Hey there. Sorry this has taken so long to do. I was busy with having new ideas for stories, along with more personal things like work. The next chapter should be sooner than this, and it's going to be an interesting one. Also, a fan kept arguing how the god-like beings in the Dresdenverse would kill the Great Evils with ease. But I don't want that. I don't want a story that could be summed up as 'Oh hey, we just killed your greatest evils. Sorry for taking you from your world for nothing'. We'd all expect a world's version of Satan to be a pretty massive threat after all. So I've decided that the Great Evils are going to be even tougher than tough. Like Torment VI scaled for a full party, then doubled again. I want it to be that they laugh at the gods and their feeble attempts to smite them. Is it realistic to the Dresden series? Probably not. Is it going to make for an awesome story? Hell yes. If you have a problem with that, that's your loss.

Now that my rant's over, enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 5: The Eternal Conflict Begins Again

Murphy hated Mondays. She hated crimes that she didn't have all the facts for. And she especially hated any crime that reeked of magic. And this latest incident involved all three.

"Dammit Dresden." She muttered to herself as she went over the report that had ended up in her in-box. While it was light on details that wouldn't get laughed out of court, she could read enough between the lines to get a general idea what had happened. A tall man in a coat matching Dresden's description had been spotted entering a yacht that probably didn't belong to him. A beautiful young Asian girl in a cobbled grey coat was watching nearby for him, probably as a scout. A local pretty boy, the kind that spends their off days in the gym, went over to hit on her, and she tried to politely get him to leave. When he failed to take the hints, she raised one hand overhead, before using some kind of magic to slam him into the docks. She then rushed into the yacht after Dresden and some other woman, before they heard the sound of gunfire inside. Then, something or somethings ripped their way into the yacht. One was some kind of hooved naked lady, but no one got a good look at the other something. The Asian lady started throwing around more magic. Ice beams, exploding orbs, some kind of fiery lizard from the ground. The area ended up looking like a warzone. Dammit, dammit, dammit. When she found him again, she was going to rip Dresden apart. And his friend. While she didn't really liked magic, she hated having new players in her city even more. At least she had a general idea what Dresden could do. But this lady was an anomaly. A problem. And while she was within Chicago's limits, she was her problem.

"Hey Lieutenant." Her new partner, John Stallings said as he entered her office. Thank God, he was carrying in some coffee. She could use a cup right now. "I've got good news, bad news, and really shitty news."

"Give me coffee, then the good news, then we'll work our way down." She replied as she nearly ripped his hand off, drinking heavily before putting the cup back down. God, she needed that.

"Alright then. Good news is that no one was badly injured during the 'magic fight' at the docks. Mostly it's just scratches from chips and a few burns. The bad news is that the town of Hope has a bulletin out for 'an Asian lady dressed in long robes and armour, carrying a sword, and used some kind of advanced prototype weaponry to bust her way out of our cells." Murphy could feel a headache coming on.

"Jesus. This just keeps getting better and better by the fucking minute."

"There's more. She's mainly wanted for murdering several people in a cave not far from the town. She claimed that she stopped a demon summoning ritual."

"Please tell me that was the shitty news." She begged. One of her suspects was a murderer. Fantastic. And she'd bet anyone that would've known anything about the summoning was dead.

"'Fraid not. Internal Affairs is riding our asses on this case. Either we bring her in, or our department might have our cases handed to someone more effective." Translation, someone that didn't understand what they were dealing with. The old guard of SI remembered the Loup Garou attack years ago, when they were attacked by a real larger-than-life werewolf. It tore through them like paper, shrugging off anything they used. It took silver bullets made from some silver Karrin inherited from her folks to even hurt it, and Dresden using some kind of spell to throw it out. They lost good men from that attack. And they all understood that the only way to avoid a repeat was to treat magic with the respect and fear it deserved.

Unfortunately, to anyone outside of SI, magic was make-believe. And anyone that thought it was real was sent to get some 'help' before being shipped off to less strenuous work. The men and women here worked their asses off to prove that they weren't going to get push down into the dirt. They fought tooth and nail to show everyone that they could still get results. And so they had to get to Dresden first.

