The entirety of the sun's energy, concentrated into a beam barely eight feet wide, struck Belial. It burned through him in an instant. It burned through the ground below him. Through the planet's crust, mantle, and core, then out the other side. ************************************************************************ Celestia winced as the solar beam burst through the other side of Equus and continued out into space. "Oh dear. I will fix that!"
The group staggered as the planet shook, doing even more damage to the bar, caving the roof in. "I think... I think that pierced the planet!" Asmo said loudly. "Somepony fix that!" Still not looking back, Azrael stole both Belial's and Apophis' souls, holding them in a dark orb before him. He added the power he stole from Belial to that orb and studied it for a few moments. "I'm going to destroy Apophis' soul. He will cease to exist. And I'm going to sent Belial to the darkest, hottest pit in Tartarus to suffer for the next ten thousand years, or until I, alone, decide he can move on. Any objections?"
Rep: (having been slightly too close, and lost an arm from his manifestation.) Ow. That hurts. Azrael be extremely careful with that orb, so much as a scratch and you risk losing a piece of the souls, which could in theory grow back into a threat. *Inside the bar, Mayas valuables were completely untouched by damage.*
Rep: (Looking at where his arm used to be.) Huh.. I knew it hurt. Didn't know that it did that much damage. This is duly note, next time someone uses a sun laser, shield myself against it fully... Anyone else get hurt? *In the North, the warships had noticed the sunbeam and one was now flying towards the South to find out what exactly happened.*
Rep: hmm. Guess he should've used some sunscreen. Didnt he know that the sun causes various conditions?
Asmo nodded. "Yeah, especially with that white complexion." Navaja arched an eyebrow. "Aren't you concerned that your bar is totaled, Maya?" Maya gave a small shrug. "That can be rebuilt, dude. I'm just glad the world didn't end."
Silver nodded. "I suspect the princess and Nightshade will be down soon. I will stay for a short time, but then I must go with the Representative. As long as these blades exist, Apophis' power exists. They must be destroyed."
Rep: Unfortunately Silver. This battle has left me wounded and weakened greatly, holding a physical or energetic form will soon require too much energy for me to handle without my aura burning everything around me for, a radius that the longer it is sustained, will grow at an exponential rate. The Council will need to go with you themselves instead of having me to do it, I must go to, in essence, regenerate my powers.
Azrael closed his eyes and focused. Over the course of several minutes, the orb writhed, fading away. The souls contained were powerful, needed time. Any distraction would probably cause an error. "Absolutely nopony disturb Az," Dusty said, recognizing how critical this was.
Discord appeared out of thin air right next to Azrael, with Nightshade and Princess Celestia tucked under his arm. "See? I told you that it'd be quicker than flying."
Azrael jumped in shock, and the entire orb suddenly disappeared. Dusty sighed. "You blew it. Oh, well. I'm sure it was close enough." "Nightshade!" Raven galloped over and greeted her with a big glomp.
After taking a step back to let the larger ponies deal with Belial, he looked around, noticing all of the carnage that took place. It's over... he thought before noticing that the bar had been destroyed.
"Blacky." Maya walked over and patted him on the back with a warm smile. "You did real good, dude. Wanna help us build the bar back up?"
Nightshade returned the hug. "Hey. We won." She was in bad shape. She'd been burned, stabbed, bruised, and nearly frozen in the upper atmosphere. The jewel on her necklace, which held the illusion magic that kept her scars hidden, was cracked. The illusion flickered occasionally, revealing her maimed true appearance. ******************************************************** The survivors that hadn't already been evacuated began climbing the side of the crater, and those who had been fighting in the forest slowly began returning to the battlefield. The victory celebrations would come soon enough, and would last for days. But for now, they would gather the dead.
"You don't look so good, babe," Raven noted. "Wanna visit Dust? Think I broke a couple things myself. Gonna feel that later." She didn't have any proper reaction to the illusion flickering. Just glad to see her alive. ~~~~~~~ Navaja gave a small sigh and began looking around for his lovely doctor mare. ~~~~~~~~ "Holy hell..." Dusty rolled onto his back and lie there, letting himself relax after the battle, looking up to the sky. ~~~~~~~~ Azrael growled at Discord. "If he comes back, I'll have you stoned." ~~~~~~~~~ "Whelp." Asmo slithered a tentacle into the remains of the bar and salvaged a bottle of wine. Before he could open it, he coughed up a mouthful of his blood onto the ground. "Uuuugh... Think I'm gonna have to not do anything for a few days."
Rep: Before I go, I have a plan slash gift for the dead. A memorial of sorts, (snaps his fingers and he flashes and vanishes, with the Council appearing) *As they appeared, so did an expulsion of energy, that coalesces into a large plinth, with plaques for the names of the deceased, with a carving depicting a cowering version of Apophis and the four types of ponies standing triumphant over it, and a rune that if pressed would open a door into another dimension, completely sealed off from the Universes except at this point, a pocket dimension for the graves to be placed within, inside of which was also a massive statue depicting the same thing as the plinth's carving, along with great plaques, all empty, for the names of the deceased to be engraved, same as the plinth. As well as the Time rift, that had been opened by the nuclear detonation, sealing as the energy needed was consumed.*
