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Day 3

Morning

We awoke to a cold morning, our pants wet from the morning due that had soaked into them. So I arose, shook myself off, then roused Sha’Anala, and then we walked hand in hand to the camp, looking at all the soldiers as they roused themselves, donning armor, and getting ready for the trials that would be brought upon this crowning day. I stretched and worked out the kinks from how I had slept the previous night, and then donned my armor and weapons from a nearby armor rack. It fit like a glove, and yet was still light enough that I was able to fly around and maneuver.

As my brother Azuriel walked up to me, the scouts that had been out searching the nearby cities and nearby rural town of Haysville, reported back. One light anjel scout by the name of Immanuel, walked up to me, saluted then spoke to Azurik and I, “Sir, it appears that The Void has left most of Haysville alone, there are small patrol groups along the Northern ends, watching the city, possibly blocking our entrance to Wichita. I couldn’t figure that out though as I was merely patrolling Haysville. The Void is however occupying the stores and stations. I noticed though that these aren’t heavily patrolled, and it may be possible to clean out the city of Haysville. The park that we’re in now though is secure. After our small little skirmish there, the last of The Void and pulled back, leaving a perimeter around the park, should be easy enough to break.”

Immanuel backed off as another scout walked up, he looked a little worse for ware, and he wasn’t quite so light, in fact he had gray wings. He had a few new bandages on, and some of his light armor was dented. He stepped up, saluted, and introduced himself as Kedrian, “Sir… we have a slight problem in the city to the north of here. It seems that a large contingent of Void Warriors has taken residence in the down town part of Wichita. They have blocked off streets, and set up small camps and guard posts. They’re setting up for something big. I also got close enough to see that they seem to be building some kind of gate. After that I finally succumbed to the cold… however I managed to let my numbing body fly into an empty building, so I avoided capture and once I finally warmed up, and became conscious again, I brought myself back here to report.”

I nodded and dismissed him. Then turned to a private that was awaiting command, “Private, collect Jadalah Soryen, and bring her to me.” The private saluted and left, searching out Soryen.

I looked at our small encampment, as Azuriel stood on my left and Sha’Anala on my right. We numbered probably about 100 men and women in this group. The plus side was though, that the least trained of these men and women could handle at least three void warriors before falling. After all, we were the Labnite of Alleria, we were the epitome of Labnite training. While I was off in my own revelry, Jadalah walked up. I blinked a couple times, bringing my eyes back into focus and looked at Jadalah. I then led the four of us into my tent to plan and let them in on what I had been told by the scouts.

We sat down in a few chairs and gazed at one another quietly, before talking, a moment of silence if you will, granted to the ones who had fallen to the void, or being held captive by the void.

I spoke first, “It seems that the holding of Haysville is sporadic, they have set a mild perimeter around the park. I think they are waiting for us to make the first move. Which isn’t altogether un-smart. Nothing we can really do until we can get out of this park safely and then to Wichita. Any ideas?”

Azuriel spoke next, “My choice would be to send in a group of shadow walkers to go in and assassinate the groups. I’d make it groups of three each. They just need to go in, make the kills and get out. Let no one get away. If wind of what we plan on doing is caught, then not only will the shadow walkers toast, but so are we.”

We all simply nodded in agreement and then I brought up the next point of this small meeting, “What of the sporadic groups that travel the town itself? We also need to be rid of as much of them as we can be. Because if we don’t end their roaming, we have a chance of being caught in a clamp in the middle of a street, no escape, and that my friends, would be bad.”

Jadalah spoke this time, “Send with me a strike force. We’ll hit hard, quick and quietly, we’ll make sure none get away.” No one opposed this idea; I couldn’t think anything wrong with it so we all simply agreed with this idea with a simple nod. So Azuriel and I bid our farewells to Jadalah and Sha’Anala.

