As soon as the words left Tiff's mouth, the illusion fell apart. "You and I can review the memories more privately, if you wish," Hoods whispered to Sarah as he floated away, leading the girls to where Lillia and Neko were. "As for you question, Sarah, on why D is so powerful, it is because he has a great trait. The trait all Masters of Magic have had. Willpower. Alex had the will to withstand all the torture. Despite every tear that fell, every bit of begging Alex gave D, the old man knew Alex did not really mean it. D knew Alex's will, like his, was unbreakable. One day, Alex will have to do the same horrible torture to his future student, hoping that like him, he or she will be able to withstand it. Willpower is what makes each Master of Magic so powerful. They cannot be defeated. Their willpower heals their wounds, forces their body up, and keeps them strong. It is a very rare gift..." Hoods explained.
"As for the torture, D did it because he needed to make sure Alex's will was truly unbreakable. Ever heard of the saying, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger? Let's just say, D wanted to make sure Alex was very strong...." Hoods sighed. "Any more questions?"
-----------------
"Dead zones? Impressive. Maybe I should have take Arkurus as my student?" D chuckled.
"Ideas?" Alex sighed, placing his hands on the ground and causing ice to appear over it, trying to slow the golems down.
"Perhaps you should hold them off, while I go look for Arkurus?" D suggested as he looked at a group of golems and his eyes glowed for a second. Suddenly, dozens of large, heavy anvils appeared above the groups, and fell down upon the golems. Since the anvils were all teleported, God knows from where, and not exactly magic, D wanted to see how well they did against the monsters. He was no stranger to failure of course, but it was fun to watch. After watching the anvils fall, and seeing their results, he patted Alex's back and flew off, attempting to find the mighty swordsman.
Sarah and Tiff rejoined the others with no more questions, and were silent as they waited for Alex to return, frightened of what they had just seen, Sarah especially.
------
The Anvils fell straight through the dead zones without a hitch, but despite their size and weight, the golems were hardly shaken. Mages as a whole tended to be clever, and teleportation was not an uncommon spell. If D or Alex were going to do something, it would have to be something that only a few mages could do or think up, since few made it past Arkuru's Golems.
When he left to find Arkurus, he would find no trace at all of the swordsman...unless he attempt to search the ambient magics around him. In them he would fine a trail of red, strange magic, magic that D, if he was old enough to know it, he would not have known for several hundreds of years, and even then it would be strange to see it once more, because it was a power that belonged to no mage or swordsman.
But it was thin and weak, probably residue from Arkurus's traveling, and identifying it would not be an easy task, and one that D would not have time for. Following the trail he would be led into the dungeons, where all the slaves were currently locked up, and yet he would be drawn deeper and deeper and deeper still, until finally he entered a long hallway, and at the end of it, a circular room made of smooth white marble and featureless walls. Once inside, the roof of the long hallway, the entire roof, would collapse down like a gate, sealing him behind a ridiculous amount of stone. And on the opposite side of the room he would find Arkurus, waiting, watching, holding his
sword down at an angle, just beneath Zane's neck.
Zane himself looked barely conscious and still bleeding, he would not last the night without medical attention, and even with it he would need magical assistance to live through it. His bloody eye was closed while his other was half open and glazed over. He wore the tatters of his armor still, and each breath he took was hard and labored.
"I see you have arrived, oh master of magic, oh great Lucifer Iblis." He spread his free arm out as he gave and exaggerated bow. "I must admit, I never thought things would run so smoothly, so perfectly." He licked his unhuman lips and looked up once more, staring at the master of magic with a hunger that was not there before, that had been hidden. "You have no clue how long I have waited for this, great demon of the arts, master of magic, lord of the arcane, king of feasts."
Alex looked at golems around him and clapped his hands together. He remembered a past lesson D taught him.
Magic's only limit, is your limit. Destroy all limits, and you will truly be the Master of Magic. "Magic's limit is my limit. Destroy all limits. Destroy all limits...Destroy all limits!" he yelled, and his eyes turned blue.
Suddenly, a bright light filled the room, and a roar was followed. Alex now stood on the neck of a fierce. A dragon, made up of
five separate dragons! The beast was huge, so big that it had to lay on the ground, for if it was at it's full height, the house may have been torn apart.
