Then let those in the plains flee for the mountains.

Let none in the seas return to recover their offspring.

Let no one on the housetop go down to retrieve anything out of the house.

For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of time until now – and never to be equaled again.

- Andanian Chronicles

“It’s hopeless!” the pikeman stared in terror as the company of infantry before him was utterly devoured within the smoking clouds of doom, “They are immortal! And we can’t even see them!” He yelped with horror as he dropped his weapon and turned to flee. Visibility was limited to just ten or so meters, and thunderous shakings that rampaged ominously through the lands threw the even most disciplined formations into disarray.

“Get back to your positions!” Archdiviner Zinnridi glared, “Our counterspell is almost ready!”

“We can’t fight those monsters…” a fleeing lieutenant wailed.

His words were cut off abruptly as Zinnridi traced a spell that sucked out all his life force and turned him into a withered corpse. “Any coward who breaks ranks without orders will be summarily executed for betrayal!” He shouted to the watching soldiers, “Believe me, we will use all the blood magic we can get!” The routing division of troops scurried back to their positions as they noticed a massive spell circle forming around them. At the far rear of the harried Vaishyan lines, two thousand enchantresses sang and danced in rough formation as three thousand diviners chanted hoarsely from behind them.

“Forward! We are ready to release the spell.” Zinnridi ordered. The Twelve Sorcerers of Vaishya raised their staffs and stepped up to meet the approaching Inferno Giants of Saadian.

“How are we going to defeat them?” the colonel in charge protested as his uniform smoked from the approaching inferno.

White Frost. A blinding hail materialized over the Burning Legions and bombarded the Saadian forces with a frozen salvo. The bloodied muddied dirt beneath the invaders hardened and glaciated, locking many of the smoldering enemy in place. As the smoke was dispersed by a magical breeze, the massed Vaishyans stared apprehensively at the finally revealed Legions. The enemy was clearly no longer human, their bodies were charred far beyond recognition, and many sported multiple seemingly lethal wounds and lost limbs. But the corpses struggled silently as they began breaking out from the icy restraining field.

“Undead demons!” the soldiers gasped in horror as they hesitated.

“Charge you fools! Our suppressive containment won’t last forever.” Zinnridi yelled desperately as he fought to restrain one of the still smoking giants with his spells, “Dismember them while they are immobilized or Vaishya will burn beneath their feet!”

The most courageous elites among the surviving reserves goaded their horses into a desperate charge, lowered their lances, and prayed desperately for divine deliverance from their gods. Then the infantry hefted their weapons, surged forward with a fanatic roar, and hacked furiously at their undead foes.

…

The Divine Enchantress of Vaishya panted with exhaustion as she rained spell after spell at the Emperor of Saadian while deflecting the massive booming attacks he unleashed leisurely against her, “That twisted defensive enchantment you possess! It’s a direct contravention of the high gods’ non-proliferation treaty. Verethragna, you god betrayer!” She raged as she blasted Xerxes with yet another divine strike.

The runes on Xerxes’ body glowed brightly and he shrugged off her latest attack, “Verethragna is dead, one of my distant ancestors destroyed him hundreds of years ago, and I will send you over to join him shortly.”

Phoebe’s eyes widened in horrified realization, “Someone must have sacrificed the gods themselves for enough power to derive that perverse enchantment. I finally remember the source of those ancient markings, they stem from original magic from The Witch of Krall. Your tattoo mixes both new and ancient magics, you have committed the highest forbidden sacrilege!”

“Does that even matter, when you are about to die?” Xerxes mocked as he stalked towards her, “Oh and there’s one little trick to the markings on my body that you haven’t even noticed.” He smirked, “Your Talent is undoubtedly superior, but that feisty wolf from before was certainly the more entertaining opponent! An ancient shark like you must simply be out of your element on dry land.”

“You are stealing my magic!?” the divine enchantress glanced worriedly at the princes arrayed beside her.

The lion smirked as he extended his scepter at them, “As you have finally noticed, if you hit me with the same spell more than once, the energy from that attack is absorbed into my body. The wolf from before realized it almost immediately, but you have been far too complacent. How many of your full power spells have you cast on me, more than once? Four? Or perhaps five?” He gloated as his scepter hummed with unimaginable power.

“Run…” Phoebe screamed to the princes of Vaishya.

“But don’t I have magical immunity?” Abel questioned.

“Don’t be stupid,” the shark snapped. “That’s no such thing as a perfect magical defense, Dagon’s blessing will not be able to shield you from a simultaneous attack that’s equivalent to the full power of six divine gods. Three hundred meters, split up and get away from me if you hope to survive!” The princes blanched as they broke off and sprinted in opposing directions, and the divine enchantress sang fiercely as she mustered all her Talent to deflect the lion’s mighty blow.

