The Ancients

by Adam-Clay Webb

  So it’s madness of this level that happened in the first war… Lex considered.

  Lex turned around to face where Adam should have been standing on the floating rock. But there was neither an Adam nor a floating rock there anymore. When did he—Lex quickly returned his attention to where the island was still rising up. He readied himself for something – not quite sure what – as he saw the whole island shake and tear apart. While captured by this, he still scanned the skies for signs of the sage’s position.

  The island separated into about ten huge masses, and those further separated into around ten more each. The chunks of earth each condensed to form spheres, and the roughly-one-hundred spheres began a slow orbit about a tinier piece of rock.

  “That’s him,” Lex said to himself. “I suppose throwing the island as a whole would be too slow an attack, and too much of a gamble. But this way…” He snickered assuredly. “My speed is unmatched. Those boulders are far too massive to move fast enough to pose a threat.”

  But what did this young Icemaker know of the powers of the sages?

  Lex’s wings increased to sixteen in preparation. “Bring it on.”

  But even with his over-confident simper, he was hardly ready for the barrage of bulleting spheres that ripped the air in pursuit of him. Their apparent size transformed from pebbles to planets as they volleyed Lex, who had to wear thirty-two wings instead of sixteen in order to power his frenzy of flight. Tsunamis rippled and the earth cracked and quaked underneath as the spheres of giant boulders slammed into the ocean and bullied about tonnes of water.

  Lex’s flight, now powered by sixty-four wings, was now a shadowy blur that Adam’s marbles managed to keep tabs on narrowly. But even with his impressive perception, Adam could not see when Lex’s wings increased to one-hundred-and-twenty-eight. Neither was his vision in any way useful in sensing Lex.

  Adam closed his eyes, tapping into what he called ‘particle sense’. Lex, meanwhile, easily dodged the now-seeming-random movements of the large projectiles, readying to make a surprise attack upon the sage.

  There! The sage tapped into a more refined sensibility for his next move. Time to discipline this youngling.

  Lex dodged another massive boulder, but this time, the boulder was meant to be dodged. Upon Adam’s command, fiery chains burst forth from the rock as it crashed down into the sea. The chains, instead of chasing Lex, who Adam knew was moving too swift to be thusly caught, intercepted his movement. Wrapping around his body with frightening precision, Araganian flames were already scorching the boy. Lex’s eyes widened as another of the boulders swallowed up his entire field of vision. Within a second’s twentieth, there was another massive quake and uprising of water.

  Adam made a simper. Into the earth, little boy. But before Adam’s thought was complete, his mind collapsed into a feeling of utter fright. Having no time to react, he felt a damning presence looming behind him. His spine shifted and his ribs broke in several places as Lex’s foot dug into the sage’s back, five-hundred and twelve wings reshaping what should have been possible. A pulse of dark power was generated upon Lex’s impact, flashing through the air and shattering the remaining mountains into dust. Adam plunged beneath the water, digging deep into the earth.

  Lex’s lips arched downward and his eyes remained cold. With his godlike speed, he reached down on the water, creating a floor of black ice that stretched over miles as he landed in a crouch.

  The many-winged demon boy reached up into the clouds within the following second, easily conjuring up enough Zagan power to create a tera bomb.

  From wherever the gods were, they could smell the stench of power as Lex shoved the unearthly sphere of death down on the iced ocean, under which Adam was plunged. Though not as developed as the tera bomb that the dragon-form Juventus had summoned in the last war, this black-hole looking sphere was no joke.

  A black night scattered across a third of earth as the attack landed. The deafening noise of the Zagan power resonated over the planet, the most distant survivors hearing something between a shallow ringing and a faint hum. As the darkness dispersed, Lex looked down at what seemed to be an abandoned desert. The tera bomb had eaten up the waters, and had made a giant crater that could probably have been identified from outer space. Hundreds of miles around the sudden desert lay confused waters that were already rushing back in to flood the desert.

  Such incredible persistence, Lex thought musingly. He could hardly believe that in the centre of this freshly dug crater and new desert stood what looked like a small dome of steel – no doubt some defence of the Earth Sage. But what kind of defence could have negated the power of what was Trium’s most dreaded attack?

