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Description
October 31, 1903; Ranchos de los Brujos, New Mexico Territory

The posse rode as fast as they could to the desert outskirts of the town, following the sounds of crocodilian roars and the muffled sound of distant explosions that they began to hear the closer they got. They came to a hard stop when they reached the edge of the gorge that the Archuleta bandits had called their base of operations before Evelyn and Chaytan tore it down. The Assassins quickly got off their horses and ran to the edge to get a look at what the hell was going on down near the obelisk. Evelyn's eyes widened when she spotted Nacho down below. He was surrounded by a few rotted old crates, stacked to the brim with dynamite. He was pulling a few sticks one by one out of the crates, and dragging them over to the stone obelisk that held Vivaron trapped inside. Evelyn noticed all the crumbling dents in the stone that weren't there before, and how unstable that doorway seemed to appear now. How much wider it was opened. Her heart sank.

“What the hell is he doing?” the sheriff said.

“Bastard’s trying to set the monster free…” Evelyn realized. “We have to get down there now!”

She didn't waste any time. She lunged over the edge of the cliff and started skidding her way down the gravel, hidden blade out and at the ready. She quickly approached Nacho from behind, but she didn't charge him. She was smarter than that.

But Nacho was also smart, if insane, and he detected her coming up behind him. He creaked his form around to face her, his dead eyes locking with hers.

“The Assassin,” he snarled through his teeth.

“You made a very very big mistake making a fool out of us, Nacho,” Evelyn warned him.

“No one will mourn the loss of my brother, Assassin. He was a scoundrel just like me. He needed to die.”

“So that you could hoard all the power and stolen goods for yourself!”

Nacho grinned again, and he raised his arms. “Of course!” he agreed. “And why wouldn't I? These devices… these creatures… they are power incarnate. They are my angels of death and I am their God!”

“You're hardly even a man.” Evelyn reached into her bag and pulled out the golden stone. She raised it up for the madman to gaze at from afar. “Especially without this,” she continued.

Nacho's smile vanished, replaced with the beginnings of a frown. “So it was you who stole my prize!” he concluded. “I should've known not to trust a hired gun like you. Everyone always wants to take my power from me!”

“All I wanted to do was spend the night in a bed, you bloody clod! But now I'm not sleeping until I make sure this rock is shoved firmly down your throat!”

“It's too late for that, Assassin. I will pull that stone from your cold dead corpse and then I will use it to dominate this entire state! This entire country! With one more detonation, nothing will be able to stop me!”

He suddenly reached to his belt and grabbed a match, which he tossed into the pile of dynamite that he had stacked at the base of the obelisk. Evelyn heard the sparking sound of fuses getting shorter, and shorter.

And then came the explosion.

Evelyn ducked behind a rock to take cover from the shrapnel that went flying, putting her arms over her head. Chaytan slid down to grab her and keep her doubly protected, and then the two carefully peeked out into the arena. The obelisk was shattered, falling apart piece by piece. The golden portal to another realm glitched and contorted like some sort of specter as it was forcibly widened up. As the dust settled, there was a silence that took over the gorge. A haunting silence as the doorway flickered.

Then there was a gurgling rumble.

And moments later, there were footsteps.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Chaytan held his wife tight as something began to peak its way out of the glitching wall of light. A scaly snout, bigger than Evelyn's torso, followed by the blood-stained teeth revealing themselves as the mouth of the snout’s owner began to open. There was that eerie hissing noise as more and more of the creature lugged itself out into the open. An enormous monster of an animal. At least 30 feet, walking tall on strong legs that were clearly built for chasing down anything those massive jaws wanted to sink into. The closest comparison Evelyn could make was a crocodile. But not like any modern crocodile she was familiar with. This was like a crocodile pumped up on growth hormones and stood like a dinosaur on its hind legs. A far cry from the slow shoreline predators she knew so well. A much much more dangerous far cry.

It looked around the gorge, not fully understanding its new surroundings. Everyone waited in fear to see what it would do. Everyone save for Nacho. He simply grinned, gazing at the creature with arms stretched as if worshiping its magnificence. It turned towards him, staring him down. It made more of those nervous crocodile bellows from deep within its gut.

