The four viewed the stairs with anticipation.  The lair of this one
was different from the other ones.  There had been a short maze, to get to
Anderoug--or, rather, the Anderougs--and a puzzle to be solved before the
way to Gigademon could be opened.  Infurnus Shadow was a simple walk, where
they met with the closest thing to an honorable warrior they would find in
this pit.  And now, they met with another, in a winding temple.
	They would have loved to know who, too.
	There was no clue to the identity of this guardian.  There were no
portraits, as there had been in Gigademon's, and no dragon food strewn
about the building, as there had been in the lair of the Anderougs.  This
was a temple.  It was shrouded in as much darkness as the rest of this
world.  The four adventurers hoped, truly, that this was not the lair of a
priest of the monster world.
	The stairs were all that separated them from finding out the master
of the temple.  He could feel it in his bones.  Rather, he felt it in his
mind.  The man could tell where evil lay in great concentrations--and it lay
above those stairs.
	Still, none of them moved.
	The soldier, Ragnar, would never desert his leader.  He would fight
to the death for him; his was the role of a follower.  Though he had been a
captain of the Royal Soldiers of Burland before this quest, he knew little
about the ways of evil, preferring only to fight it.  He could not, and
would not, make the decision to meet whatever waited above them until his
own leader urged them to--no matter how eager he was to do it.
	Mara, the wizard, was a bit apprehensive about traversing the lone
barrier to the thing above.  This was a place of power, and they all knew
it, not merely from any feelings that could only be had by them but for the
decor.  The sister of Monbaraba felt small here.  She hadn't felt small when
she was facing Esturk, even--but here, she felt small.  She knew she would
face a monster of great power, for it to be stationed here.  The man noticed
her heavy beating.  As he looked at her, her face glued to the stairs, he
could almost feel her heart pounding.
	Then there was the other sister, Nara, the sage.  Nara was looking
straight ahead, calm.  The calmness of the prophetess was not a rare sight.
She was a determined soul, focused on her missions, when they were out.  Her
demeanor dropped at least somewhat when they stopped to rest, her true
personality showing; now, though, as always, she was calm and resolute.  The
man knew why, too.  It was not uncommon for her to lose her life in these
important struggles, for she was not much for stamina.  Some would stop
fighting for this reason; though a dead person could often be revived, death
was, by nature, painful.  But Nara felt she had too much power as a healer
and a fighter to do that.  So she looked at each fight as another chance to
do what she could, knowing full well she could die and accepting it.
	He knew he would have to give the order to attack.  It was his role.
He was the leader, the one who did such things, the one who made plans for
their attacks--not without help from Nara and Brey on this duty--and the one
who knew what to do, knowing the nature of the evil that faced them.  He was
Jazz, the hero, and knew his obligations well.
	"Well," he said, finally, "let's not tarry.  We must go forward."


                       Radimvice, last of the Guardians


	Ragnar stood still, knowing well what he was to do.  These were the
narrow kind of stairs that required their formations.  To guard sneak
attacks, Jazz would precede Mara and Nara, Ragnar following only when the
magic-users began the climb.  A warrior would protect on each side.  The
hero began the climb, Nara following quickly and Mara a bit reluctantly.  He
tagged close behind her, his back to hers.  The soldier looked closely for
any hidden menaces, but there were none.  This church for the demons was as
still as death.
	He turned back, ready to go whirl at the slightest sound.  The
procession had almost gone up the stairs, Jazz nearly at the top, and he
hurried to catch up with Mara.  Their leader was past the stairs then, and
he stopped cold.  Nara was next, and she gasped.  The others hurried to see
what was wrong and found it, subconsciously getting into normal form, with
Ragnar beside Jazz.  Their reactions mimicked their counterparts.
	There was a large, dead monster in a pile near the throne.  It
looked like a decimated Swinger, in truth.  The purple, ogreish beast had
holes raking its body.  Flesh was thrown about him, but not enough to make
up for some of the large gaps in the body.  It was as if the thing had been
built, but mangled before it was completed.  There was only one other fea-
ture in the room.  A priest stood before the throne.  He was dressed both in
the robes of his trade and in the cape, half-plate and shoulder guards of an
adventurer.
	He was human.
	"By the gods!" Mara exclaimed, grabbing her sister's arm.  "Another
human!"  The seeress looked back at her sister and nodded, looking
extraordinarily confused.
	The men stepped forward.  "Well met, traveler," Jazz warily began.
The priest turned his gaze from the group and smiled at him.  "Who are you?"
	The stranger blinked.  "I am Fedorius Bassant, of the Second Section
of the House."
	The two looked at each other.  "What?" Ragnar asked, a sheepish
smile on his face.
	Again, the priest smiled.  "I'm sorry.  I thought our order had
gained more prestige than thus.  Still, I suppose it shouldn't surprise me;
the First Section of the House has such a...nobler task than my own."
	"And what is your task?" Mara demanded.
	"To rid the world of evil, of course," the priest said.  A slight
laugh escaped him, as if he considered them fools for not knowing.
