Her world began to go black.
***
Yeva cast a deflective ice spell just as Indica fired a burst of blue flame at Eric and her. Eric ordered Margol to take to the skies and use its aerial advantage while the humans attacked from the ground. Margol acknowledged the order and flew high above, launching pillars of fire toward Indica.
The fire looked pitiful in comparison to Indica’s, though that seemed more because of Indica’s sheer power than Margol’s weakness. Indica barely acknowledged the force of Margol, pausing only to glance back before resuming its attacks on Eric and Yeva.
“Hold it off!” Eric yelled as he tried to flank the beast.
As Yeva and Indica continued battling each other with magic, Eric went to the left side of the monster, waiting until the dragon focused solely on Yeva. Once it did, he sprinted so fast he thought his muscles might detach from his bones.
He held his sword back, embedded with the same fire spell that had killed Bahamut, and lunged for Indica’s neck.
But seconds before he would have made contact, the wing of Indica flicked Eric forward several feet through the air, sending him bouncing off the ground.
“Eric!” Yeva yelled.
“I’m fine,” Eric said, ignoring the broken fingers on his hand even as he saw one of them bent to the side. “Come on!”
He stepped forward to Yeva, but Indica had vanished.
“Where did he—”
Eric didn’t finish. He looked up to see Indica chasing Margol, and it did not make for a fair fight. Indica had size, speed, and magic on Eric’s dragon. Eric tried to line up his sword to get a clean shot, but it became impossible. Only luck would decide if his attack landed, and he did not have that luxury in battle.
He cursed as Yeva sought to calm him down. They could only watch the duel of the dragons.
Margol turned to try a surprise attack. It launched a cascade of flames at Indica. The attacks landed perfectly on the dragon’s face.
But rather than stop or wound Indica, the legendary blue dragon just flew right through it. It opened its jaws. Eric grimaced and closed his eyes.
The dying screech of Margol told him what he needed to know. He’d lost his dragon. Yeva had lost her dragon.
They only had each other.
Indica, with its mouth, tossed the dying body of Margol out to the seas, leaving it as food for some other beast. Rage filled Eric as Indica landed in front of the two of them.
It didn’t look good. They had magic, but Indica had so much more. They had no essences aside from the diminishing one on Eric’s neck. Yeva had great power, but not enough.
The battle looked lost.
Eric hung his head. But before he could get too low, Yeva wrapped her hand around his, clenching tight.
“Hey, we’ve fought well,” she said with a weary, accepting smile. “Let’s fight until we die, OK?”
Indica bellowed impatiently. It brought a slight smile to Eric’s face.
If they could not win the fight, then they’d at least ensure Indica and Ragnor earned their victory. They would not surrender. They would not give in.
“It’s been a pleasure, Yeva,” Eric said.
“No,” Yeva said. “It’s been a delight.”
Time seemed to slow as Indica raised its head back. Yeva’s hand squeezed even tighter around Eric. Eric closed his eyes, thinking of his mother, his sister, and his father. I’ll see you soon.
Indica thrust its head forward, unleashing a deadly blue flame. Eric and Yeva held hands as tightly as they could as the blue flame rushed toward them.
***
Zelda could feel the life draining from her. Try as she had, she had lost.
Hydor would not know peace. Ragnor and Iblis had won.
Even with the power of all three dragons, she had failed.
She struggled still to hold on. Her cries rang out like the furious shrieks of a mother in labor, as if Zelda cared for Hydor as her own child. But every moment brought a little less sensation for Zelda. Every moment made the world go darker. Every moment brought her closer to her death.
She refused to let Ragnor win easily, but a voice in the back of her mind told her she had lost. Her dark side told her to embrace her fate; perhaps she could join Ragnor. No. No!
You know you’ve lost. If you cannot defeat him, make him an ally.
No!
