The girls all stood there in a liminal space, full of sunlight and mirrored sky. The four of them felt compelled to watch at the sun - it was unclear if it was a sunrise or sunset.  As they watched, the giant god walked up in line with them - with Alice and Rina on one side, and Phillipia and Neely on the other. His head was graced by a giant halo - it had been there so long that it had grown into his head. Inside of the halo grew two, elegant, ivory horns - the horns of a devil.
Luminus spoke softly, “Will you allow me to tell you a story, The Bound? There’s much I wish for you to know."
The girls looked at each other briefly, then each of them slowly nodded. 
“Once upon a time there was a god. This god made the world - a paradise -then left it to fend for itself. This is what most people know. What they don’t know is that your world is not that world. The souls there lived in beauty and light and love… Until some of them became selfish, and evil ways became rampant.

"A young scholar searched for a way to separate the evil from the good... to reward those who are good, and punish those who were not. He looked for a way to make the paradise peaceful again, because the selfish and the evil began to taint it for those who were actually good. Many people followed the scholar, also looking for answers to the problem of evil. He gathered many followers... so many, in fact, that it was the beginning of the next real problem. Their devotion became what you now call worship. And magic began to pool within me."

Luminus looked somber for a moment as he crossed his arms, his pose relaxed, "Their worship made him... made me... stronger. So strong that I could simply will things to happen. So, instead of continuing to study Niktalia and paradise, I willed another place into being - your world. There, the souls of the evil could redeem themselves. And those who could not do so in that lifetime, could continue through the cycle until they were fit for paradise, once again. But, then there was another problem... Only the perfect could enter paradise. Any sin - any small wrong - left souls within the cycle, unable to come to paradise at all. With souls stuck in the cycle, the only thing we could do was find a way to break it."

Luminus looked down to Alice, who only stood midway up the calf of the giant god, "Pradhana, you were created to allow the world to be reborn. You appear at the end of days, in a different form every time, and you shatter the planes. This allows souls who are stuck to move forward.
"But then... someone who entered your world learned that gods could exist there, too. It was not just paradise that a god could exist - if enough people were willing to worship them on your side."
Luminus sighed as he thought about the next portion of history, "Then there was a man who learned that he could force people to worship him by making a curse with his blood. Bolgroth began enslaving souls by turning them into beastly people - the Therianthrope Souls." The god turned to Rina, "Your husband, Sebastian, he remains there still. I have seen him with my own eyes."
Rina's eyes widened, and tears welled up, "I was afraid of that... I hoped that Sebastian Jr. might be...." she trailed off before finishing, hoping that the cycle had brought Sebastian back to this world through Darrian.

Luminus continued, "I could see that his lust for power could take over everything... everyone... every soul, eventually. I could not let that happen, so I... I imposed my will upon the Church of Luminus. I inserted myself into their politics... I convinced Beth to make weapons to steal the souls back to me."
Luminus began to weep again, quietly, "I... did not want this. I... never wanted this. I do not want to force anyone here, but I cannot stop this terrible cycle. I cannot force all souls to paradise."
Luminus looked at Alice again, "Please, Pradhana, I beg of you... End the world. Not to go through another cycle, end. End it all, so that souls - all souls - may see paradise again."
Luminus looked at Rina again, "This is the only way to free him. Your husband, your son... your grandson."

Luminus then turned to Phillipia and approached her, "Beauty, my loyal Knight," Luminus bowed to her, his head unable to go below hers due to his large size. He wept more loudly as be began to choke on his words, "Thank... you... thank you for always fighting for what is truly right. And for always being my loyal servant. I bestow on you a gift... to fight the evil you face."
Luminus kissed her hand, then placed his forehead upon it. A light from his horns blazed, and from it a feathered lance appeared. As Luminus rose, the lance gently placed itself in her hands.
He looked over them all once more, "Good luck."

