//------------------------------// // 5 - The Lord of the Inferno // Story: Twilight Over Thanalan // by tom117z //------------------------------// For such a large creature, Ifrit was frighteningly fast and nimble. So Twilight discovered as she and her new friend charged the flaming behemoth. Ifrit lunged toward them to meet their charge far faster than she had been anticipating, one claw rising up and igniting in flames. For a brief moment, Twilight felt her legs locking up, but forced herself to power through it. She channelled magic quickly into her horn and fired what she could muster at the raised limb in the hopes of knocking the swipe off course. Sadly, as had become the norm since arriving in this land, Twilight’s spell did not pack quite the punch she had been hoping for. The flickering beam of lavender light struck against Ifrit’s wrist just as he brought it down, but the primal did not seem to care about the attack. Twilight’s ears folded back. “Horseapples.” “Move!” the warrior shouted, bodily shoving her off to one side, out of the way of Ifrit’s claw. She yelped, falling from her hooves to roll across the ground. She heard a loud metallic clang and her comrade’s pained grunt. A surge of cold raced through her veins, and she quickly lifted her head. To her relief, he had caught the claw on the shaft of his axe. The force of the blow had forced him down onto one knee, however, and his expression was contorted with strain. Ifrit’s eyes burned, flames crawling out of his mouth. Twilight’s heart skipped a beat as his gnarled fingers curled around the shaft of the warrior’s axe. With a roar, Ifrit lifted the warrior into the air, eliciting a shout of alarm from him. “No!” Twilight exclaimed, launching to her hooves and gathering more magic. She raced through her options, trying to think of a solution to this, the first of undoubtedly countless problems she’d face today. Offence was out, at least when she didn’t have time to charge. She needed to find another way to contribute to the fight.  Luckily, combat-specific spells had never been her speciality, and she was quite adaptable. Stepping forward, Twilight formed a pearl of light on the tip of her horn. “Look away!” she shouted before firing the pearl up towards Ifrit’s face. The warrior followed the command without question, closing his eyes and looking away from Ifrit, while the primal merely blinked in confusion. Twilight closed her eyes as well. There was a muffled pop, and Ifrit’s enraged roar as the spell went off without a hitch. The pearl of light exploded outwards like a high-yield firework. Red and purple sparks flew in all directions and would have been blinding at such a short-range. That spell would normally be used as an emergency signal flare, but for the moment, it served well as a flashbang. Ifrit released his hold on the axe, sending Twilight’s new friend sailing into the air. He flailed for a moment before managing to right himself just in time to hit the ground hard, sliding back with his feet digging trenches into the sandy dirt. He let off a sigh once after coming to a stop, shooting a grateful glance in Twilight’s direction. “Gah! Insolent mortals!” Ifrit bellowed, not giving the two time for any more than that. Twilight yelped as he spun on her next, and lunged with the agility of a cheetah. She ducked low, barely avoiding a swipe of his claw that would have taken her head clean off. Her throat jumped as she felt the air displaced by the sharp tips of his claws pass less than an inch from her head. She spun to face Ifrit as he shot by her, but then caught movement in the corner of her eye. She turned to face Ifrit’s tail as it lashed against her like a whip, driving the air from her lungs. Fiery pain exploded through her barrel, and stars danced across her vision. The ground dropped away beneath her, and she was sent sailing through the air to land and slide several feet away, dangerously close to the wall of fire. Whether through actual lucidity or just blind instinct, Twilight crawled away from the raging flames as her vision swam in and out of focus. She was aware of Ifrit’s roar of rage, and the beast’s approach towards her. It was hard to miss that blackened shadow, even amidst the crackle and pops of the fire and the chaos it brought to the general area. After a moment, though, the world around her visually solidified once more as she looked up into two very displeased eyes. “Wuh-oh.” Before Ifrit could do anything more than snarl threateningly, a strikingly familiar axe came flying through the air and embedded itself into Ifrit’s back. The creature bellowed