	A silence ensued, and Jazz's eyebrows rose.  If the man was telling
the truth, he wasn't finished here.  There was still evil in this room.  He
couldn't tell its source.  It would be the dead ogre, if the man was telling
the truth--but that's what made Jazz wonder.  A Swinger was no small threat,
but it was easy pickings for them by now.  It was not a creature of great
evil.  Therefore, he was forced to believe it was coming from the man
himself.  Jazz didn't like that one little bit.
	Fedorius spoke first after the pause.  "I have rid this guardian
from life.  There is no danger here."  He smiled.  "If you will follow me, I
can show you a way to safety..."
	"You lie," Jazz suddenly declared.
	Fedorius's own eyebrows rose.  "On what basis do you make this
charge?" he said, leaving Ragnar a bit confused.
	"Your 'section of the order' is designed to rid evil from the world.
But there is still evil here."
	His mouth dropped open, and a bead of sweat appeared on his head.
"You...you don't know what you speak of.  The monster is dead," he insisted.
	Jazz's face contorted into a grimace.  "And there is still evil
here," he assured grimly, looking straight at the priest as his companions
looked to him.
	Fedorius’s jaw dropped.  Soon, though, it came back up.  His face
looked angry at first...then shifted, forming a smile.  "I should have known
better than to try something so primitive with the hero," he muttered.
	"What?" all but Nara demanded.
	"You and your powers," he grumbled.  "You fools.  You could have
come with me; you would have known peace for it, would no longer need to
fight.  But you had to be so smart.  You refused me."
	They looked to each other, then back to Jazz.  Nara smiled.  "Thank
you," she stated.  "I was actually believing him."  The others nodded their
agreement; the hero simply shrugged his shoulders and looked back to the
priest.
	"You think," said he, "that you will defeat me, the evil here,
Radimvice.  You think it will be as easily done as defeating the other
guardians.  You think I don't know ways of pain."  The man's face tore
itself into a grin.  Then, though, his face warped into a scream.  "You are
wrong!!" he shouted, making them all rear back.  The priest raised his hands
overhead, and they took on a golden glow that reminded the companions of
Jazz's Zap spell.  They took to a battle stance, but it was dropped by all,
even the steadfast Nara, at his next statement, delivered with a fiery grin.
	"I was the one who ordered the abduction of Rosa!!!"
	They got no chance to respond, just drop their stance, before he
acted again.  The man did not use any powers on them, but instead on
himself.  His head snapped back, and he grew.  His robes expanded outwards
with his legs, and his ears warped until they were almost as large as his
head.  The slight armor, too, seemed to be enlarged to span his shoulders.
His skin gained more wrinkles, not less, and turned to a sickly purple.
Finally, his arms came down, along with his head.  His hands had been given
claws in the transformation and were larger than his head.  His eyes were
red.
	Cackling like a madman, the monster spread apart his arms, and again
they glowed with his strange, apparently electricity-powered magic.
Stunned, the Chosen Ones only could watch as his power worked.  From thin
air materialized three Demighouls, each with the squinted eyes and long
tongue that characterized the gray things.  It took their charges to make
the humans snap to the battle.
	One was going for Ragnar, and he slashed at it with his sword
absently.  It was a direct hit, but the ghoul phased, and the sword passed
through the space it should have occupied.  Ragnar growled, but he was in no
position to actually strike, overbalanced from the swing, which was poor to
begin with.  The monster came up to his side and thrust his claw forward,
reaching inside a rare visible crease in the soldier's Metal Babble Armor.
It hit with some success, and Ragnar grunted as he felt the claws enter his
stomach.  Before he could recover, the ghoul hopped back, its tongue looking
as if it was mocking the man.
	The other two ghouls both chose the same target, of Mara.  She tried
to jump aside, and this worked for one of the creatures, and it dove toward
Nara in its miss.  She struck with her blade at the falling creature, and it
was unable to phase before the sword cleaved into its back.  With a shriek,
the creature slid toward the stairs, not dead but close enough.  The other
creature had been in the very path Mara had chosen when she dodged, and it
ended up tackling her.  She fell to the ground with a thud, and the creature
cackled and slashed down at her a couple of times, both times hitting her
in the head with disheartening accuracy.  Then she rolled and threw it to
the side, holding her ringing head as she came up.
	Jazz only hadn't acted, but he did now.  He ran for the monster and
slashed at it with the Zenithian Sword, the weapon ringing as if in delight
at the contact with the monster.  This, for good reason, worried Jazz.  The
sword had struck armor--and done absolutely nothing else.  He gulped; the
monster grinned.
	He was the lucky winner of a Blazemost.
	A billowing pillar of orange fire swirled around him, instantly
burning him.  Screaming, the man jumped to the ground and covered his face.
The blaze, of course, stayed with him, as was its nature.  The higher-level
Blaze spells would track their target, since they were longer than an
instant.  Jazz held his arms over his head for the ten seconds the spell was
working him over; when it finally ended--all the fire going with it, and
none catching, as that was also part of Blaze spells' nature--he moved them
and groaned.  He felt the burns across the exposed parts of his body and the
heat clinging to his armor and grimaced.  Still, he rolled away from the
thing before it could do him more damage and stood.
