of their god thundered over the city to assure them that he had not been destroyed.
	My beautiful cathedral! the Ones voice raged.  Now you are DEAD!

	If Tarrin ever really, really wanted to tick off a god, now he knew how to do it.
	In that boiling cloud of dust, the light of the shield of divine magic that the Ones Avatar had raised to protect the icon cut through the darkness, illuminating the dust itself in an eerily, hauntingly beautiful display, like tiny particles of solid light suspended in the air.  The ground beneath them was scoured clean of everything, but the ground itself was untouched.  That was important, for he could sense Mist and Kimmie somewhere beneath him, and that ensured that his attack tried to destroy the Ones icon without putting them in jeopardy.
	Tarrin reared back and threw his sword at the icon of the One, and the burning weapon lanced through the air at the stone statue.  The One quickly interposed his Avatar, and Tarrins sword struck the Ones shield and clattered to the ground, its fire quickly disappearing.  Tarrin left it there and called his staff out of the elsewhere, infusing his favorite weapon with divine energies to give it the power to harm the One.  The staff began to glow brightly, and continued to glow as Tarrins feet left the ground and he surged forward. Holding his staff in the end-grip, almost like a sword.  But the One seemed to have lost his taste for the game, for his eyes burned with seething fury.  He held out his shield, and a blast of pure power impacted Tarrin, knocking the air out of his lungs and sending him careening off the flat ridge upon which the cathedral had been built.  The One boiled out of that cloud like Death Himself, howling with fury and outrage, his face no longer handsome and composed.  A concentrated release of power much more powerful than anything that the shadow of Val used against him came raging at him, a blindingly white expression of the Ones power, but the Were-cat simply rose higher into the air, avoiding it as it slammed into the city below.  There was no explosion, nothing like that, it simply caused the buildings and red-bricked streets to dissolve as if scoured by the sands of the Sandshield until nothing was left, leaving nothing behind but smoking dust.
	I will flay your skin from your flesh! the One raged in Tarrins mind as he sent another blast at him, which Tarrin again evaded easily.  I will strip the soul out of you and imprison it in a gem to decorate my sword!
	I thought you wanted an epic battle, a grand show, Tarrin taunted lightly as he raced at the One.  Staff stuck shield with a dull thunk, and Tarrin continued past the One and aimed a blow at the back of his head.  The One turned and caught the staff on his shield once again.  Doesnt the destruction of your cathedral make this more epic?  Or are you just worried that because I can strike back at you, you dont look quite so grand and impressive to your people?  After all, I just blew up your cathedralarent you god enough to protect it from a measly little nothing like me?  Upset that youre not as invulnerable and all-powerful as you think?  That youre just as limited as the gods you say dont exist?
	Oh, that did it.  That more than did it.  The One shrieked in mindless fury and lost all composure, as Tarrins taunts caused him to lose his temper.  He lashed out at Tarrin with nothing but raw power, power with no finesse, no control.  Tarrin evaded it and sent a dozen fiery lances out of his wings at the One in reply, and the One was too angry to coherently consider a defense.  He tried to barge through them, deflecting two with his shield, but four of those lances got around his shield and struck him in the chest, left side, and leg.  And they penetrated.  The One cried out in surprise and pain when Tarrins lances penetrated armor and struck at the divine energy beneath, a direct assault on the integrity of the Ones Avatar.  An injury.
	Cant fight me the way you want, can you? Tarrin continued to dig as he rushed forth and delivered a series of heavy blows at the Ones shield with both ends of his staff.  You can only use energy you can manifest in the physical world against me, and your precious city is under us.  If you blow it up, nobody will be here to see your grand victory, will there?  So you flail at me with just enough power to try to kill me without doing any permanent damage to the mortal realmbut its not enough, is it?  Im a better fighter than you, and you know it.  All you have is your power, and you cant use it the way you want to.  Doesnt that frustrate you?  Doesnt it eat at you to feel so limited in the face of a mere nothing?
	You are being a fool! one of the voices of the gods raged at him.  Do not do this!  His icon is your goal, you are being stupid!
