Chaos Born: Destiny Undone

by I LIKE FEAR 1-2

Cast into the shadows, and captured by Evil, the Boy-Who-Lived suffered in agony. Twisted, mutated, and mutilated, what happens when he escapes back into the world and learns a terrible truth. Blessed by darkness, guided by death, the world's savior has been lost. A nightmare has been born with only two goals in mind; survive and prosper. (Warnings/Cliches inside)

15. Chapter 15

Alright, here's the second part of this arc for you guys.

Chaos Born: Destiny Undone

Chapter 15: First Ascension: Part 2

-Two Years since arrival-

Harry and Olivia found themselves staring down at a battlefield beside RAAM. Below them, the human armies of Sera clashed in what was known at the Pendulum Wars. The war was fought between the Coalition of Ordered Governments, and the Union of Independent Republics. Both sides were fighting over control of Imulsion.

This wasn't the first time RAAM had brought them up here to look upon the fruitless and ultimately needless wars of humanity. The Pendulum wars had raged for decades now as humanity fought over a resource that they ignorantly believed was their salvation. Aside from Rustlung, a respiratory disease, humanity currently had nothing to fear from Imulsion. That would only be true for so long however. The longer the Imulsion remained active, the more time it had to mutate and evolve. Sooner or later it would cross species to humanity and begin infecting them as well. Once it did, Lambency would tear it's way across the surface, dooming the entire planet.

In their time with the Locust, Harry and Olivia had developed strong bonds with many of them. Harry and Olivia both had a strong connection to RAAM and Skorge, the leaders of the Bloodied Vanguard. While Olivia and Skorge could be seen as friends, Harry and RAAM held each other to a mutual respect, and admiration. They had entered into many discussions of philosophy and the future over the last year, which culminated in RAAM offering to show Harry and Olivia something.

What he ended up showing them was the surface world, and the wars fought by mankind. RAAM knew of secret ways to reach the surface and took many trips up there to observe the humans. He watched them, watched how they fought, how they waged war for a resource that could one day wipe them all out.

RAAM had long known that the war against the Lambent was a hopeless one. It was something he revealed to Harry only after he got the sense that Harry was starting to feel the same. Despite the Bloodied Vanguard's successes in the war against the Lambent, other units were not so lucky. The Lambent were growing in numbers and power. More of the animals of the Hallow were becoming infected by Lambency, and it was only a matter of time until it reached the surface. The locust simply could not hold back the huge swarms of Lambent creatures that were constantly besieging them.

Even having Harry as a weapon of considerable destructive power, was not enough. Swarms of Lambent could grow to number in the tens to even hundreds of thousands. Harry had the power to summon forth great fire spells, or even unleash Fiendfyre, he could slaughter the Lambent in ways that no other could, and despite Olivia's insane body count even after so little time, Harry still outpaced her immensely, by being able to wash away entire caverns of Lambent with waves of magical flames.

It was not enough though. There were simply to many Lambent, and more were infected by the imulsion each and every day.

It was a troubling realization, but one that Harry and RAAM both came to acknowledge. RAAM confided in Harry that he was quite certain the future held only one path that led to the Locust's survival and that was for them to take the surface and flood the hallow below, drowning the Lambent and cutting them off from the surface permanently.

Harry felt he agreed with the commander, and hinted as much during his occasional meetings with Myrrah. When he and Olivia would meet with her and speak on events that surrounded their time in the Hallow she would seek out their opinions on her people, and how their lives were going, and hearing Harry's opinion on the state of the war, and his own insinuations that he wasn't the only one who thought such things was met with cold and calculating acceptance from Myrrah who stopped just short of admitting that she was starting to believe the same.

Myrrah still held out hope that Adam Fenix, the human they had captured and released a few years prior would fulfill his promise and find a way to eliminate the Lambent threat, while sparing the Locust, allowing the Locust to remain in the Hallow and live in peace. That hope was dying, but it still remained.

Over the last year, much had changed for the siblings. Firstly, the two had been granted official ranks within the Locust army. Both now held the ranks of Vurl, equivalent to that of a Sergeant. For Harry, he was developing a strong reputation amongst the Locust, as a leader, and as a scientist. His time studying under RAAM and Ukkon had improved his skills in both areas, and RAAM trusted him to lead assaults and guide attacks, and even took his advice in the formulating of plans and strategies. Harry had an eye for strategy and tactics. He was clever, and with magic, could devise plans that were abstract and wouldn't normally be possible. He had earned the respect of the Bloodied Vanguard, and higher members of the Locust horde, including Myrrah for his cleverness and ingenuity. When not fighting with the vanguard against the Lambent he was with Ukkon, studying science, mathematics, genetics, biology and engineering. He was helping to capture beasts of the Hallow for various experiments. His main area of study was in learning how to interact with and isolate portions of his own genetics. His aim being to hopefully harness certain traits within his body for use by not only the Locust but future allies.

For Olivia, things were a bit different. Amongst the Locust Horde she was seen as an angel of war, her fighting abilities had now surpassed Harry's by a reasonable clip. He still bested her handily with magic, but without it, she far outpaced him in martial prowess. Week by week, her abilities grew. She went from a dozen or so kills per battle, to around a hundred, to then jumping up to averaging nearly a two hundred per engagement. Olivia could be trusted to wipe out entire clusters of Lambent on her own. In the last year, she hadn't died a single time, her ability in battle continued to grow. She was also a skilled field commander. She may not have been as strategically gifted as Harry was, but she had an eye for tactics. She shared in her brother's cleverness, and bravery. She knew magic, just as he did, and had learned many abilities and powers, to amplify her fighting ability, allowing her to unleash it in a flurry of bloodshed and carnage. She had won many victories for the Locust, enough so that she now had her own troop of loyal followers. A company of Locust soldiers, that had seen the fury and monstrous carnage that she could unleash, began to gravitate towards her. Nearly fifty of them, now actively followed her into battle, each one adorning itself in the mark of Khorne. An act seen as both blasphemous by the kantus, and worthwhile by many of the rank and file Locust.

Those who bore the mark, were notably more vicious, and bloodthirsty in battle. They fought with greater ferocity, following Olivia into the thickest of fighting.

This faction did not escape the notice of the Kantus. While Skorge and many of his brethren in the Bloodied Vanguard admired and respected their fellows, Skorge himself even acknowledging that he too now believed in the God of Blood and Bones, that didn't mean that the main Locust Religious caste were in favor of this movement.

Ketor Vrol, the high priest of the Trinity of Worms, was outspoken in his beliefs that this movement was blasphemous, and heretical. This led to it being quite the show whenever Olivia was found in the capitol. Of course, she didn't help her case as she also often came to blows with the Uzil Sraak, the High General of the Locust Army. Sraak had never liked either Harry or Olivia and was quite vocal in his beliefs that neither should have held any rank in the Locust army. He didn't trust them, or their mysticisms, and he never hid that fact. This led to a few occasions while in the palace when he would confront the two, and while Harry chose to ignore the old general's gibes, Olivia happily took offense any time he chose to insult Harry or herself. This led the two to blows, not once but twice, the first ended with the towering, armored general getting the upper hand, and nearly killing Olivia before Harry intervened and pinned him in place with magic, showing him how easily he could defeat him, without much effort. The second fight, which took place months later, went far better for Olivia, as she in turn nearly killed the general, but was stopped by Myrrah, who came upon the spat, and put an end to it.

She then ordered the two to keep their distance from one another, which led to the current situation of Olivia basically existing in pseudo-exile from Nexus. She wasn't barred from returning, she just chose not to unless asked by Myrrah to return, since she knew Sraak was on the lookout for her, and she very much wanted to finish their fight with one another.

On that note, Harry and Olivia had developed a stronger bond with Myrrah. Her growing affection for them, was often on display. Harry knew a bit about her past, information he had learned from Ukkon. Myrrah had once had a daughter, that she loved very dearly, but the father of that child, along with the child in question were killed. This left Myrrah with a smoldering hatred in her heart for humanity. What began as a sympathy towards the Locust, evolved into a motherly affection.

Myrrah sought to replace the child she lost with the Locust, at least in part. She was not so bonded to them that she wasn't willing to sacrifice some of them for her cause, but she looked upon them as her children. In many ways, Myrrah began looking upon them in the same way a hive mother would, like a queen bee, or queen ant. They were her children, but not so deeply bonded to her that she would be crushed by the death of each one.

For Harry and Olivia though, that affection was growing deeper. They were definitely past that point. Harry understood why that was. In them, Myrrah saw a more accurate representation of her lost child, and in many ways, yearned for them to be that replacement. The way she spoke with them slowly became less analytical and more motherly. She would be a bit playful with them, or speak with genuine kindness, rather than the practiced kindness she had learned to wield as a front.

Harry had never had a mother, and the only mother Olivia really had, had turned out to a be a murderous Death Eater, so both of them were a bit at odds with the relationship, not that they tried pulling away from the Locust queen's affections.

It was Harry who pointed out, while the two were discussing it, that it was likely, Myrrah was simply lonely. And their acknowledgment of that, let them open up a bit more to her and allow that bond to form more acutely as time went on.

Aside from that and the interesting political spat going on there, a few other changes had occurred with Olivia over the last year. First and foremost, she had cut her hair. Not that she really wanted to, but she had grown tired of having to hack pieces of it off, anytime she got splattered with Imulsion. Due to how hot the imulsion was, when it got caught in her hair, it would melt it, melting clumps of hair together, and if that hair hung on her back, there was the danger of that burning hot imulsion also resting on her back, causing quite severe burns. On more than a few occasions Harry had to help her cut the melted clumps out of her hair, and he had to take in the pot-marked burns across her upper back from the imulsion. She tried to keep her hair tied back, or just wear a helmet or something of the like, but she always felt constrained by helmets, she would wear them for a time, and them just forget during one engagement and of course, end up with imulsion in her hair, despite not getting any on her for every other engagement where she was wearing a helmet. Needless to say her hair was already a hatcheted nightmare, that she tried in vein to keep, since she knew Harry liked long hair. He never said this, or encouraged her to keep it long, she just knew since he often ran his hands through her hair while they slept together, or as they lay cuddling.

She fought it for as long as she could, but finally decided that it was too much to put up with, which Harry agreed with. So now she kept her hair short. It was cut into a pixie cut, only about an inch long in some places, and while at first she didn't like it, Harry's encouragement that it actually looked good on her, helped her regain her confidence. Harry also reminded her that when they returned home, they'd more or less return to their old bodies, so she'd have her long hair back then. For now it was best to keep it short while they dealt with the lambent.

Aside from her hair, there were a few other changes. The first, and most immediately noticeable change was her eyes. They now glowed with a dim emerald flame whenever her emotions grew intense, so in battle or even during sex, her eyes would glow.

Her nails had also started elongating into claws. She was almost eighteen and had definitely shot up in height these last two years. She now stood at five foot eight inches, with Harry having just barely surpassed her in height already. He already knew he'd end up just above average height though a part of him wondered if he'd end up even taller. Previously when he'd reached adulthood he was five foot ten inches, however that was with all of the malnutrition growing up. This time around, after returning from the previous world, he had a body that was more healthy, and already taller than when he'd originally left, so starting from a newer healthier body, meant he was likely going to end up even taller.

Muscle wise, both of them were incredibly fit. Olivia was muscular and curvaceous. The high protein/calorie diet of the Locust, letting her put on weight and muscle. She was quickly growing more into the version of herself he remembered from their dreams, in terms of proportions. Harry meanwhile was putting on muscle very easily, bulking up. Already he was almost more muscular than he'd been in the previous world. Life amongst the Locust was harsh and challenging, but it led to the two growing considerably in strength.

The two were more militant now, more like warriors. Aggression had always come easy to Harry, and during his time in the last world, he was free to be whoever he wanted to be, but that world was always just a sandbox. Something to play in. He knew from the moment he first arrived there that his time was limited, and so he lived without any real goals, or motives. He simply did whatever fancied him, he explored, he traveled, he developed skills and abilities, honed his magic, but it was all paid towards an eventual return home. That place had no bearing on his life, it was simply where he existed in the moment. He had no greater goal, other than to exist and understand himself. To be free, and find out just who he was. In this world, he was allowed the chance to keep exploring that notion. He did have a goal, to help Olivia with her ascension, but aside from that, there was still this desire in the back of his mind to grow and improve, and find out who he really wanted to be.

He'd long been known for his temper, but the forces at work around him tried to suppress that vicious temper. The more he fought, the more he acted on that temper, the more he found he enjoyed it. Violence was a solution, and it was one he was starting to favor.

It had taken him a long time to grow out of the Harry Potter mindset. He'd never considered himself a hero, but he always felt compelled to involve himself in threats towards those around him. He was a protector by his very nature. Those he cared about, those he cherished, he felt driven to protect them, and for a time, he felt that same drive towards people in general. After his mutilation at the hands of McTash, that part of him died. He no longer felt responsible for people as a whole. He didn't feel the need to stand up for the masses. He wanted Voldemort dead because he was trying to kill him, and because he'd killed his mother. He wanted the Dark faction destroyed because they were mindless sychophants to a lunatic, all of them blinded by pureblood fanaticism. He wanted to bring down the light because it represented every broken hope and dream he'd ever had. The light were meant to be the heroes, the saviors, yet they were nothing more than palette swapped versions of the Dark. Bigoted in their own right. Horrible in their own right. They were meant to be the kind of people he had wanted to save him from his own perils when he was younger. Instead he was starting to feel like those kinds of people didn't actually exist.

