//------------------------------// // (Present Chapter 35) Darkest Hour (Part 3) // Story: The Unique Properties of Dark Magic // by Shadestyle //------------------------------// Radiant Hope was always a pony who tried her best to see the good in others. She was silly, naive even, she would be the first to admit that. Perhaps only a pony with naivete as hers had the potential to do what she had done, when the Crystal Empire, (She refused to call it the Crystal Egg Zone) disappeared. She rose to awareness sleepily, trying to move. She felt the cramped space around her and claustrophobia began to rise before the illusions took over, and she started to perceive a physical space around her. What she did was perhaps stupid, idiotic even. Trying to learn about the Umbrum as she did took years, she wasn't sure how many, but the magic of the Unicorn Crystal made it hard for her to perceive the passage of time. Only the Umbrum themselves, who had lived inside it for as long as they did, were completely aware inside the cramped depths of the gigantic red gemstone buried under the Crystal Empire. "I'm awake again," Radiant said, wriggling to rid herself of the psychosomatic ache. Inside the crystal, she didn't have a physical body, of course, but she still felt like she did. The Umbrum she met seemed grateful for the experience she shared by sealing herself in with them. They had gone so long without freedom from the crystal that they had forgotten what physicality felt like. "Correct," a voice said, as a fuzzy cloud-like unicorn materialized in the plain white room with her. It was Pretty Lights, an Umbrum who she had become familiar with as she shared knowledge with the imprisoned ponies and learned their stories in turn. As she looked at the stallion, she noted his dark form shift from time to time, blinking between the fuzzy, half remembered unicorn he once was, and the butterfly winged, withered-looking spirit he was now. The sight of Pretty Lights made the lingering haze of sleep quickly fade, as memories began to rush back in, starting with the earliest ones. The first years she spent trying to learn from them were the hardest. The claustrophobia appeared almost immediately, a phobia she hadn't ever felt before slamming into her in minutes as she became aware of just how cramped and over-capacity the building sized mass of crystal was when she herself entered it to try and understand the shadow ponies. The Umbrum were understanding, and with their power, had quickly, to her perception at least, figured out how to trick her mind into believing that the inside of the crystal was an actual, physical place, rather than a mass of discorporeated former-unicorns. It was incredible, to learn the history behind their tragic imprisonment, they told her exactly what she had been hoping to hear when she struggled and fought with herself to try and understand why Sombra, her dear friend, had done what he did. It took experiencing it for herself to understand why he would be so desperate, nearly mad with the desire to fulfill the duty given to him, to mine up the ancient crystal and free them. It didn't excuse what he did, but it certainly made it clearer when they told her of the spells he demanded from them in secret, magics they could not use trapped in a world that never changed. He demanded spells that dealt with the mind, that dealt with emotions, and how to suppress them. How to change them. "Hope, you must focus. You've been awoken early for a reason," Pretty Lights explained, walking to her with a tense expression that snapped her out of her reminiscing. She blinked. "How long was I out?" she asked, trying fruitlessly to feel out how long she had been here. "Nearly a thousand years altogether. You must prepare to leave this place," the unicorn said, his flickering, half-existant wings fluttering as wisps of smoke and clouds slowly wafted from him. He gestured to a glowing doorway that had appeared in the illusory room. "What? Why? I haven't learned everything about your kind yet, I might not be able to convince the others," she attempted. "It matters not. If you do not hurry, there will be no hope for our escape. I've told you never to doubt an Umbrum when they insist there is no hope," he rebuked insistently. "Sombra is awakening, and with him, his doppelganger as well. If you seek his redemption, you will fail if his enemy reaches him first," Pretty Lights continued, pushing her towards the door. The door was a figment of the illusion, of course, there was no overt exit to the crystal, only the fact that her existence as a unicorn gave her the power to escape it. "He's in danger?" she asked, worry filling her heart. Pretty Lights had been the one to explain most things she learned in this place. The other Umbrum, what few could still think straight in the deep despair they all felt, were unwilling to talk to her too often. The memories of before their entombment in the Unicorn Crystal were too painful. If Pretty Lights said Sombra was in danger, then she trusted that it was true. "Yes. You