Chapter 19
The next morning, I was awakened by a knocking on the door. When I opened it, I was advised that breakfast would be served, shortly. I nodded, and was left alone to get dressed.
After I was ready, I opened the door to set off in search of breakfast. I was met by the strangest looking little demon. It was a fawning, unassuming little 3 foot tall, vaguely human looking... thing.
It escorted me to a dining room, where I was seated at a table with Shaitan. He had stood when I appeared, and then sat again as I did. Most polite. I wished him a pleasant morning. He grinned a feral grin, and said it was not likely.
"Is there a problem?" I asked.
"Have breakfast. You'll need it," was all he said.
The table was heavily laden. Some foods I recognized, and a lot I didn't. It was apparently 'help yourself'. I did, after checking with a small spell to make sure it was safe to eat. Everything but two items, passed my spell test.
"I felt your spell. What was its purpose?" Shaitan asked me.
I explained it was a spell designed to let me know if something was not safe for me to eat, and I had identified two items as not safe. He frowned. He called a servant in, and ordered him to have all who prepared the food brought forth.
It turned out a minor cook had decided to advance his standing, by killing off the human. Shaitan apologized to me, and the cook burst into flames. With a scream, he was gone.
While I did eat, I can't say I enjoyed the meal. It was filling, however.
"The Great Lord has already set off for battle. The Ancients have sent in a force of some numbers, and our armies are responding. Instead of going to the palace, we will head for the battle field, and the vicinity of the gate.
"I might suggest that you prepare yourself for combat, once we are done eating, if you are not already prepared. Now then, while we finish eating and do our preparations, might I answer any questions you have?" Shaitan asked politely.
"Well, I know that the Creator has everything in a sort of balance. What purpose do demons serve?" I asked.
"Ah. Well, on Earth where you spent so much time, the myth is we fell after revolting against the Creator. On other worlds we are set in place as the ultimate punishment. This is true with your Earth, too.
"While we do get millions of souls from all the worlds, we were created as a counter balance. All things in the universe have their opposites, with the possible exception of the Creator.
What followed was an interesting commentary of why the demons were important in the scheme of things. Of course they would say that, but it sounded so logical! I clung to what I was told, to discount what was said, and don't fall for making deals or doing favors in exchange for favors.
While this was going on, I double checked my spells. All in place. I had a lot of spells hung, and ready for use; much more than I normally was used to carrying, but I was far from home. I would not get a chance to call on the Gods, in this instance.
I drew my sword, and checked it. Shaitan was most interested in it.
"I have a similar sword. It is called Soul Stealer," he said, and drew it.
Immediately my sword screamed in rage at the other sword. Shaitan's sword reacted similarly. I was surprised. I looked at Shaitan, and he had a surprised look on his face as well. I sheathed my sword. It still had that chaos power about it.
"It would seem our swords dislike one another. Perhaps it would be best, not to draw them in close proximity to one another?" I said.
"I agree. This was most intriguing, though," Shaitan said with an interested expression on his face.
With the meal over, and our preparations complete, Shaitan was ready to transport us to the battlefield. His style of gating was somewhat brutal. He more or less ripped a hole in the very fabric of space, and walked through. After he did this, he would seal the rift.
I asked him if he found that more difficult than normal teleportation. He responded with: 'to each his own'. We came out on a hill of some sort. It overlooked a vast plain, which was occupied by a huge army! It took me a moment to figure out which side was which.
The demons were dressed all in black. The enemy wore a gray like color. The battle line snaked as I looked at it. In some parts, the demon's line held, in others the demons had advanced into the enemy's portion of the line. Along other portions of the line, the enemy had made advancements into the demon's territory.
It was the shear size of the line, and numbers of people? beings? that were fighting, that was stunning to me. There had to be over a million involved including both sides! It was mind boggling, to say the least!
While the lines went the entire width of this valley, beings on both sides were waiting to take their turn on the front of the line. I shook my head. As I watched, there were lights flaring on both sides of the line. 'Soldiers' were being killed or destroyed, and their bodies consumed by fire.
