Morning had come with frantic horror. Between the giant gate that had now vanished, Mordred's proclamation and the inherent panic due to people unsure of what to do the city was in uproar. The mob demanding answers when they had no knowledge of what to do, the nobles frittering around in their lack of control.

A king who could only pretend to still be in control. When he hadn't been in control for this entire time and was only torn about by the whims of fate. But no one was looking at the King in the first place, as all eyes had fallen upon him.

Still, he had a role to play and he allowed the king to speak.

The king looked back at him pleadingly. "You forced open the gate once is it not possible to head forth and attack Mordred before he is ready."

The whispers in the room agreed, that he had stirred the hornets nest and should take responsibility and stand up and save the city. Horror and indignation intermingled because they were going to pay the price.

He let it all wash off, because Mordred had been here long ago, and their words were only a pretence. Cowards thinking he cared for their threats in the first place. "How easy to ask someone else to wander into hell when all you can do is tremble. But worry not little mortals, I already intend to fight Ragnarok once he enters this world and your entire country will not be razed to the ground. I will even let you thank me for the honour of being protected by my blade." He let the sarcasm draw thick at his words laced with contempt. "That does not mean I will enter the gate, nor do I expect to save this city."

"If you would rather I can certainly take care of those enemies within first." Retorts died to the simple act of unsheathing his scythe, the blade resting on his knee as he ran a hand along it.

Feet shuffled and countless men took a step back. They were still afraid of him right now and rightly so considering how few of them had any real armaments. "You speak such bold words and yet what have you to say. If only you had all bowed your heads and given Mordred what he wanted perhaps he would not have taken your lives you think? You would give him children first, the knights second, perhaps the poor third as more lives every time he asked as long as it was not your own."

"But the gate would always be above the city, and when Mordred opened it there would be no one left to save you. How pitiful you all are."

"Can we focus on what you need to do to save the city. If the gate opens in the same place we'll have to evacuate at least the surrounding districts." Raphael projected his voice throughout the auditorium even as he heard the rebuke in it. "If we can keep our minds on how best to save them I would prefer that."

Unlike so many others in Orianna perhaps it was true that the king really did care. But stopping Ragnarok from burning down the city wasn't a matter of will but of convection. Like bailing out the ocean with a bucket it would be an exercise in futility. "It is a flame like none you have ever seen before, mere water will do nothing to stop it. Rather than a district you should evacuate the entire city."

Silence met his proclamation. Nervous shuffling echoing out throughout the room before one voice finally answered to him. "Winter is coming, if they leave they'll just die of exposure."

Winter was coming that was true. Yet if they stayed they would die even faster, and no one would be able to prevent that.

But if none of them would suggest it then he would lead the way. Because from those early days he had seen hundreds of tiny villages used as bandit camps over the years and while it might technically cross the border into Midgar he could always ask forgiveness from Beta later. "Then if no one else will, I shall open my estate to let in those in need of a new home."

He grinned behind his mask. "For is it not every nobles duty to be able to house a few extra guests in times of need. To hear that some of you are so poor that you do not even have a guest wing or spare homes if I had known my fellow nobles were so destitute I would have found some spare change to give you."

Except he was also destitute for his chosen way of life was expensive in props and other such wonders. He gestured with a great flourish. "Nu about how many spare rooms do you think we can arrange on such notice." Hopefully she could give a good number so he could intimidate them into trying to outdo him.

Nu nodded her head in understanding. "Alexandria used to house a population of fifty thousand people and could easily do so again if we were to open the gates."

Fifty thousand. Fifty thousand in little villages sounded excessive as… oh the city in his back garden. The makeshift city in his playground was pretty big. "Who doesn't just have a few thousand rooms to spare if they need them, we are the wealthy elite are we not?"

Silence greeted his words.

But he could talk for hours if given the chance so filling it was no trouble at all. "You of course all have heard of my estate I take it, as they all say a land takes after its owner, mysterious and powerful a place filled to the brim with the kind of ancient magic known only to an existence like my own. I will take them into the Abyss Woods and grant them sanctuary therein."

