es of fire erupted from the inner surface of his wings, streaking towards the One, aiming for his head and his body.  But the One made a furious slashing gesture with his shield, and Tarrins lances struck something solid and were deflected away.  Tarrin withdrew them as the One gave him a look of utter contempt, and then pushed out with both of his arms.
	What came next was not a bolt, but a wave of pure power, and Tarrin had nowhere to go.  He found himself staring a wall of white energy that took up his entire field of vision, hurtling at him with shocking speed.  Instead of trying to defend himself, Tarrin took his sword up in both paws and slashed at that power as it reached for him.  The blade struck it, and he felt resistance, as if he were striking a solid object.  Tarrin didnt let up, he sheared his blade through the wave of the Ones power, which caused it to part before him like a curtain.  It went to either side of him harmlessly, but did catch on his wings, which pulled him off balance before he could make them fluid and pliable and slide through the hole without resistance.  The One looked shocked that his blast of power had not caught Tarrin, but did not delay or relent.  He made a slashing motion with his sword, and Tarrin felt something impact him from the side, like a gigantic fist.  It struck with such force that Tarrin felt that his head was going to come off.  Stunned, he was swept off the invisible platform on which they had been battling, hurtling towards the city at an alarming rate.  He shook off the cobwebs and sensed his quick approach to the ground, then flared out his wings and arrested his descent.  He felt them pull at his back as they defied his momentum, but they prevented him from slamming into a gray-slated roof, under which was a window where two children watched on in muted awe.  He landed on the roof of the building, and spotted another wave of power hurtling towards him.  In an instant of protectiveness, he called on the power of Sorcery.  He wove a weave of Air and Fire and released it from his paws, then projected it before him as a shield of pure force.  Even though he had marked all within Pyros as doomed, seeing a child in danger had caused him to rise up and protect without even thinking, as his instincts overwhelmed his reasoning.
	Tarrin was crushed down to one knee as the wave of power struck his shield, assaulting him as if he were holding it up with his own paws.  He clenched his teeth and poured more power into the shield as the wave of force threatened to tear the weaving, as a shimmering globe of blue opposed the white energy which was the Ones attack.  That attack shattered the buildings to each side of the row house upon which Tarrin stood, and the slates under his feet cracked under the strain, but the shield of magic held up against the assault.
	The shield dissolved as Tarrin streaked back into the air, sword held in both paws as he raced to close the distance.  It was quickly degenerating, and he had to reestablish a physical confrontation, to avoid having to fight the One power against power.  But the One, who had been stung in a physical clash, seemed determined to prevent Tarrin from getting anywhere near him.  He backed away as he began chanting in the language of the gods, preparing to cast a Priest spell, which caused Tarrin to double his speed to reach him before he could finish.  The One finished his spell before Tarrin could reach him, however, and a raging column of fire descended from the heavens and struck Tarrin, engulfing him in a raging inferno.
	Idiot!  Didnt he have any sense at all?
	Tarrin burst forth from the column of fire unscathed, but found that the One was gone.  The brief moment that Tarrins vision had been blocked by the fire had allowed him to vanish.  Tarrin opened his senses and quickly located the One, for the power he emanated could not be hidden, and Tarrin turned and slashed his sword through another blast of power that had screamed in at him from the left flank.  The One flowed backwards in the air and prepared to do it again, but Tarrin had had enough.  He wove together a weave of Air, Fire, Water, and Divine power, with token flows from all the other spheres, a chaotic mess of flows that formed one of his favorite and most powerful magical attacks.  Tarrins paws burst forth with the glowing, wispy nimbus of Magelight as he used a spell of High Sorcery, snapping it down and releasing it just as another incandescent wave of force was unleashed from the Ones sweeping sword.
