The Fall of Nyxos

## Overview

The fall of Nyxos is a multi-chapter story written by Timmyh198, the creator of Shadus, Kage, Xantha, and Light Shadus. It features the characters Xantha and Kage, focusing on the backstory of Xantha and her Master, Nyxos. Each chapter was released on a 'whenever he felt like it', no due dates holding him back.

## Full Story

### Chapter One

Xantha was feeling mildly tired from this…highly interesting…opponent of hers. This “Light Shadus”, as she had started subconsciously calling him, was highly skilled, and had proven to be quite the challenge to annihilate.

She shook her head, noticing that her mind had slightly wandered into the depths of…madness, was it? No…Somehow, she found herself more logical. More intelligent. More emotional.

She found that strange.

She swept her twin greatswords, formed from shadow, directly at her opponent, bu he blocked it skillfully with the white sword he wielded with such fabulous skill.

She kind of regretted killing this one. He was the opposite of her: He was pure, flawless, perfectly sane, and had everyone’s best interests in mind, while she was corrupt, evil, completely insane, and only wanted everyone’s death.

Those, she knew, weren’t her feelings, but her master’s. He wanted only death. That insane mind of his wanted only the destruction of anything that was alive, and she was willing to do anything for him. But even if it meant killing somebody like this? Somebody who was perfect? She wasn’t sure.

She suddenly backed off. “Wait…I…I want time-out.”

Light, who stood before her, gave a slight giggle. “Of all the times I have fought, that is literally the first time I’ve heard that one.” However, he postponed his attack for the moment. He sensed that...something good was going through that twisted mind of hers, and he wasn’t planning on stopping it with violent actions.

Xantha was thoroughly confused. She began to ask herself a question she never had asked before. One simple question, but it was powerful enough to shake the foundations of her very soul.

Who was she before Nyxos?

### Chapter Two

Lady Xantha, on the other hand, was engaged in a high-speed battle against Zenos, who wielded a long, razor-sharp like he had dubbed “The Sky-Killer”. He flew around with such incredible agility, using the jetpack and wings mounted on his back. Even Lady Xantha, who had previously fought along-side an alternate form of Zenos, had a hard time keeping up.

However, Zenos was growing tired. This “Lady Xantha” was proving to be as skilled as she was sophisticated, which made him slightly impressed. However, only slightly. He glanced down at the pointed tip of his pike, and his eyes slowly gazed along the shaft, until it reached the end of it. Mounted on the end of it was a jet thruster, which gave his pike much more momentum when thrown. He knew that, if he had any hope of winning, now was the time to make good use of it.

Flipping a switch on his pike, he drew his arm back into a throwing position. “I’m sorry, Madame, but I’m afraid I’ll have to end this. I am Lord of the Skies, and I have no intentions of losing that title, now.” The thruster on his pike began to roar as the flames ignited from it. Zenos threw the pike with tremendous force, the thruster adding an impossible amount of force to it.

Lady Xantha tried her best to dodge, but the pike seemingly homed-in on her position, following her until she was forced to brace for impact, forming a shield made of solidified light. When the weapon hit, it didn’t bounce. In fact, it pressed down so hard on the shield that it slowly, but surely, made its way into the shield.

Xantha wondered, in what she thought were the final moments of her life, how Light was doing in his battle. “Shadus…Please remember…my grace…” She closed her eyes, readying herself for the final impact.

Just then, she heard a shot fired. It wasn’t far below, but as soon as the shot sounded, there was a crash, a high-pitched shriek, and suddenly, the pressure on her shield diminished. She slowly opened her eyes, finding the pike mere inches away from her mask. The thruster was on fire, the main engine seemingly damaged.

Zenos looked shocked. “I-impossible…”

“Impossible? Don’t make me laugh, moron.”

Lady Xantha looked to her left, and found…Shadus? No. He was the wrong color scheme. He was clad in black and white. And he was hefting a rifle that was bigger than HE was. Last she checked, Light was white and gold, and Shadus was black and red. This was different. A new Shadus had appeared.

