47 Megalomania

Deeper into the dark, and dank underground tunnels, a shadow zipped by before phasing back into it's tangible form as a metal grieve took a step onto the gravely floor. Jehxal emerged, his absent arms leaking with droplets of blood dripping to the ground around him. He struggled to catch his breath, as he softly leaned into the cavern's wall beside him. His eyes closed a moment, the location of his severed limbs seeming to restrain the bleeding. Footsteps drew closer just ahead of him.

"Never thought I'd see you this fucked up." A voice ahead of him spoke, with a cold, yet astonished tone.

Jehxal's head lifted, opening those blood colored eyes at the figure ahead of him. He didn't appear surprised, or even fearful, rather he seemed void of emotions as he vaguely stared to the path ahead as Jackyn came into view. The Angel of Death and the Dreadnaught both remained motionless, having an intense stare down in silence. Both clearly had taken some heavy damage in their previous encounters.

Jehxal shuffled slightly, as he pulled himself from the wall, keeping his sharp gaze focused on his younger brother. "Why am I not surprised? You've always been little more than a parasite waiting for the opportunity to pick scraps from another's prey." Jehxal's face darkened as he grinned behind an eerie expression. "You're nothing but a coward, Jackyn."

"Stop talking, Jehxal." Jackyn scoffed, his grip tightening on his dagger.

"Make me then." Jehxal sneered, boredly. Jackyn flared his fangs before rushing with blades drawn, in the direction of his brother.

Mid air, he spun his body around, slashing at Jehxal. However, his brother's shoulders suddenly bubbled up with oozes of blood, letting massive inchor magic form into arms that shot out to counter the incoming attack. Jackyn felt himself get knocked off his feet, before the blood arms stretched out to clutch onto his prosthetic leg. He was held upside down in the air, his gaze meeting Jehxal's once again. The Angel of Death gritted his teeth, before chucking this blades at the outstretching arms made of blood. The daggers went flying through the slime-like ichor, as if the blood shifted to allow it passage through. This caused the knives to stick into the wall behind Jehxal, as the older man grinned sadistically at his trapped prey. It was clear he had more power than Jackyn, due to how much power he retained despite his severely wounded state.

Quickly, Jackyn summoned forth his skeletal blood magic, to form his bloodbone army. The magic-made skeletons formed, quickly firing arrows at Jehxal. With a sudden shift, the slime blood arms whipped Jackyn hard through a cavern wall, letting him crash to the ground in rubble and debris. Sitting up with a squinted eye, Jackyn held his head as blood trailed down the side of his nose, all the way to his jaw from his forehead. His bloodbones had been left without order, only to be crushed by blood tendrils that formed from the ground behind his brother, who had evaded the incoming arrows. The tendrils weaved in and out of the ground, like a serpent that dragged its victims down into the depths along with it. Jackyn stumbled back to his feet, catching a glimpse of Jehxal's equine appearing beside him. It didn't take much time for his brother to climb onto his mare, and come galloping Jackyn's way at full speed. With urgency, Jackyn leapt out of the path, barely avoiding the incoming jousting maneuver from the Dreadnaught's poleaxe. His blood arms had shifted size to function like the ones he had before his arms had been removed, not even seeming phased by his present injuries.

Making haste, Jackyn continued to remain on the evasive as the mare came charging at him once more. This time it crashed through one of the rock walls, creating a hole into another chamber. "Jackyn! You can't keep this up forever!" Jehxal declared, in an wildly ecstatic tone.

"Neither can you!" The Angel of Death sneered back, as he summoned forth the blood direwolf, quickly climbing onto its back as it proceeded to rush after the mare with great speed.

The bone-like tail of the wolf waved behind it, as the blood beast leapt closer to the now galloping mare. The two kept neck to neck as they sped down the narrow passage, as the two brothers continued to fight back and forth with their bladed weapons. They shoved and slashed at one another, struggling to knock the other of their mount. It was getting steep with fragments of rocks tumbling down into the dark cavern bellow, where many eyes of fiendish monsters loomed like spectators in hole of the cavern walls. They waited for their opportune moment to join the ongoing conflict, but dared not intervene. The next moment, the blood direwolf latched it's teeth down hard onto the mare's leg. With a loud whinny, the equine crashed into the ground, toppling on top of the blood direwolf, which caused both riders to be thrusted into the gravel.

