“H-Hello? Is-is anyone there? Nigel croaked, wandering around belowdeck. There had been a lurch as they teleported, and his ghostly nurse had gone to check things out fifteen minutes ago. When she didn’t come back, he lurched to his swollen feet, wrapped a blanket around his shivering jowls, and started to try and find someone. “Hello?”

The ship was silent save for an occasional creak. He plopped laboriously up the steps, wheezing as he came to the deck. But he gaped when he saw them.

Scott, Amber, Leo, Cross, Bess, Crenshaw. The kids. The vampires. The crew, ghost and zombie alike. All were staring mindlessly at the gigantic rock ahead of them. No, just into that direction. Their eyes were glazed, unresponsive. There was commotion below them, but he could see the massed armies standing stock-still, mesmerized.

“H-Hey.” he said, shaking Cross. “Wake up.” She stared ahead, not even registering. He waved a hand in front of Will’s eyes, nothing. He knocked a zombie with a ghost half-sticking out down, with no response. Everyone was totally frozen.

“W-What’s going on?” he mumbled. How had this happened? What did happen? They were hanging dead in the orange sky. He went back and forth, flopping down painfully on uneven feet, his body shaking. He shouldn’t be doing this, but it looked like he was the last one standing. The last one…

“Vanessa!” He gulped and waddled over to the stern, where she was standing outside the captain’s quarters, still and blank as the others. “N-No.” He shook her, but she was as unresponsive as the others. He let his fat, swollen fingers drop.

“What’s the point.” Vanessa had made it clear she was done with him, and he was done with her, after what happened. Right?

Suddenly, the boat rocked.

It wasn’t much, but the ship definitely lolled to the side. He flopped over, but before he could reach the railing the grappling hook dug into the ghostly wood. A dusky hand grabbed the side, and Samagan hauled himself up.

“Finally. Those guys’re too slow.” he muttered. He saw the frozen crew, and grinned. “Piece’a cake.” He cracked his neck, cracked his knuckles, and grunted. He sloughed off the magic disguising his true form, growing in height and bulk. His skin receded, leaving deep blue scales that glittered in the sunlight, his face warping and twisting as his nose flattened and his eyes widened, his lips swelling as his teeth grew longer. Fins sprouted form his elbows, shredding his coat as his feet burst from his shoes, growing nearly two feet long and becoming webbed. His nails sharpened into claws as he flexed his hands, extending and retracting the webbing between his fingers. He hunched over, his spine curving as his neck split, the gills opening. He stretched his muscular body.

“Ahh, feels good. Shouldn’t take a moment to-huh?” He spied Nigel, staring at him in horror instead of ahead, but no less still. Samagan grinned. “Sup kid. Thought you looked familiar. Lemme just kill these guys and we can go back to Delacroix.”

“Um, yeah.” Nigel said in a daze. He watched Samagan flex and stretch, his claws sharp. He didn’t really care about any of these people, after all. They’d arrested/kidnapped him. Even if Delacroix was wrong about the process, ultimately the goal of a better world and society was a worthy one. Nigel, having seen the horrendous sweep of New York, tried to tell himself some sacrifices were necessary. Besides, there wasn’t anything he could do to stop this behemoth anyway.

“Let’s do this.” Samagan lumbered up to Vanessa. Nigel flinched.

“Wait, her too?”

“Yup. Boss says everyone dies, no matter what. But I guess you can live, you’re with us. Right?” Samagan answered. Nigel stared at the claws, telling himself she betrayed him. She didn’t matter to him anymore.

The claw came down on the helpless girl.

“No!” Nigel flung himself forward, grabbing Samagan’s arm and making it miss.

“The hell, man!?” he thundered.

“I-I can’t let you hurt her! You gotta s-stop!” Nigel cried, hanging off his arm. He felt lightheaded, waves of dizziness coursing through his body as his swollen fat jiggled. He felt like he was going to throw up, but he saw the wickedly curved claws and hung on harder. “You can’t!” he gasped.

