Teliko Mageia: Curse of the Frozen Flame

by A. J. Carbonell

  Helena rushed toward the valkyrie, calling for the others to follow her lead. She violently hacked and slashed her way through any remaining Tiamat mages who did not immediately step from their path.

  “Why do you never learn?” Chollo stated, as he, too, rushed toward Jael and easily smacked him to the ground. Frekkis viciously attacked Chollo with her Berserker Slash, but could not equal the power of Chollo. Frekkis was easily beaten.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Chollo shouted at Helena and the others.

  “Chollo! Stop this at once!” Izabelle screamed at the top of her lungs. He stopped, for a moment startled by Izabelle’s fierceness. She split from the rest of the women, standing in front of Chollo with fury.

  “Izabelle!” Cassandra shouted. “We need to go!” Alexa said.

  “We can’t leave her!” Cassandra replied.

  “She is the sister of Chollo. Let’s hope she will not be harmed by him,” Alexa answered. “We need to go!” she added, and they entered the valkyrie.

  Chollo called upon a mighty storm. Heavy rain poured, rendering the visibility near nil. He attacked the valkyrie with his Ydrovolis spell, striking with fierce focused bolts of water. He slashed and cut the wings of the valkyrie mechanisms. It splintered, and at last the wing fell with a groan, rendering it unable to fly. They escaped before it fell to its side, rattling uselessly. “Now, you can’t ask for help. I shall destroy Talim along with the Queen’s Third Regiment! Tiamat forces, leave these ones to me. I shall eliminate these so-called warriors.”

  The Tiamat mages immediately disappeared. But another figure came closer, and Helena was grateful for the reprieve as yet another antagonist strode into the fray. Both Jael and Frekkis lay unconscious at Chollo’s feet, the valkyrie in ruins, and Helena prepared for the possibility of death this very day. Chollo’s attention moved from them to the newcomer, and he could be heard speaking. “Zaac, what are you doing here?”

  Zaac Allivest. The leader of Terra and one of the Four Titans. Like Vaan, Zaac controlled the element of Earth. Unlike Vaan, he had obtained mastery over Quake magick. Very much like Vaan, but on a much larger scale. “The master sent me to oversee you.”

  “Very well, don’t you dare to interrupt me, even if I am defeated. I shall go face the master myself,” Chollo said and Helena gave thanks for Chollo’s apparent pride. She indicated for her two swordswomen to come to her side and hoped Izabelle would do nothing foolish.

  “Hahaha, so still very prideful, Tiamat!” Zaac said, and he stood to the side to watch.

  Their remaining stamina would have to be enough. “Fiore Selvatico!” Helena, Cassandra and Alexa shouted in accord and came into formation. Forming a triangle with Cassandra and Helena at both sides and in the fore, Alexa invoked her magickal spell, Exosteelia. Alexa’s skin rendered to steel, and she conjured her a mighty shield with the word Aegith. Helena cast her Valkyrian Wings along with her Retribution. Cassandra evoked her poisonous sword, Schatnil.

  “Amusing, amusing. Unlike the rest of these boys, don’t think that I’ll spare you because you are female,” Chollo said.

  “Ha! Good! I hate it when boys don’t fight back. Do not underestimate our power.”

  Vaan still lay behind the shelter of the splintered rock, but his eyes flickered open and his chest moved in conscious recognition. He heaved himself to his feet. Immediately he went to Izabelle, Frekkis and Jael’s aid. Izabelle had stayed at their side in some hope of guardianship. Vaan bent and scooped up Jael’s frail unconscious body, carrying him away from Chollo and the others. Then he returned for Frekkis, and Izabelle came with him. He rested in a faint hope that Helena, Alexa and Cassandra would beat Chollo. But should they not… he thought and meditated, trying to recharge his own stamina.

  Helena flew into the air above Chollo, aloft on mighty summoned wings. Cassandra dashed around him and Alexa charged him head on. At the brink, he somehow managed to dodge them all. He cast a torrent around his body, then another torrent not far appeared and he was transferred at the second torrent, leaving an elemental echo, a decoy of himself. Helena grit her teeth; the less experienced two shocked and horrified. “Thunder Blitz!” Helena cast overhead Chollo. There was no opportunity to wreak her vengeance on his so-called-friend, but the anger of humiliation stung and this was an opportunity to turn it on another. Chollo staggered, stunned.

