Chapter
CCCLXII: The First Shall Not Be The Last ~Lich
Lich waited for
the footsteps to disappear, then heaved a sigh of relief. Professor Highland
had left the village to calculate the spot where he could catch
“Well, he’s
gone,” Lich stated flatly, sitting up on his bed and resting his back against
the wall of the hut. “Perhaps I’ll have some peace and quiet for a while; some
more rest would be good.”
Naaro nodded. “I’ll just be outside
if you need me. Rynn and Kai arrived this morning,
and–”
“They’re here
too?” Lich asked, jerking to attention.
“Yeah. I’ll just be outside.”
“Okay,” Lich
called to Naaro as he left. “Seems
like this place is magnetic. If anyone else comes along, send them in if
I’m awake!”
“Alright!” Naaro’s
reply came.
Lich closed his
eyes and leaned his head back, exhaling forcefully. He had nearly recovered
from the shock of the night before, yet he still felt some exhaustion. It
seemed to come back to him partially, though, when he turned his head and
looked at his unconscious companion, as he did just then.
Multehx lay prone on the opposite
bed, now free of the human who had suddenly appeared and collapsed – she had
been moved to another room. It was eerie to see him so still. Whenever Lich had
seen him, the agent was always doing something, be it reading, talking,
cleaning the Quicksilver, or something mischievous if he was bored out of his
wits. Now, he was lifeless.
“Where have you
been, Tehx?” he asked him quietly. “Where are you
now?”
Five years he
had waited to see his surrogate brother again. It was not meant to be like this.
Tehx was not supposed to be deactivated and dead to
the world. Lich did not know what he was supposed to be doing, but not like
this, not like this at all.
And now, Fate
had pulled a magician’s trick, taking away
Don’t be stupid, there’s no such thing as Fate…but
then, what of the prophecies? Maybe Aggli struck it
lucky.
Lich snorted to
himself as he rolled his head back and idly retrieved the sixteenth edition of
the Yoshi Palimpsest from his Mana Storage – he was well enough to do that
easily, now. He opened and began to flick through the pages.
Let’s see…Er’glengz, Ulgo’rng, Glong, Ng’z, Aggli.
Stops here at Pul. Pick a
page…yes, this will do.
He set the book
down in his lap and closed his eyes, raising his forefinger. He then brought it
down onto the paper, and opened his eyes at the seventeenth verse of the
twelfth chapter.
“‘Thou shalt
take up thy weapon and hold it ready, for the first shall not be the last’,” he
read aloud. “‘The night bringeth those who hath sworn their souls to the Darkest of the Darkness; and
yea, they wield great power. The two pyramids are sought and a child shall cry
in the shadows when they come; and they will come, young warrior.’ Ha.” Lich
chuckled. “Nice one, Aggli, nice one.”
“Lich,” Naaro’s anxious voice came from the door.
“Look at this,
will you,” Lich laughed, waving the Palimpsest at Naaro.
“Aggli’s trying to scare me here.”
“Don’t worry
about that now,” Naaro continued. “I think something’s
attacking the village.”
He could hear
screams of agony outside from a few warriors as whatever it was attacked them.
Lich looked up at Naaro worriedly, and then glared at
the book in his hands. “Damn you!” the young warrior yelled at it.
Lich returned
the book to his Storage, got to his feet, picked up the Boomerang, and marched
out of the room with Naaro close behind him. He
hadn’t walked since the night before; he felt the stiffness of his muscles.
When he parted the curtain of his hut, he flinched.
“Stop wasting my
time. Give.”
A sound like
metallic gunfire rattled the village as a fist on the end of a cable shot
through a wall of a hut. He could faintly hear some screams from inside before
the cable retracted the hand to its owner.
“O…Omega?” Lich
called, a hand raised to his mouth.
He flashed a
glance to his left to see Rynn holding Kai, both
staring wide-eyed at the robot. There was no time for greetings now. He looked
back towards Omega, seeing the village warriors slink away, and saw him clutch
a terrible scythe, its shank crowned by a blue-tinged diamond, its long blade a
tarnished gold. With an irritated growl, he turned to Lich.
“GIVE IT!” he
yelled, as he circled the weapon above his head then slashed off to his left.
A black energy
bolt shot out of the scythe and smashed into another hut in the distance,
bringing it crashing down with a clatter of wood.
