Seraphim bowed her head. As desperately as she had wished to believe otherwise, she knew it to be true: She was a very, very bad kitty.

She couldn't make out most of the words of the lecture that her owner was giving her, hardly any, in fact. The message was very much clear, nonetheless.

The young man who had served as the owner of the dark lord wasn't angrily shouting at her, but he was clearly very, very disappointed. He had been saving up his money for a new video game console, but now? Now those savings wouldn't even come close to covering the cost of repairs for the ruined tiled floor or the many burned spots on the walls, furniture and ceiling.

The human didn't even try to work out the logistics for exactly how that damage was caused. Deep down he knew that that way lie madness. He just knew that the cat was responsible, somehow, and that it was important that she realizes it. Seraphim did, of course. She was a being of light and order, who genuinely hated any sort of mess, especially ones that she happened to be the cause of. The feline leaned her head forward and coughed, a small object clanking onto the damaged kitchen floor below. She frowned at the sight of the popsicle stick. She'd been coughing up garbage for hours now, and even after multiple baths, her fur still looked downright dreadful.

As much as she would have liked to blame the mice for this, both to her owner and to herself, in the end, she couldn't. This was entirely her responsibility, and true to his words, she was a very, very bad kitty. He would forget this soon enough, being incapable of staying angry at his beloved pet, but her own shame would last considerably longer. That was when it happened.

The human stopped mid lecture, as the cat opened her eyes wide and tensed up, turning to stare over her shoulder at seemingly nothing. Her golden eyes narrowed, fur standing on end, claws extended and scraped against the ruined floor, as the dark lord Seraphim let out a long, angry hiss. She didn't know exactly where the target of her animosity was located, only the direction.

Unknown to her, and even more so to her incredibly confused owner, were if not for the wall and other obstacles in her way, she would have been staring straight towards the mouse city.

<3~ <3~ <3~ <3~

Midnight continued to sprint away from the wall, before finally reaching a point that he considered a safe distance, which was basically as far away from that creature as physically possible. He laughed out loud, taking a seat in the tall grass. He'd done it! He had every opportunity to risk his own safety to protect the innocent, but he didn't! He didn't even come close! There wasn't so much as a nagging voice in the back of his head telling him to do the right thing. Quite the contrary, in fact, every instinct he had screamed that he should run, protect himself, to hell with those stupid mice, and that was exactly what he did.

It was far more satisfying than any victory could ever hope to be, the knowledge that he wasn't losing himself, that he had managed to fight off that vile infection known as morality, and that he could go back to living his life for himself, and nobody else, as he was always meant to.

The dark lord peered back over his shoulder at the distance walled mouse city, completely enclosed by a black orb of unholy power, tendrils of dark energy dancing and surging across it. A part of him had expected Jerin and the other mice to be following behind him, but he honestly couldn't say that he was too surprised by their absence. Even if they wanted to, they couldn't get over the wall, but of course, they wouldn't have wanted to anyways. Knowing that fool, she'd fight to the bitter end. Ordinarily, he might have fought, as he wasn't particularly frightened of birds, not even unusually large ones, but there was just something about that creature. Something which positively chilled the black cat to the bone. It was just so dark, so empty, and that was speaking from the perspective of a creature who proudly embodied the darkness. Clearly, there are things out there darker than the peak of night. That was a terrifying concept, even to him.

He couldn't help but wonder if the little mouse and her friends would be alright. This wasn't to say he had specifically hoped that they would win, but he didn't specifically hope that they would perish, either. He simply wondered.

---

"Let me try to handle this." Mathias said, determined to successfully talk himself out of one of these battles one of these days. It felt like it had to work eventually, law of averages and all that. He called out to the large black bird. "Hail, dark overlord! It's clear that you're incredibly powerful, far more powerful than we are. That foolish king of ours honestly thought that he could harness your greatness for his own selfish ends, and well, none of us can deny that he got what he deserved." he smiled, holding his open paws out. "You've sure taught him a lesson he won't soon forget, and proved just how powerful you are, so why not just head back, huh? Head on home, happy with the knowledge that you punished the unworthy, and proved your might to us lesser creatures."