They took their men and left, leaving about forty men here with Azuriel and I. We could see Sha’Anala’s men and her shadow walking, my eyes locked on her, able to even see her as she jumped through each shadow, covering amazing amounts of ground in just one step. Then my eyes turned to Jadalah, who with her men were marching in perfect unison. Then with a small gesture of her hand, that only those trained to see those commands would of caught it. But with that double flick of her hand, about five Labnite took the air, and another five sprinted away from them, into the distance, scouting the land. The five in the air far enough they were small dots, and yet I knew with their training, they could see the ground with little trouble, the ones sprinting along the ground, already disappearing into the trees and such so that they couldn’t be seen.

The morning for Azuriel and myself was uneventful. We simply trained along side with our men, seeing where we were rusty at and correcting what needed to be corrected, no sense in wasting a moment’s reprieve. Once I’d sufficiently worked up a sweat, I decided to grab something to eat. I went over to where the food was stored, and took a thing of trail rations and munched on them quietly as I took a break and gazed up at the sky, seeing the suns rays barely break through the over cast brought to this world by the void, it looked like it was late morning, early afternoon.

Feeling the familiar feel of a feminine love directed at me, I turned towards it and saw Sha’Anala returning with her men. Just as expected, she came back with her men. There were a few minor scratches and a few bleeding, but nothing a little regeneration couldn’t help. They all looked mildly pleased with themselves, considering that they’d been out since about 8am, it now being about 11am or so. Then I heard the familiar clink of light armor and weapons of the other group, the one that went with Jadalah. She was coming from the north, indeed she did her job well… she covered all of this little town in about four hours, and she knew exactly how to do it as efficiently as she could.

Afternoon

I waited for both groups to return, halting in front of me. I dismissed the soldiers themselves to their own recreations for a while, since they had been working all morning. Then I had Sha’Anala and Jadalah give their reports.

Jadalah went first, speaking in her usual harsh warriors voice that showed she was almost tired, and annoyed with the current happenings, and when things weren’t going in her general way, “We met mild resistance. Started out lukewarm to say the least. However, they must have had some kind of communications with the rest of the pocket groups, because by about the fourth or fifth encounter, they started watching for our air and land scouts. Then it seemed they started firing these nasty paralysis bolts. It seemed they wanted us alive, fodder for their war machine perhaps? Anyways, we did the best we could cleaning out what little resistance there was in town. However we lost maybe ten altogether.” She then stepped back and let Sha’Anala step forward and speak her out her encounter.

Sha’Anala stepped forward and spoke, in that soft voice of hers that would give the impression that she was soft, “We had no problems disarming the perimeter, but un-like Jadalah, they were patrolling close enough that unless we were fast and left the bodies in the shadows, they caught on. So yes, we caught a scrape here and there from those lucky enough to see their reaper come for them.”

I smiled slightly as I knew better, my love Sha’Anala was about as innocent and soft as her voice. She was a butterfly, and no one ever suspects the butterfly. But I listened to both of them respectively, and nodded, then moved to the tent, letting Azuriel, Sha’Anala, and Jadalah follow suit. Once we had all been seated, I spoke up, “Now that we have this town secure. We need to shield it from The Void, then move onto Wichita… no telling what lies in wait for us there, we’ll just have to make sure we’ve scouts in every direction, even up. We move out at 6pm. Until then, the contingent has the time off. Keep frosty ladies and gents, never know when something might happen while we are on break.”

Evening

The time rolled around and the tents were taken down and put away. Armor was strapped on, and weapons put on and readied. The entire contingent completely switched mindsets; it went from battle ready to war ready. Once all was ready, and any trace of us being there was gone, we left. We headed North and East, scouts flying and sprinting ahead, keeping a heads up, making sure that nothing surprised us. We walked for probably a while into the night. It seemed like we were going to make it into the morning with no incidents, however we weren’t so lucky. The air scouts and ground scouts reported back at about the same time with the same thing, several large legions were converging on our position. So we did the only thing we could do. Made it to a place where we could bring them into a choke point.

