Once the Braxian general had been defeated, the party had some time to gather their wits.

‘Alright, now what do we do?’ Horatio said, sheathing his sword, looking out over the barren, monster-dotted landscape of Braxia.

‘Now,’ said Ceres, ‘we must head to wherever the Braxians have taken the Clarent Sword, to get it back from them. Isn’t that right, Alex?’

Alex did not reply.

‘Alex?’ Ceres asked again.

They looked round for him.

‘He’s gone,’ announced Silvia. ‘Classic thief move–slipping away without anyone else noticing, while we were busy.’

‘Damn it,’ said Primus. ‘He must have snuck off while we were fighting all those monsters and that Braxian general.’ He addressed Ursula. ‘Which direction will he have gone in, shaman?’

Ursula flung back her purple hair, then pointed towards the tall, thin tower that could be glimpsed far off in the distance.

‘That way,’ said the shaman. ‘To the Tower of Tartarus. He must know that that is the headquarters of the Cult, and the Seat of Brax. The Priests of Brax who even now are seeking to summon the Demon King back to this mortal world reside there. That is the safest place for the Braxians to keep the Sword–that is where the Leader will have taken it. Alexander must know this, and therefore he must have set out in that direction by himself.’

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‘He did seem to give the impression,’ said Wyvera, ‘that he thought he could handle this by himself.’

‘It’s not too late to turn back,’ said Ursula. ‘I can teleport us back to the [continent] mainland if you wish.’

‘No,’ said Horatio, ‘we decided this already. We’re here now.

He waited to see if anyone would contradict him.

Nobody did.

‘Well,’ said Egea. ‘Let’s go then. Almost certain death, high likelihood of failure, minimal chances of saving the world, here we come!’

They set out on what would be a long march to the Tower of Tartarus, trying to make as efficient progress .

There were monsters everywhere though, so there was no doubt that there would be a lot of fighting as they made their way to the tower.

And it wasn’t long before a group of monsters spotted them, and attacked. The another, and another, and another.

Battle 1, 2, 3, 4 one after the other.

‘Bastards! Vandals! Murderers! Inbred ingrates!’

A high-pitched woman’s voice, inflected with insanity, shouted these words.

They had just defeated yet another group of monsters. Horatio looked around.

Sprinting towards them over the rocks was a woman in a purple-enamel suit of armour with gold lining and golden dragon-wings that splayed out to either side from a huge, shiny, slit-visored helmet. She carried two massive spears twice as tall as she was, which she held poised to throw as she ran.

‘You killed my husband!’ the woman screamed at them from within her helmet as she approached. ‘I felt his presence disappear in our soul tie! I will avenge his death! I will slay you all!’

There wasn’t time to reply anything–the woman was nearly on them.

She threw one of her spears.

Boss: Cressida → Suprise attack! (Cressida gets first move.)