"So what do you want to do, father?" Tidus asks me as we gather around the war table.

"The Castle's leg joints are vulnerable to attack. I want all ships to focus fire on the front four legs' upper joints to stop its forward momentum. Who here knows about runes and sigils?" I reply and ask my gathered officers.

A dark grey furred Deamon with black hair and dark red eyes who looks like an incupony but with four horns and is a foot taller named Runic Charm replies. "I've studied runes, my Lord," he tells me.

"Is there anyway to trigger the runes on the lesser demons from a distance and force them to blow?" I ask him.

He hums in thought for a few seconds. "It can be possible, but I need to know what runes they had and how they were linked together to do it," he replies.

"Dammit..." I say. Luna then speaks up.

"I saw the runes," she says and conjures a piece of paper and picks up a charcoal pencil. After a few minutes of scribbling, she slides the paper over to him.

"Yes, I see. There's a subconscious command rune here, most likely to cause the detonation when close to a target," he replies tapping the rune that would be engraved over the demon's heart.

"Ssso what if we can trick them into thinking they're attacking a target?" Vipirior says frowning at the rune covered paper.

"And how would we do that? Illusions?" another officer says.

I narrow my eyes as an idea comes to mind. I mentally call one of my shadow wraiths and one appears next to me, startling the others.

"Can those explosions hurt you?" I ask it.

"Nooo, at worst, they shall merely send us back into the shadow realm to recover," it replies just staring at me.

"So can you make the demons detonate themselves while we focus on bringing down the Castle's legs?" I then ask it.

"If that is what you wish, it shall be done," it replies eagerly.

I smirk and look to the others. "Seems we got the start of a plan," I say and turn back to the shadow wraith. "If you can't make them detonate, I want all of you to come out and kill as many of the runed demons as you can and prevent them from reaching our ships," I order it getting it to bow to me.

"As you command, Master," it replies and fades away.

"What shall we do when we board the Castle, my Lord?" Porkscratch asks me. He's the only known boarus who has evolved into an archdemon in all recorded history, living for nearly two-hundred years in the farthest reaches of the Blasted Wastes where we found him half-dead from a battle he had with a now dead demonlord. He's seven feet tall and has dark brown fur covering his body. Two massive tusks are coming out the sides of his snout and his black hair is in the style of a foot long Mohawk.

He also has more muscle on him than Ironhoof and an eye patch over his left eye. He's not missing the eye, he just likes the patch. He's wearing a set of VERY heavy plate armour and wields a large hammer he's named Annabelle.

"Once the legs are down, hopefully the Castle tilts over, but if not, we'll send the armoured infantry through first to defend against any more runed demons who will no doubt be inside. Then we'll search the Castle for the portal demon and Tirek. Kill the portal demon as fast as you can, but do not engage Tirek, send word to me and I shall deal with him," I reply and look out the window in the side of the cabin towards the Castle.

I then turn back to the others. "Anyone else got any suggestions or ideas?" I ask them.

"If we cannot destroy the joints with the cannons, we recommend ramming one of the frigates into the side of the Castle. The force might be enough to topple the Castle," Selene says with a frown.

"That'll be a last resort, Any other ideas?" I ask the others.

"Erm, what about just going into the Shadow Realm and sneak in, find either Tirek or the portal demon, and kill them before they know you're inside?" Desire suggests as I and everyone else just stares at me.

I slowly frown and turn my head to look at her.

'After all these decades fighting... I NEVER THOUGHT OF DOING THAT!?' I yell at myself in my head. 'But then again, it just wasn't my style, but now I may have to do just that...' I then think to myself and look back to the Castle out the window. "It could work, but they may have demons who can sense me coming, Val' Hades did when I fought him," I tell her.

"Both our sister and ourself can assist you with that as we too can travel the Shadow Realm," Selene then offers.

"So, the plan is to send in my wraiths to distract and kill the runed demons with our ranged units while the ships focus on crippling the Castle. Meanwhile, Selene, Luna, and I infiltrate the Castle via the Shadow Realm and try to assassinate Tirek and any other demonlord we find. Agreed?" I recap and ask.

They all agree and we begin preparations for the coming battle.

I'm on the deck with Luna and Selene next to me while my sons and Desire ready their rifles. "Aim for the uppers joints of the four front legs!" I tell the gunner crew where the message is passed along to the other ships that just finished lining up their shots. "Wraiths! Begin your attack, I want six wraiths to come with us! Two to watch over each of us!" I tell my shadow wraiths where at least one-hundred of them fade in and without so much as a sound, fly towards the Castle and start attacking the runed demons still circling said Castle.

The runed demons retaliate and start detonating barely affecting the wraiths but two of my wraiths turn into a fading mist from a large blast before slowly reforming next to me and rushing back in.

