GATE: the clash of the titans V2

by Qun Nguyn1

Mostly AUs. A Gate has opened in Tokyo by a Roman-esque Empire, familiar scenario with familiar faces but the people marched through the Gate is from a vastly more powerful magic world. The stage is set. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of the Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin. Let the worlds have War.

34. Chapter 35: 7 Days at Phlegethon

Chapter 35: Seven Days at the River Phlegethon

Note:

Cybertron:

Yes. Earth can develop some of the weapons in Transformers. Some of the weapons is quite silly though so probably not them.

Overlordwarhammer2019:

- You asked me why Earth doesn't have starship like in Halo. The answer is simple. They don't need it. The enemy doesn't have any spaceship. You don't bring a battleship to fight in the middle of Mongolia do you? Orbital Bombardment is cool but it's extremely expensive and for what? How much bomb can a spaceship carry and at what cost. Nuclear powered heavy bombers are much cheaper.

- Earth could use the Eternal Flame to enchant the magic metal with the help of the Vatican but they can't mass produce the enchanted ammunition. You have about 100 magicians in New Vatican ( Russia) You need million of tons of ammunition a day.

- Yes the human can outsource their job to the drones. But that requires massive investment in education and infrastructure. You can't expect an uneducated 18 year old to fix an advanced war drone. The government doesn't have the money to pay for that. Rebuilding after the Rumbling already cost a lot of money. Sending human is simply cheaper, for now.

- Anyone killed by demon or haunted people will go to demonic realms. Sometimes if the dark energy from the demonic realms leaked to the real world, the souls of the dead will be sucked into Hell.

- Both interdimensional and interstellar travel requires enormous calculating power, but for different reasons.

To travel to another planet you need exact location. The longer the distance the more calculating power you need.

To travel to an alternative dimension you need synchronization the two world. This is dangerous.

Imagine the two worlds is two different trucks running parallel with each others. You try to connect the two. If you don't careful, your will have a car crash.

The amount of mana need is depend on many factors:

In the cases of Interstellar travel the longer the distance the more mana it costs. Bending space cost energy and the more space you bend the more energy it needed.

Interdimensional travel is like going up and down in a very tall building with many stories. Going down is easier than going up. Travel from one floor to the next is easier than skipping the floor. It all depends on where you want to go.

- The apostles can turn off any of their ability at will.

---

The Supreme Military and Economic Council of the World League of Nationalities, long before it adopted that title, was born out of an office in New Vatican, Russia. Here, in the tumultuous final year of the Great War, a series of secret meetings were held to discuss the geopolitical ramifications of Prince Ainsworth's Coup in Sadera and the growing popularity of the anti-war populist presidential candidate José Luís Ferreira in the USNA.

The attendees represented a multinational delegation of 200 like-minded politicians, generals, industrialists, financiers, and activists to discuss the post-war world order. What they all agree was the political maneuvering and prioritizing of self-interest at the cost of other nations of the Isaac Westcott administration were unacceptable and if USNA wanted to continue this damn War, they'll fight alone.

They decided that the best course of action was to sign separate peace treaties with the Empire before the 2049 American election. This would allow the Empire to concentrate their forces on the North American Front, thereby weakening the postwar American position. They argued that if they sign the treaty now, they could use the warmonger Westcott administration as a bogyman to force more concessions from the Empire. Doing this before the upcoming José Ferreira administration will maximize their national and financial interests.

—Excerpts from "The 11th Hours" of Japanese Prime Minister Yōji Itami.

---

Minith Academy, New Miraculum, Falmart's Moon Oisin, 2069

Sitting in her dimly lit office, Professor Lelei La Lalena read and reread her sketches many times. This was for her upcoming book "The Resurrection of the Earth and the New World Order", this would be her twelve book focusing on Earth.

Lelei had to thank Itami for the material he provided, without it, she would not have had the extensive knowledge to write this book. Maybe she should buy him a gift in return. What does he like she wondered.

The blue haired professor frowned, trying to find the right word but she couldn't. "Maybe I should have another cup of coffee," she thought. Pouring herself another cup of coffee, Lelei looked at the clock. It quite late already, her other half would be worry that she forget her dinner. Lelei had always been a workaholic.

Turned off her computer, Lelei decided to continue her work tomorrow. Tonight she would give her husband John a little surprise. Lelei smiled mischievously as she changed her usual clothes into a revealing blue nightdress.

XXXXXXXXXX

While the coronation of Prince Ainsworth was celebrated all over Falmart and even some parts of Earth in secret, no sooner than when a decisive battle been achieved over Falmart's second largest moon of Manannan that the nascent Ainsworth's government grew divided.

With the backbone of the USNA Strategic Forces broken and burning on a distant moon, came an extraordinary opportunity for peace.

Imperial military hardliners argued for nothing less than absolute victory, to see every remaining bastion of the UAEDF's power in Falmart liberated, but the more moderate elements of the Imperial Military had come to believe that such a victory was unlikely. Even the most optimistic estimates placed it at the very least a decade away.

The underwhelming performance of the Starquake Project, the desire to consolidate the Empire's liberated territories, and the increasingly unwieldy nature of its military placed the outcome of any future military offensives into doubt.

The Neo Tokyo Treaty satisfied neither side.

To many within the Earth Alliance, it was too lenient, to the Holy Empire, too severe. While both sides gain new territory and trade rights, neither were satisfied.

"This is no peace" claimed one human politician, "merely an armistice for thirty years".

Yet despite the many criticisms, the Treaty gave the human and titan race what they desperately needed, the opportunity to finally healing their war torn world.

At the time of signing the Neo Tokyo Treaty, the environmental situation on Earth was truly dire. The planet has suffered from invasive falmart species and devastating climate change. By 2050, Earth had undergone significant deforestation coupled with mass extinction of native wildlife on the ground and in the oceans. The human race, using its technical ingenuity, has managed to keep itself alive, albeit barely.

"We are living in the fucking Blade Runner 2049." claimed one Mexican Blogger.

Due to the destruction of the natural environment and vast urban expansion, the Supreme Military and Economic Council, began to grow vast sea farms of edible protein and nutrient-rich algae, which was flavored with spices and other ingredients, in order to feed the nine billion people of Earth both cheaply and effectively.

Algae became the staple food for many humans on Earth and the Moon. It's amazing the things you can do with algal protein concentrate if you know your spices.

To counter the effect of greenhouse gases, 10 million tons of aluminum-silver nanoparticles must be sent into the into the upper atmosphere every year to create reflective clouds. But launching them up there from aircraft or artillery is arguably counter-productive, since those tend to produce greenhouse gases to operate. Lofting the stuff up there is going to cost energy and human energy production via hydrocarbons is the issue of concern in the first place.

This is exactly why the World League of Nationalities decided to use nuclear-powered rail gun and mass driver spacecraft launcher for this job. When not chucking spaceships into orbit, they firing up larger pods of aluminum-silver nanoparticles into the upper atmosphere to seed those reflective clouds.

To combat global desertification, massive fusion-powered desalination plants are used to provide water to irrigate vast stretches of the Sahara, SW Africa and interior Australia, and fusion is supplemented by huge solar power farms.

Specialized plants are created to hold together sandy soils while sending down taproots hundreds of feet.

The human also use engineered lines of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, that tailored to pull nitrogen from the atmosphere faster and more efficiently in order to enrich the newly created soil and build a layer of silt to bind the sand.

The process of resurrect extinct Earth's species met with a lot of difficulty because most species did not go extinct in a vacuum, alien species from Falmart came in and either took over their ecological niche or radically altered it so they could no longer survive.

By and large, you can't just re-introduce some extinct species into the new environment, as they will either die off again or possibly make something else go extinct.

So the humans solution is to create hybrid species that have the appearance the original species but a lot more adaptive to the new environment.

Slowly but surely, the Earth is reborn in the image of man as mankind playing god determined to create their own Garden of Eden. Some say this is the human arrogant, other say this is the triumph of human ingenuity. The true is some where in between, the rebuilt process will take centuries to complete, that is if the human race can wait that long before turning their world into a pile of trash once again.

The resurrection of the Earth also marks the formation of a new multipolar world order. The geopolitical situation of the Earth in the 2050s is truly fascinating, it is a combination of the old and the different.

In the New World you have the semi-dictatorial Unified States of North America. A country born to tackle the migration crisis of the late 2030s. It is the most populous and powerful country on Earth.

The Unified States is truly a nation of migrants as more than half of its 3 billion inhabitants are still unnaturalized. They live as second-class citizens in the many slums of the mega-cities. Contributing to the booming economy but remain politically powerless.

The USNA has 82 states, not including Security Outposts in the Pacific and the Atlantic, gaining all of Canada, Mexico, and Central America, among other places:

States: Alabama - Alberta - Alaska - Arizona - Arkansas - The Bahamas - California (historical Alta (Upper) California) - Colorado - Columbia - Connecticut - Costa Rica - Cuba - Delaware - Florida - Georgia - Greenland - Guatemala (Guatemala and Belize) - Haiti (including all of Hispaniola) - Honduras - Idaho - Illinois - Indiana - Iowa - Jamaica - Kansas - Keewatin (pre-1999 Northwest Territories east of the 110° meridian) - Kentucky - Labrador (mainland Newfoundland and Labrador) - Leeward Islands - Louisiana - Lower California (consisting of the Baja California peninsula) - Maine - Mackenzie (pre-1999 Northwest Territories west of the 110° meridian) - Manitoba - Maryland - Martinique - Massachusetts - Mexico (the remainder of Mexico) - Michigan - Minnesota - Mississippi - Missouri - Montana - Nevada - New Brunswick - Newfoundland (Island Newfoundland and Labrador) - New Hampshire - New Jersey - New Mexico - New York - Nicaragua - North Carolina - North Dakota - Nova Scotia - Ohio - Oklahoma - Ontario - Oregon - Panama - Pennsylvania - Prince Edward Island - Puerto Rico - Quebec - Rhode Island - El Salvador - Saskatchewan - South Carolina - South Dakota - Tennessee - Texas - Trinidad - Utah - Vermont - Virginia - Virgin Islands - Washington - West Virginia - Windward Islands - Wisconsin - Wyoming – Yukon.

