The trio of Knights rushed towards Tirek, Trixie in front, Dash a bit behind and in the air, and Rarity a bit further behind still. The centaur only moved close to the last moment, his attack being another punch packed with power. His three opponents attacked as one, Trixie clashing with him head-on, Dash diving down with a last-second acceleration and Rarity manifesting a slash from the ground beneath him.
Trixie blocked his blow for long enough he had to pull back and block the pegasus, which was followed by Rarity's attack forcing him into an awkward sideways movement that gave Trixie an opportunity to launch another attack herself.
Tirek cast a spell that brought down a crushing force onto the Knights, but Rainbow Dash moved fast enough to evade and hit him in the side. Rarity cast a spell that manifested flaming slashes attacking the centaur from all directions, but Tirek twisted space to bring them all to the same point and reflected the magic back at her.
And so it continued for several more exchanges. Fluttershy's last resort had been countered but it seemed to have come at such a cost that brought Tirek down into a level of parity with his last three opponents. They attacked relentlessly and covered for each other with the focus and precision that had been sharpened into a whole new level by the struggle of the hardest fight of their lives.
However, the standstill could not last forever. Eventually either Tirek's brutality armor would lose its effect, or one of the Knights would reach their physical limits. Neither of the parties knew which would happen first, and simply hoping the outcome would favor them was not an option, they could not leave something so important to chance.
And so as they fought, both Tirek and the trio kept looking for an opportunity, they kept trying to move the flow of the fight to a point where they could strike a decisive blow, while at the same time trying to avoid the opponent's attempts at doing the same thing. And they had to judge for themselves what the right time should be, knowing that a misjudgement might be catastrophic.
And the one who decided to make a move first was Tirek.
"Rift
(Dual Dimension Crusher Charm)
Crash!"
Both hands shimmering and the air between them trembling with magic, Tirek hit his fists together, powerful dimensional manipulation creating the equivalent of a small scale colision between dimensions, the resulting pressure falling onto the Knights. It fell far short of the real thing, but still had an astonishing amount of power.
"Frost Wing!" Rainbow Dash was the first to react, diving in while casting a spell.
A massive amount of water coalesced on top of her and got instantly flash frozen into the hardest ice that could be made without special techniques, due to Rainbow Dash also using her wind control to prevent any air from getting inside and making it weaker.
Furthermore, she also instinctively shaped the ice into a multilayered ablative barrier specifically designed to bleed off as much as possible of the force of that one attack.
It was undoubtedly Rainbow Dash's best defensive move, and upon coming into contact with Tirek's attack, it managed the impressive feat of surviving for a full three quarters of a second.
The absurd power hitting her spell crushed all the layers and hammered onto the Knight with the weight of a falling mountain, knocking her backwards with such strength she fell like a meteor. Yet, it had at least managed to mitigate some of the force.
"Blizzard Barrage!" With unmatched timing, Rarity launched her own spell at the exact moment the previous defense broke.
It was a combination of wind and water magic. The Knight actually took advantage of the shards of super dense ice Rainbow Dash had produced, enhancing and shaping them into heavy projectiles that were forcefully accelerated with such violence that any regular objects would have broken apart in the process.
Rarity held nothing back, bombarding the enemy attack with every single scrap of power she could muster, reforming the broken shards of her previous attacks into new projectiles. She spent all her energy in mere seconds, only stopping after getting so drained she was barely able to stand.
All that effort mitigated a bit more of the power of Tirek's attack, and then it was up to Trixie alone to meet it. And the Knight was able to tell very clearly that despite the efforts of the other two, she had no chance of actually blocking the hit.
And Tirek's attack had been done in such a fashion and at such a moment that simply left no room for his opponents to dodge instead. That had been the moment he had chosen, and now Trixie's response to his move would be the thing that would decide whether or not it had been a mistake.
The possibilities passed through her head at extreme speeds. She could keep the other two safe by taking the blow in the right way, but could she do better than that? Could she do a final attack strong enough to cause significant damage to Tirek? He had put all his energy into that spell, so he wouldn't be able to defend.
Even so, it didn't seem like she could do it. His magic was essentially acting as a barrier between the two, and any attacks that she tried to force through would be mitigated too much to help. Unless...
