Rain and Acro stood by the beast's corpse as it dematerialized into spectral matter, panting from the fight and looked to each other "What next?" Rain asked. Acro looked down the hallway and said "Next, we seal the portal. Come with me, we can finish this here and now." Without another word or a response from Rain, Acro started walking in the direction of the portal and Rain broke into a brisk jog to catch up to the reflection. Soon enough, the two reached the room where it had started. The explosion came from here, the portal opened here, the beasts had entered reality here, and it would end here, right now. "Alright, Rain I've got to prepare the ritual, I need you to keep watch for any astral beasts, let me know if you see any and I'll help you fight them," Rain looked to Acro and gave a simple "Okay," before she walked to the hole in the wall to look out for the beasts. Rain occasionally looked back to Acro to see him drawing runes on the ground around the portal with astral energy. As Rain looked at what her friend was doing, she was brought back to reality by a menacing growl from down the hallway. "Oh shit," Rain called out to Acro "there are a few of them coming down the hall." The three beasts were walking down the corridor looking to Rain with spiteful eyes that hungered for her soul. Rain drew and activated her sword as Acro floated across the room to help her deal with the beasts. "No, go back to what you were doing Acro." Rain spoke, "I can handle this." Acro froze and looked at Rain before he asked " Rain, are you sure about this? I didn't save you only to have you get killed." Rain's confidence didn't wane and she called back to Acro, "and you didn't give me weapons just to fight them all yourself." Acro opened his mouth to say something but he closed it, Rain was right. She usually was, after all, that was why Acro had left her in charge while he was gone. As Acro conceded victory to Rain and began to draw more runes on the ground, Rain turned her direction back to the three beasts and begun the fight. Rain ripped a portal open below her and above the farthest back of the beasts before jumping through it and landing on top the beast driving her blade of energy through the beast's skull. The monster let out a death rattle before falling off of the blade onto the ground and lay still. The other two beasts turned to face Rain and saw their fallen friend. The beast's let out cries of rage and both jumped at Rain. Rain lifted her gloved hand to the beasts and fired a blast of radiation at the beasts knocking them back. With her other hand, Rain drew her revolver and fired 3 energy infused bullets into one of the beasts. It recoiled in pain as the other beast charged at Rain again. Rain stopped this beast, not with a wave of radiation, but a beam. The beam punched a hole in the beast that slowly grew as the radiation spread through the beast's collapsing frame. The beast Rain had shot regained its footing and began to limp towards Rain who promptly turned towards the beast and finished it off with an additional shot from her revolver. Rain turned back to the beast she had crippled with her beam of radiation and pulled her sword back out and sunk the blade of energy into the beast's flank. Just as Acro began to wonder how Rain was doing with the beasts, her petite frame appeared back in the hole where the door used to be and spoke with a slight smile "Told you I could handle it." Acro looked to Rain and smiled before he said: "Oh yeah? I could have done it myself in half the time." Rain scoffed at Acro's comeback "Yeah right. I'd like to see you try" The two continued until Acro finished drawing the runes and stepped back, "Well, the ritual is ready Rain, lets put an end to this" Acro stepped away from the runes and raised his hands performing a few simple hand motions. Suddenly, a yellow hue lit up the room and the portal seemed less evil before it began to shrink away slowly into nothing. The portal was gone but the war was not over "There's one more beast left in this realm." Acro said to Rain as the two stood looking into the now empty room. "Okay, lets find it and kill it." Rain said back to Acro. "No," Acro said, "this one is different, I can feel it in my very core." Rain and Acro stood side by side staring into the void where the portal used to be. Rain was scared for the future and Acro was scared of losing one of his closest friends to the astral beasts... [spoiler]Sorry Xombie, but I actually enjoy writing this story I hope you understand. Also I'll probably try a photography post tomorrow.[/spoiler]