“Evacuate the town! NOW!” Durin shouted.

“Why should we listen to you?” Rainbow asked, crossing her forelegs over her barrel as she hovered.

“Forget your goddamn distrust right now! There’s another monster on the same level as the Eye coming here right now!” Durin shot back, stomping up to growl in her face.

“How do we know you’re not lying just so you can escape, huh?” Rainbow retorted, meeting his anger with her own.

Fluttershy flew over, placing a hoof on their chests and pushing them apart. “Calm down you two, please. This is no time to fight. We still have a lot of monsters to...get rid of.” She shook her head, as if trying to dismiss some phantom, before looking to Durin. “Now, Mr. Durin, right? Please, if you could just explain to us what-”

Durin snorted, shoving her away. “Forget it. Just stay here instead.” He started to march off, and when the ponies looked, they could see a heavy fog closing in from the west.

Rarity trotted over, watching Durin cut a bloody path through any remaining monsters on his way, an obvious expression of frustration on his face. “I hope he isn’t always like that…”

“I’ll say. Dude could use an attitude change,” Rainbow flared out her wings. “I’m gonna follow him.” Without any other words, she zoomed off after the man.

“Even the training couldn’t get that out of her, I suppose.” Rarity said with a sigh.

Fluttershy sighed as well. “Sadly.” She looked back to Abe and Tora. “We should get these two somewhere safer.” She frowned. “Though I’m not sure either of us could lift Mr. Abe…”

Rarity made to reply, only for a shrill screech to rend the air, drawing their attention towards a lone bat-like creature. Rarity and Fluttershy both got in ready stances, and so did the guards.

“We’ll figure it out after we deal with these savages,” Rarity told the pegasus, horn glowing.

With those words, the creature charged.

“Get out of my fucking way!” Durin roared, shoving Rainbow aside before relieving a bat-fuck - or as he knew it, an Ekimmara - of its head.

Rainbow growled. “I’m trying to help you, plothole!” she shot back. “And that was my kill!”

“This isn’t a goddamn competition, dipshit! And I don’t need help!” Durin retorted, before an Alghoul made to tackle him. Sensing this, Durin twirled out of the way and delivered a vicious slash to its spiny back.

Crying out in pain, the Alghoul landed hard on the cobblestones, yet immediately rolled away before Durin could get a finishing blow.

Growling, Durin opened his palm, flames billowing inside it. However, as he was about to lob the fireball, Rainbow swooped in, cutting the Alghoul’s head clean off.

“Ha! You see that- Hey! Wait up!” Rainbow zoomed off after Durin, whom had continued on his way to the west portion of town. When she came up to him, she gave him a look. “Least you could do is say thanks.”

Durin shot her a glare. “Like you need a bigger ego boost.”

Another screech cut off their bickering, followed by a rather displeased griffon screeching furiously in kind from somewhere nearby.

“Shit!” Durin cursed, before his left hand gleamed with golden magic and he flung his palm forward. Immediately after, he appeared in a blur ten feet away. He continued this multiple times, almost leaving Rainbow Dash in the dust.

“Will you bucking wait up?!” Rainbow called after him, always managing to get next to him only to be left behind with each fling he made.

“Waiting means more deaths on our heads!” Durin called back.

Rainbow growled, but, she couldn’t deny his point.

Soon enough, they reached the street where the screech and fog seemed to be coming from, said fog enveloping their vision almost entirely.

Durin tried to dismiss it with a gust of tempestuous magic, but it only reformed. Gritting his teeth, he called out, “Is anyone still alive out here?!”

No answer.

Durin almost cursed, before a deep, baritone reply finally came. “Over here!”

Using his ears and Witcher Senses, Durin pinpointed the location of the voice, and it was then that he laid eyes upon the Boss that had appeared.

Narinye - Emissary of the High Lord, has arrived!

It was a Banshee, and its head was turned to stare directly at him. There was no face, no nose, no mouth or anything that could be seen past the hood that would even remotely identify it as a person - all there was under the hood was a pair of blood-red eyes glaring with absolute hatred in his direction. Below the head was a rotted torso covered in blackened flesh with brief glimpses of exposed rib and spine in various places. Under its torso was the rest of its cloak, but no legs or feet were visible through a thick miasma of black that made his skin crawl just from looking at it.

