08/31/2026: Leaving

In an attempt at leaving, the truck rolls through the carnival lot toward Vali, pursued by what amounts to the business end of the Nine Hells: three spiny devils and two horned devils are now approach at speed, and a barlgura freed from its recent captivity, loping across the cinders on its knuckles with real aggression. Somewhere behind all of it, the pit fiend former captor of the barlgura, watches. He is patient, waiting for the distance between himself and the truck to close.

Reklaw climbs out of the cabin and clambers onto the roof deck, sliding in behind the ion cannon. He lines up the shot, checks twice that he isn't about to fry Gearloose's praying manticore in the crossfire, and lets it fly. One horned devil eats the bolt at full strength. It does not enjoy the experience — and its orange, goatish eyes find Reklaw on the truck’s roof. It snarls in acknowledgment and charges, lifting on leathery wings into the molten air.

That charge becomes a problem almost immediately. The devil answers Reklaw’s bolt with a three-part rebuttal — fork, fork, tail — and the last hit opens an infernal wound that bleeds considerably. Reklaw deflects what he can, but the bleeding won't stop on its own. He survives it. Only just.

Meanwhile the barlgura has chosen violence against the truck itself, which turns out to be a mistake of philosophical proportions — the vehicle is unbothered by the bite, the claws, and the body slam alike. The demon climbs the roof to try again and is ambushed by Borark, who ends the argument by hurling it bodily into a horned devil. 

Kiki slows the truck just long enough for Vali to fling himself aboard, then spins the wheel toward the front gate — executing what might, generously, be called a tactical retreat. The pit fiend answers by loosing a fireball at the truck, and that's when the day gets memorably worse for everyone fleeing the Carnival Eternal.

It's also when Borark finally regains a weapon. The horned devil heaves its massive war fork through the side window of the truck, straight at Reklaw, back to riding shotgun. The tines find him — but in taking the hit, he ends up holding the weapon, and passes it along to Borark, who by this point has earned it several times over.

Somewhere in the chaos, Thunk talks a horned devil into leaving the party be, on the strength of the fact that it was already leaving anyway. Diplomacy, infernal-carnival style. The devil shrugs and breaks off. 

One down. Two spiny devils, one horned devil and a pit fiend to go. 

They keep coming, and by the close of the second fireball, Reklaw is charred and dying in the passenger seat, Thunk is triaging the burned, and the truck is still pointed at the gate.

Kiki, white-knuckled, drives on. The gate is in sight.