But even these thoughts began to blur into indistinct ramblings. Zelda could no longer see anything of the world. She could barely hear distant shouts and laughter from Ragnor. She couldn’t even feel the magic binding her body in place and tearing her limbs apart.
“Zelda.”
Where had that voice come from? Despite being on death’s doorstep, Zelda had heard it as clearly as she could hear herself sing in the morning.
“Zelda, listen to me.”
Only one voice made sense.
Mama?
“Zelda, listen to me!” her mother said. She sounded urgent, as if she’d only have seconds to deliver the message. “Iblis hasn’t closed our communication yet. You have an optimism that has survived many a dark day and stormy night, but you are about to go through periods darker than any living being deserves to go through.”
Zelda suddenly flashed back. Her mind, for whatever time it had left, took her to that abandoned home in which she and Mama had hidden to avoid the oncoming guards. She didn’t have more than a minute left. Likely less.
“Zelda, a girl like you, with the strength of your magic and your convictions, can change the world!”
Zelda, momentarily, gained a glimpse of her senses back and looked around her. The battle looked lost. Her summoned dragons fell like raindrops from the sky. Eric and Yeva had also lost their dragons and held hands, as if prepared to go to the spiritual realm together, as they stared down the reincarnation of Indica, ready to fire.
And that said nothing of Ragnor in front of her, who still had her entire body turned into a puppet.
“You can save it from itself. But this is a fight you must take on your own.”
Mama! How? How?
Mama!
“Go! My little Zel!”
MAMA!
Zelda felt a surge of energy reach into the crystals before dispersing through her. It felt like a power she had no business controlling—in fact, she began to feel it take control over her. She could not resist the magic, which felt like a warm liquid, coursing through her body.
“My little Zel… I love you.”
The world went silent. The world went black. Zelda lost all feeling of touch.
For the briefest of moments, Zelda’s soul began to leave her body.
And then the magic reached out and pulled it back.
In a rush, Zelda regained her senses. Her sight came back. Her hearing came back. Her emotions came back. She shook with a jolt, even as Ragnor continued to apply its magic upon her.
Hovering several hundred feet in the air, she resisted the power of Ragnor and righted herself. No longer lying as if in a coffin, she turned upright and stared down Ragnor.
The representation of all evil. She would triumph.
She let out a triumphant cry that seemed to reverberate across the entire battlefield.
“How?!?” the great dragon roared. “You should be dead!”
“I was,” Zelda said, a complete sense of certainty about the battle’s direction. “You killed me, Ragnor. But you didn’t kill all of me. You merely killed the dark side within me.”
Zelda saw fear in the eyes of Ragnor, and it made her smile. Now she felt it practically a guarantee of what would happen.
“My mother spoke to me,” Zelda said. “She reminded me of my role in all of this. I must use love and fight for good.”
“No,” Ragnor said, its voice full of fear. “No! What are you doing?!? Stop! This isn’t fair!”
“I will not stop now,” Zelda said.
She lifted her hands, blasting an ice spell that now had become so powerful it seemed to have
the force of a god behind it.
***
Eric closed his eyes as he waited for the blue flame to swallow him and Yeva. They would die together, their hands binding their souls, and they would go to the afterlife together. She would see her parents. He would see his family.
He had fought the good fight. He’d found a higher purpose, and though he would not accomplish it, at least he had fought to the gruesome, bitter end. If humanity miraculously found life in the destruction that would follow, he could only hope that they saw him as an example of a true warrior.
Then he heard a loud explosion.
He still heard the battle raging around him. He still felt Yeva’s hand squeezing his. He dared to open his eyes, fearful that the last thing he’d see would be a wall of fire coming to incinerate his flesh.
But instead, he saw a wall of ice guarding him. But this did not look like ordinary ice, which was clear or perhaps sometimes glittered a bright blue. Instead, this ice looked so purely white, so perfectly unadulterated by other colors, that it could not have happened under any natural circumstance.
“Yeva!” he screamed in delight.