  In that moment, Cassandra dashed toward him and slashed him with her poisoned blade. The wound grew septic, toxic, oozing a putrid reek. Alexa then charged again toward Chollo, ramming him over and over again to deplete his magickal stamina. Chollo groaned in severe agony, the poison seeping through his bloodstream. His knees gave out, and he could barely hold himself up with his two hands, staring and gasping fast and staccato.

  “Do not waste your strength,” Cassandra said. “Let the poison take care of his stamina. Instead, we should maim him!” She raised Schatnil overhead to strike, aiming for his face.

  “Please! Stop!” Izabelle intervened between, holding her hands apart. “He’s my brother, please don’t kill him!”

  “Izabelle, Chollo is insane! Can’t you see? He doesn’t care about you anymore!” Alexa explained.

  “That is no reason to torture him! Please, please! Let me talk to him.”

  Cassandra begrudgingly relented and lowered her blade. “All right, but hurry–go!”

  Izabelle rushed toward Chollo in panic. “Brother! Are you all right?”

  Chollo began to laugh. His magick flowed in small ebbs about him, churning in and out of his body and veins like stitches of a needle through cloth. Still he laughed, cackling manically. “I am not your brother anymore!” Chollo stood slowly, rejuvenating himself.

  “Izabelle! Get away from him!” Helena shouted. Chollo raised his hand and swatted Izabelle away from him. Helena flew up and once again casted Thunder Blitz. He dodged it and he transformed his body into water.

  “Huh? He can turn his body into water?!” Cassandra gasped.

  Helena and the others were stunned.

  “Now, it’s my turn.” Chollo said as he first rushed toward Cassandra. “Poisoning me is useless. I am a water mage! I can easily flush out your petty poison!” Chollo whispered to her as he lifted her up. Tendrils of water wrapped around her thin brown neck, choking her and he struck her down. Cassandra was left unconscious on the ground. Helena rushed toward him but his form again went liquid and her blade slashed through nothing. He ignored her and rushed toward Alexa in wave form.

  “Aegith!” Alexa roared then Chollo suddenly appeared behind her. Alexa immediately spun and clamped herself onto Chollo, shouting, “Helena! Strike me!” This was a practised, known plan. The electricity would arch through Alexa, leaving her unharmed. Helena raised her hands and spoke the words, the spell striking Alexa’s steel form. The metal served as a conductive measure, transferring the damage through her into Chollo. Even as Helena’s spell overcame Alexa, Chollo struggled out of the woman’s grip and her body arched and thrashed, electrocuted by the massive Thunder.

  “NO!” Helena cried, and she rushed toward Alexa. Her eyes flicked back open; while she sagged in exhaustion, nodding a silent I’m fine. Helena turned on Chollo, eyes narrowing in blind fury. They flew open, wide, focus intense.

  “What a pity. You are a team, yet you attack your own comrades,” Chollo taunted Helena.

  Helena was enraged. By Chollo, by his army, by her own failures. She would stop at nothing in her defence of her land and so she screamed at the top of her lungs, “Retribution of the Light!”

  Her eyes blanked white. This was not the first time a Fate magick had come into play this battle. Chollo rattled with what he heard. “There is no way that this woman is the bearer of a Fate magick,” he sneered. “This is a trick.” Helena’s hair grew longer, her Valkyrian Wings larger and her sword dazzled like the sun.

  “No, Helena! Stop it! You know you cannot control this! You may die! Do not do it again! You are forbidden by the Queen to use this magick
!” Alexa shouted but it was too late. Helena was thrown into same sort of trance as Vaan’s rage. Some deep primal part of her magick took control, aware faintly of allies and furious at all else.

  “Hmph. Another Fate Bearer,” Zaac said, as though it was nothing. “Better isolate her or else you will likely die before the immense power of the Fate magick. She is clearly on a different level than that of that earth mage.”