“Vivaron, my beauty!” Nacho said. He reached into his bag, and pulled out what appeared to be a slab of raw meat. The creature sniffed the air, immediately catching the scent of a meal. Nacho tossed the slab into the air, and the beast reared up to snap it up in its jaws, swallowing it whole without even a pause. It's stressed rumbles turned to more satisfied ones. Nacho grinned, and he carefully made his way around the back. He climbed up onto the monster's scaly back, and he grinned menacingly at Evelyn and Chaytan.

“Now Assassins, you will experience the power of your new god!” he declared.

Evelyn and Chaytan stood, faces of fear and legs ready to spring away. Vivaron let out a voracious bellow of a roar as Nacho kicked the beast into gear.

And it charged.

Evelyn and Chaytan bolted out of the way as the creature slammed its weight into the rock they had taken cover behind. Shards of stone went flying as Evelyn scrambled back to her feet and grabbed her gun. She fired a few rounds at the creature's face, but it seemed to do little more than piss it off, it's thick crocodilian scales protecting its hide. It roared at her, and charged her way. She cursed under her breath and ran, leaping over as many obstacles as she could to keep her distance between the monster and her. But in her haste, she lost her footing, and a stone tripped her up. She fell face-first to the ground, and when she painfully rolled onto her hands and knees, she could already feel how close the thunderous footsteps were. She looked up above herself and gasped as a massive set of jaws appeared in her field of view and opened wide. Her heart stopped, and her body froze as it realized there was no way out. She shut her eyes tight.

But then she suddenly felt something slam into her side and knock her away. She heard the creature smacking its face into the dirt where she once was, and she opened her eyes to look at whoever saved her from that fate. She smiled, and Chaytan smiled back at her. He quickly shuffled her away, behind another cover to give them a few moments while Nacho and his monster fumed about this not being a quick fight.

“We can't fight him alone,” Chaytan cursed.

Evelyn was about to nod in agreement as her mind sorted through all the possible options. But then suddenly a feeling from her bag interrupted her thought process. A faint sort of… radiance. Her eyes widened, and she reached for her bag, pulling out the golden stone from earlier and holding it aloft.

“Maybe we won't have to,” she said.

“Are you sure that's a good idea?”

They heard another roar from outside. “Face your god, cowards!” they heard Nacho fume.

“I don't think we really have much of a choice right now,” Evelyn told her husband.

She held the stone aloft, and closed her eyes as she concentrated. The artifact glowed bright in her hands, and the obelisk suddenly started pulsing again. Clouds of glowing specks started fluttering out from the gateway, and they all condensed in front of Evelyn. They took the shape of the feathered creatures from before, the Coelophysis, as Evelyn had identified them. They shook as if waking up, and preened their feathers. Then they locked their attention onto Evelyn, staring at her. She and Chaytan held their breath as the dinosaurs slowly walked up to them, sniffing and investigating. Their eyes went to the glowing stone, and the sight of the artifact seemed to make them complicate. They gave little chirps, a noise somewhere between a baby alligator and a songbird. Evelyn smiled. Now she had her own personal army.

Her smile was quickly taken away by the sound of gunshots and roars from the outside, though. The Assassins quickly looked over their cover, and they saw the sheriff and his posse riding around the edge of the cliffside with shotguns in hand, trying to pump Nacho and the beast full of rounds and making little progress aside from angering them. Evelyn turned back to her knew pets, deciding it was time to hop back into the action. She held the stone up, and the Coelophysis raised their heads like startled birds. Then they started snapping and chirping to one another, and they suddenly rushed out into the open, charging towards Nacho and Vivaron. The bandit leader tore his gaze from the posse as the smaller creatures bolted at him, snapping and clawing at Vivaron.

“No!” he snarled as they lunged at him and tore bloody scars in Vivaron's hide. “I am your master! Stop this now!”

