Chapter
CCXIII: Information Revealed ~Mazzic
Deep breaths filled
the air of the tiny room.
A world of colors and sounds focused and faded leaving only instinct.
Order fell into
chaos, and through chaos, order once again arose.
The world
separated into only what was essential; there were no frills, chills, feelings.
Only what was
true.
---
Mazzic sat with his head against the
headboard of his small, yet satisfying bed. The only sound in the air was that
of his own breathing.
Slowly he rose
from his position, and walked out the door.
As he walked
through the Spectrum, he did not see
anyone, yet no one disturbed his stride.
Looking up as he
walked into the outside world, he let all the pain, every nuance of emotion go.
Colder than ice,
more focused then anyone could ever fathom he walked toward the library.
This time, Twilighter, your hour has come.
Mazzic didn't even smile at the
thought.
---
A haze covered
the area, slow swirls appeared around his feet
whenever a light footstep landed.
Through the
gloom, just beyond the light of a casino, was a small yet elegant
structure...his goal.
Small in
appearance, yet grand in presence, the library seemed to loom overhead, while
in reality it was no bigger than a large house.
All sounds
dimmed but Mazzic's footsteps. Everything drowned
away in the fog.
At the door, he
looked up and took one last look at the sky before passing through that final
barrier.
---
Inside, books
lined the walls, shelves ran through a large portion
of the building. Ladders lined the walls for access to the higher volumes, and
a space was set aside for studying the contents of the present media.
In the center of the room, a relatively large open space was centered under a large dome. Painted with age old scenes of
war and heroism, the eyes of those presented glared down on the intruder.
Not just on Mazzic, but on Vole as well.
"Welcome
dear sir, please come in and make yourself comfortable. No screaming though, it
IS a library." Vole grinned evilly and looked at Mazzic.
"I'd hate to see any of my precious books come to harm, so..."
reaching into the recesses of his coat he pulled out a stereotypically large
remote and pressed a button. All the central shelves receded into the floor,
and closed in.
Mazzic opened his eye and assumed a
fighting stance.
"Come."
Vole smiled once
more, and settled into a fighting stance of his own.
"Gladly."
---
Vole flew into
the waiting Mazzic and aimed a punch straight for his
head.
Mazzic calmly caught the fist in a
gloved hand, and proceeded to pull Vole into a punch of his own.
Unfortunately
Vole's stomach muscles were not readily defeated (otherwise this might have
been a really short battle) and the Twilighter hopped back to rethink his
strategy.
"Well, well
my young human, you seem to have gotten better since last we met. But in the
end it is of no matter as I am the stronger." Vole thought for a second.
"Ahhh I know!"
Removing from a
wall shelf a rather large book, Vole flipped through the pages until he found a
passage he liked, flexed his hands over the words, and chanted in some obscure
language.
Then he waited
for a second...
And another second...
Then Mazzic got bored and charged at the chanting Twilighter.
At that moment a
large vortex appeared out of the book, electricity and stray Magik blasted our hero to one side and within seconds the
room was filled with forty or so large men with crescent moon swords and other
sharp pointy things galore.
“The forty
thieves, my friend, minus their leader Ali Baba of course.”
“Never heard of
them,” stated Mazzic.
“Then I think
it’s about time you learn.”
Vole jumped up
onto a high ledge and began to concentrate his energy while Mazzic
was assaulted by the bandits.
---
One second…
Mazzic jumped over the first and as
he landed shot a foot out and caught him in the back of his neck. A snap was
heard and the figure crumpled in to a pile of paper.
1.4 seconds…
Three more tried
deft sweeps at him but they seemed to pass straight through him and as soon as
their swing was through they also crumpled.
Mazzic would never admit it to anyone
afterward, but he was enjoying himself thoroughly.
Two seconds…
With a few swift
kicks two more were down, and a punch to the jaw of a third ended his brief
bout.
Three seconds…
A circle of now
wary thieves had surrounded him, unfortunately, they had never seen Cowboy
Bebop (and if you have seen episode 3 you might remember this…of course Street
Fighter 2 works as well). Mazzic grinned and jumped
up and spin kicked all seven of them, doubling the amount he had all ready
taken out.
3.5 seconds…
A few more tried
to rush him and got hammered, but this is what they had expected and a fourth
flew in from behind in a sneak attack. Unfortunately for him Mazzic was expecting that as well and turned and smacked
him, breaking his neck.
Five seconds…
Eighteen down, twenty-two to go.
Mazzic raised his hand in the air and
concentrated his energy into it, it began to glow a slight gold color and he slammed it into the ground.
And nothing
happened……
For a second that is (got you there).
A large wave of
chi energy flowed out and annihilated twelve more of the apparitions.
7.2 seconds…
However as Mazzic was recovering, one of the more courageous of the
remaining ten bandits thrust his sword at Mazzic’s
heart. Luckily for our hero he missed, but managed to slice up his arm rather
well.
Eight seconds…
Blood was spilt
for the first time.
Mazzic looked down.
Play time was
over.
Nine seconds…
Due to the
incredibly horrific and violent nature of the scene above we have instead
decided to let you listen to me sing.
Doo do do dododo doo doo
do do doo doo doooooooo!!!!!!!
The End.
Thirteen
seconds…
Mazzic was standing in a mass of
shredded bloody paper.
And Vole was
glowing blue…
---
Mazzic looked up and realized what
the point of that little drill a second too late.
Vole leapt into
the air, flew with great force downward, and landed on Mazzic’s
neck with a two ton drop.
As Mazzic lay on the ground, Vole rolled away and flipped out
his Bo staff.