Jehxal was the first to his feet, whipping out his poleaxe to strike downward at Jackyn, who swiftly rolled out of the path as it struck the ground hard. This motion continued until Jehxal had his younger brother pinned to the ground, with him halfway hanging off the cliff that lead deep into the pit below, which carried unknown terrain. The metal grieve of Jehxal's boot pressed down hard on Jackyn's chest, causing him to wince out in pain. It halfway rested on the previous wound in the battle with Finch, causing some blood to escape the open wound.

"Even with how many deaths you've claimed, you're still a weakling! You'll always be a WEAKLING! Cowards like you have no purpose in this life, Jackyn! You were put on this planet to die!! I told you before, you were going to die by my hand, and today I deliver that promise!!" Jehxal wildly exclaimed, as he roughly held the bladed end of his poleaxe against Jackyn's throat, who gripped to it as he struggled to keep it from piercing his flesh. Jehxal was growing angry, hoisting it into the air from his brother's grasp as he prepared to bring it back down.

Jackyn had panicked eyes, and bloody palms, but with luck he managed to shift his body back enough to stomp his boots into Jehxal, knocking him off balance. With that, Jehxal's feet left the ground, tumbling down off the cliff, with stunned eyes watching Jackyn rise to his feet, as he continued to plummet further into the hole. He slammed into the rock covered walls, skidding down before he thumped into the other end of the cavern, continuously falling down with roughness. Then blood erupted into the air, as a spiked stalagmite flooring punctured through his chest cavity, piercing most major organs as the sharp ends escaped through the torn flesh and blood covered cloth.

Jackyn had watched his brother fall to his doom, remaining silent for the moment. He was still in shock from just barely managing to avoid certain death, and turning the tables on the one who's plagued his life the longest. He watched, waiting as his brother's body began to decay and phase off into the air like ash into the sky much like how fiend's died. It was as if his worst nightmares had left his body, upon witnessing this particular death. Perhaps it was relief, unfortunately though he didn't manage to escape this unharmed, but he was alive.

Elsewhere in the tunnels, all of Nye's forces continued converging onto the gates of Wynorex from their various points in the tunnels. Zyron, now regrouped with Solitaire and Minerva continued through stealthily. Jackyn and Adam still remained separated from the others, one hanging back due to his weakened state, and the other despite being weakened from his battle with Jehxal, was approaching a massive manticore. Both weren't ready to back down, Adam forcing himself to proceed to the rendezvous point, while Jackyn prepared to face off against the massive fiend before him. Ashewyn and Miles were breaking through hordes of lesser-fiends, while Nye and Nikolai had nearly managed to reach the summit of the Wynorex front gates on their own.

Nye and her fiend companion's path however soon became obstructed by bubbling black ooze that emerged from the ground ahead. It shifted, taking the form of a small fiend that resembled a stitch doll with a giant tack through it's stomach.

"Keeheehee!! Ready to play?~" The fiend's female voice giggled in a distorted fashion. Her eyes were focused on Nikolai, rather than on Nye.

"Yandere...?" Nikolai softly spoke.

"You chose the wrong side, Niko! NOW YOU DIE!!!" The smaller fiend rushed at the reaper, pulling out the pin from her back to thrust it at him like a sword.

Nikolai quickly got out of her line of attack to deflect the pin blade with his scythe. He seemed reluctant to fight her, which allowed Yandere to knock him back into the ground. Zipping through the air, she came for him with another strike, only to be met by Nye's sword blocking her path.

"Get out of our way!" Nye instructed.

"Mistress! Please don't harm her!" Nikolai pleaded from behind Nye.

"Why not, she attacked first. She said she was going to kill you." Nye asked, keeping her eyes sharply on the doll-like fiend.

"That doesn't matter. Yandere is... Special to me..." Nikolai softly admitted.

"... I see." Nye replied, her eyes still on the fiend.

"....She... Understands us?" Yandere slunk back, seeming to be growing annoyed.

