Making my way back to the castle while practicing my control, I noticed most people had smiles on their faces.  Many wore faint auras of mostly blue or red, but I noticed a few with yellow.  The knowledge of mana collection has spread throughout the city, which hopefully was for the better of humankind.  Although, I was still concerned it was depleting the Sea of Feelings, but that subject remained inconclusive.

Entering the castle hall, I spotted Emira listening to Heidi who was drawing on a chalkboard.  That was an odd pairing, but I'm glad they entertained her while I was in training.

The sun expanded my shadow into the room, causing a few faces to turn my way.  Emira did a double take, then turned and dashed towards me with angry eyebrows and twitching her mouth. 

"You left me alone Uncle Joe!" She blasted a soft punch to my stomach.  Seeing it had no effect, she dribbled both hands into me.   

"Ooof! You are too strong!" I played along. 

"Joe!  We did it! We did it!" Tamara excitedly yelled out from across the hall.

Oh, finally, I was hoping we could learn something from the pod once it was safe to activate.

I picked up Emira onto my shoulders and walked over to the station where ancients were gathered.

"Time's up!  My turn! Give it to me!" One of the researchers with blonde hair was complaining to someone.  Taking a peek over the crowd, a lady in the middle was swinging her arms around holding the pod.  

Looks like they discovered the games, but intel is my highest priority right now.  I gently put Emira down and stepped forward.

"Stop!  We need information from the Demonus Empire," I yelled out, while squeezing my way into the middle and putting my hand on the lady's shoulder.  

"""Awwwww""" The crowd was upset, but we had bigger fish to fry, so I ignored them.

She reluctantly let go of the pod, and I started it up, staring at the home screen. 

"Tamara, how did you block the communication?"  I asked, unable to see her.

I heard someone jumping up and down, when she spoke, "We first built a detector which identified the wavelengths of the telepathy stone.  Then, we created a device that wraps an area in a bubble to block the wavelengths..."  

I heard her gasping for air, then continued, "Long story short, after I turned on the device, I found a setting to activate airplane mode!"  

The hairs on my neck stood up.  That felt dangerous. 

"Turn the detector on right now!" I yelled out.

I heard the crowd scrambling and rummaging around, searching for the device.

"Found it!  Turning it on now!" I think it was the blonde guy speaking.

The room fell quiet.  I felt the blood draining out of me.  

Breaking the silence, he finally spoke up, "It's detecting multiple wavelengths!  We didn’t see this earlier!"

Shit!  It was too late now.  I scrolled through the apps and opened the icon named DNN.  The headline news popped into view.

'Grand Demon Polowitz is mobilizing his army to capture the Soul Eater residing in the African Reserve!  Emperor Lucifer signed the declaration of war early this morning, on the intel that Demonus Temples have been threatened in the region.  All demons must evacuate the reserve immediately!'

My heart was pounding into my chest.

Was this the end?  My breathing was heavy.  We have zero knowledge of the enemy's arsenal or methods of war, we are fish in a barrel. 

I focused back on the screen, I needed more information.  Just as I was about to scroll, the app shutdown, dragging me back to the home screen.  The DNN app disappeared right in front of me. One by one, the other apps were being deleted! 

"No no no!  The apps are being removed!"  I yelled out.

The only app left remaining was, The Void.  I stared at it for a moment, was it him who was hampering me? That son of a bitch.

I opened it up.

It was definitely him.  If that's how he wants to play, fine, I'll dig it up myself. Three days is better than nothing.  I put the pod in my pocket, quietly standing there staring at the floor, as the screen disappeared.

"Do… we know anything about… Demonus Temples?" I forced out my words between breaths. 

Raising my eyes, searching, praying for anyone to speak up, but the room was silent.

"I do," a familiar voice sounded out behind the crowd.  Everyone turned around, as they opened a hole in the encirclement to see who spoke.  Emira stood there, arm up in the air.  She winced from all the attention, raising her shoulders and shrinking her face.  

Raising her confidence, she spoke, “Temples are how we become one with the world, or something like that.” 

The crowd erupted in whispers from the ambiguity of the statement.  I knew better than most, that this was not a figurative comment, but a literal one.  Demons have no need for useless worship.  Their greed for souls has been their only mission these past millenia.  The only thing greater than that is freedom from… God.   

I raised my head high, taking a deep breath, and spoke with my gut, “The Demonus Empire has signed a declaration of war against me, the Soul Eater.   The sole remaining app not removed was, The Void.  It shows we have three days until the war begins.”

I paused for a moment, to let everyone grasp the urgency and continued, “We need maps! We need to investigate these temples!  But most of all, we need magical technology to aid in our fight.  A majority of the lower demons are identical to humans in strength, but they will be armed with modern assault rifles, tanks, and fighter aircraft!”  

I stared at their faces, burning my message into their souls.  

Tamara broke the tension, "We were not satisfied with our forcefield strength, so many of us stayed up last night to increase its durability.  It's almost ten times stronger now, but we believe we can reach a hundred times more with some effort."

Perfect.  Many of these ancients were not fighters, for the besieging army would have been defeated without me, if they were.

I didn't want to be a sitting duck, we needed to be proactive and force the fight away from Sarconia.  If they reach this city, it will all be over.

I scanned the faces and found him, "Dr. Gilbert, you have a purple aura correct?  Please research teleportation.  The geographical connection is made through our souls.  We need a way to evacuate the population enmasse.  If needed, I will assist in setting up endpoints."

I had seen Harry earlier, searching around, I found his distinct nose, "Harry, alert the surrounding nations of the imminent attack to the continent by the Demonus Empire.  Have them maintain open communication!  And get us more detailed maps!"

I noticed he had a telepathy stone on him.  I stepped forward, seeing fear in his eyes.  He slowly raised his head and spoke, "The king's docks are under attack. We lost three good men already…"

He paused, staring at me in the eyes and yelling, "The demons are already here!"

My body went numb, my ears were burning, and I could sense my hands trembling.  This was not right, we should have had three days!  

Closing my eyes, I took slow deep breaths.  

This has to be a scouting force, but how did they arrive so quickly?  The Viscount must have a teleportation device hidden somewhere.

Tightening my fists, anger was boiling up inside me, those motherfuckers will pay.  

I stood tall and spread my arms, "Listen up, this is probably a small advance unit, I will head over and deal with it myself.  Everyone, attend to your duties!  We will not lose this war!"