As we moved through the streets of the ancient city, the streets were eerily quiet, moreso than they usually were even.

The rattle of bones, the sighing of the wind, even the serpentine slithering of the grimmash that had once reigned in the city was suppressed as if the cursed soul of the ruins had more important business to attend.

Moreover, the skeletons did not hamper us as we marched through the early morning twilight towards the center of the city. What few we saw stood there, like ghastly puppets gazing towards us, but making no attempt on our lives.

It was wrong, unnatural even. The ill magic that seeped into this place was dampened, drawn away by something.

I had never been to the core of the city before, none of us had. My company ranged further in than most, but even we weren't capable of fighting the endless hordes that surely dwelled there.

The buildings grew taller here, and wider around as well, rows of houses and shops became banks and administrative centers. This was the heart of the empire that had once claimed the whole of the continent and even given it its name. Vast courtyards, towering buildings decorated with columns, the wealth kept here must have been unimaginable before it fell to ruin.

One building, however, stood out from the rest, as we approached the center of the city, raging with coursing darkness that seemed to erupt into the air like a volcano. To my senses, it felt almost choking, and I leaned heavily on my staff as I felt tears start to well in my eyes, just from looking at its twisted spire. "S-such evil…"

It was like seeing something truly grotesque, even though the architecture itself should not have been able to elicit such a feeling. I wanted to vomit, or maybe to flee. Some core part of me didn't want to even think about a place like this existing.

Then a hand came down on my shoulder. I looked up to see my typically aloof mentor standing over me. "Take Heart Church Child. Evil this place may be, but your heart need not fear it."

I felt a tendril of life magic seep from his hand, and at once it prompted me to draw upon my own. "Thank you," I said after a moment. This place was anathema to the light, and beyond my power to fight off as of yet, but if I kept a shield of life about myself it felt only uncomfortable and unnatural, not overpowering.

"That is the great temple of Ulthor." He continued, choosing not to acknowledge my thanks. "I had seen it when I took the form of a hawk, but that was at day… the way it is now, I think it must be the source of the curse upon the city."

"Ulthor…" the name of the black god tasted like ash on my tongue. The rise of his necromantic cult to rule Mirno was what had spurred the followers of the true God to prominence. The God of Light and Mercy had spoken to the prophetess and told her to cast down the tyrants. What followed was the great war that broke the Empire's back, and in its wake,of the cult of Ulthor had been banned, their temples razed, save for this one, a cruel horned ziggurat at the center of a cursed city.

I clasped my hands together and turned my eyes towards the moon's pale light. "Oh beneficent God, shield the hearts of your faithful in this tainted place." I prayed, not seeking magic, but inner strength for myself and my comrades, as we made the final approach.

Then we heard it.

It came at once a rumbling and a screeching, a terrible sigh and a feeling of the stomach-dropping as a terrible presence fell upon the city. The world seemed to darken as something gigantic moved beneath our feet.

It lasted only a moment, but it felt like an eon, and I felt my heart already begin to falter as I realized just what sort of horror we were challenging. My eyes turned up towards my company, towards Karsten and Mary, and the rest as well. Even the boldest froze in their tracks as a black shadow ripped out of the top of the dark temple, rising silhouetted against the moon.

It was a dragon. A terrible, disgusting dragon, propped up beyond death by unholy magic and dripping with a black tar-like ichor that seeped between its bones, but beyond all that, it was a dragon. Black wings of tattered, ancient skin beat a drumbeat in the night air, and I caught a glimpse of putrid, empty eye-sockets turning to look our way.

The company was paralyzed under that sightless glare, a dragon alone was the king of living creatures, the greatest sort of monster in all the natural world. They could fly hundreds of miles in an hour, shrug off arrows and spells like raindrops, and bring down even the greatest of beasts with claws the size of a man's torso, larger for the greatest of their kind. And this monster was no doubt amongst the greatest of its kind, in life. The worm must have been a hundred and eighty feet long tail to about, at the very least, though the distance was great enough it might have been bigger.

It was like being an ant staring up at a man.

Not one amongst the party could say a thing, all eyes were fixed upon that horror, the bat-winged monstrosity as it parted its cruel jaws, a black-green fire boiling the tar that oozed from its ribcage as it made its way from the beasts stomach up its long and sinuous neck. I watched in paralyzed fascination as what could only be our doom made its painfully slow progress through its long rotted organs.

We would have died there, had a sudden jolt of magic from my staff, from daughter-bark, not jolted me from my stupor.

For a moment I blinked, no longer paralyzed, but surprised to be free of that dread which had held me, but guilt came soon after, guilt and the awareness that no such beast of flesh and darkness could compare to the power of God.

Still, this was Dragonfire and likely twisted even to greater heat. No simple shielding spell would do, but I needed to start chanting quickly or the shield would never raise in time, not to save those at the front of the company.

I Slammed Daughter Bark onto the stone as words began to form on my tongue, I would have to brute force a chant over a wider area, a shield large enough to cover everyone. Xirvan Moxa Polnavan would be the base, and by the time the words left my lips I had already decided on a next step, Luxatar was a word that held the power to widen magical effects. In normal circumstances, it was a waste compared to casting the same spell several times, as supporting multiple spells simultaneously was much easier on my Willpower than casting a single big spell, a sort of square-cube law effect that was especially prevalent in light magic.

