"So what happened in the war?" Helcurt asked Gusion.

Gusion frowned. From the information that Helcurt had given him the previous day, he assumed Helcurt knew a lot about the war. "Do you not know?"

"Like I said, I've been keeping low, and now I'm out of the loop," Helcurt said. "I know the basics, about who and why are on what side, but I only surfaced again after Zhask defected."

"You didn't miss a whole lot then," Gusion muttered. "I don't know a lot either, but Alice apparently got it into her head to kill a lot of people, and she started a war. That did not sit well with the Moniyan Empire, and they declared her a terrorist. Alice apparently did something that drove the family apart-now we know that she took Aurelius III and made him into Dyrroth-and Tigreal took the reins. He's been fighting ever since. It's scary, not knowing how or where Alice attacks. Diggie, Natan and Gord-our chief researchers-can generally detect high amounts of dark energy. Dyrroth managed to hide himself, somehow."

"That's because he is the Abyss," Helcurt replied. "Dark energy is easy to detect, but Dyrroth uses the Abyss as a medium. He can open up a portal from the Abyss into the Land Of Dawn, and breach any wards. Only Abyssal demons can join him. I don't think it is physically possible to attempt tracing the Abyss without extreme energy backlash."

"Backlash?" Gusion asked.

"To put it simply, finding dark energy-however big or small-requires the tracker to take some of it. Tracking the Abyss would cause a lot of dark energy to hit the tracker, driving them to the point of insanity."

"Insanity?" Gusion probed.

"If not instant death."

"You said he is the Abyss."

"Yes. Dyrroth isn't Aurelius-Aurelius is dead. Dyrroth is the result of Abyssal essence being pumped so deep into him that it takes over his bodily functions, and sadly, we now have an extremely physically impressive human with the mind of an Abyssal monster. Luckily, bodily functions include death, and so Dyrroth can die."

"Then why didn't he die when you hit him with the stingers?"

"My stingers are powered by dark energy. If I don't kill him immediately, then he can manipulate whatever energy the stingers contain, to heal him. Which is why I tried to hit the neck, but he's much too fast."

"So you're telling me that you can't keep him down for long."

"Oh, he should have healed by now-it isn't very hard for one of his capabilities." Helcurt sneered disdainfully. "He is a monster, but an exceptional one."

"Then he could arrive any moment now," Gusion clarified, his heartbeat beginning to increase.

"That is correct."

"Then why are you so calm?"

"Because he will not come," Helcurt explained. "Dyrroth, as we saw, was an impressive fighter, and even with brute strength, he might be able to overpower us. But he is, and always has been, a strategist at heart. And the weakness of strategists is that they are often too slow."

"So he won't attack?"

"Not after his last two attacks were foiled. He needs to lick his wounds, and modify his plans. He was only prepared to deal with you, and my sudden arrival threw a spanner in the works. Now he needs to check how I can disturb his attacks, and he has to counter me. He might even succeed," Helcurt said dispassionately. "Like I said, he is an exceptional monster."


Having Helcurt as a housemate was an interesting experience.

He was mostly self-sufficient, not needing food and water or any material belongings.

The downside was the constant teleportation.

Helcurt did not seem to understand why Gusion was so panicked after he had first teleported next to Gusion when he was cooking, thinking he was alone.

Helcurt kept 'accidentally' popping up next to Gusion at the most inopportune times.

Gusion, an ardent horror movie fan, knew his heart would never be the same again when he saw Helcurt's gleaming eyes shine at him from the pitch blackness of his bed.

"You were taking too long," Helcurt rasped, as Gusion tried to regulate his breathing. "So I decided to stay awake."

But he was also a valuable font of knowledge on Dyrroth and the Dark side in general.

"Their motivations are simple-Alice wants blood, Vexana wants death, Thamuz wants power. At this point, that's all we need to know."

"And Dyrroth?"

Whenever the Prince of the Abyss was mentioned, Helcurt's eyes seemed to grow ever colder. "Dyrroth is a lackey-a formidable one, but still a lackey. Defeating him will only deprive Alice of a general."

Nevertheless, Gusion did enjoy Helcurt's company.


They still had a problem explaining his near miraculous recovery to Rafaela. Tigreal eventually managed to convince Rafaela to let Gusion rejoin the main fight.

And Gusion was back on the front lines, Lesley and Lancelot by his side.

"I hope Dyrroth shows up," Lesley muttered to herself as she angrily loaded her gun as the trio huddled beneath fallen planks.

Gusion shuddered, remembering how Dyrroth had nearly killed him a few days ago. "I sincerely hope he doesn't."

"Lost your taste for adventure?" Lancelot asked. "Dyrroth really did a number on you."

"Shut up, Lance."

Lancelot chuckled. Lesley didn't, her eyes scanning the area as she readied her gun for a shot. "Luo Yi is at it again-she's gone for brute strength this time, and she's got more than a few Fiends this time."

Gusion tried to see as much as he could through the gap. "That's a lot of monsters."

"Could you get a clear shot on Luo Yi? Her military strategy might be as good as Gusion's fighting"-Gusion flipped him the bird at this-"but she can fight well, and truth be told she is getting quite annoying," Lancelot asked.

"I could, but the risk is high. We would get swarmed by the monsters," Lesley said.

Outside the dingy cottage, Luo Yi was bringing more and more Fiend and Shockers out, and Lesley placed her finger on the trigger.

"Get ready to take the shot," Lancelot said, all traces of humour scarce from his voice.

And then suddenly she looked right at them, and smiled.

Almost instantly, the yin-yang symbol beneath them that had gone unnoticed pulsed and hit Lesley, who dropped to the floor, suddenly limp, the rifle spilling from her hands.

Gusion roared and hurled a glowing dagger right at Luo Yi, catching her on the palm. The symbol faded, and Lesley groaned as colour began to seep into her face.

Lancelot cut through a wave of monsters and Gusion sprinted through in front of Luo Yi in an instant, and his dagger whistled through the air, missing Luo Yi's neck by a hair's breadth and the mage swept her hands wide, a yellow orb in one hand and a greyish black one in the others.

She hurled both at him and snapped her fingers as soon as they left her hands, forming the yin-yang symbol below his feet which pulsed, and Gusion felt his muscles slacken.

The orbs collided inches away from his face and it hit him like nothing he'd felt before, and he groaned right before a bright beam of light hit his head.

His vision whited out for a second and he heard Luo Yi's cackle, and he blindly hurled another light dagger. He heard the cackle being cut off with a mild sense of vindictive satisfaction and thrust out five daggers, before blindly teleporting and hurling out five more.

He heard the tell-tale sounds of Lesley's rifle and rolled on instinct, calling the daggers back to him as his vision began to clear slightly.

Lancelot was cutting through waves of monsters as a blue flash, and he saw how he moved, the lance flashing as monsters fell in droves, and Lesley, a shock of pink hair weaving through a group of Crammers as she fired at them, before pivoting perfectly and catching a Shocker in the chest with a lethal bullet.

Gusion felt the skin on his back crawl and he turned around, slitting a Fiend's throat with the dagger and kicking another in the gut, falling back as he willed his magic to ensconce the dagger as he flung them forth.

The inhuman shrieks permeated the air as the trio worked, occasionally defending each other, and then they all felt it.

Humans and monsters stopped fighting, and they turned around to face the centre of the room, where the most powerful combatants had just arrived.

Luo Yi.

Vexana.

And Dyrroth.