AZRAELThe gate to Belial''s castle filled me with a vague sense of deja vu, but this sense passed when instead of plowing through the door with her power as she did in my memory, Ambrosia gently pushed it open. Inside stood a huge hall with a three doors spaced out directly in front of us, and a fourth gate emptying out into a garden. I decided that the inside of the castle was basically a self-contained universe, having seen no garden on the way in. Despite the gate still being open, the fact that no grey penetrated into the room appeared to confirm this. In most of the towns we had seen, the presence of color and the ontological inertia that came with it were tenuous at best, where the slightest doubt about a town being able to persist would cause it to collapse. The door being ajar, should at the very least have caused the grey to blend with the color, much like freshwater mixing with nearby saltwater, yet the room was incredibly vibrant for one with such dull furnishings. Aside from the doors and the side passage, there were only two things here, a save point and a magic circle covered by an immense floating crystal.

    If I''d been Ambrosia, I probably would have touched the crystal, or the edges of the circle, or both. In fact, she did just that, even going so far as to transform her fishing pole into a hammer to try to break it down. But I knew my runes and symbols, and understood enough to know that this crystal was basically like the magical version of a lock that needed multiple keys to open. So for the time being, I waited. Obviously, we would need to explore these rooms to figure out the way forward to Belial.

    We opened the door to the first room, and found that someone had built a series of long platforms stretching out into space. The room appeared fairly straightforward, but to be on the safe side, we roped ourselves together. It was lucky we did, because Lilith stepped on the platform, the floor opened up. It took many of us working together to pull up her dense body, but we managed. We put her at the back of the group, since she could probably pull us up but not the other way around.

    Examining the floor of these winding platforms, we figured it could only hold at most about 150 lb, so our more muscular or otherwise heavy members would need to go last, or might need to stay behind. Aqorm tested it out first, walking at a brisk pace, and made it to the other side. She made it look easy, soour heavier members like Lilith and Ambrosia went next. Aqorm found a small metal hook and tied her end of the rope there. She called something out but the room was fairly large, and I don''t think any of us could hear her.

    AQORM

    I tried to warn, “The catch loosens as you stand there. You''ll need to walk fast because it''ll hold for only a few seconds!” Ambrosia obviously didn''t hear, because she was walking slowly, cautiously along the walkway, testing for any weak spots. She fell through of course, as did Elias, Zoe, and Nevras as they stepped to nearby platforms trying to help her up. As I put my palm to my face, I watched as everyone but Azrael, Lilith, Selqui and Yazim Jianne, and Michael dropped through the floor.

    The platforms hung above a gaping pit, and it wasn''t clear how deep it extended because the bottom couldn''t be seen. Not bothering with translating his spells right now, possibly because it was an emergency, Yazim Jianne shouted, “Return to the Past!” Of course, this particular temporal spell had a serious flaw. Including the caster, it was difficult to remember the... what was I talking about?

    I tried to warn, “The catch loosens as you stand there. You''ll need to walk fast because it''ll hold for only a few seconds!” Ambrosia obviously didn''t hear, because she was walking slowly, cautiously along the walkway, testing for any weak spots. She fell through of course, as did Elias, Zoe, and Nevras as they stepped to nearby platforms trying to help her up. As I put my palm to my face, I watched as everyone but Azrael, Lilith, Selqui and Yazim Jianne, and Michael dropped through the floor.

    The platforms hung above a gaping pit, and it wasn''t clear how deep it extended because the bottom couldn''t be seen. Not bothering with hiding his spells right now, possibly because it was an emergency, Yazim Jianne shouted, “Return to the Past!” Of course, this particular temporal spell had a serious flaw. Including the caster, it was difficult to remember the... what was I talking about?

    I tried to warn, “The catch loosens as you stand there. You''ll need to walk fast because it''ll hold for only a few seconds!” Ambrosia obviously didn''t hear, because she was walking slowly, cautiously along the walkway, testing for any weak spots. She fell through of course, as did Elias, Zoe, and Nevras as they stepped to nearby platforms trying to help her up. As I put my palm to my face, I watched as everyone but Azrael, Lilith, Selqui and Yazim Jianne, and Michael dropped through the floor.

    The platforms hung above a gaping pit, and it wasn''t clear how deep it extended because the bottom couldn''t be seen. Not bothering with hiding his spells right now, possibly because it was an emergency, Yazim Jianne shouted, “Return to the Past!” Of course, this particular temporal spell had a serious flaw. Including the caster, it was difficult to remember the... what was I talking about?

    MICHAEL

    Angels, unlike humans, have a great deal of perception of time. There are some temporal spells that affect their time, but their minds still know when something happened. They knew when time was stopped, when it reversed, and when someone changed history. While Yazim Jianne wasn''t discerning his own spell, Ambrosia also seemed to notice something but she was unable to remember the finer details. For smaller events, this was usually enough to make changes, but this was a complex set of events. And Ambrosia always tried to get closer since she was curious about what Aqorm said. While Ambrosia was able to fight destiny and had done so numerous times in her quest, fighting her own desires and impulses was another thing.

    We had returned to the moment right around when Aqorm called out. I had watched these humans before from Heaven, and there were recordings of their past. Ambrosia had always been impulsive, with the high point right around when she challenged a man for a ship who happened to possess Leviathan. Ambrosia would once again...

    “Hey,” she said, addressing me, “you can see it, right?” In all the previous versions of the event, she had never talked to me, so I was a bit shocked. It didn''t help that lately I was extremely out of sorts lately. You know, because of pain, fatigue, moodiness, bloating, cramping, the spiritual effects of having an angelic body inside of me including the disruption of my energy, and the other complications of an angelic pregnancy. Plus, you know, being stuck in my female form with its hormones. I''m not sure anyone would blame me if my concentration was off. I answered, “See what, exactly?” She clarified, “The repeating events, of course. I can''t really see it, more like a vague memory, but I kinda know that I keep doing the same stupid thing over and over again. It''s sorta like when God used that Reset thing on us, you know?” Come to think of it, how did she know about that? She had mentioned before how she''d see this effect so much that somehow she''d been able to do it, which was totally ludicrous, but she should not have been able to know that time was repeating in the first place. I saw the Crests on her arm, and remembered she had the powers of Chronos. I shrugged. “Every single time, you walk forward on that walkway, and the platforms give way under your feet,” I explained, “and then the others try to help you up, and end up falling themselves. Then Yazim Jianne over there returns us to the past, and nobody but me seems to have any memories of the event.” I looked at their vacant stares, and I knew Michael was right.

