"Dang it, he hasn't slowed down a bit." Sentenza hissed as his cool facade fell even more. "Are we even close?"

"I am unsure," Narissa said in her multitude of voices with her body still transformed.

"How can you be unsure? I thought you were following some magical rope to the little guy?" Lulu panted before she spun around and threw Sid forward while she slid back onto the ground. A chunk of charred wood flew past her like a spear that she barely managed to avoid.

Bakade reached back and grabbed Sid who gurgled slightly from the jostling. Lulu quickly recovered and shook her head before she got back up to speed with the others.

"It is not so simple," sang Narissa. "Distance is a difficult thing to foresee, even under normal circumstances. With this oppressive, magical fog, it is effectively impossible."

Another four charred wood board flew towards them. The hollow king swung his sword up and leaped into the air. As he brought his sword down with a grunt, two of the boards were shattered into dust. Sentenza emptied a pistol into one, which killed its momentum and let it fall harmlessly to the ground. But before any of them could deal with the fourth one, a rock came flying from out of the mist in front of them and knocked the board far away from them.

About time you guys showed up! The party hasn't even started yet, and we've already got a crasher.

Sure enough, just a few dozen more feet ahead of them, and they found Death and Og'drimun hurling rocks, pebbles in the small demon's case, into the mist while standing on what used to be meticulously evenly spread-out sand. Now it had divots and footprints all over along with various debris.

"Where is the bullet?" Sentenza sneered as he rushed up to Og'drimun.

"Huh?" Og'drimun was playing dumb, and badly if the sweat on his forehead and lack of eye contact was any indication. "I don't know what you...URGK"

In a flash, the smiling man had leaped between them, and grabbed Og'drimun by his throat. "You," he hissed. "I should have known."

Before they could do anything, he was leaping away with the small demon. Just like that, he disappeared into the mist. The others all quickly circled around each other and held up their various guards. Except for Sid, who was set down in the middle between all of them.

"That's two," sneered Sentenza as he reloaded his two pistols. He glanced back at Death, "He didn't give you a bullet did he?"

Uh...wha...what bullet? Death gulped.

"Not the time! Give it to me, or we're all goners." Sentenza barked.

Death held his scythe a little closer to himself.

"Wait, he isn't gone yet," cooed Narissa. She seemed to be weighing something in her mind, and finally grit her teeth together as she pulled back from the outer circle. "Seems this is as much as I can help...whatever you do, don't let him get a big head about this."

"Aaaabbbooouuuttt wwhhhaaaa...WWWHHHAAAAATTTT!?!" Bakade turned back to look at Narissa, and as she did the witch pressed her pouch up against her lips. As the sand went down, she started to glow like a solar eclipse. In a flash, all the light around her disappeared. She looked almost normal, except both of her hands were completely covered in wrinkles, boils, moles, and skin rougher than tree bark. Then, she collapsed limply onto the ground.

As she collapsed, there was a deep laugh from out in the fog. "At last!"

The wind around them began to pick up. It swirled around like a tornado, and pushed the fog further and further away, until they could see the monster that had been laughing. A thirty foot tall, red and black skinned giant loomed over the smiling man. It had four muscular arms on its back, and six smaller duplicated along its stomach. Its eyes looked like the sun itself, and its open mouth a furnace bursting with enough fire to melt steel before it could come close. Two whip like tails danced behind it. Upon its head was a circular ring of horns, almost like a twisted crown. The beasts entire body was covered in impressive muscles that threatened to burst through its skin at any moment.

"This is my fight now!" bellowed the giant. "Didn't expect the mighty Og'drimun to retain my powers even out here, did you whelpling?"

The smiling man let out a loud laugh that drowned out Og'drimun's voice. "Now this is cute. You actually think you stand a chance? Without the chalice you would never have gotten as far as you did."

Og'drimun smirked. "I was but a child then. Now my power dwarfs any of the artifacts." As if to prove his point, he held out an arm on his back and closed its fist. The ground around the smiling man crumpled up around him like paper as if Og'drimun's hand had been underneath him.

Og'drimun started to laugh, but it was interrupted as a black ichor dripped out of his nose. Then, he stumbled back as the arm he had been holding out fell onto the ground, severed at the pseudo bicep.

"Hahahahahahaha! At least your pathetic resistance is entertaining," mocked the smiling man as he walked out of Og'drimun's severed arm without a scratch or even a drop of ooze on him.

BANG!

The smiling man leaned back and turned his grin towards Sentenza, as he dodged the bullet.

"Og'drimun, give it to me!" Sentenza shouted.

"Not needed," Og'drimun snarled. "He just caught me by surprise. It won't happen..." Another of his back arms fell off, and he let out a low growl before he lunged towards the smiling man in a blind rage.

"Idiot," Sentenza murmured under his breath. "Alright, as for the rest of us. Let's back him up. We need to all attack together, or we won't stand a chance."

"IIIII wwwiiilll ppprrrrooottteeecccttt ttthhheeemmm." Bakade said as she motioned to Sid and Narissa.

"All of us need to..."

"Nnnnnooooo. IIIII wwwoooonnn'ttt llleeeaaavvvveeee ttthhheeemmm tttoooo dddiiieee."

"Tsk," Sentenza snarled. "Fine. Have it your way." He quickly slipped a fresh bullet to replace the one he had fired. Then, as he took a step forward muttered, "It's a suicide mission anyway."

"Haha! No need to be so pessimistic! Not when the cavalry is here!" Trizel called out as he hurled a sharpened stick towards the smiling man. "Now let us rip this god down from the heavens to bury it under our feet."