As Michael gave his warning Ollie retrieved his hat and jacket and raised his staff, starting to move magicka through his channels as he did so.

"What kind of 'something'?" he asked.

"The rift monster kind. I can feel it getting closer every moment."

"Can you feel every rift monster? That seems like it would've been pretty helpful back at the hidden village."

"Not all of them, just…" He paused. "The giant creatures with the four arms. Like the one in the cave back in Tusinya."

"Well fuck me," said Ollie. "Should we just run?"

"No," said Michael, shaking his head. "My visions are done, but there's something here that you're meant to find too. If we leave we'll miss it."

"The snazzy hat is enough, honestly. I say we leave."

"It's not like the last time we fought one, we're both stronger, more skilled and better equipped."

"Fuck, okay." He kept channeling and began preparing two separate spells as he held his staff outward, a small ball of concentrated magicka pulsing at either end of it.

Michael felt his dread continue to build as he hefted his sword and shield, sending divine power through them both to make them glow with golden flame. They were standing in an open area of the ruins on a patch of solid marble. As the dread crescendoed, they saw movement from the trees in front of them as well as the water nearby. One of the creatures emerged from the tree line, looking much like the one they'd fought in the cave except instead of a hundred small blade-like limbs on its bottom half it had closer to six large and spear-like ones that ended in a tail like a scorpion. The other emerged from the water. This one had a more lobster-like back end and a thicker carapace across its body.

"Of fucking course there would be two this time."

Michael didn't have a chance to respond as the scorpion bodied one surged toward him, its limbs making a terrible rapid clicking sound against the exposed marble as it moved.

He rushed towards it and as he reached it the monster reared back and spat a thick green material from its mouth. Michael managed to dodge most of it, but some hit his shoulder plate and began sizzling.

Before he could react to that the beast spun around and whipped its tail toward him. He caught it on his shield, and was pushed back a foot, but managed to stay standing. The creature then struck out with its mantis-like limbs, forcing him to parry and dodge before it stepped backward and launched another globule of acid at him.

Michael stepped back to dodge the green mass and it didn't move forward toward him. It was being cautious. He realized something in that moment, something he'd never considered. The creature was fighting defensively against him. It was afraid of him.

That made Michael smile. There was a series of explosions behind him that let him know that Ollie was still okay, and he used the distraction of the blasts to launch himself toward the monster in front of him. It slashed both mantis limbs at him, but he batted one aside and caught the other with his sword as it reached him, the blessed blade proving more than a match for the bladed limb and cutting it in two.

The monster screeched terribly, spewing sickly yellow ichor from its severed arm, and reared up to stab at him with four of its legs while balancing backward on its tail. He pressed the offensive, blocking one limb with shield magic while using his actual shield for another of them. His armor held for the third, but the fourth leg managed to pierce his shoulder plate where the creature had weakened it with acid earlier in the fight. The limb drove deep, eviscerating his shoulder, and he only barely managed to keep hold of his sword as his muscles and ligaments were shredded.

He slammed his flaming shield into the creature's exposed thorax, and as the chitin caught flame it was forced to withdraw its limb, letting Michael heal his shoulder as he stepped backward. He risked a look at Ollie who seemed to somehow be floating in the air above the lobster like monster, throwing down spells rapidfire that alternated from cutting, to fire, to lightning, to pure magical force. The monster itself was throwing rocks and expelling high pressure water from odd protrusions across its carapace which Ollie was narrowly dodging or blocking with magical barriers.

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A glob of acid forced Michael back to the fight at hand and he caught it in the center of his shield before he rushed forward.

The monster whipped around using the momentum of its entire body to strengthen a blow from its tail. Michael gritted his teeth and moved forward so that the point of the tail would miss him, but the body of it struck him. As it did he raised his arm and let it dent his plate and nearly launched him off his feet, but before it could he wrapped his arm around it, shifting his sword into a mace to help extend his grip by bracing the handle around it.

The creature screamed as the fiery mace pressed against his skin, and began thrashing to remove him.