must warn him. He will not awaken fully in time to realize the danger that he faces. So hurry," they insisted, shoving her one last time and making her flop through the glowing gateway. With a flash of light, Radiant Hope landed painfully on the rocky floor, her face smushed into a large flat rock that sat in front of the Unicorn Crystal. She struggled to remember what she was supposed to be doing. It all felt like a hazy dream that wanted to slip through her hooves if she didn't keep it in the forefront of her mind. With a jolt of shock, and several painful pops as she stood up straight, the unicorn mare realized why she had been freed now of all times. Galloping out of the large cavern and through the countless tunnels carved towards it over the years, she rushed to reach the surface, spells flying from her horn as she scanned around her for signs of Sombra's dark magic. As she left, the jagged mass of red crystals pulsed quietly, awaiting exposure to the light of the sun to signal the release of its ancient protectorate once again. It was amazing, the feelings that swept through Noir Weiss as he stood before them. 'And here I thought sadism was beneath me. If only I had time to indulge in it,' he muses, taking a few moments to just bask in the sensation of power, coursing through his body as the fog of sleep quickly fades from his mind, and the empty hollow channels of his spirit begin to flood with hate he couldn't manifest as a mere Shadow Clone. He glances at the ponies. Luna, who has utterly given in to despair at the sight of him. Celestia, whose burning demonic form is tense and prepared to try and protect the others from him. He notices Fluttershy, who looks like she's about to begin hyperventilating as his killing intent grows more and more dense, and smiles at the sight of the normally bubbly Pinkie Pie, whose normally babbling mouth is clamped shut. The others, for the most part, fall beneath his notice. When he notices Twilight, however, a smidgen of respect tries to bubble up in him. He's tempted to smother the feeling, but after considering it, chooses to allow the feeling to emerge. Twilight, unlike the others, isn't afraid of him. He doesn't even know why. Is she fearless? Foolish? Perhaps even brave? Not that it really matters. Somehow, the mare is still standing tall, wearing her pitiful imitation of the Alicorn Suite and staring him down as if she's really ready to fight him of all ponies. 'It takes some serious stones to look at me now and think you can just take me on. Good on you, Twilight Sparkle,' he allows. The sage decides to reward her for earning some of his respect. "I know exactly what I'll do," he suddenly says. Raising a hand, he snaps his finger, and before any of the ponies can react, a large portal blooms into existence behind them. Through it, they can see Ponyville. With another hand, he points to Malusi, who silently whips out a tied up unconscious Rainbow Dash, throwing her across to them. Twilight's horn ignites as she catches her friend midair, gently lowering the pegasus behind her. "Go on then. Run home. I've no more need of you," he offers with a smile, hunger in his eyes to see what comes next. Which ponies will run through, desperate to escape? Which ones will stay, brave enough to try and stop him? The sheer suffering that could emerge from them fighting over the matter is enticing enough to hold him a bit longer. Celestia leans down to Luna, and quietly whispers, her words unnoticed by the sage who is focused on the element-bearers. "Luna. Go do what you need to do. I'll stay here," she says almost silently. Luna swallows bitterly "You can't fight him like this." "I can distract him for a time, but you must hurry," Celestia finishes, rising to her hooves and stepping between her sister and Noir Weiss. "Everypony, go. I won't allow him to harm you," Princess Celestia commands, looking to Twilight with a hard expression. Twilight is thrown out of steeling herself for the hopeless battle by her mentor's commanding presence, and Noir Weiss frowns with disappointment as the conflict is ended before it could even begin. With a nod, she looks to her friends. "Let's go, we have to get Rainbow Dash and the princess to safety," she says, shocking her friends out of the terror that had gripped them moments ago. As everyone quickly runs through to leave, a voice calls out before the last pony, Twilight, manages to pass. "Please don't leave me here. I want to go home," Metal Dash begs, trying to make her damaged limbs obey beyond the point where they are able. A chunk of magical crystal covered with circuits sparks before going black as another one of her systems start to fail. Twilight takes one look at Noir Weiss, who smiles magnanimously as he ignores the golem entirely, before using her magic to grab all the pieces and run through the portal with her friends before it snaps shut. Anxious and excited, Malusi turns to her lord. "Not that I mind you showing off your fletching new form, but don't you have somewhere to be? Do you need an arrow to point