	The brilliant bolt of chaotic magic Tarrin unleashed lanced through the air and slammed into the wave of force unleashed by the One, then punched through it and raced towards the One.  But the One simply raised his shield, and Tarrins attack was deflected harmlessly up into the sky.  Tarrin streaked straight up and away from the wave of force, which passed under him and slammed into the city below, shattering even more buildings.  The One seemed to not care about his city or his people.  It didnt matter how many died as long as he got Tarrin.  The One spread his feathered wings, and motes of light appeared before them.  Those motes got larger, turning into little white balls, and then they all streaked directly at Tarrin with amazing speed.  Tarrin careened to a halt and instantly started chanting in the discordant language of magic, then made a slashing motion with his left paw.  A scillinting wave of magical power erupted from his paw, growing and expanding as it traveled away from him, and it intercepted the illuminated orbs.  In brilliant puffs, each orb exploded into harmless light as they touched the effects of Tarrins spell, a spell designed to dispel magic that touched itand even the divine power of gods was considered magic, as far as the spell was concerned.
	Tarrin and the One both started chanting in unison, Tarrin in the language of magic, the One in the language of the gods, their voices unnaturally loud as their words echoed from the buildings and from one another.  Tarrin heard the words, knew that the One was about to use a spell intended to kill instantly, one of the mightiest Priest spells of alla spell that focused the power of a god into a touch that caused instant death.  Tarrin continued to chant even after the One completed the spell, and an ominous black cloud formed around each of his hands.  Now the One would rush in and engage in melee, and try to touch him.  He had nearly five minutes until the power of the spell dissipated, five minutes to touch Tarrins bare skin with his own, or touch him through organic material, like his clothing.  Tarrin continued to chant, his voice strong and unwavering as death dove on him from above, those black-shrouded hands leading as the One sought to end the contest quickly.  Tarrin made six precise gestures, then snipped the thongs of a belt pouch with a claw, grabbed it, and slung its contents into the air around him.  Thousands of motes of glittering light surrounded the Were-cat as the quartz dust refracted the light from his wings, from his eyes, creating a display awe-inspiring in its majestic, terrible beauty.  Tarrin completed the spell with a final shouted word, and then he flinched in the oddest manner.
	Just before two perfect duplicates of himself separated from his body.
	The One pulled out of his dive, confused and swearing as three Tarrins, each moving independently of the others, suddenly raced towards him, each wielding a burning sword.  Tarrin charged fearlessly, despite the fact that the two duplicates were merely shadows, solid magic that looked like the caster of the spell, and could do no harm.  They would be disrupted the instant they were touched.  But each of those simulacrums gave off the exact sense of presence as their creator, which was to say that there was no sense of him at all thanks to Tarrins amulet and its ability to hide him from magical detection, so the One absolutely could not tell the fakes from the original.  Only one could harm, but since he had to defend against three, and also the fact that the death spell would discharge into a simulacrum if he touched it and render it useless, the One had reason to be intimidated by this counterstroke.  The One pulled up and began chanting in the language of the gods, the Priest version of the exact same spell that Tarrin had used, the spell to dispel magic.
	There was a counterspell for that, and now they were close enough to each other for the One to be in range of its effect.  Without thinking, Tarrin also began to chant, pulling up and uttering the words of the spell, then he completed it and pointed at the One.  Tarrin felt the strangest surge from deep within him, like a power that had been hidden had suddenly been awakened.  Newfound power flooded into him, through him, then was released from him and crossed the distance to the One.  A sphere of magical silence settled around the gods Avatar, taking his voice and leaving him unable to complete the spell.  It was a simple spell, a quick spell, a spell that neophytes used, but it had valid tactical worth even in a duel using magic of the magnitude they were using.
	Tarrin felt dizzy.  He wavered a bit in the air even as his duplicates surged ahead, putting a paw to his forehead, feeling both drained and energized at the same moment, confused and out of sorts.
	Silence was a Priest spell.  And the energy that had powered it came from him.
	He had used a Priest spell!  And the power had not come from the Goddess, it had come from himself.  He had granted himself the power to cast a spell!
	That was impossible!  He couldnt do that like he was!  Maybe if he was in his divine form, if the sword changed him, then maybe, but not with his mortal body!
	The Ones eyes were wild, and a look of absolute shock was gracing it.  That look of shock was mirrored on Tarrins own for a brief moment, but the Were-cat snapped out of it and lunged ahead, flames from his wings trailing behind him as he took up his sword in both paws and held it to his side.
	Toying with me?  If you wish to use your full power, then so be it!  I was but providing you with a shell of greater power than your own to make sport of you!  Now face my true power!
