“Now, it’s time to port to Green Mount Lake and beat back the invaders. Remember, many, if not all, might be enslaved by Lilith’s tethers. Their will is not their own. We must all try to incapacitate, disarm them, and bind them. If it’s a matter of life or death, then, of course, defend yourself. This is a group effort. All of us can accomplish this if we stick together and communicate. Please keep all communications in mind-speak. Jetsunma, you may relay any communications of relevance to King Emeris, Queen Esmerelda, and their advisors within the privacy shield,” I finished. Organizing a plan as quickly as I could. This would be our first actual battle as a team, and our successes here could shape our future successes in all the realms and especially the Shadowrealm.
“We cannot permit you to only risk the lives of your friends and our allies from Silver Leaf City. We will grant you one thousand of our Emerald Army to assist you,” added Queen Esmerelda generously.
“Thank you, your majesty. That will be of great help,” said Donovan with genuine appreciation. I, too, was relieved as the more prominent and more influential force we took with us increased the likelihood of success. We all then equally expressed our gratitude.
“There’s one other thing. I’m going to show you all in your mind how to sever the ropes of binding Lillith to her followers. You’re god-seed blessed gods. You can do so with ease if your target is immobilized. It’s a skill that all of you should become familiar with. Use your awareness to see the ropes. They’re three green cables that attach to the crown, throat, and heart energy centers. You can sever them with the sacred liberating mantra of Vajrasattava. The short mantra will suffice, OM VAJRASATTVA HUM, said thrice. Now I’ll share my memories of when I did so to free Enestia,” Donovan said before doing an incantation aloud for all of us to hear.
I was familiar with the chant from when I bared my mind to all in Silver Leaf City. It was a Manjushri invocation. The Buddha of Wisdom’s sacred invocation mantra, ‘OM A RA PA CANA DHI.’ Then floods of his memory severing Enestia’s bindings were shared with us.
Once the wisdom mantra was chanted, I received a clear vision of how Donovan perceived the tethers and severed them. Even how he sent the energy back using the Wiccan rule of three. I glanced around. It was quickly observed that everyone had seen the same vision he shared with me by the widening of their eyes. It didn’t look complicated. We’d have to make do with that should the time present itself. Donovan and I would be focused on stopping those who were near the lake by whatever means necessary while protecting each other.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that. However, at least it’s not a head bump this time,” stated Leilah exhaling a shaky breath. I think everyone felt the same as her, but it was efficient and kept us all on the same page.
“Yeah, sorry. It’s something you all should be able to do, too as well. You know the words of power now. OM A RA PA CANA DHI, just don’t use it without consent as it can be overwhelming. We all know this from experience,” Donovan suggested wisely to which we all expressed a form of agreeance and gratitude to him for.
“It’s time. You Majesties, please have your portion of your army meet in the central square. This is where all our Angelic brethren are waiting. We will then port all of us to Green Mount. Remember to use your elemental gifts as you see fit. Be prepared to with Auric shielding once we teleport to our destination,” I stated, calling everyone to arms. We then ported to the central square of Emerald City.
The central square of Emerald City was filled with green fabric pavilions with the emblems of the sun with the green center lined up in rows on each far side. In between the structures were Emerald Elven citizens, Emerald soldiers, Fae guards, medics, liberated Angels, and our friends. Passing by the large tents, you could see rows of cots, clean cloths, washbasins, bandages, herbs, and healers. Good, I thought to myself. Hopefully, we won’t have many casualties, but we’re going to hope for the best while preparing for the worst.
I walked up to Donovan and drew him in, and gave him a good long kiss. He was my husband, and we were about to go to battle. Not that I needed an excuse. He kissed me back greedily for a moment longer and then unsheathed his sword. I followed suit, as did everyone else. We all had determination plain to see in our eyes. We’d be successful in defeating the invaders and, with some luck, liberate some of Lillith’s retinue. My dreams for a world where no one was a slave to anyone but themselves were coming to fruition.
