The hedgerow maze, despite having the pretence of being outside, was somehow even more oppressive than the walls of the interior dungeons.  The thickening shrubbery and bushes all neatly lined up throughout some indeterminate labyrinthine path, had given the large group more trepidation than hope at reaching closer to their target.  At this current time, they did not even know their true target, other than to escape.
The maze of shrubbery was also not entirely safe, for a variety of terrible insects of gargantuan size crawled through every area.  Spiders had returned to harass the group once more, but like always, they were killed rather quickly by the attacking force of James, Monty, Alestes and Sophelie.  Quicker than before even what with their now-growing magical prowess returning to them.  Flies now bothered them with venomous teeth and buggy eyes.  Ants were also here, which were like a tougher variant of the spiders.
Not only were the ants more durable with a tougher carapace, but they also organised themselves better as a small army whenever more than one appeared.  Scuttling towards them with little shrieks almost out of their hearing range, they charged ahead and tried to overswarm the group.  James found himself toppled over by one bullrushing ant, which lied on top of him and tried to chew at his throat with its pincered mouth.  But with a good shot of fire to its eyes, he forced it off of him before skewering it with his scissors.
Thankfully, none of the remaining lemming captives met their end within the hedgerow maze, due to the ease of facing against the large insect enemies.  All in all, it was more or less a relief for them compared to the terrible catacombs of before.  The conduits within the maze were of a far more unusual design, glowing natural fountains formed from rock and mutated plant matter like a grasping grey hand.  Within each fountain, tied to the journal entry that acted as its control source, was a glowing green gemstone.

	"What's this?" asked James.
	"Well this is unusual," said Alestes.  "Some sort of crystallised...energy, not like any gemstone I have encountered."
	"I'm gonna take one of these things after you correct Mister Meenie's school report."
When done, James took the glowing smooth gem and pocketed it alongside his two sigil stones.  He was tempted to get another one by how shiny they looked, and soon he did when they reached the next floor of the hedgerow maze.  They weren't even sure if they were going up, down or even straight ahead, but the enemies were no match for them as they began to relax within the maze.  The raptor was now starting to worry about how much he could carry in his satchel, which was starting to turn a little on the heavy side.
The enemies did not turn anymore difficult even after reaching the final area of the surprisingly easy maze.  But they would soon meet the strongest foe of the arboreal labyrinth.  Standing within a large central area of the labyrinth of green, was a gnarled deadened oak.  Trees had been a common sight, small ones barely taller than FG which grew within the more spaced-out regions of the garden.  But this one was the first they had seen actually dead.  They curiously stepped up to it, gauging with caution.
	"Why is it only this one that's like this?" asked FG.
	"Who knows," said Monty, "mebbe it wuz 'is first an' he messed up."
	"No," said Alestes, "I don't think Meen is the sort of person to have the love and patience to do gardening.  All of these plants are magically-formed, but this one is dead for a reason.  A warning perhaps?"
	"Of whut?"
	"That beyond this region lies his castle."
Indeed, they could all see the overbearing towering shadow of Meen's home for himself, a classically gothic castle that brought imagery of vampires and demons to James' mind.  Suddenly, he started to miss Koopin all the more, remembering fondly of such a scene back when it had been behind a glass TV screen.  As they looked towards it with trepidation, the remaining lemmings of 113 all looking around curiously, a voice screeched from behind them, making them all jump.
	"WELLL WELL WWWWEEEELLLL!"
James turned with his friends ready to fight, seeing Meen's apparition had formed coolly upon the firm soil.
	"Oh look," said the raptor, "a weed.  Good thing I got just the right tool to cut this prick out the ground."
	"Is that the best you can do, you cretin!?"
	"Okay first of all, it's cree-tin.  If you're gonna threaten me, do it properly."
	"DO NOT CORRECT ME," roared Meen furiously, "I HAVE THREE DICTIONARIES AND A THESAURUS RIGHT HERE!"
	"Then look up in your DICK-tionary and look up CREE-tin you fucking dumbass."
	"You have NO RIGHT to tell ME how to pronounce PROPERLY!"
	"What, you afraid of being proved wrong, mister fanfic writer?  Come on, we've seen your fucking grammar ALL OVER the damn place, even I could write better than that and I didn't even finish high school!"
	"I AM NEVER WRONG!  Do you really think you can even TRY to reach my castle?!"
	"We can practically see it," said Sophelie coldly, "you have nowhere to run you monster."
	"Neither do YOU, my precious little scullery maid of the gods."
	"How DARE you address my lady as such!" roared Alestes defensively.  "For a man of such learned potential, you cannot even have the DIGNITY to learn MANNERS!?"
	"Oooooh how daaaaarling," mocked Meen, "you're sticking up for your girlfriend are you?!"
	"I, unlike you, cannot withstand such insult to those fairer than you ever shall be.  Now tell us what you want, or begone!"
	"I want you all to go BACK to your cells you wretched little souls!  Is that REALLY so much to ask?!"
	"It is."