~No.

"Um... okay, okay, I get it, you came all the way here! I'm sure it was a long trip." he paused, still smiling diplomatically "Um, not that it was that difficult, I'm sure it was really easy... you know, it would be hard, nay, impossible for me, but for you, probably the blink of an eye, that's how strong you are! Clearly, we can't put up any sort of fight, so it would just be a waste of effort, and the rest of the city? Even less so. A bunch of work chasing mice down, and what do you get from it? Nothing! Not even any survivors left to tell the tale of your triumph. You, with all your obvious wisdom must recognize just how pointless that would be!"

Jerin grumbled, biting her tongue, resisting the urge to argue.

~Foolish thief. You'll never understand. Destruction? Destruction is its own reward. Blood is our water, and pain, our nourishment, and we have no intentions of leaving until we have devoured our fill.

"Um, I'm not a thief anymore. I'm a dark knight." Mathias said, rubbing the back of his head with a paw, looking away from those fiery red eyes.

~No. You can give yourself all the grandiose titles that you wish, but are still just a thief. You always were. Always will be. You hide, sneak, take what isn't yours. You play hero, acting as though you belong with that girl who admires building above all else, but it's all a lie. All you can do is take and corrupt. When she fought and struggled to earn her treasure, you were content to simply snatch it away. Don't think that you can lecture us with false words, vermin. You are more like us than you are her. You know this world is just something to be taken and used for your own purposes.

"That-that's not... um..." Mathias said, fully intending to say much more but unable to find the words..

"Oh, just shut up." Jerin said to the dark overlord, rolling her eyes. "So, he tried to take my money? So what? He gave it back, and even if he didn't, hey, it's just money. It gets taken, spent, earned and passed around. He's not the same person he was back then, and you know what? Even if he was, that would be okay, too!"

"You-you knew all along?" Mathias said, looking rather embarrassed, avoiding meeting the gaze of the other mouse. As much as he wished to pretend otherwise, his behavior on their first meeting had weighed heavily upon him.

"Why do you think I invited you along?" Jerin grinned. "That's how I knew you were skilled, and could help us on our journey, and you know what? You've never once disappointed me. You're nothing like that monster, and you never were. You weren't some fallen mouse who suddenly found the light, it was in you all along, and I'm honored to have known you, and helped you to realize that."

Mathias smiled. This wasn't entirely true, of course, at least not the part about her always knowing that he had tried to steal from her. She did figure it out pretty quickly, and it didn't bother her in the least, but it wasn't her original motivation for inviting him to join. She just thought that the lie sounded cooler.

"Oh, and guess what?" she said, turning back to Ahnyma, "Nobody is impressed by your little mind reading thing, or whatever it is you do, or your attempt at psychological warfare. What are you doing to say?" she looked back over her shoulder at Rowan, who was holding a glowing green stone within each paw, "At you going to tell Rowan next that he's way past his prime, and his long life was large wasted, and that even when he's gone that nobody will care because he passed up every opportunity to make a mark on the world, or even connect with others?"

"Well, when you put it like that..." Rowan said, head bowed.

"...Well that's stupid! In just a few days, this old man has accomplished what countless mice at their strongest couldn't even dream of! And even if he didn't, even if he never left that laboratory, even if he never spoke to another soul, it doesn't matter, because he spent his life doing what he loved, and he's gained unimaginable knowledge and mystical abilities to show for it, whether others appreciate it or not." Jerin said, "And maybe he will die, but there's one thing that I can say: It won't be today, and when it does happen, hopefully a long, long time from now, he will be greatly missed... by his family..." she looked to Mathias, "His allies..." she looked to Aaron, "His friends at the university, the folks in the Maker's tunnel, and, of course, by me. I was just some strange girl who came to his door without warning, with a silly dream, and he helped to make it happen, even though he was under no obligation to. He isn't just some follower on my journey, he's had his own journey, and it's been going on a lot longer than mine. I'm privileged that he allowed me to be a part of it."

"I assure you, the pleasure was all mine." the old mouse nodded.