	The voice, indignant and outraged, thundered into his brain from everywhere at once, and Tarrin sensed a sudden eruption of divine energy, the likes of which he only felt when a god was doing something so powerful that it altered the very texture of reality.  The Avatar of the One became incandescently bright as the god channeled incredible power into it, infusing it with such might that it no longer adhered to mortal boundaries.  It ceased being a mortal Avatar and became a direct manifestation of the god, a true Avatar, the wounds on his face vanishing and the black cloud disappearing from his hands.
	For a moment, Tarrin had a terrifying vision of the shadow of Val.  That was the same kind of power he was sensing now coming from the One.  The gloves were off, the One was not playing anymore.  This was a divine being, and now Tarrins magic would no longer work against it.  All he had were his divine-imparted abilities of fire and his sword as weapons.
	The One brushed aside Tarrins simulacrums with a wave of his hand, making them vanish, then he thrust his open palm at Tarrin.  There was no spell, no magic, just a release of divine will as the One brought his direct power to bear in the mortal realm.
	It was like being struck with a hundred mountains.  The air was crushed out of him as a pure force of staggering dimensions literally smashed him out of the air.  Nearly every bone in his body was broken as that force impacted him, sent him racing towards the ground, and he could do nothing more than swim in a sea of pain.  He felt the sword slip out of his shattered paw, a paw that was already beginning to knit itself back together, and the intense pain eased enough to allow him to think.  He was not going to stop himself in time before he hit the ground, he knew that.  Since he could not arrest his descent, he had to find a way to mitigate the impact, because slamming into the ground was perfectly natural, and it would kill him.
	Easily done.
	Tarrin folded his wings around himself and caused his body to merge with the flames, to be one with his power, to become the fire.  His mortal form melted into flame, but the wings remained, causing him to become a being of pure fire surrounded by a material shell that was invulnerable to anything but a god.  Turning to pure flame would protect him against the impact of hitting the ground, as fire liquid, fluid, and wouldnt be hurt by something like hitting the ground, while his wings would prevent that impact from causing his form to dissipate when it hit.
	The orb of solid flame that had become Tarrin punched through the roof of a warehouse, then slammed into the floor beneath.  There was a huge explosion of wood and dirt as Tarrin hit like a cannonball, but his wings did not falter in containing his fiery form, and that immaterial body was immune to the physical impact of hitting the ground.  He returned to his physical form as his wings unfolded from around himself, and to his surprise he found himself uninjured.  He had reformed himself without the broken bones, in effect healing himself during the transformation.  He has lost his sword, but knew that he could get it back with a thought, and knew that moving right now was absolutely imperative.  He turned and lanced through the back wall of the warehouse, just as the entire building literally vanished in a blazing column of incredible might, like silver flames, as the One used his divine power to consume the building in a column of pure divine energy.
	Rising up from the smoke and dust created by the Ones powerful attack, Tarrin called his sword to him, and the instant his paw closed over it, he felt the swords power explode, felt in that touch that the swords true power was unlocking, and unlocking the power within him.  The sword blazed forth with intensely bright flame as the power that Tarrin had once possessed was released from its prison.  Incandescent flame flowed over the sword, then up his arm, quickly enveloping him in the purity of its radiant might.  That power touched him, infused him, saturated itself into the core of his being even as the fire continued up into the heavens, as once more the sword released the true power of Tarrins divine nature.  He felt the almost ecstatic rush of power rage through him, felt his mind expand as it was touched by divine power, and felt his bodys very nature change in a subtle manner as the power transformed him into something capable of wielding it.  The column of fire enveloping him slowly dissipated, until the One found himself staring at a being with hair and fur that was flame, radiating a heat so intense that wood and cloth would instantly turn to ash if it were placed close to him.  The One found himself facing a being that could fight back.
	Again, Tarrin ceased to be a mortal.  Just as the One had infused his Avatar with direct power, so Tarrin had once again infused himself with his own imprisoned power, and become an Avatar, a direct physical manifestation of his own power.
