But he still smiled his Demon smile, for at least he had finally vaporized that pesky loud-mouthed Attack Wizard Carl Bruger! For years he watched Bruger brag about himself while he sat quietly on the sidelines in the guise of a flunky for that idiot son of that fool of a Council Chairman, Horace Grim. Now Bruger was gone forever!
The remaining Attack Wizards appeared to be unhurt; they even managed to cushion the fall of most of the survivors that had entered through the Dome. Though many were unconscious and badly injured, more than a dozen of them immediately took up defensive stances directed towards the Demon, led by a woman with brilliant red hair that he recognized to be Elizabeth Tuttle, a Master Wizard. Strangely, he didn't recognize several of the Wizards with her, although he should have been able to recognize most Hope Wizards.
Only seven of the original Attack Wizards remained, but several able looking Wizards wearing police uniforms had entered the Courtyard and were converging on him, followed by dozens more Wizards that poured onto the battlefield through several doors. The disruption of the wards had enabled the unlocking of all the outside doors!
Worst of all most of the Wizards that had brazenly crashed through the Dome were largely intact and rapidly growing in strength as they healed themselves and each other. If he could simply muster another blast immediately the Demon was sure that he could kill most attackers, but for reasons unknown he was having increasing problems accessing the regenerative powers of the Evil at Desolation Glen.
There was a second large store of Evil much closer than the Glen, but the Master Demon reserved that Evil for himself. The Apprentice Demon knew better than to access its energies without the Master’s permission.
While the remaining Attack Wizards continued to fling powerful bolts of energy at him, dozens of other Wizards now surrounded him, spoiling for battle. At the edge of the Courtyard his Demon eyes spied the arrival of Red Eric, Soone, the Tuttle brats, and the King kid. With them was none other than that fool he had pretended for years to be buddies with, Troy Grim!
He wanted to immediately kill them all! But for the first time, the Demon realized that he didn't have the power he needed! It wasn't supposed to be this way! He was supposed to be able to draw almost unlimited energy from the Evil at Desolation Glen! And human resolve was supposed to crumble with the destruction of their Council! Instead, those Wizards that remained seemed to be emboldened! The Hope citizen Wizards were aroused, not cowed! He could sense their growing strength and determination! Meanwhile he was weakening!
His situation didn't improve when the Dome wards abruptly ceased again completely and over two hundred additional Hope Wizards entered the Courtyard from high above. Most of them didn't even know how to throw blasts of energy but they knew how to shield and to apply telekinetic force. His power blasts no longer broke through shielding to reach any of the humans, and his every movement was opposed by many tons of force!
He was no longer the hunter, but the hunted!
"He saved over a hundred lives, and used up the Demon's time and energies!" said Sam Putt of his fallen comrade Carl Bruger, as more than a dozen of the lead Wizards parlayed together at the far end of the Courtyard. Tears ran down the big man's cheeks, but he held a huge drawn sword that he ran his well-callused fingers over again and again as he strengthened and sharpened the weapon, and his dirt and blood smeared face was full of anger. "I'm going to cut off the head of that grinning monster!"
"Yes my friend, we all hope you will," said Red Eric.
"For sure Bruger saved my life and that of Alan and his League friends," said Elizabeth, who stood comfortably in a warmly hugging huddle of Tuttles.
"But none of us has ever killed a Demon," said Amanda. "There may be subtleties to killing an alien creature of un-Earthly powers that we do not know. Am I right, elf?"
"Yes, caution is warranted," said Soone. "Demons are Void-spawn and permeated with Evil. I am not the expert on it like my old mentor Lucian was, but I recall some of my Demon-lure. For one thing, note that cutting off its head would not kill it."
"What?" exclaimed Sam.
"Demons don't have central nervous systems or brains like biological beings do," explained the elf. "In fact, they tend to lack specialized organs of any kind: no hearts or livers or stomachs or any of the other sorts of specialized body parts that we biologics have come to depend on. A few external features such as limbs and eyes are formed to serve specific purposes, but nothing is a permanent structure. They are more or less a uniform living energy-like substance. Elves and human Wizards to an extent can control magic energies; Demons ARE magic energies, but energies of Evil driven by the chaos of the Void. They are Evil in living form."
