I screamed again, hurling out the largest blast of Ethereal energy I could, into the surrounding troops followed by the Baatazu Path of The Dark Flame. The Soldiers around me were suddenly engulfed in a black and red fire. It may have only done ten damage per minute, but the pain it inflicted and its dangerous appearance caused them all to back off out of its radius. Sadly, it had no effect upon Ediela above me, who had all the time in the world to hammer me with a number of heavy attacks, slammed me back into the churned up soil.

Your Soul Mate meets the requirements to be revived. Do you wish to transfer life force into your Soul Mate so that they may live? (Cost -1 level per ten personal levels reached. 0/5) Y/N

…9

…8

“Yes, goddammit. Why are you even asking?” I groaned

You have Revived your Soul Mate at a cost of five levels. Please choose the stats you wish to reduce…

I didn’t get to make that decision as another notification popped up.

Sania, Soul Mate, is about to expire.

Expire Restore

(Body not whole)

Soul Store

(Store within Ethereal core. Physical Resurrection no longer available)

“Fuck!!!” I could have cried. Yes, I’d bought more time, but I was barely lucid and my body wasn’t working as it should. Still able to fire dark and Ethereal blasts of energy I focused on that as I tried to crawl forward to where I could sense her dying body.

Despite my best efforts, and a lot of soldiers killed, I was finally dropped by a bolt of power from above. When a large shadow loomed over me, I suspected the end had come as the world faded to black.

It felt as though only a second of unconsciousness had passed, but now I was jolting around wildly, wrapped up in webbing and strapped to the underside of Danivra’s torso. Soldiers attacked from all angles as the Dokalfar Queen fought to protect me. She suddenly leapt in the air away from the ground troops, a hiss of pain, and her enormous jump faltered. Hit by an attack I couldn’t see.

“Danivra! We need to get Sania’s head and body back together!”

“Sorry Lord Clive, I intend to get you to safety. There are too many of them and I am under attack from above,” she replied in clear pain.

“I need to be free, Danivra. I need to find her and I can help in the fight.”

“You are in very bad condition, Lord Clive. I will carry you to safety.”

I noticed for the first time that she was very much right. My left demon arm had been severed at the elbow. One leg had been blasted off at the knee, the other cut halfway through my thigh, and my torso was covered in blood. I didn’t even want to know what my face looked like. Only my right arm was intact, and that was in pristine condition. But limbs were like clothes these days, and compared to losing Sania, they were meaningless.

Sania, Soul Mate, is about to expire.

Expire Restore

(Not available. Vital component Missing.)

Soul Store

(Store within Ethereal core. Physical Resurrection no longer available)

You have ten seconds remaining to make a decision.

An epiphany hit me. My Protector of the North skill. I focused on the area with it, our battle lines springing up on the map in my head. I hadn’t even considered using it prior, because I was so close to her. But that had been a mistake.

Wind of the Wilds Wultr were engaged with Justice. Our army was returning, Goblins riding the Nanook’s and Nystiobek. Elves of all races, running so easily, they appeared to float over the grassy land.

I blanked it all out to zoom in on Sania and teleported immediately to her.

Her body lay only a few yards away from where the troops fought. Her head, a few feet further on. As I scrambled toward it, I was hit with another blast that smashed me into the ground.

Sania: Soul Mate has Expired.

“Lord Clive!” Danivra yelled suddenly in my head. I felt bad with how I’d left after she’d risked her life to rescue me, but I wasn’t leaving Sania, no matter what. In all honesty, I would have done the same for Danivra, too.

Your Soul Mate meets the requirements to be revived. Do you wish to transfer life force into your Soul Mate so that they may live? (Cost -1 level per ten personal levels reached. 0/5) Y/N

…9

…8

I was suddenly covered by the shadow of Danivra again. She must have leapt over a hundred yards to reach me and protected me from the assault from above.

“Hurry!” she shouted.

I managed to gather Sania’s head, which became the new most freakiest thing I’d ever done.

…6

…5

…4

I rolled back to her body. “Yes goddamn it. Yes!” I felt the energy leave me again, flowing toward her core. As she coughed up blood and mud, I began to shrink.

You have Revived your Soul Mate at a cost of five levels.

You have devolved from your Baatazu Evolution.

Spiritual Utility -20%

-5 to all Physical Stats.

Current Level: 67

Please choose 100 points to remove from your available stats.

Fuck off! I snapped internally. Swiping away the notification. Sania was alive. As I looked over at her, Danivra’s webbing hit both of our backs, getting a solid hold of us. The strength of which, demonstrated, when she leapt away from our position. As Sania and I swung uncontrollably while being steadily reeled up toward her torso. I dismissed another notification, notifying me that I had one minute to choose the stats I wanted to remove or they would be automatically reduced across all Mental and Physical stats equally. I didn’t care right now.

On landing, Danivra took a half-dozen steps further, then she collapsed as her body reverted back to her Dokalfar form. She lay next to Sania and I, looking pale and more exhausted than I’d ever seen anyone. Blood pooled on the ground from wounds I couldn’t see on her back. My heart broke for her and how far she had gone to protect me. Only Sania had any semblance of health, though the haunted expression in her eyes told a different story about her mental health.

