Chapter III: Lavos
What was this feeling that Flea was experiencing right now? It was comfort, yet unease. It was happiness, yet discontentment. It was like turning fire to ice, and it was driving her mad. Dreaming of the confident leader of the Mystics was beautiful, but being with him was nerve racking. She had a general kind of comfort just being around him; something she hadn't experienced since she used her real name.
Could it be that, which was stolen from her years ago? A feeling of love that she hadn't felt since the fire? She didn't think that she would ever get it back. And there was no way she was ever going to lose the feeling again! She had complete control over her magic; she had complete control of her life, unlike when she was an innocent little girl. Unlike Amanda, Flea could handle herself, and she was going to get love back!
Flea made her way from Ozzie's Fort to the construction zone that would be the site of Magus' Castle. All of the Mystics were helping, with the appearance of the great Lord Magus, who couldn't help but follow a man with so much confidence and so much strength. It was odd. He was only still a boy, plenty younger than every able-bodied Mystic, and yet he became the king. It was almost as if he were born to lead. Flea loved him all the more for that.
Flea needed to transform into her bat form to make it to the island where Magus' Castle was to be located. It was a long flight for a bat, but it wasn't too big of a deal for Flea the Magician. She had been to the island only twice before, and the castle got bigger and bigger each time she saw it. Magus lived at the site, directing the Imps and Henches as they did their work. Magus designed the castle almost as if he were designing a trial for anyone stupid enough to try and invade it. He had personally said that to even make it past the first foyer, an invader would need to fight Magus' top generals. It was rather ingenious; this way none of Magus' soldiers would be wasted defending the castle, the generals would just take care of it right away. Ozzie designed the next portion to be his little lair.
Ozzie was not as cunning as Magus; he believed that a huge gauntlet of Mystics would be able to stop any intruders. While he might have been right about that, a lot of soldiers would die in the act of protecting the castle. Losing soldiers was never a good thing in war, but Ozzie insisted.
There was one thing in particular that Magus wanted, and he wouldn't let anyone rest until he had it. It was a ritual room, adorned with a summoning circle at the end of a pitch black hallway that would be illuminated only by several magic flames that Magus himself had conjured up. There was also a rather unsettling statue that was to be put into the back of the room: it had a demonic looking head with four arms crossed in some weird pattern with the two arms that would hold naturally burning flames.
Flea knew that asking him about it would only result in no answers and even more questions, so she stopped asking. She knew though, that even though Magus seemed to work tirelessly every day, she could tell that he was really exhausted. Magus, of course, would not take a break no matter what anyone said. When Flea made it to the construction site, she saw something more surprising than anything she had ever seen before.
No, the castle wasn't done yet; it was something even more surprising. Magus was no where to be seen. She asked Ozzie where he had gone, and he said that he went into his tent to get some rest. All the time Flea had known Magus, she had never known him to take a break. This was definitely something she had to see for herself. She made her way to Magus' tent; the inside was completely black so she couldn't tell what Magus was doing inside, so she stepped through the flap. And…
…It was almost like stepping into another world! The second she entered she heard the high pitch noise a cold wind makes, but she felt no wind. The wind was constant with no signs of slowing down. She expected to feel cold, but she felt nothing. No cold, not warmth, it was almost as if there were no feeling at all in this place. She couldn't see anything for a while, until he eyes can into focus. The world was still covered in pitch black, but she could see Magus' back as plain as day. There was no light, Magus stood out almost as if he himself was a light. Then she heard chanting that echoed throughout her mind.
"Nalla, Nesareru, Karesawatoru, Lameseamo, Lasteo. Exchange this world for!"
Then a flash of light, and something else was in front of Magus. It didn't look human, it didn't look Mystic either. It was some monster Flea had never seen before; it was a strange humanoid worm, with smooth gray leathery skin and two razor sharp yellow claws on each hand. Its eyes were completely black, and it didn't appear to have a mouth. Despite this is roared in a fit of powerful rage, and seemed poised to take out its aggression on the thing nearest to it. That just so happened to be Magus.
Magus dodged nimbly away, using his cape as a shield to prevent the monster's searing hot breath from scalding his face. In a quick turn; Magus drew his scythe from the pocket dimension he keeps it and a lot of his other belongings in, and swiped at the monster. The dangerous curved blade caught the serpentine monster in the back of the abdomen, and viciously tore the monster in two.
Magus sneered, "Some legendary monster that was; worthless book." He muttered, "Where are you Lavos!" Magus called out into the void, obviously bothered that he could not find this thing called Lavos.
Flea stood completely still; she didn't know whether or not Magus knew she was there. It didn't seem that he did, but one could never know with Magus. The man seemed to have a sixth sense about people spying one him, and since this was probably a void he created, then he probably knew everything that was in it. She didn't know if Magus wasn't bothering to acknowledge her presence, or if he didn't know she was there. So she just stood there watching him intently.
Suddenly without warning, the two halves of the monster grew back the missing parts of its anatomy. Now two exact copies of the same monster stood before the Dark Wizard, and were both very angry that he dared to try and kill them.
