Immersion World

by Max Jager

  "As smart as any other elf." Suki answered.

  "Smart enough to check the bodies?" Mendelen asked.

  "Why would they check the bodies? We don't have anything of value to them." Suki answered.

  "To make sure we are dead." Mendelen answered. His armor was already dented and battle torn, so he walked over to the dead pure demon and stuck his hand in the blood, then began wiping it all over his armor. "Make yourself look like you're wounded and dead. It is the only way we are getting out of this. Cora, if you can do the same thing, cover yourself in blood and make a few fake wounds on yourself. Out of all of us, your magic should let you pull this off better than anyone else." Once he had covered himself in blood he laid down on the ground and stopped moving.

  "We have to do this now" Cora called back "I can't hold this up any longer, I can't."

  Lillith healed Estellese just enough to save her from internal bleeding and lung damage, and to stop her from bleeding out. She didn't have time to heal everything else, she was already bloody from touching everyone who was wounded but she covered herself in more blood and laid down next to Estellese. She laid face-down on the ground so the passing demons would not see her crying.

  Suki hesitated, she did not trust this plan, but she didn't have any better ideas. She too covered herself in blood and laid on the ground to pretend to be dead.

  Cora shakily stood up and stumbled over to the pile of bodies where the scientists had been shot down and collapsed to the ground when she got there. As she collapsed the wooden walls all around them started getting blown apart and stopped repairing themselves. Within seconds the walls were torn down and demons of all ranks began flooding into the area. With the last of her energy Cora used her nature magic to warp her body to look like she had been struck by the same exploding spikes as the scientists, without actually having any major wounds. Then she passed out.

  Tension rose as the demons stormed into the area and looked around, and everyone was seemingly dead.

  - Next Chapter: Chapter 15, The Bearer of Bad News. -

  Chapter 15: Bearer of Bad News

  - Chapter 15: Bearer of Bad News -

  The demons burst through the walls and rushed in, searching for the elves that had been after the rift. But as they looked around they saw that they were too late to stop the elves from closing the rift, and that there was nothing but corpses left. They met up near the center of the clearing and began speaking to each other in their own language. A couple of the pure demons and a greater demon started a small discussion while the normals and lessers waited. It was after this meeting that the group of demons turned and began running south, away from the battlefield. Like a stampede all the others followed along behind them.

  After a few minutes the area was clear and Suki stood back up. She looked around to see if there was any demons left in the area and when she saw none she signaled for the others to stand as well. "Lillith, Cora seems to be out for the count. We will need you to heal everyone so we can get moving." She waited a minute but Lillith did not move. "Lillith, let's move."

  Lillith did not stand, she remained lying face-first on the ground. "Just… Give me a minute…" She mumbled.

  "Look, I'm sorry but we don't have a minute. We need to get moving, now. We are not safe here." Suki insisted.

  Lilith sat up and looked at Suki with tear filled eyes. "I just watched one of my best friends die! And Alicia still has not come back, she should've been back by now what if she's gone too!? Give me a minute to recollect myself!" She snapped back.

  "Trust me, I know and I'm sorry it happened, I really am. I lost both of my best friends today and I too want to just curl up and stop everything. But we don't have time to grieve, not until we get home. You need to be strong, just a little longer." Suki insisted. "Human, you, the one still able to stand. How many of your kind are still alive?"

  "We are all still alive, but three of us are badly wounded." Mendelen answered.

  Suki sighed, "figures the useless race all survives." She grumbled then looked over at Estellese. "Well, mostly useless. That one can fight." She murmured to herself. "I'm going to keep watch, Lillith get to healing."

  "We have potions, she doesn't need to heal us." Mendelen replied.

  "Yes she does. We don't have five minutes to sit around here, we need to move now. We don't know when the rest of the demons on the battlefield will turn and come this way, and we can't be here when they do. The potions will take too long."

  "You came from the battlefield right?" Mendelen asked. "How many are left? Are we winning?"

  "There is no such thing as winning in a war. Both sides lose no matter what. But the elves are in control of the battlefield and we are thinning out the numbers of the demons. With the rift closed and them now unable to reinforce their troops, the demons should be wiped out within the next few hours." Suki answered. Then she quieted herself down to a whisper. "We have not heard anything from Alicia in a very long time and that is not a good sign, I am not sure if she survived. But don't say anything to Lillith about that. They have been friends since childhood and are very close. Born on the same day and together ever since. With most of the elves in the village being at least a hundred, they are the only ones still in double digits so they stuck together."

  Mendelen nodded "and that is why everyone is unsure about Alicia being the leader? Her age?"

  Suki nodded "yes, she only just turned sixteen a few months ago. She's too young and naive to be a leader, even if that position is rightfully hers. So Adamus is holding her seat for her, and she will take the role when she is older. Thankfully, Adamus is a good man and he doesn't abuse that power. While a normal person would take the throne for themselves, he gives it to Alicia and let's her rule even if she isn't ready. She just has to run everything through him first, so he can intervene if she tries doing something that could be harmful to the village. A lot of people question Adamus's reliability and trustworthiness because he lets her do that."

