The stormy weather worsened far faster than it should’ve.


    Bowling ball-sized blocks of hail hurtled down. Twisting winds roared with hurricane force. Lightning and thunder mored above their heads.


    The cmitous storm reared its ugly side to a supernatural level, as if the heavens wanted toe down with a fraction of the power Zarian’s darkness could achieve.


    Zarian imagined Team Arty would have to get creative to deal with the storminess. Or he would have to clear out the storm somehow.


    Regardless of the weather, the Floridians traveled through twisted fortress hallways and over immense rampart ridgelines and along the sides of leaning towers or sometimes inside of them.


    They had equal chances to brave the weather or get out of it as they took the bestnd-based route the spectral spiders had scouted for them. They’d decided earlier to go by ground instead of air to keep a low profile, and that was turning out to be the right choice because of the storm.


    Now Zarian had no doubts that other grand forces were involved. He thought about calling his wife again, but she hadn’t responded when he tried earlier in the morning.


    It wouldn’t shock him if Shadowfell stood in opposition of her husband and the pdins, injecting herself to support the Grimrock Warlock despite who was truly at stake.


    It was in Shadowfell’s nature to promote evil and tragedy. More importantly, she would ensure she had something prepared to challenge her husband and his friends upon their arrival.Regardless of all that, Zarian only cared about Bianca assassinating the Prime Archbishop, dealing with Jack, and saving Foodie.


    Whatever came their way, Zarian and his fellow Floridians would smash through, which they were doing right now, really.


    The Floridians could’ve faced blue skies and sunshine with how they remained unbothered, because the roaring storms could do nothing to them.


    Para pushed her aura out as a force field, shoving aside hail, breaking hurricane winds, and absorbing the aura out of lightning strikes.


    The wizard and his parasite had done this plenty of times the past two months. Nobody batted an eye as the massive storm raged and raged and iled uselessly against the Floridians while they were safe in the aura bubble Para provided.


    They soon came across some dead monsters that had suffered under the crushing fall ofrge boulders inside of an eroded mountain keep. The entire structure groaned as the storm winds battered its walls and filled its halls, whisking away the smell of blood.


    Zarian recognized the telltale blue webbing that marked the spots where monsters had ended crushed under big rocks. This was the spider scouts’ work. They had cleared the way of any potential nuisances that weren’t worth the Floridians’ time.


    Zarian and his friends continued forward at a solid pace. Even with the front line walking, that was still faster than a speeding car. They were making way to their first objective in great time, despite some sudden obstructions.


    The storm couldn’t get in their way directly, but it could affect the castle mountains, such as shoving a giant spire from a neighboring mountain onto their rampart ridge.


    Hannah turned, looked, and dissolved most of the spire within a few seconds. Her body absorbed the stone material as one coursing stream like some pint-sized devourer.


    The speed was so impressive that even Gilbert and Naomi slowed to watch as an entire giant spire got eaten up. Of course, they all knew the spire material was in a pocket space connected to Hannah’s Cube Maker Magic +3, which had plenty of room for more. ?áＮ?????


    A few more structures broke in their way and faced the same fate, each one streaming and disappearing into Hannah’s body like thest. When an entire bridge copsed in front of them, instead of taking to the air, Hannah built them a new one. She didn’t miss a beat, regardless of the newly built bridge beingrge enough for giants to stride over.


    It happened so smoothly and seamlessly, Slip strutted boldly on the suddenly appearing edge, as if to see if he would fall. Hannah allowed no such fate to befall the Sleipnir, and Zarian found it nifty with how godly Hannah looked with no true divine abilities.


    <em>Maybe this is the true power of an engineering nerd given practical magic, usable knowledge, and an amazing group of buffs</em>, Zarian thought, impressed with Hannah’s new level of craftiness.


    Eventually, they journeyed past enough windy hallways, crumbling atriums, tilting castles, and walled ridgelines where they entered a ravine between castle walls and found other humans struggling to brave the elements.


    The other humans were also struggling against one lesser aberration despite having thirty men and women.


    The lesser aberration was Level 85, while the pdins were in the Level 70s. The aberration was making easy work of the pdins regardless of the numbers, ted armor, blessed skills, and magic weapons.


