The War of All Wars Read online

  By the time he had arrived back at Nemis’ position, not even a minute later, she had already lit the light on her crystal staff and was sitting comfortably down on the carpet.

  Baltor began, “Hey…”

  Nemis replied with a smile, “Hey back…so.”

  “So what?”

  “Should I begin to teach you or would you prefer to teach me?”

  “Whatever you prefer, my lady.”

  Nemis said with a nod and a smile, “All right, good sir, I will begin to teach you magic, but first I need you to sit down next to me on the carpet and answer an important question.” After he sat down, she asked, “When you teleport from point A to point B, how exactly do you make that happen again?”

  “Ah, that’s easy. I first visualize the place in my mind’s eye where I want to go. Once that picture is there in full, my mind forms the picture of a rune—after I physically draw it out into the air, the portal to the next place opens.”

  “Good…magic works just like that too for me. However, think of the rune, which is either a single letter or number in some languages, instead as a complete sentence. Moreover, not only should you mentally visualize the entire phrase as you verbally chant it with your physical eyes open, yet you should also mentally visualize the intended effect—all at the same time. Understand?”

  “Yes,” Baltor said with a nod.

  “Perfect…okay, the next step is to learn the spells themselves…one by one. From the weakest to the strongest!”

  “Okay.”

  “I’ve got another question for you before I begin…”

  “Yes?”

  Her left eye scrunched just a tad, just before she asked her question, “Who taught you how to fluently speak my Moon Child language?”

  Looking at her with disbelief upon hearing her question, he answered with his own question, “What are you talking about? We’ve been speaking my native language nearly the entire time since we first met, including now! Pavelian.”

  “Well, guess what? We’re also speaking my native language also!”

  “Really?”

  Nemis could not help but chuckle for a few times, before she nodded her hand once and answered, “Really…”

  “Well, hmm. That’s really interesting. I wonder if our written languages look the same.”

  While raising her angular right eyebrow, Nemis answered seriously, “I don’t know…let’s find out. I’m going to pull out my spell-book—sit next to me and tell me if you can read any of it?”

  “Okay.”

  As he sat down next to her, she withdrew the book from her pocket, opened it up to the first page, held the book out in front of the both of them for him to read, and asked, “Can you read this?”

  Baltor grabbed one corner of the book and looked at it—at first, the language was undecipherable, but within a quarter of a minute’s time…they were starting to become recognizable as letters.

  Nemis asked, “Well?”

  “Umm, it’s definitely not in the language of Pavelian.”

  “So what took you so long to respond?”

  “Because…my mind is beginning to decipher the written language as we speak.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah…okay. Now I can read it.”

  “What’s it say? By the way, if you can really, really read it, don’t worry about ‘the little warning’ I wrote at the top of the first page…I’m allowing you to read it.”

  Baltor read aloud, “‘WARNING—This book has been magically protected from all uninvited visitors. Any who read beyond this sentence’s conclusion shall forever suffer from a magical curse for the remainder of his/her/their lives, which life’s length shall be no longer than a month’s time as you will die in a very horrible and painful way, so it’s best to stop reading right here and now…’”

  He stopped reading at the conclusion of that sentence, jetting his eyes suspiciously back up to Nemis.

  While nodding her head, she promised, “Keep reading…I give you permission not only to read my book now, yet whenever you ask me.”

  He replied, “Okay… ‘This spell-book is the property of Magus Nemis Narrim’ Indya Harr’n.”

  Upon reading that very last word, his mouth almost literally dropped to the floor, his face turned pale-white, his eyes looked away from the book and around the room, his hand that was holding the book released its grip, his back felt chills running up and down the spine, and his mind began to think. All at the same time.

  Still holding securely onto the book the whole time while looking at him “real-real curiously” now, Nemis asked, “What—why did you stop reading…and why do you look that way?”

  “Your—your last name,” Baltor’s mouth stuttered, as his eyes looked all around the room.

  Nemis asked, “What of it?”

  Baltor breathed aloud, “It’s Harr’n! The person I’m trying to rescue’s last name is Harrn, without the apostrophe…Trendon Harrn! Do you know him?”

  Her lips and eyes slightly scrunched up in recollection…a few seconds later, she shook her head and answered, “No, I don’t. Never heard of him before…”

  “What was your father’s first name?” Baltor asked.

  “Aran’as.”

  “Oh…maybe it’s all just a coincidence.”

  “Yeah, I think so…never heard of Trendon Harrn before. I remember Tiamat saying that the person you came here to rescue is your master, but she did not say his name. Is this man actually your master?”

  “Umm, yeah, he kind of is.”

  “What do you mean, kind of?”

  Baltor briefed, “He was the one who made me into an immortal in the first place—a type of immortality I cannot talk about because I swore not to. What I can say is that right after my transformation, I was left alone, so that I could master my world on my own. But, I was left with the promise that once I had fully mastered it, the master himself would come to me and teach me about all the other worlds and realms. Though I mastered my world by becoming the indisputable sultan over every square inch of land and sea, things didn’t work out for my master on his side of the fence…somehow he was captured and imprisoned here…so I’m here to rescue him.”

