by Jeff Inlo
As his mind captured the full breadth of the lingering outline, he probed deeper. Cascading throughout the silhouette, he saw something just as amazing as the full embodiment of his whole person. He saw the essence of the magic within him.
It was colorless and without distortion, but within the confines of Demonspawn, it stood out like the morning dew on a bed of dark green grass. For the first time in his life, he could actually see the magic that made him who he was.
He had been told that magic was within him, but since he cast no spells, he always found it difficult to accept. He was a delver, and he placed great emphasis on what his senses could reveal. He wasn't sure if he wanted to believe in something he couldn't see, hear, smell, or even touch. Finally, he could sense it, see it through an image of the past caught in Demonspawn.
The essence of the magic was so spectacular and so stunning, he almost missed an even more inspiring vision. Within the confines of his reflection and separate from the magic, he saw the brilliance of his existence beyond his mortal body. Without the smallest doubt in his mind, he knew he witnessed his own soul, and the sight did what few other things could manage, it brought the delver to a full stop.
The silhouette faded almost immediately after he stopped moving, but the memory remained as sharp as if he could still reach out and touch it.
Ryson had seen spirits on previous occasions. Only a short time ago, he had seen the ghost of Sy Fenden. He had not yet come to grips with the incident, but he could not deny the reality of the occurrence. He could not even regard the experience as unique. If anything, the sight of spirits had become almost common to him.
Despite his past experiences, he could not ignore the importance of what was before him. He might have seen ghosts, even the spirits of close friends, but he had never put the concept in absolute personal perspective, never really considered what it might mean for him as well as every other inhabitant of Uton.
In Demonspawn, he could not avoid it. There was more to him than flesh and blood, more than even the delver magic that resided in his core. There was an essence of greater consequence, and while it was momentarily constrained to his mortal body, it would not stay there forever.
In witnessing the essence of his spirit in one small glimpse of his immediate past, his growing awareness captured the significance for what was yet to come. He saw beyond that single moment of history and deep into the passages of what could be.
Understandably, his emotions swelled. He had been given a gift of immeasurable value. In a place filled with the suffering past—experiences of pain and sorrow—he saw his incredibly hopeful future. Magic might have changed the land into something that always seemed to extend beyond his senses, but it brought him to a place where he discovered proof of infinite possibilities, proof he had seen with his own eyes.
He would have loved to share that moment with his wife, but the thought of Linda brought him back to the deadly circumstances they faced. The future suddenly became that much more important to him, a future he wished to protect. As immensely difficult as it was, he pressed aside the magnificence of what he saw and refocused his efforts on stopping the darowks.
With a new perspective growing in his consciousness, the demons' smoky forms appeared much less foreboding and their paths of destruction seemed so utterly futile. The glory Ryson witnessed turned demons and nightmares into minor obstacles to his newfound truth. With growing confidence, his speed actually increased. His sword grew brighter in his hand, and he forced the darowks further back into the grayness of Demonspawn.
Closer to Linda, Holli had noticed the delver stop. She was about to call out to him, but before she could speak, he had raced off with even greater speed and more obvious determination than he had previously displayed. Strangely, she saw the delver smiling. She could not comprehend what would cause such a reaction in such a harsh realm under such crushing conditions. If Ryson had not been so stunningly diligent in ushering away the darowks, she would have worried he had been placed under the serp's influence.
Ryson's state of mind, however, quickly became a much lesser concern as a legion of dieruhnes broke out of the gray haze in the distance and rushed forward. The crimson-skinned demons ran without grace or speed, their long thick bodies hunched forward like tall, red boulders rolling unevenly over the dark, loose ground. Plumes of gray dust rose up in their wake and lightning exploded from many of their iron tridents. It appeared as if a wave of red fury stirred a storm of chaos.
Holli knew they were headed directly for Linda. She wondered what had taken them so long. She expected such an attack the moment they arrived in Demonspawn, and she was prepared to counter the assault.
"Jure! Break the ground under their feet!"
Without the need for further direction, the wizard sent his white magic toward the ground in front of the onrushing demons. When the ring of pale energy hit the bleak dust, it burrowed into the ground. A pulse of force branched out into a long jagged line that stretched across the path of the dieruhnes.
Initially, nothing happened, but when the first demon stepped upon the affected ground, the dark soil caved downward into a deep chasm. The demon disappeared into the dusty hollow. The ground continued to break apart in haphazard fashion. The demons could not determine the path of Jure's magic. Most came to a dead halt as fault lines opened all around them in jagged, broken lines, leaving them no safe path forward.
They hesitated only for a moment. In the distance, Macheve could sense their indecision. She did not care how many were lost to the bowels of Demonspawn, and she pressed them onward.
The demons renewed their forward push, and they leapt over any visible breaks in the ground. Many were swallowed by new cracks, but far more escaped the first obstacle and continued their assault.
Holli ordered a second barrage.
"Haven! Burn them with the light!"
Just as Jure did not hesitate, Haven acted quickly. She pulled light from outside the fabric of Demonspawn, light from realms untouched by living beings, unspoiled by hate or violence. The brilliance radiated from the purity of untainted existence.