"And Aaron..." she said.

"Uh, please don't..." her brother replied.

"What are you doing to tell him? That his fear that he was weak was true all along? That the lesson he learned the day that the village was attacked was right? That there aren't any heroes and that he can't protect anyone? That's ridiculous! He's always been a hero! I know that because hes my hero! I don't remember that much from before the village attack, but there's one thing I do remember: It was how proud I always felt whenever he returned from his adventures, and how strong he looked. How he was absolutely everything that I wanted to be when I got older, how he said he would always be there to protect me, and you know what? He always was! Who cares if he wasn't strong enough to defeat the dark lord back then? Neither was I! I'm still not strong enough on my own, and never would have been able to beat any of them without his help. As ridiculous as my dream was, he stayed with me, protected, and although he'd never admit it out loud, he believed in me... and I've not stopped believing in him. I never have and never will."

"Um... right." Aaron said, looking away, feeling an inexplicable lump in his throat.

"And then there's me. what are you going to say, huh? That I'm some stupid little kid who got in way over their head? That I had childish ideas of what it meant to be a hero? That I was selfish, that I didn't think things through, that in the end I put myself, my friends, the entire city in danger, all to satisfy my own ego? That this whole thing was pointless because even when I did finally get to meet my nemesis, that I was happy to just make friends with him, rather than avenge the loss of my tail, and the people of my village?" she glared into the eyes of the overlord. "Well, you're probably right. I made mistake after mistake, but somehow still kept falling into success and admiration, even though I didn't deserve any of it, but in the end? None of that matters. I don't care whether I'm a hero or not. I don't care whether what I've done is right. The only thing I care about right now is protecting this city!

"This is our world, and I'm not going to let you destroy it! So yeah, maybe we are weak, maybe we are stupid, maybe we have made bad decisions in the past, and are going to continue doing so in the future, but none of that matters. All that matters is that we're going to send you back to wherever the hell you came from, and if you have any sense at all, you'll run now while you still can. If you want to fight that badly, though, come on! Spare us the lecture and just get to it. We'll make you wish you hadn't."

Jerin drew the long blade from her back, Aaron readied his club, and Mathias holding the needle in one hand, the glass short sword in the other, acutely aware of the strange red tinge that the newly obtained Maker's artifact had running through, but trying not to dwell on it. Rowan held a pair of magic stones, now bright glowing orbs, some distance apart. Electricity arced between them, gathering and harnessing the unnatural energies of this strange space.

~Are you finished?

"Huh?" Jerin said, pausing, furrowing her brow, going over her mental checklist once more, just to make sure that she was satisfied. "Uh... yeah, I guess so."

~Good. Time to die.

Jerin was the first to notice something unusual. It wasn't the overlord itself, it was simply standing in place, eyes locked upon them, wings folded (although seeing as how the wings were originally wrapped around the city, creating this strange black space within, she couldn't help wonder if the creature had two pairs), occasionally lightly swaying, an afterimage trailing slightly behind each faint movement.

The unusual thing was the ground. Perfectly clear and reflective, on a level that the blurry reflections within the floors of the shrines, or even the smudged mirror within the palace could never hope to match, offering what one would expect to be a perfect reversed double to the tableau above. The dark overlord Ahnyma looked normal, as normal as one would expect from a living embodiment of chaos and destruction, at least, but its reflection was another matter entirely.

It wasn't black, at least not entirely. Much of the body was a deep red, body gnarled and blistered, its eyes empty dark pits. Most of the feathers remained, but the flesh beneath them was lumpy and distorted, scaled feet cracked, beak appearing to be half-melted, no longer the sleek, sharp form, but with deep grooves and lumps across it. Red smoke flowed from the ruined form, pooling where the healthy talons met the mangled ones. That was when it happened. The talons extended, each toe like a serpent swiftly moving not above the reflective surface, but beneath it. Jerin watched with surprise as the dark red tentacles raced beneath her feet, one circling around a bit, looking for something to seize, before withdrawing. Her other allies were not so lucky.