Flipping his opponent
into the air, he began pelting him multiple times, not even allowing gravity to
set in. Finishing a la Bo-To, his staff flared up in green flame and he swung
it around harder than he should have been able to.
Mazzic however was not one to die so early
in the real fight. Opening his eyes and straightening his body he yelled.
Not the pansy
yell of normal people, but a Dragon Ball Z style yell that forced Vole back
against the wall and jerked the staff from his hands.
Mazzic disappeared and reappeared
right in front of Vole, fist out stretched.
The force of the
blow shattered the column against which Vole was leaning.
Vole was leaning
there, but now was flying through the air toward his books. Mazzic
remembering what happened last time a book was damaged in his presence appeared
behind him and elbowed him into the ground.
Well, tried to
elbow him into the ground as Vole reached up with his legs and snared Mazzic around his head. Using his arms for balance he
slammed Mazzic into the ground behind him.
Flipping up Mazzic dusted off and his knuckles flared Gold. Vole’s
flared blue and the two met in the middle again. Power flowing
to either side of them.
Then Vole won.
Mazzic’s arm crumpled and he took an
energy fist to the face.
A pearly white
explosion ensued and Mazzic lay embedded in the tile
at Vole’s feet. There was sky above where the roof had been destroyed.
Vole laughed,
“Was that all human? I’ve seen more fight from dogs than you gave me.”
And in standard
Twilighter style he talked about himself.
“You see, you
couldn’t have won from the beginning anyway since I had travelled around and
destroyed various Magikal artifacts
and absorbing their power. I’m probably a hundred, maybe a thousand times more
powerful than you are…”
Mazzic stared at the sky, Why is the sky here so dull? There is no life in
it, no clouds, nothing at all.
Vole continued,
“And since I’m overconfident and you aren’t listening to me, all you really had
to do was destroy one of my books. Ha! I knew you wouldn’t after you saw what
happened to Cydak, but it really is my weakness. I
can’t fight with my special techniques when I’m upset, a flaw in the system you
could say…”
Mazzic listened half heartedly…How could I lose? I’m better than this idiot, he
is too confident, to evil.
Vole didn’t see Mazzic start to glow white. “When I was your age some
hundreds of years ago, I also though that I was the best…but learned I was
wrong the hard way. Of course I didn’t die like you will very soon…”
What is he
talking about?! I AM the best. Mazzic shook with anger…and exploded.
White energy
filled the air, even whiter that the blast that put Mazzic
on the ground. The books around the outside of the room disintegrated as energy
from the heavens flowed into the room. The sky was lit up with color, clouds spiraled around the
center of the storm and a blast of white energy
slammed through the center of Mazzic
sending the clouds away again. Such power was released that everyone, including
the newly reincarnated Havering, looked toward the library.
The storm
subsided, the random furniture that had lifted itself into the air landed with
a clatter. The pages of the hundreds of books flitted to the ground. Vole sat
up and stared shocked at the room; All of the books
gone! Who dares!!!
Eyes gleaming
with madness, anger almost palpable in the air about him, Vole looked to Mazzic.
Only it wasn’t Mazzic as he used to be.
Floating above
the ground, arms crossed, a white spectre bored divots into Vole’s head with
pupil-less eyes. Instead of the myriad reds and blacks, everything was now
white. Golden flames curled around him, the floor seemed to shift under his
energy field.
Vole stood up.
Mazzic unfolded his arms.
And the true
battle began.
---
The arena seemed
to spin, and the two fighters looked at each other. Then they disappeared.
In an alternate
reality, where time slowed down enough for us to view the battle the two flew
into each other.
Vole struck
first with a fist to Mazzic’s head.
Mazzic took it and flipped back and
kicked Vole into a wall. He turned and let a blast of energy flow at Vole.
Disappearing he
grabbed and held Vole in the beams path and weathered out the explosion. Vole
screamed as power tore at his flesh and he spun out of Mazzic’s
grasp.
Spinning around
he flung legs and feet and arms and fists and head and body into Mazzic at such an alarming rate that even Mazzic was surprised a bit. But it was to no avail as Mazzic grabbed his leg and swung him into the ground,
leaving a crater.
Floating to the
ground over the crater, Mazzic pulled a Vole, “I have
decided your fate. I will absorb you into myself, it is risky, but even if I
die afterward, you will have already felt pain and torture more than even you
can bear.”
“You see, the
true power of the Raging Demon is not that it uses the sins of its victim
against him, but that it absorbs the power of that person and transfers it to
the user. For the most part this would be safe, but in order to survive I have
to live through the pain that killed you. In this form that should be no problem,
but I guess we shall see.”
Mazzic grinned, and as Vole looked
up, with his energy fading, he thought that it was the worst and scariest thing
he had ever seen in his life, which was coming to a rapid close.
The golden
flares around Mazzic turned black, and a red glow
permeated the room. The air seemed to congeal and fester leaving only a dry
skeleton of what is once was. Vole was lifted uncontrollably into the air and
hung there like a wet sock.
Mazzic gathered all the shadow energy
into himself and leapt at Vole, a black after shadow following him.
Vole only had
one though before he died: I never did
finish that book under my bed. Guess I’ll have to do it in another lifetime.
---
Mazzic fell to the ground and
clutched at his head.
The air had once
again returned to normal, but a keen eye could see little demons and shadows
dancing around his head.
Bruised,
battered and exhausted from the transformation he tried his best to survive the
endless onslaught of death that Vole had committed during his life.
His limbs went
numb, the world faded from view.
Mazzic collapsed, and didn’t rise
again.
Till the next
chapter at least.