My chest was just about to burst from lack of oxygen when my head burst from the water's surface, my hands flailing when what ever magic Thigila had been using to guide us up let me go. I coughed and spluttered, trying to get the goo out of my eyes. Still choaking I scanned around. Aura was treading water next to me, also coughing up water and holding her small bundle above the surface, but Thigila was no where to be seen. I guess her job was done and she just left in the same way she had come.

  She'd been correct in that she brought us up near the shore as I could see the grey sandy beach a few yards to my left. The beach was covered in bodies and blood and the sand was disturbed in a way that I could imagine a massive squid leg slamming into it. The fight was still raging but it was farther down the beach, the monster in question nearly on the shore now even though it did not appear to have any sort of legs that could hold its weight on land. All around it were demons. They were in the air, on foot, and more than a few were even in the water.

  A burst of Blue flame caught my eyes and I could see Rougier standing on a cliff face, his claws dug into the shale-like rock, keeping his massive body out of the water as he fired fire ball after fire ball at the monster. Not that the squid seemed to notice it very much.

  "Rougier!" I croaked, thank full to see him not drowned. I began struggling toward the beach, snatching Aura's elbow and dragging her with me.

  "Why is the Death-Bringer here?" She asked, coughing again.

  "He is with me." I said, awkwardly clambering onto the sand before getting shakily to my feet. "I'm a tamer, and Rougier is one of my tames."

  "Like Lady Ooma?"

  I nodded but I just did not have it in me for long explanations. My heart was heavy, but I knew that now was not the time to dwell on my loss. No one ever said I was no-good at compartmentalizing my problems at least. I stumbled toward the dragon and began to spread out my mana, wanting to boost his fire power and aid any demon that needed it at the same time. I tried not to focus on the bodies that I passed, hoping that I would not land on a familiar face.

  "Sin!"

  I was nearly bowled over as a pair of strong arms wrapped around my shoulders, pulling me into a tight, if brief hug. I knew from scent alone that this was Kieran, even before he spun me and my eyes landed on his blood streaked face. I bit back the tears and the wail that wanted to escape.

  "Are you hurt?" He snarled, red eyes flashing and hands running over my arms, waist and head.

  I tried to say 'no' but the lie clogged in my throat, unable to be spoken. I was not mortally wounded but I was definitely hurting. Instead, what came out of my mouth was "What about you?"

  "I am fine. We fell into the water, but Rougier got us to shore without much effort... I thought you had died."

  I shook my head, knowing that he must have been terrified. Rougier was tied to me and I was sure that he told Kieran that I was, at the very least, alive, but it must have been a horrible few moments for my butler. "I got pushed into a magical bubble. It's a bit of a story, but this is Queen Aura."

  Blinking rather foolishly- something I would have teased him about in another time and place- he gazed at the still rather poorly looking demon female. She just stared back. Cinder-Fetch, however, let out a small trill and fluttered his vibrant wings.

  "Mistress!" Called another familiar voice, and I spun to see Shinra loping our way, her silky fur some what matted and a clear gash to one of her shoulders. At her side was another familiar face: Lidia, daughter of Pasha. She too, looked like she had seen better days. Her braid was some what undone, she had a black eye, and there appeared to be a rather large chip in one of the blades of her huge battle axe.

  "You are alright!" Gasped Lidia. "The battle goes poorly, Lady Sin. Darcious and Cinder are attempting to kill this beast but their attacks can not seem to hit. Queen Perna has been gravely wounded and I have not seen the other Reihee for some time. Command is breaking down and we are loosing soldiers left and right, some are even deserting..." All of this was delivered in a rush, her eyes wide and her heart rate thundering so much that I could hear it over the cries of battle and death. I realized then, that she expected me to have some kind of answer, to provide her with direction and guidance. After all, I was a Queen and that is what Demon Queens did.

  Swallowing hard and hoping I was not going to royally mess up, I steeled my spine and hardened my resolve. "I need to get to Rougier, and then I need to rejoin the other Queens. This mess needs to end now. Aura, can Cinder-Fetch seal the Kataract? You said it was the guardian here right?"

  I ignored the confused looks on Lidia and Kieran's faces and waited for the Queen to respond. She nodded. "Theoretically, yes, this can be done. But we need to destroy what is holding the gate open first, then Cinder-Fetch can seal the opening before anything else comes through and begin the healing process over these lands."