	Though they were all wounded, especially Jazz, when Nara began her
Healall for him, he shook his head.  "Later," he voiced, and she nodded
reluctantly, seeing the severity of some of those burns.  He turned to Mara
and Ragnar, Mara holding her head still but recomposed.  "Mara, Blazemost;
Ragnar," he said, pointing to the giant monster before them.  He didn't need
to finish the soldier's direction.  They nodded, so he turned to the ghouls,
beginning a chant.
	Nara had no directions and needed none, hearing well what Jazz
chanted--Lightning.  Only one thing would be left to attack.
	Mara kept her distance as she slowly chanted her spell, and the
swordmasters dashed forward to keep from the excessive spell.  They attacked
at once, using a cross-pattern they had worked on for a time.  Ragnar's
Sword of Miracles glanced off of the plated vest, though it did cut into the
flesh beneath it.  Nara's Metal Babble Sword, however, was made of the most
durable, resilient material known--Metal.  It went through his vest as it
did his flesh--cleanly and easily.
	Radimvice shrieked at the wound, which could have been fatal if she
had made her strike go deeper.  As it was, he felt as if something vital
might have been severed.  He could, and would, still fight, though.  Neither
of them had jumped back as instantly as they should have, perhaps even to
get away from their comrade's Lightning.  That would be their undoing.
	He reared back, and they decided too late it might be a good time to
move.  His giant hand spread wide and slapped Ragnar in the gut, sending him
reeling as the pain from his other wound worsened.  Nara was even less
fortunate.  She could not dodge, could not get away from the hand.  Then she
couldn't get out of its grasp, and she gasped as it pulled her close and
squeezed.  Nara could feel Radimvice's blood soaking through the creases in
her armor, and onto her skin and clothes.  She shuddered, knowing that
wasn't the worst of it.  She would be right there to watch her sister's
Blazemost results personally.
	Nara looked down, gritted her teeth, and closed her eyes as Mara
released the spell.  Only the instant after she cast it did she see her
sister, and she cried out in anguish...
	...then cried out again, in pain.
	Nara's eyes snapped open, and she looked to her sister and gasped.
The spell had bounced to her.  She could tell it was her spell, too, because
it had more power than the one that had worked over Jazz.  By their guesses,
in fact, their spells were about twice as powerful as any opponents'.  
Radimvice had a Bounce spell up--one that, unlike Brey's, started invisible.
Nara could not see her sister in the orange flames, but she could hear the
cry she gave, and the groan and thud it ended with.  Finally, the spell
ended, and her sister was on the ground, unmoving and barely breathing.
	A thought hit her, and she turned to Jazz frantically.  She began to
cry out, but the monster squeezed especially hard, and her breath was lost.
She looked at it in a scowl of fury as she fought hard to recover it, and
he was grinning, watching the man, who had just finished enacting the spell
and was now gaping in horror at his dead companion.
	Clouds condensed overhead the enemy group, and Nara's hair stood on
end.  They joined together quickly.  From them, thunder was heard, and Jazz
was found looking for cover in vain until the lightning came down, two bolts
to each remaining creature.  Before they could even act, the living
Demighouls were electrocuted and fell to the ground, smoking.  The lightning
came to Radimvice, as well, and Nara couldn't help but close her eyes for
fear, both for herself and more reasonably for Jazz.  He watched in horror
as the lightning hit two orange pulses that popped into view only once they
hit them.  The bolts arced off of the pulses and straight into him.  He
screamed, electricity coursing through his body, the magic passing straight
through his armor.  As Nara wailed in horror, he fell to the ground, just
as unmoving as Mara.
	Radimvice cackled maniacally, and Nara looked up and spat at him.
The monster growled and threw her directly at Ragnar.  She found her sword
flying away from her as she hit the soldier at twice her normal running
speed.  Her head landed directly onto Ragnar's iron mask.  Where Ragnar only
fell down once again, Nara's cheek tore open, and she crumpled in front of
him, shaking her head and holding the wound.
	The soldier looked at his fallen comrades, then looked to Radimvice.
"Monster!" he screamed, his face wild with rage.  He dashed up to him, his
sword aimed for the monster's head.  The magician was highly vulnerable,
too--it was in the process of another of the magics only he could use.  His
work was completed just as Ragnar jumped for him.
	To the rising Nara's horror, three more Demighouls appeared, one at
each of the fallen comrades' sides.
	To Radimvice's horror, a Sword of Miracles descended upon his head.
	To Ragnar's horror, the monster jerked just in time, and the sword
split Radimvice's shoulder pad and shoulder--but not his head.
	As the soldier jumped back and Nara wearily got up, the Demighouls
by the sisters made their move.  A hard hand was smashed against Nara's
shoulder, and she grunted, hoping that was just an impending bruise and not
a dislocation.  Then she whirled as she heard her sister's loud groan.
Again, she gasped.  The monster had leaped on top of her, and soon the death
blow was ready for the fallen wizard's head.  Ragnar was there in a flash,
though, slashing at the ghoul.  Nara trembled as she saw what Ragnar did:
he slashed downward.  Downward, when something could phase.  Did phase.
