Amadea and the Divinity Blade - Chapter 30

Chapter 30

Amadea located the doorway, and stood atop her horse. She closed her eyes, and concentrated on the sealing spell. Once it was ready, she cast it, and resisted the woozy feeling that almost made her fall off of Cumulous.

“I’m glad that’s the last one! Casting that spell seems to make me feel sicker every time I do it!” Amadea admitted to her ghost friend.

“I noticed…” Zira commented. “I wonder why?”

Amadea shrugged. “Now what?”

Zira chuckled. “Remember that spell I mentioned that is best performed inside a barrier?”

“Yeah…”

“I think you had better cast a barrier,” Zira grinned.

Amadea nodded, and complied.

“Better cut a doorway and let Cumulous out,” Zira suggested.

Amadea flinched as she realized that her beloved horse was inside the barrier with them. She had almost forgotten that she was standing on her. After casting a levitation spell, she cut a doorway, ordered her horse out, and then resealed it.

“Good,” Zira stated. “Now, cast this…”

Amadea listened intently as Zira taught her a new spell. It sounded at least as powerful as the Eternal Destruction spell, but instead of creating a beam of energy that zoomed out straight ahead, it created something more like a cloud that radiated out in all directions.

The cloud of energy was lethal to all that it touched, and that was why it was best cast inside a barrier that protected everything else. Theoretically, without a barrier, the cloud would continue to spread until it had killed everything. No way would Amadea want to be responsible for destroying the world!

“Orb of Obliteration!” Amadea shouted. As the caster of the spell, she was magically protected from the destruction. She watched her power strike down everything in the barrier… even the trees, grass, and wildlife.

Tears formed in the Empress’ eyes. “I knew this would happen, but still… It’s just so sad!”

Zira chewed on the ghostly representation of her thumbnail as she thought this over. “Yes… and creating new barriers as we go along will just ruin more of the land… I know!”

Zira had Amadea change the barrier so that it allowed the monsters to enter freely, but wouldn’t let them leave. Then, Amadea created a brilliantly glowing tiny orb of power that looked enticing to every monster. She left it as bait. The cloud would persist until she dispelled it, and would make short work of their enemies.

“Come on,” she beckoned to Zira. “Let’s go kill what we can and drive as many monsters into our trap as possible!”

“Excellent idea!” Zira agreed, even though – technically – she wouldn’t be killing anything.

Amadea cut a doorway to let them out, and then hastily resealed it. She let a small amount of the cloud out, and had to get rid of it as fast as she could. If she had been even a second longer, at least one tree would have withered away.

Zira teased the monsters, and Amadea physically threw them into the barrier. Their plan was working well, only it seemed like there were now more monsters than ever! The ghost scratched her head, and cast Amadea a questioning look.

Amadea shrugged, and then gasped in understanding. “I get it! My bait is working! Every monster in the area is coming this way, and that’s why it seems like they’re multiplying.”

Zira nodded. “Which means that we can take a break and let your trap do our work for us.”

Amadea nodded in agreement. She heard a voice whisper in her ear. “Send her away.”

Amadea frowned, but complied. “Zira… I’m worried about Zephyr. Will you please take Cumulous and go help him? I want to stay here and watch the trap in case my spells run out.”

Zira contemplated this suggestion. Deciding that it made sense, she nodded. “You may be nearly invincible because of your Divinity Blade, but you can still be killed. I want you to be very careful!”

“I will,” Amadea promised. “And don’t worry; I won’t stay here too long. Maybe an hour or so. I’ll call for Cumulous when I want to return. Tell Zephyr to have everyone herd the monsters in this direction.”

“Got it!” Zira acknowledged. She whistled for the flying horse to pick her up, and then flew off.

“What do you want to talk about, Abydos?” Amadea questioned the demon.

As soon as Zira landed next to Zephyr, the man with stone for skin tried to punch the ghost. “Where’s Amadea?!”

Zira faded out to avoid the punch, and then resolidified. “She’s fine! She went ahead to seal the doorway, and then set a trap for the monsters. It’s pretty effective – if I do say so myself – and she decided to remain behind to keep an eye on it.”

Zephyr sighed in frustration and relief. “Do you have any idea why all the monsters seem to be running away from us?”

Zira watched the monsters closely for a moment. “They’re headed towards the trap. They must really like the bait Amadea set.”

“Seriously?” Zephyr asked, impressed. Zira nodded.

“And you all said that this one would be the hardest,” Boreus laughed.

Zira rolled her eyes. “Don’t consider the battle over yet. You haven’t seen any demons, have you?”

“No,” Boreus admitted, “but I still don’t understand why they would be here.”

Zira quickly gestured a command for the soldiers to follow the monsters, and then invited Boreus to sit. He complied, and the rest of their companions decided to take a break as well. Zira inhaled as she considered the best way to explain.

“Picture an average, ordinary human,” she began. Boreus nodded in understanding. “Now imagine a creature that is… oh… probably about 100,000 times more powerful than the average human.”

Boreus paled; the thought making him sweat.

“That’s the Source as he was at the beginning of time,” Zira grabbed a stick, and drew a circle. “Then he divided his power to create 3 demons. You can imagine that he wouldn’t want them to ever be more powerful than he is, so he wouldn’t have given them – combined – even half his power. For ease of math, let’s assume that he gave them 45 percent of his power. That means that the original 3 demons – at the time of their creation – would be equal to 15,000 times more powerful than the average human.”

Boreus silently thought this through for a moment, a frown creasing his lips. “I… follow you so far.”

Zira nodded, and continued. “Two of those demons decided to divide their power, and again assuming that they wouldn’t give their progeny even half their power, you can see that the second generation of demons could easily be 7,000 times more powerful than a human. This pattern is repeated until you have the low level demons that are little better than an average human.

“This differs from the Gods in that – while they too divide their power to create a new God – the Source of power that became the Gods did not divide its power the same way. It split itself nearly equally into six parts. The King and Queen of the Gods each received a bit more power than the other four, but other than that, they are all the Great Gods. Each one of them then divided their power not quite in half to create the lesser Gods, and then they all stopped. No more new Gods, ever.”

Boreus shrugged. “What does this have to do with why any of the demons will be here today?”

“Simple,” Zira smirked. “They have as much power as they were created with and not one drop more. So, how do you think they could obtain more?”

Boreus thought this over, and then shook his head.

“The only way is to get some from a higher demon or the Source itself. A higher demon is not likely to hand over that power unless the lesser demon can manage to kill someone powerful… such as Amadea. There would be no better time to attack her than when she is weak from fighting monsters,” Zira concluded.

“And you just left her alone!” Zephyr demanded incredulously.

Zira rolled her eyes and sighed. “I said they’d attack when she was weak. She was at nearly full power when I left her, and unless her trap disappears completely, she’ll have no need to use so much as a drop of magic.”

“Still…” Zephyr grumbled. “I’d feel better if we went after her.”

Zira shrugged. “She said she’d come to us, but if you want to go to her, let’s go.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, and then mounted their horses. Zira rode Cumulous again. As much as they wanted to rush, they had to slowly follow the migrating monsters and the soldiers trailing after them. It was mildly frustrating to do practically nothing, but they all knew that it was best to conserve their strength in case the demons really did attack them.

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