FicWad

Sins of Our Fathers
Part 1, Chapter 1

Where a once proud ruler had been seated no more than a year ago sat a man devoid of life. Well, not exactly lacking in life itself, no, instead he was lacking any reason to continue this anguished life. His followers gone, scattered by the hands of those children whose touch seemed to change the fabric of time itself. His most hated foe was now no more than a corpse, his castle was slowly becoming a ruin, and he didn't even have that ignorant Frog to bother anymore.
Magus grumbled and shifted himself in his throne, propping his head up with his right arm and stared into the darkness. He seemed to be in quite a mood lately. Ever since he had returned from the boy swordsman's time following the defeat of Lavos he had been this way, and there seemed to be no way out of it. Magus closed his eyes in an attempt to relax, and for the most part it seemed to be working until something broke the silence Magus had fed on for days. Perhaps it was his body finally demanding nourishment. No, it wasn't any type of noise made by his body; it sounded like...like..."Flea." Magus growled, his eyes flaring open.
"Guilty as charged Sir Magus," the Mystic replied, "Aren't you happy to see me?" she asked as she lay herself on Magus' lap.
"Delighted. Where's your lover and the fat one?" he replied crossly.
"Magus dear, don't you trust poor 'ol Flea?" she whined with a wicked grin. "Didn't think so." Flea snapped her fingers and the lights flared to life. "See? Nobody here but me and you..." As she was reaching to caress Magus' face the mage stood up, dumping the Mystic on the floor.
"What do you want Flea?" Magus said, struggling desperately to contain his emotions.
"You Magus baby. You've always known that." she replied moving to embrace the mage once again. Magus looked down on the female Mystic and almost died on the spot. It wasn't that she wasn't nice to look at; it was just that Magus didn't know if he wanted to learn what was...lower and out of sight. Sighing inwardly he decided against it.
"I'm not your type Flea." he stated as he pushed her away. "Now what do you really want?"
"You Magus." Another voice answered. There was a gust of wind as another figure darted into the room.
"Slash, I was wondering when you'd come to fetch your woman. Like a dog looking for his favorite plaything." Magus jeered.
"You're lucky we need you Magus, otherwise..."
"Otherwise?" Magus scoffed. "I've already proved to be your superior more than once Slash. Don't make me wipe you off the mortal coil as well." The determination of Slash quickly washed from his face as the swordsman realized Magus was serious.
"Now now, nobody needs to be wiping anybody off the mortal coil." A raspy voice said.
"I was wondering when you'd get here Ozzie. You always did have a thing for being with toads similar to yourself."
"Har har," Ozzie replied. "Is that any way to treat someone who acted as well as I did for our little performance at my Fort?"
"Hmph. You weren't acting; you still want to kill the humans."
"And you were holding back. Got a soft spot in that soul of ice for us?"
"Magus shrugged. "Not particularly. You may have a use to me yet. And if not..."
"Alright I get the picture! I see you haven't lost your edge."
"Some things never change. Your size for instance." Magus grinned wickedly as he reclaimed his throne from Flea. Flinging her from it rather mercilessly. He sat down and could plainly see that Ozzie was having a tough time coming up with some sort of retort.
"Just tell him why we're here Ozzie." Slash demanded. "Maybe then he'll shut his yap."
"You see? Slash hasn't changed either, that stick his 'mum shoved up his ass all those years ago is still growing. I'm surprised you're not feeding him fertilizer and dowsing his leaves in water." Ozzie grinned began to laugh hysterically.
"Shut up ya green glob of fat." Slash said as he rather sulkily left the room. Flea was right behind him, yelling something about later tonight. Magus about gagged at this, and while doing so gave a pitying look to Ozzie who shook his head fully aware of what the mage was thinking. Once they were both over the feeling of near sickness, Magus turned his attention seriously to Ozzie.
