As it turned out, holding open a portal between two universes was hard. The crackling edges pushed inward like a vice, and Susan's dragonheart screamed as it pushed mana out and into it.

Every second counted though, the Rebel Guardians slipping around her by the dozen to form a blazing line on the outskirts of her hometown. As she watched, the Thunder Dragons were already turning around to face them and the Demon King's mouth twisted into a snarl.

But despite the tension, when Takeo turned around to face the oncoming Guardians and jumped in shock she couldn't keep a vindictive smile off her face.

"CLOSE THE PORTAL, CLOSE THE DAMN PORTAL!" He screamed, wide eyed with terror.

The Thunder Dragons leapt to comply, but barely made it a few steps before the tide of Guardians smashed into them. A scrum broke out, and Takeo's eyes widened further as the Dragons were smashed out of the way like they were made of cardboard.

"God Eater," he snapped out, "we must-"

"A THOUSAND CURSES UPON YOU ALL," the Demon King erupted, the noise so loud it made even Susan cringe back. "TEN MILLENNIA OF WAITING AND THE GUARDIAN PLAGUE HAS ALREADY TAKEN MY EMPIRE?"

The clouds roiled above him, and every shadow seemed to deepen into an abyss as his entire body clenched in rage. All movement stopped, every Dragon and Guardian freezing in place as they stared with wide eyes towards him.

"You!" He snarled, pointing a finger towards the remaining Dragons, "come here!"

The Thunder Dragons didn't look pleased, but at a frantic nodding from Takeo they moved back until they were surrounding the Demon King. Meanwhile the Guardians pulled back, forming a rough semicircle around the portal.

Their numbers continued to swell as more Guardians came through the portal. But eyes flickered back and forth, and feet shuffled as they looked between each other. The triumphant joy had vanished now, leaving them looking more like Renaissance Faire rejects than true warriors.

"What the hell is that thing?" Cato blurted out as he walked through the portal.

"That," Abana's voice boomed as she teleported into the middle of the Guardians, "is the Demon King, the thing we are duty bound to fight."

There was a moment as both locked eyes. Then Abana smiled as Cato nodded.

"Alright," he said, "Then we put it to the sword."

Then the Guardians were moving forward again, forming ranks and lines before the Demon King. Weapons and fists glowed as the now hundreds of Guardians readied themselves for war.

The Dragons growled, readying themselves to fight as the Guardians closed then. Then both froze once more as the Demon King moved.

"COME MY SERVANTS," he screamed, the already-dim light of the cloud-covered world weakening as his shadow writhed and grew. "DESTROY THE GUARDIANS. WIPE THEM FROM THE REALMS SO UTTERLY THAT NONE DARE TO TAKE UP THE MANTLE EVER AGAIN!"

He finished with a shuddering breath. The Guardians were staring with wide eyes now, and even Takeo had taken a long step away from him.

Susan risked a quick look around, and let out a sigh of relief as she spotted some of the Guardians breaking off from the larger group. Glowing tendrils were already expanding through the city, thousands of them connecting to each of the residents as the teleportation spell they used for evacuation began forming.

Then her head tilted up and she froze. Up above the Demon King's castle still peeked down through the oppressive clouds. But now a hail of black figures poured out from it and into the air.

"Shit," Susan whispered as she watched thousands of vampires dive downwards toward her and the Guardians.

A sound like the world's largest roll of bubble wrap being popped sounded around her as the teleportation spell activated. She grimaced, the Guardian's group teleportation spells were fast, but limited in range to a dozen or so miles. With the number of vampires descending on them, that distance still felt dangerously small.

"And you."

Susan's head came down to find the Demon King was now addressing Takeo. There was none of his earlier smugness now, just wide eyed rage.

"Milord?"

The Demon King chuckled at that, a dark throaty sound that made Takeo move another step back.

"Milord?"

"You let them do this…" came the response, "so clean this mess up."

He vanished from where he stood, appearing in front of Takeo and pressing a hand against his flank. It took Susan all of a second to realize his plan.

She was moving the next second, shoving the portal open just a bit more and leaping through herself. Landing on the other side, she immediately leapt forward over the still forming ranks of Guardians. It was too late.

In a moment Takeo was expanding, scales splitting like seams as new flesh and fur expanded underneath. The snakish head warped as teeth sprouted like grass and the mouth stretched into a hellish maw.

The newly formed Mana Eater leaned back and roared just in time for Susan to bowl it over in a flying tackle.

