In the village, the situation turned even more to the disaster. Most of the SRDO soldiers had perished, and all the monsters, still continuing the fight, were injured and weakening.

Ian Redfield, himself wounded in the arm, having no more ammunition for his assault rifle and now firing his berreta pistol, tried to make contact with the command center.

_ "HQ, here Alpha Red Wolf! The situation is critical! I have lost more than half of my men! We need reinforcements, now!"

_ "Alpha Red Wolf, this is Oracle." answered a voice in the communicator. "The request for reinforcements can no longer be considered. The council has triggered the "Scorched Earth" protocol. If you can, evacuate the area as soon as possible."

Redfield's heart jumped in his chest. The "Scorched Earth" protocol? Without wasting a minute, the squad captain ran, pushing his way through the chaos. Amen, Mana, Kita and Magnum had all been thrown to the ground, beaten violently by the abominations. Enary fought like a lioness, but was quickly overwhelmed too. Otus and G-Stealer were unconscious, and Kalma was struggling to protect them as best he could. Redfield ran without stopping and managed to reach the circle of megaliths. Awa was in excruciating pain, kneeling and still struggling to hold the spell of the portal. Ox had come to protect her and also to keep her awake, Awa being on the verge of sinking into unconsciousness.

_ "We have a big problem!" Redfield said breathlessly.

_ "Oh really? What could be worse than that? We're getting slaughtered!" Ox told him, losing his temper.

_ "But listen to me, damn it!" Redfield retorted, losing patience as well. "A Hammerhead nuclear warhead is going to be launched by the SRDO! The whole valley will be pulverized! We have to leave now!"

_ "We can't! Our friends are still inside the vortex, and I'm telling you, we won't leave without them!" Ox asserted.

**********

Meanwhile, in the Darkland, Mr. Lordi, Emily, Hella and Mathias had walked through the door of the Room of Illusions, and now stepped into a new location that left them speechless.

An open space that stretched endlessly through and through, a desert of ash, rock and black dust. A threatening cold prevailed, along with an abominable smell of decay that almost made the two humans vomit. The logic of this place was just as nonexistent as the first room. There were mountains floating in the air, or others being squarely in the sky, upside down. From the black clouds that covered the whole sky, huge lightning bolts exploded, hitting the mountains and the ground.

But what captured the group's attention was the strangest and most intimidating thing. In front of them, or more precisely levitating at fifty meters high, was a gigantic obsidian pyramid, upside down and floating. The structure must have been tens and tens of meters wide. It looked like the prisms, but much larger and was only accessible by a small black stone staircase that connected it to the ground. The staircase seemed to lead by the only visible exit on this whole pyramid. The giant sprawling spirals on its surface glowed with the same light as the prisms. This pyramid was surely the heart of it, feeding them all.

_ "Oh my god ..." Hella breathed, contemplating this structure that shouldn't even exist.

_ "Neither he, nor the devil, nor anything we know could have designed that ..." growled Mr. Lordi.

Emily and Mathias were grimacing, having difficulty looking at this pyramid. The whole group felt it. The overwhelming, dark aura was even more powerful here, and every second was a constant struggle not to waver.

At the top of the pyramid was something the group noticed. It looked like some kind of big obsidian throne, and sitting on it, still ... Immediately Mr. Lordi, Hella, Emily and Mathias felt their hearts leap and took a step back.

The thing sitting on the throne was about ten meters high. Humanoid, very stocky. Clawed hands and feet, a body dotted with sprawling growths that appeared and disappeared at will. A black, sticky flesh, seeming to be decomposing and reforming all the time, like an eternal curl. His oblong head was adorned with a swarm of tentacles forming like an undulating beard.

As soon as they saw him, the group had felt terrible, taking several steps back, and immediately guessing who it was. Ycnarr'Orveh! The Red Eye of Madness! The Emperor of the Thousand Eclipses!

In the middle of the entity's head, a single eye, globular and blood-red opened, resting its gaze on the quartet. The all-powerful and atrocious voice of the Great Ancient One echoed in this language impossible to understand.