So we moved as fast as we could to a “T intersection”, with the “I” part of the “T”, going west. We took the cars and piled them about hundred feet from each section, divided up into groups of twenty-five for the streets and a small group of fifteen at the center, in case they tried to get in through a backdoor. We sent out four scouts, in each direction along the ground, then four more along the air. They returned about five minutes later, each with their own recollection to tell. But it basically came down to this. They had us cornered into the T intersection on all sides, even the east side going into a small wooded area behind the buildings. This was going to be a really nasty fight, and we weren’t quite sure how we were going to handle this one. So we sent the ground scouts out again and waited until they came back. This time though it was different, once the scouts got back they reported the fact that the legions of The Void had stopped just outside of our view. It appeared that they were waiting for something.

The large thunderous steps seemed to explain what they were waiting for. In a few seconds we could see the legions of The Void taking up the rear behind these monstrous creatures that looked like a cross between a Ram and a human. Massive curled horns on it’s head, the Ram like head, and fur covering it’s body, and hooves to boot. It had its head lowered, seemingly going to put its head through the barricade of cars that we had made. I told my men to open fire. That they did, it just wasn’t doing any good, it was like striking a match on a tree, ineffective. These things were like enforcers and didn’t seem to be losing steam.

Then something happened. It was a feeling of a long lost friend and family member, and a slight scent of the Abyss carried along the quiet winds of the night. Then there was a voice, “The powers of chaos taken by me from the Abyss, I call upon you to smite my enemies!”

Everyone looked up and saw another anjel, looked to be about twice my age, and same wings as I had. He raised his hands into the air; spread them, making three balls of crackling energy, swirling with white and black energies at the same time. He started sending them around himself in a type of Trisula, and then sent them out towards the three behemoths that had almost made it to the makeshift barricades that we had erected. The balls reached the behemoths and simple disintegrated them. Nothing left except a small swirl of dust falling to the ground.

The Labnite at each barricade let up a cheer, as did the ones in the center. We all bounded up over barricades and slammed into the opposing legions, their stunned expressions showing that they were in no way ready for the ferocity in which we showed after their behemoths had been slaughtered. The fight lasted for a about fifteen minutes, The Void warriors quickly gaining their collective conscious and fighting on viciously. As I fought on with all the skill and abilities that I had, I still couldn’t shake the feeling of knowing the person who had lay waste to the three behemoths that came at us. Once the battle was finally over, the ones of us that were left returned to the center of the “T intersection”.

I took count of who was left and we had probably about eighty men left. We setup camp in the center of the “T” inter section and just rested. I called for the anjel who had helped us to come and talk with me. After all this mysterious anjel deserved a world of thanks. As I waited, Sha’Anala, Azuriel and Jadalah all came up and stood next to me. They were just as curious as I was it seemed.

As the mysterious man walked up, we knew whom it was, Azuriel and I getting looks of happiness and run at this man, as for Sha’Anala, she smiled and walked politely to the man. Jadalah, how ever, being as how she knew this man, as a mercenary, not a kind and loving man merely growled and stood there.

The two brothers that were there grasped the man in a massive hug, in spite of all the turmoil, their faces held large smiles. When they finally released this new comer, Azuriem spoke first, “Gods smile upon us. Of all people that would save us, it’d be our most dear and loved uncle. Azmoedeus… where have you been? We’ve not only missed you, but needed you in these times of destruction and turmoil.”

Azmoedeus just smiled and ran his fingers through his hair, short and streaked with lines of gray and silver. It showed in how he held himself, and when you looked into his eyes, that he indeed was a learned man, and had been through quite a lot. Next Azuriel spoke up, “You know uncle… you always have had a knack for showing up at the right time. I knew you were going to show up, just had no idea when. Just glad you picked now to show up. Those Juggernauts were making short work of the Labnite and our barriers alike.”

Azmoedeus after listening to his nephews give their thanks he finally spoke, “Oh you two should know that no amount of hell, nor the lowest levels of the Abyss could actually hold me. Besides, I certainly couldn’t let my two favorite nephews die on this day. We still have a few things to do. We first need to free this world. Then we need to get my third favorite nephew out, make sure he’s good to go. Also we need to free the dear Jadelynn. A healer on our side is indeed a good thing. Besides, she may have condemned me to the Abyss, but you know what? We were both following orders, and therefore I hold no grudge against her.” Then his gaze slowly drifted to the always-quiet Sha’Anala. He walked up to her and gave her a warm family hug and grinned slightly, “You know, you may never marry Azuriem, but by the fates and my opinion, you’re apart of this family. Also, thanks for sticking with that boy, through thick and thin. He truly does love you, even if he doesn’t say it.”
Sha’Anala blushed slightly and walked over to Azuriem, sliding into his embrace.

