Chapter 173


    PART 25


    A week after releasing the Education spell they participated in the first joint void exercise involving the


    militaries of every nation on Keran.


    It began in the void opposite the sun from the real demons where Mark and his family had tested their


    power. There they faced simtions of the demons’ small rock world and every demon in it, all run by


    gods of Keran and The Triax. There was no way to know if the simted demons’ strength matched


    that of the real ones, but they faced more than eleven billion demons in the exercise. Only a hundredth


    of them were greater demons, and there were only a handful of DemonLords.


    Only those with abat score of five thousand or less were allowed to fight unrestrained. Those with


    more power than that were allowed tomand, but were forbidden from using their own power in


    organizers that gave an expert fighter abat score of about fifty. No concentration of power or


    simcrums were allowed. Every soldier fought with his or her own power and their own bodies, along


    with whatever spelled items and equipment they could procure. They were still allowed to co-ordinate


    their forces with a Command Link, and they would certainly have been quickly ughtered without it.


    After fourteen hours of battle they had only defeated half the demons, and had destroyed less than a


    tenth of the tunnels and caverns.


    Then their enemy surprised them by Translocating to Keran, where they all started attacking two


    n-Holdings in a desert in the center of Kletiuk with abined area equal to that of Venak, and two


    sizable cities.


    The demons had their way of it in the beginning of the battle in the void, and Kerani losses were


    heavy. The Kerani were just adapting to the challenge and turning the tide when the battle moved to


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    Kletiuk. There the demons initially dominated the battle again, half of which was aerial and half was


    among the houses, buildings, tunnels, and underground caverns of the dwarves’ semi-subterranean


    cities.


    The battle’s move to Keran did allow the Kerani to bring much of their non-void-qualified fighters


    into the fray, and those reinforcements were sorely needed.


    After another four hours the demons were losing badly again, so they retreated back to their rock in the


    void, where the battle continued in their tunnels and caverns for a final three hours.


    When it was done, most of Keran’s forces, over half the total poption of the world, had been


    ‘killed’. But all the simted demons were dead. All the surviving void-qualified forces were so bone-


    tired that they were almost asleep on their feet, so reviews and evaluations of the exercise were


    postponed for ten hours.


    Mark and his family cheered like maniacs like all the rest when their victory was dered, but as soon


    as they arrived on the Royal Beach at Hilia and Sent their armor home their bodies and expressions


    drooped like gs when the wind dies. As the tension of battle and the brave face they presented for


    the troops drained from them, Mark sat down hard on the sand, almost letting himself drop, and leaned


    back on his arms with his legs spread, letting his chin fall to his chest and his eyes close. Val burst into


    tears and ran into Alilia’s arms.


    Alilia picked up her crying daughter and sat with her on Mark’s left thigh, and leaned exhaustedly


    against his torso. Talia sat on his right thigh with Fire on the left side of herp and Six on her right, and


    they all cuddled together. Both her children had tears rolling down their faces, but they kept their


    Karzy down on the sand curled around them and against them, Povon curled around him, and


    Kragorram curled around her. Dragons don’t cry, but the same emotions were in in their behavior.


    asionally they gave each other or the small folk they encircled a gentle and reassuring caress.


    Finally Fire spoke, her voice still shaking and choked with emotion. “That was absolutely horrible. The


    Triax were right, none of the simtions we ever fought before ever really fought like demons. So


    vicious. So horrible. There was a moment when they first got right in among us, and this demon had a


    sword it’d taken from someone and it still had demon-fire and spells because it was using them when it


    had to. But when it killed the Sylvan right beside me it didn’t use any of that. It exposed itself to


    considerably greater risk to get in close enough to grab her by the hair at the back of her head and sink


    its teeth into her lower jaw and throat and rip it all out. And it ate it, so the Healing just heals her up


    without it, which was pretty ugly. She was still physicallybat capable, but she was so traumatized


    by it that she couldn’t fight anymore, and she just let the demon kill her a secondter. I was so


    horrified that I just looked at it for a moment, until it almost killed me and I snapped out of it.”


    There was silence for a few seconds, then Talia spoke. “When we took Quewanak’s training the first


    time, in a dream, we were still far below the five thousand limit. Even when we finished it we were.


    We’vee a long way since then,rgely thanks to you children. They’d have let us really fight today


    if we were still like that. But now…” She paused and shrugged. “A lot of those I wasmanding would


    have given their teeth for a sword and shield with enough spells in them to give the power of fifty


    Smingan Journeyman Battle Wizards. I could see them looking on with envy as I fought. But I felt so


    heartbreaking, and the most frustrating thing I’ve ever faced.”


    “Truly.” Alilia nodded. “This was the very first time in my life when I’ve been in a training exercise, and


    found it extremely difficult to keep in mind that it was, after all, only an exercise. I failed to maintain my


    objectivity or to control my emotions on several asions. And that’s putting it as politely as possible.”


    “It seemedpletely real in Quewanak’s dream training, except a minute or two between exercises.”


    Markmented. “We really thought we were in battle. But there was always that slight air of unreality


    that even the most real-seeming dream has. And we never had to hold back. This wasn’t like that at


    all.”


    “I’m not even sure how much of the exercise was real, and how much was simted.” Povon stated


    with a slight edge of anger. “I don’t think we were ever really in Kletiuk today. I think the organizers had


    uspletely fooled, including re-directing our Translocations without us realizing it. That’s a bit scary,


    but that’s gods for you, I guess. The pain of the injuries we took sure seemed real enough.”


    “I falteredpletely!” Val sobbed. “There was these two brigades of Sylvan, about a hundred


    thousand of them, and apparently their officers had lost their nerve and were refusing to follow orders


    while we were in Kletiuk. For some reason I was sent to straighten them out and lead them in this


    assault they were supposed to do.


    “So there’s this huge grain warehouse with all these distribution tunnels leading down with rails in them


    for carts of grain, and it was one of the primary defense points for the civilians of the city. The demons


    had breached the warehouse, and the dwarves had fallen back to secondary defense points at the


    ends of the tunnels where there were big grated iron portcullises and they could direct a lot of fire at the


    demons who were restricted by the narrow tunnels.


    “We were supposed to retake the warehouse and kill all the demons inside there and in the tunnels


    before they could break through any of the portcullises and get loose among the civilians of the


    city.