Emily and Mathias immediately had to look away from that staring eye, both holding their heads screaming in fear and pain, falling to their knees in the ashes as the entity's words relentlessly attacked them, s' insinuating in their minds and guessing the slightest of their thoughts.

Mr. Lordi and Hella could watch, but they too knelt down, crushed by the powerful mental attack the entity had just sent them. The two monsters managed to come up to Emily and Mathias to cover their ears in vain.

Ycnarr'Orveh then arose from his throne, and the roar he uttered was of such powerful that a shock wave swept across the area for miles, shaking the earth, making the air vibrate and even crumble. mountains on themselves. The group was violently thrown to the ground. What power, and that just with a simple roar. Never had such a sound been heard by anyone. A mixture of thousands of howls of rage and agony.

_ "Mathias! Emily! Go hide now!" Mr. Lordi ordered them. "Me and Hella are going to get his attention!"

Even though they would have wanted to fight, the two young humans knew that against such an opponent, they could not match. With time running out, they ran to hide behind the nearest large boulder, while Mr. Lordi and Hella stood by, side by side, preparing for what would be arguably the most impossible fight of their existence.

With one masterful leap, Ycnarr'Orveh leaped from the top of the pyramid to land only a few feet in front of them, his impact making the ground tremble again. The entity straightened, towering above the two monsters in size, its shadow covering them.

From Ycnarr's back, several long, spiky tentacles began to grow, as the claws of his hands grew longer.

_ "Creatures as deaf as they are stupid ... You will feed the cycle, as it always has been!" Ycnarr growled heavily in front of them.

The Great Ancient One was the first to attack, the tentacles at its back attacking with superhuman speed. Mr. Lordi and Hella each leaped to one side, rolling on the ground to avoid the brutal impacts of the tentacles. Taking advantage of the momentum produced by his roll, Mr. Lordi threw down his double ax with all his might, which struck Ycnarr in the ribs. However, the entity's flesh showed great resistance, much like a shell, the edge of the weapon barely nicking it. Ycnarr barely looked at the ax stuck in his flesh, emitting no pain. Mr. Lordi pulled his ax towards him with his power, retrieving it, and found with dismay that the little wound had already regenerated. Hella tried in turn, firing once with her sawed-off shotgun and sliced one of the two tentacles in half, but it reformed in just a few seconds.

Mr. Lordi insisted, but this time struck with all his might with his ax on the ground in front of him, causing a powerful shock wave and cracks in the ground. But Ycnarr barely wavered, taking a single step back.

Unaffected by these attacks, Ycnarr punched his fist on the ground, causing a very violent and powerful shock wave that literally blew up the ground for several dozen yards around him. Mr. Lordi and Hella were thrown back violently and rolled on the ground, stunned. Mathias and Emily were forced to leap to the side when the rock behind they had been hiding exploded in pieces because of the shock wave.

Now completely exposed, Mathias and Emily were doing everything to move and find new cover, all the while not looking towards Ycnarr'Orveh, whose mere appearance was enough to reach them psychologically and attack their spirits. Their gazes met those of the two monsters who rose to their feet, regaining their senses. Mathias, in silence, encouraged Hella to continue, just as Emily looked at her Monsterman with love and support, making her understand that he should not let himself be defeated. She wished she could join him so they could use their power together to maximize the odds, but it was way too risky. One look, however small or short, at Ycnarr, and it was madness assured.

The Great Ancient One left no respite for his two adversaries whom he saw only as toys. By its simple will, this dimension seeming to obey it, the entity unleashed a rain of lightning from the sky, coming to bombard the whole area. Several times Mr. Lordi, Hella, and even Mathias and Emily had to leap, roll and dodge the lightning bolts that hit the ground, leaving smoldering craters.

Hella, getting up, had an idea: to aim at the entity's eye, to try to blind it, even temporarily. She glanced quickly at Mr. Lordi, making him understand without saying a word what she was going to do. He smiles, agreeing to help her.

