*Hello. This is my first fic. Sorry if it isn't very good. Any suggestions (spelling, grammar, errors, etc.) are welcome. My e-mail: just_a_normal_magi@hotmail.com
**The characters of Magi-Nation used in this fic belong their respective owners, Interactive Imagination. Except for some characters that I will create later (maybe). Some portions of this fic may be taken from the original fics, and if they are, they belong to their rightful owners.
***This fic takes place after Agram's third revival (yes, Tony killed him, then he revived again. How? I don't know) and after the reunion of the Core's minions (yes, the shadow magi, Morag, Nagsis, the Twins, and all the other Core magi were reunited. How? I don't know). Tony was summoned back to the Moonlands, to help them in this war. But this time, he may be unable to save them.
Anyway, enjoy. Oh, and please review it. Thank you.
CHAPTER 1
"DIE!!!"
The word echoed throughout the battlefield. Agram, the leader of the Core, stood waiting in his throne. Surrounding him, was a war between the Moonlands and his minions. The Core had a huge hole in their sky-like ceiling, an upside down, rainbow colored geyser. This geyser was an ingenious creation invented by the wise elders of the Moonlands. It acted as an alternate entrance to the Core, which was sort of in another dimension. This made the Core's defenses easily penetrated by their enemy.
"You're all going down!!" cried Stradus as beam of lights impaled several charging shryques, each crashing the magi below them. The Arderial Magi then clenched his fists, ready to send a Shockwave, which would kill any creature on the arena. He spotted a borgor, a fat, horned green nightmare creature, pounding his summoned vellup mercilessly.
"You heartless blob of green fat!! Shock—
His spell was canceled as Morag, Agram's lieutenant, appeared in front of him.
Morag was a green skinned magi (like most Core magi) in a torsoless bone armor, wearing a red hooded cloak that concealed his entire face, leaving only the narrow, slitted eyes that burned with destruction and raw power. He was also one of the Core's most powerful magi. He was a magi so powerful that he hadn't even used his legs for untold centuries; now they just dwindled away to nothing beneath his torso, only swirling darkness smoked under it now. Morag is also called "The Executor", for he has successfully decimated countless magi without any heavy exertion.
"Never insult my borgors."
With that warning, an exploding flare of darkness sent Stradus flying towards the ground. Morag's ring flashed, and two more borgors appeared. "Sever them all, my dark creatures of destruction!!" Following their master's command, they dashed forward towards their enemy but were immediately blocked by Nimbulo, the Arderial elder.
"Over my dead body, Morag," the elder dared.
"Hmph. Puny old man. Obliterate him!!" ordered Morag. His borgors smiled maliciously, forcing their silver fangs out of their jaws, displaying them to their prey. They immediately leapt to the air, despite their heavy weight and bouncing bellies. Their armored, but sharp-edged horns were pointing straight at Nimbulo, who was still hovering in the air with surprisingly, no intention of dodging the attack. As the borgors neared him with tremendous speed, without any admonition, a flash of lightning blinded the battlegrounds. "KAAAZZZZIIWWWW!!"
A lightning hyren appeared from above, its sparkling body crackled with electricity as it descended slowly above Nimbulo.
"My...borgors...my...pretty..." Morag gazed incredulously at the remains of his pretty borgors...small pieces of meatless, fatless burnt bones.
"Oh my! Where'd all that fat go?" Nimbulo mocked. His lightning hyren also seemed to be laughing awkwardly. "Has the lost of fat affected your power and courage, Morag? Hahahaha..."
"Grrr...you're not such a puny old man after all..." muttered Morag as he started to realize the underestimated power of his opponent. "Grraah!! Then you shall have to face the consequences of your insolence!! I AM the executioner!! Take this!!!" A stream of dark energy blasted from his ring.
"Hah! Executioner? Not anymore, Morag!! Lightning hyren! Thunder Streak!!" replied Nimbulo as his hyren attacked, sending out a dazzling beam of lightning to counterattack Morag's dark spell. "BZZIIWWW!!!" The streams of energy crashed and collided each other, making continuous torrents gushing out from the grueling attackers. A huge collision of energy stormed in the middle of the flooding streams, one that was of evil and the other electrifying.
"Go lightning hyren!! Blast him into oblivion!!"
"Grahahah!! I will never lose to your puny frail creature!!"
