The Court of Souls?

“Daeva (daēuua, daāua, daēva) is an Avestan language term for a particular sort of supernatural entity with disagreeable characteristics. In the Gathas, the oldest texts of the Zoroastrian canon, the daevas are "wrong gods" or "false gods" or "gods that are (to be) rejected". This meaning is – subject to interpretation – perhaps also evident in the Old Persian "daiva inscription" of the 5th century BCE. In the Younger Avesta, the daevas are noxious creatures that promote chaos and disorder. In later tradition and folklore, the dēws (Zoroastrian Middle Persian; New Persian divs) are personifications of every imaginable evil.”

- The Journey to the Afterlife

***Dedessia, the Sea of Souls, Semper Fidelis***

***Elona***

The battlefield is chaos itself! No wonder. What else could I expect when my husband is one of the generals? Allowing him to organize a battle is equivalent to throwing both armies into a meat-grinder to see if some of the soldiers come out unharmed by chance.

Tisha and I are hovering at a safe distance above the battle. Our allies already joined the fray, but Tisha decided that it would be best to guard me. She is so excited about becoming a grandmother that she doesn't even think about letting me out of her sight when the situation could become dangerous at any moment.

“What are those sickening, black creatures who are fighting on our side?” Tisha asks, pointing at the scene. Our people are being assisted by a huge mass of shadows. A lot of them seem relatively weak, but there are also very strong ones. The most impressive one is a huge serpent-like creature who moves at lightning speed.

I shrug. “I don't care. They fight for us, and I feel my husband's magic on them. Maybe he summoned them to assist us. But we have to do something about that 'thing'!” I point at a huge monster. It is approaching the battlefield from the east and I doubt that it is friendly towards either side.

It is clear that we fell for one of Moonray's plots. He didn't want us to be crushed by the slavers, nor did he want us to crush them. He used the slavers' attack to send yet another spirit, this time in hope that it would crush both of our forces while we are occupied with each other.

It's a Daeva. Another extremely strong spirit, but not much different from the thing which Shade blasted to pieces a few days earlier. The vaguely humanoid body is crowned by a horrifying head which sprouts tentacles. Instead of arms it has four whip-like tentacles.

And there is the slime which is dripping from it in an endless river. It seems to be some sort of acid, because wherever it touches the ground, huge clouds of smoke arise.

I concentrate and try to reach Shade through the mindlink which is provided by our wedding rings. For several moments it looks like something is interfering with the connection, but then I get through.

“Shade, another spirit is approaching the battlefield. You need to shoot another one of those red vortexes at it!”

“I am sorry, Sugar. I am a little occupied at the moment. These slavers are just realizing that they picked a fight with the wrong guy. Is there a way for you to deal with it?”

“Not sure. Our reinforcements already joined the fight. I would have to deal with it myself, and that would affect my power reserves. You know what that would mean.”

“It would mean that you have to drain even more power from me? Preferably during bed activities?”

“Something along those lines... it doesn't have to be in bed, but I thought that you would like it better to feel good, rather than holding hands and passing out?”

“Okay.”

“Okay? You were complaining for the last week about me being a nympho!”

“Go for it. Blast the thing to pieces. I'll make it up to you later. Oh, I have to cut the sweet talk, I think I just found Enwick! Bye!”

I feel the connection being cut and blink in surprise. “He hung up on me! He seriously left the troublesome stuff to me to enjoy himself somewhere down there in that bar fight!” I stab my finger at the chaotic mass of men, spells and explosions.

Tisha snorts and her expression turns worried. “You talked to Shade? Is he in trouble?”

“Noooo. He just told me in his own way that he is way too excited about mangling up a few people and that I should take care of the spirit by myself!” How can he. He knows that I have our little baby in my belly. I should be his top priority right now! Not some stupid campaign of vengeance.

I sigh and survey the battlefield. Maybe I can find Shade inside that mess and drag him up here to shoot his chaos spell at the thing? He can jump back in after he is done. But no.

The only one who I can clearly identify from up here is Ishaan. He grew to the size of a giant and summoned a huge icicle which he is using as a club. Currently he is laughing like mad and using it very energetically to smash someone into the ground, hammering him repeatedly. I wonder if he is just desecrating the corpse, or if the opponent in question really requires that many blows from a street lantern sized icicle.

The scene gives me the shudders and I force my eyes away.

“Isn't he cool? The way he fights is so manly, and look at all those muscles.” Tisha starts squirming and points at Ishaan.

I raise an eyebrows. “Seriously? That's why you are into him?”

Shade... you really lucked out with your parents in this reincarnation. I have to remember to shower you in love when this is done.

Tisha makes a dismissive gesture. “Nah... that's not the only reason. Ishaan is very loyal. And he is the only guy who can satisfy my needs.”

“Needs?” I am not sure if I should have asked that. Do I even want to know the answer!?

“Look at him! He can grow it any size he wants to. What else do you need as a woman?” Tisha looks at me with a puzzled expression.

Yeah... any size she wants, huh? I admit that it has its benefits. “Whatever. I have to do something about the spirit.”

“You alone!? Don't force yourself! I'll go down there and force my son to stop his stupid antics. A pregnant woman should be held in more esteem,” Tisha rants and floats towards the battlefield.

But I hold her back. “Don't worry. I am not your son's soulpartner without reason. I can deal with that thing easily enough. It's just that I don't want to waste more energy than necessary. The baby draws on my powers, so I want to think it through.”

