Chapter 18 - Fate found us (Part 1)

The shadow dropped heavily on its hands, raising a plume of dark matter on its wake and a chorus of laments from the spirits below. It crept slowly one elbow and knee at a time, the hollow eye sockets fixed on the evil witch.

Lawhinie stood petrified on her spot. "You... you are supposed to be dead!"

"Dead?" The thing twisted its head abnormally. "Stupid witch! You better than anyone should know that death is not the end!"

"You are correct. I just have to kill you a second time, master!"

The evil witch sent forth a fiery stream of flames at the human-shaped Mephisto, and the battlefield got enveloped in waves of heat and smoke once again.

Zipper barely managed to fly away and avoid getting caught in the stream of hellish flames. He, just as the other members of the party, couldn't see or hear the spiritual form of the devil cat. It seemed as if the witch was simply aiming her magical powers at the fountain of Les Innocents. "No, I better not lie to myself" The small scout said under his breath. "We are not alone!"

Tammy witnessed agape as the deranged mouse lighted the night ablaze again. "Oh, sweet lord! Has that witch gone mad?"

Lawhinie stopped to catch her breath. The wall in front of her was blackened and deformed by the heat, and all around reigned only silence. "Was that real?" Lawhinie started to ask, when the evil spirit surfaced from below the earth and in a single fast and violent motion seized and lifted her off the ground. "Gahhh!" The mouse let out a scream of pain as her body twisted awkwardly.

Tammy and Zipper gasped in shock as Lawhinie got suspended in middle air by an invisible force. Then, for a brief moment, the cleric managed to make the shape of a tall and awfully thin human with long sharp teeth squeezing the witch with sadistic delight. The vision vanished in a blink of an eye, leaving her speechless and suddenly pale. As soon as she was able to make coherent words again she ran back at the edge of the open grave. "Chip! Help!"

"Tammy!" The ranger called back, already alarmed by the plumes of smoke and the sudden raise in temperature. "What's going on up there?"

"Perhaps Lawhinie is back to her old ways?" The bard ventured with great concern.

"No, she wouldn't…" Gadget refuted, then saddled up on her broomstick. "Jump in, guys! Something is wrong up there!"

"Hold on Tammy! We are coming!"

The trio lifted off the muddy ground with the speed of a firework, describing an arc and landing next to the young squirrel, who ran to the ranger's arms as soon as he put a foot down. "Oh, Chip! I'm so scared!"

"Tammy" The ranger quickly comforted her. "what's going on?"

"Over there, something big and horrible and invisible captured Lawhinie!"

"Whoa!" Dale almost jumped out of his skin. "A ghost? Is that a ghost?"

"Sister!" Gadget yelled, then took a step back as she got a glimpse of the same vision that frightened Tammy before. "Is that…"

Lawhinie's left arm cracked under the tightening grip of the evil spirit. "Gahhh! M-Mephisto… you son of a bitch!"

The human-shaped entity raised the witch higher still, until they meet face to face. "Lawhinie…" The devil hissed, then opened its jaw wide, exposing a series of sharp elongated fangs that menaced to tear the mouse into shreds. "I'm so disappointed. You backstabbing rodent"

The ethereal hand closed tighter on her, and the witch felt a pair of ribs breaking under the pressure. "You cannot" She tried to speak as a lump of blood rose up her throat. "You cannot kill me… there are… rules"

"Rules, yes. I just found a way" Mephisto grinned. "I just found someone eager to deal the killing blow! He is close and waiting for you!"

Gadget had just begun to weave a spell when the figure transformed into a dark cloud and fled in the direction of the church, taking Lawhinie with him. For everybody around it looked like the soaring witch had suddenly been yanked away by a powerful gust of wind. The feathered hat - her most prized belonging - drifted in the opposite direction and was soon lost in the darkness of the graveyard.

"No, no! Stay away from the church!" The good twin cried out and took up to the air in pursuit of her sister and the enemy she couldn't see clearly but made her fur stand on edge all the same. Her friends were left behind, stunned and impotent.

"Munnin, Huggin!" The black-nosed chipmunk called at the Nordic ravens. "What is Mephisto trying to do?"

"A double suicide, perhaps? Nevermind that, wipe that dazed look off your face and go after them!"

"Dammit!" He cursed as she broke into a run. "Tammy, Dale, stay here!"

"You must be joking!" The young cleric quickly joined him. "You need me at your side!"

"Foxy and Monterey are inside the church!" Dale added as he managed to catch up to his more agile friends. "They'll help us save Lawhinie!"

"I just hope we get there in time" The ranger thought amid clenched teeth.

