The party of four mages confidently fly down the tunnel. Conjured light pushes back the darkness of the tunnels and strong barriers deflect any attacks, and there are many attacks.

I'm throwing the full might of my hive at them. Burrowers burst from the walls, crashing into their barrier and spewing dozens of vess from their stomach. Soldiers choke the tunnels and even ballista are positioned to fire down the straighter passages. Drakes suck the oxygen out of the air with their flame breath, only to get obliterated a second later by a blast of magical power. Nothing stops the mages as they continue towards the center of my hive.

No idea how they are finding their way. Pirous thinks some kind of divination spell; sounds possible. Hollis isn't around to confirm as they are busy napping off their fight with Evans.

My vess flow like water, crawling over each other, desperate to kill the intruders. It's a complete nightmare and I think the other three mages would have died long ago. However, being in your third tier is no joke, Gwyna easily swipes away wave after wave of vess. She has plenty of magical items on her, so I have to assume not all of this is coming out of her mana, which is bothersome. The main plan is to bleed the mages for as much as their mana as possible, costing me untold numbers of vess as a result.

Pirous finishes gearing up, his sword sliding into its sheath with practiced ease, "Alright, time to head out."

Enna bends down and pats my hair, taking the time to scratch at the base of my horns, "Be good, sweetheart. And stay safe."

"I will." My tail wags its agreement.

My protectors head into the tunnels to confront the mages. While they travel, I take the time to observe the greater situation, my senses reaching out and connecting with various scouts.

There are still plenty of adventurers and mages in the town, but they have all retreated to a nearby tavern to take shelter. The Mage Guild is still being bombarded by my ballistae, so I can't fault them, smart really. That building is coming down no matter how many bolts it takes.

The people of the town are safe at least. They are all sheltered in their homes, safe from the battle and guilds. I'm glad I don't have to send my vess into the town, hopefully after I throw Gwyna's head into the town square all the guilds will just cut and run. If not, I'll have to chase them out, but I am really trying to avoid any more collateral damage. Already, the homes around the Mage Guild have been damaged to the point of being uninhabitable.

My drakes did start a little bit of a forest fire. Luckily I remember some fire fighting Earth knowledge. I have my vess clear out a large section of the forest around the fires, a fire break I think it's called. In theory, the fire should consume everything until that point, and then it won't be able to reach any more fuel and burn itself out. It'll have to do until Hollis wakes up.

Speaking of, the fluffy vess is curled up on my bed, snoozing without a care in the world. I can't help but tip claw over and sneak some head pats in. Hollis mumbles something in their sleep but doesn't wake up, instead snuggling down deeper into my bed. Honestly, I really want to join them, but anxiety keeps me walking around the room.

Gwyna is still steadily advancing through the hive, she is probably half way down at this point and is finally beginning to slow. Her companions look exhausted, they have been fending off attacks from the rear and side tunnels while Gwyna focuses on forging ahead. And there have been a lot of attacks from the back and sides.

I have had a lot of time to build up my forces over the winter, and while this isn't exactly how I wanted to spend them, it's worth it to get rid of a long time enemy. Already, I have thrown over five hundred soldiers at them.

It's paying off though, as one of the three mages following Gwyna wavers, their barrier flickering and breaths coming out as ragged gasps. The other two don't look much better. I double down on the pressure and the tunnels open up a flood of soldiers, new tunnels dug by burrowers open above and below to spew even more at them.

The three mages go down, drowned under the torrent of vess.

A bright flash lights up the tunnels and all the surrounding vess are pulped instantly. I immediately pull my soldiers back. Ethereal blue magic swords swirl around Gwyna and her lackeys.

Maybe I'm not thinking clearly, but an angry vess urge takes over and I order my vess to throw themselves at the mages with everything they have, the dark tide begins anew, soldiers choking the halls to get at the humans.

Blue swords blur into motion and chop up any soldier that gets too close. My eyebrows knit together in frustration, she has to run out of magic sometime, she has too! More vess. Soldier after soldier march into the magical wood chipper and get turned into black ichor. I even start throwing hunters and archers into the mix, anything to drain her mana!

I stomp my foot and growl. Gwyna is holding steady, a look of grim determination on her face. She has to be scared! Her lackeys are terrified at least, collapsed on the ground behind her and shivering pathetically.

"Sweetie." Enna's voice cuts through my angry fog, "That is enough, she is tiring. Let us finish this."

Even though she can't see it, I pout and stomp over to a cushion, throwing myself into it. I order my vess to relent, instead forming a perimeter around the magic users.

Gwyna dispels her blades and straightens up, turning around and saying something to the humans who are still quaking on the floor. She looks pissed and barks something at them, eventually getting them to stagger to their feet. The three mages look like they are begging to leave, in fact, that is exactly what they're doing. I tap my hearing into my vess to catch the rest of it, "-no mana, please, this is madness!"

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Scoffing, Gwyna dismisses the simpering man with a wave, "If you are too weak to continue, then leave. This is clearly a much greater threat than I thought, it needs to be eliminated before it can spread its taint to Lotheris."

"We don't have enough mana to teleport out!" Wails the man.

Any further bickering is silenced as Pirous steps into the tunnel, sword in hand. "Stay back." Orders Gwyna, "I'll handle him."

"Last chance to surrender." Offer the General, giving his sword a few warm up twirls.

The Magister scoffs, "What has that thing offered you? Why align yourself with such a creature?"

"Safety for my family, my daughter just had her second child. I would do anything to protect them." Pirous answers honestly, "And a chance to save my country. The world is about to be torn apart by the gods themselves, now is not the time to be picky about who you align yourself with."

