Fauna could barely believe what she was seeing.

It had seemed that all hope was lost – that their home, and the people who had fought to defend it, hadn't had a chance. But that notion was dispelled entirely by the two hybrids that emerged from the little metal doorway to the left of the decimated waystation, both coughing and spluttering, each one holding onto the armored shoulders of the other.

A Dixit and a Ratman – as unlikely a pair as they could have expected. Except that these were two hybrids they knew well.

"B-borlor?!"

Klax lumbered towards the old, ragged Blacksmith of Sanctum, who gripped the Lycae's arms firmly with his claws. His breathing was steady, though labored. And from the blood that was running down his shaggy brow, it was clear he'd been through hell down here.

"Bastards whacked us, Klax," he coughed. "If it hadn't been fer this damn evil genius, we wouldn't have held out for as long as we did."

The eyes of the party shifted to the sniveling ratman who collapsed before them, heaving with a effort of keeping himself upright. Yet, before he fell, Borlor caught him effortlessly and hauled him to his feet.

"Fraxx…" Tara mumbled.

"M-missss Tara," the ratman chuckled dryly. "I ssssee you are fashionably late to the party, assss usssual…"

Tara shook her head, gingerly leaning forward to steady the swaying rat.

"You're a tough son of a bitch after all," she murmured, her face breaking into a half smile. "Not even the Lightborn himself could bring you down."

A series of sputters answered Tara's claim, and both Hybrids were helped to the ground by the party.

"All this," Klax said. "It was you two, wasn't it?"

"Everyone," Borlor wheezed. "We all came together. Did our part. So that when this moment came, we'd have a fightin' chance…"

A series of concussive blasts echoed down the tunnel, shaking the ceiling and causing debris to tumble down on the busted palisade of the waystation. Fauna and Lamphrey were both quick to shield the party, even as it sounded like someone was tearing the entire tunnel system apart piece by piece further in.

"How long has it been since their attack?" Fauna asked.

For a moment, Borlor seemed confused. This Hopla was all business. Fire in her eyes. Determination in her stance. The sight emboldened him.

"Hard…ta say, lass," he replied. "We fought them back maybe…maybe an hour ago? Then he came and…it was all we could do…to hold on."

"All this death," Klax said, indicating the shriveled bodies around them. "How did you manage against such a wave of Greycloaks?"

"Poisssson, dear Lycae," Frax piped up, clearly proud of himself. "A gasss that targeted humanssss. Desssstroysss the immune ssssyssstem. Even thossse with Krean blood fell before it."

The ratman's eyes widened suddenly, the horrors of memories past returning to the forefront of his mind.

"…until he came."

Borlor took up the rest of the tale: "He swept through the place. Walked through the fumes as though they were nothin'. He cleared the way, tellin' the ones who were too slow ta keep up that they'd have to give their lives for the Lord. Pah! Bastard didn't care about them at all. He didn't even turn round as we opened the vents and poured the gas down on their filthy skulls! In the end…maybe him and twelve other Greys made it through this checkpoint."

Borlor twitched, and Klax turned his face to his companions. He shook his head.

"A weapon like this…" he murmured. "It's unnatural."

"It issss necesssary!" Frax protested. "The humansss ssshow us no mercy. They take our familiessss. They burn our homesss. Thissss issss the way to end their rein…to protect what issss ourssss."

Fauna clutched her staff tightly, her ears drooping as she looked on what Sanctum – the only place she'd ever really known as her real home – had become. She understood what Fraxx was saying even if Klax couldn't. Yet still, seeing the mangled bodies of the Greycloaks turned inside-out like this…she doubted even if her mother and father and brothers and sisters would want to be avenged this way, using such a tool of terror as their means of retribution…

But what surprised her even more was that Tara seemed equally perturbed. She was biting her lips, scratching lightly at her arms, as though she was conflicted about what her eyes were seeing and what she knew, in her heart, was just.

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"That means he's alive," she murmured. "And by the sounds of it, barely hurt at all."

Fauna looked back to Lamphrey who nodded, once.

"I can feel him," she said. "He is power, raw and primal, barely contained. And he is seeking something."

Borlor nodded between coughs. "That's right! He…he didn't even look at us as he cleaved through this place. His eyes were…focused. Like he had his sights on somethin' important further in. His arm was glistenin' like it was made of pure light. Then he shone it towards us and…"

The Dixit leaned back as a shudder ran through him, leaving the rest of the Hybrids suddenly doubting if they could even do what they came here to do.

"But – you're here now, aren't ya?" the Dixit suddenly perked up – as though he was afflicted by mania. "You're here, and that means Lord Ethan's coming."

The party avoided the Dixit's gaze, and the hopeful eyes of the ratman. Everyone except Fauna, who stared at them unblinkingly.

"Your wounds need healing," she said. "Lamphrey, help me with this."

Both the mages knelt to begin a quick restoration ritual – forcing wounds to clot and lacerations to virtually disappear from the cut flesh of the pair. But as they did so, Borlor and Fraxx found themselves sharing a knowing, fearful look.

"Lord Ethan," the Ratman asked. "When issss he coming?"