  Chollo frowned in distain and readied to face Helena once more. She was overtaken by the fates, though, and with a swift strike, Helena smashed Chollo’s face with her bare fists. The power was so immense that Chollo’s liquid body scattered. Droplets spewed across the field. Slowly, his body reknit to its former state. Helena battered Chollo, left to right, until the meat form was almost unconscious. Zaac sighed; it was as he had said. He intervened and used his earth magick to encase Helena, raising a cage about the furious woman. But she was too strong for Zaac’s cage. Zaac again sighed, and used his Quake magick to throw away Helena from the scene. A mighty powerful mage, he was in possession of many tricks. He removed a mysto from his stash. This one was rare. Disiparto. It acted like Elementium, but scattered magick rather than absorbing it. Zaac smashed it onto her arm and successfully dispelled Helena’s Fate magick. And so she regained her consciousness.

  “What happened?” Helena said, realising that her Fate magick was dispelled. In front of her was the leader of Terra, Zaac Allivest. “Who are you?”

  “I am Zaac, one of the Four Titans. I’m the leader of Terra.”

  “Hmph! You came to aid Chollo? You dispelled my Fate magick? How?” Helena said.

  “Yes. I have no intention in joining this fight, I merely saved him from your terrifying magick. I have received no orders to attack you. So I shall leave you here. Until we meet again,” Zaac said, and summoned a sandstorm about himself. Once it dissipated, he was gone.

  “How did he dispel a Fate magick?” Helena wondered. She conjured her wings and flew back to the city of Talim.

  While Chollo was grateful to Zaac for rescuing him, with his left arm severely injured and his own stamina low, Chollo knew this was the only chance he would have to end this. Again he prepared his ultimate spell.

  “There he goes again!” Helena shouted.

  Izabelle stood in front of Chollo as he readied his Oceanus. Tears drenched her eyes, and her voice was weak, depressed as she said, “Byakko, destroy Chollo Nugash.” She was completely out of her mind. Her shoulders heaved. “BYAKKO! DESTROY CHOLLO!” she screamed. At once Byakko struck.

  Surrounded by water in preparation to unleash Oceanus, he had limited defences. Emitted by the summoning, the lightning attack struck Chollo over and over again, until dark smoke came out of his body. Such ferocity came from the meekest of places, but even as Chollo rasped for breath Izabelle’s mood relented and she went to Chollo.

  “Chollo, listen to reason–you must put an end to this and turn yourself in,” she begged. “Will you do that? For me?”

  Chollo stood up slowly and hugged Izabelle. “I am... I am so sorry. I lost my mind… I became... driven only by my lust for power. I shall never betray you again. Please accept my apology. With Vince dead, I have nothing else to do with Malevolentiam… I surrender,” Chollo replied.

  Helena wasn’t impressed. “What of your forces, Nugash? Surely the Tiamat army will rescue you.”

  Chollo smiled ruefully. “There are no such forces. The mages you fought were an illusion, created by myself, Vince, and a handful of other powerful mages as a distraction. They fled after my defeat only because we did not have the stamina to maintain them. They could never hope to defeat you now that I have surrendered.”

  “I see,” Helena mused. “It’s very interesting, learning such things about the tactics of the Malevolentiam. Perhaps, if you tell us everything you know about your former organisation, you can keep your head on your shoulders after all. What do you say, Nugash?” Chollo said nothing, hanging his head, but Helena looked satisfied. “Clap him in irons and see that he stays put.”

  So it was that Chollo Nugash was defeated by his own blood sister Izabelle. A third regiment mage was dispatched to Krimmirr to report about what happened and in only a few hours, a valkyrie came to pick them up. The relentless fight for Talim had been challenging and tough, leaving everyone in exhausted injury. They took the whole day to rest in Krimmirr.

  Meanwhile in Excauhalt, the fortress of Malevolentiam, Zaac came back and reported what had transgressed at Talim. “Chollo has surrendered to Bristal. It seems his sister defeated him and talked him into surrendering. Would you like me to spearhead a rescue effort, my liege?”

  The Dark Mage crushed the wine glass he was holding with his gloved fist. “No, let him be. He is of no use to us anymore. We would be better to assassinate him before he tells them too much. Efreet and Quetzalcoatl, prepare yourselves. We shall attack with full force,” the Dark Mage uttered.