Now he was given the chance to look upon another form of humanity, and all he felt was disdain for it. At first he had felt nothing, but the moment he began to understand the propaganda machine working behind the Coalition of Ordered Governments, the more he began to despise these humans. Both sides of the Pendulum wars were fighting for Imulsion, there was no debating that, but the COG's battle cry was freedom. Their rhetoric surrounded a fight for freedom, honor, unity, duty, and prosperity. It was all a lie. Just flowery words. They were fighting for resources, and that was it. Everything else was just propaganda.

Every time he joined RAAM in venturing out to the surface to watch as humanity slaughtered one another over something so deadly, it could destroy all life on the planet, it nearly made him want to scream.

The process of refining Imulsion was known as the Lightmass process. Lightmass was a potent energy source, and actually quite safe to use. It was just mining it and refining it to that state, that presented such dangers. And of course, the act of harvesting and refining the Imulsion was killing it, causing it to react aggressively. Again, all it would take is one mutation, to allow it to cross species to humanity, or some other surface or sea dwelling animal and suddenly the whole world would be under assault from the Lambent.

Harry found it annoying. He looked upon the peoples of Sera and felt disappointed. It was an entirely new group of humans, with a different history, a different set of experiences, and a whole new culture, and yet, they were by and large, no different from the rest of humanity on earth. It was frustrating to see, and it diminished mankind in his eyes.

Olivia for her part, grew detached from humanity as time went on. The survival of the fittest nature of the locust ingrained itself into her. Every time a young grub would challenge her because she was the smallest, and she beat them down, she felt accomplished, felt herself rise. While she could grasp Harry's disappointment in mankind for shackling itself to something that could easily kill them, she didn't feel the same. To her, these people were nobodies. Faceless, nameless creatures, who existed for only one purpose. They were the pathway to her ascension, and the ascension of her beloved brother. The more the Locust dwelt on war with the surface, the more Olivia began to believe that it was her destiny to partake in that conflict.

She was brought here for a purpose. Fighting Lambent was only part of it. No… in her heart of hearts, she knew the true moment of her ascension, lay on the surface, when she unleashed her powers upon the Serans and showed them what true might really was. She didn't hate them. In truth, she didn't feel anything for them. Cattle. That's what they were. Livestock to feed her ascendance. Was it cruel to think that way? Of course it was, but it didn't matter. Olivia knew only one thing for certain, if she wanted to remain with Harry, remain by his side, than she had to ascend. In order to ascend she had to appease Khorne, and Khorne would only be appeased by bloodshed and conflict. Granting the hordes of humans on Sera any sort of consideration would only weaken her resolve in that regard. As Harry had made clear several times, they were only here for a limited time, and would likely never return. They were brought here to use this world as a tool. One to improve upon themselves and increase their powers. Olivia wanted to remain with Harry. She wanted to live. In order to do that, she had to ascend to Daemonhood. That was all she knew for certain, so she'd make it happen, no matter the cost. The Serans didn't matter. Hell the Locust didn't matter. If push came to shove, and she had to choose, she'd kill them, just as quickly as she killed the mindless Lambent. Outside of a very small group of friends, people she cared for, she held almost no deference towards anyone else.

Such a realization did spark a wonderment. Was she always this way, or was it a result of her transformation? These thoughts danced in her mind from time to time, but the continuous positive reinforcement she received from Harry, as well as her body's own reaction to the bloodshed and carnage shaped her way of thinking, undoing the work that James had put into her over the years.

The rush of victory, the overwhelming pride when she stood victorious over mounds of dead lambent to the roaring cheers of the Locust, inspired her, and shaped her, and she knew it had done so in Harry to. Both of them liked winning, both of them enjoyed the praise for their accomplishments. Though it was far from universal, they both felt that the Locust were far more respectful of their accomplishments than humans were. They felt that the Locust were more genuine in their appreciation and admiration. Humans always had an angle, but the Locust and their survival of the fittest mentality, their 'might makes right' ideology, it made things far more genuine.

War continued to rage across the planet, the greatest and most brutal war in recent memory for humanity, and yet, beneath their feat, another, more terrible war was being fought.

-four and a half years after arrival-

"It's all falling apart." Harry watched, as streams of Locust retreated from the main fortress of the Gorgon Front in the Southern Hallows. Tens of thousands of Lambent were streaming in, trying to push through the outpost. The Bloodied Vanguard had arrived to reinforce the outpost and push back the Lambent, only to find the outpost already collapsing with no hope of truly salvaging it.

Olivia rushed on ahead, and even from across the massive cavern, he could see her appear and disappear amongst the chaos of battle. The Lambent died in their dozens as Olivia shot through them. She moved with such speed and ferocity that it was easy to imagine her pushing back this invasion. Even as outnumbered as she was.

Her followers set up a firing line beyond the boundaries of the outpost, firing into the hordes of oncoming Lambent with reckless abandon, even as their allies from the outpost fled by them.

While her soldiers kept the Lambent from advancing beyond the outpost and chasing after the fleeing Locust, Olivia moved within the outpost itself. She sped through structures like a missile, seeking death and carnage wherever she went.

She had grown much over the last two-and-a-half years. In earth years, she was over twenty by now as Seran years were longer than those on Earth. At twenty years of age, she stood at five foot ten inches. Her raven black hair still remained short, as she continued to keep it cut to as not to have to deal with parts of it melting when in contact with imulsion. She had a womanly build, rounded hips, a round butt, and large breasts, yet her womanly assets did little to hide how muscular she was. Lean, fit muscles rippled along her body. While most of her body was covered in armor, one look at her exposed forearms could clue anyone in to how much muscle she had. An Amazonian, Harry liked to describe her as, a comparison that Olivia took pride in.

Beyond the natural growth of her body, there were other changes as well. A crown of black horns now grew from the top of her head, and the intensity of the glow in her eyes had also grown. No longer did her eyes only glow in battle. Now they were always glowing, like green flames, and in battle the glow would grow from just her iris, to her whole eye, making it look like her eyes were igniting into emerald fire.

Her powers had grown massively in these last two-and-a-half years. If there was any question as to whether or not she was the deadliest fighter on the planet, those thoughts had long been put to rest.

Her weapons of choice now came in two forms. In battle she would often carry two boltok pistols. The stopping power behind these revolvers made them good offensive tools, and Olivia's natural strength made it easy to control them. Beyond those, she still favored the gnasher shotgun for shredding her enemies apart at close range. In melee she had two weapons of choice. Her secondary weapons were two serrated curved daggers, each with a blade about a foot in length. They were cruel weapons, designed for cutting deep, bleeding wounds into her foes. Her primary melee weapon and her weapon of choice was a tool that Ukkon had made for her. It had been designed from an old pole hedge trimmer that was amongst the junk cast into the Hallow by the humans up above.

Ukkon had an idea for a weapon to suit her skills, and her need for bloodshed. He could tell that Olivia's greatest skill in weapons, lay with longer polearms, yet they often lacked the ability to spill the blood she desired as they were more so, piercing weapons.

So he designed a seven foot long, reinforced spear, that had a six inch head, that attached to a chainsaw mechanism just beyond it. The idea was the spear head could pierce her enemy's flesh, and allow her a means of driving the biting teeth of the chainsaw deep into an opponent's body. It was an interesting design, and initially prone to failures, but that's where Harry came in. Using what he knew of runes, he was able to inscribe unbreakable runes onto the spear-head, the shaft, and all of the pieces of the motor mechanism for the chainsaw. He then linked them into a system that fed into the shaft and drew magic from Olivia while she held it. Essentially, any time the spear took damage, the runes would drain Olivia's magic in order to absorb the incoming damage, effectively making the spear indestructible so long as she held onto it, or the runes had magic in them. That managed to fix all of their problems, and turned what was designed as a weapon of fear, into a true instrument of war.

Olivia took to the weapon with almost hellish glee. She learned to utilize it with gusto, and quickly mastered it. Now on the battlefield she was an absolute nightmare. If the Lambent could feel fear, they certainly would, as she killed them by their dozens in mere moments.

Olivia had also learned to master moving in three-dimensions. She could leap high into the air, and quickly take flight with her wings. She would dive through ranks of enemies, spinning and twisting with her spear in a macabre exhibit of imulsion and gore.

She could fly down into groups of Lambent, driving her spear through several at once, pinning a cluster of them to a rock or wall before shooting back up into the air, as they exploded, her body passing through the splash of imulsion, yet Olivia paid it little mind. Clad in armor from head to toe with only her forearms exposed, she was in little danger of being severely burned, and the burns that she did get, healed quickly as she paid her patron deity in the life-blood of the Lambent.

As her fighting ability increased, so to did her speed and strength. The power boost she got from spilling blood was a slow thing, but the power boost she got from both her evolution into a daemon and her bloodlust were much greater. If you took away the power boost she got from killing, and her amplification from her bloodlust, she was about ten times stronger than a human woman, of similar size and build. Now add in the power boost she's gotten from killing the Lambent and other creatures all these years, and she was closer to thirty times stronger than a human woman of similar size and build.

That meant that she could bench press a small car.

In just a base sprint she could easily run at over a hundred miles an hour, and if she was flying, she was much faster, closer to two hundred miles an hour.

These were all just her base feats. When she entered into a frenzied bloodlust, her physical abilities shot up by about three times their base value. Meaning she could bench press something like an elephant, and run closer to two hundred miles an hour.

So in the midst of a battle-high, she was a whirlwind of death and destruction, killing her way through legions of Lambent, taking a tiny portion of their strength with each kill.

Despite all of this, despite her incredible power boost, the lambent numbers were simply too vast. Thousands of them were pouring into the fortress, and each one she killed, exploded, this caused bits and pieces of the fort to tear way, crumbling it rapidly as she fought through it.

"Olivia… fall back. This battle is lost." Olivia heard Harry speak into her mind. His words snapped her out of her frenzy, and she blinked. In a moment of realization she was able to take stock of just how many lambent there were, and the fact that she was still fighting alone. She had killed well over two hundred of the creatures in the few minutes she'd been here, and despite her impressive body-count, none of her allies had arrived to aid her. That could only mean one thing. Despite how many she'd killed, there was still enough getting by her to continue the assault outside of the outpost.

With a silent curse, she cut down another attacking lambent and then leaped into the air, taking flight. She flew across a nearby chasm towards where Harry stood along with RAAM and Skorge.

Just as she landed, and began to ask what the plan was, Harry stepped forward. He held up the Elder Wand and with a motion, unleashed a torrent of Fiendfyre, which went racing across the chasm to engulf the army of lambent, and the outpost entirely.

The Bloodied Vanguard watched in silent awe as the chaotic orange flames consumed every single lambent present. The showing of magic was great, a scene of power that Harry rarely displayed. His control was immaculate however. The chaotic flames danced to his tune, consuming and devouring all that he intended of them, but never encroaching upon his allies.

Harry kept his focus on the spell for several long moments before cutting it off, leaving the raging inferno to swirl and consume while the Bloodied Vanguard pulled back.

"That was a swift retreat." Olivia noted once Harry had finished casting the spell.

He glanced at her and motioned towards where RAAM stood, staring intently at the blaze.

"He's planning something." Harry stated as he walked by her.

Harry had also grown much these last two-and-a-half years. He was taller than he'd been in his previous life. He now stood at six foot one inch in height. His hair had grown out, but he kept it wrapped back in a pony-tail. Unlike Olivia, his hair didn't burn when exposed to imulsion, he also didn't get burns from imulsion since his dragon flesh gave him a resilience to it.

He was quite muscular, living amongst the Locust and constantly training with Olivia kept him very fit.

A short while later, RAAM gave the order for the vanguard to return to Nexus. As they marched back towards the capitol, Harry and Olivia approached him.

The Locust commander had been oddly quiet these last few days, and seemed lost in his thoughts lately.

While Olivia wasn't quite sure what was troubling him, she knew that Harry knew. She had come to know her brother well enough to read his looks. He was fully aware of what was on RAAM's mind, even if he pretended not to. She knew not to worry then, since Harry would tell her, if it was something to be concerned about. If he was keeping quiet then he obviously had his reasons.

"What do you think this will accomplish?" Harry asked RAAM.

"It is getting worse. When you first arrived, swarms of that magnitude never existed. You never had a need to call upon your powers for such displays. Now it seems every month or so, such power is needed to halt the Lambent." RAAM noted.

"You're not wrong. Still… what is it you think will happen by us returning to the Nexus? Do you think the Council will hear it? Ukkon already knows, and understands what's needed. It's Vrol and Sraak that are keeping things from progressing." Harry stated.

"Have you spoken with the Queen? Surely you've expressed the situation to her?" Skorge spoke up, addressing Harry, both leaders of the Bloodied Vanguard knowing of Harry and Olivia's close relationship with the Locust Queen.

"She knows. Believe me, she knows. The problem is, she still has hope. Hope that a cure will be found. Hope that Adam Fenix will complete his work, but we've heard nothing from him in years. No progress reports, no updates, nothing. If he was making any headway he'd have been in contact with us. I wont claim to know what he's doing up there, if he's even still alive. Myrrah still has hope, even if she knows how bad things are." Harry expressed. He knew that Myrrah didn't want a war against humanity. As much as she hated mankind, she knew such a war would be costly for the Locust, and very risky. If they chose to attack the surface, than they could kiss the Hallows goodbye. They were already backpedaling while facing the Lambent, if they devoted forces to a surface invasion, they'd be even harder pressed to hold them back. It was a risky gambit. If they couldn't defeat humanity within a decade or two, they'd be doomed. Myrrah knew the score. She knew how bad things were.

