Luna and Dante had walked up to the courtyard together to meet Iatril. When she saw his missing arm, Iatril cast her spell like it was just another day, even after Dante said how he’d lost it. Before they went about their business, Luna asked Dante something that had been on her mind since before their little meeting: the village Dante slaughtered. Iatril had lingered to hear the tale.

“There are two main types of evil.” Dante had said. “The first is in the name of getting something you want from others, be it land, power, wealth, or any number of alternatives. This is the evil you committed before, Luna.”

Luna had rolled her eyes at him, but she’d let him continue.

“The second is the evil committed for no material gain. This is the worse form of evil because no matter how little you get from the first, at least it wasn’t for nothing. And me? I slaughtered that entire village, several hundred humans, just to see if I could without feeling bad. That is true evil.”

Iatril had gone into the castle for the night immediately after, not having said another word.

Dante went back underground to continue working.

Luna went back to her duties for the night.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Time seemed to pass quickly for some, stretching on for others.

Luna told Celestia what happened in Dante’s study that night, excluding the favor he asked of her. To say Celestia was displeased was a gross understatement. Luna had kept her from doing anything rash, but the result of that was putting her under scrutiny for defending Dante’s actions. Whenever they passed each other, Celestia seemed wary of Luna, as if she might snap at any moment. Celestia eventually stopped being wary of her…a couple months after.

Dante didn’t come to the surface much. He spent most of his time forging golems of stone and iron. Luna had looked in on him working from time to time, checking his progress. She’d considered asking where he was getting the iron from, but that was answered before she had the chance to ask; she once saw Dante turn an armored-looking stone statue of a bulky human into iron.

The times Dante did come up from his study were usually in times of battle. Several times over the months, there were attacks in cities around Equestria. Luna wasn’t sure how he did it, but Dante had set up something to warn him when griffons or changelings attacked. The moment he heard, he called his demons and went to the endangered city. They acted as a reaction force whenever fighting occurred.

All in all, Dante and Celestia didn’t have reason to butt heads. That is, until a guard came to Luna early this morning, reporting screaming coming from Dante’s chambers. Wanting to keep fighting to a minimum, Luna decided to go down alone.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

Luna walks down the stone tunnel. Reaching the bottom, she sees the Glabrezu and Nalfeshnee standing guard. The Nalfeshnee is in front of the door to Dante’s study, but the Glabrezu is in front of another door to the side that wasn’t there last time Luna came down.

“What’s going on down here?” Luna demands, stepping up to the dog-faced demon.

The Glabrezu tilts its head down to face Luna. “Lord Dante is in the process of collecting intelligence about Aselith’s location.” He says plainly.

“Then why is screaming heard down here?”

“Screaming?” The demon asks, looking over at the Nalfeshnee before turning back to Luna. “I’ve heard no screaming.”

As if on cue, a loud screech sounds from behind the Glabrezu’s door.

Luna looks past the demon to the door, before glaring back up at him. “Then what was that?”

“I do believe that was a screech.” The demon says, his face curling into a smirk. “Now, as what happens down here is Lord Dante’s business and no one else’s, you should move along.”

“Demon.” She says coolly. “I am going into that room.” She continues walking forward until she’s nearly pushing against the Glabrezu, forcing him to take a shaky step back into the door. “Is that understood?”

The Glabrezu slides to the side, grabbing at the door’s handle. “Y-Yes ma’am.” He mutters. “Sorry ma’am.”

As the door is pulled open, Luna steps in, the door closing behind her. In the back of the dimly lit and sparse room, Luna sees Dante facing her direction with the last demon, the Marilith, at his side. More accurately, they’re facing a rectangular, metal panel. It’s held up by four metal legs, one at each corner. It’s angled down from Luna, with what appears to be a small grate underneath the opposite end of it.

“It can stop whenever you want it to.” Dante says darkly. “Just give me what I want to know.”

“Please…” A raspy voice murmurs. “Have…mercy…”

Dante clicks his tongue before turning to face the demon. “What do you think?”

“He’s quite resilient.” She hisses, turning away from Dante. She slithers over to the table next to the panel and picks up a pair of swords. “Perhaps removing more of his wing will help.”

