Chapter 10 Part 1

FISSION AND FUSION

Sounder of the Charge banked hard to the left almost throwing Ultrecht from his back. The action was unannounced and violent, but more than likely saved his life, for the space they had recently occupied blossomed forth with a huge fireball.

That single stroke of luck was only the beginning of the next few moments of excitement. Sounder of the Charge and his passengers were flailed by a series of five more explosions, but the earlier near miss had been enough to alert Armegon, who had immediately thrown a protective shield up warding the vast majority of the flames off.

Nevertheless, Avery urged Sounder of the Charge to seek cover and land as soon as he could. The kilobel acknowledged the request, but felt that the attack demanded a token if not proper retaliation. Sounder of the Charge folded his wings and dove straight down from a point thousands of feet above the soldiers.

Like a falling rock, the thunderbird dropped through the atmosphere and swooped low before the gathered army. Sounder of the Charge skimmed over the upraised heads at a breakneck speed and opened his mouth. The kilobel's throat erupted in a blast of solid noise so powerful that soldiers were left on the ground with bleeding ears in his wake.

Sounder of the Charge winged westward to escape the range of any retaliation when a bolt of pure blue light reached out and caressed the great bird's underbelly. The thunderbird screeched in pain and plowed into the dirt throwing his passengers from his back.

Avery saw the scene pass in agonizing slowness. Armegon cartwheeled over head like a rag doll with arms and legs flailing. In his effort to keep a grip on the irreplaceable magic mirror frame, he failed to control his fall, and came down head first on the hard packed ground. Ultrecht shot through the air straight as an arrow and skimmed across the ground like a stone skipping across the water.

Avery landed on his left shoulder and rolled to absorb the shock of the impact. He felt his collar bone jar violently, but by some small miracle, held nonetheless. Sluggishly, Avery came to his feet. Twenty meters away, Ultrecht sat up rubbing his right knee. Armegon remained motionless.

"Are you okay?" Avery asked Ultrecht.

"Aside from some nasty bruises, I will be," Ultrecht replied. "What about him?"

Avery was genuinely worried. "I'll take care of him," he said as he glanced back over his shoulder. "You take care of them."

Ultrecht followed Avery's gaze. Beyond the still grounded, but breathing form of Sounder of the Charge, hundreds of mounted cavalry were at a full gallop bearing down on them.
Ultrecht hastened himself to his feet and ran around the fallen mage being attended by the healer. He circled the kilobel's stunned and dazed body, passing the head as he did so. The thunderbird followed him with his eyes.

"Are you going to be okay?" Ultrecht asked.

"I am sorry," Sounder of the charge apologized. "I did not expect them to attack so quickly after I had blasted them. No creature I have ever fought ever has before."

"We can't stop to worry about it," Ultrecht urged. "Right now I have to stop that charging army." Ultrecht stepped around the grounded avian. The onrushing cavalry was closing the distance at a terrible pace. In order to call upon the elemental power he would need to defeat the whole army, he would need more time than they would allow.

Ultrecht drew from his pouch a small nugget of galena. He held the heavy rock in his right fist and began an incantation. When he completed the preamble, he invoked the sympathy command and slammed the lead filled rock into the ground. The galena sent miniature shock waves through the soil in a six inch radius from the impact point.

Immediately the magic that Ultrecht had summoned amplified the reaction and giant waves of shock propagated outward through the topsoil. The miniature earthquake threw hundreds of riders from their mounts and stalled the charge.

The momentary reprieve did not last long. Ultrecht was unable to begin a major conjuration, for without warning, a shower of arrows began to rain down upon them. A contingency spell designed to protect against just such attacks snapped up and shielded them from the assault. The soldiers, however did not wait for the archers to slay their enemies and though unmounted, came charging afoot with swords drawn.