Protectorates: Iceland - the Philippines

Peace-security bases: Dakar and Freetown on the Atlantic coast of Africa and the islands of the Pacific, excluding Solomon Islands.

Go further east to the other side of the Atlantic, you have the New Commonwealth of Nations. This loose federation was born in response to the dissolution of EU and the growing power and influence of China, India and Russia in the east.

The New Commonwealth of Nations is headquartered in the United Kingdom (including England, Wales, Scotland and island of Ireland).

The Commonwealth includes the Faroe Islands, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, the Andaman Islands, Cyprus, Malta, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, as well as Singapore and East Malaysia, South Georgia, the Bismarck Archipelago, the Solomon Islands, and the countries of Australia and New Zealand.

Peace-security bases :

Gibraltar on the southern coast of Spain, Alexandria, Algiers, Benghazi, Oran on the Mediterranean Sea coast of Africa, Djibouti City, Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast of Africa, Berbera, Mogadishu and Zanzibar on the Indian coast of Africa, and Cabinda City and Cape Town on the Atlantic coast of Africa.

From there go further east you will meet the biggest and most bizarre nation on Earth the Union of Abrahamic Socialist Republics (UASR). A super nation with weird hybrid of "theocratic and socialist elements".

The super nation was born in a chain of events that began in Russia that culminated in the overthrow of the secular governments of many Eastern European countries known as the 2042 October Revolution also known as the Abrahamic Revolution.

The revolution was unusual for the surprise it created throughout the world. It lacked many of the customary causes of revolution (defeat in war, financial crisis, peasant rebellion, or disgruntled military); occurred in nations that were experiencing relative prosperity; produced profound change at great speed; resulted in the exile of many atheist european; and replaced pro-secular democracy with theocratic dictatorship.

The Abrahamic Union expand to be far larger than even the old Soviet Union, expanding to 25 Abrahamic Socialist Republics.

Abrahamic Socialist Republics: Armenia - Azerbaijan - Bulgaria - Czech Republic - Estonia - Finland - Georgia - Hungary - Iran (basically a failed state in 2042) - Latvia - Lithuania - Manchuria (Heilongjiang and Hulunbuir run away from China in the Coup of 2044) - Moldavia (all of Bessarabia) - Mongolia (invaded by Russia) - Poland - Romania - Russia (which includes Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan) - Slovakia - Tajikistan - Turkmenistan - Ukraine - Uzbekistan - Byelorussia - White Yugoslavia, Germany (which somehow includes Weimar Republic territory east of the Rhine river but west of the former Polish Corridor, plus Austria).

In the Far East you have a surprisingly well organized, democratic and federated - Great Union of East Asia.

As war raging on across the Pacific, casualties in the East Asia region increased rapidly forced many countries to enter China's orbit for military support. Many year fighting together have forged a tight bond between China and SEA nations. The region itself has historically been influenced by China, but it is only thanks to the ingenuity and humanism of the Great Chinese statesman, physician, and political philosopher Zhuge Yat-sen that the Pan-Asian dream of a unified East Asia become a reality.

The East Asia Union is headquartered in Nanjing, China and includes Inner Mongolia - Indo China (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) - Korea - Malaya - Xinjiang - Thailand - Tibet.

Due to the lost of Manchuria (Heilongjiang and Hulunbuir) the Union relationship with UASR is quite tense.

From here head southwest and you'll find the Last Great Power: the Federated Republics of India.

In the western flank, as the imperial forces launch their invasion into the waning country of Pakistan, Indian government fears that the desperate Pakistanis will use their nuclear weapons near the Indian border so the Indian launched a pre-emptive strike on the Pakistan's nuclear force. Then they sent almost half a million troops to occupy Pakistan. On the eastern flank, a prolonged drought caused the collapse of Myanmar's civilian government, forcing India to send troops to restore order.

The Federated Republics of India includes Afghanistan - Balochistan - Bhutan - Myanmar- India (including Pakistan without Balochistan) - Nepal.

Due to its demographic composition, this is the most unstable of the five Great Powers.

Beside the Big Five, there also many smaller powers on Earth like:

The United States of Europe, a nation composed of Belgium (including Luxembourg) - France (including Monaco and all of Germany west of the Rhine river) - Netherlands - Portugal - San Marino - Spain (including Andorra) - Switzerland (including Liechtenstein) – Italy – Albania – Greece. This is the true successor state of the United Democratic Republic of Europia.

United States of Scandinavia, a nation composed of Denmark (without the Faroe Islands and Greenland) - Norway (including Spitsbergen, without Jan Mayen) - Sweden.

Arabian Federated Republics, a newly established nation composed of Aden (South Yemen) - Hejaz - Iraq (including Kuwait) - Lebanon - Oman (including Bahrain, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates) - Saudi Arabia - Syria - Yemen (North Yemen)

Republic of Hebrewland, a nation composed all of Israel, Jordan and Palestine, taking in parts of Syria and a slice of northern Saudi Arabia.

And finally the strongest of them all is the Unified Kingdom of Greater Japan and Taiwan. The new Kingdom composed of all of pre-war Japan, Iturup, Kunashir, Shikotan, Habomai, Taiwan and Lemuria Special Region Government General. Japan is actually the second largest economy on Earth, however its defense relies heavily on the Big Five, especially the USNA and UASR.

XXXXXXXXXX

After the Great War, the Big Five reorganized the United Earth Alliance into The world League of Nationalities with arbitration and supervision powers. The world League of Nationalities then created The World Court with punitive powers of absolute boycott, quarantine, blockade and occupation by international police, against lawbreakers of international morality. All problems of exchange, transfer and repatriation of populations will also be administered by the World League of Nationalities. That is the 21st century new world order, and for historical, economic, and geographically favorable reasons, UNSA assumed the leadership role of the newly established democratic world order.

---

About 20km Outside of Camp Hell-One, Hellgate, Falmart, 52030

Watching the pillar of white light slowly faded away and eventually disappeared into the blue sky, the three apostles breathed a sigh of relief. They were all pretty worn out after the brutal battle over the past six days, especially Rory, who was on her knees breathing heavily. Worse, her right shoulder had dislocated again after using her ultimate technique. Blood was now freely matching out of her mouth as Rory stayed down the ground. If things continued, Rory would bleed all of her blood out. What was also certain was that Rory was not going to stand on her feet for a few minutes. It was quite easy to understand why, since she did most of the melee with Pandemonium that and the use of the Dark Spear took a terrible toll on her body.

Aleister and Giselle's condition wasn't much better either, both lying on the ground panting with bodies drenched in sweat. They had used too much mana on their spell than they had thought they would. If the battle had continued, it would have been nasty for them.

"It worked, the plan worked!" Aleister was so overwhelmed with emotion that he temporarily forgot his fatigue. Aleister was quite confident with his poison but seeing it work perfectly made him delirious with happiness. Years of practicing the art of toxicology have finally paid off. "We did it, Sister Rory, Sister Giselle. We killed Pandemonium, we killed the Beast of the Apocalypse!" Said Aleister, as he jumped in and hugged the unclothed Rory Mercury tightly.

The crimson haired vampire squeezed Rory with both of his slender arms making Rory gasp a bit but she didn't mind, the apostle of war embraced the boy wholeheartedly. "Yes, we did it, and its all thanks to you, Aleister!" Rory spoke softly while her delicate porcelain doll-like fingers gently stroked the boy's long, wavy crimson hair that reached all the way down to his feet. Their nude body glistened gracefully as the gentle rays of the sun reflected off their bare, pearly complexion creating a fairy-tale like scene. They looked like twins goddess of the mythical land.

Aleister blushed in embarrassment, "I couldn't have done it without the two of you. It's been hard for you these past few days, Big Sister Rory," Then turning his head to blue Draconian woman, he said. "And thank you, Giselle, if it weren't for your excellence support, we'd be dead by now."

"It's nothing, Kid!" Giselle smiled faintly at the flattering words, her voice hinted a little bit of pride. "You and Rory did most of the hard work, I'm just helping."

The three apostles then heard a rhythmic whoop-whoop noise of helicopter rotors. It was a helicopter all right, a big and heavy armored one, the V-44 Quad TiltRotor. And it was coming straight at them. From the customized looks of it, this had to be Itami's command helicopter. He must be very eager to meet them.

Rory saw it touch down only a few dozen yards from her and figures started to pour out. Camouflaged figures wearing customized power armor. JGSDF's Special Forces Group. One of the figures detached from the rest and run over to her. It was the commander of Camp Hell-One, General Yōji Itami. He came as fast as he could after the battle was over.

"Rory-san?"

With her inhuman speed, Rory ran towards Itami, closed the 30 meter gap between them in half a second, and jumped into his lap. This sudden action caused him to lose his balance and fall backwards on the ground.

"Ow! Rory, you're hurting me — "

Before he could say another word, Rory, who was sitting naked on top of Itami, pressed her soft lips to his. It was a savage and hungry kiss. Their tongues immediately entangled, familiar with each other's movements. Soft sighs were exchanged before Rory's turned into lustful groans.

Suddenly remembering that there were many people around, Itami hurriedly pushed Rory away. He blushed and glanced around only to see the cold and annoyed look his subordinates threw at him. They knew Rory was older than Jesus himself but she still had the appearance of an underage girl, an impossibly attractive underage girl but an underage girl nevertheless. Itami could hear someone said 'loli fucker trash' in the back.

Itami was so embarrassed that if there was a hole in the ground right now he would have ducked into it. Rory, of course, was completely unconcerned with other people's opinions. She was the demi-goddess of war, no one could tell her who could she date and kiss. Either this or Rory was teasing Itami.

"Ara-Ara! Dear, did you miss my body that much?"

Her sweet voice and hot breath washed over Itami's ear.

