Author's Note: Roar! This is officially now the same length (minus epilogue) as the very first story in the trilogy. Woot!

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Devourer of Millions; Am-heh Approaches!

"Don't let up! Keep firing!" The rat-tat-tat of gunfire echoed through the streets of Chicago as the city's division of police along with a contingent of the National Guard battled the mysterious foe that had in the past week begun appearing throughout the world. Word of numerous similar attacks was all the rage in the news.

Despite the efforts of the men defending Chicago so far they weren't performing very well. A long line of tall humanoids in dark bone-like armor advanced on them, huge spiked shields held out in front of them. Bullets clinked against the shields and did essentially no damage, and few bullets slipped through the defense line as the shields were overlapped.

Standing in lines directly behind the line of shield soldiers were lines of various different soldiers with medieval style weaponry. At the back however was what was the current threat to the police, a line of archers sending black arrows into the police lines. The arrows flew with such force that they punched through Kevlar and even riot shields, tearing up flesh when it made contact.

The National Guard sergeant who had told the men to continue firing felt his heart growing colder bit by bit as he saw one after another of his men fall to those deadly arrows. Yet those arrows weren't what worried him the most. What worried him the most was the mysterious power of the armored warriors standing behind one of every five shield soldiers.

He had yet to get a good look at them, but he knew that when they swung their swords the air would ripple and men in the direction of his swing would be sent flying as if swept aside by a huge hand. The three tanks he had been given command of had been thrown into buildings early on by those strange warriors.

The situation was not completely hopeless as he was certain that they could kill whatever these monsters were. While the tanks had still been there the powerful shells of the Abram's cannon had ripped open large holes in the attacker's line. However, those holes were filled quickly by other soldiers.

Keeping his face controlled for the sake of his men was difficult, but necessary. And it let him appear fierce and determined as he placed the butt of his AR-10 against his shoulder and took aim at the helmet that just barely appeared above one of the soldier's shields. 'One of those magic freaks too…'

With great care he squeezed off a triple burst from the rifle and had to hold himself back from shouting in elation when he saw his target's head snap back and the helmet that had covered it go spinning off. 'Take that you pale bastard!'

His joy faded when the head craned back up to look in his general direction, giving him a clear view of the creature's face. It was pale white and had jagged marks all over its face as if he had been scarred severely. Blank white eyes watched him and he felt his body growing colder. Where he had hit there was a bloody mark, just a rough entry point, but that entry point was already nearly closed. 'Impossible! It regenerates from damage?'

So focused was he on that terrible gaze that he failed to notice the Death Knight swing its sword down. The next thing he knew was that an invisible force had picked him up and sent him tumbling through the air. He vaguely noticed something large rushing towards him, and then there was an intense sharp pain.

The next day Sergeant Thomas Broderick was reported KIA.

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Ryu gritted his teeth and drew, feeling a bit of blood seeping through his fingers from the wound on his upper arm. "I'm hardly going to be defeated by the likes of you trash! Polymerization!"

He slammed the card into his duel disk and the three monsters on his field were sucked into the vortex along with two from his hand, nearly emptying it. What came out of the vortex was a huge dragon with five different heads, each one glaring down at his opponents. "Five-God Dragon(5000/5000) should be enough to finish you off. Annihilate them!"

His two opponents, one a young sixteen year old boy with baggy brown clothing and a bandanna laughed, his eyes wild with the power of second level Blood rushing through his veins. "I'll defend my opponent's life points by activating my trap card, Massive Attack!"

The streams of energy that were building up in the god dragon's mouths suddenly detonated, engulfing the huge dragon in a ball of fire and hurling Ryu ten feet backwards into a brick wall. He fell to the ground, his back aching from the impact. The brown clothed youth, who had called himself Tyler, rubbing his thumb against the edge of his nose and grinned. "Massive Attack works when the opponent attacks with a monster of three thousand or more points. That monster is destroyed and the opponent immediately takes a thousand damage." (RLP: 700)

Ryu shuddered and staggered to his feet. Once he had his balance he took one of the two last cards in his hand and slipped it into his disk. "One card face down, and turn end!"

Opponent number two, another ragged looking teen this one named Dennis, picked up the top card of his deck. At the current moment he was now the only player with a monster in play, while his partner still had one last set card and Ryu's partner had one as well. "I switch Submarineroid(800/1800) into attack mode, and then I'll summon Cycroid(800/1000)!"