out once again, stepping away from the alicorn as it tried to reach for the protruding weapon. The Adventurer did the job for him, grabbing ahold of the handle and retrieving his weapon before rolling under another swipe and raising his axe in response. The hit proved any impressions Twilight had that this man was entirely without magic oh so wrong. He gave his axe an expert flourish, driving it into Ifrit’s side amidst a prismatic flash that would make Rainbow Dash’s mane jealous. Magical energies radiated from the axe as it struck, eliciting a small explosion that turned a blow that may have failed to penetrate Ifrit’s natural armour into one that left an oozing wound. “Raaaah! Burn!” As Twilight hoisted herself back to her hooves, she saw a circle of flames begin to form around both herself and her new friend individually. She didn’t exactly need his startled expression to know that this was not a good sign, and suppressing a yelp she flapped her wings to propel herself haphazardly to the side before a complete eruption of flames engulfed where she had just been. Fortunately, her little act of avoidance had landed her by the pile of discarded weapons. How hard could it be to use the spear she randomly tore from the pile with her magic? She quickly spun around, feeling the earth trembling beneath her hooves. Ifrit was charging her, claws raised to slam her into the ground. Twilight grit her teeth, spying her new friend somewhere behind Ifrit. She wasn’t much good head-on, so she had to get back to him and fast. She refocused on Ifrit and charged him. Her heart hammered against her chest, and she yet again keenly felt just how small she was in comparison to the Lord of the Inferno. With a shout that was one-third a war cry and two-thirds a panicked shriek, she ducked low and thrust the spear up towards Ifrit’s jaw. Snap. Twilight barely evaded Ifrit’s attack, ducking under him and diving, belly first, onto the hot, dry ground. She slid for a few feet before quickly scrambling back to her hooves at the warrior’s side. She spun to face Ifrit and lifted her stick, ready for- Wait a second. Twilight’s jaw dropped when she realized that the tip of her spear was gone, leaving a blackened, charred stump in its wake. “W-what?” she asked in bewilderment. A low, repetitive rumbling noise came from ifrit, and Twilight quickly realized it was a laugh of amusement. The primal turned around to face her with his maw split into a fang-filled grin. Twilight’s heart fell into the pits of her stomach at the sight of the tip of her spear—or what was left of it, rather—melting and dribbling harmlessly down Ifrit’s jaw and chest. She turned to the adventurer. “Why doesn’t your weapon melt?!” she asked incredulously, throwing the shaft aside in a childish huff. The warrior shrugged cluelessly. And then he charged in again. “This guy is crazy, and right now I think I’m okay with that.” As he ran in, another swirl of light danced around the Adventurer as new strength seemed to radiate from the man. He placed his spiked gauntlet in front of his face and tanked a burst of flame before taking hold of his axe with both hands and spinning towards Ifrit in a full three-hundred and sixty degrees. The axe’s length stretched out wide, the weapon coming around like a raging tempest as it cut a gash through Ifrit’s body. Twilight only admired the act for a split second before attempting to circle around the back of the would-be god. Responding to the man’s strike, Ifrit batted aside the next before attempting to stamp down on him and flatten him underfoot. He nimbly sidestepped the attempt and brought his blade onto the limb. Ifrit shrieked, and flames gathered within his maw above the warrior. Twilight shot one of her infuriatingly feeble bolts at his head, hardly hurting the primal but providing just enough force to knock his flames to one side, bathing the ground by the adventurer’s side. He crouched down and shielded himself from the splash zone of the assault. Ifrit turned his eyes towards Twilight. Her coat stood on end beneath his glare as she reached out with her magical aura for the entirety of the weapon pile. Each blade glowed lavender, being roughly propelled towards the dark deity in a flurry of iron and steel. The weapons cascaded against his form, most sharing the spear’s fate while only the most well-made left small gashes and scratches on his scaled hide. Even they, unlike the ornate axe of the Adventurer, soon melted away from Ifrit’s heat. Snarling, Ifrit sent a wave of flame towards Twilight that singed her as she threw herself beneath the incoming