Beyond the conquered Bronze Citadel lay open plains.
But the demons felt no relief. Instead, the fighting only grew harder.
Powerful, tightly coordinated high-ranking devils began appearing on the first layer of Baator Hell. They were advance troops returning from the Material Plane, tasked with halting the demons' offensive before the situation deteriorated further.
The first layer of Baator Hell was an enormous arsenal.
It held the fruits of countless years of the devils' labor. If the demons destroyed or seized its tens of thousands of arsenals, rebuilding them would be no easy task.
The fighting reached a stalemate.
Everything seemed to settle into an eerie calm, but an even more terrifying storm was brewing.
Avernus.
An enormous portal had been built behind the devils' defensive lines, and one Devil Legion after another began withdrawing from the Material Plane to Baator Hell. They left behind cannon fodder to hold off their enemies, enough to delay the mortals for a while.
Their strict discipline allowed the devils to swiftly reorganize after returning to Baator Hell.
Then army after army of devils marched toward the front. They had to halt the demons' offensive first, then find a way to retake the Bronze Fortress, and finally drive the demons back into the Abyss.
At some unknown moment,
the water of the River Styx, which had flowed peacefully for millions of years, began to surge. The Blood River feeding into it from Avernus had begun to rise.
Faintly,
countless souls let out mournful wails, rising and falling with the water of the River Styx as though singing a dirge.
That day,
even the Styx Ferrymen and Styx Memory Thieves fled the vicinity of the River Styx, as though something utterly terrifying was about to erupt!
The jubilant devil armies were returning to Baator Hell.