"I don't wish to see you hurt. Please flee... If you continue this... you might die." Nikolai worriedly explained.

"..." Yandere grew quiet, with flared teeth. "The master will be furious if I do."

"You must..." Nikolai pleaded with her.

"..." She seemed more hesitant now with Nikolai's reactions. There was a brief pause, before Yandere reluctantly withdrew from the battle to make her escape.

"I hope this doesn't have any repercussions." Nye spoke up, as she continued leading the way up the steps.

"I do as well..." Nikolai replied, following after Nye. "I'm just relived she's alive."

After placing away their weapons, they proceeded up the steps, that lead to the entrance. Ahead of them was the gates of Wynorex, guarded by the massive ink reaper. His scythe quickly blocked the gate, peering down upon them.

"Only the scapegoat may enter, the Queen has been awaiting your arrival." Inkers stated, seriously.

"So, she's been expecting me. This bodes well." Nye stated, sarcastically.

"Mistress, I don't like this." Nikolai stared up at her.

"I know. For now, comply. Remember, we're not alone." Nye said, turning to leer at Inkers before being allowed to enter Wynorex, without Nikolai to back her up.

The gates closed behind Nye as she made her way inside. She was met by skeleton soldiers that guided her through the now foreign domain. Wynorex had changed so much since she first arrived there some time ago, with structures formed and various outcasted species living there. It wasn't all just armed forces allied with the cultists, there were innocents living here as well, possibly even with their families. Nye was unsure what to make of this, realizing the cult was more complex than she was lead to believe. She needed answers, and here she would be able to acquire them.

She was taken through the crowds of people, reaching the lower end of the staircase leading to the upper levels of this underground city. Before her stood a more of the skeleton forces guarding the stairwell. They felt empty, perhaps even soulless as they stood there without any wavering motion. The rest of her battalion must have been stationed inside the tunnels, seeing how few there was here among the innocents. The wall of skeletons parted, allowing Nye to be escorted to the upper level and taken to the entrance of the throne room. She waited until the doors were opened, and she was lead inside.

It was vastly decorated to suit that of a royal family, with a skull decorated throne at the end where Koron sat. Standing in front of Koron was Raz, seeming to have been informing her of something. However, Nye took notice of what seemed to be a small Amygdala newborn nestled in Koron's arms. There was a cocoon webbing that had been torn open on the side of the throne, clearly having been were this slime-like web covered child originated from. The throne beside her was protected by a large majestic beast, resting on the floor beside Koron, but ever watchful.

Koron's attention shifted to Nye, as she carefully handed the child to Raz. "You may approach." She instructed, watching as Nye slowly drew closer.

Nye passed by Raz, glancing to the lady fiend and the baby, before turning her attention to Koron as she reached the throne.

"I was wondering when we'd finally meet, little scapegoat." Koron crossed her legs, peering down to Nye with an arrogant expression. "Allow me to formally introduce myself. My name is Koron Ghestro. First of her bloodline and true Heir to the throne, The Manipulator of Monsters, The shadow in the Dark, Invoker of Fear and Breaker of Sorrow, The Slayer of Blades, Mistress of the Dead, The Black Winged Angel, The Remanent of blood, Corrupter of Life, The Angel of Darkness, Instrument of Rebirth, The One and only True Queen of Fiends, and master of the Four Horsemen." Koron paused, looking to the uncertain blonde before her. "...You may introduce yourself."

"Nyghtmare Ghestro... Nye." Nye replied, not sure why she was allowed so close.

"You are no Ghestro. Just a Amygdala without a true surname. You're a bastard." Koron rose to her feet, her eyes on Nye. "Your mother took my father's life away. You understand this, yes?"

"..." Nye averted her gaze. "She mentioned such."

"It's only fair I got to use you as a decoy to throw off the Templar. That woman stole him from me, but then, Pythagoras took away the child she cared about most dearly, the little cyclops. It's a shame really, now she and her lover are dead and I didn't even have to lift a finger. You however, have served your purpose as planned. It was quite an elaborate scheme to confuse the templar by manipulating you with my great-grandfather's guidance. You went along without a second thought, like the fool you are." Koron remarked, still carrying such superiority in tone.