A horn sounded, the girls awoke to fire blazing outside of the Tiny Hut - the Bolgrothians did not wait until morning as they said they would. They ran outside to find that people from both sides were already engaged in combat, swords were clashing and magic beams shot past them. 
“We need you at the front, The Bound,” said a cheetah man who had run to them, “Packfriend needs us all engaged now. The Kingdom of Bolgroth ambushed us, we have to get it together now!” 
The girls all got to the front line where a small tent was set up for planning their attack.
“Thank the gods, The Bound are here” said Packfriend. “We have three battalions at your command, and we send out some scouts to determine the biggest threats… and lost some in the process.”
Everyone looked somber, knowing where the souls were now: locked in the agony of Bolgroth’s torment.
Packfriend continued, “There are three towers that they are using to produce lightning, a command tower on the back of a giant boar, and a mage somewhere casting big spells - we don’t know where she is.”
“I think we should hit the towers first,” said Alice, “Rina and I know from experience that a hard lightning strike can take out even the strongest of people…”
Rina and Alice thought back to the day that Aurelius had died: the giant electric catfish had caused the loss of a companion with its lightning abilities. 
“I agree,” said Phillipia, “anything that may do extra harm to people while we are fighting should be taken out first. Then, we should focus on the command tower. The mage may be doing a lot, but it’s best to not waste time looking for her if we can use that time to make things easier on our troops.” 
Just then, Gunther, Marie, and Longneck entered the tent and joined in the conversation.
“We can go hit one of the totem towers if you need flyers,” said Gunther, “We can easily get to the tower farthest away and take it down.”
“Good,” Phillipia agreed, “Then I think it’s best The Bound split up and take out the other towers. Neely, are you with me?”
“Oh! Ye…yes… Yes I’m with you Phillipia! But please don’t make me command anyone.”
“Don’t worry, Neely,” said Alice, “The three of us can handle commanding groups of troops.”
“We will work on the army, itself, then,” said Packfriend, “If you happen to have extra muscle left over to help push the army back, that would be helpful, of course. But we need our strongest warriors taking out the big guns.”

With no time to waste, and a plan set, Rina dimension doored herself and Alice to the next farthest pillar - with Rina’s shadow spawn closely behind, ripping through soldiers on its way.
Phillipia and Neely rode BustAMoves through the army, with the help of the flying lance from Luminus to increase their speed. The Fearsome 5 flew off to the third totem, and out of sight of the others. Each group now needed to hold their own. 
Upon arriving at the electric totems, they could see that each totem was being held by four strong Bolgrothian soldiers - these seemed to be highly trained in order to be given this duty. Alice cast her Moonbeam and ripped through members of the army, helping her troops and hurting one of the specialty soldiers in the process. Rina targeted one of the four soldiers with Eldritch Blasts - pushing him back 30ft. Her shadow slashed through another. 
Phillipia jumped from BustAMoves and slashed into one of the soldiers on her totem, then continued the slashing motion through him and into another. Neely used shatter in the center of them, hurting all four of - as well as more of the surrounding army. 
Phillipia’s troops hit the army hard, and Alice’s troops caused chaos amongst the Bolgrothians to confuse them.
Two of the four soldiers that Rina and Alice were fighting aimed at Alice, their lightning strikes burned her skin and blackened it in some places. The other two targeted Rina and her shadow, missing them both. 
The four soldiers on Neely and Phillipia’s totem hit Phillipia hard with their lightning, but she withstood it and reacted to strike them back. Neely made sure she was healed and cheered her on.
The armies of Bolgroth and Basta’Thrope’ continued to rage against each other - the wild power of the Therianthropes was cutting through the Bolgrothian army at a death rate of one to five.

Then Alice felt a familiar twinge - a crack appeared in the sky. Bongrothian soldiers were being sucked into it, and they were replaced by a devil. This devil was covered in chains and was as tall as Alice and Rina combined. Other, similar devils appeared on the battlefield as more soldiers were sucked in.
Alice moved her moonbeam around and burned the closest devil, along with some of the Bongrothian forces surrounding them. Rina had her troops take a little time to heal themselves, and Alice had hers attack. Rina aimed her eldritch blasts at the devil this time, "Hey Raz, let's try a little necrosis." Her magic became toxic, and the devil reeled under its influence.
Phillipia's soldiers all rallied to each other, boosting their morale, while Phillipia continued to attack the same two generals carrying the totem.
The soldiers fought back, Phillipia was badly injured and Alice almost fell to a lightning attack. Rina was attacked by two of the generals, but her shadow took the hit from one side.

