The Hero's Path

Chapter 6 A Demon's Horns

"A Demon?" Brittany said shocked, "What do you mean?"

"Look at the floor." Warren said as he pointed, "This giant circle and all of these symbols they make up what's known as a containment circle. I saw a drawing of it once in one of my father's books. Sorcerers use them to summon and contain Demons. Which they then use for all sorts of terrible stuff."

"So you're saying there was a Demon imprisoned here?" Brittany asked.

"Yeah it looks like it," Warren said looking back at the hole, "I bet that when the miners broke through they caused that rubble there to fall onto the circle, thus breaking the enchantment. The Demon was then free and it killed them. It's puzzling though as to why it didn't chase the rest of the miners and follow them back up to the entrance."

"Why do you say that?" Brittany asked.

"Demons are creatures that are summoned from another world and they love nothing more than to kill humans." Warren explained, "Normally a freed Demon would have left this cave and killed everyone here and then in the town and then it would have kept killing until someone stopped it."

"They really are that bad?" Brittany asked, her voice starting to tremble.

"Yes," Warren replied, "You should leave now. I need to go in there and see if I can stop it."

"I'm not leaving you!" Brittany said slightly offended, though the thought did sound appealing. "We are a team. I'm going to help you."

"I don't think you understand." Warren said turning towards her, "Demons are more dangerous than practically anything. There is a reason why Sorcerers use things like this magic circles so the Demons don't get out. Not even a Sorcerer would want to take on a Demon. My personal oath and code of honor requires me to stay here and to try and stop it because if I don't hundreds of people could die. You, however, have no such obligation, and it would be in your best interest to leave and get as far away from here as possible."

"I'm not going to leave." Brittany said determinedly, "I'm not going to leave you here to die. I made my own kind of promise that I would never turn down a chance to help someone and I am going to stick by it as much as I would rather leave."

"Alright then." Warren said annoyed, "I'm not going to force you to leave, but even still what do you think you are going to do to help? You have no sword and arrows won't help you here."

"I'll manage." Brittany replied, "I got things that can help, and if it comes down to it I can use my dagger."

"Ok then," Warren said, "But stay behind me."

"Got it," Brittany replied as they began to move.

The doorway that the entered led to a long hallway and continued through various turns and intersections. Normally it would have been confusing on which way to go, but it wasn't because the Demon had left claw marks on the walls as it had moved through. They walked slowly as it was hard to gauge how close they were to the Demon. The sounds of smashing and roaring echoed weirdly making it difficult to tell how close they were getting. Finally, they came to a turn and after that, the hallway opened up into an enormous room with a very high ceiling.

It appeared to be a dining room of some kind. There were many stone tables with lots of broken wooden chairs. Broken dishes and scattered dining ware littered the tables and the floor. Dozens of human skeletal remains also littered the room as though fifty people had all died a hundred years ago at a party.

At the end of the giant long room, there was the Demon. It was obvious that the Demon had smashed through the room crushing chairs and breaking tables and now it had reached the end. It stood in front of a high seated throne in which there sat the skeletal remains of a human dressed in tattered robes. There appeared to be some sort of circular glowing magical shield that looked like a giant bubble surrounding the remains and the Demon was pounding relentlessly on the surface of it.