	"NO!!" he cried, joining Mara's scream as she died by his
unwittingly errant hand.
	The seeress convulsed in a sob, hoping Ragnar didn't blame
himself...too much.
	Jazz had somewhat recovered by the time his Demighoul acted, and he
was able to roll away from its clumsy attack.  He struggled up and took a
slice he knew wouldn't hit the thing, but he wanted to get it away so he
could see what had happened.  He also hoped to have Nara use a Healall on
him, but he was too weak to call out to her.  Still, she did see him moving,
and she rushed to him.  She discovered it was only a hard knock as she moved
her arms well enough to use the Healall, Jazz kneeling again for weakness.
	Nara, however, was nicely interrupted by Radimvice's Explodet.
	Large, orange explosions began appearing around them both, as well as
around Ragnar and Mara.  She tore through the rest of her spell, but was
soon flung by one exceedingly close to them both to the ground.  Nara was
forced to cry out, knowing what it would mean for Jazz.  Then the cry was
for herself, as one of the explosions got her in the head.  Her Metal Babble
Helmet left her ears ringing, and she wondered whether it would have been
better to simply not have it on.  Then the spell was over, and she fell a
few feet in the air, released by the juggling detonations.  Once she landed,
she immediately looked to Jazz, then turned her head away.  One of the
explosions had obviously been right on top of him.  He had lost not just his
life, but his arm, as well.
	She turned to Ragnar and Mara to find the soldier was in a better
state than she.  It made sense to her.  He was already coming to his feet,
seeming to have only one dent in his armor from the violent spell.  Seeing
this, she redirected her spell to herself, knowing Ragnar could probably
take care of himself.
	As she finished it, she heard something to prove the contrary--a
Blazemost.
	She looked to him to see him engulfed in flames.  He was taking it
rather well, but a Blazemost was a Blazemost, and she knew it was hurting
him to do so.  She felt exceedingly selfish as relief washed over her bones
and cheek while Ragnar was in such agony.  The spell ended as her own did,
and he, amazingly, was still on his knees.
	Radimvice, having just used two extremely potent spells, gasped and
stared at the soldier.  For the first time since his transformation, he
spoke; his voice had changed with it, too.  It was as if there were several
voices, all the low pitches of demons.  "Why can't you just DIE!?" they
bellowed, and Ragnar's eyes widened.  He bared his teeth and ran up to the
monster again, slashing into his leg.  The mere act did him good, for using
the sword took away a small bit of the burns he had amassed.  It also did
Radimvice a good amount of harm, a large gash staining blood into his robes.
	It wasn't a happy time for Ragnar then.
	As all three Demighouls ran up to him, Radimvice began a Blazemost.
The soldier reared to strike him to stop the spell, but a Demighoul caught
hold of his arm and yanked.  It nearly pulled the arm out of the socket, and
Ragnar gasped in pain.  Another one threw him down and opened his helmet,
the third clawing straight down into it.  Nara raced up to stop them, but
she couldn't make it in time to prevent the monsters from their work.
Ragnar lay there, breathing heavily and attempting not to scream.  He gave
up this notion when he heard the Blazemost finished, though, and his cry
rang with sincerity as the spell held him down.  Immediately, Nara began a
Healall for him, but Radimvice was too smart to let that finish.  With a
bound, he jumped to her and knocked her to the ground.  Even then, she kept
trying the spell, but it ended in a sharp gasp as a heavy foot came down and
stilled her arms, feeling almost as if it broke them and trapping her once
again in his grasp.
	When the spell did finally end, Ragnar was breathing even more
heavily.  His strength had been sapped fully by the Blazemost, the final
step left to conquer him.  Two wounds, one gaping, coupled with the spells
had left him helpless, and the Demighouls ran up to him and held him down,
receiving no resistance.
	Radimvice considered for a moment, then waved his hand.  "Do it,"
his cavalcade of voices mumbled.  The ghouls shouted in glee, and one
tore at his armor, trying to tear it off, as the other one reared back for
the death blow.  The soldier had only enough strength to tilt his head and
look to Nara.
	"Forgive me," he pleaded softly.
	Then the Demighoul's hand descended, and four claws to the brain
rendered him no more, without even a cry.  Nara broke into tears, knowing
all was lost.
	The monster moved his foot then, and the Demighouls turned at the
movement.  They chittered and ran to her, almost swarming over her as she
closed her moist eyes.  She wouldn't take as much of their punishment as
Ragnar, and she knew it, preferring to get it over with.
	"Halt," Radimvice commanded.
	The ghouls stopped their run, and Nara looked up at him, questioning.
Then she saw his face, and shock fell over her.  The monster was looking
down at her, grinning.
	She tried to scramble up, to get away from the thing, but she wasn't
fast enough without use of her sore arms.  He bent down and scooped her up,
and all her struggles soon meant nothing.  His hands curled around her
waist, squeezing her again.  She swallowed.  "We are already dead," she
declared.  "What more would you have of me?"
