Eiro stood in the entrance of the cave, taking in the situation in front of him. This place seems to have been a hub for the minin operation, and a number of tunnels were leading into half a dozen different directions. And from each tunnel, except the one that Eiro came from, a large amount of monsters were flooding forward, each overcome with the destructive rage of the Mark of Wrath.
They were practically tearing each other apart, trying to get to the ones that had been designated as their targets.
But of course, the party was doing fairly well fighting against them. Since the main thing they had going for them were their numbers, the abilities of each of them worked quite well against them.
The swings of Krog's polearm took out heaps of them at once, and even if there were ones that managed to dodge, or were powerful enough to withstand the attacks, James quickly took them out with precise attacks. Meanwhile, Ariella was flying above the party, giving support by thinning out the horde with her arrows.
She was a versatile combatant, so she was able to adjust to whatever situation she was faced, whether melee or ranged.
But of course, these three were acting in a defensive manner, continuosly protecting the key member of the group; Jess. She was currently casting a large-range spell, and was gathering her mana while increasing the efficiency of the spell through the use of complex, multi-layered magic circles and deep, lengthy chants.
Of course, Jess' mana-pool wasn't low in any way whatsoever, but for most mages, there was still the issue of how much they were actually able to handle at once. And while Jess was talented, a human's body in particular was vastly limited in these ways.
A human's magic circuits simply weren't able to develop as quickly as they should, and wouldn't be able to hold as much mana compared to similar magic circuits of, for example, an elf. Eiro was actually trying to learn more about magic circuits to see if there was a way to artificially strengthen them somehow, but he didn't really want to treat Jess as a guinea-pig, so that would have to wait.
But nonetheless, Jess was able to prepare a fairly powerful spell. Eiro was actually feeling his own mana drained, since she was getting assistance from Sarius. Usually, spirits wouldn't assist others in this way without a contract, but the spirits that Eiro was contracted to didn't care about these sorts of things.
But of course, since Sarius' only way of summoning the flames that were needed was by draining Eiro's mana, he was sort of getting involved here. For now, Eiro just watched on. Of course, if there was any need to, the Demon would intervene, but that didn't seem necessary in the first place.
But of course, the Devil knowing Demonology wasn't anything too far-fetched. He should definitely have a few tomes here and there... or even better, maybe Eiro could make use of the magic he absorbed from one of his newer servants, the frogman Anura from the plane of water. His magic was knowledge-based, allowing him to absorb information into a more tangible and comprehensive form.
The Devil would be the perfect first target for Eiro's version of this magic. Getting his hands on Demonology would be extremely useful, especially considering that the demon's predictions were clearly going to come true. Now that he could tell that the mineshafts had been formed into a massive Demonology sigil, the Devil's plans were even clearer.
Though, that being the case, it also seemed that Eiro underestimated the Devil a little bit.
"The monsters were sacrifices, huh?" he sighed loudly, starting to feel the flow of unholy energy flow through the air. Quickly, Eiro flew over toward the others, and particularly Ariella. Being a Nephilim, she was deeply intertwined with the concept of holiness.
It wasn't to the degree that she couldn't fight off against unholy energy at all, but being targeted by the amount of unholy energy that they were about to would be dangerous.
"Wait, are you done already?" James asked with a scoff, seeing Eiro land nearby. The Demon just nodded, not feeling like joking around right now, "Mhm. Listen, good job, but this played into the Devil's scheme from the beginning."
Taken aback, the party looked at Eiro, who quickly continued, "I doubt he was expecting us to get past Merlin, but the devil just isn't the kind not to have a plan B, or even a plan C. The life force from the monsters you all just killed was used as ingredients for-"
Before Eiro was able to finish speaking, he could tell that that sigil was being activated. Complete and utter unholiness flooded the space. Ariella's legs buckled under her weight, weakened by the altered environment. James, Krog and Jess also shivered and were just barely able to keep upright.
"This... are we in-" Jess muttered nervously, but Eiro shook his head.
"No, not yet. Connecting this whole area to hell would take a lot more energy than that... but the sigil is also still active, so it seems to be happening. But for now, the Devil summoned as much from hell into these tunnels as possible."