Cloud and Bravura had broken the perimeter of the camp and were within the encirclement of huge tents. They had taken out at least a dozen more cultists on their way in, yet they could already see more approaching them. The cultists were approaching them from all sides, keeping to groups of three. Cloud clenched his teeth. Crap! As he glanced back and forth, his eyes flicked to a nearby tent and an idea struck him.

“Hey!” Cloud called, getting Bravura’s attention. “Get in the tent!”

“Got it!” Bravura called back.

The two made a sprint for the tent as the cultists closed in on them. As they made it inside, Cloud shoved Bravura aside, spun around and doused the entrance’s tarp floor with water. As cultists began spilling in through the entrance, Cloud blasted the area with electricity. The current travelled through the water, harming the back of the crowd as much as the front. Fourteen cultists fell to the ground, leaving one at the very back of the group who hadn’t been standing in the water. He hesitated for a moment before dropping his weapon and running.

“Bottlenecking them,” Bravura observed aloud as he walked to Cloud’s side. “Clever.”

As he turned to reply, Cloud finally noticed just how large the tents truly were. From the view of the interior, he could see that the tents were about as large as the single-storey buildings in Ponyville. To make up for the lack of flooring in the tent, grey-green tarps had been rolled out underneath it. It was more than enough for a substitute of a building, though Cloud had to question the surprising lack of need for AC. This tent in particular looked like it was being used as an office for around four or five people, with desks and filing cabinets spread about. Wait…

“These tents are big,” said Cloud, “but they can’t possibly be big enough for the amount of people we’ve seen here, right?”

“You mentioned there was a mine of some sorts underneath the temple,” Bravura replied, “it’s not unlikely there are more ‘lodgings’ there if they needed more space.” He looked to the pile of cultists by the entrance. “They have some Diamond Dogs too; it wouldn’t be difficult to shape the underground as they need to.”

“They have some what?”

Before Bravura could call out Cloud for being an ignorant asshole, the angry shouts and cries of more cultists snapped them both to attention.

“Here were go again…!” Bravura muttered.

Inside the temple, Geb came bursting through the trapdoor. Ra, clad in a kingly gown and blue headdress, spun to the noise, his hoof charged with magic and ready to fire a laser.

“[My Lord!]” Geb yelped. “[T-The mines! The prisoners are revolting against us!]”

“[What?!]” Surprise and panic rushed across Ra’s face, until he settled on anger. “[Shit!]” He turned Aima and Carry who had been standing near the entrance in a zombie-like state. “[You two, get over here and- wait…]” Unable to distinguish the order and the epiphany, the two rushed over to Ra and stood waiting. Ra looked back to Geb, before again charging both forehooves with magic as if they were horns. “Nice try, Changeling, but there are no prisoners in the mine today!”

Mawr clicked her tongue in annoyance before rolling out of the way of the lasers flying toward her. Not giving her time to think, Ra fired more and more lasers in short bursts as if they were enormous magic bolts. Mawr dived and rolled as much as she could, staying in Geb’s form. After a few second of this, she was able to dive behind a pew as cover.

“Very bold of you, ‘Ra’!” Mawr called out, tauntingly. “Outfitting your people with exactly what I need to take you down!”

“What?!”

“Gold disrupts the flow of magic, you dumb shit!” Mawr tossed out her golden armour. Seeing movement, Ra fired a laser, but sure enough the laser exploded on contact with the gold. “Son of a bitch! You two!” Aima and Carry showed no visible response. “Oh for-! [You two! Kill her already, you idiots!]” At his command, the two charged towards the cover Mawr had dived behind.

“[NOW!]” Mawr bellowed, before explosively transforming into a Manticore and taking on both mind-twisted mercs. Out of the hole sped a streak of wind. In a split second reaction, Ra fired off a laser just as the streak reached him. Kufn went sprawling, but not before he’d stabbed Geb’s golden dagger into Ra’s foreleg. Ra cried out in pain, and a strange yellow light shone from the wound. At that moment, Nut - the large blue Gryphon, clad in armour similar to Geb’s - walked out of the bathroom.

“[Alright,]” he said, “[I’m gonna take the mercs and- OH SHIT-!]” Seeing the chaos before him, he drew his golden sickle from his back and ran towards it all. Before he could get there, the wall next to him exploded into rubble. As the dust cleared, the cause became apparent - Bravura had suplexed a Minotaur twice his size directly into it.

“[OH YEAH!]” Bravura cheered, his adrenaline pumping. He scampered to his hooves as an Enourmonk - one of the Gorilla-like creature Cloud had seen before - was telekinetically tossed into the room through the fresh new hole.