torrent. Fortunately, however, it seemed the strike had been merely an underpowered deterrent to delay her as he turned his full attention back to the human hacking away with relentless abandon. Not to be deterred while a friend was in danger, Twilight jumped back to her hooves and started to run back towards her enemy. “Begone!” Ifrit gave out an almighty roar, a burst of energy shooting out all around Ifrit and immediately knocking the air from Twilight’s lungs. Both she and the Adventurer were sent tumbling back, each narrowly avoiding a fall into the flaming wall around their impromptu arena. While Twilight again found herself on her back, an irritatingly familiar position by now, her ally skidded to a halt in a crouched position, his axe having been driven into the ground to help grind him to a halt. Ifrit wasn’t done with him, though, as a great surge of energy swelled inside the beast. The air around him began to glow and ripple, and waves of scorching heat radiated out from him, hot enough to burn at Twilight’s flesh and force her to back away even further. More flames leaked from Ifrit’s maw, gathering until they seemed fit to burst out like a flood through a broken dam. Her crouched friend, left with no time or room to escape, would be caught right in the middle of the oncoming torrent. “Get out of there!” Twilight could only shout as she clambered back up, but any word of warning came too late as Ifrit let loose all his pent-up rage and struck out at the Adventurer. The inferno scorched all in its path, consuming everything within a cone before him. The man who was the target of this extreme hatred could do nothing but brace for the flames. Twilight just made out the formation of a ring of hexagonal-shaped magic barriers around him before the torrent fully engulfed and obscured his visage. The barrage, unrelenting in its conviction and will to end him, seemed to go on for an extraordinarily long time.  Eventually, it seemed, even Ifrit’s malevolence had its limits, and the inferno tapered off and revealed the smouldering landscape it had left behind. A pit formed deep within Twilight’s stomach. Surely, after such an attack, nothing would even be left of her friend. Molten armour and a char across the ground, nothing more. This thing… how could it…? Yet, when the smoke cleared, there he was.  Twilight stepped forward, a surge of relief flooding her veins. It was to be short-lived, however. Her ears drooped, and a hoof lifted up to cover her muzzle when she saw the state the warrior was in. He was smoking horribly, with small flames licking at the air from the fur that lined his armour. His head was bowed, his entire body was trembling, and she could just barely hear his breathless, agonized wheezed from here. He was alive, and only just barely. “Thou art strong, mortal,” Ifrit bellowed, lifting his hand up for the finishing blow. “But not strong enough!” Twilight took another step forward. “NO!” she cried out, desperation replacing her dread and relief. She had to do something! Thus far, in spite of her best efforts, she had been all but useless in this fight! She was practically depending on this man to keep her alive right now, but he was no longer in any condition to fight. Her mind raced, going through all of her options, only to discard each of them in turn. With her magic crippled as it was, none of those spells would work. Ifrit’s claw began to descend, leaving an arc of flames behind it. Instinct took over. Twilight channelled whatever magic she could, without thought, without direction, all driven by the sole, solitary desire to save her new friend. To protect, to heal, all without her internal calculations, just the will to do. The magic built on her horn, and then released with a flare of light. To her surprise, the light was teal. That same teal light engulfed her friend, and a soothing sound, like wind-chimes muffled by water, radiated out from him. Dancing stars of blue radiated out from the swirl of magic. Ifrit hesitated for only a second, visibly confused. The warrior’s axe rose out of the swirling light, slamming into the underside of Ifrit’s jaw, splitting the scales open with a blood-curdling crunch and a spurt of glowing magma. Ifrit roared in agony, staggering back with his claws covering his face. The air and ground shook under the volume of his cry and the weight of his feet backpedalling from the strike. Twilight blinked in surprise, taken aback. “What… what did I just… What was that spell?!” she asked in confusion. She had never cast anything quite like that before, and the colour of it hadn’t matched her magic in