the way? You've got another shot at that bastard king now, happy hunting, my lord, I'm certain he's quivering in his shoes right now." she puns. Noir Weiss nods. "Right, I'm off," he says, turning around before Celestia grabs his leg with her telekinesis, pausing him for a moment. Malusi sneers "If I were you, I'd bolt while I still can. You're not in the feather-weight division anymore. Don't challenge my lord unless you archer about it." The dark sage holds up a hand, pausing her tirade of bow-puns. On some level, he knew she was just trying to waste his time, to try and spoil his revenge somehow... But honestly, he couldn't care less. "You can't win, Celestia. I'll break you," he explains calmly, his overwhelmingly evil emotions not flickering with any signs of stress or strain as he speaks. Celestia only bares her sharp teeth, and narrows her slit eyes as her mane blazes. "I've fought you before, Weiss. You've only won some of those fights, in case you've already forgotten the Dark Tournament." Noir Weiss faces her fully now, the ghost of a smile playing across his lips. "Those were for charity, Celestia." He cracks his neck, and puts up his arms in a modified boxer's stance. The battle between Noir Weiss and Princess Celestia was brutal and bloody. The moment Malusi had disappeared using some kind of teleporting potion after giving one final pun about "Missing" him and her aim getting better, the dark sage had rushed towards Celestia, ignoring her blast of panicked magic that glanced across him in order to punch her in the face. To Celestia, the blow was shocking, not because it was unexpected, but because its speed and power were both far beyond what she imagined the newly freed unicorn to be capable of. She crashed into the snow at the base of the mangled tower and felt her spine regenerating from the whiplash and impact, even as she plowed through it and into the bedrock. With a grimace, she unleashed another spell, teleporting out of the way of Noir as he landed where she was a moment ago. She reappeared high in the air, wings flapping bonelessly in the air as her nerves slowly came together and gave her control over her body once again. With careful adjustments, she came down in a glide, and fired a beam of destructive energy at her enemy, who hadn't yet bothered to cast any spells beyond what he was using to enhance his own body. Instead, he cocked back a fist, and threw it directly at her blast, punching through the magical energy with a wreath of crackling crystalline glitter coating his fist. She didn't have time to think, as Noir drew a sword from nowhere and flung the black crystal weapon at her, the blade whizzing dangerously close past her head with a quiet snap of air. Dodging two more of the blades, Celestia coated herself in the same ivory armor she used at the Dark Tournament, the nigh-indestructible shell thicker and heavier than the one she had trimmed down to meet the guidelines of a mere tournament. With an almighty crash, Celestia allowed herself to fall directly onto the sage, hooves outstretched in an effort to crush him into the snow with brute alicorn muscle. 'He's already nearly as powerful as he was on Pluck Night,' she realized with shock, as the unicorn held her back with two of his limbs, grinning maliciously. Struggling to pull away, she realized her mistake as the sage began to crudely pummel her armored form, cracking the artificial unicorn-horn with bone-splintering punches that seemed to come almost mechanically, without rest or pause. 'No... Stronger, even!' she thought desperately as her healing magic tried to keep up with the constant cracks that seemed determined to spread through her skeleton with each blow, even through the flexibility that pegasus magic applied to it. Satisfied with physically beating up the Princess of Equestria like a hostile bum, Noir Weiss grabbed her exposed horn, and with one final heave, smashed her into the wall of the Hidden Palace, thick enchanted stone parting like clay as her body crashed through it entirely, and she would have screamed had she still been fully cognizant as her horn splintered from the pressure. Instead, she stared blankly with bloodshot eyes as her consciousness tried to slip away in face of the damage. It would heal, as alicorns always did, but it stood as a testament to precisely why it took so much to imprison the sage at the height of his power when she and her sister fought him last. With him fully awake, and neither her sister's help nor the Master Sword to aid her, Weiss's emotional state was simply too volatile, his body too charged with dark magic and dozens of modifications for her to simply overpower him as she once did. He threw her bloody, bruised form into the snow, basking in the sight of the shallowly breathing alicorn for perhaps a bit too long before turning and stalking off into the snow towards his true prize. With each step, his pace began to increase, until with the ignition of burning flames at his hooves, he began to rocket towards the center of the former Shadow Realm, at