Back at the church, an ornate door at the end of the stairway that led to the bell tower opened ajar with a loud heavy sound admitting three humans dressed in clerical robes into the main chamber. Two of them exchanged a stream of fast and almost unintelligible words, accentuated by frenetic mannerisms that suggested these humans were on the edge.

"Please, I beg you! Do not go outside! Something diabolical is happening around the fountain! Flames were bursting out of nowhere!"

"Silence, Abel! Stop being such a coward! It's our duty as clergymen to go and unravel this incident! God will protect us!"

"But… but the fire, and the beam of light! S-Soldiers are coming, why don't we wait for them before going out?"

"The culprits might be gone by then!"

"What if there is only one culprit and is the devil himself!?"

The third human, the oldest among them, kept himself out of the discussion. This grey-haired priest merely took a deep breath and walked further into the chamber, unnerved by the flickering candle lights that made shadows dance or the big rodent he caught scurrying under the pews.

"Father Gaspard? Wait for us!" His subordinates called.

The priest in charge only stopped until he was in front of the main altar. Once he made sure the cup and the pair of holy relics donated by a long-dead king were safely locked in their compartments, he solemnly made the sign of the cross over his chest and turned around. "Say Hugo, is there holy water left in the font?"

The adjutant hurriedly crossed the chamber to check the contents of the old, carved stoup. "Yes sir!" He sighed with relief. "There is plenty"

"Good. Fill a couple of bottles. You and I will go outside and consecrate the fountain again. Abel, go unlock the front doors and wait for the night guard to come in. Tell them everything you saw from your post at the tower, even the tiniest detail"

The young man nodded still hesitant. "Y-yes"

From behind the first row of wooden seats, Monterey Jack studied these new characters and their plans, twisting his left moustache as he did so. "Hmpf, humans!" He scoffed, then glanced over his shoulder. "Did ya hear that, Foxy? A whole battalion of armed humans is coming this way"

Foxglove, who had taken refuge on the opposite row, glided silently back to her friend. "This whole situation is getting worse by the minute. We must warn Dale and the others"

"Aye… but first, where did Pietro go? Little snitch won't escape that easily from me"

"The short one-eyed friend of Desiree? I can sense him moving over there"

Monterey Jack peered at the spot at the base of the altar the rogue bat was pointing and had to squint his eyes in order to notice the figure of the slippery rodent crook. Pietro was on the move already and there was only one direction he could free without been caught by the bantering humans, and that lead towards the line of wooden seats opposite to where the knight and the rogue were hidding in. "Ack! I'll go get him. The only place he must run off to is to jail"

"Wait, what's that smell?"

On that moment, one of the ancient stained-glass windows exploded in a thousand shards as a man ignited in flames charged through it and landed right on top of the pew that protected the pair of rodents from view. The figure shouted a nasty high-pitched shriek that killed every light in the chamber in a single breath. On the overwhelming obscurity that followed, only the outline of a flaming human could be discerned.

"Mighty lord in heaven!" Hugo dropped the bottles and fell backwards to the ground.

"Abel!" Gaspard shouted. "Get out of here, now!"

"Oh my god, oh my god!" The young servant had already started off towards the doors that gave access to the street leaving his superiors behind. "I want to get out! Let me out!" He demanded as he fumbled with the keychain over and over in the darkness. Only until the third try did Abel succeeded and escaped into the dark.

However, the unholy apparition wasn't interested in humans in the slightest, as the remaining priests quickly realized. The flaming shadow dropped down to the floor and peered under the seats in search of the pair of small heroes.

"Kyaaaahhh!" Foxglove screamed in terror as the silhouette of a scorched human face peered right at her. "Dale, help meee!"

"Stay behind me, Foxy!" The knight put himself between the two with the greatsword firmly at the ready. "Oi! Leave'er alone, fiend!" He demanded, gulping down his own fears for his friend's sake.

Just as the same time, the bold father Gaspard stepped forward and presented a holy crucifix at the scorching devil. "Begone, evil spirit!" He commanded with a grave and powerful voice. "Leave the house of God at once!"

Mephisto sprung up and twisted around himself in a strange series of motions that no human being could possibly perform without breaking their whole skeleton in pieces. The dark figure stared at the crucifix with its face contorted in a silent horrid grimace. Then he started to crumble down only to vanished into the air before he could even touch the marbled floor. The flames that gave away his existence died off and the chamber got bathed in darkness again.

"You did it, your grace!" Hugo celebrated despite his still wobbling legs. "The evil spirit is gone!"