Alex placed his hand on the dragon's neck, and suddenly the beast's ten eyes turned blue, their minds now overcome by Alex's influence. Each head began to attack the golems with the dragon's only natural abilities. The red head let loose a massive burst of fire, the blue head, who Alex was riding by the neck, breathe out chilling blasts of ice, the green head fired out powerful gusts of wind, the white head shot out blinding beams of light, and bit down at the golems, while the black dragon bit and smacked any golems it could, it's black magic would not be effective against them.
While this spell was powerful, it was stressful on Alex's mind to control the five brains. If he did not overcome the army soon, he would have to try a new tactic.
---------------
D followed the strange trail, his face now losing it's grin as he floated down the trail. He flashed white, before turning into a bolt of white lightning. Traveling down the path at the speed of light and turning back to his human form as he found Zane and Arkurus. He turned his head as the stone dropped and he couldn't help, but laugh.
"A bit extreme, no?" he said, before his laugh vanished. It was obvious Arkurus wasn't normal. He had something about him. He knew a lot about D, and he felt an odd excitement at the thought of a challenge. "...Who are you? Really. Just how old are you?" he asked, as he began to stretch his limbs, ready to fight.
"And how long HAVE you been waited for this? Why me? Why go through all this for an old man? Alex is the Master of Magic now."
Arkurus burst out with laughter as D told him that he was not the master of magic. "Is he now? Well titles as titles I suppose, but he has yet to mature, truly mature. Dont worry, I have no interest in killing or maiming your apprentice. Not yet, at least. And if you truly must ask such questions then truly you are undeserving of your powers. An old man? You? Age and power are relative terms." Arkurus stated lightly. "And while I do suppose you are old under most circumstances..." He continued, his gaze becoming dark and serious. "You are not a man. not a human at least. Such petty relations were dropped when you overcame your master and truly became the master of magic."
Arkurus then reached down and picked Zane up by a his hair and tossed him at D with one hand, throwing the elf all the way across the room as though he weighed nothing at all. If D did not somehow slow Zane down before he hit D, or the opposite wall, then he would break his neck or just flat out die on impact. Whatever the case, Arkurus would continue as though he did not care, which he didnt.
"You asked me who I was, who I really was. Well then, if you must know...if you truly have been unable to undo the damage I did so long ago to your very mind...then I shall...enlighten you." Arkurus's form began to swim and change suddenly, though in a way that made it seem as though he were not actually moving, as though what he had truly been had been standing there all along, in front of Alex, in front of Tiff, in front of D. And as this change happened, tendrils of invisible power snaked through the air, their course predestined and already sunk, unavoidable and inescapable, sinking deep into D's mind, undoing a block placed there long, long ago.
"Remember then, a time long ago, when shadows raged and ghosts did roam..." The creature before him chanted slowly. "A place far away, a distant land, where there was a battle fought by your very hand..." As he spoke, the strange mist within D's head began to lift and he was slowly bombarded with bursts of memories he would be unable to recognize. Where they Arkurus's? Was he placing them in his head? Or perhaps...they had been there all along.
Shadows, dreams, demons, allies, friends, foes, valor, evil, time, loss, battle, victory, joy, hate, end....Templum.... The memories streamed into D's head in unfiltered wave, and entire chapter of his life, people he had trusted with his life and yet names he could not remember, and so much more...all lost...all gone.
"Yes, you are starting to remember now arent you? All those years? All those deaths? All those great battles...all in Templum, a land that no longer exists, and as far as anyone knows, never did and never will." Now Arkurus stood before D anew, and D would know him, and yet not know him, and see that he was something long lost, long forgotten...changed. This new foe looked up at D with loathing eyes and evil intent. "Hello again...brother." Said the
creature.
(Huge amounts of plot just got its guts ripped open. I had intended to establish a bit more about D's history before I got to this but...well...it happened. He is your character, if you want, you can fill in the blanks of his memory, of all the images and of templum, or you can let me, or we can split it half and half. And to answer a possible question, yes this guy is a godmod at mind fucking, and at one point in time did mind fuck D, and everyone and anyone who ever knew about the lands know as Templum)
((It's okay. I'll establish a little plot about D's past.))
D, for the first time in a long long long time, felt....afraid? Worried? Confused? Something along that lines. He quickly saved Zane, saving the boy and gently placing him against the wall to rest. The old man shook a bit as his mind was fixed....or broken.
He looked at Arkurus and tried to wrap his mind around everything. "B-brother? You're...my...brother..." he whispered, not as a question, but a statement. "Big...brother..." he whispered. He struggled to sort through everything. So far, the best he could find was a war...a war between good and evil...Someone....someone....betrayed him? And they, the side of good, lost...Evil triumphed...He lost his memory and was supposed to have died, with his family and friends, but someone...someone saved him...The old Master....He was saved by the old Master...