Their messy tumble served as the bugle call for the rest of the conflict. Behind her Susan caught a glimpse of the Guardians charging forward to meet the descending vampires.

Everything descended into chaos after that. The screams and explosions filled the air around her as the hundreds of light and dark forms fought. The Demon King leapt forward, only for a glowing spear to nail him in the face. The next moment he was gone, dogpiled by dozens of Guardians.

Susan and Takeo ended their tumble when they crashed into the side of a mini mart, collapsing the front half in an explosion of dust. Remembering Lupus and his absurd durability, Susan didn't let up.

Scrambling to her feet, she leapt back on top of Takeo and began pummeling him into the concrete below. The building shook with each of her strikes, but as she watched a single eye opened.

"It doesn't even hurt," he rumbled, a smile stretching over bloodied lips.

Susan screamed and launched another strike down at his face, but one arm blurred upwards and caught her fist.

"Finally," he murmured.

Then his other fist caught Susan in the stomach and she was sent flying upwards. Her wings stretched out and with a scream of pain she caught air and slowed her ascent. Hanging in the air, she watched as Takeo pulled himself free from the ground.

"Finally what?" She roared at him, "Finally just as much of a monster on the outside as you are on the inside?"

"Oh course you wouldn't understand…" Takeo shook his head, huffing out a sigh, "But it doesn't matter. No Archdragon can look down on me any more. I am beyond that."

"Beyond an Archdragon?" Susan sneered, "You can't even do magic anymore, and the only reason you're even lucid right now is because you cannibalized your own dragonheart! All you're good for anymore is ruin!"

"Yes…" he smiled, "yes I am."

He leapt at her. Her dragonfire caught him in the chest, piercing his torso entirely and sending him crashing back down to the ground.

Susan heaved in a breath, trying to rein in the impulse to keep firing. Her Dragonfire was mana rich, using it too much would only help Takeo, not hurt him. Instead she cut off the beam, and turned to check in with the rest of the battle.

It was hard to tell who was winning. The Vampires vastly outnumbered the Guardians, but were woefully underpowered. The glowing warriors tore through their ranks dozens at a time. But on the other side the Demon King was practically untouchable, zipping around the battlefield like a speed demon.

He was blitzing through the Guardians, sending them flying with strikes so fast that even Susan couldn't see them. It would have been a massacre, except for a single Guardian that was following along after him.

Any attempt to kill a Guardian was instantly foiled by a blazing figure that teleported after him like a shadow. A barely visible sword slashing out again and again to intercept his attacks.

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Susan's eyes narrowed as she recognized the figure, a huge suit of armor that she had seen only a few hours earlier.

"Grandma?"

Her surprise was cut short when she saw a quintet of Guardians dashing towards her down one of the streets.

"Susan!" Cato shouted, "we've come to help."

"Don't!" Susan roared, "he's not a dragon anymore, he's a Mana Eater!"

A growl echoed from below, and Susan belatedly realized that she had lost focus on her enemy.

A pair of enormous hands wrapped around her torso, and she was wrenched from the sky by a roaring figure. Takeo was larger now, almost twice Susan's size and with a roar he twisted around and threw her.

There was no catching herself this time. She just screamed as the world tumbled and the air screamed around her. There was a roar, a continuous impact like the world's tallest Jenga tower falling over, and then she was hitting the ground.

Her leg trembled as she tried to put weight on it, but with a monumental effort and a scream she was back on her feet. Her head still spun, eyes failing to process anything other than messy colors, but with a few blinks and a shake of her head she came to.

She was standing in the woods now, at the end of a mile long impact crater. In front of her there was nothing but empty sky- then it flickered into stony grey. Shaking her head again, she tried to look again only to blink in shock as the illusion bled away to reveal the Brick.

The cause of the illusion failing was obvious, a gargantuan hole punched through the entire center of the building. Her jaw dropped open at the sight.

"Place did need a remodel," she muttered as her brain tried and failed to process.

A dark shape appeared through the hole. It descended in an arc towards Susan, before landing at the end of her crater an explosion of dirt. Shaking her head a final time, she lowered herself into a crouch.

Takeo finally stepped out of the dust cloud, his body scorched but much bulkier than it had been before. It looked chimeric by now, bands of dragonscale, skin, and fur covering the entire body and a head that looked an unholy cross between human, lizard, and wolf. The end result was a stunted, whorled form that seemed utterly at odds with any sort of normal biology.

Two beady black eyes found her, and the mouth opened to reveal an unholy cornucopia of mismatched teeth as it grinned.

