Reality Falling (The Book Wielder Saga 2) (30 page)

Alice strolled towards him casually, radiating a multi-coloured magical aura of energy. “I wasn’t just negating your power; I was siphoning it. A powerful final gift from the rebel Archmages.”

“No…” Omniosis said fearfully. He hadn’t been overwhelming her with his magic. He’d been strengthening her with it. His traitorous kind in the Gloom sky hadn’t just faded; they had sacrificed themselves to gift the white-eyed Book Wielder with every last ounce of their magical essence that they had left.

Veronica lunged in from the side, stabbing him through the shoulder with the spell-forged blade. “That’s for Lucius…” She stabbed him again through the side, making her sword flash with light. “That one’s for Lewis.”

Alice raised her free hand to Veronica, gesturing for her to stop as the Archmage screamed, whined and groaned in total agony. The raging Vampire continued to strike out until the Mayor and Kelpbeard carefully restrained her and dragged her away.

“Let go of me!” she hissed violently.

“We’re going to see Winston, that will be good fun,” the Mayor said reassuringly. “Good fun indeed.”

“Yarr, ye might be able to see yurr man through me spyglass,” Kelpbeard said, struggling to hold onto Veronica with his one humanoid arm.

“Any last words?” Alice asked the pitiful remains of the last Archmage Omniosis.

The Archmage was oozing clotted black blood from several wounds, and his many faces were strained in joint expressions of agonising pain and sorrow, but his main face looked up at her with a sickeningly amused expression. He smiled, even as black blood spilled from his mouth.

“The Creator is going to purge you inferior insects from the face of the planet,” he said with an evil cackle. “My only regret is not living to see it.”

The words made no sense to Alice, but the strange threat stuck with her for some reason. She shook the unnatural sense of fear from her mind and focused on the task at hand. Summoning all of the strength she had been blessed with, and all of the power she had stolen from Omniosis, she engulfed her hammer in burning white energy. It was so bright that even the Alts struggled to look directly at it.

“Goodbye and good riddance, Archmage Omniosis,” Alice said as she raised the hammer ready to execute her fallen foe.

The Archmage continued smiling at Alice with his twisted and deformed Demon face, as she annihilated it with her magically charged hammer. The intense white light flared outwards, sending all those watching nearby falling to their feet, as it smashed his three-faced head from his shoulders and shattered against the ship’s deck with an enormous clang. The light clung to his demonic body and disintegrated it completely before fading away. Not even dust remained of the once almighty tyrant.

Alice exhaled slowly, her borrowed and stolen strength spent, but her task was complete. The great threat to the world was over, even if it was a slightly different world to the one she had originally intended to protect.

Winston could sense that the Archmage was no more. He smiled and fell slowly to the ground until he was standing in the middle of the now bare Central Isle. It had all worked out after all. He looked to the ground and saw the golden quill, its edges singeing like slowly burning paper, and Winston could sense the power quickly fading from it. Very carefully he scooped it off the ground and closed his eyes.

Around him, a giant stone coliseum rose from the ground. Sand filled the centre of the amphitheatre, and white banners displaying the black circle and open book symbol that was on his wedding ring hung from the rafters. He used the quill’s power to restore the once lost Catacomb entrances to the main network. Now all people across the world would be able to visit the Isle quickly and easily, just as they once had been able to long ago.

Moving outwards, he grew lush grass, tall trees, beautiful flowers, and built quaint villages and hamlets all around the Isle. He made roads, schools, farms, orchards, shops, wooden harbours for fishing, stone and metal ones for trade and transport, and a whole manner of other buildings for his new home Isle. He put the finishing touches within all of the buildings he had created, decorating and furnishing them artistically, just as the quill burnt away to ashes. As its purpose was complete, it had removed itself and all of its great power from a world that no longer needed it.

Winston opened his eyes and looked around the amazing grey-stoned coliseum that he had created, taking great pride in his work as he truly absorbed the scale of the building and the brilliant architecture. He was looking forward to viewing the rest of the new Central Isle and merged world with his own eyes.

Looking towards the banner of the Book Wielder Conclave, under the new blue and purple sky, he knew that his real life had only just begun.

Winston walked down the column-lined stone pillars of the Conclave Amphitheatre alongside Alice. The two white-eyed Book Wielders were on the uppermost storey of the building, walking beside the arches that looked out over the main arena benches and floor. A warm pleasant breeze blew through the empty hallways as the evening sun began to set. Winston was eagerly showing Alice around his new base of operations and home.

“I’m sorry again about your friend Lewis,” Alice said sadly as they made their way to another set of rooms that Winston wanted to show her.

Winston sighed sadly. “He’s at peace now. Death is a blessing compared to what the Archmage was putting him through. At least I discovered that he was once truly my friend and not just a mindless shell under Omniosis’ control. Our friendship was real, at least for a while.”

“So…” Alice began, “a whole new world, filled with wonder, magic and more dangers than I can think of.”

