Amadea and the Divinity blade - Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Amadea jumped up in unexpected joy. “That’s it!” She immediately cackled in gleeful triumph. “I just knew there was a way!”

Zira and Zephyr exchanged concerned looks. They were in the middle of clearing out monsters from around a lesser doorway, and now was not exactly the best time to be cheering as if in victory. Amadea used her sword to slice a large imp in two, and then turned to face her husband and best friend.

“Don’t you see?” She asked.

Zephyr hacked away at an ugly soul sucking monster that looked like a dried up old woman, and Zira pointed at something behind Amadea. The Empress turned to see a berserker about to cleave her from shoulder to hip..

“Nevermind, I’ll tell you later!” Amadea stated and then dealt with the monster. A berserker was a monster created for the sole purpose of winning battles. It didn’t feel any pain, regenerated quickly, was incredibly strong, resistant to magic, and fairly powerful. The only way to defeat it was to cut it into enough pieces that it could no longer recover, and even after decapitating it and removing its heart, it was prudent to burn all the pieces.

The good news was that – though it was time consuming – Amadea would have no trouble defeating this monster. The bad news was that there was at least three others, and lightning did not affect them in the slightest. This meant that Luna couldn’t help Kyle, Notus, and Boreus; therefore, that trio was struggling.

Zephyr finished killing his monster, and rushed to help them. He started by explaining the best way to kill them, but even then, the task was hard to accomplish. It was like trying to kill a small invincible army whose sole goal was to extinguish as much life as possible.

Amadea finished exterminating her berserker, and turned to help her friends with theirs, but something distracted her. She waved to gain Luna’s attention. Luna was busy electrocuting imps, more than half of her attention on Kyle. She looked at Amadea curiously.

“Am I seeing things, or are those demon lobsters?” Amadea asked, pointing at about two dozen of the creature.

Luna rubbed her eyes in astonishment, and took another good look. “Yeah… I think they are.”

Amadea cackled again. “Aha! I know what we’re having for dinner!” She quickly purified then, and then gestured for Luna to levitate them while Amadea created a cauldron out of rock, and filled it with water from a nearby stream. Luna deposited the lobsters, and then chanted a spell.

“Flash boil!” Both women bounced giddily as they watched their food cook.

“Amadea… A little help?” Zephyr pleaded.

Now that it was certain she would soon fill her belly, she lost all patience with the remaining monsters. She squared her shoulders, and glared at them. There were two berserkers, a taurman, a troll, and about 10 imps left.

“Oh great Goddess, eternal mother of all life, I call your essence into my body. Grant me your power so that I may destroy this enemy who would kill us all!” Amadea chanted rapidly. If she built up just enough power – without going overboard – she could take out both berserkers, the troll, and at least half of the imps. The rest would be easy to deal with.

Zephyr paled, and quickly warned his brothers and Kyle to get out of the way. They all flung themselves to the ground somewhere other than in her path.

“ETERNAL DESTRUCTION!”

Meanwhile, Luna sized up the remaining opponents. They weren’t in Amadea’s line of fire, but they were in hers. She knew magic other than her trademark lightning, and chanted a pretty powerful spell herself. “Fire Blaster!”

Both women surveyed the results of their handiwork, and then congratulated each other by shaking hands and nodding their heads triumphantly. Amadea had a highly protective shield, and took advantage of it by sticking her hand directly in the boiling water to grab a lobster.

“Looks like they’re done!”

Luna clapped, and recited a spell to cool the water and their dinner to the perfect temperature.

Boreus was the last to get to his feet, and he shook his head. “I’m beginning to think that the Empress is just plain crazy!”

Zephyr cast the spell to send the dead monsters to Amethyst the dragon, and rolled his eyes. He had always known that his beloved was a bit crazy. As scary as it was at times, he was infinitely glad that she had the power to protect herself with such overblown spells. Plus times like this gave her practice for when she really needed to use it.

Zira studied the small amount of damage that had occurred to their surroundings due to the spell, and frowned. “You know, I think I know a spell that would have worked better on those berserkers… Oh well! This took care of things as rapidly as possible.”

“What spell?” Amadea asked with her mouth full. She was already on her second lobster.

Zira told her the chant, and then explained, “It’s a spell to grant you and your sword temporary incredible speed. The type of speed that can beat a berserker’s healing and reflexes. It’s released by shouting ‘Quicksilver!’ but even then, I think it can only be used on one of them at a time.”