"Dream Edge!" Her decision made, Trixie instantly acted.
She cast her magic while stepping into the intense pressure of Tirek's spell, her Knight of Dreams state being pushed to the limit to resist for even just a single second. But an ideal knight should protect their allies, even if it meant sacrificing their body, and that move would guarantee the other two would suffer no harm.
And the other purpose of the move was to set up her own spell. Her blade grew upwards, temporarily going into a partially immaterial state until it grew tall enough that its top part was no longer within the area of effect of Tirek's magic. And then Trixie allowed the pressure of the attack to slam her down to the ground.
Which meant her sword was also slammed down, with far more force than she could have produced herself, right on top of the centaur.
There was a moment of silence as none of the remaining combatants were able to move. Rarity was still trying to get her energy back, Rainbow Dash was shakily trying to stand back up, Tirek had been knocked down by Trixie's final counterattack, and the illusionist herself was lying down unconscious.
Then Tirek pulled himself back up, the armor digging itself even deeper into his flesh to force his movements. He took one step, and then two, before reaching his hand towards Trixie and draining her.
At the end of the exchange, one Knight had been brought down and drained, but Tirek himself had been wounded even further. Who had gotten the better of things, then? In such a chaotic fight, it was often impossible to tell.
Unwilling to allow Tirek to act again, Rarity activated her Refresh Pattern, which now felt like her insides were burning as the burden on her body was much worse given her current state of fatigue (both physical and magical) and injuries. Given that she was far and away the combatant in the best physical condition of the ones currently standing, that just went to show how harsh the battle had been.
"Grand Fire Slash!" She called out, using the most powerful attack magic she was currently able to, slashing with her Fire Ruler Sword to launch a huge crescent of fire at Tirek.
With a grunt, he blocked with both hands and held the spell in place for a few moments before deflecting it away with a burst of magic. Then he dashed forward in an instant and punched out at the unicorn.
With a now familiar breaking sound, the artifact Rarity had just used was broken as the Scapegoat Idol triggered, teleporting her back close to Rainbow Dash.
"Perfect Restoration!" She called out immediately, doing her best to heal the latest wounds of her fellow Knight.
Yet, as the magic did its best to help the pegasus recover, Rarity was able to tell that she was at her limit. She looked back towards Tirek, wondering what their next move should be.
On the other hand, Rainbow Dash's mind had returned to her wonderings from before the battle, about the nature of limits and how the final limit was death. She understood that breaking her limits caused injury because some parts of her body were more fragile than others, and so the weaker parts gave out when she pushed the stronger ones to the limit.
But what if she could unleash her power in a way that would spread the burden based on the limits of each part? That would prevent injury, which would in turn mean she could maintain said state indefinitely, instead of being forced to stop to avoid even more injuries which would quickly render her unable to fight.
And if she was pushing each and every part of herself to its absolute limit, that meant she would be able to fight at her absolute peak performance.
The idea was simple, but it wasn't easy to execute, as it would require razor sharp control of one's own energy as well as a continuous full awareness of one's own physical state. Dash herself knew such a thing would be an impossible feat under ordinary circumstances.
Yet, her instincts told her that there was a chance, and so Rainbow Dash called upon the power of her soul and unleashed it, channeling the energy through her body. Her concentration had been pushed to the absolute peak by the pressure of the fight against Tirek, so she was able to control such energy with unprecedented precision even as she put much of her awareness into visualizing her state. Even that would not be enough by itself, but Dash followed the guidance of her instincts to make up for the issues that would have ruined the whole technique.
She guided the flows of energy to move in a complex path that perfectly filled dead zones that could have disturbed the flow, saturated areas with greater mana sensitivity in an indirect way that prevented them from sucking up too much magic, and slowly dispersed themselves from the most resilient to the most fragile spots so the flows maintained absolute harmony instead of needing to shift radically from one point to another.
Rarity had realized Dash was trying something and turned her attention to preventing Tirek from possibly interfering, but the whole process was so fast that he didn't even get a chance to do so.
The pegasus opened her eyes, feeling the energy that strengthened her body beyond anything she had ever managed before. But she also understood the danger. Going beyond the limits normally would only result in injury, but doing so after reaching her final limit meant certain death. As such Rainbow Dash named her technique so as to never forget what it meant:
"Extreme Limit: One Step Before Death!" She declared.
