Dawn of the Infinity - Vol. III
Darkscript
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Dawn of the Infinity - Vol. III
by Darkscript
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held high about to swing. Instinctively I moved out of its way, evading its blow. The skeleton stumbled then swung again trying to hit me, but again I was able to evade it, jumping back at the last moment. I was surprised at how capable I seemed
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to be at reacting to the movements of my enemy. It must have been the adrenalin and the fear. "Steven!" Uraa shouted blasting the skeleton away with her wand. "Thanks..." I said panting. "Be careful you idiot! These things really want to kill you!
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Don't let your guard down like that again!" "Push them back! Do not allow them to secure this landing area!" the commander shouted. It seemed that we had succeeded in repelling the first wave. "More are coming," said Uraa, "I can sense them."
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"WE need to take that Ghast down!" I replied. "That thing is just going to keep dropping more skeletons right on top of us unless we kill it. Severing the current tentacles won't help any, it'll just deploy others. We need to knock out its neural core
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communication center, or rather the brain." "That's great, so how do we do that smart guy?" "What's happening!?" Turk said as he ran up to us. My father and Vlad were with him, now armed for battle. "You missed the first wave!" said Uraa. "The Pigmen
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are moving the dead and preparing for the next drop. You should help them reform the line."
"Agreed," said my father. "Steven and I are going to figure out a way to bring down that Ghast," she continued. "If we can do enough damage to the central nerve
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cluster the creature should die." "That is no easy task," said my father. "More skeletons incoming," said Vlad. "Come on, let's help them out and form the lines!" "Agreed," said Turk joining him. "Whatever it is that you are planning to do Steven, do
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not endanger anyone unnecessarily. That includes yourself," he said running after Turk and Vlad. "Understood father," I thought to him. "I take it that you do in fact have a plan right?" Uraa asked. "The gun, we can hit it with one of your spell
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bullets." "That's your plan... I could have come up with that one!" she scolded. "That won't even work you moron, that thing is far to large for any of those spell bullets to inflict enough damage to kill it!" I sigh... "You're right, that spider was much
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smaller then this behemoth," I said looking up at the massive Ghast above us. "Wait! That's it!" I shouted suddenly seeing something I had previously missed. "What!?" Uraa exclaimed. "Incoming skeletons!" shouted the commander as more wither
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dropped down the tentacles. ""Do you have a bullet that explodes!?" "Yeah, but it won't be nearly large enough to hurt that thing..." "Give it to me!" I interrupted.
She reached into her pouch, looked around, pulled out a bullet, and handed it to me.
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"This is the one." "Good," I said pulling out the gunpowder pouch and pouring a bit of it into the muzzle of the musket. "What are you thinking Steven?" Uraa asked watching the skeletons get nearer. "That might tickle the Ghast at best!" "Not aiming
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for the Ghast Uraa," I said back closing the gunpowder pouch up and putting it back in my pocket, then dropping the explosive magic bullet into the loading chamber of the musket. "So you might hit a few skeletons, but that's not worth the magic
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bullet!" she continued to reprimand. "That's not what I'm aiming at either..." is aid aiming my rifle upwards towards a huge shard of sharp glowstone that hung just above the attacking Ghast. "I don't need to hit the Ghast, just that." "Hum... that's,
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clever... but that stalactite has got to be five hundred yards away Steven, even my dad couldn't hit..." I took the shot interrupting her in mid sentence. I wasn't really listening to her anyway... I was focusing. Something about this gun in my hands... it just
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felt right. A blast of smoke threw me backwards onto my rear. I didn't take my eyes of my target though, not even when I hit the ground with a thud.
The bullet ripped through the air and hit just next to the glowstone stalactite. It exploded,
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rupturing the ceiling and creating cracks all around the glowstone. "Incredible..." Uraa mumbled, awe stricken and bewildered. "You hit it!" The ceiling cracked all around the glowstone, but it was not enough to break it lose. "Come on!" I shouted. The
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skeletons were nearly to us, and more where coming. "Come on!" I shouted. The others had seen what I had done, they too were watching the shard slowly crack and move downwards, freeing itself of the ceiling. The Ghast sensed the glowstone moving
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and started to move out of the way.
