When Kazyr came to, he found himself lying several feet from the charred ruins of his mecha. He sat up and shivered, wrapping his arms about himself, as the salty spray from the crashing waves sprinkled over his bare body. The white-haired mage glanced up at the sky and saw the four remaining mecha darting about within the hurricane trying to finish off their demon adversaries.
"They must think me dead," he murmured.
He looked to the other side of him and saw the base of the massive blue stone tower rising not a hundred yards from him. A patch of blue lit the sky directly above him; the eye of the storm.
Kazyr carefully raised himself on his feet, hunching over to keep his balanced on weakened legs. He stumbled over to his mecha and raised a hand near the metal hull. No heat emanated from it and he let out a sigh of relief. He knew his rebirth would take several minutes to complete, but he hadn't been sure if that was enough time for the armor to cool. It could have been worse. If his soul hadn't flown free of the mecha before reviving...
The mage pulled open an exterior panel and pressed the button beneath it to open the cockpit. Kazyr wrinkled his nose as the stench of charred flesh spread throughout the chill air. The blackened corpse of his old body lay huddled within the smoldering remains of the safety harness. His magic pouch hung unharmed from the cadaver's clenched jaws.
"Well, at least I did something right," Kazyr muttered.
He removed the pouch and dug through it. The others would be landing as soon as their fight ended, and he might as well make himself a new outfit before going in to see this Lucia person. Kazyr whipped out a few yards of cotton and began uttering the words to his alteration magic.
After redressing himself he would see to the disposal of his old body. There would be no use in leaving that thing around to scare people with. A burial at sea always sounded like such a romantic idea anyway.
"Damn it! It just happened so fast! And the fool wouldn't bail," grumbled Sadoul as the four remaining mecha alighted on the island. They could see Kazyr's mecha sitting dangerously close to the thrashing waves. "I should have kept a better eye out for him."
"Don't hold it to yourself," Ghaleon said quietly.
Sadoul fumed, unable to help feeling at least partially responsible after all his ragging on Kazyr's piloting abilities.
Jeal emerged from his mecha and started towards the wreckage. "Come on, he might have survived."
Sadoul scoffed in response.
"There's no telling what might have happened since that flame appeared," Jeal told him evenly.
"I wonder what was with that bird anyway," said Sadoul, climbing out at the same time as Ghaleon.
Solon calmly ejected himself to stand near the others. "He must have been trying something beneficial since he obviously wasn't bailing."
"Like immolating yourself is beneficial!"
"It worked, didn't it?" Kazyr's voice piped in.
Kazyr climbed in view atop one of the larger rock outcroppings. His face was slightly flushed, and he wore a spotless navy blue tabard over a plum long sleeved shirt and pants. The blue eye not hidden by his hair sparkled brightly. He perched there with a smile, looking down upon the others.
"You're looking pretty good for someone who almost died," said Ghaleon.
Kazyr's grin broadened.
"Yeah, we can't afford to loose you," Sadoul admitted. "If you die, there's no one to bring you back to life."
"Maybe," Kazyr replied mischievously.
The white-haired mage leaped down to join them, nimbly landing in a crouch before standing back up. "Sorry about putting you guys through such a time, but I couldn't pull the parachute free from the back of my seat. It was stuck or something."
Jeal frowned, his voice reprimanding when he spoke. "Of course it was stuck. When you eject both you and your seat leave the mecha. You really didn't remember your training, did you."
Kazyr looked down.
"Well, we never ejected during training," said Solon. "Considering the stress he must have been under, it's no wonder he forgot."
Jeal nodded. "True." He looked up at the massive blue stone tower. "For better or for worse, we're here now. We may as well go inside. Hopefully Lucia and the other dragons are all right."
Ghaleon wordlessly turned towards the tower and with a backward glance, started for its base.
"What's with the new outfit anyway?" Sadoul asked Kazyr as they trailed after Ghaleon.
"Oh, nothing much," Kazyr replied. "It's just a lot easier to fight in this than in the robes I was using earlier."
Sadoul paused, certain there was some sort of flaw in that excuse. But when he opened his mouth to ask Kazyr why he hadn't changed earlier, the white-haired mage had caught up with Ghaleon at the front of the group. Sadoul dismissed the question from his mind, figuring the answer probably wasn't worth knowing.
When the five reached the base of the tower Jeal uttered the words to a spell and an unadorned archway formed, leading them into a giant hallway lined with gargantuan statues. Jeal walked in without hesitation. Sadoul rested his hand on the hilt of his sword and looked up at the stone forms with a mixture of awe and suspicion.