"Put out a bulletin on our Asian lady, but make it clear that they are to not approach her under any circumstances." She ordered. "I'm going to find Harry and find out what the hell's going on." But she barely got on her feet before another officer, Gregory Spats, came rushing in. He looked shocked to see her about to leave.

"Uh, Lieutenant." He stuttered. "We just got a serious call about a possible human trafficking operation in the city. According to the call, the traffickers are wearing some kind of advanced red armour. Might be a terrorist thing." Karrin sighed as she rubbed her aching head. There was the wrong word. Might be. If it was yes or no, she'd know whether to get some extra back up. But a 'might be' could mean anything. And the police weren't going to lend her more men for just anything. And if these traffickers got away, then it would be on her head.

"Alright then. Tell the men to suit up with everything we've got. I want them to play it safe, and make sure that we get as many people as possible back. If I think the situation's too dangerous, I want them to pull back while we get SWAT here or something." She grabbed her Kevlar vest and all her ammo while everyone ran around getting ready.

God this was getting out of control.

"Surely there's some other way for you to train with a moving target." Serenity grumbled as another arrow struck the wooden board she was carrying like a shield. It was peppered completely with the little things, making her look like a quill beast. She yelled as her feet were swept out from underneath by a bola, grunting as she hit the ground. Ishtar let herself smile as she watched Valla chuckle while Serenity untangled herself. While she knew why the training itself was important, it also helped to take their minds off the momentous challenge ahead of them.

All seven Great Evils in one city. Plotting whatever horrors they could, causing whatever chaos came to mind. Even with the power they had amassed, fighting a single Evil was challenging enough for all of them. Even Belial, who was the weakest in terms of physical strength, had required at least half of them to beat. Diablo himself had been their toughest challenge until Malphael. And now he was back, with their greatest enemies. They knew that the Nephalem could beat them again and again. They knew that they were the key to their defeat. And they will most likely never rest until they had destroyed this world and devoured its gods. The only good thing was that they were most likely to be busy undermining each other. If they couldn't remain united enough to beat Heaven, then surely they'd have the same troubles against them. All they had to do was watch and wait.

Of course, that would be so much easier if the others weren't so busy fiddling around with all these new devices and distracting her.

"….Only in cinemas for 3 days… And it's a home run! What a sight… Tired of your old car? Then come on…" It had been like this for a bit as Naziba and Korgaroth fiddled with a device called a 'radio'. A small box that played sounds and speeches as they were happening. It made her wonder who would work all day to provide all the cries, and how many town criers there were working together on this. The squawking of the box and the many voices kept ruining her concentration, interrupting her meditation. She was almost about to destroy it when a crier mentioned something interesting. "…A possible human trafficking operation. Police are advising all civilians to remain away from the street, suggesting that the traffickers might not be willing to surrender. They couldn't identify the traffickers, merely reporting that they seemed to be covered in some form of scaled armour. In fact, footage taken by a very observant civilian spotted that their gear made them resemble snakes with spears. Police are still baffled by this unknown design." They all looked at each other, understanding what they had heard of. Deceivers. The loyal servants of Belial, capable of illusions just like he is. Many times they believed they were alone or talking to normal people, when they cast off their illusions and attacked. They failed, but several times they came close to killing one of them. If someone said they had spotted a group of them…

"We'll have to split up." Serenity responded, taking over as group leader. "Korgaroth and Ishtar, you will both head to this group. If you run into Ming, have her join as well. Keep an eye on each other and spill demon blood. The rest of us will keep listening in on this box, see if we hear anything more about demon sightings."

"We could try one of those phones to contact Dresden." Valla said dubiously. It was hard to imagine a small, handheld device that could contact people from far distances.

"Mr Dresden doesn't carry a phone with him." Father Forthill said as he came down, having heard them talking. "The magical energy around him would destroy it in moments, especially with Miss Ming around him. The best thing to do is head on over and hope that they become aware of the possibilities of demons too." Serenity nodded, glad for the info.

"Team. Move out!"

