Accidental Magic
Chapter Twenty-Six: End Game
 
By Allystra Krane

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The blood dripped off the blade as Carl stood over the body of his father, the man known as Nethizar.

It then started flowing up into and took residence along small channels etched into the blade which then began to glow.

Augustine saw this and cursed. "That better not be what I think it is."

"How much you want to bet that he'll be that much more hard to stomp?!" Boris hollered. "I thought that blade was in the vault?"

"Obviously not," Augustine snapped back. "If we make it through this, I'll present it myself as a gift."

"What's that thing do anyway?" Cindy asked.

"It's an Old Magic dagger," Lexi said as she came up behind her, "it allows the user to steal the powers from anyone the blade kills."

"You knew this was going to happen?!" Augustine cried out at Lexi.

"Not this exactly," Lexi replied coldly, "but I believed the possibility existed for something big to happen."

Augustine stood there, the multitude of users in front of her blasting away at Carl's shield, and not having any effect.

She looked down toward the floor and spoke softly to herself. "Agatha, you've been pushing us all along, steering this ship. What should I do now?" she asked just as the noise of spell fire seemed to fade into the background.

A voice Augustine had not heard in over ten years reached her ears.

"Hello Auggie."

"Agatha," Augustine muttered.

"Now now," continued the voice, "Why so formal?"

"You stopped being my good friend the day you died!" Augustine snapped back. "How am I hearing this?"

"Your watch," Agatha's disembodied voice answered. "I trapped the inside of the back cover. You've worn it faithfully since I gave it to you five years ago. I didn't even have to make you want to wear it."

"It Is a rather nice..., Wait, we don't have time!" Augustine exclaimed. "Why are you talking to me directly?"

"Augustine," Interrupted Agatha's voice again, "If you are hearing this, then the battle has gone awry.

"My own heart has yet to heal from my own loss at that fool's hand and I cannot bear the thought of what Terri's death would mean to my Daughter."

"Please understand that I do not come to this decision lightly. What I have done is questionable at best but I felt I was left with no other choice."

"What did you do?" Augustine asked.

"Break the fifth seal," came the voice solomnly. "I hoped it would not have to come to this..."

"The seal on Terri?" Augustine asked, only to find herself back in the midst of the battle.

Carl was reflecting anything and everything that came at him, including valiant sword strikes from both groups of Knights.

"What seal?" Boris asked her from only a few feet away. "I saw you talking to yourself but I couldn't hear it until the last sentence.

But Augustine ignored him and stepped forward, only to be joined by Lexi.

"You got the order," she asked. "Didn't you?"

"What does it hold back?"

"A force that Agatha contained within her since birth."

"That doesn't inspire me," Augustine replied.

"Nor should it," Lexi added. "But she did it and we should take advantage of every opportunity we're given."

Augustine nodded and bellowed as loudly as she could, magic carrying the words clearly to every corner of the room.

"BREAK THE FIFTH SEAL!"

A dozen people nodded in understanding and began incantations in earnest. The Royal Knights backed off their direct assault and took up defensive positions in front of the casters.

~*~

Terri could hear the angry buzzing noise getting louder, as if a nest of bees was getting irritated just behind her.

She suspected that it had something to do with the sudden fall off in the battle she was witnessing.

Suddenly, she heard a cracking noise and turned to see the solid wall that contained the monster breaking and flaking away.

"Wait until they get a load of you!"

"Terri!" a voice exclaimed, causing her to whip around to face it's source.

"Gramma?" Terri choked out, the incorporeal form of Agatha floated in front of her.

"I locked it away to make it stronger, to make you stronger. It is the perfect defense, for it cannot be controlled. Give yourself up to it, let it run free."

"What is it?" Terri asked.

"Rage," was the response just as the creature who held her so gently in it's hand broke loose and tore away from the wall, letting loose a roar that resonated of trees being torn apart and bashed against the rocks at the bottom of a thunderous waterfall.

Terri was brought up to its chest, and she turned toward the battle once again. As she phased backward into the creature, she managed to utter:

"Time to suck my..."

~*~

The assembled group was taken back as a thunderous crack signaled the seal breaking.

A glowing ring sprang into existence encircling Terri at the waist.

