A few years ago, Shinsou Vaan Osiris and Storm Veritas had travelled many miles from Radasanth to the township of Whitevale in order to overthrow the ruling council of the Brotherhood. The Telgradian remembered explaining some hare-brained scheme to his electromancer peer to enter the fortified complex by sneaking in under a hay wagon. The soaked and exhausted Veritas had done his best to listen carefully to him, but Shinsou knew that his philosophies, ponderings, and looming strategy had not at all sat well with the wizard. Looking back now, he could understand why it had been beneath them. It exactly was the type of plan a novice would have undertaken.

Shinsou felt like he was re-living the moment, but it was already too late to warn Leoric of the folly of his actions. Before the Telgradian could speak, a wall of flame washed through the heart of Casa Antiga, dazzling and disorienting almost as soon as the young adventurer had conjured it. The wave of hazy heat bathed the town in shimmering mirage, before forming a twisting column that extended what seemed like a hundred foot into the sky. The spell wrought havoc, eliciting screams from startled refugees and militiamen alike as nearby wood and stone blazed in molten pyres, alight with remnant white fire.

A faint aroma of charcoal overrode the stench of filthy smoke, and backdraft wafted through the limp strands of Shinsou’s hair as he spared the adventurer a disparaging glance.

Gods damn it, Leo!

It was obvious to the Telgradian that the militia here were under-resourced and already stretched thin by the assault they had borne. More worryingly, Casa Antiga still had a large number of vulnerable refugees fleeing the town out of its southernmost road and there was still a large contingent trapped in the various crumbling structures dotted around, now unable to make their escape due to the sheer force and power of the flaming tornado that began to chew up the town’s square. Worst of all, no-one, including Leoric, Shinsou Vaan Osiris and the men on picquets a hundred yards out from the city borders, had any idea of the kinds of numbers of demons that such a ‘beacon’ would attract to the town. It could have been a handful, or, in the nightmare scenario, a legion.

Too late to worry about that now, Shinsou lamented to himself as a number of vicious snarls echoed harrowingly from beyond the outer walls of Casa Antiga. His arcanely-attuned senses instinctively scanned the plateaux that stretched out around them. Another round of wails pierced the cacophony of the tornado, followed closely by a third. Each of them were more numerous and voluminous than the last, and the Telgradian’s senses only confirmed what his ears had just heard for themselves.

“They’re coming, Leo,” Shinsou clapped a hand on the exhausted adventurer’s shoulder, “We’re beyond the fucking pale at this point, so we might as well go all in. Sustain that flaming monstrosity as long as you can and tell the militia to start evacuating who is left. I’ll do what I can to draw their attention. ”

With that, Shinsou’s black boots kicked up from the floor beneath him and carried him back through the heavy doors of Leoric’s house. Moments later he stood alone in the square, a few hundred feet ahead of the fiery whirlwind, as smoke choked the visibility in all directions. He could hear the hissing, salivating groans of the approaching hell spawn long before he could see them, and placed a steady hand over the hilt of Enpera. It was then that the first of their number lunged from the thick smog, a crimson pair of eyes burning from behind the mask of an ornate crowned helm.

Shit, revenants!

He had encountered one before, in Salvar, and had hoped at the time that he would never have to again. Revenants differentiated horrifically from the demons he had faced so far, because unlike the living, breathing Tular and Haidian variants, these beasts manifested in the corporeal plane by infesting the bodies and vestments of long-dead warriors. This one must have been a mighty warrior in whatever life it had previously lived. Tall and powerful, it loomed malevolently over its insignificantly diminutive opponent, an iron-encrusted finger beckoning the young man towards his doom. Shinsou didn’t wait. He called upon his dark magic immediately, weaving his arms about his person to manifest a pair of dark matter spears. Carving the air before him with black, shimmering power, the Telgradian grunted as his powerful weapons sheared through the metal and bone of the undead warrior. Its helm bifurcated, the revenant’s eyes flickered once and died.