Hl’garng had retreated towards Lich,
and now stood beside Naaro as Rynn
asked, “Give what?”
“The two
pyramids…” Lich muttered to himself. He looked back up at the robot and called,
“Omega! What is wrong with you? It’s me!”
Omega rested the
jewel on the ground and stared at another hut. A waft of smoke emerged from the
top of it, before the roof became an inferno. A family of Yoshies raced out of
it yelling, into another hut nearby as Rynn growled.
“Stop hiding it
from me,” he snarled. “It is my right.”
“Hiding what?!”
Lich yelled, clutching the Boomerang tighter, as the roof of the burning hut
collapsed, followed by the walls.
Omega spun back
to Lich and glared at him with eerie, solid black eyes, piercing his soul. “The stone.”
Those eyes were
wrong, and a feel of the Mana Field confirmed it. Lich sensed a great power; an
evil power.
“The heart of Rhyjulian!” Omega yelled. “Ever since I have seen what it can do, I have longed
for it. Bring it to me! I know you hold it, Lizard!”
Hl’garng growled behind him.
“Hl’garng…let it go,” the Karmali
replied almost instantly.
“Rhyjulian?” Lich asked. “Who or what's that?”
Omega snarled briefly, extending his fist in a punch into one of the neighbouring huts and bringing it down - Lich was unsure whose it was, but it had to be someone important’s. “The heart of Rhyjulian, it burns with his power – the power to make the almighty MIGHTIER!” the robot proclaimed. “Infinite expansion potential! Give it to me!”
Rynn’s growl grew louder, and she set Kai down beside a tree, telling him to stay there as she headed towards the action.
Lich winced and listened to the conversation going on behind him.
“He sayeth the word,” the hunter insisted in a growl.
“Yeah, he did,” Naaro said, “but that doesn’t mean you should stupidly run out there and attack him. I suggest you just stay quiet and try to stay away from the huts he’s aiming at.”
Hl’garng suddenly shot past Lich, towards his own hut nearby, his face filled with rage.
“Who or what is Rhyjulian?” he asked Omega again, slowly.
His reply was the machine’s eyes snapping to Hl’garng’s stormy stride, an evil snicker, and a raised fist that fired another bolt at the hunter’s back.
Naaro darted out from behind Lich and swung his tonfers at the bolt, deflecting it up into the sky where it exploded.
Hl’garng turned around quickly to see Naaro get up and look firmly at him.
“Hide,” the Karmali snarled. “Now. Else I’ll knock you out and save you myself.”
Realising Naaro had just saved his life, he answered, “I thank thee. I shall.”
Lich watched him dive into his hut and retrieve his machete, and hurry off to some other huts in the distance – he hoped they were out of harm’s way. A snicker from Omega brought his gaze back to the robot.
“Lizard, you know the truth, I am certain,” it said, sneering. “I see it in your pathetic eyes. Rhyjulian...was my chief commander. Now he is dead, and his power lives on within his heart, which is being wasted by some fool as we speak! Rhyjulian's spirit and essence inhabit the body of the weakling now and guide him to use the stone, but I claim it as my natural right now!”
Lich fought through his memory to find any mention he could of Rhyjulian. Had he suddenly been caught up in Multehx’s business? If so, it was no surprise he did not know what he meant, considering that he couldn’t remember everything about Zolott, and then he had disappeared for those five years…Heart of Rhyjulian, a stone...does he mean the Ruby, Emerald, Diamond...or is it something diff- TEHX?!
There were the two pyramids: Multehx’s diamond eye, cut to have straight sides and a point at each pole.
A quick glance to one side saw Rynn show Naaro where Kai was seated.
“If you mean the agent,” Lich started, before he brought up the Boomerang, “you’re not having him. One brother has been taken from me. Nothing will take the other.”
“Bring me the fool; the fool who shares Rhyjulian’s name!” Omega commanded, seething. “The heart, of Multehx Rhyjulian!”
“No,” Lich replied, flatly.
Omega looked agitated. “Insolent lizard!” he yelled. “Do you have any idea whom you dare oppose?”
“A bad boy with a big toy,” Naaro interjected as Rynn growled at that most virulent of words.
Lich glared across the now altar-less central area of the village to Omega, Hl’garng and a group of warriors darting across his vision behind him. “Inform me.”