“Before you ask, morons, I am not one of the Shaduses anymore. I am Kage. Toa Kage, at your service, milady.”

### Chapter Three

“Are you the one known as ‘Dark Shadus’?” Asked Zenos.

“Not anymore, moron. I am Kage. Call me Kage. Or, you can call me ‘master’. Or ‘god’. Or ‘supreme overlord’. Any of those works, too.” Replied Kage.

Zenos couldn’t believe this imbecile’s arrogance. However, that rifle backed up his words up quite effectively. The accuracy that was shown with that weapon was astounding. “Karz. Where in Mata Nui’s name did you come from?! I was doing just fine until you got here.”

“That’s the idea, moron. I just got out of a ‘test’ Torok so kindly gave to us. Nearly resulted in my death, in fact. But in the end, he gave me this lovely body. Now, I may not be able to dissolve at will anymore, but I CAN freeze your jetpack’s insides, causing it to explode in a glorious shower of fire in honor of a moron's death. You wouldn’t want that, now would you?”

However, after saying this, he smirked, lowering his rifle slightly, giving Zenos a shrug. “I’m not here to kill you, however. More like, rewrite you. I have Nyxos’s memories inside of me. They were embedded in the power that was granted to me. Took me a while to find them, too. They were shielded from most of my efforts, but my sheer willpower eventually broke through that moron's defenses.

“Anyway, I found some…interesting memories…Memories about you and your…Siblings? Allies? Friends? I don’t know what you consider each other…”

“Let’s start with what you know. You think you were a manifestation created through Darkspace and shadow, allowing you to become what you are, right?”

“What the Karz are you rambling about?!” Snapped Zenos.

“I’m lost, too…” Muttered Lady Xantha.

“Shut up, both of you morons, and let me finish, already!” Kage snapped, pausing for a bit. He was met by an awkward silence. “Thank you.”

“Anyways, I have discovered that…you are not who you think you are. You think you are the followers of your master, created through what little grace that moron has.”

“Don’t insult Master Nyxos!” Interrupted Zenos, readying an attack. However, this attack was deflected by another well-aimed shot from Kage's rifle.

“Shut up, moron!”

Kage continued. “Anyways…that is a lie. You are not created through his non-existent grace. You are - excuse me - WERE, in fact, his victims. Beings that were killed by that imbecile, then reborn through Darkspace. All of your…spirits, I suppose…were ripped from the afterlife, and then embedded into the Darkspace cloud that fills your insides. And he has no intentions of keeping any one of you.”

Kage smiled. “If anyone wishes to applaud for my wonderful speech, do so now.”

### Chapter Four

Zenos had enough of this sassy, arrogant maniac before him. Master Nyxos use him as a tool? Never. Nyxos wasn’t capable of…

Zenos began to think about it. Nyxos was, as he hated to admit it, a little sick in mind. He was more than capable of pulling such a scheme, and that made him wonder.

“This brings me to my point!” Kage’s voice interrupted Zenos’s thoughts.

“You mean that whole monologue wasn’t your point?” Lady Xantha muttered.

“Nope. Now, listen, children.” Kage continued.

“I have discovered that, with enough concentration, I can unlock those memories, as well as your personalities, but I need you to be willing. Otherwise, you’ll resist and I’ll need somebody to hold you down,” He glanced at Lady Xantha, giving a slight nod. “Which wouldn’t be so pleasant…for you, that is. Make your choice, moron.”

If Zenos was fed up before with this imbecile, now he was completely uncontrollably angry at him. “Karz, SHUT UP!!!” Zenos flew at Kage, readying two swords formed from shadows.

However, Lady Xantha came up from behind and grabbed both wrists, forming binds of light to hold him still. “Now, Kage!”

Kage nodded, floating deliberately slow towards Zenos, his left hand extended. “Let’s see what pathetic memories this moron has, shall we?” His index finger touched Zenos’s mask, immediately filling Zenos’s eyes with darkness.

At first, he couldn’t see anything. Then, he heard a slight…caw? What was that? Birds? Guku birds? He wondered how he knew that. He payed no attention to the birds in the air. He only shot them for sport.