"Is it, though?" The older priest reasoned. "Quick, Hugo. Light the candles on again! This darkness is unnatural"

Chip, Gadget, Dale and Tammy entered the church through the crevice in the doors that Foxglove had previously used. However, as soon as the blonde witch put a step inside, a burning sensation in her chest assaulted her, followed by pain and a fever that made her stumble and fall to her knees. "Ugnhh! Not fair!" She winced as she made an effort to stand up again.

"Gadget!" The ranger and his friends went back to assist the mouse.

"Nevermind me" She said with a grimacing expression. "Please hurry up and save my sister!"

"I won't leave you behind!" Chip grabbed her paw. "But if this place is really hurting you…" The ranger glanced at his expectant friends and took a decision. "Tammy, take Gadget outside and wait for us. Dale, come with me!"

"What? No!" The cleric replied downright insulted. "I'm not her babysitter!"

"Tammy, you are not recovered either!" He sternly countered. "I can see you are out of breath"

"But… who will protect you if I'm not around?"

Just when an offended Dale was about to raise his paw and argue back, the buzzing voice of Zipper sounded above their heads. "I will!" The small scout offered. "Just lend me a pointy weapon, mine is all bent up"

The ranger took a glance at the obscured chamber ahead. "This place is awfully quiet"

His ravens quickly offered an explanation. "The human priests vanished Mephisto out of this plane; he's out of our sight again. Just don't let your guard down, chipmunk; dawn is still many hours away"

As the pair of humans tried to find their way in the obscured chamber, Monterey and Foxglove set their eyes on a small wailing rodent of tattered clothes lying right where the devil had stood just one moment ago. "What… what is this?" the big mouse held his breath as he noticed bangs of the brightest golden hair ever gifted to a living being. Golden hair he knew all to well.

His worst fears were confirmed by none other than his forgotten companion Pietro, who came out from his hideout and approached the unidentified rodent with shaky steps and a lump on his throat. Out of a sudden, the pirate let out a muffled yelp and hurried to the side of the knight, shaking from head to toes. "It's the witch!" He whispered quite pale. "The blonde witch!"

"Gadget?" Foxglove gasped in shock. "No… Lawhinie, it's Lawhinie!" She finally concluded as the singular scent of the evil twin reached her nose. Even though they weren't exactly friends Foxglove's natural kindness pushed her to go to the mouse's aid. An act of mercy that was promptly stopped by the knight, who held the rogue back by the shoulder a bit too aggressively. "Oww! S-sir Monterey?"

"Stay behind, lass" Monterey said keeping his eyes fixed on the hated witch. "She is still dangerous"

"No, she isn't! She's badly wounded!"

"Quickly, sir knight!" Pietro said growing agitated. "Do not wait until she wakes up! Finish her off now!"

"What? No, don't listen to him!"

Monterey Jack didn't immediately answer. In his already troubled mind a stream of bitter flashbacks poured down like sharp daggers: His time in the company of the beautiful Desiree D' Allure, followed by the marriage proposal and the fateful goodbye on the day he left to march towards the village of Saint Pierre; The promise he made to Desiree's father and the night he found her corpse in the depths of the abandoned crypt. Murdered. Murdered by Lawhinie Hackwrench. Then came the burial, then came the night, then came the grief and the consuming hate. "Desiree…" A couple of tears ran down the knight's face. "My poor Desiree".

Foxglove saw with horror as the knight raised his gigantic sword over the head and got ready to behead the unconscious witch with a single powerful swing. "Sir Monterey, no!" She pleaded with all her might and even threw herself between the two of them. "Don't do it!"

The voice of Pietro was heard again. "Oh God, she's waking up! Finish her now!"

"Move, lass!" The tearful Monterey stared hard at the bat. "Move!"

Suddenly, an arc of electricity enveloped the knight. Its sheer force sent him flying back and lit the place alight for a brief second. "Goodness!" Foxglove jumped aside. So did Pietro and the pair of humans that witnessed the flash and heard the accompanying boom.

"Cough! Cough!" Lawhinie lifted her face off the floor. "Get away from us, you brute!".

Foxglove stood on her spot astounded, blind and unable to believe that Monterey Jack had threatened to cut her in half and that a heavy mouse like him could fly such long distance. By pure instinct, almost unwillingly, her echolocation skill turned on allowing her to perceive the scene unfolding around her. Monterey Jack had crashed against the bench's leg and was still reeling from the discharge of electricity, but his vital signs were almost in order; that horrible mouse Pietro was running away for his life in the direction of the nearest exit doors; Lawhinie, despite her multiple injures and the curse that weakened her inside that sacred building, had managed to pull herself up and was looking straight at the knight in a teetering fighting stance.

