Legacy of the Guildpact
The Gathering
3:35 PM
Minneapolis Convention Center
Minneapolis, America
It had become a heated battle that was now going on for the second hour. Hundreds had gathered to watch the final battle of the World Tournament – the biggest Magic: The Gathering tournament known to mankind. And this was it: the final battle of Ravnica vs. Ravnica.
The player on the left was a girl. She was one of the few female players at the tournament, and her clothes stuck out amongst all of the nerdy types gathering either around the table, or (For those who couldn't get a comfortable spot) gathering around the giant screen that broadcast certain games. It was on a cycle, yet the cycle had long ago stopped – there was only one game remaining.
The girl was wearing a long red dress; with a V-cut in the neck that was long enough to distract any (And all) male opponents, yet short enough to keep her modesty. Her feet bore long black boots (Though they were hidden beneath the dress).
Her hair was the same color as the first color of her deck – jet-black. Her piercing gaze and dark blue eyes seemed to look straight into your soul, sending shivers down your back and fear throughout your body.
But even the beautiful player was barely holding out against the powerful Izzet deck her opponent – a skinny Japanese kid wearing glasses and a black T-shirt that was a blatant advertisement for the latest Dissention block – was throwing at her.
Her side of the field consisted of little. She had a Carrion Howler that was currently enchanted by a Faith's Fetters, as well as a Sisters of Stone Death enchanted with the same. Her graveyard had grown to epic sizes – almost leveling with her deck.
Her opponent, however, was a different story. He had the Izzet Guildmage out, along with Tibor and Lumia, as well as Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind.
Her life total was 5. His was 20. She had two swamps and 20 forests, along with one island. How in the hell she managed that interesting combo, she still didn't know. And she still hadn't drawn any of her Rot Farms, nor her Restless Tomb.
His lands were on the high end of the scale as well. He had 10 mountains, 10 islands, and 2 Izzet Boilerworks'. His graveyard was nowhere near his deck size. Many of his cards had been returned either to the field or his hand thanks to a combo he managed with Izzet Chronarch and Mark of Eviction.
"Go ahead." The kid on the right said, a smug grin on his face. The girl glowered at him and drew her card. She played a plains – in a Golgari deck? She knew that secretly (And even some of them were muttering amongst themselves) many of the other players were thinking "What the hell is she doing?"
"Go." She said simply. The kid simply grinned and returned his Chronarch to his hand. He then replayed it, bringing a Lava Spike back to his hand.
"It seems our game is over…" He said confidently. "I'll play Lava Spike, I'll tap two mountains and splice Desperate Ritual onto it, and I'll use the three red mana I get from it to copy the spell with my Guildmage." He grinned. "Infinite damage."
"Yes, but you forget about me…" She grinned as well. "I'll tap plains, island, and twenty-two for X and play Overrule. Unless you pay twenty-two, your Spike is countered and I gain that much life."
"I…but…" The kid was at a loss for words. The tables were turning, and she had just jumped up to 27 life with one combo. "J-just go."
"Fine." She smiled and quickly untapped all of her lands. "Seems our game has come to an end…" She echoed. "I'll tap my two swamps and an island and play Haunting Misery."
"I'll play Convolute on that…it's countered unless you pay four." When the player saw her tap four lands – a small price to pay for a game-winning combo – he felt despair.
"Now, let's see…if I recall correctly, you've countered and/or killed twenty of my creatures exactly…so I'll remove all 20 from the game, dealing you twenty damage."
"I…that can't…wha…" Her opponent was shell-shocked. Not only had she countered his infinite damage combo, but she had then gone on to decimate him with the creatures he'd destroyed.
"And the winner – finally – is Meika Uzemak!" The announcer, an official Judge of Magic wearing a gray t-shirt and black pants, shouted into the microphone. Cheers erupted throughout the crowds and Meika quickly gathered her cards and put them all into a gold deck box. She grinned and started the walk up to the stage, where the Judge awaited. She could see her face on the giant screen.
"Congratulations, Meika. Your prizes include…" A set of hidden doors opened on the stage floor. Up ascended a table filled with Magic goodies.
"All of the Magic books currently out…" The Judge held up each book, and the large screen displayed them as he did so.
"Five preconstructed decks of your choice…" He motioned her to join him at another table that was now rising, where she had her pick of every precon deck made. The decks filled up almost the entire table. She quickly grabbed the five Ravnica decks she was missing – Boros, Rakdos, Azorius, Simic, and Dimir – and the table went down into the ground again.
