by Davies, Sean
Lewis screamed as his altered woollen insides and black coagulated blood continued to spill forth, his face twisting and stretching in ways a human face should be incapable of, and he raised his hands towards Veronica. Orbs of blazing green witchfire grew in his hands, but to the black-eyed Book Wielder’s surprise they stayed in his hands. He began shaking all over again, and his hands slowly and painfully began to move so that they were facing his own chest. The darkness receded from his eyes again, and he looked at Veronica with his original cheeky grin and blue eyes.
“Tell Winston it wasn’t me, Veronica,” he said in a weak shaky voice. “Tell him that he was the best friend a weird guy like me could have. Please tell him that I’m sorry…”
Before Veronica could utter a response Lewis had already released the witchfire, immolating himself in incredibly intense magical flames. The black returned to his eyes, and he stared and hissed at the immobile grief stricken Vampire as he was quickly cremated by his human-side’s attack.
Alice slowly advanced on the Archmage’s position, knowing that it would take more than one hit to defeat the evil tyrant. She kept cautious and prepared for a surprise attack. She was right. While he was still on the floor, Omniosis sent a barrage of blinding multi-coloured energy at the white-eyed Book Wielder. She held out her free hand and, with the help of her borrowed strength, negating the blasts was not a problem.
The heap of cloth and broken armour that was once the proud god-to-be cackled insanely as he picked himself off the floor. Alice watched in disgust as the shattered armour plates and masquerade masks fell from the Archmage’s form, followed by the tattered remains of his robe, until Omniosis stood bare for her to see.
He was a hideously grotesque creature. Like his fallen kindred, he too had succumb to the ugly physical transformation from noble and beautiful super-mage to a half rotten, twisted Demon, with patchy black and white flesh that looked like raw exposed muscle. Protruding from his chest, stomach, legs, shoulders, thighs and either side of his central face, were additional stretched faces. They talked, screamed, sobbed, cursed, shouted and prayed in complete silence, as the central face stared evilly at Alice with eyes that glowed with the same intense multi-coloured energy that he used in his magical attacks.
“Even without the source of magic, I am still the most powerful being on this planet now that the merger is complete,” he spoke in his usual charming yet distorted tone. “Go now and I’ll forget this little act of indiscretion.”
“If you’re so powerful then why are you trying to bargain with me?” Alice laughed. “I’ve got a deal for you; how about you surrender to me right now and I’ll kill you quickly, rather than the excruciatingly slow and painful way that I want to?”
The Archmage shrugged. “Have it your way.”
Omniosis quickly raised his hands and shot a stream of his raw magical power towards Alice. Keeping her hammer prepped in one hand, she used the other to negate the incoming endless flamethrower of magic. She strained with all her might to stay balanced, and slowly but surely began to turn the tide on the Archmage. He might have been the most powerful singular entity on the planet, but she was a white-eyed Book Wielder, blessed with the residual powers of all the rebel Archmages that had stood against Omniosis. She was a servant of Fate chosen to put an end to the megalomaniacal sociopath once and for all.
The Archmage summoned all of his power and threw it in the way of the advancing Book Wielder. He couldn’t believe or understand why his attacks weren’t working, and his frustration and anger only empowered him and fuelled his attacks more. But Alice kept negating his torrent of magic quicker than he could make it. Insanely furious, he released magic from his eyes and mouth, and he forced the faces on his chest and stomach joined to follow suit. To his immense satisfaction, the Book Wielder was finally stopped in her tracks. All he had to do was continue the barrage of raw magical energy and she would soon be overwhelmed.
Suddenly the Archmage dropped to his knees, carving a hole in the tanker’s deck before he could stop his own attack, and he had to put his arms out to stop himself from falling into the hole.
A soggy, completely waterlogged Mayor was standing behind him with his metal cane raised proudly. “I fucking hate Demons!” he shouted to Alice. “We’ll help you finish him off. That we will!”
“You inferior maggot,” the Archmage spat angrily. “You’re nothing to me, you are nothing at all!”
Omniosis shot a surge of multi-coloured energy from his eyes, but the Mayor ducked so that the attack only singed his hat. The Mayor batted him in his stomach’s face before cartwheeling comically out of the way. The Archmage quickly turned his attention back to Alice, who was almost upon him, and continued his attempt to engulf her in the intense blinding hot stream of pure energy.
DVAF, who had also climbed back aboard the Destiny’s End, snuck up behind the Archmage in the same fashion as the Mayor had. The Alt grabbed Omniosis by the wrists and yanked them back behind his body with his strong artificial arms. He lowered his knees onto the back of the Archmage’s, causing him to kneel. He shuffled him out of the way of the hole in the deck and towards Alice.
“Get him, Miss Inquisitor-lady!” DVAF said cheerfully, keeping the Archmage restrained.
By that point the Mayor, Kelpbeard and the other Alternatives had gathered around, ready to help Alice and DVAF if they needed it. Veronica joined them, ready to lend her spell-forged sword to the fight if required.