To make things even worse, Foxglove also sensed one human closing in, candle in hand and curious about the sudden flash. If they were to find the mouse witch throwing spells left and right…

"Mephisto… where is he?" Lawhinie glanced from side to side, panting and reaching for her injured ribs.

"The humans vanished him" The bat explained as she opened her eyes and flew to the mouse's side. "And now they are coming for us! We must flee!"

"Serves him right" The witch smiled wickedly for a moment, then a grimace overtook her expression once more. "Ugh… this horrible place is killing me! Quickly, show me the exit!"

Just as Foxglove was about to rise to the air and grab the mouse by the shoulders as she used to do with her beloved chipmunk, her sonar senses alerted her about a massive object charging in their direction. The bat barely had time to make an evasive maneuver. the weak blonde mouse, on the other hand, was tackled by a pair of big strong paws that quickly pulled her into a bear hug.

"Lawhinie Hackrench!" Monterey Jack sent a wild and crazed glare at the witch. "You won't get away from me!"

"How dare you touch me!" She glared back at her attacker. "You want to die?"

"As a knight hired by Rouen's inquisidors, I sentence you to die, witch!"

"Gghh!" Despite the pressure on her fragile frame, Lawhinie still managed to draw a devilish grin. "I see… You are still mad about what I did to your bitch, aren't you?"

The knight replied to these words by punishing harder the already injured body of the blonde mouse. "My love, my wife, my reason to live! You killed her in cold blood! For that, I'll execute you myself!"

"Wait, wait! What if I… What if I send you to her!"

The blast of fire invoked by the witch never materialized. Instead, she realized with horror that her paws had suddenly numb and irresponsive. "Huh? What the…" Unable to comprehend the situation, Lawhinie sent a confused side glance at Foxglove, only to find that the bat was just as perplexed as her or even more.

For the rogue bat had just witnessed a terrible transfiguration take place. The arms and legs and even the tail of the blonde mouse had changed from pale white to an ugly ash grey color; little by little, the blood vessels that traveled from her arms to her neck turned black, like poisonous serpents crawling up her body; the once golden hair was losing its brightness, same as with the deep blue eyes, now dull and clouded.

"Sir Monterey, please stop!" Foxgove pleaded. "She is dying!"

"Urrgggghh!" Lawhinie gritted her teeth, holding an urge to scream out of pain. No, she wouldn't give the fat mouse such satisfaction. She wouldn't surrender to him. She just needed more time, time for that chipmunk named Chip Maplewood to arrive and save her. However, she was well aware that her time was running low, the curse of witchcraft draining her out of power and even life every second she spent inside that church. "Where are you, damned hero?" She thought as her mouth filled with the salty-copper taste of blood. "I could… really use your help now"

"Look out!"

The answer to the witch's plea came in the form of a giant leather shoe that impacted against Monterey Jack on his left side and sent both rodents flying away. "Ugh, vermins!" Hugo exclaimed with disgust. "Respect the house of God, you pests!"

Father Gaspard didn't take kindly to his assistant's outburst. "Calm down, Hugo! What did you find?"

"Nothing supernatural, your grace. Just some rodents in a quarrel of sorts" The adjutant frowned as he saw the small creatures flee to the safety of the wooden seats. "We really need to get ourselves a cat". Any other comment died in his tongue, though, for he observed in disbelief a small bat helping an injured mouse take cover behind the pew. A mouse wearing black clothes that was apparently leaving behind a trail of grey specks as she was dragged away. "What the hell is this?"

Just as Hugo was about to bent down and take a closer look at this strange occurrence his superior called for him again. "Leave these poor animals alone. Come, we must go and investigate the fountain at once"

Foxglove peered from behind the seat's leg at the human walking away in a hurry. "Thank God he's leaving" She whispered with relief, then turned to check out on Lawhinie, whose condition had worsened after the treacherous blow. "Please, Lawhinie, say something!"

"I can't… feel my body at all" The mouse said weakly. "Just take me away…"

Shockingly, now half of the once beautiful face had acquired the same decomposing color as her limbs. Even worse, she was coughing blood that strangely boiled on contact with the floor. Foxglove knew her companion had little time left.

"Yes, of course!" The bat nodded and even offered her one of her trademark smiles. "Everything is gonna be all right. Just hold on a little longer!"

On that moment, the screeching sounds of metal against stone resounded at her back. "Get away from that witch, Foxglove" Monterey Jack ordered as he dragged himself and his greatsword forward one step at the time, clearly hurt and dazed by the unexpected punt. "She is dangerous!"

