The dwarf uncle and nephew crept to the window and slipped out of the inn. They did not use the front door, of course, because they wanted to avoid the druid of unknown origin.
The elk crouched in the corner suddenly stood up, and the female elf's slender, willowy body cast a long shadow. A rat ran down the stairs, leapt from the steps, and transformed into a starling.
"Did you find anything?"
The starling chirped. The female elf nodded repeatedly. "It's all right. Those Red Wizards are dangerous. You were right not to sneak into their room carelessly."
The thunder outside grew louder.
The druid caught a faint sulfurous smell and quickly went to the cellar, where she saw the corpse with its possessed smile.
The sacrificial circle of blood on the floor was enough to chill the heart.
A vivid red glow flickered within the blood runes, pulsing like a heartbeat.
The starling on the druid's shoulder began to shriek.
"It's too late." The female elf shook her head, and sorrow rippled through her empty eyes. "The sacrifice has already been completed."
The moment she finished speaking, the red light spreading from the sacrificial runes suddenly went out. The blood seemed to lose all vitality as well, scattering into irregular red stains.
The starling chirped urgently, its cries tense and grave.
"I know." The female elf nodded in agreement. "We can't let the devil appear on the Prime Material Plane just like that... That human may be strong, but he does not understand the terror of Hell."
The druid gripped her vine staff focus in both hands and pressed the head of the staff against her brow, murmuring prayers to the gods of the Seldarine. Then she lit a stick of moon-orchid incense and, in the curling smoke, asked the exalted deities, "I wish to know how to prevent the next devil sacrifice."
She cast [Divination].
The curling smoke slowly gathered in the air and formed a moving image, two dwarves hurrying through the rain.
"I'll go after them. Doric, you stay here. If that warlock also goes after the devil, please guide him."
One of the starlings nodded and flew away from the druid's shoulder.
The female elf slipped into the rainy night through the rear window, transformed into a gray wolf, sniffed out the dwarves' fading scent in the rain, and quickly gave chase.
The open rear window flapped back and forth in the wind. Suddenly, a pair of withered hands pressed it still. The Red Wizards appeared out of invisibility. They looked at one another in silence, wordlessly exchanging opinions.
"Go after that druid."
"We need to leave some people behind to watch those two bards."
"I'll go. Keep in contact."
...
Dawn was about to break, and Skyl urged his horse forward at full speed.
The instant the devil descended, the warp and weft of the Weave shook violently, like a tsunami. A portal from the Lower Planes to the continent of Faerûn had been forcibly opened by a blasphemous ritual. In the blink of an eye, everything returned to calm.
He followed the direction where the magical aura had erupted.
A starling suddenly flew up from behind and kept pace with Skyl.
It chirped beside his ear.
Skyl had not cast a spell to let himself speak with animals, but he could roughly guess the druid's meaning.
"You want to guide me?"
The starling beat its wings urgently and shot forward like an arrow. The swift horse quickened its stride and followed after it.
In a muddy clearing, the druids had fallen into battle with the Red Wizards.
The Thayans cast spell after spell, and lightning and flame wove together like a net, resembling a natural disaster.
The female elf summoned a massive elite water elemental. Her companions summoned a wolf pack, then transformed into brown bears themselves, forming what looked like a battle formation.
Not far from the battlefield, the dwarf guard Barenda loosened his grip, and his warhammer fell to the ground. Join's breastplate had been smashed to pieces. He lay in the muddy water, no longer breathing.
Barenda silently sat down. Without saying a word, he held a magnificent diamond in his hands and stared sadly at the gemstone that had stirred up endless greed.
The blood flowing from his uncle's corpse turned into blasphemous runes. The final sacrifice was complete.
The dark clouds in the sky stopped raining. The water on the ground rapidly seeped underground. The soil dried out and split open in great cracks.
The devil was coming.
Its pitch-black claws tore through the structure of time and space, reaching out from the void. With a violent pull from both hands, it ripped open the sky.
A long, spindle-shaped vertical wound opened in the heavens. Through the temporal rift, one could see Nessus, the deepest layer of Hell, with its despairing crimson sky and shattered earth. Deep within the vast fortress of Malsheem, the Lord of Hell's gaze seemed to flicker like two dark stars.
The hopeless sulfurous stench almost instantly crushed the mortals' will to resist.
The spells the Red Wizards were casting were forcibly interrupted. They could not maintain concentration under the archdevil's gaze, and the trembling warp and weft of the Weave in their hands calmed down as well. The druids stopped attacking too. The elite water elemental anxiously dismissed its own summoning and fled back to the Elemental Plane, while the wolf pack was so terrified that it lost control of its bowels and bladder.
The Thayans stared blankly up at the crack in the sky. Behind the Gate was a vision of devils dancing wildly through Hell.
"Could it be... As, As, Asmon..." one wizard murmured.
"Shut up!" his companion groaned, cutting him off. "Do not speak that one's revered name!"
The elven druid's lips were pale. Her body was soaked with rain and sweat, and her tangled hair clung to her cheeks, making her look like the ghost of someone who had drowned.
She repeatedly recited the names of the elven gods, praying that their divine power could block the devil's gaze.
Across distant space, time, and the planes, the archdevil's gaze seemed to pierce through these mortals.
Only after he withdrew his gaze did everyone regain the right to breathe.
Something was about to pass through the portal. It was a claw sent by the master of Hell.
A massive shadow dripped from the wound in the sky, black as ink. When it struck the ground, it transformed into an aura of despair and scattered in every direction. A black wind swept across the earth. The wolf pack tumbled, the wizards collapsed, and both sides, who had just been fighting with everything they had, fixed their eyes on the shadow that had landed.
It slowly straightened within the black wind. A pair of enormous fiery red wings suddenly spread open, driving away the surrounding black mist and revealing its true form.
Its huge body was covered in wild, bestial muscle. Its crimson hide was layered with hard, razor-sharp scales. Its eyes burned like coals, shining with a deep light, and the sharp teeth in its mouth gleamed coldly like steel daggers.
Every part of it radiated despair.
"Pit... Fiend." The female elf drew in a deep breath and spoke the terrifying name.
"Tuva." The massive pit fiend even introduced itself with polished courtesy.
Pit fiends were the highest-ranking collective class in devil society. They were governors of Hell's territories, commanders of the armies of the Nine Hells, and advisers to the archdevils. They were resilient and powerful, with extraordinary evil intelligence and astonishing patience. Any mortal who tried to enslave a pit fiend and force it into service would eventually meet a miserable end, their soul dragged into Hell to become a lowly lemure slave.
"Tuva, why have you come?!" the female elf shouted.
The pit fiend did not answer directly. Instead, it hissed, "Elf. Do emperors still exist in your society?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"Look at me, then look at those Red Wizards of Thay. All of us are merely running around for a single glance from an emperor. This is our fate." Tuva's hideous, savage face carried a strange serenity. "Hand over the scepter, wizards."
The Thayans said uneasily, "We don't have the scepter! It might be in this elf's hands, or it might be with the two bards at the inn!"
Tuva sneered. "No, fools. I can feel it. The artifact's power is in your hands."
It suddenly teleported. Before the afterimage on everyone's retinas had faded, its sharp claws had already pierced through one Red Wizard's body.
"Here!" Tuva roared in delight.
Then it pulled a fork out of the Red Wizard's body.
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