Drake Saga 4 - A Whole New World

by TheCaptainSargey

Pulled into a portal, Drake can't be sure where he'll end up. But he seems to have stumbled into a universe where all logic is backwards. Dead enemies are alive, and old allies have turned. Can the detective survive and make it back home, or will he burn in a war that isn't his.

DRAKE | FOUR | A WHOLE NEW WORLD

Pulled into a portal, Drake can't be sure where he'll end up. But he seems to have stumbled into a universe where all logic is backwards. Dead enemies are alive, and old allies have turned. Can the detective survive and make it back home, or will he burn in a war that isn't his.

Now With More Death!

Chapter 1 – Gone

He was gone. That was the only thought that was going through Elder Illori Reticent's mind that morning. She didn't care that they'd won the war, she didn't care that Blaze and his conspirators were dead. She even didn't care about the angry American in the room with them.

"What of Sult?" Elder Cassius Beckett of the American Sanctuary asked.

"I don't know, and I don't care." Strom growled.

"You must know. Bisahalani, as warned that if he doesn't get his Administrator back. – "

"He'll what? Declare war on us? We've won once, and we'll do it again."

"How are you supposed to win without your best fighter?"

"Shut up. There's been minimal communications with Ode. We don't know many facts."

"But Drake's gone. You know that."

"Look here Beckett." Illori walked over to him. "You can return to Bisahalani, and tell him that we've just won a war, the losses haven't been counted yet, give us a few days."

"You have until tonight to give us information about Sult. Or we'll take more forceful measures." Beckett said and he turned and walked from the room.

"Its just problem after problem these days." Strom sighed.

He awoke in the dust. The pulsating portal was barely five meters away. Richard Silver was to his left, unconscious. Arcabor Drake extracted himself from the dusty ground and had a look around. It was defiantly Yorkshire, but the land was far more barren. Far less plants grew here. Silver started to wake up next to him and Drake kicked him to keep him asleep.

In the distance he could see a dust cloud rise into the air. Just in front of him the former Grand Mage of the Scottish Sanctuary was lying face down. Drake walked over and checked his pulse, yep, Blaze was dead, broken neck. The dust cloud was closer now. He checked his pockets; he still had his gun, sword and his phone. He pulled out the latter, no signal, typical.

Then he put everything in context, he was in another dimension, and he could breath, an actual habitable dimension. Despite everything he laughed. The dust cloud was even closer; he could make out vehicles now. Silver was moving again and Drake kicked him again.

The vehicles pulled up next to him. They were made of plate metal, with four doors and a large looking cabin at the back. But the strangest thing was that it had no wheels, it was floating. A good-looking man got out the first vehicle; he had streaked dark-blond hair and wore full body leather armour.

"Who are you?" He asked, pointing a shotgun at Drake.

"Arcabor Drake." He responded.

"How? You died years ago." A second man said. This one had scars all over his head.

"The portal I think."

"Ah the portal. So your from a different dimension then?"

"Yep."

"Then who are your friends?"

"Certainly not my friends, they're the reason I came through. The unconscious one is Richard Silver, and the dead one is Blaze."

"Eh, I've heard those names, both of them were supporters of Mevolent. Before we killed them. By the way, my name's Ghastly Bespoke, and this is Dexter Vex."

"Hello Ghastly, hello Dexter. May I ask what's the story in this dimension?"

"Ah, well, we're in a war with Mevolent."

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah. It's been going for a few hundred years now."

"From where I come from, Mevolent died quite a few years ago."

"Really, did you kill him?"

"Well, I helped."

"Then you're coming with us." A tall man said, he was bald and had the same leather armour. Drake recognized him as Mr Bliss.

"Where?"

"To our base."

"Ah."

A short time later Drake was standing in front of a walled city. They had travelled there in those flying vehicles, Bliss had told him those sigils kept them up. They walked past the massive gates which had defensive symbols carved into the metal. Through the streets they walked, the population had an oppressed looked about them. Bliss led them into a citadel, the guards nodded to him as he passed.

The citadel was grand, yet highly fortified. Past an open area the passed into the citadel proper. The hallways were spacious, past the first door two passages went left and right, but Bliss led them straight onwards into a big atrium. Upwards it went on for at least four floors, balconies lined the edges. At the far end were three thrones and in front of them was a large wooden table. Bliss led them to the three thrones.

"I present to you, the Grand Council of Mages." Bliss announced.

"Good morning." Drake waved to them, the scowled in return.

"They are the leaders of our nation. The leaders against Mevolent."

"And who are you?" The man in the middle asked. He wore long crimson robes.

"I'm Arcabor Drake, and I'm from a different dimension. And who are you?"

"I'm Supreme Mage Eachan Meritorious. These are my fellow leaders, Grand Mage Quinten Strom and Grand Mage Trebuchet." Meritorious said. Drake knew who Meritorious and Strom personally, but he'd only ever heard stories about Trebuchet, apparently he was a fair man.

"Did you say different dimension?" Asked Strom.

"Yes, this man," He pointed at Silver. "pushed me through."

"Oh, can you return?" Asked Trebuchet, he had a French accent.

"I haven't tried yet."

"And you won't be for a while." Bliss said.

"Why is that? Commander Bliss." Strom asked.

"Because, in his dimension, Mevolent is dead. And Drake was there." Bliss answered.

"Ah. Then we may as well use your services." Meritorious said.

"Do I get a choice?" Asked Drake.

"Not in the slightest. Bliss, give this man a guest room."

Chapter 2 – The Dead Men

They finally had communications open. The Global Link connected to the London Sanctuary. It pinged and the face of the Grand Mage appeared.

"Grand Mage." Ode said.

"Finally Elder Ode. Give us a report." Strom said.

"All the Hollow Men have been destroyed. The Scottish mages are either in custody, or dead."

"And what of our casualties?"

"At least thirty dead, most people injured. Just thankful the Australians turned up when they did."

"What of Drake?"

"He went through the portal with Silver. The only thing we can do know is keep it at a constant energy level. I'm afraid Doctor Bone has informed us that in about a two weeks the energy contained within the portal will run out."

"What! Is it avoidable."

"The doctor says that we may be able to pump energy into it as a last resort."

"He's smart, he'll try to send a message through."

"I hope so. What of our new allies."

"Gloomstone is hanging around, along with the Australians."

"Have you seen Sult?"

"No, we haven't seen him."

"Shame." Strom said as the Global Link cut off.

Ode turned to the others in the room. Scarecrow sighed, Frightening sat in a seat next to him, also there was Gloomstone, Jack Carter and Palaver Graves. Ode waved his hand to tell the others to leave. Scarecrow followed Jack to the medical bay.

It was full of people lying on beds. Jack walked over to Polly Hunter, who was lying on a bed, unconscious from her injuries. Next to her was Felix Cray, his left arm was a bloody stump and the medics had only just wheeled him out from surgery.

"How did we win?" Scarecrow muttered.

"Because of our reinforcements." Jack said back to him.

"True. How did you get here?"

"We have a teleporter."

"Seriously?"

"Yeah. He's over here." Jack said as a small man with black hair walked over to them.

"You're a teleporter?" Scarecrow asked.

"Yep, only two of us left." Crisis said.

"Show me."

Crisis put a hand on Scarecrow's shoulder and in a flash they were in London. Another flash and they were in Australia. A third time and they returned to Yorkshire.

"Impressive." Scarecrow said.

"Isn't it?"

"Say, do you want to hang around some more?"

"I intend to. I'm going to go back to Australia after this, continue working for Aubrey."

"I see. Well, good luck with that."

Crisis smiled and disappeared; probably back to Australia like he said.

The room looked out over the city. Drake looked at the leather armour that Bliss had brought him and he tried it on, it fit perfectly. There was a knock at the door and Vex walked in. He said that he had been invited to an urgent meeting downstairs.

He followed Vex downstairs into a small room filled with other people. An older man walked over and shook Drake's hand.

"I'm Corrival Deuce, and these are the Dead Men."

Drake looked at the six of them. He recognized Ghastly and Vex from before. Deuce introduced the others. Anton Shudder, a big man with black hair speckled with grey. Saracen Rue, a short unshaven man. Erskine Ravel, the second in command. And Hopeless, a tall man with blond hair.

"Drake, your one of us now." Deuce said.

Rue smiled as he got up and punched Drake across the mouth. "Sorry, it's tradition."

Drake mumbled as the others got up and took it in turns to punch Drake across the jaw. He sat in a chair to recover from the initiation.

"Right lads. Now that's done we've got a mission." Deuce said.

"What is it?" Asked Erskine.

"You've got to steal an item from a castle invested with enemy necromancers."

"Lovely."

"Good. I've got a teleporter outside." Deuce moved from the room and Crisis Corvo walked in. The others joined hands and Drake followed, Crisis grabbed Erskine's shoulder and in a flash they were in a field that looked to be in southern England. A castle loomed over them. Erskine quickly hid behind a boulder, the others followed. Vex passed his hand over a symbol and a door in the rock opened up.

"Right." Erskine said. "I'll lead, Saracen behind me, Hopeless, Drake, Ghastly, Vex and Shudder will bring up the rear."

The door opened and they jogged down the corridor. After a few minutes of running the entered into a small storage room.

"We're safe in here." Rue said. Erskine nodded and went into the next room, a kitchen.

"We've got to split. Dexter, take Saracen, Anton and Hopeless and find the orb. I'll take Drake and Ghastly to go find Tenebrea." Erskine commanded.

They nodded and the others went left down the hallway past the kitchen. Drake and his group went right, up a flight of steps. The first room they looked in had no one in it. In the second room they saw two necromancers facing away from the door. Erskine and Ghastly moved up to them and knocked them out. They moved up another flight of steps and knocked out another necromancer.

The first room they checked on this floor was an office, Ghastly peered his head in, and brought it back quickly. "It's Tenebrea." He whispered.

They sneaked into the room as one of the necromancers turned around.

"Oi."

They reacted quickly, the other necromancers turned around as Ghastly punched the first man. Ravel pushed the air and the second man was slammed against the opposite wall. Drake punched the third man and he slumped to the ground, unmoving. Tenebrea used his shadows to slam Erskine against the wall. Ghastly moved in but Tenebrea dodged the punch but he didn't miss Drake's punch. The necromancer keeled over and Ghastly caught him. Moving as quick as they came in, they made their way back down to the kitchen. But there were two necromancers waiting for them. They darted around the corner dodging the shadows. "We best head for the main gate." Erskine yelled above the din.

A necromancer peered out from a side room and Drake kicked him. They continued to run and soon they were out in the courtyard. The other group was already there. Drake tackled one of them and Ghastly and Erskine sprinted from the main gate. Vex and Drake turned to the oncoming necromancers and fired off an energy bolt and a blast of air respectively. A fist of shadows hit Vex and he went flying. Hopeless moved up but a whip of shadows sent him back. Shudder opened his shirt and his gist burst forth, the necromancers ducked for cover as the gist swooped them.

A necromancer snuck up behind Shudder and caught him in a chokehold, cutting the gist off. Shudder shook him off, but it was too late a wave of shadows blasted them and they were separated. A necromancer with a spear came at Drake, he ducked under the shadows and ran behind the man and kicked the back of his legs, when his knees hit the ground, Drake punched him and he fell.

Shadows slammed into his back and Drake was slammed into a wall, the air rushed from his lungs. The shadows hit him again and he was flung head-over-heels. He looked at his attacker and seen Hopeless run over and slam him against the wall, killing him. Hopeless was whipped with shadows and went down, Drake responded with a blast of air, which sent the man flying. Hopeless rose to his feet as Rue wrestled with another necromancer in across the courtyard. Vex put a blast of energy through a necromancer that ran towards him.

"We leave now." Ghastly called to the others.

Drake looked over to see Vex disappear, then Rue, Erskine, Ghastly, Shudder, Hopeless. Then Crisis walked appeared next to Drake and in an instant they were back in the citadel.

"Did you get it?" Asked Deuce.

"Yep, we also snagged you their leader." Ghastly said.

"Good job lads. I'd say you best get some sleep while you can."

"Can't argue with you there." Laughed Rue.

They filed out of the room in pairs, until Drake was left with Vex.

"So, do you know who's who yet?" Vex asked.

"Most of these people I know from my world." Drake responded.

"Aye, there's been a lot of deaths over the years."

"Anyone in particular?"

"Well, Larrikin died only recently, Skulduggery went a long time ago. China Sorrows, Bliss' sister was on our side, before she was captured, Tome, Ode, Reticent, Mandat, Guild. All our leaders, the list of fighters is far too high."

"Oh dear. Any on Mevolent's side?"

"We've managed to take down Vengeous a few months ago, they've backed down a lot since then. We are expecting a big attack from him soon though."

"Ah, planning a trap?"

"How'd you know? But yes, we are."

"Yeah, we have a place in Nottingham Forest where we've laid a trap. Hopefully Mevolent takes the bait."

"Ah, what's over there?"

"We've got the Rock. A highly defendable castle."

"Aha, I remember that from my war, but it was destroyed really early on."

"Do you know General Mantis?"

"Yeah."

"He's a genius, all this was his idea." Vex said as they walked past a group of patrolling Cleavers. They passed through a door and into the medical wing of the citadel. The halls in this section was very clean and sterile, men and women in lab coats walked through the halls. Vex walked into a ward where an old man was tending to a person who was vigorously complaining.

"I'm certain I'm OK professor"

"No, you're not alright to go off fighting Wreath." The professor answered.

"Look, I'm a lieutenant at the Rock, I need to get back there."

"You'll go back there when I say you can."

"Professor Grouse." Vex said.

"Ah Dexter, what's your reason for visiting? Stabbed? Shot? Vampire bite?" Grouse said.

"Not this time professor. Say, have you met Drake?"

"No, I haven't had to treat him recently."

"Well that's good to know, because he's here."

"Hello professor." Drake waved.

"Well, by Meritorious's saggy right – "

"Aye, you can't use that insult anymore." Vex sighed.

"I forget. How are you Drake?"

"Healthy."

"Then what are you doing in here? Shoo."

"Actually we're here for the necromancer." Vex cut in.

"Ah, him. There, you can have him, he complains too much." Grouse said, pulling the blankets off Wreath.

"Thank you Dexter." Wreath said as he got out of the bed.

"Shut up Solomon. We have Auron Tenebrea downstairs and he might've mentioned you." Vex said.

"I haven't spoken with Tenebrea in years – " Vex cut Solomon off by punching him across the mouth. Solomon fell down hard on the ground.

"That was for Larrikin." Vex snarled as he stormed off. Drake hauled Solomon to his feet and dragged him out into the Atrium. He motioned to the Cleavers and they helped Drake carry Solomon down to the dungeons. The dungeons were a few floors bellows the throne room if the Atrium, they were suitably cold and miserable.

The Cleavers threw Solomon into and interrogation room, Drake followed him through the door and the others in the room looked up. Tenebrea was shackled to a chair in the centre of the room; the chair was covered in symbols, no doubt intended to cause pain. Ghastly, Deuce and Rue looked up. The Cleavers walked back in and held Solomon for them.

"Wreath." Ghastly spat the word out like he had put something sour in his mouth.

"How have you been collaborating with Tenebrea?" Asked Deuce.

"I haven't." Solomon said. "I haven't seen him for years."

"Bull. They knew that we would be raiding there at the time we did." Ghastly said.