The Lambent were simply growing in number too quickly, as the infection jumped species one by one, infecting more lifeforms in the Hallow. Every new species that fell prey to the parasitic organism, increased the Lambent's numbers astronomically, and the Locust simply couldn't keep up. Were the Lambent a regular foe, fear would have kept them in line. Fear of Harry and his magic, fear of Olivia and her followers, the Crimson Swarm. The amount of death the siblings had caused in their time here was incredible. Any rational army would look upon their string of successes and be dismayed but not the Lambent. The lambent did not feel fear. The only desire held by the parasite was to consume.

"It is a great misfortune that it comes to this. But in order to save the Locust, the Queen's hope must be broken." RAAM stated.

"What are you planning?" Olivia questioned him.

The Locust commander turned his gaze to her, and then to Harry. He seemed thoughtful for many long moments before he finally spoke.

"Go now. Return to the palace. I will not ask either of you to play part in this. Should I fail, you may be our only chance to convince her of what must be done." RAAM instructed the two.

"You realize Sraak will be waiting once he hears you coming. The old general is stubborn and ignorant. He fears appearing weak, or losing his grasp on power. He wont allow you to meet with the Queen." Harry said to him.

"I know. I am counting on it." RAAM admitted. Harry gave him a curious look, but then nodded.

"I trust you know what you're doing. I wont try to talk you out of it. Make your play, and may the powers that be, grant favor to your endeavor." Harry offered before turning to face Olivia. He motioned for her to join him, and she cast a long look at the Locust commander, before offering him a smirk.

"Until we meet again." She bid him and Skorge farewell, turning to her own followers and ordering them to continue following RAAM until she returned.

She then linked hands with Harry, and he phase shifted the two back to the palace. Armed with the knowledge that he could revive Olivia if anything went wrong, Harry began to test if it was possible to phase shift with other people. He figured he could, since that's how phase spiders hunted, appearing out of nowhere, grabbing their pray and teleporting them to their home dimension.

So he tested to see if he could teleport Olivia with him, and learned that he could. Phase shifting was much faster than apparation, and had a limitless range, so Harry preferred it.

They arrived back at the palace in their shared room and spent a short while discussing what it was that RAAM was up to. Or, more so, Olivia grilled Harry on what he knew. In these last two-and-a-half years, Harry had finally come clean in regards to the depth of his mind reading abilities.

He'd only done so because Olivia had deceived him. She had grown suspicious when she took note of how quickly Harry did things that she enjoyed. Whether it was making love, or recreational activities. He basically knew all the right buttons to hit, almost like he could read her mind without needing eye contact which she knew was needed for passive legilimency, and she knew he wasn't actively casting the spell so something else had to be going on. She grew suspicious so she started testing him. She would think about something she wanted during sex, something she wanted him to do while they made love, and see how long it took him to do it. She focused hard on the things she wanted, trying to make sure those thoughts were loud enough that he wouldn't hear her plotting. She knew enough about mind-reading from her brief studies into Occlumency and Legilimency to know that thoughts occurred at different volumes and one of the most basic defensive methods to shield your mind was to think things louder than other things.

Since she only did this during sex, she figured he'd be less focused on trying to read her, and he wouldn't question why some thoughts were being shouted in her brain.

After a few weeks of this, she was quite certain he was able to read her mind. He simply responded to quickly to her wants. She didn't have to give any physical indication of what she wanted, he just did it.

Once she knew for certain, she confronted him, while they were making love. She playfully pinned him on the bed, and asked him if he was keeping secrets from her. He feigned innocence but she simply spoke in her mind, accusing him of being able to read her thoughts without using legilimency. A Cheshire grin spread across her face when she saw him blink at the mental accusation. Unable to hide that he had heard her thought, and confirming that his mind-reading powers went beyond what he'd revealed.

They finished having sex, and then sat down to discuss it. Olivia hadn't been overly upset, even as he explained why he kept it a secret. There was still a lot about his body that she didn't know, and in truth, she didn't want to know. Despite the fact that he'd come to admire, and rely on his various mutations and modifications, each one was still a reminder, at least to Olivia of the pain he'd endured to get them. Pain she wasn't able to protect him from. So she never really questioned him on these things, never demanded to know more. She didn't want to know, and so she didn't harp on him keeping his mind-reading abilities a secret.

So, armed with knowledge of his ability to read minds with such clarity and focus, she often questioned him about what he really knew in regards to what was going on around them. It was hard to keep secrets around Harry, so she was curious if he knew more than he was letting on.

"RAAM knows we're running out of time. He knows we can't keep backpedaling like this. We can't take the fight to the Lambent. They have no base, no home of their own. Our only option is to take the surface and drown the Hallow in sea water. The Imulsion wont be able to survive. The cold ocean water will cool the imulsion lakes, putting a stop to it's reproductive process. Best case scenario it kills the Imulsion, worst case, it puts it to sleep. Either way, it's a solution that will guarantee the Locust's survival. RAAM intends to force a reaction, and he doesn't want us caught in the crossfire if things go wrong." Harry said to her, removing his armor and shirt, and sitting on the bed.

Olivia was in the midst of doing the same, though she was removing all of her clothes. She dropped her pants and underwear giving Harry a good look at her butt as she did. She glanced at him, checking to see if he got a look at her, and saw him smirking and shaking his head. A sure sign that she'd gotten him flustered.

"I'm going to take a bath. Care to join me?" Olivia asked him. Harry lifted his gaze to her, taking in her body for a brief moment. She truly was beautiful, even now, after a battle, she was absolutely gorgeous.

He gifted her a charming smile and moved to join her. The two ended up in a large cast iron tub, filled with heated water. It was just big enough for both of them to stretch out and submerge themselves mostly in it. Olivia sat on Harry's lap, her back resting against his chest. The two were mostly silent, the only noise being the occasional grunt from Harry or giggle from Olivia when she would shift her weight, rubbing her butt along Harry's erect member which sat nestled between her and him.

"You wanna…?" Olivia inquired, glancing back at him with a playful smirk.

"We have a guest." Harry responded, causing Olivia to blink in confusion before the door to their room suddenly opened, and in walked Queen Myrrah.

Olivia knew who it was before she even turned her head towards the door. Myrrah was the only one who always entered without knocking. Even the Theron Guards had the common courtesy of pounding on the door before entering.

Myrrah though, she went where she wanted, especially here in the palace. Neither sibling bothered to cover themselves or voice a complaint, as in truth, neither had a complaint to offer. This wasn't the first time Myrrah had walked in on them in a compromising position, and in fact, both knew well enough that she continued to do it on purpose to try and catch them again. It served as good ammunition to tease them.

These last two years had seen their relationship with Myrrah evolve. All of her attempts not to mother them were placed to the wayside. In fact, she stopped just short of basically adopting them, or acknowledging them as her progeny. She cared for the two very deeply, and became something that Olivia desperately needed in this time, a parent. While she tried to be a parent to Harry, and he was receptive to her efforts, the time had long passed for him to require such things. He had long been a man trapped in a child's body, and he no longer needed parents to guide him. He certainly didn't intend to turn away such affection, as it did feel good to have someone care, but unlike Olivia, he didn't need it.

Olivia for her part, was often Myrrah's shadow during the brief times she was here in the palace. Many of Olivia's mannerisms were shaped by watching Myrrah. She developed a cold, ruthless cunning, and a highborn, sophisticated aura that stood out amongst the rough and savage locust. In spite of how savage Olivia herself could be, she sometimes appeared as a Myrrah junior, finding comfort, and guidance from the older woman.

If nothing else, Harry was deeply grateful to Myrrah for that. It wasn't something he could ever truly help Olivia with, no matter how hard he tried. While he was forced to grow up without parents, she had at least always had them, even if Julia was only pretending. She'd at least had James. Losing both of them so suddenly was deeply traumatizing and Olivia was able to keep her mind off of her loss by focusing on her needs here in this world, but it had long been obvious to Harry that Olivia still needed guidance.

The nature of their relationship made that difficult. Despite being much older than her, he was technically her younger brother. He was meant to look up to her, not the other way round. He was also her lover, on top of that, so that made it difficult for him to take the role as the mature role-model, even if he had several times in the past. It wasn't a role he wanted. Again, she was his sister, not his child, and she was his girlfriend. They were supposed to be partners, so it made it difficult for him to help her mend that need for a parental figure in her life.

She got that from Myrrah. She had someone who was strong willed, bold, direct, but also passionate, clever, cunning, and mischievous. Myrrah helped Olivia shape herself as a person, and she took after her, almost as much as she took after James.

She had become a strange blend of those traits, but Harry had no complaints, as Olivia didn't seem so lost or closed off anymore.

Myrrah gazed over the room until she spotted them, and a smile crept upon her face. Being surrounded by the Locust and their savage and brutal ways, left Myrrah with little care towards catching them in intimate or compromising positions. She'd walked in on them having sex before, and even just broached conversation while they were in the middle of the act. It got to the point where the two often didn't even stop if she came by. Usually they'd at least tone it down a bit, going from something wild and raucous to something calmer and more gentle, at least while she was there, but Myrrah often paid little to no mind to their act of rutting, only to then tease them about it later.

In the last two years, Myrrah became one of only four people on this planet who learned the truth about Harry and Olivia's actual relationship. RAAM, Skorge, and Ukkon were the others and all had learned at some point, and through their own means that the two were brother and sister.

For Myrrah, Harry simply admitted to it, when Myrrah once commented how much alike they looked. She was surprised to hear that they were actually siblings, though she later admitted that she'd long suspected a blood connection between them, though she'd always thought it was as cousins.

Myrrah cared little for the taboo nature of their relationship, after all why would she? So long as they recognized the inherent dangers of incest, it didn't matter to her if they found solace in each other. Learning this secret helped bring them closer to her, especially Olivia, who now had someone else, a parental figure she could pretty much share anything with. Eventually the two were thick as thieves which was funny considering the acrobatics game Myrrah had to do to keep Olivia away from Sraak and Vrol.

Eventually, Myrrah came to learn a lot about their lives, and why they were uncaring towards humanity. Olivia spoke of what had happened just before they came here, the loss of their father, at the hands of her step-mother, and her grizzly murder at Olivia's hands in retaliation. Harry briefly mentioned things in his childhood, growing up abused, and neglected, culminating in his own murder of the Dursleys when he learned that they knew about James and Olivia and had kept it from him, all the while tormenting him. That had also been the first time Olivia had heard that it was actually Harry who'd murdered them, which came as a surprise, but she actually approved of it. She knew they were dead, as Dumbledore had told them what Harry had told him, how they were killed by Death Eaters most-likely. Knowing that Harry had actually managed to avenge himself for their cruelty made her feel better about their timely demises.

It was nice, and allowed the trio to more deeply bond.

The siblings both offered her a lazy wave, as her eyes fell upon them.

She feigned a curious look, seeming surprised to find them in such a state, but quickly adopted her usual stern and collected veneer. She approached the two, and began to address them.

"I'm surprised to see you here. I thought you two had left to aid the Bloodied Vanguard out near Gorgon Front." Myrrah said to them.

"We did. We made it to the front, but the outpost there was already being invaded by the Lambent. By the time we showed up, the defenders were already in full retreat. RAAM ordered the outpost destroyed, the Lambent along with it. We then returned here." Harry offered as a brief explanation.

Myrrah made a face at that, her visage darkening. It was never a good day to hear that ground had been lost to the Lambent.

"You should know, RAAM is on his way here." Olivia spoke up, drawing Myrrah's gaze to her.

"And why would the Commander march all the way back here?" Myrrah questioned.

"You know why. It's getting worse, Myrrah." Harry answered, pinning her with a look. She matched his gaze with her own, but he could sense her aggravation.

"What would you have me do, Harrison? Our very survival rests on us winning this war. You may not care what happens to the species as a whole, but every decision I make, must be for their benefit. I must weigh all of my options carefully and gauge every risk I take." Myrrah countered him, her aggravation showing for a brief moment. Good news was hard to come by these days, but it usually came from Harry and Olivia. Their string of victories was always a point of comfort when things seemed bleak. Getting bad news from them of all people was immensely upsetting.

Harry let out a sigh, the look on his face changing. His visage darkened, as he narrowed his visible eye at her.

"You're wrong about that. I do care what happens to the Locust. I may not love them all as you do, but I care. I care because you care. Because RAAM cares, because Ukkon cares, because Skorge cares. My friends, my comrades, my teachers. I am invested in their survival because of these attachments. Don't doubt my intentions." Harry countered curtly. Myrrah made a face but nodded in acceptance. She then let out a sigh of frustration.

"I apologize. I did not mean it in that way. You've done more than most could hope to ask for our people." Myrrah apologized.

"You know what is best for them. Don't doubt yourself, Myrrah. The Lambent assault will only continue to get worse, and we'll continue to lose ground against them. We need a new direction, we need to try something else. Brute force will not defeat the Lambent. You know this. You've seen it enough to know for certain. The Locust have never lacked for raw strength, but that cannot defeat this enemy. If we want to win, we need to come up with something new. I have no idea what the right choice is, all I know is that we're running out of time." Harry expressed.

Myrrah listened to his words, seemingly in thought. Finally she hummed in agreement with his sentiment as Harry sank back into the tub, returning to his place behind Olivia.