The blue stone of the tower itself seemed to emit some sort of light, for while they couldn't pinpoint any sort of glowing, the hall grew no darker as they progressed beyond the immediate light from the entryway.
A slight breeze promising of a long sleep wafted around them as they progressed. Ghaleon felt himself longing for a form of peace, but he resisted it, almost surprised to discover how unwelcome it was.
"This place seems so ancient," Solon whispered, glancing to either side.
"As old as the Blue Star itself," Jeal replied as they reached a stone staircase. He felt a heat emitting from his belt pouch and pulled out the Red Dragon's Crest. Jeal gazed thoughtfully at it as it glowed faintly.
"What does it mean?" Ghaleon asked.
Jeal breathed deeply. "The other dragons are alive. They are here, not far above us." He paused. "But it's strange. The feeling I'm getting unnerves me. Something seems... different."
The Danek emperor kept his crest in hand as the five climbed the staircase. It emptied them shortly into a small octagonal room, solidly walled on every side except the one they arrived through. Engravings of stars and dragons covered the floor, and it seemed almost sacrilegious to step on them. Sadoul looked questioningly at Jeal, and then followed the emperor's gaze. The five men appeared to stand at the bottom of a gigantic chute. The ceiling lay hidden beyond the darkness above.
Sadoul pointed up and Jeal nodded.
Jeal raised the Red Dragon's Crest and the chamber rumbled. A grating sound of stone grinding against stone shook through the floor and up their limbs. With a wrench that nearly sent Solon and Kazyr toppling over, the floor pulled free and began to steadily ascend.
No one spoke as they drifted upward. Archways and doors passed them by on the smooth walls of the tower, yet the platform did not stop. Jeal placed his crest back into his belt pouch and waited. The floor smoothly halted at a doorway when the ceiling peaked in a narrow spiral pattern only fifteen feet above them.
Sadoul took a deep breath and plunged through the dim opening. The new chamber he entered suddenly flared to a daylight brilliance as the others joined him.
Four incredible bowl-shaped depressions filled each of the corners of the chamber, with large openings to the outside. A circular dais rose in the center of the room, dwarfed by the dimensions of the chamber around it and the height of the ceiling. Occupying the far depressions were the massive forms of two stone dragons. Nearest to the entrance and on their left sat another stone dragon, this one peering curiously at the doorway as though its granite eyes could see them. Jeal turned from dragon to dragon with a look of nervous disbelief.
Standing on the dais before a large aqua crystal stood a young woman dressed in a strange red cloak. Her long blue hair streamed behind her, waving slightly in an ethereal wind.
"Lucia," Ghaleon murmured.
Jeal shook his mind clear. He stepped forward and dropped to one knee. "It is good to see you are well, Lucia."
Lucia nodded faintly, her gaze sad and distant. "Yes, I saw your coming so very long ago." She spoke not to Jeal, but her gaze rested on Kazyr. "It has been long, but at last you are here."
Jeal stood and moved off to one side as Kazyr came forward with Ghaleon and Sadoul not far behind him.
Kazyr bobbed his head to Lucia in a swift greeting. "What do you mean?"
"The Maker is almost here," she murmured, lowering her gaze. "Lunar and the Blue Star are so desperately in need of help."
"Lucia, tell us who this Maker is. Then maybe we can understand what is going on," Ghaleon said with an urgent tone.
"The Maker..." She raised her head. "I have heard only what the others have told me."
"Others?" Ghaleon repeated.
Lucia nodded solemnly. "As you must know by now, Althena's creations are not the only worlds that exist in this universe. They are many, many others." Her eyes shifted across the party. "I had been warned of the Maker's coming many millennia ago, just as the Blue Star had been restored for colonization. A strange vision arrived to me from another world. It was a relayed message, which I have also passed on in turn, for it must move faster than the Maker if it is to be of any use to anyone.
"I was told of a powerful being, who could take the stuff of creation and bring whatever he chose into existence. He is displeased with the state of our worlds, and has decided to change everything to fit his ideal. Others before me have pleaded, fought, and tried to bargain with him. But it has been to no avail. All in the Maker's path before me are gone. And now he is on his way here, because we feel strife and anguish, because we have had evil gods, because we've had mortals daring enough to challenge immortality, because we have different cultures and humanity is not a united species."
Lucia shuddered ever so slightly. "He seeks to eliminate all evil, but he also seeks to impose an order that will destroy much of what makes this world a place to be loved.
"I called for help," she said quietly, "and someone who's world lies farther from the Maker's path than ours answered. She said she had an old servant who would soon be in need of a new mission. He had the power to alter reality, and bend the laws of existence. She offered to point him in my direction, and I accepted, though I knew it would be many years yet before he would arrive." She looked steadily at the white-haired mage. "That man is called Kazyr."
