Serra was not particularly fond of spiders; nobody in their right mind would be. At first, she thought these were demon-spiders; attracted by the portal. A closer look, however, revealed the truth; these creatures had the distinctive brown-black pattern of common hunting spiders. No horns, no hideous mutations; either they'd spent years hunting and killing their way to greater size and strength, or they'd been born somewhere high-magic and wandered over. Either way... they'd probably been attracted by the smell of blood in such copious amounts... and sensed weakness.

Since there only seemed to be half a dozen of them... that was a terrible mistake on their part. Sensing her sister sprinting off to the left, she moved right; neatly snipping off three of the legs with a single stroke of her left-handed blade on one spider, before leaping... and almost simultaneously with her sister, landing on a different spider; driving both blades deep into its torso in a single swift stroke.

She could see Marie hadn't managed the crippling trip, and still had two healthy spiders to deal with... but wasn't too worried. As she faced off with the still healthy spider on her side, hearing the one she'd hacked three legs off of starting to move out into the darkness, likely seeking an escape... she heard a familiar whirring sound... and the fleeing creature was yanked forward; slamming into the back of one of the ones Marie was dealing with.

Judging by the angry chittering, none of them was happy with this... and as she blocked a pair of fangs seeking her flesh with her left bracer, she jammed her blade through the new spider's belly.. only to let out a hiss as yet another spider she hadn't seen landed on her back; envenomed fangs finding a gap in the chainmail at her shoulder.

Tearing the blade through the spider she'd skewered, she stabbed the newcomer in the eyes, wondering how many their might be.... before hearing a loud crack.

Glancing Marie's way, her own enemies had been crushed... and while Serra's own had been finished off, she was concerned more might be out there. She could feel a subtle, burning weakness starting to radiate out from her shoulder. It would make her weaker, and if she let it get too far, she'd be paralyzed, then dead. She reached down for her belt... she had an antivenom on there somewhere that would help her fight it off... There we go. As she slid it free, removing the stopper, she glanced at Marie. "Sis. You got that magic to slow down poison? This hunting spider stuff is hitting pretty hard... and I need to be on top of my game right now."

Her sister shook her head. "Sorry, thats a second-circle spell. I can only use one of those a day usually and I used one on that tree."

Serra sighed... and upended the antivenom onto her tongue, gulping it down. It would take time to work. She would be fine by morning, and recover completely in a day or two. But... while more spiders didn't seem to be coming... the devil wasn't unstoppable. He was... amazing... but not unstoppable. At some point, demons were going to get through. Hopefully there were no more distractions from this end.

***

Kylie glanced out as the twins handled the spiders... but kept going. The Radiant Circle was a form of ward she'd been taught, but never used until now. The longer she kept focusing on it, the longer it would last. She'd already been doing it for over an hour now; she had no idea how long, exactly, it would last... but hopefully long enough. It was, essentially, a barrier meant for use against demons; though unfortunately it likely worked against devils as well; that would keep them from crossing until they broke free.

Unfortunately, that didn't mean it was impervious. It couldn't contain a horde; she'd never seen it used, but was told that it made the air itself 'sticky' in an area. A demon trying to leave would be gripped by the aura, and have to use some strength to pull free, or simply bounce off if they ran at it. It wasn't nearly as effective at containing enemies as the 'Web' spell she knew Derek had up his sleeves... but he was sadly unable to cast it at present.

The temple she'd trained in had a circle around it which had been made permanent; a guard simply watching it could spot any hidden demons, devils, or undead as they'd either be suddenly jerked to a halt, or just bounce if they were running. Not that it had ever happened. Devils frequented the Imperial Capital, as did Angels; but no devil she knew of had cause to visit the Temple of Dawn.

Then... it happened.

The first Demon slipped through, leaping through the portal. It was covered with blood; had likely been struck by the devil at least once... and was now on fire, shrieking in agony as it sprinted forward... and exactly as advertised, slammed into the barrier as if it were a wall.

Confused, on fire, it stared at the space in front of it for a moment, and started to push through... only to find a Holy Slayer buried between its bulbous insectile eyes, and collapse. Kylie shoved the corpse fully onto the fire; it seemed extremely flammable; and backed off.

She'd stopped the circling. The casting was complete. One way or another, it would last as long as it did... and hopefully it would be enough time. If they let demons slip into the world just to save Derek, she could never forgive herself.

The next one to slip through was almost uninjured, until it reached the portal; some old scars, likely from fighting other demons; but it wasn't truly hurt until it landed on the fire with a scream of pain, looking around... and when it leapt free, meeting the barrier, the twins both stepped forward.. Kylie could see precise, neat stabs as three blades skewered it, a fourth bouncing from the chitin and skidding along... only for a bolt of fire from Terra to impact it directly between the eyes. It let out a shriek as it collapsed onto the wood-pile.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It seemed they didn't need to get more wood. These creatures should keep it burning long past when it was over. However long that would be.

