Pitt flew through the turbulent air. He thought he hadn't done the brightest thing he could have done under the circumstances. He wondered what kind of countermeasure old Neil was going to come up with now that he was a plane away from the action.

He hated to leave Beaver and his friend in the lurch like that. And maybe the knight was wrong. It was better to be safe than sorry.

And if he had foiled Skaren's plan for the moment, so much the better.

He doubted that Beaver and his friend would be alive in the next few minutes. There was nothing he could do about that. As long as he was in the demon realm, he couldn't do anything for them.

He didn't take the time to wonder where the cleric or the other knight was. Either they were trying to take care of their business, or they were dead. He couldn't do anything for them either.

Pitt fell toward an uneven line of demons. They looked up at him as he descended. He noted they seemed to be climbing a tower to get to the gate he had just arrived through above them.

He saw some of them moving out of his way. He didn't know if they knew him, or it was the general principle of not trying to catch an hostile enemy. He supposed it could be both.

He wondered what would happen to the invasion if he wrecked that tower. He knew he could do it. Would it slow things down so the city's defenders could fight back.

Skaren already had enough demons to kill all the humans. Bringing more across was just overkill. Stopping that flow might put a crimp in his plans.

And Pitt didn't mind forcing the other to come up with a way around the monkey he was getting ready to throw in things.

Pitt landed and drew his coat straight with his hands. He smoothed back his hair as he walked toward the crowd of demons.

They didn't wait for him to make the first move. They surged forward with cries of rage and intimidation.

Pitt weaved through them. He didn't try for anything permanent. He just wanted to get to the tower as fast as possible. Some of the demons lost their heads to chance blows thrown without really aiming, but he got through the crowd without too much trouble.

He paused to assess the tower and the demons climbing it. He should be able to push the tower over if he gave it a good hit with his shoulder. The surviving demons had reversed directions to try to stop him.

Pitt punched the bridge to the tower. A piece of it broke off to give him a space between where he stood next to the tower, and the demons who would have to jump over to keep him from carrying out his mad plan.

He turned to the tower and pressed his whole body against the shiny black stone. He exerted every muscle in his body to push against the wall. The stones came apart to let him walk inside through a big hole. He took a step back and watched as the rest of the tower started to fall over toward the hole he had created. He stepped to the side and let it keep going.

The tower headed for the bottom of the infernal landscape. It broke apart in sections after crashing into cliffs jutting from rough cones that formed the sides of the vast cavern below.

Talk about a showstopper. What were the demons going to do now? They weren't going to be able to answer their summons in a timely manner.

“Why are you getting in our way?,” asked one of the demons stuck on the other side of the platform. “Why can't you let us be?”

“I have been summoned to do a job,” said Pitt. “Part of that job is protecting the humans above. I wouldn't have to do anything if you stopped answering the summons. Since you won't, or can't, stop answering the call, it's up to me to do something about things.”

“The King will render you into strips of meat for his pleasure, human,” said the demon.

“I would like to see him try,” said Pitt. “Before we get into that, why don't you head back down and warn him I'm coming to talk to him.”

“I'm not doing that,” said the demon. “You must be insane if you think I'm telling the King anything like that.”

“I said head back down and tell I'm coming,” said Pitt.

He jumped over the gap. The demon's eyes widened and caught flame at the fist dropping into its face. Then it was rocketing into the depths of the underworld.

“Do what I tell you,” said Pitt. He looked at the demons all around him. Some of them took flight and headed for the door in the sky. The rest shrank back, holding their weapons between them and the demon fighter.

“You can walk away,” said Pitt. “No one would blame you. This doesn't have to go further than this.”

The demons charged. They couldn't let a human tell them what to do. The lack of courage would get them demoted to maid servants for things worse than they were.

It was better to lose trying to fight off this menace than running.

Pitt didn't wait for the crowd to bunch up on him. Instead he charged. He had to stop the invasion. The best way to do that was have the King of Demons to call a withdrawal. And the best way to get him to do that was talk to him in person.

Demons went flying as he plowed into them. He didn't try to kill them, but he didn't stop himself from putting them down as he pushed through the crowd. Black flesh filled the air as he jumped to the next cone on the other side of the horde.

Pitt landed lightly and jumped to the next spot he could see from his perch. The horde he had punched through followed him as fast as they could. He jumped again as soon as he had landed.

He didn't want them catching up to him while he was moving down to the bottom of the crater that was the demons' home turf. One push could turn his jumping into a flailing fall to the bottom. He could do without that.

Some of the faster demons, possibly gliders or true fliers, dropped down on top of him in the middle of one of his jumps. He punched them away but the damage was done. His forward momentum had been drained by their impacts.

Pitt looked at the bottom of the pit rushing up to stop his fall. He doubted he would survive the impact. He might turn into a splotch like so many of his victims.

One of the spires drifted close to his fall. He decided to use that to arrest his movement. He hoped the destruction he was about to cause was worth it.

He twisted in the air to get closer to the black rock. Then he punched with his hardened fist. The outgrowth blasted in one direction. He flew in the opposite direction. He twisted to get his feet under him to direct his leap down to the next stopping point he felt he could reach with a jump. He landed lightly and looked around for the next spot he could leap to from where he was.

Pitt jumped down to a set of steps leading to a tunnel bracketed by floating fireballs for light. He looked up. The demons fell down toward him.

Did he want to deal with the horde. It would be easy with a bottleneck like the cave network provided. All he had to do was fight against them until they were all dead.

He figured he had done worse things to better people in his lifetime. What was one more atrocity in a long line of them?

He stepped into the cave and looked around. He saw the cave was held open by two columns pushing against the ceiling. Maybe cutting things off was the way to go for this.

He punched one side of the cavern, then the other. Then he kicked down the columns to let the ceiling come down. He dodged away as dark blocks fell down to block the entrance.

Pitt looked around. He realized he didn't know if he was in the right cavern to talk to the King. He slumped in his coat before getting a grip. Exploring the place was okay since he needed to talk to more reasonable demons.

He followed the fireballs on the walls. If the king was in the cavern, they could have a quiet talk. If things stayed peaceful, he would head back up the passages and knock a hole in his impromptu barrier.

He might need the King to order a stand down so he didn't need to kill all of the demons where they waited for him to walk out. They might have gone back to trying to get through the gate.

He wandered the halls. He couldn't see any signs to point the way. He decided the King would be at the bottom behind a screen of demons soldiers. He might be doing paperwork to get through the next day.

How hard was the accounting when you lost a huge portion of your population to a mad man with a mad plan?

Pitt paused to listen. He heard something down a side tunnel. He decided to find out what that was. He might need a guide, and this might be one.

He was pushing his luck but if he could get the demons to withdraw, that might cripple Skaren, and force him to think of a plan he didn't have the pieces for at the moment.

That would suit Pitt just fine.