  "I don't suppose anyone has any ideas as to what is holding it open?"

  "Usually it is the strongest creature that makes it through the Kataract. But there have been times in history where it was a weaker servant of the Enemy that has been the key."

  "If we must kill the beast then we may be out of luck." Grouched Kieran, rubbing blood off his forehead. "No matter what Rougier and the Queens threw at it, nothing worked. And since I sliced off one of its legs, my blades have not made a dent either."

  "Must be that creepy guys doing..." I growled. "Where is he?"

  "Atop the beast." Said Lidia. "I do not know how, but he does not fall and he can not be hit by spells."

  "No doubt it is magic. I have never heard of a greater denizen of the anti-mana people coming to Demonia, but I have read that they are sort of like the Enemy's version of a Varcheon."

  "Magic? How can beings that are the enemy of magic, use magic?" I asked, annoyed at my own lack of knowledge.

  "They are not anti-magic but anti-mana. In their realm there is some form of energy that they draw from that works similarly to mana. The two powers do not mix well and what ever it is that the Enemy uses seems to feed on mana."

  I cursed. "Seems like we need to kill the guy with the disgusting eyes. I need to get to the other Queens to see what they think."

  "I can get you there mistress." Stated Shinra in her exotic purr.

  "You are not going anywhere with out me." Huffed Kieran. He must have had a fright because he normally would never take such a tone with me. I supposed I could not blame him. Besides, I was in no hurry to split up again anyway.

  "I really am sorry, but who is this?" Asked a very confused and concerned Lidia, her eyes on the still rather bad looking queen next to me. The girls eyes darted the the very demonic features that matched her own, no doubt heightening her confusion and concern.

  "Lidia, this is Queen Aura, Aura, this is your grand-daughter, Lidia." I said, rather hurriedly. "I am sure this is all very emotional and all but we kind of have a bigger issue on our hands." I added, and began hurrying toward my dragon. The others wasted no time following, Lidia staring wide eyed at her grandmother whom was supposed to be deceased.

  Perhaps it was luck, or maybe it had been the mysterious Thigila's intent, but we seemed to be at the back end of the battle. Other than a hand full of strange, black skinned and web footed, water gremlin looking creatures, we did not encounter any Enemies. And Kieran took them out with little effort.

  "It has mostly been these water beast that we have had to deal with." Explained Lidia as she stood next to us, guarding our right while Shinra loped along at my left. Kieran cut another fishy creature down ahead of us while Aura- holding Cinder-Fetch- and I were guarded in the middle. "They are very easy to dispatch but there are just so many of them. Our forces get swarmed and over powered before we can cut them down."

  "They seem without fear." Commented Kieran, flicking black blood off his sword and keeping his eyes open for more victims. "They attack without planning, seemingly guided by a single will and a thirst for our lives."

  "More likely, it is the mana that exists within us, that they hunger for." Said Aura, her skin now rosy and her muscles filled out once again. "It has been posited, as well, that the Enemy operates under a hive like mind. Many who have fought them before have observed this kind of behavior from them."

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  "I would guess that Old Creepy Eyes is the boss then." I said picking up the pace despite how much effort it took to run in the sand. "He seemed autonomous, at least to an extent. He could talk for himself."

  "You spoke to one?" Gasped Aura. "I have never heard of anyone meeting a denizen of theirs, capable of speech. That, or none have tried to converse with a demon."

  "Well, he was pretty chatty. And very uncaring about our fate." As we neared the cliff face I slowed, then stopped. "Rougier!" I screamed up at the dragon, unsure if he could hear me over his own roars and torrents of blue flame.

  Immediately his large purple jaws snapped shut and his long neck spun so that he was staring down at us over his shoulder. Seeing me, her growled low then pushed off the side of the cliff sending stone shrapnel down on our heads. Lidia let out a warning cry as the dragon flew over our heads to come crashing onto the beach mere feet from where we stood. Sand flew in all directions causing me to cover my face or risk getting an eye full of it.

  "You!" Snarled the dragon in growly tones. I rarely noticed when others were speaking to me in another language, the spell placed on me just translating everything with out a thought from me. Unless I concentrated, I did not hear the other language at all. But apparently Rougier was so mad that his words were a little jumbled and I could here the growling dialect of his dragon race. "Never again female! You have claws do you not? How hard is it to hold on!"