Omega roared, and pointed the scythe straight at Lich’s heart. “Mortal, you cannot hope to survive the likes of me – of Whyr-Rhoh-Tin!”
Whyr-Rhoh-Tin, Whyr-Rhoh-Tin, where have I heard that na– Oh, gulto! That demon the Twilighters all fought way back…this has to be the worst of them! Oh, hegeratu!
“You know of me, I see your fear,” said the demon, striking the ground with the jewel, which began to glow unholily. “Yes, I am reborn! Now, only a pitiful little boy stands between me and my true GREATNESS!”
Lich stood erect, trying to look confident and unfazed. “I doubt you really are,” he said calmly, hoping that the demon wasn’t as he claimed – besides, Whyr had been locked away. “Do you really think you can intimidate me?” Yes, he can, if he’s the genuine article.
Lich checked the Mana Field. Somehow, the demon had managed to alter his own Signature so that it wasn’t towering, but small and concentrated – no wonder he hadn’t felt him enter the village. His presence reeked of evil. “A dark demon, yes,” he reported as he opened his eyes again. “But not him.”
“Can I go in and trash him love?” Lich heard Rynn ask Naaro, obviously fed up with him.
“Not yet,” Naaro answered. “We're in Lich's village, so let's not do anything without him doing it first.”
Great, Lich groaned mentally.
“Besides,” he continued, “I think this is one of the Spectrum Wanderers, albeit quite changed…”
A snicker from
the demon returned Lich’s focus to him, as he began to mutter strange,
ancient-sounding words, the scythe on his shoulder. His voice grew louder as he
slowly spread his hands out, his eyes fixed on the twilight sky. He began to
levitate as the sky blackened far beyond black, and as he did, Lich’s jaw
slowly dropped open.
Hl’garng led his group of warriors quickly away from the village, following the brook downstream. A young Yoshi, only receiving his adult name a few days before Lich’s arrival, looked at Hl’garng, puzzled. “Why do we not fight? Why do we flee?”
“One taketh courage to fight the foe,” Hl’garng replied, not turning around, “but it taketh even more courage to flee. It is not cowardice in the slightest when thine enemy is stronger than thee.”
The other warriors nodded.
“Thou hast much to learn, still,” Hl’garng answered, now turning his head, seeing Kuza standing on a hillock nearby in the fading twilight. “Is that not…not the creature that hath attack’d the guest?”
“It is indeed,” Eng’g agreed.
Hl’garng set off towards him at a run. “Hark! Hark, thee, hark!”
Kuza looked up from his hands and saw Hl’garng running towards him. He placed something in his…what were they…clothes. “Yeah?” he called back to them.
Hoping that Kuza could understand him, he replied, “A vile demon attacketh the village!”
“Demon?” the Anjel quickly asked, falling into thought for a moment.
“Get thee to the village and help, we implore thee!” the Yoshi said, agitated.
“Yeah…alright.”
With that, Kuza took off into the ever darkening sky.
The first encounter Lich had with Multehx was in the room he was staying in at the Navel Falls View, in his childhood. Intrigued by the strange man’s equally strange habits, he broke into his room and saw a pendant shaped in the rune now glowing beneath Omega’s feet. Multehx told him many years later what it was: the Whyr-Rock, the powerful symbol of this demon.
A crack of thunder overheard announced the rumbling of the earth. Lich closed his eyes and steeled his resolve, clenching his fist. He snapped them back open again. “You’re not having him!”
The demon settled back onto the ground, trembling as much as it did. “I already do. Too long have I been imprisoned! Now to claim the stone, and remake my body!”
“No!”
The air rang with another peal of thunder, mixed with the crackle-filled “Zp!” of the Cyan Arc as it formed its namesake in a warning throw.
With a glance to the weapon, Omega whipped out his cabled hand and gripped it as Lich brought it back to his ready position. The electric self-defence mechanism crackled weakly as darkness poured over the Boomerang of Light, suppressing its strength. “Weak, but still a stone,” Omega growled. “Give it.”
“No.”
Omega shrugged his shoulders, which began to whirr as the cable was pulled taut. Lich was pulled off his feet and onto the shaking ground, and dragged towards the demon, bouncing. The Yoshi raised his torso and brought his legs before him, digging his feet into the soil. The extra weight of the reinforcements in his legs soon had him stopped, and combined with the strength of both his altered and unaltered arms, he matched Omega’s pulling power.
