Final sprint.

I was lucky to find the Traveler's Boots in the artifact shop; without them, the hero simply wouldn't have enough logistics to escape the demon, and both heroes need to reach their destination to complete the quest.

I understand that you're talking about the demon hero, right? I didn't see any demon after the battle with the gnomes. I immediately ran from the one-way portal with my unfortunate companion to the lake elves. Both of us had maxed-out logistics and pillaging skills, so we reached them in about 2 and a half days, stopping at the nearest town along the way, where the stable gave us a super-speed boost).
By the way, I intentionally didn't level up Dark Magic this time. Only Light. However, as always, I took Education with Mentorship. Thanks to this, my companion helped me significantly throughout the game and reached level 29 by the end! It's scary to imagine her as an opponent with a good native army;)<