the slightest. The light faded, revealing that the warrior had risen back to his feet. He was still gasping for breath, but where he had been a hair’s breadth from collapse mere moments ago, he now looked to be in fighting shape again. He shot her a look and gave a sharp nod and cheeky thumbs-up before refocusing his attention on Ifrit. She just gave him an unsure grin in return. “How the heck did I do that?” More magma pooled out from the open wound on Ifrit’s jaw, splattering against the ground to sizzle and pop like oil on a frying pan. He lowered his claws, eyes burning with volcanic rage. Without a word, Ifrit lifted his claws and drove them down into the ground. A pulse of flaming magic radiated outwards, and the magmal blood that had pooled beneath him suddenly rose up. “What the-?!” Twilight exclaimed as the now levitating blood took on the form of a tall, crooked, thorn-covered nail. The air around it began to pulse and glow with yet more magic, and Twilight realized that the energy it was producing was flowing back into Ifrit. In response, Ifrit’s scales began to radiate with more and more power, until he was practically glowing like a miniature sun himself. He grinned widely and lifted his head high. “Surrender to the fires of my judgement!” he roared, pulsing with more light. Twilight didn’t know what would happen if what would happen when the nail had nothing left to pour into him, but she was in no mood to find out.  She jabbed a hoof at the nail. “It’s feeding him more power!” she shouted. “Stop it!” The warrior nodded and charged forward. Ifrit confirmed Twilight’s suspicions that the nail was important by intercepting him, his claws lashing out in a furious flurry of slashing flames. Twilight stepped back to get clear of the storm of steel and fire, trying to find any opening to get at the nail herself. Unfortunately, all of her advances were cut off by Ifrit as well, who routinely broke away from fighting the adventurer to lash out at her and keep her at bay. Twilight bit her lip, her eyes darting back and forth between the nail and Ifrit. They needed to find some way of holding Ifrit’s attention.  Ifrit came down on her friend yet again, forcing him down onto one knee with another downward strike of his claws. As the two struggled against one another, snarling into each other’s faces, the warrior shot a look at Twilight. He braced his shoulder against the shaft of his axe, giving him room to reach down and pull something out of one of the folds of his armour. Twilight blinked in surprise to see a thick, blackened chain with an ominous hook at the end of it. How would that help? She looked up into his eyes again, and he jerked his head up towards Ifrit in an expectant matter, also shaking the chain for emphasis. Did he want her to get his attention? Twilight wasn’t entirely sure what the plan was, but she understood that to spell it out loud enough for her to hear would be counterproductive, and they didn’t exactly have time for a planning session.  Now, to get Ifrit’s attention. Without a plan, Twilight simply gathered magic on her horn and hefted up the biggest rock she could find. She glared at the side of Ifrit’s head and pelted the rock at him with all the force she could manage. “Hey! Er, Fire-face!” she yelled. “Real creative.” The rock struck Ifrit in the temple with an audible crack, eliciting an irritated snort from the primal. He turned his hellfire glare on her with a low snarl, and she was suddenly not so sure about anything she was doing. “Bothersome gnat,” Ifrit growled. With a snarl, he batted the warrior aside with his free claw, then turned to stalk towards Twilight. She backed away, sweat rolling down her neck with her breath coming in faster gasps. It was clear he was toying with her. She had barely been an annoyance to him this entire time. Then came the chain. As if guided by preternatural precision, the warrior’s chain came forward from behind Ifrit, wrapping over his shoulder so the hook embedded itself in his chest. Ifrit’s eyes widened in surprise, and a pained snort escaped him before he was suddenly tugged back. Twilight turned her attention to the Adventurer just in time to see his axe sailing through the air toward her. She let out an undignified yelp and just barely caught it with her magic. She blinked in confusion before lowering the axe to see her new friend running along the edge of the ring of fire, dragging Ifrit along the whole way. Their gazes locked, and the warrior nodded toward the nail. And now Twilight knew what the plan was. The axe was heavy, but in her magic, she knew she could