Ultrecht sighed. He hated to do it, but the situation demanded a nasty spell that Armegon had used back at the cabin. Ultrecht generated a force scythe. From his outstretched hands, a distortion erupted and the invisible blade of force expanded and spread outward and away mowing down both soldier and horse alike. When the spell dissipated. easily three hundred bodies lay cloven in half by the terrible spell.

Still, there were a couple hundred more who had figured out what was happening and jumped over the invisible blade or ducked under it. Those soldiers resumed the charge with murder in their eyes and hate on their lips.

Ultrecht began to cast a second spell, a barrier spell that would throw up an impeding forest of spikes and thorns to slow the charge, but in mid cast, a bolt of lightning erupted from the army's ranks and arced out to tag Ultrecht's outstretched hand. The mage's spell was interrupted and failed. The lightning also played havoc with Ultrecht's health. He fell back and sat down hard. The smell of burned flesh was thick in the air and Ultrecht could see that his hand was very red where the lightning had hit him.

It was only thanks to yet another contingency spell that had protected him from the lightning. With two of his wards down, Ultrecht was reluctant to present his enemies with another clear target, but to find some cover, he had to first make some covering attacks.

From a stance on one knee, Ultrecht thrust both fists outward and cast his spell. Dozens of fist sized balls of flame shot outwards exploding into huge blasts of fire and ash upon impact. Again the soldiers went scrambling.

Ultrecht did not wait. While smoke, ash and flames disarrayed the soldiers, Ultrecht followed with another force scythe. This time few soldiers survived and for a brief moment, Ultrecht thought that the surviving members of the opposing force might flee, but as the smoke cleared, a sight that he had not expected presented itself. a second wave of soldiers, fresh and unharmed had moved up behind the initial wave.

Though the distance was still great, and Ultrecht saw the mass of flesh and metal erupt and surge forward a second before he heard their shouts, at full gallop it would not take them long to close the distance.

Avery joined the battered mage. "This isn’t going to be easy," the ranger said.

"How is Armegon?" Ultrecht asked. "We could sure use him right about now."

"He has a concussion," Avery answered. "He can't work magic right now."

Ultrecht knelt in the dust and began scribing some symbols and designs. "Well I guess it is just as well," the mage said. "I hope you will forgive me this, but I am going to have to use the heavy artillery here."

Avery kept silent. He hated to see lives taken, but there was no alternative that the could think of so he kept his peace.

Ultrecht finished his work and stepped into the circle. He pulled forth his talisman and stretched forth his left hand.

Avery felt the air charge with power around him, and retreated to Armegon and Sounder of the Charge, who watched the entire episode with genuine interest.

Ultrecht concentrated. The forces available to him were primarily of the elements earth, wind, light, and thought. The charging army was vast and that was far too many minds to try to control, and earth magic was very slow, so Ultrecht decided to put the air to good use.

The army was at full gallop when the storm clouds began to form over their heads. Bolts of lightning crashed harmlessly to the ground in front of them causing even the most disciplined war-horse to skid to a halt.

The winds whipped and stinging rain began to fall as the huge billowing cloud grew tremendously with each passing second. Ultrecht stood rigid commanding the aloof element of air. Wind and fire were the two most difficult elements to control. Both of them were like living things with minds of their own. Ultrecht raised his arms and demanded the air's obedience. Reluctantly the magic charged atmosphere relented to his will.

The army was caught totally by surprise when the twin tornadoes touched down in the soldiers' midst. The cyclones flung soldier and mount alike and in kind to and fro without regard to the armor and swords that were uselessly whipped about if futile defiance.

The battle had become one sided. Ultrecht and his power over the very fabric of nature against the sword and shield of an army was no contest. The conflict lasted only a matter of minutes, and though utterly defeated, the army did escape total destruction, for in the final stages of the fiasco, a third party had entered upon the scene.

A long dark gray tentacle blasted upwards from the ground a mere arm's length from Ultrecht. It was the Abomination. The monster had been searching for its enemies for some time, but until Ultrecht activated the power of elemental command, it had had trouble locating them. With the elements awakened in their full power, however, Ultrecht had chimed the dinner bell and the Abomination was eager to dine on the delicacy that was the elementalist.

