Chaos Of A Demon War: Book Three of The Nexus Of Kellaran Trilogy - Metric Edition

Chaos Of A Demon War

Book Three of

The Nexus Of Kellaran Trilogy

Metric Edition

By

Wayne Edward Clarke

A Smashwords.com Digital Production

Copyright2015

By

Wayne Edward Clarke

All Rights Reserved

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance between the characters and any real persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

The purchaser of this ebook may copy this ebook to any computers, ebook reading devices, or backup digital storage media that the purchaser personally owns. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people by the purchaser. This ebook may not be loaned by the purchaser to other people unless the purchaser is also loaning the ebook reading device that this ebook will be read on. This ebook may not be copied to any device or media that is not personally owned by the purchaser. The purchaser must delete this ebook from any devices or media that the purchaser is selling, giving away, or disposing of. For the purposes of this statement of rights; corporations are not people. Corporations must purchase one copy of each eBook for each human person associated with the company who will read them.

Books By Wayne Edward Clarke:

Epic Science Fiction:

The Rational Future Trilogy:

Book 1; People Of The Tiger

Book 2; Hunters In The Sky

Book 3; Victory Or Extinction

Epic Fantasy:

The Nexus Of Kellaran Trilogy:

Book 1; Blessings Of A Curse (free)

Book 2; The Fire And The Storm

Book 3; Chaos Of A Demon War

Standard-length Kellaran Fantasy:

Soul Dead and Green Eyes

Non-Fiction;

Answers: The Fundamentals of Rational Realism

These are available in most popular ebook formats at leading online book retailers

And on popular ebook apps for Apple and Android devices.

my Facebook Author’s page.

My Website

Maps

Be sure to check out the full-color video of the globe of Kellaran rotating in space on my Facebook Author’s page. These grayscale maps are not all to the same scale. Symbols that look like upside-down V are mountains, the symbols that look a bit like upside-down W are volcanoes.

Kellaran Maps Key

Towns and Cities

1 - Shinosa Valley

2 - Gimoosh

3 - Latrel

4 - Bojoston

5 - Coradok

6 - Copper Strike

7 - Axis

8 - White Sands

9 - Verzaclon City

10 - Focus Mountain

11 - Xerv-Upon-Loch-Crotia

12 - Kejaz

13 - City of The Lair of The Dragon Lord

14 - Zarkog’s observatory

15 - Bejiur

16 - Kraka

Small Nations, Islands, Archipelagos

A - The People Of Life

B - The High People

C - The People Of Clouds

D - The Fisher Folk

E - Hilia

F - Hiliani

G - The Lava Shapers

H - Enj

J - The Thundering Escarpment

K - The Dakrin Cliffs

L - The Stone Islands

M - Nipukbu

N - Simifilibufitu

SP - Enclaves of The Sea People with Embassy status

Debevin

Felion

Serminak

Xervia

Kletiuk

Foreword

This is the Metric Edition, which uses Metric (SI) units of measurement. A USA Edition, which uses American Imperial (Standard) units of measurement is also available.

Elements of my style that the reader should note are my use of italics to indicate quoted sentences that are telepathically or psionicly communicated. For example;

"It’s wonderful to be able to think with you, mind-to-mind." she responded.

I use the same MS Word files for both eBooks and paper books, and paper book printers don’t like bold or underlined text, so I also use italics occasionally to indicate words that are spoken with intensity. For example;

"You are absolutely out of your mind!" he growled.

If a sentence is already italicized because it’s a telepathic communication, any words in that sentence that are communicated with extra intensity will be indicated by being non-italicized, for example;

"That’s all a bunch of crap, and you know it." she psionicly reprimanded him.

I use ALL CAPITALS occasionally to indicate yelling or great loudness, whether the words are spoken or telepathic; volume and intensity being distinct qualities.

In this story, many common words are also the names of magic spells, such as Sending, Flight, and Speaking, or have traditionally had highly religious connotations like The Source, and those words are capitalized to indicate this.

Since languages began, they have constantly changed and evolved. The advents of written language, printing, and language standardization have all slowed language evolution, but it still goes on. Sometimes the resulting conventions that make up ‘proper English’ don’t make a lot of sense, and they are slightly different in every English-speaking country. In most of these cases I’ve caved and used the conventions anyway in order to avoid irritating my readers who are sensitive about these things, like writing ‘seven thousand, three hundred and fifty-five’. It makes no sense that the compound words for numbers up to one hundred are hyphenated, like fifty-five, and the others aren’t, like three thousand. But I go with it anyway. I’m Canadian, and I’ve recently realized that the way I use semicolons is only correct in Canadian English, but other than that I try to use USA English because it’s less irrational than the other varieties.