“Stop resisting,” the robot frowned.
Lich tried to pull the Boomerang out of the grip, but the hand clenched it incredibly tight. He looked along the cable to Omega. Careful not to show it too much to his opponent, he grinned. He took his left hand off the weapon, moved his right down towards one end, and threw.
The Cyan Arc’s acceleration and flight systems activated, despite the darkness. All within the blink of an eye, Omega stood on the inside of the curve, his cable wrapping itself around him and slamming him into the earth with hyperfast speed as the Boomerang returned to Lich’s hand.
Lich turned his head and looked to Naaro as the rumbling subsided, seeing his warrior companion continuing to stand inactive. He raised an eyebrow and asked impatiently, “Well?”
“Been watching his hand?” Naaro asked.
The demon
growled as he got back to his feet and bellowed, drowning Naaro
out, “HOW DARE YOU! I’m going to banish you to the sub-rings of the
Naaro spun his tonfers, his eyes fixed on the scythe, clenched even tighter than the Boomerang.
None of them saw the muttering Professor standing to one side, until he ran out just then, and clutched the dark weapon with his gloves, pulling his hardest. The reptiles’ eyes widened, especially Lich’s. Maybe he is on our side, after all, he thought.
“Eh?!” Omega exclaimed, incredulous of Alex. “LET GO, YOU POMPOUS WINDBAG!!”
“Not a chance, fiend!” the academic groaned as he strained. “We already had one rogue; two is a bit pushing it, dear fellow!”
Lich glanced to Rynn, noting her confusion as she watched. He then twisted the Boomerang in the robot’s grip towards the machine, and thumbed the facet of the jewel that would give him a burst of laser fire. None came.
With a growl,
Omega pulled the weapon back savagely, making
“No!” Rynn cried, as she reared her head back.
Lich looked back towards the couple. Naaro gestured to Lich to pull the Boomerang back towards him with a hearty jerk. The Yoshi gave a nod and did so, pulling Omega towards him. He then twisted the Boomerang around again and furiously tried to get the laser to fire.
Rynn let loose a bolt of lightning from her mouth to the robot. It connected, making him double over in pain, and coarsed up the cable to the Boomerang. Even though it was subdued, its self-defence mechanism was still activated; it had to discharge the extra electricity somewhere, and that somewhere was Lich. His hands reflexively tightened around the Boomerang, before he dropped it as he collapsed.
Naaro ran towards Omega, superheating his tonfers. He leapt and brought both down on the arm holding the scythe.
"WHAT?! NO! YOU F-GAAAAHHHAAHHHHH!!"
His arm had a spasm and dropped the scythe into Alex’s outstretched gloves. Needing no invitation, he ran into Lich’s hut and violently pulled the curtain closed, attracting Naaro’s gaze.
Lich’s lip trembled as the shock subsided.
“Sorry, Lich,” Rynn apologised.
“Arararararar…” Lich tried to speak.
The robot outstretched his shaking hand towards them. “You…fools!” he rasped. “Give me…back…my weapon!”
“G-g-g-give m-me b-b-b-b-ack m-m-min-n-ne,” Lich stuttered as speech returned to him, shaking the Boomerang in the robot’s grasp.
Naaro planted a foot firmly on Omega’s chest, keeping him there. “Should I take off the other arm, Lich?”
“Yes-s-s!” he answered.
Naaro began to superheat his tonfers when a green figure suddenly ran in from the shadows, leapt, vaulted off the Karmali’s head and landed in the centre of the village.
“’Scuze me, folks!” he called out. “Sorry I’m late!”
That tone of voice. The language. The happy-go-lucky attitude. There was only one person Lich knew like that. “What the…” he started, then shook his head, further clearing it. “Tehx?!”
“Tehx?” Rynn repeated him.
“Hyeheh,” he laughed amusingly. “That one was a bit of a pest, wasn’t he?”
Lich looked at
him up and down. He knew that the agent had some disguises; this seemed to be a
very effective Twilighter one.
“Now, where’s the weapon?” he asked. “That baby shouldn’t be out free.”
“It’s in that
hut,” Naaro replied, pointing while the other hand
rubbed his head. “In the possession of a guy called
With an affirmative nod, Tehx strode towards Lich’s hut.
