Vegenrage: The Magic User (6 page)

“Robert, are you going to see Xanorax? Because if you are, be aware, he is a master of the black arts, and if he doesn’t kill you, he will enslave you like all the rest of us.”

“Well, Mournbow, maybe I am here to change all that. Have you been to Pinegrow?”

“No, I have been as far as Shaspar. Shaspar was my home. I was a lieutenant in King Gracepian’s army. His kingdom was obliterated by Blethstole, and all high-ranking officials, officers, and the king and his family were murdered or slain in battle. In the ruins, few of us survived, and that’s when Xanorax showed up. Those that did not conform to his will were killed. Those who obeyed him were branded”—he shows the X on his neck—“and sent to different parts of the world of Kronton. Belron was my servant but was loyal to Xanorax. Belron was calm, obedient, and docile in human form but wickedly evil in his true Changenoir form. Xanorax thrives on evil and surely knows Belron has been slain and will most likely retaliate in a brutal way.”

“Well then, the sooner I get to Xanorax, the sooner we can put the blame where it belongs on me. Excuse me, Mournbow, I need some of your visions. This won’t hurt.”

Mournbow shrugs his shoulders and says, “Sure.”

Robert raises his hands toward Mournbow’s head without touching him and concentrates. Mournbow starts to visualize his homeland during the dragon attack. Mournbow is on a stone wall, armed with bow and arrow. He has a metal helmet and chain mail on. Blethstole, the great and giant black dragon, swoops down to a piece of earth inside the wall where one hundred armored bowmen stand. They all draw their bows on the magnificent dragon and fire. A lot of the arrows just bounce off the dragon, but a lot of them stick. The arrows that do stick don’t do any real damage. They amount to slivers in the scales of the dragon. Blethstole breathes a black sparkling mist that covers the men, and their bodies begin to deteriorate. Their armor rusts, and their skin falls off. Their veins snap, and their muscles fall off their bones. Within one minute, all one hundred men fall dead, withered to dried-up bone, which crumbles like chalk dust and blows away. Mournbow shoots arrows at the dragon as it flies away toward the mountain. Robert pulls his hands down.

“That will be enough to get me to Shaspar. Did you get that staff yet, Inglelapse?”

“Magic User, I have no idea what you are planning, or even what you are doing, but if you take on Blethstole, you have an ally in me.”

“Thank you, Mournbow.” Robert walks to the staff and grabs it with his right hand. “See you around, Inglelapse.” Robert takes three steps, and on the fourth step, he vanishes.

CHAPTER 5
Xanorax

The sun peeks over the Mirrimya Mountain then looks with its bright light as the full circle of its body rises over the mountain, casting light on Pinegrow Forest and all the land. Pinegrow Forest circles for forty miles halfway around the Mirrimya Mountain. The rest of the mountain is circled by an acidic swamp with large pools of disintegrating liquid. There are unusual beige-colored mosses and grasses clumping up the earth between the acidic pools and very strange tree growth here. The trees grow up then to the side then up and back over the previous growth then up and to the other side. There are all kinds of unusual shapes and forms to these unique trees. Every time a tree grows up and bends back over itself, a beautiful yellow flower sprouts out and waves its beautiful sight and scent, attracting any insects that may come along to be stuck on its gooey petals and digested by the tree.

The Decadic Marshland runs about fifty-five miles, completing the base of the Mirrimya Mountain. The east-flowing winds drive the acidic clouds up the Mirrimya Mountain, but it is too high for the clouds to pass over, and they drop their acid, forming long, sharp ridges and gullies all along the west side of Mirrimya Mountain, spilling into the Decadic Marshland. Only very unique animals and time-adapted species can survive in the Decadic Marshland. However, pure moisture does cross over the mountain and at times drenches the eastern side of Mirrimya Mountain with pure, clean, fresh water, nourishing and bathing the beautiful green Pinegrow Forest, where somewhere Xanorax makes his home.

The Pinegrow Forest is a very neat and beautiful forest where only the Pyramid Pine trees grow. They are all spaced four feet from one another, and their branches widest at the bottom neatly grow in rings around the trees, getting narrower and narrower as the tree grows up, giving them this neat pyramid shape. The pines are thick and prickly, deep green in color. All the trees are neatly trimmed up to about four feet, like a professional landscaper painstakingly trims all the trees, but this is done by the unique Pinegrow deer that have adapted to feed exclusively on the pines. The forest floor is a soft bed of decaying pine needles, perfect for borrowing animals and for the pine deer to make their beds. The branches of the trees where the pine needles have been eaten off by the deer die and fall off the trees, making the forest very nice to walk through, except for the only four feet height where the branches of the trees grow out, meeting with branches of other trees, making travel difficult if you stand over four feet tall. The ground is full of browns and reds, merging with the deep brown color of the tree trunks then becoming the deep green color of the pines, which extend upward some sixty feet. Looking at the forest from the air looks like a land of sharp-tipped spikes. All the trees grow to a pointed tip, getting wider all the way down the tree. There is no human life here, no elves, no orcs, only the animals that make Pinegrow their home. Xanorax lives here but is rarely seen and somehow sees all.