    Like a bodybuilder in a fight against toddlers, the aberration knocked around the pdins without facing too much resistance. Nearly ten pdins mmed horribly against the walls and tumbled down to the floor, oneing short of dying.


    With a third of the unit crumpled to the floor, the monstrous amalgamation of screeching goblin bodies fused into a ten-foot-tall freak raised its arms. It was preparing to m down again and crush the injured pdins.


    Bolts, crescents, holy fireballs, piercing streams of holy water, and many other ranged attacks from the pdins sshed off the great toughness and vitality of Shadowfell’s corrupted toys. The pdinscked enough power to stop the creature on their own, as the corruptedmitted to a killing blow that would surely lead to a full wipe out of the pdin unit.


    Bianca stepped in and shed the lesser aberration in half with one quick and shiny hard light cut.


    Before the two dying halves hit the watery stone floor, Naomi caught the separated aberration with her mind. She then tossed the remains along with the blood in Zarian’s direction.


    Acting in an efficient and orderly fashion, Zarian held watch as Para devoured the aberration and its corrupted blood. Gilbert healed the injured pdins. Hannah built cover high above their heads to block out the stormy elements. She even set some walled partitions behind them to break up the howling wind.


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    All of that came about in less than ten seconds, leaving Bianca shining some light on the pdins as she stood among them.


    “<em>H! </em>You’ve been rescued! Isn’t that <em>bueno</em>?” Bianca cheered, her beaming smile raising the mood.


    The pdins not only seemed to appreciate the help, but they marveled at the fast-acting magic happening at once.


    Zarian and his party didn’t even have to verbalize their next moves for most cases at this point. High Rune Mindframe +2 and Spectral Spider Network +3 from Zarianbined with Naomi’s subtle mental buffs made them the most coordinated and on-the-ball party around.


    That should be met with admiration. That should be met with celebration and grand interest.


    And that would’ve been the case with the rescued pdins until they turned and noticed two antithetical details.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om


    They saw the ck and upright goblin skeleton that was Loner standing near Slip. Then a pdin pointed a shaky finger toward the back of their saviors’ party, directing the attention of all thirty men and women to something more horrifying to them than a skeleton.


    They noticed an armored form covered in coiling darkness, snakes, and monstrous limbs flowing from behind his back.


    “Hello,” Zarian said politely from the darkness under his beastly wizard hat. “I’m the Dark Lord. And these are my friends. We’re from the World of Swamps and Princesses. How do you do?”


    “ATTACK!” roared a pdin who had recoveredpletely after the free healing provided by the Knighted Healer.


    “Stop resisting,” Gilbert muttered as he chopped his hand behind the pdin’s neck and knocked him out.


    Gilbert turned and took a spiked mace to the face that made him bleed a little. With a casual grunt, therge and blond healer returned a backhanded p that floored the attacker before turning toward other would-be fighters.


    Bianca struck one pdin on the helmet with a baton of light, which ended up as a knock-out blow. Doing the same to five others, Bianca fought in a quick, graceful, and fluid fashion that sent pdins falling to the ground.


    Naomi walked forward and punched grown men and women into the walls, leaving their breasttes crushed while breaking a few ribs.


    Loner battered some pdins withpact but potent bursts of force, and Slip the Sleipnir trampled over some other unruly pdins under his armored hooves.


    Hannah didn’t know what to do, so she remained floating next to Zarian. She watched the melee finish up as three Floridians, a goblin skeleton expert, and an eight-legged horse smacked down thirty men and women without too much effort.


    “Why do I feel disappointed?” Hannah asked, looking down upon the weak and easily beaten pdins.


    “Wee to my world.” Zarian floated forward, with Hannah following at his side.


    They seemed like two deities who didn’t want to ce their feet down on the same floor as weak mortals. Granted, in Zarian’s case, he really was a deity, specifically a son of ultra gods.


    Zarian stopped to hover over the toughest and most senior pdin of the unit. The man spat blood and spittle, his breathing out hoarse after enduring two light punches from Naomi instead of one.


    “You should warn your people to leave Grimrock,” Zarian said darkly, with only a hint of his dreadful nature. “You are too weak. You are too far behind in power tiers. The only reason you remain alive is because my wife is toying with you for her amusement. Hell, she probably sees you as a tragic audience for her newfound game of active evil. So trust me when I say you should vamoose, scram, get the fuck out.”


