Sulyvhan killed the remaining demons. Black smoke still rose from their charred carcasses, whose severed limbs littered the broken stone ground. Sulyvhan sheathed his sword with a sharp metallic click that echoed in the heavy silence of the desolate plain. The viscous and fetid demonic blood slowly evaporated on his traveler's cloak. He turned toward the group of survivors huddled inside the cage. He opened the cages quickly.
"You are free now," said Sulyvhan in a calm voice.
The woman holding the child approached the newly freed and gave them water from a recovered gourd. The gray-haired man nodded with gratitude.
"Thank you. We thought we would die here," murmured one of the captives.
Sulyvhan gathered the entire group. They now numbered about fifteen. He made them advance in silence through the ruins.