Now playing The Witch of Hemwick.

The moment he made eye contact with it, he could feel cold fingers digging into the depths of his mind and plucking what it wanted from him in but an instant. The action made him fall to his knees, one hand going to his head.

It was only for one single second, but it was enough to expose him to the raw HATE that animated the Banshee on this plane, that sustained its existence and comprised its purpose. It brought Durin to his knees, experiencing enough hate to match all of the hatred and rage he’d ever felt in his life a thousand-fold.

Then, it locked crimson eyes with Rainbow’s violet. Cold fingers became frigid fangs ripping and biting and tearing through her conscious, subconscious and unconsciousness with the same ease it took for a neuron to fire.

Alone, isolated, cut off thou art from all thou knew. Stolen from your life, your world with but a single mistake, made of your own volition.

Uncertainty, insecurity and disloyalty you fear. For those you love and care about you would die, but can you truly say they would do the same for you? How sure can you be that they truly value you?

“Shut...up,” Durin growled, getting to his feet once more.

Rainbow faltered for only a moment, before she pounded her hooves together. “Oh you are dead.”

Can you kill the damned?

“I’m about to fucking try!” the voice from earlier cried, Curtis the griffon lunging from out of the mist in an attempt to claw the Banshee’s throat out.

“AAAAAAHHHH!!” came the bloodcurdling scream of Fountain Spring from behind him, followed by a sickening squelch.

Curtis faltered immediately, eyes wide with concern and shock as he turned and rushed towards the sound, “FOUNTAIN!!”

What he saw was Fountain’s utterly bewildered and almost outraged expression on a completely unscathed body, “What in Tartarus are you doing?! You had her dead to rights, you idiot!”

A tendril of black mist shot out from the Banshee’s ‘legs’ and wrapped around his throat before it tossed him through the window of a nearby storefront, punctuating his mistake.

“CURTIS!” Fountain cried out as she watched her husband vanish in a shower of broken glass.

The Banshee laughed as it turned to regard Fountain with contempt.

So easily manipulated by his attachment to his whore of a lover.

Durin’s mouth was set in a snarl, the mutant willing both of his blades to his hands as he glared at the Banshee. “You’re gonna fucking die.” He spat coldly.

As will everyone else, if you fail, came Narinye’s bitter, scathing retort. But it matters not, in the end, when I am here to gather laborers for the High Lord. She raised a clawed hand and pointed right at Durin, You would do well to not interfere, mortal. But by all means, bring the wrath of the High Lord on yourself and those you seek to protect. The Banshee let out an unnerving laugh, her gaze never deviating from Durin’s eyes. Bring them pain and suffering in your efforts to ‘help.’

The Banshee didn’t even turn around to dodge the flying tackle from a livid, screaming Fountain, and lashed out with two claw-like digits to grip the spine of her left wing and redirect the Pegasus’ momentum into the same storefront her husband had been thrown into.

Again, so easy to manipulate through emotions alone. Blinded by rage, you think too late that charging without any real plan will not work, the Banshee said just before she vanished into the fog with nary a trace.

Then, from somewhere behind them, her voice rang out, But that’s always been a flaw of yours, hasn’t it? When you are filled with anger, reason and cunning are forgotten and drowned by instinct. A shame, really. You could have caught me off-guard.

A bullet to the Banshee’s shoulder did just that.

An ear-rupturing howl tore its way out of the Banshee as it rounded on the source with a tendril similar to what it had thrown Curtis with.

Durin, filled with rage, remembered the training he’d gone through, and flicked his Hero Sword through the tendril, cutting it off.

Shrieking in anger, the Banshee vanished into the fog.

Durin focused his senses, eyes shifting from direction to direction as he tried to find Narinye. Rainbow did much the same, eventually coming up to his back, ears perked up and alert.

