As the party trudged through another hallway, a distant rhythmic sound drifted to their ears, growing louder the further they went. It was the sound of metal beating on metal, and as they neared another doorway it grew almost deafening.

CLANG

The room beyond shone menacingly with a dull orange glow, and Dana exchanged a glance with Paige, though neither said anything as the thunderous clanging drowned out all other sounds.

CLANG

Galen signaled to the rogues and spellcasters to stay in the back as he, the amazon and Aan entered the room.

CLANG

It took a moment for their eyes to adjust to the glow that illuminated the armory. Rows upon rows of sharp, jagged weapons lined the walls, and strips of rough but solid armor were strewn about here and there. Dark rogues barked orders at scampering fallen that fed the burning maw of the forge, while others poured molten iron or fletched arrows. In the back, a mammoth arm rose and fell rhythmically as its hulking owner hammered away on an anvil.

CLANG

One of the fallen noticed the intruders and started screeching madly. The dark rogues reacted instantly, scrambling for weapons, but the party's backline was already loosing shafts and slinging spells at them.
Some fell while others began to retaliate with missiles of their own as the fallen rushed forward with the first sharp bit of metal they could grab.

CLANG

One imp picked up a spear that was much too large for him and ended tripping himself and two of his devilish kin. They quickly fell to Talia's magical onslaught as Galen, Aan and Dana moved to intercept the others.

CLANG

Cyrus muttered a blinding curse at the dark archers and their eyes turned glassy as their shots went wide. Paige and her sisters used the opening to dispose of one after the other. The fallen who managed to make it to the trio in the front quickly realized they were hopelessly outmatched and scrambled in a panic before being picked off by more spells from Talia.

Only a few of the demonic forces remained when the young sorceress realized the deafening metallic beat had stopped. The hunched figure at the back of the room stood upright, its dark silhouette growing even bigger against the glow of the forge as it discarded its hammer. A chill ran down her spine as the thing turned slowly to face her and she finally got a good look at it.

It had horns protruding from its head and tusks from its lower jaw, its thick hide was the same color as the furnace, and it wore only a dirty blacksmith apron and heavy gauntlets that glimmered in the forge light yet seemed to burn with a fire of their own.

A rumble like distant thunder shook the air before she realized it was a growl. The growl turned into a voice, and the voice into gruff but intelligible speech.

- "I told the mistress she was wasting her time with her corrupted toys. Broken tools are useless. She should have let me use them for parts. But no matter. I have finer materials at hand now. I will make weapons from your BONES!"

With that the demonic blacksmith bore down on them, moving at frightening speed despite his massive bulk of thick muscle that dwarfed even the northman's. The latter rushed to meet the new threat head-on as Paige and the other rogues took aim and shot, yet their arrows seemed little more than pinpricks in the monstrous frame; the smith wasn't even slowed down as he barreled into the barbarian, and the impact of the two goliaths shook the air.

For the first time in his adult life, Aan felt utterly overpowered as the bull-rushing demon knocked him aside with the force of a battering ram and kept charging towards the archers who were unleashing another volley. The smith shrugged off the arrows just like before, as well as a massive fireball from Talia which would have blasted a lesser creature off its feet yet didn't even singe the greater demon.

The juggernaut emerged from the fiery explosion only to be hamstrung by Dana's spear, finally stumbling to a halt with a grunt of pain.

Before the amazon could disengage, his massive gauntleted hand reached out snake-fast to grab her head, and began squeezing. She screamed as her newly acquired spangenhelm turned red hot and a tremendous force began collapsing it upon her skull. But all at once, the pressure that threatened to crush her head disappeared and she was dropped unceremoniously to the floor as the smith roared in pain.

Paige had pierced one of his eyes with a perfect shot, and now his one good eye turned to her with blistering hatred. The entire room shook with the demon's roar and all had to cover their ears as he launched himself at the young rogue; neither the spectral bone spear summoned by Cyrus nor the blast of lightning called forth by the sorceress did anything more than aggravate the behemoth's fury as he sent the necromancer flying with a backhand and finally reached his target.

He raised both massive fists to smash the sneaky vermin that had taken his eye, and all Paige could think of was how disappointed she was she would not be able to stand as Dana's battle sister in the fight against Andariel.

