The Laws Of Elios (Book 2)

by R N Skye

  “I hate to interrupt this fine planning meeting but I smell fried chicken and fresh cinnamon rolls; both are better tasting when they are still hot,” Ava’s father Gerard interrupted in his lighthearted manner. How about we all sit down and then continue our discussion over food.”

  ~~~~~

  The Allyant host that was formerly Nuekirk continued his quest toward Jehhet. Boosted by stolen life from plants, animals and humans along the way, the host practically sprinted through the night along the empty roads toward the nearly abandoned city. The sun was coming up in the east when the loping figure of the young man entered into the northern parts of the city; another hour and he would reach his destination.

  The sun was well above the horizon by the time Pechor guided his host to the ruins of the building where the remaining artifact activator was located. To Pechor’s dismay the building was mostly collapsed, I could take as much as two days to clear his way into the demolished heap to reach the protected location of the artifact. Looking through the eyes of his army he saw that they were mere milos from the border. Moving his host into the shade to rest Pechor pulled his mind from the youth and back into the host of the former king of Infin aboard the starblade. It was time to conquer Luion.

  ~~~~~

  The sun peered over the horizon advancing a sliver of light above the eastern oceans cold waves as Pechor began activating the controls that would allow him to pilot the massive starblade. With a shiver of released energy the craft lifted from the ground. Using a simple command he gave a final instruction to the thousands of slaves that were moving toward the border – kill the Luion.

