Finalities
by retracavol
Malko's captors pushed him up to the Link. Here, the world he knew, the world they all knew would drastically change. There were no second chances here, old grudges, past relationships, granted dreams and unimaginable power was to be banished. The young necromancer was bound to a beast of his own summoning. A screaming crypt dragon, its flesh peeling, mouth shrieking, torn wings raised, was spirit linked to its master. 'Damn mages, their oceans should have been poisoned long before this could have ever happened. Curse that blue mana.' Malko thought, 'That damn druid wench will sense the darkness if I summon with black mana, besides, they are all too strong together.' It was true; the only thing linking each of the Walkers was mana. Each controlled the power to tap mana from the land and manipulate it into powerful, extraordinary spells. With it, they could call beasts, create changes in the land and weather or even to change fate.
"We stop here," commanded Draz. The great warlord dismounted his powerful steed. His flowing red cape billowed behind him. His once great ally who had turned on him was now bound to his beast. 'How funny to think a man with no soul could be afraid of what pain a rotting dragon felt,' he thought silently. The mountain air was cold. The worst part was the dryness. Draz could feel the surge of mana beneath him. Red, of war, chaos and fire. His muscles were stiff from being atop his horse. His fingertips glowed like embers. Touching his index finger to his thumb, he blew mana through the hole he created and sent a small flame dancing above his helmet, almost like a bubble.
"Honestly Draz," Lantis banished the spell with the swipe of his hand. "Don't use that pyrogenic mana here."
"Well excuse me all mighty mage," Draz bowed his head sarcastically, "I had no idea I wasn't allowed to use red mana up here, excuse me while I try to draw fire from a CRAB!"
"You know we agreed on not summoning, we're here to banish magic, not show it off."
"We should enjoy it while it lasts, besides, it's not as if I called on a Shivan Dragon or Volcanic Burst. It was a simple little spark." He sent the flame at his opponent's head. It hit Lantis and scorched a mark on his forehead.
"Boys...this is not the time to argue." The old druid stepped between the red wizard and injured blue mage. Her face was smooth but consoling. Her obvious Elven features were highlighted by the reflection of the light on the snow. Wild flowers, always in bloom, decorated her wavy brown hair while her colorfully dyed tunic was lined with rare stones, each inscribed with a rune. Instead of a tome, each spell's name was intricately carved onto a pebble, which was later sown into the cloth. Everything from an awesome Force of Nature to a simple summoning of Birds of Paradise. With her always was her huntress' bow, made from an enchanted tree branch and strung with a thread of ivy. Encee swept her long but fragile fingers over Lantis' head. A stone with a regeneration rune glowed a deep green.
"No, defuse the mana." Cirla said, "He is my husband, I shall care for his wounds." The druid summoned a flock of Tradewind Falcons. She then stepped aside to let the priestess work. Cirla was the High Priestess of the Order of Serra. Through song, she could bring healing or command an army of angels fighting in the Holy Name of Mother Serra. She focused her energy, drawing from the sun. When a halo had grown around her, she sung a hymn, long and airy. As her hands lifted, the party felt an overwhelming sanctity. All of them were refreshed and comfortable. The burn on Lantis' forehead was healed.
"Keep that White mana away; the only thing worse than that angel fluff is the life crap from that Elven inbreed," Malko hissed.
Encee drew up some green mana from a nearby forest and made a flower sprout from the neck of the crypt dragon. Both the rotting creature and the stubborn Black Walker howled in pain. Because of the spirit link, whatever the dragon felt, the wizard would feel ten fold. "Now I'd shush if I were you. That decaying lizard of yours would make a beautiful flowerbed," Encee warned.
Please, let us continue, once we do away with this troublesome magic, maybe then we can go back to farming and worshipping Serra, Cirla said.
"Yes, the forest needs me," added Encee.
"And my fortress needs protection," bellowed Draz. The powerful warrior nudged Lantis, "But between you and me, I've summoned three lava hounds and a few bands of goblin mercenaries watching the walls. Nothing smarter than a slug would dare attack it."
"As if I care," scoffed Lantis. He closed his eyes and drew water mana from the snow and clouds. A mist surrounded him and vanished as fast as it had appeared. In its place was a great mechanical beast. It resembled a plains rhino but was made of polished brass and was inlaid with thousands of jewels. The master illusionist and artificer climbed aboard the beast. Gears whirred and the animal began to walk as if it were real. "We go." Lantis was a man of action and was extremely cautious. Unlike Draz, he was slow anger and held grudges. He felt blue mana, of air and water was better than the kind of earth and fire. Red was too plain, not complex like Blue. "Come dearest Cirla." He held his hand out to help his wife aboard his ride.