Xanorax is walking down a stairwell. The wall is rock, and stairs protrude out from the wall. A doorway leads to the top of the stairs, and the stairs lead down the wall about twenty feet to the rock floor. There is a whisper in the air. “Xanorax.” Xanorax gets to the floor and walks to a rock structure in the middle of this circular room. The room is all rock, with nothing in it except a rock cylinder in the middle of the room, which he walks up to. It’s about four feet high, and he puts his hands on the rim of it and looks in. The rock cylinder is filled with a black liquid like oil, and he sees his reflection in the still-motionless black liquid, and again a whisper, “Xanorax.”

Around the large bowl of liquid are many smaller bowls that are a natural part of the structure. These bowls contain different colored powders. Xanorax pinches some white powder and sprinkles it over the black liquid. The powder falls but hangs in midair above the liquid, forming a white cloud. It hovers for a few moments then falls to the liquid. The liquid ripples and turns to crystal-clear water, and an image appears. A bright star is shown falling from space in a slow, organized way. It falls slow and straight, bright diamond white. It falls into Bore Bog. The water ripples, and the crystal-clear water turns to the black thick liquid it previously was. The liquid starts to rise out of the cylinder, and Xanorax takes a few steps back as the liquid grows up and takes the shape of a devil. The shape rises high in the air, turning bloodred on top and running down the head and body until it meets the black liquid in the cylinder, which is mostly gone now, used to create this devil form. It is bald with a thick human head, ridged ears, and sharp canine teeth in its mouth. It is solid bloodred except for its golden-yellow eyes. It has massively powerful shoulders, arms, and hands and thick, medium-length clawlike fingernails. Its abdomen is ripped with muscles, and it has hips and legs reminiscent of a gargoyle and has a whip for a tail. All the liquid in the cylinder has been used except for a small pool in the bottom of the cylinder, which remains black, and the evil being produced stands on its ankles in the pool. It speaks to Xanorax.

“Xanorax, the star you just saw fall in the Bore Bog is pure magic. It knows the way off this world and back to the outer realms. This magic is guided by the magical being that put you here. You must learn its secrets to free yourself of this world. It is very powerful, much more powerful than you. If you destroy it without learning its secrets, you will be trapped here forever. There is no chance of turning this being to our side, so use all your cunning. Use all your knowledge of the dark arts. You cannot deceive this magic. You must steal this magic, learn its secrets, then destroy it, or it will destroy you. I have prepared a Life Stealer for you. You must accept its pain now to enjoy its rewarding triumph in the future.”

From the small pool of black liquid in the bottom of the cylinder rises a black necklace. It is black pearls connected by a thin thread. Hanging from the necklace is a heart and below it a brain and below that the outline of a human body representing a human soul. The necklace continues, a small rope of pearls to the right and left side, continuing the exact length of Xanorax’s arms, with a small noose at the end of each black pearl rope. This unique evil item floats to Xanorax, who is not wearing a shirt, and the noose at the end of each pearl rope goes over the middle finger on his left and right hand. When it makes contact with Xanorax’s flesh, it burns, melting right into his body, causing a lot of pain; and Xanorax cringes, fighting not to scream. The ropes lie down the base of his middle fingers on top of his hands and lie down on his forearms, his outer biceps, and his shoulders; and the necklace goes over his head, lying around his neck. The heart, brain, and soul lie down his chest and abdomen, all the way down to his belt line. The entire magical item has burned right into Xanorax’s flesh, lying flush with his skin, and where this item is on, his body is hard and smooth. Xanorax cringed and wept very quietly through this extremely painful process. He obviously is no stranger to pain.

“You are now Xanorax the Life Stealer. Before you kill your prey, impale them with the Life Stealer and gain their magic and/or life force. With this, you may live forever. This does not give you your victim’s knowledge, only their strength, so extract all knowledge you need before using the Life Stealer. I look forward to watching you against this adversary. Make me proud.”

Xanorax bows, and the devil falls into the cylinder, growing the pool of black liquid back the way it was. Xanorax looks at his chest and arms, turning his hands to see the item’s nooses around his middle fingers. He faces his hands forward. “Life Stealer.” The nooses around his middle fingers, right at the callus, separate in the middle, and the item rises from his flesh. It rises all the way up to his elbows. It forms solid black spears with two very sharp pincers on the end of each spear. Xanorax cringes in pain as the item rips from his flesh. Xanorax looks at the evil deformity growing from his body.
So now I am the Life Stealer
. The magical item returns to its new home in Xanorax’s body.

Xanorax retreats up the stairs and through the doorway, which leads to a great hall. There is a wide stairway at the opposite side of the hall with a great black coral banister on either side of the six-foot-wide stairs, which ascend slowly about thirty feet to two great doors at the top, which are closed. There is a massive, thick red cloth rug covering the entire floor and stairway, with black demons sewn all about it. There is a large round structure in the middle of the room, which looks like a very large bird bath wide enough for ten men to stand around. There is a single door at the center of the two other walls with round arches at the top, and both doors are closed. The structure in the middle of the room is eye-catching, as is the stairway leading up, but there are four statues, one in each corner of the room and each standing on a solid granite pedestal. Each statue is a magnificent ten-foot-tall likeness of the demon they represent. The color of the statues is solid ruby with a hue of black throughout them. Each statue has the name of the demon engraved into the granite podium they stand on.

