Five Days Later
It was noon the whole city was shut down and guards moved around the streets in anticipation for what's to come. In the palace, Zac and Alvin stood in the throne room anxiously waiting for anything.
"Something should have happened by now!" Alvin shouted, his eyes had bags under them from lack of sleep and he didn't even try to hide them with make up.
"Well we should be glad about this silence," Zac said, he may appear to be calm and collected, but deep down he was panicking worse than Alvin. In a few weeks, Lars and Raymond are scheduled to return. If Zac could just hold out a little longer he would be able to be in the embrace of his beloved and cry his worries away, but no, he has to defend Phayor for Lars.
Phayor Outbanks
"This magical energy, I can feel at least one sacred stone is in Phayor," Clark said out loud while exhaling.
"Let's try something new shall we?" Clark smiled as he flipped through the pages of a withered tome. Clark stretched his arms out to form a T, he began slowly inhaling and exhaling until his body began melting into a purple sludge, and formed a puddle. Soon the puddle disappeared.
In the Throne Room
"Hey do you feel that energy?" Alvin asked Zac.
"Yeah," Zac said while looking around the room. He placed a hand on his tome, so did Alvin
"What energy?" Felix said, shrugging his shoulders as he walked into the room.
"Felix get back!" Alvin shouted as he noticed a puddle of purple sludge appear in the room. Quickly the puddle formed into Clark who looked around the room and began laughing at the people before him.
"Where is it!" Clark shouted towards Zac and Alvin.
"I don't know what you're talking about, and if I did know what you want you ain't getting it!" Zac said as he threw balls of fire at Clark.
"Oh don't play dumb with me mage!" Clark said as a tentacle erupted from the ground and blocked Zac's fire balls. "I know there is at least one sacred stone in this city, you can't protect it and Lars forever," Clark spat his words as he commanded the tentacle to slam down on Zac. Alvin summoned a blue translucent dome shield over himself and Zac blocking the tentacle.
"Felix hit him now!" Alvin shouted.
"On it!" Felix replied as he stretched his hand out, summoning two large spinning magical sawblades. The first destroyed the tentacle Clark was commanding while the second was destroyed by a purple blast that Clark countered with.
"Stay out of my way, you entitled rotten baby!" Clark hollered as he used a levitation spell to make Fleix float off of the floor. Felix frantically wiped the slivers of hair out of his face as the floor got farther away. He tried to kick his feet back down to earth but it was no use. Felix shot a worried glance at Alvin for a quick second but set it back to Clark, who was making Felix float with just one index finger.
"Clark is that you?..." Felix said as he froze in shock.
"Ahh, so you do remember me cousin, too bad no one will remember you!" Clark shouted as he slammed Felix around the room while moving his index finger. After a few seconds, a large electrical blast hit Clark causing him to fall to the ground and drop Felix. Felix hit the solid floor with a thud, he did not let out a moan, but instead blood began to pool around his body.
"I will make you pay for that!" Alvin shouted as he began to charge another attack. But before he could finish charging it, Clark looked up and grinned his eyes as he swiftly turned into pure shadow. Clark disappeared.
"Where did you go you coward! Show yourself! A-Are you scared? You should be!" Alvin shouted as he looked around the room, his attack reaching maximum charge. Alvin twisted around in a circular motion observing the floor and the shadowy parts of the room. Zac glanced around the room, confused because he has never seen that type of magic before. Then it happened, Clark appeared behind Alvin and kicked him with a powerful magical enhanced kick. Alvin flew across the room and eventually rolled across the floor where he landed into a wall with a loud grunt.
"Where is it Zac? Or should I say the disgraced mage commander," Clark scorned as he faced Zac charging a purple blast on his hands.
"I will never allow you to get your hands on it!" Zac shouted as he summoned purple sludge to counter Clark's attack. "What do you even want with the sacred stones!" Zac shouted as he summoned his aquamarine serpent to constrict and trap Clark.
"Oh you will find out soon," Clark snickered as he commended a tentacle to cut Zac's serpent in half. Soon the tentacle was warped around Zac constricting him. Zac wiggled in its grasp, trying to perform a spell but his hands were trapped in place.
"Now then, based on the energy I have been feeling. Where is the Stone of Dexterity! The last I knew of it, it was in that bow wielded by that peasant archer. What was her name again? Was it something like Katey?" Clark said as the tentacle constricted Zac more.
"Her.. name.. Was.. Kaitlyn!" Zac shouted as he struggled to breath.