Arino said this as he walked forwards with a more steel-eyed determination than before, his confidence on the rise.
	"I will not cower beneath you anymore, warlock."
	"WARLOCK!?  ...do you realise what you just called me?!"
	"I know well enough what you are."
	"Of course you do, but do your friends know what YOU are?"
The former chief of the lemmings looked rather nervous for a second, before he stood up tall and demanded:
	"Release my tribe now, and we shall part our separate ways!  We do not need to suffer anymore bloodshed."
	"The only thing I've been shedding of late is my SWEAT at watching you pathetic little worms crawl around in my garden!  And for your insolence, you shall now suffer from the claws of my pet where you shall go no further!  An old friend of ours you may say!  COME FORTH, GNORLED OAK VEGEMEEN I COMMAND YOU!"
With an incandescent weaving of a spell from afar, he fired straight towards the twisted deadened oak, which began to twitch and stutter back into life.  Its greenery did not return, but its branch limbs certainly grew, spindling into wretched-looking claws that desired to tear into any fair maiden's heart.  A face began to form from the centre of the oak, half-twisted by time and dark magic forces.  Meen cackled as he watched the tree grow further and further.
	"Well I'd love to watch you all suffer, but I have an appointment to make, at my local BRANCH!  HWAAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAAAA!"
With a sickening cackle, he spun away into a dark stormy cloud despite being but an apparition, as the group now faced against the reanimated tree.  It was certainly a large oak, and only further growing by the influence of Meen's magic.  Its roots popped out from their foundation, slowly crawling like thick worms across the soil towards them.  As horrifying as it was, with a face somewhat resembling a gnome having gone through some wretched metamorphosis, it was also incredibly slow.
	"This thing won't be a problem!" said FG cockily, "can't even run at us for fuck's sake!"
	"Do not underestimate your opponent!" cried Sophelie, "Meen's trickery knows no bounds!"

Taking this advice well, he kept away from the huge tree as it swung with agonising limbs, surprisingly fast strikes for such a large thing but easily deflected despite the reach of the branches.  Monty was more concerned about protecting the Lemmings, making sure that this time none of them ran off into the face of danger.  He also knew that he wasn't going to try to attack a dead reanimated oak with such vicious branches.  Its claws were sharp enough to slash straight through the other small trees, like a samurai sword through butter.
With this caution in mind, FG, Sophelie and Alestes fired a volley of magic straight towards it.  A burning sea of fire soon rose within the area, as Sophelie's magic circle of the six-pointed star solidified their fortitude, with James utilising it into a massive pillar of flames.  Roaring as he centered himself within the circle with a single swing of his nano-channelling blades, he burned the tree harshly, striking deep into its bark and trying to split it open with the drying of cracked oak.
Alestes in turn tried to shimmer his eyes into the face of the tree, but this time it did not affect it.  In revenge, the Vegemeen swung out at him and tried to slash him, scratching one of his legs and making him flap clumsily before he shot out a streaking sea of flames.  In revenge, he combined an attack with Sophelie that they had both learnt from furthering their magic potential.  Sophelie created another circle, this time of a blood-red pentagram that tore through the deadened oak with unholy power, combined with Alestes' own deep-burning fire as the two cried:
	"BLOOD RITUAL!"
James smirked at the fact Sophelie was always so eager to cry out her attacks, as well as how surprisingly well Alestes was able to synchronise with her.  But knowing that naming one's attacks always helped the mind set itself in knowing WHAT attack to use, magically that is, he could not argue as he charged forwards.  With a psychotic spinning fire attack, his blades streaked in flames as they scraped across hardened bark, further scarring it all the more.  He did not have a name for it, but someday he would.
Despite the apparent slow speed of the Vegemeen's movements, it managed to keep everyone away with brutal swings, striking with deadly blows as it tore through the soil beneath it.  Trying to evade it always, they soon found a whole new attack in the form of it shooting out fatal shards of wooden splinters, as thick as daggers trying to pin them down.  James guarded himself, but one of them tore across his knee and he stumbled hard in pain.
Sophelie swiftly flapped to his aid, shielding him with her magic as she tried to heal him at the same time.  The raptor winced as blood trickled down his leg, but it wasn't a grievous injury.  Just enough to slow him down, which he hated immensely.  Alestes kept the oaken beast distracted by flapping his wings of both fire and water straight down onto it, shrieking an infernal cry of echo-location, which had now turned stronger in regaining his magic.