"That isn't like any seal I've ever seen!" Cathryn shouted from near Allyssa. They both had positions near Augustine, taken to keep Terri's friends near the exit, just in case.

"I thought they are all like that?" Allyssa snapped back.

"It should look like any other magic ring, with words or symbols going around the interior of the ring! That one is solid!"

"What's that mean?" Asked Cindy.

Lexi responded, shocking all in hearing range.

"My greatest achievement!" She announced. "I spent almost two years latching things onto that seal, now we get to see if it worked!"

As if on cue, the seal split into two rings, then five, then eleven, all moving into place encircling Terri at different heights.

Carl was watching all of this with all the curiosity and intrigue of a small child at a circus.

The light from the rings were increasing in intensity such that it was akin to looking directly at the sun through half-tilted metal blinds.

A whispy droning charged the air as symbols peeled themselves off the rings and swirled around Terri, passing into her body as matter would break the event horizon and be drawn into a black hole.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" Screeched Augustine as she grabbed Lexi and held the girl face to face.

"Run," was Lexi's answer.

"Run?" Augustine asked back, confirming what she heard when the entire building shuddered and air was drawn in through the gaping hole in the wall, picking up speed.

"RUN!" Screamed Lexi over the whistling of the wind. "You will be powerless in seconds, you need to get everyone away NOW!"

Augustine put Lexi down, then turned to see what was happening.

The Plasma that had remained ignited over the various blades was literally bleeding off into the air. Users throughout the room were experiencing a similar effect, visible strands of mana were snaking their way out and funneling themselves toward Terri, spiraling around her in an ever increasing whirlwind.

"The world has never seen anything like her," Lexi said. "Now RUN! Fully realized, her vortex ability should consume all mana for MILES!"

Augustine shouted again, feeling her own mana starting to drift away. "RUN!" She screamed. "FALL BACK!"

Beating a path through the doorway, Augustine swept Cindy up by the shoulders with no effort or magic-enhanced strength and ran across to the small hill that overlooked the warehouse.

"What the bloody hell is going on?" Screamed an angry Marcus.

"Our Custodian trapped the seal," replied Augustine, "setting all manner of spells on it. I have no idea what she thinks she was doing."

"Where is she anyway?" Asked Allyssa, "I wanna give her a piece of my mind."

"She's still in there," said Cindy. "When I got thrown over your shoulder, I could see her standing there. She wasn't running."

~*~

Lexi stood facing Carl across the field of battle, her short, shoulder-length hair being whipped about by the fearsome gale blowing in through the gaping hole in the wall directly behind her.

The rings around Terri had all shattered and the resultant glowing pinpoints were all quickly drawn into her now as well.

The mana was becoming thick enough around Terri that it began to take shape.

The swirling plasma formed into egg-shaped spheres that collected together like droplets of Mercury, forming around Terri's still mummified body into large meaty hind legs and the torso of an enormous beast.

As the large body fell forward, giant forlegs formed out of the swirling mist, just in time to catch itself, though the noise made by two giant clawed feet crunching the now irregular concrete beneath it as it touched down, echoed like tumbling rocks through a canyon.

The process continued as neck and head formed and finally completing with an enormous spiked tail that trashed about behind it, setting fire to various random debris by touch alone.

Carl was too stupefied to move as the creature angrily lumbered over toward him. He quickly came to his senses and realized that his life was, once again, in danger.

His spells to subjugate Terri did nothing to slow the beast down. She was hardly visible inside its abdomen, suspended within the confines of red hot elemental plasma.

Carl braced himself as the creature's mouth opened and he was blasted by a jet of flame that rippled and flowed across his shield. The air that blew across his face felt like he was looking into a pottery Kiln, complete with acrid aroma.

Lexi stood watching the scene unfold in front of her as the monster's unrelenting assult on Carl's shield barely caused it a ripple.

"He's still too strong," she commented outloud.

"What do you plan to do about it?" Answered Augustine, quickly moving to stand abreast of the little girl. "And how come you didn't run like you told us?"

Lexi looked up into Augustine's eyes. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Receiving no response, Lexi turned back to the battle, sighed, then spoke.

"Mother, Carl is too strong. Terri cannot break his barrier alone."

"Who the hell are you talking to?" Augustine asked, but the girl ignored her completely.