Donovan and I both brightened our auras and conjured our matching golden wings. Leilah followed suit, unsheathing Verdadera, her sword, and her celestial wings. Her star-coursed one Azreal did the same. Leona, Kendra, and Quicksilver glowed with their elemental powers. They radiated brightly.
“Remember, our goal is to drive out the invaders. Liberate them, if possible, from Lillith’s control and spare the Emerald Realm of being tainted by their dark intentions. It’s time to kick some ass!” Donovan’s voice boomed in all our assembled heads.
“Is it me, or is he just as loud in mind-speak as he is out loud?” Leilah quipped. It wasn’t her. My mate had some decibels to share.
“It’s how he talks, my love,” confirmed Azrael to Leilah with a smile. He’s right, and it looks like he’s ready for a fight, finally on his own terms.
“Oh, Donovan’s got some volume, that’s for sure. We love him, though,” added Kendra while blowing a kiss in his direction. Which of course, he caught with a gesture of his hand and placed it on his cheek. Winking in her direction.
“I agree, but as our leader, he’s meant to be heard, and it’s well-received,” Leona said sagely. That’s the stark truth indeed.
“I wouldn’t change a thing,” I assured Donovan. Which earned me a smile. Good. This comradery was what would drive us to success.
“Alright, every one it’s game time. Let’s blow this popsicle stand and head to Green Mount Lake!” Donovan roared out loud. No longer caring who heard or his volume. We got the message loud and clear and interlocking our hands together with our Angel brethren, we flashed to Green Mount Lake.
When we arrived a few hundred yards from the massive deep blue lake and roaring waterfalls of Green Mount, some of us gasped. The plateaus, pebbled shores, and inclines that lead to the edges of the lake were surrounded by an army. The enemy’s assembled force rivaled the size of our own. They were organizing themselves in formations of neat rows. The invading masses now knew we were here as a horn blew loudly. Then the drums started to beat steady, deep, loud, and ominous sounds. It was the too commonly recognized from my eons, drums of war. Alerting all of Lilith’s black and red armor-plated retinue’s attention. They altered their stances to my dismay as organized units to face our direction as we drew our forces nearer.
Behind the Lillith’s army was an odd sight. We had to expand our awareness to perceive from our vantage point. There were dozens of arrangements of ten-foot-tall onyx colored stones. Each with etched in arcane symbols glowing red with power, erected in pairs about seven feet apart from each other. They were nearly everywhere we looked on the horizon. At each one of these magick-infused pillar’s sides were beings with ominously green and black swirling auras. These pairs of magick wielders were assigned to each side of the stone pillars. They were dressed in long flowing charcoal robes with red piping. Whatever magick they were performing was creating a gateway of swirling energies between the erected stone monoliths. They had to be dark Mages. This was demonic magick of which I then recognized.
“What the actual fudge are they doing?” Donovan brought to our attention when we saw and heard multiple dark mages chanting on each side of the pillars. Between the demonic inscribed pillars, violet swirling portals appeared. They looked like fast-spinning vortexes.
At the arrival of our forces, the dark Mages started to erect barriers around their portals. As they did so, Vampires, Slivers, Weres, Dark Elves, and a host of other evil beings from the Shadowlands started to come through. They appeared in droves. Their numbers were quickly amassing as th
ey flooded into the Emerald Realm.
“We’re going to have to shut down those gateways!” yelled Azrael, stating the obvious in case anyone couldn’t figure it out on their own. He was relatively new to our group. Yet, he had the experience that was valuable and appreciated. He was probably also doing his best to ensure Leilah’s safety.
“Let’s take care of those dark Mages conjuring the gateways and keeping them open,” Leilah replied, already shooting a barrage of bright starlight in their direction. They were bouncing off their shielding in rapid succession. The magick Leilah was throwing made ripples on the shielding. This served to encourage more dark Mages to add their own wards to strengthen their shielding to allow Lilith’s ever-growing retinue to continue to enter the Emerald realm. QuickSilver then conjured metals from the ground around the violet gateways. They formed adamantine latticed bars, effectively caging the Mages and everything else coming through in.
