He was outnumbered, for every soldier he summoned three fell, and he had no time to prepare a ritual to bring back those which were not made from aether. Even his life was in danger the longer he fought. Not that he would care, the many pacts he made kept him from staying dead, and he secretly used them to protect his friends. There was a price to pay for such feat however, and it could eventually grow to high for him. The situation was far from optimal. The Necromancer couldn't see a way he could make it through the battle the way things were.

The masked mage ran into an empty building to take a momentary rest from combat. As he looked out the window he saw the tides turning to his favor. A group composed of different guilds pushed against the monstrous hordes. Boros soldiers took the lead, followed by the best combatants the Azorius Senate could find, including sphinxes. The vanguard was supported by Orzhov knights, thrull soldiers, and a group of Selesnya warriors and healers. A few Golgari Swarm creatures joined the battle from different fronts, some even entering from the undercity, the Swarm decided to bring help after rumors of the conflict reached their leader, who saw this as an opportunity to display their desire to cooperate with the other guilds, even if that meant fighting the Cult of Rakdos.

Among the combatants was an odd looking vehicle, there were a few armored transports, but nothing like it, it was an armored vehicle covered in mizzium with an electric coil on it. The Izzet vehicle joined the charge on its way toward the guild gate, releasing lightning arcs from the coil toward the enemies. Each lightning arc spreading toward other enemies on impact. The vehicle was controlled by a Babs Seed, it was not a hard task, most of it was controlled through a psychic link, with some valves, levers and buttons for emergency situations and dials informing of the vehicle's status. The psychic link was an example of Izzet innovation, but also its greatest flaw. Due to the connection between the pilot's mind and the vehicle, certain actions returned a painful feedback to the operator. Every hit and ever arc of lightning released inflicted slight pain upon the small filly.

Sunflower sat next to her, monitoring her status and ready to take part of the toll. She was not just a copilot, she was a buffer. In case the feedback became too much for a single individual, the copilot was meant to push an emergency button and take part of the toll. There was also a fail safe which would make both share the toll if the feedback grew too close to become lethal. The Izzet league once considered changing the design to get rid of such dangerous features, but in the end considered them useful enough to keep them.

...

Yevgeni walked through the dark dungeons deep within the Rakdos building, his search for Sveta guided him through guarded areas, every now and then Riv would join him to create a distraction while the Devkarin elf proceeded to the next location to search. Time was of essence and both warriors were growing concerned over their friend's fate. Suddenly there was an uproar outside, cultists rushed out of the building to join the battle, for them it was just another chance to bring mayhem to the district. Only a handful of them remained keeping watch over the path to reach Sveta. Their poor strategy made her location evident.

Finally the two warriors reached the room where the noble was kept prisoner. The guards did not even try to resist, most of their plan already went through as intended, they remained expecting they could torture their prisoner. At the sight of Yevgeni before them, the guards left toward the exit, preferring to join the battle outside rather than fighting a boring lone elf.

The vampire was bound by rusty chains, her clothes torn into rags and covered in blood and filth, her body was slightly injured, mostly as result of her escape attempts. Blood symbols were placed on her body to prevent her from using magic. Her eyes did not show pain or fear, only hatred and anger, which changed into calm upon the arrival of her friends.

“Did they hurt you?” The elf spoke as he hurried to release her.

“I never expected you would mind my safety. I am glad for your arrival though.”

“Of course they hurt her you nitwit! I would rather make sure she was not tortured, mutilated, crippled, or had a pole up her...” Riv was interrupted before his words spoke of more fates many would consider worse than death.

“Silence. I was fortunate enough to not suffer more than a few bruises and scratches. Those savages needed me safe enough to lure you.”

“Well. Let's get rid of those shackles and get the hell out of here.” The dragon man assisted Yevgeni with the task.

...

Midnight Edge endured another blow from the demon's fist, his magic barrier blocked most of the impact, preventing all lethal wounds. The stallion was at disadvantage, his enemy found pleasure in pain, and moved too fast for Midnight Edge to land a lethal or incapacitating hit on him. As long as the vile monster remained in motion victory was impossible. Midnight Edge released a binding net spell he learned in a previous battle against a formidable enemy expecting that would be enough to defeat his adversary, but the spell did nothing to his foe, the creature was too large and strong for the net.

The Equestrian planeswalker refused to give up, launching ice needles at the horned brute. The shafts pierced through the demon's skin, releasing ribbons of blood as the creature charged. Contrary to the normal expectation, the more the demon bled, the stronger he grew.

“You should be dead already! I can't even stand the stench of your filthy blood anymore!” The stallion yelled in anger, the pain began to take a toll in his mind.

“Nothing a bit of blood magic can't fix. I bet you would love to have this power! You could have it. Join us and you will have anything you want. Accept you are just like us!”