"(Why is she mentioning them like that? Maybe she was trying to gain their alliance too, but her underlings took it too far... I don't know what to make of this..)" Nye thought, seeming distracted.

"Well. Aren't you going to say something?" Koron spoke up, snapping Nye out of her thoughts.

"... I admit, I wasn't too fond of the idea myself. I knew I couldn't be some Queen, but I wanted to believe in something. It gave me a purpose for once, even hope that this world could become a better place for people like us." Nye begrudgingly admitted, almost as if she felt shameful about it.

Koron looked astonished, before she laughed. "Haha! You blindly followed our plan, and trusted it all based solely on hope? You truly are stupid, I'm surprised you managed to survive this long. Why, pray tell, do your allies even bother with you?! You're nothing remarkable!"

"Laugh all you like, Koron, I'm still standing... Even with all the trials and tribulations your scheme and underlings put my friends and I through. If anything, you've helped me realize my true potential." Nye replied, shifting to a more calm demeanor. "Now I have to ask, why was I allowed into Wynorex without conflict?"

"Not going to grovel? You have more moxie than expected. However, a pawn like you could never understand the method to my madness. Let me summarize it in a manner you might understand. I invited you and your allies to these war games so that I may make a final attempt in recruiting your forces to join the TRUE war. This little skirmish will be nothing in comparison to what's coming!" Koron explained, coldly.

"You're referring to the Templar, aren't you?" Nye asked, uncertain by her meaning.

"Then perhaps you see the grander scheme of things. They deserve to die after the Genocide we endured!! They may have allowed few of our numbers to live, but those survivors were completely sterilized before they were forced into solitude! The Rhyme, no THE TEMPLAR, they made it so we were forced to evolve, to adapt, so our kind wouldn't go extinct!!" Koron explained, but was getting a bit manic in tone with statement.

"If what you say is true, then we shouldn't be fighting each other. We should be working together to stop Aoba! Don't you get it, Koron? We have the same enemy! This conflict you've forced between us, all those deaths, they could have been avoided entirely!" Nye retorted, getting serious as she recalled everyone she's seen die in the underground.

Suddenly, Koron knocked Nye off her feet, letting the younger Amygdala stare up to her in shock. Koron seemed angry, forming a demented broadsword from her necklace, she had tucked away in her coat.

"Bite your tongue, bastard! You misunderstand me, I need your people to cooperate with me, when the templar kill you! I had underestimated the strength of your forces, and now most of my Generals are dead, as well as many of my pawns! If I don't take your man power, then the coming war is already lost!!!" Koron sneered, gripping to her blade. "YAAAAAAAAHH!!!" She shouted out, whipping it over over her shoulder, and down at Nye.

Nye quickly formed her wraith-edge, blocking the sword from harming her. She was straining herself, holding back the stronger female's blade. "This fighting needs to end!" Nye exclaimed.

"THIS IS MY BIRTHRIGHT!!!!!!" Koron shouted, as she struck down harder onto Nye's sword.

"Stop this, Koron!" Nye insisted, with urgency. She was unable to move, only able to hold back the repetitive slashes that continued to wail down hard on her blade.

Around the hall leading to the throne, swarms of undead and skeletons began to surface from below the ground. They were crawling out, gripping onto Nye, in attempt to detain her for Koron. They were piling onto her, causing Nye to recall that strange dream she had before she awoke from the nightshade poisoning. Perhaps it was more like a vision with the monsters, undead and even the four horsemen surrounding her like an engulfing plague. She remembered how suffocating it was, but quickly came back to her senses. The barrage of slashes kept coming, despite the skeletons holding her back. Nye was nearly losing her grip from spacing out, but she was struggling to do much of anything.

"This fighting is pointless!!!" Nye shouted, trying to counter her blows, as she knocked some of the skeletons off her.

Simultaneously, Solitaire's group managed to reach the stairs leading up to the gates of Wynorex. Zyron seemed a bit more conflicted than usual, but that didn't stop the group from progressing. Nikolai was just ahead of them, having an intense stare down with the massive ink reaper. There was eyes watching in the darkness, as wings kept whatever it was airborne far above them, nearly the ceiling. A blue glow was flowing from the mouth of it, but it didn't seem eager to act.

