Chapter 23
The Emperor watched from his cursed Palace, through the crystal The Wicked Witch of the West used to use, as Anthony and his friends defeated the army that he sent, with the intent to capture Anthony and bring him to the palace. When only a handful of Dragons and Zompires returned to him, he had no straws left to call the last, no more sympathy or understanding not even fake as it had been before. His army and allies had failed him for the third time, and the final time.
"DID YOU THINK YOU COULD FOOL ME WITH THE RETURN OF HALF AN ARMY? THIS ISNT WHAT I ORDERED! WHERE IS ANTHONY? WHERE IS GLINDA? ANSWER ME NOW I TELL YOU!" The Emperor still wearing the foggy black robe and painfully pointy crown, now could only show himself as the cursed, and glowing skeleton that he really was. His white boney hands still wet with the juices a body normally has shined in the fire light of the throne room as he yelled at his commander.
"Sire, we did all we could, Glinda is strong she has," they were instantly cut off, but not with words. The Emperor had been obsessing over every curse in the Grimmerie, and learned a few new tricks. With a motion of his skeletal hands, the remaining members of his army were cut in half magically. All their souls or spirits screamed out of their hearts and flowed into the Emperor's Amulet of Death. The mouth of its skull shape was still open, and overall getting darker. As their torsos fell off their hips, another wave of his bones and they flashed in a hell fire, and then turned to dust on the Castle floor. The Emperor yelled in pain as the Amulet grew deeper into his chest, but it increased his powers, and he allowed it do more. The Amulet now squirmed its self over to where his heart should be, and extended its internal roots. The Emperor fell to the floor with the pain as cursed bones from the Amulet withered away his hear to make more room for his darkness. He kneeled down on the floor, and struck the stone with his bone fists. Then out of his control, he flew on his back, and changed again. His head took the form of a dragon's skull, horns, fangs and all. Then his shoulders deformed into skulls with no bottom jaw imitating shoulder pads, and held a torn tattered black wool cape. His ribs opened a little, and black magic filled the cave. His feet became skeletal hooves of a bull. The Emperor had reached his full potential, and was the physical embodiment of hell. His powers now surpassed those taught in the Grimmerie, and so the book took it upon its self to burn in the fire pit of the throne room, feeling useless and outmatched at last.
The Emperor's bones from dragon head to bull hoof, turned black, and the Amulet of Death now had flaming eyes and mouth in the center of where his chest once was. He was now completely skeletal, only curses and bones and a torn black wool cape made his image. He stomped over to the balcony, and with a single clap of his boney hands together above his head, every square foot of land outside the Dark City, roared in flames. Screams of any remaining citizens were heard throughout the land, and all he could do was grin.
"Let them come. Let them burn their flesh in these hell fires, and cook my prize," The Emperor of course was referring to his own prophecy, its legitimacy never fully proven. The prophecy for him was supposedly that he could destroy all of the "heroes" of Oz and claim the Throne for all eternity and live unchallenged and immortal until the dawn of time.
When the fires consumed all of Oz's land with that one curse, Glinda and her companions had some time, since their palace was not made of wood or anything flammable.
"Do you feel warm?" Asked Julia who was sweating.
"Holy crap, yeah it's hot in here," Panted Argy.
"This is a spell this is, were in the middle of winter and sweating?! All of you get away from the walls!" Lady Glinda closed her eyes and chanted a musical spell. It created a shield of water to cancel the fire around her palace, and around Anthony where he was by now. She did not know it consumed the entire country. Argy ran over to a window and saw flames and smoke as far as he could see.
"Hey, Glinda you need to look at this," said Argy. More than just Glinda came to the window though.
"Anthony," said Julia softly, and scared. Argy looked at her when she said his name, and then back at the window, and frowned. Ben narrowed his stare.
"He's alive, I know it. Glinda, is there anything we can do to put out the fire? Or protect ourselves from it?" he asked Her Goodness. She simply smiled, thinking of the one thing that would provide that.
Anthony was trying miserably to figure out how to fly. After unsuccessful attempts, he decided to just walk/run the rest of the way. Suddenly everything around him burst into flame. He was instantly burned, and screamed helplessly in pain as skin melted. He blacked out, and lay in the fire.
As if by the grace of God, a white, pinkish substance surrounded him, shielding him from the fire, and slowly healing his wounds.
"Thank you Glinda, I knew you'd be there for me," The bubble lifted me high above the fire and took me straight to the Emperor's castle. All I could see was fire. Nothing but red flames, and then the Black cursed City, unharmed in the slightest, in the center. Before I reached the City though, my bubble stopped moving. All the waters in the updated rivers from before all this began, (the magic work done by me and the four other earth leaders in Oz), formed enormous rogue waves. The waves roiled and hissed with white foam and dwarfed the City. They then connected to each other, forming a thousand foot tall wall of water.
"Wow, Glinda what are you doing now?" I asked aloud.
The waves like slow moving elephants gradually fell towards the ground, to extinguish the fires on the land that the Emperor created. Crashing into the fire, the waves spilled over all the land, and put out the fires like wind to a candle. The water remained, and steam bellowed from the ocean like a country sized chimney. Flakes of ash continued to fall like smelly snow for many days after the fire, and the smell of sulfur from that much fire was almost overwhelming. The bubble continued moving, and took me into a room I recognized as the one formerly used by Glinda, but now was a destroyed war office. The bubble popped, and carefully, I tried to make as little noise as possible. I stood absolutely still, waiting for any sign of the Emperor, or one of his soldiers. Convinced I was alone, I trotted outside the room.
After I checked my back, I continued down the hall. Human bones scattered the floors but I continued on despite how freaked out I was. The Orange remained warm in the pouch on my waist, but unfortunately, the potion was wearing off. I started becoming human, in a room directly across one narrow hallway, that the Emperor was most likely in.