Chapter 2: The Warrior fights the Mage's Might

After two cold endless hours trapped in the gazebo, the darkness finally let up. Drawnem dismissed the shield and levitated the orb around the roof and back down onto the pedestal. Naknud looked at his kingdom. At least, he looked at what was once was his kingdom, for now it was nothing but sand. Naknud felt himself sink into despair as he thought of all of the wonderful lives now gone.

"But," he thought to himself. "It was for the greater good. Too often have countries risen and fallen. Too often has humanity stepped back when it was so close from reaching its peak. The good kings of the past were mortal and could not live to stop the greed and indifference of future kings. But today is when that pattern falls. No longer will human progress wax and wane. From now on it will be as constant as the North Star and I will be at the wheel, navigating humanity to greatness."

Reminding himself of his goal, Naknud regained some composure. Drawnem, on the other hand, was busy at the orb. He moved the two jeweled boxes on either side of the orb and connected copper wires from the pedestal to the boxes. To tap into the orb's energy, he decided to cast a Searing Light spell. So he took out his diamond pouch, reached into it and pulled out two diamonds. Usually, he didn't need much help for such a spell. But in order to unlock the orb now, with its newly stored matter, it would need a tremendous amount of energy. Drawnem prepared the spell in his head then looked towards Naknud "I suggest you close your eyes and look away."

Drawnem then placed a darkness spell around his eyes and began to cast Searing Light. The amount of light was so intense that even though he was turned away, Naknud still needed to close his eyes against the intense reflexive glow of the silicon sand. When it was over, Drawnem dismissed his darkness spell to reveal a now transparent orb.

Drawnem turned to Naknud. "These boxes contain the power to become immortal. Each box contains one half of all of the matter in your kingdom. So whenever you lose an arm or a leg they will grow back using your stored matter. You also may survive a very long period of time without eating or drinking, but if you use up all of your matter you will have to replenish your stores by performing the ritual again. Your stores also contain half of the souls of your kingdom. For every time you die you consume a human soul to maintain your own soul. Luckily, I only extracted human souls from Revenda, otherwise you probably would be polymorphing into trees and rats every time you died."

"So, I would not truly be immortal" said Naknud with obvious disappointment.

"True, but based on Revenda's populace of about 700,000 you would have about 350,000 lives. Even if you died every day you would live for about a thousand years."

Satisfied by the amount of power he was about to have, Naknud nodded. "So, when are we going to open these boxes?"

"Well for starters, the boxes must be opened at the same time. I don't know how intense the immortality conversion is. It may be that one person's conversion may interfere with the other person's conversion. So that is why we should be situated on either side of the gazebo, just to be safe."

Naknud, not knowing such complicated magical procedures, believed Drawnem.

"Are we ready?" called out Drawnem from across the Gazebo.

"Ready," Naknud hollered back.

"O.K. On 'one' we open them." Drawnem reached into his pocket and grabbed his wand of lightning. "Three."

"Wait," thought Naknud. His battle senses were tingling, looking behind him he saw Drawnem also turned away from him. Drawnem, however, was not preparing to open the box but was reaching into one of his pockets. Naknud expected as much. Drawnem would only reach into his pockets to cast a spell, and in all likelihood he wasn't casting a spell that would preserve his king's life. Naknud sprinted for his sword on the Gazebo bench, cursing himself for not following the number one rule of a warrior, "Never leave your sword behind."

"Two ," Drawnem pulled out his wand and prepared to zap Naknud with a million volts of electricity, but when he turned around, instead of next to his box, Naknud was quickly approaching his sword. "By, Bahamut's breath!" Drawnem cursed. Drawnem pointed his wand at Naknud and fired. Electricity exploded from his wrist but Naknud snatched his magical sword and turned towards Drawnem. The lightning bolt arced and encased Naknud's sword in a fury of electrical sparks. Naknud, who had spent a quarter of his treasury on his sword, was happy about his previous investment and then charged at Drawnem, his sword surrounded by mad, restless sparks of electricity. Drawnem, acting on instinct, cast a teleportation spell and landed on top of the Gazebo roof. Not knowing any other lethal spells, Drawnem quickly took out his diamond pouch and began casting an Inter-dimensional Gateway. Naknud quickly looked around the desert horizon until he heard footsteps on the roof. He then dashed outside to see Drawnem hurrying to finish his spell.

Knowing that the completion of Drawnem's spell would probably be the end of him, Naknud reached his left arm out towards Drawnem while pulling his sword back with his right.

"Hextor, grant me your strength." Naknud then threw his sword and it twirled through the air. Drawnem had just finished his summoning spell when a large piece of metal twirled toward him and promptly separated his left hand from his body. The diamond along with his hand tumbled off the gazebo roof.

"Nooooooo!" screamed Drawnem.

Interruption:

Wizard Fact Number 1

When a wizard casts a spell, that spell costs a certain amount of energy. An easy spell like levitating a feather costs a relatively small amount of energy from the spell caster. However, a large spell like an Inter-dimensional Gateway will require more energy than a spellcaster can usually handle. In order to be able to exert large amounts of energy, a spellcaster usually carries along with him or her, his or her own energy. Energy can be transferred into physical objects. This can be explained by the five laws of energy expenditure, or the Magical Value Laws.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed.Energy can be transferred into physical objects.Value can be traded for energy.Value of an object is arbitrary and is based off of the transaction between energy and object.Energy or objects expended by a spell are not destroyed but lost to the user forever.

Example: Anarack paints for a living and creates a painting within a week. Anarack has transferred a week's worth of energy into a painting. Anarack did not create energy, rather, he transferred energy from the food he eats to himself and then to the painting. Later, a noble buys the painting for a gold coin. The gold coin is now worth a week's worth of energy. The noble could have paid the painter a hundred gold coins. If so, the hundred gold coins would now be worth a week's worth of energy. (One of those hundred gold coins would be worth a hundredth of a week's worth of energy.) If Anarack was also a spellcaster, he could cast a spell that would create a painting. In order to obtain the energy he needs, he uses his newly acquired gold coin to cast the spell. His spell now has the power of a week's worth of energy. He could make seven paintings that would take a day to make or he could make one painting that would take a week to make. Once Anarack casts his spell, however, that gold coin is then disintegrated right down to its atoms and is scattered across the universe.

"Nooooooo!" screamed Drawnem. Without the diamond, his spell would not have a sufficient energy source. Quickly, Drawnem searched his pouch with his one hand. Just as he expected, there were no more diamonds and there was no more hope. Already Drawnem began to feel weak as the spell began to take its toll. It was sapping his energy like a hungry mosquito, sucking his essence into oblivion. His arms felt weak and his legs buckled right from under him. Tumbling and rolling, Drawnem fell off the roof with a lifeless thud. His brain began to fog and his heart began to slow.

'thu –thump' beat his heart "I may have been defeated," thought Drawnem. "but not even Naknud can kill me so easily." 'thu-thump'. Drawnem heard the crunching of sand and a shadow spilled over him as Naknud approached.

"Your majesty," whispered Drawnem. "Your ambitions are similar to mine, but mine are grander. As you take your immortality." 'thu-thump'. "Just know, that once I come back." 'Thu-thump.' "Everything you build will be for naught. The world will be mine and mine only." 'thu-thump' stopped his heart. A disk of light appeared off in the distance.