Rynn blinked. “Tehx?”
“This my name, babe,” he answered with a dismissive hand, not pausing. “Don’t wear it out on me.”
“Oh yeah,” Naaro called, “why my head? You could’ve leapt off tinbucket here.”
There was no answer from the Twilighter as he entered the hut.
“Arrogant jerk,” Rynn muttered.
Lich could hear something being spoken, followed by a loud clang. The Yoshi fell onto his back and chuckled to himself. Tehx was always a bit of a comedian. It was good to have him back.
But there was something he needed to know…something that had been plucking at him for a long time. He needed to know it now.
Tehx emerged from the hut, clutching the scythe with a cloth, and gave a cheery grin. “Good job, folks. Now that that one's taken care of, robo here should be back to normal in no time. Well, I'll get this thing to a safe hiding place.” He began to whistle as he moved towards one of the village’s exits.
You’re not going anywhere, Lich thought.
He got to his feet and strolled towards the agent, smiling. He was beginning to find it odd that he hadn’t said hello to him; then again, when was he of the common mould?
Tehx stopped and looked at him, standing beside the tree Kai sat beneath – the child seemed to be in awe of all that was going on. The agent gave a casual grin and asked, “Yeah, what do you want?”
Lich returned the grin as Naaro and Rynn looked at each other.
“Okay…anything on your mind you need, pal?”
He reached his friend. Lich had found that Tehx had a horrible habit of physical aversion to any difficult questions, so he clutched his shoulders firmly and pushed him against the tree, his facing turning stern. “Where, by Drepatos hegerato, have you been for the past five years?! Do you know how many sleepless nights I've had worrying about you?!”
“That hurt!” Tehx exclaimed, clutching Lich’s own shoulder with a growl and pushing him onto the ground.
Lich’s mood lightened; he had been half-expecting this. He grinned and laughed, “Don’t tell me about it…tell me some other time. I’m just glad you’re back, that’s all.”
Naaro hurried over and picked up his son.
“Dada?” Kai asked.
“I’m just getting you out of the way of the quarrelling brothers,” Naaro told him as he carried him to Rynn.
Kai looked at them. “Bubbas? No look like bubbas.”
“Well, they aren’t actually brothers,” Naaro explained as he handed him to his mother. “They consider themselves brothers.”
Lich continued to look up at his friend. He stood there, silently fuming, his face a scowl. “Tehx?” he ventured cautiously.
“Don’t ever push me, you lizard,” Tehx snarled.
“Hey, I was just showing concern!” Lich replied, defensively. He propped himself up on his elbows and raised an eyebrow. He would have recognised him, even with all his paint. “You seem…different.”
It was a possibility that his friend had changed in those five long years. With this new Twilighter disguise, he could have been hiding out on Caelum, and been C.R.’s inside man. Who knew what he could have seen that would change him.
Tehx brushed himself down. “Psh, no wonder your brother dislikes you, you're a real drag. Do not cramp my style, thanks.”
With that, he trotted out of the village.
Lich got to his
feet. This was not like Tehx at all. How did he know
about
He closed his eyes and gazed out at the Mana Field. Tehx’s familiar presence moved away from him, almost hidden by the dark scythe. He reached out his mental feeling of the Field. Naaro, Rynn and Kai stood behind him in a clump. The A’gul hiding in the nearby huts were like small mounds thrown across the Field without a care where they landed. There was a human in his hut – female, and unconscious. Just past her was where his room was.
Alex’s presence was diminishing and changing into a pattern just like the girl’s. Lich frowned and probed just past him. Yet another unconscious pattern was there, and its signature was too familiar. He probed the leaving Tehx, then his hut again.
The signatures were exactly the same. There were two Multehxes.
Lich’s gaze returned to the inside of his eyelids as he clenched his fists tightly and yelled. He ran back towards the Boomerang, and took it from Omega’s now yielding grip. Rynn asked something, and Naaro answered, but he didn’t hear it. His mind was completely clouded by anger, wondering how he could have been so stupid as to let his joyfulness overwhelm his precaution in this trick.
He turned
towards the retreating impostor. “GET HIM!”
The fake Multehx’s footsteps quickened as he heard the cry. Lich was sure he was grinning the same wicked grin of the true one.