Kazyr took in a deep breath. "I am glad to still be in my goddess's service," he said. "But I fail to see what sort of use I am to you. I don't have the strength to fight something such as the Maker."
"Alone you do not," Lucia replied. "But your talent, your ability to make the dead once again live and breathe was something I could not afford to miss. For you see, the Maker is incredibly powerful in magic, so much that no ordinary mortal could hope to survive a moment in his presence if he did not wish it. Only the greatest of magicians could hope to defeat him in direct combat. I needed you to resurrect the two strongest wizards I have ever known; Ardor and Ghaleon."
Sadoul opened his mouth to tell Lucia to use his new name, but thought better of it and held his tongue.
"You expect the three of us to defeat the Maker for you?" Ghaleon asked.
"Yes," she said with a slight nod. "I have summoned you here for that very purpose. I knew you would come," she offered by way of explanation, "because there is no one else who can answer your questions."
"Kazyr will fight for you on account of his goddess, but what makes you think Ghaleon and I will?" said Sadoul.
Lucia looked down. "I was the one who shot Kazyr from the sky. I used my magic to influence his decision to land on Lunar, so that he would arrive near enough to Ghaleon's tomb so that he would resurrect him. When the Star Dragon threw your transportation to the Blue Star awry, I guided you to the island nearest to Ardor's resting place. There my power was just strong enough for me to take control of Kazyr to bring Ardor back to life.
"Ardor, both you and Ghaleon are alive again because of my intervention. Please, I need your help. If you won't fight for me, then do it for the worlds that have raised you."
Sadoul's gaze softened as he saw the rims of Lucia's eyes glisten. "All right," he said gruffly. "I just wanted to know. I never said I wouldn't fight."
"Each of you have lost someone you cared deeply for through your own actions, be they friend, wife, or lover," she murmured. "You know what it's like to lose, and you know you would not wish that feeling upon any other feeling creature."
Kazyr bowed his head. "I wish to ask you about my ship though, will you fix it?"
Lucia smiled slightly. "Yes, I will. Not now though, because the barrier the Maker has erected around my tower prevents me from using most of my power. Once he is gone I will gladly help you."
"So where do we go now?" said Ghaleon.
"If Althena were still alive today I am certain she would know. As things are, I can only go with what I know," Lucia replied. "Powerful though you are, I don't think you have enough strength to defeat the Maker. He is immortal, and has the power to see anything as it happens. Gods and goddesses have fallen before him, and he has chastened the survivors like errant children.
"But you have Jeal and Solon's help now as well, and if you can retrieve the Black, Blue, White, and Goddess Crests from their hiding places you may have a chance. Their aura alone should aid in your protection, and if my power holds, they may even give you additional talismans to assist you."
"Great," said Sadoul, smacking his fist against the palm of his open hand. "So where do we get them?"
Lucia looked sadly at the stone dragon by the entryway. "I would ask the dragons to take you to them, but when the Maker formed the barrier around my tower his followers turned them to stone. Now a mindless creation of his sits on top of the highest spire of my tower, maintaining the barrier and preventing me from recovering any of my magic. Until it is removed, the dragons can't be freed and I cannot aid you in leaving the tower."
"Our ship is gone. Teleportation or flight is the only way we're leaving," said Jeal. "And those mecha aren't going to take us very far."
Solon inclined his head. "That's what I'm thinking."
"How do we get to this creation?" Ghaleon inquired.
"I have just enough strength to transport you to the roof of this chamber," Lucia answered. "From there you will have to reach the pinnacle on your own."
"That shouldn't be hard," Kazyr said with a note of confidence.
Lucia gazed carefully over each of them. "For your sake I hope so. The fact that Solon and Jeal have joined the three I had hoped for brightens my spirit. Now they will not fight alone."
Sadoul smirked, eyes glinting. "Well, we're ready when you are, Lucia. Just give us the word."
Lucia smiled, head tilted to one side. "All right, I will take you there." She then turned to Ghaleon. "But before you go, I have something to give you."
Ghaleon paused and then stepped past Kazyr to stand before her.
Lucia raised her hands and a golden-hilted sword shaped like the head and neck of a dragon appeared in her outstretched arms. "Please, take this. Hiro would have wanted you to have it."
Ghaleon lowered his gaze and bowed deeply, not finding words to express his appreciation. He reached out tentatively and clasped the sheath around Althena's Sword. The blade felt warm and comforting through the leather around it.
"Thank you, Lucia."