-1Chapter 1
The lone footsteps echoed throughout the grand hall as a man, dress in his usual dark blue light armour and black cape with red lining, walked down the empty path.
As he approached the enormous doors, easily twenty feet high, the two guards that stood at perfect attention, seemed to spring to life as they stepped aside and bow their heads. He pushed the doors wide open as if they were no heavier than his cape.
He walked another long hall, though not as big as the last, several large vehicles could have fit inside. Finally reaching the last set of doors, he stepped into his office, which was more like a luxury suite than a place of business. He punched in a series of codes into a console attached to the wall on his right.
Almost immediately after doing this, another man entered, carrying several documents and a small device used for communications, storing information and assisting in the mans work, and looking extremely exhausted. He was obviously being made to do more than he was physically capable.
"Sir! Reporting as ordered, I have the information you requested here sir." There was a slight quiver in his voice as he spoke. It was clear that he was afraid of causing any disappointment to this man.
"Thank you Derek, that will be all." He waved to him signalling to leave the papers on the desk and leave. "Y-yes sir." Derek stuttered as he placed the files down. He turned to leave as the first man read through the top file.
"Derek. Is all of this information confirmed?" He said with a powerfully commanding voice. Derek froze but managed to speak. "Yes, yes sir. All of the present details were confirmed by top ranking elites Sir." The man sighed briefly and waved in dismissal again.
"I will return with the next update as soon as it is ready Lord Zack." Derek spoke in a tone similar to a scorned child would to his father. "Yes, yes. You can leave now."
As the door closed leaving Zack alone in the room, he wondered for a moment about what to do. According to the files in his hand, the rebel leader made a bold move and showed himself, seemingly open and accompanied by only a few men, in the centre of the city.
"Odd. This isn't like you at all. I've not seen you show you face in almost two years." Zack had decided an attempt to arrest the rebel leader would only result in the loss of many of Zack's men. Almost none in Zack's forces could stand up to the rebel leader. "Hmph, I'll go myself…" he made his way to the vault at the back of the room and entered the three codes needed for access.
Inside were Zack's pride and glory. Literally. Two large Buster Swords, one black with a red hilt otherwise known as Pride. The other, Zack's original, was silver with a brown hilt known as Glory. Pride and Glory. The two most powerful swords known to man.
Swinging them across his back, one over the other, he made his way out. "In Medius city. Right here within my grasp. Why?" Zack had a perplexed expression as he entered the energy lift. Rings of blue light began to surround him and spun rapidly just before Zack disappeared in a spear of white light.
In Medius City, the largest city on Earth since Zack's rise to power, and the location of Zack's main headquarters. This is what confused Zack the most. Why would they choose the most dangerous city to hold their little show? It made no sense.
"Unless, he must be looking for a fight. Ah I see, he intends to injure me as a demonstration that I am not a god. I'm afraid you are going to be disappointed."
"He is nothing more than a powerful mage and warrior! He is no god!" The rebel leader shouted from atop the Medius monument. A large stone statue of a legendary creature known as Diamond Weapon, long since slain by Zack.
"Don't believe lies! Many of my men including myself can use the magic he would claim as divine power!" Many people had gathered to hear out the rebels but for the most part, their words fell on deaf ears. "You must listen to…" The leader was cut short as he noticed a section of the crowd beginning to part.
"Finally showing up huh?" He whispered to himself. As the crowd parted, some of the running from the scene, Zack slowly strode towards to statue, clapping. "I must say Whelan, this is a fine surprise. I was beginning to think you were avoiding me."
Whelan stared right at him, unwavering. Whelan was one of the only people left who did not fear Zack, he never had. "But I must say, it's a rather unwelcome reason for our meeting." Zack stopped just short of the statue.
"It never is a welcome reason Zack. But for today, I get some solace to know that I am about to show these people that you are not what you claim to be!" Whelan raised his hand, palm open and pointed at Zack.
"Come now, I am what I am Whelan. And there's little you can do." Zack smirked and clenched his fists, waiting for Whelan to strike. "We'll see." Just as Whelan had finished his sentence he had created a large fire spell from his hand hurtling towards Zack.
Zack leapt to a great distance as the ground beneath him was obliterated and the surrounding area melted by the power of Whelan's fire spell. "Yes we will." Zack spun in the air and unleashed a wave of ice shards the size of flagpoles in an erratic pattern.
"Everyone DOWN!" Whelan roared at his men who quickly jumped from the statue to the streets below. By now most of the people in the area had fled for fear of their lives. Whelan's men moved to spread out positions underneath Zack and began their combined barrage of lightning and fire spells.
"Hah, what is this? Where are your elite men Whelan? These fools are nothing more than meat for the slaughter." Zack laughed as he flew across, swerving in and out between bolts of lightning and small explosions in the sky.