the point where he felt Sombra's magic the strongest. As he did, however, something dark appeared in front of him, and thin rods of magic pierced through his arms, forcing him back with a growl of pain. Luna, somehow freed of her child-like form at the hands of Malusi's toxin, stood before him with the face and countenance of a devil. Disgust and regret seemed to flow through her very bones as she stared down at him in a shadowy familiar form. It was then that Noir Weiss realized what he was truly standing against. Not Luna, but the Mare in the Moon herself, Nightmare Moon. Luna and the others returned to Ponyville filled with fear and tension, but the princess herself only had eyes for the chariot she arrived in, where a bundle of blankets and chains held a small filly disguised with a blank silver mask. "Luna? What's going on, who is this?" Twilight asked, looking at the bound imp cautiously, yet curiously. As the masked figure looked at the princess, she could tell instantly the results of Luna's attempt. "You need my power now, don't you. He's been freed," Nightmare said, confusing the Lunar Guards that had been ordered to watch her. Ones that had no idea who the filly truly was yet. Luna's face was steel, for all the movement it allowed, but the dark tracts of tears proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was her direst moment. Her lowest point. "Be silent," Luna said, igniting her horn and weakly tugging at the various locks that kept Nightmare from simply running off and attempting more of her schemes. "Your highness?" Rarity asked nervously as she set to undoing the bindings on... Whatever this thing was. "Don't worry, Moon, this won't be like last time. I doubt I could endure a thousand more years either. This will be something entirely new, now that I'm my own person," the filly continued as one of the chains fell loose. Luna grit her teeth. "If I am to do this then be silent, for the sake of the stars!" she screams, breathing heavily before quietly undoing another lock. She was frightened. Nightmare might have said it lightheartedly, but Luna knew what would need to be done if she lost herself this time. She might never come back. She didn't want to do this. She debated whether or not it was worth even trying to save 'Noir Weiss' at this point. If any of this was worth it. She knew she had already made her choice. That if she failed now, her guilt would consume her until the end of days. With the final chain gone, the filly squirmed out of the luxuriant blankets and cushions, lifting a hoof to the mask on her face and removing it to reveal herself. The guards didn't recognize her, how could they, with that little filly body wrapped around her essence? Standing up until she was nearly Luna's own shrunken height, the two crossed their horns, Nightmare, with the confidence and surety of purpose to achieve ultimate power, and Moon, with desperation and despair deep enough to risk using it. Magic began to surge between the two, and with a swirling nebula of stars and the casting of a new, far more potent suite of magics, the mare that stood caused all the ponies around her to gasp and back away in shock and fear. She looked towards Twilight and her friends. "Do not remove the Elements yet, bearers. There may yet be need of them," she said with a tear slipping free of her left eye, before turning into a fog of stars and vanishing. Noir Weiss snarled and thrashed like a wild animal as the needles of magic held him pinned to the ground. "You think I can't beat you too? I turned your sister into my personal punching bag!" he roared, flames spewing from his body at random, trying to destroy the magic that held him back like a butterfly pinned to a corkboard. As the flames raged, however, the magical pins only writhed invisibly, shifting and reforming in a way that seemed to bend space itself to avoid the destructive fire. "I'm aware you overpowered her. But she fared no better against me in times past, lord of hatred," Nightmare Moon said with the haughty menace of an empress. As Noir's body fell limp and a blast of smoke erupted from his mouth, Nightmare Moon's own form collapsed into stardust, Shadow Clone and Nightmare Fog colliding in the air as they writhed spiritually against one another, Noir Weiss trying to form a new body, even as Nightmare Moon's own magical form prevented it. Suddenly, the sage's true eyes shot open, and with a roar, he detached his limbs, the metal sockets slipping free as he ran forward, sending a stream of black fire at Nightmare Moon from his horn that crashed into the fog. She landed as the flames pushed her away, reforming to reveal the utter lack of harm his Hatefire was doing to her. The black flames washing around her body like water. "So you still don't hate me. Even now," Luna can't help but say, even through the lips of her disgusting union with the Nightmare. Noir grimaces, canceling the spell and ripping open a portal that spits out new purple limbs onto himself that he quickly shrouds in the black magic of his new form. "Perhaps