Then Azmoedeus’ gaze turned towards Jadalah. He gave a slight nod and took a few steps towards Jadalah. Once he was within arms reach, he held out his hand in a warriors greeting. Jadalah stared at him coolly, and then finally, after a few moments had passed, she finally returned the gesture, by grasping his wrist and shaking once and lets go. None of the steel leaves her eyes as her lips finally move, slowly and deliberately, “Of all the people to save us, why did it have to be you? Of all the people I’d have to owe my life to, why did it have to be you? Your name stretches across the realms as the most despised, a ruthless man who’d do anything for profit, I’m surprised you haven’t sold…”

Azmoedeus holds up his hand to stop her, laughing, “What, sold my own family out? Sorry but I don’t do anything for profit. I had my orders. I followed them. I will still follow them. As for my family,” He looks over his shoulder at his two nephews, then looks back at Jadalah, “I’d never sell them out. By the way, you owe me nothing. I saved you and my family because it was the right thing to do. Also I wouldn’t leave someone to fend for themselves against The Void. I’d never subjugate someone to that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some catching up to do with my nephews.” With that he walked back towards his nephews, and Sha’Anala and smiled, happy to be with his nephews again. Indeed he’d missed them, now if only he could of met them under better circumstances.

Later on as the evening stretched on and the remaining forces had gathered around several fires near the T-intersection. The main fire held five individuals, Azuriem, Azuriel, Azmoedeus, Sha’Anala, and Jadalah. They all conversed quietly, all the while, Jadalah never took her eyes off of Azmoedeus.

If one looked close enough, you could see the shadows of some of the Labnite as they scouted and ram perimeter checks, to make sure they weren’t in the process of being ambushed.

Description
Day 3

Morning

We awoke to a cold morning, our pants wet from the morning due that had soaked into them. So I arose, shook myself off, then roused Sha’Anala, and then we walked hand in hand to the camp, looking at all the soldiers as they roused themselves, donning armor, and getting ready for the trials that would be brought upon this crowning day. I stretched and worked out the kinks from how I had slept the previous night, and then donned my armor and weapons from a nearby armor rack. It fit like a glove, and yet was still light enough that I was able to fly around and maneuver.

As my brother Azuriel walked up to me, the scouts that had been out searching the nearby cities and nearby rural town of Haysville, reported back. One light anjel scout by the name of Immanuel, walked up to me, saluted then spoke to Azurik and I, “Sir, it appears that The Void has left most of Haysville alone, there are small patrol groups along the Northern ends, watching the city, possibly blocking our entrance to Wichita. I couldn’t figure that out though as I was merely patrolling Haysville. The Void is however occupying the stores and stations. I noticed though that these aren’t heavily patrolled, and it may be possible to clean out the city of Haysville. The park that we’re in now though is secure. After our small little skirmish there, the last of The Void and pulled back, leaving a perimeter around the park, should be easy enough to break.”

Immanuel backed off as another scout walked up, he looked a little worse for ware, and he wasn’t quite so light, in fact he had gray wings. He had a few new bandages on, and some of his light armor was dented. He stepped up, saluted, and introduced himself as Kedrian, “Sir… we have a slight problem in the city to the north of here. It seems that a large contingent of Void Warriors has taken residence in the down town part of Wichita. They have blocked off streets, and set up small camps and guard posts. They’re setting up for something big. I also got close enough to see that they seem to be building some kind of gate. After that I finally succumbed to the cold… however I managed to let my numbing body fly into an empty building, so I avoided capture and once I finally warmed up, and became conscious again, I brought myself back here to report.”

I nodded and dismissed him. Then turned to a private that was awaiting command, “Private, collect Jadalah Soryen, and bring her to me.” The private saluted and left, searching out Soryen.

