"A soldier goes to war when there is no other recourse left," I said. "A soldier fights for a cause or for his home or his people."

"Don't get me wrong," I said. "There are soldiers in the Guard. But the majority of the Guard were enlisted after the Demons destroyed families and friends. Vengeance and retribution-these things breed warriors. You'll see that the threat of the world's end will breed a new Guard of Soldiers, and we will bring those bastards to their knees with this army."

"But as for Jacobs?"

"Jacobs is a warrior born and he won't quit, whether this works or not," I said. "I want to do this because he needs it. But, even more, because I think we need him and every one like him for this war."

"I agree," she nodded. "You can do it then. Thank you for asking me before you just went and did it though. That's not very characteristic of you."

I laughed. "Probably true but it's the way things need to be done, and that's the bottom line. You are our Archmage, not a figurehead. If I won't follow the rules, how can we expect anyone else to do so?"

"True enough," she said with a grin. "How is the demonstration plan coming?"

"I have to meet with a General tomorrow to hash out the details. I'm trying to get automated drones to put against our men. Don't want to hurt any soldiers."

"Good luck dealing with Generals," she laughed bitterly. "Maybe they'll listen to you better than they listen to me."

"They'll listen," I said with a little of my rage trying to surface.

She was taken aback for a split second, then laughed again, "I bet they do."

Chapter 7.

"How is this going to be a real test without any of our men in the field?" General Reginald P. Gasper almost yelled. He was standing behind his desk with both fists planted firmly on the desk top. His whole head was turning red.

I had flown into Washington D.C. specifically to meet with this man about the demonstration. It was our job to hash out what we needed for the event.

"As I said before you interrupted," I returned with a bit of rage surfacing, "I don't want to hurt any American soldiers in a simple demonstration."

The General was taken aback by the tone of my voice, or maybe I was projecting my rage a bit. Maybe my eyes were burning again, I don't know. Either way, he stepped back half a step.

"What I want is for you to provide automated tanks or drones of some sort if it is possible. The more actual soldiers that are in the field, the more my Guards have to hold back. You need to see what the Soulguard is capable of, and I need to know that innocent men and women aren't going to get hurt as I show you."

"You honestly believe your men with, humph...swords, can stand up to my main battle tanks?" he scoffed.

"I think your tanks will be utterly outclassed, but you just get them there and we will see."

I stood and turned toward the door, "I suggest you bring some you are prepared to lose, and bring plenty."

I knew this was like a slap in the face to the man, but it seemed to be the only way to get the arrogant bastard to listen. God I'll be glad when we can get past all the bullshit, and get to work on the defense of our world, I thought.

I heard him as I left the room, mumbling, "...why that cocky little bast..."

I chuckled as I rounded the corner. You could bet he'd bring out his best for this now. It's the best way to show them exactly what they face, both in the Soulguard and in the foe that we must face together, if we are going to survive as a species.

As for the capabilities of their tanks, I was working on several ways of dealing with them, although I was sorely tempted to just let Paige blow them all to hell by herself.

Waiting for the government to do anything was torture. I know that the U.S. government is a large institution, and it's going to be slow getting results. But that doesn't help the rage burning inside of me. Hell, if the Kresh want to get rid of me, they may only have to stay away for a few years. I might spontaneously combust.

It was time to return to Jacobs, and see if he was still set on being turned into a Mage. Rumors had gotten out about it. Lyrica had seemed to be trailing me for the last day. I think she was afraid I would hurt myself again with the Pull.

"Is my shadow still close by?" I asked Ric.

"No doubt, Boss," he chuckled. "Everybody knows what you're plannin'. You can't really blame the girl. You almost died last time you did somethin' like this."

"It was a much larger scale," I said, "but I'm more worried about Ivan. If his focus fails, I'll kill one of my closest friends."

"He's a big boy, Boss," Prada said. "He knows the risks. Besides, he won't slip. He's got a good bit of skill at focusing. I know we lost a few of our men last time, and you feel it's your fault, but it's not. We all took the chance. We all accepted the risk for the opportunity to end the battle without losing more lives."

"She's right," Ric said. "We lost three lives. If we had just continued to fight them, we would have eventually lost hundreds. They died no less heroes than any of the others who fell in Kansas."

I pointed at my head, "I know this up here." I tapped my chest, "but I still feel here that it was my doing. I know it's not really logical, but it is what it is."

