Page 145 of The Sundered Realms

Unfortunately, Liris didn’t see a way to save him from himself under the circumstances. That was outside her scope.

Then the demons all shifted at once, like they were scenting something on the wind.

Jadrhun’s eyes narrowed.

“It’s funny you should mention accounting for multiple demons at once. Because the second piece of information you’re missing,” Liris said, “is that we’re not alone anymore.”

In an instant, Jadrhun cast a spell, but not faster than Vhannor, warned while Liris distracted their opponent, could dash off a counterattack and a protection sphere around one demon in close succession.

And not faster than Shry, rushing through the woods, could get the drop on another demon.

“Took you long enough,” Liris called as she ran for the elaborate spell pattern.

“Bite me,” Shry yelled back, a fierce grin on her face. “And there I was worried you’d keep all the fun for yourself.”

“Oh, I will,“ Liris said.

Shry could keep all the demon fun she wanted. She couldn’t destroy this many at once, but she could keep them busy and not attacking Liris, which was the foremost problem.

And Vhannor could keep all the dueling. Even with all his preparation, Jadrhun would be hard-pressed to activate more spells while fighting the top field caster in the world.

Leaving Liris to the one job she wanted.

She threw herself into dispelling the circle closest to her.

Already deciphering, the first thing Liris realized was that each of the outer circle of spells had another spell around it serving as a barrier, interlocking all the way around. She was going to have to go all the way around the voiding tapestry before she could even get inside. She could spit at Jadrhun for such a cursed clever way of wasting her time—and hers alone, because every one of them used Thyrasel. So even if Special Operations got here in time to help, they weren’t going to be able to make this go any faster.

As Liris danced through the barrier spell, her second realization was that the spell it surrounded wasn’t actually a circle, though she didn’t have a name for the shape. If Jadrhun hadn’t been able to prepare this in advance she might have assumed that was an accident, just a carelessly drawn outline.

Her third realization was that while the protected spells of this outer layer were demon portals, and they were active, they weren’t open here.

She stopped, felt the chaos magic surge in her. A match for her own feelings on the matter.

A black tendril swooped toward her, galvanizing Liris into motion again before it was summarily cut off.

A blur of white in her peripheral vision as Shry snarled, “Don’t stop,” and leapt back away.

So Jadrhun had somehow learned how to activate demon portals remotely. How was that possible? It was like when he’d detonated the Gate—he kept doing things she hadn’t thought to imagine.

Well, she’d better figure it out, fast.

Right now.

No pressure.

Pressure, fortunately, Liris could handle.

Liris closed her eyes, took a breath.

Opened them, and focused.

She mentally decoded what she could while dispelling around the edges like the wind. This was work she knew well, part of her brain tracking the overall shape of a system while translating a language she wasn’t fluent in, each piece she unlocked unveiling another piece.

She couldn’t tell yet how he had anchored each spell in a place he wasn’t. Other pieces of the spell told Liris what realm they were in, but she knew these for distractions for her to keep her from recognizing the method. Just denoting the name of a realm wasn’t enough to anchor a spell to it, only to the void.

Liris couldn’t see the whole of the pattern yet, rushing as she was around the edges one spell at a time. The only commonality of all the spells, besides their usage of Thyrasel, was that none of them was circular.

The only thing she was sure of that this meant was that no help was coming. All these demon portals, activating simultaneously in so many of the Sundered Realms, meant every realm would be too focused on their own local problem, on trying to protect their people from the portals’ effects, which would likely exceed their apparent capacity—

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