    She nodded, “I get it. But... how are we going to cross?” I took her by the waist, and walked her across quickly while flapping my wings slightly. Where there used to be two sets of footprints, there was only one, because this was when I carried her. I wound up doing the same to Nevras. Lilith refused this treatment, instead flapping her wings to reach the other side. Her wings were awkward and clumsy, and barely flew, but she was determined to show that she didn''t need me. I allowed this. Yazim Jianne and Selqui worked together to form a sort of bubble that floated them across. Zoe used one of her beast shapes and turned into a bird to make it across, then extended the chain from the Sword of Sorrow and dragged Azrael across too. And then, all of us had reached the other side. We walked through the door into the next chamber, and found a similarly suspended walkway Our group was understandably frightened. “Be not afraid,” I said.

    When I tried to skip to the other side, I noticed a closed door. I tried to unlock it with my Script. I tried burning it, freezing it, or simply bashing it with my sword. The door seemed to deflect any sort of force I threw at it, so I was tempted to give up in frustration. Then Elias, noticing that the platforms did not appear to have any trapdoors, decided to start walking along the path instead. As he did, the individual stone squares lit up as he stepped on them, and he quickly was able to figure out that this was a puzzle to light up all the squares of the winding pathway in this room. The walkway coiled like some sort of snake but he carefully turned in such a way that each square lit one after the other. He almost got stuck at one point, but after careful observation he got to the end of the walkway with all squares lit. The squares blinked white, as though interacting with each other, then suddenly they went dim, as the door swung open. We rushed the door before it decided to close on us. We just barely made it!

    The next room turned out to be more of the same, but worse. It was a massive square puzzle of about 900 tiles with walls or gaps breaking the tiles up. This time, Elias sat down and planned through his path, certain that the slightest wrong move would paint him into a corner, and activate some sort of trap that would kill us all, or at the very least teleport us outside this room.

    ELIAS

    I headed north first, making a sharp turn east and then south, then east again and north again. I zigzagged in this way while the others dared not retraced my footsteps. Before long, I lit all the squares and had to rest from a massive headache. The door swung open.

    The next room was strangely at odds with the rooms of puzzles from before. It was a simple chamber with cultists standing around each other murmuring. I couldn''t exactly make it out, but it seemed like I heard them entreating some place called the Shadow Realm to accept souls and grant them power. They also appeared to be holding some sort of collectible cards. We were just about to walk away when some of them who were at the northern part of the circle noticed us. They asked us to stay and become a sacrifice, and the door mysteriously swung shut. A ponderous fiend ascended from the center of the circle, having just been summoned. It appeared stunned for the moment, an obvious sign of what was known as summoning sickness.

    Luckily for everyone there, Azrael had a good grasp on her knowledge of runes and symbols, and I had studied creatures some. I had read Horrific Critters and How to Kill Them by Drake Dingleberry, so I knew the weaknesses of goblins, trolls, and otyughs. Unfortunately, so did everybody, so for the most part this book hadn''t been very useful. But this was an uncommon creature, this was a Cursed Beast, a summoned creature of unfathomable power. It had knowledge of the elements and the ability to massively weaken our defenses, coupled with regeneration, near-immunity to the same elements, and skin too tough for weapons. They tried hitting it with attacks and spells with no luck. With all its great strengths however, its weaknesses were pretty simple. It had a set pattern of attack, and an inability to improvise. I advised, “Azrael, cast Restrict Healing to get rid of its regeneration, then Zoe and whoever else should follow up with magic that poisons its health. Also we need to use reflection spells. Ambrosia, get in front, and use Apollo''s power to bounce its spells back.” She protested, “But magic isn''t doing anything!” I gave her a glare to the effect that she should just do so anyway, and she complied. Poisoning the creature and removing its healing worked like a charm, and yet it seemed for a moment that Ambrosia was right, it was immune to the spells reflected back. But the creature ran afoul of its effects instead, trying to weaken the effects of our elemental resistance. Now we were not only able to damage it, but its own spells were turned back against it. The cultists looked shocked that it could be defeated so easily, but they gave us no more trouble. The door swung open.

    We left these rooms, and headed into the next door of the lobby. The room inside was a puzzle room of another sort. It was filled with a set of orbs set up in geometric patterns, with a similar look to Glow Orbs, but which the switch changed the color rather than switching the light on or off. There was a stone plaque on the wall, so we read it. ?In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil''s might beware my power...? I read, but the last part seemed to be scratched out. I had read much of literature, but I had no idea what this might pertain to. I only noticed that the general pattern of placement of these orbs looked vaguely like some sort of lantern. As I deliberated about this puzzle, Zoe and Ambrosia seemed to know what they were doing. They swiftly turned the switch to green. As the last orb turned, the door suddenly swung open. I had no idea what just happened.

    The room we entered was also a puzzle room, but of a decidedly more active nature. Near the doorway, a sign read, ?Sandworms are nothing to mess around with. They can be beaten back, but little can subdue them for long. If you had something to freeze the air, it would be different.? Ah yes, sandworms. The bigger and nastier cousins of the olgoi khorkoi. Rather than eating dead meat like good little scavengers, these worms had been known to eat live people. This was a good reason why people stayed away from certain deserts, besides the extreme heat and the decided lack of moisture. I studied the room before entering. The boundary of this room appeared to be a solid block of sturdy brick, preventing the sandworms from reaching us. Like the other room, it had a geometric pattern of orbs, yet this one more resembled a snowflake than anything else. It wasn''t quite the color of a snowflake though. As a test, I dropped a small loose pebble, only to watch the sandy ground heavy and churn. As I watched, the sand sloshed , so there was probably some water mixed in with that sand. Enough dust was kicked into the air that I actually sneezed. I noticed then, that like the edge of this doorway, the area around these orbs had long pillars of the same sort of brick. Once we stood where these were we should be relatively safe. The trouble was, when the sand churned, the ground was at least 10 feet lower than the pillar. To say nothing of what was probably quicksand. We would need some way to get to these things.

    Michael offered us a solution. Using his Script, he said, “Reusable Drawbridge, Duration - Concentration.” A bridge of solidified light formed ahead of us, so we crossed to the first pillar. This bridge was such that it could be unsummoned and “moved” for a very efficient effect. But for a reason that I suspected but dared not state aloud, he appeared to be straining himself. We crossed slowly this time, but I was wary. The others seemed not to notice. The first orb was switched until it turned blue. I looked around from out position, and there were about 13 such orbs, but counting this one, four of them had now been activated. Nine more to go.