Suddenly, he could remember…laughing? A family? He remembered his life from way back then. He lived on an island, though the name was quite lost to him, for now. He remembered a group of toa. He worked with them, after all. They looked oddly familiar in a different way, though. Twelve of them…

Then, he realized. They were his companions. Xantha, Xanna, Alteron, Cern, and all the others.

So many memories filled his mind. He smiled to himself. They were good memories. Happy memories. That was odd. Before, he would feel disgust at such memories. But, now…he felt…different. His personality was changing-no-returning.

Then, a horrible memory returned to him. A towering monster effortlessly and merciliessly cutting down all his friends. Then, as he charged with his spear in hand, his memories stopped.

He knew, then, who that shadow was that ended his happiness. The one who was responsible for the destruction of his family. And he knew what he would do about it.

Nyxos was going to die.

### Chapter 5

Xantha and Light, too tired to go on, were left sitting at the same column, panting from exhaustion. Surprisingly, the two, themselves, were left relatively unscathed, which was a great contrast to the rest of their surroundings. The land around them was
mostly leveled from the amount of blasts of light and shadow from their combat.

Xantha sighed. “You’re…very good…”

Light snickered. “Was that…a compliment?”

Xantha giggled slightly. “Yeah…I guess so…”

The two sat there quietly. “Such beautiful destruction…” Muttered Xantha.

“No, it’s not.” Muttered Light.

“Yes, it is.”

“Nope.”

The two would’ve continued if they weren’t interrupted by a voice. “Good day, Xantha. Light.”

In front of them was Kage, Lady Xantha, and Zenos. Xantha stared at her counterpart. “I swear…I’ve seen it all, now.” Xantha muttered under her breath.

“That makes just about two of us, Xantha!” Kage chimed in, glaring at the scene before him. If he didn’t know better, he’d say that Light and Xantha were accomplices.

Xantha glanced at Zenos. “Zenos, why are you with them?” She blatantly asked.

Zenos shrugged. “I was told the truth. The truth that you’ll be shown shortly.”

Xantha’s eyes narrowed. “Truth? What do you mean-”

“The truth about your past, moron!” Interrupted Kage. “Now, shut up and relax as I give you your stupid memories back.”

Without saying anything, he approached Xantha, hand outstretched. Xantha’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t touch me with those disgusting fingers.” She slowly ordered.

“Too bad. I’m gonna do it.” Kage responded sharply.

“I’ll kill you if you do.”

“No, you won’t. I’m touching your arm.”

“Not as long as I live.”

“You’ve given me no choice. I’m touching your face.”

“NO!!!” Xantha screamed as she shot several rounds of shadow blasts at him, which he easily absorbed.

“Do you want me to touch your heartlight?”

She merely glared at him as he approached her slowly. He was mocking her with his dramatically slow speed. She would make him pay for this humiliation. As he slowly touched her forehead, her vision was filled with darkness…

### Chapter 6

When she awoke, Xantha was ticked-off. She had been touched in the forehead by…HIM. She already hated the other one, but Kage was much worse than his predecessor. He was sassier than a Ko-Matoran and he was more arrogant than a Ta-Matoran. He had inherited the most unattractive parts of Shadus magnified tenfold.

She, then, slapped him in the face.

Kage shook his head slowly. “Typical…” He muttered, turning away. “How do you feel, Xantha?”

“Like I want to slap you again.” Responded the shadow being.

“Yup. You’ll be just fine.”

Kage walked away, already heading towards the last sight of explosions. Shooting into the air, he could see the acid and shadow blasts striking different buildings, leveling them. “The Harvester…and Xanna…” He muttered. “Lovely assassins.”

Kage teleported to the middle of the fighting, immediately forming shadow bubble around himself to protect himself from the oncoming blasts. “STOP SHOOTING, MORONS!!!” He screamed.

The Harvester and Xanna both raised their eyebrows. “Shadus?” Asked The Harvester before re-opening fire on Kage.

“I AM NOT SHADUS, YOU MORON!!! I AM TOA KAGE!!! GET YOUR FACTS RIGHT!!!” Screamed Kage as he threw a beam of ice a The Harvester, who easily dodged it.