"Durand, give me strength," he roared, feeling the flame inside of him grow brighter as the god of Strength's attention turned to him.

With one arm he managed to keep hold of the creature's tail and with the other he began to slam the edge of his shield into the creature's lower back, sending out spurts of yellow blood and causing the flames of his faith to spread to more of it.

The beast moved toward a ruined piece of masonry and began to bash Michael against it, but he held strong, healing even as he drove his shield down again and again. Soon the monster was entirely covered in golden flames, and he could feel its strength waning. It gave a few more halfhearted attempts to dislodge him before it went still.

Michael was breathing heavily, but didn't want to take any chances and so smashed in the creature's skull with his mace before moving to help Ollie.

The lobster-like creature must've noticed him because it began to adjust its stance to face them both, but just as Michael was about to reach the fight with the remaining monster though, a massive chunk of sharp stone plunged through its chest, piercing all the way through it and into the ground. The beast shrieked as yellow blood sprayed from the wound, practically exploding out of it before it went still.

As it died Michael felt the sense of dread that came with sensing them fade away.

Ollie was panting as he landed back on the ground and nearly fell before Michael caught him.

"I knew you could levitate, but flying is new."

"I don't get to practice it much. Too thick of forests when we were fighting the rift beasts and flying alone and exposed in the air above the Burndan soldiers didn't seem like the best idea either."

"Makes sense," replied Michael, sheathing his sword and buckling his shield back to his back. He did a quick look over everything and realized he was sorely in need of repairs to his armor. The breastplate was still intact, but scratched to all hell, and his right pauldron was practically useless now with the damage from the acid and the creature's spear-like leg.

Ollie was poking at the lobster creature with a stick.

"Think it tastes like actual lobster?" he asked.

"If you want to find out then you're welcome to, but the next time we see Pyotr and Marcus I'm going to spend at least an hour complaining about the horrors of travelling with an Aussie."

"You'd do that anyway."

"Possibly," replied Michael with a smile.

Ollie shook his head and tossed the stick he was holding to the ground. "So, is anything else on its way to kill us?"

"Not immediately from what I can tell, but I don't think we should linger."

"Alright then. Tell your gods to just give me whatever the hell it is they think I need. I don't want to wait until they send more of those evil fuckers."

"All Seras told me was that you need to 'watch for the darkest shadow' which I assume means one of the shades we've been seeing."

"The darkest shadow…" mumbled Ollie. "I think I know who she means. I didn't pay close attention because all he seemed to do was sit at a desk all day." He looked around. "Fuck, I don't remember exactly where he was. I'll have to wait until they appear again."

Michael nodded and they spent the next several hours packing the camp, doing some maintenance on their equipment, and waiting. Anxiously watching the edges of the forest and the water.

Eventually the fog drifted in and the shades reappeared. Ollie knew exactly which one to begin following when it manifested. Michael could also see that he seemed a bit darker and more substantial than the others. They watched as he carefully walked to what they'd estimated to be Sylas's room. They'd thought he was just cleaning it, and that was part of what he was doing, but he was also rifling through what appeared to be something desk height. Once he had what he was looking for he crept back to a different room, being careful to make sure it was locked, then he sat down at a desk of his own and began writing. After some time he looked around and moved to the corner of the room where he carefully lifted a floorboard or perhaps a stone tile, and then placed something beneath it.

Ollie immediately went to where he'd put the items and carved out a square of stone and Earth that he then began to sort through until he came across a large stone box. He brought the box to his hands and opened it, finding a thick stack of papers. He looked through it for a few moments, raising an eyebrow.

"These are the mage's notes. Translated from… from i don't fucking know into Hume."

Michael nodded, must be what Sylas had called the 'conqueror's language'.

"Why was he doing it?" asked Michael.

Ollie shrugged. "It doesn't say. Maybe he was a spy, or a mage himself or something?" He shook his head. "I think I can use this either way."

Michael smiled. "Of course you can. The gods led you to it after all."

Ollie sighed. "You smug cunt."

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