not, but more things on this earth can harm than hatred alone. You cannot be allowed to stand in my way," he growls, drawing a one-handed black crystal sword from the palm of his hand and brandishing it at her, his other limbs held behind his back in a fencer's pose. Nightmare Moon saw through the ruse instantly, she could sense 'Magicant' inside of him. The fragile, malformed structure of magic bound to his spirit was not only suppressing his emotions, but it also clearly resembled his 'Arcana Nox', the network of dream-crystals that originally allowed him to store away spells as he slept. Even awake, every moment Noir Weiss wasn't casting a spell, his 'Magicant' was storing spells within him, charging new Vancian Magics with every minute he stalled. What struck her as odd, even as she leapt back from his poisoned blade as he set upon her in a frothing fury, was how it didn't seem artificial. Whatever was giving Weiss this newfound power, it wasn't a separate enchantment laid on him. It was closer to self-hypnosis, or perhaps raw willpower and belief alone. It seemed almost odd to her. Unfinished. 'You need to focus, Moon. He's trying to kill us,' Nightmare hissed inside their mind. She shook her head, splitting into two bodies to divide his attention. 'He's trying to distract us. We have to end this now,' Moon responded, dodging out of the way as Noir summoned a second sword to try and strike at her doubled self. Nightmare Moon ignited both her horns, unleashing a beam that lanced through Weiss and quickly turned to dark glass, the new spear piercing through him and forcing him into the snow, and at the same time she also created a gravity-well that crushed his swords, and the hands they were held in, forcing every part of his body onto the snowy permafrost. He tried to speak, but the intense gravity prevented even that. He stared at the halved Nightmare Moon as she turned into stardust and reformed back into her whole self. One of the first tricks she had learned upon taking the Nightmare into herself. Noir watched her intently as she did, an intense, calculating gaze that she could easily recall seeing on him countless times before. She walked towards him, prepared to snap off his horn and pull his limbs off to prevent him from casting any of his more overt magics. The sage had long grown beyond the point where pain could affect him overly much, and Celestia apparently knew how to regrow a unicorn's horn now as well, so it would be of little consequence even if he himself somehow couldn't fix it. She had to act quickly, to stop whatever Vancian spell he was clearly preparing to counteract her own magic. As she walked towards him and prepared to do the deed, she saw his horn glow, and he mouthed to her three silent words as he grinned, even speared to the ground and held flat under spine-bending amounts of gravity. 'Figured. It. Out,' she reads his lips, before, with wide eyes, she tries and fails to prevent the sage from casting the spell he had just watched Nightmare Moon cast to turn herself into mist, exploding into ethereal flames and disappearing into the snow at incredible speeds. With a loud curse, Nightmare Moon dispersed herself and set her starscape to chasing after the rapidly disappearing cloud of purple and white embers that Noir Weiss had turned himself into. 'Bullshit, he just now saw us cast it, this is such bullshit!' Luna screamed inside their shared mind. "Sombra, wake up! You have to wake up!" Sombra awoke only to feel his entire body rebelling against him. No, not his body, it was his soul that was rebelling. He blearily blinked open at the begging of a voice that seemed vaguely familiar. He grimaced as a back-log of centuries of guilt and shame ripped through him like a hangover. He didn't understand the feelings, and he certainly didn't want them. With a gasp, he jerks up, head pounding with feelings that rampaged through him without even the slightest hint of restraint or control. 'I was too late, the spell-!' he thought, realizing how long his banishment must have left for his mind to fray from the careful control he had obtained over it through dark magic spells. He realized who was shaking him, recognizing the feel of her magic as it gripped his barely cohesive form. "Hope? What-" he muttered, managing to pull himself together enough to see her. Was he dead? He had been banished for so long alongside that blasted city, surely she had already long since withered and gone on. "Hold on, I have to," he starts, trying to ignite his horn to cast spells that would help him push down the sheer volume of emotional pain his annoying heart was pumping through his chest and veins. He would need to be sharp to deal with whatever this era held for him. She slaps him. "There's no time for you to drive yourself nutty again, you idiot, he'll be here any minute, you have to come with me now!" Radiant Hope shouts, pulling him up out of the snow roughly and pulling one of his hooves over her back to support him. "What's coming? The princesses?" he mutters uncertainly as