However, there is one English convention that I absolutely refuse to follow because it distorts the emotional connotations of the writing. I’ll point it out one here so that you’ll know that it’s not a mistake; I’m doing it on purpose.

If a quoted sentence is a question or an exclamation, it is conventionally written as a complete sentence within quotations, for example;

Get down! she yelled. Or;

Is that right? he asked.

However if a sentence that would normally end in a period is a quotation, correct English says that it should be ended with a comma. For example;

I live here, he said.

But the comma makes it a sentence fragment rather than a complete sentence, and leaves the reader hanging, giving a different emotional feel to the writing compared to the way I would write it, which is;

I live here. he said.

I only use a comma to end a quotation if it truly is a sentence fragment, because the sentence was interrupted where a comma would normally go. For example;

I live here, he said, And you’re not welcome.

I suppose in that case I shouldn’t capitalize the word ‘and’, since it’s not really the first word in a sentence, but it bugs me if I don’t.

It’s hard to change what is considered Correct English, but I hope that other writers who read my books will agree with me about these points and do the same in their own writing, and that eventually doing it our way will be considered correct.

Kellaran is over 84,000 miles (135,185 km) in circumference. The circumference of the Earth is 24,901 miles (40,075 km).

Wayne Edward Clarke, December 22, 2015

Chaos Of A Demon War

Summaries of Previous Events

These summaries are definitely NOT enough to substitute for having read the previous two books in the series. These summaries serve only to remind readers of the previous two books of what has occurred, but if you try to read this book without having read the first two reasonably recently, you will certainly be confused, especially concerning who all the characters are.

From Blessings Of A Curse, Book One of The Nexus of Kellaran.

Excerpted from Chronicles by Grakonexikaldoron; Mightiest of Gold Dragons, Chronicler for The Ninety-Nine; Leaders of Xervian Draconia.

(If you are reading this account in a language other than Grand High Draconian, you might consider making a contribution to the Translation section of your local Magic Users Guild. XVD)

It sometimes happens that there are moments of upheaval in the history and development of a world, and during these rare and tumultuous times, persons of exceptional talent and ability sometimes rise quickly from obscurity to dominate great events.

Such was the case with one Markee Longstrider, who is one of the largest living humans, but who none-the-less began the events leading to the formation of The Just Alliance as just a human boy lost and alone, traumatized by horror and loss, possessing nothing but his towering potential and his superb lifelong training as a Ranger of the Kingdom of Finitra.

As to how this came to pass; his people had been destroyed to the last by magic most foul and mysterious, forcing him from his isolated alpine valley home, to trek for months through a vast and uncharted chain of mountains. He chanced upon the border of The Nine Valleys of The High People, a nation of mountain elves led by Prince Yazadril, one of the most respected and formidable members of that race. Prince Yazadril detected that Mark was possessed of completely unique magical properties, and he invited the young man within The Nine Valleys for the purpose of research, the first human to pass within that land in the history of the elves.

The elves who were privy to the next events have refused to reveal them in detail, none-the less it is known that Princess Dalia; Daughter of Prince Yazadril, and Prince Bezedil of The People of Life, the nation of the forest elves, were both apparently killed by a curse that made it appear that their deaths were the fault of Yazadril’s other twin daughter; Princess Talia of The High People. Bezedil’s mother Princess Alilia, reigning monarch of The People of Life, was disconsolate and enraged by Bezedil’s death, and she cursed Talia to suffer until the end of days. For reasons unrevealed by the elves, Mark was soon married to Princess Talia after he cleared her of fault in the recent deaths. Their magnificent wedding was attended by the entirety of the elven race, and they received a substantial trove of wealth, possessions, and properties as wedding gifts. Their guests included the rulers of the elven nations, and thus Mark was afforded access to the highest levels of their governments. He quickly offered the first of his Suggestions; the advice he has given that has led to the formation of The Just Alliance, the definition of its character, and its victory over Serminak. In his humble way, he continually insists that his breath-taking brilliance and wisdom is ‘Only Common Sense’, and we generally humor him on the subject.

