Authors: Rain Oxford
Unfortunately, the battle was becoming more and more
spread out. Although this made it easier for the dragons and the gods to act, I
had a more difficult time keeping track of people. All of the demons were now
mixed in and engaged in some kind of battle with the alliance. People fought
with weapons or magic, but there were just too many demons. It was a mess of
metal clashing with metal, blood and ash flying, fire, and wayward energy.
People were injured. I was wandering into the
fighting before I realized what I was doing. Mordon followed, of course, and
kept my enemies off my back. Friend and foe together would move out of my path
as I searched out those who were injured. Some of them I healed as I walked by…
unfortunately, some were killed by the enemy instantly.
I saw a woman step to her right, not seeing the demon
behind her that was ready to strike. I felt her thoughts and changed them so
that she stepped to her left instead. Not expecting it, the sneaky demon
stabbed his accomplice instead. There were demons who tried to enter the minds
of people, but it was simple enough to crush that behavior with a simple
thought.
Scum
, I thought.
As I healed my allies, my mind was flickering through
the thoughts and lifespans of people around me. Many of them I had to
manipulate to prevent mortal wounds. Some were so stubborn I had to control
more than their thoughts to keep them alive.
The Guardians were doing well, as were the gods who
fought against the Ancients to keep the powerful demons out of my way. As it
turned out, the gods were holding the Ancients off okay, despite the fact that
these demons were as old and powerful as the gods themselves. Unfortunately,
many of our alliance didn’t know how to fight, let alone fight amongst others.
The people of Malta were having more trouble than
those of other world. While the fire users and their air users could use their
power, there was no water for the water tribe and the land was too unreceptive
for the land tribe to make anything of it.
Ishte-mor captured my attention. After spending most
of his life in training, his every move was flawless. His magic was nothing to
scoff at, either. The cane that normally made him appear frail actually
lengthened to twice its normal span. Wielding his cane like a weapon, he was a
strong force to be reckoned with up until that point. Nevertheless, he was
about to walk right into to path of an almost feral pack of varug who had been
infuriated by some unfortunate demons.
I didn’t know what I was going to do until my magic
was already released. My energy hit him with no apparent effect. He stepped
back from the demon he faced and a large black varug pounced on him. The huge
wolf-like creature met thin air instead of a fleshy body as the beast passed
right through the king and hit the ground with a roll. Shocked, the varug ran
off to find easier foe. His pack followed their leader until they found a small
group of demons to devour. The demon that fought the king saw this, cut his
losses, and bolted.
Another demon ran for his life behind me. Ron tackled
him, bit into the demon’s shoulder, and tried to scratch the demon’s eyes out.
I looped my arm around my son’s waist and picked him up. “Hey now, angel, is
that any way to fight?”
“He shot my hair!” the fourteen-year-old screamed,
struggling to escape my grasp.
Hail ran up to us and bent over, panting with his bow
dangling at his side. “The little shit can run.”
I let Ron go and he fingered several strands of hair
by his right ear. “Does it look horrible?”
“It’s not even noticeable, sweetheart.”
The demon who had hurt Ron’s
hair
tried to run
away, but like a cat, my son pounced again and bit the demon, who screamed.
Hail sighed and tried to pull his brother off the enemy. The purple-haired
warrior woman, Sheena, kept trying to fight near Ron, but my son stubbornly
refused to give her even a hint of acknowledgment.
Reality shifted as the sunlight began to fade.
Everyone, including the demons, looked up at the sky in time to see what looked
like a solar eclipse. The moon-shaped object halted in front of the sun,
spilling darkness over us all. As much as I seemed to see in this battle, I
wasn’t expecting a battle cry to erupt from our side.
The sky filled with fire, giving us dark yellow and
orange light to fight by. Other dragons lit the sky with lightning. People on
the ground fought harder as they bonded in the dark with their alien allies.
Our forces grew stronger as the demons began to fall faster. Red wristbands
danced in the dark like we were at a night club.
