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Long onyx stepped stretched out ahead of Sefra, Quinten and Marcos, seemingly suspended in mid the wide star filled expanse they were winding through. It was cold, the clothing they had was not suitable for clambering up other-worldly flights of stairs exposed to an endless night sky. Sefra wasn't letting that hold him back however as he bounded from step to step, Quinten kept pace to his left, the hairs long dreadlocks swaying back and forth as he followed. Quinten had released the hyena spirit animal he kept on his body as a tattoo, the tawny furred, spotted beast ranging ahead of them on all four feet as they clambered higher, edging toward the large platform of stained glass that hung suspended in the void above their heads.

Marcos was a couple of steps behind, his hooves ringing on the onyx as the goat looked around warily. He was frowning at everything and occasionally muttered to himself about the unnatural stars all around them. He kept going though, refusing to let the bunnies get too far ahead and leave him behind. This was the end game, their chance to fulfil Sefra's dream, to defeat the demon Tsochan and perhaps even claim him as a prize. It wasn't going to be easy however, they were down one party member and had lost all the allies they gained whilst traversing the Dark Knight's gaming field. But they had pushed through, reached the other side and were now ready to face the demon.

Slowing down as the neared the top of the stairs Sefra reached out to slow Quinten and waited for Marcos to catch up with them, "We need to be extra careful here, Tsochan is a sneaky bastard, don't listen to his words."

"No talking then?" Quinten asked with a frown, "I figured you'd want to make a deal with him?"

"No deal," Sefra said, large ears twitching as he glanced around, "He's a sneaky bastard when it comes to making deals. We beat him down and stick the Binder around his neck, that's the only deal we need."

"What, exactly does the Binder do?" Marcos queried, "You never explained that in detail?"

Sefra frowned at the goat but the white and blue furred ungulate nudged the rabbit with his horns, "Don't look at me like that, what does it do?"

"It's a form of contract, it forces Tsochan to obey whoever puts it around his neck and to not harm them. Well I say Tsochan it binds the avatar you capture," waving a paw Sefra frowned, "It's hard to explain, Tsochan can exist in multiple places at once, whatever aspect we are going to be fighting up there is the one we'll be capturing. He'll exist elsewhere but as long as you have the binder around one of them the others can't come anywhere near you."

Quinten rubbed his muzzle and sighed, fingers stroking his hyena's ears, brushing up and down the living paint creature, "I hate this complex dimensional magic, can we just go up there and beat the stuffing out of the ferret? I think we all owe him a good drubbing and then we can get out of here, this place gives me the creeps."

Sefra nodded and started up the stairs again, ears up, alert for any tricks the demon might have in store. However nothing leapt at them and the stairs remained solid until they walked onto the large stained glass platform. It hung suspended in the middle of nowhere, the image on the glass depicting Tsochan on the left and Nahcost on the right, curled up Ying-Yang style. The demon was waiting for them in the centre, nine feet of broad shouldered, heavily muscled bulk, more wolverine then ferret with piercing amber eyes and dark metallic maroon hair hanging in a shaggy curl around his shoulders. Bands of maroon fur encircled his wrists and ankles but the rest of his fur was short, wiry and unkempt and he was only wearing a pair of ragged grey trousers that cut off a good five or six inches above his ankles.

"Hi demon, ready to give yourself to me?" Sefra taunted with a smile, "You know you can't stop me."

The giant demonic wolverine tilted his head to one side and smirked then moved, blindingly fast he came at the trio. One clawed paw swept out and closed around Quinten's neck, the forest guardian was yanked off his feet as Marcos and Sefra went sprawling. One of the demon's feet smashed down atop the painted hyena summons and it squelched out, purple flame erupting along the familiar's body, consuming it with a roar of demonic fire. Leaping back to his feet Sefra leapt toward the demon, one paw making a circular motion, summoning a small pair of golden bells. He had to take back the iniative, Marcos was still struggling to his feet and Quin was choking, he had to be quick.

Shaking the bells Sefra caught his hammer as it exploded outwards from where he had kept it hidden. It had not been easy keeping the bells secreted magically from the Dark Knight but he knew he'd need it for this fight. Swinging it at Tsochan the rabbit thought his arms were going to come out of their sockets as Tsochan grabbed the hammer head and twisted it. He was so damn strong like this and fast too. Breath exploded from his lungs as the demon rammed the haft of the big hammer into his gut and tossed him aside. Rolling end over end Sefra fetched up against a wall and groggily lifted his head, Marcos was back on his feet but Quinten was hanging limp, unconscious in the demon's grip.

"It's been amusing watching you cheat your way through the Dark Knight's games, but this ends here Sefra..." the demons voice was a grating hiss and then he opened his jaws wide and stuffed Quinten down his throat. He gulped heavily, throat bulging around the forest guardians bulk as the massive wolverine swallowed him whole.