"ALL SHIPS OPEN FIRE!" I then yell and all the cannons thunder out over the Wastes as half of the shots hit their targets.

The two closest leg joints get blown off and the legs after the joints fall to the ground with loud thuds and cracking the area around them. The next two legs only have their joints crippled and the legs freeze up.

The Castle completely stops as it threatens to tip over. "Luna, Selene! Let's get going. The rest of you keep the enemy distracted and slowly make your way to the Castle!" I yell out and go into the Shadow Realm where Luna and Selene follow me in.

We fly towards the Castle passing over the gunfire and runed demons before landing on the Castle and making our way in.

There's three hallways, one on the left and right and one straight ahead. I point to both Luna and Selene and then to the side hallways, they nodded and each go down one, each with their two wraiths following behind them. I head down the middle and keep my eyes out for Tirek or the portal demon.

My two wraiths stay close as we pass doorways leading to rooms filled with food, demons, or equipment. I frown at the room where I watch as a harpy strapped down to a table screams as a skinny four armed deamon that looks like a goat satyr is carving those runes into her body. More lesser demons are tied up to the side of the room with terrified expressions as they watch it happening.

I frown as there's nothing I can do without revealing myself, so for now, I continue on and check every room we pass. I finally come across a room with four dark blue portals open and a tall slender goat like bipedal archdemon wearing something close to a black and white butler's suit is standing in the middle of the room with an expression of concentration.

Lesser demons are dragged through kicking and screaming or looking defeated as they're dragged or pushed along. Some are already covered in runes and comply to any order they're given.

I summon Thanatos and look to my wraiths. 'On my command, attack any demons who try to get in the way, once I kill the archdemon, return to the Shadow Realm,' I tell them mentally.

"Yes, Master," they both reply and quickly scan the room.

I watch the archdemon closely. It seems to be focusing on the portals, but just as I'm about to issue the attack order, the archdemon's eyes glance my way with a frown on his face.

It seems he can't see me, as his eyes are moving about, just looking in our general direction. I slowly make my way around him but his eyes follow my general direction.

"I don't know who you are, but if you thought you could sneak up on me, think again," he says and points his left palm in my general direction before firing a blast of dark blue demonic energy that misses my head by mere inches and cracks the wall behind me on impact.

What worries me the most is that I felt the heat of the energy when it shouldn't even affect me in the Shadow Realm.

I quickly bolt forward and raise my scythe, once within range I command my wraiths to attack and exit the Shadow Realm. His eyes widen as I swing my scythe down.

"YOU!?" he yells in surprise as my blade sinks into his neck, through his heart, and coming out his hip.

"Yes, me," I say as Thanatos sucks out his soul while my wraiths slash and spray darkfire at the now attacking lesser demons. The four portals warp and collapse leaving no trace that they were there as the archdemon is reduced to ash.

"Fall back!" I tell my wraiths and return to the Shadow Realm, followed by my wraiths.

I hear the roars of demons echo throughout the Castle and frown. 'Seems they know we're here now.'

I quickly leave the room and continue down the hallway. Lesser demons are running about as deamons and a few other archdemons are issuing orders.

I then feel a tingle in my head. 'Damien, we hast found Tirek. He is in the left side of the Castle a floor down,' Luna tells me telepathically. I would reply, but I don't know how or think I even can.

I track back and meet Selene along the way. She nodded to me as she and our four wraiths follow me down the left hallway and navigate past the still hectic demons.

Selene has told me she managed to take out an archdemon who was distracted with a succupony he was raping in a small room without gaining anyone's attention. Although the succupony was crippled as her arms and legs were removed and asked Selene to kill her, which she granted.

We find Luna next to a large doorway looking inside, we come up next to her and I notice she's shaking, not in fear but barely restrained anger. Selene though growls and tries to rush in, but I grab her tail making her yelp and I pull her back.

"Not yet, control yourself," I tell her making her growl angrily but nod.

We watch as Tirek looks angry and is yelling at the other demons in the room. He looks like he's ten feet tall and very muscular, has a dark grey fur covered quadruped goat body with white cloven hooves, and a white short tail. His human like torso has black fur while his arms and shoulders are covered in red fur.

His head is the shape of a goat's and also has long white hair and a beard, two long vertical horns that start off curving out then back in before ending with them pointing to the sides. They're so long they're barely avoiding the ceiling of the room. His eyes are black with yellow irises. Lastly, he has a large grey fel-iron ring coming out of his nose.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE PORTALS ARE DOWN!?" he yells at a cowering incupony. Two more demonlords are standing beside him.

The left one looks like a twelve foot tall cyclops with thick demonite armour on and wields a large demonite club. His skin is a dark greyish-blue and his eye's iris is green. He also has a single short but thick horn on his forehead.

