Despite the title, this one starts with the Bearsmashers.

Well, you'll see that one in a minute. It's a darker piece that leads very directly into our wonderful.. Mission Finale! (After one more co-write, after this.)

 
Konall turned down the fiftieth passageway in the knob mines. He marked the old passageway, “Dead End.” He slammed his fist into the wall, breaking off limestone chunks. “We’ve been here for hours, Spaz. Have you found anything?”

“Not yet, but I see a light down that passage.” Konall couldn’t see anything past the light of his own torch, but the demon’s eyes had never failed him yet. They followed the mineshaft and came to a large room. In the center was a dark form in meditation, dark runes drawn around her.

“Kadlin!” shouted Konall.

The figure sent out a bolt of power, and a fist of lightning slammed Konall into a stone wall. The sorceress looked up, “Oh, Konall. It’s you.” She dropped the spell and Konall tumbled to the ground.

“I’m looking for Aleena,” said Konall, “And a couple other princesses.”

“I came here for peaceful meditation, to practice magic.” Kadlin glared. “You always did interrupt me. There aren’t any princesses down here. Try a different castle.”

Konall stepped forward. “I have some good intelligence that this is exactly where they are. Well, not here here, but close by.”

“Konall, you don’t have the intelligence of a rat. But these mine shafts go on for miles. Come to think of it, I have heard some movements around abandoned areas. Maybe your princesses are here after all. I was curious about what was going on down here anyway; I’ll help you look.”

“No, sis. I’m doing this by myself.”

“These mines are dangerous.”

“Afraid I’ll die?”

“Death by cave in does not count as a glorious death in battle, but I’m afraid you’ll be buried alive. I’d have to hear your shouting down every shaft in these mines for weeks while you complained about food. And with the echoes, I wouldn’t be able to pinpoint the source to put an end to your complaining. Besides, I know these tunnels.”

* * *

Aleena shivered at the demon’s touch as he adjusted the ropes that bound her body. Yet she felt warm and loved in a cruel way. Her shaking was not of fear or of the cold stone floor upon which she lay, but of desire that burned like Dios’ flame. Her injuries had been healed by some kind of magic; she remembered some bitter liquid tipped to her mouth and forced down her throat. She thought back further, remembering her prior adventures; travelling through space, coming to the this world and even adventure with Konall and Dash and the others. But those things were trifles compared with the warmth of Dios. Upon her head sat a magic tiara fit for a princess.

Though ropes still crisscrossed her body and bound her, Dios had freed her arms and legs and had given her a simple green tunic and belt to wear. The material was made of delightfully thin silk and draped to her thighs yet left little to the imagination. “It matches your eyes, my Queen,” Dios commented, admiring the elf’s shapely form.

Aleena curtsied. “Thank you, my love. I had no idea what I had been missing out on. How wonderful you are.”

* * *

Konall sighed, “I thought you knew this place.”

“It’s big,” shouted Kadlin, “and I’ve yet to memorize the whole thing. I think this is the way to where I’ve heard movement.”

“You’ve said that fifteen times already,” said Konall.

Kadlin gripped her staff in frustration. “I’m sure of it this time.”

“Six times,” said Spaz.

“Will you two shut up?”

Konall chuckled. “Think that’s the fourth time she’s said that.”

Kadlin hit Konall with an invisible fist, knocking him against a support column. The walls shuddered, and then rocked tumbled down toward them.

* * *

“Ah, this will be a good test. Let’s go meet our uninvited guests,” grumbled Dios. The demon took a step forward, but Aleena clutched at his arm. “We should set a trap for them, my love. Force them to engage us on our terms.”

* * *

Konall pushed up through five feet of rubble, bruised but relatively unharmed. He stuck his hand back into the debris and pulled out a small demon, unconscious for a bit but with no broken bones. The viking looked around. “Kadlin. Kadlin, did you make it out okay? Kadlin!” His calloused hands tore through stone and dirt, digging for his sister. And then he struck an invisible field. Excavating some of the rubble off of it, he saw his sister, relaxed in a lotus position, maintaining the sphere of power that kept her safe. He quickly unburied the top and she let the field go.

Kadlin stood up. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d forgotten me.”

“Why didn’t you just unbury yourself?”

“I had the concentration to dig or maintain the shield, but not both. Flaring the shield would have sent rock flying in every direction and probably broken every bone in your body.”

They turned to hear Dios’ demonic chuckle as fire blew from his fingertips. The wooden supports between the two parties burst into flames. With a wave of his hands, Dios channeled mana into the flames, and the columns burned bright.

Kadlin started counterspelling and shouted, “Konall, get us on into that room, now!”

The viking threw Kadlin, still counterspelling, over his right shoulder while he held his shield aloft with the other. He strained to keep the falling dirt and gravel from crushing them, and then falling stones, and finally small boulders. As he neared the room, Dios called up a wall of flames.

Struggling to stand, Konall hurled his sister through the flames, barely searing her. The rocks crushed him. Kadlin went into a berserker rage of her own, her mind focused, as she lashed out with summoned green tentacles at Dios, circling him.

“A mage!” cried Aleena. She rolled away from Dios and sprang to a running start. As Kadlin busied herself with her spell, Aleena jumped -- almost pounced -- at her.

Kadlin threw up a quick defensive shield and ducked behind a column. “You think you’ve got us? Konall’s going to pop out of that pile any moment, deliver a quick one-liner, and beat you two to a pulp.” At least, she hoped he would.

Dios raged. Hellish fire erupted around him and cracked the stonework of the room. He advanced towards the women. As Kadlin dodged away, Aleena gave chase, throwing a solid punch at the mage. Whatever power was suppressing the elf’s technology appeared to work on spells as well; the mage shield proved no barrier to her charge.

The pile of rubble at the entrance shifted and a battered bruised seal clubber fell out. “Next time, less rock, more roll,” he said.

 Kadlin started moving around the column. “That’s the best line you could come up with!”

“My head was pounded with rocks, woman.”

A single thought went through the minds of each of the four combatants: the fight was just begun.

Thus bringing an exceptional round of roleplaying for AIL to a finish! It jumped back and forth between the two sides a bit before bringing the two parts together; I'll leave it up to you to decide if you thought that worked or not.

Coming up next, we've got our traditional "Three part Finale" to finish things off.. enjoy it, as we split the story up into two main parts. That is.. after we check in on Dash and Todd, with a bit of Lapine, first.