The song for this chapter is "Saviors of the World" by Skillet. It seems like the perfect song for a fight sequence set at the end of the world, don't you think? :) I originally did not intend last chapter and this one being as long as they were, but I've kinda been putting off writing the next part... :P (You'll see what I mean next chapter.) For now, enjoy the epic fight!

*Waglington's POV*

The others had struggled to hold their own against Mianite, but the tide turned when Martha and I flew in from the side, swords swinging. I'd never known Martha to be much of a swordswoman, and it was obvious that she was fairly unpolished and out of practice. I guessed that Spark had insisted she at least learn the basics when she was younger, but I suspected she had not used a sword since. I made a mental note to teach her a bit more later on. One should not grow to rely too heavily on their magic, lest they find themselves without it. For now, the fact that Mianite's unassertive niece and the wizard he'd written off as dead were coming at him with blazing eyes and shining blades was enough to throw him off his game for a moment.

We dove in as Mianite pressed Tom and Mot in attempt to get at Dianite behind them. I swung my imbued sword for his half metal face, foregoing niceties. He backed out of the way and dodged to the right when Martha took a stab at his side with her manyullyn rapier.

Mianite was using a mythril battleaxe. His matching silver-blue armor reflected the eerie red light of the blood moon filtering down from the vent and looked unscathed. His axe so far was unbloodied, not for lack of trying. He held the weapon loosely in his right hand, with an ease born of centuries of use, though there was a certain hesitance to his movements as if he had not practiced recently either. He floated backward cautiously, reevaluating the battlefield now that Martha and I had arrived. Not only had two enemies come unlooked for, they appeared to be in good fighting form, not tired like the other combatants, and they were capable with both sword and spell.

I knew if he looked more closely at how Martha held herself, he'd recognize her inexperience. So I didn't give him the chance to look. I attacked with my sword, forcing his attention back on me. I didn't however take him on solo. After striking a blow that he easily blocked with his axe, I backed away. Mot and Donella had been the first to shake off the shock of our arrival and were close behind my attack. The others moved to action shortly after, spirits reinvigorated by our dramatic entrance.

The time for words had passed, and not even Dianite tried to reason with his brother as we fought. Had anyone been inclined to try, I suspected they would have met little success. Mianite seemed to have sunken into a battle focus I recognized as kin to what I went into when concentrating on a particularly complicated spell. Nothing short of my brothers hitting me with a spell or putting a spider on my shoulder had shaken my focus at those times. Such would only be part of the dance to Mianite—absorbed in the fight as he was. I wondered what would get through to him but discarded the thought almost at once; he wasn't going to change his mind.

We traded blows with Mianite, wearing each other down, until even the god of order appeared winded. I noted with satisfaction that his armor was now marred by several glancing and a few direct blows. I would have gladly kept going if Memento—who had been carefully staying out of reach and occasionally throwing a spell into the fray—had not warned me my strength potion was beginning to wear off. The fight had by now moved closer to the rubble heap we'd hidden behind not so long ago. Reluctantly, I retreated the short distance to where I'd left Martha's bag to get another potion. On the way I sent Martha a quick mental warning, as hers would be running out soon after mine.

Mianite was paying more attention to Martha and I than I had thought. He hit Martha's potion bag with a lightning bolt before I could reach it, causing it to explode into multicolored flames and shards of glass. I floated there, staring at the flames in shock for a few seconds. Then I got angry. Mianite must have suspected Martha and I had boosted our energy somehow; he had been waiting us out. And I thought we were doing well. I scowled as I looked up to see Mianite on the offensive again, this time hounding Martha, who was barely keeping him at bay with spells. Jordan and Tom had the bright idea to spam dig spells at the base of a spike hanging from the ceiling, causing it to fall toward Mianite. This distracted him long enough for Martha to get away.

By this point I could feel my strength fading; soon I wouldn't be able to hold a sword, let alone parry a blow. Grudgingly, I landed on the rubble heap, sheathed my sword, and took up the strategy my friends had invented, using my much stronger dig spell to knock whole spikes loose with a single blast. After a short time, even standing proved taxing, and I had to sit down. My ability to dodge an attack was now compromised, and Mianite would know that. I kept my athar magic at the ready in case I needed to throw up a quick shield.