“Perhaps, but letting him bleed out will get us nothing.”

“We have more.”

“We have two more. I’ve given up on the changelings; their hive mind is too strong to break. Besides, my healing wand is almost out of charges. No, I’ll just have to conserve our dwindling supplies.”

With that, Dante raises his hands to the panel. With loud crackling and a brilliant flash, lighting streaks from his fingertips and over the panel. Luna hears screeching from the other side of it as the panel rocks in place.

Realizing what’s going on, Luna rushes forward.

“Dante!” Luna shouts over the lighting.

Dante glances up at Luna before turning back.

“Hey. I’m a little busy at the moment.”

Luna slides next to him, seeing what she feared was happening: a griffon being electrocuted on a torturing rack.

“Dante, stop this!” She yells at him, wrapping the rack in her magic and pulling it away from him.

Dante ceases his lighting and turns to Luna, a scowl on his face.

“*sigh* What’s the problem now?”

“You know damn well what the problem is!” She bellows as she stands before Dante. “How dare you torture a griffon in our castle!”

Dante rolls his eyes. “First, this isn’t your castle. It’s about a thousand feet away from your castle. Second, I’m torturing him because he has information I want. Is that not obvious?”

“This is not permissible, Dante!” Luna hovers the rack behind her, increasing the distance from Dante. “You can’t do this!”

“That is naïve and you know it.” Dante says, crossing his arms. “Those griffons targeted civilians, non-military ponies. It wasn’t for strategic gain or supplies; it was murder.”

“T-That doesn’t make it right!”

“Is that doubt I hear in your voice, Luna? This is war, and we aren’t winning.”

“I—”

“Ninety-seven days, Luna. Ninety-seven days. In all that time, we haven’t gotten any additional information on Aselith. He could be in the Badlands to the south, or he could be in the Griffon Kingdom over the ocean to the east. Hell, he could be under the gods damned mountain next to Canterlot! I need to know where that…bastard…” Dante lowers his voice, holding his hand to his head.

“Dante?” Luna steps closer to him, setting the rack on the ground.

“Damn.” He looks over at the demon and gives a nod. The Marilith nods in turn and picks up its other swords. “We’ll have to continue this later. There’s an attack in Manehatten.”

“What?” Luna asks. “Is it bad?”

“Not sure. Nothing me and my underlings can’t…huh?” Dante twitches his head, hastening his pace. “What the hell? Filly Delphia is under attack as well. I’ll…fuck! That’s two more!” He bolts through the doorway, the Marilith slithering right after him.

Luna follows after him and the demon.

“You two, at the map!” Dante calls to the standing demons. They walk behind him as he reaches the wall opposite of the torturing room, facing a large map of Equestria. “Okay, let’s see.” Dante looks over the map. “Marilith to Manehatten. Nalfeshnee to Filly Delphia. Glabrezu to Baltimare. I’ll go down to Ponyville. Go!”

The three demons give a swift bow before disappearing from sight. Dante pulls out his fiery blade.

“Dante, wait!” Luna yells. “Did you say Ponyville?”

“Yeah.” Dante holds his blade to his side. “Don’t tell Twilight and her friends just yet. Also, prepare for an invasion. Aselith’s just trying to get me away from the capital for a while, and I can’t help but do just that. I think your softness is starting to infect me.” He looks over at Luna. “He’ll probably be coming for you and your sister.”

The fire of his blade quickly grows and consumes him, launching up into the ceiling as his large demonic form appears through the flames.

“Don’t let yourself be killed. I’d rather not have to worry about an army of undead under an endless night.”

“Humph. I should say that to you. We can’t have our strongest warrior dying.” Luna says, turning back to the previous room. “Be careful.”

“You too.” He growls before disappearing.

Luna re-enters the room. She looks around and spots the torturing rack.

“Despite your actions, no one deserves this.” She says to the limp body of the griffon. “I’ll send a guard to come get you once the fight is over.”

Luna rushes towards the door, teleporting to the throne room the moment she’s out.

“Sister!” She calls out. “We have to prepare for an attack!”

“What’s going on?” Celestia asks, standing from the throne.