“Good work QuickSilver!” Donovan mind-spoke encouragingly.
I see a weakness! Kendra exclaimed in mind-speak. She explained to us their shielding was only above, not below. Kendra then placed her glowing green palms on the ground. Flowers sprouted all around her in colorful mats of vibrant hues. We then turned our attention to the gateway pillars. We watched as vines, roots, and thorny bamboo burst out of the ground underneath the mages and bound them. This interrupted their casting, and little by little, the gateways started to wink out.
Leona then put her aquamarine glowing palms to the ground and liquified the earthen soil beneath another few sets of mages. They sank into the ground like quicksand up to their necks. More gateways winked out.
Meanwhile, QuickSilver kept caging everyone of the portal areas and the beings coming out of the remaining ones with his elemental metalwork. All the trapped beings were banging on the adamantium metal, trying to get out of their cages. In contrast, others tried to free the Mages by either trying to dig them out or cut vine after vine that bound them. Their efforts were futile against the god-seed blessed.
With the final portal closed, Donovan and I, with our actions in sync, manifested lightning bolts of golden energy through the ground underneath each demonic pillar. The monoliths exploded into dust. This stunned the dark beings who were caged surrounding where the stones used to stand. For now, the armies of Lillith would not grow further in size. There were thousands of Lillith’s retinue that had already been there around the lake before we closed the portals. It was time to deal with them.
“Emerald Soldiers, Fae Guards, and Angels attack! Let’s clear them away from the lake! Advance!” Leona ordered for all to hear. Our allied armies went to work directly fighting with the enemies. Arrows and volleys of magick crisscrossed back and forth in the air. When our forces reached the front line, swords, staffs, wands, and daggers were unsheathed, and the battle began in earnest.
Abbadon, I’ve got an idea that will free up Leona, Kendra, and QuickSilver from maintaining the caged gateway areas. Let’s do a shielding around them, similar to how we shielded the city. This way, they’ll be essentially stuck in there without a way to escape, and we can engage the hordes that came through earlier. Remember, as above, so below! Donovan relayed his plan into all our minds, and we quickly trapped every portal in an unbreakable shielding spun of weaved golden energy. We anchored our intents for permanency with the mantra of protection of Tara. OM TARE TUTARE TURE SVAHA, and we were able to now ignore those trapped inside and focus on helping our allies in and out of the melee.
Great idea, beloved. Now QuickSilver, Kendra, Leona, Azrael, and Leilah, let’s take care of the rest of the invading army, I instructed our friends. We agreed and directly engaged the masses of Lillith’s army with the help of our allies.
I threw volleys of Latin spelled magicks at our foes while also destroying any armor the invaders had on their person. Destruction was something I was experienced with. Though, I did only destroy their armor as Donovan instructed all of us not to kill unless unavoidable. Sadly our rivals had no such qualms with taking life. They fought hard, and every blow to us or our soldiers were clearly meant to be killing blows. Donovan and I did our best to redirect as much as we could between the two of us, both of us blurs of gold as we attacked and defended our friends.
Kendra used her nature magicks to summon roots, vines, and trees to hold our enemy. The tops of each nature bound being bloomed exotic-looking flowers that would explode into a fine violet mist and set its victims to slumber. At this point, the entire area around Kendra had become a field of flowers of every variety. Some flowers were recognizable, and others purely magickal in nature or unknown.
Leilah was stunning every opposing being she got in contact with the hilt of her sword or shrouding them in void-like darkness before sucker punching them into stillness. She clearly preferred to be in the melee and fought endlessly without breaking a sweat. She was determined with attention focused, and her eyes were glowing in misty sapphire blues. She put on a phenomenal display of acrobatics, kicks, punches, and gravity-defying dodges against her foes. She was a force to be reckoned with.
Azrael was in the fray as well, and he was an excellent swordsman. He plowed through the army of Lillith wrathfully. His Angelic sword was ablaze in a wash of colors that mimicked his wings. He stayed no more than ten yards from Leilah’s position at all times. Their actions in sync mirrored each other. Azrael was as nimble as Leilah, though not using his powers over death at our instructions. Instead, we watched him drain his opponents of their essence just enough to have them lose consciousness.