Not one to disappoint, Mianite tried to smite me with a lightning bolt a minute later. Thankfully, I got my shield up in time. I could feel the majority of the electricity scatter off my magic, though a small amount made it through—not enough to hurt me, just enough to ruin my hair. It was all standing on end when I lowered my shield. I groaned as I ran a hand through the static-induced afro, unsuccessfully trying to make it lie down.

What I didn't expect was Mianite using that attack on me as a distraction. Everyone's attention flickered to me when the lightning hit to make sure I was okay. Once they realized I was unharmed, most of my friends struggled to suppress laughter. Tom didn't even try to hide his. He must have thought it was karma that my hair got ruined after what I'd done to his. Donella was the only one to shout a warning when Mianite flew towards Tom. He raised his sword just in time to save himself from a powerful backhand swing of Mianite's axe, though he was sent flying into the side of one of the wall spikes.

This marked a change in Mianite's strategy, one I was very worried by. He started launching spells at one target, then physically rushing a different one with no discernable pattern. While his haste did leave him open to attacks more frequently, my friends were taking a beating too. I still helped when I could, but my manna was starting to run low again, and I found myself wishing my athar magic was what it once was. A few high class battle spells would have been invaluable here, but I could only work with what I had. I watched in frustration as Sonja barely ducked under a wide swing. When Mianite launched his next set of magical attacks, he went for the distraction technique again, trying to hit Ilanna and Alroy where they had stood ignored until now before charging Donella. Ilanna barely teleported Alroy and herself in time to avoid serious injury.

"Hey! Pick on someone your own size!" I shouted angrily. Memento backed me up with a firestorm spell. We wouldn't be able to use more than one or two more ars spells, but no one messed with my apprentices. Mianite narrowed his eyes at me, then flew for Memento. Memento was caught off guard; Mianite had been disregarding the familiars as minor nuisances up to this point. Mianite snatched him out of the air with his left hand. Memento struggled wildly against the iron grip, but his claws and teeth could do nothing against the metal arm.

I could feel Memento's panic and my own throat constricting as Mianite tightened his grip. That is not what I meant! Without thinking, I used my Soupier Fury spell and shot towards the pair. The strength and speed kicked in seconds after I took off. I drew my sword and swung at the arm holding Memento. My right arm ached when my sword hit solid adamantine, and the clash of metal on metal rang through the air. He did release Memento though. I noted belatedly that I had barely dented his metal arm with my attack. At least I can almost hurt him, I thought sarcastically as I floated back to a safe distance.

Something about the almost hopeless nature of our fight with Mianite reminded me of another hopeless battle I'd fought with a different group. That gave me an idea. I grinned as I waited for another opening to attack. Finally, I flew at the god again while he had his back turned and his axe locked with Mot's hammer. I could feel my imbued sword heating up in my hand as I got closer, the nether stars used in forming my blade heating to a higher temperature than diamond could ever reach. Mot saw me coming and kept Mianite distracted.

I used both hands this time when I swung, putting as much force behind the superheated blade as possible. It sang through the air and bit through Mianite's armor like it was leather. My sword sank several inches into the left side of Mianite's chest. Unfortunately, by the feel and sound of the hit, I'd struck an area that was strictly mechanical. Disappointed, I yanked my sword free and backed off, expecting Mianite to retaliate.

I couldn't have been more surprised when Mianite let his axe fall from his hand. I watched in disbelief as it fell, spinning, into lava. I looked down at my sword again and noticed for the first time that there was oil sizzling on the blade. I looked up at Mianite again to see his left arm hanging useless and oil dripping from the wound in his chest. Mianite's face looked suddenly ashen and pained. He was slowly sinking out of the air. He wasn't healing. Usually a god would start healing a wound almost immediately if it didn't kill them. But you can't heal machinery. Mianite couldn't stop the oil leak, because there was nothing for his powers to work on. "I...I did it!" I shouted in excitement. "I did something useful!" I laughed and spun around midair as my friends cheered.

I stopped when I suddenly got dizzy. Yep, there's my spell's side effects...I almost dropped my sword as my spell's artificial strength left me. Martha caught it before it fully left my hand. She sheathed my sword for me and pulled my arm over her shoulder when I wobbled unsteadily. I managed not to hurl as Martha guided me down to the platform. My head and stomach settled as I sank onto solid ground. I was bone tired now and a little short of breath. Martha fussily checked me over for any major injuries. As soon as I caught my breath, I assured her that the side effects were expected, though that didn't make her any happier. I didn't waste energy protesting when she started using more healing magic on me, especially when she spared a small amount to flatten my hair back out.

