//------------------------------// // Escalation // Story: Colt of the Damned // by ArtoriasFlagg //------------------------------// Such an abomination had no place in the courtroom, so while Ardent continued to hold the old wizard in check one of his minotaurs hoisted the broken interrogator off the floor and bolted toward the side door. He continued down the long corridor beyond it until he found a suitable room to lock the screaming judge away in. Someone would likely let him out once this was all over, and if not it would be no great loss to the kingdom if he rotted in there until the day the castle crumbled to dust. As the crowd and its captors remained locked in place the two old mages continued their duel. Starks rained down as the embodiments of their power clashed in the air between them. A river of arcane energy flowed from Star Swirl's horn as it drove directly toward the necromancer like a brilliantly blinding spear. The tendrils of Ardent's own dark sorcerer swirled about him like a nest of serpents, writhing and slithering, constantly moving as they suck out to defend the wizard from the onslaught. The ethereal black whips had spun themselves together before necromancer, catching the old master's spell in their net-like grasp and holding it off little more than a from where Ardent stood. The former-steward's magic was nothing short of mesmerizing, his tenebrous spells painting the air with a tapestry of forbidden power. Yet for all its glamorous might, the pale old unicorn was struggling just to maintain his footing. He had already been reduced to a near lying position, essentially kneeling before the sheer force of his former master's energy. His spells could only hold off the old unicorn's attacks for so long. Eventually, the darkness would fade before the strength of the grandmaster's incantations. Star Swirl knew that, and was fully prepared to press his advantage the moment it became clear that Ardent could no longer maintain his defenses. The necromancer's spells were intricate and incredibly complex, yet they all worked to serve the same purpose: they had to prevent Star Swirl's attack from ever reaching Ardent's physical body. The tendrils were his last-ditch effort to buy more time. With so much energy being focused into the defensive spells he was unable to do much more than send incredibly simply messages to his servants. Due to the severity of the situation, all of those messages thus far had been of a similar nature. Do not harm the civilians! Don't let the guards interfere! Keep that one on his bench! None may leave! That guard is planning to run, stop him! The heart of the old mare in the back of the room is about to give out, heal her! Keep them on their benches! Harm none of them! None! May! Leave! So many minds in such a small area; Ardent was frightfully less prepared than he had originally thought. The strain of maintaining the connection to all of his undead while also scanning the minds of the crowd for any who might cause a disturbance left little room to focus on the duel itself. Second by second, the length of the tendrils decreased, allowing Star Swirl's channeling to grow closer and closer to him. The beam emitting from the old unicorn's horn was so radiant that it may as well have been coming from sun itself. There was in his mind that being struck by such a spell would be anything less than detrimental to his physical well-being. The necromancer was losing ground fast as Star Swirl's spell drilled harder and harder into his defenses. The tendrils continued to swarm forth, growing out of the floor and traveling forward to help reinforce the shrinking wall of shadows that were holding off the old unicorn's energy. There was still little they could do against the onslaught of light plowing into them. This is going south much faster than I expected... The spell continued to deteriorate his defenses as it pushed closer and closer. The shadowy strands of the web he was forming to stop its advance withered one by one under the vast power Star Swirl was pouring into the beam. So much planning, so much effort... How could I have misjudged his power by so much? The ray suddenly to grew both in size and intensity, the light emanating from it immediately lighting the entire room and drowning out Ardent's shadows. The tendrils began to fade far more quickly, so much so that in a matter of seconds the entire web of black, ethereal tentacles had completely disintegrated. A sudden fear flashed across the necromancer's eyes as he lowered his head, bracing himself for the imminent impact of the blast. Its all been theory up til now. How do I even know these spells will work? Of all the ways I could have chosen to test this plan, this was easily the worst option... Please, for the love of this world and all within it, please just.... work! The spell was frightfully powerful and far heavier than he had imagined. As it connected with he immediately felt the last of his strength drain out of him, with the sheer weight of the magic forcing him into the stony tiled floor. His legs completely gave out as he fell to the ground, yet he was not about to let the old wizard win quite so easily. The beam remained confined in its path, locked between the two mages as Ardent siphoned the power into his horn. He suddenly found himself