Charles and Charlotte appeared well away from their original positions. The two Ahrimans chasing them spun around with a roar of annoyance.

“Quit running!” The other two Ahrimans yelled from the side. “We tire of this battle!”

“Quit regenerating your blasted clones then!” Charles yelled back.

“Quit talking and focus!” Charlotte spat out as the previous two daevas turned around and began heading their way again. “We need to think of a way to take out all four of them at the same time, or as close to it as possible.”

“Well, I’m open to ideas, but it’s a lot harder than it used to be to trick him.”

Truthfully, the two were simply a bad matchup against the daeva, nothing more. It was unlucky, or more likely, careful planning on Dantanian’s part.

“Can we help?” Alli’s voice suddenly intruded on their conversation.

Charles looked around and quickly spotted the rest of their party in the distance below. Along with a rather intimidating fellow, who he didn’t have the time to worry about at the moment.

“We need to kill all four of them at once or they’ll keep coming back. Can you help us keep them contained?” His mind churned out on an idea that might work with the appearance of the reinforcements.

“I think we can manage something. What did you have in mind?”

“First, we need to clip all of their wings so they can’t escape. Then I’ll use ‘Shadow Grasp’ to hold them while Charlotte fetches them as quickly as possible. After that, we need to find a way to destroy all four of them at once.”

It was something they had already tried multiple times to varying levels of success. Charlotte didn’t have the spell ‘Shadow Grasp’ which left him holding them, while she fetched the rest. After that, they needed to defeat them all at once, and that was the part they had been struggling the most with. Well, that and consistently catching all four of them.

Charles didn’t think that was going to be a problem this time.

He blinked behind two of the Ahrimans while Charlotte did the same for the other two. His shadow spell wrapped up the two next to him while Charlotte carried the two forcefully to him with a quick blink.

The spell was so useful for fights like this. All they had to do was touch the enemy and they could bring them along for the ride.

Charles wrapped them up with his shadows alongside the two, while his sister sliced off their wings.

“How long are you going to be able to hold us for this time?” One of the Ahriman’s snarled.

Charles didn’t answer. He could already feel the spell beginning to strain against the four captives. It wasn’t meant to be used like this, and it showed. He was already overcharging the spell, but that only took you so far with a weak spell like this.

Overcharging was most effectively used on burst spells. Anything that stuck around and needed a constant stream of mana to maintain was harder to overcharge properly. That went double for spells that were naturally weak to begin with.

Charlotte fingered her dagger and glared at them. One of the first things they had tried when they had managed to capture them was having her stab them all. She hadn’t been able to do enough damage in time to eliminate them. All it had done was set two Ahrimans free and create a huge explosion when the last two self-destructed.

He truly was a frustrating enemy.

However, with Kira now finished with the minions, and Alli here as well, it was a different matter entirely.

It was just a matter of which of the two reached them first.

Kira was charging towards them, her gore and blood-covered hammer held high in the air. Behind her, the people of the town let out a cheer. With her considerable help, they had managed to defend the walls against the invading beasts.

On the opposite side, Alli slipped into the shadows with her group and popped up beside them a moment later. Shadow Walking was simply faster than running.

Alli shifted forms as Sierra hopped from her back.

“You said all four of them need to go at once, right?” Silvi questioned after the transformation had finished.

“That’s right,” Charlotte replied, knowing how much Charles was concentrating on the spell.

“Alright, then let’s see if this will work as well on them as it did on the dark elementals. Everyone, stand around them. I need all of them surrounded in shadows.”

Silvi was taking no chances with the amount of shadow available. The application was still too new to her. She didn’t understand the fine details of how it worked.

As soon as there were enough shadows for her liking, a ‘Corrosive Shadow’ extended from her foot and encompassed the four.

Moments later, Ahriman began to scream from within the cocoon of shadow, causing it to ripple erratically.

Charles took a step back as the pressure on his spell built. “I’m not going to be able to hold this for much longer.” He told everyone, as they took another step back.

Kira joined them just then with her hammer transforming into a jagged spike. “Let’s double up on those that escape then. It sounds like they don’t like whatever Silvi is doing to them. This is our chance to take them out.”

Everyone nodded and prepared their spells and weapons for whatever was to come.

The daevas suddenly fell silent as the shadows eating them bulged outward and blew apart. A smoking crater revealed where one of them had sacrificed himself so the other three could escape. The explosion had been weaker than normal, but it was still enough to destroy both Charles’ and Silvi’s spell.

It had also caused some additional damage to the remaining three Ahrimans. They took a moment to glare at the gathered party, their clothes hung in bloody tatters, all along their skinless bodies. One was missing his eyelids and had a partially dissolved eye. While another was missing his nose, lips, and ears.

All three were in rough-looking shape, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t fight.

“We have a minute!” Charles shouted, rousing everyone from their stupor.

A gurgling cry came from the wingless daevas as they sprang away from the crater. With the time limit in play, it was just a matter of them delaying long enough. Then the cycle would continue once more, just as it had every time before.

Kate hurled her ice lance at the closest Ahriman, slipping the frigid needlepoint in through the skinless tissue of its back. With a cry, it slammed into the ground and skidded along the ground, halting inches from Kira’s heavy boots.

The angry ‘Retributionist’ classed woman grinned down at him as her savage hammer descended with all the force she could muster. The daeva of destruction didn’t survive long enough to feel his head exploding underneath the spiked weapon.

Within moments, another Ahriman had fallen, leaving only two that they needed to contend with.

Beth carefully aimed and fired, only to miss as the wily being jerked away with a pained cry at the last second.

“Here, let me help,” Sierra offered. Now that Balor was no longer actively blocking her abilities, she was once more getting her usual glimpses of the future.

The normally shy girl adjusted her grip and nodded.

Sierra slipped behind her and took hold of her arms. “Fire when I tell you to.”

“Fire!” She jerked the girl’s arms off the target and slightly to the left as she pulled the trigger, exactly to where he jumped to. Ahriman screamed as the bullet of fire hit him in the middle of his back. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a debilitating shot. She was too weak for that, but it was distracting.

A bolt of plasma shot through the air and splashed across his face, erasing his remaining eye. Charlotte had been waiting for the right moment to use her attack on him. Together, the two opened fire and quickly reduced the remaining number of Ahrimans to one.

Charles used blink to catch the remaining nose-less Ahriman. He quickly used ‘Flame Blade’ a spell he had learned when he touched Beth’s core and began hacking at the remaining daeva. As an added bonus from Tessa’s core, ‘Spiritual Flames’ were now a part of any fire attack he used.

A fact that Ahriman did not seem to like as his screams reached a pitch that would have left most singers and dogs in awe. Apparently, he should have been focusing on using fire more this entire time. After his initial attacks with it had been dodged, he had moved on to other elements. Until that moment, he had forgotten about the newly added effect.

It was a mistake on his part, as the soul attack seemed particularly effective against the evil daeva. With mere seconds to spare, the last one fell silent and succumbed to death.

At last, they had succeeded in defeating Ahriman, and it had been a group effort. He hadn’t been someone that Charles and Charlotte could defeat on their own. At least not in their current state.