Lore & Legends

By Moonraker One

NOTE: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, mainly because I was worried about other stuff. For any of you who still would like to read, please feel free to do so.

Chapter Three

While Butz piloted the airship towards its destination at the Palace of the Heaven Crystal, Gilgamesh paced back and forth on the deck of the ship. For centuries he had served under Exdeath's rule, and here was the reincarnation of his former master. It made him laugh to think of how different the two were; Exdeath betrayed his own servants' trust on regular occasion, and yet this kid had such a pleasing demeanor. While both had the power to level a planet, only one of the two could wield it properly. Already Koga had been improving; before helping defeat Pecez, his MP level hadn't been much to speak of. Now, though, his magic point levels had gone up considerably, almost geometrically. Gilgamesh estimated that at his present level of skill, Koga could execute the Enuo esper at least four times and still have enough MP left over to heal himself to full power. Those who considered Flare to be the ultimate black spell, did not know the dark mage the way the multi-armed Gilgamesh did; the most powerful black magic spell Exdeath had (but couldn't use, for its MP requirements were so high it threatened to remove HP from the mage) possessed the power to turn a planet's magnetic field inside-out, ripping its surface to shreds. His desire to see Koga's true magical capabilities outweighed the order by Butz to let him sleep.

"Here, little one," he said, kneeling down. "Swallow a drop of this liquid and your vigor will be restored!" While the child snored—boy did he snore loudly—Gilgamesh squeezed a single drop of his magic drink into the kid's mouth. As soon as it slid down his throat, his body flowed with newfound energy, and his tiredness immediately vanished. He sat up.

"Thanks, Gilgamesh," the kid complemented. "You need something?" His question had an immediate answer from the many-armed fighter.

"I'd like to help you practice your magic," he instantly responded. One of his predominating thoughts after being betrayed by his former master that he didn't ever want to see him again, but once he saw this young fledgling exhibit the kind of power that his former master had, he became intrigued. He knew the forces of darkness were well on their power and already were almost to Earth. If there was to be a significant amount of hope involved, the child would have to properly demonstrate his main strength; the spell. So far, time, black, white, and summoning magic had been shown with expert skill. That left silver magic, a type employed by Exdeath in times of especially powerful enemies. It had been the only way that the evil wizard could control void. Due to the fact that void technically was nothingness, it could not be any other form of magic because nothingness cannot exist. Whether or not it had been the only type of silver magic put into effectiveness, was up to skill.

"What's the deal? I thought you needed to sleep." The two turned to see Faris approaching from the side. She quickly came to realize what the two were planning, and the importance of practice at such a crucial time. And, taking into account who Koga was, he would be one of the most powerful tools of the battle up ahead. The enemies had shown a bit of their strength in the form of Pecez, whose death triggered the magic-wielding "son" of Butz to come into his power—or at least a form of it. Faris knew instinctively that a true fighter could, with little or no training, pull out a last-ditch effort when their team most needed it. Also, how the child had complete confidence in his ability even though he hadn't wielded it before signaled to her that he indeed was worthy of being one of the finest. Gilgamesh happened to have the same thought about the kid, and so, he wanted to see if his wisdom could come in handy.

"I know a great place where we can train your skills, young one. Let's have Butz take us there." Koga grinned at the statement suggested by the warrior.

"Don't have to." Before the multi-armed Gilgamesh could figure out what the child meant, both he and Koga became enveloped by a void-like field of energy that blacked out all their surroundings. Once the field of energy dissipated, and the light around them returned, the air seemed to be mildly warm and damp. From the dankness in the air, Gilgamesh saw they were in the deep part of a cave with a golden stream of light permeating through a hole leading with several twists and turns up to the surface. Although he'd seen dark places before like the cave they were in now, he didn't exactly know where they were, or if they even were still on the planet Earth. Koga, however, seemed to know their exact location. "Welcome to my 'secret lair,'" he joked. The weak attempt at humor actually forced a mild grin from its intended listener, in spite of how unexpected it was. In actuality, Koga had used their precise location in the cave as a place where he could hide out from the rest of the world.

"Shall we begin, Lord Koga?" Gilgamesh's question managed a bit of chuckle from the child; apparently, weak humor was funnier than most thought.