"I don't – "

"Yes you do Solomon. You know exactly what happened, you had your own raiding party going there that same time, you knew why we were there, and you were trying to get there first." Rue said.

"How did you know that?" Drake asked.

"I know things." Rue smiled.

"I'm sorry for what happened." Solomon pleaded.

"Shut up." Ghastly said. "Tenebrea, has Solomon Wreath here been talking with you recently."

"I'm not saying anything." Tenebrea muttered. Ghastly sighed and placed his hand on a symbol on the chair, it lit up and Tenebrea screamed in pain. After a minute Ghastly took his hand off and the pain shut off.

"Either you speak to us or we bring in our good friend Noir Maleficent." Ghastly threatened.

Tenebrea shuddered at the thought of him being the one to extract the information. Maleficent has a one hundred precent success rate for gathering information from his prisoners. Even in Drake's dimension he was notorious, until he was killed many years ago.

"Alright. I'll speak." Tenebrea.

"Speak away." Rue said.

"Alright, the day before he sent me a carrier pigeon to say that you were visiting. He said that the Dead Men were going to come through their way."

"But you were wrong, Wreath's lot also tried to raid you, they tried to use us as a distraction. And we were forced to rescue Wreath and escape, Larrikin died in a last stand attempt."

"Is this true Wreath?" Deuce asked Solomon. Solomon nodded and Ghastly punched him twice across the face. Solomon collapsed to the ground and Ghastly and Rue walked from the room. The Cleavers dragged Solomon and Wreath away to the cells, leaving only Drake and Deuce left in the room.

"What is your world like?" Deuce asked.

"It's different, it's peaceful." Drake responded.

"Aye, sounds wonderful. Am I still alive over there?"

"I'm afraid not, you died barely a year ago during a Remnant outbreak in Ireland."

"That's a shame. Did I go epically?"

"You were bludgeoned to death."

"Oh, did I go gracefully then?"

"You then fell in a ditch."

"That's horrible."

"It was, you were the Grand Mage."

"I was?"

"Indeed, only for a weak though."

"It seems like that version of me has had some crappy luck. Whom did I take over from?"

"Thurid Guild."

"How did he get Grand Mage? Who's the English Grand Mage?"

"Strom."

"Ha, I always thought he was perfectly suited to being the Grand Mage."

"He's a good guy."

"As expected. Here, I've got a war meeting to visit."

"Bye then." Drake said and Deuce walked off the other way. Drake walked back up the stairs into the Atrium. The place was empty apart from the Cleavers standing guard. Drake walked the length of the open area and walked out into the sunshine. The cobbled courtyard was empty expect for Cleavers. Drake looked up at the citadel, its towers stretched into the sky, even more Cleaves patrolled the battlements. Something moving caught Drake's eye, a figure was sneaking along the top of the battlements, and he looked awfully suspicious. He jumped down to a lower terrace and Drake used the air to push him up to the battlements nearby. The man dropped down near Drake started to run past him. As soon as he was close Drake jumped out and put his arm straight out.

The man was clotheslined and went flying. The man jumped backs just as quick and tried to punch Drake, but he dodged and kicked at his knees. The man backed off and pulled out a dagger, Drake pulled out his sword and they engaged in a duel. Drake was quicker and his sword cut into the man's hand, forcing his to drop his dagger. Drake capitalised and forced the man back against a wall. The man smiled and twisted out of the danger and kicked Drake in the back, forcing him to the ground. Another kick and Drake went sprawling. The man smiled and picked up his sword. The Cleavers had started running towards them.

"Tell them Scarab says hello." The man said as the leapt from the building.

The Cleavers ran over but it was too late, Scarab was gone.

Chapter 3 – Beckett

They had caught them trying to leave the Sanctuary. Now they had them both sitting in an interrogation room.

"You can't keep us here." Beckett screeched from his chair. "You're breaking Sanctuary law by imprisoning a fellow Elder."

"Look, you were caught trying to leave this building with a convicted criminal." Saxon pointed out.

"Sult NOT a criminal."

"He's being charged with conspiracy, murder, accessory to murder, treason and a whole lot of other crap."

"He was not acting of his own accord."

"Yes he was, unless either Blaze of Silver was controlling his mind, then he is in serious trouble."

"Then you should interrogate Blaze or Silver then."

"Oh yeah, we should, only they're in a DIFFERENT DIMENSION!"

"Perhaps your Drake will bring back answers when he returns. Oh wait, he won't be returning."

"Shut up Beckett." Illori said, until now she had remained silent. "There is very good chance that that is a habitable dimension, and that Drake is indeed alive."

"And how do you know this?"

"Doctor Bone sent a drone through, and it sent back good signals before it was cut off."

"Ah, the reputable Doctor Bone."

"Shut up." Said Saxon again. "As Prime Detective of this Sanctuary, I hereby charge you, Elder Cassius Beckett, with accessory after the fact, aiding a fugitive, and resisting arrest. You can speak if you wish but, anything will be held against you."

Beckett stayed silent.

"And you, Bernard Sult, I charge you with murder, treason, conspiracy, accessory to murder, and littering."

Saxon motioned and the Cleavers moved forward and heaved the two Americans off to the holding cells. Illori moved out of the room, the new administrator, a sly woman named Bash walked towards her.

"Elder Reticent." She called. "Grand Mage Strom is calling for you, he says that Grand Mage Bisahalani is on the Global Link."

"What does he want?" Illori sighed.

"He demands that we release Elder Beckett and Bernard Sult immediately."

"Ah, you tell go back to Strom and tell him to tell Bisahalani that I think he can go and shove it."

"I don't think that's advisable Elder."

"At this point I've given up caring."

Another day since Drake had gone into the portal. The mages were starting to recover from the battles the other night. Ode was standing in front of the portal, watching the scientists run around like a bunch of mad ants before a big rain.

Graves walked over to Ode and looked at the scientists.

"Why don't we just give up and leave." Graves sighed.

"It's a habitable dimension. He's still in there, and so is Silver." Ode answered.

"Why don't we just give up and leave them in there, its as good as putting Silver in a cell and Drake would be a casualty of war."

"No."

"It's the best idea."

"I honestly don't know how you managed to get this far into the Sanctuary."

"I don't understand Elder."

"You understand perfectly Graves."

"I got this far because – "

Graves was cut off when Doctor Bone walked up to them.

"Elder Ode. I've got bad news."

"What is it Doctor?" Ode asked.

"Our previous estimation of when the portal will close was rather, optimistic."

"What's the problem?"

"As I said, our previous estimation was overly optimistic, and now our estimation puts the close day at the day after tomorrow."

"Excuse me?"

"The portal will close in two days."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"I'm afraid not Elder." The Doctor sighed. "However, in the hours before the portal closes, we can use our mages to power the portal for about an hour while someone goes in a fetches our detective."

"Can we send someone through now?"

"I'm afraid not, if we send someone through the portal now, there'd be a good chance that they wouldn't make it through alive."

"Why?"

"It's too unstable, barely seconds afterwards we sent the drone through, it was destroyed, parts inside it broke."

"So Drake and Silver could be lying dead on the other side."

"While possible, they were pulled through the night of the battle, which means that, because of the battle, the portal fed off the ambient energy in the air because of all the magic flying around. I theorize that that would've made the portal more stable and Drake would've survived."

"Good job Doctor, keep it up."

Doctor Bone nodded and hurried off to do something science-y with the Anomaly. Ode looked over to Graves and the other man looked like he was in cheery mood.

"What puts you in the good mood Graves?"

"Oh, you know, we might loose Drake in there."

"I'm trying very hard to punch you across the face, Palaver."

The smile dropped from his face. "Excuse me?"

"Since we've been here, you've done absolutely nothing. In the fighting you ran away, especially when things got bad, you left. We were fighting Hollow Men, werewolves, and you done nothing."

"I don't understand."

"YOU UNDERSTAND PERFECTLY PALAVER."

Graves backed away at the Elders fury.

"I – I – I was fighting." Graves stuttered.

"NO YOU WEREN'T. NOW GET OUT OF MY SIGHTS."

"W – what do you mean?"

"GO BACK TO LONDON. IF I SEE YOU IN THIS CAMP AGAIN, I'LL THROW YOU IN THE BRIG."

By now everyone had heard them and was gathering around. Graves got to his feet and backed away. Ode walked towards him and punched him. Graves dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"Scarecrow, show this scum-bag back to London before I kill him."

Scarecrow nodded and he and O'Neal hauled Graves off away towards the brig, all the others that had gathered around now moved away. Ode sighed and moved over towards the medical tent, the other mages watched him go, slightly shocked at what they had just seen. Ode ignored them and walked over to where Jack Carter was sitting with Polly and Felix.

Felix was still unconscious with his arm, and Polly was still unconscious with the bullet wound. Jack looked up as Ode sat down next to him.

"Are they going to live?" Ode asked.

"It's very touch and go. Both of them have sustained quite severe injuries." Jack answered.

"I see."

"How many did we lose in all?"

"About thirty of my guys, and four of yours, including the gist user."

"Ah, what of their commanders?"

"We killed Sinistre, and the Werewolf King. Blaze and Silver went through the portal, and Blatt and Sult are missing."

"Sult's made his way back to London."

"What?"

"He joined back up with Elder Cassius Beckett of the U.S Sanctuary."

"What happened then?"

"Well, Grand Mage Strom threw him in the holding cells."

"That's going to cause and uproar, that might even start another war."

"It just might, Grand Mage Bisahalani is very angry about it."

"This is serious, very serious. I need to speak with Aubrey."

"Good idea. Here, follow me to the command tent."

Ode got up and Jack followed him to the command tent. They entered to find Gloomstone standing at the table with all the maps on it.

"How go your necromancers?" Ode asked him.

"I've got them on guard duty." Gloomstone replied.

"Are they still on the same side as us?"

"They are, but not for very long. They're loyalties are wavering. We might have to leave soon."

"Oh. If you must leave then you leave."

"Thank you. We will leave tonight, I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Your help was invaluable."

"Look, if you ever need my help, please just call me. I've seen you and your people fight, I believe that you're good people. My temple may not ever assist you, but I can and will help you if you ever need it, I have supporters within my small force."

"Good to know."

Gloomstone nodded and shook Ode and Jack's hands, he then moved out of the tent to go fetch his men. Ode sighed and moved over to where Bolder and Cornelius sitting near the Global Link.

"Bolder. Can you get me the Australian Sanctuary please." Ode said.

He nodded and Bolder and Cornelius got to tapping away at the machine. Within minute, the pictures of the Australian Elders flickered into view.

"Grand Mage Aubrey." Ode greeted.

"Elder Ode." Aubrey said. "This is Elder Karrik and Elder Runnel. How may we help you?"

"Do we have your support?"

"With what?"

"You may have heard that Grand Mage Strom has had a falling out with Grand Mage Bisahalani and his Elders."

"I have heard vague details. What happened?"

"Bernard Sult was caught trying to flee the country with Elder Cassius Beckett. My fellow Elders placed them both under arrest had have put them in some lovely holding cells."

"That doesn't sound good. Is there any chance of war from this?"

"A decent chance, this is how the last one started."

"I see. What of the other Sanctuaries?"

"I'm not sure, no news has reached me here yet."

"Then I'm not certain we can align ourselves with you."

The Global Link beeped and Elder Illori Reticent appeared next to Aubrey.

"Hello guys." She said.

"Elder Reticent." Aubrey said.

"Grand Mage Aubrey. And Elders Karrik and Runnel."

"Elder Illori, we were just speaking of this mornings incident." Ode said.

"Ah yes."

"Me and my fellow Elders were wondering about wether our international Sanctuaries have spoken out yet?" Aubrey asked.

"They have, barely minutes ago in fact." Illori said

"What did they have to say?"

"The French and Germans have declared themselves neutral, but they support Grand Mage Bisahalani. Grand Mage Ubuntu has said that his Africans will support us, and Ode already has Frightening Jones in his ranks. The Russians have said that they will not ally with Grand Mage Bisahalani, but we don't know if they're with us though."

"I see. What of the others, the Brazilians? Or the Japanese?"

"All other Sanctuaries have said that they will not take sides. Except for Iceland."

"Iceland?"

"Yes, they have said that they will side with us."

"Well, that's good to know."

Illori said goodbye and she flickered away.

"Ode." Aubrey said. "I speak for my fellow Elders in saying that we will side with you in this."

"Thank you Grand Mage." Ode said.

"How went the battle?"

"We won."

"Good. How many casualties?"

"Four Australians."

"I see. What of the usurpers?"

"Silver, Blaze and Sinistre are dead, Blatt is missing and Sult is in custody."

"Ah. Good job Elder Ode, We must depart now. Goodbye."

The Global Link turned off and Ode went to sit down. He sighed. Things just kept getting better he thought.

"Scarab escaped." Meritorious said. He was pacing up and down the war room, a room set away from the Atrium to hold war councils.

"But everything is accounted for." Bliss said.

"I don't know why he was here."

"Perhaps I found him before he done anything?" Drake cut in.

"Perhaps that is true." Bliss said.

"It seems a likely theory." Trebuchet said.

"I think Drake might be right on this. Every time Scarab has infiltrated us, he has either killed someone, or taken something. This time, he hasn't." Deuce pointed out.

"Are you certain that everything is accounted for?"

"I'm certain Grand Mage. We checked everything twice." Bliss said.

"I'm content with that Bliss." Meritorious said. "We can't follow this up any further, we have too much to do with Mevolent nearing the Rock."

"Aye, we can't dwell on Scarab for too long." Strom agreed.

"Wait. Is Scarab on the same side as Mevolent?" Drake asked.

"No. Scarab is not with Mevolent, however they have worked together before." Deuce said.

"I thought so. Is he a danger?"

"No." Bliss said.

Drake nodded and he excused himself from the room. He walked from the war room and down into the dungeons. Earlier today Drake explained to Deuce that Silver was a wanted criminal and Deuce had him put in the dungeon. Drake walked past the Cleavers and he told them to put Silver into an interrogation room. Drake followed as the Cleavers shackled him into one of the torture-chairs.

Silver looked up as Drake stood in front of him.

"Where are we?" Silver asked.

"We're in a whole new world." Drake responded.

"What happened?"

"You dragged me through a portal."

"Ah yes, I did."

"Now, tell me all about your plans."

"No."

"You know what this chair is?"

"No."

"If I place my hand here, you will feel pain." Drake placed his hand on the same symbol that Ghastly did before, and Silver cried out in pain. Drake removed his hand and Silver stopped yelling.

"Now you tell me what I need to know, or I give you to Mevolent."

"I refuse."

Drake placed his hand on the symbol and Silver cried out in pain again.

"You really have no choice."

"Because we were being commanded by someone."

"By who?"

"I can't remember."

Drake punched Silver across the jaw. "Don't be stupid."

"I honestly can't."

Drake punched him again. "You must."

"I can't. He must've dazzled me somehow."

"The world doesn't work like that."

"I. Can't. Remember."

"You can't actually?"

"I told you, I couldn't."

"Where is Blatt?"

"Dead."

"Seriously."

"Yeah, we sacrificed him to the Werewolf King."

"I see."

"Where's Sult?"

"You don't ask the questions."

"Do you know?"

"No. Why did you try to usurp the Elders?"

"We were following orders."

"From who?"

"I don't know."

"Do you know where we are?"

"No."

"We're in an alternative dimension. A dimension where Mevolent is still alive."

"Mevolent is alive?"