Nu had stepped up to the map at the centre of the room and was looking over it. "Supply lines are already set up, use the trains to move people through to the Kagenou estate here and then use our normal supply lines to get everyone in. It will be an arduous task but well within reason." Her tone dared anyone to object and really if she thought that sounded reasonable he was going to let her do it.

He let his swagger fill his steps. "Good Nu will be in charge of organizing things, and I will send a letter explaining it." He was going to have to get Gamma a pretty big gift to make up for the fact that her private company town was going to become a city again. "In the meantime, I have other things to take care of, Mordred has left countless traps laden throughout the city, and it is my duty to help the people."

Dark corridors that seemed to stretch on forever, the echo of his own footsteps as he bounced along down through the hidden base. It was a wonderful experience and Mordred had really outdone himself when he'd built it.

Another empty room stripped bare of any essentials. Ransacked of anything of value crudely and in haste, the obvious signs of burn marks on the ground where entire reams of paper had been burned all at once.

"It seems this place is quite bare enough that I wonder whether he will truly find anything." Beside him Elaine fidgeted uncomfortably and he let her. Let her stew in her own thoughts at what awaited once they found the entire facility empty.

There would of course be no consequences.

It was the base itself that was his reward, the swish of his cloak as he traipsed through these halls all the fulfilment he needed. What would he even do if they did find Mordred's diary it wasn't like he was going to read it. He let the scythe in his hand tap against the wall as though feigning impatience even as he let his magic pulse out through it.

The first time he'd had her show him a secret door he'd felt the shape of it, and now he tapped every wall they passed. One more room, two more, three empty rooms sitting in a row. There would of course be something here, because Mordred was like him and what was a base for if you had no truly secret rooms known only to you.

He stopped spying the wall in front of him. Elaine had walked past and yet the hollow echo of magic did not lie. But where was the key to open it, nothing looked out of place and if it was just a trick of pulling

Well people travelled through here so it wouldn't have stayed secret for long. He shrugged and pulled back his arm banging on the wall harder as he felt for the echo, the hinges appearing in his mind and the shape of the lock itself.

A lock that only appeared on one side of the door, and there was no mechanism he could see to even begin opening it from this side. Even as Elaine had turned back to watch him, caught between fear and confusion.

Such a cool trick wouldn't be used to hide something boring. "This is the room I came here for, why did you think we were looking for something else."

Elaine remained silent staring at what was obviously a blank wall. His own constant tapping against it only confusing her further. But there was method to his madness as he grinned, because the lock was magically reactive in its own way, five different materials binding it but if you let your magic resonate just right.

It came loose and the door swung in. "Only when you learn to see through your magic could you find a room like this. It is truly the inner sanctum, the deepest and darkest secrets of the world that Mordred uncovered hidden from sight." He towered over the tiny little study. Rotten air creeping out from where it had been sealed too long.

Yet he did not need to breathe, and hopefully this would be a treasury and he could finally get access to the kind of funds he needed to order the construction of his own secret underground lair. The sheer scale of opulence that was only befitting of the kind of person who went to such extremes as to have a secret treasure vault.

He cleared his throat and looked at it again, willing for actual sums of money to appear rather than the single desk that sat in the centre. The walls covered in bizarre symbols set the mood it was true, they certainly had an eerie feel.

Yet the gold he wanted, the mythical treasure of which kings could only weep was in fact mythical in front of him right now. An almost empty room and a half empty bookshelf. Mordred didn't even have the decency to get a proper library to admire and think of himself as cultured.

He would still add them to his own library and turn them into a proper display piece.

Twelve books with letters etched in gold and brimming with traces of magic. Two written by an Uther and ten by Morgan, each of them ostentatious and pretty. They were not as ostentatious as the gold he wanted, but maybe to the right audience looking well read was even more expensive.

It really was a shame though. Because Morgan had numbered them right, from one to ten all in order, but Uther had left him with only volumes two and five, and a complete set would have been much more imposing on his bookshelf.

He could show them off and gloat at Gaunt about them while musing about what else he might have missed, and that was all that really mattered.

The ground shook in the distance as more and more land gave way. Like the rumblings of a great demon beginning to stir as its waking movements caused the earth to buckle and bend. He'd been tapping it in a series of shakes steadily growing more violent every few minutes, and now it had finally begun to collapse.