The Yoshi threw the Boomerang at him. Before it even reached him, the impostor turned around, pulling a sword from under his cloak and hacked the Cyan Arc into the ground. “God! Let it go, you little sad sack!” he called.
Lich and Naaro broke into a run towards him. The clone folded his arms and glared, beginning to hover as the wind began to blow. In a sudden gust, Naaro’s own shadow rose, grabbed its fleshy counterpart and tossed him aside. Lich glanced at Naaro, but his focus quickly returned to the impostor.
Suddenly, someone flew down from the heavens, wings on his back, and landed before the fake Tehx. “You’re Dimentia,” Kuza told him, bringing out his liquid sword and heating it.
Lich picked up the Boomerang as he passed over it, and clutched it high over his head, ready to bring down onto his enemy in a striking stab.
With a snort, the clone spat to one side. “Morons.”
“You really do enjoy disguises, don’t you?” Kuza continued, then slashed as Lich reached him, launching himself into a dive.
The fake deftly sidestepped the slash, driving a knee into Lich. “Little pest!” he fumed.
As Lich fell to the ground, Naaro began to charge in again after picking himself up. Lich rolled as he hit the soil and picked himself back up again. He thumbed the laser facet in his fury. It still refused to work, the demon’s darkness still diminishing the Boomerang’s powers; the laser was only as strong as a pointer pen.
“I don’t remember you being this fast, but it’s not going to do you any good!” Kuza exclaimed, spreading his wings and slashing madly.
The clone continued to sidestep all of Kuza’s slashes, growling and rubbing his right eye with his hand. The scar peeled in his fingers, revealing a tattoo. Lich growled and continued to thumb the Ruby madly. Surely it would work soon!
Naaro threw a tonfer at the impostor. Just before it reached him, it suddenly stopped mid-air and vanished, soon followed by the one still in his hand. He looked at his empty hands, incredulously. “What the…the tonfers! They’re gone!”
Seeing her husband fall into trouble, Rynn set Kai down. “Stay here,” she told him.
“Okay, mamy,” Kai replied, and began to watch her.
She strode towards the battle, her features beginning to grow more and more draconic.
Their opponent laughed, and clutched the scythe. It began to blaze darkly. “Hah! This baby really does increase one’s evil might!”
Kuza rammed him and tried to sink his sword into him. The fake winced and parried with the scythe.
“Enough disguises, Dimentia!” he exclaimed.
“Oh, but this is no disguise, you total idiot!” the clone replied.
“Your lies don’t fool me!”
Lich gave up on trying to make the laser work. His mind set on what he was going to do to the fake. He was going to make him pay dearly for impersonating his surrogate brother.
He took a few steps back, clenching his teeth. “Stand back!” he called out in Yoshian, so that the clone wouldn’t understand him, hopefully.
“Heheheh, orange boy, can you figure this one out?” his target asked. “You seem the brightest.”
As everyone did apart from the clone, he waited for the winged human to move. Get out of the way, you…
Kuza began to fish around in his pockets.
Drepio this, Lich thought.
He thumbed another facet of the Ruby. The Cyan Arc began to hum. Normally he would have cared about anything strange, but the noise was pleasantly ominous.
The clone put the scythe on his back, and moved his hands about before him in an incantation. He snicked as the air around him began to ripple with black waves of energy, then he faded. Clones of the clone took his place.
“Damn your illusions, Dimentia!” Kuza called out. He began to throw daggers at each of the copies, trying to find the right one.
Lich was too pre-occupied to see and hear all of this – he threw the Boomerang. Lumina and Shero’s recent craftsmanship did very well: it moved faster than any other’s eyes could see, save his own thanks to the ocular implants. It passed through the image where the fake had stood, spraying him with nuclear radiation as it passed. As it returned to him, it slowed to a more perceptible speed, its light converter cleaning itself off in a whitish glow.
He caught it again as the clone he hit was decapitated, and exploded violently in a cloud of green smoke. A voice laughed maniacally, echoing “Come, come now,” it chastised him, “don’t you remember this one, Lichy boy? Or was I being too damn soft as usual? Hell, I hate how soft I am at times! Makes me disgusted!”
Lich scowled and quickly pointed the Boomerang at where he had thrown it and turned on the light converter, cleansing the area. He quickly bathed the human in its white glow for good measure. He was hoping the radiation attack’s first time would have been much more glorious.