The witch felt an anger build within her, amidst her agony and humiliation. "That moron just doesn't give up, huh?" She soon realized the obvious answer to that question, just as she also realized she would be dead by the time she got outside. There was no other choice but to stop and fight back, right there on that place that was trying to kill her. Kind of ironic, since the last time she stepped into a church was on the day of the funeral of her parents.

"No, I won't let Mephisto win!" She suddenly announced, much to Foxglove's surprise. "I'll murder my way out of this, as I always do!" She said amid gritted teeth, then turned towards the increasingly frightened bat. "I've changed my mind, Foxglove. Help me stand up. It's time to end this stupid chase!"

"What? No, we must keep running away! Dale and Chip are coming to help us!"

"I just need one second" The witch stated as a trickle of blood ran down her decaying chin. "Just one second and I'll be rid of him forever. Now, stay away and watch!"

While Foxglove took a reluctant step aside, Monterey Jack forced his injured arm to bring the heavy sword up and into a martial stance. "Aye, one second is all I need to avenge my poor Desiree! Die, you murderer!" He yelled as he charged forward.

"Flames, come to me!"

Chip, Dale and Zipper arrived at the scene just as the knight impaled the cursed mouse, whose magic had betrayed her once again. The horrified Foxglove immediately threw herself at the arms of her beloved bard, while the ranger and the scout stood agape.

The black-nosed chipmunk was the first to recover, and in an outburst of anger threw himself into the already settled duel. "Monterey!" He shouted as he witnessed the body of the witch slide down the edge of the blade and hit the ground on a pool of her own boiling blood. "What have you done!"

The outraged ranger was about to cut the hulking knight with his purple swords when he noticed the mouse dropped his own sword and stumbled back, holding his right paw with the other while uttering a pained grunt. The ranger halted his own charge and didn't press on, despite the objections of the bloodthirsty inner voices. Apparently, Lawhinie had played one last card from her malevolent deck, one that the ranger, the knight and everybody else had forgotten about.

Monterey Jack's right paw had turned to stone, and the flesh from his arm was suffering the same transmutation at an aggressive coldhearted speed. The knight fell to his knees and sent a look of incredulity at Zipper and Foxglove.

"Monty!" The small scout rushed to his friend's side. In the single second it took him to get there, the spell had reached the knight's waist and opposite shoulder. The spell would only take a few breaths more to complete its cruel work.

Even so, the knight managed to give his faithful friend one last smile. "It's all right, pally. I'm just going to take a rest" He gulped down right before his throat got petrified. "I'll go to Desiree's side. I'll go…"

Such were the last words of Monterey Jack. The spell had killed him by turning him into a statue, one that perfectly preserved all his distinctive features, from the folds and wrinkles in the clothes to the bristly thickness of the moustache. Under the dancing lights of the few distant candles the Scottish knight seemed to breath and stare and smile at his friend but… the fly knew too well it was just an illusion. An illusion that was broke by a pained murmur at his back. As he turned around he found that the murderous witch wouldn't die alone as she deserved to. The ranger was already at her side, holding her paw in his.

"You should have waited for me" Chip reproached her gulping down his tears, clearly affected by the wretched sight of the mouse he had grown fond of. "You knew I was just one second away"

Lawhinie coughed a last bout of blood, one that stained her scorched cheeks. "I had… not one second… left" She replied weakly, then made an effort to breathe one last time despite the pain that overwhelmed her. "Promise me… you'll take care of my sister (cough!) She is… good..."

Chip couldn't hold himself any longer and broke into tears. Nothing was left from the brash, self-confident and beautiful witch that once tried to kill him and his friends. The curse of witchcraft had withered all of that away, leaving only a fragile dying mouse whose eyes devoid of any gleam got fixated on the darkness above her, and for the first time, he witnessed tears rolling off these eyes. "Lawhinie?"

The mouse didn't regard him. She merely grimaced and whispered a sentence that made no sense to those few who heard it. "I'm sorry, Sabrina"

Lawhinie Hackwrench died.

The surviving rodents jumped back in a hurry, as the battered body of the witch ignited in blue flames and consumed itself down to a pile of ashes with supernatural celerity. The bat turned her gaze to the holy altar at their backs which seemed to her as if gleamed with its own golden light, instead of simply reflect the light of the few candles around. "Oh God have mercy" She whispered at the crucified figure up high. "Please, mercy".

Traces of warm ashes dispersed into nothingness by a gust of wind that came out of nowhere. "I couldn't save her…" Chip muttered still in denial. "I couldn't"

Munnin's voice echoed in his mind, cold and detached. "The witch is in hell now"

The ranger cursed under his breath as he wiped a tear off his face, then he forced himself to stand up. "And yet, this nightmare is not over, is it?"

