Free Vegenrage: The Magic User by Robert Spina

which leads to a great hall. There is a wide stairway at the opposite side of the hall with a great black coral banister on either side of the six-foot-wide stairs, which ascend slowly about thirty feet to two great doors at the top, which are closed. There is a massive, thick red cloth rug covering the entire floor and stairway, with black demons sewn all about it. There is a large round structure in the middle of the room, which looks like a very large bird bath wide enough for ten men to stand around. There is a single door at the center of the two other walls with round arches at the top, and both doors are closed. The structure in the middle of the room is eye-catching, as is the stairway leading up, but there are four statues, one in each corner of the room and each standing on a solid granite pedestal. Each statue is a magnificent ten-foot-tall likeness of the demon they represent. The color of the statues is solid ruby with a hue of black throughout them. Each statue has the name of the demon engraved into the granite podium they stand on.
    Groglegoya the great winged beast is known for swooping down on its prey and grabbing them with the talons on its hands or for stabbing victims with its tail and flying high just to release its victims falling to their deaths. This demon has enormous wings protruding from its back, three talons for toes on each foot, and three great talons for fingers on each hand. It has a long tail with a barbed harpoon at the end of it.
    Smogle, the next demon, is known for its ability to turn into black smog, suffocating its victims as they breathe in the smog and consuming their heart and lungs before exiting its deceased prey. Smogle looks like a man but has large stakes that grow up from his shoulders, one on each side; also one grows from each elbow out the back of his arms and up at a forty-five-degree angle. He has a very unusual ring that grows around his forehead and around the back of his head. This is very unusual and very noticeable, and Smogle can never escape this trait that gives his identity away.
    Drumbolt the crusher has the ability to transform and extend his body to any shape and any length. He is the earth demon able to take the form of dirt, rock, water, snow, ice, lava, wood, even vegetation. His statue is a tree trunk for one leg, solid rock for the other leg. His abdomen and chest are water, with ice for one arm and lava for the other arm, and his head is dirt, with snow for hair. Drumbolt extends the form of earth he is touching high in the air, transforms into a hammer, and slams down on his victims, crushing them and absorbing them. So when the hammer retreats from the earth, there are no remains left.
    The final demon, Simtap the slicer, also looks like a man with a heavy beard. Simtap has the ability to grow his arms some twenty-five feet, becoming Lavtonium metal, the hardest known metal on Kronton. When Simtap has a victim in sight, he grows his arms. They become swords, and he impales or slices his victims to pieces. Lavtonium metal is red, and not only are Simtap’s razor-sharp, unbreakable swords unmatched by any weapons on Kronton, but they also become red-hot when contact is made with any object, making the swords that much more lethal. Whenever Simtap slices a living being, the wounds are instantly cauterized, and there is no blood loss. The victim dies from dismemberment.
    Xanorax walks past the statues and the summoning well in the center of the room and heads up the stairs. He passes through the doors to his chambers. To the left is a birdcage with a blanket over it. It hangs from a rusty chain attached to the ceiling some eight feet above. The room is lit by sunlight that enters from the balcony, where there is a rounded archway and no doors. The opposite side of the room is a king-size bed, well adorned and very comfortable, where he sleeps. Xanorax removes the blanket from the birdcage, and sitting on a wooden dowel in the middle of the cage is a