While the rest of the Palace began tearing itself apart, Ike threw his focus to Nerinai. To upholding his title as Guardian.

There was a nick on her neck from the knight’s sword. The knight threw her at the wall and hit her head. Out cold. Ike couldn’t leave her side, but the main room was turning into a battlefield. As the Crows and the Arcani dueled with the demons lashing from the ceiling and screaming in its awful, indecipherable tongue.

Ike’s head was spinning. He turned back to Nerinai, biting his lip as he stared down at her unconscious body.

What could he do now?

He’d walked them right into a trap and almost got them both killed. Everyone relying on her back home, Thayne and Garnet, every shaman and person in the world suffering under the night’s mists. Now she was sleeping and they were running out of time. And Ike, the Guardian with a shovel, couldn’t do anything to fix it.

The building shook, and Ike snapped out of his stupor. The Crows were up and fighting a group of demons- all of them taking on the shape of a bug with fleshy stingers over their heads- with Isibeil. Ike blinked, and realized that Marcus was standing over him and the Raveness.

“Excuse me, but would you mind having this crisis elsewhere!”

Ike blinked again and looked down at his shaking hands. “Shit,” he mouthed, unable to make the words out in his throat. He couldn’t say anything but he did have something he needed to do.

The rest of them had the combat handled. Even if they didn't, Ike wasn’t helping them. He slid his arms under Nerinai- cringing as he did it- and lifted her up in his arms.

He followed Marcus backing away from the fight. He couldn’t bring her back or fight, but he could follow and carry. The Crows finished off their assault and brought up their rear not long afterwards.

The group ran back to the Crow’s residence by the exterior wall. Now the whole building was shivering, dust and chips of stone falling from the ceiling, like it was ready to collapse at a moment's notice. Marcus rushed ahead and shoved open the doors for everyone else, motioning in Ike first. He ran to one of the overturned beds and let down Nerinai gently.

Following Marcus and Ike were the remaining Crows- Rosa, Kassidy, Syphe- along with Isibeil and some of the Marcusi attendants. Those went to the farthest corner of the room huddling and praying. Ike had to wonder how people like them kept faith while their prophet was laid out on the cot in front of them.

At least everyone else was composed. Disturbed, but composed and ready to fight.

Ike looked at the Crows. He couldn’t help but feel a little angry at them right now, especially given that all of them nearly dying was their fault. His fault too, but he was more comfortable blaming them.

“Why didn’t she shut the gate?” Kassidy barked.

Ike blinked and collected himself. “Sorry, I think you’re going to have to say that again, because that was a lot of attitude from somebody who just tried to have Nerinai killed. What the hell were you people thinking? Working with Donnahais?”

“We didn’t have much of a choice,” Rosa said.

“Of course you had a choice,” Ike said, then caught himself.

He wasn’t here to bicker with the Crows, he needed their damn help. He took a heavy breath and looked back at Nerinai. For all the hell breaking loose around them, she was sleeping peacefully as a baby. On any other day he’d be glad, but right now he really needed the extra support.

“What I think the Guardian was trying to say is that he and the Raveness were coming to look for aid. We have access to the gate, but according to the lady, closing it requires a sacrifice.”

The Crows were silent at that. Ike nodded his thanks to Marcus for making his point clear.

Ike was just getting ready to officially make his plea for their help, to get on his knees and start begging like an urchin on the street, maybe even weep a little, when the entire building shook again. Hard. He tripped and stumbled while somebody else screamed.

“What’s happening?” Isibeil demanded.

“The butler.”

Ike recovered himself and spun. Nerinai was awake now, and she was starting to rise. Ike put a hand on her back and helped her rise, but by the way she was holding her head the blow clearly did a lot of damage he couldn’t help with.

“What about him?” Marcus asked.

“The butler was holding this place together. Part of him- his spirit- was ingrained in the Black Palace. Did Donnahais kill him?”

Nerinai looked straight into Ike’s eyes for the answer. He nodded, but she already knew. She grimaced and grabbed his shoulder, using it to pull herself off the bed and back to her feet.

“With the butler gone the building is going to start tearing itself apart. That means we have precious little time to stand here and bicker about what’s happening. What is relevant are the facts: the Black Palace is falling apart, the Arcani are not to be trusted, and I need help shutting the gate.” Nerinai lifted up her chin and looked at the Crows. “Will you help me or not?”

The trio looked between one another as if an answer was hanging in the air.

“How?” Syphe asked.

Nerinai only shrugged in response. “I don’t know. Nobody’s attempted to close the Abyssal Gate since the First Shamans, and even they were working in dire circumstances. Their work was half completed. Perhaps with all of us working together, we could shut the gate completely. The seals being torn down means the demons are going to be multiplying in the Palace, so we must hurry.”

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The Crows ducked their head in quiet deliberation. Marcus and Isibeil did the same, so Ike took the opportunity to talk to his own partner. She looked dreadful, and he was beginning to feel a lot more guilt than before about making her try this.

“I’m sorry,” he said, folding his hands.

The Raveness scoffed. “What for? You couldn’t have known what Donnahais was planning.”

If only that were true. Ike had been acting like an ignorant idiot this entire mission, and now everyone was paying the price of that ignorance. Especially Nerinai. He couldn’t help feeling as if he’d said something, did something, or taken a little action to stop the warriors or trap them… But no. Ike was many things maybe, but not a fighter. Those Arcani swords would have torn him to bits.

“Ike.” The guardian had been watching the crows, but now he looked back to Nerinai. Her voice was barely a whisper. “I appreciate the fact that you’ve been doing your duty. You’ve done it well. But, if the other shaman’s can’t help you need to let me finish my work. I can’t let the gate stay open. If we don’t close it now, nobody ever will, and hell will reign over the whole world. Do you understand?”

