The Heptagon Mage

The purple sphere had a large cloud of swirling energy as it quickly covered the distance between them, leaving a trail of heavy purple smoke in its wake.
Not wanting to get hit by this, not even letting it hit the barrier just in case, the group flew to the sides.

The incoming sphere changed direction and had a homing component. It was still heading for Gilliam. Stretching out his hand and triggering the barrier pocket on his coat, he cast a large and flat barrier wall in its path, as far away from the group as he could.
Spell hit the barrier as intended and rather than explode as he somewhat expected, it poofed into a widespread thick smoke.

The demon mage didn’t seem happy about this, strongly hinting that this was going to do things to them, more than just mess with visibility.
A sudden thought from Gilliam, something he wanted to check. He manifested an Air magic circle, the other runes were Wind, Sustain, and Cone in a square pattern. Channelling mana into, and activating it created a sustained cone of air in the direction he pointed the active spell circle. It wasn’t strong enough to blow back the smoke at this distance, but increasing the power of the spell amended this. Though a lot of sand came along for the ride, Gilliam didn’t care about that. The purple smog was pushed back towards the demons at surprising speed.

The demon mage seemed to react fast enough and do something, a shimmering purple barrier barely formed around him before his creation came back to them.
As the smoke kept blowing through the group of demons, it disappeared into the town or just dissipated once it got thin enough, the demon mage was still standing with his barrier. The demons around him seemed unconscious, still breathing but not moving.

“Sneaky.” Gilliam commented. It made a lot of sense to try to knock them out, after all, they ate mages for power so it would be dumb to kill them if they could avoid it.

The demon mage kicked one of the unconscious demons in front of him, it took a second kick from the mage for the imp-like demon to wake up.
This also had Gilliam realise that he had a surprising lack of crowd control magic tested, he knew the concept from modern media but... how do you make someone fall asleep with magic. He could mess with the ground under them, attack limbs and physically restrain them or simply just murder everything in the area, but this kind of magic looked amazing as violence might not always be possible.

However, in this case, violence was not only possible but preferred. Parts of him wanted to go over and attack the demons with his sword, or teleport over and deliver an amazing attack through that movement, but... all of those ideas were dumb. He was a mage first and foremost, the close combat training was just in case he needed it.

There was a bit of distance between them, which was only in Gilliam’s favour. He wanted to give as many demons as possible the option to lay down arms, so to speak, but he was in enemy territory and he couldn’t take the time to give everyone the chance, that would only get him killed one way or another. Quickly forming a pentagon magic circle, filling the five rune slots with Water, Ice, Shatter, Fragmentation, and Explosion, he made an ice-fragmentation grenade. This spell was nested inside a targeting and launching circle to have it fly towards his target rather than him needing to throw it.
He chose ice as the demons are desert dwellers, they might be resistant to heat or something and though Aether works fine, Ice feels like it should do well.

Feeding the spell a bit more mana than he thought it might need he aimed at the demon mage before activating it. The magic circle didn’t have a defined shape and defaulted to a rough lump of water that froze during the implosion of the magic circle, a split-second before the launching mechanism activated, the ice cracked and fractured with visible lines. The mass held together as it was launched at great speed towards the demon mage. He had seen this happen and had started moving towards a nearby building, seemingly seeking cover. The mass vaguely tried to follow the demon’s movement but as it was not a homing spell it didn’t have the needed manoeuvrability to do so. It did. However, activating the explosion component of the spell once it arrived at the targeted location, the thundering explosive force itself tore anyone and anything in the nearest vicinity apart as the fragmented ice chunks peppered and penetrated anything in range. The demon mage, not having entered the building yet, was hit with both. The shockwave slammed into him and lifted him off his feet as the sharp ice debris pierced and cut into his body. His body ended up simply flung through the very wall he was trying to hide behind.
The demons around him, unconscious or awake, fell to a similar fate.

The distance between the group and the spell removed a lot of the danger, the few pieces of debris and weakened shockwave that reached them simply peeled off on their barriers without harm.