    But something was wrong with Michael''s creation. It seemed to be flickering, like the light was going out. All of a sudden, it did exactly that, stranding some of us apart on different switch platforms, and making Selqui fall to the depths below.

    SELQUI

    It wasn''t as terrible as it sounds. All my life, I have been surrounded by sand and sea. This mucky water was no big deal. I converted my legs to a seal tail, and swum around the sandy water. It was not ideal, as this stuff was a bit like quicksand, but I managed. The sandworms circled about me, but I pulled out my trident and used it to channel electricity. The sandworms were stunned, but it was not enough to destroy them. While I could rush in and impale one of them, it was likely the others would try to finish me off. I used these few seconds to move my tail, so to speak. Breaking the surface, my hands touched the surface of the pillar. I had a firm grip, and so I was in no danger of falling, but my body was too sludgy with sand to pull myself up under my own power. And also, I still had a seal''s rear portions, so I was in no position to climb up under my own steam.

    I felt the rush of sand and water nearby. The sandworms were edging closer. I wriggled but it was no use, for I simply wasn''t used to life on land. I was not about to give up though, I would climb up. Well, that is, if the sandworms didn''t eat me first... Looking behind me as I struggled, three sandworms were closing in. The nearest one was about 10 cubits (roughly 15 ft) away. For long distances in the water, nautical miles or knots were used, but we from Atlantis grew up using cubits. It was 9 cubits away now, then 6 cubits. It was moving faster now!

    It surfaced, and I saw its hideous maw opened wide. Rows and rows of teeth in a concentric pattern faced back at me. Well, as much as it could face me, for sandworms are probably blind. They had light-sensitive cells on the edge of their body, and they were adept at sensing vibrations. So, at the last possible second, I lunged to the side. The worms noticed, and tried to turn, but they were rushing forward far too quickly, and the closest annelid slammed into the pillar. The vermin was knocked out, and I had been spared from being eaten. Unfortunately, the shock waves from it hitting the pillar threatened to knock me back into the sandy leachate.

    I fell for a second, before a hand grasped mine. I recognized that hand, but it alone was too weak. The other was held and I took it. But the sorcerer''s hands were really too frail for this sort of thing, and he was starting to get pulled into the water with me. Then other hands grabbed him, and the momentum pulled me on top of Yazim Jianne. “Hey, nice to see you too,” I smirked, “but we''ll have to save the fun for later.”

    Looking around, I noticed most of the switches had in fact turned blue. It looked like they had been tripped by arrows. Zoe was standing nearby with her bow actually smoking from the friction. “Looks like the one we''re standing on is the last. Everyone ready?” After a lot of hesitation, they all nodded. Eventually.

    The worms had noticed that we had escaped and were trying to reach the pillar. Worms can live under water for several weeks before drowning, and can live indefinitely as long as the water is kept aerated. And indeed it was, thanks to the vents I had noticed while I was down there. But these same vents could apparently be set to blast freezing cold air into the water. Aqorm flicked the last switch, and within moments the water froze solid. The worms went into dormancy, but we were able to walk across the surface of ice and sand to the room''s exit.

    The next room had a locked door secured by a complex puzzle. This puzzle had a series of colored orbs as before, but these had no direct means of changing the color. I''ll pass the narration off to Elias, since he seems good at this kind of thing.

    ELIAS

    Ahem. So, the signs told us to change all switches from red to blue. Now, the switches were only in two colors, but there were no knobs or buttons on any of these for switching color. Instead, there were nearby arrow-shaped buttons, which when depressed changed red to blue and vice versa. Unfortunately, they changed the entire line, bringing us no closer to a solution. The pattern of the puzzle looked vaguely like a squared-off A connected by an upside-down L, with arrows alongside to help change the colors. Looking around the room, I also discovered a lever that shifted the arrows. Using this, I was able to gradually alter the rows and columns so that all were red, although it took quite a bit of back and forth. From there, it was an easy matter to turn the columns blue, and then the rows would... oh right, overlap.

    Hours later, we managed to make everything line up, and the door swung open. The room inside was a small library. Most of these were familiar books by now, but I noticed one called Ouroborus. Opening this book proved to more than we bargained for, however, as the concept of an Ouroborus leaped from the pages. Quite literally.

    Any alchemist worth their salt knows what an Ouroborus looks like. I mean really, I shouldn''t even have to tell you people. Oh, all right. So, an enormous serpent dragon appeared, and true to its legend, it was eating its own tail. It gulped and swallowed, becoming so full that it couldn''t fit anymore of itself inside. Which of course was the point, the Ouroborus was a living symbol of creation, destruction, and regeneration so it would be eating itself for all of eternity. The problem, of course, was that someone had to defeat it, since it was still guarding the giant crystal outside as one of the keys to opening that magic circle.

    We threw practically everything at it, including Lilith spewing Hellfire, but it kept bouncing back. It did, however, take notice of us. It stopped munching on itself long enough to take a long breath in, absorbing massive amounts of energy. Whatever it was going to breathe on us, this was something we probably did not want. By my estimate, it was essential that we do something in the next five minutes. The good news is that while it wasn''t eating, it also wasn''t healing, but it was extraordinarily resilient.

    4:58. Azrael tried to poison it, or cause it to bleed with symbols designed to open up skin. Predictably, its natural abilities gave it resistance to many harmful statuses, so this was a non-starter. She did however manage to tangle it in vines, by boosting Zoe''s natural abilities. I also tried to help, buffing everyone with Haste, Bless, and protective spells. But given how long it was taking to suck in its required energy, I didn''t actually think much of our survival chances. It was more “being killed instantly” instead of “being turned into a goo by a high-frequency beam of hard light.”

    3:00. Aqorm accessed her geomancy, which in this room dropped the ceiling on the dragon, pinning it. It didn''t last long though, because Ouroborus thrashed around, swinging its tail. This also loosened some of the thick vines choking it in place. Nevras tried to use the Void Slice, and indeed it did sever the dragon into parts. However, its segmented body quickly figured out how to merge itself again. Azrael tried to impale it with her Black Ice, but its body shrugged off the holes in it as though they were nothing.