Pahaliah flashed the wounded of our Fae and Elven forces to some Angel brethren at the furthest distance from where we fought. The angels then ported the gravely injured to Emerald City proper. Healed those with minor injuries and returned to resume their duties.
Leona was a master of the water elements. She had clearly honed her powers well. Leona would liquefy or slick the ground with water causing many of her opponents to slip and fall. She’d then stun them or in tight situations using her bow to impale any that dared near Kendra, taking them out of the equation.
Quicksilver had no weapon. He simply used his now completely metal-encased fists and incredible strength to pound his foes into submission. Every barrage of magick thrown his way rarely made it past his Auric weavings. If a powerful volley would come through, it would merely appear to be absorbed into his metallic body armor. He fought like someone wholly committed to the cause of defeating those that ruined his homeland.
Donovan threw his seemingly infinite amount of gemstones to bind countless dark beings. He moved faster than lightning from foe to foe, binding six to ten enemies at a time, looking like a blazing silver and golden plated warrior. His golden fiery eyes and wings intimidatingly on display whenever he stopped. He alternated back and forth in a golden comet-like streak to the next opponent. Each one of the bound or incapacitated enemies was then moved by him to an area we’d set up for containing captured enemies. Though initially, the battle seemed endless and challenging, given our personal preferences not to take the life of others, we persevered.
Out of a thousand Emerald soldiers, only about twenty percent of them had been injured enough that they needed to be sent back to Emerald City square. Our Silver Leaf Fae soldiers looked a bit winded but held firm. They fought with a conviction for their allies in this realm with only a couple dozen with the medics. Or teleported, I assume by Pahaliah’s Angels, to the healing pavilions in Emerald City square.
It helped that all of us new gods were being mindful and watching out for many of our troops. We deflected several killing blows by throwing shielding on as many of our allies as possible.
We finally finished conquering the invaders on Green Mount Lake. We started rounding up the captured enemy foes, and all went to work on severing Lillith’s bindings to her. When the first bindings were cut, every still tethered member awoke from their stunned state to scream in terrifyingly haunting pain.
“Lilith is trying to punish th
ose who failed her to their agony. Let’s shield them from her influences now!” Donovan ordered us all. Then, domes of multicolored gods manifested shields went up in haste, the wailing cries, and audible torture quickly subsiding.
QuickSilver, Donovan, Leilah, Leona, and myself, the new gods, started hacking away at their leashes. Putting every one of our captured and now liberated enemies into a slumber spell. I shared the incantation of slumber through mind-speak, Duérmanse. They wouldn’t wake up until we wished it so. We knew that though their cords were severed and they were free from Lillith’s control, not all of them were like Enestia. We couldn’t risk them attacking us or going back to their base evil intentions.
It appears that you’ve won this battle thus far. The sovereign of the Emerald Realms suggested bringing all the prisoners to the dungeons beneath the city where they can be assessed, treated, or punished accordingly, Jetsunma mind-spoke to us from the Chamber of Lands.
Everyone, please teleport the prisoners to the dungeons of Emerald City now, ordered Donovan. All of our allies were looking a little haggard and worse for wear. They welcomed the chance to attend to their own wounds. In flashes of light, the captives were all ported to the dungeons. Only Donovan, Leilah, Azrael, Kendra, Leona, Quicksilver, and I remained behind.
Jetsunma and Swift make sure to ward the dungeons with god-light weavings. None must escape, and all must be protected until we can determine innocence or blame, I added through our shared telepathic connection.
“I could really use a bath and some Emereldian cuisine right about now. I don’t even care what order,” Donovan stated. To which we all agreed and chuckled. It was the calm after a storm, and our adrenaline was still coursing strongly within us.
“Let me guess. You want pudding?” Leilah replied with a smile in her voice. She was most likely correct, though. She knew my star-coursed beloved well. Azrael just laughed. He understood Leilah’s humor well.
Sacred Moon: Book 2 Page 20