I do know that what they say is true, and we are in a war, although some people don't truly understand that yet. But I just feel that I should have learned what I could do faster. I should have been pushing the boundaries much harder than I had been. That is part of why I chose to do this for Jacobs. If I succeed without incident, there will be more who request the change. In all honesty, we will need as many Mages as we can get.

My actual thought is that every veteran Guard will be Mages, and the new recruits will be the Guards before all of this is done. I don't think I will try to increase any Guards who haven't been there for quite some time. Focus is essential, and the ones who had died in Kansas were relatively new recruits. But these are just my own thoughts on the matter. It will be subject to the Archmage, and her Council to decide if I can proceed with this.

I entered the Dome with my swords in the harness on my back. Before I go get Jacobs, I needed to work off some of the rage that has been building for weeks inside of me. Rictor and Prada both followed with their weapons as well. In moments, Lyrica and her two shadows followed us in.

As I took my place in the center of the Dome, Lyrica stepped up beside me. She held two swords as well. Behind us I heard swords unsheathe as Rictor, Prada, Mattie, and Trent all drew weapons.

I drew my blades and settled into the first stance of the Dance. I let my mind relax as I flowed from that stance to another, then another. That is what the Dance of Blades is. It is the seamless flow from stance to stance with the least amount of wasted movement. I heard the others doing the same, wordlessly.

I began to speed up and I began to release the rage I held pent up inside myself. Faster and faster I Danced. It seemed that the more rage I released, the more I wanted to let it all out. It would be a relief to just let it go. The older I get, the stronger the rage seems to become. The Demon DNA inside me is still altering me at a genetic level, and I don't know where it will take me. It scares me to think what I could become in the years to come.

I've seen what that DNA can do to an evil person. Regina Worthington had indeed had the same sort of DNA. Pickney had confirmed it for me the day before. She had been consumed by hate when she walked these halls. I had seen the ugliness inside her, and not really understood where it came from. I do understand where it came from now, and I have the same thing inside me.

I just fight it where she relished it. I don't want to be a monster. But if it is my fate to become one, I will use that monster to fight the Kresh. I will fight with everything I have.

My thoughts returned to where I was. I had no idea how long I was off in my own little world but I was soaked in sweat, and my rage was noticeably less than it had been.

I brought the Dance to an end, and I heard the harsh breathing of the others around me.

"That was a little eerie," I heard Paige say from behind us.

I turned with a smile, "How was it eerie?"

"When you started, all of you started in different stances," she said, "In moments, you're all synchronized."

I looked over at Lyrica who shrugged, "I just started going with the stance that felt right."

"Me too," Prada said. The others nodded as well.

"You were doin' that thing again," Ric said, "projectin' your moves to us."

"Interesting," Paige said. "Were you trying to project?"

I shook my head. "I was a million miles away. I was running on autopilot."

"I wonder how far you can project what you want done," Paige mused.

"It worked with a hundred Guards in Kansas," Rictor said. "There's really no tellin' how far it will work."

"I don't really try to do it," I said, "it just happens. It will take some experiments to really find out the limits of it."

She nodded. "So, when are you going to get Jacobs and do this thing? Everyone is waiting with bated breath. I think some of them will explode if you don't get on with it."

Rictor laughed, "At last, someone has the guts to bring it up. She's right, Boss. Just get it done, and we'll see what happens."

"I just wanted to get myself centered for it. The Dance helps me get myself together."

"Bleeds off some of the rage, too," said Lyrica. "It's noticeably less after that workout."

"True enough," I answered. "All right, let's get to it."

Chapter 8.

"What do ya need me 'ta do, Boss?" Jacobs asked.

We stood out near the giant oak tree behind the Guard Barracks. It had a trunk nearly thirty feet in diameter, and it towered above the Guard barracks like some huge sentinel. The enhanced Stream that fed it had even grown with the time that had passed since I had unblocked Paige so many years ago.

When I had gone to get him, Jacobs had been waiting. Gina Peters, the girl who had come home with him from Missoula, had been there as well. Apparently the two of them had struck it off quite well. She seemed to be a nice person, and I can say that after seeing her Soul. A person is the sum of the things accrued in their Soul, and Gina's was vibrant with color.

A Soul that is ugly with browns and greys is typically that of a person who has done evil things. Demon Souls are black and purplish, but they are more than just a color. They have a sense of evil or repugnance that emanates from them that I sense.

I'd only seen one Soul that had been pure black but hadn't been the black of evil. It was complicated with this man. He had done some very bad things, but he'd done them to very bad people. Much of what your Soul displays is the way you perceive what you have done. If you do evil and know it is evil, your Soul will reflect that with a repugnance that I can see and feel. His Soul was black, yes, but it held a beauty of its own as well. His acts, that would have been considered evil, were tempered with the righteousness of his cause. He killed monsters that walked in human form. He was known as The Whisper in the Night by all that knew of him, and that was a small list of people.

