Chapter 2: Son of The Mask
"In this magical world, or continent, rather, there are all sorts of artifacts. These artifacts include masks, books, or even stationery." The male teacher wrote the word "stationary" on the board. "Oops, did I spell it correctly?" He asked the class.
"That's not supposed to be an a." a student cried out. "It's an e."
"OK." The teacher said, changing the word to "stetionary."
"Is that correct now?" He asked.
"No." The class said.
"Whatever, as long as you know how to spell it, it's fine with me." He said, continuing with his lesson. "What we are going to focus on today are masks. Masks have always been regarded as a traditional store of power. When one wears a mask, the power of a certain being captured in the mask is transferred to him and the being is expelled from the mask. This can bring great danger to the world…"
(focus on Eric snoring.)
(END TEASER)
ACT 1
Cave
"Greedius?" The man wearing sunglasses flipped through a book and looked at a page.
"Greedius is the King of Greed." A man reported.
"Lets' try him out then." The woman said.
"Alright." Their leader nodded.
"Wow, what a beautiful attic!" Eric commented as he entered the attic in Bernice's house.
"There are a lot of secret objects in this attic." Bernice said. "Once, I found a book that had a lot of spells in it, but my mother took it away and kept it."
"Really?" Eric asked. "Where is it?"
"I just told you my mother kept it somewhere which I do not know." Bernice said.
"Lets' try looking for it." Eric said, moving out a few boxes from the corner of the attic.
He opened a box and took a piece of paper out. "What's this?" He asked.
"Oh." Bernice said. "I think it's a potion recipe."
Eric took out a knife with golden carvings on it. "What's this?"
"I'm not sure, but put it back in." Bernice said. "It's very expensive."
"Oh, what's this?" Eric said excitedly as he took out an ancient wooden mask with many shapes on it. He put it on. "Do I look scary?" He asked.
"No, you don't." Bernice said. "Please put it back in! Don't you remember what Mr. Milster told us today? These can be dangerous!"
"No. I love this too much." Eric said. He took off the mask, but held it in his hands. He felt the power of the mask surge through him, and in a gigantic flash of light, he disappeared together with the mask.
"Eric? Where are you?" Bernice asked. No one answered.
She walked to the map with a crystal on it and ordered. "Eric." The crystal moved up and down, all over the map.
"What am I to do?" Bernice wondered.
Suddenly, a monster burst in through the window and it shattered.
"What is it? Who are you?" Bernice asked.
"I am Greedius. Where is it?" The monster said, flinging his hands. Bernice raised her hands and created a shield. Nothing happened.
"What?" The monster grumbled. "Nothing happened?" It flung its hands again. This time, Bernice was flung out of the window. She was falling down and her mother, who was just walking into the house, saw it. Her mother stared at her. Immediately, her body seemed to be falling down at a much slower rate. Then, Bernice's mother jumped up three stories in the air and caught Bernice in her arms.
"What happened?" Bernice's mother asked. They were in the living room. Bernice had been unconscious for the past three hours. There was no trace of the monster at all.
"I don't know." Bernice said. "Eric took out this mask from a box in our attic and he suddenly disappeared. When I checked his position on the crystal map, the crystal just moved about all over the place. Then, the monster suddenly jumped in from the window and flung me out of the other window."
"Was the mask red?" Bernice's mother (who will now be referred to as Betty) asked.
"I think so. Why do you ask?" Bernice asked.
"I seem to remember that that was the Greed Mask." Betty said. "It causes everyone who wears it to absorb the powers of the Greed Monster, also known as Greedius. However, in doing so, he will turn greedy and there is an enormous chance of him taking over the entire world with the combined powers of Greedius and a magical being. Greedius is very powerful, he has more than the combined powers of three million people. However, once his power is absorbed, he will turn weaker and weaker until he effectively merges into one entity with the person who absorbed his power. When that happens, the person will be evil and indestructible, and it will happen within 24 hours of absorbing the power of Greedius."
"What are we to do? We only have 20 hours left, and there's school tomorrow. We must defeat it and save Eric before midnight." Bernice exclaimed nervously.
Betty said "I think we will have to defeat Greedius first. She walked up to the attic with Bernice and went to the map. "Greedius." Betty said.
"I tried it just now and it didn't work." Bernice said.
"You tried it with Eric, didn't you? Since Eric stole Greedius' power, Greedius will want to get his power back from Eric. However, Eric has the power of Fugamovi, which Greedius lacks." Betty said. "Hence, Greedius will have to keep running about the place, chasing Eric."
"So that was why Greedius came in through the window." Betty said.
"Yes." Betty said, looking at the map. "I see that the crystal has pinpointed the exact location of Greedius. Lets' go." She said, holding Bernice's hand and disappearing. A breeze was blowing out of the window. The curtains fell back into position after the breeze stopped.
ACT 2
A tornado gathered at the sidewalk and Bernice and Betty appeared.
Everyone stopped and looked at them. "What are you doing here?" They asked.
"Oh no, who are these people? Do they not know magic?" Bernice asked.
"I think we are in Junia." Betty said.
"What? Oh my, this is disgusting." Bernice opened her eyes in horror. They saw Greedius running off in the distance. Betty stared at Greedius. Suddenly, everything around her slowed down except Bernice and herself.