HOODS! Did he know about this!? All of this!? All this time!?!
Hoods predated anyone D knew, far older than the last Master of Magic, and D himself. D's old master even believed Hoods was the first Master of Magic...but....was that true!?
"You...you betrayed us....Our friends...Our...our home...Templum was at war...we...we were heroes and...and you betrayed us!" D accused, unsure if he was right. "But why? I do not understand! Was all this just to give me back my memory? Do you want to kill me? Why? What did I do to you!?" he asked, raising his voice as he tried to find reason in lies.
"Tss." The creature that was once D's brother said, an old noise he used to make to make D be silent when they were still brothers. "Templum was done for, you and I both knew it. All those warriors, heroes, kings and mages, were all there in vane. Templum was a vein of magic upon the world, and we thought we could just life on it and reap the rewards, build our cities, live peacefully. But it was always just a matter of time." He shook his head and grinned, as if remembering a fond memory.
"Do you remember? When we signed up to help save the land? The people we met? Captain Kaylee with her flying ship, Sam Hammerstrike and his dwarven crossbow, Prince Ro'Lethen and his cursed hand and lineage, Master De Shon, ever trapped in childs body, The dragon Sevrin, The paladin king Leon, Gelmon the Elf lord, and Sir Royan, who offered you the sword you used to slay Fenzren the hydra. Do you remember any of them? Truly? do you remember me, how I would train to protect you and Herna...my Herna....Do you remember Spero?" the creature laughed, and stomped, insane with his own heinous amusement for several seconds.
"And...and then you say that I betrayed you? What foolery brother dear brother, I betrayed no one! You all betrayed yourselves!" Suddenly he was angry, and pointed his sword accusingly at D. Do you remember that day!? Our proudest hour! We, the sons of no one, defeated the dread hydra himself! Where armies failed, we succeeded, and I was so proud...Do you remember it? The party we had, the celebration held in our honor? And how as we celebrated, a half dead messenger arrived at our festivities, bringing news of the fall of Shi, our proudest city, our safest sanctum!?" The ground seemed to shake as rambled on, his anger mounting.
"We were still losing! We still would have lost! And so yes brother, I stole the armor of the god Felcor, and I donned it and its axe, and drew all of templums power into myself. And then I used it to destroy all of our enemies! But you all named me traitor, conspired against me! You were jealous of my power, called it forbidden, called it evil!" Cracks began to spread across the floor, and although the magic of the room continually healed it, still the cracks ran far and deep. "So you opened hell beneath me and began the ritual that would end me, and as your minions held me down and stole away my power, you attempted to seal me! Me, your own brother! All of you!"
A breath of organ flame licked around his mouth for a second or two before he seemed to calm down. "But I was to clever, to powerful...you see brother I did not let you finish, I was able to seize my axe! And with it I stopped your ritual, stopped it because you could not remember...because no one could, because I destroyed Templum that day! No longer does it exist in any world, in any mind but my own...and your brother...and yours...but not for long."
Again the being turned toward D with an accusing glare. "I did not come here just to remind you of all of this brother...I am here to drain you...replenish my power with yours. You see...although I stopped you from destroying me, I was still trapped in that fire pit...for years...for centuries. When at last I emerged, powerless as a worm...I was...changed. My power was gone...but it left a thirst. It is a thirst that will remain until I am at last the most powerful, a thirst that I can sate! A thirst I quench with the blood of the most powerful mages. And now...at last, I have you, my final meal before I can finally return to being what I once was!" He laughed manically and lifted his wings triumphantly into the air. He was insane, clearly driven mad by his thirst and his imprisonment.
"It was so hard finding you!" He suddenly yelled. "Oh so so hard, you hide to well...you escaped me for so long, it was maddening... Ah but your apprentice was easier to find..and hook. I knew all I had to do was cross some kind of line to get him to bring you...and then...oh how deliciously perfect this plan was..." He seemed to fade into his own thoughts, and was lost in them for a second or two before refocusing.
"As...As you can see brother, this whole...ordeal has had quite a profound effect on me...it was not easy to do all this. As Arkurus I could move freely and kill mages, drink their power, and grow stronger...but I also had to be sane!" He smashed the wall suddenly with his razor sharp wings. "DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD IT IS TO PRETEND TO BE SANE?! Always rational, always thinking, always double thinking...Its enough to make on go mad isnt it?" He chuckled at his joke before he continued speaking. "But Arkurus is now dead, RIP, forever. Now I am me once again! or soon will be. The Great God King...." Suddenly a smile crossed his twisted, mutated features. "So..brother...do you remember my name?"
