In Excauhalt, Jael had sustained damage from of Diurus’ spell. He inspected the damage to his arm and deemed it relatively minor. It had prevented the dimensional rift from snatching him up. He carefully tread the halls in search of the queen. Deeper into the halls, he spotted a couple of Malevolentiam soldiers, and picked them off one by one. These were no lady of the shadows. He reached the entrance of the Great Hall, and pushed the massive door open as silent and he could. Inside the Dark Mage meditated on his throne; Jeannah still hung unconscious, secured by chains. He crept across the Great Hall toward the queen, hoping Dio might not notice him. Deep in his dark meditations, the Dark Mage did not stir.
Jael reached the queen and gingerly removed the chains from her body. “Mother… Mother… wake up…”
The Dark Mage stirred, and his eyes flicked back open, narrowing as he focused on the boy. “So the hero came…”
“What have you done to her?!” Jael asked frantically.
“She is the key to Falakh’s resurrection! All hail the queen. Yes?” Dio bowed down mockingly to the unconscious woman in Jael’s arms. “Now… I want you to drop her,” Dio said with a deep tone, and he stepped menacingly towards Jael.
“To hell with you!” Jael shouted and he cast Rokka away from Dio.
With a huge swing, Dio struck Jael. He and Jeannah crashed to the ground. “You cannot escape… either you kill me, or I kill you. The queen is not leaving Excauhalt while I still live,” Dio uttered.
“Hmph. We finish it here!” Jael said and he laid his mother down gently on the ground, close to the corner of the Great Hall.
“Now that’s more like it…” Dio replied. “Blazia!” Jael shouted.
“Infierna!” Dio shouted as well.
Meanwhile, inside the Spectrum, Aezil engaged Diurus and Ace in a two on one battle. Her movements were erratic, frantic and fast, without her usual lethal precision. The wave of feelings within her blurred her perception, and Diurus observed she was not her usual self. This was something they could use to their advantage, but how was yet to be determined.
Aezil decreased what seemed to be an infinite space into a simple plane of grassland.
“This is amazing. She can fully manipulate the Spectrum,” Ace said thoughtfully.
“Of course she can. She created this dimensional space,” Diurus replied.
“Everything in the Spectrum is my creation. With my Transmogrify ability, I can manipulate inanimate matter at will, and with that I can create anything. You’ve made a terrible mistake crossing me. It will be your last. Transmogrify!” she bellowed, and a meteor hurled towards them from the sky.
“Look out!” Ace shouted. Both Ace and Diurus dashed away from the meteor headed straight for them. Ace threw himself to the ground and the meteor missed. He pushed himself up from the grass. “This is harder than it seems. She can create anything. Every element, every magick, basically anything that she can imagine,” he muttered.
“Ace, we need to split up!”
“Yes sir!” Ace replied. They split, running away from each other, and standing their ground firmly. The three formed a huge triangle: Aezil, Ace and Diurus. “Apocalyptic Fortitude!” Ace shouted with great conviction. His senses increased at a large rate along with his speed. He swiftly dashed towards Aezil but she managed to create a barrier, stopping Ace.
“Now take this,” Aezil uttered, and she lifted her hands.
A series of uplifted earth struts emerged and encaged Ace. “Do you think this will stop me?” Ace said and he slashed his way out with ease.
“Wait… you are strikingly similar to somebody I know,” Aezil uttered. “You are the son of Morthas. Are you not?” she asked. As the name whipped its way inside his ear, Ace’s cheerful attitude transformed into a sinister one.
“You… are you the one who killed my father?!” Ace asked. His eyes were burning with anger and his fingers tightened white around the hilt of his blade.
“So it is true. You are the son of that serpentine bastard,” Aezil replied.
“I lay hidden under our home when my father and mother died. I saw an assassin kill him. It was you all along…”
“Morthas was a good man, I’ll give you that. But my client told me to kill both Morthas and his son. But I never saw him–and here you are at last. Time to finish the job!” Aezil said.