“[I don’t know who you are, why you’re doing all this, or have any sort of context,]” said Cloud, “[but you’re so under arrest!]” He grinned triumphantly.

“[Alright, that’s better at least.]”

“[You!]” Cloud pointed to Ra. “[The Ghyr Muhimm looking guy! I’m guessing you’re Ra?!]”

Ra pulled the knife from his leg, then held a hoof over the wound. After a flash of light, he removed the hoof revealing the wound to be healed.

“[I want answers, Ra!]” Cloud yelled. “[What the hell has been going on since you kidnapped me in Shirith?! What was the book?! Why are you an evil asshole?! Answer me!]”

“Fuck off!”

“Okay, rude.”

Suddenly, Cloud was pulled out of the way by Bravura from a swing from Nut’s sickle.

“Pay attent-!” Bravura was cut off by Cloud pushing him out of the way of one of Ra’s lasers.

“Take your own advice!”

Meanwhile, Mawr was still in manticore form fighting the mercenaries. After a lot of skirmishing, she was finally able to get clean swipe at Carry - shredding her to pieces. Using that as an opportunity, Aima picked up a pew with his colossal strength and smashed it against Mawr’s head. As she staggered from the hit, he drew knife after knife and buried them across her body. Mawr screamed, which Aima used as well: He grabbed her tongue and, with his last remaining knife, slashed it off. Mawr’s screams doubled, blood pouring from her mouth. In a flash of fire she became her normal form, and ran with the last of her quickly depleting strength. Aima grabbed her by the tail and swung her around, crashing her head into the temple wall. Though her chitin cracked and leaked blood, she again stood and again tried to run, diving forward first to avoid being grabbed again. Aima threw his final knife, only for it to be deflected by a swing of a sword. Mawr looked back to see Kufn standing between the two of them. Mawr tried to speak, but choked on blood. She tried again, and managed to force out three words:

“[Kill… that fucker…!]”

Kufn cracked his neck, as well as a smile.

“[Yes, ma’am!]”

Back on the other side of the room, Cloud and Bravura had their hooves full juggling between fighting Nut, dealing with the cultists spilling into the building, and dodging the constantly firing lasers. At long last, Nut took a swing at Cloud when he wasn’t busy dodging a laser, and Cloud was able to knock his claw aside, grab it, and yank it out of its socket. As Nut screamed and dropped his sickle, Cloud summoned a Shock Circle on his right hoof.

“[This is for stabbing me with a crystal, asshole!]” Cloud yelled, as he rammed a Thunder Punch into Nut’s jaw. Nut’s screams faded along with his consciousness.

“[Need some help over here!]” Bravura called as he ducked under another laser. Sixteen cultists had surrounded him, all swinging, shooting and otherwise attacking with their weapons. Bravura was so busy dodging he no longer had time to attack. Before Cloud could respond, a laser finally exploded into Bravura and he fell to the ground. The cultists were quick to take advantage of this, slashing him bloody.

“NO!” Cloud’s emotions took hold of him. He teleported to Bravura and overcharged his horn with electricity until it exploded outward like an electromagnetic pulse. The cultists all fell, no longer conscious, but Bravura had been caught in the blast just as badly. He wasn’t moving. Grinding his teeth in rage, Cloud turned as Ra fired off a big yellow concentrated beam of magic towards him. Cloud fired his red electrical beam, and the two met in the air. The beams collided, and struggled against each other for power. Magical sparks of all colours flew from the centre of the perpetual explosion. The eye of the storm was a dazzling white, but moved in neither direction - each beam similar in strength.

Across the room, Kufn and Aima continued to clash. Every punch, every slash, every kick, every stab… all were avoided, redirected or otherwise for naught.

“[You seem quite fast compared to earlier!]” Kufn laughed. “[Suppose I’ll go faster too!]” Kufn’s attacks suddenly sped up twofold, and Aima fell to the ground as countless slashes opened up across his body at lightning speed. Kufn stopped, panting for breath. His eyes fixed locked onto Aima’s pocket. “[Aha!]” Kufn reached inside the pocket, and pulled out his stack of cards. He looked at the stack with a smile before putting it back into his scarf.

Kufn turned to see how Mawr was doing, only to see a pile of ash surrounded by bloody knives. Suddenly, the ash exploded with red flames as a Phoenix rose into the air with a majestic spin. It glided to the ground, then was surrounded by a burst of green flames as Mawr returned to her normal form. She was gasping for air, and soon collapsed onto the ground.