"You are right. Things need to change. You two should join us, after I speak with Vold RAAM. The council will discuss a new course of action." Myrrah offered to them, earning curious looks from both.

"That should be interesting." Harry hummed.

"Oh goody, me and Sraak in a room together again. I've been waiting for the chance to say hello to the old general for some time." Olivia smirked viciously.

"Keep the bloodshed to a minimum if you would. I have need of your minds, not your blood." Myrrah stated, fixing Olivia with her own pointed look.

"I'll be good if he is. All I can promise is that I wont fire the first salvo, but I take no responsibility for my actions if that old withered fool chooses to make an issue out of my existence." Olivia held up her hands as a sign of peace.

She let out a noise of discomfort as Harry pinched her on the bum for her cheek. She glanced at him with a rueful grin, all the while, Myrrah let out a sigh.

"I will call for you, once we are ready. Try not to burn the palace down in the meanwhile." Myrrah said to them, before departing.

Once they had the room to themselves once more, they wasted no time in finishing with their bath.

Before dressing, Olivia threw Harry onto the bed and mounted him. The two enjoyed a quick but passionate bout of intercourse, taking the moment to enjoy some time just to themselves.

Afterwards, she joined Harry as he went down to the labs to work on his various projects. Ukkon was there, and offered Harry a halfhearted greeting upon entering. He perked up a bit when he noticed Olivia there as well.

"Ah, so you've returned as well." The old scientist spoke.

"Oh no. You're excited to see me, that must mean you have some experiment in store." Olivia hummed, earning a chuckle from Harry as he separated from her to go and check in on his experiments.

"Indeed. I require another blood sample. I believe I may have had a breakthrough in the lightmass harness system, that I've been devising for you." Ukkon said to her, his eyes lighting up with excitement at the prospect of fulfilling his work.

"Oh? You've had a breakthrough? A certain someone has been quiet about any sort of progress you've been making." Olivia responded as she took a seat and offered her arm to the scientist, all the while glancing over at Harry who was focused on his own work, but the smile on his face was just the right type of cheeky for her to know he'd heard her comment.

"Yes. A few more tests, is all I require. Your unique biology was hard to work with, but I believe I've almost cleared the final hurdle. If my theory proves correct, I should be able to devise a lightmass harness for you that will amplify your physical abilities twice over." Ukkon spoke with focused determination. The cruel eyes of the scientist briefly glancing to meet with the demonic green glow of Olivia's only to return to her forearm where he began to draw her blood.

He marveled at the sight of it, as it filled the syringe. Blackened, like oil, yet it churned, as if on the edge of boiling. The scientist wandered over to his lab station, leaving Olivia to trail over to where Harry stood to gaze upon her brother's works in wonderment and curiosity.

Before her brother sat a work station stacked high with data slates, and calculations. His intelligence on full display as her own mind failed to grasp what most of it meant. A technological and biological genius he was fast becoming. Her brother took to these areas of study with incredible ease. Harry himself had often expressed his surprise at how easily these things came to him. He expressed how he used to actively choose not to pay attention during primary school, so as to keep himself from getting better grades then Dudley. If he ever surpassed their idiot cousin, he was severely beaten for it, so Harry simply didn't apply himself. Yet in the moments where he did pay attention, he found himself absorbing the basics with incredible ease. Such studies weren't present at Hogwarts, so he hadn't really got the chance to embrace them since coming to the magical school, yet now, with such lessons placed before him, he took to them like a fish to water. He took to such difficult concepts with the same ease that she took to battle. She often liked to tease that perhaps he was made champion to the chaos god of mathematics, chemistry, and biology, since such things were so easy for him.

Harry had come far in the nearly five years they'd been here. Coming from a position of barely having learned basic mathematics, to now being able to do advanced calculations in his head, was quite the marvel.

Currently he was working on a means of separating out the characteristics of his blood. His hoped he could find a way to, for example, draw out the lycanthrope virus and use the unicorn blood or phoenix ashes in his blood to temper the lycanthropy and allow one to control it, like Harry could, than he could try and use it to create a new breed of werewolves. Ones who had full control over themselves, and more importantly, an immunity to disease.

Part of Harry's and Ukkon's studies regarding Harry, was trying to unlock the nature of his immunity to Rustlung. Harry and Olivia were immune to it, but for two different reasons. Olivia's immunity was easy to explain, it was a gift from her patron. Harry's was more difficult. Something in his blood made him immune, but what was it? There were many answers. Vampirism, lycanthropy, unicorn blood, house elf blood, goblin blood. All of these things and more flowed within him. If he could identify specifically what it was in his blood, than maybe he could develop a means of immunizing the Locust against Lambency.

It was slow going because separating out the components of his blood was difficult with the equipment that he had access to, still it was an endeavor he felt was worth his time. A challenge he was up to.

Silence carried throughout the palace, even as Ukkon was summoned to the council chambers, leaving Harry and Olivia to doter about his laboratory.

Hours passed. Many hours. Harry and Olivia heard of the arrival of the Bloodied Vanguard, but not long after they arrived, they quickly departed again. Both of them knew that in all likelihood, Sraak had prevented RAAM from meeting with Myrrah, meaning the old general had likely sent their friend packing, dispatching him back out to fight the Lambent.

Myrrah had said she would summon them to discuss a new course of action, but that summons never came. Instead a day passed, than another. Than a third, with Ukkon remaining rather quiet over what was discussed. Then news reached them of an attack on the Temple of the Trinity, the holy place of the Locust. Before the two could martial to go and aid in the defense, the Lambent were driven off by the surprise appearance of the Bloodied Vanguard.

Harry and Olivia were immediately suspicious, knowing full well that RAAM and his forces had been dispatched deeper into the Hallow. They shouldn't have been anywhere near the temple.

Not long later, they received a summons to the Council Chambers.

They arrived just as Myrrah was dressing down Sraak for keeping things from her. RAAM was present, as was Skorge, and another locust general Karn, who showed signs of injury.

Sraak seemed decently humiliated. Fury burned in the old general's eyes, and his annoyance only grew when he spotted the duo enter the room.

"The time for your falsehoods has ended, Sraak. I know the truth when I see it, and you have long tried to keep it from me, to balm your own pride. Such actions put the entirety of our civilization at risk! I will not stand for it any longer. Until such a time as you can prove yourself worthy to hold the title once more, I am removing your authority and rank as Uzil. From this point on, you will hold the rank of Vold. Do not fail me again!" Myrrah stated, her tone cold, and ruthless.

Harry smirked, and Olivia let out a musical chuckle.

"A Vold… same as me." She spoke, her eyes filled with malice for the old general. A rank both she and Harry had been given in the last two years.

Her words earned a hateful snarl from Sraak, who's fury ignited. He rose to his feet and moved towards her, and she answered in kind. Her wings erupting from her back, the pointed barbs arcing through the air, ready to pierce the general in the face and neck.

"Enough!" Myrrah's voice cut through the tension, halting both of her underlings.

The two locked eyes, hate dancing between them. Though Sraak towered over her, and his armor was heavy and thick, she showed no fear, only the devilish smirk, that held her anticipation to slaughter this annoyance who'd held them back from what was needed all these years.

"Sraak, leave us, and remember my words well. And for the rest of you, as of this day, RAAM will now hold the position of Uzil. Our sight now must turn to the surface. Prepare yourselves, for our attack will come swiftly upon the people of Sera. Harrison, Olivia remain, the rest of you, leave us." Myrrah commanded her council. As the council filtered out, Harry gave Skorge a knowing look, but the Kantus warrior kept his composure, and showed nothing.

Harry then turned his eyes to RAAM, who also remained stoic, and composed. He offered the newly anointed High General, a smirk, and a slight inclination of the head, showing his respect for a plot well executed. He didn't know the whole of it, but he knew RAAM had orchestrated all of this. Removing Sraak from his position, and elevating himself, his old friend certainly did not lack for ambition and cunning.

"Impressive… Uzil RAAM. Very impressive. So… didn't need our opinions after all?" Olivia inquired to Myrrah, after offering her praise to RAAM.

"No… not on that regard. I know you orchestrated this, Uzil. And I understand why. Know though, that if you ever betray me, I will feed you to the Kryll." Myrrah answered, glancing at RAAM for a moment, who offered a half-bow of respect in acknowledgment of Myrrah's declaration. "It was wise of you to keep these two out of it. Had they been more directly involved, I might have suspected a greater plot than simply removing Sraak from his position."

Myrrah's words earned a smirk and a snort of amusement from Harry, while Olivia feigned insult.

"Is she insinuating that we're untrustworthy?" Olivia questioned Harry.

"Possibly. Or perhaps that our ambition is a far more frightening thing. Regardless… the decision has been made. So we will march on the surface?" Harry responded before addressing Myrrah.

"Yes." Myrrah answered, turning her gaze towards RAAM.

"We will tear down humanity, and ascend to the surface. The Locust are the true inheritors of this world, and it is time we took it for ourselves. Once humanity is extinguished, we will collapse the Hallow and flood it with sea water, drowning the Lambent. We will not stop until our position is secure." RAAM declared to the two.

"This assault will be the end of humanity. Our two races can never truly coexist. This is what must be done to ensure that the Locust survive." Myrrah agreed.

"So be it. What would you have of us?" Harry offered no complaint, and questioned what the plan was.

"We will begin planning the assault, upon the surface we will face the full wrath of humanity's armies. They are hardened by war, but we will take them by surprise and crush their major population centers in our opening strikes. Within the opening hours of this war, we will see countless millions slaughtered or captured. The humans we capture will be turned into new drones, and sent to fight the Lambent and used to fuel our war machine. As valuable as your assistance would be in continuing the struggle against the Lambent, our victory on the surface must be achieved swiftly, so I will take you with me when the attack begins." RAAM told them.

While Harry offered a calculating nod, his mind already turning towards the war to come and how they would face the armies of Sera, Olivia meanwhile grinned viciously. He eyes blazing with demonic malevolence. The time had come for her to finally face the armies of mankind. In her mind's eye, she could already picture it, picture the blood she would shed, the thousands she would slaughter.

It filled her with a malicious glee, as her anticipation for that day, already began to build.

They further discussed their plans and what was intended for them in the coming days.

Times passed, as they prepared for the moment of their attack. Resources were shifted, new fighting forces were organized, and defenses were pulled back to tighten their hold on the territory that mattered to them. All offensive operations against the lambent ceased and many caverns and tunnels were collapsed to cut off avenues for the Lambent to advance. The plan was to take the surface, in order to do that, they had to now outlast the lambent invasion while they defeated humanity, so hunkering down, and cutting off avenues of attack was the best way to ensure they bought the time needed to win.

While preparations were made, Harry walked the tunnels of the Hallow, towards a nest of vicious Kryll that he had long been preparing for this day.

Kryll were predators of the Hallow. They were small, only a few inches long. They were four-winged bat-like creatures that were highly carnivorous. Their bodies were quite fragile and they had exactly zero protection from sunlight, meaning any caught on the surface died almost instantly when coming into direct contact with sunlight. Despite their size, and fragile bodies, they were incredibly dangerous as they often swarmed together in groups of thousands or even millions. Even a small group of kyrll, numbering only in the hundreds could shred a locust down to the bone in seconds. The Kryll had razor sharp teeth that, coupled with their speed allowed them to dive down onto targets and inflict massive bleeding wounds as they tore chunks and strips of flesh away. Multiply this kind of attack by hundreds, and one could see why they were so dangerous.

It was actually the Kryll who'd long kept humanity at bay from discovering the Locust, as the Kryll lived in the outer Hallow, while the Locust lived deeper within, meaning human explorers would have to slip by the gargantuan Kryll nests in order to reach them, which was nearly impossible.

Many times Ukkon and Harry had discussed the idea of weaponizing the Kryll and unleashing them against the Lambent, and they'd even made several weapons to assist in that regard, means of attracting or drawing the Kryll to specific places, the problem was that Kryll did not like imulsion fumes, and so they actively chose to nest away from it. Due to their dislike of imulsion, they also wouldn't generally attack the lambent, unless provoked, and even then, the Kryll generally dropped dead after biting into the burning hot lambent flesh.

It made them less useful as weapons against the Lambent, however, that didn't mean they weren't a viable tool to use against humanity.

So in his free time, Harry had been working on several ideas, while Ukkon worked on others.

Ukkon worked to weaponize the species as a whole, while Harry was more interested in finding ways to directly control the Kryll. After a year of work, he'd finally discovered a means to do it. By isolating his own vampiric blood, and sharing it with the Kryll, he found that he could link them, and their offspring to him, and control them using his mental powers. He'd kept any plans small scale for now, only affecting a few dozen of the Kryll at a time, but he was confident that with practice, he could direct swarms of them, and if possible, he may even be able to spread this power to the Locust.

So with all of that known, he stood at the outer edges of a chamber and reached out with his mind. From the darkness above, a torrential sound of cawing and screeching filled the air, as hundreds of Kryll began to move

Harry smiled as the group swarmed around him, but did not bite him. He would spend several days here, honing this power as they prepared for war with the surface.

Weeks passed, and finally the time had come. In the weeks leading up to their invasion, tunnels were dug by the enormous corpsers under humanity's cities, and hundreds of thousands of Locust were positioned in places to attack, all over the world.

The night before the attack began, Harry and Olivia made love, and lamented on what was to come. While Harry approached it from a position of it needing to be done, in order for the Locust to survive, Olivia reveled in the chance to bring death to a whole new breed of foe. For weeks she'd been chomping at the bit, mentally preparing herself, and her followers for their attack, and now it was about to begin.