The tentacle shot skyward and towered over the startled mage. Like a giant serpent mesmerizing its prey, the tentacle hovered possessively over Ultrecht. Then it descended aiming straight for the mage's brain eager for the secrets within.

Avery too was startled at the sudden appearance, but not to the point of shock. In one smooth motion, he drew Liberator and severed the appendage neatly. The ground shuddered in response and Liberator rang out like a struck gong.

"Lasir!" Avery spat.

"What?!" Ultrecht asked praying he had heard incorrectly.

"It’s Lasir," Avery cursed. "The beast has somehow traveled here and is the force behind the Abomination."

Lasir, a spirit that embodied the incarnation of pure evil. Ultrecht despised the very name of the creature. It was Lasir who had rallied the Dreadknights of Abbadon into believing that they could rule the universe and that all the living were to be their slaves.

They had battled savagely with the Dreadknights and dozens of his close friends had been destroyed as a result. They had won the battle, but Lasir had escaped leaving destruction in his wake. The only casualty of that battle to recover was Marlena, Sam's mother, and only recently had she regained her full memory. To think that Lasir, the evil one, was still with them, only strengthened their resolve. There was no more time for reflection, because a low moan like that of a strong wind erupted from the east and out in the plains of Gly-ou-vogue, a great horribly disfigured body could be seen.

The severed tentacle flopped about and finally burrowed back into the ground. The stump withdrew as well leaving the false sense that they had won in the defenders.

"How did you know?" Ultrecht asked panting.

Avery held forth the Sword of Justice. "There is an empathic connection in this sword. I know because it knows."

"Who?" Armegon asked dazed. He held the ever important mirror frame in his hands.

"Lasir," Ultrecht answered and watched the dark shadow pass across Armegon's face. Armegon as much as anyone had suffered at the hands of Lasir, the mad mage. In their first encounter, Armegon was barely more than an apprentice, when Lasir changed him into a beast of burden and bound his tongue in muteness then stranded him in the camp of a barbarian horde. Armegon had sworn that should the chance come, he personally would take Lasir apart cell by cell.

“He’s the primary mentality controlling the Abomination," Avery said. "But that’s not all. Tyson is there too as is Ragnera, Quickdraw, and thousands of others as well. With every passing second, the thing grows."

"Well at least you have a weapon that is effective against it," Ultrecht nodded at the enchanted weapon.

Another tentacle erupted behind Armegon and Avery charged immediately. The vorpal blade sliced through the fleshy appendage effortlessly, and both end and stump withdrew.

"I can't keep this up forever though," Avery said. "We’ve got to get to Gly-ou-vogue and attack the body."

"Well we’re only about two kilometers from the wasteland," Armegon pointed out. "Let's get going."

"Allow me," Sounder of the Charge interrupted from nearby. "I promised to deliver you there, and I intend to do my part."

"Can you fly?" Avery asked.

"I was only stunned momentarily," the kilobel assured him. "I can fly for the last bit of this trip."

Avery looked at the others who shrugged in unison. They gathered around the kilobel and remounted. Once more the great thunderbird launched into the air and in a matter of minutes the ground below them was pitch black. "So this is Gly-ou-vogue," Avery mused. "How utterly bleak and lifeless."

"Let's hope that it will become even more lifeless but that it is not our lives that it will be less," Ultrecht responded.

"How close do you want to get?" Sounder of the Charge asked.

"The closer the better," Armegon answered. "But don't get us so close that we won't have time to set up and work the magic."

"What about the tentacles," Ultrecht questioned. "We can't work with those tentacles popping up everywhere. Even if Avery can hold them off, he can only fight one at a time."