“Four cities are under attack right now! Dante believes they’ll be coming for us! I’ll alert the city, you inform the guards!”

Before Celestia can respond, Luna teleports above the skies of Canterlot.

Drawing in a large breath, Luna lets loose the Royal Canterlot voice.

“Citizens of Canterlot! Take heed! The enemy approaches our city! Seek shelter immediately!”

She flies around the sky to every part of the city, making sure the message was heard loud and clear.

Finishing her flight, she arrives at the courtyard as the last of the guards leave the castle gates. She glides down to Shining Armor and Iatril, who’re positioned atop the gatehouse.

“Captain Armor!” She hails the captain, landing on the stone wall. “Report!”

“Your Highness, all non-royal guards have been sent in squads throughout the city. One adept per squad, each bearing a scroll scribed by Dante. Ghost-strike squad is being kept in reserve in the castle.” He finishes his report with a salute.

“Good.” Luna looks over at Iatril, only to see her chanting with her hands interlocked. “What is Iatril casting?”

“I’m not sure, Princess.” Shining Armor looks Iatril over. “She started her chant the moment she got up here and hasn’t explained—”

In an instant, Iatril juts her hands up and forward, pointing over the castle walls. A few yards up, a large portal opens in the air. Five large air elementals fly through the portal, one after another, and hover in the air in front of Iatril.

Iatril smirks to Luna. “Reinforcements.”

“Very good.” Luna states, observing the cloud like bodies of the elementals. “But won’t they only last a few minutes?”

“A normal summoning does, yes. However, divine casters know a spell that summons multiple elementals with a much longer duration. They will serve for a few hours, much longer than this battle, I assume.”

“I see.” Luna turns back to Shining Armor. “Has anypony spotted the enemy?”

“No, Your Highness.” Shining Armor looks to the horizon. “I don’t want to sound relaxed about this, but we should see them long before they arrive. Our sentries on the mountain top would spot them before we do.”

“How long has it been since my sister informed you of the incoming attack?”

“About fourteen minutes, Your Highness.”

“Iatril, what do you…Iatril?” Luna eyes the elf, following her gaze up into the sky. She sees nothing, not even a single cloud overhead. “What is it?”

Iatril shifts her gaze to the elemental on the far right. She makes a few whistling noises at the elemental. Acknowledging her command, the elemental starts ascending into the sky.

“Get ready, Your Highness.” Iatril lowers her stance, reading magic in her hands. “I believe the enemy is above us.”

The air elemental stops its ascent and begins to warp its body into a whirlwind. Appearing in the skies, several dozen changelings charge their horns and blast the elemental before it can blow them away. The elemental gives a small pop before disappearing and returning to its home plane.

Iatril casts her spell, waving a hand at the changelings. A large, snaking path of fire consumes the changelings and incinerates them. One changeling, larger than the rest, dives down at Luna, Iatril, and Shining Armor.

As it quickly nears the gatehouse, its form is more easily seen. The hooves are jagged spikes, which extend from an elongated body. The eyes of the changeling are smaller and tinted red, its head is narrower, and its body holds fewer holes.

Just as the long changeling thrusts its spiked leg forward towards Iatril, she guides the spike down and into the stone floor, trapping the leg. Swiftly, Iatril swings her leg into the changeling’s, severing it from its body. The changeling hisses in pain but is cut short when Iatril plunges her hand into its chest, silencing it.

As the changeling corpse falls, the three look across the sky. Dozens of groups of changelings and griffons appear, each with an elongated changeling near the center. The groups begin moving across the sky, some landing, and engaging any ponies they see in the air or on the ground.

Iatril makes a sharp whistle at the remaining elementals, sending them off in separate directions to the invaders.

“I’ll keep to the plan and drive them to the streets.” Iatril says, taking a running start and jumping from the gatehouse roof. Her form instantly shifts to that of a huge gold dragon. With a mighty flap of her wings, she soars through the air at one of the larger groups.

“To the streets then.” Luna reopens her wings.

“Princess Luna!” Shining Armor calls to her. “Princess Celestia said they may be targeting you both. Should you be going right to the enemy?”

