Loremaster of the Amaranthine lands

The next half an hour went by marching through the forest toward the capital, the army reaching a vast clearing just shy of a kilometre or so from the city walls. The demons seemed to reach the other side of the clearing about the same time as they did. There were thousands of them. The enemy’s frontline appeared to be made up of imps with lesser demons standing behind them and greater demons standing behind those.

Regis could vaguely make out a few humans and dark elves in the back-line thanks to this spyglass, although he couldn’t recognize any of the faces. Not that he met any of the big shots before.

“That’s a lot of demons.” Quentin remarked from the side.

“I’d say it’s somewhere between seven and nine thousand.” Valerie stated, her voice a mixture of disgust and fear.

“They seem to have a lot of golems as well,” Grego said disheartened. “I have counted thirteen of them so far.”

“The church’s forces seem to be around six or seven thousand with little over a dozen golems.”

“I don’t understand,” the paladin claimed. “Master Felix and Bishop Emil spoke of their army as it was around ten thousand or more, so where are the rest of them?”

“Back home,” a nearby nobleman stated. “We cannot bring all of our forces to the battle. Those who remained home are preparing our people to leave toward Menelrond should we lose the battle. That is the only way to make sure our people survive.”

“Looks like I wasn’t the only one thinking of getting my people out of here.” Regis said with a somewhat morose tone.

“It would be foolish of us not to think about the survival of our houses,” another noble claimed. “We had all agreed to leave at least a third of our forces behind so that they could ensure that our people would have a chance to escape the kingdom if we failed to stop the rise of the archdemon.”

“Wouldn’t it have been better to make sure that you succeeded instead?” Valerie tried to argue while walking.

“We are talking about a demon of the fifth tier,” Sir Godfrey interjected. “Our current forces are roughly equal to the enemy’s, however, should we fail to stop them from summoning the archdemon, it will not matter whether we have a few hundred more footsoldiers. It will cut them down without remorse. Hence there is no point in needlessly sacrificing more people.”

“What do you think of the current actions of the Exiled Court? Fighting us on the open field is clearly disadvantageous for them. Don’t you think?” Quentin brought up the subject, earning a slight huff from the man.

“I believe they are trying to provoke us with this, hoping to distract us long enough to complete the ritual. They are most likely sending an army of weaker demons to stall us and decrease our numbers.”

“So what’s our plan?” Valerie whispered to the dark elf, hoping to hear an escape plan.

“We stick to the back, send forward the golems and kill whatever manages to get through the army.” Regis summarised with a conflicted tone while trying to cast the gate spell again and again along the way.

“That sounds like a pretty shitty plan.” Quentin hummed from the side.

“Got any better ideas?”

“No, and that’s what troubles me. Still no luck with the gate?”

“No,” the spellcaster sighed. “How the hell did they manage to lock down such a large area? I could understand if they managed to seal away maybe half a square kilometre but we already travelled for another kilometre or more.”

“They have most likely sealed away the path they expected us to take.” Cedric said from the left side as the man lagged a bit behind the princess and the high-ranked mages and priests.

“What can you tell us about the place where the battle will happen?”

“There is not much to tell,” the man shook his head. “The main road leading toward the capital has wide clearings on both sides to allow for clear vision in case an enemy approaches.”

“I don’t like this,” Regis stated. “They’re forcing us to fight there and nobody tries to come up with a better plan. If we let them drag us around by the nose like this...”

“You fear they have planned something?” Cedric asked with a knowing look.

“Don’t you? No one is stupid here. Master Felix and the others must have realized that this is a trap.”

“Of course they did but if they are not afraid to walk into it, then that means they are confident in countering it.”

“Are we there yet?” Valerie cut into the conversation with a groan. “My feet are starting to hurt. Why the hell didn’t you guys camp closer to the main road?”

“Probably not garner too much attention.” Quentin noted.

“I think we can all agree they failed that marvellously.” Grego chuckled from behind them along with the rest of the nervous guards.

“Quiet back there,” one of the high-ranked knights said from ahead. “We’re getting close. Tighten the formation!

“Did he just shush us?” The infernal woman looked baffled at the paladin.

“He sure did.” Quentin said with a smirk, enjoying the woman’s expression.

The conversation came to a grinding halt as the army waded through the forest and finally reached what seemed to be an artificial clearing that spanned at least a kilometre. It was cut in half by what Regis believed to be the main road which led towards the capital. The walls of the city loomed on the horizon but it was still some distance away. A distance that would be hard to cross due to the thick line of red that stood between them and the capital.

“That’s a hell of a lot of demons and imps.” Valerie remarked as they too got out of the forest finally.

“Why are they just standing there like that?” One of the guards asked, prompting dozens of thoughts to pass through the dark elf’s mind.

“They’re waiting for us to get out of the forest.”

“That is awfully cordial of them.” Grego harrumphed while the rest of the army and the golems marched out of the forest, lining up in a neat, battle-ready formation.

“I think they just find it easier to mow us down without the trees being in the way.” Regis shared his thoughts.

