I’d never been so proud of my Guard. And they are mine, my family, my friends, my brothers, my sisters, my Guards.
“Open the gate!”
As the shield dropped I let the rage out and shot out the door like a rocket, my new set of swords alight with Soulfire and ripping through anything that got close enough for me to reach. We headed straight toward the gateway.
We reached the area directly in front of the gate where I could plainly see every inch of it.
“Here!” my voice boomed and Sam opened his shield portal a small amount and placed it where he wanted. Then he opened it wide and the shield solidified. We slaughtered the Demons inside of the area and I turned to the gateway.
The amount of power I figured would be used wouldn’t work with my Soullance. I had to craft a new one, the feeder tube was close to four feet in diameter and I used power to adjust the lenses to reduce all the way down to three inches. It worked with my projected power, I just hoped it would work with the amount I’d be pouring into it.
I turned to the Guards, “It’s very important that you don’t let the power into your body. Focus on the area twenty feet above my head. I’ll take it from there. Focus. The Source is an unforgiving bitch and it will burn you down.”
“We’re ready, Boss,” Rictor looked around at them and back to me, then nodded.
I turned to the Mages, “Every one of you will need to be in this, I had to Pull when I just did one at a time.”
“We’re ready,” Greg said, “You know this is crazy, right?”
“We specialize in crazy, Greg,” I answered.
I turned to the Gate and reached out with my mind to find all of those Soul streams and when I had felt them all, two hundred and forty-one streams, I Pulled.
I went to my knees and the three Mages placed their hands on my arms. Strength flooded back into me as the Source wasn’t Pushed from them into me but Pulled through them in a huge torrent. My body soaked it up as I Pulled from the Guards, and Power exploded everywhere.
I reached up and steered that power into the Soullance and a blindingly brilliant beam blasted out the other end. I hit the first cable and the beam started cutting it!
But it was slow, I Pulled harder and the beam brightened. The first cable snapped and I started the second. Around the gateway the beam cut. It was close to halfway done when Darrel suddenly went slack and fell behind me. I looked back to see he was still breathing. His body had just shut down.
I saw power ripping up the other two’s streams and turned back to the cutter.
I made it through three other cables when I felt Greg fall.
Paige began screaming and I knew we weren’t going to make it but I had to keep going. Four more cables!
Suddenly I fell to me knees and had to stop. Paige had fallen.
“Damn it! Just fucking once, let things work!” I turned to check and both Greg and Paige were alive.
“Use me,” Sam said and stepped forward.
“No, if the shield comes down,” I pointed to the horde of Demons pounding on the shield, “they get in and if I’m Pulling from the Guards, they can’t fight. I’m not letting my Guards die like that!”
I snarled as I turned back to the Gate, “I know what to do but I don’t know if I can survive it. I guess I’ll find out!”
I could stop here and search for some other solution, but every solution I could think of involved more of my Guards dying. I can’t stop because I’m afraid for my life, knowing it will cost more of theirs. It’s just not in me to, because if there’s one thing I know beyond a shadow of a doubt it’s that Soulguards never quit. Not one of my brothers and sisters would hesitate to give their life to end this and I could do no less.
“No, wait just a sec...” I heard Kharl start.
I let the rage come and with it power and focus. My Soul erupted and four huge tendrils formed. Not from my stream, but directly from my Soul. I reached out to all of the Streams inside of the shield, except Sam’s and Pulled with every ounce of my being.
As the power exploded across the sky I slammed all four massive tendrils down into the Source and strength flooded into me. The lance surged back to life and the beam sliced another cable and another.
More power was flooding into me than I needed and I poured it into the Lance with the huge stream of power slicing the last cable.
The portal began to lose its pattern and suddenly it seemed like it imploded. I heard a massive roar as every single Demon on the field had its Soulstream severed.
Now the part I dreaded was upon me, as soon as I stopped Pulling from the Guards, those tendrils would be pouring into me.
“Tell them I did my best,” I said to Sam, who was staring straight at me with a look of horror at what I had done.
Then I formed a shield around me and held it poised above the four streams. When I stopped Pulling from the Guards, I slammed it down through those Tendrils, severing the connection with me and the shield took all of that power instead.
Fire roared through me as the excess power flooded my body and I screamed as I released everything into the sky as I had done one time, long ago at Morndel Academy. There had been so much power pouring into me, I smelled burning flesh and knew I was done. But we had won, and if I had to go, my road to the afterlife would be paved with a hundred thousand Demon Souls.
Blackness descended and my vision faded.
Chapter 60
Rictor Hughes paced from one end of the room to the other. Each time he turned back toward the door, he would stare at the man laying in the infirmary bed.
“Damnit man!” Ivan Jacobs said from the second bed inside of the room, “Pacing back and forth ain’t gonna help him!”
“There’s gotta be something we can do,” Rictor snapped, “He’s fighting for his life.”
“It’s a Source Coma, Mr. Hughes,” said the small woman in a nurse uniform who had just walked into the room. “No one has ever survived a Source Coma. He’s already broken all of the records. He’s lasted twenty four hours and the longest was six hours.”
