“…exlemous, cvnemmige, zahamion tol.” the figure in the robe finished chanting, then stood up. He took the wicked-looking ceremonial knife form the pedestal, covered in sigils. “Glory to Lord Riepaimva!” With that, he slit his own throat and fell, his blood seeping out into the magic circle they were seated at, chanting while the circle grew brighter, drawing the ichor into it. Delacroix nodded.

“Good, very good. You are the final pieces of the puzzle. Your sacrifice shall pave the way to victory.” he said to the other robed people sitting, performing the ritual. They nodded, still chanting. Seven down, six to go. Delacroix left, passing through the field that made time pass faster. “Is everything proceeding smoothly?”

“About as well as could be expected.” Fausto said, glancing over the railing. The sun shone through the cave entrance, playing over the metal walkway above the hollowed-out rock, where a massive encampment of teens, young adults, and guards were milling about checking weapons or spell ingredients. All of them were feasting from the enormous pile of red pills in the center of the floor.

“Any problems?” Delacroix asked.

“Nothing we couldn’t handle.” Samagan said, grinning with rows of sharp teeth. “Everyone here’s on-board for what’s next. They’re just a happy bunch of volunteers.”

“Excellent. Glad to see we’ve ensured that.”

“Speaking of which, looks like we have company.” Fausto said, looking to the side. “It feels like a massive magical displacement…”

There was a dull boom in the distance. The three of them rushed out of the cave, shielding their eyes from the sun.

An enormous cloud of dirt was kicked up in the distance. Slowly, the black wave crested above the horizon.

From the earth, the dead had risen to march. From the depths of Hell, the daemons had come to strike. From the heavens and space above, the disciples of Zet-Mathiag had come to defend. They poured across the dusty plain, roaring, screaming, flying, ready to destroy the base and tear it asunder, along with anyone who dared oppose them. Samagan gaped; the sheer numbers assembled against them were an exponential multitude greater than the Third Eye forces.

“Did they intend to drown us in bodies?” Fausto said in wonderment. So many zombies, and daemons. What was going on?

“Boss…?” Samagan said, turning worriedly to Delacroix. The company president took in the might of the assembled armies concerned, but smiling darkly.

“Gentlemen, they do have a force much greater than ours. Fortunately, they still have the same problem. An infinite number of lesser like them is no match for greaters like us. Not if we apply the appropriate…leverage.”

“But-they’re daemons. It looks like everybody’s here. And…is that a flying galleon?” Fausto said. They all saw the spectral ship hover above the writhing masses, blaring rock music. Delacroix tilted his head.

“That’s new.” he admitted.

“It doesn’t matter.” His shadow roiled and stood, a fierce neon pink eye burning in the blackness of its face. “Do not worry about the daemons. Fighting them is a necessary step to liberate daemonkind.” Riepaimva said, waving a six-fingered hand in mystical ways.

“A necessary step…got it.” Fausto muttered, a glowing pink eye briefly appearing on his forehead. “Yeah. It’s disappointing, but they’ll see reason later.”

“Any other problems?” Riepaimva turned his cyclopean eye on Samagan, who shrank back and shook his head. “Good. Delacroix, prepare your children. They will have clean up to do.”

“Where are you going, my lord?” he asked. A thick, sharp line of teeth gashed his face apart in a smile.

“I’m going to apply leverage.”

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Ayers Rock. 2,831 feet high, over 530 million years old, the only structure natural or otherwise for miles. Also known as Uluru by the aboriginal people, this formation had been known in myth and legend since its’ discovery. However, the sandstone structure was actually formed around the thinnest part of reality on Earth, like a scab over a wound. Before even Atlantis sank, some time after Ry’leh became home to its’ caretaker, rock had formed around the gap in spaces, the continent rising up around it, absorbing and bleeding off the eldritch, otherworldly influences.

It was here that Delacroix had first discovered the path to the Libris Malefactorum Arcana, and where he returned to with his god in tow, reuniting the three sacred tools to Riepaimva’s plan: the Circle of Zeus, the Golden Monkey of Abazuul, and the Amulet of Puluhtu. It was here that the ritual was held, and here that Scott and company flew to.

“Whoa! Ayers Rock! Cool!” Scott said, his coat billowing in the wind. The army swarmed towards it like termites. “Sorry, UNESCO.”

“Feel sorry when we’re all still alive!” Cross snapped, making sure her grenade launcher was loaded. “I see something!”

The troops were running in a line, starting to spread out and surround the rock. But before they could, there was a darkness, a tar black spot that rose up, story upon story, blotting out the sun. The zombies and daemons halted in the face of such a colossal creature, unfurling two ebon arms ending in six-fingered hands, a blazing pink eye opening and blinking on its’ face. Those on board the Dead Man’s Hand could only gape as Riepaimva’s form rose and grew, glaring down at all of them.

“H-Holy…” Connor said.

“Crap.” Riley finished. There was a moment where all parties merely stood, gazing at and sizing each other up. And up. And up.

“Kill that bastard!” Cross cried into the microphone, taking aim and shooting grenades as fast as she could. That broke the spell of immobility, and the crowd surged forward, covering Riepiamva’s shadowy feet and legs.

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“Pathetic fools. You can’t hurt me.” the god laughed, striding forward. His footsteps made the earth shake and flattened zombies and daemons wherever he stepped, popping them like grapes.

