With the battle well underway and the nine men and women that needed to die distracted and busy, Victor gave the signal to attack. Athena had begun her assault just as the demons had clashed with the animal people and she battled with anything in her sight. She hadn't betrayed his position but he didn't know if it had been coincidental or on purpose. It didn't matter anyhow as the time to attack was now.

Auric, only recently fully dressed, removed his clothing and enlarged into a large black tiger with red stripes. Its canine fangs protruded down from its upper jaw like a saber-toothed cat and its muscled body rippled as it burst into motion. Charging over and down the dune they all hid behind the large tiger that was Auric pounded across the sand, his eyes set on a nearby bipedal jackal. He leapt atop of it, clamped his jaws over its head, and with a twist of his neck ripped it off the jackal's shoulders. Auric fell to the ground with the body and spat the head out of his mouth before pouncing atop a tall demon to rake his claws across its back. The demon roared and tried to reach behind itself to grab the tiger but Auric sunk his long fangs in the back of its neck and snapped its vertebrae.

Atlas cried out and rushed into the battle, his wicked spear glinting in the sunlight. He soon reached the battle and stabbed his weapon through a bipedal lizard and into the abdomen of the demon it fought. Swinging both dying creatures aside he roared with might and shoved aside a ten-foot demon trying to bite down on his head. As it stumbled aside he sunk his spear into its body so many times daylight streamed out of the holes. With it dead he charged into a group of ten demons of imposing size and with his spear swinging, stabbing, sweeping and chopping he laid them all to waste. With the brief battle over he glanced at his shoulder, where one of the demons' claws poked out of it. He yanked it out of his body, tossed it aside, ignored the burning sensation in his body, and lunged into the nearest group of victims.

Alvan walked behind Victor, who was kneeling down his with rifle shouldered, and stepped into his shadow. With a wicked chuckle he vanished from sight and reappeared in the shadow of a large spiked demon that was feasting on the body of a slain bipedal leopard. Claws of blackness stretched out from the demon's shadow and stabbed into its body, killing it before it ever knew what happened. Several small demons pounced at Alvan but he sent two flying back with a blast of telekinesis, slashed one apart with his sword, and a spike of darkness thrust up from the ground from the shadow beneath the last demon as it leapt into the air. The demon hung in midair, suspended on the black spike piercing through its body, and with a wave of his hand Alvan dismissed it, a great grin on his face. The dead demon fell to the ground and he glanced around, finding two bipedal lizards battling a group of bulbous and repulsive unholy creatures. With no shadows nearby to transport himself through he ran toward them, his mind and blade thirsting for more violence.

Seth slid down the dune and glanced about at the battle happening before him. All sense of rank and formation had broken apart. It was a battle for survival and the demons had the numbers on their side. He burst his hands into flames and shot a fireball at a small demon hopping toward him. It exploded into it and sent it skidding back but did not kill it. He hit it with a continuous stream of flames but it kept advancing anyway. It soon reached him and with no weapon to use against it he could do little but back away. Just as it bent its legs to jump its head suddenly exploded into a shower of orange blood and black bits of flesh and bone. Seth looked to the side to see Victor aiming his rifle in his direction. The sharpshooter gave Seth a nod before fixing his sights somewhere else. Seth decided to try his luck on the animal people instead. Surely they weren't immune to fire...

Minara walked toward the battle with an expression of total serenity on her face. The presence of the demons aroused her and when one spotted her she fixed her gaze on it, not worried in the least as it charged at her, its toothed maw salivating in hunger. She stopped walking and turned toward it just as it opened its mouth to bite her head off. With a tap of her finger on its muzzle the demon abruptly stopped its attack. Minara gestured her hand at a group of animalistic soldiers and the demon, entranced and under her control, obediently ran toward its enemies. It fell atop the soldiers with fury and viciousness but was soon killed without even injuring a single soldier. Minara shrugged and searched for a more powerful servant. She glanced to the side, where the titan snake was finishing off the last of the eagle riders and sighed. If only she had the power to enslave something as great as that... A hefty four-legged demon with a head full of horns suddenly rode past her, trampling soldier and demon alike, and she raised an eyebrow in interest. That one would do for now.