"Apparently. But your not going to get to see him."

Drake smiled as he placed his hand on the symbol again and Silver screamed. This time Drake didn't take his hand off and he stood there listening to his screams.

Chapter 4 – Ambush

It was time for another raid. It had been one day since Drake interrogated Silver. And now the Dead Men were preparing for another mission. Tenebrea had admitted that a vital member of Mevolent's inner circle of followers was to be travelling between bases. Solomon was still shackled down in the dungeon with Tenebrea.

"It's vital that we grab him and get out very quickly." Deuce addressed the Dead Men.

"Who will be guarding him?" Erskine asked.

"A small group of soldiers, nothing you boys can't handle."

"What information does he have?" Hopeless asked.

"Very important information, sorry, need to know basis only."

"Understandable. But, how important is it on a scale of one to eleven." Vex asked.

"Eight. Now, are you ready to head off?"

All of them nodded.

"Great, Crisis will teleport you over."

Crisis walked over to them, they all joined hands and in a flash they now found themselves in a wooded area.

"This is in Shropshire." Ravel muttered.

Crisis nodded to Erskine and he disappeared again.

"They'll be moving down that road in fifteen minutes." Rue said.

"Good. Ghastly, take Hopeless and Shudder and move over to the other side." Erskine ordered. "The rest of us will wait until they until they're right in front of us, then we'll jump them. Ghastly, Hopeless and Shudder will then ambush them from behind."

"What if they have outriders?" Drake asked.

"They don't." Rue said.

Ghastly's group moved over to the other side of the road. Drake surveyed the road. Light cliffs rose up on both sides, providing an excellent ambush. The road itself was a miserable dirt track.

Just then a train of people turned the corner. People dressed in red hoods carrying scythes made up most of the group. In the centre, a man was riding a horse. Beside the man on the horse was another man, a tall man with greying hair and wearing a military uniform. Baron Vengeous.

Drake heard the Dead Men around him swear. "I thought we killed him." Vex sneered.

"Obviously not." Erskine said.

When the group was ten meters away, the Dead Men leaped in front of the group. As soon as they landed, the Redhoods readied their weapons. Drake pushed the air and a Redhood went flying. He seen Erskine duck underneath the scythe of a Redhood and he tacked it too the ground. Vex used an energy blast to tear the head off another. Vengeous went straight for Rue and Vengeous knocked the smaller man flying. A tall man came for Drake but Drake dodged out of the way; he instinctively reached for his sword, which wasn't there. The tall man kicked Drake in the torso and sent Drake back into the cliff lining the road. Hopeless ran past, trying to punch Vengeous. The tall man put his hands around Drake's throat, Drake kicked his chest and he lost grip of Drake's throat and Drake dropped to the ground. Drake kicked his leg and the man dropped to the ground. Drake kicked his head and he slumped over, unconscious.

Vengeous slammed Hopeless against the cliff. Ghastly was wrestling with the man with the horse. Drake dodged a scythe and set fire to the Redhood. Shudder was fighting two Redhoods at once on the other side of the road. Rue ran at Vengeous and his eyes started glowing. Rue stopped in his tracks, and he started shaking. Hopeless turned around but he couldn't do anything. Rue looked around in horror as he exploded.

All the other Dead Men looked around in shock. Shudder roared and his gist burst forth and killed the two Redhoods. The gist continued and Vengeous dodged it, but Hopeless tacked him. Vengeous shook him off. The gist slashed Vengeous's chest open and he tumbled to the ground, Vex fired an energy beam that went through his chest. Vengeous keeled over, dead.

Erskine was wrestling with the man that had the horse. The man tried to punch Erskine, but he was too slow. Erskine dodged and kicked his knee.

Flash.

The forest road disappeared and Drake was back in the citadel. Another flash and Erskine and the man appeared. Erskine punched him again. Behind them Crisis appeared with Shudder, Vex, Ghastly and Hopeless. Cleavers ran forward and shackled the man. The other Dead Men all lowered their heads. Deuce ran forward, towards them.

"Good job lads. Wait, where's Saracen?" Deuce panted.

"Vengeous happened." Ghastly muttered.

"Vengeous was dead."

"Obviously not." Hopeless sneered.

"I'm sorry. But we'll have to mourn later, there's a break in happening now."

Deuce dashed from the room, Drake followed. All the Dead Men stayed in the room, all looking sad. Drake followed Deuce to the sounds of fighting in the dungeons. The quickly descended the stairs, on the far side of the corridor, Cleavers were trying to break through a barricade. Even from here Drake could see shadows whipping around. Drake dodged around the Cleavers, grabbing a fallen scythe. He slashed at the nearest necromancer, and he fell to the ground.

Wreath tried to throw the shadows at Drake, but Drake easily dodged them. Shadows slashed through the Cleavers. Drake tackled Tenebrea, the necromancer recoiled as Drake elbowed him. Shadows whipped past like swooping birds. Drake punched another and he fell down. A Cleaver killed a female necromancer behind him.

Drake looked up to see a writhing mass of shadows appear in front of them. Shadows burst forth from the mass and they pierced Cleavers. The shadows started to form a shape, it all merged together into a suit of armour. The person that could only be Lord Vile stepped towards him. Drake dodged a spear of shadows and threw a fireball at Vile that hit his armour and went out instantly. Two Cleavers ran at Vile and Vile killed them before they got close. Drake tried to get close to him, but the armour went sharp and Drake backed away, a new gash in his arm.

Drake ducked down an adjoining corridor. He saw people fire energy beams at Vile, and Vile threw shadows back at them and they screamed. Drake found a dagger lying on the ground and he threw it at Vile, the shadows caught the dagger and flung it back, it missed Drake by a hairsbreadth.

Drake compressed the air into his palm; it formed a swirling ball of air. He chucked the ball of compressed air at Vile. It hit him square in the chest and Vile was flung back against the wall. The necromancer was stunned. Taking advantage, Drake created another ball of air and this time he added fire to the mix. Vile only just looked up as the attack hit him again, the ball of fire and air exploded in a mass of swirling fire. Vile shadow-walked in front of Drake and he knocked Drake back. He slammed into the wall and he slumped to the ground.

He dodged some more shadows and he pulled out his gun. He fired into the armour, but the shadows swallowed them up. The shadows hit Drake again and flung him even further back. Drake pushed at the air and Vile stumbled back. Drake ran in close to Vile and grabbed his armour. He tried to rip the armour off Vile and he almost pulled the chest plate off, he glimpsed bone underneath. Vile punched Drake and he fell off. The shadows turned sharp and Drake only just got out the way in time.

Drake created a vacuum of air around Vile, and tried to choke him. It was ineffective, so Drake put his hands on the ground and felt all the particles in the stone. He jerked his hands to the side and a crack opened up beneath Vile. He moved his hands in a circular motion, as if he was cleaning the floor. The cracks opened up and Vile put his foot in the hole and he tripped over. Drake jumped on top of him and tried to pry his helmet off. A stream of shadows hit Drake and he was flung onto the ceiling, he bounced off at hit the ground.

Vex and Ghastly appeared at the end of the corridor and Vex fired an energy beam that hit Vile in the back, Vile stumbled and Shudder's gist rammed into Vile. Vile's shadows hit the gist and it exploded, and Shudder collapsed. Vex fired another energy beam which hit Vile in the chest, Vile stumbled backwards and Drake pushed the air into the back of Vile's legs and the necromancer collapsed.

A wave of shadows burst from the armour and it hit Drake, leaving a cut on his torso, it also hit Vex, making a large gash in his upper leg. Another wave of shadows and Lord Vile shadow-walked away. Drake waited a minute, to see if Vile reappeared. He didn't, so Drake walked over to Vex, who was trying to stop his leg bleeding. Cleavers scrambled the area, Deuce walked over to them.

"Lord Vile?" He asked.

"Yeah. He's gone." Drake breathed back.

"You're not dead."

"I'm not dead."

"You faced Vile and survived."

"Not just survived, he even dealt a lot of damage to Vile." Vex muttered.

"That's brilliant." Deuce muttered.

More Cleavers swarmed and Drake was carted off to the medical wing. He was pushed into the ward with Professor Grouse. The professer readied a bed that the Cleaver sat Drake down on, Grouse pulled over a trolley full of medical equipment. Another Cleaver put Vex down on the opposite bed, and another doctor hurried over to him.

"I heard you just punched Lord Vile." Grouse said as he wrapped a bandage around Drakes arm. Sigils on the bandage glowed and pressure was applied to the wound.

"Or in other terms, you just punched Cthulu."

"Wait, did you just reference H.P Lovecraft?" Drake said, surprised.

"Of course I did. Famous author, his stories are based on the Faceless Ones and Mevolent."

"I know that, he was famous in my dimension too."

"Are his stories the same there?"

"Well, I guess so. Did you say that he based his abominations on Mevolent as well?"

"I did say that. Mevolent and Vile, they could wage war on us by themselves if they felt like it. Very few people have fought them and lived. You, Shudder, Meritorious, that's about it."

"That few eh."

"Indeed. A year ago we had a major offensive, and it failed miserably – "

"Ay. We weren't that bad." Vex pleaded.

"As I was saying." Grouse said. "The offensive failed. Vile killed a lot of our leaders that day. Guild, Ode, Reticent. Many more fell before him."

"Do you know whatever happened to Tesseract?"

"He went back to Russia. Drake, the Russians are also holding out against Mevolent. Led by Dragunov, Dolohov and Tesseract." Grouse placed a bandage on the wound on Drake's stomach.

"Professor, what do you know of the Faceless Ones?" Drake asked.

"Quite a bit, I don't spend all my time here repairing the Dead Men. At least two to three hundred years ago, they actually broke through into this reality."

"Was that on purpose?"

"Mevolent certainly intended for them to come through, I don't think he meant for them to ignore him."

"What?"

"They came through the portal, but they attacked Mevolent instead. He had to fight them. Luckily, only a few came through, Mevolent and Vile had to kill them."

"Did they succeed?"

"Surprisingly yes. Mevolent and Vile won. It also marked the end of the Faceless Worshippers. They seen Mevolent kill their gods, and being the weak idiots they are, they stopped worshipping the abominations that are the Faceless Ones, and they started worshipping Mevolent."

"That sounds horrible."

"It is. Tell me Drake, did that happen in your world?"

"No it didn't. The Faceless Ones didn't come through the portal, Mevolent didn't kill any, no one worshipped him, Vile disappeared and we won the war."

"You won? How did you manage that?" Grouse asked as he moved over and checked Vex.

"Mevolent lost Vile about a hundred years before the war ended, that put him on the back foot. Then Skulduggery Pleasant came and killed Vengeous seventy years later. Thirty years of planning and we had Serpine and Mevolent on opposite sides of the world, Mevolent was in Ireland and we had Serpine holed up in Australia. We surrounded Mevolent, but little did we know, Serpine had a teleporter. He gave us the slip and attacked us from behind in Ireland."

"Keep going this is getting good."

"The Dead Men of my world managed to fight him off. Meritorious then led his men against Mevolent. He alone was beating Meritorious' forces. He went up against Meritorious, Strom and Deuce, leaving others to fight Mevolent's army, that's what I was doing, he nearly killed Meritorious, and then he just, exploded."

"How did that happen?"

"The God-Killer weapons. We had the dagger, bow and the spear. Mevolent had the sword. I'm not certain of what happened, but from what I've heard, all the weapons were brought together, and kind of exploded. The weapons turned against Mevolent and he blew up."

"Interesting, perhaps Mevolent had ancient blood."

"I don't know, he was mostly in ashes when I got there. Most of those Elders are dead in my world."

"How disappointing." The Professor finished putting the bandages on Vex.

"How did they go?" Vex asked.

"Well, Meritorious was killed by Serpine with the Sceptre of the Ancients and Deuce was killed by a remnant."

"That sounds horrid."

"Say, who has the God-Killers over here?"

"We have some, Mevolent has some, the Sceptre is missing."

"Did anyone ever find the sceptre?"

"No, no one's had it since the Ancients."

"I think I might know where it is." Grouse turned to Drake.

"What was that boy?"

"A few years ago in my world, Skulduggery Pleasant fought with Serpine over it. Very few people knew where it was hidden. I was one of them."

"We need to speak with the Grand Council."

Night was falling over London. Few people stayed in the Sanctuary, the Cleavers stood the night shift, the head of security stayed on late to make sure they done their jobs, which was pointless really. Saxon Sheath was still trying to get answers from Sult.

Illori sat in her office on the third floor of the Sanctuary, a window looked out over the street. Cars moved up and down the road, unawares of what went on in the building that they passed. Unaware of the entire sub culture that excised right outside their vision, how many times the very existence of the entire world was in jeopardy, and they didn't even know it.

Illori watched as three men in black clothing walked along the street, moving quickly, brushing past people in a hurry. Even more men in suits followed them, also moving quickly. Over the road a man, taller than passing civilians, stood watching a window to the right of hers. The Grand Mage had an admirer. Illori passed them off, lots of people watched the Sanctuary, and with tensions like they were, they were most likely American.

Illori pressed her hand against a communication symbol. "We have suspicious persons outside the building. Request Cleavers investigate." She said into the symbol. There was a knock at the door,

"Come in."

The door opened and Administrator Hyphenate-Bash walked in. She straightened up before speaking.

"Elder Reticent." She said. "Grand Mage Strom has just received a message over the Global Link."

"What was it about?" Illori asked.

"It was the Americans again. That said that we've had our chance to return Sult and Elder Beckett, and now they're going to take matters into their own hands."

"Is this true?"

"Certainly."

"Those people." Illori gasped. She moved over to the communications symbol. "Calling all personnel. We are under attack. Commencing Lock-Down procedures. All mages move to your nearest strongroom immediately, all Cleavers begin searching for intruders."

She pressed her hand against another symbol and alarms started.

Lock-Down was whenever the Sanctuary is breached. Metal security doors were lowered to cut off every floor and block every entrance and exit. Because it was after the usual time everyone left, only about a third of the usual mages were left. She could hear explosions and gunfire from the lower floors. She pushed past Hyphenate-Bash and walked out into the corridor, much to the Administrator's chagrin. Grand Mage Strom walked down the corridor towards her.

"We can't stay here Elder Reticent." He said. "We'll be their first targets."

"I say we fight. Like the good old days." Illori said.

"I must say I agree with you."

"Ready to go and kick some Americans?"

"Oh God yes."

For the first time in a while, Illori smiled properly. They walked down to the end of the corridor; two Cleavers took point, Strom and Illori walked behind them, and Grim, Hyphenate-Bash followed the other two Cleavers. They passed a security door and started to walk down the stairs. Halfway down, a person with a dagger stood over a falling Cleaver. He turned as the front two Cleavers sprinted towards him. There was a flash of green behind them as the tall man from the street stood at the top of the staircase. The other two Cleavers ran at him, but he threw a purple flame at them and they collapsed. Grim dodged the green flame and threw a fireball at the tall man.

The Elders turned and continued down the stairs past the man with the dagger as the Cleavers pulled their scythes from his body. The first pair of Cleavers moved towards the tall man as the security door closed the staircase off, trapping the tall man. They continued through the second floor, another three Cleavers joined them.

"We need to get to the dungeon." Strom shouted.

The tall man from before stood at the end of the corridor.

"Cleavers hold him off." Strom commanded.

