Derek walked down the northern tunnel. The stream of essentia flowed over his head. He had checked his status and knew that he was in as good a shape as he could hope for before going down this tunnel. He was also pleasantly surprised that he had maxed out his level ten growth for tier one and that there was excess essentia waiting in the spillover pool his mother had created.

With the enchantments Belany had cast he was now capable of outputting holy spells at mid level ten, high eight if he had to fight without the Sanctuary spell. Because he knew that this would put strain on his weapons and armor he tasked Gnome with strengthening them and repairing them as he used them. Further, with the ripe essence provided by the ley line and the Sanctuary spell, Gnome, Wisp, and the others had all grown significantly. Just a little more and they would be able to grow into mature sprites, increasing their strengths and versatility.

Due to all of this, Derek felt confident that whatever he faced down this tunnel was within his capacity to handle. He walked forward with zeal, passing out of the range of the Sanctuary spell. Gone was the false confidence from before that had been born of easy victories. He knew that whatever was down this tunnel could likely kill him, but he still acted because he knew that with the risks he and his companions had taken to get this far, and for Belany, who had risked her own life to protect them, he had to see this task through to the end.

Derek continued down this tunnel until it opened into another, smaller open space. At the far wall was a crudely crafted throne. Upon this throne was a twelve foot tall greater demon with ram’s horns on an almost human head. Its massive arms ended in two enormous hands. At the end of each finger was a long sharp nail like a talon. This demon’s skin was grey and its hair blue. Its eyes were slitted like a snake and its teeth were sharp as it smiled towards Derek.

Its confidence was supreme. How could this puny tier one mortal threaten it? Greater demons are often compared to tier ten humans. Sure, the seal had weakened its powers a little bit but there was no way that this creature could threaten it. No, at the very least, the demon could toy with this mortal for a while and gain some entertainment for a while from him.

The demon looked at Derek, “So you have slain my minions and you now believe you are strong enough to defeat me? You? A puny tier one human? Haha! What a joke.”

The demon stood up. At twelve feet tall, Derek knew that this wasn’t the demon’s full height, but merely as tall as it could get in this cavern. Any taller and it would be cramped.

Derek dropped his pack at the door and readied his glaive. He looked around and noticed that the stream of essentia ended at a gate in the wall above an altar with the corpse of another demon previously used in some eldritch ritual. The gate was currently closed as it needed to charge for a while before opening and allowing travel between the two realms. Derek knew that this was how the demons were crossing over in such large numbers in this area and that for him to stop them, he must destroy the gate. But before he could do that, he must defeat the demon before him.

The demon stalked towards him, trying to intimidate him with its mighty presence. Derek sensed it but that sense of zeal that had descended during the previous fight not only held true but burned hotter. He waited for the demon to make its move.

When it did, it moved in a flash. Derek was barely able to keep up with it. It swiped its hand towards him in a wide arch. He cast his most powerful smite into his glaive and parried the demon’s blow. The strike managed to injure the demon’s hand but Derek was thrown into the wall. He cast a defensive spell at that point but still felt two of his ribs cracking.

He felt a wave of pain and resisted the urge to faint. The demon was clutching its hand and glaring at him. “You’ve hurt me! But it is because of this damned holy spell. I refuse to believe that an insect like you could hurt me normally. For drawing my blood today, I will kill you slowly.”

Derek was quite glad to let it talk as he was having a hard time catching his breath. When it stopped talking a red glow started to glow around it before it rushed at him again, this time faster and with more power. Instead of parrying Derek dodged low and swung underneath the demon’s attack. The smite enhanced glaive cut along the demon’s ribs but not through them.

It howled in pain and rage, whirling viciously and striking downwards with its claws. Derek had to dodge to the side to avoid the strike. He swung low this time, aiming at the demon’s heel. After being stung twice it began to react to his attacks and moved to avoid the attack. As it did so, it spit an acidic venom at him. He dodged again and the venom hit the wall behind him. A sizzling sound erupted behind him and from it he knew that this spit would be quite dangerous if it hit him.