"Come ON!" I screamed, as if it helped any. Suddenly Uraa outstretched her hand, and from it erupted a burst of bright blue light. The beam of light smashed into the glowstone shard and broke it free. The massive
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shard fell downwards and impaled the middle of the Ghast's body, carrying it downwards with it as the shard plummeted towards the ground. The tentacles grabbing hold of the stronghold quart yard broke loose and the skeletons fell to their deaths in the
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lava bellow. The glowstone shard carried the Ghast all the way to the ground and smashed it into the earth with tremendous force that shook the stronghold. The men all cheered with a sense of victory and extreme relief. The Ghast was
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smashed through was now standing upright, impaling tentacles still were moving around terrible sound as the life drained the head by the shard, which even the ground. The beast's violently and it was making a from its body.
A few moments
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later, the creature stopped moving, and died where it lay, pinned to the ground through the head by the glowstone shard. "Excellent work, for a human," the commander said coming up to me and Uraa. I look over at Uraa. "You've always got my back huh?"
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I smiled. She blushed. "Always..." "That was the most incredible thing I've ever seen Steven!" Turk said excitedly running over to us. "Genius bro!" "That was quite the display of intelligence son," said my father joining us. "I am, impressed." Hearing
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my father say that nearly brought a teat to my eye.
"Dad..." I began to say. Suddenly Uraa bent over and dropped to her knees. I dropped to catch her. "Uraa!" "It's not over..." she muttered. "I sense a mighty force moving on this location. I
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think that it's after us... I feel it speaking directly to me, inside my mind... I can't understand its words, but there are more Ghast coming!" "Then we must leave at once!" Fylar said emerging from hiding. "It won't help..." Uraa continued putting her hand
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on my shoulder for support and standing back up. "They're tacking us. No matter where we go, they'll follow." "Commander!" shouted a soldier from one of the guard towers. "Ghast!" We looked to the horizon to see not one, but three, monstrous Ghast
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heading in our direction... This fight was far from over.
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Chapter 12: To Great Lengths
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"Wonderful!" Turk said looking in the distance at the three behemoth
Ghasts approaching. "Status report!" the commander shouted. "Commander,
we have lost an exceptionally minimal amount of soldiers. However, the
walls have been breached, and
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several of the harpoon defensive stations have been damaged beyond repair! We do not possess the firepower necessary to defeat this coming attack force! I would greatly recommend the use of Templar Flyar's EMP." "Yes... Templar Flyar,
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what are your thoughts?" "I believe that we have no other option. Never have we had to face three Ghasts at once. The one we just defeated would have given us significantly more trouble had Steven not performed that clever action and destroyed it."
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"Templar, you should utilize this opportunity before the Ghast arrive and flee through the underground substructures." "No, there will be no need for that. As soon as those Ghast move into range, we will detonate the EMP. It should be online
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by now." "Solider, find out what the current status of the Blaze EMP is!" ordered the commander. "Immediately sir!" "If the EMP is charged then we need only allow the Ghast to come to us," Flyar continued. "Once they enter the EMP's range we will fire
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it. The electromagnetic discharge will scramble their sight and communication forcing them to retreat." "I take it you have used the EMP device before?" Turk asked.
"Indeed. It has proven most effective in the
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past. Do recall we have been fighting this war for hundreds of years. Over the last fifteen years, since I invented the EMP device, we have used it to save countless strongholds. It will work." "Then this won't be that much of a challenge after
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all," said Vlad. "There is one issue." "What's that?" I asked. "The EMP device can only be fired once. The energy it requires to fire, as well as the blaze rod that it disintegrates to generate the actual electromagnetic pulse, renders the device
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unusable unless another rod can be reloaded. If we use the EMP it will force these Ghast to flee, but then we would be leaving ourselves wide open for another attack. If it is as you say young mage, and they are tracking you and your friends, then
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they will immediately attempt another assault." "That is why I strongly recommend that you flee to a more secure sector Templar," urged the commander. "It would not matter. We do not have a force capable of dealing with this many Ghasts within this
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region. Our primary army is still stationed in defense around the Temple of Light." "The Temple of Light?" Uraa asked. "It is the title by which we call our capital city. It contains near one billion civilians. Over the last few months the mob army's
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attacks have become more aggravated and we have been forced back into the city. And as more and more of our outlying regions fall to the Wither Skeletons and the Ghast we find ourselves more so cornered. It will only be a matter of time now, before they
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overcome us," Flyar said hanging his head. "The skeletons must have a way that they are resupplying themselves," I said. "They can't have endless numbers. How are they getting into the Nether?" "The best understanding that we possess of their origin is
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that they are coming from your world. Before this war the Wither skeletons entered our world through Nether portals from the
Over-World. It is likely that they have again gained control over yet another in your world." My father had a distressed look
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on his face. "What do you know of this father?" Turk asked. "There was a report three months ago, from the Ice Plains, that suggested that the mobs were amassing a force for an attack on an outlying city within their territory. The city contained a
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Nether portal... We never investigated, the king led us to understand that it had been taken care of, but it is possible that he himself had been deceived." "So it's possible that the mobs have control over a Nether Portal?" I asked. "It is likely. Since
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mobs must pass through our world to get to the Nether, if you have experienced a vast increase in hostility recently Flyar, that would suggest the obvious." "But the mobs can't activate the portal without human blood, willing, living human
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blood," said Uraa. "It is not impossible that the same people who deceived the king in saying all was well are also working for the dark mobs." "Traitors!" Turk shouted. "We don't know for certain, but it is more than possible that the mobs have
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control over a way into your world Flyar." "This is most concerning..." Flyar muttered. "Not as concerning though as those things," said Vlad looking to the coming Ghasts."Could we discuss this another time perhaps?" "Commander!" the
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soldier said returning. "The EMP is primed and ready to fire on your command!" The commander looked over at Flyar. "It is your decision Templar." "Give the order commander."