The Cleavers ran towards him as Strom's group ran for the next set of stairs. They reached the bottom and an American approached them, Strom blasted him with lightning and the American collapsed to the ground. Another American, one if the ones in the black clothing ran towards them. Strom blasted more lightning, but the man dodged out the way, Illori tried to hit him with an energy beam but he dodged that also. He moved in quickly and pushed Hyphenate-Bash away. He punched Strom in the shoulder, then went low and kicked his knee.

He didn't notice Illori as when she punched him across the face. He fell to one knee and Illori kicked his shoulder and he spun, she kicked him again and this time he hit his head against the wall and was finally put down.

Strom got up again as a Cleaver ran towards them. Illori walked over and helped Hyphenate-Bash to her feet, "Go find a strongroom." Illori instructed.

The Administrator nodded as she ran down the corridor towards the strongroom. Strom led them down towards the stairs; an English mage was leaning against the wall, holding his arm in obvious pain.

He fell in step with the Cleaver as Strom moved down the stairs, zapping another American as he went.

At the bottom of the stairs they took a right instead of the left, which would take them into the entrance hall. They went down a small flight of steps and entered the dungeon. Two Cleavers lay dead against the wall, moving further, they say the head of security lying on the ground. His head was separate from his body; two more Cleavers had their heads removed a few meters away.

They looked at the holding cells. The walls were cracked and all the cells were broken, scorch marks lined the walls. There were no more prisoners in the cells. Beckett and Sult were missing and all the other prisoners had been killed.

Strom turned from the room and they ran back towards the entrance hall. They went through the broken security door and ran straight into a battle.

Saxon Sheath was blocking the entrance, at least fifteen Cleavers stood with him. Twelve American mages, including the tall man from before. Strom jumped behind them and zapped one with lightning. The tall man hit tree Cleavers with purple flame and they slumped to the ground. A person in black jumped on Strom and they both tumbled to the ground. A flash of energy and the mage they picked up was fried where he stood. Illori returned the blast, but the American was too quick he kicked Illori's knee. He tried to follow it up with a kick, but the Cleaver jumped between them.

The tall man stepped over her. "Elder Reticent." He spoke in a Russian accent. "I am Dolohov, a Russian mercenary hired by the Americans."

"Hi, I'm Elder Illori Reticent of the English Sanctuary, and I'm going to kill you."

Illori said. She raised her hand and a blast of energy hit Dolohov. The Russian went flying and Illori got up. An American threw a bomb at the Cleavers. It exploded, forcing everyone to drop to the ground. Two figures tried to sprint for the door, but Saxon cut them off.

The Americans tried running to the stairs, but the remaining Cleavers blocked their way, Dolohov tried to hit them with his green flame, but the Cleavers leaped out of the way. Beckett tried to run between them, but Saxon hit him before he got any further. Sult grabbed Saxon in a headlock and they both went down. A blast of air sent Illori spinning away from the fight.

Strom was stumbling away from the fight, holding his chest and coughing. With a loud yell, Grim came running down from the other end of the hall, and went barrelling into the American mages. He knocked two off their feet quickly, a third kicked his knee and Grim threw that mage to the ground. Across the hall, Illori could see Dolohov smile. A green flame hit Grim in the back and he crashed to the ground. Saxon threw away an unconscious Sult and Beckett was on his hands and knees, trying to stand.

Dolohov summoned a green flame, and he threw it towards Saxon. Saxon dodged the flame and threw his own fire at Dolohov. The Russian swatted the flames away, he threw more green flame at Saxon, and this time the green flame hit Saxon in the face. The detective went limp and was dead before he hit the ground.

Dolohov turned around and all the American mages disappeared.

"They've got an invisibility sphere." Illori yelled.

She fired an energy beam at where they stood, but the beam sizzled through the air, missing everything. She bolted up the steps; she reached the top and ran out into the sunshine. She followed the alleyway towards the street. Across the road, the Americans were visible again and had got into a van. The engine roared and the van sped out onto the street and away into the city.

Strom followed her up the steps, panting.

"They're gone." He breathed.

"They are." Illori muttered back.

"You go recall Ode. I'm going to go threaten Bisahalani."

In fifteen minutes the portal was going to close. There was nothing Doctor Bone, Krill, or any of the scientists could do. Elder Ode stood with everyone, gathered in a semicircle around the Anomaly.

"He's stuck in there." Frightening said.

"He's still alive, he should work out a way to return." Gibbs responded.

"I'm not sure that is possible." Krill muttered.

"Why so pessimistic Krill?" Gibbs asked.

"Sorry, I really can't help it. I am a scientist. We're more realists in that industry."

"There's nothing wrong with optimism." Scarecrow said. "I'm optimistic that Palaver Graves is going to have a shocking accident."

"We are at war again." Ode walked over to the group. The others looked over in surprise.

"Again?" Gibbs asked, he looked concerned.

"Yes, a group of Americans just attacked the Sanctuary."

"Was anyone hurt?" Asked Scarecrow.

"They killed a few mages and quite a few Cleavers. Saxon Sheath was one of the dead. They also took off with Beckett and Sult."

The others cursed.

"The Grand Mage has called everyone back to the Sanctuary." Ode said.

"What of the other major outposts? Cardiff, Belfast." Scarecrow asked.

"They'll still be there, but we have to return."

"Quiet, the portal's closing." Krill said.

"What's going on?" Asked someone from behind them. Scarecrow turned to see Felix Cray and Polly Hunter walked over to them. Felix had a coat over his arm, but he was obviously holding it close to his body, the sleeve flapped in the wind. Polly was pale and was holding her stomach and was limping.

"Ah, haven't you heard?" Cornelius asked. "Oh dear God, you don't know do you."

"Someone please tell us what happened." Felix asked.

"During the battle." Jack explained. Beside him, Gruff had his head down; the big man had barely spoken since the battle. Jack stuttered and Scarecrow took over.

"During the battle. Drake was pushed into the portal by Silver, who was dragged in too."

"So you're saying that Drake is in there?" Polly said.

"Yes."

"Then go get him. Send someone in there."

"We can't."

"What. Why?"

"The portal is closing in a minute."

They turned as a gurgling noise came from the portal. It started getting smaller, slowly at first, but in started quickening up. It was spinning quickly. The black turned to red, throwing a red hue over the watching crowd. Felix was standing, staring at the portal, his eyes wide in shock. Polly tried to run towards it, but Frightening grabbed her and held her back. The portal got even smaller. With a pop the portal closed, cutting off the red hue.

All the mages bowed their heads. Polly still tried to run towards the portal, but Frightening stayed with her.

Just like that he was gone. Arcabor Drake was gone. Forever.

Chapter 5 – The Caves

The day after Lord Vile's attack, Drake was standing in front of the Grand Council. Professor Grouse had called them as soon as Drake said that he knew where the sceptre was.

"You know where it is?" Asked Meritorious.

"Yes I do." Drake answered.

"Where?" Asked Strom.

"There's a cave system north of Dublin."

"Is that so? Perhaps you wouldn't mind leading the Dead Men to go find it." Meritorious said.

"We can't spare any soldiers." Bliss said. "Mevolent is only a day from attacking the Rock."

"That may be true, we can spare the Dead Men for a few hours though."

"We can give you two hours. We need a seventh member though." Deuce said.

"There's no one we can spare." Bliss said.

"You don't need to. All you need is too allocate someone with the Dead Men."

"Fine Corrival. I'll go asking for any volunteers." Bliss said as he turned and walked from the Atrium.

"Commander Deuce." Meritorious said. "Take Drake and brief the Dead Men."

Deuce nodded and Drake followed him from the Atrium, they walked up a flight of steps and went into a briefing room. Drake sat down in a chair and Deuce walked from the room. A minute later he returned with the Dead Men, they filed in the room at sat down in the chairs. After they sat down, the teleporter Crisis Corvo walked into the room as well.

"All right boys. Drake knows the location of a weapon that could turn the tide of the war." Deuce announced.

"What is this weapon?" Ravel asked.

"The Sceptre of the Ancients." Deuce said. Everyone in the room gasped. "You've got two hours to go there, find the Sceptre and get back here before Mevolent overruns the Rock."

"Alright. But we need a seventh member." Vex said.

"I volunteer." Everyone turned to Crisis.

"Well, I'm your transport already, may as well make it official."

"All those in favour of Crisis joining raise your hand." Deuce said.

Ravel, Ghastly, Shudder and Drake raised their hands.

"A majority. Well, Crisis Corvo. Welcome to the Dead Men." Deuce smiled.

Shudder got to his feet and punched Crisis across the face. Knocking the teleporter back.

"Sorry, tradition." He muttered.

The Dead Men took it in turns to hit the teleporter in the face. After everyone took their turn the teleporter slumped over in the corner of the room.

"Good job, you nearly killed him." Deuce said. "Anyways, it is vital that you do this quickly. We need to help out General Mantis and Morwena Crow over at the Rock."

Erskine nodded and Crisis got to his feet and stumbled over to the group. Everyone grabbed the teleporter.

"Take us to Dublin." Drake muttered.

In a flash they stood on a dusty street. The sky overhead was grey. Drake looked around, Dublin wasn't as he remembered, and this Dublin was far more ramshackle. The buildings were run down and they drooped over the street like willow trees.

"What happened?" Drake muttered.

"Mevolent happened." Ghastly said. "Ireland is a Cradle of magic, and as such Mevolent took this place first, he turned it into his stronghold."

"Where are these caves?" Asked Hopeless.

"About an hour north of here."

"Crisis. Can you take us over there?" Ravel asked.

"Sure thing." He said in his estuary accent.

In another flash they now stood in a rocky field near the coast. Wind blasted them as soon as they appeared.

"Right, this should be where the caves are." Drake said.

"Good. Take us there." Ravel said.

They walked through the field, going away from the sea. They passed many rocky outcrops and hills. They walked for fifteen minutes until a dark hole in the ground appeared in front of them. It was a massive wound in the dirt and stone of the ground, as if it was ready to swallow up anything that went near.

"That's it?" Asked Crisis.

"Yes it is." Drake said.

"Excellent guys. Now, Drake and I will take point. Hopeless, cover the end of the line. Let's go.

Drake scrambled down into the cave, pulling out his pistol, Erskine Ravel followed behind, he summoned a flame that lit up the walls of the cave in an orange hue. Vex came third in the line and he was holding a shotgun. At the end of the line, Ghastly and Hopeless followed, glancing back, searching for anything following them.

The cave twisted and turned in a never-ending maze. The stone walls of the cave seemed to hem them in and suffocate them. Behind them, a loud, grizzly roar filled the cave. A big, black shape filled the tunnel they were in. Erskine yelled at the others to run.

The Dead Men bolted out of that hall of stone and they turned a curve in the cave. A ledge appeared ahead of them and Drake managed to leap over it and land safely beneath it. But most of the Dead Men weren't so lucky, they failed to notice the ledge and they tumbled to the ground. Drake turned around to help them, but Ravel waved him on. Drake continued to run, he climbed over another ledge and jumped over a hole in the ground. His foot caught a rock and he tumbled to the ground. He got to his feet, and the ground underneath him moved.

Drake jumped back in time to see a gaping mouth full of teeth open up in the rock. It roared and gnashed its teeth, Drake stumbled back in shock. As his hand hit the rock of the wall and he felt an opening in the rock. He placed his hands on either side of the opening and felt the rock underneath. He poured his energy into the rock and the wall crumbled.

He sprinted through this new opening. The next lot of cave was a long, straight passage. He could hear the other Dead Men yelling back in the other section. He sprinted down this new section, at the end of the corridor the cave opened up into a circular cavern.

In the centre of the cavern, a stone plinth sat, and on that stone plinth, on top of an old sheet of linen, lay the Sceptre of the Ancients. The Sceptre pulsed with a purple light. Drake moved slowly over to the Sceptre, paranoid that a bolt of lightning might shoot out at him. He stood over the plinth, he studied the Sceptre. It was nearly a metre long, and was made of obsidian and gold, at the end of it, a purple crystal was pulsating. He nervously reached his hand out towards it; tentatively he wrapped his hand around the Sceptre.

Bam.

Drake jumped back in surprise, it wasn't the blowing Drake up, but it was the sounds of battle in the distance. The Sceptre still in his hands, Drake made his way out of the cave the same way he came in. But the corridor was different, this one curved to the right. A monster with the appearance to a bear leaped out from the curve in the cave. Drake raised the Sceptre and pointed it at the monster. How were you supposed to fire it? Was it something that you had to say? Or press? Or did you just have to think it?

Purple lightning filled the cave and the bear-monster was turned into a pile of dust. Well that worked. All you had to do was think about firing –

Bam

Purple lightning filled the cave again and a boulder turned to dust.

"Hey, you found it."

Drake quickly spun around, holding the Sceptre out, but he quickly dropped it when he realised it was only Dexter Vex. Drake lowered the Sceptre. Vex was holding his elbow close to his body, and there was a cut above his right eye.

"Where are the others?" Drake asked.

"We got separated after you left we are supposed to head up to the surface. Crisis fell down a hole, and Ghastly got sucked through a wall, no idea about the others."

"I see, I say we have to stick together until we reach the surface."

"No, I have to go find Hopeless and Erskine. You find the surface and get back to the Citadel as fast as you can."

"I can't leave you lot."

"You can and you are. Defeating Mevolent is far more important than any of us."

Drake nodded and ran past Vex, who ran off in the opposite direction. Drake continued along the path that he was on until the cave started on slant upwards. He tripped on a rock and lost grip on the Sceptre. The weapon rolled back down the cave. Drake dived and grabbed it before it could move to far. At the end of the slope, sunlight shone through an opening in the rocks.

Getting up, Drake ran towards the opening. One hundred meters, two hundred. As soon as Drake was within spitting distance, the rocks groaned and moved, cutting off the light.

"No, no, no, no." Muttered Drake.

He raised the Sceptre towards where the rocks closed. A purple flash hit the rocks, disintegrating some of them. He kept the lightening going and more rocks turned to dust. With a bang the wall turned to dust and sunlight hit Drake. He squinted his eyes as he walked out into the bright light. He stumbled past the rocky outcrops and collapsed on the grass.

"Hey."

Drake sprung to his feet in readiness of an attack, but it was only the teleporter.

"Where are the others?" Asked Crisis.

"I don't know. I seen Vex before, but all of them are still in the cave." Drake said. "He told me to go straight back to Meritorious."

"We can't leave them."

"That's exactly what we are going to do. They're the Dead Men, they can handle themselves."

"I'm not going to."

"Just take me back there, then you can come back and get the others."

Crisis stared at him for a minute. Then he nodded and placed his hand on Drake's shoulder. In an instant they were back in the Atrium. Drake fell over and lost his grip of the Sceptre and it rolled away. Crisis disappeared again, and behind him, in crimson robes, stood Meritorious.

The Supreme Mage picked up the Sceptre and Bliss hauled Drake to his feet.

"Mevolent is attacking the Rock right now, it is expected that he'll break through very soon." Meritorious said. "Thank you Arcabor Drake, this will be very helpful." He paused to look at the Sceptre. "Bliss, fetch Cameron Light and I'll go kill Mevolent personally."

"You can't." Drake said

"Why is that?"

"Because, the Sceptre bonds to the person that is in command of it, which is me, because I was the first to grab it in the cave."

"So, you're the only person that can control the Sceptre."

"Yes."

"Unless, say, we kill you."

"That's not fair, why would you do that."

