The Demon Story Part 4

*Tarold and friends travel through the Zenroth Wastes, a very expansive and hot desert, inside the iron elf kingdom, named Rogecant, and begin to feel very tired after a while and complain about their lack of food and water. Tarold encourages them to keep moving forward and get through the desert, since there is still a large portion left to go.*

*At some point, Charlie begins to go crazy and chases Wilbur with the intention to eat his arm. Tarold snaps Charlie out of it and explains the importance of them working together and not turning on each other if they want to survive the desert.*

*They keep walking until they see an oasis in the distance and everyone starts running for it to cool off and drink and eat. But as they got closer, they realized that it wasn’t an oasis, which they were just hallucinating, it was an obelisk. They read on the obelisk that there lie the remains of a city that was raided in the war. They start to ponder upon what it could mean, but Tarold soon says that he has a weird feeling about the place and that they should leave now. Wilbur says that there is nothing to worry about and that Tarold is just being a baby. He then casually leans on the obelisk and accidentally presses something and the sand beneath them starts to drop with them in it. They tried to break out, but to no avail and they fall down into a dark and abandoned city.*

*They question what had happened and start to walk around the place. While exploring, Moose calls them over to him and says that he found something: a weird looking pole inside a double circle on the ground. Larwin explains that it is a device that the iron elves use to turn on and off the backup power in their settlements which are used in case the power goes out. It is fueled by red delharia and therefore only someone with red delharia can turn it on and use it.*

*They tell Wilbur, the only one of them with red delharia, to turn it on and, through some instructions, he does so. The red delharia melts the rock in the ground into magma which then travels through canals to every house in the ruins and turns on their lights and power. They realize that the whole city must have been intentionally lowered underground so that the iron elves could protect themselves during the war, but were unable to survive in those conditions and died. The iron elves also turned on a barrier so that nothing could get in. They then get a better view of their surroundings and start to walk around and exploring the city.*

*They stop by a library and start to read the books they find inside. Moose goes up to them with a book in hand and shows them something that he read. The book is about the history of Hancinia and shows them a passage that talks about the demons of the old war that occurred thousands of years ago. He read to them that after the war was over, the demons were locked away into the deepest caves of Hancinia and have been imprisoned there since then. Although they can’t leave the cave and are unable to break the barrier trapping them, they are able to use their powers to reach out to people and speak to them in their minds, persuading them to do things they wouldn’t have done.*

*Tarold comes to the realization that the demons could be influencing the cave elves to do the sinister acts they have done and could be the cause of every problem that has happened in recent events. He says that they have to tell people about this since they are the only ones who know.*

*They leave the library and ask Wilbur how to get out and he says that they must lower the barrier and rise the city to the surface if they want to exit the city. He tells them that he can see where they must go in his mind and leads to the town hall of the city. They go into the basement and flip a switch. The ground starts to rumble and the whole city begins to rise until they breach the surface. They prepare to leave, but then Wilbur remembers to turn the power off and did with his mind, saying how he never needed to go to the town hall since he could have just done it from his mind.*

*They start to walk through the desert again, but don’t get far before they collapse on the ground from exhaustion. They are about to accept their deaths, but then a group of car-like vehicles pull up beside them and they are surrounded by iron elves. They ask what they are doing there and suspect that they are actually cave elf spies, but then Tarold points them towards the city and the iron elves are surprised to see it above ground.*

*The iron elves still take them captive, however, and drive them to the capital of Rogecant, named Moarbal, and into the security headquarters of the city. Tarold and his friends tell the iron elves there about their quest and about their discovery in the library. The iron elves regret capturing them and give them supplies to make up for it and to help them on the remainder of their quest. They even give them one of their advanced red delharia-fueled cars to make the journey easier.*

*Tarold and the gang leave the city and drive the car all the way to the Boondrak Mountains, but the ground becomes too bumpy for them to continue any further with it. They leave the car and walk towards the mountain holding all the cave elves in them named Mt. Boondarra, the tallest mountain in all of Hancinia. While walking, all of a sudden a dragon swoops in on them and attacks the group. Tarold and the group manage to defeat it and not become its dinner.*

