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The wingless angel gladly accepted Sam's help, and heartily thanked her with a shy smile. She was probably the only thing around that wasn't actively trying to freak him out. Not that that would be too hard.

As long as none of them was a wizard... as long as none of the was an effeminate wizard... He shuddered at the mere thought.

Once standing, and while keeping an eye on the Mink and Dadj, we went to pick up his mace. He muttered the words, "holy forge", and the weapon started emanating a strong white glow. There. That would hopefully be enough to drive back any evil aligned creatures he could find on his way. Once ready, he turned around to face that strange group once again.

"I will g-go now. D-darkness lurks in every corner, d-despite my best efforts..."

Paladins are supposed to stand against the tides of chaos..., he had said. Travel. Purge darkness wherever you find it, brave Tyval. Never forget, your faith lends you the strength and courage to face your fears.

Remembering these words made him stop stuttering for a moment.

"Farewell, traveling party. I hope you find what you seek."

"Hold."

Samantha unsheathed Soulforge and held it out to her side. The blade was glowing white again, giving it an appearance not unlike Tyval's mace. (In fact, it was reacting to the weapon).

"It seems we are on the same path. If you truly seek to cleanse the darkness in this place, you will need our help. And..." she sheathed her sword again.

"...We will need yours."

"Now, I don't know who you are, or where you come from, and I can't speak for these others. But, if you aid us, I promise I will do everything I can to help you return home. What say you?"

Now this is what that brochure was talking about! I've always wanted to do stuff like this. Oh crap, please let me not be saying this part out loud. ...Wait, this in italics? Okay, good. That was a close one. Better check to make sure he couldn't tell I was off in my own little internal monologue.

(Yes, Samantha is now the John Dorian of adventuring.)

Alphanus was mere millimeters from losing himself in blind rage after seeing one of his greatest minions so utterly decimated, and so quickly on top of that. How could his 3rd in command fall so easily? He quickly regained himself, and sighed. This would be more fun than he thought.

"Rrrggghhhh... Distrugere has failed, miserably... I want you to set out and at the very least hold them back for an hour or so."

The one he spoke to, whose identity I will not reveal now, silently regarded his master, then opened his own portal to find the heroes.

"He was one of my most trusted... Damn it, how could they be this powerful already?"

He took a long pause, pondering this situation.

"This will be the most fun I've had in a few centuries, it seems."

He began laughing evilly. Quite ominous, this - it could even be heard above ground, and it was louder in the area the heroes were...

Dadj recoiled at the brightness of the blade. To say it didn't affect him would be a lie, but it didn’t all together hurt or drive him away. He rolled his eyes to all the holy nonsense and turned to leave the group. His horse had either died in the fight, or run at the first sign of it. Either way, he wasn’t afraid to hoof it; no pun intended. He assumed, by her stance that Mink would fly herself there. If you’ve got wings, you may as well use them, right?

He had turned toward the same direction Distrugere had come from as well as the magical ring in the sky. Over his shoulder, he gently reminded his companions that Alphanus wasn’t going to wait for them to finish tea-time to destroy the world.

Tyval saw in Sam a fellow paladin, if not by profession, then at least in ideals. She even spoke like one. So he nodded.

"I will help you. It is a paladin's duty after all."

He didn't like the idea of teaming up with the creepy man and the vampire, but if they needed his help, he gladly offer it.

The evil laugh that echoed then made him shiver uncontrollably; not only did it startle the angel, it was also outstandingly creepy on its own, and that was more than enough to make Tyval very, very afraid. In fact, he left him almost in shock; just the fact that he didn't faint right there is proof enough that he was being exceptionally brave. For a Tyval, that is.

The prospect of fighting whatever had just laughed didn't sound very wise. Still, he had said he would help - and he disliked breaking oaths.

Sam turned to Dadj. "Then we will not give him the chance to act." Then she leaped back up on to Mort, and turned back to address Tyval. "If you don't have a method of transportation, you can ride with me." (Mort's saddle is large enough to seat two.)

"Now then, do we know where that noise is coming from? Kind of sounds like the laughter of a fel being unaware of its own impending annihilation, but my detection spell won't do us any good here, with so much residual magic and demons all over the place."

