Vegenrage: The Magic User (8 page)

Robert easily recovers and looks down on the new demon riding his impressive hellhound. Drumbolt releases Xanorax, and he rolls on the ground and stands up, looking at this most impressive adversary flying high above them. Xanorax has been outgunned and outmatched right from the start against Robert; however, he has powerful magic of his own and starts to use it.

Simtap yells, “So you like to fight, magical one. You killed my brothers. Why don’t you come down here so I can cut you into little pieces and feed you to my pet?”

“Sticknorimpale Adrenel Lood Infukus,” Xanorax says the words and points his hands at Robert with a focused look on his face. Robert is observing Simtap and his hellhound as Xanorax casts a very powerful offensive spell on him. This spell is four magical spears that materialize, two facing his chest and two facing his back, and as soon as they materialize, they impale Robert, causing massive trauma to him, invading his heart and lungs from the back and the front. Xanorax is a very powerful warlock but is not able to cast powerful magic without saying the words. There is less powerful magic that he can cast by saying what it is, but he still has to speak while concentrating on the spell he is casting.

Robert is much more advanced and really in a league of his own in the ability to just think about the magic and it happens. Robert has sustained a lethal wound and dips in the air as his head rolls around and his mouth amplifies a deep, moaning, painful cry. Robert looks at the two spears in his chest and grabs them with his hands, pulling them free of his body, and the spears in his back come free as well. Robert begins to heal himself though falling.

Xanorax says “Magical rope” and swings his right arm at Robert, catching him by his feet with the rope, and begins to pull him to earth. “Help me, Drumbolt, quickly, before he heals himself.”

Drumbolt reaches up with his great hand and pulls mightily, and Robert drops in the air to about twelve feet off the ground. “Simtap, help us.” The two demons and Xanorax give the rope another massive pull downward, and Robert is slammed to the ground. Robert lands on his stomach and has the wind knocked out of him. He rises to his knees and elbows, gasping for air but cannot get any as his body needs to remember how to breathe. Simtap runs at Robert and gives him a powerful kick to the rib cage, launching him ten feet into the air. Falling to the ground again, he rolls to his back, surprisingly able to breathe now. Simtap walks confidently at Robert with a smile on his face, extending his right arm to a very thin, sharper-than-razor point, which he sticks into the left cheek of Robert’s face. His left arm, with deadly speed and accuracy, stakes Robert’s right arm to the ground, right through his right bicep, and Robert screams in pain. There is no blood since Simtap’s Lavtonium arms are red-hot and cauterize the wounds instantly. Simtap relishes the smell of cooking flesh and Robert’s cries of pain. The wounds to Robert’s chest heal, and Simtap notices this. Robert looks at Simtap.

“You better kill me now, demon.”

Simtap smiles and laughs. “You are already dead, magical one.”

“Simtap, do not kill him,” Xanorax says as he approaches. Xanorax rips the shirt from his breast and the demon’s, and Robert watches as the Life Stealer rips from Xanorax’s arms.

Drumbolt takes human form from the dirt they are standing on. He is very blocky looking with square legs and arms. His head is even the shape of a square, but he has distinguishable eyes, nose, and mouth. “Life Stealer,” Drumbolt says as he steps on Robert’s left leg, crushing his foot and calf just below the knee. Robert screams in pain.

“Drumbolt, do not absorb any of him,” Xanorax says forcibly.

“Just making sure he isn’t going anywhere.”

“Do it, Xanorax, steel his soul, steel his magic. Do it, do it.”

Xanorax looks at Robert, almost curious to see what kind of amazing ability he can come up with to escape this life-threatening situation.
Yes, your secrets are what I need, but your magical power will surely be amazingly gratifying.
Xanorax thrusts his life-stealing tentacles into Robert’s chest. Robert puts up a magical barrier, preventing the life-stealing probes from gaining access to his body. The Life Stealer, however, is specifically made to steal life and the energy giving life, including magic. At first, the Life Stealer is held away from Robert’s body, but the Life Stealer absorbs the magic, learns its essence, and slowly gets closer and closer to Robert’s body.