The Banshee abruptly appeared a foot or two in front of them, only to disappear before Durin or Rainbow could launch an attack. The sound of unintelligible whispers from their left caught their attention, but by the time they’d registered the sounds in their minds, it was on their right, then above, to their northeast and to their southwest…

All around them, Durin and Rainbow Dash could hear Narinye’s maddened whispers as they drilled into the two’s heads...and then the damned witch spoke to them once more, Tell me, how long do you think they searched for you, Whittlesey? Days? Weeks? Months? Did they search as far and as high and as deep and as hard as they could? Or did they even look for you at all? Did they bother to mourn over you? Did they care at all that you vanished?

Durin grit his teeth. “Shut the fuck up!”

“So you were hiding something!” Rainbow hissed at him.

“Stay out of this, Skittles!” Durin shot back.

Take his advice, Rainbow Dash. After all, haven’t YOU hidden truths and actions from those you call friends? Haven’t you lied to them, before? Such hypocrisy, from someone whose title includes ‘Loyalty,’ came Narinye’s accusatory chastisement...which started right next to her left ear, and then snapped to a point somewhere ahead and to her left.

Rainbow’s falter this time was more noticeable, actually rearing back as if she was shoved. “Th-Those don’t count as lies! I was protecting them!”

Were you? Or were you protecting yourself from having to face their disappointment, anger and sadness? Weren’t you just protecting yourself from being labeled ‘disloyal’ for keeping such mighty revelations from them? You were hiding like a scared foal cowering from the shadows of their dark bedroom.

“Shut up!” Rainbow clutched her head. “Shut up shut up shut up!”

Durin, seeing this, only frowned, but kept his senses alert.

The sound of something slinking around behind them caught their attention, but it vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

But you already are disloyal. You’ve done it before. The Cloudsdale Games, don’t you remember? Your friends and Ponyville needed you, but you were so tempted by the chance to fly with your precious idols that you almost forgot all about Twilight and the others. You were so tempted to accept Spitfire’s offer. That alone proves you aren’t as loyal to the ones you call ‘friends’ as you want to believe you are.

“No! You’re wrong!” Rainbow refuted futilely.

Am I? Am I really, though? Or are you still trying desperately to fool yourself into believing you’re the paragon of your Element, because you’ve failed to abide by its nature time and time again? Or...is it because you are afraid the others aren’t really your friends? Is it because you can’t stand the thought of them leaving you?

Rainbow, seeming to be fed up, rushed towards where she thought the voice was coming from, wingblades spread to cut the Banshee into ribbons. “SHUT UP ALREADY!!”

A cloud of yellow mist suddenly billowed out directly in her flight path. It filled Rainbow’s lungs in an instant, and her entire body locked up as her muscles spasmed and convulsed uncontrollably, sending her crashing and tumbling to the ground.

“Gaha!” Rainbow cried, trying and failing to move. “Wh-What the-?!”

I can breathe paralysis poison. And I almost pity your kind for how easy it is to use your fears and emotions against you.

An unseen force picked Rainbow up by her throat, her body dangling in the air as the Banshee materialized behind her, fingers wrapped around the front of the speed-obsessed mare’s throat.

It’s a shame I’m not supposed to kill you, but the High Lord was quite clear that every bit of Will was needed. Though I suppose you don’t need these unwieldy things.

The Banshee grabbed Rainbow’s left wing with an iron grip.

‘And there’s the opening,’ Durin thought to himself as he used his Time Stop magic to fling himself forward in time so he was right in front of Narinye. Even as the Time Stop was in effect, her eyes followed him, only starting to widen when the magic ended, and even more when he cut off her hand.

“How about I take a hand from you instead?” he asked, flourishing his blade as the appendage dropped to the cobblestone with a fleshy slap.

The only sound he received from her was the sound of a blizzard-like howl of wind escaping from her hood as her blood-red and hateful eyes glowed as bright as a flare.

Then a shadowy mass rammed into him with the force of an eighteen-wheeler, sending him crashing straight into a nearby restaurant and into the building behind it.

Kill him, Children. End him. The Hero cannot be allowed to ruin the High Lord’s plans. Neither he nor I will be denied our wish!