	The urgent calls began almost instantly.  Run!  Run! a startling number of voices screamed at him urgently, distracting him for the slightest of moments.  He realized immediately that these voices were the other gods of this world, and now that Tarrin was a being more sensitive to the workings of gods, things that a mortal could not sense, they could directly communicate with him.  But Tarrin ignored them.  He focused on the One, on keeping the Ones attention for just a few moments more, to make absolutely sure that Mist had gotten Kimmie away from the cathedral before he acted.  By the God of Gods, you must flee! One voice rose above the others, but Tarrin ignored them.  The One is more powerful than you are!  Do not face him!
	Tarrin could sense that power.  Yes, the One was much stronger than he was, but that didnt matter.  Tarrin had faced beings much stronger than himself before.
	Faster than a mortal eye could track, Tarrin was again in the face of the One, who seemed unsurprised at Tarrins revelation.  Burning sword met kite shield, and their touch created a storm of spark-like motes of pure magical energy to rain down on Pyros.  That blow seemed to shock the One, because Tarrin had sensed that the One had been expecting something much more than a purely physical attack.  The One replied with his broadsword, but Tarrin parried it easily away from him.  But behind that sword there seemed to be a strange sense of might, an odd power, almost limitless, focused on Tarrins form.  But that power could not touch him, sliding through him, like a phantom wind that went through him harmlessly.
	Then he understood.  The One was trying to fight Tarrin in more than just the mortal realm.  But Tarrin had no power outside the mortal realm, did not exist anywhere but here.  He was a being of divine power trapped in the mortal world, and only power that affected the mortal world could touch him.  It was the limitation he suffered for being what he was, but in its own way it was also his advantage, for the One could not use his full, true power against him.  He could only use the power he could manifest in the physical realm, which had to be limited to avoid unraveling the very fabric of reality.  The material world was just not sturdy enough to support the true power of a god.
	Tarrin took advantage of that revelation for the One to try to end it quickly.  He pressed in, sword slashing with such blazing speed that the mortal eye would see nothing but a fiery blur, pressing the One and forcing him to back up.  Tarrin continued his single-minded focus on the Ones shield, marring the smooth silver finish of its outer face, trying to remove it from the duel by either destroying it or ripping it off the Ones arm.  The One seemed the stagger for a moment, then Tarrin sensed that he had recovered, and was about to reply.
	He felt the power build up, sensed the One call it into the mortal world, and Tarrin was forced to do the same.  He called to the endless power within him, summoning it forth, focusing it into his off paw, and then projected it forth in the form of a defensive barrier as the One unleashed his power in the form of an attack.
	Again, it was like being struck with a mountain.  Tarrin snapped out his wings and was pushed back by the power the One hurled at him, but the defensive barrier held, deflecting it away.  The One came charging in behind the blow he had released, but Tarrin was ready for him.  He shifted the texture of his barrier to turn it into a physical force, and it caused the One to bounce off of it as he tried to get to Tarrin before the Were-cat could recover.  Tarrin manifested his power as fire hotter than anything that could ever be created in a mortal realm, then unleashed it at the One in a concentrated, spiraling blast.  But the blast struck the Ones shield and was deflected, bouncing up and racing into the heavens without touching the One.
	Tarrin had expected that.  He took up his sword and charged the One, who now had a smug look on his face, and tried to take his head off.  The One parried that blow, sending another cascade of white sparks to the city below, then presented the face of his shield to Tarrin and released his power once more.  Tarrin evaded it by dropping down, then rose up with a mighty slash of his sword, trailing an arc of fire, which the One narrowly avoided.  The One raced through that fire, sword taking on an incandescent glow as he rushed in on the Were-cats defenseless flank as he recovered from his blow, then stabbed it through the exposed flank of the Were-cat.
	But the Were-cats body simply dissolved into smoke an instant before the sword reached him.  The arc of fire behind the One suddenly twisted and reformed into Tarrins physical form, and the Were-cat reared back with his sword over his head, then chopped it into the Ones winged back without hesitation.
