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A daemonite portal was literally a rip in the air, a tear in space between Earth and the Twilight Realm. Our scout tested the portal in front of us to make sure that our daemonite travel agent hadn’t decided to send us to the wrong place, stepping through, then coming back and giving us a thumbs up.

A moment later, all of our jatta rushed through to deal with any immediate threats, and they were followed close behind by the notru, who would be able to control the terrain and help fortify our position. The kaern held back until last since nearly all of them would be acting as archers, while Dad and I remained with them since we would be serving the same role.

I gave Dad a worried look, hoping that he was going to be all right. Though Dad certainly wasn’t a rookie when it came to fighting, this was the kind of fight he just wasn’t built for. He didn’t have the kind of strength and power that we Val Kyr possessed, and I seriously doubted his bullet proof vest would do much good against daemonite claws. However, there was a fierce look of determination in his eyes, one that wasn’t going to be denied. I watched Dad with a mixture of worry and pride, biting back my doubts and refusing to let him see them. In spite of how dangerous this was, I had no doubt that this fight was the very thing my dad needed.

Then it was our turn and all the kaern rushed through the portal. A moment later, I found myself back in Val Halla, standing in the back side of the main courtyard. Five jatta were lined up on the outside of our group with their weapons ready while the notru were already in the process of forming stone walls we could use for cover. Like all the kaern, I stretched out my senses as far as they could go and examined the area.

The main courtyard was infested with daemons, and I could even see a few daemonites scattered among them, though Estrid wasn’t one of them. The anchor had a massive snake daemon wrapped around it, confirming that they had either killed or chased off the Val Kyr who normally guarded that spot. And then I turned my attention to the buildings, noticing for the first time that the main doors and many of the smaller ones were gone, replaced with thick stone walls. I smiled faintly at that since it was evidence that the Val Kyr were still alive and bunkering down.

“Shit,” Dad said as he looked around with a grim expression. He was obviously impressed with the surroundings and the fact that he was in the mythical Val Halla…but he was clearly a bit overwhelmed as well to see just how many daemons there were around us. There were even more than there had been during that major fight back home, and back then he and the other guys had been armed with modern firearms.

“You should probably focus on the lesser daemons,” I told him as I picked out several of my own targets. Dad didn’t have the draw or boosted firepower that the rest of the archers possessed, so taking out the smaller and more vulnerable daemons would probably be the best use of his skills. “Keep them from overrunning us.”

Dad didn’t say a word in response. He merely nodded, notched an arrow, then took careful aim towards a small but fast moving rabbit daemon. The arrow struck the creature in the head, bringing it to an immediate stop.

At this point, the daemons had noticed us and were beginning to approach, but we were already prepared to deal with them. The air was suddenly filled with a shower of arrows, courtesy Fleur’s special attack, and she wasn’t the only one starting off with their strongest attack. A flaming arrow struck a hellhound, then exploded in a shower of napalm.

I’d already spotted my chosen target, but now there were too many daemons in the way. With that, I jumped up onto one of the newly formed walls, getting enough height so that I could see my target again…the snake that was guarding the anchor. It was no threat at the moment, but it was pretty nasty and I wanted to deal with it while I still had the energy. It only took a moment to aim, then to release the energy stored in my bow. A charged arrow flew through the air, and before it even struck, I sent a second one.

“Gotcha,” I snarled, right as the first arrow struck the daemon snake in the eye. The arrow exploded, taking the entire eye and a part of the head with it. The second arrow caught the snake in the neck, creating another nice hole. I watched intently, seeing that the snake was severely injured, but not dead yet. “Damn.”

I poured more essence into my bow, recharging it and then releasing another arrow. The snake moved, so my arrow missed the snake by several inches, much to my frustration. However, I bit back on that and released the next arrow. This one caught the snake in the head, right where the first arrow had already severely injured it. Seconds later, the daemon collapsed to the ground.

