Maras finally caught up to the Demons. Grinning internally, he said the fateful words.

“Attack!”

Some Spectres assassinated some of the more prominent Demons, and even killed one Devil before Ghouls and Reapers rushed forward ready to do battle. The Demons faces quivered in rage and confusion. One Demon general managed to blast through a Ghoul only to have his head sliced off.

“What the fuck…” Another general said, “weren’t we supposed to have peace with Dina? What is this madness?”

A Demon in the back, unaffected by the commotion, watched the madness as his communication crystal lit up and began sparkling in front of him.

“I was just about to call you and ask you what’s happening. This transgression of the treaty is so blatant it’s comical.”

“That wasn’t us…” the Undead voice on the other end said.

“Wasn’t… you?” The general said, flabbergasted not understanding anything.

The slaughter still visible to the Demon, he truly did wonder if this was some sophisticated psi-ops, incredulity was in the Demon’s every facial expression, he tightened his grip on his blade, readying for battle.

“He has been excommunicated and we will hunt him. That is Maras, a Spectre Lord, he also has a skeletal ally.”

“He does?” The general said, looking around, but not seeing Ildrid anywhere, “So?” The tone demanded answers even if he didn’t outright say it.

“I am, not going to dally with you Demon. But suffice to say, he’s a traitor who has deliberately disobeyed orders. He is not affiliated with Dina,” the Undead voice said coldly.

“Ok,” the general said with slightly lighter spirits, he hung up and then addressed his compatriots, “kill these Undead scum! That traitor is wanted by the rest of the Undead!”

Fire followed, fire magic burning some Undead fighters, but nonetheless Reapers were remarkably adept at dodging, dancing away from the flames and parting flames as well as parting heads from shoulders. Maras hopped around the battlefield, Bacteria interspersing the battle with their own savage battle they seemed to be having with everything. Maras noted a Lich Lord and a Zombie Lord carrying the Dina banner.

Damn it, of course they have a small base on this continent don’t they. This is where they harvest death magic, using the Bacteria as a resource. I should withdraw northwards. There is no profit facing Undead soldiers.

Maras headed northwards, the Zombie Lord slowly plodded away, but the Lich Lord and his underlings were casting long range attacks, which after about the fifth time missing him, Maras decided he had enough.

“Ah no, no more Dina,” he muttered.

His Spectres hopped and hopped, destroying both Lords, and making the underlings devolve to aimlessly fight the Bacteria.

“The Undead are fighting each other!” One overly naive and hopeful Demon shouted.

“Were,” Maras whispered in correction.

The Black flag with orange stripes that the Dina commanders held flopped to the floor. Maras nonetheless headed northwards, conscious of the fact that he could not actually slaughter the entire Demon army, nonetheless he used Spectres to hop and take out commanders while his Reaper’s engaged the bulk of the army.

“Die Necromancer! Die! Die! Die!” A more proficient Devil screamed.

50 Devil’s revived their comrades, but this didn’t stop Maras raising more Ghouls and creating an endless stalemate, which was only broken when three portals opened and thousands upon thousands of Cahov Demons came from their realm and pushed him back. One of the Devils had found where Madakos had gotten to. So excited he merely waltzed through a portal.

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“We found the Warlock!” The Demon screamed, before being hushed by their superiors.

They went through a portal, unwittingly being fried by towers on the other side. Maras clasped his head.

Why was I even? I was just a pawn. For so so long, I was nothing but a pawn for other’s designs. But I can become so much more. So much more.

Ghouls and Reapers pounced on the exposed flanks, and they won the reward of dead Demon flesh, but soon Maras withdrew into the endless sea of Bacteria.

“Ildrid, are you alright?” Maras said frantically.

“Yes, just collecting.”

“I see,” Maras sighed in relief, “good, good. Stay where you are, I’m coming to you.”

“Sure.”

Maras fled from the Demons, who crossed their arms in frustration and anger. Some even screaming their damnations at him, others just staring angrily.

“Bastard,” one seethed, fire coming out of his mouth.

“Shouldn’t we give chase!” A soldier said, clutching his spear.