"I don't care what they are made of," said Sam. "I just want to know how to kill them!"
"Dismantling them is indeed an effective weakening strategy, though the Demon would need to be sliced into dozens or perhaps hundreds of pieces that are kept separated to avoid rapid reassembly," said Soone. "And then the pieces each need to be totally obliterated."
"Obliterated how?" asked Eric.
"A powerful creature strong in magic that eats the pieces might work," said the elf, "though finding creatures of Earth magic is highly problematic, and the Demon pieces would be extremely poisonous to them. I once witnessed an Alure dragon eat a Demon and the result was not favorable for the dragon or the Demon. No, I suspect that elf spells to destroy Evil would work best. Those involve combining Evil and Life-Forces in a controlled manner which prevents explosion but cancels out the Evil."
"Let's get to it then," said Sam. "I'll slice and dice, and then the elf can do his anti-Evil spells."
"Correction," said Soone. "I can lead your Wizards to do it. One elf cannot do it alone, especially an old tired one like me."
"One little problem though," said the Wolf. "The Demon is gone!"
"The Courtyard wards are down," noted Soone. "There is no impediment to teleportation! It must have ported itself away!"
Indeed where the Demon had stood only moments before there was only a broad circle of smoking, blasted Earth. Future Courtyard groundskeepers would have a devil of a time getting grass to regrow there thought Soone, assuming that in the future there would be a Courtyard with groundskeepers.
****
"Form the triple ring now!" Rog directed. In each of the existing rings every third person stepped back a few paces and joined hands to form a third ring around the desolation. This time Apprentices and parents responded more confidently than when they accomplished their first shift from a single to a double ring. Rog and Sharp circled the group constantly, providing advice and encouragement. In the inner-most circle Wizard Apprentice magic was ably consolidated by little Rick Hortega. His inner-group had become particularly proficient at nibbling away at and nullifying Evil.
It was becoming increasingly obvious that they were succeeding in rapidly destroying the Evil of Desolation Glen. Less than ten percent of the Evil remained, and though that still left several tons of the deadly substance, it was steadily disappearing. While the ring of Wizards ate away at it steadily at its edges and pushed it inward, in the center the Evil was rapidly disappearing as Life Energy/Forces shaped by Rog welled up from the Earth to consume it!
The Life Energy originated and leaked from countless trillions of living beings Earth-wide, from terrestrial and oceanic plants, animals, and simpler forms of life, and even from tiny atmospheric life forms carried in the winds. The tiny amounts of complex energies sank into geological formations where they welled and flowed, and were shaped and concentrated by gravitational, magnetic, and quantum mechanical properties of the Earth's crust. Some collected and persisted within various mineral formations for countless centuries. Most of it eventually sank deeper into molten magma where it was destroyed, or after emerging at the Earth's surface was burned away by the fiery light of the Sun.
But some flowed like ocean currents through conducting geological features to burst forth at the surface in special places: Life En
ergies from nearby and distant forests and jungles and oceans. Such a place was now called Desolation Glen.
On Alure at places such as this the elves had long ago learned to shape Life Energy. Here at Desolation Glen Rog now shaped spells for the emerging Life Energy to rapidly consume Evil. The process was proceeding amazingly well. Sharp also received periodic telepathic reports about what was happening at the Hope Courtyard, where the battle against the Demon seemed to also be going increasingly well. In another twenty minutes or so all the Evil here would be gone, then perhaps this whole nasty business would be over with and he could immediately return to Alure a hero.
There was only one possible scenario that Rog feared, and now without warning it suddenly occurred. Near the center of the circle of Evil a monstrous Demon suddenly appeared. It looked exactly like the illustrations in the Alure Library texts on Demons: humanoid with distorted features including horns, clawed hands and feet, and big black outer-scales spread over red glowing inner layers of red-glowing Evil. It appeared to be smiling, but Rog had a terrible feeling that was not a good thing.
