Before Vanya could reply, Isla lit the brazier in the middle of the room. The room had previously been poorly lit, but the fire from the brazier fully illuminated it. The back wall suddenly rippled in the shape of an arched doorway, and after a moment, swirling silvery clouds appeared on the other side of it.
“Well, that not good,” Maroftis said as he took up a defensive position in front of the magical door, and the rest of the group prepared for an attack as well.
When nothing immediately came through the cloudy opening, Taloc turned to the two casters. “How are you guys on mana?”
Vultressant waved a hand in a so-so motion, and Vanya just said, “Low.”
Taloc nodded. “Okay, we wait for you two to replenish your spell stuff, then we go through the door.”
“And horribly murder whatever we find in there?” Ewtain interrupted.
“Given,” Taloc said.
“What if this is a one-way door?” Isla asked.
“Then fucked are we,” Maroftis said. “Me in, though.” He raised a claw to emphasize his enthusiasm. “Our bind points if badness.”
“Can’t we just put the fire out and ignore the mystery door?” Vanya asked. She felt exhausted, and one life-threatening encounter was enough for one day, in her opinion. She was the healer, and the party needed her, so if the consensus was to head in, she would go along. The fact was, she genuinely liked being in this world. Being able to cast spells felt amazing, and she could walk here. Sure, sometimes she was terrified, and the encounter had been stressful; she didn’t want anyone to die on her watch. She tried to relax.
Taloc looked at her. “This temple is clearly cursed or in the control of something evil,” he said. “I mean, there’s a radius of desolation extending from this place. I would rather not have whatever is on the opposite side of that gateway following us.”
The Orcs and Goblin that they had fought were creatures of races that were typically viewed as evil, and the demon things that melted after you killed them seemed even worse. Vultressant hadn’t spoken yet, and she knew him to be conservative when it came to danger; she was on the fence and decided to follow his opinion on this. “Hey Vult, what do you think?” she asked.
Vultressant didn’t speak immediately; he appeared to be thinking about it. Finally, he said, “Put out the fire in the brazier.” They doused the fire, and the room darkened, but the archway was glowing brightly enough to light up the center of the room. Vultressant sighed and said, “Well, that removed the easy escape. I had hoped that the portal would have closed so that we could avoid this entirely. As it stands, I’m leaning towards going in.” He scratched the side of his head before turning to face the group. “I don’t want to leave a portal open here—if this is linked to some hellscape, then I think that we need to close it before a horde of monsters can be unleased on this world.”
Vanya thought about his words; Vult was more concerned about the protection of the planet than his own wellbeing. She wasn’t sure if he was being altruistic or pragmatic, but either way, she was with him. “Then let’s rest up and save the world,” Vanya said.
They waited until their mana pools were replenished and all of them restored to full HP and abilities before using the entrance to... wherever. Taloc and Vanya each lit a torch to bring with them in case there was a need for them. The plan was to go in three at a time, with the casters staying back with Ewtain while the other three went in. Buffs were cast, and when they were ready, Taloc raised his torch; the fighters moved as one into the doorway. They vanished from sight, like planes entering the clouds. There were no sounds, and they didn’t come back immediately, so it looked to Vanya as if it were indeed a portal, and likely the one-way variety.
After about twenty seconds, Vultressant said, “Well, shit. Looks like we follow.” And with that, the remaining three moved through the opening. The fog enveloped them, and it was so dense that Vanya couldn’t see either of her companions. She was the one carrying the torch, so hopefully the others could see her or at least the light that she was carrying.
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She kept moving forward until she felt as if she were being pulled. She stopped walking, but she felt like she was still moving; it was as if she were standing on an autowalk at an airport. The force of the feeling increased by the second, as if she were accelerating rapidly. After what seemed like an eternity but was only a dozen or so seconds, she abruptly stopped moving, or at least the feeling of moving ended. The fog vanished, and a loud and unfamiliar language assaulted her mind. She doubled over, dropping the torch and clutching her head in terrible pain.
