The Heavenly Host

“Two thousand plus demons from Doom’s Redoubt and a Chaos Maelstrom,” Völund yelled back.

“A Chaos Maelstrom?” Phaestus shouted over the klaxons, looking at Völund in shock.

“A Chaos Maelstrom?” Talarius and Ruiden said in unison, looking at each other.

“Yes!” Talarius slammed his right fist into his left palm as the knight and his sword grinned like maniacs at each other.

“What’s a Chaos Maelstrom?” Reggie asked.

“It’s a dimensional rift, or disruption in reality that Knights of Chaos use to travel the planes,” Phaestus yelled over the klaxons.

“Knights of Chaos?” Boggy and Reggie yelled, both looking puzzled.

“A very bad thing!” Völund yelled.

Talarius turned to smile broadly at Reggie and Boggy. “Knights of Chaos are absolutely the most supremely EVIL creatures in the multiverse!” The knight shouted excitedly, shaking his fist before suddenly getting quite sober and grimacing apologetically as he realized whom he was speaking to. “Sorry! No offense intended...” He gestured towards the two demons. “I mean you two are extremely evil but...”

Boggy nodded. “No offense taken. I’m okay with being only moderately evil.”

Reggie nodded as well and said, “Yeah, we’re good — er, okay.”

Talarius nodded his thanks to the two demons for understanding that he had not intended to impugn their eviltude.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Talarius said, looking to Ruiden. “We must prepare! Are you stuck like that or can you change back?”

“I can change back, I think. I hope,” Ruiden said rather uncertainly; it was hard to hear the sword over the klaxons.

Phaestus jumped up and shouted to Völund, “You head to the tech armory to start getting the heavy artillery online. I’ll join you shortly.”

“Why not come now?” Völund asked.

“Knights of Chaos? Do you think my wife would ever forgive me if I did not tell her about this? Her reaction will be about the same as those two.” He gestured towards Talarius and Ruiden, shaking his head ruefully.

∼

Not knowing what else to do and not wanting to be in the way in the command center, Reggie and Boggy followed Phaestus.

“So you’re going to contact your wife?” Reggie asked Phaestus over the roar of the klaxons.

Phaestus nodded and yelled back, “Yes. I’ll also open a gateway for her.”

“Where is she at?” Boggy yelled.

“She should be in Astlan.”

“So that’s where you live normally?” Reggie asked.

“Recently, yes. It’s where she and I have spent much of the last few hundred years. We have homes and I have workshops in several different worlds,” Phaestus replied at the top of his lungs. “Of course, now that Doom is back online, I will probably move a lot of my work back here. The resources are so much better here.” Phaestus grinned at them. “And other than the occasional invading demon army and Chaos Maelstrom, it’s much more secure.” The smith chuckled. “Actually, in fifty-two thousand years there was only one breach; admittedly a very big one. However, both Völund and I were off plane at the time, or things might have gone differently.” Phaestus frowned at the memory.

“That was a very big mistake. All four key players gone at the same time. One we shall not repeat,” the smith said inaudibly under the wail of the klaxons.

“So where are we opening this gate?” Boggy yelled as he followed the limping man down the hallways.

“The portal room!” Phaestus shouted.

“Where is the portal room?” Reggie asked. He did not remember any portal room.

“It’s off the Temple of Doom!” Phaestus shouted back.

Reggie’s eyebrows furrowed. He did not remember any portal room near the temple. He had not been there very often, but he thought he would have noticed it.

The three of them entered the temple and Phaestus headed to the wall behind the altar. The smith quickly began poking wall stones in some predetermined manner, and suddenly a doorway appeared in the formerly blank wall.

“Whoa! That’s new!” Reggie exclaimed.

Phaestus grinned at him. “No, it’s actually very old, but you have to know it’s here.” He led the way into another room of roughly the same size. The temple had been lit by a few magical braziers, but this room was dark until Phaestus waved his hands along the side walls, lighting the braziers in the room.

The first thing Reggie noted was that the room had a lot of cobwebs. These were the first cobwebs he had seen in the Abyss. “Are there spiders here? I’ve not seen any spiders in the Abyss before,” Reggie said.

“Nor have I!” Boggy shouted in puzzled agreement.

“They aren’t spider webs. They are D’Rachnid webs!” Phaestus pointed toward a very heavily cobwebbed corner between two columns. Reggie blinked to see the reddish light from the braziers reflecting off a couple of pairs of large, red orbs.

“D’Rachnid webs?” Boggy asked nervously.

“Yeah. Think of them like the D’Orc equivalent of arachnids. Extremely poisonous bite to pretty much every living creature. Their saliva is acidic; hence all the pockmarks on the floor.” He gestured to the large number of tiny pits in the floors.

“So are we in danger?” Reggie asked loudly.