Homes and shops and more disappearing into the earth as the ground beneath their foundations collapsed in a series of heavy thuds. As though a great monster swam through the earth unhindered and was tearing the city apart piece by piece.

Soon there would be nowhere for anyone to run to they already whispered. A curse on this place eating it away even as the words Mordred had said filtered through from those who had been awakened in the chaos, or just hadn't fallen asleep and all knew Mordred was responsible.

In truth there was only so much that would be destroyed because he was going to run out of tunnels beneath the city to collapse. But it was a conversation with the populace, and they could never know such a thing, all they could see was that more of the city was vanishing, and wonder whether they might be next.

And when the river ran dry to their eyes, millions of litres of water sinking into the wreckage of the base while they were left with only an empty waterbed it would be natural for them to flee.

In a pinch the paths he was clearing might even serve as fire breaks and allow some of the city to survive. That they wouldn't be permanent refugees stuck waiting for their salvation for the rest of their lives. He shrugged and moved on because it wasn't something he was suited for in the first place.

All that was important was that he emptied the city before it burnt. Well and that his new constructs filled with magic could lie waiting beneath the ground. A days worth of magic stuck sitting beneath the earth for when he might need it next."

He turned his eyes back to the road in front of him, and the man leading him forward.

Now that he could see him with his own eyes Faustus looked to be in his mid-thirties and while unkempt and uncaring of his appearance the dishevelled man had at least some confidence as he led the way. It was only a small favour in the first place so it wasn't like he needed anything else.

Still after the third furtive glance the man made towards the devastation unfolding beside their path he reassured him. "It isn't coming this way in the first place so there is nothing to concern yourself with."

The silence hung in the air for a moment as Faustus looked back at him. "You don't seem as worried about stopping the devastation as you pretended in front of the king."

He was hurt, so badly that he even pretended to care. "Tragically Mordred remains one step ahead of me, the destructive power he unleashed is too much and I could not stop the devastation." And by Mordred he of course meant he was doing it himself.

He grinned. "If they will not leave their homes for the ground shaking, it will be too late when the flames arrive." He let his arms swing about even as the slime construct he was controlling in the distance ripped out more of the supports. Blood and magic and slime mixed together until it was stable, a waiting power supply just waiting to reinvigorate him when he ran out.

It was one of many, because he was filling the whole city with slime, three days worth of magic buried across the expanse for when he needed it to fight Ragnarok. But first there was still time, and this little trip wasn't going to take long.

The small house they reached at the end of the way was rustic, but then Faustus was on the run before he met them, well such an action was a crime in this world of course so it was only natural. A quick knock and he listened as a small set of feet pattered towards the doorway to let them in. Faustus looking around nervously even as his eyes lit up at the little girl once he entered.

The stench was familiar and trivial, reminiscent of the battlefield or of treatment. But first he turned to the girl who had let them in recognising the symptoms.

But even with those first symptoms it was easy enough to solve as he leaned over and flicked her forehead, a tiny surge of magic running through and fixing the problem before it ever got started. "No more symptoms for you then little girl, and I take it your sister is in the basement."

She looked between him and her father in confusion for a moment, but it didn't really matter all that much. Even as Faustus spoke from behind him. "Her as well?"

"She would have been." He shrugged calmly. "I've fixed that too at this point so lead on, or shall I just head in myself?" He wasn't going to wait for an answer either way as he headed towards the basement.

In the darkness it moved. No, she moved because they always seemed to be girls in the end. The undulating mass of rotting flesh towering over his form as he stepped in, squirming and screaming soundlessly at the pain.

Five seconds later he was done, and back out into the world to do important things.

The pillar beside him cracked further the first hint of a flame leaking through. An errant wave was enough to snuff it out and yet it had only been a day. Eta certainly thought the device shouldn't have broken that fast.

But that was why it was time now to conduct the greatest scientific experiment of today. As he stood above a nigh bottomless pit they'd dragged out of the underground complex and redirected the river until it was full.

Today was their chance to blow things up for science. Eta stood beside the pit with her own set of notes and guesses on what might happen. Watching intently as he moved into position to drop it off into the abyss.

"Are you ready."

