All comes from the Deep and all shall return. When the first life was borne forth from Her all-encompassing womb, She rejoiced. When the first fish crawled up onto the dry land, She grew concerned. When the first humans started ravaging the Deep’s riches, She grew wroth. She made Her displeasure clear by way of wind, of storm and of wave. Still, the people pillaged and plundered the depths. She scoured the earth in anger, with flood, with deluge, with typhoons spanning entire continents. Though much diminished, the people were unrepentant even in the face of their mutual destruction. The Sun took note of the Deep’s plight and though He would not act against his children, for all life sprung forth from the union of the Sun and the Deep, He implanted a mighty champion to defend Her honour. Thus, Lord Dagon was born. Protector of the seas, guardian of the depths and the Deep’s most favoured child. Indeed, so overbearing was his terrible strength, the Sun Warrior himself sacrificed a continent to appease his righteous anger at his mother’s mistreatment. Now he swims the Deep, surrounded by his Court, making sure no sapient, human or Elvan, can hurt his mother again.

Excerpt from “The Gospel of Jizen”

Juggernaut saw the battle between the guardian and the strange Elvan warriors. He saw the slim woman behind the tree, felt her frantic movements. And he saw the kid’s friend draped over her shoulder. Ah, shit. He felt the kid’s movement beside him and saw him bring the big gun to bear as soon as he spotted the Elvan lady. I’ll let him have this one, we’ll interrogate the others. He blurred towards the battle taking place in front of him. A boom rang out behind him, the Elvan woman getting half her gut blown off and collapsing to the ground. He flashed in front of the shocked elves, who were still looking back at the Mirzadeh boy running towards his friend.

With a light chop on each, he broke the spines of the two men, and they flopped to the ground in much the same way as their colleague, having lost control of their legs. The remaining Elvan woman and the guardian were further away but as soon as he disabled her friends, the woman screamed a phrase in Ishi Ishi? Is this the Pope’s doing? and tapped something on her wrist and a glow began to spread up through her arm, tracing her blood vessels. The two men moved to do the same but only one succeeded as a red nimbus spread over the other, robbing him of any momentum he could generate. The boy was still running as it seemed the woman who’d taken his friend was just alive enough to tap her wrist, that same ominous glow spreading through her body.

The boy shot her again, seemingly trying to stop whatever process she’d started but as her head exploded into wet chunks, the glow continued spreading under her clothes unabated. A creaking sound could be heard from the massive tree as this was happening. This has gone far enough, sorry kid. Juggernaut spread his hands, releasing a red haze that instantly filled the clearing. All motion stopped as the open space and all the land around for three miles went dead silent. The large antlered wolf was frozen in mid-air, having taken the woman’s distraction as an opportunity to pounce. Worryingly, the glow started getting brighter and brighter, until a root burst through the ground under the three elves, impaling them in a horribly familiar way. Juggernaut looked on in shock. How can it move? The roots seemed to suck at them as if it were a straw, all their blood disappearing into the appendage.

A pressure seemed to descend on the clearing, a wash of energy emanating from the tree. Impossible. The Drasil shuddered and vacuumed up all the red energy around it. What the he-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The death of Mridul was overshadowed by the palpable dread that fell over the group as they heard the responding bellows from the forest. Bill gathered himself together the fastest.

“Okay move! We need to leave this place right now.”

“What about Mridul?” Birgitte asked, anxious to hear there was a way to save their saviour.

“Forget him for now. He’s dead and the mist is still there. We can’t get him, but we can stay alive and make sure his death wasn’t in vain.”

“That’s peak, boss.”

“Not now Ger.”

“Say less.”

Birgitte gave one last regretful look at the boy’s body. He was frozen solid next to the stag, which had expired after that last hurrah. I hate this. I hate all of this.

Bill opened a door in the ice wall, and they piled out, appearing back next to Dr Jones.

“Report.”

“We succeeded, but the stag seems to have called all its cousins to avenge it. The boy died; we can’t get his body because of some persistent area freezing effect.” Bill concisely stated.