	Tarrin ignored that bit of advice and evaded another savage release of power from the enraged Avatar with delicate grace, then took up his staff and jammed the end of it into the Ones face.  His head snapped back and he staggered backwards in the air, and when he came back up it was clearly apparent that his nose was broken.  Unimpressed, Tarrin reared back and stabbed at his neck, but the One managed to get his sword up and parry the blow just wide.  Tarrin spun away from that, going in the direction the Ones sword had knocked his staff and whipped his tail around, hitting the One in the side of the head with its tip, then slammed the outside curve of his wing into the entirety of the Ones body.  Hundreds of small spikes suddenly erupted from the outside curve, driving deep into the Ones Avatar and causing him to scream in pain.
	A shockwave of might erupted from the Ones form, sending Tarrin flying backwards, stunning him briefly.  Tarrin shook out the cobwebs just in time to twist to the side to avoid getting skewered by the Ones sword.  The Cats Claws snapped out its claw-like blades over his right paw, and he drove them into the Ones shield.  The four extended blades penetrated the marred surface, and Tarrin caused them to bend, to hook into the Ones shield.  When Tarrin spun away in the opposite direction, avoiding another swipe of the Ones sword, he yanked with his right arm and tore the shield out of the Ones grip.  Instantly, Tarrin brought forth the power deep within and focused it into his left paw, the paw holding the sword, and unleashed it at the Ones now unprotected flank.
	The One saw it coming, and unleashed a blast of his own as a counter.   Those two energies met between them, and exploded into a fiery mass of destructive power as their energies battled one another in the air between them.  Both of them anchored into the fabric of reality to avoid being knocked backwards by the shockwave, a shockwave which thundered across Pyros and flattened the buildings directly beneath them.  An incandescent, blazing globe of energy boiled between them as their divine energies struck one another, did battle, and cancelled each other out, releasing that energy into the physical realm.
	Tarrin pushed both paws before him as the One continued to add more and more power to their duel, forcing Tarrin to do the same or be overwhelmed.  The raging orb of destruction between them expanded in size as they both added more and more power, a dreadful kind of tug-of-war that sought to push instead of pull.  Tarrin threw more and more into it, feeling the power in him rise up, and then the rate of that increase began to wane.  Tarrin discovered, to his dismay, that he could offer up no more, that he had reached the limits of his divine abilities.  Tarrin was, after all, only a demigod, without the full power of a truly divine being, and his ability to channel divine energy into the mortal world was restricted by his unique state of existence.  The One, on the other hand, did not have that restriction.  Tarrin felt keenly in the place of the shadow of Val in that moment, unable to put anything more behind his assault, knowing that he was being overwhelmed, but not in a position to pull out of it cleanly.  But he would not make the same mistake that the shadow of Val made, try to overwhelm the One in a frenzied, suicidal assault.
	He had not wanted this to become a battle of power, for he knew he would lose.  And that was exactly what it had become.
	Disengaging himself from the fabric of reality, Tarrin skewed his power, wrenching it in an odd manner, which caused the direct focus of his might to shift from straight ahead to slightly to the side.  The Ones power found no resistance on one edge of their meeting, and boiled forward.  But, since it was still meeting Tarrins power, it was deflected by that steady stream of might, reflecting off of it and sending it out wide.  Tarrin flowed quickly to the same side where he had skewed, shifted his power with the delicacy of a master fencer, and it was just enough to allow him to avoid the raging might of the Ones divine fury.
	It is only a matter of time! The One crooned in malicious delight.  Now you know you can never match my power!  Eventually you will make a mistake, and you will be mine!  And the people of Pyros will rejoice at having seen their god win a battle of epic proportions against the servants of darkness!
	Too bad they wont be alive to remember it, Tarrin hissed at the One vituperously.
	The Ones eyes widened as Tarrin dropped from the sky, so fast, like an arrow fired from a bow.  If the One could somehow hear his thoughts in this new state of being, then he had no doubt what Tarrin intended to do.
	Destroy Pyros.
	Tarrin reared back, then punched his paw into the red brick street of Pyros as he landed, driving his fist deep into the earth.  Tarrins power immediately flowed into the ground, under it, deeper and deeper, seeking out his own power deep within, the magma beneath the crust of the earth, the liquid fire which was of his realm.  Tarrin called to the magma, commanded it to do his bidding, and the magma could not disobey.  His wings doubled in size, and doubled again, becoming like sails attached to his back, sails of solid fire that were a physical indication of the immense power he was releasing into the world.
