Against the Empire: The Dominion and Michian

by Jeffrey Quyle

  Another demon stopped in its tracks just as it was about to pounce on the screaming girl; it flickered and shrank, indicating to Alec that someone had killed one more of the sorcerers. That’s a good thing, he thought to himself, as he jumped high to avoid an attack, landed, and flipped hard to his side, but received another deep claw across his calf, leaving his flesh open and painful.

  Alec landed next to Jeswyne, who was petrified in place by her horrific surroundings. Alec threw his sword high in the air then reached out his hand, grabbed the girl’s arm, and snatched her away from the demons. He shoved her down on the ground, stood directly over her, caught his flying sword as it returned to earth, and turned in all directions looking at the demons.

  The three monsters, one blind and two reduced, were circling him, and he was spinning madly, striking his swords out to knock their attacks away; mostly he succeeded, but some small slices were accumulating on his arms where he was just a tick too slow. His plan was going to fail, but even so they very well might ultimately be a victory for the Dominion despite his lost. He wouldn’t be able to hold the imperial family member as a hostage to negotiate with, but her death here, at the hands of the empire’s own demons, would rattle the internal dynamics of the army and the imperial palace and the sorcerers. The disunity would be to the advantage of the Dominion. “Why didn’t you run for the palace, stupid girl?” he snapped in exasperation. “This wasn’t the plan!”

  “Thank you, thank you,” he heard the girl beneath his feet whimper.

  “Yes, thank you Lord for letting us accomplish this at least,” Alec said out loud. And as he did, an idea was implanted divinely within his mind.

  He belted the sword in his left hand and crouched down over the girl, still waving his sword. “Pull the glove off my hand,” he said as he waved his left hand in front of her face.

  Without comprehending why, she reached up and tugged hard on the glove, removing it. Alec stood up and raised his left hand high, then engaged his spiritual powers and his warrior powers simultaneously. He felt his body shudder, and pain wracked him. He dropped his right sword, which clattered on the ground, until Jeswyne reached out and desperately pulled it in next to her body.

  Alec’s left hand began to glow with pure, intense white light. He felt an extraordinary energy building up in his hand, and he bowed his head to concentrate on keeping it held high even as his body trembled in pain. Three shining ropes of light burst out of the wound on his palm, each beam striking a demon and causing them to cry anguished screams of hatred.

  Alec felt the beams radiating the purity of purpose that was God’s plan, and the light was destroying the hatred and emptiness that composed the demons. The beams controlled the demons, and began to pull them closer and closer to Alec.

  They moved in as they continued to circle, and their rate of movement increased. They were speeding around Alec’s hand, drawing in so close Alec could hear only the sound of their screams and feel the movement of air they caused. The energy level in his hand ratcheted up another level, and Alec realized a climax was about to occur.

  He knew what was about to happen, and he felt a key turn in his mind, revealing what he had to do.

  “Stand up!” he screamed at the girl on the ground.

  She looked up fearfully, questioningly.

  “Stand up! Stand up! Now! Now!” he said and he stretched his right hand down, shuddering with pain and the anticipation of what was about to occur.

  The imperial niece took his hand and he yanked her upward, off-balance. She was light as a feather, and the force of his pull made her fall against Alec, after which he instinctively wrapped his arm around her. “Ecce elongavi fugiens: et mansi in solitudine,” he prayed.

  And as soon as he did, multiple actions occurred virtually simultaneously – his hand sent out a tremendous surge of energy that travelled as a bursting wave of spiritual healing and loving reconciliation. The demons collapsed inward towards Alec and into one another as the wave of energy transformed the malign nullity that motivated them.

  Alec focused his mind on a calendar of dates, looking for a date that would be safely away from this moment. The other energies around his hand were starting to set off their chain-reaction, and he abruptly triggered the capacity to move through time. Then there was a momentary flash of blue light, but few people who were watching saw it.

  For there was almost simultaneously an enormous explosion, and a pillar of energy and light erupted upward. The ground shook, and the stones within it thrust towards the sky, jetting a fountain of water above them. The demons disappeared completely, their hatred converted to nothingness by the spiritual power of God.

  And Alec and Jeswyne were gone, transported by Alec’s time ingenaire capabilities a split second before the demonic explosion occurred.