The Demon's smile disappeared as it surveyed the Glen with big featureless red eyes. Most of the Evil was gone; tons of Evil that had taken him and his Master eight years to transport here! And it was surrounded by Wizards! For a moment it thought that it had teleported itself into a trap, but then it noticed that most of the humans that surrounded it were mere children, and its smile returned!
It could sense that the Wizard children were shielded against the subtle degenerative effects of Evil, but not against conventional physical attack. A modest blast at that point would kill most of them. But after teleporting even the short distance between Courtyard and the Glen the Apprentice Demon was too drained to manage even a modest destructive blast! Before it did any more killing it would have to recharge using the Evil that remained. Fortunately there was still several tons of Evil in the Glen; enough to kill all the Hope Wizards!
Meanwhile accompanied by much shouting and screaming most of the humans retreated in every direction away from the Demon and into the surrounding forest. Though like Rog none of them had ever seen a Demon before, they immediately had no doubt about the identity and murderous intent of the monstrous creature that had abruptly appeared among them and caused them to run away in fear!
The Apprentices of the innermost circle that ringed the remaining Evil retreated away quietly in an orderly group led by Rick Hortega, and soon established strong cloaking and shielding of themselves. If anyone in Rick’s group had a power, the group as a whole also had that power, but with the strength of over two-dozen Apprentice and Junior Apprentice Wizards: the cream of Hope's future.
The reaction of many of the adult wizards was also measured; many of them withdrew only a short distance and crouched behind nearby trees, watched the Demon, and reported status to other Wizards throughout Hope. Meanwhile terrified Rog stood frozen in place, staring at the Demon with his mouth agape!
As the Demon drank in energy from the Evil at its feet, it finally noticed the little elf that stood only ten yards in front of him. "My dear friend Rog! What are you doing here! You must be responsible for the destruction of Evil done here! I'm afraid that makes you my immediate enemy! Not that it makes much difference. You'll all soon die anyway when my Master brings Demon hordes down on you to destroy all life on Earth!"
"How do you know me?" Rog asked, his terror overcome for the moment by curiosity.
The Demon's smile deepened. "I've known you and influenced your life for years, Rog." His image shimmered and shrank to elf sized, then assumed the form of three different acquaintances of Rog for only a few seconds each before returning to Demon form! "My Master and I have long influenced new generations of Elves to turn from traditions such as gardening and supporting the Balance Wards!"
"No!" said the elf, "that's not possible!" Knarf, Zen, and Purf were in reality a Demon in disguise?
The recharged Demon raised a huge clawed hand and pointed its open glowing palm at the elf. Annoyingly, elves were endlessly trying to understand things! "Goodbye, Rog!"
At that moment over three dozen Wizards appeared, having teleported from the Courtyard. Most formed a rough circle around the Demon and Evil, but several Attack Wizards immediately shielded Rog, blocking the lightning bolt from the Demon that would have otherwise incinerated the elf. Instead, the lightning washed all around the little elf, for several seconds encasing him in a ball of fire as bright as the Sun.
"The Demon is already recharged!" Sam declared, from where he and several other Wizards stood a short distance from the Glen. "That blast almost breached our shielding of the elf! Wizards on-site including Sharp report that the elf they wanted shielded by us is largely responsible for destroying most Evil of the Glen! What's his name? Rog?"
"Astonishingly yes, he is indeed Rog, my Apprentice," said Soone. "And he is clearly not a Demon! Can you confirm that he is not, Ben?"
"I can see that he's not a Demon," said Ben. "But even without full Wizard senses I can tell that he needs our immediate help." The traumatized little elf had sunk down to his knees and was apparently near total collapse.
"Even though he is far too close to the Demon, I must go to him," said Soone. The Gaou began walking unsteadily towards Rog. Ben and then Ann joined him and supported the tired old elf by each holding one of his arms. Mark and his Master Wizard parents followed them, along with Sam, Alan, and a dozen other Wizards.
