[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9QopfpJ5qk]The holographic device fell from the seat[/url] and the illusion flickered and vanished, followed soon after by the self-destructed bobble as it crashed onto the floor, unheard in the commotion.


[b][i]One Week Ago...[/i][/b]

"You have to get outta here, D'ren!" said his last loyal slave.

[url=http://img06.deviantart.net/92bd/i/2012/067/d/9/amy_lee_edit_03_by_eternalremorse-d4s5d0v.jpg]Sora Lynn[/url] protected her master with her [url=http://www.swordhistory.info/wp-content/uploads/spartan-hoplite-sword.jpg]Spartan Kopis[/url], slashing furiously at the charging [url=https://faustuscrow.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/goetia_girls_silurian_reptilian_agenda_lizard_girl.jpg]reptilian Skaar Demons[/url], led by the non-reptilian dark angel and goddess [url=http://images5.fanpop.com/image/polls/980000/980813_1332345927853_full.jpg?v=1332346014]Pyrsefoni.[/url] She was one of The Infamous Consorts, a High Mistress and noblewoman, but despite her admiration for her lord, she still held him in contempt for having her husband Hades assassinated, just so she could be his woman. D'ren didn't even have the common decency to betray and murder his fellow hell-god himself.

D'ren was cowering in a corner of his mansion's fifth story dining room. He quivered with adrenaline coursing through him as he eyed the two women sword-fighting in the doorway. The Infamous tried to hurl a fireball at the oncoming demons, but the flame died almost as quickly as it spawned in his palm. Enraged by his own impotence, he punched a wall beside him, his fingerless gloved fist smashing through a chunk of it.

Glad to still have some super-strength, he clotheslined an oncoming Skaar and side-kicked another onto the huge dining room table, causing much of the lavish feast to skitter and slide onto the floor. But he knew he couldn't go on like this. He could already feel the strength draining from him as he eyed Pyrsefoni bitterly. 

"I will take your heart!" he screamed at her, batting aside another demon.

He swept back his trench coat and drew a six-shooter, knowing it would only stun and hurt the demons, not kill them. As he took aim, the goddess retorted, "You already had it!"

Sora Lynn glanced over her shoulder at D'ren. "Get outta here!"

D'ren shot another couple demons before pulling a small black pill from his leather pants pocket and crushed it in his fingertips. Dropping it on the floor, the fluid opened a dimensional portal to where he assumed he would find more powers, the Demonic Badlands of  Heramus. The Badlands was a place where the essence and powers of demons and gods were sent once vanquished. 

He turned back, just in time to see Pysefoni tear one of Sora Lynn's wings and run her through with her Greek short sword. 

"No!" cried D'ren in anguish.

"Go!" she screamed, falling slowly to her knees. 

Pyrsefoni moved past her, raising her sword. She leaped onto the table. D'ren looked around at the remaining half a dozen demons who were rushing toward him. 

"I will be back!" D'ren said, throwing his empty pistol at the nearest demon, and then hauling ass through the portal.

The last thing he heard before leaving Malevora was Pyrsefoni shouting, "And we'll be waiting!"

In the Badlands, D'ren pushed himself up to a kneeling position and wiped the dust and sand from his face and tunic. The portal had closed behind him, but he only had one pill. Standing up, D'ren coughed from the quantity of dust and humidity in the atmosphere. Then as he made his way toward a cave for shelter from the howling wind, his hand brushed something in his trench coat pocket.

He pulled out a holographic device he'd once taken from a futuristic world he'd conquered last year. Swallowing his pain, both physical and emotion, D'ren mused, "Sora...Sora Lynn must've...put this in my pocket." 

Searching for other things that she may have stashed on his person, the warlord found an ornate Egyptian dagger, a pendant, and a flask he hoped was filled with whiskey. It wasn't. It was water.

"Damn her," he groaned. "Always lookin' out for me best interest. I don't deserve that bint."