The Erame fae used whips of burning white energy to
destroy the demons, as it only took one touch. Sifters fought with tooth and
claw alongside wizards who shielded them. Some of the varug even let wizards
ride them. Vaigdan people all had ridiculously badass weapons.
Demons started shooting down the dragons in the sky,
which made a thick rain of blood and temporary blinded dozens of our people. I
healed the dragons I could, but they needed leadership if they were going to
make it. “Mordon, go help the dragons,” I said.
“I’m not leaving you,” he growled back.
Xul was suddenly beside him. “I’ll help Dylan, you
help the dragons.”
My brother looked at me, unsure, but I nodded and
pushed him away. Drawing on my power, he shifted and took to the skies. The
others instantly turned to his leadership as he was the oldest and strongest
dragon among them. He used my power to deflect the demons’ attacks until the
demons started to refocus their efforts on the ground force.
The fae got their magic from sunlight, so many of
them were already growing weaker in the darkness. The people of Skrev, however,
were masters of navigating in the dark and using it to ambush their enemies.
I continued trying to heal people even as some of the
powerful healers in the crowd started using their power to help others. The
noise was deafening, but it grew louder as our side prevailed, so I was
grateful for it.
It was more difficult to see the paths and encourage
people in order to prevent their deaths in the dark. I could feel both the
phantom sensation of the injuries I healed, as well as the injuries of people I
needed to heal. I was mostly able to block out the first and follow the second,
but I became increasingly aware that the gods needed help.
I made my way back to the edge of the cliff. The gods
had taken their fight with the Ancients down there, where people and minor
demons wouldn’t get in the way. With none of my allies in immediate danger of
doing something that would get them killed, I jumped from the edge of the
cliff.
Xul shouted curses at me, but jumped as well. Instead
of creating a physical shield around me, I used the same technique to form a
round platform, about five feet across, under me. Xul landed beside me as I
guided it down gently.
As soon as I stepped off the platform, Mordon landed
in front of me and roared. His scales changed from black to dark red to display
his displeasure, before slowly darkening back to black. I knew he was angry
that I didn’t warn him before jumping, but I wasn’t thinking as I normally did.
It wasn’t that I was distracted or spacy… more like I was elsewhere.
I felt like my mind was spread out as with my magic.
I was physically standing in front of a dragon, but mentally, I was still
trying to heal people, read people’s immediate futures, and help them defeat
the demons. As I passed him, I patted Mordon on his snout, earning a puff of
hot smoke. His scales were as smooth as glass and almost hotter than I could
stand. Of course, I had felt my brother’s dragon scales before, so I knew what
to expect. With a great flap of his wings, he disappeared into the black sky.
Ten of the gods battled against five Ancients. It may
have seemed like the gods were at an advantage, but the Ancients were
apparently much stronger. I couldn’t see the paths of the gods, for they were
each able to see all of their own paths, and I couldn’t see the paths of the
Ancients, as their demon magic was too strong. Even though I knew what I was, I
wasn’t at full power.
It was mostly energy that flew between them. Huge
rocks had been torn up out of the ground to use as a shield by the gods. I sent
an image to them after a few seconds of watching them fight. The gods instantly
positioned themselves as I had suggested; paired up. Regivus and Roshne paired
up, Mreje with Avoli, Azenoth with Araxi, Erono with Zer, and Enki with Madus.
Roshne, Avoli, Araxi, Zer, and Madus would act as defense for the gods while
the others would be offense.
This bought me time. The force of Lore was not strong
seeing as how this was a new world, but it would eventually be great. I could
use that potential. I could pull strength from the world at its greatest moment
in time. When Alice would be its Guardian.
After healing the worlds with my magic many years
before, it made sense that they recognized my call. Immediately, energy of
every world except Raktusha flooded me. It wasn’t my body but my soul that
controlled the energy.
Sunlight returned to Lore as the Ancients were
finally outmatched. I felt rather than heard the cheering of the fae, along
with the grumbling of the Skrev people.