“[You okay?]” Asked Kufn, offering a hoof. Mawr took it, and unsteadily rose to her feet.

“[Yeah…]” Her voice was breathy and weak. “[That took… all of my energy…]” She swallowed, frowned, then spat on the ground. “[This new tongue is weird…]”

Kufn looked over to Cloud, and saw him locking lasers with Ra.

“[Isn’t that the guy?]” Kufn asked. Mawr looked to Kufn, then to where he was facing. She nodded.

“[Yep… That’s him…]” Mawr sat on the ground and leaned against a wall. “[You should probably… go help him…]” Her voice slowly started to gain some strength back. “[He’s getting surrounded…]” Sure enough, more cultists came flooding in behind him.

“[I’d better get a raise after all this nonsense!]” Kufn laughed. He dashed over to Cloud, like a streak of wind in the air, just as Cloud was able to get some control back over his emotions.

“”[Hi!]” Greeted Kufn, as he cut down cultists. “[Nice to formally meet you! Didn’t introduce myself before, but then you were ghosting me!” Kufn laughed, burying his sword into the stomach of a Minotaur. “[My name’s Kufn, I’m a mercenary from Scarftown, a town in the north-east of Saddle Arabia!]”

“[Now is… not the time for this…!]” Cloud managed to say, all other energy focused on maintaining his beam.

“[It’s a lovely place, Scarftown; it the country’s only scarf-producing factory!]” Kufn continued, lopping off a Enourmonk’s hand. “[Not a wealthy town, though, scarves don’t sell too well! It is a desert country after all!]” He laughed again as he deflected a crossbow bolt out of the air.

“[Look, can we do this… after…?!]” Cloud clenched his jaw. “[This spell… unf…! It’s… not an easy one…!]”

“[Alright, alright, I’ll-]” Kufn slashed the throat open a Horse’s throat, “[cut you a break!]” He laughed once more, before focusing on the job at hand.

“You can’t overpower me, Cloud!” Ra yelled. “You told my brother, Ghyr, all about how your magic circles work!”

“So he was…! A part of your cult…! All along…?!” Cloud yelled back. “Also…! If you wanna…! Talk now…! Can we…! Not do this laser shit…?! It’s so… freaking loud!”

“It’s what?!”

“I said…! It’s loud…!”

“I can’t hear you! The lasers are too loud!”

“That’s what I just-! Okay, y’know what?” Cloud cancelled his beam spell and rolled to his right to avoid Ra’s. “Time out for a sec!” Cloud cast his voice amplification spell on himself. “Let me cast this loudness spell on you so we can understand each other.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea,” said Ra. “Sure, go ahead.” Cloud cast the spell on Ra, then moved back a few steps to his left into the position he had been in before. “Testing- Oh, wow.” Ra nodded. “Yeah, that’s better, thank you. Okay, lasers again on three, you ready?”

“Yeah, go for it.”

“Three… Two… One… Now!”

Cloud and Ra fired their beams once more, a bright yellow and a sparking red, and they once again collided in a dramatic shower of sparks.

“Was Ghyr working for you all this time…?!” Cloud yelled.

“Ghyr?!” Ra yelled back. “Ha! No! That idiot is my brother! He foolishly told me all about you and your situation during a little visit of mine!”

“What did you…! Do to him…?!”

“What?! Oh, nothing! Sorry, that came out more ominous than I meant it to! I visit for lunch every now and then!”

“Oh…! I see…! Sorry…! Go on…?!”

“I’ve had my spies keep watch on you! Though you were missing for a while, so they didn’t find you until you were picked up by the Money family in Shirith!”

“Wouldn’t that mean…! They were only watching me…! For like a day…?!”

“They’re not great spies, I admit, but when you’re gaining followers through mind control beggars can’t be choosers!”

Kufn finally managed to kill the last of the cultists. He could see that Cloud was busy, so he picked up Bravura and carried him over to Mawr before sitting beside her to catch his own breath.

“[You’re not gonna do something about Ra?]” Mawr asked, still somewhat out of breath.

“[They seem like they’re doing a thing,]” Kufn replied. He pointed to Bravura. “[You see this guy’s ass? Now there’s someone who doesn’t skip leg day!]”

“[As great as that ass is, you should really go help Cloud. I’m paying you to get me to him, I can’t be ‘to him’ if he’s dead.]”

“[Alright, alright,]” Kufn waved a hoof. “[I’ll help him fight the cult leader, after this break.]”

Author's Notes:

75K words!