"Isn't that the fiend you got separated from?" Minerva glanced over to Zyron.

"...Huh? Uh." Zyron seemed a bit out of it, but finally notices Nikolai. "The fuck? Yeah, what the hell is he doing here at the gates by himself?" Zyron replied, a bit disgruntled.

"This is pretty dodgy if you ask me." Solitaire mentioned, glancing to Zyron. "You seem pretty zonked out, Poppet. You sure you're alright?"

"Y-Yeah. I'm fine." Zyron replied, seeming more nervous than usual.

Nikolai caught notice of them, floating over. "Nyghtmare est post tergum eorum portae, Sentio periculo!"

"Ughh... How many times do I have to tell you, I don't understand monster?" Zyron grumbled.

Suddenly, Inkers left his position and was proceeding their way with his scythe in an aggressive position. "Et nemo ex vobis intermixti, Nicolaus!" Inkers shouted angrily as he swung his scythe at the smaller reaper.

Nikolai wasn't quick enough to turn around and summon his scythe, Inkers was already right on top of him. The scythe came at Nikolai, but just before it could connect with him another scythe obstructed it's line of descent. Solitaire was standing right behind the small reaper, with her bladed arms formed to protect the fiend. This invoked the others' attention, preparing their weapons for combat.

"Even if you're a weird chap who's bloody creepy, you're still one of us, mate." Solitaire spoke to Nikolai, with a smirk.

"Gratias tibi." Nikolai replied, softly.

There was still that ominous force lingering as if observing every movement and action. That however, didn't seem to be noticed by the combatants. Arrows shot off at Inkers, going right through the black ooze without even causing the ink reaper to flinch. Solitaire came rushing his way as she slid back from his previous attack; slashing through his ink substance with it immediately retracting back to it's original form. It was as if the ink was indestructible to their melee attacks. Their attack kept coming like a barrage, but to no avail. There was a reason this fiend was stationed here, and they needed to unravel his weakness so they could take him down. Zyron attempted to cast fire, but as it struck Inkers, the fiend grew in size as did the flames within his gut. Zyron was astonished, but took notice of the effect that he had just witnessed.

"Fire makes it grow?" He muttered, thinking for a moment as the others continued to strike with their scythes and arrows hopelessly. "Ice maybe?"

Zyron quickly decided to shift elements, casting an ice based spell at Inkers, but this time the ink froze for a brief moment before quickly melting from the severe heat. He was shocked, unable to comprehend how hot that ink must be to withstand ice.

"The fuck..." Zyron stammered, but then realized the ice had turned to water.

At the base of the reaper, the water was hardening over where the flames were, like how magma would react with contact of water. This gave him an idea. Zyron decided to cast ice again, but this time he followed up instantly with a fire incantation, striking the ice just as it neared contact with Inkers. Water immediately splattered onto the ink, steaming up as it hardened the reaper's body and turned it to a twisted statue-like structure. Then solitaire's already incoming attack came, shattering the form like it was nothing.

The group were panting in exhaustion as the rubble began disintegrating off into the air. They were catching their breath, but noticed Nikolai heading for the gates with urgency. They decided to follow after, knowing something had to be wrong for him to act the way he had and to rush for Wynorex. Whatever had been looming to this point decided now was the time to intercept their prey. Wings flapped heavily as monstrous equine with three snake heads for a tail blocked their path. Blood magic had been coated over it's bony-wings that splattered off upon landing. Blue smoke was emanating from it's jaws, with what seemed to be an eerie face within.

Scattering of arachnids began to appear from the darkness, as more hordes of those blood spiders began to descend along the walls, and from the ceiling on glimmering red strings of blood webbing.

"Bloody hell! Are those S-S-S-S-Spiders!?" Solitaire shrieked, getting close to Zyron in fear.

Slow applauds came from behind them, in a mocking manner that caused Solitaire's group to notice they had an audience. Heels clicked up the steps, as the clapping drew closer. Standing there was Titania, the Queen's advisor.

"I must applaud your efforts to reaching this point, as well as destroying what we deemed as an indestructible reaper. Truly marvelous." Titania stated, her expression was quite serious, and cold.