  Mendelen nodded and before he could reply Estellese walked over to them and joined the conversation. She was fully healed by Lillith but still looked pained and exhausted. "What did I miss?" She asked. By now the effects of the cocoon had worn off and she had returned to normal.

  "Not much, just talking as we wait for everyone to be healed. Then we are going to…" He paused. "What are we doing now?"

  "Leaving the battlefield and going back to the village. I will escort you then I will return to the battlefield. You are all non-combat civilians, you can't be here any longer then you need to be." Suki replied.

  It was about that time that a small green orb came fluttering towards them very quickly. As it neared them they could make it out to be a small, six inch tall fairy who seemed to be both exhausted and in a major hurry. She had butterfly-like wings, long pointed ears, long green hair that was tied up in a ponytail, had violet eyes, and wore flowing gypsy-like clothing. Along with her clothes she also wore an quite a lot of jewelry. A tiara, the clip holding her hair in the ponytail had jewels on it, a necklace, several bracelets, a belt with jewels on it, three earrings on her left ear and two on her right ear, gloves with emeralds strapped to the back of them. She flew straight over to Suki and landed on the woman's shoulder. The small fairy almost collapsed as soon as she landed, dropping to her knees as she gasped for air and tried catching her breath.

  Suki glanced at the fairy on her shoulder "You are not a local fairy. What are you doing on the mainland?" She asked.

  "Demons. Bad. Need help." The fairy panted out between gasps for air.

  "Relax, catch your breath I don't need an answer right away. We can't leave until everyone is healed anyways." Suki said, glancing over to see Lillith's progress. Kaden was now healed and she was working on healing Zanath now. "Start with your name, then what you need. But we are in the middle of a war against the demons, so keep your guard up."

  The fairy took a few deep breaths and waited a minute to catch her breath before speaking again. "My name is Pex an
d-"

  "Isn't that a name for a pixie, not a fairy?" Kaden interrupted. But he was silenced when Estellese elbowed him in the ribs. "Ow! I was just saying."

  Pex waited for him to stop, then resumed talking. "I don't know what has happened but the demons are going mad or something. They just suddenly launched an all out assault on Evean, they are throwing everything they have at us. We need help. I need to speak to Alicia."

  Suki frowned. "The demons are in a panic. We figured out how to close these demonic rifts once and for all, as soon as we began preparing to close them the demons panicked and attacked us. We just closed the one here and the elven army is finishing off the last of the demons about a mile north of here." She then hesitated and glanced at Lillith. "You'll have to ask Adamus if the elves can assist but after this battle I really don't think we can spare the troops, we are in bad shape."

  "You can close the rifts?! How?" Pex exclaimed as she sprang up from Suki's shoulder and began flying in front of the woman's face.

  "Uh. I don't really understand the specifics, they made some contraption that is capable of closing the rifts and it works." Suki replied. "We lost most of our main scientist group in this battle though, we don't have any to spare." Suki answered.

  Pex looked over at the three Alphas when they were mentioned and a confused look crossed her face. She flew over to Estellese and brushed her long pink hair back to check the woman's ear. She only got a brief look before Estellese moved and brushed her aside. "What are you doing?" Estellese asked.

  "I've never seen a round eared elf before." Pex answered. "Why would you round out your ears? You look weird like that."

  "We are not elves, we are humans." Mendelen answered. "Our ears are naturally like that."

  Pex frowned a little. "Oh, sorry that must really suck being naturally born with weird lookin' ears. I can only imagine how much you're made fun of for that. I shall refrain from making jokes about it then." Then she paused for a moment. "OH! Right! I have an important job I must not get sidetracked. I almost forgot." She nearly shouted out. "The rifts, how do you close the rifts?"

  "Hate to keep sending you from one person to the next, but he's the only one who knows how." Mendelen answered as he pointed over to where Zanath was lying. "And he's out cold. But it is this machine that pumps Aether energy into the rift constantly, converting sunlight into energy. It takes a while but it slowly closes the rift."

  "Slowly?" Pex lowered her head. "That won't do…"

  "No it works. We were able to successfully defend it." Suki replied.

  Pex shook her head. "You don't understand. We wouldn't ask for help if it wasn't serious." She said.

  "It was serious here too, there was an entire army of them protecting it." Suki answered.

  Pex shook her head again. "You don't understand. There is an abyssal demon coming out of it right now. It will be out by tomorrow."

  Suki froze and her face went pale. "This rift was a distraction for the real attack. Shit! We walked right into it."

  "It is just one right? If we all group up on it we can take it down." Mendelen suggested.

  Suki shook her head. "No human. An abyssal demon will take an entire army to bring down. Imagine the pure demon we fought, those were about eight feet tall. Now imagine it if it was forty feet tall, with skin stronger than metal, and magic three times as powerful."