“High gods of Saadian! Answer my call!” the lion roared. Unmeasurable power, devastating might, and pure unadulterated force rampaged from his crackling staff and tore through Phoebe’s divine defenses. A shaking earthquake unlike any recorded before rumbled through the earth’s core, and was felt even as far as in the palace of Calcutta. “Hahaha,” Xerxes laughed, “I did it! I vanquished even a god…”

The shark coughed feebly as she swam out from the magical conflagration and wiped the soot from her blackened lips, “Dagon damn you!” She cursed, “This fight isn’t over, you cheating mortal!”

…

“Xerxes is in danger! And your Burning Legions are crumbling!” Lily raged furiously as she perched on the highest hilltop and berated the dithering Saadian generals. “Can’t you see the obvious flaws in his current strategy? He has already expended almost half of the Dark Ritual’s defensive enchantment, and the enemy sorceresses must have deciphered at least some of his weaknesses by now! Even as we speak, the wolf is recovering swiftly from her wounds and restoring her Talent to its full strength, and he still hasn’t noticed that cat who’s gathering a vast amount of energy by sneaking about the battlefield! Xerxes’ life will be at risk if he’s hit simultaneously by their combined power!”

“Please calm down honored princess,” the Mage General pacified. “Emperor Xerxes, honored be His name. He always knows exactly what he’s doing. The Shark of Vaishya, is already on the brink of defeat. And our victory will be assured, once He slays her. The combined lesser Talents of the other two sorceresses do not even match up to His, and He possesses two unstoppable divine gifts. What could go wrong?”

“I can think of dozens of things that could go wrong!” Lily screamed with frustration. “Can’t you see that your harebrained emperor is basically a one trick pony? All he has is that stupid boom stick and a relatively hard shell. That wolf is plotting something, I can smell it from even here! You must deploy a force to destroy her immediately, before it’s too late!”

The generals gasped wordlessly at the princess’ insolence, “We must never act without His signal…” the white-haired Mage General stammered nervously.

“What’s your name?” Lily demanded.

“Methuselah Van Galder, honored princess…” the aged Mage General answered with a frown, “what does my name have to do with…”

“Methuselah!” Lily threatened, “You must have many descendants at your advanced age. I swear by Krall’s twisted tentacles that if your inaction today results in Xerxes’ death, I will personally eradicate all traces of your progeny from the face of this planet!”

General Methuselah smiled wanly with relief, “You won’t be able to accomplish that by yourself, my clan numbers in the tens of thousands and we have mages that are far more Talented than even I am. It would be a major concern if your innate ability was closer to that little kitten, and an extreme source of anxiety if your Talent rivaled that of the wolf, but a single first tier sorceress like you could never…”

Lily sighed as she slipped off her white silken glove and held out her uncovered palm to Methuselah, “Take my hand,” she demanded.

The general’s eyes narrowed with suspicion, “You are an Andanian witch. I would certainly not be foolish enough to touch you.”

Lily’s smile dripped with sarcasm, “Are you that much of a coward? You are the twenty-seventh ranked Talented in the Saadian Empire, and I’m just a harmless teenaged princess. Why don’t you measure my power with your own hands and tell me if I’m able to keep my oath?”

“My true ranking is one of the most protected national secrets and it’s not recorded on any ledger in the entire palace!” The man hissed in dismay, “Just who did you bribe and what did you offer them? Was it the prime minster? Or my eldest son?” Methuselah demanded furiously as he stomped towards the smirking princess.

“Measure my Talent and I’ll tell you how I managed it! I’ll even promise not to cast any spells while you are holding my hand,” Lily giggled mischievously as she beckoned gracefully towards him with her slender fingers. “Come on, you must be a real veteran this, and we are surrounded all the mages in the army. What’s the worst that could happen?”

The general muttered darkly as he clamped her small slim hand within his larger wrinkled pair, “Well? A Sorceress of the First Class, very impressive for a sixteen-year-old child. You must rank in the low thousands, even amongst the most elite mages of Saadian.”

“Methuselah,” Lily chided gently. “You aren’t really doing it correctly, are you? Doesn’t the normal protocol require that you raise a Talent shield to protect yourself before you measure an unknown’s magical potential?”

“A shield? That’s for protecting novices when they assess their masters!” The ancient man spluttered, “I might not be among the most powerful, but I am still one of the Hundred Archmages! What do you…”

“Ranks thirty-five, forty-nine, sixty-three, and seventy-five.” Lily picked out the four additional archmages disguised among her identically dressed guards, “Get over here and reinforce Methuselah’s defenses.”

Their eyes widened in surprise as they shuffled up reluctantly, “How did you build up such an impressive spying network in just a few weeks?” The sixty-third ranked archmage quizzed disbelievingly.

Lily winked slyly at the balding man, “Reinforce the dear general’s shield and you’ll find out,” she giggled childishly. The archmages stepped up and linked their powers hesitantly, then they chanted a lengthy incantation as they poured all their magic into a solid, five-layered shield. “More!” Lily demanded when they finally paused to catch their breath.