Aaron, Mathias and Rowan all found themselves suspended above the floor, showing obvious strain. Looking to them, one would think that they were held by nothing, even as there were clear indentations in their clothing and fur which pulled cruelly tight. Even when the captured mice could reach one of those points with one of their paws, they simply passed through the space as though, in agreement with their own eyes, there was nothing there.

One only had to look down to see that it was their reflections being held. It's easy to think of the reflection as a sort of additional image, a lesser version of the real, even a servant, but, of course, both the reflection and the reality are one and the same. If one had to think about them as being separate, they still weren't master and servant, they were partners, to the extent that whatever happened to one must therefore happen to the other.

Jerin turned to them, and without a moments hesitation swept her massive blade under the feet of all three, but nothing happened. The blade wasn't blocked. Nothing was cut. It simply passed through the air as though it were, well, empty air, with the only trace that she had done anything at all being the curved scrape in the ground that her slash had left.

"Hey! Let them go!" she growled to the overlord.

"Don't worry about us! just stop that thing!" Aaron called to her.

"How?" Jerin asked.

"Go for the eyes! I suspect that is where it is weak!" Rowan said. In spite of Aaron's earlier failure in applying that logic against the dark lord, Fury, it was generally sound advice. This especially applies in the case of red eyes, red being the universal color to represent a monster's weak point.

"They're too high up!" Jerin replied..

"Hit it in the cloaca!" Mathias called to her.

"I-I don't know what that is!" she said over her shoulder.

~They'll be freed soon enough, even if not in the way that you hope for. As for you, it would seem that you are only half a mouse after all. A pity. Your death will have to be considerably more painful.

"You're the one who's going to get hurt!" she said, raising her sword towards the black beast.

~Foolish creature. Still don't understand do you? We can see into your soul, and feel your thoughts.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

"So what?"

~We know what you fear.

Its eyes locked onto her own, her tiny reflection within them distorting, the bright red taking a more organic hue. Finally, the pool of blood within them overflowed, dripping down the black feathers, around the overlords beak.

Jerin doesn't faint this time, but she did fall to her knees, looking down, hand over her mouth, whole body shaking as she struggled to fight off the wave of intense nausea. The blade of the scissor clanged down against the ground, the handle not falling from her grip, but the whole thing suddenly felt very, very heavy.

"Jerin! Get out of the way!" Aaron barely managed to cry out before the tendril squeezed tighter about his throat, cutting off his breath. He could barely move. It wasn't simply a matter of tightness, that it was crushing his body, even though the strange, invisible force constraining his body was, indeed, doing just that. It felt as though it were also crushing something internal, something less tangible but no less vital. The large mouse found himself feeling weaker by the moment.

The instruction was a wise one, even if it did little good. She was able to look up, but her vision was hazy, her head hurting, and even as she saw the blood float from the face of the creature, drift and reshape into wickedly sharp crimson spears which hung in mid-air, she just couldn't force herself to move. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, pressing her paw against the floor, only to be met with an inexplicable warmth.

She opened her eyes, only to see her own staring back at her, the reflected paw, which had been missing for so long pressed into her own. She closed her hand around it, it doing the same, looking up at her with a reassuring smile and a soft expression, one she which couldn't help but return.

Jerin and her reflection leapt away just as the blades of blood stuck the ground where she had previously knelt, but rather than the reflection matching her feet, as she curved around to her left, the reflection did the same, which is to say Jerin's right, both of them charging straight at the dark overlord, blades raised, or perhaps lowered, depending on ones perspective.

Ahnyma was clearly caught off guard, trapped by indecision over which to try to guard against first: the strike coming high from the left, from the mouse, or the one coming low, from the right, from the reflection, its own refracted image, of course, incapable of such multi-tasking. It tried to do both, and, as a result largely succeeded at neither, snapping its beak at the mouse, and kicking it's foot, the one without the toes currently wrapped around the other party members, at the reflection.

