Disclaimer: Yawn...I don't own Golden Sun or any of the characters.
Chapter V
- Alex -
The sky was taking in the colors of the four elemental beacons more rapidly now. Alex could almost see each beam emitted by the lighthouses closing in at the peak of Mt. Aleph where if he did not hurry, he would miss the time of the elemental conjunction, the rise of the golden sun, his call to infinite power.
His arms were aching from the strenuous climb over Mt. Aleph's unforgiving cliffs and his stamina was quickly running out.
"Only...a few more...feet!" Alex huffed as he reached for the next crack in the rock that would give him the support he needed to lift himself upward. "Immortality is just...a few more...feet away!"
A deafening hum pierced Alex's ears as he saw the first of the four beams wrap its magnificent tail around Mt. Aleph's peak. He lost his grip in one hand as the second beam passed only inches away from his face and conjoined with the first. His natural human strength was gone and he could feel his remaining hand slipping as he hung there suspended beneath his destination.
"I will not let this mountain get in my way!" Alex shouted as he swung his body around to get a firm grip with his loose hand. The third beam flew by him and finally his adrenaline kicked in. With one desperate concentration of arm power, he launched himself upward to grab hold of the edge where he slowly lifted his body onto the flat surface of Mt. Aleph's summit. Alex stood up and laughed as he lifted his hands skyward awaiting for the final mergence of the remaining elemental beam. Mere seconds later, the final beam joined with the others and as they intertwined and danced around the mountain, a golden light began to surround Alex. Soon all he could see was the glow of the golden sun.
"Alchemy!" Alex screamed madly. "The time has come for you to embrace your master!"
"Alchemy will never bow down to you, Alex," a voice thundered from above.
The crazed young man looked up to see a one-eyed monster float slowly down beside him. "Who...."
"I am the Wise One," the mysterious being answered him.
Alex smiled in recognition. "Ah yes, I remember you. You must be the guardian of Vale who interfered with my operation to steal the elemental stars from the Sol Sanctum," he said almost in a snicker. "I must apologize for your inevitable failure in preventing me from attaining the power of the ages."
"This power that you speak if will never be yours," The Wise One informed him.
"Speak of?" Alex said in surprise, "I just got it. Eternal life, endless power, it is all mine now."
Alex turned his back to the Wise One and raised his hands once more. "Nature is now under my dominion, Wise One and I will show you just how mistaken you are. Storms upon Vale! Let them be the first to see me display what true power really is!"
Alex laughed and raised his hands even higher as he waited a few seconds for something to happen. He was not greeted with storms or cataclysms, but by utter silence.
"Even though your power has greatly increased by absorbing the light of your golden sun," the Wise one said, "you still retain significant boundaries...just like every other human being."
"You're wrong," Alex laughed in disbelief still raising his hands waiting for the first lightning bolt to strike the town below him.
"Your psynergy may be a little bit stronger," the Wise One continued, "and your life is almost endless, but nevertheless Alex, you are not omnipotent."
Alex's fury was reaching its climax as he lowered his hands and faced the Wise One. "Then maybe I will just have to make due with what I've got," he said staring maliciously into the stone cyclops's massive eye.
"You will fail in my opposition, Alex," The Wise One told him, "and you will fail in the opposition of all those whom you are trying to oppress."
"Mere superstition Wise One, again you are mistaken, "Alex casually informed him. "I have no desire to oppress anybody. I just want the power...the possibility."
"Power ultimately corrupts those who behold it," The Wise One said. "And no matter what your intentions are Alex, its beckoning possibility will only grow more provocative. An eternity lived by such repressed indulgement is the looming gateway to certain death. You can't escape it Alex, no one can. And as long as you retain your mortality, I urge you to be content."
"But I am already immortal!" Alex screamed echoing his fury across the sky. "All the lighthouses were lit, all the beams converged upon Mt. Aleph's summit, I was here before they all formed the golden sun, I should be...."
Alex paused to consider the missing variable causing the string of his unfortunate events. The Wise One continued to point his cold one-eyed stare in his direction as if waiting to feast upon the realization of his folly.
"I should be...," Alex repeated lost in his thoughts and his doubts.
"I saw the golden..."
"I got the..."
"The stone......no..."
"So you finally understand?" the Wise One asked.
"The Stone of the Sages," Alex murmured slowly. "It didn't appear."
"Correct," The Wise One said confirming Alex's tragic suspicions. "The golden sun you thought to have experienced was not the golden sun at all, but merely a fabricated concentration of the four elemental beams combined. The energy released from the anomaly happened to increase your power, but it did not give you immortality. That can only be granted by the Stone of the Sages."
"Then where is it?" Alex shrieked. "All the legends say that when the four lighthouses are lit, a golden sun will arise that will mark the formation of the Stone of the Sages. If what I just experienced wasn't the golden sun, then when will the real one occur?"
"I believe a human phrase can best fit an appropriate answer to that question," The Wise One replied. "And If I'm not mistaken, I think it goes along the lines of, that's for me to know and for you to find out."
"Ha ha ha. Witty, very witty," Alex said without any sign of amusement on his face. "But I grow tired of your insolence and since you have proved that you are not a friend to my cause, you are simply my enemy. Prepare to meet your doom."
Alex's fury was well over boiling point now so it would only be appropriate for him to attack with water at a similar temperature. As the steaming water materialized from his hands, they launched a volley of powerful gushes that would of knocked any normal man unconscious, none the less burn through their skin at the temperature Alex was using. But as he soon found out, the Wise One was no normal being. The guardian simply shrugged off the attack before completely focusing his eye on his opponent.
"Enough!" the Wise One bellowed as almost instantaneously the earth shook violently from underneath the mountain. Alex lost his balance and fell head first into the hard rock.
"The mountain is going to be destroyed by the energy released from the elemental conjunction," the Wise One thundered. "I suggest you get up and flee!"
"Flee?" Alex moaned, "I can barely stand...and my head." He managed to feel his forehead which was split open in the top right.
"Ah," The Wise One inquired. "So now you see the limits of your power? If you do not get up, the mountain will most certainly bury you beneath the depths of the earth. You might not survive and thus you will experience the limits of you life as well."
A long moment passed as Alex stared into his opponent's seemingly ever watchful eye. He would remember that final gaze as long as he lived. He would somehow avenge this battle and defeat that earthen monstrosity.
The Stone of the Sages will be mine, Alex swore to himself.
And then the mountain crumbled...