impart significant force with it. She turned her attention to the infernal nail, took a deep breath, and charged in. She let out a shout of effort and brought the axe against the nail’s shaft. The blade bit into the arcane surface, sending drops of magma and a pressurized wave of heat radiating from the point of impact. Ifrit’s following roar of rage told her she was on the right track. She pulled the axe back out of the wound and reared back for another strike. She just caught sight of the warrior being lifted into the air by his own chain. Ifrit had taken a hold of it and yanked, sending the man sailing toward the Lord of the Inferno. He released his grip on the chain shortly before he reached the primal, tucked himself just right, and drove his foot into Ifrit’s face, barely escaping his grasping claws. While Ifrit slid back from the force of the kick, the warrior fell gracelessly to the ground. He rolled onto his belly and turned to Twilight. “NOW!” She didn’t need to be told twice. With another shout of effort, she swung the axe again, driving it into the wedge she had already created. With a sound like shattering ice, the nail was cleft in twain. The severed halves hung in the air for a moment, flickered, and then faded into nothingness, dissipating like a mirage in the desert. The air around it cooled, and Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. Her relief did not last, as Ifrit’s indignant rage sounded across the desert in a deafening roar. “Thy soul shall burn for eternity!” There was a thump in the earth, and Twilight realized that Ifrit was leaping for her position. She paled and quickly ducked out of the way, flapping her wings for the extra momentum. She just barely avoided it when Ifrit slammed down where she had just been, kicking up dirt and sand that clung to her coat and stung her eyes. She rolled along for a few feet before coming to a landing, the axe embedding itself into the ground by her side. The air was getting hotter. It was becoming hard to breathe through the scorching heat. Twilight lifted her eyes to see Ifrit lifting into the air and curling into a ball. She realized with a feeling of dread that while they had stopped him from reaching full power by breaking that nail, he had still absorbed enough from it that the unleashing of it all would not result in a small explosion. She braced herself and screwed her eyes shut. She felt something taking a position over her just before the detonation occurred. The heat was agony. Flames tore up from the earth beneath her and around her, searing at her flesh. She curled into a ball, grateful that these arcane flames did not seem capable of igniting her fur, or she would have died then and there. The torrent of flames washed over her for what felt like an eternity before, at least, they tapered off, and she felt the air cooling back down. Light-headed from both pain and heat, she looked blearily up. The warrior had taken a position over her, shielding her from the worst of the explosion with his back. His expression was contorted in pain, but there was a small smile tugging at his lips all the same. As if to say ‘good job.’ Any jubilation was short-lived, Ifrit giving a prolonged shriek of rage high into the heavens. He slammed his fists down into the dirt, the flame wall around them flaring up as he continued to rant and rave a mix of low growls and psychotic cries.  “Burn! Die! Begone from this place! Begone!” The Adventurer turned back to Ifrit, Twilight at his side as he bore down upon them once more. “You… Thou must DIE!” He slammed down again, this time letting out another wave of energy, but this time the rabid magicks snaked their way through the ground. The mana seemed to coalesce around the outer edges of the arena, the ground beneath them cracking and flaring up until it started to resemble lava. Wordlessly, the two shot forwards toward the centre where the ground remained unchanged. Unfortunately, this path led them towards a waiting Ifrit. Not that they had much of a choice, as almost immediately after crossing the threshold the entirety of the area behind them erupted in a radiant plume of incinerating heat. But now Ifrit had them where he wanted them. The air around them began to heat once more, energy building within Ifrit as the sheer aura he radiated became deafening. He was, as Twilight realised, repeating the trick that had very nearly killed her friend not so long before. Only, this time, he channelled even more of his magic into the strike.  