Sivian kept blocking and dodging like insane, not even able to make many attacks anymore. Her opponents felt their edge and pressed on, forcing Sivian further down the steps where the tunnel was wider. At that moment the frequency of the demon claws' slashes increased to the point she had to step back every second to prevent the vicious barrage of claws to tear her apart.

"No, no, no, NO!" Sivian defended the blows fratically while a third demon managed to squeeze through and leaped over her head, landing behind her back.

Now it would be a pincer attack three against one, only the greatest martial artists would have been able to overturn the situation and Sivian was not one of them.

Readying herself for the last exchange of blows of her life, she heard a crashing sound, when the ceiling fell down, a thin layer of rock fell to the ground and shattered into thousand pieces.

A could of dust swirling in front of her.

"Hollow?!" Her pupils flashed to look up. Apparently there had been only a thin layer of stone above them with another tunnel behind it and something fell down along with the pieces of stone. Shortly, a purple tentackle shot out of the cloud of dust, entangling the demon that had just leaped over Sivian's head. The beast let out a painful wail and the tentackle withdrew along with an incorporeal shadow of the beast that was most probably its soul, leaving the beast crumbled on the ground, dead.

Finally, the something that had fallen down spoken, a threatening, eerie female voice resonating through the tunnel.

"Soulfire." After the one word, an incredibly hot pillar of fire burst out from the cloud of dust, causing a small secondary dust explosion. The flames enveloped all that was in front of them in the tunnel.

After a few seconds four charred corpses fell to the ground.

"The Lich Queen comes, tremble pitiful mortals." A domineering figure of Irwen was revealed and Sivian had to use all her willpower not to grawel on her knees in front of her.

"Irwen, you know that you can just cast it without shouting the name?" Another voice came from the same direction.

"Do not spoil it. Don't forget what you have wanted. Onwards, our fate will be that of magnificence, we will be rebuilding worlds, not baking bread!"

"Rebuilding worlds?" Sivian whispered in astonishment. She could not recognize Irwen anymore, she was like a completely different person, where was the modest, innocent girl she knew? She had to accept that the Irwen she knew was no more. Overwhelmed by fatigue from the fight and the dreadful presence in front of her, Sivian fell to her knees.

"Thank you for saving me, your magnificence The Lich Queen." Bowing her head, she looked like paying respect to an actual queen.

"Lo, there do I see my Lich Queen. Lo, there do I see her might and mettle. She do call to you, she bids you to take your place among us in the halls of my bathhouse, where the brave shall bathe forever!" Toby said in an imposing voice and Irwen rolled her eyes.

"Yes, I will bathe with you." A trembling voice answered.

"Sheesh, you have scared her." Irwen whispered to Toby.

"I ? You were the one throwing flames around. Besides, I have not started the whole magnificence thing." Toby whispered back.

"Just cut the crap, it is disrespectful to make fun of her in this situation. No, I will better take over here." Irwen whispered and coughed at the end, increasing the volume of her voice substantially.

"We have consulted your wish and you are allowed to join us, welcome among my subordinates." Irwen told her seriously.

"What? You have none!" Toby whispered to her, but she ignored him.

"What shall I do your majesty?" Sivian asked, looking at Irwen with completely different attitude.

"You can go to the bathouse to rest, we will get something to eat for you."

"In the bathouse . . will there be.. " Sivian's pupils began darting around in panic.

"What?" Irwen lifted her eyebrows.

"Will I have to do it as well?" She asked in a hushed voice.

"Eh?" Irwen paused, not knowing what she was trying to convey.

"You mean the splashing? No, it is optional. Just go." Toby chimed in.

"Alright!" Sivian's mood visibly improved and she walked away in the direction of the pools.

"Some people really do hate splashing, have you seen her reaction when you told her it was optional?" Irwen wondered if Sivian hated to wash or something.

"Do not dwell on it, let's go find food for her." Toby brushed it away and they both stepped over the charred demon corpses, moving in the direction they had come from.

"Those were demons, I have a feeling we might really be in the demon world." Irwen walked switftly with Toby dangling in between her breasts.

"What do you know about it?" Toby's knowledge of the demon world was nonexistent.

"Nothing much, ordinary people only know about rumours and superstitions about the demon world, it is not like you can go back and forth easily." Irwen arrived at the original cave and they were nearing the tunnel that connected the cave with the ouside world.

"Those two had no trouble with going about it easily right?"

"I do not know who they were, but they had to be incredibly powerful, doing long distance teleportations on a whim. "

"I hope we will not meet them again, what if this land is their territory?" Toby felt unpleasant just thinking about bumping into the pair of demons again.

"I do not think so, there were no subordinates, the two were probably some lonely eccentrics, not interested in possessing a territory." The tunnel was rather short and Irwen could see its opening.

"Irwen, I wonder. ." Toby began to speak, but stopped halfway.

"What? Squeeze it out stone." She reacted immediately.

"How do you feel about me killing you? I am surprised you are even talking to me." Toby asked something he had been pondering about for a while.

