"What do you think you're doing!?!" Anim exclaimed as a man hels a sword to his commanders back. He threw down the Paladins weapons and armour and raised his sword.

"Back off, if you know whats good for ya." He cursed this shouldn't be happening. They needed to flee, not fight

"Maybe I'll consider allowing you two live if you can tell me WHY you're here and WHY you're disarming this man." Kharlen brought it closer, ignoring Anim's threat. "I want an explanation NOW."

"Have you no manners, mortal? If I wished to kill him, I would not be so close." Asidhara explains, calmly, and without nearly the fear she showed toward Alucard. Her expression was quite stately, and she felt well protected within her blackened icelike armor from a mere steel sword.

"This man will die if he remains here. I require him to stop the lord of destruction. You are in no position to demand anything, so remove your sword or I will have my retinue remove it for you."

"A Fae and a Xodar... you wouldn't be the unit the General sent out? No, there has to be more of you." Kharlen pulled his sword away for a moment. If they were then that would explain everything to him. He was confused by the string of events that had unfolded before him.

Torind had watched the God's destruction from a safe distance away, floating beyond his reach. He wasn't sure how powerful the god was, but he new that it was powerful enough.

Still, distracting him might buy him a bit more time, so he had sent the acid creature hurtling towards him, and had severed contact with it. It would fall apart as soon as it completed its final task.

Torind didn't plan on staying close enough for Alucard to react so he took off after Anim. He had followed him and the "altered" commander back to the battlefield, levitating a good distance behind them.

A human, with an arrogance that only a human could manage, had decided to start threatening Asidhara. If the fool killed her, then he would not be able to continue his research. His research was very important to him.

"Friend!", he called out cheerily from behind the human, floating closer to the ground. "I must tell you, that if you continue threatning my collegues, it will be my sad duty to incinerate you where you stand" He gave him a jagged grin. "Just a heads up, as you people say."

"We are indeed that unit." Asidhara replied to the knight. "The others are scattered, and we are recovering them. Forgive my deception, for it was necessary. Now, if I may..."

She gestured at the fallen Aetheor, about to recast the spell intended to revive him. "It would serve us well to escape before Alucard decides to turn around."

"I second that!" Anim cried. He looked again on the 'God of Destruction.' What an eye-sore. "So, how do we escape this city? I really don't think the front gate is trhe best answer."

He looked down on the Werewolf and Paladin. He gulped. This was going to be a nightmare.

The form of the wolf receded, replaced by the cringing figure of Dagan. His clothes cast aside in tatters from the original transformation, the naked body of the man shuddered through the waves of phantom torment that still coursed through him. Whatever sounds and utterances that came out of his mouth didn't contribute much to the present discourse.

After a second, the paladin's eyes snapped open. However, on his face was not an expression of thankful gratitude, nor anything of the like. Eyeing the inhuman thing that had revived him, he painfully bolted into an upright sitting position before stumbling to his feet. His armor was ten times heavier, it seemed, but he had no time to think of anything.

"Inhuman scum, why didn't you let me die? I would rather have deceased a martyr than live, owing my life to your kind. However, now is not the time. That man is injured, and that....thing is looking rather hungrily over here. Move."

He considered the man holding his sword at the Fae with a slight inclination of the head. He was still delirious from his unconscious state, and couldn't fully grasp what was going on; his words were merely a reflex action.

"It would not be smart to attempt to injure that thing right now. Now help me carry this man."

Every breath seemed like a lifetime of agony crammed and compressed into one miniscule moment, every jerk of his head, movement of his muscles, felt like the fires of hell were boiling and burning inside of him. Focusing his thoughts again, he began a quick chant to Heaven above.

"Heaven grant your humble servant the strength to protect the weak and injured." As he muttered this, his hands and eyes flashed white for but a moment, before once again, the golden halo formed above his head and quickly panned over his body. The pain in his muscles dulled a little, and his thoughts were a little more focused. The load of carrying all of his equipment seemed just a bit less.

He quickly found his hammer and slung it across his back using a leather strap he procured from his belt pouch. He then hurried over to the crumpled and broken form of Dagan, and slung the large man's arms around his neck; he carried the man as he would a backpack, holding tightly to both of Dagan's wrists with one hand, while he unsheathed his longsword with his other hand.

"Now, lets go. I cannot carry this man long."

Despite his magical healing, Aetheor realized he would not be able to carry Dagan far; he was hardly conscious himself. The only thing keeping him on his feet was adrenaline, and the will to protect those who cannot protect themselves. Such was his duty.

Gem had summoned glamour and twisted the real, wrapping illusion and reality so tightly together that it was impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. His spell was a labyrinth, each corner laid with snares to delay Alucard. Gem had dreamed a world so twisted in on itself that even the thought of a way out was laughable.

Alucard was weakened and caged in mortal flesh. But he was still a god and he was not to be denied. Musing on cruelty, he advanced, glamour reluctantly yielding before him. A werewolf and paladin appeared before him and he struck them down.

Gem knew that what he had wrought was not enough.

"The power I face is ancient and terrible. It cannot be reasoned with or its hungers appeased. Tears will not move it, nor pity condemn. It is beyond me. I bow before it and take my leave."

Gem withdrew his empty puzzle-world, taking his magic back into himself. Tatters of the spell trailing after him like a flock of butterflies as he unravelled it, the faerie dragon fluttered away, seeking Asidhara.

* * *

Gem found her soon enough, in the desolation left by Alucard. He briefly considered hiding his presence from the others she had with her, but discarded the thought as pointless. Asidhara herself went unmasked.

And so he simply flew down on amber wings, a tiny, bright draconic creature, jewel-like scales gleaming in blues, greens and purples, the butterfly tangle of magic still following him. Gem had not fully taken the magic back into himself, believing he would need it soon enough.

He hovered slightly above head height, neck inclining in an approximation of a bow. "Lady Asidhara," he said, "I was unsuccessful in slowing Alucard and so I have returned."

The statement and the magic he still had about him was enough to clearly reveal him as the author of the glamour to the other wielders of magic.