But Galen was suddenly there, pushing her out of the way, his shield raised to meet the blow. A flash of flame and a crack like thunder echoed against the walls of the armory; the shield was splintered by the demon's terrible strength and the impact sent the paladin to his knees, his left arm hanging limply by his side.

The smith raised his fist again for a coup de grace, but despite the pain he was in, Galen stabbed Providence upwards with his one hand, piercing the demonic arm above the elbow with its own momentum before it could achieve its deadly arc.

Growing ever more incensed, his teeth gnashing with pain and mounting frustration, the smith bellowed his rage and delivered a powerful frontal kick to send the paladin sprawling several meters away into one of the rogues, the wind knocked out of him.

The demon focused his deadly gaze back on Paige as she backpedaled away, but when he tried to move towards her, he found his feet were being encased in a thick layer of frost, pinning them to the ground.

Following the ice back to its source he saw the sorceress using her staff to spread cold magics along the floor. She poured more and more mana into her spell but the smith simply bent down and tore at the ice with his red-hot gauntlets; to Talia's horror the ice broke and melted in an instant, and in another he was upon her.

One of the rogues dove at the demon in a desperate strike with her falchion, but he grabbed her in one hand, her leather armor sizzling under the touch, and brought the other smashing down upon her head. Her skull caved in a shower of blood and gore that splashed against the young sorceress, who stood frozen in fear, quivering like a fawn before a lion. Talia was distantly aware of someone screaming, she thought it might have been Paige, but everything felt distant to her, as though she were removed from her own body, and she did not stir as the demon reached for her face.

The smith's hand never reached her as a large figure flew through the air and brought down its axe in a massive overhand chop that bit deep into the demonic forearm.

- "Snap out of it, witch!" the figure bellowed at her and she regained enough focus to recognize the barbarian.

The smith turned on the interloper and delivered a devastating punch to Aan's face; the northman quickly recovered and offered his foe a vicious, blood-smeared smile before pulling out his mace with his left hand, dual wielding two great weapons a regular man could barely lift. The demon roared in challenge and the barbarian answered in kind; the sound of his voice brought the sorceress back to reality in time to witness the two throw themselves at each other, hammering away in a berserker frenzy of steel and blood.

Her companion's war cry summoned a surge of courage and fury in her she had never felt before, and she hurriedly gathered her mana to come to his aid as she witnessed him losing the war of attrition against the demon. A savage blow sent the northman's helmet flying, but before the smith could follow up on his advantage, he felt a delicate palm against his back, and his vision turned white as a blinding field of static shot through him.

- "Aan! Strike!" Talia shouted with incandescent eyes as she used her entire body as a conduit for her shock magics.

The barbarian hesitated for barely an instant as he watched his adversary convulse, lightning dancing along every inch of his skin. Dodging a wild swing from the flailing arms, he delivered a precise, crushing blow with his mace to the demon's right knee, just below the wound Dana had inflicted.

The smith's massive frame crumpled to the floor with a sickening crack. He raised his gauntleted hand to shield himself but Aan embedded his axe into where Galen had pierced the elbow and the arm went limp.

The demon's other hand shot forward with desperate speed to grab the northman by the throat, scorching his skin and attempting to crush his windpipe, but Aan was already smashing his mace down with both hands. Another sickening crack, and the smith's grip loosened. Then another. And another.

The final mace strike collapsed the greater demon's skull completely, and his hand fell, followed by the rest of his body.

Breathing heavily as his battle lust abated, the barbarian walked over to the sorceress, who simply stood there, shaken, staring at the fallen monster at her feet. He placed his bear paw on her lithe shoulder. She looked up at him, the embers of her magical fury still glowing dimly in her eyes.

- "You did good, wi…Talia," he decided. "You did good."

She tried to summon a smile but found herself unable to. Her face was still smeared with the blood of the rogue. She turned to where the latter's body lay, only to see Galen and Paige were already kneeling there, faces grim. Everyone gathered around the dead rogue, and all could see she was beyond healing.

- "She's gone," the paladin whispered.

A moment passed before Paige removed her cloak and used it to cover her fallen sister. Galen rose to his feet and looked up the bruised and bloodied barbarian and the amazon with her singed head.

