On The Brink of Calamity

Dark Interlude

     It had been close to a month now since Anne had left the temple. Since she had taken the gem before it had fully charged. In truth Valeriana knew it wouldn't work the way any involved intended.
   Except her of course.
   The curse of knowledge and longevity was that you tended to know how things would play out before they even began. Such was the case now where Valeriana found herself atop the mountain as a storm began to roll in. She gazed calmly at the clouds over head.
   It would be a harsh one but the mountain would be spared. There were other problems though. The old sage allowed her eyes to close. Taking in the cool breeze the change in the winds, the sounds of the snow and rocks below. It was a shame peace like this could never last.
   Valeriana opened her eyes and looked up at the new shape that obscured her sky. A crack of lightening arched across the azure heavens illuminating the floating castle and its phantom blue jets holding it aloft.
   With a loud thud Valeriana was joined by another newt of a much less pleasing color.
  King Andrias stood tall and brandished his flaming saber as he smirked at the mountain top temple. It was a sickening look. A look of undeserved elation. It made Valeriana sick.
  "Leave this place, you are not welcome here." The old sage punctuated the "you" with the rap of her staff across the stone.
  "I am the king I am welcome wherever I please." The sizable salamander replied.
  "You are no king to me great betrayer." Valeriana scoffed glaring a hole in his head.
  "I am the king!" He snarled backed. "And I will be king of all worlds, as I am the king of this one."
  Valeriana looked almost like a mother watcher her child fail. "I'm afraid you have diluted yourself beyond help, you are no more a king than the first snail to the top of a hill."
  Andrias was already getting irritated by the vexing words of the sage and chose to display this by leveling his sword at her.
  "I have come for the power of this temple." He decreed.
   "There is no power here for you, it has already chosen a worthy champion, one who will defeat you!" Another sharp rap of the cane denoted she was done speaking.
  "My my my you are bold to deny me, but as they say in the Cynthia coven books... Carpe Leviosa!" Andrias drove his sword into the ground sending a shockwave forth.
   Valeriana narrows her eyes and strikes the ground with her cane. A bright blue shock wave counters the flaming rush toward the cleric and blasts the king. Andrias is sent end over end onto his belly. He clenched his fist summoning a shield as Valeriana clacks her cane again. The night sky lights up and the temple ground glows blue as a hundred small beams rain down on the king.
  Using his shield to weather the storm of beams Andrias pushes forward toward the old hag.
  "You are stubborn king of rubbish, but unfortunately for you this old woman is stubborn too!" Valeriana spun her staff streaming trails of blue magic before unleashing a ray of sapphire energy blasting the king backward again. "I can do this all day your majesty."
  Andrias didn't like that "your majesty" sounded like an insult coming from this newt.
  "Fine you want a battle of endurance let's see you endure this." Andrias rose up and snapped his fingers. From the castle above came a roar of fire. Like meteors from the atmosphere Hell Hopper's descended on the mountain top landing in a circle around the old sage.
  "Typical tyrant taking the easy way, using machines to gain what you yourself are not newt enough to acquire." Valeriana scoffed at the show of force.
  The Hell Hopper aimed their blasters but upon firing found their target vanished to thin air! A wave of her staff and Valeriana was gone reappearing behind the king as the Frobot drones blasted eachother.
  "Clever little witch." Andrias snorted. "But I am clever too." Andrias smirked as more hell hoppers mounted the edge of the temple platform leaping up to grab at the old newt.
  Valeriana spun her staff in surprise again swatting and repulsing the mecha frog's reaches. But this was more than she bargained for.
   "Shame on you surprising an old woman like this." She tapped her cane twice. "I will have to surprise you right back!"
  As the frobots advanced their came a sudden roar from beneath the clouds as the mammoth claw of a wooly mantis reached over the edge and speared one of the frobots hurling it away.
  Three large furry insects ascended from the mountain side clambering onto temple in defense of the priestess.
  Machine vs Mantis proved to be a one sided battle as the Frobot's beams did little to the thickly woven furry and chitinous hide of the mantises. A swing of their massive scythe like claws shredded the frobots to pieces.