He soon gained the sworn loyalty of some eighteen hundred elves, and formed The Six of Hilia as a military unit, which included his elven wizard wife Talia, the mated dragons Kragorram and Povon, and the mated unicorns Silaran and Equemev. Under their influence his unique and astounding but latent talent as a spell-caster was fanned from a spark to an inferno.

He then formed the Principality of Hilia, having successfully negotiated the sovereignty of the tiny island of Hilia from the elven nation The People of Rain.

Thus the newly ascended Prince and Princess and their new companions in the Six of Hilia were qualified and invited to attend the inaugural meeting of The Assembly of The Just Alliance of all the races and nations of Kellaran except those of Serminak. And there, Mark’s brilliant and convincing speeches on the nature of their coalition and its laws established the spirit of The Just Alliance, and saw him proclaimed by acclamation as its informal leader.

The next day Mark and Talia were attacked by the forces of the same insidious conspiracy that was responsible for his people’s deaths, in an assassination attempt that they barely survived. They later appeared back in The Nine Valleys, accompanied by some of the elite of The Just Alliance, where Mark revived his wife Talia’s twin sister Princess Dalia, and Prince Bezedil of The People of Life; son of reigning Princess Alilia. This Healing was especially noteworthy, since both of those elves had been declared dead by a renowned Healer over four days previously.

Dalia later speculated that her Healing may have been a divine act, and that drew the attention of the gods to Hilia, where Mark’s party had secluded themselves after the Healing. The gods declared that most of the mortals present were Candidates for Divinity, and the mortals were urged to realize that potential and become new gods as quickly as possible, though no instructions or reasons for achieving that were given. This caused a confrontation between Mark and the gods that almost failed to end peacefully.

Two days later Mark and Talia and their companions in The Six of Hilia showed the world their spell-casting and battle prowess, when they defeated eighty-eight assassins in less than three seconds in a quick battle over the seat of government of the dwarves in Kletiuk. That was Mark’s seventeenth birthday, and that night he met his estranged extended family from Finitra, and attended a great tournament held in his honor on Hilia, presented in gratitude for his having saved the life of Prince Bezedil.

Early the next morning the Assembly of The Just Alliance met again. They attempted to initiate diplomatic contacts with Serminak; the continent of The Dark Dragons and of The Sylvan, who are great dark elves. The Alliance learned that the insidious conspiracy that had been causing havoc all over Kellaran was in fact the product of Zarkog; The Dragon Lord of Serminak. They also learned that several small worlds were approaching Kellaran; one full of millions of demons, and the rest in a separate group filled with billions of unknown beings. Zarkog declared that he would lead the defense of Kellaran against the demons, and further declared that in order to facilitate his leadership; the rest of the nations would surrender themselves up to him completely within the hour, or face annihilation from his vast forces.

The Just Alliance was unwilling to be dictated to by Zarkog in anything, so rather than wait the hour they had been given, they launched an immediate pre-emptive strike with all of their mobile forces. Their only goal was the capture or death of Zarkog, sparing all others if possible. They failed in that goal, and after the battle Zarkog directed his forces to capture Mark and Talia, who led them a merry chase all over Kellaran for many hours.

We later learned that after the chase, Mark was visited by a god of the Triax, the otherworldly race who inhabited the quickly-approaching sphere worlds. It revealed that they would assist the peoples of Kellaran in defeating the demons, if the Kellarani could achieve peace among themselves. This prompted the gods of Kellaran to declare that Mark’s struggle with Zarkog would decide the future of the gods’ relations with the mortals of Kellaran; if Zarkog won, the gods would remain withdrawn from the world of mortals, intervening as little as possible to ensure their people’s survival. If Mark won, the gods would rejoin the peoples of Kellaran as citizens with equal rights, and co-operatively assist in defending the world from the demons.

The next day the war continued with sporadic terror attacks by the Serminakis on the peoples of The Just Alliance, while The Six of Hilia spent the day training for war by sharing the dream of Quewanak; the eldest living dragon. While twelve hours passed for the rest of us, The Six spent over seventy-eight years of subjective time learning how to defeat Zarkog by trial and error, in a perfectly realistic simulation of the entire world with everyone in it.

They then called a meeting of The Just Alliance. They revealed what they had learned, then taught the others the spells they had developed, and Mark was given temporary command of the entire alliance for five days, or until he won the war, whichever came first. They freed the captive nations of the trolls, the ogres, and the insect race called The Swarm, swore them all to justice with binding oaths, and added them to The Alliance’s forces. They next forcefully ended Zarkog’s terror attacks, then infiltrated and turned many of his commanders.