able to stand once more, his body feeding directly off the incomprehensible power of Star Swirl's attack. The energy of the cosmos filled him, giving back his strength and renewing his hope for one brief, shining moment... And then ceased. The energy filled him with enough energy to create a small star, and for a moment he felt he would have been capable of anything. But any single vessel can only hold so much, and his body reached its limit only a few seconds after the spell connected. A searing pain began to grow just below the surface of his skin and a screaming agony immersed within his horn. Small cracks began to form along the pointed bone protruding from his forehead, filled with a bright golden light that was so blinding it was almost painful look upon. Alarmed by the gruesome turn that their battle had suddenly taken, Star Swirl the Bearded began to cut off power to his spell, crying out to his opponent as the beam running between them thinned out. "Ardent, give up this pitiful course! It does not have to end this way!" The spell had been meant to overpower the necromancer, but its vast energy would never have been enough to kill him through sheer bodily harm. The old wizard had simply meant to break his spirit with a spell which would appear far more intimidating than it actually was. It was not until Ardent had begun absorbing the energy from it that the ray suddenly became a fatal attack. By that point it was too late. The condemned unicorn's mind was too preoccupied by the sudden influx of raw power to focus on anything around him. He did not hear Star Swirl call to him. He did not hear Clover screaming to him from the dais. He could no longer communicate with his servants, nor hear the voices of the crowd's minds. All he could hear was the sound of fire raging within him, and all he could feel was the terrifying fury of the sun attempting to sear through his very flesh. Please... Just let.... Just let it work! He prepared to cast a spell, his horn suddenly glowing with the black aura of the Void. Perhaps it was meant to be a shield. Perhaps an attack in retaliation to Star Swirl's strike. Perhaps he meant to conjure something impossible, in some vain attempt to siphon off a bit of the energy that was tearing him apart from the inside out. Whatever it was meant to be, it failed. Just as the aura solidified around his horn, the bone itself split. There was a crack, followed by a scream of absolute agony as Ardent fell to his knees once more; his front legs buckling first, the his hind legs. Hs head remained in the same position it had been, with his horn pointed directly at Star Swirl to absorb the oncoming blast. The glowing cracks running along the tip of his horn began to spread rapidly as the catalyst of his power split. Then, before they could even reach the base of his forehead, they erupted with that same golden light, ripping the necromancer's horn asunder. As he screamed, the cracks began to move once more, migrating from the shattered remnants of his horn down onto his face. They work themselves into his skull as the power sought out a new path to escape through. The crowd was in a panic, but with the undead surrounding them they had no choice but to look on in horror as their captor slowly overflowed with arcane energy. It took a full minute for the cracks to spread across his entire body, burning away his hooded cloak and melting the unchained shackles on his legs. Star Swirl tried to reverse the spell, then tried to draw some of the power back to himself, rather than let the horrible display continue. Both attempts were deflected by the outpouring of raw energy being released from the necromancer's body. His last thoughts were a convoluted mixture of fear, pain, and the pestering of an incessantly nagging voice in the back of his mind assuring him that he had failed. "Oh please let it work, let it work!" The voice mocked him with his own words right up until the point when, after two full minutes of agony, the power finally proved to be to much for the ancient unicorn's body to take. He screamed one last time and then, with a golden flash that mirrored the raw intensity of the sun itself, his body exploded in a sudden rush of flames. They engulfed him from within, turning the spot where he stood into a raging ball of golden flames for several seconds. The inferno reached only a few feet from its epicenter, devouring the four undead unicorns who had stood beside him through his trial. The crowd remained unscathed, as did the two remaining judges. As the fire subsided Star Swirl and Clover peered down at the scorched tiles for any sign of their former friend. The necromancer, his four retainers, and the entirety tile layer he had stood upon were gone; swept up in the localized firestorm that had erupted on that spot. The stone floor beneath the tiles was thoroughly scarred by the heat, leaving only a blackened powder where the tiles had been. Star Swirl quickly looked around the room, all too aware of the fact that the undead remained intact and unmoved by the proceedings. "Everyone stay calm. The necromancer has fallen and his minions will soon follow. This is merely the remnants of his magic keeping them in place. In a moment they will return to being lifeless corpses once mo-" The wizard jumped back onto the dais