The Quest Saga Collection: Books 1 - 5

by Dhayaa Anbajagane

  Levi had planned a resistance for the last eighteen hours, intricately working through every last detail, making sure everything was where it was supposed to be. But all that was waste now.

  The Masked Magician had shown up early.

  There wasn’t going to be a resistance.

  Only massacre.

  ***

  5-2

  Hope shattered within Q’s eyes, and vanished from them. His faith disappeared from his mind, receding away like an ocean ready to wash down as a tidal wave, a tidal wave of terror, a tidal of destruction. A tidal wave from hell.

  And then, the unthinkable happened.

  A brilliant flash of white light burst up into the sky, and a white shield of light expanded over the blue horizon, covering the entire planet of Orpheus. The stream of darkness, the Masked Magician, stopped cold in front of the shield, hovering above it quietly.

  “A force field,” Zelph said.

  “No,” Q said softly. “This is something better.”

  He created an energy suit around him and lifted himself off the floor. He flew towards the origin of the flash, toward where all of this had started.

  And there, as he had expected, were five spots of brightness, five humanoids of white energy, the five energy beings.

  Q’s energy suit fluctuated, his body not strong enough after his first battle with the Masked Magician. He stumbled through the air, managing to slow himself down enough to gently hit the pavement. The energy beings stood in front of him, their eyes focused on the sight above them. Q looked up and saw a large flame of darkness ram into the wall of light.

  “Ah, the Wielder of Light,” their symphony of voices entered Q’s head

  “Hello,” he said.

  “This will give you the two hours that you so desperately need,” they said. “The moment he breaks free, we cannot do anything about it.”

  Got that, Zelph? Relay it back to the Palace, Q said.

  “Done,” Zelph said. “And I’ve already got a response. They’re already finishing up.”

  “We have gotten into quite a mix up have we not?” the beings asked, their eyes still staring at the white wall above, fixated on the darkness on the other side, the darkness that threatened everyone more that empty space itself.

  Q’s mind quivered, with questions, with the need for answers. He trembled with anger, thinking of everything the energy beings hadn’t told him, everything they had kept from him on purpose. He knew now was not the time for this, but if not now then when?

  “You could have told me you know,” he finally said, succumbing to his feelings.

  A loud thud rang through the air as the Masked Magician tried to break past the wall, but he didn’t even make a single scratch on it.

  “The less you know, the more sane you can be,” they said.

  “Oh? Is that something you learned after telling Levi everything and deciding not to tell me those exact same things?”

  “Ah,” they said, and paused for a long time. “We did not expect him to have told you.”

  “I didn’t expect him to tell me either, but he did. And you better give me a good reason why I’m supposed to trust you now, after all that you just did.”

  “Whoa, whoa,” Zelph said. “Isn’t that a bit too harsh?”

  Shut up, Q said, unwilling to listen to any other opinions. He needed to hear this, for himself.

  “There are always reasons for the choices that we make, especially the bad ones,” they said.

  The Masked Magician rammed into the shield once more, and the tiniest of cracks appeared upon it.

  “He’s more powerful than all of you isn’t he?” Q asked.

  They turned towards him for a second, a bit of surprise on their nearly featureless faces. Their wide eyes and half-open mouths were the only clues that showed they were shocked.

  “Levi told you of that as well?”

  “Yeah, looks like you told him a lot of things.”

  They paused for a moment and looked back up.

  Q sighed. “I apologize,” he said. “There are better things to do at the moment than fight over this.”

  “There is only one big difference between a normal man and an energy being,” they said. “The power difference is but a petty change when compared to our other ability. Precognition.”

  “You can see things before they happen,” he said quietly. “So that’s how the prophecy came into being then.”

  “More than a century ago, Levi was probably the White Knight’s greatest warrior, even more so than the First Order themselves,” they said. “The only reason he was not the strongest yet was because we energy beings still existed.”