“What the hell’s wrong with you!?” Samagan snarled, easily lifting the young man up and slamming him to the deck. Nigel groaned in pain, blackness building behind his vision, but out of the corner of his eye he saw more figures climbing up onto the ship. “Stupid kid! No one, but no one’s gonna stop me! Not when we’re close to conquering the land once and for all!”

“Huh?” Nigel moaned.

“Yeah. Delacroix’s gonna use Azathoth’s power to wipe out all the surface dwellers. No more humans! ‘Cept Delacroix’s team, I guess. Then the Deep Ones’ll be free to take over! We’ve been stuck down there too long, letting humans progress too much. Now we can’t win when Dagon calls us to retake the Earth. You know how much a nuke can blast? We’d be sunk! But with Delacroix’s help we can finally erase the stupid apes and colonize the surface! I’ve been waiting for this for nearly a hundred years, some punk ain’t gonna put me down!” he decaled, thumping his chest.

“Wrong…Azathoth wipes everything…” Nigel moaned, but Samagan kicked his side, doubling him over.

“Heard that song’n dance before. Bossman’s got a plan, and I’m the fishman to help him do it!” Samagan said, enjoying the pain on Nigel’s face. “Now watch as I tear this little lady’s head off!” He raised his hand and started to slice down.

“N-No…” This was it. He may have felt sick, he may have been in pain, he may not have had full control of his body, she may not even love him anymore. Probably didn’t. But if he didn’t do something now, she was going to die. He reached down deep for the strength to stand.

“Gaaaah!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vanessa’s eyes had rolled back as she muttered the counterspell, the illusion weakening enough to do so now. She woke with a gasp, blinking gin the light. She rubbed her head, her body stiff from standing for so long.

“How-how long were we out?” she said.

“RRRRRRAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

“HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Vanessa turned and shrieked. Behind her was an eight-foot tall fishman behemoth, murder in his black eyes. But standing in his way, holding his arms back, shaking but not giving an inch, was Nigel.

“Dude! You’re gonna die! Just let me kill them and be done with it!” Samagan barked.

“Nnngghhhh-! I…won’t…” Nigel’s blubbery face contorted in pain, his stomach rumbling. Samagan saw the weakness and pressed down harder, forcing Nigel to a knee. “Ta…esh…”

“You’re too weak for tricks like that!” Samagan raised a leg and kneed him in the face. Pain blossomed through his skull, but Nigel tried to hang on with his slackening grip. Samagan grunted; that usually tore a human’s head off.

“Nigel!” Vanessa screamed. Unfortunately, everyone else was occupied. Jason climbed over the top and had brought more black tentacle beasts, gnashing their teeth and whipping their tendrils, trying to kill them.

“Aaah!” Riley screamed as she dodged a grabbing tentacle. Surrounded on all sides by enemies, her boss and all other protectors too busy with monsters of their own, there was no one to help her or Connor. She grinned. It was time! “You losers! You don’t know who you’re messing with!” She flung both her arms up dramatically. “Riley! Battle Change! Mahou Shoujo Zombie Neko Shine! Nya!” The box on the deck clattered, and the bones burst out, rolling over and encasing her in the protective undead armor, flashing dark foresty green light playing over her body. The skull bit down over her face, the eye sockets lighting up. “Hyaaah!” She slashed a tentacle with her claws. “You too Connor! Hurry!”

“R-Right!” he scrambled over to the box, ducking under the monsters. “C’mon! Cover me!” he commanded the zombie armor. To his horror, they remained unresponsive. “W-What?”

“Idiot! You can’t transform unless you say the words! Duh!” Riley called, using the snake head to wing around and slam into a monster about to eat him. He stared at her.

“She’s right!” Scott said, grabbing a beast. “Sekh!” The monster howled and rotted. “Do it or die!”