It was practically strong enough that it could even be seen by this point, a solid wave of sound piercing through the bark and shattering through the splintered wood.  The confused state of the monster was perfect for FG to charge straight in for the killing blow.  But Monty had gotten sick of this creature's troubling them, and had charged ahead past the limping raptor in order to deliver his own justice.  With earth-tearing claws, he ravaged through the weakening wood with savage strength, tearing apart at the very roots until it fell at last.
	"TIMBERRRRR!" roared Monty with success.
The Vegemeen fell with a solid thud, a strange groan coming from it as the group smiled to each other.  James was soon healed up, but he still limped slightly as they investigated the oaken body.  They were also incredibly happy at the fact that not one single lemming had been lost among the hedgerows.  The tree started to groan, weakly in its dying form as it coughed and shook with dusty breaths, while Monty grinned at his feat.
	"That's whut ah call a good prunin' righ' lads?"
	"Well...done."
	"Righ', thought as much tha-wait, whut, who said that?"
They all heard the strange raspy voice coming from behind Monty, as they all cautiously approached.  Arino had also come near along with Twinsen who constantly shook all over.  The Vegemeen's wooden lips, twisted within the bark, had started to move with a more coherent form.
	"You have...f-freed me...of Meen's power.  Now I can...finally control myself again."
	"...fuck it TALKS!?" said FG.
	"Only when Meen's magic does not silence me...hhhhh....u-ugh...you have fought well to come this far."
	"Wh-who ARE you?"
	"I am...a friend...of all of you.  I've watched Meen capture one after another of those like you.  Vagrants...vagabonds...outcasts.  Relics of an old forgotten time...even newcomers such as you are no longer safe.  Even after all I did to stop Meen, to keep him away I could do nothing against him."
	"...Gnorris?"
Alestes' curious eyes of disdain looked further towards the twisted face, the others gasping with a rise of awe and horror.  The Vegemeen could only smile and cough.
	"You do know me...I am so glad that you had not forgotten me, even after all those years you would still use my old network."
	"We could never forget you dear friend," said Sophelie softly.  "But...wh-what has happened to you?!"
	"Meen punished me for my treason...I challenged him, fought him here in this very maze where I now stood, and have stood for so many years.  He thought he was just executing a pathetic little gnome who got too big for his boots.  But all he did...was seal his fate to be given to him one day."
	"Wait," said FG, "I remember your letter way back, back on one of those conduits, you dared him to a fight!"
	"Yes...hehe...as you can see, I lost...badly.  But I knew I would not win."
	"Wh-why?!  Why did you do it then?!"
	"Because I needed to find a way to hide the one thing that could destroy him.  The one thing I knew that could end his reign.  I knew that it would end in my death...but I had to.  I could not let all of you suffer beneath him."

His words reached out to them, as Monty gently wiped a tear from his eyes as discreetly as he could.  But Gnorris had noted it, and asked softly:
	"You...Monty."
	"Y-yeah...whut?"
	"Your claws...so powerful they could just tear the very earth beneath us.  I need to ask you one favour."
	"Whussat um...Gn-Gnorris?"
	"Inside this tree, that I now inhabit as my body...there is a special wand...one that will undo Meen's work.  Please...tear me open...and retrieve it."
	"Wh-whut?!  N-naw, no way mate a-a-ah couldn' do that!  Not after all you done fer us, ah-"
	"Please...my last request.  The only reason I became this form, this punishment was to keep it safe from Meen, in a place where he would never look.  Please..."
After what felt like a few minutes of nervous silent debate, Monty shivered with the horrible feeling of preparing the worst thing he could do with his claws.  He cautiously walked forwards, carefully dug his claws into the small chasm of wood above the chest area of the trunk.
	"But...b-but...this don' feel righ' Gnorris...after all you done fer us, you...really want this?"
	"If I could nod...I would.  If you do this...then I would have done this all over again just to be sure that you obtain this."
Squinting his eyes hard, Monty began to slowly tear open the central bark, ripping the oak with a vile crackling sound, as if it were the splintering of bone shattering within limbs.  Gnorris cried out weakly, knowing this pain had been a long time coming, wincing and wishing that he could weep tears of agony.  Inside the oak, which was surprisingly hollow but for a few disturbingly well-carved organs that had once been his own, was an elaborate-looking wand.  Grey, of a dull ornate silver with a large purple sphere set upon the top.
	"Wha-...what is this?" asked Sophelie.
	"That, my friends...i-is the wand...of Gamelon.  It...when...used with...the book...th-the book...s-stop...Meen."
With his former master's name upon his lips, the cursed dying form of Gnorris soon spoke no more, as its body soon began to harden and splinter even moreso with age.  Age that had been long delayed by some magic spell, now no longer upon him in the event of death.  The tree withered and greyed to a broken log, limbs falling off like brittle twigs as the face of Gnorris began to recede into the wood.  A worthless tree trunk now laid before them, the creatures mourning silently for their fallen friend.  Even the lemmings who were blind knew of his name.
James joined them out of respect, leaving a minute of silence to be given for the one who had assisted them so dearly.  Monty held the strange wand in his hands, before handing it over to Arino and Twinsen.
	"You two know whut to make of this?"
	"Yes," said Twinsen automatically.  "We start at Aru Ainu, but ours deep underground, no, we cannot reach Sakado, we must wander through the castle, the castle high above us within Tykogi Tower.  We...yes.  Book, I need book, where is the book Jacob?"
	"James?" asked Arino.
The raptor swiftly handed Twinsen the book before he began to read through the pages, flickering with fascination as his words turned jumbled.
	"Faces of evil combined with the king's cousin, cowardly stupid, Meen is not stupid, but vain enough to be so.  Must combine the two powers together, the unholy force that shall end him, blessed by the ent's gift."
Monty's eyes widened with disbelief, as James pocketed both wand and book into his ever-widening satchel.  He was forced to remove the glowing green stones he had taken from the maze's conduits in order to make room.
	"...so the ent wuz...hohhh...you couldn't 'ave known that."
	"My eye sees too far, to carry the weight of both.  ...I am tired...we descend deeper into hell, yet we rise up further towards his lair, the dragon's lair where he awaits."
	"Righ'...let's go, we gotta do this together now."
They all nodded with resolution as they passed through the last rows of the hedgerow maze, opening the large wooden gate that would soon lead them towards the castle itself.  The dark looming shadow of the towering lair was already intimidating to all but four of them.

