The Exile was here. Strongarm would leave Holfort, and find it a very different place when he came back.

Many people would suffer in his absence, especially Olivia and Prince Julius.

Huan Strongarm: A Bartfort Folktale, by Lufas Maphaahl

Sounds of battle and savagery echoed above them as Leon battled the swarm of dragons, his snarls almost drowned out by their roars. "Don't think about it," said Angie firmly. "Focus on the task at hand."

Elodach backed away slowly as the main characters surrounded him; Livia had climbed back down to join them, and had Pietru perched on her shoulder. "You should think about this!" His voice was becoming shrill with panic. "I… I am the Master of Nightmares! Don't think that I won't-"

He shrieked as Angie and Brad began to assail his barrier with magic, cowering behind his remaining UnFae. The cocoon was still pulsating in the corner, and with Gromaides down for the count he was more or less helpless even with the regeneration of a semi-immortal. He wracked his brain for a means of escape.

Then he looked at the tortured form of Gromaides. Inspiration struck.

"Gromaides!" Elodach declared. "When you evolved into this new stage, you did it by merging with the wall of this cave! Now I command you to evolve to yet new heights - by fusing with me! Give me your powers, my Warmother!"

Their eyes widened and they redoubled their efforts, but they couldn't penetrate the barrier in time. Gromaides gave a last, tortured groan as its flesh began to bubble; its flesh began to swirl through the air like something between a liquid and a gas, flooding mercilessly into its master's mouth. Elodach began to scream as it poured into him, transforming him into something new and horrifying.

When it was done he had become something alien, his huge, muscled body exploding out of his filthy robes. His flesh had become ribbed and rubbery, and he no longer had any genitalia they could see. His neck had disappeared as his head merged with his torso, sloping into a bizarre dome shape. Two bizarre rib shapes came up from his shoulders, acting as natural armour for his face.

"Behold!" Elodach declared. "I have evolved! Transcended! I am now the very first… Stage 3 Warmother!"

The wind was completely taken from his sails as a lone Fatalis plummeted through the wide open ceiling, landing stone dead in the middle of the floor. A large wolfdog stood atop the corpse, draconic blood dripping from his jaws.

They suddenly realised that the sounds had stopped. The dragons - every single one of them - were gone.

For the first time since their first meeting, Leon and Elodach looked each other in the eyes. The mutant flinched as the wolfdog's mouth warped into a nightmarishly human grin.

"Did not know what he was fucking with."

Leon lunged, biting off a chunk of the wall as Elodach barely dodged out the way; the semi-immortal was entirely unprepared for how high he could jump. Jilk took the chance to shoot at him, but the bullets bounced harmlessly off his rubbery flesh. "Puny humans! You dare challenge me?"

He dashed at the love interests with dazzling speed, and would have turned them into roadkill if Leon hadn't tackled him away. The wolfdog managed to grab him by the arm, but lost his grip when he jumped again and slammed them both into the cave wall.

"Insolent cur!" Elodach snarled, which Leon decided was an ethnic slur. He began to float ominously into the air. "Eat this!"

He rapidly thrust his palms forward, unleashing a rain of energy blasts straight out of Dragonball Z; Leon raced around the circumference of the room to avoid them, while Livia protected the others with a barrier of white magic. "Your aim is terrible!" she shouted. "No wonder nobody takes you seriously!"

"How dare!" Elodach floated to the ground, posing as if he were about to launch an honest-to-god kamehameha. "Die, you worthless peons!"

An actual fucking hadoken launched from his hands, but Leon made no move to intercept it; Livia dropped her barrier as Brad stepped up, a magical disc appearing over his left wrist. "Reflect!" Elodach screamed as the hadoken bounced back, hitting him in the chest and cratering him into the far wall. "Aha!" Greg cheered. "Got him!"

Their smiles faded as Elodach once more began to mutate, somehow becoming even less human than he was before: he had become a mound of flesh supported by tiny insectoid legs, covered all over in black chitin and red tubes. Two heads sprouted from each end, looking vaguely humanoid with blank red eyes and teeth like needles.

"I'm going to kill you," the monstrosity croaked. "I'll kill you all!"

Despite its tiny, ridiculous legs the creature was somehow able to jump around like Mario Jumpman Mario, forcing the bipeds to scatter to avoid being squished. One of the heads extended at the end of a long neck, snapping furiously at the Prince.

