Something was wrong. The cloak didn't help. They could see them. All of them.

'This is bad. This is really, really bad.' Thought Rhen. They weren't invisible. Why wasn't it working? She panicked. How much mana would it take to defeat all of them? Did they have enough covey balm? How is this happening!

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted by a shriek. A wyvern had caused a thermal storm. The sound was excruciating. Luckily, it missed. No one was hurt. 'Fuck, how long can we keep this up?' went through Lars' head as he dodged a bomb. It took Te'ijal seventeen poison arrows, but she finally managed to kill two wyverns. There was one left.

"Lightning Storm!" yelled Lars, but his magic hardly damaged the cursed creature. It took an arrow and a slice with the Sword of Shadows for it to be finished. Covered with dark green blood, the party continued to roam through the Stronghold Temple, their footsteps light and their heart rhythms' accelerating… at least for the ones whose hearts were still beating. They managed to sneak past half a dozen wyverns, who where moving in dead silence close by, turning their ugly heads to try and catch sounds, but somehow missing the entire party.

Rhen thought they were safe for now. A few more corridors and they would be face-to-face with Ahriman. Her stomach turned. They walked quietly for a few minutes, not once catching an enemy in sight.

And then they saw it. An Angel of Death. It was guarding the entrance to the next set of passages. It wasn't attacking. 'Why isn't it attacking?' They were right in front of it. But it didn't move. It was waiting for something. Then Elini figured it out.

"It's waiting for us to make the first move." She said in a deep, slightly scared voice. It was an unusual thing to hear Elini scared.

"What if we just try and pass the entrance without bothering it?" Lars knew what was coming as soon as he said that.

"Are you mad? Ahriman isn't a fool, Lars! This is a strategic monster. It waits for its enemies to attack. That way, it doesn't reveal any of its moves on the first go. That way… it always has the advantage." Elini's throat was suddenly dry. She licked her lips to try and dilute her bodily need for water.

"He put all those wyverns to confuse us." Said Te'ijal. "They were blind, but they could hear. And they could smell. They act fast, they attack on the spot. This creature doesn't. He expected of us to just attack, assuming its instincts are the same as a wyvern's."

"And if we attack now, we would just fall into his plan."

"We don't have a choice, Lars." Rhen knew it. "We have to. It will never strike, it's not made that way."

"Should we do it now?"

"At once?" John couldn't imagine what would happen if all of the attacks were done at the same time.

"On three." Said Elini. "One!"

"Two!"

"THREE!"

Another shriek echoed through the halls. They were almost there, just a few more stupid wyverns. Rhen, Marge, Galahad and John sliced through the creatures fiercily, but it took more than physical strength to defeat them. Elini summonned her Red Demon a few times, she could feel her mana running out. Te'ijal's arrows were the only thing that kept on going after everyone else was down. They were enchanted with old magic, something that is exceptionally hard to break. Once an arrow struck an enemy, a new one took its place. The vampress struck her final victim, who landed on the ground almost without a sound.

"Humans, how are you managing?" she asked, once they were walking again.

"We're fine." Said Rhen in a spiteful tone. She was tired and even more so angry, but she gave whatever it took to contain herself.

"Rhen, you're not fine. Your arm's bleeding." Lars stopped her.

"I'm going to be okay."

"Rhen! Stop! If even one member of this party isn't completely healed and ready to fight, we are not going into battle!" said Elini. "Everyone, we are resting!"

The party stopped walking. Out of unnecessary cloaks and even a ball gown, they managed to make a small camp site, there was space for everyone, but it was well hidden amongst the stones.

"I think we have just enough medicine to survive." Mumbled Lars and he went through his backpack.

"No need to worry, human. I've taken care of it and bought out the store in Thais. Let's hope these will do." She opened her bag, full of shiny little bottles and a lot of green leaves wrapped in brown paper. "Each of you has to take at least ten of these cassia leaves. We do not know what could happen and who could die. So, whoever gets to those first, heal them quickly and carry on. Got it?" The party nodded and a few even said 'Yes' in response.