"I don't care about that! Just tell me where that bow and Lars is, you can't protect them for much longer," Clark demanded as Zac's skin began to change to blue.
"L-Let go of me.. and I can t-tell you where they are..!" Zac pleaded as he struggled to talk. Clark loosened his grip on Zac allowing him to breathe more.
"T-Too bad Raymond is in space... or you would be cut up in a million pieces if h-he saw me like this," Zac laughed as he thought of what his finance would do in this situation.
"Stones! The stones! TELL ME!!" Clark demanded as he clarged a purple blast.
"Hint, t-they are in a place that humans can't go,"
"Where is this place!" Clark said as his grip loosed more. Zac could barely reach his tome, but he knew what he was about to do was dangerous. A bright light emitted from Zac, and he teleported out of the tentacle's grip. Clark gasped as he looked around frantically for Zac.
"AGHHHhhh!" Alvin shouted as a giant blast of electricity left the rune he had been charging up. The blast raced across the room and struck Clark, engulfing him in a shock of electricity. Zac appeared behind Alvin and fell to the floor exhausted.
"Let's finish him!" Alvin said as he pulled a dagger from his belt.
"No! We have to retreat and get the Stone of Dexterity far from here and hope that Lars comes back soon and with his power ends Clark!"
"O-Okay, let's get out of here quick..!!" Alvin agreed. Zac nodded and teleported them out with the last of his energy.
"UGH, Clark, tell me why are you doing this?" Felix asked as he struggled to lift himself up off the floor.
"You out of all people should know what I am after. Don't you remember what you did to me?" Clark asked as he walked over to Felix. He grabbed Felix by his collar and lifted him into the air.
"Look Clark, I am sorry for bullying you, I was just doing as the others told me!" Felix begged as Clark brought his glowing purple hand close to his bloody face.
"Shut up, you should be happy that I'm killing you now instead of saving you for my experiment!" Clark shouted as he placed his glowing hand on Felix's face, burning it. Felix's muffled screams filled the room. After a few minutes, Felix's screams stopped and Clark dropped Felix and laughed as he admired his work. Soon the sounds of boots clanking against the marble floor filled the halls outside the throne room.
"Damn, looks like I have some rats to exterminate," Clark thought to himself as guards filled the room.
"PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR!" Admiral Sven shouted to Clark. Clark put his hands in the air, and ark guards moved in to apprehend him. But before they could reach him, Clark slammed his hands on the floor sending a shockwave of energy blasting the guards away.
"Fine, I will deal with you myself," Sven said as he drew his sword and charged towards Clark. But before he could reach Clark, a tentacle bursted from the floor and blocked Sven's strike. A second tentacle emerged from the ground, and wrapped itself around Sven's legs. Picking him up and tossing him across the room.
"It was real fun toying with you, but you must excuse me as I have to get my revenge on those who have broke me," Clark heckled as he opened his tome summoning a large eagle familiar. More tentacles emerged from the floor, Clark moved them around the room destroying everything around him. Soon the whole throne room was destroyed and a hole in the ceiling allowed Clark to ride his eagle up into the sky. Once Clark was above Phayor, he charged a black rune, and aimed it down. When Clark released the rune, a shockwave of black magical energy rained down on Phayor. Seconds later large black tentacles erupted from the ground all over Phayor and began crushing everything and anyone underneath them. "OOh let me try this fire rain spell," Clark said as he flipped through the withered pages of his tome. Above him, the clouds gathered together and turned black. Before embers began falling down onto Phayor before it changed into balls of fire being hurled from the sky. Not too much later most of central Phayor was engulfed in flames, and crushed to rubble.
Meanwhile at Miradoor Fort
A bright light flashed in the field before Zac and Alvin appeared. They were both lying on the ground panting out of breath and dirty from their fight.
"Sir? Are you two okay?" An ark garud said as he noticed Zac and Alvin teleport in. He walked closer and noticed they were barely breathing and visibly injured.
"Oh My Lord! MEDIC! HELP! SOMEONE!" the guard yelled back into the fort. He began running back to get help.
Five Minutes Later
The guard came running back with a paramedic team with two stretchers. The paramedics gently placed Zac and Alvin on their stretchers, unsure of the serverties of their injuries. Zac and Alvin were brought into the infinity and ark doctors immediately began examining them.
Anya sat on the roof of one of the spires of Miradoor Fort giving her a good view of Phayor. She was admiring the craftsmanship of the Bow of Loyalty.