I think I need a better outfit than the one Butz gave me, thought Koga. He didn't mind the outfit—a light blue tunic with brown pants made from a beast's hide—personally made by Butz, but he figured if he was to be a true warrior, he had to have an outfit of his own. Eagerly, he thought of a solution as he searched along the rock wall for the opening he created. Where is it? Ah! Here it is! The section of the rock face that he knew to be perforated enough to where he could push it open as a personal hiding slot slid open just as he always opened it. From it he pulled his drawing pad and pen; about twenty of the ninety blank pages had been adorned with drawings of things he had seen over his journey with Butz. On the last used page, he came to the object he'd been looking for. He saw the outfit for himself he had drawn. Trying to think about his magic he placed it on the rock floor and closed his eyes. "PAH-ZE-KEF!" he cried. His aura began to shudder between non-presence and the color purple, but faded before anything happened. Gilgamesh put his hand on the kid's head in reassurance.

"Try putting more of your power into the spell," he advised, "but not too much." Silver magic had never been used by Gilgamesh, but if it was magic, it indeed would be bound by the same rules. Willing to try, Koga gathered magical power from every vein in his being, and pulled it towards his hands. Closing his eyes, he aimed his fingers hastily at the paper.

"PAH-ZE-KEF!" he again cried. His aura visibly flashed a vibrant purple as a bolt of lightning shot from his fingertips and engulfed the single sheet of paper, burning it to shreds instantly. He looked with despair at the book; though it was only a partial tragedy, he still had spent many an hour on the outfit he designed to be untearable. When he went to pick up the drawing pad, curiosity turned his attention to himself, and his eyes brightened. Indeed, the bolt had burned the paper out of existence, but with it his outfit changed to what had been drawn. After having created a new outfit for himself, he examined it on his body with glee; it looked exactly as it had been drawn. A sleeveless dark red tunic that had his favorite "bent sickle" emblem on the front was the first part of it, complemented by a pair of black pants of magical fabric and a dark purple cape. It made Gilgamesh think more highly of the boy, although the well-traveled warrior couldn't explain why. The warrior of multiple arms drew up in the palm of his hand a ball of fire hastily conjured, and covered two of his blades with the fire, and swung, creating a shockwave of flame that headed towards Koga. With a open hand, and four fingers pointed in the direction of the flame attack, Koga quickly shot a wall of water that counteracted the flame wall. It took his opponent completely by surprise.

"Not bad," cheered Gilgamesh. "But let's see if you can counter THIS!" Being extremely careful to use his most powerful magic very carefully, he summoned the aura buried deep within him and brought it to the surface. Instantly, he raised his arms to the air and cried, "LEVEL TEN ELEMENTALISM!" Not a single instant later, his entire body became engulfed by a mighty wall of water that turned into ice armor for Gilgamesh. This magical armor enabled him to be immune to any type of magical element. Also, his mighty blades became shielded with a magical coat of near-indestructible ice. Koga, however, knew one of several countermeasures to it.

"That's really good!" cooed Koga, thinking quickly of a solution. He knew Gilgamesh's ultimate spell was near-unbeatable to all those who didn't have much in the field of strong magical power, but Koga estimated his own ability to be at Exdeath's, so any spell would have to be well-executed to work. Pulling in his aura from all corners of his field of energy, he drew it into his body in a way that his sparring partner had seen before from lesser fighters.

"You're using a 'Powerhouse' spell to enhance your physical strength for a hand-to-hand attack," noted Gilgamesh. "Won't do much to me." It would have been that way, had Koga's magical strength been at that of a normal person. Instead of only gaining a bit in the field of power, his power skyrocketed. His arms were the first to be empowered; his short arms bulked out like that of a giant's, with the arms themselves lengthening quite a bit. Next, his leg muscles expanded many times their normal range, lengthening the legs similarly to the arms. His chest and abdomen muscles burst forth, threatening to puff up like a balloon as his body greatly grew in size. Where before he had been a kid with size expected of seven or eight years, he now stood at least a eight-foot tall mass of muscular development. To add a further degree of amazement, his clothing expanded to accommodate the new, massive size increase. Gilgamesh knew; this wasn't a level one 'powerhouse' spell…

"How's this for a counter assault?" asked Koga, whose head remained small, despite his now-gigantic body. "This isn't your everyday powerhouse. This is my level THIRTY powerhouse!" The warrior of many arms threw himself at Koga, hoping at least to score a single blow. Unfortunately, he found himself thrust violently into the rock wall of the cave with only a slight backhand from the kid. Koga threw a giant fist at his opponent, who dodged away at the last moment. Instead of breaking a large hole in the cave wall, his large fist mysteriously traveled through the rock as though it were water, even leaving a trail of ripples behind. Turning his head, Koga saw the warrior flying towards him with blades drawn. Instinctively he reached out and caught Gilgamesh, the warrior's entire body fitting snugly within Koga's huge hand. "Do you surrender?"

