//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Battle of Morroc // Story: The Guitarist // by Kiniro //------------------------------// The Guitarist Chapter 2: Battle of Morroc Even though our Civilization was imperfect, our strides in magic and technological advances were fantastic. From airships, to teleporting great distances in a blink of an eye, we were the ideal combination of magic and technology. Most of these advances were due to my new home of Swartzvald, and due to one sole thing that the nation had aquired during its early years after being founded. The Heart of Ymir, most people believed that this relic was the catch all catalyst when it came to magic, and as a result it was the reason why we advanced so much to were we are today. Even so much that the Republic of Swartzvald had raised its entire capital city of Juno into the clouds. The entire ordeal was to prove Swartzvald was the leader in such advances, but speculation was so that the fragile nation could defend itself if attacked. But you never would know that we had become technologically stagnant in the past hundred years and magic was one of the few things still being developed. But most of this came back again to the Heart of Ymir. When the Magicians and Clerics of Juno had moved the entire city of Juno into the clouds they used the entire relic of the Heart of Ymir to do so, and its rightful resting place is in the unaccessible culverts underneath the great library. Only the most talented was of magicians were able to ever visit the relic as a rite of passage and prestige. But with the Heart of Ymir's access effectively taken away from the world, many resorted to forbidden magic to help create copies of the great relic imbued with similar magic, but alot more volatile. Even such copies were created to power the fleet of airships used by the militaries of every nation, and used for transportation by Kafra Corp. But those copies were the only legal copies that were made, but with safer magic to avoid disasters, but that didn't stop many of other powerful magicians from trying to create their own. These illegal copies are what scared me, and could be used to threaten the very existence of civilized world as we knew it. However the airship that was transporting Lightning Strike and myself was of new technology, a new revolution that was attempting to beat the stagnation, steam power. Burning coal, or any other material, to turn water into steam, that would turn a small turbine that would in then generate an electrical current similar to lightning that many skilled magicians used. This was fascinating to me, and I couldn't stop thinking about the potential uses of this "steam power" could do for this entire world. It had almost made me forget why I was being transported to Morroc. "Kiniro, our stop is here. We must disembark and get to the staging point." Lightning had explained. We had arrived in fields east of Morroc, and as I stepped off the airship, I saw it. The great magic barrier, it was huge, and it had sealed off a great area east of Morroc just as Lightning had explained. I turned behind me to see the once glorious city of Morroc in Ruins, large amounts of smoke rising from where the city once stood. "Its a tremendous loss of life Kiniro, maybe now you will see why you are here, if you don't succeed, this destruction will spread, even Juno will not be safe." "I understand, and I will try old friend, I will try." I had responded in turn. I had turned back to the field were the barrier stood, impressive that this giant barrier was holding at all, let alone a Satan Morroc. If this was able to hold him back, maybe he wasn't as powerful as I presumed, but I was still unsure of myself. A great cloud of doubt entered my mind. "Am I really ready to do this?" I asked myself. Lightning Strike had just put his hand on my shoulder, and nodded. But his silence spoke volumes to me, even he was afraid. The man who I had aided during the great Midgard Civil War, who was afraid of nothing, not even death back then. Yet his silence was overpowering. "Lightning, are you sure about this?" I asked. "We have to be." Lightning responded back. He almost sounded unsure, but somehow I found comfort in these words. "Kiniro, Queen Xellie is waiting for you at the staging point, and the armies stand ready for your initial attack. Let my top aid teleport you there, they are already inside the barrier hiding, waiting for the right moment to strike. Corpsman Life, please take Kiniro to the staging point." Lightning pointed off to this aid. "Aren't you coming Lightning?" I questioned. "No Kiniro, in the event that you fail, I am to lead the final pieces of resistance in Midgard. It will be a lost cause if you fail, but we will all die trying if we must." "Kiniro sir, are you ready to go?" Asked Lightning's aid. "No, but the time is now." I responded in kind. "Please be careful Kiniro, I wish you the best of luck." Lightning requested. "You're asking me to perform the spell of Ragnarok, I can't make such promises Lightning." With those final words, we were off, my world quickly darkened and lite back up within a second. I found myself atop a hill. With a grand army below in the valley chanting and yelling at my arrival. The suspense already filled my heart and my nerves, I was afraid of things to come, but I had to put on a brave face. "Well well well... The great and powerful