I looked at our small encampment, as Azuriel stood on my left and Sha’Anala on my right. We numbered probably about 100 men and women in this group. The plus side was though, that the least trained of these men and women could handle at least three void warriors before falling. After all, we were the Labnite of Alleria, we were the epitome of Labnite training. While I was off in my own revelry, Jadalah walked up. I blinked a couple times, bringing my eyes back into focus and looked at Jadalah. I then led the four of us into my tent to plan and let them in on what I had been told by the scouts.

We sat down in a few chairs and gazed at one another quietly, before talking, a moment of silence if you will, granted to the ones who had fallen to the void, or being held captive by the void.

I spoke first, “It seems that the holding of Haysville is sporadic, they have set a mild perimeter around the park. I think they are waiting for us to make the first move. Which isn’t altogether un-smart. Nothing we can really do until we can get out of this park safely and then to Wichita. Any ideas?”

Azuriel spoke next, “My choice would be to send in a group of shadow walkers to go in and assassinate the groups. I’d make it groups of three each. They just need to go in, make the kills and get out. Let no one get away. If wind of what we plan on doing is caught, then not only will the shadow walkers toast, but so are we.”

We all simply nodded in agreement and then I brought up the next point of this small meeting, “What of the sporadic groups that travel the town itself? We also need to be rid of as much of them as we can be. Because if we don’t end their roaming, we have a chance of being caught in a clamp in the middle of a street, no escape, and that my friends, would be bad.”

Jadalah spoke this time, “Send with me a strike force. We’ll hit hard, quick and quietly, we’ll make sure none get away.” No one opposed this idea; I couldn’t think anything wrong with it so we all simply agreed with this idea with a simple nod. So Azuriel and I bid our farewells to Jadalah and Sha’Anala.

They took their men and left, leaving about forty men here with Azuriel and I. We could see Sha’Anala’s men and her shadow walking, my eyes locked on her, able to even see her as she jumped through each shadow, covering amazing amounts of ground in just one step. Then my eyes turned to Jadalah, who with her men were marching in perfect unison. Then with a small gesture of her hand, that only those trained to see those commands would of caught it. But with that double flick of her hand, about five Labnite took the air, and another five sprinted away from them, into the distance, scouting the land. The five in the air far enough they were small dots, and yet I knew with their training, they could see the ground with little trouble, the ones sprinting along the ground, already disappearing into the trees and such so that they couldn’t be seen.

The morning for Azuriel and myself was uneventful. We simply trained along side with our men, seeing where we were rusty at and correcting what needed to be corrected, no sense in wasting a moment’s reprieve. Once I’d sufficiently worked up a sweat, I decided to grab something to eat. I went over to where the food was stored, and took a thing of trail rations and munched on them quietly as I took a break and gazed up at the sky, seeing the suns rays barely break through the over cast brought to this world by the void, it looked like it was late morning, early afternoon.

Feeling the familiar feel of a feminine love directed at me, I turned towards it and saw Sha’Anala returning with her men. Just as expected, she came back with her men. There were a few minor scratches and a few bleeding, but nothing a little regeneration couldn’t help. They all looked mildly pleased with themselves, considering that they’d been out since about 8am, it now being about 11am or so. Then I heard the familiar clink of light armor and weapons of the other group, the one that went with Jadalah. She was coming from the north, indeed she did her job well… she covered all of this little town in about four hours, and she knew exactly how to do it as efficiently as she could.

Afternoon

I waited for both groups to return, halting in front of me. I dismissed the soldiers themselves to their own recreations for a while, since they had been working all morning. Then I had Sha’Anala and Jadalah give their reports.

Jadalah went first, speaking in her usual harsh warriors voice that showed she was almost tired, and annoyed with the current happenings, and when things weren’t going in her general way, “We met mild resistance. Started out lukewarm to say the least. However, they must have had some kind of communications with the rest of the pocket groups, because by about the fourth or fifth encounter, they started watching for our air and land scouts. Then it seemed they started firing these nasty paralysis bolts. It seemed they wanted us alive, fodder for their war machine perhaps? Anyways, we did the best we could cleaning out what little resistance there was in town. However we lost maybe ten altogether.” She then stepped back and let Sha’Anala step forward and speak her out her encounter.

