An Incursion Halted

At the same moment, the Jyus war horns sound off into the battlefield. Joventrius and Magister Layson leads the Jyus Magi, who emerge from the mountains. Joventrius nods to Whittham and raises his arms,

"On this day, let this be known as the day evil failed to triumph over the united alliances of the three kingdoms!" He orders his mages to charge the battlefield, fireballs and arcane bolts blazing.

Danimus becomes angered at this pathetic "alliance". He opens up another portal whilst fighting Jervaintus. A great host of Abyss wyverns and heavily armored demon knights bolster the Abyss demon ranks.

Layson, with a wave of his staff, conjures an enormous summoning circle above the army of demons and a great blizzard obstructs their vision and path. Jervaintus is caught in the middle of it, however. The demon lord scoffs,

"How fitting. Soon, the cold of hands of death will drag your soul to the deepest depths the Abyss." The chill winds blow across him as he prepares his scythe.

He swings once more at Jervaintus, causing him to be launched into the thick fog of the raging blizzard. The demon lord focuses his attention of the mages and marches towards them. A Jyus soldier runs towards him, stabbing the sword deep on Danimus' chests. His corruption spreads on the sword touches the soldier, an ethereal hand emerges and rips the soldier's soul from his body. He raises his hand and nullifies the magic circle above the battlefield, causing the blizzard to cease.

"You sorcerers are a troublesome bunch." He stares a hole through Joventrius.

"You demons will not win this war." Joventrius fires a bolt of holy energy at Danimus.

The demon lord grabs a demon knight nearby and uses him as a meat shield. The holy bolt turns the lesser demon inside out before he disintegrates into ashes.

Whittham slowly repositions his soldiers towards the Jyus so they will be able to pull out. Danimus takes notice of this and redirects his flyers to focus attacking the Agnaum forces that are trying to escape.

Jervaintus rushes back and attempts to slash Danimus' face and they engage in their duel once more. As their steel clash, more demons emerge from the portal, nearly outnumbering the combined forces of Agnaum and the Jyus Society.

At the same moment, Sirena helps Whittham gun down the flyers that are attacking the other soldiers. Whittham looks at Danimus from the distance dueling Jervaintus,

"We need to find a way to shut down that portals, or we will never get out of this battle alive." He tells her.

She nods and sneaks her way throughout the battlefield and reach the side where the Jyus are fighting on. She suggests Joventrius of the plan to shut down the portal.

"If I could get close enough, I will be able to shut down that damnable portal." His voice flows with strong conviction.

"Their numbers grow for every moment that passes in this battle. We must create a path and traverse quickly to help the Abyss Walker." Layson suggests.

As if right on cue, the energies of Jervaintus' sword wipes out the demons between him and the mages, a huge path made clear. They quickly charge, accompanied by other battle mages, and close the gap between them and the demon lord.

Jervaintrius grapples onto Danimus and submerges both of them into the shadows and transfers both of them near the seashore. They are shot up in the air and Jervaintus delivers the demon lord a good old piledriver into the cold, and unforgiving gravel, the sound of his bones breaking sounds off like a symphony to the abyss walker's ears. Danimus slowly gets up and raises his hands, which are now covered in a magical aura, causing the sea to rumble.

Several sunken ships rise with crews of abyss demons lurking from within. Cannons fire off into the battlefield, hitting friend and foe alike. Jervaintus looks at the sight with an impressed look on his face.

"Ah, demon pirates. Who knew. This is gonna be a fun battle." He slices off a flying cannon ball with ease.

Joventrius and the other mages manage to shut down the main portals and assist the main army in the repositioning. Additional reinforcements from Agnaum arrive, with a good handful of siege equipment. Joventrius looks at Whittham,

"You really did planned for situations like this, Great Raven." He smiles.

"Knowing this port, and the wars we've waged and so much battles in the seas, I had so much research put into creating better weapons." They share a laugh.

A couple of more hours pass and the battle is still at a stalemate. Jervaintus and the demon lord start to slow down, as the long battle takes a toll on both of them. Danimus transforms his scythe into a long sword.

"You…you are more troublesome than I…you are worth…why…delay…the inevitable…?" He pants.

"Because…I wanted…to…make you think that…you had a chance." Jervaintus gets fired up.

He lets out a fierce battle cry and swings his sword faster at the demon lord. His aura of vengeance is restored as he hacks away at Danimus. This feat nearly takes him aback. He realizes now the true threat this young knight poses to the rulers of the Abyss.

"Aren't you the lord of death? Try and kill me already!" He unleashes another flurry of strikes.

