I launched down at Trajan Cel Tradat with my claws out. My descent was silent and swift, and I could feel the torrent of anima flowing through him like a raging river. Trajan roared in surprise as I drove him to the ground, taking his focus away from the standing stone that he poured anima into.

The ground rumbled as the flow of anima was disrupted.

“This is impossible,” he hissed through gritted teeth. “How did you manage to infiltrate my city?”

Kaiser paced back and forth in front of us, ready to leap in the moment I needed him. Stiletto hadn't opened fire yet either, because my body covering Trajan from above. I was thankful Stiletto didn’t try to shoot the dragonslayer through me.

“Balaur sent me. You're trying to summon your master, but I'm here to stop you.” I drew on the river of anima coursing through Trajan, converting it immediately into experience points. I had no idea how long it would be until I hit next level, but the stronger I could get, the better off we would all be.

“Why are you so hard to kill?” Trajan seethed. “You destroyed my shadow, you escaped Edgebreaker’s assault, you killed my varcolacs, and you found your way here. The dragon was supposed to be slumbering!”

“I'm pretty sure that you and whatever other dark wizards live down here acted like an alarm clock,” I said. “Balaur has been asleep for thousands of years, but the entire reason he is here is to keep your master locked away. Are you really all that surprised that helping spread your master's corruption would wake him up?”

Trajan let out a cry of frustration, then with a force I didn’t expect he rolled to the side, which flung me away. I rolled down a shallow set of stairs from the centre of the town square and immediately righted myself.

At that, one great explosion came from the direction of the bridge. The ground shook beneath me as the foundations of the city were shaken. A bevy of experience points rushed into me which did allow me to ascend to the next level.

“What in the abyss was that?” Trajan said, turning his attention from me towards the sound of the explosion and sight of the rising flames.

Then another explosion rocked the bridge, and I gained another glut of experience. More than the first time, which meant the nemorti had taken out way more in the second blast.

“What have you done?” Trajan said as he stalked towards me.

Then his head snapped forward as a high calibre round slammed through the back of his skull and out through his left eye. Coiled ropes unfurled from the front and back of his head, which drove sharp points into the nearby stone.

The ropes pulled taut, and the dragonslayer was pulled backwards. I ran up the stairs and used my momentum to leap into the air, coming down on Trajan with my claws outstretched. They sunk into his chest and I curled my anima-tipped claws around his ribs as I drew on his essence. He thrashed under me and against the coiled ropes that held him in place.

More experience trickled in bit by bit outside of the torrent I drew in from him. Why was that? Had my nemorti blasted some bad guys off the bridge, and was I getting experience as they expired under the surface of the black lake?

Trajan jerked forward, then pulled with such force that his face began to split apart. The crack widened from the top of his skull with a sickening tearing sound, down through his eye socket, then split his cheekbone as he pulled himself free of Stiletto’s binding shot.

Despite my weight being upon him, Trajan rose to his feet. The jagged, weeping wound bled a viscous red. Not blood, but pure anima. The same substance that covered the space between the standing stones. With a blast of energy, he sent me flying again.

“I was never meant to see the coming of the great dragon,” Trajan said with a wet, humourless laugh. “I can see that now. I won’t live to see our new world, but it shall be borne from me. I am the vessel for his rebirth.”

I scrambled back to me feet and reached out for Trajan as he stumbled backwards into the glowing anima pool, but I was too late. Stiletto landed one more shot on the dragonslayer before Trajan collapsed back into the stalks of those two enormous wings.

A bright red light erupted from Trajan’s remaining eye, and from the jagged ruin of the one that had been destroyed. Cracks formed in his skin, which spewed forth more corrupted light. His body began to sink into the anima pool as though he was being swallowed by quicksand.

Trajan’s form began to morph and shift before my eyes, growing larger by the second.

“I am the bridge that brings Lord Sare’zmei into our universe once again!” Trajan called out as his features shifted further away from human.

His jaws expanded in all directions, filling themselves with an assortment of needle-like teeth. The rent in the flesh of Trajan’s head knit itself back together just to split apart again. Two lines opened from cheek to brow, and each was filled with a multitude of black eyes with blazing red pupils. They darted this way and that, each focussing on one something different.

I opened fire with Gravedigger and unloaded shell after shell into him with little to no effect.

The wings joined with Trajan’s body, and he grew in size as though he meant to meet their scale.

There was no way that Stiletto, Kaiser and I would be able to kill Trajan alone. We needed the rest of the team, and I was the only one who could bring them across to fight.

“Ah fuck,” I said as I turned from the battle and headed into a nearby house. I didn’t want to flee from battle, but there was no other options. I needed to get to the roof or at least a window that faced the bridge. I couldn’t open a portal without seeing the destination.