"So I can kill Mevolent personally. All this years, and now is the best chance to kill that tyrant."

"Well, that is completely understandable. But, see here Mr Meritorious. You would be killing the only person that knows the right word to activate it."

"What is the word? If you don't say anything, we can force it out."

"But that would be remarkably ineffective. You see, there is a word to activate it and also one to deactivate it. Even under duress you won't know what word is what."

"Show me. Kill that table over there."

Drake grabbed the Sceptre from Meritorious and pointed it at the large table in front of the thrones. In a flash of purple lightning the table turned to dust.

"You didn't speak." Meritorious said.

"I never said that the key word was verbal."

"You withheld information."

"You never specified."

A woman ran over to the Supreme Mage. "Mevolent has nearly breached the walls of the Rock."

Meritorious nodded, then looked towards a man with red hair. The man put his hands on the shoulders on Drake and Bliss. In an instant they were teleported into the interior of what appeared to be a medieval castle.

Drake looked around, people were quickly walking past, in obvious hurry. In the distance, screams and explosions could be heard. In the centre of the room, a tall thing with horrible grey skin and a gas mask on its face stood over a map. Also a woman with black hair was talking with it.

The tall Crenga looked over to Drake and Bliss. "Ah, Mr Bliss. You have arrived. And who is this?" It said in a squeaky voice.

"That's Drake, he has the Sceptre of the Ancients, he's going to win this for us. Fill me in on the situation."

"Splendid. Mevolent approached us from the west. He began attacking the outer wall in that direction; we removed all forces from the outer wall and set up a perimeter shield around and over the inner wall. He has a significant amount of Redhoods and mages in his army, including Lord Vile."

Drake walked over to the map. It was an interactive map with live images of the opposing armies. The force gathered outside the walls flashed with colour, representing magic being used. Two stars near the back of the army stood out, obviously Mevolent and Lord Vile. A slightly smaller star was nearer to the wall.

"That's Serpine." The woman said. "Oh, and I'm Morwena Crow."

"Ah hello. I'm Drake."

"Pleased to make you my acquaintance. I hope we both survive this and meet again."

"Of course we are all going to survive. I'm going to go out there and zap Mevolent and Vile, and be back home in time for dinner."

"You sound awfully optimistic."

"Optimistic? I'd say I'm a realist here."

"No, we've been fight Mevolent for over three hundred years, if you've been fighting him for that long than you should know it really isn't that easy."

"Oh, I know. I've seen him be defeated. I know how it is to kill the one man that had taken up the last three hundred years of your life."

"Really now."

"They've nearly broken the outer circle." General Mantis said. "Drake, Bliss, you shall be joining the forces on the inner wall. Commander Regis and Commander Gloomstone are leading the defensives."

Drake followed Bliss from the room and out onto the outside battlements. The battlements stretched around the upper floor of the castle. One hundred meters from the castle stood a wall nearly as high as the five story castle. Overhead a pink light filled the evening sky, the shield.

Between the castle and the wall was one hundred meters of open ground, filled with mages running around. Some of them sat in circles of glowing symbols. Explosions of energy hit the shield and a ripple spread across the sphere. Not since the war with Mevolent had there been a battle as big as this, well, his version at least.

He spotted many mages that he knew from his reality. Gloomstone, the necromancer, Scarecrow, Frightening and many others.

A flying creature soared above the shield, trying to get through its defence, but it wasn't successful.

Drake and Bliss joined the forces on the inner wall. A group of Mevolent's mages were throwing energy at the gates. Redhoods were readying ladders to try and scale the walls. Drake took a closer look at the flying creatures. They had leathery skin and big, red eyes.

There was a great bang and the shield collapsed into many shards. Mevolent's army cheered, and the flying creatures began to swoop down on the defenders, who ducked for cover. A creature flew towards Drake, but it was blown apart by a beam of energy. A Redhood jumped over the parapet, but Bliss pushed him back over.

All over the wall, Mevolent's army had reached the top of the wall and were fighting the defenders. Drake looked over and spotted a tall man with green eyes and a red, fleshy hand jump over the parapet. Bliss ran at him and Serpine raised his hand and Bliss fell over, screaming. Serpine twisted his hand and Bliss stopped screaming.

Drake ran at Serpine and tackled him over the edge of the parapet. They landed on the opposite side of the wall that Drake was hoping to fall on. Drake got to his feet, having used the air to slow his descent.

Serpine also rose to his feet and snarled at Drake.

"You've just got yourself surrounded."

"Oh no, I'm quaking in my boots." Drake sneered back sarcastically.

"You sound so confident for someone about to die."

"As do you."

Drake jumped to the side and pulled out his sword. Serpine followed him and hit Drake with a cloud of purple smoke, knocking the sword from his hand. Another whack from the smoke and Drake flew into the wall, also knocking the sceptre away from him.

Drake watched as Serpine picked up the sceptre, his eyes glowing.

"All these years. Now all I have to do . . . is kill you."

He raised his red hand and Drake collapsed. Unimaginable pain shooting through his body. Then it stopped. Was he dead? No, he was thinking so that was an obvious no.

He looked up to see a Cleaver wrestling with Serpine, the sceptre had been knocked from his grasp. Drake reached over and grabbed it as Serpine disposed of the Cleaver. Drake tried to fire off the sceptre, but missed Serpine and the lightning hit a Redhood behind him. Serpine jumped on Drake, the sceptre went off again, but again it missed Serpine, and hit the wall, collapsing a section of it. Fighters on top of it fell down as it disintegrated. Drake backed up into the gap he'd caused.

Serpine ran at Drake and the sceptre flashed and turned Serpine into a pile of fine powder. Redhoods and mages ran at Drake, but he killed them too.

Gloomstone appeared behind him. "Defend the breach." He called out to the other fighters.

Cleavers and mages lined up behind Drake.

A group of Redhoods rushed the line, Drake only managed to kill a few of them before they ran into the line. Drake backed off behind the line and watched the fight.

He spotted Solomon Wreath spear Saxon Sheath with his shadows. Regis ran at a mage but the mage put an energy beam through him. Drake found space and shot the same mage with the sceptre.

A flying creature swooped on the crowd and picked up a fighter, Drake zapped the creature before it could get too far away.

A werewolf charged into the line and scattered the fighters, Drake easily recognized the scar on his maw. Happy that this time the fight was more favourable for Drake, he zapped Scarr with the Sceptre, turning the Werewolf King into dust.

Suddenly, there were screams behind them. Drake turned to see a mass of black shadows appear in the crowd. At the same time, the gate was blown open and more of Mevolent's army charged through. Any mages that weren't engaged in the fighting broke off towards the keep. Leaving the fighters trapped.

A wave of darkness hit Drake and threw him back, throwing the Sceptre off into the milling crowd. Drake tried to stand, but a whip of shadows forced him to his feet.

Gloomstone ran at Vile and their shadows clashed. Gloomstone dodged Vile's attacks, but Gloomstone's shadows couldn't penetrate Vile's armour.

Drake moved away from their fight and went to search for the Sceptre.

Solomon Wreath ran at him and Drake dodged the shadow-spear and kicked him in the ribs and left him lying on the ground. Tenebrea moved in after Drake and slashed at him with his dagger, the shadows cutting through his pants and leaving a cut just above his knee. Drake moved around him and hit Tenebrea's elbow, forcing him to drop the dagger. Drake followed it up with a right hook to his face that made Tenebrea's knees tremble. Another punch and Tenebrea slumped to the ground. A Redhood ran at Drake, but he used the air to send it flying.

He turned back to Gloomstone's fight. The two necromancers were still fighting. Vile had Gloomstone on his knees, trying to deflect a beam of shadows. Behind Gloomstone a whip of shadows crept up behind him. Drake tried to call out to him, but he couldn't be heard over the din of the battle. Drake watched as multiple shadows cut through his body, killing him.

Drake felt in his pocket to see if his sword had returned to him. It had. It pulled out the small, blunt knife and it grew into a full size weapon. Vile threw shadows at Drake, who blocked them with the sword. The shadows swirled around both of them. They wrapped around Drake's legs and pulled him to the ground.

Vile was preparing to land the killing blow when a beam of energy hit Vile in the chest, knocking him away from Drake. He watched as Dexter Vex and the Dead Men walked out of the shadows towards Vile. They were all covered in cuts and bruises.

"We'll fight Vile." Ravel said to Drake. "You go kill Mevolent."

Drake nodded and walked away as he watched the Dead Men begin their fight with Vile. Crisis teleported Shudder behind Vile and he grabbed the necromancer in a chokehold.

Drake reluctantly turned away from the fight and resumed the search for the Sceptre. He found it lying in a corner, away from the fight. He picked it up, feeling the weight of it, not just the physical weight, the mental weight that he was holding a weapon that could kill at a single thought.

Over at the keep, the sound of wooden doors being splintered could be heard; followed the screams of the dying. Drake ran through the army and dashed through the doors of the keep, zapping enemies as he went.

"Stand and fight!" Drake called out to the crowd, trying to instigate some order.

Some of the fighters gathered around Drake. In front of them, Mevolent's army parted to reveal Mevolent himself standing in the doorway. He was at least eight feet tall, and God, he was huge. Then Mevolent himself stepped aside.

And the giant spiders charged through the door.

Chapter 6 - Gloomstone

Illori was getting rather sick of war councils. At least many people had taken up her idea about the new, and much more comfortable armchairs. Which probably wasn't helping Strom's mood.

"How on Earth are we going to fight the yanks?" Strom growled.

"We still have the help from the Australians." Cornelius pointed out.

"Sod them. I'm very disappointed that they kept the teleporter secret."

"It was to protect him." Ode pointed out.

"Imagine how easy things would be if the Sanctuaries had a teleporter." Graves said.

"Don't you think the Americans would've done anything to have him to themselves." Ode growled.

"The matter is," Illori cut into the argument. "That the Australians have him, and they are allied to us. Where are they now?'

"They went back to their country. But we can still call on them at any time." Cornelius reminded them.

"Let's hope it stays that way. And what of the necromancers?"

"After the battle they left back to their temple."

"Uh, we need Drake for this, he's always good in these situations." As Illori said this, Polly let out a croak from the other end of the table.

A man spoke into Strom's ear. "We've received words that the Americans are mobilizing, we must mobilize also." Strom addressed the crowd. "We'll wait for them here."

"They'll march through the city to get here. My team and I will activate Protocol Seven." Boldor, the technician said.

"Good. I take it you all know your places?" The table nodded at Strom. "Good, I'll go contact the Australians."

Vernon Gloomstone put his '#1 Best Cleric' coffee mug down on his desk. The English necromancer temple was dreadfully cold, as with most temples.

He had a desk that a computer should've been sitting on, but there was no electricity in the temple. He'd been campaigning about that to the High Cleric for ages, but to no avail.

There was a knock at the door and a man came stumbling through. He was covered in blood. Gloomstone jumped up and helped the man into a spare chair. He recognized him as Gareth Ajax; his weapon of choice was a spear.

"What happened?" Gloomstone asked him.

"You need to leave." Ajax stirred.

"What? Why?"

"The High Cleric. He's killing off all those who left to go to that battle."

"Say no more."

Gloomstone moved out into the corridor. A female necromancer moved towards him but Gloomstone knocked her out.

"Ajax, go and find the others. Meet us outside, I'm going to go find the High Cleric."

Ajax nodded and ran off in the other direction. Gloomstone went the other way.

As he passed the storage, four clerics ambushed him. Shadows moved in all directions. Gloomstone used the shadows in his boots to propel him away from the fight. They tried to run after him, but Gloomstone shadow-walked away. He appeared in the lobby of the temple.

As soon as he appeared, he realised his mistake. At least seven big necromancers threw shadows at him, and he was knocked back against the wall. One of the seven grabbed him by the collar and slammed him back against the wall.

Gloomstone kicked the man in the ribs and he flew back, slamming into one of his colleagues, taking out two of them. Gloomstone slammed his foot down on the ground and a wave of shadows spread across the room, knocking over everyone in the room. Taking the advantage, Gloomstone shadow walked again and this time he appeared in the office of the High Cleric.

High Cleric Philander Might looked up from his desk. "Ah."

"Good evening your eminence." Gloomstone snarled.

"You're supposed to be dead." Philander exclaimed.

"You don't think, that if I survived that battle, having fought werewolves, that a couple of necromancers would be a challenge?"

"I suppose you're right." Philander stood up. "But you haven't fought me."

Philander used his shadows to flick the table at Gloomstone. The table hit him and he went down. Gloomstone kicked out and the table went flying. Philander punched him and he hit a bookshelf leaning against the wall, books showered down over him. Gloomstone picked up a large tome and threw it at Philander. It hit his head and Philander recoiled, Gloomstone followed it up with a kick and the High Cleric hit the opposite wall. The door opened and another necromancer whipped Gloomstone with shadows, but they done no damage. Gloomstone turned and kicked the newcomer out of the room and closed the door.

Philander also got to his feet and a fist of shadows slammed into Gloomstone, knocking him to the ground. Philander stood over him, ready to stab him with his shadows.

Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and Philander was thrown across the room, and careered head first into the wall. A young-ish man was now standing over Gloomstone, but instead of striking him down, he reached his hand down and helped him up.

"Evening Cleric, I'm Cornelius von Mope, and I'm here from the Sanctuary, to rescue you and your associates."

"Why would the Sanctuary help?"

"Because we require your assistance, and by the look of things, you're not finding friends here."

"We'll help."

Gloomstone and Cornelius ran from the room. A necromancer ran at them, but Cornelius blasted him away with a wave of energy from some symbols on his arms.

They kept running and eventually they reached the lobby. The necromancers were still knocked out on the floor. The front door was open.

They continued out into the graveyard that lay outside the temple. Headstones littered the ground. In the distance, two groups of fighters were throwing shadows and energy around.

"With me, let's shadow walk."

Gloomstone grabbed Cornelius and they appeared in the middle of the battle. A group of necromancers from the temple were fighting Gloomstone's guys and some Cleavers from the Sanctuary. Gloomstone's guys were outnumbered.

"Oi!" Gloomstone called out to the crowd. "Philander is dead!"

They stopped fighting and looked over at Gloomstone. Most of them exchanged glances with each other. Then a short, bald, black man walked from the crowd.

"Who killed him? You know, that if you killed him, this is war now."

"Ah, yeah." Gloomstone muttered. "It would help if he wasn't trying to tear my head off."

"You are still a traitor. And as such, your word is void." He turned to Cornelius. "As for the Sanctuary, we will be fighting alongside your American enemies."

"You're a joyful bunch of people." Cornelius muttered. "Gloomstone, were leaving."

Gloomstone looked over at him. "How ever are we going – "

By the time he'd finished the sentence, Cornelius had enveloped them in a bubble, and in a flash, they appeared somewhere else, next to a series of vans. Cornelius collapsed to his knees.

"Never . . . that . . . many . . ." He panted.

Gloomstone patted him on the back reassuringly, and then he turned to the others. "Quickly, in the cars."

The Cleavers got behind the wheel and the necromancers piled into the back. Gloomstone helped Cornelius into the back of the nearest van. And within a minute they were speeding back to the Sanctuary.

By the Oracle, the spiders were hairy. Drake assumed that they were the Children of the Spider. He raised the Sceptre, but the nearest spider knocked it from his hands. Then, with its other leg, knocked Drake into the far wall.

