Ray used the blue flaming horse to get back to the University. He hoped the others

had something solid to point the way to the end of this. He wanted to be home more

than he wanted a magic arm.

If he could keep the arm, that would be a big help for his business. Nothing

programmed faster than something that could do things at the speed of light.

Affirmative.

“Lamp, do you have a location on Ishvar?,” thought Ray.

Affirmative. A blue marker appeared in the air. He walked toward it and spotted the

golden figure working her way down the wall. She had her hands up, a symbol

floating in the air between them.

“Hey, Ishvar,” called Ray. He didn’t want a startled reaction leading to trouble. “What

have you found?”

“Whomever put this up did a good job,” said Ishvar. She glanced to confirm it was

him before going back to work. “I have a lot of bad news, and one piece of good

news.”

“Let me have the good news first,” said Ray. “I’ll have to think about how to fix the

bad news.”

“The good news is the inner wall is only designed to summon one creature from the

Abyss,” said Ishvar. She waved one metal hand at the University grounds.

Ray looked around. All this effort for one creature. He supposed the rest was tied in

with the bad news.

He couldn’t wait to hear what the other shoe sounded like when it hit the ground.

“Wow me with the bad news,” said Ray.

“The walls are hardened from interference so it would take me a great amount of

effort to make a dent in part of it,” said Ishvar. “An active shield is in place to stop

anyone from just smashing part of it down and stopping the spell. The outer wall is

a control spell for what the inner wall summons. I don’t know how effective it will

be on a creature from the Abyss since they are said to be magic resistant to some

extent. The very worst news is the creature summoned will fill up all of the inner

wall.”

Ray looked around. The spark showed him a quick estimate of a creature arriving as

big as the university. He frowned at the numbers presented.

“There is also the possibility that the creature will split and the minor creatures that

break from it will not be controlled,” said Ishvar.

“What does that mean?,” asked Ray, but he had an idea what it meant and he didn’t

like that idea at all.

“There is a possibility that when the summons activates that the main creature

summoned will spawn lesser creatures that will attack the world around it,” said

Ishvar. “There is no guarantee what will happen either way, but if that happens, it

won’t matter if the bigger creature is controlled or not. The smaller creatures will eat

until they can spawn too.”

“So we have to stop the summons no matter what,” said Ray. “And that means we

need to tear down part of the wall before it activates.”

“That is the part that I am having problems with,” said Ishvar. “Whomever built this

did everything they could to stop people like me from just punching a hole through

it with an arcane bolt.”

“What about physical force?,” said Ray.

“I’m not very strong, but the shield will protect it up to a certain point,” said Ishvar.

“If we had a way to reach that point, no shield will protect it for long.”

“Maybe Buble can do that,” said Ray. He doubted the thought as soon as he had it.

Buble didn’t seem as strong as Ishvar.

“We need someone capable of knocking down buildings,” said Ishvar. “I don’t think

Buble is that capable without his magic.”

Ray hated to agree with that assessment, but it was true. The rabbit didn’t seem all

that physical. He still might have something in his bag of tricks to help them

somehow.

Maybe there was a way to fold space to cut the wall apart.

“Maybe I can knock it down with my arm,” said Ray. “There has to be something we

can do to cut through this. The death toll will be out of sight if we can’t stop the

summoning.”

“If the smaller creatures are still enormous, it could mean the end of the world,” said

Ishvar. “I can see why someone sent you here to stop this.”

“Lamp,” thought Ray. He walked to the closest part of the wall. “I’m going to punch

this wall. Multiply the kinetic impact as much as you can. We need to get through that

shielding somehow.”

Affirmative.

Ray punched with his metal hand. He felt the knuckles hit some kind of cushion to

slow the punch. The energy from the blow kept going. Part of the facing cracked from

the impact.

“All right,” said Ray. “I can do something, but I could be here all week just knocking

this part of the wall down.”

“And we don’t have that much time,” said Ishvar. “As soon as the light from the Face

of Ba’al hits any part of its surfaces, the walls will activate.”

“We need someone capable of exerting a lot of force in a little bit of time,” said Ray.

“Maybe Buble, or Lord Brian, can help us with that much.”

“That was impressive,” said Ishvar. “I couldn’t even scratch it.”

“That’s all I did too,” said Ray. He looked around. “I wonder if Johnny Mac and

Buble found something.”

“If they accidentally exposed the magician behind this, they could be dead and gone,”

said Ishvar. “The boy doesn’t have any magic at all, and the djinn won’t withstand

any type of fire magic.”

“I wouldn’t count Johnny Mac out,” said Ray. “The Duke didn’t pick him for his

friendly outlook on life.”

“How do you know that?,” said Ishvar.

“Because knowing him, I have to say he was picked for his anger and quickness

above all else,” said Ray.

“I suppose I have to agree with that,” said Ishvar.

Ray checked the Lamp cameras. He spotted Johnny Mac and Buble walking through

the grounds. They seemed to be arguing over something. That wasn’t unusual.

“Here comes the rest of us,” said Ray. “Let’s see what they found. Maybe that will

give something we can use to take care of our business.”

“If we are still here inside the walls when the spell activates, we will be dead,”

warned Ishvar. “If the summoned creature doesn’t kill us, then there is a chance that

we will be sent there when it arrives here.”

