"You know, I remember hearing stories about the previous commandant of the Knights Templar." I drawled, drawing my sword and twirling it round and round like a classy cane (Cause I'm a classy motherfucker.): "It was said that he went to another realm, Mareth, to deal with the demon problem. Who knew it'd be you, Damian." (My voice steadily grew more sarcastic as I continued to speak.)

"You know too much." He growled, "And you talk far too much, huntsman."

I barked out a harsh laugh: "I can thank my boy Stanford for the info he gave me. He told me you were his hero-his father figure. He thought you were the guy leading this invasion, but he wanted to be wrong-he wanted to believe you didn't become the monster that's now standing before me."

To explain what I just said, Stanford took me aside the day before my team left for Volhime to tell me about the previous commandant.

"What does he have to do with Volhime?" I had asked my boss when he was done speaking.

"Fred and I haven't heard from him in a long, long time. He went to Mareth to deal with the demons there, but he never came back to us. My guess is that he either died or became a demon. I-I want to believe he died, but I know Damian wouldn't go down quietly. I still remember when we fought together in the Dread Decades..."

He had drifted off, then he told me to call the demonlord Damian to test out his theory.

Sadly, he was correct in his presumption.

"Stanford..." The demonlord began, voice heavy with emotion.

"Yeah." I shot back sarcastically, "You left a whole lot of people behind when you went off on your little journey in Mareth. Your friends...your wife, your children."

"You know nothing!" Damian roared in fury, "They were weak! All of them! The knights Templar were almost wiped out during the Dread Decades! I felt hopeless, powerless, and weak." he spat the last word out as if it were a curse that might kill him, "So I went to Mareth, and pledged my allegiance to the lord of the realm, Thaleous."

I grinned. Gotcha bitch! "And what does this Thaleous fellow want?"

A malevolent smile twisted Damian's facial features. "He wants complete control of this plane. He despises humans-as I do, and he wishes to start the eradication of the human race with the death of one man-a man in this city."

I gave him a look of mock-curiosity, "Oh, please do continue-I'm all ears. Who is this man Thaleous wishes to kill?"

"A warlock who calls himself Soren Lockwood." Damian supplied.

That name caught my attention, but I kept my face neutral, "Oh...I don't think I've heard of such a fellow before. Hmph, no matter. You were stupid enough to follow me in here."

"What?" The demon lord demanded. As if on cue, the back line of the demon hoard erupted in flame.

Without warning, several multicolored explosions erupted amongst the ranks of the hoard before me. I didn't have time to wonder what the hell just happened, so I merely flashed Damian my best shit eating grin. My pack of wolves vanished from their places at my side. I then heard screams of terror followed by howling at the back of the hoard.

"No..." Damian began in horror, realizing his mistake, "No, no, no!"

"You fell for my trap, bitch!" I chortled joyously, "And you told me everything I needed to know. Consider that your last service to your country as a member of the Knights Templar."

I looked at my team, peering out the doorway of the shop they were hiding in.

"The fuck are you lot waiting for?" I demanded, "Come on and join the fun!"

Analise, Nova, and Luna charged out of the door way while Dorrian and Ben smashed a few windows with their bows and each nocked an arrow in their weapons.

I smirked at the enraged demonlord and beckoned for him to come closer, "Come at me bro."

I suddenly heard mad laughter. Looking over at the source, my jaw dropped as I caught sight of Dante hacking off demon heads and stuffing them into a sack while blowing other demons to pieces with a strange weapon in his hands.

"Dear gods...he's a madman..." I breathed as I caught sight of Damian drawing his claymore and charging at me.

"You will pay for this!" he roared. "You will pay!"

"You know." I began calmly as I deflected one of his strikes, "Fighting while enraged is a very, very bad idea."

He roared once more as he swung at my head. I deflected his attack and eliminated a group of demons that had surrounded a team of guardsmen by hurling an explosive orb at them. After that, I gave my full attention to the angry demonlord that was trying to relieve me of my head. He was a dangerous foe, but his rage made his attacks unbalanced. I still had to be careful, but I at least wasn't in over my head.