Just then, Nessa started screaming, “Over here… Kill these fucking bitches…”

“Shut up,” Jass snarled at the daemonite, who was currently sunk up to her knees in stone. One of the notru had made sure that she wasn’t going to try running away from us, though I wished someone had thought about gagging her as well.

With the giant snake dead, I turned my attention to the swarm of daemons coming at us. The notru were doing a great job of holding them back, using a mixture of walls and soft ground that acted like quicksand. Unfortunately, for every daemon that sank into the ground, another one would run over the top of them in order to get at us. The Jatta were going at it furiously, hitting one daemon after another. Lindrell’s axe sent one daemon’s head flying while another one was smashed in, courtesy of Lei.

“Those daemons don’t have any strategy at all,” Dad commented, right before letting an arrow fly. “They just charge straight ahead, so creating this bottleneck is working for now…”

“You haven’t seen any of the smarter ones yet,” Gretchen commented. “And their methods can also change if the daemonites take a more active hand in the attack…”

I glanced to my dad, then focused on my task…shooting any of the distant threats before they could become more immediate ones. I shot a flying daemon that was heading in our direction, then I aimed at a type of daemon that was known to explode when killed. I grinned as I timed that one just right, letting it explode in just the right place to take out two other daemons.

As I looked around, I saw that the daemon swarm was pushing down on us too hard, that they were on the verge of completely overwhelming our defenses. I switched gears, putting my bow away and drawing my sword instead. Then with a grimace, I charged one of the nearby daemons, impaling it with my sword before jumping back. I glanced over to Shannon, who was doing her usual lunge and dodge routine, and worked on doing the same thing.

“Are there any signs of survivors?” Lindrell called out.

“I haven’t seen anyone else,” Shannon responded. “But they’ve blocked the doors and locked themselves inside.”

“We need to get clear of here so we can get inside,” Gretchen pointed out. She gestured towards the nearest building, adding, “A notru can open a door in the wall…”

I nodded at that, releasing the essence stored in my sword. It burst to life with ghostly flames, and so I wouldn’t waste an ounce of that energy, I dove into the mass of daemons, swinging my sword. I moved as quickly as I could, lunging, slashing, dodging and leaping, slicing open as many daemons as I could before the flames went out in my sword. The flaming wounds on the daemons continued to burn for a little longer, damaging them further even after I’d moved on.

Once the flames had gone out from my sword, I jumped back, letting Natalie send a wave of stone towards the daemons, covering my retreat. Julie came in from the side, touching the ground with her spear and making spikes rise from the ground, impaling a daemon who was trying to crawl towards us. She followed that up with a spear thrust into its side while I lunged forward and removed the head.

Suddenly, I noticed a massive daemon coming towards us, one that had the general shape of a fat toad, but it was three times the size of an elephant. The thing’s sickly purple skin was covered with blisters and oozing sores, the sight of which was enough to nearly make me lose my stomach.

“Oh shit,” I exclaimed while Nessa laughed almost maniacally.

“You’re going down now, you evil bitches,” Nessa yelled out.

“A fulgroth,” Shannon exclaimed. “Look out…”

The toad…fulgroth took a giant leap, and I could see exactly where he was going to land…as could everyone else. In spite of the fact that we were surrounded by daemons, we scattered. I was already starting to run when I suddenly realized that Dad wouldn’t be able to run fast enough. But when I turned to check on him, I was relieved…and almost amused…to see that Lindrell had picked him up and slung him over her shoulder as she ran away. A moment later, the monster landed right where all the archers had been gathered, right behind the defenses we’d set up.

There was a loud thud as the daemon landed, as well as a sick squishing sound. It took me a moment to realize that we’d left Nessa back there…her feet embedded in the ground. I suddenly felt guilt for that, though only for a moment. As soon as I reminded myself of her role in all those incursions, including the one here against Val Halla, the guilt faded away entirely.

“My pride is never going to live this down,” Dad grumbled as Lindrell set him down, then stood in front of him with her axe ready, her expression daring anyone to even try getting through her to reach my dad.

