Summoned Again?

At the exact moment that all of the undead in the world fell over 'lifeless', the entire world rejoiced. They knew something drastic must have happened, because after them freezing and not moving, to have them fall over 'dead' meant that their world had just changed for the better.

The Holy Clerics had spread the word that the head cleric at the capital city was going to try to ask god for help in summoning heroes to help deal with their unceasing battle; but, they hadn't heard if it had been successful. They also hadn't told the general population, so only the clerics knew that the status quo of their world had significantly changed from endlessly fighting the roaming undead to cleaning up the remains.

Most were grateful for the change, while a few were a bit put out that their primary purpose for existing... to save the people... had been taken from them. A spark of resentment for the heroes, for how swiftly they had dealt with the problem that they had been fighting all their lives, started to grow as those few dissenting opinions were quickly shared with others.

*

“Ahhh.” I said as I opened my eyes and cancelled the last ten time spells I had cast before falling asleep. “That was a good...” I stopped talking when I looked and saw that Lady Matricia was still sound asleep and cuddled in tightly. I think someone else has been forgoing sleep to try and handle things with the heroes the last couple of days. I thought with amusement.

I did the mental calculations for the time that had passed and I was close to nine minutes back on Earth. That was a lot of time for them to look for my body inside a partially crushed car that had been run over by a tank. I sighed and couldn't waste any more time, so I gently shook Lady Matricia and whispered to her to wake her.

“Hey, sleepyhead, it's time to wake up. You have a whole world to clean up.”

“Hmm? What?” Lady Matricia stirred and opened her eyes.

“Good morning.” I said and her eyes widened. “Relax, I increased the time distortion briefly, so only a few seconds have passed.”

“How? I thought... isn't the strain...”

“It's pure headache.” I said with a smile. “That's why I did it before going to sleep and then cancelled the extra spells when I woke up.”

“You're still running the rest?” She asked and I nodded. “That means...”

“Everything that's happened has only taken about nine minutes in the rest of the world.” I said and she let out a relieved sigh. “Isn't it nice to get so much done so quickly?”

Lady Matricia gave me a knowing smile. “It's only quickly for everyone else.”

I waved at the side of the bed and she climbed off to stand up. “Are you surprised you're still dressed?” I asked and used Cleaning Hands on her and her clothing, then I stood up and did the same to myself.

She squirmed a little as the spell tickled her all over and did its work. “No, you wouldn't take advantage of me like that. You're not that kind of person.”

“I'm not?” I asked as I stored the bed and she shook her head.

“You're a bit too honest to do something like that.”

“You shouldn't assume that I'm a good person, just because I was summoned as a hero to save the world.” I cautioned her.

“I wouldn't sleep with a criminal.” Lady Matricia said. “I'm a better judge of character than normal people.”

I stopped myself from telling her that her limited view of me was a bit short-sighted, then decided I shouldn't burst her trust bubble by admitting that I was more of a criminal than anyone else she had ever met.

“Shall we go help the others and cleanse the remains?” I asked instead and waved at the mass of undead corpses scattered around.

“Flying?” Lady Matricia asked, her voice hopeful.

I chuckled and held an arm out for her. “Of course. You take the right side and I'll take the left.”

“I need both hands free.” Lady Matricia said as she stepped close.

“I only need my mouth, so that's not a problem.” I hugged her and took off into the air, then she prepped her Holy Cleansing Fire spell and I opened my mouth and used my Breath of Flame skill with Holy Cleansing Fire. We did strafing runs and burned to ash thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions of undead corpses. It took a while.

We started at the opposite side of where the three heroes were and we made our way all around the ten mile circle of death to end up near the heroes as they finished off their sections. I landed with Lady Matricia in my arms and she looked a little disappointed when I let her go.

“That was a quick nap.” Farrah said and saw Anthony use Holy Light to dispatch a lumbering undead beast nearby. “It's only been a minute or two.”

“I sleep fast.” I joked, which made Anthony hiss under his breath and shake his head. “It was a joke.” I turned to Lady Matricia and touched her face. “If I'd known Anthony was so eager to die, I would have ordered you all to stay away.”

Lady Matricia sighed sadly and nodded.

“You're not in charge.” Anthony said and came over to us. “The four of us were summoned. We're all equal in this...”

“...then why did you order everyone to attack?” I asked. “You should have stayed still and watched to see what happened before taking action.”

“You didn't.” Anthony said.

“I did.” I said. “I pushed you all away to get you far enough away from her and still keep you within my time dilation effect, then I surrendered to distract her. She was completely focused on me, which was what I intended, and she didn't even consider looking at you to see what you were doing.”

The three heroes looked surprised and Lady Matricia looked both pleased and quite guilty.

“It's all right. You went with the plan of the heroes, because you thought it would save more lives if you managed to take down the bad guy.” I said and gave her a gentle kiss. “I'm sorry they died and I'm very glad that you lived.”