More shadowy figures emerged from the fog - children-like monstrosities, dogs, rats, ghouls and more all shrouded in shadowy malice - and advanced on Durin’s position.

“Fuckin’ get off me!” Durin roared, hacking and slashing at the mob of dark facsimile children with both blades. Some dispersed easily. Others, however...

The rotting face of a shadowy ghoul let out a gurgling roar as it slashed at his head with a swollen, pus-filled arm capped off with misshapen claws shaped like sickles, and took a stab to the chest and throat like it was nothing.

Narrowly he managed to pull his head back to avoid the swipe, but a set of canine teeth clamped down on his left leg and almost took a chunk out of his calf muscle in the process.

“FUCK!” he cried, feeling blood pour down that leg. Gritting his teeth, the man’s body soon began to glow with blue tattoos - Will Lines - and with a burst of flame, he returned all the children to the dark they came from. However, even with that burst of power, his leg could no longer support him, and he fell to a knee, panting. “F-Fuck…” He looked down at said leg, seeing blood spill out of it quickly. “Gotta...get a pot-”

Durin suddenly felt his very soul and life being drained from him as the Banshee approached, more Children appearing from the fog and dogpiling his arms and legs to pin him down, I think not, Whittlesey.

Durin struggled, eyes shooting from the paralyzed Rainbow to the storefront Curtis and Fountain had been thrown into. ‘No help’s coming...Fuck. Fuck! I can’t die here! I need…!’ He tried to move his arms, only to cry out in pain as teeth clamped down on them. Even so, he struggled. ‘I need…! To save everyone! I can’t...let them all die!’

Narinye slowly, almost casually leans down over his face in a semi-kneeling position. With their heads this close, he can actually see a rather beautiful woman’s face marred by burns and scars beneath the hood and miasma of hate, You can’t save them. Not everyone, or anyone, for that matter. I think we both know that you’re no Hero that’ll save the day. In the end, you’ll be unable to stop the High Lord, unable to purge this Crimson and Corruption, and unable to do anything to stop this ‘Moon Lord’ when it arrives.

She leans down even closer to his face, and he can feel her breath - cold and bitter - on his cheek.

You’ll die like everyone else. Vinyl Scratch, Octavia, Rainbow Dash...Tora; they’ll all suffer a grisly fate when you fail - whether by the High Lord or the Lord of the Moon, it matters not. And you’ll die alone, as you were always meant to, having failed those you care for.

Then, Narinye lifted her hood back, just a little...to reveal the pale, lifeless face that had haunted him for years staring back at him, and her soft voice coming through the Banshee’s lips as they came within millimeters of his.

“Just like you failed to stop Robin from ending her life, and like you failed to be there for her when she needed you, her best friend, the most.”

Durin’s face paled at that, feline eyes widening in shock and fright. He barely registered anything anymore. Time seemed to slow - not of his accord, but simply from pure shock.

“Why didn’t you stop me, Durin? I-It hurt so much, and it took so long. It’s d-dark and c-c-cold here, Duri. I-I’m scared...help me...ple-” the voice of the one he failed rang in his head just before Abe, seeming to come out of nowhere, fell from above and landed on her.

A sickening crunch came from ‘Robin’ as her face contorted in agony and her neck snapped the same way he’d found her, followed by a low, raspy wail that rose into a deafening, eardrum-bursting SCREECH as her face melted like wax held to an open flame, only compounding Durin’s horror as ‘Robin’s face bulged, cracked and then shattered to reveal a skull covered in rotten flesh and strips of sinew and muscle roaring with a vertically broken lower jaw right in his face.

Then, she vanished into the fog once more, her scream still ongoing as Children by the dozens leapt from the fog with roars, shrieks and howls of their own at the sudden newcomer.

KIIIILL THEEEEEM!

Abe, having seemingly no trouble with the fog whatsoever, started taking chunks out of the ground and tossing them at the creatures and Narinye with surprising ferocity.