“Oh come on!” Connor shouted. Jason rode a monster over to him, flanked by three more.

“Kill that child, dear sister.” he said. Riley had to engage with the others, while Jason smile das the beast grabbed him with her tentacles.

“C-Crap! I hate this!”

“Too bad. I don’t care.” Jason informed him. “Rip his limbs off.” Connor screamed as the tendrils tried to quarter him. “Aaahh! Fine! C-Connor! Battle Change! Wolf Lightning Zombie Power! Activate!” Jason blinked.

“What the heck are you-” Jason was cut off by a blinding flash of light, the electric blue magic responding to Connor’s command. Suddenly, there was a figure with a wolf-like mask standing before him, pointing a hand at him. “What the-”

BOOM!

Connor’s air cannon went off, blasting a hole in the monster carrying Jason. He stared at his creation dumbfounded, then the other air cannon went off.

BOOM!

Connor didn’t aim directly at the man on top, but angled so the shot was cushioned by the corpse. Jason was flung back like a cannonball, slamming into the railing. He groaned and slumped over.

“Right. Let’s go!” Connor jumped around with Riley, the air boosters on their legs and back making them too fast to grab, blasting and slicing monsters with ease.

“That’s my apprentices!” Scott said, grinning. “But how many of these things are there!?”

“Dunno! Keep fighting!” Amber said, webbing tentacles together.

“There’s too many of them! We need reinforcements!” Cross growled, unable to turn the grenade launcher on them. While no doubt it would kill them, she, Crenshaw, and the other zombies didn’t want to blow up their allies.

“On it!” Bess cried, popping a vial from her belt and splashing it on her orange scarf. It immediately went rigid and bubbled, disgorging into five short, stocky, tree-like creatures with a ring of eyes at the top of their heads. “Get ‘em, guys!” she commanded, and they leapt into action, working in concert to pick the monsters up by each leg, and with disproportionate strength hurl them over the side of the vessel, one by one. “Elckneck gah nehf! Elckneck gah nehf! Elckneck gah nehf!” she chanted, whipping out a knife that grew orange wings, hovering around her and slicing anything that came close.

“No one’s gonna save you! I’ll crush every last one of you!” Samagan bellowed, glaring at Vanesa. She shrank back, muttering incantations. He burst into flame. “Ha ha! Gonna have'ta do a lot better than that! Deep One hide is incredibly tough, I don’t even feel it!” Vanessa gaped at him. He thought the fire was real, but was too dumb to care. Or was it smart!? How could she beat someone like that!? “After him, you’re next.” he promised, the flame snuffing out. She backed up to the rail, whimpering.

“N-No! You won’t…lay a…” Nigel wheezed, losing his grip. Samagan kicked him in the ribs.

“You may be tougher than you look, but you’re dying, it’s obvious. Just lay down, and I’ll send that little girl to join you in a minute.” he cried, surging forward. Nigel felt like his spine would break.

“H-Help!” Vanessa meekly said. It was the only thing Nigel could hear.

“YAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!”

Samagan grunted as his momentum was halted.

“You…you won’t hurt her!” Nigel growled, his eyes slits. He was forcing Samagan back as he got to his feet, the clawed flippers leaving gouges in the deck.

“W-What!?” Samagan said. This kid was nearly as strong as him! “Die!” He rained headbutts down on the young man, but his skull was simply too thick. He watched as Nigel’s body reshaped, the flab and swelling deflating into hard bulk and corded piscine muscle, fingernails sharpening into webbed claws and shoes shredding from flippers. His skin glistened as it broke and fell away, bright teal scales covering his body. Vanessa trembled as she saw Nigel’s metamorphosis into a fishman too.

“You won’t lay a finger on her! Got that!? I WON’T LET YOU!” Nigel thundered, pushing Samagan back.