“What?” Methuselah stammered with growing confusion, “Whose Talent are we measuring? You are not Emperor Xerxes!”

“Oh, just humor me please! It has been a really long time since anyone besides my elder sister measured my Talents.” Lily giggled coyly as she held up her hand to partially obscure the playful smile forming on her lips, “You do want to know more about my secrets, don’t you?”

The archmages whispered doubtfully among themselves but they finally shrugged and redoubled their efforts. A ten-layered defense shimmered potently before the princess, comprising of half an hour of combined energy from the five archmages.

The witch of Andania smiled, “Good. Are you ready Methuselah? Lean on that column behind you and remember to brace yourself…”

“We have been ready for hours,” the general grumbled irritably as he enveloped her slender hand completely within his, “this is a total waste of our…”

The witch of Andania took a deep calming breath, then for a fleetingly infinitesimal moment, she unleashed the partial Talent within her single palm. The ten-layered shield was blasted apart like confetti, the tent was ripped to shreds, and the mundane guards were thrown wildly from the enclosure like a bunch of rag dolls. And the five archmages staggered back and coughed out large mouthfuls of blood before falling to their knees before the princess.

Lily focused her will to suppress her chaotic energy back to its original level, then she leaned down and whispered in Methuselah’s ear, “I don’t need any spies, I calculated your ranking by assessing the strength of all the Talented within the entire Saadian Empire. Now do you finally believe that I will be able to keep my promises?” She tittered, “Oh, whatever will happen to your poor innocent family, if Xerxes dies and isn’t there to stop me?” She wondered aloud as she twirled at a strand of her fiery red hair.

“You are a monster! What manner of demon are you? And why didn’t any of our spies, ever report about your immense strength?” Methuselah coughed feebly.

“Questions, questions.” Lily sighed, “Do you really think that any of your inferior subordinates could actually manage to experience my full power and survive?”

“You must be the Impregnable Shield of the Andanian Palace!” the thirty-fifth archmage gasped weakly.

“Oh please, I’m not an object,” Lily waved dismissively. “That thing was just some old toy my sister and I put together for laughs when we were twelve.”

“Just some toy?” Another archmage huffed in disbelief, “Do you know how many of our best people died, while trying to navigate that dreadful labyrinth guarding your palace?”

Lily shrugged, “I guess that explains all those bones we found, while we were playing hide and seek inside our puzzle bauble. My sister crafted the spell, I just helped out by providing some extra power, so I don’t really know how it would actually react to intruders.”

“But how did…” Methuselah opened his mouth to speak.

“Enough!” Lily tapped her feet impatiently as she scowled at the archmages kneeling before her, “I’m going to retrieve Xerxes before something worse happens to him. You have two options, you can listen to my advice and release me, or you can follow Xerxes’s command and try to restrain me. Decide immediately!”

“Honored princess, please have mercy on our pitiful existences!” the Mage General begged as he prostrated before the witch. “Emperor Xerxes swore to massacre us to the last man, if you step one foot off this hill! We will deploy all our forces to assist Him immediately, please be gracious and allow us some hope for survival.”

“And if I refuse?” Lily’s eyes narrowed warily.

The ten thousand mages in the Saadian army dispelled their concealment magics rose up from around the broken tent. And the tens of thousands of infantry and cavalry arrayed defensively around the hill clutched at their weapons nervously as they stared up above them.

“We will fight, and to the very last man and woman if we have to,” Methuselah stated gloomily. “And I will also call on every archmage in Saadian to assist us. At the very least, this will ensure that some of the people in Saadian will actually survive Emperor Xerxes’ rage.”

Lily rolled her eyes and pouted, “Why is everyone in Saadian so terribly afraid of that Xerxes? Jeez… you are all exaggerating. He’s really not that scary!”

“You haven’t really known Him long enough,” Methuselah sighed. “He favored my exceptionally Talented granddaughter once, but even she did not survive His temper for more than a year. He will certainly tire of you, and dispose of you eventually.”

“So, he’s really just a super spoilt playboy who can’t control his urges! I knew it!” Lily muttered moodily, “I’m going to give that insatiable pervert a huge piece of my mind when he returns.”

“You will spare us?” the Mage General inquired hopefully.

“I swear to Krall that I will not depart from this hill, until the battle is over, even if I should see my only sister bleed out in front of me.” Lily snapped, “Happy now?”

The archmages bobbed their heads fanatically with relief.

“Scat. Deploy all your forces and destroy the Vaishyans immediately before I decide to toss this entire hill across the river and do it myself!” Lily sighed unhappily.

The archmages and generals paled and gulped nervously as they fled from the Andanian witch and shouted out fanatic orders to their subordinates. And the Saadian horns blared loudly as the officers reorganized their forces and prepared to charge straight for the tattered Vaishyan lines.