"No," Marcos screamed leaping forwards to attack the demon, the white and blue goat laid into him with gusto, shouting and screaming as he ineffectual pummeled on him with his bare hands.

Tsochan didn't stop, he just swallowed harder, Quinten's stomach sliding out of sight down his throat, the massive demonic wolverine grinned around his mouthful and swallowed again as Marcos drummed his paws on him. Tilting his head backwards the demon swallowed again, Quinten's legs starting to slither and slide downward, slipping out of sight, vanishing as an endless ripple down his throat and away. His feet kicked feebly and then they were gone, the last bunny foot shaped bulge slipped across the demon's throat and he was gone, just a large bulging shape in his gut.

"You monster..." Marcos shouted, "Let him out, let him out!" Tsochan growled and kicked the goat between the legs. The white furred horn sporting ungulate folded in half with a whimper as he went flying through the air.

"You bastard," Sefra shouted, his hammer spinning through the air as he pulled it back to him on a wave of air, "You utter monster, let him out!"

Tsochan snorted, then laughed, "You attacked me, don't get all high and mighty because you're losing..." he took a deep breath then belched flame at Sefra. He yelped and span a cyclone of air around him, it picked up the flame and span it about his body, keeping it at bay so he only got slightly singed. It lasted for several seconds and when the last of the flames whipped themselves away and died down Tsochan was standing inches from Sefra and grinning, his stomach now flat muscled once again instead of bulging with the outline of swallowed hare.

"No.." Sefra gaped at the demon, "You can't, I mean you didn't..."

"Had to get the fuel for all that fire from somewhere," he laughed quietly, "You can't win Sefra, I've been watching you from outside, your little temporal shenanigans might reset this fight but it will never let you win."

Backing away Sefra brought his hammer around, holding it out in front of him, "Never, I can defeat, you will not always win."

Tsochan chuckled, "You never learn, time and again you come against me, time and again you lose. You couldn't beat me when Damien played his game, your trick with the harem boys didn't pan out did it? You are a loser Sefra."

The demonic creature made a hooking motion with one paw and held up a glistening black collar, covered in gleaming red runes. Sefra had seen it before, lusted after it, needed it; the one thing that had always eluded him Tsochan's binder, a way to make the demon play fair.

"You lose," Tsochan whispered and moved forwards, in a blur of speed and light he slapped the collar around Sefra's neck and the bunny screamed! It was burning his fur, contracted against the skin of his throat and melting itself into place! It hurt, oh how it hurt hurt hurt... it was more than he could bare, more than anyone could stand.

He hadn't known it could be used on him, he could already feel the demon's thoughts insinuating themselves into his mind, whispering down his neural pathways. The demon was going to claim him as a prize for winning their game... it must not be, it could not be! Tugging at his neck only made the collar burn harder, spikes of infernal energy crackling up and down his spine, forcing him to shake and shudder and cry out.

He could hear Tsochan laughing, the demon's voice echoing inside his mind as he gloated at beating the rabbit. New paws scrabbling at the collar dragged Sefra out of his painful shaking transformation. Lines of dark corruption were spreading out from the collar, he could see them inching along his arms, feel them oozing down his neck and up across his skull. Marcos was also there, the goat had dragged himself over and was trying in vain to pull the collar off Sefra's neck. With a herculean effort the bunny grabbed Marcos' arm and shook his head, pressing the goat's fingers against the collar.

"Reset... reset but... hold onto the collar..."

"What..." Marcos wheezed, "I can't do that... can I?"

"Try... please..." Sefra pleaded, his brain was boiling, his thoughts bubbling, the corruption was riding into his mind, "You have to Marcos..." that was all he knew, darkness and fire swept into his mind and his eyes dimmed. He thought for a second he saw the runes and patterns covering Marcos' fur glowing, he felt Tsochan's gloating laugh turn into a moment of confusion then outrage and then everything went weird!

Staggering sideways Sefra fell to one knee and gasped one hand springing up to touch his throat. It was tender to the touch but clear. Turning his head he saw Marcos sitting on his rump, the baleful burning strip of black leather clutched in his hands and there was Quinten, standing where he had been when the fight started.

Lifting his head he saw Tsochan waiting, huge and hulking and wolverine and before his burst of speed that disabled Quinten, "Quinten, the dragon, dump it now and paint the fucker! Marcos hold onto that whilst I get ready, move move the fucker is ready for us!"

Quinten blinked but didn't waste time asking questions, he put one foot forward and unleashed the dragon stored as a painted design on his fur. It rushed out of Quinten's foot and burst forward, leaping across the flagstones toward the demon, first as a two dimensional shape then rearing up as a massive purple and green oriental dragon that breathed a cone of bright incandescent purple paint right at Tsochan. The sudden attack caught Tsochan off guard, his prepared battle opening move hampered by the need to ward off the onslaught of transmutational paint. He burnt through it easily enough but the hyena charged through the last of the cone and tackled him and the giant hulking wolverine went flying backwards.