"Five booster packs from each set…" Another table came up, this one loaded with five of each of the 38 Magic sets – a total of 190 boosters and 2850 cards!
"And the grand prize…"
The Judge stopped moving mid-sentence. Looking around, Meika noticed that all of the others had stopped moving as well. Meika glanced around wildly.
"The hell?"
"You, come with me." Meika heard a voice to her right. She looked and saw a wicked-looking woman standing in front of a swirling portal of glowing green and black colors.
The woman wore what appeared to be a blood-red dress made of flesh and bone. Her hair was made up of hundreds of snakes, writhing and hissing at her.
"Wh-who are you?" She asked, backing away nervously.
"Do not question me, fool!" The woman growled. She raised a hand, and the stage beneath Meika broke. Several vines came out of the hole and wrapped around Meika. The woman reached out, and the vines carried Meika to the portal.
"You will obey the queen of the Golgari." Were the last words Meika heard before the crushing vines caused her to black out.
Foelop's House
Tokyo, Japan
12:35 AM
"Totally owned."
That was the only reply necessary from the girl known as Foelop, as she launched one final offensive against her opponent, another girl named Sonja. It consisted of an Agrus Kos, Wojek Veteran attacking alongside all of the dual-colored creatures from Boros – Boros Recruit, Boros Swiftblade, Boros Guildmage, Firemane Angel, Flame-kin Zealot, Skynight Legionnaire, Sunhome Enforcer, and Thundersong Trumpeter. Even the famed Razia made an appearance, dealing a massive 40 damage to Sonja's remaining life – 37.
"I curse your Boros deck, Foelop." Sonja said with a grunt.
"Well, your Gruul deck isn't the most fun, either. I can't believe the modifications you made completely changed it into a beatdown-lifegain deck. You managed to get 37 life in a Gruul deck!"
"Yet you dealt me 40 in the end." Sonja grinned. "Oh, well." She began shuffling her deck, as did Foelop.
Both were wearing pink pajamas bearing the Ravnica: City of Guilds logo. Both were quite obsessed with the fifteen-year-old trading card game, and they showed it.
Though neither of them realized it, time was freezing all around them. They realized it in a moment, however, when two separate portals opened behind them.
The one behind Foelop was a glowing shade of red and white together, while the one behind Sonja was red and green.
"Uh…Foelop?" Sonja asked. She pointed behind her friend.
"Uh…Sonja?" Foelop said at the same time. She pointed behind Sonja.
A woman stepped out of the portal behind Sonja. She wore quite little – a green bikini was about it. Her hair flowed out behind her, and was a bright green. "Sonja Hitop?" She asked.
"That's…me…" Sonja said, stunned.
"Come with me." She said simply.
"Why?"
"Don't ask why, girl. Just come with me. I won't hesitate to knock you out and forcibly drag you through with me." She said.
"But…"
"Fine, have it your way." She grunted. With surprising strength, Sonja was grabbed from behind and dragged through the portal.
"Sonja!" Foelop jumped to her feet and tried to run through the portal that her friend had just gone through. She felt a hand on her shoulder and she turned around. Standing there was a man wearing iron armor with a fist emblazoned on the front of it. The man had gray hair, though there wasn't much left to speak of.
"I apologize, Setsuka. You have to come with me."
The man had tried to sound apologetic, and failed badly. He managed to sound like he could've cared less whether or not Foelop even survived the encounter with them.
"You…you're…Kos." She managed, after getting a good look at the man in front of her.
"Yes, and you've been recruited to the Boros Legion. Come with me, Setsuka."
Tokyo Lab of Genealogy
Tokyo, Japan
12:51 AM
Chikako Ieoaij was tired. She
had spent the past twenty-seven hours in the lab, trying to fuse the
genes of two animals, a sparrow and a dog. She had been fusing tiny
strands of DNA for hours. She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and
lifted her knife. She was finished. Finally.
The finished product was interesting. It was nothing but a heap of DNA at the moment, but she would have to put it through the gizmologizer for twenty-four hours before it would become the finished product. She sighed and carefully picked up the mass and put it on a tray. She carried the tray to the wall of the laboratory and opened a door that looked like a microwave oven. She closed the door and set the timer to twenty-four hours. She then closed her eyes and collapsed onto a steel chair. It wasn't the most comfortable, but it would do.
"Last time I ever…ever…stay up for thirty hours straight in the stupid genealogy lab." She muttered to herself. She reached into the pocket of her stark-white lab coat and pulled out her magic deck. She flipped through it, glancing at each of the cards.
"Congratulations, Chikako. You've successfully fused two creatures…" A voice came from behind her.