	FOOL!  WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? the Ones voice raged in his mind.
	Tarrin looked up at the One as his eyes changed color from green to an ominous red, as Tarrin touched on the fire within the earth and sent wave after wave of his own energy deep into the ground to give the magma the energy it needed to do his bidding.
	To the north, the steep-sloped volcano, upon whose slope the cathedral to the One was built, began to rumble and smoke.
	I just beat you, Tarrin answered in an evil hiss, his eyes shifting from blazing green to brilliant red as he came into communion with the core of his power, and touched on the core of this world.  Tarrin had created a massive upsurge in magma in the neck of the dormant volcano.  The hardened plug in the neck of the caldera would hold that magma back until the pressure became too great, and then the volcano would literally explode with such power that it would wipe Pyros away as if it had never existed.  Now nobody will be here to see your victory!  You just destroyed the seat of your power and thousands of your own worshippers, and for nothing!
	With a howl of pure outrage, the One thrust his sword at Tarrin far below, and then unleashed his full might.  He did not hold back.  The One could save the city, but it absolutely required that he destroy Tarrin right now.  So he struck at Tarrin with absolutely everything he could bring to bear.
	Tarrin was not prepared for what the One threw against him, for it made the shadow of Val look like an apprentice Wizard using a cantrip.  Tarrin disengaged himself from the ground and threw all his power forward, forming once again a defensive barrier to protect himself from the Ones might.  But the Ones power was immense, and it was all Tarrin could do to hold it off.  Tarrin screamed in rage and pain as he fell to one knee, holding his staff before him, holding onto either end, channeling his power through his weapon, fighting to keep the Ones power away from him.  Tarrin tapped into his reserves of Sorcery, weaving that power into his barrier, then called directly on the magic of the Wizards, then directly sought power from the earth itself in the manner of the Druid, feeling the All of this world suddenly awaken itself to his presence, then move to comply.  The MiShara called on all the magic he could muster to bolster his defense, hurling all the magic of the mortal world into the shield woven by his divine power to reinforce it, to protect him from the wrath of the One.  But Tarrin was not home, and his access to the magicks of mortalkin were severely restricted here.  In seconds, his entire reserve of the magic of Sorcery was gone, and his connection to that elsewhere from which Wizard magic flowed became unstable, and then was cut off, and his touch on the All of this world disrupted when Tarrin began to lose his focus.  Blinding pain assaulted him as the Ones power started burning away the shield, the pain of trying to hold back an avalanche, and then his shield faltered and failed.  He covered himself with his wings in a feeble attempt to defend himself from that torrent of divine wrath, but it was but a pittance in comparison to the raw, unmitigated might that the One hurled at him.
	This time, Tarrin was not the equal of a god.
	The earth around him evaporated, and the integrity of his wings was all but destroyed as they tried to hold back the wrath of the One.  Pain like he had never felt roared into him as the power of the One sought to shatter his very existence, to unmake his body and utterly destroy him.  Tarrins power rose up and tried to protect his soul from that overwhelming assault, but only just.
	It was an instant that lasted an eternity, as the full power of a god struck him, and in that eternity he understood his mistake.  He had played the Ones game, had not disengaged to seek out and destroy the Ones icon, had allowed his hunger for revenge trap him into an encounter that he would be hard pressed to win.  In that moment of eternal torture, Tarrin frantically scrabbled at his last defense, trying to channel enough focus through the soul-rending attack to do it.  Tarrin reached into himself, to his connection to fire, and then sent out his mind disjointedly, seeking out that part of himself he had left behind, his last defense in case things went terribly wrong.
	He found it.  He pulled the tattered remnants of his wings about him, and merged with their fire.  Fire was connected to itself, and in that state of purity, despite the Ones assault, he was able to step through the unity of fire and remove himself from the Ones proximity.
	In a puff of smoke, the physical form of Tarrin Kael, but a heartbeat from total destruction, simply evaporated.

	Far to the south, the self-sustaining fire that Tarrin had placed on the ground at the camp roared into a blazing pillar, and then took form.  Tarrin Kael emerged from that blazing pyre.  His body was marred with horrific wounds, and his wings were shreds of quivering flame that twitched spasmodically.  His eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed to the ground in blissful oblivion.