Ike swallowed hard and nodded.

He didn’t have anything else to say about it. Nerinai was right, as much as he hated it.

Thankfully the Crows saved him from having to say anything. Kassidy was the first to speak. “We can try to blend ichor’s and seal the gate through sheer magic. If the seals were as you said- half measures- then perhaps the effort will be enough.”

“Thank you.”

“There is something else,” Marcus interrupted. “Before coming into the room Isibeil saw more demons gathering in the halls. Getting back to the basement isn’t going to be easy.”

Ike, in perhaps the first truly brave act he’d ever done, swung the shovel off his back and stepped forward. He tapped the butt end on the ground and popped his shoulders. “One way or another, whatever it takes, we need to do this.”

“Agreed,” said Marcus. Then so did everyone else.

All of them turned to the door and Ike was the first to grab onto the handle. “I’ll lead. Marcus by my side, Isibeil in the back supporting the Crows, Nerinai in the middle. Everyone good?”

The group formed up and Ike turned back to the door. He squeezed his eyes shut and tried imagining what kind of world there would be if he survived this. Pretty golden fields. Laying under an apple tree with Nerinai. Some kind of idyllic life without the blight and the fog and the demons and the Black Palace.

Ike thought that was the kind of dream worth fighting for.

He shoved open the door and charged out with his shovel leading. With his heart racing and adrenaline coursing through his veins he was ready for anything. Ready to tear down the walls of a fortress and slaughter a thousand armies. At least in his head he was.

But everything was silent.

Even the building refused to shake. The group spilled out and held their unsteady position.

“It could be a trick,” Marcus said to him. Ike nodded and kept his shovel up.

The group pressed on, into the main foyer which was a bloody mess. The Arcani had left a savage mess in their wake and Ike was beginning to have the gut-wrenching feeling that they’d carved themselves downstairs. To the seals, and the gate.

He stepped over Deon’s corpse and a patch of ugly looking monsters to get to the staircase. The door was wide open.

“I don’t suppose it’ll be this easy all the way down?” he asked with a little smirk.

Marcus slapped him on the back. “Keep moving.”

Ike nodded and kept going down. The basement stairs felt a lot more cramped than the last time he’d taken them, which felt like something he should have commented on, but his throat was tight. His tongue was held. Both muscles were avoiding any kind of noise that might block the sound of flesh slapping or heavy armored boots stomping around beneath him.

Instead, when he reached the bottom of the staircase, everything seemed kind of normal. The basement was still as pristine and comfortable as the last time he’d seen it. For a very brief moment he wondered if this really would be as easy as their walk from out of the Crow’s room, and then half of the basement exploded.

Right where the calm little pool was, the floor shattered, sending a flood of water and splinters of wood flying everywhere. Ike was closest and stumbled from the assault, nearly deafened from the sound of it, but to his credit he forced himself to stand and got right back into a warrior’s stance.

Demons. Everywhere.

There were maybe ten altogether, but Ike didn’t have time to take a headcount. One of the biggest was charging straight at him, having clawed its way through the torn hole in the basement floor.

The beast was an ugly approximation of a human, its head bloated and pocked with black holes, two claws for hands, and the pulpy white veins that made all the Blight run. Ike shouted- barely audible over the crashing of weapons and magic around him- and ran with his spear forward.

It slapped the spear up, so Ike kicked off the ground and shoved the demon sprawling backwards. Then he swung back the shovel again and smacked it so hard that the black holes shot ichor on the floor.

Ike didn’t give the beast a chance to recuperate. He rammed the head of the shovel into its back between two poorly placed spine’s and tore open a hole. Then he ripped the shovel back out and cleaved on its neck.

“Ike!” somebody yelled.

He ripped his shovel back to his hands and spun, but all too slow.

Martial Donnahais had his hand around Nerinai’s throat. He was yanking her through the doorway leading to the Abyssal Gate, but she was holding onto the frame for dear life.

Ike didn’t have time to wonder why nobody else had stopped him. He didn’t have time to run back to save her either. Something heavy and wet slammed against his back and tackled him down to the floor.

The guardian struggled, and suddenly he was full of so much rage that he couldn’t think of anything but getting back to Nerinai. And the fleshy beast on his back? He let go of the shovel and pressed himself off the ground, then with his right hand yanked the knife off his belt and rammed it into whatever was on top of him. Something squelched, squealed, and Ike kept stabbing until it slid off.

He grabbed his shovel and slashed the demon for good measure, then ran.

“FUCK!” he screamed.

The door was shut, and he couldn’t get it open. By the time Marcus appeared by his side he was resorting to smashing at the door with his shovel, wearing out his arms and dulling the edge. The door didn’t budge.

“Ike!” Marcus shouted.

The guardian slammed the door one more time and then turned. Over the scholar's shoulder, he could see the Crows still fighting. The pit in the ground was black as the night, and more and more monsters were coming out of it by the second.

They were stuck.

“Can you get the door open?” Ike asked, voice hoarse with the sudden weight of the situation pressing him.

Marcus looked from him to the door. “He locked it,” Marcus said, and then his voice faltered. Suddenly he took hold of Ike’s shoulders and said, “We don’t have time to waste fighting it open. Tell Isibeil that she never failed me. This was my decision.”

Ike was too stunned and too confused to say anything. Then the scholar shoved him back and pulled a knife from somewhere, slashed open his palm, and slammed it on the door. By the time Ike had begun to realize what was happening it was already too late.

Marcus shouted something in a dead tongue. Then he exploded.