***

Derek felt strange. At first, he'd felt a deep, terrible agony, as if he were being eaten from the inside. Then, suddenly.... the pain had faded, to be replaced by darkness... and a subtle blue glow behind his eyes. It was as if he were asleep... but not really. He didn't know how long he was out... but when he awoke, it was to a splatter of hot blood across his face, the dying screams of someone in massive amounts of pain... and her jerked up, sitting up to see... corpses. Some sort of giant bug-like creatures, dozens of them...

And the devil... fighting like mad, swinging those enormous flails of his as if they were toys, the massive insectoids being tossed around, smashed... he could see other chains, out in the mud and snow, moving through corpses; spikes lashing out, wrapping around limbs, pinning enemies... they were inside some sort of massive wooden barricade, spikes pointing in every direction, and while the barricade was on fire, and had a few burning corpses stuck to it... most of them were piled up in one direction... where the devil fought.

He groaned in pain. Something was... deeply wrong. Where was he? How did he get here? This was...

This was a level 7 high-magic zone. Simply existing here would eventually get you to level 7. And his body... was struggling. He'd done an unknown, but massive, amount of damage to himself with the potion, but he could feel that he was already past level 5 himself, possibly even level 6... but... the third circle of magic... he was supposed to be able to form enough threads to make a third-circle spell now. Why couldn't... Ahh.

He looked around a bit further, pulling to his feet. He was getting stronger, healthier. If he simply stayed where he was now, he would recover. But he could feel... something out there. Worse than..

One of the insectoids landed before him. It had been going for the portal... good lord, a portal? How had he not noticed... it lashed out at him. He backed off, backhanding the insectoid limb, trying to bring a spell to mind... only to watch the limb shatter. The creature shrieked in pain, looking at its broken limb... and Derek looked at his arm. Still as slim as it had ever been, he was purely average in strength, before. But that... he'd hit like a damned warhammer.

He focused for a moment, calling up a few threads to form an arc of lightning... and found that it was... trivial. Lightning was so easy, so natural, they seemed to form all their own... and an enormous burst poured loose... without even understanding what he was doing, he created a powerful bolt of lightning that ran through the demon, and further out; piercing through a few more he hadn't seen, out in the darkness.

The one he'd just broken the arm of fell limp, nearly dead... but the ones out there... were still alive. And angry. "Sir! Praxius! I'm up! I've recovered! Should we... be going?" He looked through the portal... into a blazing fire... and the eyes of Kylie, who seemed overjoyed, and Terra, and the two rangers... all with weapons ready, staring back.

The devil backed up beside him, and glanced him over. "...Almost. That magic was eating you to fuel the transformation. You've recovered, for the most part. If we go through now, you'll live, but it'll chew through more of you to finish. We should stay here as long as we can."

Derek gave a slow nod. "I'll help how I can, sir... I'll stay here by the portal and try to keep out of the way."

"Good. Some of these things had weapons. Grab something you know how to use." The devil turned back; and as he hopped back atop the pile of corpses, the only direction that didn't hold fire, Derek lifted a club that was far heavier than he should have been able to use properly... and backed up to the warmth of the portal, watching the darkness, ready to use weapon or lightning as the case may be.

These creatures were nasty; level 7 or 8, and there was a level 9 or 10 currently being strangled by the devil. But out there... was something worse. Far, far worse.

***

The job was mostly done. The boy would live. He should just go right back through. But..... these demons were just strong enough to be a bit of a threat, but not strong enough to kill him unless he fucked up. His wounds were healing faster than they were being inflicted, and this wasn't just the most fun he'd had in ages; he was actually improving, for the first time since he'd been out adventuring with his friends, so long ago.

He broke the spine of the creature he was fighting, and tossed it off the pile. The pile was troublesome; it was starting to catch on fire. He might not hate fire as much as these demons, but he certainly wasn't fireproof. He may need to...

The demons had stopped coming. Not out of fear... though they were clearly afraid of him. But....

A form was looming in the darkness. A massive creature, at least twenty or thirty feet tall, stomping towards the fire, the pile of corpses... and Praxius gave a low smile as he saw it. There we go. Something not just a threat, not just an equal... something more dangerous than he was. Not insurmountable... especially not with a little help from some fire. It was entirely unlike the creatures he'd been slaying so far; looking more like a massive humanoid, with thick hide, grey-green skin... a frost giant, yes. But from the ring of horns around the head, the glowing blue eyes... he was part demon. One of the princes, sons of the Frost Lord.

If he killed him, the Frost Lord would come running, or more likely, teleporting, here... and that was a fight Praxius couldn't handle, especially not with such meager backup. He'd need a few teams of his fellow Kyton, preferably elites like himself, or a few frost devils. Still. It would be a great send-off, killing someone like that.

As the beast let out a roar that shook the earth, sending snow billowing out in a cloud, he pointed a massive hand at the devil.. and with a sudden flash, a cascade of pale white power started to flood over the landscape towards him. Praxius chuckled, standing firm; he recognized this spell. It would sweep over mortals and make them so cold that parts of them might freeze, often fatally for the weaker ones, put out fires, turn water to ice... but was completely useless against Kytons.

...But absolutely deadly against young, stupid, mortal wizards. "Fuck! Get back through the portal! Now! Jump through the fire!"