Mink's ears slowly flattened at the laughter. She noted the ranger's reminder and stretched her wings out. After running a few feet she jumped and circled slowly above her comrades.
"I have no way to know or track it." She directed this at Sam. Then, jokingly, and more to herself, added, "Perhaps these demons are sentient and we could ask for directions.." She crossed her arms and treaded air, waiting for any kind of sign or hint that could lead them onward.

(very probably, yes. )

"Thank you, Samantha, but I have my own mount."

While it was true he didn't want to bother her by sharing her mount, the real reason for this was obvious. If he disliked mounting horses for being too tall, that dinosaur wasn't much better. Besides, he had...

"Summon mount.", he prayed.

Another gate, just like the one that had transported Tyval to the presence of such an odd group - with the one difference that this one did not have a small army of goblin wizards on the other side - appeared. Out of it trotted a white pony, Bobby. Tyval mounted his, well, mount, and looked at the rest of the group with his trademark 'so, what now?' face.

"Well, there are two possibilities. Whatever is behind this is either going to try to destroy us outright, or is going to try to use us first, and then destroy us. In either case, it won't be long before we come under attack again - we might be able to use our enemies' portals against them."

She shrugged*. "Our other option is exploring an active volcano. Any of you want to volunteer for that, be my guest."

*Edit: tense

Almost falling from excitement, Mink pumped her fists into the air.
"Yeah, active volcano! Let's go!"

"I can go in. I might come out naked and weaponless if things go south, but I don't think all of you would mind." He gave a pointed look to Mink with a crooked grin.

"Erm, I think she m-meant that as an... inviable option, vampire. I think waiting for them t-to make their move would be wiser."

Volcanoes have magma in them. He couldn't make living beings fireproof, ad even if he could, the spell would probably wear off fast... and oh? The creepy man was being suicidal?

"I s-say we stay here and prepare for their coming."

"That actually works out. You two go ahead and jump in the lava; we'll stay here and, hopefully, they'll want to take advantage of the fact that we've split up, and come after us. Let's just hope they take the bait."

"We've been staying here long enough. We wasted time bantering with the king and with all of the unexpected 'heroes'. I'm not waiting for Alphanus to wake entirely. I know what it's like to be on the fool errand of saving the world from an impenetrable evil. If you're not willing to sacrifice, then stay here. I'm going ahead." Sacrifice, eh? Like he had? His blood rushed to his face as he turned to continue onward. The cold spot inside of him where his soul was patched the another quivered oddly.

"Well, if you know of a way to get to him that doesn't involve being incinerated by magma, I'm all for it. Until then, I'll be right here, not committing suicide. I like think I'm of more use alive than dead."

She cleared her throat and looked away, whistling a little at Dadj's comment about nudeness.
"Oh wait. Dang. Sam's right, I forgot I'm not fireproof..looks like I'm stuck with the waiting option as well. As far as I'm concerned, though, Dadj can go do whatever he wants in the lava."

"You just want to see me naked." The ranger sat where he was with a harumph. He was quite bored of this errand entirely.

"You are fireproof? Then... maybe I can help with... the... clothes... issue." As the paladin spoke, he became more and more embarrassed, to the point that the word 'issue' was barely audible.

"I can make them fireproof for a while... but I won't go with you."

Well duh.

"I'm not.. fire proof, per say," Dadj offered with a hand flourish, turning back to the group. "But I am, how shall I put it..." His honey eyes shimmeried rich amber, almost like liquid. "Death-proof."

The paladin's golden eyes widened, and he gasped as the expression on his face became a prime example of the phenomenon often described as 'dull surprise'.

"A-an Immortal?"

Immortals were the rulers of his home world, given total immunity to death and reality-altering powers by the gods of righteousness to guide and help people. Their playful personality, coupled with their immense powers and a very strange sense of humor that bordered on the sadistic made Tyval fear them quite a bit, but even he knew they were all wise, good people always willing to help the ones who needed.

Tyval himself was immortal too, kind of - one of the good things of being an Angel, you only age if you want to. But he was getting vibes from Dadj that made him believe the human hadn't goten his immortality from the gods of righteousness.

"If you still want to do it, I can make your clothes fireproof..." He repeated.

He knew swimming in magma, immortal or not, was never a good idea. But he wouldn't confront the creepy glaring man about it.