	By Karas hammer! Ulger swore as he jumped up from the ground, staring at Tarrins body.
	Miranda! Dolanna shouted as she rushed over to him.  Miranda!  She knelt by his body and turned him over, and was immediately covered in blood.  His left arm was mangled beyond recognition, his tail was gone, his right leg was nothing but exposed flesh and bone, and there was a gaping hole in his flank that exposed his ribs, liver, and entrails.  He looked as if hed been mauled by a hundred bears, and blood flowed from every part of his body.  Miranda! Dolanna shrieked in panic.  Given the horrific nature of his wounds, his lifespan could be counted in seconds.
	And then she was there.  Chanting softly in the language of the gods, she placed her hands on Tarrins chest.  His body began to glow with a soft white light as the healing power of Kikkalli infused him, bolstered his body and kept it operating as it searched through him to understand the nature and extent of his hurt.  Then it set to work repairing the damage, knitting wounds together, urging the growth of new flesh, new bone, new skin, gently prodding misplaced organs and tissue back to its respective place and sealing it within newly regrown flesh and bone and tissue.  The spell took long moments, as Miranda continued to chant in a stately, serene voice, as the power of Kikkalli brought Tarrin back from the brink of death and renewed his physical form, saving him from death.
	Miranda blew out her breath and sagged, putting her elbows on Tarrins now whole chest.  By Kikkallis winds, I just barely managed to make it, she wearily told them.  What did this to him?
	Tarrin has lost, Dolanna said fearfully.  Can you not feel the wrath of the One in the air?  The One has defeated him, and even now searches for Tarrin to finish him off.
	Why isnt he coming? Azakar asked pointedly.  And what happened to Mist and Kimmie?

	It was chaos.  And it was perfect.
	Mist slunk through the dark passages of the dungeons beneath the Cathedral in her cat form, keeping an ear on what she was hearing outside.  Tarrin and the One were dueling somewhere out over the city, and Mist was frantic with worry.
	She was late.
	She had found the passage to the catacombs, but the door had been closed, and the cathedral always seemed to have people in it.  The door was in the nave itself, behind the altar on the back wall, and she could not change form to open the door without giving herself away.  So she had been forced to wait, hiding under the altars black silk drape, literally sitting under the nose of the dreadful god which had come to dominated this part of the worlda god that did not notice her.  Tarrin was right, his approach had the Ones total and undivided attention.  It was several minutes after she heard Tarrin arrive that someone finally opened that door, and she darted in just before it closed.
	Now she was moving quickly through the dark, candle-lit tunnels, following the faint scent of her daughter back to its source.  The large black cat blended in perfectly with the shifting shadows of the underground passage, and the red-garbed Priests and guards paid her no mind whatsoever as she quickly yet methodically tracked Kimmies scent.  They had taken her through just yesterday, and her trail had not yet been swallowed up by the heavy human smells contained in the stale air of the chamber.
	For long moments Mist traced her daughter, having to hunker down as the earth shook several times.  By the trees, Tarrin was really going at it out there!  She had to hurry, she knew that her mate couldnt hold that monster back forever!  She had to find Kimmie and get them out before Tarrin reached the Cathedral, or they very well may get killed.  She went down a flight of stairs, through a series of twisting passages, then reached the landing of another flight of steps.
	She went down and into a place that reeked of the unnatural scent of Demons.  The fur on her back started to bristle at that scent, but it also told her that she was getting close.  She reached an iron-bound door at the end of a long, empty passageway that had the smell of Kimmie wafting under the edge, as well as the evil reek of Demonkin.  The closed door signaled an end to stealth; she would have to open the door to get past it, and reveal herself.
	She debated doing that for a moment, until the entire cathedral shook violently, and the sharp sound of breaking stone echoed down the passage.  She was out of timeTarrin was here!
	She shifted into her normal form, and extended the Cats Claws.  She heard some kind of muted sound from high above as she took a few steps back, then she exploded forward.
	She hit the door the exact instant that the entire earth shook as if some titanic hand had struck it.  A sound so loud that it was a physical force rocked the earth just as Mist struck the door with all her impressive might, shattering it and bursting forth from the passageway and into the room.