“It’s the way the world is supposed to be,” Winston said with a smile. He could see that his fellow Book Wielder was having a hard time processing the idea.

“Sorry if I seem rude, and I know that this was Fate’s will,” Alice said hesitantly. “But the world is now occupied by Alts, Freaks and monsters, the Supernaturals live in the open with the humans, most of the towns and cities need major repair work after the initial merger, there is no economy, there’s no unified government...” She paused to look at Winston, but he just smiled faintly and allowed her to finish. “A world like this may be a clean slate, but it’s going to be almost completely impossible to control.”

Winston chuckled. “We aren’t going to control it. We are going to
guide
it, and we will help shape it as the dust settles.”

“We?” Alice asked surprised.

Winston chuckled again. “Why else do you think I’ve been showing you around the place?”

Alice shrugged. “I don’t know, and I’m not sure what you want from me to be honest,” she said stubbornly, feeling slightly confused.

“You said it yourself,” Winston said calmly. “The world is in a chaotic state, and who better to help the people, protect the innocent, and punish injustice accordingly, than the former leader of the Inquisition and servant of the Twin Goddesses? I want you to lead my Justiciars, my law bringers and order keepers, Alice Eve.”

“You’re hiring me?!” Alice said shocked.

“Yeah, I suppose I am,” Winston smiled. “I have built this amphitheatre to be a meeting place for the rising powers from all over the new world to attend, to discuss and debate important matters. It will be a place for games and celebrations, but also a place to judge and punish those who commit heinous and unforgivable crimes. But primarily, it will be an assembly point and home to the Book Wielders and the other members of the Conclave. Together, we will ensure that the balance of magic is kept, and with you and your Justiciars, we will ensure that no oppressors like Omniosis ever arise again.”

“I suppose keeping the balance was the Book Wielders’ original purpose,” Alice mused. She walked along in silence before giving Winston the answer he was waiting for. “Okay, fine, I’ll do it, but on the condition that you let me run my people the way I want to.”

“Deal,” Winston said happily. “And to think the Archmage had me believing that he made the books.” He sighed; the deception seemed so obvious in hindsight.

“The devious Demon had you believing a lot of things, but now you have the chance to do some real good to this fully restored world,” Alice said kindly.

“Hey you.” Veronica stepped out from behind a stone pillar.

Winston’s stunning wife had wasted no time since departing from the Driftwood earlier that day, after they had watched the Destiny’s End sink under the new world’s waters as it slowly succumbed to the Archmage’s accidental yet fatal hull damage. She had washed herself thoroughly in her and Winston’s chambers within the Conclave building, expertly applied make-up to her beautiful face, and her long raven black hair shined and shimmered attractively like it was straight out of a shampoo commercial. All she was wearing over her extremely attractive and ridiculously curvaceous figure was a tight dress made of see-through lace.

“Sorry Ali,” she said, giving Alice a wink as she grabbed Winston by the arm. “The husband and I have some serious catching up to do...”

Alice scoffed, disgusted at the extroverted, mostly naked Vampire, as she led Winston away quickly to wherever they were planning to ‘do it’. She guessed some things would never change.

“We’ve got catching up of our own to do,” a familiar voice said from behind the opposite pillar to the one Veronica had popped out from.

“Jonathan?” she said in shock as the Mage walked around the pillar, dressed smartly in a brown suit and smiling.

Before Alice could say anymore, he had grabbed her and kissed her passionately as he held her tightly.

“I love you too,” Jonathan said with a cheeky smile, replying to the last words she’d spoken into the communication stone.

Alice blushed and smiled back. “I thought I was going to die.”

“So you didn’t mean it then?” Jonathan asked, pretending comically to be hurt.

She laughed. “You know I meant it!”

“Then I definitely think it’s about time I took you out somewhere nice in Tropica,” Jonathan said lovingly, “just like I promised I would. You can fill me in on the final showdown and everything that happened in-between.”

Alice put her arms around his shoulders and kissed him hard. “Later...” she whispered in his ear, right before she led him by the arm to the living quarters Winston had showed her earlier on the tour.

Hi everyone; firstly I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has read my first two books, I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did writing them! Secondly, I’d like to thank Charlotte, Connor, Lee and all the ladies and gentlemen at work who have supported me, listened to my ideas, given me valuable input, and read through my writing when it was in development. Lastly I’d like to thank my incredible fiancée Laura for helping me to finally achieve my dream of writing stories, and having the patience to comb through all of my stuff!

Winston and Alice’s story may be over for the most part, but in the (hopefully) near future I am planning on returning to the newly merged world with a new Book Wielder character and storyline. The third and final part should be titled
Mydia’s End
.

Before then, I’m going to try my hand at a stand-alone horror/thriller story that will be titled
The House of Twelve
, before writing two prequels to Gloom Rising that will explore more of the history and background characters from Book One and Two. They will be titled
Origins of the Trinity
and
Imperia Absolute
.

Keep an eye out, and thanks again for reading!

Sean Davies