Both Rarity and Tirek were looking at her at that moment, and even though there were no outward signs that anything had changed, the two of them could feel an incredible aura of power from just her mere presence.
Then she moved. She took off with the momentum of a rocket, flying into Tirek in the blink of an eye and hitting him with a kick powerful enough to loosen the brutality armor's hold on his flesh for a moment. She had been so fast his arm was still in the middle of moving upwards so as to make a magic shield.
He quickly rallied, releasing a quick explosive spell despite being so close he'd be affected as well. Yet things didn't reach that point, since Rainbow Dash swept one of her legs sideways and made the explosion vanish like so much smoke.
Following that up, she flapped both wings and condensed a violent vortex of wind that felt like she had somehow crammed an entire tornado into a small area. She then kicked it into Tirek, resulting in such a powerful contained explosion that caused cracks to appear not only on his brutality armor, but also on his flesh.
The centaur was still unwilling to let himself be overwhelmed. He cast a succession of spells, a myriad of different and powerful magic, some direct and some subtle, attacking the pegasus in every way imaginable, while at the same time trying to get distance, to get time, to gather his strength, to do something, anything that could potentially turn things around.
And yet nothing worked. Willing or not, Tirek was continually on the losing side in their exchange. The pegasus followed his every movement, countered every attack and didn't give him any chance of mustering up any special magic. His injuries continued to mount and his armor became ever more unstable.
That was not because Rainbow Dash's current form was just that powerful. In truth, she was around the same level as Sunset's earlier Star Drive. The true reason was twofold: One being that Tirek was much weaker now than at the time Sunset had done her move, having been worn down by the intense battle. The other part was that Rainbow Dash's moves weren't actually just powerful attacks, each of them actually contained a strong element of suppression that weighted on Tirek's magic itself.
Suppresion was the one aspect of sealing magic that Dash had any talent in, so when it was decided that they would face Tirek, she decided to brush up on it. For the centaur, fighting her felt like his spells were slower and less effective while also requiring extra energy to actually trigger.
In that condition, he would have found it troublesome to fight Rainbow Dash even if he were at peak strength. So when it was combined with his current weak state, it was no surprise that it became a hopeless matchup.
It took barely over half a minute from the pegasus' first kick before his defenses showed a fatal flaw.
"Annihilation Lightning!" And Rainbow Dash did not overlook it.
Generating a large lightning bolt from each wing, she infused them with the greatest destructive power she could muster and drilled them into Tirek.
The lightning magic coursed through Tirek's body, its sheer destructive energy causing countless ruptures to occur in its path, and when said power spread fully, it finally ignited. At that moment, even if Tirek had been able to scream (which he couldn't) he would not have had time to, as his entire body exploded in the blink of an eye.
Rainbow Dash fell to the ground, the fatigue from performing at peak capacity despite already being very worn down from the fight had been enough to push her into complete exhaustion. The only thing that prevented her from falling unconscious was the knowledge that the fight wasn't over yet.
Glancing up, she saw that where Tirek had been standing was now a pillar of black smoke that looked somewhat like a mirror. That was what remained of Tirek after Rainbow Dash destroyed his body, so all that Rarity needed to do was banish him back to Tartarus now that he was defenceless.
But it was at that moment when the pre-prepared spell Applejack had seen during her last moments of consciousness in the battle finally triggered.
It took only a few moments. A magic circle manifested itself beside the "smoke", it activated and became a portal from which emerged... Tirek.
Or rather, merely a lifeless, imperfect copy of Tirek's body. But the smoke immediately flowed into it, animating that lifeless object and making it truly Tirek.
Seeing that, Rainbow Dash's heart almost leaped out of her chest. Although it was obvious that this new body had its limitations, there was now only one Knight left standing and so the final outcome of the battle once more became undetermined.
Rarity also saw what happened and realized the same thing, but there was no space in her mind to worry, for she was currently having an epiphany.
+0+
Some time before the current events, the artificer unicorn had asked Trixie to tell her more details about what had happened while she and Twilight were in that other world.
