It was ridiculously hot.

The land was blasted to pieces but had yet to cool down completely, so walking into the forest was like walking on embers.

Soft sizzling could be heard from here and there, but otherwise the only sound came from the three groups marching into the destroyed woods.

The route for the center group followed the river towards the waterfall, which allowed Violetta and me to remain in the cart as we moved along the bank.

While I was busy scanning every rock and tree a demon might jump at us from, the master engineer was busy examining her handiwork.

“The Yield can be increased by 20% while maintaining roughly the same burn-time and barrel-erosion…” she mumbled to no one in particular.

This went on for quite a while.

Pyra made it sound like we were walking into Vietnam, but we’ve crossed a third of the distance to our destination without so much as someone stumbling over a rock.

Most of the guards and adventurers seemed to have the same sentiment, looking a lot less nervous and jumpy than when we set out.

I actually yawned.

“So, what is it so hard to close these demon gates?” I asked the muttering engineer.

She didn’t respond.

“Violetta?”

“Oh?” she seemed to shake out of whatever concentration on the surrounding charcoal she had. “Y-yes?”

“Why are you the only one capable of closing the demon gate?”

“Um, demon gates are created with powerful magic that tears an opening through the fabric of reality itself. So, uh, equally powerful techniques need to be used to sew it shut again.”

“I’m not well versed in the progress of the war against the demon king. Is there a reason why they’re using it to attack Ratia after ignoring it for a hundred years?” I asked.

“That’s the part that doesn’t make sense,” Urabus, who was walking next to the cart, said. “Ratia has literally nothing for them. Not enough adventurers to steal levels from, magic power to syphon or any important war resources. Dozens and dozens of miles away from anything like that. They haven’t come here for a hundred years because it’s a waste of their time and energy.”

“Causing confusion in their enemy’s rear?” I suggested, trying to recall any history documentary that made sense in this situation.

“They can’t just open these wherever and whenever they please,” Urabus said. “It takes time and a lot of energy to make one that is continuously open.”

“The only reasonable conclusion is that there was interference with the spell, or with its path through the void of space and time,” Violetta explained.

Space and time huh? Well, somebody will be hearing from the gods for messing with it. At least if what Aphrodite said about it was true.

Oh. Oh wait.

Reincarnating a person more than once affects space and time.

The gate… The demons… all of this… was my fault.

Screams reverberated from the other side of the river, where the CELL-inner flank marched.

Bursts of flames, clashes of swords and magic.

Screams and shouts came from our other flank as well.

And then they came from much closer.

“Here they come!” Pyra cried up front.

More screams, more shouts, more flames and  more spells.

I looked around frantically, but it seemed to be coming from different directions every time.

The first demon I actually saw was human sized. It leapt through the air and straight down at me.

Urabus cut him in half with a single slice from his massive sword.

“Protect the engineer!” the muscular adventurer roared as the personal guard of reinforcement adventurers formed a firm parameter around the cart.

Smoke and noise were still coming sporadically from the other sides.

“Stay sharp,” Uarbus said. “They’re just probing our defenses right now.”

The cart ground to a halt.

We reached a series of rapids and small cliffs.

Things were going to get a lot trickier from here on.

We’d have to go around them, on foot, and walk through the broken ground and blasted forest to reach the waterfall.

If I were a betting man, which I often was, I’d say this was the place to launch an ambush.

Pyra seemed to agree.

“I want every hole, every pit, every nook and cranny you see on fucking fire!” she roared.

And so did the crude medieval flamethrowers.

Smoke and fire rose from every direction, along with the screams of demons caught by it, some of them running out of their hiding holes, burning alive before dropping dead.

“Cave!” someone screamed to our right.

Jets of flame immediately came to life, filling the opening.

A guttural roar came from inside as a large demon burst through the flames and jumped towards the flamethrower carrying adventurers.

There was a flash, of light and red hair.