"No thank you." Cirla raised her hands to the sky until a halo glowed again. The sun flashed and a pair of pegasi ascended from the clouds. Their milky white wings beat the air gracefully as they landed in front of Encee and Cirla. "If you would join me, Encee my friend."
"I would be honored." The elf strapped her hunter's bow to her back and climbed onto the winged horse. She straddled its back, her legs right behind the wing. Cirla sat on her pegasus, her legs together. She whistled of it to follow the mechanical beast and the pair of horses trotted after it. Draz was the last to get on his mount. He summoned a small fireball in his hands and hurled it at the reanimated dragon's tail. The wizard yelped and the dragon lurched forward. The caravan was once again underway to the Link, where all mana sources merged. It was an island formed at the mouth of an extinct volcano. On the island, an evergreen forest grew. Beneath the ground however was tar and rotting corpses of wizards who had fought once to gain control of all the manas and had gotten overloaded with power in the attempt. Here, during the day, Red, White, Blue, Green and Black mana converged. Here, at this sacred place, destiny would be changed.
"Stop." Lantis commanded suddenly. The riders of the pegasi strode to the front to see what was the matter. A small band of wolverine stood instinctually guarding their burrow. Although they were almost no trouble alone, a group of three could reek havoc among a unit of even well trained pikemen. Their snapping jaws and razor sharp claws stabbed the air in a defensive frenzy. Cirla's halo glowed and her voice raised. A holy light shone over the predators. A woman wearing white flowing gown floated down above them, in her hand was a sword that shone like it was made of pure silver but was clear like ice. Her hair billowed above them like ribbons of a thousand marching knights. In one graceful swoop, the sword hacked the air and all that was left in front of the party was a mass of fur and blood. The angel glowed a brilliant white and, as the light dimmed, the cherub was unsummoned. "Almost as beautiful as you love." Lantis dismounted his machine and kissed his wife for a job well done.
Encee jumped off the horse and ran to the burrow, among the blood. "I mean no offense milady but was that necessary?"
"Very, as soon as we returned, those creatures would have posed a great threat to us."
"I understand the danger but those wolverines would have done nothing to harm us, they were only protecting their den."
"I'm going to have to agree with the elf," Draz nudged his steed forward, "They were trying to defend their burrow, as any of us would defend our palaces."
"They were simple animals, they didn't feel a thing." Lantis got back onto the rhino and began moving away from the party. "We must go now."
"Simple animals? May I remind you that we are also as SIMPLE as those animals. They did nothing to harm us." Encee touched a brown stone and a wall of thorns instantly grew ahead of the mechanical beast. "There are more simple animals than all of human, or elf combined."
"If there are so many of them, why do you care for a small three?" Cirla retorted. Her halo glowed as she drew mana from the sun.
"Don't collect that mana Cirla," Draz warned, "We must fight together, until this Necro and his magic is banished."
"I didn't ask you Warlord."
"Cirla, no." Lantis whispered an incantation and temporarily drained the energy from his wife.
"Stay out of this Lantis," Encee exploded out of her serenity. Her eyes grew wide and summoned a band of fairies to tie him up. The curious sprites badgered his mount, amazed with the sparkling jewels on the exterior of the rhino. They poked and prodded it, trying to pry the precious stones and pick the gears apart.
"The both of you!" Lantis yelled, "Stop this at once, Malko is the priority."
"I'll do it." Draz quickly drew mana into his arms. Before Lantis had time to dispell it, Draz conjured a ball of chain lightning. In a swift clap of thunder, a light burned the air and smashed into the dragon and its rider. All that was left was a pile of ashes and an unburnable dragon skeleton. The heat dissipated in the air and melted the snow in the immediate area.
"You idiot! Do you know what you've just done?! You've evaporated an...an...entire library of information about Dark mana!"