Angela was anything but calm. She giggled with glee as she cartwheeled into the battle. An armoured lizard gazed at her strangely and she threw a knife into its eyes, laughing as it fell to the ground. She plucked the knife from is eye socket and laughed louder when the eyeball stuck on the blade. She removed it with her mouth and spat it out in disgust. She then set her eyes on a bat-eared fox struggling to survive the onslaught of two heavily-muscled demons at once.

"Oh no!" she cried out, her eyes wide. "Those ugly things are going to kill that cute little doggy!" She threw three knives into one demon's head and then climbed up behind the second one and with a knife in each hand pumped them repeatedly into its temples, cracking bone and spraying blood everywhere. Some got on her face and she licked it off her lips, once again spitting it out in disgust. The demon crumpled in a heap and she fell with it, rolling off the body and stopping in front of the startled fox. With her butt in the air and her head against the sand she looked up at the fox and smiled wide. It backed away and hurried to fight another battle, glancing back at her several times with bulging eyes full of fear.

Angela pouted. "Stupid animal. I was only trying to help..." She caught motion to her side and saw three demons pummeling the body of an injured red wolf. Angela gasped in shock. "Oh no! Those ugly things are going to kill that cute little doggy!"

Victor, sitting atop the dune, watched the battle through the scope of his rifle. It was a tactical assault rifle but he had had it configured for long-range shots as well and was almost as good as a sniper rifle. The battle was only a hundred yards ahead of him so his shots were always deadly accurate. He set his crosshairs over the head of a demon overwhelming a much smaller animal soldier and fired a round through its skull. He watched it drop, the soldier glancing about in confusion, and then set his sights on another demon, this one large and slow but with many tentacles protruding from its body that wrapped around and strangled anything in its grasp. He shot a round into what he thought was its head but it did nothing. He shot another one into the middle of its body but the demon continued to thrash its tentacles about, slamming them into the animal soldiers fighting it and lifting some up into the air. The soldiers did not back away from it, however, and Victor assumed they knew how to kill it. He focused instead on helping them destroy it so he shot out its tentacles one by one until only stubs flailed about uselessly. The animal soldiers, some of them looking around in bewilderment and wondering how its tentacles had suddenly fallen off, then climbed atop its body and stabbed their weapons in a spot near the back of what Victor thought was the head. A moment later the demon stopped moving. That battle over, he moved his crosshairs over another one.

"Shit," he cursed under his breath. Auric was surrounded by several animal soldiers, the arm of one of them still in his mouth, and was about to get overpowered. Victor moved his crosshairs over the heads of one of the animal soldiers. "I'm sorry for this..." After squeezing the trigger the bipedal iguana lost its head and dropped. A second shot killed a fox and a third ended the life of a bobcat. Auric managed to overpower and kill the last ones still surrounding him and Victor looked away, lowering his rifle and feeling guilty.

They're the enemy, he told himself over and over. They would kill you if they had the chance... Now is not the time for second guesses. With a deep breath he shouldered his rifle and searched for more targets. His eyes narrowed when he spotted a short man with a golden sword and shield.

Athena swooped down from the air and slashed her sword at demon and animal alike. She cut through the neck of a demon, poked the eyes out of a lizard, stabbed into another demon, cleaved the arm off of a cougar and cut a chunk off the head of a third unholy monster. She then gained altitude and hovered in the air, watching the battle below. She looked beyond it at the huge demon snake and saw it attacking eagles with riders on their backs. Every time it snapped its jaws there was a loud boom and she could feel the wind of a shockwave rushing past her. She wanted blood and violence but had no intention of fighting that thing. She had very few limits but that was one of them. She searched the sky for any nearby winged demons but they were all much higher and fighting eagles with no riders. She could climb to that height but didn't want to waste the effort. She scanned the area around her and saw a small form in the distance. It had wings but it almost looked as if there was black hair on it too. It also wore a dress and closely resembled one of the people the grey woman had ordered her to kill. Curious to determine who that person was she flew through the air toward her.