The Jerin under the floor slid beneath the sweeping talons, slashing down hard at the unnatural extended limbs, breaking them away, the elongated tentacles fading into red smoke, and dropping Aaron and the others to the floor. As for the real Jerin, if such a term could even be properly applied, she saw the potentially lethal attack coming and similarly went low, just beneath it, spinning about, her blade sweeping in a heavy arc, smashing the sword against the face of the overlord with a sickening crack and a pained squawk.

She leapt back in front of her now prone allies, her reflection doing the same, having exhausted up the strength it had saved for an occasion just like this one, the two once more moving as one.

The black bird nearly fell over, mostly from the strike to the face, its toes only slightly wounded, but caught itself, letting out an avian chirring sound as it rose back up, turning to her. There was a visible crack in the beak through which black smoke seeped, but that aside, it showed little sign of injury. It chuckled, the sound overlaid by the twisted metallic whine, before growing into full on hideous laughter.

"What's so funny?" Jerin growled. It returned to the soft chuckling, before settling into a strange smile, the sort which a solid beak shouldn't even be capable of.

~After all this, you still strike with the flat of your sword.

"Huh?" Jerin said, looking down at it in surprise. "I-I guess I forgot!"

~We don't think that you did. We've learned something, and that is not an every day occurrence for our kind. We were mistaken earlier. Now, we see you weren't afraid of blood. At least not only of blood.

"Of course not!" the mouse girl snapped back. Sure, she might have felt a little woozy earlier, but that was entirely coincidental. What sort of hero was terrified by the sight of blood? The idea was simply absurd to her.

~No. We can see what it is that you truly fear.

The red eyes of the overlord grew wide, and flashed with red light, a light which encased Jerin's sword, twisting it within her paws.

"What-what are you doing?" Jerin growled, trying to reclaim control of it.

~We're helping you out. Making sure that you do not make that same mistake again.

Despite her best efforts, it turned within her grip, the razor sharp blade of it now pointed towards the creature.

~Go on. Cut us. Slice us to ribbons. That sword is impressive, and we? We wish to feel it. That is what you want as well, do you not? To save your life. To save your friends? To save that squalid little city of yours? To save your world? You can have all of that with a single stroke. Come, 'hero'. Make us suffer. Make us bleed. Take our life so that you may survive. That is why you are here, is it not?

The girl let out a horrified squeak as it not only turned, but was pulled towards the black creature like a magnet. She growled, planting her feet as securely she could upon the slippery floor. She put all of her strength into pulling back, even as the blade slowly drifted towards the now exposed throat of the feathered creature, nearly reaching it.

That was when the tug o' war came to an abrupt end, in the expected way when one side, in this case the overlord Ahnyma Ex Mortis, released their grip. Jerin was sent tumbling back, catching the sword in her lap. It was fortunate that it was still facing in the direction of the overlord, otherwise she might very well have cut herself in half.

~How amusing. The hero, the great champion, the savior, the greatest warrior of your kind, stands before us wielding the mightiest weapon that any of your brethren have ever known, and none of it matters because you're too weak, too cowardly to do what you must.

"Jerin..." her brother called, weakly, struggling to rise back up onto his feet.

"I'm sorry." she said in a soft voice, looking to the floor, still on her knees. Her own pitiful reflection looked back, no longer having any strength left to give her. There were no plausible denials this time. Swinging the sword was one thing, but the prospect of slicing through flesh, through bone, through life itself. All of the strength drained from her arm at the prospect. She had been fighting with swords all this time, but the difference now was that deep down she knew that it would work this time. It isn't so uncommon for young would-be adventurers to have a rather sanitized mental image of what fighting with a sword entails: You swing it, the bad guy goes down and ideally vanishes into a puff of smoke and a leaves a pile of treasure in their wake. Even when they lack this clear, literal image, it remains conceptually. Eventually, there comes a time when one can no longer cling to fantasies, however. Some can simply power through, gaining or losing respect for the value of life in the process. Then there are the others. Those who simply cannot.

~You actually believed it for a little while, didn't you? That you could change the world? But even in the end, after you've come all this way, you're still nothing but a silly child who's playing hero. Unfortunately for you, we are not here to play games. If you cannot fight properly, then you are of no more use to us.