She raised her hands in a V and nodded as she hung on the edge. With one final push the device toppled over the edge into the water below. And as the leader he had to make his prediction first. "I think we're going to see the effects of a flame even if it lacks oxygen. If it was a conventional combustion reaction being enhanced the burning world would have run out of oxygen or fuel long ago."

Eta paused and cocked her head. "No flame just the water beginning to boil due to heat." And now all that was left was to prepare the explosive that was actually going to set it off.

The water began to glow faintly blue in tiny streaks of light flickering outside the capsule. A spiderweb of blue flashes almost too faint to see stretching out through the water below them. The idea scratched at a memory he couldn't quite place which meant old Earth knowledge and something he'd never used at that.

Eta started scribbling observations even as she looked out at a number of readouts they'd hooked up to their little diving bell. "Light is non magical in nature blue flames are not unheard of but inconsistent with everything else that leaked out previously."

"A blue flame generally means more oxygen; it should have started glowing in the atmosphere like that. The pattern is wrong as well, many of them are going down deeper into the pool." The device was still holding so it shouldn't be leaking anything more than it had in the air. He tossed his thoughts around in his head for where he remembered it from. You could make the colour with impurities added to it, but it was still water.

It felt like the wrong answer.

Still there was the actual experiment to see through first. "Everything is prepared."

"All recordings in place to measure how it decays in the aftermath." Eta leaned over, even if she didn't really need to see it in person. Because more important than the result he wanted to see it explode for himself. A small explosive attached to a slime tendril fired down at their target.

Decay. The blue spiderweb patterns flickering in and out settled in his mind. Trails from decaying particles emitting light, there was a whole field of study on it when he'd looked up atomic weapons.

Eta's machine wasn't failing because the magic was overcharged but because it was inducing low level radioactive decay and making the molecules themselves unstable. Which meant that it was a world of flames because just as the Earth's core did not cool due to radioactive particles producing heat in the core, the world on the other side of the gate was a radioactive wasteland heated by fission reactions endlessly going off across its entire surface.

Below them it finally tore itself loose and the contents of their bomb ripped itself apart. His own senses stretched to the limit as he watched the water rip itself apart for a single brief moment as it seemed to collapse in on itself. A single large bubble appearing in the water where it had been. Hydrogen and Oxygen tearing themselves apart under the weight of the magic contained within.

The next instant the real world reasserted itself, the cavity in the void popping as unstable hydrogen and oxygen ions collapsed back into each other and exploded a shockwave crashing through the water below them until it reached the surface with a bang.

So how best to explain it in a way that Eta would understand it. "Similar to how Diabolos magic destabilises the flesh of those possessed, it seems Ragnarok destabilises matter itself. Ripping apart the chemical bonds for an instant before they recombine amidst the flames." He swung his hand a trickle of slime coming loose and accelerating faster enough to cause a sonic boom. "When an object moves faster than sound it produces a noise, it is firing off tiny fragments so small we can't see them that for a single instant move faster than light itself. Thus they create light."

Eta was busy writing down notes on her papers. "You think the burning world doesn't reach an equilibrium because the magic continually rips open the waste products back into their constituent pieces so it can begin burning anew?"

He nodded, "We'll call it theory one certainly. The level of destabilisation needed to create trails in water is a million times more potent than something as simple as ripping apart carbon and oxygen to let them burn again."

It was the difference between chemical reactions and nuclear reactions, the kind of output that might even make Ragnarok a worthy opponent for his own atomic power. He felt his grin widen.

Shame about the city though, so much for trying to preserve it. The people here weren't equipped to understand that radioactive fallout didn't vanish so it would be for the best if he just destroyed the entire thing.

"Eta you haven't been suffering severe headaches or anything over the last day now have you?"

She shook her head and well there were only a few trails at any moment. Their exposure hadn't been for that long, but he was going to cover himself pretty heavily for this final battle it seemed.

Gaunt stood behind him the old man having hung around long after Mordred's lair had shown no sign of having any treasure in it. "You don't seem to be searching for the key at all like the King asked, have you perhaps given up on it?"

Given up? "Nonsense I know where the key is and always have done." Mordred had taken it with him through the gate it's what he would have done. "I merely want to let him come through regardless of the rest of their wishes. Better to let the disaster come when I am prepared than to wait with it ever hanging over my head."