Come the dawn, the order would be given to attack, and they would join the Bloodied Vanguard in attacking the city that held only a few dozen meters above where they were camped. Harry had hardened himself to it, while Olivia reveled in anticipation. Her followers, the Crimson Swarm, were right there with her, aching in anticipation for the slaughter about to be unleashed.

That night, Olivia had a dream, a vision that she was certain came from Khorne himself. She saw the world stained red with the blood of the Serans. She saw humanity drowning in oceans of gore and viscera. It had long been a focus, yet so rarely touched at her mind, but Olivia realized as the sun began to rise, and the order was given, that this, was her last day as a human. The brand of Khorne, blazed with fury, and she felt in her heart of hearts, that this was the final day of her life as a mortal being. Her destiny waited above, and somehow, she always knew that it would.

When the order came, she met it without fear, without hesitance, nothing but demonic glee, and the ambition to forever remain by her brother's side. She briefly met with RAAM who told her something in private, something that made her grin with devilish delight. This day, the Blood God would smile upon her endeavors, and her reward would be just that, an eternity with the man she loved, and an eternity doing what she'd come to love.

-Emergence Day-

They came like a bloody tide. The ground rumbled and shook as Corpsers tore up through the ground across the planet, unleashing swarms of Locust drones in the cities of humanity.

The slaughter was otherworldly.

They emerged in the city of Jannermont, in the heart of a major COG military base. Their orders were simple, capture what humans you could, kill the rest without hesitation.

RAAM personally led the assault alongside Skorge, and Olivia. Harry oversaw the capture of many of the humans they encountered, and their return to Ukkon for experimentation, and conversion into Drones.

While RAAM and Skorge focused primarily on leading the attack, Olivia was drawn deep into the heart of the enemy, slaughtering all in her path. Armed with her chainsaw spear, she cut through legions of COG soldiers.

The terrified screams of these men, was music to her ears as she carved through them. They didn't explode like the Lambent did, so she had no need to flee from their corpses. She was like a whirlwind of death, and carnage, cutting through squads left right and center.

The only thing that kept her from completely losing herself to that carnage, was her earlier communication with RAAM and the order he'd given her, if a certain something occurred.

So while she fought, she sent the occasional glance towards RAAM, keeping an eye on her friend, and waiting for the signal.

She felt nothing but glee when she saw it happen. Sraak, still angry over the loss of his position, challenged RAAM in the middle of the battle. The two fought briefly, but Sraak wore almost impenetrable armor. RAAM had anticipated this, knowing his old superior well, and had asked Olivia if she wanted the opportunity to finally settle their feud.

The moment Sraak pinned RAAM to the ground, he gave the signal. Olivia leaped through the air, and landed in sight of the former general, calling out his name.

Sraak raised his gaze towards her, and hatred quickly colored his features.

Once she knew he had his focus on her, she shot forward, her movements almost unnatural in their ease.

Twisting through the air, she delivered a spiral kick to his chest, sending the former general stumbling back.

He managed to recover and drew a boltok pistol to begin shooting at her.

She dodged the bullets, gliding through the air, with speed and dexterity.

As he emptied the revolver, she dove down on top of him, driving her speared chainsaw into his shoulder.

Sparks flew and he roared in aggravation. His armor was thick, and the spear hadn't fully pierced into his flesh, but the biting teeth of the chain managed to graze his unprotected face.

He quickly loaded a shot into his pistol and fired up at her, just as she leaped off of him. The bullet flew up, piercing the bottom of her breast, and out the top, and cutting across her cheek, and barely missing her eye.

She hardly felt the wound, as she leaped towards him, her talons on her wings lashing out, one of them hooking Sraak in the eye, tearing it out, along with part of his orbital bone.

He roared in agony, allowing her the chance to dive on top of him, and drive her spear down into his face.

The hardened tip of the spear drove into his mouth while the teeth of the chainsaw cut into his cheeks.

She pressed down with all her might, watching as the upper half of Sraak's skull was separated from his body.

Slowly, his corpse fell back, Olivia now standing atop of it.

She let out a hellish chuckle as she knelt and picked up the upper half of Sraak's head.

She held it, as brains oozed out over her hand.

"Well done." RAAM offered to her.

"Thank you for this. I've wanted to kill him for a while now." She said, glancing over at RAAM with a cruel grin. The cut on her cheek and brow, already healing up, as was the hole through her breast.

"I know. I felt the same. His skull will make a fine trophy." RAAM commented.

"Yes. I will bless my God with many skulls today, but this one, will be mine." Olivia agreed, turning her eyes back to the skull. She let out a chuckle, and shrunk the skull down and pocketed it. She then began to move, heading back to join in the offensive.

She momentarily caught the gaze of Harry who watched the fight from a distance. When their eyes met, he offered her a smirk, and a nod of approval.

Olivia grinned. Happy again, to receive his approval for her efforts.

She rejoined the battle, and the bloodshed resumed in earnest.

For hours, Olivia slaughtered the denizens on Jannermont by their hundreds.

While assaults carried out across the city, as the Locust poured out of the captured military base, Olivia led her followers, the Crimson Swarm in brutal melee against the people of the city and what few defenders remained.

In the streets thousands were slaughtered. Swinging axes, and hammers, and curved serrated swords the Crimson Swarm murdered everyone in their path.

Their words echoed as a battle-cry of such potency that it drove people from their homes to flee in sheer panic. They didn't make it far.

The streets ran red in the blood of countless innocent lives. Olivia and her forces were the only ones who didn't contribute captives, though none expected them to. The Crimson Swarm were followers of Khorne, and they knew nothing of mercy. Many amongst their ranks were the most vicious and violent of the Locust, and that spoke volumes when one knew what the species was like.

It was an orgy of violence that saw men, women, and children slaughtered in their endless droves. None were spared, especially by the Crimson Swarm.

And in the midst of it all, Olivia fought on, her bloodlust remaining unbroken. She cared not for pain, or suffering, only for bloodshed. Her followers stopped in their assault only momentarily to cut or tear the skulls of their slain foes from their bodies and string them to their belts. Soon mounds of headless corpses littered the streets and homes. Never before had such brutality been visited upon the people of Sera. Even the other Locust were left a bit awestruck by the carnage on display from the Crimson Swarm.

The city fell before the sun set.

Harry walked alongside RAAM and Skorge, towards the city center. A great plaza, once the heart of the city, a place of culture, and community, was now a nightmarish scene of bloodshed and murder.

Corpses were piled high, as the Crimson swarm decapitated every body they could find, and tossed the corpses into piles.

The stone streets were dyed black from the streams of blood. Some of the berserking locust, were completely lost in their own worlds as they hatcheted and hacked at dead bodies, spilling further blood, in the name of their God and their Queen.

Harry passed his gaze over the carnage.

The death on display here, brought him back to McTash's manor. The slaughter he had unleashed upon the Death Eaters, was nothing compared to this. It felt good. In a way he had rarely had the chance to feel. The death of all these people, these humans, it made him feel powerful. But more importantly, and curiously, it made him feel right. He stared on, unwavering, for to close his eyes was to envision the deaths of those at Hogwarts. To see their bodies maimed and beheaded, their corpses splayed out like some macabre artwork, invoking only horror and despair in the minds of rational people.

Silently, Luna watched through his eyes, taking note of the spectacle, but also Harry's reaction to it. She found his reaction curious, and quite telling, but not in a way she could fully grasp at the moment.

He felt the mark of Khorne blazing upon his hand. He knew this day that had most certainly earned the Blood God's approval.

Standing atop the highest mound of corpses, stood Olivia. Her gaze was locked on the sky.

She was hardly recognizable, her body soaked in the gore of endless slaughter.

She was almost colored as black as the streets. Blood covered every inch of her body, and chunks of flesh, and splatters of viscera clung to her. She truly was a horrific spectacle.

Harry looked up at her, amazed and deeply impressed by the spectacle.

That was when he felt it, and it came, with a sudden word from Luna.

"Harry! Something's happening!" Luna spoke.

Harry felt it, even before he saw it begin to happen.

The mark of Khorne began to burn with warp energy, and Harry was brought to his knees. A thrum of power filled the air, and all eyes turned towards where Olivia stood. Even the army of Locust were torn out of their mutilations to turn their eyes towards the coming event.

Harry removed the glove upon his hand, and watched as the Mark of Khorne blazed a fiery red. His eyes drew up to Olivia as she seemed to begin to hyperventilate. Her eyes darted about, almost searching for him, and when she spotted him, they locked eyes.

He stared up at her, worry and concern filling him, as a realization dawned on him that their time had run out.

He didn't see fear in her though. Instead, she seemed happy, excited, even confident.

An unnatural power seemed to tug at the fabric of reality, and the mound of corpses beneath Olivia's feet, seemed to shift, and undulate.

The movement caught the Locust by surprise, as RAAM and Skorge began to question what was happening.

Suddenly, a hellish roar filled the air, like the sound of an inferno, roiling around them.

Harry held Olivia's gaze, until she was suddenly pulled into the mound. Sinking into it like it's surface had suddenly become water.

She was out of sight for a moment, but Harry didn't feel his connection to her break. Instead, he felt it grow, and within the mound of corpses a glow began to emerge.

It was as if a fire ignited within the mound, and with that fire, came a hellish heat, that began to immolate the surrounding bodies.

Corpses turned black, filling the air with the smell of roasting flesh, as the light within grew in intensity.

Harry could do nothing but watch, and pray for his sister's return.

"Olivia…" He heard Luna speak, almost in awe, and suddenly the mound exploded, the light within building to a blinding flash.

A wall of ash and bones exploded outwards, knocking nearby Locust off their feet.

There before them, swirled a condensed storm of demonic power. A rolling tide of energy churning in on itself. That energy folded inward, collapsing into a humanoid shape. Deeper and deeper it sunk, taking the form of a woman. A form familiar to all of them.

Her demonic wings spread wide out from her back, as the deamon's form solidified.

Before them emerged a creature, that bore the reflection of Olivia. It looked like her, but to many, it was definitely different.

She had taken on some new traits. Her legs had changed, becoming digitigrade and ending in wide, cloven hooves. Her legs were shaped like a satyr's but remained hairless. Her wings had grown a bit longer, and two additional curved horns now grew out of her forehead, to join with the crown of horns upon her head.

She was taller now, standing at around six foot even, though her body's proportions remained the same. She floated there, naked as the day she was born for a few scant moments, before her armor reappeared, summoned to her from the arsenal.

Slowly, she descended to the ground, standing upon the blackened remains of her victims. She gazed around in wonderment for several long moments before holding out of her hand.

A shrieking sound seemed to permeate the air, as her chainsaw spear flashed into existence.

It was different now though. The mere presence of the cruel weapon, filled the air with an intense aura, one that was only overshadowed by Olivia herself.

The spear looked the same, yet a blackened smoke now seemed to slowly churn out from the chainsaw mechanism, and the weapon was now heavily inscribed with demonic runes and markings, similar to the ones inscribed upon the chain on her arm.

The spearhead had also changed. Before the spearhead and the chainsaw teeth were separate, yet now, they formed together. The biting teeth of the chainsaw mechanism were longer as they went down the blade, and they began close to the top of the spear. It seemed less like a bastardized combination of the two, held together by magic, and more so, a cruel unity of both, bonded by warp magic, and hellish intent.

She held the spear aloft, raising it to the sky. Her eyes blazed with hellish might, and her movement earned a roaring cheer from the Crimson Swarm.

They cheered, even without knowing. In their hearts they understood, their leader had just become something more, something beyond imagining.

The roaring celebrations continued for several long moments as Harry rose to his feet, the pain and weight of the brand, draining away.

"What has happened to her?" Skorge questioned.

"She has ascended. Her mortal flesh, and body stripped away. She has been remade by the hands of the Blood God himself." Harry spoke as he began to approach her.

Olivia basked in the cheer of her followers until her eyes fell upon Harry.

The malice fled from her gaze, and she quickly approached him.

Still holding her spear in one hand, she threw an arm around him, embracing him and kissing him with passionate intensity.

The kiss was all he needed to know that it was still Olivia. She had done it. She had earned the favor of her patron, and he had remade her into a Daemon.

The last five years of battle, had paid off. Olivia was now a Daemon.

After the battle, Harry and Olivia secreted themselves away to discuss with Luna what had happened.

Olivia described the process to them, how she had felt as if she'd been pulled out of her own body. She described in amazement how she found herself knelt before a mountain a skulls. Atop that mountain was a throne of unimaginable size. Sat upon that great brass throne was Khorne himself. She knew it was him. It had to be.

He stared down at her, for what felt like an eternity, as if reading her, reading the contents of her soul, of who she was, and who she could be. She felt humbled by him, amazed by his presence, his might, and power. With nothing more than a nod of approval. She felt herself thrust away from the shadowy armored titan that loomed impossibly high above her.

She felt her flesh sear off, her muscles tear away, her bones splinter and fragment. Her whole body was torn asunder as she flew through the air until nothing but her soul remained. It was then that she felt whole. The pain vanished, and in a moment of clarity, she knew, she truly understood who, and what she was.

All doubt vanished, every question about herself, seemed to be answered in that single moment.

Than she was here again. Her body reshaping, her soul settling into it. She felt different, more powerful, more capable, she just felt like she was more, throughout it all, she never felt disconnected from Harry. Despite how fast it seemed to them, to Olivia the process stretched on for what could only be described as days. In that time though, she felt no fear. She felt Harry's presence with her. The Dark Soul still connected them, and even now, she felt how it had fused with her demonic self, becoming more than it was before. Different.