Xanorax’s eyes widen as he can feel the power. He can feel the magic like never before and thrusts his arms harder to gain access to Robert’s body. Robert looks at the tentacles as they draw inches from his body and fights to deny them access, but Xanorax makes yet another thrust with his arms, and the pincers at the end of the Life Stealer impact and dig into Robert’s flesh. Xanorax flares back but maintains his hold into Robert’s body as he feels the enormous surging magic pulsing from Robert through the Life Stealer into his own body. It’s overwhelming, and he loves it. Robert punches his left fist at Xanorax, who is captivated by the sensation, and as if a boxing glove affixed to a metal spring has been sprung, Xanorax is struck right in the stomach, launching him back some twelve feet from Robert. The Life Stealer tears Robert’s flesh as Xanorax is thrown back.

Simtap retracts the blade from Robert’s cheek and slices off his left arm above the elbow, and Robert screams in pain. Simtap looks up laughing and looks at Robert. “Let’s see what you do with no arms.” He laughs more. Drumbolt stomps his right foot on Robert’s right leg, crushing it just below his knee. Drumbolt laughs. “Let’s see what you do with no legs.” Drumbolt and Simtap look at each other, laughing proud of the torture they are administering.

Robert looks at the demons with a crying face. “Where there are demons, there are angels. I call upon you for assistance.”

Simtap looks at Drumbolt. “Angels,” he says, laughing. “Angels, bring them all, bring them; we love angels.”

Xanorax gets up coughing and staggering a little before he regains his strength. “No, you fools, do not let him summon any help.” Xanorax runs back toward the demons and gets to them just as a halo appears in the sky, shining down intensely bright sunlight in a small circle surrounding Robert. The light is so bright that the demons and Xanorax cannot look at it. Another much larger halo appears shining down the same light in a much larger circle. This light does not hurt the demons, but it blinds them and they cannot touch it without causing their flesh to disintegrate. Xanorax covers his eyes with his arms to block the intense light from hurting his eyes. A bright light surrounds Robert, but he can withstand it and looks to his right arm as it heals. His crushed legs begin to form to their natural state, and his left arm attaches back into place. A beautiful angel gently floats to the ground and kneels by Robert.

“Vegenrage, I am here. I am Farrahbeth, your guardian angel. I have come because I love you. I have always loved you. I have waited your whole life for you to call upon me, and you finally have.”

Farrahbeth has beautiful, soft white feathered wings, which conceal neatly to her back as she lands. She has a soft white cloth loose-fitting dress that hangs comfortably from her shoulders and extends down just past her hips. She has slender legs supporting a petite body with long sandy-brown hair growing down her back. She has dark-brown eyes with a small nose and very thin rosy red lips outlining a beautiful smile.

“Wow, it’s true.”

“What’s true, Vegenrage?”

“Angels are beautiful.”

“You make me blush,” she says as she smiles big, and her cheeks turn the rosy red color of her lips.

“But, Farrahbeth, guardian angels can only come to the rescue once and then—”

Farrahbeth puts her right hand fingers on Robert’s lips. “Shuuuu,” she whispers. “It’s OK, Vegenrage. I come to you because I have always wanted to. I have always loved you, and it will be worth it for just one kiss.”

“Why do you call me, Vegenrage?”

“Because that is who you are destined to be, and after you kiss me, your fate will be sealed. Vegenrage you will have become.”

“I’ve known you for one minute, and I love you.”

“And I love you.” Farrahbeth hugs Vegenrage under his arms and looks into his eyes with a smile.

Vegenrage cannot resist and kisses Farrahbeth deeply. Vegenrage is consumed by the kiss, and all he feels is his lips connected to hers. He senses nothing other than Farrahbeth until she falls back limp in his arms. He looks to see Farrahbeth’s open mouth breathe its last breaths, and her eyes see their last images as Simtap pulls his blade from her heart.

Farrahbeth looks to Vegenrage. “It was worth it,” and she uses her last strength to run her right hand down Vegenrage’s face. Farrahbeth starts to dissipate into golden sun dust and floats to the heavens with the halos. Vegenrage looks at the laughing Simtap and steps with his left foot forward, leaving his right foot stationary, like he is doing a lunge, and swoops his right hand fingers toward the ground and his left hand straight forward, both hands facing Simtap like there is a big beach ball between them. A huge windstorm hits Simtap, but really this is a magnificent disintegration spell. Simtap puts up his arms to shield his face. Drumbolt dodges to the left of Simtap, and Xanorax dodges to the right. The spell gets more powerful as the flesh starts to peel and fly away from Simtap’s body. Simtap’s face cringes as his face starts to sand away. His knees start to erase as do his elbows. The earth he is standing on starts to scar and divot as if a professional golfer has swiped the earth away with a masterful stroke but in slow motion. Simtap grows his blades, and even they start to chalk away. Half of his head is gone, his arms sever at the elbows, and the blades fall to the ground. His chest is half gone, exposing his ribs, and his innards quickly disappear. A moment later and he is all gone.