“Do you think you will kill him?” An officer said, “besides look at all those Bacteria, I’m not going on some goose chase in that!” The officer said pointing at the immense horde of Bacteria.

The soldier pursed his lips and halted, nodding, realising his folly. They went through the portal, thousands at a time, when Madakos’s address was found, other Demons opened other portals into his world. It was afternoon, and the Demons made it all that much brighter with their flames. The Demons were immediately spotted by the camped Warlocks who instinctively shot purple flames. Towers shot rapidly, and Demon soldiers and beasts collapsed even more rapidly. The Demons gathered more and more intel, Devils teleporting into a sea of hostile Bacteria, but nonetheless began their assault on the set of fortifications the Warlocks had so diligently erected. Towers arced purple flames, fire should not have burnt Demons, and yet this fire did, frequently and without mercy. Hunila and Madakos arced shots at any Demon who dared to show themselves. The Bacteria bit into Demons who wailed and screamed.

“Damn it, this is fucking chaos,” one Demon winced, “all this to destroy the Warlocks.”

“They must be eliminated!” A Devil screamed, “kill them all!”

Meanwhile on the walls, the entire Technonim garrison was agitated. Guns prepared, artillery loaded, snipers readying, commanders frantically talking into radios, shouting over one another.

“Demons! Demons have invaded!”

“What are you on about soldier…” the officer said, clattering his gun as he looked at the chaos.

Demons were killing Bacteria, Bacteria killed Demons, towers and Warlock purple flames killed both with relative ease. The bells of Arala rang, but not even that was paid the slightest bit of attention to by the Demons or Warlocks, too busy killing one another to pay attention to anything else. Demons poured in from hell, some in organised marching columns, others in hordes ready to bore into the fortifications. Hunila immediately doubled the amount of towers, the towers killed thousands at a time. In this moment of sheer carnage five Devils disappeared, and then reappeared grabbing Madakos’s wrists and then disappeared again. Madakos killed all five, attempting to teleport back to the fortifications, but another set of Devils used some kind of anti magic spell, and whisked him away.

“The Warlocks are too powerful, let’s have them come to us!” A Devil said, in taunt.

It was destroyed by Hunila, Hunila still couldn’t see him.

In a fury she destroyed all the Demons on the field, and when more came, they too were obliterated. Her eyes lit up, but this was not lust, this was pure fury, the lilac colour beamed out as she massacred all the Demons who dared face her.

“My man!” She screamed, “give me back Madakos!”

“Calm down,” Korax attempted.

She swivelled her head the intensity of the purple flames all that much more seething.

“Calm? Down. Well of course. Aren’t I perfectly calm!” She said, still having time to do sarcasm, albeit in pure fury.

The bowls of hell were something. Cahov had their own continent, their own world to themselves, ruled by their Demon Lord. Madakos had chains on his arms and legs, bound like a convict and yet he did not struggle, he tried to play it smart. He saw the great Demonic realm. He had 15 super constructs funnelling Zira into him from afar, and he waited, worrying about his woman, and the consequences of all this. Grinning Demons and Devils carried him, battering him around with little care. The sky was orange red, the ground was molten, and Madakos could have been forgiven for giving into despair. The Technonim meanwhile stared aghast, seeing the true terror of Warlocks, only the sea of Bacteria were left, but even they were clearly dented by the magic of Warlocks.

“Where are these Demons?” A commanding officer said, “if this is a prank I will have the lot of you cleaning latrines.”

Instead of explaining, they simply handed him binoculars, not that it was truly needed. The corpses of Demons and Bacteria were visible even with the naked eye, they were spotted all around the Warlocks base.

“I see…” he whispered, “never ever antagonise them. I’ll tell all the generals.”

The Technonim were beyond shocked, they were all secretly impressed, scared, their hairs standing up on their arms and legs. They exchanged awed whispers telling each other to never mess with the Warlocks. Corpses turned to ashes in many cases, but even then, there were corpses left, corpses that could prove what seemed impossible, corpses showing who to never mess with.

“Yes sir, do tell the generals, they need to know… urgently,” a soldier said, awed into silence.