I WILL NOT BE DENIED MY VENGEANCE AGAINST THOSE SELF-RIGHTEOUS BASTARDS THAT DARE CALL THEMSELVES ‘GODS!’ YOU WILL NOT DENY MY OR THE HIGH LORD OUR ONLY WISH IN LIFE! YOU WILL NOT DENY US! YOU WON’T!

"...But you treating High Lord as god?" Abe said, seeming confused even as he smacked a shape in the fog away.

Narinye skidded across the ground from the impact and came to a stop some distance away, unmoving for several moments.

Then the world exploded with the screech of a damned and wrathful woman, that traveled all the way to the frozen lands of the north.

Then, the fog around Abe and Durin receded, converging into one single point as a shadowy clawed hand or paw the size of Durin’s entire body slammed into the dirt-and-cobblestone street, followed by a fanged, snarling maw as big as Abe’s upper torso and a body as long as a Terrarian wyvern and as tall as the Eye of Cthulhu was wide.

The wingless, rotting form of the Shadow Drake reared its head back and howled in rage at the two who dared to assault and pain its ‘mother’ so. It proceeded to get knocked in the chin as it roared by a boulder Abe threw.

In response, the draconic Child whipped its tail around and both knocked Abe’s feet out from under him and sent him flying into a carousel-like building down the street from the remaining force of the tail whip.

YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT I SUFFERED BECAUSE OF THOSE MONSTERS MASQUERADING AS HOLY DEITIES! MY FAMILY, MY HOME, MY INNOCENCE AND MY LIFE! STOLEN AND TORN AND RAPED FROM ME BECAUSE OF THEM!

The battle between titans raged on, and even then, Durin simply stared vacantly, eyes distant and fearful. Only one thing was on his mind. ‘Robin… I…’

A familiar scent washed over him as paws padded slowly and unevenly towards him.

“Hey...bastard, stop starin’ int’ space like a loon an’ get th’ fuck up,” Tora’s voice faintly echoed in his ears as her visage came limping into his field of vision. “Y’ have to - NGH, fuck! - get up an’ finish th’ spooky dog off before Abe or someone else carks it.”

Durin blinked slowly as he looked up at her, as if trying to figure out if she was real. “Tor...a?” he said slowly. “Where...what happened to Robin?”

“Whoever th’ sheila is, she ain’t here. Ne’er was t’ begin with. I heard her voice in m’ noggin all th’ way back where y’ left me. Wot th’ fuck even is th’ cunt, anyways?” Tora asked as she limped into arm’s reach of the Witcher and slowly, carefully lowered herself onto her knees beside him.

He blinked once more, seeming to gradually remember what happened. “Who…?” He shook his head, forcefully, one hand going to said head. “I...sorry, I…” He suddenly noticed a bit of wetness on his cheek. “I…”

He felt an arm wrap around his neck, followed by soft fur pressing against his neck and sides. It took a second to register that Tora was giving him a one-armed hug, her other arm hanging limply by her side.

“Wotever th’ spiteful bitch said or showed ya...don’t listen t’ it. I heard th’ last bit she said before Abe bodyslammed th’ cunt. Wotever happened to this ‘Robin’...not yer fault, mate. If she died by her own hand, then there’s nothin’ y’ coulda done. Don’t blame y’self,” Tora whispered softly, soothingly into his ear as her hand turned upwards to gently run her fingers through the hair at the back of his head.

Durin didn’t respond for what felt like ages, but eventually, slowly, he reciprocated the hug. Even if only briefly. He didn’t sob, didn’t cry, but he did shake with raw emotion.

“We need ya, mate. Th’ bitch needs t’ die before this’ll end. Even if she made y’ doubt y’self...I believe in ya,” Tora told the man...then planted a gentle kiss on his cheek before she broke the hug and gave him a smile. “Now, go an’ do yer thing, y’ dumb bastard.”

Durin paused at the kiss, as if surprised, but slowly stopped shaking, and soon after pulled away from Tora. He took a few deep breaths, and then, he returned to the steely, firm man Tora’d come to know.

“When the others get here, tell them to grab that griffon and his wife. They’re in the store over there,” he said, pointing to where Curtis and Fountain had been tossed.

