I watch as my remaining one-thousand or so demons get into formation. Boarus upfront with heavy shields to block incoming spells, rifleman behind them using them as cover while aiming over their shoulders. In the back are my archdemon long ranged spell casters or super strong throwers, they act like siege weapons to toss powerful spells or massive boulders a good distance.

Though it seems I lost one of them.

Harpies are flying overhead holding what few bombs survived the ship wrecks, each of them also has an imp or goblin on their backs strapped to their harnesses wielding revolver pistols.

The fifty-one arachniponies still alive start laying webbing to our left and right flanks, ensuring the enemy will have no choice but to attack us head on or risk getting ensnared.

Whilst our forces are finishing their preparations, I turn to Desire. "So how did we lose all our ships?" I ask her.

"Well... Your wraiths were doing a good job distracting and keeping the runed demons at bay, but they just suddenly ignored them and dove at us. I quickly ordered everyone to abandon ship, and we started jumping overboard carrying those that couldn't fly down, then the runed demons dive bombed the balloons and hull repeatedly," she tells me.

"Though Blacksail stayed on the Death from Above and before the balloon or engines suffered too much damage, he rammed the ship into the Castle," she says and I frown. I turn my gaze to the now on fire ship sticking out of the side of the Castle. "Not everyone managed to get away in time, we lost nearly half our forces to the attack, but the wraiths have been protecting us down here," she finishes telling me.

"Dammit... So Tirek used his master's will to order them to charge us..." I say and look at the enemy demons.

They're all lined up randomly with no formations it seems. They have almost every type of lesser demon except arachniponies, though I do see more of those goat satyrs.

Their weapons and armour look basic, at least those with them, most have crude clubs or scraps of cloth for clothing only. So while they have the number advantage, we have better equipment and more demonlords.

"OKAY! ALL UNITS GET READY FOR BATTLE! ARTILLERY UNITS BEGIN YOUR ATTACK!" I yell and the three remaining long ranged archdemons begin their assault.

The ogre archdemon is picking up large chunks of broken stone from the Castle and is tossing them like a catapult towards the enemy demons.

The grey scaled wyvern archdemon is launching fireballs from her mouth which arcs down and detonates on impact.

The last archdemon is actually a large hercules beetle like demon we found and tamed. We attached a catapult like scoop to his front horn to turn him into a siege engine. Other demons are loading it with debris or rocks where the archdemon then lifts his head back and catapults the debris towards the enemy.

I watch as they scatter and try to avoid being hit. I faintly hear Tirek give the order to attack, making the demons roar out and start charging at us.

"GUNNERS! GET READY TO FIRE! SNIPERS! FIRE AT WILL!" I yell out my orders.

The few snipers we have start taking shots with their longer and scoped rifles. A few enemy demons collapse after getting shot, only to be trampled by their comrades.

I narrow my eyes as their harpies, incuponies, and succuponies begin to fly over to us. "SNIPERS! FOCUS ON THE AIR UNITS! HARPIES! INTERCEPT AND BRING THEM DOWN! DROP YOUR BOMBS ON THE GROUND FORCES WHEN YOU GET THE CHANCE!" I then order my forces getting screeches from the harpies who take off.

The snipers aim higher and start shooting the enemy air units. I simply observe as the enemy ground forces get closer and closer.

Once the enemy get within range, I order the gunners to open fire and I smirk as the front line crumbles and gets trampled.

"BOARUS! PREPARE TO DEFEND!" I yell getting snorts and oinks from them.

I start creating darkfire dragons and begin launching them over our forces and into the oncoming horde. Desire, Luna, and Selene join in launching their own spells into the demons as more debris and fireballs rain down from our archdemons.

So far it seems they've lost a good five to seven-hundred demons, but our harpies and their imp or goblin passengers are having trouble with the sheer number of enemies they're facing.

"Luna, Selene! Help the harpies!" I tell them getting nods before they take off to aid them.

We continue to fire into the oncoming demons as I call out to the arachniponies. "If you have any web grenades, get ready to throw them!" I say as the arachniponies pull out enchanted crystals from the packs on the back of their abdomens that they begin to wrap up in their webbing.

These are designed to detonate on a heavy impact, sending the compacted webbing everywhere in their blast radius, ensnaring those caught in it.

