Pug focused on the demon while his son sought to topple the towers. His bolts of searing energy raised smoking welts on the demon’s body until Dahun struck the ground between two of the arching structures. A piteous cry escaped from the demon king as he touched the soil.
Magnus noticed that while most of the other magicians nearby were fleeing, a few of the stronger ones remained on the wall, directing their magic at the demon in aid of Pug. He reached out with his mind to find a keystone in the foundation of the tower closest to where his father and he floated. Using his power, he then ground the stone to dust in moments, and sent a massive wave of energy at the sudden void in the masonry. The entire tower shuddered and began to collapse, stones falling as the construction moved side to side. As it crumbled, massive discharges of green magic swirled upward, like mad dust-devils spinning away into the night sky.
Dahun shrieked in agony as the unbalanced forces in the pit began to discharge massive explosions like lightning and balls of fire. Pug could feel waves of heat rising and instinctively raised a protective shield around himself and Magnus.
With the shield in place, they could only watch.
Dahun lay writhing on the soil, gasping like a landed fish. His body contorted in spasms, while flames roared all around him. His legs and tail still hung over the pit and they now began to smoke and blister; he screamed in pain, but was unable to move.
Magnus sent to his father,It’s over.
Pug replied, ‘Not quite yet.’
A second tower began to tremble and Pug used his magic to send a warning to the remaining magicians. ‘Get out!’
Two of them flew away and the other leaped from the low wall to the outside of the fortress and ran as fast as he could.
The third and fourth towers also began to come apart and tumble inward. As they did, another tower of flame erupted from the pit. All of Dahun’s lower body was now consumed, and his vacant eyes had rolled up in his head.
Then suddenly a loud sucking sound could be heard, followed by a trembling through the earth. Dahun’s remains were ripped from the earth and vanished back into the pit in an instant. All the masonry and dead bodies nearby were also sucked into the pit as if a massive vacuum had inhaled everything. Anything without foundation within the confines of the walls disappeared, including discarded weapons.
Then it was still.
‘Is it over now?’ asked Magnus.
‘I think—’
The explosion was massive.
A visible shockwave rolled out of the pit, pushing earth, parts of dead bodies, and debris before it. It blasted outwards with enough force that the small building and the outer walls of the fortress were swept away like a child’s hands knocking away toy blocks.
Only Pug’s shield kept his son and himself safe, but the ferocity of the blast caught him off guard.
The speed and power of the shockwave cleared the area in seconds, and when they looked down, there was no sign of the pit, or any construction. The blast area was also devoid of any plant life and as smooth as polished marble.
‘What happened?’ asked Magnus.
‘The rift closed,’ said Pug. ‘We unbalanced the magic and it rebalanced itself.’
‘It looks as if there’s nothing left down there.’
‘Well, our friends are still down there, if they survived.’ Lowering himself and his son down, Pug said, ‘We’d better start digging them out.’
‘I hope Kaspar got his men far enough away to survive that blast,’ said Magnus.
‘I suspect he did,’ said Pug. ‘I’m not so certain about poor Timothy. He was running when last I saw him.’
Magnus said, ‘He’s fast.’
‘Let’s hope he’s fast enough. They reached the ground and Pug said, ‘Now, where was that building?’
‘Somewhere over here,’ said Magnus, as he closed his eyes and started probing with his magic to locate the entrance.
Amirantha was the first to regain consciousness. It was pitch black in the room. The massive explosion above had momentarily sucked all of the air out of the chamber, extinguishing the lights and rendering everyone within it unconscious.
His lungs burned and he felt his head pounding as he reached around blindly and felt the base of the altar. He used it to steady himself and got to his feet. The air had quickly returned to the room, but the sudden decompression really had caused some damage.
He reached into his belt pouch, took out a crystal, and incanted a single word. The crystal began to glow, casting enough light on the room that he could see the others. Sandreena was stirring with a groan, and he knelt next to her shaking her shoulder gently he said, ‘You’re alive.’
She shook her head and focused her eyes on him and said, ‘What?’
‘In case you were wondering; you’re alive.’
She grunted, then said, ‘I was wondering.’
He helped her to her feet as Jim and the two elves began to review the damage. Looking at the prone figure of Belasco, Amirantha said, ‘Did he survive?’
As if prodded by the question, Belasco groaned and moved slightly.
A thump from above and a sudden cloud of dust from the corridor was followed by Magnus’s voice in their minds,Is everyone all right?