"No" The other raven quickly informed. "It's about to get worse"

"Gadget…"

Gadget and Tammy, along with Andreas, Eustachious and a few other rodents had been forced to flee and hide as the pair of human clergymen made their way out the transept. There, while covering behind an ancient illegible tombstone, the mouse was assaulted by a vision: Of the black city of Dis, of the soul of Lawhinie being forcibly dragged into a cage amid a cacophony of insults and derisive laughter from other condemned souls and hell citizens. One of them even announced that the witch's eternal punishment was about to begin.

The twin was pulled from her trance by Tammy and her insistent shoving and prodding. "Witch, wake up! Come on!"

Upon coming back to reality, the horrified mouse immediately buried her face on her paws. "No, no! This cannot be real! Lawhinie, sister!"

"What did you see?" The cleric asked growing nervous. "What happened to Lawhinie? Is Chip all right?"

Gadget slowly glanced at her friend. "Chip and the others are coming, but my sister… my sister is dead…"

"But, what you told us before…"

The witch and the cleric looked at each other in silent disbelief for a second, a silence which was broken by a human screaming on the distance. "Oh God, what is that!?" Hugo exclaimed as he pointed at a floating sphere of darkness that materialized out of thin air over the cobblestoned path that lead from the fountain of the innocents to the church.

"The enemy is coming" Father Gaspard muttered as he took his holy rosary off his neck and held it forward. "Get ready, friend!"

The younger priest had just reached for the vial of holy water when the supernatural sphere collapsed into itself with an echo akin to a blood-chilling lament and metamorphosed into a jet-black cat of blazing blue eyes that landed gracefully on the cobblestoned path. Gadget and Tammy both felt their fur stand on edge as the monster turned its lidded gaze directly toward them.

"A cat?" Hugo asked baffled, while his senior colleague waited in expectant silence. The feline ignored them completely and leapt on top of the same tombstone the heroes were hiding behind. Then, for everyone's horror, a pair of leathery wings sprouted out of its shoulders as it gave a mighty and otherworldly roar more akin to a lion than a scrawny alley cat. These devilish appendages were promptly put to use. The fiend lifted off the marbled reminder and soared high, leaving behind a trail of smoke and ashes. "Oh Lord, have mercy…" The frightened priests murmured in fear.

Mephisto then proceeded to leave humans and rodents alike speechless by exhaling forth a mighty torrent of fire at the doors of the church of the Innocents. The centuries-old wood ignited at once and the magical fire menaced to set the whole building ablaze. The devil grinned satisfied by his evil deed and spun around to face the humans again from his spot up high in the air. Gaspard and Hugo realized they won't be able to flee to the safety of the church anymore and had no choice but to fight for their lives and souls in these corrupted grounds.

Gadget and Tammy saw the doors being consumed with unnatural voracity and realized their friends were now trapped inside and unable to assist them. They were to stand alone against the dragon cat, inheritor of the destructive dark powers that once belong to Lawhinie Hackwrench.

Little did they know that Mephisto got close to claim vengeance against their most important friend. Chip was running straight into the door's crevice when the jet of flames rushed through the tunnel. Thanks to Dale and his quick reflexes the tragedy was prevented, since he managed to grip the ranger by the collar of his shirt and jerk him back barely one moment before he stepped into that deadly trap.

The beast landed again on the tombstone and greeted the pair of female rodents below him with a cocky fanged grin. "Guess who's back, little mortals"

The commanding voice of father Gaspard boomed on the field, making everybody turn their gaze at him. "You devil who speak our tongue!" He said raising his rosary defensively at eye level. "I command you to speak your name!"

The devil cat pondered it for a moment and finally decided to humor the old human, if only to taste some sweet scent of fear out of him. "Greetings, I'm Mephisto" He said with an accentuated feline hiss, jumping deftly from one tombstone to another to give the priests a full view of his slender figure. "I trust you have heard of me, old man?"

"The merchant of wishes!?"

Hugo, who was not trained at all in medieval demonology, asked a very dumb, very dangerous question. "Wishes? He makes wishes come true?"

"Sorry, but business is closed at the moment" The devil cat quipped. "Now, begone!" He nonchalantly turned his back on them. "Tonight, I'm hunting"

Each step the devil took sent waves of dread and terror in the hearts of both living and dead creatures around him. The ethereal denizens of the cemetery scurried away weeping and wailing and losing their shapes. They couldn't even bare to look directly at the monster without falling into a frenzied despair.