An hour passed. They had picked up all of the fabric off the stone floor, packed everything back and carried on through the corridor. Rhen could feel that it was almost over. And yet… she also felt like something was missing. Or someone.

She turned around. Her eyes scatterred around the area. 'Dameon!' she yelled in her head.

"Dameon!" everyone froze. They turned their heads to look. He wasn't there. None of them had noticed that since they walked in that temple, he had been long ahead of them.

"Son of a bitch!" yelled Lars. "I'm going to kill him!"

"Boy, stop it!" Galahad ordered him. "Shouting out death threats is not helping any of this. So calm yourself, because we need to keep moving, Sun Druid or not."

"Mmm, husband. Fiery. I like it." Te'ijal smiled.

"Wife, not now." His tone was almost begging this time.

"Alright, alright."

The party passed an arc that was almost completely destroyed. Soon, they found themselves on a rocky platform inside a giant cave that ended their journey. John and Marge explored on the edge of it, looking up, then down.

"What are those things?" he shouted to Elini. She came closer to him, taking a look into the pit that was full of little blue shiny dots. And they were moving.

"Those are flightless demons. I guess Ahriman created them to secure that no one stays alive even if they fall." At her words, the pirate shiverred.

"So, what now? We came all this way, for nothin'?" asked Marge. As soon as she said that, the earth quaked. From above, an angel appeared.

"Another Angel of Death?"

"No, Lars. Look at its wings. They're purple. The Angels of Death have black wings. This right here… is the Angel of Nightmares." Elini's tone was even more frightened this time.

"And we have to fight it, of course, now don't we?" said Lars.

"Yes, we do." Rhen replied. "We have to. I don't care how long it takes, we're here now and we can't let Ahriman slip away again! Lure of Darkness!" she shouted as she attacked, the Sword of Shadows glowing with magical power. The Sword Singer managed to cut the Angel deeply in its left wing. After that, the creature looked like it had been awoken. It summoned a storm, causing the cave to quake. Parts of the surrounding rock started falling, some on the platform, others in the pit, where they smashed into the demons, who shrieked in agony as they were being crushed.

Te'ijal shot an arrow right into its already damaged wing. Suddenly, the angel was emitting a sharp sulfuric smell out of its body. It was poisoned. 'That should make it a bit easier' the vampress thought. She shot another arrow into the angel's hip and the smell got stronger. Elini decided to sacrifice almost her entire mana in one go this time, summonning Aesma, the demon from the Dark Caverns. The giant creature appeared in a ghostly form, but its real strenght was still preserved. It charged at the Angel, pouring dark magic out of itself. The Angel's body suddenly became deformed, only its clawing limbs remained unchanged. Aesma disappeared. 'Shit.' Elini thought. 'I can't summon anymore.' The misshaped creature, now standing in front of the party, charged at Rhen with what was left of its right clawed wing. Heading for Rhen's head, it missed, only managing to cut off a part of her braid. The locks of purple hair scatterred onto the floor.

"Shadow Dance!" Rhen shouted. She struck the Angel with her sword, completely cutting off a claw. Marge and John charged for the remaining limbs, fiercily cutting into the dark creature. Elini used her whip to contraattack when the Angel threw giant pieces of enchanted rock at her. Te'ijal carefully shot a few arrows into the deformed Angel's back, the smell of sulfur now becoming almost unbearable. Galahad struck it with his sword, cutting deeply into its flesh.

'It's still fucking strong, damnit.' Breathing heavily, Rhen yelled out 'Nightbird Song!' And as dark smoke, in the shape of a giant grey-winged blackbird started emitting from her Sword, she ran into the Angel, jumping at the last moment and swiftly chopping off its misshaped head. At once, it stopped moving. The remains of its body quickly fell into the pit, crushing a few screaming demons.

And then there was silence.