“I’ll be a son of a bitch, cuz! You’re a Deep One too!” he said, grinning. “Never seen growth all at once like that! But you’re not a fighter like I am!” He pulled his arms back and bit into Nigel’s new gills, making him howl and let go. Samagan ripped free, Nigel panting as he backed up, holding his neck. “See, I’m one of the strongest guys we got. I know tons of stuff about our bodies. Shame you won’t get a chance to learn too.” He stepped forward menacingly.

“Bastard…” Nigel muttered, feeling the warm blood slick over his hand. It was over. He wasn’t strong enough, he wasn’t even human, and Vanessa had left him. Everything was lost. Everything-

A hand touched his shoulder. He faced her.

“Nigel! Please help! You can do it, I’m here for you!” He blinked. He turned back to the approaching Samagan.

“Ta’esh ganm wovinogh, Ta’esh ganm wovinogh, Ta’esh ganm wovinogh!” passed his fishy lips at incredible speed, far surpassing Samagan’s lumbering motion. The spell had come instantly to mind. He held out his hands and the wind exploded into a sphere around him, lifting his weight off the deck to glide at the elder Deep One. Samagan tried to swing a fist, but Nigel barreled ahead, the wind around him making it hard to smack him. There was no question Samagan was stronger, he had nearly half as much the muscle mass as the now beefy Nigel; but Nigel zipped and zoomed around him faster than Samagan could keep up.

“Stand still! Haaa!” He roared and raised his arm to club down fiercely. A fatal mistake. Before he knew what was happening, Nigel shoved a hand into his gaping maw.

“Corvilast fgh’thatens!” Nigel shouted, fingers waving mystically. He opened his hand and a great storm of wind burst forth, forcing down Samagan’s throat. He made a spluttering sound as his eyes rolled back, something snapping inside of him, and he knew no more. He fell to the floor with a thud.

He turned back to her.

She stared at him as she moved to him, almost in a trance as the battle raged around them. She gingerly, hesitantly touched his arm. He looked down.

“I-I’m not sure what happened. I…I guess I’m like that guy now.” he said, poking his belly. Big, but rock hard abs behind the flesh. He was feeling hungry.

“Nigel…you stopped him. You saved me.” Vanessa said.

“Yeah. You…mean too much too me.” he said bashfully, turning away. “I-I’m feeling better.”

“Are you gonna join up with Delacroix again?” she asked. He stared at her. How was she not questioning all this? He had too many questions, that was for sure!

“That’s all you can think about!?” he burst out.

“That’s what I need to know. We can sort out all this later, if there is one. It’s weird, but there’s been too much weird to care right now. Besides, teal’s my favorite color.” she said, giggling. He considered.

On one hand, Delacroix had sent Samagan to kill them all. On the other…yeah, didn’t need any more than that. He smiled.

“Looks like I have a long way to go before I can make the world a better place.” he said, somewhat bitterly while looking at his webbed hand. “But I think I have some answers to find first.”

WHAM!

“Shape of Water later! Fight these things now!” Scott said, dragged back along the floor by a tentacle as they both jumped.

“R-Right!” Nigel grabbed the tentacle as Scott channeled necrotic energy through it, making the creature turn into mush. “D-Does this happen a lot around you?”

“More than I would like.” Scott said getting up, bumping into Cross. She whirled around, pointing her gun at his face. “Hello there detective. Please don’t shoot me.” he said. She glanced at them both, then dropped it.

“It’s only you. What’s with him?’ she asked. Scott tilted his head at the fishman, looking him over.

“Hmm, looks like he’s actually a Deep One. Somewhere along his family tree, somebody got freaky with a fish guy or gal. Ehh. Y’know, it makes sense, if all this magic and eldritch energy’s being thrown around, it could have forcibly accelerated your body’s transformation. Or fish puberty, as I say.” he said primly. Nigel raised an eyebrow.

“You are very strange.”

“Tell me about it.” Scott said, looking around. Almost all of the monsters were done for. “C’mon, we’ve gotta mop these guys up.”