The Monsterman rose to his feet, making his eyes glow an unearthly red, baring his fangs and growling fiercely. He released some of his strength that lived in him, increasing his power and reflexes. Behind her back, her cloak was already getting more vaporous and dark, floating lightly in the air. The ax in his hands, he leaped towards Ycnarr, who was fearlessly waiting for him. The entity easily blocked the ax blow, but Mr. Lordi smiled wickedly.

_ "Hella, now!"

The scarbie had run right behind Mr. Lordi, hidden by him, and leaped onto his shoulders so she could jump in the air and shoot Ycnarr right in the eye on his head. But suddenly, when the shot went off, the red eye disappeared from the entity's head, only to reappear on his chest, to the amazement of the two monsters. Was his eye able to move around his body ?! The shot had only made a hole in the head, the flesh of which was already beginning to reform.

One of the entity's dorsal tentacles grabbed Hella in the air and threw her abruptly away, the scarbie slipping through a rock.

_ "Hella!" Mathias gasped in fear and wanted to run up to her to help him, but Emily was forced to hold him back by the arm, Ycnarr visibly searching for them with his eye which continued to move over his tall body, looking everywhere.

Mr. Lordi and Ycnarr had entered a showdown, each trying to push the other back. But the Great Ancient One already possessed a power beyond the possible, and despite all his strength, Mr. Lordi was gradually brought to his knees, Ycnarr stepping up the pressure more and more. Then, with one of the fists, punched Mr. Lordi hard and pushed him back.

_ "Humans ... Monsters ... I smell your fear, the beating of your hearts, the quivering of your blood in your veins, the least of your thoughts ... Come ... Accept your fate and feed it cycle." Ycnarr was saying.

The entity's eye began to glow stronger and stronger, a strong concentration of energy condensing around it. Hella barely had time to get to her feet and regain her senses when she again had to leap and roll to the side, avoiding a powerful, energetic red beam. Further on, the ground that was hit by the beam exploded for tens of meters, lifting columns of earth and ash into the air. Mr. Lordi also had to dodge to avoid being hit by a second ray.

Behind a new boulder from a distance, Mathias and Emily watched with great concern the unfolding of the fight, seeing that Mr. Lordi and Hella, despite their efforts and cooperation to attack, were being beaten and pushed back each time by the overpowered entity.

_ "He's way too strong ... Even all four of them wouldn't match him!" Mathias commented.

Emily, also plagued by anxiety, again felt that benevolent presence that had come to her aid in the room of illusions, and was again using her pendant to communicate with her. She heard this angelic voice, and apparently she was the only one to heard it. Emily listened to her for a few seconds, then turned her attention to the black stone stairs that led to ... the only entrance leading into the pyramid.

_ "The pyramid ... You have to go to the heart of the pyramid! It's the only way to stop it!" she said with conviction, and without Mathias having time to react, she grabbed him by the wrist and the two of them started to run towards the stairs.

But thanks to his eye, Ycnarr spotted them, seeing them running as fast as possible towards his pyramid. With a single thought, the entity tore dozens of huge boulders from the ground, levitating them in the air and sending them like deadly rain towards the two humans. Mathias and Emily were running, side by side, panting and their hearts pounding, as a shower of huge rocks crashed around them, sometimes very close, in an attempt to crush them.

But Hella sprang up again in a nimble leap, firing another shot that exploded half of the Ycnarr's sprawling beard, causing him to turn his attention to the two monsters. Then the scarbie concentrated herself, deciding to call on that power she had already used to fight the cannibal in the demon dimension. The ground shook slightly in front of her, creating a hole through which came out dozens of zombified living dolls, which after a simple order from Hella, all rushed to attack Ycnarr, encircling him, leaping on him to cover him. The entity roared furiously at seeing all these insignificant creatures clinging to him like this.

Hella disliked using her minions as a diversion, knowing full well that they wouldn't match up against the Great Ancient One despite their number, but hoped that this would give Mathias and Emily enough time to reach the pyramid, and Mr. Lordi who for a few seconds had started to concentrate to release even more of his power.

