Mathael

As Izhari rested and felt the soft dappling of the rain against her face, a strange, wholly unknown feeling began to move through her body. It felt like she was being drawn to something. Though she felt something similar when engaging with the crystals, this was different. It was harsher, more in conflict with her spirit. Every second caused it to grow, but she didn’t know why. Tomita began to feel it, along with Izhari’s uneasiness.

“Manager?” he asked.

“I- I don’t know?…” she replied.

Then the earth bent and bowed a few hundred meters away from them. A beam of pure white light tore through the sky and slammed into the soil with an ethereal hum.

Then He appeared.

Radiant light cascaded over his shoulders like a waterfall. A billowing robe of milky satin and gold adornment glowed out like an incandescent cape. He was tall. Twice as tall as Tomita. Frail, gaunt limbs tensed in strain as He forced himself to stand. All around him, chunks of broken earth floated from their dirty beds. Flickers of energy danced from his body and into the surrounding stone.

On his face was a simple polished mask that covered his eyes. Stop the mask was an ornate, enormous crown lined with jeweled cabling that seemingly plugged directly into his skull. Even from afar, he was terrifying powerful. His very form radiated pure magic. Tomita did not even notice that his own mouth was agape from shock.

Mathael had arrived.

Izhari covered her mouth to contain a scream, as the pull in her body doubled in strength until she feared it might literally start to pull her towards him. Though she could not see him or his intimidating visage, she sensed a raw power she had never felt before. Her own magical strength seemed like a lost afterthought compared to the bursts of ether that moved from him and seemed to coat the very air.

Though she tried to subdue herself, tremors of fear began to shake her body.

“Oh no. Oh ether no. It’s Him…” she whimpered in terror.

Not since theirs first meeting had Tomita felt such a wave of horror and fear screaming through Izhari’s spirit. She was truly frightened, and he was frozen.

All he could do was watch.

Far away, Mathael inhaled in confusion as he looked out at the remnants of Currtasi. Only now did Tomita actually do the same. Where only hours before there had been a Great Wall and towering spires, now there was only a softly ebbing smudge of physical existence. It was like reality was a wet painting of an empty field, devoid of wall or tower or hall, but before it had dried, someone approached it and smeared all of the paint upwards.

Though there was no hint of the former kingdom, even the image of the empty field was obscured. Tomita watched Mathael tense and hunch forward in exhaustion as a snarl of uncertainty bared his teeth. Tomita wondered if he was struggling to remember Currtasi. It seemed that Izhari’s curse had truly wiped them from all memory. Just like Tomita trying to recall what memories the leech had taken, Mathael seemed to be desperately trying to remember what was here, but it was in vain.

Mathael’s hands clinched in rage but unlike Izhari, he stopped the explosion. Even from afar, Tomita could see him pause and begin to breathe in deep, slow inhales.

Izhari felt the pull build, and her own magical essence seemed to grow in strength. He was focusing his power…

Intentional hands turned to the heavens and Mathael set his feet.

“Return what was,” he commanded.

A deafening hum shook the earth and sky as Mathael raised his hands. Tomita blinked in awe as forms fought to be reborn but failed to gestate. Mathael tensed and pulled his hands up higher, but the hints of Currtasi failed to form into solid existence. Izhari listened as her curse held its dominion, and Mathael was unsuccessful.

The power in her chest erupted as Mathael flinched in frustration.

“Show me what happened!!” Mathael shouted as he extended his hand.

To Tomita’s shock, and Izhari’s abject disappointment and terror, the smudged reality finally began to tear away. Whispers of lost voices echoed from beyond. Screams bounced across the sky. Flashes of terror and destruction crackled and snapped like fireworks. Buildings broke and rebuilt in a loop. None of it was real or tangible. Only echoes and sketches of light, but it was still more incredible than Tomita dates to admit. Then Izhari’s screams began to echo out, and the two of them froze.

Mathael paused the recreation and tilted his head in curiosity.

“Oh no. Oh no no no no…” she whispered in panic.

Tomita was already shifting his weight to prepare to run.

“We must flee this place!” he whispered back as he watched Mathael move through the glitching fragments towards the manifestation of Izhari that was currently striking the memory totem with her corruption.

“Izhari, you may have to teleport us…” warned Tomita.

“I don’t know if I can… my strength…” she gasped.

“Use me as a conduit then! Take whatever you need but use your knowledge of where the Shores of Time are and send us towards that! We have to flee!!” Tomita ordered.

Mathael reached Izhari’s visage and leaned down to observe the creature that was a third of his size. Izhari felt a new rage build in her soul and now the pull was excruciating. Mathael’s hand shook as he reached out to her ghost.

“A maji…” he said aloud.

“MAJI!! I sense you are here!! REVEAL YOURSELF AND MEET YOUR DEATH!!” Mathael screamed.

Before Izhari could respond, she was pulled into the air and hoisted in sight like a tangled puppet.

“TOMITA!!!!” she screamed in terror and pain.

“IZHARI!!!” screamed Tomita just as Mathael turned to face them.

Izhari let out a roar of defiant rage and yanked her hand towards her body. Tomita and the cart were flung into the air beside her and she took Tomita’s arm just in time.

Mathael’s fingers pulled inward and the plane of existence between him and them vanished like email text being deleted. Within a second, they were face to face with the colossal maji.

But then there was an excruciating pop and explosion, and suddenly Tomita was in the air in free fall. A scream of unrelenting agony burst from his mouth as blood ran down his face. It felt like he had been pulled inside out and flared alive. Then it was over. He struck sand and ground as the cart and Izhari crashed down beside them. Izhari had teleported them away.

They had escaped.

But now Mathael knew about them.