    1:28. At this point, we tried a kitchen sink approach on it. We threw more Hellfire, Azrael''s Black Ice, Nevras''s techniques, and even Ambrosia''s Tao ability. Nothing seemed to work, because the way its body was designed was extremely rugged. To be fair, the Tao ability did seem to hurt it substantially, but it seemed to be still be able to heal itself. I wasn’t sure how it was healing, because it wasn’t eating itself.

    0:59. We were running out of time, and thus far nothing had worked. But then, Zoe walked up to it, and touched it, and it petrified just like that. What happened?

    ZOE

    Normally, what I did wouldn''t work. Probably one creature in a myriad would actually be affected by this. But when the creature stopped its regenerating, and had to rely on its body''s natural defenses, it used other methods of healing. I had watched after Ouroborus had suffered damage from Ambrosia''s attack. Similar to my Sage trance, this creature had the ability to draw in senju for healing.

    Now, normally my Sage ability came with a rather big risk. It only lasted as long or as short as the natural energy I drew into my body, but past a certain level of energy and there was a risk of drawing in more than I could safely control. I had recently learned to do it correctly, but I was still learning to sustain it for periods longer than a few minutes. Lost of control meant the natural energy would try to remake me in its image, and that meant turning into stone.

    Since it was able to passively absorb natural energy, I decided to force it to do so. I gathered energy slowly, and tried to transfer it to Ouroborus. Halfway through, I realized that this method of gather and release would help me better sustain my Sage form since I could control how much energy I had for how long, but for now, it was a weapon to use against this dragon. The dragon Ouroborus, as all creatures who deal with the power of the sage, absorbed the power of nature starting first from its heart, so as it continued to absorb the energy that I supplied, this was that first area to be affected. Now a dragon''s heart is not in its chest but in its center where also its soul is, so I watched as the dragon gradually turned gray before falling to the ground and shattering, since it could no longer fly. Where once there had been a mighty creature, now there was concrete chunks.

    Two down, two to go. The next door was just a bunch of rooms with creatures to fight. The doors would not open until all were defeated. Most of these creatures were just petty bears or unicorns or sprites or faeries, but a few of them did give us trouble. The group of phoenixes (phoenices?) kept being reborn and using their magic to revive each other. Finally, we ended up just using a mix of Wind and Ice magic to just freeze them solid. A group of elves were in another room, and gave a lot of us some troubles since their bows and arrows were well-made. But Nevras and Lilith working together were able to deal with those as well. The third room had a titan, and elder dragon similar to Bahamut, and a group of three Reanimators. While these first two were very powerful creatures, the third were much more challenging to fight since they not only had dark magic and necromancy,but they were like ghouls, and all three had to be killed at once or they would revive the others. After a long and frustrating battle, Azrael just used Exorcism to sweep them all away. The next room was an armory with what appeared to be a rare White-Furred Mogli. Its cute teddy bear-cat body, pointed ears, and bat wings made me want to hug it so bad, but Mogli (or moogles, as they are called in some circles) are a cautious species, and will use powerful magic if threatened. So I instead approached slowly and tried to act nonchalant, as I plotted to cuddle it while its back was turned. But it knew better, and kept its eyes aware of me at all times. In fact, it was so aware of me that it almost didn''t notice one of our group trying to touch the sword in the corner of the room. “Wait, don''t touch..” it screamed, just in time to have Nevras grab it, “that!” But it was too late. The paper attached to the sword slid off, and the evil aura that had once surrounded that sword returned. A powerful creature came out of the weapon, but Ambrosia just didn''t had time for this crap, and just turned her fishing pole into a really big hammer and smashed the weapon to bits. Without a medium to come out of, the spirit of the sword basically got stranded.

    The last place we visited was the forested area to the right of the main lobby. We wound up having to cross several rivers by jumping on logs floating in the water, and in some cases pushing logs into water. We didn''t dare swim across for fear of being eaten by gators, crocodiles, or piranhas. This is also why we avoided tall grass, for fear that a wild creature might appear. It took quite a bit of walking and leaping across gaps, but eventually we made it to a graveyard at the northern section of the forest. After reading several interesting tomb markings, including stones for people named John Ronald Reuel Tolkien and Leonard Nimoy. Whoever they were. After spending a time there, our eyes got tired, and we woke up surrounded by a strange structure of stones. Elias called it a Stonehenge. We tried to leave, but every path wound back to the stones. So Lilith had the idea of attacking the stones. On any other group of stones, this would go unpunished, but this Stonehenge was magical, and probably sentient, so summoning creatures was not unthinkable. A red flower, a sprite, and a unicorn appeared from the wood and attacked us. We tried to ignore them and target the Stonehenge, but there were a few problems with this. First, it was incredibly strong and seemed to soak up runes and finished magic alike, to say nothing of being rugged enough that our strongest weapons seemed to do little good. Second, the creatures were frighteningly strong, as we noticed when the unicorn casually poked at my leg and tore a hole right to the other side. It was a really good thing that I was immortal. I pulled out the Sword of Sorrow and swung, killing these creatures on the spot. Only, they didn''t stay dead. The Stonehenge brought them back to life! This battle might be impossible?

    Then I noticed something happening. A small crack appeared on the stone, where before even our strongest attacks couldn''t make a dent (well, my sword couldn''t make a dent anyway; it wasn''t a sword for slicing through rock). “Hey guys,” I said, “I think when we beat these critters and it revives them, it gets hurt!”

    And so the battle began in earnest. The flower, it turned out, was very weak to fire and the sprite didn''t like cold so two of these Azrael and I were able to handle. As for the horse, everyone knows horses are weak to being cut up and turned into glue. The Sword of Sorrow made this battle much easier because of its instant death abilities. Before long, the Stonehenge crumbled into rock powder, and the summoned creatures just sorta faded away. I think that was the last creature we were supposed to defeat.

    The way back from the graveyard was a blur, and somehow we seemed to get straight back to the lobby without nearly the trouble we had getting here. The crystal blocking the magic circle was now shattered, exposing the gate underneath it. We stepped on that, and were transported to another place. sea??h thё ηovelFire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    A long hallway ahead suddenly was interrupted by those two. Sera and Phim guarded access to the path ahead. Now, we could have just tried to kill them off, but it felt better if we at least talked to them first.

    With her usual tact, Aqorm said, “Again?!? C''mon guys, give it a rest. How''d you get here anyway?” Sera explained, “We had a message in a dream to enter this portal, and wound up offered a deal.” That didn''t really explain how they got here, but okay. Sera continued, “I''m sorry to do this... I mean really, you guys are starting to grow on us. Except Aqorm.” And he and Phim pulled their weapons out. He sighed, “But our employer has promised us all the money in the world, if we serve him. We need the money!” I looked at their eyes, and I could see the desperation and thirst for wealth.