Finally, assisted by the magic power of every spell-caster in The Just Alliance, Mark and Talia challenged Zarkog to personal combat. Zarkog was aided by the magic of all his continent’s hordes of spell casters, and Talia was incapacitated halfway through the fight, but the awesome and incredible battle was eventually won by Mark.

With the defeat of Zarkog, the rest of the Serminakis were quickly defeated or surrendered, and all were forcibly sworn to justice.

During the global celebration for the victorious end to the war, many awards and medals were presented, and a grand time was had by all. Mark assumed the Lordship of Serminak, then he and General Zwak Deathbringer of the Sylvan initiated The Game of Status; whereby the Sylvan and others who felt too constricted by their vow of justice could compete for status against other declared players through underhanded means, in order to maintain their sanity.

Then the gods appeared and declared that The Withdrawal was at an end, and that they would rejoin the affairs of mortals as citizens with equal rights, though they did form their own nations in order to have a say in The Assembly of The Just Alliance.

And just when it seemed that events could not possibly become the tiniest bit more incredible, they were joined by three gods of The Triax, and those strange beings soon formed accords with the gods and peoples of Kellaran.

So, in the scant seven days which culminated in the victory in war of The Just Alliance over The Dragonlord of Serminak, simple Markee Longstrider became Prince Markhan Reginus Longstrider of Hilia, Lord of Serminak, Key to The Just Alliance, Key to the Nexus of Kellaran, and Leader of the world. Having won the war, as well as the hearts and loyalty of most of the populace, he promptly gave up his rule of Kellaran, or so he keeps insisting.

In the weeks after the war, Mark and Talia officially worked for twelve hours each workday, with three days off in every eightday, but their duties were not arduous. During the first four hours and the last four hours of each workday they lazed around and played on their private beach, visiting with their many guests and engaging in informal discussions on every subject. Monarchs came to discuss politics and administration, wizards came to share the latest spells, generals came to discuss battle strategy in the void, engineers came to show off and demonstrate the latest weapons and devices. Tithian, leader of the unicorn nation and I kept them abreast of the latest magical and astronomical research.

It was made clear to the Keys to The Just Alliance that these informal discussions were of great value to those they spoke with, and that their off-hand commentary on the things they learned consistently led to new breakthroughs and new directions of research, even if their discussions were conducted while enjoying archery practice on the beach or while paddling in the lagoon.

The gods had taken to using the subtlest of disguises. While in their presence, most people forgot the fact that they were gods, even though everything else about them was easily recalled. After they had left, it was remembered that they were divine. The gods did this as part of their ongoing opposition to any form of religion on Kellaran.

But no disguising of any kind was used at Mark and Talia’s secluded beach, which was often visited by the gods of two pantheons. They would sometimes drop by singly, and sometimes in small groups of no more than five. A few of their discussions on morality and policy went on continuously for days.

The middle four hours of Mark and Talia’s workday were spent traveling and talking to people. This involved anything from informal chats over tea with chance-met citizens in a hostelry they’d picked at random, to formal speeches delivered to vast multitudes. They attended formal social occasions of every variety and every size with persons of note in every field, and often visited schools, Healers’ hospices, and public works sites.

When off duty, Mark and Talia enjoyed life to the fullest; attending the arts, participating in sports and games, and playing the tourist, and they routinely hid their identities when off-duty in public. Often they selected a beautiful and isolated place in which to simply relax and enjoy each other’s company, and to let their love grow.

There came a particular sunny afternoon on their beach, five weeks after their victory over Zarkog. Present were Mark and Talia’s closest friends and the gods they were most familiar with. Those gods urged Mark to use the knowledge he had gained in his battle with Zarkog to become a god himself, and to affect the change in as many other mortals as possible.

From The Fire And The Storm, Book Two of The Nexus Of Kellaran.

Excerpted from Chronicles by Grakonexikaldoron; Mightiest of Gold Dragons, Chronicler for The Ninety-Nine; Leaders of Xervian Draconia.

Mark refused to make himself a deity, on the grounds that he and Talia planned to have children before they became gods, and the gods seemed to lose the urge to have children and considered all of the mortals of their own race to be as their children.

It was then proposed that Mark and Talia should seclude themselves within a time bubble cast by the gods, along with as many others as they wished to form a community among which to raise their young. While two months passed in the outside world, twenty-four years would pass within the time bubble. Other time bubbles would be cast elsewhere, to allow other exceptional people enough time to raise children and complete researches before the time when the war with the demons was expected to begin; two years hence in real time.