"You're not human anymore though." Harry recognized.

"No she isn't." Luna agreed.

"Yet she is somehow able to exist here, without a body to possess, or even a source of warp energy to draw from. A daemon can't exist in the physical realm without these things. Isn't that what you told me?"Harry spoke aloud though questioned Luna.

"Yes, though I think I have an answer. I think it's me. I feel energy passing through our link, into you, through the brands. They're acting like conduits. I am an ethereal being, a living concept. My nature is far from common. Using my universal connection, and my link to you Harry, I think she is being fed warp energy directly. Allowing her to exist here, without possession, or an active warp portal, or a place where the barriers between the physical and immaterial worlds are thin." Luna explained to the both of them.

Harry blinked at that, glancing down at the mark of Khorne which dimly glowed. He stared at it for a moment before nodding with a smirk.

"Clever." He noted with approval. Using his link to the universal concept of death, the Dark Gods were able to create a kind of Daemon that could exist in the mortal universe without the normal prerequisites.

Olivia looked human, she probably still had human organs, in fact he crept closer and touched her chest, feeling her heartbeat to confirm that she still had one. It was a human-esque body, but it was no longer made of flesh and blood. It was made of warp energy. If he cut her, she'd bleed, but it wouldn't be normal blood that fell from the wound, it would be warp energy, shaped into blood.

Olivia, for her part, seemed more or less, herself. They celebrated their victory, and enjoyed a bout of intercourse, which Harry noted, felt a bit different on his end. First item of note was that he didn't need his safety spell to get full inside of her anymore, he just fit, which was strange, but par for the course when it came to things no longer obeying the laws of physics. He also noted that her body was much warmer. Not to the point of discomfort, but he could certainly tell she was running hotter than normal.

Olivia, for her part, was far less tempered than normal. She rutted against him, almost desperately. She was usually loud during sex, at least when they were in their room, but here she hid nothing. Groaning, moaning, and howling without a care in the world for being caught. She was certainly more aggressive, which Harry took note of.

As a quick side-note, he took notice of another change to her biology while they had sex, and that was that she could stretch out her tongue quite far, at least ten inches. She claimed she could taste at the air, almost like a snake could. Her sense of taste, had definitely been amplified, as she could easily taste his scent without having to make contact with him. It was something of note, something he hadn't noticed until now.

Several times, she would try and pin him to their bed, and ride him with gusto. She had far more success in keeping him restrained than she used to. Her physical strength had definitely shot up. He actually had to struggle to get out of her grasp, and it actually took effort, enough so that he felt the strain of his own muscles. He was quite certain that if the two put their all into it, she'd very nearly overpower him in brute strength.

Once free from her grasp, he rolled her onto her back, and drove down into her. She quickly matched his tempo, throwing her hips up to meet with each of his thrusts. She was fiery and wild, kissing and biting at him, enough so that she even drew blood from his lips, and shoulder. She lapped at the blood, hungrily drinking it without a care towards the possible taboo.

He felt himself build to his peak during their mad rutting, until finally he released his seed, deep into her demonic womb. That was far from the end of it though. The two continued well into the night. Olivia was driven on by bloodlust, and excitement, while Harry was driven almost purely by lust.

She was vicious, and animalistic, though when he got in a good way, her moans and groans would increase in octave, sounding more like the woman he knew. This dichotomy in her reactions, fueled his pursuit of those lovely sounds.

For hours the two fucked, though in some way you could describe it more like wrestling, as the two grabbed, held, and pinned one another, while fighting to keep their sexes linked.

It was certainly a new and exciting experience, one that Harry very much enjoyed, and one that Olivia was eager to repeat in the coming days.

Attacks continued the following day, with both Harry and Olivia leading assaults against human populations in surrounding major cities. Though it wouldn't immediately be known, by the end of the first day, the Locust had succeeded in wiping out or capturing a fourth of the total human population. Having slaughtered the denizens of countless major cities, ensured that casualties were at their highest.

While Harry continued as he was, capturing large swaths of humans for transfer back to the Nexus, his sister and her army led the Locust in the brutal slaughter.

With Olivia's ascension, the nature of her followers began to change. Their brutality grew, as did their martial prowess. As days went on, it was noted more and more that the drones that followed Olivia were larger, stronger, faster, and more vicious than a regular drone. Most having at least two or three inches on other drones. The Crimson Swarm found it's numbers growing as RAAM directed them towards the thickest of fighting.

All in all, their campaign of extermination was well under way.

It was only as it carried on that Harry, truly sat back and considered his own actions. Here he and his sister were, engaging in a genocidal campaign against the humans of Sera. They were willing to wipe them all out, to destroy billions of lives. So many people were already dead, and a lot of that blood was on their hands. Harry had to consider his own apathy in regards to that. He didn't hate the humans of Sera, in truth his greatest negative emotion towards them was disappointment and aggravation. They were the exact same as the humans of Earth, nothing about them being unique, or special when compared to their earth-born counterparts. Harry felt very little towards their deaths, seeing it more as a waste of resources, than anything else. There was potential in them, but he knew how humans were. They'd always try and resist those that oppressed them. Eventually they'd rebel. The Locust could enslave them, but eventually mankind would rise up and try to throw off Locust control. It was better for the Locust in the long run to just get rid of them.

Once more, he recognized that these thoughts and feelings were encouraged by a lack of consequences. He had no idea when they were leaving, they could be here for the full ninety years, or they could leave tomorrow. Now that Olivia had ascended, this world had become a sandbox to them. A place to play in, and indulge whatever desires they wanted.

He mused on what more he could gain from this world, now that his primary desire had been reached. Olivia would happily aid the Locust in destroying the Serans, but what could he do with their remaining time? Focusing on self-improvement was obviously one answer, and he'd continue to see to that, growing his intellect, knowledge, and abilities, but what more did he want to aim for?

That night, Harry sat awake and wrote down a list of goals, ideas, and pursuits that he could look into on this world. Things that could improve him, or Olivia, and prepare him for their return home.

The question also presented itself of what he'd do with the knowledge that he could take one or more of his slaves with him into these other worlds. After a bit of musing he concluded that the best answer would be to return home, gather up Tracey, Daphne, and Fleur, explain what had happened and then get them to agree to join him on an adventure. He'd take them, one at a time, into another world, and he suspected, that if he focused on taking them with, than Tzeentch would send him to a world that they could use for their ascension. In that respect, Harry was happy that it was Tzeentch who controlled this power, as if it were one of the others, they'd likely never even consider aiding an enemy. Tzeentch would, just because he was curious to see what would happen, and it would be funny.

Plans were beginning to form. Their primary reason for being here had been accomplished, now it was time to see how becoming a Daemon would change Olivia.

-One Year after Emergence Day-

Sera blazed in the fires of war. Every human faction, not living on an island was engrossed in war with the Locust. Mankind had little answer for Locust's invasion. Having them burrow up from beneath their feet meant that almost nowhere was safe. It didn't matter how strong the walls of a fortress were, if the Locust could just burrow up from beneath them.

Every day, hundreds of thousands were slaughtered as the Locust continued their invasion. RAAM commanded the invasion, directing the Locust in major assaults. Throughout much of it, Harry was by his side, watching, learning, offering assistance and insight. While RAAM focused on the war itself, Harry's focus was split between the war, and capturing human specimens as well as human technology. Any time new technology was recovered, Harry took time to study it, and learn, progressing his skills and understanding as a burgeoning engineer.

Olivia's cult of followers was growing as time went on. It had been a few months since the High Priest Vrol had died due to mysterious circumstances. Skorge had ascended to his position, due to the favor he held from RAAM, and with Harry and Olivia's support provided to Myrrah, she easily accepted elevating Skorge to the position of High Priest. With Skorge as High Priest, and his acknowledgment of the existence of what the Locust now referred to as the Outer God, the ranks of the Crimson Swarm began to grow.

It was an interesting dynamic, but it blossomed into a comfortable belief system where the Locust still held to their original beliefs, but came to acknowledge a higher deity, one from outside of their world, that blessed them for their innate nature. Khorne was not a representation of them as a whole, but specifically their martial prowess, their brutality, and survivability.

What started as a thousand or so followers, grew to over eight thousand. Olivia's army of bloodletting Locust warriors led the vanguard in many major assaults. They brutalized city after city, town after town. Skull taking, and bloodletting became their signatures. Followers could be identified by the specific carnage they left behind. Mounds of headless corpses, that could then be found adorned on their armor, were means of recognizing these brutal warriors. They were also bigger than most other Locust. It didn't matter what species of Locust they came from, Drones, Kantus, Therons, all grew in size as they embraced the dominion of the Lord of Blood and Bones.

Olivia herself was becoming a beast of nightmare for the people's of Sera. A winged demon out of stories, and fantasies that was sometimes found at the head of a Locust invasion, leading the most brutal and bloodthirsty Locust warriors in horrific melee. Many of the Crimson Swarm outfitted themselves in heavier armor, or carried dense, heavy shields to allow them to close distance and slaughter their enemies.

Those that fought alongside Olivia were nightmarish in their brutality. Everywhere Olivia went, carnage followed in such spectacular displays that a new nightmarish tale could be devised from each engagement.

Olivia's aura was a monstrous thing. She wasn't like other Khornite daemons. She was more intelligent, and less prone to violent outbursts among allies. Once she entered into battle though, she became no different from the Bloodletters that would have stood as her equals. Her aura would bloom filling the air like a hellish miasma that would drive her allies in a frenzied bloodlust, and her enemies would clearly feel the full weight of that desire fall upon them as she approached.

Many human warriors felt their spirits break long before they even saw Olivia. Where she went, hell followed. Blood streaked the air, as she cut her way through armies. Armed now with a weapon of supernatural potency, she fed her demonic chainspear on countless souls.

A gift from her patron, no doubt. Olivia's chainspear was now a living weapon. As she cut her way through humanity, she found that the screams of every poor soul she cut down, was added to the roar of the chainsaw's mechanisms, changing it from the harsh mechanical noise, to something terrifyingly horrific. As the mechanism roared, so to did a cacophony of bloodcurdling screams seem to echo out from within it. Men, women, and children, all of their dying wails passed out of the weapon as it roared.

The spear was also empowered, cutting through armor with incredible ease. It was a strange magical enchantment. Any material used to shield an organic target from harm, was cut through easily, yet that didn't mean the spear cut through any material. If she stabbed the spear into a large rock, she'd have difficulties getting through it, but if she stabbed the spear into the same rock, knowing someone was hiding behind it, it pierced deep into it, passing through to the other side, to skewer the target.

Olivia's fighting power made her a weapon of mass destruction. Her reputation became the stuff of legends. She'd also developed a drive towards cannibalism. She began feeling the urge to consume the hearts of her slain foes, and she took to that urge without question, or complaint. In battle, when her bloodlust grew, her teeth morphed into jagged needle-like blades, that made it easy to rip and tear apart the dense muscle of a human heart. The first time Harry had seen it, he was a bit unnerved. Cannibalism was a major taboo, in almost all cultures of the world, this one and Earth, but such thoughts barely managed to take hold before draining away into acceptance. He found that he cared little for the act, since it was something Olivia enjoyed doing. If she wished to feast on the hearts of her enemies, than so be it.

Her followers soon began to mirror her actions. The hearts of human beings, became a stable of the Crimson Swarms diet, and Harry himself got more than his fair share of a taste of it, as she still grew wantonly horny after a battle, so she often came to him, drenched in blood, with bits of heart muscle still stuck in her teeth.

He didn't overly mind, and eventually grew excited by the prospect. Lapping the blood off of her flesh, while they fucked, excited him further, and tasting the remnants of human flesh in her mouth as they kissed filled her with even darker passions, that would often turn his dreams towards the nightmarish displays of power his inner demonic self desired to unleash upon this world, and his own.

In the last year, she had died twice, both times to the same cause. That being a lightmass missile strike. Lightmass missiles were basically nuclear weapons. The COG identified Olivia as a major threat, so they tried to kill her with these bombs. They succeeded, though it changed very little, other than thinning the numbers of her followers for a brief time.

In both cases, Harry noticed the moment she died. He felt her spirit, her essence pass into him, and when he slept, or meditated, he could actually speak with her spirit, as it dwelled inside of him, waiting to be reborn. It was actually kind of humorous, as she curiously explored her new living environment, mentioning the nature of what could only be described as his soul, and how she was perceiving it.

It made little sense to Harry, though Luna noted that it wasn't supposed to. He was technically mortal, and he was human. The nature of the spirit, it's fine details, and complexities was beyond the comprehension of humans.

Her rebirth, came as it always did. When Harry died, and came back, Olivia manifested by his side. The first time, he chose suicide, though the second time, he fed himself to the Kryll, a more painful end, but about as quick, and his fiery revival scared them off long enough for he and Olivia to retreat.

While he wasn't sure what he got from his deaths, in any case, the death by the Kryll was an intentional choice to incorporate their dna into his own, for the sole purpose of being able to transform into them. With his growing vampiric powers, he found himself able to take the form various animals. It was different than transforming into a werewolf, or taking one's animagus form. A powerful vampire could transform into many different beasts. Wolves, rats, bats, they could even take the form of a sentient mist, and use it to fly around, or move through and around obstacles. Harry learned how to do this, to shapeshift into these animals. While doing so, he noticed that each mammalian form he took was slightly altered from what he knew to be normal. He suspected it was due to the lycanthropy. Taking the form of a wolf, found it larger, and more feral looking than a normal wolf. Same with a cloud of bats, or a swarm of rats.