  Chollo Nugash was subjected to court by the Queen. He faced Bristal’s Absolute Court consisting of five judges including the Queen herself. While Chollo was in trial, Jael and the others were offered a place inside the Krimmirr. “The Queen has decided to let you stay here until Malevolentiam is defeated. The Queen received the report about your help to defeat Chollo,” Helena said.

  Jael could not believe his ears. “No kidding, right?”

  “Yes, ‘no kidding’. You shall be part of the army of Bristal at the Queen’s request,” Helena stated.

  This was an incredible honour, and it left Jael downright speechless, unable to think of anything that quite fit the bill. He stammered a bit, and then remembered why he had originally come to Krimmirr in the first place. “Well actually, I am looking for Rohan the Sage. I heard that he resides here in Krimmirr as the Queen’s advisor. Is he here? I would like to ask him a few questions.”

  “Yes, he resides here, but he is presently on an expedition with the second regiment. If you want to speak to him, it would be best if you stay here and wait for him. He normally does not talk to other people. You need the Queen’s approval to talk to him,” Helena explained.

  “All right, we’ll stay in return for meeting Rohan.” he replied, stumbling over his words. He was sweating and blushing all the same time, in fluster over the recognition by the queen herself–but not just that. There was something else Jael wanted to do before she left. Helena was a powerful, impressive woman who held a position of importance to the queen, and she was as beautiful as she was intimidating. Jael was working up the courage to ask Helena to accompany him for the evening, but he couldn’t think of what to suggest they do. Visit a reputable tavern? Get something to eat together? Damn, I think I’ve already fallen for this woman. He cleared his throat to speak. “Hey, Helena, uhm...”

  She looked at him blankly, waiting for him to continue. He struggled to find his words. “I... I...”

  “What is it? Spit it out!” Helena said.

  “Helena, my love!” a voice shouted. A man ran into the room. “I heard about the battle at Talim! I want to thank the people who helped you.” the man said. “Are you Jael?”

  “Yes, I am Jael. And you are?” he replied, trying to contain his embarrassment.

  “Oh I’m sorry, how rude of me. My name is Diurus Cortez, the Master Knight of the Fourth Regiment of Bristal,” Diurus said. “Everyone in the castle talks about you and your friends. You’re quite good for your age! Anyway, I want to thank you for helping Helena and protecting her as well.”

  “Are you Helena’s sweetheart?” Jael asked. “No!” Helena thundered.

  Diurus laughed and smacked Jael’s shoulder. “She never admits it but she loves me too.”

  “Tch. I’ll be going out,” Helena said, and she left.

  “I told you!” Diurus said with an unusual wink and a grin on his face and he, too, left.

  “What now, Jael? Aren’t you going to ask her out?” Vaan asked.

  “I don’t know. She loves another guy already...”

  “C�
�mon Jael, haven’t you seen the disgust in Helena’s face?” Vaan insisted.

  “She looks that way at everyone!” Jael exclaimed.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll try to set you up with Helena,” Vaan said, and they both smiled.

  At the same time, Chollo’s trial was underway with intense furore. Judges interviewed him. “If you give us vital information regarding Malevolentiam, then the intensity of your sanctions might lessen,” one judge said.

  “Do you have anything something to say before we start?” another judge said.

  “During my stay with Malevolentiam everything was blurry. It’s like I was possessed by evil forces, beyond my control. It was very vague. I may not be able to not answer some of your questions because of the lack of reality, the reality of the shadow of Malevolentiam,” Chollo explained.

  “Are you saying that ‘Chollo’ was not inside that body?” a judge asked.

  “Something like that,” Chollo replied.

  “How are we certain that you are telling the truth?” a judge asked.

  “I want to testify for my brother,” Izabelle said.

  “Very well, Izabelle, what do you have to say?” the judge asked.

  “After I defeated Chollo, when he was on the ground, a black smoke came out of him. I am thinking that the black smoke is the ‘evil spirit’ that Chollo is describing,” Izabelle explained.

  “My queen, is Izabelle telling the truth?” a judge asked.

  The queen had not been there, and could not say anything for certain. But she had seen enough of Izabelle to have an idea of what the girl’s soul was made of. And the queen had no desire to stand in between the meeting of justice and mercy. “Yes, she has a pure heart. I believe in her testimony,” Queen Jeannah replied.

  “Very well. We continue,” a judge decreed.