"This entire deployment had been a headache" mused Rex.

First, getting attacked by the Verrack, then an Augur of all things. Finally came the Voyager. The last recorded Voyager was a few hundred thousand years ago. None of it made sense, starting with him going from the Investigative and covert arm of the military to suddenly being promoted to a fucking general after he rooted out the cult in Immorilla.

Someone or something was pulling the strings back in the capital, and definitely not to the empire's benefit. He needed urgently to speak to the Prince once he was back, preferably away from that nest of snakes that he called his home. To be stuck in the middle of a shadow war of royal succession was not really what the Healer ordered.

Rex closed his tired eyes and leaned back in his chair, if his teacher hadn't shown up, he and the rest of the army would be dead at the hands of the Augur. There really are levels to this game. If Yuri could deal with the Augur so easily after it had basically smacked him silly with one punch, he wondered what kind of monster his teacher really was. Augurs were no joke. Masters of a singular Aspect of Pestilence, like this one, an Augur of Rot. As the name suggests, it brings Rot with a capital R to wherever it goes. Entire cities could have been wiped out in days. And Yuri had basically done the equivalent of stomping it into the ground whilst looking bored. Rex shuddered as he thought of the other monsters he had met. His teacher's old team. He'd rather face the Augur again.

On cue, a shockwave went through the tent. Rex stopped. He sensed a massive Aum signature. Sighing, he chided himself for letting himself slip into placidity. Brow set and canines bared the Xeral materialised his glowing warhammer as he flashed out of the tent in a blaze of red hot fury.

Since the arrival of Yuri and the disappearance of the Augur. The Verrack army had retreated. The 100000 strong army battered and worn down proceeded to camp with caution for the night. Officers and commanders camped in the centre and were surrounded by concentric rectangles of troop tents with regular patrols and campfires at geometric designations. The grass native to the region had been cleared out for the entire camp. Trenches were dug and Walls were raised within an afternoon. For anyone not familiar with elemental Aum, it would have shocked them to see stone grown and shaped in front of their eyes. But the well-trained Corps of the Empire had turned a grassy hill into a fort before sunset. Manned ramparts, Aum and physical barriers, Farseeing arrays trained both to the horizon and the ground beneath them, as well as light-bending camouflage incantations made the hastily raised fort both stealthy and well protected. But. There was currently a man, horned and dressed in black standing in the air a few feet from the ground in the middle of the centre where the command centre was. A twenty-foot crater glowing an angry red and vestiges of death and destruction many feet further than that. All that careful preparation and work ruined by one creature of immense power.

Yuri was the first to arrive on the scene. By the time she registered the meteoric AUM signature, it was too late. Hundreds of officers, who worked through the night to ensure the smooth running of the encampment dead or dying. Yuri turned her furious red orbs onto the genocidal maniac floating lackadaisically toward her. With not a care in the world. Calling it a man is well a bit of a simplification. Whatever it was, it had the shape of a man. It was as though its flesh was made of wisps of shadow. Nether given human form. A pair of obsidian horns cracked and ram-like grew out of the back of this Abyss-spawn's head. Black and corrupt life force roiling out of the creature like a tsunami of malice sapping the life force of the dying troops it had broken. Here was a bonafide practioner of Death. The Reaper isn't grim, he's just apathetic.

" Hand him over " It spoke in a low gravelly tone. Dirty red gashes for eyes trained on Yuri.

" Leave Malkaleth, I am not in a good mood right now" spat Yuri, uncharacteristically vehement

" Your hands are tied Andross, I know your daughter is here. The skies won't burn tonight"

A Rex-shaped meteor landed beside Yuri, eyeing the shadowy apparition he asked with urgency" First the Desolation and now the Void ones? Is that twerp really worth so much trouble"

" This is a distraction, Rex, secure the voyager. I'll take care of Malkaleth"

Rex paused " Malkaleth the Black Butcher??!"

" The one and only" replied Malkaleth grinning to reveal a very corporeal set of red-needle teeth.

Plasma encased Yuri as she whispered " Go, keep them both safe"

Lightning shot toward the Shadow.

Rex had never moved faster in his entire life. The Xeral pushed his body to the limits as he reached the tent the Voyager was held in. The dismembered remains of the Shrikes guarding the Voyager were strewn around the entrance. Materializing both his shorter Warhammers. The Xeral rushed in to find the body of the scribe, and the Voyager nowhere to be seen. Swearing he tore up through the tent in a fiery blaze until he was high enough to see the encampment. Death and Chaos. The entire camp was fighting against shadow creatures. Death was ubiquitous. Stealth attacks from the shadows reaping lives like a tidal wave through the coral. Gritting his teeth the Xeral kept his grim vigil until he found him. The Voyager covered in blood and holding an unconscious Zeva limping desperately away from two cloaked figures brandishing daggers and closing in on their target.

Rex growled in fury. First, he would save Zeva and the Voyager. Then he would let loose his mountain of fury on those who dared to hurt his troops.

With fire encasing his body, Rex descended with the wrath of a fallen star.

Suddenly sensing something wrong, he swerved to the left. Losing control he hit the ground hard. Tearing through tents and ending up in a heap. Struggling to his feet, his knees buckled. Blood oozing from his mouth, he felt a spear of shadow stuck in his stomach as his vision started to double.