[Edit] Hah. Frontpage’d. Thanks guys, you rule, as usual. xD (Not that I deserved it, considering how long I procrastinated on this chapter.)

Meteors crash, the dead rise, cataclysmic earthquakes shake the earth, and people run screaming through the streets! One such man stops at your confused expression, to explain briefly; “Run you fool! It’s a sign of the apocalypse! Sure as anything we’re all going to DIE!” Wait, why? Why! You try to shout after him, but he is gone. Well don’t worry bewildered reader, I can tell you why the end is near, what bizarre event signals our certain swift doom and destruction;
*drumroll* DaMunky89 has posted DD ch15. DOOMSAYERS SING TO THE HEAVENS! >O! THE END IS NEAR!

Anyway, I am truly, deeply sorry this took so long. No, I’ll admit I wasn’t working on this all this time, I did it in two days, once I finally got down to doing it. Kindly don’t lynch me? Srsly. My life’s just been.. lets say a little off track lately. (Were I a train, I’m now running through oncoming traffic. On the ROAD.)

Regardless, a delay of this length is unforgivable, though I’ve made a futile attempt to make it up to you all, so look for a heavy dosage of aaangst later on in the chapter. There’s zombies too! >>;; Please don’t hurt me? See! I’m posting it now!
-Munky

—It’s the Humidity!—
The mage grumbled irately, and fanned a creased leather half-glove past his face.
“Tell me again why they call this Nirvana?” Blast panted, slouching in his saddle in the suffocating heat. The kalisddon beneath him laughed heartily as it rumbled over the bumpy ashen terrain, a lava flow here, and a gas vent there.
“Oh c’mon BM, it’s not the heat, it-”
“You say it, and I’ll drive you into the next lava flow we pass near.” the cleric snapped before he could finish, “You’re only jolly because you don’t have any nerve endings.”
“Well, my internal thermometer is rather high, does that count for anything?”
“Ho! BlastMage!”, Maeve called from a ways to his right, “You having some trouble over there?”

“No dear, I’m just peachy.” he said dryly. “Hey, what’s that up ahead?” Rising in the distance was a dark mountain, looming in the smog ahead, only previously hidden by the volcanic smoke obscuring their view from afar. Descending into the treacherous valley surrounding the peak, there were no visibility issues here.
“That would be Nirvana itself, Blast, the largest mountain in this range, after which the entire area is named.” Ryyn offered, flanking his other side. “We’ll be there soon at this rate. Just a few hundred meters or s- ach!” His Armor mobile rolled back in a panic as a lava flow spread across the path ahead of him, while Blast and Maeve dodged forward out of the way, as well.
“Damn. Did you bring any teleport orbs?” Maeve asked, her Nak creeping backwards as the flow widened steadily between then.
“Nada. We’re packing all dual shots.” He said, even as Lift whirred alarmedly, hovering over the creeping mass of molten rock.
“Whatever you do, be quick about it, my scanners indicate this rock formation is losing stability fast.” It informed them, bobbling up and down in an agitated fashion.
“Right, I’ll find another way in. Armor, we’ll have to backtrack first, okay buddy?”
“Ugh. I guess we don’t have a choice. Don’t have too much fun without us guys.” The mobile said, as they turned to leave.
“I will escort them back, and signal for a teleport orb delivery.” Lift said, turning to accompany Ryyn.
“Hmm.. this could complicate things,” Maeve’s mobile spoke up, shifting it’s weight from one side to the other. “especially if we run into another team without them.”

As the separated pair rolled off, Blast grinned inwardly. Short of their mobiles, who didn’t really count here anyway, that left him all but alone with Maeve, he thought, as he steered Kal a bit closer to her. The mobile, sensing his intent, laughed softly, and sidled up to her bright orange vehicle.
“So, this weather doesn’t make you hot, m’lady?” he said chidingly. The nak below her seemed ready to say something cutting, probably to do with what poor quality, his cheap pun, but she shushed it hurriedly. (“I can handle this.”)

