"Issari!" Tanin cried above, blowing his dragonfire. Nephilim crashed into him, tearing at his red scales. Blood rained.

A droplet of Tanin's blood hit Issari's head, snapping her out of her paralysis.

She soared as a dragon.

She blew her fire.

"Hide, children of Eteer!" Issari cried. "Into homes! Into cellars! Into—"

The nephilim crashed against her.

Their claws grabbed at her scales. Their fangs bit into her. Their laughter rang and their eyes mocked her.

Issari screamed and roared her fire. Her flames washed over the nephilim, but their hard, mummified flesh would not burn. Her claws, her fangs, and the spikes on her tail cut into them, shedding their black blood. They flew everywhere, and Issari wept as she slew them, for they were half-Eteerian, born from human wombs. She knew that slaying them was a mercy, though with every one that fell, she wept for her people.

"We can't fight them all!" Tanin cried at her side. He blew fire in rings and whipped his tail, trying to hold them off.

The creatures surrounded the two dragons, a sea of rot. As Issari fought, she saw more nephilim scuttling over the city. They shattered roofs, pulled humans out from within, and sucked the meat off the bones. They shattered columns and sent temples crumbling. They knocked down statues of Shahazar; the goddess seemed helpless to stop them. Blood stained the streets, buildings collapsed, and dust rose in clouds.

Like Eteer before it, the city-state of Goshar fell to the rot of the half-demons.

We are lost, Issari thought. She swiped her claws and tail and blew fire, holding the enemy off, but she knew she could not win this battle.

Thousands of soldiers raced across walls and roofs below, shouting and firing arrows. A few arrows sank into nephil flesh. Most shattered uselessly against the creatures' leathery hides. The nephilim kept swooping, lifting archers off roofs, and tearing them apart. Shreds of ring mail, severed limbs, and gobbets of flesh fell upon the city, vanishing into the crumbling ruins.

Goshar falls. Issari stared below, and through clouds of dust, she glimpsed a hundred nephilim trundling down the streets, towering over the children of Eteer, clawing them apart. Eteer falls. She looked up at Tanin. A dozen of the creatures were landing upon him, clawing at his scales. We fall. We cannot win. Not only two dragons. Her eyes stung. We need Requiem. We need armies of dragons. We—

She blinked.

She blew fire, roasting a nephil who flew toward her. She clubbed another with her tail.

"Requiem," she whispered.

A screeching nephil soared toward her from a collapsing dome. Its mouth opened wide, full of yellow teeth as long as swords. She roasted it with dragonfire, then swiped her claws across its neck. Maggots fled the wound and the creature crashed down.