Baker, Shyft, and I went back to our rooms to finish packing. I met with Jasper and gave him the key to my office. My brothers met us there when Doran walked in.

“I have some gifts for you three. I’ve been working on them in secret and it’s been difficult but they are done. Follow me.” He led us down to the forge, to a magickally locked cabinet. He opened it and an array of arcanium weapons, armor, and three beautifully crafted rings with gems I’ve never seen before set into them. Doran motioned to a table and we took our places around it. Doran laid our gifts in front of each of us.

Baker received a breastplate that weighed nothing, a bar mace, a longsword, and a pair of m1911s with arcanium ammo and his ring had a silver gem in it that seemed to swirl as if liquid inside. Shyft had a chainmail shirt also weightless, a pair of knuckles, a single short sword similar to a seax, a pair of p90 sub machine guns with arcanium ammo and his ring had a gem in it that looked like it held his blue fire inside of it. In front of me Doran laid my trench coat that now had arcanium armor plates inside of it, my quiver full of new arrows tipped with arcanium heads, a naginata, a sniper rifle with arcanium rounds and my ring had a gem that was a dark green that moved and changed shades almost like a mutating camouflage.

“I created each of these things using some of the raw energy each of you have donated for various projects. You three have the most dangerous jobs out of all of us so I wanted you to be ready.” Doran ssid with pride. I stood and strapped on my new weapons and armor.

Then I walked up to Doran, shook his hand and gave him a hug. “Thank you, brother.” I put on the ring and walked away. I headed to the truck and as I was getting in the back my brothers caught up and loaded their gear.

Shyft started the vehicle, and we started out of the compound. As we passed the guard towers, John who was on today’s shift waved at me and yelled. “Good luck, Wingless.” I smiled and nodded to him as the gate opened and we slipped through. We headed east toward the next spot on the map. Unfortunately, it was going to be a long journey. We were about halfway when one of my pings came back with a very large group of demons.

I tap Shyft on the shoulder and just say. “Get off the road now.” Shyft doesn’t even hesitate and takes his foot off the accelerator and turns into a driveway on the side of the road. My brothers looked back at me questioningly. I held up a hand to keep the questions at bay for a second so I could get a more in depth reading on the demons ahead. I sent out a ping that was entwined with my camouflaging energy. The ping came back with 35 soldier demons, 100s of scavenger demons, 5 abominations, 3 generals, and 4 signals I didn’t recognize. I sent my brothers my sensory readings through the link.

“Damn what the hell are so many of them doing out here?” There isn’t a book around here is there?” Shyft asked looking back at me as I unfurled the map.

I shook my head, “No the closest book is 240 miles to the northwest.” I said.

Baker looked back at me. “What are we going to do? Go around or try to take them on?” I looked at Shade who was perched on my knee.

“What do you think Shade?” I asked

He looked up at me. “I think we need to find out what your new ascension and gear can do.”

I looked up at my brothers and shrugged. “He has a point. Let’s see what we can do now.” My brother’s silent agreement came in the form of them loading up and getting ready to fight. I covered myself in my camo energy and scouted ahead. With my ascension, my camo created an almost invisibility effect to my skin. I walked slowly to not cause too much of a blur and got about 20 or so yards from the town that was crawling with the demons. I could hear human screams and demons laughing.

There were scouts on the tops of every building and several creating roadblocks at the entrances of the town. I sent the images to my brothers through the link, so they knew exact positions of each of the demons acting as guards. Once I had a good feel of the situation I headed back to my brothers.

“So, what’s the game plan Wingless?” Shyft asked quietly. I looked down at the dirt and drew a crude representation of the town. I drew circles to indicate us and little skull and crossbones to indicate the demons I saw.

“Ok so, my plan is to try to hide both of you with my camo and get you in close. You can’t move too fast, or the illusion will blur making you visible again. Once you are close, I will try to take out the guards as quickly as possible with my rifle then I will be on my way to the other side of the town to flank them with my bow and my naginata. You two will come in from the other side and cause complete mayhem with Shade.” My brothers grinned; they always loved it when I gave them jobs that involved mayhem with the demons. “We will first go after the scavengers so we can’t be over run and then we will get rid of the abominations.” I continued. My brothers agreed.