As soon as he regained his breath, and his vision cleared, he looked up to see Bliss tackle the spider that had kicked Drake, miraculously; he had survived Serpine's Right Red Hand. With a burst of extreme strength, he flipped the spider over and a Cleaver dashed forward and plunged its scythe into the spider's soft underbelly. The creature waved its legs frantically before it curled up and died.

As it died, another spider took its place and sunk its fangs into the Cleaver and kicked Bliss away.

All over the entrance hall of the castle, Cleavers and mages battled spiders. General Mantis and Morwena Crow dashed into the hall, and they noticed the situation and left. Frightening Jones stood in front of a spider and the creature sunk its fangs into the African. Frightening got stuck in the fangs and Scarecrow Severn slid under the spider and stabbed it with a sword. The now dead spider fell on top of Scarecrow, who tried to blast it away with the air. In the centre of the room, as scraggly man with a long, grey beard was holding the Sceptre.

Drake ran at him and tackled him, throwing him to the ground. They both jumped to their feet, the man still holding the Sceptre. Drake recognized him as The Torment. The Torment stared at him, a look of mild shock on his face.

Drake clicked his fingers and threw fire at The Torment, who dodged the flame and lashed out at Drake, with surprising speed, the punch landed and Drake cried out in pain.

The Torment roared and jumped on Drake, trying to cut off his throat with the shaft of the Sceptre. Drake grabbed hold of the Sceptre, and the purple lightning flashed and The Torment turned into dust.

Drake leapt up and zapped another spider, and then another. Soon, the hall was empty of giant spiders, and littered with dead mages and Cleavers. General Mantis walked back into the hall.

"Retreat. Fall back to the second floor." It commanded in its shrill voice.

The fighters followed its command and ran for the door. Drake went to follow, but a powerful force hit him and he went sprawling. He spotted the door upstairs being bolted, leaving him alone. Then he turned around and realised who he was alone with.

Drake stood up and readied himself to fight as Mevolent walked towards him.

The air was cold and it cut at any exposed skin that was left exposed by his cloak. The Man With the Golden Eyes stood next to him, wearing a thick cloak. They looked out over London. News of the day was that an unusual amount of people had decided to take a holiday to the country. Only a select few knew why.

"I see they prepare of battle." The second man said.

"They wait for Beckett to come to them, why do they not sally forth?" Golden Eyes said.

"I assume it's because they wish to fight on their home turf."

"Agreed, it is the wise thing to do."

"Who do you think will win this?"

"Makes no difference to me, or our plans."

"Any word of The Ghost?"

"Last I heard he was still chasing after the Oracle. We need to get her out of the fight, she's the only one that could bring Drake back from that world."

"That was a good plan, using The Ghost to open that portal and send Drake through it."

"Indeed."

"Bah, I hate mortals." Golden Eyes sighed as he looked down on a family that was crossing the street.

"Don't fear." The second man said. "They will be our servants soon enough."

"Of course they will, we are their rightful rulers, it is our right as mages to rule over them."

"Couldn't have said it better myself."

Erskine dodged the wave of shadows and rolled away. Corvo held his arm as he slumped against a wall, lots of blood was dripping from his shoulder. Shudder's gist had gotten close the Vile a few times, but they were still getting nowhere.

Vex hit Vile with an energy beam, which staggered the necromancer. The beam cut off and Erskine noticed multiple spears of shadows pierced his body, killing him. Hopeless roared and charged at Vile, before Hopeless could get further than a meter, he was bisected by a wave of shadows.

Ghastly and Erskine threw a stream of flames at Vile simultaneously, which had no effect due to his armour. Shudder threw his sword at the necromancer, and it got lodged in his armour and went through, but Vile showed no hint of any pain. The gist appeared behind Vile and it tackled the necromancer, actually knocking it to the ground. Shudder followed it up by jumping on Vile as well, but his attack failed as a shadow-spike went straight through Shudder. He tried to jump away but even more shadow spikes burst from his body, ripping him apart where he stood.

"Retreat!" Erskine commanded the remaining Dead Men. He and Ghastly ran towards the keep. Corvo tried to run after them, but Vile slashed him with a shadow-whip, causing him to fall to the ground, then he teleported away to God knows where.

Ghastly and Erskine ran into the keep, to see Mevolent come face to face with Drake.

Mevolent was as tall as Drake remembered, if not taller. In a flash he was on top of Drake, grabbing him and chucking him across the room, slamming into a wall and dropping the Sceptre. Mevolent walked over and picked it up.

"Another weapon to add to my expansive disposal. I take it I must kill you to use it?" Mevolent's voice was surprisingly soft.

"Correct." Drake muttered.

Mevolent moved towards Drake, whom did his best to jump out of the way, but Mevolent still collected him with a sudden blast of air, throwing him backwards. From behind Mevolent, Ghastly and Erskine ran up behind him and blasted him with a blast of air. This gave Drake the time he needed to compress the air in his hands. When Mevolent looked up, Drake launched the concentrated air into his chest, knocking him back. Afterwards, he pulled out his sword and approached him.

Mevolent seemed to pull a giant sword out of thin air and swung it at Drake. The swords clashed mid swing, and the force of the bigger sword knocked Drake's sword from his hands. Recognizing the danger the bigger sword possessed, Drake quickly moved out of the way of Mevolent.

Erskine and Ghastly tried to attack Mevolent again, but Mevolent blasted them away. Then, he looked at the ceiling above him and smiled. He raised his hand and an intense stream of fire hit the ceiling, bringing it down on top of them. Drake shielded himself by running into an alcove in the opposing wall, and watched as masonry and people fell down on top of Mevolent.

As soon as the dust cleared, Drake moved out into the collapsed castle. Debris were littered across the entire inner courtyard. In the middle of it all, Mevolent stood tall and proud, holding the sword and the Sceptre. Behind him, a piece of castle moved and General Mantis stood up next to Mevolent. Mevolent stabbed his sword into the ground and turned to face his new opponent. Mantis tried to hit Mevolent, but the self-imposed god raised his hand, and Mantis burst into flames and collapsed to the ground.

Morwena Crow moved forward and hit Mevolent with a fist of shadows. Mevolent slumped to one knee, and Crow hit him with another fist of shadows. Mevolent reacted by making a fist in the air, and Crow clutched her throat, then it expanded in an explosion of blood.

Drake looked away as she fell to the ground. Scarecrow Severn moved out into the open, he was doubled over, probably broken ribs. Then, Corvo appeared beside him and they both disappeared.

Drake dashed out, jumping over pieces of castle like hurdles. Drake created another sphere of air, and this time, he integrated fire with the swirling air. He chucked the sphere and it hit Mevolent and blasted him back. Drake tried to make another, but Corvo appeared next to him, and in an instant they were back in the Atrium.

Chapter 7 – Break In

The Americans were moving on the Sanctuary. Thanks to Boldor, and his Protocol Seven, many people in central London had decided to take a country holiday.

At the entrance to the alley where the Sanctuary was located, many black vans pulled up on the side of the street. At least fifty to sixty men and women in black leather got out, they weren't carrying guns, but a few of them had swords. Some grey-clad Cleavers got out as well, to distinguish these from the regular Cleavers, they had a USA flag printed on their backs. Twenty people in black robes got out as well, most of them looked around curiously.

Inside the Sanctuary, inside the War Room, Boldor had set up a complex set of video feeds from all around the Sanctuary. In the lobby, Scarecrow, Felix and Gibbs were organizing their forces. The Elders had been evacuated to a more secure location, much to Ode's complaints. Currently, the Australian Jack Carter had control of the entire defence.

Down in the lobby, Scarecrow had hidden most of the force under an Invisibility Sphere. Only a line of Cleavers were visible. Gibbs stood in the centre of them, having the Cleavers under his command.

The front doors exploded and three black plumes of smoke came tearing into the room, they landed inside the Invisibility Sphere and were lost from sight. Then the Spheres failed and Scarecrow could see three tall, pale men appeared inside the group of fighters. He watched Polly turn towards the tallest one. The tall man waved his hand and a green flash hit Polly in the chest and she fell to the ground.

The man turned to smoke again and flew away from the crowd, followed by his companions.

But they did their job. Because of their distraction, Scarecrow didn't realise the Americans charging down the stairs until it was too late. Various energy beams scattered the defenders. Scarecrow spotted Sult and ran at him. Sult snarled and the two men collided. Sult put his hands around Scarecrow's throat, but a kick managed to dislodge the American. Scarecrow looked over to see Felix had grabbed the tall, pale guy in a headlock with his remaining arm.

Scarecrow kicked Sult away and ran towards Felix. The pall man pushed Felix away, who stopped Scarecrow by raising his hand.

"Don't fight him. It's Dolohov, the Russian." Felix warned Scarecrow. He remembered his power was to stop the heart with an energy blast.

Dolohov caught Felix on his injured side and he fell over. Scarecrow grabbed Dolohov, but the Russian tapped on his chest and Scarecrow went numb all over, then he lost the ability to move and hit the ground. He insticntivly hit out and punched his chest, and his heart restarted.

Felix tried to punch Dolohov, but the Russian caught his fist and kicked Felix in the gut. Scarecrow kicked Dolohov in the back of the legs and followed it up with a punch across his jaw. Felix raised his hand and an energy beam fired straight through the Russian's chest. His body fell to the ground and Felix ran over to Polly's body.

"You're dead." He moaned. "Why? Why? Why?"

Scarecrow kneeled down next to him. "We can mourn later, for now we fight."

"No, Scarecrow. I don't care."

"Felix."

"NO!"

Scarecrow decided it was best to leave him there, mourning his friend. He turned back to the battle; the Americans were now retreating back up the stairs. The mages cheered at their victory, however small it was.

Scarecrow turned to the fighters. "They've ran away, but do not rest, they'll return."

Gibbs was already moving, organizing the Cleavers and finding the injured. Gruff was standing with Felix, trying to pry him away from the body. A medic was already lifting her body onto a cart.

The Supreme Mage was very angry.

"YOU LOST IT?" Meritorious screamed.

"Mevolent hit me. I dropped it." Drake protested.

"Calm down Supreme Mage." Deuce said.

"CALM DOWN! WHY SHOULD I BE CALM! WE LOST MANY GOOD SOLDIERS!" He screamed.

"Meritorious, please." Bliss tried to say. Bliss was one of the few survivors of Mevolent's attack, along with Erskine, Ghastly and Drake himself.

"He'll come here. And there'll be a chance to take it back." Strom said.

"Drake, as soon as Mevolent comes here, it's your job to find the Sceptre, and then kill him."

"Challenge accepted." Drake snarled.

"Good. Now, Bliss. Go prepare the defences." Trebuchet commanded.

Bliss nodded and walked off towards the town. Drake left the Elders to fight amongst themselves. Drake walked out of the Atrium through a side door. Instead of going up the stairs to the various rooms and medical bays, he went down to the dungeons.

Richard Silver was still chained up to the wall in one of the cells. Drake opened the cell doors and walked in front of Silver, and then punched him, to wake him up.

Silver woke up with a jolt. "Oh." He muttered.

"What were you and your associates planning?" Drake interrogated.

"Irrelevant."

"Than you should be able to tell me."

"Or what?"

"I'll leave you strapped to this wall, and leave you for Lord Vile."

"Lord Vile, eh."

"Or Mevolent, depending on my mood."

"Bollocks."

"Nope, Mevolent is expected outside this very city very soon. And if I don't succeed, all these people are going to die. Including you."

"We're stuck in this reality, no going back."

"I know a way out."

Silver snapped his head up.

"Yep. And I'm leaving you here, alone, with Mevolent and Vile."

Drake punched him again and left the cell. He walked past the armoury, which was a hub of activity, Cleavers and armourers were equipping all healthy men in the city to fight Mevolent's army. Drake was sick at the thought of having to rely on the common population to fight your wars for you.

Ghastly poked his scarred head around the corner. "Drake, we're needed on the city walls."

Drake followed Ghastly out to where the remaining Dead Men were sitting. Corvo had his arm bandaged up, and Erskine had a bandage around his head. Deuce was sanding next to them with his head down.

"I predict that once Mevolent has breached the walls, we'll be overrun and will have to retreat to the keep, and Vile, or Mevolent himself will enter the keep, kill the Eldars and trap us in the city." Drake theorized.

"Aye," Deuce looked up. "We've taken precautions."

"They won't work." Erskine said. "It's Mevolent."

"You have me." Drake pointed out.

"So?"

"You guys fight at the walls, I'll remain back here with the Eldars, and when Mevolent turns up, I'll give him the old one-two. I need you guys to handle anything that comes through the gate."

"We can do that for you. Just kill Mevolent." Ghastly patted him on the back.

"I believe you." Corvo shook his hand. "Good luck."

Mevolent's army were gathered outside the city walls. Erskine thought they must number at least ten thousand. Only a thousand or so fighters were defending the wall. Bliss, Ghastly, all veterans of the War, all waiting to fight another fight.

Some of Mevolent's men began to chuck energy blasts at the wall, which were intercepted by energy beams from the wall. The wall shook as Mevolent's elementals disrupted the earth underneath it, but the wall was strong, stronger than them.

The flying creatures swooped the men on the wall, but the defenders repelled them.

Down at the gate, Bliss was organizing a blockade, in case Lord Vile broke through the gate.

Next to Erskine, there was a flash of darkness and a group of necromancers appeared out of the air. Erskine noticed Solomon Wreath and charged him. Solomon threw the shadows at Erskine, but he dodged them and rammed his shoulder into him. Next to them, Ghastly punched Tenebrea over the edge of the parapet. Erskine kicked Solomon in the ribs and then dived on top of him.

He punched the necromancer. "That's for my friends."

He punched him again. "That's for the War."

He punched him a third time. "And this is for everyone."

Solomon's head lolled back and Erskine stood up. Ghastly tapped him on the shoulder and pointed down towards the gate, where Bliss and Lord Vile were facing off.

Together, they jumped off the wall and landed behind Vile. Corvo appeared next to them. Bliss ran at Vile, the shadows missing him, and Bliss tackled Vile. Vile's armour exploded out, knocking Bliss away. Ghastly snuck up behind Vile and grabbed his neck, squeezing as hard as he could. Erskine ran around to the front of Vile, and hit him with a blast of air, which staggered him. He followed it up by running in close and kicking at the necromancer's leg, forcing him down to the ground. Ghastly slammed his fist down onto the helmet and followed it with a quick jab to the front of the helmet, forcing Vile to recoil. The necromancer tried to stand, but Erskine kicked his legs, forcing him down. Ghastly tried to climb on top, but Vile hit him with a stream of energy, blasting him in the air. Another wave of shadows and Erskine went flying too.

Corvo appeared above Vile and threw an axe into the necromancer, his armour deflected it, but Corvo disappeared and reappeared with a lance, and ran it through Vile. The necromancer twisted in pain, but snapped the weapon with his shadows. Corvo appeared on the wall above Vile, and pushed a large boulder over the edge onto Vile. He pushed it off of himself with the shadows.

It didn't kill him, but it certainly hurt him. Lord Vile was keeling over, holding whatever was underneath his chest plate. Ghastly snuck up behind him and kicked him, but Vile knocked him away again. Erskine ran towards them, but a tendril of darkness wrapped around his ankle and dragged him to the ground.

Under the gate, a Redhood stood watching them. It opened its cloak to reveal a symbol carved onto its chest. Erskine called out to Corvo, but he reacted too slowly. A blast of pure energy surged out from the symbol, wrecking the city gate, and throwing away defenders like ragdolls.