"How old is this Bow and who made it?" Anya wondered to herself lost in her own world unaware of the horrors outside it. Then something caught her attention, black clouds in the distant sky.
"Strange, I thought it was supposed to be clear today. Well I should probably head in before it starts raining," Anya muttered to herself as she got up. She took one last look as she clipped the Bow of Loyalty to her back, and noticed large black tentacles crushing Phayor beneath them.
"WHAT IS THAT!!!" Anya shouted as she flew off the spire and rushed into the fort.
"Your highness, where have you been!?" a servant asked with a worried tone.
"I saw something on the roof and need to inform General Fernando!" Anya shouted as she moved her way past the servant. But before she could fully leave the room, the doors flew open and she turned to observe the scene before her. She saw arks rush in two stretchers on the stretchers where humans, as Anya walked closer to see who they were, her jaw dropped as she recognized them as Zac and Alvin. "What happened! Why are they here!" Anya began panicking as she ran to their sides.
"We don't know your Highness, a guard noticed a bright flash of light then saw them in the field," a paramedic said reassuring Anya as he began to examine Zac's wounds. Anya noticed Alvin's tome and grabbed it from his side flipping through the pages. Eventually coming to the section about healing spells. Unlike Zac's tomes, Alvin's was a mess of randomly jotted down shorthand notes that were barely legible. After flipping a few pages Anya found some diagrams, but even they were poorly drawn, but luckily it was enough for Anya to understand how to use the spell. Anya reached her other hand out and followed the diagrams instructions. She closed her eye to focus on channeling the energy around her, and turning it into calm healing energy . Eventually Anya's hand began glowing green and so did Alvin's wounds. As the wounds began to disappear, Alvin began to grunt. Anya's eye widened in shock. Alvin lifted his head up and looked at Anya not even batting an eye at the fact she was using magic when Arks are not able to.
"Wow you are great at this!" Alvin said as he sat up, and dusted off his coat.
"Really thanks!" Anya said as the last of the bruises disappeared.
"Wait WTF how did you do that!" Alvin shouted as he snatched his tome out of Anya's hand.
"I don't know, I just did as the book said," Anya said defensively.
"Well you are going to have to tell your dad about this once this is all sorted out, because you just solved his life long question," Alvin stated as he began working on Zac's wounds.
"Yeah, yeah. Anyways, what happened to you two," Anya asked Alvin.
"Stone," Alvin replied as he was deep in focus and did not hear Anya's question.
"Um okay," Anya said as she reached into her poked and handed Alvin his glove with the artificial stone of healing in it. Alvin slipped on the glove and Zac's wounds dispersed entirely. "Aren't you going to tell me what happened to you two?" Anya asked as Alvin began to check Zac's vitals.
"We got ambushed at the palace by Clark," Alvin said.
"Who?" Anya said, confused as she lacked context clues.
"Clark is the guy who wants the sacred stones," Zac said as he sat up.
"What does he want with them?" Anya asked
"I don't know, but I know he wants revenge for how he was treated in his childhood," Alvin said.
"So I'm guessing he's the one who caused what's happening in the city," Anya
"What!?" Zac said as he began to panic.
"I was just on the roof and I saw a bunch of black teneticles begin to crush everything around them," Anya explained what she saw to Zac.
"We need to leave Phayor now. As long as we are here he can probably sense us," Zac said as he got up.
"Where are we going to go?" Alvin asked with confusion in his voice.
"The northern reach. There we can hide the Stone of Dexterity until Lars and Raymond return, once they do with our combined power we should have no trouble taking Clark out," Zac said with confidence.
"How are we going to get there? We shouldn't use any magic as I don't know if either of us have the energy to teleport to a palace that far away," Alvin said as he pointed at himself, Zac, and then Anya.
"Wait, why did you point to Anya?" Zac asked, confused.
"Oh um dad I am able to use magic apparently," Anya said sheepishly.
"Since when?" Zac asked with confusion.
"Uh just before the festival," Anya said before Zac cut her off.
"AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ANYONE!!" Zac shouted, but not angry, just surprised.
"No..." Anya said quietly.
"Well you are going to be learning quite a lot of magic while we travel," Zac said as he began walking towards a guard with excitement in his voice as he finally found a worthy pupil.
"Wait where are you going?" Anya asked as she had no idea what was going on anymore.
"I'm getting a caravan together then we are leaving!" Zac shouted from across the room.