Chapter 18 – The Spell of Wishes

"It looks like you've become quite adept at utilizing the tes macrinomb spell." Verion said to the small sage. Ace simply glared at the crazy feline creature angrily and kept his guard up. Rather than keeping his attention on Ace, Verion shifted his focus toward me. "So, how is the fatigue level, my dear? I thought you would have abandoned the journey by now with all of the premonitions I've sent you." "Premonitions?" I asked the crazed beast. "Oh, yes, my predictions of how this fight will end. No matter how you look at it, your little hero cannot defeat me. In the end all of you will either bow before me or die." "And I suppose this is the part where we face off against you and say that 'we'll never bow to you'? After that there will be an epic battle at which you will lose big time and we will emerge the victors." Dot stated super tired of all of the cliché's.

"You think of this as one of your little skits back on earth?" Verion roared to the small Warner walking back into the room. "I hate to bring you such bad news, but there is no script. And I'll make deadly sure none of you come out of this room alive." He lifted his gaze up at the silver doors of the entrance and, without uttering a single word, commanded them shut. And that is what they did. The doors swung toward each other and slammed shut, shaking the entire castle for a few seconds. Realizing that their lives were actually in real danger now, Dot simply turned and gave Verion a sheepish, bashful grin and reached behind her back for a mallet to hit him with. However, before she could even grab hold of her hammer, the elephant sized lynx teleported in front of her, and swiped at her with his enormous right paw, claws extended. Batting Dot with more paw than claw, the girl was flung into the leftmost wall from the entrance and was buried into the marble upon impact. Rather than feeling dizzy, cracking a joke and then flopping onto the ground, Dot simply hung by her arms from inside the impression of her image in the wall and hung her head, unconscious and bleeding from her mouth and the left side of her forehead. "Wait a minute. That doesn't make sense. We're toons and until now nothing like that has ever happened. What gives? Where are our toon abilities?" Yakko demanded. Verion simply turned to him and snidely responded, "Allow me to explain, this room is the "Tomb of the Kings. With all of the royal bodies here, their magic essence creates a kind of field that cancels out anything that would cause someone to even be remotely immortal. In other words, you still have your hammer space, but now I can harm and even kill you."

Wakko, reacting to the injuries of his little sister, actually was able to pull out his own mallet and swung it at the creature. Instead of simply smashing the creature or breaking at the handle, the mallet shattered like a piece of crystal colliding with the ground from being dropped. Feeling the intense sting in his hands from the mallet's vibration backlash, Wakko opened up his hands and found his gloves shredded on the inside of his fingers and palms, his hands reddening. Verion quickly turned around to take a swipe at the Warner child while he was distracted, but Yakko dove in just in time to snatch his brother out of harm's way. After rolling out of the line of fire, Yakko asked his little brother, "Wakko, are you alright?" Wakko simply cringed and said, "My hands, I can't feel my hands anymore." Yakko, realizing that there probably was more damage done than what he could see, turned to try his hand at facing the giant silver lynx only to see red flames leaking out of the creature's bared teeth. Verion opened his mouth and spat a huge fireball at the helpless brothers. At that point Yakko was faced with the decision of running away alone and leaving his brother to receive the brunt of the fireball's force, or try to take his brother with him and hope for the best.

Yakko quickly lifted his brother onto his back and ran away from the enormous flaming ball. He was barely out of range when the spell struck ground. The resulting explosion launched both him and Wakko across the room and they splashed right into the stream. When Yakko pushed himself up he was able to see just what was beyond the tomb. It was a white marble room that was no bigger than 50 feet long by 50 feet wide by 50 feet tall. Carved into the center of the back wall was an image of the six pointed star. Underneath the carving was a stone alter with a sword rack that had no sword. Realizing that his little brother was still face first in the water, Yakko quickly grabbed him by the shoulders and lifted his face out of the water. Wakko coughed to clear his lungs and gasp for air. As he moved his arms, Yakko suddenly felt a twinge of pain in his left shoulder blade and reached around to grab his injured spot thinking that he had merely pulled his shoulder muscle. Instead, he felt the absence of skin and an abundance of heat rising from the wound. The flash of the fireball had burned his shoulder to a second degree burn almost instantaneously. Feeling the agony of his burn Yakko made use of his other arm to pull his brother to dry land. As he did so, he noticed that Wakko was gripping his right arm in the same kind of agony as he did with his hands. Yakko looked over his brother and noticed that his little brother's arm was limp and hanging down farther than usual. Apparently Wakko had dislocated his shoulder upon impact with the bottom of the stream canal.