she hobbles along with him, in the exact opposite direction of where the Crystal Empire once laid. All around them, he heard a voice echoing out into the howling winds that had began to pick up. "Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same. And now it's here, or should I say..." Faint colorful embers began to rise up out of the snow, gathering together into an impossible sight. A pony that he swore he had already long since defeated utterly. Was he banished for a mere minute?! He's been awake as long, and already seen two ponies he thought would have long since withered to nothing. His panic, as clearly as it showed on his face without a hint of control to hold it in, failed to stop the shadowy figure from finishing the quote that made him grin like a loon as he spoke. "...I am." He feels Radiant Hope cling to him, and something seems to set the Sage of Darkness off, as he begins laughing uproariously at Sombra's expression. "Amazing. That spell really is something, huh? Here I am, a master of the dark arts, crazy as a loon, and as evil as they come, and here you are, with all the emotional incontinence of a sixteen year old facing the boogeyman one last time, it's hilarious!" Noir Weiss howls with laughter. Sombra pushes Radiant Hope aside, snarling as he raises to his full height. "Whatever you think you are, a master you are not," he says, igniting his horn and trying to summon up a spear of black crystal. Briefly, the dark magic comes to him easily, as the desire for domination and the hunger to witness the fear of others raises up within him, but without warning, his horn sparks, and a deluge of guilt ruins it, making him hiss with pain as he backs away. The dark tyrant realizes that without control over himself, he stands little chance against whatever the sage before him has become. Tartarus awaits, whether by imprisonment or death, he knows not. "If you're going to kill me, then just get it over with." Noir laughs even louder. "You think I'm going to kill you? Just because you killed everyone I cared about? What a waste that would be!" he exclaims, walking forwards. Sombra frowns "What are you talking about?" Noir pauses, his smile twitching with dawning realization. He assumed Sombra at least knew the bare minimum of what he was dealing with, and yet... "You're serious aren't you? You had no idea! You absolute idiot! You had no clue at all. You used a spell of love to banish creatures infused with hatred, and you actually think they survived? God, this is amazing! Ahh," he sighs, chuckling a few more times. "Fate really has delivered the perfect victim for my revenge, hasn't it? A pony so vile that nobody would dare free him. One whose dabbling in dark magic has left him emotionally raw and vulnerable to what I'm going to do. And best of all, he doesn't even realize the crime he committed! He's going to think he doesn't deserve it! What sweet suffering that will be," Noir Weiss exclaims to himself, a hand to his forehead as he shakes his head ruefully. With a snap of his fingers, a familiar red gemstone falls into his hand, the gem that was once a part of the Alicorn Amulet. The gem that Weiss Noir had discovered and duplicated in order to create his own Relics of Darkness. The crystal that Sombra once inhabited, before the Umbrum used the last of their power to cleave it free from the legendary Unicorn Crystal, to trick a foolish greedy pony into taking it to the surface, and releasing from it Sombra's fragile, unicorn form into the frozen north. "I'm not going to kill you, Sombra. I'm just going to send you crying home to mommy." Weiss smiles, holding up the gemstone that the dark tyrant had long since forgotten about. One that evoked true fear in his heart, where the threat of death or torment alone did not. "You took everything from me, Sombra. So now, I'm going to take everything from you. I can only imagine what the Umbrum will say, what they'll do, when I jam you back into that prison. How will you break the news to them, I wonder, that because of you, I'm going to ensure with every ounce of my power that that entire blasted race of yours remains imprisoned until the end of days?" Noir Weiss mutters, stalking towards Sombra, who is backing away frantically. Noir pouts, putting a finger to his chin in contemplation. "Of course, you're a bit big for it now. I'll have to cut you down to size, first." "No!" Radiant Hope finally interjects, leaping between the two. "He can change! He can make up for what he's done, I know it, I've seen the good in him!" she shouts, widening her stance and preparing to fight off the sage as best she can. Sombra feels another unwanted emotion rip through him at the sight of this, something that makes Noir Weiss's grin widen, until it seems almost as if it would split his face in half like the Cheshire Cat. He looks at Radiant Hope as if he only just now noticed her. As if until the moment he sensed the vulnerability she represented, that the mare didn't exist at all in his world. "Oh? So someone does care for him. And he cares for