    Other than them being zealots and terrorists, Zarian didn’t care about the pdins overall. But he still wanted them to return home except for the Prime Archbishop.


    The pdins at Grimrock were their most trained fighting force. If they all fell here along with the Prime Archbishop, then who knew how screwed up their entire kingdom would be.


    <em>I don’t feel like getting more refugees from another busted kingdom,</em> Zarian thought. Granted, he was helping Bianca with her assassination for Shadowfell, so evil was definitely afoot to some degree. <em>I can’t wait to see how the assassination bites me in the ass somehow.</em>


    Maybe he could mitigate the predictable oue by getting the pdins to leave. But the chances of that were low.


    “Foul evil! Oh, ye of tarnished heart and apocalyptic darkness! We are allmitted to the crusade, to thest man and woman! After the Grimrock Warlock is felled, then you, too, shall face the raw anger of our holy mission!” shouted the man kneeling before Zarian. The pdin kept yelling and spitting blood. “I can’t wait for the day we burn your evil vige to the ground. We will put every evil man, evil woman, and evil child to the sword! And then we will have you under the unbreaking hold of the Good Gods forever!”


    Zarian sighed. He wondered if he should scare this man close to death or something. However, he didn’t have too much time to ponder before someone jumped in.


    “You dogmatic, poorly educated, ignoramus. It’s people like you who will lead us to another apocalypse!” Hannah interjected.


    One of her orbiting little golems shot a magicser. She sted the pdin’s head and left nothing above the neck, ending the man as easily as she could breathe.


    “Hannah, you could’ve said retard for an insult. And that man was subdued,” Gilbert said.


    “I will not discuss the use of that word. And I’m not apologizing,” Hannah said stiffly. “I’ve given Zarian quite a hard time. What makes you think I won’t give others twice or thrice a hard time for threatening him?”


    “Fine then. I’m tranquilizing them and anyone else we subdue. It doesn’t sit right with me to kill when it’s like dealing with children. They can’t put up much of a fight.” Gilbert shrugged and turned about to pacify any further resistance with Tranquilizer Touch +2.


    As he did that, Naomi raised both thumbs up to Hannah. Of course, the Rumble Psion didn’t mind killing zealots, radicals, and terrorists.


    Loner nodded his skull, and Slip neighed in support of Hannah.


    Gilbert shook his head in mild disappointment.


    <em>Is Hannah right or Gilbert right? </em>Para asked in Zarian’s head.


    <em>About retard? </em>Zarian returned.


    <em>No, about killing or subduing?</em>


    <em>Neither, because we can let the pdins be fodder for the kiddos if they are so insistent on delivering us a misguided crusade, </em>Zarian answered privately. <em>Anyway, no point in sweating the small stuff now. There will be plenty of chances to talk morality while dominating whoever puts up a fight.</em>


    <em>Hm, yes, I see what you’re saying, Zarian. Now I must ask this. Can I eat?</em>


    Zarian let her eat.


    After Para devoured the dead pdin, they moved on.


    The Floridians already knew where to find the Prime Archbishop. They owed their thanks to the many spider scouts that kept them updated on the crusade.


    The Prime Archbishop would be nowhere near as pitiful as these grunts in the trenches. In fact, the leader of an entire kingdom might give Bianca a hard fight depending on if she could muster enough power from her free good +6.


    Zarian nced over at Bianca. She was performing pirouettes and graceful ballerina steps in the corner.


    He hoped she could pull through alright. He also wondered if this was the right time to tell the others WHY they were truly doing the assassination in the first ce.


    <em>I really appreciate the blind faith, </em>Zarian thought.


    <em>Faith is a fickle thing, so it must be cherished when it is genuinely expressed, but beware, for it can be built on stacks of deceit and wrongness, paving way to damnation, </em>Para thought.


    Nodding to Para’s wise philosophy, Zarian told the others the main reason they were doing the assassination for Shadowfell – which had everything to do with Shadowfell’s ability to ess their old world, even to the point of delivering messages. Bianca listened silently while making her own internal preparations.