Gaunt settled down into his own seat across from him. "It was just an evening walk into the ruins I take it you did not waste your trip."

He pondered the sky in front of them and pulled out a book. "Yes it was quite bare as though someone else had been by before me and searched through all the rooms. I wonder what great secrets you might have found in your time old man."

Lutheran met his gaze a warm smile as fake as any emotion creeping across his face. "Ah there was nothing to find only the ramblings of a madman whose reach exceeded his grasp. Did you think Mordred held any true secrets to wisdom?"

He eyed the new books on his bookshelves. "I alone possess the real secrets hidden in this world. Still I managed to pick up some new books for my collection so it wasn't a wasted trip. A first edition copy of all the latest demonic mastermind books, I'm sure you have at least read some of Morgan's work but for him to even have a piece from Uther… I had thought such works were lost to the ages."

Gaunt eyed him across the divide feigning indifference. "I can't say I have it must have been only a minor work. Don't you know that a good book is never in short of copies to be found. For it to run out of print means no one wanted it."

He nodded. "The work in it isn't too great I admit, I think I can improve on it a lot. But still I thought you were a great fan of reading so to hear you passed off the chance to add to your library." He brushed a trace of the magic contained within towards Gaunt, enticing him with the show of just what kind of treasure he picked up.

"You haven't even read it have you?"

Of course not. Archaic books that blamed everything on demons were for ambience why would he ever bother to read them.

There was logistics to be had, the act of moving thousands of people was long and arduous even at the best of times. Given the act of wrangling possibly unwilling people and

He had departed. An Eminence in Shadow was above such things free to move behind the scenes and not bother with a boring public announcement.

Instead, he had commandeered a room and a piano all to himself. A slow and almost mournful piece calling out in his private study as all the world fell into chaos around him.

Yet he was not the only person who was free of the troubles a man of barely twenty with long black hair and garbed in the colours of a court musician hung by the doorway once more listening in. "It seems we both have free time again for the court dabbles away in the chaos and now have no time for music. I suppose a funeral piece isn't quite what they want to hear anyway."

20th century wasn't particularly new by this point but certainly when compared to Bach. "It is called Rain Tree and why not after the battle has raged through the city should not the heavens open up in response?"

Vaf cocked his head. "The tears that the world weeps for the dead, but alas it is just rain and comes and goes as it pleases. The weather outside is still sunny and it only rains in your heart it seems."

Reality could be so cruel at times, being unwilling to turn the entire world on its head for dramatic effect to cater to his whims. "Yet the rains will come in a few days and the horrors inflicted on this city will be washed away."

"Would you like a bet on it? Too often I think history pictures the end of a city as a dark and stormy night. But armies march on bright and sunny days and so that is how most cities would seem to die."

He cleared his throat. "Dust in the air makes it easier for water droplets to coalesce, and hot air rising is the perfect way to build a cloud. The burning city itself will become the catalyst for the rains to come."

He got a laugh out of it. "I would think you come from Laugus with that explanation, not Midgar. Although perhaps you should go there, this place is not long for the world no matter how we might try to save it. It is beyond the works of mortal men I think at this time so I'm actually wondering why you stayed?"

"I seem to be neither a fighter nor a planner, but I can still give this city one last song. Perhaps I will still be here later watching the chaos unfold." There was once a Roman Emperor who had supposedly continued playing even as Rome burned around him and that was a wonderful aesthetic to aspire to. "There is a beauty that exists in seeing it for the last time knowing it is going to disappear."

Even if it was morbid Vaf seemed to understand as he smiled back. "Truly there is a beauty in the ephemeral and transient, although I find that most people I meet are rather more disturbed when they find out that means lives and cities as well."

"Who wouldn't want to be immortal, to last long enough to see all the empires of the world fall would be such an interesting sight to see."

They bantered back and forth for a while longer, until the door opened once more.

"To think even the jewel of the night, the most famous musician in Orianna would be so bereft of suitors that she would have time to hang out with us. I would think I was unworthy of standing next to the musician who wrote the Minute Waltz." Vaf gave an insincere clap.

Three a whole crowd in one room to listen to him play.

Epsilon smiled sweetly back at his new friend without the slightest care for his words. "You're right you really aren't worthy to stand next to the composer of the Minute Waltz, feel free to leave."