My intention was to make the Ancients stop by any
means. For two of them, that meant instant death. Another disappeared to the
void, never to return under any circumstances. The remaining two Ancients
surrendered and dropped to their knees in a low bow. One was female and the
other was male.
“Who is your leader?” I asked.
“The goddess,” the female demon said. She had dirty
blond hair, made dirtier by the battle she had fought so hard in.
As my power still commanded them from inside out, it
was a simple matter to retract their power. They were actually quite a bit less
powerful than Xul was. With a simple thought, I destroyed their demon bodies
made of the remains of the dead and created mortal bodies in their chosen
images. As an afterthought, I replicated their clothes as well. It felt like I
was replacing darkness with light. They were both clearly confused and shocked,
but neither would raise their head.
“You two will live as mortals here until you learn
what life is,” I said.
The woman finally raised her medium brown eyes to
look at me. “We only ever wanted life.” Tears streamed from her eyes and,
startled, she reached up to wipe them. “Is this blood?”
“Blood is red,” I told her. “It’s what’s all over the
ground.”
She ran her fingers across the ground, gathering both
blood and ash on her hands. “Then why is the blood of my brother black,” she
asked, referring to the ash.
Before I could respond, Mordon landed beside me and
shifted. “Nila,” he said.
I instantly flashed to the High King, ignoring the
fact that doing so should have been impossible. Nila was lying on someone’s
black leather jacket in obvious pain. While I had focused on my enemy, I hadn’t
been protecting my friends.
“I’m okay,” the king said in English. He had a pike
through his stomach.
“Of course you are,” I answered. “This is just a
scratch. I’ve given people vaccinations with bigger needles than this.”
He laughed and then groaned. “Where is Kseve?” Zeda
squeezed his hand. The crowd made way for Nano to come through, but he was
alone. Nano pulled the pike gently from Nila’s body and I used my magic to
prevent bleeding out. I let my magic heal him, unimpeded by his void blood
thanks to Zeda. The king was quiet as he mourned the loss of his friend.
There were many losses to our side. Although the hard
earth was covered in black sand, the remains of our enemies, there was also
blood. When the Guardians surrounded us, I stood. “Notify the families of those
we lost and find out their burial ceremonies.”
We won the war, and our allies had a right to
celebrate, but I didn’t think war was something to be cheerful about.
“We won the demon war!” someone in the crowd shouted.
“No…” Mordon said. The crowd fell silent. “This war
was one by us; wizards, dragons, fae, and yes, even a few friendly demons. This
was a war we won for our freedom.”
The same person cheered again, undeterred. “We won
the Wizard War!”
* * *
It took all day to take care of our people who were
killed. It was somber for everyone who did so. We ended up with a hundred and
fifteen dead. Compared to the demons we killed, it was miniscule, but even one
person wasn’t worth the death of a thousand demons to his loved ones.
The only bright spot aside from our victory was that
there was one less death than we had thought. Nila was being a dutiful king and
delegating jobs, even as misery made his voice shake and his eyes water, when
Kseve clapped his hand hard at the boy king’s shoulder. “What did I tell you
about leaving my sight?” the goblin asked, as if Nila was his son instead of
his king.
Nila didn’t have a response, he just hugged the
goblin. Hell, he didn’t even let go when the guard started making creaking
sounds from being squished too hard.
Right before my family could head home, Xul stopped
me. “Well, it’s been miserable. I mean, running your errands, dodging all hell
to get messages around, protecting your dumb ass… Being your servant sucks, it
really does. If you need anything, call someone else.”
Mordon growled, but it was Ron the demon turned to.
He patted my son’s head like a dog while Ron just glared. “Unless it’s a
babysitter,” he finally said, smirking. “So long and thanks for all the---” The
demon vanished midsentence.
“Fish, you stupid-head!” Ron screamed after him. Hail
laughed and hugged his brother.
I shook my head, about to flash us all home, when
Janus appeared. He started to collapse, but Mordon caught him. Divina appeared
right behind him, somehow having gotten the bracelet off. I ignored my wife and
drew my power to heal Janus.