  "Don't get shouty at me!" I snapped back, both annoyed yet oddly relived to be arguing with him once again. "Maybe, if someone had a proper saddle, I would not have fallen off! How am I supposed to keep a firm hold of you when it is like clinging to mossy rocks in a river bed?" I finished brushing the sand out of my face and was not surprised to find Rougier's teeth mere inches from my nose. "Do you mind? You have horrible breath."

  The dragon hissed, stinky carrion breath telling me that he had eaten as many of the fish people as he had torched them. Smoke made me cough. "Do not scare me like that again." He said in a low rumble. His words were clear now but I was still quite sure that he was speaking in the language of the dragons.

  I sighed. "I will do my best."

  Rougier snorted and pulled his head back. "You speak fairly fluent in a language that should be impossible for you to speak." He said, a note of amusement in his tone now. "From what I understand, your kind are missing a key organ to make half the sounds you need."

  "Yes, well, the gods do love to mess with my bodily functions." I snapped, pain making me sound angrier than I was. I pushed the hurt down. It was my decision and I had made it knowingly and under my own volition. I would not allow myself to regret it. After all, without that sacrifice I may not have gotten this conversation with my dragon at all. I dusted off my sodden cloths, more as a distraction than in the belief that I could ever get rid of all this sand at this point. "We need to get to the other Queens and Reihee."

  "Well, I can not fly there. My wing is broken in several places."

  Wincing I noted that one of his wings was held to his side at a very uncomfortable looking angle and that one of the joints looked swollen. I cursed my poor healing abilities. I had a spell that would work for him but it would not work unless I had the time for it to do its thing, and time was something I did not have.

  "Get on my back." He growled. "I can at least push my way through so long as that tentacle monster is distracted over there." He added flicking his head to the other side of the lake where the monster in question did indeed seem distracted.

  "What's it doing?" I asked. It was only now that I realized that it seemed to have left the bulk of the demon army here along this shore and had gone to a less densely covered area, its squid-y legs pounding the ground there, and flicking at the skies.

  "Wyverns." Said Rougier. "About fifteen minutes ago a thunder appeared and began pelting the beast with flame and harrying it from above."

  "Wyverns!" I exclaimed, eyes wide and war momentarily forgotten as I strained to see the scaly lizards myself.

  "Lesser ones." Rougier said with a flick of his fore paw. "Young ones from up north I would say. There is a small colony there during this season, as the fishing is good."

  "... and they just showed up?" I asked, incredulous, still trying to catch sight of them.

  Rougier let out another one of his smoky snorts, causing Cinder-Fetch to let out an indignant squawk when it got a beak full. "Unlike you sad little races, dragons are more attuned to the world. As much as we greater dragons dismiss them, wyverns are a cousin race. They sensed the danger and came, their wings faster than those of your puny kind." He seemed to get a little contemplative as he too looked in the direction of the opposite shore. "We may be a self centered race but we need this planet as much as you all do. These beings are our enemies as well." He huffed again then turned back to me. "Enough gawking. Get on my back so I can get you all to the other useless two leggeds. Even a thunder of wyverns can only do so much to that monster when most magic bounces off."

  Grumping, I made my way up the dragons back, while Lidia reluctantly aided Aura up behind me. She did not seemed impressed with having to ride on a dragon, but was unwilling to leave Aura and I unguarded. Kieran clambered up and held out a hand to the Reihan, as Shinra disappeared into the shadows once again.

  "I am not sure I like this..." Stated the other Queen as Rougier began lumbering at a pretty impressive speed toward where we had first laid eyes on our current foes. "His mana is so great that it stings my body where we touch."

  "It does?" I asked, looking down at the rocky purple back beneath me. "I hadn't noticed..."

  "We are not as sensitive as a queen, but even we can sense Rougier's mana." Said Kieran, patting the spine situated between his legs. "He is, after all, one of the strongest monsters this world has to offer."

  "I am not a pet." Snapped the dragon.

  "Of course you are not." I said in a placating tone, adding a small pat to his scaly hide for good measure. Best to keep your emotionally unstable dragon in a good mood.

  Luckily we did not have to travel far, and came across the bulk of what was left of our demon army fairly quick. Things were not looking good, at all. All command structure seemed to have broken down, there was no organization, and people were either dead, injured, looking off into the nether, shell shocked and confused.

  The few people who were up and able, were helping the others. Everyone was in survival mode and no one knew what was supposed to be happening.

  I pursed my lips and decided that, qualified or not, I had to get shit done.