His first monster was a submarine with a face and arms, which it uncrossed and gazed over at Ryu and Takuya, his partner. The second was a similar monster with odd eyes and nose, but it was a small bicycle. "Cycroid is going to attack Ryu's life points directly!"

Takuya snapped his hand out and his face down card picked itself up. "Activate trap card, Release of a Warrior's Burden! When attacked directly this card lets me negate the attack and remove all monsters in my grave from play, gaining five hundred for each."

His graveyard ejected several cards and he showed them off one after another, showing that he had six. He placed them in his back pocket and watched as Ryu's body was engulfed in a green glow. "I give the bonus to Ryu." (RLP: 3700)

Dennis grimaced and pointed at his second monster. "That's just fine; Submarineroid is now going to make a direct attack on your life points Takuya!"

Takuya was hit by a fake torpedo from the little submarine and stumbled backwards under the force. However, when he picked his head up he appeared satisfied. "You made a mistake just there and fell into our trap!" (TLP: 2100)

As soon as the damage was finished tallying up Ryu snapped his fingers, letting his trap card flip up. "Resurrection of the Dragon activates when a player receives direct damage from a non-dragon. That player gets to special summon a dragon from any other player's cemetery."

Tyler and Dennis exchanged worried glances when Takuya and Ryu met each other half-way and Ryu gave his partner a card from his grave. Takuya walked back and slapped the card onto his duel pod. "I special summon Five-God Dragon(5000/5000)!"

Tyler stared at the huge dragon and then began to shout. "What the hell? You just cheated! I know for sure that Five-God Dragon can only be summoned through a fusion of five dragons. You couldn't have summoned him!"

"Normally that's true, but Resurrection of the Dragon ignores any summoning requirements and just lets that player bring out the dragon. Making it damned useful in a dragon deck." Tyler gulped and backed down, knowing he wasn't going to win that argument.

Dennis glanced frantically down at his hand and placed one of his cards into his disk, letting it appear face down in front of him. "I set that card then use Submarineroid's effect to switch him into defense. End turn!"

Takuya drew and held up one of the cards in his hand. "Activate magic card, Equal Rites! I can now special summon any monster from my deck with at least two levels less than a monster on my field. Since Five-God Dragon is a level twelve that gives me access to all my monsters!"

A new card shot out of his deck and into his hand, which he placed onto his duel disk in the same motion as he grabbed it. A space next to the dragon on his field shimmered and a samurai in a brown kimono-eske outfit took shape. "Knight of the Orient-Earth Soul(2500/3000)! This monster lacks any ability to attack, but he has four techniques he can use any of which once per turn."

The samurai grasped his katana in one hand, the other holding the sheath steady and prepared to draw it. "I'll use his second ability to destroy all face-down cards on the field!"

In a flash the samurai drew his katana and swept it across the ground at his feet. The strike sent a spray of rock bullets flying and they peppered his opponent's set cards, blowing them apart. The two duelists gulped, one of them realizing he was about to lose. "You think I'm going to let either of you have another turn? Wrong, this duel ends now!"

Five-God Dragon opened up its mouth and fired a huge spray of energy that rolled straight over Cycroid and then over Dennis as well, burning him to ash and his life points along with him. "Now that Five-God Dragon has attacked I can activate my quick-play magic card, Surprise Attack from the Darkness! Meaning during my end phase Five-God Dragon gets another attack!"

Again the dragon opened up its various mouths and unleashed a hellish storm of elemental energy. Tyler screamed as he was sucked up by the wave of death, but was quickly silenced by the shear power of the blast. "And that's the end." (TLP: 0, DLP: 0)

Ryu and Takuya shut their duel disks down as the Darkness Game ended, setting them free. They both breathed a sigh of relief and plopped down right where they were to rest. "If the attacks keep up at this pace we won't be able to last."