"I doubt that there’ll be any there when we arrive," Armegon explained. "Gly-ou-vogue is dead and devoid of both life and energy. The Abomination would have no reason to keep its tentacles in the wasteland. It’s more than likely spreading them far and away out into the world. Did you notice how long it takes the tentacles that we’ve seen to get to us.

Once the Abomination senses us, it apparently has to bring in a tentacle from somewhere else to attack us. If that’s so, we should have several minutes to act before we’re attacked."

"That should be all that we need," Avery added.

Sounder of the Charge banked slightly and the three passengers were exposed to a full view of the Abomination. The main body of the thing was globular and grotesque with mottled gray black and sickly white patches. It was the size of large village and growing with every second. From the main body hundreds of tentacles snaked out radially for dozens of meters before disappearing in the ground. Each tentacle writhed and pulsated like a monsterous leech sucking the life from its victim.

"Damn, that thing is huge," Armegon muttered.

"I dare say, that it will grow exponentially," Ultrecht warned. "The bigger it gets, the faster it will grow until the whole planet is consumed."

"Then what?" Avery asked. "For a moment let’s assume that it wins. What then?"

"That thing is Lasir," Ultrecht answered. "It is intelligent, devious, and hungry for power. I dare say that it has already planned a method to make good its escape."

"Once it escapes, it has the whole universe to roam. No other planet that contains life will be able to stand against it. Then it could turn against alternate planes of existence and our home. Curse, Lasir. He plans to extract his revenge one way or the other."

"You have to admit," Armegon admitted sarcastically. "It’s a well thought out plan."

"But Lasir didn’t expect to deal with us," Avery said. "We have a chance to do him in right now before he becomes too powerful to stop."

"That condition may not last much longer," Utrecht pointed out. "I suggest we get to work."

Avery directed Sounder of the Charge to a spot a good distance from the Abomination's main body. Even at that distance though, the thing sensed their arrival for the bulbous body immediately generated a trio of new tentacles which immediately began to slither towards them.

Sounder of the Charge, free of his riders, took to the sky again and immediately beat his way straight upwards. Gaining sufficient altitude, he wheeled and dove at the encroaching appendages. Diving at breakneck speed, the mighty thunderbird erupted with a blast of solid sound and a pair of lightning bolts that leapt from his eyes and burst the tentacles where they lay.

The reprieve was short lived. The stumps split and each of the three stumps produced two more tentacles making six in all. Sounder of the Charge halted a second attack and winged west. He had attempted to help and it had only made things worse. All he could do was get out of the way and wait to rescue his allies if they needed to be evacuated.

Armegon and Ultrecht wiped the hoop down with a solution that Ultrecht had mixed. It was a special cleaning lotion designed to remove any impurities from the mirror frame. They were taking no gambles with this one chance.

Avery stood back a safe distance with Liberator. One of the three conditions set to activate the mirror's magic was met. They were in the wasteland. While Armegon and Ultrecht worked with the mirror frame, there was too much chance that the second condition could be met and that they would both turn loose of the hoop at the same time. So Avery kept the sword far enough away from the magical device to prevent the third condition from being met.

The Abomination quivered and rocked violently. Even from the distance the trio stood, they saw the monstrous body sprout an octet of giant legs which emerged from the top and lowered over the sides to reach the ground. Then the body lifted as the legs took their footing. Slowly at first, then more rapidly, the spider-like Abomination moved closer trailing its ever lengthening tentacles behind it like a dragging umbilical.

"We are running out of time," Ultrecht warned.

"We only need a few seconds more, Armegon replied as he inserted the mirror's frame into the carefully fitted slot in the sphere. When the seating was correct he motioned to the waiting Avery.

Avery stepped forth and drew the sword which was the key to the whole operation.

"We only get one try with this," Armegon warned.

"Then let's do it right the first time," Ultrecht agreed.

"Yes." Armegon said. "Okay, Avery, make a mirror." The ranger stepped behind the frame and held forth the sword. Closing his eyes, he communicated with the intellect of the enchanted weapon what he wanted it to do.

