Suddenly, a hole seemed to open in the middle of the flame. A hole in the very reality of existence! Verigas had never even heard of this happening before.
Oh! He knew now the errors of his ways. His foolishness! He saw it all flash before his eyes, in what he knew were the last few moments of his life. His soul would never go on to join Tiernon in Tierhallenon! It would be fodder to a Greater Demon’s lust. Verigas screamed for his lost soul. He screamed for the ignoble infamy of his loss. He screamed a scream of infinite sorrow at the loss of his Immortal Soul and the Extinguishment of His Flame! Through tear streaked eyes, from a face pointed towards the sky, Verigas saw the Demon step through the hole, into the room. It was smiling a twisted grin of Supreme Evil, sure now of its Evil Victory over the Forces of Good.
Verigas fell to the floor, weeping bitter tears of defeat and sorrow. His chanting ceased, he knew he could not succeed. He was doomed! Vaguely, in a state of near hysterical weeping, Verigas watched the demon step over the Wards of Containment without a pause. Verigas thought he was at his endurance’s limit, he thought he’d seen the worst possible fate, but what he saw next made him throw up from fear and lose his bowels simultaneously. It wasn’t just one demon! A second one emerged behind the first. Smaller, but incredibly bizarre. It had four arms and four legs and was flying on humming bird wings. Further, Verigas could see more beings through the hole preparing to come through! It wasn’t just a Greater Demon! It was an entire horde of demons! Verigas had unleashed an Army of Darkness upon the unsuspecting city of Gizzor Del!
“Tiernon, Tiernon, for thy love of man! Have mercy on thy people! Why must they pay for my sins!” Verigas mumbled bitterly and incoherently. The entire city would be destroyed, the souls of entire families would be consumed by demons! All because of him! Next through the hole, Verigas noted in his now completely hysterical state, were two humans, a young man and a teenage girl. Both were ragged and dirty. Obviously they’d been held prisoner and tortured in the Abyss! Now the demons were bringing them back. But why? Verigas wondered. And then he knew. Once again, he sank to an even deeper level of despair. Human sacrifices! That was it. They would sacrifice the humans to make a bigger gateway for all the demons from the Abyss to come through! He’d heard of such things, he was sure.
Then, then the final confirmation. The confirmation Verigas couldn’t bear. Through the hole next came a young child. A child. Nightmare of nightmares! Legends ran deep, but Verigas knew! A Demon Prince could only be summoned by a virgin sacrifice. However, it had never been done before, no Demon Prince had ever entered Astlan before, it required too much power, too many sacrifices. This was it. Not only a Greater Demon, not only an Army of Demons, not only a Huge Army of the Damned, but an Army of Ultimate Evil led by a Demon Prince. Truly it was time for the Last Battle, Ragnarok, the Apocalypse, Armegeddon, the End. While Verigas’ religion didn’t endorse any such belief, he knew of many that did, and this was surely confirmation. It was the End of All and it was all Verigas’ fault. He couldn’t handle anymore. Verigas fell over and passed out.
As oblivion was claiming him, deliriously, he almost thought he heard the Greater Demon exclaim, “What the hell? What is it with you people and fainting? Does everybody on the damn planet do it?”
It was late, the second hour past the middle of the night, when Exador finally teleported into the room his servants had reserved for him in Freehold. He almost felt tired. While normally he didn’t need much, if any, sleep, the long heated battle planning session with Ramses and Bess had gone on for a long time. Too long, he was sure. The price of dealing with fools, Exador decided.