Unsurprisingly, Ycnarr made short work of the zombie dolls, pulverizing several of them with a single swipe of his tentacles, dismembering them or tearing them in half with his hands or crushing them under his feet to smash them to pieces with his physical strength, removing them from him and throwing them against rocks ... In just one minute, all the zombie dolls had been slaughtered, Ycnarr finishing the last by mercilessly crushing her head in his huge hand and let her fall inert to the ground as if she was nothing.

Mr. Lordi then opened his eyes even more red and shining, a great fury on his face. His cape transformed into his two large black wings, and darkness began to spread around him, crawling like a living thing. Hella pulled away too, knowing this power of the Monsterman and that she should not approach, this darkness consuming everything in their path indiscriminately. Mr. Lordi stepped forward and let out a loud roar that echoed through the area. Hella smirked, coming to reload her shotgun and stood ready to help her lord.

Having unleashed his full power while managing to maintain control of himself, Mr. Lordi once again slammed his ax to the ground. The shock wave was much stronger than the first, even pushing Ycnarr back several yards and almost knocking him back, forcing him to use his arms for protection.

Ycnarr'Orveh gave a furious growl at the attack, and used his telekinetic ability again. But this time it was not a mere rain of rocks that he sent ... Looking up at the sky, Mr. Lordi and Hella found that he had took control of one of the floating mountains and sent it straight on them.

Mr. Lordi channeled his darkness so he could take Hella in his arms and fly with her as the floating mountain was about to crash into their position.

While the two monsters held the attention of the entity, Emily and Mathias had climbed the endless stone stairs and as fast as possible, so much so that it was breathless and with very sore legs that they arrived finally at the top. Mathias, however, had to stand against the wall, not daring to look down, showing that he was dizzy. But Emily noticed something far more dangerous and disturbing than the height.

Everywhere on the walls of the pyramid, swarming shapes began to crawl in their directions. These abominations had the appearance of cadaverous and rotten arachnids with human-squid heads, six eyes and gaping jaws garnished with a circle of fangs.

_ "Quick, inside!" Emily warned, resuming running, this time entering the structure.

Mathias, seeing the arachnid aberrations which approached by the tens, was taken of a new breath and followed his friend at full speed.

The two humans were running side by side, breaking their lungs, in a series of corridors, each more incoherent than the other, sometimes having the impression of running upside down, turning in circles, as the corridors continued endless as they moved forward, finding stairs or doors that lead nowhere ... This place was as insane as the rest of this damn dimension. But the misunderstanding would have to wait, the hordes of creeping creatures also having entered and pursuing the two intruders, managing to follow them thanks to their sense of smell.

Emily and Mathias came to a double carved stone door marked with the symbol of the eye and the triangle. They opened it with difficulty, the door being very heavy, and once passed to the other side, closed it again just in time before the first arachnids reached them and collided against the door.

Panting, their foreheads covered with sweat, the two young humans caught their breath for a few seconds, before turning around and discovering the room they had entered. And once again, they thought they were hallucinating.

The room was in cyclopean form, and seemed to have no end. They couldn't see the back of the room, nor the ceiling. Pillars, several tens of meters thick, supported the structure, and large braziers of green flames lit up the place.

But taking step by step, Emily and Mathias noticed something that made their blood run cold.

_ "Emily ... look, on the walls ..." Mathias swallowed.

They were not dreaming ... The entire walls of this room were covered with kinds of transparent sarcophagi, in which were locked monsters and humans, by the thousands ... Humans were dressed in styles from all eras, like modern era, but also antiquity, the Middle Ages, the conquest of the west, the renaissance, etc ... All did not react, their eyes closed, and being connected on all sides by some sort of black techno-organic cables that fit into their mouth and body. A real nightmare vision.

And in the middle of the great hall was something even more macabre. Ten people stood on a large stone pedestal, gathered in a circle. They were all dressed as cultists of the sect, but their outfits looked much more worn and ancient. Looking at them more closely, Mathias and Emily found that these men were nothing more than dead, parched and rotten envelopes, their faces lifted upward and a strange beam of energy coming out of their foreheads and rising towards the high. Mathias then remembered the Darkland scroll, then the mysterious disappearance of all the inhabitants of the village which had never been elucidated ...