“What is that?” Julie demanded, her voice shaking with worry, though she looked determined to take it down. Then in a swift movement, she snapped around, sending a wave of stony spikes at the daemons who were trying to rush in.

“Fulgroth,” Shannon answered grimly, swinging her sword at a lesser daemon. “The skin is poisonous, so don’t touch it. It won’t kill a Val Kyr, but it will make you too sick to fight…”

“And don’t forget,” Bethany added with a chuckle. “It pukes up this slime that’s about as sticky as tar… Don’t touch the stuff.”

Dad grunted at that and muttered, “I never thought I’d miss drug cartels and insurgents.”

“Welcome to my life,” Lindrell told him wryly.

The jatta lunged forward, striking at the most dangerous daemons while the notru were already working on trying to force them all back so they could create new fortifications. Unfortunately, the fulgroth’s charge resulted in our group being split, with half the Val Kyr on each side of it.

“If we had modern weapons, I’d recommend spreading out and creating overlapping lines of fire,” he pointed out, looking over our surroundings with a critical eye.

“That doesn’t work quite as well when you only have arrows,” Bethany pointed out. “But damn, I really wish I could use my RPG here…”

“Speaking of which,” Dad said, looking to me, obviously thinking of my charged arrows.

“I’m out of essence,” I responded, though I wasn’t sure if he realized what that meant.

Just then, a voice yelled, “Go get them Precious… Stomp those vermin flat…”

That drew my attention to the source of the yelling, an old woman who was sitting on top of the massive toad. She was wearing protective clothing and was actually sitting on some sort of tarp to keep from touching the fulgroth’s poisonous skin. The red cloak that marked her as a daemonite was immediately visible, though I hadn’t really needed it to know what she was. After all, only a binder would ride something like that.

The massive daemon turned and belched out a nasty green goo, which sprayed the ground in front of it. A shield of stone rose up to block the spray and prevent it from hitting any of us, but the whole area between us and the creature was now covered with it. That meant we couldn’t just charge the thing without getting stuck in the process.

“Go on Precious,” the old woman told her daemon. “Time to fill your tum tum…”

With that, the creature opened its wide mouth, revealing that while it resembled a toad, the inside of its mouth was filled with row after row of sharp teeth, more akin to a shark. A long tongue shot out from the mouth, revealing that the tip split into three barbed tendrils, which lashed right out at us. Jass dove to the side, just barely avoiding the tongue. The tongue snapped back onto its mouth before shooting out again, though this time, a catlike daemon got in the way and ended up being impaled by the barbs. The fulgroth snapped the tongue back into its mouth, daemon and all. There was a crunch as it chewed and black daemon blood oozed from the corners of the mouth.

“Sorry about that,” the old woman called out to the now eaten daemon.

In spite of the fact that we had a massive daemon in front of us, Dad looked calm and professional. He took aim with an arrow, but Jass said, “Don’t bother, Sorensen. The skin is too thick to pierce with any normal arrow.”

“Who said I was aiming for the frog?” Dad asked, though he raised his aim considerably before he released the arrow. The arrow hit the daemonite binder right in the chest.

The fulgroth let out a weird gurgling roar and was obviously pissed, then it snapped its tongue out again, this time hitting Dad in the leg. Dad was yanked off his feet as the daemon started to pull him back into its mouth.

“No,” I cried out, trying to rush to Dad’s aid, though I was too far away.

Suddenly, Jass lashed out with her sword, moving fast even for a kaern. Her blade sliced through the daemon’s tongue in an instant, causing the daemon to snap the rest of it back in and howl in pain.

“Now we’re even,” Jass told Dad.

As the daemon was letting out another roar, I could see that it was about to leap at us again. Without thinking, I charged my bow with fresh essence, then fired an arrow right into the open mouth. Several kaern followed my lead and immediately shot into that gaping maw as well. The massive fulgroth gurgled and staggered before it fell over, landing right on top of several smaller daemons.