"Fire the EMP..." "Understood sir!" the soldier said
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running off again. "How long will it take to fire?" asked Turk. "A minute or two." "You think we have that long?" "I think not... Commander, get our men underground, they have no use up here!" Flyar ordered. "All forces, pull back into the
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substructures!" the commander shouted. All the soldiers began pulling back, retreating into the base. "Come on, let us join them," said Flyar. Suddenly we heard a loud bang and a rumble shook the ground. A glowstone pillar had hit part of the
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stronghold.
I turned to see where it had come from. The Ghast that were approaching were knocking the glowstone pillars from the ceiling
of the Nether. They had seen what had happened to their comrade, the Ghast I had killed, and
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they had learned from its death. "They're ripping off the glowstone stalactites and using them as projectiles!" exclaimed Uraa. "Get underground!" said Flyar rushing towards a tunnel into the base. The last of the soldiers were fleeing into the
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base behind Flyar. "Come on!" said my father following them. We all followed after him, running into the tunnels as another glowstone shard smashed into the side of the stronghold. "Take refuge in here!" Flyar said leading us into a large room,
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far from the tunnel entrance. "How much longer until that EMP is ready?" Vlad asked as another shard hit the stronghold. "Any moment now!" Flyar replied ducking his head as dust and small shards of netherbrick fell on top of us. It was only a moment
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later that we heard a loud whistling noise, so high pitched that it hurt my ears a bit. "Was that the EMP?" Turk asked covering his ears. "You could hear that?" Flyar asked. "Yeah, it's loud!" "Interesting... I was not aware it would have damaging effects
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on your small human ears. But yes, that is in fact what the noise you heard was." "Did it work?" "There is but one way to find out," come with me, "Flyar said leaving the room. He led us back up to the surface. When we got there, the Ghasts were nowhere
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to be found.
"Then it was a success..." said Vlad. "Of course," Flyar replied, seeming almost insulted that we had not been convinced his device would work in the first place. "But this is only a temporary victory. The Ghast will soon return."
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"Not if we can get to them first," said my father. Flyar looked at him with a curious look. "That is a bold task you are thinking of my friend," Flyar said apparently knowing what my father was thinking. "Where do the Ghast nest?" asked my father.
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"This would be something best discussed after you have rested. You all must be quite tired by now?" Actually I wasn't tired at all anymore. The adrenaline from that battle had made my body completely forget that it was in need of rest. "We
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can rest as soon as we can devise a plan of attack," said my father. "We don't know what kind of window that EMP gave us. The Ghast will return, and the next time we will not have another EMP to use in our defense. We need to take action immediately!"
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Flyar gave him a look, as if he agreed with him, but didn't like the fact that he did. "Very well. The fact does stand to reason that the Ghast will soon return. With a great deal of our defensive fortifications destroyed, several of my men dead,
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and no EMP we will not withstand another attack like that one." "Then let us go get another Blaze rod," suggested Vlad. "We just need to kill a Blaze right?" "Yes... but, that is no simple task. The nearest colony of Blaze is not far from here, but they
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are extremely hostile against us while we are within their territory." "Think that has something to do with the fact that you kill them for their rods?" Uraa said sarcastically.