    Aqorm pleaded with them, “That''s the devil''s bargain, guys! What are you doing?” Seeing no real response from Sera, she tried Phim instead, “I wish you''d talk some sense into Sera.” The dwarf shook his head, “Sorry, Aqorm, no can do. We''re being paid too much to stop.” Yet she refused to back down, “Look guys, we know your employer. Unlike the ones before, he only wants to destroy the universe. We''re going to stop him.” Sera likewise refused to change his position, “That sounds like an excuse, c''mon fight us!” Aqorm sighed and shook her head, “I just can''t do this anymore. Sorry guys, we haven''t time to waste.” Phim turned to Sera, “I think they really mean it. Let''s follow them. If their story checks out, we''ll save the money we have if they save the world.” Sera shrugged, “Fair enough. And if they are lying to us, we can dispense with them later anyway. And so, they joined as guest members of our party. We continued down the hall and made our way toward a corridor.

    AMBROSIA

    I entered a long corridor. I walked along for roughly a mile, yet I appeared no closer to either the beginning nor end of the corridor. I felt like I had been here before, yet my memory was hazy inside this hallway.

    We were getting nowhere. I was trapped. I couldn''t move forward, and I couldn''t go back, and I couldn''t get out except maybe by dying. And with my luck, I''d even wind up as a ghost stuck in this very hall. I kept walking. I had gone maybe five or ten miles. The hall had carved stone walls, a dresser mirror, a table, and some old lights staggered every few feet. Every now and then, a gargoyle statue or a large bowl of trinkets showed up. I could gauge roughly a length of about 150 yards. It was impressive, but I''d seen the same stuff over and over again. My legs gave out. “I feel like I''ve been walking forever,” I said, “sorry, but I just need to rest here.” I took a nap for a few hours. “I''m fine now,” I said. I walked yet some more. Finally, I said, “No good... It''s hopeless. I keep walking forever, and it just keeps going on and on...” My eyes blinked, and suddenly, I noticed that much of the furniture was missing, leaving the hall now with just bare stone walls. Maybe I had just imagined it anyway. “Will I ever return from this quest? Will I ever see my family again?” I had just learned who my mother was, and who my real father was. And now would I be able to visit them? You can''t, a voice echoed in my head. “I need to keep going,” I said, “but...” It''s hopeless, a voice echoed in my head. I was soooo hungry and sooooooooooooo thirsty. “If I don''t have something to eat or drink soon, I''ll die...” The voice called to me, You never existed.

    Could that really be true? Has all this journey been the final hallucination of a dying person? Or did I die some time during my beggar years? The voice repeated, Youneverexisted. That''s right. I never existed to start with. My life makes no sense!

    I glanced at the reflection of myself inside this warped space. All of a sudden, the face faded away. Then, like a giant mirror shattering, all that I was fragmented. I faded away too. There was no body, no self, no me at all. “I should just fade into nothing and disappear,” nobody said. I heard a voice call out to me. “Ambrosia!” I said, “Nevras...” with my voice filled with longing. The voice repeated, You never existed. “No, it can''t be real,” this person who was me said, “Someone like Nevras could never be interested in me. I''m just a character in a book.” His voice called all the louder, “Ambrosia. stop that this instant! I can''t have you disappearing on me.!” But nobody said, “I''m sorry Nevras. But I don''t exist. I''m not sure about you either.” Everything around faded into blackness as the voices faded away. Then there was nothing. But wait... a heartbeat. It was slow, but definitely there. I heard a heartbeat. Nothing should exist, if I didn''t exist. But there was definitely one there. Then, I heard a voice. Remember, in deepest darkness shines the light. God''s voice? I heard those voices of nagging doubts again, yet I noticed... they were coming from somewhere. They weren''t my own. Straining my senses, I opened my eyes. I realized that I had eyes. I was sitting in a room with the others. I said, “Everyone, I love you! Thank you for believing in me!” as I gave everyone nearby a group hug. They looked glad to see me, but I had the vague feeling all of this played out the same way already. I looked around, and gave Nevras a big kiss.

    NEVRAS

    I won''t lie. It felt pretty great to be kissed after saving someone''s existence. Elias had told me about this place, but this was actually the first time I visited this room. We had a few extra members to our team from last time: Yazim Jianne, Selqui, me, and those two bounty hunters. I was hoping that might make a difference, along with our commitment to 100% completionism. True to our deal, Aqorm had urged those two to ask their employer to tell the terms of their employment. If we turned out to be right, we''d have some more allies. If not, there would be added complication to this battle. Yay.

    BELIAL

    Again, those pesky mortals thought they could take me on. I, who survived the destruction of the universe when Ambrosia died last time. I, who alone had retained his memory through God''s system reboot. I, who had already defeated them. I, who had the power of the Tethers keeping me alive. Oh yes, that''s right, they don''t even know about Tethers because they haven''t defeated me in the first place. These were objects or creatures which would keep me alive if someone tried to kill me. With their power, I would surely... wait, something was wrong. I could feel their actions with my demonic senses. They had activated Hotaru again. They had defeated Yoshimori. I felt no power protecting my life. And apparently, they... killed a tree for no reason?