as the nearest minotaur took a swing at him with one of its heavily muscled arms. As he spoke, Star Swirl had attempted to step down from the platform, hoping to more closely examine the scorched earth where his former apprentice had stood only moments before. The second his hoof touch the floor, however, the supposed-wight's attention immediately focused in on him as it sprang to life. What the old wizard had taken for being just the soon-to-be rotted husk of an undead minion quickly proved to be a fully conscious and thoroughly enraged minotaur warrior. While most of the other, immobile minions were clearly undead whom Ardent had raised from the crypts and mass graves located all around the city, Star Swirl quickly noticed that several of the creatures were moving through the audience. They continued to police the crowd even without their master's voice commanding them. As he looked closer at the minotaur glaring menacingly at him from just beside the dais, it became painfully clear that at least a few of the servants Ardent had brought with him were still full alive. "The master said fer ya two tuh stay on yer little stage. Ya move off there again an' ol break ya in half bufore ya even reach the floor!" Behind the pale red flames that covered its eyes, Star Swirl could just barely make out the shape of minotaur's tiny, rage-filled pupils. The facade of undeath was painted across the creature's entire body, yet its eyes betrayed the truth of the matter. This one was still very much alive. "...So that was his trick then... Even if he died here, his forces would remain thanks to you brainwashed fools hidden in their ranks. Why do you let him manipulate you like this? Ardent Flame is dead, you are free! Take back your minds and come to your senses!" "M-Master? I.... I don't think its quite that simple." Clover was looking up at him through eyes filled with understanding. She had realized the extent of the situation just as quickly as he had, yet clearly she saw something else, something he must have missed. He lowered his voice, hoping not to instill any more fear in the hearts of the citizens trapped here than already had been. "What is? What have I overlooked this time, my dear?" She looked wearily at the minotaur watching them from the base of the dais, then continued in a quiet, almost frightened voice, a far cry from her usual tone. "I... I've been watching those two at the top of the stairs." She indicated a pair of earth ponies with matching white hoods and cloaks gazing down at the audience from the highest tier of benches. The old unicorn saw them, two of a dozen former healers who had been risen from the castle's catacombs. Brothers by the look of things, perhaps even twins. "Yes, what of them?" "They're clearly undead, neither has a stomach and one is missing half its skull. Yet, they're still functioning as they were when Ardent was present. They're still scanning the crowd for movement and the one on the left adjusted its hood a moment ago, like it was getting it out of the way of its eyes. A mindless undead creature wouldn't do that sort of thing, they'd just stand there, unmoving, until the magic faded entirely." "Troubling... Perhaps one of the unicorns is maintaining control over them in their master's absence." "Without their horns glowing? Forgive me sir but that seems... unlikely." The minotaur was still glaring at him, but it soon lost interest as a loud crash echoed down the hallway from which the guards had first brought in the old necromancer. As he began to walk toward the large oaken door to check on the situation in the hallway beyond, Star Swirl seized the opportunity. And that would be reinforcements, you stupid cow. Didn't think you could stay locked up in here forever, did you? He had emptied a fair amount of his power into the spell which destroyed Ardent, yet he was confident that he could still eliminate the rest of the undead and their living comrades, given the proper element of surprise. Wordlessly, he lowed his head and released a spear of pale blue fire toward the back of the minotaur's head. It flew like an arrow, straight and fast, more than powerful enough to pierce the beast's thick skull and bring him down without making too much of a mess. A decaying unicorn in the second row of benches on the left side of the courtroom whispered a silent incantation as the spear neared the minotaur's skull. His horn lit up with pale red flames and, in the blink of an eye, a wall of transparent red light formed around back the bull's head. The force of the spell still reach him, smacking him the back of his heavily horned skull hard enough to reignite his rage. He forgot about the noise from beyond the doors and turned back upon Star Swirl, the fire in his eyes growing into two miniature infernos as he charged the stand; his hands wrapped into a pair of sinewy, iron fists. He came within a foot of the stairs where Star Swirl stood, the old unicorn desperately trying to channel a shielding spell strong enough to block the living battering ram that was running at him. Too late, though. Any spell in his arsenal would have taken far too long to repel the minotaur's punch. Gritting his teeth, the old unicorn slammed his eyes shut and braced himself for the oncoming hurricane of agony that was about to come down upon him.