You Got Another Thing Coming - Part 6

“Ha, what are you going to do, Arg? Turn blood into beer again? You think you can defeat me as a damn ghost?” Vorus was cackling like an evil witch.

“No need for strong spells like that. I’ll use my weakest spell on you. You’ll perish right after I cast it. I should have done this 200 years ago.”

“You blabbering fool. You couldn’t defeat me then, and you can’t possibly defeat me now. You couldn’t even cast your S+ spell without retiring your old bones.”

“A certain individual here inspired me to do my best, after being reborn into a new form. I would do him injustice if I couldn’t kill you.” Was Arg talking about me? I inspired him?

Yes, Arg sees you as somewhat of a hero, Ricky. As do I. I felt like I made a spectacular choice choosing you as a soul summon. Watch Arg, Ricky. He may be a Spirit Guardian, but he still has the same strength as he had when he was younger. in fact, he became stronger when we were training with Mother and Father.

Wow, even Gally thought highly of me. And Arg was getting stronger by our training? Damn, no wonder I was able to cast crazy spells back to back.

“I wanted to capture the anomaly, but now I want to destroy it. I am tired. This mission is irritating me. My patience is wearing thin. Especially since you showed your face, Argus. I am going to send you to Hell now.”

Vorus summoned a black light spear, and tried to plunge it into Arg. Did he seriously forget that he was a ghost? It just went through him. Wait, that still hurt him!

“Ars Aqueous!” Arg yelled in his ghost voice, and shot a huge ball of water into Vorus’ stomach. He flew off in pain. When he landed, Arg summoned a huge waterfall right on top of Vorus, and slammed millions of gallons of water on him instantly. It broke the ground of the stadium and Vorus fell about 100 feet below the ground.

“This won’t even scratch Vorus, but this buys some time for me to cast my spell. Get ready, Ricky. Stand much further back, behind your parents if you can.”

I jogged behind my parents and braced myself. What the hell is Arg doing?!

“Ricky, Gally, I will see you soon. I won’t be gone forever. I will still watch you both from afar. Just be patient, and be good boys to your parents, and good pals to each other. Party on, Rick.”

No, what was he doing? Why was he saying that?

No, Arg! Don’t do it!

What’s he doing?!

“Ars Deus Tempesus Immoleus!” Arg shouted from the pits of his ghost lungs, and a huge cloud swirled around his ghost body. He stuck his hands up, and a huge column of cloud connected to the sky. The sun moved to the cloud, and the cloud shined extremely bright. As Arg was charging this insane attack, Vorus climbed back up to the surface. He looked at the sun cloud, and he froze in fear.

“This is your end, Vorus. You won’t see another day in your life anymore. You should have died 200 years ago. That was my mistake. I will correct it now.” Arg sent his hands down to his hips, and the cloud descended right on Vorus. He bursted into extremely bright flames, and he shrieked in pain, like someone would normally do while on fire. He rolled around, trying to put out the bright fire, but he couldn’t.

Arg looked over his shoulders, and gave me a thumbs up. He slowly faded from his legs to his head. I could see his old eyes water a little bit. This was the same old man that died after we saved his cat. And now he was leaving us again, right in front of us.

I started wailing. I called his name even after he was gone, but no one was answering. Lara ran to me and hugged me. I think everyone else did the same, but I couldn’t even pay attention. It wasn’t uncommon for Spirit Guardians to sacrifice themselves in dire moments, but everyone I knew loved Arg, before and after death.

Vorus stood up somehow, and he looked like a proper zombie. He signaled something towards the sky, and suddenly, a huge group of grey robes appeared in the sky. They were slowly descending on us. Great, so this coward was sending his calvary to clean us up after his ass was kicked.

“You mortal fools. I will not fall today. You will see me again. And I will take your damn souls, anomaly.” Vorus crumbled into dust in the wind, and the wind blew him away from the stadium.

“Shit, guys, there’s like hundreds of these grey robes! What the hell are we gonna do?” I wasn’t ready for this, and Gally and I had no more guidance from Arg anymore.

“We just have to fight to survive. We have to honor Traya Argus’ sacrifice.” Peter stood up and readied his shield. The other students stood up with him to protect their families. Artium stood up as well, despite his head injuries.

“My dear uncle sacrificed himself for what he holds dear to his heart. I shall not do that, for I will survive to continue to fight for you, Gal.”

“Count me in too, Gal. My two greatswords are yours today.” Elki used both of her swords as crutches for a second to stand up, and she readied herself. She looked over at Scott, but he was still out cold. Lara nodded at Elki, and she continued to care for him.

