Thanks for the reviews by Ssp47 and Striker (again). You are now my number two reviewer! On to the chapter, oh! And by the way, Dart is now in his 'evil mode' and Lavitz, Nimbulo, and Shana are at Neen's Palace.



Ch.29: The Black Tower



"It's obviously taking out its anger on Neen" Nimbulo stated

"I would too, if I was held up like that for thousands maybe more years than that" Shana agreed

Lavitz stayed silent and started to fly away from the two. "Let's just do this." he muttered

The smoke started to get worse and the Dragoons had to hold their breath for quite a while. Nimbulo was the smartest one and got to the ground when he couldn't breathe. Lavitz and Shana got the idea, but something puzzled them all. How were they supposed to attack when Omega was in the air? Smoke was covering the air.

"Screw it. I'm holding my breath. When I need air, I'll get it" Lavitz abandoned them

He flew into the palace boundaries and found Omega just tearing the place apart. It was kind of sad, in a way, but not really. He grabbed his spear and got ready for Omega.

Nimbulo and Shana soon followed and caught up with Lavitz. Nimbulo drew his weapon and Shana took out her blades. They were dull in the billowing smoke.

"This is going to be tough" she figured

"Enough talk! LET'S GO!" Nimbulo commanded

Shana started off with some magic. Her Celestial Blast hit Omega and knocked it off balance. She was the distraction. She then flew up, making Omega chase her. It picked its feet like things off the ground and followed her. Shana stopped in mid-air. She turned around when she was high enough, and got her Starflash Slash ready. Her blades started to glow blue, just as the Sentry's did when Dart and her fought him. The slightest glimpse of darkness appeared, and Shana flew down, her magic blades were just waiting to be slashed.

"STARLIGHT SLASH!"

She went down and landed on Omega's back and slashed away, the blue glow became a blue flame and she drove one of her blades into Omega's torso. The result was a huge roar in pain. Satisfied, she had become cocky. She turned around to be knocked down to the ground from a thrash.

Lavitz and Nimbulo had already been flying up, ready for a physical assault. Lavitz flew faster, not wanting to be next to Nimbulo for fear that Omega would knock them both out. Nimbulo, not offended and understanding, slowed his flight a little.

Lavitz started in by stabbing and whacking Omega in various places. He had to keep moving to stay alive.

"Big things move slow" he uttered

He kept on doing this for a couple of minutes, and decided to use some magic. He spun his spear around his chest, and then locked his arms out to his sides, his wings doing the same (his arms are out, like how you measure a wingspan).

"GASPLESS!" he yelled

He rushed down, struck the ground, and immediately, a kind of crack formed in the earth. Wind burst from out of it, and then exploded onto Omega. The being recovered quickly, and with Lavitz in its sights, Omega was about to thrash down on Lavitz when suddenly.

"ICE BEAM!"

Omega was knocked back, and Lavitz was saved by Nimbulo. Nimbulo rushed past Lavitz and then went all out on Omega. The darkness fell to the desolate ground, for the first time.

"To the Black Tower!" Nimbulo ordered

"Yeah! But where is Shana?!" Lavitz questioned

"I don't know, but we must go find her!"

They searched around for a few minutes, before Omega got up, and found Shana. She was just barely breathing.

"Carry her" Nimbulo commanded

They flew on past Neen's Palace and the desolate lands of the Forbidden Land. Soon, grasslands started to emerge as they had flown farther. There seemed to be no danger, so they landed, got out of Dragoon form, and walked. Lavitz took the time to look at the sights of Orth.

He looked to the east to find the end range of the Eastern Mountains. He looked north to see a forest that they were coming up to. When he glanced west, where they had came from, he could see the fiery blaze, and billowing smoke coming from Neen's Palace. South was actually the most beautiful thing he had seen in awhile. There was an ocean, that seemed to flow on forever, and then there were birds that flew over it. It was hard to take his eyes off of the scene.

"Come on, we have to go to that forest, I think the Black Tower lies in there" Nimbulo directed

"Right" Lavitz replied

They transformed and started to fly into the forest. When they arrived inside, they could practically smell the magic. This was not a safe place to be a Dragoon.

"I get a feeling that we shouldn't be Dragoons here, the magic is too strong" Lavitz suggested

"Yeah, me too" Nimbulo agreed, tuning human.

Shana suddenly stirred in Lavitz's arms. He set her down on the floor of the forest, and let her wake up.

"I'm not.dead" she uttered

"Nope, your not, but we are in a forest, away from Omega. So, are you up enough to keep going?" Nimbulo asked politely

"Yeah" she stood

They wandered through the magical forest, weapons drawn in case of emergency. When Nimbulo looked around, it seemed like the forest was playing tricks on them. When he looked back, they had not been walking for five minutes, and it looked as if they were there forever.

"Lavitz, this is a little too weird." Nimbulo whispered

"Well yeah, think, this land we are stepping on is forbidden. The forest obviously has a mind of its own, and doesn't like us running around in here" Lavitz pointed out

"True."

It was no surprise that wherever they went, that path changed. The forest was an easy place to get lost in. They were bent on giving up, when suddenly a rustle in the bushes startled Shana. She turned around, and checked the bush, but nothing was there. Then, as if on cue, another noise came from atop of a tree. All three of the Dragoons stood or knelt in a ready position, leaving their minds clear. They focused on nothing but the sounds.