"Magic for sealing an entire world... It's hard to even imagine." Rarity commented.
"It's difficult to get a sense of what a World is, since magic that can affect things on that scale is beyond the reach of pretty much anyone in this world." Trixie replied "It would be possible to use smaller scale magic that interacts with the concept of World, but you would need to understand that concept at some level, which brings us back to the first problem."
Rarity nodded in agreement, but then had a thought "But you saw the magic that entity was using, right? If you saw magic that interacts with the World, shouldn't you be able to get an understanding from that?"
Trixie sighed "Theoretically yes, but seeing something and understanding it are two completely different matters. You're only looking at the way a spell from a completely different entity interacts with a completely different world. It's a very limited amount of information, so it would be like seeing a piece of a puzzle and trying to deduce what the full puzzle looks like.
"Or at least the general shape of it, which would be enough understanding to affect the concept in a basic way. But even deducing that is difficult." She shook her head "I could tell that there was something there, but nothing beyond that. I could show it to you if you're interested."
Rarity didn't seriously believe she'd have any better luck than Trixie, but she was interested in seeing what the spell actually looked like, so she accepted the offer.
Trixie then conjured an illusion that showed the battlefield, the space of emptiness bordering the infinite wall of white that was the manifestation of the seal. And her illusion wasn't merely an image, but even captured the powerful intent of the magic itself.
Looking at it, Rarity... Couldn't really perceive anything. Just like Trixie had said, it was very difficult to understand anything based on such incomplete information.
Still, seeing even that much was an experience that was very hard to come by. And it was that very experience that allowed what happened next.
+0+
After Rainbow destroyed Tirek's body and reduced him to that 'smoke' form, Rarity was surprised to find that sight strangely familiar. She would have decided to think of it later and focus on sealing the centaur, except Tirek's trump card came out so quickly that the situation changed.
The unicorn knew that it would be difficult to win by fighting Tirek normally, now that she was by herself, so she focused on her earlier thought and tried to figure out what the familiar feeling was.
Rarity thought very fast, looking for something similar in her memories. She didn't have to go very far back to find the answer: That form of Tirek was similar to the sealing spell that Trixie had shown her via illusion.
Many others had seen Tirek in that state, but Rarity was the first one who had also already seen magic that interacted with the concept of World, even if it was only second hand. Both Trixie and Twilight would have been the same, but they were currently unconscious.
Rarity thought about what she knew of those two pieces of information, there was very little to go on, but by making a comparison between them, she managed to deduce that the similarity was their connection with the concept of World.
Her train of thought could have easily ended there, a small realization that didn't directly help. Even the two Knights who had experienced the sealing magic in person weren't likely to be able to understand anything further than that if they were in her place. But Rarity had also been using her Restoration magic quite a lot during the fight, so she was sensitive to wounds, and that combined with her focus being heightened to extreme levels by the pressure of the battle was enough to allow her to make another leap of logic.
Tirek's very existence was a wound in reality.
With that, Rarity understood Tirek's immortality. His soul was actually anchoring itself to that flaw in the fabric of the world, so that even when his body was destroyed, he wouldn't truly die. But there was also a flipside to it, because that meant Tirek was in direct opposition to...
The World itself.
Rarity's epiphany suddenly ended, having lasted mere seconds in reality. And with the understanding she had achieved, the unicorn came up with a plan. And it was a plan that went completely beyond anything she could have possibly imagined before.
But it would take time, so...
"Please keep him busy for a little bit. Okay, Dash?" She asked the only other Knight who was still conscious.
The pegasus almost wanted to ask if she was serious. Sure, she just had to somehow hold back the greatest villain in the world, while she couldn't even move, let alone use magic. That was the very definition of a big ask.
Still, Rarity was asking her, so Rainbow Dash was determined to give it her all.
Tirek had obviously heard what Rarity said, but he urgently needed an addition of magic to stabilize his current body, so he simply moved close to Rainbow Dash, deciding to quickly drain the pegasus before dealing with whatever that was.
"Magic Drain." Tirek declared, reaching towards the pegasus and activating his magic.
The power was drawn towards him, just like always. And then... It slipped off and flowed back into Dash.
That was most definitely not like always. In fact, it had never happened before, so the centaur was so surprised he actually froze for a few moments.