“My young deity, I will go to the furthest bounds of Galaka’s great universe to protect you and your friends and cohort. People will know my secret, but I care not anymore, especially after your secret was ruined. I stand with pride to be your support.” Andrus was heavily blowing through his snout and stomping the ground, with wind blowing around him, even without a lute.

I looked over to Prof, worried that she was dead, but Gretchel managed to get some healing potions in her. Prof looked like a million bucks after the potion. She stood up, and walked towards me.

My parents both placed their hands on my shoulder, and nudged me to talk to Prof. It seemed like they knew exactly what she was going to say.

“Gally, I will keep you safe. For a former S rank, turned Grand Spirit, turned Spirit Guardian to sacrifice himself to protect you, it was a calling from Galaka herself. Even though my graduating students are my priority, you have topped my priority list. It is Galaka, herself, that determined that you should be protected at all cost, even if it meant my life was forfeit.”

“Hell no, Prof. I’m not gonna allow you to off yourself ‘cause some god said so.”

“She is not ‘some god’, she is the god of this universe.”

“Still, just because I’m special doesn’t mean that no one else matters either. Look at them! All these people are scared, and they need you to protect them too! I’m just some guy with some special powers. But those are kids from people who make our clothes, run the farms to feed us, fix the road so we can take the carriage to school, and all that stuff. Those people are just as important as me - actually, even more important. The show never runs without its road crew.”

Prof sighed. She was obviously conflicted. She’s a huge Galaka worshiper like most people in this world, but she’s also the Golem Hunter. She has a bunch of choices she has to make, and none of those choices would really chill her out.

“You have a point. However, if we lose you, we lose the war, and possibly our world. We do not know the true purpose of the NHF, especially since their leader was from the Dead Circle. This means that the students here will not be the only casualty of your loss. It would be the thousands and millions in this world. Will you be fine with that responsibility?”

“Dude, of course. I’ll make sure I don’t get hurt, and you focus your energy on everyone else, and we’ll be chill.”

Prof nodded, and I nodded back. The grey robes were close to the stadium.

But something was wrong. I saw another damn gold robe in the sky.

“Blast it all to Hell! We were all injured from Vorus, and another damn gold robe is coming?!” Prof was furious.

“It’s Madame Morfas! She’s the other head of the NHF! We have to run as far as we can before they descend. She is much more powerful than Vorus!” Gretchel was screaming at us. “We need to go now!!”

“Let me slow them down.” Artium spoke in his cool voice again. He drew a circle of ice over his head, and made a dome around his body. The dome flew up into the air, and expanded super fast over the stadium. He snapped his fingers and whispered something. The dome exploded and froze the air between the stadium and the gold robe.

“Sorry, I cannot cast another spell after this. But this should buy us time to escape.”

Prof and I nodded to Artium. Prof began preparing some insane spell, again. Even after her crazy fight with Vorus, she was able to cast powerful magic.

“Everyone, hold on tight to the stadium seats. This will be a bumpy ride.” Prof ordered everyone to sit in the stadium seats. She began to draw a humongous circle around the entire stadium. Suddenly a huge black hole appeared in the stadium center. She focused her energy on the black hole, and I could see her purple mana erupt all around her.

Without any warning, a flash of gold crashed through the ice dome and on the stadium center. Madame Morfas was standing in front of Prof. This was so bogus. We almost escaped, but they still came through.

“May I ask what you’re doing, Lamget?” The Madame whispered in Prof’s ear, I think. I saw tentacles coming out of her back, like a huge squid was stuck to her spine. They started growing in size, and they wrapped around Prof. Gretchel started to run down from the stadium to try to do something.

“Let her go, Madame! Take me instead!” The Madame looked over, and she looked straight into my eyes, and grinned.

“Gretchel, who are you to command me?” The Madame began to move her fingers and tried to cast a spell right at the crowd. Everyone, including me, cowered for cover. Prof didn’t hesitate though.

Prof screamed from the bottom of her stomach. “Ars Gravitas Portalus!”

In a flash, the stadium crashed into a huge green field. We weren’t in Kansas anymore. Actually, it looked a lot like Kansas. I looked around to see if everyone made it. Okay, my mom and dad, Artium, Lara, Elki, Scott, Gretchel and her minions, Andrus, Peter, the other students and their folks, and that’s it. Prof? Where’s Prof? Why didn’t she teleport herself too? Why the hell did she stay back?

“Prof, where are you?!” I screamed all around. Everyone was running around to check on her. There was no trace of Professor Schmuztal. Why did she stay behind? Did she sacrifice herself, just like Arg?

I lost two people I cared about today, and it broke me.