The countless stars blinked out of existence all at once and returned, no longer white pinpoints of like scattered throughout this artificial cosmos, but instead bright red. The space around them blurred and warped, stretching into thin lines of light, all of which extended to meet at a spot directly in front of the feathered black chest of the creature, where a tiny red spark appeared and grew. At first it was just a plain circle, but it extended into more of an oval. Features began to show within it, four small legs, a somewhat pointed face, round ears, a long tail, the form of a mouse, no larger than Jerin, curled into a fetal position, spinning vertically end over end within the open air.

Jerin watched it with wide, confused eyes, as it stopped spinning, now floating upright, it's strangely expressive face staring at her with vacant red eyes. That was when its head rolled back, back arching severely, limbs complete with tiny wriggling fingers and toes stretched out in all directions. It bent further and further back, body convulsing until it looked as though the chest of it was going to split. And that was exactly what happened.

Jerin hopped to her feet, holding her sword out horizontally in front of her, each of her paws pressed against the back of it. She didn't consciously move to defend against the attack, that being impossible to as it had happened almost instantaneously. She, instead, operated purely on instinct, the overwhelming sense that she was seconds from death unless she did something, anything, right then and there.

The beam of energy struck the center of her blade with tremendous force, pushing her backwards across the slippery reflected floor, forcing her onto one knee to maintain any sort of purchase against it. Wave after wave of power surged into it, splitting at the sword, tearing up the ground beneath her feet, deflecting into the black red star filled sky. She closed her eyes and turned her head away, she had to really, as the hot sparks and bits of metal flowing from the blade bit into her face. She looked back at Mathias, Aaron and Rowan, all clearly still weak, directly behind her, this terrible torrent of energy ready to sweep them all up unless she could somehow stop it.

The mouse girl gritted her teeth, and stared back through the blinding red light, through the crystal shards thrown up from the floor, through the sparks, through the haze and distortion, through the waves of sheer power which were striking her all over, into those hideous gloating eyes of Ahnyma before her. She slowly stood back up on shaking yet steady feet, sliding back a little from the force, kicking off a boot, and gripping the ground below with her toes in order to further brace herself. One hand moved from the now red-hot blade to the huge plastic handle, followed by the other, as she gripped them tight, hardly noticing the pain shooting through her paws with every movement of her furless fingers, using nearly every bit of strength she had to hold the blast at bay. That last bit of strength was used to launch it straight back at the creature.

It hurled towards the dark overlord, no longer a solid beam, but a ball which had swollen as it was blocked by the blade, growing ever larger as it flew, the continuing torrent doing nothing to halt its momentum, only feeding the rapidly expanding projectile. It would have swept straight through the overlord itself, had the creature not stepped aside at the last possible moment, the ball instead striking the wall of distorted space behind it.

The black space and stars shattered, revealing a wide, irregular gap, black feathers drifting about in all directions, bathing the void in sunlight, forcing the dark overlord to squint and shrink away from the natural light. Jerin looked to it, gripping the handle tightly in both of her hands, the sword, post-swing held out above her shoulder. A moment later, there was a solid thunk of metal, as the other half of the blade landed upright into the reflective floor, directly between herself and her great black bird. She small mouse panted, making some effort to try to pry her fingers away from the partially melted plastic, her fur grayed and singed, smoking as she fell on all fours, the remainder of the scissor within her paws coming down with a hard metallic clank. Ahnyma chuckled to itself in that throaty metallic chirp, watching her as the tear in space behind him knitted itself closed, reducing the sunlight to a single small beam shining upon Jerin's aching form, which then faded away to nothing.

Meanwhile, an elderly human walked down the sidewalk on his daily morning stroll, only to find himself struck in the back of the head by a ball of unholy energy. He grumbled, crouching down to pick his hat back up, glancing over towards the black dome of electricity. That was, of course, something he wanted nothing to do with, or even really willing to give much thought to beyond a basic sense of passing annoyance as he shook his head, replaced his cap and continued on his way.

"Close your eyes!" Aaron called to his sister.

~What?