Memento laughed beside me and commented, At this rate, you'll have more magic in your veins than blood.

I chuckled at the thought and joked, That might just be accurate given how much Tucker spilled. I checked Memento over mentally and relaxed knowing he'd escaped Mianite with only a few broken and bloodied nails along with a sore neck.

I cautiously glanced over at the god of order where he knelt at the far end of the platform. The light in his red eye had gone out, and I suspected all of his mechanical parts had seized up considering the large pool of oil surrounding him. Mianite's human eye seemed unfocused now, and I hoped he regretted everything he'd done to lead to this.

Assured that Mianite offered no immediate threat, I turned my attention to my friends. Martha was holding up pretty well, though I noticed she winced as she moved her left shoulder. That was the one Jordan had injured when they faked their fight a few weeks ago. Martha gave me a tired but reassuring smile when she saw that I had noticed and moved her right hand from where it had been healing a cut on my shoulder to hover over my heart. My heart was still pounding far too fast in attempt to compensate for my blood loss and strenuous activity. It and my breathing slowed to a more reasonable—though still higher than normal—rate under Martha's attention and calming magic.

With some effort, I resisted the urge to lean forward and kiss Martha's nose as a thank you, turning my attention to the others instead. (I'd have to watch that; Martha's calming magic appeared to lower my inhibitions.) Ilanna and Alroy had avoided getting hurt, thankfully. Tucker and Sonja seemed the next best off with only cracked armor, though in Sonja's case it looked like one more hit would have broken hers completely. Jordan was holding his right wing like it hurt him and had a few scrapes. Tom kept trying to stretch his back out and moved around stiffly. Donella had torn the left sleeve off of her maroon coat and was using strips of the fabric to bind a rather nasty looking cut on her left bicep that had dripped blood all the way down her arm. Akatena hovered possessively nearby, both eyes and ears trained on Mianite, watching for any signs of renewed threat. Mot had taken his jacket off and rolled his sleeve up to let Dianite examine his right shoulder; it was already a swollen black and blue where the skin wasn't green. Dianite himself looked unharmed aside from a single crack running through one of his horns and exhaustion forming bags under his red eyes.

We were interrupted from tending our wounds by a sound like an enderman's teleport. Everyone turned towards Mianite with weapons drawn, and Martha and Memento stepped in front of me protectively. There was no need. Mianite remained as immobile as ever, but Gaines had reappeared. He held a contraption in one hand; I assumed that was what he used to teleport. He looked livid. He didn't seem to notice that we were even present as he turned a glare on his god. "Mianite! How many times have I told you I don't appreciate being teleported without warning? Then you go and get yourself damaged, and you expect me to come fix you up again." He paused here when he saw just how damaged Mianite was. He shook his head. "You've frozen up, haven't you? Ugh. I'll bet anything you've overheated some of your circuits by now too. I got here as quickly as I could when I got the alert, but you had to leave me so far from my lab, didn't you?"

My friends had all relaxed and lowered their weapons while Gaines droned on; now they looked at each other a bit confused. Gaines remained unaware of us as he knelt beside Mianite to examine the deep cut. "You're lucky, you know. If whoever did this had aimed higher, you'd be without a head right now," Gaines said, matter-of factly. He seemed to have gotten over his anger quickly and chuckled. "Even I couldn't fix that! This will take a week or two as is."

Mianite's eyes had refocused on the here and now while Gaines talked. Gaines paused in his examination and met Mianite's gaze as if he'd spoken aloud. Maybe he whispered something. Mianite moved his right arm stiffly to set something in Gaines's hand before letting his hand drop back to the ground as if that movement were the hardest thing he'd ever done.

Gaines stared at Mianite blankly for a moment before his face started turning red in anger. "You can't just do that after all this time!" The man was at a loss for words when he stood, fuming. Turning his back on Miainte, he started looking about the platform for something. Finally he made a sound of exasperation and shouted, "Has anyone seen my darn wrench?!"

Ilanna meekly walked forward to hand it to the scientist. Gianes took the instrument just as everyone's communicators beeped loudly. Confused, we all looked down at the message that made the world slow to a stop around us: "Mianite was slain by World Historian."