Magus looked angrily at the two monsters, "So, I cannot leave any parts of you left, hmm? Well then," Magus said under his breath, "I'll just have to disintegrate you!" He yelled at the two monsters that quite obviously did not want to die.
Magus made several arm motions as he cast one of his shadow spells, "Dark Bomb!"
A dome of darkness enveloped the two monsters, and when it disappeared so did the monsters. The spell did exactly what Magus said it was going to: disintegrate the two monsters. There was nothing left. Again only Magus and Flea stood in the void, and again Flea stood there awestruck by her lord's power. Flea had never seen Magus really fight before; she only ever saw him spar with Slash, but those weren't real fights. Now she saw how he fought: with cunning and cruelty.
The wizard went right back to his introspective habits, this time not conveniently narrating his thoughts. They stood there for several minutes: Magus in deep thought, and Flea scarcely daring to breathe. Suddenly Magus turned to Flea.
"Spying are we?" He asked her plainly.
Flea swallowed, and nodded her head, "Uh, Ozzie said you were in your tent, and I wanted to check in on you." Flea said abashed.
Magus walked over to her, and put his gloved hand on her shoulder in a camaraderie way; Flea looked to the side slightly to avoid eye contact with the Dark Wizard. But Flea could feel herself drawn to him, and in a short time brought her eyes to meet the stone gaze of her lord. Flea felt undeniably sheepish as the Mystic's King let go of her shoulder and walked a few paces away from her. Flea was expecting this uncomfortable silence to continue for a long time, but it seemed that she was wrong.
"Flea, you heard the name Lavos. Correct?" Magus asked with his back turned to her.
"Y-yes, Lord Magus." Flea stammered; she hoped that her intrusion hadn't angered her leader.
"Hmmm. Flea, what I'm about to tell you is something I do not want you to repeat to anyone else. I am not quite ready for them to know this"
Flea's eyes widened with joy, the man she admired the most was finally going to open up to her!
"Yes Lord Magus!"
"I was summoning a beast of immense power; obviously I am not referring to pathetic monster that I just destroyed. This creature is powerful enough to manipulate an entire country, and when it was done, would destroy it. That is the immortal Lavos."
Flea shuddered, "Why do you want to summon a monster like that?"
"Because," Said Magus turning back to Flea, "I will use him to destroy our enemies!"
This was great news. She knew that Magus would win this war, and he had shared his secret plan with her first! Flea was overwhelmed with joy and a sense of pride, and it showed on her face. She nearly felt embarrassed at her blatant show of pride in her lord's presence.
"I will hold this information to myself until you feel ready to let the others know Lord Magus!" Flea says in a smart military fashion.
Magus replies with a single laugh, "Heh that formality does not suit you Flea. I know you better than that; what is the matter?"
Flea blushed she couldn't hide anything from Magus now, "I'm just happy that you are letting me in Lord Magus. I-I" Flea stuttered, nowhere in her soul was the courage to admit her deeper feelings to the man before her.
"You what?" Magus pressed.
Somewhere deeply buried in Flea's consciousness was the undeniable urge to just let her feeling out. However she still couldn't let those three words slip past her lips, those three words that can bring undying happiness, or unbearable pain. Flea was frightened to lose her love again, like when Amanda lost hers to the fire. Even though Flea had tried to detach herself from that little girl running from the murderous mob, she still couldn't bear to face her greatest fear: losing love.
"I should leave, and let you work some more Lord Magus." Flea said hurriedly.
Magus gave Flea a quizzical look; almost as if to say that he could see through her, "Very well then."
With that Flea bowed and turned away from her beloved leader, feeling depressed by her complete inability to tell him. It might have been the wrong time anyway, since he was working on his goal to summon Lavos to destroy the human race. He certainly couldn't be in the mood to acknowledge her feelings, right? Flea doubted ever revealing her love to Magus, because of this war. She definitely couldn't wait for it to be over, and she obviously couldn't tell him during it. It was going to be difficult…
Free Talk: First and foremost: I am so sorry that I haven't updated in nearly four weeks! It was more difficult getting used to college than I originally thought. Now that I have gotten into the swing of things, I should be able to get updates going smoothly again. In an ideal world that is.
Notice how I changed Author's Note to Free Talk? Yeah, I read Japanese Mangas where the artists do this sort of thing all the time. Basically I just talk about my life, and how things are going. You, my loyal readers can make the decision whether or not to read this, but the option will always be there.
This chapter in particular was a real drag to get out. I originally planned to have Magus and Flea along in a room, talking about things, and Flea eventually sorting out her feelings towards Magus. But I deviated from that course, and came up with what you see before you, yet I like it as a bridge to said chapter I originally wanted to work on. Expect that one soon, though.
Like Watsuki, Code Cruncher loves video games, but gets no time to play them. Between homework and the eventual working on The Lowly Flea, it's been tough to get to it. Though this must change October 26th, fans might recognize this date, when I finally buy Resident Evil 4 for the Playstation 2! I played this game on the Gamecube with my nephews during the summer of 05'. I loved this game so much, that I nearly bought a Gamecube just to play it! So obviously the announcement of RE4 coming to the PS2 was great news to me. I just hope that my undoubtedly habitual playing of this game won't hinder my writing. See you in the next chapter!