(Here you can name him and correct him on anything he got wrong, since he is insane and deluded)
"This is not my fault!" D screamed. "I did not make the mistake...You did! Our home fell, yes, but I, and others, were still willing to fight! You were afraid! You did not think we could fight back!" he accused his brother. "You...stole the armor of our friend, our ally, and you....killed him...?" D whispered, unsure.
"You killed our friends and family, before we were able to stop you. You went mad with power! You killed our enemies, and I was happy for you, but you went mad with the power! You wanted to rule over everything! To suppress life and free will! You said you were going ensure that war would never take place again, but I knew what you really wanted. You wanted more power!" he yelled.
D's body glowed red and he looked at his brother as the world shook. "You brought this on yourself! Mickal! I did not want to kill you! I hoped to seal you away, make you control yourself, see the errors of your way! You refused though. You fought back and look what has happened! Our home is gone! Our friends dead! You ruined everything! If you trusted me when I said there was still hope, we wouldn't be here! We would be alive, with our family! OUR FRIENDS!" he yelled as the aura grew more powerful, and his brother could feel the fire burn within him, the anger of the two brother colliding.
"...Mickal....My brother...if this is truly your final decision, to fight and try to kill me, I have no choice," D whispered. "I remembered a time...long ago before the war and hate....You and I, playing with our dear parents...Promising one another we would grow up to be heroes....But you are no longer the brother I loved. You are the monster that took him away from me!" he roared as his body burst into flames, revealing his true
form.
"I think...it is time we ended this, Mickal. Let us see just who is stronger...." D said, his body still burning. He slowly raised his left hand, before a tornado of fire shot out of his hand, aimed right at 'Arkurus.' "This is for the brother you took away from me!"
Mickal laughed in insanely and pointed his sword forward into the fire, suddenly expanding a dead zone from its blade destroying the magical flames almost instantly. And indeed the zone continued to grow and grow until all in the room was wrapped in dead zone. "Now now brother." Said the insane mutant, his body radiating with anti magic, which was probably one of the reasons he was able to kill so many wizards, even without magic. "After so many years you think I would just let you use magic? Did you not notice this room, how it is so perfectly suited to anti magic, how naturally a dead zone forms? Normally I have to stay put to use my dead zone...but here."
Mickal demonstrated his mobility then by lunging forward, using his sword to strike out at D savagely, attempting to flay him in hundreds if bladed blows. "Come brother!" He screamed as he attacked. "You were once a swordsman, not a mage, surely you have not forgotten our sparing lessons?!" And indeed D would find the knowledge to fight within his new memories, if he hadnt already mastered a blade. Unfortunately, when it came to swords play it was Mickal who had triumphed in the past. Whatever D had with him was his weapon, and he would have to force Mickal to drop the dead zone if he wanted any hope of killing him. Perhaps beating him until he could concentrate no longer would do the trick, now the real trick was doing it.
D jumped out of the way, his cloak being torn apart as the blade attacked. He hit the wall and took a deep breath, as he stood in the
armor that laid under the cloak. He pulled out the cane he had with him since the beginning, and pulled the bottom part of it off, revealing a long blade. "Are you truly dead, Mickal, my brother? My true brother! I know we had our differences, but we are brothers, no matter what! Surely, there must be some part of you that wishes to end this madness!" he yelled, as he held the blade.
If he could just try to reach the good part of his brother, then there just may have been hope. If he could not, he was ready to fight, as he held the sword in a defensive position, studying Mickal's movements and staying on the defensive. Just because he was skilled in magic, did not mean he was weak at swordplay. On the contrary, he could defeat most swordsman....Sadly, so could his brother.
"I cannot believe there is not even a small part of you that does not seek redemption, Mickal...Fight the madness, and let me save you!" D angrily begged.
"You yourself killed the brother that would have spared your life!" Mickal screamed, his voice echoing with the sound of every mage he had ever killed. "Fight and die brother! I command it!" And with that the mutant lept forward, slashing and stabbing viciously with his blade, using his winged arm to defend his body and claw at D whenever it got the chance. His brother had the edge here, he had been fighting with swords longer than D, and he had super human strength and speed without the aid of magic. It would take all of D's skill keep from being skewered and a few of his more clever tricks to overcome the insane remnant that used to be his brother.