Takuya nodded in agreement, still feeling the bruises on his ribs from the past duels he had been in. His left thigh was also wrapped tightly by white cloth underneath his pants in order to prevent bleeding. "You're right; so far we haven't been able to figure out any way to stop the attacks, and the one other Death Knight we encountered…"

Ryu shuddered, still unable to forget that event from three days ago. The Death Knight had been patrolling and discovered their group and proceeded to attack them. It had no interest in dueling and had nearly killed them. In the end Nikolas had burned up a lot of his power to bring an entire building down on top of the Death Knight. "They hardly seem to take damage; it took completely destroying him to stop him. We need more knowledge about the situation, but nobody has been able to give us anything new. I really wish we had Dalin right about now…"

Although he didn't reply, Takuya couldn't help but agree. Without any further information it was almost impossible to proceed, and at the moment they had no source of information. 'At this rate, we're all going to die and accomplish nothing. But despite the power of the Death Knights, that's not what has me most worried. It's that thing we felt before…'

He had felt it in the distance, a terrible raw power that didn't seem to slow down even though it was slightly more muted than when he had first felt it. A power so strong that even D'harim hadn't wanted to face it. 'If what Alice said is right, then this thing is Am-heh, devourer of millions, a monstrosity that even entire armies in Egypt couldn't kill. How does anyone stop a thing like that?'

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A loud sigh echoed throughout the expansive room. The originator of the sigh was a beautiful russet-haired teenager wearing tight black leather pants and a form fitting pink t-shirt who was draped over a giant cushion. She had one hand on her bare midriff and the other on the back of the cushion. She looked supremely satisfied. "This is the life. Those Romans knew their stuff."

She was currently surrounded by men and women who were barely clothed, the men were fanning her with giant leaves and the women were offering her little bits of food such as grapes and strawberries. "Ooo, the strawberries look good. Chocolate please."

The woman she addressed, an attractive brunette wearing what appeared to be a toga that barely fit took one of the strawberries from her bowl and dipped it in another bowl filled with chocolate held by a different woman. Then she held it up and offered it, letting Ihami take a slow bite from it. The immortal teenager sigh again as she swallowed. "Absolutely delicious. It's wonderful to have a cult that worships you as the Goddess of Pleasure and will do anything for you."

She almost let a frown slip when she felt a tremendous pulse of power from far away, the same raw energy she had been feeling for a while. "Damned Am-heh, that monster is going to ruin my fun if it keeps that up. I certainly hope someone kills it."

Feeling a bit of her happiness fading she snapped her fingers and a muscular blonde man wearing nothing but a loincloth came running up and bowed at her feet. "Joe, or whatever your name is, bring me someone else from the city, someone important. A priest or nun if possible."

The man dipped his head lower and then rushed out of the room, eager to obey her. Ihami rolled her eyes and plucked a grape from one of the upheld bowls and popped it into her mouth. "Honestly, Rome is a wonderful city but filled with so many uptight people. Bit by bit they're converting to worshipping me, which I admit has its perk. I can see why D'raka was so interested in achieving godhood. Then again, I'm revered as a goddess while still only being the equivalent of a demi-god. Guess he just wants the power."

"And what is it that you want Ihami?" The beautiful immortal stared at the entrance in surprise as a figure framed by the outside light strolled in. He was relatively tall and his body was covered by a buttoned up black leather duster. She knew him instantly.

"Whatever happened to that sleeveless trench coat of yours? It looked wonderful on you, not to say that the duster look doesn't do it. Especially with that lovely hair of yours Drake." Drake's face didn't shift and his eyes remained locked on her. His aforementioned wild hair was whipped about by a gust of wind from the outside, and he looked deadly even with his hands casually in his pockets.

"It got shredded during some sparring matches, so I went out and bought this new one. Is this what you're after now that you're free Ihami? Just lounging around and stereotypically being fanned by leaves and fed grapes?" Ihami smiled brightly as Drake continued walking towards her, only stopping about five feet away from her cushion.

"My life has been about only myself for a long time and I see no reason to change that. I want to live forever and experience all the pleasures of life, every last one possible. Is that why you came to visit, or were you interested in something a bit more…explicit?" Drake snorted and pulled his right hand out of his pocket to run through his hair.

"Don't hit on me, its creepy enough as it is how much you look like my sister. And I don't care how things were in Egypt or the fact that you ain't my actual sister, it still doesn't sit well with me." She just giggled and waved away her servants, who fled and crouched in far corners, keeping their heads down.