The doctor had a serious look on his face.

“Persistent? So I can’t Return him. Hmm. Okay, we need to prepare, as much as we can without combat Buds. Gerald, set up one of ya zones in front of the forest. If there’s more than one Frigid Stag, we’ll be inundated with their minions so we should cull the weaklings. Bill, while we have time start sending kids back to campus. Birgitte, ya did good, kid. Go take care of ya friend.”

Birgitte was stunned at his seeming instant dismissal of Mridul’s death. Were all Buds this callous? She opened her mouth to object.

“Joy! Oh sweet sunflower, I heard countless tales of your dashing deeds in my most vulnerable hour. Truly, were anyone deserving of becoming a princess of Jas, it would be you.”

Prince Jas walked up, oblivious to the grave mood of the group. He had a huge smile on his face and gave Birgitte a kiss on the cheek when he arrived.

“Apologies to you fine gentlemen, I must spirit this maiden away for a long overdue reunion. Come,” he gave Birgitte a pointed look and proffered his arm, “let us depart from these environs, a more light-hearted conversation awaits.”

Birgitte took the man’s arm, confused, but understanding Jas needed to tell her something. They strode off like a married couple, arm in arm, until they were far enough away from the three men that even their enhanced senses wouldn’t be able to pick up their words.

“Jas, what the fuck. How are you walking? What happened to the red stuff?”

“Those are indeed some of my many questions. I had hoped you’d be more enlightened but evidently not. Where are Musa and Mike?”

Birgitte paused.

Jas turned to her; his expression harder than any she’d seen on the easy-going elf.

“Birgitte, where are my friends.”

Fuck.

“They’re in the Burrow.”

Jas instantly drew away from her, fear and anger warring across his countenance.

“You LEFT THEM?”

“You were split wide open. If I’d left your side, you would be dead. Musa went off after Mike and Mr McLeod told me to come straight here after stabilising you.” Jas scrunched his face in confusion at her response.

“After Mike? Wait, start from the beginning. Last I remember, I’d poked that terrible beast in the eye.”

Birgitte brought him up to speed, including her assault on the stag and their current dire situation.

“It seems we’re well and truly buggered. Apologies for snapping at you, you made the best of an awful situation and saved me from certain death. I’m undeserving of even another look upon your face, but I must beg your forgiveness.”

“Jas, shut the fuck up. We need to make sure Musa and Mike are okay, but I don’t know how with an army of deer coming and no one strong enough to deal with them.”

The ground had started lightly rumbling, a sign that their demise was ever nearing. Bill had created a passage in one of the chunks of ice again and was herding students through it. It didn’t look like they’d all make it in time.

“Mayhap we can slip away while the fell beasts are focused on slaughtering the other students.”

She smacked his arm in annoyance.

“No Jas, we’re not abandoning them. But we need a miracle if we’re going to survive, let alone find our friends.”

“Well, hopefully your deity does express delivery on miracles of that nature, because we’re out of time.” He said, nodding at something behind her.

Birgitte turned and saw a sea of deer splling forth from the forest, ice bolts already rocketing towards them and getting sent back when they neared Gerald. The first wave of the seemingly innumerable deer entered Gerald’s zone, a greyish haze spreading out from him, and were literally pulled apart. More than one student turned green from the mountain of gore that quickly piled up around the man.

“Is he our mirac-“ Jas started but immediately stopped as a lance of ice as thick around as his leg speared through Gerald’s torso.

“Bill!” Jones called for the man to help and Bill turned, only to see another lance of ice burst through Gerald’s shoulder, shearing off his arm and one more thick spear go straight through his head, decapitating him.

Bill and Dr Jones glanced at each other and having reached some silent consensus, ran at the approaching tide of slavering deer. Ice bolts were flung their way en masse but they all turned translucent and passed harmlessly through the two. They met halfway and had a low, hurried conversation. Jones got on his knees, and Bill put his hand on the man’s head.