Mark and Talia accepted, and their time bubble was cast around the islands that were renamed Hiliani. Their community was composed of half a thousand humans and elves, a few unicorns, and four dragons. Within the time bubble they soon formed a bonded relationship with Alilia, recently divorced reigning Princess of the elven nation called The People of Life.

Talia bore Mark twins. A girl, Helemia Longstrider, and a boy, Markhan Reginus Longstrider the Sixth who was initially called Reggie, to differentiate him from his father and his great-grandfather. The two of them were so gifted in telepathy and other forms of psionic power that they contacted each other, and then their mother, while still only two-thirds formed in the womb. Talia then brought them into contact with Mark and Alilia, and they began attempting to teach their unborn children. The twins’ psionic bond was never to be broken or interrupted, and though they were mentally healthy and formed their own individuality, it was sometimes said that the two truly only had one great mind between them, though the truth of that is unknown.

Soon after that, while their parents were deeply asleep, the two unborn babes went mentally exploring. The girl contacted a Sylvan, who resisted her psionic probe and attacked her with his own psionic power. She defended herself and brutalized his mind in the process, broke his psionic shields effortlessly, and read all she found within. The boy found the dragon Kragorram, broke his psionic shields with little effort, and read his mind completely. Though the two were not truly capable of forming permanent memories yet, these experiences were still to have permanent effects.

Alilia bore Mark a daughter; Valentia Longstrider. The twins brought her into psionic contact with their parents before her eighth month of gestation, then they began to teach her. Though she was not as psionicly precocious as her siblings, she still developed a fiercely intelligent mind with strong psionic ability. And like her mother and father, she was incredibly talented with the use of magic. This ability manifested from the moment of her birth when she cast tiny Force bolts and Fireballs, which almost caused a disaster.

The other children of the settlement (and many of the adults) found Mark’s children to be so intimidating and uncanny that the only child to befriend them was the dragon Karzog, the most promising infant child of Zarkog, who had been adopted after the War of the Founding by Povon and Kragorram. Karzog and Mark’s three young soon became an inseparable quartet. The three young warlocks hurried Karzog’s development by arcane means so that the young dragon could keep pace with them, as young dragons normally take over eighty years to reach adulthood.

Reggie was gifted with prophesy, and one of his predictions was that the demons would call Helemia The Fire, and they would call him The Storm.

The inhabitants of the time bubble filled their time with work, study, entertainments, family life, and with making great improvements in their ability to wage war upon the approaching demons. Impressive fortifications were built and equipped all over the islands. Mark’s children and Karzog trained harder than anyone, because it was in their natures to do so, and because they knew that they must face the demons in war within a few years. Before the age when some children were considered old enough to begin school, they had surpassed most adults in magic, psionics, physical martial arts, strategy, and tactics.

The islands of Hiliani had been thought to be uninhabited when Mark bought them for the time bubble, but when Helemia psionicly fought and defeated a Sylvan while she was still in the womb it was found that a large community of Sylvan lived there. They had remained undetected prior to that because they were disciples of the Sylvan God of Stealth, and he had cast his aura upon them, and they practiced the skills of his mandate with great zeal. He had departed just before the time bubble was cast, in order to avoid being contained by it.

Those Sylvan lived ‘wild’, as their people had lived almost since their creation, with the exception that their god forbid their adults to kill one another. They still contested with each other by every other means, including torture.

When their young were old enough to become dangerous to them they evicted the young from their homes with nothing beyond the clothes they were wearing and what possessions they had that they could carry. This usually occurred when their children were twelve to fourteen years of age. The Sylvan young then killed one another without mercy or restraint, until they were twenty-five years old, or had gained enough ability and maturity that the adults welcomed them back into the community. This process was known as ‘the winnowing’.

Mark’s children and Karzog were the first to have a series of realizations concerning the local Sylvan; That they would be helpless to the demons unless they were warned of the demons’ approach, that they could be far more effective in battle if trained to fight demons in a co-operative and military manner, that the winnowing was barbaric and an extreme waste of talent and ability, and that due to their great fecundity the Sylvan could breed great numbers before the demons arrived were it not for the winnowing.

