Realm at the Edge of the multiverse

by B G Mitchell

  The skeleton seemed unphased, as it kept on walking towards him and raising its sword. He heard a shout from somewhere and turned. It was Mayli. She shouted to him again. “In the heart.”

  He pointed his rifle down and fired two more shots in quick succession into the skeleton’s chest and saw the beast crumple into a pile of bones. He then pointed his gun at another skeleton which was in the process of retreating. He pulled the trigger again and hit the creature in the shoulder. Since there seemed to be a general retreat, he thought he better see what the battle plan was. Mayli ran up next to him and grabbed one of his heavy bags with almost no effort as he struggled to pick up the bag filled with books.

  Fortunately, another short figure ran up beside him. It was his old friend, Bloodhammer, who ran up and grabbed the second bag as Gary heard a crossbow bolt hitting the bag with a dull thud. At least he, thought to himself as he ran to cover, they hit the bag with the books in. Once past the corner and behind a wall sturdy enough to deflect crossbow bolts, Bloodhammer turned to him and said, “Welcome back.” He then reached out his hand.

  Gary just smiled, got down on his knee, and pulled Bloodhammer into a hug, and then said, “Good to be back.” He released an embarrassed Bloodhammer who coughed awkwardly. He then turned to Mayli who gave him a rather strange look and then asked, “You’re not going to hug me, are you?”

  “I can if you want,” he replied with a grin.

  “A handshake would be fine.” She then outstretched her hand which he gladly took and then looked at the rifle strapped to his back. “Nice gun you have there.”

  Gary raised his eyebrow as Mayli blushed slightly. He grabbed his bag full of ammo and opened it up and pulled out the AK-47. “I assume you know how to use rifles, this one is very different.” He showed her a switch on the side. “This switches it from a normal single shot to a semiautomatic, which means it fires a couple of bullets, turning the switch to this point makes it a fully automatic which means it fires off all its ammo in one round.”

  Mayli eyes lit up. He smiled slightly, worried about giving this AK47 to a civilization that had only just discovered gun powder. He then point to another switch. “Safety, and here is how you load the cartridge.” He bent down and opened one of his duffle bags and found a box of cartridges. He then unclipped the magazine from the rifle, making sure Mayli followed, took out a bullet, and clicked into the magazine. He then did a couple of more before handing Mayli the magazine. “It takes thirty rounds,” he told her as she grabbed a couple of bullets and put it in the cartridge. Once full, Gary took the cartridge and clipped it in. He then flicked it on to the single shot mode and gave her the rifle.

  Mayli took it, peered around the corner, and put the butt against her shoulder. She squeezed the trigger once and let off a round. She turned it to semi auto and squeezed the trigger again, this time the gun let off a couple of more shots. In the distance, Gary heard the sound of a wounded soldier. She slipped back from the corner. Gary reached into his bag and pulled out another three cartridges and gave it to her, which she duly tucked into her belt. She then flicked the safety on, grabbed a bag, and indicated that they should follow her.

  The Grand Necromancer scowled. That was not part of the plan to lose his skeleton army, and only his quick spell reaction and the training of Hasenburg crossbowers had managed to prevent a full scale retreat. That human that appeared, his face seemed oddly familiar, then it came to him. It was the human that the demons were keen to capture. He stopped for a second. He could ask Zateria, but he was in too deep there and more favours might give her more control over him. Largarthas had vanished to god knows where. Well, there was always Gilgamar. He pulled a bag out from his horse and pulled out a sheet which was meant to be black but was in fact very dark navy blue (which can also work in a pinch) poured some salt (if you us sugar, you mostly summon ants and Markton the weird) into a shape of an ancient rune and lit a candle and began to dribble wax while chanting.

  Shortly, in a puff a smoke, standing before him was your typical demon wearing a loin cloth with the cloven hooves and the red skin standing about nine feet tall. He also had horns on his head. The demon crossed his arms and looked down at the grand necromancer. “Oh you... again.” The tone implied that the summoned one was not at all happy seeing the summoned.