A deep thrum reverberated in her soul, and seemingly everyone else’s souls as well, as every student still there turned to look at the men, escape forgotten. Their Seeds sang in resonance with the fluctuations of energy surging from the men, strong enough that even the students' undeveloped senses could feel them. Suddenly, the energy flowed back towards them and coalesced into what looked like a long gleaming silver flamethrower hovering above the doctor’s body. Bill put the strap over his shoulder as the doctor fell unconscious in front of him. He looked back at the students.

“Get out of here!”

Startled out of their stupor, the massed trainees started heaping through the door even faster. Bill turned back to the advancing horde and squeezed the trigger. A horizontal pillar of strange silver fire burst out of the tip, as large around Mr McLeod’s torso and reaching ten metres ahead. It washed over the crowd of deer, seemingly leaving them unharmed until they reached the man, when Birgitte saw them... shrinking? They had turned semi-transparent and were getting smaller and cuter. They’re getting younger. The ones that had passed Bill were letting off shots of ice at the students, but they were still intangible, and the bolts had no effect. The deer continued getting younger and the normally quiet beasts started letting off frantic yips. No, they’re Burrow beasts. They’re not cute. No.

The ghostlike deer, now fawns, were staggering around on shaky legs as they got too young to walk properly. The strange weapon was relentless though, as they turned into small foetuses, losing their fur and their eyes closing. They got continually smaller until Birgitte couldn’t see them any longer. Wow. That was just the first wave though, and there were a lot more deer behind them. The flamethrower was merciless, only requiring one pass of the silvery flames before the deer started de-aging uncontrollably. The weapon wasn’t going to last forever, but maybe it would last long enough for everyone to get to safety. It was weirdly horrifying, seeing all the fawns running haphazardly in fear and slowly disappearing.

However, the stags in charge of the assault were a bit smarter. A large snowflake shot from somewhere in the crowd towards the giant boulder of ice the door was attached to. It landed softly on the boulder and the ice immediatley melted. It held its shape for a millisecond before it collapsed and drenched the students who hadn’t yet escaped in ice-cold water. Birgitte set her mouth into a hard line. The door had disappeared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Musa was so close. He was so close. Whatever Mr McLeod had done, it had frozen him midstride. He couldn’t even move his eyes, locked as they were on the scene in front of him. After he’d shot the woman, she had dropped Mike on the forest floor next to her. When she started glowing, he’d shot her again, afraid of some last-ditch suicide explosion, but it looked like the process was unstoppable. When the root came up through the ground and speared the Elvan through, he was screaming in his mind, sick with worry for his friend, but unable to do anything. Seed, I swear on the Sun, give me something I can fucking USE and I’ll never say anything bad about you again. I’ll never go into the shade again, just HELP. He didn’t expect a response, but the Drasil shuddered in front of him. Huh? Is that me? It then absorbed the reddish mist and shot a bolt of pure radiant energy out of its trunk, at the bus-sized wolf.

Musa didn’t see this however, as soon as the haze disappeared he shot off again, sprinting towards his friend unconscious on the carpet of pine needles. He was a few metres away and was reaching towards hi-

Duck. Roll.

He ducked as a wide blade of compressed air shaved off the hair at the top of his head. He rolled backwards just before the large wolf barrelled through the spot he’d just been in.

It turned and Musa paled. It had gotten huge somehow, now the size of Mr McLeod’s office. Its bark armour had darkened and was sporting some vicious spikes. A spreading crown of antlers seemed to scrape the very canopy as the titanic creature looked down at him, seemingly surprised he wasn’t red paste yet. Holy shit. Mr McLeod was limp in the beast’s mouth. It was grinding down, apparently unable to pierce the unconscious man’s skin, but he may as well have already been dead for all the help that was to Musa. The lone Elvan man who'd survived was crawling away on his arms, legs still disabled, and the wolf idly stepped on him, crushing his entire upper body underfoot.

Musa dumped all the Sunlight he could into his Seed.

