by D. Levesque
“Yes. The main issue is the point of reference,” Bridget explains. “You need to know exactly where you want to go. For me, it’s a computational thing. So I am able to do it. It must be one of those things that your God gave me.”
“Shall we head to the Portal?” Leeha says, coming up next to me and putting a hand on my back in comfort.
She knows I don’t want to do this since I have no clue what will happen. I already told her that once I start, her, Sara, Leo, and Tommy are to move very far away. I had told them I wanted them miles from here, but she said she wanted to be close in case I needed her. Like, say if something happened to Bridget.
Nodding at Leeha, I tell her, “Yeah. Let’s get this over and done with.” There isn’t too much enthusiasm in my tone.
“If you feel this nervous about destroying the Portal, why are you doing it?” Sara asks me. I look over, and she has a look on her face I can’t fathom.
“Because I don’t want anyone like you to ever again be forced into it. And then there is the fact that I seem to be the only one who can stop this Horde of Demons invading Boromour.”
Sara comes up to me and hugs me around the waist, not taking her gaze from mine. Then this beautiful catgirl, with her white fur and dark hair, smiles up at me and says, “Thank you again for saving me, but also for doing this.”
I bend down and kiss her softly on the lips, wrapping my own arms around her, but don’t say anything. I look at the two young boys with me, men I guess on this world, and they are staring at me with open nervousness. I had explained to them what was going on, and they were shocked that what Brakan had been doing was sending people to their deaths against a defensive system. Though I had to explain to them both what a defensive system was. Once I did, the horror on their faces was enough to make me know they understood.
Taking stock of the tent that I now own, I make sure everything is in order. We had banked the fire so it would not spread, and we also made sure the tent’s overhead vent was open to allow smoke to pass outside. I unwrap my arms from around Sara and head towards the exit, with everyone following behind me. Once we get outside, we close the tent’s flap and head up the beach towards the slaver’s camp and the Portal. It takes us about ten minutes of walking to get there.
We pass the spot where the tent I now own had originally sat, and there is just a flat spot. Not even furniture. The trick that Bridget had done had also brought the damn bed. Not that it’s big enough for me and three women. I will need to figure out how to get a bigger bed, since I know now that it can travel in my bag.
Shortly after, we come to the Portal. It’s still an imposing sight. Large and black, and I can feel a slight hum in the air. Wait, a hum?
“Was that hum always there?” I ask the group.
“Hmm. No, that’s new,” Leeha says with a nervous look,
“I never heard it, but maybe I wasn’t close enough to it in the cages where I was being held,” Sara says, pointing away from the Portal to the other end of the camp where the wooden cages were.
“No, that’s new,” Bridget says, “And it’s a little disconcerting.”
“How so?” I ask her with my own worried frown.
“If this is new, that means something with the Portal might be changing.”
“Shit,” I say with passion. “You think it’s about to activate?”
“I have no clue, but I think we need to do this now. Like right now,” Bridget says, looking at the Portal nervously.
“You heard the woman,” I say, looking at Leeha, Sara, Leo, and Tommy. “Scram. As far as you can go. I would say get to the end of the beach, just past the cages. You can still see us from there, but I hope that’s far enough away from any kind of backlash or anything else that happens,” I tell them.
“I still think I should be closer,” Leeha begins, but I walk up to her and wrap my arms around her, looking into her eyes.
“Leeha, love. I don’t want you to get hurt. If I get hurt, Bridget can heal me. But if you get hurt, and I get hurt, I can’t heal you if I am out cold,” I tell her softly.
“I hate this!” she says with heat in her voice.
“I know,” I tell her. “But it needs to be done, or this world will have that Horde to deal with again, and how many more races do you think will die off?”
“I still hate it. I didn’t say I didn’t understand,” she says angrily, but then her face softens, and she places her forehead against my chest. “I’m sorry. I feel useless!”
I kiss the top of her head. “I know. Now, let me get this over and done with so we can move on with our lives, shall we?”