Phillipia felt a twinge this time, and looked up to see another crack forming above the army far away. From this crack poured the angelic creatures who crawled on all fours, and devoured souls with their teeth. They began ripping through the army - both armies indiscriminately.
Neely could see in the distance that Bolgroth was releasing giant buzzards - their wings looked too heavy to fly, and they struggled to become airborne. However, once they got to speed they were faster than any of the group could fly - and they were headed straight for Maeve's sky village.
"I have my druid grove up to protect the oasis!" Said Alice, "I hope its enough to keep them out... or, at least keep Maeve from getting angry with us."
Suddenly they could see that the totem near the Fearsome 5 collapsed, which gave the others the boost they needed to finish destroying their targets.

Neely used Bigby's hand to pick up one of the generals holding the totem and throw him far away, Phillipia and BustAMoves finished off the other three. Phillipia's troops hit Bolgroth's army, as did Alice and Rina's troops.
Rina cast fireball on the totem and the men carrying it, killing one instantly. Alice's moonbeam finished off the others, and Rina's shadow destroyed the totem.
With little time to celebrate, they had to withstand another attacker now. The devil who came through the crack nearest them grabbed Rina from behind and held her in his grasp.
Her shadow was then attacked by soldiers, and was unable to hold its shape any longer.

A deep, blood curdling growl could be heard from the top of the oasis' cloud cover. Maeve descended upon the army, throwing fire breath at her enemies - it was unclear who it was exactly, but she was angry.
After Phillipia and Neely finished off their totem tower, they then focused on the command tower on the giant boar's back. Rina and Alice headed that way, also. BustAMoves rammed into the boar from behind, and Alice became a titanothere to do the same from the front.
Rina was still grappled, but not for long. With the shadow spawn gone, she could now focus on something else - her wings. She cast the spell and her butterfly wings startled the devil holding her, giving her just enough time to pull a Withersalt arrow out of her bag and stab him with it. He yelled in pain as she stuck him, then she pulled out the chainsword and slashed at him as she left his grasp.
"Yeah, you got it, Rina!" Alice cheered.
"Nice job, Rinster!" Phillipia yelled.
"Oh my gods, the Rinster is hilarious," Alice laughed.
Neely laughed, too, "That's your new nickname, Rina! The Rinster!"
As the three girls giggled from the ground behind the trench line - now in a safe zone.
Rina sighed, "I know it's all out of love... so I accept it."
The other girls all cheered.
"We knew you had it in you to actually have fun!" Neely yelled.
"All it took was 300 years," Alice teased.
Rina smiled, took a moment to cherish her friends, then refocused her attention on the battlefield.

She flew above, looking at the carnage that was ensuing.
Thousands of people with swords at each other's throats in the sand. An angry dragon throwing fire. Devils ripping holes in the sky, and angelic creatures coming out of others. This is where it was to end - they all knew that now.
"Enoch..." Rina said into her soul, "I'm not going to let them and their fake warnings phase me. I trust you, I am with you."
She sped over to the giant boar and threw a fireball at it, "Nicky, I'd like some fire please."
With only her small request, Nicky did not disappoint. As if she had willed hell, itself, to rise for her - a pillar of bloodred fire exploded from the earth at her call. The boar, and the command tower, were all but disintegrated.
Just then, the Fearsome 5 members came flying quicky from the center of the battlefield - the mage following them.
Longneck and Gunther each dodged an attack, but Marie could not. A bolt of necrotic energy was sent shooting in her direction.
Gunther moved into its path just in time to save her.
"Gunther!" Rina screamed from across the battlefield.
Hid body tumbled into Marie, and both of them hit the ground.

End session

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