Elsewhere, in the land of Nihilus, Cory had been bothering Qenneth and the others on the expedition to find Sulaiman's ring with his constant bragging and his excitement to be included in this venture. Whenever making camp Qenneth drank twice as much alcohol at night as he normally did. Normally the alcohol was just to take the edge off the stress of traveling and help him sleep better. Now the stress of having to listen to Cory talk all day was added to that. This made the mornings worse, since Qenneth would now have to listen to Cory while already a bit hung-over. In the mornings every word Cory spoke was like a hammer was being taken to Qenneth's head, both because he was loud and because he was as annoying as a swarm of mosquitoes.

“I'm going to kill him...” Qenneth whispered to one of his knights after sunset. “I've never killed a fellow Nihilite before, at least not one loyal to our king, but I think I might kill this one.”

“It was your idea to bring him along,” the knight reminded him.

“That's why I have to kill him,” Qenneth said. “To atone for the sin of bringing the little bastard along in the first place.” Cory wasn't truly “little,” as Qenneth said. He was actually the same height as Qenneth, but because he was so much younger and frankly an adolescent brat Qenneth thought of him as little.

The first time they encountered any kind of real danger on the trip Qenneth was actually happy. He thought that, perhaps, after such a scare Cory would finally be knocked down a peg, so to speak. A small band of bandits, or perhaps they were rebels working for the mysterious Kalvyn Silverlocke, Qenneth wasn't sure, attacked the traveling party. When Qenneth saw a few of them going after Cory he thought this was perfect. He could rescue Cory just as they were about to take his life and he'd finally stop bragging about how great he was. The thought did occur to Qenneth that this might turn Cory into an obnoxious sycophant rather than an obnoxious braggart, but he was willing to take the risk. This didn't go as planned, because it turned out that Cory had plenty of reason to brag. Ormond, his Familiar, rose to his defense immediately, and Cory cast spells that wracked his assailants with agony. As they writhed on the ground in pain Ormond stomped them into mush and dust.

After that Cory's bragging got even worse, and Qenneth prayed to Prunikos, the Queen of Daemons, for the sweet release of death, either for himself or for Cory.

“Aye! I feel chosen! I mean, yeah, Deidra was chosen too, she's a soothsayer, but the next best thing to that is having an awesome Familiar like Ormond! Have you ever even seen a daemon that powerful? Sure, there probably are some, I mean Prunikos is definitely more powerful, but Ormond is amazing! My own personal guardian daemon! I must be destined for great things! Don't you think? Why else would Prunikos have sent someone so powerful to watch over me! I bet I'll be a great war hero, make King Therion proud!”

“Hold!” Qenneth said, giving the hand gesture for the whole troop to go quiet. His serious tone told Cory that he needed to be silent immediately, which he did. Qenneth wondered for a second why he didn't think of this sooner, but he hadn't given the order merely to shut Cory up. Qenneth had seen something moving on the other side of a hill in the distance. This something reflected sunlight, and also seemed to refract it, as he could see a spectrum of colors shining on the ground around one side of said hill. His blood chilled as he thought of the implication of this. Qenneth knew that they could simply ride past the hill, perhaps take a longer way around and avoid the dangerous being behind it, but the last thing he wanted was for that thing to sneak up on him and his soldiers later. No way would he turn his back on such a threat. He rode his horse up to Cory and whispered to him, “Here's a chance to prove yourself. Do you know any spells that could demolish that entire hill?”

Cory looked at it. Admittedly it was not a large hill, about twice the height of a man was all, but he wondered if any of his spells would be strong enough to destroy it. “Is there something behind it?” Cory asked.

“Aye. Probably an angel.”

Cory's eyes widened and a grin crossed his face. Here was a chance to prove his skills by fighting a being everyone else here was terrified of. Without another word Cory reached out his hand towards the hill and focused his will carefully, imagining its destruction in his mind, “I call upon the destructive powers of the Void!” Instantly the hilltop was crushed by some invisible force from above, flattening it out and sending rock and dirt flying everywhere. There, standing on the other side, just as Qenneth had suspected, was an angel.