“Don’t let me go,” she said through gritted teeth. “Don’t ever let me go.”
I won’t. I promise I won’t. I’m with you until the end, Yeva.
I won’t let you join my family.
Indica and Yeva pushed back on each other, trading momentum as one seemed to push further ahead before the other gained its footing and pressed back. Eric watched, feeling helpless to assist in the battle.
But if Yeva drew her strength from the love and support Eric gave her, then he knew he was not helpless. If anything, he had become an essential part of the battle.
“You can do it, Yeva,” Eric said. “I believe in you. Keep going!”
She grunted, pushing back on the spell. Eric’s words seemed to encourage Yeva to reach to further levels within her soul, digging up magic that she didn’t know she had.
“Come on!” Eric yelled. “You are the future of the magi, Yeva. Keep at it!”
He tightened his grip around her hand, lifting and gently pressing his fingers one at a time onto the back of her hand.
“I know you can. I’ll support you. I’ll do whatever I can, Yeva.”
Yeva let out another loud grunt as the magic had all but reached Indica.
“Yeva.”
He gulped. The truth came out.
“I love you.”
A loud cry came from Yeva as she pushed back on Indica’s spell entirely. The resulting explosion knocked the legendary dragon back, burning its face and freezing its wings in place.
Eric, though, had his attention turned to the sky, for Yeva’s cry had been echoed by one that came a couple hundred feet in the air. When he looked up, he could scarcely believe in what he saw.
“Zelda,” he said with a gasp. “What… who are you?”
For Zelda did not just hover in place, staring down Ragnor, the manifestation of Iblis. She had not just broken free of its power.
She had an aura surrounding her of dark blue air which whipped around her, looking like the one that he had seen in the depths of Ragnor’s temple. Her eyes glowed yellow. Her magic seemed to surge not from within her.
“It can’t be,” Yeva said.
But Eric knew. She’s become one with Chrystos.
***
“Stop!” Ragnor yelled. “Please! Have mercy, Iblis!”
“Your master cannot come to save you!” Zelda said as she grounded the dragon, freezing its wings. “Let Iblis know that you cannot win this battle. I am Zelda, daughter of Hera. I have seen nearly everyone I love die. I have seen humanity kill its own kind, only because they can use magic. I have seen empires crumble, criminals murder, pacifists perish, and towns vanish. I have seen mankind’s lust for power and control lead to chaos it cannot have ever anticipated or ever hope to control. But do you know what?”
Ragnor let out cries, in so much pain that it could not muster a response to Zelda.
“I fight still. And do you know why? I finally understand what my mother meant when she said to fight for good. Good isn’t a side in war. Good isn’t something man can achieve, at least not in a permanent state. Good is the singular chance to make the world a better place, and acting upon that chance. Good may seem impossible to achieve forever, but as long as we live, we have a chance. The good still exists.”
Zelda lowered herself to the ground, staring Ragnor in the face. The dragon sneered defiantly at her, but its fear was palpable.
“You sought to eradicate all of existence, and in doing so, erase the good in this world,” she said. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Yeva and Eric running up to her, gazing at her with great curiosity. “That was Artemia’s mission this whole time. She didn’t want power. Power comes and goes, even for gods. She wanted to erase all chances for good in this world. She wanted to get rid of the good in this world. If nothing existed, nothing good could happen. Perhaps you set her up with the lesser version of yourself. Perhaps you thought that empowering her would lead to your rise. You were almost right.”
Zelda shook her head. She genuinely felt sadness for Ragnor’s position. She would not want to realize at one moment that her entire belief system had failed.
“But you were wrong. Because good doesn’t need an army of people to happen. It doesn’t need a group. It just needs one person to see one chance at one time, and then it can still come to fruition. It can win. You may have risen for a spell, Ragnor. But good stays alive as long as life remains.”
“No,” Ragnor said. “No! You don’t know what you’re speaking about—”
“For the good of all that exists!” Zelda cried as she summoned her final spell.
