The party ran back towards the door to the cage. Silvia stood in front of it and produced a thin piece of twisted metal from wherever it was in her dress that she stashed these things.

She shoved the metal into the hole of the lock and, sticking her tongue into the side of her mouth in concentration, began to fiddle around with her lock-pick while the rest of them held off the monsters that beset them from all sides.

Horatio dropped a werewolf that had come close to clawing off his face, then heard a loud “click” noise.

‘There!’ said Silvia triumphantly. ‘What did I tell you? Never send a mage to do a thief’s job!’

She stepped back from the cage door and it swung open.

The people inside the cage, who had been standing back to let the party do their work, dashed towards their new exit.

‘FIRAGA!’ a man’s voice shouted.

Bright orange flames exploded inside the cage that Silvia had just opened, and the people screamed.

Horatio was knocked back away from the cage from the force of the fire-blast, and landed on his backside.

The flames had come up against an invisible barrier before hitting him and Silvia, so Ceres must have got a reflect counter-spell

Horatio almost lost whatever meal he had last eaten as he stared at what was happening inside the cage.

Where the many men, women and children hadn’t been incinerated to ashes instantly, as in some cases in the hottest part of the fire spell, they rolled around on the floor, still screaming, on fire, or lay burned or dead or both on the floor of the chamber.

‘YES!’ cried the same voice that had cast the spell, and then laughed ecstatically. ‘Ahahahaha! The ritual is complete! Now Brax shall return to the world of Gard, to rule all!’

Horatio looked for its owner.

Further down the cage, standing by the bars. A robed Braxian, not part of the circle in the centre of the chamber. They hadn’t noticed him there while they had been busy trying to break the lock of the cage.

‘MURDERER!’ screamed Ursula at her once-fellow Braxian. She pelted for him, fending off a group of skeletons that lunged towards her, trying to flank her, with a tornado spell, and with her other hand flung out a lightning bolt-spell at the Braxian.

Still laughing, he held up a hand to catch it, but Ursula kept on running, and kept the spell up, bringing her other hand to join the first, and the Braxian’s expression change to slack-jawed horror, and his defences broke and the bolt tore into him, electrocuting him in a shower of sparks.

He collapsed in a sizzling heap.

Ursula had killed him, but she wasn’t dancing a victory dance. She was down on her hands and knees, saying ‘No, no,’ over again. ‘We didn’t free them in time. We didn’t stop them. We’ve failed. We’ve failed.’

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Horatio was about to ask her what she was talking about, but he was interrupted by an spine-jolting crack, followed by deep, ominous rumbling.

The whole chamber began to shake and quake. Dust fell down from the high ceiling.

In the centre of the chamber, the whole of the circular area on which the occult symbols had been transcribed was now on fire, the flames leaping high above of the heads of the Braxians and the monsters, who now stopped whatever they were doing and turned to look at them.

Above the flames, suspended in the air, was what Horatio could only describe as a glowing ball of dark energy.

Black and purple and deep blue, it pulsated and throbbed, but also crackled with a strange black lightning—a darkning—that sparked off of it as it hummed and fizzed. The very air around it seemed to bend and discolour, and as it throbbed it seemed to be growing, albeit slowly.

The Leader of the Cult, who was now standing on the edge of the circle rather than at the centre of it [needs to be described in more detail earlier so we know who he is], was pointing across the chamber at the party, as he looked at them.

‘Do you see now how futile your plight is?’ he called out to them across the chamber, while the ball of dark energy crackled above and behind him, and all the Braxians and monsters in the room turned to look at the party with him. ‘The ritual is complete! Soon Brax will stand among us, in physical form! And your messing around at the edge of our plans has done absolutely nothing to stop this!’

He had known they were in here this whole time. He had known they were inside the chamber, and he hadn’t cared.

Even worse, the Leader held up his hand, and the blade of the weapon he held in it shone bright red.

Nobody in the party could say it aloud.

He had the Sword.

The Leader pointed the blade of the Clarent and bellowed a command to the monsters that filled the room.

‘KILL THEM! They are not worthy even to look upon the summoned form of our Master! Feast on their worthless flesh!’

Now every single monster inside the vast chamber charged towards the party. Bats, werewolves, bunyips, armoured spirits, succubuses, skeletons, zombies, slimes, bandits, dark spirits, behemoths, eggs, eagles, shadow dragons, and more.

‘Er,’ said Horatio, ‘does anyone have any last tricks left up their sleeve? Otherwise, I think this might be it. Are you sure you don’t have any more Phoenix Feathers, Alex?’

‘Sorry,’ said Alex, staring at the advancing monsters. ‘I’m all out.’

‘Any magical armour or other legendary weapons?’

‘I don’t really go in for magical armour. This robe is magical, but I’m already wearing it and it doesn’t do anything except keep me youthful while I’m still alive. I did have a legendary weapon—he nodded towards the Leader—‘but he’s got it.’

‘Alright then, guys,’ said Egea. ‘Say your last prayers. I think this is it.’

‘I’ve got one last resort, said Primus. They still had just a bit of time before the nearest collection of monsters reached them. ‘I’ve been saving it until we really needed it. One last spell, that it’s taken me my whole lifetime to learn to use and memorise.’

‘Grandfather, no!’ burst out Olivia. ‘Not meteor! Using it will kill you!’

‘I know that, child,’ said Primus. ‘I accept that. This is my choice. At least let me die doing something worthwhile. I lived most of my life for myself, amassing knowledge and status for my own enjoyment. At least me die doing something for others—something for you.’

The closest group of monsters reached them.

Battle4