"Okay, then let's do the very simple task of killing the two remaining Lords of Hell. It shouldn't be too hard."

"How much of an one time opportunity is this?"

Adria shrugs. "If you have another mad mage who spent his life creating the ultimate weapon against Heaven and Hell up your sleeve, feel free to introduce me. Otherwise, it's pretty much up to this rock."

"Cool, I like when there is no world-crushing pressure like this."

Adria rolls her eyes but doesn't comment.

"Well, there's no time like the present," Li-Ming says. "Let's go kill Belial so we can get this over with."

"Right, nice and easy. So we can give you a victory of the worlds."

Li-Ming crosses over to the waypoint, then teleports to Caldeum.

Caldeum: is on fire. Acid-green meteors fall from the sky, and serpentine demons chase its citizens through the streets.

"What the fuck!"

A second later:

There is force-field above them.

Several dozen scared citizens by the waypoint.

Many of the serpentine demons got new additions to their biology, most in the form of weapons.

And also a Felix collapsing to the ground.

"Fuck, I pushed myself too much."

Li-Ming takes a moment to take in what just happened. 

"Thank you," she says emphatically. "Do you need a potion?"

"Please, thank you. The job isn't over, though."

"You're an idiot," Thomas says easing Felix to a better position.

Li-Ming hands him a small white vial. "Drink this and you'll get your stamina back. You'll also have a minute or so of seemingly unlimited energy, but don't overdo it, you're still-"

Adria clears her throat, her left hand glowing red. "I've located Belial. Now that he's pulled out all the stops for whatever reason, he can't keep hiding his diabolical energy. He's somewhere in the Royal Palace - I can lead you there."

"Lead on," Li-Ming says immediately.

"Seriously, don't overdo," Fernando says to Felix before turning to the others and speaking in a lower voice. "So, I have an idea. How hard is to force a demon to do your follow your commands? Suicidally so?"

"That's going to be a horrifyingly good idea, right?"

The group is running toward the palace. Fortunately for the conversation, it's a ways away. "I can bind weak demons, but it's usually not very useful, on account of them being weak. Why?"

"See, using lifeforce from other species is possible, but dangerous because it has to flow through you and it's often not compatible. But if we got a demon to do it we could just have him sacrifice a bunch of others - and itself - to channel the entire thing in a huge spell."

"Gruesome. I like it. I can't control anything much bigger than a Fallen, though, so you'd either need to gather a lot of them together or somehow find a way for a Fallen to kill something much more powerful than itself."

"The fallen itself doesn't need to do much of the killing part. We can just beat the demons half-dead but still alive and have the Fallen absorb their Youth to cast something with it. With just a couple of decades of sacrificed demonic magic we should be able to do something tremendous."

"Nice."

They come to the gates of the palace, which are locked and designed to stand up to a full assault by an army.

"Fuck," Li-Ming says. "We can't get through that."

"Yes we can," Adria says grimly. "Ari, rip it apart."

Ari, without hesitation, smashes into the gate. It doesn't budge.

He hits it again. And again. His frame grows steadily, his skin turns red, and spikes grow from his skin. He's almost ten feet tall when the gate finally crashes to the ground, and he roars in triumph.

Adria hits him from behind with a bolt of purple light, and he falls like a skyscraper. "He's just sleeping. You don't want him running around like that," she says. "Now go! I'll watch over him and make sure he's safe."

Gabe takes a moment to brush to touch Ari's shoulder, but they have no time. Inside they go.

Inside, there is a great and terrible demon, surrounded by more snake-creatures.

"PATHETIC MORTALS!" booms the demon. "You may have found me out, but you cannot stand before the might of Belial, the true Lord of Hell!"

"How did you return to full power so quickly?" Li-Ming asks. "We cursed your vessel with eternal sleep!"

The demon looks fairly thrown. "Is that what happened to that idiot? That- that wasn't my vessel, I was just controlling him. My vessel was the boy-emperor Hakan."

"Oh," Li-Ming says awkwardly.

Everyone gives a variation of a "oh, shit!" face when realization dawns on them.

"Well, that's a lesson to do better next time."

Belial regains his stride. "There won't be a next time, mortal. Deceivers, attack!"

The snake-demons slither forth with tridents raised. Li-Ming begins to crush them, looking almost bored.

"Spare me the pleasantries, Belial! Why send your minions to die when only you pose any real threat?"

Belial shrugs. "It amuses me."