“It is not as if I could wait for them to kill our citizens.”

“But Your Highness…”

“What were my sister’s thoughts on this?” Luna looks back at him.

Shining Armor sighs. “She’s already in the city, Princess.”

“Then I see no reason why I shouldn’t be.” With a flap, Luna takes off towards the nearest group.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

With a quick slash, an elongated changeling is cut in half and falls from the sky. Its corpse burns as it falls, leaving Dante to hover in the air and look for another target.

‘Typical. They’re just enough of them to make fighting normally not an option, but too few to pose any threat against me like this.’

With a flex of his arm, a whip made of solid fire sprouts from his free hand. He swings the whip behind him, wrapping up a changeling. With a mighty pull, the changeling is thrown down, slamming into the ground.

‘This is going too quickly. If Aselith really wanted to distract me, he would have sent a larger army. What’s really going on here?’

As if answering his question, a trio of griffons flies towards him, blades in claw.

They break away from each other, surrounding Dante.

“Before we get started,” Dante says, “I need to know what Aselith’s plans are. If you tell me, I’ll let you live. Any takers?”

The griffon behind him lunges forward, piercing Dante in the back with her blade.

Dante sighs and whips his sword arm around, cutting into the griffon’s neck and loping off her head effortlessly.

To his side, the second griffon flies up and brings down his blade on Dante, who grabs it in his hand after releasing his whip. He thrusts his sword into the griffon’s chest and pulls it out quickly, letting the griffon fall to the ground.

After yanking out the sword in his back, Dante turns to the last griffon. She hovers in the air, staring at him, sword shaking.

“You really want to die?” Dante asks. “You’re ill-equipped to fight me. Despite that, you’d still rather attack me than surrender?”

Shaking, the griffon hovers forward, bringing up her sword. Her eyes are unblinking, never straying from Dante’s glowing eyes.

“Or maybe…maybe a worse fate waits for you back home. Perhaps…your family.”

With that, the griffon lunges at Dante, making a large cut across his chest only for it to heal instantly.

“Well, that’s it, isn’t it? Someone changed their mind about Aselith or you’re just worthless to him. Either way…”

The griffon swings at Dante again, only for him to grab her claw and throw her towards the ground. Just as she’s about to hit the ground, she flaps her wings hard and manages to land without breaking anything. She turns to look for Dante, only for him to teleport right in front of her.

“Stay down!” He mentally shouts and slams his arm into her, throwing her into a nearby tree with a snap. She falls to the ground with one of her wings twisted at a horrible angle.

‘…I may have overdone it a little.’

He walks over to her limp form, reverting back to his human form.

“Either way, life’s about to become hell for you.” He says aloud, kneeling next to her.

‘If he’s got spies around, they ought to buy that line.’

He teleports them both back to Canterlot castle.

~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~ _ ~

A storm rages throughout Canterlot. Strong winds blow in all directions in the sky, making flight nigh impossible. Rain pours from the black clouds, blotting out the sun and soaking all. In a clearing in the market district, a huge gold dragon sits on its haunches with its arms extended to the sky. With a flick of the wrist, the wind changes to an updraft, pulling changelings and griffons alike into the air. They circle around the dragon high in the air. With a large intake of air, the dragon spews flames from its mouth at her airborne targets. The dragon gestures with her claws again and the wind returns to its chaotic blowing.

Looking around, the dragon sees a group of changelings running down a street. Her form shrinks and changes to Iatril as she runs after them.

Rounding a corner, Iatril sees most of the group splayed around the ground, with the remaining large changeling facing off against Luna. With a beam of magic, Luna blasts the changeling into a stone wall, leaving the changeling limp.

“How are you holding up, Princess?” Iatril asks as she walks over to her.

“I’ve been worse.” She replies, whipping her hair away from her face. “I could do without the storm.”

“My apologies, but I needed a catalyst for my lighting spells. And this makes the wind much easier to…” She peters off when she notes the lilac unicorn behind the princess. “Twilight?!”

Twilight looks over at the elf with a determined look in her eyes. “Hey, Iatril.”

“W-What are you doing out here?!”

“I’m helping defend Canterlot, of course.”