The other demonlord I recognise, her name is Killganna. She's nine feet tall and looks like a red bipedal crocodile with a slim figure and small breasts, but has a long jaw and nearly a hundred sharp teeth lining it. She's not as muscular as the other two, but her jaw alone has ripped apart everyone she's ever bitten.

She's wearing black leather armour and has a pair of swords that look like jaw bones with serrated teeth along the blades.

I've ran into her once before decades ago but she managed to get away after attacking one of my towns. This is the first time I've seen her since then and she looks stronger than before.

"T-T-The portals a-are g-gone and t-there is n-n-no sign of Bezulle. J-Just ash and un-runed d-demons..." he replies terrified.

Before Tirek could reply, the Castle shakes as the sounds of rifles, cannons, and explosions are still going off outside.

"A-And the Overlord's flying vessels h-have destroyed f-four of the Fortress' l-legs, M-Master," the incupony then tells him.

Tirek growls angrily before his eyes glow for a second, I then hear screeches and screams outside before lots of explosions go off followed by wood splintering and the groaning of bending metal.

"His ships and forces are no longer a problem," Tirek says and looks at the table in the room, on it is a map of Tartarus like mine but with more unexplored areas revealed on it. "Damn that brat, I need more power, I will reclaim my right as Overlord, and then I'll go and put those accursed alicorns in their place!" he says as he looks over the map.

I frown when he said my ships and forces are no longer a problem, just what did he do?

"W-What do you want to do now, M-Master?" the incupony asks him.

The incupony flinches as Tirek looks at him. "Get Infernious outside, we're still within range for him to bombard the City," Tirek orders him, getting the incupony to quickly bow and run out the room.

"Kill that incupony," I order my wraiths who nodded and fade out of the Shadow Realm and without warning, tear the incupony apart.

Tirek and the others eyes widen as they witness it. "So we do have intruders," the cyclops says in a deep rough voice.

Killganna then looks directly at me. "It's the false Overlord!" she yells and points at me, I forgot she could see things others could not.

With my cover blown, I exit the Shadow Realm along with Luna and Selene.

"So the child shows himself," Tirek says calmly as I glare at him.

I don't say anything to him but address my six wraiths. "Kill any of his demons who try to get in," I order them getting them to nod and wait outside the hallway. I then turn to Luna and Selene. "Luna, take down the right demonlord. Be careful of her jaw, it can rip apart almost anything. Selene, bring down the cyclops, but don't kill them, I want their souls. But if you can’t restrain them, then kill them," I tell them getting nods in reply.

"Luna!?" Tirek says surprised and looks between the two alicorns beside me.

"Verily, Monster. We art here to punish thee for harming our sister with thine foul influence," she replies and Selene looks ready to pounce at him.

"Yes, and this child had to ruin my plans of easily taking over Equestria and its magic. But since you're both here, I'll just have to settle for yours!" he says and opens his mouth.

After an awkward ten or so seconds, nothing happens. My wraiths have also begun fighting some lesser demons and deamons trying to force their way in.

"Why can't I take your magic!?" Tirek yells angrily.

"Because we art now demonlords ourselves!" Selene replies with a smirk. "Thou cannot take our magic without our consent!" she then yells tauntingly.

"KILL THEM!" Tirek then yells at the other two demonlords.

Before they could charge, the Castle violently shakes as the sound of more splintering wood echoes throughout the Castle, which is quickly tipping over.

"Back into the Shadow Realm! Get out!" I tell Luna and Selene.

They growl but comply. "AFTER THEM!" Tirek yells angrily as we make our way back out.

The hallway is slowly tilting and we jump out of a nearby window. What I see is my flagship the Death from Above heavily damaged and embedded into the side of the Castle which is now tipping over.

I look down to see most of my forces has abandoned their ships which lie on the ground in pieces. Quite a few of my forces are missing, most likely dead, but some are injured while most are still firing up at the few remaining runed demons attacking them and my wraiths.

I spot my wife and sons by the ground units but Vipirior looks injured.

I quickly exit the Shadow Realm before making my way down and land next to Desire. "What happened?" I ask her.

"Damien!" she yells and happily hugs me.

I return the hug and look towards the Castle as it finally impacts the ground, causing a large earthquake knocking us off our feet.

Before Desire can tell me what happened, a blast erupts from the Castle and a swarm of five-thousand demons emerge, some injured while most seem fine. Tirek and his demonlords jump out of the ruined Castle and glare hatefully in our direction.

"Tell me later, ALL UNITS STILL IN FIGHTING CONDITION! PREPARE FOR BATTLE!" I yell to my forces, getting cheers from them as they start making formations.

Next Chapter: Chapter 51: Battle of the Blasted Wastes Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 30 Minutes