When the ground began to tremble, Batman glanced at Merkel. Merkel covered his mouth, but the next second, he turned and called to the demons, "Retreat! Listen to me, retreat!"
The moment that syllable left his mouth, all the demons seemed to have had a switch flipped. They immediately dropped what they were doing, gathered together, and poured into the mine tunnels in an orderly fashion. Their speed and responsiveness left even Batman a little surprised.
Merkel also ran deeper into the mine, with Batman following behind him. Their reaction had been so swift that before the lava could even erupt, every demon had already withdrawn into the underground escape passage.
The escape passage was above the lava as well, but because they had moved so quickly, the lava only gradually began to erupt after all the demons had crossed through it, destroying the interior of Third Mountain.
After retreating into the mine beneath Second Mountain, before anyone could catch their breath, a Serpent Demon poked his head out from a tunnel and said to Merkel, "Comrade Merkel? Comrade Alfred sent me to meet you. Your astonishing victory in Third Mountain has greatly encouraged the comrades of Second Mountain..."
Hearing the Serpent Demon spout Soviet jargon, Batman covered his eyes. He looked back at the demons behind him, still shaken and somewhat dazed, and suddenly felt unable to take another step.
Batman truly did not want to bring the demons he had led before Alfred, just as he had never wanted to bring his report card home to him.
But there was no helping it. Merkel had already moved forward, so Batman could only follow. When he saw Alfred, Alfred was directing a group of Magma Demons as they carried huge logs to the upper levels of the mine to