  “Silence, dark one,” replied the grand necromancer. The dark one just rolled his eyes. He had been through this routine what seemed like a thousand times, and he was all stern commands. Gilgamar thought a please would not go a miss occasionally. “I have found the human you have been looking for, oh hell dweller.”

  “What human?” replied Gilgamar.

  “The one that has caused your kin much pain with his dark magic.”

  Gilgamar had to mentally stop for a second. That sounded like the human that was killed during the last battle of Narderba, but if he had come back, Zateria needed to know. He then carried on thinking as the grand necromancer extinguished the candle that was now threating to burn the very dark navy blue cloak. If he could catch the human, then he could show his worth to Zateria and prove even if he was male he was not a second class citizen.

  The grand necromancer then contained, “Now, if you fight for my forces, I will let you keep the human and do whatever you want to him.”

  Gilgamer just nodded. As soon as he had enough power, he knew who was next on his hit list.

  As Gary walked passed, it was clear that the dark elves were falling back to a more defensible position and were in the process of channelling the enemy to a large square that interceded five roads. Four of those had been barricaded up and two even had cannons that looked like someone went back to World War 1, grabbed a British cannon, then decorated it in an elven style with images of leaves and a row of ornate runes.

  He was squeezed past an open barricade to find the wizard Thoergerod standing there. He put out his hand, which Gary duly accepted and smiled. “It is good you’re back. We can get on with that promised magical training.”

  “Well, you know,” replied Gary. “I don't like to disappoint.” He saw that behind Thoergerod were a couple of dark elves also wearing magical red and golden robes with ancient runes stitched in.

  Thoergerod smiled and said, “My new job, I am training the magical youth of tomorrow. Well, we have a few spells to prepare.” With that, he nodded and he was off, as Gary followed Bloodhammer and Mayli.

  Eventually they reached the family house of Arena, also busy being turned into a fort where they dropped the bags off. Gary quickly double checked his ammo and made sure Mayli had enough as well. As they were making sure the kit was in gear down the stairs when they were joined by a redhead female elf wearing an ornate silver metal breast and a long red skirt, who smiled at him and said, “Well, it is good to know the experiment works. Welcome back, my name is Lathenia.” She nodded to him and looked at the strange weapons. “And good to know you bring help as well. We will need it on the battlefield.”

  Following Lathenia was the other dark elf, Althenia, who had on her a bandolier of potions hanging from her shoulder. She was also wearing a simple black dress built more for work than style. She gave one or two to Mayli who seemed to know what they were for. Following Althenia was another dark elf who he had rescued. She too was wearing the same dress and carrying a load of potions as well and a backpack. The dark elf gave him a simple smile as Gary shouldered his rifle. He then followed Mayli and Lathenia out again as the heard the sound of gunfire and crossbow strings.

  Lathenia felt slightly weaker but put that down to simple nerves. Before the battle, she had faced greater foes than this. She rehearsed a couple of spells in her head, and as she crossed over to the site of the fireball spells. By now another building was burning, and the dark elves had been pushed back. She crossed into another side street just next to the front lines as Gary and Mayli took up positions behind her. She readied the fireball spells, took a deep breath, then turned and she threw it down the side street. She then ducked back as
Gary popped his head and weapon out and let out a couple of loud bangs to anyone not knocked down by the fireball.

  He quickly jumped back in as she heard a familiar whoosh. It was another fireball that flew past, hitting the back of a building in a loud crashing followed by the sound of broken glass and masonry falling to the ground. She prepared a shield spell and jumped out, raising the clear flowing barrier, there she saw the wizard known as the grand necromancer muttering and preparing another spell, flanked by a couple of human mercenaries in armour. Just after the barrier was stable, another fireball hit it. She could feel the heat and flames as it crashed into her shield spell. This was not right, she thought to herself as the spell began to collapse.