He was giving everything he had, and this time nothing would be left behind to heal. And yet, despite how close he had come to dying previously, Twilight felt nothing from the Adventurer. Looking up at his face, she saw him glance down at her with a forming smirk. He didn’t lose it as he glared up at Ifrit, the fire in his eyes dwarfing anything Ifrit could ever hope to conjure. His axe was readied before him, his confidence not fading even as Ifrit readied himself for the end. Yet, even he had to have realised, this wasn’t as before. Before he had been staggered, vulnerable, all but helpless against him. This time, he was ready for it. The Adventurer sparked to life with magicks dancing around his form, stamping a foot into the ground with enough enhanced strength to crack it. As Ifrit’s flames came, he raised his axe high into the air, allowing the power to form various shields surrounding them. The flames smashed harmlessly against them, seemingly absorbed and dispersed. All of Ifrit’s might only served to empower the warrior further, and Twilight had never felt a powerful aura quite like he displayed. It was almost as if a blinding light was washing over everything in the vicinity, originating from the warrior himself. And as Ifrit’s own strength faltered, the Adventurer’s peaked as he slammed his axe into the ground with a strength surpassing anything even the strongest earth pony could muster. The earth was shattered from the strike, rocks shifting and springing up from the ground with what was left of Ifrit’s flames entirely nullified. Ifrit himself couldn’t even manage another shriek as the strike caused him to blunder backwards, entirely off-balance from the sudden wall of rock and his own spent energy. However, even now, the primal managed enough of a recovery to fall forwards and tear away at the wall. “Thou... shalt… perish!” No, she couldn’t let him recover! After all the warrior beside her had done to get them this far, she had to stop him! Twilight unfurled her wings, kicking off the ground with enough of a force to send her gliding towards Ifrit. Her hooves latched onto his completely dumbstruck face, her magic forming enough of a barrier around herself to stave off the heat, if only for the singular moment she needed. As the weakened defence buckled against his power, she let out a shout, shut her eyes tight, and loosed another blinding flare that sent Ifrit stumbling back once more. Her brittle barrier collapsing, Twilight fell safely away from the beast’s heat and landed with a thud in the dirt. Ifrit, meanwhile, clutched his face with his hands, rubbing at his eyes with an extremely undignified and un-god-like whimper that almost made her feel sorry for the creature. Almost. But it mattered little, because with its energy all but spent and its eyes momentarily blinded, it was all the Adventurer needed. He struck forward, axe clenched tightly. With one last battle cry, he slid to a stop under Ifrit, drawing the primal’s attention. Ifrit looked down, though it was clear he still could not see. The warrior adjusted his grip on his axe and jumped straight up, swinging it wide and fast. Slice. Twilight resisted the urge to cheer in victory as the blade of the axe cut cleanly through Ifrit’s neck and severed his head from his shoulders. The warrior shot up and past Ifrit, magma trailing behind him and sliding off the now blackened edge of his axe. The warrior went into an almost graceful front flip, coming to a landing behind Ifrit in a wide stance. The headless primal remained motionless. Twilight watched, holding her breath. “Was that it? Is it over?” She had seen a lot of freaky stuff in the past few minutes, and she would not be surprised if Ifrit had a healing factor. Such fears were proven to be baseless, thankfully, as the primal’s body began to glow with a soft, flickering blue. The body slumped forward, making the ground shake as it collapsed, before disappearing entirely in a flash of blue light. The flames vanished, and the energy radiating out of the eclipse overhead dulled, leaving all bathed in a serene dullness. The ring of flames sputtered and faded, leaving the bowl of embers in complete silence. “We… we did it…” she breathed out, falling to her haunches in relief. A giddy laugh slipped past her lips, and she giddily threw herself back against the ground to look up at the sky. “We actually did it! Ha! I can’t believe it!” Armoured footsteps approached, and the warrior came to a stop by her side. He looked down at her with a wide, if tired, smile. He didn’t say anything and simply gave her a warm, grateful nod before holding out his hand to help her up. Twilight took his hand in her grasp without a second thought. He