But the animals didn't listen. Evelyn stepped out of her hiding place, gun at the ready. She fired a shot at the bandit leader, and this time her aim was true. The bullet smacked into his shoulder, sending him tumbling off the back of his beast. One of the Coelophysis lunged on top of him and attempted to snap at his throat, but he wrestled it away, kicking it in the snout and pulling out a knife to stick into its throat. The creature fell, and Nacho turned to face the other creatures attacking his pride and joy, but he was stopped again. This time by Evelyn.

She tackled him to the ground, hidden blade at the ready to drive into his heart. But he reacted quickly, and the two of them went tumbling into a wrestle.

“Your reign of terror will not survive the night, Nacho!” she growled at him.

“We will see, Assassin!” he snarled back. The two kicked and punched, each trying to jab their blades into the other's skin. Their fight crossed paths with that of Vivaron and Evelyn's army of dinosaurs, though the animals seemed to be too caught up in their brawl to notice the humans that were simply trying to avoid being stepped on by them.

Evelyn made another swing at Nacho's neck, but he leaned out of the way, and took the advantage to deliver a swift punch right into her nose. Evelyn yelped and stumbled backwards, tripping over a rock as she did. She stumbled to the ground, and recovered just in time to see Vivaron thundering her way as it gnashed at the Coelophysis. She rolled out of the way as fast as she could to avoid being squashed. She sprung back up as the animals went tumbling away, and turned back to face Nacho. But when she looked up, she saw him running away from her, not towards. At first she just thought his nerve had broken, but then she saw what he was running towards. A shiny golden stone in the dirt where she had fallen.

She gasped, her hand going to her bag to instinctively check that the stone wasn't there anymore. She bolted forward, not wanting to let the artifact fall into the madman’s hands. Nacho lunged into the dirt, hands just about to clasp onto the stone before Evelyn tackled him away. The two wrestled again, but Nacho quickly kicked her off of him. He made a beeline for the stone, sliding and swiping it from the ground. He laughed maniacally, and looked over at Vivaron. He held the stone, and the beast’s eyes started glowing deep gold. It started viciously and methodically biting down on Evelyn's army, taking them out of commission one by one. Evelyn gasped, and ignored her aching bones to make another lunge. She leapt over the bandit's head, and locked her fingers around the stone, and the second her feet hit the ground, she entered a tug of war match with Nacho for its possession.

The stone pulsed and glowed in their hands as they each kicked and pulled and clawed for the artifact. Nacho clearly was not happy with these turn of events, and Evelyn gave him a scowl in return for his own. The bandit leader snarled, and suddenly thrust his knee up to drive it into her stomach. Evelyn doubled over, one of her hands falling off the stone, followed quickly by the other as Nacho delivered a swift punch to her jaw that sent her collapsing to the ground. He grinned, staring victoriously into the stone's hypnotizing light.

Then a resounding bang echoed in the gorge, and the stone suddenly went flying out of Nacho’s hand along with a fair amount of his blood. He yelled in pain, and looked over to see Chaytan charging towards him, pistol still smoking. Nacho reared himself for a brawl, and not far off, Evelyn painfully pulled herself back to her knees.

“Bloody hell, I'm getting too old for this…” she moaned as she rubbed her head. She looked over to see her husband squaring off against the bandit leader, then over at the stone which had been flung a distance away. She scrambled to her feet, just as Nacho sucker punched Chaytan to the ground and started sprinting towards the artifact. Evelyn gasped again, and frantically looked around. She noticed a sort of grappling hook and rope at her feet, and she took notice of the trees between the artifact and Nacho. A plan quickly wormed its way into her brain, and she snatched the grappling hook up, and started sprinting after him. She ducked under the thundering steps of Vivaron when the beast stomped past her on her way to the tree, and she sprinted up the branches. Nacho was just below her; she swung the hook in her hands for momentum, and hurled it down towards his neck. Just as Nacho was about to grab the stone again, he suddenly found himself getting jerked backwards as the hook caught his jacket collar. As soon as she was hooked in, Evelyn jumped backwards, holding on to the rope as she fell and dragged Nacho up into the trees, hanging and scrambling to break free like some toiling creature of the night.

“No!” he snarled. “Get me down from here! Come to me my pets!”

“Your pets won't be taking orders from you anymore!” Evelyn told him, snatching up the stone and holding it aloft. “And no one ever will again.”