Durn stomped onto the battlefield after walking beside the city wall with determination and patience. This battle didn't concern him. He only had nine concerns at the moment and so far he saw none of them. As if seeing him a demon, one of the animal people attacked him, shield forward and sword raised. Durn slammed his axe head into the shield with such force that it stopped the animal in its tracks. Before it could recover he swept his axe wide, slicing it into the animal's side. It fell the ground and moaned in pain. He didn't even bother killing it. He had had enough of these talking animals and just wanted to get out of this place already. A demon with four arms full of claws turned on him and with several swings of his axe he cleaved every arm off. He then chopped his axe into the demon's skull, splitting it in half like firewood. With it disposed of he continued on his way, his white mask searching. He soon found his first victim, the short armoured woman with the silver axe. She was preoccupied fighting off two demons at once and he advanced on her, the grip on his battle-axe tightening in anticipation.

****

Elmar ducked under the sweeping arm of six-eyed demon and leapt over its swinging tail. He tried to get closer to inflict some damage but situated on its chest were two folded arms covered in spikes and claws that could snap forward with blinding speed. Two larger and longer arms hung from its shoulders and acted as its main weapons. He had seen the speed of the smaller ones, however, and knew that dodging them was impossible. He would have to get behind it somehow. Before it reached for him with its other arm he tapped his sword against his shield and they both elongated and thinned to form his staff. With it now in his grasp he dodged the demon's other arm and then tapped it as it swung by. It immediately dropped to the ground as if it had been pulled there by invisible hands and the rest of the demon's body soon followed. With it pinned to the sand, growling and shrieking in fury, Elmar split his staff into his sword and shield once more and sunk his blade into the demon's skull. Bright golden light emanated from the wound as his sword's holy energy burned the demon from within and though it was already dead its entire body gradually dissipated into ash. Elmar eyed his sword curiously. If his blade could do that much damage to a medium-sized demon, how much damage could it do to a larger one? He shifted his gaze to Nilepyt just as it finished disposing of the last Eagle Riders. Its head hung in the air, now shifting its gaze back to the city, and Elmar had no time to think. He had to do something. He ran toward Nilepyt, hoping to somehow climb aboard it without it seeing him or it perhaps sensing the holy energy within his weapons.

He made it three steps before a bullet streaked through his neck.

Karmen looked up at Nilepyt as it roared in what she could only assume was victory. The Eagle Riders were now too few in number to pose it any threat and nothing stopped it from destroying the city or biting down on the Jewel of Fire. She didn't think she could transform into something of that size but perhaps she could still make herself big enough to pose some sort of threat. She quickly rummaged her mind for a form to take when a black tiger with red stripes leapt into her view. She got a brief flash in her mind of dead bodies and a crying little girl as she stared at the tiger's eyes. They appeared strangely familiar. The tiger stared back, transfixed and motionless. She didn't know whether she should fear it or admire it. It wasn't bipedal like the other Moharans but didn't look very demonic, despite its colours. She opened her mouth to say something when a red-skinned demon with the head of a goat charged at her. She screamed in alarm and leapt aside just before it tackled her. She hit the sand and looked up just as the red demon lifted a hoofed foot over her head. There was a growl and a roar and the black tiger leapt into view, pushing the red demon to the ground and digging deep gashes across its body with its claws. The red demon was strong and resilient, however, and threw the tiger off its body and then butted its head into its side, making it utter a whimper of pain. It then kicked the tiger in the ribs and Karmen winced at the sound of audible cracking. The demon turned toward her again, apparently satisfied with the pain it had inflicted on the black tiger and now looking as if it wanted to do the same to Karmen.

With no time to waste, Karmen cried out in defiance and transformed. Her entire body bugled and black hair grew all over it. She grew to a height of fifty feet and beat her muscled chest with her hairy arms, growling loudly. The demon looked up at the gigantic gorilla now standing before it and took a few steps back, as if reconsidering its options.

Karmen pounded it into the sand with several powerful punches and then ran toward Nilepyt. She was still tiny compared to the titan snake but if she could distract it like the Eagle Riders had done she would be pleased enough with that.