  The ship rose higher and higher the sunlight glistening off its crystal wings. Turning northward he steered toward the border and the magical wall. As he approached the wall he could see the incredible amount of Lumen with in the massive structure through his monitors and how it was now fifteen times higher and was anchored deep within the ground – further than he could measure. Testing for effect he aimed the magical cannons at the base. With a thought he fired.

  ~~~~~

  Shane was in the command pavilion before the first light of day. He felt nervous, like he had often felt before a big game. He had said goodbye to Ava and his parents earlier as they had gone to prepare for the inevitable casualties. He had never seen his mother so intense and self-assured. His father had gone to Valee Loi to make preparations for the ceremonies that would take place in the following days to complete the process of making the world of Eliom complete and a full transitional world. Ari and Roger along with General D’Mere were planning advances and fall back tactics and had gone to meet with other Army leadership and were setting up the defenses near the river crossing.

  Shane looked south knowing that somewhere nearby and soon the strange machine that he now knew as a starblade would be attacking a land of innocent people. The more he pondered it he began to be angered. How can someone sacrifice so many innocents just for the sake of power? There was something definitely wrong with the Allyant. It had to be an evil side effect from practicing that form of magic. Something that caused an interference with the mind, He thought to himself.

  A flash of light caught his eye as he watched the sky begin to transform from night to the grey of dawn. Watching the source of the light he saw the shape of the starblade take shape as it appeared to be making a cautious approach toward the wall. As the Allyant ship soared nearer Shane witnessed a glaring pulse as its weapons released a burst of light that flashed toward the wall even as the starblade veered away. The wall flared but remained intact; the only sign of impact was a vibrating of the ground that felt like a tremor before an earth quake.

  Evidently Shane wasn’t the only person to see the exhibit of the magical attack for almost immediately after the shot had been fired the camp and the organized battlements came alive with shouting and trumpet calls and orders to form up and make ready for battle. Shane magically reached out to the wall and saw that there was no damage. He reached out and mentally to add more strength to the area around Lu Y Onton and was struck with inspiration. What if the wall became weaker would the Allyant become over confident? If so what would the Allyant mage do, and what could he do to take advantage? With a smile Shane had an idea. He reached the pouch with the many neutralizing blue dots and pulled out the three large blue physical glyphs that he had made in the command tent laid them on the floor and began to make portals with the destination ends not set. He would have to be quick but if he timed it right he may have a chance in weakening and eliminating the starblade.

  The starblade returned this time at an astonishing rate of speed. Once again the brilliant pulse of magic erupted from the turrets on the sides of the speeding craft. The impact this time was enormous. The wall held but the ground shook with more than just a tremor. Stacks of equipment fell, soldier fell to the ground, and the bridge that spanned the larger river seemed to heave from its foundations. By the time the quaking ground had calmed the flying craft was soaring north beyond the camp nearly out of sight and banking for a return attack.

  Shane scanned the wall. The power draw was incredible but the wall was holding. There was not telling how many hits like that it would be able to take.

  The starblade flew low and fired its weapons once more. The blast of energy again rocked the military encampment and Shane was certain that it was shaking the entire city of Lu Y Onton as well. Unlike the previous two passes the craft continued to fire and rammed through the wall its self. The starblade seemed to slow as if passing through cold syrup, then with a lurch it catapulted away shredding a large tear in the wall. The energy maintaining he wall was now drawing more power from the sun glyphs and the fiery depths below the ground than he had ever imagined possible. Realizing that Allyant would likely repeat what he had just done Shane repaired the tear but reduced the power to the wall so that the Allyant would try and repeat the process once more.

  As Shane watched the flying nemesis turn in the distance he saw something even more frightening. The horizon was filled with soldiers; mile and miles of soldiers approaching at almost a run – crossing the bridge by the thousands.

  As the soldiers reached his barrier they were tossed back by the effect of the shield. Many landed in the river and others landed on the other Infin soldiers that were running mindlessly into the wall. The river was soon filled with enemy soldiers that began swimming towards Luion to only be repelled over and over again by the wall. The Luion soldiers waiting for the attack gave off a loud yell of hope and victory as the wall continued to hold.

  Shane returned his concentration to the wall and the approaching starblade. The pulsing magic once again lit the early morning sky and the ground shook again this time more violently than before. Soldiers from both sides of the border were hurled to the ground Shane steadied himself using the table nearby. Just as he had hoped the sleek starblade rammed the wall like before with its turrets firing and this time the tear was not like the last.

  With all of his strength Shane opened the portal from the large neutralizer glyphs and began to absorb the stored lumen contained within them and channel it to the change he had made to wrap the wall around the starblade - capturing it like a fly stuck in amber. The starblade moved inch by inch stretching the limits of the wall. The heat at the base of the wall was searing anything combustible and causing the earth to steam and crack from the heat as Shane allowed it to come to full power. Shane began to feel the pressure of the amount of lumen that he was conducting. The pressure was crushing harder than he had ever imagined. Using all of his concentration the opened his last two portals and accessed the lumen that was maintaining the massive shield that he had erected at the camp west of Jehhet. His thoughts were focused, the thoughts of the battle soon to come, the noise of the larger craft and the shrieking of the straining wall, the pressure of the lumen that he was controlling, all omitted from his mind. Like he always did when playing warball he focused on the goal; the pain, the other players, the noise of the crowd all sil
ent – nothing but the goal.

  The power stored in the camp shield entered into him like storm. As it hit he instantly redirected it to a massive replica of his repel glyph – right at the point of the breaking of the bands that held the starblade and its polluted lumen.

  With a thunderous roar the strands of lumen holding the craft parted and the incalculable amount of lumen stored in the camp shield released into the large repel glyph and faster than the eye could see, the ship released from its binding and hurled through a large portal that had at the same time appeared in front of it. As soon as the starblade was through the opening the portal closed.

  Shane sagged to his knees as he felt the ground tremble. The Obelisks that powered and supported the frame work of the border wall were melting and soon would fail. Shane had to consciously halt the flow of all of his external lumen sources and let the excess trickle away. Looking within himself he saw that his lumen was somewhat higher than before and his capacity had increased once again. Getting to his feet he hefted the pouch that had once contained the million neutralizer blue dot glyphs and noted its lightness. If his plan had worked at least some of those small powerful glyphs were adhered to the hull of the ejected starblade and were slowing depleting its stolen lumen. His hope was that he had hurled the craft far enough away that it would be drained of fuel long before it could return to Eliom