	Radimvice grinned in answer.  "You were the one that almost brought
me my death," the voices called.  "You are still living, still whole.  I am
not whole.  So, you will heal me."
	Her jaw dropped.  "Not on your life!" she shouted, her struggles
renewing; she would never use her magic for this evil--unless she was
coerced.  She swallowed, her struggles failing for an instant.
	Again, he grinned.  "No....  On yours," he grimly announced.
	Before she could ponder what that meant, one of his hands reared back
from her, then rushed forward.  Radimvice's claws went straight through her
armor and into her body.  She flinched and groaned, but she didn't turn from
him.  Radimvice's other hand, now free, went to her head.  It threw the
helmet from it in a motion, and that hurt almost as much, since he could
have broken her neck.  She looked at the monster's hand, wondering what
would happen next.
	The priest grabbed her face and wrenched it forward.
	She gasped as one of its claws scraped her cheek and didn't seem to
leave her flesh, hoping he wouldn't use it to bore into her jaw.  Instead,
the hand relaxed its grip on her head, but still held it in place.  Then
the hand began to glow, and Nara's eyes widened.  Soon, though, they
drooped, though the alarm at why they were would have them bulging.  She
could feel his magic working through her brain, probing her for...some sort
of information.  That worried her; for though it didn't hurt, the probing
served at least to make her extremely sleepy, as if she hadn't rested in a
day or two.  That worried Nara, too.  But what probably worried her the
most, and definitely confused her the most, was that though she needed rest
so badly, her body simply would not let go.
	After a time of this, she vaguely heard the monster chuckle.  "A
strong one," he respectfully uttered.  At this point, though, she considered
herself anything but strong.  She couldn't even voice her contention,
couldn't even begin to move to do so.  She realized it was more than just
rest that was being unsuccessfully forced on her.  In her present state,
though, this only served to confuse her further.
	Distantly, she recognized that the hand on her head, though it hadn't
moved, had stopped glowing; the one buried lightly in her chest had taken up
the glow now.  Then she felt a terrible pain beginning in her breast, and
she looked down, awareness and strength coming back to her in the tiniest of
margins.  Nothing she could see was happening to her.  It wasn't something
on the outside anyway, so she hadn't expected it.  "What are you doing?" she
demanded in a voice so weak it sickened her.  He did not answer.
	Then the pain grew exponentially, and her eyes widened with her
mouth.  Glowing particles, the same color as the monster's hands, came from
her chest, from everywhere but over her heart.  They flew to the monster's
arm and clung to it as it also began to glow.  Her grogginess vanished
instantly with the pain, but a struggle showed her she was beyond even
attempting to escape by now.  Then, mockingly, she suddenly found herself
too weak to speak, to scream, again.  A bit of realization crept over her,
and she looked to Radimvice.  Barely able to lift her head to do so, she
watched in horror as the particles spread over the monster--many of them
sealing his gaping shoulder wound.  The little breaths she could manage
anymore quickened; her very life force was being drained into Radimvice.
	She quickly felt pain wracking the rest of her.  All of the energy
that kept her alive was being stripped from her, and, naturally, her body
was protesting.  She knew it would not be long now before her life failed
her, once again and for the last time.
	<There was nothing I could do,> she constantly reminded herself.
	Her still-gaping head slumped over then as the drain, and her life,
ended.  Radimvice cackled as he threw the utterly dead Nara to the ground,
watching one Demighoul that had stayed for her swarm onto the corpse and
begin chewing on her arm.

	Finally, Alena simply jumped out of the wagon.  "I'm going in
there," she proclaimed, turning toward them.  "If you want to come along, I
by no means am going to stop you.  But you, by NO means, are going to stop
ME any longer."  With that, she stalked for the palace.
	"Princess!  Wait!" Cristo shouted.  He came from the wagon to go
after her, as did Brey.
	She whirled back to them.  "Why?  Do you have to convince me that
'they can take care of themselves' again?  It isn't going to work, Cristo.
It's been fifteen minutes.  When the others all took about what, five, ten?
You can't tell me it hasn't been too long."
	"But--" Cristo began.
	"She's right," came a voice from the wagon.
	Cristo glared back at the speaker.  Surprisingly, Alena did, too.
"Don't be so fickle, Taloon," she said disapprovingly.
	His head popped from the wagon, grinning.  "Well, it wasn't a while
ten minutes ago.  Now, it HAS been long enough to worry.  I'm not being
fickle.  In fact, I'm being more responsible than any of you," he finished,
with a pointed look at Brey.
	His eyebrows raised, and he smiled.  "You're right," he admitted; "I
should have taken care of Doran first."  Doran, their dragon, had been de-
cided as his responsibility.  Brey had read more about dragons than the
others, even Jazz, and their other wizard had plenty of her own duties:
actually being the wizard of the team.
	Taloon nodded and bounced out of the wagon spryly.  "Shall we go?"
he said, looking to Cristo, the only one in dissent.  Sighing, the
chancellor nodded.
	"Finally!" Alena blurted.  Then her eyebrows raised.  "Do you think
the wagon will be okay?"