Annoyed by Rory's antics, Itami tapped her on the head hard. "Enough is enough, you lascivious demi-goddess!" He groaned.

They then looked into each other's eyes for a while and then burst out laughing. All of Itami's stress and anxiety melted away, Rory really knew how to lighten the mood, albeit with unorthodox method.

"You did it Rory!" Itami said softly with a bright smile on his lips. His voice was filled with immense gratitude. "You have saved us all!"

This was not an exaggeration, without Rory and the other apostles, even in the best case scenario everyone in the base would die. And in the worse case scenario, everyone in The Eye of Terror. That was more than 30 million lives.

"No, we did it," Rory replied firmly, "I was just doing my duty."

That was true, what Rory did was for the greater good of Falmart. She even convinced the humans to fight against the forces of chaos for them, thus saving millions of Falmartian lives. The humans did it for their own greed of course, she just took advantage of that. This was mutually beneficial relationship.

"I bring your clothes," Itami said as he motioned for his subordinates to bring Rory's dress to the nude apostle. He even had his men wash and iron it carefully. It was the least he could do for all her hard work.

Rory looked at him with mischievous eyes, licking her lips provocatively, she said playfully. "What!? Don't you like looking at this?"

Rory opened her arm exposing her curvaceous slender figure and tender mounds. From his position Itami could see everything: from the rosy nipples sticking out of her flawless creamy white bosoms to her proud ivory neck and pearly white skin glowing in the sunlight to her white slender thighs and long silky black hair. The illusory scene made Itami blush but he soon regained his composure. He moved forward and tapped her head again.

"Oww!"

"Not now, put on your clothes first!" Itami said firmly.

Rory rubbed her head and obediently put on her black and red dress.

"So how's the front line?" Rory asked seriously, her eyes meeting his and Rory once again became the fearsome military commander she was known for.

Itami glanced at her then looked straight. "The situation is turning in our favor, despite the many casualties our boys have broken the enemy advance. One more push and the enemy will be shattered."

Well done!

Before Rory could say another word, she and other apostle felt an eerie chill run down their spines. This ominous feeling, this was the same as —

"Pandemonium! Sister, that beast's still alive!" Giselle was the first to react. The surrounding atmosphere suddenly became tense. Everyone was on high alert. JGSDF Special Forces Group had their guns pointed at all direction.

"How could that be, we killed him!' Aleister shouted. He was 100 percent sure that not even Pandemonium could survive the king of poison and the divine blade of Emroy to the heart. And he was right. The being called Pandemonium was certainly dead. But one must never underestimate a god even in death because they defy all common logic. Especially the weapon of the Chaos Gods.

The apostles scanned the surrounding with their mystic eyes and they finally found it. The source of all of this uneasy feeling. A small orb the size of a marble emitting sinister purple light suspended in midair.

"What in the Hardy name is that?"

That gem was the Heart of Pandemonium; the source of the Pandemonium species immense power. Its also serves as a compressed backup of a pandemonium biological data that they can embed in the body of a compatible recipient known as a vessel. Over time the Heart will gradually overwrite the vessel's genetic profile until they transform into a new pandemonium.

Before anyone could do anything, the orb flew towards Itami at the speed of light. The Heart had found its target. The orb flew at such a fast speed and complicated trajectory that not even the apostles could react in time. Before Rory could pull out her weapon, Itami had already fell backwards.

"YOJI, NOOOO!"

Rory watched in horror as her lover fell to the ground unconscious. "I must save him!" she thought. Without other choice, she chanted a powerful time incantation.

"Second Chance."

This spell will allow the caster soul to travel back in time a few minutes and give themselves another chance. It is a very powerful spell but it would take a heavy toll on the user body.

Shhzzzzz —

Returning just in time, Rory pushed Itami out of the orb's trajectory thus saving him from a terrible fate. Lying on his back on the ground, this time Itami was the one who was shocked to see an intense shockwaves caused by the collision between the orb and Rory's dark spear. The Apostle tried to destroy Heart with her weapon, but using "Second Chance" made her unable to do so. The orb changed it direction and hit Rory on her gut.

"You Bastard!"

Realizing what just happened, Rory positioned the Dark Spear right on her stomach and stabbed it straight inside. This would leave her paralyzed for a while. Without wasting a second, she gestured to her colleague.

"Aleister, Giselle do it NOW!"

The two apostles rushed towards Rory at blinding speed. As the guardians of Falmart, they had the duty to do whatever it takes to protect the world even by committing suicide. Fortunately, the situation was not that bad, yet. They still had a chance to save their beloved big sister.

Aleister was the first to act, shoving his right hand straight into Rory's chest, grabbing her beating heart and pulling it out. As he did blood was splatter everywhere like a fountain. What a horrifying scene that could easily make weak willed people vomit. Holding Rory's still-beating heart in his palm, Aleister chanted.

"Titan Binding: Blood Seal."

With this spell, Aleister was using his own lifeforce to seal Rory's power. It also gave him the full control over her body, thus reducing the chances of her losing control and became their enemy.

Giselle was the next to act, raising her right palm in front of Rory, she whispered. "Sorry in advance Dear Sister, you will have to suffer for a while." She then chanted a high ancient spell.

"Hardy's Curse : Eternal Petrification."

Giselle released a beam of light from her palm, capable of petrifying all living and non-living beings in contact with it, thus Rory was instantly transformed into a statue. While the petrification caused by 'Evil Eye of Petrification' and 'Breath of Stone' could be magically countered or cancelled, this spell is comparatively even more dangerous, as its effect is semi permanent. It would require calling on spirits on a divine level of power to undo this spell.

Seeing the series of horrifying events that had just unfold before his very eyes, Itami was petrified. After returning to his senses, Itami rushed towards Rory in a panic. He grabbed the shoulder of the statue and shouted in vain.

RORY-RORY-RORYYYY!

Giselle put her hand on Itami's shoulder trying to cheer him up. "Don't worry human. Big Sister Rory's a very strong warrior, everything will be OK."

"That's right, the spells we put on her will buy us some time. The infection will slow down considerably." Aleister added, expressing his sympathy for the poor Japanese man. Losing someone you love is hard.

Looking back at the apostles, Itami asked. "What.. should... we... do now?" The man looked completely devastated. He clung to every glimmer of hope he could.

Looking at each other, Giselle and Aleister replied together. "We must bring her to Lady Prisha, she will know what to do."

Cliffton Council Estate, Nottingham, United Kingdom

It had been ten days now, ten days of being forced to sit here all day staring at the news channels until he had passed out from exhaustion. Even that brought little respite, the foul presence made sure that his sleep was uneasy and his dreams visions of fire and pain. The demons had relaxed their mental leash from time to time, just long enough to see to essential bodily functions, but Christopher was still unable to do so much as leave the house. Every time he'd tried the crushing pain overwhelmed him; after the third day he simply had no fight left in him. The presence did seem to change from day to day, as if different minds were taking control, but he hadn't been able to identify specific demons.

They'd made him watch Detroit burn and the feeling of glee had been even stronger than for Rome. The demons seemed certain that the destruction of all humanity was inevitable and Christopher had despaired. But when the US President had made his defiant speech promising swift retaliation, a flicker of hope had returned– not because of the man's inarticulate rhetoric, but because the echoes of harsh laughter in his head had rung hollow somehow.

Finally the pictures had come, supposedly 'before and after' infra-red images of 'Abaddon's greatest stronghold'. The reaction from the hellish presence was difficult to read but seemed to be disbelief. Christopher could feel them prying at his mind, trying to use his own memories to justify the idea that the whole thing was a sham.

Before the possession he would indeed have been the first to proclaim the reports a hoax, but now he took a bizarre pleasure in telling himself that it was the unvarnished truth. It was a small victory, but it seemed to be enough to make the demon presence lapse into a morose silence for the last day.

The low throbbing of a diesel engine became audible over the television before cutting off. Someone was coming, in a van by the sound of it. Christopher jerked his head around to stare at the front door, struck by a sudden mix of fear and hope. The 15 Psyops group perhaps? There had been rumors of a British counter-possession unit on all the blogs…

The doorbell rang, its cheerful little electronic tones seeming surreal in the nightmarish situation, and suddenly his body was moving, his possessor operating him like a puppet. He pulled the door back to reveal a lanky youth with a mop of jet black hair. He looked haggard and strangely blank.

Behind him was a large yellow van, parked on the street in front of the house and bearing a logo for 'Dynaflow Plumbing and Electrical – Grimthorpe'.

"Mr Hughes?" Christopher nodded.

"She wants you to come with us. Do you know who I mean?" Christopher had no idea but apparently the demon did because he found himself nodding again.

"Into the back then please. Come on."

The newcomer pulled the house door shut. Christopher wanted to protest but of course he was powerless to do so. The rear windows of the van were blacked out. He got a brief glimpse of bronze scales and glittering eyes before he was shoved roughly inside and the doors clanged shut, trapping him in the dark interior. There was a brief pause before the engine started up again and the van moved off. He had no way of telling where it was going and in any case the prospect of meeting a demon in the flesh was occupying all of his attention.

With a click the darkness was replaced by the sight of a humanoid shape crouching on the floor, clad only in metallic scales and possessing great bat-like wings, a twitching tail and face taken straight from a nightmare. The thing held a fluorescent lantern in one hand and seemed vaguely female. Then there was pain, something lancing into his chest accompanied by a sputtering crack.

Chrisopher cried out and pawed at his ribs, his fingers closing around a handful of quills, which he pulled out. The demon presence was still there but it seemed content to allow him to act on his own initiative for now. For a second he considered attacking the demon but that would be suicide, it had claws that looked razor sharp and more of the quills sticking out of the snake-like growths around its head.

A minute passed in silence, save for the sound of the van's engine.

Christopher was finding it hard to focus. The creature was staring at him, it didn't seem to want to attack. Finally his curiosity triumphed over his fear.

"Who are you? What are you? Why am I here? What do…"

His voice trailed off as the demoness put a finger to her lips.