The few rodents that remained in that field of nightmares didn't fare any better. However, mice and rats and insects couldn't simply vanish out of view like their deceased neighbors. Each and all of them suddenly suffered from unnatural despair and hopelessness watching the hellish apparition of white flaming eyes coming towards them, smoke coming out of his nostrils with a heavy stench of sulfur as harbinger. The only thing Andreas, Eustachious and the other dwellers could do was to close their eyes shut and pray for God's protection.

Deep in his heart, Tammy knew she couldn't just wait for a miracle from heavens. Not when the murderer of her parents insisted on coming back from the dead to torment her. The young squirrel made a titanic effort over herself, trying to strangle the unnatural horror that squeezed her guts with iron grip. Not an easy task, but she managed to calm down her heart a little. As she opened her eyes she found Gadget already lending her a helping paw.

"Welcome back" The mouse greeted the squirrel with a weak smile, one that spoke of grief and misery. "As expected of the famous archmage's daughter, you resisted the horror spell, one of my master's specialties"

"My mother used to tell everyone I have a strong personality" The cleric explained as she got pulled upright. "I didn't believe it myself"

Gadget fixed his gaze on the winged cat above them. "Mephisto killed your parents; killed my sister. It's something terrible to have in common"

"Well, we also have Chip, don't we?"

The blonde mouse's expression brightened a little. "Aye… we also have that"

"I say, let's put an end to this nightmare once and for all and come back to him"

Mephisto gave them a malevolent grin as he leaped down the tombstone and met them eye to eye. ""Yes, that's it. Keep looking forward to tomorrow! Crushed dreams taste so good!"

Both heroines stood their ground and presented fighting stances, despite knowing their chances for victory and survival were slim at best. "But to be honest, I'm not in a good shape" Tammy whispered to her companion as she summoned the grimoire to her side. "And my divine power is far from replenished"

"We can always run away" The witch suggested.

"No, not from him! Never from him!" The cleric drew her father's sword out and, with a slight pass of the paw and a quick prayer, lighted the blade on with divine radiance. "With God's help, we'll live to see tomorrow!"

"Neither you or God will stop me!" Mephisto roared. "I'll make my triumphant way back home with the blood of my witches!" The devil cat pounced at the rodents with a high-pitched screech, all too eager to maul them both to pieces.

The squirrel and the mouse managed to dodge the swooping claws of the monster and rolled aside only to stand up and realize they had chosen opposite directions and were now cut off from each other. The devil cat scoffed at the crouching cleric and turned his back on her, opting instead to go first after the witch's life. Unmerciful, he exhaled a stream of fire that fell upon the blonde mouse, who barely had time to summon a magical shield to protect herself with. Soon she got completely enveloped in flames.

"Gadget!" Tammy called out as she started off into a run, shining blade first. "Hold on, I'm coming!"

Just as the cleric was about to spend what little divine power she had left to try and put an end to the relentless punishment her companion was victim to, a glass vial crashed and shattered on the monster's right side splashing its contents onto him. The beast let out a sharp scream of pain and plummeted to the ground, cursing and trashing around on the dirt and suffering from a hissing bubbling wound. The blonde witch fell to her knees panting and sweating, but overall unscathed.

"Holy water?" Tammy observed astonished. By mere chance a stray droplet landed on her shoulder, resulting on a slight increase in her pool of divine magic. "Amazing…"

"Take that, fiend!" Hugo celebrated his accuracy and got ready to throw a second vial at the beast. "Go back to the abyss!"

On that precise moment the world around the witch came to a halt, and she understood she was about to witness another intruding vision. "No, please! Not now!" She heard herself clamoring, before her consciousness was completely swayed away into the realm of forbidden knowledge.

Tammy's heart skipped a beat at the sight of the entranced, motionless witch. She immediately rushed to her aid, fearing the worst. "Gadget! Are you all right!?" The squirrel inquired as she nudged her companion back and forth. "Answer me!"

Gadget woke up with a gasp and a start. The witch's eyes opened wide at the sight of the redhead squirrel who kept urging her to stand up. "Tammy?" She stammered. "You are… you are…"

"Yes yes, I'm here! Look, the humans are on our side, this is our chance!"

"Humans?"

"Those priests! Hurry up, cast your spells!"

The cleric led by example and drew a series of holy symbols in the air in order to receive a duo of blessings: haste and shield. That was everything she could afford, as magically drained as she was. That's why she blinked in surprise when she became the target of the 'mirror image' spell: two identical reflections materialized at her sides, mirages that would made her more difficult to hit. This was followed by 'Blur' which made her silhouette and the mirages shift and waver like ethereal spirits. Confused, she turned around and found that her companion was determined to give her all the magical protection available. "Hey, stop it! What about you?"