So, a day came when Mark’s children were five and six years old, and Karzog was nineteen. They began their day by outfitting themselves with their best armor and weapons, and when they were asked of their plans they announced that they were ‘going out to play with the Sylvan kids’. And by that they meant that they would capture and conquer all the wild Sylvan youths and train some military discipline into them. Mark approved of their plan, and in order to give it legality, he declared that the four children, three half-elves and a dragon, were collectively The Governors of Hiliani. The term ‘the Governors’ continued to be used as a handy nickname for the four of them, even later when they were no longer actively serving in that function. Individually, as they came to know themselves, Valentia, Karzog, Helemia, and Reggie chose to be called Val, Karz, Fire, and Six (for Mark the Sixth) respectively.

Their training program for the Sylvan youth was soon expanded to include the Sylvan adults as well, so that their military efforts could be more closely integrated with the community of Mark’s people.

While in the time bubble Hilsith, elven Master Healer, with help from everyone else there, successfully completed her researches into giving every human the ability to use magic and be long-lived, as the elves were.

The spell casters made great advances in technique, primarily the Governors and Mark, and particularly Valentia, who made amazing strides in the casting of automated spells.

Kragorram and Six were instrumental in designing and building spherical ships that would allow the Kellarani to travel and make war in the void.

When the Governors were six, seven, and twenty-one years old, respectively, they and the unicorns on the islands were feeling so stifled from being confined in the time bubble that they asked that it be opened early, with sixteen years of internal time still scheduled to be run within it. Only the unicorns, a few Sylvan, and the four children wanted to leave the time bubble, and the children’s parents who would stay with them. Everyone else on Hiliani asked that the bubble be re-initiated for its remaining sixteen years a week after those who were leaving had gone.

Among those who would be staying were the eighty-six elves of The High People known as The Hilian Volunteers who had sworn their lifelong service to Mark voluntarily, and they each asked to spend some private time with him doing activities of their choice before he was gone. He agreed with this, even though all forty-three of the females wanted to spend their time in his bed, sharing pleasure.

Six proved his ability as a prophet beyond all doubt by correctly predicting the name of the otherwise unknown entity that would open the time bubble.

Once released from the time bubble it was seen that the Game of Status had gotten unacceptably extreme without Povon and Mark to supervise it; blatant murders were occurring and the economy of Serminak was stagnant. Murders were dealt with by the Governors by means of an incredibly complex automated spell, and the rest of the Game’s problems were soon solved by Povon and a vast team of investigators and magic users.

While visiting Zarkog, the Governors proposed a great tournament, with the prize being nothing less than command of The Just Alliance during the upcoming war with the demons. The gods heard and agreed to organize and referee the tournament, though they couldn’t promise that the Assembly of the just Alliance would agree to give rule to the winner.

During the next meeting of the Assembly, held for the residents of the Hiliani time bubble to welcome them back and allow them to announce their discoveries, it was seen that a number of previously unknown intelligent aquatic peoples from deep beneath the seas had been invited to join The Just Alliance by their gods, and had accepted. The methods that Hilsith had discovered on Hiliani to make any humanoid a wizard with long life were cast on everyone who could benefit from them. Valentia devised a complex automated spell that gave all the new wizards an education in the use of their new abilities, and she devised another complex automated spell to do peoples’ physical work for them while they learned and trained.

Mark could no longer consciously recall the great realizations he’d had when his mind was dangerously over-charged with power at the end of his battle with Zarkog. In order to rediscover them they initiated the greatest brainstorming mind-meld ever attempted. They were successful in re-making his earlier discovery, and in making many new ones as well. He re-discovered how to become a god and how to give the Ascension to others who were capable of it, while his children discovered how to have the power of gods without becoming one.

They later met with and exchanged world military histories with the Triax and their gods, in order to increase their understanding of warfare in the void.

The Governors modified the training programs that they’d designed for the Sylvan on Hiliani and instituted them among the Sylvan of Serminak. The programs worked well enough that many people from other races joined them.

At the request of Alilia’s people, she and Mark and Talia were officially married in a state wedding that politically bonded Hilia and Serminak with The People of Life, and strengthened their bond with The High People.

Yzell, renowned elven midwife, had been working on a solution to the fertility problem while in the time bubble; trying to find ways to increase and control the fertility of elves and other humanoid peoples. During a meeting of the Assembly of the Alliance she appeared before Mark and confessed with great anguish that she had solved the fertility problem, but in order to do so she had removed the contraception from the forty-three elven females of The Hilian Volunteers just before Mark had copulated with them, so she could study their conceptions and pregnancies. As a result of this, all forty-three of them were pregnant by Mark, and Kalem would bear him twins. Mark’s prodigious anger was vented by a colossal blasting of bare rock, and after his anger had cooled it was discovered that Yzell had done this because her mind had been forced by Quewanak.

