Leoric’s question struck a chord with Shinsou, who was impressed that the young adventurer was shrewd enough to anticipate what he himself had been wondering. Would Cazri make her way to the temple to deal with them herself or not? The Telgradian reasoned that the dark elf’s eyes, and those of her subordinates, were watching their every move and had seen their exchange with the slain greater demon. If that was the case, as he thought, then Shinsou knew it was only a matter of time before she confronted them both.

“She’s not here, yet,” The spellsword confirmed as his senses reached out, “But like you, I think it’s only a matter of time. Let’s get this portal shut first, and we’ll cross that particular bridge when we get to it.”

The hallways of the great monastery in which Shinsou and Leoric now found themselves were hardly less forlorn than the burning town from which they had just escaped. They begun to prowl through them, ducking from one tremulous spot of torchlight to another, creeping slowly through the dark and leaping quickly past each glowing pool. Shinsou noted that they had not yet been faced with another creature; demon or otherwise, the entire place seemed almost entirely deserted. He assumed that their arrival had not yet been detected. Judging from what he knew about the demons, once one of them picked up their scent, all hell would break loose. Just a single demon could release alarm pheromones that would make any of their brethren in the vicinity hunt them more stringently and ferociously than before.

It’s too quiet. What do demons do when they aren’t eating or fighting? Have they all left the temple and flooded north? It took him a moment to disregard the possibility. No. There will be some sort of guard, most likely revenants. Not even the demons are dumb enough to leave their only gateway in and out of Alerar unprotected.

Shinsou looked over his shoulder at his shadowy accomplice, who was gliding silently behind him, but it was then that the Telgradian stopped dead on the spot. His senses, deep within his gut, hit him hard. Running his tongue over his teeth and shifting from foot to foot, he knew what he felt.

Cazri had just arrived to their east.

“She’s here, Leoric, and I’m sure the timing isn’t a co-incidence. She knows we’re coming.” The white and black clad man felt a sudden chill rising up his spine. “So, let’s go kill the bitch.”

Shaking himself and turning around, with only the adventurer leering over his shoulder, Shinsou sniffed derisively and began down the eastern hallway at a trot. The corridors were low and squat, barely high enough for the head of the man trailing him. The walls were pocked with ancient looking doorframes at intervals that grew increasingly irregular, providing the only decoration in the rather spartan passage. Every once and a while they flourished with scrolls or fasces carved into the stone.

The deeper into the temple they went, the denser the humidity became. Barely a hundred foot from where Shinsou could now sense Cazri to be, it was too cool to make either of them feel sticky, but enough to be rather clammy.

That’s the sign of active arcane power, Shinsou noted as he traversed a slanted walkway, What is she doing?

As the pair finally reached the lip of the entrance to a large chamber, the now all-too familiar creaking of old armour, clunking of metal soles and feral groans alerted Shinsou to the presence of more revenants within. Cautiously, from behind the corner, he cast his gaze about. There was nothing but a sheer wall on one side, and a door too far behind Cazri to be of any importance. She was there, just ahead of the open demon portal with the Sword of Fararil Elrorir firmly in hand, flanked by four revenants on each side that seemed to be following her orders. Shinsou’s golden eyes rested on her stoic, dark face.

“Leoric, listen to me,” The Telgradian hissed, “We need to go in with everything we’ve got. Can you muster another one of those flaming tornados? If so, melt the revenants down to their bones. I’ll hit Cazri hard, and once’s she’s dead I’ll use her sword to warp those revenants to the middle of fucking nowhere.”

Shinsou had only the perhaps misplaced hope that his dark magic would finish the dark elf for good. Bursting forward into the room, the Telgradian waved a hand and felt an electrical tingle as his deadly arsenal of Enpera Kurohitsugi lances formed up behind him. Cazri’s silver eyes flicked right just in time to see a storm of the deadly dark matter spears tear towards her.

“N-no!” The dark elf yelled as the lead lance plunged into her chest, shearing flesh and bone just below her heart. The cries of the startled revenants rasped around the chamber as the remaining spears tore through their bone and armour like black buckshot, spreading rotten flesh and green mottled blood over the sandstone of the temple floor. As he heard Leoric dash in behind him, Shinsou ran to Cazri’s body, kicking the loose sword away from her grip and unsheathing Enpera from his side. His golden eyes cast a mad gaze down upon her as she coughed up a stream of fresh blood.

“You've run out of time, Cazri," Shinsou spat, "I'll send the others to keep you company in hell shortly."

Cazri sighed painfully, sparing him only a disparaging glare. With an almighty thrust, and an angry snarl, the Telgradian stabbed Enpera’s blade through the heart of the dark elf. There was a death rattle as her muscles went into spasm, and a bloodied froth spewed from the corner of her black lips.

Now then, where's that sword gone...?

It was then he felt a burning, agonising pain in his back. Three knives pierced his flesh, stabbing through the shoulder, the hip, and across his left thigh. His tunic trousers dampened in arterial blood. Arcs of dark energy coursed through his nerves. Spastic contortions further tore his wounds, and below that the corpse of the dark elf beneath him simply melted away. The thick air and unusual light contorted, and the world churned to a whirlpool as the illusions shattered.

“Clever little trick, isn’t it? If I remember, you used it in Sanctuary to fool us into thinking you killed our enemies. Once bitten, twice shy.”

It was her voice. Cazri was alive, and she'd known about his deceit all along. The spears had struck nothing but ghosts and the bodies that had been flung to the side were nothing but tricks in the light. Pressing a bloodied hand onto the floor, Shinsou gasped as the dark elf withdrew one of the knives from his back.

"Pah...!"

His mind blanked with agony. Ragged nails dug into his palms. Teeth bit into his lips. But despite all of the pain, he still had the will for a display of defiance, one last show of his resolve. He fought to stay conscious. He wanted her to feel his power and determination tremble through her bones. To fear it.

Buy me time, Leoric.

Runny phlegm disgorged from his mouth, bright crimson in the firelight, as the adventurer made his move.