  Mayli joined her side as she struggled to hold up the spell. The shield wall dissipated, and she tried to stabilise the spell by muttering a few incantations, but it was weak. Shortly, another whoosh was heard, and again she felt suddenly very cold and looked. It was an ice spell. The shield wall collapsed under the strain. She instinctively turned as part of the spell hit the side of her arm, and her shield was back. It was too much for her to handle. Her magic drained. She screamed out in pain as the coldness hit her, and then everything turned black.

  Seeing Lathenia collapse, Gary grabbed his rifle and jumped out, firing as he went hoping to cover Mayli who reached down and pulled the unconscious Lathenia to safety. He fired at the grand necromancer a couple of times who managed to stop the bullets cold in their tracks, where they simply fell onto the ground right in front of the grand necromancer. Gary was sure, despite the sounds going on around him, he heard the bullets clink to the ground, stunned by the fact that he almost did not see the fireball heading towards him. He managed to jump, feeling the heat whoosh by him and hit the same wall that a fireball had hit before. He got up and could see Mayli was returning now that two soldiers were taking Lathenia back to base. She nodded at Gary as she clutched her new toy like a professional soldier on Earth. The scene struck Gary as odd considering she was wearing a uniform that made her look like a female soldier out of the English civil war.

  He heard another spell hit another building. This time it was a cold spell, and he could hear the cries of the wounded. “We have to do something,” shouted Mayli with an edge of frustration in her voice. He reached into his jacket and pulled out a hand grenade. He then noticed another dark elf heading towards them. It was Lucinda, who nodded to Mayli and attached herself to the wall as another spell shot past. She had a flask in her hand which Gary at first thought was a simple healing potion. He then noticed the contents seemed to be on fire. He looked closer, and it seemed to be a bottled up flame.

  He smiled as he turned to Mayli, and Lucinda and said, “I noticed he takes a couple of minutes to recharge his spell load. I say we go after the next spell and throw everything we have at him.” They simply nodded in reply.

  He waited tensely for the next spell and began playing with the pin of the grenade in his hand, as he heard another spell build up and felt his overall tension in the air rise as well. Once the fireball spell flew out of the grand necromancer’s hands, he jumped around the corner and threw his hand grenade right at the foot of the wizard. It did not go off. He then pulled the trigger on his gun, cursing every dodgy arm manufacturer in existence and a few not in existence.

  The Necromancer had brought up his shield spell before the grenade had even landed. A blinding flash engulfed the shield as the grand necromancer stepped back. He glanced to his side and saw Lathenia grabbing another flask as Mayli continued her firing. Once another fire filled flask had cleared his vision, he could tell the grand necromancer was having trouble maintaining his shield spell. He hoped the next flask would be the end of him.

  All of a sudden, a crossbow bolt shot out and hit Lathenia in the shoulder. Mayli reached down as Gary fired a couple of more shots as another crossbow bolt flew past his ear. He heard another shout and glanced to his left. It was the Thoergerod. He jumped past the corner, turned and unleashed a fireball spell, while Gary took the distraction as a chance to clean up a little. He raised his rifle to his shoulder and proceeded to snipe a crossbower. He then turned his rifle to the grand necromancer whose shield flickered out of existence. He pulled the trigger a couple of times, making sure to aim for the head, and felt a sense of relief when the wizard’s head snapped back and his body fell to the ground like a rag doll.

  He first looked at Mayli who was now carrying the wounded Lathenia away from the front line and smiled. She smiled and nodded back at him. He then looked towards the lines behind the grand necromancer, and they held steady. He was sort of hoping for a mass fleeing. A couple of them did part slowly as a huge red demon carrying a large black shield in his left hand and a large jagged sword in his right stepped into view.

  He looked down at the body of the grand necromancer. “I should thank you, human. Now all this glory will be mine. And for doing me this favour, I shall simply kill you instead of bringing you alive back to Zateria.”

  Gary put the rifle next to his shoulder and let out a couple of shots which harmlessly bounced off an invisible barrier around the demon.

  The demon just smiled. “Like it, human, the shield of Aragania.”