"Ugh, leave me alone, Dai-" Chikako spun the chair around to find herself face-to-face not with her partner, but with another.
"Momir Vig, Simic Visionary." She said aloud. The initial shock was still there, but it was not such a surprise, for a reason she didn't know.
"You've heard of me…" The man said. He wore what appeared to be a turquoise suit with a plate of light blue armor over his chest. He was completely bald, and his ears went straight out from his head and ended in points.
"Of course. Second-best magic card in the Simic set, next to Kraj." She stated.
It was at that moment that her partner, Daiki Irsok, decided to walk into the room. He stared blankly at Momir, and then looked towards Chikako.
"Chikako…any reason a magic card is standing in front of us?" He asked, equally unsurprised at the card's appearance.
"Ah, Daiki Irsok." Momir said. "How fortuitous. Now my…acquaintance…doesn't need to track you down. Anyway, Chikako, come with me. You're due in the Simic labs."
"Simic? What? Chikako, what's he talking about?" Daiki asked, now confused.
"On a wild swing, I'm guessing that Ravnica is a real plane, and there's some major event going on there, possibly the Guildpact festival, most likely the 10-thousand year anniversary of the original Guildpact that united the ten guilds into the city of Ravnica that we know today. If you read…"
"Ok, that's enough, I get it!" Daiki cried. "Jeez, that was a 'wild swing'?" Chikako grinned sheepishly.
"Come on, Chikako, we must hasten." Momir said. Chikako nodded and stood up, and immediately collapsed back down to the chair. She must've been a lot more tired than she thought.
"Any 'drops, Momir?" She asked.
"You really shouldn't work for so long…" Momir said. He reached into the pocket of his suit and pulled out a blue teardrop-shaped item. He handed it to Chikako, who pressed it to her head and felt the cold rush of pure mana revive her.
"Much better." She breathed. "Any chance of some food when we get there?"
Momir chuckled softly. "Of all the heroes I've had to pull from this plane to ours, you're the first who's known so much about it. I suppose we can stop at a restaurant when we get there. We've got time before the…events…begin." He raised a hand, and a black glowing green and blue portal opened behind him. He stepped through it, motioning to Chikako, who followed him.
"Chi-Chikako?" Daiki asked.
"Hello, Daiki."
A fiery-red witch visited Daiki. She wore almost as little as the card that visited Sonja. She had blazing red skin, and wore a black outfit that showed off enough to make any man sweat.
"Ly-ly-ly…"
"Lyzolda." The blood witch finished for him. "You, come with me. The Great One is in need of you."
"But…"
"Do not argue with me, boy! I will feel no remorse if I crush you and find a more suitable cardbearer. Come with me, Daiki, or you will be destroyed." The witch growled. She opened a portal behind herself and stepped through. Daiki, fearing for his own life, ran through after her.
Seconds later, he screamed in agony as his flesh was burned from his skin.
United States Supreme Court
Washington, D.C.
2:35 PM
"Doctor Cortus, please report to the court the number of deaths that occurred during your…experimentation…on the Avian Flu."
"Officially, there were two hundred seventy-three deaths of chickens. Obviously, a complete-" The witness and accused of the trial, a man named Cortus, was sitting on the witness' stand, sweating slightly.
"And…unofficially?" The lawyer of the plaintiff, a man named Evandarel Kozuki, asked. He wore a plain blue business suit and was pacing the court floor slowly, exactly the correct speed for a professional lawyer.
"Seven-hundred and twelve. Is there relevance here?" Cortus asked.
"On the contrary, doctor Cortus, it has complete relevance. Your honor, I request to see the official contract between doctor Cortus and mister Murob."
"Granted. Get the document, plaintiff." Said Judge Jonathan Drake.
The plaintiff, a man wearing a similar blue business suit, fumbled with his notes and produced an official looking document with a red wax seal pressed at the bottom.
"As you can all see, members of the jury, this document has the official seal of the Senate, making this a legally binding contract. Doctor Cortus, will you read that section right there?" He handed the document to the witness and pointed out a place on it.
" 'In the event of deaths associated with this enterprise, the First Party shall hand over any and all recorded physical remains of this enterprise.' " Cortus read. "And?"
"You say that you had a total of seven hundred and twelve deaths from this experiment. You handed over two hundred and seventy-three."
"The document says…"
"The contract says all recorded deaths, not all official deaths, doctor. The contract doesn't care about official or unofficial. Members of the jury, I present to you that this man, doctor H. Cortus, officially recorded part of that. This is not against the law, as you are well aware. However, the contract legally states that he must hand over all physical remains, whether they are official or not. No further questions, your honor." Evandarel sat down beside the person he was defending.
