The Sword of Retribution

Danger in the Dark - Part 1

The inner circle of wizards were the ones who would open a portal to The Pit, hopefully to the exact spot at which the Demon Prince was currently located, and they had been prepared as meticulously as the circle of symbols. Every one of them had fasted for three days, had spent the previous six hours chanting a long series of tongue twisting magic words over and over again until their voices rasped hoarsely and their throats burned. In addition they had just emerged from a bath in which certain special and slightly poisonous chemicals had been dissolved, bringing them all out in a mild rash. Their snow white robes were newly woven, never having been worn before, and had themselves just been washed in the same oily water so that they were still mildly damp.

The outer circle of wizards and priests were the ones who would attack the Shadowlord while the portal was open. They hadn't needed to undergo any special preparation, but were no less nervous than the first team since they would share the consequences if anything went wrong. The portal would be one way only, allowing spell effects to pass in one direction while, hopefully, preventing anything from coming through in the opposite direction, but as an added precaution it would only be open for approximately half a second, giving the Shadowlord as short a time as possible to become aware of it and respond before it closed again. Most of the spells that were to be hurled through required several seconds to cast, though, and if they came to their culmination an instant before it opened, or an instant after it closed, they would hit the wizards standing opposite, so exact timing was vital.

"Five minutes," said the overseer, meaning that there were only five minutes to go until midnight, when the ceremony had to begin. The two circles of casting wizards tensed, and the wizards who'd been examining the chalk symbols quietly left the room. One of them, Raptor Rendaven, one of the world's foremost authorities in demon summoning, came to the observation room to sit with Tragius and the other senior wizards who'd be watching the event. He was a war wizard serving in the Imperial Beltharan army, a battle hardened veteran who looked much older than his forty three years, and he'd returned to the University at Tragius's request to help with the preparations "Well, we've done all we can," he sighed as he sat down. "It's all down to them now."

Tragius nodded, and behind them a priest mumbled a prayer to Ramthara, Goddess of Life and Growth.

"I find myself strangely comforted by this wall," said Raptor, tapping the three foot thick wall of magically transparent granite that separated them from the conjuration room. "I know perfectly well how little it'll protect us if anything goes wrong, but there's still a primitive part of me that takes comfort from a strong, solid barrier between me and the danger."

"If the worst happens, there isn't a place in the world that'll be safe." agreed Tragius. "We could be in there with them and be in no greater danger."

"Then why in the name of the Gods are we doing this? Is the situation really that bad?"

"It is," replied the older wizard. "Unless a miracle happens, we have very little chance of winning this war by conventional means."

"But you must know there's no way we can actually kill him," pointed out Raptor. "I mean, this is a Demon Prince we're talking about. I'm not sure if it's even theoretically possible to kill him."

"We don't need to kill him, just weaken him a bit. You know how the Shadowarmies are. Organised from the top down by sheer brute force. The Shadowlord retains his position and authority because he's the biggest and strongest of them all, but if he's weakened, even just a little bit, all his deputies will take the opportunity to depose him and then fight amongst themselves to be the one to replace him. While they're doing that, they'll be neglecting their armies in the living worlds, who'll be left temporarily leaderless and in confusion. Every Beltharan and Fu-Nangian General has been informed of what we're going to do, and if we succeed they'll all launch major offensives at the same time. It may be the best chance we get to turn the tables on them. Maybe the only chance we'll ever get."