“Ice? It would seem you’re correct…Though, you look remarkably similar…” The Harvester shrugged. “If I had not already experienced so much, I might be shocked that another Shadus appeared...”

Then, the next few minutes went exactly the same as with Zenos and Xantha. Xanna shook her head. “I can’t believe I served that monster…He killed me…and brought me back…to kill me…for sport.” She muttered.

“That would be very likely with that moronic imbecile!” Kage chimed in. “He loves a good game of murder.” His eyes narrowed and he clapped his hands together. “Now, tell me! Where are the others?”

Xanna relayed the information about the others to him, and was soon joined by Xantha and Zenos. Harvester, however, decided to assist in this expedition. This was because the original Shadus was nowhere to be seen. One-by-one, they traveled to the different servants, restoring their inner-beings. Soon, all but one had turned against their former master.

“If I recall correctly, the last one is Ghost, correct?” Asked Kage.

“The most dangerous of us all…He’s not going to be easy to hold down…” Cern, who was formerly a Toa of Plasma, thought aloud. “You’re in for a rough day, Kage.”

“Good. I need the challenge…” Muttered The Harvester, sharpening his scythe with his daggers.

Kage shrugged. “I’m sure he’s as moronic as the rest of you! Let’s get started, then!”

The eleven beside him slowly shook their heads. He really knew how to get onto somebody’s nerves, and he didn't know how to stop. Xanna grabbed Kage by the wrist and teleported them to Ghost’s exact position.

Ghost’s first reaction to the group was to stare, casually cleaning his sniper rifle. “What in Mata Nui’s name are you all doing here? You know what Lord Nyxos ordered…Unless you’re betraying him. Considering you are joined by these two strangers...I would assume you have.”

He slowly stood dramatically, brandishing his rifle. “Unfortunately for you, my old friends, betrayal leads to fates worse than death.”

### Chapter 7

Xantha snickered. “You always were one for dramatics, Ghost.”

Ghost shrugged. “What can I say? I’m merely telling you truth…”

Kage laughed. “Sure. A moron like you beat me? DEFINITELY POSSIBLE! You’ll definitely kill me…with laughter.”

Ghost shook his head, and before Kage knew it, he was dodging a round from Ghost’s sniper rifle. The wall behind Kage now had a three-meter hole in it. This, however, didn’t phase Kage.

“Really? I have much better accuracy than that!”

His words were met with more shattering rounds, but Kage simply avoided or blocked them with his ice powers.

“So pathetic! I could have killed me seven times by now, moron!”

“KARZ IT, SHUT UP!!!” Screamed Ghost, his cool complexion gone, replaced with a very, very angry gunman. “When I’m done with you, not even the Red Star will be able to bring you back!” He gripped his rifle with his right hand, and with the other, drew a shield-like instrument that bore blades at the end.

“Now, you’ve done it…” Muttered Zenos. “You’ve made Ghost mad. This is going to get ugly…”

Kage wasn’t phased by Ghost’s threats or Zenos’s remarks. “Bring it on, moron.”

Ghost leveled his sniper rifle, but at the same time, Kage did the same. Both fired at each other with equal accuracy. The blasts collided and exploded on impact. Kage also threw bolts of ice and shadow at the enemy, who easily blocked them with rifle rounds or his shield.

Suddenly, Ghost charged, intent on skewering his enemy with his shield. Suddenly, a wave of shadow blasted him off his feet. Cern was standing with his sword drawn, extending it outwards. “This ends now.” He merely said, already bounding Ghosts’s limbs with shadow chains.

“Cern. Let go.” Ghost ominously muttered.

“And let you kill me? No.”

“Good work, servant!” Exclaimed Kage.

“I am not your servant.” Cern retorted.

“You are, now, moron!”

Kage strode forward, placing his hand on his forehead, sending him into the deep memories. When Ghost woke, a new rage formed in his cold, unforgiving eyes. However, the rage was directed towards a new target. It was directed towards his former master.