“But, the elements…”

“The Elements of Harmony are safe in the castle.” She says calmly. “But I can’t just do nothing while we’re being attacked!”

“I…Princess, are you allowing this?!” Iatril demands.

“At ease, Iatril.” Luna waves a hoof at her. “She’s held her own against the enemy, especially given their tactics.”

“I…” Iatril starts, only to take her words into thought. “…You’re right. All they’ve done is attack on sight without much coordination; especially the changelings.”

“Exactly.” Luna agrees.

“But…to what end?”

“It’s a trick.” A voice sounds behind them.

The group turns to see a navy blue unicorn with a deep cut over a closed eye. Looking at his hide, they see a full moon superimposed over a white star.

“It can’t be.” Luna murmurs.

“Crescent Moon?” Twilight calls out, taking a few steps towards him.

“Hello, Twilight Sparkle.” He says, giving a soft smile. “I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

“But…they said you were brainwashed.” Twilight says, barely heard over the rain.

“I was, but Aselith got careless and I escaped.”

“What’s this about a trick?” Luna demands.

“Ah, yes, Princess.” He says with a bow. “I overheard his stratagem during my escape. You see, he doesn’t seem to care about the griffons anymore, nor the changelings. That’s why, after the forces here have finished fighting, and all your forces are exhausted, he’s going to animate the dead bodies to fight again.”

“Animate them?” Twilight asks. “As what? Zombies?”

“I believe the word used was ‘wights’. He seemed quite confident in their ability.”

“This is bad.” Luna says. “Dante said wights drain the life out of their victims with but a touch.”

Twilight turns back Luna. “Then we need to warn every—”

“Twilight, get away from him!” Iatril yells at the top of her lungs.

Just as Twilight is about to speak, a beam of energy pierces her side and exits through her chest. She barely manages to face Crescent Moon to see his lowered horn give off a feint glow before falling to the ground.

Luna’s eyes widen as she lowers her horn and fires a blast of her own at Crescent Moon. He quickly jumps to the side as the beam crashes into the ground behind him, blasting away a small portion of the road.

Iatril bounds over to Twilight, kneeling next to her and casting a spell. When she places her hand over Twilight’s wound, nothing happens.

“W-What’s going on?” Iatril stutters. “My magic…”

“Come, come, Iatril.” Crescent Moon says darkly. “Haven’t you noticed? Surely with your elven senses you would have noticed by now.”

Iatril glanced up at him before realizes it: The wind had stopped, but the rain hadn’t. She looks down at her palms to see rain collecting in them, only to find a purple liquid.

“It can’t be.” She looks back over to Crescent Moon. “Violet Rain.” She mutters.

“Correct you are, elf!” Crescent Moon yells. “And you know exactly what that means: complete severance from divine magic.” He opens his slashed eye to reveal a black gemstone in place of an eyeball, a purple light in place of a pupil. Lowering his head, he puts a frown on his face before saying, “Oh, I’m afraid young Twilight is going to die.” He grins wickedly.

Iatril rushes forward, fists clenched.

“Iatril, wait!” Luna cries out.

From behind Crescent Moon, a pair of energy beams shoots forth. Iatril barely has time to put up her arms before they strike her, knocking her back. As she lands and looks up, she sees a pair of unicorns come on either side of Crescent Moon, both of them having their eyes replaced with the same black gemstones. From behind Luna, four more approach.

“These ponies…they’re dead, aren’t they?” Iatril asks Crescent Moon. “So are you. This is…necroikos…”

“Correct again, elf!” Crescent Moon laughs heartily.

“When?” Iatril mutters. “When did you learn to cast that spell!?”

“What is this?” Luna looks between the two groups. “They’re…the archmages!”

“What?!” Iatril demands. “That’s impossible! Celestia had them buried!” She glares at the corpse that is Crescent Moon. “When did you come to Canterlot for them?!”

“When?” Crescent Moon taps his hoof to his chin. “When? Ah! I remember now. I took them when I killed them. Perhaps what were buried were very similar dolls. Maybe it was just…a trick of the mind.” He grins at that statement.