	It was a large room with rough stone walls, reddish stone like everything else, and it was obviously a torture chamber.  Several cruel devices to inflict pain were situated in the room, but the focus of Mists attention was on the far side, where her beautiful, gentle daughter, Kimmie, was chained to the far wall on manacles hanging from a bolt above her, holding her arms up.  Her naked body was dirty and covered with dried blood, matting her orange tabby fur, and her head was hanging low.  She was not moving.  Beside her, large and terribly impressive, was the marilith ShazBaket.  The night-haired Demoness, with six slender arms and the lower body of a massive snake, had her back to the door, looking up at the ceiling, but was in the act of turning to look in her direction.  She did so, looking at Mist with red-irised eyes, and there was a moment of surprise.  The thunder of whatever had happened above echoed through the chamber as the Were-cat and the Demoness faced off against one another across the expansive room.  Then she laughed.
	Cleverly played, Were-cat, she purred.  He sent you to recover this one while he plays with the One.  But to get her, you have to get past me.  She spoke a single word, and a different style of sword appeared in each of her six hands.
	I was counting on it, Mist snarled, then she exploded across the room with a screeching howl of utter, unleashed fury.
	ShazBaket had faced Tarrin in combat, so she knew what to expect from a Were-cat.  But that was a paltry shadow of what the Demoness faced in Mist.  The female Were-cat was beyond fury, fighting to recover her child from the clutches of an enemy, and that unity of need of both Human and Cat gave her a strength and determination that paled in comparison to what ShazBaket had seen from Tarrin Kael.  Immediately she was knocked backwards as the female attacked her with those flashing, blindingly fast claws, coming from everywhere at once, staggering the Demoness back in a display of naked, raw, savage hatred.
	Mist drove the Demoness back, and back, and back more, her arms blurring with blazing speed as the need to punish the Demoness united with her desperate need to recover her daughter and get them to safety before Tarrin destroyed Pyros.  The Demoness six swords just barely managed to parry or block those lethal blades extending from the Were-cats fingers as the Were-cat pressed in on her with her face twisted in a savage snarl of utter hatred.  She attempted to riposte with two stabs at Mists left flank, but had both of her weapons swatted aside by the same paw in quick succession, then had a third blow blocked by the black metal of the bracers covering her wrists.  She used four weapons to parry a series of savage rakes with those claws, but could not find an opening to reply.
	ShazBaket was stunned at the raw ferocity behind the assault, giving even more ground, until the tip of her snake tail touched the wall behind her.  Even when accelerated with Druidic magic, Tarrin Kael did not seem so fast!  She surged ahead just as the Were-cat launched herself into the air, and quickly tried to lean back to give herself room to deal with this sudden turn of events.   But the Were-cat was too close, was inside the reach of her swords.
	Mists five blades punched into empty air just where the Demoness head had been an instant before, as the Demoness teleported herself out of harms way.  But she did not panic, landing with both feet and one paw on the wall, then turning and springing back the other way.  She had heard all of her mates stories about how Demons fought, and she knew exactly where the Demon bitch had appeared.  She would appear directly behind Mist and try to kill her before she could turn around.
	And that was exactly what she had done.  Instead of getting a clear shot at Mists unprotected back, ShazBaket instead got a face full of the Were-cats unleashed fury.  She howled in pain when Mists claws raked three deep, almost surgically neat slices in her face, slithering backwards with her swords flashing to keep those lethal claws away from her.  Black blood flowed down her neck as the Demoness struggled to use her six weapons to protect herself from her opponents two, but she could not match the raw ferocity of her opponent.  What was nearly as bad was the steady stream of half-hissed, half-growled obscenities and curses that flew from Mists mouth as she assaulted the Demoness, ear-withering profanity in a chaotic mixture of languages that would do any Demon proud, giving voice to the Were-cats outrage and anger.
