For the next few weeks, two more groups came in from the north and the west. And then Evren got a message that there were troops outside of the southern gate. Doyle had brought all the people in and had closed the gate, and was now on top of the wall, talking with the leaders. Evren got to the gate and climbed the stairs to the wall to stand next to Doyle.

Doyle looked at Evren and Evren said, “Hi.”

Doyle said, “They’re demanding to know why they’re being denied access.”

Evren replied, “Well, that’s certainly understandable. Do you want me to talk to them?”

Doyle sighed and gave a look as if to say that it was his job to do that.

Evren nodded, “I’ll talk to them.” He looked down to the troops and cast ‘amplify’ and said, “Hey guys, there’ve been some changes and before we let any soldiers into the city, we’ve got to check them out to make sure everything is going according to plan.”

One of them yelled up to Evren but it wasn’t clear enough to understand. Evren turned to Doyle and said, “I’ll go talk to them.”

Evren stepped off the wall and used his ‘levitation before the ground and walk to them like nothing happened’ trick. He stopped about two meters away from them and said, “I know you’ve got some questions, I’m here to hopefully answer these questions for you.”

Captain Drezen came forward and said, “What happened to Commander Le Saux and the pope?”

“Commander Le Saux, well he became like a red mist and painted the walls of the corridor outside of the depository, as for the pope, well he was savagely beaten to death by four women.” Evren said, and then nodded as to affirm his statement.

“The pope was beaten to death by four women? Impossible!” Captain Cornec said, “Have they been hanged yet?”

Evren looked up at the sky to judge where the sun was and said, “No, they’re probably having lunch right now? I mean, they seemed pretty upset, after all the pope did rape them and all. You should have expected it, summoned people are very strong.”

“Who are you? What happened to Commander Les Saux?!” Captain Drezen demanded.

Evren looked at him and said, “I told you, he blew up. We’re still cleaning up the stains. Do you know even parts got on the ceiling? Gross. Although, I do have to take some of the responsibility here. I’m the one that made him go boom.”

The three men drew their swords and pointed them at Evren. “He did say some disturbing things. I mean, you guys have probably killed people for less, right?”

“You’ll pay for that.” Captain Cornec said as he raised his sword to swing at Evren. His feet were pulled out from under him, and he landed on the ground on his face.

The other two looked down at the fallen captain and both took a swing at Evren. Evren cast ‘wall’ between himself and the two men and their swords were blocked for the few times they tried to swing at him.

Evren then said, “Oh, by the way, I’m out here to tell you to drop your weapons and surrender.”

“Don’t be ridiculous” Captain Drezen said. “It is you who should surrender.”

Sergeant Heardt was looking at what blocked his sword, and as the shimmering field disappeared, he stabbed forward with his sword to Evren’s throat. Halfway to Evren, his arm stopped and was frozen in place.

Evren looked at him and said, “You haven’t said anything, I take it you’re not the one in charge.”

Evren shouted over his shoulder and said, “Doyle, who was that guy that came here a few weeks ago?”

Doyle called down and said, “Captain Galand!”

“Oh yeah, that guy. So, Captain Galand was given the same conditions as you guys and also refused to disarm and stand trial for their actions.”

“What did you do with Captain Galand?” Captain Cornec said.

Evren cast ‘efreet’ over his shoulder and looked at the three in front of him as a massive burning giant appeared behind him. He stuck his thumb over his shoulder and said, “That guy burned him down to nothing.”

Sergeant Heardt said, “He’s a mage!”

Evren frowned and replied, “I am not, I have a sword and everything.” He said as he drew out his adamantium sword.

Sergeant Heardt stabbed his sword towards Evren and with a flash of magic and a flick of his wrist, the end of Sergeant Heardt’s sword was sent flying through the air. The three men looked at Sergeant Heardt’s cut sword and their eyes grew in size.

“This sword gets really sharp when you put magic into it.” The sword started to glow blue and from the wall you could hear someone say, “It’s a light saber, dude!” The expression on Evren’s face dropped and with a flick of his wrist, cut Captain Drezen’s sword in half.

Evren looked at Captain Cornec’s sword, and Captain Cornec looked at his sword. Evren raised his eyebrows and half shrugged. Captain Cornec shook his head slightly, so Evren cut his sword in half as well. Evren shrugged and said, “You could have lowered it and I wouldn’t have had to do that.”

The dirt around the ‘efreet’ had dried and began to crack audibly. Everyone looked at the ground the ‘efreet’ was standing on and Sergeant Heardt said, “What happened to Captain Thoraval?”

Evren shook his head, “Who?” he asked.

Sergeant Heardt said, “Captain Thoraval, he should have been with Commander Le Saux.”

Evren said, “Ah!” and dismissed the ‘efreet.’ He turned around and shouted up to the wall, “Harley are you up there?” As he faced away, Sergeant Heardt tried to cut him with his sword, but his arm wouldn’t move.

“Yes Mr. Evren!” she called down.

