As Shoryu raced off to confront Afrael, Lexi squared off against Lilith.  She held her katana in a ready position, but otherwise made no offensive movement.  She was not sure what kinds of powers Lilith possessed so she deemed that it was better to wait and see what happened next.  Besides, she had something to ask Lilith first.

“Why did you call me your descendant?” demanded Lexi.

Lilith smiled languidly, as if she had all the time in the world.  “Because that is what you are, child of my blood.”

“I am not related to you by any means!”

“Ah, but you are, my child.”  Lilith sat back down on her throne, took a large goblet from the table and sipped bright red fluid from it.  “Once, a long time ago, I dallied with the Dark Angel Azazel.  He was just as foolish as most mortal men.  He never questioned why I wanted to meet in the Nexus.”

“So he was right,” said Lexi.  “You planned the whole thing out as a way to get out of this dimension.”

Lilith raised her eyebrows.  “So he told you the story?  I am surprised.  Az does not normally like to admit it when he has been made a fool!  The male gender is so foolish.  That is why my children always has two Lili to make the Lilu do not make fools of themselves.”

“Why did you do it?” asked Lexi harshly.  “Why infect my world with the vampire and lycan curse?”

“If I did not, would you be here now?” asked Lilith mildly.

“Do not think I am stupid!  Whatever your reasons were, they had to be selfish!”

Lilith laughed.  “You are right child, but you would not believe if I told you the truth.”

Lexi leveled a hard gaze at Lilith and said firmly, “Try me.”

Lilith met Lexi’s stare and said, “Very well.  It was love.  Love brought me to your dimension.”

The response was so incredulous that Lexi almost burst out laughing.  Something in Lilith’s gaze made her refrain though.  “Tell me about it.”

Lilith looked off into the distance at something only she could see.  “There was a man…unlike any man I had ever met.  He was the complete opposite of my first husband who was an idiot.  This man dreamt of finding his ideal woman and placing this woman on a pedestal.  When he found his ideal woman, he would thank her daily for being in his life, he would kiss the ground she walked on, and he would worship her and love her like no other.  He was a lonely, lonely man.”  Lilith’s eyes refocused on Lexi as if challenging her to laugh.  “But I fell in love with him.  I would visit his dreams every night and we loved each other in his dreams.  But I needed more.  I needed him.  So I conceived of a plan.  All I needed was a few moments.  After Az opened the rift in the Nexus, I went through and visited the man.  You can imagine his surprise!  Time passes differently in the Nexus than it does anywhere else, and I had spent over nine months with my love before it pulled me back.  Back in the Nexus, only a few moments had passed and Az was none the wiser.”

“Nine months?” asked Lexi.  She had a funny feeling that she knew where this was heading.  “You got pregnant?”

Lilith nodded her head, confirming Lexi’s suspicions.  “I had a son.  A human son.  I could not raise him though.  The heartless Nexus pulled me back.  I never even got to hold my baby!”  Tears welled up in Lilith’s eyes and she brushed them away unconsciously.  “I would visit my son though.  Every night, I sang to him in his dreams.  It was not much, but it was all I had.  Years later, a plague hit the village where my son and my love lived.  The plague devastated the village and my son was the sole survivor.  I wept for my man.  I wept for my son’s loss.  He made me proud though.  He worked through his sorrow and grew up to be a fine man.  Eventually, he married and his wife bore him twin boys.”

Lexi felt as if someone had just walked over her grave.  “The twins, they were later attacked by wild animals right?”

Lilith’s eyes shined brightly.  “You catch on very quickly little one.”

Lexi recounted as if reading from memory, “Twin boys, one was bitten by a bat and the other was bitten by a wolf.  One became the first true vampire and the other one unleashed the lycan plague upon the world.  Marcus and William.”  Lexi stared at Lilith and spat out, “Your son was Alexander Corvinus!”

Lilith nodded sadly.  “It was all for love.  I did it all for love!”

“What does all of this have to do with Shoryu and I?” demanded Lexi.  A part of her felt empathy for Lilith’s story but she strove to remember her purpose here.

“I want what any good mother wants for her children.  I could not raise or protect my son, but I can protect my other children.  The Lilin need a home.  The Gatekeeper can open a gate to another world that is not dominated by the Celestials and their never ending war.  My children cannot abide the gaze of the sun.  Surely you understand that?  Until very recently, you too could not abide the sun.  I just want a safe secure home for my children.  Can you not understand that, child of my blood?”

Lexi put herself in Lilith’s proverbial shoes and realized that she understood Lilith after all.  If Lexi had children of her own, she would move mountains if that was what she had to do to keep them safe.