Well even if they hated each other that was fine as he hummed to himself and returned to his piano in front of him. Even as Vaf seemed to take amusement at her words. "Ah but with the chaos unfolding aren't we all in the same boat, thrown aside even a genius is getting left behind how tragic to have nothing to do."

Epsilon's voice was sickly sweet as she spoke. "You have nothing to do how tragic. Do you not care for anyone's music but your own I think you'll find that other musicians are going around preserving and taking as much of Orianna's history with them as they go. Only a fool thinks the music should burn along with the city."

He felt that. Hadn't paid any attention to what the others around were playing in his entire time here. All the music he was good at playing were things he'd taken from Earth long ago anyway, maybe he should have paid more attention to the local scene. But he had more important things to do. "A wonderful thing that some people in this world at least appreciate history."

Vaf chimed in. "A shame that you've come to this place, where we have only the most avant-garde musicians who've never read any of it. Perhaps you are lost little girl."

Should he be stepping between them. But Epsilon only kept the same smile on her face. "I know exactly why I'm here thank you, I was planning to try out a few pieces of music I managed to recover to see how they played." She eyed the piano.

She eyed his piano, his precious piano that he was spending time here whiling away the hours on. Surely there were other rooms and other pianos she could take now that she realised this one was full.

But it wasn't like he could scold her. She was his friend and just this once he'd humour her for maybe one or two songs as she put down a sample of sheet music in front of him.

It was a four-hand piano piece sitting in front of him. Epsilon entirely unperturbed as she smiled down at him. "Would you play this piece alongside me?"

Oh, like playing it with two people. The way that four hand piano pieces were meant to be played from the very beginning. It wasn't any different from when he'd taught her to play a few of his pieces back in the day so really it was like nothing had changed.

That they were still two friends sitting side by side like all those years ago. "Very well." He shuffled over in his seat to give her space to sit down. "Have you played any four hand pieces before."

She pushed right up against him as she sat down, to the point he could feel the slime pressing against him. "This will be my first time, it wouldn't do for me to play with just anyone."

It wasn't the fastest piece he'd ever seen. Kind of slow for being a four hand piece actually but that was probably for the best. "Then let us begin."

The shadows stretched out around him straining against his mind for but a moment, until he let them bubble up out of the surface, the siren song becoming clearer as the nightmare took form. "How wretched your memory must be maggot that you desire to remember Uther fondly at times like this."

It was a bitterly fond tone, the kind of mocking that could only come from a friend who knew you well and understood you best. "Uther was such a good friend although I suppose as a demon you never had one in the first place. To be bereft of all such understanding how pitiful you must be to lack even fondness for the departed."

A dark chuckle emanated from the darkness. "Such an innately human thing you think of it, but why should I care for the insects I kill. Is it not a show of how deranged you are that you fake such pity."

"Pity, Uther was truly brilliant an inspiration that pushed my limits and saw past the everyday drudgery of the serfs around us. An artist that made the lives of mortals as his canvas and played melodies with their screams. He blazed a trail for no one else spent as much time watching the way humans break as you bind demons to their flesh." He had even used their collaboration to finish off the touches that had allowed him to truly bind Diabolos heart to his own will. "He was truly one of the greatest we ever had."

"Do you not remember that you killed him. Watched laughing after sabotaging his attempt to fuse with Ragnarok and stood by idly as Albion tore him in half. Your memory must be crooked and broken to think of him as a friend."

His own step grew lighter as he stepped free of the shadows. "It is because you fester so that you were always so bitter, Uther is only a memory so what of it if I only remember the laughter. There is no need to resent him now that he is gone."

The laugh followed him out. "Yet you let Mordred take the step forward, he will take Ragnarok's power and maybe even grow strong enough to seize your throne. Does that not worry you little mortal."

He pondered it for a moment and laughed. "Ragnarok is powerful, so much so that if you combined his strength with Uther's brilliance there would be no one in this world that could have faced them. But Mordred is no Uther, merely a charlatan scrabbling at the feats of his betters. Even if he survives these next few days he will still only be a Mordred and I can certainly deal with such a thing."