Morthas Fetherion, Ace’s deceased father, was a beast mage known as the Serpentine Mage. He could conjure snakes, serpents. At one point he even summoned a dragon. Because of his fearsome magick, a lot of the surrounding villagers despised him, calling him a demon. Unlike the popular opinion, Morthas was a kind-hearted man, with an academic fascination and unusual attraction to serpents and reptiles, thus he became a beast mage. An outcast in the village, he was eventually driven out of the village along with his wife Graiza and son Ace. He built a house a small ways north of the village. But Morthas didn’t blame the villagers. He never despised them. Instead, he understood them and avoided conflict. But one unfortunate day came when a child from the village went missing. Everyone pointed Morthas out as the culprit, but he was not the one responsible. “He wanted revenge!” the villagers accused. They were wrong. The child had carelessly drowned in the nearby stream when he was playing with no one there to witness.
The parents of the missing child went out and contacted Aezil to assassinate Morthas. “Kill his whole family.”
The fateful night came. Morthas hid his son underneath the house, his serpentine senses warning him in advance about the assassination. But he did not give up without a fight. He defended his wife to his last, but in the struggle he was easily killed by Aezil.
“Where is the child?” Aezil asked.
“He is gone! He went missing!” Graiza said.
“I will kill you too if you do not tell me where he is,” Aezil said in a menacing tone. Of course, she had intended all along to kill Graiza.
“I am telling the truth! Please believe me…” Graiza replied, weeping for her husband.
“Very well, I shall hunt him down myself. May you reunite with your husband,” Aezil answered, and she slit Graiza’s throat. Aezil searched for Ace but never found him. If the boy wasn’t dead, he was out of the way. She left.
Meanwhile, the young and smart Ace knew that Aezil had left. He went out and wandered the kingdom by himself, carrying only an empty hilt his father had given him and his hatred towards the world. One day, he accidentally activated the hilt. This was his first time to wield the Apocalypse. After some time, he came to the city of Erradia where he was seen by Queen Jeannah, who saw the boy’s potential. “My my… this young boy looks strong,” Queen Jeannah said.
“How can you say that? You don’t even know me!” Ace replied.
“Hey, kid. Don’t talk to the queen like that!” Orevlatef, who was accompanying the queen around Erradia, said.
The queen merely laughed. “That’s fine, Orevlatef. What is your name?”
“I am Ace,” he answered. “Where are your parents, Ace?”
“Dead… murdered in front of me” he said bitterly. “I see. So who had been with you since?” she asked. “No one. I am all alone,” he replied.
“Very well… Krimmirr welcomes you,” she answered with a sweet smile on her face. “Orevlatef, I want him to be taken inside Krimmirr. Clothe him, feed him and train him. He might be the next Master Knight,” Queen Jeannah said.
“Yes, my queen. You are most generous,” Orevlatef replied and obeyed.
Ace got stronger, training with the knights of Krimmirr the only life he had. Eventually he became the Fifth Regiment Master Knight at a young age. Only one subject was always off limits with the youngest Master Knight. His past.
“She brought up Ace’s past. This will be daunting. I’d better sit down and think of a way to defeat Aezil. I can’t engage them,” Diurus muttered. “I’ll only get in his way.”
“Apocalypsis!” Ace shouted. His weapon’s blade turned pure black. “This blade has no limits. And this
is the enhanced form of the Apocalypse, Apocalypsis! You will die, murderer!”
Ace surged towards Aezil with intense speed. “Apocalyptic Strike!” He swung his double sided blade.
“Reverta!” Aezil cast. The Apocalypse was thrown away, along with Ace. Ace scrambled back up, seizing his blade in his right hand. “You do know that I have the ability to manipulate, yes? Blades like yours cannot touch me. Reverta is a spell which reverts any spell cast to me,” Aezil said. “Anything you do is useless.”
“Hmph. Well then, I will not use any spells. I shall hack you to death!” Ace uttered, and he sprinted to Aezil, making to slash off her right arm. But the woman only grabbed the blade, and once more he was thrown away, the same fate. He rebounded, running out of options. “How cute. Even your blade obeys me,” Aezil sneered. “It’s time to end this. There is no more time…”
But Diurus had been watching. The Spectrum had a time limit, he thought. Perhaps it was based on her current strength and stamina. Whatever it was, it was constantly drawing her power to sustain such a great magickal arena. “Metatrepo!” Aezil conjured a massive dragon. That was overboard; it was a last ditch effort to end this fight now. The dragon flew at Ace. Just as well; Ace was in no state for conversation or strategy. Diurus would have to end this alone.