Why snake looks? Karrin wondered as she kept an eye on the abandoned building they found the traffickers in. No one had gone in or out since they spotted them carrying heavy artillery. And ready to use it too. So they could add arms-smuggling to their list of charges too. Right now she was going over all the snake people she could think of, but it was a very short list. Dammit. They were just going to have to play it by ear.

"Are we finally ready Stallings?" She asked her partner, always watching the building. The SWAT team had nearly been stalled by backroom politics, so they were forced to sit on their asses while they waited.

"Yeah. They just got the go-ahead." He replied. Finally.

"Alright then, listen up everyone. I know this is going to seem like common knowledge, but we have no idea what these guys are capable of. They could be a bunch of crazies that think they're snakes, or they could be hardened mercenaries that eat up people like us for breakfast. Either way, we need to take things slow and careful. If your partner gets injured, you pull them out if possible. No crazy stunts, no front page heroics. I do not want to lose more people. Understood?" All the officers nodded once. "Good. Then move out." The SWAT members headed in first, with Karrin's team acting as a safety net. Anyone that got past them would be right in the line of fire, where they'll hopefully surrender. But before the officers could get much further, someone started walking out the door. He was a skinny, pale man dressed in faded and tattered clothes, barely looking like he was alive.

"Oh thank the Lord." The man wept, stumbling past the SWAT team. "I thought I was going to die in there. I'm so glad that you guys distracted them long enough for me to escape. How can I ever repay you?"

"By telling us everything you know about the interior." Karrin said as her team led him away. Any info he had could mean the difference between victory and running away with their tails between their legs. But she reminded herself that she had to be gentle. This guy might be very fragile after everything he had been through.

"Yes, yes. There's… There's a narrow hallway with creaking floor partway along the second floor. It's the only way in or out, and they're all waiting in there for you guys. But if you go down a floor and head for the east-most corner, you'll be right underneath them." Karrin nodded, before seeing if the SWAT guys had gotten that. They nodded in response, heading in quickly, but quietly. Meanwhile, Karrin was making sure the man was ok. He held onto a cup of coffee that someone offered while the teams waited for any response. They heard the sound of gunfire for several seconds, before all became silent. They were wondering what was going on inside until an Internal Affairs officer (sent to make sure SI played by their rules) Screamed in agony. Everyone was already turning and pulling out their handguns, only to see he was stabbed by something invisible. More officers started yelling in pain as they were sliced open by blades of some kind, the traffickers appearing from thin air. Karrin cursed as she saw them. They weren't dressed in snake-like armour, they were snake people. She went to blow the head off one of them when the victim next to her grabbed hold and pulled her close to him. He smiled at her with jagged teeth, changing into another creature. "Yes, praise to the Lord of Lies." He screeched at her, pulling her closer to him. She tried to struggle free, but as with most magical creatures he was too strong for her. She thought her clock was punched.

Which was why she was pleasantly surprised as an axe cleaved right through his head, pinning the corpse to the nearby police car. She looked up in time to see a damaged car zoom past, collecting three more monsters before disgorging its occupants and crashing into the building. And she could only gape as she saw the warriors fight.