"What has brought you back to my castle Ozzie? Surely you haven't let anything happen to your hideout?" Magus said, adjusting himself to a better position to see the fat green blob; that or intimidate him - whichever Ozzie decided to take it as.
Ozzie began to fidget nervously - which Magus thought to be much outside of the Mystic's normal behavior. The 'strongest of the Mystics' was usually an unflappable competitor over the commanding position within a conversation. Either the old blob was losing it, or there really was something wrong.
"Well?" Magus said.
"We have a problem." Ozzie said looking down at the floor of the castle, kicking his foot nervously at it without much luck as he was always levitating about six inches off the ground.
Magus' eyebrow shot up in curiosity. Very odd behavior was indeed being put forth by his former teacher. "And?" he replied.
"And we can't take care of it. I'm getting too old for this Magus." Ozzie replied with a sly grin. "Actually it's more of I've become affected by the problem and those other two boneheads can't do anything without me. That's why we came to you, well, that and there's no one short of the humans to ask for help and I can hardly believe that they would mind if the Mystic race was to die out."
"Die out?" Magus said as he inched forward in his seat. This was becoming very interesting indeed, and interest was something that he had not had for quite some time.
"Yes die out. You see, right after you 'defeated' me in my fort, deep in the Mystic forest some sort of portal opened. At first by the descriptions given to me by some of the forest's inhabitants I believed it to be one of the time gates you had told me about. I decided to take a look for myself.
So I went with the forest Mystics to their portal. When I got there, much to the dismay of myself and the other Mystics we found dead bodies and debris everywhere. The forests assured me they had no idea what was going on, and so we continued.
When we reached the portal I found that it was not a time gate at all, but instead was a spot in which reality which seemed to be missing - a void."
"I've heard about these voids." Magus said. "In Zeal there was talk of them sealing something away inside them, but they were said to be permanent."
"Well then they're saying wrong. I was there. I saw the thing that came out of it." Magus' brow furrowed quizzically and Ozzie shuddered at the recollection.
"I don't know what it was...or where it came from, but it was the most horrifying thing that I've seen. It was a...a..zombie of sorts, except for the fact that it gave off a very living aura. There's only one other time in this life of mine that I've been that scared." Ozzie finished and gave Magus a very cold look.
Magus smiled in spite of himself. He remembered that moment rather well. It happened well over a decade ago now and Magus had just begun his largest strides in gaining power. He had been reading a very old book that he had found lying in the back of some fairly large stacks of books within Ozzie's library.
Looking back finding the book had been an odd coincidence. Magus spent countless hours in that library, scouring the only archive of anything even remotely useful to him in this time. Humans had apparently given up on magic in this time, apparently because of the events that occurred directly after Lavos had sent him here. At the time he was still quite amazed that the great kingdom of Zeal was but a fairy tale in this time- an amusing prospect when the destruction of the kingdom was driven by the thing that his dense mother had tried to base it on. In any case, Magus had cleared most every book from the bookshelves when he found a seemingly ancient book in the very back of the stacks.
The book obviously hadn't been used in centuries; its cover was some type of animal skin and was covered in a thick layer of dirt and dust. For some reason Magus had been unable to decipher the title of the book, but fortunately enough the content of the book seemed to be in a dialect similar to that he learned in his studies in Zeal. The book contained many fascinating theories of magic and its many uses, and though he couldn't prove it, Magus was convinced that one of his ancient teachers in Zeal had been the author of this book.
One day while Magus was absorbed in one of the many facets within the book Ozzie had come in yapping about something or another and in his anger made the mistake of ripping Magus from the book; literally.
Magus turned on the Mystic in fury. Power that had been previously unknown to Ozzie or even himself lashed out and struck the Mystic nearly killing him and destroying much of the library in the process. After that Ozzie as well as the other Mystics took heed to Magus' word and did what they were told because though Magus currently held good relationship with the Mystic higher ups, each knew that he could destroy them on a whim (though Slash still couldn't let go of his pride and admit to it).
