Infernal Invasion: Infernal Spire
Infernal Spire: The Breach Reopens
A tower descends into the Celestial Realm, and Infernals pour from it in numbers the defenders cannot hold back for long. Aranx remembers the breach they failed to seal the previous year. He had feared it could be torn open again, but time had almost persuaded him they were safe. Now that weakness has admitted an entire spire. To stop the invasion at its source, he decides to enter it himself.
Arzariel, his second-in-command, offers to accompany him. Aranx instead orders him to remain with their brothers and sisters and hold the attackers back. If he does not return soon, Arzariel must call the Hero. When Aranx has been gone long enough to cause alarm, Arzariel asks the Hero to find him. He gives them an amulet so he can communicate from the ground while they search inside.
The Hero fights through the lower Spire, but sees no sign of Aranx. A closer search turns up torn celestial silk, damaged feathers, a scorched floor and scratches on the walls. Arzariel fears the worst and urges the Hero onward. These traces suggest a struggle, but their origin is not yet clear. The next hope is to find one of the invasion's leaders and force an answer from him.
Helzekiel falls to the Hero, then dismisses the victory. He calls the Infernals eternal and unending, but the Hero's immediate concern is Aranx. Helzekiel claims not to have seen him. If the Celestial is inside, he adds, his power belongs to Malxas now. The answer raises more questions than it settles. Asked who Malxas is and what the Infernals intend, Helzekiel smiles and fades away.
Infernal Spire: The Celestial Factory
The silk and feathers were not just from Aranx. The Infernals have been capturing Celestials who entered the Spire to fight them. The Hero recovers six keys and opens the cells, but the captives do not escape: someone has drained their Celestial energy, leaving them too weak to leave. Energy recovered from the Dungeon Fiends restores enough strength for them to get home. They will still need time to recover.
With those captives freed and Aranx still missing, the Hero defeats Garvodeus, the jailer, and demands his location. Garvodeus refuses to answer, but a bright light overtakes him and he fades away. Aranx appears moments later, safe and surprised that the Hero feared for him. He has been investigating. He believes the Infernals are draining Celestials to power weapons, perhaps because the people of Lore have never needed defenses against Celestial power.
Aranx points the Hero toward the factory and asks them to shut it down while he searches for the invasion's leader. Guided by Arzariel through the amulet, the Hero takes an override code from the Fallen Knights and enters it at the control console. The attempt is uneventful. Arzariel's next instruction is more direct: if the production machinery cannot be overridden, smash it. The Hero wrecks four machines, and Arzariel delights in the destruction from his distant post.
The factory's overseer, Azkorath, stands ahead. Defeating him will make it harder for the Infernals to get production running again. The Hero takes him down, leaving the machinery broken and its supervisor defeated. The work has struck at the system that turns stolen Celestial energy into weapons. It has not yet accounted for what that system has already produced.
Infernal Spire: The Arsenal They Kept
Aranx and the Hero reunite near the top of the Spire. They clear out the Infernal Knights and Grievous Fiends that could flank them, then climb to find the weapon. At the summit, the Hero discovers the scale of the mistake: the Infernals have made an entire arsenal. Aranx urges its destruction, but a huge demon approaches before they can act. Malxas has come to stop them. Aranx and the Hero face him together.
They defeat Malxas, and the Hero celebrates driving back the invasion. Then the Spire begins to shake. Malxas explains that his power is what holds the tower in the Celestial Realm. They have weakened him too much for that hold to last. The Spire is returning to the Infernal Realm, and he intends to take them with it. Aranx tells the Hero to leave immediately.
Both escape before the tower is engulfed and disappears. Arzariel is relieved to see them alive, then asks what became of the weaponry. The Hero realizes they did not get the arsenal out. Aranx confirms that it has returned to the Infernal Realm with Malxas. They have averted this invasion, but the finished weapons remain in enemy hands.
Neither knows what the Infernals plan to do with that arsenal. Aranx thanks the Hero for answering Arzariel's call, while warning that they cannot predict when or where the new weapons will be used. Arzariel calls the realm safe for now and urges continued vigilance. The factory has been damaged and the tower driven away, but Malxas and the weapons made from captive Celestials' power remain a danger beyond the closed battlefield.