    I noticed two groups of traitors. The first was that wizard, Yazim Jianne, the one who had freed me earlier. True, I had betrayed him first, but that was my prerogative as a demon. He didn''t have the right to betray me. And those bounty hunters, what were their names again? Yes, if they planned to betray me, they also would be dealt with. I asked, “W???h??y?? ?h???a??v??e? ?y???o???u ??t?wo??? ?c?o?m??e??? ?” Sera spoke, “Hold it guys, before we battle, we need to be sure whether we''re helping Belial or you guys. ” The elf member of this party seemed to think about something. “Oh, yes,” she asked, “I almost forgot. Belial, before they earn their pay, these mercenaries wanna know where the money''s coming from, so to speak.” How dare a mere elf talk to me this way. “W???ha?t? a?r???e? y??o??u ??ta?lk?i?n?g? ??a?b??ou??t? ?” I asked. Phim spoke next. “I believe what the lady is trying to say,” he paused, “is to ask what your goals here are. What do you intend for the Earth?” I scoffed. Mortal beings should not ask such questions. Not after what was done to me. “T?his ?wor?l?d? ?i?s? un?de?r ?con?s?tan?t ?t?u?rm?oi?l,? as you? h?ave? ?no? dou?b?t? no?t?ic?ed ?af?t?e?r? ?b?e?i?ng? ?o?ut?s?ide ?f?or a?n?y a?mou?nt ?of ?t?i?m?e. ?Wh?en? ?t?h?e ?wor?ld ?w?as? ?s?p?lit?, G?o?d ?le?ft? a ?b?it ?of? ?hi?ms?e?lf. Th?e? ?wo?r?l?d ?yo?u li?v?e i?n ?i?s a? ?w?o?r?l?d? ?o?f? ?exis?t?e?n?ce, but? ?ou?rs? ?i?s? God''?s? s?had?ow?. ?That is?,? ?the wor?l?d ?of Vo?id ?is a? ?w?or?l?d of? no?n?exi?s?te?nce?.? Ever?y?t?h?i?ng? ?tha?t ?l?iv?es ?here i?s ?fi?gh?t?i?ng? ?a? ?c?o?n?stant ?ba?ttle? t?o? su?r?v?i?ve ?t?he n?ext? mi?n?ut?e w?i?th?o?u?t? b?e?in?g? ?s?w?al?l?o?w?e?d? ?u?p?. ?L?ong ?ago,? ?th?ese w?o?rl?ds? w?e?r?e once one.? Wi?th? m?y? ?w?ork?,? ?it wi?ll ?be s?o a?g?a?in.” Phim sighed in relief, “This doesn''t sound too terrible. The deal''s still on. Give us the money, and we''ll stop these guys ourselves!” I''ll admit I cackled a bit. It was just so funny. “W?h?at go?od ?will? m?one?y? do? you??? W?hen? ?the ?t?w?o ?w?o?rlds ?m?erge?,? ev?e?r?y?one ?on? ?E?a?rt?h? ?now w?ill ?be? ?d?e?st?r?o?y?ed.? Y?o?u?''ll ?ha?v?e n?o? ?place to ?sp?e?n?d it?.” At this, they drew their swords against me. Sera said, “You can kill folk, ruin Earth, and cover the land in demons. But destroying the economy is forbidden!!!” Phim said in response, “Let''s show him what the two of us can really do.” They rushed towards me, but ultimately, Sera had to scold Phim for his slow dwarven speed.

    I noticed something else... when Ambrosia had last come, her power felt shaky, and her confidence shot about something. This time, she seemed confident, she seemed to stare longingly at that boy, and from the looks of it, her attack wouldn''t go the same way. Yes, having been inside her attack before, I knew exactly how it worked. I would need to devise a counter. I would need to use the Darkness Exoskeleton technique.

    Summoning all of my demonic abilities, I sucked in a huge amount of energy, and used it to solidify my skin. I attacked with wave after wave of Hellfire. It was all that they could do to dodge out of my way. Puny mortals... But wait, what''s this?!? The one known as Ambrosia shrugged off my Hellfire. I pushed my hands forward, calling forth anything I could. As a Fallen, I had awareness of the Script, so I called forth fire, lightning, ice, balls of energy, you name it. The girl crossed her arms defensively, and an aura of golden light surrounded her. My attacks bounced off, and some recoiled and hit me. Meanwhile, I was fending off attacks from all sides. My tough skin allowed me to treat most of these as if paper cuts, but the demon and Michael I had to treat seriously. They could possibly create trouble for me. That swordsman she was making eyes at did not seem to be a serious threat, but he hadn''t been here before. This was an unknown. Ah, no matter. I drew out the defensive power that I had been using to harden my body, using it as a sort of concussive radius attack. The others slammed hard against the walls, knocking most of them flat. Now, time for the girl. I used my Script to come up with a spell that would drill a hole right through her barrier, and started building power for a focused non-elemental attack. In the corner of my eye, I could see Ambrosia prepping her stance.

    But that human fighter used some sort of void sword technique to cut my left hand before I could finish. “Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!” I screamed. My left hand was a stump, and I spent the next few minutes trying to rejoin my hand, while I breathed fire in his general direction. For one like me, this was a nuisance, not a permanent handicap, but it was something I couldn''t afford. “Enchant: Hold Person, Duration - 10 minutes,” I said using Script. This boy was held in place. I needed to buy time. But it was too late.

    I turned to see that Ambrosia was underway on using her Tao ability, and nearly done. I felt the hum of the Resonance of her effect, and struggled to resist it. I moved to cast some kind of barrier spell, only to realize that my Script didn''t work. Neither did my demonic breath. It was like she had set up a private room where runes and everything else simply couldn''t enter. I tried to grab her, to crush her body. The Tao around us turned, and I could feel what I had just tried on my own body. It felt like it was just the two of us in the entire universe, the more I struggled, the more pain I was in. The two of us were one. And the Tao continued to rotate, the space felt tighter and tighter. I had a growing realization that I completely misunderstood the attack last time. It was a mirror. A giant system of making both of us completely linked with each other. She was a demon. I was a human girl. The Tao rotated. I was the demon again. There was no longer a sense of hero or villain, my enemy or her enemy. We were linked together fully. And the Tao rotated again, the effect getting stronger and stronger, until with a sudden shattering sound, the connection violently broke. I was knocked outside the circle, while she calmly condensed it around herself until there were two of her. My exoskeleton was totaled. They would be able to hurt me easily now.

    EVIL AMBROSIA

    It felt good to have a body again. I usually lived inside Ambrosia''s shadow, but when she used the Tao, it breathed life into me again. Being another side of her soul, I always had to do what she wanted to do, but lately we had been working together a lot better.

    We moved like two twins, using our powers in concert, blending Crests, and occasionally using tai chi chuan martial attacks to give the thing a good whack. Splitting our body in half meant that while in contact with me, there was a copy of everything she held. I couldn''t counterfeit money though, because it would disappear when it left my hand. The two of us stabbed him in different directions with the First Iron dagger. Nevras joined the two of us, recovering from his blow. “We''ll handle the front two sides, you flank him,” I told him. We kept up the offensive, but Belial decided to ignore us to focus on Nevras, figuring we''d stop fighting if he got hurt. My heart raced.