“Well, sure BM, but I can take the heat. Can’t you?” she grinned slyly.
“But of course.” Blast answered, slipping the slick leather glove back across his left hand, “I just thought I’d share the notion with you.”
“Touché.” Kal murmured, with a happy warble, as the mage above leaned out of his saddle to hook a damp arm over her shoulders. She half smiled, and he couldn’t tell whether she appreciated the gesture, or intended to bite him for it.
“And as long as we’re dancing all about the subj- HEY!” He was jostled back as the kalisddon underneath him lurched away from her.
“She tried to bite me!” it said, indignant, spinning one metal eye irately at the nakmachine, as Maeve burst into laughter;
“Just protecting her jockey, Kal.” Blast frowned slightly, he still couldn’t make heads or tails of the volatile duo. The point was made moot before he could spin another witty poetic device however, they’d reached the mountainside finally. Or more specifically, a gaping hole in the mountainside, ominously spewing smoke and ringed by more geysers of noxious-spitty-gasness.
“Oh.” The mage said, wiping his forehead with the back of one arm. “We’re going in… there.”
“Feeling hot, BlastMage?” Maeve chortled happily, before they plunged into the pit.

The air was sultry and oppressive as the mobiles climbed lower, now within the steaming igneous, and both jockeys panted visibly in descent. Knocking on Kal’s head, the magician reminded;
“Let’s just do this quick, alright? I don’t want to be in here longer than I need to be.”
“Yeah. I’m feeling a little too hot, myself.” his female comrade agreed begrudgingly.
“Mmm. Sweltering, at best.” a third voice agreed, from the shadows of a geyser a ways off. Both pilots and their mobiles turned to fix the newcomer in their collective gaze. Her mount crept from behind the simmering vent, she with an awkward grin plastered across her features, and tipped back a mocked up pharaoh headdress to look them over. Atop a mobile shaped somewhat like a gleaming blue saucer, it floated of its own power, and Blast sensed a steady flow of mana keeping the machine aloft. “Only two? Well, this should be easy then! Let me introduce you to some friends!” the strange girl shouted, waving out her allies, as Blast, Maeve, and their mobiles tensed themselves for a fight.

—The Away Team—
Grendel snorted disgustedly at the shimmering dark magi at his feet, struck harshly across one cheek by a well aimed magic claw.
“The boy always was trouble, and he never did understand the use of a well mastered basic skill book.” He nudged the man with one foot, and the leader of a once powerful guild recoiled, groaning audibly. “You’ll escape this with your life, but I doubt you’ll appreciate it, once the Counsel is done with you.”

His thoughts turned to the party he’d sent off not twenty minutes before, when the battle still raged. (It was but a smoldering mess of bodies, now, and the other Class Leaders were organizing a recovery of corpses and survivors, to be mass teleported back to civilization later. They’d be revived, and prosecuted as well, in their own time, though significantly less harshly than their leader.)

“I do hope they’re okay.. these mines are no place for the young.” They should be just fine. The surrounding area was popular training for adept adventurers, and zombie inhabitants were deftly beat back at all times, as a result. The XDarkStriders had done some good, clearing the monsters out on their way in.. so Riella and crew would just have to get out before Coolies were back in force. “Just don’t delay, don’t delay.” he said, reassuring himself more than anyone else, speaking to the hot, dry air. “They’ll be fine.”

—The Inevitable, Ironic Delay—
Two wizards and two thieves rushed down the dark tunnels into the depths of the Dead Mines at a frantic pace, the pressing urge to rejoin their guild before their conveniently absent zombie friends returned providing distinct motivation.
“Looks like the boss and his lot cleaned this place out.” Achoss said gruffly to the wizards over his shoulder.
“Yeah, just as long as we don’t end up trapped banking on them to stay cleared out.” Cerusk reminded.
“Don’t even get me started. I can’t stand the undead.” Imlye said, visibly shaken. “Let’s just get down there, hurry!”
“Don’t panic, hon. We’re almost there.” Erik comforted, with a pat on the arm.. (or as well as he could comfort with a pat on the arm, considering they were at nearly an outright run).
It was such that, careening towards the Lava Dungeon entrance at such a pace, they hardly saw the other party, until that optical flash that comes about with the collision of your skull, and something hard. Eight adventurers fell sprawled on the floor. -the only person who’d managed to not run directly into somebody was Shard, who sort of just stood off to the side and laughed.

“Oh for the love of..” Erik trailed off, rubbing his head. He’d bounced painfully on impact Riella’s heavy armor set.
“You lot, of all places!” Achoss, who’d crossed craniums with CrossSlash exclaimed irritated.
“We don’t have time for this!” Imlye said, as everyone picked themselves up, and raised weapons. Shard, appearing between the two assassins with a cackle and a puff of smoke, had other plans.
“But, I’ve always got time for a good tussle!” He said, slinging an arm over each of them, and raising his eyebrows at her with a sly flick of his eyes. They each growled in an exclamation of anger, but when thrust claws meant to stab the man reached his flesh, he was gone again, and our overeager-fist-happy-friends found their weapons instead sunk into one another’s sides. The bandit reappeared with a hearty laugh and an insane grin, hanging off the side of a nearby stalagmite with one hand, swinging about wildly as they shouted in anger and pain. That was all the parties needed, and in that short period of time, Leul had jumped on Imlye, Riella drawn steel and lunged at Erik, while Cross and Kytin stepped back to sight on the momentarily incapacitated sins.