That wasn't the end of it though, as the shimmering golden field began to take shape over the party, forming a dome just as the dragon's jaws split wide, enough to cover everyone, just, but not strong enough to hold back the onslaught now racing towards us.

My willpower was already taxed, but I was desperate, and if it meant burning out my willpower for a while… so be it.

"Am."

I could feel the light burning through the back of my eyes and my mouth as I invoked the name of God's Shield. A single word so potent that I nearly collapsed to my knees from the sudden drain, holding myself up with daughter bark's aid as the shimmering golden barrier suddenly became white as snow, leaving my fellows and I within a smooth, featureless tube that shown as bright as day.

This was amongst the greatest magic I knew. Along with the name of God's Sword and his Balm, but the simple exercise of calling up this truest font of light was enough to qualify someone for high office within the church.

It made sense, after all, Polnavan based shields could be broken. They relied on the support and willpower of their caster, and a nighty shock could overcome them, but to invoke one of the miracles of God upon them was to summon forth an invincible shield that even the very lords of hell could not shatter.

Still, I could feel the toll it took on me in those long moments. Sweat rolled down my face and I clutched Daughter Bark as I slumped to the floor on my knees. The pressure on my mind was enormous, like a pounding migraine growing harsher and harsher with each passing second. There were people talking around me but I couldn't understand the words. Beams of light escaped from my eyes and mouth, but to me, they felt as though they were trying to bulge out of my head. To have such light flowing through me and to keep it contained was almost unbearable.

When I could hold it no more I collapsed into a pair of waiting arms, my power spent as the shield faded. With my head to the side I saw the devastation that the dragon had wrought about us, two blasted fire-scarred trenches where once great stone manors had sat along the road, and despite the exhaustion, I felt… something like Contentment. That ought to give everyone the time to scatter, to avoid being such easy targets for the beast.

As I drifted off into sleep, I idly hoped that someone remembered to grab Daughter Bark when they did.

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Black Bat wings of steel fluttered on the spurs of his boots as he raced after Syrrax. As soon as they had proven themselves any challenge at all, the unliving drake had found the confined space beneath the temple to her disadvantage. With an evil cunning, she had this taken to the hole in the Temple's center and clawed her way up to fill the sky with her swollen bulk once again, with her killer hot on her heels.

Oh, no mistake, her departure from the chamber was good for them. The artificer could get to work binding the curse, and Bellanja to aid him without distraction from the serpent, but if it simply burned the whole place down around them then such efforts would be much inconvenienced. This, Agamemnon reasoned was sufficient justification for him to pursue his ancient foe. To cut her down once again.

He would not deny though, that slaying the same dragon twice would be satisfying.

As he raced up through the decrepit ruin of the dark temple he expected Syrrax to be waiting for him at its peak with her dark jaws spread wide. She was a cunning creature and she had surprised him before in such a way, but when he reached the top he found himself not struck by the dragon, but by a brilliant white light.

He turned in the air, ordering his boots with his thoughts to maneuver and assess the situation, and it didn't take him long to find the source of the disruption. To the North one of the streets was filled by a radiant white tube that he at once recognized as a spell of the blasted Light worshippers. It glowed like the sun and the city around it was bright as day in its presence, a painful experience for an undead such as himself. From the looks of it, Syrrax's dark flames had done nothing to it while devastating the city around it.

It lasted only a moment before it drew back to reveal a small army’s worth of adventurers, and Agamemnon suddenly found himself recalculating their odds.

'The Silver Prince must have had at least a bishop visiting.' The thought irritated him, of all the rotten luck to be faced with such a powerful spellcaster. Bellanjia might be able to hold her own against a bishop, during nighttime at least, but Agamemnon had no such protections, and if even one of those adventurers was half as strong a fighter, then together with the bishop it would be a real threat to him.

As he watched a Gigantic Eagle Flew up from the crowd out of absolutely nowhere, and the black knight decided that discretion was the better part of valor, he didn't want to see if they had any wizards of a similar caliber, flying back down inside of the temple he sheathed his sword. He would have to hope that Syrrax would distract the Prince’s forces long enough for the curse to be bound. It would be a shame not to kill her with his own sword again for old time’s sake, but he didn't need a dozen rays of light burning holes in his armor.

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Karsten wasn't sure what was happening, not that anyone else in the group seemed to be better off. They had been marching towards the center of the city, then the ground had started shaking and that… dragon thing had ripped its way out of the ground. Well, more like the corpse of a dragon, but it was still far larger in person than they had seemed in all the stories. He had seen demons and horribly disfigured monsters before, but the dragon was like something out of a nightmare. He hadn't been able to do much more than watching it as it prepared to wipe them all out.

He had felt relief wash over him as the terrible silence before the roaring flames were broken by Abbot's chanting, like a spell losing its hold on him he turned to grab Mary, shielding her with his body though he knew it would probably be futile. Ultimately it proved unnecessary as the boy managed to cast his spell in time, and they were all invaded in a blazing white tunnel, while the boy shot rays of light out of every orifice.