Groglegoya the great winged beast is known for swooping down on its prey and grabbing them with the talons on its hands or for stabbing victims with its tail and flying high just to release its victims falling to their deaths. This demon has enormous wings protruding from its back, three talons for toes on each foot, and three great talons for fingers on each hand. It has a long tail with a barbed harpoon at the end of it.

Smogle, the next demon, is known for its ability to turn into black smog, suffocating its victims as they breathe in the smog and consuming their heart and lungs before exiting its deceased prey. Smogle looks like a man but has large stakes that grow up from his shoulders, one on each side; also one grows from each elbow out the back of his arms and up at a forty-five-degree angle. He has a very unusual ring that grows around his forehead and around the back of his head. This is very unusual and very noticeable, and Smogle can never escape this trait that gives his identity away.

Drumbolt the crusher has the ability to transform and extend his body to any shape and any length. He is the earth demon able to take the form of dirt, rock, water, snow, ice, lava, wood, even vegetation. His statue is a tree trunk for one leg, solid rock for the other leg. His abdomen and chest are water, with ice for one arm and lava for the other arm, and his head is dirt, with snow for hair. Drumbolt extends the form of earth he is touching high in the air, transforms into a hammer, and slams down on his victims, crushing them and absorbing them. So when the hammer retreats from the earth, there are no remains left.

The final demon, Simtap the slicer, also looks like a man with a heavy beard. Simtap has the ability to grow his arms some twenty-five feet, becoming Lavtonium metal, the hardest known metal on Kronton. When Simtap has a victim in sight, he grows his arms. They become swords, and he impales or slices his victims to pieces. Lavtonium metal is red, and not only are Simtap’s razor-sharp, unbreakable swords unmatched by any weapons on Kronton, but they also become red-hot when contact is made with any object, making the swords that much more lethal. Whenever Simtap slices a living being, the wounds are instantly cauterized, and there is no blood loss. The victim dies from dismemberment.

Xanorax walks past the statues and the summoning well in the center of the room and heads up the stairs. He passes through the doors to his chambers. To the left is a birdcage with a blanket over it. It hangs from a rusty chain attached to the ceiling some eight feet above. The room is lit by sunlight that enters from the balcony, where there is a rounded archway and no doors. The opposite side of the room is a king-size bed, well adorned and very comfortable, where he sleeps. Xanorax removes the blanket from the birdcage, and sitting on a wooden dowel in the middle of the cage is a stone, Gardimension. This is a gargoyle the size of a pigeon, but it has the ability to leap one hundred miles at a time when it flies. Xanorax uses his Gardimension to send orders to his lieutenants around the world of Wherlerria.

There is a podium next to the archway leading to the balcony, and Xanorax writes some instructions on a small parchment. He rolls it up and puts it in a small tube. He then attaches the tube to the feet of the Gardimension and removes it from its cage. Xanorax walks out onto the balcony, talking to his little friend. “Wake up, little buddy.” He sucks his tongue against the roof of his mouth, making a
Ta ta ta ta ta ta ta
sound. “Wake up, little buddy, come on.” The leathery rock skin on the Gardimension starts to crack and flake off as it comes to life. “That’s it, little buddy, go to Mournbow on Mytek Mountain, bring him my instructions.” Xanorax throws it into the air, and it flaps its wings three times and vanishes. It appears one hundred miles later, flaps its wings three times, and vanishes, so it very quickly circles half the globe and enters the chambers of Inglelapse.

Maxflap is the nickname that everyone calls the little Gardimension. It enters a window high up on the steep mountain face of Mourbarria, and when it enters the window, it walks along a small shelf built into the wall. It only travels about five feet inside the window. The inside of Inglelapse’s chambers is carved right out of the mountain, as all of Mourbarria is, and at the end of the shelf is a midsized container containing a couple of families of small white mice. There is a bell above the container, and Maxflap rings the bell. He then hops into the container, picks up a mouse, and consumes it. Maxflap bites the head off, chews, swallows, and so on until the mouse is gone.

Inglelapse enters the messy room with all kinds of trinkets and goblets and other items on a table. There is a bed in here and all kinds of larger items leaned up against the walls. He hurries over to the mouse home, where all the mice retreated into holes in the wall, and sees Maxflap finishing his meal. “Maxflap, Maxflap, Maxflap, oh, Maxflap,” Inglelapse says, biting his nails.
This is never good
. Inglelapse picks up the little creature that is kind of cute in a monster way. Inglelapse retrieves the message from Maxflap and places Maxflap on a ledge that overhangs the mouse cage. Inglelapse hurries over to a pedestal and lays the parchment flush with the surface. The parchment grows, thickens, and becomes letter size, and Inglelapse reads it.