Susan grimaced. There was no more Takeo in that look, only the Mana Eater.

She didn't give it the time to move, instead opening her mouth wide and letting loose with a beam of Dragonfire. It pierced it through the chest once more, but this time there was no reaction.

Instead it just huffed a laugh and took another step forward. Susan's eyes widened as he went from walking to running towards her.

Jerking back, she swept the beam of Dragonfire sideways in an arc. The Mana Eater ignored it, just putting it head down and charging forward. Shaking her head, she spread her wings and leapt forward into the air.

A dodge to the side let her avoid its grasping claws, and then she put on the speed. Bringing both wings back in, she shot back through the hole in the Brick like a bullet. Then she was catching the air again to rise above it.

A groan like a thousand car engines filled the air, and Susan watched as the entire top half of the Brick tilted. She smiled.

The Mana Eater was a being of total hunger, completely disregarding potential threats in its search for prey. A terrifyingly dangerous ability, but not one without its uses.

The residents of the Brick had conveniently vacated it with the help of the Guardians. And with them gone Susan had a golden opportunity to make use of their former homes.

Millions of tons of concrete and steel crashed down over a square mile of forest in an impact like a meteor. The entire construct shattered outwards like a dropped plate, obliterating the surrounding forest and forming a mountain of debris taller than most hills.

Susan flitted down over the impact site to land atop the hill, looking over it with a critical eye. That should buy her a minute. A very important minute.

Takeo was a blight, a ravenous monster that sucked up every bit of power he could no matter what it cost others. She wasn't quite sure how she was going to kill him, but she was going to enjoy it.

A scream caught her attention. It was faint, incredibly distant as it was. But the soft, gravely voice was instantly recognizable.

Susan's whipped up to stare at the downtown area. The Guardians and vampires were still fighting there, their forms flashing back and forth. But as Susan's eyes focused further, she found the source of the scream.

The Demon King had- Susan's heart thudded- caught Grandma Hilda. One hand was around her throat, holding her in the air. The other had caught Liss, wrapping around Hilda's hand and holding it in place.

Hilda let out a silent scream as he wrenched the blade out of her hand and tossed it away. Susan went to leap towards them, but found herself rooted in place.

Takeo was here, finally, finally trapped. For the first time in a thousand years, she could kill him- she just needed the right spell.

Her brow furrowed.

"The hell am I doing?"

The ground beneath her exploded, a grotesque limb reaching up to catch Susan by the neck. She was pulled off her feet, head pulled close to the chest of the Mana Eater as it ripped itself free of the building.

But instead of struggling she just found herself looking at it. This was Takeo, the monster who had given up everything; his honor, his humanity, even his sanity. All for the sake of power.

Her Grandma was in danger and all she wanted to do was hurt this… thing? Could she really make the same mistake? Didn't she have better things to do?

Jaws now wider than her entire torso opened wide, eclipsing the world around her. Susan should have felt afraid, but instead she just felt something come together inside of her. Pity.

For the first time in a thousand years Susan Hill grew beyond her hate.

From across dozens of worlds the Guardian Runes felt that change, and reached out. And something resonated within her.

Jaroslav's day was not going well. It had started poorly, with him being called to participate in one of Dhruv's farcical games involving a mercenary company. Then in typical Dhruv fashion, it had devolved into a proper Oedipan tragedy. One wrong turn after the other until Jaroslav and every other vampire in Dhruv's court were being used as cannon fodder against a thrice–damned army of Guardians!

A roar echoed behind him, and he turned to look- only for a smile to cross his face. Dhruv had finally caught the damn Armored Guardian.

The magic sword wielding maniac had been a thorn in the side of the entire vampire army since the battle began. Flitting the battlefield like a demon, ploughing through squads of vampires and somehow even fighting hard enough to harry Dhruv himself.

It was a testament to the severity of the situation that Dhruv hadn't even taken the time to gloat. Instead the Armored Guardian had been disarmed in moments and Dhruv was already leaning in, fangs yawning over their neck-

"Grandma!" A voice shrieked.

Blue and red flashed across Jaroslav's field of view as another Guardian dashed forward to snatch up the fallen sword. Heaving it into a upward slash, she severed both of Dhruv's arms where they held the Armored Guardian.

Dhruv growled

"Not you again!"

He blurred, forearms moving forward to reattach to his hands before swinging around to smash the Guardian into the ground.

"Alright then. If you continue to insist on interfering, why don't you go first!"

