The effect of poking around with is sword wasn't quite what he was expecting.  Darkness enthusiastically casts aside the shroud concealing their surroundings, revealing both the golden crystal behind him and the ebony city surrounding them.

Why would this one be gold, while the rest were dark in color?  Kitharsis has little time to contemplate, as the now giant Darkness aims one of his palms at him.  The Tirthandara braces himself for the attack as a wave of sand rushes up in front of him. 

A beam of inky blackness blasts towards him.  Kitharsis quickly dives away as a wall of sand rises to block the attack.  It holds long enough for him to escape the path of the blast before disintegrating.

But this safety is momentary, as black orbs rain down from above.  He barely catches his footing before having to dodge one of them streaking down toward him.

The sandstone swords, each bearing cracks and pieces missing, assemble above him.  They work to deflect any orbs falling his way.  Two of them finally meet their breaking point and fall to the ground in piles of sand.  The other three diligently continue on.

Kitharsis's palms glow as his power concentrates into them.  He points them directly at Darkness's massive chest and returns his opponents attack.  Two beams of amber energy blast from Kitharsis's palms at his giant foe.

"Can we cut him off from that pool somehow?"  He projects to his companions.  "I am wary to destroy it like the crystals, this seems different." 

Soul Reaver notes that there is something dwelling within Vee - something that is injured.  He does what he can to help it, but time is too short to achieve much.

Soul Reaver steps away from Vee's side as the darkness from the area is lifted.  He covers his face with his forearm as Darkness' energy field bursts outward.  Some of the Lesser Daemons are almost knocked to the ground, and the Fire Daemon and Shadowlord are forced to fold their wings to avoid being picked up and hurled into the air.  The Steelheart, on the other hand, barely notices as the blast washes over its metallic flesh.

Soul Reaver looks up at the towering form of Darkness, and notes the pool and the cracked crystal behind it.  Quickly, he eyes the runes running along the pool - perhaps he could decipher their purpose?

But there is no time - already spheres of blackness rain from the sky.  Without Soul Reaver needing to say a word, the Steelheart launches into action, shielding Soul Reaver with its own hulking body.  Soul Reaver takes the opportunity to breathe a spell to help him with focusing his mind, then reads the glyphs to try and glean some knowledge of what they do.

Meanwhile the Shadowlord hastily erects a Retribution Shield around itself to absorb the worst of the rain of black spheres, while the Fire Daemon is struck multiple times, breaking one of its wings in the process.  The Cruelbeasts raise shields where possible and dodge where none are available, but even so, many are struck down by the rain of projectiles.  The Daemonspawn, too fat and clumsy to dodge, take the hits directly.  One dissolves into foul-smelling black ichor from its wounds, but the other quickly begins to regenerate.

Under Blightwing's direction, the remaining daemons quickly return to an offensive stance and charge in toward Darkness.

Vee lets out a grunt and works to get to her feet as Soul Reaver comes over and places a hand on her shoulder nad healing magic flows into her.  It clearly bolsters her spirit, though Soul Reaver can sense that it seems as if some of the healing seems to not be flowing into her...but into something within her.  She shakes her head slightly.

"Im not entirely sure.  It was as if he ripped something out of me.  If it was in fact a piece of him it...explains some things for certain."

It is at this point though that the combined assaults of Gulgrim, Kitharsis, and Phaerys all collectively strike the barrier surrounding Darkness.  The sandstone swords strike the barrier, richocheting off and spinning through the air as the violent tremors unleashed by Phaerys explosive slam into it alongside the balefire and fists of the enraged Gulgrim.  The barrier pulses and shimmers, seeming to continue to hold, though some faint cracks are visible along the surface.

Meanwhile, the fifth sandstone sword veers off into the inky blackness, zooming towards the hidden swell of power before seeming to collide with an invisible barrier with a loud pinging sound.

Darkness smiles, gazing at Kitharsis.

"You wish to see it? Very well..."

Darkness thrusts his hands out to the side as the surrounding darkness seems to start flowing into him, revealing more of the surrounding area.  The Companions can see they stand on a large platform, a brief glance around and behind would reveal that the platform seems to be in the center of a large city.  Buildings seemingly crafted out of shimmering ebony tower around them, the sounds of battle fainly audible behind them.  Roughly 20 to 30 feet behind Darkness they can now see what could be considered a large circular pool.  Intricate ironwork seems to run around the edge, pulsing runes etched into the metal.  This is clearly the source of tremendous power they felt previously.  Near the edge of the platform, roughly opposite of the pool, lays what looks to be a large golden crystal, cracks visible across the surface and a chunk seemingly missing. They have little time to dwell on it though as Darkness suddenly brings his palms slamming together and the shield surrounding him explodes with a violent wave of force.

"You wish for a fight?  Perhaps she will finally deign to make her appearance."

His human looking form then seems to melt and then a split second later start to reform, growing in size until a figure roughly 30-40 feet tall towers over the Companions.  Four massive arms extend from his torso, two of them (one on each side) wield large scimitars seemingly crafted out of some sort of black metal while his other two hands appear to be empty.  In the blink of an eye both blades swing down, aiming directly for the Warboss as the palms of the other two hands face towards Phaerys and Kitharsis and beams of inky blackness blast towards them.  At the same time Darkness raises his face to the sky and a large black orb fires skyward.  A split second later smaller black orbs rain down from above and towards each of the Companions.

Vee wastes no time seeing all of this, getting to her feet and concentrating for a moment.  Her eyes open and she frowns before clenching her teeth and concentrating once more before 3 more "Vees" appear around her.  Something seems to be off about them though, their appearances flickering and almost translucent.  Raising a hand towards Darkness she fires off a large shard of ice.

Kitharsis is attempting a bit of trickery with his swords.  The fifth sword is seeking out the source of the power behind Darkness.  He is counting on Darkness being distracted by Gulgrim and his other four charged swords battering against the barrier.

The four swords attacking aren't just a distraction.  They are infused with quite a bit of his power, and pack quite a punch.

So much talking. Not enough fighting. Gulgrim's temper is only growing worse the longer his opponents hide behind shields and refuse to join a proper fight. His form continues to swell in size as he loses his usual grip on his scale in his frustration.

"Stoopid. Panzee. Gits. Stop hidin'. And fight! WAAAAAAAGH!" Gulgrim accentuates each phrase with a thunderous slam of force into the shield, green lightning dancing across his frame as he hammers away at the barrier between himself and his foe, Fists like Trukks slam repeatedly against the barrier, and roiling balefire pours from the Avatar of Gork and Mork's maw like a river of emerald hate. Any sense of strategy or or the usual Kunning of the Warboss has been thrown out the window in the face of his mounting frustration at his enemy's cowardice, Brutal Kunnin' giving way to Kunnin' Brutality, Gork's fury transcendent in the Avatar of the twin gods.

In this moment, the task of thinking or making battle plans belongs to others; Gulgrim is a being of pure fury and aggression, unwilling to back down until he has finally drawn his foe into the fight and punished them for their weakness.