The other two groups of human fighters felt something strange happened to their memories and minds - they seemed to have forgotten something, but they could not even begin to grasp what they forgot. There seemed to them to have always been two groups surrounding the crater, and the one corner where there was a big area where there were no humans nor Defilers seemed just like an occurrence of random events.

The forces of elementals joined in the fight just at the right time, when all of the Defilers were just either severely hindered in their actions or plain paralyzed, and the humans and majority of the creatures from the gaps in various states of fatigue and tiredness and in need of much time and room to rest, heal and regroup.

“Same thing happened again - we need to figure out why.” Glenda Grimes looked around as some of the other mages and wizards she and others from Josephine Wong’s team covered for take turn to cover for her: “I don’t like this - ”

“Look at the battlefield - there’s something quite unnatural about the formation.” Professor Barnes was being healed by two healers behind him while he backed off from the front lines for now and let the elemental forces clean up the remainder of the Defilers in front of them: “Look at that area - there’s no way we wouldn’t have another center of defense in that position, we’re trying to stop the Defilers from breaking free from this realm, and not having a group of forces there would not make sense at all. And - if we didn’t have forces there, why wouldn’t there be Defilers? I’d be swarming that angle.”

“Does anyone remember who or what created the barrier on the outer layer of this realm?” Professor Dorothea Clarkson panted as she asked, while also receiving aid from the healers: “I was just wondering how long can the barrier hold - if we were not to make it. But no, it seems that this information is hidden from us, by someone or something. I tried, but I just can’t seem to find out anything about it.”

“Then just save a little energy for what we’re doing.” Josephine Wong shook her head as she drank from her flask and directed some healers coming her way to other fighters in need: “At the end of the day, slaying as many Defilers here as possible would go a long way in sealing the tear and save a lot of lives.”

Professor Dorothea Clarkson stared at Josephine Wong for a brief moment, then sighed: “I guess you’re right. But I am finding everything out about this when we make it outta here.”

More Defilers were still coming out from the dark orb, all of whom still had the similar ailments on them, though after a while, the elementals, along with the humans, began to notice that the effects of these suppressive effects were starting to fade.

“Josephine, Dorothea, Bruj, tell your folks to ready whatever’s left in your quivers.” The voice of Paulo Chang, no in the shape of a giant whose body was made of lightning energy: “Whatever’s got them like this won’t hold for long, so you better give everything you’ve got!”

“We’ve already given a lot.” Lady Ryleen’s voice was calm and collected, but anyone could sense her fury: “Many of us could be here giving their all if the battle did not go as it went.”

“They attacked our home!” A Fog Dweller with broken wings answered Lady’ Ryleen with a stern tone: “There were still those that escaped. And they had all the fury in the world to unleash onto our people, especially our cherished springs and temples.”

—-----------------------

The collapse of the portal in the air was sudden and clearly involuntary judging by the messy remnants of energy shards and disturbed energy fields, yet both Jason and Caroline couldn’t help but feel that they just prevented something horrible from happening.

The remaining body parts of the bat creature on the ground gradually dried up and turned into ashes and grains of broken stone and sand.

Zack Dooms stared into Caroline’s eyes for about half a minute, while Laura readied one attack spell on her right hand and a defense spell on her left to cover for Aimee and Thomas, while slowly getting to the position of Caroline and Jason.

“Who - what was that?” Zack Dooms let out a long sigh and asked.

“Hoztang, a fallen god.” Jason said, this time he did not sense any feelings of distress or horror from uttering the name: “I don’t know what your Night Lord is, but I’d imagine it’s also a god of some kind? Seems like an awful lot of bad things happening around here have something to do with fallen gods.”

“Night Lord did not fall, he’s merely asleep.” A wounded male lycan with a broken arm said: “He awaits us in his slumber and he will come to us when we’re ready and worthy.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Jason shrugged. This almost made some of the lycans lash out and lunge at him, but they were stopped by Zack Dooms.

“And I suppose, all of the sites of sacrifice and offering, you have them for this Night Lord of yours?” Caroline shook her head and asked.

“It is both our glorious tradition and our duty to honor the Night Lord, with offerings of flesh, blood, even souls.” Zack Dooms said: “I wouldn’t expect day dwellers like you to understand.”

“Surely we don’t.” Thomas scoffed.

“But I do understand that even humans have their sacred beliefs, and places of worship for those beliefs.” Zack Dooms shook his head: “And as an extended courtesy by principle, we would like you to leave - because this place is ours. We are not afraid to defend it even with our lives. But as the leader of this faction, I want no more bloodshed.”

Caroline looked around and exchanged looks with Jason, Laura, Thomas and Aimee, all of whom seemed to be willing to delegate their decision to her, so she looked at Zack Dooms and nodded: “Fine. We’ll be outta here. But know this - if we find you targeting humans, we’ll come for you.”