-/- The entity controlling Illya let out a yell. "It begins now." With that he lifted his hands and flames shot out to attack the enemy. -/-

Though the dark host was engulfed, few were destroyed, and the beast wasted no time before launching a counterattack. Freezing rain poured down on the forces of light, dousing the flames and chilling the air.

Back and forth the battle went, as both sides launched attacks both magical and physical. Spells were cast using words Napoleon could almost understand, but he was stopped from listening too closely by his mental guest.

'That language was never meant for either human tongues or ears,' Lovecraft warned. 'The Arab went insane simply from hearing it and attempting to write it down.'

"Illya --?"

'-- is protected by the being he hosts. He neither speaks nor hears the words.'

Comforted by that thought, the UNCLE agent returned to watching the battle, killing the things that occasionally managed to get close enough to threaten Illya's back, and trying not to be too surprised by the magical attacks.

It was getting rather difficult, however -- rains of frogs and swarms of locusts were things he thought he'd only encounter in Sunday school, and there were other items he was certain none of the sisters had ever imagined. Things he couldn't name and didn't even want to try. Things he couldn't even *look* at, except as movement out of the corner of his eye.

And even as they fought, the storm grew worse and the very air itself seemed to gain weight and press down upon the combatants. It was almost as if Time and Space were coiling up to a breaking point.

Then some unnamable something shifted, and reality seemed to shatter. The sky ripped open with a sound like all the fabric that ever existed tearing, revealing something Napoleon could only think of as *notness*. Illya gestured and shouted, and the *notness* began to collapse, pulling the dark horde into itself.

There was a last keening wail from the beast as it was pulled toward the *notness*, then a light that blinded, a noise that deafened, a smell that dizzied, a taste that nauseated and a touch that numbed.

Followed by silence.