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(You are not allowed to lose the Game while reading this post. Go ahead; you don't have to say it at all.)

"Because unless it magically rains fire tomes or staves, I really can't do much of anything else."

Suddenly, Melethia found a Fire tome sitting neatly perched on her head, slowly falling over the front and neatly into her hands. How it got there, she couldn't quite be sure...

As an immediate response to the reaching zombies, Jin had tried casting Fire. The incantation was correct, but... he'd never once used Fire before, and all that came out was smoke. Smoke wasn't going to do anything to undead creatures, other than possibly lung cancer (which they couldn't get anyway), and Mel happened to express her wish for said tome, so... he put two and two together.

"Tura? THIS is the real Tura?" he asked himself, ducking and weaving between the zombies, the corpses too slow to catch the speedy Sage. "So... this whole time, it was a case of demonic possession?"

This was still confusing as hell. What added up? The Bishop (sadly, he didn't recall Renault) seemed to be Tura, but then everyone else seemed to know and respect him, so it didn't seem like he could be Tura. But then along comes this guy, and he mentioned... he mentioned...

THE GAME. A new game. Then this very well could prove Renault's innocence. If he was indeed innocent (and the odds were high that he was), there was no reason NOT to heal him.

Jin then made his way back around, and as Amelia handed the Elixir to Mel, he returned, kneeling down and starting up the Mend staff, the healing magic pouring over Renault's wounds. Although a man made of quintessence, Renault remained a living being, and so was healed the same as any other living being. "Sorry I'm late," he said. "Lots of confusion at the moment."

Confusion summed matters up nicely for Ghis and Javert. But not time to dwell on it, REAL monsters were coming! They lined up, each keeping his back to the other man, forming a small circle. They couldn't literally be back-to-back... Ghis' fighting style didn't really allow for that, not with a large axe in one hand and a lance in the other. Both were unsheathed at last, and now the mayhem broke loose! The axe sliced effortlessly through the rotted corpses as it sliced through their bodies, the bones giving way with little resistance. The lance had less success--piercing weapons didn't have as good an effect on undead creatures, as they could just shamble straight through and still deal damage--but it was an effective way to keep at bay whatever zombies the axe hadn't connected with. Ghis held the lance out at an angle, using it as a makeshift barrier to keep any other foes at arms' length.

Of course, he couldn't get the ones behind him, and that was where Javert came in. Javert was much quicker--unlike Ghis, he could stab zombies, get back, then do it again until a vital limb (such as a leg or the head) was severed by too many stabs, and the creature became defunct. Most were focused on the General in front, so the rear remained an easy job for the Halberdier, stabbing the few that opted to be sneaky.

Melethia was surprised when a Fire tome fell in her hand.

"Well I'll be damned." She said, "Someone had a fire tome." She then took the Elixir from Amelia. "Good luck." was all she said to her. She then turned around and looked at Jin.

"I'm going to asume you gave me this." She pointed to the fire tome. "You must have just tried to learn how to use tomes. It didn't quite work out for you did it? Lucky for all of us...all that came out was smoke. That spell could have backfired and hit one of us. You will need a bit more practice." She then formed a smile, "I can help you with that. Think about that while I make these zombies burn." She turned around and took a few steps forward. She also took her jacket off.

"Fire in the hole you guys!" She yelled. That was her warning to people that she was going to start casting fire. She took a few more steps towards. She chanted the incantation and the flames flew to the creatures that were closer to her.

"The can't come back if the are a pile of ashes." She said. She then casted another Fire. "Question is...will this fire tome be enough?"

XXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX{Amelia}

If fighting among the dead humans wasn't enough, he had to summoned small creatures to help. The paladin continued charging, slicing and slashing the corpses to reach toward the villain.

But when she tried to get to Tura, she saw something small heading to her left. Having no time to attack with her sword, the paladin swung her shield to whack it. What was that? Isadora thought.

