We step out of the portal, and a wave of nausea hits me. The scene we are met with is something I was not fully prepared for. Corpses litter the ground in front of the guildhouse. The bodies run the gamut between burned, pierced, cursed, crushed, decomposing, or fried in some other way. The residual spirit energy that hangs in the air assaults me just like it did in the hospital. Faces of the dead wizards are contorted in rigor mortis expressions of fear, shock, surprise, and pain. It's hard to reconcile this to what I know this place to be. Last time I was here, this area was pristine, and the magic felt like it was woven into each stone that built the facade of the looming structure. Now, the landscape is pockmarked with large patches of earth missing or completely razed. The magic surrounding the house is an echo of what it once was. The scorched earth makes me wonder if there was a losing runed wizard that exploded.

“Reggie, can you hear me?” I whisper.

“Yes, how does it look?” I hear his voice clearly through the communication pieces that Eph provided.

“This is… This is a lot. It’s intense. Horrifying. I'm sorry--there are so many dead here even before we get in.”

“Any one of these people could've been me,” Vithar says quietly. He glances around, but doesn't keep his eyes on any one of the bodies for more than a fraction of a second. As I walk past one of the less damaged bodies, it starts convulsing.

“One of them is alive!” I yell, and rush over to them. Kneeling down, I turn them over, and the orange rune burned into their forehead starts to spread. I was wrong. They may have been clinging to life, but now they are being used. I grit my teeth as my void energy spreads and encompasses their body until the convulsing stops and the rune's glow fades. Their faint aura extinguishes with it and I let out a sigh and relax my jaw. This is unconscionable. These people, even if they willingly gave of themselves, should not be used like this. My void spreads to blanket the other bodies lying in the immediate area, and I keep it there until I feel confident that there will be no more surprises. Reggie's voice crackles in my ear, but I can’t make out his words.

“What was that?” I ask.

“There may be sentries guarding the–”

“Get by me!” Eph yells from the walkway leading up to the doors. I sprint over to him, Mom and Vithar beat me there. A dome of energy surrounds us just as a gout of flame blankets the area. I move to the side under the shield and see a wizard standing on top of the roof and shooting fire down at us.

“I got this,” I say. “Cover me.”

I tentatively stick out a hand, testing the heat, then pass through the dome and into the flames. My demon laughs as the blaze covers me, and I run up to the doors. My resilience to fire includes magical flames like this, but there's always a chance that, with enough power behind it, the magic could overcome my resistance and burn me in my human state. The wizard above probably wasn’t expecting someone like me. My body treats the magic as a normal flame and the new clothes ignore it completely. I command my ability to eat the energy being cast only by the person above me, and it responds quickly.

The fire sputters and winks out, followed by two streams of crackling purple and blue lightning moving rapidly up at the confused mage. I hear a slight rustling sound to my side and turn to see lightning arcing toward me from the side of the building. I flinch back, but a translucent red hued force wall materializes in front of me. The lightning crashes against the red and disperses. Vithar’s energy.

“Thanks Vithar!” I yell, glancing back, and I charge at my attacker. They meet my charge as shadows crawl across and down the arm of the white-masked wizard. The shadows slither into their open palm and coalesce into a black blade. The shadow blade is devoid of any light and actually looks like it’s swallowing the light around it. The wizard carries it low and close to their body, only bringing it up to take swipes at me. I dodge left and right as they swing, only slightly faster than their movements. They jab toward my abdomen and I take what I think is an opportunity to disarm them, kicking at their hand. Just before my foot connects, the blade fades into shadow and moves across the wizard's body. It then reforms in the grip of their other hand. They lunge, capitalizing on my momentary confusion to stab at my heart. Blue energy sparks when the blade nearly pierces my skin.

The knife bounces off of me. A warming heat covers my wrist where the slap bracelet is. It must've taken the brunt of that attack.

Thanks Eph.

My assailant is now the one that is overextended, they were prepared for a killing blow. They have to bounce to avoid falling and this gives me an actual opening. I grab the white-mask’s arm and push out my hip, flipping them to the ground. I keep hold of their arm and twist, knocking the blade away with the palm of my right hand. It bounces off the ground, shattering. The shadows scatter away like cockroaches, returning to wherever it is they came from. I set my void to send out short pulses to keep the wizard from casting again. I wrench the arm up and behind them until I hear the pop of it dislocating and a cry of pain. Turning them over onto their back, I rip the mask from their face and check their forehead. Their young, soft features are held in a grimace that pulls back into a snarl as they focus on me. But there is no rune that I can see, thankfully. That doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't one somewhere else though.

The wizard spits at me and speaks.“Do your worst!” they rasp, their accent sounding Australian rather than the mostly western European that I've usually dealt with. “You won't convert me and you won't take this house.”

