Although I helped with most of Aleena's part, credit for most of this excellent piece goes to Cameron Miller.

Like I said, the shortest of the Finale pieces, but likely the most important and best.

 
By Cameron - near the bottom of the tower

Konall stood up. The pain of his cuts, bruises, and broken bones slowed his steps, but he kept moving forward, hunched over but still on his feet. He drew the sacred blade he had prepared in advance for this moment. He tried to go berserk, but his rage was faded. He was tired. He'd spent the last of his fury on fighting everything that was in his path. His determination smoldered, driving him forward. But no depth of anger lent him strength.

Kadlin watched him as he limped forward. Pathetic. She hurled a bolt of dark energy from his glaive at him, and he lurched to the side, stumbling into the wall but avoiding it. He dropped to his knees in response to the next bolt, which eliminated a portion of the wall the size of his head.

He was stopped in place. She aimed a third bolt at him, and he blocked it with his sword. Excellent. That annoying holy blade of his would be instantly obliterated from reality. Would be soon obliterated from reality. It was just a sword! Her powers would destroy it any second now. Yes, it was blessed with the holy power of the gods and spirits, but they didn't have the raw energy of creation to overcome her powers of destruction. Konall was once again on his feet, the sword still in existence.

Konall moved toward her, stumbling out of the way of some of her blasts, taking others on his sword. It was time to end his sister. The girl he'd always promised to protect. One of Kadlin's blasts grazed his leg. After his people had been nearly wiped out, she was the last of his family. He readied his sword to stab her as she was backed against the wall, and fell to his knees. "I can't do it," he said. He was failing himself, the gods, all universes, but he couldn't bring himself to end his sister.

Kadlin scoffed. What was this fool doing? She swung at him with her glaive, twirled it after a feint and came at him with the butt, and when that was deflected she jabbed forward... and impaled him through the chest, dark energy flowing out of the glaive into his body. Konall fell over dead.

What? She dropped the glaive in shock. He should have blocked that. He normally would have. But he was on his last legs. She'd never seen him so close to defeat already, while she was at her prime. Oh well, time to finish her work.

No! Some deep part of Kadlin's brain that had yet to be corrupted by the glaive's influence had finally gathered the strength to speak out. Konall was my brother. And I killed him because it made my day a little more convenient. I've killed so many people!

She hardly noticed another voice calling out from behind her.

"I'm looking for Konall. And a couple other heroes."

Kadlin didn't have to turn around. She knew better than to try. She could feel the scopes of a Morlencir cannon trained on her. "I had figured you gone for good."

"That's the nice thing about being the queen of an intergalactic empire," Aleena responded. "If you really want to be somewhere, you can get there pretty quick. Step away from Konall."

Kadlin’s mind raced with ways to eliminate the queen with magic she had no hope against, but she pushed those aside. "He's dead."

Aleena shrugged. "Maybe I can fix that."

"No." Kadlin turned slightly to glare at her. "I felt his spirit depart already. The only thing you could salvage is an empty corpse."

Aleena matched her glare with one of her own. "Don't make me repeat myself."

"I’m done. I’m doing what I should have done from the first time I saw this stupid weapon. I’m sealing the evil back inside and getting rid of it.”

"Spare me the tricks," Aleena responded, growing warily. Part of her wanted to simply blast Kadlin and end this, but there was the lingering fear that even hot plasma wouldn’t do much to vampiric Kadlin.

Kadlin glared harder. "Take the glaive, without touching it. Throw it into the deepest pit you can find in space."

"Throw it in a black hole without touching it?" Aleena paused. "Fine, but if this is some kind of..."

Kadlin cut her off again. "I’m all out of tricks, strategies, and backup plans."

Aleena expected the worst. Instead, she watched Kadlin begin chanting. As far as she knew, Kadlin might be releasing the spirit in front of her. A voice inside her screamed to kill the sorceress.

Aleena chose not to kill her.

Meanwhile, Kadlin focused all of her energy into the spell, sealing the glaive's evil power back into the cursed sword blade. But it wasn't enough. She needed more energy, and her undead body had nothing left to give. She would have to do more sacrifices and drink blood to replenish it. Unfortunate, but necessary. The elf would- No! There was one other option.

Kadlin nodded to the elf. "This should hold it. I won't be able to help you after this is done." She was a vampire, held together by ancient magics and powerful spells, enchantments which she began to unravel. As the trapped essence of magic and life energy flowed out of her, her body began to turn to ash. But her spirit held on to this world until it was done. The last ward was in place, the evil was sealed once more. And then, a hand dragged her out of this world and into the realm of death.

----------------

Kadlin walked through the broad doors into the mead hall, going from the cloudy exterior to the warm, vibrant inside. The hall was deserted, save for one individual. "Konall!" she said.

Konall set down his mead. "You made it."

"Is this where I think it is?"

"Valhalla, land of the gods and brave warriors who died honorably in battle. Me, I was in a fight against a psycho sorceress bent on destroying the world with her ungodly powers. Didn't stand a chance. But I fought anyway and so here I am."

"But… I gave my life up. I wasn't slain in battle."

Konall shook his head. "Nope. If I remember correctly, and I seem to be doing that a lot more these days, you died from a space elf cannon thingie. Unfair fight in your disadvantage, and yet you held the line."

Tears streamed through Kadlin's eyes. "There was more to it than that, though. To get into Valhalla, you had to be a force for good, didn't you. I… that wasn't me."

"If being good was all it took, I don't think many people'd be here. Some of us are better than others, but we all do stuff we know is wrong, hurt people, ignore wrongs, just 'cause it's easy. If the gods didn't see past what we are to what we could be, I bet this place would be empty."

"So, what's that scoreboard up there?"

"That? Oh, it's a kill count. Keeps track of how many kills you got in life."

"You're number 4 on it. Not bad. And I'm… 117th! That's messed up. Who do I have to talk to. What do I-:"

Konall held up his hand, stopping her. "Kills you got in life. After you became undead doesn't count."

"That's not fair!" Kadlin stamped her feet in a way she hadn't since she was a teenager.

"Rules is rules. You can't keep killing after you're dead. Cheating gets you no points up here."

"All right. Well, I guess what's done is done then."

"Well, for the kills in life scoreboard. We're at the very bottom of the kills in the afterlife scoreboard, zero each."

"That's not fair either. Everyone else had a head start."

Konall gulped the last of his drink. "Indeed they did. The universe is filled with horrible beasties waiting to shred our very reality. They need fighting, and it's up to people like us to stop them. Let's show them what us Vikings can do."

Kadlin smirked. "Sounds like a plan." The Aleena/ Kadlin section by Joshua/ Dash

See? Told you.

Awesome piece and the end of the Bearsmashers. I know it says part four of five, but it's the last actual piece of the mission.

Right now, as I write this, we have a "Grand Finale part V" open as a "mission 10.5" so hopefully someday that'll finish up. (We have about five of the ten scenarios which weren't properly addressed.. I don't know how long the mission will be going, but who knows? Maybe it'll lead to an AIL revival in the future? Fingers crossed!)