I turn my attention back to the spirit and regard it with critical eyes. With the speed of its approach it will be here in less than fifteen minutes.

A variation of attacking the acupuncture points would probably be the most efficient attack. But there is no way to know if that body is sufficiently similar to a human's. And I would have to get close to it. A bad idea with all that acid.

I could use a ramped up variation of my palm strike. Though that requires a lot of energy and is getting old. What else can I do? I search through my memories and try to think. One of Celes's abilities? Or Stella's? No, her abilities don't suit the situation either. If I try a matter transformation without sufficient training I could blow up the entire safe zone. And then there would be a lot of trouble with the radiation. Better not to play with such forces until I regain a solid grip on that ability.

“It is getting close. Are you sure that you have the luxury to wait any longer?” Tisha asks with an agitated voice.

Cyla! That's it!

I concentrate mana in my fingertip and start etching a rune system into the palm of my left hand. The runes shine with blue light and I feel warmth spreading through my hand. Using this ancient form of magic is the only way how I can get around my inability to use my outer magical system. It's much slower than forming the spell matrix directly with your mind. But better than no magic at all.

When I am done, I point my hand at the daeva and channel my mana through it.

Immediately a space distortion forms in the air in front of me. It looks like watching the world through a magnifying glass. In its centre is a small black sphere. Cyla never had enough mana to use her ability to its full extent, but I am a god.

I smirk and propel the little, black marble towards the spirit with a wave of my hand. It shoots off like a bullet and impacts the spirit.

At first it looks like my spell failed. But then a black sphere appears in the creature's mid section. It grows to a tenth of the daeva's size and I can feel the gravitational pull. The daeva screams and is folded in on itself as the gravitational anomaly makes short work of the monster.

Parts of the ground are also lifted up and sucked inside. For a horrifying moment it looks as if my creation will eat the entire safe zone. But then, exactly as intended, the sphere collapses in on itself and is gone. If it wasn't for the ripped up ground and the spirit's trail of acid, one might think that there never was any danger.

I draw in a deep breath and check on my energy reserves. “I am hungry. Shade better make up for this, or I will be angry,” I grumble.

Tisha hugs me from the side. “I have the best daughter in law ever! Please tell me that my granddaughter will be as strong as her parents!”

Are all people who live in this world power freaks?

We continue to watch the rest of the battle, but from our point of view there isn't much to see. My little display of power rattled something inside our enemies and some decided to flee when they saw the daeva being annihilated. A large formation of them broke away and fled. Maybe fifteen higher immortals.

It's infuriating that we had to let them go, but securing our own position has priority.

In the end all that was left to do was to clean up the field of bodies. A dreadful example of what people are capable of. After I confirmed the well-being of the ones who are dear to me I returned back to the palace. There was no need to watch the clean up measures.

Back in the palace I finally receive a battle report. We lost eleven of our higher immortals, which puts us down to thirty-one people. Additionally a lot of our soldiers fell, the exact number still unknown.

The only confirmed deaths among our enemies are Morello and his girlfriend, who was taken down by Takea herself. Additionally, Ishaan and Doreen got two of Enwick's guards.

As for Enwick and Ra, they belonged to the group which managed to escape. Sadly it doesn't look like that's the last we will hear of them.

The bright side is that we utterly crushed the slavers. It will be hard for them to reorganize after such a blow.

After the meeting I follow Shade back to our bedroom. We didn't have much time to catch up to each other after he returned from the battle. He looks a little grumpy because Enwick got away. But I am on the edge and desperately need some of his energy.

When we enter the bedroom he crosses his arms and fixes his gaze to the ceiling. I can see that the muscles of his jaw are working. Something he always does when he fails to kill his prey.

I pull on his sleeve and try to smile. “Hey, Shade. Why don't you use me to relax a little and then you tell me in detail what happened between you and Enwick?”

I unbutton my dress and pull up my skirt to remove my panties.

Finally he takes notice of me. “Minx, your panties are already moist, even though I didn't touch you at all.”

I close my arms around his neck and wrap my legs around his hips. “I told you what would happen if you make me take care of the spirit.”

He sighs and carries me to the bed. On the way I dexterously open his trousers to free him. But when we arrive he grabs both my hands and pins me down. I giggle, “What are you doing? You are so aggressive, I like it! Maybe I should organize a few more battles to motivate you.”

He nibbles on my ear and teases me with his member. Then he pushes between my folds, slowly and sensually. I feel the energy rushing into me and my pupils dilate while my insides turn to mush.

When he has me properly pinned under him without a chance for escape, he whispers, “This time I win!”

“What?”

He pulls out and thrusts, apparently completely unaffected by my energy drain. “Your ability primarily drains life energy. Electrochemical electricity, heat. It is to immobilize the victim. Only when the target is on the verge of death it starts draining mana. But this part of your ability is actually very inefficient. You don't use the mana properly and a lot of it is lost.”

How did he find out? “What do you-”

My words are cut off by another thrust. The flood of energy numbs me and my vision is filled with sparks. Not good.

“Do you see this little amulet on my chest. It's a very potent healing amulet and replenishes my life force before you can drain me dry. It also cures exhaustion.”

Cheater! I have to get awa-

Another thrust forces me to arch my back and my body betrays me. This is just too much.

“Shade... Angrod... have mercy...”

He circles his hips and whispers into my ear. “Oh, no. This time I'll turn the tables on you, my dear succubus.”

Unfair!

.