“Right.” Cross pointed to the grappling hooks. “Scott, you go unhook those, Nigel, you go protect Vanessa. She’s no good in a straight fight like this.” They nodded.

“Right.” Nigel started to move, but Scott snapped his fingers.

“Oh, Cross?” he asked.

“Yeah?” she said. Without warning, he reached up and snapped her neck. Vanessa screeched and nearly fainted, while Nigel stared at him in horror.

“WHY!?” he bellowed.

“Watch.” Between Scott’s boney hands, Cross’s body shifted and morphed, her features flowing together until she turned into a deceased he.

“M-Matt!” Vanessa gasped, recognizing the shapeshifter.

“Is that who this is? I just knew someone was impersonating Cross.” Scott answered. Matt’s ghost shook itself free of his body, glowing a pale lavender.

“W-What? How did you know?” he asked, incredulous. Scott grinned.

“It was a flawless physical transformation, but Cross never refers to me by name. She always calls me kid. Now, if you wanna come back to life, stick by your body, I’ll bring you back later.” With that, he unceremoniously dumped Matt’s body over the side.

“Hey!” his ghost yelled, following. Both Nigel and Vanessa stared at the skeleton as he whistled, dusting his hands off as he joined the others.

“I think we’re clear!” Genevieve said, scanning the deck. “I’ll check belowdeck, just in case.”

“Allow me, my dear.” Captain Blackwell said. He sank beneath the floorboards and made a sweep. Behind a barrel, to his astonished eyes was a red-faced, gagged, apoplectic Cross. “GOOD HEAVENS!” he said, undoing the gag.

“WHERE THE HELL IS THAT LITTLE CREEP!” was heard above, somehow louder than Blackwell, followed by thrashing.

“I think we’ve found the detective.” Scott deadpanned.

“I’ll help her.” Gregor said, sighing and heading down.

“Okay, is everyone alright?” Amber said, checking the kids over. A barrel rolled across the deck.

“Not…exactly…” Everyone gasped and stared at Leo, sprawled out behind the barrels and crates. He was smiling, but covered in blood, clutching his left…side. “It looks worse than it is, really.” he said, trying to smile. There was blood coming from his side. It wasn’t coming from his arm, because it was no longer there.

“Holy crap, you lost your arm!” Scott cried.

“I noticed.” Leo said. Everyone started frantically running around, trying to get bandages or panicking.

“Okay, okay, we can fix this,” Scott said, trying to keep calm. “I mean, I can just kill you and bring you back. Where’s your arm?”

“Over there. And there. And there.” Leo said, nodding to various pieces of gore. They saw the blood trail to a monster that came up with the others, with a mouth like a garbage disposal. It was lying still, with his sword sticking out of it. “He got the jump on me.” Leo admitted. “But I was able to cut the grappling hooks before any more of those things could get up here.”

“Yikes.” Scott said, examining the railing. Then he froze. The rest of the army hadn’t snapped out of it yet. There were hundreds of magicians and monsters not on their side, utterly decimating their forces. The zombies, Zet-Mathaig disciples, and daemons were unmoving as they were slaughtered.

“Oh my god.” Scott said quietly. He turned to Vanessa. “We need them free! Now!”

“I did break it! B-But it’ll take a minute for the magic to dispel that far from here!” As she spoke, their forces were indeed waking up, but a full two-thirds of them had been eliminated. The army disjointedly began fighting back, but they had no coordination. This far from the battlefield, it was just a jumbled mess of figures, explosions and warps in space-time opening randomly on the field. Scott checked his phone’s clock and shook his head. They had lost nearly half an hour.

“We’ve got no choice. We have to leave them like this and trust they can handle the scrubs. I don’t think they’ve got any more in reserve, so we have to move in now. And with Leo like that…”

“Don’t worry about me.” Leo said, smiling. He held out his remaining hand, summoning his blade. It ignited, and he breathed deeply. Then slammed the fiery flat of the blade into the stump and held it there.