Ray nodded. That also meant all the students and faculty on the grounds would be

wrecked. They would be the initial victims before things spread out in the streets.

Then the people living just outside of Grandview would be next as the monsters

spread out and started eating everything.

Once they were done with the town, how long before the continent, and then the rest

of the planet followed?

How long would it take them to eat through the core of the planet and cause it to

break apart?

Ray didn’t want to be around for that.

And if they got to Transition, there were probably automatic processes to dump them

on other planets. Once that happened, those other planets were as good as dead too

unless they had something to kill the Abyssals before they spread out too much.

The two pairs met at the large square in the center of the campus. Johnny Mac waved

when he saw Ray and Ishvar clanking along. Buble nodded, marching along, hands

behind his back.

“You guys go first,” said Ray. “We need some good news.”

“We broke into the billing department,” said Johnny Mac. Buble nodded in

confirmation. “We found the general contractor from that. We went and found him.

He told us when they were putting up the wall around the university, a woman was

there to check the concrete as they moved along. She would put something in to be

covered up by the workers.”

“Spell stones,” said Ishvar.

Buble nodded at the guess.

“The contractor didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but we sussed it out on the

way back,” said Johnny Mac. “Buble knows a lot about that because of working with

the Duke.”

“The spell stones are making the wall tougher to take down?,” guessed Ray.

“They also empower all the effects,” said Ishvar. “Imagine everything living giving

off a current.”

“Like the Force,” said Johnny Mac. Ishvar glared at the interruption, but it was hard

to tell what her expression actually was with a featureless mask on her face.

Johnny Mac and Buble exchanged fist bumps.

“In any case,” continued Ishvar. “This current can be collected and stored for the

proper time of use.”

“How many would she need to put in to power the wall?,” asked Ray.

“Thousands of stones, Ray,” said Buble. “And they have all been collecting their

individual due and storing it for use for as long as the wall has been standing.”

“Which is decades,” said Johnny Mac.

“And even if we could knock one of those stones out of line, there is a chance it can

still power the spell,” said Ishvar.

“But it ain’t all bad, bro,” said Johnny Mac. “Buble was able to steal a memory so we

have a rough idea of what the woman looked like then, so we can maybe find her

now.”

“You’re kidding,” said Ray. “How did you do that?”

“I know a little about storage, Ray,” said Buble. “Master John suggested the idea

while we were talking to the contractor.”

“Can you show us?,” asked Ray.

Buble extended a hand. The air took on a pink hue as he manipulated the molecules.

A picture of a young woman appeared. She seemed plain with freckles and a glaring

expression on her face. The memory was good enough to show a small scar over her

eyebrow.

“I know this woman,” said Ray. “She’s here.”

“What do you mean?,” asked Ishvar.

“She’s one of the librarians,” said Ray. “I saw her on the first day when I met Sandra.

I saw her in the library.”

He took off to Sandra’s and Sam’s place. Sandra would be able to give him a name.

Once he had a name, he could get everyone in the city looking for the woman.

“Lamp, are you still storing everything?,” thought Ray as he ran across the grounds.

Affirmative.

“As soon as you can send it to Woad, do it,” said Ray. “If she gets away, but I still get

recalled, I want the next guy to know who he’s looking for here.”

Affirmative.

Ray ran up to the door and hammered on it with his metal fist. He listened but didn’t

hear any movement.

“Lamp, locate Sandra and Sam,” thought Ray.

A blue line of flame sliced through the buildings around Ray, cutting through the city

block by block, building by building.

Unable to comply. Subjects are undetected within the limits of my range.

“How many places blocked your search beam?,” asked Ray.

Fifty five.

“How many of those are on campus?,” asked Ray. He had a feeling the library was

one of those shielded places.

Two. Blue markers lit up the library and a dorm type building near the general

quarters given to the faculty.

“I’m going in and getting them,” thought Ray. “You ready?”

Affirmative.

“What’s going on, Ray?,” asked Johnny Mac as the others caught up.

“Sandra and Sam aren’t home, and they are nowhere in town,” said Ray.

“They don’t have to be,” said Johnny Mac.

“They don’t have to be, but they should be,” said Ray.

He looked at his squad. They were good people, capable as any people he had dealt

with, maybe more capable. Now he was about to ask them to put everything on the

line for him. He didn’t like that at all.

“I’m taking the library,” said Ray. “Ishvar, there’s a shielded room or something in

that third building over there. I want you to make sure Sam and Sandra aren’t there,

and then blow it up. If our magician is there, send up a flare. Buble, there’s a guy. His

name is Lightner.”

Ray summoned up a picture of the boy for Buble to see who he was talking about so

there was no mistakes. He sent out another beam to locate Lightner to make sure of

what he was saying.

“He’s at the Blue Oak across town. Tell him to bring whatever he’s got and blow the

wall up. Tell him it’s vital.”

“I need a gun first,” said Johnny Mac. “I don’t have a magic arm.”

“Homing gun, Master John,” said Buble. He dropped a large rifle in Johnny Mac’s

hands. “Point and shoot. It has its own aimbot.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” said Johnny Mac.

“Let’s go, Johnny,” said Ray. “We have to set some books on fire.”