	"Taken care of," Brey and Taloon assured her at the same time.  The
tutor looked to the merchant.  "What have you done?" he asked, smiling
curiously.  Taloon grinned back and picked up a rock.  He threw it at the
wagon harmlessly, making a noise on the boards.  A very loud growl was heard
from inside, and the dragon's head popped out, icy vapors coming from his
nose in anticipation.  He looked for any intruders; not finding them, he
huffed and went back into the wagon.
	The other three clapped.  "Good job," Alena said.
	Taloon blushed.  "It was Brey that got him to understand us..." he
deferred.
	Brey shook his head.  "YOU did it, my boy," he assured him.
	With this, the four went inside, falling just as subconsciously into
their own order.  Anxious Alena raced through the veritable chapel the place
was turning out to be, and the other three had trouble keeping up.
	The princess only stopped when she reached the stairs.  She told
herself it was only to let the others catch up, but she knew it was also
because she had no desire to face whatever was talking in about six demonic
and directing a group of monsters alone.
	Cristo, normally third in line, was first, for he was faster than
Taloon.  After a moment of catching his breath, he listened to what Alena
was listening to.  It made him swallow.  "They're in trouble, aren't they?"
he sheepishly asked Alena.  She nodded.  Taloon was next, closely followed
by Brey.  Soon after they caught their breath, the four went up the stairs
quickly, not getting into any formation.  What they found shocked them all.
	The corpses of the four was not what disturbed them the most.  They
had hoped against this, but knew it was probably true.  What was so disturb-
ing was the monsters.  They had seen the Demighouls before, but never when
they were the victors of the battle, of course.  They each knelt by one of
the fallen and chewed on their dead bodies, eating them.  The four could
barely keep from vomiting.  Jazz was the only one spared--but it wasn't much
of a sparing.  He was slung over the shoulder of a huge monster that was
heading for a formally hidden back exit.
	After a bit, Alena shook her head and took charge.  "Stop!" she or-
dered.
	Everything listened--her allies, for her stupidity; the Demighouls,
for her surprise; and Radimvice, for anger.
	The last whirled at her, and she gasped.  Jazz had been greatly
burned, and he was missing an arm; he was even less spared than they had
first thought.  Then the priest spoke, shocking her further.  "You dare to
order Radimvice?" six or seven voices spoke, each in a low tone.
	She swallowed and breathed.  Then, finding nothing else to do, she
screamed and ran forward, with her Fire Claw poised for its throat and
followed by all of her companions but Brey.
	They all reached the surprised monster at once.  Cristo jumped up
and grabbed Jazz, hoisting him from Radimvice's grasp with some effort.  He
scurried away as he looked for the man's arm; upon finding it, he took Jazz
to the spot, preparing to use a Revive on him.
	Meanwhile, Taloon and Alena each endeavored a strike, neither going
for the armor.  Taloon missed as Radimvice pulled his leg back quickly, but
Alena got in a much better hit, striking the thing's head and coming close
to decapitating him.
	He growled and kicked her absently with his leg as he began a spell.
It did nothing, as she swiftly hopped up and came into a roll.  Then he was
finished with the spell, and that did something.  The Blazemost he chanted
passed right through the magical barriers her Dress of Radiance had to bring
her to her knees, groaning.
	Taloon saw this, then looked up at Radimvice.  "Ah heh," he weakly
stammered.  Then he bolted from in front of him.
	While all this was happening, Brey was looking at Jazz.  Though some
of the burns came from fire spells, most of them looked like the kind that
happened when Lightning hit something.  He came to a quick conclusion that
Radimvice had a Bounce up.  The fact that the lights weren't visible didn't
even phase him; Alena's dress had an inconsistent Bounce up always, and
those lights weren't visible either.  Considering, he decided on a course of
action to take--later.  Now, he decided to use a Speedup for them all.  It
was a quick spell, and they all soon felt its effects.
	Alena sprung high upwards, then curved down.  She landed like a
spear...onto solid ground.  Radimvice had seen it coming, and he dodged at
the last second.  She hurt herself with the risky move instead.  She got up
and groaned, happy she hadn't broken anything, just behind Radimvice.  She
didn't realize this until the thing whirled, loomed over her, and grinned.
	Then he gasped as a sword entered his gut from the back side.
	Radimvice whirled and swished away the man, using somewhat more
effort than he had when he had done the same to Ragnar.  The big man was
only shifted to the side, not thrown as Ragnar had been; he barely even fell
to the ground.
	Frustrated, Radimvice looked to the Demighouls.  "What are you
doing!?" he furiously yelled.  They were still looking at the humans, but
when their master called, they kicked themselves into action.  Quickly, one
went after Cristo and another to Brey.  Though Cristo was able to fend off
his, Brey was not so lucky and was hit by some of its claws.  He went to a
kneel, but quickly came up out of it.
	Cristo was planning on using Revive on Jazz then, but the Demighoul
was fast preventing that option by getting a bit too close for Cristo.
Instead, he was forced to fight it.  He knew what these could do, so he
feinted and watched it phase, then caught it after it was finished.  The
thing shrieked and jumped away, but ended up killing itself when it fell to
the floor, its body severing itself on the ground.