Darkness hung over my side of the lines, and a fog seemed to be trying to seep forward from the enemy side of the fighting. The darkness and fog fought each other, trying to get around one another, to advance the line.
Screams were drifting on the air and I winced at how many screams I was hearing. Some were battle charge yells; some were death screams, or just plain screams of rage and pain. I shook my head in disbelief.
"I must go to the battle and reinforce the right flank. It is slowly bending. Will you join me, or will you take the fight farther into their rear? The gate they control is behind these lines. Some few miles, that way," he said, pointing unwaveringly at a distant spot.
I fixed the point in my mind, and told him I was going to fly as far up as I could, and then go as far into the misty gray fog as I could. I wanted to try something, but first, I was willing to try to firm the lines with him.
He nodded, and changed into that devil shape with wings. I changed into my dragon form, keeping it small.
He nodded with approval, and started running down the hill. He launched himself into the air, and I followed suit. It was strange, flying with this being that I understood to be the ultimate evil, or so I had been told while growing up.
As we over flew the lines, I heard cheering coming from below. We flew towards the front. Finally, we started down. A space opened up, and we quickly landed. Shaitan kept his shape, as did I. I started to let my body grow, a little at a time. Soon, I had my form change completed. I was, once again, the huge dragon I had gotten so used to being when I flew.
Shaiton gave me a nod, saying, "I am glad you waited 'till now to get that large. The enemy could not have failed to take action, if they had seen something that big flying their way," he said with a toothy grin.
"That's why I waited until we got here. I am unsure how spell proof I will be here. Dragons, in my land, are mostly immune to spells," I replied.
"Now that would be a pretty good thing. This body I wear, while not immune to spells, can take a lot of spells cast at it, before I would fall to one," Shaitan told me. I filed this information away, as something useful to know.
I watched as Shaitan strode forward. As he went, darkness seemed to gather around him. He then cast the darkness forward into the enemy. As the darkness hit the enemy lines, the enemy would falter. Then the demons surged forward, killing and destroying all standing enemy in their path.
I thought again of that spell I had seen Svedra do, the one that summoned the spiders, and I drew in power. It came to me slowly, but finally I was ready. I rose on my draconic hind legs, got a good look at the enemy, and cast the spell.
Millions of spiders appeared, and started biting the enemy. As near as I could see, the enemy soldiers were apelike. Oh, they walked upright, carried weapons, and had armor and shields; but they seemed to be more primate, than human.
They reacted to the spiders as I had hoped. It was even better, as they seemed to fear the spiders. The section of battle we were at firmed up, and then we started to gain ground on the enemy held portion. I had lost site of Shaitan, but I felt him off to one side. I could feel him working magic; and I knew that his sword was out, drinking in the souls of the enemy.
I thought about some of my early training as a dragon. I reached out and felt for the moisture in this fog. I sank my power into it, and started to drain it of the moisture it needed to remain in existence. I am not sure how long I held that posture, but I finally heard cheering. I opened my eyes to see I had been passed up, and the army had advanced far into what had previously been enemy held land. I had succeeded.
I also noticed that I had picked up a guard from somewhere. Four demons were stationed around my form. When one of the demons saw that I had noticed them, it bowed to me.
"Great Lord, Shaitan sent us to guard you while you fought the fog! You were magnificent! Praise be to Shaitan! You turned the tide of battle!" it said, and bowed again. Hell, they all bowed.
"Uh, glad I could be of help," was all I said.
I started to lumber forward again. Praise be to Shaitan? Well, he was their Great One here, after all. I was more tempted to thank the Creator, myself, and a dragon who had taught me weather magic.
I lumbered forward, and soon caught up to the back of the army. I carefully shouldered my way through. I angled towards one side a bit, and soon had Shaitan in sight.
He was glowing a deep, deep black! His sword was out, and it too glowed! A shimmering of power danced along the blade, etched in red. Runes flared and glowed in red and black, as he toured the battle line.
I considered changing back into my human form, but to tell you the truth, I was feeling a lot, lot safer in my dragon form. Dragon hide and scales were a lot tougher than human skin. Still, I was going to have to change back, soon.