Fauna merely finished up her healing and then stood, turning towards the rest of the party.

"He isn't," she said. "He has a mission that takes him far from this place."

Both Borlor and Fraxx said nothing. It seemed that, even though their wounds had just been magically knit, they were in even more shock right now than they had been before.

"Then…then you're all…"

"We're it," Klax said to Borlor's muttering speech. "Yeah."

Both the hybrids just lay there, soaking up these words.

"Then that means…we don't have a cha–"

"Klax," Fauna said abrutply. "I can teleport you at short-range to get you as close as I can to his Greycloak entourage. We take them out first, then focus on the Lightborn."

"Throw me where the fighting is thickest," Klax nodded, patting the urn on his back containing Jun'Ei's ashes. "I have some payback to deliver."

Fauna then turned, ignoring the bemused face of Borlor. "Lamphrey, I need you running interference in their mindscapes. Mess with them. Distort their vision any way you can. We'll need your Oneiromancy on our side. It's the one spell type they don't know."

The Tialax nodded slowly, already preparing her spells.

Fauna was already calculating their next steps.

"Borlor, did he have any mages with him?"

The Dixit wasn't even paying attention. He simply stared forward, dumbstruck.

"Borlor!"

The whole party shuddered as Fauna used Thaumaturgy to enhance her voice – causing it to pierce the skull of the Dixit and force an answer from his quivering mouth.

"…one," he said. "I – I think I saw one with him."

"That'll be your job, Sis," Fauna told Tara. "Stick to the shadows and take him out. With any luck, he'll be down and unable to counter our spells before they even know we've hit them."

Tara nodded, wiping her daggers clean of Greycloak blood, preparing them for a fresh coating.

"What about after that?" Fraxx said from below, his eyes just as glazed as his comrade's. "When the Lightborn isss all that remainssss…how can you kill a God?"

The party stiffened, saying nothing for a time. A few looks of knowing apprehension past between them as they considered the ruined tunnels, continual sounds of bombardment, and the tales spun by the two survivors at their feet.

The entire world – their world – was shuddering around them. Screams of fear and devastation reverberated off the tunnel walls, hinting at the horrors they would experience further in.

But finally, after considering what they had to lose, their eyes met. And a silent resolve awoke in each one of them.

Because they'd been through worse. They were built to deal with this.

Fauna crouched beside Borlor and Fraxx as the rest of the party stood shoulder to shoulder at the broken wall in front of them.

"Rest here, brothers," she said, laying a gentle paw on their shoulders. "You've done your part. Now, leave it to us."

Borlor groaned as the phantom pains of his previous wounds suddenly came back to him.

"If…if the Archon isn't with us –"

"The Archon is going to change this world," Fauna told him. "Soon, very soon, all of this will be nothing but a terrible, terrible dream."

Her eyes shifted to Lamphrey, who, she could swear, was pretending not to look in her direction.

"Mara," Fraxx said before they left. "Sssshe called to you, didn't ssshe?"

Fauna felt her eyes perk up. She nodded.

"The little lass is further in," Borlor said. "Use the vent tunnels, they'll take you right into the city. Let you…head the bastards off."

The Dixit's claws suddenly tightened on Fauna's arm.

"Save her, Miss Fauna," he begged. "She – she's holdin' out…for you."

Now it was Fauna's turn to register shock. She tried keeping herself calm for the sake of the team. But she knew Borlor could feel her shaking.

He didn't seem to care. Instead, he opened the metal grate wide he and Fraxx had emerged from and revealed a narrow network of grey passageways cut into their underground home.

And the party wasted no time in sprinting through.

Before leaving, Klax spared a look back at the two tired warriors.

"Go!" Borlor yelped. "We'd just…slow you down."

Borlor then slumped back down to rest beside his ratty friend as the party of the Archon left, looking up at the crumbling sky and the translucent shield that was protecting them from sharing a dark grave.

"We messed 'em up good," he coughed. "Didn't we?"

"You can ssssay that again."

A small spasm of laughter trickled up the old Dixit's body.

"I remember when that Hopla first came here," he said, thinking of the newfound confidence that he'd seen in Fauna's eyes. "She was the shyest rabbit you'd ever seen. Totally terrified of everyone – even her own kind. It took all of Tara's sass and Klax's leadership to break her shell. And now – she's a goddamn warrior, goin' off tae fight an angel…"

He looked towards the grey escape tunnels and began to rise.

"Come on, mate" he said. "Maybe we cannae fight, but we can at least evacuate any survivors. Dunno about you, but I'm not gonna have it said that during the greatest moment of Hybrid history, Borlor the Blacksmith of Sanctum was lying on his ass."

Fraxx looked at the hand offered to him then with no small degree of surprise. It was the first time any hybrid had elected to voluntarily help him.

But he took the hand of Borlor, and the old Dixit got him to his feet.

They'd do their part – even if it was painful. Even if they had to sift through the bodies of the dead to find any who could still be saved. Because that was what they did – they defended their home, they cared for the lost.

"Hope yer watching us down here, big K," Borlor murmured as he trundled off with Fraxx. "Because yer about to see yer angel get its arse kicked."

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