The Demon meanwhile gathered more energy from the tons of Evil that still remained in the center of the Glen. Many of his strongest enemies were now all bunched together and coming towards him. Let them! They didn't know that his blast to kill the elf had intentionally been a weak one, even though it was much stronger than should have been necessary. His next blast would be a hundred times stronger and kill them all!
Nearby the Demon, Rog was coming out of his terror induced stupor. Amazingly, he found that his spell to shape the emerging Earth Life Energies in the center of the Glen was still in place. Evil was still being consumed but only at a tiny rate, as circles of Apprentices were no longer pushing the Evil into the invisible spouting fountain of Earth Life Energies.
So close to the field of Evil and the Demon, Rog could also sense that the creature was again absorbing huge amounts of energy from the remaining Evil; enough energy to overcome any conceivable shielding that could be established by whoever had saved him a short time ago. That meant that he was doomed. He probably had only seconds left to live! The Demon would very soon blast him out of existence!
He should flee; that's what he should do! He should have never gotten into this hero business in the first place! Could he run away? No, that was a ridiculous idea! Elves were terribly slow runners! Attempting to flee would only provoke the Demon to immediately blast him! Could he teleport away? No, he sensed that a binding tendril of energy from the Demon surrounded him and would likely painfully prevent him from teleporting away. Besides, attempting to oppose the Demon so blatantly would doubtlessly cause an immediate elf-killing blast from the monster. He had to somehow delay that happening, not provoke it! And astonishingly, he also felt strongly that he had to save his aged Master from the Demon blast that he was sure was coming!
But how? He didn't know how Demons thought or could be persuaded about anything! Or did he? Unknown to himself, he had apparently consorted with a Demon for many years! The Demon had posed as elves and perhaps as humans for many years. Some of that had to still be part of the Demon!
"So you escaped their trap then, Zen," he said loudly. "Should I call you Zen or do you have a more preferred name? Is Knarf or Purf better?"
"I have no name, fool elf!" said the Demon. "The real Zen died a decade ago, when I absorbed him and his memories into myself, as I did with the others. Now tell me about this so-called trap!"
"I just got to this world of bumbling humans a short time ago," Rog said. "You must surely know far more about the trap than I do!"
Meanwhile two
groups had reached Rog's side, the group led by Soone and his friends, and a larger group that except for Ben was unseen by the others due to its cloaking.
"MY APPRENTICE ROG!" pathed Soone. "I AM AMAZED BUT PLEASED TO DISCOVER THAT YOU ARE WELL AND A HERO!"
"A hero near death by Evil Demon?" said Rog. "I don't think I'm a hero if now we all get killed. And yet you join me?"
"Yes, my Apprentice!" said Soone. "I feel that I owe you my loyalty."
"Welcome, Gaou Soone!" said the Demon. "And young King boy! My Master had thought to destroy you and the boy himself, but I am sure he won't mind if I do the job for him."
Rog wanted to do something heroic but he couldn't move!
A moment later the Demon erupted in lightning that shot out from him and engulfed the entire group in fire! But in front of them all stood a young teenager that reflected away most of the blast and absorbed much of what remained. As the blast faded away it became clear that none of its intended victims had been in the least harmed.
"Impressive, human!" said the Demon. "But you can't stand in front of everyone at once!" To illustrate the point the creature directed its next blast at one of the Wizards ringing the Glen that stood alone. The poor man was instantly incinerated and blown to pieces!
Rog was astonished; Ben had saved the others including Master Soone and himself by placing his own life in danger! But how long could the boy stand up to a Demon? Something had to be done! Something by a hero! "That's intolerable. Zen!" the little elf said, though his voice shook from fear. "And cowardly as well! But then you always were a coward!" The little elf suddenly bolted away from Ben and the others, sprinting around the Glen as fast as his little legs could carry him!
The Demon responded with directed lightning bolts, blast after blast that the elf just barely managed to evade by ducking and zig-zaging! Much to the surprise of everyone including Rog, although not a swift runner the young elf proved to be highly skilled in dodging bolts of energy flung by Demons! He found that he could sense the moment that the Demon let-loose a bolt and react!
Apprentice Wizards of Hope Page 20