Hours had gone by, and still the battle raged. I followed Shaitan around like his pet dragon, and worked the weather magic when I could. It seemed to work just fine, but something was starting to interfere with my draining of the fog's moisture. Someone or something was starting to counter my efforts.
What was really needed, was an effective 'area' spell that was deadly to the enemy. I considered and discarded several ideas. As far as I could see, it was body against body, soldier against soldier. Even if it was demons, and um, whatever the others were; it was still a waste of life.
Hmmm, what if I expanded on the spider web spell? If I poured more power into it, and... Yes! It would work! Well, it should work. I could feel that most of the spiders were now dead. What if webs appeared and fell from the sky onto the enemy? I chuckled a draconic chuckle. I received several startled looks. Suddenly, more space became cleared around me.
I started gathering power. It was slow, so I tapped into my ring. I felt a rush, and I had all the power for this spell that I needed. I cast it. Slowly at first; a strand here, and a strand there, came down and landed on an enemy soldier.
Soon, strands of silk were falling from the sky like snow. As far as my eye could see, strands came and covered the enemy. Soon, the enemy soldiers were bound up in spider silk. They were slaughtered by the tens of thousands.
Shaitan came striding up to me a short time later.
"Paul! You were magnificent this day! The enemy has started to withdraw, and we have recaptured a great deal of our land! Well done!" Shaitan said, and slapped my shoulder as he left. I almost snarled at his familiarity. I had noticed that the darkness had advanced as far as I could see, into enemy held territory.
I started to draw on my one connection to Morwan, to recharge my ring. It was a slow process, but I wanted that power available, if I needed it. It had come in handy twice, now.
The demon army was reforming and marching off into the direction the enemy had fled. I sent my thoughts out in front of the advancing demons, and felt the enemy as they retreated. As I was getting ready to pull back my thoughts, I felt something probe me.
I was instantly on guard, and had a shield in place. The probing eased, and withdrew. I followed the retreating probe, and lost it in the fog. How could I lose a probe? It was mental, yet the fog was affecting me, so I retreated back to my body.
When I opened my eyes, I noticed that all was silent around me. My guards were all kneeling. I looked around, and Shaitan was kneeling before a person. I cautiously probed him, and was not too surprised when my probe failed to get anything.
I changed into my human form, and started over to Shaitan. The person he was kneeling too had his back to me, and was looking into the distance. Even before I got to them, the one with his back turned to me spoke.
"Greetings, Paul, "he said in the most beautiful voice I ever remembered hearing.
"Hello to you," I replied, my voice sounding course and rough by comparison.
He turned around, and I gasped at his beauty! I had seen Gods before, and felt them. I had always been in awe of them. But this being before me was, well, magnificent! I wanted to throw myself at his feet and worship him. It was a struggle, but I resisted.
He was the epitome of maleness, and male handsomeness, or beauty. I had never wanted to make love to a man before, but the first impression I had of this man, was I would do anything he wanted, even sex.
I firmed my resolve. I bowed respectfully. He inclined his head, and looked at me. He had blond hair, and very light almost golden colored eyes. He had almost delicate features that belied his station and power.
The ring on my finger that blocked demonic power, was almost burning my finger! I figured that it was what was standing between me, and total subservience to this being. I was standing before a being that had long lived with the Creator, as the Creator's right hand, if I understood it right.
He looked me over, and I was sure he knew everything about my weapon, my cloak, and my rings and staff. He gave me the most beautiful smile.
"My son Shaitan tells me you were instrumental in our breaking the enemy lines, today. I give you my thanks. You have already proved your worth. I would offer you a position with me, but I am sure you would consider it an insult. But know that you have my thanks, thus far. If I can do anything for you, feel free to ask," he said in that smooth beautiful voice.
"If I may ask, what do I call you?" I asked in a voice that still sounded rough in my ears.
"You may call me Morningstar," he responded with a smile that lit his face.
Damn! More Earth myth, here. How did I separate fact from fiction? It was going to be a very confusing time. I nodded a slight bow his way, and wondered what I should do next.
Edited by TeNderLoin