	It almost worked.  The One somehow managed to turn around and barely managed to catch the weapon on his shield, but it was a poorly executed block, putting the One at a disadvantage.  Nonplussed, the Were-cat rained massive blows down on the One, using raw power to prevent a quick recovery, which were parried or blocked with sword and shield awkwardly as the winged god tried to recover himself.  Tarrin pressed in, causing the One to back up step by step on the empty air on which they battled, raining heavy blows on the Ones shield and sending a steady stream of spark-like motes of pure magical energy flying with every strike.  The air around them began to writhe and distort as it was saturated with magical energy, and the sky above them began to cloud over, the clouds racing around a nexus that was directly over the pair.  The power they were releasing into the world was beginning to affect the reality of the material plane, unnaturally twisting the natural order, but neither of them noticed as the One managed to recover himself, then began to counterattack, flicking light stabs and slashes of his weapon in reply when Tarrin struck at his shield, forcing the Were-cat to quickly parry or evade the weapon.  It halted his forward progress, and put them on even footing once more.
	But why was the One not using his power more liberally?  Tarrin didnt quite understand.  He had changed into a direct manifestation to unleash his might, then tried to fight Tarrin god to god, but now he seemed perfectly comfortable with a pure sparring match of weapon to weapon after that single attempt to use his power.
	Simple, my doomed, hobbled opponent, the Ones voice crooned in his mind.  You cannot defeat me.  So have at me.  Your fighting will do nothing but inspire more awe in my subjects when I destroy you.  After all, the epic battle is remembered much longer than the easy victory.
	Hardly, Tarrin snarled aloud, snapping his wings out, which instantly grew five times their normal size, and calling on the power inside him.  It focused in his paws, and then he unleashed it through his sword.  Just as he had done when fighting the shadow of Val, Tarrin released his power in a raw state, nothing but power itself, and that raging maelstrom of divine energy lashed at the One.  The One rose up and met that power with his own, and when they touched it set off a violent explosion of power that knocked both of them away from each other.  Tarrin raced through the chaos of magical energy left over from that detonation, like a soup of pure magical energy, and brought his sword down on the Ones raised weapon.  Seeing you struggle against me will make them wonder why their god couldnt kill a mortal so easily, Tarrin hissed at him scathingly.  And if you admit that Im something other than a mortal, well, then how can there be more than the One when the One says that theres not?
	You are the Demon Prince, the One replied jovially.  And I must say, you look the part.  You have risen up to challenge my mastery of your kind, and when you are dead, my people will rejoice that the Defiled once more serve their betters.
	Tarrin growled.  So, that was the game.  He reached out with his senses and realized that Mist and Kimmie had not left Pyros yet, and that made him wary.  He had to hold off the One a little bit longer, but he couldnt make it apparent that he was stalling.
	Or did he?  No, he did not.
	You havent finished it yet, One, Tarrin growled at him, in a voice loud enough for the people beneath him to hear.  I can sense the other gods of this world, and I cant sense any kind of interest from the creating god of this dimension.  Even now they cry out to me, and your creator doesnt seem to care.  Theyre weak, but they are there.  How did they get away from you?  Cant find their faithful, can you?  Your Hunters cant reach them, can they?
	They are cowards, and will die soon, he answered.
	Tarrin dropped down from the air until his feet dangled just over the level of the roofs of the buildings and raised a single paw, calling again on the boundless power within him.  It surged forth and gathered inside him.  He focused it into his paw, built it up like water behind a dam, then unleashed it as a brilliant spiraling cone of blue-white fire.  It raged through the air, falling well short of touching the One, passing under him harmlessly as the One descended to engage Tarrin.  At first the One smirked at him, then looked back and realized that he had never been the target of the attack.
	The blast of spiraling fire was aimed directly at the Ones cathedral.
	NO! the Ones voice screeched in outrage and shock, and his glowing body simply vanished from where it was and reappeared in front of his cathedral, shield presented and ready to deflect the blast to protect what was within.
	Connected to his fire, Tarrin yielded to his fire, merged with it, became the fire, then touched the fire of his attack.  Fire was connected to itself, it was separate manifestations of the same thing, and as such it was all merely fire.  Tarrins fiery form vanished in a gentle puff of expanding flame.
