Chapter 11 - Midnight . . . Time to Die by Chris S

            Magus sat in his newfound palace at quarter past eleven when he heard a strange sound.  He stepped out into the forest ruins and saw what appeared to be Guardia soldiers approaching the castle.

            “Oh, now this should be interesting.” Magus said aloud, “You pathetic mortals hope to prevail over the power of the Laguna-Spectre?”

            The guards rushed forward with their spears, yelling war cries.  Magus drew his scythe and in one fluid motion glided by the guards swinging his sickle.  He turned to see the shocked faces as they fell to the ground; long slashes across their abdomens.  Magus chuckled to himself and saw two guard regiments coming from both of his flanks.

            “So the insects think they can trap me,” he thought to himself and threw his hand in the air and shouted, “Ice 2!”.  A shockwave of frigid energy flew out from the sorcerer and froze both groups into solid blocks of ice.  Then, with a snap of his fingers, Magus shattered them like crystal statues.

            “This is more fun than I though”, he said and with that a group of a dozen knights poured out from the forest’s ruins.

            “But,” he said, “it’s about to get even better.”  The knights attacked in a V-formation, which Magus avoided by leaping into the air and hovering above the terrified square table members.

            “Now, maggots,” yelled Magus, “tremble in fear at true power!”  With that Magus pointed his finger at the ground and shouted “Dark bomb!”  A beam of black energy shot out from his finger and drove straight into the ground.  Before the scared knights had a chance to react a dome of dark energy expanded from the ground and engulfed the brave warriors.  When the dome receded all that was left was some scorched armor and weapons.  Another wave of knights stormed through the dead trees and attacked the elven wizard.

            “Humans are slow learners,” he mumbled as he stretched out his hand and arm and yelled: “Lit 2!”

            Setsuna stood watching the waging battle from the End of Time wishing he could somehow help the brave warriors fighting and the ones that would arrive soon.  Then she had an idea.  She threw open a portal to 65 million B.C. and quickly found the Ioka chieftain Kino.  She explained the plight of Ayla and the others and he readily offered help.

            “Me help fight nasty man.  Me beat him myself,” Kino boasted.  He decided, however, to bring 20 warriors with him, just in case.

            When Frog, Marle, and Ayla arrived at the foot of Guardia castle they were greeted by dozens of corpses of fallen soldiers and scorched weapons and armor.

            “This is just awful,” Marle said, trying not to vomit from the reek of dead flesh.

            “Magus whilst pay for dishonoring me and these fine me,” said Frog as he stood amidst the bodies.

            “Blue-haired one pay for killing so many people,” growled Ayla, “me make him pay.”  She leapt up the stairs into the entranceway and was shocked by who she saw.

            “Kino!” Ayla yelled with excitement and ran to him.  “How you get here?”

            “Funny key woman bring me and friends here to help beat up bad man,” he replied to her.

            “This is great!” cried Marle, “We need as much help as we can get.”

            “Silence!” hissed Frog. “Someone approaches.”  At the entrance to the throne room stood the black-cloaked magus smiling down at the party.

            “So wretch,” he spat at Frog, “you must rely on prehistoric baboons to do your work?  You’re not brave enough to fight me alone?” Magus scoffed.

            “I need not their help to dispose of the likes of you,” he retaliated.  “We kill bad man!”  Kino yelled as his group rushed at Magus screaming obscenities and war cries.  Magus smiled broader and raise his arms as he cried: “Black Hole!”  A black disc expanded around the cavemen and after terrifying screams from within its depths it retracted, leaving only Kino lying on the floor.  Kino, too enraged to speak, threw himself at the wizard crying “Ruby Slicer!”  He produced a glowing ruby knife and dove swinging at Magus.  Magus whipped his scythe in a spinning motion that dropped Kino in two halves onto the floor.

            Ayla now flew in a triple kick that Magus stopped short by stabbing her through the leg and hurling her into a corner where she slumped and blacked out.

            “One down” said Magus smugly as Marle and Frog combined powers into an ice water attack.  Magus amusingly cast Fire 2 and sent the blast with the ice stones straight at Marle.  She flew down the stairs and fainted from the blow.

            “Now it’s simply you and me little man,” Magus hissed at Frog.

            “The Masamune shalt defeat thee Magus!” cried Frog as he flung the enchanted blade at the warlock.

            “Foolish toad!” cursed Magus as he caught the blade and hurled it back at Frog,

Impaling him in the stomach.  He slumped to the ground as Magus laughed and said: “Oh the irony, being slain by your own blade!”  Off in the distance the Cathedral bell sounded and Magus smiled.  “Midnight . . .” he said, “Time to die.”

            He levitated up, arms raised and shouted: “Black Wind!  Now is the time, send your gust to cleanse this land of all the wretched creatures that stain it!”  A gigantic, pure black tornado descended upon the castle and then expanded, like a huge broom it swept all the people and building off the land and destroyed them within it’s depths.  It expanded from north to south, then shot east, eradicating the tavern where Toma sat and the town surrounding it and the monsters of the Giant’s Claw.

            Then all went quiet as the massive whirlwind ascended to wherever it came from and all life that existed on the world was dead.  The land was barren and decimated; the entire planet a pale shadow of what it was just moments ago.  At exactly 12:02 AM the world ended.