"No surprise that there's more of them..." Minerva grumbled, keeping her bow at ready.

"Smashing, ain't it? Not as if we haven't been pretty jammy up until now." Solitaire agreed, in a sarcastic manner. Her eyes nervously eyed the spiders, shivering anxiously at those legs creeping closer to them.

"Such hostility, and yet so afraid." Titania smirked, as she drew closer, to unsheathe her sword. "Are you confident enough that you believe you can defeat me? O~Hohoho.. As far as I see it, none of you managed to fell any of the riders. It was your 'friends' that had those victories, wasn't it?" Titania's lips curled up with a snake-like grin. "You however..." Her eyes peered to Zyron. "Were the one to kill Weaver, as well as Inferna." Her eyes grew intense.

The four of them were ready to fight back, each with their weapon drawn. They were complelty on edge, the power coming from this woman was much more intense than others they went up against down here.

"Please allow me to formally introduce myself..." She began in an eerie tone, staring to them like a snake. "I am the Queen's advisor, Titania Spyders, or better known as Arachnophobia. I was also given the privilege to become the fifth rider, Calamity." She chuckled, motioning to the demonic stallion behind them.

As their attention turned to the equine, Titania stuck her sword into the ground, dropping the belts from her long dress. She gripped to the bottom corners of it, pulling the cloth between her legs and wrapped it around her waist to fasten it, before pulling her sword from the ground as their attention returned to her.

"However, I am far superior to those Generals, as well as to you brutish things." Her sword shifted posture, preparing to engage. "I will be the one to kill you and your friends, in the name of my beloved!!" She exclaimed,

Without hesitation, Titania rushed at them with great speed, as if she was flying. Her sword came whirling around with rapid fire swings, and blocked incoming strikes from Solitaire's scythe and even Minerva's arrows with a blood shield that formed over her free hand's arm. Her speed was so intense and her power behind each blow was savagely accurate. She had such intensity for a woman in a dress, but she clearly knew exactly what she was doing. Zyron attempted to cast spells from afar to try to get some of the heat off Solitaire, but Titania spun around to knock the incoming projectiles back at the user with the blade of her sword. It bounced back, colliding with Zyron to ignite his clothing on fire. He quickly withdrew a moment, to cast ice to the flames in attempt to extinguish them.

Minerva kept the arrows coming, seeing that Solitaire was struggling to keep Titania back. The shots kept being ricocheted away from that shield, but Solitaire at least managed to gain some distance. Zyron resumed spell casting in attempt to help Solitaire, and Nikolai joined the conflict as well with his scythe. Titania grinned again, however this time used a blood spell to form four extra blood arms on her body, while seeming to replicate her sword into each of them. She quickly countered again, to cut the incoming spell in half like it was nothing, then proceeded to knock Nikolai away as well. Solitaire came charging with more blades formed as the two resumed their swords dance. Nikolai wasn't far behind, lending his scythe support once he caught himself from falling.

Zyron could tell his lady was struggling and he was more on edge than usual, recalling what Solitaire said about being with child. "(I have to protect her! Not just because I'm going to be a father! She's the most important person in the world to me!)" Zyron thought, as his mind grew frantic.

Zyron got to Solitaire's side, preparing a point-blank range spell on Titania. Arachnophobia however caught notice of this, knocking Solitaire backwards as she gripped to Zyron's neck with one of her blood hands. It began to string along him like spider webs, quickly ensnaring him with the blood magic. It was tight and crushing, making it seemingly impossible to breach. Zyron couldn't get loose, feeling himself strung up to the ceiling by the many giant blood spiders flooded the cavern walls above him. He could only helplessly watch as Titania resumed conflict with Solitaire.

Minerva's arrows kept flying, which seemed to have grown bothersome to Titania. She quickly cast out a blast of blood magic to her, knocking Minerva back into the edge of the chamber, as blood webbing locked her against the cavern's wall. Now it was just Solitaire and Nikolai left.

"My spiders told me a little secret about you." Titania said, still continuing this clash with the Morphious.

"Quit yakking about the damn spiders!" Solitaire snapped, clearly uncomfortable about the topic.