Loki walked the halls of Midgar academy invisible to any who might look. It was not the invisibility of a technique, the control of magic that would leave him unseen or some nefarious mind control that forced others to turn their gaze aside.

He had such tricks of course but while they would fool humans they might attract the gaze of the dragon, and that was a far more daunting task.

It was the pallid and mundane invisibility of a man who looked like he belonged, the crisp uniform of Midgar academy adorning the flesh of this clone was a normal sight to behold. The presence of just one more student who no one even knew to look for as missing.

An almost listless gait, half hearted and carefree in no rush to go anywhere. It was the perfect disguise in a place none would bother to look as he made his way through.

"I'm so glad you're back I'd been really worried you'd been taken in and tortured again. There were rumours you know, and I was starting to look a little lost all on my own." The voice was supposedly his friend, a wretched and worthless wastrel with no redeeming features. But then could he be considered worse than some of the sycophants that normally surrounded him? Of course not, for the lives of mortals were all wretched as they prayed for his salvation.

"I can't believe he just up and left you thanks to a tiny bit of good fortune. To think that was all our friendship was worth but I'm back now and even if it's just the two of us we'll take on the world." He left a hand on his 'friends' shoulder in support as though that was all that was needed. The real bearer of his current face had also left the brat behind so maybe he was just truly worthless.

He got a smile in return, from a sheep who never knew he was being deceived and could barely comprehend the truth. "You're right we still have the two of us, so even if we didn't get a miracle of luck like Skel if it's just the two of us we can keep going right Cid. With all the nobles disappearing we're both just one chance away from becoming more important in our own right and then we'll have everything."

He grinned back, "Yes this isn't a catastrophe but a chance to make our fortunes, all those toppled fortunes just waiting for an adventurous noble like ourselves stepping up to take advantage of them."

Po even believed him, the pathetic wretch that he was.

Darkness veiled the three of them as only a handful of candles were needed. There could be no doubt because the three of them understood him best. Had known him for the longest and learned everything from him.

Alpha took the lead. "The imposter is obvious, blatantly incapable of acting with the same majesty that our lord conducts himself. But therein lies the question, do we watch them while unaware or is it best to take them in right away."

Beside her Beta and Gamma sat fury covered by a veneer of professionalism considering the seriousness of the issue. "Disrupting one of the few chances he has to experience a normal life is unacceptable."

Beta shuffled the papers in front of her. "The school itself is a vital part of our defence though, our lord was investigating the seven mysteries of the academy which originated from a dark and powerful magic sealed with the depths of the school."

Alpha looked between the two of them. "This city has been left in our care, it's time to show them what that means."

A city in ruins stretched out beneath his feet. From toppled spires crashing down to the ruined roads torn apart as the ground moved. But it was more than the devastation he'd unleashed that had brought it to ruin, more than any physical damage could hope to show.

"Look upon my works ye mighty and despair."

To the silence in the capitol as the last song the city would ever hear had already been played. He had played it a requiem for a graveyard to soon vanish from the world. The hollowed out walls held no words nor cries as though he'd killed the city itself.

He stood taller looking down on the corpse. For as the last one left he would be ruler of all he surveyed, and once he came out in triumph it would be a desert called peace that would remain. "Still it is the path I chose and so I won't regret such a thing even if the world ends up condemning me for it."

That kind of cool aesthetic was what it was about.

"Even if the world itself cannot understand your good intentions, we will stay by your side." Zeta spoke from the far end of the rooftop coming over to stand beside him. "Even if it is into the abyss I will follow you until the end."

He felt through his senses. The magic he'd littered in deposits of slime waiting to be used. A maze of tricks and traps to disappear while Mordred would have to smash his way through. Secret passages carved into the underground in place of Mordred's base.

"Then let us show Mordred that there are still deeper secrets hidden in the shadows, that he only scrabbles at the surface while I have stared deep into the abyss itself."

The door opened, a boy not finished growing entering the cell in which she was held. But the gaze did not belong to a boy, and the magic and power radiating around him reminded her of her father. "You will get nothing from me by torture."

It wouldn't change her fate, but Freya felt she may as well admit it first.

"Oh." A tinge of amusement fell in the tone a calculating gaze watching her. "I think you will find that the plans I have for you are indescribable."