"My name is Lakheenahuknaasi, and I am your goddess." In reality her voice was still raspy, but to Christopher it seemed like honey. "I see evil has made you its servant, but not willingly. I will rid you of it."

That's enough Zatheoplekkar, I'll take it from here

Are you sure? The count ordered me to keep this one alive and possessed.

This is how the Gods operated, and you know how devoted their servants were. I will take all responsibility. Release him… please.

Very well.

The winged bronze woman made an extravagant gesture and Christopher slumped forward, suddenly in control of his own body again. The demon presence seemed to be completely gone from his mind! All thanks to this creature, who was seeming more pleasant by the minute. "Thank you… thank you…" The combination of stress, exhaustion and the drug infusion was too much, and Christopher collapsed to the floor, out cold.

Lakheenahuknaasi snorted. The earth-humans were so weak, nothing compared to the Falmartian. No matter, she would continue later. She turned back to the magic tome the younger human had given her, unfolding it and waiting for it to come alive again. The human device was a marvel. Specifically, it was a marvel of foolishness. The humans had somehow crammed the contents of a vast library into a single tome, but they had filled that library with details of their entire magical arsenal and handed out copies to their most minor laborers. Her tame human had shown her the invocations of 'goo gul' and 'wiccan pee-dee-ah', which had revealed to her a treasure trove of secrets.

The last was protected by an insidious spell that caused her to constantly lose track of what she was looking for, flipping from page to page until she was reading irrelevant nonsense about 'collectible card games' and 'sonic the hedgehog'. She persevered though, as it clearly warranted such protection because it was so rich in secrets. The task was made even harder by the casual way in which the humans seemed to mix reality and legend. She was fairly sure that this 'James Bond' was a most dangerous enemy assassin, but the notion of whole cities being destroyed by pieces of the sun was clearly either mythology or propaganda.

The 'yoo tuub' and cee-enn-enn spells had shown her images from Abigor's pathetic defeat– for all his failures, his warriors had managed to slay some humans. She was sure that if the humans had possessed such impossible magics, they would have destroyed his army outright rather than face the demons at such close quarters.

Lakheenahuknaasi had already conveyed more valuable information back to Queen Euryale on her own than Deumos had obtained (or at least, shared with the other demons) with all her thousands of succubae. Her wounds were almost healed and she was fairly sure she could fly again if she had to. The next step was to acquire more worshippers. Here on earth her enthrallment darts held for days at a time, so she could easily build a small cult around herself. She would work her way up into the higher ranks and discover the human's most secret plans. Certainly she would at least be made a baroness for her accomplishments.

Command Cave, Free Hell, Banks of the Styx, Fifth Circle of Terror

"Estimated force of 55,000 Chaos demons, at least 50,000 infantry, the rest harpies. They're the dangerous ones, not much firepower but they can get at us and our ability to bring them down in droves is limited." Colonel Jackson looked around at his companions.

He'd had an embarrassing discussion over the radio with his commander when he'd had to admit that he'd been outmaneuvered, politically speaking of course. In retrospect, he couldn't honestly critique his decisions. He'd had a very questionable maneuver to pull off, one that depended on a junior officer's instinctive deference to an officer of much higher rank.

He'd gone in hard, trying to bulldoze her out of the way and accept his command before she had time to think the situation through. It had worked too, only how could he have known he would run into Charles Zi Augustus the (deceased) Emperor of Darwinian. All reputable historians of the Empire have praised Charles' skill as a politician, well, Jackson had been on the receiving end of that skills and he could now testify that the reality of the man lived up to his reputation.

The infuriating thing was that he, Jackson, had been right and what he was seeing proved it. The young Vietnamese Lieutenant had done well, that was certain enough, but she'd done it through luck, guts, the inability of the Chaos demons to accept that humans could fight and, most of all, her serene ignorance of the fact that what she was attempting was impossible. Her whole operation was running on borrowed time, if this crisis hadn't arrived, something else would have done. Time to rub that in a little.

"So, how many troops do you have Lieutenant?"

"Armed with our weapons? Around thirty. Split equally between the two flanks. About sixty more with captured Chaos demon equipment, some reinforcing the positions on either flank, the rest string out along the river." Jackson and Charles exchanged glances, the Lieutenant was a pilot, not a ground-pounder and her dispositions had made that fact clear. They were an invitation to disaster. "I know, I know, but we've got some things running for us. The whole area on these flanks is a maze of minefields and demolition charges. Ever since we blew up Asmodeus, we've got the Chaos demons too scared to put their feet on the ground. Just often enough, when one of them does so, it kills them. The river is wide open, I know it, but we can't be strong everywhere. He who tries to defend everything…"

"Defends nothing. Quite right Ngan." Charles looked at the map, probably the first accurate one that had ever been drawn in Netherworld. "Colonel, you're the expert, I'm just the representative of the free mortal population down here, what do you recommend?"

Jackson caught the fleeting smirk on Kim Ngan's face and guessed that Charles had been given a quick introductory lesson on the concept of civilian control of the military. And was now using it to his advantage. Oh, it was to his own advantage, Jackson knew that, Charles Zi Augustus was up to something. That insight came from the simple appreciation that Charles Zi Augustus was always up to something, the only real question was, what?

Jackson was highly doubtful that the man's ambitions were restricted to a few square kilometers of mud on the banks of the Styx. Still, that matter could wait until later. As could the command issues that this whole little skirmish had highlighted. He had no doubt they were being discussed at a much higher level than his.

"We must assume the force moving along the river is our first priority. I'll string my battalion out along that front, its thin coverage but with down here with modern weapons, we can hold much longer fronts than in normal wars. I'll have to depend on your people to hold our flanks Kim Ngan. But frankly, if the Chaos demons hit us with a coordinated attack, both flanks and the river, we're gone. There is no possibility of us stopping an attack like that."

Charles got up and stared across at the great cloud of dust that hung over the site of Abaddon's palace. "Well, we'll have to make sure that doesn't happen, won't we?"

Palace of Deumos, City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

Deumos stood on her balcony, looking at the same great cloud of dust. For weeks she had been struggling with the problem of what to do and where to cast her allegiance. At first, she had been swayed by her vassal Daelmara's opinion that the living could not lose. She had seen them invade Netherworld, seen their columns first make the Martial Plain of Dysprosium untenable to the demons and then bring it under their sway. Then they had started to build up their defense along the Phlegethon and Deumos had been on the verge of casting her lot irrevocably in with them. Then, had come news of Belial's success on Earth and she had hastily reconsidered, to make a firm decision might yet be premature. His second success had confirmed that, or so she had thought.

Now the humans had struck at the very heart of the Eye of Terror, they had utterly destroyed Abaddon's palace. And, presumably, Abaddon himself. That meant the great ruling force that dominated Hell had gone. As soon as Horus found out about that, he would be on the move, trying to reclaim the lands that had been torn from him at the end of the Great Celestial War. Deumos didn't have to have explained to her what that would mean for her and her kind. Succubi were despised by Abaddon but reviled by Horus. Horus's return meant death for her and her vassals. Nertherworld had to have a new leader, and quickly.

That led to the obvious question, who. Like any Chaos demon, Deumos had a simple answer to that, her. The question was, how. Once again, the simple fact that Succubi were despised in Nertherworld stood in her way. To make her own power hold, she had to have powerful allies. Which Grand Duke would be willing to ally with her. Despised or not, her Succubi were powerful allies who could offer much intelligence and influence to the right duke. But who? Deumos realized she didn't even know which Dukes were still alive.

Then, that thought made her kick herself. She had missed the obvious. The Dukes were not the most powerful forces in the Eye of Terror any more. Humans were. The destruction of Abaddon's palace proved that. She went to the couch in the corner of her room and sat down, her mind already roving across the gray expanse that marked some sort of dimension she could not describe or explain. There were bright lights in that expanse, the minds of her Succubi. Without being able to explain why, she knew which light belonged to who. She was looking for one light in particular, one that would be far removed from the rest.

Daelmara, child are you there? Deumos's mind had the sickly-sweet sound of an adult cooing to a child

Yes, my liege. How may I serve you.

Deumos was momentarily irritated, she expected a lot more groveling than that. Obviously too long an association with humans was having a bad effect on her. Still, punishing her for that could wait. Child, what is the situation on Earth? Are the humans in despair at the loss of their cities?

No, my Liege. Not in despair. Furiously angry would be the best description. There have been riots in the streets here, people demanding that the destruction of Rome and Jerusalem be avenged by the 'nuking' of all the Eye of Terror. I do not understand what they meant by nuking but it does not sound friendly. You must have seen the action the humans have taken in response.

There were riots caused by our action? The humans massacred their own then.

No, my liege. The police and Volunteers restored order and they arrested those who caused acts of violence but the rest were allowed to demonstrate. It is their way. It was helped by the news that Vatican Miracle. Otherwise, the demands for a nuking might not have been so easy to ignore.

Daelmara, child, this war must end before even more die. I would wish to speak with the leaders of the humans. Perhaps together we can find a solution to this horror."

Daelmara's mind-voice betrayed her suspicion. Another thing for which Deumos decided that she would have to pay later. My Liege, I can arrange such a meeting but I must counsel caution. The humans are in an uncompromising mood and will not listen to much in the way of appeasement. The leaders here speak of unconditional surrender when they think of the future of the Eye of Terror. They will not settle for less than that. If you wish to have influence with them, then you must offer them a way to achieve that.

The impertinence of the comment ground further at Deumos's nerves. How dare this minor vassal give her such advice? She would, Deumos decided, spend many, many years screaming in agony for such impudence. If she liked humans so much, perhaps tossing her into a boiling lava pit with them might be suitable. Your wise advice comforts me child. I will think on this. But arrange for me to meet the leaders with whom you deal and I will see what agreements we can make.

Deumos closed the contact and relaxed. Now, how could she bring enough Dukes into her orbit to make her an ally the humans would value?

Conference Room, White House Washington DC. USA

"Mister President, the supplemental funding is through. I just hope we can survive the peace when this war ends."

"That may be a long time. What's the progress in production."