Vivaron let out another bassy roar. Evelyn looked over just as it had finished the last fatal bite on the last of its smaller attackers. It's eyes glowed like the artifact she held, and it stared confused at her.

“Dinner’s ready!” she smiled, looking up at Nacho, who suddenly had a terrified look on his face.

“No!” he said, wriggling frantically to break free.

But it was no use. Vivaron slowly started thundering towards the tree, towards the man who abused her might for too many years. The creature kicked up speed, jaws dripping with blood. Nacho kicked and flailed as the creature got close enough for him to smell its breath. The creature gave an angered crocodilian hiss, it's jaws slowly unhinging. Then it reared back, throat open and teeth bared, and it let out a vicious roar that drowned out Nacho's screams of terror as the beast lunged forward and bit down on its latest meal. Nacho was gone almost immediately, chomped in one bite and brought down to be digested in the bowels of the monster he once called his own.

Evelyn had to sit down. There was a feeling of pause in the air as the monster swallowed its prey. A moment of still after such a hard fight. Chaytan rushed to her side, holding her tight. The both looked up at Vivaron. The animal turned around to lumber towards them, though not malevolently. It looked down at them, like a curious animal, specifically at Evelyn and the stone. For a moment, there was a tense silence as the Assassins wondered what it was thinking.

But that tension was broken. The creature took its curious gaze away from the two, and then started walking back towards the obelisk. The remains of the Coelophysis evaporated as it walked past, returning as golden dust into the gateway. Vivaron followed them inside, the last thing the Assassins ever seeing of it being its giant tail. The tail smacked into the sides of the gateway as the animal disappeared into the light, and suddenly the stone started cracking and crumbling, the light of the technology twitching and fading out. The obelisk shook and cracked, until finally it gave out, and the entire structure collapsed into a pile of dead rubble. There was no more light or aura anymore. Even the stone in Evelyn's hand had lost all its supernatural glow. The Assassins sat there in a moment of silence for a moment, before closing their eyes and sighing.

The monsters were finally gone for good.

Description
October 31, 1903; Ranchos de los Brujos, New Mexico Territory

The posse rode as fast as they could to the desert outskirts of the town, following the sounds of crocodilian roars and the muffled sound of distant explosions that they began to hear the closer they got. They came to a hard stop when they reached the edge of the gorge that the Archuleta bandits had called their base of operations before Evelyn and Chaytan tore it down. The Assassins quickly got off their horses and ran to the edge to get a look at what the hell was going on down near the obelisk. Evelyn's eyes widened when she spotted Nacho down below. He was surrounded by a few rotted old crates, stacked to the brim with dynamite. He was pulling a few sticks one by one out of the crates, and dragging them over to the stone obelisk that held Vivaron trapped inside. Evelyn noticed all the crumbling dents in the stone that weren't there before, and how unstable that doorway seemed to appear now. How much wider it was opened. Her heart sank.

“What the hell is he doing?” the sheriff said.

“Bastard’s trying to set the monster free…” Evelyn realized. “We have to get down there now!”

She didn't waste any time. She lunged over the edge of the cliff and started skidding her way down the gravel, hidden blade out and at the ready. She quickly approached Nacho from behind, but she didn't charge him. She was smarter than that.

But Nacho was also smart, if insane, and he detected her coming up behind him. He creaked his form around to face her, his dead eyes locking with hers.

“The Assassin,” he snarled through his teeth.

“You made a very very big mistake making a fool out of us, Nacho,” Evelyn warned him.

“No one will mourn the loss of my brother, Assassin. He was a scoundrel just like me. He needed to die.”

“So that you could hoard all the power and stolen goods for yourself!”

Nacho grinned again, and he raised his arms. “Of course!” he agreed. “And why wouldn't I? These devices… these creatures… they are power incarnate. They are my angels of death and I am their God!”

“You're hardly even a man.” Evelyn reached into her bag and pulled out the golden stone. She raised it up for the madman to gaze at from afar. “Especially without this,” she continued.