In order to raise his forty-four new children Mark used a spell that allowed him to assume Multiple Manifestations. One copy of him would remain in the outside world, while multiple copies of him returned to the time bubble for the remaining sixteen years of its planned duration, where he and Talia and Alilia helped all The Hilian Volunteers raise their children by him. A copy of Talia and one of Alilia also stayed outside to be with their three children.

Spells were crafted by many peoples to allow them to survive in the void, and the peoples of the world began training to face the demons in training exercises conducted by the most capable gods, and attended by larger and larger groupings of everyone else, culminating in universal exercises involving almost everyone of Kellaran and every one of the Triax; gods and mortals of both worlds working together.

Mark’s forty-four new children asked to be released from the time bubble when they were twelve, so that they wouldn’t be too different in age from Fire, Six, and Val.

After the time bubbles reached their scheduled end and their residents emerged back into the real world, Mark kept his word, cast upon himself, and became a god. But he became a new type of god who retained as many of his mortal characteristics as possible. He helped over a hundred others do the same. While this was happening, Hilsith the Healer reached divinity by her own efforts, and in the conventional manner.

When the Tournament of Governors was held, he was victorious, with a strategy that included naming every person on Kellaran to his team to maximize their available wisdom, and otherwise keeping everything else exactly as it was in reality. He was then declared the ruling Governor of Kellaran. He refused it, but everyone else refused his refusal. Zarkog attained divinity during his turn in the tournament.

Another round of time bubbles was emplaced, with half the population of the world inside them, to maximize their capabilities. They ran their course and were opened.

Finally it seemed that Kellaran and the Triax in orbit around it were as prepared for war against the demons as it was possible for them to be.

Four and a half months after The Tournament of Governors, the demons acted, and Zarkog detected it. Their colossal flying lair stopped dead from a speed of many tens of thousands of kilometres per hour, and the energy of its momentum was transduced into an attack of unknown nature.

The Kellaran-Triax alliance attacked and destroyed the demons’ rock almost instantly, but the demons had already abandoned it before then.

First Mauve of the Triax summarized what they had learned;

"There were only a relative few greater demons left on their vessel when we arrived." First Mauve reported from her people’s largest vessel, Speaking only to the members of The Assembly and the pantheons. "We had time to Read them thoroughly. Part of why they had been left there was for that very reason, so that they could be Read by us, and we would be filled with fear when we learned the truth. And I am indeed filled with fear. They knew they were about to die, they knew they had been sacrificed, and I am certain that their memories were not false. Some information was withheld from them so we could not learn it from them, such as the location of their homeworld in relation to here.

"The demons’ leadership judged us well; they left just enough demons in the rock to ensure that we would choose to destroy it rather than just killing the demons and preserving the rock for further examination."

She paused, as if choosing her words carefully. "We hoped that this was a wandering horde who did not know that demons had been defeated here on Kellaran some seven million years ago. We hoped they were not a punitive expedition sent from their homeworld to punish Kellaran for their defeat here before. We thought that we had hidden my people here from their sight, and we thought that they could not spy out our planning and preparations from such a distance.

"We were wrong on all those counts. These demons were indeed sent here by their homeworld, and by every wandering horde that the homeworld controls or maintains contact with. They know of their defeat here before and they intend to destroy Kellaran, but that is not their primary purpose.

"The demon homeworld has become aware that The Triax are hunting and killing them all over this part of the galaxy. They are taking the threat we pose to them very seriously, and these demons are their response to us. Their primary purpose is to erase The Triax from the void completely, wherever we may be. And they have brought enough power to do it.

"Our situation is worse than grim.

"The demons know almost everything about us, and everything we’ve planned, somehow. They certainly know all that has been disclosed to the public at any rate, and that is almost all of our planning, so our further planning must be done under a state of military secrecy. We regret that; secrecy is always less healthy than openness, but it must be done.

"We don’t think they have spied us out closely enough to gain the specifics of our methods; the new spell techniques that have been developed on Kellaran, and the new Triax technologies that have been inspired by what we have learned from you. We still have many weapons that they cannot yet counter.