“Like you? I already made it clear. I am not like you! I would never hurt others out of pleasure.”

“Don't give me that crap! You are glad to screw a child, and now you say causing pain is where you draw the line? You already threw your morality away and shat on that of others!” The demon spoke with disdain toward the stallion.

“I would never cause harm to her! If I ever made a mistake it was following her will. But if that was a mistake, then I don't feel any remorse over it.”

“Don't make me laugh! You destroyed her innocence! You warped her, and you enjoyed every second of it. You're just like me.” The demon charged at the mage again, ready to land a lethal blow.

“You are the sick one. You believe an act of love becomes an act of depravity just because of her age. You could never understand love!” The stallion dashed avoiding the impact, his blade slashed once again through the demon's flesh.

“Love! All I love is pleasure. I already told you, join us and you will understand. With us you will get everything you desire, and if you can't, you just take it from others!” The demon released his fiery breath on the stallion, while the magical barrier protected the mage from most of the heat, pain flowed through his skin as the demonic flame fell upon him.

Recovering from his wounds, the stallion stood in defiance before his enemy. “I got news for you whoreson! I already possess all I need, and probably more than I deserve.” The stallion charged, still at disadvantage but refusing to give up, he knew his defeat meant a terrible fate for those he loved.

...

Pain flowed through her small body as she commanded the machine to release another arc of lightning. She learned to control the vehicle through her vision, and was fully aware of the risks. Controlling the machine was an easy task, it was designed to allow even the most incompetent operator to control it, enduring the pain was the true challenge, but saving her loved ones made the pain worth it.

Sunflower looked patiently, reading the dials to make sure her sister was not in danger. The mare understood her motivation and so accepted to help her. She was not the only one who joined her on board of that vehicle, Ulyana stood within it's cargo compartment, casting spells to soothe the pain produced by the machine's feedback. The three worked together inside the armored vehicle, cooperating to stop the demonic hordes.

As Babs Seed's eyes moved to observe her surroundings she noticed a fight taking place in the upper floor of a building. Within that hall designed to worship monstrous demons, a demon lord fought against a familiar face. Midnight Edge was unable to defeat the demon alone, the filly felt compelled to act and help her beloved before that demon would end his life. Remembering her visions he filly prepared a desperate plan. She initiated an overload mode, another insane feature approved by the Izzet league just to find out how much destructive power the machine carried, arguing it could be useful.

The dials began to move as the energy built up, Babs Seed suffered the effects of excessive feedback, the pain would not reach lethal levels, but soon it would be painful enough to make her feel close to death. Sunflower looked at her, those green eyes were full of determination, she was willing to go so far for some reason. Her sight was focused on something, when the mare directed her gaze to it she understood, her sister was trying to save her lover from his deadly adversary, but at a price too high for such a young filly. Sunflower looked at the two emergency buttons, one severed the link between pilot and vehicle, the other allowed the copilot to share the toll, reducing the pain for the operator. There was no choice, she had to act, she approached her hoof to the panel, ready to press one of the buttons.

“N-No! I must... do this! You can't... s-stop me!” The filly spoke, sweat falling from her face, the pain building up in her small body as she prepared the overload blast. A tear rolled down her face, not out of pain, but fear, she feared her sister would try to save her, sacrificing Midnight Edge instead.

“I won't. We are going to do this together.” Sunflower pressed the button to share the burden, soon part of the pain flowed through her. It was unbearable, it felt as if all her nerves were tormented by electricity, she wondered how her sister managed to endure something so horrible, but there was relief, because the green eyed filly would not go through something worse.

The coil released a large electric discharge, then the machine ran out of energy, the emergency lights turned on and both sisters looked at each other. They were barely conscious, breathing heavily and covered in sweat, their eyes full of tears, but it was done, they directed the lightning at the abomination and that was all they could do. It was over, the armored vehicle no longer followed their command, the link was severed the moment the overload finished. All they could do now was waiting and hoping for the best.

...

Midnight Edge looked out the window as the light reached his eyes, he saw an armored vehicle releasing lighting upon his foe. The demon was paralyzed, it was the opening he needed, he did not know who was on board of that vehicle, but for a moment he thought he saw a familiar face through the vehicle's window. It was just a glimpse, but he hoped he was mistaken.

The stallion gathered his thought and struck, the shock gave him enough time to land several blows, dismembering the demon. First he slashed through the arms, blood spraying as they fell to the ground, some chunks of flesh and strings of tissue falling and hanging due to the poor cuts, deep enough to detach the arms but not enough to make a clean cut on those large limbs. The the legs, it was like cutting a tree, again the sword could not reach far enough to make a clean cut, but the legs could no longer sustain the way of that enormous body as it fell, pulling from the remaining tissue as it broke.