	Mists deadly claws sought out the Demons flesh with every swipe, even as they protected her from the Demoness answering blades.  Sparks flew as blade met claws, and the ringing sound of metal on metal reverberated constantly through the chamber as the two did battle at a frantic, almost unmatchable pace.  The Demoness reared back and projected a column of fire at her opponent, one of her innate magical abilities, but the Were-cat came right through it with no fear.  The fire had not touched her!  She slid backwards again and raised four of her six hands, and set forth a lightning bolt of magical power, another of her innate magical powers.  The Were-cat did not even try to dodge, allowing it to hit her with its full force.  It staggered her back just slightly, creating a smoking, smoldering hole in her shirt as arcs of electrical energy danced over her body, but she continued to advance, seeking out the Demons flesh with her claws.  She enacted another of her innate powers, speaking a single word with such power that it unleashed a stunning force on any who heard its utterance.  But the Were-cat came right through it, seemingly oblivious to its power, for the word had no effect on her.  The Demoness raised her weapons and frantically tried to fend off the Were-cats physical assault, for the Were-cat was again within reach of her, and the ringing chime of steel against Adamantite reverberated in the chamber.  The Demoness tail wrapped around the leg of the large rack behind her, then whipped it around her body as she turned, hurling it at her foe.  But Mist simply reared back and slammed her forearm into the torture device, knocking it aside contemptuously, and did not waver for an instant in her methodical, unstoppable advance.
	What was stopping her magic!  Something had to be protecting the damned Were-cat, or the word of power would have stunned her, and this duel would be over!  She slithered backward yet again, and then her eyes locked on the amulet around the Were-cats neck.  It was a shaeram, a holy symbol of the Sennadar goddess of magic, but it was glowing with a soft, gentle light.  That was what was doing it!  She enacted yet another of her impressive array of innate magical abilities, seeking to disrupt the effects of magic before her, attempting to dispel the amulets protection.
	A magical wave of power swept out from the Demoness and struck Mist, but the anti-magic of the dispelling power was disrupted when it struck the amulet, exploding into motes of visible blue light that surrounded the infuriated Were-cat.  Those motes danced around her, moving in her wake as she surged ahead.
	Shocked, ShazBaket realized that she was not going to disrupt the amulet.  It was divine.  The power of a god was protecting the Were-cat, and she could not counter that.  And it was clear already that she was no match for this hellion in a physical confrontation.
	With a howl of frustration, the Demoness fixed a withering glare on the Were-cat, and then disappeared.
	Panting, trying to get herself under control, Mist retracted the Cats Claws.  From the look on the Demons face, she knew that she was beaten, so she ran away like a coward.  She turned immediately and ran to her daughter.  She used a single blade of the Cats Claws to cut the manacles off her wrists, and her gentle, precious cub collapsed into her arms.  Kimmie! Mist said in a strangled tone.  She was covered in dirt, dried blood, and worse, and she smelled like Demons, but her pulse was strong and her breathing regular.  She was unconscious, but she was alive.
	This put a serious kink in the plan.  Kimmie was supposed to use Wizard magic to get them out of Pyros, but that was obviously impossible, and they could not dawdle.  Even now that Demon bitch was going for reinforcements, and they had to get out now or get trapped by a superior force.  Mist had to carry Kimmie, and she wouldnt be able to fight.  Throwing her daughter over her shoulder, she raced to the doorway, then into a dust-choked passageway.  She raced past stunned and terrified Priests and church soldiers, absently killing a few as she passed with her clawed paws, retracing her steps back to the door that led to the cathedral proper.
	It wasnt there.  She came out of what she could only call a hole in the ground and onto a devastated, barren scene of utter destruction.  There was nothing left but a single pristine white statue of the One with several nicks in its shield, with smooth slate tiles on the ground surrounding it, which ended abruptly in a perfect line some ten spans from the statue.  Everything else, even the tiles that were on the floor, were gone, scoured away by the titanic force of Tarrins magical might.
	That was the Ones icon.  It had to be.  And the fact that it was here, and Tarrin was not, told her that Tarrin had failed to reach it.
	The volcano behind her began to rumble, and the earth shook, and then there was a blinding flash of light from the city below that struck Mist to her soul.  She could feel her mates pain.  She felt it as if the One had unleashed his attack against her.  She staggered and bent over, almost toppling Kimmie to the ground, panting to recover from the pain, pain that shot all over her body like a million angry hornets stinging her inside and out.
	By the trees!
	Sudden palpable concern for her mate washed over her, but bent over like that, she spotted something laying near the Ones icon.  It was long and black, gleaming in the light of the odd blue and green moon, and it called to her with a singular purpose.
	It was Tarrins sword.
	Of course.  Now she understood wh