“Four Winds of Aeolus, grant me your power!”
“That would be pointless…” Aezil said. “We are worlds apart from Messogard. Your Four Winds have no power here.”
“Hmph. We’ll see about that,” Diurus replied.
“Apocalyptic strike!” Ace shouted and defeated the dragon created by Aezil. “Now, I shall kill you,” he said, pointing his Apocalypse to Aezil.
“You can never defeat me inside Spectrum!” Aezil answered. “Black Void!” A sudden blackout blast of darkness blinded Ace and Diurus. At first they saw sparks and ghost images across their eyes, then everything became pitch black.
“Ace!” Diurus shouted.
“I’m here. Where are you?” he answered. “This is my final spell…” Aezil said from afar.
“Damn it!” Ace shouted in frustration. “Come here and face me, you coward!”
“Ace, let me handle this. I know how to escape the Spectrum,” he said gently.
“No. I must defeat her!” he answered in repulsion.
“How can you defeat her without seeing her? She’s not here, Ace. You see, we’re the only people inside the Spectrum! Aezil was never here. We are encaged here!” Diurus explained.
Her slow clap was heard across the dark. “Bravo… I underestimated you, Diurus.” Aezil’s voice was heard.
“Hmph. Watch how I crumble your Spectrum,” Diurus answered. “Aeolus Squall!” He whirled his Kazedachi above his head. Great winds stormed; a speck of light glimmered afar.
“This can’t be!” Aezil shouted. “But how?!”
“You forgot that you are only human. You have a limit to your magickal capabilities. When you created the dragon, I knew you were already exhausting your magick. Thus, creating a dimensional instability, leading to a tiny rift. That rift is so small cannot be seen by the naked eye, but as I called upon the winds, I immediately felt Aeolus. Therefore I realised this dimension has a small crevice. As I conjured more of Aeolus, I felt more of it. With just one immense gust of Aeolus, I can create a gap large enough to destroy this dimensional reality,” Diurus explained. As the winds rage in from the outside world, the speck of light grew larger.
“This is insane!” Aezil shouted in frustration.
Moments later, Ace and Diurus broke free from Spectrum and emerged back into the fortress hallway they’d been present in prior to being devoured by the shadows. “Show yourself!” Ace shouted but Aezil was nowhere to be found.
“Enough, Ace! She is gone!” Diurus said. “I can’t let her escape!” Ace raged.
“The queen is still in danger! Get a hold of yourself!” Diurus yelled. An explosion was felt from the top of Excauhalt, trembling the entire wide hallway. A black statue tipped and fell over, its mighty weapon shattering. “That must be Jael! Let’s go!” Diurus said.
“I… I’m sorry. Let’s go save the queen,” Ace sobbed. Diurus replied with a silent smile, grabbed Ace’s arm and sprinted towards the Great Hall.
Screams of evil laughter could be heard eerily all throughout the fortress. The Dark Mage Dio met the young hero of Bristal, Jael, in battle. This was it, Jael thought. This would be the battle that would end him. He would lay down his life for his country. “I need to defeat this monstrosity…”
“Infierna!” Dio shouted. His malevolent flames appeared, deep and red and hellishly hot flames that licked into shades of black.
“Blazia!” Jael followed. “Mother, please stay strong…” Without a moment of hesitance, he engulfed himself in Blazierga to pave way for his Dragon’s Breath spell. There was no way his basic spells would work on an enemy like this; that meant he would have far less magick to spend.
“Oh… your flames have increased. Very well, Infierga!” Dio replied with a more powerful spell of his own. Dio’s black flames deepened, dark purple malevolent flames trembling in his grasp, waiting to be released. Jael stood frozen; this wasn’t good. It was as if they used the same magick. This spell was surely the equivalent of his Blazierga, which meant the Dark Mage had further levels of more powerful spells–his basic spells were already insurmountably powerful. Dio paced, mocking Jael and beckoning for him to come at him. “What’s wrong, Jael? Are you frozen stiff again? Intimidation is an important part in battle. If you conquered your opponent mentally, the battle is already over long before it has begun.”