While the two men argued bitterly, the women had already drawn lines and were hurling spell after spell at each other. Whole armies of phalanxes and priests threw themselves at huge bears and lines of archers. Walls of ice protected Saproling spawning grounds poured out thousands of tiny fighting insects. In the air, an army of killer bees were attacking a flock of carrier doves, although the birds were having a feast of the swarm. Encee's cloak was glowing with multiple colors as she called spells simultaneously, overwhelming her opponent. Cirla's troops, were less numerable as she could only sing one hymn at a time but, because of their formal training, were much better armed and were harder to kill. The druid saw an opening and searched for a large supply of mana. She could feel an untouched wilderness, one teeming with life to the east. Drawing mana from it, she summoned a tribe of raging gorillas and sent them thundering down the battlefield. As they reached the priestess, Encee touched a blue stone and made the rampaging apes grow to five times their regular size. The enormous primates raised their primitive bone clubs and struck down hard in on Cirla. The priestess was prepared however and quickly summoned herself a holy armor, its shining metal plates stopped the gorillas while a pair of white knights hacked them down. The gorillas screamed in pain and almost stopped an errant knight from its charge, allowing a troop of Saprolings to over run it and bring him down. The smell of fresh blood woke the lust for battle inside Draz and he broke from his volley of curses with Lantis to ride his steed back to the fortress of timber Encee had created for herself. Lantis pulled in some mana and teleported himself to the high parapet Cirla had created to protect herself from more rampaging animals.
"What ever I can do to help Druid-" Draz offered but was quickly interrupted by Encee.
"Goblins, thousands of them, and a dragon or two. The best you have, Shivans if you have any tagged." Indeed Draz did have them tagged. He had come across a whole nest of them one year and they continued to breed more powerful offspring. Pulling from the cold mountain beneath him, the earth shook and two huge screeching dragons leapt out. Flames spewed from their mouth while their massive wings blew arrows off course. A whole unit of knights were swallowed into the earth as the chasm the dragons had erupted out of healed itself. Hordes of goblins of all sorts, miners, ballooners, trappers, magically appeared from nowhere and hurled their bodies at the men. From the other side, Cirla had been summoning massive numbers of angels. Everything from the harmless but blinding blinking spirits to the same Serra angels that had destroyed the wolverines. A legendary Juggernaut wheeled onto the field from behind the commanding tower. It was over twenty feet tall and had huge spiked rollers digging and crushing everything and anything in its path. The machine dominated over its area of the battlefield, slowly moving forward as troops crawled out of its way.
"What the hell is that?!" Draz stood amazed.
"They must be pooling their mana, it would take a whole continent of trees to summon something that large." She was half right. Lantis had saved a huge amount of mana from the Brother's War between Urza and Mishra. Encee summoned a wall of brambles in front of the Juggernaut was quickly squashed.
"Two can play at this game." Draz said to himself. He dug his hands into the earth and pulled a large sum of mana. His body caught fire and he seemed to be engulfed by the flame. He stepped backward, out of the fire, amazingly unhurt. The fire didn't loose shape. Instead, he had called upon a Fire Elemental. It needed a shape to mold itself and now was a more dangerous version of Draz himself. Encee made it too grow to its giant form. The Elemental smashed into the clashing armies destroying everything in its path, just as the Juggernaut had. Lantis summoned a blowing wind out to squelch the flames but it only fanned it, making the Elemental grow even more powerful. The Juggernaut and Fire Elemental hit head on and in a huge explosion, both exploded in a ball of fire, stone and wood. The flames soon spread to a nearby patch of woods and quickly spread to the wall of timber that the Red and Green Walkers called their base.
"Put it out! Quickly! Call your goblins back and put out the fire!"
"They only fight, they don't care about defense. What about you, can't you call the morning dew to put this out?"
"Are you kidding? Does it look like morning to you?" A trumpet sounded and an battalion of angels surrounded the only exit from the burning mass of wood. In one final attempt of desperation, Draz pulled from all the sources of red mana which was slowly destroying the battlefield. The mountains, fire and the raging emotions were tapped to bring on a meteor pummeling toward the land.
The wreckage was indescribable. A huge crater was filled with blackened ashes and twisted metal. Whole armies lay motionless and walls that once blocked areas were torn to rubble. Bodies of goblins, animals, people and angels lay bloodied and shattered. There was no sign of survival by any party...none except for the one parapet. The front stones had been blackened but inside, cowering inside a circle of protection lay Cirla and Lantis. The circle of protection spells had been written around the base of the tower. The couple, knowing the danger was over emerged from their stone cocoon. Lantis and Cirla looked around at the destruction.
"This my dear, this is what we are here to protect, we must keep our skills to rebuild and help this land once again thrive, but now, without the looming presence of Chaos and Death." Lantis pulled the remainder of his stored mana and whisked the two off, back to the Domainia, back to civilization.
Off in the distance, a young boy, his face scarred by fire stood up. His body shivered from the chilly mountain air. He looked around, put his fingers to his lips and blew. Out, like a bubble, a tiny flame emerged and danced around his forehead playfully.
Questions and comments to retracavol@yahoo.com