Entering the castle as if by magic, the transition between outside and inside had turned strangely subliminal to the point of none of them remembering.  The cold air that greeted them went through their very bones, as beautiful red carpet meshed against solid stone walls and stately gothic tinted windows, latticed in elaborate arching styles.  Strangely, the place still retained the same layout as every other place they had been through.  A maze.  A maze of neverending corridors and infinite turns.  Meen's face stared down unto them every few yards from stone walls.
The dark-lit candelabras offered little comfort to the treacherous paths ahead, the darkness more intentional than anything else.  Even the cold windowlight did nothing to shrink back the shadows away, as the large but mostly timid group started to walk cautiously.  Their steps shuffled upon carpet, echoed upon stone, hands rubbing against cold cold walls to the point they would flinch back from surprise.  The castle interior however was not terrifying for this reason alone.  They had already seen similar-enough places before.
What terrified them more, was the bloodied trail of corpses that laid all across the hallways.
Most of them were just rudimentary guards or the quintessential gothic-living bat now torn apart and strewn across the hallways from end to end.  But others, such as the griffins and the ghosts they had encountered long back in the dungeon levels, were of a far more horrifying fate.  The griffins did not even get the chance to become stone, simply ripped into petrified sinew and stone-cold gutted entrails.  Ghosts were somehow reduced into bloody pustules of ectoplasmic ooze, and James only knew this due to Alestes pointing out such.
Every turn they made, every stretch of corridor they could access, was another long long hallway of utter death and destruction.  The blind lemmings knew from the smell in the air of such things, as they shook and shivered to themselves, with Monty and Arino working together to calm them down.
	"Who could have done all this?" asked Sophelie.  "Surely not Meen?"
	"Even one so mad as him," replied Alestes, "would not eradicate so many of his own minions.  It doesn't make sense."
	"I don't think Meen did this," said FG.  "Meen's all about magic and fucking with people's heads, these guys were...well, ripped to pieces, I mean that's just not his style."
	"How would you know the limits of his depravity?"
	"Because if he was a guy who really wanted to get in and personal, he would have done that with the lemmings instead of ordering them to their death like nothing.  No, this has to be someone else."
	"Perhaps we should inspect some of these."

Cautiously examining some of the more clean kills, or at least any bodies that remained wholly intact, James, Alestes and Sophelie began to see that indeed this was a much more physical attack than they expected.  Huge deep gashes within the victim's bodies, cut deep enough that the unluckier victims were given a huge chasm of agony within their very hearts, rent asunder by some unknown force.
	"This must have been a powerful warrior," said Sophelie.
	"Doesn't look like a sword though," said FG, "way too deep to carve through.  A sword would slash at one edge and scar deeper as it went across, not like this.  This just goes right into the middle full-swing, had to be something shorter, sharper and more powerful."
	"Indeed, this looks more like some sort of...axe maybe?"
	"...yeah.  Yeah that sounds about right, an axe.  Anyone we know like that?"
	"Not on this level no," said Alestes.  "Come, let us rejoin our friends and leave this dreadful place."
They soon found the conduits of the castle area, totem poles with the faces of strange monsters such as a sphinx, a giant with armour or even a crystallised dragon.  The conduit itself seemed to be powered by gears, turning constantly with each other as the totem poles changed faces, slowly rotating their cuboid features.  The machine had also been heavily scarred, but no damage had been made, seemingly invincible against any and all forms of attack.  Alestes once again decoded the grammatical lock in the form of a diary entry.
The machine instantly began to shut down, the totem slowing down its turning before fully stopping at last, as well as the large gears around it.  The second floor was just as devoid of enemies, or rather living enemies considering they were all completely torn to shreds.  The conduit on the second floor however, had a very unique entry, not from Meen's diary but from one of his apparent lackeys.

Record Log, 19.85
We've managed to successfully merge our first trans-dimensional warrior!  A fine brutish oaf whose ferocity makes up for his intelligence, prisoner 6195 has proving himself to be a strong enough beast to withstand our experiments.  Through the many different mineralistic properties that our glorious leader has obtained in his travels, I've managed to imbue some sort of almighty power to our newest subject.  He will make a fine new pet for our leader Meen.
I should warn Meen though that he has some "primary imbalance" which may be injurious to our health.  Namely in the form of lacking any mental capacity anymore other than pure rage, inability to articulate beyond his own language and whatnot.  Typical of his kind.  It took a lot of magic-melding as I call it, but it worked.  None of the research that Meen has obtained has truly worked at all, it took a lot of ingenuity on our part truly to create something.
Our main problem was that, whatever Meen had obtained from other worlds, they did not truly work outside of their world apart from one or two exceptions.  Those strange glowing spheres we use to power the conduits in the hedgerow maze for starters were fantastic for empowering our subject.  Even if they do somehow stunt his actual physical traits in place of a more mentally-powered art of magic, as it were.  But that won't matter, he's such a beast that it will matter little to him a little transcendental amyotrophy.

