The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2

Part 25

"You did the right thing, considering what you experienced and not knowing about the Education Spell." Talia assured her. "If there truly had been a problem, you might have saved all these people by bringing word."

"Thanks. Bye now." Tanala blushed, and was gone.

There was a silence for a moment, broken only by the mutterings of hundreds of people all around them, then Mark spoke. "Well, I've done a quick check on everything in the city and they're all doing fine, everyone's well-fed and taking good care of themselves, beyond the reduction in their exercise and activity. The basics of commerce are still flowing as they should. The parents study for twelve hours per day and care for their young for five, and the Work Spell seems to do a good job of babysitting, so even the children are all right.

"But I sure understand why Tanala thought something was wrong here. This is very strange and spooky, the way everyone in the nation is like this."

"Less than one in a thousand of this nation's people were wizards before Hilsith's spell." Alilia mused. "And the wizards they did have were generally poorly trained, which is why all of them at this moment are at the court of Prince Jaromer of Thon for further training."

"Which explains why none of them were available to notice Tanala." Mark nodded. "Anyway, as weird as this is, it appears there's nothing that needs to be done here."

"As you said, Sister, we may have overdone it a bit on the motivational aspects of the Education." Fire laughed. "But they'll be glad of it when they're finished as soon as they will be. Good work." "Thanks." Val grinned, and took a last look around. "Well, I was only half done swimming, then there's breakfast, and then I'd like to go over the deployments again."

"Right." Mark grinned, and brought them home.

Three days later the first universal-participation military exercise was held.

Every civilian participated in attack drills that day, evacuating the surface and going to the deepest and safest bunkers and barracks, or reporting to their militias. Defenders stocked supplies, checked their fortifications, and manned them to repel invaders. All the new and as-yet untrained wizards supplied power to the Strike Wizards, and every fighter from every nation fought, as did the gods, all of The Triax, and most of their gods. All of the aquatic races were included, and for the first time, waves of tens of thousands of Kellarani voidcraft rose from the shipyards of Serminak to join the fray. Beyond those in the time- bubbles, the only thinking beings who didn't participate in the exercise in some way were the Triax gods who were running it and two Kellarani gods who helped them monitor it, and who made the announcement to Kellaran that it was about to begin.

There had been a public declaration made two days prior, to the effect that such an exercise would be held soon, and that all had best prepare for it. But no specific time had been given, there were no command meetings held before it began, no outline of the goals of the exercise or the strength of the enemy had been given by the organizers, no muster had been called. Almost none of the militias' personne were at their duty posts.

The only warning that it was about to begin was the unignorable psionic announcement that was heard by absolutely everyone; "The first universal-participation military exercise and drill is about to begin. The attacks you are about to experience are not real. This is an exercise."

In the next moment, Kellaran and the worldlets of The Triax were attacked by billions of greater and lesser demons and thousands of Demon-Lords. They appeared above every major city, the DemonLords and greater demons holding the airspace and casting cataclysmic spells at bridges, dams, and other major infrastructure, while the lesser demons attacked the city and tried to breach the defenses to get at the non-combatants. They appeared in the oceans, surrounding and attacking the cities of the aquatic races. And their great nation-sized rock appeared in orbit around Kellaran on the same path as the Triax fleet and only a hundred and seventy kilometers ahead of them.

"I have the Command Link!" Somonik announced to all of Kellaran, his psionic ability boosted by Quewanak. In less than three seconds contact was made with First Aquamarine, The Triax God of Power and supreme military commander of his people, and information as to the demons' deployment was gathered from all over Kellaran and was shared around to all the commanders, areas of responsibility were assigned, and the forces of Kellaran deployed and began their counter-attack.

In the void, titanic batteries of energy weapons were fired by the worldlets of The Triax at the demon's rock, where the attack ports of the demons returned fire with equal cataclysm. Millions of warcraft with crews of from one to thousands of individuals emerged from the Triax worldlets to battle the billions of demons who surrounded them.

A great deal of the battling that day was between matched fighters; the gods and most powerful spell casters sought out the Demon Lords, the Strike Wizards and remote fighters sought out the greater demons while soldiers and militia were left with the lesser demons. But there were frequent occasions where a god would find himself free of DemonLords long enough to launch a devastating strike against the lesser demons, likewise the DemonLords were able to launch occasional successful attacks against armies and civilians that killed hundreds of thousands at a time.

Initially everyone fought the demons closest to themselves, but as the fortunes of the individual battles ebbed and flowed, some forces from areas that were doing well against the demons were transferred to places that were not faring as well. Six and Kragorram's armada of voidcraft were soon assigned to helping The Triax in the void, where they were found to be most effective. Some of the smaller Triax craft were assigned to Kellaran as pin-point ground-attack forces, since their extreme-distance marksmanship was capable of killing a single demon from hundreds of kilometers away.

As the day went on there were warriors from the aquatic races fighting in the air above Kellaran and in the void, and soldiers from the surface races fighting demons deep beneath the oceans. Units were assigned to wherever their unique abilities made them most effective, and by the time nine hours of warfare had passed, only a minority were fighting in the same place where they'd started. After twelve hours many of the allied forces were so mixed that they looked like a menagerie.

Sometimes the sudden appearance of an alien-looking ally was so startling, and the variety of forms that the demons took was so many, that the only thing that prevented some allies from accidentally killing each other was the Command Link telling them who was friend or foe.

Mark and his family didn't hold back. They fought as a team and unleashed all their power, they commanded their forces remotely while taking themselves to the most intense battle zones available, they resurrected themselves and each other on the frequent occasions when they were killed. And while they were doing all that they had independent automated spells casting great collection fields near the sun and using the power to launch automated attacks against the demons.

These independent demon-killers constantly duplicated themselves and accumulated, and eventually they turned the tide against the demons. After eighteen hours it became obvious that the demons were losing, and an hour after that it was announced that they were all dead. Though a third of the population of Kellaran were dead and half their structures were destroyed, and The Triax had lost a quarter of their population and two of their worldlets, the allies were triumphant.

For a very long minute, everyone manically celebrated the news of their victory. Then suddenly, everything was back to being as is had been just before the exercise was announced; everyone was hale and back at the locations they'd been in then, and nothing had been destroyed.

"As some of you are now realizing, the exercise which was just concluded was psionicly simulated, and only seven seconds passed in real time." Pakdag the Debivinian war god announced to the Kellarani as First Mauve announced the same to The Triax. "You all fought exceptionally well. But be prepared for the next exercise, which could occur at any time. Your preparations in real life, or lack of them, will be reflected in the exercise.

"Until then, be well."☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