I cast my illusionary magick on my brothers and focused my mind to keep them covered as they got further and further away. I found a spot in the middle of the field about 300 yards from the town on a small hill. I pulled my hood over my head and my trench coat shimmered and took on the same illusion that I was currently focusing on my brothers. It surprised me enough that I almost lost control of my spell but, I managed to regain focus before it fell apart. I laid down prone behind my new rifle and loaded the magazine. I chambered a round and took aim at one of the guards. I split my focus and took a deep breath to slow my heartbeats. Once I saw my brothers were in position, I took my first shot. When the rifle fired the round exited the barrel silently even without a suppressor and the projectile wasn’t a bullet anymore, it was a needle made of ice. The ice projectile hit the target so quickly and with so much velocity that the needle pierced the head of the demon that I was aiming at and then hit the demon on the roof behind it through the heart. It happened so quickly and quietly that none of the other demons seemed to even notice. Baker sent me a link full of astonishment,

Shyft asked through the link. I sent both of my brothers a link in response with a memory of what the projectile did as it exited the barrel.

Shyft’s link was excited to the point of almost giddy. I then chambered the next round and took aim this time trying to line up 3 demons and then pulled the trigger between heartbeats. The projectile hit and pierced all three with so much ease that it was unbelievable even when I was seeing it happen. Once the shock of how well this new weapon worked wore off, I took out the rest of the guards in almost no time.

Once the last guard hit the ground, I left the rifle and took off running to the north side of the town. Once I was in position, I gave my brothers the go ahead through the link. Almost immediately the sound of chaos erupted from the other side of the town. I smiled they were probably having so much fun. I nocked an arrow and came around the building I was hiding behind. All the scavengers and abominations were facing away from me and heading toward the sound of the chaos. I saw flashes of blue and silver aura from over the top of the buildings. I came out of the alley and started firing my arrows which formed into green ice arrows as they flew. When they impacted, they shattered into a spray of ice shards hitting several targets at once. In a matter of seconds, I had dispatched 20 or 30 enemies. In the center of the town, I caught a glimpse of the most heinous sight I had ever seen. There was a cage in the middle of town with about 30 or so humans cramped together. The heinous part of the sight was that the cage was made from human bones lashed together.

There was also a pile of bones about 3 feet high a few feet from the cage. As I got closer my horror grew deeper. The people in the cage seemed to be super malnourished and they had a yellowish tint to their skin and eyes, then it dawned on me, and I couldn’t help but link it to my brothers.

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And I sent them the images of the horror I was seeing.

They both responded with one word shrouded in rage. I put my bow into my quiver and brought out the naginata. It was a split staff design that allows me to carry it in sheaths under my quiver. I put both pieces together and let my horror feed my anger. I started carving my way through the forces making my way to my brothers. I occasionally let a few blasts of ice out at enemies out of range. I reached my brothers as the abominations started to close in.

I sent Shyft a link. and I sent him an image of me throwing him at one of the abominations. He turned to me and nodded. I ran up next to him and grabbed his arm, using my momentum to spin and launch him at an incredible speed straight for one of the incoming abominations. As he soared through the air he bathed the demons underneath him in blue flame, then he raked both flaming hands into the eyes of the demon I threw him at. He kicked off the creature’s chest and landed in a blur several yards away out of its reach. By the time he landed he had pulled his new seax shortsword. He flashed around the cage dispatching the soldier demons guarding it. He then fired what looked like a net made of his fire at the abomination. instead of burning the creature looked as if it was slowing and becoming weaker.

Baker was using his bar mace and his longsword, each single handed with little show of effort. He was cleaving and smashing the demons with such ferocity that seemed to even unnerve some of the soldier demons. Some of them turned to run away from Baker and I sent a wall of ice stretching across the center of town blocking off their escape. They looked around in a panic but to their dismay the only way out was through us, the three savage humans that were tearing through their numbers like kids through wrapping paper. Shyft made circles around the abomination he was currently fighting creating a fire tornado that slowly cooked the horror from the inside out.

I kept carving the demons in front of me to pieces with my naginata. I saw Baker get dog piled by a group of ravengers and was about to move to help him out when a bright flash of silver shone through the middles of each of them and they fell to the ground each cut cleanly in half.

I could see that even with our increased power from the ascension and the rage that was fueling us my brothers and I were being damaged, so I decided to see what my water energy had become. So, I gathered a large amount of water energy and cast it upward creating a rainstorm that slowly healed us as we got hurt. Soon most of the enormous army were lying dead at our feet and only a few of the soldiers and 2 of the generals remained.

They seemed to have completely fallen prey to the fear that our savage entry had created. The soldier was cowering behind the generals who were all using shielding spells to keep them safe.

I smiled and yelled “Hope you boys can keep those up against what we have, or it is a moot point.” I pointed a finger at one of the shields and simultaneously sent a link to Baker.

He sent back,

I laughed into the link and said,

I asked.

He responded immediately.

I sent a linked memory of how his net made the other abomination look weakened and slowed. He smiled at me and readied himself

The demon I was pointing at started to laugh nervously and spoke for the first time, “Do you think you can really get past our shields. These are 8-gram ward, nothing can get through” His deep gruff voice made it hard to tell what he said but I figured it out.