“Fine,” I say, and draw my hand back to knock them unconscious, but Reggie yells in my ear.

“Wait!” His voice comes through faintly like there's static, and I stop the pulsing, hoping it improves. “They said you will not convert me. Perhaps they mean to convert them to the attacking faction?”

“What side are you on?” I ask.

“The right side!” They say, baring their teeth in a hiss of pain. I should've expected an answer like that to such an ambiguous question.

“Where's your rune?” I try, hoping it's a better question.

“I would sooner die than let that filth be put on my body,” they say, taking a deeper breath as I release my weight. They pull the arm I dislocated around them with the other and cradle it.

“You're not under demonic domination?”

“No,” they say weakly, still glaring at me.

“Then why are you out here?” They just stare at me. “I need you to tell me. If you're fighting against the dominated attackers, we're here to help.” It's very brief, but their expression softens at the mention of help. “Please, tell me what I need to know. Are there more of you?” They study my face with a hard look on theirs until the defiance crumbles. They lie on the ground, breathing heavily with half lidded eyes. They look exhausted and they nearly collapse but continue to scrutinize me.

“Are you that demon guy that tries to help people?” they ask.

I close my eyes for a second and let out a breath. That feels like one of those backhanded compliments. Like it’s good I’m helping, but, I’m a demonspawn. “Now is not the time. Are there more?”

“Yes, there’s more.” They talk slowly. I assume they're still unsure if I'm really here to help. It makes sense–I have an easily discernible demonic aura, and they're fighting against wizards with a demonic pact.

“The attack came swiftly, but we managed to escape into a rift. Its entrance was concealed, and we waited until the patrols stopped. The others went inside, but we were tasked with guarding the door.”

I'd been covering them in my void energy to make sure there was no hidden rune. It takes up a portion of my concentration, but even so, my split attention catches on 'we.'

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“We?” I glance behind me at the other three casters.

“Yes, the fire specialized one that was stationed above the doors. I am more melee combat specialized, so I was to sneak up behind distracted intruders.” They are standing over the body of the defender that was shooting fire at us. Trails of smoke come from the unmoving figure, and they all look at me and shake their heads slowly.

“Shit. I'm sorry, but your partner didn't make it.” They look down and shift their arm closer.

“I didn't know if any of us would.”

“How many went inside?”

“There were twenty-six of us hiding in the rift. Nine fell out here and two of us were left to defend and warn.”

“So a little over a dozen. That's great. Thank you,” I say, “We're gonna go inside and try to help.”

“The wards are sealed back up again.”

“We can handle that.” I want to have them watch the front again, but I kinda hindered that. “Can you fix your arm?”

“No, I don't have healing magic,” they reply. Even if I help them pop it back into place, they'll still have limited mobility. They'll just have to lie here and be our lookout.

“Reggie, I'm handing you over to someone who will be our lookout.” I hear him saying something as I take the communication device out from behind my ear and hand it to them.

“Take this and put it behind your ear. There's a wizard on the other end of this. We need you to stay here and be our lookout. Don't move, regardless of what happens. Just warn us if something does.” They lie down on their back with their head facing the door, eyes closed. “Perfect,” I say, then I turn and walk back to the team.

“Alright, I'm gonna start on this door. Let's stick to the same plan, even though we might not meet the resistance we thought we would. Are all of you still comfortable going in different entrances? Or do you wanna stick together? I don't know what you'll be met with inside.”

“I still think it's a good plan,” Mom says.

“I'll be fine,” Eph says.

“I agree that this is a good plan. For all we know, they could've known these two were on the lookout and didn't care,” Vithar says.

“Okay, the front is clear so I'll start on this one. Vithar, stay with me. Mom and Eph, go around the left side.” They both disappear around the corner and I get started dictating to my ability. I give it a prompt to consume the wards and any defensive magic it can find. The ability sets to work and I concentrate on guiding it.

“Mike, did you imagine after your visit here last year, that you'd be saving them this year?” Vithar asks.

“If you told me then what I'd be doing now, I'd probably have laughed in your face, honestly.”

“Yeah, crazy how things work out.” The magic canceling zone spreads across the wards and I can feel the burst of energy my ability gains when it consumes a spell. The void spreads thicker each time a section of the warded wall is taken down. Vithar watches my back while I work. He responds here and there to his earpiece, the conversation I can't hear anymore, and I occasionally glance over to the wizard playing dead near the right side of the building. I'm nearly finished when I hear Brimstone.

(Master . . . Mike. Strong one here,) they say. I sent them over to where I'm supposed to meet Rhal to let me know when he got there. They said they could speak to me no matter how far they went, and I'm glad it wasn't overconfidence.