Leeha looks up at me and gazes into my eyes deeply. “You’d better not die, Alex. Or I swear to Gods I will find that God of yours and make him bring you back so I can kick your ass.”
“Deal,” I tell her with a smile, but my heart feels lighter for her having said that. That, to me, is a testament to the love that she has for me. That she would threaten my God, which is also technically hers. Although because his Angels in this world were given power by him, they acted as the Gods for Boromour.
Leeha moves off, and Sara replaces her in my arms. “I know I am the new girl, as they say, but don’t you die. I just found someone who I like, and if I have to, I will follow Leeha and bring your God back as well.”
I bend down and kiss her too. She might be the new girl, but she has become a good fit for our group. Once I’m done with the kiss, I walk up to Leo and Tommy, who are looking at me nervously. I put a hand on each of their shoulders and squeeze slightly.
“If I don’t come back,” I say quietly enough so only they can hear, even with Leeha’s Elven hearing. “Stay with Leeha. She will keep training you. I simply ask that you stop treating all the other races as monsters, but treat them the way you would want to be treated.”
Tommy looks at Leo, who nods to him. “We promise, Alex. What you have done, Hells, what you are doing, for Leo and me is something we never expected. You have, in less than a week, taught us more than most students would learn in five years with the Mages Society. As for treating other races with respect, I see how they are. We have always been told they were monsters, dumb and ignorant. The more I talk to Sara and Leeha, the more I think we humans are the ignorant ones. I promise.”
“Also, Tommy said that he wants to find himself a catgirl wife one day,” Leo says with a grin.
“Hey, that was a secret!” Tommy whispers in anger, glaring at him. “Just like when you said you wanted to see what the other monster races out there were like before you found a wife!”
“Boys,” I say with a laugh, interrupting them before they start to argue. “I am glad to hear that. Truly. It means that you do not have the bias that others have. And if I had let a bias such as that stop me, I would never have met Leeha. Now, go with Leeha and Sara and make sure you are all safe.”
Suddenly Leo rushes up and hugs me around the waist, and so does Tommy. It’s a quick one, and them being boys, they blush, but they nod to me and head towards the girls, who are waiting a short distance away to give us privacy. Leeha raises her eyebrow at that little show of emotion from the two boys, and I just smile at her and shrug my shoulders.
Once it’s just Bridget and me, she comes up to me and asks, “So, you know this might hurt, right?”
“I know,” I say with an exhale. “But frankly, I can’t let it slide any longer. I do this now, or how long will I be fighting Demons for?”
“There is that,” she nods in understanding. “I just want you to go into this knowing that there is a chance that we both might die.”
“I realize that,” I tell her, bringing her into a hug. “And while I hate the thought of losing you, Leeha, and as much as she is new to our little group, Sara, I can’t be responsible for allowing the Demon Horde to come here and destroy who knows how many thousands of people.”
“If would most likely be in the millions,” Bridget says softly.
“Which is even more of an incentive to do this,” I tell h
er. “So, do you think using that much power will open my Chakras?” I ask her worriedly. The last thing I need is for something else to explode and not have Bridget be there to heal me. Like my stomach, or God, my nuts! I mean, one of the Chakras is right where my testicles are!
“No, the way I will be taking your power is not the same way I would be taking it for a spell. It will be more like I will be draining power out of you. Think of it like when you touched Leeha and you were able to absorb her energy. I will be doing the same thing, but simply at a faster rate. And I’ll be monitoring you, so I don’t draw it all. Actually, I would be surprised if I needed to use it all to overload that Portal. What are you at now?”
I think about that, and suddenly I get a notification of my power.
Power Remaining: 986,000 /995,000
Divine Energy Remaining: 5,000/5,000
“So, it looks like I gained 7,000 points of power back. I am at 986,000. And the same Divine Energy, at 5,000,” I tell her.