"Still, you didn't answer my question. Why did you come to see me? Obviously since you aren't here for more fun reasons its something a little less interesting. What is it that drew you here?" Drake tilted his head up a bit as if thinking about it, and then with a grin he gave her his answer.

"I came to kill you." As soon as he finished speaking the hand in his pocket moved and one of the buttons on his duster popped open as a red-wrapped hilt came into view. Drake's other hand dropped to it and he crossed the distance between them in the space of time it took him to draw.

The straight blade, not much longer than two feet and plain shiny steel, slashed right through Ihami. Drake grimaced when her body shattered like glass, all of the pieces tinkling down onto the stone floor or over the cushion. "Damn, that bitch must have realized when I showed up why I was here and replaced herself with a false form. Shit, that was a good chance to save myself trouble as well."

His violet eyes narrowed as he felt a presence behind him. He turned, blade held diagonally across his chest in readiness. It came as a surprise to see what appeared to be Dalin standing a dozen feet away from him. "That shape is meaningless when I can feel that your power isn't anywhere near at Dalin's level. Plus your power seems so damned fake I'd be depressed if I couldn't figure out you weren't him."

The Dalin copy raised his left arm and it melted, and then reformed as a flesh-colored duel disk, deck already in place. "Duel!"

Drake eyed the duel disk on the copy's arm and then he snorted and slung the short sword over his shoulder. "Don't kid around, a copy like you could never beat me in a duel and even with your limited brain you know that. So I ain't gonna sit around and be delayed so it gets harder to find that bitch Ihami."

He rolled his eyes when a dome of darkness formed around them, entrapping them in a Darkness Game. The Dalin copy just kept staring at him and then spoke again. "Duel. You have no choice in the matter."

Drake sighed and tightened his grip on the sword. "Never bluff when you don't have any cards to back it up with you dumbass. In this situation the one holding all the cards is me!"

Smirking he raised his sword up above his head, the copy's eyes moving to follow it, particularly as it started to shimmer. "As weak as you are in comparison to me, this Darkness Game is nothing. And Kusanagi right here has the power to split the heavens with a single stroke, so this measly level of darkness will be obliterated when I swing him down!"

The sword came down in a swift arc and the globe of darkness shuddered and then burst apart like a pricked bubble, leaving them standing in the same room again. The copy looked lost as it tried to come up with a new plan, but Drake had no intention of letting it. "I told you, I've got you trumped, so get the fuck out of my way!"

He ran forwards and swung the ancient sword straight through the copy's middle. It fell into two halves and then melted into a puddle of a thick black substance much like oil. Drake took one final glance at it and then sheathed his blade. "Ihami, you aren't getting away from me!"

Light crackled around his body and then there was a loud popping noise. The servants looked up from their places and found that the room was now empty, no trace that the leather wearing punk had ever been there.

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"You aren't going and that's final!" Autumn and Alice exchanged worried glances as the heated argument between Takuya and Nikolas continued to grow hotter. They appeared to be just inches shy of coming to blows over it.

Nikolas slammed his left hand into the closest wall, looking positively furious as he spoke. "Takuya, Egypt is my home; it has been for half my life! And now the news is saying that Cairo, the place I lived, is just gone and you expect me not to go?"

"That's exactly what I expect! If the whole city is gone then something terrible happened. I sympathize for sure, but I'm far from stupid. However it happened it happened and we can't change that. It also means that if a whole city is gone we can't deal with whatever caused it. So no splitting up and no going to Cairo!" His volume continued to raise throughout the entire tirade, his body moving closer to Nikolas', his fists clenched in fury.

Nikolas suddenly changed tracks and pulled his hand away from the wall, sneering at Takuya. "I see how it is. You're remembering that Death Knight incident and thinking that if I go then if you idiots encounter another one it's the end for you, so I have to stick around to protect your sorry selves. Well I signed up to stop the world from blowing up, not babysitting."

To the thief's surprise Takuya was on him in an instant, grabbing him by the shirt collar and twisted him around to slam him into the wall. "Listen to me! This is about solidarity, if you go there's a good chance you could die and we can't afford to have that happen! Don't you understand that?"

The thief's body burst into sand and then reformed a few feet away, right in front of the door. "Shut the hell up. Of course I understand that I'm risking my life to see what's happened to Cairo, but news hasn't come out of there in the past two days since the announcement came. The Egyptian military is going in later today, so if I leave now I can see what's happening and maybe even offer some aid. If things get sour I can just as easily leave."