Nacho's smile vanished, replaced with the beginnings of a frown. “So it was you who stole my prize!” he concluded. “I should've known not to trust a hired gun like you. Everyone always wants to take my power from me!”

“All I wanted to do was spend the night in a bed, you bloody clod! But now I'm not sleeping until I make sure this rock is shoved firmly down your throat!”

“It's too late for that, Assassin. I will pull that stone from your cold dead corpse and then I will use it to dominate this entire state! This entire country! With one more detonation, nothing will be able to stop me!”

He suddenly reached to his belt and grabbed a match, which he tossed into the pile of dynamite that he had stacked at the base of the obelisk. Evelyn heard the sparking sound of fuses getting shorter, and shorter.

And then came the explosion.

Evelyn ducked behind a rock to take cover from the shrapnel that went flying, putting her arms over her head. Chaytan slid down to grab her and keep her doubly protected, and then the two carefully peeked out into the arena. The obelisk was shattered, falling apart piece by piece. The golden portal to another realm glitched and contorted like some sort of specter as it was forcibly widened up. As the dust settled, there was a silence that took over the gorge. A haunting silence as the doorway flickered.

Then there was a gurgling rumble.

And moments later, there were footsteps.

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

Chaytan held his wife tight as something began to peak its way out of the glitching wall of light. A scaly snout, bigger than Evelyn's torso, followed by the blood-stained teeth revealing themselves as the mouth of the snout’s owner began to open. There was that eerie hissing noise as more and more of the creature lugged itself out into the open. An enormous monster of an animal. At least 30 feet, walking tall on strong legs that were clearly built for chasing down anything those massive jaws wanted to sink into. The closest comparison Evelyn could make was a crocodile. But not like any modern crocodile she was familiar with. This was like a crocodile pumped up on growth hormones and stood like a dinosaur on its hind legs. A far cry from the slow shoreline predators she knew so well. A much much more dangerous far cry.

It looked around the gorge, not fully understanding its new surroundings. Everyone waited in fear to see what it would do. Everyone save for Nacho. He simply grinned, gazing at the creature with arms stretched as if worshiping its magnificence. It turned towards him, staring him down. It made more of those nervous crocodile bellows from deep within its gut.

“Vivaron, my beauty!” Nacho said. He reached into his bag, and pulled out what appeared to be a slab of raw meat. The creature sniffed the air, immediately catching the scent of a meal. Nacho tossed the slab into the air, and the beast reared up to snap it up in its jaws, swallowing it whole without even a pause. It's stressed rumbles turned to more satisfied ones. Nacho grinned, and he carefully made his way around the back. He climbed up onto the monster's scaly back, and he grinned menacingly at Evelyn and Chaytan.

“Now Assassins, you will experience the power of your new god!” he declared.

Evelyn and Chaytan stood, faces of fear and legs ready to spring away. Vivaron let out a voracious bellow of a roar as Nacho kicked the beast into gear.

And it charged.

Evelyn and Chaytan bolted out of the way as the creature slammed its weight into the rock they had taken cover behind. Shards of stone went flying as Evelyn scrambled back to her feet and grabbed her gun. She fired a few rounds at the creature's face, but it seemed to do little more than piss it off, it's thick crocodilian scales protecting its hide. It roared at her, and charged her way. She cursed under her breath and ran, leaping over as many obstacles as she could to keep her distance between the monster and her. But in her haste, she lost her footing, and a stone tripped her up. She fell face-first to the ground, and when she painfully rolled onto her hands and knees, she could already feel how close the thunderous footsteps were. She looked up above herself and gasped as a massive set of jaws appeared in her field of view and opened wide. Her heart stopped, and her body froze as it realized there was no way out. She shut her eyes tight.

But then she suddenly felt something slam into her side and knock her away. She heard the creature smacking its face into the dirt where she once was, and she opened her eyes to look at whoever saved her from that fate. She smiled, and Chaytan smiled back at her. He quickly shuffled her away, behind another cover to give them a few moments while Nacho and his monster fumed about this not being a quick fight.

“We can't fight him alone,” Chaytan cursed.