  “He was that strong?” Q asked, wide-eyed.

  “If he were around during the Great War then we would have won with much ease,” they said. “Which is exactly why we did what we did. The moment we saw the future, a future where a NOVA warrior destroys the world, we knew we needed someone to meddle with destiny.”

  “And so you used Levi.”

  The Masked Magician widened the cracks in the wall, one inch at a time. The energy beings didn’t seem worried though, and peacefully looked up at him. “Levi had long been in our interest, because before you came along, he was our prime candidate,” he said.

  “What?” Q asked, realizing what that meant.

  “Levi would have become a sorcerer if he kept on his path, and we would have undoubtedly made him the Wielder of Light.”

  Levi is the same as me? Q asked himself, the reality of that statement hitting him like a missile.

  “We took him to the Palace of being when he was a young man, and showed him everything we knew about the future. That the NOVA would destroy us, that we needed someone to stop it all.”

  A muffled shatter rang through as the Masked Magician cracked through a good bit of the shield, but the energy beings still didn’t seem worried.

  “Our mistake became apparently just a month later,” they said. “Levi’s wife, a beautiful young woman, had taken ill, a mysterious disease. Levi tried every cure possible but nothing worked on her. Finally he discovered a hidden art that we had stashed away from humanity for its own good. A spell that could take away a few years of your life and give them to someone else. Levi planned to use the spell and live with his wife for as long as he could. But things worked out differently.”

  Uh oh, Q thought.

  “The spell he learned was incomplete. The enchantment took away his wife’s entire life and added her years to his. All he could do was watch as he killed the only person he wanted to save, and as his very existence became a reminder of what he had done,” they said. “His mind snapped, changing him into what he is today.”

  Q was silent, hating the fact that he sympathized with Levi, that he sympathized with a green-eyed devil who wanted nothing but to kill him, who wanted nothing but to completely destroy his life.

  Suddenly, the shield above them shattered completely, and the Masked Magician broke through, charging down to the ground. A wave of darkness shot out as he crashed into the ground, and sent everyone flying.

  “Q? Are you okay?” he heard Levi’s voice reach out to him. “What’s going on over there? We’re done with all weapons preparations,”

  “Just in time,” Q sighed, picking himself up He looked around him. The ground around the Masked Magician was cracked and crushed, the houses were crumbling and broken. The very air around the man had turned dark and misty.

  “Well, well, well,” he said, his voice dripping with bloodlust. “The energy beings themselves.”

  The five beings remained silent, standing as still as they could,

  What are they doing? Q wondered.

  “Sure, just stand there,” he said. “Makes it easier for me to do what I’ve always wanted.” He shot right at them, his fist cocked to make a thundering punch.

  One of the energy beings caught his fist, just as he was about to land the punch. A shockwave shot out of the collision, sending a fast blade o
f wind through Q’s hair. He stared in awe as the energy being pushed back the Masked Magician.

  “What?” he asked, completely confused. “What’s going on?!”

  “You are weak, Arthur,” they said. “You have always been weak.”

  “DON’T YOU DARE CALL ME THAT NAME!” he screamed and charged into them. Q watched as movements as fast as light unfolded in front of him, each one too fast for his eye to even decipher in time to catch the next.

  He wanted to help the energy beings, but now he felt like a little kid watching a divine battle among the gods.

  “Q,” Levi said. “The Infinity Cannons are all set. What do the energy beings want us to do?”

  He knows they’re here, Q realized, but wasn’t too surprised that Levi had sensed their presence.

  “I don’t think I can ask them anything,” Q said, as shockwave after shockwave shot out from their battle. “They’re in a pretty intense face-off right now.”

  “I can feel it from here,” Levi said, worriedly. “Fine, I’ll have all Infinity Cannons locked and loaded.”

  Q watched as Arthur fought against all five beings. He could see that he put up an equally good fight, but five against one was far too much for him.

  Maybe he’s grown weaker, Q thought.