Amadea waved her thanks for the knowledge. Her mouth was too busy to verbalize her gratitude. Luna made a mental note to try out the spell herself – as did Kyle.

Once Zephyr had eaten his fill, he remembered that Amadea had had some sort of epiphany during their battle. “Now is an excellent time to tell us what you were cackling about during battle.”

“Lobsters!” Amadea pointed to the carcass in her left hand as if it should be obvious that anyone would cackle over that.

Zephyr laughed. “I mean before you found the lobsters.”

Amadea paused to think this over. “Oh yeah!” She finished devouring the very last bit of her meal, and then wiped her hands on her pants, and wiped her face with her sleeve. She had adopted abysmal manners as part of her disguise when she first joined up with Zira’s group, and found them convenient at times like this.

She seized Notus’ hand – since he was closest to her – and inspected his fingers. She chose an ornate ring, one of two that he wore, and tugged it off his finger. Next, she crawled to Boreus, and – not finding any rings – snatched his necklace. She had to cuff him to stop him from fighting her, and he was honestly shocked by the strength of her fist.

From Kyle, she took a pendant that proclaimed him a guardian knight, and from Luna an earring. Her companions all watched her in astonishment. It was completely unnecessary for someone as wealthy as the Empress was to steal! Not to mention, she didn’t even wear much for jewelry…

Amadea set the pile on a suitable rock, and cast a small barrier around herself and the rock. She then muttered a few spells, and raised energy. Calling upon several different Gods, she blessed the jewelry, and then she got down to the serious business she had planned.

She asked the earth to give her power, and then asked all of the other elements. She asked every powerful and benign being that she could think of, and then finally asked the Gods to lend her some of their power too. The air inside the barrier was so thick with the asked for magic that it was hard for Amadea to breathe.

She panted – inhaling and exhaling as if there was a great weight on her chest – and waited for the energy to fully gather. At long last, it was all ready, and she funneled it into the four objects on the rock.

“Shield, protect, amplify!” She commanded. It took several minutes of her praying for the jewelry to finally absorb all of the energy, but when she was done, they all glowed vibrantly.

She leaned on the rock for a few moments, utterly drained. Knowing that her magic would replenish itself fairly quickly, she had no problem channeling most of it into the objects as well.

When Amadea felt she could walk, she deconstructed the barrier, and carried the glowing pile back to their owners. She wobbled and swayed as she walked, but ignored that. Her companions were all hesitant to touch their belongings.

“Gavin…” Zira murmured.

“Exactly!” Amadea nodded, grinning. “Gavin had a sword that manifested his will. He could not use magic, and yet his sword allowed him to fight high level demons. All of the swordsmen who sought him out for training had that in common. They could not use magic, but possessed objects that amplified their will or protected them from quite a bit of damage.”

“Oh…!” Zephyr hummed in understanding.

“I see,” Luna murmured as she finally summoned the courage to put her earring back in her earlobe.

“Well I don’t!” Boreus roared in frustration. “Would you kindly tell me what’s going on?!”

“It’s simple,” Amadea smiled at him. “I’ve turned all these objects into talismans. They now have the power to shield and protect you. If you focus your will – say into your sword – your talisman will help amplify your will and channel it where you want. I can’t promise that they will be as effective as my Divinity Blade, but it’s definitely better than nothing when it comes to fighting demons.”

Kyle nodded in acceptance, and pinned his pendant back in place. The power of it tingled, and he could feel it radiating into his heart. This was hands down the most powerful thing he had ever touched!

Notus found it rather appropriate that she had empowered his signet, which would be passed down to his descendants for generations to come. It would be protected and cherished as the royal artifact that it was, and in return, it would protect his progeny.

Boreus finally slipped his necklace back over his head, but grumbled. “My woman gave me this! She’s going to be fiercely angry when she discovers that I let you tamper with it!”

“Until you tell her that it saved your butt, and then she might be a bit more grateful,” Zephyr responded almost snidely.

Boreus bobbed his head around as if to say there is that.

“We should find somewhere to clean up and spend the night,” Zephyr suggested a moment later. Everyone was finished eating, and there was no reason to linger here a moment more. The longer it took them to seal all of the lesser doorways, the more monsters there would be to fight when they got there. Everyone nodded in agreement.

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