	The vanguard of Tarrins blast suddenly contorted, then expanded as Tarrin reformed his physical body from that fire.  That fire was traveling at incredible speed, so when the fire faded and left Tarrins physical body behind, he was racing ahead dizzyingly with the rest of that stream of fire immediately behind him.  He took up his sword in both paws as the Ones glowing eyes widened in shock, then coiled up like a spring with his sword to his side.  He uncoiled and whipped his sword from the Ones right to his left, the tip of his sword catching the Ones shield, which had been positioned to deflect Tarrins attack of fire, and jarred it far out to the side.  Tarrin slammed into the One with his shoulder, and the fire behind him caught up, pushing them both forward, like riding a cannonball fired from a Wikuni cannon.  The One screamed in surprise and outrage and then simply vanished, but Tarrin did not.  He impacted the side of the Ones cathedral and was slammed through.
	In an explosion of stone and dust, Tarrin penetrated the outer wall of the Ones center of worship.  He found himself in a vast chapel with many pews and benches facing a raised altar to his right, and behind that altar stood a regal statue of a winged human holding a sword and shield, nearly twenty spans tall, the detail of the sculpture so amazing that the sculpture nearly looked like a living thing.
	It was the Ones icon.
	The fire of Tarrins attack struck the far wall and exploded back into the chapel, instantly setting fire to anything that could  burn, creating a hellish firestorm contained within the cathedrals walls.  Tarrin surged out of that inferno with his sword raised, lancing through the air at the Ones icon, sword suddenly burning brightly, eagerly, in anticipation of delivering the telling blow.
	NO!!!!!! the One shrieked in his mind as the distant voices of the other gods suddenly rose up in breathless anticipation, and the Ones icon animated itself, as the god resorted to his last line of defense to protect his iconusing the icon itself.  The stone sword of the icon moved, the shield turned, and caught Tarrins savage blow on its stone face, creating an intense flash of light as Tarrins direct might made contact with the Ones direct might.  He struck again, and again, and again, a blazingly fast flurry of immensely powerful blows, each one sending a shockwave from them that shuddered the cathedrals walls.  The Ones icon did not move smoothly or fluently, but it moved just fast enough to use its shield to protect itself, a shield that lost pieces of itself with every attack, as chips of stone went flying with every blow.  Tarrin focused the power within and unleashed it through his sword, but the Ones direct manifestation appeared in the confined space between Tarrin and the Ones icon and caught that blast on his shield, reflecting it directly back at him.  Tarrin was forced to slither to the side to avoid his own attack.
	The look on the Ones face was almost mindless in its outrage, indignation, and fury.  Tarrin had made a direct attack on the Ones link to the material plane, and he seemed just as outraged that Tarrin had known it was there as he was infuriated that he would dare try.  HowDAREyou!!!!! he managed to call out into Tarrins mind, that voice holding all his immeasurable dismay and anger.
	Tarrin retracted to his normal size as he wove a simple weave of Air, but a weave of intense power.  A shimmering aura of red formed around the Were-cats winged form, as the weave was woven and charged with power, and more power, and even more power.  The reddish glow was discordant and chaotic, but the One ignored it as he rushed forward with his sword leading, but Tarrin could sense that the One was preparing to unleash a direct blast of his divine might well before he reached the now smaller Were-cat.
	The red glow around Tarrin suddenly became coherent, symmetrical, a globe of angry red energy as Tarrin snapped the weave downa spell ready to be released.
	Chew on this, Tarrin said calmly, and he released his spell.

	The people of Pyros, who had seen the invading Demon and their god go in the direction of the Ones cathedral, all had their eyes locked on it in that terrible moment.  The gold-domed basilica which was the seat of the Ones power simply shattered.  The golden dome of the basilica rocketed into the sky, oddly undamaged, as the building under it exploded in every direction, sending jagged pieces of stone arcing high into the air, straight out, sending a cascading shower of smoking rubble raining down on Pyros.  The deafening shockwave of sound and pressure washed over the city, an ear-splitting BOOM that shattered every window in the city, and even caused some of the shabbier huts and dilapidated buildings to collapse.
	There was a massive cloud of dust where the cathedral used to be, which boiled anew when the huge golden dome of the basilica returned to the ground, sending a squealing sound over the city as it struck the ground and broke apart, sending large, jagged pieces of metal tumbling down the slope of the volcano to the base of the mountain below.  But within that cloud of dust was a glowing shine of light, bright white and pristine, and the voice 