‘You must destroy the gate while he is still within. You will have less than a minute once he begins to manifest, but he will be completely vulnerable during this translation. That is when you must strike.
‘Then revive me and I will be on my way, dear brother.’
Amirantha said to Magnus, ‘You need to alert your father. It’s going to get very nasty up there in a couple of minutes.’
Magnus closed his eyes. ‘I’m not the best at this, but I’ll try to save the time needed for me to run up there.’
Father, Pug heard in his mind.
‘Magnus?’ he whispered.
Yes. Listen closely as I don’t know how long I can maintain this link. In less than ten minutes Dahun will manifest within the Demon gate. He will be vulnerable for a minute, perhaps two. If you destroy the gate at once, you destroy him before his full power is manifested.
Pug let out a long breath. ‘I have it.’
Pug saw Kaspar a short distance away, but he was blocked by half a dozen demons. A particularly brutish one, that looked almost like a rhinoceros with two large curving horns coming out of its shoulders, lowered his head, hefted a massive sword and charged. Pug shouted, ‘Get back!’ to the soldiers nearby and sent a pulse of energy at the creature.
Pug was trying his best to stun or disable the demons without killing them, but it was not going well. Several of the monsters were so determined that nothing short of a killing blow seemed to slow them down, let alone stop them.
Pug reached Kaspar and said, ‘We need to withdraw.’
‘Why?’ said the General, his sword smoking from the black demon blood on it. He had a nasty gash on his right cheek, but ignored it. ‘We’ve taken command of the field, have them surrounded and are forcing them into a knot. We can cut them down from the edges and should see them all dead within a half hour!’
‘Because in about ten minutes, each death here will cause that thing,’ he pointed to the green column, ‘to bring a Demon King here and he will have to be put down using enough magic to level this entire structure. Nothing within a quarter mile of this place is likely to survive.’
‘Withdraw!’ shouted Kaspar, not waiting to hear any more. He had known Pug long enough never to doubt him in matters pertaining to magic. Zane, one of his key captains and a foster grandson of Pug hurried over and looked as if he was about to question the order. Like Kaspar, he knew the human forces had the upper hand in the field.
‘Get them south of here! We don’t want to be trapped on those bloody switchbacks! I want everyone at least a quarter of a mile away in the next six minutes!’
Zane knew better than to question an order like that, and began relaying the command. The order was quickly passed and the soldiers confronting the demons launched a fierce assault for thirty seconds while those behind turned and began a hasty retreat.
Kaspar said, ‘This is where I’d normally use archers, but as I didn’t bring any…’
Pug said, ‘I understand.’ He raised his hand and launched a red ball of light. It was a signal every magician in the field had been prepared to see, though not if they saw the battle going well. Still, it was an order to cover an orderly retreat.
Those magicians who could fly or hover took to the air, laying down withering blankets of flame and shocking energy like lightning. Others climbed to the walls and used wands and staves raining all types of destruction on the demons. Pug cursed the need to retreat. They had almost repulsed the demon legion and if he had time to investigate the gate, he was sure he could render it inoperative without destroying the entire structure.
Still, what one wishes for and what one gets are often two very different things, the magician thought. He thought of Magnus,Are you safe down there?
I’m coming up. This chamber is deep enough to keep the others safe, but you may need help with Dahun.
Pug knew better than to argue. His son was most likely right. For a brief moment he pushed aside a rising fear, for he knew he was fated to see Magnus dead alongside his mother and brother, and he wondered if this would be the moment. He prayed it wasn’t as he rose into the air and began blasting demons back into the pit.
Kaspar’s soldiers were as well-trained and disciplined a group as Pug had ever seen, despite most of them not having trained together. They withdrew in rapid order, leaving it to the magicians to hold the demons at bay. The advantage to the human forces was enough that even during the soldiers withdrawal, the demons could not pursue them due to the punishing magic raining down on them from all sides.
Magnus appeared in the air next to his father and said, ‘You’ve become adept at rising into the air, father!’
It had been something Miranda had been able to do with ease, but Pug always had trouble managing it. It was a point of pride that he laboured to master those skills at which he was not gifted and he smiled as he said, ‘I can’t let you get better than me at everything, now, can I?’