The group overlooked the burning ruins of Theltstown from a nearby hilltop as the horde of demons poured into the mortal realm through the hellgate. Zelotes’ mind was stirred by what he witnessed. The sight of burning homes sent him back: visions of his own home in flames flashed before his eyes as he processed the devastation. His first great failure, brought back. Horror flowed from his heart into his veins as he gripped the handle of his greatsword for a moment, but he paused as he heard the people’s screams. He tried to maintain a stern composure as he observed, but he couldn’t help but turn his face away from the sight every now and then.

Jacqué’s face held a horrified expression as her eyes widened with fear and her ears dropped down, she trembled at the sight. Tulbrik’s expression was one of both awe and terror as he lifted his glasses over his brow, his eyes widened in a similar manner to Jacqué’s, he was frozen instead, dropping his bottle as it slipped from his fingers. Xiyloos, however, appeared unmoved as they simply watched, whatever expression their face held was hidden by their mask.

“I’m afraid Theltstown is lost. I will contact the Traelendian Military and suggest a scorched earth response.” Xiyloos stated, as though they were stating that the skies were blue. Jacqué and Tulbrik turned to them in shock.

“Quoi?” Jacqué asked in shock.

“Perhaps I should reiterate. There is no saving this settlement. The best that can be done is contacting the Traelendian Military and suggesting they flatten this area to prevent the horde from gaining further ground.” Xiyloos answered, plainly.

“There are people there! Innocent people and children!” Jacqué retaliated.

“And booze! Precious booze!” Tulbrik added.

Zelotes turned to the scene before his eyes. Taking in a breath, his expression changed to one of resolute determination as he lowered the visor of his helm over his face. He unsheathed the blade of his greatsword, and felt himself take a step forward.

“Zelotes! What are you doing?” Jacqué shouted as she saw Zelotes marching to face the horde. He turned around to answer her.

“You can talk all you want, but I’m going to do something about this.” Zelotes answered.

Xiyloos stepped forward to address the leothien paladin “Zelotes, your choice is foolish, and can end in a number of bad ways including-”

“I know that!” Zelotes shouted back before turning back on his path to the devastated village.

Tulbrik and Jacqué looked at each for a moment before following Zelotes. “What’s the plan?” Tulbrik asked.

“Try to help as many people as you can. Other than that…” A smile cracked on Zelotes leonine face, beneath the visor of his helm. “Whoever kills the most demons gets paid half of the loser’s coin!” The group dispersed into the town as they reached it.

As Zelotes reached Theltstown, the smell of brimstone and demonic odors replaced the familiar scents of animals and brewing ale. The guards were doing their best to fight against the demons, but they were outnumbered and calls for reinforcements could be heard over the roar of the blood-red hellfire that was burning the town as the demons swarmed them. Zelotes was nearly ready to dive into the horde of demons before he heard screams for help from one of the burning homes. They sounded like a child’s. Once more, memories flashed before his eyes. He shook himself out of it before he charged into the burning home.

As the smoke obscured his vision and stung his eyes, Zelotes relied on his ears to guide himself to the source of the desperate cries. The surrounding flames from the burning interior heated his armor, searing his flesh as he searched through the home. A supporting beam fell behind him as he advanced forward. He found the source of the cries: a human child, seemingly no older than eleven years.

“What’s your name?” Zelotes asked as he knelt down to the child, extending his hand.

The boy recoiled at first before the sound of another support beam getting ready to collapse sent his hand to reach for Zelotes’. “I’m Frederick.” He answered.

Zelotes took his hand and picked Frederick up. “I’m Zelotes. Now let’s get out of here!” Zelotes carried the boy out of the house, finding a spring in his step as fragments of the roof began falling down. They made it out, but only just before the house caved in. “Are you alright?” Zelotes asked, panting.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

With a look of pure terror on his face, Fredireck pointed at what was in front of the two now. Zelotes turned his head. It seemed that the demons were made aware of the presence of one of the Sunfather’s paladins and were beginning to close in on him, with a variety of demonic creatures, hellwasps, imps, dog-sized demonic chickens, large demons with gorilla-like bodies and bovine heads, and many others made up the horde. Zelotes put Fredireck down on his feet.

