Malkira chuckled when Azazel took off after the carriage the Demon King had so casually flung away. The angelic king had taken the bait and thus shown all his subjects that he would abandon them in a second to save the woman he loved.

Azazel’s soldiers peered up into the sky to watch as their king deserted the battlefield, and Malkira took advantage of the moment. He reached into his pocket and drew two vials with the orange healing potion inside. His face was soaked in blood, most of which was his own, so he knew he was going to need it.

He popped the cork of the first vial and raised it to his lips, but before the potion touched his tongue, he heard hoofbeats approaching at a full gallop. He leapt from a cavalier’s path just in time to dodge a war hammer which had been aimed for his head. Both vials slipped from his fingers and smashed on the ground. Malkira cursed, aimed two fingers at the knight, and shards of ice tore the enemy to pieces.

“Healing potion!” Malkira shouted at his warriors, his throat aflame with agony. “Give me a healing potion! NOW!”

His shouts brought many of the enemy soldiers back into the moment, to the battle at hand, stealing from him the brief advantage he’d taken from their distraction.

Three more soldiers on horseback charged at Malkira. With the sharp pain shooting through his whole body, the Demon King was sure that if he cast another spell without healing first, he’d fall dead.

“Your majesty!” called a voice from behind him.

Malkira turned his head just in time to see a boar-headed demon draw a vial from his pocket and toss it to him. With the enemy knights bearing down on him, Malkira reached out and snatched the potion out of the air.

The knights spurred their horses on faster, and raised their weapons to strike down the Demon King.

Malkira drank down the potion and the moment the vial was empty waved his hand over the ground beneath him. A pillar of stone rose up and enveloped Malkira, shattering the knights’ swords.

As soon as the knights had ridden past him, Malkira caused the stone column to explode, and fist-sized rocks knocked the knights off their saddles.

Malkira roared with laughter and raised his hands to the sky, which was now covered in dark clouds. Bolts of lightning poured down in torrents causing Azazel’s army to break ranks and scatter to avoid the higher ground. Human soldiers and demon warriors alike fell to the raging storm, and thunder all but deafened everyone on the battlefield.

While his own ears rang, Malkira formed sharp ice crystals from the moisture in the air and flung them at his enemies. Arrows sailed back at him, chipping away at the stone armor he’d created.

When the ringing in his ears finally stopped, Malkira heard countless voices cry out in pain behind him. A moment passed before he realized that the voices were neither human nor demon.

The Shrieking Shrine?

Malkira snapped his head around to behold the object of his long search. The rest of the battle didn’t matter, as long as he had this victory.

He yelped in shocked despair when his eyes beheld what lay before him. The jidra in his garden twitched and fell limp, dead. Some sank right through the soil. While Malkira still stood baffled, a steel hand with long claws broke through the ground and tore another jidra asunder. Then more metal hands sprung up, destroying his garden from the roots.

“No! No! No!” Malkira cried as the ground under the garden crumbled away into an enormous sinkhole. An automaton army climbed up through the hole and seized the cages full of slaves. “They’re escaping!” The Demon King bellowed as the automatons slipped away into the dark tunnels with the prisoners.

Malkira gathered electrical sparks and arcs around his hand, prepared to throw them at the automatons. But the confused cries of both his own warriors and Azazel’s soldiers drew his attention away from them. Inhuman shrieks sounded over the roaring noise of the battlefield, and Malkira’s eyes rose to a black, dilapidated house, covered in webs.

The Shrieking Shrine!

He glanced back at the cavern where Moloch had been hiding and beheld the seer emerging from the shadows, and walking towards the phantom structure. Enemy arrows flew past the seer, but each one narrowly missed him as he moved effortlessly across the plateau. By the look on his face, Moloch was either having a vision at that moment or simply mesmerized by the Shrine. After an effortless crossing of the battlefield, Moloch stood at the front door and held out his hand for the knob.

Malkira spread his wings and shook off the crumbling stone armor. He ran toward the shrine as fast as his legs would carry him. His flight feathers beat the air, trying to take him off the ground.

Too much weight…

The Demon King knew that shedding his stone armor and lifting off into the air would make him an easy target, but he had to risk it. From everything Moloch had told him, finding the Shrieking Shrine was his life’s entire purpose. So, Malkira allowed the stone armor around his body to crumble off of him, pouring down like sand as he took flight toward his goal.

Moloch turned the knob, opened the door, and immediately stepped to the side. And in an instant, Malkira saw why he moved out of the way.

Warriors from both armies screamed and fled from the swarm of creatures covered in black chitin that emerged from the Shrine. The abominations flew on buzzing wings and latched onto humans and demons alike. Their needle-like mouths pierced through whatever exposed skin they could find. The stingers on their tails whipped out and stabbed any who’d not been fortunate enough to escape. Their mandibles rended flesh and muscle as they tore their prey to pieces.

Both Malkira’s army and Azazel’s ceased their battle against each other and turned to fight these horrid monsters. A mutual enemy that all feared.

Malkira soared higher as hundreds of the black-shelled beasts passed beneath him. He kept his eyes on the Shrine’s front door, through which Moloch had just entered. The Demon King caught a strong wind current which propelled him at blinding velocity toward the shrine’s door.

My brother, I will be there when you become a god. I will see the dawning of the new age!