"Lets' chase him." Betty ordered. Betty held Bernice's hand and suddenly they zoomed in a flurry and reached Greedius, who was still running at an exceptionally slow speed as he was being slowed down.
Betty said "I can vaguely remember the spell used to suppress this monster."
She chanted. "Magical forces far and near,
Suppress Greedius' powers now with fear."
The slowing down effect weakened and gradually everyone was moving at normal speed again.
"Hey, Greedius!" Bernice said cheerfully, tapping on its scaly shoulder.
"What?" Greedius turned back and it flung its hands, to no effect. "What happened?" It picked up a pebble from the ground and threw it at Bernice. The air around Bernice turned fuzzy and moved out towards Greedius. When the pebble touched the fuzzy air, it immediately flew back at Greedius.
"Ow!" Greedius cried out as the pebble hit it with great force.
Betty jumped in the air and Greedius was immediately encased in a layer of solid ice, frozen by Betty. She jumped back down and kicked the layer of solid ice causing Greedius to break into many small fragments.
"Yes!" Bernice said happily.
"You witches." Suddenly a great force threw them through a wall, but Betty and Bernice hurriedly turned into a hurricane and were not injured.
"What is it? Who is it?" Bernice asked. A shadow loomed over the sky and Bernice looked up. She saw Eric. He was enormous. "Hi, Eric. You are a few feet taller than usual." Bernice greeted. Eric waved his hands again and Betty waved her hands at the same time. Eric was flung far back. He fell onto the floor, causing a lot of destruction.
Hurriedly, Betty whipped up a spell.
"Mask of Greed,
Mask of Gold,
What's not yours will never hold."
Immediately, Eric groaned in pain and many purple spirals surrounded him. The purple spirals gradually dissipated. Eric had fainted and he was back to his original size. Betty held Bernice's hand and teleported over to Eric. Then she also held Eric's hand and teleported back home.
The people in Junia were left shocked at what had happened.
ACT 3
Eric woke up on the sofa. "What happened?" He asked groggily.
Bernice, who was sitting right next to him, said "You just turned into a gigantic evil monster and fainted."
"I know. I will never be so nosy again." Eric said.
"You won't have any more chances to wear this mask of Greed anymore." Betty said as she raised her hands and exploded the mask on the table.
"Although I must say, it was quite fun." Bernice laughed.
"It wasn't." Betty said. "One of the things I am most concerned about is that I never had that mask."
"What?" Eric asked.
"Does that mean that someone is trying to harm us?" Bernice asked.
"I think so." Betty said.
"I bet it's a big demon." Bernice said.
"If there's nothing, then I'll be going home." Eric said, walking towards the open door.
"No, you are not going anywhere." Bernice snapped, staring at the door. A wave of air moved toward the door and closed it.
"Don't you realise I can just teleport?" Eric asked.
"Sure, see…" Bernice said. Suddenly, a look of worry creased her face.
"What?" Betty asked.
"Nothing, no, I just felt a chill…" Bernice said.
"Memorising lines from All Hell Breaks Loose?" Eric asked. "The next word is hoebe."
"No." Bernice whispered as suddenly, their door burst open and a tornado flew into the house, revealing a demon.
"Hax?" Eric wondered out loud. "Are we gonna die so soon?"
"I know. Hax is the demon that wants to kill all of us." Betty said as Hax walked closer towards the three of them.
"Who are you and what do you want?" Bernice asked.
"The end." Hax said.
"He's saying the exact same thing as he did to the Harmed Ones." Betty said.
"Oh, he wants the end?" Eric wondered out loud. "Alright, I'll let you have it."
"Evil wind that blows,
From that which comes below,
No longer will you dwell,
May death take you with this spell." He chanted, but nothing happened.
"Stop copying." Betty said.
Hax threw a ball of energy at Bernice but she dodged it.
"I'm not as stupid as Hru and Hyper." She laughed.
Hax threw another ball of energy at Bernice, but a wall of wind gathered around Bernice and pushed the ball of energy back at Hax, causing him to turn back into wind and fly out of the house, closing the doors in the process.
"Thank you for closing the doors after you leave." Bernice said. "Now could you remind me again, what would be the reason for him wanting to kill me and only me?"
"Perhaps I know the reason." Eric said. "The thing that both of you have in common is that you have the same power. Maybe someone… or something wants this certain power, and he wants to get it from you so that he will not lose his power and he can just present your power to his boss."
"Evil theory, but it sounds true." Bernice said.
"So what do we do?" Eric wondered.
"I think the only way out is…" Betty said.
"What?" Bernice asked.
"I felt another chill." Betty said.
Hax rushed into the house again. Betty waved her hands and the flow of wind slowed down.
"Hurry up." Betty said. "Think of a strategy."
"I don't know. I suppose we could have made him wear the Mask of Greed, but you just exploded it." Bernice said.
"Explosion." Eric said.
The flow of wind speeded up again, pushing everyone. Hax appeared again, slamming the door open.
Hax threw a ball of energy at Bernice but Bernice stared at the ball of energy. It reflected back at Hax and he groaned in pain as it hit him. Betty waved her hands, exploding Hax. Hax groaned as he was vanquished.
"It was that easy?" Eric wondered.
"Yes it was." Betty said.
(Ending)
"What? He failed?" The man said sternly. "Now we only have one source of power left. That is Cicero… Bernice."