All the men there had seen paintings, drawings, or statues of angels before, so they knew what it was on a glance, but this didn't prepare them for how beautiful and terrifying it was. It stood two heads taller than the average man, had a shape that seemed neither fully male nor fully female, and its body was made of transparent crystal, crystal that looked like it was cut and molded to be perfectly round where a human's body normally was, such as the head and shoulders. The light of the sun reflected off of its body, making it seem to almost glow, and the light that passed through it came out in a rainbow of colors. It stared them down with eyes that resembled emeralds and raised its hand in the same motion Cory had when he cast his spell.

“Ormond! Help!” Cory called out, and Ormond appeared in front of Cory.

The dust in the air from the destruction of the hill gathered in the air in front of the angel and then flew at Qenneth and his knights, engulfing them in a dust storm. The horses reared back in fear, throwing the knights off of their backs, and the knights crashed to the ground, the weight of their own armor bruising their skin and, in some cases, breaking their bones. None of them could see, not even Ormond, and the angel came upon them while they were distracted.

The angel's first victim found himself lifted off the ground by the breast-plate of his armor and violently thrown several yards, where he crashed to the ground. Hearing the screams, the other knights thrashed around madly with their swords and maces. Some struck each other, and Ormond stomped and charged around, hoping to blindly hit the angel causing all this chaos. The angel moved through the dust storm, attacking knight after knight, tossing them around like a child having a temper tantrum throws small blocks and porcelain dolls. Those lucky, or perhaps unlucky, enough to hit the angel in the back as they flailed wildly soon felt its blade-like wings cut through their midsections. Qenneth had heard the screams, and managed to figure out which of the screams came from men who had been struck by their confused comrades and which screams came from men the angel tossed around. He was able to figure out where the angel was based on this and charged at it, bringing his broadsword around to strike it.

To his horror, he could barely see as the angel caught the blade of his sword in the palm of its hand, and squeezed the blade. The blade bent in the angel's hand and finally snapped. Qenneth barely had time to react as the angel's other hand reached for his face, its palm big enough to cover his face while its fingers could easily wrap around his head. Qenneth dropped to the ground and grabbed a mace that one of his knights had dropped, and struck the angel's side. The mace easily broke upon impact, and the angel hadn't suffered even so much as a crack.

Still, the distraction Qenneth provided prevented the angel from maintaining the dust storm, and soon Ormond could see the enemy that threatened his master. Ormond charged at the angel and slammed its ram-like horns into its side. The impact actually managed to create cracks in its body and throw the angel to the ground. Ormond pinned the angel down with his paws as Cory began casting spells at it, “I call upon the powers of the Void! Destroy my enemy! Destroy my enemy!” he shouted, over and over. More cracks began to appear on the angel's body, and little by little the angel's strength seemed to be fading.

Finally, the angel broke apart completely, shattering into millions of tiny, glass-like shards, that cut a small hole in the ground and buried themselves deep before the ground closed up over the hole.

Qenneth surveyed the damage the angel had done. Most of his knights were seriously wounded, some already dead, only he and Cory seemed unharmed. “Damn it!” Qenneth pounded his fist on the ground.

“I killed it!” Cory exclaimed, dancing in victory. “Ha ha! I killed an angel! I killed it! I killed it!”

“I doubt that,” Qenneth said. “The angel turned into dust and then burrowed in the ground. Probably more of a strategic retreat than anything. And I don't think they can truly be killed anyway. Like daemons they just go back where they came from and can come back later.”

“Well, I beat it! No one's ever beaten an angel before!” Cory said, still just as proud.

“Many of our men lie dead and most of them probably will never walk again and all you can think to do is celebrate your victory?” Qenneth was fuming at Cory by now. In that moment he may very well have strangled him, if not for his powerful Familiar.

“Can you blame me? I just did something I've never heard of anyone being able to do! Maybe this is what I've been chosen to do! Cory: the Angel-Slayer!”

Qenneth's hands tightened into fists and tears rolled down his cheeks. The mix of sorrow for his men and rage at this arrogant boy were far too much for him to handle. “Shut up, damn you! By the Void, shut your damned mouth!”

Cory stopped his little victory dance and stared at Qenneth, his mouth shut tight and his body tense. In spite of his confidence in his abilities, Cory was terrified of Qenneth. Sure, Qenneth wasn't able to hurt the angel as Cory was, but the blows he'd landed on the angel would have easily killed a mortal man.

“We need a new strategy if we're going to get that ring. All this was just one angel's doing, and the reports say that many angels guard the ruins...Help me treat the wounded and cremate the dead, then we'll talk about what to do next.”