Chapter 24
Anthony had in the most inconvenient place and time completely sheded his dragon disguise, and was now back to his regular form, a tall tanned man wielding a powerful staff and wearing a white and tan robe, very obvious against the black marble halls of the poisoned former Emerald City halls.
I quickly cast a deceptive charm on my self, to have the Emperor see me as if I were actually Bael. I wlked along slowly down the halls trying to remember how to get to the throne room where the infamous balcony was.
Finally I reached the enormous obsidian doors, and with a forceful shout opened them. I saw the Emperor standing in the middle of the daylight from the balcony which was open, his back was to me. Suddenly the doors slammed shut. His silhouette was horrifying. Last time I saw the Emperor he mere wore skeletal accents. Now, he actually had the form of a dragon skeleton in Oz, he looked like the devil wearing black robes and a torn ragged cape.
The Emperor turned around slowly. "Bael, I assume with your presence you have the best of news for me,"
"Thank goodness my spell worked!" I congratulated my self, then quickly felt in my pocket ensureing the cursed Blood Orange was still there, I could feel its dark magic, it was there alright. I let out a victorious deep chuckle.
"Is something funny? Because last I checked," The emperor levitated me in the air while choking me, without raising a hand. "you failed me. Do you know what happens when my followers fail me? THEY DIE!" Suddenly the Emperor's horned dragon skull burst into flame ready to destroy me at any second.
"WAIT! Sir! Please just one moment," I reached into my pouch, and pulled out the Blood Orange. In the presence of such incredibly enormous black Magic, the Amulet of Death grinned, wanting to consume the Blood Oranges curses, whatever they were.
"What is that?" Asked the Emperor, dropping me to the stone floor.
"It's an orange. A plain, simple natural, Vinkus Orange. I found it on the path where the Yellow Brick road once was, and found a single orange bursting with life on a dead tree. It's funny, to think that despite how dark and terrible," I slowly changed myself back into my own form, confident that I could in fact defeat the vile Emperor once and for all, and carried out the deed. "you have made this once beautiful, magical and Good Land, it is incredible that life still flourishes! THIS IS YOUR FINAL DAY YOUR OZNESS! I AM ANTHONY THE BLUE, AND THIS BLOOD ORAGE STOLEN BY THE GHOST OF THE WICKED WITCH, SHALL BE YOURS!" I yelled at the top of my lungs while tearing the blood orange in half with my bear hands. Its juices were not spilling, but glowed impressively bright red behind its bright orange skin. I flew over to the Emperor who did not expect me to not be Bael, and shoved both halves of the Orange down his throat, and stood on his skeletal snout to force him to eat it.
When I saw him swallow after a few seconds, at first nothing happened, so I backed away slowly.
'What have you done! YOU FOOL! YOU TRICKSTER! DEVIL!" The Emperor stood back up but then the Blood Orange started working its' curses. The Emperor began bleeding, through his mouth. Slow at first, then it was flowing, until as if I had slit his throat, every ounce of his blood drained out of his mouth. The Emperor began fading from normal shade of black to pale grey, and as the last ounce of blood drained from his mouth, his hollow body collapsed to his knees. He raised an arm pointing at me, still alive with the power the Amulet of Death had given him, but then the Blood Orange wasn't finished working. Every ounce of his magic essence drained out of his chest through the jaw of the Amulet. When his now pale body lost the dragon appearance, and a silvery ghost like copy of his body clearly painfully was sucked out of him, and shattered in mid air. The rest of his lifeless and powerless body dropped to the floor, his bones and armor made a heavy clang on the marble floor.
"Im not finshed with you Emperor from Hell. You took away who I loved, you destroyed the Oz blood line, murdered my friend and the son of Ozma, for that I shall destroy your empty shell. Itt is said in the Good Book from where I come from, that when we die, we change once more, from dust… to dust," AS I said that, I plunged my upside down staff into the heart (or where it would have been had he had one) and withered away his terrible cursed and hellish body to dust, which disappeared hissing and sizzling into nothing.
Panting, I collapsed to the floor, unconscious, and blacked out. The death of the Emperor had many results. The death of any magic folk who casts spells of any kind in a land as magical as Oz, has the most interesting results. Every spell they ever cast, is broken with their true finite death. When the Emperor was alive, he cursed all of Oz, killed every citizen with his dragons, bewitched dead bodies to be his armies, and destroyed the Ozmist of Natalee.
Everyone else that was alive, (Lady Glinda, Ben, Argy, Julia and Evardo) also were sent unconscious. Lady Glinda however, pretended to be, and in reality, disappeared for the moment to go back to Cloud Swamp for reasons which I shall reveal later. Oz with a rumbling ozquake, broke apart its dark shadow The Emperor created. The Black marble crumbled and peeled off bringing back the powerful gold and Emeralds to the capital city. The Four States were repopulated with life, (people, vegetation, and water in the rivers). Oz was changing back to how she was before the gloom and death and curses of the Emperor, the very last member of the Thropp family.
Meanwhile back at Cloud Swamp, Lady Glinda in a rush, popped her own bubble and fell to the ground running towards the foggy swamp that was always lit as if it were night time even during the daylight hours, and waited panting.
"Come on, I know you're here, come back to us, and she waited, as the ground shook, Oz was still changing. She waited more, the rumbling became periodical. Finally after one more round of waiting, the ground ceased rumbling. Oz was healed through and through, Glinda could feel, it, and smiled. She let out tears of incredible amounts of relief, "Well done Anthony," She whispered. Then suddenly, she heard bubbles from the swamp, and whipped her golden haired, crystal crowned head around to see.
Something was walking up out of the water, as if they had been born again, coughing and gasping loudly for air, splashing around like mad. Lady Glinda rushed over, and held the now apparent girl in her arms, picking her p like a child of her own out of the water. Using magic from a free hand as she knelt down on the ground to share the weight with Oz's ground, she dried and cleaned the girl, and she was quite clearly, Natalee. In human form, with a soul, and a heart. The death of the dark Emperor who killed Natalee, brought her back by ending his curses.