Chapter 553
They looked around the school, no Turak-han or cannibal ghosts to be seen. Not even a harbringer of death. Could it be that Buffy defeated the Master? This group had fought well, but it seemed unlikely that they could've stopped all of them. Victory came at a high price. Only brother Orlando survived from the knights of Byzantium. Gunn, Lindsay, Devon, Nina, Kate, David,all dead. Then they saw it, the head of Hades himself. The Beast showed it to them, along with the broken body of Illyria. The Beast killed Hades and broke Illyria, what hope could any of them have of surviving the Beast. Then they saw many more Turak-han behind the Beast. The bringers once claimed that there were as many of them as there were grains of sand on the ocean floor. This now seemed plausible. The Beast offerred Faith the chance to live these last few moments in despair. He would not even give these people that chance. The Beast told these survivors they were about to die, they had no hope of survival. Their sacrifice would be in vain. He wanted this despair to seep in before they were slaughtered. As the Beast ranted Illyria used what was likely her last remaining strength to knock the Beast down, humiliating him mid-rant. This inspired the wounded survivors. With their little remaining strength they grabbed their weapons and marched towards the Beast. Win or lose this battle would be over quickly.
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Writer's note: It's almost the end. Just two more chapters after this. Thank you to all who have read this whole story over the last year.