"Are you finished?" Verion asked our group with a cocky tone to his voice. For some reason, Ace simply floated in mid air, stunned by what he just saw. He created all of this destruction, and hasn't even entered his sage mode yet. Angry that Verion was hurting his family and scared because he realized that Verion was also a sage and knew that the beast had much more power buried inside him, Ace entered into a conflict with himself about what he should do. He watched as the beast simply waltzed over to the earth guardian, said to him, "You shouldn't have been so soft", and stole his powers. Ace watched as the guardian shrank down to the size and shape of Dr. Ragnarok, and fell to the ground too weak to even pull his body into sitting position. Rather than taking the final stroke and killing the poor Valkyrian, Verion moved on to the wind guardian. "You my dear were always too stupid to give anyone a decent challenge." He said with hurt and cruelty in his voice. As he drained her power, her hair turned from pink to cherry red, her wings shriveled up and fell off, and her outfit turned into a combination of a sea-blue Japanese school uniform and the dress that was worn by the dead girl I saw in the ghost town. She then dropped to the ground and struggled to lift herself up just like the others. As Verion left her lying there, she began to sob heavily, tears streaming from her eyes, down her cheeks and rapidly dripping onto the marble floor.

Seeing the girl's tears like that, Ace finally snapped. His aura intensified brighter than when he was facing off against Ragnarok, and the kitten charged right at the large beast. In his head he began communicating with Vuloc. "He's not gonna stop, is he?" Ace asked floating in the yellowy-white space in his mind. "It doesn't appear like he wants to listen. His need for power somehow turned into a lust for power. Even if he obtains the spell of wishes, it won't be enough for him." Vuloc answered. "I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to borrow your power again." Ace solemnly said to the Valkyrian sage. Vuloc simply looked at Ace with kindness and determination in his eyes. "What do you mean, 'again'? All you have done from the beginning was all your power." Ace looked confused, so Vuloc said, "You have more power inside you then you ever dreamed of. However, in this case, I agree. We should combine our strength. From now on, my power is yours."

Ace struck the Zouriinkusu in the back and drove it into the ground before he could steal the powers of another guardian. The kitten backed off from the damage to the floor and witnessed as Verion simply stood up and stepped out of the crater in the floor unharmed. When Ace spoke this time both his and Vuloc's voice came out of his mouth. "That's impossible!" the kitten exclaimed. Verion simply shook off any debris lying on his body and chuckled a little bit. "Confused? There is a reason why they nicknamed me 'the diamond beast' you know. I can harden my fur and skin to that of a diamond during the moment anyone attacks me." As he gloated, he failed to notice Runt sprinting up from behind him. Runt lunged in from the left side jabbed his left front paw into Verion's ribcage near his heart and muttered something to himself. Several bolts of lightning erupted from Runt's paw and surged throughout Verion's body. It however didn't do much damage at the time and Verion simply slapped the dog aside like swatting at a slow insect.