Liberator had been formed from a collapsed star. The immense gravity of its blade was canceled only by the magic aura that surrounded the weapon. At Avery's request, though, the sword's mind expanded that magical field to a size equal to the inner area of the magical frame's. The blade of the sword disappeared as the super gravitational field inside the magic bubble bent and twisted the light around it back upon itself. Creating a giant mirror which reflected in all directions.

Armegon kept one hand on the mirror's frame and leaned over to look directly into the device. What he saw was the most perfect reflection he had ever beheld. The super gravity was the perfect reflector. All was set.

Armegon straightened and nodded to the others. "Every thing is set," he told them. "On the count of three we release the mirror." Ultrecht and Avery both nodded. "One, two, three!"

Instantly Ultrecht and Armegon released the magic frame.

Rays of light from the Abomination passed through the hoop, were bent around the intense gravity of the sword, and reflected back in the direction in which they had come. On its way back, it passed again through the hoop.

The magic of the hoop detected the image from the sword and resolved that the image was identical to the image coming from the other direction. The magic determined that it was a reflection, verified that all the conditions of the spell had been met, and activated its enchantment.

The suspension field that had held back the atomic fission was canceled and the nuclear chain reaction commenced. The magical siphon that had been put in place to drain off the energy of the resulting power, operated to perfection and channeled the atomic energy into the mirror's phantasmal creation spell.

The reflection emerging from the mirror's frame began to solidify and in less time than it takes to blink an eye, a second Abomination materialized. The hoop fell to the ground powerless and spent, and three sets of lungs which had held three breaths, relaxed and exhaled.

Two Abominations lay in the wasteland both emitting ground shaking rumbles of anger and challenge. The reflected Abomination launched three tentacles into the fleshy body of the original. The result was immediate and impressive. The Abomination instantly abandoned several of its own tentacles' operation and retaliated by spearing the Reflection with them.

More and more of the tentacles began to erupt from the Reflection and found their way into the Abomination. At the same time, the Abomination began withdrawing more and more of its own tentacles from the ground and attacking the Reflection with them
Avery, Armegon, Ultrecht and Sounder of the Charge, who had recently landed, watched in horror at the carnal feeding frenzy that was taking place before them.

"What do you think will happen?" Sounder of the Charge asked.

"If the Reflection succeeds," Armegon answered. "Its magical existence will dissipate and we’ll win."

"If it loses?"

"Then the Abomination will at least be a lot weaker than it is right now."

Hundreds of tentacles flailed back and forth. The air was thick with the battling monsters. The world was still as if even the clouds and winds knew that the fate of the world hung in the balance.

Abomination and Reflection battled savagely neither asking nor offering quarter. It was an all or nothing battle--there could be no compromise.

The quartet of observers watched for many long moments. They had previously noted several consistencies about the Abomination. The tentacles came in one of three colors, gray, black or pale white. But suddenly and without warning or precedent, the Abomination generated a bright blue tentacle. The blue appendage reached skyward and up into the clouds then fell back to the ground spearing the Reflection.

The Reflection convulsed and faltered for a moment. Then, quickly recovering, the Reflection, true to its name, mimicked the attack with a giant red tentacle that speared the Abomination.

The battle continued. Each time one of the combatants seemed to gain an advantage, the other would increase its attacks or use a new one to throw the other one back.

The four onlookers watched for half an hour as attack after attack was made between the two monstrosities, but the end finally came when the Abomination speared the Reflection with a helical triplet of red, blue and green tentacles that wound about each other and ruptured the Reflection's side.

Mottled ooze poured forth and the Reflection trembled wildly. In desperation, it sank more tentacles into the Abomination, but the Reflection had sustained a major blow and from that point the outcome was unquestionable.

"Well, that cuts it," Avery said with disappointment. "Now we’re going to have to fight that thing."

