"I think we need to tweak this Envy still a little," Kaden said as Sahl drew off a fresh a batch of the less wanted emotion. Its inky blackness was eerie, but not as black as Kaden wanted it. "It doesn't seem to produce quite enough as it should, based on my calculations. Or of the right quality."

"It's enough for our customers," Sahl observed. "We produce any more, and it'll go to waste. Unless we can find a way to repurpose it."

"Still working on that theory. I'm thinking if we produce enough though, we might be able to use it in battle. Envy makes men do terrible things."

Sahl took the amount he'd collected and poured it into a series of smaller pipes meant for dividing it evenly into its tubes. "We'll never be able to pull enough to meet that kind of use."

"I was thinking about using it more strategically," Kaden admitted.

"All right," Sahl groaned. "First thing in the morning, I'll take a look at it. It's late though, and I'd like to get some sleep."

And just like that, as if to punctuate that such would not happen, the ground upon which Ison stood shook.

"What in the name of the Abyss was that?" The curse rolled off Kaden's lips as another quake came. Followed by distant, but familiar and hellish roars.

"Black Rohs breaching the lower wall again tonight?" Sahl asked with minor panic on his face. They were safely in the Upper Ring, after all.

Kaden frowned. "Those aren't Black Rohs." He unsheathed his weapon from his back as the commotion continued and the ground continued shaking. "They sound like the roars of demons."

"Demons?" Sahl couldn't believe what he heard his friend and master say. "Koronai live in the Abyss, not on the surface and in the desert."

"I've fought enough of them," Kaden reminded Sahl. "I know what I hear. Those are demons."

On legs that had grown muscular, Kaden made his way for the rarely used stairway at the back of the workshop and leading to the store's roof. It was mostly a means of emergency escape should one or more of stills explode and the main entrance to the front of the shop become inaccessible.

The building was only one story tall, but so were most of the other buildings around them, too. At most, any other was two stories.

Once up top, Kaden surveyed the landscape. He saw nothing except the wall of the Upper Ring in the distance, lit by dense and glowing torches. And beyond that, he heard the roars continue.

Sahl was up behind him, following at a slower pace. One befitting his unmuscular status.

"Stay here," Kaden said to him. "Lock yourself inside. Do not, under any circumstances, come out until you no longer hear those sounds."

"But—"

Kaden stowed his weapon and was off, just after popping a vial of Rage/Courage mix and allowing his heart to draw its power. He didn't need the added strength to make the jump to the adjacent building across the alleyway. He was strong enough now to do so on his own natural strength.

Still, essence bolstered him in mid-flight, and by the time he reached the other roof, his body was craving battle. He traversed rooftops and, when reaching the wall, soared into the air and caught the walkway of the three story high barrier while effortlessly hauling himself up.

Members of Ison's Royal Guard were already running along the length of the barrier, screaming and pointing in a panicked cacophony at what was beyond the wall. Below, in the slums, Kaden saw enormous dark forms wreaking havoc on the Lower Ring. Now ablaze, the cries of citizens under attack from easily hundreds of Koronai told of the horror they suffered.

Two Night Terrors ravaged the slums to Kaden's left. A horde of Greater Koronai roamed. And a Bone was spewing its foul and corrosive venom here and there. All while Lesser Koronai flooded the streets.

"How did this happen?" Kaden grabbed a Sahkar running by, trying to organize the men.

"No one knows," the captain replied, a tinge of angst upon his words. "Best guess is they must have found some of the Old Ways and escaped."

"Old Ways?"

The Sahkar was visibly agitated. He didn't want to waste time explaining things, but neither could he ignore the Karo Shar. "Yes. Centuries ago, there were many more ways down into the Abyss. But our ancestors sealed them up to prevent demons from funneling into our world. They left a single entry point beneath each of the cities that we could easily defend. What we call today only as the Gap."

Kaden remembered Princess Lyla telling him of other ways down into the Abyss while he watched to Lower Ring burn. "There's no time to organize," he said. "Send the men in. They'll have to use their skills and training above all else. And if what you say is true, that the demons have opened other ways out of the Abyss, we'll have to find and seal those as well. If luck is with us, there will be only one."

"And if luck is not?" the Sahkar asked.

"Then we are in for a long battle. Send word to the palace, we'll need all the slaves we can get. Our troops will have to fight the Koronai and also protect them. I—"

Kaden's words were never finished as the Upper Ring exploded into a similar state of disorder. He whirled and saw demons beginning to demolish it as well.

"I would appear luck is not with us today, Karo Shar," the Sahkar observed as he also recognized the devastation now ensuing.

"Take the men to the Lower Ring," Kaden again repeated his previous orders while unslinging his weapon once more.

The gesture and his confident stance left no room for the Sahkar to doubt what his course of action would be. "You intend to fight in the Upper Ring by yourself?"

"I will hold the Upper Ring," Kaden confirmed. "Until the prince himself arrives to assist. Which I know he will. Go! Help the citizens of the Lower Ring."

The Sahkar nodded. "The prince's whores will sing of your bravery and clamor for your bed when we have defeated the Koronai."

"They can sing and clamor all they like," Kaden scoffed. "My heart goes to but one woman. And I fight to keep her safe." With that punctuating statement, Kaden lept back into the Upper Ring and the battle that awaited him.