	Brey retaliated against his opponent as well, hitting it with an
Icespears.  Literal spears of ice shot from his hands and bombarded the
ghoul, who chirped accordingly.  It took a respectable amount of them before
it fell over and died, but die it did.
	Now, Radimvice was surrounded on both sides.  He knew the danger of
this situation, but also knew what advantages could be taken from it.  He
waited until one of them, Alena, decided to attack, then bounded backwards.
He didn't know Alena, though; she was heading toward Taloon, but she quickly
diverted her course, not even coming close to him.  Impressed, Radimvice
couldn't dodge Taloon in time and took a deep blow to the gut again.  The
sword actually went in the same hole it had originally made on the other
side.
	The monster had problems now, and he knew it.  Already, he had been
badly wounded by these adventurers--and two of them hadn't even hit him.  He
wondered what he had done to the others to make them so weak before him.
The key, he decided, was the magic.  Even before the merchant removed his
sword, he began a Blazemost, aimed for the woman, whom he had already hit.
	Before he knew it, Taloon had rushed back up and covered the priest's
mouth.
	Radimvice, shocked but not missing a beat, hefted Taloon into the
air.  "How dare you!?" he bellowed.  Taloon only answered by grinning.  The
man began to worry, though, when Radimvice grinned back.
	"Here's one type of magic you'll never be able to stop," the monster
mumbled happily.  Then his hands went for the man's chest and helmet.
	Taloon, alarmed, suddenly began to struggle, but Radimvice was much
too strong for a priest, and he knew he wouldn't be breaking free.  He
looked back to Alena, who stood watching him in terror.  "Good luck, Alena,"
he said.  Then the magic began, and Taloon's head wrenched back as Radimvice
forced it there.  When the first part of the spell began, though, Taloon
quickly lost consciousness, having more luck than Nara.  Radimvice sighed.
"Weakling," he mumbled incoherently.
	The princess ran up and attempted to chop into Radimvice's arm, but
she was thrown back when she accidentally touched his hand, flipping in the
air at least twice and landing hard.  She lay there for a time, breathing
many breaths as sobs as she knew Taloon was gone.
	Then Cristo used Revive on Jazz, and the odds were again even.
	Brey instantly rushed to the two and began an Icespears.
	Jazz took in the situation quickly.  The others from the party had
come in to rescue them--and with good reason.  They seemed to have done a
good job of it thus far, too.  A large gap still remained in him from the
wound Nara had dealt, and now a new gap existed that was much deeper from
Taloon's sword.  Though the shoulder wound Ragnar had made was disappoint-
ingly gone, a new one, closer to the neck, had come from Alena's claw.  He,
Alena, Cristo, and Brey were fighting now; it wasn't the team he was used to,
but it seemed they would do just fine.
	He realized all of this in the space of three seconds.  This was very
fortunate, for about four seconds after he was revived, Cristo was shouting
at him to use the sword on Radimvice.  Without hitting his forehead with his
hand in disgust--as he really, really felt like doing--he flung it up and
called forth its power.  White waves screamed from the sword and bathed the
priest in light.  It screamed, but it didn't have quite the effect he
expected from waves of light.  They didn't, in other words, rip it into
shreds.  They did, however, rip his Bounce into shreds.  He realized this an
instant before an Icespears hit him.
	Screaming, Radimvice batted away the spears futilely.  They all hit
him with deadly impact, and suddenly the draining he had just done to Taloon
seemed to make very little difference.  Brey would have felt great satis-
faction at his accomplishment, had a Demighoul not just given him a blow to
the head that made him feel very far from it.
	"Go," the leader commanded to Cristo.  The thing was stunned and hurt
now; there would be no better time to get in an attack.  The shaman nodded
and dashed around...to Radimvice's back, where Alena was.
	The monster was indeed stunned.  The only thing coming to its mind
was the fact that it needed its magical defenses back, or the spell that had
killed the hero the first time would bring him down in agony he didn't want
to feel.  Seeing no contenders ahead, he cast an instant Bounce.  It ended
with an additional gesture from his hand, which adopted a very quick glowing
flash.  The Bounce lights came up, but vanished at this additional flicker.
Jazz had to respect the monster's skills--now that he was going to die in the
next few seconds anyway.
	Just after this extra gesture, a ramming charge from the shaman,
completing his run, brought him down to the earth, howling at a sword wound
to the side.
	He rose to find a claw going down into his head.
	Radimvice's scream of death rocked the structure, as well as all
those creatures who were still living.  Alena was thrown back again as
Radimvice's body began trembling.  He looked up, three huge holes standing
out on his face.  Then he fell back to the ground.  As was normal, his body
teleported away.  They knew his barrier to be gone.  The Demighouls stood,
gaping at where their master had been.  It would be the last thing they ever
saw, thanks to Cristo.
	Jazz looked around to the three from Santeem.  All had their eyes on
him and were smiling.  He smiled, too.  "Thank you," he uttered quietly.