Meanwhile, Rarity had started dismantling her own Ruler Swords. She needed the material, since she wanted to make something new, and if it worked like she wanted then Rarity wouldn't require those swords anymore.
Tirek once more attempted to drain Rainbow Dash, this time putting all his focus on the spell to make sure that it was being cast correctly. However, the result was still the same as before, so the centaur lost his cool and started simply repeatedly casting the magic, unwilling to believe that he couldn't make it work eventually. He didn't think of the possibility of trying to knock out the pegasus first, making that mistake due to the toll the battle had taken on him.
He was right, but Dash was managing to delay him like Rarity had asked, so everything would be fine as long as she could hold out for long enough. But how exactly was she managing that feat?
Part of it was because Tirek was far from his best condition, part of it was because Dash had pushed herself so hard there was very little active magic left for his spell to grab, but the biggest reason was the pegasus' instincts, once more showing how powerful they were. By following their guidance, she was able to move and shape her remaining magic in a way that managed to evade the grasp of the spell. Still, it would have been impossible without the other conditions also being in place.
The main reason why no one had ever managed to resist Magic Drain before was very simple: It was really hard to do something you didn't know how to do, specially first try. Tirek was the only one who had any idea how that magic worked and there were vanishingly few Knights who had ever been drained twice, and none of them were conscious both times, so they couldn't use their previous experiences to try and figure out a way to resist. (On the occasions Tirek managed to drain one of the alicorns, he had always made sure to knock them out first, thinking they could possibly have a shot at negating the magic.)
There had been others who might have been able to perform the same feat, but did not have the help of such perfect conditions, or simply hadn't been conscious when they were drained.
Regardless, that wasn't a state of affairs that could last for long. Either Dash would slip up or the centaur would cool down enough to think of simply knocking her out first.
Thankfully, Rarity could be a very fast worker when inspired.
"It's done." Her voice came, causing Rainbow Dash to lose her focus out of relief.
Her magic was drained, but with a final effort of will, the pegasus managed to hold on to her consciousness. She had a feeling she needed to see what Rarity was about to do. From her position, she was able to glance in the direction of the unicorn.
Rarity was holding up her newly made artifact with telekinesis. It looked similar to her previous elemental ruler swords, except a bit simpler in design (she didn't have the time to waste on ornamentation), but that simplicity seemed to fit with the feeling one had when looking at it: It felt as if that sword was a part of nature itself, instead of something artificial.
"One who understands the World, understands everything." Rarity started to recite "With Understanding comes Mastery, from Mastery comes Victory." She stopped for a moment "This is the meaning of my World Ruler Sword."
Seeing that, Rainbow Dash was glad to have remained conscious. She definitely wouldn't have wanted to miss that, and she had a feeling it was just the beginning.
Tirek hadn't been idle while Rarity was doing that, of course. He had been focused on using his recently stolen power to stabilize his current form, but as soon as he was done, the centaur decided to take the initiative.
"Darkness
(Shadow Rush)
Driver!"
A sphere made of what looked like liquid darkness manifested itself above Tirek's body, and then it cascaded down onto him, wrapping around his body in a way that reminded one of a cloak, but also an armor. And as soon as that was done, he charged forward.
He charged in an odd, floaty way that seemed like the darkness was propelling him forward. Tirek moved pretty fast, such that he reached Rarity's position in barely a second.
The unicorn manifested a transparent, spherical barrier around herself just before Tirek rammed into her. The barrier shattered into pieces immediately, but it also turned part of the attack's power into momentum to throw Rarity backwards and prevent any serious injury.
That clash had perfectly illustrated the power disparity between the two, with the Knight barely managing to defend herself against a rushed attack by the centaur. Yet, Rarity smiled.
"Tirek, you have just lost." She started to speak.
Tirek began to prepare a bigger attack, content to let the pony waste her time talking.
"You are an enemy of the World." Rarity continued "And now you just allowed me to define you as an enemy to me as well.
"So, I can do this!" Rarity stabbed her World Ruler Sword into the ground and touched its pommel with her horn.
At that moment, Tirek felt something shift, like an entire mountain had crashed into the ground somewhere too far away for him to detect more than the smallest vibrations.
