dane tried to laugh for joy, but his throat was still closed. He ended up coughing some more, but this time with a smile on his face.

As the knife struck Macabre's gauntlet, it miraculously shattered and broke off of his hand. Macabre staggered back and looked up at Nuala and then at where Veritas just died. He looked back at his adversary and knelt before them with skull bowed. On his honor, he would allow them to strike him down because his current master had been slain.

The only thing that the Stalfos assassin would regret, was not being able to discover his own past...

Konbei limped to Nuala's side and raised his sword to deliver the final blow to Macabre, but just as he was about to bring his blade down, she stopped him.

"Let this one go," she said.

"What?" Konbei said and looked at his mother with disbelief.

"Look at him, he's not a threat to us anymore. For all we know he was once tricked by Veritas just like we were," Nuala said.

Macabre looked up at Nuala, surprised that he hadn't felt a blade shatter his skull yet. Never in his life had he experienced mercy, not even from previous masters. To have his fate held in the hands of his opponents, and be spared was an even greater honor to him than being struck down. It showed that there was someone out there who understood him and didn't see him as a mindless monster.

Macabre slowly rose and looked at Nuala for one last time before running into the shadows...

Dramus the jester made a mad beeline towards the exit.

A soft glowing wisp floated through the dark dripping well.

Dane's eye was immediately drawn towards it. "That looks like one of the spirits from earlier; the ones who Veritas sacrificed before us."

"What do you think it wants?" Konbei said.

Another wisp slowly emerged out of Dalikos' corpse. A third one came from down the hallway lng hallway leading to the ballroom.

Dane forced himself to his feet, fighting back the pain that wracked his body. "Are they...our friends?"

Deserax was already by the wisp that came out of his brother. He had the lens up to his eye to check, but he couldn't tell. he tried again, but still didn't feel the small tugging in the back of his mind.

"I can't tell. I guess we need to trust them." He said.

The wisps slowly moved away from the group and down a hallway previously hidden.

"Should we follow?" Dane asked.

"Perhaps it knows the way out," Nuala said. She put an arm around Konbei's waist to help him walk and started towards the wisp.

Dane nodded and limped after the three lights as well.