Power Rangers Arcane Alliance
Prologue
A blast of dark energy slammed her to a boulder, which came tumbling down on her and covering her underneath dust and rocks.
Rita coughed, forcing herself to stand up despite the pain. Her lips were cracked, her entire face had numerous cuts and a stream of blood trickled down her nose. She was covered with dust and grime, her once pristine white robes now grey, brown and red.
"You don't stand a chance." Her opponent, the ruler of the dark cosmos – Armageddon scoffed, appearing behind her in a burst of black light.
Rita turned around just in time to build up a shield of white light to protect herself from getting stabbed by a sword of condensed dark matter.
Armageddon was dressed in a regal attire of armoured black and silver. Red eyes shone behind his ominous helm of darkness that shielded his face. He looked less like an actual being and more like a living shadow by the way he moved.
"I have faced way worse scoundrels than you." Rita snarked, her eyes flashing gold as she thrusted her hands forward and a beam of white light slammed into Armageddon, forcing him back and sending him staggering.
"Mystic Mother!" She looked sideways to see the mystic rangers except Leanbow rush to her aid, having defeated the various shadow creatures Armageddon had summoned from the depths. Armageddon had divided his forces. While he himself led an attack on the Mystic Forest, his generals attacked Briarwood, forcing the Mystic Force to divide into teams too. While the rangers and Mystic Mother protected the forest, the city was being protected by Leanbow, Clare, Itassis, Matoombo and the various apprentice sorcerers and knights.
"Your puny brats won't be enough to save you, Rita!" Armageddon snarled, getting back to his feet and coming at them in a blur of black. He tore through the rangers, who were thrown backwards, sparks flying through their suits.
"Leave them!" She shouted as she saw Armageddon hold up the White Mystic Ranger by her throat. She threw a bolt of lightning at him which he easily deflected with the back of his hand. He snapped his fingers and black vines shot up from the ground, restraining her, forcing her to watch helplessly as he toyed with his prized pupil.
"Mom!" Nick shouted, standing up despite the pain and charging at the demon with his lion staff.
"Oh, such spunk. I admire that!" Armageddon chuckled, throwing aside the white ranger and turning his full attention towards the red ranger.
"Code 3! Mystic Firebird!" Nick yelled, turning the dial on his lion staff. Fire spread across his arms, taking the form of fiery wings. He dived at Armageddon, magical fire forming the shape of a phoenix around him.
Armageddon laughed as Nick collided against them in a huge explosion, that created a shockwave that threw them all back. As the dust settled in, Rita saw Armageddon throw Nick aside like a ragdoll.
"Your magic pales in comparison to my eternal darkness, child." He said, walking over to him.
Just then, beams of gold light hit him from behind. Armageddon growled seeing the Solaris Knight fire at him repeatedly from his laser Lamp.
"You humans are like pesky bugs." He said dangerously, aiming his hand at the knight and tendrils of black energy shot out at him.
"Jenji Shining Sun Attack!" The cat genie burst out of the lamp, pushing through the vines of dark energies and punching the dark warrior in the face, knocking his helm off, revealing his face. He looked human yet at the same time, it was clear he was anything but. He was handsome, square jawed individual with ethereal red eyes but his skin was ashen grey and black veins crawled up his face. His black hair had a streak of red in them.
"You dare!" Armageddon enunciated furiously, recovering quickly and letting loose a wave of dark energy that knocked out the Solaris Knight. He grabbed Jenji by his neck.
"I know you." He growled, his faces inches away from Jenji. "Oh, how the mighty has fallen! Once the mighty king cat of the Exceeds, now trapped in a lamp, an accessory for mere mortals!"
"I am no accessory!" Jenji said, trying to break free from his grasp.
"You are brave, I give you that. For that, I will give you a quick death!" He smirked as his eyes began to glow an ominous red.
Jenji inhaled deeply. He couldn't believe he was about to do this. But this time he was completely alone and the rangers were down for the count. He had to save himself.
He bared his claws and dragged them across Armageddon's face.
"Aah!" The villain screamed, clutching his eye, letting go of Jenji. The king cat ran as fast as he could towards the Mystic Mother, cutting through her restraints with a steel sword he manifested from thin air.
"You will pay!" Armageddon screamed, charging at the two.
"ENOUGH!" Rita yelled, her voice booming as she clapped her hands together, letting loose a shockwave that threw back the demon.
"Thank you, Jenji. Your bravery might just have saved all of us." She smiled at him before glaring at the enemy. "It's time for round 2."
She extended her hands and vines of light energy swept out across the battlefield, picking up the unconscious rangers and bringing them back at her side before turning into orbs of light and fusing with them, awakening them and healing their wounds.