“I'm done here. Time to end this!” Midnight Edge prepared to kill his adversary and make sure he would no longer pose a threat.

The demon laughed, he was not even afraid. “This is nothing. I do worse things to myself for fun!” It was true, but the monster only revealed it intending to cause enough shock on his opponent to make him lower his guard.

Midnight Edge was ready to strike when he heard a roaring voice from afar. “What the hell is going on here!” The voice was threatening, full of anger, brutal, and every single demon froze upon hearing it as the source arrived at the hall. A sphinx flew in the same direction and entered the hall. Before Midnight Edge stood two large figures, one was a demon larger than any demon he saw before, the other was a respectable Azorius sphinx. The stallion knew who the demon was, and was glad the sphinx did not have as much authority, otherwise the conflict would escalate into a war between guilds.

The dismembered demon looked at his superior in horror. “Master Rakdos! I was just having fun with this little thing!”

“This is why we can't have nice things! I promised that Jace boy we would keep our party to ourselves so we could keep it going. We no longer force others into it!” The brutal leader was angry, insulted by the acts of his subordinate. “But you had to fuck things up didn't you! And now we have all these other guilds trying to stop our party because you made them angry or something. We finally got them to mind their own business, all we had to do was not messing with them or with the guildless!”

“Your cultist kidnapped an Orzhov noble. Who will take responsibility?” The sphinx spoke in a calm tone.

“You did what?!” The demon yelled full of anger, then punched his cultist on the face. The impact destroyed most of the cultist's head, part of his brains came out of his ears and, nose, and one of his eye sockets as it pushed his eyeball out of its orbit. The bloodied, disfigured face was damaged beyond recognition, and so the creature died.

Yevgeni, Riv, and Sveta arrived at the gruesome scene ready to call for a retreat, their plans changed when they saw the sphinx and the parun before them.

“We are not done here. The kidnapper had accomplices. They must be punished.” The sphinx spoke, her tone even colder than earlier.

“I was their victim so to speak. As such I would like to choose their punishment.” Sveta spoke, formulating a plan in her mind.

“That could be a fair sentence. Do you accept?” The sphinx looked at the enraged demon.

“Do as you please with them. For all I care they can go fuck themselves.” Rakdos took the corpse from the floor and prepared to leave. “I will ask a blood witch to bring this one back. I'm not done with him. He will know why they call me the defiler.”

“Wait! Is he going to... That is fucking sick!” Midnight Edge reacted in horror as he imagined what future held for his fallen enemy.

“Mind your own business and I'll mind mine. I'm getting out of here. Now I have to start the party all over again!” With those words Rakdos left the hall carrying the bloodied corpse in his claws.

“Lady Morozova, what sentence shall you bring upon your kidnappers?” The sphinx spoke as she took mental notes of the case to register them later.

“I will have them all enslaved. Then I will do as I please with them.” Sveta did no bother to thing through how she would punish each one of them individually, but she would start by taking their freedom away.

...

The battle stopped, Babs Seed most of the events after her strike through the window, they won, a team of Selesnya healers led by Ulyana took her and her sister out of the deactivated vehicle, a team of Izzet engineers arrived at the scene to recover it soon after. The filly looked around as their allies walked through the secured area within the district. Even though it was a Rakdos district the air was calm, all of the residents went into hiding under request of their leader, that being the only way to preserve their future freedom.

The Necromancer sate next to Babs Seed and Sunflower, taking his mask off and holding a strange vessel. He was not sure how to address the situation, but knew he had to make sure the filly was safe, he understood how important she was for his friend. After counting the lights shining within the vessel he attempted to relax.

“So, I guess this is your first combat experience. How was it? Awful, or just quite bad?” The mage tried to not sound worried, he feared the effects battle would have in such a young mind.

“Something in between I guess. I'm never getting on that thing again.” Babs Seed looked as the Izzet vehicle as it was carried away by its owners. “I feel pain in places I'm not sure I have.”

“Probably you don't, you felt the damage inflicted upon that thing. I guess you don't have an electric coil.” The Necromancer changed his expression as he went on. “I hope this won't weigh heavily in you heart. The first battle is often the most painful.”

“I'll be fine. My sister and I are from Manehattan. We are tough.”

“Say that for yourself. I need a break from all this.” Sunflower spoke, it was all over, now she could complain as much as needed.

“I hope both of you are as though as you say. I wouldn't want to make such a young one go through that again. I... I don't think he will like this.” The mage looked at the distance as his friends approached. They succeeded, Sveta was safe, there were no casualties, yet Midnight Edge had a somber expression on his face.

...

Author's Note

This chapter is literally the sole reason for the gore tag on this story. Just in case high impact bladed violence inflicted upon demons cout as gore ;)