"As Zarkog surmised, the energy of their vessel’s momentum has been largely used as an attack against us, which will surely strike us within the next few hours. The demons who were left as sacrifices were not informed of the nature of the attack.

"The rest of the momentum was used to power Gates, which the demons used to evacuate their vessel. They are hidden somewhere in the region of your star, preparing their next attack in case their first one should fail to destroy us all. I doubt that such was their original plan, but they have learned enough of us to know that we are far stronger than they expected us to be. Despite their strength, they are being very cautious. Though they are many and powerful, there are still billions of places on your star’s worlds, moons, and other objects where they could hide from us. Even if we detect them as soon as we examine their location, it may still take a considerable time to examine all the possible locations. And they may be able to hide from us so well that detecting them may require a very careful examination of their refuge.

"The hundreds of millions of demons who were psionicly detected aboard the vessel were only its crew. Its cargo was millions of DemonLords, all traveling in a comatose state, all packed in like beans in a jar, as you would say. Many millions of them. They are all awake and active now.

"We have never even imagined having to face a force so strong.

"We have already sent our thirty-three fastest gods to warn The Triax homeworld and our other colonies and war fleets, and to ask them to send help. We can only hope that some of us still survive when they finally arrive, and that they are enough."

Chaos Of A Demon War

Chapter 1

"All right." Mark nodded, his mind racing. "Yazadril, you have the Command Link for defense; evacuate everyone to the most secure areas as fast as possible.

"Heklivmalgiso, you’re the Pantheon defense coordinator. Get everyone with top power but not top psionics to start bolstering defenses as soon as the evacuation is complete; time bubbles over major population centers if they can, Battle Shields over moderate population centers if they can’t, and go completely enclosing including protection from below; we want the protection to stand even if the ground is shattered by an earthquake or demons try to come up out of the rock.

"Defense team, keep concentrating for as long as we have. If we’re finished the evacuation and the defenses before the demons’ attack hits then evacuate from the weakest secure area to the strongest and consolidate the defending power. If we have enough time we’ll end up with one land evacuation zone and one undersea evacuation zone, with absolutely all our defensive power concentrated around those two places. And if we pick a coastal area with a big bay, we might be able to get those last two concentrated into one.

"Everyone with a psionic score equal to or higher than their power score; you’re on offense under Amirgath. Link up as much as possible to maximize your psionics, spread out throughout the void around everything that circles The Source, find the damn demons, then start killing them with hit and run tactics. Don’t leave yourselves vulnerable to an overwhelming counter-attack, don’t be afraid to tear some reality to get the job done, and remember that none of them have seen any of our attacks from the exercises yet. Zarkog, you’re with the offense team with your psionic amplifier.

"Tithian, I’m boosting power to your precog team, and we’re gonna find out what the hell the demons’ imminent attack is, and I mean right now!"

"We match your strategy." First Mauve informed him on behalf of the Triax. Top psionics on the hunt, precogs scrying the enemy attack, the rest bolstering defenses.

"Your power is comparatively wasted with us." Tithian informed him. Join your children.

Mark did so by deciding to. He found Kellaran’s warlocks; all forty-seven of his children and Glup of the Zurb, on the far side of their star from Kellaran. The Forty-Four and Glup were pouring all their warlock power into Val, who was using it to cast and hold stable a warlock’s power collecting field that covered almost a third of the star’s surface. Val was pouring all of the power the field collected into Six and Fire, who were using it to cast an ever-increasing number of automated self-powering psionic hunter-killer spells that ran on conventional Source power. All of them except Glup were deeply linked, and Six and Fire were using everyone else’s mental capacity to boost their own.

Karzog stood guard over them. While they were completely pre-occupied and fiercely concentrating, he floated in the void with his awareness spread as far around them as he could get it.

Mark considered it all for almost a quarter of a second, Linked with Glup to both of their surprise, and threw everything he had into assisting the entire process. The power of the spells and the number of them per second that the twins were casting both doubled almost instantly, and kept growing at a staggering pace.

Still, they were not the first to find the demons. That honor was claimed by Gukegbuk Tb Kwetkerth, the gargoyles’ Goddess of Awareness. She and seventeen other gods and goddesses of Kellaran and thirty-one of the Triax spent a second surveying the situation as discreetly as they could, then Amirgath directed a withdrawal to confer. They joined the warlocks on the far side of their sun from both the demons and Kellaran.

"Zarkog, you are most knowledgeable about conditions that are pertinent. Speak, both to us and to the