is a hope and a prayer.

Alex didn't take his eyes off the thronging mob before him, so he had no idea what was happening behind him.

Whatever it was Demon remained focused on her desire to unleash her full power as the demon sphinx she could become for short periods of time when Alex released his own self imposed restrictions on her access to the demonic energies inside him. The release didn't affect him physically, but it was absolute hell on his mind. Hallucinations, imaginary voices of the people he'd slain cursing him, the physical feeling of a thousand insects crawling under his skin, none of these were pleasant to him, but the payoff was the practical dark goddess to did the fighting for him. The great demon Xendromus was thing of nightmares before Alex defeated her, and she had ages of combat knowledge and practice that he simply couldn't match on his own, even at the height of his heroic glory he needed a full heroic party and even then only barely defeated her...but the nightmares in his mind and the loss of his own control were always too much of a price. No, until he knew it was hopeless without her he would keep her as his last resort, should he die the conduit of power would be open to her anyways until he regained consciousness.

"What are you doing moron?" Demon cried.

The outburst caught Alex's attention enough to glance over he shoulder in time to see a thick liquid spray, before turning back to the problem at hand.

Whatever Raven had done caught the attention of the goblins too. And Alex followed their gaze to see a red specter drifting towards the ground over his head. He blinked a few times trying to comprehend what was happening.

(Oh right,) Alex realized, (Raven is a Chaos Priest.)

(He just sliced his hand open!)

(He summoned a blood wraith.)

(Oh.) Demon mused, (blood magic isn't my specialty.)

(Mine neither.)

(Is it just me or do the goblins seem docile now?)

Alex stared at the specter that hovered between him and the goblin hoard, it wasn't attacking and neither we they. Like some form of mostly silent conversation.

"What exactly am I seeing, human?"

"It worked," Raven was struck by the absolute change of mood among the goblins too, "The Avatar calls Goblins 'Little Brothers' so I thought maybe they'd have some reaction to a ritual only the priest of Chaos know."

"You can summon a bound soul?"

"Several in fact. Some of the finest warriors I've met who stood between me and a target of Sakhmet are now servants of mine in ****."

Alex coughed, "If it's all the same to you both, I'd like to be out of here now."

Raven chuckled awkwardly, "Oh yes, let's not leave you down there when the wraith fades."

Alex climbed the lowered rope with the haste of a man feeling the cold hand of **** in the air, and drew the rope up after himself with a similar speed, not bothering to put it away before he shouldered his pack and started back towards the outside world away from the silent hoard of homicidal humanoids. "How long does the wraith last?" Alex asked as they were retreating.

"Depends," Raven replied bringing up the rear of their formation, "Depends on how much blood it has to sustain itself. It can fight and kill indefinitely so long as it has access to fresh blood, after an hour the blood becomes weak and the wraith starts to fade even in a sea of blood though. Normally a few minutes with a the blood I give it to cast the spell."

"So it should be fading soon if it's not already gone?" Demon asked, not having revered to the size and form of a cat yet she was now sporting a dagger and the torch so Alex could work on coiling the rope for storage.

"Probably is already gone." Raven was straining to hear if the Goblins were giving any sort of chase yet.

"They haven't moved yet, they're all just standing in the dark staring where the Blood Wraith is, or was."

"That's a very fascinating reaction though."

"I wouldn't recommend doing that with a caravan," Demon countered, "They're likely to view you with more fear than the goblins."

"Almost certainly." Alex added.

"Out of curiosity," Raven asked, "What were your plans?"

"Alex was going to kill them the hard way until his arms dropped from exhaustion."

When Alex didn't disagree Raven asked Demon, "And you're plan?"

"I was going to drop down and dominate their feeble minds. Then put them to work cleaning out that cave."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because goblins are faster diggers than dwarves are, not as good at making things, but really good at making big rocks and cavern walls into small rocks. Might still do that if we come back."

"Goblins can't swim, they'll drown in the lake." Alex pointed out.

"And the problem with that is?"

"You're a lousy goddess."

"Those who don't worship me should fear me."

Raven winced, "Gods have mercy. No wonder he calls you Demon."