"So we know what it looks like, but you still haven't told me how this thing is a threat to the Mystics as a race." Magus said sitting back in his chair and placing his hands together in thought.
"Isn't it obvious? I 'spose this place's lighting has always been flattering on me, but you can't see what that thing did to my body? The wrinkling and paling of my skin isn't from old age you know, that shouldn't happen for another fifty or so years."
"You mean..."
"The thing eats us!" Ozzie shouted which was followed by a vicious bout of coughing. Stunned, Magus stood and took a step towards Ozzie who rose his hand telling Magus to stay put. "The only thing I can figure is that there's something about the Mystics and the magic that flows freely in our blood that makes us appealing and the humans nothing more than an annoyance."
"Well if it's the magic that makes Mystics its targets, why would I be any less vulnerable?" Magus asked.
Ozzie shrugged. "There's nothing saying that he couldn't do the same thing to you, but if it hadn't have caught me by surprise and without a little help, I'm fairly sure we could have dealt with it without your getting involved."
"I see. How do we find this thing?" Ozzie looked up at Magus and grinned.
"You don't, it's on its way here right now."
"What!" Magus said falling back into his throne and gripping the arms of the chair so hard his knuckles ached.
Ozzie laughed. "It was probably just following me at first as I ran from it, but then it caught the scent of something much more appealing - you." Magus growled.
"I should have known that you wouldn't have come crawling to me for help you slime ball. Of course if you hadn't realized that I didn't know about your little problem and come to 'ask for my help' I would have been caught unaware and you would soon meet the same fate."
"Very good, now you see that even I in this useless body haven't lost my most important asset, my mind." Ozzie gloated. As Magus gave Ozzie a look that could kill he thought over his current predicament. Then the silence was broken by an agonizing scream. "What the?" Ozzie exclaimed, zipping across the room behind a now standing Magus.
A moment later Flea sped into the room and collapsed at the feet of Magus. "It...got him..." she said. Magus clenched his teeth as thoughts sped through his mind. There was only one thing...one person he could think of that would be any help to him in a situation like this, and it killed him that he would have to ask him for help.
"Slime ball," he said, "Go to the forest where the frog knight lives and tell him I need his help. And make sure he brings that sword of his!" Sweat gathered on Magus' brow which he wiped away with his right hand while he drew his scythe with his left. He readied himself for the coming monstrosity when he realized that Ozzie was still in the room. "What are you waiting for? Go!" he screamed. Ozzie nodded viciously and flew from the room, making sure he went in the opposite direction Flea had come from.
After Ozzie left, Magus relaxed ever so slightly, knowing that as much as he didn't like it, if he could depend on anyone's help it was that knight. Moving his gaze slightly down, Magus noticed that Flea still sat in the place that she had originally collapsed. She sat there in shock, or exhaustion, Magus couldn't be sure which, and starred straight into nothingness.
"Get up Flea. The world isn't going to stop just because that thing ate Slash. Besides, for some reason it seems to want to eat me, and I don't think that's something I would like to experience....ever." Flea mumbled something that Magus couldn't understand and he growled in disgust. "Dammit I said up!" he screamed. He watched Flea for a moment, as her expression turned from a blank stare to anger. Something inside had snapped. Not sure whether this was good or bad, Magus turned his eyes towards the doorway.
The torches throughout the room seemed to die out some leaving Magus and Flea in near darkness, and although they could see better than any human, or for the most part any other creature, Magus had a feeling that this thing would be much more accustomed to the dark.
Magus then got his first glimpse of the creature and indeed the thing was as monstrous as Ozzie had said. The monster seemed to be composed of the pieces of a thousand bodies each perfectly melded together so that if it weren't for the difference in color, textures, and races of each of the different pieces you'd never be able to tell that it shouldn't have been one skin.