"GRRAAAAAARRRGGHH!!!!!"
* * *
Magi were crawling around in the dark and humid base of the Core. Eye-blinding spells were being cast frequently not just to aid their creatures that were smashing, slashing, skewering, trampling, destroying, demolishing, and terrorizing, but also to eliminate or counter opposing offenses. This gruesome war could be evidently, one of the most devastating battles in the Moonlands' history.
In the center of the war was a fortress basically made out of stone and iron, though most of it was made out of bones and skulls of majestic beasts. Glowing mutant fungi that grew on the rotten bones of the structure are what provide a fade green light for the inhabitants of the Core. Now, the glowing fungi have become useless, for lit torches and flashing fireballs were doing its job.
* * *
In the southeast corner of the battlefield, Lanyx, a Cald shadow magi, was confronting his former boss, Barak of the Cald.
"Barak!! How nice of you to drop by. How is the Cald doing? Very bad, I assume," insulted Lanyx. He then summoned his core grags, his favorite creatures. "You're gonna regret not handing over the throne to me! With the Core's darkness surrounding me, my powers are truly greater than you, Barak!!"
"......" Barak said nothing, and expressed nothing.
"How dare you say nothing!!" said the angry Lanyx. "You're gonna regret doing that!"
In a muffled and slothful way, Barak muttered, "Doesn't this fool have any other word to say? Regret, hahahahaha..."
"What did you say!?" spat Lanyx.
"Oh! You heard that? Impressive how you can, in this war environment...with the noise and everything...and with that tarnished helmet on..."
"How dare you insult my helmet!" said Lanyx as he touched his steel helmet, checking to see if Barak was right. "See!? My helmet is so antiseptic and so shiny you can see your thick eyebrows in it!! Hahahahahaa!!" Lanyx laughed, but it sounded like cackles in the helmet, so hard and so loud, the war actually stopped and everything was silent. The entire battlefield was staring at him.
"Hahahahahaha...hahaha...haha...hah...haa..............................WHAT??" Pretending that nothing happened, the war continued.
Barak then laughed, "You are such a disgrace to a region! Hahahaha!! What an embarrassment to the Core!! Hahahahahahaa..." With that said, Barak turned and walked away from Lanyx, hoping to find someone or something worthy enough to be destroyed.
"Where do you think you're going, Barak?!! Are you a coward?!!" yelled the now frustrated Lanyx. Barak ignored Lanyx and continued walking away.
"You'll regret this!! Core grags!! Firestorm!!!" Lanyx had now lost his temper as he sent his core grags to attack Barak. They exploded behind him, turning from purple-green, indescribable creatures to a swarm of raining, blazing flames of fireballs. Barak still kept on walking, knowing that the fireballs were closing in on him.
"You are a fool, Barak!" thought Lanyx as the fireballs exploded in front of Barak. The explosion was so intense that even Lanyx felt hot behind his caged helmet. "Hahahahahaha!!" laughed Lanyx as he celebrated what he thought, his victory. As the explosion weakened, thin puffs of gray smoke appeared. Lanyx stood in disbelief as he saw Barak's shadow still standing. And the flames that surrounded Barak were even bigger than before.
When the smokes disappeared, Barak grinned and said, "Did you think you're the only one with power surrounding you?" Lanyx didn't understand what Barak said but did when he saw the entire Cald army behind Barak. Lifted staffs and relics were seen by Lanyx. They had created a shield for Barak, meaning Lanyx had wasted his beloved core grags.
"Aaaargghhh!!! Curse you Barak!!" Then he heard a voice, which he knew quite well.
"Goodbye, Lanyx." It was Grega, a female Calder who rejected Lanyx's proposal when he was still in the Cald. And with that farewell, a Thermal Blast sparked out from her ring and flew towards Lanyx.
"Noooo...Grega!! Please!! Not that again...!! Aaarrrrrggghhhh..." Lanyx had been blasted by this spell a few times before, and he didn't like it at all.
"BOOOOOOOOMMM!!"
Well, that was one shadow magi. The other Core magi including the corrupting Nagsis, the executing Morag and even the feared Dark Twins had their own problems. The Core was facing 10 regions each commanded by their elders. And the elders were all united and led by one Earthling, one ordinary citizen, one normal boy, Tony Jones, but called The Great Magus Kyros by the Moonlands. He is said to be the savior of the Moonlands. He will save them all from the Core's evilness. He will mortalize Agram once and for all. But Agram doesn't think he will.