My thoughts returned to the task at hand. "When I Pull, you focus on steering that power straight up into the sky. Before, I used the power I Pulled, so I had them steer to a particular point. Since this is not for a purpose past the Pull itself, focus straight up into the sky."

I lit up my Soulstream, formed a tendril that went to the side, and turned it straight up.

"This is what I want you to form," I said. "Then concentrate all your focus to send everything I Pull out that tendril."

I watched as a tendril formed on the side of his stream, and began to form into the exact shape I had shown him.

"Don't lose focus, Ivan," I said with a warning tone. "The Source is an unforgiving bitch, and she will burn you down in a heartbeat."

"I know the stakes, Boss," he said. "I'm ok, so do your thing."

I nodded and stepped forward. As I started to Pull, I felt three hands land on my shoulders. I turned my head to find Lyrica on my right. She raised her eyebrows as if to dare me to say something. I chose not to say a word. I looked left to find Rictor standing with his hand on my left shoulder. He shrugged and I knew it was hopeless to even think he wasn't going to be Support if it was needed. I didn't even need to see who was behind me. Andrea Prada was undoubtedly standing there.

"On three," I said, "one...two...three."

At three, I Pulled through Jacobs stream. Power poured into the sky, but I wasn't Pulling hard. I just wanted to be sure it was going where it was supposed to. I watched for a second as the several people who had come out to watch looked on. I could see various stages of nervousness around us in auras.

Then I Pulled a great deal harder. I could feel power flowing through my Supports. Nothing like what had ripped through Gregor, Darrel, and Paige while in Kansas. But the power flowed through them easily. Jacobs stream, on the other hand had become a huge gout of Soulfire spewing into the sky.

I watched his Soulstream closely as it stretched wider. His focus was staying steady, so I Pulled harder. People began to step back from us, and there was a bit of fear now flowing with the nervousness in them. I knew it would come, it always comes out. But, as I had told Paige, I've accepted the fact that everyone fears me.

Somewhere along the way I felt that I shouldn't go any wider than I had it, and I eased off. I'm not sure where the feeling came from, but I seemed to sense how much his stream could take before stressing it too far. Perhaps part of it was the squeeze of my right shoulder that Lyrica had given almost at the same instant I had sensed the limit.

Regardless, I stopped Pulling and the fire spewing into the sky ceased. I looked at Jacobs to find his Soulstream had gone from about three and a half inches to close to fifteen inches. It was as large as my stream without a doubt.

I placed my hand on his shoulder, "Welcome to the ranks of the Mageguard. Don't play with it till you get some classes in or you'll go blind."

There was amazement rolling through his aura as he felt the massive increase in pure Lifeforce entering his body from the larger stream.

"This is amazing, Boss," he said. "This is what you feel all the time?"

"You get used to it after a bit, and I'm serious, don't play around with it till you get some classes in."

"Yes Sir, and thank you for this," he said with a huge amount of gratitude rolling through his aura, "you have no idea what this means to me."

"As a matter of fact, I do, Ivan," I said and smiled.

I turned away to find Lennox Flynn standing there in what seemed to be shock, "Ye did that wit two hundred Guards at one time?"

His thick Scottish brogue couldn't disguise the awe that filled his voice or his aura. "I had read the reports, but the bloody scale of it had na really registered on me brain till now."

"It scares the shit outta me," I said quietly so that no one but Lennox could hear me. "I'm not sure how much I can handle with enough Supports. The Supports gave out long before I could even tell a strain on me physically. Perhaps, with enough Supports, there is no limit. I have no idea and that scares the hell outta me. Cause I have to find out."

He looked at me with confusion rolling through him, "Why?"

"Because if I don't use everything I have, and more of my Guards die because I didn't, I can't live with that."

"I see."

I nodded, "So as soon as we get the problem with our government support taken care of, I have to begin the tests of my power."

"'Tis anythin' I can do?"

"Actually, there is," I said as we started walking toward the Academy, "I'm gonna need a sort of squad of Mages and Guards to work directly with me. I'm thinkin' multiple Nationalities cause we're gonna be workin' all over the world before this is over, if I don't miss my guess. And sadly, English is the only language I can understand."

He was nodding and there was great interest in his aura, "Would tere be any problem if I was part of tis force?"