Lore of Eternal Shadow: The Fugitive King

Chapter Eleven

"All of them decimated, my lord," concluded a badly injured demon to Alva.

"Dammit," cursed Alva. He looked to the south, through the trees beyond. "Come on, Penny. We're leaving."

"Milord," gasped Camulus. His incredulous tone was bizarre to hear from such a large demon's deep voice, "You would abandon us?!"

"Shut up!" shouted Alva, "Our assault failed because of your pathetic tactics!"

Penelope and Alva turned away from Camulus. "What are you doing?" Penelope asked quietly, "It wasn't his fault. If anything..."

"It's his fault now," said Alva, "Somebody's got to take the blame and it's not going to be me."

"Alva, this isn't right," said Penelope.

"Would you rather I spent the rest of my life in irons?" Alva asked, "You've served our king your entire life, you know what he does to those who are unable to totally obey him. I can't..." He took Penelope's hands in his, "I can't let this failure destroy our love." Alva glanced over his shoulder, "Camulus can take the blame. Our king would believe that."

There was still something wrong in Penelope's mind; perhaps it was Alva's plan to deceive the king... perhaps somewhere inside she felt Camulus's fate as the fall guy wasn't right. She nodded at Alva.

"Hold the line by whatever means necessary," ordered Alva to Camulus, "I will report our failure here to our king."

"We won't fail again, milord!" saluted Camulus.

Alva smirked a bit at Camulus before taking Penelope's teleportation crystal. He hugged Penelope and the two vanished. A matter of seconds later, Zicone, Lauren, Salgan, and Runa appeared behind the cover of the trees south of the portal.

"C'mon, soldier! Move it! Deploy!" bellowed Camulus as he turned to the latest reinforcements. They emerged from the rift in a daze. "Sergeant! Organize this battalion and get them deployed!" Camulus drew his sword threateningly to the smaller demon, "Hurry, this is our last chance!"

"At once, General," replied the lesser officer.

Zicone held his arm out to pause the others. A few hundred troops surrounded the rift at that moment. Zicone was flanked by Salgan who was hiding behind another tree. Lauren and Runa hung right behind them, hidden. Zicone looked at the others, shaking his head. He then pointed to the larger chunk of demons that were beginning to depart.

The larger group, numbering a hundred and fifty, had completely separated from the company guarding the rift. This left only fifty demons and Zicone took his chance immediately. His mind went into the universe around him. Calculations for the wind and the trees and the grass all seemed usual enough. The rift stuck out like a sore thumb of calculation. Equations swirled around the small pocket of space the rift occupied in an orderly and mesmerizing way. It was Zey^Rey magic and clearly the work of Dark Zey^Rey in league with Caligo.

There was something else that stuck out, though. Not far from the portal there was evidence somebody teleported away just moments ago. Some of the energy surrounding this evidence reminded Zicone of his little brother. It was the aura Alva possessed. Zicone had almost forgotten what it felt like. He wanted to know what it meant...

There were more pressing matters. Zicone had to seal the rift. He began interacting with the calculations of the rift, learning how it worked. He turned the equations in on themselves, resolving them and making the portal smaller and smaller. It was at this point that he realized the rift was being fed a steady stream of power. There was somebody fighting to keep the door open. Zicone pushed his will power and threw energy at the rift to counter the fact that it existed.