Author's Note: Haha! Break from the norm! This chapter begins where Sanity's Edge left off, or at least, slightly thereafter.

My Sister's Keeper

Ten

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

The sound of liquid falling to the floor was deafening, yet it was the only sound Natalya could hear. She kept one of her hands on her knee to stay her balance, the other hand tried to hold her intestines inside her body. The claws the Gai'lin possessed were sharper then Wolblitzer's tongue. They had made parchment out of her armor, and something even lighter out of her skin.

"Silly girl! Did you really think you could stand against me?" The Gai'lin laughed deeply and maniacally. "That effort you made. Pathetic. At best."

"Natalya?" Serras' voice echoed in the corridor. Serras was still with Wolfblitzer and Safiria guarding the door. They must have heard the commotion. The three of them rounded to corner. "NATALYA!!" Serras called, running towards the bleeding Natalya. Natalya heard Serras slide to a stop at her side and look at her. "Holy fuck... are you alright?" Natalya couldn't talk, she just coughed and spat blood.

"Oh my..." Safiria breathed. The Vampire couldn't do anything, save stare in wonder and aghast horror.

"N...Nat...? Can you hear me?" Natalya's vision began blurring, the lines between reality and fantasy dimming.

"Serras..." She managed out, pain lacing every syllable. Serras bent down to hear what she was saying. "I..." She started, coughing once more. "I love you..." She finished.

"I love you, too, Natalya..." She breathed, hardly believing what was happening. Serras pressed her other free hand onto the one Natalya was holding her stomach with. "Don't you die on me... Don't you die on me, Natalya!" A chuckle escaped Natalya's lips.

"It seems..." She started, hardly able to see. "That I don't have much of a choice in the matter..." Her last words. The red haired woman slumped over into a pool of her own blood, never to get up. A silence fell over everyone. Wolfblitzer was the first to react.

"You son of a bitch. You wear Maria's skin, but you're nothing more then a monster. A wolf in sheep's clothing." As he spoke, he advanced on the Gai'lin.

"You pathetic little worm! Don't make me kill you too!" The creature muttered. Wolfblitzer smiled, and opened his arms.

"Try me, you weak, inborn kitten." Was his response. The Gai'lin made one, aggrivated strike downwards. If not for Wolfblitzer's quick reactions, the blow would have sliced his head in half. He batted the strike away with a quick flick of his wrist. "Come on! Don't try to hit me, asshole! Do it!" Again, the Gai'lin tried to hit Wolfblitzer with a side slice, which was jumped. "Come on! I've fought medical technicians with more bite then you! Hit me!" He shouted again. This time, the Gai'lin put both his hands together and tried to crush Wolfblitzer. The Guardian dashed forward and slipped under the Gai'lin's arms as his hands crashed into the floor. After the Devourer re-collected himself, Wolfblitzer smiled, putting some distance between him and it. "What's that? Am I supposed to be impressed? I'm not. Not in the slightest sense. If you want to kill me, do it. Don't try to kill me, do it!" Another failed attempt to destroy Wolfblitzer put him in the perfect shot. "Come! This is how you do it!" He shouted, jamming his knee into the Gai'lin's chest. While it was still stunned, Wolfblitzer pounced on his back and jumped three times, driving the creature farther into the ground.

"You mangy mutt!"

"Sticks and stones."

"I'll take pleasure in pulling the flesh from your bones!"

"And I'll enjoy watching you try." The two faced off at one another, staring at each other. Wolfblitzer's fists hung at his side, ready to fly at a moment's notice. The Gai'lin flinched his claws at his side, ready for anything. No one moved, for fear of setting the other off. The Guardian raised one hand and flashed the Gai'lin his middle finger, kissing the air tauntingly.

"You pathetic ingrate!" The Gai'lin shouted, dashing towards Woflblitzer. The Guardian just ducked under him and ran for the pile of books. He arrived and found what his was looking for. The Coridias de Marte Sel Lore. He grabbed it and tossed it to Serras before the Gai'lin could recover. Trying to divert his attention, Wolfblitzer ran up and scissor kicked him in the head, then backed off. "You are trying my patience!"

"Good. How thin can I melt the ice, before you drown in your own hatred?"

"Only so thin."

While this war of words was going on, Serras had ducked behind a bookshelf and began frantically flipping pages in the book looking for something. But she didn't understand any of the words, they were all written in Drolonex, an old, dead language no one spoke, let along read anymore. She did manage to find a few repetative words, Gai'lin was one, and she knew what that meant, the others were 'sarres' and 'fuukenjeeberesh'. If they kept popping up, they had to be important somehow... but how? She didn't have the time to translate it. She had to save everyone, even if Natalya was beyond saving...

"Wolfblitzer!" A voice called from the door. The figure of Safiria ran out with a hand outstreched.

"Safiria! No, stay back!" He recentered on the Gai'lin, but he was gone. When he looked around, he found it with it's arm around Safiria's neck.

"Ah, good. Someone I can kill. I love watching Vampires die. So..." He spun her around, grabbed her neck and kicked her through the nearest wall. The wall shattered into small fragments. The red-dressed figure of Safiria fell into the noon-day sun. Smiling, the Gai'lin held up a small, golden amulet. With a chuckle, Safiria's body exploded into a shower of flames and ash. "Flashy..." The Gai'lin shouted.

"You SON OF A BITCH!" Wolfblitzer shouted, taking his stance again. It wasn't long before...

"You think the book will help you, fool?" The Gail'lin's voice came. Serras looked up to see the Gai'lin standing over her, blood dripping from it's claws. Serras only stared at the claws and swallowed hard. "The book is useless now. Maria tried the book. Thought she could suppress me." It laughed. "A waste of time. And now, you shall suffer the same fate as so many before you..." Serras didn't even think about what came out of her mouth.

"Cataclysm!" She shouted, shutting her eyes. The ground around the Gai'lin came alive, spires of earth caging the creature. Stunned, the Gai'lin dropped Serras.

"What?!" The words came too late. As these words came from The Devourer's mouth, the spires came alive, literally pulverizing the Gai'lin into one another. After several seconds, it ended and the spires retracted. Battered, bruised, but not broken, the Devourer stood and attended the wounds on it's arms, shoulders and chest. "What was that?"

"I..." Serras choked out. "I don't know..." She looked about for something that could have done that. Again, the Devourer grabbed Serras.

"Well. You can only use spells that strong once. I know for a fact." More words poured from the former Mage's mouth.

"Epoch! Armageddon! Edge of Extinction! Pyroclasm! Devastate! Evisceration! CATACLYSM!" As each of the spells were chanted, their effect took root. First, vines wrapped around the Gai'lin's legs and held it in place. Then, as Armageddon was evoked, a small volcano formed under it's feet, and lava globs floated up around the Gai'lin, then exploded, causing lava burns. Then, the vines detached from it's feet and began lacerating the Devourer. They then grabbed hold of it's feet and four searing hot jets of flame shot up from the floor and rained magma around the room. The lava which was already surrounding the Gai'lin exploded, causing massive heat damage. The vines detached themselves once more and tore into the Gai'lin's chest. And finally, the spires appeared once more. Stunned, but happily surprised, Serras stood.

"Allow me to be the first to say ouch..."