helped her up, though he seemed a little perplexed at her hoof grasping his hand as if it had fingers, but he decided against a comment for the time being. Twilight paid it little mind, looking at the burnt ground around them. Nothing even remained of Ifrit. He truly had just been a magical manifestation. Had he even been really alive? What about the people he controlled now that he was gone? More questions to answer, but at least she had the time. A look at the soldiers they’d been imprisoned with, cowering fearfully amidst the amalj’aa homes nearby, caused no small pang of pity in her heart. She glanced back, hearing more armoured footsteps approaching from somewhere nearby. They echoed quite a distance, and she thought she could hear the sounds of a clash from their direction as well. “Friends of yours…?” The Adventurer hummed. “Right… Okay… Wow… You okay…?” He gave her a small smile, followed by an oddly stoic nod. “Yeah… good… that’s… good.” Okay, wow. Now she really thought about it, had they really just gone through all that!? Tirek had been one thing, but this was a whole other level. She wanted to laugh, cry and scream all at the same time, and yet, if only due to her newest friend’s presence, she resisted all such urges. He looked at her with concern in his eyes. “I’m… I’m fine,” she lied. “So, um, what’s your name?” He looked at her for a moment, then opened his mouth to answer. Before he could speak, however, his eyes were drawn to something. He frowned, walking past her towards the spot where Ifrit had fallen. “Huh? What is it?” He didn’t answer, simply continuing to march forward. Twilight glanced ahead of him, spotting a small red crystal sitting on the dirt where Ifrit had been. “What is- huh?” The alicorn’s eyes widened as the crystal pulsed at his approach. The object began to glow before, against all notions of gravity, it floated up off the ground. The Adventurer held out a hand, the crystal floating before him as his eyes glazed over. The thing seemed to glow brighter still before coming to a rest within his outstretched hand. Several moments passed them by, Twilight looking on while biting her lip in concern. Then, quite as suddenly as it had started, it ended. The warrior’s eyes returned to normal, the man jolting slightly as if waking from a dream. “Are… you okay…?” He glanced at her, pocketing the crystal before shrugging. “You don’t talk much, do you?” He grinned like a sheepish idiot and shook his head. She rolled her eyes. “At least finish telling me your-” “Pray forgive my lateness!” a new voice shouted from not far away. “Who…?” Both of them looked off to the side, and they were just in time to witness a small army of men come rushing in towards them. Most were adorned in the same uniforms of those who had been imprisoned, though there were some in a variation that signified, perhaps, a different branch of their order. They were a varied bunch, too. While many were human, several were of races Twilight had never seen. All were similar to humans, but some held pointed ears while others somewhat resembled the abyssinians of her world, albeit without most of the fur. Others, meanwhile, seemed to be but children if it wasn’t for the deadly weapons they carried with them. But it was the man leading them that caught her attention the most, both due to his differing garb and him being the one to have called out. His hair was pure white, a similarly coloured choker around his neck alongside a purple tattoo. He wore a long-sleeved white undershirt with a black shirt on top of it. Dark green pants disappeared into knee-high, thick black boots. Most unusual of all was a strange set of metallic goggles strapped to his arm. “I was delayed by a congregation of amalj’aa zealots. I swear, each seems more evangelical than the last.” Twilight almost yelped when there was a sudden growl behind them, spinning around to see one of Ifrit’s previous summoners rushing towards them in a wild fury. “Hmph. Persistent lot!” Twilight saw a shape rush by her, the man jumping into the air and spinning over the amalj’aa. The glint of a knife caught her eye, soon becoming three as he threw the daggers towards the creature. They met their mark, and Twilight’s former captor fell silently to the ground as his killer landed in what she could only describe as a superhero landing. “That is not good for his back, surely! Or his knees.” “Phew,” he gave a cocky smirk as he looked up at the Adventurer. And, finally, his face settled on Twilight, and a look of confusion came over his features. “Um…” he spoke. “Did I miss something?” The warrior just smiled.