Rushing to beat the constructs, the party made it to the city’s core with little time to spare Already four shield guards, two larger constructs with hammers in place of arms, and a huge android with a greatsword attached to it were waiting for them The portal’s controls, conveniently enough, was behind everything Drawing his whip, our hero stepped up and attempted to trip one of the lead constructs, but was himself pulled over when his weapon got caught around the creature’s foot Searching around from the floor, our hero noticed the man-sized grate next to him as well as another some yards off, behind the portal and the constructs Before his enemy could strike him with its shield, he quickly rolled into the grate and closed it to prevent the android from following Meanwhile, the remaining shield constructs fired crossbows at Katrina and the halfling, pulling them both in and slamming them hard While Gideon moved to fire his own crossbow at the hammer constructs, the dragonkin dealt with the other on his way to the greatsword android Slashing his blades into the hammer construct, the dragonkin realized that its defenses were different than the others, making it harder to strike with these particular weapons Still, the fury warrior continued his assault, wearing the monster down until finally it collapsed Digging into his quiver, the halfling pulled out a coiled arrow that he stabbed into the construct that had him grappled, he then cut himself loose and shuffled back as the projectile exploded in a jolt of electricity that changed the android back to normal Seeing this, the halfling quickly drew out several of his other lightning arrows and proceeded to shoot them at nearby constructs, hoping to shock them back to normal as well This opened up a chance for Gideon to move in on the huge construct, but one of the imps he’d trapped was able to leap into a freed construct, turning it evil once again Ignoring the smaller android behind him, Gideon slashed into the huge construct, who had just pierced the halfling through the chest while he was firing arrows He struck it, but not before the monster could swipe at him as well, nearly taking his head off Rushing to the halfling, Katrina was able to heal him back to fighting condition with one of her potions, she then took the brunt of two more attacks as she moved to her dragonkin ally who had just been similar struck with the huge construct’s sword She was, unfortunately, run through by the huge greatsword while rescuing him after transmuting the power of her boots into healing magic As combat raged, our hero finally popped his head back out of the grate on the other side by the portal Rushing to the console, he quickly flipped several levers that looked like they could work and, as luck would have it, they did The portal began to whir into motion, opening up to the demon’s homeworld On the other side, a colossal demon waited for its chance to push through the portal to wreak havoc on the world outside Ducking another crossbow bolt that would have pulled him away from his duty, our hero deftly located the part of the magical device that reversed the portal’s power, pulling the demons from their possessed constructs and sending them away As a last act of vengeance, the huge construct cut Gideon in two, killing him and absorbing his consciousness Inside the construct, Gideon rallied the blue men and women he found cowering before a massive frog demon As they moved to take the creature’s power, it was ripped back to its world, leaving the huge construct under Gideon’s control temporarily With the portal deactivated, the party was able to regroup; their only true loss being Katrina Being an outsider herself, the god-blooded’s body was pulled with the demons into their world, where it would be too dangerous to retrieve With his magic beginning to fade, Gideon faced the possibility of dying as well if he couldn’t get back into his body Thankfully, the constructs who had been racing to stop them were now back to normal and able to quickly repair his vessel before his spell’s duration ended As their last, brave act before leaving to claim their reward, the heroes gathered around the portal and said their farewells to Gideon, who returned home, now a champion of two worlds 31