“Yes, then I would say we should be good,” Bridget says, but there is uncertainty in her voice. I mean, she hasn’t done this before, any more than I have. I squeeze her one final time.
“We will get this done,” I tell her. “Even if it kills us. We aren’t the important ones here this time.”
“I know,” Bridget says, putting her head against my chest and sighing heavily. “Like the girls, I don’t want to lose you either, but I also have to admit, I love being alive like this.”
“And I want to be with you a lot longer,” I reply, bending down and kissing her passionately.
Once we break apart, I look down at my red-headed Elf and can’t help but smile fondly at her. She might have been created as an Elemental by my God, but to me, she is just as much her own person, with her own personality, as Leeha and Sara.
I glance at the imposing Portal and glare at it. This thing is about to possibly take something away from me, and I am not happy about it. But me being the responsible dickhead that I am, I can’t just walk away from it and go hide in some corner of the world. Because deep down I know that the Demons will find that corner. I unwrap my hands from Bridget.
“Let’s get this done,” I tell her, and my voice is hard.
She grabs my hand and squeezes it, and her voice is just as hard as mine as she says, “Let’s take this thing down.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Remember,” Bridget warns me as we walk up to the Portal. “Don’t touch it.”
Nodding at her warning, I ask, “So, how are we going to do this? You touch it, and then I touch you?”
“Pretty much. I will place both my hands on the Portal, and you will place both your hands on my back. Though I will need to be naked for this, as you need to be touching my skin directly. And Alex? No matter what my body does, do not remove your hands. I need that connection to stay constant. All right?”
“Your body will change?” I ask her worriedly.
“I am an Elemental. I might end up changing to my different forms multiple times. But know that because I am of you, you will not be harmed by it. Even if your animalist brain yells that you will be.”
“Got it. So always make sure I am touching you, no matter what I see under my hands.”
“Let’s get started then,” Bridget says, kneeling on both knees in front of the Portal. Her tone is confident, but I can see the frown lines on her forehead. The hum from the Portal is more distinctive now, since we are so much closer to it. I have to admit, I might have sounded brave to Leeha, Sara, and the boys, but deep down, I am scared shitless now. I don’t mean of dying. But of the pain, of not knowing what is going to happen, of losing the most amazing women I have never had the pleasure to have in my life.
Bridget looks at me and takes a deep breath, and suddenly she is naked. She places her hands on her hips. “Remember, put your hands on my back as soon as I place mine on the Portal. Let me know when you are ready.”
I nod and kneel as she is kneeling, but behind her. I take a deep breath and then almost hesitantly, I say, “Go.”
Bridget nods, turns around, and places both her hands on the Portal, and her body stiffens. I look at her nervously for a second before my brain screams out what she said, and I place both of my hands flat on the naked flesh on her back.
I expected pain, but what I did not expect was the sheer intensity of electrical power flowing into me. All my muscles lock into immobility. Even if I had wanted to back off from Bridget, I wouldn’t have been able to.
You are being drained of power. Time until you are fully drained. 00:00:20:00.
Feeling my face move into a grimace of pain, I look at the time and think to myself, there is no fucking way I can deal with this for twenty minutes!
“Alex,” Bridget’s voice comes over our connection, but it’s faint, and I can hear her pain coming through it. “I just saw the timer. You need to stay with me.”
Shit, the pain I can hear in her voice reminds me that if this is what I am feeling, what the fuck is she feeling? And here I was about to give up? Gritting down as much as I can with my muscles locked, I answer her.
“Do what you need to, Bridget. I am here.”
“Thank you,” she says, gratitude in her voice.
“Is it that bad for you?” I ask her.
“No,” she says, and I can tell she is lying to me, but I decide to ignore it.
If she wants to make it seem like it’s not that bad, I won’t deny her that. I decide to play along with her.
“Yeah. It’s not as bad as I thought,” I reply.
“Thanks, Alex,” she says again, and there is a smile in her tone.