The sandy hare didn't hang around either, he was running off at a parallel to the demon, orchestrating the moves of his two painted familiars. They didn't have the power to overwhelm the demon but they had the strength to keep him distracted and off balance whilst Sefra prepared whatever it was he was preparing. Quinten didn't question, he didn't think, he was focussed on shouting silent directions at his familiars. She was worrying the demon's flanks, twisting and turning, yipping and barking and snapping his jaws with intent, harrying the demon as he tried to deal with the greater threat the dragon represented. His paint was also dangerous, that breath weapon could cover Tsochan from head to toe in an instant so he had his arms wrapped about the dragon's snout, holding its muzzle closed as they wrestled and flopped from side to side in an attempt to subjugate the painted beast whilst at the same time stopping the hyena from getting a good grip on him.

Which is why he didn't stand a chance as Sefra leapt into action, bounding forwards he reached out, using the one twist of inter-dimensional space he'd managed to keep spelled up to start pulling bells into existence. Each one rang, emitting a unique and distinctly different chime as it deployed into a hammer, the rabbit's wind powers carrying them in an arching tumble through the air. There were seven of them in total, from smooth, sleek metallic shapes to jagged, steampunk like cogs and metallic plates. Each hammer was unique, a weapon Sefra had crafted over the years and they were all subject to the orchestrated movements of his wind powers!

The first attack slammed into Tsochan from behind, knocking the demon forwards with a yell, forcing him to disengage from the dragon familiar. It slithered away taking the hyena with it as the second and third hammers slammed through the air toward the demon. Tsochan caught one of them, his clawed feet screeching against the flagstones as the hammer's momentum pushed him backwards only for the second attack to crash into his feet and send him tumbling.

Rolling over Tsochan leapt onto his feet and conjured up a rippling wave of shadows! The fourt hammer plunged into the wall of shadows and Sefra winched as globules of molten metal soard out the other side, the demon using the heat to ignite the wall of shadows with a dark amber fire and hurl it through the air towards the rabbit. Sefra cursed and made a hooking motion with his hands at the air, one of his hammers thumped into the ground in front of Sefra, a broad sheet of titanium alloy spread out to either side, it was the biggest hammer he had and it acted as a pretty good shield to cower behind as the demonic shadowflame broke around it like a wave smashing into a reef.

It was hot, uncomfortable but Sefra didn't let the rush of fire delay him, with a herculean effort he curled his wind powers inwards and sent the remaining hammers flying toward where the demon had been standing. Wind pushed through the flames, causing it to spike in every direction and with a roar Sefra bounded forwards, dodging, rolling through gaps his wind was purging in the demon's shadowy attack. The flames flickered, curled and roared all around him as he dived across the floor and he yelled in pain as his bob-tail caught fire! Beating at it to put out the flames Sefra cursed before sliding to a halt and spun around, bringing his hands together, causing a massive rush of air to blow the last of the amber flames back at Tsochan. The demon was half heartedly doging the hammers as he continued to direct the flame but dropped all the fire as Sefra deflected it and slammed his curled fist into the head of one of the hammer's shattering it.

Sefra unleashed a series of folding barrages with the remaining two hammers then leapt and landed on the haft of the shield hammer. His wind powers picked it up, forcing it toward the demon and Sefra leapt of the haft as Tsochan turned and roared at the massive sheet of titanium hammer shield. Curving over the demon's horns Sefra grabbed one of them with his free hand, twisted his body around to land on Tsochan's shoulders and slapped the collar he had retrieved from Marcos around the demon's neck.

The response was instantaneous, the demon screamed and fell forwards and Sefra went rolling off his shoulders, landing in a heap as his hammers came slamming down all around them. Jerking upright Sefra rolled over and looked back at the demon, red light was flaring out around his neck as he scrabbled at the collar. He couldn't seem to get his claws under it and as Sefra watched the demon was shrinking, shedding bulk and mass, reducing in size and stature.

Looking around the large flagstone chamber Sefra noted Quinten walking over, supporting a shaky, unsteady Marcos and accompanied by the fluidic shapes of his familiars. The air was still, everything was quiet except for the distressed whine coming from Tsochan as he continued to shrink. The bestial, demonic ferret was gone, he was continuing to shrink, to deflate, to collapse in on himself. Assuming a feral posture he arched his back, hair receding, whiskers spreading out, ferret mask growing prominent across his face as he shrank and twisted and changed. He was a ferret, the small, domesticated animal wearing a black collar covered in red runes. He staggered toward Sefra and coughed, shaking his head and clawing at his throat with one fore-paw before spitting up a black metal ring that rolled over to the rabbit.

Picking up the ring and his new demon pet Sefra's muzzle split into a grin as he turned to look at his companions, "We did it, we actually did it! He... we won!"

~fin