you, it seems. I wonder, would that make my vengeance complete? If I imprisoned you in there with him? Or perhaps it would be complete... If I went ahead and killed his loved ones like he did mine?" the sage muses, setting aside the Unicorn Crystal and holding out his hands. One by one, an aura of Dark Magic begins to appear around one of his hands, as Noir Weiss begins channeling magic. Radiant Hope's pupils shrink as Weiss surpasses two, then three layers of spells, one on each of his hands. Four, five and six come quickly after that, as the sage somehow manages to feel not just six ponies worth of hatred, but even housing in his mind six unique parallel tracts of the emotion. A multi-spell beyond anything she had heard of before, something that defied reason. For Noir Weiss to do so, even his own senses must have been shutting down. Even something as simple as sight or hearing would disturb a layered spell so dense. With all of his hands lit up in black fire, the only thing left is his horn, which ignites at the tip with a final, seventh spell. "I almost want to thank you, Sombra. Without you, I never could have invented this, the ultimate dark spell," Noir Weiss whispers. With one final look at the King of Monsters, Noir speaks one last time. "It's ironic. I'm going to do exactly as the spell demanded of our bond. I will sever the ties that bind us at long last, and I'll do it by taking away your precious Hope," he says. "My vengence... Ends now." He throws his hands forwards, unleashing a swarm of seven massive black dragons made of pure hatred, white flames glowing in their eyes. "Smoke Devouring Hydra!" Now is his only chance to run. His only chance to try and escape as Noir Weiss wastes his magic destroying Radiant Hope. Sombra is a villain. He cut out his pity, his love, his care and compassion, all of it had to go for him to do his duty. Any vile act was permitted, any darkness churning in his mind allowed if it meant the freedom of the Umbrum Race. His vile habits could all be excused as long as he executed that goal. But he was too weak, too weak to hold his traitorous emotions back. If only he had a bit longer, long enough to cast some spells to supress the feelings, he wouldn't have been driven to leap in front of Radiant Hope, forced to try and keep the innocent mare from being destroyed just so Noir Weiss could savor his most satisfying, ultimate revenge. It was so much worse, so much worse than the Revenge Death Ball, as the seven dragons made of black fire tore into him, ripping away at his being, culling him down until he would fit inside the Unicorn Crystal. It hurt because it was so much more personal, it wasn't just the vastness of Noir Weiss's hatred, but its intimacy. Sombra could sense the years, the decades Weiss must have spent in meditation, the spells he must have used to give himself eidetic memory, for the sole purpose of memorizing every single sight, every single sound that Sombra had ever made. "You know, this is quite unbecoming of you. Don't you remember what you told me?" Noir asks rhetorically, his eyes glowing with maddening amounts of dark magic. He could sense the devotion Weiss must have had, to meditate on those memories, and grow within himself pure, unceasing hatred for every single moment of every encounter he had with the tyrant. It was ripping through him and the paltry barrier he tried to throw up against it, attacking him in his most vulnerable places as his essence was ripped apart by the magic. "There's no point in being afraid of the inevitable." Radiant Hope tried to run to him, to help in the act of blocking the mad sage's attack, but a deep blue aura pulled her out of the way before a crackle of black fire could leap from the Smoke Devouring hydra, striking the spot where her head was moments ago, the princess of the night had arrived, but couldn't approach, the magic in the air was too close to perfection, too entangled with fate itself for her to interfere, even as she poured everything she had into trying to abort the seven-pronged dragon of darkness that was tearing through Sombra. Noir Weiss cackled, laughing in glee as he felt whole for the first time in so long. It was unholy nirvana, the completion of a task one thousand years in the making. It was euphoric catharsis. Sombra's agony began to fade, and the laughter he heard faded as well, and he suspected that the end was near as he could only imagine that his senses were shutting down.. However, as he caught a glance at Noir Weiss's face, his suddenly slack, uncomprehending expression that he wore as he stared off into the distance, and as he spied the princess and Radiant Hope doing the same, he dared to look behind him while the attack rampaging around him began to grow more and more unstable, losing power as something seemed to be disrupting it more with every moment that passed. In the distance, they all bore witness to the impossible, a pillar of pure white was raining down from the heavens, and inside it, embers of black began to appear. The Shadow Realm had returned.