The Last Stand

By Ultima66

Chapter 1

--------------------------------------------------------

History repeats itself. Those sins of the past are bound to become sins of the present and future.

--------------------------------------------------------

"Akar."

"What? What is it?"

"An attack is coming our way. Are you ready?"

"I hope so. You're not coming?"

"No. I trust you can handle this."

Akar... still a new word to me. Living in peace and tranquility for so long, this was the first thing to break the silence: the first big thing to come my way ever since Martel had found me so long ago.

"What do they plan to gain from this exactly?" I asked her.

"Mana. You see, they need the tree. They want the tree so they can get him back," she responded.

"How do they expect to take you exactly? The goddess of mana? These people seem really foolish," I said.

"Or... they could have developed a dangerous new weapon. You should be careful," she told me.

We had been tracking the movements of the great empire of Midgard for quite a while now, and watching all of their conquests in lands far from our home. Now they wanted to capture Yggdrasil so that they could obtain the mana to recreate Dhaos. Of course, the problem was that they could never actually succeed in obtaining the mana without Martel giving them her powers, and I say no way that mere soldiers from Midgard could capture Martel. At any rate, I was going to find out what was going on in the forest.

I glowed with white light for a minute, then a burst of light came out of my body and when the light faded away, it revealed my form as a beautiful white bird. I had changed a lot since my entrance into Martel's guiding light, and the biggest change was that now I was in touch with the forest and more in touch with Yggdrasil. I flew off, toward the edge of the forest. After flying for a while, I stopped at the edge of the forest and looked around. Seeing nothing there at the moment, I decided to perch in a tree and wait a while.

"A while" decided to come all too soon. Before I had any idea what was happening, a huge yellow beam of energy struck the trees to my left, igniting the trees from the branches up. Descending to the ground, I returned to my normal human-like spirit form. I began casting a spell, and then held my hand up in the air as green waves of energy flowed out of it, flowing all the way to the trees, putting out the fires and regenerating what damage had been done.

"Look what we have here," said a voice coming from behind me. I turned around to see a man in armor leading a group of Midgard soldiers, an enormous cannon from which the blast obviously came from in the middle of them, being dragged by several men. "So, a guardian of the forest has come thinking he can stop us. Of course, you have no idea why we're here, do you?"

"I am Akar, indeed a defender of this forest and of the great mana tree Yggdrasil. I know enough about you, soldiers of Midgard, and I'll tell you this much: if you don't leave at this very moment, then I guarantee that you won't be making it back to your city," I threatened.

Their response was simple and swift. The cannon began glowing, charging up energy to be fired again. I put up a shield of energy as the cannon charged and the soldiers attempted to aim the cannon at me.

"I knew you would try something like this. You see, this cannon here will break you apart, even with your little energy shield. Just give up now like you know you should, and you still have a chance. Or else, this thing will be firing and we won't spare you," the leader said.

I held on to my energy shield. These soldiers had severely underestimated my power, so I knew they couldn't really break down my shield. The cannon glowed even brighter as the all too familiar yellow beam of energy came rocketing out of the barrel right at me and my shield.

Suddenly, the force of my shield collapsed, as I felt it lose power when the cannon went off. The beam quickly rushed in towards the weakened energy shield and shattered it to pieces, knocking me down.

"What the hell was that?" I yelled, now on the ground, "That cannon couldn't have broken my shield, but I felt my energy shield drain to almost no power before the blast actually hit it."

"Doesn't it remind you of something from quite a while back? Martel should remember it perfectly. You see, the researchers at Midgard redesigned the original mana cannon used in fighting Dhaos. Now, it's much more controlled, and since we're actually after the mana tree, it doesn't consume the world's mana. Now, the cannon simply takes all the available mana nearby and uses it for the attack. You didn't actually think that we'd enter a forest of mana and not be ready for the guardians? I think that view of Midgard should be cast away. You thought we were idiots? Well now you're the one looking stupid," he said.

I quickly got up and leapt at the pack of soldiers, holding out my sword in from, charging a spell from the sword. This time I knew that I wouldn't let these soldiers get the best of me. The response I received was just as I had predicted: the soldiers began charging up the mana cannon for another shot at me.

"Lightning Blade!"

A storm of focused electricity rushed out of my sword in a large torrent at the cannon. Unable to absorb all the energy of the powerful spell, the cannon began emitting smoke and glowed uncontrollably. Then, when the cannon couldn't take any more, it exploded in an enormous blast, sending everyone nearby to the ground, including me. I got up to my feet as quickly as I could.

"I told you that you guys wouldn't get out of here safely if you didn't retreat. Now it looks like you're just going to have to face that reality. What are you going to do now?" I said to the soldiers, still on the ground.

They rose to their feet slowly, pulling out their own swords and pointing them at me menacingly.

"You think you can take all of us on?" said the commander. The troops were several dozen in number, but still no real threat to me with my vast power. Of course, he didn't know that. "And there are more cannons coming from Midgard. What are you going to do then, huh? You can't possibly expect to defeat an entire empire by yourself, even if you are a guardian. I bet you can't even defeat all the troops right here, can you? Why don't you just try?"