* * *

Hordes of Lesser Koronai flooded the alleyways and Mains of the Upper Ring. Kaden didn't see them until he was fighting in the thick of them. They attacked with their larger brethren.

Alone, Kaden slaughtered whatever demons came before him and the monsters that should have never been upon the streets of Ison.

But they were.

Powerful slices and stabs from alternating ends of his Rohs Fang kept the bodies of demons falling. Lesser Koronai, Greater Koronai, and even a Bone was among the body count. It was hard to fight them in the city and so very different than in the Abyss. The passages were narrow and easily clogged by corpses.

Kaden realized staying on the streets would not end well for him. He'd already nearly been overwhelmed twice, only the cramped quarters saving him by impeding the Koronai's progress.

He scaled the building beside him, finding handholds in the uneven surface of its walls, and took the fight to the rooftops. But he soon also realized the buildings of Ison were not designed to withstand the rigors of combat and the weight of swarms of Lesser Koronai as they followed him with unrelenting determination and blood lust.

The roofs sagged under the added stress and beams creaked while Lesser Koronai claws sought his throat.

Kaden kept moving, refusing to stand still and allow the demons to place too much weight on any one building for too long. All he left behind were the dead bodies of the Koronai he single-handedly slaughtered. Taking as many as he could.

Now and then he would hear clearly the panicked screams from inside buildings as the battle progressed from rooftop to rooftop. And in the distance, the Koronai he was not engaged with demolished structures and feasted on those within.

Kaden could not believe he was the only line of defense these people had. He thought for sure the prince would have come by now with reinforcements.

And just as he had that concern, a thunderous calamity demanded his attention. Even in the darkness, Kaden could see a section of the palace collapsing in the distance and dark forms racing out in to the night.

At the same moment, he did receive help, however. But not the kind he expected, as the silken clad form of his wife descended and began flashing steel along with him.

"You can't be here," he chastised her, even as he was thankful. "Someone will see you."

"If you're referring to my brother," Princess Lyla shouted at him while dismembering several of the horde of Lesser Koronai. "He's preoccupied. The palace is overrun!"

"I noticed." Kaden vaulted up and sliced the throat of a Bone Koronai that had navigated the alleys to their location, careful to avoid the caustic venom its neck spewed and that could dissolve him into nothing. "What happened? One of the Sahkar's I talked with mentioned something about the Old Ways being opened?"

"Yes! Apparently, the Koronai grew tired of being trapped in the Abyss and decided to dig their way out." The princess defeated a swarm of still more Lesser Koronai as the pair pair continued to move. "We've sent slaves and soldiers to try and seal the openings, but it's going to be difficult until we can kill most of the demons." Ichor spewed as she slayed more.

Kaden realized that together, they were making a difference. There were still swarms of demons, but their numbers were lesser and lesser as time passed and they continued to fight.

Then, reinforcements arrived. But not reinforcements for them. No, these were throngs of demons.

Kaden prepared to fight them, although he'd never fought so many. And even with Rage and Courage, his body began to feel leaden. He was about to pop the second of his vials, when a Night Terror rose up, collapsing the adjacent building and slashing at him with its destructive claws. Claws Kaden remembered all too well.

Kaden barely avoided the strike, and even then one of the claws still caught his breastplate. The metal tore open and the final two vial of Rage and Courage mixture puffed open and the vapors dissipated into the night. All before Kaden could use them. He prepared to continue to fight, but his wife yanked him away as the Night Terror prepared to kill him.

It's swipe missed, but the building took the brunt of the failed attack.

"Time to go," she said, half dragging him and urging him to leap to the next structure. "I appreciate your dedication to the battle, but if we stand and fight, we're going to die."

Kaden found his legs did not want to argue. "We're retreating?" he asked, touching where his armor had been cut open while checking to make sure there was no blood.

"I know it's not normal," the princess conceded. "But in this instance, it is prudent."

Demons following behind Kaden and the princesses, they began to place some distance between themselves and their assailants. While changing direction anytime a new group of the enemy might appear in their path.

Kaden looked behind him, realizing that while the demons fell further behind, they were not giving up. The wall of the Upper Ring loomed before them.

"We're starting to run out of space here," he said.

Just as they reached the wall, the Princess gave a command. "Jump!"

And Kaden did.

With essence assisting him, and timing the jump better this time, Kaden made the leap to the three story high structure with ease, his feet landing firmly upon it. As did the princess. They both turned, and Kaden readied to fight.

"Don't be stupid," she said, as the monsters were moments away from feasting on them.

"What should we do?" Kaden asked.

The princess looked over the wall to the Lower Ring. "Jump again," she said. "To the Lower Ring. Look!" She pointed. "The troops have the slums more under control than we do up here."

Kaden quickly observed that her assessment was correct. He nodded, realizing no other course was available. They'd either die here and now or have a fighting chance later. "Ok, we'll jump." He grabbed his wife by the arm and prepared to do so.

She pulled away. "No we," she said harshly. "Just you."

Kaden, panicked, and looked at the assault about to engulf them. "You're not coming?"

She gave him a don't be so stupid look. "Oh, yeah" She motioned to her attire. "Because a Sava Warrioress wouldn't be hard to spot, right? Just go. I'll meet up with you."

"But—"

"Don't argue!" And with that, she pushed him over the edge.