Sha’Anala stepped forward and spoke, in that soft voice of hers that would give the impression that she was soft, “We had no problems disarming the perimeter, but un-like Jadalah, they were patrolling close enough that unless we were fast and left the bodies in the shadows, they caught on. So yes, we caught a scrape here and there from those lucky enough to see their reaper come for them.”

I smiled slightly as I knew better, my love Sha’Anala was about as innocent and soft as her voice. She was a butterfly, and no one ever suspects the butterfly. But I listened to both of them respectively, and nodded, then moved to the tent, letting Azuriel, Sha’Anala, and Jadalah follow suit. Once we had all been seated, I spoke up, “Now that we have this town secure. We need to shield it from The Void, then move onto Wichita… no telling what lies in wait for us there, we’ll just have to make sure we’ve scouts in every direction, even up. We move out at 6pm. Until then, the contingent has the time off. Keep frosty ladies and gents, never know when something might happen while we are on break.”

Evening

The time rolled around and the tents were taken down and put away. Armor was strapped on, and weapons put on and readied. The entire contingent completely switched mindsets; it went from battle ready to war ready. Once all was ready, and any trace of us being there was gone, we left. We headed North and East, scouts flying and sprinting ahead, keeping a heads up, making sure that nothing surprised us. We walked for probably a while into the night. It seemed like we were going to make it into the morning with no incidents, however we weren’t so lucky. The air scouts and ground scouts reported back at about the same time with the same thing, several large legions were converging on our position. So we did the only thing we could do. Made it to a place where we could bring them into a choke point.

So we moved as fast as we could to a “T intersection”, with the “I” part of the “T”, going west. We took the cars and piled them about hundred feet from each section, divided up into groups of twenty-five for the streets and a small group of fifteen at the center, in case they tried to get in through a backdoor. We sent out four scouts, in each direction along the ground, then four more along the air. They returned about five minutes later, each with their own recollection to tell. But it basically came down to this. They had us cornered into the T intersection on all sides, even the east side going into a small wooded area behind the buildings. This was going to be a really nasty fight, and we weren’t quite sure how we were going to handle this one. So we sent the ground scouts out again and waited until they came back. This time though it was different, once the scouts got back they reported the fact that the legions of The Void had stopped just outside of our view. It appeared that they were waiting for something.

The large thunderous steps seemed to explain what they were waiting for. In a few seconds we could see the legions of The Void taking up the rear behind these monstrous creatures that looked like a cross between a Ram and a human. Massive curled horns on it’s head, the Ram like head, and fur covering it’s body, and hooves to boot. It had its head lowered, seemingly going to put its head through the barricade of cars that we had made. I told my men to open fire. That they did, it just wasn’t doing any good, it was like striking a match on a tree, ineffective. These things were like enforcers and didn’t seem to be losing steam.

Then something happened. It was a feeling of a long lost friend and family member, and a slight scent of the Abyss carried along the quiet winds of the night. Then there was a voice, “The powers of chaos taken by me from the Abyss, I call upon you to smite my enemies!”

Everyone looked up and saw another anjel, looked to be about twice my age, and same wings as I had. He raised his hands into the air; spread them, making three balls of crackling energy, swirling with white and black energies at the same time. He started sending them around himself in a type of Trisula, and then sent them out towards the three behemoths that had almost made it to the makeshift barricades that we had erected. The balls reached the behemoths and simple disintegrated them. Nothing left except a small swirl of dust falling to the ground.

The Labnite at each barricade let up a cheer, as did the ones in the center. We all bounded up over barricades and slammed into the opposing legions, their stunned expressions showing that they were in no way ready for the ferocity in which we showed after their behemoths had been slaughtered. The fight lasted for a about fifteen minutes, The Void warriors quickly gaining their collective conscious and fighting on viciously. As I fought on with all the skill and abilities that I had, I still couldn’t shake the feeling of knowing the person who had lay waste to the three behemoths that came at us. Once the battle was finally over, the ones of us that were left returned to the center of the “T intersection”.

