Immersion World

by Max Jager

  "Yes these are the humans. We must get them to the queen." Seree stated.

  "She is going to the rift, I'll escort you the rest of the way there." The fairy replied. "No sense in trying to be sneaky anymore, the damn thing already saw you." As soon as he finished talking he turned and fired a thin laser out of his fingertips at the abyssal demon. The laser effortlessly severed two of the giant's arms, but the arms almost immediately grew back. The titan-sized abyssal demon was far away but was nearly three stories tall and had hundreds of black chains that seemed to be coming out of its chest. Half the chains attached to demons on the battlefield, the chains sucked the life out of them and gave it to the abyssal demon, causing its arms to grow back and its wounds to heal at the cost of the smaller demons' lives. The other half of the chains were lashing out and trying to grab onto the fairies. Some of the fairies evaded the chains, and some of the ones who got grabbed were able to break the chains and free themselves. But the ones who couldn't break free had the life sucked out of them within seconds, healing the abyssal demon.

  As the Abyssal demon threw another punch the fairy king rushed in front of the fist and punched it back. It looked unreal, the seven inch tall fairy clashing fists with the nearly three story tall demon and successfully knocking the demon's fist back. It must have been a powerful spell, Zanath thought as he started trying to calculate how much the fairy's magic would need to amplify its own strength to be able to strike with that much force. But he was snapped out of his thoughts as Kaden bumped into him and he noticed everyone was running again. Reminding him that now was not the time for math.

  The fairy king flew directly above their heads as they ran, moving to block every punch the abyssal demon threw. He was incredibly powerful, but even he couldn't scratch the Abyssal demon for more than a few seconds, the king along with countless other fairies were launching a near non-stop assault on the Abyssal demon and it just kept lifestealing off everything around it, friend and foe, to recover from any wounds it received. One of its lifestealing chains flew past and went to grab the fairy king as he blocked another punch.

  "Asre! Behind you!" Seree called out, she was too far away to stop it. As soon as he heard her he spun around, but didn't dodge the chain. He grabbed it and used his superior mastery over the Aether: black magic element to reverse the chain's power, siphoning the Abyssal demon's energy and life. The abyssal demon immediately severed the chain and changed its plan of attack. It waved its arm and threw a massive fireball down at the group and started stomping towards them.

  "Keep running!" King Asre shouted to them as he held up his hand and made a barrier that looked like a glass wall appear in front of the flames, the barrier blocked the fireball and Asre immediately fired his own massive fire blast back at the demon. The demon didn't stop, it charged even faster at them and blocked the fireball with its arm. The burns healed almost instantly due to the chains lifestealing off other demons and fairies. Several demons and a couple fairies that got snagged by the chains died. Asre cussed, he did not want the abyssal demon getting any closer.

  Suddenly a small speck flew into the demon's chest and upon impact the demon's entire torso was enveloped in a huge ball of ice. The demon slammed a fist into the ice on its chest and shattered it, sending shards of ice flying out into the battlefield in all directions. But all the shards suddenly stopped, turned around, and flew right back into the Abyssal demon stabbing into it hundreds of times over and then re-solidifying into an ice ball around it again. Keeping it immobile. Several spiky ice tendrils began springing out of the ice ball and started stabbing at the demon and whipping it with the incredibly sharp ice spikes. Immediately all the other demons on the ground turned to the small speck and began throwing everything they had at it in a massive hail of powerful fire and ice spells. Countless other small specks also flew in to attack the demon and assist the queen in her assault.

  "Sybil!" Asre called out before he immediately bolted off to help the speck that was going toe to toe with the abyssal demon. Projecting a bubble-like barrier around her as he got closer to protect her from the attacks. The abyssal demon let out a roar of pain and frustration before it burst into flames and melted all the ice, walking out of the smoke as its wounds all healed.

  Seree cussed as the king left them but continued pushing forwards. "Let's go! We are almost at the portal!" With an wave of her arms the ground in front of them flipped upwards, throwing several large demons who had been standing on it far away from them and clearing the path straight to the portal. The group picked up the pace and sprinted towards the portal, and as soon as they got there Seree made a dome of stone around them for everyone to hide inside. Then she made a small fire in the middle of the room to light up the inside of the dome. "Build the thing, quickly." She said.

  "On it." Zanath called out as he and the other Alphas began pulling the pieces of the machine out of their bags. "This needs sunlight to work though, we can't stay under the dome once it is built"

  "Understood." Seree replied. She turned to the other fairies. "Pex, Eyrus, your jobs here are done you two can fly home and get some well deserved rest. You did great."

  "Kay…" Pex panted out as the barrier she was creating around them disappeared.

  "Pex are you alright?" Seree asked. She cringed a little as the sound of something hammering on the stone dome could be heard and she focused on repairing the damages done to it.

  "Everything hurts…. So bad." Pex murmured breathlessly.

  "Do you need help getting home?" Eyrus asked. "I can protect us as we fly back, you don't need to use any more magic."