The abrupt change from moonlit night to brighter than day within the shield was blinding, but he blinked away the spots in his eyes and slammed his spear on the ground, Abbot was buying them time, but if they wanted to survive this they would need to regain their composure as a force. "Stand up!" Karsten yelled over the din of the flames roaring outside the tunnel. "Stand up and be ready to scatter when the spell ends. If you want to live we must split apart, go in groups of five or ten!"

"Do as the boy says!" Strong added his deep voice to the other around them. "Grab whoever is around you. If we stay clumped together it'll burn us all to ashes."

Karsten was about to shout again when Mary's voice broke out into worry behind him. "I don't think he'll last much longer."

He turned to see her crouched next to the tiny priest, who was bent over his staff and sweating like a dying man. Whatever spell held up this tunnel was taking a lot out of him, and Karsten doubted he would be of much use after this first strike, still, he moved to stand next to Mary and the boy, before looking about for others in the blinding haze.

"Well, that doesn't look good." A rough voice drew his gaze down to find the dwarven marksman, who had been hanging around. "It'll be worse to fight this beastie without a healer on hand."

"You think we can fight that?" Mary growled indignantly. "We need to run!" Karsten nodded, if nothing else the casualties they'd take...

"That won't be possible I'm afraid." Karsten frowned slightly as Theen, the nature-wielding elf, strolled almost casually up to them. "That dragon has laid its sights, or lack thereof, on the Church-Child."

Karsten felt his frown deepen, "What do you mean?"

"I have some insight into such things. When it breathed fire the rest of us were merely going to be collateral damage. It was aiming for him." The elf pointed with a long, pale finger. "I expect its mortal senses have long failed it. It is simply attacking the largest nearby concentration of magic."

"What do we do then? I don't fancy our odds escaping it on foot."

"Why we fight it of course." The elf said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. "You have bombs, don't you dwarf?"

"What? How did you know about those you-"

Before the dwarf could finish speaking, Abbot collapsed, Mary, catching him and holding him up against her as the blinding tunnel suddenly faded away, leaving their eyes once again adjusting to the night around them. Besides him, there was a noise like a rustling if feathers, and by the time Karsten could see properly again there was an Eagle the size of an elephant where the Elf had been.

"All of you, upon my back, hurry. It will be easier to evade him in the air!" The Elf's voice spoke, though not allowed, and Karsten placed a hand to his forehead at the odd sensation of the mental influence. "Hurry!" The elf repeated with Urgency, and this time he obeyed, grabbing Mary and the Dwarf and helping them up, Abbot in tow.

The eagle snatched up Abbot's staff in its talon as it took to the air with a great beating of its wings, flying up towards the dragon with such a pace that Karsten was nearly thrown off.

"Hold on tightly!" The order came again to his head as the great bird suddenly swerved, and besides them he saw great gout of black-green fire tear across the sky, making the air hot and dry for a long moment as it seemed to follow along behind them.

"I've got the bombs ready, Elf." The rough voice of the dwarf barely managed to shout over the screaming wind as Theen banked once again, changing directions in the air with a flap of his colossal wings. "Get us in close and I'll chuck it down his throat."

"I'll dive on him from above." The mental speech came, and Karsten wondered exactly what he was supposed to be doing here, aside from keeping a firm grasp on Mary and Abbot under his right arm. He shared a glance with her that showed that she was similarly uncomfortable with the situation. His ears started to ache as the Eagle flapped higher and higher, and then as it turned down towards the dragon he got his first full look at it from above, cast in the moonlight. It was even larger than he had thought from the ground, its ribcage was nearly as wide as Theen's full wingspan, and to dive towards it like this was madness. It was flying towards them as well, a jaw large enough to swallow them all together split open with crooked teeth longer than Karsten was tall.

And yet the dwarf and the elf both seemed in control.

"Closer." The dwarf yelled as they dived, going far faster than any man should.

"Closer" he repeated as they raced towards that horrible maw of tar and bone.

"Now!" He shouted when it seemed the teeth of the dragon were almost around them, and from his shoulder, he threw his pack, which sank into the black ooze of the monster’s throat.

Theen split away like lightning as the mouth slammed shut where they had been a second before, snatching tail feathers from There even as they were forced to dodge a colossal claw which swept up after them, angling away back down towards the city. "Ha, Here comes the Boom!" The Dwarf cackled as they raced away from its enormous form, turning gradually in the air to pursue them.

"Three, two, one! Haha!" The Dragon's neck bulged out suddenly, the tar bubbling away as the explosive ripped holes in the fluid, sending it pouring down into the city below as the dragon seemed to stagger in the air. As it reared back Karsten thought for a moment that they had won.

Then slowly, the ichor began to crawl up its neck, filling the gap the bomb had blasted there.

Karsten felt his heart plunge, it had taken all of that just to wound it temporarily… how could they possibly kill it?

Mary summed up his thoughts perfectly in a single worried question.

"What do we do now?"

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