With his sword gone, Julius was forced to block with his ancient shield; despite its age it stopped the monster in his tracks, though he was pushed helplessly against the wall. "Guys! Help!"

Angie swooped in, plunging the Shard Sword into the monster's neck. It squealed and withdrew, flailing wildly as it spit orbs of red and blue energy that annihilated everything they touched. She launched a hail of fire spears that destroyed any that may touch them, leaving Brad and Livia to destroy the others.

"You worms!" Elodach howled. "You insects! I command you to stop!" His other head had a far longer neck, coiling flexibly around the entire cave. He began snapping furiously at the various bipeds, only for Leon to fasten his teeth around his neck and bite clean through it. Elodach screamed as the head was severed, the remaining length whipping back and forth as it spewed green blood in all directions. "You mongrel! You worthless fucking dog!"

"Ha! Castration metaphor!" Leon smacked his chops, his tail sinking between his legs in disgust. "Why do you taste like silly string?"

Yet again the abomination began to mutate, his body dissolving into dozens of floating heads. They hovered in the centre of the room in a sphere, spitting a constant stream of hate and vitriol from every mouth.

"Oh!" Leon's eyes widened as the penny dropped. "Colonel Bahamut! You're ripping off Colonel Bahamut from Hard Corps! I thought this seemed familiar!" His tail wagged cheerfully. "That was really starting to bug me!"

The sphere began bouncing wildly around the room, the heads dancing wildly as they continued to scream obscenities. The more they moved the more the centre of the sphere became visible: a floating, beating heart that acted as the centre of the organism. "The heart!" Greg roared. "Aim for the heart!"

Angie, Jilk and Brad unleashed a barrage of ranged attacks, but were unable to penetrate the outer layer of the sphere. "His defences are too strong!" Angie shouted. "We need a plan!"

"Haven't you heard?" Greg grinned savagely. "Breaking through defences is my new specialty! Just hold him still!"

Leon filled the room as he grew to colossal size, catching the sphere of faces in his jaws; they immediately began to thrash and writhe, threatening to escape at any moment.

With a battlecry, Greg plunged the Robber King into the side of the sphere: almost immediately the durability of its defence began to wane, the thrashing of the heads weakening as his weapon worked its magic. "It's working! Someone attack the heart!"

Chris unleashed a Fire Arrow from the Sword of Spirits; by now he was accurate to an almost surgical degree, the projectile slipping through the narrowest gap in the heads to hit the heart like a bullseye. "Yes! Who has no long ranged attacks now?"

Every head screamed at once, exploding from Leon's mouth to spin around the wounded heart like a twister. The wolfdog tried to brute force his way inside, but his face was almost shredded by the high speeds. "Well…" he grumbled. "Now what?"

Pietru flapped her wings and roared, a blast of freezing air launching from her tiny body. Within seconds the tornado of heads was frozen in place, creating what was easily the world's most unsettling ice sculpture. "Whoa," she coughed. "So I have ice breath now? I was trying to laser the fool!"

"You're a Toa Tesukatora," explained Leon. "Don't ask me why. Ice is your thing now."

"Will my horns ever grow back?"

"Iunno, maybe- Whoa! What the-"

Earis and Guts had dramatically entered the fight, jumping off the giant wolfdog's back and lunging for the frozen monstrosity. Lionslayer and Dragonslayer cut through it simultaneously, creating an enormous, X-shaped gash. "Hey," said Guts calmly. "How're y'all doing?"

Elodach exploded into a hurricane of fire, causing everyone to scream and back away; when the flames died down the heads were gone, apparently having been burnt away by the blaze. All that was left was his heart, still stubbornly beating as it lay there on the stone floor.

The final UnFae ran out from the corner where it had been hiding, scooping up the heart and cradling it protectively to its chest. "You will not hurt the master!" It hissed malevolently, but at least had the good sense to back away.

The enormous wolfdog, the two guards, the two girls, the five love interests and the tiny Elder Dragon surrounded it menacingly. "Give it up," growled Julius. "You have no more allies left."

The UnFae's lips twisted in an ugly grin. "That's not true." It pointed with one unnaturally long finger. "You missed a spot."

Slowly, the pulsing cocoon began to hatch. A large green claw tore its way through the sticky webbing, the new Warmother clawing its way into the world with a garbled snarl. It was approximately the size of a horse, with a muscular, quadrupedal frame and slimy green skin. It had gleaming white fangs and beady yellow eyes, with a strange, quivering crest atop its head.