Whelan was the one smiling now, which concerned Zack. What was Whelan planning? Zack wouldn't wait to find out. He immediately flew towards Whelan his hand outstretched as he began to manifest a spell that would surely deal with him in one blast.
Whelan noticed the green aura in Zack's hand, Ultima his favourite spell, and was quick to prepare. He knew Zack wanted to end this fast but he wasn't going to let that happen. He readied his own spell, one of equal strength, also Whelan's favourite technique. Holy.
He had to rely more on hope more than anything now, as he had never been presented with a situation where his level of magic would be tested fully against Zack's. An enormous beam of green light emerged from Zack's hand and burst at Whelan at a tremendous speed.
Within a second of Ultimas release, Whelan had unleashed Holy's white light, which was aimed directly at Ultima. Zack was surprised to see such a powerful spell being used against him and quickly decided to fly back should the result of these two connecting be devastating.
Almost immediately after the two hit, a wave of green and white energy was spread in all directions, decimating nearby buildings and completely disintegrating the top floors of each building leaving nothing but burning rubble, which began to crumble and fall to the streets.
The ensuing shockwave washed over the remnants of the statue and flung Whelan like a rag doll across the streets until colliding into the side of a car, leaving him almost crippled.
Zack too, did not make it far enough away and was hurtled through the air crashing down atop a massive partially built skyscraper. Rising to his feet he stood on the edge of a girder and searched for Whelan.
He saw nothing but mayhem down below. What little people remained in the town centre were fleeing into side streets and Whelan's men had begun to fall back. It was too hard to see any sign of Whelan through the enormous smoke cloud left by the blast.
"Damn.. Where are you?" Zack's question was answered as a large bolt spell impacted with the scaffolding he stood on. It twisted and shattered as the spell tore into the side of the girders,
Zack was forced to jump from his perch and freefall down to the ground where he was met almost immediately by Whelan's blade inches from his chest. Zack flipped back then drew Pride and Glory from his back sheaths.
Whelan knew it was pointless to try and take Zack on like this so he made some defensive moves as he began to walk backwards, hoping to put as much space between him and those swords as he could.
"What are you doing? Tell me! Something's not right here.. This is a wasted effort." Zack shouted as he chased Whelan down, swords arched and ready.
"Maybe for you it is." Whelan smirked and turned to run. "You're not as smart as you think Zack." The last words Zack heard before Whelan vanishes in a blinding light from a transportation spell.
Zack shielded his eyes and when the light dissipated, there was no one left. Putting away his swords and began his walk back to - Tower, his skyscraper like fortress and headquarters.
Upon reaching the front grounds it began apparent what he had missed. The entire front entrance had been blown apart, his guards lay dead all across the area. "I knew it.. Why didn't I see this? Whelan was just distracting me."
Stepping over the bodies, Zack entered the front halls. A severely injured man crawled towards him. Zack grabbed him and lifted him by his neck. "What happened here? Why was I not called?"
"S-sir, the communications.. They targeted first.. The soldiers couldn't stop them.." The man was clearly at his deathbed but Zack couldn't have cared less. "Are they still here?" Zack throttled him trying to get as much out of him as he could.
"I believe so.. I, I think they're making their way up.. Up to your main office.." The man used whatever breath he had left saying this and died in Zack's hand. He could have been easily healed by Zack's spells but Zack thought it a waste of good magic and threw the body aside.
"Still here eh? Maybe this won't be so boring." Zack reached into his pocket and took out a small ring, along the rim were the words, "Null Magicka". Zack smiled and made his way to the energy lift.
Zack smiled as he thought of what he could do to these intruders. Within these walls, no magic could be used except for by those with this ring. And this was the only one ever created.
Zack entered the energy lift and was immediately transported to his main office. Yet another advantage Zack had in this building, the lift only recognised specific personnel so while they had to fight their way up, Zack simply appeared there.
"HEY! Get over here Anth! I'm not doing this all myself you know!" Kevin screamed over the gunfire. "I'm working on it!" Anth ran across from cover to cover spraying the guards with bullets as he did, slowly making his way to Kevin. "What now?" Anth asked as he reloaded.
"Well, we've still a few floors to go through, and I've yet to figure out why you can't use your spells here.." Kevin messed with his wrist computer analyzing the layout of the building and deciding where to go.
"Right, screw it!" Anth stood up and ran out assault rifle in hand and unloaded his entire clip into the men and their cover, destroying the stone pillars and shredding the bodies of the men.
"Now, wasn't that a lot easier? Who says you need magic these days." He dropped his empty clip and slammed in a new one. "When you've got good old lead."
Kevin had to agree that was the fastest they'd cleared a room so far. Switching off his wrist pad he joined Anth and they continued their trek upwards. Only two more floors and they'd reach Zack's office, hopefully Whelan had kept Zack busy for long enough.
