At the end of the event, the demons will return to their assigned locations in the Demonic Games.
Duration: 05:59:59… 05:59:58… 05:59:57…
A howling of many voices began to echo up from below… then a rumble, the trampling of feet. Abaddon roared triumphantly from the Pitfall’s bowels:
“For the Inferno, demons!”
Quetzal was the first to get his bearings:
“Everyone group up!” he shouted, retreating to the wall. “Gather around me!”
The roar of thousands of demonic throats drowned out his commands. Joker glanced over the edge, jumped back:
“They’re flying this way!”
“Oh, yes,” my ally boomed. “Soon this place will be packed with my brethren, hunting for your souls.”
I flew out to the center of the drop, looked down. The smoke began to disperse, but there was still too much of it to see what was happening in detail — bosses and mobs flooded out of all the floors I could see like a raging river. Most of them were running up the staircase, but the ones that could fly shot up toward us.
“Into the instance!” I shouted, pointing at the open gates. “It’ll be easier to defend ourselves, like the three hundred Spartans!”
“Three hundred what?” Anna asked in confusion.
“We block them in the narrow pass!” Hellfish said, getting the idea.
To reach us, the nearest mobs rushing up from below still had roughly half a circle to go. Urging on the crafters, Quetzal and Hellfish sent everyone down the stairs, but I could already tell they wouldn’t make it. Vermos was already approaching, boss of floor 31, a thirty-foot ball with burning eyes either side of a vertical maw. He had no wings, but floated, moving faster than the other demons. His eyes began to burn…
“Despot, cover them!” I shouted to my ally, then rushed down to meet the boss.
Just below Vermos, another boss was ascending, steadily flapping huge wings — level 38 Fallen Angel with horns, already casting a huge fireball between his hands.
Vermos’s eyes flashed. Two dozen red beams shot out of them, but in the same moment, I activated Clarity and put myself between the beams and my allies. All the lights shot into me, my flesh hissed… I struck three times with the Talon, killing the demonic monster.
Once sure that Vermos was dead, and his deadly rays hadn’t reached my allies, I flew to Fallen Angel, whose fireball was now nine feet across. After putting the boss down with a couple of Hammerfists, I waited for the hellish magic to dissipate, and only then left Clarity.
I rose up, stood on the staircase beneath floor 21 to face the motley mass of mobs from levels 23 and 24. They had around a hundred yards left to reach me.
I went to make sure my allies were alright and had managed to get inside, and warned them:
“I’m going to fly up and check whether that barrier is definitely impassable.” I looked for my demon ally, didn’t find him. “Despot!”
The demon appeared and looked at me expectantly.
“You said demons don’t touch demons, right?”
“So it is, ally. I fear your final hour is at hand.”
“Then block the passageway through the gates with your body. Otherwise you…” I pulled out his black heart. “Will disincarnate with the rest of us!”
“Blackmail and threats, how original. I will do as you ask, ally. And pray to your gods that General Abaddon has not emerged from his lair.
The demon stood in the passageway and sat down, spreading his halberd arms to block as much space in the gateway as possible. Quetzal stood behind him. Joker started putting up turrets and mining the area in case any smaller demons got past Despot. The ranged took up positions and aimed into the gateway.
I went back into Clarity. I realized I was probably wasting my spirit reserves, but I had to check whether the barrier was really impenetrable. Flying there and back took a couple of seconds of real time. Slowing a little, I felt for an invisible obstacle with outstretched arms and found it. I struck it twice with Hammerfist and realized that all my efforts were in vain: it was like an invisible lid had been placed over the Pitfall, impenetrable, invulnerable.
Dropping down, I cut into the bestial mass of fangs, claws and horns already running for the gates. I loosed a meatgrinding Combo, hoping that at least some of the experience would go to my allies. Damn it — I killed around three hundred low-level demons and five bosses, but nobody in the raid leveled up. It occurred to me that I should have put Despot on the narrow five-yard-across staircase, but casting a glance down, I realized the idea was foolish. A sea roiled before me — thousands of winged and floating demons soared upwards.
Still in my sped-up state, I went up to my people, squeezed between the ceiling and Despot and emerged from Clarity:
“This is a disaster…” I said. “All Youlang has to do now is wait for us all to get eaten.”
“What about the barrier?” Quetzal asked.
“Useless. We’re trapped here!”
“Doesn’t matter,” Hellfish chuckled. “I got enough rounds for all of ‘em!”
Boom! The sniper fired, and a small imp flew from Despot’s shoulder and plummeted over the edge, screeching wildly.
“Groghghr!” my ally roared in displeasure. “Only my weaker brethren are here for now. Best not to clear them. They block the way for the stronger demons that come later.”
“Don’t think we could clear them if