"Is that a challenge? I'll do more than try: I'll win. You guys better not be suicidal. I'll have mercy and let you guys report your loss to Midgard if you start running now. And I mean now," I said.

They dashed towards me. I charged another spell, and then ran towards the soldiers slashing at them, holding off their rain of blades all attempting to hit me. I leapt into the air when they surrounded me.

"Fireball!"

I shot a fireball straight down, propelling me upwards further away from the soldiers, and killing several of them. I transformed myself into a dazzling phoenix in midair and flew around in several wide circles building up my energy before I made one huge dash back down towards the remaining soldiers.

"You guys are absolutely worthless!" yelled the commander, "We have to win for Midgard, you idiots! Whatever happened to glory for the empire? Is this glory? Losing a whole troop to a single guardian? Do something!"

I flew mach speed through the remaining soldiers, so much heat built up in my wings that they simply tore apart the soldiers without causing me any drag at all when I ran through them, many of them being sliced in half, the rest burned to death. I descended and returned to my normal form, and looked at the commander, now with a worried look on his face.

"So, what was it that you said to me earlier?" I said in a dark tone, reminding me of my old days.

He simply stood there, shocked. There was no way Midgard could expect to lose so many soldiers before even getting into the forest. They thought that their first group would at least get into the forest part of the way at worst.

I threw my sword at him, flying in a straight line, as if guided my magic, with so much force it defied gravity and wind resistance. Making impact with his chest, the blade went straight through his armor near his heart, a large torrent of blood coming out the back, just the handle now sticking out visible in front. With a wave, I recalled the sword, which flew through the air into my hand. Another wave and all the blood on the sword flew off onto the ground. I walked back to the forest.

I thought for a second. Those Midgard soldiers may have been the ones after me, but I felt something stir inside me when I killed them. Something all too familiar, from my days of evil. Perhaps... Perhaps I was as much to blame for the deaths of those soldiers as they were for provoking me to take action against them. Could I really be turning back into my old self again? What I felt back there... I wanted to kill the soldiers, whether or not they were willing to run for their lives. Perhaps it was because I just wanted to protect Yggdrasil. But could it also mean I was turning back? Back into my old evil self? Was I just no better now that I was in the past? No, I answered to myself, but I felt it carried little meaning. Still, I felt I had to be a better person now than I was before. Now I had Martel supporting me.

I made it back to the tree.

"Martel, I found the attackers and killed them, but I was informed by their commander that more soldiers are coming this way from Midgard. Some are probably already on the way. What should we do now?" I asked.

"Akar, I can see it in you. There's something wrong..." she said.

"About the current situation?" I asked.

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean I know how you're feeling right now. I know what you're thinking after killing those soldiers. Really, though, there's nothing to worry about right now. You see, to be a guardian, it is your job to protect the tree. As a guardian you must protect at all costs that which you are keeping safe. And all costs includes having to let lives die in order to save other lives. War will be war, and there's nothing you can do about it. In war there are always deaths; they just have to take place. You should know, in a fight, it's either you or the one you're fighting. There's nothing you can do about it.. You understand this much?" she replied.

"I suppose I understand, and have always known that much. It's just that the pull of my old self is so powerful. I don't ever want to return to that self, so I'm worried it might happen," I said.

"Not while you're with me it won't. I will protect you from the grasp of evil, and don't you forget that. Now, on to the news about the Midgard invasion. So you see any imminent threat that these people might have? They have weapons ready for us, don't they?" she asked.

"Somewhat..." I said, "Well, it's kinda hard to say. You see, these soldiers... well actually the researchers at Midgard... they have recreated the mana cannons. They are made smaller and portable, and what they do is drain all available mana sources nearby of their mana, keeping the tree itself from losing any energy. Unfortunately, as long as they are anywhere near either of us, there is plenty of mana energy and they can effectively turn our power against us. They seem quite powerful, but I could handle the first one, so they're not impossible."

Martel though looked very worried when I mentioned the creation of the smaller mana cannons.

"Akar, you don't understand enough just yet. You don't feel the tree's life force as I do. You don't feel all the pain, the suffering the tree undergoes. You see, when the original mana cannon was first fired in the assault against Dhaos, I felt all that pain that the tree felt, and it was like nothing that I had ever experienced before. After the mana was drained from the tree at such a huge amount, I was hurt, and worse still, I had no more energy left to do anything about it. All my attempts to do anything simply slowed down the collapse and eventual self-destruction of the mana tree in such a fragile state. Of course, you know how I got out of that. Mint came with the other heroes of time and she used her gift to heal the tree, stopping the regression of mana and putting the tree back into a stable but still healing state," she said.

"Mint..." I looked down, staring at the ground below. That name. It bore a hole through my heart at the mention of the name. Her and the names of any of the other people I killed. They all plagued me now, tearing me apart from the inside out. It was such a terrible thing I did...

"I know you feel bad, Akar. It's just fine to feel bad after causing pain to others. It's a good thing: it's you're conscience. Well, as I was saying, the reason I was shocked at the mention of the mana cannon is because I can't handle it any more. I can't handle any more mana being drained away from the tree. I hate to say this to you, but you have to know: Understand that if Midgard isn't stopped in their plans of conquest, I will soon cease to exist. I will die without Yggdrasil. That's why it's so important to me that you keep Yggdrasil safe," she said.