“No, that can’t be right.” Iatril stammers. “You can’t cast illusions! I know that!”

“Then let me ask you something, elf: who do you think taught those changelings that mass invisibility spell?”

“Enough!” Luna stamps her hoof into the ground. “Living or undead, you will pay for what you did to Twilight!” Lighting her horn, she let out a burst of magic at Crescent Moon. With a swift motion, he brings up a barrier, shielding himself and the two others with him from her attack.

“Why bother, Princess? Without the elements…” He began to say, before noticing a crack in his barrier. He jumps out of the way as the blast breaks through, incinerating the other two unicorns and hitting him. He rolls on the ground before stopping himself, the right part of his body mostly melted. “Gsh! What power! How did you obtain this power!?” He demands as the remaining four unicorns surround Luna and Iatril.

“Are you afraid?” Luna asks, looking at the unicorn before her.

“Of course not!” The unicorn says with a grin.

Luna makes a perplexed face before the unicorn to her right speaks up.

“I was merely surprised at your strength!”

The unicorn behind her spoke next. “But no matter how much power you’ve obtained…”

The unicorn to her left was last to speak. “…you’ll never be a match for me.”

The unicorns on either side of Luna fire a beam of magic at her, only for her to fly into the air. The beams begin to follow her into the sky. Iatril lunges at one of the casting unicorns. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees one of the other unicorns fire a bolt of magic at her. She manages to block it with her arm, but the last unicorn attacks her from behind. The two beams following Luna quickly dive down and strike Iatril, smashing her into the ground.

“Iatril!” Luna calls out.

“One down, one to go.” Crescent Moon remarks from his position on the ground.

The four standing unicorns start firing beams into the sky at Luna. She nimbly dodges each beam, attempting to return fire, but each time she does another beam comes at her. She soars around a building, hiding from their sight. Keeping low, she opts to attack from ground level. As she rounds the building, she sees the unicorns looking around for her. One of them manages to spot her. She quickly fires a beam at the closest unaware unicorn. Just as it’s about to strike, the unicorn dodges to the side and returns fire. Luna banks to avoid the shot, only for the other three to fire at her. Two of them miss while the third strikes her in the side.

‘How did she dodge me?’ Luna ponders as she gains altitude again. She’s interrupted as more shots are fired at her. She manages to dodge the bulk of them, a few graze her wings as she spins to avoid them. While she was dodging the blasts from behind, a large shot from in front knocks her from the sky, leaving her open to a barrage of energy waves.

Luna spirals from the air, smashing into the ground as the violent rain begins to end. She tries to rise, but her body won’t respond. Looking up, she sees the four unicorns approach her.

As they lower their horns to her, one of them speaks up. “One alicorn down.”

They charge their horns for their attack. Luna tries to move again, but to no avail. She closes her eyes and waits for the attack.

And waits.

And waits…

No attack comes. Opening her eyes, she sees the four unicorns standing there, their black-stone eyes wide and staring straight forward. Instantly, a large red leg obstructs her vision as she hears several bodies collapse. She looks up to see a muscular red back and a flaming sword in the right hand.

“Dante?” Luna asks.

He turns and looks down at her, a smirk on his face.

“Strange weather we’ve been having.” He says, walking forward.

She sees him walk over to the collapsed body of Crescent Moon. He picks up the half corpse, holding what remained of him by the throat.

“You look familiar. I could have sworn you kept my eye in a jar.” He cracks a grin at him.

“Shouldn’t you be in Ponyville?” Crescent Moon mutters.

“I was.” He throws Crescent Moon up into the air and lets loose a wave of energy from his extended hand, blasting the corpse and splattering him around Dante. “But I didn’t have a clever quip to finish that with.”

He walks back over to Luna, looking down at her. “Luna, why are you three on the ground? More importantly, why is Twilight here!?”

“She came out to help us.” Luna says, shifting on the ground. “But Crescent Moon…”

“Right, right.” He says, reverting to his own form and sheathing his sword. He casts a spell and places his hand on Luna, healing her wounds. “Let’s see how bad it is.”

Luna rises, stretching out her legs. “Thanks, Dante. Crescent Moon said…” She pauses midsentence and stares at him. “How…did you just heal me?”