  "I'm okay, all that matters is that we did it. We got the humans to the portal, the city is saved…" Pex said breathlessly, her speech was slowing down with each word and with her last word she stopped flying and dropped like a rock.

  "Pex!" Eyrus, Seree, and Estellese all shouted. Estellese was quick to catch Pex in the palm of her hand before the small fairy hit the ground.

  Seree rushed over. Estellese held out her other hand and Seree landed on that hand, then Estellese held her hands close together so Seree could reach Pex. Seree knelt down and placed a hand on Pex's forehead. "She used way too much magic, she is out cold." Seree stated.

  "Will she be okay?" Estellese asked.

  "I do not know." Seree answered. "I have no healing abilities, I can't help her. She isn't dead, but her condition is very bad."

  "What do we do? I can't carry her back." Eyrus asked..

  "I don't know, we can't leave her here she could get stepped on." Seree said.

  "I can put her in my bag?" Estellese suggested. "I'll leave the bag open so she can breathe"

  "I think that's the best we can do…" Seree answered.

  Estellese put Pex inside of her bag and slung the bag over her shoulder again, leaving it open enough to ensure that air could get in.

  "Don't worry, out of everyone here Estellese is the best fighter and the least likely to die." Mendelen spoke up softly, "Pex is in good hands."

  "Don't jinx it." Kaden laughed.

  "I don't believe in such things." Mendelen replied.

  "It is done!" Zanath called out. As the others looked over at him the machine was set up on the edge of the portal and switched on, it just needed sunlight.

  "Can we just open a small hole above the solar panels?" Mendelen asked.

  "No, if we do that they will focus their attacks straight down the hole. Which will destroy the machine, right?" Seree asked.

  "Yeah the thing is fragile. It is just a prototype." Zanath stated. "We can't let it get hit."

  "I'm going to take down the dome then. I can feel at least three demons attacking it, so watch your heads. Once it goes down the fight begins." Seree explained. "Eyrus, make a barrier around the machine. Keep it up until I clear the immediate threats then you're free to run away and go home."

  "I only have water barriers." Eyrus stated. "But I will do my best. And I'm staying here to make sure Pex is okay. I will stay near the h
uman girl."

  "Okay. Humans get ready to defend yourselves. I will do my best to take down all the demons myself but you're going to have to keep yourselves out of harm's way. On three the dome goes down." Seree instructed. Everyone nodded and braced themselves. Eyrus rushed over to the machine, and Kaden held still until his necklace made him disappear. "Three… Two… One… Brace yourselves!"

  The stone dome that was protecting them shattered revealing three greater demons and several lesser demons surrounding the dome. They were caught off guard when the dome shattered. The stone shards of the dome all turned into stone spikes and fired off like bullets into the nearest greater demon, tearing through it and knocking it to the ground. There was a loud boom and a flash of light and in an instant Seree had taken off like a lightning bolt and slammed into the chest of another greater demon. On impact a huge fiery explosion engulfed the demon and knocked it to the ground. As it hit the ground Seree pointed at it and several bolts of lightning surged down from the sky and struck the demon, killing it.

  Estellese saw her opportunity and jumped at the first greater demon that had been knocked over. Before it had time to recover and regain its bearings she cleaved her axe down on its neck, cutting clean through and killing it before it became a problem.

  The third greater demon and several lesser demons began rushing for the machine, after the last portal it closed they all knew what it did and that it needed to be destroyed. Zanath held his ground near the machine and began shooting at the lesser demons with his pistol, their lack of experience with guns resulted in several of them being shot down, but they were learning how his gun worked fast. When he saw the greater demon rushing in he turned to shoot at that instead, the bullets struck its armor and couldn't pierce through.

  The lesser demons unleashed a hail of fireballs and ice at the machine. As the attacks neared the machine Eyrus quickly made a bubble of water around the machine to protect it from the flames and he fired jets of water at the ice shards to push them away.

  Mendelen saw the greater demon moving in and quickly moved to place Kaden between himself and the demon. He threw his chain hook into the back of the greater demon's leg, then braced himself as the demon yanked the chain and nearly knocked him over, but the demon also almost fell. The greater demon let out a roar of anger and turned to Mendelen, then charged after him.

  "Now Kaden!" Mendelen called out when it came close to where Kaden was standing. And as soon as the words left his mouth Kaden moved and the invisibility wore off. He was right under its feet, and quickly slashed both of his swords at its legs, the enchantments on his swords allowing him to cleave clean through. The legless demon fell to the ground and Mendelen rushed in to stab it. Before he could get close the demon slammed a fist into the dirt and an ice spike sprang out of the ground. It struck Mendelen in the chest piercing his armor, but it did not pierce his body too deeply and it knocked him backwards. Kaden rushed over to help Mendelen up.

  The ground under the greater demon suddenly opened up and the demon fell in, then the ground slammed shut and crushed it to death. Seree moved in closer to the center of the area where she could defend everyone easier. Then turned her attention to another greater demon that was rushing in from another part of the battlefield.