One was dressed completely in spiked armour, a white beard barely visible underneath the steel and fur. He pulled a giant hammer from his back and slamming it into the ground. Waves of force billowed out in front of him, causing more monsters to appear and die from the strength behind it. Alongside him was a woman dressed in long robes and armour. She was moving impossibly fast, almost as if she was teleporting. And she just had to punch the things to cause them to shatter or explode, before she moved on to the next one. She belatedly noticed that every now and then, one of the creatures would drop glowing items, and the two warriors would stoop down and grab some as they went. Shaking herself out of her stupor, Karrin started gunning down any of the creatures that she could see, focusing on the ones still attacking her team. They seemed to take several shots to kill, mostly because she didn't know their vital areas. But luckily the monk lady was helping to deal with them for her. They could now hear screaming and gunfire from inside the building, but they couldn't afford to help them yet. They still had to clear this area. Not easy when your enemy's cloaked. But luckily, it seemed that they couldn't re-cloak themselves while they were busy fighting, and they seemed to have cleared them up quickly. The old man roared in fury as several creatures piled up on him, the noise shaking the ground and causing the creatures to run from him. He skewered several with a spear attached to a chain, before crushing others with his hammer. At one point he ran through them like a battering ram, before moving into a spinning attack like from some kind of video game. As he mopped up what was left out here, his comrade ran into the building, stopping just in the entrance to place a glowing magical circle inside. As the monsters were blocked off, she somehow summoned a giant bell from the sky, ringing it twice and causing the monsters to fade into light. As the circle faded, she rushed in and pulled a staff from her back to strike the monsters. Soon, all they could hear was the sound of monsters dying and things breaking. She thought it was all over, but then two cars came smashing out the side of the building and drove off. But they didn't get very far. The warrior jumped unbelievably high before slamming into the hood of the first car, while the monk jumped out from overhead and slammed her staff into the front window of the other car, looking as though she was made of bronze. The staff held, and acted like a brick wall by causing the car to crumple under the force. The two warriors looked back as though searching for more monsters, before running off down the road. Karrin and the others could only watch in amazement. Holy shit. Was that what magic could do to people?

"Everyone, check for wounded. The most critical come first. Someone check inside the building for survivors. Stallings, Adams; I want you both to grab as much of this junk as possible. We need to figure out what these things are and who these freaks are."

"What about you Lieutenant?" Stallings asked her.

"I'm off to see the wizard." Karrin growled back.

Oh, she and Dresden were going to have words.

"Here you go lad." The blacksmith, Haedrig said as he passed me a thick rod of wood. He had one of those really thick 'Braveheart' Scottish accents. "That wand will do wonders against those demons, same as that staff I gave you. And if you don't like the look, then Myriam can enchant it to look and feel different. Hell, she can even change the enchantments if they don't suit you, though that's rather uncommon these days."

"You can't decide what enchantments you place on your stuff?" I was surprised. Considering he was literally hammering away at this stuff, you'd think it'd give him some choice."

"Nay lad. The magic does what it wants, and only fools think they have complete control. Half the time when I first started the magic would go wrong, and they'd end up getting smelted down again. It's always a bit of a gamble if you ask me. Still, the Nephalem enjoy my work. It saved their lives many times. I gotta say though, the enchantments on your coat are rather well done."

"Thanks. It took me ages to get them right though." It was probably a cost thing. I could choose my enchantments, but it would take me days to get it just right and be secure enough to not fade in the daylight. Haedrig on the other and could churn out magical gear of pretty high quality in half an hour or so, complete with powerful spells. The trick was getting the right one. And to think this guy wasn't even a mage. I looked around the courtyard at everyone, all who were looking a bit tense. Ming and I had just returned from the attack at the docks, only to find out that demons had been spotted. Ishtar and Korgaroth had gone off to deal with them, but I was still worried about the police. This kind of thing would go straight to Murphy and her team. And I didn't think they'd be ready for it. But Tyrael said that they'd be finished by the time we get there if we left now. All we could do was wait for word to get back. As everyone else listened to the radio, I thought I might as well have Myriam do that enchanting thing on my new toys. Having a wand felt very different – I was used to thicker sticks – but according to Ming, it would work just like my blasting rod and allow me to channel magic through it. In fact, supposedly my magic would pick up effects from being channelled through it. Nifty. I found Myriam chatting to Ming, both who looked unconcerned with things going on around them.

"Ah Chelsa." She greeted me as I came closer. "I already know what you seek. Have a look at my book, and see a design you desire. But are you not glad I warned you both about the problems you faced?"

"You could've warned us about the demons that showed up." I retorted as I flicked through a big book on a stand. Wow, there were some awesome designs in this thing. It was hard to find just one.

"Bah. And what you have done differently? You would've still had to fight them no matter what. Count yourself lucky you both made it out alive and unharmed." I pointed to a design that resembled a stick with a green emerald on top for my wand, and an ornate staff with two ribbons hanging down on it. Subtle? Nope. But it looked awesome. Myriam glanced at them before taking my items and drawing energy from the blue stand the book was on. Streams of magic swirled around my items, before a glow moved up them like water. They both writhed and twisted until they now resembled the designs I had picked out. Hells Bells, that was pretty potent stuff. If it didn't actually change how the weapon worked, this could be really useful. You could hide a powerful item as something cheap and worthless. "There you go child. Take good care of them. Oh, and be ready to cover your ears."

