Neria stepped cautiously through the mist of the fog as they arrived in the demons domain. A thick fog hung in the air; dew clung to their clothes as the air got colder as a chill ran over their skin, making the hairs stand on end.
"And what do we have here?" they all froze in place as the voice echoed through the fog, "a rebellious minion? An escaped slave?" the creature chuckled as the fog cleared, the sloth demon towered over them as it revelled the uneven terrain of the fade. "My, my... but you do have some gall." The demon shifted closer as it spoke again, "But playtime is over. You all have to go back now."
"Make me." Neria challenged as she shot a blast of lightening from her staff knocking the demon back.
"You wish to battle me? So be it!" the demon said as it began to collect power in its hand. "You will learn to bow to your betters, mor-" the last word was cut off when a knife suddenly embedded itself in to the demons arm, interrupting the casting.
The others quickly side glanced towards Kallian, who was preparing another knife. "Nice one," Neria whispered. The demon let out a roar as it charged towards them. Neria blasted a wall of ice in its path, cutting off its attack. The ice shattered though as a giant Ogre charged through it, sending shards of ice raining down on them as they scattered to avoid the attack.
"Where, in the name of the maker did that thing come from!?" Ruari shouted over the noise.
"Din' dirth! Shem na'din ir!" Lyna called out as she ducked from another attack.
Ruari was about to make a retort when the Ogre turned its attention to him, "Shit." He cursed as he dodged a fist and raised his shield to block the second, the force of the hit sent him flying backwards and crashing in to a wall of a hillside. He felt an immense pain before he felt a cool euphoria slide through him. He looked around to see Wynne casting, what he guessed, was a healing spell on him.
Ruari's attention was drawn back to the fight when he heard the demon let out another scream of rage, he looked up to see an arrow sticking out of its eye, fired from Lyna who was standing on top of the hill.
A strong wind began to whip around the battlefield, ice and snow began to form around the creature, Ruari looked over to see Neria letting loose a blizzard, the Ogre struggled against the ice and wind to make its way towards the mage, but the ice seemed to form more rapidly until the creature was completely frozen.
"Kallian!" Lyna called, the all looked round towards the city Elf to see her clutching her side, a large shard of ice sticking from her stomach rapidly staining with blood.
"Marker!" Ruari breathed out as they ran towards her.
"Not as bad as it looks, hurts though." Kallian said as Wynne began to pull the material away.
"She's right, but we will need to heal it, although we cannot be physically wounded the wounds to the mind can affect the body, I'll need to remove the ice in order to heal the wound; this will not be pleasant." She said to Kallian before looking towards the others, "keep her still." Ruari sat opposite Wynne and held down her shoulder while Neria and Lyna held her legs. "On three," Wynne announced as she grabbed hold of the ice,
"One," Kallian suddenly jerked as the ice was pulled out, screaming from the pain as blood began to quickly spread from the wound. Wynne hands began to glow green as the hole began to heal.
Kallian slowly relaxed as the pain fade with the injury. "What happened to two and three?" she asked as they helped her stand again.
"It's…. better when you not expecting it." Wynne explained.
What Kallian was going to say next was cut off when a loud hissing and cracking noise echoed around them. "Not again…" Neria whined when the ice fell away revelling a fire demon.
The demon moved slowly shooting fire balls as they dodged and tried to regroup. "Wynne!" Neria called over, "Can you paralyse it?"
Wynne nodded before thrusting her staff in to the air, a flash of light surrounded the fire demon before it stopped. Neria lifted her staff and froze the creature again. "Ruari, smash the thing!" Ruari charged the creature bracing his shield against his shoulder as he crashed through the ice shattering it.
"Please tell me that's it over." Ruari said as she dusted the ice off himself.
Before anyone could reply the shattered remains of the ice began to become charged with electricity as they began to join and meld together.
"No more games! Face me and die!" the sloth demon shouted as he appeared again. "Pathetic mortals, did you really think you could defeat me?!" A stone fist came flying past them knocking into the demons stomach, making it double over in pain, seeing his chance; Ruari quickly raised his sword and brought it down on the back of its neck, severing the sloths head.
"That has to kill it." Neria sighed.
"You defeated the demon." They all looked up quickly at the sound of the voice, surprised to see another person trapped in the fade. "I never thought... I never expected you to free yourself, to free us both."
"Yeh, I'm kind of awesome that way." Neria blatantly stated with a shrug.
"And here I thought we all killed the thing." Kallian muttered.
"When you return... take the Litany of Adralla from my body, it will protect you from the worst of the blood magic." He continued.
"Can you not return with us?" Lyna questioned.
"No, I have been here too long, what has been an afternoon to you has been days for me, my body will have wasted away. The sloth demon feeding off of me while I was here, using my life to fuel the nightmare here, there is little of me left."
"Is there nothing we can do?" asked Ruari.
"Thank you, but no, it is too late for me." Niall said with a sad smile. "The Litany is on my body, take it and save the circle."
"Thank you Niall," Neria said, "You have helped more than you know."
"Thank you, and goodbye my friends." Were the last words they heard as the sight of fade began to disappear around them.