“How...?” the Archmage said frantically, looking around disgustedly at all those surrounding him. “I am the most powerful… I am… you are all just weak pitiful creatures! You are nought but the dirt beneath my feet… why can’t I kill you?!”
Enraged and consumed by hatred, he tried to summon all of the power that he could to blast his foes away, but nothing happened.
Alice strolled towards him casually, radiating a multi-coloured magical aura of energy. “I wasn’t just negating your power; I was siphoning it. A powerful final gift from the rebel Archmages.”
“No…” Omniosis said fearfully. He hadn’t been overwhelming her with his magic. He’d been strengthening her with it. His traitorous kind in the Gloom sky hadn’t just faded; they had sacrificed themselves to gift the white-eyed Book Wielder with every last ounce of their magical essence that they had left.
Veronica lunged in from the side, stabbing him through the shoulder with the spell-forged blade. “That’s for Lucius…” She stabbed him again through the side, making her sword flash with light. “That one’s for Lewis.”
Alice raised her free hand to Veronica, gesturing for her to stop as the Archmage screamed, whined and groaned in total agony. The raging Vampire continued to strike out until the Mayor and Kelpbeard carefully restrained her and dragged her away.
“Let go of me!” she hissed violently.
“We’re going to see Winston, that will be good fun,” the Mayor said reassuringly. “Good fun indeed.”
“Yarr, ye might be able to see yurr man through me spyglass,” Kelpbeard said, struggling to hold onto Veronica with his one humanoid arm.
“Any last words?” Alice asked the pitiful remains of the last Archmage Omniosis.
The Archmage was oozing clotted black blood from several wounds, and his many faces were strained in joint expressions of agonising pain and sorrow, but his main face looked up at her with a sickeningly amused expression. He smiled, even as black blood spilled from his mouth.
“The Creator is going to purge you inferior insects from the face of the planet,” he said with an evil cackle. “My only regret is not living to see it.”
The words made no sense to Alice, but the strange threat stuck with her for some reason. She shook the unnatural sense of fear from her mind and focused on the task at hand. Summoning all of the strength she had been blessed with, and all of the power she had stolen from Omniosis, she engulfed her hammer in burning white energy. It was so bright that even the Alts struggled to look directly at it.
; “Goodbye and good riddance, Archmage Omniosis,” Alice said as she raised the hammer ready to execute her fallen foe.
The Archmage continued smiling at Alice with his twisted and deformed Demon face, as she annihilated it with her magically charged hammer. The intense white light flared outwards, sending all those watching nearby falling to their feet, as it smashed his three-faced head from his shoulders and shattered against the ship’s deck with an enormous clang. The light clung to his demonic body and disintegrated it completely before fading away. Not even dust remained of the once almighty tyrant.
Alice exhaled slowly, her borrowed and stolen strength spent, but her task was complete. The great threat to the world was over, even if it was a slightly different world to the one she had originally intended to protect.
Winston could sense that the Archmage was no more. He smiled and fell slowly to the ground until he was standing in the middle of the now bare Central Isle. It had all worked out after all. He looked to the ground and saw the golden quill, its edges singeing like slowly burning paper, and Winston could sense the power quickly fading from it. Very carefully he scooped it off the ground and closed his eyes.
Around him, a giant stone coliseum rose from the ground. Sand filled the centre of the amphitheatre, and white banners displaying the black circle and open book symbol that was on his wedding ring hung from the rafters. He used the quill’s power to restore the once lost Catacomb entrances to the main network. Now all people across the world would be able to visit the Isle quickly and easily, just as they once had been able to long ago.
Moving outwards, he grew lush grass, tall trees, beautiful flowers, and built quaint villages and hamlets all around the Isle. He made roads, schools, farms, orchards, shops, wooden harbours for fishing, stone and metal ones for trade and transport, and a whole manner of other buildings for his new home Isle. He put the finishing touches within all of the buildings he had created, decorating and furnishing them artistically, just as the quill burnt away to ashes. As its purpose was complete, it had removed itself and all of its great power from a world that no longer needed it.
Winston opened his eyes and looked around the amazing grey-stoned coliseum that he had created, taking great pride in his work as he truly absorbed the scale of the building and the brilliant architecture. He was looking forward to viewing the rest of the new Central Isle and merged world with his own eyes.
Looking towards the banner of the Book Wielder Conclave, under the new blue and purple sky, he knew that his real life had only just begun.
Epilogue
Winston walked down the column-lined stone pillars of the Conclave Amphitheatre alongside Alice. The two white-eyed Book Wielders were on the uppermost storey of the building, walking beside the arches that looked out over the main arena benches and floor. A warm pleasant breeze blew through the empty hallways as the evening sun began to set. Winston was eagerly showing Alice around his new base of operations and home.
“I’m sorry again about your friend Lewis,” Alice said sadly as they made their way to another set of rooms that Winston wanted to show her.
Winston sighed sadly. “He’s at peace now. Death is a blessing compared to what the Archmage was putting him through. At least I discovered that he was once truly my friend and not just a mindless shell under Omniosis’ control. Our friendship was real, at least for a while.”