_ "These ten guys ... I think we've finally found the founders of the Children of the Trinity, or at least what's left of them." the young man commented darkly.

_ "You ... Are you kidding? It was over 2000 years ago? ... But it's true that nothing makes sense here ..." Emily replied.

Mathias then showed a look of hatred towards these ten men, and without hesitation, took his magnum pistol and fired on the one who was closest. The corpse collapsed, shot in the head, the energy ray on its forehead disappearing and the body crumbling to dust, as if caught up by time. Emily was surprised by Mathias' gesture, but suddenly the entire pyramid was shaken by a tremor, and almost knocking the two humans to the ground.

It was strange ... by destroying one of the ten corpses, the balance of the structure had weakened ... Mathias and Emily then exchanged the same enlightened gaze.

_ "The founders ... and all these people locked in these boxes ... They serve as power batteries ... This pyramid was designed to be powered by mortal beings ..." Emily gasped, thinking she finally understood.

_ "And as the pyramid feeds the prisms ..." Mathias added with a smirk, joined by Emily, both now knowing what remained to be done to stop the process.

Suddenly, one of the walls in the room shattered, knocking Mathias and Emily to the floor. Ycnarr'Orveh, Mr. Lordi and Hella had all arrived in the room. Hella had rolled further on the ground. She was badly hurt, but still tenacious, struggling to get up. Meanwhile, Mr. Lordi, having fully unleashed his Monsterman force, was in a fierce struggle against Ycnarr, uttering furious roars, their darkness colliding with each other with violent impacts that shook the entire room. But even with all his strength deployed, Mr. Lordi was still in difficulty in front of Ycnarr who from the start of the fight showed no sign of injury or exhaustion, on the contrary.

In front of the outburst of power, the room vibrated, and already, fragments of the ceiling fell to the floor. Mathias and Emily ran over to Hella, helping her up. She smiled to see them alive, but groaned in pain from his injuries.

_ "We can't do it ..." breathed the scarbie "... Ycnarr is way too powerful. It's just entertainment for him. When he has enough, he will kill us all."

_ "We must help Mr. Lordi! He is going to be killed!" Emily cried.

_ "Hella, listen to me ... There is a way. Look at these individuals over there, in a circle ... They are the solution! We must destroy them all now!" Mathias pointed out eagerly.

_ "Go ahead, do it! Me, I'll help Mr. Lordi!" Emily then told them, who while being careful not to look directly at Ycnarr, started running in the direction of the fight, under the startled looks of Mathias and Hella, but time running out, decided to act and ran towards the circle.

Ycnarr had grabbed Mr. Lordi, throwing him against a wall, then against the ground, before repeatedly punching him with his fists, then blocking him with his foot. Mr. Lordi spat some blood out of his mouth, and despite being injured and all the blows received, remained conscious, still defying the entity with his gaze. Ycnarr, just above him, roared mightily, and prepared to completely crush the Monsterman's head with a final overpowering blow. Mr. Lordi showed no fear of dying.

_"NO!" Emily yelled then who came to throw herself near Mr. Lordi, hugging him with all her strength and love, as if she was ready to die with him under this devastating blow of the entity. But Emily's ruby ​​lit up again, and this time the couple's power awoke once again.

Mr. Lordi's ax and Emily's sword merged again into this golden scepter, as they once had against Vexus. The weapon emitted a blinding white beam, which caught Ycnarr's attention, stopping him in his gesture. Driven by the couple's power and will, the silvery-bladed scepter flew like lightning to pierce Ycnarr's red eye, who, completely blinded, uttered overpowering roars of rage, stepping aside and allowing Mr. Lordi to get up, take Emily in his arms and get as far away from the entity as possible. The scepter vanished to reform the two weapons, while Ycnarr had dropped to one knee, already regenerating his eye and sight.