"The Twice Damned were likely tapped out before they fled... We have only one option... Direct intervention!" Lexi snapped the last line aloud, still watching the battle in front of her. "Target acquired, fire at will!"

A deafing boom like a lightning bolt striking within inches of the two of them caused Augustine to jump back. This was followed by a demonic howling and the crackling of mortar under assult.

Lexi pointed up to a section of wall, where the symbols that Augustine had drawn years before and had recently engaged, were peeling themselves off in an increasing radius the size of a beach ball.

"Mother is surprised that your wall fortifications are holding up so well," Lexi said. "You should take pride in your handiwork."

"Your mother is doing that?"

"Yes, and in another moment she will break through..."

As she said that, a solid beam rent of the firmament of the universe, howling as if it carried on it the souls of a thousand damned and the diameter of a basketball tore through the remainder of the material of the wall and began its assault on Carl's shield bubble.

The sheer magnitude sent ripples across it causing a psychic backlash that started Carl screaming and clutching his head.

Under the combined effects of the monster that was Terri and the other beam, Carl's shield buckled, contorting like an warped hourglass, the opposite sides coming ever closer together.

"You may want some protection," Lexi commented idly, "that or possibly running like I told you to do before."

Augustine threw up her own shield again, the mana finding itself back to her from across her link to Terri once again.

"That won't be enough..." Lexi said, just as two enormous crytalline structures came into corporeal existence in front of Augustine. Electrical charges arched across the jagged points, then back and forth between them.

"Looks like Agatha was thinking ahead," Lexi said. "Incoming!"

Carl's body, crushed within his own shield bubble, finally gave up its last remaining once of life and the shield buckled and imploded upon the lifeless body inside.

There was a flash of light and an explosion burst forth smashing into the Plasma monster and throwing it across the building.

Augustine watched as the shock waves bounced off of the shield manifested by the crystals in front of her, while Lexi watched it with relative interest.

The walls of the building did not fare as well, and the beam's distruction of Augustine's fortifications left the structure unprotected and it began to crumble, the roof cracking and falling in large chunks, breaking apart against Terri's monster form, that was thrashing about on its back, trying to right itself.

The crystalline structures protected Augustine and Lexi as they watched the beast tearing its way through the jagged debris, now heading directly toward them.

Lexi stepped forward, into the path it was making toward them, bursting through the wall of dust as if it would a more solid structure, roaring and waving its head back and forth.

When it was only a few meters away from Lexi, she opened her arms as if to embrace it.

"I Love You!" She called out.

Those words acted as the most powerful spell, causing the beast to rapidly fall apart.

The head fell off the neck, just before evaporating into mist, with the rest of the body breaking into pieces and disappearing, leaving Terri coughing and vomiting on all fours, the suit having released her limbs.

"Terri!" Screeched Cindy as she ran by Augustine.

"Didn't I tell you to stay back?" Augustine snapped, just as Allyssa and Kristi ran past. "Doesn't anyone listen to their elders anymore?"

Terri had fallen over onto one side and fainted, her eyes rolled up in her head.

Allyssa was glowing a near solid white, trying to heal Terri unsuccessfully. Terri made no motion or sound and remained still, laying peacefully in the puddle of her own sick.

Lexi stopped Allyssa by putting a hand on her shoulder. "She's okay, just incredibly tired. She just channeled a physical form from Elemental Plasma and went on a rampage. She won't wake up right now."

Allyssa nodded and wiped the tears from her eyes.

Augustine grabbed Lexi from behind and hefted the girl to look eye to eye again.

"You have much to answer for," Augustine snarled. "I didn't sign up for all of this. We didn't ask to be part of this little plan of yours and I swear I will get every little bit of information out of you before you can get away."

Lexi smiled as she held up on hand and it began to crack and disintegrate.

"I'm sorry but I knew you try this so I made a made a stand in. You notice I never cast anything in the battle?"

"You Bitch! I will find you and GUT YOU LIKE A FISH!" Augustine screamed.

"But before I dissolve," began the sand golem that had been masquerading as Lexi, "I want to let you know that I agree that the price to save Terri is, indeed, too high. But her future isn't yet secure, meaning the price... Has yet to be paid.." She eeked out before her body fell apart and crumbled to a heap of sand at Augustine's feet.