Then a pillar of light erupted from the sword, rising up far into the sky. That pillar of light was Power. Pure, unfettered power beyond anything Tirek had ever seen. The centaur felt like an insect in the middle of the biggest ocean in the world. Then Rarity pulled the sword out of the ground, and the power moved alongside it.
All of Tirek's instincts screamed at him to RUN.
But Rarity was faster.
"World Lock!" She declared in a voice that seemed to cause space itself to shake, and swung her sword sideways.
Space was locked. Time was locked. Distance was locked. Movement was locked. Magic was locked. All that and much more happened in a short instant as a transparent golden sphere manifested itself around the combatants.
There was no way Tirek could escape, and there was no way he would be able to break the magic either, for it was made with the power of the World itself.
Because that was what Rarity was doing. She was channeling the power of their entire World, via the connection she made with her artifact and based on the knowledge she had gained about Tirek. She wasn't channeling the power through her own body, of course. There was no way her flesh would be able to stand holding even a fraction of that energy.
Instead, via the medium of her World Ruler Sword, she could use the air, the ground, even the light of the sun itself as channels for that power. It was like everything in the world counted as part of her.
Realizing that escape was impossible, Tirek channeled every scrap of power and unleashed his strongest spe-
"Gah!" He screamed in pain as Rarity stabbed him in the chest.
Or rather, he had already been stabbed before even starting to cast his magic, as Rarity had stepped one second back in time in order to reach him faster than the speed of light would allow and deny him any chance to counter-attack.
Also, stabbing him wasn't only for the purpose of stopping his magic. The main reason was actually because it enabled Rarity to establish a connection with the anchor that kept Tirek's soul in this world, the wound in reality.
"Perfect Restoration!" She declared more aggressively than any other time she had ever used that magic.
And with the power of the entire world behind her, Rarity reached through existence and healed the World.
Tirek suddenly felt that something was wrong. He was... Scared. He opened his mouth to say something.
But Rarity wasn't interested in hearing it.
"Be ended!" She snarled.
Then she swung her sword upwards, bisecting the centaur. And the pure power of the slash spread along his body, the energy coursing through every single cell. And annihilating them.
Tirek was dead. Fully and completely. His body reduced to nothing and his soul dragged into the beyond.
+0+
With their stolen power returned, the unconscious Knights started to wake up, and Rainbow Dash had even recovered enough to be able to move her head. Rarity had also lost her channeled power as soon as Tirek died.
Fluttershy still remained unconscious even after all of the others woke up and gathered around, so Twilight went to check on her, who had been brought to the same place as the others. She only took a few seconds to reach a conclusion.
"Fluttershy is currently in a coma right now." She informed the others.
"I... Suppose it's not as serious as that makes it sound?" Sunset asked after a moment, noting Twilight's calmness.
"Yeah. With proper care, she should wake up in a week or two." Twilight shook her head "She just took a big mental shock."
"I see. I guess this is fine, then." Sunset said "But there's something else I need to bring up." She looked at Rarity "I almost can't believe you actually killed Tirek, but it all makes sense. But there's just one thing I have to bring up."
"What?" Rarity asked.
"I am bitterly disappointed that one of us managed to get temporary unlimited power... And it wasn't me."
There was a moment of silence before Pinkie started laughing. There were smiles all around, even from Sunset herself.
That made it all feel much more real. They had won, so they could joke around like this.
Once they calmed down, Rarity made her rebuttal:
"You don't need to worry. Sunset. I'm sure you'll be able to find a way to gain temporary unlimited power in your own inimitable style."
"That does make me feel better. Thank you, Rarity." Sunset shook her head "But in other news, I think I'm gonna spend tomorrow in bed. I know my body is gonna be hurting a lot after a day like this."
"You think that's bad?" Rainbow Dash countered "After all of that, I'm gonna be hurting all over for at least a week." She then glanced at Rarity "Worth it, though. I got to see the most awesome thing ever, after all."
"Perhaps I should task Rarity with helping you recover faster. You know, make that a win-win." Trixie spoke with a knowing smile.
"That would be fine by me." Rarity replied, vehemently refusing to feel embarrassed.
Tirek Arc End
Next: Ocean Magic Arc