Flying on the magic carpet was never fun for Kasyn. However, he would trade his current situation for the carpet, flying hundreds of feet above the ground as he was, being held in the grip of a fiend. His fiend, he had to remind himself. It would obey his every command and it was for that reason he had agreed to Zeter’s plan. Down below he could see his skeletons, their ranks refilled since the last fight, marching into the lake while Zeter and Damarys sped away on the carpet on their way around the Wa to cross the Bokyaku River and draw the fiends attention away from the master rune.

All Kasyn had to do was sneak into position and repair the rune before they all got swarmed and killed by the fiends. Kasyn at least had the advantage of being invisible. To any observer, his fiend would only appear to be flying a bit awkwardly. His only real concern was whether or not the one fiend who’d fled from them earlier knew what the chain did. If it did know, then his fiend would be targeted as soon as it was spotted. He hoped that wouldn’t be the case as they began flying over the lake itself. A fall now would be disastrous, even if he survived the fall. At least the lake guardian wasn’t trying to attack them. Zeter had been right in his assumption that the guardian would ignore them since the fiend is also a protector of the city, technically, so just like how Kasyn’s skeletons could walk through the river and lake without issue, so too could the fiends fly over without arousing a response.

Weighed down as it was, the fiend flew slower than the carpet could fly and the journey across the lake was terrifying since all Kasyn had holding him up were the fiends clawed feet, clenched around his biceps. It was not a comfortable way to travel but it was the best way they’d been able to figure out in the limited time they had.

When the far shore drew near and finally passed beneath them, Kasyn let out a slow sigh of relief. In the distance, he could both see and sense the chapel where the master rune was. First, however, he needed to repair the rest of the regular runes on this side of the lake. It would take Zeter and Damarys some time to go all the way around the Wa so he had time before they would begin their push across the river.

He could sense the broken and missing runes now that he was close enough and by tapping on the fiends legs he directed it to turn left or right as needed. The whole time Kasyn kept a wary eye out for any of the other fiends. With luck, they wouldn’t see or be seen by any of them but that was a lot to hope for. Fortunately, as they landed to repair the first rune, there didn’t seem to be any sign of the fiends. The chain made quick work of repairing it and they were up in the air before even a minute had elapsed.

“Where are the rest of the fiends?” Kasyn called up.

“They will be near the chapel, or on the borders of the lake and river.”

“Don’t you have any patrols in the Wa?”

“No, we did not feel the need.”

“But you still guard the master rune.”

“As a final precaution. There just aren’t enough of us to cover the whole area.”

They reached the next rune to be repaired and Kasyn struck it with the chain.

“How many fiends are there in Ichiba Wa?” Kasyn asked after they’d taken back to the air.

“There’s around sixty of us.”

“So few? I thought this Wa was one of the more heavily protected Was in the city.”

“It was, but many of us were disincorporated during the battle against the Tower of Light. With the runes damaged as they are, it takes longer for us to reincorporate. Only seven of us survived the battle. We have averaged one fiend reincorporated per day. The ritual will fix that and call forth the legions.”

“Not if we stop it.”

The fiend scowled but didn’t speak further.

Kasyn managed to repair another couple of runes before he figured it was about time to get into position for the master rune. He didn’t want to get too close to the chapel and risk being detected, invisible or not, so he kept the fiend circling at a distance where they could see the chapel but not so close that they were likely to be spotted.

The torchlight around the chapel revealed people moving about, writing out a massive circle of runes on the ground, as directed by the fiends. From this distance it was impossible to see any details besides the moving dots of people but the magic circle was truly massive. Whatever they were using to make the circle was wet and reflective and Kasyn didn’t want to think too hard about what that might be. Blood was the obvious guess.

Suddenly, the fiends in the crowd below became agitated and began shepherding the people into the chapel. With work on the magic circle paused for now, the fiends who’d been directing that work began flying off to the north, presumably to help fend off Damarys and Zeter.

“Do we go down there now?” Kasyn’s fiend asked.

“Not yet,” he replied, still watching the remaining fiends below as they milled about.

He could feel the master rune but wasn’t sure exactly where it was on the chapel.

“Where on the chapel is the rune?” he asked.

“On the west facing wall.”

“What sort of protections does it have?”

“Besides the several fiends guarding it, there’s warding runes in place to summon hellfire in case anyone approaches who isn’t authorized.”

“So if I get close enough to hit it with the chain,” Kasyn began and the fiend finished the sentence for him.