Dr. Frank

	"Wait, what experiments?" said FG.  "They were doing experiments too?!"
	"I am not surprised," said Alestes.  "A creature like Meen would wish to try and perfect creations greater than what he believes us to be, where else did you think he obtained his pets that we fought?"
	"...uh...he's a wizard?"
	"True.  But even wizards must experiment."
	"He's not a wizard," said Arino, "he is a liar and a monster.  We will see what experiments he has and make sure none of them remain."
	"Right," said FG.  "Let's keep going...wait what's that?"
Another piece of graffiti laid scrawled upon the wall behind the conduit, flickering between the turning gears that soon finally stopped.  It read:

MONSTERS CANNOT BE REASONED WITH
REGARDLESS OF WHO THEY WERE
THE MORE BREATH YOU WASTE
THE MORE LIFE HE SHALL TAKE

	"Who the hell's writing these?" asked the raptor.
	"I do not know," said Sophelie, "but it is clearly a warning from a fellow prisoner.  We should take heed of it in the back of our minds."
	"Good idea.  Alright let's head up to the next floor."
The 113 lemmings, plus four intrepid creatures of other worlds, walked onwards to the third floor, to find yet another series of blood-festooned passageways.  Windows remained unbroken, though someone had clearly tried to from the small cracks and crushed skulls that laid beneath the windows themselves.  Hallways remained dark, bodies remained unmourned of guards and monsters lying wretchedly upon red carpet.
As they finally reached the fourth floor of the castle hallways, the sounds of wretched screams came from beyond the darkness, leading them towards the laboratory's entrance.  They knew by the sight of its shining silver mechanical gateway that this was to be their next destination, but what worried them more was the small platoon of Meen's guards being massacred by a great hulking beast.  A human beast, dressed as a viking whose roars shattered the very fabric of the stone walls around them.
The battlefield of Meen's deadened garrison was a large grey hall of pillars, leading towards the laboratory itself.  The griffins and ghosts that remained were no match for this dreaded monster, garbed in thick-furred armour while wielding a tremendous axe that carved through their very souls.  A golden shield, now tarnished with blood and misery, was being used to crack griffins' beaks, before the almighty blade of his axe came down upon their heads.  Skulls would crack, screeches were silenced, as bone turned into crumbling stone beneath the boots of this muscular human.

Even the spirits could not resist the almighty vengeance of this creature, his axe carving through them like they were made of flesh itself.  Torn asunder by furious hacks and slashes with the double-bladed axe, until not a single breath remained within the halls.  Soon the nordic warrior took aim towards the silver door and roared with bloodthirsty fury, charging his horned head straight into the door and bending it inwards with a huge crumpled dent.  Once more he would slam into it, then again and again before it could finally last no more.
The door screamed an unearthly screech, of metal grinding against their will before the viking's psychotic strength, his axe carving through like a knife unto fabric.  The door laid open, and soon he was content.  The prisoners cautiously tried to back away, with Monty murmuring:
	"Get thuh lemmings back, don' wan' anymore casualties."
	"Hmmm?"
The creature turned at hearing Monty's words, his face revealed at last.  A thick grey beard soaked in the blood of many, blackening ichor that dripped with every utterance of his grave raspy throat of ancient languages.
	"Hverr sem?  Hvat vesall kvikindi...ykkar pola...aerit."
	"Thuh bloody 'ell is 'e sayin'?!" asked Monty.
	"S-stay back," said FG, "I...this is some weird language he's murmuring, lemme hear more of it so I can figure it out."
	"It appears to be Old Norse," said Alestes quietly.  "Be wary of him, he seems addled."
	"HMM!?"
The bloodied viking looked up as his words finally came through to FG.
	"...Saxons?!  So they do exist here.  I can smell the blood of them within your veins...except for her."
He pointed his axe towards Sophelie, looking away from her as he focused on James, Alestes and Monty.  James, being the only one somehow able to translate his words, tried saying back to him:
	"Hey look, we just want to deal with Meen.  You're a prisoner right?"
	"NOT prisoner," murmured the viking half-consciously, "...not anymore...must complete my quest...Britain must fall."
	"W-wait, Britain?!  The hell you talking about Britain for?!"
	"You...hmmm...you are special.  Your blood is not of Saxony.  The blood of the Celts runs in you lizard.  The mole and the owl, their blood sickens me."
	"Wait, Celts?!  The fuck is he talking about, what does he mean blood of the Celts in me?!"
	"He must refer to your Scottish ancestry," said Alestes.
	"...Scottish?  But, I was born in London, that makes no sense."
	"Your blood does not lie to me, Celt.  Wherever you were born, your history stretches behind you...and so shall the path to ruin when I tear the British Isles with my own hands."
	"Woah woah woah, there's no need for that shit!  You got a problem with British or something?!"
	"MY QUEST!  I must avenge my homeland...I must tear apart Britain, by its very roots from the crown to kingdom come, of which I shall take when I become their king.  The Gaul, she has no part in this, and neither do you, Celt."
	"If you're looking to fight my friends for whatever reason, then you are NOT getting past me!  We're all prisoners here, come on, let's help each other out for fuck's sake!  I don't care what your quest is, Meen is a much bigger problem than any of us!"
	"YOU DARE INSULT ME CELT?!  YOU STAND IN MY WAY!?!  I...AM THE BLOODAXE!  IF YOU SO WISH TO STAND BESIDE THESE WRETCHED SAXONS THEN SO BE IT!  YOUR GRAVE SHALL BE MARKED WITH THEM!"