  A smile flashed onto Arthur’s face. He stood still, and the energy beings charged at him.

  “NO!” Q yelled, but it was too late.

  A sea of darkness exploded out of Arthur, and every last one of the energy beings fell to the ground, completely immobilized.

  “I’m weak?” Arthur chuckled. “Don’t make me laugh. I’m just getting warmed up.”

  Q immediately summoned his Elementa of Light and covered the five energy beings, each in a spherical shield of light.

  Arthur was bewildered for a second, and his eyes traced the air until they met with Q’s. His smile widened. “Well, well,” he said. “I did not know you were already here. Else I’d have taken care of you first.”

  Q put a shield around himself. “You wish,” he clenched his teeth. His mind pushed itself to the limit, summoning every bit of energy he had.

  You must do it, a voice inside his mind said, a mysterious vibration lying dormant within him.

  I can’t, he resisted. I’ll lose control. I’ll go berserk if I do it now.

  If you don’t do it, you will die, his mind told him.

  Arthur touched Q’s shield and it cracked immediately, nearly shattering to pieces. Q’s eyes went wide in shock.

  “Do you see?” the dark energy being smiled in blood-red. “You were never a match for me,” he chuckled. “You must have thought you beat me the last time you ‘killed’ me. I don’t die, boy.”

  Q heard Arthur’s words but he didn’t register them. His mind focused only on the shield around him, on the shield he had to keep up no matter what.

  Levi, are you ready? he asked.

  “Lock and load,” Levi said.

  “FIRE!” Q yelled.

  Arthur was taken aback for a second. A loud hum resonated through the sky. Q dropped his shield and charged away, diving into the streets.

  A massive barrage of red-shimmering light shot out of multiple Infinity cannons and right into the Masked Magician. He screamed in pain, and convulsed violently. He collapsed to the floor, his body frozen still.

  And then he disappeared.

  It worked, Q fell to his knees, relieved and exhausted. The Infinity Cannon was only supposed to weaken the Magician a bit, but even so, the theory that a ton of Cannons could destroy him was quite insane.

  Q waited as the final beam of energy shut off, and ran to the energy beings, who were still on the ground.

  The beings slowly opened their eyes and rose into the air. Their eyes darted around. “Where is Arthur?”

  “Arthur’s gone,” Q smiled. “We disintegrated him with an Infinity Cannon.”

  “What?” they asked, their voices in confusion. “That is not possible. Arthur would not die from just that.”

  An ominous wind shot through the air, its chilling touch haunting Q.

  “I told you already,” a voice echoed. “I don’t die.”

  The Masked Magician appeared right behind the energy beings, a deadly smile on his face. “I’m baaaack,” he laughed. “Did you miss me?”

  He shot forward and his hand sank into one of the energy beings. Q watched in horror as his hand went straight through, piercing the being’s chest.

  The energy being fell to the ground, his face frozen still.

  “Ah,” Arthur said. “It seems like you, on the other hand, CAN die.”

  What’s going on? Q stood there trembling. How is he doing this?

  “Boss,” Zelph spoke out. “I’m getting a weird energy reading from him.”

  “What?” his eyes widened.

  “It’s almost as if he absorbed all the energy from the Infinity Cannons.”

  Q’s mind went silent, unable to accept what that meant.

  “This monster before us,” Zelph said. “We created it.”

  ***

  5-3

  Q’s mind descended into chaos. What in hell have I done? he cursed, admonishing himself for the Infinity Cannon attack.

  The Masked Magician bent down to the dead energy being, and put his hand on his forehead. The being dissolved away, his essence flowing into the Magician’s hand. The Masked Magician’s dark aura intensified, and Q subconsciously stepped back, unable to handle it.

  “Arthur has grown even stronger,” the energy beings said.

  “Stop calling me that!” the Magician yelled, and sank his fist into the ground. A wave of tremors washed over the surface, cracking the metal, tearing open crevices and warping the streets.