Lady Matricia closed her eyes briefly and then looked into my eyes. “Damon, I... my whole life, I...”

“You're wondering what to do, now that the threat has been dealt with?” I asked and she nodded. “It's going to take years to cleanse all of the undead corpses from around the world. I sincerely doubt that any real amount of them have been cleansed and removed, except for the horde here and the ones we dealt with on the way here.”

Lady Matricia looked surprised this time. “We're still needed!”

“I'd say you and the other Holy Clerics are desperately needed.” I corrected. “Your job is just going to shift from solely fighting the undead and evacuating the people, to helping the people in a more direct fashion, as well as rebuilding a lot of homes and families. You're still going to have a lot of work ahead of you. You all will. It's going to take time for the world to recover.”

“Don't worry about it. I've got this.” Anthony said, his voice full of confidence. “Once I take control of the temples around the world and command the clerics to...”

“Excuse me?” Lady Matricia asked as she stepped back from me, her eyes squinted. “What did you say?”

“I believe the highest level Holy Cleric is supposed to be the Head Cleric.” Anthony said. “That's me. Once everyone accepts...”

“I am the Head Cleric.” Lady Matricia said. “You are not my apprentice, nor are you qualified for the position to take over if I'm dead.”

None of us missed the implication of what she said, especially me.

Anthony sighed. “I have the Holy Light spell.”

“So does Damon.” She responded.

“He's not staying here. I am. When he leaves, I'll be the only one on the planet with the spell to cleanse the larger undead beasts.” Anthony said. “That means, I'm the highest level cleric.”

“That's not the only requirement to...” Lady Matricia started to say and Anthony held a hand up to stop her before she started ranting.

“It's not up for debate. As soon as the people know I'm blessed by god with the most powerful spell to deal with the undead, they'll remove you and elect me the head cleric, since I am the only one that can protect them.”

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Farrah asked. “Are you power tripping or something?”

“No, I'm only facing reality. I'm the most powerful, so I should be in charge.” Anthony said.

“I don't think so.” I said. “This world has had enough of that.”

“What are you going to do about it?” Anthony asked with a laugh. “You're leaving and you don't have a say in what happens then.”

“Yeah, it's just that you're forgetting one important fact.” I said.

“Oh? And what's that?” Anthony asked.

“I'm still here.” I cast Sleep on him and caught his arm to stop him from falling to the ground.

“Hey!” Ksenya gasped and stepped forward, as if to attack, so I cast Sleep on her, too. Farrah and Lady Matricia didn't say anything as she dropped to the ground.

“I really didn't want to do this.” I said and put a hand on Anthony's forehead.

“What are you doing?” Farrah asked, concern in her voice.

“I'm giving him the motivation to return home and removing his ambition to take over here and become a dictator.” I said.

Lady Matricia looked at my glowing hand. “Have you always had this ability?”

“No.” I said, truthfully.

“We really do need someone with the Holy Light spell to help with the cleanup.” Lady Matricia said.

“No, actually, you don't.” I said and she looked surprised. “I know a specific battlefield where there's a particularly large acid pool that pretty much dissolves anything that you throw into it.”

Both she and Farrah took in sharp breaths.

“As long as there's nothing left, they can't be resurrected.” I said and both women nodded in understanding. “There. When Anthony wakes up, he should be fully committed to returning home to his family and making a better life for them.”

Neither woman stopped me from reaching for Ksenya and I did the same thing to her. They knew, just like I did, that the last thing this world needed was another power hungry hero trying to take over. My alterations were done a minute later and I woke both of them up.

“Hey, no napping on the job.” I joked and helped them stand up. “Just kidding. The job's done.”

“Thank god.” Anthony said. “I... really want to...” He blinked his eyes. “Home. I want to get back to my family. They need me.”

“Me, too.” Ksenya said, her face in a frown. “I love it here; but, I... shouldn't stay. It's not my home.”

“I wholeheartedly agree.” I said and smiled at them. “Let's get back to the temple and we can be sent back as soon as possible.”

They nodded and I took out the bench for them to sit on. The three heroes strapped in and I strapped the harness on my waist, then took Lady Matricia into my arms.

“It seems that this will be our last flight together, dear lady.” I whispered to her and flew up into the air.

“I'm going to miss relaxing with you, even if it was on a battlefield.” Lady Matricia whispered back.

“I would have made love to you, except I didn't want to sully the memory of the people we lost today.”

Lady Matricia sighed. “It's a great loss.”

I nodded. “I really would have told you all to stay away if I'd known.”

“We knew the risks and they died taking that undead woman down.” Lady Matricia said. “There's no greater honor than dying to protect your friends and family while also protecting the world.”

I nodded solemnly and we fell silent as we flew the rest of the way towards the capital city's temple.