Determining the resonating frequency of the stone was not a simple task. They didn’t have a machine that could be set to a specific frequency, so each person working on the project had to feel it out for themselves. Mana wasn’t a problem, but Lorelei, William, and Lila still took turns to keep themselves from becoming exhausted.

William concentrated, trying to feel if there was any reaction from the stone. He felt they were starting to zone in on the right frequencies, as the stone trembled slightly- and not from the volume of the sound.

Nearby, other walls and the floors trembled as well… but he could only try to contain the power to where he wanted. It quickly fell off with distance, so he should be able to avoid causing any significant damage to his new keep- not that it was particularly useful except for a place to retreat.

William could sense the tiny vibrations increasing slightly. At the rate he was going, it would take forever to build up… but since he seemed to have found the right frequency he increased his chanting to pull in more mana. The demands on his concentration increased exponentially- not only did he have to control more mana, but since he was creating sound it was even harder to maintain his control as the mana was jostled about.

However, the power built up. William could feel the trembling… then he saw the stone in front of him warping for a moment… before it exploded in a shower of stone shards and rubble… and some magical energy in the form of fire and lightning.

Once the dust settled, William brushed himself off. Nothing was actually targeted at him, so everything had spread evenly in every direction. There were bits and pieces of rock everywhere but directly behind William. Some of the soldiers standing further back were covered in dust, but none of them were injured in any meaningful manner.

He could see he had succeeded. The pieces of the magical formation were now directly visible. They were made quite solidly, and thus they were still mostly intact. However, William could now see some of the pieces that were hidden behind and in the stone walls. That completed the picture… and after he took a few moments to recover he moved to destroy some of the now-visible weaknesses. The skies went dark as he once again gathered light for a laser… melting some small but critical pieces of metal. Once their form was lost they were no longer useful… and WIlliam could see the formation’s magic collapsing.

Alexander Goddard was still lying unconscious. William was glad that he had taken some time to train his body, as he had been toward the periphery of the explosion. Fortunately, he was still alive. William didn’t want to have to figure out a way to destroy the soul of someone who had already died. It seemed like it would be quite troublesome to chase down, if it was even possible.

As he chanted for one final spell, Alexander Goddard’s eyes opened slowly. He tried to move, but with little success. William could almost see his eyes asking how things had ended up like this.

Perhaps that was just William wondering it himself. He came from another world, only to live several lives… culminating in a complete upheaval of gevai society. How many deaths was he responsible for? William didn’t want to think about that number, even if he was generous with himself. More importantly, he didn’t want to think about the souls he destroyed, for they felt much more horrid than taking any number of lives. Still, this would be the last one. With that thought and a relatively constrained explosion, the last of the oldest demon lords were gone.

When William heard the cry of the dragon, he merely walked to stand on top of the innermost wall of the keep, watching. The dragon grew larger and larger. William saw archers readying themselves, and braced himself for whatever sort of attack would be coming. Once they were in range, the archers unleashed a hail of arrows- most of which bounced harmlessly off of scales. The dragon flew overhead, roaring, and then…

It flew past. The dragon merely passed by overhead, ignoring the attacks from below and flying off over toward the other horizon, disappearing.

-----

The Eternal King did not show himself for several days, which somewhat put a damper on the preliminary victory celebrations. There was much speculation on why he had disappeared, what mysterious things he was doing… but Lorelei knew better.

William was doing nothing mysterious… just sleeping. He had led an attack on a keep, and destroyed the souls of seven demon lords- one after another. While the soldiers talked about how he had stared down a dragon, Lorelei watched as William sleep a deep but fitful sleep.

She herself was in somewhat of an odd mood. When everything had started, she hadn’t thought that a young wizard could bring about the destruction of the Demon King- let alone those who were backing him. Even at the beginning of the campaign Lorelei hadn’t been sure of success. It was only now, when everything was finally over, that she could think about what came after.

Her mind turned to all of the experiments left undone. She would love to get back to them- preferably with William by her side. However, she knew that couldn’t happen- at least not right away.

The war was over, but there was still the aftermath to clean up after. Even if Lorelei didn’t have so much compassion for the average person as William did, she understood that the country still needed to be stabilized. That was a strange thought, because although real wars usually only occurred infrequently- every gross of years or more- the country had never really been stable during her lifetime. The lords fought among each other, peasants attempted revolts- and there were always troubles with the humans. Now, there was actually a chance for things to be different. It was going to take a lot of work.