The man in the white coat steeled himself, wiping the sweat from his brow as scores of people started to filter through the smoke and towards the rear of Casa Antiga. Despite all he had been through in his life, he had not been killed yet. Every battle, some tried. Even though the flaming tornado behind him started to feel like a funeral pyre, built just for him, Shinsou Vaan Osiris was still here.

“Get moving, you stupid bastards!” The Telgradian shouted to a couple who were attempting to pack their belongings from the burned out shell of a house not fifty feet from him, the only structure he could see through the thick smoke. “Out the back, quick!”

Low rumbling laughter began to roll across the square, borne on a foul wind, before a wagon-sized fireball blazed through the smoke towards the ruined shell of the only visible house. The resulting explosion cast a million burning splinters in all directions, instantly vaporising the couple who had been trying to escape the nightmare. Sudden shafts of orange light parted the oppressive fog of soot and ash as the silhouette of some ungodly beast skulked towards him; it was unnaturally large and heavy, to the point where the smaller, ancillary demons that had been attracted to Leoric’s fire tornado scattered from its presence like frightened mice. A quintet of smaller fireballs followed, aimed at the feet of the Telgradian in an apparent attempt to drive him backwards and away from the smoke-smothered road. Splashes of hellish flame took life among the dirt as Shinsou quickly hopped back and left, watching in quiet awe as chunks of earth upturned with each step this new monstrosity took until it eventually halted and snarled.

“You brim with dark power, boy. I shall enjoy feasting upon it. It has been a long and barren journey from Tular, and that journey has not provided much more than a pitiful morsel.”

Shinsou’s eyes widened as he took in the tradespeak words of the ungodly sight in front of him. Two slit eyes peered mockingly from a minotaur-like head above the ground, their supernatural yellows smouldering with hellish power. His chassis defied comprehension: impossibly ripped musculature, sneering visage, bull-like limbs with bladed hooves. Not one, not two, but four more revenants were arrayed in formation about it. Their weapons were held in silent salute as their soulless armour whistled forlornly in the wind.

The only thing you'll be feasting upon is oblivion, you ugly piece of shit. Shinsou retorted in his head, sneering. Goddamnit, Leoric. God-fucking-damn-it.

“Shin no Kotei; Saigo.”

Hot, thick air from the flaming tornado behind them pushed back against him like syrup, clinging to his skin even as it resisted his movements. As Shinsou heard the roar of his own power, the last thing he saw from beyond the amethyst arcs of lifeforce that enveloped him were the four sets of emotionless crimson stares. They tracked him, watching as Enpera’s blade at his side split into beads of light and absorbed into his body. Within seconds, an abyssal amethyst veil blanketed the Telgradian and dissipated just as quickly to reveal an almost different man.

His height had increased by a foot, but the most noticeable feature was that his skin had gained an ivory coloured, flexible armour plating covering his body from his toes to his neck. Shinsou’s eyes and hair had turned a crimson red to match the fiery glow through the smoke. Arcane energy, sour like raw citrus, flowed through his body and manifested in violent crackles outside of it.

“What sorcery is this, boy?” The gigantic minotaur enunciated the word “boy” with a bellow, “Do you think-“

Suddenly, searing pain exploded in the demon’s left pectoral. The lemon taste on the beast’s tongue from Shinsou’s power turned to ash, and thick blood filled his oversized nostrils. The world sped up again as three white matter spears protruded from just above his heart, pinning his rotator cuff for a moment. His brown fur dampened with arterial blood, but before Shinsou could follow up, arcs of dark energy coursed through his nerves and smashed the protruding spears into dust.

With a quick step, the Telgradian retreated slightly from the great demon, his feet light thanks to the power at his command. Warily he and the nameless beast circled each other, the pairs of burning Revenant eyes bearing witness to their confrontation. The town square resembled a warzone now, and had become an arena littered with debris and flame.

The revenants roared unintelligibly, in warning or perhaps in admonition, as Shinsou’s new nemesis lunged towards him.