Lara back flipped away from the snapping teeth and swinging claws of Hash'ak'gik. She twisted midair, ran toward some of the fallen ruins of the temple, trusting her feet to find sturdy support. She felt the old rock give way under her feet several times, but her momentum carried her past in a millisecond. She could hear the demon climbing quickly after her. When she hit the end, she jumped off, flipping around and released an entire clip into the towering demon of nothingness. She felt the ground meet her feet in a slight jarring impact and she rolled back with the fall to negate the shock to her body. She heard the demon growl lowly, his footsteps echoing through the ground as he strode toward her. Lara felt warmth seep into the nape of her neck and glanced back slowly to find a much smaller demon glaring down at her. The skin of this one was green and from foreclaw to elbow was a sharp blade. The thing had horrible breath and pulled back as if to snap her, when it was swatted away by what had to undoubtedly be a Reaver bolt. She risked a glance at Kain and Raziel. They both looked like they had their hands full. Moebius had not gotten possession of his staff again, but the energy shield that surrounded him kept him safe from harm and out of Raziel and Kain's claws. What looked like a multitude of demons had poured out of the forest and were engaged in combat with the two men. She noticed that there were many of the green type that had previously tried to assault her, but there was also one that seemed much spindlier and had electricity crackling down its body. The third was like the demon Raziel and Lara had fought in the Elder's chamber, only this one was capable of shooting bolts of golden energy and breathing fire. Both Raziel and Kain were doing their best to keep their eyes on the Time Streamer AND keep demons too preoccupied to go after Lara, who had her hands full with the Unspoken. She was brought back abruptly to her own predicament when she barely dodged out of the way of a slash. She felt the tips of the claws dig into her right side between the hip and the ribs, not far enough to actually hit any internal organs, but far enough to make her begin to bleed profusely. What felt like an ice-cold fire raced through her skin from the wound, threatening to send her into oblivion. She bit her tongue, welcoming the warmth of the pain and the blood and pushed back at the looming darkness.
'Enough is enough,' she thought to herself. She let the empty clip fall out of the Desert Eagle she was wielding and slid in the bullets she had gotten from the fortress. The first bullet left with a muffled explosion fiercer than any normal bullet. Everything around her seemed to slow and quiet as the bullet almost seemed to move in slow motion. Then it smashed into the nothingness flesh of Hash'ak'gik. She watched as the flesh literally rippled where the bullet struck and a great wound embedded itself in his body. Without hesitating, she pulled the trigger again and held, feeling the world go dead silent as the bullets left the gun, one by one. She vaguely noticed all the demons had backed off and were either running away at seeing their most powerful in pain, staring in a sort of stupor, or beginning to move menacingly toward her. After the last bullet that she had fired hit the Unspoken, however, things went downhill for the demons. The demon master gave a terrifying roar of pain and a gash in what appeared to be existence itself broke open, swallowed the demon, and slammed shut in a fantastic explosion of power. Before anyone could do a thing, Lara turned and fired the last bullet in the clip at Moebius.
Raziel had been too preoccupied with demons to see Lara's antics, but had felt the huge discharge of power, and had felt instinctively that Hash'ak'gik was gone. At least for now. The demons began panicking and running off, and Raziel heard Lara fire one last time. The curious weapon's ammunition of hers smashed into the infernal shield Moebius was using and caused it to ripple, then shatter. Raziel leapt to the opportunity, backhanding the old man off his clump of ruined stones he had been using to stand on. Kain was almost instantly on his way over, a wave of slaughtered demon corpses where he had been. Moebius looked up at Raziel defiantly as Raziel felt the Reaver begin to tingle and awaken.
"What are you going to do, Raziel?" Moebius demanded, very satisfied with himself. "You cannot kill me. That would create a paradox so large I don't think even you in your impertinence would attempt."
Kain had arrived and stood behind the Time Streamer. Lara cautiously made her way over to them, stepping over demon bodies, a hand to her wounded side. Both Kain and Raziel showed wounds from the battle, but their supernatural states were speeding their healing quickly. In a few moments they wouldn't show a sign of the battle.
Raziel felt the Reaver, or, more accurately, the other part of his soul creep into his mind, possessing his body. His eyes flashed and began to glow brighter as he leaned forward and the Reaver whispered through Raziel in a feral tone, "Do you know what it's like to be trapped in a sword for thousands of years?"
Moebius' eyes widened as he felt the exquisite pain of a blade being rammed through his body. The last thing he saw through his body's eyes was a tip of a blood red sword coming out of his own body. Kain stood behind the now dead Time Streamer and watched in satisfaction as the soul was pulled out of the body and absorbed into the sword. He quickly strode to the temple's heart, slammed the blade into the rock with everything his vampiric strength allowed him, and then headed back out to the two. He turned to Lara and asked politely, "May I borrow the weapon you used on the Sarafan, please?"
Lara carefully pulled the rocket launcher off her shoulders, careful of her wounded side, and handed it to Kain. Raziel's eyes narrowed in concern when he saw the blood slowly creeping out of her shirt. She shrugged him off with a silent gesture of not to worry about it.
Kain had walked to the temple, sighted it through the scope on the rocket launcher, and began shooting rockets into the temple, breaking the old stone walls and ceilings. He continued until every rocket had been used up and the temple had collapsed in on itself.
"Let us see how he gets out of that."
He headed back and handed the rocket launcher to Lara. She reached out for it, but felt a wave of nausea and ice-cold fire race across her body. NO! She would not succumb to it. The fire seared through her blood, pounding in her temples, and the darkness rushed forward to engulf her. Kain caught her as she toppled.
A few moments later, he sat back from applying the bandage to her wound. He looked to Raziel who stood watching, acting like a protective guardian angel and fidgeting ever so slightly in worry.
"She'll be all right," Kain sighed. "I am very impressed, though. A lesser woman wouldn't have been able to survive even a touch from his claws, let alone being wounded badly. And to add that she managed to stay standing that long . . ." He shook his head. "She'll heal, but she'll always have a scar to remind her."
"So she'll be fine?" Raziel asked tersely.
"Yes, Raziel, she will be, and she'll probably be awake later today, knowing how stubborn that woman is."
He stood and walked to the Pillars to inspect the damage done or undone while Raziel sat next to Lara and watched her like a stone sentinel.