  "Oh. Yeah that ain't going down that easily." Mendelen murmured. "So what do we do?"

  "If the rift is big enough for an abyssal demon to get through we need to close it immediately. Otherwise the abyssal demon will just come right back through the portal after we kill it and send it back to hell." She looked over at the Alphas. "We have more rifts in the area that we have to close, and after losing all of these scientists we can't spare any more. You four need to go and make the device for the fairies. Do NOT try to enter this battle." She instructed. She then turned to the fairy "Do you have a letter for Alicia or Adamus explaining the situation?" She asked.

  Pex nodded "I do." She said as she pulled a tiny letter out of her pocket. She handed it to Suki who grabbed it with her fingertips, although as soon as Suki was carrying the letter it suddenly grew to the size of a normal piece of paper.

  "Good. Take the humans and go south, get to the ocean shore as quickly as you can." Suki ordered. "I will take this to Adamus. Once I find him I will meet you at the shore with any reinforcements he can spare. Pex I am going to trust you with protecting the humans, they are no stronger than civilians and are surely not capable of engaging in combat. Cora can use nature and wood-magic and will make you a boat to go back to the islands. Cora and Lillith can not go with you, we need them here, but they can go as far as the shore to make the boat."

  "The humans can not fly correct?" Pex asked, and when she received a nod in return she frowned. "There are elementals on the islands, and we have to cross the islands to get to Evean on foot. We can't just fly over them. I'm just a librarian, I can use magic but I can't face an elemental. I am not yet skilled enough in magic to complete the ritual."

  "The ritual?" Estellese asked.

  "Fairies are magical creatures, we are known for our incredible skill in using magic. As a right of passage ritual, in order to call ourselves a master of our chosen elements, we must go out and fight an elemental of the same element one on one and win. Then a fairy can call herself or himself a master of their chosen element." Pex answered.

  "An elemental is the embodiment of an element that has been brought to life." Suki explained. "A fire elemental is literally just a big living fireball with masterful control over the fire element. Naturally, elementals are completely immune to their own element. So in order to beat an elemental with its own element you must have mastered your own element to such an extreme degree that you can control the elemental itself and tear it apart or completely overwhelm it with immense power."

  Pex gave Suki an odd look. "Why explain it? Everyone knows what an elemental is."

  "These humans are not from this world." Suki explained. "They did not have magic or other races in their homeworld."

  "SERIOUSLY!" Pex shouted out in shock. "I KNEW aliens existed! They said I was crazy but I knew it! Can we just take the spaceship to Evean? I wanna ride in the spaceship, please? Pretty please! I'll share some of my sugar! I brought a lot with me, there's enough to share!" She pressed her hands together as if she was praying and gave Estellese the puppydog eyes.

  Mendelen and Kaden laughed, but Estellese frowned a little. "I'm sorry, but we didn't come on a spaceship." Estellese answered. "We just kinda… Got teleported here I guess, against our will."

  Pex looked terribly disappointed and lowered her head. "Oh…" She murmured.

  Zanath joined the group and spoke to Mendelen. "Is everyone alright?" He asked.

  "We are all okay, but that elf girl you knew. I forget her name." Mendelen started.

  "Esyll?" Zanath asked.

  "Yes, Esyll. She didn't make it, and we lost all of the other scientists. We are planning out what to do now, the demons are causing problems for the fairies too and they will need our help." Mendelen answered. "I'm sorry."

  Zanath froze for a moment, and looked around as if expecting it to be a joke, as if he'd see Esyll standing nearby somewhere. Of course, he couldn't see her, her body was lying beneath the tall grass. And all the other scientists were also gone. "Whatever decision you make, I'll agree with. Come get me when we are ready to go." Without another word he turned and walked away.

  "I'm sorry." Kaden added. "I tried to save her."

  Zanath did not respond, he just kept walking until he was far away from the group but still in sight. Then he just sat down in the grass and stared off into space.

  "Is he okay?" Pex asked. "Does he want some sugar? I have some."

  "He made several friends in the elven village. And all of them just died." Mendelen explained. "He will be okay. And while we appreciate the sugar I don't think it'll help right now."

  "Everyone is healed,
but Cora is still unconscious." Lillith murmured quietly as she rejoined the group.

  Suki nodded "she used too much magic. It may not have looked like a lot from the inside, but making massive walls like that and keeping them constantly and instantly repairing any damage they take is no easy task. Definitely not something a normal magic user could pull off. We're lucky she is still alive."

  "Overuse of magic can kill you?" Estellese asked.

  "Yes. It uses your body's physical energy. Your lungs, heart, and all other inner organs need that energy to function. If you used it all up all your inner organs would shut down. Granted you can use a lot of magic before that happens but she was probably cutting it pretty close." Pex explained

  "We need to get moving though and we can't leave her behind. Can anyone carry her while they run?" Suki asked. But nobody spoke up.

  "I have a possible solution" Pex offered. "My signet"