“It’s not just a coma,” Rictor glared at the nurse, “Don’t you feel how the Pull keeps changing? That’s what it feels like to fight right beside this man. He’s fighting. He’s fighting Death itself.”
The nurse stepped back at the fierceness in Rictor’s voice.
“There’s nothing we can do Mr. Hughes,” the girl said, trying to calm him down. But she cringed as he stared into her eyes. She could see something burning in his eyes and she backed out of the room quickly.
“By God, there is too.” He said savagely, “Prada! Ramirez!”
Andrea Prada and Luis Ramirez stepped into the room, both looked to the man in the bed as they came in.
The man’s Pull was weakening as they spoke, “He needs help and Lyrica won’t be here for another ten hours, I’m going to be Support.”
“They say you can’t support a Source Coma victim, they say it will kill you,” Prada said softly.
“Then I die with my Captain.”
Prada stood straighter, “But not alone. Luis call in the Rednecks I want volunteers for some craziness.”
“Get my damn chair!” Jacobs yelled, “Not much use for a Guard with one leg and one arm, but I can do this!”
***
Kharl Jaegher snapped out of a sound sleep. He felt a massive Pull from the Academy.
“What the Hell?”
“That, my love, would be his Guards doing something incredibly dangerous. They’re supporting him,” Kyra said.
“Courageous fools,” Kharl mumbled, “Let’s go join em.”
Kyra smiled, “Let’s do that.”
***
Lyrica Jayne strode into the infirmary, there were Guards surrounding Colin. The Source was pouring through them. She stepped to his side and looked deep into his Soul. She was sure that the Guards pouring power into him were the only reason he was still alive. She’d felt them Pulling for the last hour on the plane. She could see how d
rained their Souls were and shook her head in amazement.
“I’ll take it from here,” she said softly in Rictor Hughes’ ear, “Now it’s time for me to work.”
Rictor withdrew and with a pleading look said, “You gotta save him, he did this for us.”
In that instant she saw the memory of the final moments inside that shield flash across Rictor’s aura. She felt the tears that she wanted to shed as she watched her Angel connect directly to the Source to power the cutter.
“I will,” she said, “now go rest before you fall over.”
As the Guards pulled back, Lyrica sat and placed her hands on his chest where there was a large patch of scar tissue from the burns inflicted by the Source.
She reached down deep into the Source and Pulled as she delved into his Soul with her mind.
***
“You stand before the Council, Sam Keller,” boomed the voice of Archmage Price, “We understand that with your actions, you prevented a catastrophe, but you defied a direct order from the Council.”
Sam Keller smiled and shook his head.
“Due to lack of information, it is true that an inadequate force was sent to deal with the situation in Kansas. And therefore, no one under your command will be held accountable for the disobedience. But in any organization, the orders of your superiors have to be upheld. To defy them has it’s own consequences.”
Sam started laughing.
“Do you find these charges amusing, Keller?” snapped Luciuos Salvador.
“As a matter of fact, I do. You really have no idea what’s coming. It’s sad, in its own way. But you’ll see when he wakes up. That’s all that they’re waiting for. When he awakens you all are done.”
“No one wakes from Source Coma,” Roman Graves said harshly.
“No one has tied directly to the Source to support themselves as they Pulled from the Streams of over two hundred Guards either,” he shrugged and with a surprised look said, “Oh yeah, I guess someone did do that.”
“That’s impossible!” Allen Denton exclaimed.
“Really?” Sam returned and started laughing again, “Whatever. When you get through patting yourselves on the back you can let me know what you have in mind for me. I don’t have time for this stupidity.”
He stood and turned to leave the Council chambers.
“You will respect the authority of this Council, Mage!” boomed the Archmage.
“Do you feel that?” Sam turned and they could see the savage joy in the man, “They could feel that in New York! That’s two Soullords, Pulling the world apart! And when they’re done you’ll face the consequences of your treasonous actions!”
As he said this, he pointed straight at the chest of Archmage Price.
Then he turned away and walked out of the Council chambers.
***
“Daphne Cavanaugh, you are standing before Council to face the charges of disobeying a direct order from your superior as pertaining to the...”
“That’s not exactly why I’m here,” Daphne interrupted, “I’m here to give you warning. The only warning you will receive. Run. Hide.”
“Has everyone gone insane?” Salvador exclaimed.
“Maybe,” she said, “When the Soullord awakens, I would suggest you be gone.”
She turned to leave and Roman Graves stepped in front of her.
“You are not dismissed,” he paused and sneered, “Guard.”
“Step aside,” Daphne said with fire in her gaze as she dropped her privacy shield, “or I’ll cut your heart out.”
His face turned pale and his eyes widened in fear. Daphne Cavanaugh’s Soulstream had swollen as Colin had Pulled the power through it. It had swollen to five times its original size of four inches. She was the most powerful Mage in the whole Council room aside from Price.
He moved and she strode out.
“What the hell happened out there?” Allen Denton asked softly.
Suddenly, the Pulling that everyone had been feeling for the last three days ended.
Price smiled and said, “Finally. Luciuos, Roman, burn the body.”