"Ah.. Honestly, It is only because of the transformation. I can see how much it can change a person, I sometimes feel like I do not care anymore about anything and you are a fucking piece of rock! I am not sure if I would have been able to suppress the influence if I was in your place. Probably, I would not. . ." Irwen stopped for a moment, turning her head back to face the dark tunnel.

"When we were back there building statues, I could almost see the light in your eyes, the drive."

"Yeah, the surge of creativity was amazing." Toby nodded in his mind.

"The greed in there." Only to freeze when Irwen fnished her sentece. "Whatever, we can only try to do what we can with what we are now."

"You are right, let us go explore ourside." If Toby had eyes a light would have sparkled in them.

* * * *

"CRUSADE! It is our only option! Only a CRUSADE will remind them of their place, the last CRUSADE is already forgotten! There is no other option, only a CRUSADE!" A bald man sat behind a table along with other nine people, his fist slammed hard against the sturdy table every time he said the word crusade.

"You know that if you make a ratio of the burned and frozen surface area of our head, we can precisely calculate who won, but that is still not big enough reason for a crusade." A man with long black hair said and ran his fingers slowly through his hair, as if to showcase its vibrant color.

The bald man tensed and was about to stand up.

"Gentlemen let us be civil and vote on the matter." The one moderating the discussion saw that the argument was taking a sharp turn and might interrupt the meeting. They needed to have a statement, not a squabble. "Who is for a crusade, raise your hands."

Soon six hands flew up, the balance from before not repeating this time around, thanks to Djinn, who was the first to vote for it in the light of the recent event.

* * * *

Marius Thane stood on a hill, threading in the lush green grass with his bare feet, it was nice to have some leisure time, he had to enjoy himself after the annual meeting of The Magic Guild and calm his mind before the preparations for the crusade began. However, he could not relax until his doubts were laid to rest. He had briefly explained what had happened to him, but he withheld some important details, deliberately focusing the attention of his colleagues on the pair of demons he fought.

"Why would The Djinn call me at this time? Given the news that are spreading like wildfire of our future campaign, you have certainly better things to do than ponder about history." A voice of a man with long white hair and beard asked and Marius turned around to greet him.

"I am glad you are still in good health Keeper, I just wanted to ask about a simple matter." Marius greeted the man in a flashy red robe with elaborate golden embroidery. He was The Keeper of History and was in charge of knowing the deepest secrets of the world's history, or knowing where to find such knowledge.

"I am listening." He was never a man of many words, his interest captured entirely by the past, not wordly affairs.

"I had an ominous dream about being in a white room with a person, the woman's black hair growing on one half of her head and white on the other, this sharp contrast of black and white colors repeated on her dress and even eyebrows." Marius began explaining a censored version of his short struggle that had resulted in his bald head.

"Hmm, what did she say?" The Keeper asked, deep in thought.

"Nothing, she appeared in front of me and ejected me out of the room."

"A white room?" The Keeper of History asked while stroking his beard.

"Yes, are there any mentions about a similar person in the past?" Marius asked, believing The Keeper would know if the person was important.

"No." The Keeper responded, he had one of the best skills dealing with memory, there was little he had to search for. When Marius heard him, he could not help but exhale with his heart much lighter.

"If that's all, then I will take my leave." The Keeper turned and left, leaving Marius standing in the peaceful environment of the hill, the peace enjoying man not noticing that the old Keeper walked rather fast in the direction of the tallest tower of The Guild nearby.

After The Keeper entered the de-facto headquarters of The Guild, he used the teleportation formation of the tower that was stiruated near the entrance for convenience's sake and teleported into the lowest floor of the archives. Exiting the wide circle of sparkling runes on the ground, he quickly headed to a particular place among the forest of high bookshelves. Due to the chronological order of the titles, he had to go to the very end of the archives, crossing many wards on the way, as this section was heavily restricted. When he finally arrived at the place he had in mind, he picked up one of the oldest books in existence.

[Song of Victory]

It was an old poetry book that contained one of the oldest songs and poetry and he had always perceived it to be just a curiosity.

Up to now.

He had no need to search for anything, as the entry he was looking for was the first and its name was identical with the name of the book.

The Song of Victory

. .

. . .

. . . . . .

The forces of evil shall replenish no more,

their power we cripple and keep our will.

Remember brothers what our weapons are for,

stab, slash and shatter, drink blood to our fill.

Blood that is absent,

blood that is not,

blood that we protect,

not corrosion, nor rot.

Black and white devil's eyes stare now in horror,

fearing the might of our great seal.

Thy illustrious artificer made without error,

great engine to make our safe heaven real.

Half-white and half-black the devil is banished,

the last of the arbiters ceased function, fell.

Presence of unlife swiftly must vanish,

back to their tree of doom return they shall.

Soon, The Keeper of History found the passage mentioning a powerful black and white entity. He was wondering how literal were the words in the poem, but he knew that today he would have no sleep. He had to get to the bottom of this.