There were a few other things that immediately caught Magus' eye. For one, the thing's face seemed to be a bit crooked and off to the right side of his head. The features were distorted grotesquely; the mouth was unsymmetrical and incomplete so that it was impossible to keep its tongue inside its mouth; the nose large and broken so it veered crooked down and to the left; one ear was missing, the other hanging by only a few stray fibers; the eyes seemed to be the most normal feature, both seeming to be generally in the correct location and about the correct size, the odd thing being that neither seemed to have any color in them whatsoever.
As for the rest of the thing; one leg must have been larger than the other because it walked with a very noticeable stagger; the right arm ended as a stub right where the wrist should have began; the torso was a bit crooked and seemed to bubble on the left shoulder; and it was clothed only by what was apparently bits and pieces of what its victims had left it. That and the newfound apparel taken from its last victim - Slash.
Magus lip curled in disgust and fury. Flea gave the same reaction, though she was a little more vocal about it. "You damn son of a bitch!" she screamed, running at the thing. Magus grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and pulled her back, glad she was motivated, but he didn't want her to die needlessly now. The thing had just entered the room and Magus could feel its presence. It seemed huge; as big as Lavos though in an entirely different way, and already Magus could feel what Ozzie had talked about, like the thing was already snacking on the edges of his magic aura.
"Stand back." he growled, shoving Flea behind him. She began to protest, but when she looked at Magus' face she could see what he knew and decided it would be best to do as he said.
Magus let his scythe rest on his side and put two of the fingers from his right hand to his forehead as he began murmuring the incantation to the one spell that he could think of that might be any help whatsoever. "Ma ras en din cerano - 'From darkness unto death' - Black Hole!"
The torches that had went low flared to life as the dark energy crackled in the air. There was a whoosh as the vortex began to open and soon the torches were extinguished as all the combustible atmosphere was sucked into the black hole. Other items followed; a chair, the torches, and even stones from within the walls themselves as the hole grew larger and began pulling harder.
Magus clenched his jaw as he watched to see if his plan was working or not. The monster skidded a few feet towards the hole but stopped short and as it stood there resisting the force of the black hole its ear ripped off, and soon an arm followed. If nothing else this monstrosity would be left incapacitated by his attack.
The darkness then became too much for even Magus' keen eyesight to see through. "Come on." he said as he grabbed Flea by the shoulder and headed towards the rear exit of the castle. "Our eyes are good in the dark, but this thing is the dark and we have to find a place that we can fight on our terms instead of its'." Flea nodded dumbly as she caught her feet and began running flying on her own behind Magus.
Magus knew the castle like the back of his hand, as he had lived here since he arrived here at the age of eight years. Even at this age he seemed to be more knowledgeable than the current residents and though he had yet to have his powers awaken he used his knowledge as an iron fist as he worked his way into the Mystic hierarchy. Years later; after learning hand to hand combat from Slash, the ability to control his newfound powers from Flea, and other general knowledge from Ozzie, he became the cold blooded killer Magus. Inhuman and non-Mystic, he was a loner, and while a part of him didn't mind this, another, more sentimental part of him he had hidden deep inside long ago longed for contact he had been unwilling to allow himself.
Magus and Flea exited the castle and found themselves within the dark forest that surrounded it. And while it was no unusual for it to be dark in the forest due to the large trees and other vegetation, it seemed to be unusually dark this day. Looking up, Magus had to squint to see the tops of the trees and he found that there was no light coming from above - it was either night or the problem was a lot larger than he was led to believe. He could no longer feel the presence of the monstrosity, but he had a gut feeling that the thing hadn't been sucked into the vortex.

Kazar blinked Its bodies' eyes as It came back into reality. The last few minutes were a blur to It, the last thing It could remember being that powerful mage casting some sort of incantation. It had been so long since It'd seen a mage with that kind of power; it made Kazar drool...or it would, if It had salivary glands. It was sure that the humans had lost touch with their magic..or at least that was what the little ones he had consumed earlier told him. Kazar could hear the pathetic beings now, still pleading for their pathetic lives. It was then that Kazar heard another voice, telling the little ones to 'shut their yaps.' It must have been the one It had just consumed. The dreamer...or Mystic, whatever they were calling themselves in this age, had put up quite a fight even though it possessed only a little magic. Kazar had wanted the female as a snack before the mage, but this one knew how to meld magic and sword- a combination that no one had been better at than Melchior.