I took count of who was left and we had probably about eighty men left. We setup camp in the center of the “T” inter section and just rested. I called for the anjel who had helped us to come and talk with me. After all this mysterious anjel deserved a world of thanks. As I waited, Sha’Anala, Azuriel and Jadalah all came up and stood next to me. They were just as curious as I was it seemed.

As the mysterious man walked up, we knew whom it was, Azuriel and I getting looks of happiness and run at this man, as for Sha’Anala, she smiled and walked politely to the man. Jadalah, how ever, being as how she knew this man, as a mercenary, not a kind and loving man merely growled and stood there.

The two brothers that were there grasped the man in a massive hug, in spite of all the turmoil, their faces held large smiles. When they finally released this new comer, Azuriem spoke first, “Gods smile upon us. Of all people that would save us, it’d be our most dear and loved uncle. Azmoedeus… where have you been? We’ve not only missed you, but needed you in these times of destruction and turmoil.”

Azmoedeus just smiled and ran his fingers through his hair, short and streaked with lines of gray and silver. It showed in how he held himself, and when you looked into his eyes, that he indeed was a learned man, and had been through quite a lot. Next Azuriel spoke up, “You know uncle… you always have had a knack for showing up at the right time. I knew you were going to show up, just had no idea when. Just glad you picked now to show up. Those Juggernauts were making short work of the Labnite and our barriers alike.”

Azmoedeus after listening to his nephews give their thanks he finally spoke, “Oh you two should know that no amount of hell, nor the lowest levels of the Abyss could actually hold me. Besides, I certainly couldn’t let my two favorite nephews die on this day. We still have a few things to do. We first need to free this world. Then we need to get my third favorite nephew out, make sure he’s good to go. Also we need to free the dear Jadelynn. A healer on our side is indeed a good thing. Besides, she may have condemned me to the Abyss, but you know what? We were both following orders, and therefore I hold no grudge against her.” Then his gaze slowly drifted to the always-quiet Sha’Anala. He walked up to her and gave her a warm family hug and grinned slightly, “You know, you may never marry Azuriem, but by the fates and my opinion, you’re apart of this family. Also, thanks for sticking with that boy, through thick and thin. He truly does love you, even if he doesn’t say it.”
Sha’Anala blushed slightly and walked over to Azuriem, sliding into his embrace.

Then Azmoedeus’ gaze turned towards Jadalah. He gave a slight nod and took a few steps towards Jadalah. Once he was within arms reach, he held out his hand in a warriors greeting. Jadalah stared at him coolly, and then finally, after a few moments had passed, she finally returned the gesture, by grasping his wrist and shaking once and lets go. None of the steel leaves her eyes as her lips finally move, slowly and deliberately, “Of all the people to save us, why did it have to be you? Of all the people I’d have to owe my life to, why did it have to be you? Your name stretches across the realms as the most despised, a ruthless man who’d do anything for profit, I’m surprised you haven’t sold…”

Azmoedeus holds up his hand to stop her, laughing, “What, sold my own family out? Sorry but I don’t do anything for profit. I had my orders. I followed them. I will still follow them. As for my family,” He looks over his shoulder at his two nephews, then looks back at Jadalah, “I’d never sell them out. By the way, you owe me nothing. I saved you and my family because it was the right thing to do. Also I wouldn’t leave someone to fend for themselves against The Void. I’d never subjugate someone to that. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some catching up to do with my nephews.” With that he walked back towards his nephews, and Sha’Anala and smiled, happy to be with his nephews again. Indeed he’d missed them, now if only he could of met them under better circumstances.

Later on as the evening stretched on and the remaining forces had gathered around several fires near the T-intersection. The main fire held five individuals, Azuriem, Azuriel, Azmoedeus, Sha’Anala, and Jadalah. They all conversed quietly, all the while, Jadalah never took her eyes off of Azmoedeus.

If one looked close enough, you could see the shadows of some of the Labnite as they scouted and ram perimeter checks, to make sure they weren’t in the process of being ambushed.