Kage nodded at Cern, who released Ghost from the chains. “Now, tell me, exactly HOW loyal are you to your master, now?”

### Chapter 8

Later that day, Nyxos was wondering exactly how his servants were doing. To his dismay, New Atero was still, relatively, in one piece. To even more of his dismay, his twelve followers, as well as The Harvester and Dark Shadus, were marching, weapons in-hand, to his big, black protosteel doors. However, he could quickly guess why.

“It would seem that that…VEZON…has finally taught my pets exactly who they are. Ah, well! This should be fun!” He created two weapons out of darkspace and waited.

The weapons, which were similar to whips, were shadow axe-like, jagged blades, attached to long chains made of the same substance. Two short handles were the only handholds that Nyxos required to use them. The weapons were designed to wrap around an opponent and shred them with a single tug. They were weapons only monsters would use. And they described Nyxos perfectly.

“Heh…Come and get it, imbeciles…You’re going to regret not following my orders.” He smiled coldly. He COULD fix their brain chemistry so that they would serve him again, but that would be no fun. It had been a while since he killed a traitor, after all. He wanted to savor this moment. The moment of destroying lives.

It never got old.

That’s when the door blasted open, blown off their protosteel hinges with a collective blast from twelve very, very angry servants. And two supporters.

“I was wondering when you twelve would get here. It was quite boring waiting. And I hate waiting to kill somebody.” The psychopath proclaimed.

“I’m assuming you enjoy death, Nyxos.” Kage began.

Nyxos responded with vigorous nodding.

“Then, why don’t you have some for yourself? You never know. You might love dying.”

Nyxos’s eyes narrowed. “Die? Me? I would never!”

“We’ll see about that, moron.”

Kage quickly leveled his rifle at the opponent’s head and fired an ice blast. However, the ice was met with a ball of fire, which exploded the ice on contact. Nyxos was standing, balls of fire hovering over his mask in a semi-circle pattern.

“I have mastered so many powers, do you think that ICE will be able to stop me?”

“Of course not! It was only meant to distract you!”

This statement confused Nyxos. Then, he noticed that the other thirteen were missing. He looked around, and saw them all lunging at them with their weapons, collective weapons pointed at him.

A psychotic grin formed on his face, and he began to maniacally laugh.

### Chapter 9

The first casualty was Alteron, former Toa of Plasma. The chain flicked towards him as he took several shots at his opponent with his SMG-like weapon in hand. He instinctively put his massive tower shield up to defend himself, but the chain wrapped around the shield and its user easily. The blade pierced the poor former Toa, but Nyxos wasn’t finished. A single tug of the chain rendered Alteron unrecognizable, the lifeless shell falling to the ground.

The second to fall was Vivate, former Toa of Iron, and Viserus, former Toa of Air. The chain wrapped around the two easily, forming a deadly bond. It was over in seconds.

Xantha tried to move in, but chains reached from the walls, bounding her tight. “Curse you, Nyxos!” She cried before a chain wrapped around her neck, and began to choke her.

In fifteen seconds, three more formerly powerful beings lay dead at Nyxos’s feet.

“Oh? Scared already? I was hoping my servants would put up more of a challenge…”

Kage smirked, hiding his hatred of his opponent. “You want a challenge, moron?”

A circle formed under Nyxos’s feet. “Then you’ll have a BLAST with this one…”

The blast of darkness under Nyxos’s feet was tremendous. It caused Kage’s allies to stagger backwards from the ferocious shockwave that slammed them all like a herd of stampeding kikanalo. The ceiling was rendered non-existent, needless to say. However, when the smoke cleared, Nyxos was standing there, casually, and really unimpressed.

“Idiot! Shadow has no effect on him!” Yelled Cern.

Kage let out a curse. However, before he could think of something else, a blast of fire slammed him in the shoulder, blasting him backwards a good 100 yards before slamming onto the ground.

Kage lay unmoving, yet his heartlight still shown.

The others were beside themselves. Before anyone could act, another blade cut through the air, this one made of wind, slashed into the side of Cern’s head, ending his life.