The next thing I noticed was that we weren’t being attacked. I looked into the air, at our three super powerful assailants. They were looking off eastward.

Before I could wonder what they were looking at, Olata half landed, half dropped among us. She was battered, one wing not working, bloody gashes on almost every inch of her body, and her left arm hung limp. Broken, or dislocated.

“Portals of Destruction, thousands…” she gasped.

As she spoke, I heard the familiar voice of Caana high above, yelling. “Back to the Peaks! Leave the Animals.”

Sania called our retreat, while I dealt with yet another notification.

Danivra, Queen of Helvien, Cleric of Clive, is about to expire.

Expire Restore

“B! For fuck’s sake,” I murmured and felt even more energy leave me. Which of course left me with another problem.

-15 to Internal Connection. Duration: 3 hours. Continued heavy use of Neuma prior to Debuff lapse will result in Complete Neuma Exhaustion.

The roar of Grigor, calling for our own retreat caused a cascade of other voices, imploring our people to break from the fight. The end of the battle brought around the first smidgen of what I thought was good news for me since the triumvirate appeared. However, it turned into a fantastic boon.

I dismissed the huge array of deaths I’d caused in the lead up to the battle. For the first time, I felt no remorse. I looked only with grim satisfaction as I received enough experience to go up seven levels to seventy four. I chose the Path of Darkness again, and as the transformation back into Baatazu began, my full body regenerated within a minute.

A further notification informed me that the thirty remaining points I had to remove had been taken automatically from across all of my stats. That was something I would have to look at later. For now, we had an army of Destruction to avoid. As I underwent my transformation back into a Baatazu hybrid, Danivra had spent the time healing Olata as best as she could in her still weakened position. Her arm was healed and most of the heavier cuts, but her wing was still bent at an unnatural angle.

I put out my hand for her to step in and she did so gratefully.

“I can heal, if we can find a forest to rest in. But right now, I am drained of all energy.”

“We’ll find you one, Olata. And thank you. You saved our lives. Both of you,” I said looking to Danivra with a nod of deep gratitude.

I looked around at our forces moving away. Then flew up into the air to check out exactly what we and Justice were running from. Sania right behind me. We gasped in unison as we laid our eyes on Destruction’s forces. The sheer number of them lining the Horizon was immense. Huge creatures, including ones I had never seen before, were involved. There were eight demon-shaped shadows in the early morning light that towered over the Gashadokuro in their ranks, and a number of dragons flapped lazily above their heads. I had a very bad feeling about what was coming, but from this distance I couldn’t even make out their identifiers.

“Where the bloody hell did they all come from!” I said, loudly enough for Danivra to hear me below.

“I think it must have been the arrival of the Triumvirate that prompted them to portal closer,” Danivra shouted back up. “Justice has played their hand against us and it looks as though Destruction are intending to capitalize. Even with the peaks under their control the force Justice has will be hard pressed to deal with what’s coming. We just need to avoid them.”

“Won’t the Triumvirate just portal back to Delosha?”

“They might, but that would mean leaving their people to certain death. Which we also need to avoid. Can you reach anyone within the old and young and injured group that we left behind in the east. We set them to continue walking south, but they won’t know of the sudden urgency. We need to get word to them.”

“I can’t. But I can fly over to them faster than our forces can run. You all head south east and I’ll go and retrieve them and meet you on route.”

“I will run with those below,” Olata said. “You will need all of your Speed.”

I nodded and swooped down to the side of our lines, putting her alongside Danivra.

“You stay too Sania. I’ve got this,” looking at me double resurrected Soul Mate, still barely able to believe she was with us again.

“No, I will come. There are things we must discuss on the way.”

I nodded, wondering what was going on, but said no more and took off eastward.

“I’m so sorry Clive,” she said, moments after we left.

“What the hell are you sorry for?” I asked, looking across to her.

“You lost ten levels. You had to resurrect me twice.”

“Yeah, and? Why are you sorry? I would have kept going until I reached zero levels if I had to. Also, congratulations on the levels! Sixty five! That’s awesome.”

“I received the Ultra rare Resurrection bonus on top of our earlier kills. I feel like I have cheated you. They should have been yours.”

“Bullshit. They’re definitely yours. I hope you put some more points into Constitution.”

“All of them,” she replied quickly. “I’m at two-hundred and twenty four now. I never want to go through that again. Being decapitated and still conscious is something I never want to repeat. I intend to invest in Constitution for the next fifty levels.”

“I won’t lie. I'm bloody glad to hear it, Sania.”

“There’s more,” she replied sheepishly. “What’s up?”

“Our bond. Can you not feel it?”

Until she’d said that, I hadn’t felt it at all. But focusing in, I noticed it had become far stronger, thicker, looking more like a meridian than any bond I’d seen so far.

“What the actual fuck!”

“I… I can feel your Ethereal energy through it, Clive. I think I can…”

“You can use it?” replied excitedly.

“I think so. Something has definitely changed.”