  Q stood still, watching as the very ground unwrapped itself, the metal inside the battle station flying out in jagged shards.

  “Q, he could take out the nuclear core if he does that too many times,” Zelph said. “And that means it’s bye bye for us and everyone else in this star system.”

  Got it, Q said, a part of his mind thinking rationally, another part of it wanting to run away as fast as he could.

  The four remaining energy beings surrounded Arthur, ready to take him on.

  That isn’t going to help us enough, he realized. The energy beings were far too weak to be able to take Arthur out. He would beat them easily. They needed a different plan of attack.

  Q tried to dig into his consciousness, trying hard to find something of use, something that could help them. And there, in the deepest part of memories he had wanted to forget, lay the answer.

  “Zelph?” Q asked.

  “Read your mind, boss,” he said. “I’m on it.”

  “How long?” he asked, noticing Arthur circling around the energy beings, just scoping them out.

  “Ten minutes tops. Five minutes if I rush it.”

  “Don’t cut any unnecessary corners just to finish fast.”

  “Okay,” Zelph said.

  Ten minutes, Q told himself. I just need to keep him at bay for ten minutes.

  Arthur went on the offensive, and almost immediately, what had been a standoff turned into an epic dance of white and dark, the colors shooting around the area like beams of reflective light. Q tried to keep up but realized that was utterly hopeless. The energy beings were on a level far different from his.

  He clenched his fists, annoyed by his limitations. Fine, if I can’t help directly, then I’ll just have to do something else, he threw his hands up to the sky, and summoned a tremendous bolt of lightning. The white flash struck the ground ahead of him, exploding on impact and causing a powerful shockwave that rippled through the air.

  Shockwave, Q’s eyes widened. Memories of the Megethos world washed over him, and he nearly blacked out. He gasped for breath, the attack draining him, the thought crushing him more. I forgot about the shockwave, he tensed.

  He looked up at the battle going on, at the dance of light and dark. He saw the continuous blasts
of shockwaves explode as the energy beings battled against their ultimate foe.

  No, his eyes widened, the realization sinking into his mind. This battle is going to cause that shockwave.

  His heart sank. There was no way they could win now. If they beat Arthur, they’d cause a shockwave and kill off the whole of reality. If they lost to Arthur then the outcome would still be the same.

  They had nothing to win for and everything to lose.

  “Damn it!” he yelled, frustration creeping into him.

  This can’t be the only way things can end, he insisted.

  “Q!” Levi rushed up to him from nowhere, a mask in his hand.

  His eyes widened at the black and white prop. “No way,” he whispered.

  “I mended it,” Levi said. “This is our last hope. The energy beings cannot beat Arthur however hard they try.”

  Zelph, how are things going? he asked.

  “Good. But they’d go a bit faster if I didn’t have people talking to me.”

  Got it, he said and turned to Levi, who was clutching onto the mask. “How do we get it onto Arthur?”

  “Leave that to us,” the energy beings’ voice resonated in his mind.

  Mind readers, Q lips curled into a small smile.

  The energy beings started to attack Arthur intensely, trying to get him to head over to Q and the mask, but Arthur was resisting their change in direction, and kept pushing them back. Q didn’t know if he was doing it because he was aware of the mask, but it didn’t seem like that. In fact, the only thing Arthur seemed to be focused on at the moment was the energy beings.

  “He won’t come to us,” Q muttered. “We need to go to him.”

  “That’s impossible,” Levi said. “I can’t even discern his movements.”

  Q created a platform of light below him and Levi, and made it lift them to one of the taller buildings.

  “What are you doing?” Levi asked, looking down at the receding ground.

  “Keep that mask ready,” Q said. He focused his mind and cleared his thoughts. He felt his body sway as his life energy flowed around him, concentrating in his palms.

  Focus, he told himself, trying to make sure he got this perfectly right. His energy surged out of him in one single shot.