  Lex gracefully landed down to where Adam was.

  The silver dome slowly sunk back down into the earth, uncovering Adam.

  “The Argros Dimension Shield,” Adam said. “A dome that retrieves and condenses metals within the earth’s very core.” Lex noticed that Adam’s breathing was finally heavy. The sage finally collapsed to his knees, having been able to stand in the first place after having his spine and ribs mangled a miracle in itself. “I went ahead and crafted a technique that Argros was too lazy to develop.” Adam then crumbled down even further, his now weak lower arm saving him from falling on his face. “Of course, not being the Metal Sage, summoning metal from the earth’s core is a little taxing.”

  “You shouldn’t even be alive,” Lex said, walking up to him.

  Adam made struggles, but Lex could see that his body was finished. The jaded sage vomited up a river of blood. Then he sighed heavily. The boy grabbed Adam by his throat and lifted him until he was somewhat upright, preparing a shadowball in the hand at his side.

  “Time to die. Time to go home to the earth,” Lex said with a slight, but still perceptible hint of respect in his voice.

  “Die?” Adam asked as if Lex was being ridiculous. “I have long awaited this moment, young Lex. When uncaged by this body, my consciousness shall scatter into the earth itself. This, son of Yuki, is the beginning of immortality.” Then Adam, with the last of his strength, grabbed Lex’s hand wrist, which shook slightly under the pressure of the dense shadowball. As if impatient, or claiming a final and decisive honour, Adam forcefully pulled Lex’s wrist forward until the shadowball was plunged into his chest.

  Lex, frightened, stood there with his arm run though the Earth Sage. There was an eerily smug look on the sage’s face.

  Chapter 36: Ice and Magic

  As the body of the Earth Sage hit the ground, the earth swallowed him up. Lex took a few steps back at the sight of this, wondering anew what manner of men these sages were. He uttered a heavy sigh, then as he inhaled again, he felt something – an emerged presence. He turned to face Oga, whose arms were folded, and whose lengths of silk hair flashed wildly behind him.

  “I advise you both face me at once if you want to put up a good fight,” Lex greeted him.

  “Hmph. I suppose you think defeating a sage qualifies you to speak as you do to a god?” Oga answered. Arms still folded, the earth tore up as a blinding whiteness encircled him. “Kizer has toyed with you too much. I blame him for your ignorant arrogance. But your little show is over now.”

  “Prepare yourself, Oga,” Lex declared. Then tens of shadowy strings swarmed out from a dark aura that flamed about Lex. His eyes had blackened in less than a moment. But Oga remained as is, allowing Lex to see for himself the futility of the Zagans’ power. The black streaks were utterly destroyed by Oga’s aura. The god watched as Lex disappeared, leaving behind only a force that shook the earth. The black-eyed boy appeared behind Oga in a burst of speed with a readied fist.

  With a bay of strength, Lex struck at Oga. Still above ground, sixteen wings stretched out behind him, Lex stared into Oga’s eyes. His fist, even with its invisible speed, was caught by Oga’s even quicker hand. As Lex looked into Oga’s menacing eyes, he felt the god’s presence invade his soul, his entire being, and invoke a primordial fear into the demo
ns. The boy felt the darkness leave him, and the wings vanished into an escaping mist.

  Lex finally reached ground, still staring into the eyes of Oga.

  “For one,” Oga said, “you will have to fight me with your own strength. There is a deep-rooted fear that I have planted into the Zagans that render them incapable of facing me. For this reason, I am far more dreadful an opponent for you than even Kizer. This means I can destroy you even without relying on any actual portion of my strength.”

  Lex jumped back from Oga, landing and skating back. Though the darkness had disappeared from his eyes, a very thin dark aura persisted around him, and the Zagan strength, to a slight degree, still coursed through him.

  “Then I will defeat you ice,” Lex said.

  Oga snickered at this. “You will defeat me, the god of magic, with your worthless ice,” Oga said, wondering if Lex was really hearing his own words. “Three seconds,” the god said after a moment passed in which Lex contemplated the stupidity of fighting Oga with nothing but ice.

