Chapter 49
Part 9
“It’s strange. I never felt anything that was invisible before.” Valentiamented.
“It’s weird all right.” Helemia observed as she ran her hands back and forth on it. “Perfectly smooth,
with no temperature. I mean, we’re not really touching anything. It’s just Force, to keep anything from
touching the real inside of the time-bubble.”
“From the angle of it, it must be over six kilometers high over the middle of Hiliani.” Mark guessed.
“Assuming that it’s an even dome, like a ttened bubble, though that’s just a guess too.”
“This is really proof of it all.” Reggie quietly marveled. “The time-bubble, The Just Alliance, how
important you are, the gods and the demons and everything. It’s still hard to believe.”
“I know how you feel, son.” Mark chuckled. “It all still boggles my mind every time I think about it. I
never even saw any real magic until two years ago, not even once. Then the destruction of Shinosa
Valley, then six months on my own, then the incredible six weeks after I met Yazadril. Then back to a
mostly normal life here. I tell you, those six weeks were so mind-boggling, I might’ve lost the ability to
believe they ever really happened if I wasn’t surrounded by elves and dragons and unicorns all the
time.”
Conversation paused as they felt the barrier and contemted what had been said, then Reggie
suddenly flew over to Mark and buried his face in the hollow of Mark’s shoulder. “I so wish the demons
weren’ting, Father. It seems like everything in the world is finally almost perfect, and now we have
to risk it all in a war. I love my life, but I sure wish we didn’t have to spend all our time thinking about the
war and getting ready for it.”
“I feel the same, Son.” Mark said as he hugged and consoled him. “But most of the recent
improvements in the world were triggered by the fact that the demons areing. That caused Zarkog
to take over Serminak and start the insidious conspiracy, which caused the formation of The Just
Alliance, which led to all the big improvements. It’s almost certain that if it weren’t for the demons, I
would never even have met Talia or Alilia, and none of you would be here. So far, theing of the
demons has led to a lot of good things happening, and we have to do our best to make sure that things
keep going the same way.”
“So the world will be a better ce after the nexus.” Helemia said as she hugged Talia, sharing her
brother’s somber mood.
“That’s right.” Talia nodded as she returned the hug. “We just have to stay strong, do our best to be
ready, and enjoy every second of our lives as much as we possibly can.”
“Will you make us be gods, Father?” Valentia yfully asked as she flew over to Alilia’s back and hung
on like she was getting a piggy-back ride, and they started descending.
“If I can possibly do it, I will.” Mark nodded. “It’s the only thing I can think of that would make us safer
than we already are. I wish I didn’t have to though. I’d much rather we could all enjoy a few thousand
years of mortal life first. But I’ve got to count my blessings. I’d rather be a god than have to die before
I’m eighty, like most humans have for millions of years, and like I expected I would for most of my life.”
“What will it be like to be a god?” Helemia asked.
“I don’t know.” Mark shrugged. “One god told me it was easy to just ignore it and feel normal if you
wanted to. Another told me there was as much difference between a mortal and a god as there was
between me and a pine tree. And they’re all different anyway. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
“We’re halfway down to the ground, this would be a good ce to make huge explosions.” Valentia
snickered with a nasty grin as she hopped off Alilia’s back and came to a halt in mid-air.
“First make sure that anyone who could be injured is sufficiently Shielded.” Alilia instructed as she cast
Battle Shield on herself, and the rest followed her example. “Cast it far enough from us that we’d be
safe even if we weren’t Shielded. And cast it with the sun at your back, to get the best visual contrast
against the sky.”
“Yes Mother.” Valentia said as she gathered herself and brought her arms back over her head. She
made a sudden motion like she was throwing arge rock with both hands and gave a short, barking
scream as she cast.
Then she, Reggie, and Helemia all screamed and covered their ears against the shattering report of
the explosion. It lit up a quarter of the sky before fading away with an ominous rumble.
“Guess who didn’t Shield against dangerous noises?” Talia rhetorically asked as she cast a quick
diagnostic on the children, but they were already Healing from minor ear damage. “Are you okay?”
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“Yes, I’ll be all right.” Valentia said as she rubbed her ears. “I won’t forget that again!”
“That was interesting, like a Concussion and a Fireball being cast on the same ce at the same time.”
Markmented. “I’m sure it’d be very effective in battle. “
“Thank you Father.” Valentia smiled.
“You should also keep in mind that in a dark ce, the light from that spell would hurt your eyes, so
you’d have to Shield your eyes against that too.” Mark pointed out. “If you cast anything brighter than
that, you’ll have to block the light even if you’re casting in bright sunlight.
“If you cast a goodpound defensive spell-set, like this one; The Wards of The Nine Valleys, it
includes all of that and a lot more besides.
“Oooh, that’s nice!” Valentia told him enthusiastically. “And if you turned it inside out so that the
attacking parts attacked stuff inside the Shield instead of what’s outside, you could cast it on someone
and it’d hold them inside it while it sted them with all the attacks!”
“Hey, that’s very creative thinking!” he told her proudly, and reached over to give her a rub on her back.
“Not a very efficient use of powerpared to most magic attacks, but very creative!”
“Thanks Father.” Valentia smiled.
“Cast another one of those explosions, Valentia!” Helemia urged. “It’ll be a lot more fun now that we’re
ready for it!”
“Okay!” Valentia agreed, and cast it again.
It was evenrger this time; a gigantic reddish-yellow fireball that expanded and dissipated at super-
speed.
“Excellent! Can you do a pink one?” Helemia asked as she pped in spontaneous enthusiasm.
“A pink one? I’m not sure…” Valentia responded as she thought about it.
“Remember that when ites to energy, color is usually dependent on temperature.” Talia told them.
“Red is the coolest and violet is the hottest, in the order of the colors in a rainbow. The colors in the
rainbow are pure colors, but other colors, including pink, can only be made by mixing two pure colors.
To be honest, I’m not sure what two pure colors you’d need to mix to make pink, nor do I know what
temperatures you’d need to produce a given pure color. So you’d need to experiment a bit to get a pink
explosion.”
“Okay.” Valentia nodded. “But I don’t know how to make it hotter or colder.”
“Try making a bigger one with the same power to make it colder and redder, and smaller with the same
power to make it hotter and bluer.” Reggie suggested. “If our mothers and Father will let us use enough
of their power to keep up with you, we’ll try making the second pure color.”
“Sure.” Mark chuckled, giving the twins ess to more power. Talia and Alilia did the same, and they
spent over an hour watching their children making multi-colored explosions a kilometer in the air. As the
sun began to set and the sky to the east darkened , they looked even more beautiful.
Suddenly Povon, Kragorram, and Karzog arrived in the air beside them.
“May we join you?” Povon asked. “We couldn’t help but notice your fine disy, even from home.”
“Certainly you may join us.” Alilia told them.
Karzog asked the children what they were doing, and they exined it.
“I hope we’re not disturbing everyone back there?” Talia inquired.