Achoss and Cerusk stumbled out of the way of a pair each of arrows and kumbis, gritting their teeth to bound after Shard, who was cackling madly and jumping about. Riella brought her Traus down on the frail wizard nearby, but he blocked deftly with the Arc, and a pulse of mana sent tremors down the blade that tossed her rolling again. Imlye was faring far worse, pinned to the ground as Leul brought a gleaming fairy wand down on her, charged with a blue nimbus of magic bolt, as far as she could tell. The cleric on the ground shifted her head out of harm’s way as it crunched noisily into the blighted earth, and grabbed her adversary by the arm to pull her aside, rolling to her feet at first chance. She was knocked into by Shard, backpedaling to avoid stars thrown by Achoss and Cerusk, who stumbled forward on top of them too, keeping moving to avoid projectiles from Cross and Kytin. Erik was thrown atop the pile for good measure, grunting audibly in a mob of thrashing limbs as Riella brought his Arc up with a bash from her own weapon, and kicked him hard in the chest.

“Woot! Pig pile for the win!” Cross shouted, and jumped atop them all, to disgruntled replies of “ach!” and “ow!” and “Ahh! My scapula! I can’t feel my toes!”
Kytin, walking forward to stand beside Riella, sighed in shared discontent with Shard’s little tussle. They all went silent however, at the sound of a loud moan that.. didn’t come from the pileup. The archer glanced at his friend, unnerved now, and put an arm around her waist casually, looking to make the best of their situation, as everyone, sobered up now, stood to press back to back as far from the moaning as possible. It was all around them now.
“Well,” he said, and everyone glared at him, “what if.. they’re just misunderstood?”

—Engine Critical—
The kalisddon under him shouted metallically in pain as searing beams of light crashed down around Blast, the cleric mounted atop frantically patting down wounds with a green glow and a bead of sweat on his brow.
“Load the next shell, move it!”
“I’m trying, Blast, hang on I-” there was a heavy metallic thunk as the missile pack finally clicked into place, and the machine set his treads to regain his balance.
“Low angle again! Go for the melee!” BM said, pointing across the short gap to their opponent (a wiry girl who’d introduced herself simply as Ez, and had an infuriating way of pointing out just how good she was at damaging a sniper bot at mid-range).

“I don’t know if I can do that, she’s outside of high power split range!”
“Then shoot with less power, we don’t have an angle to snipe with!” Blast said grimly, resting a hand on the saddle to steady himself.
“Firing!” The missile pack launched directly out of Kal’s turret, reaching full rotation at no more than three fourths the distance between them, and half the artillery flew harmlessly over the enemy Mage’s head, doing marginal damage at best.
“Ahah! You’ll have to do better than that, man.” she taunted, shaking off the blow with her mobile, and punching a few keys on her consol to ready another blast.

A short ways away, Maeve was faring somewhat better, as Ez’s allies –a battle equipped turtle and Raeon (a brightly colored cannon of red and yellow, sporting the ability to fire off small robotic mines) had buried her deep underground long since, where the nakmachine was much more comfortable. Occasional flashes of light could be seen, punching through the ground below one or the other to damage and entrench them further, limiting mobility and scarring armor. She could last awhile yet, Blast thought, though he suspected she was still having difficulties with the Raeon’s attacks, which could literally walk down there and damage her anyway, but he had other problems to deal with first. Namely the fact that an extra turret had just risen out of the mage’s chassis, and they still didn’t have an angle.
“Uh.. uh.. uhuhuhuh!!” Blast’s mobile stammered as the dual magic gun mounts began to glow ominously. “Think fast, BM?” (The magician looked around frantically.)

“Kal! A small rut in the terrain behind you! Get down!” The mech rolled back hastily, and BlastMage leaned low over its heavy metal hide. “Let’s just hope this works, I don’t think my mana is going to put up with a slip-up here!” As two undulating blasts of magic twisted through the air, streaking straight towards them, he spread his arms wide over Kal’s face and saddle, thrusting his Magic Guard forward with a pick of his palms, and dumping a good deal of excess magic into the now visibly gleaming wall.
There was a blast of added heat and light as the attacks struck his shield, but the Magic Wall held fast, though BlastMage felt the mental strain take its toll as he flopped back across the saddle, exhausted and drained. “That’s all I’ve got for you Kal, I can’t heal again for awhile yet!” he exclaimed, sounding breathless and a little panicked.
“I’ll do what I can! At least we’ve got an angle now!” the damaged mobile assured him, charging a missile as it rolled into the sizeable crater the magic explosion had created before them. The shots struck heavily down on Ez, and her own machine, the explodery housed in their previously inconvenient long range quadpacks making their mark with as much accuracy as one could hope, firing so off balance as they were.