"I surrender! Just put me down! It's clear you don't need training!" Setting down Gilgamesh, he let his body return to its normal size. Quite a suiting, playful smile drew itself onto Koga's face; to the multi-armed warrior, it was a starch contrast to the looks he'd seen from Exdeath, the original form of Koga's magical power. Gilgamesh couldn't help but ruffle the child's hair with his second left arm. "I'm really impressed; you really are at least as powerful as Exdeath, magic-wise, yet, you're so calm and gentle about it." He knew what he was saying; Exdeath had been a freak whose power made him drunk. This kid, however, almost considered his power to be an afterthought, more like it was a special trait other than a primary one. From what Gilgamesh could also tell, the kid had more than enough MP left over to cast at least a few thousand more spells. Koga's maximum available energy for casting spells—his MP total—could be no less than forty times that of his previous life's.

"Time to get back to the airship!" he beamed, grabbing Gilgamesh's hand and surrounding them with the same void-like teleportation spell. Once the field of darkness left, they found Faris waiting for them. From what the two of them could see, she was none too happy.

"You two snuck off?!" shrieked the violet-haired pirate lass. "You KNOW if the enemy could sense you using magic, they'd probably be here attacking us already! Errrgh! I'm gonna get something to drink to cool off; don't sneak off again!" Her level of complaining could mean only that she was not having a good time with the proper amount of soap to use when cleaning her clothes. Or, it could mean she was on her period; although Koga banked on the former. Gilgamesh folded four of his arms together.

"What's her problem?!" he said, half to Koga, half to himself. The kid, however, had a slightly different idea. Waving his hand at Faris as she walked away, his magic caused her butt to expand slightly, noticeably pushing out a bit farther against the seat of her pants. I don't get yelled at when I don't deserve it, thought Koga. "I hope you reverse that spell on her."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Gilgamesh," the kid whispered. "Butz'll probably find it better than it was before."

"WHO WANTS TO DIE?!"

All eyes on the ship turned to greet the sudden appearance of a cloaked figure. Butz, piloting the ship, quickly passed control of the wheel over to Lenna, and made a circling leap over to where the cloaked figure stood. Faris, who'd hoped to get a nap in before arriving at the scene of the struggle, quietly snuck up behind the figure, hoping to catch him off guard. Gilgamesh and Cara stood on opposing sides of the man, ensuring that all bases were covered. Without wasting a moment, the figure sensed a slight decrease in guard on the part of Faris, who thought she had the evil mage where she could strike at him. He acted instantly, slashing a minor cut in her right arm with a shuriken—barely enough to draw blood, even—but nonetheless causing her to fall onto her back, unconsciously. None of the warriors of Earth could comprehend it; such a small cut could not have done such damage. Then he touched the shuriken to his chest, and from the neck down, his body became a duplicate of Faris's. With it he had her abilities added to his own, and her weapon.

"Ah, but you Earthlings are ignorant!" he cried, taking up a stance that looked like hers. "I have the triple S!"

"Marenaf, you son of a bitch!" Gilgamesh cried, arming his swords with ice and fire spells and trying to strike at the sorcerer. Unfortunately, the sorcerer had far too much speed thanks to Faris's soul, and slashed Gilgamesh in the first open spot: his chest. Applying the shuriken to his chest again, Marenaf grew four more Faris arms, mimicking Gilgamesh. Butz instantly knew what he was up against.

"Everyone!" he shouted. "Don't get cut! That's the soul-stealing shuriken!" The warriors were already ahead of him the moment that they saw two of their allies' souls get sucked into an evil sorcerer. Cara drew her weapon—the Bow of Artemis—and fired off a shot in the evil's direction. Despite a good, solid hit in the stomach, he'd lost only a small amount of life points. In response, he swung Sasuke's Kitana, Faris' weapon of choice, and nailed Cara in the upper chest, taking a significant chunk of her health away instantly with a nasty wound. Lenna, struggling with the wheel, threw a healing spell to cure Cara. Butz swung his sword, more as a distraction while he summoned a spell than a real attack, and at the same time prepared to use his strongest fire spell. Instead, a field of lightning summoned by the mage caused him to drop his blade as it lifted him off the deck of the ship. Pure energy surged through every inch of his frame as he cried out in pain.

"KENOTRA!"