The beast let out a surprised squawk, as in what seemed like the blink of an eye, Aaron rushed in, pulling the half of the destroyed sword from the earth, leapt and swung it straight through the throat of the overlord. It cleaved through effortlessly, much like Jerin's earlier effort to destroy the invisible tethers. Too effortlessly. Even as he made the attack, he could see the form of the unholy creature waver and grow transparent, vanishing only for the briefest of moments. It wasn't gone for good, of course, returning hardly an instant later, beak opened wide, black strings dangling from the jaws, ready to snap down on him. It nearly caught the large mouse as well, when it found itself instead forced to squint and recoil as a large magical stone, glowing bright green, shattered against its face, just barely giving the larger mouse the chance to leap away.

"I'm sorry." Jerin said in a soft, weak voice between quick breaths. "I just couldn't do it."

"You've done enough." Mathias said, him and Rowan stepping around her. "Just rest a bit, we'll take it from here."

~How amusing. The minions think that they can accomplish what their champion has failed to.

"We're not minions!" Aaron shouted, crouching down, adjusting the cords binding the head of his hammer.

"Yeah, we're really more like sidekicks!" Mathias said, holding the needle out towards the creature. Aaron glared at the mouse in black, who smiled back, innocently.

"Yes. You would be wise to not underestimate us." Rowan said, green arcs of electricity crackling between his fingertips, surging through his body, across his milky eyes. "It would seem that you are not the only one who can make use of the power of this place."

Aaron and Mathias leapt towards the dark overlord, the larger mouse having bound the damaged scissor to the club making an over-sized and very lethal looking pickaxe. Ahnyma spread its wings wide, curling them around its body, forming a crystalline barrier, similar to the floor, which the three weapons smashed against, Aaron's axe and the dark knights paired blades, the needle and the grey glass short sword. At the center of these strikes, a continuous bolt of green lightning, originating from the paws of the old sorcerer blasted against the barrier.

Mathias wasn't quite as adept with the sword as Jerin, of course, having considerably less experience with it, but he had seen it enough times by now to know how it was used, raining down a series of lightning quick thrusts, aimed a any seams, no matter how faint, within the crystalline wall. His talent for dual wielding was even less practiced, but against a large and stationary target, that hardly mattered. His other sword may not have been a relic created by the Makers, but that didn't mean that it couldn't still cut. Aaron relied, as usual, on pure brute force, and it worked quite well. Between the three of them, spiderwebs of cracks formed all along the protective shield.

That was when Aaron and Mathias were thrown back abruptly, as the creature spread its wings once more, shattering the barrier with a shower of jagged crystal shards which both worked to deflect, both landing back on their feet. It wasn't their feet that was the problem, however. Without warning, as it had with Theos, the ground beneath them vanished, fading as though it were never there, revealing the yawning black abyss beneath them.

And so they fell. But only briefly.

Aaron was quite surprised to feel his feet back on solid ground, only to realize that they were actually within it. The ground reformed, exactly where it once was, completely encasing the lower portion of his legs. He looked to see Rowan and Mathias in similar positions.

"Damn it..." He growled, trying to shatter the ground with his new axe. This appeared to work at first, but each time a crack had appeared, it would simply close itself up, fusing itself back together as though the damage had never existed. The harder he struck, the quicker this occurred.

"Your cowardice won't save you." Rowan said. "I do not require the use of my legs in order to defeat the likes of you."

He fired off another burst of green energy, which struck the black creature square in the chest. An impressive looking effort, even if it It inflicted no damage whatsoever upon his opponent. The dark overlord didn't so much as flinch at the arcs of energy breaking against its body.

~Fool. Whose powers do you that you are borrowing? Did you honestly think that we could be harmed by it?

Rowan looked to the overlord, crestfallen, the surging energies fading and vanishing, as he realized that his attacks were entirely ineffective. He shifted his efforts, similar to Aaron, upon attacking the floor, but no matter how intense and terrifying the surge of energy appeared, it simply splashed away from the crystal earth like water.

Meanwhile, the one large crack in the beak of the black creature had shrunk to the point where it was barely visible.

