Aegan and Allaan made it back to the palace more or less in one piece. After demanding the royal guard escort his wife, daughter and two sons back to the palace, Allaan took Aegans' hand and using a simple flight and barrier spell lifted themselves off the dais and hovered above the people. Their faces full of anger and fear were ingrained into the Kings mind as they used their bodies to draw attention away from the fleeing royal family.
"Please listen!" The king had cried, desperate to make his people understand.
The desperation is his features slowed the mob from turning ugly, but all it would take is one thrown fruit to start a snowball affect throughout the capital. Fear is a disease and in perilous times like these it could quite easily become fatal. Aegan began to lower them towards the crowd while keeping the barrier tightly nit. He may be less than half the man he was only recently but he could at least keep the King from getting a bread knife in his bowels from an angry mob.
As they began to lower the crowd parted to make a rough circle allowing them to land unmolested but even coming down to that close proximity was not enough to quell the fear and anger in the eyes of people.
Every face was decorated in fear. There were carpenters, butchers, maids and midwives, tavern keepers and drunkards, people of all walks of life. As Allaan looked out he could feel the aura of their consternation, their worries visible in every line of their faces.
"Why should we!" Cried one man stepping forward. His bushy handlebar moustache, wide chiseled arms complete with burn marks on every visible inch of skin and still faint aroma of iron and smoke betrayed him as a local blacksmith. "Will it be your brethren that make the Offering? Will YOUR family give a single drop of blood for us? Have we not given enough? The blood from the last battle with the demons would have filled every barrel in every tavern in Camela thrice over!"
The surrounding crowd found themselves nodding with each word and their murmuring grew steadily louder. When the heavyset blacksmith finished his last sentence, all at once the murmurs grew to howls of agreement.
"YEAH!"
"WHAT ABOUT YOUR FAMILY"
"HAVEN'T WE GIVEN ENOUGH ALREADY!"
Had anyone including the King, known the true costs that were about to come to light perhaps even the vaunted Aegans' barrier might have been put to the test.
"PLEASE LISTEN!" The King cried once again and this time Aegan added a little extra oomph to the spell that was enhancing his voice, turning a single man's plea into a deafening shout that silenced the thousands around them. Noting a few of the closest and loudest men cowering in pain and covering their ears brought a half smile to Aegans face (or what was left of it).
Allaan half turned and raised half and eyebrow at his collegue. Aegan gave a mocking half bow a hint of a smile still adorning his face. What? It was fun. Aegan could feel his life running out like sands in an hourglass. Going a tiny bit over the top was worth it. Besides it had the intended effect, as the multitude before them quietened, giving the King all of their attention.
"People please" Allaan began "I know your fears. You are right, every one of you has given more than enough. Enough gold. Enough blood. And it pains me to bring this news to you. More than I can say"
"All of you know this man" The King turned to his last remaining Champion. "This is the last of our Champions, Aegan the Great Sage. He has given his eye, an arm he can barely lift and is prepared to give the rest so that we may have a fighting chance against the darkness. Because MAKE NO MISTAKE!" Allaans' volume increased with every word and by the end his passion was evident to all.
"Our battle ended in victory, but a victory at great cost. Yet I swore this to Aegan as he brought news, broken and bedridden from the battlefield, and I swear this to every one of you now. THIS WILL BE THE LAST!" Tears began to roll down the Kings eyes as he stared into those of every man, woman and child. Imploring them to see the sincerity of his words.
"This will be the last" He repeated quietly his words still carried to every ear by magic. "Never again will we summon new Champions, after this summoning we shall defeat the demons once and for all, the new Champions will be returned to their lives, and we will live in a new era of peace and light. I swear this to Aelia should I fail in these may she turn her light away from me for all eternity! Please, will you help me?" His voice petered out, his body felt wrung out like a used washcloth, empty of emotion.
Hearing footsteps grow closer the King looked up as the large blacksmith took 3 steps closer, almost touching the invisible barrier still coating the King and his Champion. Then without ceremony he took a knee. Here and there people followed suit until finally, every man, woman and child was on bended knee.
"Don't forget your words" The blacksmith spoke quietly.
"I won't" The King said, motioning for Aegan to dispel the barrier and walking forward to grasp the man's shoulders. "Should I fail, I'll offer you my life. If I should ever forget, as a citizen of Camela, I order you to stand up and take it yourself"
"You can be sure of it" The blacksmith replied looking up at the King and grinning. He flexed his arms and continued "And if not me then my wife would be sure to shove your head up your ass" He motioned with his thumb over his shoulder at a woman almost as heavy set as her husband although with a deeper scowl.
Laughter burst from the Kings mouth as he nodded to the scowling woman. She was as heavy set as her partner, with thick muscly arms and an abundance of burn marks decorating her flesh. She didn't acknowledge him one way or the other but merely glanced at her husband and jerked her head in a 'come on then' fashion.
After that the King and his Champion spent many hours among the people, reassuring them and repeating his sworn oath over and over. It wasn't till the sun began to dip below the castle walls that they finally began to trudge back to the castle. They could have flown or teleported, yet they walked as it was the only momentary slice of solace they would find together. Pretending they were nothing more than two friends going for a stroll. The joys of kingship, for every battle won, another more strenuous one lies ahead.
..........
Elsewhere, in the bowels of a castle made of thick obsidian slabs, lined up so perfectly one could not tell if they had been joined or if the castle had since grown as it is, sat 3 Demon Lords on handsome onyx thrones peering into a solid crystal ball. The ball was one of many artifacts lost by the humans in the ongoing war. It's ability to scry long distances was invaluable and as the Demons watched the Kings speech, their dark features, some almost indistinguishable turned not to fear but delight!
"They have started preparing, my Lady" One giggled to another far darker presence seated on the apex of a series of chiseled black steps. Her form was so strong that it absorbed all light around and distorted vision throughout the chamber.
If normal humans were to observe her, they would hear the screams of her victims in her laugh and the icy claws of their worst nightmares crawling down their necks in her smile. Gaze for too long and their sanity would crumble to dust as they become little more than a raving screaming lunatic. This would seem pointless conjecture if the Demons hadn't often proven this by testing it in person for entertainment.
"Has everything been prepared…" Her voice like knives cutting through silk, smooth yet sharp, pierced the air.
"We have one more to inject and then all will be ready" Another Demon Lord replied, his own voice raspy with a hint of deference.
The Demon Lady reached out beside her throne, decorated with skulls of creatures far and wide. At it's highest point a pale white human skull had been positioned with utmost care, once belonging to a Champion of a former generation.
Finding her prize, her long pitch black fingers curled around a pale white mask and raised it into position on her face.
"Then let us begin"