Ace watching his father fly off and crash into a stone wall and have a dead king flop on top of his injured body got back into the fight and sped directly for the giant cat's head. Verion grinned thinking that all he has to do is harden his skin and fur and the fight would be over. His grin quickly turned into a look of worry as he realized that nothing was happening and his skin and fur never hardened as the small kitten slammed right into his head and drove him into the marble floor. Again Ace backed off and waited for Verion to rise. The large lynx slowly stood up groaning with a headache and confused as to why his spell failed. "What...what did you do to me?" He demanded. Runt was unconscious and was unable to answer. Verion turned toward the still conscious Warner brothers. "What has he done to me?" he demanded. "He used a basic lightning spell." Dot grunted out. Everyone's attention turned to the little girl still hanging on the wall by her own impression. She was barely regaining consciousness, but still was able to grin coyly at Verion and glare at him with her right eye since her left eye had her blood running over its lid. "How can a simple lightning spell stop me from using the spell that..." Verion cut himself off when he realized what Runt had done to him. "A spell technique?" He stated in his realization. Dot painfully chuckled slightly and answered with, "The technique that permanently blocks the next spell the caster tries to use." Realizing that he no longer could use his hardening spell, Verion fell into blind rage. He turned to the rest of the guardians and absorbed their powers all at the same time. Each guardian turned into a Valkyrian of their respective forms. The water guardian turned into a woman wearing a sea blue long dress, the electric guardian turned into a scrawny sixteen-year-old Valkyrian boy, the ice guardian turned into a Valkyrian wearing a business looking suit, the fire guardian turned into a man with flaming red hair and a heavy build, and the metal guardian traded his samurai armor for a simple tank top and khakis. Each of them struggled to hold themselves up after flopping onto the marble floor.

Upon draining the last of the guardian's power, Veion himself, began to transform. His silver fur began to turn a deep charcoal gray, bronze horns sprouted from the crown of his head, bone spikes grew out of his elbows and along the vertebra of his spine, and his eyes began to glow a deep gold color. "The power!" he exclaimed like it made him feel rested and refreshed. He opened his mouth and a powerful golden beam of light erupted from it. He moved his head, following the stream canal from one end to the other. The beam of light disintegrated the marble floor and Yakko barely got himself and his brother out of the way before the beam reached them both. Witnessing the raw destructive power Verion had obtained, the two brothers sat up against the arch frame in pure shock. Ace tried to come in once again to slam the giant beast on the head once again when Verion turned his attention back to the little sage. Firing the golden beam once again Verion sought to obliterate the kitten. Ace reacted to the new scenario and stopped in his tracks and erected his strongest shield moments before the beam engulfed him and began to push him back. Eventually, Ace could no longer hold his position and slammed into the back wall. When Verion called off his attack, Ace dropped to the ground and his barrier shattered like glass upon impact with the ground.

Barely able to move now Ace was unable to do anything against Verion's next attack. The dark beast grinning at the battered up little kitten, he took great evil joy in exacting his final strike. He once again opened his mouth and fired the golden beam at Ace. I have no idea how I did what I did next, but I sprinted as fast as I could and placed myself in between Ace and the golden beam of destructive force. "I won't let you hurt my son!" I yelled. I wanted to grab Ace and try to get out of there and escape, however my body wasn't responding and I simply stood there ready to do what little I could to protect him. All eyes were on the two of us as the beam drew in closer and closer. Moments before the beam struck I could see a flash of white light before my eyes and I thought to myself that it was over. I was dead. I closed my eyes to await any judgment from whatever deity I was headed to. Apparently, I'll have to wait a little longer. When I opened my eyes, I noticed that I was still in the white room with Verion, the guardians and all of my other friends. I was still alive somehow and there was a shining white barrier protecting me. I turned to look behind me and saw Ace in his sage mode, but something was off about it. His aura was a brilliant pure white and shining so bright he looked like a star. His fur was glowing silvery blue and his star mark and eyes were glowing the same color as his aura.