Lexi could feel her resolve cracking, but then she remembered something that Azazel had said.  It had something to do with condemning a world to an eternity of night.  Lexi glanced around the great hall at the hundreds of Lilin that had gathered.  Most of them were watching the battle between Shoryu and Afrael with a hungry intensity.  Then Lexi remembered what she had witnessed as she came into the castle.  The Lilin preyed upon the humans.  As a vampire, Lexi could understand the need to consume other beings for sustenance but she could not condone raising sentient beings as livestock.  She could not wipe away the image of the man in the market with his arms and legs bound while dozens of Lilin lined up to taste his blood.

Lexi turned back to Lilith and asked, “Where does Afrael fit into all of this?”

Lilith smiled a predatory smile.  “Simple.  He wants to die!”

The final pieces of the puzzle clicked in Lexi’s mind.  She spun around to face the battle and was just in time to see Shoryu open his chest plates.  She reached a hand out to him vainly and cried, “NO!  Shoryu!  DO NOT!”

She was too late.  A tidal wave of colossal light boiled out of Shoryu’s chest and slammed into Afrael.  For an instant, Afrael’s innate defenses blocked the light but the megasmasher was too powerful.  Several Lilin that were too close to the beam simply vaporized.  As for Afrael, he roared his triumph as his soul was finally released and his gigantic body was washed away in a river of destruction.

Lexi felt a powerful blow against her back and she sprawled forward.  She turned back and saw Lilith with a long black staff-like weapon in her hands.  “What about love?” asked Lexi.

Lilith laughed long and hard.  “It kept you busy while your friend opened the gate did it not?”

The river of destruction finally trickled away.  In its place, directly in the centre of the great hall, was a familiar door of light.  Lexi recognized it immediately.  She dashed forward and yelled, “Shoryu, block the gate!  Do not let the Lilin get through!”

Lexi turned back to Lilith just in time to block a savage blow from Lilith.  From all around her, the Lilin surged forward.  Lexi was suddenly surrounded by dozens of monstrous beings, all out for her blood.  She lashed out with Yabun Kiru, and every time her blade made contact, she was rewarded by an anguished cry and an explosion of ashes.  Nightslayer was living up to its name!

In the surge of Lilin, Lexi lost sight of Lilith.  Suddenly, she realized Lilith’s goal.  Lilith was going to try for the gate!  Lexi looked around but could not see Shoryu.  In the mad chaos that was the great hall, she didn’t know if Shoryu could hear her.  She found the thread of Shoryu’s essence that she could sense within herself and pulsed a warning to it.  She didn’t know if it worked, but she didn’t have time to find out.  The Lilin horde rushed her, and this time, there were magic users in the crowd.

---

After Afrael died, all hell broke loose.  Shoryu found himself surrounded by dozens of Lilin.  Several of them were making grasping gestures with their hands.  Shoryu could feel them trying to bind him with invisible chains but unlike before, he was bio boosted and the chains had little or no effect on him.  His hypersonic blades wreaked havoc in the Lilin ranks but they kept coming as if their own lives had no worth.

Shoryu suddenly felt his heart pound sharply and dodged to the side.  A bolt of pure blackness raced through the space that he had just occupied.  He turned and was confronted by a naked and voluptuous Lilith.

“Nice try, but you can’t try the same trick on me!” said Shoryu as he stared purposely at Lilith’s face.

Lilith swung her long black staff and another jet of blackness shot forward.  It hit Shoryu and spun him around.  Shoryu fell heavily, stunned by the impact of the attack.

Lilith laughed and said, “Men are so foolish!”  She raced for the doorway of light that was already getting smaller.

Shoryu struggled to get to his feet.  He had the sudden sensation that he had to do everything he could to prevent Lilith from reaching the light.  Lilin hands and spells tried to slow him down.  He brushed them all aside.  He fired a laser beam from his forehead and it hit Lilith on her shoulder.

She screamed in pain and turned back.  A dark mist appeared around her and encased her.  It disappeared after a moment and in its place, was black armor.  “That was the only free shot you will ever get at me boy!”

Lexi suddenly appeared behind Lilith from out of nowhere.  She drove her katana forward and thrust it into Lilith’s back.  The katana point emerged from her front and Shoryu could see that it was thick with red blood.

The Lilin horde screamed when they saw their mother wounded.  Angry hands grabbed Lexi and pulled her away.  Shoryu tried to run to her but dozens of Lilin hands grabbed at him as well.  His megasmasher had drained him of energy and it was all he could do to keep the Omega Guyver armor on his body.

A Lilu reached up behind Lilith and pulled Lexi’s katana out.  Lilith slumped weakly in the arms of her children.  The Lilin carried Lilith to the door of light and prepared to throw her in.

Shoryu watched in amazement as Lexi did something truly amazing.  She looked sharply at the Lilin who were holding her down and they suddenly split apart and dissolved into ashes.  Momentarily free, she stood up and stared at the Lilin who were holding Lilith.  As with their brethren, they simply split apart as if cut by a really sharp sword and dissolved into ashes.  Lexi held up her right hand and her katana flew into it.