They stood leaning against the wall on either side of a door trying to listen in. Nothing. "Think it's clear?" Kevin whispered. "When is it ever clear? Right, three, two.." Anth spun and kicked the door in and almost the instant he had done so, gunfire already tore the door to nothing. "Whoa! Back!"
Both of them slammed back against the wall. "What now? I don't really want to go in there.." Anth checked his ammo reserves, 4 clips. "And I'm running low here."
"One second.." Kevin messed with his bag of equipment. "What are you doing?" Anth was getting impatient, those men wouldn't stay back for long. "Here." Kevin passed Anth a small spiked cube. "The hell is this?"
"Throw it and see." Kevin said with a smile, he always loved seeing his newest weapon being tested on live targets. "Huh, whatever." Anth lobbed it inside and waited for something, anything.
"Kevin, what the hell? It didn't do a thi.." Anth's voice was completely drowned out by the ear splitting screech as the cube erupted, sending small waves of electricity and spiked shrapnel in every direction.
"Didn't do anything he says.. There's barely anything left of those men now." Kevin looked quite pleased with the results. "Why didn't we use that thing sooner?" Anth muttered as he collected some ammo from the mutilated corpses.
"It's for emergencies only. I only had one." Kevin gathered his equipment and started off again alongside Anth.
"Remind me again why we're charging through this damn place?" Anth checked around each corner, not letting down his guard as he spoke. "We're trying to find out how this anti magic field works, with it, we can't do much against Zack while he's here."
"So, why are we going the whole way through the building?" Anth grunted as he kicked in another door. "Well, we don't know where or what the source is, so we need to search each floor. Most likely it will be on the top floor, Zack's main point of business."
"Great, so if he's not busy with Whelan still, then we will have to bump heads huh?" Anth sighed and thought this plan was just going to keep getting worse. "Alright, we're here." Kevin stopped, kneeled down and checked his wrist pad again.
"We're where?" Anth stood beside him, still on lookout. "Directly below the grand hall on the top floor. My idea is rather than walk on in the front door, let's just go up from here."
"Excuse me? How do we manage that?" Anth looked to Kevin, but he was walking down the corridor looking at the ceiling. "Right.. Here will do." Kevin crouched and checked his equipment again.
"What are you doing exactly?"
Zack looked to his two personal guards and gave them their orders, they were not to leave his side unless told otherwise. "We're going to go deal with these intruders before they make any more of a mess." "SIR!" Zack marched down the great hall, swords on his back.
As they reached the energy lift, the ground behind them erupted sending shards everywhere. Zack raised his cape to cover his face and when the smoke cleared, two men jumped up from the hole left in the hall.
"Who the hell do you think you are attacking me here?" Zack raised his hand and began building energy. "What? How can he cast here?" Anth shouted as he suddenly realised that if Zack can cast then their chances plummeted.
Neither of them had time to think however, as a stream fireballs rushed towards them. "Shit, move!" Kevin and Anth both dived to either side. Anth levelled his gun and let off as many shots as he could before having to jump again.
"Pointless, you'll both die here." Zack pointed his fingers to his men and then flicked his hand forward. Both men raised a hand each and cast their own spell, one lightning the other ice.
Kevin ducked under a large ice shard and shouted to Anth. "This doesn't make sense, I'm not seeing anything special about those two guards, they shouldn't be able to cast either."
"I don't really care right now, all I know is we're going to be killed here!" Anth turned and looked around, no way out except the hole they came through, and that was way too long to go back through all those floors. Zack would catch them before they got half way.
"We've gotta go Kev! Now" Anth turned and sprinted towards the large doors leading to Zack's office and kicked them in. Inside, Anth searched for a way out. "I guess this will do." He looked at the enormous windows at the back.
"T.. They're right behind me.." Kevin panted and tried to catch his breath. "What now?" Kevin asked while crouched slightly. "Now, we jump." Anth grinned and pointed to the windows.
"What? Are you nuts?" Kevin was reluctant but knew they had no other way, it was this or turn back and fight Zack. "I'll catch up." Kevin turned back to the entrance.
"Huh? We're done here, nothing else we can do. Lets go!" Anth stood alongside the windows ready to dive out. "I just need one thing." He held up his wrist pad to take a photograph of Zack. Hoping to learn something if he could scan him for any specific devices.
"Right, now I'm ready" As he lowered his pad, Zack had raced forward and was now standing less than a metre from Kevin. "You really shouldn't have ever come back here." Zack stared down at Kevin, who seemed unable to speak anymore.
"KEV!" Anth shot towards them both and unloaded all that was left of his clip in precision shots at Zack, making Zack duck back momentarily.
"C'mon man!" Anth grabbed Kevin and dashed for the windows diving straight through them. "Shit you nearly got us killed there.." They fell for several seconds before Anth was able to cast again and warped them out.
Zack stood on the edge of the shattered window and watched them go. "Curious.."