The dieruhnes of Demonspawn had never traveled beyond their breeding grounds, had never experienced light other than the dim burning of iniquity. The radiance cast upon them scorched their twisted souls, and in hopes of escaping the light, many leapt for the darkness of the chasms created by Jure's previous spell.
The counterattack cut into the number of demons far greater than Holli could have hoped. The legion of dieruhnes dwindled to a few dozen scattered across the dusty, dark battleground. Those that were left appeared to struggle between avoiding the burning light and a fervent desire to reach the human woman immune to magic. Their aggression needed no encouragement, but their craving for Linda was no doubt enhanced by Macheve's influence. Holli realized that the remaining demons were not worth the cost in magic being exerted by the continued grace of radiance.
"Haven, end your spell and conserve your strength. You will be needed again soon."
The elf sorceress did as she was instructed. She also began to pull upon energy from Uton. With part of her essence remaining in the physical realm of elves and humans, she could refresh her pool of magic without contaminating her core with the corrupt energy of Demonspawn.
Holli pulled the bow from her shoulder, and she called to both Dzeb and Jure.
"Dzeb, the remaining dieruhnes will rush her. Do not let any through."
The giant stepped in front of Linda and glared intensely at any demon that ventured near. Dzeb said nothing, but by his expression, Holli knew he would not be moved.
"Jure!" the elf guard continued. "Use concentrated force blasts. Break up the groups and keep them from attacking in numbers."
Jure understood the strategy. Two or three dieruhnes would not have a chance at getting past Dzeb. They were slow and ponderous, and though each demon was strong enough to cast off a dozen dwarves at a time, they were no match for the sheer power of a determined cliff behemoth.
Jure simply had to ensure they did not reach Linda by using superior numbers to distract the giant.
His spells would require more precision than power, and thus, he would also conserve energy. Pinpointing several large groups closing in on Linda's position, Jure targeted numerous demons and hit them with blasts of sheer force. He kept hammering away at one dieruhne after another, breaking up packs and leaving them to rush into the cliff behemoth in substantially smaller numbers.
While dieruhnes stood tall in their own right, they appeared almost dwarfish compared to the mighty giant. They held to magically enchanted tridents, but the lightning of their spears could not scratch the thick hide of the behemoth. With their minds warped by the commands of the serp, they ran into the titan with mass abandon and the results were all too predictable.
Dzeb met each demon with a defiant swat of a mighty hand. He sent dieruhnes flying backward. Some fell into the chasms opened by Jure's spell. Others hit the barren ground with such force they continued to roll far off into the grayness that encompassed the region.
Stepping to the left and then his right, Dzeb revealed amazing quickness, moved far faster than the demons expected. He found no joy in punishing the beasts, but he did not hesitate in unleashing the full extent of his strength. As far as he was concerned, he stood in a land removed from Godson and filled by creatures who opposed His word. To Dzeb, it was an obvious battle of righteousness against the wicked, and he would perish before he allowed the demons to prevail.
Just as Jure continued to harass the demon packs, Holli dispatched several dieruhnes with her bow. She chose creatures disoriented by the force spells or knocked to the ground by Dzeb's thunderous strikes. She targeted the vulnerable areas around their necks. Those that were mortally wounded did not die immediately, but they chose to disregard Linda and focus their attacks on the elf guard, seeking revenge before they died. Holli was forced into evasive maneuvers, but each demon that chased her was one less that would hunt Linda.
Once she had a sizable number of wounded demons following her, she led them to the edge of a chasm, leapt over the crevice and allowed Jure to force them over the ledge with a spell of irresistible force.
With every dieruhne eliminated from the field, Holli reassessed the battle. Ryson continued to hound the darowks and forced them all to a safe perimeter. Dzeb remained steadfast in guarding Linda while Haven and Jure revitalized their magical pools with energy from Uton.
The first defense was successful. She knew additional demons were on their way, but hopefully Ansas would achieve his own aims before further battle was necessary. As she looked back to the sorcerer to determine his progress, her eyes filled with fury.
The sorcerer had allowed a darowk to engulf the head of Scheff. Though the animated corpse no longer needed air, Holli could not imagine why Ansas would be so careless. Scheff was almost as important as Linda.
"What are you doing?" Holli demanded as she raced over to the sorcerer and prepared to fight the darowk with her own emerald magic.
"Be still!" the sorcerer commanded.
"I will not be still! It was you who pointed out the significance of Scheff's corpse. How can you allow a darowk to attack him?"
"I'm not simply allowing it. I am forcing the issue. I isolated the darowk from the pack and pulled it toward me before the delver, or you, noticed. It is the tool I need."
"Tool?"
"This is not the time!" Ansas shouted.
At that same moment, Ryson rushed forward. The appearance of the darowk shocked him. He could not imagine how he missed one, but the darowks were no longer his main concern.
"This is about to get worse," he warned. "The darowks are regrouping, but there's more. There are winged demons just beyond that gray mist. I can't really see them, but I can hear them. There's something else under them, something big. I have no idea what it might be. There may be more than one. I can hold off the darowks, but I don't know what to do about the others."
