Those magicians who could fly or hover took to the air, laying down withering blankets of flame and shocking energy like lightning. Others climbed to the walls and used wands and staves to rain all types of destruction on the demons. Pug cursed the need to retreat. They were verging on repulsing the Demon Legion and if he could spend any time investigating this gate he could render it inoperative without destroying the entire structure.

Still, what one wishes and what is are often two very different things, the magician thought. Of Magnus he asked, Are you safe down there?

I’m coming up. This chamber is deep enough the others should be safe, but you may need help with Dahun.

Pug knew better than to argue. His son was most likely right. For a brief moment he pushed aside a rising fear, for he knew he was fated to see Magnus dead alongside his mother and brother, and he wondered if this was the moment. He prayed not as he rose into the air and began blasting demons back into the pit.

Kaspar’s soldiers were as well trained and disciplined a group as Pug had ever seen, despite most of them not having trained together. They withdrew in rapid order, leaving it to the magicians to hold the demons at bay. The advantage to the human forces was enough that even with the soldiers withdrawing, the demons could not pursue due to the punishing magic directed at them from all sides.

Magnus appeared in the air next to his father and said, “You’ve gotten good at rising into the air, Father!”

It had been something Miranda, Pug’s wife, had been able to do with ease, but Pug had trouble managing. It was a point of pride with Pug that he labored to master those skills at which he was not gifted and he smiled as he said, “I can’t let you get better than me in everything, now, can I?”

Magnus tried to chuckle at the quip, but knew his father was nearly frantic with worry. “It will be fine, Father,” he said, trying to reassure Pug.

Both magicians unleashed as much destructive energy as possible, creating a curtain of death between the demons and the retreating humans. “Now it gets dangerous,” said Pug, as the last of the human soldiers turned and ran.

Only the magic wall of flame and crackling energy confined the demons, and Pug said to Magnus, “Tell Amirantha to do whatever it is he’s going to do.”

Magnus sent word to the Warlock.

Amirantha’s eyes widened as he heard Magnus’s voice in his mind. Father says in two minutes the area will be clear.

Amirantha said to the others, “Two minutes.”