  “Ohh,” she sang, “now I understand. Wow, you and I are so very much alike, after all!”

  “Yeah, pretty much…”

  “All right,” she said with an affirming nod, “let’s get back to work here.”

  “Okay.”

  After flipping to the second page, Nemis said, “Okay—what I’m going to need you to do is listen, as I telepathically read to you the sentence for this first spell called ‘charm person.’ After I’m done reading, I want you to repeat it back telepathically. If you don’t get it right, I’ll reread it to you, and you try again…until you do get it right five times in a row. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  On the second attempt, Baltor said it correctly using telepathy.

  After the fifth successful attempt, Nemis continued to teach aloud, “Okay. Know that this spell will work on just about any living humanoid race, except for dwarves and goblins. These two races have always had a natural immunity to any-and-all mind-altering spells, yet they also have a natural loathing/hatred to all magic—similar to how most women feel about snakes. I like snakes myself.”

  “I don’t,” he replied.

  “Anyway,” she taught, “whenever you cast this charm spell on someone, you must not only see the words to the spell in your mind’s eye while your physical mouth chants it out, yet you must also visualize in your mind’s eye that this person is indeed your best friend. Remember the golden rule of magic: seeing is believing.”

  “Okay.”

  “Perfect! Now, I’m going to teach you one more on the very next page. It’s called ‘light spell.’”

  “Nice.”

  In a nutshell, she proceeded to teach him that this light spell did operate through her staff, but that is because it was her desire that the light source emanated inside the
crystal. If she focused the source anywhere else, this tiny-yet-prismatic light floated in the air wherever she willed it, lasting for two hours of time. Then she taught him the actual incantation.

  Once he had successfully cast the light-spell, nearly a half-hour later, Nemis asked, “Now, I want you to teach me something…okay?”

  Baltor smiled, and said, “Sure…what I’m going to need you to do is put away your book first.”

  “Okay,” she said just before she did.

  After rising to his feet, he said, “Before we begin with any martial arts training session, we must first stretch our bodies until they are loose and nimble. So the first thing I’m going to teach you are those proper stretching exercises, in which we will perform them after I explain…okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Stand up, please?”

  She did.

  It took them ten minutes before they were both warmed up and ready. He said, “The next thing I’m going to teach you is the ninety-degree stance…also known as the basic ready position”

  “Huh?”

  “Look at my body position right now.” In the blink of an eye, his body had assumed the position, with his hands and arms hanging loosely by his sides and both feet in ninety-degree angles. He taught, “Within this ninety-degree stance, I can protect the other two hundred and seventy degrees of the entire three hundred and sixty degrees, by performing a wide variety of martial-arts techniques. Techniques that range from acrobatic rolls, to defensive blocks, to offensive strikes like kicks or punches…of course, this will all take time for me to teach it all to you, and tons of practice from your part before you can become a martial arts master like me, just so you know.”

  After nodding her head once, she said, “No problem.”

  “Let me demonstrate what I mean for the next minute.” He forthwith began to perform an amazing demonstration of all his martial arts skills—exactly one minute after he had begun, he stopped in all his movements, faced her, and instructed, “Always—always—always do my feet end up back in ninety-degree angles. Do you see and understand?”

  “Yes,” she squealed in delight, while clapping her hands enthusiastically!

  Remaining serious, Baltor continued to instruct, “Still another instant way of protecting the ninety degrees to your left or right is by simply pivoting the feet ninety more degrees to the right, or to the left…see what I mean going either direction?”

  After spending a second-or-two spent to think about it, Nemis replied, “Yes.”

  “Try it going to the left.”

  “Okay. How’s that?”

  “Actually…perfect.”

  Nemis sang happily, “Thank you!”

  “Shift your feet to the right now—perfect!”

  “Thank you!”

  “You’re welcome, Nemis. Now, I will teach you how to properly perform a forward somersault—after my demonstration is complete, I want you to try it…okay?”

  “Okay.”

  While explaining his movements, he—in slow motion—extended both arms in front of him. Upon his hands contacting the ground, he tightened his entire body up into a ball, tilted his head to the side, rolled over, and ended up back on his feet.

  All the while, Nemis observed astutely his every moment—for the first time on her own, she noted that his feet were in the ninety-degree stance at the end, while his hands and arms hung loosely by his sides.

  “Ready to try?”

  “Okay, Baltor.”

  Even though she tried her best, she was unsuccessful, as she could not remember all of the complex movements of the forward somersault. Thankfully, her magical robes automatically clung to her body like glue, which returned to the state of “loose and flowing” once the acrobatic movement was over!

  Following her first attempt, Baltor suggested, “As you did that maneuver all wrong, let me explain and demonstrate it all over again. When you try it next, after me, I will once again verbally explain…and I want you to move real slow…okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Again, Baltor demonstrated the forward somersault in slow motion. When she attempted this maneuver for the second time, also in slow motion, he even physically assisted her. Finally, on the sixth attempt, she became one hundred percent successful with her feat.

  “Perfect!”