  "You there!" I snapped at a man with dark skin and a long tail. He looked disheveled, but uninjured and was looking from side to side, as if at a loss. At my snapped command he righted himself and spun to face me. Comically, looking up when he realized that he had somehow been so out of it that a massive purple dragon had snuck up on him. "Get those three men over there and the lot of you start taking the injured back to the tents!" I ordered. His eyes grew wide and he nodded. "Spread the word that everyone able is to help the wounded to safety, then have everyone assemble at the command tent. Now!"

  Looking scandalized, the man hurried to do as he was told, almost tripping over his own feet in the grey tinged, blood spattered, sand.

  "Nicely done." Chortled Rougier, sound both amused and tired.

  "Fool should have been doing his job without needing to be asked." Huffed Lidia, who still looked a little shell shocked herself, but was starting to loose the glassy look to her eyes.

  "Well," I said, feeling a little sorry for these demons. "Its not like anyone had been trained to deal with giant squid monsters."

  As Rougier hurried us along the beach I watched as the hectic scene actually began to get just a little more organized as my orders were passed along. Soon it wasn't just us heading for the encampment anymore, but many demons. Though, the rest were falling significantly behind us given that they were helping the wounded and did not have the stride of the dragon.

  "Sin 'Andra!" I heard, shouted out above the mess that was the mass of wounded laid out amongst the toppled tents of the command center. As we approached I could tell that the mass of tents and campfires had not made it though the squid attack unscathed. No tents were left standing, and the ground itself was torn up, likely by one of the monster's tentacles. "Sin 'Andra!"

  My eyes finally landed on the source of the call: it was the unicorn like Reihee, Frost. Though, she looked a lot less majestic now. Her cloths were torn and bloodied and her white gold hair was matted with mud and blood. Her eyes looked wild as she hurried toward us, arms waving, trying to get my attention.

  "Reihee Frost." I said, sliding off the dragon's back, quickly followed by the others. Lidia aided Aura down so that her frail form would not shatter on the drop. "I need to hear a report. What is going on?"

  Panting, the woman came to a halt once she reached us, looking near tears. She was a politician, after all, not a fighter. "Th-the Queens are engaged with the Enemy. The Wyverns arrived, and between them and the queens, they managed to lead the Enemy from the encampment... But Queen Perna is in a bad way."

  I nodded and reached out a hand, placing it on the other woman's shoulder as she gulped down air. She was trembling and I instinctually sent mana coursing her way. I watched as she managed to regain her composure before I started in on my questioning again.

  "What of Reihee's Pasha and Uther?" I asked, scanning the crowd. Was Frost the only one left to maintain order?

  Frost shivered, but seemed to steel her nerve. "Pasha hurried after the Queens with several of her warriors. But... Uther is dead. The Enemy- she was hit by that monster!"

  "Its alright. Breath." It wasn't alright, not at all. But her falling apart was not going to help anyone, especially since the scattered demons had begun to trickle back into the camp. the last thing these shell shocked soldiers needed to see was their leaders having a mental break down. "Reihee Frost. I need you to gather every able bodied demon you can find and have them meet me on the east side of the encampment. Can you do that?"

  The blonde woman took a second to suck in some air and compose herself, but she then nodded the affirmative.

  "Good." I said, patting her shoulder. "Those wyverns will only be able to distract the Enemy for so long. We need to mobilize our forces and aid Queens Darcious and Cinder before they fall too. Quickly now!"

  Reihee Frost wasted no time, resolved to do this one job at the very least. I watched her take off, stopping here and there to order people around, pointing to the east.

  "What now?" Asked Aura, clutching Cider Fetch close.

  "Now you stay here, preferably with Queen Perna. With any luck, Cinder Fetch's influence might help preserve her life, and you can not fight."

  The older queen frowned, but- pride or no pride- she knew that there was no way for her to fight. Even if she had not just been a skeleton, her exchange with Thigila meant that all that had once made her queen was now gone. She was weaker than the average demon now. But, helping Perna? Yes, that was something she could do.

  "What are you planning?" She asked me.

  I looked over the shattered tents and the broken demons to where I could just make out the squid through the haze of the slightly less thick mist. It still seemed to be harried by the dipping and diving wyverns, but hat would not last much longer.

  "I'm going to remove some bastards from my property." I said, noting the icy tone my voice had taken. I was just so done with all of this. "Its time got my own hands dirty, I think."