Sinegard Academy for the Wayward

[The_Weeping_Angel]

“Wonderful,” M’Kael sighed as blades made of the stuff of shadows formed in his hands.

“Not soon enough,” Magdalena as her spear began to glow. “They’re evil.” She added with a smile.

“I need a minute,” Ravyn said as she started a rapid summoning. She couldn’t bind or do much, but the damned thing would fight for her.​

 

[milkmaiden38]

Battle Against the Shades​

“Some light, please,” Angela called to Gem, her voice steady despite the encroaching darkness.

“Alright then… LIGHT ’EM UP!” Gem roared, flinging her hands skyward. A burst of magic flared, but in this strange plane the brilliance was swallowed, dulled into a muted glow. The dim radiance spread across the clearing—just enough to reveal the shifting silhouettes of the shades. Callo and M’Kael exhaled in relief; blinding light was never their ally.

The pale shimmer painted the battlefield in ghostly hues. Angela’s eyes narrowed as the shadows slithered closer. A wicked grin curved across her lips.

“Come and get it,” she taunted, springing into the air. Her blade descended in a gleaming arc, cleaving a shade cleanly in two. The weapon pulsed, drinking in the creature’s essence, its glow intensifying as if hungering for more.

Gem faltered for a heartbeat, mesmerized by the sword’s eerie brilliance. Then she snapped back into action, hurling a fireball into the advancing horde. The explosion ripped through them—shades shrieked, their forms unraveling in the blaze.

Callo remained in human form, her twin short swords flashing. She carved through the first two shades that lunged at her, their shadowy ichor spraying in dark arcs across the dim landscape.

Angela laughed, even as she parried another strike. “I don’t have a favorite shade—it’s kind of a gray area for me.”

Her sword clashed against the reaching arms of two more foes, and a bone-deep chill surged down the blade into her hands. She shivered violently.

“BRRRR—that is fucking cold!” she shouted.

Gem’s voice rang out, urgent. “A shade’s touch drains the very life from you!”

Angela shot her a glare. “Now you tell me!”

Angus barreled past, his great axe swinging with brutal force. Two shades were crushed beneath its weight, their forms scattering like torn smoke.

The clearing was chaos—muted light, fire’s afterglow, steel flashing, and shadows screaming as the companions fought to hold their ground against the shades.

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

“This is my kinda place,” M’Kael said as he moved, blending with the darkness. “Not as nice as the plane of Shadows, but you get the drift.”

In the darkness Magdalena’s spear flashed as it spun and speared the doomed undead, each strike and slice elicited moans and screams as they were destroyed.

Ravyn finished her casting as a bright white entity materialized. This elegantly armored sentinel stands alert, her eyes radiating divine light and her noble blade crackling with power. Solidifying the summoned being moved towards the Shades. A burning light emanating from her eyes as her blade sang.

Slicing through a shade Magdalena paused for a brief moment as her eyes widened as she looked at the newcomer.

Taking a deep breath Ravyn began casting another spell, her lips and fingers dancing rapidly as she tried to get it out as fast as possible.​

 

[milkmaiden38]

Shades of Victory
Gem’s heart pounded as the shades surged faster than she could cut them down. The tide of battle seemed ready to drown her—until the bright white entity arrived. Its radiance tore through the gloom like a blade, and the shadows recoiled, cowering before its brilliance. The light didn’t just illuminate; it pierced the dimness, unraveling the darkness itself.

Sensing the moment had come, Gem raised her voice above the chaos.“PRESS THE ATTACK!”

Her command was punctuated by twin fireballs that roared from her hands, exploding among the shades. The blasts annihilated scores of them, hurling others backward in shrieking disarray. Angus and Angela seized the opening, carving into the staggered enemy. Their strikes ripped through the shades, each death echoing with the tortured scream from the undead.

Angela’s blade drank from the shadows it felled. Gem couldn’t fathom how, but with every kill the weapon grew stronger. Its dull gray sheen had transformed into a gleaming silver, and Angela herself seemed transformed—her movements sharper, her focus absolute, her presence unstoppable.

Callo broke from Angela’s side, positioning himself near Gem to guard her flank. Her short swords flashed as she cut down a shade that lunged too close.“Whatever that sword is doing,” she muttered grimly, “it can’t be good for a shadow dragon.”

The battle’s momentum shifted. The shades faltered, their ranks wavering as fear gnawed at them. Ravyn, Magdalena, and M’Kael pressed harder, their renewed assault driving the enemy to the brink of collapse. The darkness itself seemed ready to shatter.

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Finishing her latest spell Ravyn cast it, targeting Angus with Enlarge. Essentially it would double his size and increase his Health and the damage he’d deal.