Since the lycanthropy was influencing his vampiric powers, he wondered what would happen if he added the dna of a lesser creature of the night to his own. So he allowed the Kryll to kill him, and from them, he gained an unknown trait, but that trait added their dna to his own, and it also granted him the ability to transform into a small cloud of Kryll. These Kryll were also touched by lycanthropy, making them stronger, and quicker.

He added the vicious power to his arsenal, and used it in the field. Being able transform into a small swarm of kryll and tear through hallways and corridors shredding organic beings to pieces was immensely effective, and also an excellent means of satiating his slowly growing blood hunger. The more his vampiric powers grew, the more he found himself drawn towards blood for sustenance, this is where Olivia came into play as she began to notice his growing blood hunger, she began collecting empty containers and filling them with human blood she collected. She'd bring them to Harry as gifts, which he came to accept for the genuine thought behind them. He would drink of the blood, taking it in as a normal beverage until it just became a part of his diet. He didn't notice if he was being empowered by drinking blood, since he wasn't a full vampire, and was still comprised of a lot of different parts, but he certainly felt satiated when he drank it, so he simply accepted it, and joined Olivia in his own form of cannibalism, one she quickly turned to as well. Drinking blood became her refreshment of choice.

Aside from his own improvement, Harry finally had another breakthrough in honing his control over the Kryll, and spreading it to the Locust. With Ukkon's help, he'd devised a serum, that could grant a Locust member the ability to control a small group of Kryll. It was a pain to create, and had a very low survival rate, but they found it could be done, so they worked on refining the serum, which partially came from Harry's own blood, in order to eventually create a Locust strain that could actively direct and control swarms of Kryll in battle.

Harry wasn't the only one working to improve himself. Olivia had also taken on a new weapon, she had gained her own personal mount in the form of one of the flying Reavers, and Olivia quickly formed a powerful bond with her pet. The two fought together, and it was immediately noticed that this particular Reaver was far more brutal and violent than others of it's species, a trait attributed to it's daemonic master.

Over time, the Reaver began to grow, increasing to almost double it's original size. This Reaver, which Olivia named Aithon after one of the four immortal steeds of the Greek God of War Ares. The Reaver fed on Olivia's powers in the warp, and slowly became her familiar as days turned to weeks, weeks into a month. Harry eventually showed her the actual magical ritual to form a Familiar Bond with the Reaver, which he knew from Voldemort's memories. Aithon was already slowly bonding to her, due to the power magics that surrounded her, but this would completely link the two, and solidify their bond.

Olivia carried out the ritual, linking herself to her Reaver mount. Aithon's aggression increased dramatically, and in the coming days he began to mutate, growing additional tentacles going from six to ten, it also grew a bit larger, becoming almost three times the size of a normal reaver.

It was actually from Aithon that Ukkon got the idea to begin mutating some of the Reavers to try and create beasts of similar or greater ability, which would eventually result in the Hydras.

Several more months would pass, with the death of the Zamil Karn at Halvo Bay. The death of the general was a heavy blow to the Locust as he was one of their top commanders. Thankfully, not long after his death marked Olivia's reappearance on the battlefield, after one of her supposed deaths, which deeply affected mankind's morale.

With their growing despair, nations began to lose hope and fall to the Locust invasion. Ukkon and Harry continued to unleash their created monsters towards the surface. With every city that fell, more technology was gathered for study and use.

It became clear that the last government standing, was going to be the COG, as other lesser nations fell. One day, almost without reason, the Locust found themselves advancing through abandoned territory. It quickly became clear that the COG were retreating to fortify the Jacinto Plateau. This plateau was made of solid granite making it almost impossible for the Locust to dig up through it, meaning that the cities on the surface had to be invaded normally. The COG seemed to think that it was the best answer to the Locust threat and so they were pulling all of their assets back to the cities on the plateau.

A few days later, the Locust learned another reason as to why the COG were retreating so quickly.

In an act of desperation, and asset denial, the COG deployed their newest super weapon, the Hammer of Dawn. Space born satellites that could fire down energy beams of lightmass energy that could scorch the planet's surface. These beams varied in power. At their weakest they could target individual areas, or even people, and at their strongest, could burn away entire cities.

Over the course of the next few days, ninety percent of Sera's surface was turned into an ashen wasteland as the COG tried to kill as many Locust as they could, while also denying them access to abandoned technology in the cities, much to Ukkon's and Harry's dismay.

While it was successful at that latter, most of the Locust army was underground, so their casualties were actually quite minimal. In fact, the attack did more to harm humanity than it did the Locust. Millions upon millions of humans were vaporized in the Hammer strikes. In many of the cities still standing, nothing remained of the people that lived there besides ashen statues, frozen in place.

It was a major annoyance, but not one the Locust couldn't recover from. In their act of desperation, the Serans had expedited their own extinction. Ukkon himself took a more active roll on the surface, hunting for technology, and testing his newest creations, the Disciples and the Zealots. He had succeeded in created the Lightmass Harness System, which would inject lightmass fueled adrenaline into the body, making the person wearing the harness, stronger, faster, and more agile. It was incredibly painful though, so only the biggest, meanest Locust Drones or Kantus could survive using the system. It still needed testing, so Ukkon went to the surface to do so himself.

He'd also succeeded in creating the version of the system meant for Olivia. It did basically the same thing, though it was unclear to Harry if her daemonic body was actually reacting to the adrenaline, the lightmass, or both. He wasn't immediately sure as to the answer, all he knew for certain was that it made her stronger, and that was good enough for him.

Unfortunately, a heavy blow would strike the Locust several weeks later, when Chief Scientist Ukkon was killed while on the surface. This blow enraged Myrrah, and deeply saddened Harry, who'd seen the scientist as a teacher, and mentor. Olivia was the first to move to avenge their grief, leading the Crimson Swarm to massacre the population of an entire town in bloody retribution.

That massacre was the last major offensive the Locust would launch for the next few years. Their momentum was draining, and they needed to gather more resources and come up with a plan to attack the Jacinto Plateau. So Myrrah ordered most of the Locust away from the Plateau, leaving the COG alone for now, while they reorganized, and prepared.

Harry was soon chosen to replace Ukkon, becoming the new chief scientist of the Locust. It was certainly a new experience to Harry, lifted up to such a high position. For a while, he and Olivia were just going through the motions, when it came to rising through the ranks. Neither really sought position, or leadership roles, but they didn't turn them down, both accepting the opportunity to learn, and grow, and gain experience. Being offered this position was a bit surprising, even if he should have seen it coming. He was well known to be Ukkon's apprentice, and Myrrah's affection for him was far from a secret. It was one of the first times in his life, that Harry felt truly respected. Like he had earned this position, and deserved it. His investment into the Locust, and their victory grew with this promotion. With his promotion to Chief Scientist, he also gained a seat on the Council, alongside RAAM and Skorge, both of whom happily welcomed him as he had long earned their respect.

He certainly didn't intend to let it go to waste, even if Olivia's teasing about him being a big nerd, grew more common, now that he was actively recognized as a scientist.

With Harry's promotion, Myrrah saw fit to provide one to Olivia as well, granting her the rank of Krav, basically a captain. She accepted the promotion gleefully, much like Harry, she took pride in her ascension, and the recognition she received.

The night of their promotions, the two made love. Though it began excitedly, Olivia quickly noted that Harry's heart wasn't in it, like usual. He was still mourning the loss of his mentor, and he was also thoughtful about his promotion. She understood, and chose to keep things calm, and passionate, making love like they used to when they had first started having sex. It was a comforting experience, and she was more than happy to provide it, if it in some way helped Harry heal from the loss.

Afterwards, the two laid in bed together, discussing how they'd found themselves here.

"I didn't think it was possible." Olivia hummed.

"What?" Harry glanced at her.

"That you could seem so proud of yourself. Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen you like this." She answered back, choosing to focus on his promotion, rather than the grief she knew remained inside.

"Are you saying I shouldn't be proud of my accomplishments?" He asked her, lifting an eyebrow as he did.

"Far from it. You deserve the recognition. You make things happen Harry. That's who you are, it's what you are. I genuinely believe you can do anything you set your mind to. With that being said, you've always had a measured response to praise. Always calm, always thoughtful. Seeing you beaming like this, it's different. Not bad, not at all, just different." Olivia explained.

"I've always been at odds with those in authority around me. The Dursleys, the teachers at Hogwarts. All of the adults in my life were critical of me. The only people to ever give me genuine praise was Dumbledore and Sirius. I later came to understand that for Dumbledore it was all bullshit, so that basically leaves only Sirius, and we haven't gotten the chance to spend a lot of time together. Essentially I've never really received genuine recognition for my efforts. Or at least, this is the first time that I felt like I'd earned it. It wasn't just something I was immediately granted after showing a modicum of talent, like when I was appointed to the Gryffindor Quiditch team. I actually had to learn, to study, and practice, and it took years. I feel accomplished." Harry laid out how he was feeling. Olivia eyed him with her glowing emerald eyes, smiling after a few moments.

"Well, you've definitely earned this, no doubt about it. I can't wait to see what you accomplish in the future." Olivia offered, kissing him passionately, before drawing herself on top of him for a bit more fun, which he accepted with a smile.

-Five Years after Emergence Day-

The war was now back on in full swing. In what people were calling the second E-Day, the Locust took the city of Landown. Their attack on the Jacinto Plateau had begun in earnest.

RAAM continued to lead the offensive, though he was now armed with the ability to command small swarms of Kryll.

Over the last four years, Harry had improved the serum used for ransferring some of his powers to the Locust, namely as a means of linking individual Locust to the Kryll, forming a symbiotic relationship. It took time, and a lot of dead Drones to get him there, but once the procedure had a reasonable success rate, RAAM volunteered to have it done on himself.

Harry acquiesced and performed the procedure, which proved successful. RAAM was able to command the Kryll in small groups, even to the point of using them as a physical shield around his body.

He was by far the most impressive success. In most cases, the procedure would fail, but not kill the host, which resulted in the host gaining a sort of resistance to the Kryll, not attracting them, or causing them to attack. This allowed for the development of specialized weapons such as grenades that would attract the Kryll to a target, causing them to swarm and devour anyone caught in the blast.

During that time, Harry also completed work on a means of weaponizing the Kryll en masse. The Locust had long used the Nemacyst creatures to ink the skies and block out the COG's ability to see the ground from orbit, preventing them from using the Hammer of Dawn weapon. As an added side-effect, inking the skies also blocked out radio communication, which limited the COG's ability to talk to each other in affected areas. So this was already an established tactic of the Locust, Harry simply devised a means of further weaponizing it.

It was called a Kryllstorm. The basic idea was, instead of fighting to overtake an entire city, all the Locust had to do was ink the skies enough to blot out the sun, then they could use pheromones and prebuilt tunnels to drawn the Kryll to the surface, where they'd be free to feed on the population of that city. This process would save countless Locust lives, as all they needed to do was buy enough time to ink the skies, and then unleash the Kryll, which would consume the humans sterilizing the city as a whole.

This plan is what allowed the Locust to resume their conquest of the Jacinto Plateau. They could ink the skies approaching a town and then cover the skies of the town itself allowed the Kryll to consume it without them needing to clear out every ounce of resistance. Such a plan was immensely useful, and it allowed for Harry and Olivia to be redeployed to fight the Lambent who were still closing in on them and gaining ground with each passing day.

-Ten Years after Emergence Day-

Adam Fenix was dead. Or at least they were quite certain he was. The man had been located and he made contact with Myrrah trying to convince her to hold back the Locust attack, in exchange for his aid in defeating the Lambent. Myrrah had no intention of being dissuaded and continued with the attack, sending forces to capture Adam Fenix and force him to work on a cure.

Unfortunately, in the ensuing battle, he was lost when a helicopter crashed into his home.

It was a frustrating loss, though Myrrah had long given up any hope of Adam finding a cure, so it did not dissuade them much.

Harry and Olivia had been there for seventeen years. For Olivia, she had now spent most of her life on Sera, and almost a third of her life as a Daemon.

She and Harry spent most of their time in the Hallow holding back the onslaught of the Locust, with Harry devising new ways to counter them and cure or at least immunize the Locust. Such a thing was immensely difficult as the Locust were already partially infected with Imulsion, they just had a heightened immunity to it, so the symptoms didn't display themselves for the most part. The nature of the mutations that turned them into Locust to begin with, meant that Imulsion was part of their biology, and removing that part, would destroy them, or at least change what they were, so Harry had to get creative.

Eventually, he began to discover an answer. He continued his studied, learning from scientific manuals, as well as captured scientists and engineers who he asked RAAM to bring to him, so that he could learn from them.

In the nine years since he'd become Chief Scientist, his knowledge had grown immensely. He had perfected the serum that allowed for the Locust to control the Kryll, which actually opened up the possibility of building outposts and bases in or around Kryll nests, since the Kryll would no longer attack the Locust who were injected with the serum. They could also mentally control the Kryll forcing them to attack the Lambent, if they close by, even if this got the Kryll killed.

Harry had also devised a way to immunize some of the Locust against further infection from Imulsion, though at a cost. While he had originally been tempted to pursue vampirism as a means of immunization, he eventually turned his focus back towards Lycanthropy. He worked to perfect his own Lycanthropy, harnessing the power the shape-shift into a werewolf at will, and without the need for a full moon. Once that was done, he perfected a means of allowing certain Locust to be infected by Lycanthropy, but without being controlled by it.