“You’ll be incinerated and your soul cast down to be tormented eternally. There’s also a plate of unbreakable glass covering the rune so even if the hellfire didn’t kill you, you’d need a way to remove the glass.”

Kasyn searched a moment and eventually found his skeletons. There were other undead still wandering this part of the Wa as well so they didn’t stand out too much. They were waiting just south of the chapel, close enough to charge in if needed but far enough away that they didn’t garner more than a passing glance from the fiends. It seemed the other undead here were under the fiends control, at least in so far as they didn’t attack the fiends and generally stayed out of their way.

“Would undead set off the hellfire?” he asked.

The fiend hesitated before answering. “I’m not sure,” it finally stated. “But your weak undead would not be able to bypass the glass.”

“I don’t need them to,” Kasyn replied. “Alright, here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to drop me off on the ground and then you and my skeletons are going to go and attack the fiends guarding the rune.”

“Do I get to take the chain?” the fiend’s eyes flashed with anticipation.

“No, I’ll be keeping the chain.”

“Then we won’t be able to repair the rune, even if we succeed against my brothers and sisters.”

“Just fight defensively,” Kasyn ordered the fiend. “Stay alive and keep them all occupied for as long as you can.”

“Very well.”

The fiend swooped down to the ground near Kasyn’s skeletons and let him go. The skeletons formed up around the fiend and the four of them, the skeletons and the fiend, charged off towards the western wall of the chapel. Kasyn, still invisible, moved silently towards the entrance of the chapel on the eastern side of the building.

There were no more fiends on this side of the building. They’d all either gone off to fight Zeter and Damarys or were behind the structure guarding the rune. The door into the chapel was open so he was able to slip inside without difficulty. Inside, the people were huddled together on the pews. They looked exhausted and most of them were already sleeping, slumped over one another. A solitary fiend walked among them, hissing at the people who looked at it. The quiet inside lasted only a moment longer as shouts broke out as the attack on the fiends outside began.

“Stay here,” hissed the fiend as it hurried towards the exit.

Kasyn waited until its back was to him before he dropped his invisibility and blasted it into dust.

The people inside the chapel were either too used to being quiet to avoid the ire of the fiends, or they were too surprised to cry out. Either way, Kasyn was glad they weren’t making any noise as he hurried over to the western wall. He could sense where the rune was on the other side. The wall here was made of plaster and he began chipping away at it with a hammer and chisel he’d taken from one of the merchant stalls earlier that night.

“Excuse me, but what are you doing?” whispered an elderly man.

“Restoring Lord Akumu’s control over these fiends.”

“I thought we were doing Akumu’s will, helping the fiends.”

“These fiends have rebelled against Akumu,” Kasyn explained as the plaster continued to fall away. In his mind he felt the first of his skeletons fall and sped up his pace, chipping away at the stone and mortar that lay behind the plaster.

“How can we trust you on that?” the old man asked and Kasyn couldn’t help but notice how many people were standing up now and facing him. Some were hefting shovels and other tools that would serve as a decent weapon in a fight.

He didn’t have time or the desire to fight them so instead he stuck the wall with magic, breaking the stones apart and sending shard of them flying. Outside there were shouts of alarm as the fiends realized what was going on. Kasyn only had a moment to spare as the people began to rush him. Zeter was the one who knew how to cast barrier spell but Kasyn still had a few tricks up his sleeve. A gust of wind burst out of him and staggered the people, giving him just enough time to pull out the chain and tap it against the back of the revealed master rune. It sunk in and the rune flared into life.

The people were recovered by then and were about to resume their attack when the first fiend made it inside.

“STOP!” it shouted.

The people obeyed.

“Get out there and start scrubbing those runes off the cobbles,” it went on.

“But I thought we were empowering Lord Akumu with them?” the old man whimpered.

It was clear from the people’s behavior that the fiends had not dealt kindly with the people.

“Fool, we were going to open a portal to hell and flood this land with our kind.”

Everyone stood in shocked silence except for Kasyn and the fiend.

“Unfortunately,” the fiend went on, “a few people found out what we were doing and restored the city’s control over us.”

It glared at Kasyn but he only smiled back. The people shrunk back onto the pews, many of them staring in horror at what they’d almost done while others began to cry.

“How are my friends?” Kasyn asked the fiends.

“Wounded, but alive.”

“Bring them here and tend to their injuries.”

There was a lot still to do, but first he wanted to make sure Damarys and Zeter were alright. They’d taken on the more dangerous task of drawing the fiends attention, after all. Next, they needed to figure out how to locate the merchant who’d taken Jelvaic and Arjana, and possibly many more people from the city.