*They walk to the entrance to the mountain, but find it sealed and can’t get in. But then the cave opens up and a couple of tanks move out. Taking the opportunity, Tarold and his friends quickly sneak into the mountain. They walk through a tunnel, dodging a tank coming through along the way, and arrive in the cave elf kingdom.*

*They are amazed by how normal the people casually moving around, doing their daily business, looks even if they are trying to unleash an unstoppable demon army. The first thing they do is steal clothes from innocent kids walking by so that they’ll fit in, then they walk around the city and check out shops inside (including another bread shop).*

*Afterwards, they decide to check out the large tower in the center of the mountain, believing it has something important inside, and trick the guards at the entrance to get in. They see a giant crystal connected to a huge machine at the top and realize it is to break the demons out of their barrier once and for all.*

*Then from up above, a voice says that he knew they would come to him and the person and a bunch of cave elves drop down, surrounding Tarold and friends. The speaker announces himself as the major chief of the Boondrak Mountains, named Wagdonof, and explains how one of his scout parties knew he would come to them and he therefore waited for their arrival. Tarold says how his plan will never work and he knows that he is trying to free the cave demons. Wagdonof confirms his plan and Tarold tries to explain to him that it won’t end well for anyone and will cause mass destruction, but Wagdonof says that the demons spoke to him and said that they would give him a spot on the throne beside them if they help them escape their prison. He then calls Butch, his second in command, over and tells them to kill Tarold and his friends.*

*Tarold and his friends fight Butch and 4 cave elves, with all four cave elves dying. Tarold had a difficult battle since Butch upgraded his shotguns to be much more powerful, but defeated Butch. Tarold could have killed Butch, but stops himself and says that he isn’t like Butch who murders people for his own benefit. Butch was about to surprise Tarold by shooting a beam at him, but Tarold expected it and quickly knocked Butch unconscious.*

*Wagdonof then steps up to deal with Tarold and his friends himself and pulls out his Obsidian Katanas of Kelendor, very ancient and powerful cave elf weapons. He manages to knock out and gravely injure everyone except Tarold, but then through a very close battle, Tarold defeats Wagdonof.*

*But when he shot a beam of delharia at Wagdonof and missed, the beam hit the giant crystal at the ceiling which fully charged the machine. The machine then shot an enormous blast down into the mountain. This broke the barrier and the demons immediately began to flood out of the cave. The demons turned out to be red, tall, and leathering humanoid creatures with wings and long horns on their heads. Last of all, the most powerful demon of all and who has been the leader of all of the demons for thousands of years, Demon Lord Gaivinore, comes out.*

*Tarold is horrified at what he had just done and Gaivinore is elated for leaving behind the caves he was trapped in for thousands of years. He thanks Wagdonof for setting him free and Wagdonof overjoys for his release saying that together they can rule the world together. But then Gaivinore betrays Wagdonof and immediately kills him with his demon magic, disintegrating him.*

*Gaivinore says how great it is that Tarold charged the crystal early and prepares to destroy him, too, and shoots a blast of demonic energy at Tarold. Tarold starts to become corrupted by the demonic energy, but at the last second Tarold goes into a super-charged state, ridding himself of the corruption completely, and shoots a big blast of white delharia at Gaivinore. Gaivinore takes damage and lets out a cry of pain, saying that he is a very troublesome kid. He deems Tarold no problem, however, and says that he will deal with him when he gets his energy back. Gaivinore then breaks out of the mountain from the top and all of the demons follow him.*

*Tarold then uses almost all of his remaining energy to heal his friends and bring them back to conciseness. He passes out, and Wilbur says that he has a very weak pulse. All of them don’t know what to do next, but Moose says that they need to save Tarold first of all, since he just saved all of them. But will they succeed in their quest?*