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Ranks offar into the distance Thistheir invasion of Earth, the base from which they send troops when they open s to our world We knew an ar but we never dared confront it Beranabus was a reckless fighter but he wasn&039;t crazy He knee couldn&039;t hope to face this many demons and walk away alive

The deit with alar on It&039;s their leader Death drew the them control of the universe and eternal life Now it&039;s falling to pieces like a punctured zeppelin They don&039;t knohat to do

"There!" shrieks an all-too-recognizable voice Pushing myself to my feet, I spy her near the fore of the demons to my left-Nadia Moore, AKA Juni Swan She&039;s by the side of her eight-ar at us with ano signs of panic in case I incite the Demonata Grubbs and Bec are nearby Grubbs has also seen Juni and Lord Loss He&039;s taking deep breaths, preparing for battle Bec is fixing her arm and doesn&039;t seearound anxiously as he fans her back to life The ten surviving olves have gathered in a circle behind Grubbs, growling softly as they eyeball the de around, unaware that we&039;ve escaped the stomach of the Shadow, is Kirilli Kovacs

"Grubbs," I hiss "Any ideas?"

"Can you open a ?" hehis knuckles

"I&039;ve already started," I whisper, nudging patches of light into place with deft flicks ofto alert our enemies to the fact that I&039;m at work "It&039;ll take a few ood shot," he growls, then bellows at Lord Loss "Where&039;s your hty leader now? Death offered you the universe and i her arm and calmly walks over to Grubbs She stands behind him, back to back Dervish and a woozy Meera shuffle up beside the and stares around The olves haven&039;tGrubbs&039;s command

"Very commendable, Grubitsch," Lord Loss says His voice silences the s and snarls of the other demons He drifts to the front of the army, Juni by his side When he&039;s in the open, he looks at each of us in turn and smiles "But Death cannot be destroyed You have merely inconvenienced it A valiant victory, but you have only won a battle, not the war You know that We all know that" He addresses the last cry to the aringly

"This feels like a reunion," Lord Loss says, s in the hole where his heart should be, blood oozing from the many cracks in his pale red flesh "So many familiar faces Grubitsch, Dervish, Cornelius, even little Bec, back from the dead and as tenacious as ever"

"Master," Junisharply at me

"I am aware of Cornelius&039;s efforts," Lord Loss chuckles "Don&039;t worry, sweet Swan, he will not have tiet this far in order to fan the flames of hope in their hearts Now that those flaerously-"it is time to quench them" He shouts at thescrearound around us, a living wave of chaos, barbarism, and death

We&039;d perish in seconds without the power of the Kah-Gash But as soon as Lord Loss roars, Grubbs grabs Bec, leaps to ic, he draws from the power in the air and erects a hasty but sturdy barrier around us Instead of driving us to the floor and ripping us to shreds, the demons deflect off the shield

I work on theas the demons lash and claw at the barrier It covers all of us except Kirilli, as too far away and has been cut off, swamped by the army of demonic warriors It&039;s a powerful shield, impervious to physical assault If the demons continue to hurl thee and we&039;ll be out of here in another couple of-

"Stand aside!" Lord Loss yells, blasting his way through a pack of gibbering beasts He studies the barrier and sneers, then howls a phrase of ht of his hands He lets it build, then directs it at the barrier, a strea, purple power Lord Loss is a deic Nothing should be able to stand against him But we&039;re the Kah-Gash and I sense within seconds that we&039;re stronger than our foe I laugh confidently We&039;re going to walk out of this without even a scratch I can&039;t wait to see the look on his face when

Juni lays a hand on Lord Loss&039;s lued a lot since I last saw her and has becoly beast Her eyes flare with shocking madness and naked hate I remember when, as Nadia Moore, she saved my life She&039;d coe, but there was still roos

Not anyht, every bit as heartless as a true child of the Deic at the barrier At her cry, de their energy to hers and Lord Loss&039;s, focusing their co the barrier give "We needas we all are, buckling under the strain "This is as far as I dare unleash it If I give itcould happen"

I don&039;t understand what he&039;s saying He must be insane The barrier will break and they&039;ll be on us in seconds We have to throw everything we have at theave the Kah-Gash absolute freedom It drove the universes back in tiain, there&039;d be no need to worry But we don&039;t knohat it will do if we set it loose a second tith to defeat the demons-or maybe it would wipe out our universe and hand victory to the Demonata We dare not play that card unless all else is lost Our situation is desperate but not hopeless, and until that changes, Grubbs is right to hold back

"We have to fight," he roars "Are you ready?" I nod weakly "Bec?"

"Go for it," she growls

With a battle-hungry cry, Grubbs explodes the barrier A wall of energy spreads like a ripple fro the de at the center of a clear circle, confusion reigning all around Then the demons farther back recover, bellow brutally, and push forward, cla over the bodies of the fallen, to surround and enclose us

The real fight begins

It&039;s wilder than any battle I&039;ve ever been involved in I&039;ve laughed in the face of overwhel now There are too many of them, demons of every rank, from familiars up to masters like Lord Loss All they share is a total hatred of us and a determination to strip our flesh fro bolts and fireballs of ic Hundreds perish within seconds, but still they press on, thousands of fresh monsters to replace each that falls

I try to stay in touch with Bec and Grubbs, but we&039;re forced apart Grubbs is dragged away by several deed beast snatches Bec froo down under the feet of dozens of hard-shelled des and pincers snap I feel cuts open down nore the pain, use reat effort thrust off the deain beneath a dinosaur-shaped beast