Pyra had appeared and with a single punch sent the large demon flying back towards the cave, smashing into the top and causing the opening to collapse and seal the thing shut.

Pyra cracked her knuckles and licked her lips.

She looked over to me and Violetta and winked before jumping back to the front.

The Knight Captain seemed to have things under control at least.

As long as she was around there was nothing to worry about.

A mass of screams and shouts came from the direction of both our flanks simultaneously.

With the remaining smoke from the initial bombardment and the smoke from the flamethrowers, we had lost sight of both of them.

“Keep moving!” Pyra barked from the front.

And so the center group marched, the Knight Captain pushing through the smoke and ashes without missing a beat.

Probing attack after probing attack came, but were swatted away by either the captain or the seasoned adventurers around us.

I was almost getting used to it, the sounds and smells of the battlefield.

And then they were suddenly gone.

The sounds that is.

Both flanks fell silent.

No demons jumped at us.

An eerie quiet spread over the battlefield.

Urabus tightened the grip on his sword, and everyone else seemed to tense up in expectation as well.

This was it. The probing was over. What would the demons try next?

The answer came in the form of a surprised scream as one of the personal guards suddenly vanished into the ground.

Then another.

And another.

Before I could even register what was happening, black arms grabbed my legs right out of the ground.

“Underground!” Urabus roared, slicing the arms grabbing me with a clean swing.

Holes and whole parts of the ground beneath our feet were collapsing as more and more were either pulled down or fell through.

I heard Violetta scream beside me.

Something pulled her through a hole down to her thigh.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her towards me, but as soon as I did, another black pair appeared to drag me down with her.

Urabus was busy with no less than six, and the others weren’t faring any better.

And then I heard Pyra’s voice.

“CAST: Consecrated Ground!”

The redhead captain came crashing into the center of the group, and a massive circle of light burst out from her landing spot.

Inhuman screeches rang through our ears as the black hands began to sizzle and disintegrate.

The earth inside the boundaries of the circle seemed to crack and sizzle before it started slowly collapsing into a massive cloud of dust and ash.

I instinctively tried not to breathe it in, but as I and the ground below me came to a stop, it didn’t seem to bother me. And not just because of the lilac scent of Violetta’s hair, who fell on top of me.

As the dust settled, I could see what it was.

Amidst the rubble lay slowly disappearing corpses of demons, and faintly glowing figures of adventurers.

A shield of blessed magic was protecting us from the fall, the ashes and any demon hands that seemed to somehow still be scratching at us despite the owner of the hand being quite definitely dead.

“Everyone alright?” Pyra asked, climbing on top of the central pile of rubble.

Some seemed fine, others less so, and others dead.

The Knight Captain crushed a black hand beneath her boot, spitting on it for good measure. “Fucking goblins and their fucking tunnels.”

Holes and caverns around us indicated we fell into a network of tunnels, like a massive ant nest.

The ants weren’t all dead though.

A larger demon, roaring in pain, burst from the rubble beside us and sprung straight at me and the master engineer in my hands.

Only to get its head punched off and body flung out of the pit by our strongest redhead of a warrior.

“You alright?” Pyra asked us.

“So long as I am bathed in your blessed light, I will be just fine,” I replied.

Violetta realized her position and scrambled out of my arms in embarrassment.

“Oh, you damn flirt.” Pyra shook her head and extended a hand to help me up. “You’re not leaving town after our work is done, I hope.”

“I might stay for a little. But the vastness of Mithuna beckons me, you know that.”

“I know, I know,” she said, squeezing my arm affectionately.

After the wild night before, I could still feel much desire from her. Crazy, lovely woman.

She sighed. “Too bad our work isn’t yet done.” She looked up.

Outside the glowing parameter, things began to move.

Before we knew it, the entire pit was surrounded by demons from end to end. All of them snarling, growling and laughing.

And then a shadow appeared before the circle of light. A large shadow, with wings and a pitchfork weapon over its shoulder.

A shadow bigger than I remembered it.

Gdol-Zayin.