Agram's eyes were taken by the Core for seeing the secrets of the darkness. A brown colored blindfold covers his now empty eye sockets, for it occasionally emits a blinding flash of purple light. He wore a weird looking piece of armor, which was quite hard to describe. A round metal plate, which looked like a big red lion eye, was stuck across his chest, the upper part of the armor. The torso was blue and muscular shaped, with gold lines of steel grilled at the sides. Two black, huge, horn shaped shoulder plates were attached to the upper sides of the armor, followed by a pair of gold-embraced steel gauntlets, which he wore on his arms and hands. A long brown robe covered the armor he wore on his legs and feet, swaying back and forth as Agram walked. His past is unknown, but he was said to once have been a normal magi like the others. But the Core chose him to lead its underlings to their goal of world corruption, and he is forced to. He became the Core and the Core became him. This war was said to be the final decisive battle as said in the legend (or at least everyone thinks it is) :
One day, a boy shall unite the Moonlands,
saving them from the Core's evilness and cruelty.
One day, a war shall erupt between good and evil,
the answerless 'when' leaves everyone with curiosity.
One day, a victor will triumph over its achievement,
leaving the vanquished defeated suffering with triviality.
For it will be either the Great Magus or the Core,
who will gain control of the Moonlands for eternity.
Now, Agram waits patiently in his throne room, for the boy in the legend. The Core was getting very unstable at this moment, for almost all the Core magi have been defeated.
Fast footsteps were heard by Agram, and he instantaneously knew it was Korg and Zet, two little boisterous, pesky lackeys of his.
"Master, master!!" they called for Agram.
"Master!! All our magi have been defeated! Their closing in on us!! reported Zet, the shorter of the two.
Korg, the larger but more dull-witted of the two, interrupted, "Hey, Zet! What about the Dark Tw—
Korg stopped his words when he saw Zet's weird facial expression which meant:
"Don't tell him, you idiot! Remember the present Warrada (the female of the Twins) was going to give us?!" [the Dark Twins, Warrada and Hrada, had actually fled out of the Core (looks like it), after being literally pulverized by the Naroom, the region which the twins tried to take over before this]
"Oh...haha…uhh...yeah! Right, Zet! All of our magi have been defeated!! Hahahaha…" Korg saw another weird expression on his partner's face. This time his left eyebrow was slightly higher and the nostrils were opened way wider than before, which meant:
"How many times do I have to tell you?! Never repeat what I said or you'll blow it!!"
"Oh...haha...uh...uhh...umm...what AM I supposed to say then?!!"
"You don't HAVE to say anything!!"
"But it'll look obv—
Korg's sentence didn't finish as Agram began to growl, which was a thing all Core magi were afraid of.
"KORG!! ZET!!" shouted Agram. "Aaahh!!...aa..y..yy..yess?" both of them stammered in fear.
"Any sign of Kyros?" asked Agram. "Uhh..nn.no," they were still shaking.
Suddenly, "BBRRAAGGHHSSHHH!!!" A gigantic boulder went through the door of Agram's throne room, whacking the carved steel door to the floor, flying past Korg's head, and finally whamming the wall at the end of the room. It was T'lok, a Kybar's Teeth magi who just loved throwing gigantic rocks. Moreover, he liked seeing people try to catch them.
"Anyone caught that?"
A few seconds later, the floor began to shake and out of it suddenly crawled out an Underneath magi with sharp, thick digging claws. And after that, the ceiling began to crumble as pieces of rocks started to fall down. "BRROOMMM!!" A hole appeared in the ceiling, and a fleet of Arderial magi came swooping down into the room.
"There you are." said the elders of the 10 regions as they gathered around Agram. Korg and Zet had already fled, abandoning their surrounded leader with his guests.
"Let me take him!!" said a Kybar's Teeth warrior, Kyg'n.
"I wanna take him down!! yelled the insanely brave Naroom magi, Woot.
"Let him taste the heat of my boomstick!" said Ashgar, an old Calder.
"I'll slash him to shreds!!" said Gogor, an underneath magi.
"My Ice Hyren will freeze him to death!!" a Nar magi said as he patted his Ice Hyren's freezing furry body.