"Ansas!" Holli roared. "What are you..."
"I told you to be still! If I'm right, you will not have to worry about any of these demons in a moment. If I'm wrong, none of it will matter."
Before Holli could protest further, the sorcerer issued a command to Jure.
"You have the ability to follow magical flows. This darowk is under the influence of the serp Macheve. Do not use your perception, but rather cast a spell and allow your magic to flow over those lines of influence."
With so much at stake, Jure was not ready to simply follow Ansas blindly.
"Why?"
Ansas almost erupted with impatience, but he could not afford to argue with the wizard.
"Because we are here to trap Macheve! Your spell will isolate her."
Still, Jure would not act on the sorcerer's orders alone. The wizard looked to Holli. Only when the elf guard nodded did he cast the spell.
When Jure's white magic entered the darowk, the demon of smoke began to quiver. It seemed to lift itself slightly away from Scheff's head only to be forcibly shoved back down.
"What's happening?" Holli demanded.
"Macheve senses the magic," Ansas explained. "She is trying to cut off the darowk. She has released control of it, and it has tried to flee. I am containing it and using Jure's spell to reestablish contact with the serp. There! I have her!"
Ansas cast one more spell. A ring of ebony energy encircled Scheff and the darowk. The smoke demon was pushed further inside the elf corpse and eventually disappeared from sight completely.
Once Ansas forced the merging of the darowk with the remnants of magic at Scheff's core, he was able to use the very fabric of Demonspawn to obtain the victory he sought. The winds of the realm carried hate, fear and sadness, but they all existed on the basis of previous conduct. The currents of ebony magic which ran so strong in the sorcerer were not only based on the means of alteration. They also thrived in the shadows of the past. While he could not change the course of the prevalent deeds cascading through Demonspawn, he could emphasize them. In essence, he accentuated the influence between serp and demon.
Macheve could not erase the influence she had used upon the darowk, nor could she deny her greed and perverse desire for control. Her connection to both Reiculf and the smoke demon would prove to be her undoing.
Using Scheff's core with its overlapping links and Jure's spell as a map to Macheve, Ansas tied the mass of energy together. Altering the magic that allowed the serp to control the darowk, Ansas yanked at Macheve's essence and turned the darowk's powers back upon her.
The serp could feel the invasion of magic, but she was unable to stop it. Reiculf's energy remained woven tightly into her own core. Though the incursion did not come from Reiculf himself but rather the remnants of magic trapped within Scheff, the passage could not be blocked. She could not control herself.
Her hands raised to her own neck. Her clawed fingers gripped her throat tightly. She began to squeeze with all her might.
The sharp tips of her claws cut into her scaled skin. She gasped painfully for air even as she continued to crush her own airway. The realm around her turned a darker gray. Losing consciousness, she began to collapse but her hands would still not loosen their grip.
Before the serp's body hit the ground, a dozen lesser demons leapt upon her and feasted on the flesh. After every last scrap was devoured, Macheve's empty bones sank into the powdery ash of Demonspawn.
Chapter 29
"Ryson," Holli ordered. "Ensure the demons have retreated and are not massing for another attack."
The delver did as he was asked and rushed off to scout the forward grounds.
"They will disperse," Ansas offered with far more confidence than the others wished to allow, "at least for now. When Macheve perished, her influence over the demons ended. Reiculf will eventually reestablish control over them, but we have earned a reprieve."
"Macheve is dead?" Holli wished to confirm.
"Definitely."
For the most part, it was welc
ome news, though Dzeb shook his head with obvious sadness. The others appeared more confused than troubled over what had actually transpired.
"You want to tell us what just happened?" Jure questioned.
"Isn't it obvious? No?" Ansas sighed. "Very well, I suppose I will have to explain. When the demons attacked, I realized Macheve was influencing their actions. Reiculf was making it difficult for me to find any link between Scheff and the serp, but he couldn't hide the serp's influence over the darowks. I chose one lurking off to the side and encouraged the demon to attack Scheff. I knew that destroying the elf corpse would be a priority, but before it could do any damage, I managed to use my magic to its full potential. I altered the connection between the smoke demon and serp, reversed the influence. Instead of Macheve controlling the demon, the darowk's natural tendencies were turned back on the serp. Macheve choked herself to death, just as a darowk would have wanted."
"And why was my spell necessary?" the wizard challenged.
"Once I forced the darowk into Scheff's core, its demonic presence was awash in Reiculf's magic. As I said, Reiculf was making it difficult for me to follow the magic. He was flooding Scheff with waves of energy. I needed to maintain a clear path to Macheve to keep the serp from breaking the link she had established. I followed the path your spell created."
Ryson returned from his scout with additional good news.
"The demons are retreating. The larger ones seemed to have vanished, and the winged beasts have flown off. The darowks broke up, too. Some smaller creatures are still lurking about in the outskirts. They seem to be looking to return to this region, but I don't think they're a real threat to us."
"I told you," Ansas bragged. "Once the serp was extinguished, the demons had lost their direction."
"So Macheve is really dead?" Ryson asked.
"It appears that way," Holli advised.
"So that's it then, right? We've cut off Reiculf."