The grass cracked dryly under my feet as I walked through the abandoned town; technically, it was still the same as when I was last here, but there was something different about it, a new feeling of danger lay about it. The air had almost turned sour and it was as though an evil presence was breathing down your neck, which was definitely irritating. Moments like this made me thank the gods that I was a banshee; yes, the atmosphere was more distracting to me than it would be to most other species, but at the same time it was less harmful. I would bet that normal creatures could only spend a couple of hours here before becoming violently ill because of how this place felt. I only the other hand, could stay here all day and prepare all the wards I needed to, to protect my friends when they got here.

If I didn't set up wards for evil, then Loki wouldn't face much initial resistance in this realm; the wards would allow everyone who came to stay here for a much longer period, since I had no idea when Loki would break the barrier. If he had corrupted Hel, then he would be here already, so I was guessing that he had locked her up somewhere where my mind couldn't reach her.

I desperately wanted to go to the other realm and check to see if everyone I cared about was okay, especially Hel and my family, but something told me that that would be a bad idea; I mean, I would pretty much be gift wrapping myself for Loki if I did that. For now, I would have to content myself with knowing that I was doing everything I could to protect my loved ones at this point.

I was so deeply buried in my thoughts that I didn't even notice the force I was using to place my wards, my last one was set, and a loud crash startled me from my thoughts; when I looked around I saw that wherever a ward had been placed, a crater was also present. I shook my head and blushed, at least no one was here to see my loss of control, I usually was a master at focusing my attacks, so this would be another bit of ammunition for the others to use against me.

Before I could start to fix my mistake, a voice called out from behind me, "Geez, did we miss the initial attack? This place had been torn to shreds!" I spun around, and a huge smile spread across my face as a body slammed into me, nearly knocking me off my feet; my arms rose to embrace Diane, who was hugging me with everything she had.

"Janis! How could you have left us for so long without telling us first? We were worried that you had died or something!" I smiled as she ranted about everything that had happened to them, "You should have seen Ban, Janis, he was so mopey and sad, it was actually kind of cute!

I laughed and waited until she let me go so I could turn and greet everyone else, "Hey." I waved awkwardly as I remembered that I left after leaving a cryptic note and nothing else; everyone else seemed to remember that as they looked at me with slight irritation, though some looked more irritated than others. *cough* Ban *cough*

The before mentioned irritated person approached me slowly, looking as though he was debating between throttling me and just giving me a quick decapitation, so I grimaced apologetically, "I am so sorry about leaving without a note, but I swear I had a good reason, please don't kill me." He was three feet away from me now and my eyes closed instinctively as I braced myself for whatever was going to happen next.

To my surprise, instead of yelling of smacking me, I found myself being pulled into a strong hug; my eyes flew open with shock and I felt him bury his face in my hair, "Don't you ever do that to me again, I thought you had died or been captured; I can't afford to lose you, Janis, don't you realize that?" If I hadn't known Ban as well as I did, I would almost say he was close to tears in that moment.

I was speechless for a moment before what he said caught up to me, "Wait, you can't afford to lose me?" I asked hesitantly, and he jerked away from me wide-eyed.

"No! I meant to say we can't afford to lose you, I was just thinking of the good of the team, it just came out wrong." He turned and walked away from me, rubbing the back of his neck which looked slightly red, though I must have been imagining it.

I swallowed a blush that was trying to force its way onto my face and smiled happily at the other, "Um, yeah, so I just wanted to tell you that I found some help, the dryads should be here in the next day or so."

It was King's turn to step forward with a face filled with shock, "The Dryads? I heard that they had been wiped out ages ago; are you sure it was them?" I nodded, and he gasped in awe while the others just looked confused.

"The Dryads?" Meliodas asked curiously, "Who are they? The name sounds familiar, but I can't remember where from." It seemed as though he spoke for the rest of them who nodded their head as he spoke.

Before I could explain, King jumped in like a fangirl who had been asked about her favorite book, "The Dryad's were a warrior race that helped to fight a great many evils, and because of their skill with fighting, they became the most sought-after warriors in the world. Sadly, in the fight against the demons, many of their people were killed and they disappeared, leaving behind no trace of where they had gone. I always had wanted to meet them, but they were gone before I got the chance, and eventually, I assumed they were all gone." He ended with a sigh and I continued the story.

"They went to a mountain far away from anyone and ever since then they've been holed up there; I stumbled across them around thirty years ago and we became more or less comrades."

"More or less comrades?" This came from Diane, who was looking at me with doubt.

"Well, yeah. I've told you guys that banshees aren't really trusted all that often, right?" They nodded. and I shrugged, hoping that I wouldn't have to go into full detail on why they didn't exactly trust me, "It's rare that any banshee gains the trust of our cousins, so no matter how much I wanted to be accepted by them, it wouldn't be a complete trust, at least until now. They asked if they could fight alongside me this time, so I can assume that I have proved myself to them."

We continued talking for a while until Merlin pulled me aside and began to interrogate me on exactly what had happened and what our plan was going to be when we had to fight Loki; I showed her the horn only after I cast my 'mist shield' spell so that I could be sure that Loki didn't see what we were up to.

"So this was given to you by Odin of Asgard?" Her voice held no small amount of surprise, "If I hadn't have talked to Hel and felt Loki's power when he broke through into the Necropolis, I wouldn't believe this, but I suppose it's not too farfetched compared to some of what we have dealt with lately."

A chuckle made its way out before I could stop it, "This really has been a crazy couple of months, hasn't it? Who would have ever thought that any of this would have happened." I allowed myself to slump to the ground and put my head in my hands, "All I can hope is that we will get a bit of a break after this, that is, if we survive this battle."

Merlin stood up straighter and murmured an agreement before her eyes widened, "I nearly forgot, is there any spell you have that would stop the souls that Loki will have in their track? I figured we could give him a bit of a welcome present by immobilizing his army and then sending it back to the Necropolis."

I smiled, that was definitely a plan that Merlin would come up with, "Yeah, I believe that I could stop the souls, but it would be a temporary thing. As for sending them back, that would have to be done while I immobilize them, and none of you are capable of casting one of my spells." Disappointment laced my tone and I buried my head in my knees, trying to think of what we could do.

"Is there anyone who would be able to do the spells?" Merlin prompted me, to which I started to shake my head but then stopped and jumped up with a happy realization.

"The Dryads might be able too! We are cousins after all, and there have been stories of one species magic being used by another." I began pacing, trying to figure out the logistics of how this could work, "If I gave all of the dryads something infused with my power, it should resonate with theirs and allow them to temporarily have access to my magic. That would take a lot of power on my part, but then I could focus on the spell that immobilizes the souls and they could send the souls back for me. The only issue that I can think of is the fact that there will still be a tear in the space between realms, so in order to make the souls stay in the Necropolis, we would need someone to fix the tear."

This stumped me, so I turned to Merlin who was grinning almost sadistically, "Leave the tear to me, just figure out the charms and the spell; now we just need to figure out how to beat Loki, and we'll be ready." I smiled, and we began called in the rest of the sins; I almost felt sorry for Loki, he had no idea what a mistake attacking our realm had been.