already told you. Avoid them like the plague. It’s not worth it,” said Arrogan.
“I hear you,” said Will. “I’m not planning on it, but I can’t help but think about it in a general sense. We had to fight some Shimeran priests the other day.” He went on to describe what had happened, as well as his explosive and unexpected use of his new talent. When he finished, he realized he had another question. “Before you tell me about demons, why do you think they froze? I wasn’t trying to do that.”
Arrogan answered carefully. “Since I wasn’t witness to it, I can’t be sure, but you’ve mentioned feeling a chill after using your talent before. Probably you’re using ambient turyn to convert thermal energy into sonic energy.”
Will frowned. “I thought I was converting the turyn itself into sound.”
“Maybe, but it’s rarely that clear cut. From what you described, you actually used the ambient magic to transform one form of kinetic energy into a different kind of kinetic energy. The turyn drew the heat out of the air and bodies of those nearby and converted it into sonic energy. That’s my best guess, anyway.”
An idea struck him, and he felt a sudden surge of hope. “Would something like that work against demons?”
“Most demons, certainly,” agreed the ring. “Though you’d have to have sufficient ambient or active turyn in the area to do something similar to what you did with the enemy soldiers.”
“Most demons,” repeated Will. “What about a demon-lord?”
“I already told you to forget about facing one directly,” said Arrogan waspishly.
“Just humor me. I’m curious.”
“It wouldn’t work. For the same reason I told you the other day when I said you don’t really have to fear magic anymore—from anyone. A demon-lord’s will and control over the magic around himself rivals that of a third-order wizard. Other than force spells, no magic you could create would hurt one.”
Well, shit, thought Will sourly. “What does work against them? Don’t they have a weakness, like the fae and iron, or vampires and silver?”
Arrogan laughed. “Unfortunately, no, but we don’t need one.”
“Why?”
“Because our world itself is poisonous to them. It’s filled with turyn that directly interferes with their own. Just as regular people die if they get any demonic turyn inside them, demons have similar problems,” said his grandfather.
Will wasn’t sure he agreed. “They don’t get sick from our turyn, even if I attack one directly with a spell. I know that from personal experience.”
“It doesn’t hurt them immediately. Unlike most people, demons can and do convert turyn like a wizard does, but they aren’t nearly as good at it. For example, a lone demon in our world has to kill to survive. It’s sort of similar to what vampires have to do. They kill living creatures to absorb the particular vital turyn within us, because that’s the one type of turyn here that they can naturally eat. Everything else, particularly elemental fire, is corrosive to them. No demon can survive in our world for an extended period. They have to return to their own plane to recuperate and recharge their turyn.”
“So, why are they so keen on coming here then?” asked Will in exasperation.
“Their plane is parasitic. If they don’t continue invading and feeding other worlds to it, it will begin to cannibalize itself. They need our help just to get here, but once they arrive, the main goal is always to find a way to bring enough force and power across to build the spell-engines that they use to anchor to, and destroy, other worlds. Without a spell-engine running, their time here is always limited. They need it to convert massive amounts of native turyn to void turyn. That turyn is released, creating a noxious local environment that nurtures and restores them.”
So, no spell-engine, no demons. Will wondered if there was a way to exploit that. If he couldn’t beat Madrok directly, maybe he could just prevent the demon from creating the spell-engine. “What do they need to create a spell-engine?”
“Ley lines,” said Arrogan. “Mass sacrifices work short term, but to be practical they need to tap into one or more ley lines to draw the power needed.”
“Like the chamber the duchess used back in Cerria,” said Will.
“Exactly. Most of the major cities were built on loci, places where two or more ley lines meet. It made it easy to create and power some of the greater magics, like the teleport beacons.”
Will didn’t have to ask if Myrsta had been built at such