"The spell of wishes..." Dot started groggily, "Is a wishing star!" Yakko finished in awe. Ace floated in the air and closed his eyes. When he did this, all of us, Queen Angelina, Runt, Dot, Yakko, Wakko, the guardians and I began to glow from the inside of our bodies. When the glowing faded away, we all had our strength back and our wounds were healed. Verion roared as loud as he could and screamed, "How is this possible? This is inconceivable! The spell of wishes is mine!" He then stopped and said, "Fine, I'll just steal it the way I stole the guardian's powers." Instead, Ace simply vanished from sight, like he was teleporting but with no light to accompany it. He reappeared above the giant mutated cat and plummeted himself downward and into the small of his back, plowing him into the ground. Verion let out a loud pained yell as he realized that he had been attacked from above. Ace then, backed away from him and allowed Verion to get back to his feet. Enraged, the giant black cat rose to all four of his feet and fired the golden beam at the tiny kitten. Rather than enveloping him, Ace retaliated with a similar attack. Firing a beam the same color as his shinning white aura, the two attacks collided and with it a powerful force that pushed us all away from the two combatants. At first they seemed equally strong until Ace began inching his way toward Verion. At that moment, the point where the two beams were pushing against each other also inched toward Verion, constantly staying in the center of the two.

Verion's eyes widened at the display of power from the small earth kitten and began thinking to himself, "No, this can't be happening. I was the ultimate sage. Even Merion struggled against my incredible powers but this little whelp is over powering me like I'm but a feather he can simply blow on to keep in the air. Is this truly the power of the spell of wishes?" When Ace was but mere yards from the Zouriinkusu's mouth, he poured even more power into his attack, completely pushing it back into the beast's mouth. Verion now was choking on Ace's powerful attack and soon began to glow and shrink in size.

As the glow from Verion's body faded, he shrank into what seemed to look similar to a 70 year old man. He still had a slight build but he had a long beard that extended past his knees. His brown-ish red eyes showed a sign of complete shock. "What? What happened to me?" He demanded. When ace spoke, it now sounded like an entire chorus of him was singing in unison. "I've taken away your ability to use spells. You will never use magic to hurt innocent creatures ever again." He said. Then a shock wave of energy erupted from his body that spread across the entire planet and any Valkyrian that it had washed over was instantly transformed to like a cross between their old Valkyrian form and one of the Warners. In other words, every Valkyrian across the globe transformed to look similar to Queen Angelina. Moments later, another shockwave erupted from his body and washed over the planet, giving every dead Valkyrian new life. The planet was revived.

Watching Ace as brilliant as he was, I was proud of him and tears began to well up and fall from my eyes. He slowly floated down to the ground and as he did he was enveloped in a pure white light. That light proceeded to split into two lights and then they both faded and shaped themselves, one into a small kitten, and one into a tall Valkyrian. When the light finally faded, Ace took a step forward and stumbled a little bit. "What exactly did you do?" I asked him. "Guys, say 'hi' to Vuloc." Ace said as the rest of the group gathered around. When Queen Angelina came into view they both met each other's eyes and howled, "Hellooooo Nurse!" They're a perfect match for each other." Yakko stated sarcastically. The two bashfully turned away from each other and blushed.

"Gaaaaaaah!" Verion Screamed at the top of his lungs. "Why? With all my power. Why?" "Vuloc looked at Ace and then turned his gaze back to Verion and said sarcastically, "You weren't born from a wishing star." "Speaking of which, you promised." Ace said to Vuloc. The Valkyrian simply nodded, closed his eyes and a small shock wave came from his body. "There, it is done." He finally said. "What did you do?" Verion said with horror and fear in his voice and eyes. "I've dispersed the power of the spell of wishes amongst the entire planet." Vuloc said. So now, everyone has the spell of wishes?" Dot asked. "Yes, young one, like you and you siblings and friends, every Valkyrian now has the ability to wish and dream." Vuloc told her. Dot simply stood there confused. "Every being has the ability to wish and dream. Valkyrians on the other hand, were born from a burst of energy and never really givin the ability to wish or dream. The spell of wishes grants all Valkyrians the ability to do both." He continued. "But, Verion had a wish and it never came true." Dot reminded him. Vuloc had an answer for that as well. "Verion was the first sage. Sages are granted more power because of the ability to dream. Verion had a dream that became an ambition, not a wish that became a reality." Verion was beginning to become enraged at this point and rushed in to try to beat the tar out of Vuloc. However, he never made it to Vuloc. Nymph used her power to tie Verion up with vines and detain him. Angela walked up to Verion and punched him in the face after saying, "I'm not stupid!"