"I'll be fine" Gadget replied still on edge. "It is you who… who should be more careful"

Tammy was about to make a witty retort when Mephisto jumped on his feet and let out a mighty roar that stunned them and everybody else around. "How dare you interrupt me?" He hissed at Hugo with a most frightening expression. "How dare you stand against me? Know your place, worm!"

The air around the devil cat crackled with evil intent. An arc of electricity rose and danced across his nightmarish body before being discharged at the human with a booming thunder and a flash. The force of the impact sent Hugo crashing against an ancient tombstone, and then another. He ended up laying on top of a pile of debris convulsing wildly. His vial of holy water shattered on the ground besides him.

Mephisto gnarled disappointed as he realized his victim was still breathing. "Ugh! No good! The spell should have turned you to dust on the spot. Whatever, let's try again!"

The older clergyman valiantly stood up and put himself between them. "Leave him alone, beast!" He demanded raising his arms up. "Stay away!"

Their opponent grinned wickedly as he got ready to cast a more powerful lightning bolt, an action that was cut short by the blessed blade of the squirrel cleric. "Hah!" She yelled, thrusting her father's sword into the right front leg of the cat, just above the elbow. His concentration lost, the monster stumbled to one side.

"Urghhh! You'll pay for this, mortal!"

Gadget used that moment to summon her garden of magical vines right under the feet of her master, but the merchant of wishes won't let himself be captured that easily again. He took to the air flapping the long leathery wings before the sprouts were able to entangle around him. "Enough! That trick is getting old, witch!" He jeered while doing a swift turn. "Just like your silly illusions, I can see right through them!"

The devil cat dived claws first like a smoke-colored hawk, breaking with daunting accuracy through the mirages Gadget had built for Tammy. The witch could do nothing but watch her friend fell prey of the monster's fangs just as her vision had foretold. The young squirrel was mauled, gnawed, tossed around and finally discarded as though she were a broken doll.

"Tammy!" The witch cried out as she mounted on her broom and rushed to the cleric's side, fearing the worst. Mephisto, always one to enjoy drama, allowed this and even retreated a pair of steps back with a smug grin on his face, all too proud of the suffering he had caused.

Gadget found her friend curled to one side on a pool of her own blood. "Mom!" The squirrel called out in pain. "It hurts so much! Chip… please…"

The witch herself couldn't restrain her own tears. Falling to her knees, unable to do anything but watch the squirrel bleed to death, her voice and heart broke. "Don't… don't die… not like this! I did everything I could!"

"Oh, I'm going to miss this smell so much!" The devil exclaimed in a loud voice for everybody to hear, and his frustration sounded quite honest. "The smell of an agonizing do-gooder! There is nothing alike down in the abyss. So alluring, so exquisite"

Mephisto's taunting grin transformed into a frown as he saw glimpses of divine light emanating from the cleric's paws. "What is this? What are you doing, squirrel?"

Tammy ignored him, ignored everybody. Her mind was set in a single thought while she stubbornly applied healing spells on herself. "Chip is coming… He's coming" She whispered over and over, until she recovered barely enough to raise her head off the ground, and her blood covered eyes were able to meet the devil's own again. "I won't let him down" She said in a weak and breathless tone, before forcing herself to stand up gritting her teeth, bearing the pain and hiding her fear.

Gadget immediately offered her support, and when she did so, glimpses of the future presented again before her gifted blue eyes, causing her to suddenly shut them close and shake her head in denial. "No, please! Not you!" She shouted as she lost strength and dropped to his knees.

"What do you see, witch?" Mephisto whipped his tail excitedly, watching his student's heart and will crumble down. "Did you see the death of your friends? It is you who are putting them in danger, you are to blame for their suffering. You who seem to want to live forever!"

"Gadget?" Tammy pulled her entranced friend by the sleeves of the cloak. "Don't you dare listen to him!"

Then came a mighty blizzard, all the way from inside the church, and the collapsing porch and its doors were blown away in a gale of freezing wind. A gale so powerful that sent the devil cat crashing against the base of the fountain and left him there buried in layers of ice; Tammy, on the other side, was fast enough to dive for cover together with Gadget. As result, they only experienced the sudden drop of temperature that overrun the entire graveyard.

Gaspard and the injured Hugo, as well as the rodents and spirits of Les Innocents, stared incredulously as they witnessed a layer of ice creeping up the now exposed transept of their beloved church, conquering the flames that had threatened to consume the whole building before. "Mon Dieu…" The old priest whispered in awe, an emotion shared by living and dead folks alike.