  “Hn?”

  But Lex would soon understand. As he saw Oga vanish in a flash, the boy summed up two massive spheres of ice.

  Blood gushed out from Lex as Oga reached up to him with an actual godly speed, and with minimal effort. Oga gently touched the boy’s chest with his palm, and a force that transcended to shake his very soul flung him off his feet before he could think of a response.

  “One,” he heard Oga say. Lex hurled back with no control of himself, and his movement ended in a sharp, swift pain, one that somehow silenced the pain that accompanied the touch of Oga’s hand.

  Body shaking, he just noticed that he was back on his feet. He looked down at the sword forged of bright white mana that protruded through his chest.

  “Two,” he heard Oga’s voice behind him.

  Blood pooled down from Lex, and the only movement he could achieve was the shivering of his body. Already, Ogal mana had spread through him, paralyzing him, poisoning so as to kill him probably even before the grave wound in his chest.

  “Three!” Lex heard a voice from above. At that point, a shadow loomed over him, covering the entire battlefield. Something was blocking the sun, and he knew whatever it was would only serve to hasten his death.

  As Lex’s vision angled upward from the white sword, he saw Oga standing a few meters before him. Yet, at the same time, he felt Oga’s presence behind him, and the sword of white mana was being maintained, so someone must have been holding it. The boy’s memory dug up the recessed affair of Lash’s death, which Oga had wrought with a mana clone. A clone, he realized. Lex had no idea which one was the clone, but that didn’t matter and he knew it. Besides, there was still the looming shadow that he hadn’t yet faced.

  And so as he looked up, his vision moved from the Oga before him to the massive red beast in the sky. A dragon? the boy wondered as his vision and his consciousness wavered. On top of whatever that thing was stood a man with folded arms – or rather, a god, or the clone thereof. Yet another Oga….

  The monstrosity belched down a sea of red fire at Lex, storming up a wind that made Oga’s hair fly majestically. Lex’s vision became just a canvas of orange-red. He felt, even before the mass of fire reached him, his body start to melt under the heat.

  This is it, he accepted. No ice of his could have battled this sea of fire, even if he could have actually moved. And the darkness had abandoned him.

  As the fire closed down on him, he experienced a single sensation – calm. Having died twice before, this death was certainly the most peaceful. With no sight or hearing, for that immeasurable moment, instead of a hellish fire, a calming coolness came over him. And a moment later, his vision made a return, and all he saw was white. But this whiteness slowly – or seemingly slowly – defined itself as an icy mist. As his vision’s return became more resolute, he noticed that the fire of the massive beast was suddenly a powder of cloudy ice.

  “My son,” he heard a voice. And this voice, more than even the heavenly coolness, gave him a feeling of safeness that was comparable only to his mother’s embrace. As Lex looked to his immediate right to see a face that he somehow recognized, he saw in his periphery that the Oga behind him was frozen solid. The boy gasped as the man yellow-haired man with soft blue eyes touched his chest lightly, where his Oga’s sword had made the dreadful wound. He felt a coolness mend his body and soul, and he felt the poisonous mana vanish from him.

  But just then, the massive dragon and its rider made a swift flight, reaching behind Lex and Yuki.

  “Burn them!” the Oga on the dragon commanded. Lex turned his head quickly and looked back at the massive beast, its mouth already readying the next attack. But the man who had appeared out of the icy mist, his eyes still forward at the Oga standing before him and Lex, stretched his unoccupied hand backward, fist folded. Lex’s eyes scattered as he witnessed ice imprison the massive beast and its rider with an impossible speed. Yuki, without even giving them the attention of his eyes, opened his fist abruptly, and the prison of ice shattered, turning to icy bits the beast and its commander.

  “Y’suha,” Yuki’s voice dragged Lex from his dazzled state. The boy inspected his chest quickly, noticing that nothing but a slight discolouration was left of the wound that should have killed him. The boy looked back over at Yuki. He stared at his father. That was one question he did not need to ask. He felt it clearly, even more clearly than his eyes had ever shown him anything. He felt a transcendent connection to this man, and a true certainty that this man who had appeared was indeed his father. As Yuki looked into Lex’s eyes, the boy’s mind imploded with resurrected memories – memories that had been silenced by Oga’s dreadful magic.