Both arms raised into the air, hanging there like a guillotine. The Guardian had just enough time to look up; their eyes widened and–

The world behind Dhruv lit up.

Jaroslav flinched, memories of the scorching sun freezing his veins. But no pain came. He looked up to see that instead of a sun, it was a figure crouched over a distant hill. They shone like a beacon in the gloom of the Demon King's Castle, the sigil at their feet burning with terrifying implication.

The light fading, revealing…

"IS THAT DRAGON WEARING A GODDAMN MINISKIRT?" A shout echoed in the distance.

It was. A frilly one colored a frankly horrifying shade of pink, as well as a glittering tiara. It should have been hilarious.

Jaroslav spotted the building-sized form of the Mana Eater. It was a mile up and falling very fast, quickly descending onto a nearby office building which collapsed in an explosion of dust and noise.

He swallowed.

"ARMIES OF THE DEMON KING," a roar blasted over the battlefield, "FLEE, FLEE BEFORE ME. FOR YOUR RUIN HAS COME, AND I AM FRILLY AND PINK AND TAKE NO QUARTER."

At Dhruv's feet, the Guardian burst into howling laughter. He turned towards her again with a snarl, then his head whipped back up as the dragon turned towards him. Its neck stretched, its mouth opened.

Dhruv moved to the side.

He wasn't fast enough.

A thin beam of light, barely wider than a fist appeared in the air. Dhruv roared as it pierced his side, throwing himself to the ground behind the Armored Guardian.

Jaroslav himself couldn't move, instead just standing slack jawed as air around him hummed. There was no heat, no scream of tortured air. But Jaroslav felt as the world itself turned to him and made a promise.

There was evil in him. So if that beam touched him, he would die.

It cut off a moment later, leaving the battlefield in silence. He felt like there should have been a thunderclap, or a roar, or the sky should have split open and the armies of heaven come down to judge them.

But no, there was just an Archdragon, fueled by the power of God only knew how many worlds, and monumentally pissed with every vampire on Earth.

Jaroslav would have rather fought the heavenly armies.

A growl split the silence, and Jaroslav's head mechanically turned to see Dhruv still crouched on the ground with his hand probing his side. There was a hole there, running across his torso like someone had taken a draw knife to it. There was something utterly incongruous about that wound. Jaroslav stared at it for a moment, puzzled. Then his stomach turned to ice.

There was no ichor there, just red flesh. Dhruv was injured.

It was impossible. Beyond impossible. A thousand years of watching Dhruv shrug off mortal blows had ingrained a fundamental belief in Jaroslav. The moon shone, the tides came and went, the sun burned. And Dhruv could not be harmed.

Dhruv himself must have been feeling something similar as his face twisted into a horrified snarl as he stared down at his side. Then he reared back and screamed, and the world shook around him.

Until that moment, the battlefield had been frozen, vampires and Guardians alike staring in shock as the battle had flipped on its head. Now they jolted into motion, the roars and explosions returning as the chaotic melee resumed.

Jaroslav blinked as the next moment Dhruv was gone, and only then did he realize that he needed to move. Breaking into a run himself, he navigated the mess of flying and running bodies with increasingly desperate speed.

His mind spun as he blurred around the fighting forms, scraping the recesses of his mind for ideas on what to do. He came up empty.

It was all or nothing, total dominion or absolute annihilation. The Guardians could hurt Dhruv now, and now that they could they wouldn't stop until he was dead. His… extensive history would make sure of that.

And if they succeeded, then what the vampires that were left would be stuck under their thumb. Subjected to whatever horrors the Guardians could dream up, imprisonment, execution, or whatever the hell 'therapy' was.

He had to count on Dhruv having a plan. Had to. Otherwise it would be a tribunal of Guardians with a list of crimes running back centuries and several countries with a grudge to settle.

His grin was wide with desperation when he finally spotted Dhruv again. He was now stepping up to the Mana Eater to place a hand on its side. Mana crackled as it flowed into the unholy creature, and the skin once more began to split and grow.

Dhruv didn't cease the flow until the Mana Eater had expanded to larger than the apartment buildings around it. Now a hundred feet wide, it reared back and let out a cacophonous roar that would put most Earth Dragons to shame.

A second beam of Dragonfire appeared in the air, but Dhruv managed to duck out of the way. He vanished behind the Mana Eater, leaving it to stumble drunkenly towards Ruin.

Then his voice echoed over the battlefield in a roar.

"My servants," it scraped down Jaroslav's spine like knives. "Leave the Guardians. Find the townsfolk and KILL THEM ALL!"

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