Leareth reaches the other way to take Nayoki's hand. Nearly two hundred of his mages, everyone who's tired from Gating twenty thousand troops over from Velgarth or from the frantic last-minute making set-spells and shield-artifacts and such, are already holding hands in a chain, ready. 

Aroden takes out his Rod of Security, and pulls them into a pocket outside of space and time. 

It's nice. There are plants. Water. Fruits and vegetables to eat. And, most importantly, space to rest. 

And he dispels Alter Self. He doesn't mind wearing that face, exactly, not when it achieves his goals so well, but it - doesn't really, quite, feel like his.

"One day," he tells them, gruffly. "Get some sleep, all of you." 

It's still pretty goddamned early in the morning, according to Vanyel, when Leareth's communication-spell taps at his mind. 

The Heralds are assembled and ready, though, fifty-seven of them, riding their saddled Companions, plus a dozen Healers and one Melody. She's headed to the Worldwound first, in case she can be useful there, but if Fazil does peel off Cheliax-ward afterward then she might join him. Also Starwind and Moondance, half a dozen other Adepts, and a dozen scouts with Mindspeech. The trumpet archon is with them.

Vanyel raises a Gate to the memory of a place that should be just outside the shield-barrier - no one has a new enough Gate-location inside, even though it should be safe enough now if Aroden's plan worked. 

Just outside the shield-barrier there's an encampment of Hellknights; most of them are turned to stone but the ones who aren't are terrified and angry and have closed in tightly around their camp, wielding pikes. 

There's a host of warriors from Mendev, circled around to sort of glare them down but not actually approaching. 

There are some paladins of Iomedae. 

Everyone turns to stare at the Gate. Magic...shouldn't be able to do that...

The Hellknights share anxious hopeful looks until a paladin order on horses rides through with a trumpet archon flying above them. 

They don't have Taver but they do have a lot of other Companions, who can coordinate amongst each other and explain their plan to the non-Hellknight forces, while their Heralds focus on spreading out a bit, orienting to the surroundings - how many demons are both visible and moving on the other side of that barrier...

If the answer is 'very few' then he's going to do another Gate, he's trained enough to do it un-scaffolded now, and get a LOT closer so his Final Strike is actually pulling its weight. 

This seems pretty under control so she's going to start Gating in the Valdemaran Guard from Velgarth, holding the Gate as long as she can. 

Moondance closes his eyes, extends his senses to the land. 

The land is super fucked up! Horrifying forces have twisted the magic in the area and the magic has twisted them in return. It has some things in common with the Pelagirs but there's more intent to it, and it's been in the process of being warped worse and worse for fifty years now.

Ugh. This is going to be a lot of work. 

Plan! Vanyel can Farsee where all the four ward-stones are and share that vivid mental image with the others, that plus line-of-sight plus some practice of techniques Leareth showed him should be enough to Gate themselves right there rather than taking the long way. They're heavy, so the easiest way to move them is going to be by opening a Gate under them, the other end of it placed very close to the site of the Worldwound itself, which he can also Farsee and share with Mindspeech.

Vanyel takes one himself. 

Starwind and two other Tayledras Adepts will spread out around the other three. 

:'Fandes, pass it on, we're moving it. Surviving demons incoming. Are they ready: 

Are the paladins ready to fight their way through some much-reduced demons? They're about to move the stones a lot closer before more can come through. Vanyel will clear some of the way in a minute. 

The locals are incredibly confused but they think the forces here are sufficient to handle the ones not turned to stone? Or at least, they definitely would be if they were fighting them, but at this moment the forces here are still tensely glaring at each other, trying to figure out whether they are obliged to go to war or obliged not to or anything.

Probably if demons show up it'll settle the impasse.

Well, some demons are sure about to show up. 

:On my count: 

Vanyel takes a deep breath. 

:Three, two, one–:

And the four ward stones drop to form a wavy circle just a half-mile out from the site of the Worldwound. 

The barrier vanishes from the place where it's stood for decades. 

Its defenders exchange nervous glances. 

"Maybe Aroden spared you so you can redeem yourselves," someone says cautiously, which gets them angrily glared at. 

" - we came here to fight demons," one of the paladins says, after a while. "So - we're going to do that. Unless we are stabbed in the back, in which case we will destroy every last one of you."

And they spread out to stop any demons that make their way out with the barrier gone.

Savil is barking orders to the several thousand blue-uniformed Guards still streaming through her Gate. She's getting tired, she had better take it down, but this is already better than she'd expected. 

The other Heralds are spreading out, staying in Mindspeech contact with each other. 

Vanyel doesn't wait. 

The moment his Gate is done, Yfandes breaks into a gallop toward the distant Worldwound. 

Vanyel flings fireballs and levinbolts and blunt force attacks and daggers of mage-force at every demon within a hundred feet of him, an extravagant, almost careless display of magic. He's clearing a path for himself, of course, but his main goal here is actually to attract a LOT of attention. He wants them coordinating against him as their biggest threat. It'll get more of them into range. 

The demons have no trouble concluding that this person is a big threat! As he and Yfandes head in they swarm him. There are fire demons with long-reaching whips that reach out to rip at him with something like Fetching, there are towering demons wielding trees as clubs, there are demons flinging their own spells back at him -

Vanyel switches to focusing completely on shielding himself, which he can't do forever against this but can do for a few seconds, and he leaps off from Yfandes back and catches himself, holding a bubble of space around him–

Yfandes runs like hell, it'll be inconvenient if they have to raise her too–

And he drops the shield and closes his eyes and - lets go - as promised, it doesn't hurt, there's only a single poised moment, everything he is and ever was flung out at a half-circle on one side of an imaginary line -