The demon’s attacks became frenzied as the red glow grew thicker and Derek was on his back foot, doing everything he could to avoid being hit. As he searched for a way to turn the fight around, a hazy memory of an old man in a mountain glade came to him. Gaining inspiration, he used one particularly berserk attack to break contact so that he could formulate a modification of the Righteous Blessing spell Bethany had cast. The room rose in temperature as a fiery shield came into being around him and he felt his attributes rise again.

Seeing this and enraged the demon leapt forward again, swinging both hands. Derek sidestepped to its right, again looking for a chance to wound it but failing due to its cunning fighting style. Derek was growing concerned, this thing had much more reach that made it very hard to attack. If it wasn’t for his enchantments he was sure he would already be dead.

The demon swung its right arm in a backhand swipe. This time Derek targeted the arm. He swung with all of his might, aiming at the tight bundle of muscles just above the elbow. His smite penetrated deep into the arm, laming it.

The demon roared in pain and humiliation. How dare this human harm it in this way? It spit its corrosive venom at him again and backed away, protecting its right side.

This time the venom was sprayed in a wider arch and Derek couldn’t dodge all of it. A small amount penetrated his protective spells and his armor and sunk into his chest. He couldn’t help but cry out in pain.

When it saw that some of the spit had struck Derek, the demon lunged forward to strike again with its left hand. Derek dodged to its right, attempting to score another hit on that side, but it was too quick. The demon was able to dodge out of the way and send a backhand at Derek that he was barely able to block. Derek was knocked back once again. This time he was lucky to only have the wind knocked from him. He quickly dodged to the side as it lunged at him.

The room was now dyed a deep scarlet from the glow of the demon and fragments of rock were kicked up by the it’s strike. Derek quickly swung his glaive at the exposed back of the demon. It was able to partially dodge, but the smite scoured across its ribs once again, causing it still more pain.

“Human, I will devour your soul!” It screamed at him as it swung its arm in another wide arch. Derek was forced to dodge again, but this time it clipped him hard on the shoulder. He felt a sharp pain as he was knocked back by the strike. His arm strength was unaffected but he was definitely in pain, especially when he struck the wall once again. This time it was with enough force to cause him to spit up blood.

Derek was stunned by this and as the demon lunged forward once again he could not dodge. Instead he swung with his full force at the demon’s neck. The demon made no attempt to dodge, a blood red haze in its eyes. It’s talon like claws slammed into Derek’s chest armor. At first Derek’s spell and the shielding enchantment held out, but they swiftly collapsed under the sheer might of the demon’s physical body. The armor itself failed as well and the claws of the demon pierced into his right breast like daggers.

In the same moment, the glaive connected with the neck of the demon. The holy power of the Smite spell imbued into it poured forth, shearing its way through hide and bone and muscle. As Derek collapsed to the ground coughing up blood from his punctured lung, the demon’s head and body also fell to the ground in separate directions and the room returned to its original essentia lit rocky tones.

Derek felt absolutely miserable in this moment. He struggled to pull the claws of the demon from his chest and Gnome formed a body from the nearby rock to assist. The eight little sprites gathered around him and looked about the room playfully. Selkie, the water sprite, peered closely at him. “You look terrible, master.”

He laughed at her innocent words. The action being a fresh round of pain and causing him to cough up more blood to clear his airways. “I feel terrible too. Can you and Aurora heal me, please?”

The little sprite nodded her head and joined hands with the light element sprite to cast a healing spell. It washed over him, healing the most critical of his injuries and stopping the bleeding. He then asked Ifrit, the fire sprite, to cut out the heart of the demon while he placed the head in a sack. After they packaged these things he felt Belany's enchantments wear off, fatigue washing over him.

Derek stood for a while inspecting the gate before him. The Thorne clan specialized in fighting demons so disabling and destroying gates was one of the many things a youngster would learn in the clan. Derek had even experienced the sealing of gates in the memories of the sword ceremony.