“Run!” He commanded. The boy left as fast as he could. Zelotes unsheathed his blade and prepared to engage the demons. “Guess it’s playtime now.” He uttered before charging into the horde.

Zelotes carved his way through the horde, flashes of golden light following the strikes of his greatsword as demons fell to his blade, either turned to ash, cleaved, or impaled. All were marked with varying degrees of dismemberment, demon blood and flesh littered the ground as he slashed through, using the weight of his weapon to deliver lethal blows. Zelotes' assault on the demons gave other surviving villagers a chance to escape with their lives, and the guards some room to breathe.

Though Zelotes was making short work of the demons, though for every one of them that fell to his blade, seemingly, ten more appeared in its place as he felt himself beginning to tire as he panted between the swings and thrusts of his blade. The hellspawn could sense this, and began making their strikes at Zelotes, at his legs and back. Zelotes continued fighting before the demons dogpiled him. Gathering holy magic into the palm of his hand, and with the conjuring of a rune, a blast of golden sunlight and burning solar energy erupted, giving all the demons within the blast a lethal sunburn as they were charred. Zelotes turned to look as the sound of a horn came from the hellgate, emerging from it were demons that seemed to be more organized and humanoid in appearance as structured squadrons of armored warriors with horns, faces like the skulls of boars, and beards of snakes. These were not mere demons-these were wrath devils.

Zelotes decided to engage the devils, shouting at a squadron as it began its war path. “Over here, hellspawn!”

Zelotes began trading blows with a few of the boar devils, they proved to actually be a challenge as his blade was either met with clashing with their own swords or bounced off their armor. The devils seemed to actually work together as the squadron kept Zelotes in the center, hitting him at all angles, and keeping him off guard. Though Zelotes kept up a good fight striking hard and smiting them with solar energy, he was surrounded and tiring from battle. The devil squadron could sense it as they began striking more directly Then suddenly, Zelotes felt a sharp pain run through his abdomen from behind. He looked down, one of the devils managed to spear him through his armor, the toothed blade that tipped the spear glowed a hellish blood-red. He fell to his knees, blood spilling out of the wound. One of the wrath devils approached, raising a toothed blade of glowing red metal as it readied to bring it down on Zelotes. Then a loud bell-like resonance caused the devils to recoil in pain as the sound rang out. This gave Zelotes enough time to pull the spear out of himself.

“Zelotes!” Jacqué cried as she arrived, strumming the strings of her instrument in a particular way that created a rune. Yet another bell resonance rang out, stunning the hellspawn once more.

Zelotes stood up, taking advantage of the situation, and struck the downed devils with blasts of golden light as his blade dug into their hellish flesh, sundering them. “That sound isn’t going to affect them for long…” He paused, gathering healing energy into his palm. “Are you hurt?”

Jacqué’s attire had been dirtied and a cut now marked her face. “Moi? You’re the one who needs attention, Zelotes!”

“Let me heal that…” Zelotes ran a finger over the cut: healing energies stitched the flesh back together before he began mending his own wounds.

“Thank you…” Jacqué muttered to Zelotes. “Don’t make a habit of me coming to rescue you, Zelotes!” she teased, smiling.

A loud cracking sound erupted from the portal. Zelotes and Jacqué turned to look at the source. The mass of demons and devils had also paused as they turned to gaze at the latest arrival, their apparent leader: a twelve-foot tall wrath devil with leathery wings and a circlet of glowing red runes around its head. The devil emerged clad in cruel, dark armor.

Jacqué’s eyes widened and her ears sank downwards. Zelotes simply took a step forward, sword ready, turning to Jacqué. “Run.”