“Geeyach!” she shouted in disapproval, waving a palm about to clear the smoke. “Pretty good, but it’ll take more than that to put us down! Mage, load the super!” And even as BM struggled to piece together enough mana for another heal, their immediately opposing magic user was charging a massive incantation to blow them clear out of the Londean Battle League.
“Blast, I don’t have enough time to reload! My systems are overheating too fast!” the kalis related frantically.
“And I’m in no position to heal you! Keep loading and brace for impact!” the jockey commanded, though he knew they couldn’t possibly take another hit.
Just seconds before the blast was fired off however, he spotted a blue gleam sail into the room, through one of the many volcanic steam vents in the area, leading back outside.
“Wait,” Blast exclaimed, “is that..?” Kal looked skyward in response.
“It couldn’t be!” the kal said, incredulous now having seen it too. As the Mage SS left their opponent’s barrel however, the shining blue orb streaked down through the muggy air to alight on the ground just between them, and Ryyn appeared in a flash atop his trusty Armor, taking the hit full in the face.

“AArgh!” the two shouted in unison, as a massive magic circle diffused damagingly against their still disoriented arrival. “Some welcoming party!” Ryyn added, opening his eyes again. “You’ll pay for that, stranger!”
“Hey, the name’s Ezyan!” she corrected, even as Armor’s turret began to flash, the little tank rearing back with building force.
“You thinking, what I’m thinking, buddy?”
“Fire the SS? Will do Ryyn!” It chortled in a delighted squeal, and loosed a massive red missile from its nosepiece.

Their adversary gave a convoluted cry as she was thrown from the saddle, and her Mage’s magical reserves depleted, it dropped directly to the floor, turning to stone as it struck solid ground. The newly reunited teammates had no time to stop and celebrate, however, as a shrill, angry shout alerted them to Maeve’s ongoing difficulties in her continuing two on one with the remaining of their opponents.
“Away from her, fiends!” BlastMage shouted in a vastly declarative tone, and managed to heal the kalisddon again as they rumbled hurriedly towards their trapped ally.

—Walls Never There—
A man in dark magician robes sat bleeding into the already crimson snows of El Nath’s town square. He would have froze to death long before, were it not for the wards against chill that had blanketed the town since the tail end of the Age of Chaos, but the icy earth still felt so cold as to burn. He coughed harshly once, and with a rasp, turned his head to spit red. There was a crowd around him. A hundred or more adventurers, though none made any move to help him, or step forward. A casual onlooker may not have understood for a moment, but the warrior guards kept everyone well informed, and insured nobody stepped closer than safe. One with even marginal magical ability could see what the four mages, evenly spaced around the clearing, were doing. The man knew it as well.

Surrounding him was a number of mental barriers. The magicians had been watching in shifts, and not for a moment had they let a single wall falter. Walls that were there but not there, blocking not only his physical, but although his metaphysical passage from the cold, icy prison they had made to contain him in before proper venture back to Victoria could be arranged.

He’d been enraged at first, trapped as such, and by magic users of far weaker potential, only able to hold him in co-operation, merely maintaining a powerful incantation arranged by his greatest adversary of all, Grendel himself. Now was no time for senseless thrashing though, and besides that his stereotypical, villainous calm set the onlookers on edge, anyway. Timing was the key, and on that note, a shift change on the east barrier was set to take place in under ten seconds.

He watched calmly as another mage strode into place, ruffling his green starlight expectantly as he approached to take the position of the female mage who’d held the spot before. The man reached out slowly, carefully to his mana –the last time his captors had suspected an attempt to interfere, the three unoccupied mages had deterred him with painful magical shocks from all directions, and he couldn’t afford any distractions now. Drawing on the tiniest bit of energy he could imagine (were it liquid, it would not fill the hundredth of a teaspoon) he formed a miniscule needle of darkness. Just as the new magician set his feet, and his ally quickly transferred the flows of magic to him, their prisoner launched his furtive attack, striking an equally microscopic portion of the incantation ever so softly. But it was done, and the dark man continued bleeding into the snow as he began to laugh. Standing up, his raucous cackle rose, echoing off the physical walls of far off buildings and setting the crowds looking around nervously, eyes darting back and fourth to locate the source of his sudden elation.
“Silence, you!” one of the mages demanded, and there was a flash of light, the ground suddenly rushed up to hit him sideways. But he would not be silent, and as the ex-leader of the XDarkStriders laughed softly into the crimson snow, he looked over his masterwork; There was a crack in the wall.