“With magic, of course.” He says, walking over to Twilight.

“But…you said you couldn’t use healing magic.”

“Yeah, strangest thing. Ever since our little adventure in your soul, I felt a connection to my deity again.” He lowers himself to examine Twilight.

“But Crescent Moon…he said all divine magic was severed.” Luna walks up next to him to look over Twilight. The hole in her chest was large, her eyes unmoving.

“Yeah, about that. My demonic energy must have kept the corrupting power of the rain at bay. Go figure.” He stands up and turns to Luna. “Whelp, she’s dead.”

“W-What?” Luna stammers.

“Yep. Pretty dead. About as dead as you can get. Iatril’s not, so…” He begins walking over to his companion.

“But…you can bring her back, right?” Luna asks, following after him. “You brought back Captain Armor.”

“Yes, and no.” He says with a pause. He leans over Iatril and casts his spell, healing her. She jumps up with a start and sees both of them. “See, when you raise someone from the dead, the spirit needs to be willing to return.”

“I don’t understand.” Luna says. “Why wouldn’t Twilight want to return?”

“Well, she probably does. The problem is, when the spell is cast, the recipient can feel the energy of the caster. If I were to attempt it, she would feel a dark and evil presence come to her. Considering she probably wouldn’t understand her situation, she probably won’t come back.”

Iatril looks over at Twilight, seeing her still body. “What about my raising spell?” She asks. “In combination with one of your spells…”

“That’s something of a half-assed solution, Iatril.” Dante retorts. “If my magic is removed, she’ll revert to whatever creature she gets brought back as.”

“Wait!” Luna interrupts. “Tia mentioned something about you making a clone of your body for when you die. Could that work?”

“That’s what I’m thinking.” Dante says. “Problem is, it’ll take months to grow a body, and we don’t have that much time. Hell, I started a couple clones of Iatril and me a couple weeks after we got here, and they’re still not ready. But…I suppose that’s the best solution.”

Ghastly wails sound throughout the street. Pale white changelings and griffons soar across the ground towards them.

“Huh.” Dante says, gesturing to the horde approaching them. “They look weird white.”

“We need to take care of them.” Luna says, lower her horn.

“You stay back, Luna.” Dante says, stepping forward and unsheathing his sword. “Every touch will siphon a portion of life from you. I’m immune, and their claws won’t hurt me. Go find somewhere else to fight. Iatril, take Twilight back to the castle.” He removes an amulet from his neck, holding it in his hand.

“Of course, Dante.” Iatril says, walking over to Twilight and picking her up.

“I’m not leaving.” Luna states. “I’ve come here to fight and that’s what I’m going to do.”

“Fine then.” Dante takes a few steps towards the approaching horde. “Just let me take the first few waves.” He holds the amulet in front of him. “I’ve wanted a chance to do this for a while now.”

Iatril takes off in the opposite direction, leaving Luna and Dante to fight.

With a large grin on his face, Dante faces the horde as they descend upon him. He holds his sword across his shoulder and grips the amulet, the twisted symbol facing the hordes.

“By the will of the Bringer of Entropy, I command you! TURN!”

END CHAPTER

Author's Note

I'M ALIVE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

*Ahem*

Well, I've kept you waiting for a long time. A looooong time...........wow, I'm a dick. Over 3 months. I...really have no excuse. Well, maybe. I'm lazy. Does that count? I think that counts.

Anyway, yeah. Shit's goin' down. Lots of death. Many destruction. Such undead. Wow.........I don't know where that came from. Just typing whatever comes to mind. Like that. And that. And that......and that.

ANYWAY, Twilight died. So, that happened. But, just like in Dragonball Z, Naruto, The Terminator, and a weed (to name a few), she'll be back. No real surprise there. But what's this? Necroikos? What spell is that? I can't seem to find it in any of the spell lists! What lies are upon us!?! Tune in next time (just like dragonball z) to find out!

Also, I'm going to try getting chapters out more regularly. I won't say -how- regularly, as I don't want to set any hopes or expectations. (*cough* gonna try for every 2 weeks again *cough*).

See you then!