“Be careful, I’m not sure if that killed him or not.” Gilliam felt a bit paranoid, though he was somewhat certain that the demon mage was taken out of the fight, he felt that caution was not a bad idea regardless.

Angela and Petal took this moment to run ahead of Gilliam. They didn’t have that much training in proper combat where the mage kept their distance as the melee-focused individuals closed it, but the transition felt natural enough.
The girls had a solid barrier active on them, meaning that even if they were to take a hit, that should aid considerably. Though that being said, he preferred that they didn’t take any hits at all. He silently decided to continue with overwhelming force when possible.

The two arrived well before Gilliam’s calm walk. They peered into the room for a second before Petal entered the hole left behind after the mage dived into it.
There was a solid squelching sound that could be heard even at Gilliam’s distance, he had an idea what it might have been through it was visually confirmed once he came into view of the scene. Petal had made sure that the mage didn’t wake up with her claws, the puncture wounds through his skull were the only guarantee he needed.

Gilliam took a look around at the carnage, this spell proved very effective; not only did the explosion itself cause significant damage, but the fragmented ice pierced or crushed even the stone walls. Though the ice shattered in doing so and though it was just as indiscriminate as a grenade, the results spoke for themselves.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of claws rending flesh, breaking bones and generally unpleasant noises. Petal was digging into the mage’s chest, looking a mixture of interested and unphased.
“What... are you doing?” Gilliam asked with an unsure tone. He was not reacting as much to the gore itself but more wondering about what was going on.

“The generals and lords always fought about the hearts of their food, I thought I should eat his.”  She sounded almost eager to find out about this.

She also had a good point, given that her people gain power from eating people, and if the hearts was the highest on this list, then it could prove valuable to at least try.
And try she did. Breaking open the rib cage she found the now non-beating heart. Ripping it out of the demon’s chest and eating it in only a few bites, the blood running down her face and body was... a surprisingly horrifying sight. Gilliam knew that he fed the arm of a young boy to her not that long ago, but for some reason, this was a lot worse. Perhaps due to the brutality of it all.

Once she was done she looked at her hands for a few seconds, opening and closing them. “I... think it’s working.” She looked happy. “I can feel something, a rush... This feels good..” Her tone of voice confirmed it all. Gilliam was just happy that it was in the tone of stating facts, and not some deranged laughter to it.

Given the power boost she normally gained from their shared nights, it made sense that eating a mage’s heart could do something to her.

Angela harumphed jealously. “I still call it cheating.” Having several times shared her distaste that she can power up this easily, this was just another confirmation.

Gilliam reacted a bit to Angela’s lack of reaction, she just saw her friend tear a heart out of someone and eat it.

Petal walked over to her pale friend, gently grabbed her chin between two bloodied fingers and whispered something to her, which caused Angela’s pale complexion to redden. “I... I don’t think so.”
Turning away from the two of them she took a few steps in what seemed to be any direction that didn’t have her face them. “We should get moving.”

Gilliam had some vague thoughts of what might have been said but decided to not add to it, they were still at the edge of the town, a town that was far from uninhabited. This was also about the time they got before the locals had decided if they would attack or flee, as both had seemingly happened.

A collection of larger and stronger-looking lizard-like men came running with various weapons, there were also the same imps as before. However the increased variety of demons on this landmass had a few eldrich abominations mixed in, some looked like tentacle monsters attached to mutated canines, and others looked more like humanoid potentially succubi-like creatures. The most dangerous sort looked more like the Gatekeeper from before, slightly smaller but still strong enough to power lift cars.

Already standing on a road of sorts, coming from the static gate stretching into the town, Gilliam didn’t want to wait for anything coming close before doing something.
Manifesting the carpet bomb spell circle he changed the explosive trigger to be lighter. He wanted it to activate once it started hitting them, but resist auto-activating from the other shockwaves. Giving the spell the energy it required he triggered the main spell and its launching mechanism, again having the main circle take the form of a bunch of small orbs. They launched forward swiftly at a slight offset so not all of them were along the same sheet of spells, it should aid them in not auto-exploding.