The nearby galleon fires all of its cannons and multiple hit the ground where Jervaintus and Danimus were fighting on. This sends both of them flying. The demon lord slowly recovers and summons another portal, it opens up behind the human forces and more abyss demons join the battle. This time, the demons are larger and nastier then before. Jervaintus charges at him again but the seas rile up once again and floods the entire port of Jed's Landing, causing everyone to retreat towards the mountains. Jervaintus gets caught in the current and dragged deeper into the seas where demons who are shaped like fish creatures try and drag him deeper into the depths.

"How will you ever get out of this one…" The spirit sarcastically says to him.

Jervaintus harnesses the mystical powers of the sword, the pale green light causes the fish demons to back off and retreat to the darkness they are safe in. He makes it by to dry land and searches the area of the demon lord. He sees the demon lord in the middle of a thick layers of demons that safeguard him as he restores his energy.

More new demons are emerging from four portals this time, severely outnumbering the forces 5 to 1. The siege weapons are taking care of the enemy ships, the mages and riflemen distract the flyers and the rest are having a deadly skirmish on the front lines. Sirena is leading the infantry forces, which causes Jervaintus to smile. The large juggernaut demons start to surround Jervaintus while he is distracted. He snaps out and readies his blade. Another horn sounds in the distance.

The demons take their eyes off of him and look at the horizon. Jervaintus eyes light up as the sound of the horn as all too familliar to him. It was the war horn of Hozran. General Durkins emerges from the mountains with a great host of Hozran soldiers alongside Algis, their king. He also brings forth his armada which ram into the demonic ships. The Hozran infantry charge with reckless abandon, nearly stampeding the demons with their sheer speed and thick shields. General Durkins looks at Jervaintus and nods at him. He nods back and slices his way through the demons.

The might of the three kingdoms slowly and surely overpowers the abyss demons, as their numbers gradually decrease. Jervaintus shoves Danimus off of his perch and the soldiers clear the battlefield. He licks his lips like a predator about to pounce on his prey,

"How about one last showdown?" He points his sword at him.

"Insufferable little runt…do you believe you will single handedly take down the entire Abyss?" Danimus questions his resolve.

"Absolutely." He takes a swing.

"You are a madman…" The death lord shows a hint of fear.

"You're surprised? Not even the abyss can hold me!" Jervaintus proudly exclaims.

They both clash once more, Jervaintus is now slowly getting the better of the demon lord. He tries to escape but Jervaintus sees it coming and binds the demon to his own shadow.

"You cannot escape." He says.

"Curse you…!" The demon lord stands his ground.

They do one more exchange, a quick flurry of swords and clash of steel occurs. The energies of Jervaintus' sword begins to overpower the demon, weakening him even further. The demon lands several cuts on the abyss walker but it isn't even enough to cause him to flinch. Pools of blood start to flow from his body and yet he still fights as if he was fresh.

A pitch black aura slowly envelopes Jervaintus as his blade now goes through the defenses of the demon lord, mortally wounding him. With one good kick that smashes his kneecap, the demon lord falls before the abyss walker. The demons seeing this, rush to the aid of their master, which causes nothing but fuel Jervaintus' battle hunger even further. He swipes them away as if they were flies with his temporary might.

"Any last words?" He presses his boot to the demon lord's throat.

"Perhaps I was wrong…" Danimus breathes heavily.

"That you underestimated me, yes, I get it. I just want to steal your powers anyways." He cuts him off.

"No…it will not be through battle that we will defeat you...but your mind is as frail as your humanity. The final lord shall be waiting for you." The demon lord coughs up blood.

"Eww…you got your stinkin' blood on my shoes." He applies more pressure on the demon.

As the demon lord slowly fades from his consciousness, he conjures one final spell. His entire body glows green. Joventrius takes notice and urges everyone to retreat as fast as they can. Jervaintus looks at him in confusion. The human forces quickly retreat into the mountains as the demons rush towards the Abyss Walker. He attempts to raise his sword but he begins to get piled on by the ungodly mass of the abyss demons.

"If you want to acquire my powers that badly, then I shall give you a piece of death." The demon grins.

The rest make it into the mountains in time. Sirena looks onward and a massive explosion of souls scar the land. The land around the demon lord dies and a giant vortex consumes Jervaintus, forcing him back into the Abyss.

"Jervaintus!" She shouts out.

A collective and loud shriek of the demons as their souls are sundered render the humans unable to move as the sound pierces through their ears. The demon lord has his last laugh as he takes Jervaintus' life while sacrificing his own and the rest of his servants.

"Victory!" A soldier shouts.

The army raise their weapons in triumph and cheer as they have defeated the abyss demons in battle. The three rulers, Durkins and Sirena, however, see this as a hollow victory as Jervaintus once again taken back to the Abyss.

They have no other choice now but to gather, regroup and rebuild whatever they can in preparation for another demonic invasion, with or without him.