Thinking of the old guru made Kazar snarl. It was the old man's fault that It was like this in the first place, though It could not clearly remember why. A dark aura forced to piece together a body from Its helpless victims. Kazar had learned the true extent of Its new powers though, and the King, three gurus, and their underlings had not liked that. So Kazar was banished, sent into a vortex of which their was no resisting...then anyway.
That thought brought back the memory of what had happened a few minutes prior. That young mage had tried to force Kazar into a vortex much like the old men from Zeal had. It wasn't quite as powerful as the vortex summoned by the gurus and controlled by the King Zeal, but it was very close. Back in Zeal Kazar wouldn't have been able to resist the great vortex but now, after centuries of consuming lesser demons, monsters, and other magic beings, Its power and experience were a thousand fold of what they had been before Its imprisonment.
Kazar then noticed that Its ear and right arm were missing. Puzzled, It looked around for them, but to no avail. The mage's vortex must have been more powerful than It thought. It shrugged inwardly, It had more than enough pieces to repair Its body. Kazar summoned Its power and in a flash of darkness a large, pointy purple ear and purple scaled arm formed, remnants of the last consumed's body. Kazar could feel the newly consumed's entity within It, shifting the contents of Kazar's being. The weaker, pathetic beings were being made to finally be quiet, a feat that Kazar had not been able to accomplish for centuries, but what was time to it? As long as their was magic on this plane, and Kazar could guarantee that there always would be thanks to the disappearance of the large thing within the planet, It would be able to live.
This made Kazar very patient; while Its victims scurried about their short existence, Kazar waited patiently for the insignificant beings to fall into its trap. It was hungry though and although Kazar enjoyed the company of the newest consumed, and the order it brought, Kazar's stomach of sorts ached for the female.
It was then that Kazar heard the new voice direct Its speech at Kazar; "Hey, what the hell are you?" It said boldly, puffing up its nonexistent chest.
"It is Kazar." Kazar replied, somewhat surprised that it had found a being of intelligence to speak to It.
"Kazar? What the -? Is that your name, or...? Why the hell don't I know anything about you? And where the hell am I?" the entity said, rather loudly actually. Kazar did not like this, and would punish the entity for being so brash.
"Kazar is name and what It is. It came long ago in Zeal. Sealed It away for thousands of years, they did, but now It has escaped and is looking for nourishment." Kazar replied with extra forcefulness, making sure that the words were associated with a good amount of pain for the entity. It was silent for a few minutes, and Kazar was partly afraid It had scared away the entity, but It soon spoke again.
"Zeal eh?" the entity mused. "What if I could tell you that the prince of Zeal lived in this era?"
"It would conclude entity is lying." Kazar replied. "It is impossible for being such as Zealian to live this long as It was the only to do such." It had been ages since Kazar remembered back that far beyond recalling Its hated enemies' faces. In fact, It couldn't even remember what It looked like before It was...well, It.
"I tell the truth." the being insisted. "The prince's name is Janus, though he goes by the name Magus now, and he was sent here by way of a time gate nearly twenty years ago." Kazar considered punishing the entity for lying but just before It did It recalled the King Zeal's fascination with a being called Janus. The King's son, It remembered.
"Where do I find the being Janus?" Kazar demanded.
"Follow the powerful one you were already looking for." the entity answered. "He is the one you want" Kazar licked Its bodies' lips in anticipation, revenge, and hunger both wiped out in a single blow, what a thought!
"Why are you helping It?" Kazar asked.
"I have my reasons. I myself have a strong distaste for the one called Janus as well."
Kazar nodded Its bodies' head in agreement. He could feel the entity's dislike for the other called Janus. This one would be very useful after all.