As the horde get closer, I give the order to throw them. The grenades soar over us and impact the ground near the demons which blow and spray webbing everywhere.

Most of it just covers the ash covered ground, while some get stuck on the demons who trip having their legs bound together. As they fall face first into the rest of the webbing, sticking them to the ground in the process, the demons behind them either trip over them, or trample them.

"SHIELDS UP!" I yell at the boarus and deamons in the front line who create a long wall of fel steel tower shields with spikes on the front.

After the web grenades had done their job, we now have a meat shield of screaming in pain enemy demons piled up as a small makeshift wall.

As the enemy demons make their way over it, it seems that cyclops demonlord is retaliating by throw pieces of the Castle at us now.

"INCOMING!" Desire yells out as her horn lights up and she catches the boulder with her magic before tossing it back into the horde of demons over the body wall. A few more boulders come our way and only the ones closest to us desire catches and throws back while my demons try to avoid the others.

I look up after hearing a few explosions to see Luna and Selene cutting down the flying demons while avoiding any runed ones in the mix. I see ten of my harpies and their imps or goblins have been either swarmed or a runed demon got them. The snipers are still taking shots at the flying enemys as well, but it looks like they'll soon run out of ammo.

'How I wish I still had at least two ships...' I look to the left and right flanks and spot imps slowly burning the webbing away while using boarus and those satyrs as shields so they can continue without getting hit.

"GUNNERS! FOCUS ON THE IMPS TO OUR FLANKS!" I order them and turn to Desire. "Fly to the left flank and blast them from the air! I'll get the right side!" I tell her getting a nod and while still holding a boulder tossed at us, she flies off the the left and slams the boulder into the imps repeatedly.

I take off for the right side and launch darkfire dragons into the imps as they scatter away.

I look out to Tirek who looks pissed and looks like he's yelling commands and such to three archdemons where two of them nodded and run back into the Castle. The third archdemon who looks like a giant turtle with some kind of forward facing volcano on the back of its shell slowly nodded and turns to face the direction of Felfire.

My eyes widen as this must be that Infernious Tirek mentioned. The turtle archdemon's volcano then begins to heat up and after a few seconds, a large molten rock is launched out soaring over everyone and goes off into the distance.

'Mother fucker is attacking Felfire!' I think angrily.

I head back and get Desire, Luna, and selene's attention. "We're going to either kill or cripple that archdemon!" I tell them getting nods from them. Desire looks absolutely pissed that they're attacking her old home while we fight them.

"I wish we could have brought more of the army with us, then we could just storm over to Tirek and kick his flank," Desire grumbles.

The space next to us tears open with a familiar pink line before expanding and out pops Pinkie's head. "Hey look at that! My portal-thing-amajigs are working again!" Pinkie says with a grin as I see she's at the Pogorium with a large case being filled with decans by a goblin behind her on a table with Ragadath in a blue pinstripe suit standing to the side with a big smile on his face.

"We're in the middle of a battle, Pinkie! What are you doing here!?" I tell her as another molten rock is sent soaring over us towards Felfire.

"Well, when my knee gets pinchy, it means something terrible is happening. So here I am to help!" she replies.

I'm not going to complain why her portals are suddenly working again, but I'll take it. "Alright then... Can you go to the Castle's barracks and gather the army and open a portal from there to here? We need reinforcements now!" I tell her as Desire and Luna both catch another pair of boulders thrown at us before tossing them back.

"Sure thing! Be right back!" she says and closes the portal.

While we wait, I launch more darkfire dragons into the still four-thousand strong horde pushing against our defensive line. The boarus are starting to get tired from the constant assault and we're running out of bullets. We were really counting on those airships to have the advantage, but Tirek had a cruel countermeasure for that.

Another larger portal opens up and out pours my army fresh and ready for battle. I grin as after a good five minutes, I have a force of over ten-thousand ready to go.

"Send another five-thousand through and then close the portal!" I tell Pinkie who looks exhausted and sweating. She gives me a thumbs up with a strained grin and after a few more minutes, my force has gathered making the enemy retreat back to Tirek who is fuming.

"Arrggh... Sorry, Damien... But I can't hold it no more..." Pinkie says before the portal collapses with a strange sound like a record being scratched.

I wonder if that portal demon Tirek had was the reason Pinkie couldn't make portals? Was he jamming her or something?