Evelyn was about to nod in agreement as her mind sorted through all the possible options. But then suddenly a feeling from her bag interrupted her thought process. A faint sort of… radiance. Her eyes widened, and she reached for her bag, pulling out the golden stone from earlier and holding it aloft.

“Maybe we won't have to,” she said.

“Are you sure that's a good idea?”

They heard another roar from outside. “Face your god, cowards!” they heard Nacho fume.

“I don't think we really have much of a choice right now,” Evelyn told her husband.

She held the stone aloft, and closed her eyes as she concentrated. The artifact glowed bright in her hands, and the obelisk suddenly started pulsing again. Clouds of glowing specks started fluttering out from the gateway, and they all condensed in front of Evelyn. They took the shape of the feathered creatures from before, the Coelophysis, as Evelyn had identified them. They shook as if waking up, and preened their feathers. Then they locked their attention onto Evelyn, staring at her. She and Chaytan held their breath as the dinosaurs slowly walked up to them, sniffing and investigating. Their eyes went to the glowing stone, and the sight of the artifact seemed to make them complicate. They gave little chirps, a noise somewhere between a baby alligator and a songbird. Evelyn smiled. Now she had her own personal army.

Her smile was quickly taken away by the sound of gunshots and roars from the outside, though. The Assassins quickly looked over their cover, and they saw the sheriff and his posse riding around the edge of the cliffside with shotguns in hand, trying to pump Nacho and the beast full of rounds and making little progress aside from angering them. Evelyn turned back to her knew pets, deciding it was time to hop back into the action. She held the stone up, and the Coelophysis raised their heads like startled birds. Then they started snapping and chirping to one another, and they suddenly rushed out into the open, charging towards Nacho and Vivaron. The bandit leader tore his gaze from the posse as the smaller creatures bolted at him, snapping and clawing at Vivaron.

“No!” he snarled as they lunged at him and tore bloody scars in Vivaron's hide. “I am your master! Stop this now!”

But the animals didn't listen. Evelyn stepped out of her hiding place, gun at the ready. She fired a shot at the bandit leader, and this time her aim was true. The bullet smacked into his shoulder, sending him tumbling off the back of his beast. One of the Coelophysis lunged on top of him and attempted to snap at his throat, but he wrestled it away, kicking it in the snout and pulling out a knife to stick into its throat. The creature fell, and Nacho turned to face the other creatures attacking his pride and joy, but he was stopped again. This time by Evelyn.

She tackled him to the ground, hidden blade at the ready to drive into his heart. But he reacted quickly, and the two of them went tumbling into a wrestle.

“Your reign of terror will not survive the night, Nacho!” she growled at him.

“We will see, Assassin!” he snarled back. The two kicked and punched, each trying to jab their blades into the other's skin. Their fight crossed paths with that of Vivaron and Evelyn's army of dinosaurs, though the animals seemed to be too caught up in their brawl to notice the humans that were simply trying to avoid being stepped on by them.

Evelyn made another swing at Nacho's neck, but he leaned out of the way, and took the advantage to deliver a swift punch right into her nose. Evelyn yelped and stumbled backwards, tripping over a rock as she did. She stumbled to the ground, and recovered just in time to see Vivaron thundering her way as it gnashed at the Coelophysis. She rolled out of the way as fast as she could to avoid being squashed. She sprung back up as the animals went tumbling away, and turned back to face Nacho. But when she looked up, she saw him running away from her, not towards. At first she just thought his nerve had broken, but then she saw what he was running towards. A shiny golden stone in the dirt where she had fallen.

She gasped, her hand going to her bag to instinctively check that the stone wasn't there anymore. She bolted forward, not wanting to let the artifact fall into the madman’s hands. Nacho lunged into the dirt, hands just about to clasp onto the stone before Evelyn tackled him away. The two wrestled again, but Nacho quickly kicked her off of him. He made a beeline for the stone, sliding and swiping it from the ground. He laughed maniacally, and looked over at Vivaron. He held the stone, and the beast’s eyes started glowing deep gold. It started viciously and methodically biting down on Evelyn's army, taking them out of commission one by one. Evelyn gasped, and ignored her aching bones to make another lunge. She leapt over the bandit's head, and locked her fingers around the stone, and the second her feet hit the ground, she entered a tug of war match with Nacho for its possession.