  He heard a shout and turned as Lathenia threw him one of her bottles. She then proceeded with Mayli’s help to limp away very fast. He caught the bottles and then in one fluid motion threw it at the still gloating demon. It exploded when it hit the invisible barrier, sending a wall of flame and most importantly smoke up in the air. This gave Gary a chance to catch up to the first limping duo heading back to a safe zone. Seeing that they were now far enough away, Mayli nodded to Gary who put Lathenia’s non wounded arm around his shoulders and headed back to the palace as Mayli headed back to her troops.

  As Mayli ran back, she changed her mind. Currently the cannons were in use further down one of the roads with an escort of dwarves. She turned down an alley and rushed to the street. When she turned the corner, the dwarvern guards were milling about, waiting for the next wave of orcs, and being a harden captain to a group of dark elves she had seen much scenes of gore and war, but even she had to admit to being speechless to the site that ran down the street, which contained not so much bodies, but bits of bodies. It was obvious that the orcs had been packed in tight in a bid to break through. She tried to turn her eyes from the scene. They were orcs, she thought to herself, why should she care?

  She looked through the dwarves and found Bloodhammer talking about the design of the rifle to one of the dark elf members of the cannon crew, a minor noble by the name of Degraos both pointedly ignoring the scene of gore just fifty meters away. She nodded to the minor noble before interrupting, “We have a problem. The grand necromancer is dead, but before he died he had summoned a demon who is now tearing through the altmer district.”

  “Shit,” replied Bloodhammer. “Now what?” Like she had a plan, Mayli thought to herself. She then glanced back at the pile of shredded bodies as part of her thought that is going to be a health hazard soon.

  She turned and looked at the cannons. “Let’s see if we can move these cannons close to him down by Roydon Square. Once done, I will see what we can do about moving the demon close to them.” Bloodhammer nodded and began to shout orders as the dwarves and elves moved out eager to follow their orders.

  Gilgamer felt the blood lust rise as he crossed into another street. So far the strange weapons the dark elves were using had no effect on his mighty shield, and he was forcing them back, but what he did notice is that they did have an effect on the orcs and humans, dropping them like a sack of potatoes. A couple of times he had to grab the odd human or orc and throw them to the front to prevent a general retreat. On the next street again he was met by the strange weapon sniping at him.

  They were using the rooves to thir advantage and not engaging him in hand to hand combat. He let out a mighty roar and sent a fireball spell up to the rooftops to silence the snipers. He then heard dwarvern voices ahead, no doubt these
small men would honour him with combat. He checked around for his comrades and found only a corpse. Well, then, he thought to himself, the honour will be all mine.

  He turned another corner and raised his sword and proceeded to charge towards the dwarves who hid themselves behind a strange device with a long metal pole sticking out of it. Before he got halfway up the street, he heard a loud bang and he felt his shield hit by thousands of tiny metal balls, all travelling at high speed. He felt his shield falter and some of the battles impacted his flesh. He let out another mighty roar of anger before he noticed the human was behind the dwarfs. He had his strange weapon in his hands. He looked at the human for a second and saw a flash, then felt a heavy object hit him in the head. He tried to run but another sudden sharp pain in his head followed. He fumbled with the amulet of Aragania to bring the shield up, but it was too late as his vision had started to go black.

  Mayli watched as a group of dwarves and dark elves surrounded a group of humans and orcs. Once the demon had been felled, the remains of the grand necromancer army had started to flee from the city. A few groups had been cut off and were easily captured as more slaves for the farms, thought Mayli to herself. She headed back to the compound as patrols of Elves and Dwarves started sweeping operations to make sure no more enemies remained, here and there she could see the dark elves crying over a corpse of a friend they knew. She inwardly sighed. She had lost many good men today and doubted the city could withstand another attack like that.

  Back at the arena compound, she had found scores of wounded soldiers. Lucinda herself was rushing to those most in need with her collection of healing potions. Nataylia was going around with her clerical magic and casting the odd healing spell here and there. Althenia also carrying a couple of healing potions. Lucinda stopped by her, Mayli smiled slightly as she said in a tone that barley concealed her happiness, “They are retreating, and we have about a hundred more slaves.”