  Now smiling happily, Nemis replied, “Thank you. Sorry, though, it took me so long to figure this somersault out.”

  Baltor shrugged his shoulders before saying, “I’m just glad you figured out how to do it. Now, you can even somersault to the left, to the right, and to the rear…like this.”

  With that, he performed each move in turn—each and every time as always, his feet, hands and body were placed “perfectly!”

  Following this demonstration, he suggested, “For you, let’s go to the rear somersault, and once you’ve mastered that, we’ll go the side somersaults. By the end of this training session, you will have satisfactorily rolled each direction for me.”

  “Okay.”

  For the next several hours, the training session continued…by the end, Nemis could perform the rolls, though not great.

  Once over, Baltor sat down, and said, “Well, we still have seven hours left. Got any games in that magic pocket of yours?”

  Smiling, Nemis said, “Actually I do! You ever heard of 4-D chess before?”

  Shaking his head, he answered, “No.”

  The second after he had finished the answer, Nemis reached inside her pocket in order to pull the rectangular box containing the game out. Once the game was out, and the three multi-leveled board set up and locked into place, she began to set all of the variously sized and shaped pieces onto the bottom level of the board.

  Once set up, nearly a minute later, she asked, “Have you ever seen a game like this before?”

  “Yeah, we call this game ‘voospan’ on my world,” Baltor said. “Should I begin or you?”

  “Well, seeing as the black pieces are on your side and the white are on mine, I say you go first.”

  “Okay…sounds fine with me.”

  With that, he moved the knight on his right to the top floor—down two spaces and one to the right.

  She hummed, “Hmm.”

  Five seconds later, she moved her pawn two spaces, the one in front of the knight on the left.

  Baltor sat back for a second, before he picked up his other knight and moved it to join his comrade on the top floor—two spaces up and one to the right.

  Nodding her head, she said, “Okay…”

  Shortly after, she brought the bishop on the right to the top floor, which put Baltor’s right knight in danger.

  He picked that knight up off the board, moved it two spaces up and to the left, set it down, and smiled.

  She smiled in turn, picked up her queen, and brought it to the top floor.

  He next picked up the knight on his left, moving it up two spaces and to the right.

  In turn, she picked up the rook on her left and brought that to the top row without moving it anywhere else.

  He picked up that same knight, moved it two spaces up and to the left—it now threatened Nemis’ queen.

  She saw the threat, and so she moved her queen up three spaces—that queen now threatened both of Baltor’s knights.

  “Good move, Nemis,” he said with a smile.

  She sweetly answered, “Thank you.”

  Baltor moved the knight on his right up one and two spaces to the left—as expected, Nemis’ bishop consumed the other knight.

  Though he knew his remaining knight was about to be destroyed by the queen, he used it to consume Nemis’ bishop—as predicted, her queen consumed his final knight. Alone she ruled the top floor of the board.

  For the next twenty minutes, a fierce game was waged. In the end, Nemis won as her queen—of whom was protected by her remaining bishop—landed on the same coordinate as his king, but on the bottom level. Because he could not move his king anywhere else, he was checkmated…this is
exactly how Baltor lost the game.

  She confirmed, “Checkmate!”

  He extended his hand out and said congratulatory, “Well…nice win! Congratulations.”

  “Thank you,” she said with a chipper tone, while shaking his hand for a few seconds.

  “You’re welcome…just so you know, I was one move away from checkmating…but in the end, you proved to be the victor.”

  Nemis nodded her head, while bearing “a victorious smile!”

  A few seconds later, he sucked in a deep sigh before he said, “Well, today’s been a very eventful day in its own way. I think we should try to get some rest for the next stretch in our journey—after all, we are going to have to keep fully alert for all the demons and the souls! Know what I mean?”

  “Yes, sir!”

  He laughed as he said, “You don’t have to call me sir.”

  “But I wanted too…you are such a gracious gentleman, a scholar, a warrior and a leader…you’re even a gracious loser! As for me, I’m not such a gracious winner. Ha ha! Just playing.”

  With a wink of his eye, he replied, “That’s okay. You’ll get yours in the next game.”

  She feigned a bored yawn, before saying, “Promises-promises…”

  He chuckled a few times, but instead of challenging her to another game, he stated seriously, “Well, my friend…time’s come for us to both get some shuteye now…yeah?”

  “Yeah…sweet dreams.”

  “You too, Nemis.”

  She sighed. “Thanks, Baltor!”

  After putting the game away and snuffing out the light, they slept soundly throughout this day deep inside the cave.

  That night, as well for the next two years of nights to follow, they traveled non-stop on the ground moving at the slow pace of five miles per hour, she riding piggyback, because the blizzard winds never-ever-ever ceased and proved to be far too powerful for the carpet. Fortunate for them, not once had they been discovered by guards, souls, and most especially, by this unique, colossal, scary, ice-crystal beast that stood on its hind legs at thirty-stories with fifty-foot long teeth and claws! Four such monsters had they seen overall, in which the ground trembled for miles with every step—Baltor and Nemis kept far, far away from them, which wasn’t that hard because of all the deafening, screeching noises they made.