  Zanath was shooting down as many of the lesser demons as he could but they were starting to dodge and block his bullets. Estellese joined the fight and began using her limited knowledge of fire magic to start shooting fireballs out at the demons. She watched and grit her teeth as their superior control of fire magic allowed them to just dispel all of her fireballs.

  "Comeon!" Estellese shouted in frustration. "Why'd I take fire? Why not something useful to the situation like lightning?" She scolded herself, and as the demons kept deflecting and dispelling her fire attacks she grew more and more frustrated. Until her signet ring suddenly lit up, the engraving of the girl standing at the crossroads began to glow. In the engraving's background there was a very faint copy of the girl going down each road, but one of the copies lit up brighter than the rest. Suddenly it looked like her spirit stepped out of her body, her spirit was holding a fireball in its hand. Then a puff of smoke came out of her signet ring and transformed into a copy of her spirit, with lightning arcing down her arms. The spirit with the fireball went into the ring the same way the lightning one left the ring, and the lightning copy of her spirit stepped into her body.

  "What did you just do?" Zanath asked.

  "What do you mean? I didn't do anything." Estellese answered. She pointed at the incoming demons and a bolt of lightning shot from her fingertips and struck the lesser demon down.

  "You can use lightning now?" Zanath questioned.

  "Of course I can, that's the element I picked back in the elven village. You're acting strange." Estellese stated.

  "No you picked fire back there." Zanath countered but he didn't have time to argue, the lesser demons were all closing in on them.

  "Get back!" Eyrus called out. He waved his arms upwards and a wave of water appeared and surged towards the charging lesser demons. Seeing the wave Zanath and Estellese quickly moved out of the way. The wave pushed back some of the lesser demons, but a few of them made ice walls in front of themselves to block the attack. The lesser demons stepped out from behind the ice walls and rushed in, closing the distance between them and the machine fast with their superhuman speeds.

  Zanath backed off and reloaded while Estellese and Eyrus moved forwards to face them. Two lesser demons rushed at Estellese and she fired a bolt of lightning at one of them, missing her shot when it jumped out of the way. The other lesser demon moved into striking range and slashed its sword at her waist, Estellese was quick to block the blade with her axe and was sent stumbling backwards from the demon's inhuman strength. She returned fire by shooting a bolt of lightning at it, but the lightning spells had a brief charge time and the demon dodged out of the way again. She grit her teeth and jumped backwards to dodge another slash, as she dodged her signet lit up and her spirit left her body again. Her spirit had lightning surging down her arm, and another copy of her spirit that had stone arms came out of her signet ring. Like before, the stone spirit slipped into her body and the lightning one returned to the ring.

  The other lesser demon lunged in from the side and swung its mace for her shoulder. Spotting the demon she quickly stepped backwards and a stone spike sprung out of the ground, impaling the demon as it missed her. The first lesser demon hissed and sent a barrage of fireballs at her, but she was quick to make a stone wall spring out of the ground to protect herself from the flames.

  Not too far from her, Eyrus was facing off against four other lesser demons near the machine. He was zig-zagging between fireballs while several orbs of water orbited around him, the orbs were much bigger than he was. As he dodged and weaved between the fireballs and ice chunks the orbs kept slamming into the demons and knocking them over. The ones that dodged were met with a jet of water being blasted into their faces. Any fireballs he couldn't dodge were blocked by the orbs of water. His magic wasn't killing the demons it was just knocking them over, and Zanath immediately noticed this. He grabbed his pistol and began shooting at any demons that were knocked down, using Eyrus to stun them so they wouldn't evade his bullets. Two of the demons were shot down right away, then Eyrus flew low to the ground to dodge a large fireball, flying under a lesser demon. Once he was under them he fired a jet of water upwards, knocking the demon into the air. As soon as it was airborne Zanath took aim and shot it in the head. A trail of sparks shot across the ground and stopped underneath Eyrus, then suddenly a huge pillar of flames burst up into the sky from beneath Eyrus's feet. As the flames disappeared Eyrus was still there, inside of a bubble of water and unharmed. He fired a jet of water at the last lesser demon and it jumped to the side to dodge. The second it jumped Zanath shot it while it was in midair and unable to dodge again.

  Then suddenly a massive beam of fire shot at Eyrus from the side, and he just barely got his w
ater barrier up in time. Once the flames disappeared a full demon could be seen charging into the battle. Eyrus fired another jet of water at it only for the demon to point at the water and turn it into ice. The demon fired the ice chunk back at Eyrus who quickly flew upwards to evade the ice chunk. As he flew above it it shattered into hundreds of needle-like shards and the shards fired up at him. The shards were tiny for a human, but big for a fairy and he was impaled by several of them. Eyrus shouted out in pain and dropped to the ground.

  Zanath shot at the full demon as it moved in closer, but the full demon was persistent. It created a fireball and threw it at Eyrus, the fireball struck the fallen fairy and exploded on impact. As the flames cleared Eyrus's charred body was all that remained. With Eyrus dead the water barrier around the machine disappeared and the full demon turned to Zanath. As it faced him Zanath managed to shoot it in the eye and that bullet pierced the demon's skull. The demon lifelessly fell to the ground.