The bright light soon subsided, allowing me to take in my surroundings.
"Teleportation?" I wondered as I felt the wind whip through my hair.
I looked down to see I was standing on a rough stone surface... several stories up in the air. I was standing on one of the hands of the Christ the Redeemer statue that overlooked Rio De Janeiro.
"Huh. Of all the places to wind up..."
"You have become an annoyance." A deep voice said.
"Who's there?!" I called.
That's when I turned and saw the figure I got a glimpse of back in Egypt. It was him!
"A being beyond your comprehension. I have seen you and your companions who seek to halt my judgement."
"Judgement? Just what are you talking about? Who are you?" I asked, desperate for answers as to the motivations behind these attacks.
This being looked at me with his piercing red eyes. His glare made my body begin to tremble.
"I am that which has safeguarded your insolent race since the very day your ancestors learned to walk upright. I have prevented calamities that would surely have been the end of your race millennia ago. But I was foolish to believe that your race would be worth such protection." He said, his words dripping with poison. "I have watched your pointless bloodshed. Your 'Crusades', your 'Great Wars'; each one made my hope for your race dwindle. I have finally come to fix the mistake I made."
I tensed up, his goal of genocide on my entire race bringing my blood to a boil. "So that's it?! You're going to kill every human because of the mistakes we made in the past?!"
The deity turned his gaze towards the city. "I did not say I would limit it to your race alone."
I was dumbfounded. "What?"
"You have poisoned these 'Equestrians' with your influence. It is only a matter of time before they follow the same bloody path of humanity. I have seen them in the past myself, witnessed their wars, but they have all but ended. I will give them a swift demise, a preferable alternative to the long carnage that would unfold otherwise."
"Luna... My friends... Everyone...!"
I pointed my sword at him with fiery determination.
"I won't let you kill them! You have no right to decide the fate of an entire race!" I shouted.
"You would dare challenge me?" He asked, his tone almost amused.
"I won't back down to protect the ones I love!"
He simply shook his head.
"Fool. You still haven't noticed it."
"What are you-? Agh!"
I felt a sharp pain in my right cheek. An X shaped cut was made cleanly into the flesh by magic.
"Wh-when did you-?"
"The very beginning of this conversation. The sheer speed of the cut was too much for your nervous system to detect."
I began to shake in fear of the being that floated before me.
"He could have killed me at any time! This is insane!"
"I will spare you for now. All of your race I can allow shall witness their final judgement."
"What 'final judgement'?"
"Eons ago I sealed away the very monsters you have been slaying, as well as sealed the mana of your race. Should I release a certain pattern of them and fuel my energy into the key glyph, it would cause all of the mana that has built up on your world to ignite, leaving not even ashes to remain."
"Never!" I shouted as I found the courage to take a swing at him.
My blade swung with all the force I could muster, but he simply blocked it with a single finger.
"Know this, impure one: Astral, shall be the harbinger of your demise." He said.
Suddenly he sent me flying through the air back into the city with a burst of magic. The point blank release of energy caused me to pass out as I sailed through the air.
--------
"Ro... Are... alright?" A voice called in the darkness.
I felt my hand twitch as my body began to awaken. I wheezed as my eyes shot open and air began to fill my rapidly repairing lungs. I saw Luna standing above me, relief beginning to color her paled face.
"Oh, thank goodness you're alright! I felt that surge of magic, and... I don't want to think about it."
I struggled to sit myself up as my bones began to heal from the impact of the fall.
"I'm fine, Luna. I just..."
Luna looked at me with worry. "What's wrong?"
"I met him." I told her.
Luna's eyes went wide with fear. "You mean..."
"He calls himself, Astral. He thinks humanity is pure evil and that we need to be destroyed, along with the Equestrians."
"Why would he target us as well?" Celestia asked as she arrived with the others, Sam included.
I couldn't bear to look any of them in the eye. "I... It's my fault... It's because I met you. He thinks my influence will send you down a path of war."
"That is preposterous! He has no right to make such choices based on what could be!"
My emotions finally burst out. "It doesn't matter! Because of me, my race isn't the only one that's going to be slaughtered! It's my fault!"
*Smack!*
Celestia slapped me with all the strength she could muster. I reeled from the pain, and I realized the cut on my cheek was still bleeding.
"That is enough! I won't have you blame yourself! Or have you already forgotten that you came to Equestria because of me?"
"I..."
"What's done is done. Stopping this 'Astral' is what's important."
I looked away in shame, but I accepted her logic nonetheless.
"Right..."
I looked around to see the smoke rising from where the monster had fired his magic beam.
"So what are we looking at in terms of casualties?" I hesitantly asked.
Sam rubbed his stubble. "Well, from what I was told by the police, it looks like there were five deaths. Two were caused by that beam attack, one was crushed in the initial debris, and the last was trampled during the panic." He patted me on the back, as I cursed the fact anyone had to die. "All things considered, it's a miracle the entire city wasn't leveled. You saved a lot of lives today."
"I guess I needed some good news." I said with a wavering smile. A fire began to burn in my eyes as I found new determination. "But right now, there's an even bigger monster to stop! I'm not gonna just stand back and watch him murder billions! There has to be a way to figure out where he's going next..."
Luna tapped me on the shoulder and had a sly grin. "I may have a solution to that problem. I managed to figure out the exact signature of his magic thanks to all the use I've detected since we first encountered him in Egypt. It will take a short while to figure out where he is, but it should give us a faster means of-"
Luna was interrupted as I kissed her out of pure joy.
"...Finding... him." She finished as she recovered from my sudden embrace.
"You just keep finding ways to make me love you more." I teased.
"As touching as this is, I have to be on my way." Sam told us.
"You're leaving?" I asked.
"I have to report to the chief. It was nice to finally see your skills in action." He said as he offered me his hand to shake.
I accepted it gladly. "Likewise, Sam. I hope we get to meet again under better circumstances."
"We'd better! Otherwise I'll spend my entire afterlife yelling at you."
"You are a true ally to the Equestrian people. I hope that we meet again." Celestia said.
Sam politely bowed before taking his leave. I turned to the others with renewed vigor.
"So Luna, have you managed to figure out where he is yet?"
Luna had another sly grin on her face, which I have begun to associate with good things for me. "I have, and I think you're going to love where he's gone."