Run.

That was new, and Musa agreed with the instruction. Unfortunately, he couldn’t leave Mike. So he heaved even more Sunlight into his Seed, looking for a way, any way for him to at least escape with his best friend.

He- Left.

Musa jumped to the left, dodging a trio of air blades that had come screaming towards him when the wolf swiped its paw. He dashed around the clearing, thinking to keep it off-balance. It was too fast though and followed him with its head without a problem. I need more.

Tak- Tree.

Musa jumped up and sprang off a nearby tree as the wolf stomped a paw and a spike of rock shot up from the ground he’d just been standing on. He shoved even more energy into his Seed.

You- Duck. Guardian. Jump. Right. Twist. Grab. Slide.

Musa ducked as the wolf’s tail stretched into a large spike that stabbed at him. He grabbed the tail as it was retracting and hitched a ride up to the wolf’s back. He jumped off, now high in the air, as its back exploded in dark black spikes. He put his foot on the Drasil and pushed off to the right just before the tail stabbed at him again, digging into the Drasil instead. The wood was normally as hard as steel, which didn’t bode well as the wolf had torn into it like paper. He twisted in the air, squeezing between two more blades of air, now falling on his side and held his hands out in front of him. A massive earthen spike pierced the ground and shot through the space his torso had just been occupying. He grabbed it and swung around, slowing his momentum, and sliding down the wicked spike to the forest floor. He could see little sparkles in the air around him. He pushed even more of his dwindling energy into the Seed.

Mik- Gun. Jump. Tree. Tree. Shoot. Run.

Musa sprinted past the big gun he’d dropped on his way to Mike and picked it up without slowing. He jumped, but no attack came. He looked and the wolf had seemingly just noticed Mike near the tree and was studying him curiously. This thing isn’t even worried about me. He pushed off another tree and held himself aloft with his legs, bracing between two tree trunks growing close to each other. He aimed the gun, only one enhanced bullet and the rest of his combat potential left in the weapon. He depressed the trigger with a boom, the recoil pushing him out of his position between the trees. Before he hit the ground, an ear-splitting howl rang out from the clearing. Ha! He’d shot it in the eye and thanks to the imbued bullet, it wouldn’t heal.

The wolf was crashing around the open space, swiping at random trees and turning in circles, but avoiding the Drasil. The surrounding forest was flattened, crushed, and cut down in equal measure.

He glanced at it and it had dropped Mr McLeod, howling in pain. The gigantic animal looked to be out of control, and he was going to die if he didn’t get up and run. He sat up and tried to get his Seed to give him a different way out, but nothing happened. He was wrung dry. The glittering sparkles had filled the area and made his impending death a little more aesthetic. Ah well, I gave it a good shot. The wolf wasn’t focusing on him though. It was growling at Mike.

Panic gripped Musa’s heart. No! He stood up and stumbled back into the clearing.

“Oy! I shot you, you big idiot!”

The wolf didn’t even look back at him. Musa, out of options, felt hopeless. He had no Sunlight, no effective weapons and now was about to watch his best friend die.

No.

The sparkles started swirling around him, getting faster and faster, making him look like he was inside a vortex of stars. Musa didn’t care however. He was running towards the wolf and screaming for all he was worth. The wolf raised a paw to swipe at Mike.

NO!

The sparkles froze suddenly, then plunged into his body. Musa started glowing from underneath his skin, as if his very flesh was luminous. His Seed was abruptly expanded, taking up more room within his soul as it upgraded.

Take.

He reached behind him and a wicked looking longsword with a red hilt was handed to him. Eyes only on the wolf, he gave the sword a mighty upward swing and a swathe of intense blue flames swept out from the blade, hitting the wolf’s upraised paw, and setting its wooden armour aflame. The wolf recoiled from the heat, digging its paw into the ground to put it out. It searched to see where the fire had come from but Musa was only staring at the sword in shock. I.. I know this sword. He looked behind him and his mouth fell open.

Mike’s father was standing there.