The air shimmered in a sweltering haze about the hell spawn’s maw as it expelled its breath in a deep, guttural snarl. Black ichor dripping from between its teeth, the demon lord ducked under a smoldering rafter and stepped forward. Even the flags of the tower floor trembled beneath its massive tread. Karox drew his rune blade, the edges of the black sword gleaming in the light of the fire crawling up the walls.
The sorcerer’s lair, and all his carefully laid plans, were going up in flames, wilting like an august flower in the infernal heat.
Karox stepped back from the blood-soaked dais toward the edge of the pentacle meant to protect him. What went wrong, he knew not. Some miscalculation in the transfer of energy? His sunken eyes flickered over the remains still twitching atop the altar. Some impurity in his chosen sacrifice? His eyes grew dark with dread loathing as his lip curled back in a baleful grimace. Perhaps, the sorcerer merely mispronounced the name… It no longer mattered. The summoning had failed.
There was nothing left for the sorcerer to do. Sliidst’gorni could not be allowed to leave. No matter the cost.
A low cant on Karox’s lips, the runes of his blade glowed a pale green. Smoldering wooden beams groaned, splintered, and flames roared as the demon lunged, its claws arcing toward him. Karox ducked, slashing at the demon’s arm as he rose. The hell spawn howled its rage, lifting a fist to crush the sorcerer like a noisome cricket.
Karox’s blade drank the demon’s dark blood and the runes flared. The sorcerer drove his blade into the stone floor. Rubrous light flashed from the lines of the pentacle, ensnaring the demon, and Karox himself, within a crimson cage.
A tremor shook the tower as the demon lord bellowed, crashing its fists futilely against the barrier. Karox finished his cant. Thunder rolled; lightning cracked. The tower collapsed as the sorcerer laughed.
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