During this time, Mathias and Hella had done as quickly as possible, and with their bladed weapons, had stabbed the founders of the cult one by one, undoing the energy beams one by one, and consequently, causing even more imbalance and even the collapse of the pyramid, pieces of walls, pillars and ceiling starting to fall everywhere. But when Mathias tried to stab the last body still standing, it violently seized the young man by the throat to strangle him. But Hella intervened, exploding the head of the last founder with a point-blank shotgun fire.

Once the last beam of energy disappeared, cutting off the main power, the pyramid shook even more, and even began to slowly fall from its levitation. Mr. Lordi and Emily managed to join Mathias and Hella as everything around them was collapsing.

_ "We must leave! Everything will collapse!" Hella yelled.

_ "Hold on to me!" Mr. Lordi said to everyone.

With Emily in his arms, Mathias and Hella gripping his shoulders tightly, the Monsterman spread his monstrous wings and flew through one of the breaches that had formed in the wall.

Ycnarr'Orveh, who had managed to regenerate his eye, was mad with rage, screaming and roaring, destroying all the debris that fell towards him with his tentacles, but witnessing with fury the collapse of his great pyramid which literally fell from the sky to crash on the ground.

***********

In the village square this time there was nothing more to do. The last two helicopters, which had not been destroyed during the battle, had managed to land and were beginning to evacuate the very few survivors. Of the fifty odd SRDO soldiers, only ten survived, all wounded, and among them, the members of the Red Wolf Squad. The monsters too, too weakened and injured, had been forced into the helicopters. In the first, Enary was exhausted, injured and sitting in a corner, Kalma watching over her, while Magnum made sure G-Stealer was healed, with the assistance of Otus.

In the second helicopter, Redfield watched, with a sense of defeat looking down as the contraptions flew away, the swarming, hellish army of abominations having completely blanketed the village. Mana and Kita were the two most injured on board, but they would survive. Amen was exhausted, and Ox was holding Awa in his arms, watching over her. The Countess had struggled with all her might, but eventually lost consciousness from the great and long expenditure of energy. She finally awoke with difficulty, her gaze meeting Ox's who smiled softly at her.

_ "I ... I'm sorry ... I didn't hold out any longer ..." she moaned, blaming herself.

_ "You have nothing to reproach yourself with, on the contrary ... You were the bravest of us all ..." Ox replied to comfort her.

The eyes of all the monsters were on the great portal of the Darkland, which was no longer powered, began to shrink and gradually disappear. But suddenly, a swift, flying form managed to extricate itself from the dark maelstrom, and to the joy of all the members of the brotherhood, it was Mr. Lordi, with Emily in his arms, Mathias and Hella on his shoulders, who arrived towards the helicopters and manages to get into one of them, to safety.

Just then Redfield ordered the pilots to speed up the flight. A few seconds later, the Hammerhead nuclear warhead sent by the SRDO arrived from the sky, to strike head-on the center of the village, in the midst of the abominations which did not even have time to understand.

_"CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Ian Redfield yelled.

They all obeyed, turning their heads as the huge and mighty explosion started, a huge mushroom of flame and smoke rising for miles into the air, pulverizing the village, the army of abominations, the valley and its surroundings, leaving nothing at all in its wake. The shock wave of extreme rapidity violently shook the helicopters and all its passengers, but they held on, and little by little, calm and silence returned.

Tensions eased in the two helicopters. In the first seconds, no one spoke anymore, because they were all too hurt, exhausted and marked by what they had just gone through. Ian Redfield sits in his seat, huffing heavily and closing his eyes, wiping some of the sticky blood from his face.

_ "You fought well, for a simple human." Amen said to him then. "You would have been useful to my army when I was pharaoh."

_"Thanks for the compliment." Ian replied with a tired little laugh.

Awa, relieved to have seen her friends return from the Darkland, had calmed down and fell asleep on Ox's shoulder, who let her do and kept her close to him. Mathias and Hella, side by side, held hands and looked at each other, smiling and deciding to rest a little too, snuggling up to each other and Hella holding the teddy bear in her hand that she had recovered in her room. And finally, Mr. Lordi, catching his breath after so much effort and having managed to channel his power, tenderly hugged Emily who was more than relieved that this was finally over.