"Alright you lot! Form up and prepare to move out! Those who just fought take a break and rest here! You've earned it! The rest of you, FORWARD MARCH!" I yell getting cheers from my demons and we slowly advance as we remove the webbing from the grenades earlier.

I turn to my sons and smile at them. "You three stay here and get everyone ready to leave once we've killed Tirek," I tell them.

"Yes, father. We look forward to your victory," Tidus replies and goes to check on Vipirior, who is laying on the ground with a small wound on his head already bandaged up.

I return my attention to Tirek who appears to be furious and yelling at his demons who cower away from him. I don't want to kill anymore of his demons as I want them for myself. So when we reach him, I'll challenge him to a winner takes all one on one.

The webbing is quickly removed and the wounded and trapped demons that made up the wall were pushed aside to stay out of the way. With that done, my forces march forward in formation with the boarus and tankier demons upfront. I even notice Yogtiron is here.

He's covered in plate armour and has a swivel cannon mounted onto his beetle like abdomen, manned by two imps and three goblins with at least twenty cannonballs. It was Olivia's idea to make him a mobile artillery platform. Yogtiron also has his own scoped rifle with six full ammo pouches hanging around his waist so he's not doing nothing as his gunner crew shoots.

We slowly advance towards Tirek who is ordering his demons to do something.

After a few tense seconds, his demons all stand still and no longer cower before him as he opens his mouth. My eyes widen as I see his demons energy get pulled out of their mouths and he devours that energy. The demons shrivel up and all collapse into ash.

Tirek himself looks like he grew a couple of inches and his muscles expanded slightly. Seems he just stole his demons energy to make himself stronger. Does he really think adding their power to his will make him strong enough to face my army of fifteen-thousand, plus four demonlords?

"Artillery units! Open fire on them! Focus on the turtle first!" I order my long ranged units.

The gun crew on Yogtiron load the cannon on his back and quickly calculate their aim before firing. The cannonball whistles through the air and heads straight for the turtle archdemon.

The other artillery demons start launching their projectiles as well while the rest of us slowly march forward.

The cyclops uses a large metal club to bat any projectiles heading to him away, while Killganna twists her body around to avoid being hit. Infernious takes a direct hit from a cannonball which cracks the volcano like rock of his shell. Tirek snorts and all three demonlords start walking towards us while some kind of orb of energy forms between his horns.

I narrow my eyes at him as he continues to pour more energy into the orb. Then without warning, he launches the orb at my forces that flies faster than a cannonball right into my front lines, killing a good thirty of my demons on impact while injuring another twenty or so.

I snarl at Tirek and fly over to the front lines. "Desire, Luna, Selene! Intercept his attacks with your own! Don't let it reach our forces again!" I order them getting nods in reply as they spread out along the front and get their magic ready.

Tirek fires another orb and Desire launches a large blast of magic which detonates the orb, making a small crater at the impact site.

I have a couple of darkfire dragons ready as we slowly make our way forward. An orb comes flying right at me and I send a dragon out to intercept, they collide and detonate as we slowly get closer and closer.

"Snipers! Aim for their eyes!" I order my snipers now loaded with fresh ammo.

They take aim and start firing at the demonlords faces, the cyclops holds his club up to protect his face while Killganna just covers her eyes with her arms, the bullets bouncing off her tough scales. Tirek sets up a barrier in front of him that deflects any bullets heading for him.

I frown and pull out the last silver bullet I have left, its the only one I didn't use against Val' Hades nearly three years ago.

"QUICKSCOPE!" I call out to my best sniper here.

"Yes, my Lord?" he replies as he runs over to me as another orb is intercepted by Luna.

He's a dark grey furred incupony with dark yellow hair, his right eye is a deep blue colour. His left eye was damaged during our battle to siege Fel Haven years ago, but his sight is still the best of any other demon. He's been training with rifles for ten years and has never missed a shot in the last three years.

"I want you to take this silver bullet and try to shoot off one of Tirek's horns." I tell him making his eye widen.

He then frowns and takes the bullet from me. "As you wish," he replies and loads it into his rifle.

He heads over to the ogre archdemon and flies up onto his shoulder. The ogre stands perfectly still as Quickscope takes aim and after a few tense seconds where time itself seemed to slow down, he pulls the trigger.