"It is true that we do kill some of them for their rods, but it is
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regrettably necessary to defend ourselves against the Ghast." "Why don't the Blaze simply allow you to have some of their rods?" I asked. "A Blaze's rods are a part of their core essence. Taking it from them is impossible while they are still living.
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They cannot simply hand over a rod. It can only be taken from their lifeless body. Naturally you see the issue with this, and understand the reason we have no other choice but to kill a few here and there for their rods. It is not as if we desire it,
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but it is unavoidable I'm afraid." "And yet your peoples are not at war?" "No. The Blaze accept this loss, because they are simply too few to combat our military. If they were to revolt against us, we would have no other option but to crush them. So
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they, tolerate, the loss of a few Blazes every now and then. We unfortunately give them no other choice. But we need the bulk of their kind alive so that they can reproduce and we can collect more rods from future generations... we have no desire to
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kill any more of them than what is absolutely necessary." "That's a somewhat unfortunate relationship you and the Blaze have," said Uraa. "Yes... We are forced to go to great lengths to ensure our people's safety... and we are tired
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of it. That is why I am trying to invent a device that can remove the Blaze rod, without killing the Blaze. I want no less than anyone to let them keep their lives in service of us taking their rods from them for our own defense." "You think you can
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create such a device?" asked Turk. "I believe I am close as of right now. But there is, something... missing from my equations. It had taken countless hours to formulate the proper procedure, and I am so very close, but not there yet.
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But, this is beside the point. If you wish to be of service to us, you will need to collect at least one Blaze rod... that means, killing a Blaze."
"The Blaze are people too..." Uraa rebutted. "I am afraid that it is the only way. My method for removing
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the rod will not be completed possibly for some time." "In any case, more time then is available to us," said my father. "Flyar, I must speak with you about the Ghast, and how to overcome them. We must get that book as soon as possible!" "Yes, I
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understand. I will speak with you." "In the mean time, the rest of you need to find and kill a Blaze," said my father. "I refuse to aid you in doing something like that," said Uraa. "I'll do it then," said Turk. "It will take more than just one of you,"
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said Flyar. "I'll go as well," said Vlad. "Vlad!" Uraa exclaimed. "If it's the only way to ensure that we continue to be safe from the Blaze while we formulate a plan of attack or retrieving the book, then my moral standings have no further say in the
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matter Uraa. I don't like it anymore then all of you..." "I like it..." said Turk. "But it seems that we have no other option," Vlad continued. "The mission is at hand, and I have my orders. Uraa, I won't ask you to aid us if you don't feel comfortable with
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this, but I will ask that you forgive us for what we must do, if it pains you." My blood felt warm and I felt angry, hearing Vlad blow that off like that, acting like it was nothing at all, making it sound all good and dandy, because 'we have no other
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choice'. What a snake... I hated the way he talked like that to her! Uraa sigh... "Yeah, I suppose that you're right. But, I'm still not going with you... You should go with them Steven," she said looking at me. "They'll need all the help they can get."
"I
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shall lead them," said the commander Pigman, emerging from the tunnel behind us. "Yes I agree commander. They will need someone to show them where to look for the Blaze," said Flyar. "Then I shall undertake this task." "Agreed. In the meantime, your
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father and I shall speak, and attempt to devise some form of a strategy for retrieving the book." "Agreed," said my father. "Then let us be on our way!" said the commander. "Remember to watch out for one another," said my father as he and Flyar walked
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away, back into the base. "Come humans, we do not have much time to undertake this action. The Blaze sleep soon, and will not be roaming their territory. We must find one before they return to their fortress," the commander said leading us
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towards the tunnel that lead away from the stronghold. "Wait, Steven," Uraa said reaching into her pouch and pulling out a potion. "You should take this." "What does it do?" I asked walking over to her and taking the glowing orange bottle. "It will
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allow you to withstand extreme physical temperatures. Have everyone drink from it, before you face the Blaze." "Thank you Uraa," I said putting the potion into my back pocket. "Human!" the commander yelled. I ran after the others, but
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before I entered the tunnel leading out of the stronghold I looked back at Uraa. I couldn't hear her thoughts anymore, so I guess that meant the spell she had put on us had worn off. She just looked at me, somewhat discontent. I could tell she was
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upset by this. But there really was no other alternative as it seemed... This had to be done.