“Harley, can you make a ‘sprite’ down here?” Evren asked.

“Ok Mr. Evren!” she shouted back.

A large puddle of water formed behind were the ‘efreet’ just disappeared to and eventually formed a wave that collapsed upon itself and rose again. As it moved forward a wave would crash down, collect and rise back up.

Over his shoulder, Evren said, “Now pay attention.” He then cast ‘freeze’ on the water elemental, turning it into an ice elemental. As it moved, it would make a screeching, grinding noise. Evren turned back around and said, “Basically that happened to Captain Thoraval and his men.”

Evren then shouted over his shoulder and said, “Thanks Harley!” The elemental settled down to become a solid block of ice in the shape of a cresting wave.

“Now, as for Commander Le Saux, I said he became a red mist, but I didn’t say how.” He turned around and cast ‘wall’ between himself and the block of ice and shouted, “Blow him up Harley!”

An adorable voice yelled, “‘Explosion!’” and the solid block of ice blew up, sending shards of ice everywhere. Evren and the three leaders were safe because of Evren’s ‘wall.’

Evren turned around and looked at the shocked men and said, “Now you’ve been told what happened. You’ve seen examples of what happened.” Evren thrust his hands out in a gesture that looked like he wanted a hug and said, “How about you guys surrender now?”

Sergeant Heardt drew a knife and closed the distance on Evren in a flash. He stabbed towards the unarmed man, aiming for his throat. Evren stepped to the left and caught the man’s right wrist with his own. Evren’s left hand caught Sergeant Heardt’s right elbow and he pulled it down and towards himself as he grabbed the right wrist with his right hand and pushed forward. Sergeant Heardt fell off balance and into the knife that was thrust back, stabbing himself in the throat. Evren pushed him away and he fell to the ground.

Evren looked at the other two as if nothing had happened and he was waiting for them to respond to his question. The two men dropped the sword halves to the ground and raised their hands. Evren nodded and looked to the troops behind them saying, “Them too.”

Captain Drezen shouted over his shoulder, “Drop your weapons and surrender!” There were a few rumblings from the others, but a majority had dropped their weapons. Captain Drezen then shouted again, “Do it!” a few more dropped theirs but there were still some who held their weapons firmly.

Evren called out to the troops. “Those who are disarmed may step forward,” he pointed to a spot on the grass by the wall, “and gather up over there.”

A few grumblings such as ‘traitor’ and ‘coward’ were said from the remaining troops who held their weapons. Evren chanted ‘vacuum’ at the seven remaining guards who had conveniently gathered up for him. They began choking unable to breath. Many grabbed their throats in panic. All had dropped their weapons and then to their knees. Evren dispelled the magic and said, “Change your mind yet?”

The seven were coughing and gasping for breath as the spell disappeared. Stubbornly they picked up their swords and held them before them as if they were ready to charge. Evren clicked his tongue and cast ‘electrocute’ causing a zapping, popping ball of electricity to form on them, shocking them for five seconds before they fell to the ground smoking.

Evren turned to the two captains, “If that didn’t work, I was just going to kill them. Glad it did though.” And he nodded with a smile.

Evren picked the seven soldiers up with telekinesis and moved them over to the other soldiers and unceremoniously dropped them onto the ground. As he was doing so, Captain Cornec asked, “Are you enjoying this?”

Evren replied, “Immensely.” Evren turned back to Captain Cornec and said, “There’s nothing that gets me more excited than punishing soldiers that aren’t worth the shit I scrape off my boots.”

At this point the gate had opened and guards came out to tie up the soldiers and escort them to a place where they were to be held until trial.

Evren asked, “Aside from you three, well two, are there any other soldiers deployed on Seeclind?”

Captain Drezen said, “No, there’s only guards at the towns and I doubt they’ve left anywhere since the puppets left. The only other forces are still on Dhuexlia.”

Evren started thinking of what he needed to do. “I guess we’re going to have to check on the towns see how they’re doing.”

Captain Drezen asked, “How did you get Commander Doyle on your side?”

Evren shrugged, “It wasn’t hard. Once my face got out to everyone, he asked me what I was going to do, and I told him. He then retired and chose to work as a guard for the town to keep the people safe.”

Captain Drezen said, “That was all?”

Evren nodded as he led the two to the guards to be taken into custody. “Apparently he was tired of their shit too.”

Captain Cornec said, “I want to speak with the one in charge.

Evren replied, “You have been.”

Captain Cornec continued, “I wish to discuss the terms of my incarceration.”

Evren said, “Oh, we’ve got some new laws, and we’re still working up the details on war crimes. You’ll just have to wait on that request for amnesty.”

Evren continued as he started walking backwards in front of them. “Now that the puppets are no longer puppets, and they remember everything that was done to them, every tiny terrible detail, we have plenty of evidence to support our decisions.”

The two men visibly blanched from hearing what Evren said.

Captain Drezen said, “My father is a viscount!”

“Don’t care.” Evren said as he turned around.