This enraged Zenos, who considered Cern to be his best friend. His spear, which had been repaired by Kage, flew at lightning speed towards Nyxos’s miserable head. However, even with this speed, Nyxos’s head tilted slightly, and the spear slammed into the ground.

Then, Zenos was being assaulted by hundreds of blasts of light, coming from all directions. Zenos, although extremely agile, was having a hard time with these blasts, and one eventually clipped his jetpack’s wing, sending him spiraling to the earth. The crash proved to not be fatal, however, and he was back on his feet soon.

Nyxos began to laugh. He would’ve started speaking, but his thoughts were put to a halt when a scarily precise shot from Ghost made it through his defenses and struck the being in the side. It wasn’t fatal, but it hurt. He turned on Ghost, slashing his blades. However, Ghost had altogether vanished before Nyxos could do anything.

Nyxos could read the positions of all the others, but Ghost and Xanna were a different story…

*‘Speaking of which…Where IS Xanna?’* He thought to himself. A knife to the back
answered that question. His blade slashed at his opponent, who tried to dodge, but suddenly, The Harvester was there, his acidic scythe hooking onto the blade and deflecting it off its course, sending it spiraling harmlessly into a column.

The Harvester continued his assault, sending blast after blast of acid at the opponent. For some reason, the acid had the power to melt through solid shadow. “How on earth…?” Nyxos muttered.

“How is it melting through shadow?” Finished the Harvester. “Call it a...gift...from Lord Shadus.”

Nyxos cursed. That imbecile Shadus probably gave this one some ichor to fuse into his body. Somehow, it wasn’t eating away at his skin, which was even more impressive.

Xanna’s dagger was suddenly pulled from Nyxos’s back, which hurt and drew ichor.

Dark Ichor.

Nyxos smiled. “Foolish move, imbecile…”

The Ichor that gushed out suddenly formed into tentacles, which reached to grab Xanna in an attempt to melt her. She tried to nimbly dodge, but she accidentally stumbled on a fallen rock from Kage’s attack and fell. The tentacles reached to her neck.

The Harvester tried to reach her, but a sudden blast of shadow from behind him rendered him onto his knees.

Xantha, suddenly, broke free of her chains. She had been forced to watch her brothers fall to this maniac not once, but twice. Her heart ached from this, and she had one person to blame. One who, never before, held such a spot of hatred in her heart. One whom she, not only wanted to, but felt like she NEEDED to kill to live with herself. She would not allow him to take a single more life.

“NYXOS!!!” She bellowed, slashing her hands open with blades made of shadow, drawing Dark Ichor. “I swear…You monster…I swear I will end your life…right here…right now…” The Ichor became greatswords, and she lunged forward, more Ichor swirling around her energy-leaking body.

Nyxos laughed. “Finally! I’ve been waiting for this!” He formed swords of Darkspace, practically flying at her.

The blast created by the two’s swords clashing caused a shockwave that shook the entirety of Spherus Magna.

### Chapter 10 (The Finale)

The swordfight between the two towering titans was incredibly fast. The two moved with such blinding speed and grace that even the most skilled swordsmen using the Great Mask of Speed would have difficulty keeping up. And the clashes from the solidified Dark Ichor and Darkspace sounded similar to the clashes that only Mata Nui and Makuta made as they fought in their towering robots. As they fought, the two fired hundreds of dark blasts at each other, the other trying to obliterate the other with each blast.

The two separated briefly, Nyxos impressed at his counterpart’s sudden power. “How on earth did you gain so much power?” He bluntly asked.

“That would be from me…”

Kage, who had regained consciousness, was standing at what remained of the doorway. “I simply infused her with a fraction of Skatos’s powers to triple her strength, moron.” He grinned maniacally. “Now, Xantha, be a good girl and kill him.”

Xantha gave him a murderous glare, but attempted to obey his command. The next clashes were like very, very loud machine guns. The clashes sounded one after another, each one louder than the last.

Then, the tentacles at Nyxos’s back grabbed Xantha by the arms, flinging her towards the west wall. Xantha, airborne now, regained her balance, standing straight in the air. Nyxos was quickly upon her, and the two began to ascend as their swords constantly met.