Even more importantly, as a rune smith, he knew how to disenchant permanent items just like this gate, and his sprites were just the perfect tools for doing so. The only difficulty was his exhausted mind taking a while longer to complete the calculations needed. He instructed the sprites to gather around the gate, then began to manipulate and untangle the formulas holding the gate together. As he did so the energies stored in the formulas started to escape outward and the sprites began to consume them.

After an hour of unravelling the formulas, the gate was fully disenchanted. The headstone fell to the ground and glowed a baleful color. It was known as a hell gate gem and they only exist naturally in the realm of the demons and even there they are exceedingly rare. To acquire one requires a demon to bring it through to Elanith when it breaks through the barrier.

Derek recovered the gem and placed it in the sack with the greater demon’s head. As he started to walk back down the hallway, he felt the room start to tilt as his senses started to darken and the exhaustion finally took over.

Panklethu-

Class

Greater Demon

Elemental Attribute

Elemental Affinity

Point Value

Spell Level

Tier

10

Order

-

-

-

Level

-

Water

Outstanding

21 (-20)

High 4 (36)

Light

-

-

-

Basic Attribute

Point Value

Wind

Outstanding

21 (-20)

High 4 (36)

Strength

57 (-)

Chaos

Supreme

33 (-30)

Mid 5 (43)

Body

62 (-5)

Fire

Supreme

27 (-20)

High 5 (47)

Agility

54 (-)

Dark

Supreme

33 (-30)

Mid 5 (43)

Mind

57 (-10)

Earth

Supreme

27 (-20)

High 5 (47)

Essentia Pool

Mid T10

Malluses-

Hell’s Gate Mountains Seal: -2 to Basic Attributes per Tier, -2 to Elemental Attributes per Tier, additional -2 to Chaos

and Dark Attribute per Tier, Essence regeneration inhibited

Bonuses-

Unholy Power, Level 5: +10 to Basic Attributes, +10 to Chaos and Dark Attribute, Level 5 regenerating shield.

Berserker Frenzy: +20% to Strength and Agility, +10% to Body, impaired decision making, spell casting impossible.

Derek Thorne-

Class

Rune Smith

Elemental Attribute

Elemental Affinity

Point Value

Spell Level

Tier

1

Order

Supreme

20+5(+28)

Mid 10 (93)

Level

10

Water

Supreme

15 + 5

Low 7 (60)

Light

Supreme

20+5(+28)

Mid 10 (93)

Basic Attribute

Point Value

Wind

Supreme

15 + 5

Low 7 (60)

Strength

19 (+28)

Chaos

Supreme

15 + 5

Low 7 (60)

Body

21 (+28)

Fire

Supreme

20+5(+14)

Peak 8 (79)

Agility

17 (+28)

Dark

Supreme

15 + 5

Low 7 (60)

Mind

19 (+28)

Earth

Supreme

20 + 5

Mid 7 (65)

Essentia Pool

Peak t2 Mage

Previous Classes-

Magic Warrior

Permanent Enhancements-

Rune Smith, Tier One: +2 Strength, +2 Body, +2 Agility, +2 Mind

Disciple of the God of the Forge: +2 Strength, +2 Body, +5 Fire, +5 Earth

Blessed Child of the Hearth Goddess: +2 Body, +2 Mind, +5 Order, +5 Light

Equipment-

Forge God’s Armor, Tier 1: basic protection low t2, maximum defensive spell level 6

Forge God’s Warsword, Tier 1: basic offensive mid t2, maximum offensive spell level 6

Forge God’s Glaive, Tier 1: basic offensive mid t2, maximum offensive spell level 6

Forge God’s Bow, Tier 1: basic offensive low t2, maximum offensive spell level 6

Talisman of the Forge and Hearth: eight juvenile sprites +5 to all elemental attributes, other assorted benefits

Bonuses-

Righteous Blessing, Level 7: +14 to Basic Attributes, +14 to Order and Light Attribute, Level 7 regenerating shield.

Righteous Fury, Level 7: +14 to Basic Attributes, +14 to Order, Light, and Fire Attribute, Level 7 regenerating shield,

Level 7 damaging aura