No one noticed, but the moment it emerged the crippled Elodach became able to see through its eyes. As it looked at the wolfdog and his allies, its eyes came to rest on a wooden box: it had dropped out of the fairy's hands after she was teleported in, falling open to reveal the glimmering Prism within.

A final, desperate plan was born.

Leon panicked as it lunged at his friends. "No!" In his panic he forgot to shrink, his head cracking against the low ceiling. "Moz!"

His bracelet shone as Sir Onemore morphed into the form of a knight, throwing himself in front of Livia with his shield up. The freezing axe spun towards the new Warmother; it missed when the bizarre reptile feinted, ducking around the fairy to snatch up the Prism in its jaws.

"The Cullis Gate!" Livia screamed. "He's trying to escape through the Cullis Gate!"

The UnFae and the Warmother ran for the ancient monument, dropping the Prism into an indentation on the plinth; instantly the Cullis Gate hummed to life, blazing with the same white light that had teleported the main characters into the cave. There was a flurry of movement, and then it was over.

Leon, Pietru, Moz and the axe had reached the portal first, being either faster or closer than anyone else. The white light swirled as it prepared to transport everyone on the platform… and at the last second the UnFae had jumped away.

When the light faded, they were gone. The wolfdog, the Elder Dragon, the knight, the axe and the Warmother had all been warped away, gone to parts unknown.

It happened so suddenly that they couldn't immediately grasp what had happened. It was Livia, the fairy, who understood first. Already, her eyes began to sting with tears. "Leon?"

Then the UnFae threw a knife at the Prism, shattering it with a blinding flash. In one swift movement the Cullis Gate was rendered inoperable, permanently destroying any hope of Leon Fou Bartfort's return. But it wasn't until the dancing spot faded from their eyes that they realised how bleak things truly were.

"Where's the UnFae?" Earis blinked.

"Where is His Highness?" Jilk whispered.

"Where is Livia?" Angie screamed.

Far away, Livia and Jules found themselves transported to a dark room. "Where are we?" The Prince's voice was shrill with fear; he held up his shield, wishing desperately that he carried a spare weapon. "Were we teleported again?"

"Over there!" Livia shouted. The UnFae was standing in the shadows, its luminous eyes watching them as Elodach's heart slowly pumped in its hands. It flipped a switch on the wall, creating a glowing, transparent wall of light between them and it.

They were in a prison cell.

"Where the hell are we?" Julius demanded, slamming his shield against the barrier; with every strike it sparked, jolting him back with a burst of electricity. "What the hell did you do?"

The UnFae ignored him, turning and placing the heart on a plinth opposite the cell. A glass cylinder rose up around it; once it reached the ceiling it filled up with viscous liquid that suspended the heart at head height. The structure lit up around them, flashing dials and panels covering every available surface.

If Leon were there, he would have remarked on how incredibly futuristic the location was.

An enormous tv screen winked on above the cylinder, displaying a grainy image of Elodach's face that constantly blurred in and out of focus. "Finally," he sighed. "At last, I am able to interact with the world around me once more. Thank the Saint this tank doubles as a control module."

"How are you still alive?" Livia demanded. "You're a semi-immortal! You should have died as soon as your head was destroyed!"

He scoffed contemptuously. "Are you perhaps blind? Did you not see me merge with Gromaides? See me ascend to become something new and beautiful?"

"I saw you become an ugly two-ended dildo, if that counts." This was such a snarky thing to say that Elodach actually paused to check if Julius was actually Strongarm in disguise.

"My resilience is now beyond your imagination. Now, I can regenerate from so much as a single cell!" Once again, Elodach was wildly overestimating himself. "This device shall soon resurrect me to my full glory, just as it did after Strongarm reduced me to my head!"

Livia looked around, curious despite herself. "What is this place? Where are we, and how did we get here?"

"This is a cache of Lost Technology I discovered in the Holfort wilderness. It is, and always has been, my true stronghold. If only that accursed dragon hadn't chased me away, I would never have left!" Elodach muttered to himself, apparently resenting Pietru as much as Leon. "As for how you got here, I am a semi-immortal, a Warmother, trained in holy magic and the foremost scholar of fairy artefacts. Do you really think I could not do something so simple as harness the energies of the exploding Prism to perform a short-range teleport?"