"The gods?" Gwyna actually hesitates, "I know the Golden Goddess has awakened but…" She wipes the hesitation from her face and hardens her expression, "It doesn't matter. Lotheris will stand strong. I just need to remove this infection before it can spread."

"So be it." Pirous' sword begins to glow blue.

Gwyna opens up with a bolt of magic that Pirous cleanly cuts, dissipating the power. Stepping forward with the attack, the General rushes over the ground, rapidly closing the distance to the caster. His charge is blocked by a dozen barriers that are all shattered one after the other, the swordsman barrels through at full strength, and brings his sword down on Gwyna.

The caster blinks behind the warrior and sends a half a dozen magical lances down the tunnel. Pirous parries and sidesteps the projectiles, keeping his momentum and dashing forward.

Pirous protects himself with his own blue barrier, a torrent of flame splashing harmlessly off of it. His sword glows blue with a skill and clashes with his enemies barrier, sending magical sparks everywhere. A stone wall is hastily erected to block him and easily smashed through. The ground is flash frozen, but the swordsman gracefully keeps his balance and advances unperturbed.

Barrier after barrier is summoned and smashed just as quickly.

Lighting is caught on his blue blade and redirected into the ground, an ice lance shatters on his barrier and he dives out of the way of the follow up blast of flame. Gwyna is throwing everything at him and then some. Is there really an advantage to whipping out all of those elements?

With a blink, Gwyna surprises Pirous by advancing on him and hitting him with a point blank explosion of fire and lightning. The attack throws Pirous back with several new scorch marks on his armor.

Digging his feet into the dirt, he finds his balance and launches towards his foe.

Watching a battle between a caster and a warrior is an exercise in frustration. Pirous continuously works to close the gap between the two, all he needs to do is land a single clean hit and she should die. However, Gwyna doesn't make it easy on him, using all kinds of magical bullshit to keep distance between her and her opponent, barriers, teleporting, knockback attacks, any trick she can bring out to keep herself away from his blade.

The sickening noise of meat tearing and insides spilling out makes Gwyna pause for a moment, immediately blinking out of Pirous' range after. Enna is standing in the middle of the torn apart corpses of the mages, her glowing red eyes standing out in the darkness of the tunnel. She flicks an entrail from her claw and advances on the remaining mage.

Enna and Pirous work together to try and pin down the slippery caster. Claw and sword keep Gwyna firmly on the backfoot.

Pirous' sword passes through Gwyna as she briefly goes ethereal as Enna goes low claws hesitating just long enough to strike when the caster resumes solid form. Blood is finally drawn as my caretaker catches a leg with her claw, tearing through the mage robe and shredding skin.

The next few moments are brutal. Gwyna is caught between two martial monsters and is nearly overwhelmed. Pirous' blade finds purchase on the magic user's shoulder, carving a chunk of flesh off. Enna grabs and snaps Gwyna's arm with a satisfying crunch. Magical protection items flash constantly, working to protect and heal the mage, but one by one they are all exhausted. It's really amusing to see Enna snap Gwyna's arm, see it set itself back into place and heal, only to be snapped again.

A bright blue shockwave blasts the melee combatants back and gives Gwyna some breathing room. Her face is drawn tight with pain and she is leaning on her staff, she can't keep this up and she knows it.

Taking a step forward, Gwyna's form blurs and splits into ten different copies, half of them engage Enna while the rest surround Pirous. It's impossible to tell who the real one is, and they are all slinging spells, so my companions are forced to treat them all as a threat.

Enna ducks under a wave of fire and goes to shatter an ice spear with her claws, but they just pass through. With a growl, she disappears into the shadows, emerging behind a Gwyna and dissipating the illusion with a swipe. She takes a glob of acid, which turns out to be fake, and charges that Gwyna, getting rid of her too. The copies don't seem nearly as competent as the real thing and soon Enna has all of hers cleared.

The General takes a different approach. He completely ignores all of the attacks and charges the nearest Gwyna, dispelling it with a swipe. All of the spells pass through him. The Gwynas send another volley at him as they whirl around him, but they all pass through again. He holds his sword defensively in front of him in a two handed grip, scanning the tunnels. All of the illusions swirl around him blocking his vision with a wall of Gwyna.

Pirous dispels them all with a few slashes. His eyes go wide, he doesn't have time to react beyond that as a crystal beam connects with his leg, crystals burst out of the spot, puncturing his armor and sending him stumbling. Before he can regain his footing, Gwyna already has her next spell ready, her invisibility gone and a huge crystal spear fully formed and ready for release.

A claw strikes from the shadows, cutting into the caster's arm.

The crystal spear explodes, every surface of the tunnel is quickly coated in a layer of sparkling crystal, huge spikes of it sticking up at random. A severed human arm flops to the ground, encased in crystal. Gwyna looks dumbfounded, half of her body is covered in the sparkly stuff.

Gwyna's head explodes, turning the surrounding twinkling surfaces red. Blue wisps of magic steam off Pirous' sword as he lowers it. I had no idea he could shoot bolts out of his sword!

+150,000 XP

Congratulations you are level 60! Your class has evolved from 'Heir of Nightmares' into 'Empress of Nightmares'

+20 Wis, +5 free points!

Skill unlocked, The Colorless Realm

The cheer dies in my throat and the excitement from the victory cools instantly as I see Enna. Her body is pierced all over with massive crystal spikes, every inch of her skin seems to be frosted over and her eyes are worryingly dim.

I feel my connection to her fraying, fading strand by strand until it goes dark.

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