"It's picking up, but we're still expending anti-air missile a lot faster than we can make them. We're running low, the projections are that we'll bottom out before we are completely expended but it's going to be close. It's lucky the Chinese are carrying the load in the latest battle and that they can use a lot of Falmart stuff. Otherwise we would be really hurting right now.

"Army's doing OK, we've recommissioned most of the Abrams and Bradleys we had in storage and we're working on the new XM1283 Armored Multi-Purpose Vehicle (AMPV) right now. Light note Sir, we had some idiot called Sparks turning up and demanding we name the new AMPV the Gavin and build our forces around them. Anyway, we drafted him and sent him to Alaska. Apparently there's a shortage of latrines up there and he'd digging the new ones. Anyway, as fast as we get the vehicles, we're building up new units around them. The veterans from the battles against Abigor are worth their weight in gold as cadre for the new divisions.

"Air Force, well, we're desperately short of heavy gunship and it'll be weeks before we get more. Northrop are working on a simplified B-3 Raven VTOL Gunship, they're stripping out all the stealth stuff and that cuts cost and production time drastically. Boeing are doing the same with the V-44 Quad TiltRotor, they're using the V-44A as a base, not the dash V-44B. Northrop say they'll have a prototype B-3 Raven armed with triple dual railgun turret, up by the end of the month, Boeing will have their V-44C at the same time.

"J-8B and J-11E production is ramping up fast, J-86F more slowly. J-88/101s are doing pretty well and the first A-45s are coming off the lines. They'll be going to the Navy for the carriers. The navy's rebuilding some of its discarded ships using new advanced material, mostly Nimitz and Kitty Hawk-class supercarrier. It'll be months before the Navy gets a lot of new construction though, we are having supply chain problem in East Asia."

"Any other problems we have to deal with David?"

"One big one Sir. Command. We've done pretty well so far but the command of the forces deployed is a mess. It's just been thrown together as the forces arrived and the situation had been moving faster than we can get things tidied up. We've only got away with it this long because the guys at the top back there are professionals and are making it work. But, we had a minor fracas with the British yesterday."

"Not another friendly fire incident?"

"No, although we've had all too many of those. Our lodgment in the Eye of Terror is about to come under attack and the British sent reinforcements. Their commander wanted operational control, which was quite reasonable of course, but there were some disagreements on that and a local deceased falmartian took over. Charles Zi Augustus."

"I've heard of him." Dirrel's voice was reflective.

"I should hope so, he is a famous Emperor of Darwinian," thought Defense Secretary Petraeus. "Anyway, its all sorted out and it never really amounted to much but it's a warning. We've got to get a permanent, proper, flexible and fast-reacting command structure sorted out. Otherwise, one day we're going to have a real problem that'll get people killed. A lot of them.

"Two final things. One is that the kiddies at Green Peace are claiming you and Big Oil conspired to get this war started so you could make money by drilling oil in the Underworld."

"Good idea, maybe we should try that. Is there any oil there?"

"We not sure, but we will check, Sir. The other is our contact with the Succubi in the Eye of Terror has said that Deumos, the Succubi Leader has asked for a meeting, she wants to come over to our side."

"Aren't we grooming Abigor as our ruler down there?"

"We are Sir, but the faster we can bring about the collapse of Netherworld the better. We've still got the Empire to deal with, they're quiet and being helpful at the moment but how long they'll stay that way is another matter. If this Deumos creature comes over to us, it might split Netherworld up and bring them down. That's why we whacked Abaddon after all."

"Any word on that?"

"No, Mister President. Pictures show the whole palace and its foundation rock are gone, blasted to dust. But we still have no confirmation that he was in there. Abigor says he spends nearly all his time in that Palace so its pretty good odds we got him."

"Hope so. Anyway, thank you David. Condi, do you have any thoughts on this command issue?"

Headquarters, 302nd Motor Rifle Division, Left Flank, Phlegethon River Front, The Eye of Terror

"Lieutenant Edovin, Georgii Aleksandrovich reporting for duty Tovarish Colonel."

Colonel Aleksandr Klavdievich Parfenov looked up at the young Lieutenant standing before his desk. Reinforcements were always needed but this was an inconvenient time to say the least of it. The Chaos demons had ground their way through his division, at frightful cost, certainly but they had ground their way through. One of his regiments had been virtually destroyed, the other two had been badly mauled but they had done their duty. The Chaos demons had been pinned down by their defense, allowed to entrap themselves on the maze of strongpoints, minefields and barbed wire. The harpies had exacted their toll and the wyverns had been a bad surprise certainly.

The nagas strapped to the backs of rhinolobsters had also taken their toll. The real cost to the Chaos demons was that their unit structure had been destroyed by the defenses, where once they had been cleanly divided into their legions, cohorts and maniples, now they were an amorphous mass of mixed units. What that mass didn't know was that ahead of them, sitting quietly behind a ridgeline, were more that two divisions of tanks including his own tank regiment. What he didn't need was another green Lieutenant.

"Transfer papers." Parfenov stretched out his hand.

"I don't have any Tovarish Colonel. But I am already assigned to your division."

That triggered something in Parfenov's memory. He dug through the status reports on his desk, trying to find the one he needed. As was always the case, it was on the bottom of the pile. As he had thought, the name was there on the casualty roster. "Edovin, Georgii Aleksandrovich, you are dead."

"Yes Tovarish Colonel. But I am reporting for duty still."

That thought Parfenov represents dedication to duty even by Russian standards. This was something he had to find out more about. He would indulge himself, he had the time to listen before the tanks went in.

"Tovarish Lieutenant. Tell me what happened."

"It was harpies Tovarish Colonel. They set the engine compartment of my Shilka on fire and we had to bail out. We all got out of the ZSU all right, but the harpies got us as we were in the open. The BMPs we were covering tried to help us with their machine guns but there were too many of the harpies and they tore us apart.

"The next thing I remember was sailing through the air and landing in a river of molten lava. The pain was terrible, I was blinded and deafened, all I could think of was to get out somehow. I tried to crawl, or swim, a mixture of both really, to where I remembered the shore was. I got there and got out of the lava and started to crawl away. My hearing came back first, I heard a crackle of gunfire, then my sight slowly came back.

"There were Marines there Tovarish Colonel, American Marines. They had shot down a group of six Chaos demons, the bodies were still on the shore, and they were helping the people escaping from the lava. One of them came to me and asked me who I was. I understood every word he said, even though he spoke in English. I identified myself and told him I had been killed in the fighting along the Phlegethon. He asked my unit, then called on the radio to report finding me.

"Soon a portal was opened that took me to somewhere in America and then another brought me back to the great American base at the Hellgate. From there, one of the Americans gave me a lift in a Humvee so here I am. Reporting for duty, Tovarish Colonel."

Parfenov shook his head. It was quite a story. It also put a quite different complexion on this war, if they could get their casualties back this way, it would solve many problems. Create a few as well but that was for others to think about."Were other of our brothers there?"

"I think so Tovarish Colonel. The Chaos demons just stack people into their pits and swamps as they are received. So those who die together tend to stay together. I looked for my crew but did not find them before I was taken out. But the Marines are guarding the whole stretch of that lava river, if they can get out the lava, they will return."

"Good, Bratischka, very good. I have an assignment for you. There is an American anti-harpy unit not far away, a trials unit. They need a Russian officer as liaison, since you are dead and can thus understand Americans, I will assign you to them. Stay with them, help them as best you can and remember to report anything interesting you learn.

Site of Abaddon's Palace, City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

Belial did not know how long he had been standing there, looking down at the settling ruins of Abaddon's palace. Time had a different meaning in a hell where eternity was a real, present concept. It might have been a few seconds, perhaps longer.

All he knew was that tears of rage and frustration were pouring down his cheeks at the sight. Then, slowly, he became aware of a growing crowd crossing the broken stones of the causeway and staring also at the ruins. That jerked him back into the present.

"You, all of you, get down there, start digging. There may be survivors down there, waiting for us to free them. Get to work."

"Why?" One voice echoed from the crowd. "Leave us alone," was another. "He's dead at last," was a third. Belial looked at the mutinous crowd of demons and orcs and grabbed a trident from one of the dead guards. It was one of his best, he noted, a definitely premium product as befitted Abaddon's personal guard. As he charged it, he swung his eyes over the crowd.

"You don't rule an…" The orc had spoken unwisely, while Belial was looking straight at him. The trident flashed and the lightning bolt charred him instantly, his body collapsing on the stone. Next to him, two others were burned by the discharge and also fell, wailing with the pain.

"Any more arguments?" Belial looked around grimly. The killing had made him feel a lot better. There was a rumble of discontent but the outright mutiny had simmered down. For the moment. "Then get down there and start digging."

The crowd edged over the rim and started to make their way down the wall of the crater to where the stone jumble started. Belial stood on the rim and watched, with more of the demons from the city joining him as word spread and curiosity brought out bystanders.

Belial spread them along the crater rim so that the orcs working down below could be watched. The first down there had picked up bits of shattered rock and looked around for places to put them.

Eventually, they set up a chain, carrying the rocks out of the crater and to the edge of the causeway where they could be dropped into the caldera far below. It took a long time but slowly a dent was made in the pile of wreckage that had once been Abaddon's palace. It exposed the first victim, a crushed figure, lifeless.

Belial recognized her, it was Naphula. He recognized her griffin-like wings and the lion-like head. Once she had been a powerful Great Duke of Hell who had commanded thirty-six hundred legions of demons.

Belial had liked her, she had shared his taste for mechanical things and the unusual. Once he had even sought an alliance with her but his position as a virtual outcast, only just barely tolerated at court had precluded that. Her pride would not tolerate an alliance with as lowly a lord as he. Now, she was dead and her crushed body looked small and useless. "Take her body out to the causeway and place it up there. Do the same with the rest of the bodies you find. And dig faster. We may find our master awaiting our rescue at any moment."

