Blank, white noise filled Elena’s ears, overflowing into an incessant mix of sound that constantly dragged at her senses, grabbing her attention and whittling away at her patience. Simultaneously, as the white noise filled her eardrums, a tremendous dark pressure obscured her vision. The type of darkness that seemed to press on her brain. She could feel her pulse against the darkness blocking her eyes, and it felt like a headache coming on. Elena shuddered under its solid, stone-like weight.

Wait a minute…

The warped and cracked gauntlet on Elena’s remaining arm quested forwards, scraping against what was most definitely a physical object. She snorted in irritation, flexing her fingers and feeling a sliver of pride return to her as each finger sank deep into the stone. One heave of effort later, and the rock began to move. At first, only a faint wobble, but as Elena ignored the strange searing feelings coming from all over her body, small motes of sunlight began to seep through and illuminate her surroundings. Each heave showered more light on her situation, until finally, the boulder was dropped to the side.

“What the absolute fuck…” Elena breathed out in horror. It was absolute devastation. Dimly, in the back of her mind, she noticed that the stone that had come flying out of nowhere to cover her was large, much too large to be natural. Much too smooth, as well. Much too like the walls of the fortress she had guarded for years.

No, the only things that truly registered was the destruction and the cold, the oh so bitter cold. Her eyes darted around, finally resting on the culprit, the cracked flower of ice and the two figures surrounding it. Or rather, the demon and the half-elf. Immediately her hand flew to the battered longsword resting on the ground near her, the haste in the gesture so overwhelming that she didn’t even notice the trembling of her own hand.

Elena shuddered and her stomach sank to her feet as she glanced at the demon’s hand. He was holding a severed head, one so strikingly familiar.

She wasn’t able to stifle her horrified gasp.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Tim’s heart felt like it was about to leap through his mouth as he turned his head to face the bloodied cleric.

“Shit! Mavier, we have to get the hell out of here!” Tim desperately tugged on the demon hero’s broad shoulders. “Reinforcements could come from the city at any moment, we can’t get tied down any longer!”

There was no answer, and as Tim’s tugging intensified while the bloodied hero limped closer and closer, Tim turned and shouted towards the gradually organizing Blinders.

“Bert! With me! The rest of you, scatter like we planned! Quick, before the soldiers get here!”

Almost as if they were waiting for those very words, the muscled gangsters instantly took to the wind, scattering in groups of two and three towards the intact parts of the forest while Bert, and surprisingly, the lady demon, looked at him questioningly.

Fucking hell. If we stay, there’s too much of a risk that Elena lasts long enough to get backup. If Mavier were unhurt… then maybe. Should we run without him? It’d be a crying shame to lose an ally as strong as him. Without Mavier, we don’t have anyone that can go toe-to-toe with heroes until the rat king finishes ‘gathering power’ or whatever the hell Philbert said he was doing.

This is quickly turning into a shitshow!

“Hey lady!” Tim snapped his fingers. “I know you never told me your name, but can you tell your boss that we need to get the fuck out of here?”

A slight scowl marred the demon’s face.

“It’s Santet, and if you really think we must give up this golden chance… very well.”

Santet dashed up to Mavier’s side and whispered in his ear, motioning towards Tim and the still-approaching hero. A few seconds passed, and just as Tim began to edge away from the approaching confrontation, Mavier spat out a string of curses, turning away from the cleric hero with a face full of disappointment.

“You’d better be right about this, half-elf. Otherwise…” Mavier let the unspoken threat hang in the air like a guillotine, grabbing Tim and Burt under his arms as he dashed away from the screaming Elena.

Tim could only shake his head in annoyance. “Yeah, yeah. I know. Just keep in mind that even you can’t deal with Elena and her soldiers at the same time while bearing with the damage you took from that blast. If we fuck up here and get killed, who’s going to take out that bastard Adrian?”

His words were only met by an annoyed silence and the fading shout of Elena yelling “COWARDS!” as they vanished into the woods.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

The drumming of hooves on the dirt road rapidly approached Elena, spread out, and then clattered to a stop, but all she could see was a melting flower of ice and a headless body. Numerous voices pestered and nagged at her, but all were ignored. They would go away soon enough. She had to figure out what to do now that Kevin was gone. With each passing second that she stared at the corpse, all she could think of was how irritating the bastard was, how much he got on her nerves. How they had fought over the years, but also how they had fought alongside each other. Against horrifying monstrosities, straight out of the types of movies that always gave her nightmares as a child. Against the demon king, a powerful adversary that they had all been summoned to fight together in order to save humanity. And, as the enemies that could only be dealt with by heroes had gradually disappeared, so had the members of their original party, one by one. Sure, they weren’t much, but they were still as close to kin as they had here. Countrymen.

From Earth.

A warm hand clasped her shoulder, Clarkson’s calm voice disrupting her train of thought.

“Lady Elena, please. We have to get you back to the city. I don’t know what happened, but even I can see you’re hurt.”

It didn’t matter, not compared to the empty sense of loss that weighed down her shoulders under the realization that yet another one of her precious ties to Earth was gone. A shitty one, but a tie he remained. Someone who understood.

From far in the distance, almost like it was on the other side of a train tunnel, she heard Clarkson bitterly sigh and order for a horse to be brought up.

What felt like hours passed, and Elena ignored the warm, guiding hands that led her onto her saddled horse. Clarkson’s distant voice barked out orders, but she only had eyes for the retreating sight of the melting ice flower.

“Come ‘on Lady Elena, let’s get you back, warm up a nice glass of brandy, and when you’re feeling better you can tell me all about what we missed.”