Erskine's head hit a solid object, and he blacked out.

Drake watched the figure of Mevolent walked into the Atrium. The Elders still sat in their thrones, but they held the God-Killers in their hands. Mevolent moved in front of the Elders. Drake stood between them.

"You stand between me and my prize." Mevolent growled. He was carrying his sword and the Sceptre.

"Your prize?"

"To rule over the Earth."

"Oh, as any good villain would say. How predictable."

"I don't know where you came from, but you must die, along with the Elders here."

Mevolent moved towards them quickly, Drake jumped out the way as Trebuchet fired off an arrow, that Mevolent deflected with his sword. Strom thrust his spear at Mevolent, but again it was deflected. Meritorious tried a sneak attack with the dagger, but Mevolent was quicker. Meritorious was nicked on the leg with the sword and he fell to the ground. Mevolent blasted the air and Drake was pushed out of the battle. Strom's spear collided with the sword, staggering both fighters.

Drake tried to stand but someone kicked him from behind. He looked around to see Richard Silver standing over him; someone must've let him out. He tried to stab Drake with a sword he must have grabbed from the armoury. Drake twisted out of it and pulled out his own sword. The weapons clashed, Silver was an experienced fighter and he was forcing Drake back, out of the Atrium. A feint from Silver opened a wound on his leg, along with the one Vile put there earlier. Using that distraction, Silver slashed across Drake's torso, forcing him to the ground. Drake only managed to raise his sword as Silver nearly landed the finishing blow. Using the air, Drake pushed Silver's legs out from under him. Picking himself up, Drake sprinted over to where the Elders were still fighting Mevolent. Trebuchet hit Mevolent with a blast of energy, forcing him to his knees. Strom hit him with a bolt of lightning, and Mevolent retaliated by lashing out with his arm, and a blast of air swept him away. Trebuchet tried to fire the bow, but Mevolent clutched at the air and Trebuchet grabbed at his throat. He collapsed as Mevolent expanded the air in his lungs. Drake pushed at the air, and the sword was blown away, out of the fight. Drake collected the air in his palm and held it there. Mevolent looked up as a concentrated blast of air hit him full in the face. While he was stunned, Drake prepared another one. But a kick to his back sent the ball of air into a nearby column, destroying it.

Silver tried to stab him, but Drake used a fireball to put some distance between them. Drake put his leg down, and it shuddered and Drake fell to the ground. The wound Vile gave him before was now pulsing with a dark energy. Desperately, he pushed the air and Silver was blown away. Mevolent moved towards Drake, and he launched a stream of fire towards him, which he easily flicked away. A bubble swirled around him and all the air rushed from his lungs. Choking from the lack of air, Drake kneeled on the ground and spread his hand on the stone. Jerking his hands a crack appeared under Mevolent. Pushing his hands down, the floor cracked apart, and all the pieces crumbled and Mevolent lost his footing. Drake rolled away from the airless bubble.

Gulping in breaths, Drake felt drained, more than usual. Must be that wound on his leg. Mevolent stood up and Strom hit him with a bolt of lightning. Drake assisted by hitting Mevolent with another ball of air. Mevolent lay on his back, panting. Strom charged a huge bolt lightning in his hands as Drake charged another ball of air, but added fire to the mix as well. Both attacks hit Mevolent simultaneously, and he was thrown into a column, he went straight through it and hit the wall behind it. Drake sat back down on the ground; he could put barely any weight on his leg.

Mevolent stirred feebly. It was odd to see someone who had called himself a god, to see them lying, barely conscious on the ground. Professor Grouse hobbled over to Drake, and started checking his wounds.

"Professor. You shouldn't be here." Drake tried to warn him of Mevolent.

"I know, I am really old you know." Grouse muttered.

"No, I meant Mevolent."

"Oh, him." Grouse sighed, then his eyes widened as he seen Drake's wound.

"What's wrong?"

"A wound infected by shadows."

"What'll happen?"

"If left like that, it'll drain your life force and then you'll die."

"Oh."

"Drake!" Strom yelled at him from across the room.

Instinctively, Drake looked over to where Mevolent was trying to stand, but next to him, Grouse grunted and Drake watched as Silver blinked the Professor away. Before he could react, Silver ran a sword into Drake, the hilt of the blade was sticking out of his chest, and the point of the blade was probably sticking out of his back. He could feel his organs being split apart and shutting down. His heart was slowing down. His arms and legs went numb because the sword cut his spinal cord. He looked up at Silver, who simply placed his hand on Drake's shoulder, and in an instant, he found himself in the morning sky.

There was nothing underneath him, except for the ground, far below. The wind rushed past as Drake began to fall to the ground. Being two mile up meant that he had some time to fall. There was nothing he could do, but watch as the ground rushed closer. He could see the fighting in the streets, people fighting Vile and the army. He could see ground and all the stones of the castle and then he hit the ground in a bloody mess.

Erskine woke up in a mess. Bodies were scattered all around, he stood up and Bliss staggered towards him, having survived the blast. He spotted Ghastly lying with a piece of wood impaled in his chest, and nearby, Corvo's head was twisted unnaturally. Bliss called all available Cleavers and mages to form a line, blocking the road. Barely a hundred moderately healthy people formed a barricade across the road. Mevolent's army threw themselves at the line, and were gradually breaking through. Erskine tried to move to the front of the line, cringing due to a broken shoulder from the blast. The mage that ran at Erskine suddenly fell to the ground, and a tall, pale man took his place. All across the line, Russian reinforcements appeared and began to strike down the enemy. Dolohov hit people with his green energy, and Tesseract broke the bones of his enemy with a single touch. The battle was turning in their favour, the line was holding. Then Lord Vile reappeared.

Dolohov tried to attack Vile, but the necromancer simply pulled his head off.

Erskine called out to Bliss. "Bliss, come hold off Vile."

Bliss nodded and they both snuck around behind the necromancer.

Erskine used the air to propel Bliss in close, where he grabbed Vile around the chest, doing his best to ignore the spikes protruding from the armour. Erskine used the air to push Vile's legs out from under him, causing both Vile and Bliss to tumble to the ground. Bliss dropped a punch into his helmet, but as he went for another one, Vile shadow walked away, leaving Bliss kneeling on the ground. Vile reappeared behind him. Bliss spun around and Vile punched him in the chin, snapping his head back, probably breaking his neck.

Erskine stood in front of Vile. He might as well try to reason with him, he couldn't remember anyone who had tried, what's the worst that could happen.

"Vile, stop fighting." Erskine blurted out. Vile stopped and tilted his head. "Why all this killing?"

Vile just stood there, tilting his head.

"Is there any point to it?"

Vile's armour bubbled.

"Is it anger? Angst? Sadness?"

Vile's response was simple. He waved his hand and the ghostly, corporal figures of Erskine's friends appeared. Hopeless, Shudder, Vex, Gloomstone, Ghastly, Corvo, Saracen, Professor Grouse, Meritorious, Mantis, Trebuchet and Crow. The ghosts of past dead. A psychological trick that Vile was famous for, conjuring up the images of the ones you've lost.

The ghosts fanned out around Erskine. They were harmless, but it was still scary. He noticed that there wasn't a ghost for Bliss, which meant he was still alive. The Ghost-Ghastly reached out to grab Erskine, who instinctively jerked away and came face to face with Ghost-Saracen. "I know things." He muttered.

Erskine swung a punch, but his fist went straight through. Ghost-Corvo laughed at him. Ghost-Shudder bared his teeth, Erskine didn't know what happened to his gist, but he knew that it hadn't been sealed properly, where was the gist now.

Bliss tried to grab Vile from behind, but Vile speared him with a shadow-spear right through the neck. A Ghost-Bliss appeared with the others. Erskine sat on the ground and covered his head. He promised that he wouldn't fall for such a technique, but he was. He glanced over at the line, Tesseract and Deuce were doing their best to hold up the army, but they were losing troops every second.

Vile watched as the ghosts stood over Erskine. Trying to grab him with their opaque hands. And then someone he hadn't seen in many years walked over to them, someone stunningly beautiful.

"Having a good morning, Erskine?" China Sorrows asked.

Chapter 8 – The Oracle

Do you know what hitting the ground at fifty-six meters a second? Just another thing Drake can tick off his bucket list. After he hit the ground, he woke up in a familiar area, with a familiar cloaked woman standing beside him.

"Oh, I feel horrible." Drake groaned as he lay on the cold ground.

"You died again, it took a lot of energy to bring you back." The Oracle sighed.

"Stabbed, poisoned and dropped from two miles up. Must be some kind of record." Drake sat up, causing intense pain in his gut. "I need to get back, Mevolent has the Sceptre, and Strom."

"Is probably dead. I need you here. The Ghost is outside."

"The Ghost? I can't fight him."

"I have an idea."

"What?"

"We can Merge."

"Come again."

"I give you all my powers, and then my body dies."

"Bit drastic, don't you think?"

"It's also the only way to return to your home world."

Drake stood up quickly. "What?"

"Yes, there is a way to return to your world."

"I mean, I feel the need to help this new world, make up for past mistakes."

"Quick Drake, The Ghost is here."

Drake turned to see a figure standing on top of a broken column, his cloak billowing. He then jumped off and ran towards them. Drake tried to intercept him, but The Ghost easily flipped Drake over his hip and kept on running. The Oracle used some kind of energy attack to fend him off. Drake created one of his concentrated balls of air and threw it at The Ghost, but he simply dodged it. Drake followed it up by trying a close up attack on him, but again The Ghost simply flipped out of it, leaving Drake looking silly. The Oracle appeared next to Drake and she was enveloped in a white light.

"Drake, take my power." She said.

More white light burst from her and the light assimilated into Drake's body. All the light exited her body and entered Drake's and The Oracle collapsed, her former body now dead, making Drake the new Oracle. The Ghost moved away from him. Drake tested out his newfound powers by blowing up a nearby column. The Oracle was pure magic. As if the original Oracle had found their true name, and the power escaped and started to migrate. He had access to all kinds of new powers. With that power and his intelligence, Drake smiled.

The Ghost moved towards Drake, and Drake moved faster than ever before, dodging The Ghost and punching him, lifting him into the air. Then Drake resorted to his traditional style, using the air to push The Ghost away. Drake concentrated the air into his palms, in took no effort anymore. The two balls of air hit The Ghost with the force of a train and knocked him through a wall. Drake jumped through the same hole. Drake noticed that they were in some kind of church on a hill, and no that he was outside, a spacious city stretched out in front of him. It was full of shiny, white marble buildings, all of them at least two stories, the only place he couldn't see any buildings was a lake off to the right. The Ghost leapt in the air and flew off into the air above the city. Drake followed him, flying using the air to control him.

Drake threw his concentrated balls of air at him, except The Ghost dodged them all. Suddenly, he dived towards the city, Drake followed, in case he lost him. Drake wondered if he had access to other types of powers. He raised his hand and a blue energy beam shot out, destroying any building in its path. He spotted The Ghost and fired off an energy beam, which hit him in the back, knocking him through another wall. Drake summoned static electricity to his hand, and shot it off towards The Ghost, but missed again. The Ghost raised both his hands and a giant shockwave spread out, disintegrating every building in its radius. Drake only surviving because he raised an energy shield before hand.

The blast had created a crater, at least four hundred feet across. Drake just floated there, watching The Ghost rise to his feet. Drake shot a powerful lightning bolt at him, but The Ghost danced out of the way, and then flew up level to Drake.

"This fight could destroy this city." The Ghost said.

"Says you." Drake smiled. "You made this crater."

"We could destroy this reality."

"I've got one to save."

The Ghost hit him with a blast of air, sending Drake hurtling away. The Ghost appeared above him and punched him into the ground, leaving a smaller crater inside the bigger one. The Ghost stood over Drake, who knocked him off using a shadow. The shadows helped Drake stand to his feet. The shadows bubbled and swirled around Drake. The Ghost backed away and prepared an energy attack, but Drake was quicker, slamming a fist of shadows into him. The Ghost responded by hitting Drake with an energy beam, which the shadows blocked. Drake moved in and grabbed The Ghost, and suddenly, they blinked back into the city proper.

The citizens of the city poked their heads out of the doors and watched them. Their skin was a light blue, and their hair a darker blue. They wore clothes that wouldn't be out of place in Victorian times. At the end of the street a column of armoured guards marched towards them. They pulled out some steampunk-looking gun things. They fired them and crossbow bolts whizzed past them, The Ghost responded by sizzling the leaders with an energy beam.

"Don't kill them." Drake snarled and shoved The Ghost through a wall and into someone's living room.

A man who was in the living room at the time tried to beat Drake over the head with a table leg, Drake grabbed the leg from him and ushered him into another room. The guards stepped into the hole in the wall; they fired their crossbows, one of the bolts hit Drake in the shoulder, it should've just bounced off, but somehow it skipped all magical defences. Drake pulled the bolt from his shoulder and the wound got warm and it healed over. Drake used the air to push the guards out of the house. Then he punched The Ghost through the back of the house and into the one behind it. The Ghost raised his hands again and another shockwave destroyed the house. Drake didn't have time to defend himself and was thrown out into the street. The guards raised their crossbows, but The Ghost slammed them into the wall on the other side of the street using the air.

"Don't hurt or kill them." Drake roared at The Ghost.

"They are not important."

"Yes they are."

Drake tackled The Ghost and threw him into the two houses that they had put holes in; Drake slammed The Ghost into the ground. Then he knelt down and put his hands on the ground, and twisted them, causing the ground to shake and a column come collapsing down on The Ghost. Drake followed it up by kicking him, flinging him over a nearby building. Drake jumped over after him, he dropped down next to him.

The Ghost reacted quickly and hit Drake with a bolt of lightning, leaving a burn mark on his clothes. The Ghost clicked his fingers and Drake's torso was engulfed in flames. Drake summoned shadows which stopped the flames, but his shirt was reduced to shreds, and his jacket was untouched. Drake grabbed The Ghost's arm and they blinked again, this time over a lake. They tumbled into the water. Drake used the currents to bring him to the surface and he stood on top of the water, the currents holding him in place, The Ghost followed him up.

The locals watched them in awe from the shore. The Ghost moved his hands and a wall of water rose up around them.

"You know me as The Ghost. But that is not my true name."

"I am Arcabor Drake, now also known as The Oracle. What is your true name?"

"Spectrum."

"Well then, Spectrum. I prefer The Ghost myself."

Drake moved his hands again and the wall of water lowered. The Ghost raised both of his hands out in front of him and a huge beam of energy shot forth and enveloped Drake, who raised a shield for protection. After the beam moved on, Drake turned to see that it had cut a big swath in the city. Drake responded by firing a ball of air at him, which missed him. But The Ghost couldn't dodge the second ball, which sent him sinking down in the lake. Drake dived in after him. Using the currents to push them further down, Drake didn't know if his power could save him from drowning. Suddenly, the water became very hot. The Ghost was manipulating the temperature of the water. Drake responded by increasing the pressure around him. The Ghost moved and all the water lifted, leaving the two of them standing in an empty lakebed. A huge ball of water was hanging over them. Drake changed the pressure in the ball and it shrunk, and then it exploded. Spraying water all over the city, an artificial rain. The Ghost summoned what looked like a small sun and threw it at Drake, who jumped out the way, but he could still feel the heat from it.