With everyone having their own methods of attacking, they all stormed at Agram. The room was rumbling as if there were gargagnors in there, huge creatures that were actually mountains.
"YAAAARRRRGGHH!!!!!" Everyone, except the sane regional elders were all close to sending their first attack when suddenly…
"GHAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Huge flows of dark energy flooded out of Agram. The whole room was engulfed in "Crushing Darkness", a Core spell that could crush (obviously) non-Core beings. The energy blasts blasted everyone in sight. No one was defending against it, no one could.
With another deafening cry, Agram let out another surge of energy blasts.
"GHRRRRAAAAAAWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
This time, it sent the entire fortress down. Rocks and debris were flying all over the place and everyone was too hurt to even try to escape. A huge stone plate from the ceiling came down and it was falling onto an injured Tryn, Barak's lover from Naroom.
"Hellpp!!! Barak!!!" cried Tryn. Ignoring all pain from falling rocks and Crushing Darkness, Barak ran as fast as he could to save her. He saw Tryn and immediately fired a huge fireball from his enormous palms.
"Tryn!!!" warned Barak. Tryn heard his voice and quickly covered herself with her arms. "BBGGGRRRRRSSSHHHH!!" The fireball exploded as it hit the falling stone plate. Barak then reached her and immediately covered her with his huge arms and armored body, receiving all the pain that was supposed to hit Tryn.
"Barak…"
"Tryn…"
The whole structure collapsed. The walls crushed each other, the floors compressed and creased, the ceilings fell down like huge flat meteors, rocks, bones, creatures, Crushing Darkness and magi were flying all over the place. Some got skewered by the energy blasts, some got hit by raining rocks, some fell to the ground head first...it was truly a horrible and painful sight.
The stone fortress had now become nothing more but a pile of rubble. Neither a creature nor magi could be seen, for huge pieces of rocks had fallen onto them, some just covering, some injuring and some killing. Suddenly, rocks from the center of the pile began shaking. Dark purple light blasted out from the cracks in the rocks, shining and crushing the rocks that covered it. Slowly, the stones cracked and finally exploded. What was standing in the center of the pile of rocks was now Agram. His whole green body was surrounded by the Core's darkness, the Core's power.
"Where are you, KYROS?!!" he bellowed. His patience was starting to reach its utmost limit.
Several other colored lights started to crawl out of the crevices. Blue lights freed the Orothe elder, Mobis. Red freed Barak, who was still holding Tryn in his arms. Green freed Orwin from the Naroom. Yellow freed Zaya from the Weave. Orange colored lights revealed M'lady Iyori, the emissary to Paradwyn. The regional elders were all alive but severely injured, so were a few other magi from their regions. Most of the magi were found trapped inside the huge piles of rocks, and most were fatally crushed by them.
"We all defeated his Core Magi, but why can't we even TOUCH him?!" the Kybar's Teeth elder, Targ'n said.
Mobis, who was sort of the smartest of the elders replied, "Only Kyros can, Targ'n. You never listen to the legends, do you?"
"Legends, legends. I think they're all liars! I will prove it to you!! We don't need legends to help us!!" said the Kybar's Teeth elder as he dreamed up a gigantic mountain-like creature, a greater gargagnor. It came down with an earthquake that made everybody fall down except Agram who was floating in the darkness.
"This mountain will be your grave, Core leader!!" Targ'n ordered his greater garganor forward and it charged towards Agram. The other elders were astonished with Targ'n's abnormal behavior.
"Targ'n you fool! You've seen what he's done!! warned Orwin, the Naroom elder.
"I don't care!! Nothing can stop this invincible mountain from charging!!!"
The greater gargagnor charged at full speed, running with each step thundering the grounds of the Core. Agram held his hands in front of him, and out came a discharge of dark corrupting energy. It hit the storming gargagnor, and gradually, it stopped charging. It stood still in front of Agram.
"Haha!!! See?!! Nothing can destroy my mountain!!!" proved Targ'n. "Go gargagnor!! Bury him to the ground!!!" Targ'n didn't sound like himself at all. He usually thinks rationally like an elder, but instead, he has been acting like a mindless warrior.
The gargagnor still stood in front of Agram. Slowly, it turned to Targ'n. Its eyes were flashing purple in the cracks of its mountain body.
"It has been corrupted!! Nothing would destroy it now, right Targ'n?!" said Mobis as he started to run like the other magi. The gargagnor was now walking towards Targ'n, with its now corrupted soul, it was under Agram's control.