Kuza took a step back, frustrated, continuing to throw his daggers. “Come on Dimentia…show yourself!”
Hoping that the
winged human was cleansed, Lich turned off the converter. He returned his gaze
to the images, and threw the Boomerang behind him normally – he knew this was
one of his tricks. The images blurred as Lich turned around, just seeing a
dagger strike one out of the corner of his eye. He could not see anything in
the darkness. He turned back to the images, closed his eyes and felt for the
Mana Presences once more.
Chain lightning was let loose behind him onto the images; he guessed from Rynn.
“HAHAHAHAHAH!” came the mad laugh. “Only I would try something that foolish! But I'm not as stupid or mercy-giving at fighting!”
A draconic roar of anger burst out from Rynn – Lich couldn’t recognise her at first in this form. She lifted herself up, and then brought herself back down, causing the earth to tremble once more, albeit momentarily.
Lich continued to feel for the impostor, but he was hiding himself well. His exhaustion was beginning to catch up with him again – it was taking more effort to find anything.
He opened his eyes again and saw the human and Naaro look away from the battle, elsewhere.
“It’s him!” Kuza yelled.
“Hey…my tonfers!” Naaro followed.
Soon, the two of them ran off. Puzzled, Lich watched them go, but soon the impostor stood before him, sneering. "Oh fine, let me give you a hint, as you're too stupid to guess!” he growled, raising his sword high above his head. “RHYJULIAN II, SMITE THE LIGHT!!” he bellowed.
Before he could bring it down, Lich tackled him onto the ground. With a growl, the clone rolled and pushed him off roughly. He leapt to his feet. “Surely you get it now, or don't you?! Play the guessing game – say my name!”
Lich rose, seeing the darkness of the scythe flare up, its glow infusing itself with the fake. Lich was confused by what he meant. He brought the Boomerang up ready. “Multehx.”
“Heh, you wish! Now, here's a blast from the past...or more!”
The clone turned and faced the dragon, moving into a stance, a hand in front of his chest clutched around a forming orb of darkness. He lowered his hand shakily to his side. "Shaaadooow Blaaaste...AUGHF!”
Lich caught the Boomerang after it clipped the fake. “Maximae,” he finished.
“You insolent little worm,” it growled, “Tehx woulda stood for that but I sure won-ARGH!”
Rynn let loose a blast of fire-coated lightning at the clone, engulfing and shocking him at the same time.
He shook as he fell to his knees when the attack subsided, groaning. The scythe pulsed with its dark power again, and soon the clone snickered and stood again to Rynn’s growling.
“If I wasn't due to give this to my partner, I'd keep it to play with!” he exclaimed cheekily. “But, he wants it, so I guess I return with it now.” He blew them a kiss and called, “A true Tehxnot’lucan send off!”
Partner? Lich thought as the clone finally revealed his name. “I’ve never heard of you!” he yelled. “How dare you trick me!” He threw the Boomerang just as a pillar of black fire surrounded T’lucan.
It smashed into
his face. He fell backwards and dropped the dark scythe with a clatter as he
vanished.
Lich stood, still clutching the Boomerang ready, panting, and watching the smoking weapon hum darkly. With the coast now seeming to be clear, he dropped his hand to his side with a sigh, and then bent over.
Rynn transformed back into her Drakoni form, and watched the Yoshi stagger towards the dark weapon. “Lich?” she asked, with confusion apparent in her voice.
Lich collapsed before it on his knees.
“Lich?” she asked again, more urgent.
He raised an arm tiredly and beckoned her over to him, gulped his accumulated saliva down before panting again, and then looked at the scythe. He reached his hand out towards it.
Lich, there is some freaky-ass stuff out there, he recalled Tehx telling him once. Like this thing that is just the apex of evil; it's a weapon, long pole, curved blade, radiates bad vibes. Whatever you do, do not touch it with your bare hands. Never let anyone worth living touch that thing like that. Trust me, bad stuff. Very bad. No touch.
He snatched his hand back quickly. This seemed to be it. He thought of Omega…was he doomed now? How many others had fallen to this weapon?
“Are you wanting me to pick that up?” Rynn asked.
Lich shook his head vigorously. He couldn’t just leave it here…
“Help me back, please,” he told Rynn.