    Then the others rushed to defend him. Azrael and Aqorm came in to Belial''s side. Michael and Lilith moved slightly in front of Nevras, allowing him space to set up attack techniques. Lilith swung her bone sword, stripping off a good chunk of flesh from Belial''s body. Azrael also used her new sword to make a definite dent into Belial''s effectiveness, swinging it around when she wasn''t using her symbols. I didn''t see Michael using Scripts much, but Michael did manage to put up good defense. Selqui maneuvered around Belial, stabbing with her trident, and zapping the demon with electricity. Elias and Zoe stayed off to the side as healing and support, which was a shame because Zoe''s Sword of Sorrow might have ended the battle immediately. This battle was rather disorganized, but the basic result of what happened, was that Belial was slashed by a bunch of weapons from several sides, and when he counterattacked, we tried to heal. Every now and then, someone would cast something, but usually, the pace of battle was such that we couldn''t spare a moment. Ambrosia largely just did her own thing, while I issued orders, “Nevras, use Wave Thrust here. And keep your shield up! Elias, Zoe, keep drinking those Mana Potions! We need you healing us. Aqorm, use your geomancy here. Azrael, try to hit him with Exorcism, it might sweep away some of his effects. Michael and Lilith, as you will,” figuring their fighting style was best left up to them, “Yazim Jianne, set a time loop here in case we die.” Yazim Jianne nodded, and immediately created a circle around us. “All set,” he said, “if Belial suddenly kills us, we will loop right back to when I created this thing.” I tried to keep giving orders, but the other Ambrosia warned me not to stand out.

    SERA

    I hate sob stories. I hate our clients telling us about their poor suffering mother as a result why they won''t pay up for a job well done, and I hate it enough not to subject you to it. Let''s just say my boy Phim has seven nephews and a human girl living in a shack, and the mining trade ain''t doing well. And me? Well, I''m binding my chest. The folks at home keep after me, and if I don''t show them the money I''m earning working, they keep asking, “Why is a nice girl like you not married?” Could have something to do with me roaming the country and killing all sorts of stuff for hire. Yeah, I''m a chick, you wanna make something of it? None of your business, anyway.

    But there''s one thing I hate more than excuses of why people won''t pay, and that’s folks that make me go all the way out for a job, then they string me along. So when this loser demon says something about blowing up New Earth, and not having any money for yours truly, I''d had enough. I already hated that a lot of towns wouldn''t take my money now, but this is too much.

    After these guys managed to crack open this thing''s shell and whack it a couple times, we decided to join in. Nevras was pretty good. I mean, he used to suck, but he picked up a lot from us, and figured out some new ways to use his sword. While all those others cast healing or attack spells, I stuck with Phim and Nevras. Phim''s weapon and style were suited for straight power, he had an axe much like a fireman''s axe with the back end hard enough to smash stone, and a number of techniques that required loads of strength. Nevras, if I had to judge his style, was based around speed but he was trying too hard to favor strength. “Use your Speed Slash, Nevras,” I ordered, “and Phim, do the thing. We need to stall him until it''s time.” Nevras looked confused, as he obviously thought it his weakest skill, but I gave him some pointers on how to use his speed to maximize its damage output. I got him to focus on damage per second, and soon instead of just a short chain of six or seven attacks, that chain was chained with others, until he was creating dozens of small slices. Phim called out, “Pierce!” Stabbing hard into the creature with the axe, he gouged out a wedge in its body, causing it to bleed profusely. Belial''s body was beginning to resemble cube steak with all the tiny cuts and pricks. The thaumaturgy from the others was also adding up, although its endurance was amazing. It was time to use that technique. “Phim,” I shouted out, “we need to use our move!” Phim was like the slowest runner ever, so the others had to stall while this attack set up, but eventually he made his way back to where I was. This technique needed the two of us, because I had to spin in midair, and I wasn''t quite fast to do so without a bit of loft. “SeraPhim Slice!” we called out, and Phim tossed me in midair. As I spun around in a corkscrew, I tossed my sword, which ripped so fast through the air that it appeared to burst into flames. Needless to say, this was an incredibly damaging attack that typically ignored physical and elemental defenses. Belial toppled over.

    I''d like to say this was the end of him, but big boss creatures often had multiple forms. Sure enough, its back began to split open at the seams like a butterfly breaking out of its cocoon. The next form looked less like a giant serpent and more like a conventional demon. It was a bit tall, though. Like, 30 ft or so. This form appeared to have less physical mass and defense than the others, but after seeing it cast several spells without saying a word, I concluded Belial Necros as I decided to call him was a silent caster. I never bothered studying magic, except to make myself aware of indirect magic, for I was immune to most of it. I didn''t believe in that nonsense, so it didn''t affect me. But this guy was a step above that, able to cast with nothing more than a gesture and an idea. Since we couldn''t stop him from casting, the next best thing was to keep him off balance. “Hey, Nevras and Phim, I need you to use Wave Thrust around his feet. I''ll show you what to do next.” They did as they were told, and a massive shock wave ripped the demon''s legs, throwing him on all fours. “Follow my lead, Nevras,” I instructed. I rushed forward, swinging my sword and using the Vacuum Slice. One of his hands fell off and he leaned on the opposite side. Then Nevras chopped of his other one, and he fell prone. I delivered the final blow to his skull. This wasn''t the end of the battle either.

    But it was the end of the battle for us. The next form of Belial was its original Nephilim form. Phim and I have a strict “no-angel” policy. I''ve seen too many people give driven crazy by offing little cherubs so nahhh, even if it looks like an angel, no dice.

    I pulled out a scroll. We got to this place by using one, after hearing Belial''s sweet deal. Nahhh, you don''t need magic to activate scrolls, you just open it up, and say “Activate Scroll!” And we did just that. So long, suckers!

    YAZIM JIANNE

    I figured those two might not stick around. This is why while everyone else was distracting Belial, I set to work prepping a greater magical circle, using a ton of runes. I used Hebrew here, as I figured it would be good against angels and demons. It read in a circle, ???? ??? ????? ???? ???? ???? ????, ??? ???? ????? ???? ???? ??? ?? ??? ?? ?????? ???? ? loosely commanding Belial not to move. The circle closed without his notice and he was trapped. Belial was throwing around powerful effects like balls of light, or beams of cosmic energy. He appeared to be using Script at this point, and his powers looked frightening. As an added precaution, I asked Azrael to use some sort of protection ability. Noticing my circle before the others, she said, “Protection Against Good and Evil.” The inside of the circle filled with a strobe light column of white and black light, and his Script couldn''t be used. He began to try using other attacks again, but these were much less powerful.