The sound of the shot is lost among the many others echoing over the wastes, but the roar of pain from Tirek is louder than any gunshot as the bullet penetrates his shield and shatters the middle of his left horn.

I grin as I quickly turn to Desire, Luna, and Selene. "DESIRE! ATTACK KILLGANNA! LUNA AND SELENE, ATTACK THE CYCLOPS! TAKE THEM ALIVE BUT KILL THEM IF YOU HAVE TO!" I order them making them all grin as they quickly close the distance between us and the enemy. "THE REST OF YOU KILL THE FUCKING TURTLE!" I order my forces who all cheer and focus on Infernious.

I take flight and head straight for Tirek who looks absolutely livid and his broken horn is slowly regrowing.

I pull my scythe back and fly as fast as I can at Tirek ready to impale him the moment I get there, but I slow down the moment I see him pull out a pair of sickle like swords from the sides of his hips.

I reach him and land a good six metres away. "Damn you, Child. I will make your end long and as painful as possible," Tirek tells me and lunges at me.

I flap my wings to avoid his strike while leaping over him and land behind him. "You've tormented thousands of demons and many others, you've attacked my home and my people just to take a title you don't deserve. I will take your soul, Tirek. A quick death is too good for you. That I promise you," I tell him.

"We shall see, Child," he replies and charges at me again.

'Wraiths, swarm him and rip out his eyes,' I order my shadow wraiths who appear and latch onto Tirek who struggles and swings his swords at them.

A couple of wraiths are turned to mist as they fade away, but the others succeed in gouging out Tirek's eyes. He screams in pain and then snarls as his still intact right horn glows and a blast of energy blows all my wraiths away.

"Can't face me alone, boy!? Even blinded I will destroy you!" he rages out and stands his ground, but I don't answer and ignore his ranting.

'So he can still use basic magic?' I wonder to myself and take a swing at him, cutting the side of his goat like lower body.

He grunts and turns to my direction and fires a small blast of magic at me. I deflect it with Thanatos and slowly start walking around him, like a predator stalking its prey.

I glance to Luna and Selene to see them using hit and run tactics to avoid being hit by the cyclops' attacks. Desire I see is taking on Killganna with her whip which is slowly chipping away at her scales, but she seems to have a few cuts and bruises herself.

I look back to Tirek and see his eyes slowly repairing themselves and his horn has regrown by a third of what's missing.

'Time to end this before he can recover.' I head over to his left side while firing a darkfire dragon to his right as a distraction. He turns to the explosion and fires a blast of magic at the spot while I raise my scythe and swing at his back.

My blade slices through his skin like butter and comes out of his chest. He gasps in pain as his body slowly begins to dry out.

"You will torment us or anyone else no more," I tell him right next to his ear.

He growls and without warning, swings his left arm up and his sickle impales me in my own back through my demonite armour. I grunt as the blade pierces my left lung while he then screams as he shrivels up and turns to ash. His soul then screams as it gets sucked into Thanatos who sings with glee taking the demonlord's soul.

I gasp for air and cough up some blood as I drop a knee to the ground. A team of medics from my forces rushes over and swarms me while I watch Desire, Luna, and Selene continue their fights.

They carefully pull out the sickle and I groan in pain as they start cleaning the wound and make sure it's slowly healing by itself.

Killganna, looks over to me with wide eyes and then snarls before dropping her swords and running away on all fours quickly. Girl can move I'll give her that, reminds me of certain lizards back on Earth.

"BITCH! GET BACK HERE!" Desire yells angrily that her opponent just ditched her.

She gives chase and swings her whip out, ensnaring Killganna's left leg. Desire's dragged a couple of metres before tugging the whip and flings Killganna back over to her where she quickly ties her up with her whip.

Luna who seems to have a broken left arm is distracting the cyclops who is covered in magical burn marks while Selene flies away and then rockets towards his back with a spear made of her magic in her grip.

I smirk as the spear skewers him through the heart and his roar of pain slowly dies out as he's reduced to ash and his armour clangs to the ground.

I also notice Infernious is dead as well.

My vision starts to blur as I begin to get light headed. 'What?' I'm barely able to think as the last thing I see is Desire running over to me with an expression of horror on her face before everything goes black.

Next Chapter: Chapter 52: Back to Equestria Estimated time remaining: 2 Hours, 15 Minutes