As expected the spell worked incredibly well as an explosive shotgun as it did carpet bombing, the wall of small orbs connected with buildings, causing collateral damage but also creating deadly shrapnel and flying debris. The debris shredded anyone close by and the orbs that made direct contact made a larger explosion than expected for something that small. It didn’t take out the entire attacking force, but the devastation it caused gave them extreme hesitation. Even the gatekeeper-looking demons, who seemed to survive direct hits from the smaller carpet bombing spells, were hesitating.

“Is the mage’s staff still in one piece?” Gilliam asked nobody in particular.

Angela had walked over to Gilliam and Petal was coming out of the building. Petal stopped to take a quick look around. “Doesn’t look like it.” She explained as she bent down to pick it up from inside the building.
It looked completely mangled, the crystal or whatever the glowing end was, had been shattered.

Gilliam cursed himself a bit, he kind of wanted to take a look at that staff but, this was somewhat his fault.

As he was considering this it seemed like the remaining demons had again decided to attack the invaders. A bunch was fleeing from the carnage, it was not sure if they were just fleeing or planned to inform anyone about this, if not simply both.
And this round, he didn’t want to end up in melee with them, last time was far too dangerous...

Having never stopped the flight spell, he simply took to the air. The others did the same as soon as he left the ground. This had the non-flying demons do their best to throw weapons and debris their way, some with surprising power. Most missed them, but some slammed into the barrier. Luckily not enough to damage it that much, but still enough to be incredibly dangerous. Parts of Gilliam were considering just levelling the place with the ground, but since they were currently airborne the shockwave would hit them harder than he’d like. And if they flew far enough away they wouldn’t see the place anymore and... well, there were a lot of issues with this place.

Their goal had to be the next static portal, they didn’t know where it was but it was a relatively easy thing to find out, just time-consuming. Fly towards the other side of the landmass and go back and forth til they find it. Based on the other portals so far it shouldn’t be rocket science.

“I think we just need to leave, ignore them and go for the next portal.” Gilliam stated. The rushed tone hinted that he was suggesting it to confirm their reactions.
The girls nodded, and to make the process easier Gilliam cast another carpet-bombing spell at their attackers.

There weren’t many flyers around them, the bombardment of the ground forces kept them away simply due to the danger of being shot down. This worked to their benefit at the moment, not only to not having to fight flying enemies but to have a more clustered area to target. Though it didn’t seem like they were entirely idiots, they had spread out on the ground so a simple spell couldn’t just take them out, not that this mattered for the scatter spell.
Channelling it like before, but making sure that it would spread out across a larger area, Gilliam made sure to fill the spell circle with a little extra energy to make sure it hit hard but also to produce more of the orbs.

The first time he tried to manifest the spell he realised a moment of idiocy from his side, the spell failed instantly as he manifested the circle, as there were at least a bunch of different incoming objects that passed through it. Feeling a bit stupid he made sure to channel the second attempt within his barrier, and this time it worked out as planned.
The carpet of small orbs spread out in a conical shape towards the ground, having the same significant impact as last time. Not waiting for the results or the settling of the dust and sand, Gilliam started flying towards where he hoped the static portal was.
The girls followed as soon as he started flying.

They took to height first, moving up to the height of barely being able to see the ground beneath them, then they just followed Gilliam’s aim, not that he knew where he was going but it seemed better than splitting up.
“Come in close, I’ll refresh the barrier.” He didn’t know exactly how much was left in them, but he didn’t want them to just pop due to negligence.

Petal came in first, and Angela shortly after, the process was the same for both of them. Leaving the existing barrier in place, after all, there was no need to remove it, and setting up a solid second barrier over it. He took care to use a bit extra mana in it this round to make sure that it lasted as long as possible.
“There, that should hopefully help.”