Eventually he created a method to turn them, but allow them to remain in control with proper training and discipline. It actually turned out that Ukkon's Lightmass Harness System would be instrumental in this process. Taking a Locust drone, with the LHS installed, and infecting them with Lycanthropy while refined Lightmass was coursing through their veins, would cause them to evolve into a pseudo werewolf. Or more accurately a lycan-locust hybrid. These transformed Locust, were close to seven feet tall. They were massively muscular, and terrifyingly vicious.

They were more aggressive than regular Locust Drone but still bound to Myrrah's commands.

These Hybrid Locust were deployed against the Lambent to resounding success. They were immune to further infection, and fought with resounding success against the Lambent invaders. With their added size came thicker and denser flesh. They became immune to imulsion burns, and could withstand a great deal of pain and punishment. They also healed from injuries unnaturally quickly.

It unfortunately wasn't a cure-all. The procedure was dangerous. Installing the LHS was dangerous on it's own, but then the infection with the new Lycanthropy strain was also dangerous. So the survival rate was low, but the end result was a monstrously powerful Locust Hybrid, some of which were strong enough to physically overpower the Locust females, the Berserkers.

This of course, led to the birth of a new breed of second generation hybrids, who were smaller than than their first gen fathers, but just as strong and a bit quicker on average. They also had the same resistances to imulsion infection.

Harry's creations were not an immediate solution, but it quickly dawned on everyone, that he'd done it. A solution had been found. One that could at least save the Locust. While the procedure to transform most normal locust was highly lethal, the ability of the first gens to reproduce and pass on the amplifications to their offspring meant that a means of saving the species had been discovered.

Harry was celebrated as a hero for his creation. He had opened the door to salvation for the Locust people. They still had to defeat the Lambent, but now they had the ability to fight back without fear of becoming infected.

Soon the numbers of the first gen hybrids grew, until they comprised a tenth of all the Locust fighting against the Lambent.

In time, the hybrids would replace the current Locust entirely, but until then, the war raged on.

While RAAM continued the assault on the surface, Harry, Olivia, and Skorge focused on fighting the Lambent. In that time, Olivia had received another promotion, becoming a Zamil, essentially a general. The Crimson Swarm had grown to around twenty-five thousand members, which Olivia led in brutal combat against the Lambent. It was found that those who embraced the Blood God's truth, had a higher chance of surviving the procedure to turn them into Hybrids, so many of those in the Crimson Swarm, especially Olivia's personal forces that fought by her side, had underwent the augmentation. And they were all equipped with the Lightmass Harness System, making them stronger, faster, and more agile.

Fighting continued throughout the Hallow, but victory was starting to become a real possibility.

-Fourteen Years after Emergence Day-

It had happened in a heartbeat. Newly devised weapons of the COG, the Lightmass Bomb was unleashed upon the Hallow. In a blinding flash, the Outer Hallow vanished in a torrential explosion. Harry had heard that the humans were planning something, and that RAAM had been pursuing squads of Gears trying to piece together and unravel their ultimate plan, but he had no idea they had this up their sleeve.

Using the new Lightmass Bomb, they were able to detonate, large quantities of imulsion, wiping out huge swaths of the Outer Hallow, as well as millions of Locust. In the blink of an eye, most of the Kryll were wiped out, save for those special breeds that Harry kept in his labs.

Thankfully the Crimson Swarm had been spared the explosion as they were deep within the Inner Hallow, fighting the advancing Lambent.

Humanity's success also resulted in the death of RAAM, much to Harry, Olivia, and Skorge's fury, though the latter, would later admit that he had warned his old friend of this possibility years ago, as he had seen RAAM death in a vision of the future. He had warned RAAM that he would find his death on the surface, but the cunning Locust General charged forward regardless. He cared little about his mortality, and was more concerned with his success, and with carving his name into the annuls of history.

Before his death, he had made it clear to Myrrah that he supported Skorge taking his place as the new Uzil or High General in the event of his death. Out of respect, Myrrah granted that request, and Skorge became the new High General of the Locust.

Harry and Olivia were absolutely furious at the death of their friend, with Olivia practically frothing to return to the surface to find and murder the Gears who'd taken RAAM down. A group designated as Delta Squad.

Were in not for her responsibilities in dealing with the Lambent, it was doubtful anyone could have convinced Olivia to remain down below to keep up the fight.

Thankfully, something beyond imagining occurred that kept all of their focus down below. The explosion of the Lightmass bomb, awoke a creature of legend. One of the gods of the Locust, a riftworm. A gargantuan creature measuring almost ten miles in length and nearly half a mile across. These giant worms were responsible for the creation of the Hallow, and the awakening of this one, saw it begin moving once more.

This presented an opportunity. For the next several weeks, Harry worked on a means of attracting the worm to a specific location. If they could lure it in certain directions, they could use it to dig out tunnels, and specifically, they could use it to sink the Jacinto Plateau.

It was Skorge who wondered if it could then be specifically used to target and drop COG cities, and hallowing out the space beneath them, and allowing gravity and the vibrations of the worm's movements to do the rest.

So Harry devised an answer for their needs, and within weeks, they had it, a sonic resonance device that was placed onto a Kraken, used to lure the Riftworm to specific places, and specific directions.

Skorge himself, would oversee this operation

Thus, after only a few months, the Locust began their counterattack. Despite the losses they'd suffered due to the Lightmass bombing, they now had a weapon to expedite their plans. Once more they were forced to pull in their defenses, since they no longer had the forces to hold back all of the Lambent. The Locust basically retreated to the area around the Nexus, to hold back the Lambent invasion, while they slowly prepared for their evacuation to the surface. Once the plateau fell, the Hallow would be flooded by sea water, and the Lambent would drown. Now that they had the riftworm, that goal was well within reach, so it was time to prepare for their exit from Nexus.

The plan came to work. Using the riftworm, several cities were sunk, allowing for the Locust to rapidly begin closing in on Jacinto city itself. The explosion of the Lightmass bomb, had also torn large fissures in the granite plate that sat below the Plateau granting the Locust the ability to once more dig to the surface and invade many of these cities from within.

Time passed as their assault continued, until the COG launched a counter-attack of their own. Using specialized drill-pods, the COG moved to retake the city of Landown and use it as a staging ground to launch an attack into the Inner Hallow. They were partially successful.

COG attack forces pushed into the Inner Hallow, fighting their way through the Locust forces. Their attack eventually led to a confrontation with the Riftworm, which had just brought down the city of Ilima. Word reached Myrrah that it was likely Delta Squad who had accomplished the feat. Through unknown means the riftworm was killed, which while upsetting for the Locust, did little to halt their plans.

Jacinto City was on it's last legs, quite literally speaking. The fall of Ilima brought them a hairs breath away from completing the plan.

Not long after the death of the Riftworm, Myrrah got word that the COG were headed for the New Hope Research facility, and she quickly surmised their reason for doing so. While they were currently invading the Inner Hallow, they had no idea where Nexus was. So they most likely planned on going to the place where the Locust were first made, to try and find a lead on where the Locust capitol might be.

She sent forces to try and stop them, but prepared for the worst just in case. Myrrah ordered a mass exodus from the Nexus, sending the Locust almost in their entirety to either evacuate to the surface, or launch an invasion of Jacinto City. The city itself was the last major bastion of humanity on the planet, save a for a few islands and some stranded camps across the wasteland, so by taking it out, they'd remove humanity as a threat and they could safely complete their plans of sinking Jacinto and allowing the ocean to flood the Hallow.

Olivia and the Crimson Swarm covered the retreat of the rest of the Locust, holding back the tides of Lambent that pressed in on them.

Hours passed when word reached them of COG Gears being spotted near and around the Nexus. Suddenly, Gear drop-pods began descending through the ceiling above the Nexus indicating that they'd been found, and the troops Myrrah had sent, had failed.

They were in the final hours of this war, everyone could feel it.

Leading the charge into the Nexus was Delta Squad, led by Sargent Marcus Fenix, son of Adam Fenix. As the squad made it's way towards the royal palace they began to notice the absence of Locust, their numbers being surprisingly thin despite this being their capitol. They soon picked up on the Locust fighting someone other than the Gears, and began coming across dead Lambent.

It was only than, that they began to realize why the Locust were fighting so desperately on the surface. They were busy being invaded by the Lambent as well. It didn't overly change much, but they got to see another secret that took their breaths away and filled them with dread.

The squad came to a parapet and got a good look at a massive swarm of Lambent attempting to cross a bridge. Attempting because one thing stood in their way. Olivia.

The squad reacted with genuine horror when they recognized her. A monster from the early stages of the war that hadn't been seen in years. Everyone thought she was dead. Watching her move with otherworldly speed, and cut down dozens of incoming Lambent in rapid succession filled them with a new sense of urgency.

All four members of the squad knew that if Olivia caught up with them, they were dead. They had to find and kill the Locust Queen before whatever the fuck Olivia was, came after them.

They pushed their way deeper into the palace, arriving at the throne room where Myrrah was waiting, alongside Skorge, and Harry. All three of them wanted to see the son of Adam Fenix, the one responsible for RAAM's death, the one's likely responsible for killing the riftworm. These were heroes of the COG. Heroes of humanity.

"You are the first humans to desecrate this palace with your presence. I can assure you, you'll most certainly be the last." Myrrah addressed Delta squad.

"It's her." One of the member of Delta spoke.

"'That' is the Locust Queen?" Another questioned.

"I thought she was supposed to be butt ugly." Another added in.

"If you're planning on flooding the Hallow, I guess we truly would be the last." Marcus said to Myrrah.

"Yes, you will all die here, along with the Lambent." Myrrah spoke.

"Not if we flood it first." Marcus challenged her.

"Yes, Skorge informed me of your plan to Flood the Hallow before we could. It wont work. I have armies on route to Jacinto as we speak to keep that from happening, and as for you, is it true that you are the son of Adam Fenix?" Myrrah questioned the Sargent.

"What's it to you?" Fanix questioned in response.

"Nothing. It's just a shame that you did not follow his path." Myrrah noted with disappointment.

"What's that mean?" Marcus questioned.

"It no longer matters. Olivia, please be a dear and destroy them." Myrrah spoke.

At her final word, one of the glass windows above exploded, and in burst Aithon with Olivia upon his back. The monstrously large Reaver landed over Myrrah, Harry, and Skorge, standing tall on it's many tentacles. Olivia was quick to apparate down from it's back, appearing before Delta squad as all four cursed in unison and began to back away.

"You are the ones who killed RAAM?" Olivia questioned as she stalked towards them. All four raised their weapons towards her, as her eyes blazed with hellish malevolence, and her veins burned with lightmass from the LHS.

"Don't worry, you'll get to join him soon enough!" Marcus snarled at her.

"You killed me friend. I've been hoping for the chance to meet you. The legendary Delta Squad. You've all made quite the name for yourselves. That ends here. Your legend dies today." Olivia growled at them, as the teeth of her chain-spear began to rev, filling the air with a nightmarish howl of the damned to accompany the mechanism itself.

The trio watched the battle take place. It was brief, but defiant, not that any of them expected otherwise. Olivia had slaughtered tens of thousands of Gears, and countless thousands of Lambent in her life. Four on one, was nothing to her. She moved with otherworldly speed, cutting through them without mercy. Despite her rage, despite her anger, and her desire to avenge the loss she and her brother felt, she was not a creature of cruelty. Suffering was of little interest to her. Only death, only victory, only bloodshed.

The four men died fighting, they fought hard, and together, but it was not enough. The last man standing was Marcus Fenix himself. He had come far, he had accomplished much against the Locust, but when placed before a true Daemon of Khorne, he was just a mortal.

Olivia arose, splashed by fresh human blood. Harry approached her with an approving smile.

She smiled back at him, before her legs suddenly gave out, and she collapsed into a heap.

Harry panicked for only a moment before he too felt his strength flee.

"Harrison! Olivia!" Myrrah called out in surprise, moving over to the duo along with Skorge.

"What is happening!" Skorge questioned, as Olivia convulsed and her body broke apart into warp matter. As this happened, Harry felt his strength fade from his body.

He lifted his gaze to the two, offering them both a genuine smile.

"It seems we've reached our end. Our time here is over. Go… finish this." Harry said to the two.

"You are going home." Myrrah realized as she slowly knelt beside him, sadness filling her face.

"You are strong, both of you. I know you will ensure our victory. That you will ensure the Locust thrive in the new world you will build." Harry offered.

"Will we meet again?" Skorge questioned.

"Have faith. Even if we never see each other again, know that we will carry you in our hearts. Thank you for your friendship." Harry offered as Olivia faded fully from existence, and Aithon disappeared from sight, being sealed away into the Arsenal as Olivia's steed.

Myrrah hugged him gently as he faded from existence, his body coming apart into nothingness, leaving the duo alone in the throne room.

Myrrah sat in silence for many long moments before Skorge knelt and offered her his hand. She took it and rose to stand beside the priest.

She would grieve the departure of her beloved children when time permitted. For now, it was as Harrison had said, they had to finish this. Casting one final look at the corpses of Delta Squad, she and Skorge began to depart. They had come far, especially with the aid of Harry and Olivia and all the two had provided for them, now it was their time to cross the finish line.

-To Be Continued-

Alright, there's the next chapter for you guys, hope you all enjoyed it, time to head on back to Earth.