With one furious charge, he stormed towards the four prisoners before slamming his axe down diagonally unto them.  The birds could easily fly away, but James and Monty dodged in opposite directions ready to fight.  James drew his scissors and immediately began to slash straight for the viking's waist, scraping across his side but barely penetrating the thick-furred cloak.  Monty in turn was more nervous for trying to take this fiend head on, despite being more quick than the Bloodaxe was.
Keeping him distracted, both raptor and mole moved constantly as he swung with furious speed, his axe absurdly fast for something so heavy, muscles taut beneath his gristly Nordic skin.  Alestes and Sophelie kept out of reach easily so as they assaulted their foe with infernal combinings of magic.  Blood Ritual, their demonic fire attack, did nothing to affect the beastly viking, who simply hurled his axe towards Alestes in a desperate attempt to cut him in half.  Luckily the owl dodged as the axe impaled itself into the wall deep.
The Bloodaxe however was not harmless without his weapon, as James rushed in to try and skewer him through the less-protected chest.  The viking however simply slammed his fist straight into James' snout cracking it hard and forcing him backwards into a stumbling fall.  His scissors instead managed to scrape the leg, which did nothing to deter the furious human.  Monty came charging in from the other side, swinging his huge claws and striking across the face of the bloodaxe.  The second time he tried to slash however, a shield deterred him.
Earthen claws scraped shriekingly across the gold-plated well-honed shield, causing him to slip and forcefully back off before he received a huge fist to his face.  The viking took his chance, and leapt onto the wall to reobtain his axe, wrenching it forcefully from the stone with little effort before swinging down hard upon the mole.  But before his axe came cleaving down onto the soft-furred head, a sudden explosion of hard colours clanged viciously before the axe.  James had rushed to Monty's side just in time to set up his own shield.
Multicoloured blocks had suddenly sprouted from James' wrist, covering Monty's head with various holes among the small euclidean structures.  The blades of the bloody axe could not break through, the blocks only allowing the blood of former enemies to drip onto Monty's head beneath them.  James swiftly thrust upwards with his other hand, the scissors striking deep into the viking's chest.

A roar of anger came from the Bloodaxe, as the blades pierced truly into his stomach, but he remained undeterred.  Swinging his axe in a semi-circle, he clashed against FG and began to focus his assault on him, striking in diagonal swings both downwards and upwards.  As strong as James' guard was, the brute force of the nordic warrior was impossibly strong, and he soon found himself faltering with a weakening grip.  He dodged the last swing, straight behind a pillar in an attempt to gain some space.  But the pillar did not resist, as the axe sweeped through its stone like paper.
The crumbling stones fell onto both of them, the raptor dodging back hard and shielding his head with the scissors.  The Bloodaxe's helmet, horned and impenetrable, was enough of a guard for the broken mortar to not affect him.  Sophelie delayed his advance with a striking light, summoning a rising wave of water that burst forth from her wings, and tore through the hall to crash into the opposite wall.  Another pillar could not resist the brunt of the force, and soon also came tumbling down.  Monty was starting to get worried by this.
The viking however kept him distracted from the prospect of coming death, as a ferocious axe came spinning towards him and forced him to dodge.  Just as planned, the Bloodaxe knew which way he would dodge and so caught up to him, slamming his face into the hard floor with a violently huge fist.  Monty struggled to protect his face as the viking grabbed his head and slammed it into the floor.
	"DIE SAXON!"