Good job. Do not engage. Move away and stay hidden as much as you can.

(Yes, M-Mike.) We may need to work on that. It feels like it's really uncomfortable for them to call me Mike.

“Rhal is already there and waiting for me.”

Vithar puts his hand on my shoulder. “You ready?” he asks, mimicking my question from earlier.

“As I'll ever be,” I reply back with a chuckle as my stomach starts doing backflips. The last motes of energy disappear, and the wards covering the door shatter.

“That should be the hardest one to bring down. I'll head over to the other side now. Be careful,” I say to him.

“You too. Kick his arse, Mike,” he says, taking his position in front of the door.

“Thanks, man. See you later.”

I round the corner and see Mom and Eph talking. Eph is working on dispelling the wards while Mom watches his back. He glances at me as I approach.

“I can take it from here,” I say.

“Sounds good. I'll head to the back.”

“That wasn't the plan. You're supposed to stay here while I work. The only one alone is the one defending after I've negated the protections.” He turns and starts walking backward before going behind the building.

“I'm just givin' ya a head start, kid. It'll help ya save your energy.” It's a good point, and I don't really feel like fighting him on it. Plus, this ensures that Mom will be less likely to follow me and abandon them. I'd like to think she wouldn't do that, but I don't know that. So he has to be the one at the last door. I give the same parameters to my ability, and it starts its work almost like it was hungry for it.

“Brimstone told me Rhal is there already.”

“Did it try to attack him?”

“No, I told them to stay away and hide, but to watch him.”

“Good, as soon as I'm done here, I'm coming to you.”

“I know. Thank you for staying and backing them up.”

“I don't like it, but I get it. And I know you'd never forgive me if I refused and they got hurt or killed.” I don't respond. She knows me. “I don't know how you managed it, but you're more moral than me sometimes.”

“Your morals are just different from mine.”

“Different from most people's.”

“Plus, I'm your kid. If you didn't care what happened to me, you wouldn't be my parent.”

“I'm not a good person, Mikael. There's a lot you don't know about me. I hope we can change that soon, though. You're coming into yourself and stepping into the world that I didn't prepare you for like I should have. I'm sorry for that.”

“If I'd embraced things sooner, I wouldn't be who I am today. I'm kinda partial to who I am,” I say with a shrug.

“Yeah, well, with who your father and I are, you're a miracle.”

“I don't know about that.” The wards shatter, and the illusion over the door breaks. These double doors are large, but not as big as the grandiose ones at the front of the building. I stare briefly at the etchings around them, then turn and hug my Mom.

“Help them out, keep them safe, then come do the same for me.”

“Bet I will. I love you, son.”

“I love you too, Mom.” I walk to the back side of the building. Eph is a good ways down and dispelling what he can.

“This one's nearly done, Mike,” he says as I round the corner.

“Awesome. Watch my back,” I say, closing the distance.

“Of course.” He steps aside, and I start my process over again.

“These ones do feel the weakest. The front door was the strongest.”

“Makes sense. These doors aren't supposed to be common knowledge.”

“The illusion shattered with the wards at the side door.”

“Probably kept up with the same renewals,” he says. It's quiet while the magic weakens at my urging.

“What do you think we'll find inside?”

“I dunno. Might be over inside, might still be fighting. I don't think it'll be pretty regardless.”

“Yeah.”

“You know we'll be there to help as soon as we can, right?” He asks.

“Yeah, I'm hoping it's over by then, but I don't have high hopes for an extremely decisive victory in my favor. I've got some surprises though. They might give me the upper hand.”

Eph nods with his customary grunt.

“I think he’s afraid of you,” I say.

“Huh?”

“He said you stopped him from messing with me more than he was able to. He said he thought you were looking out for me. But when I asked him if he was afraid, he said he wasn’t.”

“If I were him, I wouldn’t be afraid of me. He should be afraid of your ma,” he says.

I mull that over silently. I’ve only seen a small amount of what she can do, but he seems to know more. I want to ask for specifics, but the illusion breaks with the wards, and takes my words with it. This door comes into view the same as the other. The etchings around the door are the same as well. That must have been what was keeping them hidden.

“All right everyone. Doors are open. Let's get to it,” Eph announces to the group through their devices. He kicks open the doors, and we run into the entryway, scanning for threats. I remember that they have some dimensional magic like Eph does, but that it was tied to the doors. Regardless, we all rush into an open room and look at each other in confusion. I passed through a grand hall from the front doors my first time here. I look around the room and at the others that came in. The building is bigger than this room. It's impossible that we all opened doors to this small chamber without that magic.

I don’t know what room we’ve come into.

But this reeks of a trap.