The Drakoni helped him up, and propped his free arm across a shoulder. Nothing was said until they entered the village, not even when Kai joined them.
“I'd never even...heard of him,” Lich panted. “How could he suspect...that I did?”
“Heard of who?” she asked. “I’m confused by all the names.”
“His name was Tehxnot’lucan.”
“O…kay…”
“He seemed to be
some sort of clone of Multehx,” he continued, his
panting subsiding. “No wonder he knew me…but how did he know about
“Weird.”
He looked around him as the A’gul emerged from their huts, beginning to survey the damage and start to repair and rebuild.
Ung’grl walked up to him. “Well fought, my lord, thou hast skill like thy ances–”
“Ung’grl, take everyone away from the village,” Lich interrupted him.
The former elder was taken aback. “My lord?”
“Why?” Rynn asked. “Aren’t they safe here?”
Lich shook his head. “These people who have been coming, have been coming after my friends, or myself. I feel guilty that I am causing this to the A’gul because of my arrival. I’m involving yo– our innocent race in business just for the sole reason that I’m here. Heed the words of Aggli, Ung’grl. The prophecies are fulfilling themselves.”
“That is true, my lord, but–”
“‘The two pyramids are sought and a child shall cry in the shadows when they come; and they will come, young warrior’,” Lich recited. “Chapter twelve, verse eighteen. We've had the two pyramids. I don't know what the second bit means just yet, but I don't want it to be at the loss of any A'gul. You and Hl'garng must lead our people to safety. I will tell you when it is safe to come back. ‘The first shalt not be the last’.”
“What two pyramids?” Rynn asked, confused again.
Ung’grl nodded hesitatingly. “So sayeth the prophet, so sayeth my lord. It shall be done. Hl’garng hath taken already a group of warriors to a safe place; I will lead the A’gul there.”
Lich stood erect and cupped his hands to his mouth. “Everyone!” he called out. “You must leave here, and leave quickly! It is not safe to still be here! Ung’grl and Hl’garng will take you to safety! Grab what you need and go; I will tell you when it is safe to come back!”
The A’gul stopped and stared at Lich, dumbfounded.
“Do not doubt me! I am your lord! Go!”
An anxious frenzy swept through the village as people began to bundle their belongings together in their huts. Koyoshies began to cry in various places as they were told they had to leave.
“What about us?” Rynn asked, looking around for Naaro, and calling him.
“Dada gone, Mamy,” Kai told her.
“I need you to stay here,” Lich told her. “I’m still worn out from last night, and this fight, and if something, or someone attacks the village again, and I can’t fight for myself…”
Rynn smiled.
He looked down at the little Karukylis. “You’d be safer going with them, little guy.”
“No, wanna stay with Mamy,” Kai replied, quite determinedly.
Lich knelt down to him. “There's some pretty big and bad mean people out there who want to hurt me and your Mamy.”
“He’s right, you should go…with…them…”
Rynn’s voice faded into obscurity. In his head, he could hear the tinkle of a timarpos, a keyboard-like instrument of Fa’Diel, which gave out a sound much like a tinkly bell mixed with a wooden xylophone. It was playing an eerie tune that sent shivers down his spine.
“Wanna…stay…with…Mamy…”
There was laughter; not the bellowing laughter of a megalomaniac, but a drawn out sinister snicker of someone revelling in their certain victory to come.
“…Someone’s coming,” he muttered,” someone I feel I know…”
“Kai…go…”
The Mana began to shift, pulling itself towards the centre of the village.
“They’ll watch…you…and I’ll…come get you…when it’s…safe…”
Lich raised his Boomerang as the laughter and the timarpos increased their volume to a maddening level. “They’re coming closer! And quickly!”
“Okay…mamy…”
A pair of bony hands shot out of the earth with a demonic roar – hands big enough to clench a whole person tight in.
There was silence outside Lich’s head for two seconds, before Rynn and the rest of the A’gul screamed and shouted. The tribespeople fled, Ung’grl leading them as fast as he could, but everyone was overtaking him, heading their own way. Kai stopped and returned to his mother.
“Your blood is vile, lizard,” a voice boomed. “Let the cleansing begin!
Lich clutched the Boomerang tightly as it ran cold. There’d been another two times he’d come across that voice: they shot out of Lich’s hazy memories of Zolott like bullets.
The Dark Lich
had come.