Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (29 page)

Winston looked down at the disgusting, reeking, slab of meat that was Flesh Mountain and knew that it wasn’t the end of his story. When he had first found his book, he’d been plunged into a shadowy world hidden within his own, a world that had overwhelmed him at first but that he had quickly became accustomed to. The book made him feel special, and his natural talents made others treat him specially. For the first time in his life he was in a position where every day was an adventure, whether it was harvesting reagents within the Gloom, advancing through the ranks of the Shadow Circle, or even in the bedroom with Veronica. He’d never thought of himself as anything other than a normal boring guy who just happened to be in the right place at the right time. One out of a billion to receive so much in such a little amount of time, one of the few lucky ones to be blessed with a life that others would die for, but now he knew with the utmost certainty that it wasn’t luck. He was special, and he was made for this moment.

The cost in lives had been unfortunate, and although he tried not to think about it, the loss of everyone who had died due to his actions weighed heavy in Winston’s heart. But death was a natural part of life, and the force that Winston inadvertently served did not view it as an overwhelmingly bad thing, nor did it callously view it as a good thing. Instead, it viewed them both as two sides of the same coin, and sometimes death had to precede new life. Events were not simply black or white, good or bad, right or wrong, until they were interpreted and labelled afterwards, and some events simply had to, and must, happen. In this case, the restoration and resurrection of the planet Mydia in its true and original form.

Some kind of intangible knowledge had blossomed within Winston’s subconscious mind. He imagined it to be how Veronica and Azalea felt dealing with their sight beyond sight. Now he knew, without knowing how, the reason why his book had found him, the reason he could talk to the Alternatives when no one else could, and the reason he could wield the quill. Looking around at the chaotic scene before him, the darkening seas, the broken skies, the furious magical lighting storms, and the mountain of amalgamated fallen Archmages beneath him, Winston knew that it wasn’t the way the planet was meant to be.

He looked at the quill in his hand and felt the massive amount of magic contained within. It was an artefact capable of drawing holes to other dimensions, of manipulating reality as easily as an artist applies paint to a canvas, and the instrument that the twin rebel Archmages had used to purge the world of the majority of its magical energy. But now he felt like he could truly see just how much the amazingly advanced mixture of scientific technology and magical power, which had been crafted by a being so complex he could hardly comprehend it, was capable of.

By Winston’s will, the quill radiated a fiery golden aura, which was soon followed by his book and then finally Winston’s whole body. The golden light intensified and the artefact melted into a globule of liquid gold. He elongated the gold and began growing it in size, and in a mere few seconds it had gone from being a needle, to a javelin, to a long burning lance.

The Archmage was so happy. After thousands of years of planning, he was finally free of the Gloom and ready to siphon the source of magic out from the centre of his fallen kind. Soon he would be more powerful than ever. He stopped himself from laughing madly to enjoy the look of terror in his audience’s eyes, but when he looked he saw that Alice, Veronica and the Alts were looking up in the sky, high above Flesh Mountain. Omniosis followed their eye line and saw a burning golden star above the living remains of his people.

“No… no, you can’t!” the Archmage uttered fearfully.

Both Alice and Veronica smiled. They knew that Winston was and had always been on the right path. He was a servant of Fate, and Fate’s will was about to be done.

As Winston launched the burning golden lance down below him, he transferred all of the power he’d summoned to go down with it, and from the decks of the Driftwood and Destiny’s End it looked as if a fiery golden comet was plummeting towards the tip of Flesh Mountain. The Archmage screamed an ear shattering cry of despair as the lance punctured the corrupted flesh and muscle, and detonated at the heart of the source of magic. The blinding white explosion disintegrated Flesh Mountain in an instant, finally putting the fallen Archmages out of their misery, and the pure burning energy quickly spread down its tendrils that spanned the world’s oceans until nothing remained.

A second shockwave followed, and just like the first one that Winston had created, it spread until it had engulfed the entire planet. The magical storms dissipated, the waters cleared and sparkled slightly, and the cracked and broken sky was replaced by a new light blue one with a slight purple tint. Old buildings and ruins that had vanished during the purge of magic, from the times a millennia ago when humans and Archmages had lived together, sprang back into existence like they had never left. New magical plants, insects, and animals appeared amongst those of the real world and the Gloom, and all around people of all different species’ stared in both fear and wonder at the newly restored magical world that was to be their home.

Omniosis dropped to his knees screaming and sobbing, and Lewis stood strangely like a puppet whose strings had been severed. Alice knew that this was her moment to strike.

Calling upon the temporary surge in strength that the rebel Archmages had bestowed upon her, and exploiting Omniosis’ moment of despair, Alice used her negation magic to cancel out the Archmage’s magical prisons. Without stopping for a moment she charged towards Omniosis, who looked up at her with his masked face a moment too late, and she slammed the spell-forged steel directly at his brow. The strike connected perfectly and he went flying into a metal cargo container, denting it severely and falling to the floor in a heap of broken armour and torn fabric.

Seeing that Alice was free, Veronica followed suit, but instead of heading for the Archmage she rushed towards the floppy-formed Lewis. She raised Xavier’s spell-forged sword and went to sweep it at the traitor’s neck, but as Veronica got close, Lewis shuddered and straightened himself up. He looked towards her with scared blue eyes, stopping the Vampire in her tracks.

“Veronica?” he said faintly, like someone half asleep.

“Lewis…?” she said scared. Had the young man once been a friend after all?

The blonde haired Book Wielder began to shake all over violently like he was having a fit. “You’ve got to kill me, V, quickly before he takes control again. Please, do it quickly… before he gets in… my… head!”

Veronica was stunned silly. It had been easy hating him when she thought that he was nothing more than the Archmage’s puppet, but now that she knew that Winston’s best friend was genuine and still somewhere underneath Omniosis’ layers of control, it was a whole different matter altogether. She lowered the blade, and then he charged at her.

Lewis ran towards her snarling like a feral beast, black blood oozing from his mouth and curdling in his eyes, making them pure black once again.

The Vampire heroine could feel him trying to drain her powers, but it was a sloppy and slack attempt. It seemed like he was battling his own self as he swung and clawed his hands at her. Veronica dodged the attacks effortlessly, and then, left without a choice as Lewis’ nails began to grow like little black blades, she hesitantly swung her blade sideways at his chest. He moved backwards so that he would be out of the path of the attack, but a look of confusion and fear crossed his deformed face as he moved himself back into the way of Veronica’s meagre attack. The blade flashed as it cut across his stomach, and steaming grey stuffing, black blood and half-rotten muscle tissue spilled from the wound.

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.