The urgency of the situation made me careless, and it was only Kaiser’s sudden barking that stopped me from walking straight into the explosive radius of a baubau waiting on the stairs. I quickly rolled back behind a nearby door and loaded two shells into Gravedigger. The baubau waited for us, flexing its bone claws in a taunting manner.

“I don’t have time for your shit,” I said as I raised Gravedigger right at the thing’s explosive collar.

Its eyes went wide a second before I pulled the trigger. The whole place exploded, including the stairs that I needed go up to get to the roof, but the hole in the wall revealed another possible path. I summoned my claws and launched myself right at the side of the building on the other side of the alley, then pulled myself up as fast as I could.

Behind me, a great black and red form rose from the town square.

Trajan was gone. There was nothing human left of the monstrous thing that grew in the centre of Adormitzeu. Its body was covered in black scales, which looked to burn from beneath with the energy of corrupted anima. The thing’s head sat forward on the ground in front of a hunched back, as though it was too heavy to hold aloft. Needle teeth had become jagged knives of bone, and an unctuous tongue tasted the air.

If we could fight back against Sare’zmei while it was still gathering strength, we might stand a chance, but those moments would be gone soon. Once I reached the apex of the building I grinned at the sight before me. The majority of the bridge was completely gone, and I was still gaining experience little by little as monsters drowned in the black lake.

I opened a portal to the rest of the team and ushered them through. “Come on! This is only open for thirty seconds, and we’ve got a cosmic demon to stop!”

They rushed through the portal and looked down at the terror that tried to pull itself through the gate and into our world. Naginata clutched her chest as she looked down at the town square. Strangely, she was smiling.

“What the hell is that?” Xiphos said.

“It was Trajan, but I think he’s gone now. He used himself as a bridge between our world and Sare’zmei’s prison.”

Xiphos swore. Pike had gone white, and Naginata had a look of grim determination on her face.

“We failed,” Pike said, falling to her knees. “Once he breaks free, there’s no stopping Sare’zmei. All we can do is flee, or better yet, kill ourselves right now before he has a chance to corrupt us.”

Pike pulled a pistol from a holster and almost put the barrel to her head. Xiphos grabbed it and pushed it away, right at the same moment that Pike pulled the trigger.

The bullet flew harmless away.

“You’re a part of my team now, Pike! Nobody derelicts their duty on my watch, especially not while the fate of the planet relies on it.” Xiphos backhanded Pike, who then cradled her cheek with her hand.

“You don’t know what it’s like,” Pike said quietly. “Your thoughts aren’t your own. Your ideas aren’t either. You’re a servant, a corrupted soul, everything suppressed and tucked away… I can’t do that again!”

“Neither can we, and nor can the rest of humanity,” Xiphos said firmly. “If you take the easy way out here, you are condemning the rest of the planet to the fate you so fervently want to avoid.”

Pike hung her head, then Naginata knelt next to her. She put a hand on Pike’s shoulder to reassure her.

“All is not lost,” Naginata said. “There is a way we can reverse this.”

Naginata unzipped her tactical vest a little then fished out a chain that had been hidden beneath her armour. The chain held a silver locket at the end. She flicked open the front of the locket and a golden light burst forth. Naginata looked at me with a smile on her face.

“The yōkai gave me a parting gift. They called it a moment of time, to use to light my darkest day. I always thought they were talking about the luminosity of the stone, but there was more to it than that.”

“A moment of time,” I repeated. “It’s a sliver of golden anima. We can use this to turn back the clock! To lock Sare’zmei away again!”

“Pike, what do you know of the sealing ritual that locked Sare’zmei away in the first place?” I asked.

“Four warriors were said to wield the power of the Gods, and they channelled their essence into the wards that locked the devourer away,” Pike said.

“Four warriors, and a fifth to cleanse the obelisk of its current corruption,” Xiphos said with a smile. “We need you, Pike. You need to take up the essence of the Gods and lock Sare’zmei away again. It’s our duty.”

“Those four warriors… They sacrificed themselves to lock the devourer away,” Pike said quietly. “Their bodies could not withstand the force of the magic that flowed through them.”

“That does not change our duty,” Xiphos said. “The reason for my existence is to ensure that the rest of humanity can live on. If I fall here, then so be it. My death will have meaning.”

Naginata met Xiphos’s gaze and nodded solemnly. Pike offered a reluctant affirmation.

“That might not happen,” I said trying to inject some hope back into the situation. “If these ancient warriors were just that, and had never been exposed to anima before, then yeah. It probably would have torn them apart. But us? We’ve all been reinforced a little by EDGE Force. We might be okay.”

“Do what you can to preserve us,” Xiphos said. “You are a Balaran Knight. A healer, a purifier, and Champion of the Sleeping Dragon. It’s your sacred duty to ensure that no matter what happens here, the devourer does not escape.”

I nodded solemnly. “I guess I should open a portal so we can give Stiletto the good news.”