Jael grasped his right wrist with his left hand, opened his right hand and shouted, “Dragon’s Breath!” But as the massive attack was about to be released, Dio emerged in front of Jael, swung his leg with a vicious roundhouse kick. It caught Jael off- guard; he was struck on the jaw and knocked out.
“Hmph. No challenge at all. I haven’t even used my magick!” Dio sneered. After a few seconds, Jael shook his head and slowly stood. “Come back when you are ready to fight me,” Dio said, and gestured towards the door.
“Blazierga!” Jael shouted once again, wrapping his hands in fast orange flame.
“You never learn, do you?”
“Explosion!” Jael screamed and punched the floor below them, destroying it instantly. Dio and Jael fell through to the room below, leaving the queen lying on a stone slab above them in the Great Hall. This had removed her from the immediate danger. “Now we can fight!” Jael exclaimed.
“Very wise, young mage. I compliment you for that,” Dio replied with mocking applause.
“I do not want the Queen to be caught up in our clash. I did what I must,” he said.
“Very well, if you want to finish everything here, then I shall give you a meaningful death,” Dio answered.
“Enough talk!” Jael shouted, and he dashed towards Dio with his Rokka spell.
“Now that’s more like it! Show me your vigour!” Dio replied. He jumped high and shouted “Eruptio!” Explosions emerged all around the room, and he looked on in interest as Jael remained unscathed because of the protective cloak of Kappe Flam.
“Fire cannot easily defeat me! Fire is my saviour! Fire is my whole being!” Jael shouted. The fateful day in Sanhera flashed back. “Fire cannot harm me. The flame is my friend. I was born of the flames, when your men burned the village of Sanhera to the ground. You destroyed my home, and the homes of so many others. Now it ends,” Jael said.
“Hmph. So there was another survivor from Sanhera...” “None of your business… Pillar Flare!”
Flames appeared, reaching Dio and smothering the Dark Mage in orange licking tongues of flame. But he only laughed manically from within the blaze. “Do not think highly of yourself, flame prodigy. I know who you are. You must be the child of Jeannah and Arcthrel…”
“How do you know of this?” Jael asked.
“I know your father, Jael…” Dio replied. “I will
reveal everything if you defeat me. But… I highly doubt that. So the flame prodigy lives. Interesting… Arcthrel, your child lives…”
“Blazierga!” Jael shouted atop of his lungs.
“All right… I’ll give you a chance. Show me your Dragon’s Breath,” Dio said, and he leapt to the ground and cast Infierga. With a loud roar, Jael cast Dragon’s Breath. A massive ray of flame energy shot towards Dio.
Dio blocked Jael’s spell with only his right fist. His body quickly absorbed Jael’s flames. His ultimate spell, and the Dark Mage had absorbed it like it was nothing. When Jael stared on, confused, in awe, shocked, frustrated, Dio said, “I know every bit of your magick, Jael. Did you know that your father, Arcthrel was a Fire prodigy as well? He was the most powerful fire mage at his prime. You, being his son inherited his… unique attribute of absorbing flames.”
“Unique! How can you absorb flames?!”
“Hmph. It’s simple. I defeated Arcthrel and absorbed his magickal capabilities!” he explained.
“You killed my father?!” Jael exclaimed.
“You could say that, I suppose–but that’s not really true. You shall understand, if you defeat me!” Dio replied, laughing heinously.
“Damn it! How can I defeat this guy if he shuns even my most powerful spell?!” Jael murmured. “No wait! That’s right!” he recalled. “Cherufe… Cherufe, I need you now. Please empower me, enlighten me, and give me wisdom!”
“What are you mumbling about? Oh dear, you are taking too much of my time. It is time to end this. Infierga!” Dio shouted malevolently. He continued to spew excess dark purple flames around his body, creating a barrier that could not be penetrated with a simple physical attack.
Then a loud bang was heard coming from the entrance of the Great Hall. “Jael!” Diurus shouted. He looked down through the crater that Jael had created.
Jael stared up at him, a mixture of emotions churning within his gut. “Diurus! Take my mother and escape this fortress! As a prince of Bristal you will be charged with treason if you disobey my words! Now go!” he shouted. There was no time to really disclaim that was only in the event of any of them surviving.
Teliko Mageia: Curse of the Frozen Flame Page 37