She thought it was some sort of hand axe heading toward her. But the shape was smaller than the hand axe. In addition, these corpses didn't seem to carry a weapon. Was it another enemy helping Tura?

Suddenly, Isadora heard Tuomas let out a neigh and stood on his hind legs. She hung tightly onto the reins and tried to calm her horse. What made him jumped? Suddenly, she saw something on the ground.

It was a squirrel. But like the zombies, it too was dead. The paladin was dumbfounded for a moment until she felt something swooped pass her head. Her hair flew upward before coming down. Isadora looked up in the sky to see a bird turning around and headed toward her. Like the squirrel, the bird's body was rotting.

"You have got to be kidding me," Isadora frowned as she swung her sword at the bird like a bat. Although she could easily kill the zombies with her sword, she was somewhat defenseless against the small creatures. They were too small for her to attack. The only tactical she had against was to defend herself.

Isadora continued to bat whenever the birds were trying to attack her while slicing the corpses when they approached. Tuomas was either moving around, trying to get away or stumping the squirrels. This was not going anywhere of what the paladin wanted. If she wanted the game to end, she had to stop her opponent. But how could she with these enemies around?

Annoyed with Tura's new tactic, Isadora chopped the zombie's head. She then placed her sword underneath her arm to hold it. Isadora then moved her hand behind her back to pull out the hand axe. Hoping she could get her target, she threw her hand axe toward one of Tura's eyes before retaking her sword and continued battle.

((Since the... old man cannot seem to get himself around to completing this thread properly, I'll do it for him. And he had best be thankful.))

The being known as Tura stepped back, in shock at this sudden betrayal by his own beings. "What... what is this madness?" his guttural voice cried, misshapen arms already futilely batting at the tiny and not-so-tiny creatures swallowing his decrepit form. This was true justice; this was the ones he had wronged turning on him and having him pay for his crimes. He screamed, an awful, hellish sound, as of a thousand souls burning in a pit of fire; it seemed that even the poor beings he had taken to create his own body were rebelling, ripping him apart from the inside. To be true, the others standing there who had been fighting needed to do nothing; they could simply stand and watch the creature who had caused so much pain suffer, though not even a miniscule amount of what he had inflicted. And then, he was gone, torn into simply little pieces of flesh that could no longer be recognized as anything that had ever been human, and the beings under his control fell limp and lifeless as well. And all was still, but only for a moment.

Then, the ground began to shake, softly at first but growing stronger and stronger. The beast Tura had been trapped under this mansion, in a magical barrier, for centuries; the disappearance of this had removed the structural stability of both the building and the land surrounding it and both were now ready to cave in. The bishop stood to his feet shakily; he pulled in the closest person, his daughter, and waved to the others. "There isn't time! We must escape, now, lest we lose our lives!" He limped towards the gate shakily, assisted by Amelia; and once everyone was safe, turned to witness the falling of a house full of evil.

Across the sky, a storm had grown, and its wrath could be seen in the wild bolts of light. As the figures watched, one of these bolts struck the great black house, opening a fissure extending from the roof in a zigzag direction to the base. Through this fissure shone a radiance, causing the setting moon to look bloodred... And then, with a fierce breath of the whirlwind, the mighty walls rushed asunder. There was a long, tumultuous, shouting sound like the voice of a thousand souls finally at peace, and the dark earth at their feet closed over Tura's great mansion.

It was over.

And the fight was over. Tura was defeated, the tower crumbled. Victory was theirs.

Exhaustion suddenly overtook the young lord, and he took a knee. He shook his head wearily before he shakily got back to his feet. How long had it been since he had a decent rest? It must have been a while, thanks to the psychopath. How odd...that it had only been a week.

"I think...we deserve a long rest." he said to the others.

It was over. Everyone went home, threw a huge party to celebrate their victory, got drunk, and had a blast.

Or so he wished.

Leon went off with his woman, and Roy made his own return back to the inn to rest. The others had gone their own separate ways, now that Renault was with the group again.