“So…” Alice began, “a whole new world, filled with wonder, magic and more dangers than I can think of.”
“It’s the way the world is supposed to be,” Winston said with a smile. He could see that his fellow Book Wielder was having a hard time processing the idea.
“Sorry if I seem rude, and I know that this was Fate’s will,” Alice said hesitantly. “But the world is now occupied by Alts, Freaks and monsters, the Supernaturals live in the open with the humans, most of the towns and cities need major repair work after the initial merger, there is no economy, there’s no unified government...” She paused to look at Winston, but he just smiled faintly and allowed her to finish. “A world like this may be a clean slate, but it’s going to be almost completely impossible to control.”
Winston chuckled. “We aren’t going to control it. We are going to guide it, and we will help shape it as the dust settles.”
“We?” Alice asked surprised.
Winston chuckled again. “Why else do you think I’ve been showing you around the place?”
Alice shrugged. “I don’t know, and I’m not sure what you want from me to be honest,” she said stubbornly, feeling slightly confused.
“You said it yourself,” Winston said calmly. “The world is in a chaotic state, and who better to help the people, protect the innocent, and punish injustice accordingly, than the former leader of the Inquisition and servant of the Twin Goddesses? I want you to lead my Justiciars, my law bringers and order keepers, Alice Eve.”
“You’re hiring me?!” Alice said shocked.
“Yeah, I suppose I am,” Winston smiled. “I have built this amphitheatre to be a meeting place for the rising powers from all over the new world to attend, to discuss and debate important matters. It will be a place for games and celebrations, but also a place to judge and punish those who commit heinous and unforgivable crimes. But primarily, it will be an assembly point and home to the Book Wielders and the other members of the Conclave. Together, we will ensure that the balance of magic is kept, and with you and your Justiciars, we will ensure that no oppressors like Omniosis ever arise again.”
“I suppose keeping the balance was the Book Wielders’ original purpose,” Alice mused. She walked along in silence before giving Winston the answer he was waiting for. “Okay, fine, I’ll do it, but on the condition that you let me run my people the way I want to.”
“Deal,” Winston said happily. “And to think the Archmage had me believing that he made the books.” He sighed; the deception seemed so obvious in hindsight.
“The devious Demon had you believing a lot of things, but now you have the chance to do some real good to this fully restored world,” Alice said kindly.
“Hey you.” Veronica stepped out from behind a stone pillar.
Winston’s stunning wife had wasted no time since departing from the Driftwood earlier that day, after they had watched the Destiny’s End sink under the new world’s waters as it slowly succumbed to the Archmage’s accidental yet fatal hull damage. She had washed herself thoroughly in her and Winston’s chambers within the Conclave building, expertly applied make-up to her beautiful face, and her long raven black hair shined and shimmered attractively like it was straight out of a shampoo commercial. All she was wearing over her extremely attractive and ridiculously curvaceous figure was a tight dress made of see-through lace.
“Sorry Ali,” she said, giving Alice a wink as she grabbed Winston by the arm. “The husband and I have some serious catching up to do...”
Alice scoffed, disgusted at the extroverted, mostly naked Vampire, as she led Winston away quickly to wherever they were planning to ‘do it’. She guessed some things would never change.
“We’ve got catching up of our own to do,” a familiar voice said from behind the opposite pillar to the one Veronica had popped out from.
“Jonathan?” she said in shock as the Mage walked around the pillar, dressed smartly in a brown suit and smiling.
Before Alice could say anymore, he had grabbed her and kissed her passionately as he held her tightly.
“I love you too,” Jonathan said with a cheeky smile, replying to the last words she’d spoken into the communication stone.
Alice blushed and smiled back. “I thought I was going to die.”
“So you didn’t mean it then?” Jonathan asked, pretending comically to be hurt.
She laughed. “You know I meant it!”
“Then I definitely think it’s about time I took you out somewhere nice in Tropica,” Jonathan said lovingly, “just like I promised I would. You can fill me in on the final showdown and everything
that happened in-between.”
Alice put her arms around his shoulders and kissed him hard. “Later...” she whispered in his ear, right before she led him by the arm to the living quarters Winston had showed her earlier on the tour.
Acknowledgements (And a word from the Author)
Hi everyone; firstly I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has read my first two books, I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them! Secondly, I’d like to thank Charlotte, Connor, Lee and all the ladies and gentlemen at work who have supported me, listened to my ideas, given me valuable input, and read through my writing when it was in development. Lastly I’d like to thank my incredible fiancée Laura for helping me to finally achieve my dream of writing stories, and having the patience to comb through all of my stuff!
Winston and Alice’s story may be over for the most part, but in the (hopefully) near future I am planning on returning to the newly merged world with a new Book Wielder character and storyline. The third and final part should be titled Mydia’s End.
Before then, I’m going to try my hand at a stand-alone horror/thriller story that will be titled The House of Twelve, before writing two prequels to Gloom Rising that will explore more of the history and background characters from Book One and Two. They will be titled Origins of the Trinity and Imperia Absolute.
Keep an eye out, and thanks again for reading!
Sean Davies