“Thank you, my Lord.” Petal smiled warmly at her master. It almost caught Gilliam off guard, given where they are and what they were doing it just felt a bit odd being this close to ‘one of them’.
He quickly put those thoughts away before Angela’s words of appreciation, which didn’t feel as weird, luckily enough.

They continued.

The chaos they had caused seemed to have helped a lot in slowing down anyone chasing them. They might not have seen where they went through the mayhem, or just the sheer height making them very hard to spot. But they were able to move like this for quite some time, it again felt like hours but it was hard to say for sure. Some simple snacks and drinks on the way kept their energy up, but the mental aspect of this was sinking in. They had been here for... who knows how long. A few days? A week? More?
And since that time was double back in Lisica... They needed to hurry.

If they got some downtime, Gilliam made a mental note that he needed to upgrade the flying spell, even though it would most likely end up draining his reserves rather than allowing it to recharge, it could be very good for immediate escape or overland flight.

Having made sure to keep as much of buildings and signs of society below them, it made it easier when they got closer to the end. Following the flow of the buildings they easily found the fancier areas that hinted at the location of the static portals, and luck would have it that this was indeed the case.

However, even from their lofty position, there was a slight problem.
“So...” Gilliam started as he looked to his companions. “Which of the two buildings do you think it is?”

The girls looked at him and shook their heads.
Gilliam looked at them specifically to get some thought, Angela was the first to respond. “I have no idea, we could try... asking?” She shrugged with a slightly forced smile.

Moving his gaze to Petal she shrugged as well. “We were never told anything from the other lands. I only knew the Finger I was on.”

Gilliam sighed deeply. “That makes things a bit worse... We came from the finger to the hand and... I have no idea where we are now... Arm? Shoulder? Wrist? Do you know the parts, at least?” Gilliam had hope in his voice as he continued questioning his demon companion.

“No. I know the names are based on body parts, but not what parts.” She shook her head again to emphasize her response.

“Well... Fuck... I suppose we can either gamble for one, or do our best in asking around...” He hated both options. “Though... if it goes bad, I suppose Savia can take us back, even though it might be a bit hard.”
He hated to put her in that kind of situation but to be honest about it, she was there as their transport, and her discomfort could be alleviated by channelling energy into her. It didn’t hurt her, it just sucked, so it was absolutely an option.

“Savia can always bring us back if we go to the wrong one.” He halfway expected negative expressions at him but rather than that, they seemed to just go in thought a bit.

“If it’s based on body parts-” Angela started as she pointed at her own body. “-What is the first place that could have two connections? The fingers and hand go to the wrist, arm or whatever, but... If there are two here then this might be the arm? The next going to the shoulder or chest... or something?”
She didn’t sound certain, but she made a bit of sense.

“Then... The question is... did we come from the left or right side?” Gilliam’s angle was that if they came from the right, the left portal might go to the chest or something, if they came from the left, they might need to take the right portal.
“So... I suppose we’re back at square one...” he added in a disappointed tone.

“We came from the Right side.” Petal chimed in. “I lived on the Right Finger.”

Her simple statement lifted their spirits a surprising amount. “Then, we take the right portal and hope it goes to some chest area that’s closer to the heart.”
Again Gilliam looked at their responses more than just commanding, he had no idea if this was even a good plan but, it sounded decent.

This also made Gilliam realise that they needed to have a close talk with someone on the other side of this next portal. They needed more local knowledge. Sirzan could have helped a lot, but he wasn’t exactly easy to find.

“I also think we need to kidnap someone for some answers.” He realised that he didn’t feel that negative about things this time, parts of him wanted to just nuke this place and get it over with, and have already killed and bombed so many of the demons already, but most of him realised that he didn’t see them as people. The worst part was that he didn’t care.

They nodded, agreeing to his plan and aimed for the right portal. Given what they had seen before it would most likely be much heavier guarded than the other gates.

Flying over the portal they aimed straight down, aiming to do the same as last time, just locking it in a portal and taking their time. But on the way down Gilliam felt something odd, a strong buildup of energy from the ground.