“Oh god!” Amber cried, trying to help him, but he shook her off. He was sweating, red-faced, and grimacing, but didn’t make a sound as the flesh sizzled. After a moment, he let it go and fell to a knee, examining the seared wound.

“Good. Don’t think I lost too much blood. I’m glad I’m ambidextrous.” Everyone just stared at him.

“That was metal as hell.” Scott said.

“Totally.” Nightfang agreed, nodding.

“What is wrong with you people!?” Nigel said. They turned when they heard a smacking.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Riley cried, slapping the comatose Mephistopheles. “You’re supposed to be strong and can do anything with your magic, right? Wake up and help!” The daemon roused.

“Ugh-wha-” Slap! “My dear, I am awake.” he said irritably, and she shrunk down under his gaze.

“Sorry.”

“Rrrgh-a strange dream.” Asmodeus rumbled, rubbing his head. He opened his third eye and learned what transpired, sharing the information telepathically with the other archdaemons.

“It zeeems many daemons havvv perished.” Beelzebub said coldly.

“We no longer have the raw numbers to overwhelm them anymore. I am also quite peeved. I suggest we take matters into our own hands.” Azazel turned to Scott. “Go. We four shall assure victory here. Mephistopheles, please accompany them.”

“With all grace.” the daemon said, cracking his knuckles.

“Got it. Good luck, and uh…can you do anything about his arm quick?” He pointed to Leo, smiling hopefully, and all five of them winced.

“While healing…can be done,” Mephistopheles said as delicately as he could. “Normally we have to prepare for such spells, usually a potion that requires ingredients found not in our home dimension. It is not something we can do easily, and not among our gifts. After this, of course, but as of right now…” he said, looking away.

“I understand.” Leo said.

“We could graft a daemon’s arm to him, there’zzz plenty ovvver there. Or rip one off one another daemon. Zzze any you fanzzzy?” Beelzebub asked. Leo quickly shook his head.

“It’s alright, it’s alright!”

“Zzzuit yourzzzelv.”

“Then let us crush those fools.” Asmodeus snapped his wings open and took to the air.

“Kevin, we should go too. There may be something in their lair that we can use to disrupt the ritual, I’d like to sneak in.” Genevieve told Nightfang. He briefly considered, and nodded.

“Right. Take Gregor and Will. Sneak in, back us up if we need it. Be safe.” he told his team, and they nodded.

“Always.” she said, then they jumped over the railing.

“Good luck.” Azazel said, taking flight with the others.

“finallyfinallyfinallyfinallyFINALLY!” Lilith cried joyously as she descended. The other archdaemons gave her a wide, wide berth as they moved. “Aha! C’mon you maggots! Let’s have some fun!” She joined the fray and threw off her cloak to reveal…

“Oh my dear sweet Zet-Mathaig.” Leo said, aghast. Amber’s hand automatically covered Connor and Riley’s eyes in horror.

“What is she-? Is she-?” Bess said, squinting in disbelief.

“Aha hah hah hah hah hah hah! C’mere, you!” Lilith said as she plucked a hapless tentacle beast from the ground. Then she…SPLORCH!

“Oh my God!”

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Nigel said, holding his stomach. Crenshaw was, vomiting over the side.

“That, that’s just not right.” Scott said uneasily.

“Why do you think she is the uncontested ruler of her domain? She is the Mother of Monsters for a reason. May I suggest we focus on disrupting the ritual?” Mephistopheles said quickly, not looking at the scene below.

“R-Right. Full speed ahead!” Scott ordered the zombie crew, and they sailed on to the rock.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fausto shivered as he stood next to Delacroix. No, next to his shadow. The thing contained inside. It was impressive, really. Scary, but impressive. Riepaimva had strolled out, chanting as he did. He held up a hand, then a nova of white light erupted form his palm. Delacroix had pulled him back into the cave, and a minute later Riepaimva came back, ordering the others sent out to exterminate the pests outside. Over three million, so casually dealt with.