"They told me what you did to my brother, Jehxal. Like pulling legs off a spider, wasn't it?" Titania provoked, clearly up to something.

"Oy, knock it off you dodgy, wonky arse wanker!! Y-You ought to bunk out of here, before y-you brass me off!" Solitaire retorted with an obvious stammer, as she was shaking uneasily.

"You're trembling. I can feel your terror, that fear. O~Hohoho!" Titania laughed, watching as her blood spiders began climbing all over Solitaire.

"EEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!" Solitaire shrieked, falling back to the ground as the spiders crawled all over her to secure her body to the ground.

"Solitaire!!" Zyron shouted, trying to get loose from his bindings.

"Struggle all you like, mutt. My blood bindings aren't so easy to escape from." Titania mocked, twirling her swords around as her eyes lingered over to Nikolai. "Now for the fiend that fails to obey."

She charged at Nikolai, who could only deflect her incoming strikes due to how many swords were coming his way. Suddenly, flames rushed along the ground like the crashing of a wave. It caused Titania and Nikolai to scatter to opposite sides of the flames path, but also drawing the attention of six armed swordswoman. Her yellow eyes reflected a bust of flames igniting into armor as the long crimson hair of Ashewyn waved into the air from the heat rising. Behind him was Miles, with his katana already drawn for combat.

"It appears that the Calvary has arrived. Excellent. I was growing bored." Titania smirked, immediately shifting target to Ashewyn, with their blades clashing instantly.

Miles followed up behind him, lending support to his companion, before Titania kicked him backwards into incoming spiders that leapt from the ceiling. Solitaire was frozen in fear under those bindings as many spiders continued to hold her down, and block her line of sight to the ongoing confrontation of swords. Miles was quickly getting over run by spiders, but miraculously Minerva managed to get her arms free, firing some arrows to get the spiders off Miles. More spiders began flocking to Miles to replace the ones that fell and turned into puddles of blood. This gave opportunity to Zyron, allowing him to cast an ice spell to free himself from the blood webs, dropping him to the ground. He urgently made his way to assist Solitaire, from where she was trapped.

Miles was being overrun again, drawing Nikolai to get to his aid to help fend off the arachnids with his scythe. Ashewyn was keeping up with Titania's attack, countering every strike with both in a stalemate of combat. Miles managed to break through the horde, as Zyron lent ice support before he took out the surrounding blood spiders to reach his lady. After his ice shattered the foes and webbing, he quickly scooped the terrified Solitaire into his arms. He caught notice of Miles rushing to Minerva, pulling at the blood in attempt of releasing her. Then the blood gave out, causing her to fall on top of him.

"Oh, hey beautiful!~ Come here often?" Miles teased in a flirty manner, making a face like he was going to kiss her, but only to see her quickly fire off shots at spiders rushing their way.

He was a bit surprised as he felt her push off him to get to her feet to fire more shots. As the targets fell, she extended her hand to pull him to his feet. She forced his body against hers as she drew another arrow.

"Now's not the time, Miles. Don't move." She instructed, aiming to what seemed to be more of Koron's forces arriving to join the battle. Miles did as she asked, clearly distracted by how close his face was to her breasts.

Without warning, the ground and cavern around them began to rumble wildly, knocking most of the fighters off their feet or causing them to loose balance. It wasn't letting up either, causing the violence to halt.

"What the FUCK is THAT!?" Zyron growled, holding tightly to Solitaire to protect her.

Around the throne room, Nye had finally managed to get a strike in, knocking Koron's sword from her grasp. It was flung, vanishing before it could collide with the throne. Koron seemed displeased, as she held her hands out, the room began to rumble uncontrollably. The skeletons continued to pin Nye down, but Koron seemed intense. Her massive masked beast, decided to approach with Koron shifting to climb onto it's back. She sat sideways to face Nye with the top of her hand to her chin, as her confident demeanor rose once again.

"Tsk tsk. Poor little thing." Koron teased. "Your power is nothing compared to mine, and I haven't even scratched the surface yet. Hmhmhm." She smiled, devilishly. "Diostrate, if you would."