Lilith fell to the ground but struggled to her feet.  Blood was pouring from her wound but as Shoryu watched, it was quickly closing.  Shoryu struggled vainly against his captors but he really had no strength left.  As long as the Omega Guyver armor encased him, he was safe from the Lilin.  His power and strength would return in time, but for now, he watched helplessly as an eight hundred year old bio boosted vampire faced off against a multi millennia old woman.

---

Lexi danced out of range as Lilith’s staff narrowly missed her.  She had always hated fighting against staff wielders and Lilith was proving that she knew how to handle her staff.  Not only that, from the one glancing blow that Lilith had dealt her, Lexi could tell that her dark cloak – which had proven effective against Omega Guyver’s hypersonic blades – was no protection against Lilith’s weapon of choice.

Lexi danced in and attacked, but her attack was blocked.  Damn it, she thought, Lilith was every bit as fast as she was!  A sudden barrage of thrusts and jabs forced Lexi onto the defensive.  She ducked as a lance of blackness rushed out of the staff and arched towards her.  Lilith’s staff had a greater range than her katana, and staying out of the staff’s immediate range was no guarantee from harm since Lilith was able to fire nasty black spells with it.  Lexi focused her will on the edge of her blade as she swung it in Lilith’s direction.  Because she was watching for it, Lexi could just barely see the thin line of will force as it sliced through the air towards her enemy.

Lilith batted it aside with a contemptuous gesture.  “Your will force is strong little one but you are completely inexperienced in its usage!”

Lilith gestured with her left hand and Lexi could see black darts of pure will shoot out.  Lexi hunched her shoulders and tried to shield herself.  She was only partially successful.  She felt her body punctured in several places and her blood flowed from her wounds.

As Lexi staggered back from the assault, she came to a sudden understanding.  She and Lilith were not so different after all.  This new ability of hers – striking at distant enemies with her will – was shared by Lilith.

The door of light had shrunk to about half its size and from the look on Lilith’s face, Lexi could tell that Lilith was starting to get a little desperate.  Lexi only had to hold Lilith off for a few more minutes.

Lexi dashed in and attacked with Yabun Kiru.  She used all of her speed and all of her strength but Lilith matched her speed for speed and strength for strength.  There had only been one human that Lexi had known in her entire life that even came close to Lilith’s strength, speed and skill.

That thought almost gave Lexi pause.  Was she comparing Lilith to Hiko Seijuro?  As if sensing an advantage, Lilith counterattacked and Lexi paid for her moment of inattention with a badly bruised leg.

Lexi saw a widening of Lilith’s eyes and realized that the door behind her was almost shut.  It was now or never for Lilith.  Lexi sheathed Yabun Kiru and held the saya in her left hand by her waist.  Her right hand hovered over the tsuka of the katana and her right foot was forward.

Lilith saw the pose and her eyes narrowed as she recognized the unspoken challenge.  She tightened her grip on her staff, readied her most potent killing spell and charged.

Lexi watched the charge.  There was no question of dodging the attack.  If Lexi moved aside, then she would be allowing Lilith access to the gate.  This was like facing Hiko Seijuro’s Kuzu-ryusen all over again.  The Kuzu-rysen was an attack that hit nine vital body targets so fast that it looked as if it were only one strike.  There was no way to block it and no way to dodge it.  Lexi had defeated Hiko Seijuro’s attack by the skin of her teeth.

Lexi’s blood thundered in her veins.  Besides the pulsing of her heart, she could feel another pulsing beat alongside of hers and she knew that this second pulse was Shoryu.  The sound of his pulse wiped away every other thought from her mind.  All she could hear was the thrum-thrum of Shoryu’s heartbeat.  All she could see was Lilith charging in towards her.  Lilith’s movements seemed to be in slow motion but each step had her entire power and momentum behind it.

Lexi took a step forward with her left foot and it seemed to her as if she were moving in slow motion too.  Her right hand grasped Yabun Kiru’s tsuka and pulled the katana clear in one smooth motion.  Yabun Kiru’s blade intersected with Lilith’s staff and knocked it away.  Still seeming to move in slow motion, Lexi spun her body in a complete three hundred and sixty degree turn.

Yabun Kiru came arching back around with infinite slowness, bit into Lilith’s neck and continued on through.

Lilith’s head flew from her neck in a thick spray of arterial blood.  Lexi landed lightly on her feet.  From all around her, the Lilin roared in anguish at the sight of their mother’s decapitated body.  In one huge rush, they charged in at Lexi.  Lexi braced herself for the attack.

A brilliant sphere of super condensed pressure flew past her shoulder and hit the Lilin mob.  Another sphere quickly followed it as well as several bright bursts of laser light.  Lexi spared a second to confirm that the door of light was gone and then turned and sprinted towards Shoryu.