Dashing across the sand on her feet and knuckles she looked up at the titan just as it started to slither forward. She charged through the ranks of demons still arriving at the battlefield and tramped over the small ones. She tossed aside the larger ones and pounded any defiant ones into the ground. Nothing was going to stop her. These Moharans had saved her from the brink of death and now she would do her best to repay that favor.

Casandra hurried to where Elmar lay and recognized the wound on him as soon as she saw it. She looked up and saw the attacker immediately. He was kneeled on a sand dune over a hundred yards away and it appeared as if he was looking right at her. His shot had only grazed Elmar's neck but had severed several veins and arteries and he was bleeding out quickly. Ignoring the risk, she bent down and placed her hands on his body. Healing him as rapidly as she could, she kept her eyes on the attacker. If he killed her then so be it. She would not let a friend die. As if to her rescue, several winged demons suddenly dove down at the attacker's position and he was forced to defend himself.

Elmar groaned as he regained consciousness and got to his knees. "It was him again, wasn't it?" he asked Casandra as he placed a hand on his freshly healed neck. "The man with the rifle?"

"If that is what his strange weapon is called then yes, it was him," she answered. "You should go see the healers, Elmar. His weapon could be poisoned or cursed."

Elmar chuckled as he got to his feet. "No, those kinds of weapons aren't like that. I've seen them before in my travels and they are purely physical. There are no enchantments on them." He put a hand on her shoulder. "You should not be here, though. You should be the one with the healers."

"Were I not here you would have died."

"Impossible!" cried a voice neither of them recognized.

Shifting their gaze on the speaker they set their eyes on a most beautiful woman with a sensual body full of attractive and delicate curves. Her eyes were wide with shock and her red lips were parted in awe.

Casandra felt an odd familiarity at the sight of the woman. She had never seen her before but her wari felt...similar. It was incredibly strong, that much she could determine easily, but the way it resembled hers was distressing. "Who are you?" she asked, struggling to make sense of what she was feeling.

The woman blinked her eyes and regained her composure. "Casandra...you...you're Casandra. How is that possible? This isn't even... This can't be real..."

"I am Casandra Zoer," she replied. "How do you know of me?"

"You're dead," the woman replied. "Where I come from you've been dead for centuries. I've read and heard stories about you and your mastery of wari. You were a most skilled time mage before the end. How is it that you are here?"

"I have been chosen," Casandra said. "I have been chosen to cleanse the corruption spreading across the universes. Are you here to do the same?"

The woman's chin raised up and her eyes narrowed. Her expression was completely different than what it had been before. Where she had once been surprised and almost amazed she now appeared delighted and somewhat sinister. "So...you are one of them." She then made a flicking motion with her hand.

Rumbling thunder was heard and Casandra and Elmar saw a large four-legged demon charging toward them, its horned head lowered. Elmar shoved Casandra out of the way before he leapt atop the demon's head as it pounded by. It swung its head about and he lost his grip and was sent flying. Its focus now on him, the demon charged once more, now angered by Elmar's attempt to harm it. He got to his feet and switched his weapons out for his staff.

Meanwhile, Casandra and the woman fixed their gazes on one another, the tension in the air around them making the hair on their arms and necks stand up. They circled one another, like predators sizing each other up, and ignored the battle happening around them.

"You're a part of the group trying to kill us," Casandra stated. "That is why you are here."

"How observant of you," the woman replied with a smirk. "I have indeed come here to kill you, though I had no idea it would be Casandra herself that I would slay. I wonder how your death affects my world. Will all your descendants cease to be? I truly hope so as they are a most constant annoyance. My life would be much easier without them."

"How do you plan to kill me?" Casandra asked, a frown on her round face. "I can sense great power within you but if this is a battle of the strength each other's wari I sense you may not be up to the task."

The woman's eyes narrowed. "How dare you assume you know the extent of my power!" She quickly lunged, moving swiftly despite the red dress that hugged tightly against her body. Casandra raised her arms in defence and the other woman grabbed them and immediately began sapping the wari from her body. Casandra felt herself weaken but she fought back, strengthening her wari and slowing down the rate it was being absorbed. She gazed into the other woman's flaring blue eyes and without warning lifted a knee and scored a hit into her abdomen. The woman cried out and bent over in pain. Casandra wrenched her arms free from her grasp and then reversed the action, grabbing her arms instead. She sapped her wari as rapidly as she could and though the woman resisted with great power she was steadily weakening. She struggled to get free from Casandra's grasp and the two women swung each other about, one trying to hold on while the other tried to extricate herself.