"As you wish, mi'lady Koron." Diostrate replied, leaping to the far end of the room, where the entrance was, as the room continued to shake.

Then Koron held both her hands high into the sky, speaking a witch type incantation."I invoke the foreboding darkness of the night, lend me your grim power. Rise Gashadokuro, I beckon thee!"

The ground rumbled further, quaking even harder than before, as a massive skeleton, that was at least fifteen times taller than an average one, blasted out from the soil of the planet. It's massive head crashed into the ceiling, tearing open the earth to escape into the outside grassy plains located above Wynorex. The smaller skeletons scattered, as the massive hand clasped onto Nye to thrust her high into the air.

Nye felt her body rushing far through the clouds of the dusk sky, with the surface growing smaller by the second. It felt like slow motion to her as she squinted her eyes from the intense pressure, moments before she formed her wings to catch herself in the sky. Some tears in her wingspan were caused by the speed of her ascent, but not enough to cause her to lose flight. She hovered there a moment, watching the massive Gashadokuro climb out of Koron's throne room to reach the upper ground, urgently followed by Koron on top her demon wolf fiend, Diostrate.

The rocks around the surface of the ground above the city, suddenly started to crack and break, caving into the underground sanctuary of life within Wynorex. If felt catastrophic, crushing all the city and people living within. Koron seemed stunned, but she shrugged it off to leapt from her mount to soar after Nye at high speed.

The cavern's within Wynorex continued to shake violently, with the ceilings and caves rumbling with debris as it started to crash inward around. The combatants deciding to abandon their fight, to rush out the falling rubble to make a break for the surface. Even deeper in the caverns, Jackyn was intercepted by a manticore, but due to the tremors occurring, her abandoned his fight as the beast was crushed under massive rocks collapsing inward. He ran, avoiding more caving in points of the deep roads before he encountered Adam, who was trapped under some debris.

Against his better judgement, Jackyn helped his allied fiend escape, and the two proceeded for the nearest exit, as they some how regrouped with their allies and all the others of Koron's surviving army rushing to the surface. They were all forced to scale the mountains of damage covering the buildings and corpses within the destruction to reach the surface where somehow the vast majority arrived safely. Their attention turned to the sky, witnessing Koron and Nye clash once again midair with their swords.

Nye took notice of everyone reaching the surface safely, as she continued to parry Koron's incoming blows. However, something in the distance caught her eye. The sight of it made her uneasy.

"Cease this bloodshed, Koron!" Nye demanded, with urgency.

"Why should I!? This is all your fault!" Koron shouted, growing more angry. "Your people should have been mine!!"

"Listen to me!" Nye exclaimed. "Look to the East, the Templar and their forces are nearly upon us!"

Koron hesitated, but noticed what Nye had seen. In the distance was several Rhyme and Terra flying their direction, along with Pegasus and dragon riders. That was only the air forces, upon the ground was many cavaliers, and other mounted forces along with a trebuchet, a few ballistas and soldiers on foot.Their army was gigantic in comparison. Koron had the look of terror in her eyes, nearly dropping her sword.

"......" Koron couldn't even manage to force out a syllable. "How... How did they find us so quickly?"

"I know you despise me, and have had your forces do some terrible things... but we're still half sisters... and our goals are one in the same. We want to break this chain those Templar have placed upon on and the other races sided with us. I don't have any desire to claim your title, I just want to be free... as do the others." Nye tried to reason with her. "There will be another genocide if we don't join forces and fight them together! Otherwise, all of those deaths will be in vain!"

"..." Koron looked to Nye, seeming to be regaining her focus. "As much as I hate the idea of this... You're right. There's no way we could win this alone..." Koron begrudgingly admitted, her attention shifting to her forces that seemed ready to make battle with Nye's allies. "Cult of Ghestro!" She shouted, drawing their attention to stop. "From this point onward we're working together with these... Freedom Crusaders. Cease conflict and focus to the true threat!" Her eyes focused to the incoming army. "The Templar are preparing to engage us!"

This explanation was enough instruction to convince everyone on the ground below, and they were soon joined by a plethora of zombies and skeletons from Koron's undead army. The final battle was coming, and there was nothing they could do to stop it.