~It is time that we finished this. Many more must die before the day is done, and we have much work to do. You were fools to ever think that you could oppose us. You are not Makers or builders or champions, you are simply prey. Your entire purpose in life is to provide brief nourishment or entertainment to superior creatures. Your lives do not represent trials and tribulations and the hope of great purpose, you are simply a meal, nothing more. Now, It is time for you to face that destiny.

Aaron growled in frustration, looking back towards his sister. His heart sank. While never an optimist, a part of him had still envisioned that she would rise up, stand and somehow defeat the monstrosity before them. He should have known that she would be in no better position that he, and she wasn't, still on all fours, half of the broken scissor, along with all of her limbs and most of her yarn tail embedded within the ground.

Every one of the red stars around them blinked out at once, before a large sadistic red eye replaced each and every one, light once again flowing into the chest of the dark overlord, Ahnyma. A small mouse once again appeared, and another, and another, a drifting circle of the strange entities comprised of the hideous red light, curled up, spinning end over end. At the center of this circle, one more mouse floated, larger than the others, harnessing the energies of its sisters. It similarly spun within the air, ready to destroy itself and the enemies of its master along with it. Rowan focused his remaining energies upon creating a barrier around the other three mice, but he ultimately knew that it would not even be close to strong enough to weather the coming storm.

"I'm sorry." Jerin said, once again. "This is all my fault. I thought I could do it, but I... I can't. I just can't.

"Nah, i's not your fault." A gruff voice came from the black bird before them..

The mouse of red light at the center stopped, blinked and looked back over it's shoulder at its dark master and let out a squeak, timed exactly with a surprised metallic squawk as a hard punch struck the dark overlord right above the eye, sending it lurching to one side. The red energy mouse, along with the rest of her brethren dissolved away like ashes caught in a strong wind.

~What is this?

Ahnyma Ex Mortis turned its head only to see a large, square bodied mouse standing upon its shoulder.

"We all got stuff we're good at. Turns out I'm only good a' one thing, n' I realized, tha's not always enough. There's already plenty o' folks out there who want ta hurt people, no shame in bein' someone who can't. Turns out violence ain't always the answer." Theos said, looking to Jerin, who stared back in shock.

~What? But you were cast into the abyss! How can this be?

"You wonderin' how I got outta that weird black stuff?" Theos asked. "Was easy. Jus' followed the smell o' dried feathers."

~You insolent...

"Okay, let me stop ya right there." the mouse said, shaking his head. "I can't make out a damn word yer sayin'. It's all high pitched n' warbly."

~How dare you!

"Warble, warble, warble!" Theos said. "That's what ya soun' like! Hey, shorty, can you make out any o' this?" He asked Jerin.

"I have a name,, you know..."" she grumbled, before giving the question some thought. "Eh, most of it. it's pretty much your standard villain stuff. You're not missing much." she shrugged as best that she could, what with her arms nearly encased up to the shoulder. She felt briefly guilty over the fact that she hadn't grieved Theos' apparent death earlier, but there was a lot of other stuff going on. Plus, she didn't really know him very well, anyways.

"Yeah, tha's what I figgered." he said, hitting the overlord with another hard punch as it tried to rise back up. The overlord twisted and thrashed about, but Theos managed to maintain his toe grip with surprising ease. "I's funny. Ya don't look tough from up 'ere. Less wavery, too. Guess I shoulda' known. All smoke n' mirrors n' dark powers. Works well fer a while, but there's somethin' to be said 'bout not bein' too powerful. Makes ya get yer hands dirty sometimes. Espec'lly teaches ya how to take a punch."

Another extra hard blow sent the large bird crashing down onto its side, the new king of the mice standing upon its neck.

~Wait! You just said that violence wasn't the answer!

"Hey, think I'm gettin' the hang of yer moon-talk! Yer right, I did say that. Violence ain't always the answer. It jus' usually is. Like now. That was a pretty big lessen on my part. Now, where was I?"

Another punch.

~How dare you! Insignificant fool!

Another punch.

~We will crush you!"

Another punch.

~Stop that!

Another punch.

~Please?

This was, of course, followed by many, many, many more punches.