The mage turned just in time to be struck in the gut by an orange-colored ball of magic flame that, as though a bowling ball were thrust in his direction at a hundred miles per hour, blasted him backward quickly. Landing flat on his back on the deck of the airship, his body returned to its normal state as Faris and Gilgamesh resumed consciousness. All turned to the source of the spell, and found Koga with index and middle index fingers extended in the direction of the mage. Koga lifted his two fingers to his mouth and blew, pretending to be blowing away smoke from a smoking gun. None of those present could speak. Sure, the mage caught them off-guard, but their strongest attacks did almost nothing on the evil presence. Koga struck him dead with a single spell.

"Koga?" Butz stammered. "Could…you mind giving us a little list of your more powerful spells?! So we're not so in the dark!?"

"MOTHER…" Muzef cried, running short of breath before he could complete the swearword. Instead, he took his crystal ball, and shattered it in a single toss against the wall. Then, he summoned another just like it. "ANOTHER servant! Crushed like a rat!"

"L…Lord…Muzef!" Gliv cried. "Do…do you think we still can beat the heroes of Earth?" In response, Muzef slammed his fist down on the table in front of him, and glared in contempt at his subordinate. Gliv cringed; he never liked to see his master angry at him. It typically meant trouble.

"OF COURSE WE CAN!" he angrily shouted, unnerving all of the remaining members. "They JUST got lucky!" Cursing his luck, he knew the truth; their skill had been direly underestimated by Muzef and the rest of Exdeath's protégés. This was a mistake that was no longer to be made. "We must merely come up with another plan. Apparently, one on one combat is futile. We must wait until we get there and attack them as a group."

"But sir!" Muzef turned to see which of his subordinates had the gall to challenge his order, and saw that it was Uodi.

"Something I said amiss?"

"Yes sir, I mean…" Muzef's furrowing eyebrows indicated to Uodi that his master was pissed with him, so he hastily corrected his words. "I mean, if we give them time to prepare, aren't we basically surrendering?" For a subordinate, the warrior/mage had impeccable logic, on the level of his master. The leader of the group realized that because Uodi was correct, it meant that they'd probably get stronger if given the chance. The best way to attack would be at once, but also he realized that such an action would be suicidal. Muzef threw up his hand to silence his subordinates.

"Here's our action," he ordered, "we teleport to the Palace of the Heaven Crystal, and let the meteor we're riding in now crash into the Earth. Surely, they'll predict our plan and ignore the meteor altogether."

"Then…why're we doing it?" inquired Gliv.

"Because we want to tell them that we're as smart as they are, if not smarter. Psyche them out, so to speak." Somehow, his lesser didn't think it would work to the extent he'd been told.

"…and that's about all the instant death spells I know," Koga explained, finishing his list of instant kill magic. Not a single jaw had gone undropped; apparently, Exdeath had at least two dozen spells that, when timed properly, could kill in a moment. Butz could not believe that a kid standing no taller than four and one half feet at the age of eight could possess more killing spells than half the sorcerers that were three times his age or more. "You wanna know my status-affecting spells?"

"No," Lenna entered. "I think…we've heard enough…"

At that precise moment, a gigantic meteor sailed past the airship not a hundred yards away. It made a loud rumbling noise as it burned in the atmosphere and ultimately left a huge scar in the landscape just in front of the forest near Tycoon, very close to the location of the one that had been there before. Faris and Lenna both freaked out.

"Butz!" Faris cried. "They're gonna attack Tycoon! We gotta go back and protect our village!" Butz heard and understood, but knew better.

"No," he answered, "we stay our course." In response, Faris took him by his collar and pulled him an inch from her face.

"I SAID…"

"I DON'T CARE! I THINK IT'S JUST A DISTRACTION!"

Gilgamesh attempted to be the voice of reason. "Um, I think Butz is right, Faris," he explained. "I mean, think about it. Their goal is to achieve the most powerful item in the universe. Would they really waste their time on a Human village when they can command all of reality once they get their prize?" She released her grip on Butz.

"Yeah, I see the point. Sorry, Butz."

He brushed himself off. "Don't worry 'bout it. Let's just get going."

It only took a few dozen more minutes of sailing through the sky in order to reach the palace of the Crystal of Heaven, and when their eyes locked onto the huge temple resting upon an island floating in the upper atmosphere, they couldn't believe the sight. Golden outer walls adorned with gems of every color of the rainbow appeared to be just the beginning, and they believed that inside, much greater beauty had to exist.

Wow, thought Koga. It's just as beautiful as when I last came here.