“Shit, Curtis an’ Fountain were hurt?! A’ight, I’ll go get th’ others. Jus’ do wot y’ need t’ do, mate. Rootin’ fer ya,” Tora nodded at Durin as she got back to her feet and limped her way back the way she’d come as fast as possible.

Durin, resolve renewed, opened his Inventory and pulled out a Healing Potion. He frowned. “...Last one.” Shaking his head, he popped the cork off and chugged it, groaning as the alchemical concoction forced his healing factor into overdrive to resew his flesh together.

Only after a few painful moments could he stand up again, and when he did, he picked up his weapons and ran off towards Abe and the Shadow Drake.

‘Hopefully the big guy can keep those things dead. Otherwise, there’s no way we’ll kill this bitch…’ Durin shook his head, rolling out of the way of a lunge from a Child and retorting with a practiced thrust into it’s chest, dispersing it, before continuing on his way. ‘Have to keep her distracted, too. And I think I know a good way to do that.’

When he arrived, he saw the Shadow Drake trying to pin Abe to the ground despite missing a jaw, an eye and its front right paw. Abe was a bit more together despite his bandages, managing to send the drake onto its side and hammering at its neck.

“Good job big guy! Keep it up and let me know when the big thing’s dead!” Durin called, before closing his eyes and listening for the Drake’s mother.

"But it zombie?" Abe asked in confusion, despite still hammering the thing in the neck with his fists.

“Shadow thing, but no worries, it’ll stay dead!” Durin replied.

YOU THINK YOU’RE IN THE RIGHT, HERO?! BECAUSE YOU ARE FOOLING YOURSELF IF YOU TRULY BELIEVE YOU ARE, WHITTLESEY!

Durin replied in a deathly calm tone, “I’m not looking to be a Hero. I’m just here to help. Nothing else.”

Narinye screamed at the top of her lungs, directly behind him. Eyes shooting open, Durin whirled around with a reactionary slash of both his blades.

The Banshee’s scream ended in an instant, her body motionless for a few moments...then her head slid off of her neck, the latter slumping to the ground in a crumpled and rapidly-dissolving heap. A glance behind him revealed the last wisps of the Shadow Drake’s tail dissipate into the already-receding fog, Abe holding the ripped off head of the Shadow Drake above his head like a certain infamous God. He looked proud of himself… until he passed out from exerting himself after barely healing enough to fight.

Silence reigned for a few moments. Then Durin let out a long sigh of relief as he hunched his shoulders. He looked over to Abe. “Shit. Gonna have to find a way to heal him up.” Walking over, Durin patted the unconscious Troll’s side, smiling. “Thanks for the help, pal. You did good.”

Soon after, the first rays of sunlight pierced the once bloody night sky, the Blood Moon retreating and making way for Celestia’s light.

Far away, cheers could be heard. Durin smiled.

The Blood Moon was over.

EDIT: Finally added the theme for Narinye. Can't believe I forgot to for so long...

Hello, everyone! Sorry for the long, long wait. I'm afraid work, (and college for Nova) just made getting things done a little hard. But, hey! The chapter's up, and that's what matters.

So! Nova, here. At the suggestion nagging of Timeless, I’m here to explain why the Banshee switched mannerisms near the end. In short: She lost her cool and composure due to being in intense pain and from facing the prospect of dying and having, as she herself stated, “[Our] wish be denied!”

Plus, her memories and reasons for why she’s doing what she’s doing and why she’s serving this ‘High Lord’ came flooding back to her in her anger.

Other than that, my currently distracted mind cannot come up with any other explanation to give, sooo yeah.

Ciao, lovelies!~

Wasn't it also so it can get the maximum effect in communicating their worst fears?

That too, now shut up, buttercup.

Titty monkeyz

...Yes, well, thank you, Rez. Shakes head Anyways, we hope you all enjoyed this one! We tried to focus more on Durin - not sure it worked, but we'll keep trying nonetheless - and I'm hoping the action is more solid now than before.

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful day!

-Timeless Lord Slayer