    With him distracted casting spells on all of the others, I snuck behind him and quietly started my ritual. All of my ritual materials were made by EZ-Ceremony, and were designed to be set up and taken down quickly, be extremely lightweight and portable, yet suitable for any liturgy. My ritual table for instance was the size and weight of a card deck but unfolded into a card table and the leg stretched out. I quickly put up a tablecloth and candles for the ceremony. My cauldron was about the size of a thimble but expanded into a full-size container. It was self lighting too! I lit the candles, while I heard Belial talk in the background. He taunted, “Y?o?u? ??f??o?ol?i??s??h?? ?m??or??t?a?l??s?!? Y???o??u?? ??b??e??lie?ve?? ???y??o?u??r e???f???f??o??r?ts? ??w?i?l??l ?s?u???cc?e???e??d???.? ??P?r??ep???a???r??e? ???y?o??ur???se?lv???es?? ??f?o??r??? ?m??y??? ???u??l??t?i?m?at?e?? ??a??t???t??a?c??k?!?”

    I started tossing things into the cauldron, mumbling the command word which filled the cauldron with boiling liquid. I had orphan blood, spent uranium, demon wings, angel feathers, and a Record of Value. These were particularly hard to come by, but it would ensure the effect worked. Belial continued to run his mouth, “Y?es?, ?you? t?h?ou?g?ht? ?I ?c?o?ul?dn''?t ?c?a?s?t? ?it,? ?b?ut I? k?n?ow? th?e? ?lege?ndary ?s?p?el?l.?..? Wa?it?, I s?me?ll ?s?o?me?t?hing ?fu?n?ny.” Uh oh. He sniffed some more, “It? ?s?m?el?l?s? o?f? s?ulfu?r a?n?d? ?radia?t?io?n? ?a?n?d b?loo?d a?n?d?.?.?. an? ?an?ti-?N?ephi?l?i?m rit?u?al! But? wh?ere? ?i?s ?t?h?a?t? ?s?ma?l?l ?co?m?i?n?g fro?m??!?”

    He looked around frantically until his eyes noticed me. They also noticed my containment circle. Double uh oh... He could disrupt this whole ritual if he attacked me now. And there was nothing I could do about it, because I had to stay still, burn things, and chant for ten more seconds for the spell to work. Ten. He cupped his hands together loosely. Nine. Energy began to build up rapidly. We were protected against elemental attacks to a large extent but this was a non-elemental attack. Eight. His hands uncupped and he had an Energy Ball as big as my entire body. Seven. He lifted it aloft. Six. He threw it, and my life started flashing before me. It wasn''t much of one, one person made it worth living, and she was gone. Five. It flew past the strobe barrier. Four. It flew past the circle I had constructed and was fast heading for the table. And me. Three.

    AZRAEL

    While stuff like reversing spells is easy for someone like Yazim Jianne, some of my allies in the past have asked if I have a Reflect spell. I do. But I don''t use it much. It''s fine for Yazim Jianne, who can actually reverse time itself, but mine is too easy to counter. Granted what I do instead is not time reversal but spell reversal, but I typically never get the chance to use this. The element of surprise is lacking if I try, and I also have a somewhat useless window for casting that spell. It takes me about six or so seconds to cast a spell that I can only keep active about three seconds.

    “Reflect!” I shouted, watching a bluish shield resembling a honeycomb surround Yazim Jianne, and diverted the Energy Ball launched at Belial. The effect was immediate, the spell bounced off as if it had been a tennis ball hit back with a racket. Belial was hit full-force with a concussive burst, and was knocked back, whacking against the outer edge or the circle that bound him in place.

    YAZIM JIANNE

    She had done it. She''d bought just enough time for me to use the Anti-Nephilim ritual, blasting Belial with some serious energy, enough to defeat him. But there was still one final form. For you see, Belial''s vengeful spirit remained. And as it left the circle I had prepared, it was pissed. Its form shifted from a simple spirit to something deformed.

    NEVRAS

    This ghost wasn''t just some silly poltergeist. Belial as a ghost had some serious power. He could become intangible, able to shrug off not only my physical attacks but even my techniques. He could become solid. And because his body was more like a cloud than a solid form, my Void attacks did not much more than the others. He also used a number of impressive attacks, like blasting Yazim Jianne''s table to bits with lightning bolts, summoning blue flames to chase after all of us, or thick rings of dark elemental energy.

    But it seemed like he was budgeting it. I wonder why... He barely used any mystic power to fight us. Rather than all those flashy attacks mostly he used ghost stuff. Weird. I decided not to think about that, but instead found myself watching various things. I tried a few attacks, but they just passed through. Elias used the Sunrise prayer, and managed to hit him, but as soon as it should have blown up his entire ghostly body, he just reformed again. Even Azrael''s Exorcism didn''t seem to work. I motioned to Ambrosia, “Hey, could you use the Aiken Crest? It lets you become solid or not, right? I need you to make him solid, while I test some things out.” She did her thing, becoming incorporeal enough to resonate at the same frequency or whatever and touch him, then pulling him into the physical plane. “Great,” she said, “now what?” I instructed her to just hold on, while I attacked the creepy looking spirit. It was easier said that done. The spirit may have formerly been soft as a cloud when we were trying to hit him, but he had sharp claws and teeth when he was solid. She had to keep adjusting her stance to keep herself from getting slashed or munched on. Meanwhile, I tried slashing this spirit with my sword, which should have caused the demon spirit to react violently, but instead he just bounced back. The same was true of using my techniques. I even tried the Void Slice to wipe it into nonexistence, but it was no good. “A vengeful spirit,” Azrael noted, “these things can''t be destroyed by physical force.” The thing was vengeful alright, it was angry enough at us that finally trying to hold it steady failed, and it became blazing hot, breaking Ambrosia''s grip. Huh, something strange just happened. Was it me, or did Belial shrink? I noticed this before when it was throwing all this fancy magic, but I didn''t know what I was looking at back then. “Hey Azrael,” I called out, “this thing is made of magic. Can you drain it somehow?” Azrael nodded, and called out, “Deplete Magic!” Belial''s mystic power seeped out of him, and he visibly shrunk to half his size. “Bind Incorporeality!” she said. Belial became unable to become intangible, just as he did when Ambrosia touched him. I was able to try the one move I had yet to try. I cried, “Silencing Stab!” and I rushed forward to drive the point of my sword into him. The last of the demon''s malevolent spirit was sucked away with its magic.