	The eight felt a need to get out of the evil world after that.  Close
calls that close weren't something they enjoyed.  They teleported to
Zenithia, where they could rest and report their progress to Master Dragon.
He was not overjoyed at their initial defeat, but looked highly at the unity
the companions displayed.  Afterwards, they rested with Lucia, letting her
meet with Doran again and talking amongst themselves as they ate.
	"I still don't get it," Ragnar said, a sheepish and blank look on his
face.
	Mara sighed and put down her fork.  She was losing her patience with
the soldier--the patience which she didn't even really have in the first
place.  It didn't sit well with her that Ragnar had killed her, and it would
take her a while to get over it.  "Listen, okay?" she exasperatedly began.
	"Mara..." Nara said, putting her hand on her sister's.  She pushed it
away and gave Nara a look, saying what she wouldn't have said aloud:  'Leave
me alone or face death.'  Nara's eyebrows raised, and she pulled away.
	"We all died," Mara began again.  Ragnar nodded, knowing that part.
"After we all died, the people we left in the wagon came with us.  That was
Alena, Taloon, Cristo, and Brey.  Got that?"  The soldier nodded again.
"Just like that time outside Gardenbur."  Mara was starting to have fun now,
and she smiled and batted her eyelashes.  "Do you remember that, Ragnar?"
	"Mara."  Nara's voice was firm now; Mara lost her mood and looked at
Nara angrily, but softened, seeing now that Nara was just as firm as she.
The dancer looked to Ragnar and began to apologize, but was interrupted.
	"I remember that," the soldier said.  "We were killed by the Pter-
anodons, and you two and Taloon and Alena came out and beat them."
	"Right," Mara said.  "That's what happened with Radimvice.  They came
up and beat him."
	"Oh.  Now I understand."  His face was beaming.  "Thanks...again,
Mara.  I wouldn't have gotten it without your help."  Ragnar had already
apologized about killing Mara unintentionally several times; he considered
that she forgave him something he could be thankful for.  Had it been any-
one but Ragnar, Mara wouldn't have agreed.  Mara wasn't overly fond of
Ragnar.
	"Huh.  Yeah, you're, um...welcome."  She looked to Nara, a grin of
her own wide on her face.  Nara couldn't keep a light smile from popping up
at her sister.
	"What I don't get," Taloon said between bites, "is what happened to
me.  It isn't that I don't know what happened.  You explained that to me,
Nara--"
	"Thankfully, before we ate," Alena added.
	"Right.  Anyhow, I don't understand why I blacked out at the begin-
ning of his magic, but you stayed awake the whole time."
	She blinked.  "That's a good question."
	All of them had a guess, and the only one who could say it safely
did.  "You're probably more used to pain than the rest of us by now," Mara
said, turning it into a joke.
	"Oh, stop it."  Nara playfully slapped her sister across the
shoulder.
	"Ow!"  She laughed, obviously unhurt.  "What did you do that for?"
	"Why don't you guess for me, Mara?" Nara answered, batting her own
eyelashes in a mock.
	"Don't tell me you're insulted," the dancer laughed.
	"Maybe," Nara answered.  They shared a laugh.  "You're probably
right, though.  At least, I hope that's it.  I wouldn't want to think I'm
different from any of you, like I was targeted or something."  Mara almost
commented on what a good target she was already, but chose to keep this
remark private, as Nara seemed to have something else to say.  "I seem to
remember...him saying something, about me."
	"What?" Taloon asked curiously.
	"He said...I was...."  Nara searched her memory, which was under-
standably foggy at best for the time.  After about ten seconds of searching,
she sighed.  "I can't really remember.  Darn."
	"I'm sure it wasn't important, then," Taloon assured her cheerfully.
	She smiled with a chuckle, then turned to Jazz.  "What do you think?"
	Jazz blinked.  He was removed from the conversation, as always.
"Uh...."
	"I didn't black out for Radimvice's draining spell, but Taloon did,
and we don't know why, of course.  Do you have any guesses?"
	He looked a bit uncomfortable and swallowed.  Biting back the popular
one, he said, "Not really."
	"Do you think it's important at all?" Nara continued.  "Perhaps...we
should consult Master Dragon?"
	He sighed.  "No, I don't think so.  It doesn't seem that important to
me.  Thankfully, Radimvice only got to use the spell twice.  That isn't
enough to base an opinion on.  It could have just as easily been turned
around; you could have lost consciousness, while he stayed awake."
	She thought, then nodded.  "That makes sense.  Thanks, Jazz."
	He smirked.  "I wouldn't worry about it.  You should just be thanking
the gods and Master Dragon that you could be revived at all.  That condition
looked as bad as losing a brain or heart to ME, that's for sure."  She
nodded again vigorously, as she agreed completely.
	After a while, they were finished with their meal and made plans to
go on.  The barriers were all gone, and their next target was as clear as it
was foreboding:  Necrosaro.  The Zenithians wished them well, reminding them
to go to the Last Refuge if they needed help.  It wasn't something they
needed to be retold--they were, in fact, teleporting straight there--but
they thanked them anyhow.  They left quickly, eager to face their next and
final challenge.

Jjukil@aol.com