After a few moments, the pain had subsided enough that she could open her eyes. An inky black-winged demonic creature flew over Isla, who was lying on the ground with her shield between her and the flying nightmare. It quickly lost interest in her and instead turned to rake its claws on Maroftis’ chest. It connected, and the strike slowed upon entering his flesh, but when the attack was done, there was no blood on Maroftis’ chest; in fact, there was no mark of any kind. The strike must have done something, though, because Maroftis roared in anguish and fell to one knee. With Maroftis neutralized for the time being, the creature turned its attention to Taloc, who looked to be suffering from the same thing that Vanya herself was. Taloc had his weapon up, but he was clearly in pain, and he lacked anything resembling a fighting stance. The shadowy creature was about to strike Taloc when fire engulfed its head. The fire obscured everything except for the creature’s two horns, which stuck out of its skull and curled back behind its head.
Vanya looked over to see that Ewtain and Vultressant had arrived, and neither of them seemed to be suffering the effects of the mental assault that had nearly incapacitated the rest of the party. Ewtain moved towards the fray, and Vultressant prepared to cast another bolt of fire. The flying fiend turned incorporeal, and the fire that had surrounded its head fell to the ground. It then went through Taloc and headed for Vultressant. Ewtain stopped advancing and moved to protect the Wizard. It solidified just before reaching them, and Vanya had to move to her right to avoid getting attacked herself. She wanted to try something, but she could barely focus with the constant assault on her mind, and a bow shot was likely to miss, or worse, hit a friend. She decided that she would wait for an opening and run to Maroftis in the hopes of being able to get off a cure spell. She didn’t like her odds, but she knew that she needed to do something.
Ewtain engaged the demon, doing his best to keep the claws at bay while also keeping between it and Vultressant. Another spell landed, this time a cold strike, which gave Ewtain the opportunity to go on the offensive. He landed a dagger strike but missed with a short sword attack. Taloc was now starting to approach, but he was moving slowly, clearly hampered by the telepathic barrage. Vanya looked for an opening to move, but she was too close to the action, and the monster’s claws were attached to extraordinarily long arms, so if she moved away, she thought that it would still be able to reach her.
Vultressant prepared another spell. The demon had had quite enough of the Wizard. It moved in to strike him. Ewtain tried to intercept, and he landed hits with both weapons, but he was unable to dodge a claw attack. The strike landed across his face and neck, and the claw went through with the same resistance that Vanya had seen when it attacked Maroftis. Like with Maroftis, there were no marks on Ewtain, but Ewtain didn’t seem to be affected at all.
Ewtain had been attempting to dodge the strike, so his momentum sent him moving to the side. He looked around, confused. “I don’t think that this thing can hurt me.” Vanya barely heard him over the mental assault. The creature was attacking their minds, but Ewtain’s mental wall ability protected him from mental attacks. That explained him, but why was Vultressant able to function against the mental barrage?
“Ewtain for the win!” Taloc yelled when the Nightstalker arrived at the back of the creature and struck at one of its wings.
The creature seemed to not notice the failure of its attack, and it ignored Ewtain. Its focus was on attacking Vultressant before he could send another bolt of fire or frost spray its way. It reached out for the Wizard, but Vultressant dodged just enough to avoid being raked across the chest; the demon’s claw hit passed through his shoulder instead. That was apparently still sufficient, since Vultressant shrieked and stumbled before falling to the ground; the magic that he had been gathering for his spell dissipated into nothing. Ewtain took the opportunity to stab the creature in the side, and it turned and raked both claws down Ewtain’s chest, again without effect. Ewtain smiled and said, “Suck it, demon!” before striking it quickly three times using his eviscerate special move.
The creature shrieked in Vanya’s mind, and her eyes snapped shut on instinct. When she was able to open them again a few moments later, she saw that the monster had turned smoky again and flew away from Ewtain, who gave chase. When it was just a few feet from the far wall, it abruptly turned solid again. It raised its head, howling in rage, this time with its voice, and turned to face Ewtain, who was closing fast. When Ewtain arrived, he didn’t even try to defend himself against the claw attacks, which he knew would be ineffectual. He stabbed both of his blades into the demon’s chest. The demon burst into a cloud of inky black smoke before being sucked back to whatever hellscape it had come from. Ewtain bent over and picked up a sphere, which he tossed into the air and caught. Vanya could see that it was glowing faintly, and it looked purple in color.