  Andrias stepped in once more smashing his hard light shield into the nearest mantis sending it toppling off the mountain. His sword ignited slashing through the claws of another the horrified screech and the searing green blood marked its demise as he ran it through with his saber.
   The last mantis snarled at him but he roared like an angry dinosaur at it and the insect got the memo, fleeing over the side.
  Valeriana remained unfazed. She swept her staff and blasted him with another cerulean beam.
  Andrias marched through the energy with his hard light shield. "I am the king! I will not be stopped!"
  Valeriana side stepped as he brought down his fist on her.
  "You are a fool but I suppose you will only learn that if I show you how weak you truly are." Valeriana sighed.
  Andrias roared and tried to grab the old crone.
  CRACK!!!
  Andrias staggered backward. A savage smack from her staff to his chin flung him backward. A follow up blast hurled him to the edge. The king would not be denied. He surged upward and through a gigantic haymaker.
  Valeriana spun her staff into a portal, not one through world but just through space. No vast distance was covered just enough for Andrias' fist to fly through and out the identical portal by his head.
  POW!!! The king rolled like sushi as he clobbered himself in the face.
  "Pathetic." Valeriana spat approaching the monarch. He raised his sword and she blasted it out of his hand. "Unworthy!" He brought up the shield and she assailed it with magic blasts until it cracked. "You will never have this power!" She brought down the butt of her staff pulsing with magic and shattered the hard light shield into particles.
   The sage lorded over the fallen king.
  "This mountain does not belong to you."
  Andrias coughed and glared at her, but his unsavory smirk returned.
  "You're right, it's not for me." His eyes moved passed her and into the sky. "It's for them."
   Valeriana felt the coldest arctic chill climb her spine. This feeling. There was only one thing that could cause it. The eyes of a predator. She whirled around to the shape that had taken residence in her sky.
  A black armored figure baring a pitch dark cape hovered over the temple.
  "You." Valeriana felt the unnatural presence before her more than saw it. This thing was wrong. A perversion of all she stood for. How could this be? She could sense the magic of the chosen one but also something else. Something vile, putrid, sickening even.
  Twelve eyes like molten rust opened to lay their gaze on the world. Their world.
  "What have you done?" Valeriana gaped in horror.
  "I did what I had to do." Andrias said darkly.
  The dark one slowly descended like a god descending from heaven, or a demon descending into hell. Only as she touched the hallowed stones did the aura ignite. A glowing, flaring, pulsing cloak of radioactive green light.
   "No! You have defiled this place by merely existing!" Valerian shrieked at the Devil before her. "I will give my sincerest apologies to the other chosen but I must vanquish you here and now!" Valeriana spiraled her staff gathering her magic.
  The darkling stared at her and smirked speaking warbling words not just surging with power but with aged madness and cruelty. "You will try."
  The sage aimed her blast firing everything she had. The Coven of eyes erupted with green light countering the magic blast with their own power.
   "No!" Valeriana willed the magic to help her to empower her more but her magic was quickly outmatched by the green beams surging toward her. As the viridian extinction pierced her own blast and landed toward her Valeriana did the only thing she could do. Run.
  A wave of her staff now even cutting off the beam as it lashed across the stonework and Valeriana was gone, vanishing to the bottom of the mountain. The sage panted hobbling toward her cottage.
  "The relics I have to destroy them before-
  BOOM!!!"
   Green beams blew the humble shack to smithereens. Pieces of stonework and pottery flew passed the old witch as she fell to the snow.
  The demon in green hovered down over the flaming wreckage.
  "What's the matter? You don't want to play with me anymore?" The demon held out her palm revealing a light blue twenty sided die. "Let's roll to see if you'll survive." She tosses the dice into the snow and rubble.
   Clickity clack click clack
  The die came to a halt before the fallen newt a dull red 1 on display to the world.
  "Oh, what a shame." Darcy chuckled her eyes igniting with power. "Critical Failure."
   BLAAAAZZZZZ!!!!!