Vegenrage relaxes and dangles his arms and stands, looking very confident yet spent of energy. He looks around to find no sign of Drumbolt or Xanorax. Trimidador retreats back to the earth. “Xanorax, I know you can hear me. I am Vegenrage, master of magic, and you are outmatched. You have felt my power, and I have felt your weakness. The Life Stealer works both ways. You have to know you can never harness true magic. You wouldn’t know what to do. Instead of just enjoying the peace and tranquility that life is, your only thoughts would be of destruction, and that destruction would destroy you. I know you know this.”

Xanorax is sitting behind a tree, listening to Vegenrage.

“You can try, Xanorax, you can fight the filth that is destruction and focus on a different path, but you have to do it. No one will do it for you. If you fight me, you know the outcome.”

Xanorax starts to smile. “That’s what I like about you, Vegenrage. You’re cocky, you’re powerful and not afraid to use your power.” Xanorax gathers his courage in a confident form and walks around the tree to face Vegenrage. He walks toward Vegenrage. “Fire bolt,” he says, pointing his hands at Vegenrage, and a huge superheated flame in the form of a missile shoots at Vegenrage. Vegenrage simply swats the flame to his side with the wave of his hand.

“Magic Missile,” Xanorax says and shoots a single missile from each finger and then each thumb.

Again Vegenrage swats them away with the swipe of his hands. Actually, they explode many feet in front of Vegenrage, causing no damage as he walks toward Xanorax. Drumbolt grows from the earth behind Vegenrage, forming his trademark hammer and slingshots the hammer down on Vegenrage, who, at the last second, bends to his right knee and points his hands above his head, forming a circular pyramid out of pure magic, with a very sharp point at the top and widening as the round pyramid grows down to the earth around him. Drumbolt slams down on the pyramid and is crumbled as his hammer is split apart by the magical force.

Vegenrage flies into the sky and summons a meteor shower down on the earth where Drumbolt was crumbled. This is a fantastic scene. The meteors are the size of houses, and no matter where or what Drumbolt becomes, he cannot escape the destructive force of this spell. Vegenrage sends down with incredible force one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten meteors. They hit with incredible force, not anything that will cause global damage, but certainly enough damage to destroy all the earth within a ten-mile radius. This is incredible looking. Vegenrage is in midair throwing what you would think is a baseball, when in fact house-sized balls of meteoric metal searing hot and flaming impact with the earth. Unfortunately, all living beings within a five-mile radius are devastated. Shock waves of heat and fire blast out from the impacting meteors, burning and incinerating all the forest for miles. Even the castle of Shaspar is leveled flush to the ground. Xanorax was right. Vegenrage is not afraid to use his power.

Vegenrage had been studying Drumbolt the whole time and knew that Drumbolt can take the form of all earth and move accordingly. He moves fastest when there is less resistance to him, like traveling from tree to tree, but when traveling through solid rock, his travel time is greatly reduced. Vegenrage figured Drumbolt would travel down to try to evade the meteor; that’s why he sent ten, leaving a mile-deep crater at the site of impacts. Vegenrage was using a little faith in the hope that Xanorax would survive the attack. Vegenrage floats to the rim of the crater and feels the earth with his hands. He stands up, brushing his hands together. “OK, Xanorax, where are you now?” Vegenrage looks around at the flattened forest, the castle walls of Shaspar that were in ruin but now gone altogether. The trees for two miles in a circle have been incinerated, and the trees past them lean away from the blast zone. Burning and flames are visible on all the trees and vegetation around the blast zone. Vegenrage takes a moment to contemplate the awesome power and destruction he has just caused. He realizes that Xanorax could not have survived this destruction and sits frustrated that he may have destroyed his ability to acquire the Staff of Barrier Breath.

The scene shifts to the rock cylinder in the depths of Xanorax’s home. The black liquid starts to rise as the demon master of Wherlerria, Practu, begins to rise from the liquid as before he takes his shape. As he gains his full form, all but his feet, he begins to vomit, and out of his mouth Xanorax births headfirst, completely nude, and falls to the ground in a wash of blood. “Stand up, Xanorax.” Xanorax stands and faces Practu, dripping blood and is visually nude and gory looking.