"No," said Livia honestly. "If I'm being honest I never thought you were particularly competent at all."

"Same," nodded Julius.

"Honestly, the Warmothers are the real threat. You're just a bully on a power trip."

She was expecting this to get to him. It did not. "Are sure you want to taunt me, little girl?" There was an undertone of amused cruelty in his voice, as if he knew something she didn't. For the first time she had met him, Livia found Elodach genuinely frightening. "Now? When you yourself have given me the means to bring Holfort to its knees?"

A sick feeling gathered in the pits of their stomachs.

"The thought came to me on the morning of the day before last, when I was first transformed into a semi-immortal. When I cast the Zone of Truth on Strongarm, he told me that you were a fairy and would one day become the next Saint. I asked myself then: was the Saint, worshipped for so long by my own Temple, actually a fairy herself? And if she was, could she possibly be still alive?"

"No," whispered Julius. "That's not… That's just not possible!"

"Why not?" Elodach gloated. "Every UnFae under my command has been created with the Harp of Dreams; tell me, do you know of the Harp's true purpose?"

Livia looked at the mark on her right hand as she thought back to the dream in Canaria, wherein she had met Silver, the Witch of Snow. "It… It has the power to control dreams, but-"

"And who would have needed such power? It was the Saint herself, mad with longing for her dead human lover: she strummed its strings herself, basking in visions of her lost love until her transformation was complete."

"Holy fuck!" Jules croaked. He looked like he was going to be sick. "She… She was an UnFae! The Saint was actually, actually an UnFae!"

"They both were," the screen hissed. "Did you really spend so much time around the White Dragon without learning the truth?"

Livia got it first. "The Twin Saints," she whispered. "Julius, there were two Saints! Sisters! And they were both… they were both in love with…"

"The same man!" Elodach cackled. "Both yearned for him, both sought comfort in the Harp of Dreams and both were warped into unkillable monsters! But the Temple could not make this public: they worshipped them as gods, after all. So instead they locked them up, sealing them underground in an endless, deathless hell!"

"And you want to find them." Livia remembered a conversation with Leon as they were preparing to leave Canaria, who had himself been recalling a discussion with Pietru. A discussion about the possible consequences of Elodach getting his hands on a fairy of her calibre. "Archqueens," she whispered. "You want to turn them into Archqueens."

She could tell from his preening chuckle that he liked that name even more than the Warmothers. "Precisely. Two perfect warriors, birthing an invincible legion of horrors that are mine alone to command. But first, I must locate their tomb. And you, Oliviadarinellavanda, are going to help me find it."

Livia looked ready to spit fire there was so much hate in her eyes. "Why on earth would I help you?"

Both teenagers shrieked as the screen suddenly did a grotesque closeup of Elodach's eye. "The Harp of Dreams, you see, is a truly wondrous device. At first, it was meant merely to control dreams; though dreams, a new power was discovered. Prophecy."

Their faces went blank. "Prophecy?" Jules repeated. "So… So you're going to make Olivia…"

"I shall bind her to the Harp," whispered the semi-immortal. "The dreams she shall pluck from its strings will lead me to the tomb. To my Archqueens. And when they are mine she will fill the minds of the worthless peons of Holfort with nightmares. Nightmares that will herald the arrival of my final ally. My third and final Archqueen."

Livia remembered the alien scorpion that had attacked them on the way to the Blood Barrier. The poisonous lizard that she had glimpsed while half-conscious. The creature that Elodach had named Gromaides. Elodach himself.

That was what she would become. Only worse.

She began to cry.

The screen switched to a closeup of his horrifying grin. "As for you, Julius Rapha Holfort; you shall be my hostage, my shield against the dogs of King and Hierophant. You shall buy time until my final Warmother is ready to hatch."

The beating heart began to erupt with ethereal white thread; it phased through the walls of the glass cylinder and wrapped around the final UnFae, encasing it in a glistening cocoon. Slowly, it began to pulse.

"Now we wait," breathed Elodach, almost high on the promise of victory. "When my final Warmother hatches it shall replenish my army. It shall bring you to the Harp of Dreams, where your transformation into my vassal shall begin. You shall lead me to the tomb. To my Archqueens. And the world will be mine for the taking."

Serbia and the Circle saw all of this, still watching the screen in the Sanctum below the temple. She turned it off as Elodach diverted his attention to petty maintenance of his base, as clearly there was nothing left to see.