Cerulean Death "Finalfly Whoosh" 273rd Dragon Group, Over the Sixth Ring of Terror

The fact that any Cerulean Deaths had survived at all wasn't so unusual, but the sheer number of them had been remarkable indeed. The search through the imperial natural reserves, zoos and national parks had found no less than 10,300 Cerulean Deaths of assorted marks, in conditions varying from the wild to the well trained. Some had even had their dragon saddle and armor still installed and 300 had been in immediately combat condition.

Over the last three months, 15 more dragons had joined the 273rd making up one of its squadrons. They were all old dragons with the most intact wings with riding gear and armor taken from the dragon too old to bring back into service, hence they all bore names starting with "Finalfly".

The four-winged dragon were old and tired, all the natural reserve salvaged dragon were that, but they could still fly and haul bombs. They would do, they would fill the gap, until the newly bred dragons came into service in enough numbers and the Cerulean Deaths could return to their quiet life in the imperial natural reserves.

Only this time, they would be sporting the red-and-gray camouflage scheme worn by the dragons that fought in the Netherworld.

Knight Captain Casey Jones angled his dragon wings slightly and turned to follow the Styx as it meandered down below. The five other dragons following him did the same. The Cerulean Deaths were sluggish, the four-winged dragon was stunningly fast low down, up to 1500 kph, but nobody had ever described it as agile.

With six 400 kg bombs tied under its belly, four more on each secondary wings and one on the tail, a total of 6,000 kilograms, the old dragon were really hard to fly. It was only through Emroy's Blessing that the dragon was able to take off.

Down below, he could see a long black snake following the river. It was the column of Chaos demons he was hunting, apparently they were advancing on an area of Netherworld that had been liberated. Well, there were things he could do about that.

"All Finalfly riders, target is below, roll out and follow me down." Jones jabbed his spurs into the 500-year-old dragon and felt it drop out of the sky as its main wings folded and it howled its battle-cry.

Under his nose, the column was now stretched out before him, his flight path taking him along its length. Something that hadn't been obvious before, there was a wall between them and the river, an old-fashioned, crenallated wall that marked the division between the fifth and sixth circles of Terror.

That wouldn't make much difference, it offered little cover and wouldn't even get in the way of the bombing and strafing target below was growing rapidly, this was a part of the attack that needed care.

Jones touched his dragon with his mind and the creature changed the angle of its dive so he could dump its load on the demons. The Cerulean Death dived very fast and was too ponderous to pull out quickly.

More than one Cerulean Death rider had been so interested in strafing his target that he'd left pulling out too late and flown right into the ground. A gentle pressure on the neck, pull the nose back and then release the bombs.

Behind him, the dark green 400 kg bombs dropped clear, their tail fins spreading sideways as they opened up to slow the fall of the bombs.

Those retarding fins and the long fuse extenders made sure that the bombs would explode above the ground, maximizing the radius covered by their fragments.

The Cerulean Deaths streaked over the column of Chaos demons, unleashing their total of nearly a hundred bombs onto the figures below, then used the energy they had built upon their dive to get clear.

By the time the bombs exploded, they were already miles away and thousands of feet above the devastation their bombs had caused.

At the top of his climb, Jones rolled over again and started his second pass. The bombs had mostly hit around the head of the column so he thought it would be only fair to give the rear some attention.

He put the pipper of his magic hand held cannon sight on the last demon ranks and squeezed the trigger, haring the vicious rasp of the magic cannon as it pumped its fireball into the scattering mass of Chaos demons.

Then, he turned his dragon again, marching the tracers along the column, only ending when he was getting too low for comfort. Still, he had some ammunition left and a part of it was used on a harpy that staggered across is nose. Then he was away again, once more climbing for altitude.

"Finalfly riders, converge on me, we're going home to get some more goodies." If there were any he thought quietly, the rate we're using the stuff up, the day when we run out can't be that far off.

The six Cerulean Deaths formed up into a loose arrowhead formation and started back towards the Hellgate and home. Up ahead of him, Jones saw something that he couldn't quite identify so he angled his course to take a closer look. It was further away than he had thought, mainly because the objects were so much larger.

"Just in the Darwin name is that things?" the voice on the manacom wasn't quite identifiable but Jones shared the sentiments. It was a huge, misshapen beast, flying in an ungainly pattern, not quite holding a true course or height. He looked harder, it had wings of course, and a tail that seemed to act as a rudder.

Then the knight captain caught his breath – it had seven heads.

"It's a hydra, a flying hydra. And its huge, those wings must be three, four hundred meters across. Uh-oh look out guys. There's dark wyverns with it and we haven't seen ones like this before." The dark wyverns were far larger than any that had been reported to date and were a brilliant gold in color.

Jones started to count them and as he got to twelve, they broke formation to attack his dragons. Simultaneously, the giant flying hydra dived away and started to break for cover, it might be ungainly but it was fast.

Jones picked out one of the demon Wyverns using dragon flame, the old Cerulean Death was no dogfighter but this wasn't the time to argue matters. Once again he cast his spell and felt the surge of magic power from his dragon.

The formation of six dragons split into three pairs, one heading up and right, one up and left, the center pair with Jones in the lead went straight up. He glanced at the magic speedometer, he was pulling almost 9,000 meter per minute in a climb that was close to being straight up.

As his speed bled off, he timed his climb, then rolled the dragon over and dropped back. The dark wyverns were beneath him and his chosen target was in the perfect position for a gun pass. The dragon accelerated downwards and he moved the reins so that it was on the tail of the monster. Then his fire cannon rasped again and he saw the tracers thudding into its body.

It was a short burst, it had to be he'd used most of his holy ammunition up on the column of demon troops. He saw tracers flashing past his dragon wings, his wingman was firing as well, using up what was left of his magic cannon ammunition on the stricken dark wyvern.

The giant creature was flailing, dying, the ball that ended its tail whipping through the air. That ball was dangerous, it had already cost the humans aircraft and that had been from the much smaller wyverns seen over the Phlegethon.

It didn't matter though, the Cerulean Deaths were clear and three of the wyverns were dying, shot to pieces by the 40mm fire cannon in the hands of the dragon riders.

"Any sign of that hydra?"

"It's gone M'lord."

Jones swore quietly, a modern dragon would have an air-to-air magic radar that could have found the demonic beast in the dust laden air but the Cerulean Death was old and obsolete creature.

Still, she'd done her best at an age when any dragon should have expected genteel retirement. The hydra had got away but the troops on the ground hadn't. Nor had three dark wyverns.

Xisorixus Army, Sixth Circle of Terror

Xisorixus pulled himself out of the ditch that he had managed to find when the human sky chariots had found him. It had been so sudden he hadn't had time to think about what to do, the chariots had screamed out of the sky and dropped their mage-bolts all over his column. Then they'd come back and repeated the performance, spraying fireflies into his foot soldiers. A few seconds that was all it had taken. They'd gone and left this shambles behind them.

The road was torn up, the stones shattered and cast around by the mage bolts that had left craters where they had landed. Around them were torn fragments of black flesh that was all anybody would ever find of those unlucky enough to be hit. Further out from the mage-bolt craters the wounded were sprawled on the ground, wailing with pain from the injuries inflicted by the mithirl splinters in their bodies.

"Get up, get moving. His Infernal Majesty did you the honor of inspecting you in person. Now show yourselves worthy of that privilege." Then Xisorixus looked up at the city of Dis towering overhead and saw the great cloud of dust that masked where Abaddon's palace had once stood. Others were looking at it as well.

"He might do the inspecting but he's not around to do the fighting is he?" The voice from his troops was unidentifiable but the murmur of agreement that swept through the ranks showed that the speaker had a lot of agreement. Xisorixus was about to challenge the speaker, whoever he was, but then he decided to let it slide.

"How many have we lost?" Instead it was time to take stock of his losses.

"About eight hundred." The reply was from the senior 'Baron' who Xisorixus had appointed to lead his first Legion. A 'Baron' who had led nothing larger than an octurbinium before and whose aristocratic rank was unrecognized by anybody outside Xisorixus's hastily-assembled Army.

Eight hundred out of fifty thousand. A sharp loss for an attack that had been over in seconds but one that his army could swallow. The whispered words about the fighting on Earth and now along the Phlegethon were that a human attack usually created far more havoc than this.

"Resume our march. We will overrun the rebelling humans and gain great glory. And much favor in the eyes of His Majesty. We will have succeeded where Abigor and Beelzebub have failed!"

A ragged cheer went up and Xisorixus's Army started to move again, leaving its dead beside the road. As they did, not a few were wondering when the Sky-Chariots would return and what form of death they would bring next time.

Site of Abaddon's Palace. City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

"Work faster you lazy fools. Our master may be waiting for you." Belial screamed out the challenge. He had assumed responsibility for the rescue effort, sending out his demons to bring in every orc they could find. Now the crater was full of them, digging out the shattered stone. Some had already been killed when the stones had shifted and they had fallen into a void, only to be crushed when the stones moved again.

Belial looked down in growing frustration, there had been no survivors found yet and his hopes were fading fast. All his efforts to win his way back into Abaddon's favor couldn't be wasted, could they? Then, he was aware of a darkening, a shadow over him. He turned and looked up, afraid this may be yet another devilish human trick. But it wasn't, with a surge of relief he recognized the great wings and the seven heads that looked down on him.

Euryalehad bred this creature herself, using all the skills and magics she could bring. A cross-breed of a Greater Harpy and a Hydra, a mount that had no equal anywhere else in Hell. It had been a gift for Abaddon, a great mount that was unique, that Abaddon could use to overawe any who saw him.

The seven great heads stared at him and he wondered if they knew it was to his house that they owed their existence. Or if they cared. The implication of the sight dawned on him and relief surged through his body.

"Your Infernal Majesty. You live!"

Abaddon looked down on the figure below him."Belial, you brought the humans here! You betrayed me to them."

"No Sire, I was on my way here myself when the human aircraft struck. They dropped their bombs but I was just far enough away to live."

Abaddon stared at him still, weighing up the scene before him. "And you started the rescue effort. How many other Lords of Hell aided you?"