"Jenji, you are safe!" Daggeron smiled at his friend, getting up and hugging him.
"You aren't getting rid of me that quickly, Daggeron." Jenji replied. "You should have seen me valiantly taking down that scum and saving Mystic Mother."
"I guess we have to take your word for it." Madison said affectionately.
"It is!" Jenji protested. "Tell them, Mystic Mother!"
"It is!" Rita chuckled, nodding her head.
The rangers nearly broke their necks as they turned to look at them.
"Hey, don't be that surprised!" The genie said offended.
"We are not-" Xander started weakly.
"Rangers, we are still in the middle of a battle." Udonna reminded them gently as Armageddon stumbled to his feet.
"Speaking of which, since I have done my part, it's time for me to go…" The cat gave a small wave before dissipating into smoke and returning to the lamp. "Give him hell for me, rangers!"
"Right, let's do this!" Nick commanded. "Code 2- United Formation!" The rangers took up positions, connecting their lion staffs and the snow staff in Udonna's case, letting loose a powerful stream of unfiltered light magic at the demon.
"Sun Spell!" Daggeron thrust his palms, pouring all his sun magic into the attack as well.
"Gojika Hollow Mirage!" Rita yelled, adding in her strongest spell to the attack.
"NO!" Armageddon shouted, as the beam of light hit his chest, pushing him back. He tried to resist the attack but the light magic started to seep into his skin, creating cracks that brought colour to his ashen skin.
Just then, something shifted. Rita's eyes widened as she realised what was about to happen just a second before it happened.
Armageddon's body dropped to the ground unconscious, now no more demonic and looking like a normal human.
The torrent of energy was redirected towards the rangers, now totally pitch black in colour.
"NO! Rangers, break the spell!" Rita warned but it was too late.
Only Udonna and Daggeron were able to roll out of the energy backlash in time.
The three of them watched helplessly as black energy consumed the five mystic rangers in a huge explosion.
"NO!" Udonna screamed, trying to run towards the explosion, only to be thrown backwards by a wave of incredible power. "Bowen!"
"It can't be." Daggeron murmured.
"Bowen!" Udonna howled as the explosion settled down to reveal nothing except five wands and no sign of the rangers.
"NO!" The white witch screamed. She picked up the wands from a razed battlefield, the second time in her life.
"Bowen!" Udonna howled, demorphing and falling to her knees as she broke down to tears. "Chip! Xander! Madison! Vida!" Nick might have been her biological child but she considered all five rangers to be her children. And now they were all gone. Once again, she was the survivor of a team of mystics.
Rita turned away from them, trying to hold back tears of her own as she heard Udonna's heart wrenching sobs. She saw Armageddon's body stir as he woke up.
"No, no, no!" The man started murmuring.
Rita narrowed her eyes. This man was not the demon overlord who had tried to destroy them for months. He had hazel eyes and a platinum streak in his hair instead of the crimson red shade he had seconds before.
"No." He repeated as the dark armour faded away to reveal pristine white robes trimmed with gold.
"Who are you?" Rita asked sternly, walking up to him. Daggeron stood protectively in front of Udonna.
"I am… It doesn't matter who I am. I have failed. I gave in to the darkness. I was supposed to stop Armageddon but he took over my mind and body." He said forlornly, looking up. "And now all is lost."
"My rangers sacrificed their lives to stop Armageddon."
"No, no. You do not understand." The man protested. "He is the embodiment of the primordial evil. I have battled him for eons, containing him within a dark dimension but he finally won, possessed me. That blast did not destroy him, merely cut him from our reality and returned his essence to his home dimension. He will be back."
"And we just lost our best defenders." Rita whispered fearfully. "All the realms would be at his mercy when he returns."
"How much time do we have?" Daggeron asked.
"May be months. May be years, centuries even. Difficult to say but make no mistake, he will return." He stated bleakly.
"Who are you? How do you know all this?"
"I am Gideon, the last Guardian of Avalon." The man revealed sadly. "My people were sworn to defend all life against forces of evil but one day, an unimaginable force attacked our realm and while we fought back, Armageddon slaughtered all my people. To stop him from doing the same to rest of the universe, I used cosmic magic to drive him back to his home dimension but the fiend caught hold of me and dragged me with him. I tried to fight him off but he kept me alive for centuries, corrupting my body and mind with his dark powers till I was nothing but a vessel for him. He used me to break free and attack your planet."
"This cannot be how it all ends." Daggeron said, his voice broken as he looked at Udonna crying, clutching the five wands close to her heart.
"It won't." Rita promised, taking his hand. "We will prepare and when that demon comes back, we will avenge everyone we have lost today."
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