"Who are you?!" a voice demanded

"We should be asking you that buddy," Lavitz said sarcastically

"That is none of your business, you are walking on MY grounds; now who are you?" the voice demanded again

"Fine, it seems you are stubborn enough to do this all day.My name is Nimbulo, and this is Shana, the man who was speaking to your earlier is Lavitz"

"Ah, I see.what business do you have here?" the voice still didn't reveal itself

"We are-'' Nimbulo was cut off by Lavitz

"Maybe, we shouldn't tell what we are doing.it could be an enemy" Lavitz whispered

"We are travelers just wandering" Nimbulo continued

"Well, here is not a good place to be traveling, on the count of the world is going to be destroyed" the voice told them, in a causal tone

"It knows." Shana whispered

"How do you know? About the destruction of the world?" Lavitz asked

"It's obvious.the storms the fire.the darkness." the voice went on "Now is time you revealed yourself, it would help greatly because we are not travelers, we are the last hope for Orth." Nimbulo stated

The voice jumped down from a tree, and landed near the group. They could see the voice came from a tall blond. He had short hair like Lavitz's and wore a purple robe. His eyes were gray and his skin was not too pale. On the side of his belt, he had a pouch full of something, and in his hands was a staff about a meter in length. There was a purple orb at the end of it, and the staff kind of had roots that made it, like the Dragon Block Staff.

"My name is Dragoness" Dragoness told them

"Pleased to meet you" Shana introduced

"You too, now you say you are the last hopes for Orth. In legend it says that you must be Dragoons, or no power like the one you bear on your chests would ever be placed upon you"

"Yes, we are the Dragoons of legend, there are more of us, but we needed to separate to fulfill the quest" Nimbulo revealed

"I see, Omega draws awake fast, you must get to the Black Tower quickly." Dragoness insisted "I shall guide you for I know the way, and since I am the only Mage who knows who to make the Tower emerge, I shall be with you every step of the way"

"I don't know, should we let him?" Lavitz asked Nimbulo

"Yes, we should, and it looks like he uses Thunder magic, so he could be useful." Nimbulo agreed

"Now, let's go." Dragoness led them

Dart changed his course to southwest, and went against the wind. Southwest was going the very opposite direction of the White Tower. His eyes were still red, and his mind was taken over by the evil side of him. The good part of Dart's mind knew that he was the summoner who could seal Omega. He was just like Neen. This was Magi's power; to enter the Dark Realm or open it up, or close it. His next stop wasn't the White Tower. it was Omega.

"So Dragoness.what is the difference between a Mage and a Magi?" Lavitz asked

Dragoness stopped dead in his tracks as he heard the question.

"Never speak that word in this forest. The difference is that I use magic that is anything but dark. The other one is just dark magic, as you can see I use thunder, my magic of choice. The others use their magic for opening the Dark Realm. They can also close it, or enter it and choose who shall enter with them" Dragoness replied

"But since our friend Dart is an M-A-G-I, then does that mean he can use his magic for evil?" Shana asked

"He will only use it for evil, unless the good in his mind can overcome him from being one of the others." Dragoness trailed off

"Or maybe." Nimbulo thought "Maybe the small part of good in his head can use the power to overcome the evil, but use it also.if we were smart, we would be going back to Omega. But that's just me"

Lavitz noticed Nimbulo's thinking face. "Thinking about something?"

"No, nothing"

Dragoness led them through twists and turns of the forest. If they were walking straight froward for two minutes tops, Dragoness would make them side step, and walk straight that way.

"Why are we walking like this?" Shana whined

"Because this is the trick to the forest, you can't walk in one spot for a long time, or it will change on you" Dragoness replied

"Oh." she answered

Suddenly, Dragoness stopped at he sight of something that looked like a portal in the ground. The top was a light blue swirly color and it stood on a very small stand that supported the entire portal. When they all approached, Lavitz took out the Black Dagger, and then it glowed. The portal turned black with the dagger and Dragoness muttered some words that were incapable of knowledge to the three Dragoons. Then, he took some powder out of the pouch, and spread it over the portal.

The ground started to shake and a black beam of energy rose up to the sky and through the clouds. The birds flew away, and the creatures scattered. Electricity beams started grow around the beam, and then the beam stopped. The energy disappeared and the Black Tower stood in front of them.

"The Black Tower.at your service" Dragoness joked

"Time to get up!" Lavitz transformed

"Lavitz!" Nimbulo yelled

He tried to fly up but got nowhere because as soon as his feet left the ground, a huge green shockwave knocked him down.

"This is a no fly zone" Shana scolded

Nimbulo looked away and gazed at the tower. It stood tall, and proud. Evil pulsed all around it, but it had a good purpose to serve.

"Let's take the stairs." Nimbulo proposed

They walked into the black door, and soon saw a staircase leading to the top. They took it, and soon reached the top. The top was like a stone balcony with four clear sides and a roof. The storm had stopped momentarily. But as soon as they reached the top, it started to rain with seemingly no end.

From the top of the tower, they could see the Minos Hills to the west. East was land unbeknownst to man. It was mostly just mountains. North was the Forbidden Sea. Farther north was the Proba Forest that stretched all the way to the White Sea but they couldn't see that. Southwest was the blazing fire of Neen's Palace, and supposedly.Omega.

"What the.OMEGA IS GONE!" Lavitz announced