Alone beside Death's Demise in the depths of Memory did the Death Knights fight to delay Pazuzu, their only witnesses the mortal successors to Chivalry as the first Chamber loosed all that they were against an impossible foe.

The reason they fought was naught less than duty to their King, for under his direction their goal was to buy time for all Creation. And by spending every drop of might and strength and unlife the Underworld's finest delayed Pazuzu for month after month while the Gods assembled Their forces.

And when the last of them fell, the army of the Gods was ready.

Thus did the battle against Woe's Prince commence.

It began with movements in the shadows and the strike of the Jade Empress' assassins under a cloak of subtlety. They moved upon a sanguine camp of the Vigil like snakes, stealing away the lives of both messenger and strategist. Yet their veil was ripped away and they were caught.

But it mattered not. Their work was done, and the armies proper had already begun their march.

Through threads of Memory did the united legion of the Pantheon travel, crossing Creation to a far and nebulous bough within Yggdrasil's impossible canopy: the plane of Memory, born from the interaction of the World Tree with Limbo. It was there that old Shallam still stood, a frozen remnant of the past turned now to the corrupt fortress of Black Pazuzu, Crowned Prince of Woe and Lord of the Infernal Skies.

The New God.

As the forces of Lord Scarlatti and Lady Ourania took up their instruments and star-blessed candles, the demolitionists of Lord Prospero were tasked with breaching the walls of the Eastern Jewel. One explosive detonation later and the warriors of Sapience flooded through the streets, an invasion not seen upon Shallam's streets since its conquest by Seleucar some eight hundred years before the fall.

Warm blood drenched cobblestone roads and pathways as loyalists of the Vigil met their end upon blade and bow, paving a path for ritualists of the Moon Goddess. In turn they illuminated the way forward for Lord Prospero's artillery to assemble and lay siege to the Citadel of Light, hurling barrel after barrel of explosives from the city ramparts. After much trial and significantly more error, the blood-fuelled barrier hiding Pazuzu away was at last struck, fracturing his sanguine magic.

In the streets below the battle waged on as Sarava Axor fought for her sire against the warriors of Gaia. Planting a seed of their own cultivation, the Earthmother's soldiers witnessed the unleashed genesis of a vine network the likes of which fallen Shallam could never have predicted. Feasting on flesh and Vigil corpse did the hungry tendrils grow from Jaxarte Lake to the very gates of the Citadel. There they tore themselves out of the earth in an unleashing of wrath to rival the Wildfather Himself. Thorn and razor-edged vine ripped across the New God's damaged barrier, pushing it closer and closer to the brink of shattering.

Next came the Infernal Legion, a blood-hungry horde of demonic fang and claw spilling out from a fiery rift in the Shallamese Gatehouse to defend their lord. From lesser Baalzadeen to towering, colossal behemoth, the forces of the Inferno were engaged by the hardened fighters of Lord Babel's army while the soldiers of Lord Sartan breached the portal and took their fight to the demon sustaining it. The stench of burnt flesh and metallic corruption swamped the Jewel of the East until the rift finally collapsed and the demonic tide ceased.

It was next that the flame-tempered smiths of Lord Phaestus prepared their own weapon: a mithril tank imbued with pure elemental Fire. Loud grunts and strained metal filled street and alley as the conflagrant siege weapon was escorted across Shallam to the now-damaged barrier that barred entry into the Citadel of Light. In an inferno of white-hot and ochre-hued flame the empowered tank split apart, taking upon itself the form of a blazing dragon within fog-wreathed skies for but a moment before a colossal detonation tore across the rooftops.

Meteoric fire rained upon the blood-fuelled shield and, at last, it broke.

Pazuzu ascended from his throne on bat-like wings, and his battle with Divinity began.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Summary: The mortal forces of Sapience launched their assault on Pazuzu. Fighting across the memory of Shallam, the united armies slew the Demon Prince's lieutenants and broke into the Citadel of Light to force Pazuzu into the open.

Penned by My hand on the 9th of Aeguary, in the year 926 AF.