"Is it my imagination?" Armegon asked, "or is the Abomination larger than it was before we used the mirror."

"I think you are right," Ultrecht said slowly. "I never thought of that, but we should have."

"What is it?" Sounder of the Charge asked.

"The Reflection beat the Abomination down," Armegon explained, "but when the Abomination beat the Reflection, it gained the Reflection's power just as it has been doing to everything else."

"So what you are saying is that we..."

"Only made it stronger," Ultrecht completed the thought.

"Now what?" Sounder of the Charge asked.

"Well it doesn't seem too interested in attacking us immediately," Armegon noted.

"It’s probably doing its version of healing its wounds," Avery said. "It has re-planted many of its tentacles as well. I guess it’s trying to reattach itself to the life force of the world before it continues its attack on us."

"So we had better do what we can to prepare for this fight," Ultrecht warned.

"Okay, we know this enemy," Armegon started. "I say we surround Lasir and hit him with everything we have. We may or may not win, but we sure as hell will let it know that we are here."

No, a voice sounded in their minds.

"What?"

Sounder of the Charge took flight and trumpeted westward.

"What spooked him?" Avery asked as he watched the retreating thunderbird.

"Did you hear that?" Ultrecht repeated.

No. You must not be separated. Divided you will fall, united you shall stand. The Tome. Seek your answers in the Tome.

"Who said that?" Armegon asked.

"Don't ask me, but it’s the same advice Woeden tried to give us," Avery answered.

"Ultrecht," Armegon called nervously. "You spent a lot of time reading the Tome. Is there anything in there that can beat the Abomination?"

Ultrecht shook his head. "All of the more powerful spells were beyond me without at least several years of research. I only got a chance to look at one or two spells."

"Can any of them help us?" Avery asked.

Ultrecht put a hand to his chin. "Perhaps," he said slowly, quietly. "But it would mean the end of our existence as individuals. The Evolutionary spell could merge the three of us into a higher order entity that might be better able to fight the Abomination."

"I don't like the thought of losing my individuality," Armegon protested.

"If we don't beat the Abomination," Avery pointed out, "then what will it matter whether we are one or three?"

"If we defeat that thing," Armegon countered, "what then?"

"Then we will seek a way to reverse what has been done," Ultrecht answered.

"Do we have any alternatives?" Armegon asked.

We could retreat and try to come up with a better way," Ultrecht suggested.

"Every hour that this thing lives," Avery asked, "how many people do you think will die? It’s feeding on the lives of this world."

"Well we had better decide now," Ultrecht warned. "We are running out of time." The other two turned to see the Abomination. The thing was towering above the wasteland on its legs. Tentacles were plowing into the ground dozens at a time and the body grew wider by the second and sprouted more tentacles. In addition, antennae had appeared above the bulbous body and writhed like a nest of snakes.

"Okay," Armegon relented. "Let's do it. Win or lose, we’re out of time. We have to go for broke."

"Agreed," Avery said in concurrence. He stabbed the Sword of Justice in the ground point first. The hilt hovered waist high.

Ultrecht pulled the Tome of Creation from his robe. He opened the cover and flipped to the page he had marked, then he placed the transparent sheet of mica they had discovered in the prison realm over the silver etched words. "Stand in a circle," he directed, "and clasp hands.

Avery extended his right hand to Armegon and his left to Ultrecht. Ultrecht propped the Tome up on the upturned hilt of Liberator so that he could read the words and extended his upturned palms one to each of the halfelves. They matched his stance and placed their hands against each other as well as his.

Ultrecht took a deep breath and began to read the incantation. Words of power probably never spoken by the mortal tongue echoed from the elementalist's mouth. Words that carried such potency that had formed the void out of which creation was made shook the heavens and the Abomination bellowed in either rage or fear.

The spell's preamble rocked the ground as power only wielded by the Creator was brought to bear. Ultrecht then changed the inflection in his voice as he began to direct the magic to do the spell's bidding.