I screamed through the link. Baker launched a long needle of his energy straight at the demon. Shyft covered the demon's ward in blue flames like a flamethrower. Seconds before Baker's spike contacted the shield, I hit all of the nexus points in its weakened weave and the needle passed through unfazed and pierced the demon’s head. The other demons shot nervous glances at the dead one knowing they were powerless against us.

Then a rift opened behind them, and they disappeared. Baker looked around and said, “Awwww, no more fun.” Shyft was off burning the bodies of those we killed. He was playing with his new short-range fire projection.

“Dudes, this is fucking awesome. Is this how it feels to be able to reach out and touch someone without being close?” Baker and I both looked at each other and laughed.

“Yeah bro, it is.” I answered. Baker and I walk over to the cage of people.

“Hold on, we will get you out in short order.” Baker said as he charged his hand and shattered the lock on the door. The people were slow and too malnourished to be excited about being let free. They did offer their thanks as they shuffled out of the bone cage.

“You all need medical treatment, and we have the facilities to do that if you can just trust us, we will make sure you all are safe.” I said to the people. “Shade, could you please take these people to Sanctuary for me?” Shade nodded and created a shadow gate on the ground.

“Please walk into the gate and you will be transported to our compound that has a full medical staff and a fully stocked kitchen.” I said motioning to the shadow gate. The mention of food seemed to give the released prisoners some incentive to move. Once they were in the gate they vanished. I focused some energy into my ring and thought of Doran.

A few moments go by, and I get a return message.

“Copy that Wingless, we will take care of them. How did the new weapons handle?” I sent him the memory of how my rifle and arrows worked and he replied “Wow I didn’t expect that amount of power right off the bat to be honest. Im glad they are worth the effort to make them.”

I responded with, “More than worth it brother thank you. Wingless out.”

With the hostages out of harm’s way, we decided to rest for the night and wait for morning. My brothers spend the afternoon cleaning and servicing their weapons. I recollected my arrows and mended any damaged fletching. I also collected my rifle. I unloaded my pack and inventoried my supplies. I had several boxes of the arcanium rounds, a box of about of about 100 replacement arrowheads, two pairs of clothes, my fishing reel that attaches to my bow, and three packs of trail food for when I can’t find game to get dinner. After I repacked my gear in my pack, I set to looking through the town for a reason to why the demons were here in the first place. After several hours of searching, I couldn’t find anything to explain why they were there. Shade traveled with me and I spent some time talking with him.

“So, maybe we can try looking at the book again now that you have ascended?" Shade asked from a fence post a few feet from me. The light was slowly fading and I could feel the days fatigue setting in.

“I can give it a quick look, but I am tired and I need to sleep tonight.” I went to the back of the truck and lifted the hatch we had installed to conceal the Keys. I pulled out the chest that held Shade’s key and unlocked it. I took the book in my hands careful to cover my hands in energy to protect them. I sat down near the fire that my brothers had started and while they cooked dinner I studied the Key. I flaired energy to my eyes and the weave of the books magick ignited in my vision. Unlike the few times I had tried to read it before this time it was almost as if I wrote it. I could see the nexus points easier and how to unravel them with more ease. By the time Baker had finished the stew and potatoes, I had unraveled 14 of the most visible nexus points and by doing that also caused 4 or 5 to fall apart on their own. The Key still had a large number to go but I could tell I was weakening the magick. I set the book aside as Shyft passed me a bowl of stew and two well done potatoes.

“You make any progress with that book Wingless?” Shyft asked between mouthfuls of stew.

I looked up and finished chewing my mouthful before saying, “Actually, yes. Whatever this is." I pointed at my glyph then continued "has made everything so much easier. I unraveled 14 of the nexus points and a few more fell apart, but I still have a way to go. If the creator of this tome was as good as I think the last few will be the hardest to deal with.” The fire popped and the wood shifted a little.

“I wonder what the demons were doing here. Do you think they had a purpose here?” Baker asked.

I thought about it for a minute. “I didn’t see anything in the town that would give reason to why they were here. It’s not a big town and it isn’t a hub to bigger cities. The only thing that I can think of is that these demons were travelling, found the survivors, and felt like having some sadistic fun with them.”

Shyft made a face, “You call that fun?”

I nodded to acknowledge his meaning. “Not for us, no. But the demons probably really enjoy torture and sadism.” I finished my dinner and laid back against my gear. We chatted idly for a little while but the fatigue and the warmth of full stomachs lulled us to sleep quickly. A ping from my energy woke me from my sleep. There was an energy signature nearby. Then it vanished. I went back to sleep.