He reached for the door but was stopped when Takuya placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him around. "If you go to Cairo you will die."

Nikolas shrugged him off and pushed open the door. Just before exiting he threw back one final parting comment. "If I stay here I'll die anyways. Or hadn't you already figured that out?"

Takuya stared at his parting back and then slammed a fist into the wall, looking frustrated. "If you get in trouble we aren't coming for you. You're in this on your own."

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Nikolas stared at the ruin and was unable to look away. It wasn't that Cairo had vanished like the news had made it sound. No, instead it was just that Cairo had been completely blown away. Every single building was flattened and the city looked like a garbage dump. From where he was he could see bodies as well strewn around. But a lot of the bodies he saw weren't whole. "What the hell could have done this?"

His ears caught a thrumming sound and he finally managed to pull his gaze away from the wreckage. Approaching from the south was a convoy of helicopters, and below them was a line of tanks and jeeps loaded with troops. "So the army finally shows its head. What do they expect to find? And why come in such large numbers?"

The tanks stopped at the edge of the city, the copters hovering above them. Nikolas watched as one of the tanks fired the sound booming throughout the entire area, loud enough that it hurt his ears despite the distance. "What the fuck are they firing at?"

Its shell exploded against a ruined building, further demolishing it but otherwise accomplishing nothing. Nikolas was about to go in closer to see if he could get a better view when suddenly he found himself nearly flattened into the ground by a tremendous pressure as if the air had suddenly grown three or four times heavier. "Fuck! It's the same power from that previous night with D'harim!"

With violent force a space nearby where the shell had struck was ripped completely apart, all the wreckage sent flying away. From his spot in the distance Nikolas could vaguely make out a humanoid figure standing in that spot and it was facing the convoy. "Is that it, the source of the power? Did it destroy Cairo?"

The same tank from before opened fire and its second shell of the attack exploded into a fireball just a dozen feet away from the humanoid. Knowing explosive force as well as he did Nikolas was shocked to discover that the man down there didn't even budge. But the shock was nowhere near as great as what he felt when he saw the man swing one arm as if trying to swat a fly. As soon as he swung his arm the ruins in the path of the swing were picked up as if by an invisible force and sent tumbling along.

The wreckage crashed into the first few tanks and blew them backwards, tipping them end over end. "Holy shit! One swing did all that? It didn't even touch the tanks!"

Like a shot the man went flying right into the air seconds after his first attack. The copter pilots panicked and a hail of bullets went flying into the man's path. From his distant view Nikolas couldn't tell if any of the bullets hit, but by the sheer volume of them he couldn't believe that none of them had. 'It's not even flinching!'

The man struck the lead helicopter with the full force of his jump and ripped right through the metal. He landed on top of the ruined helicopter and grabbed the rotor on top and yanked it off. Then with monstrous force he sent it flying like a boomerang, letting it slice easily through another helicopter. "This…this isn't possible!"

The monster dropped from the sky and landed on top of one of the tanks. It hopped off and then bodily picked up the tank and hurled it at another tank, smashing both of them. Then it made another of its enormously powerful swings and the sheer force of it picked up another handful of tanks and jeeps and sent them tumbling end over end. Nikolas found himself backing away in horror.

Soldiers began pouring out of the jeeps and opening fire onto the monster, but it barely seemed to notice the bullets that peppered its body. All it did was continue to plow through them, its terrible swings destroying men and machinery alike. It even swept helicopters out of the air without touching them through sheer power of its swings. "That level of strength…it shouldn't be physically possible! This…this must be the monster that Alice spoke of that was formerly imprisoned…the source of Blood!"

Nikolas realized all of a sudden that the dreadful noise of the battle was now replaced by silence, a nearly deafening silence at that. There was no movement from the battle save for crackling fires, and the only thing left standing was that unstoppable juggernaut. "Am-heh, Devourer of Millions!"

He was even more surprised when he suddenly found that he couldn't see the beast. "But…it was there just a second ago! I couldn't have even had time to blink before it was gone!"