Even if she only had power over her own body right now it was enough. The chill freezing her in place as she felt the nerve endings die and she felt nothing once more. "Do your worst."

He flourished a hand and the clothing he wore seemed to ripple, even as his hand cupped her chin for a moment, a single tendril of power latching on to the chains binding her. The shade of the Witch of Catastrophe dragged out until she rested calmly on his shoulder.

Life flowed into the Witch of Catastrophe's shade in front of her eyes and her body grew whole even as the man turned to the witch. His voice only for the demon in front of her. "The twilight of the Gods is upon us, so I thought I would empower a catastrophe of my own my lady, that I would lend you power to manifest yourself in exchange for your aid in the battle ahead."

"Do you intend to use the last of Olivier's limbs as well then. You've gone through all four of them pretty fast haven't you." They had already broken the sanctum guarded by her friend, and now she too had fallen. Perhaps soon they would release them all.

"Sacrifices have to be made." The boy smiled. "The leg I've left with Nu, with instructions for if she should need it. From you all I require is to hold a few spells in place to pass them to me when they're done. I can handle the rest of the show myself."

She choked as she stared from her restraints in horror. "She is Diabolos a demon capable of slaughtering entire nations." Noone who knew who she was could ever choose to stay by her side.

The boy looked at her, and then back at Diabolos herself. "But my heart has already fallen into the darkness of the abyss, a fallen angel walking the path of depravity so even a demon is fine too. You will find there are no depths I am unwilling to sink to in my quest for power."

Anger would not help her so she supressed it. Alongside everything else she might feel as dispassionate as the ice that ran through her veins. "To help her will bring disaster beyond anything you might imagine, you will be a traitor to humanity itself bringing only slaughter upon humanity."

Emotionless eyes met her own. "A traitor you say to humanity itself?" The man nodded his head in place as a warm smile lit up his face. "But doesn't that merely suggest that I am a human in the first place."

A single hand reached up and unhinged his jaw, even as what had looked like clothes morphed on his form. Arms unhinging from their sockets and the entire body growing into a thin skeletal form that towered over her.

The childish amusement gone as the deeper booming voice left her spine shivering even through her magic. "Human is just a form I like to wear, I think you will find my true name is Nyarlathotep a demon from beyond the outer gate. A pleasure to meet you little hero though I fear you would not approve of my plans."

Diabolos herself was laughing at her. A hand covering her face as she stifled her giggles that all she had to say would only fall on deaf ears.

He grinned. "This form is just one that I took from a foolish mortal, can you imagine a single child so confident as he entered the gate, caught in the abyss trapped at the behest of a monster. He screamed before I devoured him and now I wear his flesh like the prize it is."

She gritted her teeth and steeled herself. "We will stop you, just like the last incursion."

"You are welcome to try." He stepped back and left, taking the shade wrapped up in his cloak.

AN: The study Cid found belonged to the long dead Morgan Le Fay, so tragically Mordred had never read any of those books either. Rejoice Cid your newfound paperweights contain actual knowledge and you have successfully failed to read them.

There is not a specific piece in mind for what I had Epsilon play with Cid, but theme wise it's a love song, and that is all that matters. I kind of think I possibly should have expanded it but didn't know where to take it much further. My lack of piano experience is showing.

My transitions between sections were awkward here, and I probably should move some segments around to get it to flow better. I wanted a Rose scene, so next chapter at the introduction of the fight should have a Rose scene, otherwise she will be feeling left out. But the last scene was absolutely fun to write so it has that going for it.

Well next chapter is the climatic finale of this arc, so yay Ragnarok fight which I have surprisingly large amounts of planning done for.

Lie48: Aurora is our last Shadow Garden member taking part Alpha will be getting scenes soon though.

Aniisomeone: Delta and Pi will give any information they have to anyone who Cid calls friend.

This only isn't a massive security risk because

a) They don't remember anything important

b) They have almost no friends outside Shadow Garden

Alpha wishes they would remember Clearance levels as a concept but has given up on trying to teach them.

Iris: She would never be a full Shadow Garden member, but the full decision for what I will be doing with her is set to be answered after the Earth arc. Just because I do not quite plan that much.

Fateful Twilight: You will be getting more Aurora congratulations.