Kiniro, glad to see you made the party." I heard a female voice from behind. As I turned, I saw the queen in front of me, wearing her enchanted armor that she had used before during the Wars of Emperium. "Cut the crap Xellie, I'm not here for you. I'm here for them, I'm here to fight for a future for everyone." "You haven't changed a bit have you, you little bard. Still the idealist. But I guess we need a little bit of that today." "Don't think that I'll ever forget what you did to me, even if you 'forgive' my so called crimes against you, If it wasn't for me you wouldn't be here today." "Oh, I haven't forgotten little bard, you'll be given the chance to be a hero again in the eyes of the world." "Coming from you I don't trust that." "My scouts are luring Satan Morroc here, lets just hope you can pull of a miracle twice in your pathetic life time." "Gee thanks, always the supportive type. Glad to see becoming queen hasn't ruined your personality." I insulted. "Like old times Kiniro, we fight for the same cause. And this time you won't be forgotten." "When this is over Xellie, I swear to the gods that you will get what you deserve, and it will be by my hand." "Oh is that a challenge? I will take you on myself and make sure you don't survive." "How about we settle this right now?" I clenched my guitar that I had carried and pulled an arrow from my quiver that was on my back. "You see this Xellie? I may be a bard, but I'm still the archer I was trained to be. This one is your's right here." I pulled on the lever on my guitar that released a tray where arrows could be loaded into, placed the single arrow and closed the tray. "You see, I never forget my roots." I placed the lever back into position and rotated it cock the arrow into the guitars firing mechanism, and aimed my guitars neck at her, and held the lever, ready to fire. "My my, so testy, that's why I recruited you, but you think that little arrow will hurt me? I'm faster than you can imagine, or did you forget?" Xellie had attested as she disappeared in a blink of an eye. I felt an arm suddenly clench my neck and a small metallic point pierce my garments and barely touch the skin on my back. "Don't tempt me foolish bard." Xellie had moved so quickly that she already had a knife at my back. "I will not hesitate this time." "Do it I dare you, be the person everyone expects you to be, take me out right no-" A deafening roar filled the air, "Its here, get ready you moron." Xellie explained, "Satan Morroc is coming." Xellie suddenly released me and backed off. The sudden release of pressure was comforting but the deafening roar filled me with fright. I had only moments in my head to react, Satan Morroc was coming, and I wasn't ready. I positioned myself to play my guitar, and I began to to strum the beginning chords of the Song of Ragnarok. A sudden blue aura had began to engulf me, it was beautiful, I had not seen this aura since the end of the Civil War. As I continued on playing the song of Ragnarok, the earth began to shake and the aura became stronger and stronger. I began to levitate straight up into the air, and I began to see the beast in the distance, chasing the scouts attempting to lure it to the grand army's position. The cheering of the grand army had stopped, everyone was in awe. Everyone knew what they had to do, they prepared their weapons and began casting their spells. Hoping to strike as soon as my magic was ready. But the beast antsipated this and itself began to glow in a dark red aura. Closer and closer still, it ran toward our position. My song of Ragnarok still barely beginning to take effect. Fear raced through my heart. The song now began to play itself as if the gods them self took control of the situation. Satan Morroc's aura as he approached was too much, it began to blind me. And with a second deafening roar, and a flash of red light, I was blind, but I could still feel myself playing the song of Ragnarok. I felt the energy of what felt belonged to the gods of Midgard flow through me, using my song as a catalyst, and I felt a sudden rush. The energy had escaped from my body and used the music as a channel. I heard a loud explosion, now barely being able to open my eyes, I saw that I had successfully channeled the song properly. And a beam of blue light rushed toward Satan Morroc, but in turn a second explosion was heard. A beam of red light was heading straight for mine, in an attempt to over power it. I felt sure that this was to be it. I wasn't powerful enough, I wasn't strong enough. The two beams of light made contact and made a large explosion of light and I again I was blinded, I still felt the surge of more energy flow through me, attempting to over power that of Satan Morroc. But felt myself weakening heavily, as if the life of me was being drained. I could not continue performing this song, but still had to try. But Satan Morroc was stronger, and the spells of grand army was not ready. It was too late. I could no longer continue. I felt the sudden energy over take me. I was blinded, I was deaf, all my senses were gone. I could not even hear my own thoughts, and even my own thoughts in my mind began to rapidly flash in front of me, my childhood, the wars and battles I had been in, my first love, to the current battle. Then it all went dark. No noise, no light, no train of thought. All Dark, everything had gone blank... End of Chapter 2