  Shane’s thoughts were interrupted by another tremendous heaving of the ground. Staggering from the pavilion he was astonished as the entire camp was being overrun by enemy soldiers. Quickly he began reaching out with his lumen sight and began removing lumen from wristbands where ever he could find them.

  Shane’s eyes were closed as he continued to deactivate wristbands; he never saw the approaching mob. Several Luion soldiers saw Shane standing with is eyes shut and seemingly immobile as nearly three dozen of the enemy ran like madmen toward Shane as if they know exactly who he was. Thinking nothing of themselves, as soldiers often do, they ran and intercepted the mob before they could attack.

  Shane hearing the noise looked to see the mini-battle within a few cubits of where he stood. He immediately deactivated the bands nearest to him all but one staggered and fell as if exhausted. Looking closer he saw that the one was not only controlled by the wristband but has been taken over by the Allyant. The Luion soldiers fighting the crazed Infin soldier were the detail that General D’Mere had assigned to Shane. Thankfully he had thought to provide them each a ring that would insulate them from Allyant influence so they were immune from the draining effects of an Allyant infected soldiers but they were not up to the incredible strength of the super-powered soldiers that had the strength of many men. As fast as they grabbed on to the super soldier they were flung away. It was only through sheer numbers and their persistence in not allowing injury to come to the Shane whom they had been instructed to protect, that they kept the crazed soldier at bay. Shane began to construct the glyphs necessary to hold the possessed soldier when he heard a familiar booming voice.

  “Stand back boys, time to let a fisherman have his fun,” yelled Oscaar junior as he waded into the crowd. Then with an almost joyous shout the large man picked up the Allyant soldier and hurled him nearly twenty cubits away from Shane and followed after to finish the job.

  Turning Shane saw that Shew was standing nearby watching the affair with a slight grin on his face. “It’s like watching an artist painting a fine portrait,” he said to no one in particular.

  Junior was amazing to behold the Allyant soldier was vicious and quick but the large man was faster and countered everything with ease. Just when the fight appeared to be over, suddenly the Allyant veered around the big man and leaped ten cubits into the air over and beyond the grasp of Junior and those around him; faster than anyone could react the Infin soldier dashed towards Shane. Shane reacted instinctively like he had with the super soldiers in Jehhet and in an instant had a lumen shield secured around the hurdling crazed soldier.

  Shane walked up to the magically secured soldier. Shane looked the captive up and down with a sigh. He was tired, it was now approaching midmorning, and from the looks of things there was a lot still left to do. “Who are you, Allyant? What is it that drives you to destroy this world? Already the deaths of thousands are on your head. I have stopped you as often as I could, I have hurled your starblade into the heavens and I am in the process of neutralizing your army. I am about to remove you from this poor soldier and somehow I feel that you will return again and again. Why? Is there no caring in your heart? Is your soul so hard that you have lost all care for your brothers and sisters in creation that you will continue to leech the universe of all that is good?”

  The soldier smiled a haunting smile. “My name is Pechor. I will soon be the greatest of the Great Ones. I could ask the same of you Lumen Mage. What is it that drives you Elios in depriving your brothers from their heritage? What is it that causes you to ostracize those that choose to use all magic not just the magic that takes a life time to master? The man named Eno, the one that legend claims to have rescued the Elios so many lifetimes ago – why are you all so sold on the story he gave? Not all care to follow your precious Eno. He was a plain old man who had dreams of grandeur and a large capacity for lumen. He taught us all the Laws of Elios but where is he now? He’s gone that’s where. The man that taught that we should love and care for one another, is off crusading among the stars not caring that he divided a galaxy. Where are your laws of love on that, young mage? Here you are a lone lumen mage on a failed experiment in the rebuilding of the fabled transitional worlds. Where are the Elios? Where is Eno? I’ll tell you: Hiding behind his ambiguous Laws of Light. I have been killed and beaten time and again by your kind yet I am here still to claim what is mine. I will regain my bearings aboard my starblade and once again and return to this world to finish what I have begun. You have only gained yourself a few seasons as the most. Even still I have a plan in motion. You may be strong for a Lumen Mage but you are not a match for my years of planning. You mocked me before when I stated what was to come so this time I will not reveal it to you. Just know this – your time is short.

  Shane shook his head sadly and without another word closed the connection between the host and the Allyant and the soldier died. Shane stood a moment, and involuntary tear had crept its way into the corner of his eye; the deaths were piling up and all because of perceived self-entitlement and disagreement.

  He looked at Shew and Junior and the rest of the soldiers that had witnessed the conversation. “Well fella’s we still have a full day,” Shane offered with a pretended smile. “Lets get the wristbands deactivated and see if we can save more lives than we take. Shew, can you get Ari on the Comm and tell him to get in a secure position and set up a guard so that he can dedicate his time to pulling lumen out of wristbands; if there is any intel work to do you and Roger handle it. Junior you get the general to give you some men to go around and start gathering wristbands from those willing to give them up. I want them all burned so that if the Allyant returns he can’t ever use them again.

  Another quake rocked the north shore of the L’raine River and the magical wall failed as it broke away from the mantle of Eliom. With a massive lurch the mass of soldiers on the opposite shore fell in droves into the roiling and sloshing river to an icy death in the wintery water. Again the ground of Eliom shuttered and the border of Infin lurched up and away from Luion like a wave of rocks and dirt for as far as the eye could see both East and West. When Shane could stand again the shore of the North coast of Infin was two miles distant and the L’raine River was a vast fissure in the ground. A giant roar could be heard as the ocean began to flow up the rivers channel washing away bodies and building that had been thrown into the abyss.

  As the day wore on the few remaining Infin soldiers were quickly subdued and the wristbands removed and destroyed. As the sun was setting Shane, Junior, Ari, and Shew were sitting in the Generals pavilion reviewing the day. General D’Mere and Admiral Cyrado arrived wi
th Monsieur Golan followed by Roger. “There is bad news I am afraid,” spoke Admiral Cyrado in a solemn voice. “The Prime minister and a many of the Luion government officials were killed earlier today when the parliament building collapsed from the quakes. It is a sad day for Luion, to me honest I have no idea if we actually won this war or not.

  Shew spoke quietly, his normal acerbity replaced by a soft spoken voice. “No war is ever won, young man. In this case the world of Eliom lost. Over a million inhabitants of both Infin and Luion are gone to the next life. Fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers and sisters, and children will weep for days to come because of the atrocities that the enemies of the Elios have brought to pass these last few days. If you will take the advice of an old man that has seen a lot of death, use this as point of unity. If you ask me Luion should merge with what used to be Infin. Call it Northern and Southern Luion. Infin is decimated and many will starve through the winter if they are not assisted. It is best that the country of Infin is soon forgotten and people begin to look forward to the new awakening that is blooming as we speak.”