time I saw it, I was too late. It…killed Davy, Wallace, and Morton.”

All of those men had been friends as well. Thomas’s heart ached with the loss. For a moment tears blurred his vision. He had not been friends with these men all of these years to lose them in one night. It wasn’t fair.

“See you…on the other side.” Guy slid down the wall to a seated position.

Thomas didn’t need his armor’s onboard systems to tell him Guy was dead, but he used them anyway. Leaving someone behind wasn’t something he was prepared to do.

All of Guy’s life signs were gone. Thomas’s HUD showed flatlines across the board.

Pushing his grief aside, Thomas turned back to the battle. There was still his own death to attend. He scooped up Guy’s Spike Bolter to replace his own lost sidearm.

He hadn’t gone more than a few feet when he felt the ground trembling. Sprinting toward the corner of the cathedral, he turned back and watched just as a Carnagor burrowed up from the ground only a few feet from Guy’s body.

Mounds of displaced earth formed and tumbled aside as the demon burrowed up. Thomas knew what it was because he’d seen them throughout the battlefield. Such demons could easily dig up through the pavement and buildings of Central London’s High Streets.

Cautiously, the blunt snout shoved through the hole and scented the earth. A snake-like tongue whipped out as it licked its eyes. Thomas didn’t know if the demon had continued to track the other Templar by sound or if it was another Carnagor that had just arrived.

Satisfied that it wouldn’t be attacked at once, the Carnagor heaved itself up from the ground. Earth fell away from it in clumps. It shook and shivered for a moment like a dog.

The creature was huge, taller than Thomas at the shoulder and as broad across as a lorry. The hideous mouth between the tusks gaped open large enough for a grown man to step into. Moonlight and reflected weapons fire glinted off the rows of razor-sharp ivory teeth.

Thomas didn’t know where the demons truly came from. That was one of the things the Templar researchers, the Ophanim—which were the intelligence agents within their ranks—tried to find out with all their investigations. With the disparity between the creatures, there was some conjecture that they didn’t come from the same world. Some of the older Ophanim suggested that many of the creatures were subjugated species, ones that had been altered by the demons’ awful magic.

The Carnagor sniffed the air again for an instant, then launched itself at Guy’s still body. Its gigantic hands raked at the dead knight’s armor, stripping it from him as if he were a shellfish. In the time it took Thomas to lift the Spike Bolter, the Carnagor had gulped Guy’s remains down as if they’d only been an appetizer.

Then Thomas held the trigger down. The Spike Bolter fired, the six barrels whirled, and spiked bullets whistled into the side of the demon’s head.

The creature turned toward Thomas, snuffling in fear and anger. It raised a stubby arm in front of its huge, ugly face. Bloody gashes opened up in its scaly flesh. Roaring, it jumped toward Thomas, taking away half the distance between them in a single bound.

Thomas felt the earth shake when the massive beast landed. Throwing its head back, the Carnagor loosed an echoing roar. Its fiery eyes fixed on Thomas.

Steeling himself, trusting his armor, Thomas holstered his sidearm, then took a two-handed grip on his sword. With a fierce war cry of his own, he raced at the beast, unwilling to let it go unchallenged after watching its unholy repast.

October 31, 2020

My Dearest Simon,

First of all, I want you to know how much I’ve always loved you. I know I’ve been a harsh taskmaster. There are days, I’m sure, that you were certain I’d never be satisfied in your training. But you mastered everything I’d taught you. In fact, you surpassed me in your skills. I knew you would. You’ve always had more than a little of your grandfather’s strength in you. And he was a fierce, grand Templar.

But you outstripped my skills long before I thought you would. Perhaps that was the reason that we had so many conflicts over the last few years. It was hard, my son, letting you grow up, seeing you go out into the world to make your own mistakes. The world was a far harsher environment at your age than it was at mine. These days, it seems there’s no forgiveness for the unwary.

Now there may not be a hope for survival.

At the time I’m sending this, we’re preparing to go into battle against foes that all of us have trained to stand against all of our lives, but few of us truly ever expected to see. We won’t be returning unless there’s some miracle from Providence.

Tonight, I’m afraid. Truthfully, I’m afraid for myself. I always told myself that when the time came to lay down my life to protect those I swore to defend, that I would do so gladly. Tonight, I find that I am not glad, and that I’m more fearful than I should be. But I’ll go forth when Lord Sumerisle leads us into battle.

Mostly, though, I’m afraid for you and for this world. What we knew of the demons pales in comparison to what we have learned. And we still don’t know everything we need to know.

Simon, I don’t know how this news will reach you. Or when. I know only that it will come at an ill time. Bad news always does.

I remember when you left, how angry and proud you were. So full of yourself. I wasn’t at my best. I apologize for that and hope you’ll one day choose to remember the good times rather than the bad.

Just know that I don’t begrudge those feelings. They’re a young man’s feelings. Most of us, myself included, have to feel wronged in order to separate

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