Michael picked knots out of his hair while he waited for the scouts to return. This was the first time he'd had to deal with the dread caused by the portal for a long period of time and he was finding it frustrating. With regular anxiety he could distract himself, or logic his way through it sometimes, but the dread caused by the portal was unnatural, and he could find no way to dismiss it aside from closing the rift itself.

Trina was handling it poorly as well, but she kept a stoic expression on her face and managed to catch herself the many times she went to nibble on her fingernails. He hoped she'd gotten a good night's sleep the previous night, but it was difficult to tell if her paleness had been caused by a lack of it or dread, or both.

He muttered another quick prayer for her, himself, Davi, and all the rest. The prayers seemed to take a bit of the edge off of his discomfort, though it was quickly washed away again by another surge of anxiety emanating from the rift. He considered giving Trina some guidance related to the gods. He'd been focused on building her foundations first, and hadn't exactly hidden his own devotions, but he wanted to make sure she had a certain baseline of ability and understanding before he brought it up to her.

There was a low whistle which Finnegan returned, and Alvarez and Grima, the other scout, walked out of the trees toward the rest of them.

"What are we looking at?" asked Tai.

The scouts exchanged glances.

"The rift is about a mile and half south, right on the beach of the lake… aside from the rift we didn't see anything."

"What do you mean?" asked Finnegan.

"Well, there were a few footprints moving toward the water, but aside from that we didn't see any signs of anything. No bestial horned men, or land squids, or lizard people, or anything. We didn't hear anything either, just the sound of the waves gently hitting the shore," said the other scout.

"How fucking poetic," said Tai looking at his brother. "I'm thinking they're either invisible, or they're waiting in the water for us.

"What kind of footprints?" asked Finnegan.

"Well, we couldn't get a great look at them, but they were normal sized, and in pairs. Vaguely human foot shaped... if they were wearing strange boots," said Alvarez.

"Well, we were paid to do a job, so let's approach cautiously and get it done," said Finnegan, unstrapping his shield and drawing his sword as he began to gesture for the others to follow him.

"Maybe we'll be lucky and this'll be an easy one," said Tai with a wide smile. "Though, more likely it'll be a kraken that fooled us with fake footprints waiting to whip us into the water and tear us apart when we get close."

"Were you a motivational speaker back on Earth?" asked Davi.

"No, but I'm thinking of taking it up here. Think I'm ready?"

"I'm certainly feeling motivated," said Michael, loosening the straps on his sword and mace.

"Thanks Mikey. Really earning that raise."

Michael winked at him, and then they all started walking toward the rift. They were in a simple formation with Michael and Trina in the center, the bowmen in the back, Davi and Finnegan towards the front, and Tai and the others as the spear tip. Michael and Trina were having to fight their building dread the whole way, but Michael had gotten relatively used to it by this point, and Trina seemed to be handling it better now that they were actually moving to stop it rather than sitting around and waiting.

When they were clear of the forest and the dirt started to shift to sand, Michael got a better look at the rift. This one wasn't the angry red he'd gotten used to seeing, but instead was a kind of wild swirling purple. It was large, not as large as the one that had let in all of the yeti, but larger than most of the others he'd seen. The color and movement of it made it difficult to see the edge of it.

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Tai didn't hesitate when it came into view, leading the spear tip forward with a hand on the hilt of his sword and his eyes scanning the wide empty expanse of water in front of them. The rest of them followed behind and Michael immediately recognized how difficult it was going to be moving in the sand in full plate. He was going to have much less maneuverability than he was used to.

He drew his mace and could feel himself starting to feel the edges of the rift within his mind. He looked at Trina.

"Can you feel it?"

She nodded, her own shortsword and small shield held at the ready.

"We're close enough to get started," said Michael.

Finnegan nodded.

"Hold here!"

They all started to spread out and take defensive positions. Davi took one in front of Michael, and Finnegan in front of Trina.

