Demon Lord

Bane gazed at the seventh ward for a long time, pondering its might and gauging the power that would be required to destroy it. The mage who had created it had been powerful and wise. The seventh ward had been created first, and had held the Black Lord below on its own until the other six had been put in place to ensure his entrapment and prevent demons from entering the Overworld. Its power was such that even now his father was locked below, with half the ward broken.

  The reason he had broken the wards in the reverse order of their creation was because they were linked in a complex magical web that allowed them to strengthen and protect each other. When one was attacked, it drew power from the others, so if he had come here first, the seventh ward would have been impervious with the support of the other six. Now it stood alone, but even so, it was a formidable adversary, one that, unlike a living mage, had no fear of death and would not accept defeat easily.

  Bane walked up to it and stopped amid the rubble that cluttered its base, considering the mammoth stone sentinel that would be his final challenge. The chiselled rune, the first of five he would have to break, was about a hundred feet above him, forcing him to use the dark power to reach it. Invoking it, he drifted upwards until he stood on the air in front of the arcane symbol. Reaching out, he placed his palm on the rune and channelled his magic into it. With a muffled crack, the rune crumbled under his hand, a layer of stone breaking away to slide down and smash on the rubble below with a rumble.

  Dropping to the ground, he pulled out the flask and sipped some potion as the first shafts of pain spiked his brain, then picked his way through the moraine to the next side of the five-sided stone. There, he once again drifted up and placed his hand upon the second rune, causing it to crumble into dust, destroying its power.

  Mirra knelt in the grass and prayed that she had done the right thing by helping the man who was destroying the one thing that could keep her world safe from the Black Lord. She had told the truth when she had said that she wanted to live, she did, but not in the world the Black Lord would create.