“Stand strong!” Scott cried as Crenshaw opened fired along with the zombies, their explosives joined by the roar of cannons, a bellowing Captain Blackwell waving his saber to direct.

“Alright, prepare yourselves.“ Mephistopheles said to the other archdaemons. They sat down and closed their eyes, muttering incomprehensible syllables as they communicated telepathically with their forces. The daemons suddenly fell into formations and began launching coordinated, concentrated attacks. Riepaimva grimaced and took a step back, away from the thrown spells and stabbing blades.

Everyone saw. It was hard not to notice.

Press on!

Lagdinras commanded, his golden iris glowing. The balls of fire spun and whirled around him, shooting six streams of holy fire into the black mass, making the god grunt in pain.

“He’s weakening!” Crenshaw said.

“Swarm him! Tear him apart!” Scott ordered.

“This’ll help!” Amber began leaping around, shooting gravity webs at the malicious god, anchoring him to the ground behind them.

“Gaaaaaaahhhhhh!” Unable to retreat, Riepaimva surged forward, crushing the wave of attackers on him. He screeched, reaching out a six-clawed hand to crush the ship.

“All together!”

“YAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!” The four vampires leapt as one, kicking the hand with all their might. Instead of knocking it back, they blew out a hole in the palm instead. Riepaimva snarled, pulling back his hand to heal it.

“He’s made himself too big! I think he’s stretched himself thin!” Mephistopheles thundered.

“Waaaahhhh!” Riepaimva clutched his leg, a quartet of siege spears from the cannon of a daemonic war elephant sticking out.

“Pull!” the attendant daemon cried, whipping the beast. It growled but obeyed, backing up with powerful legs, daemons and holy messengers alike pulling. Together, they ripped a black mass free from his leg.

“Whaaaaaat!” Riepaimva pinwheeled his arms and fell onto his back.

“Now’s our chance! Get him!” Scott cried. His zombie army marched, using all of their undead strength to gouge holes in the shadowy god, his body shrinking as more and more of it was torn away.

“No! K’za²gf!” Riepaimva pointed a finger and black lightning shot out, coursing through the crowd like snakes. Daemons, angels, and zombies were fried, but the surge of bodies made the mass execution irrelevant. “No…how…”

“On him, lads! SALLY FORTH!” Blackwell shouted, heard over the din. The cannons pelted him with fire as they sped towards him.

“Get ready! Scott, let’s go!” Leo said. Scott nodded and took his offered arm. “You! Hold him down!” he shouted at the daemon lords, gesturing with his sword.

“Do not presume to-” Asmodeus began, but Beelzebub slapped him upside the head.

“C’mon! We don’t hazzz time vvvor thizzz!” He buzzed his wings and jumped, the other daemons following his lead. Asmodeus snarled but rocketed off too. They slammed into Riepaimva like meteors, pinning him down as the army swarmed and helped.

“When I stab him, you do that spell that kills people!” Leo bellowed at Scott.

“You mean channel necrotic energy?” Scott scratched his skull.

“Right! Whatever!"

“But I have to be touching the target tooooohhhhaaaaaa!” Leo held Scott, much lighter as bones, and jumped off the ship, blade pointed straight down with the screaming skeleton in tow. “Amber!”

“Holy jeez! Avesh!” Amber shot a gravity web onto Leo’s back, so they wouldn’t go splat. But there was plenty of lead as the wind rushed past them, right until-!

GA-SHUNK!

“NOW!”

“SEKH!”

Riepaimva screamed as the holy sword stuck into his eye, pure rot streaming into his body from the blade. He tried to thrash and writhe, but the army and daemon lords kept him down. Cracks appeared in his body, white light shining through as Leo and Scott bungeed back to the ship.

“What!? Did you do it!? Did we win!?” Amber cried as she and Scott embraced.

“Yay! Yay! We won!” Riley crowed, dancing.

“I-I don’t believe it, but I think we did.” Scott said, dazed. “Maybe it was a good idea to bring everybody.”

“Heads up, he’s getting brighter!” Kevin said, shielding his eyes as he looked over the side. “Is that normal!?”

The air began to vibrate, a palpable swell of power building up to release. Everyone’s hair stood up. Scott took one look over the railing and gasped.

“It’s-it’s a temporal eddy! He’s a god, he exists in all dimensions, including time! I…I think his wave-form is collapsing, undoing him from all points in time at once!”

“What!?” Leo cried, the glow getting brighter. It started to spread, engulfing everything at once.

“Everything he’s done is undoing itself! That means-”

The world went white.

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Birds chirped as sunlight streamed in through the window. It hit Scott Havenbrook in the face, making him twitch and grunt. He opened a bleary eye and glanced at the time. Three minutes after his alarm was supposed to have gone off. He yawned, stretched, and flumped back to his pillow.

“Yo dork, get your ass outta bed. Mom’s calling!” Clay said in passing as he tossed his wet towel on Scott’s head.

“Eat me, buttmuncher.” he said muffled, but got up. He blinked in the light. Another boring day of school ahead. He groaned. He’d been having a dream. It was a good one, but now that he was awake he couldn’t recall what it had been about.

Shrugging, he climbed out of bed and set himself to prepare for another day in his unexciting life.