The Shields Are Failing

Luke just smiled as most of the room kept their distance from him. Even some of his coven members looked at him with fear or confusion.

“What gives, I healed my injuries and stopped myself from glowing? … Maybe … they can sense my new ‘Soul Pool’. I am carrying a mountain of soul energy after all,” Luke thought with a frown.

“Luke, you, okay?” Rebecca asked waddling over.

“Yes, I'm fine, thanks,” Luke said with a smile.

“Are you kidding me, you just got shot with a giant laser,” Shannon said giving him a hip bump.

“He lost his arm, got a giant hole in his chest, and was glowing like he was radioactive,” Shannon said catching Rebecca’s eyes.

“So, I heard, we need to,” Rebecca said but was interrupted.

The throne room doors opened as the now very pregnant palace guards led the Spell Amplification Team inside.

“Finally, Samantha, Ruby, and Dolly. That’s everyone,” Luke said seeing the Arch Life-Witch, Fiery Jinn Princess, and old Siren Rune Singer.

Luke looked to Taylor who sat on her throne. She was fast asleep sitting straight. Her ‘Trident’ floating next to her, was still visibly red hot.

“She must still be recovering from the ritual,” Luke thought before scanning the gathering crowd.

Luke climbed up a few steps leading to Taylor before turning back around.

“Everyone! I have good news and bad news. The good news is we successfully impregnated about 20,000 fertile Atlantis citizens. Well done! We successfully completed a mythical ritual. … but … the bad news,” Luke said before getting cut off.

“Grand Breeder,” A royal scribe said before coughing to clear her throat.

“Yes, Kaaga?” Luke said turning to the short 9-months pregnant administrator.

“I just got word. The Cities Shields are not doing so well … that is to say … they are about to fail. The queen’s … I mean … your ‘Divine Smite’ spell attack … burned through our defenses … twice. Our singers say they are nearly out of ‘Song Energy’. In 30 minutes or less, the city’s shields will fail. Which will result in the flooding of Atlantis … with water and … the undead. And … there isn’t enough time to get our citizens into shelters. Especially now that everyone is much slower,” the scribe said before patting her own large pregnant belly.

“AW,” Luke said turning back.

“So, there is good news, bad news, and very bad news. We did the ‘Seeding Ritual’ but the ‘Divine Smite’ attack failed to kill the undead. AND it compromised the shields,” Luke said in a rush.

“But there is a silver lining. You all are probably already aware that I have undergone a dramatic transformation. I don’t have a lot of time to share the details, but I will give you the highlights,” Luke said meeting the eyes of his coven baby mamas (Rebecca, Shannon, Ashley, Liz, Amber, Charlotte, Himari, Keyleth, Sabrina, Samantha, and Noutha).

• First thanks to Dolly’s rune singing and the power of the ‘Trident’, the Queen could reach everyone fertile and not already pregnant in Atlantis with the ‘Seeding Ritual’.
• Unfortunately, this caused the ‘Trident’ to overheat.
• Therefore, the Queen wasn’t able to direct the ‘Divine Smite’ spell.
• I stepped in to aim and trigger the attack.
• The smite spell went off, but it was … redirected … back to me.

…

Luke subconsciously touched his chest as he remembered the pain.

“Luke?” Shannon asked concerned.

“Sorry,” Luke said smiling again.

• The attack spell went off, but it was redirected back to me.
• Luckily, the ‘Divine Smite’ was fueled by mana sourced from my own children’s conceptions.
• This allowed my ‘Breeding Talisman’ to try to absorb the attack. But … it broke with the attempt.
• After that … my ‘Soul’ picked upped where my talisman failed.
• I developed a ‘Soul Pool’ to hold all the mana from the ‘Seeding Ritual’.
• This resulted in me being boosted 20 sorcery levels.

“But! …That would make you …,” Samantha shouted.

“Level 28,” Luke said nodding.

“So what? You got more levels. What about the city and Dr. Blood? Our plan didn’t work!” Charlotte (the Life Binders' Martial) said angrily.

“Our plan didn’t fail!” Sabrina said excitedly.

“True, the ‘Smite’ spell did fail. But the ‘Seeding Ritual’ has given us something just as good if not better than a ‘Divine Smite’; … a Demi-god,” Sabrina said in amazement.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Everyone turned to the throne room balcony archway windows. Giant cracks shot across the city’s magic dome.

“The shields are failing,” Kaaga whimpered.

“We need to stop the undead army now! Samantha! Sabrina! Luke! With Me,” Keyleth yelled as she out to the balcony railing.

Without another word, Keyleth turned into a giant Eagle. Following the Arch Druids’ lead, Samantha cast a mini bubble on Sabrina and then one on herself. Keyleth picked up the bubbles housing Samantha and Sabrina in her talons before jumping off the balcony.

“Luke! Go! You heard her! Follow them!” Rebecca yelled at Luke.

Luke sprang into action; he quickly picked a form before jumping off the balcony too. A second later he activated his ‘Arcane Dresser’ then his ‘Alteration’ ability becoming a large falcon.

“I guess it was more like 3 minutes, not 30,” Luke thought flying after Keyleth.