“David?” Lindrell called back, sounding worried though she didn’t rush to him. Instead, she brought her axe down onto a somewhat humanoid shaped daemon, who I thought might be some kind of goblin.

“It busted my prosthetic,” Dad called back. “But I’m fine.” Then he looked to Jass and nodded faintly. “Thanks.”

Jass didn’t say a word in response, and she acted almost as though she hadn’t even heard him. She just turned and began shooting at the approaching daemons again.

I stared at my bow for a moment, sensing the essence that still remained within it…enough for one more shot. I was a little confused because I’d completely used up all my essence taking out that giant snake, and there was no way I should have enough essence to use again so soon.

“The extra val,” I whispered in realization, right before I turned around and fired a charged arrow right through the chest of an approaching troll. “Well, that sure is handy…”

In spite of the fact that I’d just charged my bow up, I had enough essence available that I was actually able charge it again, for the third time in a very short period. I grinned at that, deciding that I could definitely get used to having a little extra val available.

Just then, there was a rumbling in the middle of the courtyard, right before the ground suddenly collapsed. Half a dozen daemons dropped into the newly formed sinkhole, and a moment later, new figures climbed out of it. However, these weren’t daemons climbing back out. They were fully armed and armored Val Kyr.

“VAL KYR!” Freya yelled out from the front, holding up her spear. “CLEANSE THIS FILTH FROM OUR HOME!”

“They dug up from the halls below,” Shannon exclaimed with a laugh of delight.

Freya and her triad led the charge into the horde of daemons while the rest of the Val Kyr who’d emerged from their bunker followed right behind her. Nearly every Val Kyr who’d remained behind in Val Halla was there, doing their part to defend our home.

To my amazement, Hilde, who usually just ran all the kitchens, was wielding a massive two handed axe, one that was even larger than Lindrell’s. While she cut through the daemons, the slender librarian Moraigh stood behind her, using her bow to send arrow after arrow into the swarm. And then on Hilde’s other side was woman who ran the bath house, wielding a spear and sending a wave of stone spikes right into a mass of daemons. Even those three had come out of retirement and were now acting as a triad.

Ragnhild, the jatta general, leapt at troll who was armed with a massive club, driving her axe right into his neck. In a smooth follow up, Ailsa leapt onto the shoulders of the large daemon as he fell and used that momentary perch to fire several arrows over the crowd, striking a pair of daemonites.

At the same time Ragnhild and Ailsa were doing that, Sharra leapt up into the air, swung her spear around, then sent a wave of flames through the air, setting half a dozen daemons on fire. And as if that wasn’t enough, while the daemons were distracted, Freya leapt into the middle of them and swung her spear, slicing and impaling all of them in mere seconds.

“Damn,” I whispered, so impressed by watching Freya and her triad that I’d momentarily forgotten that I had my own daemons to deal with. Right now, I definitely couldn’t afford to get distracted.

Dad’s prosthetic leg had been broken by the fulgroth’s attack, so he’d perched himself on a small stone outcrop that someone had created as cover, and was carefully picking off daemons. I sent an arrow at daemon that had been trying to come at him from behind, putting an arrow through its eye.

“Don’t bother with that one,” I called out to Dad when I saw where he was aiming his next shot. The pile of slime and tentacles was disgusting looking, but wasn’t worth wasting an arrow on. “Those things shrug off arrows… You have to cut them to little pieces or burn them to death…”

Without saying a word, Dad shifted his target and shot a flying daemon that had been about to swoop down on Lindrell. He smiled faintly, then reached back to his quiver, only to realize he was almost out of arrows. Since I had other options besides arrows, I tossed him the rest of mine, then ran charging back into the battle with my sword drawn.

Now that the other Val Kyr had come out of hiding, the daemons were splitting their attention between them and us. That meant we had fewer daemons rushing us at one time and we started to make quicker work of them.