“Slow march!” Sir Godfrey ordered, his voice booming as the army began to move, the golems making their way to the front. “Line up the canons!”

Much to the dark elf’s surprise, the demon army began to move as well, just as organized as their own. It was... unnerving to see the supposedly savage creatures move in such a well-organised and calm manner.

The sound of horns cut through the air as the demons began to speed up their march. In response, Sir Godfrey ordered his men to fire the cannons as soon as the enemy came within range. The cannons boomed as the head-sized iron balls flew forward, kicking up blood, dirt and mangled flesh when they hit their mark. Strangely enough, the enemy did not respond with their own cannons. They didn’t seem to have brought any to this fight.

“Something’s wrong.” Regis muttered to himself while the army marched forward, meeting the wave of demons and imps with a sickening crunch as they crashed on their iron shields and spears.

From then on everything devolved into a bloodied frenzy. Roars and screams fill the air as the tide of hell-spawns washed over the battlefield. The golden barriers erected by the church’s priests burned the demons who were desperately trying to break through their defences. Giant stone golems walked through the thick carpet of imps, crushing them with every step or mowing them down with their giant stone weapons.

Spells of all kinds were hurled toward the enemy, the mages doing their best to deal as much damage in a wide area as possible. The demons seemed to be falling by the dozen in every split second under the powerful onslaught. Meanwhile, the united armies of the nobles and the church also began to suffer casualties as the shields of their soldiers slowly broke down, giving way to sharpened claws and fangs to tear at them.

Near five minutes into the battle, the first demons managed to make their way up to the spider golem, screaming in pain as they hit the magic shield created by the ‘domain heart’ core. Regis cast his elemental orb spell, summoning it just above the golem so that it could rain light element infused magic bolts down on their enemies.

The princess and her guardians followed suit with their attacks, proving to the people around them that she was more than just a pretty face. Sparks danced upon her fingers as she cast one lightning bolt after the other, striking the larger demons to weaken and stun them.

“Conserve your strength, my lady!” Sir Godfrey reminded her before stepping out from beneath the protective barrier, swinging his glowing-edged two-handed sword to cut down anything that came their way.

“This is starting to get dicey.” Quentin remarked after cutting down a lesser demon.

“If they’ve sent this many of these bastards to greet us,” Grego grumbled between two sword swings. “I can’t even imagine how many of them are hiding in the capital.”

“Let’s just hope they sent out everything they have,” Valerie replied while switching her whip to its sword form. “I don’t want to go through this twice.”

“When did we ever have such luck?” The dark elf retorted, stabbing a demon in the throat, exploding its head clear off.

As if on cue, the sound of a horn could be heard from the other side of the battlefield as the non-demon part of the enemy’s forces began to make their move. Their mages began to cast spells on the larger demons that still hung back before ordering them to enter the fray. The maddened creatures broke into a run, crushing everything in their way as they met the war golems head-on.

“What the...” They asked in unison before their words got cut short by the explosion that followed.

The greater demons crashed into the stone shields, holding onto them before exploding in fire and gore.

“They’re trying to destroy the golems!” One of the noblemen yelled in horror while pushing back an imp.

One was not enough to destroy the shield or the golem, but they came in waves, throwing themselves at the arcane statues in reckless abandon. After the third wave, the first golem finally gave out, crumbling apart under the weight of the explosive attacks. Then… the second one shattered before the rest followed in quick succession. Soon the battlefield was left without any golems beside the spider that kept the princess and some of the nobles protected with its barrier. With the war golems gone, the demons attacked with a renewed vigour, fighting with claws and fangs against the steadily weakening army.

“This is getting bad.” One of the guards remarked as they tried to push back a group of imps.

“There are too many of them,” another one said from the side. “We won’t be able to hold them back for long.”

“Stay close to the spider and retreat beneath the barrier if needed!” Regis ordered as he stabbed yet another demon to death.

“Even the barrier won’t hold forever against this many enemies.” Valerie stated the obvious.

“They’re sending in the big ones!” Grego yelled and the group noticed several hundred larger demons marching forward, lining up in front of the dark elf cultists.

A moment later the demons burst into eerie blood-coloured flames before rushing into the crowd, exploding in crimson fire. These explosions were different compared to the ones that made the golems crumble as their powers weren’t as concentrated. Instead, the flames splashed outward like a wave, covering everything and everyone in a good five or so meters around them.

“What the hell are they doing,” Quentin asked baffled. “Don’t they care about their own forces?”

“Sure doesn’t look like it.” The dark elf noted has the battlefield soon became a sea of red flames.

Both the princess and the noblemen standing around her shuddered at the sight and the death wails that struck them, but their stupor got crashed by Sir Godfrey.

“Our forces are getting crushed,” the man said with a defeated tone. “We must get the princess out of here before...”

Before the man could finish his words, the phenomenon unlike anything they’d expected happened. The crimson flames began to pull the surrounding blood into themselves, turning all of the corpses into dried husks, be they demonic or otherwise. Glowing lines began to appear on the ground throughout the battlefield, interconnecting at some points, and intricately curving at others.