Azazel returned to the air over the battlefield with Calimei in his arms, and he caught his breath at the horrors below.

“Bugs? What the Hell?” he murmured.

Calimei too stared down at the chaotic battlefield, her eyes wide with horror.

Azazel glanced down at her, then started to turn to set her down elsewhere.

“N-no!” She grasped his face in one hand and forced him to look at her, then pointed down at the battlefield. “B-bring me th-there!”

“Are you crazy?” He shook his head. “I’m not putting you in the middle of that.”

“N-need to l-lead them out through th-th-the tunnels!” she said. “You ch-ch-chase M-M-Malkira!”

“No! I’m not putting you in harm’s way!” Azazel protested.

“Sod it!” Calimei shouted. “Me. There. Now!” She pointed to the battlefield again. “You. Catch D-Demon K-King. NOW!”

Azazel stared into her face, remarking at how ferocious she could seem when she truly wanted to. There was nothing he hated more than the thought of putting the woman he loved in danger, but the way she demanded to go back to support her people there was something special in her he couldn’t deny. His journey had made him a king, and somewhere along the line she had become a true queen, ready to bleed beside her subjects if need be.

He nodded to her, then swooped down and gently placed her on the ground at the edge of the battlefield. “Be careful!” he said, just before flying off to chase Malkira, just as the Demon King disappeared into the strange building which hadn’t been there before. The angelic king wove his way through the obstacles between him and his goal, dodging the bizarre bug-like creatures and trees on the way.

Calimei watched Azazel disappear through the front door of the Shrieking Shrine, then turned to his soldiers on the battlefield.

She recoiled from the horrific sight before her, as the abominations attacked them in swarms. But she had a job to do. She raised up her wand and cast her spell. All the sounds around her went silent, and a disembodied voice cried out, “PHASE TWO!”

Azazel’s soldiers knew this as the signal to retreat, but not back down the pass. They turned and fled to the tunnels underneath where the jidra garden used to be. The automatons had excavated a quick escape route for them, and they cut through any foe between them and their way out of this madness. With any luck, they’d be gone before Ra-Gadol’s army arrived.

Calimei took cover behind a stack of fallen rocks, and from there she launched sound waves and bolts of lightning at the bug-like creatures.

One of the creatures, resembling a giant centipede with a human face and ten scorpion tails, turned toward Calimei and let out a high-pitched screech. Dozens of other bugs turned, as if heeding the call, and all charged at Calimei at once.

Calimei’s blood ran cold, as she saw the horde rushing her. She fired sonic waves one after another to knock back the creatures. Some snapped in two or crunched in on themselves, others lost a limb or two but continued on their path toward her.

The noble lady fell back from the rocks just as some of the smaller bug-like creatures, only the size of her own head, crawled over it and chased after her. But she did not have far to run until she was at the edge of the plateau, with dozens of the vile creatures bearing down on her.

More blasts flew from her wand, rending the creatures to pieces. Their eggplant-colored innards splattered across the ground, and some flew up into her nostrils. Calimei gagged and choked, snorting the bits out as best she could.

The centipede with ten tails drew near her and reached out at her with its mandibles. She froze as she stared into its fifteen eyes in horror.

Bang!

A gunshot from above blasted the creature’s head off.

Calimei looked up to see an angel in a tan trench coat and wide-brimmed hat hovering above with a smoking blunderbuss in his hands. He reached out his hand for her and she grasped it tightly.

Bugs scampered over the spot where she’d been standing only a second ago, and then spilled over the edge of the plateau as the angel in the tan coat lifted her off the ground. He carried her up to a peak overlooking the plateau and set her down on her feet.

Together, they attacked the insects from a distance. Each blast of his blunderbuss echoed off the walls of every cliff and peak nearby, and her spells turned even that echo into a weapon to crush the creatures. Below, she could see Azazel’s army, as well as Malkira’s forces, retreating into the tunnels as swiftly as they could.

“Where’s Ozz?” the angel in the tan coat yelled over all the other noise.

Calimei pointed to the black building covered in webs, but when she looked up there was no sign of it.

What the Hell? Ozz! Where are you?