A crack upon the floor made Monty roar with anguish, before he kicked upwards and tried to slash hard at the brutish arm, blood flensing from the nordic skin but doing nothing to deter him.  James and Alestes swung forwards with a combining attack, of both upwards-striking blades and a fierce beating of fiery wings.  The wings suddenly burst into flames, lighting the Bloodaxe's face as his beard was suddenly scorched and sparked into light.  The raptor's blades striked up towards his chin, slicing across the cheek and knocking the helmeted head back hard.
Monty was able to get away with a bruised bloody face, but he was not backing down from the pain.  Sophelie swiftly flew over to him and embraced him within her wings, whispering an old tongue to his ears.  A soft motherly light began to wash over the mole, making him sigh with a complete ease of all his muscles.  His face, while still bruised, was no longer bleeding, as Sophelie's holy magic began to discreetly knit away at the bloody wounds upon his cheeks.  Rejuvenated, he charged back into the fight, pushing back the Bloodaxe towards the laboratory door.
The viking however was not intimidated, and simply swung hard at all three of his attackers.  The raptor thrust and deflected the axe in the beginning of its swing, striking the handle to halt its advance before scraping the blade from his scissors and stabbing violently into the chest.  Still he did not yield, not even when Alestes tried to make his eyes bleed from magical assaults that tore through his horned skull.  Monty swung hard at the thighs and belly, clawing deeper and deeper to open up a reddening wound, as the furred hide began to drip more with every scoop of bloodied flesh he made.
The Bloodaxe was bloodied, but unbowed, and soon he smashed his shield across all of them with one violent spin.  Alestes took it the worst, shrieking as he fell and rolled slightly across the floor.  Monty ducked just in time and punched straight upwards before deliving a furious knee thrust into the wounded gut.  James was forced backwards by the shield, and tried to keep the pressure on.  But the viking simply spun once more with his ferocious axe, and in doing so he took out one more pillar.  It was an intentional tactic, raining down stone and mortar unto his enemies.
Monty was undeterred, punching away the rocks with uppercuts as his natural digging claws easily ripped the stone blocks in half, grabbing one in each hand in order to swing and punch that much harder.  Brutal aching bruises began to form on the viking's exposed skin, his limbs turning more numb with each violent pound of rock-fisted strength that the mole employed, vicious haymakers combined with weighty hooking blows.

Sophelie in the meantime had managed to rejuvenate Alestes' body, healing his worser wounds but not able to overcome the fact that the blow had winded him badly.  He did not leave the fight however, and combined his tactics once again with the mystic albatross in striking from afar.  With one united action, they summoned a violent icy wind that turned focused upon the Bloodaxe, piercing through him with shattering dagger-like shards of solid ice.
The wind was powerful enough at one point to even make him stumble back, hitting against another pillar hard, and his immediate instinct being to swing hard all around him.  One more pillar began to break, but this time the full weight of it came down solidly unto the viking, crushing him beneath a small mountain of rubble as he roared in a new agony.  With this last pillar of support however, the entire roof started to shake above their heads.  Deep vibrations started to come through them all, and the last remaining pillars soon started to crack, unable to support the weight alone.
	"AW CHRIST," roared Monty, "THUH CEILIN'S COMIN' DOWN!  EVERYONE, ARINO, THIS WAY, COME TO ME!"
Calling back to the lemmings that stayed at the other side of the hall, they ran towards Monty's voice despite the fearful trembling and shaking of the ceiling above, as stones began to dislodge and fall down upon them.  Squeaks and whimpers of fear started to rise from them, as rocks started falling dangerously near the blind helpless prisoners.  Monty and Arino quickly pulled any away from danger, pulling them towards the right path.  The exit was open still, as James, Sophelie and Alestes went through before pulling any lemming with them.
	"GO, GO!"
	"HURRY MY FRIENDS, HURRY!"
	"THIS PLACE IS FALLING APART, STAY WITH US!"
Making sure no lemmings ran off beyond them by holding them safely at their hands, the raptor and the birds made sure that the first 30 lemmings were kept together.  But 83 more however were still heading through, their panic and natural slowness not aiding matters at all.  Another pillar cracked.  60.  50.  A few columns were all that was left before the roof would come down upon them.  40.  32.  One more pillar fell, screams came from the crumbling room as the ceiling began literally falling in towards them, one single mass of stone grinding down unto their heads.
As the last 20 lemmings struggled to navigate the ever-largening chaos of the stone-covered floor, Monty knew they would not make it without a little more time.  Arino was desperately trying to guide them, but their fear and inability to traverse the now-rocky path was making it more hard.  Soon the mole felt the ceiling scrape closer to his head, and he knew he had one option left.  He pushed his hands up against the ceiling, and stood firmly a few feet away from the exit from where FG cried out:
	"MONTY!"

The mole struggled under the weight of castle stone, the roof slowly coming down on him despite his fierce resistance.  He called out to them louder, trying to make himself heard above the rising sound of destruction upon his head.  Things did not turn any better when a huge slab of rock crushed one of his feet, trapping him as he roared with defiant agony.
	"UUURRRAAAAGH!  GO!  THIS WAY!  HURRY!"
Arino quickened his pace, forcing the last ones to hurry out as only 5 more lemmings remained behind him.  The ceiling was now fighting against Monty's own strength, as his muscles popped out with throbbing veins of anguished endurance.  James started to see once more a red shimmer of power come from him.  A red cape, or something like it, slowly forming upon Monty's back like a ghost.
	"HURRY!  GET OUTTA 'ERE!"
	"WHAT ABOUT YOU?!" cried FG.
	"DON' WORRY 'BOUT ME, JUS' GO!"
	"NO!  I'm not leaving you behind Monty, you're the leader of these guys dammit, come on!"
	"NNNNGH!  AAAAAARRGH!  B-bloody weigh' of the world on mah shoulders, heheh..."
The ceiling soon stopped, or at least the noise of crumbling stone did to some extent.  But they all knew it would be coming down soon.  Monty was trapped, his foot heavily beneath a rocky slab and easily crushed.  His muscles remained twitching above his head, claws furiously dug deep into the holes of the ceiling.  All that could be heard, beside the shifting stones like tumbler locks within the walls, was Monty's heavy breathing, clearly in agony as his crimson-lit body stayed strong and shaking.
	"Hhhhh...hhhh...e-everyone made it?"
	"Yeah," said FG.  "We're all here...now come on, lemme help you-"
	"NO!"
He sneered at James to make him step back, the crumbling ceiling starting to grind harder on top of him, like a gathering storm of thunder from far away.  His arms began to shake, his aura weakening.
	"There's no way out fer meh.  This is far as ah go."
	"Wha-NO, Monty don't be an idiot come on!"
	"Me foot's trapped James!  Ahm not 'avin' you risk yer life jus' to free meh.  No way out 'ere now, bu' long as all the tribe's out first...then that's all ah care 'bout."
	"Bullshit, one of you guys can lift that stone off him right?!"
	"I cannot," said Sophelie.  "The integrity of the ceiling makes it too dangerous to lift the stone in such close quarters.  My magic is not a precise skill, any sort of invocation will cause a wider effect that may well damage the ceiling even more, perhaps even endanger us.  ...I am sorry, Monty."
	"S'alright," said Monty weakly, "ah understood that last part.  Je suis desole."
James however was not satisfied, and desperately tried to lurch forwards towards Monty, who roared back at him.

