The Heavenly Host

As he looked down, his wizard sight still active, he saw the link to Tizzy. Did he dare? Bringing that crazy demon here could be suicide! However, surely Tom would be upset with Tizzy if Tizzy killed Gastropé. Would that not keep the demon in check? He had to take the risk. They were not going to win at this rate.

They came around for another pass. Gastropé launched his cone of fire against the dragon’s wings, hoping to melt them slightly. Penelope targeted the same wing, trying to tilt the dragon and pull it down. They had tried to repeat the gravity suck thing a few times, but the lich had gotten skilled enough to thwart them each time, resulting in only minor downtime for the dragon and lich.

The flames and gravity blast did not do any more than expected. Gastropé shook his head and decided to go for it. He chanted the spell to open the link, a summoning prelude for a bound demon.

“Tizzy?” Gastropé asked. Suddenly, faster than he would have imagined, he saw Tizzy’s smiling face, or rather the demon’s head, in his mind’s eye. Gastropé blinked in surprise. Tizzy was buried to his neck in molten lava!

“Greetings, Accursed Master!” Tizzy shouted back, apparently very happy to see him.

“Are you okay?” Gastropé asked, concerned to see the demon in the hot lava.

“Sure, just relaxing! Going with the flow, as they say.” Tizzy flashed him a bright grin. “So what’s up?”

“Uhm, I’m sort of in a jam and I need your help?” Gastropé said.

“You need my help? Moi?” Gastropé had not thought it possible, but Tizzy’s grin got wider.

“Yes, and I need it fast. I’m on a flying carpet and we are fighting a bunch of storm liches on ice dragons and things aren’t going that well,” Gastropé explained.

“Storm liches? Ice dragons?” Tizzy asked; he suddenly looked upset. “Why wouldn’t you invite me to that party? I thought we were friends! How could you go partying with them and not invite me?”

Gastropé shook his head at the demon’s insane mental processes. “We are really high in the stratosphere, where the air is thin. aetós cannot fly here, but for some reason ice dragons can. Can you?”

Tizzy snorted. “Adding insult to injury?” He shook his head. “I am a demon! I can obviously fly there; I can fly anywhere I damn well please!” he retorted before tilting his head a bit and frowning. “As well as several I don’t please.”

“Well, could you maybe come help me out? Eviscerate a few liches, dragons and such?” Gastropé asked. They were taking another pass by this point, but Gastropé sat it out; he needed to talk to Tizzy.

“Hmm, can I bring some friends?” Tizzy asked.

“You mean Tom?” Gastropé asked. That would certainly fix the lich problem, but could create quite a few others.

“Nah. He, Antefalken, Rupert, Reggie and Talarius are over at the shanties shopping.” Tizzy shook his head. “Guys?” He was apparently talking to some other demons. “You up to disemboweling some liches and melting some ice dragons?” Tizzy nodded and grinned.

“Well?” Tizzy asked Gastropé.

“Sure, the more help the better!” Gastropé was getting desperate; the others on the carpet were now watching him, trying to figure out what he was up to, and the lich was going to be attacking them soon. His conversations were all mental, so to them he appeared to be in a trance.

“Excellent; so make some fire, and recite the standard chant for a fiend. I can bring them through with me,” Tizzy instructed.

Gastropé looked up and around at the others. “I hope this isn’t insane.” They looked at him askance; he shook his head and quickly activated his wand, shooting fire out over the edge of the carpet. It was tricky to maintain that and chant the fiend ritual, but he needed to do this.

He heard Penelope behind him. “Am I crazy or is he trying to summon a demon on a flying carpet moving at fifty miles per hour?”