"Sir Ammund?"

"Your Holiness?"

"Initiate Project Eden."

Each member of the Circle - Sir Ammund of Osaan, Jerve the Elder, Tyraon the Wise and more - clasped the medallions given to them on their induction into the secret group. A gentle white light emanated between their fingers, causing each one to disappear in turn.

The light spread outwards in a dome, enveloping every priest in the Temple. Amas the Theologian - long lost brother of Sister Miala of Canaria - let out a piercing cry as it swallowed him up.

It spread into the Crown District, devouring Zefnat the Scholar as he fretted over his books, Humbus the Rat Catcher as he fretted over his daughter and Torras the Jeweller as he fretted over his wares. It even swallowed Goodwife Dama and her husband Pomporo as they turned in for the night, as well as Torvel and his players as they performed on stage.

Then it reached the palace.

"I feel like you're overreacting," said Erica dryly. Mylene had taken her to the highest tower in the palace after seeing the Makili Pietru's ultimate attack, just in case the violence reached the city. The Queen stood at the top of a long flight of stairs, with Leon's friend Iven at her side.

"I know I'm overreacting," she dithered. "But it's better to be safe than-"

The light reached them, having by then swallowed up everyone else in the palace. Before her eyes, Mylene's daughter vanished.

"Erica! Erica, where are you?"

Iven stopped her from rushing in; the light had stopped just before reaching them, as if they were just outside of its maximum range. "Your Majesty," he said urgently. "Look out the window."

The Queen gasped. The light was spreading over the city like a great tide, swallowing up every living thing in its path. "What… the…"

It had now reached Burcan's Island. It swallowed up Krys the Lantern Maker, who had crafted the Stonefire Lanterns. It swallowed up Gaston Mercer the Tailor, friend of Guts and Earis who had been conned by Cerval. It swallowed up Bibrus the Bookseller, lover of Torvel. It swallowed up Agilo the Merchant as he stopped by the square, and even Livia's entire family: Jarl, Cattleya and even little Rana.

It reached the Old City, swallowing up Ivas the Gambler, Gebbin the Pawnbroker, Leon's friend Aravind and every guard and inmate in the entirety of the Keep.

Roland was outside the city gates as it approached. The Great Ragneli saw what was coming and fled at top speeds, hiking up his robes like a skirt. It continued to creep onward, devouring the denizens of the outskirts. Not even the docks were safe, leaving only Durgan the Sailor untouched at the end of the furthest jetty. Eddy panicked and ducked into the waterway, while the Lao-Shan Lung straight up fled.

Then it stopped, and disappeared. All that was left was Roland, his men and Ragneli as he vanished into the distance. Everyone else was gone.

"What in the name of…" Roland entered the empty city, his men following with weapons drawn. The streets were dead silent. There was not a soul to be seen.

Everyone was gone.

A grate flipped open by the side of the canal, and out stepped Pippin. With him came Caesar, Casca, Judeau, Corkus and Rickert. They were underground, and thus spared. They walked through the streets, mystified at their emptiness.

"Where is everybody?" Judeau asked.

Everyone was gone.

"Hey, you!" They had been spotted by Roland, who ran to meet them. "Didn't I send you after my son? Where is he?"

Zane and his men watched the phenomenon from the hills, their eyes wide with almost religious horror.

Princess Liliana saw it from the deck of her ship, but by then they were too far away and the captain refused to turn back.

The Ulsadana, the six Elders, the Keeper of Lore and the Guardian of the Stone Portal watched from the gates of Saanavarh, then returned inside and locked them behind them. The Wolf Siege had begun.

Abbot Laurent, the Prioress, the Chamberlain, the Cellarer, the Keeper of the Gate, the Master of Arms, the Master of Keys, Brother Eamon, Brother Wid, Novice Sama, Sister Miala, Sister Bilan and all the other monks watched from the woods around Thasch Mountain. Quietly, they disappeared into the trees.

In the distance, an army of Orks left the Blood Barrier. With no Dragon Reaper left to hold them in check, they were free to sound their war drums once again.

The last living being in the Temple, Serbia took a deep breath before leaving the Sanctum. She quietly locked it behind her, walking with strong strides in search of Iven and Mylene.

All of Holfort was sleeping. They would sleep, and they would wait.

For the return of Huan Strongarm.

End of Part 3 of 5