“Now what? We wait the 20 minutes?” I inquire.
“No, this is just the start,” she says nervously. “As soon as I touched the Portal, I knew what needed to be done. I need to take your power and run it between you and me. This is where it might hurt slightly more. I need to create a loop between you and me, changing your power’s intensity. I will be running it through your four open Chakras, increasing its power exponentially as it flows through it.”
“How much more painful?” I ask her, concerned now. I always hated pain. I was the typical guy who used to get man colds. I hated getting sick. I hated pain even more.
“Sorry, Alex,” Bridget says instead of answering.
Then, without warning, I feel pain so intense I didn’t even know it existed. The locking of my muscles was nothing compared to this. The pain is so far off the scales that I should be passing out from it, but somehow I am still lucid. I hear a scream, and it takes me a bit to notice that it’s coming from me. It’s such a high-pitched curdling scream that I thought it was coming from something or someone else. Nope, it was from me.
Somehow, I can feel the power going between Bridget and myself, and then going through my Chakras. Each time that energy flows through one of the Chakras, it comes out more powerful, but in order to come out, it smashes right through it. Think of squeezing yourself into a room through a small door, but then getting bigger and still having to exit through that same door, so you slam through it, breaking some of the doorframe in the process. But you’re not the one squeezing through and breaking things. You’re the door and can feel pain.
Each time the power does that, I flinch in pain, causing my scream to change pitch. Somehow, with another part of my brain, I can also hear the Portal’s hum shift in pitch. It’s almost like it’s trying to imitate my screams, since it’s changed from a hum to a high-pitched squeal.
Through tear-filled eyes, which are locked open, I can see that the Portal is somehow shifting in and out. Almost as if it’s trying to escape from the pain we are feeling by phasing, or trying to. Somehow I know that Bridget is the one that is keeping it here in this plane of existence. It knows-and how I know this, I have no clue-it’s being destroyed, so it’s trying to escape.
Then, the Portal begins to fight back, throwing what it can at us. Actually, throwing it at Bridget, who suddenly changes from her Elv
en form to her Fire Elemental form. My brain screams fire! On an instinctive level, it wants to pull its hands back from being burned, but thank God I am stuck fast with locked muscles, or I am sure I would have pulled back. And of course, my hands on Bridget’s Fire Elemental naked back don’t burn. She was right! Since Bridget is a part of me, I am not burning.
The Portal is throwing energy at Bridget, and I can see that it’s causing her damage. Remembering that she can heal me, I wonder if I can do the same for her? Although, I need power for it, and I don’t want to take away from her. What about my Divine Energy? I figure with a name like Divine, healing would be one thing I could do with it? I mean, I have two spells I can use, one is Divine Barrier, and the other is Divine Retribution. Maybe the Divine Barrier? It’s supposed to put a barrier around me or my target that protects us from full damage? What do I have to lose?
I think, cast Divine Barrier.
You have cast the Divine Spell Divine Barrier. You have used 100 points of Divine Energy.
Suddenly a yellow glow appears around Bridget’s and my own body. I know this, as I can see it around my arms and around Bridget’s body under my hands. Even in her Fire Elemental body. Seconds later, her body is back to her Elvish form.
“What did you do?” Bridget asks me, panting through our connection.
“I cast the spell Divine Barrier,” I tell her, grateful that it did something.
“Damn! I never thought of that. That spell is perfect. It reduced the amount of damage that the Portal is trying to do to me. By quite a significant amount.”
“It’s only for ten seconds, though,” I tell her hurriedly.
“That’s all I need. It was trying to distract me. Hold on,” Bridget says with a triumphant cry.
Then, again without warning, the pain in my body increases threefold, and I can feel the power flowing through me and my Chakras increase in speed by a factor of ten. This time it’s happening so fast that instead of the pain being a steady tick as it smashes through that little door in my Chakra, it’s constant now. I can also hear that the hum in the air from the Portal is now a full-on high-pitched squeal.