"Very well. Members of the jury, confer with yourselves and return with your verdict." Drake pounded his gavel twice. The jury members stood up and walked to their left into a private room.
"Think we won?" The plaintiff sitting next to Evandarel asked.
"I'm certain." He replied simply.
Ten minutes later, the jury came back.
"We have reached a verdict." The foreman of the jury stated. He held up a piece of paper. "We hereby find the defendant guilty as charged for breaking the contract he willingly agreed to. We hereby order Doctor Herbert Cortus to pay the sum of twenty-five thousand dollars to Mister Robert Murob. In the boundaries of the contract, he must also hand over all of the physical evidence remaining after his experimenting." The jury sat down.
"Very well. Cortus, you have one week to get together the money and the evidence. Court is dismissed." Drake pounded his gavel three times. The audience slowly filed out, and the court reporter finished up the official minutes of the trial. The jury walked out, as did the plaintiff and defendant, as well as the latter's lawyer. Finally, only Drake and Evandarel were left in the room.
"Not bad, Evan." Drake complimented. "You had me convinced, gotta admit."
"Makes great money." Evandarel grinned. "But you know all about that, eh, Judge?"
"Is this…Jonathan Drake and Evandarel Kozuki?" A man asked, walking up to them. He was wearing a long blue robe that reached past his ankles, and went far past that, going several feet across the floor behind him.
"Yes, that's us." Evandarel replied.
"Good. Jonathan Drake, I'll have to ask you to come with me."
"What?" Drake asked, staggering backwards a few steps.
"I apologize for my frankness. There isn't much time. I will be able to explain everything once we arrive in the Senate."
"I thought we were here already?"
"What? No, no, not this one. The Azorius Senate. Please, come with me."
"Azorius?"
"Please, sir Drake." The man opened a portal by waving his hand. The portal glowed white and blue.
"Wait…now I recognize you!" Evandarel suddenly said. "Minister of Impediments!"
"Yes, good to see I am known even on this plane. Please, Drake, I must get you to come with me."
"Go, Jonathan." Evandarel said. "This is your only chance to be able to live out your dreams of magic."
"I…I guess." The judge said with unease in his voice. He slowly walked through the portal after the minister. The portal closed shortly after.
"Hmmm…kinda wish it would happen to me." Evandarel said airily.
"Don't worry, you're getting your share, too." A voice came from the shadows of the courtroom.
"Huh?"
"Wolfblood." A figure walked out of the corner, wearing clothes that were strange for the times. He wore a long blue tunic, a green cape, and brown leather boots. A longbow was strapped to his back, just underneath his shoulder-length blonde hair. "Tolsimir Wolfblood."
"Huh. I suppose you want me to come with you, then?" Evandarel asked.
"Of course. Are you coming peacefully, or must I sic Vaja on you?"
"I'm going with you…I have no wish to fight, nor do I have the powers to."
Tolsimir snapped his fingers and a green and white portal opened beside him. He motioned with his head, and Evandarel walked into it slowly. Tolsimir followed after, and as the portal closed, Evandarel noticed a large white wolf coming into existence nearby the hunter.
National Library of Moscow
Moscow, Russia
5:37 PM
"The time…is near."
Morilk Shenzaku was sitting at a computer, doing some calculations. He had several reference books open around him, all maps and atlases of various countries around the world.
Morilk Shenzaku was a pale boy. At the age of 17, he had been on computers his entire life. He was photosensitive, and couldn't be exposed to the light for long. His skin was white as snow, and his personality matched it.
Out of all of the people who would be crossing over to the Ravnican plane, he was the only one who knew his fate long before the guild came to claim him. Then again, he was the one who was arranging all of it. He had known for years about the magic planes, forever hidden to mankind.
"Are you ready, Shenzaku?" A voice came from behind the boy. He sensed the portal opening, but didn't turn around.
"Just a moment, Circu." He said. He made a few more marks on one of his maps and closed the books. He then raised a hand, and each book he had used carefully floated into the air and set itself on its proper shelf.
"Szadek awaits, Shenzaku." Circu said. Shenzaku felt the presence disappear, and he knew that the lobotomist had vanished into the portal. He sighed and raised his hands again. The atlas that held his own marks floated in midair, following the movements of his hands. He rotated the book between his hands and clapped them together loudly. The book vanished.
"The time is near…" Shenzaku said under his breath. "Soon…soon, you will be freed, master."