- "At least I can do something about you two."

Both welcomed the paladin's healing touch gratefully, and while Galen placed his radiant hands at Dana's temples, Aan hunched over the smith's corpse and began removing the gauntlets, careful not to burn his hands; to his surprise they were cool to the touch.

These were clearly the work of a master, forged in some unknown enchanted metal that glowed with a hidden fire, each with a blazing ruby encrusted into the back of the palm. Trying them on, the northman dejectedly found they were somewhat too large, but the metal suddenly came to life, shifting as though it were molten steel to fit his hands and forearms perfectly.

A rush of power surged through him, and he felt like he could shatter Mount Arreat with his fists. A fierce heat emanated from the gauntlets, yet it felt like no more than a summer wind to him. Relishing in his newfound acquisitions, he slammed his fists together and looked at the others with a cocksure grin. He was met by Paige's sorrowful eyes. Her friend's blood was still on the gauntlets.

- "Your kill, your trophy," she said, and walked over to the anvil at the back of the room.

Feeling chastened, the barbarian followed her to offer some words of consolation, yet before he could find them, she spoke up again.

- "I want you to do something for me," she said as she grabbed the hammer that rested on the anvil and turned to him. It was unlike any he had ever seen, seeming more like a powerful ancient relic than a workman's tool. "If I don't make it, I want you to give this to Charsi. It belongs to her," she finished as she handed him the hammer.

Still not finding the words, he nodded solemnly, inwardly promising himself that no harm would come to the young rogue under his watch. Her eyes suddenly shot wide with vengeful outrage and Aan lost his composure, wondering what he had done to upset her, but she stormed past him before he could ask her.

He watched her march up to Cyrus, who was muttering in his creepy language again, surrounded by spectral energy that crawled its way like mist to the corpses of the corrupted rogues. Their skin was beginning to dissolve, bone freeing itself form the grasp of flesh as their skeletons were reanimated with necrotic magics.

Paige knocked an arrow and aimed it point blank at the necromancer's head.

- "Stop what you're doing right now." Her voice was low and menacing.

He turned to her with a confused, yet condescending look.

- "What's gotten into you, rogue?"

- "I SAID STOP!" she screamed and drew her bowstring even harder, pressing the tip of her arrow into his temple.

Visibly irritated, Cyrus nonetheless dispelled his incantation and the corpses fell back into the stillness of death.

- "Stealth is no longer a concern," he explained with a sigh. "I'm merely summoning undead minions to aid us. Don't tell me you too have some philosophical objection to my arts. I would've imagined your kind to be more practical than that."

- "Corrupted though they may be, these rogues were once my sisters. They will be buried in their ancestral home where they will finally be at peace. I will put a shaft into you if you try to desecrate their bodies and hold their spirits hostage again. Am I clear?"

The necromancer studied her coldly, but seeing the steel in her eyes decided to not push the matter any further.

- "Very well," he yielded. "I will have to content myself with one powerful minion instead. I trust your qualms do not extend to demons?"

He took her silence as consent and walked over to the smith's corpse.

Taking out the vial that contained the blood he had collected from the Countess, he poured some of its contents on his dagger, then cut his own palm with the blade. He let the blood drip onto the greater demon's inert corpse as his voice droned in eldritch syllables.

Aan gripped his axe when the smith stirred and rose to its feet, but he relaxed when it simply stood there before its new master, awaiting his commands.

- "Would it be petty of me if I dispelled that thing with holy fire?" Galen whispered to Dana.

- "Yes," she replied. "It would."

Paige was already leading the other rogues to an archway on the eastern side of the room. The racks there held no weapons or armor, but iron collars, cuffs, chains, and a variety of wicked implements of torture, many looking freshly forged. Beyond the arch, a stairway plunged downwards into darkness.

- "This is it," Paige called out to Dana as the latter joined her. "We can access the jails through here, and from there reach the inner cloister."

The two battle sisters led the way along with the paladin as the others filed in one by one.

Talia sighed at the thought of another underground trek; she knew it would not be the last. She felt a gentle nudge to her side and turned to see the northman offering her a knowing smirk. He signaled with his head to follow him and walked in front. She smiled and gratefully took her place behind him, shadowing his footsteps.