As soon as Dawn was healed, the group headed up to the next floor. Rose darted the wraith they encountered there with the cure, to no effect. Whatever pony it had been, was long gone. Nightshade finished it off, and they continued up six more floors. As they paused for a break, Nightshade spoke up. "I think we should consider leaving early."
He turned over to Asmo. "Right..." he started. "Head south of the town hall and turn left once you come to a fork in the path. There'll be an old shack with some hooded pone, I think..."
Asmo gave a salute, shouting, "Aye aye, captain!" before heading out the door and making his way towards Ponyville, sniffing around as he left the bar.
He watched him leave. "Wish I had his super-Equestrian sense of smell, would make things pretty easier." He then continued to drink.
"Nothing too shady. It's literally just out in the middle of nowhere," he clarified. "No one suspects a thing because of how normal looking and far out it is."
Nightshade shook her head. "No, I'm still hoping there's a way to get what we came for. Let's be honest here, we were prepared for almost anything, but this... this is insane. We'd need a full battalion if we ever came back. And that's if Celestia doesn't decide to just nuke the whole damn mess."
"Gotta look at it through an Asmo lens," Raven clarified. "My guess, we either sent him to make new friends or arch enemies. Just how he functions." ~~~~~~~~ "Old Heaven Queen probably will," Navaja sighed. "These monsters would be bad news if they ever made it into Ecuestria." "Heaven Queen?" Azrael arched an eyebrow. "Kallblod nickname for Celestia. Ancient one. Your friend Skydust probably knows it."
Nightshade snorted. "Kallblod, huh? Didn't realize they'd... TAKE COVER!" The wraith approaching them seemed different than the ones they'd encountered so far. It wasn't running at them blindly. In fact, it seemed to be studying them. Nightshade noticed the horn first. It was already glowing when she shouted. A mere fraction of a second after her warning, a barrage of icy spikes flew rapidly at the group.
Raven laughed. "Hey, what about me?" ~~~~~~ Navaja quickly dodged and rolled far to the side, dodging the spikes headed his way. Azrael used his magic to catch a mass of spikes, charging them with explosive, electric power and hurling them back.
The charged spikes caught the wraith full force, blasting it to pieces. Everypony seemed to have reacted in time. Nopony had by struck with anything more than a glancing blow from the ice. Galahad laughed. "Poor bastard was not expecting..." He stopped speaking quite suddenly as the icy stalagmite that suddenly appeared beneath him rose from the floor and pierced his throat. A split second later, the tip of the bloodied spear of ice appeared out of the top of the griffon's skull. With a strange, grunting sound almost like laughter, another unicorn wraith appeared from thin air.
Azrael jumped at the sudden appearance of the spike. After a second to register what had just happened, he gave a low growl at the murder of his new comrade. "How many of these demons are there?" "Bastardo..." Navaja leapt straight at the unicorn wraith. If viewing in slow motion, like a movie or something, one would see him reaching into his robe and pulling out some kind of impact bomb mid-leap.