His heart was pounding in his chest as he tried to find where it had gone, but he needn't have bothered. It slammed down on the crest just a few dozen feet away from him just after his search had begun. "Oh god no…"

Now that it was close up he was able to get a good look at it. It stood at least nine feet in height and was rippling with muscle, though its pale white skin was patterned with dust and random patches of blood probably splattered on by victims. It wore nothing but dirty baggy pants that might at one point have been white but were now a mix of grey, black, and red. But what made him most afraid was its face.

Its head was cropped by a filthy mess of white blonde hair that hung to its back as a wild mane. It too was patched with blood and filth, giving the monster an even wilder look. Its eyes were similarly wild, being a deep emerald green shade but with irises shaped like a cat's. "Impossible…you can't possibly be…"

The face that horrified him so much, despite the enraged look it held and the dirt and blood that covered it…was a close match to the man he despised the monster. Its features were virtually identical to Dalin's. "Dalin…"

Those horrible green eyes bore down on him and it snarled, its teeth covered by a froth of blood. "SUMATIN!"

Nikolas gulped and tried to turn and run, but his body wouldn't cooperate. His legs were locked by fear and his brain filled with that and confusion. 'It just said…Sumatin? This beast, this monster Am-heh…it knows Dalin?'

Am-heh glared down at him and bit out a handful of words that sounded Egyptian to Nikolas, but the actual words weren't the same as the ones he knew. 'This tongue must be an ancient form of the Egyptian I know. What's it saying?'

When Nikolas didn't respond Am-heh snarled, blood spittle flying from its mouth. Am-heh swung one huge arm down and a wide swath of ground just to Nikolas' left was torn apart. Then it roared out another series of words that Nikolas didn't understand. "I…I can't understand you. Please…I just want to live!"

Never in his life had Nikolas been more afraid. This monster was the worst thing he had ever seen, it was as if all Dalin himself had been taken a transformed into a horrible demonic being capable of immense destructive power. 'How ironic…I'm going to die at the hands of a monster that looks just like the man I hate…'

Am-heh reached out and grabbed him by the shirt, lifting him up into the air so that they were level. "Sumatin…"

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A heavy object thudded onto the ground, water splashing around it. A pale hand reached down and ran across the black surface, just barely touching it. "How very interesting…impressively done."

Blue fire crackled from those pale fingertips and raced across the full length of the metallic object. It burned brightly and then the fire faded away. Again the hand reached down and grabbed at the object, then pulled, swinging it open. The burned away top crashed to the ground with a heavy clang.

That pale hand reached down, blue fire engulfing it as it touched what was within the now open metal case. It leapt over the surface of the precious cargo and incinerated the target of its ire. Black ink was melted by the power, and seconds later a thick hand clapped down at the rim.

A large body followed the hand and water trickled off of it, its hair matted over its face. It looked up to see a pale dead-looking woman with dark eyes and long black hair whose body was draped by a black robe that appeared to be made of skin. At the woman's shoulders were plates of black bone, and there were other plates on her knees and covering her forearms. "Welcome back to the world of the living."

The man within stood up to his full height and brushed the hair from his eyes. Immediately he looked to the torn sky and then clenched his left hand. "I never left it, unlike you…Isis."

He tilted his head down to look at her, displaying vibrant green eyes that shown with fierce inner light but yet still gave nothing away. "To experience the hell of utter solitude for one month just as you requested Puppeteer. Now, for your end of the bargain tell me how to find what I want."

A red haired man with bright blue eyes appeared behind the towering man and smiled. "You will find all that you seek if you go to Cairo. There is where your answers await. The truth and the conclusion to a young man's quest will all be met in the ruins of that once magnificent city. Are you certain that's what you want, Sumatin?"

Dalin didn't look back at the Puppeteer as he spoke, nor did he look at the Death Knight with Isis' face. "I will have a conclusion and I will find the answer to that all consuming question of who I am. Without it I cannot continue. In Cairo I will see the end of it."

He turned to face the south where he could feel power flowing from the area he knew to be Cairo. "Cairo will see the end my journey and the revelation of the truth."

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Author's Notes: And Dalin is back in action!

Next Time: The time has finally come for Dalin to find the truth that he has long sought for. At the same time Nikolas must reach for the conclusion to his own struggle and determine the conclusion to his hatred of Dalin. In the ruins of Cairo everything will change.

See it all in, The Place of Journey's End!