Chapter 1
Long ago, the War of the Magi reduced the world to a scorched wasteland, and
magic simply ceased to exist.
1000 years have passed… Iron, gunpowder, and steam engines have been
rediscovered, and high technology reigns…
But there are some who would enslave the world by reviving the dread destructive
force known as “magic.”
Can it be that those in power are on the verge of repeating a senseless and
deadly mistake?
***
The bitter cold nipped at the noses of three of the Empires
finest soldiers. There were two men, clad in brown armor. The other was a young
woman, around the age of 20. She was not dressed in armor or rough, military
garb. Instead, she wore normal, high-class women’s clothing.
The trio marched up the face of a cliff near a town called
Narshe. All three used Magitek Armor, a type of walking magic-powered machine.
Once they reached the highest point of the cliff, one of them, named Vicks,
spoke up.
“There’s the town…”
The other soldier, who went by the name of Wedge, responded,
“Hard to believe an Esper’s been found intact there, 1000 years after the War of
the Magi…”
“Think it’s still alive?” Vicks asked his partner.
“Probably, judging from the urgency of our orders.”
They turned around and looked at the girl. Vicks inquired,
“And this woman, this… sorcerer. Why’s she here? I heard she fried fifty of our
Magitek Armored soldiers in under three minutes.”
Wedge looked at Vicks and replied, “Not to worry. The slave
crown on her head robs her of all conscious thought. She’ll follow orders.” He
then took a few steps back down the face of the mountain and paused. “We’ll
approach from the east. Move out!”.
***
The soldiers approached the town from the east, and turned
right into the main gate. Wedge said, “Let’s put her on point. No sense taking
any risks.”
They ordered the woman to led them. She did as she was told.
They had barely gone ten steps into the town when two local soldiers ran towards
them and yelled, “Imperial Magitek Armor? Not even Narshe’s safe anymore!”, and
they charged.
It was hardly even a fight. Wedge cooked one with a Fire Beam
from his M-tek armor, and the woman shot a TekMissile at the other one. They
were down instantly.
The soldiers moved on. Not much farther ahead, some more
soldiers came in at them from their right. One said, “Narshe’s freedom depends
on us!” These resisters had two dogs of the Lobo breed to fight with them, which
attacked before their masters. It did no good. The dogs were down almost
immediately with beams of Ice-magic spewing from the M-tek armors. The human
soldiers attacked, only to be confused at a sonic blast that came from the
woman’s machine. Because they were so confused, they attacked each other with
their scythes, and one of them got killed. Right before the live one was alert
and unconfused again, he was fried by a Fire beam coming from Vick’s M-tek
armor.
The woman led them further into the town, and through a
narrow street. It was in this narrow alley-like road that one Lobo and two
guards came at them, one guard in front of them, and just another guard and a
Lobo coming from behind. The one on front taunted, “We’ve got ‘em trapped, now!”
Wedge matched his tone and yelled back, “I think not,” at the moment he made a
barbecue of the guard’s flesh. The woman took care of the Lobo using her Fire
spell. The living guard came up yelling from behind and slashed at Vicks with
his scythe, but that’s the last thing he remembered. He was quickly put to
eternal sleep by Wedge’s Bolt Beam. The woman used Cure, a white-magic healing
spell, on Vicks, and his wound immediately vanished.
They continued. As they had almost reached the mines, two
guards and two Vamammoths came upon them. One of the guards yelled, “We must
defend the mines!”
“Watch out for the tusks on the Vamammoths. They really pack a punch!”, warned
Vicks.
It was too late. One of the Vamammoths charged straight
toward the woman and slammed into her armor. A brilliant flash exploded right
before the Vamammoth, and he stumbled backwards and fell to the ground. One of
the guards jumped over the mammal’s limp form and ran straight for the woman,
but Wedge snapped a Bolt Beam shot right off to the guard, who dropped right to
the snowy ground. The woman cast Fire on the remaining Vamammoth, and Vicks shot
a Bolt Beam at the last guard.
Vicks and Wedge were elite. They had trained for years to get where they were
today. These two soldiers were not even short of breath. They knew what they
were doing, and they knew what they had to do. The woman, however, was now
panting heavily. They took no notice of this. Instead, they moved forward to the
mouth of a cave.
Wedge spoke up, “According to our source, the frozen Esper
was found in a new mine shaft. Maybe this one…”, and he gestured toward the
cave.
They enetered the shaft. It was dark, but not entirely. They
moved further on into the cave. This mine shaft was plagued with creatures
called Were-Rats, basically, half-man half-rats. They were hidious, but sizzled
satisfyingly under the scorching of M-tek Fire-Beams.
Up ahead were a conglomeration of mostly vertical steel bars blocking the next
passage. Vicks stepped forward and declared, "I'll handle this. Stand back!",
and he proceeded to slam his M-tek machine into the bars, which broke them
almost immediately. They were about to enter into the new passageway when a
guard approached from behind the broken bars and yelled, "We won't hand over the
Esper!" He turned around and walked a few paces. "Whelk! Get 'em!"
There then emerged a hideous creature. He looked like a large
snail, but, unlike the common snail, Whelk bore a spiny, purple, moster of a
shell. This beast had glowing green eyes, eyes that seemed to bore right through
them.
Vicks seemed to have a flash of recognition, and yelled to
Wedge, "Hold it! Think back to our briefing..."
"What about it?" Wedge said.
"Do you recall hearing about a monster that eats
lightning..."
"...And stores the energy in it's shell!" Wedge finished.
"Right. So whatever you do, don't attack the shell!"
"Alright already!" Wedge replied impatiently. He jumped
forward and shot a fire beam right at Whelk's head. It burned him badly.
Unfortunately, Vicks was not as good a marksman, and he accidentaly shot an Ice
Beam onto Whelk's spiney shell. Whelk retaliated with a devastating lighting
attack, which wounded Vicks to the point of near-death. The woman then cast Cure
on Vicks, healing him completely. Whelk's head then retreated to the inside of
his shell.
Vicks just about stepped forward to give the shell a beating,
but Wedge jumped in front of him. "Forget already?". Vicks was about to give a
witty retort, when Whelk decided that he was safe enough, and emerged from his
shell. Before he could do anything more, the woman shot a TekMissile right into
face. It exploded, along with Whelk's face,
"Whoa. Nice shot!" said Vicks, ever the skeptic.
They said nothing more as they approached the frozen form,
which was on a rock platform. As they got closer, they could see the outline of
what looked to be a large bird. Yes, they could see it very clearly now. It was
a large, brightly-colored bird. "This is the frozen Esper..."
The Esper started to glow an ominous blue color. The rest of
the cavern became mysteriously dark. They stood there, staring at it. The woman
appeared to have a look of familiarity on her beautiful face. Wedge noticed it,
and spoke to her, "Hey! What's the matter? Do you know something we don't...?"
She approached the Esper, but still said nothing. The frozen
creature began emitting an eerie light; a light which seemed to surround them
all. Vicks and Wedge were never more confused in their entire lives.
"Where's that light coming from?" Wedge asked, frightened. He
gave out a blood-curdling scream, and with a flash of light, he vanished.
"Hey! Wedge... where are you? W...what's happening?!" he
stammered.
And with another bright flash of light, he vanished too.
The woman still stood there, but also, still said nothing.
Both she and the creature were glowing now, and their spirits seemed to coalesce
with each other. A lighting blot of energy passed between each of them, and she
seemd to be encased in ice, just like the creature. Many small explosions went
off all around her, and nothing more is seen.