There was no doubt he was a god.

“All hail Lord Riepaimva!” The last of the blood was spilled, and Delacroix grinned as the circle’s heavy, oppressive air doubled in intensity. The space above it shimmered and cracked, a light that was terrible to behold shining forth.

“All hail.”

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FWOOOM!

Everyone could feel it. All eyes turned to Ayer’s Rock, the purple stormclouds growing at the center. The dimensions had shifted, cracking through to the center of the universe.

“Oh no.” Scott whispered. The sun was blotted out as the wind whipped up, Nigel doing his best to keep them steady.

“We’re too late!” Bess screamed.

“No we’re not! We can still make it!” Cross snapped. “Can’t we?” she asked Scott. He picked up the microphone.

“We need to bust that place wide open, now!”

“That’s…” Mephistopheles grimaced. With so much interference from the funky weird energies, his daemonic magic felt unstable.

Allow Me.

Lagdinras summoned all of his power, the six flames burning brightly. They targeted and shot into beams, sawing off the top of the rock. Glowing gold, the eye shook as the massive slab of stone was levitated off of the rest, veins bulging unnaturally in his eyeball.

“Are you okay, Lagdinras!?” Leo shouted.

Hurry! I Cannot hold This long!

came from him, sounding incredibly strained.

“Right! FULL SPEED AHEAD!” Scott commanded.

“Gooo!” Beelzebub hollered, he and the other archdaemons encircling the ship, keeping the magicians and monsters at bay while they sailed in. The Dead Man’s Hand tilted down, sailing into Ayer’s Rock, towards the unnaturally-lit crack in reality.

“Here we go.” Scott muttered, before they passed on through.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delacroix and Fausto walked, the daemon nervous and shaking with every step. They were in the complete void of space, stars shimmering in all directions. This was not native ground to a daemon.

Their destination was still far off, a large, greenish-purpleish cloud the size of a country. At least he thought it was; distance and size were hard to judge here, they kept shifting. It was a hunch, but he suspected that everything might have been all different sizes at once.

“At long last. Finally, the goal is in sight. No Outer Gods can interfere, the sealing Lord Riepaimva performed will keep them out.” Delacroix said, his shadow rearing up behind him. Suddenly, he stopped. His legs froze, he looked at his shadow, opening a blazing pink eye.

“It appears someone has found a loophole.” Riepaimva said.

Space quaked. Reality folded and unfolded, stretching forth dark green tentacles. A truly massive body, dwarfing solar systems emerged from a hidden pocket dimension, springing the ambush. It had no exact definite shape, constantly shifting and writhing. But three large burning eyes of fire opened somewhere in the center, glaring down at them with total disapproval.

Zet-Mathaig had appeared.

“Seems Mr. Goody-Two Shoes himself has come to try to stop me.” Riepaimva said. Fausto was frozen in terror, and Delacroix was glancing between the enormous entity and his master, heart in his throat.

The Incarnation of Justice bellowed and whipped a tentacle around. Strangely, it had a gigantic chain in the coils. The chain snaked light-years away in an instant, attaching to a sun with no life around it and pulled back, swinging the celestial body over itself like a morningstar.

“Yes, he’s the Wielder of the Purifying Sun alright. I can’t hope to match his pure power.” Riepaimva said, nearly giving his servants heart attacks.

“M-Master?” Delacroix meeped worriedly. Riepaimva grinned a Mobius grin.

“But I am not as I was when Atlantis sank. I have learned the secrets of the universe! I know everything I need to! This fool will not stop me, as you will see! I will wake Azathoth!” He produced the master copy of the Libris Malefactorum Arcana, much thicker than the others he’d left on Earth, scribed by plucking the knowledge straight from the brains of sage beings and placing them to the paper.

Zet-Mathaig roared, swinging the solar weapon. Riepaimva chanted, reality bending around him. The battle was joined.