Shim charged forward to clash with one of the schir demons that stood closest to the steps. Chorussina began to cast another spell, which Jiro identied as a summoning. The two cultists wielding scythes ran up the steps to attack Runa and Zosta. Anticipating that Chorussina was likely summoning more demons, Jiro surrounded himself with a protective circle to defend him against summoned creatures. This was wise, for like all demons the schirs could summon more of their kind and two of them began to mutter the phrases meant to do just that.
I reached within myself for the wellspring of special power I can now access and called to mind a spell that would permit me to see Chorussina's wall. As I had expected when she retreated into the corner behind her, she had placed it between the pool of blood and herself, preventing any of us from attacking her. I warned my companions of this through our bone rings.
I was still standing within the lift cage that had brought us down to the door level and could only see a wedge of the ritual chamber beyond my friends who stood on the steps in front of me. Runa struck one of the two cultists of Deskari and he fell in a pool of blood. Zosta ran out to join Shim and knocked one of the demons to the ground. In the corner I saw that a babau had appeared next to Chorussina, but an instant later it vanished, teleporting to another location. I did not see where it went, which was my misfortune, for it had appeared behind me. At the same time one of the schirs also moved toward me. It was Kirara who warned me of the babau's presence. Thinking quickly, I again used my power to call to my mind a spell I did not have myself and stepped into another dimension to emerge in the ritual chamber beside Jiro, leaving both demons behind. In my place I left a hound archon that I had called to my aid from the heavens. It amuses me to think that the demons must have been surprised to find a heavenly creature facing them where only a moment before I had stood.
Zosta had ignited the flames of her blades and gleefully stabbed a schir. The creature howled in pain as the flames burned it despite its natural immunity to fire, for it had never felt such a sensation before. It died in flames with a gaping wound in its torso. Behind me I could hear Runa exhorting the remaining cultist to abandon Deskari and seek a new beginning with Iomedae. Shim announced that he heard someone casting a spell in the next room and ran in that direction. Jiro's magic circle of protection suddenly disappeared.
In the meantime Zosta slew three schir demons in rapid succession. Jiro suddenly cried out that Shim needed help and ran toward the side room where our fearless half-elf had gone. Chorussina had summoned another babau, and now she and her demonic companion vanished from within the area protected by the wall of force.
I moved so that I could see into the side room and observed that Shim was engaged in battling a human woman whose weapon was a halberd. There was something familiar about her, though at first I could not recall where I had seen her before. Then I remembered: her name was Hosila, and we had met her among the cultists of Baphomet who were lurking underground beneath Kenabres. Hosila had dealt Shim a large number of wounds and he was bleeding profusely. Jiro drew a rod from his pack and used it to allow him to heal some of Shim's injuries from a distance. I threw my spear at Hosila but she dodged out of the way. Zosta ran into the room with Shim, which seemed to encourage Hosila, and I remembered that when we had encountered her previously Zosta had deprived her of her weapon. By Hosila's expression it seemed that she had held a grudge over that incident, and was further aggrieved that Zosta did not seem to remember her.
There was a babau in the room with Shim as well, presumably sent there by Chorussina. Shim backed up against a section of wall to prevent the demon from flanking him. Zosta knocked the demon off its feet. Hosila suddenly repositioned herself to get closer to Zosta, demonstrating that she must have some magical accouterments than improved her mobility.
I scarcely heard the crackle of the lightning before it struck me. Chorussina and her babau had reappeared in the entrance of a second side chamber behind us, though only Runa could see her for the babau had hidden the entrance in darkness. I heard her voice speaking the words of spell and a mass of black writhing tentacles erupted from the floor surrounding myself and Jiro. We were both gripped by the tentacles, which began to squeeze us in their crushing grasp. Kirara transformed into her mist form and fled to hide behind a pillar near the main entrance to the ritual chamber.
As I struggled uselessly against the tentacles that held me, another lightning bolt sizzled across the ritual chamber and for a moment I was insensible. I awoke a moment later after Jiro channeled the healing power of the spirits to soothe some of the burns I had suffered. I regained my senses just in time to hear Jiro shout at the hidden Chorussina, "No matter what powers you have I am a greater agent of the light than you are of the darkness!" I knew that I had no hope of breaking free of the tentacles with my own strength, so I sacrificed a bit more of my power to transform myself into a mist like Kirara and floated to her side.
Zosta had meanwhile run into the area occupied by the tentacles and had also been grasped by them. Runa ran across the chamber, undeterred by the darkness which her sight could penetrate, and attached Chorussina. A bead of force came shooting out of the darkness to strike me despite my insubstantial form. I resumed my normal form and moved so that Chorussina could not target me again, stepping back through the entry way into the lift cage. I considered for a moment using my own wand to respond to Chorussina's attack in kind, but Runa slew the babau with Chorussina and its darkness went with it, allowing me to see with my enhanced vision that the tiefling had a spell effect surrounding her that would block such missiles. Instead I threw a spear at her. She had also surrounded herself with a group of images of herself and my spear struck and dispelled one of those rather than wounding her flesh.
Zosta had got free of the tentacles, though she had been forced to leave Jiro entangled. Even Bohgong in his enlarged form was unable to pull Jiro free. Zosta recognized that she would have difficulty striking Chorussina because of the images surrounding her, so she closed her eyes and knocked Chorussina down. Chorussina disappeared a moment later and reappeared in her bolthole behind the force wall.
Because we could not break through the wall nor dismiss it with other magic, I called another hound archon to my side and asked him to deal with the evil tiefling. The hound vanished and reappeared on the other side of the invisible wall. Zosta moved to where I told her the wall stood and began attempting to punch through it. Runa examined the pool, trying to determine how to finally end the ritual. She began to pull vials of holy water from her pack and drop them vial and all into the roiling blood. While Runa was engaged in this activity, the wall in front of Zosta disappeared as the spell could last no longer. Zosta headed toward Chorussina, who had managed to escape much harm from the archon by virtue of another spell effect that made her appear to be a pace or two to the side of where she truly stood. Shim also moved toward the tiefling, drawing out a pair of manacles as he did so. As he approached her, Chorussina once again vanished from sight.
Next: part 47, A Journey to the Spirit Realm