The stone pulsed and glowed in their hands as they each kicked and pulled and clawed for the artifact. Nacho clearly was not happy with these turn of events, and Evelyn gave him a scowl in return for his own. The bandit leader snarled, and suddenly thrust his knee up to drive it into her stomach. Evelyn doubled over, one of her hands falling off the stone, followed quickly by the other as Nacho delivered a swift punch to her jaw that sent her collapsing to the ground. He grinned, staring victoriously into the stone's hypnotizing light.

Then a resounding bang echoed in the gorge, and the stone suddenly went flying out of Nacho’s hand along with a fair amount of his blood. He yelled in pain, and looked over to see Chaytan charging towards him, pistol still smoking. Nacho reared himself for a brawl, and not far off, Evelyn painfully pulled herself back to her knees.

“Bloody hell, I'm getting too old for this…” she moaned as she rubbed her head. She looked over to see her husband squaring off against the bandit leader, then over at the stone which had been flung a distance away. She scrambled to her feet, just as Nacho sucker punched Chaytan to the ground and started sprinting towards the artifact. Evelyn gasped again, and frantically looked around. She noticed a sort of grappling hook and rope at her feet, and she took notice of the trees between the artifact and Nacho. A plan quickly wormed its way into her brain, and she snatched the grappling hook up, and started sprinting after him. She ducked under the thundering steps of Vivaron when the beast stomped past her on her way to the tree, and she sprinted up the branches. Nacho was just below her; she swung the hook in her hands for momentum, and hurled it down towards his neck. Just as Nacho was about to grab the stone again, he suddenly found himself getting jerked backwards as the hook caught his jacket collar. As soon as she was hooked in, Evelyn jumped backwards, holding on to the rope as she fell and dragged Nacho up into the trees, hanging and scrambling to break free like some toiling creature of the night.

“No!” he snarled. “Get me down from here! Come to me my pets!”

“Your pets won't be taking orders from you anymore!” Evelyn told him, snatching up the stone and holding it aloft. “And no one ever will again.”

Vivaron let out another bassy roar. Evelyn looked over just as it had finished the last fatal bite on the last of its smaller attackers. It's eyes glowed like the artifact she held, and it stared confused at her.

“Dinner’s ready!” she smiled, looking up at Nacho, who suddenly had a terrified look on his face.

“No!” he said, wriggling frantically to break free.

But it was no use. Vivaron slowly started thundering towards the tree, towards the man who abused her might for too many years. The creature kicked up speed, jaws dripping with blood. Nacho kicked and flailed as the creature got close enough for him to smell its breath. The creature gave an angered crocodilian hiss, it's jaws slowly unhinging. Then it reared back, throat open and teeth bared, and it let out a vicious roar that drowned out Nacho's screams of terror as the beast lunged forward and bit down on its latest meal. Nacho was gone almost immediately, chomped in one bite and brought down to be digested in the bowels of the monster he once called his own.

Evelyn had to sit down. There was a feeling of pause in the air as the monster swallowed its prey. A moment of still after such a hard fight. Chaytan rushed to her side, holding her tight. The both looked up at Vivaron. The animal turned around to lumber towards them, though not malevolently. It looked down at them, like a curious animal, specifically at Evelyn and the stone. For a moment, there was a tense silence as the Assassins wondered what it was thinking.

But that tension was broken. The creature took its curious gaze away from the two, and then started walking back towards the obelisk. The remains of the Coelophysis evaporated as it walked past, returning as golden dust into the gateway. Vivaron followed them inside, the last thing the Assassins ever seeing of it being its giant tail. The tail smacked into the sides of the gateway as the animal disappeared into the light, and suddenly the stone started cracking and crumbling, the light of the technology twitching and fading out. The obelisk shook and cracked, until finally it gave out, and the entire structure collapsed into a pile of dead rubble. There was no more light or aura anymore. Even the stone in Evelyn's hand had lost all its supernatural glow. The Assassins sat there in a moment of silence for a moment, before closing their eyes and sighing.

The monsters were finally gone for good.