My sword blocked the majority of Damian's attacks, but I still had to take evasive actions every now and then. I tried to get in a counter-attack when I could, but I focused more on staying alive than anything else. He wasn't a foe to underestimate, but he was too enraged to be considered a genuine threat. His attacks were predictable, which gave me more than enough time to come up with an adequate reprisal to his move.

"Tell me." I began smoothly as I blocked one of his attacks and ran him through the stomach with my trusty blade, "Why do you want Soren Lockwood?"

Damian coughed out crimson blood, "He-He murdered Thaleous' wife, the queen of Mareth."

"Ah, good for him." I replied, removing my sword and decking him in the face.

He staggered to his knees, then pushed himself to his feet and scowled at me. He charged again, only to be sent reeling as I chopped off his hand. After I disarmed him the bloody way, I shook my head as Damian fell to the ground and stayed there.

"I thought this would've been a battle to the death, not some one-sided beatdown!" I complained: "Come on man! Make this interesting!"

Damian staggered back to his feet, only to fall onto his knees when I kicked in his kneecap. I crossed my fingers, and two ghastly swords appeared by his neck that were crossed in an X formation.

"Where is the portal to Mareth?" I demanded in a cold voice.

"It-It's located by a village. Lowell, I think-Yes! Yes, it's Lowell!" He cried when I started to uncross my fingers, "Please, don't kill me. I beg for your mercy."

I smiled assuredly, uncrossing my fingers. The swords were uncrossed as well, decapitating the dishonorable excuse of an ex-commandant, "Of course. I won't kill you-nah, go burn in hell. Hey Dante!" I called.

"Yesss?" He drawled as he stalked over to me like some beast from hell. In his hand was the bag of decapitated demon heads, and their stench was almost too much for me to handle.

"Catch!" I called, tossing him Damian's decapitated head. Dante caught the head and threw it into the sack he had with him.

"Oh, you shouldn't have!" Dante replied, approaching me with his arms outstretched.

"I don't need a hug-no, no, no, no thanks!" I retorted, retreating back to my group as they created glorious carnage.

"Hello, my people!" I began cheerfully as I cleaved a demon in half, "I'm back baby!"

Analise rose an eyebrow as she stabbed a demon in the face with one of her knives, "You on something, Hel?"

"Other than adrenaline, nope." I replied, "And I didn't give myself another concussion, so that's a plus." I looked at Nova as she blasted off a demon's face. "What the hell were those flashes I saw when we initially engaged the demon hoard?"

"Oh, those?" She began, laughing to herself. "What you saw were the shots from a high-powered Gauss rifle, my friend. I've been trying to build one, but it's been a...rough process up to this point. I still hope to build one though."

"That sounds like a badass weapon!" I chortled as I buried my weapon into an enemy's neck. "Yeeeaaah! Feel my wrath!"

Luna shook her head, "Sometimes, you're worse than Ana when it comes to who's the most sadistic."

"Hey, hey, hey!" Ana retorted, "That's my title! No one takes it from me! No one!"

So yeah, Ana and I had a kill-athon, seeing who could take out the most demons before there were none left. During this kill-athon, I caught sight of Dorrian and Ben tag teaming a goliath demon, working together to swiftly take down the nasty beast.

Nova was making a miniature light show with her hand cannons, sending purple blasts of pure ethridium at her foes and blowing them to pieces. One of her shots made a demon's head blow up like a piñata, and boy, there wasn't candy in this one.

"Behind you!" Luna called.

Before I could react, a spike went through the demon's mouth.

"Not this time." Luna whispered, a murderous glint in her eyes. She then gave us both a shielding ward that made us impervious to, well, anything that could possibly kill/harm us. Grabbing her hand, I amplified the spell and gave all of our allies a moderate strength shielding ward.

"Alright my people, let's kick some ass!"

"Aye sir!" came the response.