“With pleasure,” Salvador answered.
“Roman, has your son been dealt with?”
“Yes, Sir, it’s done,” He answered.
“Good.”
Chapter 61
Lyrica stood up shakily and Trent reached out to steady her. The Pulling had stopped and he could see that Colin was still breathing. Relief flooded through him as he saw his friend’s chest rise and fall.
Lyrica bent back down and kissed him, she whispered something Trent couldn’t make out and stood back up.
“He’ll be fine, now. He can rest for a while. He was fighting for three days straight.”
She turned and started for the door when she saw the ugly Souls of Five Mages approaching. She stepped out in the hall with rage coursing through her, a leftover from her trip into the Soul of Colin Rourke.
“We’ve come for the body,” Roman Graves said with satisfaction rolling across his aura.
“If you touch him,” Lyrica replied savagely as she reached out with her mind, grasped all five of their Souls, and pulled them halfway out of their bodies, then slammed them back in, “I’ll rip your Souls apart.”
Denton screeched and fled, Graves and Salvador both fell to the floor with spasms wracking them. Regina Worthington and Russell Fisher both fell unconscious to the floor.
When the spasms ended, Lyrica looked down at both of the Senior Mages, “Pick up your trash and leave, Now.”
After they staggered down the hall with the others dragging behind them, Lyrica turned to Trent and Mattie.
“Put Guards on him until he wakes. When he does, he will do what he does best, his duty. Don’t let him go alone to face those jackals. Wake me, I’ll stand with him when he does.”
“We all will,” Trent returned.
As Lyrica walked off to find a place to sleep Mattie turned to Trent, “I wonder if he even knows how that girl feels about him?”
“I doubt it, for someone so perceptive, sometimes he’s blind as a bat.”
***
“I’ll bring all of the evidence before the Council, today,” Gregor Kherkov said to the man who sat in the chair across the desk from him.
“Are ye sure ye should go in there alone?” Lennox Flynn asked.
“I don’t want it to be a show of force. The Council cannot deny the truth when Guilefort and I present it to them. If we truly need a big hammer, I’ll call in the rest of them.”
“Tis true, we have an unholy big hammer if we need it,” Flynn said. “The bloody Council canna deny the truth when Guilefort is there. It should be enough to prove the guilt of the Archmage. Then the Council will be forced to act.”
“That is my hope,” Gregor returned, “We could wait for Colin to be present but I think it would mean more to the Council if the evidence was brought forward by someone, not at odds with Price already.”
“True enough, old friend. If ye need us we will be near.”
“Thanks, Len.”
Flynn stood and left Gregor’s office. He headed directly to the infirmary. As he stepped into the infirmary he couldn’t help but see the Guards stationed in the hallway before Colin’s room.
The man pulls a dedication from ‘is men unlike many people can, Flynn thought.
There were ten Guards outside of the room, or more accurately, ten very powerful Mages. No one would enter who wasn’t welcome.
They all knew Flynn and he nodded as he passed one of the women he’d met earlier, Cavanaugh was her name. She had been the one who had dropped her privacy shield to show him what the Soullord had caused with that insane Pull.
He shook his head in wonder as he remembered coming completely awake from a dead sleep in Edinburgh. He’d felt that Pull from halfway around the bloody world.
As he stepped into the room, he saw Lyrica. She sat in a chair beside the Soullord reading a book. She looked up as he entered and smiled.
> “Len,” She greeted him warmly, then she looked to Colin for a moment, “He should be waking up in the next few days. I don’t even want to get into what I saw inside of his Soul, I’ll just say it was a fight to end all fights in there. He fought for three days straight.”
She looked toward the door with that look Flynn would see in her eyes as she looked right through things, at Souls. “Because of them,” she nodded toward the door, “he didn’t have to fight alone.”
***
“What we are here for, is to ask,” Gregor’s voice boomed across the chambers, “no, to demand answers from a man who has committed treason against the Soulguard and against Humanity itself.”
***
“Gregor is going to the Council, today,” Lennox said, after a moment in silence, “E’s takin te truthseer with ‘im. Tis a confrontation e is after. E was meanin to wait for young Colin, ‘ere, but ‘is honor will not allow it to wait any longer.”
“There was something really off about those Councilors yesterday, I think we should go and back him up,” Lyrica stood up with one last look at her Soullord.
Tis a great big lot o trouble that boy is in when she gets a little older, he thought with a smile.
“Then by all means, let’s go talk to the Council, Lass.”
The two of them walked out together, Lyrica had spent a great deal of time with Lennox Flynn while she was in Edinburgh. He was like the kind Uncle that always looked out for her. Mattie and Trent both fell in behind them. Every step she made, one or both of them was always there.
Lyrica didn’t mind, Trent was Colin’s oldest friend and Mattie was one of the greatest fighters that Lyrica had ever come across. Her father must have been something else to have trained her as well as he had. Lyrica had met Mattie’s father several times but hadn’t trained with him any. It was sad to think that she had lost the only family she had left because of the travesty the Archmage had created with his crusade to destroy the Guard.
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