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Blinding flashes of magic lit up the walls of the ancient caldera, spilling over into the skies as helpless bystanders watched... left only with their imaginations of the battle raging within. The clouds flashed all the colours that exist, even some the people had no names for. There was suddenly a bright white flash, parting the clouds to let moonlight through unto the battlefield.

The pale silver light crept across the field, illuminating the new crater in the center of the 'arena'. On either side, standing exactly North and South of one another, were the last two standing combatants. The sorceress stood North, the swordsman South. The field within the walls of the long-dead volcano was littered with the bodies, most of them Her minions. Atop piles of those corpses lay the exhausted, unconcious forms of some of the swordsman's fallen comrades. In sparse patches of inexplicably bare grass lay the rest. The crater itself reflected the light onto the tired, pained faces of the two.

"Why... must we fight?" The swordsman stood panting, one hand low on his leg. With a sudden movement he drew a dart from the hip pouch and sent it spinning off toward the sorceress. The steel of his scarred sword glinted dully in the light, yet the spinning metal star shone with an unparalelled brilliance.

The sorceress raised her hand, and from it was flung a blue bolt of some magical energy. The hastily-thrown dart was disentegrated in it's path. "Why... does it hurt?" Her eyes glistened with a woundless pain.

The swordsman reacted by turning his sword swiftly over his shoulder and bringing it down hard across the bolt of energy. The angle of intercept both sent his off foot sliding around to alter his stance and sent the simple spell shoot off down against the side of the crater, where the heat-mirrored surface acted as a perfect slide. It arced softly across, leaving a trail in it's wake as it shot up on the opposite side. "Is there no other way?"

The sorceress slid back, blasted by the shockwave of her own attack. The simple band around her head was knocked off, falling behind her. The small gem tinked on a stone and bounced lightly. She looked over her shoulder at it and bit her lip. "Must we both die to know peace...?"

In a moment of seeming inspiration, the swordsman spun his blade around him. It passed over and between his hands, catching the light of the moon until the blade glowed with it's own power. He continued it's motions, almost as if the blade itself were guiding his hands. The blade flashed brighter and brighter, bits of blood and small scores of carbon flaking off as it became brighter and brighter. Reflections of the light, cast by his armor, danced across the faces of his comrades. Brothers and sisters-in-arms all of them. As the light passed over their faces, their eyes fluttered slightly as if they were beginning to wake. "Yes, we must."

The sorceress saw the attack coming, and resumed her posture. She knew what it meant. What little clothing she wore began to glow with a light from within her body. It pulsed over every curve of her tired body, the last of her energy. She watched his determined eyes, watched the way his sword moved. He had shown her this very technique once before, and she knew that he meant it as a final blow. The light folded itself upon her and around her. The thing bracelets on her right wrist banged together for a moment, then stiffened and extended from her arm as if the barrel of some kind of cannon. The light concentrated within the rings, a shape forming to match her opponent's blade perfectly. "So be it."

The swordsman watched all this, knowing what was to come. The air around him cracked and sung with the heat of his blade. As it flashed around him, his hands moving too fast to be seen, what little armor he wore fell to the ground.

Her own 'blade' sparked with energy, sliding back through the bracelets so she could 'grip' the hilt. She wrapped her fingers around the blue shaft, and stood at the ready with the tip poised in the air like a fencing rapier.

With finality, they both leapt across the distance between them. The swordsman's blade rang through the air as it swept hard toward her, the final blow to be struck. The sorceresses magical blade flared in the wind, it's afterimage seeming to bend. The blades met, his cutting edge striking the bracelets that gave her sword substance; and their powers converged. The last efforst of both fighters burst forth from their contact in a wild explosion of light that tore across the field, pushing the still-unconcious warriors away and disentegrating the dead.

"I love you." Whispered across the final maelstrom.

...

It was some hours before the innocents surrounding the caldera attempted to enter, sensing that the struggle had ended for good or bad. Expecting to see a proud winner standing above the body of the defeated, they crested the edge all around. Thousands of eyes, all looking down, saw nothing but the last living fighters kneeling in a ring around the crater. Lying in the center of the crater was the swordsman's weapon, the blade melted and bent beyond easy recognition. Five small rings, the bracelets of the sorceress, were fused to the top of the hilt."

A small knot of children sat before their grandfather's chair as he finished the story for the nth time. Most all of them were bright-eyed, loving the story of the End. Behind him on the mantle sat the very blade he mentioned, warped and twisted... yet still shining and polished, obviously well-kept over the years. As usual, one little child sitting off from the rest stood up to adress their grandfather.

"But grampa, if nobody was there watching the battle how do you know what happened?" Just as he said this, their grandmother came into the room bearing a tray laden with glasses of lemonade.

"That's something for your grandfather and I to know, and for you to figure out someday." She set the tray down on the small coffee table beside her weathered old husband. She put her hand on his shoulder as she stood behind his chair, smiling. The jewel hanging on her forehead twinkled lightly. He smiled and put his hand over hers.

"Because the most important answers are the ones that don't just get handed to you.".

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Long time since last story, sorry.

Inspiration is an interesting combination.

This music video. More specificaly, the song (Poison by Groove Coverage) combined with this picture.