"No! That's not going to happen! I won't allow it!" I yelled out. I was scared. I could barely handle the pain I had caused others, only to have to think about Martel dying. It was too much... too much. "More than enough good people have died under me, and I won't let you slip under my protection. Promise me that you'll be safe. Promise me!" I said. Martel had to suffer through my evil. It could have completely broken her heart, having people she cared for killed by the one she cared for most. I wasn't about to allow my creator to suffer and more, especially not to the greedy hands of ignorant humans that had no idea what they were really going to do if they succeeded in recreating Dhaos again.

"Akar, do not worry. I don't think I can promise you anything, but I will tell you that you shouldn't worry because I do not worry, and I'm the one that should care the most. Do you understand why I feel that everything will work out in the end and we'll be just fine? It's because that I know I've got you to count on. You feel that I'm perfect, right? Well if you're right, then you're perfect too. I don't make poor creations, and you're no exception. If you fail, then that means I have failed against the humans, and that I deserve to be gone," she told me.

"Don't say that, Martel... You're wishing yourself failure by saying you might not deserve to live," I said, "Well, anyways, I'll do everything that I possibly can, since you're counting on it."

"I know you will do what you can, Akar, and I think I can count on you all the way," she replied, "Is there anything else of major importance that I should know about?"

"I can't really say... I'm thinking about it, but there's nothing I really noticed other than the cannon. You know, now that I think about it, we do have one thing we have to do. We have to try to figure out how Midgard will respond to the failure of their first attack group. They might get angry and send more troops, or we might have hurt their morale a little, " I said. I tried to clear away my worry by thinking, but inside, something ate at my heart.

"Well you're right about needing to figure out how their response will go. Well, I don't think they even know that their first group failed and was killed, along with the cannon destroyed, but I think that they'll know soon enough, and I'm expecting a large problem," she said.

"Why do you figure that? We might have actually hurt them a bit in terms of morale," I said.

"Because," She told me, "I know Midgard. They're not the kind to just give up like that. Their empire is home to the single most powerful research group that I know of, of course run mainly by half-elves nonetheless, and their main controlling body is that corrupt empire that's willing to go however far they need to take what they want. They may or may not be smart, but because of the environment there, whatever the empire wants, it forces the civilians to do. They fired the mana cannon a long time ago, and that was when they knew it would hurt me and they even assumed I was on their side because they believed I wanted to see Dhaos destroyed too. Of course, now they're even more corrupt and they believe that if they create Dhaos, they can control him. And their technology is better too. They knew their first group would fail, and only sent it to see just how hard it would be to penetrate the forest."

"It happened once before too... Once when Cless had no idea what was going on, Dhaos was unsealed, and that time, humans too believed they could control him," I said, mostly to myself, "I can't let those humans recreate Dhaos. The first time, it was a disaster, and it took all the heroes of time to fix it. Now this time... the heroes of time are gone, and it's all my fault."

"Don't you see? That's exactly why you're here, Akar. Like you said yourself, the first time that Dhaos was unsealed it was because Cless didn't know his pendant was one of the pendants that sealed Dhaos in the mausoleum and he didn't know that his uncle was under enough pressure by the evil soldiers that wished to get back Dhaos that he would sell Cless out for his own safety. But you won't fail like he did, Akar. I know that because if Dhaos is to be recreated, then that energy consumed to recreate him would destroy the tree, and I know you won't let that happened," she told me.

"Well, I suppose we have no other choice right now than to think positive and hope Midgard won't be able to take the forest," I said.

I glowed and turned into my bird form again. I flew off, back towards the edge of the forest. No matter how much everything seemed to be turning against me, how much everything in the world seemed to throw all their might at me and Martel, I knew one important thing that kept me going no matter what: I had Martel's support all the way and that wouldn't change.

I stopped by the edge of the forest again, landing on a branch of a tree where I could look out.

Was everything really going so bad? Everything seemed pretty fine in reality. Perhaps everything only looked bad because of fear and pessimism, since so far nothing horrible had happened. Losing the heroes of time put me up to the job as guardian of Yggdrasil, and if I was the one that was able to kill the heroes of time, didn't that actually put the tree in better hands now than it was in before? Then again, there were indeed differences. Mint was no longer here, and she was the chosen one. She was the only one that could help the tree if it ever fell into trouble. And I stayed in the forest all the time, and made very little contact with outside cities, meaning there were less voices to speak against the empire of Midgard and to unite people against it, meaning they had more focus against the forest now.

An all-too-familiar sound rang though the air. A pretty weak shot fired from another mana cannon. Looking up, I saw the blast pointing upwards. It seemed as if the soldiers knew that the first group had failed, and they were warning us that we would be in trouble and that more troops were coming in and they didn't expect to fail. Everything was now or never, and Martel depended on it. This had to take place now, and I had to win. This was to be the last stand: for me, for the great forest, for Yggdrasil, and most of all, for Martel.