Targ'n couldn't believe it. Of course nothing could make a mountain fall, surely, but what about the inner body, the heart of the Gargagnor, the internal body of the mountain? The core, the heart, it could change...and it did.
"Nn..nnooo..NOOO!!!" Targ'n cried.
"Get outta there you fool!!" Gia the Weave seer yelled at Targ'n. The three hundred foot tall mountain was now standing in front of him, waiting for its new master's orders.
A purple light flashed in Agram's empty eye sockets, behind the piece of cloth he wore to obscure them. "Kill him," he whispered.
The greater gargagnor lifted its hands, leaving small rocks and sand flying all over Targ'n. "Kill him" was what the Gargagnor heard, and also what it was going to do. It let its huge hands that were now fists of rocks flying towards Targ'n. He jumped out of his spot as the ground was crushed by the mountain's 60 feet in diameter fists. The creature then leapt forward, flying towards Targ'n. It was going to turn him into a pancake, only the syrup was red in color. Targ'n was hopeless, for the mountain was 300 feet tall and 200 feet wide; its shadow covered everywhere that could be seen. This would mean the end for him.
The Kybar's Teeth elder closed his eyes, ready to accept his fate.
"What's he thinking?! This isn't like Targ'n at all!!" said Kazm, a winged Kybar's Teeth magi. "Can't he cast a Rockslide or something?!"
"What a fool I am. A disgrace to my tribe. Unworthy to be elder."
The Moonlands' gravity hastened the gargagnor's fall, increasing the strength of the impact it would make. Targ'n's death was but a few seconds away, when suddenly…
"KRRAAAAAGGBOOOOOOMMM!!!"
Flaming fireballs burst from the inside of the gargagnor, scattering huge chunks of rocks and trees into the air. The whole place shook. Every living magi was deafened by the sound of the large explosion. It was so immense and chaotic, that the Core sounded like it was grumbling, muttering, crying, and finally Agram heard it...screaming. The explosion wasn't a normal one, it was a holy explosion, a Cleansing explosion. Cleansing spells could purify all that was evil to good. Only this one didn't purify, it destroyed the corrupted gargagnor. Agram's body wasn't surrounded by darkness anymore, for the blinding lights created by the Cleansing engulfed all darkness in the heart of the Core.
"Kyrosss..." the Core whispered in Agram's heart.
As the lighting explosion gradually faded, the Core's darkness swirled over Agram again and so it did to the rest of the Core. The gargagnor, in the other hand, had vanished, leaving only pieces of rock and sand beside the lifelessly lying Targ'n.
"Targ'n!!" Appearing out of the darkness, the long awaited Tony Jones came running into the scene. He wore a red, hooded long-sleeved shirt, followed by a pair of light-colored, baggy trousers which had four army pockets sewn at the sides. His long yellow hair flew lightly behind him, accompanied by his dangling sideburns which tickled his ears as he ran.
"Targ'n! Are you...!!" Tony kneeled in front of the lying elder. The other magi came running towards him too.
"Kyros! What took you so long?!" asked Gia.
"Sorry, I got a little occupied by the Bograthians." replied Tony. Bograth was a region, and the only region, that allied with the Core. This is because it was ruled by a "Magnificent, Illustrious, and Ruthless" Core emperor, All-High King Korg (yes, Korg).
"I don't understand. It was a perfect hit. Cleansing spells don't affect non-Core magi." He was sure the Cleansing spell he cast affected only evil and corrupted creatures. "Even its explosion avoids from hitting non-Core beings."
"Is he..." sniffed Grej, a female Kybar's Teeth magi.
"I...think so," replied Tony unbelievingly.
"Nnoooo...our tribe chief—
She started crying when suddenly a black beam of darkness darted past her, missing a few inches from her head. "Eeeeeekkkk!!"
"Puny mortals," Agram said as he appeared near them. Near enough for a duel. He dreamed up a core hyren, a huge nightmare creature which was entirely made out of bones of other dead hyrens. It screeched and flapped its wings vigorously, sending the magi in front of it flying past the others.
"Stop it, Agram! It's me you want! Not them!" yelled Tony. "Are you ready to be defeated again?!" He ordered the other magi to get out of the way, for this battle's result was going to be the fate of the Moonlands.