Xantha’s strength, despite being pummeled constantly with darkness and Nyxos’s weapons, felt like it was waxing, rather than waning. Nyxos, on the other hand, was getting more and more annoyed at this imbecile’s resilience. She wasn’t falling as easily as he had hoped, and that was making it mildly maddening. Moreover, the power that Kage infused in her was interfering with his ability to dispel her. Letting out a thundering war cry, he doubled his speed, using stolen powers from masks of speed, as well as adding in the power of masks of strength.

Shocking Nyxos beyond imagine, Xantha didn’t falter. In fact, what shocked him the most was when her swords lit on fire, engulfing each blade in a crimson blaze. He glared, but then, Kage was behind the two.

“That would also be a product of myself. I tapped into her connection with you, allowing her to mimic your moronic powers.” Kage smirked. “Have fun, moron!”

Nyxos snarled. “When I get my hands on you, I’ll rip you to shreds…” He growled between his teeth.

Xantha continued her ferocious assault. Nyxos, clouding his blades in ice powers, matched Xantha’s constant attacks. The fight continued, but then, something unplanned happened. A shot rang out.

Ghost was standing on what remained of the roof of the building that Nyxos had resided in, sniper rifle smoking. The blast had hit Nyxos in the right arm, and while it didn’t hurt that much, it knocked him off-balance. This gave Xantha the opening that she needed.

One slash. Two slashes. Three slashes. Four slashes. The hail of blades rained down onto Nyxos, each blow to his body weakening him, each slash bringing him closer to the end. “Impossible…NO!!! I WILL NOT DIE!!!” He yelled, his blades enlarging until they were large enough to put a visible gash in Mata Nui himself. “XANTHA, YOU IMBECILE!!! DIE!!!” He screamed as he sent his blades crashing down.

Xantha tried to block them, but their mass was too much, her swords clashed with them, and she was sent smashing into the ground below. Nyxos began to uncontrollably laugh again. However, his laugh was cut short with a sudden shot of agony.

A blade had run through his neck. And Kage was the one who had run him through. He had grabbed the blade from among the body of Cern. “Nyxos, you were always a moron who valued flash over effect…” He muttered before quickly drawing the blade out and swinging it around to decapitate the former murderous great being. As the head fell to the ground, Kage drew his rifle and fired two explosive blasts from his rifle, utterly destroying the remains.

“Not even the Red Star can save you now, moron…” He knew that the Red Star never could’ve revived him anyway, but it was the action and meaning behind it that counted.

“…”

“…”

“…Nyxos…”

“So, tell me, how does it feel? Death?”

Nyxos’s body may have been destroyed, yet his conscious remained. All he saw was blackness. Only darkness surrounded him. Yet, even in this darkness, a voice was stirring the void. “What…what imbecile is speaking to me?”

All around him, laughter echoed. “You used your powers for destruction, yet you never accomplished anything with it. All you met was failure. This habit lead to your destruction at the hands of your own followers. I am impressed at your incompetence.”

“Who are you to tell me that?! I am the-“

“The void? A nothingness that surrounds everything. That is correct. You are nothing.”

“Wh-what?! Shut up, right now, and I might let you-AAAGGGGHHH!!!”

Nyxos suddenly felt like everything inside him was being ripped apart. Soon, he found out that he actually WAS being ripped apart, atom-by-atom. When that was done, all that remained was a shard.

Although invisible, anyone who was there could’ve seen the evil grin that was radiating from the darkness. “You finally have a chance, a chance to be part of something greater than yourself. You may not live on, but rest assured, my friend…”

“Nobody will ever forget your power…”

The laugh echoed into nothingness…

## Characters - In Order of Appearance

Xantha

Light Shadus

Lady Xantha

Zenos

Kage

Xanna

The Harvester

Cern

The Ghost

Nyxos

Alteron

Viserus

Vivate

Unnamed Members of Xantha's Toa Team

Unknown Powerhouse

## Notes

1. ↑ Technically, she was talking about Light Shadus, the Shadus of her world, that is.