"Let's start," said Michael, his hand starting to grow gold as he began to extend his will toward the shimmering purple tear in reality that was in front of him.

Trina nodded, her own hand started to send off smaller threads of gold that drifted steadily toward the rift.

Just as before, as he started to exert his will on the rift, the sense of dread changed to one of righteousness, and he began to speak again, his voice tinged with the divine.

"I dedicate this sealing to Bruntus, the lord of diligence," he said, his voice carrying.

"And I dedicate this sealing to Seras, lady of Iron."

Michael looked at Trina in surprise, but she was keeping her focus on the task at hand. He wondered when she'd picked that up from him.

Suddenly, a half dozen shapes exploded from the edge of the lake and began moving quickly toward them. Michael had no idea what he was looking at as they rushed them. They looked to be a kind of centaurs, with long delicate fins on each of their legs and long torsos that extended upward like those of men. Their faces had no mouths, but instead seemed to be made up of a number of parallel slits that shook and trembled as they let out a piercing warcry. They were a mixture of purples, blues, and pinks and each of them seemed to be wielding a spear that looked to be made up of some kind of coral. The most frightening thing about them though, was that they hadn't at all disturbed the surface of the water when they'd appeared.

Tai let out a booming laugh. "Fuck it. I devote this fight to the divine and whatever fucking god would have me!"

He drew his sword as the first of the creatures reached him and in an instant he carved a massive gouge through the side of it, causing it to stumble and fall with another piercing cry.

Another of them trampled one part of the spear tip and aimed itself directly at Michael.

He ignored it, watching in the corner of his vision as Davi roared and squared his shield to meet the beast's charge head-on. He managed to deflect the coral spear with his sword and when the body of the monster hit him he was pushed deep into the sand, but it helped to secure his footing, allowing him to stay under the creature where he was able to stab his bastard sword clear through its chest and out of its long back at an angle, dropping it.

Michael could feel the rift starting to fight back as he clenched his will around it. It did seem to be going more quickly with Trina's help, but that didn't make it easy.

The beasts that hadn't been killed, moved through the rest of them, wreaking havoc with their spears and powerful legs that extended into long spiked flippers. After their first pass, they broke through the Gemini forces and sped down the beach before turning around to make another. Just as they were about to reach them, six more launched themselves from the water and made a matching charge toward them.

This time one of them made it to Michael and lowered its spear to take him through the skull, but he roared and his mace caught flame. He batted away the tip of the coral spear away and then smashed his mace into the center of the creature's chest, where the bottom half met the top. He felt something cave in, and then it caught fire.

The monster tried to turn around and flee to the water. It made it, since everyone was wary of attacking something on fire, but the water didn't extinguish the flames. Divinity could not be quenched so easily.

When another broke through and moved toward Trina, Michael was in the midst of helping Davi fend one off. Luckily Finnegan managed to stop it in its tracks, cutting one of its legs out from under it. When it crashed in front of Trina in a spray of sand and saltwater, she drove her sword into one of the odd slits in its face, killing it instantly.

Michael felt a twinge of pride. It wasn't quite watching Victor ride a bike for the first time, but it was close.

Once they had driven off this pass, Michael and Trina returned their full focus to the rift. It was fighting them hard now, and it was taking more and more effort from both of them to start to seal it. He lifted his flaming mace and she, her golden threaded hand and they squeezed their will in a final burst.

The Rift struggled, flickering for a few more moments before it closed completely, the purple swirl of colors that had been in front of them, replaced with a view of endless water.

They both panted for a few moments, then Michael steadied his mace and looked to the returning pass of monsters. Surprisingly, instead of charging them, they let out a wail and charged into the water. Again they didn't disturb it at all, simply slamming into the surface without even the smallest wave born of them.

"Damn," said Michael. "What are we supposed to do about that?"

"Well, it's not the first time this has happened," replied Trina who had fallen onto her knees to catch her breath.

"Really?" asked Michael.

"Why did you think they called it the Lake of Beasts?"

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