Then, there were several roars in the distance, some coming from outside the walls of Val Halla and some from within. I looked to Lindrell and the other more experienced Val Kyr, but none of them seemed to have any idea of what was going on either. However, from the grim looks, they seemed to have the same suspicions I did…that this wasn’t good news for us.

But in spite of my worry, the daemons seemed to finally realize that we were doing far more damage to them than they were doing to us. Daemons were vicious, stubborn, and stupid…but they did seem to get the point…eventually. They stopped throwing themselves at us and began pulling away.

“It looks like we have a reprieve,” Lindrell said. “But I wouldn’t count on it lasting much longer. Make use of it to increase our fortifications.” Then she looked over to Dad, who was completely out of arrows and was holding his shoulder. She gave him a worried look and asked, “Are you injured, David?”

“One of those flying ones just scratched me,” Dad responded gruffly, acting as though it was no big deal. However, with my enhanced senses, I could smell the blood and feel that it was a little more than a mere scratch. “Damn thing tore through my vest before I was able to kill it…”

My eyes went to the daemon that was dead on the ground beside dead, an ugly looking thing that looked sort of like a cross between a bat and a lizard. There was a nice gash, all down its side, obviously from the bloody knife Dad had sitting beside him.

“I can fix that,” I said, eager to show off my healing ability, especially now that I had a little extra val energy to use.

“Wait,” Lindrell snapped, holding her hand up to stop me.

“I’m just going to heal him,” I said, a little confused by her reaction. “I have enough essence and jatta energies at the moment that it won’t wipe me out…”

Lindrell gave me a strange look, then said, “Michelle, focus your senses on your father…”

I blinked, feeling a little confused but I did as she asked. I focused all my senses on Dad, and a moment later, I gasped as I realized that I felt something from him…something very faint and very familiar. Dad had a tiny amount of val smoldering inside of him.

“A val seed,” I blurted out in surprise.

“What does that mean?” Dad asked, his voice calm though I could see a little worry hidden behind that. “Did that thing infect me with something?”

“No,” Lindrell said with a forced smile. “It means that if Michelle tries to heal you, it will awaken your dormant val and turn you into one of us.”

“WHAT?” Dad blurted out in surprise. Several nearby Val Kyr turned to stare at him with looks of surprise as well.

“You’re descended from one of the lost bloodlines,” Lindrell explained, though Dad obviously didn’t understand quite what she meant. Then to me, she added, “The kaern in my triad pointed it out when we encountered his team in South America.” This got a look of surprise from Dad, who still didn’t know the full story. “This is what drew my attention the first time I saw him…”

I just stared at Dad in surprise, then my eyes went to his prosthetic leg and I exclaimed, “Then that night you were attacked…you could have healed him...”

“And converted him without his knowledge or consent,” Lindrell responded quietly, staring at Dad with a sad expression. “I…I had considered doing so.”

Dad stared at Lindrell with a grim expression, then asked, “What exactly does this mean?”

“It means that you are descended from Val Kyr,” Lindrell answered Dad. Then she looked to me and added, “And you are the child of two bloodlines...”

“Is…is that rare?” I asked, suddenly feeling a bit curious about that.

However, Lindrell gave a soft chuckle and admitted, “Not really.”

“Regardless of this whole val seed thing,” Dad said gruffly. “I’d still appreciate it if someone grabbed a first-aid kit for me…”

Just then, daemons started roaring and howling again, though this time, it sounded like all of them were freaking out. I looked back to the daemon swarm and saw that they had pulled back and were largely clustered together, just standing there as if waiting for something. Then the daemons began to split apart, as though creating a pathway.

Seconds later, a familiar figure emerged from the pathway, stepping out right in front of the daemon horde. It was Estrid, wearing her black armor and holding a sword in each hand. She had a look of hatred on her face as she looked across the open area and stared straight at Freya.

“I assume she’s this Estrid I’ve heard about,” Dad commented while Lindrell and I nodded. “What happens next?”

“Now,” Lindrell answered with a look of grim determination. “Now the real battle begins.”