Drake froze the rain in the air, and then shot the frozen droplets at The Ghost, piercing his skin, which he repaired instantly. The Ghost responded by pulling up a chunk of earth, could it even be called 'Earth'? Considering they were no longer on Earth. These thoughts distracted Drake as the chunk of rock knocked him over. The Ghost opened up the ground and it swallowed Drake trapping him in a hole in the ground, all light cut off. Drake coughed, because of the lack of air. He tried to move the air, but there was no air.

Drake used an energy beam to cut through the ground above him, but he got nowhere. He put his palms outwards and placed them on the outside of his dirty coffin. The ground shook and the compacted stone turned into dirt. He then pushed the air and all the dirt shot into the air. Drake removed himself from the hole and summoned static lightning to his hands, and mixed it with shadows. The static-infused-shadows hit The Ghost in the back and sent him sprawling. The shadows lifted him up into the air.

"The fight's over. I need to get back to my world now." Drake said calmly.

"You need to experience the magic before you can use it." The Ghost snarled. Amazingly, his hood had stayed where it was throughout the fight.

"Drake might not have experienced Dimensional Shunting, but The Oracle has."

If they were visible, The Ghost's eyes would've widened. Drake smiled as he flickered and he disappeared from that dimension.

China looked around, but Vile had gone. The ghosts turned to her but she just walked on through them like they weren't there. Like she was used to them.

"Sweep them away with the air." She recommended.

But before Erskine could do it, she waved her hand and the ghosts disappeared. They both turned back out into the road, the line was barely holding now. Tesseract and Deuce were doing their best to rally everyone against the hordes of Redhoods. China moved behind surging crowd and whistled, loud and shrill. Mevolent's army turned to look at her, along with the defenders.

"Drop your weapons everyone." She called out. She had adopted a pose with her hands on her hips and thrusting forward slightly. Erskine turned his attention back to the crowd. Deuce moved forward towards them, as well as the commander of Mevolent's army, a gruff looking man named Aubrey.

"I suggest a rest from fighting." China said again.

"Mevolent would not hesitate to punish us if we flee." Aubrey said.

"I doubt Mevolent will live much longer." Mevolent's group hissed at her words. "The war is over, can't you tell, it's an unusually bright day."

"I agree with your words, Mrs Sorrows." Deuce exclaimed.

There was a flash of light and suddenly, all the Redhoods disappeared into thin air.

"Where'd they go?" Yelled Aubrey.

"Even they can sense the change, a new day is dawning." China raised her arms, distracting Erskine.

The throne room flickered into life. Mevolent stood over Strom, pointing the Sceptre at him. The first thing Drake done was to fry Silver where he stood, cowering behind Mevolent.

Mevolent turned towards where Drake appeared and raised the Sceptre, but Drake swept it from his hands. Then he snapped his fingers, much to Mevolent's confusion.

"Don't worry, I just sent all your Redhoods to another dimension." Drake smiled. Strom looked at Drake worryingly.

Mevolent lunged towards the Sceptre, but Strom used his lightning to knock it away from him.

"Never seen you look so tired, Mevolent." Drake snarled. "War has been a bit tiring, eh?"

"I do not get tired." Mevolent roared.

"Yes you do. The Mevolent I knew would've tried to stand and fight me, but not this new Mevolent. Well, it also helps that I drained your power to shunt those Redhoods."

Mevolent growled.

"I mean, my power alone could've done it, but still, why waste it?"

Mevolent pushed the air, knocking Drake back a few feet. Mevolent responded by diving in close and punching Drake in the gut, damn, physical attacks hurt. Strom tried to grab Mevolent in a headlock, but a stray elbow hit his temple and Strom collapsed to the ground. Mevolent mounted Drake and punched him a few more times, but Drake moved his hand over his pocket and his sword came flying out and grew to full size, and pierced Mevolent through the shoulder, forcing him off.

"Nearly forgot about that." Drake muttered.

All Mevolent did was try to snap the sword. And then a big grin spread across his face. Curious, Drake looked around to see Lord Vile standing over him, shadows ready to tear him up.

"Do it Vile, kill him." Mevolent cheered.

Vile stared at Drake and cocked his head, looking at him.

"Kill, kill, kill, kill." Mevolent chanted.

Vile's shadows retracted, much to the shock of Mevolent. "Don't betray me!" He snarled.

Vile just looked at Mevolent, then using the shadows, swept Drake out of the way. Drake watched as Vile raised the shadows above Mevolent.

Mevolent tried to summon a flame, but before he could, Vile brought the shadows down and they pierced Mevolent's body. He gurgled something incomprehensible and Vile withdrew Drake's sword from his shoulder and stabbed it through Mevolent's heart.

He dropped onto his back, a pool of blood seeping outwards. He took one final breath and the man many had called 'god' finally died.

Lord Vile turned to Drake, cocked his head and just walked from the room. From the main doors, a crowd of people surged through. Drake picked up the Sceptre, he looked over to where his sword was, and he decided to leave it there.

Four people from the crowd walked toward him, then spotted Mevolent's body and gasped. The crowd turned to Drake.

"Oh, no, no, no. Please don't grovel." Drake sighed.

Deuce and Erskine walked over to him.

"Tell me what happened?" Deuce asked.

"There is nothing to say."

"You were glowing." Said a woman who had approached them, China Sorrows, Drake noted.

"I was, but it stopped now." Drake noticed that he was no longer glowing white.

"Well." Deuce turned to the crowd. "The War is over. Later we will mourn our dead, but for now we will celebrate."

The crowd cheered half-heartedly. Drake noticed a kid, probably barely fifty, who didn't cheer at all. He handed the Sceptre over to the kid.

"And who are you?" Drake asked him.

"My name is Edgely. Edward Edgely." He stammered.

"Edward Edgely. You survived the War, I like you, don't know why. Take the Sceptre and protect this dimension for me please, I'll pop by occasionally, promise."

"What do I do with it?"

"Point and think, basically. Wait till I'm out of the dimension though, or else it won't work."

"How do you know he won't become evil with it?" China asked.

"I can tell these things now." Drake told her. "Also," He leaned in close. "How's the marriage."

He could tell that her face had just gone an unusual shade of pink, but to her credit, held it well.

"What gives you the right to decide what happens?" Erskine butted in.

"I decide that too. I am the Oracle, and it is my duty to protect reality." Drake announced to the crowd. "From now on, I decide what goes on."

"Then that makes you no more of a monster than that man lying dead at your knees." Erskine growled. "Our friends died to stop people with that attitude."

"And that attitude is why we've won the War. Good day, Erskine, China, Corrival, Edward." He nodded to each of them in turn. "Keep fighting."

Drake waved at Edward and then he flickered, and then disappeared.

Parley. Common sense had won through and the American's had finally agreed to talk to them. Even though Jack suspected foul play.

Bernard Sult walked down the steps with three bodyguards and Elder Beckett.

Waiting for them was Jack Carter, Scarecrow and Gloomstone, along with Gibbs, Gruff and Tarkus for protection. All other fighters were stationed elsewhere. After what had happened, Felix had left, no one knew where.

"Good day, gentlemen." Sult greeted them. "We're here to parlay, no tricks allowed."

"Same to you." Gloomstone reminded him.

"Now," Beckett started. "to discuss the terms of your surrender."

"First off, it's not surrender, it's a treaty, you know, to stop fighting." Jack reminded him.

"Yes, yes, yes." Beckett said with mock apology.

"Here's the deal." Said Scarecrow. "You leave with all your forces and humbly apologize for trying to take over because you were manipulated by Blaze, and we apologize for imprisoning you."

"And stealing your candies." Muttered Tarkus, but luckily he wasn't heard by the Americans.

"No, we will not apologize." Sult shook his head.

"You wont?" Scarecrow looked bemused.

"No." Beckett repeated.

"Must I remind you, that people have died? People that I cared about." Jack said.

"That happens." Sult smiled.

"Mason Stark." Jack noticed his old comrade standing behind Sult. "Not months ago, we were fighting Grimskull in Australia, now we're fighting each other."

"Ignore him, Stark." Beckett snarled.

Stark opened his mouth but Beckett raised his hand to stop him.

"Polly Hunter, remember her?" Jack said. "She was killed because of this stupid, petty little war. Because she died, people have changed, including me. And I'm trying very hard not to change you two." He pointed and Beckett and Sult.

"Scarecrow, Carter." Yelled Murdock, who was running from the opposite side of the lobby.

"What is it, Murdock?" Gloomstone called back.

"They're attacking through the storage entrance." She informed them.

"SULT!" Jack yelled.

"Explain this." Scarecrow confronted Beckett.

"They're not following our command." Beckett stammered. "Nothing to do with me."

Sult jumped at Jack and dragged him to the ground. Beckett blasted Gloomstone and Gruff, knocking them out with a wave of energy from a symbol on his wrist. Tarkus summoned flame, but Beckett disposed of him with an energy wave.

Scarecrow grabbed one of the bodyguards and threw him over his hip. Gruff grabbed the second guard and threw him into the wall. Jack kicked Sult in the gut and Gibbs felled Beckett. Jack came face-to-face with Mason Stark.

"Stark, remember Polly." Jack pleaded.

"Oh, I remember her, she was cool." Stark said.

"She was killed, by the mercenaries hired by your Sanctuary."

"They killed someone? They weren't supposed to kill anyone."

"But they did. That what happens in war, people you love are killed."

Stark hesitated before attacking Jack, and in his moment of hesitation Beckett grabbed his shoulder and Stark screamed in pain and dropped to his knees. Beckett grabbed his other shoulder and Stark stopped screaming and collapsed fully to the ground.

"BECKETT!" Jack yelled.

"Calm down."

They all turned to where the voice came from. A man they thought was dead was now walking towards them.

"Now, Jack Carter, who is responsible?"

Drake could see Mason Stark lying on the ground with Beckett standing over him. Drake used the air the fling him away and pin him against a wall. Sult tried to stand, but Drake hit him with lightning.

"What!?" Gloomstone cried out. Gibbs just stared at him.

"I'll explain later. But the Anomaly was a portal to another dimension, and now I've returned, and I know my true name." Drake quickly explained. "Now, what is happening here?"

"The American's are technically invading." Jack said.

"Invading?"

"Yeah."

"SULT! Go home." Drake called out to him. "I have the power of gods, come back here and you'll have me to deal with."

Beckett picked up Sult from the ground and they feebly climbed the stairs, not looking back, because every time they did, Drake seared the wall near their head with lightening.

"How did – " Tarkus said.

"I have that way with people now." Drake sighed.

"Yer back laddie." Gruff grabbed and shook Drake's hand.

"Good to be back."

"Um, they're still attacking." Murdock reminded them.

"Oh, yes." In an instant, Drake appeared in the middle of a battle.

A group of Russian's were fighting a group of defenders including Cornelius von Mope.

Drake created an energy shield between the two opposing sides. Cornelius looked around frantically. Drake used lightening to burn the ground at the feet of the nearest Russian.

"What?" He exclaimed in a deep voice.

"I'm giving you one chance to leave and never come back." Drake warned him.

"Or what? Englishman."

"Don't make me, please."

"We aren't leaving."

"Yes you are." Drake created a wall of air and pushed the Russian's towards the end of the corridor. They tried to fight against it, but Drake kept pushing them towards the end of the corridor. He clicked his fingers and they flickered and disappeared.

"Where'd they go?" Asked Cornelius.

"To a different dimension." Drake informed him.

He clicked his fingers again and they reappeared. The Russian he spoke to before looked up.

"We leave." His voice was a much more higher pitch now. Him and his fellow Russians turned and ran from the building, not looking back.

Drake sighed and teleported back to the lobby. The Elders were standing there now. Illori looked up and smiled at him, but Drake didn't return the smile.

Jack walked up to him. "She died."

"Who?" Drake looked at him.

"Polly. She was killed by the Russians." He looked down to the ground.

"OK."

Drake teleported out to where the Russians were standing outside. They looked up at him, some of them whimpered.

"Which one of you killed the girl Polly Hunter?"

"Dolohov, our leader, but he was killed." Said the same Russian he spoke to before.

"Too bad."

Drake clicked his fingers and they all shunted back to the dimension that he sent them to before. The sky was blood red and the sun was a deep scarlet. All around them sentient sand started to swirl. The voices of previous victims followed. The Russians cowered among themselves.

"Welcome to the closest resemblance of hell that you'll ever see. Of course there are worse though. The Faceless ones themselves came through here, there used to be an entire city standing where we stand now, but they killed them all. Your gods killed over a trillion people here."

"We're sorry." One of the Russians pleaded.

"Your gods are worthless killers, and you worship them. Tell me, why did the Americans hire you?"

"The young guy, Sult, he came and recruited us. Said that he needed help for something."

"So you went to fight for someone like him?"

"Yes sir."

"You leave to go fight a senseless war, against people who have done nothing wrong, and you go and kill one of my friends."

Drake sighed

"I have had enough of my friends being killed. Jenkins, Polly, all the others. And I'll tell you this now. I've had enough."

The sand moved closer to the Russians. Drake watched them for a minute. Then he clicked his fingers and returned to his world.

Chapter 9 – Burn

It had been a month since he had returned. He had spent the time periodically between his home in London, and time travelling through reality. He had been monitoring the Faceless Ones, because they had become more active in their dimension. One day he had gotten a call from an old friend, and planned to meet him at a special spot.

"Why here?" Drake asked as he sat down. They were back in the graveyard where they had first fought with Matthias and The Ghost. The hole was filled in and a new grave stood in the middle of it all, the grave of their friend.

"Where it started." Felix murmured.

"How are you coping, with out your arm?"

"Well enough, I couldn't care about it anymore, don't care about much."

"I heard you left the Sanctuary."

"Correct. And you?"

"Yeah, I left. I don't work at Scotland Yard anymore, nor the Sanctuary. I just don't feel that I belong anymore."

"Why?"

"Comes with being a god. They were the Ancients you know, they came from a different dimension and into ours, and then they defeated the Faceless Ones. But they killed themselves off, and now only two remain. The Ghost and The Oracle, The Oracle died and gave me her power, so I'm The Oracle now."

"What does it mean for you?"

"I have a responsibility to look after reality now, monitor the Faceless Ones, stop trouble. I can shunt between dimensions, use any magic I want."

"That must be good."

"No. I hate it."

"Tell me. What happened in that dimension you visited through that portal?"

"Mevolent was still alive, the War was still going strong. I won it, but at a cost. I made friends over there. And then they died."

"Was anyone left alive?"

"Corrival Deuce, Erskine Ravel, China Sorrows, there was a few others."

"Who would you have picked to survive?"

"I don't chose. I don't want to chose."

"Could you have saved her?"

"I don't know."

"But you said the former Oracle brought you back a few times."

"Yes."

"Couldn't you do that now?"

"It's too late. Her soul has dissipated. Back the that dimension, Lord Vile had a trick where he stored the souls of the deceased, and used them to buff his power."

"That's evil."

"It is."

Drake stood up and walked away.

"You going home?" Felix asked.

"I don't know where my home is anymore."

"Ghost." The Man With The Golden Eyes said.

"Golden Eyes." The Ghost said in return. "These meetings are getting common."

"With the lead up to the big Grand Mage meeting, I dare say we'll be seeing more of each other. Tell me more of The Oracle."

"Drake. This was unforseen. I did not expect her to give her powers over to him."

Golden Eyes sighed. "They're going to burn. All of them."