"None, Your Majesty." Because they are all dead he thought but no need to say that. "But the lesser demons you see here rallied around to aid. All they needed was direction. We gathered the orcs and started digging. We will not stop until we have an accounting."

Abaddon nodded slowly and focussed his vision on Belial's face, seeing the traces of his tears from frustration and rage. "And you wept for me Belial." Abaddon's voice was dumbfounded, disbelieving.

"You wept for me and fought for my life while others scurried away to save themselves. Such bravery and loyalty deserve recognition. The realms of Asmodeus remain unawarded. From now on they shall be the realms of Belial. I give them to you, holding them of course is up to you."

Belial looked around, he was heir to Asmodeus and faced wealth unparalleled. Then he frowned slightly, Euryale hadn't just created the giant flying hydra, she had bred the golden wyverns, greater by far than the normal breed, as its bodyguard. She had created twelve of them but there were only nine surrounding the crater.

Abaddon saw him look and deigned to give an explanation to his now-favored vassal. "I was meeting with my Greater Heralds for information on the battle for they can be trusted when the reports of others cannot. I was there with them when this happened. On the way back, a group of Holy Order dragons attacked us. Three of my wyverns were killed. They attacked me!" Abaddon's voice went into a pitched, intense scream. "I must have revenge. How did the attacks you promised succeed."

"Beyond our best hopes Your Majesty. Over 40 cities in both world have been destroyed, one of my agents on Earth reports that the human herald Cee-En-En (CNN) says that many factories have been destroyed. My promise is fulfilled Your Majesty, I await your further orders."

"Destroy more cities. And your next target will be?"

"Europe and Azjania Your Majesty. The prisoners identified they have many great arsenal cities. And there is something strangely satisfying about the idea of pouring white-hot annihilation spheres over Europe. But Sire, we will need more Naga, to open more portals."

"Then take what you need from the other Lords." Abaddon looked down at the pit where the orcs were laboring to excavate the ruins.

"And when those orcs have finished digging down there, kill them all. I do not want their stories being told."

Recreational Hall, Camp Hell-Alpha, The Eye of Terror

"Aces and Eights with a Queen on the side. Read'em and weep." Sergeant (deceased) Tucker McElroy reached out and scooped the pool off the table with a flourish.

Corporal Gerry Links looked miserably at the empty table and his depleted stake. "I guess you had to come up with the Dead Man's Hand didn't you? That a common deal down here?"

"Depends on the dealer." McElroy leaned back and tried to make his mind up what to do with his winnings. That was the trouble with the Eye of Terror, there just wasn't that much to spend money on. No economy as yet, not for humans anyway. His reverie was interrupted by a whack on his back.

"Hey Tucker dude, Good to see you. I heard you got killed up at Hit." Elmer Carleton was an old acquaintance of McElroy's, now part of 1st Brigade.

"I was." McElroy eyed him to see the effect. Living humans hadn't quite got used to the idea of speaking with the dead yet. Not in social circumstances anyway. Carleton didn't disappoint him, the corporal's eyes started to bulge.

"So you're dead, dude." The words were interspaced with disbelief and confusion.

"Sure am. You sitting in on the game? Got a stake?"

"No, unless you want to stake me."

"You know the rules down here Elmer. I give you a stake, you got to sign your soul over to me as security. Now, if you'll just sign here, in blood of course…" McElroy looked at the retreating back of the Corporal with great satisfaction, then turned to Links. "Never fails. Too many Hollywood movies. Looks like the game's over Gerry, want to go for a burger?"

"I didn't think you dead ones ate?"

"We don't have to but we still like food. Don't have to sleep either but its still good to. Demons eat, don't ask me why we don't and they do. Leave them questions to the egg-heads. Let's go get that burger."

Field Trials Unit, Left Flank, Phlegethon River Front, The Eye of Terror

It didn't quite look like any vehicle Edovin had seen before. A bit like an American Bradley but it had eight road wheels and a lower, sleeker superstructure topped with a bulky turret. For all the vehicle's size, the gun mounted in that turret seemed remarkably small. At the back of the gun mount was a drum-like radar.

"Lieutenant Edovin, Georgii Aleksandrovich reporting for duty Tovarish Lieutenant."

The American officer turned around and looked quickly at the Russian."Ah, you're our liaison officer. I'm Mickey Marston. Good to have you on board. The ole' bus will be a bit cramped until we've shot off some of the ammunition but it'll be OK afterwards. Make yourself at home. Got any kit with you? That'll have to go inside, new rules, nothing flammable outside the armor. Too many vehicles lost to harpy-fire already."

"Yes bratischka, my Shilka was one of them. What is this vehicle."

The American laughed. "A bit of everything. It's basically an M-2 Bradley, believe it or not, the Navy had just adopted a new Swedish 57mm gun for a couple of its programs, so the Army decided to stick the new gun in the turret, fitted a radar stripped out of old F-18s for fire control and kludged the whole thing together. So here we are, four new vehicles each with a radar-controlled 57mm gun and 2,500 rounds of ammunition.

"Rate of fire?" Edovin looked at the vehicle, for a hastily-thrown together improvision it looked remarkably capable if ungainly.

"240 rounds per minute. Three round burst-limiter on the gun. Throws a six pound shell."

"Sir, we got the mount up order." One of the vehicle crew, presumably who had been on radio watch, yelled out the message.

"Right, Georgy, mount up, we got to go shooting."

The American Lieutenant had been right, the vehicle was cramped inside despite its size. Ammunition everywhere, some in ready-to-use racks, the rest stowed around wherever space could be found. That was something humans were learning fast, combat vehicles needed ammunition stowage above pretty much everything else. There were information screens as well, but they were mostly turned off, the Russian Army just didn't have the combat information systems the Americans had, but then few did.

Once screen was lighted and it showed the dots that represented the airborne harpies over the remains of the attacking Chaos demon formation. The Chaos demons were perilously close to breaking through. Marston flipped some moreswitches and additional screens lit up. The were fuzzy for a second and then cleared, showing the array of tanks that were waiting.

Over a thousand after the latest reinforcements had arrived, mostly Russian by a division of Germans, a brigade of Indian T-72s, even some Turkish M48s. The old M48s were more useful than might be suspected, their 90mm guns could kill a Chaos demon just as well as a 130 but the M48s had twice as much ammunition as the more modern vehicles.

"Roll." Marston's voice snapped out the order and the anti-harpy vehicle started forward, it's three companions keeping alongside it, spaced out to cover the maximum amount of front. Edovin looked at one of the displays, it showed the long barrel of the 57mm gun, it was probably the electro-optical sight.

Without warning he was thrown off his feet as the turret swung fast to a new bearing and the gun cracked out three rounds, so fast the bursts seemed to blend into each other. On the electro-optical screen, a harpy exploded as the rounds tore into it. Edovin had barely time to register the score when the turret lurched again and another burst cracked out.

"Sorry about the turret." Marston yelled over the noise of the diesel and the sound of the 57mm ammunition sliding around. "Navy thing, swinging it so fast."

That made sense for a point-defense gun. Edovin thought and wondered if somewhere surplus Russian Navy point defense guns were being mounted in a chassis for this role. If not, it would be a good idea to report the idea.

He bounced off the side of the turret again, the swings of the gun and the rapid cracks of its shots were almost continuous as the experimental gun started carving the surviving harpies out of the sky. Beside them, the waves of tanks accelerated towards the Chaos demons ahead.

140th Guards Tank Division, 5th Guards Tank Army "Don" Southern Flank, Phlegethon River

This was it, the great scything blow that would send the Chaos demons staggering back across the river in defeat. Just as Zhukov's tanks had once advanced through the mud to send the fascists back across the Dneiper and the Dneister rivers. Major Evgenii Yakovlevich Galkin knew his history well, one German Army had been destroyed at Stalingrad but six had been wiped out in the great Mud Campaign in those first months of 1944, and three Panzer armies had been wrecked so badly they were never worth much afterwards. Today, it would be the start of an equal destruction, one that would be known to the world in a way the great Mud Campaign had never been.

The Chaos demons had forced their way through the Russian defenses at last, it had taken them time and they'd been bloodied terribly in doing so but they had made it through. Now, just when they thought they could see the clear ground beyond the killing fields, this mighty wave of tanks would sweep them away. Glakin looked quickly through the remote control on his turret top machine gun, the briefing had been very clear.

The flying harpies were the main threat, they could hurt armor with their fire. Kill them first. The Chaos demons foot soldiers were less of a threat, they could be shot and crushed just as tanks had always crushed the infantry that had dared to oppose them.

The briefing was being obeyed, the sky over the Chaos demons was black with anti-harpy fire. Every gun that could be found was here, there were even ancient ZSU-57s, twin 57mm guns in an open turret on an old T-54 tank chassis. Their crews had courage for their turret gave them no protection if the harpies got close.

Off to the right were the Americans with their experimental anti-harpy tank. They were struggling to keep up with the fast Russian tanks and their gun was swinging wildly, with short bursts at odd intervals. At first Galkin thought the American crew were panicking but then he realized those short bursts were tearing the closest harpies out of the sky. It was speed of reaction, not panic and Galkin was suddenly impressed.

Around the tanks and anti-harpy vehicles were armoured personnel carriers. This time they were not carrying infantry to screen the tanks, they were the refuge for any crew that lost their vehicle. If a crew had to bail out, the nearest APC would hasten over to pick them up before the harpies could kill them.

Speaking of harpies, Galkin saw one staggering close to his tank. His machine gun spat out a burst and the creature flopped from the sky. It had probably been dying anyway but it never hurt to make sure. Then the tank lurched slightly as it ran over the body. Never hurt to make very sure. Galkin looked at the sky again, the anti-harpy fire was slackening off to a faint shadow of its previous self, the gunners running out of targets at last.

As if to confirm his thoughts, the radio crackled briefly, orders for all guns to cease firing on airborne targets and concentrate on the ground. Then the message was suddenly reinforced, friendly aircraft were coming in. Galking grinned to himself, the Chaos demons were about to learn the joys of being on the receiving end of close air support.