I was wondering why she said that when the door outside slammed open. "DRESDEN!" I heard Murphy yell as she stomped inside. I turned around to find everyone holding a weapon at her while she looked around at all the weird stuff going on. I wasn't too sure who was more surprised. Her or them. "Dresden, you've got 5 seconds to start telling me what the hell is going here." Her look told me she would make me beg if I didn't start talking. I sighed in resignation.

This was going to hurt.

Luckily for me, by the time I was finished talking Karrin looked like I had just hit her upside the head with a very thick club. I suppose I looked the same when I first learnt about all this stuff. But she recovered pretty quickly.

"Dresden, did you honestly think I wouldn't be interested in the fact that there's apparently a Holy War going on in my city?" I didn't like it when her voice went low. It usually meant she was pissed off with me. Understandable in this case, but not very encouraging.

"Murph, I just got back from dealing with a couple of crazy demon ladies, I didn't really think they'd attack out in the open like that." It was one of the rules of magic. Thou shall not involve all of mortalkind. With our advanced weaponry, it was pretty much an event of nuclear proportions. These Great Evils were looking pretty willing to fight everyone at once. Hopefully they'll bite off more than they can chew.

Right, and maybe I'll get myself a mansion and a harem.

"Well they just did. And the whole SWAT team was wiped out, along with three of my men. I know you didn't mean to keep this from me and their deaths aren't your fault. But I need to know everything to keep my team safe." Her expression brooked no arguments. Not from me anyway.

"I'm not too sure how much I can help. You'll probably want to talk to the Nephalem. They've carved their way through them pretty easily, and they're demons from their world after all."

"You know, that's another thing I need to talk to you about. I got a bulletin for an Asian lady that used 'experimental technology' to murder some people and then bust her way out of a police station down in Idaho." Everyone started looking at Ming, who blushed in embarrassment. "If she's anything like the two we saw today, my team won't be able to handle her. And I'm guessing she had a good reason to kill people. But no one outside SI will see that."

"So I should rot inside a cell while the Great Evils tear apart your beloved city?" Ming shot back, looking pretty angry.

"I don't know. But I think you should stay inside the church until we get things sorted out outside. Or at least until Internal Affairs has something else to worry about. Now, what can we do about protecting my people?"

"Deceivers are tricky blighters." Haedrig as he walked over. "They're practically impossible to spot while invisible, even with magic. I'd recommend some tough armour to withstand their sneak attacks, at least long enough to dispel their cloaking. Once they're out in the open, they're sitting ducks until they can escape. Chase after any that try since they'll just cloak again and backstab you. And if you see any just sitting still, be ready to move back. Those are their magi, and they create lightning fields to shock you to death."

"Oh yes. And-and you need diamonds too." Shen said as he jittered over to the group. "The purer the better. Diamonds interact with magic to give you a resistance to magical effects."

"Really?" Murph looked like we were pulling her leg.

"Aye. What Shen says is true. From what Father Forthill told us about the stance on magic, I doubt your council will grant you diamonds for protection. Luckily, we've got more than enough for a small team." Murph looked at all of them with a hard look on her face.

"Right then. We've got some gear from the attack that these two didn't grab. Will they suffice?"

"They'll help. But if they left them, it was because they were weak. What colour did they glow?"

"Uh, white I think."

"Yeah, I can craft much better items than that. It'll mean the difference between life and death for your men."

"How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing miss. We've got more than enough gold to cover any costs I might have. I'll just need to know how many to make. The magic of the gear will resize it for whoever wears the damn thing."

"Agreed. But I'll need to borrow any info you have on these demons. I want to know their strengths, their weaknesses, everything." Everyone nodded at the terms. They probably already memorised everything inside their Great Big Book of Demon Slaying.

I hope I wasn't just getting Murph killed.