—Pulling Together For Now—
“Go go go!” Shard shouted, as he and the other thieves hacked aside undead scourge ahead of the rest of the party. Their inexperienced blows did little to deter the powerful zombies, but served as a temporary distraction that was just enough to get by them with brains still in one piece. Running through a vast forest of jagged stalagmites, members of the two parties urged one another on, their differences set aside for the moment in the mutual interest of keeping all cranial matter resolutely within their skulls.
“Keep moving!” Riella demanded, prodding the clerics forward, “You’re just making them angry!” she said of their pitiful attempts to enlighten the monsters off the chase. Kytin, who was leading up the rear with Erik, shot a flurry of arrows at a frenetic pace into the mob, aided by blue flashes of magic lightening here and there.
“Coolies can’t climb! We’ve got to find higher ground before they overrun us!” the mage shouted over the deafening collective moan the pressed in on them from all directions.
“There!” Kytin pointed, his keen eyes the first to spot the jagged slope rising over the masses in the cold, dim light.

Hacking frantically through the walking corpses to reach the crag, the thieves were the first to start climbing, sins still raining down a stream of stars to beat back the Coolies behind them.
“PICK UP THE PACE PEOPLE!” Cerusk shouted bluntly, as the magic users scrambled hurriedly up the slope behind him. The monsters were indeed slowing, and it seemed they’d all make it just fine at first.. until Riella stumbled, of course. Brittle ice breaking away below her boot, she let out a kind of panicked squeak, and fell backwards off the nearly vertical stone face, bouncing down the icy rock to the mob below.
“NO!” The rest of the party was startled, and abruptly craned their necks around to see Kytin push off of the face, loosing arrows into a concentrated cluster of the beasts where he was to land, clearing a space between them, himself, and the fallen warrior. Smashing down with a *WUMP* in front of her, he uttered a feral growl, set his boots in the hard stone, and suddenly his loading arm was ablaze with motion.
“Ky you idiot! What’re you doing!?” Leul shouted, half distracted from her climb.
“Shush! Keep climbing!” Cross said, prodding her in the elbow from below, and thereafter muttering to himself; “I think he knows.. exactly what he’s doing.”
The bowman loosed arrow after arrow, sharp tipped wooden shafts cheesegrating through the ceaselessly advancing would-be-deads at inhuman speed, and as he accelerated, he poured his limited supply of mana into the attacks, which began to glow bright blue, searing with heat and light. Behind him, the dazed warrior slowly became aware of her surroundings again.

“Ky- Kytin?” she said, confused, shaking her head to clear blurred vision.
“Get outta here hun, I’m running low on mana.” He glanced over his shoulder slightly, and their eyes met, hers bewildered, his unafraid. “I’ll be fine! Just GO!” She choked back a sob, and turned to start up the slope as his command rose to a shout. Kytin backed away from the advancing mob, as his mana ran out and he returned to shooting bare shafts off into the crowd, now magically unaided.

Putting one heel behind him to precariously step up a steep, narrow ledge onto the crag, he began to climb again. Riella was a ways ahead, just about to reach Cross, who’d hung back somewhat. Kytin retreated, each slow, deliberate step more difficult than the first. They were both watching when the zombie grabbed their ally’s foot. “Ach!” he thrashed, trying to loose it from the (and excuse the pun) icy death grip, but it was no use, and he disappeared from sight as he was jerked harshly from the stone, to fall flat on his back at ground level again.

“Kytin! Kytin can you hear me!” Riella attempted to descend after him, but Cross hooked an arm deftly under her shoulder, holding tight to a steady handhold in the face, restraining her. “No! Let me go! I have to, have to-“ she stammered.
“You have to stay here. Don’t let his sacrifice be for nothing.” Shard was perched nimbly on a wider ledge just above them. “There’s nothing you can do for him now.” She nodded grimly in agreement, wiped a moist eye, and began climbing again, as the far reaching symphony of moans rose up around them, and among their diverse and sundry tones, in all degrees of misery and pain, they could hear a new voice, a fresh addition to death’s chorus, screaming in the last breaths of consiousness.