A loud roar shattered their focus and had them both stumbling back, Casandra losing her grip. She looked to the side and saw Nilepyt advancing quickly, crushing anything underneath it, be it demon or Moharan. Its gaze was fixed on the Jewel of Fire and nothing could stop it from attacking it now. Casandra noticed something small crawling up the titan's side and saw it as an ape or sorts. Considering Nilepyt's size the ape was huge yet looked like nothing more than a tick on the titan's gargantuan body. It was steadily moving closer to the demon snake's head and Casandra wondered what it would do once it got there.

A barrage of spells slammed into the snake's body as it neared the city walls but it didn't feel a single one. It slithered right through the walls as if they had never been there and then began flattening the clay and stone buildings beneath it as it moved through the city. Even the largest buildings were left as little more than dust and rubble. Another fierce barrage spells shot forth from various openings in the Jewel of Fire as the spell-wielders within tried to defend it. It was high into the sky but Nilepyt was many miles long and could still easily reach it. The spells slammed into the demon's face and some struck its eyes, which did manage to make it shudder slightly. It roared and then reached up higher into the sky, its jaws opening wide enough to swallow the diamond-shaped structure whole.

Casandra looked down at the battle around her and saw more black and red than anything else. The demons were winning. Their numbers were too great. She hadn't seen Graham or Victoria in far too long and though she saw Elmar overcome the demon that had been attacking him she saw no one else. Had they all fallen? She could try to focus on their wari but the presence of so many unholy creatures upset and disturbed her. She found it difficult to concentrate. She glanced to the side where the woman in the red dress was struggling to her feet, her wari still weak.

"I will finish what I started, Casandra," the woman said, her eyes full of hate and distaste. "Your days are numbered..." With a hand to her heart she then began to limp away, her dishevelled hair falling all over her face like a veil.

Casandra could pursue her but her friends were more important to her. She had to find them and ensure herself that they were still alive. It was quite possible Nilepyt had crushed them on its way to the city. She looked back at the demon snake and gasped in surprise when she saw that its jaws were already almost over the Jewel of Fire. Spells were firing into its mouth but the titan didn't appear bothered in the least. Casandra's spine went cold when it finally reached a height where it could clamp down on the structure. The Moharan's doom was soon upon them. Nothing could save them now.

She was proven wrong when the demon snake suddenly cocked his head to the side and lowered it, closing its jaws and uttering a low growl of annoyance. Casandra caught a glimpse of that ape-like creature she had seen climbing it pounding its fists on the titan's middle eye. The Jewel of Fire continued to climb as the hairy creature, so tiny compared to the titan, held it back with its own brute strength.

Casandra's face paled when she recognized the creature's wari as she focused upon it, finding enough will to fight through the distracting presence of the demons all around her. It was Karmen! She had just returned to the world of the living and now she was sacrificing herself to give the Moharans just a little more time. As much as she wanted to help she could do nothing more than watch.

The ape's brave stand was valiant and noble but it lasted only a few short minutes. Nilepyt's swung its head in great sweeps and it was dislodged despite its greatest efforts to stay on. The ape flew through the air for hundreds of feet before slamming into the side of a sand dune and rolling down to its base. Nilepyt once again focused on the Jewel of Fire, only slightly higher than it had been before the ape's attack.

Casandra shook her head. It couldn't end this way. The Moharans couldn't perish like this. The demons couldn't win... Something had to be done. Something needed to be done. She had tears in her eyes when Nilepyt's jaws clamped down on the Jewel of Fire with enough force to create huge cracks in its surface. She noticed demons begin to surround her and she looked down at the sand as tears dropped from her face. This couldn't be how it ended...

Echoing across the land and making every demon cower and shudder in terror was the keening cry of a great bird. Casandra felt warmth in the cry and her wari vibrated with intensity. Hope rekindled in her soul. She looked up past the demons in front of her to the southern sky.

The entire horizon was on fire.