  “Good of you to join us, Ice Sage,” Oga said, then snickered a bit.

  “The real Oga is up ahead, Y’suha,” Yuki said. “I know you have que--”

  “My name is Lex Leo. And no – I have no questions… I will kill you, Ice Sage, just like I killed the Earth Sage, and just as I will kill the gods,” Lex finally said, his eyes now set on Oga up ahead.

  Yuki’s mist shrouded them both thickly, and it gave Lex the feeling of unlimited power. His ice energy was leagues more potent than he had ever felt it. Never before this moment had he felt like his ice was even stronger than the darkness inside. He knew with sureness that Oga stood no chance.

  “I understand,” Yuki’s reply came.

  ***

  The ominously soft thudding of footsteps woke the drained wizard from his torturous limbo.

  “Who… Who’s there?” his voice shook. A sudden fright gobbled him as he felt himself suddenly fall. The sound of chains tearing apart had brought with it his descent. He landed just a moment later, panting, crouching, trying desperately to summon up some mana, or at least see something in the darkness.

  As suddenly as his descent had come, a yellow light lit the place, like a thousand candles got to work all at once. Just now standing, he looked forward at the tall figure and the grey hat on his head. Vis walked up to Wizard briskly.

  “How quickly does your magic recover?” Vis asked on reaching up to him.

  “Where is this place? And how did you find me?” Wizard asked suspiciously.

  “Irrelevant,” Vis said quickly. “The gods are not yet dead, so you can’t be relaxing here at a time like this.”

  Wizard worked the joints in his shoulders and wrists. Already, he felt his mana trickling back in.

  “It was Oga who captured you and left you here,” Vis told him.

  “So I figured,” Wizard said. “He forwent killing me, probably to use me later on.”

  “It is so,” Vis confirmed. “Come. We mustn’t tarry. There are still two gods to kill.”

  “And a city to enter,” Wizard said, a slight smirk finally creasing his face.

  ***

  “I have broken Oga’s hold on the demons’ minds somewhat,” Yuki told Lex. They were still side by side, facing the unmoving Oga.

  What?! That’s impossible
… How… When… Lex’s countenance kept as stoic an appearance as possible. When he healed my wound? The boy wondered. He dug inside for Zagan power, and indeed some was given to him – not the peak of Zagan strength, but an aura lively enough to warp the look on Oga’s face.

  That Yuki. Oga’s countenance sunk even further.

  “I have a plan,” Yuki said to Lex.

  But Lex roused his darkness and flew off toward Oga with rapidness, many wings readied on his back. Oga beheld the bulleting boy who swooped down at him, dark spheres readied in both outstretched hands. The next moment was a vile explosion of darkness and scattering of earth.

  Yuki shielded his face from the dust that was flummoxed about madly.

  Lex peered out into the distance as the darkness cleared.

  “Holy Cleansing!” Oga commanded. He was standing many meters out, his right hand stretched out toward Lex, whose hands were deep down into the earth – in the crater he had just carved. Lex’s eyes bulged, and his vision was engulfed in a dangerous whiteness. The fear of those within permeated him deeply.

  But then, the moment lasted a bit longer than was possible. Still crouched down in fright, he beheld a strange brightness before him, which he realised was like an expansive ray of white light projecting from Oga’s palm. But the light, contained and tamed, had made no further approach.

  “Be careful,” Yuki’s voice came from above. At that, Lex’s vision writhed through the haze to see a figure standing on the strange whiteness, a figure shrouded in mist – Yuki, no doubt. “Light is pretty fast. Freezing it can be troublesome,” Yuki said. He was standing on the frozen ray of light, which Lex had just noticed to have an icy mist all about and within it.

  Impossible! Lex shivered at the sight of this. He froze the light?!

  Kizer would have snickered, but Oga’s face remained straight as he looked out at Yuki, who stood easily on the light.