Through a surge of power that seemed to come through all three crystals and Chrystos, Zelda unleashed a bright white light toward the dragon which blinded all who stood before her. Except, that is, for Zelda.
When the spell collided with Ragnor, her world went white. But she could see her beam of magic shooting through the face of Ragnor and into its essence.
She pulled the essence through the body of Ragnor. She could not destroy it, but that did not matter as much as it did removing it from Ragnor. When she had it in front of her, she let it drop to the ground.
“Farewell, Iblis.”
With one final surge, the beam of white magic engulfed Ragnor. The beast disappeared without so much as a drop of blood.
The white light vanished, and Zelda found herself back on the battlefield.
Around her, the remaining enemies dropped to the ground, their powers destroyed by the loss of Ragnor. The smaller summoned dragons fell out of the sky while her remaining ones cried in victory. The recreated Indica let out a weak bellow before dropping as well, dead on the spot.
“Zelda!”
Zelda turned to see Eric and Yeva, giant grins on their face, as they ran up and hugged her.
“Oh my Chrystos,” Yeva said through laughter. “You did it! You actually did it!”
“I don’t even know how,” Zelda said. “I just…”
“You had help,” Eric said with a smile as he embraced her.
I did. That, I did.
Thank you, Mama. I finally understand what you meant.
“You saved the world,” Yeva said in awe. “Zelda… you’re amazing. I don’t know what to say!”
“I don’t either,” Zelda said.
I do. Thank you again, Mama. But I’ll keep this between us.
“It’s gonna take a while to clean this mess up,” Eric said as he scanned the battlefield. “But I think I’ll take the duty for the victory we just achieved.”
“You can say that again,” Yeva said.
All three shared a laugh.
“Let’s get out of here, shall we?” Eric said. “We’ve got a society to rebuild. People will be waiting for us in Mathos.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” Zelda said. “Let’s call back some old friends. This tim
e, ones who can speak a little bit better.”
Though exhausted and weary, Zelda still had plenty of strength to perform her duty. She closed her eyes and summoned forth Margol, Luca, and Emera once more.
“Margol!” Eric said as if encountering an old friend.
“Emera,” Zelda said in awe.
“The great Zelda,” the dragon said, still having to communicate with telepathy. But its voice seemed more measured, its words not like that of a two year old learning to speak. “I will serve you however you see fit. It would be my honor.”
“Thank you, Emera.”
“You are welcome, great Zelda.”
That’s going to get old fast, Zelda thought with an appreciative smile. But it’s an improvement.
“Do we have anything we need to do here?” Yeva asked. “I know we will need to clean this place someday. But I’d prefer for someday to not be today. Let me have some time off from this area.”
“No, I agree,” Zelda said with a smile. “Let’s go back to Mathos.”
She watched as Eric and Yeva mounted their dragons with ease. Zelda, too, jumped on Emera’s back.
“To Mathos!” Eric said, raising a fist in the air in triumph.
Yeva followed suit. Zelda did too.
And then, strangely, time seemed to slow. In fact, it didn’t just slow, it stopped completely. I’m not casting a spell. How is this happening?
“I am very impressed by what you did, Zelda.”
Zelda searched for the voice who had spoken. It sounded like Ragnor’s, but did not have the same demonic twist as before. Instead, it sounded like the baritone boom of an old man with a scratchy throat.
“Where are you,” Zelda said, cautiously raising her magic. “Show yourself!”
“I did, and you already defeated that form,” the voice said. It laughed, but it didn’t seem as imposing a laugh as before. “Haven’t you figured out who I am?”
Iblis.
“Very good. Yes, the intensity of your magic has opened a path to which I may communicate to you briefly.”
“Then fight me!” Zelda shouted. “I want to eradicate your evil once and for all!”
But Iblis just laughed. He sounded strangely human in Zelda’s head, as if an adult man.
Legends of the War (War of the Magi Book 3) Page 38