Moving back she started casting smaller spells, though she was fighting stay awake after the massive energy drain from the summoning. She hated the quick summons. As she stepped back one of the undead brushed her, illiciting a scream of pain as it sapped her life energy with a touch that was like a spear of ice driving into her heart.

As she began to fall the Entity with in roared to the fore her skin darkening and peeling as Hellfire ripped forth. Reaching out Ashmadae grabbed ethereal chains dragged by the dead and damned. Igniting them with Hellfire he pulled, whipping the undead around like toys.

Screaming as the Hellfire consumed them the undead perished for once and for all. Their souls Discorporated by Ashmadae’s rage. As the souls vaporized Ashmadae held onto the chains using them as whips as she stepped forwards slicing the undead and damned with precision born of hell. Snapping one of the chains like a whip it shattered, sending thousands of hell-forged links through the wave of the damned, ripping them to shreds.​

 

[milkmaiden38]

The Town​

Ravyn, Magdalena, M’Kael, and Ashmadae shattered the Shades’ assault. The shadow spirits scattered like smoke in the wind—some retreating, others dissolving into nothing. In mere moments, silence reclaimed the battlefield.

“Wow… anyone need healing?” Gem asked, her voice breaking the stillness.

Aside from Ravyn, the others bore no wounds worth mentioning.

“Then let’s check out that town,” Gem continued, forcing a note of cheer. “After that, we can decide if we want to jump back to campus.”

No one replied. Instead, the group moved forward, their steps crunching over soil that was neither farmland nor battlefield but something in between—a graveyard of carnage. The earth was painted in shades of ash and iron, stripped of all color.

The air should have been thick with the stench of blood, smoke, and decay. Yet it was empty, sterile, as if the world itself had forgotten how to breathe.

Here, devils and demons had clashed in a war without victor. The devastation was absolute—nature twisted, armies broken, the land itself scarred beyond recognition. Recovery, if it ever came, would take lifetimes.

Many of the town's buildings also were damaged.

 

[The_Weeping_Angel]

Crouching Ashmadae touched the ground scooping up a handful of debris before he smelled and tasted it. “Mage War. Demons and Devils. Spellfire. Hellfire. Balefire. Khaos magic.” Dropping the dirt the Hell Lord stood and looked at Gem. “I’d advise that you do not cast yours spells past this point. Call upon your gods if you wish, if they’ll listen. But you’re spells will have unfathomable results.”

“If you’re lucky it will be flowers. Or a quick death.” Shrugging he added, “If you’re not lucky.. it will be prolonged.”

“What did you do to Ravyn?” Magdalena asked, her spear glowing in the gloom.

“She is here, the undead leached her life force and she’d have died, again, if I had not interfered. They can’t harm me. Not here.” And taking a step towards Magdalena it tilted it’s head to the side slightly. “And if you kill me here.. she dies as well. Permanently.”

“Might be worth it to end this torment you’ve inflicted on her.” M’Kael snapped.

“Torment she begged for..” Ashmadae countered.

“You took advantage of her situation.”

“Don’t we all?” The Demon replied as it started walking towards the town again.​

 

[milkmaiden38]

“Funny… the world didn’t end when I was hurling spells in the middle of that battle,” Gem remarked dryly as the group trudged into the shattered remains of the town. The air was still.

“Gem! Over here—I think I found something!” Angus shouted, from a collapsed house.

Gem hurried to him, her boots kicking up ash. Beneath the rubble lay the twisted body of a barded devil, its armor cracked and its wings mangled, pinned under a wall that had fallen like a tombstone.

“It’s still alive,” Angus muttered.

“Oh,” Gem breathed, startled.

The devil’s lips curled back, black blood spilling as it rasped, “I’d devour you if I could, mortal.”

“Can we help you?” Gem asked, her voice uncertain, caught between pity and caution.

“Careful,” Callo warned sharply, her hand hovering near her blade. “Healing a devil could unleash something worse than death.”

The creature coughed, its voice a guttural growl. “No… I’ll be dead soon. Nothing can save me. But at least the demons lost this battle. We won!”

Gem’s gaze swept the ruins—splintered beams, scorched earth, corpses of fiends. “Won? Look around. This is nothing but ruin. I don’t see victory here. Just emptiness. Pointless destruction.”

Angus frowned. “Why do devils and demons even fight?”

The devil’s eyes flickered, its breath rattling. “It is not conquest… it is ideology. Chaos against law. Demons revel in madness. Devils… we are order, structure, inevitability.”

“So you won by killing them all?” Angus pressed.

“Yes,” the devil hissed, forcing a grin. “I am proof of our triumph.”

“Because you survived?” Angus asked, trying to untangle the logic.

“You… understand,” the devil gasped, before a fit of hacking overtook it. Its body shuddered once, then stilled beneath the rubble.

Silence fell heavy.

Gem exhaled, her voice cutting through the quiet. “Then I suppose the battle just ended in a draw.”