	"GIT BACK!"
	"NO, I'M NOT LETTING YOU DIE HERE!"
	"NEITHER OF US'LL REACH THAT DOOR IN TIME!  Even if ah get this bloody rock off of mah foot ah still have to run fer it...an' there's no way ahm outrunnin' this avalanche that ahm the only one stoppin'."
	"But...b-but...no, no not after everything we've been through, not after all that shit you told Meen and leading these guys through the caves!"
	"Ah wuz always a rogue, lad.  Always.  First good thing ah ever done wuz save a fellow miner from bein' beaten, back in mah time.  Got thrown in prison fer it.  Bu' it wuz worth it.  This is jus' thuh same thing to me.  Do summat righ', get punished fer it cuz the world's unfair lahk tha'.  Ah knew the moment that dark shadow in mah dreams told me abou' savin' this lot...ah knew it'd come to this."
	"W-wait, shadow?!" cried out FG.  "What shadow?!"
	"Sh-she...sum kinda mysterious voice, a dark purple shadow.  She showed me 'er deck of cards an' told me through sum kinda magic that ah had to free this lot...ah had to.  That someone would come an' free us from our cells...bu' ah had to guide 'em, thuh lost tribe through the caves.  This is mah destiny."
	"...no...n-no, Monty, it doesn't have to be this way!"
	"THERE'S NUTHIN' YOU CAN DO!  You wanna get crushed wi' me, well ahm not lettin' ya!  Jus' promise me one thing."
	"What?!"
	"...get everyone outta here.  All of 'em.  Long as you do that...whut I've done won't be in vain.  NNNGH!"
The ceiling began to push down further unto him, his arms bending against their will as his impossible strength, summoned from some unknown power within him, continued to fight back.  He roared towards Arino:
	"Let yer tribe know this!  To those of you who can still 'ear me!  You will look back at this struggle...you will look back with pride in yer eyes at whut you've done!  ARINO!  Lead 'em in mah place!  IT'S ALL UP TO YOU NOW!"
	"...Monty...no, MONTY NO!"
Before James could stop him, he pulled out his monocle and offered it to James with one hand, giving less resistance to the crushing ceiling above as he grunted with his last words.
	"Don' forget abou' me."
Soon the ceiling came down at last, grunting a short groan of intense agony as his entire body was crushed by solid stone, a landslide coming forth through the doorway somewhat.  The rumbling of the walls finally ceased, as did Monty's hand in its final twitches, kept unearthed above the rocks by the mole's final ounce of strength.  His monocle remained in his claws, as the lemmings started to weep.  James however was bitter with shock, tears hotly running down his cheeks as he screamed his friend's name.
	"MONTYYYYYYYYYY!"
Grief and exhaustion weighed down upon him as he roared with sorrow, beating into the rocks relentlessly with an unbound fury.  The lemmings could all hear him, as they cowered also with fear and sorrow hand in hand.  Sophelie and Alestes turned mournful, grieving silently for their friend.  Arino did not even look, turning away with shame until he heard James walk towards him.
Grabbing the monocle carefully from Monty's exposed hand, the raptor shook with an impotent rage as he handed it over to the lemming chief.  Arino accepted it cautiously, the raptor's words barely containing his fury.
	"Here...now, you lead them."
	"...I do not have any pockets-"
	"You.  Fucking.  Lead them."
He walked on past him, as Alestes and Sophelie followed in turn with Arino cautiously walking behind them with the rest of the lemming tribe.  He tried to wear the monocle, but found it to be useless upon him.  Finding it also rather disorienting to wear it, he handed it over to Twinsen.
	"Wear this over your blind eye.  It shall remain the gift of our dear friend."
	"Someone is dying," said Twinsen.  "When a star falls, a soul is going up to God-"
	"Enough.  We have mourned before, and I do not wish to see another star ever fall in my lifetime.  Is that clear?"
	"Yes Jacob."
	"...good."