Magus glanced behind a bit nervously. It had been hours since he and Flea ran from his castle and still the monster did not follow. Flea was convinced that the Black Hole had destroyed the thing or cost it into oblivion- either a fate that Flea would enjoy for it. Magus, however, was not quite as optimistic. He had felt the thing's true power; it would not be defeated so easily. So they kept going. Soon the two were out of the forest. They now made their was down the coastline under the cover of darkness.
The sound of the surf gently rocking against the island was somewhat relaxing, but Magus' body did not want to stop until they were far away from here which was remarkable as they came closer and closer to where the monster could be.
You see, the only exit (or entrance, depending on your point of view) was located a ways from the front gate of Magus' castle. Yet by using the back entrance of the castle to escape the monster. Magus and Flea found themselves on the opposite die of the islands exit.
So now the two flew down the coast towards the magic cave that served as the entrance and exit. Magus hoped the monster had followed Flea and himself out the back, giving the two a tactical head start, but it appeared that the thing knew its way around.
"Magus we need to stop." Flea said as she grabbed a handful of his cloak and tugged. Magus gritted his teeth at this but yielded. Although he hated to admit it, he himself was very tired, and he could hardly imagine what Flea must feel like as she had no undoubtedly watched Slash be consumed by the monster.
Slash and Flea had been close, but not nearly as close as Magus had made fun of Slash for being. He himself had not liked Slash- ever, being as Slash was always the one who had delighted in Magus' failures and most of the 'lessons' in hand-to-hand combat in Magus' earlier years; most of which resulted in Magus' whipping by Slash's practice sword.
Physical punishment was Magus' worst enemy here back then. Ozzie abused him mentally, but Magus had known then that he was smarter than the toad would ever be. And in some ways he was right, but Ozzie always seemed to pop up when Magus least expected it and Magus was beginning to believe it was more than coincidence.
Flea had been the least violent of them all. Sure, she had her moments (he could usually tell her mood by the time of the month), but for the most part she was cool and reserved in his presence. That is, until he reached manhood.
Throughout puberty, Magus had adored his private lessons from Flea. Both her attitude and exceptional looks drove him crazy. She must have known this for whenever she'd catch him starring she'd do something to make him gawk even more like unbuttoning the top few buttons on her shirt and exposing as much skin as decently possible.
Finally Magus had been unable to control his urges any more, and so he disguised himself and traveled to the town of Porre. There he met a pretty girl named Natalie who was more than happy to help rid him of these hormonal feelings. After he had quenched his bodies thirst for a woman he left Porre and returned to his castle and studies. He had no idea what had happened to the pretty young girl named Natalie, nor did he care. He had used her as she used him- for sex, nothing more. Magus went through most of the rest of his time as leader of the Mystics without much need of women, but from time to time he would venture to one of the human cities and back, appetite fulfilled.
Once Magus had reached the age of nineteen years he began to motive a change in Flea's behavior. By now he was leader of the Mystic horde, and his training had molded him into what all the human women told him was the perfect body. And now it was not the young human boy who longed for his teacher, but it was his officer who longed for her lord. He had not rushed to her when he first observed this however. Instead he took joy in teasing her as she had him for so long. That and it was increasingly being rumored that Flea was both man and woman, and Magus had never before been curious enough to find out.
For the most part, however, Flea looked to be okay, and Magus wondered if perhaps he had not given the Mystic enough credit. That or she had never liked Slash. Who knew? It was hard enough telling what these Mystics were thinking, and of course, this one had to be a woman, a particular section of all races that he had never been able to understand, and neither did he ever expect to. Flea still stood with a handful of Magus' cloak, and before he could say or do anything she pulled herself against him, throwing her arms around him and pulling him into a passionate kiss. Moments later, Magus had no rational thought. His emotions overwhelmed him and soon he had only one only one craving, one that he would finally fulfill after nearly twenty years of craving.