He looked again, this time at the Chaos demons up ahead. Mostly just a battered, exhausted mass of foot soldiers but he could see one of the great rhinolobsters with a coiled naga on its back. The lightning was flickering out from the creature as it attacked one of the vehicles racing across the plain. Then, Galkin saw the aircraft coming in. he ran through the shape in his head, straight wings, twin tail, two engines, between the wings and the tail, an American J-4 Phantom. This, he thought, should be good.

It was, the J-4s nose erupted into flame and the Rhinolobster and its burden vanished under a cloud of dirt and dust thrown up by the torrents of shells. When it faded, the creatures were lying on the ground, smashed and eviscerated. The J-4 turned slightly, climbed a little then changed course to unleash a hail of rockets on to another group of Chaos demons off to the left. The aircraft knew exactly where to go, Galkin guessed that they were being steered in by the Americans somehow, by an airborne command aircraft perhaps? Or even those new anti-harpy vehicles?

The lines of Chaos demons were approaching fast and it was time for the Don Army to strike its own blows. The foot soldiers had lined up, forming ranks as the tanks had appeared, now those ranks vanished as the 152mm shells tore into them. Galking could almost sense the weariness and despair in their minds as they saw their lightning bolts bouncing off the tanks, realized that the tanks were not going to stop.

The turret of his tank was filling with smoke as his gun swung from one group of Chaos demons to the next, firing their shots into the mass of infantry. They were close enough now so he could see individual features of the Chaos demons as they crumpled and died under the onslaught. He had his own commander's gun firing, sweeping the tracer bullets across the enemy ranks, watching the Chaos demons fold as they were mown down. The tank's main gun was silent, the last few rounds were being kept for emergencies and the gunner was using his co-axial machine gun in its place.

Still closer, the Chaos demons still there– and then they broke, broke and ran from the tanks that were already far too close for any retreat to bring safety. Galkin's tank tore into the mass, its machine guns still firing, the driver spinning the Type-92 on its tracks, grinding the Chaos demons underneath the vehicle as it plowed through their ranks. They were running, all around the tanks they were running, the machine gunners spraying them with fire, chasing them down and crushing them.

Galking could hear the rattle as bullets bounced off his armor, the tanks were hitting each other in the wild frenzy of the slaughter but it didn't matter. Machine gun bullets couldn't hurt the tanks. Nor could the Chaos demons although they tried, breaking their tridents on the armor, trying to tear at the tanks with their hands. They fought, hopelessly, bravely, uselessly.

Off to his left, Galkin saw Chaos demons, a dozen or more of them in a ditch, behind a mound. Were they hiding? Or wounded and looking for a place to die? It didn't matter, he gave his orders and the tank swung around, parallel with the ditch. Then he felt one side drop as the treads went into the ditch and he drove along it, crushing the Chaos demons sheltering within.

Glakin heard screams, perhaps the Chaos demons, perhaps just the metal tracks as they ran over the suspension rollers. Then his tank levelled again and he made another turn back to his original route. The Phelgethon River lay ahead, the gains the Chaos demon army had fought for seven days to secure and for which they had sacrificed so much had been wiped out by the tanks in less that twenty minutes.

South of the City of Dis, The Eye of Terror

This time Belial had taken his wyvern low, down beneath the dusty brown overcast that was nearly ubiquitous in hell. With the human 'aircraft' still very evident, screaming and roaring somewhere over the Phlegethon river, Belial thought it best to stay inconspicuous. What he saw beneath him steadily drained away the elation from his sudden elevation.

Countless demon warriors, streaming towards Dis, some still as ordered legions but many as individual squads or even disorganised crowds. The horrible wounds that marked many of the demons, the battered or missing equipment, the cries and wails both audible and telepathic, all made it clear that this was an army retreating in defeat. Belial had cast his mind out, trying to make contact with a commander to learn what manner of catastrophe had inflicted such ruin on the grand armies of demon.

It was no use though, despite being leagues from the front lines his mind still rang from the impossibly powerful psychic emanations from the massed Holy Order mages. The din made it impossible to hold a coherent conversation from a thousand feet up and Belial couldn't risk stopping. 'But where are all the harpies?' he thought.

Belial soon reached the far edge of the ragged demon column and had resigned himself to remaining ignorant of the details until he next returned to Dis. As he looked up from the ground a flicker of movement caught his eye. Sure enough, at the far end of a low valley he could make out a group of tiny flapping shapes. He spurred his mount to greater effort and it surged ahead, making up the distance to the other flyers which quickly resolved themselves into six of his own wyvern riders.

The beast were flying slowly; two had flanks marked with horrible gashes and burns and another had wing membranes so shredded that Belial was surprised it was still airborne. The riders didn't look much better.

Count Belial! Aaesurnarthuse's tone betrayed a strange mix of surprise, relief, fear and exhaustion. The humans… it was a slaughter. Great flocks of harpies, torn from the sky or poisoned on the ground. Fire lances and mithril pellets everywhere. Ikaarithanjuur went down on our third strike, they hit him with two huge fire lances… Beelzebub's forces started to retreat… I took command and ordered a withdrawal. It sounded better than 'I ran away', but not much.

It is Grand Duke Belial now. Are there any more of you? Did any others escape? These are all that are left? Belial couldn't keep the shock out of his mind-voice. A niggling voice told him that Euryale would be furious when she found that her prized war-wyverns had been slaughtered. Furious and heartbroken, Belial thought and was surprised to realize that the thought of her grief saddened him

Belial's wyvern reached the formation and they automatically fell into a V behind him, the wounded beasts struggling to keep up. Mere hours ago he would have had the flight leader executed for cowardice, but after the events at Abaddon's palace he was beginning to understand what fighting the humans must be like. This wasn't war as demons understood it.

It wasn't even the war he'd imagined, a decades-long conflict between dug-in formations that could be won by disrupting the human's supply of magic weapons. This was anhiliation, this was vengeance come swift and terrible to smash their strongest holdings and humble their greatest generals, this was… with rising horror Belial realized that this was exactly what the demons had done to hundreds of lower plane worlds, but with speed and efficiency the legions of hell could only dream of.

If the mortals could not be stopped, and after what he'd seen today that seemed like a very real danger, then the entire demon realm and every demon in it would be slaughtered.

I can't say my lord. I saw others flying away from the battle, but the sky chariots were on their tails. I fear only a handful made it.

Your two uninjured riders will fly a search pattern and round up any survivors. They are to return to Tartarus after four days at the latest. Your injured riders are to stay together and return at the best speed they can manage. Avoid the humans at all costs. With most of his prized war wyverns destroyed, the count was in no position to write off injured troops. You will escort me and tell me everything you can of the battle.

These humans must have weaknesses, and we must identify them. He nearly added 'before it's too late', but there was no point further demoralizing his troops. Quite the opposite, if this continued the demon armies would need hope that the humans could be defeated at all, and he was the only one who could give them that. The secret of Palelabor could be kept no longer.

Dis-Dysprosium Highway, The Eye of Terror

His army was disintegrating, dissolving into chaos even while he watched. It had sounded so easy, so sensible, to drop back to a defensible line where he could hold and block the human advance. Demonic warfare had few concepts for defensive operations, mostly the two armies just attacked each other, but defense was the only option he had. Or thought he had for it had turned out that the option existed in name only.

He had picked his defensive ground carefully, a low line of hills, steep on the face the humans would have to climb, gentle behind it. It had been good ground, a good defense line and the humans had got there first. While one of their armies had pinned him on the Phlegethon, another had outflanked him and already taken the position he had picked with such care.

What was left of his army had crumpled against their gunfire. His last organized legions had been shattered by mage bolts and sky-chariots that had swarmed all over them

Beelzebub heard the scream that announced the arrival of more sky-chariots and cursed Belial. It was that pathetic minor lord with his wyverns who had given the humans the idea of using their sky chariots to attack forces on the ground.

If he'd minded his own business and left war to the Great Dukes who were practiced in it, then his force would not be subject to these shattering attacks. Over his columns of retreating legions, two white sky-chariots made their pass, a stream of objects falling from their bellies and under their winds.

The objects stopped abruptly in the air as their tails spread out, then they started to shed a cloud of small balls that dropped over the heads of his soldiers before exploding. By the time the smoke cleared, a gaping rent had been cleared in one of his columns, another legion savagely mauled.

Overhead, six more sky-chariots were already closing in, ugly, ungainly looking beasts compared with the sleek white creations than had just passed. They had flown overhead high up, then one had turned and dived, the others following their leader. They were slower too, much slower and Beelzebub briefly wondered where his harpies were, they could destroy beasts like that.

Then he remembered, they were dead, wiped out by sky chariots and a magery to horrible to name or even envisage. His pride, his flock of harpies that had gained him his name of'Lord of the Fliers' were dead, their corpses already rotting on the accursed field of the Phlegethon.

Beelzebub watched with resignation as the Sky Chariots got to work, pouring fire-lances into a mass of his foot soldiers that were clustered on the road. What was it for? His army was gone, defeated, destroyed, savaging the remnants like this made no sense at all. Then his spine started to bristle for two of the sky chariots had turned and seemed to be heading for him.

He heard a weird noise that drowned out the wail of their battle-cry a rasping, crackling noise that coincided with fire burning in their nose. A few trident-lengths short of his, the ground erupted in a cloud of dust and broken rock, a cloud that raced across the stony soil of Netherworld and embraced him.

Beelzebub felt the slam as the mage bolts (60 mm anti-tank rounds) tore into his body, felt them bite deep, spreading sickness and destruction permeate him. Without being aware of it, he had dropped to his knees, and he was too tired to move. So tired, tiredness he had never felt before, weakness that made him want to give up and sleep.

Overhead, the other four Sky Chariots made their passes and fired eight more fire lances. Had Beelzebub been aware they were called Zircon, he might have appreciated knowing the name of his killer but he didn't and their impact sent him spiraling down into the sleep that he craved.